Over 290 M&A Transactions: An Insider's Look on the Deal-Making Journey with Craig Dickens

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In this YouTube video, Craig Dickens from JD Merit Group is interviewed about his experiences in the world of mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Craig begins by sharing his background, including his success in building a mail-order company for tri-athletes, which he eventually sold. He then discusses how he used the proceeds from that sale to pursue his next ventures.


SHOW NOTES:
00:00  Episode brought to you by The Magnolia Firm
00:51  Intro to Craig Dickens from JD Merit Group
01:23  Building mail order company for Tri-Athletes - 26k mail list - and sold that
05:59  What was next?  Parlayed the proceeds 
07:11  How much did you parlay to the next opportunity
08:53  Finding his niche size
11:18  Buying & Selling a QuickBooks company
12:23  Looking for another acquisition - How you make decisions to invest
15:20  Bending will to reality - the endowment effect  
16:23  Elon Outlier 
18:25  Any of those acquisitions not work out and why?
21:45  Why Craig sold one at a time
23:18  What usually happens when you over pay for acquisitions
25:08  Did you use partners?
27:18  How Craig structures deals - Finding the deal,  Sponsoring the Deal
29:22  How much money does Craig bring to deal
30:52  Example of $20 million deal - law of large numbers Capital Providers
33:30  PE or FO or HNWI 
35:24  Why he moved from owning the companies to M&A Advisor
37:30  Personal Guarantees - learning from our failures
40:04  Should I sell now?
42:24  How do you know - John Warrillow - Built to sell 
44:24  How do you find clients - Guess what?  LinkedIn
45:45  Why do they pick your firm over others?
49:12  First time sellers - first time buyers
51:24  What do you do if seller wants more than company is worth?
54:57  Fastest deal done - and average
56:45  How much of your tri-athlete mindset helped you in M&A - learn to accept suffering
58:24   When you deal has hair on it - the M&A Axiom - price the risk
59:54  How Craig's M&A firm charges
1:02:01  How many deals do you work on per month
1:02:30  How do feel about your work today
 


LINKS to Craig Dickens
https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigdickens/
https://jdmerit.com/