The $60k Acquisition that Grew to a $77m Exit

Today's guest bought so small the business wasn't much more than a guy in a truck, a hobby for a retired engineer on the cusp of retiring for good. But his phone just wouldn't stop ringing calls from real estate agents who needed his radon mitigation services in order to put clients homes on the market. A good friend of Kevin Ramseyer was one of these agents and sensing opportunity, suggested…

So Kevin and the real estate agent friend meet with this gentleman at a local Big Boy restaurant and the guy's flip phone doesn't stop ringing the whole time. They offer to buy the business right then and there at the big boy for $60,000. The seller, eager to properly retire and join his wife down in Florida and accepts and finances 30 of the 60 grand.

Our conversation today is how Kevin and his partner turned that hobby business into SWOT Environmental, a leading franchise system in the radon mitigation space and a business that exited to private equity for almost $80 million ten years later. Note that Kevin does not recommend searchers buy a similarly small business. As we know, there are plenty of guy in a truck businesses for sale and they…

While Kevin did see dazzling success with his, the journey was harder than it needed to be, he thinks, and they benefited from tailwinds. Some alignment of the stars Looking back, says Kevin, it's a lot easier to own a smaller piece of a much bigger pie and than go through the pain we went through. Which incidentally is what he does today.

If you want to hear about his NOW venture as an independent sponsor, we did a second interview with Kevin over on the Mind's Capital podcast to learn how he buys businesses these days. Highly recommend you listen to that as well. It aired Last week on June 11th.

The Mind's Capital podcast. Check that out. Okay, here is Kevin Ramsire, co founder and former owner of SWOT Environmental. Your LOI is a key step to being taken seriously as a buyer.

Attorneys Bill Barlow and James David Williams return for an Office Hours to walk us through the do's and don'ts of this critical document. James, David and Bill will also be sharing their LOI template, which they've updated to reflect those recent rule changes from the SBA that office hours is this Tuesday tomorrow, June 17th noon Eastern. Register at the link in today's show notes or on the…

Acquiringminds Co. Also, one thing you may have heard said on Acquiring Minds is that it's surprising how little Offshore talent is used by entrepreneurs in their new acquisitions. Offshoring would seem to be a key lever, an obvious way to generate value in a small business, but we don't hear about it very much.

My guess is that's due to an assumption that offshoring works in white collar office work, but not in the blue collar businesses so favored by searchers. Well, in an upcoming webinar, Nick Huber yes, that Nick of sweaty startup fame will correct this idea and show you how offshoring can indeed be a tremendous tool that you bring to your blue collar acquisition.

Nick has built an empire in self storage and offshoring roles to the Philippines, to South Africa, to Latin America has been key to his success in that industry. The webinar with Nick is How to Offshore in a Blue Collar Business. It is Tuesday, July 1, 2, 30 Eastern.

Register at the link in today's show notes or on the Acquiring Minds homepage. Acquiringminds Cool. 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. If you ask owners in the ETA and search community which insurance broker provides highest quality work, great outcomes, and has a practice dedicated to searchers and acquisition entrepreneurs, one name comes up again and again.