The Most Overlooked Way to Build Wealth Right Now

TL;DR

Dan bought Fleet Packaging (packaging distributor) for $3.4M with $200K down via SBA loan ($1.8M) and seller note ($1.4M). The 15-year-old business had ~$11M revenue / $800K profit at purchase; 18 months later it had $13.8M revenue / $1.7M profit. Key: buying from a retiring boomer, using leverage, looking at 100+ deals, and doing deep diligence including shadowing the seller.

Key insights

• The most attractive businesses to buy are from retiring baby boomers who want to move to Florida and play golf—not from 26-year-olds or any seller under ~50; the seller’s three kids didn’t want the bu
• Buying a business for $100K–$200K profit that takes all your time is actually buying a job; better to take more risk for a business doing ~$1M profit where you have room to scale.
• The “secretary problem” applies to deal evaluation: review the first 37% of candidates without committing, then pick the first subsequent candidate that beats the best of the initial 37%.