How2Exit: Buy, Don't Build - M&A of Small Businesses - podcast cover

How2Exit: Buy, Don't Build - M&A of Small Businesses

Ronald P. Skeltonwww.how2exit.com
Welcome to How2Exit, the premier podcast for entrepreneurs, advisors, and everyone in between who wants to dive deep into the world of buying, growing, and selling small businesses valued below $20 million. Our mission is to equip you with the insights and strategies you need to succeed in the small business M&A space.

Join us as we talk to the best in the industry and explore the full process of buying, growing, and selling businesses. You'll gain invaluable knowledge from interviews with successful entrepreneurs who have navigated the M&A journey and experts who offer their wisdom on sourcing deals, building rapport, conducting due diligence, closing transactions, integrating acquisitions, and preparing for a successful exit. We cover it all, so you can make informed decisions and take calculated risks.

At How2Exit, we pride ourselves on providing an unmatched resource for those looking to thrive in the small business M&A world. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur, an aspiring business owner, or an advisor helping clients navigate the complex process, our podcast is your go-to source for the latest tips, trends, and real-world case studies.Tune in and discover the secrets to mastering small business M&A and achieving your goals in the world of entrepreneurship. Don't miss a single episode of How2Exit – subscribe now and unlock the full potential of your next business venture!

Keywords: small business, M&A, entrepreneurs, advisors, buying businesses, growing businesses, selling businesses, due diligence, sourcing deals, rapport building, closing transactions, integrating acquisitions, preparing to sell, interviews, experts, case studies, How2Exit.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/how2exit-buy-don-t-build-m-a-of-small-businesses--4859429/support.

Episodes

E134: Daniel Sweet Teaches The Importance Of Focus When Acquiring Businesses - 2nd Interview

Dan is the Managing Partner of Sweetview Partners - an acquisitions and operations company based in Houston TX. His 27 years of experience in the technology industry led him to begin his journey into Texas-based tech company acquisitions 5 years ago. His extensive experience has led to recently creating an apprenticeship course for self-funded seekers who are looking to do their first acquisition. Daniel discusses the importance of focus and specialization when searching for businesses to acquir...

Aug 16, 202355 min

E133: Learn The Five Stages Of Raising Capital And How To Find The Right Investors With Will Sacks

Will Sacks is the founder of Fulcrum Venture Accelerator. He has raised over $50 million for various projects and helps founders learn the art of fundraising. Will is experienced in venture capital and has a deep understanding of the five stages of fundraising. Will discusses the importance of building relationships with investors and shares his expertise in venture capital and fundraising. He emphasizes the need for authenticity and enthusiasm when pitching to potential investors. Will also hig...

Aug 09, 202357 min

EP132: The Art Of The Sale Leaseback Free Roll - A Conversation with Chelsea Mandel

Chelsea Mandel is the founder of Ascension Advisory, a real estate advisory firm that specializes in sale-leasebacks. With a background in private equity and real estate, Chelsea has extensive experience in structuring and executing sale-leaseback transactions for middle-market and lower-middle-market companies. Chelsea explains the benefits of sale-leasebacks, such as unlocking capital for the business and creating value through higher multiples. She also highlights the importance of structurin...

Aug 02, 202353 min

E131: Elliott Holland Discusses The Importance Of Due Diligence In Acquisitions

Elliott Holland is the founder of Guardian Due Diligence, a company that specializes in providing due diligence services for small and medium-sized business acquisitions. With a background in private equity and a passion for helping new buyers navigate the complex world of mergers and acquisitions, Elliott is dedicated to ensuring that his clients make informed and safe investment decisions. He discusses the different types of due diligence, including financial, operational, and commercial, and ...

Jul 26, 202355 min

E130: Kurt Stein On The Impact Of AI On Mergers And Acquisitions In The Tech Industry

Kurt Stein is the President of DCT Strategy and a technology expert. He has a diverse background, starting from working at UPS to eventually becoming a client business manager at AT&T. With over 15 years of experience in the technology industry, Kurt has a deep understanding of how technology applies to mergers and acquisitions. He helps businesses embrace AI and leverage its capabilities to stay competitive in an increasingly technology-driven world. Kurt Stein discusses the role of technol...

Jul 19, 20231 hr

E129: John Carvalho Discusses Mergers and Acquisitions in the Mid-Market

John is the President of Stone Oak Capital Inc., an M&A advisory firm. For over 20 years, John has executed numerous valuations, financings, acquisitions and divestitures in various industries. John is also the co-founder of Divestopedia, the leading online educational resource on mid-market M&A. He emphasizes the need for focus and specialization, as well as the value of learning from personal experiences in acquiring and winding down businesses. Carvalho also highlights the role of cor...

Jul 12, 202358 min

E128: Gia And Walid Helps Business Owners Sell Their Companies And Maximize Their Exit

Gia Cilento and Walid Costandi discuss their experiences in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and their current project, a chocolate roll-up. They emphasize the importance of transparency, treating everyone well, and being upfront about expectations. They also highlight the need for business owners to prepare their companies for sale and delegate responsibilities to create a more scalable and valuable business. Additionally, they introduce their program, Cash Out Wealthy, which helps business o...

Jul 05, 202356 min

E127: Kirk Michie Discusses His Role As A Business Advisor And The Secrets To Selling A Business

Kirk Michie has been an active player in finance for more than 30 years, and involved in middle market M&A for nearly two decades. Since founding Candor Advisors 3 1/2 years ago, Kirk has been involved in nearly $1 Billion worth of sales of private businesses, several to large public companies. His varied experience, often referred to as reps in the M&A gym, paired with his daily involvement in the sector, drives his primary mission, guiding founders to better outcomes. According to Mich...

Jun 28, 202357 min

E126: Business Coach Wendy Dickinson Discusses The Process Of Selling A Business

Wendy Dickinson, a business coach, discusses the process of selling a business. She emphasizes the importance of having a clear vision and plan for the business, creating multiple scenarios to make it attractive to potential buyers, and maintaining separate personal and business finances. When it comes to hiring a broker, they advise interviewing multiple brokers and finding one who is honest and experienced. It is important to have an attorney who specializes in mergers and acquisitions and has...

Jun 21, 202349 min

E125: Foot Solutions CEO John Prothro on Acquiring and Growing a Foot Wellness Franchise

CEO of Foot Solutions, a global foot wellness retailer he and a group of investors purchased in early 2020. He is an experienced executive with a background in mergers and acquisitions, operations, and multinational business leadership. He has lived and worked in both China and the United States. Prothro emphasized the importance of being Medicare accredited as a foot solutions company and how it is best practice to have at least one Medicare-accredited location in each area. He also discussed t...

Jun 14, 202346 min

E124: Ahmed Raza: An Acquisition Entrepreneur Turned Founder And Due Diligence Expert

Founded Rapid Diligence five years ago and our focus is on providing buy-side due diligence services for both online and traditional small business acquisitions. We focus on operational, technical, financial, and legal due diligence and take a holistic approach on diligence by assessing risks and opportunities. We work with buyers that are both in the search phase /pre-LOI and buyers who have an executed LOI. Ahmed discussed his experience in buying and growing e-commerce businesses while in col...

Jun 07, 202353 min

E123: CEO, Jonathan Wilson Discusses Value Creation And Growth Through Acquisition

Jonathan Wilson is a dynamic leader focused on organic and inorganic value creation for start-up, fintech, and more traditional organizations. Jonathan solves complex problems for existing clients, leveraging M&A, Strategy, and Transformative experience gained while leading engagements for Fortune 500 companies and working directly for Accenture, Bank of America, Deloitte, and Grant Thornton for almost 20 years. Jonathan holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a BS in Ch...

May 31, 202358 min

E122: Practice Leader Of Transaction Strategy And Transformation Group Discussing M&A Opportunities

Kevin Moyer is a Partner & Practice Leader of the Transaction Strategy & Transformation group at Sax LLP, a top 75 public accounting firm. Kevin's team focuses on financial, operational and commercial buy/sell side diligence projects and advising on transformative events within PE backed portfolio companies. Prior to joining Sax, Kevin was a member of the Transaction Strategy and Execution team at Ernst & Young Parthenon and the CFO of two private equity backed portfolio companies in...

May 24, 202357 min

E121: Richard Luftig On Powerful Technology Behind Castle Placement For Raising Capital

Richard Luftig is the co-founder and managing partner of Castle Placement, providing investment banking services and raising private equity/debt capital for early-stage and middle market companies across a wide range of industries including financial services/fintech, real estate, technology, business services, energy/real assets and consumer/retail. The firm is FINRA-licensed and registered. They have built their business around data and technology, creating a seamless process that is more effi...

May 17, 202355 min

E120: M&A Advisor Mathew Saur's Journey from Thiel College to Co-Founding Woolery & Co. in NYC

Matt Saur is co-founder and partner of Woolery & Co., a strategic legal advisory boutique based in New York City that focuses on serving as a partner to its clients as they navigate complex and critical business, governance and strategic decisions. Mr. Saur began his career at Cravath, Swaine and Moore and was most recently the chief lieutenant in the M&A, Shareholder Activism and Corporate Governance group at King & Spalding, where he co-led the family office initiative at the firm....

May 10, 202355 min

E119: Eric Gall Founder Of Edison Business Advisors And A Registered Broker Based In Florida

Eric Gall is the registered broker and founder of Edison Business Advisors. Over the past 25 years, he has participated in many forms of business transactions including full and partial recapitalizations, joint ventures, spinouts, and roll-ups. Eric has consistently produced results and has the credentials and experience to either sell your business or assist you in buying a business. He helps people buy and sell businesses in the lower middle market, ranging from $1 million to $25 million in en...

May 05, 202353 min

E118: International Entrepreneur Carlos Rodriguez Laconi Discusses His Successful Exit Story

Carlos is an entrepreneur from Argentina, down there he started a farming and exporting business (chia seeds, beans, citrus, etc). He came to the US in 2015 for his MBA where he learned about Search Funds. He took an alternative path for Entrepreneurship through acquisition, partnered with the owners a Boston-based business to grow and sell it, and recently completed the exit of this business. Carlos talks about his experience with starting an organic farming business in 2009, followed by his jo...

May 03, 202350 min

E117: Malcolm Peace Shares Journey To Successful Small Business Acquisitions - How2Exit

Malcolm Peace is the founder of Tsetserra Growth Partners, a company specializing in buying family-owned small businesses with established Texas Legacies. Unlike traditional private equity and business brokers, Tsetserra uniquely positions itself to purchase businesses for the long term, with a focus on operating and growing them. In this episode, we talk about a manufacturing company Malcolm acquired that makes equipment that sorts shrimp. We also talked about what needed to happen after the ac...

Apr 28, 202358 min

E116: Scott Duke: Founder Of OpnRoad - Navigating Business Transition And Building Sellable Assets

Scott Duke is an M&A advisor and the founder of eleven companies. He started his first company while in university to pay for school without taking on a lot of student debt. The company was a painting company, similar to College Pro. When it comes to mergers and acquisitions, interest rates have a huge impact. When interest rates double, banks use a debt servicing ratio to determine how much they are willing to lend. This directly impacts the cash flow of businesses, as the same amount of mo...

Apr 26, 202353 min

E115: Serial Entrepreneur And Author Jeff Wald Discusses Path To Successful Exits - How2Exit

Jeff Wald is the chairman and co-founder of multiple tech startups, a bestselling author, investor, and keynote speaker. He grew up with a lot of support, but wasn't an entrepreneurial child. His first job was at JP Morgan as a mergers and acquisitions banker and he loved it, working 120 hours a week. Wald is passionate about pursuing one's own dreams and encourages others to do so. He is thankful for the opportunities he has been given in life and is eager to share his knowledge with others. Wa...

Apr 21, 202357 min

E114: Eric Grafstrom Helps Small Businesses with Selling Strategies and Valuation Tools - How2Exit

Eric is the founder at ExitGuide, an M&A platform for Main Street businesses. He is a longtime tech executive and entrepreneur who began his career at broadcast.com and worked for Yahoo in the UK and California, eventually moving back into early stage technology companies. A veteran in the internet space, having started his career in the mid-90s selling webcasting services. His rise to fame began when he was the first person to try to sell webcasting services when people did not have sound c...

Apr 19, 202356 min

E113: Tony Benedict In Merging Technology, Culture, and Processes for Innovative M&A Transformations

Tony is an experienced corporate executive, advisor and board member whose career has spanned two decades at Fortune 500 B2B and B2C companies. Tony is a Partner with Omicron Partners, a strategy, operations and transformation advisory firm where he primarily engages with Private Equity portfolio and private companies in the middle market. He has extensive experience in post-acquisition integration and business transformation. Tony talks about his experience in operations, starting with Intel an...

Apr 14, 202356 min

E112: Meriplex's Tech Industry Strategies with VP Of Corporate Development & M&A, Neil Medwed

Neil shares how he became the VP of Corporate Development and M&A at Meriplex. He attributes his success to his 39 years of experience in the business, his dedication to technology communities, and God's perfect timing in his life. Neil Medwed has over 39 years in the technology and managed service provider industry and is Meriplex's VP of Corporate Development and M&A, responsible for leading the firm’s national expansion. He’s acquired 11 quality Managed Services Providers throughout t...

Apr 12, 202359 min

E111: Uncovering The Rise Of Media M&A With Michael Fink, Co-CEO Of Treasure Hunter - How2Exit

Michael Fink is the Co-CEO of Treasure Hunter, and is currently living in a small city in Munich called Burghausen, which is home to the longest castle in the world. He was invited to the How2Exit Podcast to discuss his experience in buying, growing, and owning media assets. Fink began his journey more than 10 years ago when he and his then-girlfriend, now-wife co-funded Ever Growing with €1,000 and published product review sites. At TreasureHunter, they are acquiring and operating content websi...

Apr 07, 202355 min

E110: Founder Of Raises.Com, Natu Myers, Discusses Raising Investment Money - How2Exit

Natu Myers is the founder of raises.com, a platform that helps companies raise money. Most of his educational background was in software development and coding. He soon noticed that companies wanted to raise money, but had little knowledge of how to do it compliantly. Natu worked with mentors and coaches, and he worked with a Canadian company that was legally allowed to raise money for companies. He soon noticed that the bigger market was regular companies and real estate deals that needed to be...

Apr 05, 202349 min

E109: Jim Afinowich: Longtime Business Broker On Selling Strategies For Mergers And Acquisitions

Jim Afinowich is the managing partner of IBG Fox & Fin and has been involved in over 1100 closings. He shared his origin story, stating that he had owned fourteen businesses between the ages of twenty and thirty-four before deciding that he enjoyed doing deals more than running the businesses he owned. He believes that all businesses have common denominators such as managing people, managing money, and providing a product or service the public wants at a competitive price. Watch it on Youtub...

Apr 01, 202359 min

E108: Shannon Wilburn: From Struggles To Success - The Journey Of Co-Founding Just Between Friends.

Shannon Wilburn and Ron Skelton discussed how she started Just Between Friends, a consignment sale business. She began it in 1997 when her son was just 2 years old. Just Between Friends is a franchise system with over 150 locations that generated almost $42 million in system-wide sales in 2022. Franchising has helped Wilburn share the model and give people the opportunity to become business owners and bring the model to their communities. Wilburn is a big proponent of franchising. Shannon Wilbur...

Mar 29, 202353 min

Roland Frasier: Mentor, Investor and Business Strategist - Interview Highlights

Watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/wH-zHBle2ZM Roland Frasier is an investor and business strategist with over 1,000 acquisitions and exits completed for himself and his clients. His current portfolio includes real estate, restaurants, business, and home services, events, eLearning, e-commerce, franchise, and SaaS businesses. He has been a principal of 6 different Inc. Fastest growing companies and serves on the Stanford University Advisory Board for Global Projects and their Family...

Mar 24, 202314 min

E107: Mark Achler: Venturing Into Venture Capital: An Insightful Look Into The Exit Process.

In this episode, they talked about Mark's book, Exit Right. The book focuses on how to sell a business. Mark has sold companies as a CEO, invested in over a hundred businesses, and been on dozens of boards. He also shared why some transactions fail, what makes a good client, and more. He wanted to provide real stories and advice to help entrepreneurs navigate the process and make better decisions. An early employee of Apple and Head of Innovation at Redbox, Mark Achler has been creating and inve...

Mar 22, 202354 min

E106: Nate Lind - From Start-Up Success To Selling $100M Worth In Transactions as a Broker - How2Exit

Nate Lind, is the author of Maximum Exit - The Definitive Guide for Internet & Technology Focused Business Founders and a business broker at Website Closers, the largest marketplace of $1 million to $150 million dollar Internet, Technology and E-commerce businesses. Reading Rich Dad Poor Dad inspired Lind to dream of financial freedom and passive income. He exited his first company in 2016, which was an e-commerce technology to a shopping cart platform. Lind learned that selling a company an...

Mar 17, 202357 min