Buying Small to Build for the Long Term ($300k SDE)

And so that was the nail in the coffin of the consulting business, in other words.

Yeah, it was the nail in the coffin of dc, which is the nail in the coffin of the consulting business.

Yeah, I think, like I said at first, I ran Josh's method, which was high volume, cold email, low touch, just send a lot of stuff out, see what comes back. And I just. That wasn't super. It was decently effective at the beginning, but it steadily got less and less effective. So in that early 2024 when I was like, when I decided to double down, I realized I have to do something different.

And I tried doing a few different things, but the thing that worked by far the best was cold calling. And yeah, it sucks, like, and it's never fun. It's not like you get used to it and you just, ah, you know, this is just a thing that I do.

It always sucks. But it was by far the most effective thing I did. And, and not only did I source this deal from a cold call, but there was another one. There was a, you know, $4 million EBITDA fire protection business that I sour from a cold call.

And they ended up selling to private equity, but, like, got pretty far along with. And there's a couple other, like, really interesting ones. I just found that while it wasn't fun, when I actually did get to an owner, 99% of the time, their response was something positive.

Most of the time, you know, they weren't actually looking to sell, but they would at least be like, you know, like, I respect what you're doing, like, keep at it kind of a thing. Yeah, there's only maybe one or two times where somebody was like, you know, like, you know, f off or, you know, those kinds of things. Beyond that, it was like, look, like, I get it, like, what's your email?

If I come across somebody, you know, I'll try to let you know kind of a thing. So it just felt like the best way to genuinely. Yeah, well, as genuinely as possible via a random phone call.

Like kind of connect with an owner and look at a possibility.

Yeah, well, and let's, let's not forget that when you are an individual young entrepreneur looking to buy a business, the nature of that cold call to the recipient is way different than the typical cold call which is something they're trying to be sold, something that they don't want. And it's just a smile and dial situation.

So you can see that if you can just get their audience that they would be, you know, it's an unusual call to get and, and, and you know, they might see themselves in you. That sort of thing happen to remember your script or the essence of what your opening was.