What I Learned Last Week 4.12.2024
Curating the best M&A, SMB, and EtA-related content since 2020.
Hello Friends!
In this week’s issue of What I Learned Last Week:
📰 Articles
🧵 Best of X (Twitter)
🗓️ Events
⚒️ Tools & Resources
💡 How I Can Help
This issue of The Business Inquirer is sponsored by:
Maximize Value, Minimize Costs: M&A Legal Solutions Tailored to Your Budget
At Sterrett Law, we offer Manhattan and Boston experience at Vermont prices (And yes, we're based in Vermont). Specializing in deals under $10 million, we're your go-to partner for navigating the complexities of mergers and acquisitions without the hefty price tag.
Ready to make your next move? Schedule your free consultation today!
📰 Articles
Here’s my top home service based businesses
The article by John Wilson highlights promising home service businesses, emphasizing their scalability, revenue potential, and the variety of services they offer. Featured businesses include essential services like plumbing, HVAC, and electric, which have a large market and growth potential. Other sectors mentioned are water treatment, damage remediation, roofing, foundation repair, and lawn care & landscaping, each with unique advantages such as recurring revenue, high average order value, and diverse service offerings.
Key insights include:
Essential services offer substantial growth and revenue opportunities.
Water treatment pairs well with plumbing, providing a steady option with recurring revenue.
Damage remediation capitalizes on the urgent need for services following water damage.
Roofing presents a high average order value, though it requires overcoming talent challenges.
Foundation repair and lawn care & landscaping have significant ticket sizes and service diversity, offering numerous opportunities for lead generation and customer engagement.
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How AI helps acquired businesses grow
The MIT Sloan article discusses how AI can be instrumental in growing acquired businesses. It emphasizes conservative technology investments, identifying tasks that AI can enhance, and starting with small, defined use cases to integrate AI effectively. Key strategies include treating AI tool evaluation with a hedge fund manager's caution, selecting AI enhancements for operational efficiency and customer value, and engaging employees in the AI integration process to leverage their expertise and improve retention.
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Why Businesses Fail
The article provides an insightful analysis of why businesses fail, emphasizing that running out of cash is the primary reason. It discusses the importance of early intervention and effective cash flow forecasting to avoid failure. The piece categorizes root causes of failure into bad business models, management, or balance sheets and highlights the complexity of turnarounds with a personal anecdote from a CFO's challenging experience.
Key Insights:
Running out of cash is the main reason businesses fail.
Early detection and managing cash flow are crucial to avoid failure.
Failures stem from flawed business models, poor management, or weak balance sheets.
Turnaround efforts are complex, as illustrated by a CFO's real-world example.
🧵 Best of X (Twitter)
See my Google Trends chart from last week. There’s a wide delta between the # of buyers and quality business listings…
Structuring partial buyouts…
Solid first steps for someone just starting out their search…
Cost attribution to increase profitability…
Basic document list to start the SBA loan process…
🗓️ Events
SMBash 2024 (Apr 18-20) - Salt Lake City, UT
INSEAD ETA Conference (May 11) - Fontainebleau Campus, France
M&A Launchpad Conference (May 11) - Houston, TX
IBBA 2024 Annual Conference (May 11-12) - Louisville, KY
Capital Camp (May 21-24) - Columbia, MO
Midwest Deal Summit (May 29-30) - Chicago, IL
Southeast EtA Conference (Sept 6-7) - Washington D.C.
Self-Funded Search Conference (Sept 30-Oct 1) - Dallas, TX
Main Street Summit (Oct 9-10) - Columbia, MO
Annual M&A Institute (Oct 10-11) - Dallas, TX
McGuireWoods Independent Sponsor (Oct 15-16) - Dallas, TX
Texas & The South M&A and Business Symposium (Oct 16-18) - Dallas, TX
National Summit for Middle Market Funds (Oct 27-29) - Palm Beach, FL
🎵 Listening: “Rosarita“ by Long Beach Dub Allstars
How did you like this issue of the newsletter?
⚒️Tools & Resources
I want to share some tools & resources that I have found helpful. Please note that some of these are paid sponsors of the newsletter.
PrivSource - PrivSource helps you source deals and connect with transaction partners without ever paying a success fee.
X5 Deals - Proprietary deal sourcing for a great price. They do the outreach and send you relevant, actionable deals directly into your inbox.
Rejigg - Platform that connects searchers/investors directly with owners of off-market small businesses ($1M - $10M of revenue) considering exits. All deals are sourced by the Rejigg team. Their team adds 7 to 10 new deals each week.
Kumo - 100,000+ deals sourced from thousands of brokers and marketplaces. Plus, AI-powered listings, robust data & analytics, and more.
Sterrett Law - At Sterrett Law, we offer Manhattan and Boston experience at Vermont prices. Specializing in deals under $10 million, we're your go-to partner for navigating the complexities of mergers and acquisitions without the hefty price tag
Search Fund Coalition - community for the Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition ecosystem. Monthly events and meetups for acquisition entrepreneurs.
Deal Sourcing Guide - a comprehensive list of business marketplaces, brokers, deal origination firms, and more.
💡 How I Can Help
Whenever you’re ready, here are a few ways for us to work together…
Schedule 1:1 consulting on deal sourcing, due diligence, M&A ecosystem, newsletters, entrepreneurship, or anything else you’d like to discuss
Promote your brand to business buyers, investors, SMB owners, and other M&A participants by sponsoring this newsletter
Assemble your M&A deal team with DueDilio
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