One great acquisition can change the life of you and your children.Forever.As the smartest private market deal makers have said:"The goal is to acquire $10 bills for $3 ... and again, that's only possible in the private markets."My top 5 lessons on actively looking for exeptional $2-10 million revenue companies. (Pre-acquisition)1. Being street smart will take you further than you can imagine. Cold calling. Being likable.General soft skill, listening more than talking, asking great questions. Doing a follow up. Many don't want to do it, and most don’t know how to do it.2. VC is sexy; but old-school folks who run a cogs and gears manufacturing biz in their 50s are much happier. They make money every single day. Days become weeks. Weeks become months and years.95% of them are seriously happy with zero debt and not much stress. Time for a wife, time for kids, time for hobbies, time to travel. No Forbes but they could care less.3. An hour-long meeting that will last 2-3 hours. Take time and listen. This is their life's work. Very rarely does anyone go there and appreciate the work they’ve done. It’s their baby. It’s the company they have built. Be that person who listens.4. Without brokers, it takes years. Getting a person who does not want to sell their business to actually sell it, takes ages. You really have to enjoy the journey. If it's a great business, you play by their rules.5. Soft-skills. Forget the Excel and EBITDA. They barely use CRM. Talk in plain language: "How much money did you make last year?"That and 11 other lessons, hot takes on this week's podcast:

00:00 - Intro

00:47 - A person with average intelligence can do it

02:56 - Forget the industry

08:52 - It's a numbers game

16:12 - Emails are good. Phone calls are better. IRL meetings are the best

24:01 - Practice negotiations, make offers

Follow PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://Twitter.com/PrivatEquityGuy⁠⁠⁠Join HoldCo Builders weekly newsletter on finding deals, raising capital, and growing small niche manufacturing businesses: ⁠⁠⁠https://privatequityguy.beehiiv.com/subscribe⁠⁠⁠This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.