The Wealth Potential of Self-Funded Search
10 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Key findings from SIG's new study on self-funded search: financial outcomes, deal costs & terms,...
(Part 2) 8-Figure Exit: How to Buy, Transform & Sell in 3.5 Years
05 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How Bradley Roofner & Logan Brown transformed a tough, project-based landscaping biz into a recu...
8-Figure Exit: How to Buy, Transform & Sell in 3.5 Years
03 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How Bradley Roofner & Logan Brown transformed a tough, project-based landscaping biz into a recu...
Buying a Therapy Practice & Selling for Millions
29 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A husband & wife bought a therapy practice for $120k, almost dumped it, then grew it for 8 years...
A Cautionary Tale of Buying Too Small
27 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
JD Klein bought a print shop for $100k, thinking such a small acquisition carried little risk. The o...
State of the Pod, 2022
22 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Acquiring Minds will start publishing twice per week. Host Will Smith explains the rationale for thi...
Dream Fulfilled: Buying a $2m, 50-Year-Old Business
20 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When Fraser Voll first learned about buying businesses, he couldn't stop reading about it. That pass...
Buying a Bitcoin Mining Facility
13 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Koerner acquired a bitcoin mining facility he found on BizBuySell for $750k and now employees ...
Birth of a Holdco (with 15 Acquisitions to Date)
06 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Trevor Boehm shares how Saturn Five started as a venture studio but found buying small businesses a ...
6 Months to Buy a Business with $1m+ in EBITDA
29 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Shane Ehrsam went full-time in his search & used systematic broker outreach to buy a great busin...
Buying a Business to Escape the Middle Class
22 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jordan Novgrod sold his house, tapped his 401k, and went all-in to buy an $800k SDE business he foun...
How to Buy a $2.3m Business with $100k in Cash + Your 401k
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Burk Adams tapped his 401k to buy a business that reinvented his career, gave him back time, and cat...
How to Survive Buying a Bad Business
08 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It looked like a dream: $2m EBITDA, recurring, large market. Only after Judd Lorson bought it did he...
Buying Doggy Daycares After 10 Years in Tech
01 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Taylor Wallace was over tech. He acquired a small business and with it a renewed sense of impact (an...
Would They Do It Again? 1 Year Later with 5 Early Guests
25 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 100! To celebrate, 5 early guests come back to share how things are going at their acquisiti...
How to Buy a Seasonal Biz: Buy Another for Low Season
18 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Andrew Harbin first bought an awning business, then bought a fencing franchise to keep his crew work...
How a $40k Acquisition Led to a Franchise Empire
11 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
James Temple & his mother acquired a struggling Mathnasium franchise in 2009. Today, they do $7m...
Selling a Business for 5x a Year After Buying It
04 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sumana Sanjeeva got into ecommerce by chance. 3 years later, she's acquired 4 ecom businesses & ...
Ups and Downs of Buying Small (and Keeping a Job)
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Toni Kononova bought a ghostwriting business for $500k to experiment with buy-then-build while limit...
Reflections After 1 Year of Searching Full Time
27 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Frustrated searchers: this episode is for you. Jesse Sunquist shares 4 lessons from a year of huntin...
Not Just a Young Man's Game: Acquiring at 60
20 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When most people would be considering retirement, Anne Ristic started a new chapter of her career by...
Opening Up to Franchises to Buy a Great Business
13 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How Doug Johns overcame his reservations about being a franchisee to acquire a dream business with $...
The Appeal of Lead Gen Businesses (Especially Old Ones)
07 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A primer on lead gen businesses from Jaime Arias, who bought a 14-year-old biz that generates online...
Building an HVAC Holdco to £60m in Revenue
30 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sam Turner is 3 acquisitions into a 5-year plan to buy HVAC businesses across the UK that together c...
Rolling Up Real Estate Appraisal Firms
23 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Kevin Swenson shares his story of buying a $3m real estate appraisal firm as a platform to roll up t...
Growing an Ecommerce Acquisition 13x in 4 Months
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ramon Van Meer bought an ecommerce business doing $30k/mo. A few tweaks & months later, it was u...
Flower Power: Buying a Rose Distributor Primed for Growth
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jason Cline left corporate at age 50 to buy a flower distribution business (in cash). SDE is up 3x a...
A Brutal Search Rewarded with Success After 3+ Years
02 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jordan Carter started as a part-time, generalist searcher. 3+ years later, he bought a biz doing $2....
Buy a SaaS Business in 2022: How to Compete in a Hot Market
26 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A deep-dive into the market for SaaS businesses with Thomas Smale, founder of leading SaaS brokerage...
Leaving Apple to Buy a Real Estate Business with 150+ Agents
19 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Kinza Azmat arrived in the US at age 6, speaking little English. Today she's the new owner of a thri...
7 Findings from the New Data on Self-Funded Searches
15 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lisa Forrest shares key findings from a survey of 49 entrepreneurs who bought a business after a sel...
Why Chenmark Bought a Boat Tour Business
12 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Seasonal. Nonrecurring. Key person risk. Trish Higgins recounts how Chenmark got excited about an un...
The Weird & Wonderful World of Vending
06 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ujwal Velagapudi acquired a multimillion dollar vending empire with thousands of machines & 7 fi...
Don't Be Tempted: 8 Signs of a Bad Business
28 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A lender and a searcher explain how to quickly identify a business you should NOT buy, saving you mo...
How to Acquire & Grow an FBA Business
21 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Alex Michael bought a wallet brand doing $650k on Amazon. Alex delves into how FBA works & what ...
Good News for Ecommerce Buyers
20 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Multiples for ecom businesses jumped 50% since 2018, but Quiet Light's Joe Valley says that trend is...
Search Success in a Small City: $500k SDE, 95% Recurring
14 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How James Maxwell & his partner found a 22-year-old janitorial biz & successfully installed ...
How to Get Good Deals from Brokers
07 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Business broker Clint Fiore explains how to most effectively work with brokers to find good business...
What Searchers Can Learn from Big PE
02 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Alex Mears draws on years of experience at Carlyle & Blackstone to support and invest in searche...
How to Buy a Big Business with a Buy-Side Advisor
01 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jason Andrews paid $250k to a buy-side advisor to help find & acquire his first business — and...
7 Common Mistakes Across 250 Searchers
23 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Chelsea Wood has worked with 250+ business buyers & identifies 7 challenges that commonly interf...
Acquiring a Business in Florida, Living in California
16 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How Chris Munn runs his first acquisition, a $800k cleaning business in Tampa, while being based in ...
Why Buy a Small Manufacturing Business
09 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ex-cop John Hubbard bought a $5m trailer manufacturing biz from an absentee owner & expects to g...
Buying Digital Businesses in 2022
02 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Digital business buyer Dom Wells shares where he looks for opportunities today in the shifting sands...
Lessons from a Founder Who Then Started Acquiring
25 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mike Loftus started his landscaping business from scratch, then began buying others to accelerate gr...
Self-Funded Search vs. Traditional Search Funds
18 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lively debate between Greg Geronemus & Robert Graham about the 2 most common models searchers us...
8 Figure Exit, 2 Years After Buying the Business
11 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How Keith Leimbach paid 6 figures for a business he saw on QuietLight, then exited for 8 figures two...
2 Common Risks in Search & How to Mitigate Them
07 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Due diligence expert Elliott Holland looks at industry & owner/seller risk, and exactly what you...
How to Buy a $4m HVAC Business (at Age 24)
04 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After big success with affiliate marketing online, @Gundwolf sought to acquire & build a more du...
What to Love About HVAC Acquisitions
28 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Nathan Lenahan acquired an HVAC company with ~$1.2m in revenue for $400k. He's aiming to double sale...
How & When to Make Changes at Your Acquisition
24 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This is the rebroadcast of a panel that Acquiring Minds recently moderated at the annual ETA Summit ...
Shut Out by Industry Brokers, an Entrepreneur Finds a Way
21 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Having witnessed the power of clean books, Patrick Dichter was driven to buy a $1.2m bookkeeping &am...
How to Buy a Business Using Tactics from B2B Tech Sales
14 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
George Vallone unpacks how he used cold outreach to find an off-market cleaning biz doing $1m and bu...
Transatlantic Search for a $1m+ EBITDA Business
07 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Before embarking on his search, Alex Glasner interviewed 50 searchers & uncovered 2 key attitude...
Buying a 20-Year-Old Online Business
03 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Looking to buy a part-time online biz as he neared retirement, Dave Bramlett found it in a resume se...
6 Months in the Truck: Buying an Ice Delivery Biz
28 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Brandon Adams bought a $850k EBITDA ice delivery company only to discover he'd be doing deliveries h...
Nailing the Trifecta: B2B + Remote + Scalable
22 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Damon Chlarson had 3 key criteria, and he found them in an insulation supplier doing $380k EBITDA an...
Overcoming a Career Rut by Buying a Business
14 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Frustrated after losing 3 jobs, Bruce Vann used savings to acquire a 25-employee, 7-figure curtain m...
Building a Blue Collar Empire
07 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After seeing 9-figure businesses built through acquisition, Adrian Pinto bought a landscaping biz to...
7 Years Later: Leaving Wall Street to Buy Small Businesses
31 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The 3 founders of Chenmark left promising corporate careers to pursue a multi-decade path of acquiri...
How to Build a Holdco (4 Acquisitions So Far)
24 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
With 4 acquisitions since starting in 2018, Justin Turner explains how his team is building a perman...
Buying a Business & Having a Blast
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
@Fundof1 was searching for a business in a tight geography, and found a great fit in a $760k applian...
Buying a Manufacturer with 1 Good Employee & 2000 SKUs
13 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Knowing zero about manufacturing, Josh Paulson found purpose when he bought a small & struggling...
The Key to a Profitable Liquor Store
10 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Devin Wanzor went from a corporate gig with 50 employees to buying a $3M liquor store and playing go...
It's All Your Fault: How to Become CEO of Your Acquisition
03 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mike Curry bought a business only to struggle for years as its new CEO. He shares the lessons that u...
A Cautionary Tale of Buying Too Small
20 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
JD Klein bought a print shop for $100k, thinking such a small acquisition carried little risk. The o...
Choosing Laundromats over Real Estate
16 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Geoff Oliver bought 2 laundromats in rural Texas. He shares his numbers & what to consider when ...
5 Takeaways from Harvard's ETA Conference
13 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Harvard's acquisition entrepreneurship conference took place last week. Organizer Michael Ledecky sh...
Lessons from 14 Years in Search
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Having searched, acquired, and exited a business himself starting back in 2007, today Mark Sinatra i...
What to Acquire: 3 Hot Sectors for Business Buyers
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Casey Clark talks hot industries, identifying growth potential in a business for sale, and avoiding ...
Buying the Family Business & Growing 4x During COVID
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Resisting at first, Mark Litton eventually realized that buying the family biz was the perfect path ...
How to Hire an Attorney for Your Acquisition
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Learn how to find a lawyer for your deal, how much you'll spend, what to look for, and how to avoid ...
Buying a Therapy Practice & Selling for Millions
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A husband & wife bought a therapy practice for $120k, almost dumped it, then grew it for 8 years...
The Argument for Self-Funded Search
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jordan Carter & Robert Graham argue for self-funded search over traditional search funds or the ...
How to Buy a Salon as an Industry Outsider (and Survive)
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah Romer bought a large but tired hair salon in Austin for $80k. Her first year as owner was the ...
Starter Acquisition: Buying a $25k Business
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Neil Granberry bought a bubble ball business to prove himself as an entrepreneur while pursuing an M...
Stay Open to the Many Flavors of Search
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Thanks to changing his search from traditional to self-funded, Chris Williams bought a $1m EBITDA bo...
From Search Misery to Successful CEO
28 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Divitkos shares tips from his acquisition, from the solitude of search to the delicate balance...
Buying a 45 Year Old Software Business
25 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A podcast exposed Jason Budd to buying businesses. After 10 years in corporate, he'd found his path ...
How to Buy Landscaping Businesses
21 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Closing on his 2nd acquisition in 10 months, Mike Botkin just became Central Florida's largest lands...
Anatomy of a Search: 40 Interns, 25 Months, 20 Offers
17 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jessica Markowitz used a traditional search fund to search for & ultimately buy a great business...
How to Choose Your Lender When Buying a Business
14 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There are many lenders out there eager to finance your acquisition. SBA loan expert Lisa Forrest exp...
The Poetry of Buying a Blue Collar Business
11 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Shannon Jones explains how acquisition entrepreneurs should navigate the realities of buying a blue ...
What You Don’t Understand About Buying a Small Business
07 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Due diligence expert Elliott Holland shares the top things he wishes he’d known when he first star...
6 Ways Buying a Business Has Changed Since 2016
04 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nick Haschka shares what's changed in the market since acquiring his first small business in 2016. (...
How to Buy a Medical Billing Business
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Less than a year after acquiring a $1m medical billing business, Curt Neider is already looking for ...
Investing Like an 1880s Businessman
24 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Key lessons for acquisition entrepreneurs from Andrew Finn, who has grown a service business & a...
Using Investors to Buy a Business with SBA
21 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Don't have the 10-20% cash to buy a business with SBA? Search investor Steve Ressler explains how to...
Growing a Flippa Business to $2 Million
14 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sales had dropped to zero when Martin Bispels acquired Upper Park Disc Golf. A year later, they are ...
How to Build a Portfolio of Micro SaaS Businesses
09 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Hard-won lessons about buying micro SaaS businesses from Andrew Pierno, who has acquired 3 and plans...
Making a Career of Buying Businesses
06 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Pete Seligman stepped off a comfortable corporate path to buy a small business in 2013. He's since a...
Buying a $1m Coffee Biz After Years of Starting from Scratch
02 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After years of struggling to launch products from scratch, Casey Allen pivoted to buy a $1.7m coffee...
Top 3 Pitfalls When Buying an Online Business
30 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Due diligence pro Ahmed Raza on the 3 key things to evaluate when buying a business in e-commerce, S...
Why Plumbing Companies Make Awesome Acquisitions
26 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Charles Barr just acquired DiMartino Plumbing. He considered HVAC & electrical as well but plumb...
Buying an Online Side Hustle (for Less than $5k)
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Vivian Chen bought an abandoned online business for almost nothing, then grew it to $5k/mo — while...
How to Survive Acquiring a $3.5m Flooring Business
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Edwards' first 6 months as new owner has been a “bloody knife fight.” But things are looki...
Acquiring an $8m Distressed E-Commerce Biz
16 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Brute Force thrived during COVID, but 2021 hit hard. Sales plunged 60% in one month. Mike Brown boug...
Buying a $1.2m Fencing Business & Earning Trust Quickly
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Cassi Niekamp didn't know anything about fencing when she acquired Bowden Fence. But she turned this...
Making $100k/mo by Buying Websites
10 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mike Gardon bought websites to be his own boss. His best acquisition does $100k/mo — and he bought...
Buy an E-Commerce Business: Tips from an Aggregator
05 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
5 tactics to boost sales of acquired e-commerce businesses — and other insights from e-commerce ag...