He Runs His First Business Working Only 5hrs/week (just copy him)

He Runs His First Business Working Only 5hrs/week (just copy him)

Joe spent years in sales-ops at GE and Dover, but he kept hitting a ceiling in corporate.

He decided to quit, and six months later he bought a 3D-rendering business he knew nothing about.

A year in, COVID cut his sales in half, but by 2023 the business hit the highest sales it had ever had.

Then, he made one hire that got him out of the day-to-day.

That freed him up to buy a second, much bigger agency in 2024, and he's buying up more with a plan to sell the whole thing in the next four to five years.

👉 Watch exactly how he set up a business that only requires 5 hrs/week (It’s not easy and he had to learn some hard lessons)

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...

Have you put off buying a business because you're convinced it means buying yourself a stressful job?

It's a reasonable fear.

You escape corporate just to end up chained to a business that can't survive a week without you.

Joe won't argue with you. Talking about his first acquisition, he says: "I literally bought myself a job for sure."

After years of hitting a ceiling in corporate sales-ops at GE and Dover, he quit in fall 2018.

Six months later, he bought Sunny & Ash, a 3D-rendering business.

He knew nothing about rendering. But the sellers convinced him the technical side could be hired, and he bought that premise.

Then a year in, COVID hit and absolutely decimated the business. Sales in 2020 came in at half of what they'd been in 2019.

But while his hospitality clients froze, everyone stuck at home was suddenly renovating. So he chased the home-furnishings boom, and by 2023 the business hit the highest sales it had ever had.

One problem: he wanted to buy a second, bigger business, but Sunny & Ash still needed him every day.

And hiring a manager, by his own admission, can be a crapshoot… ("You could be a serial killer and I wouldn't have any idea").

So he used a hiring method that took the guesswork out of it completely.

One hire later, he was out of the day-to-day, down to working only 5 hours a week in the business.

That freed him to go bigger.

In 2024, he bought Point B, a full-service ad agency. He'd paid off his first SBA loan to free up his full $5M borrowing power, then raised about $300K from friends and family to close it.

Now the plan is to buy up a few more agencies and sell the whole thing to a larger buyer in the next four to five years.

👉 He breaks down his entire playbook to buy up more agencies and sell the whole thing right here

For those who missed it, we also did an SMB Deal Hunter Pro alumni interview breaking down Cory's acquisition of a $1.85M childcare center in York, PA.

He spends just 1-2 hours a week on it, and he used the cash flow to buy a 10-acre wedding venue.

(I wouldn’t say this the norm, though. Cory was clever about how he structured his search so he could make the ‘semi-absentee’ acquisition a reality. Watch to find out how!)

Cory spent 13 years managing restaurants, with ZERO childcare experience. He knew he wanted out, but he spent two years spinning his wheels on his own.

So he joined the Pro program. 10 months later, he closed.

What makes it such an inspiring story?

→ Cory was managing a restaurant with full work days when he closed this deal. We discuss how he structured the transition without quitting his job first.

→ The real estate was 51% of the deal, which unlocked a fantastic loan structure most buyers don't know about.

→ He found the deal because of one tactic our team taught him

He spent 13 years running restaurants for somebody else.

Now the childcare center runs without him (mostly), and he spends his days on his real passion: hosting weddings on his own 10-acre venue in the mountains.

👉 Watch how he bought a business that only takes 1-2hrs/week, so he can focus on his passion project

And here's what he had to say:

So, if you want us 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.

👀 P.S. Q2 just closed out as our biggest quarter yet…

We helped our members acquire over $50 million in businesses, with another $110 million under contract (the most momentum we've ever had!).

The second half of the year just started, a good moment to actually get your search off the ground instead of letting it sit on the back burner.

👉 Book a free strategy call and we'll map out what you can realistically afford and how fast you can get there.

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
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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.