🆕 Performance Auto Parts Business Making $1.28m!🚨

Welcome Back to The Corporate Pivot!

Tired of celebrating another “Employee of the Month” win with a stale cupcake? At The Corporate Pivot, we’re all about taking control of your time by owning businesses, not just clocking in. We skip the corporate jargon and get straight to the good stuff: how you can acquire small businesses, navigate the risks, and set yourself up for real freedom. Ready to trade the office grind for something bigger?

Confusing Corporate Saying of the Day:

“Ok team, today let’s utilize some blue sky thinking”

Professional Translation: “Brainstorming with no limits, every idea is acceptable.”
Corporate Pivot Translation: “As opposed to the usual, let’s actually use our brains today.“

Here’s what we have for you today:

Sam’s Perspective (1st Time Buyer)

🆕 Status Update: The off-market lead is going to be a pass for Tyler and me. We’re still waiting to hear back on the tree trimming business. In the meantime, I’m looking for new businesses to pursue. To be more strategic, I’m also compiling a list of “boring” businesses with the best profit margins. Higher profit margins mean more room to hire managers to run the business. If you're interested, let me know in the Discord, and I’d be happy to share it!

💪 Challenge of the week: Turning lemons into lemonade.

I followed up on the off-market lead to ask for more details. To my surprise, some people think that’s out of line... When I requested the profit and loss statements, I was told, "I’m not going to be dilly-dallying with tire kickers."😂 The challenge in moments like this is resisting the urge to fire back with a response that starts out a little like this “Listen here pal…”.

The point of sharing this is to remind you that you don’t have to stoop to someone else’s level. Who knows what was going through this guy’s head? By responding professionally, you maintain respect and might still have the chance to do business in the future. Stay strong, stay focused, and don’t let others derail your path to pivot away from the corporate world!

📚 Cool Business Idea: Grill Cleaning Service

I recently came across an interesting video that highlighted a niche but potentially profitable business: grill cleaning services. Believe it or not, around 10% of people would pay for this service! While it’s not a massive demand, when you consider how many people in your area own grills, there’s definitely a market. Where I live, home services do exceptionally well, especially because we have a large population of older adults who prefer to hire services rather than do the work themselves.

The Numbers:

The pricing for grill cleaning can be pretty high. In my area, companies charge between $250-$300 per cleaning, which might seem crazy at first glance. It’s not something most people (myself included) would likely pay for, but the reality is, somebody will. And with that price point, even a small number of jobs can generate solid revenue.

Quick Revenue Analysis:

Let’s say you aim to clean 3 homes per day, working around 20 days per month:

• Per Cleaning: $275 (mid-range price)

• Revenue per Day: $275 * 3 = $825

• Revenue per Month: $825 * 20 = $16,500

In a year, that would amount to about $198,000. Not bad for a service you could likely run solo or with minimal labor.

And here’s the kicker—if you’re in an area with a high proportion of grill owners (like I am), you could quickly carve out a niche by offering this premium service. Older adults, busy professionals, and even those who just prefer a clean grill without the hassle might be your ideal customers.

It might sound simple, but even seemingly “dumb” ideas can turn into smart businesses when you tap into the right market. Would you pay $300 for a grill cleaning service? Maybe not—but plenty of people will!

Tyler’s Perspective (Multiple Businesses Owned)

🚨 Tip of the Week: This weekend we spent time analyzing an active lead and finding new leads. The active lead turned out to be a bust, as there was real estate included as an essential component to the operation of the business and the value of the real estate made the financials tight. As for the new leads I found, Sam and I will touch base and discuss the best way to move forward on them. Sam and I communicate frequently, but usually try to touch base at least once a week on any new leads. There are certainly outliers, but often times the “hit rate” on leads is relatively low. Hopefully our new leads are part of those outliers. Don’t get discouraged, keep going. 

💰 Deals < $500k

Business Name: Specialty Home Improvement Products
Revenue: $726,405
Asking Price: $275,000
Profit: $169,684 (Profit Multiple = 1.62x)
Location: Palm Beach County, FL (Relocatable)
Established: 1981

✅ Pros:

• Established business: Over 40 years of market leadership with a strong brand and loyal customer base.

• Minimal owner involvement: Owner works only 10 hours a week, making this a low-maintenance opportunity.

⚠️ Cons:

• Home-based business: Limited opportunity for physical expansion without moving to a dedicated facility.

📈 Growth Opportunities:

• Increase online presence: Leverage SEO and digital marketing to drive more sales.

• Expand product line: Add new home improvement products to diversify revenue streams.

💰💰 Deals $500k - $2m

Business Name: ATM Route
Revenue: $300,000
Asking Price: $868,000
Profit: $217,000 (Profit Multiple = 4x)
Location: Dallas, Texas
Established: 2016

✅ Pros:

• Turnkey operation: Fully automated system with remote monitoring reduces operational involvement.

• High-traffic locations: Strategically placed ATMs ensure consistent foot traffic and usage.

⚠️ Cons:

• Leased locations: Potential risks related to contract renewals and location changes.

📈 Growth Opportunities:

• Add more units: Expand by placing additional ATMs in high-demand areas.

• Increase profitability: Optimize transaction fees and negotiate better leasing terms with locations.

💰💰💰Deals $2m-$10m

Business Name: Online Performance Auto Parts Business
Revenue: $3,695,348
Asking Price: $6,360,000
Profit: $1,379,724 (Profit Multiple = 4.61x)
Location: Colorado (Relocatable)
Established: 2002

✅ Pros:

• Well-established brand: Over 20 years in the industry with a loyal customer base and repeat business.

• Low owner involvement: Owner spends less than 1 hour per day managing the business.

⚠️ Cons:

• Stagnant product offerings: Product lines have not been updated significantly in recent years.

📈 Growth Opportunities:

• Enhance digital marketing: Invest in SEO, social media, and mobile-friendly website improvements to boost sales.

• Expand product range: Introduce new automotive parts and accessories to attract more customers.

The Lean Startup: Ch. 7 Part 3

Today we will be talking about optimization versus learning and the problem with vanity metrics. As engineers you know we like hearing that Eric believes that we are skilled at optimization.

To use his words “skilled at improving a product’s performance”. Well, I guess Sam and I didn’t get that trait… whatever. These efforts in a well-run traditional organization offer incremental benefits for incremental efforts. However, these improvements don’t work in startups. A startup has to measure progress against a high bar:

“Evidence that a sustainable business can be built around its products or services.”

You can only assess that standard if a startup has made clear, tangible predictions ahead of time! Without these predictions what do you think can happen? They feel that the engineering team isn’t working hard enough… the real problem isn’t generally a lack of development talent, energy, or effort. It was in the process the whole company was using to make decisions. You could have customers, internal sales team, and business leadership, but when you don’t know your customer base very well you could approach every problem presented by them as an “emergency” that needs to be addressed NOW.

Learning milestones prevent this negative spiral by focusing on a more likely possibility, the company executing with a plane that does not make sense. When the company is stuck and needs to change direction innovation accounting makes it easy to see. 

“Energy invested in success theater is energy that could have been used to help build a sustainable business.”

Read more at corppivot.com!

Hope you enjoy this week's insights and happy deal hunting! Remember, if you find these updates helpful, share this newsletter with a friend!

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