Hey Contrarians,
Ever seen Schitt’s Creek?
In the show, buttoned-up Johnny Rose and family go from being super-rich to broke overnight.
All they have left? One asset: a small town called Schitt’s Creek. Quickly, they realize they have a lot to learn about Main Street business ownership.
But here’s the unfortunate truth: data about the small biz acquisitions community is spotty at best.
So we set out to fix that…
Today in 5 minutes or less, you’ll learn:
Our SMB report: What you need to know
We recently surveyed hundreds of people in our business-buying group.
We asked them about:
- Family status
- Net worth and income
- Employment status
- Motivations for business ownership
- Target income from an acquired business
- Time & resources spent on acquisition efforts
- … and more
Then, we wrote about all of it in our 2024 Small Biz Buyer Insights report for the SMB community.
But be sure to download the report for FREE right here:
It’s loaded with unique and valuable insights — survey data, expert perspectives, and market research from our community, our friends at Live Oak Bank, and others.
Data: 3 unique findings from inside…
There are about 33,185,550 small businesses in America.
Thousands are transacted every year (often by the big guys).
But buying and owning a small business isn’t what it was like 30, 20, or even 10 years ago.
A decade ago, few individuals cared about buying and selling small businesses.
Now, they’re an intriguing consideration for MBA grads, entrepreneurial 9-5ers, and even current business owners.
Today, there’s a rising crop of next-gen biz buyers out there.
People of all ages and walks of life, each with their own entirely unique background and motivation. People like the ones in our community.
We wanted to know more about them, their biz-buying efforts, goals, needs, and more.
So, we did a whole bunch of digging…
A whole bunch of surveying…
And a whole bunch of interviewing…
Here’s some of what we learned:
1. Many are working up to 20 hours per week on biz-buying
Across net worth and income levels, many respondents plan on spending up to 10, 20, or even 30 hours per week on their small business acquisition efforts.
For perspective, 20 hours per week equates to almost 3 hours per day.
“Buying a business isn’t easy. It takes hard work, time, and dedication,” says community member Sage Price, an engineer and investor who consults for professionals transitioning from tech into entrepreneurship.
“I made more headway in 2 days at a trade show, face to face with owners, than I have in several months of searching… It can take months, or more than a year to find the right business,” he adds.
2. Many are already owners, many aren’t
Some Contrarian Community members are already business owners looking to learn and grow.
Many others are learning to hunt for their first biz.
“One of the things we have come to understand is that we can use buying a business as a platform for moving [to a new place],” James Pader, a community member and owner of Mountain Laurel Handrails based in Franklin, North Carolina, told us.
“My current business will likely always require some presence but I have extricated myself from most of the daily grind and can do what I do basically from anywhere with an internet connection.”
3. Having a family is the norm
The majority of our members (who responded) are married and have kids.
“We live in a very rural area and there’s not much opportunity,” James added. “So in many ways, my original intent was to buy jobs for my children to grow into.”
Another member, Ben Larrabee, a Senior Resource Manager from Denver, put it like this: “My ‘why’ is to build both a mindful and financial legacy for my family. While I want to grow wealth, I also want to impart the entrepreneurial mindset to my sons.”
You can read about all this data and a whole lot more right here:
The report includes valuable insights from Contrarian Thinking’s educational biz-buying community, Live Oak Bank, and others.
Everything from community survey data to big-picture sentiment on the SMB economy.
Want expert perspectives? We got ‘em…
1. Mike McGinley | Executive Vice President, Small Business Banking at Live Oak Bank
“The combination of elevated interest rates, and high valuations has had a negative impact on the buying power of acquirers. For Live Oak’s average deal involving a business with $1M in EBITDA, we estimate the average buyer now has 22% less borrowing power…”
2. Chris Petkas | General Partner at Contrarian Thinking Capital and leads Commercial AI/ML efforts for the Defense Innovation Unit
“Countless opportunities abound for gritty entrepreneurs with an eye for digital transformation and local knowledge, and many transactions remain an instrument of person-to-person interactions… However, challenges such as sector consolidation by large investment firms and uninformed sellers loom on the horizon, underscoring the importance of deal access and strategic foresight in navigating the years ahead.”
3. Lloyd Silver | Head of Product & Experience at Contrarian Thinking, small business owner and broker
“Selling prices are holding strong on Main Street where seller financing and other creative financing methods are being used a bit more frequently. Terms are being negotiated to a larger extent than price… Right now the overall sentiment is cautious but seems to be improving steadily.”
For a much deeper look (and for Codie’s perspective), take a dive into the full report.
This is cool: Who’s learning about biz-buying?
Sam Altman isn’t in our biz-buying community (yet), but the billionaire founder of Open AI has an epic quote that resonates with a lot of the people who are…
“The biggest economic misunderstanding of my childhood was that people got rich from high salaries.”
Okay, so what does make you rich?
You get rich by “by owning things,” he says.
Who are some of the people trying to take this message to heart — to build meaningful lives of ownership (and all the tough responsibilities that come with it)?
We’ll sign off with this non-exhaustive list below. Our community has about 1000 members, each with a unique background. Below are just 50 of them.
Take a moment to look through it — some things may surprise you…
SO not boring…
💰 Riches in niches? This guy reportedly charges $10k to build you a tree net
📈 Ugly flashback: The stock market 4 years ago this week versus today…
📘 Reminder: Want to be in the know when our new course drops? Sign up here.
