Seems like daily I get asked: "I'm 23 and have $25k in savings. Should I use that to buy a $1,000,000 business?" No. Instead, go find a well-paid job working for someone you admire. Learn to read a P&L, structure deals, manage people and save cash. Jog before you run.

If you acquire a business for 3x its annual cash flow, use no debt, and keep the business flat, you would generate a 33% year 1 cash-on-cash return. 4x = 25% 5x = 20% Stop fixating on purchase price. Instead, focus on your ability to mitigate risks and grow the business.

Raising equity deal-by-deal is a suboptimal approach for anyone trying to buy multiple cash-flowing businesses. You may lose a deal because you can't raise the money in time. Your investors are concentrated in a single business, rather than a diversified group of businesses.

Recent conviction: I need to ask more/better questions. As the business owner, my job is not to solve problems. My job is to find and motivate great people to solve those problems. Every time I proactively jump in, I toxically undermine their accountability.

Broker sent me a CIM this week for a content business doing $450k in revenue and $150k in gross profit. Asking price: $6,500,000 Be careful out there folks...