This Week’s Breakdown (in 10 Seconds):
Clem spent his whole career climbing an engineering ladder he never actually enjoyed.
So instead of chasing the next title, he joined SMB Deal Hunter Pro to go buy a business.
Our team brought him an off-market automotive marketing agency doing $1.5M a year, and he closed it with just 5% down. (10% is usually the minimum, and getting in with 5% down is much harder under the new SBA rules.)
Then the first year tested him.
Revenue dipped in the opening months, and he had to adapt.
He had it back on track within 3-4 months but learned quite a few lessons along the way.
From there, he rebuilt the agency leaner on purpose, and the margins climbed from 20% to 70%.
Today it runs on about 3 hours of his week under a general manager he hired, and it's funding the second business he's building on top of 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!
You've probably dreamed of buying a business that runs completely without you.
A hands-off, passive business is the goal for a lot of people.
But that version is almost never the reality.
What's far more realistic is finding one that already works well enough that it doesn't need your full-time attention.
That is exactly what Clem did.
We helped Clem buy a marketing agency for auto repair shops that already had a full team of 11 running it, and he kept his W2 the entire time.
We sourced it for him completely off-market inside of our Pro program.
The agency had about 40 clients and a founder itching to leave and go start a tech company.
But regardless of how ‘absentee’ a business looks, the tradeoff is that you work a lot more at the start as you get a feel for the business, and Clem felt every bit of it.
As Clem settled into ownership, he realized marketing was never going to be his strong suit.
And if he wanted to work on the business instead of getting buried inside it, he would have to bring in people who could do the parts he couldn't.
So that is exactly what he did.
Over his first year of ownership, Clem turned over his entire team. Not all at once but as the business required it at each phase of its transformation.
→ He brought in a new GM with agency experience
→ Specialists in each of their marketing verticals to manage clients
→ And even brought in a go-to-market consultant to help him plan out his restructure.
With the right people in the right seats, the agency stopped depending on him, and his time on it dropped to just a few hours a week.
With that time back, he took on the venture he’s most excited about: he’s just gotten started on building a customer data engineering agency.
Member Spotlight
How She Runs a $450K/yr Business on 20hrs/Week (Without Quitting Her Job)
For those who missed it, we also did an SMB Deal Hunter Pro alumni interview breaking down how Bailey bought a $925K landscape architecture firm making $450K/yr.
Bailey is a software engineer in LA who has built things her whole life, from flipping houses to reselling designer bags in college.
But none of her side hustles ever made enough to replace her tech salary, and with a family on the horizon, she didn't want her stability riding on whether Big Tech kept her employed.
What she needed was someone in her corner who had done this before.
So she joined the Pro program, and we helped her find a landscape architecture firm in Southern California that has been running since 1971.
She closed the deal in about 6 months.
The result?
→ We helped her realize the profit was closer to $450K than the $350K the seller advertised, so she bought at just over 2x profit
→ Another buyer had an LOI on the table, and the offer our team helped her structure is what won the seller over, not a higher price
→ She runs the whole thing in about 20 hours a week, and she still hasn't quit her day job
And here's what she had to say:
“You seemed like a real person and not overly salesy … The Slack community was really nice … having the community and the advisors gave me enough confidence to confirm to myself that … I'm on track.”
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.
👀 August was supposed to be a “slow month,” but 35 Pro members went under contract on more than $46M of businesses, and 10 more deals closed worth over $14M.
If that's what a slow month looks like, the next one should be interesting now that sellers are back from vacation and deal flow is picking up.
The next 90 days are also the last real window before the holidays, so to get buyers off the sidelines, we're adding a one-time end-of-quarter bonus for anyone who joins Pro in September.
👉 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
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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.