Take Five #151: Top errors to watch for on a seller’s corporate tax return, and more
Top five must-reads this week in the world of SMB acquisitions and operations
Subscribe to Take Five to get our top 5 quick weekly reads on the world of SMB, M&A, and EtA from the team at Kumo. Kumo aggregates hundreds of thousands of deals into one easy-to-use platform so that you can spend less time sourcing, and more time closing deals.
Take Five is created and sponsored by Kumo, a powerful deal aggregator to help supercharge your deal sourcing at withkumo.com.
What can you do with Kumo?
Browse 120,000+ deals from hundreds of brokers and every major marketplace, with 700+ unique deals added daily.
Save time and stop reviewing duplicate deals. Kumo matches identical deals across hundreds of sources so you can view unique business opportunities, even if they’re slightly different across different websites.
Get a daily email for deals that match your search criteria.
Take Five #151: Top errors to watch for on a seller’s corporate tax return, and more
1. Searcher self-awareness can look a lot like luck
Ultimately, the tree care business I bought had a 65%+ repeat revenue rate. Today we generate 75%+ of our revenue from pruning or tree healthcare.
Stepping back out — when I was a searcher, I viewed this as my key area of differentiation. My background as a fundamental, institutional investor had allowed me to build up this skill over hundreds of deal reps.
As a result, I chose to leave my stated industry filter wide open, rather than guiding brokers to specific niches. I wanted to be that filter because I knew I could do it efficiently and I could use it to find a pocket of unexpected value.
As a searcher, it’s worth reflecting on what your edge is. The list above is non-exhaustive, it’s just example to get your brain going.
But if you take anything away from this post — ask yourself why you’re so lucky to win a deal. For me, it was never going to be my operational ability. It wasn’t my financing ability either, though I worked hard to ensure that didn’t seem like a weakness.
For me, the edge was ultimately a combo of diligence ability and willingness to take on owner transition risk.
Read the rest of Guesswork Investing’s post here.
2. “How to quickly and cheaply learn everything about an industry”
3. 👀 Top errors to watch for on a seller’s corporate tax return
4. How to test and determine pricing, when to raise rates
5. Tech industry layoff leads to high-margin service business acquisition
They were asking him to "hop on a quick call."
He knew what it meant; he'd been on the other side of those calls before.
And just like that, a 10-year career at SAP came to an abrupt end for Shaugn Lindley, victim to the layoffs sweeping tech.
Well, after some soul searching and reflection, Shaugn decides on buying a business for his next chapter.
And today he owns forklift repair business R&R Lift:
Decades of history
Great margins
B2B essential service
Combination of recurring and repair revenue
More demand than he can handle
And last but certainly not least, a glorious 1990s vintage website
Find the Acquiring Minds article and podcast episode here.
Loved what you read? Subscribe to Take Five to get our top quick reads every week from the team at Kumo. Kumo aggregates thousands of sources into one easy-to-use platform so that you can spend less time sourcing, and more time closing deals.