Too Good to Be True: Year 1 in a $700k SDE Business

The approach of today's guest has a different flavor than you're used to hearing on Acquiring minds. You could say that Zack Mutnick does not analyze things to death. He prefers action to analysis.

And when he does decide on a course of action, he moves with conviction. So it was with the business that he decided to acquire an electrical contracting business in southwest Florida. There were definitely a few flags as Zack negotiated with the seller and tried to learn about the business.

But at some point, his intuition told him that this opportunity was the one to seize. I made the decision in my head. This is happening. So we're going to move.

We're going to quit our jobs. This is happening now. You can achieve a lot with that attitude, that momentum, but it doesn't come free.

Once Zack bought the business, the numbers. Didn't quite add up. Turnover was Constant.

Of the 10 original employees, one year later, just two remain. There were two ongoing lawsuits. And yes, it was a stock sale.

The quality of the receivables was questionable. The demand for their services was weak. So this was a rocky transition.

But a year in revenue is up, the team has stabilized, and Zack refers to the acquisition as the best decision he ever made. Here he is, Zack Mutnick, owner of Jeff Masters Electric, soon to be Mutt's Electric. 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, today, 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're 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.

That webinar is today, Thursday, May 14, 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's a way to search the Acquiring Minds back catalog by industry or acquisition model or geography.