From SBA Loan to High 8-Figure Exit

Today's story has an eye watering outcome and it shows the potential of buying a business. Jerod Pierce used the equity from a townhome that he'd house hacked with some buddies to buy an H Vac business doing three and a half million in revenue. Half a million of sde.

He was able to buy the business himself without investors. Five years later he sold it for upper eight figures. Jerod doesn't tell us the exact figure, but he does say that he turned down $95 million.

So it had to be in range of that. Jerod is humble about this staggering success. He acknowledges that timing was crucial here.

He bought and grew Mercurios just as H Vac was becoming a white hot. Target for private equity. But really, there is so much Jerod should take credit for.

He did 10x the revenue of the business over those five years from three and a half million to 35 million and 12x that half a million of SDE to over 6 million of EBITDA. So yes, there is luck here in that he could command a higher multiple. Than he might have gotten in cooler times.

But at $6 million of EBITDA he would have had a big eight figure exit. Whatever the multiples had been, Jerod's posture going into the exit process also helped. He didn't need or want to sell, which is of course the best negotiating position from which to sell.

And so how did Jerod build the business over those five years? Listen for some of the key ingredients. How he devoted himself to mastering digital marketing.

How he devoted himself to learning sales, including going into the field to do it. How he was present in 110% involved. He was there seven to seven every day and on many Saturdays you'll hear him say that some Saturdays when he didn't have to go to the office, he'd go just to go just to find something to work on or improve that last piece.

Presence is huge. According to Jerod, he subsequently acquired another small home services business, this time through. His family office rather than as a scrappy self funded searcher with an SBA loan. But it has not gone well and Jerod believes that his lack of presence is a big reason why.

There is much to take from this epic business buying journey with Jerod Pierce, owner of Olympic Holdings Investments. Enjoy. As you know when buying a business, so much of your success comes down to the people. Attorneys Bill Barlow and James David Williams return for an office hours all about the legal questions related to this topic, specifically employee issues and non competes.

Bill and James David will cover all the employment, non compete and non solicit issues that commonly come up on deals. That is this Thursday, September 18th, noon Eastern. The webinar is employee issues and non competes when buying a business.

Link to register for the webinar 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.