Dana V Music was a little music school outside Denver. Fifteen part-time teachers sing 250 kids a week. The business brought in $500,000 a year in revenue.
Acquiring Minds
(replay)Art of the Roll-Up: 40 Businesses in 4 Years
Excerpts · 345 segments · ~1:23:28 long
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So, small. And today's guest, Jeff Homer, bought it. But not necessarily with grand ambitions. A music school resonated with his own experience as a kid who took 10 years of piano lessons.
It was affordable enough that even buying it in cash downside was limited. It seemed fun, low risk and different than the cerebral spreadsheet powered world of his professional life. Well, he quickly found two things as new owner.
First, he loved being at the school and he wanted to spend more time there. Second, a few operational tweaks resulted in material immediate improvements to the business. a roll-up was born. This is the story of an unlikely but spectacular acquisition spree that saw Jeff buy 39 more music schools across America over the next four years, then exit to private equity.
You're going to enjoy this. Here's Jeff Homer, founder of Ensemble Performing Arts. Today's episode may sound familiar to longtime listeners.
It's a classic from 2024. Please enjoy it while Team Acquiring Minds takes off for the 4th of July. We'll be back next week with new interviews.
And happy 250th to my fellow Americans. Here's to another quarter millennium of our cherished great experiment.
Welcome to Acquiring Minds, a podcast about buying businesses. My name is Will Smith. Acquiring an existing business is an awesome opportunity for many entrepreneurs.
And on this podcast, I talk to the people who do it. The team at Aspen HR recently published a short white paper targeted at searchers entitled A New CEO's Guide to Human Resources. It lays out the key items you should be thinking about as you transition into CEO and owner of the business you bought.
The link to download that is in the show notes.
Aspen HR is a professional employer organization, or PEO, which provides HR compliance, flawless payroll, robust HR technology, and Fortune 500 caliber benefits, all for a fraction of the cost compared to using multiple vendors. Reach out to Aspen HR for your complimentary HR diligence checklist and benchmarking analysis. Go to AspenHR.com or contact Jenny Thier directly at Jenny at AspenHR.com.
Jeff Homer, welcome to Acquiring Minds.
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