In cold outreach, the most common response of an interested Seller playing coy is: 

"Well, it's not for sale... but everything has its price!" 

Don't be caught off guard by this. Here's how to respond 🧵

First off, it's not always, but it CAN BE a strong indication of interest. They generally flat ignore you or turn you away cold if they're not interested. "Everything has its price..." is them leaving the door open for you to pursue. 

I would quickly respond with something like:

"Haha, I'm the same way! Everything but my wife and kids are for sale if the price is right! (well, maybe my 17 year old boy when he thinks he's got it all figured out)

Look, I don't want to waste your time. I have been trying to find a _____ business for awhile and have money tee'd up to pay a fair price if I find a good one. I can tell you real quick where I'd be ballpark, and you can let me know if that range might make sense to you.

But, I can't shoot in the dark here. Can you tell me how business has been the last few years in all this craziness? Up, down, steady? I assume you took a hit in 2020 like most people did. Did things come back okay for you?"

Here's the thinking behind it. Follows the basic pattern of all sales:
- Build Rapport
- Present Problem
- Offer Solution
- Close

Build rapport by joking back with them, sprinkle something human (referencing your family) in your joke to let them know you're a real person with a similar mindset. You're talking their language.

Casually recognize and alleviate all the fears of this dance with labeling. 
- wasting their time
- you not having the money
- lowball offers (reference "fair" and for a "good one")
- process being formal or onerous (quick ballpark)

Present problem. "can't shoot in the dark"
- You can't just throw out random offer without knowing some basic information. No serious person would do so. (and you DANG sure don't want to know their 'asking price' to a random stranger, so NEVER ask them what they want for it)

Offer solution. 
- You only need a tiny bit info to satisfy their curiosity. 

You didn't ask them how much they make a year (which challenges their ego) or for tax returns or confidential info. Just for the general trend. A gentle, open-ended question will open the floodgates.

How are things the last few years of craziness? is standard small-talk stuff they're used to answering. You just need them to give you ANYTHING at this point since it's a cold start. Once they start talking, you can draw more info out, but ask the easiest, safest questions first.

Close is the "I assume... and did things come back okay?" This is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. People love correcting assumptions. They probably did ok in 2020 and will quickly correct you. Remember your goal is to not get ghosted, tease out info, & make a friend.

So your "close" is essentially asking an easy question to keep the dialogue going. Cold first contact is like meeting a pretty girl in public for the first time... your goal isn't a deep convo to see if she's "the one". You just want her interest and her # to ensure next steps.

Getting them to talk about something easy like trend the last few years, number of years in business, number of trucks or employees, etc. are safe and easy. But it crosses the chasm from a stranger joking to a friendly dialogue with biz data! Once you're there it's downhill.

You eventually get smooth rounding the bases with people:
1B = talking casually, hypothetically about a sale
2B = seeing some financial info and data
3B = negotiating and structuring an LOI
3B to Home Plate = Diligence, Financing, Legal, Closing

/end


Responding to the "Everything has its price" Statement

20 things Business Brokers should 🚩NEVER🚩 do:

1- Keep up listings after they've already sold as Buyer bait.
2- Fail to mark under contract listings as such.
3- Projections.
4- Set an asking price based on what the Seller wants for it with no defensible logic or support.

5- Set asking price that won't appraise and definitely won't meet minimum debt coverage ratio standards for SBA lending.
6- Go to market before they've reviewed P&L's and Tax Returns of Sellers and have them available for Buyers on the other side of an LOI.

7- Feign massive Buyer interest in a deal to create FOMO.
8- Fail to negotiate critical pieces of the deal at LOI that will avoid deal-killing fights near closing (allocation, WIP, inventory or W/C adjustments, Seller Financing details, timeline, etc.)

9- Make more money from up-front fees and retainers than success fees at closings. (a few well-known names- this is their biz model!!!)
10- Ask anyone to fax you anything. 
11- Use the last Broker's CIM / Photos / Sales Materials in your marketing.

12- Talk bad about someone else's deal/s or brokerage to persuade a Buyer to prefer your deal/s.
13- Fully rely on BizBuySell for Buyers. 
14- Ask another Broker for a share of their fee after a closing that was not agreed to in writing beforehand.

15- Not disclose when a bank you recommend to a Buyer pays you fees.
16- Take on more engagements than you can have time capacity to properly work.
17- Use the words "Cash Flow" or "Profit" carelessly. (always specify SDE, EBITDA, etc...)

18- Be unwilling to talk to a Buyer about one of your listings, even high level, non-confidential stuff until they've sent you a Personal Financial Statement.
19- Represent a Seller that brags to you privately about tax fraud (cash they take home not on the financials etc.)

20- Put making your fee above the best interests of the Buyer or Seller. (not saying be willing to surrender your fee to make a deal work, but don't get someone into a bad deal just so you can get paid)

How many of these have you seen happen over the years?

/END THREAD

20 things Business Brokers should 🚩NEVER🚩 do:

How to figure out if the SMB you want to buy is over-reliant on the Selling Owner- one of the biggest risks in purchasing a business.  🧵

(BOOKMARK THIS)

Buy something from the business if you can. See if you touch the owner at any point in the normal sales process. Now buy a 2nd time and ask for something custom or a policy exception or discount. See if employees can handle the curveball or if they run to the owner.

Read every review on every review platform. See if you see the owner's name mentioned in the review. Seeing the owner's name on 50% or more of reviews is a major red flag. 🚩

Does the owner take long vacations often or have intense hobbies like regular golf, fishing, hunting, etc? Scour their social media for these hints and ask them about what they do for fun and their travel. 

One of my Sellers had their best sales month ever when they were in Belize for a month totally unplugged- this was one of my favorite selling points to make to Buyers worried about over-reliance on Seller.

If possible see if you can shadow the owner for a day of remote work. If their day is full of panicked employees calling and asking them what to do, that's bad. If their day is them running payroll and ordering inventory and boring financial/ownership stuff, that's good.

Some owners make it impossible to steal from the business, but that has a downside of an owner bottleneck potentially. Good ones, trusted employees could steal, but it would be impossible to get away with it. Ask them about theft history and potential and how they manage it.

Ask what trade shows they go to and who goes from their company. If only the owner and their spouse go every year, this could be a major problem as owner might have all the critical industry relationships. Like to see teams that go with multiple leaders when applicable.

Dig into reason for sale. If it's burnout and a dad tired of missing all his kids' ballgames, or a mom feeling guilty, that's not a good sign. A well-run company has owners that go to all their kids' games. So ask about their kids and their relationship with them. Dig in here.

If you're able to talk to any managers (not always possible), they're a gold mine. Ask, "what does the owner do you wish they would stop doing?"

The long, interesting, list of addbacks on Broker's recast can be a red flag. Means owner uses business like personal piggy bank and likely doesn't have financial controls in place and all employees are clueless about the $$ aspects of the biz, as owner and CPA have "black box".

Look for awards and accolades on your tour and in the CIM. Do the awards say the company name or the owner's name? Look at the "About Us" on the website. Is the owner 80% of it? 20%? 0%? 

20 or 0 is my preference if buying.

Speaking of website, I like to see delegation here. If owner is the only one that updates the website or has admin credentials on CRM, website, etc. That is a sign they don't train and delegate important things or trust their team.

Get an employee list that has position, and TENURE for all W-2s. I like to see a mix on tenure. Everyone having worked there 20+ years is actually a risk they're overly loyal to status quo and Seller, and of course all new could mean owner runs people off and culture sucks. 

This one's a little "woo-woo" but ask Seller if they take personality tests like DISC, Enneagram, MB, etc and what they are. If they have a great answer here and seem self-aware of their strengths and weaknesses of personality traits, that's a great sign. Big blind spots, bad.

Ask Seller in what ways they are potentially holding the company back from reaching its fullest potential. Thoughtful, vulnerable answers here can tell you a lot. A good Seller shouldn't take an extreme end of the spectrum stance and answer with nuance explaining their pros/cons.

Does Seller almost always open or close the business beginning or end of day? That's bad. Both is suuuper bad. I love it when Owner just pops in and out randomly and employees never know when they'll be there. Says a lot.

Pull out a piece of paper in seller meeting with columns for 7 days of week and ask them to walk you through what they do on a normal week and fill it in like a calendar. If they struggle to articulate and say "every day is different", that's a bad sign they're the fireman... 

and reactionary with a chaotic culture. If this activity is easy for them or they pull out their phone and show you repetivive standing rhythm and their typical week looks pretty boring, that's a great sign! The more boring and routine the better.

Ask about their favorite business books and if they have tried EOS system or read "Clockwork", "Built to Sell", "The Ultimate Sales Machine", etc. If they have good answers and work on their business as a tinkerer, that's good. "I don't have time to read..." is bad.

What other tips and tricks do you have to evaluate owner-reliance in a SMB acquisition? I would love to hear them.

If you got value from this please share and give me a follow @clintfiore THANKS!

Avoiding Over-Reliance on Selling Owner in an SMB Acquisition

18 Ways Sellers Inflate Asking Prices on Small Business For Sale

🧵:

1) Weighting. Probably the most common and most deceptive is weighting the valuation entirely on the most-recent, best-year-ever. This can be appropriate if it's still growing the next year and sustainable, but often it's an outlier. More thoughts here: https://twitter.com/ClintFiore/status/1503717345860022273

2) Inappropriate SDE Addbacks. The most well-known and most complained about. Addbacks aren't a dirty word- they're fine. But they must be provable/documented, legal, on the tax returns, and clearly an owner-benefit that won't be necessary for you the Buyer going forward.

2B) The problem here is when sellers and broker get all loosy-goosy on them. For instance, if you see an addback for "Fuel Expense", and it's just an owner ballparking how much of the $15K of fuel was for their personal vehicles and it's not something they tell the IRS = no.

3) Inappropriate Normalization Adjustments. Another addback variation is adding large expenses that were "one time". Which can be fine if done properly. But the $20K of new paint or fixtures still have to be re-done periodically by the Buyer and Buyers have stuff like that too.

3B) I recommend you look hard at these and ask if that truly won't apply to you, and was that addback truly discretionary or one-time in nature? If it's a periodic thing, say $30K but happens every 10 years, take $3K/year budget for it into your projections. (cuz broker didn't)

3C) "Bad Debt" is a common one. If it's one crazy story, one time, maybe... but if it's a cumulative amount that gets periodically written off, it's not an addback, it's a cost of doing business in that company. You are buying that problem and shouldn't have to pay extra to.

4) Lack of Rent Adjustment. Huge landmines here often overlooked. Rents are going up everywhere. If you have to pay higher rent at purchase, broker should show that and negatively adjust the recast to reflect current earnings power. But they usually don't account for this.

4B) Especially important on owner-occupied to make sure broker is not "double counting" to ⬆️ value that includes RE. Sometimes Seller has a sweetheart deal with themselves on biz rent which inflates SDE. Then they value the RE at Market Rent overinflating that side. Must match!

5) Too high of a multiple. Pretty straightforward. Many brokers choose the 75th percentile or a way-above median multiple to hit the asking price # the Seller wants. Every Seller thinks their biz is "special". If above average on multiple it should be justifiable as to why.

5B) A higher multiple can be justified if, compared to its industry peers, it's got more recurring revenue, higher margins, higher growth rate, or some special advantage that conveys to you... but if none of those are present, a premium multiple is likely inappropriate.

6) Applying EBITDA multiples to what's really SDE. They're not the same. SDE has more adjustments and creates a bigger earnings stream and a lower multiple. EBITDA only has the "ITDA" adjustments and a higher multiple. Adjusted EBITDA can correct for owner comp but still ≠ SDE.

7) Not accounting for high interest rates. Newer one, but sometimes brokers will model out the ROI for you or Debt Coverage Ratio for you to justify their asking prices, but they aren't accounting for debt being more expensive than it was even a few months ago. Check for this.

8) Valuing projections, pro forma, DCF approaches. This one makes me lol, but I do see it often. Going all-in on valuing what the Seller says this year or next year "should" be in earnings, or a forward-looking DCF valuation. All of these aren't applicable to Main Steet <5M deals

8B) Usually business brokers value based on historical financials. So, often when I see this, it's the Seller's well-meaning CPA, Investment Banker. or MBA friend that valued their small business for them using forward-looking methods of large middle market or public companies.

9) Owner works more than full time. If owner works more than 40 hours per week, their entire pay should not be an addback. SDE is one full time working owner, at 40 hours per week. If they work 70 hours, best way is addback their pay then subtract someone at market pay for the 30

10) Multiple working owners. Same as point 9 above. Only the highest-paid, one owner should be added back to SDE. The others should be adjusted to a market compensation. Buyer shouldn't have to fill multiple spots from SDE.

11) Family members working free/cheap. This can cut both ways. Sometimes you see addbacks for $50K for the college kid that's the "social media manager" (not working) But sometimes their teen does rock social for them and gets paid off the books. Underpaid family does not convey!

12) COGS Shenanigans. Supply chain has been rekt last few years. Look hard at COGS. Make sure you can get stuff now at same prices Sellers could historically which the valuation is based off of. Restaurants getting margins squeezed right now with rising food costs for example.

13) Other Seller advantages that don't convey. These are hard to detect from the presentation. Most common is Seller's Personal Goodwill that can't convey to you. Ex: They're President of an association for 30 years and get referred heavily because of that position you won't have

14) Exclusions from Asset List. Most deals go down as asset sales. Look at what's excluded and make sure there's nothing on there that might directly or indirectly help the biz make money. Is racecar truly owner's toy or does it get them a lot of attention and business at track?

15) Last Year Victory Lap. Super important one. When you see a hockey stick up in earnings, make sure it's sustainable. Often it's the owner knowing they're about to sell and gaming their last year every which way. Pulling in future revenue, clearing out old inventory, etc.

16) Stimmies: PPP, EIDL Grants, Retained Employee Tax Credits etc. can be hidden all over deals these last few years. Make sure they're properly accounted for and adjusted. Many brokers are missing these if the bookkeeper is putting them in the wrong places, etc.

17) Cherry Picking Comps. Especially in smaller niche industries without a lot of comps, if broker used comps for their multiple range, them removing some of the lower ones or leaving in a crazy high one can really skew the range. Run your own comps or ignore and focus on ROI.

18) Not accounting for CAPEX. Sellers always add back Depreciation but then rarely budget for equipment replacement. Huge one especially in deals that have trucks and heavy equipment. Also watch for deferred maintenance especially in last year before sale. 

I hope this helps you be a smarter Buyer and avoid some landmines. 

Smash follow if you haven't yet. 

I'm gonna keep teaching business deal stuff on here to help beginners to advanced.

Overvaluing SMB Business Listings: 18 Deceptive Practices

THE PLAYBOOK 2.0

How to Buy a Business worth Millions with $0 of your own money.

Bookmark and consider this thread your 𝕏 SMB MBA

This is 100% possible.There are many variations of this, but this structure is super reliable and just works...🧵

First, for this to work, you need three things:
1) Good credit
2) have some relevant skills that lead bankers/investors to believe you're capable of running the business you want to buy
3) willing to sign on the line for a huge loan with an unlimited personal guaranty

You're gonna search for and find an established, profitable business that's eligible for an SBA loan, and get 100% of the money by structuring a deal kinda like this:
-10% from an investor that likes you and wants to be your minority partner
-80% SBA loan
-10% Seller Financing

You're gonna look for a business that has as many of these attributes as possible- this is the "sweet spot" where the best deals are https://twitter.com/ClintFiore/status/1710626128812224639

But how do you even find a biz to buy?

Good news, I wrote a guide on how to find one:
https://twitter.com/ClintFiore/status/1748709301407842713

But once you find one, how do you know how to determine what it's true SDE (Seller's Discretionary Earnings) are, and how to value it???

Good news, I wrote a thread on how to value a main street business:

https://twitter.com/ClintFiore/status/1659931778319273984

For this example we're going to say you found a nice business doing 750K in SDE (Seller's Discretionary Earnings) and you can buy it for 3X SDE, or $2.25M total. $750K is the total available to pay yourself to operate the business, service debt, and for profit distributions.

Your investor is someone who believes in you personally, has cash, and likes making money.

You are going to offer them an AWESOME deal to put up all the cash you need. Offer them 15-18% ownership, (worth 337-405K) for $225K. Key is keep them <20% or they'll have to PG it.

Investor loves the deal because:
- They get to buy in at a "discount"
- Not very risky because it's a long-established business and you're a stud operator.
- Cash flow distributions will be awesome, immediate ROI.
- Downside limited to what they put in, and upside is unlimited.

SBA Requires an unlimited Personal Guaranty from someone and everyone >20% has to sign it. That's gonna be you.

Taking on the PG risk and willingness/responsibility to work full time running it is the justification of why you deserve your majority spot.

Now let's get the remaining 90% of the money you need figured out.

This will be debt in two notes.
- SBA Loan for 80% let's say 10 years at 10% interest. Annual payment = ~$285K
- Seller Financing for 10% over say 7 years at 7% interest behind SBA. Annual payment = ~$41K

When smoke clears you own ~83% Investor owns ~17%. The cash flow looks like:

750K
- 120K for your salary to run it full time
- 285K SBA Note
- 41K Seller Note
= 424K Annual Pre-Tax Earnings

Investor gets 17% of that = $72K = 32% ROI on their cash.

You get $352K + $120K salary

With Zero growth, just keeping it steady, you're making ~$472K/year and investor is making 32% cash on cash return.

In 7 years, Seller note goes away and you're making $502K/year and investor is making $83K/yr or 37% on orig investment.

In 10 years with ZERO growth, SBA loan is now paid off, and you're making 83% of the $750K profit = $623K/yr and investor is making $128K annually FOREVER from their original $225K investment.

PLUS your equity is worth $1.87M and investors' equity is worth $383K.

But, if you grow at say, 7% per year, the numbers are so much better at the 10 year debt free point:

Biz is now worth $4.5M or more. Your equity is $3.75M and investors' stake is $769K.

And you enjoy ~$1.5M cash flow annually of which you get $1.25M/yr and investor gets $250K.

Summary: look for deals between $1-7M asking price and with an earnings multiple of 2-4X and it will generally pencil out sexy like this.

Line up your investor FIRST.

Get an SBA lender to pre-qual you together 2nd, then GO SHOPPING.

This is the best wealth building hack I know if you're in your 20-50's age range and want to go from low to multi-millions Net Worth in <10 years.

Live off your salary and reinvest your profit distributions into other investments and back into your business for best results.

No, this isn't easy.

Yes, there's real risk here. If you screw this up you can go bankrupt.

But most win. This is high odds of success if you do your part, buy right, and operate the biz well, and I can't think of a better way to level up this big in a shorter timeframe.

Please share and bookmark if this was helpful, and I'll try to answer as many questions as I can below.

The 22 books I finished in 2023 lightning review and /5 scores. 👇

5/5 = I loved it, will re-read, and you should definitely read it too.
4/5 = I'm glad I read it. Great one-time read.
3/5 = pretty good
2/5 = nah
1/5 = under no circumstances should you read this

Winning the War in Your Mind by Craig Groeschel 3/5

I think if I was a new Christian and wasn't well-read on psychology it would have been great, but this covered a lot of basics if you're a Christian that wants to start learning about taking care of your mental health.

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield 5/5

Incredible historic fiction. Listened to audio book and narrator Guidall really brings it to life. Graphic and intense and somehow education. Felt like I lived through it. Highly recommend.

Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke 4/5

As a casual poker player, this was pretty cool learning how to apply poker lessons and thinking to everyday life decision making. Good stuff.

The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon 4/5

Cute little parable that reminds you of the basics of how to win at life and be a good person. Might read again when I need a little pick-me-up. Definitely want my kids to read this.

Snow Leopard by Category Pirates 2/5

Some good takeaways about how to be original and stand out to own your category as a creator, but a bit too self-serving by the authors and discounts tactics they don't like that clearly work with a bit of a sneering broad brush.

A Man at Arms by Steven Pressfield 4/5

Had to do another Pressfield after how much I like Gates of Fire. This was a little shorter and almost as good. Super glad I read it but now that I know how it ends I probably won't read again.

The End of the World is Just Beginning by Peter Zeihan 4.5/5

So many interesting geographical, economic, and geopolitical lessons. Learned a lot. Enjoyable reading combined with depth of info. And left me feeling optimistic despite the doomsday sounding title.

Deep Work by Cal Newport 5/5

A message we all need to hear today. Carve out time to achieve focused, deep work without distractions and you can go 10X further than people that don't and have a modern superpower. Practical strategies to do so.

The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy 3/5

I think this is an excellent book for many but was kind of preaching to the choir for me. No new big revelations for me as an experienced reader of personal development / success books. Don't remember much from it.

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl 4.5/5

Everyone should read this once, at least. Incredible first-hand account of surviving the concentration camps, and important psychology lessons in the 2nd half derived from the experiences. Enlightening and Impactful.

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. 3.5/5

Don't get me wrong, it's a great book, but I think it just fell short of the hype for me since it was so highly recommended so many times I thought it would be more life-changing. Good at describing mental traps to look out for

Unoffendable by Brant Hansen 3/5

I wish I could give this book to sooooo many people and make them read it. But for me... preaching to the choir. How to not go around offended all the time like everyone's trying to be nowadays.

The Wim Hof Method by Wim Hof 4/5

Challenged me in a lot of ways. Learned a lot about what the human body and spirit is capable of. Perfect pre-Kilimanjaro trek read. Used some of his breathing techniques and they work. Love his vibe.

The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan 5/5

Will re-read every year for awhile until I start living it. Learning to measure yourself from where you've come from versus where you want to be = the key to happiness. Great concept.

Rogue Heroes by Ben Macintyre 5/5

2nd time through it and highly recommend. Just full of incredible stories of the heroes of the SAS from WW2 and their brutal fights and shenanigans across Africa, Italy, France, and Germany. Harrowing Tales.

Breath by James Nestor 4/5

A deep dive into breathing and how it affects our health, how and why we struggle with it, and practical things we can do to get better at it. Worth the read and an under-studied part of health and fitness.

Discovering the Mind of a Woman by Ken Nair 3.5/5

A good read for husbands. Somewhat deceptive title as the whole thing is just dudes getting absolutely bodyslammed by the Bible and how they need to behave like Christ and not be selfish a-holes to win at marriage.

Never Finished by David Goggins 4/5

A well-done sequel to Can't Hurt Me. Goggins always challenges and inspires with his life story. Love how honest and transparent he is and how he takes you on his journeys to extremes of pain and willpower.

The Self-Managing Company by Dan Sullivan 3/5

Had some good stuff but really kind of an introductory workbook to the strategic coach tools and systems. Not super good as a standalone. You'd probably get 1-2 things that would make it worth reading. Quick and short read.

The Fish That Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen 4/5

The life story of Sam Zemurray. Absolutely fascinating tale of the Jewish Russian immigrant that became the Banana King of the Americas, including toppling Central American governments and breaking a monopoly. Great read.

Indistractable by Nir Eyal 5/5

Another one we should all read. Will re-visit and drill its lessons into me. Practical ways to control your attention in a world of distraction and take proactive control of your life.

Benjamin Franklin - An American Life by Walter Isaacson 4.5/5

I really loved it but it's a little on the long side. Franklin lived an incredible life and truly shaped the course of history and American culture. So many ways we can respect and learn from his example.

Have you read any of these?

What was your favorite book of the year?
I'm building my next year's list now and would love your feedback and suggestions.

2023 Book Reviews and Ratings

2023 RESULTS!

Stuff I wanted to see happen in 2023 I posted beginning of year, and I promised to post results for transparency. I went 0/2 on big goals and 16/37 on random other things I wanted to see happen.

Itemized below 👇


Two big primary goals:

- Lose weight and get under 200lbs ❌

- Big Increase in Brokerage Revenue (number is confidential, but it's a huge jump up) ❌ (beat 2022, but short of '23 goal)

Random Things I would like to see happen:

1) speak on stages to live audiences at least 2X ✅ (4X!)

2) have a tweet liked or replied to by @elonmusk ✅

3) meet @girdley in person ✅ (sold a biz 4 him!)

4) meet @SMB_Attorney in person ✅ (2X!)

5) meet @Levijameshere in person ❌

6) meet @moseskagan in person ❌

7) meet @XavierHelgesen in person ✅ (2X!)

8) 6+ IRL Twitter meetups ❌ (several but not 6)

9) 60K+ Twitter followers (~3x) ❌

10) 100K+ followers across all social platforms ❌  (60K+)

11) read 15+ books ✅ (22)

12) 20+ dates w/wife and no kids ✅

13) 18+ dates w/individual kids ✅

14) 13th birthday trip anywhere USA daughter wants to go ✅

15) attend and camp at Oshkosh❌

16) climb Kilimanjaro ✅

17) fly airplane to Mexico double date weekend ❌

18) instrument currency flying❌

19) flight instructor ratings refresh❌

20) fly bonanza on oxygen to 17,500' or above❌

21) more flight hours than 2022 ❌

22) new aircraft interior❌

23) add 3+ full time people to Bison Business team ✅

24) PAGD 120+ paying members❌ (demonetized)

25) officiate my big bro's wedding ❌ (pushed to '24)

26) 2+ SMB Investments Closed❌

27) adopt a child ❌

28) throw at least 6 awesome backyard parties ❌

29) write a book ❌

30) go skiing with the family❌

31) involve my dad in my life more (take him flying for lunch, make sure he takes my kids fishing and shooting) ❌

32) be a good mentor/advisor to my little bro with regular meetings helping w/his business ✅

33) build kids a gaga ball pit ❌

34) SMB Merch Store launched ✅ (SMBmerch . com)

35) Personal Website launched ✅ (weak DIY one at clintfiore . com but ok for now)

36) drink less than 2022 ✅ (15% decrease)

37) see at least 2 of my best college-era buddies that live out of state face to face ✅


2023 Results

20 Year Anniversary Today of when I crashed an airplane into a mountain canyon wall. ✈️⛰️

True story. I should be dead. Here's what happened. 👇

At the time I was 20 years old, a Junior at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, AZ, working on obtaining my Commercial Pilot's License. I had been flying since I was 16 and advancing rapidly through my studies and ratings.

November 29th, 2003 was a beautiful clear, crisp fall day in Northern AZ. I took off from Prescott to do a cross-country solo flight to Laughlin, NV, then Boulder City, NV and back.

I had to build cross-country time for my rating and found myself ahead of schedule, so I decided to do a little sightseeing along the way. Northwest Arizona is breathtaking jagged wilderness full of mountains and interesting rock formations.

Over the desert I descended to check out an old abandoned airfield and some interesting topography. It was peaceful and beautiful out there and I loved the quiet peace of flying by myself away from civilization.

After wandering around the sights for awhile I decided it was time to head home, and punched in Prescott on my GPS to give me a direct route.

Between my destination and my current location lay the jagged, rugged, Aquarius Mountains. I pushed in the throttle of the Cessna 172 as I turned towards them and initiated a cruise/climb. The mountains rose in front of me as I paralleled a ridgeline to my left.

I noticed my vertical rate of speed slowing, and then reversed as I began to lose performance in my climb. I checked my airspeed. It looked good. I checked my engine instruments. Everything was in the green.

With full throttle, there was no reason I should have been descending... but I was. My curiosity quickly turned to concern as lost more altitude and sunk below the ridge to my left.

In front of me the mountains only got higher, so I knew I needed to turn around and get back to the lower terrain, perhaps go do an emergency landing on that old airstrip so I could figure out what was wrong on the ground.

I initiated a turn around a hill that looked like it would lead me back. As I descended around the corner, I realized every pilot's worst nightmare.

I had flown into a dead-end box canyon.

I was now in a narrow canyon that dead ended into a mountain face, and still losing performance. Doing a 180 was too risky. I pointed at the lowest saddle of the canyon holding full throttle and best angle of climb on my airspeed... and kept sinking.

My engine was running and I was praying I'd regain climb performance to clear the ridge. I kept the low point in front of me on the windscreen, and as I focused on it... I heard the unmistakable sound of my stall warning horn.

I knew at that moment I wasn't going to be flying out of the canyon. I lowered the nose to keep control of the aircraft and picked a spot to crash.

The canyon was funneling, getting narrower as I approached the dead end. I decided my best chance of survival was to turn into the left wall which had about a 50 degree upslope and try to avoid hitting the largest boulders if I could.

I made a mayday call even though I didn't think anyone would hear and continued to pray. The next few seconds seem to have all been in slow motion.

I could not believe this was happening.

I could not believe I was about to die.

I never had the slightest clue that this would be my time.

I did not feel ready.

I just kept flying and kept praying.

I made my left turn and aimed at a small clear-ish spot of bare ground, keeping my hand forward on the throttle and nose low so I wouldn't stall.

As the rocky surface approached, I yanked back on the yoke, bleeding off the last of my airspeed and getting the nose at as high an angle as I could muster on impact. I remember seeing the rocks in front of me. I remember hearing a loud BOOM as I impacted.

But the next instant I remembered I was laying on the mountain about 15 feet from the plane.

I had no idea how I got there. But it happened in a blink.

I don't remember ever unbuckling myself or climbing from the wreckage.

I know almost no time had passed since impact as I could hear the gyroscopic instruments still spinning down and saw a waterfall of fuel coming from the broken left wing.

It was so steep I thought the plane might fall down the mountain after impact. It didn't.

It just hit and stuck to the mountain. Dead stop.

I also thought the plane would explode or catch on fire since I went in full power with a lot of fuel on board. but there was no fire.

I knew there was a survival kit in the tail so I quickly ran and grabbed it before the plane could catch fire, then got a safe distance between me and the wreckage.

As soon as I was a safe distance I stopped to look myself over for injuries. I had none! I didn't even have the smallest scrape or bruise ANYWHERE on my body. No bruises where my seatbelts were. No pain in my back which should have broken from the G-forces of the impact.

My legs were fine despite a rock penetrating the floor and destroying the rudder pedals where my legs should have been when I hit. No cuts on my face despite the windshield being destroyed and many of the instruments on the panel inches from my face shattering upon impact.

It was a surreal experience standing there on that mountain; this other-worldly setting of rocks and mountains with no signs of human life in any direction except for me and what used to be my airplane.

Now I needed to get found.

I pulled out my sectional chart of the area and figured out exactly where I was. Not good. There were no roads, buildings, or water sources for many miles any direction. There were a few small patches of snow but I had minimal water, clothing, and shelter items.

It was afternoon and I knew my best odds of survival were getting found TODAY. I climbed the nearest peak and built a signal on top out of a small reflective solar blanket, sticks and rope.

I then hiked a ridge to another peak and built a windsock from the flimsy orange tube tent in the survival kit. It was a clear day and I could see probably 80 miles every direction and couldn't see a single aircraft or sign of civilization anywhere.

The silence was eerie, and I still felt like close to death- like I was still going to die. I thanked the Lord I survived the crash and proceeded to pass the time waiting for aircraft by writing letters to my family and friends.

Even if I died, I was grateful I had a chance to express myself one last time. After I wrote letters and read Psalms 23 from the pocket Bible I had with me, the sun continued its downward path towards the horizon as I scanned for aircraft. Nothing.

I hiked back down to the plane to see if I could make sure the Emergency Locator was working and check the radios. The radios were destroyed but a small red light on the ELT in the tail gave me hope my position was being broadcast.

Sure enough about 3 hours after impact I spotted a small twin-engine plane. I used a signal mirror to try to get its attention turned towards me and my makeshift signals. My heart leapt when I saw him blink his lights and rock his wings. I knew I was found.

They circled for a few minutes as I waved and gave thumbs up. It was an ERAU twin trainer sent from Prescott to look for me after I didn't return on time.

They flew off and about 45 minutes later a DPS helicopter arrived and picked me off the mountain right as the sun dipped under the horizon and took me to Kingman, where I got on a ride on the same twin engine plane that found me.

The FAA investigators saw the crash site first before they saw me and couldn't believe I was the one flying. They had never seen a survivor in a box canyon crash. They said I should be dead or at least be in the hospital with a broken back and tubes sticking out of me.

They said force of the impact on my body should have been roughly the equivalent of being strapped to an office chair and being pushed off a 100+ foot tall building, landing seated, wheels down onto a concrete sidewalk. (Do not suggest)

Dealing with the aftermath was a battle all on its own. Figuring out what happened, dealing with my school, the FAA, the NTSB, my own doubts, my future in Aviation, and all that took time and I went through the wringer dealing with everything.

Eventually I did piece together what happened and chalk the accident up to lack of experience in mountain flying. I was too close to the lee side of a ridgeline and had accidentally positioned my plane in a wave of downward-moving air called a mountain wave.

And by the time I realized it, it was too late and I had made the fateful wrong turn. I got kicked out of the flight program at my school via a split decision where a 5-person panel (2 of which I got to choose) decided 3-2 I couldn't stay in the program.

I also got a 6 month suspension (reduced on appeal) of my license from the FAA who felt compelled to do 'something' even though the inspector liked me and understood it was an accident. "You still crashed a perfectly good airplane" he said.

I resumed flying after my suspension and graduated from Embry-Riddle, Magna Cum Laude. I finished up my flight ratings at another flight school and obtained my Commercial, Multi-Engine, Instrument Pilot and Flight Instructor ratings all after the crash.

I learned a lot more about mountain flying after the accident and ended up instructing in Colorado for several years after school and still love flying but have extreme respect for mountains and maintaining safety margin in all I do in General Aviation.

A few years later I met the love of my life, got married, started a family and have four beautiful kids, was blessed to work at rewarding careers, and started multiple businesses. The last 19 post-accident years have been truly the best years of my life.

I've sadly lost some friends from college in plane crashes that were better, more experienced pilots, better humans than me, in accidents that didn't seem as violent as mine... I know it's not fair I'm alive and they're not... it truly is a mystery.

But I know God is good, that they're with Him, and that I'm going to make the most of my 2nd chance. I wrote a previous thread about how my near death experience changed my perspective forever if you want to hear more about the impact on my life. https://twitter.com/ClintFiore/status/1502053016546930688


Nowadays I fly for fun and business in a high performance 6-seater, a turbo Beech Bonanza A-36 and love every minute of it.

If the crash story hasn't scared you off from flying, I wrote a thread about how to get started in aviation mid-life and how much it costs in time and money and all that. You can do it safely, and starting a little older/wiser than when I did can be smart! https://twitter.com/ClintFiore/status/1527983297233530882

/THE END.

If this is the first post you've seen from me, consider giving me a follow. I'm a dude that tweets like a maniac about business deals and the work I do helping people buy or sell small businesses (SMBs). I try to keep it entertaining, educational, and uplifting.

Miraculous Survival: The Airplane Crash Story

How to Identify a Great Deal when Business Buying.

You want as many of these attributes as possible:
🧵

Clean books. Clean books. Clean books. Easy to understand P&L and Tax Returns. No funny business.

Adjusted Earnings (SDE or EBITDA) between 250K-900K is I think the sweet spot for maximizing ROI on both your $$ and time.

Smaller can be better relative % gain but too time consuming. Bigger can be less time consuming but you have to pay higher multiples.

Not too wrapped around the current owner. See this thread for a helpful guide on this: https://twitter.com/ClintFiore/status/1495423005333196801

In business for at least 3 years. Longer is better.

At least 5 employees. People act like the less employees, the better... but it's just not true. You're trying to buy a business, not a high-paying J-O-B, and you want good people in sufficient quantity.

Strong RPH- revenue per head. This is one of the sexiest metrics people don't talk about enough. When comparing companies side by side in similar industries, I generally want the one with the highest revenue per employee. Employees are hard to get nowadays- get the most from them

Geographically located somewhere with a growing population. Rising tide lifts all boats.

Good reviews / reputation. Really hard to turn around a bad reputation.

Trending upwards. Easier to accelerate when heading the right direction already.

You have something in your background/experience this company will benefit from. Could be connections, knowledge, technology, sales and marketing experience, financial sophistication, etc...

What's between your ears gives this company something it's missing.

Strong margins. I like slightly higher than normal margins in industry when possible. Assuming you can immediately fix low margins to industry standard is an extremely dangerous assumption. I'd rather grow revenue with already good margins.

Rich owner (study their personal assets/wealth as much as you can, as well as the business), strong cash position on biz balance sheet, and low or no debt.

Success leaves clues.

Most revenue is recurring or reoccuring.

Recurring = an automatic monthly, quarterly, or annual payment from customer. (ex. quarterly pest control agreement)

Reoccuring = same customers come back over and over though not automatic. (ex. periodic restaurant vent hood cleaning)

No family members of Seller working in key positions. Exceptions to the rule of course, but this bites you more often than not.

Small marketshare. (hard to grow when you've already got 90% of your potential customers)

Industry tailwinds. People don't put enough emphasis on this. Pick a sector likely to grow more than inflation over the next 10 years and your life and growth will be 10X easier than operating in a shrinking sector.

Competitive moat, barriers to entry. These can take many forms, but I like stuff under the radar without stiff pricing competition that are hard to easily replicate.

You can't imagine a gen Z kid creating an app within the next 10 years that puts you out of business.


Fragmented industry with lots of Boomer owners you could potentially absorb or buyout as they retire next 10 years.

Talent is "gettable" to do the work needed to grow as long as you pay well. It's hard everywhere but make sure it's not nearly impossible in your industry and geography if you want to grow.

Recession resistant: think "necessity". You want something that does just as good or even better in downturns when buying in hot markets.

Low Capex requirements. Can scale easily by reinvesting its own profits without having to constantly take on more debt to grow.