This Week’s Business Buyer (in 10 Seconds):
Mike spent 10 years in corporate banking, helping large corporations get financing.
But with two small children at home, he wanted extra income on the side, so he spent his nights scrolling BizBuySell.
After months of zero progress, he joined SMB Deal Hunter Pro.
12 months later, he closed on a $965K medical transportation company in Michigan without quitting his 9 to 5.
And he only had to put $57k down (5% down).
Him and his wife run the whole thing remotely, working about 10hrs/week each.
Today, the business makes about $300K/yr in cash flow.
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!
How many of you think you'd have to quit your job before you could ever properly search for a business to buy?
Maybe you've spent months quietly eyeing businesses, telling yourself you'll get serious once you feel ready.
Mike did exactly that.
He'd spent 10 years in corporate banking, financing large corporations.
If anyone should have had buying a business figured out, it was him. But the deals he knew how to finance were nothing like the small business he wanted to buy.
What he and his wife Olivia really wanted was something of their own to grow and pass down to their two kids.
So for months he just watched what came up, too unsure to ever reach out.
He made zero progress, held back by one fear: "If I reach out and this gets real, am I actually ready to do this?"
What he needed was a team that had already done this, in his corner.
So he and his wife 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.
A couple months in, he found a medical transportation company in Michigan and offered the full asking price.
But he lost it. Another buyer already owned a company in the industry and outbid him with an offer over a million dollars.
Instead of walking away, Mike stayed close to the broker and the seller.
And one of our advisors let him know these deals have a funny way of coming back around.
Sure enough, a month later the winning buyer's financing fell through. So the broker came straight back to Mike. He didn’t even re-list the business.
This time, our deal team helped Mike structure a creative seller note so that the bank only required 5% down.
Twelve months after he joined, Mike closed the deal.
And the business is a machine. It runs 120 to 140 rides a day for the only three Medicaid brokers in all of Michigan.
Yet Mike never had to quit his 9 to 5.
He and his wife run the whole thing remotely from Florida.
And only spend 10 hours a week each on the business.
Here's why this week's alumni interview is a must watch:
→ Mike put just 5% down on a $965K business. We break down the creative seller note our deal team suggested to get him there.
→ He lost this deal to a bigger buyer, then nearly lost it a second time during underwriting. We walk through how he kept it alive both times.
→ Mike had never even heard of non-emergency medical transportation before this. He shares how he got comfortable buying into an industry he knew nothing about.
→ He runs a Michigan business from his home in Florida in about 10 hours a week, without quitting his job. Inside, the exact setup that makes it possible.
"There was another member who owned an NEMT business in another state, and I reached out to him a number of times with due diligence questions. We spent a couple hours on the phone, and it was immense. He connected me to the insurance broker I work with now, and the dispatching software we use now. Having other like-minded people in the community there to help you was vital to me. That's something other advisory firms just don't have."
Mike leaned on our battle-tested deal team to help him...
Structure a creative seller note that got him to just 5% down
Untangle the seller's add-backs so he could trust the real cash flow
Save the deal when his bank walked 60 days into underwriting
Max out his working capital so the lean first month didn't sink him
Talk soon,
Helen Guo
👀 P.S. We just doubled our off-market sourcing team.
Mike lost his business to a higher bidder at first. He only won it when the deal came back around quietly, with no competition.
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 34 new off-market deals, our biggest week ever.
Join before Q2 wraps and you'll be first in line as new deals drop.