How a Film Producer Got ~80% Seller Financing on This AI-Proof Business

How a Film Producer Got 80% Seller Financing on This AI-Proof Business

Victoria has been making films since she was 12, and went on to produce brand videos in-house at Airbnb, Twitter and the meditation app Calm, before starting her own production company.

But with every client in Silicon Valley, she was sure AI would come for her work. "I thought AI would eat me up."

She wanted a second business doing something people will always need, no matter how good AI gets.

But she didn’t feel ready to buy one on her own, so she joined SMB Deal Hunter Pro.

10 months later, we helped her and her wife, Amy, close on a company in her town that sells, installs and repairs wood and gas stoves, and sweeps the chimneys above them.

And around Lake Tahoe, as Victoria puts it, "If your sole source of heat is a stove... they're coming to us."

They put $100k down, and the seller financed the rest, about 80%.

The business earns about $290k a year, and they paid less than 2x that. Most small businesses sell for 3x or more.

The catch was the license: the owner held the only one, and that hassle scared off other buyers.

Two months in, one email to their customer list in October had them booked out to mid-November.

So how does a first-time buyer close a deal other buyers wouldn’t touch?

👉 Watch how we helped her solve the license problem and got the seller to finance about 80%, so you know exactly what to look for in your own search.

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...

What happens to a business when the only person licensed to do the work is the one selling it?

For most buyers, that question ends the conversation.

Victoria kept going, and here’s what she found when she looked closer:

→ It’s the local dealer for stove brands you can’t buy on Amazon, with an exclusive territory to sell them

→ An $8k to $12k install is only the first sale. Wood stoves have to be swept for fire safety ($379 a visit), and the shop's paper files show the same homes coming back for service years later

→ 5,000 past customers on file, and the old owner had never once marketed to them

→ Invoices still went out by mail, and checks came back the same way

→ The owner held the only California contractor's license the work requires, and the whole business was still in his name

All of it is upside, as long as you can solve the license, which most buyers won’t touch, especially if they’ve never worked in the trade.

And Victoria hadn’t.

"I have a wood stove at my house, that's about as much as I know," she says.

So why take it on?

Because her film work runs on Silicon Valley clients, some of them AI companies, and in her words, “Don’t know when that’s gonna run out.”

But with a license to sort out and zero experience with stoves, she didn’t want to do it alone.

She wanted Acquisition Strategists who’d tell her straight when an idea was a bad one.

So she joined SMB Deal Hunter Pro.

Our Acquisition Strategists helped her pick apart the numbers and rework her offer letter "quite a few times" before she closed.

In the end, she put $100k down and paid under 2x for the business. Most sell for 3x or more.

So why would the seller carry about 80% of the deal himself?

Because without his license, the new owner can’t legally do the work. That scared off most buyers who’d never worked in the trade, and Victoria was willing to sort it out.

(For most first-time buyers, an SBA loan is still the smartest way in.)

With the deal closed, she and her wife, Amy, took over a shop in their own town.

So she'll tell you year one is "a lot of work," and that she loves making every decision.

In this week's alumni interview, we break down why she bought it and what happened next:

→ Is ~80% seller financing a steal or a yellow flag? (Victoria explains why she was willing to roll the dice)

→ The goldmine the previous owner never used (a list of 5,000 customers, and not one ad in 30 years)

→ How one of our member interviews convinced her to hire on day 1 (so she could take on more jobs without training anyone)

→ The best surprise of owning a business in a town of 16,000 (how the whole community showed up for them)

👉 Watch how she spotted the upside most buyers missed... an $8k to $12k install is only the first sale, because those customers keep coming back

Michael was the in-house accountant at an IT managed services company his bosses had bought and grown 5x in 3 years.

Seeing those numbers up close showed him how much wealth you can create by buying a small business and growing it a little.

He spent the next few jobs hoping his bosses would buy one. That never happened.

Then he lost his job, and gave himself a 12-month clock to buy one himself.

About 2 months into SMB Deal Hunter Pro, we brought him an off-market marketing agency servicing law firms, a space he'd never worked in.

Today, he runs the business alongside his general manager.

Revenue is down about 15% after 2 big clients left, but operating profit is still up about 35% to 40% since January.

So what changed?

A big part of that jump came from efficiencies he’s created using AI in the business.

And while plenty of people THINK they can increase their margins using AI, Michael shows us how he did it.

👉 Watch what owning an agency looks like 18 months in, and the exact AI changes that grew his operating profit by about 35% to 40%

👀 Quick update: Pro members closed $45M in deals in Q3 and went under LOI on another $116M.

Every one of them made the call months ago, sitting right where you are now. On average, our members go from joining to closing in about 8 months, versus 23 for buyers going at it alone.

So if you start now, you could be making offers before the holidays and be the name in this email by next summer.

👉 Book a free 1-on-1 strategy call and we'll build your search together: what you can realistically afford, the deals that fit, and your financing options.

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.