Today's guest loves the paving business, which is saying a lot given his previous life as a member of Seal Team 6. When Eric Donahue retired from his career as a Navy seal, it was recommended by other vets that he buy a business. Flash forward and Eric acquired a $4.1 million revenue 25 year old paving business in Hampton Roads in his first year as owner.
Acquiring Minds
40% Growth in Year 1 of a Paving Business
Excerpts · 499 segments · ~1:33:07 long
Short excerpts only — hear the full conversation on the publisher's site.
He grew the revenue to just shy of 6 million 40% in his first year. We unpack how he's done that, including getting clever around filling his guy's schedules, subbing related work rather than referring it out, and bringing in new tech tablets and old tech whiteboards.
Culture change was also key to his year one growth, as was some good old fashioned luck Other segments to listen for Eric bought the business not with SBA debt, but a conventional loan. Now before you get too excited, yes there was still a personal guarantee, but there's a good tip here about getting a loan from the same bank where your acquisition does business. The bankers there are likely to…
Also scaling to deliver a paving job, you need trucks, three pieces of heavy machinery and about eight guys. So when Eric hits capacity, will he have to make eight hires and a very large capex spend all at once to grow? Not quite. Listen for how he spreads out that spend.
Okay, here he is, former member of SEAL Team 6, now owner of Peninsula Paving. Eric Donahue A lot of your success buying a business depends on assessments you make before you become its owner. When you're asking yourself essentially, is this a good deal?
Well, the team at forensic accounting firm LCS has performed due diligence for over a thousand transactions in the small business market and this Thursday they'll be hosting an office hours webinar to share the patterns they look for that suggest a good deal. They'll go deep on factors like low entry, multiple business buyer fit, quality of revenue, seller alignment, and industry tailwinds.
Now, regular listeners of Acquiring Minds know what these terms mean, but the LCS team will go deep on really understanding why they are such important characteristics. The webinar is what actually makes a good deal. Patterns from Over a Thousand Transactions it's this Thursday, March 26, noon Eastern.
Link to register is right at the top of this episode's show notes or on the Acquiring Minds homepage. Acquiringminds 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.
What do the following Acquiring Minds guests all have in common. Doug Johns, Morley Desai, Tim Erickson, Chirag Shah Shah, Shane Ursum.
They all went through the Acquisition Lab, the accelerator in community for people serious about buying a business. But they represent just a sliver of
the Lab's success stories. The number of deals across the Lab's cohorts now stands at over 120, with over $300 million in aggregate transaction value. The Acquisition Lab was founded by Walker Deibel, author of Buy Then Build, the
Want what comes before or after? Hear the full episode on the publisher's site ↗