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- Tech consultant -> $1.25M / yr HVAC Business with 6% Down
Tech consultant -> $1.25M / yr HVAC Business with 6% Down
Helen Guo
February 16, 2026
Hey - Helen here,
Before Arman bought his $5.2M business, he almost made a $150,000 mistake.
He'd been a tech consultant at companies like Accenture and American Airlines for years.
He was making great money, but he knew his role was a ‘luxury.’
The kind of job that gets cut first when budgets tighten.
So he started looking for a way out before the wave of tech layoffs came for him.
He found a program that promised to do everything. Find the business. Handle the closing. Get the financing. All for $150K.
He signed the contract. Then leadership pulled the offer and tried to renegotiate him into giving up 50% ownership of whatever he bought. He walked.
That experience led him to SMB Deal Hunter Pro, where the model was the opposite.
Not Done-for-You. Done-with-You.
1:1 M&A advisors in his corner from day one. On and off-market deal sourcing personalized to his needs. And a proven business buying process designed to cut his search in half.
But he'd be the one doing the work. And looking back, that's the part he's most grateful for:
"I learned so much doing it on my own versus having someone do it for me. And I wouldn't have it any other way. Whoever's out there, just stick with it. Do it yourself. Trust me. You learn so much more. You learn how to talk to people, learn how to talk to brokers. There's so much to learn that I would not put off."
12 months later, Arman closed on a $5.2M HVAC and weatherization company in the DC area.
But the path to close was far from clean. In the case study, we break down:
→ Exactly how we helped him structure his deal so he only had to put 6% down
→ How new SBA rules mid-deal forced him to ask sellers to extend $400K of seller financing from 2-year to 10-year standby (and the exact approach he used so they didn't walk)
→ The two unexpected hurdles Arman had to get over early on in the search that derailed it for months.
And when we asked him to give advice to those planning on buying a business in 2026, here’s what he had to say:
“It's harder than it seems. Don't expect to just find a business, close it and be done with it. It takes work. But make it easy on yourself and get some help.”
Arman leaned on our battle-tested deal team to help him…
Source his deals on and off-market (personalized exactly to his needs)
Navigate every step of the process from the first broker call til closing day (one on one)
And ultimately help him not just buy any business, but one he can grow and succeed with…
So, if you want to buy a $1M+ business in the next 6–12 months, but don’t want to spend years spinning your wheels alone, let’s talk.
Talk soon,
Helen Guo