Acquiring Minds

While not a CPA herself, a clear list of buying criteria led Gretchen Roberts to acquire a 16-person accounting firm. 

Topics in Gretchen’s interview:

• Overcoming mental blocks about leaving a good job
• Using her marketing skills for proprietary search
• Acquiring an accounting firm without accounting experience
• Building rapport and trust with the team
• Changing the business’s name
• Being comfortable managing a remote team
• Balancing business ownership and family
• Her plan to recruit accountants through part-time roles
• What makes her accounting firm stand out
• Buying based on revenue instead of SDE

References and how to contact Gretchen:

• LinkedIn
• Red Bike Advisors
• Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow Quadrant
• The Epic Challenge by Roland Frazier
• Chris Williams on Acquiring Minds: System Six:  One Year Update | Chris Williams Interview
• Patrick Dichter on Acquiring Minds: Shut Out by Industry Brokers, an Entrepreneur Finds a Way
• Patrick Dichter on Acquiring Minds: How I Achieved 60% Growth in My Bookkeeping Business |Patrick Dichter

Connect with A-players who can run your business remotely:

• More Staffing

 Get complimentary due diligence on your acquisition's insurance & benefits program:

• Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

Acquiring Minds host Will Smith reflects on 200 episodes, tells the podcast backstory, and teases what's coming in 2024. 

Topics in today’s episode with Will:

• Essential lessons from 200 interviews with acquisition entrepreneurs
• How Acquiring Minds got started
• Is Will going to search for a business to buy?
• Plans for Acquiring Minds in 2024

References and how to contact Will:

• Episode 183 with Brandon Adams: Hiring a General Manager & Buying Business #2
• Connect with Will on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

Connect with A-players who can run your business remotely:

• More Staffing

Get complimentary due diligence on your acquisition's insurance & benefits program:

• Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel

Sensing untapped potential, Mark Olivito paid cash for a project-based construction business with less than $100k SDE. 

Topics in Mark’s interview:

• Buying a business that checked all the wrong boxes
• Why he “overpaid” to acquire PAVERART
• What attracted him to the business
• His passion for building a successful blue-collar business
• Glamorization of entrepreneurship
• The importance of showing up and “eating last”
• The trades as a lucrative alternative to college
• Mental health challenges in small business ownership
• Building resiliency before trying to grow
• His advice for those interested in buying a business

References and how to contact Mark:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• PAVERART
• [email protected]
• Hustle or Bust

Get a complementary pre-acquisition HR & PEO review for your target business:

• Contact [email protected] or visit Aspen HR

Learn more about Walker Deibel's done-with-you buy-side advisory:

• The Acquisition Lab

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

Ben Bryer worked with a financial backer to find & buy a 65-year-old niche manufacturing business without an SBA loan. 

Topics in Ben’s interview:

• Spending $150K and 18 months on dead deal
• The emotional toll of a failed deal
• Freelancing to partially fund his search
• Buying a pin gage manufacturer
• What attracted Ben to the business
• Choosing a conventional loan over SBA loan
• Building relationships with lending partners
• Tech debt as a liability
• The benefits of having long-term employees
• Importance of time allocation

References and how to contact Ben:

• [email protected]
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Meyer Gage

Get a complementary pre-acquisition HR & PEO review for your target business:

• Contact [email protected] or visit Aspen HR

Connect with A-players who can run your business remotely:

• More Staffing

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

Mike Okhravi left a cushy tech career to buy a towing business & a flooring business — and within 30 days of each other. 

Topics in Mike’s interview:

• Why he passed on the Search Fund Accelerator
• His philosophy on taking more risk by moving fast
• Signs of a motivated seller
• Buying a 4-person garage flooring business
• Surprises after acquiring the business
• Why profit dips post-acquisition
• Discarding the “searcher rules”
• What he loves about the towing business
• Operating 2 businesses at once (including one 3 hours away)
• Getting back up after business failures

References and how to contact Mike:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• [email protected]
• Codie Sanchez

Learn more about Walker Deibel's done-with-you buy-side advisory:

• The Acquisition Lab

Get complimentary due diligence on your acquisition's insurance & benefits program:

• Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

A fireside chat with veteran searcher & investor Kent Weaver recorded at the Self-Funded Search Conference in Dallas. 

Topics in Kent's interview:

• Kent's history: his search & how he evolved into an investor in searchers
• How the first 2 or 3 years post-acquisition are different in a self-funded search vs. a traditional search fund
• How traditional search feels different today vs. its early days
• What is a "3am business"?
• The power of choosing a quality industry to buy a business in
• The power of high quality revenue
• The power of strong unit economics
• The power of you as CEO
• Ingredients of a good search CEO
• How to handle it if the business you buy fails?
• 2 stories of search failures
• Staying too long in a bad business
• When buying a business, dream bigger. No artificial ceiling.
• Thinking beyond your first deal: what doing a search does for your career

References and how to contact Kent:

• The event where the fireside occurred: Self-Funded Search Conference (submit this contact form for next year's event)
• Iron Mountain
• LinkedIn
• Kent’s investing vehicle, Granite Point Partners

Get a complementary pre-acquisition HR & PEO review for your target business:

• Contact [email protected] or visit Aspen HR

 Get complimentary due diligence on your acquisition's insurance & benefits program:

• Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

Sean Moore looked at a handful of businesses, but a fine art gallery with over $1m SDE won the art collector's heart. 

Topics in Sean’s interview:

• Pulling $1M out of his 401k to buy an art gallery
• How his gallery brings in $1M in SDE
• The ecommerce aspect of the gallery
• The additional revenue stream of a frame shop
• Opportunities to improve the gallery website
• His peer group that supported his search
• Choosing a passion business over a “boring” one
• Forming a connection with the seller
• Using ROBS for acquisitions
• Negotiating earnest money with the seller

References and how to contact Sean:

• LinkedIn
• [email protected]
• Josh Levell
• Fascination St. Fine Art
• Jeff Baughman
• Guesswork Investing

Connect with A-players who can run your business remotely:

• More Staffing

Get complimentary due diligence on your acquisition's insurance & benefits program:

• Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

John Hubbard returns to share how "chasing EBITDA over revenue" has benefited the trailer fabricator he bought in 2021. 

Topics in John’s interview:

• Losing largest customer (25% of revenue)
• Earning $2m EBITDA on $6m revenue vs. $25m revenue
• Don't chase revenue, chase EBITDA
• Mentally transitioning from buyer of a business to the seller of it
• Why he's thinking about selling
• Selling vs. hiring an operator & holding
• How difficult finding a good operator is
• Appreciating how precious it is when you have a business doing well
• The appeal of investing in other search deals
• 3 points about leadership in SMB

References and how to contact John:

• Sam Rosati
• Express Custom Trailers
• John’s first appearance on Acquiring Minds: Why Buy a Small Manufacturing Business
• Recent interview with Shane Ehrsam, who bought a trailer dealership business: Hiring a General Manager & Buying Business #2

Get complimentary due diligence on your acquisition's insurance & benefits program:

• Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

Get a complementary pre-acquisition HR & PEO review for your target business:

• Contact [email protected] or visit Aspen HR

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

It CAN be done. Andrew Swiler acquired a SaaS business with $650k SDE using an SBA loan (and while living in Spain). 

Topics in Andrew’s interview:

• Why he preferred buying a SaaS business to an ecommerce one
• Key trait to being a successful acquisition entrepreneur
• Downside protection in a SaaS business
• The appeal of the Microsoft ecosystem
• Deferred revenue (and explaining it to a seller)
• Buying a SaaS business as a non-technical person
• How a SaaS business is valued
• History of Lanteria, the business Andrew bought
• Terms of the deal
• Strategy of building a portfolio of B2B SaaS businesses
• Pros & cons of holding company structure
• Pros & cons of fund structure

References and how to contact Andrew:

• Tweet about how declining MRR affects SaaS enterprise value
• Xavier Helgesen
• Acquire.com
• @swilera on Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Lanteria

Learn more about Walker Deibel's done-with-you buy-side advisory:

• The Acquisition Lab

Connect with A-players who can run your business remotely:

• More Staffing

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

Chandler Reed reflects on buying a project-based business in 2021, seeing sales soar, then crash, then surge again. 

Topics in Chandler’s interview:

• His unconventional entrance into the search space
• Buying a commercial lighting contractor
• Incentivizing the sole employee to stay on
• The challenges of managing people
• The ups and downs of project-based revenue
• How interest rates affected his deal flow
• Involvement with Sam Rosati’s boot camp
• Choosing a business based on desired lifestyle
• Pros and cons of subcontracting
• His preference for digital over physical businesses

References and how to contact Chandler:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• SMBootcamp
• Pursuant Capital Bootcamp
• SMBash

Get a complementary pre-acquisition HR & PEO review for your target business:

• Contact [email protected] or visit Aspen HR

 Get complimentary due diligence on your acquisition's insurance & benefits program:

• Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter