.avif)
Join My Community
Join 10,000+ entrepreneurs receiving proven strategies and the best opportunities delivered straight to their inbox.
Happy Monday!
Today’s acquisition case study is about Mark, a software engineer with no background in electrical work, no experience in municipal contracting, and no intention of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money.
Ten months after joining Acquisition Ace, he closed on a 40-year-old traffic signal maintenance company in New Jersey for $4.56M…
And spent less than $15K out of his own pocket to do it!
Community Spotlight
Before covering Mark’s story, here’s a powerful success story from the Acquisition Ace community.
“What I was missing the whole time was mentorship and camaraderie.”
Bryan became the first Canadian to close a deal in Acquisition Ace, buying a $125k trailer manufacturing business.
“I think that’s what I was missing the whole time... is some sort of mentorship or camaraderie... somebody to talk this through. It’s hard to do it by yourself. It’s much much easier when you have somebody to do it with."
👉 Want mentorship and support from experienced buyers? Book a call with our team here.
Before the deal
Mark had been working remotely as a software engineer for nearly 30 years.
The flexibility of his job gave him room to explore acquisitions seriously, and he spent the first few months inside Acquisition Ace absorbing the training, learning the frameworks, and figuring out what kind of deal he was actually looking for.
As he kept refining his criteria, his target deal size kept growing because he realized that larger deals often left more cash flow after debt service.
Finding the deal
He found the business on BizBuySell and SMBMarket - a company that had started as a traditional commercial and residential electrical services operation, then pivoted entirely into traffic signal maintenance for townships and municipalities across central and southern New Jersey.
It checked every box.
Forty years of operating history
Recurring government contracts
Significant licensing requirements that created a deep competitive moat
Predictable, smooth revenue that didn’t fluctuate with consumer sentiment
The fact that Mark had zero background in traffic signals didn’t concern him because the business had the people, the licenses, and the systems already in place.
(In the Acquisition Ace community, members get access to a community of investors, M&A attorneys, and operators who can help you build your deal team. To see if the Acquisition Ace community could help you acquire your first business, book a call with our team here.)
The deal breakdown
Listed price: $4.56M
Final purchase price: $4.56M
Seller note: 20% ($912K) at 7% interest, 18-month full standby, 10-year amortization, 5-year balloon
SBA loan: 70% (~$3.3M)
Investor down payment: 10% (~$456K) - covered entirely by investors from the Acquisition Ace community
Mark’s cash out of pocket: ~$15K (good faith deposit, QoE, legal fees, life insurance)
Mark brought in a deal team from within the Acquisition Ace community, including a member with financial and tax expertise who led the quality of earnings analysis…
And an M&A attorney who handled all legal documentation.
Additional silent partners joined after a formal deal presentation during due diligence.
What he’s doing now
Mark is still working his remote software job while spending three days a week on-site at the company’s New Jersey office.
He’s learning the business from the ground up by sitting with the office manager on billing and receivables, spending time with the seller during transition, and building relationships with the team.
It’s a lot right now.
But the goal is clear:
Get to a place within six to twelve months where he’s checking in once a week and the business runs without him needing to be there.
The key lesson
“It’s hard to believe this can be done, but this is really what we came to Acquisition Ace to learn. And we feel like we’ve accomplished that in spades.”
Mark didn’t have industry experience or significant personal capital to fund the deal with.
What he did have was a framework for evaluating deals, a community to build a deal team from, and the patience to find something that checked every box before pulling the trigger.
And that culminated with him buying a $4.56M business with just $15K out of pocket.
Ready to find and close your first acquisition?
Join the Acquisition Ace community with 2,000+ members who are learning to find, finance, and close deals just like Mark.
👉 Book a call with our team here to see if it’s a good fit.
 | Onward, Ben Kelly PS: Check out our latest YouTube video. We reveal how one entrepreneur built a multi-million dollar pool company from scratch with no industry experience. |
