M&A Advisor: The Acquisition Playbook for Business Owners

Send us Fan MailLearn how founder and M&A advisor Patrick Rogers (Elkridge Advisors) helps small and mid-sized business owners buy businesses, source off-market deals, and scale faster through acquisitions in 2026. Patrick Rogers, Managing Partner at Elkridge Advisors and host of the High Performance CEO Podcast, joins The Business Game to explain how small and mid-sized founders can scale through acquisitions, without needing a $100M balance sheet. Elkridge Advisors helps owners access strategies traditionally reserved for large corporations, and in 2024 surpassed $500M in value generated for clients. In this episode, we break down: Why acquisitions can outperform organic growth How to build your acquisition “buy box” Why off-market deals beat public listings The most common mistakes first-time buyers make Why SBA underwriting kills momentum (and how to prevent deal fall-through) The truth about “funny money” and what banks actually lend against How AI is changing which businesses are safe to buy in 2026 Patrick’s predictions: biggest opportunities and biggest traps for buyers  Sponsor  Tala Offshore connects businesses with top tier remote talent across admin, customer service, and SaaS development. Build a stronger team without adding stress. Visit talaoffshore.com  We're excited to be able to offer our Business Game community an affiliate link for their HubSpot sign ups! HubSpot is the #1 CRM tool on the market - making managing clients and customer details easier than ever! Using our link to get started on Hubspot helps to support our work here at The Business Game: http://go.try-hubspot.com/Z6Eq50 start your free trial today!  Support the showThank you for listening to The Business Game, where real founders break down the real levels of business.Whether you're building at Level 1 ($0–$1M) or scaling through Level 6 and beyond, this show is designed to help you understand exactly where you are, and what it takes to level up.If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow and leave a review. It helps more founders find the roadmap.For full episodes, level breakdowns and behind-the-scenes content, follow us on YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.Want to identify your level or learn more about The Business Game framework?Visit www.thebusinessgamegroup.comIt's time to Level Up!We’ll see you at the next level.