4 minBusiness
Codie Sanchez Urges Buying a Small Business Over Stocks or Real Estate
In her new book Own or Be Owned, entrepreneur Codie Sanchez argues that acquiring a small business is the most reliable path to wealth, offering a system to avoid the trap of unprofitable 'cowboying' and warning that AI is an accelerator, not a shortcut.
Entrepreneur and investor Codie Sanchez is making a blunt case for business ownership as the most dependable route to financial independence, arguing that most people should prioritize buying a small company over putting money into stocks or a home. In her new book, Own or Be Owned, Sanchez contends that ownership is one of the few investments where individuals can trade their time for long-term dollars, and even a failed venture yields experience that speculative trading rarely provides.
Speaking in an interview, Sanchez said the stock market is an incredible wealth accelerator — but only once you already have capital to invest. For those without significant savings, she argues, betting on yourself through a small business increases cash flow and reduces the risk of being financially owned by an employer or a mortgage. She described homeownership as largely an emotional purchase, one that can tie people to jobs they dislike because of monthly liabilities, and suggested that buying property makes more sense for those who already have substantial resources.
Sanchez’s core warning for business owners is that working hard is not the same as working on the right things. She pointed to a wide dispersion of returns, noting that the top 10% to 20% of companies are roughly 30 times more profitable than lower-performing ones. The difference, she said, is that most owners do not run on systems. Instead, they “cowboy” their businesses — winging decisions based on feeling rather than data. That approach, she argues, makes consistent profitability nearly impossible and leaves small companies vulnerable to private equity firms that operate with disciplined processes.
To counter that, Sanchez promotes what she calls the 12 profit levers, a system her firm has used for years. It covers pricing, customer selection, hiring, product choices, pitching, and promotion. Every aspect of a business, she said, needs to be systematized. The hard part is not the system itself but the fact that riffing and improvising feel more fun — and are often what drew people to entrepreneurship in the first place. She framed the choice starkly: do you want to make money or do you want to riff?
She also addressed the common narrative that entrepreneurship is mostly suffering. Sanchez said founders have become “trauma-bonded” over how hard business is, and that it can seem gross to admit things are going well. In business, unlike a casino where people only announce wins, owners tend to talk only about difficulty or raising venture capital. For most small business owners, she said, the game is hard but addictive. The real problem is a lack of profitability. She cited an average small business owner earning about $65,000 a year — less than minimum wage in California and below the median U.S. income — and argued that profitable businesses make the pain and difficulty far easier to manage.
On artificial intelligence, Sanchez pushed back against the idea that it offers an easy shortcut. She acknowledged predictions of a solo unicorn — a single person building a billion-dollar enterprise with AI — and said there will be some crazy outliers. But she described AI as an accelerator for what is already inside a founder, not a replacement for systems, judgment, or the willingness to bet on oneself. For Sanchez, the central question remains ownership: building something profitable enough that no one else can own you.
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