Mike Botkin
@MikeBotkin_
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Don't be afraid to try what you're not qualified to do. If I only did what I was qualified to do, I'd be pushing a broom somewhere. -Sacca.
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I was named COO of a large company at a relatively young age. The CEO and I would meet 2/3x per week and go over anything and everything. Something he did that. I think. helped me. He'd make me send over a 1 sentence list of topics we are going to discuss, and he meant 1.
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Been looking at buying a lawn service company. Zeroed in on one near me in Central Florida . 40yrs in operation. Owner is in 60s. Has nobody to pass it down to. Does $800k in gross sales per yr. (just wait).
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My wife potty trained both of our kids in less than 3 days. Her secret? . No diapers. Completely naked for 2-5 days. Yes, you have a ton of messes to clean up. initially. But, for whatever natural reason. kids know not to pee or poop on the floor, couches, etc. when they.
We have been potty training our newborn since he was 10 days old. We live in a society that literally teaches children to poo themselves, and then after 2+ years we have to try and break the habit. I haven’t had to clean a dirty diaper in weeks, but Big Nappy doesn’t want you to
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Signs that you were rich when I was growing up…. Refrigerator in the garage, full of drinks.
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Almost 3 years ago to the day, while laying in bed, I opened the twitter app and tweeted out that I wanted to buy a landscaping business. I ended up doing it. 2 years ago to the date, we formed our holding company around buying landscaping companies and subsequently acquired 6.
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My wife has Taylor Swift tickets for her show in Miami in October. Floor, 9th row in the middle (right in front of stage) . She just told me tickets in a worse section just sold for thousands more than we paid. What are the odds I can get her to flip her tickets? . I need to.
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Klay Thompson took a TOTAL of 2 dribbles on his 11 made 3's last night. Yet all these "trainers" have kids do 500 dribbles for every shot.
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I have zero idea why, it’s out of 100% pure curiosity, but I’m obsessed with learning the custom home building industry. The guys that do 5-20 houses per year.
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A tree company just got acquired / sold for a multiple of 21.5x EBITDA . Twenty One point Five. 🌳 Tree company.
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Tom Izzo, "Seniors better be coaching your team this time of the year. If your doing all the coaching, your team probably isn't very good.".
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When they entered . Cavs.Kyrie - 1 & Done.JR - HS.LBJ - HS.Love - 1&D.TT - 1&D. GSW.Curry - 3yr.Klay - 3yr.HB - 2yr.Dray - 4yr.Bogut - 2yr.
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Had an attorney reach out to us about a landscaping company going through bankruptcy. Ownership has had it less than a year. They acquired it via SBA loan. Attorney said he's seen an uptick in bankruptcy filings with SBA loans in various industries lately.
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Broker called me about a local biz for sell. First thing I do is google the owners home. Wife asks me why?. I refer to @BrentBeshore famous saying, (paraphrasing) . ‘I like to buy from a wealthy seller’. If the business didn’t make them wealthy, why would it make us wealthy?.
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Day 1 scaries. When I bought our first landscaping business (45yr history), the seller seemed really involved. But, he assured me his "#2" was amazing, knew the business inside/out, ran the crews, knew all the customers, etc etc etc. "Biz is fine without me, biz can't run.
We bought a company on Monday and added them to our landscaping company. Their team was completely surprised. Let's just say - it got spicy. The morning started by telling their office team. They were shocked and then very emotional. It was definitely not a rah-rah moment.
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1/ We have officially closed on our newest acquisition. Before I get into that, let’s walk it back a bit. Just over a year ago I put together a thesis about the landscaping industry and how there was massive opportunity in the category. Especially in Florida
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Update ‼️. We closed our 5th Acquisition today. Commercial Landscaping company. 🚜 . This has been our largest acquisition we’ve done to date. Located in Orlando. Off-market deal.
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HS FB plyr always say he cant play bball bc they "lift" in winter. Here is brkdown of multi sport NFL draftees n HS
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With being the largest residential provider in Orlando, I knew there would be some challenges dealing with customers. We went recruiting. We hired a Chick-Fil-A General Manager to be our customer relations director . It’s been 2.5 days. We hit a home run.
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$Z (Zillow) bought 3,800 homes in the last three months. Avg purchase price: $322.Avg renovation: $10k.Avg selling/marketing/holding costs: $16k. Avg sold price: $370k. Interesting. .
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"You can tell an average player from a great player when you demand excellence from them. Average players dont like it. Great ones love it.".
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Buying a business with no debt / all equity and then financing with debt later is a massive cheat code. *Especially* if you can grow the business prior to putting debt on it. Using debt to purchase a SMB is extremely risky and something we’d never do.
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My wife just told me her tickets come with the “VIP package”. Whatever that means. I’m starting to play ‘guess the number’ on what she would let me sell them for. So far…no dice.
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Guy looking to buy an hvac company in the town he lives in called me yesterday to get my thoughts. I asked him, “do you like privacy?” . He said, “very much so”. I said….kiss that goodbye, and understand both ends of that. Yes, it can be a massive unlock and lead to a ton of.
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A study was performed on landscaping companies in the US. Combined revenue of those companies were $2.35 billion. On avg. 12.4% of labor hours were spent driving. If you paid out $1m in labor hours, $124k were spent in a truck - not producing revenue. Think about how important.
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You can mitigate A LOT of risk by purchasing companies from a good person. Forget the financials/industry/operations, etc. If the owner is a bad dude, move on. We’ve made (4) acquisitions in 10 months. Ask me why I’ll only ever buy from a good guy/family.
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Most people searching for a business (search funds & self-funded) have wrong perception about what they are doing. Everyone wants to be an investor. Very few want to be operators. 10% of what I do is investing.90% of what I do is operating.(stole that from BB). Being A+ at.
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We did this. We built 200 SF homes & 25 townhomes. On 1 site. Gated the development . Had onsite water park, clubhouse, bar&grill, and onsite hospitality (sales, management, maintenance, cleaners, etc) . Here’s some pics throughout Development. Cont.
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Update ‼️. We closed our 3rd Acquisition today. Another Commercial Landscaping company. 🚜 . Located just outside of Orlando. Deal was off-market.
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Owning a SMB is fun. Tues.Employee locks keys in truck = 90min delay . Wed.- 3 employees ask me for a raise (1 of which has been here 30 days and has been late 4).- 2 employees have to be separated.- one of our trucks breaks down. Friday .6 callouts(2 were scheduled, 4 ‘sick’).
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Oh, s/o to @sweatystartup for pushing me to tweet about this. I’m extremely reluctant to post stuff like this from personal side but Nick has been super encouraging and helpful.
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@girdley Was given this ultimatum one time. Told them “I accept”. Guy said “accept what? The raise?” . No, the resignation . “Are you serious? Wtf? What if I want to stay?”. That wasn’t an option you gave me. You said raise to X or you leave for Y business. So I accept for you to leave.
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I think this is very underutilized. I'll speak with somebody trying to buy a business in an industry they've never experienced. Say landscaping for example. They want to go do a bunch of roll-ups. I'll ask them. "there are 50 landscaping businesses on [name the platform], have.
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A lot of kids tweet #D1Bound or #BallisLife yet you have a 1.8 GPA; how about #LibraryBound or #BooksForLife.
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⭐️LOOK AT THIS⭐️. Americans wonder why 28 INTL players got drafted last year. We take 50 dribbles b4 a shot, they work on 1 hand passing
🏀🏀 Y antes de partir hacia Valencia, buen trabajo de técnica individual / @Sedekerskis_11 & @ArtursKurucs improving their skills
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Phenomenal clip from Dan Patrick on perspective and why he left ESPN.
“I’m gonna quit ESPN.”. Marriage. Kids. Career. I’m inspired by Dan Patrick’s story here. Full 10Q ep:
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I’ve bought very complicated businesses with more ease and a lot faster than it’s taking me to purchase a house. Somebody please fix the mortgage business for non-W2 people.
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Invest in your employees. Have an employee (27yo), that moved here from Puerto Rico in his late teens. Didn’t graduate HS. Told him if he takes the GED, I’ll give him $50. If he passes it, I’ll give him $250. Showed me this am he passed his test. Best $250 I spent all month.
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So, this week we have seen. D2s beat multiple D1s.JUCOs beat D2s.Yet some kids won't even think about those levels bc ya know. D1 or bust.
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A quick update: According to most people, if you're lucky, the goal in life is to find something you're passionate about, and then you’ll never work a day in your life. A few years ago, I found that passion—operating a business. I remember working 15-hour days, wondering how we
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Update ‼️. We closed our 4th Acquisition today. Commercial Landscaping company. 🚜 . Located in Orlando. Deal was off-market. 1st phone call to closing wire = 90 days.
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Want to make $500 or $50k? . I’m buying commercial landscaping business that do $1m EBITDA or more in FL, GA, AL, SC, NC, TN . You intro me to an owner that fits that bill, I’ll give you $500. If we close, I’ll give you $50k.
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$24b industry that has no fear of technological disruption? . Tree Trimming 🌳 🌲 . 2010 it was a $12b industry. Rise in home building has doubled this industry. 🏡 . Cool part? 1 family makes up 10% of market share. Asplundh Tree Expert.
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I live in Orlando. The desire to move to small/medium midwestern town grows on me each week. My wife asks me all the time, “why?”. I have no answer.
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Okay. How did I go from this to easy-peasy uneventful day/week 1s. *This is for small business, home service/blue-collar type businesses*. Like anything in life, it all begins with the preparation. Here are things that trip people up. Employees.Customers.Vendors.Systems. I am a.
Day 1 scaries. When I bought our first landscaping business (45yr history), the seller seemed really involved. But, he assured me his "#2" was amazing, knew the business inside/out, ran the crews, knew all the customers, etc etc etc. "Biz is fine without me, biz can't run.
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Christmas has come early. I’m beyond excited to announce that Josh Schultz [ @joshuamschultz ] is joining me as a Partner to help build Canvas Outdoors. Partnership. It’s the cornerstone of everything I value. True partnership is built on collaboration, mutual respect, and a.
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Update ‼️. We closed our 6th Acquisition today. Commercial Landscaping 🚜 located in Atlanta, GA. This is a crazy twitter connection story.
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We’ve closed 3 deals in the last 8 months. All off-market. We have a few more under LOI that all came about off-market. (we have 100% close-rate if a deal goes to LOI). I’ve been asked a lot about how we finance and structure deals. 1/.
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Probability of Success. Play the odds. TLDR; find a winnable game, play that. Speaking to a friend the other day that is super smart, passionate, hungry, and best of all…has a curious mind. He has been doing start-up eCom businesses for past few years. Gets some traction,.
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Twitter is getting rough. There are too many people trying to become ‘twitter famous’ or an influencer. ‘Chasing clicks’. Tonight I learned that people have groups where they systematically promote each other by liking/RTing, engaging with posts from others in the group. In.
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Want to know a great business? . Charter schools in Florida . At my previous firm, I was spearheading a $20m investment into the space . Tuition = free to the students (customers) . State of FL pays the school ~ $7,600+ for each student . AMA.
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Here is a HUUUGE secret we used in real estate . Orange Co Public Schools puts millions in researching where population increase will be in future, so much they plan budget around it. We’d use that, and then go buy land near the sites . Skate where puck is going. .
The board has approved a $1.4 billion budget for Facilities. The 10-year building plan includes 20 new schools, revamps of 4 technical colleges and renovation or replacement of 20 existing schools. @OCPSnews @ASU_mag @ObserverOrange @ocpsotc
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Happy to finally share some news ❗️. I have joined Portrait Capital as a Partner and President of Portfolio Operations. What is Portrait Capital?. Formerly Majority Search, @JustinEBurris & @tsludwig founded Portrait Capital with the goal of helping family businesses transition.
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If you can get the seller to start spending the money (in their head). you will close the deal and at good terms. I'm constantly asking our sellers. "what are you doing with the money?" "What does your wife want to do?" "What does your wife think?" . I want them planning.
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Yesterday spoke with a company that is crushing sales. but cash is tight and is taking out a LOC and owner wants to slow down sales until cash is better. A/R is the life/death of companies. especially home service. Here is what I told him re: AR. 1. Recurring work: bill 1st.
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As the old saying goes. Tax law is 10,000 pages. 5 pages tell you how/what to pay. 9,995 tell you how not to pay.
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What’s the best way to learn how to golf ⛳️ other than doing lessons at country club? . I’ve been invited to play golf a few times with very influential people and each time had to put disclaimer how bad I am, and it would ruin their time. Feel like I’m missing opportunities.
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Somebody told me this line once and I’ll never forget it. “Don’t pay for a vacation”. I was doing two-year non competes, thought it was sufficient. Then the guy broke it down to me that two years is a good vacation and we just provided them seed capital. When buying from.
When a business seller tries to negotiate down the length of the non-compete agreement 🚩🚩🚩. Storytime:. Once upon a time ago, I bought a beautiful plumbing company…. It had a great team, a great brand, and I had a great relationship with the owner. During diligence, the.
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Expecting to have some cool news to share on Friday. Closing on acquisition (🤞🏻) that will make us the largest residential provider in Central Florida.
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NBA assistants spend 85% of workouts on shooting. Youth "trainers" spend 85% of workouts on dribbling with cool dribble sticks.
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All kids want an OFFER. Not all kids want .6AM weights, .8AM-12PM class.2PM practice.4PM film study.6PM mandatory study hall . - Gary Payton.
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About 2/3x per week a Searcher reaches out asking me for a call to discuss Landscaping industry / acquisitions. 10/10x I tell them to email me thought out questions and I’ll answer with thought out response . 1/10 actually email me back. The bar is low folks.
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Love days like today . (Random guy at family thanksgiving). Him: So what do you do?. [me contemplating how to explain a HoldCo or acquiring businesses] . Me: I’m in landscaping . Him: oh man that’s awesome, good weather for ya right now huh?. Me: Yep.
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Landscaping co hired a 20yo this week. I was at office yesterday while he went through orientation & there was an Allen Iverson “we talkin bout practice?” joke. He had no idea the reference. …there is no way I am this old. Damn shame that generation didn’t get to experience AI.
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We lost a deal the other day. Great business. GREAT family. Long history. $50m+ annual rev . Spent ~x months working on it. We built great relationship w/ family. Went the distance - but at end of day, they were split on selling. Decided to pull it. Off-market deals have +/-.
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Young, dumb, naive, confident. When I bought my first landscaping company, it was doing less than $1m in SALES. When I told my family, they cried. Literally. Not in a good way. I was 30, with a kid and another on the way and leaving a very successful firm after reaching the.
Don't get too much advice when you're about to start a business. All the successful people will just tell you how hard it was at the beginning and you'll get discouraged. Being wide-eyed, confident and naive is your biggest asset.
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Young guy I know who has done some small SFH RE deals called me today for advice on raising bigger $. Said he spoke to others in industry & all were vague . Not sure why everything so secretive?. Shared this w/ him. We did this structure at prev firm. Raised ~ $250m.
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A skill that is rarely found, but when it is, the person shoots up an org chart. Receiving a task and completing it, without needing the assigner to consistently follow-up. If you can prove that you can be given a task and do not need the fup, you are way ahead of the game.
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Biggest challenges coaches face, esp at HS level. kids not comprehending what being coached entails. As coaches, need to do better job explaining difference. But this is a GREAT outline of 3 scenarios.1. Left alone.2. Coached.3. Told the truth.
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There is a pest business (it’s actually outdoor fertilizer, not even pest) that does low 7fig revenue in the southeast that is about to exit for $18-20m. Life comes at you fast.
Make no mistake about it. I love pest control but as soon as we get an offer on our business for $12 million I’m done. Perhaps we get lucky and we get it done in 5 years. Maybe it takes me my entire life. That’s currently the goal and when that offers comes across my desk.
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Being in industry matters for acquisitions. Off market deal. We have an LOI on a landscaping company that would make us the biggest residential maintenance company in Orlando, and pushing us toward top tier for commercial (below public co & venture backed co).
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Hey AAU coach, when you have a kid who doesn't qualify. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to take him out of school every Friday in April/May.
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Gas stations. ⛽️ . #1 enemy of service businesses. At every facility we have, we put fuel tanks so crews can gas up on-site. I’d say it saves us 6fig each year.
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Hey @BrentBeshore & @fortworthchris , are you guys serious? . I’m 22 minutes into your pod (you’ll know what was discussed from min 10-22) and it’s hands down the best segment I’ve heard from two guys like yourselves. Holy smokes. Amazing @fortworthchris . The openness. 💯.
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The top 5 NBA 3pt% leaders will avg. 17.65 MILLION DOLLARS next year. But kids want to pay a trainer to dribble through cones for an hour.
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Twitter/X changed my life. Raised every $1 via twitter connections. Twitter connections became customers. Exited company to a twitter connection . …and I’m pretty confident that whatever I do next will stem from a twitter connection. Met a ton of tremendous people along the.
A couple years ago I heard @MikeBotkin_ say on a pod that he financed his ETA acq purely with contacts from X. That was wild to hear. I finally got on here two months ago, commented a bit and @HelenGuo_ just interviewed me. I’m immersed in the SMB X scene. It’s powerful.
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Who has a great DD checklist for acquiring a business? . Not a 600 line item DD list but, simple yet efficient and covers all the basics and maybe 1 step deeper. We are trying to tweak ours as much as possible to be the above…simple, efficient, informative.
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Side-Note; this is one of the best examples of being in-industry for stuff to just fall on your lap. It's another reason why I tell searchers to stop the BS and go get a smaller biz so you can be "in it". Bigger opportunities will present itself if you are good.
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Do car dealerships really need all the space they have? . How many PRIME acres are taken up from dealerships ? . Could they showcase 25% of inventory and then keep a parking garage behind dealership with rest of fleet? . Feel like they are massive footprints that are valuable RE.
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20/ . Benchmark Landscaping is now the largest residential provider in Orlando. Super exited. Hard work begins now!.
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@BartlettMorgan I was a rookie QB allowed to make mistakes and throw interceptions. Helped me later on (and still ongoing).
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Jimmy Butler goes entire summer w/o cable or internet so he can workout more. Yet some kids tweet 500 times a day and say Ball Is Life.
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Doing an Acquisition can sometimes take 6-8mo to close. It’s a takes a massive toll on energy, focus, headspace, etc. Now, imagine spending 6-8mo on a deal and it doesn’t close. Those are the hard ones. Have to balance mindset of time value/learned vs opportunity cost.
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Hey @sweatystartup , I have another business to add to your list . Window tenting. Called top 12 Google results. - 4 no answer.- 2 mobile tent guys scheduled but flaked appointments.- 6 answered but earliest booking was 10 days out. Price range $80-$150.
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What’s the preferred commute for your office? (Don’t say WFH) . 10-15min?.Sub 30?.30-60min?. What would be absolute non-negotiable?.
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The SBA is great, for what it is intended for. But, as I've stated publicly many times. SBA is not a partner. They are a lender. SBA has 1 priority. You making note payment. I know twitter guys push SBA as "Freedom from corporate", but. don't forget. Lender/Partner.
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Had call today with a searcher, helping him through a potential purchase in similar space. He asked me why I don’t charge for the call. My response?. I’d NEVER in a million fucking years charge somebody. Ever. 1. If I have time/ability to help? I will. Pay it forward.
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Their marketing is largely (a) word of mouth and (b) the little 3x3 sign in the front yard while building. Some are finally getting really good at Instagram (where all of our wives browse for hours).
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26 CEOs of PE backed companies with revenues ranging from $250m to $1b did a survey on their relationship with the PE Operations team. Interesting charts.
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Tree service. Not a tree farm. Removals, pruning, treatments. Tree service.
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Messaged @harryhurst an issue.He responded immediately.He emailed intro to a team member .Working on solution . Amazing. A+ . Lifelong fan of HH + Pipe.
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Pros cont. (4) super loyal customer base (means quality of work is excellent which means good employees) . (5) Low churn on employees . BIGGEST PRO OF ALL . (6) No FB / TWTR / IG / Website . Growth potential is ENORMOUS on residential side where marketing matters.
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@thegeneralmills It’s like when you don’t answer the phone and the next 48 hours I wonder if Mills is mad at me or not. Just consumes me.
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Had an amazing time at @MainStSummit . The @PermanentEquity team absolutely crushed the event. The hospitality, the programming, the content, the attendees. @DavidACover @Clayton_Dorge @JamesCBachman @Laurie_Obie + team. You guys are so damn good at what you do. Every single.
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Commercial landscaping company just sold for 13x, they do ~$65m top line. It was acquired by PE firm in 2018, so this is a trade amongst PE firms. Few thoughts. 1. Good for the owners (2nd generation), got a really nice lift and good second bite, now third bite. 2. I.
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Listening to @fortworthchris & @sweatystartup pod EP, and starting to feel like there is an ecosystem here that, while I think is so well known, is still in its infancy and underrated. Twitter has literally changed my life in RE & SMB - and I don’t think I’m the only one.
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The biggest landscaping co in the world just bought 400 electric trucks for their management / supervisors. Plan to bring it to 3,000 soon. Wonder what this does to the rest of industry. We had a 2028 goal of all electric vehicles. May have to move timeline up.
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Crazy situation . Childhood friend owns an HVAC company. Competitor (X) is retiring and wants out, but asking price is 50% more than it should be. Buddy approached him about a lease to own idea, X subs out all maintenance contracts to buddy, buddy pays X % of contracts ea mo.
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