This Week’s Business Buyer (in 10 Seconds):
Alex spent over 10 years managing a financial planning team at a big insurance company, and all the turnover was getting tiring.
On top of that, he was driving 1 hour 45 minutes each way into Boston.
He wanted out, and he already had a model for what came next.
His family had owned businesses for decades, and as he put it, “it kinda runs in my blood.”
So instead of climbing the corporate ladder, he decided to buy a business he’d run for the long haul.
And after 2 months of broker conversations going nowhere, he joined SMB Deal Hunter Pro.
With our help, he and his wife bought a tent rental business for $4.5M.
She’d spent over a decade leading an event planning team at a private equity firm, so she already knew the event side of the business.
The catch was coming up with $450K for the 10% down, which he calls “the hardest part.”
So they refinanced a couple of their investment properties and used the equity to fund it.
In return, they got a company where the biggest tents rent for about $15K a weekend and over 80% of customers come back.
And for our audio-only listeners, jump in and listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!
But if you want to learn a bit more, let's dive into the story…
Hello SMB Deal Hunters!
Have you noticed it’s rarely one bad day that makes you want out of corporate?
It’s the slow pile-up...
Backfilling the same role on your team, again and again
Climbing a ladder that never seems to end
Commuting hours a day to build someone else’s company
Alex lived that for over a decade at a big insurance company.
He managed a team through all that turnover and drove 1 hour 45 minutes each way into Boston.
He told me it was getting exhausting.
So he started looking at buying a business.
With years of real estate investing on the side, he figured he had a head start.
But buying a business wasn’t like buying property. They looked similar on the surface, but they really weren’t.
For about two months, he reached out to brokers and didn’t get the responses he was looking for.
And with long hours at work and small kids at home, he didn’t have time to keep spinning his wheels.
As he put it, “I needed some hand holding.”
So he joined SMB Deal Hunter Pro.
As a quick reminder, SMB Deal Hunter Pro is our business buying accelerator where we help you find, finance, and acquire a business in 6-12 months...or work with you for free until you do.
Today, he and his wife own a tent and event rental company that's been around since the 1950s.
It puts up tents as big as 100 by 160 feet for New England universities, prep schools and high schools.
They bought it for $4.5M, and it brings in about $1.1M a year in cash flow.
Here’s what it took to get it closed:
The down payment. They needed $450K, which Alex calls the hardest part, and they got there without touching their 401(k)s.
The bank. More than 80% of the business’s customers come back year after year, mostly schools booking for graduation. But that wasn’t the only thing lenders liked.
A competing buyer. Another event rental company came in at the same price, and the sellers still picked Alex and his wife.
Our team was with him through all of it, on 1:1 calls with our advisors and on Slack whenever a question came up.
Two months in, here’s where things stand:
Revenue is up. His first full month came in 9% above last September.
He’s in the field. He’s out with the install crews, and one part of the job surprised him.
He could already replace his old salary. So why hasn’t he paid himself yet?
Here's why this week's alumni case study is a must-watch:
→ Before he found the tent business, Alex got serious about a printing company in Maine, then walked away. What made him pull back?
→ He’s found a warehouse fix that could save his crews 1 to 1.5 hours a day, and it starts with how the trucks get loaded.
→ Most customers pay 50% up front, 6 to 7 months early. On a $4.5M deal, that’s making year one a lot easier.
→ He’s already raised prices on customers who hadn’t seen an increase in some time, with barely any pushback. Next up: 2 growth plays the business isn’t touching today.
Click below and watch me walk through his journey step by step 👇
And here's what Alex says made the biggest difference...
“Having [Acquisition Strategists] be able to relay messages back to me pretty, pretty quickly was like fantastic and kind of unexpected … the peace of mind just to know that I could have someone available at many hours of the day, it was tremendously helpful … that guided me throughout the whole process.”
Alex leaned on our battle-tested deal team to help him...
Get fast answers from Acquisition Strategists who've done this before, so his search kept moving even on his busiest workdays
Pressure-test his messages before they went to the broker, the seller or the bank
Set a fair price range of 3.5x to 4.3x earnings up front, and close inside it at about 4x
So if you want to buy a $1M+ business in 6-12 months, even while you're still working full time, let's talk.
Talk soon,
Helen
👀 Quick Update: We’re only halfway through October, and 6 Pro members have already closed deals this month, and another 8 have gone under LOI.
We helped them source these deals (including off-market deals you won’t find on BizBuySell) and worked with them 1:1 to structure winning offers, catch red flags, and secure financing, handholding them all the way to close and through the transition.
On October 31st, we're retiring a bonus worth five figures for new Pro members.
So if you've been waiting for the right time to make a move...