🚛 Towing & Storage Company making $300k/year!

Here’s what we have for you today:

Cool Business Idea: Mobile Dog Treat Stand 🐶

Confusing Corporate Sayings:

“We're building the plane as we fly it.”

Professional Translation
“Developing a project while it’s already active, prioritizing speed“

Corporate Pivot Translation
“We’re literally making it up as we go—no one has a clue what’s going on.“

Sam’s Perspective (1st Time Buyer)

🆕 Status Update: This week, we sent out a lot more NDA requests. It’s a numbers game to find exactly what we’re looking for, but narrowing down options from huge listing sites like Transworld or BizBuySell is the first step. We’re focusing on businesses in transportation (chauffeur services), home services (pest control), logistics, and even some engineering firms.

Here’s a quick tip I’ve been using to get listings faster: on Transworld, you can fill out a buyer profile. You set your usual filters like asking price, revenue, and location, but you can also select multiple industries you’re interested in. I chose all potential fits, excluding ones I’d never consider, like restaurants. Now, I get a tailored list every week without the tedious searching. BizBuySell offers a similar feature.

I recommend everyone looking to buy take 5–10 minutes to fill out that buyer profile. It’ll save you a ton of time down the road.

Tyler’s Perspective (Experienced Buyer)

🚨 Tip of the Week: Let’s talk about why consistency is important in your business similar to everyday life. Regularly reviewing financials, bookkeeping,  and general record keeping can be tedious and one of the most strenuous parts of owning a business (regardless of how much you outsource). Constant/periodic monitoring of these items is vital to keep a pulse on the financial health of your business. This helps you identify financial problems (including if you are meeting projections/historical on you net margins). In the long run this will make a significant difference in your financial performance and allow you to make better decisions when strategizing (including giving you tangible data to help you make future decisions such as expansion). As an added bonus, it also helps ensure everything is in line for tax season and makes it significantly easier to compile your relevant documents. I personally use multiple ways to track the financials for my businesses (as I’ve learned it’s important to have a few fail-safes). Presumably, you are here (at least in part) for the financial incentives that come with being a small business owner, so don’t take your eye off the ball.

💰 Deals < $500k 💰

Business Name: CCTV & IT Security Business
Revenue: $195,000
Asking Price: $245,000
Profit: $170,000 (Profit Margin = 87.18%)
Location: Naples, FL
Established: 2016

✅ Pros:

• Highly Scalable Service Model: Operates with a small, efficient team and relies on on-site technicians, making it easy to scale without major operational changes.

• Premium Clientele: Located in Naples, FL, a high-income area where customers are willing to pay for premium smart home and IT security solutions.

⚠️ Cons:

• Reliance on Existing Reputation: No marketing currently in place, so income could drop without efforts to maintain or expand client acquisition.

📈 Growth Opportunities:

• Subscription-Based Service Plans: Introduce recurring maintenance contracts for steady cash flow and client retention.

• Geographic Expansion: Target affluent neighboring areas such as Marco Island or Fort Myers to grow the client base.

💰💰 Deals $500k - $2m 💰💰

Business Name: Towing & Storage Company
Revenue: $332,000
Asking Price: $850,000
Profit: $300,000 (Profit Margin = 90.36%)
Location: Pompano Beach, FL
Established: 1996

✅ Pros:

• Reliable Revenue Streams: Long-standing private property towing contracts provide consistent cash flow with minimal client churn.

• Multi-Service Offering: Services include roadside assistance, junk car resale, and temporary vehicle storage, creating diverse revenue channels.

⚠️ Cons:

• Capital-Intensive Fleet Maintenance: Upkeep of towing trucks and equipment can result in fluctuating costs.

📈 Growth Opportunities:

• Digital Booking Platform: Develop an app or website for customers to book towing services and check storage availability, attracting more individual clients.

• Expand Salvaged Vehicle Sales: Increase marketing and partnerships to sell salvaged cars to local dealers or private buyers.

💰💰💰 Deals $2m-$10m 💰💰💰

Business Name: FedEx Contracting Services
Revenue: $4,200,000
Asking Price: $4,100,000
Profit: $1,200,000 (Profit Margin = 28.57%)
Location: Homestead, FL
Established: 2010

✅ Pros:

• Established FedEx Relationship: 40 exclusive FedEx Ground routes with annual renewals ensure stable demand and growth potential.

• Asset-Heavy Business: Includes a fleet of 40 trucks, significantly reducing additional capital investment requirements for new buyers.

⚠️ Cons:

• High Employee Dependency: 48 employees required to maintain operations, leading to potential HR challenges and labor costs.

📈 Growth Opportunities:

• EB-5 Investor Potential: Market the business to foreign investors seeking U.S. residency through the EB-5 program, increasing buyer demand and valuation.

• Delivery Volume Optimization: Leverage route management software to improve delivery efficiency and reduce operating costs.

**If today is your first day reading, go to Chapter Recaps to get up to speed!

The Lean Startup: Ch. 11 Part 3

Happy Monday to the Mindset Matters community. Today we are going to talk more about the Five Whys. Part of it can be unpleasant & we are going to talk about being specific! 

The Fire Whys is going to turn up unpleasant facts about your organization, especially at the beginning. The process can sometimes devolve into the Fire Blames. It is essential that someone with sufficient authority be present to insist that the process be followed, and to act as a referee if disagreements flare up. Now, don’t fight… it’s not our fault that no one wants to buy our product… it’s definitely my boss, he keeps trying to get me to get up by 9AM to start working. He can really just kick rocks… it’s not my fault, it’s his. Unlike me, you should ask “How could I prevent myself from being in this situation ever again?” See, I prefer to keep finding myself in the same types of situations.

Eric says that when he started utilizing the Five Whys successfully, he used it to diagnose problems with one of his internal testing tools that did not affect customers directly. It’s easy to start with something large and important, but it is also where the pressure is the greatest. The more specific the symptoms are, the easier it will be for everyone to recognize when it’s time to schedule a Five Whys meeting. You must keep the meetings short and pick relatively simple changes at each of the five levels of inquiry. 

Eric brings up IGN and the 3 important things they neglected:

1. To introduce Five Whys to an organization, it is necessary to hold Five why sessions as new problems come up. 

2. Everyone who is connected to a problem needs to be at the Five Whys session.

3. At the beginning of each Five Whys session, take a few minutes to explain what the process is for and how it works for the benefit of those who are new to it. 

“Having a Five Whys master is critical in my opinion. Five Whys is easy in theory but difficult in practice, so you need someone who knows it well to shape the sessions for those who don’t.”

On the surface, Five Whys seems to be about technical problems and preventing mistakes, but as teams drive out these superficial wastes, they develop as new understanding of how to work together.

As always, if you want to discuss topics of this chapter (or any previous or future chapters) join our Discord channel.

Read more at corppivot.com!