New Deals - 12 Sept 2023

Sign Up | Advertise | Mastermind | Sell Your Business

Hello SMB Deal Hunters!

I’m excited to share 5 new deals worth checking out.

Before we continue, several of you have been asking for 1-on-1 coaching with me, so I’ve opened three 1-hour slots for the remainder of the month.

Today’s issue is sponsored by Motion, the ad creative reporting hub that gives you visibility into creative performance and holds your team accountable to grow your bottom line.

1/ Art Manufacturing Business for Urgent Sale

📍 Location: Vaughan, ON (Relocatable)
💰 Asking Price: $900,000
💼 Cash Flow: $500,000
📊 Revenue: $2,000,000
📅 Established: 1999

💭 My 2 Cents: The silver tsunami is here! This is a 30-year-old profitable manufacturer of wall art, selling on Amazon, Bed Bath and Beyond/Overstock, and Wayfair. The owner is retiring at the end of December and is willing to accept the best cash offer for his business. The business comes with existing staff but will require a new space as the seller is selling his existing real estate. This could be a great opportunity for a manufacturing business with available capacity or for someone who wants to expand the business into DTC.

Click Here To View The Listing »

2/ Professionally Run and Highly Profitable Culinary School

📍 Location: Duval County, FL
💰 Asking Price: $1,350,000
💼 Cash Flow: $520,200
📊 Revenue: $1,292,381
📅 Established: 2018

💭 My 2 Cents: This business runs fun culinary classes for families, couples, girls’ night outs, special occasions, team building, etc. Interestingly, they also offer classes paid for by healthcare organizations to teach their patients how to cook for themselves and their unique dietary needs. The business has a team of chefs and support personnel, and I like that the current owner acts as a GM and does not teach any classes. The margins on this business are impressive and I think there’s an interesting opportunity to expand the same model into other geographies (maybe even similar to the “Paint and Sip” franchise model).

Click Here To View The Listing »

3/ CPA Practice for Sale

📍 Location: East Texas
💰 Asking Price: $990,000
💼 Cash Flow: $683,640
📊 Revenue: $840,000
📅 Established: N/A

💭 My 2 Cents: A couple of good reasons to buy a CPA practice: Good margins, incredible multiples, and it’s an essential service. This business offers tax preparation, tax planning, and consulting services. Its clients are primarily businesses, business owners, and high-net-worth individuals. I like that there are experienced staff in place and that the owners are willing to stay on for an extended transition. I’d want to understand how long clients have stayed with them, how much of the revenue is recurring, and what the average client spends per year.

Click Here To View The Listing »

4/ Amazon FBA Original Household Products

📍 Location: California (Remote)
💰 Asking Price: $3,500,000
💼 Cash Flow: $834,569
📊 Revenue: $2,271,412
📅 Established: 2017

💭 My 2 Cents: This FBA business created the niche for the products they sell. They carry 26 SKUs with more in the pipeline. The business works with 2 independent contractors and a small team of freelancers. They drive traffic through 6 different brands/websites that funnel traffic into Amazon, which is interesting since Amazon's algorithm heavily favors external traffic. I’d want to dig into the repurchase rates, how many subscriptions they have on Amazon, how much they spend on ads on/off Amazon, and ad performance. I’d also want to understand the product differentiation and product development process and pipeline.

Click Here To View The Listing »

5/ Design Agency with 100% Retainer Enterprise Clientele

📍 Location: Remote
💰 Asking Price: AUD $2,000,000
💼 Cash Flow: $664,390
📊 Revenue: $1,034,202
📅 Established: 2013

💭 My 2 Cents: This business offers on-demand creative support for a flat monthly fee ranging from $2,000-$7,000 per month. They have some impressive blue chip clients like PepsiCo, Hilton, and Black and Decker. I’ve seen this design subscription business model become popularized over the past couple of years and really like it because it solves a real problem for companies: Agencies can be very expensive, and freelancers can be unreliable. I'd want to understand what client retention looks like (LTV, monthly churn, and how long the average client has worked with them). I'd also want to understand what their team of designers looks like.

Click Here To View The Listing »

🐦 The Best of SMB Twitter (X)

How to finance a purchase (link)

Role of working capital and how to avoid key pitfalls while buying a business (link)

Learnings from closing a SBA loan (link)

Who gets the cash at closing? (link)

How to use VAs for your home service business to get 10x ROI in the first month (link)

Companies that do well during a recession (link)

Importance of optimizing the working capital cycle (link)

How to use PPP loan data to find a cash-flowing business to acquire (link)

Use "sentence stems" to nail the demo of your product/service (link)

Tip for hiring remote talent (link)

🧠 Join the SMB Deal Hunter Mastermind

If you want to be part of an active community for serious acquisition entrepreneurs and investors, apply here.

We share insights, ask questions, and collaborate in bi-weekly Zoom calls and a Slack channel.

Spots are limited and will be released on a first-come, first-served basis to qualified applicants.

Apply Now

See you on Thursday!

-Helen Guo
Find Me On Twitter 
Find Me On LinkedIn

P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are a few ways for us to work together:

1. Invest with me in cash-flowing SMB deals. I’m bringing on a select few investors from this community into businesses I’m buying and operating. Reply “LP” and I’ll share more.

2. Join the SMB Deal Hunters Mastermind, a community for serious acquisition entrepreneurs and investors where we share insights, ask questions, and collaborate in bi-weekly calls and a Slack channel. Want in? Apply here.

3. Interested in selling your business? Get an offer from me.

4. Know someone ready to sell their business? Scout a deal for me and I'll make it worth your while! I pay finders fees of $25,000 to $200,000+, all you have to do is make the introduction.

5. Want to pick my brain? Sign up for a 1-on-1 coaching call. These are 1-hour calls where you can ask me anything.

🤝 Advertise in SMB Deal Hunter

Want to promote your business to my community of 9,500+ entrepreneurs and investors? Reply “advertise” and I’ll share my media kit.

📚 What I’m Reading

Everyone always asks how I stay up-to-date, so here are a few of my favorite newsletters. Click on the below links to sign up too (all free):

• The Sweaty Startup — “Boring business” entrepreneur Nick Huber who sold his 7-figure service business and now runs a self-storage portfolio shares actionable insights with entrepreneurs and investors.

• Houck's Newsletter — Tactical advice every week from an a16z-backed founder on how to build, grow, and raise capital for your startup.

• Side Hustle Central — How to find cash-cow side gigs that are low risk, make big $$, and can even nuke your tax bill.

• SMB Scoop — Learn to find, buy, operate, and invest in profitable & cash flowing companies

• Tip News — Quick and unbiased news highlights on the most need-to-know issues. No clickbait, no agenda, no bias – just the facts in a five-minute read!

⏪ Catch Up On Recent SMB Deal Hunter Issues

• September 7, 2023

• September 5, 2023

• August 31, 2023

📨 Share SMB Deal Hunter

If you refer 1 friend or colleague to my newsletter, I’ll also send you The Comprehensive Seller Interview Question Bank I’ve put together for free ($99 value). In it, I’ve compiled 50+ questions business buyers should ask during seller interview calls when evaluating a business.

Or copy and paste this link to others: https://www.smbdealhunter.xyz/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER