This Week’s Breakdown (in 10 Seconds):
Derrick built a career as a financial analyst inside tech, at Facebook and Williams Sonoma, then a layoff reminded him his paycheck was never really his.
He took a sales job at SMB Deal Hunter helping other people buy businesses, until he decided he wanted one of his own.
So, he decided to join the program as a member (talk about conviction).
He found a Seattle landscaping company with an owner who had run it for about 30 years, with clients who had stayed 15 and 20 years.
With our help, he won the deal back after losing it once, and closed on terms he never expected to take.
Today, 15 months in, he runs the business with half the crews the old owner needed, six fewer trucks and the net margin is up 50%.
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!
Imagine you’ve spent years building a career in tech, and lately you have started wondering if the safer bet is owning something an AI model cannot delete.
The usual move is to re-skill, stack another certificate, and hope you stay a step ahead of it.
Derrick did something else.
He spent his career as a financial analyst inside tech, picking apart other companies' books at names like Facebook and Williams Sonoma.
Until he got laid off, and a job he thought was safe suddenly wasn't.
He had watched AI start creeping into the work he used to do, and he wanted to own something no algorithm could touch.
But he did not want to figure out what came next alone.
So he went through 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 to 12 months, or we work with you for free until you do.
From there, instead of guessing which jobs AI would wipe out, he flipped the question around.
He asked which industry AI would quietly make better, and after ruling out everything from car washes to print shops, he kept coming back to home services.
What he landed on was a residential landscaping company outside Seattle that still ran on pen and paper, with no real marketing and barely a trace online.
To Derrick, that was the part that sold him on the business.
A floor of recurring maintenance revenue underneath it, and everything the old owner never built sitting there waiting.
We helped him win the deal back after it had already slipped away once, and close it for $1.1M.
Then the real work began, and his first six months were definitely not easy.
In this week's alumni interview, we break down how he transformed the business:
→ How did an ex-Facebook financial analyst lose a $1.1M deal to another buyer, and then get it back a month later?
→ How do you cut a landscaping company from twelve crews to six and make more money than the guy who ran twelve?
→ How does someone who never worked a day in the trades transform a company still running on pen and paper?
→ How did he increase net margin by 50% in year one, while losing some of his biggest accounts?
Member Spotlight
For those who missed it, we also did an SMB Deal Hunter Pro alumni interview breaking down how Chelsea bought a $3M pet food business making $500K/yr.
Chelsea is a former Boeing and Amazon employee who spent 12 years in supplier management and finance.
She knew she wanted to buy a business. She also knew that finding the right one on her own could take years.
So she joined the Pro program, and our team brought her the business she would eventually own, completely off-market.
But she originally lost it because the seller's son decided he might want to own the business himself.
9 months later, she came back with a Hail Mary offer and won.
The result?
→ We helped structure the Hail Mary offer so she paid $400K less than the seller wanted up front
→ Just before her now-or-never offer, Chelsea was about to give up and take a full-time job to pay the bills
→ Her store managers run the day-to-day while she focuses on growing the business
She spent 12 years building someone else's company. Now she owns one that's actually hers.
And here's what she had to say:
“I go home crying happy tears, and I've never cried happy tears in my life.”
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.
👀 Heads up: We're only halfway through September, and 5 Pro members have already closed deals this month, with another 15 under LOI.
For each of them, we help source both on and off market opportunities, and work 1-on-1 to catch red flags and structure a winning offer.
From there, we help them get through due diligence, secure financing, and prepare for the transition.
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 this month.
👉 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.