In this, our 100th Episode of #PoisedForExit, we invited Lisa Meyer, adviser with Sunbelt to interview a client of hers, who's growth strategy has been to acquire other companies in his industry. He's got a system for that, and a strategy that works. 

Jeff Rahn, President of On Time Service Pros began his career as an employee and he worked his way up, as they say. But, not without issues. Some of the very things he went through as an employee he tries not to emulate today as an employer. 

When assessing whether a company is a fit for him to buy, he watches for two things, that the owner is truly ready to sell, and that the company's focus was on customer service. If those two exist, it's likely going to be a good match. 

Jeff does asset sales only, and dissects the customer list away from other assets, buying the list only. The seller is free to do with the other assets as he wishes. Jeff plans to continue acquiring 1-2 smaller owner/operator companies per year. 

He's had some situations where the owner he's made a deal with changes their mind and walks away (for fear of the unknown and losing a lifestyle, he said) and he's also had some where he walked away himself. If the seller is trying to tell him what to buy, how to run the company, and what he should do to retain customers, he realizes the owner is not ready to sell, so he walks away at that point. 

Jeff has a whole system for how to assess candidates for acquisition, as well as a system for assessing their employees on whether to hire them. He doesn't use any sophisticated tools for measuring their capabilities, he simply meets the prospective employees and has a personal conversation with them, deciding then, whether they're a fit for the On Time Service Pros culture!

We would like to thank our sponsor for this week's episode:
https://www.sunbeltmidwest.com

Find Lisa and Jeff on LinkedIn:
Lisa Meyer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-meyer-43883610b/
Jeff Rahn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-rahn-1b5904b2/ 

Connect with Julie Keyes, Keyestrategies LLC
Founder, Consultant, Author, Pod-caster and Instructor