Looking to buy a business in UT/CO/WY/etc.

This is a crazy long shot, but I figured why not...I'm making a career pivot and am launching a search fund to buy and run a small business in the Intermountain West (more info: www.altapine.com). I am industry agnostic and am instead focused geographically on locations near good skiing/biking (ideally sticking in SLC area but open to move for the right opportunity). If anybody has any interesting leads on potential businesses for sale in the $1M to $8M range, let me know!

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Tell me about the search fund.

Sell you mine for 1 mil.

Turnkey operation, yearly gross of 100K, major potential. Minimal inventory, knowledge based. You would be perfect.

I can send you my paypal account #, transfer the funds and its all yours. I will throw in 2 months training.

Bozeman/Big Sky area.

Your buzzword bingo game is strong. For that, I present you a better offer than Not Bunion. For $1mm you can have my general contracting business. Strong book of business, mostly not asshole customer, a trailer of tools that mostly work, employees that mostly show up. It would be perfect for you because, ya know "I’ve always been passionate about building things; from a shed construction business I started in middle school".

I'll sell you Foggy's construction business for 1.5 mil. It's more than Foggy will charge you directly, but I'll throw in a new logo and a case of beer.

Check out Flippa. Lots of established online businesses for sale. Most aren't as high as what you have to spend but you might find something that works.

Lol, I expected the replies...well deserved haha.

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Originally Posted by Rideski

Tell me about the search fund.

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The basic idea is that baby boomers have solid businesses but dont have kids who want to run them...but the biz is too small for private equity. It typically takes 12-18 months to find a good business, using a combo of business brokers and direct sourcing. Once you find a business, you bring together bankers and investors to close the deal. Then, you step in as the CEO and grow it.

Typically, you'd go raise $500k or so to finance the search process (lawyers and accountants are expensive and you draw a salary). But, I'm self funding my search phase (or rather my wife is), meaning I can target smaller businesses and retain more equity because I'm not diluting investors.

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want to move to Canada?

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Originally Posted by Dshack89

The basic idea is that baby boomers have solid businesses but dont have kids who want to run them...but the biz is too small for private equity. It typically takes 12-18 months to find a good business, using a combo of business brokers and direct sourcing. Once you find a business, you bring together bankers and investors to close the deal. Then, you step in as the CEO and grow it.

Typically, you'd go raise $500k or so to finance the search process (lawyers and accountants are expensive and you draw a salary). But, I'm self funding my search phase (or rather my wife is), meaning I can target smaller businesses and retain more equity because I'm not diluting investors.

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What exactly makes you think that you can take a business that you know nothing about, in an industry you know nothing about, with a client base that you know nothing about, and "step in as CEO and grow it."

What exactly do you think small business owners do, sit on their dicks and watch TV all day?

You should definitely buy Foggy's business. I'm pretty sure it'll be no problem to just jump in as CEO and grow it.

PM fastfred.

Question: Are you paying the usual 10% finder's fee

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Originally Posted by adrenalated

What exactly makes you think that you can take a business that you know nothing about, in an industry you know nothing about, with a client base that you know nothing about, and "step in as CEO and grow it."

What exactly do you think small business owners do, sit on their dicks and watch TV all day?

You should definitely buy Foggy's business. I'm pretty sure it'll be no problem to just jump in as CEO and grow it.

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Of course there is a steep learning curve. But tons of businesses would grow if they did simple things like professionalize sales and had access to capital to grow faster. The average IRR for search funds is 37% (that number is likely a few years old). PE and VC can't even sniff that.

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Whatever it is, make sure you can do it early/late or from the chair.

^ that's the dream for sure! Gonna be a hard first few years but hopefully can end up there eventually. My main motivation is to get off the road. I'm a diamond on delta and am not proud of it.

1 other thing I'll add to help explain the investment model: small businesses typically sell for 4x cash flow, so you earn 25% but a SBA loan and seller financing is under 10%.

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Originally Posted by Dshack89

Lol, I expected the replies...well deserved haha.
The basic idea is that baby boomers have solid businesses but dont have kids who want to run them...but the biz is too small for private equity. It typically takes 12-18 months to find a good business, using a combo of business brokers and direct sourcing. Once you find a business, you bring together bankers and investors to close the deal. Then, you step in as the CEO and grow it.

Typically, you'd go raise $500k or so to finance the search process (lawyers and accountants are expensive and you draw a salary). But, I'm self funding my search phase (or rather my wife is), meaning I can target smaller businesses and retain more equity because I'm not diluting investors.

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Very true about baby boomer’s kids, had this discussion the other day. Look into any business that involves operations, kids don’t want to run it and generally baby boomers are leaving a ton of margin on the table.


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There is great ski manufacturing company you should look into ...

https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...kis-quot/page7

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Originally Posted by Dshack89

^ that's the dream for sure! Gonna be a hard first few years but hopefully can end up there eventually. My main motivation is to get off the road. I'm a diamond on delta and am not proud of it.

1 other thing I'll add to help explain the investment model: small businesses typically sell for 4x cash flow, so you earn 25% but a SBA loan and seller financing is under 10%.

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4x cash flow? Really? I can think of 5 ski shop owners that'll sell you their store right now.

Depends on the industry but I see multiples that high for sure.


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“My expertise is in developing and translating concepts on a whiteboard into bottom-line growth by serving as an ambassador between senior leadership and front line employees.”

https://youtu.be/m4OvQIGDg4I


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we are actually selling two business right now, my partner has his business and I have mine we share the same space
we are looking at doing a 2 for 1 so it's a win for you
I give massages with a happy ending and he buffs assholes
we both survived the last recession fully intact
the two ounces in the fridge don't come with the buisness
the hot chick in the showroom doesn't come either sorry
the real estate will be extra, pretty sure we want to unload it too because a big assesment is coming
how's breckenridge sound? plenty of bro brah employees to go around

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Originally Posted by Dshack89

Of course there is a steep learning curve. But tons of businesses would grow if they did simple things like professionalize sales and had access to capital to grow faster. The average IRR for search funds is 37% (that number is likely a few years old). PE and VC can't even sniff that.

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what learning curve is that? your talking to someone who barely graduated high school
proffesionalize sales? WTF? people are so tight the assholes need a pipe wrench and a vice
I got lots of capital 85k in credit all maxed out too

The fracking industry is starving for investment capital right now .... May be a great time to jump in.

Plenty of mom & pop trucking companies. Easy money,

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Originally Posted by Dshack89

f funding my search phase (or rather my wife is)

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Is she poly?

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Originally Posted by dtown

Very true about baby boomer’s kids, had this discussion the other day. Look into any business that involves operations, kids don’t want to run it and generally baby boomers are leaving a ton of margin on the table.

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How many of said businesses are in a place the kid wants to live and can afford to live? I know, in similar businesses, something on the west coast will sell while something in the NE or Midwest will languish because people don't want to live in there.

there's no harm in OP asking, but damn - there aren't that many businesses in region OP wants that meet the criteria he's looking for. make a list and coldcall.

Everyone has their number, right?


;)

https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...d.php?t=330113

Buy a liquor store.

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Originally Posted by Ski220

Buy a liquor store.

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Well, you can't in Utah, and its probably a dying business in Colorado with groceries stores carrying full strength now.

They do drink a lot in Wyoming though, so I hear.

Hey OP,

Good for you for having the guts to do a search, and having the guts to post it here. You could have skipped your Stanford MBA for all the stellar feedback you've received on this forum. FYI I've found the Polsky podcasts to be beneficial and searchfunder.com seems to be a good forum.

Valuations are softening already though no one will admit it yet. If you can generate a bunch of leads now two things will happen as the next recession nears, your competition will shrink and the supply of willing sellers will increase.

Good luck. Be very wary of your biggest risk, anyone with a Stanford MBA and time at Deloitte is 100% likely to underestimate the struggle of entrepreneurship and funding payroll.

Also, IMHO, don't ever borrow money from the world's toughest collector (the US Treasury) which is exactly what you're doing when you take on a SBA loan. Here's one small insight of how they size a debtor up for tax collections; https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small...nd-other-items. They are relentless and will chase you with a missionary zeal.


Again, good luck.

thank you for your contributions to earth

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Originally Posted by Dshack89

^

1 other thing I'll add to help explain the investment model: small businesses typically sell for 4x cash flow, so you earn 25% but a SBA loan and seller financing is under 10%.

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EBITDA
Not cash flow.
But if you have zero debt, then cash flow is the same.

I was offered 5x, but had to turn it down, since I’m too young to retire. I need that income stream.

I wonder how op made out. Some businesses are easier than others. Many small businesses depend on the owner and have no management team to keep things on track, let alone to grow sales. Then there’s the sabotage of leaning out expenses for a few years to make the bottom line look better, planning on a sale and not caring about long term.

Hmmmm....wonder if the OP is still looking.... Roofing company located in Spokane(?).

Oops I totally forgot about this thread. Just to provide an update, yesterday I closed on a drain cleaning and inspection business located just north of SLC (Drain Tech). It's pretty much exactly the sort of business I set out to find...a blue collar essential business with good margins that was well run by an honest seller. Nothing sexy, but a very solid business with great prospects.

It's been a wild ride the last few months and I'll have to write up some more thoughts when I've caught up on sleep.

But if anyone is in need of drain cleaning / jetting / camera'ing in the Wasatch Front, give us a shot. Unlike some of the national brands, we have fair and transparent flat rate pricing and take care of the problem the first time.

And also, if you are local and are interested in a career, shoot me a message. With some hard work, you can make a really good living in this industry.

Good for you, mang. Best of luck!

glad to hear you found something. i’d be interested in reading the rest of the story, how did you find it, was what the onboarding like, was this a boomer biz, etc. hope it really works out for you and you get some great ski days too.

Not sure how I came across this but curious to hear how you are making out with this endeavor. Did you have any experience in plumbing/drainage before hand? Do you do any of the actual work or just the Management aspect of it?

badass, good work


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Originally Posted by adrenalated

What exactly do you think small business owners do, sit on their dicks and watch TV all day?

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Well that's a spot on description of my OnlyFans content. So yes?

Hey, great job and congrats. Enjoy the ride.