8-Figure Exit After 5 Years

And what was it selling for? Talk talk to us about the how kind of where it started and where it ended up. Your actual deal to buy it.

Yeah, the, it started up as at about a 3, 3 times EBITDA multiple and we, that's where we ended up landing on as well. There was certainly some push back and forth on what the EBITDA was. The, the, the former owners ran it the business the way they knew how in that it was to reduce taxes.

So you know, as we as we had conversations about what was actually there, what should be there, what add backs are there, you know, we, that's where we spent most of our time. But, but, but, but three times EBITDA was where we all got our heads pretty comfortable early on, which I thought was a very attractive given the size of the business of over a million dollars of EBITDA is certainly…

But there wasn't a lot yet of professionalism in the business and the mix was heavier on the construction side. So all of those things really made sense that it would be a 3x multiple as opposed to something a little higher.

Okay. Okay, great. Well yeah, that was going to be my question. How could you get such a great multiple on a business that everybody listening wants to buy over a million dollars of earnings? But essentially again it was essentially a construction business and so everybody runs in the opposite direction from construction.

Actually construction is something we really really dislike as a category. What do the following Acquiring minds guests all have in common? Doug Johns, Morley Desai, Tim Erickson, Chirag Shah, Shane Ursam.

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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 book that introduced so many of you to the very idea of buying a business.

The Lab offers a month long, intensive, almost daily Q and A sessions with advisors, live deal reviews with Walker, Deal team introductions and an active community of serious searchers. Check out acquisitionlab.com link in the notes or email the Lab's co founder, Chelsea Wood. Chelsea buy then build.com.

Did you see. It as a construction business or as. A distribution business, or as a sales and service business? Or how did you think about it?

I liked the mix. I know installation or construction can be a naughty word in this industry, but I did like they all I called it instead of a vicious circle, I called it the beautiful circle. So I did like they had that they had the key components because if you build a station in your area, guess what? You now are the service provider.