From W-2 to Business Owner - Acquisitions Anonymous Episode 96

Want to receive this listing in your inbox? Signup for our weekly newsletter:https://landing-newsletter.acquanon.com/-----Michael Girdley (@Girdley) is joined by Patrick Dichter (@patrickdichter) to talk about how he went from working in sales to acquiring his own accounting firm. We talked about 2 deals, a cloud accounting firm and a marketing company. Patrick used e-mail cold reaches during his search and shares his process to maximize outreach, why he decided on an accounting firm, and more.-----Thanks to our sponsors!MicroAcquire is the #1 startup acquisition marketplace. It is simply the most efficient way to buy and sell startups when you’re ready to make your next move.-----* Do you love Acquanon and want to see our smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.* Do you enjoy our content? Rate our show!* Follow us on Twitter @acquanon Learnings about small business acquisitions and operations.-----Show Notes:0:50 - Microacquire2:48 - Intro - Patrick Dichter4:34 - Why did you transition from a W-2 employee to a searcher?6:17 - How was your search process?7:31 - What was your strategy to find a deal 8:38 - Who is running the operation today?9:45 - How to cold reach potential sellers through e-mail? -  Applying sales experience to a search 11:16 - What would you do differently to improve your response rate? 12:34 - Deal 1: A cloud bookkeeping accounting firm15:07 - What’s interesting about this Deal?17:12 - What are profit margins typically for these companies?18:43 - How do you think about the cyclicality of start-ups as a customer?19:59 - Yellow flags on this deal23:41 - How do we think about different accounting firms and their services?26:20 - How would you grow this business? What barriers do you see? Would you recruit overseas talent?30:06 - Could we raise prices? Does this apply for an SBA Loan?32:06 - Any other considerations? What about revenue mix & seasonality on the cash flows?36:24 - Deal 2: Niche Digital Marketing Agency39:27 - What is their business model? What would make it interesting?41:44 - What happens with labor retention in these companies?43:50 - Financials, growth concerns & due diligence focus46:59 - How is the business-customer relationship on this Deal?48:53 - Why is this so pricey? How would we structure this financially?52:33 - Connect with Patrick-----Past guests on Acquanon include Nick Huber, Brent Beshore, Aaron Rubin, Mike Botkin, Ari Ozick, Mitchell Baldridge, Xavier Helgelsen, Mike Loftus, Steve Divitkos, Dzmitry Miranovich, Morgan Tate and more.-----Additional episodes you might enjoy:#86 Rocketship your business with... Twitter?! - JK Molina gives a Twitter Masterclass#79 What do Investors want? - Dig into an investor’s mind with Bradford Hardin#75 SBA Loan Secrets with Heather Endresen, expertise from a Billion-Dollar LoanerSubscribe to  weekly our Newsletter and get curated deals in your inboxAdvertise with us by clicking hereDo you love Acquanon and want to see our smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.Do you enjoy our content? Rate our show!Follow us on Twitter @acquanon Learnings about small business acquisitions and operations.For inquiries or suggestions, email us at [email protected]