How 2 Friends Bought a Business That Prints $780K/yr

How 2 friends bought a business that prints $780K/yr (with none of their own money)

Sarah and Matthew are childhood friends from Aspen who both studied aerospace engineering and ended up becoming venture capital investors.

But they knew they wanted to do something of their own. So, they spent years chasing the perfect business idea, writing 25 pitch decks they never launched.

Until they bought one instead: the only auto shop in Aspen, for $1.5M with almost no money of their own.

How? They raised 20% from friends and family, and an SBA loan covered the rest.

Six weeks after closing, the manager who ran the entire shop quit, leaving them with a business they knew nothing about.

So the two of them ran it themselves, and 13 months later, they bought out every investor at 2x.

Now they're aiming to build a $100M+ holding company around the small mountain town of Aspen, Colorado.

👉 Watch exactly how they pulled it off

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...

How many of you have spent years waiting for the perfect business idea to hit you?

But the perfect idea almost never shows up.

Sarah and Matthew waited years for theirs.

The childhood friends grew up in Aspen, studied aerospace engineering, and went straight into venture capital.

But funding other people's companies only made them hungrier to build their own. So they wrote 25 pitch decks chasing the right idea, and not one of them stuck.

Then a podcast flipped the question entirely: why invent a business when you can buy one that already works?

So they stopped hunting for ideas and started hunting for businesses. And the hunt led them straight back to their hometown.

Because the best business in town wasn't a startup at all. It was the only auto shop in Aspen, run by a manager so trusted that customers thought he owned the place.

So they bought it for $1.5M, using a structure that let two broke engineers keep 70% of the company.

And the plan was simple: give the manager equity, keep him happy, and learn the business from him.

But six weeks after closing, he quit.

Sarah and Matthew call it their "fetal position moment," because they had investors, personal guarantees on an SBA loan, and no idea how to run an auto shop.

They had no choice but to go all in, running the front desk themselves from 7:30am to 9pm for six months.

Within a year, the shop was running better than it ever had.

In fact, this year it's on track for $3.4M in revenue and $780K in profit, up from $2.6M and $500K when they bought it.

And just 13 months after closing, they bought out every investor at a 2x return.

But the auto shop was only step one.

Because the real plan is a $100M+ holding company built around the small mountain town of Aspen, Colorado.

👉 They break down their 'mini monopoly' playbook right here

For those who missed it, we also did an SMB Deal Hunter Pro alumni interview breaking down John's acquisition of two yoga studios in Northern Virginia WITHOUT quitting his 9-to-5.

John spent 6 years as a Navy submarine officer before earning his MBA and going into Big Four consulting. He decided he wanted to build something for himself.

So he joined the Pro program. Two months in, he had an offer signed.

John leaned on our deal team to help him:

🔥 Negotiate the seller down from $2.5M to $1.38M on a business that had been sitting on the market for over a year

🔥 Keep the deal alive when the franchise dropped a bombshell three days before close

🔥 Skip months of trial-and-error with Bill, an M&A advisor on our team who already owns fitness studios in Northern Virginia.

He spent his career advising other people's companies.

Now, he owns two yoga studios cash flowing $299K a year.

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.

👀 P.S. We just doubled our off-market sourcing team.

John's yoga studios sat on the market for over a year before he scooped them up. But most great businesses never get listed at all. They sell quietly, off-market.

That's where our members keep winning. Over the past 12 months alone, they've closed $170M in deals, and our off-market deal platform was a big contributor. So we're doubling down.

The surge is already underway. Last week we added 25 new off-market deals, our biggest week ever.

Join before Q2 wraps and you'll be first in line as new deals drop.

👉 Ready to work with us 1:1 to find, finance, and acquire a million-dollar business in 6-12 months? 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.