From Small Acquisition to $30m Industry Leader

As Today's guest approached 30 and wanted to start having kids, she knew her then career in finance wouldn't allow her the flexibility to be the mom she wanted to be. Entrepreneurship, specifically buying a business would. So Robin Kovitz bought a small gift basket business in late 2014.

Since then she's built it into an industry leader with a reported $30 million in revenue. It took Robin four years to find her business and apparently her story floats around the ETA community as a cautionary tale.

And while yes, you want to aim for less than four years, I contend there is much to model in Robin, including targeting an industry that seems smaller than it actually is, than dominating it, buying a business for which you can have passion, identifying your three non negotiables and long termism.

Robin's story reminds me of the recent interview with Don Grigg, who bought a small plastics molding business and has since grown it into a leading kayak manufacturer. Don encourages searchers to realize that the business you buy can become your life's work. Well, Robin has been in her beloved business 11 years now and shows no signs of slowing down or exiting.

Here she is. Robin Kovitz, owner of Baskits with an I Technology Due Diligence when it comes to buying a business, technology due diligence often gets way less attention than it deserves. That gap is frequently what costs new owners the most in their first year of ownership. Well, today, Thursday, Josh Hedone of Preferred Data will host a webinar walking you through what a technology assessment…

In an SMB acquisition and why those. Findings so often change the conversation around price and terms and timing. Josh is a former searcher himself, having acquired Preferred Data, so he understands this issue from personal experience.

Among many other topics, Josh will cover why technology is the most overlooked step in SMB due diligence, how to inventory exactly what you're buying before you sign, and what a Quality of technology QOT report reveals and how to use one. The webinar is Quality of Technology Report protecting your acquisition and and it is today, Thursday, April 2, noon Eastern.

Link to register is right at the top of this episode's show notes or on the Acquiring Minds homepage. Acquiring Minds co. 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. You know Inzo Technologies as one of the leading IT managed service providers serving the search community.

Led by Nick Akers, an Acquiring Minds guest who bought the 35 year old business. The team at Inzo regularly works with searchers and their acquisitions. And one feature of acquired businesses that Enzo is seeing over and over is the need to implement cybersecurity promptly during the transition.

So many acquired small businesses either have glaring vulnerabilities, lack security best practices or both. That step one to de risk the deal you just closed should be addressing these issues. INSO is your full service IT MSP for post close stability.

They assess your target, surface the biggest risks in plain English and give you a day one through 30 plan to cut exposure, prevent downtime and even find cost takeouts like bloated telecom bills. Check out enzotechnologies.com I N Z O or email Nick directly at nick@inzotechnologies.com. Robin Kovitz welcome to Acquiring Minds.