Michael Kennedy
@BluWick
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Co-founder @ Blue Wick. Anthropology PhD Dropout. Operate three boring businesses and counting. Here to share what I know and learn the rest. DMs Open.
Joined November 2023
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I just bought a small business with INSANE margins.
This is my 3rd company. First was bootstrapped (construction), second was a franchise (insulation), this is first true SMB acquisition. Am I a Holdco yet?
INDUSTRY: sign / lighting maintenance and repair
PURCHASE PRICE: 735k
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POV: Buying a Small Business with No Systems.
I am 45 days post close on a 30 year old sign / lighting maintenance business.
During due diligence we asked the seller how they determine parts markup.
Seller: “I look over the estimate, pray about it, then tell the CSR how to
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6 years ago, this pile of shit saved my life.
My first flip. February 2018.
PURCHASE PRICE: $48,000
RENO COST: $68,000
SALES PRICE: $235,000
Boarded up quadriplex a rough neighborhood. Vagrants having sex, shitting (somehow) on the walls. I carried a firearm on site.
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I made $1,025,741 on 2 free houses.
Here’s how it happened and lessons I learned in the process.
Lesson 1: Keep Shaking Trees
I had been sending hand written letters for 5 month to a house with a vacant lot next door. I had 2 duplexes under construction a few streets away and
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@sweatystartup
Real estate worked for me to start. I joined a team. Learned brokerage. Called the shit out of sellers to generate business. Saved money. Bought first flip. Used brokerage income as cash flow to live on, kept flipping and reinvesting. I saved 500k in 3 years. That launched my
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How X Will Change Your Business in a Week
I’ve been active on X for less than 1 week.
My first post was about our recent acquisition of a sign maintenance company. Two owners in that industry reached out immediately.
They both offered congratulations and support.
Both these
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@coleruudjohnson
RE Twitter is the same. It sounds cool to say you own 1,000 doors. But are you a 2% owner and a full time gopher for your investors? I think a lot the people doing boring flips in tertiary markets make more than the 1,000 door guys and sleep just fine at night.
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@BowTiedBroke
It happened to me back country in Alaska a couple years ago. Everybody likes to think they’d be able to pull their sidearm and react. I froze. It was a false charge, and went moving past me. If it had changed its mind nothing I could have done it about it. Gives you perspective.
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Hello, I Just Bought Your Company
The weirdest part of a small business acquisition is meeting your new employees. You’ve met the sellers. You’ve asked them 1,000 questions about the employees: what they’re good at; what they’re not; how they’ll feel about the change; if any of
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@jcolesimpson
How on earth did they care enough about the property to put a new roof on but were checked out enough to not know it had caught on fire?
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@SFR_Investor
I have tenants do stuff like this constantly. Then get charged a trip fee from the vendor. How do you handle that?
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I Saw a Pedestrian Get Hit By a Car Today
I was on the way home from the office.
Homeless guy walked right out in front of a car in oncoming traffic.
He rolled onto the windshield and back onto the ground.
It happened 10 feet in front of me.
His shoes landed 15 feet away.
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Maybe Riches AREN'T in the Niches.
Hear me out...
My partner was asked to do a
valuation for a landscaping
business.
Two years ago it was doing
1.5MM revenue and 300k
SDE.
This year it’s at 2.5MM
revenue and 450k SDE.
To grow, he dropped all of his
maintenance contracts to
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My 10 Favorite Southern Jobsite Sayings
My 62 year old construction manager grew up on a farm in rural South Carolina.
He is a one liner machine. After 6 years working together, he still somehow has new material.
The man should be on tour.
Here are my favorites:
1. “Mike,
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The biggest threat to success isn’t failure, it’s boredom (to paraphrase James Clear). New business ideas are exciting, risk is exciting, strategy is exciting. But slogging through a plateau is boring as hell. It’s easy to get distracted and move on.
You keep climbing hills.
One of the hardest aspects of SMB is it isn’t the big ideas, the bold strategies, the major risk taking, etc - that’s the easy part to get excited about … it’s sticking to it and grinding it out year after year, day after day, hour after hour, often in the dark of night without
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The state of someone’s car is pretty close to the state of their life. Removing water bottles, cups, takeout bags etc are 10 second tasks each. If they are not on top of those, they are unlikely to be on top of the business. A guy with an immaculate car is almost always a killer
What are other ridiculous and possibly effective ways to judge potential leaders for your business?
1) how fast do they walk? (Sense of urgency )
2) how quickly do they order food? (Decisiveness)
3) do they speak in percentages? (Maths)
4) do they order guacamole on their
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@IamScottlarson
I have a cheat code. My business partner is an MNA broker. The deal came across his desk first.
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Your Kids Will Be The Only Ones Who Remember You Work Late
My son turns two today.
I’ve been thinking about that quote a lot lately.
On the one hand, you want your kids to see you put in the work.
On the other, you need to be present.
Both require being an example, but it’s
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Me commenting on accounts with 100k followers trying to hit 1k this month
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Need Advice on LATAM CSR
We are preparing to scale our sign / lighting maintenance business.
Currently our CSR positions are in the US, but work remotely. There is no need for them to be in a physical office or in the same location they cover.
We are considering moving this
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@sweatystartup
I started by first business flipping an abandoned quadruplex that had shit stained walls and used condoms everywhere. Last year we passed 8 figures.
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@Stanley_Tweets
Do you buy in markets other than the one you live in? I am 100% in my local market. I keep a license because it gives me access to the MLS and a bunch of prospecting tools. I feel like it’s easier for me to do quick DD and underwriting on a deal: tax records, mortgage, survey,
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@JulieChangRE
I own 7 airbnbs. We average 70 % occupancy. That mens 30% of the time there is no wear and tear on the house - flushes, showers, foot traffic, appliances, etc. I think an STR would be in better shape after 5 years than a traditional tenant or owner occupied unit.
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@MatznerJon
Ha! I've watched this one on a loop too 😂 Thought maybe I was the only one. Glad I'm not alone.
TikTok · Kris Krohn
193 likes, 55 comments. “This phrase will make me a billionaire.”
www.tiktok.com
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@SFR_Investor
Thanks for sharing. I own 20 sfr student rentals. God bless them, they’ll run our maintenance folks ragged with this type of request. Have not found the right solution yet. Half of them will not report a roof leak for 6 months. The other half will submit a request to change a
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@sweatystartup
Coming up with ideas gives you the satisfaction of having created something without the risk of taking action.
How many ‘idea guys’ do you know that are broke and miserable because they never took a chance?
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Folks with businesses that are primarily outdoors (i.e. roofing, landscaping, concrete) how many days per year do you expect to lose to rain / weather?
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@girdley
Does that make you think twice about building in public? How do you handle it? Until recently I would have rather walked down the street naked than talk about a balance sheet in public, but I think there is real value in normalizing talking about financial wins and losses in our
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@leo_szac
I bought an abandoned church last year and converted to a 5 unit airbnb / small wedding venue.
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@tenlifejosh
People also lie to themselves about how their business is doing. How many folks do you know running an absolute dumpster fire and think they are killing it?
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@STLChrisH
Middle fork of the salmon river. We did 6 days ~ 150 miles. Didn’t see another person. Fish aren’t pressured at all. Was pulling them out of the water non stop.
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If you want to watch someone taking off like a rocket ship build their empire in public, follow my my Connor!
2019: Bought my first franchise in the home service industry at age 20
2020: Worked 60-80 hours/week and was barely profitable. Realized I picked the “wrong” brand.
2021: Finally broke 6-figures of profitability and hired a GM
2022: Bought an existing business in a different
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@JakeMRichards
@RZachSmith
I just closed on a 30 year old boring business. We asked the CSR how the old owner used to determine product markup for estimating. She “prayed about it” with each customer. Some had .5% markup, some 3x for the same product. Been fun putting the puzzle together, haha.
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@SuccessWithJake
I was not in the military, but hiring veterans has changed my life. I ran everything like a pirate ship before. Now we have proper 'chain of command', discipline and accountability. That has allowed me to stop rowing and start looking for icebergs. Game changer.
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@realfrugalmogul
@BiggerPockets
I got lucky the same way. Spent a year listening to bigger pockets. Got a license. Walked a ton of listings. Finally pulled trigger on a boarded up quad. Was an absolute mess. Covered in shit, condoms and needles. And it worked. Have done over 50 since. Thanks for sharing your
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This is why you should build in public. Check Cole out!
People ask why I got on Twitter
In the last week:
- I spoke to a guy running a 9 figure roofing company for 30 minutes
- I was brought three 1 million plus EBITDA businesses to potentially buy
- I met with a family office who would potentially want to fund future deals with
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@SemperVigilant1
@JulieChangRE
Funny, we did have a group spill something red on a light brown coffee table covered in penis confetti. Had around a dozen penis outlines the next day 😂 they bought us a new table.
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Q: What do you do?
A: I make ice cubes.
Boring answers to that question are usually the most profitable.
Here’s a business for all you side hustle nerds:
Met a guy a dinner last night who makes and sells clear ice cubes to restaurants for $2/ea
Sells about 3000 a week.
Makes them in his garage.
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@sweatystartup
I just bought a sign servicing and maintenance company. We’re adding cleaning to our list of services!
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A few years ago a city zoning official claimed we put an 8/12 roof on a historical home when the permit called for a 10/12.
They threatened to make us reframe it and pull our license.
We produced an email from that same official approving an 8/12 roof.
They claimed it was a
Recap of the Lyft saga
Lyft issues earnings press release
States its EBITDA margins increased 500 bps
Shares jump +60% after hours
Issues correction saying it mean 50 bps
Shares fall to +15%
Somehow still up +30% today
Remember kids, check your work
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We've all wondered what it would be like to go on Shark Tank. My man Gabe Trevizo actually did it. Check him out!
𝐃𝐎𝐍’𝐓 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐕𝐄 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆
@sweatystartup
says,
Shark Tank🦈 Made me 𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐇!!!
In August of 2021 we pitched Suds2Go to the Sharks!
The 18 months leading up to that day had been a blur. From conception to production, it took me over 12 months. We
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@STLChrisH
I got my first fish on a fly rod last summer in Idaho. Felt like a momentous occasion. You ever seen a grown man that happy with that small a fish 😂
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Nobody ever talks about how much money they actually make in interviews. It sounds cool to say you own 1,000 doors. But are you a 2% owner and a full time gopher for your investors? I think a lot the people doing boring flips in secondary markets make more than the 1,000 door
What I've realized:
Most podcasts on real estate investing suck.
Elementary advice that doesn't get into the details and nuance of how the industry actually works.
A few years ago, I started on the journey of trying to create something different.
On my podcast, I mostly do
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@SFR_Investor
@seandsweeney
It's gotten to be cool to shit on that book. But for at least a decade, how many people read it and made a decision to change their habits with money or leave a job to start a business? It sold 30MM copies. I think most folks that read it took the good with the bad, like anything
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@SultanofStorage
The first half of that post made my hands sweat. Glad you’re on the other side of it!
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@MatznerJon
You went deep on this one. Took me a minute 😂 and I’ve been watching Masters of the Air…
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@Stanley_Tweets
One of the biggest edges is expired or withdrawn listings. I’ve found a couple of my best ever searching that way. Hard to do on Zillow. You can go back, find the agent and track down the seller - sometimes years later.
Our MLS also has a great integration w public records.
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@SuccessWithJake
I think in most areas of life to be a true top .01% performer you need maniacal focus on a single thing. Pro athletes don’t play multiple sports for a reason. Most billionaires grow a single entity for decades.
But not everyone is wired that way. I know I’m not.
I operate 3
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Dude, it’s hilarious to me. And hell no I didn’t see it. Can’t see the shore when you are drowning. That’s why I keep that pic in my office. To stay humble and hungry. Pride goeth before the fall, as they say.
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@homeservguy
I’m 41. Have a 2 year old and one coming in July. I own 3 companies, scaling 2 of them quickly. I don’t think I was level headed enough in my 20s to do both at the same time. Feels right now though.
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@SFR_Investor
I built our first 15 rental units with the absolute cheapest painter I could find. Thought he was using the same color. But he was going wherever he could get a coupon, and using mixing in leftovers from other jobs. Couldn’t tell when it first went on. But now we can’t do touch
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@MatznerJon
Awesome man, thanks for sending. I’ll likely need 4-5 hires total in the next 12 months. Will DM you. Thanks for the reply!
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@thewealthdad
I think about this a lot. We all struggle with pursuing things we don’t necessarily want to impress people who aren’t thinking about us in the first place.
There is that old Montesquieu quote:
“If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to
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@AwayConsultant
That's great man! I'm in my home office 1/2 the day. My wife also works from home. Awesome getting to see her and kids through the day.
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@KirkNewcombe
@JakeMRichards
@RZachSmith
You and me both! This company is small enough it isn’t a huge deal to unwind all the stuff like this. Most of the employees had ideas for how to fix them, but old owners got it in way.
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@meetmikehiggins
@sweatystartup
Playbook was the same as yours man: buy and flip on repeat, haha. I started when you could still find high margin deals in the MLS and money was cheap. Would have been much harder starting today.
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@ConnorGroce
Does he have capable manager that could operate some of the territories as an owner? If that person has equity, could use an SBA partnership buyout. That could be an off-ramp for at least part of the territories while looking for a buyer for the others.
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@sweatystartup
I’m in Columbia SC. Had planned on doing a let of the Georgia Traverse last year but Covid had other plans. If you’re serious, I’ll help organize!!
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@KirkNewcombe
I was really trying to make the point that alof of folks think they can acquire a SMB and just take off. It's not so simple...
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@realAAAbbott
Agree it’s a bad idea to come in a turn the house upside down. But our experience has been the key employees had a list of ideas to improve basic functions the previous seller wouldn’t implement. Now they feel heard, and the business is functioning better. Everybody wins.
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@MalcolmPools
@joshuamschultz
@KenziesPoolBoy
@apentz
That’s awesome man.
@JackLinks
needs to get their act together for a sponsorship while they can still afford you!
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Gator Bites
Duck Poppers
Wild Pig Shoulder
What’s on your Super Bowl menu?
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@MJRSelfstorage
Great way to get into an industry! We also had a sign issue, called 3 companies and couldn't get it fixed...What was your bad experience?
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@tenlifejosh
Spot on. Same reason you ask a real estate agent how many homes they sold last year, and how many sold at ask price.
Alot of the biz brokers have owned one business, exited. Got bored. Bought a brokerage territory and get by on a handful of deals a year. Sound familiar?
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@trevizo_gabe
The only people who are going to remember you worked late are your kids.
I think about that a lot.
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@jcolesimpson
@CostaKapo
Yep, I own a sign / lot lighting maintenance company. What can I do for you?
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@Aiman01_aslam
@sweatystartup
Knowing that I didn’t want to go back to the place I was in when I took that picture! I keep it in my office as a reminder. Sometimes running away from something is more motivating than running towards something. That was the case for me, anyways.
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@KirkNewcombe
What are the pros / cons for a searcher looking at a high EBIDTA established multi unit franchise? How would you evaluated compared to a non franchise acquisition in a similar industry? Looking forward to your posts!
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@KirkNewcombe
@SuccessWithJake
It could also very well be the case that Ron Swanson had it right:
"never half ass two things, whole ass one thing"
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