Acquiring Minds

Will Smith

Buying a business is an amazing path for many successful entrepreneurs. Learn how to buy a business from the entrepreneurs who have already done it. 2x per week: stories, insights, & valuable advice about acquisition entrepreneurship. Hosted by Will Smith, who is on his own path to acquire a business. Also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AcquiringMinds Sign up for episode summaries at: https://acquiringminds.co

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Top 10 Acquiring Minds Episodes

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The Appeal of Lead Gen Businesses (Especially Old Ones)

Acquiring Minds

09/07/22 • 72 min

A primer on lead gen businesses from Jaime Arias, who bought a 14-year-old biz that generates online leads for dentists.

Topics in Jaime's interview:

Choosing self-funded over a traditional search fund
Buying tiny sites on Flippa
The opportunity with "old" internet businesses
3 types of sellers on Flippa
Using BuiltWith to generate proprietary outreach list
About Patients4you
Lowering acquisition targets from $750k - $1m cash flow to $200k - $400k
"Rank & Rent" model for local lead gen
What are you really buying with a lead gen business?
Lead brokers
SEO vs. PPC for lead gen
Isn't Google Ads too competitive already for local lead gen?
Getting comfortable with Google algorithm risk
Why Patients4you is an agency more than a lead gen website
Deal terms
Using BizBuySell for digital businesses
Centurica
How he's growing Patients4you
Slow feedback loop of local lead gen businesses

Reach Jaime at:

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

Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

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

The Acquisition Lab

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
Follow Will on Twitter

09/07/22 • 72 min

Building an HVAC Holdco to £60m in Revenue

Acquiring Minds

08/30/22 • 86 min

Sam Turner is 3 acquisitions into a 5-year plan to buy HVAC businesses across the UK that together cash flow £6m/yr.

Topics in Sam's interview:

How the businesses he buys are run and by whom
Buying without the benefit of an SBA loan
Why HVAC?
Why buying small business is more appealing than real estate
Harbour Club with Jeremy Harbour
The value in acquiring businesses in a highly-fragmented industry
Deal structure for his first acquisition
Sam's goal for revenue/EBITDA/multiple and his own wealth
Buying small vs. buying big
Buying an HVAC with mostly new construction vs. maintenance revenue
White collar people buying blue collar businesses

Reach Sam at:

sam DOT turner AT advantos DOT com
LinkedIn

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

Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

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

The Acquisition Lab

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
Follow Will on Twitter

08/30/22 • 86 min

Rolling Up Real Estate Appraisal Firms

Acquiring Minds

08/23/22 • 54 min

Kevin Swenson shares his story of buying a $3m real estate appraisal firm as a platform to roll up the fragmented space.

Topics from Kevin's interview:

Why the real estate appraisal industry?
How to add value as the entrepreneur doing a roll-up
Roll-up dynamics
Appraisal businesses vs. appraisal management companies
Story of his acquisition, the platform business
The "Your Sure Thing" philosophy
Buying in an industry where you DON'T have experience
The nature of real estate service businesses
How to mitigate risk when buying a real estate service business
Acquisition opportunities in real estate services beyond appraisal
How it's going since the real estate market slowed
Pivoting a roll-up strategy to react to the market

Reach Kevin at:

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

Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

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

The Acquisition Lab

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
Follow Will on Twitter

08/23/22 • 54 min

Growing an Ecommerce Acquisition 13x in 4 Months

Acquiring Minds

08/16/22 • 73 min

Ramon Van Meer bought an ecommerce business doing $30k/mo. A few tweaks & months later, it was up to $400k per month.

Topics in Ramon's interview:

What to look for in an underperforming ecommerce business
How to quickly improve an ecommerce business
The effect of turning on paid advertising
The true nature of running an ecommerce business
The power of niches
User experience buying a digital business versus an offline business
Who should buy versus build
How to make money in content
Growing a content site from scratch to a $9m sale in 2.5 years
The dangerous temptation of buying too many businesses
Buying a YouTube channel
Decline of a YouTube channel business immediately after acquiring it
SBA loan for a YouTube channel acquisition
Buying a SaaS business

Reach Roman at:

@ramonvanmeer

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

Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

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

The Acquisition Lab

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
Follow Will on Twitter

Links & mentions:

Alpha Paw
Ramon's viral Twitter thread: selling $35m of dog ramps

08/16/22 • 73 min

Flower Power: Buying a Rose Distributor Primed for Growth

Acquiring Minds

08/09/22 • 87 min

Jason Cline left corporate at age 50 to buy a flower distribution business (in cash). SDE is up 3x after just one year.

Topics in Jason's interview:

Pivoting from 20+ years in corporate to SMB ownership
3 criteria for what business to buy
Buying a business in cash (no SBA loan)
The business of flower distribution
Selling to big retailers like 7-Eleven & Circle K
How to detect growth potential in a distribution business
2 ways to retain drivers in distribution/route businesses
Distribution businesses are really car businesses
Scan-based trading
2 key techniques Jason used to transition successfully into the business
Working "in" the business for the first 6 months
Testing changes
The numbers behind flower distribution
Ideal size of SDE for target business
What's more important than SDE
Jason's growth since acquisition and plans for expansion

Reach Jason at:

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

Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

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

The Acquisition Lab

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
Follow Will on Twitter

08/09/22 • 87 min

A Brutal Search Rewarded with Success After 3+ Years

Acquiring Minds

08/02/22 • 82 min

Jordan Carter started as a part-time, generalist searcher. 3+ years later, he bought a biz doing $2.4m with 40% margins.

Topics in Jordan's interview:

Part-time vs. full-time searching
Consulting in order to generate income while searching
Misconceptions about how easy it is to find a business to buy
How much cash Jordan saved for his self-funded search
Generalist vs. industry-specific search
Using interns for search
Value of speaking with owners (even if they don't want to sell)
Optimal percentage of time to devote to deal sourcing
Accessing equity capital
Adding value to a super niche business you're completely new to
Growing a business 40% in 2 years after acquisition
Buying a grant-writing business
The pain of losing an LOI

Reach Jordan at:

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

Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

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

The Acquisition Lab

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
Follow Will on Twitter

Links & mentions:

B&A Grant Services & Software
Search Investment Group
Episode 41, featuring Jordan and partner Robert Graham at SIG: The Argument for Self-Funded Search

08/02/22 • 82 min

Buy a SaaS Business in 2022: How to Compete in a Hot Market

Acquiring Minds

07/26/22 • 86 min

A deep-dive into the market for SaaS businesses with Thomas Smale, founder of leading SaaS brokerage FE International.

Topics in Thomas's interview:

Pros & cons of SaaS
SaaS valuations
SaaS vs. ecommerce
Competing with private equity for SaaS deals
Using an SBA loan to buy a SaaS business
Micro-SaaS
First-time buyers doing a career pivot by acquiring a business
Most common mistake among first-time buyers
Passive nature of online businesses
SaaS products unlikely to go zero?
Acquisition strategy: converting on-premise software to cloud
Proprietary outreach to find SaaS sellers
How economic climate is affecting SaaS valuations & multiples
Ecommerce valuations & multiples
Young ecommerce businesses - dangerous?
Advice for first-timer buyers

Reach Thomas at:

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

Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

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

The Acquisition Lab

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
Follow Will on Twitter

Links & mentions:

FE International

07/26/22 • 86 min

Leaving Apple to Buy a Real Estate Business with 150+ Agents

Acquiring Minds

07/19/22 • 72 min

Kinza Azmat arrived in the US at age 6, speaking little English. Today she's the new owner of a thriving RE brokerage.

Topics from Kinza's interview:

Becoming a business broker to learn acquisition & access deal flow
Thinking that finding a business to buy would be easy
How business brokerages generate deal flow
Financial & location criteria of her search
Unlocking deal flow by expanding geographic criteria
Dealing with gender, racial, and other biases in sellers
Tying seller note to business performance
The business of apartment locators
Competitive moats for apartment locators
Rebranding
Small business owner life vs. corporate cog life
Getting your spouse on board
Pregnant as a new owner
Type D and Type F reorganization
Following (and breaking) the Asian-American pattern
America as land of opportunity

Reach Kinza at:

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

Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

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

The Acquisition Lab

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
Follow Will on Twitter

Links & mentions:

WTA Realty

07/19/22 • 72 min

7 Findings from the New Data on Self-Funded Searches

Acquiring Minds

07/15/22 • 29 min

Lisa Forrest shares key findings from a survey of 49 entrepreneurs who bought a business after a self-funded search.

The findings discussed were based on these questions:

How did you find your deal?
Did you conduct a full-time search?
How long did you search before you found the deal you closed on?
Do you think your acquisition price valuation was fair?
How long did it take you to discuss valuation with the seller?
Did you have a competitive deal process where multiple buyers were vying for the LOI?
What do you think the critical success factors were in sourcing and closing your deal?
Did you go up or down market compared to your original expectations?

Reach Lisa at:

lisa DOT forrest AT liveoak DOT bank
LinkedIn

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

Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

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

The Acquisition Lab

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
Follow Will on Twitter

Links & mentions:

The report will be published at Live Oak Bank's search fund resources page... but not for 2 weeks.
If you can't wait, email Lisa at the address above👆 and she'll get you the raw data now.

07/15/22 • 29 min

Opening Up to Franchises to Buy a Great Business

Acquiring Minds

09/13/22 • 84 min

How Doug Johns overcame his reservations about being a franchisee to acquire a dream business with $1.8m EBITDA.

Topics in Doug's interview:

Buying a franchise vs. independent business
Opening your mind to a franchise
The many (overlooked) benefits to being a franchisee
Calling yourself "independent investor" instead of "searcher"
Running a search like a B2B sales process
The appeal of a deal with few addbacks
Why home service businesses are so appealing as acquisitions
Loving, rather than running from, managing people
Why the top home service businesses have more sophisticated funnels than the Fortune 500
ServiceTitan
Where the opportunity is when the business you buy is already well-run and mature
Owning a plumbing company without knowing anything about plumbing
The numbers of Doug's deal
The exact multiple is way less important than you think
Using ROBS to buy the business
Why high growth can make a business harder to finance
Understanding debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) thresholds
Doug's tip for choosing an SBA lender
The $500k value of Doug's appeal to the seller
Going to meet a seller face to face