“As an acquisition entrepreneur myself, and now as an investor, I would suggest that both in buying a business and selling a business, in the average deal, there’s probably like one to four instances in which the deal feels like it's about to fall apart. If you don’t have that closing a deal, either something’s wrong, or you’re very lucky.”
After getting his MBA, Steve Divitkos found investors to support his purchase of Microdea, a software company, with none of his own money down. Seven years in, he sold Microdea for a massive profit. Now, he uses his wealth to invest in searchers like he once was through his new firm Mineola Search Partners. DOWNLOAD PDF
“Acquisitions are very much a team sport.”
After starting his career in corporate America, Kevin McArdle founded Sureswift Capital with the goal of acquiring SaaS businesses from independent founders. After making acquisitions, Sureswift guides companies to the next stage of growth. Sureswift’s portfolio of SaaS businesses skyrocketed to eight figures in revenue before McArdle eventually sold. DOWNLOAD PDF
“I searched for over two years, evaluated hundreds of businesses, and made numerous offers before finding the right opportunity at Express Writers.”
Adam Oakley had an undergraduate degree in communications and worked in sales, business development, and leadership roles throughout his career. He eventually hoped to spend more time with family so he bought Express Writers, a content marketing business. After settling into his role as CEO, he moved his family to an island off the coast of Belize and runs his business from the beach. DOWNLOAD PDF
“[Aquiring a business] is a head start. Depending on how long the business has been around, it really mitigates the risk of starting your own business. It might not be perfect, and there might be a lot of work that you have to do, but there’s a lot less risk that it’s going to fail.”
Sarah Romer bought Bella Salon as an industry outsider. After experiencing some resistance from current employees, she made major upgrades and changes to the business. Eventually, she realized that ownership and spending her days at the salon wasn’t the right fit, so she sold, quadrupling her initial all-cash investment. DOWNLOAD PDF
“I never got out of being an operator. The investor hat is really the small part to enable what we love to do, which is help operators.”
Brent Beshore started out as an entrepreneur founding his own companies, but he eventually had the opportunity to buy a company. That opened his eyes to the number of family-owned businesses with no transition plan. He formed Permanent Equity to invest in founder-owned private companies, holding them indefinitely. He built his wealth by sticking to SMB deals. DOWNLOAD PDF
“The tricky thing about trying to build a holding company that owns a lot of small businesses is the first thing you need to do is move to Maine and buy a snowplowing business, and run that for a while, and make sure that goes well. And then maybe if you're lucky you got an opportunity to buy another one.”
Two brothers, James and Palmer Higgins along with James’ wife Trish decided to leave Wall Street to pursue investment opportunities in the small business sphere. They started out by acquiring a landscaping business in Maine, founded the holding company Chenmark, and now work to acquire other small businesses with the intention of holding them for the long term. DOWNLOAD PDF
