Ownership Transitions11 min read
Culture Is the Operating System
When you acquire a business, you receive a detailed picture of the financials. What you do not get — what no broker will quantify — is the culture. And culture is the operating system on which everything else runs.
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Ownership Transitions10 min read
The Invisible Balance Sheet
There is a balance sheet that doesn't appear in any document you'll receive in due diligence. It's built from customer relationships that took fifteen years to earn.
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Operational Leadership11 min read
You Bought a Self-Employment Arrangement
Most businesses available for acquisition were built by technically excellent founders who gradually became the business's primary operational bottleneck. You just acquired that.
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Operational Leadership12 min read
The Five to Eight Numbers That Tell the Whole Story
There is a clean line between two types of business owners: those who manage by measurement and those who manage by feel. The first is running a managed business. The second is running a hoping business.
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Operational Leadership11 min read
Getting the Right People on the Bus
When you acquire a business, you've inherited a bus with people already in their seats. The most consequential leadership challenge of the first year is figuring out which is which.
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Small Business Strategy10 min read
The Math Behind the Roll-Up
In 1998, a private equity firm began acquiring independent HVAC companies at two to four times seller's discretionary earnings. This is the playbook being executed right now in markets like Tampa Bay.
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Mindset11 min read
Start From Evidence, Not Ideas
There is a business in your city right now that has been operating for twenty years, generates between $400,000 and $1.5 million annually, and is owned by someone in their late sixties who has no succession plan.
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Mindset10 min read
The Discipline of the No
Warren Buffett described his approach to acquisition opportunities as a batter with one crucial difference: there are no called strikes. Most of the value in acquisition entrepreneurship is created by the deals you don't do.
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Mindset11 min read
Building Something That Outlasts You
In 1972, Warren Buffett paid $25 million for See's Candies. By 2011, it had generated more than $1.65 billion in cumulative pre-tax earnings. This is a story about compounding, patience, and the long game.
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