In a recent post I wrote that buy-a-job businesses do not offer return on equity. What I should have said was that buy-a-job businesses do not offer inherent appreciation in their value; i.e. the value of their operating assets is not expected to change.
 If you buy such a business for $200,000, financed half with your own cash equity and half with debt, and you eventually pay back the debt, sure, you will earn a return on your equity (of $100,000) when you sell the business for $200,000! But this is entirely due to the debt you incurred, not to any fundamental increase in the value of the business.