This Week’s Business Buyer (in 10 Seconds):
Jonathan is a Charlotte-based entrepreneur who bought a 51-year-old electrical contracting company in North Carolina.
The seller financed 40% over 10 years.
And Jonathan goes in three days a week (he runs it from his home office the remaining 2).
Today, the business makes $1.4M/yr in cash flow (and he’s on track to doubling revenue in year 1).
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!
These days, it can often feel like everyone around you is starting something.
A new startup.
A side hustle.
A vibe-coded AI app.
Almost nobody is doing the quieter, less glamorous thing: buying a business that has already been generating real cash flow for decades.
Jonathan did the quieter thing.
For 20 years, Jonathan had run a property management business, invested in restaurants, scaled a cannabis brand, and launched a national liquor portfolio.
Across all of it, he was a partner, an investor, or a board member, rarely the person who actually owned the thing.
This time he wanted something that was fully his.
Today, he owns a 51-year-old electrical contracting company in North Carolina doing $1.4M/yr in cash flow.
The total deal was $7M.
We helped him buy it with just $500k down and half of that came out of his retirement savings without the tax hit.
The seller carried 40% of the financing. The creative structure we helped Jonathan build helped take the deal to the finish line.
Without that structure, he says, the deal would not have worked.
This all started the day 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.
About 4 months after joining, Jonathan found his company and got under contract.
But five months of chaos followed.
First, a Texas family office came in late and tried to steal the deal.
Then, the seller's lawyer tried to kill it.
Despite that, 9 months after joining, he closed (watch how we helped him jump through each of those obstacles)
The business Jonathan now owns is a 51-year-old new construction electrical contractor serving apartments and build-to-rent communities across North Carolina.
Already, he's projecting to DOUBLE the company's revenue in his first year.
Just by picking up the phone and reconnecting with customers the previous owner had let go cold.
Here's why this week's alumni interview is a must watch:
→ After a legal dispute almost killed the deal, he resurrected it over Waffle House hash browns. We break down what he said and how it led the seller to negotiate himself down by a million dollars by the end.
→ A first-time buyer who beat a Texas family office trying to roll the company into a 10-office portfolio. We walk through how he won.
→ His thesis: find a business AI can't disrupt. We walk through the system he built to surface it.
→ He bought a $7M business with $500K out of pocket and 40% seller financing. We walk through the structure that made it possible.
Jonathan came in with 20 years as an operator and investor. His wife works in wealth management. He still says we saved him 10x his program investment before he ever signed the deal.
Jonathan leaned on our battle-tested deal team to help him...
Structure a creative seller note that financed 40% of a $7M deal at terms most first-time buyers don't know to ask for. Without it, Jonathan says, the deal wouldn't have happened.
Connect him to a quality of earnings provider and an acquisition attorney at fee structures that saved him over $50,000 versus what his friends in M&A told him to expect.
Introduce him to a tax strategy he'd never heard of that put another five figures back in his pocket when funding the down payment.
Coach him through every broker call, every seller meeting, and every diligence question. Jonathan listened to voice memos from our advisors on his drives so his wife could follow the process too.
Talk soon,
Helen Guo
P.S. Before he joined us, Jonathan said he'd been "window shopping at best." 9 months later, he closed a $7M deal. 👉 book a call here.