How to Structure Around Risk in a $250k SDE Acquisition

Residential construction is not the typical target. For a business buyer. Building additions, remodeling homes, ADUs.

This is high ticket project based work for consumers. Well, today's guest, Alicia Powers, knew all that. But there was a lot that de risked Price Builders, the residential construction business in San Diego that she bought last July 2025.

For one thing, Alicia knew and loved construction. She'd worked in it for years. For another, Alicia had experience driving leads and generating demand in the home remodeling market.

In that very geography, Alicia knew the business and its owner and superintendent. She and her husband had hired the firm to build an ADU on not one but two of their properties. So she'd worked with them twice as a customer and seen firsthand the quality of service and product.

Then there was structure. Alicia hung around the hoop after a first failed round of negotiations with her seller. But then months later, when negotiations restarted, Alicia was able to structure deal terms to mitigate her risk.

Listen for that segment. And finally, what this business also had going for it was Alicia's interest in it. She was just drawn to it, excited by it.

That X factor doesn't show up in the spreadsheet, but it can make all the difference. Here is Alicia Powers, owner of Price Builders. Most searchers know that a Q of E can kill a deal, but in many cases, a deal should have died long before the searcher spent thousands on due diligence.

The signs were there. They just didn't know what to look for. Well, this Thursday, Andrew Hippert and Daniel Duran from Acquisition Lab Capital are hosting a webinar to teach you the early soft signals that experienced acquirers catch before ever spending a dime on due diligence.

Things like dubious seller motivation, recent growth in the years leading up to a sale, excessive add backs. These aren't accounting problems, they are judgment calls. And the pattern recognition to make them well is what separates searchers who protect.

Their time in capital from those who learn the hard way. Andrew and Daniel have reviewed hundreds of SMB deals and are going to share their hard won judgment with you. The webinar is this Thursday, May 14th noon Eastern.

Link to register is right at the top of this episode's show notes or. On the Acquiring Minds homepage. Acquiringminds co. Also a heads up. A lot of you have asked over the years whether there is a way to search the Acquiring Minds back catalog by industry or acquisition model or geography.

And there hasn't been. But soon, and finally there will be. We're about to launch a searchable, filterable archive of every Acquiring Minds episode.