The buy box
Here is exactly what Ibuy.
Buyers who will not tell you what they want are usually still looking for money. I would rather save you the meeting.
If you are outside this, tell me anyway. I would rather say no in a week than string you along for six months.
The fit
Five things, and the last one matters most.
- Where
About three hours from Tyler, Texas.
East Texas, the Dallas corridor, Shreveport side. Close enough that I can be standing in it the same day something goes wrong.
- Size
Roughly $1M to $10M in revenue.
Which usually means somewhere between $250k and $1.5M a year in what the business actually pays the owner.
- Age
Ten years or more, and profitable most of them.
I am not buying a turnaround and I am not buying a startup. I want something that already works and has been proving it for a while.
- Shape
Boring, with repeat customers and real employees.
Home services, machine shops, light manufacturing, industrial services, field services, print and fabrication, equipment dealers, retail with actual margin. If the internet is excited about it, I am probably not.
- Owner
Ready to hand it off in the next two years.
Retiring, slowing down, tired, or just done. You can stay on, or you can be gone in thirty days. Both work.
The no list
And here is what I pass on, so you are not guessing.
- Restaurants
Not my lane, and I know it.
Good businesses, wrong buyer. I have no edge here and I would be learning on your money.
- Licensed to you
Anything that only operates because of your personal license.
If the business cannot legally run the day after you leave, there is nothing for me to buy.
- Three flat years
A business that has been shrinking since 2023.
I will still tell you what it is worth. I am just not the buyer for it, and you should know that in week one.
- Nothing to fix
A business I cannot see a way to run better.
This one is about me, not you. If I look at it and cannot see what I would change, then I am just buying a job from you at full price. Plenty of good businesses land here. It means I am the wrong buyer, not that it is a bad business.
- One big customer
When one account is more than forty percent of revenue.
That is not a business, it is a contract with employees attached. It can still sell, but not to me and not at a normal multiple.
Not sure you fit
Borderline is worth a message. No is worth knowing fast.
The list above is honest but it is not a rulebook. If your business is close, send it. The worst outcome is that I tell you no inside a week and you keep the valuation range.