Rafi Friedman
@RafiFriedman_
Followers
385
Following
88
Media
1
Statuses
102
Recovering I-Banker turned PE professional. Currently investing in and operating residential service businesses across the Southeast.
Joined December 2013
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
花火大会
• 151874 Tweets
水着シエル
• 54602 Tweets
Kanye
• 44179 Tweets
NORAWIT MINI CON WITH ACER
• 42077 Tweets
Vultures 2
• 28246 Tweets
Jorji
• 27772 Tweets
シエル先輩
• 19789 Tweets
パーシヴァル
• 18928 Tweets
ニキチッチ
• 18180 Tweets
ROOM IN ABREEZA
• 16612 Tweets
徐福ちゃん
• 15930 Tweets
柔道団体
• 14797 Tweets
4TH SFxFORCEBOOK
• 10451 Tweets
Pinned Tweet
I acquired a pool construction and maintenance business in August 2022. The revenue mix was 90% construction and 10% maintenance. Fast forward 17 months and the revenue is flat, but the revenue mix is 65% construction and 35% maintenance.
25
2
95
I had a conversation with the employee that spent the night in prison, I implemented strong cyber security measures and I found a replacement for the manager role. The experience taught me many things, the key one being: there is always a path forward… you just need to find it.
1
0
12
Along the way I’ve made some great friends and interesting people! I’ll call out
@guessworkinvest
and
@SMBQuest
as being two of them.
3
0
11
Three years ago I was sitting on the 50th floor in a NYC office building working in private equity. If you told me I’d be running a residential service business I would’ve laughed so HARD.
1
0
10
Moving forward I hope to share my experiences and ongoing "learnings" with anyone looking to buy and/or operate an SMB.
3
0
9
😮💨😮💨😮💨 Day in the life of an SMB operator 😮💨😮💨😮💨
Spent an hour at Verizon last night b/c I was locked out of my Verizon biz account.
1
0
8
One of the first thing I did post acquisition was sit down for lunch with my entire office staff of eight people one at a time.
2
0
8
I made my first Customer Support Hire (“CSR”) in the Philippines a month ago. She lasted a week and then ghosted me… I hired a new employee to work on the weekends; we are two weeks in and it is going great! Some times you need to keep trying until it works out.
2
2
5
It’s been a hell of a ride and I am so thankful for the experience. The team has grown from 24 FTEs to 50. We’ve acquired three additional pool cleaning companies along the way (with more to come!).
1
0
6
I’ve learned more in the past 17 months than I did in the 6 years before working on Wall Street. My experience working in finance 100% helped prepare me for some of the challenges I’ve experienced; but not all. Did having a PE background give me a leg up, I think so.
2
0
6
I had what fellow pool company owner
@SMBQuest
has dubbed a “cry in the shower” moment that night. I LITERALLY cried in the shower. The next morning I picked myself up and figured things out.
1
0
6
Two months after purchasing the business, within the span of a week, three HORRIBLE things happened: 1) an employee was arrested; 2) we had a cyber hack; 3) my construction manager quit.
2
0
5
This helped earn goodwill with the team. They came to realize I wasn’t trying to clip a coupon for their work, but rather I was really part of the team and looking out for their best interests.
0
0
4
A trick I learned from my friend
@guessworkinvest
— hire through Upwork and require the candidate to leave a voice recording of an imaginary sales call.
1
0
3
@guessworkinvest
I will revisit this post in a few weeks to provide an update on how the new hire is working out. Stay tuned…
1
0
2
Prior to lunch I requested each individual send me an email listing 4-6 items they’d like to see improved. I told them it could be anything from better coffee to enhanced operational processes.
1
0
2
A good way to boost my morale: fly to NYC for the weekend.
A good way to boost the team’s morale: bring back fresh bagels.
@HHBagels
0
0
2
@Mattdoll
Appreciat the support Matt! It's been a hell of a ride 🤪. We're hoping for 20% growth this year!
0
0
2
@guessworkinvest
@jeremyyamaguchi
@jeremyyamaguchi
let’s chat. I’ll dm you.
@guessworkinvest
let’s say avg intelligence.
0
0
2
It took 2-3 weeks to complete all of these sit downs. I immediately aggregated a list of 20-30 items coming out of those lunches. I set a goal to complete the list within the next 90 days. As a team, we completed them all within 60 days!
1
0
2
Learned my lesson this week… when you fire an employee DO NOT give them two weeks! The next day he went on to call our customers saying negative things about the company. That was his last day!
0
0
2
@MikeBotkin_
Jacksonville and St. Augustine, FL. I've spoken w/
@Adrian_Pinto2
a few times. We should chat!
0
0
2
@HockJohannes
It’s a whole lot easier to resolve issues when you’re not worrying about short term liquidity
1
0
1
@HockJohannes
Why not wait for the company to implode and higher their employees? Does the biz have goodwill baked into the company name worth purchasing? Are they local to your market?
1
0
1
@HockJohannes
Sounds about right. For better or worse many SMB owners get caught in the weeds either not realizing or refusing to acknowledge what’s ahead.
1
0
1
@guessworkinvest
She went as far as two research the pool industry and ask relevant pool related questions (e.g. what size pool do you have and is it screened in?). Going the extra mile really pays dividends!
1
0
1
@guessworkinvest
The candidate I hired sent in a two minute imaginary call where she used two different voice tones; one for the customer and one for the CSR.
1
0
1
1
0
1
@PerrySolem
I don't disagree. But at the same time the construction biz provides a "chunky" source of cash to purchase additional maintenance businesses
1
0
1