Want To Get Rich, Don't Start A Business (Do This Instead)

Summary

This video script is a comprehensive guide for aspiring entrepreneurs aiming to acquire small businesses. The speaker shares personal experiences and strategies for finding businesses for sale, emphasizing the importance of mindset, strategy, and action. Key tactics include leveraging personal networks, utilizing online platforms, and building a reputation as a potential buyer. The script dispels common misconceptions, highlights the value of persistence, and provides practical tools for evaluating opportunities, making offers, and closing deals. The ultimate goal is to empower viewers to take control of their financial futures through business ownership.

Takeaways

• 💼 The most common path to wealth on the Forbes 500 list is by buying businesses, not necessarily starting from scratch.
• 💭 The primary barriers to buying small businesses are lack of awareness, not knowing where to find opportunities, and feeling financially incapable.
• 🚀 To start buying businesses, one must adopt the right mindset, develop a strategy, and take action, often involving community support and education.
• 💡 The importance of understanding crucial financial documents such as cash flow statements, balance sheets, and profit and loss statements for making informed investment decisions.
• 🔍 Techniques for finding businesses include leveraging personal networks, utilizing online platforms, and engaging with industry-specific individuals or groups.
• 💰 Financial strategies for buying businesses can range from using personal funds to employing sweat equity, expertise for equity, or creative financing methods.
• 🤝 Building relationships with professionals like attorneys and accountants can provide access to potential business owners looking to sell.
• 🌐 Geographic location doesn't limit the ability to buy a business; strategies discussed are applicable globally, with case studies from various countries.
• 📈 The script emphasizes the importance of persistence and continuous effort in the deal sourcing process, much like a numbers game that increases the probability of success.
• ⏱️ Timeframes for acquiring a business can vary widely, but with persistence and the right approach, it's possible to become a business owner within 12 months.

Q & A

What is the main reason most people don't buy small businesses according to the video?

The main reasons are lack of awareness about the opportunity, not knowing where to find businesses for sale, and feeling like they don't have the money to do it.

What are the three key elements needed to successfully buy a business as mentioned in the video?

The three key elements are having the right mindset, a strategy, and taking action.

What is the significance of the 'Venmo Challenge' discussed in the video?

The 'Venmo Challenge' is a tactic where one reviews their Venmo transactions to identify small businesses they regularly spend money with, potentially turning these expenses into profits by buying or partnering with these businesses.

How does the video suggest finding businesses for sale without spending a lot of money?

The video suggests leveraging personal networks, utilizing social media, engaging with local business owners directly, and using one's expertise or sweat equity to negotiate deals without requiring large upfront capital.

What are the '10 entrepreneur mindset pillars' mentioned in the video?

The '10 entrepreneur mindset pillars' include self-reflection, courage, creativity, resilience, resourcefulness, optimism, continuous learning, having a clear 'why', adaptability, and patience.

How does the video propose using one's 9-to-5 job to find a business to buy?

The video suggests looking at one's workplace, vendors, and suppliers to identify potential businesses to buy, especially if the owner is nearing retirement and might be open to selling.

What role does social media play in attracting businesses for sale according to the video?

Social media is used to increase deal flow by creating content that attracts business owners looking to sell, as well as potential investors.

What is the 'Rolodex to ROI method' described in the video?

The 'Rolodex to ROI method' involves defining oneself as a business buyer to friends, family, and professionals, thereby attracting business owners who may be interested in selling.

How does the video address the concern of not having enough money to buy a business?

The video addresses this by discussing creative financing methods such as seller financing, sweat equity, and expertise for equity, allowing individuals to buy businesses without large sums of cash.

What is the importance of persistence in the business buying process as highlighted in the video?

Persistence is highlighted as a key trait for success in the business buying process, emphasizing the importance of following up with potential sellers and not giving up easily.

Outlines

00:00

💼 The Path to Wealth Through Business Acquisition

The speaker shares their journey to wealth, emphasizing that it was not through starting a business but by purchasing existing ones. They highlight the immediate income generation as a key advantage. Addressing a common query from their audience, the speaker promises to guide viewers on how to find businesses for purchase, focusing on the three main obstacles: awareness, knowledge of where to find opportunities, and perceived lack of funds. The video aims to be a comprehensive guide on business acquisition without substantial capital, potentially using one's time, expertise, or other people's money.

05:00

🚀 Overcoming Obstacles in Business Acquisition

The speaker identifies the three main reasons why people don't buy small businesses: lack of awareness and mindset, not knowing where to find them, and feeling they lack the funds. The video aims to break down these barriers. The speaker discusses the current market situation with a surplus of businesses for sale due to baby boomers retiring, creating an opportunity for buyers. They stress the importance of having the right mindset, as negative thinking can hinder the business acquisition process. The speaker also shares their experience of rejection in trying to buy businesses and emphasizes that persistence is key, as success in this field often comes after numerous attempts and challenges.

10:02

💡 The 'Venmo Challenge' for Identifying Business Opportunities

The speaker introduces a tactic called the 'Venmo Challenge,' which involves reviewing one's Venmo transactions to identify small businesses they regularly spend money with. The idea is to reach out to these businesses to explore potential for acquisition or partnership. The speaker provides a step-by-step guide on how to approach these businesses, starting with a list of vendors, assessing their revenue, and considering how one could add value. The goal is to turn everyday expenses into potential profits by engaging with business owners and proposing creative acquisition structures.

15:04

💭 Mindset and Strategy for Successful Business Acquisition

The speaker discusses the importance of mindset in the business acquisition process, outlining ten entrepreneurial mindset pillars that can help overcome challenges. These include self-reflection, courage, creativity, resilience, resourcefulness, optimism, continuous learning, having a clear 'why', adaptability, and patience. The speaker emphasizes that these attributes are crucial for anyone looking to buy a business and that success is often a result of perseverance and the right mindset rather than just business acumen or financial resources.

20:04

🔍 Leveraging Personal Spending to Find Business Opportunities

The speaker continues with strategies to find businesses for purchase, suggesting a review of personal and credit card statements to identify local small businesses where one spends money. The approach is to engage with these businesses to assess their profitability and the owner's potential interest in selling. The speaker shares a personal anecdote about buying a podcast production company using this method and how it led to a profitable return. The emphasis is on the importance of courage and initiative in reaching out to business owners and proposing deals that benefit both parties.

25:05

🗣️ Building a Personal Brand to Attract Business Opportunities

The speaker suggests that actively communicating one's interest in buying businesses can attract opportunities. By defining oneself as a buyer, one can draw the attention of business owners who may be considering selling. The speaker encourages viewers to spread the word about their intent to buy businesses, especially among professional networks like attorneys and accountants who often interact with businesses in transition. The idea is to position oneself as a go-to buyer for those looking to sell their businesses.

30:06

🔗 Networking and Deal Sourcing for Business Acquisition

The speaker highlights the importance of networking in finding business acquisition opportunities. They discuss the value of joining professional organizations, attending Chamber of Commerce events, and participating in service organizations to connect with potential sellers. The speaker also introduces the concept of 'deal sourcing' or 'origination', explaining the difference between on-market and off-market deals. They advocate for a focused approach, either through extensive networking or by using online platforms and databases to find businesses for sale.

35:08

🌐 Global Perspectives on Business Acquisition Strategies

The speaker addresses the question of whether the strategies discussed are applicable globally, providing examples from Australia, Canada, and Nigeria. They share case studies of individuals who have successfully applied the principles of business acquisition in their respective countries. The speaker emphasizes that the core strategies of building relationships, identifying opportunities, and structuring creative deals are universal and can be adapted to different markets and business environments.

40:09

🚧 The Road to Business Ownership: From Decision to Habit to Skill

In the concluding part, the speaker reflects on the journey to becoming a business owner, comparing it to the process of developing a habit or skill. They stress the importance of making the initial decision to pursue business ownership and turning it into a habit through consistent action. The speaker shares their own story of failures and successes, highlighting the value of learning from setbacks and persisting towards the goal of owning and growing a business. The message is one of perseverance, continuous learning, and the pursuit of financial freedom through business ownership.

Keywords

💡Business Acquisition

Business acquisition refers to the process where one entity takes ownership of another. In the context of the video, the speaker discusses various strategies for acquiring small businesses, emphasizing that many individuals on the Forbes 500 list have amassed their wealth through buying businesses rather than starting them from scratch.

💡Sweat Equity

Sweat equity is a form of investment where an individual contributes labor or services to a project in lieu of cash. The video mentions the possibility of acquiring a business using sweat equity, suggesting that one could potentially buy a business by working for the owner and then negotiating a stake in the business over time.

💡Seller Financing

Seller financing is a type of creative financing arrangement where the seller of an asset provides all or part of the financing. The video script mentions seller financing as a method where the buyer can acquire a business without having to come up with a large sum of money upfront, instead paying the seller over time from the business's profits.

💡Off-Market Deals

Off-market deals refer to business sales that are not publicly advertised or listed on any exchange. The speaker in the video discusses the benefits of pursuing off-market deals, such as potentially finding better deals with less competition and more room for negotiation.

💡Creative Financing

Creative financing involves using non-traditional methods to fund a business purchase. The video touches on various forms of creative financing, such as using future profits to pay for the business over time, which allows buyers with less liquid capital to acquire businesses.

💡Deal Sourcing

Deal sourcing is the process of identifying and approaching potential business acquisition opportunities. The video provides a comprehensive guide on how to source deals, including leveraging personal networks, utilizing online platforms, and engaging with business brokers.

💡Networking

Networking is the practice of building relationships with others to exchange information and opportunities. The speaker emphasizes the importance of networking in finding business acquisition opportunities, suggesting that connections with industry professionals, such as lawyers and accountants, can lead to introductions to business owners considering a sale.

💡Value Add

Value add refers to the improvements or enhancements made to a business that increase its value. In the video, the concept is discussed in terms of how potential buyers can identify areas where they can add value to a business post-acquisition, which can be a persuasive point when making an offer to buy.

💡Due Diligence

Due diligence is the process of thoroughly investigating and verifying a business's financial and operational details before a purchase. The video script alludes to due diligence as a critical step in the business acquisition process, ensuring that the buyer is making an informed decision based on accurate information about the business's health and potential risks.

💡Entrepreneur Mindset

An entrepreneur mindset is a set of attitudes and approaches to challenges that are typically associated with entrepreneurs, such as being proactive, innovative, and willing to take calculated risks. The video discusses the importance of having the right mindset for buying a business, including traits like resilience, creativity, and a willingness to learn from failures.

💡Strategic Partnerships

Strategic partnerships are alliances formed between two or more parties to achieve a common goal. The script mentions using strategic partnerships as a means of business expansion, such as when the speaker describes how one of their members used a partnership to expand a flower business into a year-round operation by acquiring an indoor grow facility.

Highlights

The best way to get rich is not necessarily by starting a business from scratch, but by buying existing businesses.

Most people on the Forbes 500 list made their money by purchasing businesses.

Three main reasons people don't buy small businesses: lack of awareness, not knowing where to find them, and feeling they don't have enough money.

A comprehensive guide on finding businesses to buy without needing a lot of money, using tactics like leveraging time, expertise, and other people's money.

The importance of having the right mindset for buying businesses, including positivity and the belief in one's ability to succeed.

The necessity of knowing basic business financial documents like cash flow statements, balance sheets, and profit and loss statements.

The 'Venmo Challenge', a tactic for finding businesses to buy by analyzing where you already spend money and reaching out to those businesses.

The significance of having difficult conversations in the process of buying a business, as it often leads to success.

The 'Rolodex to ROI' method, which involves defining oneself as a business buyer and attracting business sellers through networking.

The concept of 'deal sourcing' or finding businesses to buy by connecting with people in one's professional network who are likely to know of businesses for sale.

The 'Center of Place' strategy, where one positions themselves in places where business owners are likely to retire and look for successors.

The '9-to-5' strategy, which involves looking for acquisition opportunities within one's current workplace or related businesses.

The power of social media in attracting business sellers and the importance of optimizing one's online profiles to reflect business buying intentions.

The effectiveness of local libraries as a resource for accessing databases that list businesses, which can be useful for finding businesses to buy.

The 'expertise to equity' method, where one offers their expertise in exchange for equity in a business they help grow or improve.

The importance of persistence in the business buying process, and how following up consistently can lead to success.

The use of a deal flow funnel for tracking the progress of potential business purchases from initial outreach to deal closure.

Transcripts

you've been told the best way to get

rich is to start a business I didn't get

rich that way I wasn't smart enough to

come up with the most brilliant idea I

did what the largest percentage of

people on the Forbes 500 list did to

make all of their money I bought

businesses now you could start a

business to ownership but I like buying

them because I don't like Risk and I

want to make money day one but people on

the internet have been asking me this

one question nonstop since I started

creating content 3 years ago and that is

where do I find businesses to buy how do

I get my first 10,000 in monthly income

or first million in monthly income from

buying other people's businesses if I

can't find them so I thought I would

create this video for you guys today

there are three things that are the main

reason why most people don't buy small

businesses they don't actually know

about the opportunity and have the

mindset to do it the second and the

biggest is they don't know where to find

them and the third is they don't feel

like they have the money to do it and in

this video we are going to break all

three of those things this video is the

most comprehensive video I have ever

seen on how to find businesses to buy

whether a part of it or all of it

without a ton of money without any money

potentially using your sweat your time

your expertise and other people's money

you probably know cuz you've heard me

that there are too many businesses for

sale and not enough buyers right now 75

million baby boomers retiring 10,000

retiring a day so we have all these

businesses coming for sale every day but

then you guys ask me on the internet I

don't know how to find them can you

teach teach me how I am going to teach

you exactly how to buy small businesses

by finding the best ones I think this

video could change your life now

normally we make people pay money for

this because I do believe when you pay

for something you value it but I'm doing

this all for free because I think that

right now in this world we need more

small business owners just like you we

are going to give you so many tactics

about how to buy a small business that

by the end of this and maybe even

halfway through this video you should be

able to get on your phone and start

texting small business owners in order

for them to tell you whether they would

sell you a portion of their business or

not and do it in a way in which you

don't need cash to do it the tactics

will be heavy on this so I want you to

stick with me I'm not here to be your

dancing bear I'm here to teach you a few

things hopefully learn through my many

many years of being in private equity

and investing in small businesses but

first before we get to the tactics the

number one killer of buying businesses

is the wrong mindset if you have

negative thinking and you don't think

that you can do this you will get stuck

you won't make offers and you won't do

the work those thoughts are the

Destroyers of hopes and dreams so you

might have some questions in your head

right now like can I really buy a

business and the answer by and large for

most people that aren't completely lazy

and incompetent is yes can I leave my W2

the answer is also yes I worked in four

W2s before I was ever willing to go out

and leave my W2 and you might be

wondering I've never operated a business

before do I have what it takes this part

I'll say maybe let's see stick with me

and I will tell you if you have the

traits needed to be a small business

owner and to be the master of your own

fate as the boss here's what a boss

looks like can you work hard I think it

can can you handle the pain of being in

charge are you curious and finding

answers to problems do you want to take

some shortterm pain for long-term gain

and are you willing to do what it takes

to surround yourself with other winners

because success is actually contagious

now I don't think this is going to be

easy but I do think you can do this you

need three things you need the right

mindset you need a strategy which you're

going to get today and you need to take

some action in my opinion you need a

community of people around you while you

do this so you got it here at this

YouTube video and you got it here in the

comments and you've got it here at our

free newsletter because successful

Acquisitions or business buying happens

in The Sweet Spot between those three

things so you will face challenges in

this journey and the question is will

you let them stop you so the real

question there is you now let me show

you what I mean by this failure in

finding businesses for sale is super

normal so I'm going to tell you the bad

stuff first so we can get to the juicy

stuff later this is a guy by the name of

Greg Eisenberg you can shout him out on

Twitter great guy I tried to buy a

business from Greg I wanted to do a deal

together we were even friends and after

going back and forth for a few weeks

Greg tells me here no so it was not just

Greg actually that told me no I was

trying to buy a marketing agency and let

me tell you who else told me no Greg

told me no Hunter said no I reviewed

three agencies from cold traffic no I

reached out to two agencies I knew they

said said no I reached out to two others

but it it wasn't the right fit I reached

out to 10 others they never got back to

me so 35 deals in one vertical to get

one seller financing deal done most

people on the internet want to lie to

you about how easy things are going to

be I'm going to tell you the opposite

this will be hard it is worth it and

this is the only way that you will have

massive Forbes 500 success is if you

understand ownership you'll never be

able to buy a business unless you learn

the basics about business and there's

like five crucial financial documents

you're going to need to know how to use

them read and analyze this is so you are

putting yourself in a position to

generate a positive return on investment

HubSpot sent me these templates for them

they also sponsor these videos and I

love these the number one is personal

financial planning template so you and

your family stay in a spot where you can

safely buy a business number two is the

cash flow statement this is so important

the top reason businesses fail cash flow

problems AK don't buy a business that

doesn't make money number three balance

sheet template so you can review the

full snapshot of the business you want

to buy number four profit and loss

statement what kind of Debt Service are

you taking on is there enough left over

to hire an operator this templates

killer and then the last one is the

financial projection template maybe the

most important document for analyzing an

acquisition what's going to happen after

you buy it Link in the description if

you want to download all five of these

for free everyone say thanks HubSpot a

couple acquisition obstacles that are

come going to come onto your journey as

we go first you're going to have search

right and search means when you're

reaching out to small businesses you

don't find any that you like there

aren't enough options for it the second

obstacle you're going to have is

Outreach you're like I don't know what

to say to this guy Cody do I just walk

up to him and tell him I want to buy a

small business that seems kind of

intense the second is competition well

they they they asked for more money you

know you said I could buy it for $ Zer

dollars they came back to me and said no

they didn't respond to me at all and

then evaluation you're overwhelmed

you're not sure how to read financial

statements and you feel like you might

not be ble to get past it how do we make

sure that you never get stuck again well

it really starts with what I call the 10

entrepreneur mindset pillars when you

know what to expect you don't let it

stop you so the first one is

self-reflection I want you to know what

you really want from this journey so we

have a little screenshot here you can

take of it of our deal Clarity

worksheets how do you know what you want

to buy how do you know what type of

business that's one two is a little bit

of Courage you got to embrace some risk

and and realize that it might be hard my

dad had the best line about

entrepreneurship he said you aren't in

the game unless you find yourself in the

dead of the night head in the hands

sitting in the dark with no idea what to

do next he was right you know if you run

a business and if you become an owner

the truth of the matter is at some point

it will be hard but take courage and do

it anyway the third is creativity so the

cool part about buying businesses is

it's the most creative way I think to

gain wealth so as long as you can see an

obstacle and then go hm I'm going to

come up with a creative way to solve it

you can probably win in this game an

example here would be this is long so

you can pause it and look at it for a

second somebody in our group talking

explicitly about all the different ways

they went through a deal and then how

they finally closed the deal four is

resilience I kind of have this belief

that entrepreneurship is 5% idea 5%

timing 10% talent and like 80% not

stopping so the real ingredient

is just grit the next one is

resourcefulness so basically I think

about this like a little monkey with its

tools how many different things do we

have that will allow us to execute on

this better than ever and we have a

bunch of these tools for you I'm going

to give you one of them later in this

video so you're going to want to stick

around for this six is optimism the

truth of the matter is optimists get

rich pessimists sound smart which one do

you want to be I know which one I want

to be the seventh is continuous learning

I loved this quote from Henry Ford he

said anyone who stops learning is old

whether at 20 or 80 anyone who keeps

learning stays young which is a huge

differentiator in this game eight is

like Simon syic said start with why

what's your why create a compelling

Vision that keeps coming back when you

get stuck so for instance I often think

about a dark vision and a light vision

my dark vision would be something like I

can remember when I used to work at

Vanguard like 15 years ago and I would

wait and sit and stare at the clock

until it crept all the way to 5:00 and I

could leave but because I wasn't allowed

to leave until until I got off my 5:00

shift and I could remember like how

awful those last 10 minutes were and

that I wanted to be anybody else and

anywhere else in the world besides there

that's my dark vision or my dark why my

light why is I looked on the opposite

side and I looked up to somebody who I

didn't even know who lived a life that

was so free who was their own boss and

who got to choose the problems that they

dealt with and that was my why that was

big enough to keep going the last two

things are pretty simple you you're

going to have to Pivot a lot because

adaptability is one of the main keys to

being a dealmaker and then if you can

get a little patience loaned it's not a

linear path it will take you longer than

you think but if you are able to marry

long-term patients and short-term

patients you can win just about anything

after seeing those 10 things the only

reasons why you can't be an entrepreneur

and why you can't buy a business is if

you are unwilling to do those 10 things

if you are willing to do those 10 things

then this should both scare and excite

you and as long as you're willing to

commit you can keep pushing through I

want to tell you a quick story there was

a time I did a deal that took 3 years I

was a part of a business I didn't own it

I wanted to buy my partner out in that

business he did not want to get bought

out and so it took me three years of

working with him proving my worth

building up a case until finally about

three years later I bought that guy out

for about a million dollars paid

overtime from the profits of the

business that business today does

somewhere between let's call it $5 to6

million a year so that one deal for a

million dollar made me Millions but it

took me three years to do it you need

patience now I'm going to teach you how

to do it in 12 months as opposed to what

it took me which was decades to learn

this let's take one of our first tactics

here this one I call the venmo challenge

so let's get right into one way today

right now watching this video you could

pick up your phone you could open up

venmo you could reach out to a seller on

here and you could before this video is

even over start engaging with sellers in

order to find businesses to buy the idea

is simply this you turn your costs into

profits what if you made money every

time you spent that's like a paradigm

shift right there what if you made money

every time you spent what do you mean by

that Cody the venmo challenge basically

is this idea where are small businesses

that you already know that you already

spend money on that you could get to the

owner and the way you answer that

question is you open up your venmo and

just like this is my real venmo here you

see huh look I'm spending money with

consistently a bunch of small businesses

I want to grab all those small

businesses and I want to put them into a

list like this and I have my cleaning

lady on here I have the property manager

for a couple of my properties I've got

my handyman on here and it shows how

much I spend with them so I list out who

is it I list out what do they do for me

I list out how much I spend with them

and then the total revenue of their

business

and then I add a column for Value ad

what could I do to grow their business

now you might be going who's telling you

their revenue Cody what do you mean how

do you know what you could add value ad

for well here's a real conversation I

reached out to Laura and I said hey can

I get a meeting with you and Oscar maybe

sometime after we get back from

Thanksgiving I want to run an idea I

have past you and hear what you both

think about it it's about some

businesses that I want to buy that would

be cool to have you guys run and you get

equity and get paid for it would you be

open to me it at which point Laura said

yeah uh sure and it turns out she is

totally open to selling her business and

oh by the way she might actually want to

run a couple of other businesses that I

either already own or want to integrate

into her business and at this point I

might say something like this to her if

I was you imagine you're young you don't

have a ton of money you don't have a ton

of experience but what do you do have

you are smarter than the average small

business owner when it comes to

technology because you're on YouTube and

they aren't and so I might have a

conversation with the owner that goes

like this uh Laura I see you run this

cleaning business you do an incredible

job I love being a client of yours do

you want to grow this business oh you do

okay fantastic um what are you going to

do to grow this business are you working

on like getting more clients right now

or increasing prices or number of

services oh no you're not interesting

okay um listen I actually am trying to

focus on helping one small business

owner grow their business and by growing

your small business with you I take a

percentage of The Upside that I bring to

the business so I know right now you

don't have social media you don't have a

website and I have a bunch of friends

that need cleaning ladies but don't have

one right now what if I could bring you

new clients could I keep a percentage of

The Upside and just like that you're in

the game so the one week venmo challenge

goes like this how much do you spend on

venmo you pull up the last two months

then you list all of the people you pay

how much do you pay what do they do then

you add a step we haven't talked about

yet which is desire to own would you

actually want to own part of this

business or the whole of the business

and then third is the owner conversation

have your first conversation with them

like we did with Laura and ask them if

they're interested in growing or if

they're interested in selling or if

they're interested in cutting costs all

of which you could use to buy a business

for $0 and then you give them the offer

which is what I told you now we're not

going to obsess this video on how to

have the owner combo and the offer but I

am going to give you a ton of different

ways to reach out to these independent

business owners hit me in the comments

if you want an entire video watching me

live talk to owners and get them to sell

me their businesses but for now let's go

in to this next idea that I think is

very true you can measure your success

by the number of difficult conversations

you have had the more hard conversations

you have had the likely bigger your bank

account is if you liked this one one you

should open venmo and start messing

around with it right now put this video

on pause come back and watch the rest of

it or I have like nine more of these for

you so let's get into the next one okay

personal p&l review this is sort of the

same idea but where do you spend that

isn't Amazon so this is getting away

from venmo and looking at your bank

statement and your credit card statement

you're going to open up your credit card

statement like this and you're ask

yourself what do I spend on vendors

local small businesses you're going to

get to the owner you're going to find

out if they're profitable if so you're

going to ask yourself do you want to own

it you're going to start working the

process you do the same thing we did the

last time which is who do spend Revenue

value ad but in this version because we

have a wider set because it's our credit

card let's make it a little bit easier

on oursel right the parameters are this

it's not a publicly listed company

because you're not Jeff Bezos you make

sure you can get to the owner it's small

enough that you can actually contribute

like for the average person I think that

typically means somewhere below $10 to

$3 million in Revenue if you're a CEO

yourself you make a lot of money spend a

lot of money you have a business this

could work up to a much higher dollar

amount for you but if you're a normal

everyday Joe then you can do this with

smaller businesses and then you want to

make sure you'd actually want to run

grow or own this company now this is

actually how I bought almost 50% of

strike fire productions for

$10,000 I went to the founder of a

company that managed uh podcasts so it's

a podcast production company and he man

managed one of my podcasts at the time

way back in the day when I had one and I

went to the guy whose name was Jonathan

and I said hey uh are you trying to go

grow your business and I had the exact

same conversation and Jonathan Jonathan

said the magic words which were uh I

love podcast production I love the

operations of this company I hate sales

I hate marketing I hate growing this

business and I go I love those things if

I can grow the business for you can I

take a percentage of it and so this

business ended up paying me somewhere

between $10 and $30,000 a month every

month for a few years before I

eventually sold the business back to

Jonathan so for $10,000 I got hundreds

of thousand of dollars over the course

of a few years now the most interesting

part about this is that you can do it at

all levels of the game I also bought one

half of unconventional Acquisitions from

my former partner over six months I did

a small down payment and I backed up the

rest of the purchase by the company's

assets and I did it all by just looking

at my p&l and seeing where I spent so

download expenses list them all do I

want to own this bad boy have a

conversation with the owner you make the

offer now right about this time is when

I think the words of one of my favorite

billionaires Sam zel come into play

which is that fear and courage are very

closely related and anyone who does not

understand fear does not know courage

and I like the story that he tells and I

think it's the most significant advice

that I've ever seen him give

entrepreneurs the young man is facing

bankruptcy he's about to lose all his

money and he goes to pray to God each

week to let him win the lottery to save

his livelihood and the first week the

man doesn't win the second week he

doesn't win but the third time a

flashlight appears and from up high

comes the voice of God and says you got

to buy a ticket and I don't think he

said the word but he did say you've got

to buy a ticket our goal here is to help

you close a business or buy a business

that is in alignment with your personal

goals of making money of moving of

having Freedom there's a lot of ways to

make that happen but you have to buy the

ticket so I want you to pay attention in

this next one in particular because this

might be one of my favorite ways to find

a small business to buy that is so easy

and yet rarely done I call it the

Rolodex to Roi method so there's a lot

of ways that you can go out and search

businesses but how do you attract

businesses to you that are already for

sale well I think one of the most

important ways is how you define

yourself defines how other people see

you so typically you know when you're

engaging with somebody in a conversation

you ask like what do you do for a living

what what what's been up with you lately

what are you working on right and

normally people say oh I'm good you know

I'm in finance or I uh do YouTube videos

that's what I do what's going on with

you nothing new family's good right

that's how people answer I want you to

change one thing one thing nothing else

besides this oh uh what are you up to

these days I'm buying businesses I'm

buying businesses that are small

businesses located in Austin Texas that

I can help grow with marketing I'm

helping uh small business owners grow

their social media presence and for that

I take some Equity I want you to start

telling people that you buy businesses

that is step one you just tell people

because words have power and a wild

thing will happen to you when you start

sharing with different groups you're

going to realize how many owners you

know you might think right now that you

don't know anybody who wants to sell

their small business you might even

think you don't know anybody who owns a

small business I can pretty much

guarantee you very few things except

that that's not true so I want you to

start telling people hey yeah I buy

businesses tell that to your friends and

family tell that to professionals

attorneys accountants industry specific

individuals tell that to anybody who you

can about explaining that you are trying

to increase your ownership percentage

and you are getting equity for it now

one of the other best ways to get in the

game of buying small businesses is what

I call do you want to get paid for

bringing other people deals now this is

called deal sourcing or third-party deal

sourcing and let's say that right now

you're like Cody I don't know if I want

to buy a business myself maybe I want

part of it but I don't want the whole

thing I don't know if I want to own all

of that what if instead of having to own

or take over the business at all you

could just get paid for bringing people

businesses on what's called a success

fee so what that means is let's say

right now you brought me a business if

that business is something that I

invested in or bought I typically pay a

success fee for closing for like two to

3% of the deal size that I take down and

sometimes if the deals are smaller it

might be more like 10 or $25,000 as

opposed to 2% or 3% so you very quickly

run up the math and you can see wow if I

help Cody close a $3 million deal or a

$10 million deal I can make a lot of

money and if you think that this is

crazy that I do it just know people do

this all over the place this is my

friend Andrew Wilkinson at tiny and if

you send Andrew Wilkinson at tiny a deal

he likes he'll pay you 25,000 as the

base up to hundreds of thousands of

dollars for sourcing him deals that hit

his dealbox so if this is something that

interests you what do you do you start

surrounding yourself with people who buy

businesses you could join the contrarian

community that we have where we buy and

sell businesses all the time you could

be on our email list you could come to

some of our events you could go talk to

people in private Equity identify anyone

in your Professional Network who buys

businesses and then you want to start

engaging with them to see if potentially

you could Source them a deal now let's

say you want to go back to buying the

business yourself what kind of

connections matter well first of all the

most important connection is probably

you want to get around people who

already touch people when they're about

to sell a business there are two A's

that are number one for that attorneys

and accountants boring at a cocktail

party really useful if you want to buy

small businesses so I love to ask my

richest friends who are your best

lawyers and your best accountants and

could you introduce me to them and then

what you start doing is saying to them

hey you know I'm buying businesses in

this space I'm young I'm hungry I want

to take over somebody's business if

anybody comes along that is selling your

business I'd love you to think of me and

surely I will pay a referral fee for any

anybody that we close so this is kind of

interesting because then you can become

the person that sources them a deal

another great way to find businesses to

buy is industry specific individuals so

for instance this is Lloyd silver he

runs my community for me he's a business

broker and he also I taught him how to

buy his first laundromats and he bought

his first laundromat uh through with

creative financing and he got it through

an industry contract uh distributor of

equipment so let's say that you like

working out and you want to buy a gym or

you want to own part of a gym or you

want to own part of a gym equipment

company go where the game is played go

to gym Consultants go to trainers go to

owners of gyms go to trade Association

leaders go to equipment distributors and

gyms any industry that you want to get

in just start telling them the game that

you're playing the other way to win in

buying small businesses is what I call

the center of place strategy so a lot of

people talk about center of influence

strategy COI I talk about Center of

place you want to go go where the deals

are already happening what does this

mean it means private clubs nonprofit

organizations strategic vacation spots

basically anywhere where people with

money hang out deals are getting done

and people own things and so a great

place to be is somewhere where the

business owners are getting close to

retirement and you can be the young

fresh blood for them now at this point

you might go like Cody I ain't got the

money to join a golf membership nor do I

have the interest there's lots of ways

around this for inance

you can usually ask if there's a social

membership usually cheaper than the full

membership you can look for friends who

are members and ask if you can join them

for a future event for instance for a

long time you know my husband Chris was

in the military he didn't have the cash

to join a golf membership so he would

find people who were already members and

then he would you know buy the beers and

go with them golfing you could do the

same thing for deal making join onetime

events open to the public what's Wild is

how often these places want to recruit

and you can sneak your way in there when

they have the one time events open more

than anything I want you to to take this

point in in this moment I have given

thousands of speeches I have taught

thousands and thousands and thousands of

people how to buy businesses we have

people who have done millions and

millions of millions of dollars in deals

people that used to be nurses and

teachers I have found one truth to be

true every room you are in likely has an

owner ready to sell every single room

you are in and so play a game the next

time you are in a room with I don't know

10 to 20 to 50 to 100 people go around

and ask hey you know I buy businesses is

any you know you do own a business would

you ever be interested in selling a

business oh let's talk about it and

you're going to find them all around you

the old truism your network truly is

your net worth is so true but especially

if you want to think about taking over

somebody's already profitable already

cash flowing business now that said I

have this saying that my husband and I

always say back and forth to each other

which is that I'd rather become so good

they can't ignore me not Network so hard

finally meet them I always think owning

the club better than waiting in line but

in this particular instance until you

are so good that they can't ignore you

it's fine to network hard so that you

meet them so we've given you like three

ways to do deals where you're getting

your hands dirty a little bit you're

going out and touching deals it looks

like you can talk to people maybe even

get a business for Zer but how do you

press the Easy Button how would you do

it if you wanted to buy a business with

essentially one or a few clicks now in

Deal sour in or what's called

origination which is a fancy private

Equity term for finding businesses to

buy there are really two ways to buy

businesses there's an on-market deal and

an off-market deal the only way I really

don't want you to buy a business is this

what's called Spray and prey spray and

prey is when an investor has no real

plan they kind of like throw a bunch of

money or time at a bunch of deals by the

end of this video I want you to pick

like one two or Max three strategies you

want to use because hope is not a

strategy and too many strategies is

almost as bad as no strategies so all

the business strategies we just talked

about for finding businesses to buy are

off-market Deals off-market Deals

basically mean the businesses aren't

advertised to the public you can't

oneclick see them for sale and you can't

see all of the information about them

but they are probably going to be

cheaper often you can have better

negotiation you're not going to have as

much competition they may be harder to

get to with no Clear Sight to how much

money they make or what's going on in

the business but because of that you

might get a better deal which is why I

do a lot of off-market Deal Searching I

kind of think about it like door

knocking like Realtors used to do to go

see if you wanted to sell your house but

for small businesses the second way to

do it the oneclick way are on Market

deals those are businesses that are

already for sale the owner knows they

want to sell they're publicly listed

businesses and they're actively

advertise for sale just like they would

be on Zillow if you were going to go

sell a house now there's lots of Pros to

this visibility transparency could be

faster the problem with onm Market deals

sometimes is there's lots of other

people looking to buy them and it might

be harder to do creative structuring or

get deals for zero dollar or little

dollars so basically I think about it

like a teeter totter if I have more time

but less money I might want to go off

Market to find my deals if I have more

money less time I might want to go go on

Market to find deals it really doesn't

matter and let me tell you why because

unlike real estate you can make money

lots of ways in buying a small business

so if you own real estate the only way

you can really make money is getting a

good deal when you buy and waiting a

long time yeah you could like you know

redo the house you could add on to it

but you're really probably not going to

be able to 10x or 50x your return in a

real estate transaction unless you wait

a really long time for small businesses

that's not the case so even if you pay a

little bit more or even if you have to

work a little bit more to get the deal

done you have way more upside because

you know real estate only Grows by like

three to four to maybe sometimes in

great markets Max 10% a year whereas

small businesses can grow a lot more

than that so both work your choice the

real goal here is just which side of the

Teeter Totter do you want to be on the

nino5 strategy it's really good this

strategy is where you look around at

your

workplace and you ask yourself would I

want to own this business would I want

to own any of our vendors would I want

to own any of our suppliers it's

basically taking your employee hat and

thinking can you turn it into an owner

framework by buying part of the business

you work in and starting conversations

with your boss who is retiring now if

you don't think this is likely I'm going

to give you a few examples we've got Jay

who I taught personally to buy a

business that makes $ 1.5 million a year

in revenue and the seller was her former

coworker and he financed the whole deal

for her then you've also got really

public deals for instance one of the

richest billionaires in the world Wayne

Wayne hinga who started Waste Management

the trash company he bought part of his

very first trash company from the

company that he worked with at the time

you also have this guy Arty Moreno one

of the uh other richest men in the US

who also owns a baseball team and Ry

Moreno worked in an outdoor billboard

advertising company and then he and a

colleague got together Arty was the

sweat and the hard work the other guy

was the money and they bought their

company out from their employer now he

has bought billboard companies all over

the country if you haven't read about

Ted Turner this is like Ted's old now

but Ted is the creator of CNN and Turner

Broadcast News and TBS and was like the

creator of probably one of the biggest

media companies of all time and he came

from really nothing super blue collar

and then his dad right before he died

ran a business a Billard business that

Ted Turner worked at and Ted Turner's

dad sadly killed himself and before he

killed himself he sold the business to

somebody else and so Ted worked at the

business couldn't run it anymore but he

figured out a way to buy back the

business from the other guy as an

employee using a percentage of future

profits so this happens all over the

place now you might be asking why would

anybody do that well let's let's take

Jay's story so her old coworker

originally wanted her to run the company

for him because he already had a real

estate company and he and her had worked

together in the past and then he was

basically like wait a second Jay why

don't you just run my company for me can

you just run this thing and she was like

you know what because she had talked to

me she said I'm not interested in

running other people's companies so he

asked if she wanted to buy it and she

said yes so what's fascinating is he was

like listen I was going to have you run

it but I'm actually I'm ready to retire

and my wife really wants me to go ski

and hang out and so as soon as we're

ready to retire in a few years let's set

it up and we'll sell the business to you

and that's exactly what happened it took

them a few years to get the business

done but then he sold the entire

business to her and she didn't have to

put any money down which is really cool

I think one of the keys to doing this

it's so important for this generation My

Generation you guys to know is you want

to be an excellent worker in a lot of

ways and an excellent employee and an

excellent cooworker because if you the

type of person who reaches out to others

when you don't need something people

remember that and the the game of

business sales is really just a transfer

of trust back and forth and so make sure

that you are not the employee that

people would never sell something to if

you want to use the 9-to-5 strategy now

let me lay out for you exactly what the

owner profile would be for somebody who

is willing to sell you their business

and also potentially do it totally

creatively financed or big creative

Finance so you don't have to put up the

cash in this instance Jay had the

perfect seller financing Avatar so the

seller that would be most likely to do

all this the seller didn't have kids to

take over the business he thought about

selling to an employee but wasn't 100%

sure the other guy could run the company

the business had very few prospective

buyers nobody wanted to buy the thing he

was kind of tired burned out ready to ex

it about to retire a little older now he

could have sold to a private Equity

company but he wanted his employees to

be taken care of and he wasn't sure how

much work the private Equity deal would

be this happens more than you ever know

if you are young right now and watching

this video and you are hungry and

hardworking let me tell you because I

own many businesses I have given a

business back to one of the people that

worked with me in it because the

business was too small for me but they

were super hardworking I want you to

open your your aperture to think

differently about the fact that not

everything has to be a monetary

transaction Jay was able to take over

this business using an agreement to pay

the owner back over 10 years using

profits of the business which is really

really cool the nineo fivr strategy

basically has five points that look very

similar to the other strategies we talk

about first you look at your company and

you ask is this a company that's small

enough for me to potentially buy it does

the owner fit the seller financing

seller Avatar then you look at your

co-workers and you're like hm what other

other companies opportunities vendors

might these co-workers have of mine list

them out then you ask yourself but I

want to own any of these companies the

one I work for the ones my co-workers

have on the side then you have a

conversation with the owner of the

business you work for maybe some of your

vendors and finally you put together the

offer five steps to you turning your 9

to-5 into hopefully five figures a month

or more the next strategy you guys

should know about because we're here on

YouTube right now it's it's called

social media the number number one

reason that I create YouTubes non-stop

if you haven't seen me say this before

is because I am increasing deal flow of

small businesses to me I create content

so that for free everywhere like all

over the place we we spend hundreds of

thousands of dollars a month creating

free content about how to buy and sell

businesses why so that people who are

selling their business will come and

sell them to me and also so if I want to

sell a business I have built-in

investors and buyers and simultaneously

because I do believe that more of you

should own your small community you

should own the businesses in your

community not Starbucks Walmart Target

own everything and so social media is

really interesting because unlike

sometimes how I use it social media

isn't just for cat videos you can

actually attract things to you and a

perfect example would be look at a

couple of these videos we had that are

about small businesses that I actually

got asked to invest in or found the deal

because of social media

so what I want you to do first is super

super easy you'd optimize your profile

so if you really want to buy a business

make sure your profile says that I buy

businesses that are X or Y or Z that's

it I want you to then post updates about

your acquisition Journey tag me in them

I'll reshare them to see if you can get

more people focusing on what you're

doing all I want you to do is clearly

articulate what type of businesses you

want to buy and that you are looking to

buy small businesses that's it something

like this LinkedIn a great place to do

it so is Facebook actually I know like I

kind of thought Facebook was dead but

space Facebook is perfect because the

average small business owner is 65 plus

years old which means that they are

perfect in the Facebook sphere because

the average Facebook user is like 45

plus so LinkedIn Facebook amazing now

that's going to have people get

attracted to you that's the first step

of acquisition the second step is search

now uh I thought LinkedIn was kind of

dead I really don't do much on LinkedIn

personally I post content on there but I

wasn't hanging out on LinkedIn but then

I started realizing that you can

actually go and find sellers of

businesses all over LinkedIn for

instance I was looking to buy a

landscaping company and look what I did

I just typed in landscaping company

located in uh New Jersey or

Massachusetts and what happened a bunch

of presidents and owners of landscaping

companies popped up these people want to

be found by customers and now they're

going to be found by you the potential

buyer this is a guy by the name of

Aubrey who's in our community and um and

it was perfect he basically said one of

his posts on LinkedIn was found by a

family office that has a couple billion

dollars under management and he wants to

invest in his next deal which is huge so

post on LinkedIn and you might be

surprised who comes along at this point

people typically ask okay well now that

I found the businesses to reach out to

even on LinkedIn what do I say maybe

I'll do an entire video on this let me

know in the comments if you want a full

video on how to reach out specifically

to sellers but let me give you one exact

template first here's an exact template

I have used on LinkedIn to reach out to

people okay the direct message kind of

goes like this hi thanks for the

connection I love seeing you share about

your landscaping business how long have

you been in business so it's like I'm

not asking for anything uh he sees that

I'm seeing the stuff that he posts I'm

kind of hands off on it then the next

interaction might be something like

that's amazing uh I also own a

landscaping business or I work in a

landscaping business or I'm buying a

landscaping business have you ever

thought about selling you know I'd love

to talk to you about it we could always

get together and I could tell you kind

of what I've found in the space since

I'm looking at a ton of businesses just

like yours that's it short and sweet

another secret hack is to explore

Facebook business listings or Pages look

at these if you Google Facebook

Landscaping groups you're going to find

a ton of them and you can direct message

them and they respond because they're

looking for customers and so here

Gonzalez Landscaping quick little follow

little DM and you might be able to get

right to the owner another sneaky way

that one of our members did it in the

community that I loved was once you

become kind of a pro at this so let's

say you've started reaching out maybe

you've done your first deal or two you

can host webinars or live sessions to

kind of talk about here's how I grow

Landscaping businesses or if you're ever

thinking about selling a business here's

how I talk to people about how to

increase the price of a business for

sale now this is a little 202 level but

I know some of you watching right now

are 202 level and so this is really

fascinating because you don't need very

many people to show up you need the

right people to show up and who is going

to show up for a webinar on how to sell

your landscaping business probably

Landscaping Company owners which might

be what you want to buy I think that

attention is the new currency nval ravan

said if you want to be rich in the 1800s

you did it with labor in the 1900s with

capital now you do it with code I'd add

in the two 2000s you do it with audience

and social media can attract all the

things to you and also allow you to

search which is super super important

there's actually a database that is so

useful yet free that I wish more people

talked about and nobody does and also

secret hack way better to work at than a

Starbucks and it is your local library

what's Wild is your local library has

access to digital databases where you

can go in or access them online one of

the most important ones in my mind are

databases like this reference Solutions

which basically has a toz resources on

varying Industries and businesses and

you get it for free these business

directories usually come from the

government and are really EXP expensive

to get into but you can go to your local

library and have a list of all the

companies within your target area and

then reach out to them individually like

cold calling the reason why I like this

is because think about it this way like

lots of people online on YouTube talk

about um cold calling and growing your

business through cold calling or through

cold email or through Twitter yeah you

could do that and you could cold call in

order to grow your small startup or you

could make one phone call that could

make you Millions because you are cold

calling for a business to buy totally

different game maybe one of my most

frequently asked questions besides where

do I find a business to buy is how do I

find a mentor how do I find a mentor to

help me I think that there's a little

bit of a wrong question there I think

you need three types of mentors you need

an up andc Comer with hustle I think L

youth teaches you a lot especially with

technology today you need a same level

player so that you can learn together

and you need a billionaire to your

millionaire you need somebody who's like

a few steps ahead of you wherever you're

at and so one I would say you don't need

one Mentor you need three and the best

way to find mentors is go where people

are already buying businesses I would

probably go to our Facebook page where

we have a Facebook page all about buying

businesses if you have a serious intent

to buy a business I would click the link

below and you can figure out if you

should maybe take one of our courses on

it maybe join in the community or if you

want to do it all for free there's a

free newsletter below too that is all

about how to buy a small business every

single week information comes out on it

if you want to be rich hang out with the

rich it turns out success is contagious

if you want to buy a business hang out

with people who own businesses or have

already bought businesses it's not

rocket science but we don't do it that

often I think stealing people's 10,000

hours helps you collapse decades into

days and anytime you can do that life

gets a little bit easier the last

two are so important in a way I hate

this word but it's really necessary and

that word is networking so how do you

not just Network though but how do you

leverage networking organizations to

find off-market deals so good that you

feel a little guilty for getting access

to them that's the idea here let me tell

you a hard truth the way you do this is

by going to networking organizations

that you're going to think are boring

these are not fun parties there's no I

took a bill pill and a Visa here we not

hanging out at some cool coffee shop the

average small business owner is 65 plus

you got to go where they hang out and uh

it's typically Not a Hipster Cafe so I

like going to Chamber of Commerce events

you can become a member if you own a

small business but you could also just

jump in and out of the events mixers and

networking sessions there's a lot of

them they're in almost every city in the

US and in most of the world and because

they have these little events that are

pretty poorly attended usually you can

really infiltrate and just start doing

what I said in the beginning you define

who you are with the words that you

speak and so make sure you're telling

people that you're looking for

businesses to buy now you will be bored

but billions are found in the boring so

I think you're going to be okay a couple

other cool things the Chamber of

Commerce does that you would probably

never think of attending but actually

has a ton of small business owners go to

ribbon cutting Ceremonies for new

businesses in your area these events

provide sort of an informal setting to

make connections but you can also so

then access the chamber's member

directories if you join or if you become

friends with a member just ask to kind

of see who else is in the group and you

can have access to a list of all the

local small business owners by you then

you narrow down the people you want to

speak to depending on what kind of

business you want to buy the second uh

organization that's interesting to think

about joining are varying types of

service organizations so think like

rotary or Social Service volunteer type

organizations Church organizations great

way to connect with other leaders in

your community typically if they're

leaders in the church or in rotary or in

service that means they have some extra

spare time it also means that they're

willing to do the hard work which has a

high likelihood of them being an owner

or knowing a bunch of local owners in

the community this is a very specific

one it's called BNI business Network

International it's I mean look at this

picture it's got clip bar all over it

the website's not pretty and yet it is

huge for business relationships you can

actually schedule one-on-one meetings as

a member and because of that they have

this referral system to exchange

business leads you can do workshops and

trainings and there's a bunch of other

organizations like this there's one

called YPO young professionals

organization we have one called the

contrarian Community there's EO which is

entrepreneurs organization if you're

super rich you can join tiger 21 where

to be a member you have to have at least

a $20 million net worth all of these are

going to be filled with owners and they

might just be your perfect to off Market

deals all I'll say here is when you go

in just be cool try to never use the

word networking it's it's lame I think

this is my favorite so you guys are

going to want to stick for this one I

call this expertise to equity and I have

an entire video that I'm thinking of

putting together on top of this if if

you guys want now what do I mean by

expertise to equity there's three ways

to buy a business in my opinion you can

use money uh the most common way people

think to buy a business either your

money or somebody else's you can use

time time so that's like Sweat Equity

like I'll do all the stuff you don't

want to do I'll work hard for you and

then there's expertise and expertise is

a little bit better than sweat because

there's some leverage associated with it

for instance when I bought part of

strike fire Productions it wasn't my

sweat I was using I knew a couple of

people that if I hooked him up with

certain Partnerships he would grow the

business that's using my expertise to

get equity in his business and I'm not

alone in this karun who's part of our

contrarian community said this about it

he basically has now bought seven law

firms located in Australia and he was

like how did I do it while not using

much at all of my own money step one

he's like I became indispensable to my

own business and then with an owner that

was ready to retire I asked to take over

the business then I did the same thing

in another business I became

indispensable to them in some way then I

asked for Equity then I signed the

paperwork and we also had Ross Crandle

do the same thing so you know this story

is fascina he basically had a friend of

his looking for someone to help Drive

sales and Ross is like you need to do

more online marketing and his friend was

you know like well you know do you want

to do it and Ross wasn't sure took a

moment which is smart to figure out what

the deal exactly would be but then a few

weeks later he said yes and the way he

split it was super interesting so

basically Ross owns 50% of the business

the guy runs an ebike shop and Retail

location so Ross doesn't get any of that

revenue or cash flow but Ross gets to

own 50% of the business because he owns

the online store so if you buy anything

online Ross gets 100% on that if you buy

anything in person the other guy gets

100% on that which is super interesting

what's interesting overall is because

the sales are split right down the

middle you get to share expenses but he

you know pays most if not all of it this

is just one way to structure an

expertise to equity deal now you've got

all these ways to buy a business but

let's think about how do we create the

right habits to do this consistently

until you guys buy a business and

eventually an Empire and a eventually

more businesses and you become like this

guy who's the richest guy in the world

who by the way this guy do you know how

he made all his money this is Bernardo

not he is the CEO and owner of lvmh

Louis Vuitton moette Hennessy and he did

not start any of these businesses he

bought them he bought sort of defunct

businesses like Christian Dior that

weren't doing very good compiled them

all together and made an Empire and he

did that by having the right habits

continuously for deal sourcing I think

that if you want to have real success in

life you have to figure out the deal

origination process you have to figure

out how to continuously get better deals

to you you don't need to do that for

your first $10,000 in monthly Revenue

you can just do one deal with one deal

you can get $10,000 a monthly income

I've definitely done that but if you

want to hit those seven figures

consistently you're going to need to

look at hundreds of deals and do this

often so it's not like a one-time thing

just like you can't sell something once

in a business and expect to never sell

anything again and you'll be worth

millions you're going to have to be

active so I use a couple of different

things in order to do that this one is

nothing more than a little app so

basically you can see here I use an app

on my phone right here and the app looks

something like this it just monitors

your daily habits and I hit the circle

for every day that I do the habits that

I want so right now those habits for me

are am I looking for a certain business

every day I click on the circle the

second that I've done that continuously

um have I read up on the industry every

single day I click the circle as soon as

that's done I have some health stuff on

there too but apps monitor habits what

gets monitored gets managed what gets

managed gets executed on the second way

this is pretty cool uh I found this from

a guy on Twitter and we have our own

version of it is just an activity

tracker so if you guys have ever on

sales right you track like the number of

phone calls that you made the number of

phone calls that picked up how long

maybe you were on the phone for back

when I was in sales I had to do that

aggressively well they do the same thing

with tracking deals so basically how

many phone calls have they made how many

have been connected how many emails have

been set how many intro meetings have

been had all the way to how many deals

have been closed and what was our

success rate and I find that if you are

able to keep a scorecard in the things

that you car care about in life your

score goes up you know just like in

sports if we didn't keep score we

probably wouldn't try to win that much

and so just keep a scorecard I think

finding businesses is one of the most

timec consuming steps of the entire

process because you want to find the

right deal but now you have so many

Tools in your toolkit to do it I just

want you to be consistent with your

search there's a famous saying from

Charlie Munger who says uh you can't get

a baby in one month by getting nine

women pregnant doesn't work with that

you have to have the patients to take

nine months or get what we call in

finance the saying is pregnant with a

deal and the stages of pregnancy kind of

do go like this in the beginning you're

like woo this kind of sounds like a lot

and then at the end you're like oh my

gosh we have a baby I can't believe I

ever doubted this it's the best thing

that ever happen to me and that's the

same thing with doing deals so regular

Deal Searching equals a full pipeline I

ask myself this question a lot when I

don't want to do something and the

question is simply this do you want to

have fun or do you want to be rich in

this moment now I tend to think that the

person who has the most fun in life wins

over time and that no amount of money

will be enough but I also kind of

chuckle and go well let's get the money

first and then we'll figure it out and I

have found that after you make your

first

$500,000 your happiness kind of it

tapers off but that first $500,000 is

lifechanging and I think you should

unapologetically chase after it with

everything you got I want you to have

really clear goals clearly defined goals

lead to clearly met expectations so you

can use our goal tracker we actually

have this here for you which lists the

number of businesses you want to find

per week the number of business listings

you've reviewed and this is important

because in the beginning you want to get

lots of reps in you know just like you

don't expect to sell something on the

first cold call right so you're going to

start identifying some patterns and then

I want you to keep a list of how many

deals fall into a deal that would be

interesting for you so it's not just

like oh yeah I found a business for sale

but it's a trash business in Kentucky I

don't want that that doesn't count as

that type of business so you can use our

goal tracker for that then I want you to

have a number for how many follow-ups

when Brokers or sellers don't respond to

you you know just like if you want to

get married and find the perfect partner

for you you don't expect that person to

probably say yes to getting married day

one maybe they don't even say yes to a

date on day one so you're going to have

to have some follow-up items as well and

it looks like this it's super simple we

use a notion tracker but the the goal

here is be consistent measure your work

and you will meet your expectations or

outcome the other thing I want to keep

as real in your head is sometimes it

helps to look at failures of those who

have had a lot of success not just those

who have won continuously like for

instance Emily shared the other day that

she actually passed on a business it was

too risky you know they didn't like the

the numbers that they found they had a

bunch of people in the mix the

financials didn't seem right and I like

them sharing their are quote unquote

failures like this because when the win

happens you kind of look back on all of

this and it's a mark of appreciation for

how hard you'd work you've worked but

you also need to celebrate the most

important thing which is uh Warren

Buffett always said the best deals I

ever did were some of the deals I didn't

do and so remembering that you learning

what a good business looks like and a

bad business looks like is really

important too I remember a billion years

ago I met Tony Robbins and um he said

this line to me that has stuck with me

and the line was if you say that won't

work for me it won't and so I've always

changed it to how could that work for me

because then it might work for you and

so I want you to think about how can we

do what most people will not do which is

put in the work past when it's hard past

when you don't want to pass when you

feel like you might not be able to

accomplish it you're probably not where

you want to be because you haven't done

what is necessary yet it's a very hard

truth there's very few problems because

of other people and many problems

because of you and many problems because

of me for myself so accountability

really matters so we gave you a bunch of

methods for how to find a business to

buy but one of my favorite things to do

is track what I have been doing I think

keeping track of your deal flow is what

separates people who win and people who

lose over time so I use something called

the contrarian deal flow funnel and it

kind of looks like this you have the

initial Outreach that's the top of the

funnel where you review potential

businesses then you sign an NDA what's a

non-disclosure agreement then you kind

of analyze what the business looks like

under the hood then you make an offer

and then finally your offer gets

accepted and the deal gets closed so as

you can imagine you start with a lot at

the top but then the more deals you look

at you have a very small number at the

bottom until you finally get the deal

that is perfect for you the secret here

is when you have the right volume of

deal flow you'll need to manage that

properly but when you have the right

volume it's very likely that you will

have the right success so this is what's

called a numbers game the higher your

activity level the higher your success

level would be now there's not a lot you

need to keep track of at this stage but

I want to show you some of them so at

the very top stage the early two stages

let's say you want to keep track of like

what's the name of the business what

industry is it in is an on or off Market

deal how much money does it make and how

much do you think you're going to offer

for it or how are you going to finance

the deal and how much cash flow is it

going to give you in your pocket that's

all I'd keep track of you know five or

six things at the end stages there's

going to be more details you're going to

have kind of your notes back and forth

you're going to want to to understand

the customer base you're going to want

to understand how the business runs

you're going to want to understand how

many employees they have maybe profit

and loss statement so all the financials

of the business so in the beginning you

don't need all that you need five things

and then as you get farther along you

can have a longer list of what's called

due diligence material or things that

you need consistently over time most

deals die at the altar of no followup

and so just like you know persistence is

really hard to beat actually I think if

I could have one skill set magically

placed upon anybody who works with me

and myself in order to have success it

would be persistence it would be like do

they just not give up and so if you can

have a process for following up with all

the people that you are potentially

interested in buying a business from you

won't need to have so many people in

your pipeline because persistence

usually wins the game you can steal my

homework which is your contrarian deal

sourcing CRM right here and this CRM is

very simple notion tracker of everything

I think you need in order to close a

small business but then most people ask

me how long will it actually take to

acquire a business so I broke it down

for you explicitly I know everybody is

always like how fast can I do this can I

do this immediately I'm ready right now

there isn't just one typical path to

follow some people in our group have

found a business that's right for them

in three months some people have found a

business that's right for them in a day

others have taken a year until they find

the right fit I think of this a little

bit like a three-year MBA year one you

buy a business year two you scale or

grow that business year three you do

your second or third deal and you

hopefully are getting into the seven

figure Club it's based on a lot of

different factors but it is a 100%

reasonable that you can be an owner of a

business within 12 months if you have

all the things we've talked about in

this video mindset deal Clarity time and

patience and you go after deals here's

the time range that I like to think of

it as 1 to 3 months learn how to buy a

business 1 to six months learn how to

search for deals and start searching for

deals 1 to 3 months make offers get one

accepted two to four months close on the

deal and get a deal accepted if no Bank

it could actually be a lot faster

especially if you're just doing a Sweat

Equity deal or if you're doing an

expertise for Equity deal this means

that the fastest deals could get done is

probably about 3 months and the longest

deals could take 12 to 18 month mons to

get done but it could also be a lot

longer if a deal falls through so I

always like to have like lots of irons

in the fire I know you're not supposed

to do this in dating but they call it

monkey barring so you hold on to one uh

handle on the Monkey Bar and you reach

with the other one but you're still

holding on to this one before you let go

and grab the other one that's what I

like to do in business buying too in our

community of like 1300 business buyers

the average buyer looks at about 30

businesses before making an offer so I

think you need to kind of get a few reps

in before you do the exact same thing

and one of the ways that we do that the

most is we have a whole Channel

dedicated to deal reviews so I want to

break something down for you guys that I

don't think I've ever done before on

YouTube which is this people ask me Cody

I'm located in Indonesia I'm in Africa

I'm in Latin America I'm in Canada I'm

in the UK can this work for me there or

how would I do it there so I pulled a

couple specific case studies for you

guys so that we could see if we could

apply it to where you are in the world

the first one that I think about is Arun

who owns a uh law firm and now five to

seven law firms I can't remember his

exact number um from Acquisitions so

what happened I started talking to Arun

two years ago and Arun was an attorney

he worked at a law firm but he knew that

the person who was running his Law Firm

at the time was getting ready to retire

he was older he wanted to move on to

something else so he made an offer to

buy that business by paying him out

overtime from the profits of the

business AKA sellers financing and he

bought that law firm and then he kept

adding more companies on top of it more

companies on top of it he did this all

without any government entity like the

Small Business Association which is

where we do deals here in the US and get

loans for them and he did it in

Australia so we know that it can be done

in Australia then we have another member

who I'm going to leave unnamed because I

didn't get a chance to ask if she was

okay with it or not who was located in

Canada this one's kind of interesting

because she was in real estate so she'

had done deals in real estate before but

she wanted to buy a property management

company so had done a bunch of real

estate deals like single family homes

had bought them fixed them up flipped

them and then was wondering gosh I have

a bunch of these uh deals I'm doing what

if I kept more of them and I had

somebody manage my properties and so she

ended up buying a property management

company and then on top of the property

management company she ended up buying

one for Airbnb and one for single family

long-term rentals and now she owns two

she did that with seller financing in

Canada so you could do the exact same

thing then this one was interesting she

worked in a garden company in Canada too

so like a a flowering Garden Store

basically and loved the business uh but

in Canada it's cold and so for half of

the year you know they couldn't uh

couldn't grow anything they basically

kind of shutter The Doors during that

time period And she was like gosh what

if what if I talk to the owners about

could we buy another site that had an

indoor grow so that we could sell

flowers all year round I'm going to go

and try to find one that does that and

so she found a deal went to the owner of

her business and said hey what if we

could grow our business from this

acquisition sell flowers all year round

you do the deal you put the money down

you put the risk down but I will help do

the transaction and run this other

business and can I get a percentage of

the equity and so she did and then she

had an idea with the same owner to not

just sell the flowers out of their shop

like a normal retail store with where

people come back and forth with you she

was like what if we create a

subscription model so they have these

beautiful flowers They're called

ranunculas they're kind of expensive and

she's like people love to get them in

bouquet they ship well let's create a

subscription model where people can buy

these for their loved ones or themselves

month after month after month and sell

them continuously and she did exactly

that and so she ended up getting a

portion of this company that started out

kind of small but then became bigger

with three aspects of it because of her

transaction so that's how I would do it

that way now let's say

that you are in more of a a third world

country let's say so I used to run a

business I don't know if I've ever told

you guys this before I used to run a

business called First Trust in Latin

America and I grew our business at First

Trust through acquisition so I actually

did a lot of joint ventures I didn't

have any money to work with uh from the

firm's perspective so I had to talk

people in different countries into doing

a deal with me where they would

distribute they would sell my financial

or investment products they would take a

cut of the business uh that they sold

from a fee perspective and I would um

get a bigger you know pot to sell into

and so I did a a joint venture which

basically means a partial acquisition

deal of a company in Chile I did one in

Mexico I did one in Colombia and I was

finishing one in Brazil before I left

the company and so I've done business in

a bunch of these countries and the first

deal I did uh was with a company in in

Chile and basically we created a joint

venture where they uh sold this product

for me and anything they sold they got a

cut of so I actually proactively went to

them and said will you buy part of my

business in Chile you can buy it with

future profits of this business and uh

and you get a percentage of these Cuts

forever for as as long as this entity

exists and that's how I did my first

deal and then I did one just like that

in Mexico then interestingly enough the

company that I did it with in Mexico

that's called acting uh they wanted to

do a deal in the US so they had their

own products and they said wow this

worked really well for us here in Mexico

what if we did the same exact thing but

in the US would you help us do a deal

with First Trust in the US and you own

our distribution arm in the US and take

a cut of the percentage of sales for the

products we will sell in the US uh and

you own part of that entity so we ended

up doing a deal where we owned like 51%

of the sales entity in the US and they

owned 49% of it and then we owned a

percentage in Mexico I don't remember

the exact percentage I built that

business up overall in all of Latin

America to over a billion dollars and I

did that largely through smart deals and

Partnerships therein now that's

obviously a high level but if you were I

don't know I saw a comment on one of the

other prior videos and it basically said

you know I'm located in Africa would

this work in Nigeria and I thought that

was interesting so let's say you're in

Nigeria and you want to acquire a

company

can you do that can you buy businesses

in the same way well let's look at the

big dogs what are they doing I looked at

the last couple of years of Acquisitions

in Nigeria and there's a ton you got htn

towers that was acquired as a company in

logos in the communications sector you

have a reinsurance company African uh

reur reinsurance company you have easy

appetite which is internet software you

have Atlas cement retail you got Diamond

Bank Financial so these are just like

the first few Acquisitions I see that

there one of the things that's wild is

people always think that it's different

in their country in order to buy

businesses it's actually not one of the

incredible Parts about Nigeria that I

was reading about is how much

entrepreneurship is located there and

actually sometimes in emerging countries

there are less laws and regulations that

you have to start in the US for instance

when you sell a business and when you

start a business we have almost more

regulations and expenses than any other

country in the world we're like top 10

for how expensive it is to start or sell

or register a company in Nigeria you are

actually one of the cheapest and so it

turns out that in order to do deals in

some of these other countries you might

have it a lot easier than you think so

next time you're walking like last time

I was in Nigeria I noticed for in

instance that there are huge open

markets every single one of those stalls

is a business you could buy it for its

inventory you could help them grow

independently I also noticed there's is

a huge textile industry in Nigeria so if

you see a local retail storefront you

could go and do a transaction with a

local retail storefront um in every

country in the around the world I have

not yet found one where you cannot buy a

small business and expecially do it with

creative financing in a world like the

US where you have a huge banking sector

and lots of financing available it

actually means that we have it harder in

some ways sometimes people in the US

want us to give them cash UPF front

because it's so easy to come by in

countries where cash and uh loans and

banking aren't as normalized they're not

as easy to access it's actually easier

for you to talk the seller into selling

to you let's say you have a ton of cash

you want to hear how the people do it

who are super rich and they do it a lot

faster this way there's something called

a deal Sherpa who basically is a buy

side broker you give them what type of

business you want to buy how much you

want to spend what industry you want it

in what sector everything that's located

here here in what I call my dealbox they

go out and they put a team of vas and

cold callers on it and go give you a

list of businesses to potentially buy

from this deal Sherpa though is

expensive typically this will cost

something like $5 to $110,000 a month

for you to have somebody else do your

search for you and then they will help

you determine which businesses fit your

parameters so you're basically

Outsourcing Consulting for which

business to buy now we offer something

like this a contrarian Community we have

a few individuals in the community who

are deal Sherpas they go out and help

people individually close deals in

private Equity this is a whole team a

whole origination team this is all they

do they make millions of dollars a year

doing it the interesting part about this

I think is that it really doesn't make

sense if you're not going to do a deal

that's like $5 million and above but I

want you guys to see behind the curtain

I don't want you gatee kept most people

don't tell you what happens with these

big deals and this channel is different

we try to share the stuff even if it

seems past you right now just because

something seems Out Of Reach doesn't

mean you shouldn't know it's there for

once you get there and so I want you to

keep in the back of your mind that you

can always say uh hey if somebody wants

to help you know Finance your search

that you guys could probably go to

somebody at contan thinking.com there's

also other services like dilio where

they could help you close a deal but it

would be a lot more expensive somewhere

between five and 10K a month in order to

give you a hand selected group of

businesses that have been vetted and are

open to speaking to you but that a

little bit of the rich man's hack which

Lord knows they got enough of them in

order to find a business you sometimes

got to know what you don't want so I

have a couple rules for you super super

important rule number one As Told by

Warren Buffett the sage himself never

invest in a business you can't

understand sort of funny back in the day

I bought part of a company that built

autonomous ships which sounds really

cool right you know I invested a couple

hundred, um I was really excited it was

on the cover of Forbes it was going to

be AI with these huge ships out in the

world you know they would be tanking

tankers everywhere and uh and I thought

this was a great idea but actually the

problem with this is it was a terrible

idea and I should have gone straight to

jail for this because we actually invest

in businesses that do not do things like

AI we're the opposite of the internet

and Twitter right now and I also bought

a company uh that fuels athletes using

new protein synthesis techniques which

sounds super cool as well it was this

like new

kind of squishy gel fluid using a ton of

fancy ingredients in order for athletes

to run faster and harder I happen to

know nothing uh about consumer packaged

Foods food in general protein synthesis

most definitely and so also believe it

or not straight to jail terrible mood

because what we should actually do is we

should realize that we want to buy

businesses our first go round that are

so simple you can explain it to grandma

and if you can't explain it to Grandma

you should definitely not be buying the

business once you become a pro you can

buy the complex business you can do the

crazy deal but unless you're already an

engineer already a protein synthesist

scientist and you understand this game

you probably shouldn't play it and so I

I say this because in order to find a

deal you have to know what you're

looking for right it's called targeting

if you want to date somebody that you

like you've got to know well I kind of

like men that are you know have dark

hair are funny um 6ot to make $200,000

whatever chicks want on the internet

these days um and if you don't know that

then you're not going to be able to find

it when it hits you in the face so your

biggest business buying problem is

actually when you think you're smart but

you're not and you get too complicated

that grandma can't understand it and you

don't even actually know what you're

looking for and so your first small

business should be so simple that it's

obvious to you it would be hard for you

to mess up the understanding of the

business you could mess up sort of the

deal and buying it but if you're already

a realator and you know all about real

estate and then you go to buy a real

estate business or if you already are a

salesperson and you go to buy part of a

sales business um that's probably hard

for you to mess up because you already

know how to do it in some way shape or

form that's why I like to think about

you know if I was in real estate or if I

was a graphic designer what would be the

businesses that I would own and I think

about the businesses that would be right

around my core overarching business I

call these my core satellite businesses

so if I was in real estate I might buy

something like one of these companies I

could understand them I probably already

use those companies I'm familiar with

them I'm not going from Real Estate to

protein synthesis like Cody the idiot

did like steal my 10,000 hours that is

one of the smartest hacks you can do is

let other people lose money and make

mistakes and then you learn from them

losing money and making mistakes and you

never have to make the mistake yourself

so these are satellites that you could

already understand if you're in real

estate now cuz you guys are on YouTube I

want to show you you some satellites

around media I think a lot of young

people on here are particularly good at

buying these types of businesses or

getting a piece of equity in these types

of businesses my mom has no idea what

SEO services are but I bet you do I bet

you also know a lot about Tik Tok and

you know about video creation and you

might know about how to growth hack

emails or newsletter lists the goal is

you want to lock in your wants with your

desires and that's how you get closer to

having less mistakes because you have

tools that keep you honest and focused

on the simple not the sexy we've been

over kind of a lot today and this is all

just one step of buying a business this

step is called origination or deal

sourcing or step three in the 10-step

process to buy a small business so it

starts with Foundation understanding

that there are businesses to buy and

it's possible then it gets to what kind

of business is right for you then it

gets to Cody how do I find a business to

buy that was today then it's the fourth

step is Outreach how do I talk to the

business owner once I find them how do I

get them to engage with me the fifth is

do I really want to own this business

like what is this business really worth

how much money can I make from it the

sixth is offer a negotiation what should

I what should I offer for this business

how should I kind of structure that um

how do I negotiate to get what I want

out of this deal the seventh is called

due diligence but what really means is

like are they lying to me or not are

they telling me the truth about the

business eighth is financing Cody you've

told me that I could buy a business

using a bunch of creative methods this

is where we talk about all of those

methods what are all the ways that you

can buy a business without a lot of risk

or cash or with that if that's what

you're interested in and then nine is

closing what about the paperwork what

about you know the next steps how do I

actually take keys from the owner now

that I own this bad boy and then finally

10 is what we call Day Zero which is the

day where for the next 90 days you ramp

up to be one of the few which is a

Builder and an owner in a world of

renters and consumers what I'll leave

you with here is the story I think that

happiness is typically found through

misery and struggle and that if we

really want to achieve success we have

to go through the really hard things in

order to do it and so right now you

might look at me and my portfolio and

see us at contrarian thinking capital

and Main Street hold Co and you're like

you know you have like 25 businesses and

you have invested in 17 startups you

know just this last year and you must be

nice Cody but what you guys don't see is

where I started which is very similar to

all of you I'm sure I remember the

beginning and the beginning was selling

South one of my very first companies

that I bought and then tried to build

failing the struggle isn't real podcast

which I left out there and it's super

embarrassing and it still exists failed

I had to give it up otherwise I was

going to get fired from my company um

failed in a real estate transaction

early on uh a company that I invested in

a cpg company company failed uh another

company acting which was a company in

Mexico of failure so it was like failure

failure failure failure failure until

eventually I learned so much from those

failures that I was able to create a

portfolio so big that I get to leave

something behind as a legacy but it

didn't start out that way it started out

with a lot of pain and so I want to make

sure that I tell you the truth which is

that this is hard and that all of your

dreams are possible but probably not at

once that having expectations is more

important than anything else and

yes you can buy a business yes it is

possible to get money day one and doing

a deal yes it is possible for you to

achieve just about everything you want

in life but it will be through a lot of

difficulty and I hope this video was

really comprehensive in a bunch of ways

that normal humans could do what used to

be only possible for the big private

Equity guys which is own our small

businesses own our communities and take

control of our financial freedom and

that's what I hope you learned today

weird thing happens as you become an

entrepreneur first you have to make a

decision to do something to take action

that's really hard right this decision

takes forever and then eventually that

decision becomes a habit and so you

decide to take that decision every

single day and replicate it which is

what a habit is a habit is a decision

compounded continuously day after day

over time and after you have done that

for a period of time you accumulate

what's called a skill right those are

decisions and habits paired together to

become something that you become so good

at and so normalized that you consider

yourself skilled and what I want you to

do is make the decision today to become

an owner so that you can turn it into a

habit to find things to own and then you

can have a skill of increasing ownership

because ownership is the only thing that

leads to freedom and that is how you buy

businesses how you find businesses for

sale and if I didn't cover something hit

me in the comments because we are going

to put out an entire video on some of

the things you tell us in the comments

today from expertise to equity to

creative financing and Beyond oh and

also if you liked this video you're

definitely going to like this video