This Week’s Breakdown (in 10 Seconds):
Scott spent years running other peoples’ companies, a trade association, then a software division doing tens of millions a year.
Until his employer didn't pay him a commission he had earned (worth tens of thousands of dollars).
And that's when it hit him, he had no say in what he took home.
He had built from scratch before, a drunk voicemail site, a TV show on Amazon, but those took years of his life.
So he kept both jobs, and searched from his office at a coworking space until 1am every single night, for a solid year.
Eventually, he landed on a decades-old HVAC and commercial kitchen repair company in St. Louis.
Then the hard part started. The first year nearly destroyed him, and he had no investors to fall back on.
He rebuilt the whole crew and went 12 months unpaid, to then still hit 16% margins, up from single digits.
Today, his crew has doubled and he has an LOI out on a second business.
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 have a business you're going to buy, right after this "next thing" settles down?
Scott told himself that for 7 years.
In 2017, he took a two year sabbatical, and wrote down a list of 50 types of businesses he’d love to own.
He reached out to a broker and signed an NDA.
Then he got sidetracked by what he calls the “shiny object,” tech companies promising riches, and he took a job building out a startup's sales operation.
And the list sat untouched for a long time.
Then one afternoon in April of 2024, his employer didn't pay him for a deal he had already closed.
That night he told his wife they were accelerating the timeline.
"I can't work for anyone ever again. I have to be in control of my own destiny."
So he started looking, and he was picky in a way most searchers are not.
He wanted small.
His target was a business paying its owner $250k to $500k a year, because he figured going that low meant less competition and a better multiple.
And he had already done the math on what he could survive if it all went wrong.
A million dollar loan was something he could pay back out of a future paycheck.
$5 million would have ended him.
He made offers on an accounting firm and a catering company.
Then he ended up under LOI on two repair companies at once, in different markets, and figured he would just roll them into one.
The deal that he ended up closing came from the same broker who still had his 2017 NDA sitting in a file.
It was a company that repairs refrigeration, HVAC and commercial kitchen equipment, sitting 8 minutes from his front door.
The ugly part started two weeks after closing, when one of his own technicians stopped showing up and Scott needed a police escort to recover a company truck.
Pretty much everything people warn you about with buying small happened to him that year, and he says none of it scared him.
A year in, he has never been more fulfilled professionally. Not even close.
But two mistakes did cost him that first year, and he brings up both of them on the podcast.
Member Spotlight
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. 2 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 3 days before close
→ Skip months of trial-and-error with Bill, an acquisition strategist 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:
“We're in a new era with Claude and ChatGPT. I've used that quite a bit. But I've definitely caught it hallucinating more than once. It's really good to have someone on the other line that not only is a human, but someone who has experience.”
So, if you want us 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. Scott spent 7 years planning to buy a business, and only 1 year actually doing it. The thing is, he did that whole year on his own, so when he got something wrong, there was nobody there to catch it. And one of those things still costs him money every single month.
👀 Heads up: our members don't do it alone. We're not even halfway into August, and 4 Pro members have already closed deals with another 17 under LOI.
Deal activity always picks up as summer ends and everyone's back at their desk. At this pace, August is tracking to be one of our best months inside Pro.
So if you want to work with us to find, finance, and acquire a million-dollar cash flowing business in the next 6-12 months, start now and you could be under contract before Thanksgiving.
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
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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.