Chelsea Wood has worked with 250+ business buyers & identifies 7 challenges that commonly interfere with their success. 

Themes from Chelsea's interview:

• The irrational need to be an expert on every part of your acquisition‍
• Incessant need for more, more, MORE information
• ‍Good ol' imposter syndrome
• ‍You don't brand yourself
• ‍You're too rigid
• ‍You're too loose, get desperate
• You don't put in the effort for deal flow

Reach Chelsea at:

• chelsea at buythenbuild dot com
• LinkedIn

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

• Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

Links & mentions:

• Apply to the Acquisition Lab
• Buy Then Build Facebook group

How Chris Munn runs his first acquisition, a $800k cleaning business in Tampa, while being based in LA. 

Themes from Chris’s interview:

• Real estate vs. small business acquisition
• The importance of getting reps — modeling deals as practice for the real thing
• Running an acquired business remotely
• Buying a business that’s too small
• Being an African-American man and dealing with “pattern matching” from banks
• How Chris gained 30k followers in six months

Reach Chris at:

• On LinkedIn: Chris Munn
• On Twitter: Chris Munn

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

Links & mentions:

• Buy Then Build
• HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business

Ex-cop John Hubbard bought a $5m trailer manufacturing biz from an absentee owner & expects to grow to $12m by 2024. 

Themes from John’s interview:

• Learning how to run a business, hands-on, before acquiring one
• Transferring military skills to business acquisition
• Raising money on Searchfunder.com
• Asking “dumb questions” to learn quickly
• Choosing self-funded over a traditional search fund to achieve the lifestyle he wanted
• Firing half his customers in the first month of ownership
• Why your search shouldn’t ignore manufacturing businesses

Reach John at:

• By email: john at blue cord capital dot com
• On LinkedIn: John Hubbard

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

Links & mentions:

• Express Custom Trailers
• Blue Cord Capital
• Sam Rosati on Twitter
• Searchfunder

Digital business buyer Dom Wells shares where he looks for opportunities today in the shifting sands of online business. 

Themes from Dom's interview:

• Affiliate, e-commerce, and SaaS businesses and each one's pros/cons
• Online course and content businesses
• Where Dom sees opportunities in digital acquisition
• How to source deals
• Leading brokerages of digital businesses
• Flippa & MicroAcquire
• How to approach the digital space as an outsider

Connect with Dom:

• Twitter: @DomWellsOnfolio
• LinkedIn: Dominic Wells

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

Links & mentions:

• Empire Flippers
• FE International
• QuietLight
• MicroAquire
• Flippa
• Onfolio's S-1

Mike Loftus started his landscaping business from scratch, then began buying others to accelerate growth to $4m/yr. 

Themes from Mike’s interview:

• Growing a landscaping business organically from the ground up
• Acknowledging your weaknesses and handing them off as soon as you can
• The advantages familiarity with technology bring despite a lack of experience
• Finding acquisition opportunities through unconventional methods
• The importance of recurring revenue in landscaping
• The potential exit opportunities for landscaping owners

Connect with Mike:

• Twitter: @signthefronts
• LinkedIn: Michael Loftus

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

Links & mentions:

• Connor's Landscape
• Building a Blue Collar Empire: Adrian Pinto on Acquiring Minds
• 7 Years Later: Leaving Wall Street to Buy Small Businesses with Chenmark founders James & Palmer Higgins, on Acquiring Minds
• How to Buy Landscaping Businesses: Mike Botkin's second appearance on Acquiring Minds
• How to Buy a Landscaping Biz & Boost Profits Quick: Mike Botkin's first appearance on Acquiring Minds
• John Wilson on Twitter
• Mills Snell on Twitter

Lively debate between Greg Geronemus & Robert Graham about the 2 most common models searchers use to acquire a business. 

Covered in the debate:

• Quick definitions of each model
• How the economics differ
• Why are traditional search fund terms so fixed?
• CEO vs. Owner
• Accountability, governance, boards, mentoring
• Flexibility & optionality
• Relative risk of both models
• Probability of close
• Probability of success
• Assembling the board as a self-funded searcher
• Is either model preferable for particular industry targets?
• Who is your model not for?

Connect with the debaters on LinkedIn:

• Robert Graham
• Greg Geronemus

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

Links & mentions:

• Stanford's 2020 Search Fund Study
• Robert's investment firm SIG
• Greg's investment firm Footbridge Partners

How Keith Leimbach paid 6 figures for a business he saw on QuietLight, then exited for 8 figures two years later.

*** Register for live episode here: https://bit.ly/3r6P1bD *** 

Themes from Keith’s interview:

• The difference between buying and starting a business
• It’s never “just add marketing,” even when it seems like it is
• Growth by creating new products that customers are telling you they want
• Not being afraid to outsource or delegate
• Why Amazon FBA businesses aren’t for everyone
• The Smash My Trash franchise
• Building laundromats from scratch
• Keith’s near-death plane crash

Connect with Keith:

• On LinkedIn: Keith Leimbach

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

Links & mentions:

• QuietLight
• Empire Flippers
• Website Closers
• Transworld Business Advisors
• Smash My Trash

Due diligence expert Elliott Holland looks at industry & owner/seller risk, and exactly what you can do to address them. 

*** Register for live episode here: https://bit.ly/3NGoSKa *** 

How to reach Elliott:

• Guardian Due Diligence
• LinkedIn

After big success with affiliate marketing online, @Gundwolf sought to acquire & build a more durable business. 

*** Register for live episode here: https://bit.ly/3tXHIEH *** 

Themes from @Gundwolf’s interview:

• Appeal of durable offline businesses vs. online marketing businesses
• Getting up at 4am to work 4 hours before going to day job
• Achieving success in the affiliate marketing world
• @Gundwolf’s personal philosophy of goals
• Not being taken seriously as a 24-year-old
• Protracted acquisition process
• The importance of the buyer-seller relationship
• Earning credibility among blue-collar crews
• Challenges when both buyer & seller are doing their first acquisition

Reach @Gundwolf at:

• On Twitter: @gundwolf

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

Nathan Lenahan acquired an HVAC company with ~$1.2m in revenue for $400k. He's aiming to double sales in 2022 to $2.72m. 

Themes from Nathan’s interview:

• The appeal of HVAC over other businesses in the trades
• All the numbers behind Nathan's acquisition
• Benefits of “buying small” in the SMB acquisition world
• High professional satisfaction for skilled trades 
• Acquiring an HVAC business without industry knowledge
• The importance of first-rate customer care
• Leveraging multiple acquisitions to create a platform for easier home ownership

Reach Nathan Lenahan at:

• On Twitter: @n8lenahan
• LinkedIn
• Bart's Heating & Air

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter