🎙️ $36M in 4 years. Never selling.

Hello SMB Deal Hunters!

What do you do after 30 years of climbing the corporate ladder and getting fired twice for politics you didn't play?

Ryan Sullivan decided he was done building somebody else's empire.

Ryan spent three decades running other people's businesses. He survived seven rounds of layoffs in telecom, then lived through the largest housing crash in U.S. history at James Hardie, the country's biggest siding manufacturer.

Then he got fired twice, both times for politics, never for performance.

Today, Ryan owns 6 cash-flowing businesses he never plans to sell.

$6 million average deal size.

Hundreds of employees across the portfolio.

In December of 2021, he formed North Park Group with his partner Greg.

They built North Park to hold its businesses for 40 years instead of flipping them in five.

The first deal closed in May of 2022. Greg moved to Wichita and slept on a mattress on the floor for a year while they figured out how to run it.

Today, North Park has around 250 employees and pays its investors distributions twice a year.

New operators take the personal guarantee on their own deal, then get equity in every other company in the portfolio.

Ryan is 52. He wants to hold these businesses until he's 85.

When we asked him about the hardest part, he didn't talk about financing or diligence.

He said running a business is way harder than buying one, and doing it alone is crazy.

Here are some of the highlights from the deep dive:

🔥 The deal where Ryan paid $2 million for the business and $4.25 million for the building, without an SBA 7A loan, and ended up with no business debt at all.

🔥 The broken deal that cost Ryan $250,000 out of his personal checking account, and why he structures every deal so his investors never share that pain

🔥 Why Ryan is almost never the highest bid on a deal, and still wins. The reason sellers only admit to him after close.

🔥 The year-one strategy his partners have printed on t-shirts. It's the opposite of what most first-time buyers do.

Here's his must-watch breakdown...

And for our audio-only listeners, jump in and listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

Member Spotlight

For those who missed it, we also did an SMB Deal Hunter Pro alumni interview breaking down Taabish's acquisition of a $2.9M industrial equipment business.

Two deals fell apart before this one closed.

Today the business cash-flows $900K/year.

Taabish spent 10+ years at Amazon running operations teams. The job ran 24/7 and he wanted his time back for his family.

So he joined the Pro program. 11 months later, he closed.

He stepped in with zero industry experience.

The result?

🔥 Closed a $2.9 million acquisition at a 3.2x multiple on a 50-year-old business distributing blowers, pumps, and gearboxes with a full machine shop and service operation already in place

🔥 Landed his first LOI after two prior deals fell apart. We break down what went wrong on the first two and what he did differently to finally get one to the finish line.

🔥 Three months into ownership, revenue is already ahead of last year, and Taabish has already signed on as a dealer for a brand new product line the previous owner never touched

🔥 At Amazon, every morning started with overnight fires. Now his business is closed every weekend, and for the first time in a decade he can actually unplug and be present for his oldest heading into high school

If you want to watch the full alumni interview, click below:

And here's what he had to say:

So, if you want me and my team to work with you to find, finance, and acquire a million-dollar cash-flowing business in the next 6-12 months, you might be interested in the Pro program.

👉️ Learn more and book a call

COMMUNITY PERKS

• Ready to buy and operate a $1M+ business? Get expert help at every step.

• Want to invest passively in SMB acquisitions? Get access to investment opportunities.

• Get a personal introduction to my preferred SBA 7(a) lender, non-SBA lenders, Quality of Earnings providers, or legal counsel

• Raising capital for your deal? I’ll connect you with investors from the SMB Deal Hunter Community.

• Interested in selling your business? I’ll help you connect with buyers from the SMB Deal Hunter Community.

THAT’S A WRAP

Want me to interview you for my podcast? Hit reply.

See you next week with some new deals!

-Helen Guo
Find Me On Twitter
Find Me On LinkedIn 

Disclaimer

This publication is a newsletter only and the information provided herein is the opinion of our editors and writers only. Any transaction or opportunity of any kind is provided for information only; SMB Deal Hunter does not verify nor confirm information. SMB Deal Hunter is not making any offer to readers to participate in any transaction or opportunity described herein.