Take Five #006: The Practical Guide to How to Make $2M in 18 Months, and more
Five takeaways we loved at Kumo this week
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Take Five #006: The Practical Guide to How to Make $2M in 18 Months, and more
1. Reaching out to brokers? Here’s what brokers wish you’d write in your email:
One searcher asked the Searchfunder community how to best do broker outreach:
Do the brokers prefer to see a plain text email or a nicely formatted HTML email with pictures? Also, do brokers even want to see an email or do most prefer a phone call?
Brokers in the community chimed in with tons of gems, including:
Email vs. attachment is not critical. Content is more important. The more you are open about your background, acquisition criteria, contact info, physical address, deal experience (even if failed) helps. Some indication of financials or how the deal will be put together is a big plus. To me SBA lender letter does not add value (though I know it helps screen main-street buyers which we don't work with). We add all buyers into the distribution list.
Most brokers have multiple buyers for a business. Price and structure are important, but there are many, many more factors.
Another response:
I would underline the comments that a personalized message is much more likely to get attention, as is ensuring - by looking at the broker/advisor website - that they represent companies that fit your search criteria.If a broker specializes in manufacturing companies and you are looking to buy a tech services business, it reflects poorly on your business skills and professionalism when you reach out and ask them to "put you on the list."How conscientious So many searchers make this mistake that you can set yourself apart - in a favorable way - by not doing it.
Lots more to sift through in the comment section.
From “Broker outreach question” on Searchfunder
2. How one operator manages their 7 figure business remotely:
3. “Instead Of Starting A Company I Bought One. Then I Got Hooked & Bought 40 More:”
Kevin McArdle, the founder of SureSwift Capital, on how he acquires SaaS businesses and manages a portfolio of 40+ companies:
The single biggest change I made in running the business was getting relentless about being good at operations. We have systems and processes to help run and scale every single business function — from how we plan work and track metrics for each of our products to how we run departments that span our whole portfolio like finance and HR.
Because we run so many different businesses, there’s just no room for inefficiency in our operations because that ‘one little thing’ on one product or one team immediately gets multiplied and magnified.
From “Instead Of Starting A Company I Bought One. Then I Got Hooked & Bought 40 More.” on StarterStory
4. One buy and build playbook, making $2M in 18 months:
5. A growth handbook for search fund entrepreneurs:
A great crowdsourced guide by WSC & Company:
The world is always messier than any PowerPoint or financial model suggests. Achieving profitable revenue growth in a small business requires empowering one group of human beings (employees) to persuade another group of human beings (customers) to trade their money or their company’s money for a good or service. That endeavor is anything but easy, and even the best-made plans require flexibility and agility as you the CEO learn more about your company and the nuances of your market once you’re inside the business.
This guide is written for searchers-CEOs of lower mid-market businesses navigating that messy reality and has three main objectives:
Provide frameworks to CEOs for identifying and prioritizing growth opportunities
Equip CEOs with actionable tools and templates for executing those growth initiatives
Give active searchers practical examples of growth levers to inform thesis development and underwriting
From Growth Handbook (Part 1) by WSC & Company
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