This Week’s Business Buyer (in 10 Seconds):
Tatiana was a big law attorney in NYC who was putting in 60-hour weeks, minimum.
She was well paid and good at what she did. But she still exchanged her time for money.
She'd invested in real estate, but in New York most landlords don't even cover their mortgage with rent.
So she wanted something she could actually grow, and she could only give the search 30 minutes a day.
Then, 7 months after joining, she closed on a 35-year-old print and mail shop in Rochester.
Today it makes $867K a year, and she runs the whole thing remotely, while keeping her day job. (It’s not easy but doable)
But if you want to learn a bit more, let's dive into the story…
Hello SMB Deal Hunters!
How many of you feel like your paycheck is about as big as it's ever going to get?
There are only so many hours in the week, and you’ve hit your limit when it comes to trading your time for money.
Real estate and the stock market are the usual ways around it, and both take decades to pay off.
Buying a $1M business is a much faster alternative.
The catch is that very few people can tell a good small business from a bad one from the outside. Especially as a first time business buyer.
Tatiana couldn't either.
She reads legal documents for a living and she still had no idea what to do on the financial or deal structuring side of a business acquisition.
So she 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.
The very first listing we shared with her in our deal tracker was the one she ended up buying.
Although she wasn't the only one who spotted it.
12 buyers put offers in on that business.
Some of them had bought businesses before. Tatiana had never bought one, or even judged whether one was any good.
But she's the one who owns it today.
And we helped her do it with half the down payment she thought she needed.
Buying a business this expensive without quitting your job is rare. Most people assume you have to pick one or the other.
So this time we didn't sit down with Tatiana for another interview. My team and I broke down her entire deal into simple steps, so you can go do the same thing.
Because as Tatiana puts it, buying a business is the Wild, Wild West. There is no MLS and there are no comps.
So I show you where we look, and how we get our members there in months instead of years.
Here's why this week's alumni case study is a must watch:
→ She lost this deal before she eventually won it. I walk through the six weeks in between and what she changed.
→ The retiring owner financed most of the $3.1M himself, and he gets paid out of the business over the next ten years. I break down why he offered that.
→ She let ChatGPT pick the number for her first offer. I show you what it missed, and how our team corrected her offer.
→ The business is 300 miles from her desk in Manhattan. I walk through her actual day, and why she says owning it made her enjoy her legal career more.
How She Bought a $3.1M Business WITHOUT Quitting Her Job
And when we asked what she valued most about the program...
"If you are someone who is saying, I need to diversify, I'm invested in the stock market, maybe I'm invested in real estate, and now I wanna try this... I really don't know how one would do it without you and your program.”
Tatiana leaned on our battle-tested deal team to help her...
Get a read on the listing from an advisor who owned the same kind of business
Get introduced to vetted SBA lenders
Verify the seller's numbers were real before she signed
Map out her first 30 and 90 days after closing
Talk soon,
Helen
👀 Tatiana's deal is not a one-off.
Our members closed 4 deals and put another 19 under LOI in July, and the month isn't even over.
None of them decided last week. They made the call months ago, sitting right where you are now, reading an email a lot like this one.
On average, our members go from joining to closing in about 8 months, versus 23 for buyers going at it alone.
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 the name in this email by early next year.