Healthcare Exec -> $3.5M Premium Flooring Company

Author

Helen Guo
January 05, 2026

Hey - Helen here,

To start off 2026, I wanted to share an SMB Deal Hunter Pro alumni interview that will resonate with a lot of you stuck in the endless learning loop.

Like a lot of you, Ronnie didn’t think he needed any help buying a business.

He’d spent 25 years helping buy senior living facilities with private equity money. He’d done countless turnarounds and managed up to 450+ employees.

So when he sold his stake in April 2024 and decided to buy something on his own, he figured he had this covered.

How different could a small business acquisition be after all that?

It turns out, very different.

He spent 6 months searching on his own. He reviewed over 70 businesses. And when he needed help, he made calls to his network of friends and advisors.

But he didn’t get close to closing on a single deal.

The problem wasn’t knowledge. Ronnie had plenty of that. He didn’t need more podcasts or Youtube videos or books.

His issue was bandwidth and support. He realized that deals in small businesses were very different from larger ones. And this was going to be his money on the line, not an investor’s.

He wanted to make sure he made the right call for himself and his family.

So, he turned to SMB Deal Hunter Pro in January of 2025 and got exactly what he was missing…

"The first time I submitted a question on Slack. And I got a voice recording back. I believe it was Bill... It was like somebody gets it, somebody's talking to me and saying, look, be careful with this, ask this question. We've seen this happen before."

- Ronnie

Eight months later, he closed on a $3.5M premium flooring company in Charleston, SC.

Here are a few quick-fire deal terms:

🔥 $1M Seller’s Discretionary Earnings

🔥 3.29x Purchase multiple

🔥 100% SBA financing (There was a bit of drama with the seller note…)

The rest of the diligence process went smoothly. No big hiccups.

But the really interesting tidbits of his alumni interview come AFTER he closed.

In the alumni interview, Ronnie goes deep on how his COO sat him down on Halloween, 30 days post-close, and told him he would be leaving the company.

This was AFTER the broker had told Ronnie that this was the ‘best job’ the COO had ever had. He wasn’t going anywhere.

But what happened next (and how it actually turned into an advantage) is one of the best parts of this interview.

And when we asked him to give advice to those planning on buying a business in 2026, here’s what he had to say:

"I know for me it would've been a hundred times more difficult if I didn't have someone like you and your company behind me that I know that I could sort of back up into and have you guys sort of catch me there.” 

- Ronnie

And in his wife’s words, "That was the best money we ever spent."

Ronnie leaned on our battle-tested deal team to help him…

  • Source his deals on and off-market (personalized exactly to his needs)

  • Navigate every step of the process from the first broker call to closing day (one on one)

  • And ultimately help him not just buy a business, but one he can grow and succeed with…

So, if you want to buy a $1M+ business in the next 6-12 months, but don’t want to spend years spinning your wheels alone, let’s talk.

Talk soon,
Helen Guo