This Week’s Business Buyer (in 10 Seconds):
Michael was the in-house accountant at an IT managed services company that grew 5x in 3 years.
Watching that 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, and 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.
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!
Would you have a plan if you lost your job next month?
Most people don't, until they get laid off and have to burn through their savings.
But Michael had an idea he'd been sitting on for years.
It started when he was the in-house accountant at an IT managed services company that grew 5x in 3 years, without a dollar of outside money.
That's when it clicked for him: "You can create so much wealth if you grab a small business and grow it a little bit."
He spent the next few jobs hoping his bosses would buy one. In his words, "that never really happened."
So when he lost his job, he decided to go for it right then, and gave himself a year.
He knew from his own research that finding deals would be the hardest, most time-consuming part.
What he needed was someone in his corner who could not only guide him through the whole business buying process, but also source deals for him.
So 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.
Like a lot of first-time buyers, he started with what he knew: accounting firms and IT services companies.
But those deals were crowded. Brokers, and even the top-tier banks, told him to go down market.
Just 2 months in, we brought him an off-market deal, with no broker in the middle: a marketing agency that services law firms.
Many marketing agencies chase e-commerce or SaaS clients, so one built around law firms stood out.
It was never on his list, until he saw the numbers.
The revenue looked a lot like the IT managed services company he used to work at: recurring and sticky.
The clients stayed for over 3 years on average, and the books matched the tax returns to the penny.
He ended up buying it for $1.6M, or 4x its $400K a year in profit, with only about $70K of his own cash. That’s ~5% down.
And the sellers agreed to finance 25% of the price themselves.
That's a quarter of the deal he didn't need from a bank or his own savings.
(He closed under the SBA rules in place before June 2025. Getting in with that little down is much harder today.)
He runs it alongside his general manager, Alex.
And when a big client's website was going to be 2 weeks late, Michael, the accountant, finished the last pages in 2 DAYS using Claude Code.
Now his whole team builds that way, and it's paying off.
With new AI workflows, he’s grown his operating profit by about 35% to 40% since January, even after losing 2 big clients in his first year.
So how does that actually work?
→ How does an accountant with no marketing agency experience buy one?
→ How did AI change what his law firm clients actually get from him? (In his words, everything they need now "happens faster at higher quality," and they've noticed)
→ And what did he borrow from the IT managed services company that grew 5x to start picking up the clients bigger agencies pass on? (He's already seeing early traction)
👉 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%
Click below and watch me walk through his journey step by step 👇
And here's why Michael picked SMB Deal Hunter Pro...
"I could understand through my own research that probably the hardest, most time consuming part would be sourcing deals … since y'all were building that engine to do that for us … it was kind of a no brainer to go with you all."
Michael leaned on our battle-tested deal team to help him...
Get off-market deals with no broker in the middle, including the agency he bought just 2 months after joining
Get fast and detailed answers on Slack and 1:1 calls every time the deal hit a hiccup
Get a lender to approve a deal with only about $70K of his own cash down
So if you want to buy a $1M+ business in 6-12 months, even in an industry you've never worked in, let's talk.
Talk soon,
Helen
👀 Quick update: 9 Pro members closed deals in September, and another 25 are under LOI heading into Q4.
None of them decided last week. They 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.