In this introductory episode titled “Day 0 – 10-Days To Buying Your First Business | The Game Plan,” Carl Allen outlines his vision of helping aspiring dealmakers disrupt the small business acquisition market. He previews the structure of the series, which will span ten days, each covering a critical aspect of the business acquisition process. Allen emphasizes that the series is designed to guide viewers from developing the right mindset to achieving growth in their newly acquired businesses.
On day one, the focus will be on the importance of mindset. Carl explains that having the right mental framework is crucial for successfully navigating the acquisition process. Day two will introduce the concept of the “buy box,” helping listeners understand the differences between an owner-investor and an owner-manager, and discussing strategies for generating deal flow, such as using brokers, direct approaches, and leveraging networks.
Days three and four will dive into key business meetings and seller interactions. Carl stresses the importance of building rapport and trust with sellers and highlights five essential questions to ask before moving forward with a deal. Day five will focus on financial analysis, teaching listeners how to gather and interpret key data points, which will be essential for the valuation and structuring of deals on day six.
From days seven to ten, Carl walks through the execution phase of the acquisition process, from making offers and negotiating terms to raising capital and handling due diligence. He also discusses closing deals, finding general managers to run businesses, and finally, scaling and optimizing businesses for growth. Carl concludes by emphasizing the value of long-term growth and how scaling a business can lead to substantial financial gains for dealmakers.
Full Transcript:
Hey, guys. Karl Lola. And a very, very warm welcome to this brand new playlist, which is ten days to acquiring your very first business. Dealmakers, what’s up?
My vision is to completely and utterly disrupt the market for buying and selling small businesses all over the world. So we’re gonna be talking about ten days to your first acquisition.
So what I’m gonna do in this first video is I’m gonna tell you what we’re gonna be covering over the next ten videos. So we’re gonna have day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, day six, day seven, day eight, day nine, and day ten. So day number one, which is gonna be tomorrow, we’re gonna be talking about mindset. And you’re probably thinking, well, Carl, I wanna learn how to buy a business.
Why do I need to learn about mindset? Because mindset is everything. Having the right mindset, being completely dialed in to the process, and knowing why you want to buy a business and having a plan is really, really important. So day one is we’re gonna talk about mindset.
And then once we’ve done mindset and you’re really in the zone to kind of power through this and get it done, then day number two, we’ll talk a little bit about the market, but more importantly, we’re gonna be talking about your buy box.
So on day two, I’ll help you understand the difference between being an owner manager and being an owner investor, and then also why staying in your lane in terms of sector, expertise, specification that you’ve created, and we’re gonna get into deal origination.
So deal flow is kind of the holy grail, and I’m gonna teach you four different strategies really quickly. Generate deal flow. We’ll talk about business brokers. We’ll talk about direct approaches.
Approaches. We’ll talk about leveraging your network, particularly with deal intermediaries, more about that on day three. Then we’ll also talk about social media marketing and how you can leverage social media to get deal opportunities. And then day four, probably my favorite, is we’re gonna be getting into meetings.
So I’m gonna walk you through the concept of having an absolutely world class seller meeting, why it’s important to build rapport and build trust and build credibility, position yourself as the same pair of hands, and then I’ll walk you through the five absolutely critical questions that you need to ask the seller before you take the deal the next stage, which is day number five. On day number five, I’m gonna walk you through the concept of something called an NDA, which stands for a non disclosure agreement. And then I’m gonna give you some very basic kind of financial training around what are the seven to ten key numbers, key data points that you need to get from the seller from the financial accounts that the business will generate.
Because then once you’ve understood that, in day six, I’m gonna teach you how to value and structure the view. So we’ll look at how businesses are valued, taking those seven to ten data points from day number five, how do you combine those. And this is so easy, you can actually do it in your head, but I’ve got a very, very simple little model that I’m gonna share with you, which will value the businesses that you’re looking at and show you how to structure a deal so that you don’t have to put any of your own money into that deal.
Day number seven, we’re then gonna be making offers.
On day seven, we’ll be on with valuation and deal structures and then show you how to make an offer to a seller and then also how to negotiate.
Because sometimes you make an offer on a business and it’s rejected, the seller wants a different time for structure. So I’ll show you how you can position the deal around what the seller’s really looking for, and a lot of times that’s not actual money. And then day number eight, we’re gonna get into deal execution.
So you’ve made an offer, you’ve negotiated a little bit of arm twisting, the seller said yes, and then you’ll sign something called an LOI electoral intent. Now for deal execution, there’s kind of two phases to it. One is if the business needs a closing payment, you’ll be going out there. You’ll be raising a little bit of capital from the business’s resources, its assets, its cash flows, etcetera, to be able to make that closing payment.
And then also, you’ll be teaming up with a CPA and an attorney who are gonna do all the due diligence for you and then paper the deal. A bit like when you’re buying real estate. You’re you’re not doing the survey yourself on the house, and you’re not doing the legal work that the attorney does to get the house transferred from seller to buyer. In buying businesses, it’s exactly the same process.
We use a CPA to do the due diligence from the financial side, and then we use an attorney to do the legal due diligence, make sure the business is safe to buy, and more importantly, they will draft the legal contracts to allow you to take ownership of the business. That’s coming up in day number eight. Day nine, we’re gonna go into closing. So what happens at the closing table and then I’m also gonna talk about having the GM.
Now in day number two, when we’re talking about the buy box, we’re gonna be talking about the difference between being an owner investor and being an owner manager. If you wanna be an owner investor, you’re gonna need a GM, a general manager, to run the business day to day for you. So on day number nine, I’m gonna walk you through how to find GMs, how to incentivize them, and then how to remote lead them using things called KPIs, key performance indicators. And then on day number ten, we’re gonna get into growth.
Because it’s one thing buying a business, but what’s really fun and where you make most of your money, most of your capital gain, is when you grow the business. If you buy a business that’s doing three hundred thousand dollars a year in earnings, over three to five years, you can grow that business to where it’s making six, seven, eight hundred thousand dollars a year in earnings. You’ll be able to make millions and millions of dollars as a deal maker just on that one single deal. And obviously, if you replicate that across a portfolio, you could be making tens of millions of dollars in the next five to ten years.
So that’s the agenda for this playlist. So day one’s mindset, day two is buy box, day three is deal origination. Day four is all about meetings. Day five, I’ll walk you through the key seven to ten data points that you need from the numbers.
Day six is all about valuation and structure. Day seven, offers and negotiations.
Day eight is all about deal execution, due diligence, and the fundraising. Day nine is all about closing and having the GM run the business for you if you want. And then day ten is all about growth. And we’ll also talk about optimization as well. How to make the business absolutely coveted by trade buyers and other acquirers of the business so you can sell the top dollar. So I hope you found that really, really useful, and I will see you tomorrow for day one of mindset. Until then, my friends, bye for now.
