This Week’s Business Buyer (in 10 Seconds):
For 30 years, Ramsey grew other people's companies, one of them from $100M to $700M.
He did well. But he never owned any of it and business ownership had been a dream since college.
So instead of building from scratch he went looking to buy something already cash flowing, and originally joined a program that never delivered.
But Ramsey was committed and ended up joining us inside SMB Deal Hunter Pro after.
2 months in, he found a group of two smoke and vape shops in Northern Virginia. He got under LOI, but it was a category two SBA lenders refused because of regulation fears.
We helped him work around the SBA challenges and close in 6 months, start to finish.
Today, he runs that $890k-a-year business with a manager of 10 years handling the day-to-day, while he lives in Michigan.
But if you want to learn a bit more, let's dive into the story…
Hello SMB Deal Hunters!
Do you feel like you’re pretty senior in your company and still have no control over where it’s going?
Your ownership is restructuring for the third time or ‘pivoting’ and no one asked you?
Ramsey knows that exact feeling.
He spent 30 years growing other peoples' companies, all the way up to becoming President, including 9 years in China taking a business from $100M to $700M.
But he never got to decide what happened to any of it.
He'd turn a company around and somebody above him would set a new target, or pivot the strategy, or restructure the whole thing.
He'd wanted his own business since college, and after 30 years of it, he was done waiting.
But what he needed was someone in his corner who had done this before.
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.
Today, he owns a group of two smoke and vape shops in Northern Virginia.
The business brings in around $890K a year in profit.
He flies in from Michigan two weeks a month, a manager of 10 years handles the day-to-day, and both locations are grandfathered in so nobody can open nearby.
So how does that actually work?
How does a 30-year manufacturing executive who doesn't smoke end up owning two smoke shops?
And how did he close in 6 months after two SBA lenders refused the whole category?
And where did we step in?
We helped him price his deal off three years of numbers instead of the seller's best year, replace the financing after two banks passed, and get him to the closing table in about 6 months.
Here's why this week's alumni case study is a must watch:
→ He decided to not do a Quality of Earnings because he had a finance background but later regretted it. We explain why.
→ The seller offered to finance 100% of the deal himself. Ramsey said no, and we break down what led to that decision.
→ The seller financed all $800k of inventory at 5%, with no penalty for paying it off early. We walk through how that came together.
→ He shopped his own store as a customer before he closed, just to watch the manager work. We get into what he was looking for.
→ He gives his manager a bonus funded by the travel money he saves by not flying out every week. We share how he structured it.
How This Business Model Makes Him $890k/yr (Remotely)
And when we asked what he valued most about the program...
"That was a lifesaver… especially the AI tool, pulling everything together and having it in one space. Before that, if you're trying to search different websites… that was a game changer for me.”
Ramsey leaned on our battle-tested deal team to help him...
Put every listing in one place instead of him hunting across a dozen websites
Move fast on the deals worth moving on, with a same-day read.
Turn the buy box he wrote into matching deals in his inbox every day
Stay on it until he closed, six months after he joined
Talk soon,
Helen Guo
👀 Ramsey closed in June.
Our members closed 7 more in July, and put another 21 under LOI.
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. Ramsey did it in 6.
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.