How to Grow Revenue 50% in Year 1

Today's guest bought a business that does not fit the typical criteria cited by many searchers. But the frame shop that JD Hasley bought in April of last year has already returned all the equity he put into the deal and then some. His year one levered return was 139% cash on cash.

And yes, that does account for paying himself for his time in the business, which was substantial. JD ran the shop, learned to frame and even fulfill jobs himself, but that was temporary. His goal was not to buy himself a job.

He since hired a shop manager who's been transformative. JD has grown the business from around $600,000 in revenue to a run rate of $900,000. How has he pushed revenue 50% in a single year?

Believe it or not, simply responding to emails promptly has been a big driver. To be sure, this is quite a small business. Revenue is lower than many searchers would consider and the headcount is extremely low.

It only takes a couple people to run a frame shop, and many shops are actually just one person businesses. So key person risk is structural, almost unavoidable. But from an ROI perspective, and more importantly a life perspective, so far it's been wonderful for the 26 year old JD as one example, he was able to spend a lot more time seeing his infant boy grow than he would have otherwise.

It's been one of the best decisions I've ever made, he says. And here he is, JD Hasley, owner of Uptown Frame There's a reason that entrepreneurship through acquisition is sometimes referred to as simply search, because the search itself is one of the most difficult parts of buying a business. Now, one path that isn't talked about very much, including on acquiring minds, is outsourcing your…

Well, this Thursday, June 5, Athena Simpson of AquaMatch will lead a webinar to help you evaluate this alternative path to finding and acquiring the right business. Athena will cover what buy side advising means, what different models and fee structures look like, the hidden cost of a slow search and full time searching versus keeping your W2 and how the right outsourced support for your search…

Here you'll leave the webinar with Athena with a clearer understanding of your options and and how to speed up your path to ownership without quitting your job or going it alone. That is this Thursday, June 5th, noon Eastern.

The webinar is how to outsource your search understanding buy side advisory Register at the link in today's show notes or on the Acquiring minds homepage Acquiring Minds Co See you Thursday 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…

What do the following Acquiring Minds guests all have in common? Doug Johns, Morley Desai, Tim Erickson, Chirag 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 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 JD Hasley welcome to Acquiring Minds.