Hey
@united
in what world is it ok to assign my 1.5 year old a seat 4 rows up by himself?
Also, real cool to just oversell flights and leave 3 of the 5 of my group hanging…
If there a a finite amount of seats on a plane, how do you just book more than that number?
Figure it
@SteveWiesnerSMB
@united
Sorting out is in progress. Will see what happens.
You would think when we book and put their ages, they wouldn’t do this in the first place.
Now I get to deal with it while mom and grandma freak out
Closed and funded. Officially the owner of an SMB Moving and Storage Business in San Antonio, TX!
On an unrelated note, we acquired 2.5 acres of land in the sale. Who has a good tomato distributor. I’m ready to retire on that passive income.
The golden ticket for aspiring SMB owners:
1. Find high margin service business
2. SBA 7A with little to no money down
3. Hire operator
4. Sit on the Beach and sip margaritas
Just a couple issues there...
Sometimes I drive the ridiculously nice neighborhoods on Sundays. Stop in an open house or two.
Sometimes I’ll sneak in a gander at vacation homes in the mountains.
Really fires me up for the following week.
The tweet that started it all.
Saved it, revisited it daily.
Bought my first company 1 year after this tweet went out, almost to the day.
Great playbook for first timers.
@redbirdracing
@FracSlap
@MmmmDatFunk
I would love to sell him our portfolio and then buy it back from him in a year or so when it gets to fire sale stage of his scheme
Cannot stress the importance of adequate working capital from day 1.
We didn’t secure enough and it has greatly slowed our momentum at times.
Get what you need. End of story.
Buy it.
Build private landing strip and hangars.
Remodel cabins and build a few more high end cottages.
Sell memberships to the resort. Becomes a high end, members only winter and summer retreat with private plane access and amenities.
Ok, who’s in?
Want to buy a ski resort? Well now you can: for only $8,500,000!
Powder King is a Canadian ski mountain in BC with 900 acres of skiable terrain, 37 runs, three lifts. It even has a lake resort as a bonus
Too bad there’s no SBA loans in Canada… 😉
At some point in the last 7 days we exceeded the previous owners last full annual revenue.
Still have over 2 months to go in our first full 12 months. Tracking at about 25% revenue growth.
Not our full potential but a good clip and continuing to rise.
@ClintFiore
The narrative is everyone wants to own an SMB, grow it to be a CEO and then ride out into the sunset.
Reality is that there are TONs of SMB owners that love their job and don’t want to replace themselves in it. They are the face and happy that way. Would get bored otherwise
Deals sometimes die. It’s part of it. But man, it stings when you put so much into it and it doesn’t work out.
2 deals dead in 2 days. Rough…
Time to reset and figure out where we go from here.
Its been a bit since I have posted so here we go.
About 11 months ago, we bought a moving and storage business in San Antonio. This has been a solid business to be in and we have tripled EE count and essentially doubled revenue.
Today would have been my dad’s 67th birthday.
I think about him a lot. Especially when I’m having a tough day.
I don’t get to call him for advice anymore or to shoot the shit.
He passed 4 years ago after a 7 year battle with Alzheimer’s.
He was diagnosed when I was 23 and it
All this talk about a PG.
My take: If I am confident in the deal enough to sign LOI, go through DD and see myself on the biz? Last thing on my mind is a PG.
Be fully convicted in the deal or don’t do it.
If you can’t stomach a PG, you may be in the wrong game.
SHOUT OUT:
@SMB_Attorney
is just an all around good dude.
Took time out of his day to chat with a close friend transitioning from military life, years as a SEAL, 2nd year in law school and just lost on direction moving forward.
@pinpulleddrmf
I grew up in restaurants. My father had 6 over the years.
My view is restaurants, bars and vineyards are the same. Do them as a passion project once you’ve already made the money and don’t care if you lose it all.
Seller call went amazing. LOI should be sent in the next day or two.
Wild how quick this can move. Was talking with my wife and realized we could go from 0 to 4 owned businesses in 1 year.
All make sense and would be great additions to the portfolio but still crazy.
Working to be more active on here. I have seen the benefits first hand. Main concern?
Not sure what value I can bring or what people would even want to hear from me.
That said, here is a brief background to kick things off.
Need Recommendation:
We have a new location that has a old website. We are needing to revamp that site and get some marketing efforts going.
We have used Scorpion in the past and it has been just ok.
Who should I be talking to for web/marketing help?! Likely wanting 3-4
Had a new handyman service come by yesterday to give us an estimate on a door frame and hanging some doors around our new pantry.
Found them on a yard sign in the neighborhood (apparently they work!).
QR Code on the sign to check out their very nice website.
Scheduled an
Been working with
@pinpulleddrmf
regularly for almost a year now.
Feel way more in control of my day and life in general. Complete game changer.
The best thing he has done for me?
Keeps me focused and tells me I’m out of my damn mind when I stray from the path and start
New Director of Ops is crushing it.
Changes in branding and marketing are working.
In the last 9 days, we have booked 80% of our entire month of October… huge last 9 days.
9 days ago was when our CSR left and the Director of Ops and myself took over the phones.
Heard a new one yesterday.
Local business owner used to have a fair amount of whiskey at lunch... everyday
His wife got fed up with him drinking and driving home... everyday
His solution? Stop drinking at lunch? Hell No.
He bought into a towing company so he could have 1-2
Buying a business with a fleet? Get it checked out head to toe.
We are just over 2 years post purchase of our moving company and having to overhaul the entire fleet. We likely will have 1 truck remaining of the 6 trucks we bought.
Not ideal.
Started working with an accountability coach about 3 weeks ago. It’s been the most productive 3 weeks in the last year.
Tons going on and needed someone to help me stay on point. It works.
@pinpulleddrmf
is awesome and it helps he’s just an all around good dude.
Felt like I was having a
@RegZeller
fetal position moment recently.
Stress levels are through the roof.
Questioning whether I am doing the right thing or about to run the ship into a brick wall and lose everything.
Having am incredibly intelligent and supportive wife who was
LOI submitted a couple weeks ago was accepted. DD started this past week.
LOI submitted yesterday. Should hear back in a week or so.
Per conversations with
@ClintFiore
we don’t just spray and pray.
We fully intend to transact on both of these deals.
@SMB_Attorney
I believe the correct answer here is, “What is 0%”
Not sure I would be able to come up with a reason why I would leave early. Maybe building is literally on fire? But that’s about it?
1. Find high margin service business
They are out there. The main theme with them though is that they are a single owner working 26 hours a day for 20 years and no life outside work.
Do you want to do that? Great, jump right in. If not, be prepared for % to get cut drastically.
@SMB_Attorney
Staying in San Antonio.
It’s home and close to family.
Under 2hr to coast, lake, ranches, etc.. Small but growing international airport, I’d argue the best culture in Texas and city thrives on it.
So, you just closed your first deal and are the proud new owner of an SMB pumping off a little cash.
Let's run through what your first questions should be:
@WilsonCompanies
Why would you drink La Croix when Topo Chico exists in the world. Just seems silly. We keep the fridge stocked at the office of topo.
Bonus: It is amazing with tequila at the end of a BRUTAL week. At least that's what I am told...
The first 2.5 years owning my own SMB has been a doozy. Few observations and highlights.
- This shit is hard but also wouldn't trade it for the world
- 70% growth in year one
- Flat YoY in year 2 (still respectable in our industry)
- Extremely compressed margins (debt and
Day 1 in the books. What a day.
1 out of 8 movers quit right after our announcement. Already a new guy starting today to backfill. New guy is gonna be fantastic.
Feedback from key guys was best I could have hoped for.
Coming up for air from the last couple months and its been wild!
Got an Operations Director in place to do day to day. Its a game changer. I can now focus on new business and sales. This has been huge for our business.
@SaganPassport
recently helped us hire a full time marketing manager to handle Digital Marketing.
This person is an absolute rockstar. She is out of the gate and full steam ahead.
Incredibly more capable than we imagined and will conservatively save us $5k+ a month on our
Raising equity on the last two deals we had under LOI has been a MASSIVE learning curve.
My thinking is its a combo of current market and the fact I am not an IB/PE guy.
I try to tell the story and folks want data to digest.
2022 will be the year I start taking this place serious and sharing in public.
Dabbled a bit last year but more to come.
First things first. Baby
#2
on the way in 2022!!!
Time to buckle down and make 1+1=3 this year.
Onward and Upward
Here I was thinking “Did the margaritas really hit that hard that I drunk overnighted myself kettlebells…?!”
Nope… some friends send books, some send hats…
@pinpulleddrmf
sends kettlebells hahahaha
I am laughing so hard right now that I’m crying.
Meeting with the seller today went amazing. Feel like we are in the driver seat and align with what sellers want.
Would also be WAY bigger than anything we have going on.
Stepping up the swag game!
While I was only able to make it to
@SMB_ash
for a short period of time, it was an incredible experience and I’ll be adding it to the calendar for next year immediately!
As an owner operator, delegating has been the hardest thing for me. We hired a Ops guy about 3 months in because we knew he was the one to help us grow like we knew we could.
That was about 18 months ago and I am still getting yelled at when I act like a helicopter dad.
Back to Back seller calls yesterday and today.
Trying to keep my head on straight!
I am freaking pumped up for this. Proving to myself I made the right call moving to business ownership! Love it!!
Finally, know that there are many more like you and I willing to commiserate and celebrate with you. You and I are not alone.
Now, lets go crush this year!
@StrongpointRich
@WilsonCompanies
@girdley
@SullyBusiness
Closing on a local moving and storage business at the end of the month. 38 years in business. Seller is retiring. Buying the business and the land it’s on. I will operate full time and work to build out management team.
3. Hire an Operator
Easy, right? Find a rock star that cares just as much as you do, pay them an average wage to run it all.
There are great operators out there. We have found a couple. Our success has come from giving some sort of ownership or profit sharing.
Personal Post:
In 2019, my father passed away from Alzheimer’s at the early age of 63.
Rewind ~7 years prior to that date. He sat me down and told me of the diagnosis.
It was earth shattering for our family. That diagnosis is earth shattering for every family that gets it.
Entrepreneurship is damn hard.
Constant stress that can break down the mind and body. Everyone has their coping.
Mine is exercise.
Can’t beat a hard workout every morning to reset before battling the day.
Asking someone to follow you after every tweet drives me nuts.
Just throw out valuable or funny shit consistently and you should be fine.
If your shit isn’t valuable or funny, you shouldn’t be followed.
Brutal truth:
If you are on the fence about quitting your W2 and jumping into entrepreneurship, you likely aren’t meant for it or it’s not the right time.
This life if HARD. I firmly believe you have to be 100% convicted for it to work.
It will take 100% effort most days.
All this talk about remote vs office work.
I worked remote for years. Just my opinion but VAST majority of employees are not build for remote work and are vastly unproductive given the opportunity.
Not all but just from what I’ve seen and experienced.
Just a tough year so far.
Tough market
Tough internal business issues
First year with kids out of school during the summer
Lot's of talk on here about peer groups and finding your tribe. This has been crucial for my sanity this year.
Tomorrow is a special day.
Tomorrow is my birthday.
It’s also my sons 1st birthday.
Little over a year ago my wife asked if it was ok to induce on my birthday.
Given my daughter turns 4 a week from tomorrow, I knew my birthday didn’t mean much anymore.
Grateful my parents forced me to learn how to cook. Threw this together!
Tonight’s menu:
Smoked trout (caught fresh)
Crackers
Spread: cream cheese, lemon juice, capers, shallots
Main course:
Smoked red fish( caught fresh)
Vinegar slaw
Creamed corn
All made from scratch.
Speaking with my wife last night about long term plans with our company and where we want to take it.
I know some are doing it but I would love to develop an incubator program within our organization for young, hungry folks looking to get into the SMB/ETA game.
Week was pretty brutal. Just one of those weeks.
Ended in a high note. A partner org we work with called to discuss the option of us assuming their business. Owner is tired and wants to simplify her life.
Would be an amazing opportunity for both companies!
Our Concierge PM company is a bit different than your traditional PM businesses. The main differentiator?
We do 0 rentals. No short term. No long term. That is now the space we want to be in.
We are the added insurance for HNW individuals.
Narrowing in on closing for one acquisition while starting to ramp up DD for a second.
All while honing our systems and process for our current 2 companies.
Quickly becoming a juggling act and fine line between chaos and insanity.
Over the last 15 months, we have done some pretty awesome things with our moving business.
We kept our heads down and have been laser focused on revenue growth.
Some key figures from the first 12-15 months:
🚨 SMB Takeover of SXSW:
@SMB_Attorney
@chrisxmunn
@nunziopresta
and I will be hosting the first ever ETA/SMB panel at SXSW
The more votes, the bigger the stage we get for the SMB community
We need your help -> comment on this thread & then VOTE for the panel in 2 steps!
If they don't have stake, can you truly expect them to give a shit as much as you?
Will they pour it all into the business like you will, with a bank guarantee on the line?
If the business goes under, do they suffer or just find another job?
I have essentially shut out all outside distractions for the last 8-9 months. Family and business have been the sole focus.
I feel years ahead of where I could have been by slow rolling this process. Not stopping now. Keep on grinding for the long term reward
Alright. We are officially 6 months in. All in all, we have made incredible progress but just aren’t over the proverbial hump we hoped we would have crossed by now.
We have over doubled our EE count and our December and Jan are tracking towards doubling revenue as well.
One deal we thought was dead is back on and even better than before!
We are PUMPED about this one. Complete game changer and could be an insane return for investors, which will be fun.
Big week coming up and excited to drive this one home.
It’s very easy to get caught up in the negative. That’s just how it goes. This week was one of those weeks I asked myself multiple times, “What the hell have I done?” “Am I in over my head?”
Just an all around shit week.
Until I sat back and looked at what we did.
@SullyBusiness
I did this in high school and our swim team went to St. Croix for a meet and it was one of the most memorable event for the team. You may not donate but for the kids it will be something the talk about and remember for their whole life. At least that was the case for me.