In this episode of the M&A Launchpad Podcast, hosts Feras Moussa and Casey Minshew welcome special guest Tato Corcoran, an entrepreneur with a real estate portfolio and a manufacturing business. Tato discusses her journey of running her first business after a long career in the tech industry in Silicon Valley. In her quest to replace a tech industry salary with a more aggressive monthly cash flow, Tato delved into the ETA world and successfully implemented a direct mail strategy to identify and buy her first business. She shares the benefits of using this straightforward approach. Tato also explains how she leverages her experience and passion for real state to walk through this path. Tato explains how embracing the challenges and difficulties along the way enabled her to successfully own, operate, and grow her first manufacturing business as well as the challenges and steps coming ahead for her and her business.
In this podcast episode, we discuss:
- How hard things make buying a business awesome
- Using ETA as a ticket to your first business journey.
- Using direct email as a strategy to learn about and choose a business to buy.
- Operating and growing a business that “was not” a business.
You can connect with Tato Corcoran by LinkedIn and website: Tato Corcoran | Entrepreneur, Investor, Speaker, https://tatocorcoran.com/
Additional Resources:
- Access our archive of video interviews on YouTube
- Checkout our upcoming Conference – https://malaunchpad.com/
- Get in touch with show hosts Casey Minshew and Feras Moussa at – info@equitylaunchpad.com
- Looking to invest in M&A opportunities or partner with an advisor to acquire, scale or sell your business? Visit Equity Launchpad
Transcript
00:00 all right on today’s episode we
00:01 interviewed T Corran and we talked about
00:03 her journey of going from tech industry
00:06 to buying her first business and what
00:08 that Intel and I think the other big
00:10 thing we really talked about is just
00:11 direct mail and how to identify your
00:13 first business through direct mail and
00:15 kind of how that Journey went along for
00:16 her so Casey what were some of your
00:17 takeaways yeah I know one of the things
00:19 that she she hit on right off the bat
00:20 was shedding a light on all of the hard
00:22 things of business right we you know we
00:24 we all have these gurus and people
00:26 talking about how awesome it is to buy a
00:28 company and it is awesome but the truth
01:30 is is that it’s extremely difficult um
01:32 you’re taking significant risk and all
01:34 of those other things that kind of make
01:36 it what what I think makes it awesome
01:38 and so we hit on some of those things we
01:40 hit on some of those those challenges
01:41 and and opportunities She chased but
01:43 some of the challenges she had and to me
01:45 I mean I think the most like one of the
01:46 more interesting thing is she took her
01:48 real estate knowledge and applied it to
01:49 the industry to go source that first
01:51 business and so we talk everybody talked
01:53 about Direct Mail very few people do it
01:55 and she had a very successful Direct
01:57 Mail campaign where she made a list of
01:58 businesses she reached out to them all
01:00 and ended up buying one of those
01:01 businesses and I was more surprised I
01:03 thought she was going to say yeah I got
01:05 two leads and I bought one of them but
01:07 she had her phone ringing for several
01:09 days and you know that in my head
01:11 probably 20 30 leads right and you never
01:13 know where her lead’s going to go
01:14 through and it’s about like she talks
01:15 about just really follow up with that
01:16 person have that conversation and let
01:18 things kind of naturally progress so
01:20 yeah I say for those that are listening
01:21 today and they’re going to jump into
01:22 this conversation um you know if you are
01:25 on the fence of buying a company or your
01:27 spouse is not engaged definitely let
01:29 them listen to into this because you
02:31 know we need more females in the space
02:33 just like we need more more people to
02:36 buy more companies um that’s that’s what
02:38 we have these days and so this is a
02:40 great one to hear about that and learn
02:42 yeah so stay tuned let’s listen
02:46 in all right T welcome to the show thank
02:49 you so much you guys I’m very excited to
02:51 be here oh glad to have you on very
02:53 excited to have you today yeah so you
02:54 want to tell us a little bit more about
02:56 your journey and how lonely it’s
02:59 been yes
02:01 so in those listeners we did cheat a
02:02 little bit talked a little bit
02:03 beforehand so kind we’ll dive into some
02:05 of this we’re gonna talk about how badly
02:07 I need friends so fast forward for the
02:08 contact info after okay perfect um no so
02:12 I uh was born and raised in San
02:14 Francisco Bay area and um like most
02:17 people my age graduate college um you
02:20 know try to find a job at a tech company
02:22 and sales or what have you I lucked out
02:24 got an ENT level role at Salesforce um
02:26 worked there for almost 10 years um
02:28 which was great it was the only place
02:29 that I ever worked which for Millennials
03:31 very rare um absolutely loved it had all
03:34 kinds of life experience there um but
03:37 just knew that I was going to do
03:39 something else and I knew that that
03:40 something else was going to be something
03:42 entrepreneurial um didn’t know what
03:43 didn’t know how that was going to take
03:45 form um but then Co was uh sort of a
03:47 disguised blessing for me because um my
03:50 little sister had settled in the great
03:51 of Milwaukee area and had started having
03:53 kids and so with my newfound you know
03:56 remote job um due to co I was here a lot
03:59 um and realized that I could buy rental
03:01 property here which is something that
03:02 for a whole smattering of reasons apart
03:04 from Price you would be leer to do in
03:06 California these days um I had had some
03:09 stock money saved up figured I’m G to
03:11 buy rental um and became just obsessed
03:14 with real estate I always say that real
03:16 estate is like my first in one true love
03:19 I love it um did all the things
03:21 wholesale flip Buy and Hold blah blah
03:24 blah um grew around a portfolio and
03:26 really kind of had this stopping point
03:28 of realizing that I was
04:30 it was just going to be like a trudge in
04:32 really thick mud to grow as quickly as I
04:35 wanted to replace a tax salary if I
04:37 didn’t figure out some different more
04:40 aggressive form of month over month cash
04:42 flow and at the time I was um ingrained
04:45 in a great Community um of other Real
04:48 Estate Investors who were sort of
04:49 looking at um ETA which I didn’t like
04:51 know the term at the time but they
04:53 basically were you know touting the eta
04:57 stands for entrepreneur through
04:58 Acquisitions yes um you know that
04:01 statistic of how many baby boobers
04:03 retire every day with no Exit Plan yada
04:05 yada and um they were kind of just
04:07 taking it for a test drive one of them
04:09 had bought a small company with relative
04:10 ease again just do an older owner who
04:12 didn’t have an Exit Plan and he called
04:14 me and he was like you should learn more
04:15 about this like you would be so good at
04:17 this um and so I briefly dabbled with
04:20 some Cody Sanchez content like enough to
04:21 get my feet wet um and then just decided
04:25 to go for it I did the same thing with
04:26 real estate like didn’t really know
04:27 anything decided to I’m a very like
05:30 learn through action person which has
05:33 great upside and very steep downside um
05:37 same way I understand yes face first
05:40 yeah and then figure out how to mend
05:42 your broken nose um so yeah I found um
05:46 this business to acquire which is where
05:48 I’m dialing in from this is outside of
05:50 here is my manufacturing facility and um
05:53 yeah now I’m just so successful and have
05:55 all this money and that’s the end of the
05:56 story thanks for having me fantastic I
05:59 love it well so let rewind before we
05:00 talk about how you’re basically ready to
05:02 retire yeah exactly know I guess first
05:04 of all coming from Tech right most
05:06 people it’s difficult to make that jump
05:07 I mean I was one of them right what led
05:10 you to even want to start in real estate
05:11 right what were you not satisfied with
05:13 the tech side was it you didn’t see the
05:15 you know the wealth I mean you were at
05:16 sales for so you should have seen a lot
05:18 of upside and you just didn’t think hey
05:19 this is sustainable where you’re working
05:21 too much you should not enjoy it what’s
05:22 kind of the thought process to making
05:23 that first sleep you know it’s really
05:25 funny because particularly being in the
05:27 midwest where you know West Coast take
05:29 salaries are are not incomprehensible
06:31 but they’re just so flashy I do still
06:33 get that all the time like what was the
06:35 problem you know and I had a really
06:37 Swanky job at Salesforce like I was
06:38 flying private I was doing all the
06:39 things you know um but I think but
06:44 personally I believe that like you are
06:47 either born with just like innate need
06:49 for hustle or you are not that may be
06:51 controversial but that’s just how I feel
06:53 like I just have
06:55 always I would totally agree like I just
06:58 love the hustle um I’ve been you know
06:00 having side businesses and whatever
06:02 since I was early college and um I think
06:06 that no matter how Swanky your job when
06:09 you are make when you’re earning a
06:10 paycheck that’s the same every two weeks
06:13 sure you can get promotions you get
06:15 stock options whatever that’s cool and I
06:16 was successful with that but like when
06:18 you crave the hustle like that it’s just
06:20 never going to satisfy you no matter how
06:22 big that number is in my opinion um and
06:26 so it just it was never about like oh
06:28 this job isn’t good enough it was an
06:30 awesome job it was just I just knew it
07:33 was never going to be forever you must
07:35 have read cash flow quadrant with Robert
07:36 kosaki and it just probably changed your
07:38 world right so it’s like so it’s so lame
07:42 to say but really like Rich Dad Poor Dad
07:44 absolutely changed yeah my life everyone
07:46 says that it’s like the cliche thing
07:48 agree I got into those like get tot
07:52 either get you either like get it or or
07:55 you are like oh that was a cool book and
07:57 then you just live your life you know I
07:59 don’t know
07:00 it goes back to the point the hustle
07:01 ingrained and and it’s funny I’ll tell
07:03 you a quick story and I interviewed
07:05 early on with indeed whenever they were
07:06 probably 25 30 40 people small company
07:09 yeah and I I Ace the interview the very
07:11 last interview was the CEO or one of the
07:13 founders he was he was he was a CTO
07:15 technically but you know two partners
07:16 started the company and one of the
07:18 questions he asked me is why do you want
07:19 to work here and I was so naive and I
07:21 said well I want to have my own company
07:22 one day and you guys are at that point
07:23 of transitioning from small to midsize
07:25 company and at the end he like you AC
07:27 the interview but I can’t hire I need
07:28 someone’s going to stay here and so I
07:29 was that naive to wanted to go do my own
08:32 thing and so anyways I I love that
08:34 though that’s such a great story like
08:35 even here not to skip like you know a
08:38 billion minutes forward but when we have
08:40 inventory we can’t sell I post it on
08:42 Facebook Marketplace probably a wildly
08:44 poor use of my time but like I love it I
08:46 get so excited to sell like a $100 cash
08:48 toop and go to dinner with it that
08:50 night I love it it’s the hustle it’s
08:53 born in you the hustle like I just love
08:56 it even our company core values the very
08:58 first core value is GSD which you know
08:00 HR likes to say get stuff done but
08:02 really I like to say it’s get done
08:03 right it’s just figuring out ways to
08:05 move things forward so y all right well
08:07 so then maybe so okay that was step one
08:09 left Tech job got on real estate and
08:10 then I hear the same thing right I’ve
08:12 done a tremendous amount of commercial
08:13 real estate and it’s about wealth
08:15 preservation more than it is about
08:16 wealth creation absolutely right you get
08:18 a little bit of both but it is very much
08:20 former and a lot of people have made
08:21 that jump right and kind of got into the
08:24 ETA side I guess maybe the question is
08:27 what got you that first set of
08:28 exposure to real estate or to Eta no to
09:31 the ETA side yeah you know it it really
09:33 was that it was that group of people who
09:35 I had become engrained with in the real
09:37 estate space they were all investing in
09:38 real estate and um that was you know all
09:40 we talked about um and one of them had
09:43 that same inclination like okay I need
09:45 to I need to build bigger faster um and
09:50 he believed that based on his skill set
09:53 and his Network that he would be
09:54 successful buying small to mediumsized
09:57 companies from people without an Exit
09:59 Plan and he did that a couple of times
09:00 in a row I can’t say with success
09:02 because it was so early on but he at
09:04 least did the acquisition with success
09:06 and felt like he was on his way to
09:08 stabilizing those companies to something
09:10 that would be longer term assets um and
09:12 so you know I first kind of learned
09:14 about it from him and then I did um you
09:18 know absorb as much internet content as
09:20 I could which I still feel like there’s
09:22 a huge kind of lack of you know there’s
09:25 a billion 17,000 pages of real estate
09:28 investment content there’s still not a
10:30 lot for ETA though there’s some did what
10:33 I could um read by then build which I
10:35 feel like is the Rich Dad Port out of
10:37 ETA like it is definitely like the Bible
10:39 you start there um made total sense to
10:42 me you know of course everything always
10:43 sounds easier and it’s tougher in
10:45 practice but whatever um and then this
10:49 is kind of like a a side thing but I’ve
10:51 always been really into direct mail
10:52 that’s how I bought all my real estate
10:54 uh briefly co-founded a direct mail
10:55 marketing company and so I thought you
10:57 know what the best way that I’m going to
10:59 learn is from these people who I would
10:00 potentially buy from and so I decided to
10:02 without much knowledge just skip to the
10:04 lead gen part really as a learning
10:06 exercise and if it led to an acquisition
10:09 then to thumbs up um and I’m so glad
10:11 that I did that because I got tons and
10:12 tons of response I learned so much in
10:15 such a short amount of time um and
10:17 that’s kind of that I would say that
10:19 that was like you know my initial
10:20 exposure and you said that that was two
10:23 years ago
10:25 right my yeah we closed two years ago
10:28 June 30th so in exactly a month very um
11:32 yeah and I like quote unquote searched I
11:34 use air quotes because like when you’re
11:36 like oh I was searching like it makes
11:37 you sound like you knew what you were
11:38 doing I had no idea what I but
11:40 it sounds like you did a lead generation
11:42 campaign businesses that came in right
11:44 maybe before you landed on the company
11:46 you’re in what what are the companies
11:47 did you see and what led you to choose
11:50 the one that you ended up choosing yeah
11:51 I also sorry last thing too was it a
11:53 mail campaign or was it digital
11:55 marketing or a little bit of both direct
11:57 mail that’s the only thing I do even in
11:59 this business today
11:60 I’m like I send mail out 100 pieces a
11:03 day um so I decided to make a list of
11:08 the businesses that for whatever reason
11:10 size um you know uh lack of complexity I
11:14 I felt like I could potentially see
11:16 myself running um it was the most random
11:18 list you’ve ever seen it was like
11:19 laundry mats RV campgrounds because
11:21 we’re in the midwest um and maybe like a
11:23 half a dozen others and pulled lists for
11:26 all of those and really just wrote a
11:30 vague but intelligent sounding letter
12:32 about how you know I acquire real
12:35 estates and bu you know real estate and
12:36 business and um am interested in in
12:39 talking to them about their company very
12:40 low pressure right very like look I
12:43 understand that you own this business um
12:45 curious if you ever thought about
12:46 selling it but even if you haven’t you
12:48 know I I’m a young person and I have
12:50 nothing but everything to learn from you
12:51 and so if you’d be so kind could you
12:53 pick up the phone I also always put my
12:55 photo on every single letter that I send
12:57 out no matter what um that is possibly a
12:60 little bit uniquely that you know I’m a
12:02 young woman and so I immediately kind of
12:03 set myself apart and like disarm people
12:05 on that um but anyways um it’s been
12:09 really successful for me and and it was
12:11 I got tons and tons of inbound um and
12:15 and had really great conversations all
12:18 right well after this we can talk about
12:19 you running our Direct Mail campaign for
12:21 Equity launch pad no I think bu the
12:23 first person that I’ve talked to that
12:25 has done a direct mail campaign uh to to
12:28 talk to companies I actually I think
12:29 it’s brilliant so you know what’s so
13:31 funny is everybody’s calling emailing
13:33 and and business people check the mail
13:36 like that’s the truth correct yeah it’s
13:39 so funny because I’ve done a couple of
13:41 these podcasts and like the out or the
13:44 the inbound I’ve gotten from that it’s
13:46 like people think that I I it’s like so
13:50 profound they’re like you did that oh my
13:53 God you’re a genius and I’m like dude
13:55 direct mails I mean that’s like the
13:58 longest standing form of marketing I
13:60 believe ever other than like newspaper
13:03 100% yeah it fascinates me that that
13:06 that’s so profound to
13:07 people I think the concept is
13:09 straightforward it’s just though will
13:11 you get the hits writing how do you
13:12 narrow it to the right people that’s
13:13 what was maybe more impressive for sure
13:15 well and then it’s funny too because if
13:16 you ask people like okay so like you
13:18 know describe the person you would
13:19 likely buy a business from probably most
13:21 of them are like name like oh you know
13:23 50 plus plays golf wants to play more
13:25 golf it’s like what do you think that
13:27 person does every day writes paper
13:29 checks
13:30 and checks the mail right like it just
14:32 seems very obvious but right
14:35 yeah no I actually love it and I and
14:37 I’ve used Direct Mail many times and I
14:39 I’ve had success with it and so it’s
14:40 always to that right thing so I think
14:42 when you write a letter you know that
14:44 business owner is going to open the mail
14:47 and that is addressed to them and
14:49 they’re gon to read it right and they’re
14:50 gonna delete 90% of their emails because
14:53 we already know that when you’re dealing
14:55 with somebody 60 plus you know they
14:57 really are truly like not sitting email
14:59 every day they’re not checking their
14:01 phones all the time they they publish
14:02 their email whereas they publish their
14:03 business addresses right absolutely and
14:05 what’s what I have found to be really
14:07 interesting is most people who call me
14:10 default assume that I only sent them a
14:12 letter like they’ll always be like I
14:14 mean I’m not sure if you sent other
14:15 people a letter but I’m glad you sent me
14:17 one it’s like oh yeah no I I only sent
14:19 one letter and it happened to be you and
14:20 I’m so glad you called you know but
14:21 whatever like right it’s that immediate
14:23 again it’s like anything to like disarm
14:25 them and make them feel um compelled to
14:28 reach out and hear more so how many
15:30 letters did you send how many leads
15:32 roughly did you get and tell us some of
15:33 those businesses just yeah it would be
15:35 so valuable if I tracked any of that and
15:37 it’s such a tragedy that I didn’t I
15:39 track it a lot more closely now I I
15:41 would venture to say I
15:43 sent maybe a few thousand not more than
15:46 that um because it was over a period of
15:49 maybe like a quarter because again that
15:51 I I found this business relatively
15:53 quickly um and I couldn’t possibly say
15:56 with certainty a an inbound statistic
15:59 but the truth is my phone rang multiple
15:01 times a day for for many many many days
15:04 in a row um and they and more
15:08 importantly almost every person was at
15:11 least willing to have a conversation
15:13 like very rarely and this day very
15:16 rarely do I get the I would never sell
15:18 you know why the hell did you even say
15:20 take me off your list Never Real Estate
15:22 absolutely all day long um SMB no like
15:27 think of like The Benchmark for success
15:29 SB it’s to grow a company and then sell
16:31 it for more than 100% you know it’s like
16:34 and so almost everyone is willing to
16:37 call you especially too like I said if
16:38 you if you say it in such a way that you
16:41 want to learn for yourself um that
16:45 generation it will happily instill
16:47 knowledge into someone who wants to work
16:50 since that’s such a novel thing now you
16:51 know and so um I think that there’s such
16:56 a high um warm lead rate for Direct Mail
16:01 in this space huge tip I think that’s
16:04 fantastic anybody that’s listening uh do
16:06 not do that that trick in the Houston
16:10 area it all get return to rights to that
16:13 whole Direct Mail campaign yes that’s
16:16 it’s one of the things that’s been on
16:17 our list of hey we need to get to kind
16:18 of start building we just haven’t done
16:20 that but now maybe this is the
16:21 inspiration we need start to double down
16:24 yeah not to be our strategy is a little
16:25 different our strategy is just show up
16:28 just literally show up with Sellers and
16:30 have a face to face and they appreciate
17:32 that so yeah absolutely me most of the
17:34 people that you’re working with are uh
17:36 they’re not zoom people they’re not they
17:38 you know they’ll do it for an initial
17:40 conversation but they want to sit down
17:42 and have a conversation with you right
17:44 they want to break Bread’s eyes drink
17:46 some coffee and and whatever it is it’s
17:48 it’s that’s where you do business you
17:50 know I mean I think that you take the
17:52 zooms you take the team’s meetings make
17:54 your introduction and you say hey when
17:57 can I be at your office like give me
17:58 some time and get out there and meet
17:60 them because what did we we we asked the
17:02 guy who’s talked to hundreds of people
17:04 and how many people have actually shown
17:05 up yeah four four oh wow he hundreds of
17:09 people about buying his company and only
17:11 four people showed up it’s funny three
17:13 of them didn’t even really they just
17:16 showed up W qualified they just weren’t
17:17 even qualified but they wanted to just
17:19 come and see it you know like eight
17:22 minutes before I started recording this
17:23 podcast with you I had to get a seller
17:26 to wrap up off the phone because
17:29 kind of much to your point like this guy
18:32 he’s far from qualified to sell his
18:35 business and whatever that’s a whole
18:36 other thing but um like he wanted to
18:39 tell me all his whole story right and
18:41 like about all of his success and da d
18:43 da it’s like people want to tell you all
18:45 about what they’ve done you know that’s
18:47 their life I mean they’ve spent 10 year
18:49 a big por of their life give them the
18:51 platform to do it and even I think
18:53 people get really hung up on like well I
18:55 don’t think I would buy this company so
18:56 I’m not going to take the time that’s
18:57 insane to me take the time you have no
18:59 idea a where it’s going to lead and B
18:01 what you’re going to learn it’s the best
18:03 learning tool you could ask for a ton on
18:05 our trip yesterday I mean it happened so
18:07 it’s awesome so then maybe so tell so
18:08 going back to the company you bought
18:10 right yeah you know tell the listeners
18:12 what how it go down what did the seller
18:15 tell you what attracted you to the
18:16 business and yeah ultimately how’d you
18:18 close it yep so um I ultimately
18:23 ironically all the direct mail effort
18:26 ultimately led to somehow got into a
18:28 hands to the hands of a business broker
19:30 locally um there not many of them
19:32 locally um and we ended up in a a intro
19:36 you know intro phone conversation and he
19:38 was really easy to talk to and really
19:39 delightful and he had said you know hey
19:42 I have this manufacturing business um I
19:44 think you should look at it he sent me I
19:46 don’t even think he sent me the Sim it
19:48 was like just a brief overview and I was
19:50 like oh manufacturing like and I know
19:53 absolutely nothing about that like not
19:54 even going to consider it like thanks so
19:56 much but but no thanks and then he
19:58 called me like a month later we hadn’t
19:60 talked and he was like so here’s the
19:01 deal remember that manufacturing plan
19:03 I’m like uhhuh he was like we’ve had it
19:06 listed for like a year and a half and my
19:08 listing is coming due in 14 days and the
19:10 owner H is going to close his doors like
19:12 he has his letter written all of his
19:13 customers saying you know that he’s
19:14 closing down and um he goes he owns the
19:17 10,000 foot facility out of which he
19:20 operates why don’t you at least come
19:22 look at us since you have real estate
19:23 background and I was like uh okay you
19:26 know I can’t again like take my own
19:28 medicine can’t lose anything right it’s
19:29 one night I’ll go learn some stuff took
20:32 a friend who buys a bunch of industrial
20:33 real estate here locally and I was like
20:35 all right we’re going to split up I’m
20:36 going to talk this to the seller you
20:37 walk all around the building you know
20:38 just give me the vibe on whether you
20:40 think it’s worth anything and if you do
20:42 you know what it’s worth and um it was
20:44 the just the epitome of me sitting down
20:47 with a boomer who had owner operated his
20:49 entire life and never ever operated it
20:51 like an actual business and had then at
20:53 the end of you know his his time nothing
20:56 to not nothing to show but like
20:59 it wasn’t a business right it was it was
20:01 a high-paying job for him with a couple
20:02 employees who were helping him right um
20:06 and really I I wish I could be like oh
20:10 here’s all the opportunity I saw and
20:12 yeah it just made so much
20:13 sense I was like you know what I will
20:17 offer you what your building is worth
20:18 and not a dollar more and take
20:20 everything that’s my offer let me know
20:23 if you want it and it was the easiest
20:25 out he was going to find and he took it
20:28 and I was like
20:29 I was like you know what the absolute
21:32 worst case scenario is I’ve wasted my
21:34 time and probably spent some sanity
21:36 other than that great facility awesome
21:39 location um 10,000 square feet is like
21:41 the the optimal size like a ton of
21:44 businesses can fit in that size it’s not
21:46 out of budget for the vast majority of
21:48 what’s around here I was like worst case
21:51 I burn the thing to the ground and I
21:52 throw a tenant in here and you know trip
21:54 netted and I I go on my way um and that
21:56 was two years ago that’s the opportunity
21:58 the opportunity is always in the
21:59 structure did you have him sell or
21:00 Finance it or did did you just do an SBA
21:03 for the whole thing or how did you kind
21:04 of do the trans I don’t have an SBA loan
21:06 I have a real estate loan so it was a
21:07 real estate transaction I want to say
21:09 they attributed like $75,000 to like the
21:12 business everything else was was land um
21:15 and yes I have a $50,000 seller carry
21:18 got it nice so okay good for you so what
21:20 was the revenue of the business and you
21:22 know what did it like and then once you
21:25 you know you’ve owned it an operator for
21:26 two years right what’s been hopefully
21:28 you know how’d you get your retirement
21:29 now yeah exactly so obviously hindsight
22:32 is 2020 for a reason um there was like
22:35 so much Looking Back Now that I’m like
22:37 oh my God like red flag red flag red
22:38 flag but whatever um the the trailing
22:41 five years at the time were completely
22:45 out of whack year to year like so
22:47 different um he had reasons to to
22:50 attribute that but really what had
22:52 happened was he was running it as lean
22:54 as humanly possible and then decided he
22:56 wanted to sell and then figured out how
22:57 to show profit for you know the
22:59 remaining couple of years um and so
22:04 there was really no way to act I kind of
22:06 feel like there was not only a good way
22:09 to really have an actual pulse on how
22:11 profitable it was for even the last like
22:14 10 years again because he ran it so lean
22:16 but then also too um I know this now it
22:20 was just fundamentally a different
22:21 business the day that we closed because
22:24 again he he worked in it all day every
22:27 day he had technically three people but
22:30 one person gave their notice day one so
23:31 I really counted as two people and he
23:33 hadn’t um you know he had he hadn’t kept
23:37 anything up or pursued any type of
23:38 growth anything for at least 15 years um
23:42 and so sure did it show profit yeah it
23:44 did it was like attractive enough you
23:46 know I was like oh I can live on that
23:48 but day one it was just like completely
23:50 obsolete got it how much revenue like
23:52 what size business are we’re talking
23:53 about here yeah I want to say that
23:55 because we’re in the um home building
23:57 industry and So Co did
23:59 him some huge favors um so I want to say
23:02 his biggest year in the trailing five
23:04 was
23:05 like maybe between six and 700,000
23:07 definitely sub a million got it so that
23:10 smaller size okay and so then tell us
23:12 kind of you know what changes did you
23:13 start making what were some other red
23:16 flag yeah I mean 10 hours wouldn’t be
23:19 enough to really like go over it all but
23:22 in a
23:24 really Inc nutshell um first and
23:27 foremost I had to get my SE leg
23:29 under me around what the the
24:32 company actually did right I have no
24:33 background no experience have never I
24:36 never manag yeah very I had never even
24:39 like managed an employee at my W2 job
24:42 much less a Workforce again air quotes
24:45 it was only a couple people um so the
24:47 first probably at least six months was
24:50 just showing up every day though I
24:53 dreaded it feeling like I was drowning
24:56 and just learning what I could
24:59 at the same time also earning the trust
24:02 of the customers that made up the entire
24:06 business um you know I didn’t consider
24:08 the fact that he had less than a dozen
24:11 maybe eight to 10 customers that were
24:13 his entire business they’re all um
24:14 single family spec home builders you
24:16 know in this kind of general area it’s
24:18 probably that 8020 right so like that
24:20 top absolutely 80% of the revenue came
24:22 your from your best 20% that’s exactly
24:25 really Qui for those listen that that we
24:26 said it earlier it’s molded marble right
24:28 is the bus so yes yes so we we
25:31 manufacture bathroom countertops and
25:32 showers the most um inexpensive thing
25:35 you can buy for your bathroom is just
25:37 like a fiberglass acrylic from Menards
25:39 um and then the most expensive thing you
25:40 can buy is like a quartz or really high
25:42 in marble or Granite we are a step up
25:44 from uh acrylic um or laminate so it’s a
25:48 man-made Stone in its final State it’s
25:50 about 80% Natural Stone because it’s
25:51 made from crushed natural marble but
25:53 since it’s man-made it’s a lot less
25:55 expensive um you know we manufacture it
25:59 looks good what’s that but it still
25:01 looks good right I mean it looks highend
25:03 or at least higher end
25:05 andity from plastic yeah absolutely um
25:08 while still being a budget product um
25:11 yeah so I basically had to come in
25:12 figure out what the hell we did while
25:14 also acting like I at least knew enough
25:16 for customers not to run right um
25:19 without realizing that had I lost a
25:21 single one of them I would have been
25:24 seriously like that would have cut a
25:26 wing off for sure um
25:29 I’m proud to say we had zero attrition I
26:31 never lost a customer um which is
26:33 fantastic I still work with them all
26:34 today um but yeah just really figuring
26:37 out like okay you know i’ I’ve always
26:39 been a person who is very comfortable
26:41 pretending to know more than I do um
26:43 it’s just kind of my personality and
26:44 it’s just how you learn and get ahead
26:46 you know it’s sort of a necessary evil
26:47 but I seriously had to kick that into
26:49 overdrive um and save face and um no
26:52 matter how many hours it took I was here
26:54 from the codon until the sun went down
26:56 to make sure that orders went out you
26:59 know things were buil people were paid
26:00 blah blah blah um so that was kind of
26:04 like my my first evolution and then when
26:05 I finally had my sea legs under me at
26:07 least a little bit it was okay you know
26:09 how do I hire who do I hire um how do we
26:12 actually make money um you always have
26:14 customers who are just a waste of your
26:16 time versus you know customers who are
26:17 fantastic who are those great customers
26:19 and and then how do I grow from there
26:22 like what does that you know what does
26:24 that look like um I feel like you need a
26:27 couple key components to run a
26:28 stabilized successful business right you
26:30 need awesome people you need some
27:31 process and you need some way to grow um
27:35 I didn’t have any of those things and
27:36 it’s like chicken or egg which one do
27:38 you do first you know um so just
27:41 figuring yeah just figuring all that out
27:43 I will tell you this I you know you talk
27:46 about how you know you kind of that
27:47 uncomfortable feeling right you know I
27:48 think what you’re talking about and if
27:50 any of what you said bothers any of the
27:53 listeners right I think you’ve got to
27:54 step into that uncomfortableness because
27:56 it actually sounded the hindsight to me
27:58 that sounds fun like like what you did
27:01 to me sounds fun it sounds fun to be in
27:03 that that absolute panic mode having to
27:06 solve problems to save your company in a
27:09 way right to to figure out how to do
27:11 those things if you look back you know
27:13 even though right you’re like oh it was
27:15 awful deep down inside you’re like
27:18 I did that like I I am I am powerful I
27:21 can go I can solve big problems yes and
27:24 uh and sometimes that Journey you know
27:27 that is worth all the hard work worth
27:29 the pain and and that’s that’s why I
28:31 love with what you’re saying about you
28:32 know just stepping in not to the unknown
28:35 and then trusting that you have the
28:37 ability having confidence in yourself to
28:39 make it work man I I don’t care how big
28:42 the number is and the revenue is I’m
28:43 impressed that’s that’s the kind of
28:45 stuff that I think’s exciting yeah who
28:47 who’s the guy who MC’s Family Feud I’m
28:50 blanking um Steve Harvey no ST yes yes
28:54 there is this meme or Instagram thing
28:57 whatever um that my fiance loves and
28:59 it’s Steve Harvey going you better get
28:01 comfortable with being uncomfortable yes
28:05 doesn’t in an interview and like that
28:07 seriously has become like my life motto
28:09 like if I just have an easy day where
28:11 i’m like w that like felt so good and
28:13 whatever I was like what am I missing
28:15 you know yeah you don’t get anything
28:18 done when it’s easy you just don’t you
28:20 don’t succeed when it’s easy and that is
28:22 so much easier to say now that I’m on
28:24 the other side of a nightmare but it’s
28:26 true like if you don’t
28:29 just I don’t know slog every day for a
29:32 lot of days then I don’t know you’re
29:35 kind of missing everybody always looks
29:37 at the finished thing right and you know
29:39 even Elon Musk right people love or hate
29:41 him but I mean what he’s done has been
29:43 incredible from company’s perspective
29:45 yeah right there a lot of work that goes
29:46 into building any company right very few
29:49 companies are easy right and and almost
29:52 one adventure to say none of them are
29:53 easy there’s always a lot of hard things
29:55 and you know it’s the days where you
29:56 have to spend solving hard problems end
29:59 day knowing like oh man tomorrow I have
29:00 even like the more painful one that I’ve
29:02 been pushing off that I still got to go
29:03 solve that and you work through it but
29:05 then you kind of grow and improve from
29:07 there so yeah but the other part of what
29:08 you did was you you transitioned some
29:10 employees that relied on that that
29:12 company right to to make a living for
29:15 their family and one two or three it
29:17 doesn’t matter right you you were able
29:19 to come in and improve their lives and
29:22 like that’s a huge honor in itself you
29:24 know so there’s so many of these things
29:26 that are pretty powerful when you think
29:27 about these companies that we’re buying
29:29 right it you are participating in a
30:32 massive transition of you know Middle
30:34 America right keep keeping economy alive
30:37 and and you did that and so that’s what
30:40 that’s what I think is the most
30:41 important for like people that are
30:42 listening think about searching and
30:44 they’re building their list of perfect
30:45 businesses they want to buy you know
30:47 sometimes and at least most of the
30:48 people we’ve interviewed there isn’t a
30:50 perfect business there also like talk to
30:54 literally any successful person you find
30:56 on on the internet and whatever they got
30:58 wealthy by was probably like their sixth
30:60 Venture right um I I say now with
30:03 absolutely no problem saying it like I’m
30:05 not abandoning my my plan or my people
30:08 tomorrow but this is far from the end of
30:11 my story I have no idea where I’m going
30:12 but sure that’s a good seg just like
30:15 start somewhere you know yeah so then
30:18 maybe to segue into that how big have
30:20 you grown the business and what’s next
30:21 yeah yeah so after closing we had two
30:24 people um we were doing
30:30 probably again with the co vum maybe
31:32 700,000 is um and in the last two years
31:38 uh let’s see last year we grew to we
31:40 were just above a million dollars in
31:41 Topline my goal was a million that was
31:43 like yeah um it was like a 33% is growth
31:46 or something um and I was really excited
31:48 about that um my it general labor so my
31:51 employee account fluctuates but I always
31:53 have typically about seven full-time
31:54 people on staff um anywhere between
31:57 seven and nine um depending on
31:59 production needs um and the thing that
31:02 I’m probably most proud of um is that I
31:07 have about half of those people are like
31:10 Rock Solid wonderful awesome humans who
31:14 um could could seek out other
31:16 opportunity but stay to work for me um
31:20 and I had no idea what a treacherous
31:22 Journey that was going to be to become
31:24 like a trusted like leader um but I’ve
31:27 done that at least for a few people and
31:29 so I go home every night even on the
32:32 most stressful days knowing that at a
32:34 minimum I have a small handful of people
32:36 who are my rock star so we’re gonna show
32:37 up every day awesome and then are you do
32:40 you feel like you’re on track to kind of
32:41 get another 30% this year um yes nice um
32:46 I would be really excited to Crest like
32:49 1.2 or a little more um this is kind of
32:53 a whole other ball of wax but while I
32:56 absolutely have a Topline goal my
32:59 biggest focus in this year which again
32:01 is my second full calendar year is
32:04 profitability um I’ve learned that you
32:06 can bring in as much money as you want
32:08 but if you’re not taking it home I don’t
32:10 care um spent a lot of months in a row
32:13 just hemorrhaging money I have never
32:16 experienced stress like that in my
32:17 entire life um I’ve learned now that
32:19 it’s like it kind of feels like the
32:22 entrance to the club like it just kind
32:24 of is what it is you know um like maxed
32:27 out so many credit cards right sold a
32:29 house pull pulled an equity line of
33:31 credit all the things um but anyway so
33:34 this year um you know I was like okay I
33:37 I definitely want to focus on aggressive
33:38 growth and you know play stabilization
33:40 but I want to make money you know it’s a
33:43 big reason why we’re all sitting here
33:45 not not every reason but a big reason um
33:48 and so that’s that’s kind of my biggest
33:49 metric that I’ll use to gauge the year
33:51 is is what I was able to walk away with
33:53 so T I’m not I’m not the manufacturing
33:55 expert but now being in a Manufacturing
33:57 Company myself for the last year um and
33:59 we hired a manufacturing expert at ours
33:03 so one of the things I talking about is
33:05 lean so lean is this methodology if
33:09 you’re not familiar with
33:10 lean it it’s it’s pretty amazing and so
33:14 when you start implementing lean and if
33:16 you have if you’ve already done that
33:17 that’s fantastic but if you take it from
33:19 Soup To Nuts to the end of it it’s all
33:21 about removing waste right yes so for
33:24 instance today I was having I had a call
33:26 with with our with our COO of the
33:28 company and um we’re implementing an Erp
34:31 now we’re at a size bigger size where
34:34 you know the amount of waste going into
34:37 just Administration which most of us are
34:39 like well why wouldn’t it all be on Tech
34:41 no like literally everything was paper Y
34:43 and we thought we could shift this
34:45 paperwork in three months yeah no
34:47 problem Erp is going to be rolling out
34:49 in July we started doing quoting online
34:51 and our current GM who’s been there
34:53 about 27 years came over to to to to
34:57 Brad and was like
34:59 hey what about so- and so’s job so- and
34:00 so’s job so- and so’s job so- and so’s
34:02 job and he was like well we’re not
34:04 trying to eliminate their jobs but what
34:06 we are doing is we’re going to be
34:07 shifting them into other things and he
34:09 go I’ve been talking about it well
34:10 that’s where this whole lean process
34:13 comes in right where you’re not trying
34:14 to eradicate them but you’re getting
34:16 those processes and systems in place and
34:19 improving them you know so it’s it’s
34:20 that whole lean is just really blown me
34:23 away in our situation you kind of get
34:24 double whammy because you know it’s 170
34:26 employees but we also need another 50
34:28 people so you can you know kind of
35:30 essentially move people from one spot to
35:32 another well then you kind of get the
35:34 gain here and you get the gain here
35:36 where people actually able to go help
35:38 with the the the the project there’s
35:40 some incredible videos out there about a
35:42 couple guys that have implemented lean
35:44 in Australia and I forget their names
35:46 but I’ve watched several of their videos
35:48 and they have they have shops of five to
35:50 10 people and what they have done with
35:52 lean is unbelievable I’m talking about
35:55 profitability so think about one thing
35:56 like this it’s all about saving seconds
35:58 a day in your job um so if I’m trying to
35:00 cut two you now get your employees
35:03 thinking hey if I could save two minutes
35:06 or two seconds so one of them’s as
35:08 simple as well I do the same thing every
35:10 day right the same you know movement
35:12 like for instance at at ad H&M you know
35:15 we use three different hammers when you
35:16 fix one of your plating tools right well
35:20 they only had one hammer so they would
35:22 spend all this time putting these top
35:24 like different pieces on so it’s taking
35:26 them like 10 minutes every time to swap
35:28 yep so we just went ahead and got three
35:30 hammers all set up for them and guess
36:31 what you got 10 minutes back throughout
36:33 every day of the year and that’s how
36:35 that lean starts getting but that did
36:36 not come from us that came from the
36:39 employee and that’s where lean became it
36:41 becomes pretty powerful I started the
36:43 year reading Atomic habits somehow I had
36:45 never read it yeah um I think that if I
36:48 had read it any other time then now uh
36:51 would have gone to waste right I’m a
36:52 really big believer and like timing is
36:54 everything um and it was the perfect
36:55 time and I was like oh my God 1% better
36:57 like so profound blew me away couldn’t
36:60 believe it the one I took from that book
36:02 was uh I took uh basically was talking
36:04 about Runners right marathon runners and
36:06 everybody wants to be a runner when they
36:07 say they’re gonna be a runner but they
36:09 always talk about a race but they don’t
36:11 continue they don’t say I’m a runner
36:12 they say hey I’m running this Marathon
36:14 so last year I I decided after I listed
36:16 to Atomic habits I am not just a climber
36:18 of mountain I’m not just climbing Mount
36:20 reneer I a climber I’ve that I will be
36:23 doing it to the day I die that is how I
36:25 had to shift that mindset to get me
36:27 thinking bigger yep absolutely you have
36:29 to self-identify yeah I I’m not a
37:32 business owner who’s trying to be
37:33 profitable I’m a profitable business
37:35 owner and as such you know here are the
37:39 things that I do it’s beautiful awesome
37:42 so what’s next for
37:43 you you mentioned you know looking at
37:46 other businesses are you trying to
37:47 automate yourself out and go find
37:49 another one something smaller
37:51 bigger I I really have no idea I almost
37:53 feel like I’m back three years ago but
37:56 in a great way of that search phase
37:59 again um I I could do a lot of things I
37:03 could tack on you know uh sensible
37:07 add-ons um I could consider a different
37:10 industry um you know keep in mind like I
37:13 said even though you know most of what I
37:15 talk about online is is SMB real estate
37:18 has always been my love and so um I’ve
37:20 never lost sight of growing that
37:22 business so almost everything that I
37:24 make here goes back into that so that’s
37:27 kind of a big portion of of what I do um
37:30 outside of um our plant so figuring out
38:33 how I grow that um I am considering a
38:37 couple different Industries and again
38:39 like similar to how I found this one um
38:42 I found a couple people who are doing
38:44 really well in those Industries and I
38:45 said hey um do you want to you know do
38:48 you want to buy another business yes of
38:49 course I was like okay so how about this
38:51 I’m going to do all your direct mail
38:52 I’ll pay for it I’ll take all the
38:54 inbound calls I’ll be dangerous enough
38:57 to you know set or what is it like sound
38:00 like be dangerous enough whatever it is
38:03 um and then kind of loop you into
38:05 anything that sounds relevant so that I
38:07 can learn so I’m in the in the throws of
38:09 doing that now um you know focused on
38:12 the profitability of this business but
38:13 also learning other businesses and kind
38:14 of seeing where that leads by bringing
38:17 value to those people who know a lot
38:19 more than me and just kind of like
38:20 hitching my start of their wagon and see
38:22 where it goes awesome perfect all right
38:25 well let’s do our rocket round yeah
38:27 let’s bring it so we do a rocket round
38:29 for our listeners we ask a few questions
39:31 just to get to know T better and uh so
39:33 first question so what do you like to do
39:35 in your free
39:36 time um great question I don’t have a
39:39 lot of that but when I do I have yeah I
39:42 have she already told us yeah I know I’m
39:45 like oh man I feel like I become really
39:47 lame no um I’ve have super young nieces
39:49 and nephews um and I’m very very present
39:51 in their lives and so they’re probably
39:53 the the main thing that I focus on um
39:56 I’m also getting married in three months
39:57 so that congratulations thank you so
39:60 that’s been a lot of fun so I do that in
39:01 my free time too all right next question
39:04 most memorable moment in your business
39:07 journey man um there was a very distinct
39:13 day that I will never forget where I
39:15 played in a golf scramble it was um for
39:18 the building industry and um I brought
39:20 my dad um because that’s what he and I
39:23 love to do so that’s another thing I do
39:24 in my spare time golf with my dad um but
39:27 there was this guy who had sponsored a
39:29 whole and he was you know like the
40:30 Capital One people that want to sell you
40:32 the 2% back spark card to his credit
40:35 very very aggressive salesperson like he
40:38 clearly does well um but he immediately
40:41 went up to my dad right and was trying
40:43 to sell him you know the card and and my
40:45 dad was like oh thank you but you know
40:46 I’m not the person to talk to right I’m
40:48 here for my daughter’s business and he
40:49 just like could not get that through his
40:51 head and so finally after like the third
40:53 time my dad’s like you know my my
40:54 daughter is the one you should talk to
40:56 and he literally comes up to me and goes
40:58 so I hear it’s a family business and you
40:01 took it over from your dad and I was
40:03 just like you heard that huh like you
40:05 know so and I’ve had so many moments
40:07 like that but that one is a very
40:08 distinct one where I was just like you
40:10 know what I’m gonna instead of resenting
40:12 it you know I’m GNA embody it and use it
40:14 to my advantage and shake the N ears
40:16 that’s it that’s it yeah all right last
40:19 question what what’s your favorite tool
40:20 or
40:22 resource I am an absolute Avid content
40:26 person um so Spotify and Apple Books I
40:29 am all over all the pods all the books
41:34 um I drive a fair bit I walk a fair bit
41:36 I don’t pretty much don’t ever listen to
41:39 music because I just love the absorption
41:41 of the relevant content that I find same
41:44 here you never know what you’re gonna
41:45 learn next so you never know awesome T
41:48 well hey absolute pleasure thank you
41:50 very much and maybe before we wrap up
41:52 how can people get a hold of you yeah um
41:55 definitely LinkedIn um I’m on LinkedIn
41:57 in Twitter actually as well or X um and
41:00 I do have my own website just because I
41:03 have a really weird name and so the
41:04 handle was $1 um so I’m very googleable
41:07 if you if you just write out T corkran
41:10 you’ll find me no problem perfect we’ll
41:13 have that in the show notes for the
41:14 listeners and maybe one last thing any
41:16 big takeaway for listeners you just want
41:17 to give one shout out for re wordss of
41:19 advice
41:20 wisdom just get started it it it does
41:23 not matter like it does not matter what
41:25 you do um if you think that your local
41:28 sub shop is a super cool business that
42:30 you’re interested in call the manager
42:33 and say hey can I buy you coffee and can
42:35 I learn more they will say yes trust me
42:37 just get started somewhere great advice
42:41 all right perfect well thank you very
42:42 much T enjoyed it very much yeah thank
42:44 you guys thank you for listening to the
42:47 m&a Launchpad podcast if you’ve enjoyed
42:49 today’s podcast and would like to
42:50 support us please leave us a rating and
42:52 a review after you listen I’m Casey mchu
42:54 and I look forward to talking with you
42:55 next week
