Acquisitions Anonymous - #1 for business buying, selling and operating - Cleaning up crime scenes for big money! - Acquisitions Anonymous episode 162

Episode Date: January 27, 2023

Michael Girdley (@Girdley), Bill D’Alessandro (@BillDA)) talk about an exciting deal today. It is a Home-Based Established Crime Scene Cleanup & Biohazard Decontamination Service.The odd amount ...they asked for caught our attention first, but we soon figured out what it might mean. We talk about staffing this business, why it is good or bad that it is a franchise, and what the broker did to get the prize.Company:   Established Crime Scene Cleanup & Biohazard DecontaminationLocation:     Denver, CO Gross Revenue $ 900,000   |   EBITDA $ 400,000   |   FF&E $ 70,000Asking Price:   $1,220,000-----Thanks to our sponsors!CloudBookkeeping offers adaptable solutions to businesses that want to focus on growth with a “client service first” approach. They offer a full suite of accounting services, including sophisticated reporting, QuickBooks software solutions, and full-service payroll options.-----Show Notes:(00:00) - What’s going on in Bill’s business?(01:36) - Deal & financials: Home-Based Established Crime Scene Cleanup & Biohazard Decontamination(2:28) - Why are they asking a weird amount?(7:06) - Best listing ever! Shoutout to the broker(9:47) - Do we think it’s hard to staff this business?(11:15) - What do we think about the Tech layoffs?(12:48) - Mike’s classification of Riffs(15:41) - How is this being a franchise so interesting for this business?(21:11) - Are we sure we won’t be cleaning toilets if we buy this?(24:30) - Why should we pay 3x earnings for this franchise?----Additional episodes you might enjoy:#161 - How to spot red flags in eCommerce listings?#160 - Should we buy this drag strip... for the land?#159 - Make Millions Moving Dirt in Michigan#158 - $1.2mm revenue Court Maintenance Company for Sale!#157 - Make a $1mm/yr with a Language SchoolSubscribe to weekly our Newsletter and get curated deals in your inboxAdvertise with us by clicking here Do you love Acquanon and want to see our smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel. Do you enjoy our content? Rate our show! Follow us on Twitter @acquanon Learnings about small business acquisitions and operations. For inquiries or suggestions, email us at contact@acquanon.com

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 All right. Welcome to Actors's Anonymous. I do have to put a disclaimer that this may be a PG-13 or better episode. Bill has showed up and he's in a very bad mood. I'm very hot. I'm very hot right now coming straight from another meeting. Yeah. Whoever met with Bill before this podcast recording, you owe me. So anyway, other than that, how are things going? Oh, yeah. This is just, you know, when you run a business, I was talking to Michael about this before we got on. You run a business. you run a business like everything goes great for a long time and it just feels like you know volatility clusters uh as people say like you know we this week we have had literally every area of our business has dropped the ball this week and several outside contractors like all it wants uh so i have just spent this week just really really pretty hot so this is i'm going to love
Starting point is 00:00:55 this deal no i want to buy another business and you can have this one, Michael. Okay. Well, you were, you know, I invited you to come on my guy's ski trip, which starts Saturday. So that would have been a good chance for you to take out your, take out your aggression on some snow. Yes. But I will report to you next week when I get back, but I will take out aggression for you. So you can have that. Thank you. Well, I'm very sad to be missing it. The only reason I can't come is because I'm going to Costa Rica this week with my wife for our first vacation since our first child was born. So, No offense, but I prioritize her over you.
Starting point is 00:01:33 Yeah. Yeah, no sympathy for me. No, all good. Okay, so we got a deal. You and I are both excited about this. We got a deal. We started talking about it immediately. Yes.
Starting point is 00:01:42 All right, I'll pull it up here. It is a home-based, established crime scene cleanup and biohazard decontamination in Denver. Near ski, near ski. Yeah, this is the type of business that is going to need to be called to our offices if things keep going the way that they're going. Crime scene cleanup. So, okay, this one is cool. It's a home-based established crime scene cleanup and biohazard decontamination business in Denver. And these guys are wearing bunny suits and masks.
Starting point is 00:02:10 It's like full on if you're not on YouTube. So they do revenue of $900,000 a year and EBITDA of $400,000 a year. Pretty legit margins, 40% or so. Only use $70,000 equipment to do it. And then around since 2012. So on 400,000 of EBITDA, they're asking $1.22 million. So 3x. I think it's funny they could have just been at 1.2, which would be exactly 3x, but they
Starting point is 00:02:38 want an extra 20 grand for some reason. So $1.22 million for this business. Oh, I'll tell you what that is. I'll tell you what that is. The broker said, you should charge 3X for this. And the seller said, well, what about my legal fees? Yep. And they put them in there.
Starting point is 00:02:54 That's what happens every time. I just tell you how sellers work. Yeah, something arbitrary or somebody's fee right there. Okay. So it says this is your opportunity to own a highly profitable, established, uh-oh, interesting franchise providing unmatched service in the areas of crime scene cleanup and biohazard decontamination. It's home base, but you should reside in the Denver metro area.
Starting point is 00:03:17 This franchise was established 10 years ago. It does not operate under an exclusive territory. Rather, the franchise is free to market and provide services. anywhere they desire. This franchise has won all kinds of awards for best overall franchise, et cetera. Perspective buyers should understand that this business is really a relationship business. You'll be networking and building referral sources with local authorities, communities, emergency services personnel, victim services groups, hoarding task forces, apartment communities,
Starting point is 00:03:47 and insurance companies. I notice they don't mention people who do crimes because they don't claim out after themselves. You may also be interacting with families of loved ones. When emergency services are needed, the company responds in one to two hours. It is important to note that although the owner is trained and knowledgeable in doing the services, he does not typically perform the services as part as his day-to-day ownership duties. In addition, it's important to make clear that the owners do not ever deal with physically handling, removing, or transporting any bodies as this service is specifically clean up in quotes.
Starting point is 00:04:22 Okay, this is starting so good. This is the best list thing we've ever read. And that includes that nightclub in Houston. Go ahead. It is a great opportunity to step right into a profitable service business with high margins and high demand. I hope not too high demand. The business is well organized, easy to transfer and have new owner takeover operations. It's growing.
Starting point is 00:04:43 There are clean books, records, and accounting. The value proposition and advantage of purchasing this business is that the cumbersome obstacles to building the business have already been overcome. and there's a well-oiled machine in place. It's not necessary to have any prior specific experience cleaning up bodies, I mean in the industry, since you've received training on all aspects of this business from the franchisor and the seller. However, you may find this particularly interesting
Starting point is 00:05:06 if you have back to an experience in medical police, EMS, fire, armed forces, firefighting, restoration, cleaning remediation, et cetera. Here's a list of all the things that they do. This is wonderful. Decomposition slash undiscovered death. hoarding clutter and gross cleanup, crime scene cleanup service, animal and human feces and urine cleanup, rodent droppings cleanup service, odor removal, suicide homicide cleanup service,
Starting point is 00:05:35 homeless encampment cleanup, emergency vehicle decontamination, medical waste service, virus and bacteria disinfection, blood spill cleanup, meth lab cleanup service, mold remediation, and tear gas cleanup. Michael, how excited are you to own this business? There's a lot about this that I really like, mostly from a listing standpoint, but I do have a personal question for you. Have you ever been tear gassed? No, I have not. I've been pepper sprayed badly, but not tear gas. Yeah, yeah. It's really bad. Like, I got tear gassed. I was actually, I have wandered into a riot in Denver once after the Broncos won the championship. And I'm like, just like walking along
Starting point is 00:06:19 with my buddies and like these cops like drive by and tear gassed us and I was like what is going on here? Ice cold like threw a canister out the window the cop car at you. We're like three college kids just like walking down the side of the road in downtown Denver. Next thing I know I'm getting tear gas like I'm involved in some protests like walking by Wall Street or something. Anyway, that's the closest I've ever come to being arrested or anything like that. Like you never been arrested, I've barely gotten traffic tickets. It's just not worth it, you know. And I got a tear gas once. Do you feel as though the area would need to be remediated if it were indoors and it were to your guest?
Starting point is 00:06:56 I mean, maybe indoors. I mean, it just blew away. I mean, it sucked. We went back and ordered Domino's pizza and everybody felt better like an hour and a half later. That was the whole thing. You know what? I mean, I want to nominate this listing for something that is one of the most interesting kind of situations with businesses, which is, does the business owner and the broker actually understand the business that you're really in and how it works and what makes it successful, right?
Starting point is 00:07:25 And it's kind of this old idea of the jobs to be done kind of idea, right? It's like, like, if you're, if you're owning a restaurant, right, do you think that you're in the food business or are you in the hospitality business? And those are really two different things. And like what I love here is this broker has identified and gotten the owner to articulate in this listing, perspective buyers should understand that this business is really a relationship business. It's not cleaning up. It's none of those other stuff. The way you win is by developing relationships with other people.
Starting point is 00:07:55 And like, I want to nominate this, not that we have an awards, the acquies or whatever we're going to call them. I want to nominate this for like for one of the best, for one of the best listings because how rare is it that we see somebody actually list a business and the broker and the owner articulate, okay, here's the critical success factor to make this thing actually work. is making friends with people who are responsible for cleaning up really bad situations. Absolutely. I mean, because, I mean, that's what makes a business like this good, right? So you have situations in which services businesses like this can be great businesses and which they can be not very good businesses, right? So let's look at what's not very good business, right?
Starting point is 00:08:34 It's one where potentially you're delivering a service that's highly commoditized, potentially the buyer is different from the user, right? All those types of things can make a service business terrible. but you have a situation like this where like they need you to show up right then and like there's a problem like those police can't leave a crime scene until like the dead body goes right or until until that homeless encampant is cleaned up so they need you there right then and guess what that creates bill margin is what that creates yes one for one bill bill's getting 100% yep well the answers were I knew you knew the answer to that so the the situation The response either was, huh, which you've gotten distracted by something else, or you answer the correct answer. So I knew there were only two answers to that. But like that's what makes this a great business compared to say something like, you know, one of the ones that I think people get really confused and think that it's a good business is doing pool routes. People think that's a good business. But it like it breaks all those rules, right? It's not imminent. There's not there's not. And you have buyers who are very interested in minimizing price. Like it's not a very good business. Whereas like pool construction is a very good one or this business. is a much better business than, say, pool services are. So I love that aspect. So do you think it is
Starting point is 00:09:49 hard to staff this business? I mean, can you imagine, we've just read you the business ad to sell this business. Can you imagine the job ad recruiting for people to come work in this business with undiscovered death and viral decontamination and all this stuff? Like, do you think it's hard to attract people to staff this? I think this is like staffing a painting business. And like my dad used to have these awesome quotes. He's like, yeah, of all the people I'd manage painters were the craziest. And I was like, well, why is that? He's like, because they sit around and sniff paint all day. I'm like, oh, that's really true. So, so anyway, I think, I think that's the pain in the ass factor here. I think the whole thing is, like, you can go hang out with, you know, these police officers or you can go
Starting point is 00:10:30 hang out with whoever is dealing with, you know, medical site cleanup or whoever's in charge of cleaning out the homeless cam. Like, I think that's all the fun stuff. I think the pain in the ass is you have to find people who are willing to do this as a job in one of the tightest labor markets in history here when people can choose from any multitude of 15, 20, 25 or $50 an hour jobs that they can do. And to give you a context, like our local bus system here in San Antonio, they're hiring new people with like a $6,000 signing bonus at like $2.50 an hour and they can't keep them. Yeah, it's crazy. I think it's gotten better lately, though.
Starting point is 00:11:10 It was really bad last year in 2020, 2020. 100%. Well, you know what's actually got a lot better? Trying to hire high-powered white-collar workers who formerly had jobs at big tech companies. That severance is running out quick. Yeah, there's a lot of them out there and they're a little more realistic. Well, I mean, it was so screwed up. Like, we would lose, you know, in some of the things I'm involved in, we'd lose, like, people to Amazon.
Starting point is 00:11:34 And let's say that they were like a developer or programming working for us. and they're making, let's say, just hypothetically, really good money. Let's say $180,000 a year, right? Their senior programmer in Texas, and, you know, that's pretty good money with bonuses and all that kind of stuff. And they would go to Amazon and get less a lower salary. We'd be like, okay, well, you're leaving, sorry, can we pay you more money? Oh, that doesn't matter.
Starting point is 00:11:57 And they'd be like, we're going to get a lower salary. I'm going to get $150,000 in Amazon. It's like, well, why are you moving to a higher cost area to go to Amazon to do this? Well, what wasn't there is they were. were getting a $400,000 stock grant on top of it. So the shareholders, the company was paying them X in salary, which was less than what we were paying them. And then the shareholders were paying the rest.
Starting point is 00:12:18 So the Amazon investors, congratulations. You were subsidizing. So I'm curious. I'm curious if that continues. Serious question, though, Michael. So, I mean, there have been a lot of, they had record hiring, right, at all these tech companies over the last couple years. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:32 And now we've had some significant layoff, five figure layoffs from basically all the big tech companies. At the same time, are you hiring the first people out the door after, like the first one's cut after a giant hiring boom? Like, is that the crem d'a cram, do you think? I mean, I think that's one of the things you see in these RIFs. So I would actually go look at the reduction of force. So RIF is the term for that. RIA.
Starting point is 00:12:56 And I would go look and see what kind of one they did. Because I think there's three types. Okay. So you have your business reduces as a big company. You reduce people and you fire about 5% of the people. Okay, that's riff type number one. That is code for we just went through and in order to look good for the market, we just reduced by our, we cleaned out all the fat and all the people we think with the lowest performers and we fired them. So that's code for that one. Then you have the
Starting point is 00:13:22 second one, which is the 15 to 18% riff. That is the code for, I need to cut more, but I'm too chicken to do it. So I just pick the number that everybody else did. So that has some of the on performers, and then there's some good people that come out the door. Then you have your third type of riff, which is the riff that the smart executives are doing these companies, which is 20 to 25 to 30 percent because they know that's the riff you have to do to really make a difference in costs and also to avoid what the second group, the 15 percent group is doing, which is they're doing one riff now, a 15 percent. Guess what they're going to be doing in another six? Another 15 percent. University, they have to come back and do another type of it. So if you're in those second two groups,
Starting point is 00:14:02 I know there's a pretty good chance you're a great performer. But here's the thing, Bill, there's a big recession going on in everything tech. Ain't nobody hiring those people. Like, everybody who's desperate for employees or that one I just told you the guy left, they aren't hiring right now. Like, stuff's tough out there. Yeah. So point being, though, like, are you interested in hiring the people who just got laid off
Starting point is 00:14:24 from Salesforce or Facebook or whatever, which is these are like 5% riffs, right? Like, these are the first people out of the door. And they're going to need to do the other cut to the, the bone riff later, but these people got riff now. I mean, the tough thing is those are good people, right? By and large, like, good people as in like they are fine. Yeah, nice human, but they're going to sit. I mean, they're good people.
Starting point is 00:14:45 But they're in a situation where because they found their way into an industry that has historically paid very well because it was, you know, had unlimited capital and a lot stuff going on, they're in a situation now where let's say they had a $350,000 year compensation package to be, you know, a middle manager or a middle executive at one of these places with stock, you know, going through the roof. How do you afford them now? Like a normal Main Street business can't afford a $350,000 employee. Like it's just like, so no. I mean, I don't care how good they are. They're just there to some extent they've created a cost infrastructure for themselves by living in these places that have, you know,
Starting point is 00:15:21 two million dollar homes where it's pretty difficult to figure out like how they could ever survive on the types of wages that get paid and fly over America. Yeah, they got a big rewrite up. and then they're probably about to get a big re-rate down because the high salary was never sustainable. It was an anomaly. Totally not sustainable. So coming back to this business, so one thing that I thought was really interesting as I was reading it is that this is a franchise. And normally I am very wary of franchisees because I go, well, why can't I just go out and approach the franchisor and just start out my own franchisee? I especially think that is a risk here because it says that there is no geographic restriction at all.
Starting point is 00:16:05 Which makes, like, why can't Michael move to Denver and decide he wants to clean up bodies and hoarders and just get a franchisee license for the same franchisee and cut my business in half? So that worries me a lot, which maybe is why they say it's entirely a relationship business. Maybe that's your only defense here. But guess what? Yeah. I don't have any relationships with anybody that the current owner does. right? And it's really interesting. I mean, you're going to have to be the type of person who has a shared, you know, I think the buyer business fit here is you need to be the type of person who has a shared kind of culture with those folks. Maybe you're a former, you know, law enforcement officer or FBI officer or something like that to where you know how to speak and talk that language and you have contacts there. I mean, I would like that. But just like you, I hear franchise and I know my tradeoff is, okay, I'm going to have to pay you to use your brand and you're going to give me training. And you're
Starting point is 00:16:57 you're going to limit competition of people that are potentially going to be using the brand also. But then if you tell me my franchise fee is not actually going to protect me from you selling four other franchises in the Denver area, and I have to compete with those people who are using your playbook and brand. Like, I don't understand what the tradeoff is here and why it's a franchise. Because the value proposition gets all screwed up if I know you're going to open another, you know, another two or three right across the street. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:22 The one thing, though, I will say that appeals to me in this business specifically. Like if I'm going to be cleaning up, you know, viral disinfectant, undiscovered, decomposed bodies, you know what I really freaking want? Good SOPs, right? Like, if I were like, I want to know exactly how to decontaminate those bodies so I don't get whatever killed them, you know, or whatever, right? Especially I'm an employee there, right? So I will say, like, I don't know how to do that. I would hope that this franchise could provide you some really, really rigorous operating procedures, you know, around safety, around, you know, around billing, around equipment.
Starting point is 00:18:03 Like, there's probably a lot here. You know, there's levels to franchises, right? Like there's, you know, franchise roto-ruder, like you can compete with just buy a freaking, you know, automated drain snake and a van and show up. Like, that's different. This is like there's some, probably some proprietary knowledge here, right, in the, in the franchise system. A hundred percent. Well, and I bet you also have the ability to, you know, buy and access some of the equipment. Like, I don't even know where you get these bunny suits, you know, like the with all the gear and stuff.
Starting point is 00:18:37 Like, I don't even know what the right stuff is here. Can you imagine the SOP to put on the bunny suit and then decontaminated it when taking it off? You can't just, like, buy one on Amazon. Like, here we go. I'm cleaning up the bodies. or how do I source how do I source the type of person that wants to work in this business like how do I train them like how do I you know what do I pay them like there's value here from a franchise standpoint I guess this the one thing it's like competitor like why do we have a why why do you why are you going to sell multiple franchises to the guy next door like I just that really bothers me um but like I mean can you imagine you walk into like a hoarder house where do you even freaking start right like there's I'm sure there's an SOP that's like first open all the doors or something, you know what I mean, in case it explodes. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:19:23 But like, how do it pack all these things? You know, I wouldn't even know where it again. So you're describing, I think, what makes this, what I love about this business, right? Like, you want a business that's like emergency HVAC service where it's like, like, we had I don't know if you've had your air conditioning or heater go down when it's like cold outside. We did on the day, I think it was the day after Christmas or something. It was like a Sunday. day. And like, guess what I had to do that morning? I called every single person who could work on
Starting point is 00:19:51 our AC system. And you know what? They, you know what I paid? Whatever the hell they told me they were going to charge me. And I think that's one of the geniuses about something like this. When you're dealing with an urgent services business, whether it's an ambulance or whether it's like a crime scene cleanup, right, where the police just call you and you show up and you're like, okay, here's a bill. Thank you. You know, because how do you, how do they get multiple bids on a hoarder cleanup? Like, do you do it by the pound? Also, you have an hour. So, right?
Starting point is 00:20:18 Like, you don't have time to run an RFP. Hell no. Hell no. You know, and I also think what's great, too, this is the other benefit of the national brand, right? Like, I need someone here right now. I don't have time to Google and read Yelp reviews and shit. Like, I need roto-ruder right now, you know, whoever it is, just call them. I don't care who it costs.
Starting point is 00:20:40 I don't want to, like, ask if they do hoarders or if they do rodent droppings or if they do dead bodies or whatever. Like if I'm if I'm a police officer or I'm you know in these in these occupations that that patronize the service I assume that the national franchise is advertising to them and there's some name recognition here. And when you need something at any price on short notice, name recognition goes a long way. Yeah, million percent. Okay. Mirko says we have to wait like 10 minutes until we start pooping on the deals. Can I start pooping on it now? Poop and then I'll call the remediation.
Starting point is 00:21:10 All right. Okay. So there's some in this that it's just like a flat out lie. it says you will never have to clean up like dead bodies or duty remediation as an owner of this. That is the biggest lie whatsoever. Bill, Bill, let me ask you a question. You're an upstanding guy. You got a great head of hair, beautiful family, smart, got everything.
Starting point is 00:21:31 You got the whole package. You run an e-commerce company. Did you or did you not put tape on a box in the past year in your world? Absolutely 100%. I have done every function in the business. Did you or did you not jiggle a toilet handle at your place when it did not toilet correctly and get your hands dirty doing that at least once in the past? Michael, no joke.
Starting point is 00:21:54 Six months ago, six months ago, I got a slack message from our downstairs neighbor that poop is raining through the ceiling of his office. And clearly it's coming from our office because we're the only ones above him. I find that someone from our warehouse has put things down the toilet, poop included, but not only poop, that should not go down the toilet. And the toilet has backed up and they, of course, have just pieced out instantly. You know, there's no one around. The entire floor of the bathroom is like inch deep of poop water. And the downstairs neighbor was not kidding.
Starting point is 00:22:34 It is raining out of the drop ceiling in their office. And it's my fault. I think that was more data than that was more detail. And I am no joke. I swear on my life, I am mopping his office while the poop water drips onto my head. Because I can't, like, he needs it remediated. And that is what owning small. Okay.
Starting point is 00:23:00 So I think that's, but that's the point. Like if you are getting into a business where you are owning a small trucking company or you're owning a software company or you're owning a software company or. or you're owning a fireworks company, right? Like at some point, you are going to get very close to whatever that core business is. And if you see something like this, we're like, you will never have to do this. Yes, you will have to do it. You will have to go to crime scenes. You will have to walk through like hoarders.
Starting point is 00:23:25 You will have to deal with situations in which some poor kid who went to college and then ended up in Denver got tear gas during a Broncos Super Bowl thing. Like you will have to be involved or at least very close to that and it will be smelly and stinky. and at least once there will be some strategic thing where you have to be there in an hour, your main guys are all out skiing, and you got to go in there and do the work, because that's just the way of business like this works, especially when your customers need you and you have strategic customers. So anyway, I just want to poop on that literally and figuratively because it's total BS. Like they shouldn't say that.
Starting point is 00:23:58 You will have to do that. That's just the way small business works. That's why you get paid to big bucks. Well, it's also funny, they say, this is totally home base, can be hands off and you will never have to clean up any dead. bodies, but it would be really good if you lived in the Denver metro area. Right. Okay.
Starting point is 00:24:16 So now I want to finish up with my biggest pooping on this deal whatsoever, and it says it right here. It is a franchise, which when you go buy a business, part of what you get are SOPs, you get established relationships. You get a brand, like you buy all this stuff. Why should I pay three times earnings for a franchise that I can just show up with the franchisor and get 90% of that stuff, everything but the relationships, just by signing up to be a franchisee and competing with the owner of this one. It just makes no sense whatsoever. So that's the
Starting point is 00:24:47 problem with this non-geographical limitation and the ability for them to sell another franchise right next to you is it basically totally neuters you in terms of your ability to charge for multiple years of revenue. This is akin to I'm going to buy a McDonald's and I want you to pay five times earnings for it, Bill. But oh, by the way, McDonald's Corporation has reserved the right to build build another McDonald's right next door and sell it to somebody else. Are you in? I'm out, but worse, at least it costs a couple million dollars to start a McDonald. Right?
Starting point is 00:25:15 Like, we could just call this franchise tomorrow pay the $50,000 franchise fear or whatever. We're in freaking business. Terrible. And then, you know, three more people to do it too. Instant pass. I'm out. How is this okay from the franchisor's perspective? Like this is criminal.
Starting point is 00:25:30 Like you are not doing the basic thing that you have to do as a franchisor, which is, you know, protect your franchise. This is crazy. I hope this is not true. Because this is, this puts this franchisor in the category of just scammy ass. And I mean scammy ass is a technical term, scammy ass franchisors of which there's a lot. And like, this is just a real disservice that this seller thinks that they can get three times earning for this business because the franchisee is convinced them most likely of that.
Starting point is 00:26:00 And the business broker thinks it too when in reality, the way the franchisor has set stuff up is totally self-dealing and a total disservice to whatever they're selling and their scumbags. If it's true, that's just what the listing says. I don't know. We haven't even Googled this thing, but like if you do this and you're a franchisor, you are not a good person. So what I wonder is whether this deal is actually ever gets done because of exactly that reason. So they say a big letter to the top, pre-approved for SBA financing with only 10% down. You know, just because this SBA does not mean there is not underwriting. And, you know, we've had Heather from LiveOpe Bank on this show. They do real underwriting, right?
Starting point is 00:26:37 They want you to write a business plan. And if they figure out that there is zero moat to this business, you might have a hard time placing the debt for this business. Certainly the equity if you're trying to syndicate it. Which is kind of sad because this business broker is really good. Look at him. He's not touching his face and look he's smiling. He's got a tie on Bill.
Starting point is 00:26:55 Michael, he could be your, this guy, Chris Gerard, he could be your long-lost brother. You guys look a little similar. You just say that because he's a lot. But look, he's a nice. Yeah, I don't know. Did you see the, when I took the profile pick that AI thing, you gave me, and I went and paid 20 bucks for profile picks. And yeah, it, it thinks I'm a lot more attractive than I really know. Clearly by design, right? AI has the hots for me. Either that or it thinks I'm Vigo the Carpathian. So from the ghost bus. Hands on the day. I mean, that's exactly how I would write
Starting point is 00:27:28 the props for an AI profile picture generator, like make this person look like Tom Cruise, but a little more attractive, right? Yeah, whenever I see people's profile picks that are AI generated, like if you're an eight as the profile pick, I just subtract three. Like, okay, you're a, oh, for real. That's the way this works. Well, that's what the incentive is. Like, that's what I'm doing if I make an AI profile pick generator.
Starting point is 00:27:51 Dude, I mean, it's interesting. You know, my profile picks, like when I got it taken, I was like, okay, like, I like, I like, I like, I like, I like, I like, I like, I like, I like, I like, I actually look at your get in there and make me look good i don't pay you to take the photos i pay you to deliver a photo of me that looks good yeah that's the job to be done right there perfect all right let's uh let's wrap this one up so um today's sponsor is cloud bookkeeping for all of your cloud bookkeeping needs uh and please consider them and look please do us a favor if you enjoy these episodes bill and i were keeping it 100 today did we keep it 100 today 101 i think do you use
Starting point is 00:28:31 the phrase keep a 100 on your day to day. I tell my kids to keep it 100. They think of an idiot. Yeah. I am not as much. I am a dad, but not quite as much of a dad as you, Michael, though I feel myself sliding toward like full dad, you know, using five-year-old hip phrases like just to make people cringe. Dude, I own a fanny pack now. No, that's cool. Kids own fanny packs now. That's hip. Now my kids think I actually have a designer fanny pack and a workout fanny pack, and I switch between them. So do you know how you can tell if you have a cool fanny pack or if you have a lame dad fanny pack? Go ahead. So if you have a lame dad fanny pack, you buckle it around your waist.
Starting point is 00:29:15 Do you know how the cool kids are wearing their fanny packs, Michael? They wear it over the shoulder. Yes, they wear it over the shoulder and the back, like over one shoulder, and the bag rests in the center. of your chest. So it is not a fanny pack. It's like a sternum pack. And it loops over your shoulder and behind your back, almost like a quiver of arrows, but like in the front. That is how the cool kids wear a fanny pack. So if you want to truly, truly horrify your children, I would suggest you switch to wearing your fanny pack over your shoulder. So it was maybe a month ago, two months ago. I was up in New York and in Manhattan and meeting with some of my younger colleagues who are
Starting point is 00:29:55 delightfully Gen Z. And we had a couple beers, and then we walked out on the street. And I go, hey, if you guys make fun of this fanny pack, you're fired. This is just a joke. They didn't actually work for me. But you make fun of this fanny pack as a fireball offense. And one of them turns to me and he goes, nice job looking like a German tourist, Gurdley. He said, because I had the fanny pack across my shoulder like you're talking about.
Starting point is 00:30:20 You look like a German tourist girdly. I was like, oh, he's right. He's right. I guess you can stay. Yeah, it's like you could stay. That was really funny. All right. So, hey, we are desperate for your attention audience and to get this podcast out to more people.
Starting point is 00:30:36 We recently hit the top 25 entrepreneurship podcast. Please, please, please, open up your podcast application, whether it's Spotify or preferably Apple Podcasts. Leave us a review. Tell us what you think. Ideally, we love five-star reviews. By the way, Bill, we've gotten 140 reviews, all of them except for one. five stars. Oh, man.
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