“Verify everything. Don’t take their word for it.”

Happy Friday!

On Monday, I told you about Adam, a manufacturing manager who bought a 20-year-old exterior finishes company for $1.85M, structured 15% of his seller note as forgivable…

And is projecting $300K+ in cash flow this year while still working his W2 job.

Today, you’ll get his 3 biggest lessons from that deal, and access to our full conversation about how he made it work. 👇

Before sharing Adam’s biggest lessons, here’s another success spotlight from one of our Acquisition Ace community members.

Sam bought a $1.41M outdoor lighting company in Cincinnati that’s completely run by the management team…

And he’s on track for 150%+ ROI in year one!

The sales manager has been there 15 years, and the service manager has been there 9 years.

There are 7,000+ existing clients, 50% of sales come from repeat customers, and the business runs itself.

Sam’s leaving his demanding Amazon ops job to focus on the business full-time and sees $800K+ in additional revenue opportunity from holiday lighting alone.

👉 Want a business with a proven team already in place? Book a call with our team here.

“Get support from wherever you can. People that have done it before. Being able to bounce ideas off people instead of getting in your own head and not knowing what direction to go - that makes all the difference.”

That’s what Adam told me six months after closing on a business that had never run a single ad, had no website, and was generating half a million dollars a year entirely on word of mouth.

3 key takeaways from our conversation

1. Tie forgivable seller notes to gross profit, not just revenue

Adam’s seller note forgiveness was benchmarked against gross profit rather than topline revenue.

That distinction matters - gross profit is harder to manipulate and more reflective of actual business performance across different job types.

It was more protective for Adam than a typical revenue benchmark would have been, and the seller still agreed to it.

2. No marketing is an opportunity, not a red flag

Stucco Tech had run entirely on referrals for 20 years, and Adam saw that as a lever nobody had pulled yet.

Within months of closing he had a website live, a business development manager in place, and was actively pursuing general contractor relationships that didn’t exist before.

(Adam structured 15% of his seller note as forgivable based on gross profit performance over 24 months - protecting his downside in a deal where the books were messier than expected. Inside Acquisition Ace, members learn how to build structures like this before they’re sitting at the negotiating table. To see how our community could help with your first acquisition, book a call with our team here.)

3. You can own a business and keep your W2

Adam is working roughly 10 hours a week on the acquisition during busy season - five during slow season - while maintaining his full-time job Tuesday through Saturday.

Six months in, he’s cash flowing above his projections and already watching for his next deal.

This week’s action item

Look at three businesses in your target industry and specifically check:

• Do they have a website?

• Are they active on Google?

• Do they run any marketing at all?

If the answer is no across the board, that’s potentially the most important upside lever available to you as a new owner.

To see my full conversation with Adam about how he closed this deal…

Watch our full interview here.

P.S. Adam said the community was what made the difference… specifically, being able to bounce ideas off coaches and other members instead of trying to figure everything out alone.

That support is available to every Acquisition Ace member from day one.

If you want it behind your acquisition search too…

👉 Book a call with our team here.