Acquisitions Anonymous - #1 for business buying, selling and operating - Hobby or Hustle? We Review a Wild $5K Decoy Business

Episode Date: June 25, 2025

A bizarre $6K duck decoy business from Canada raises eyebrows and questions in this wild episode.Business Listing - https://buyandsellabusiness.com/business-opportunities/2828/unique-and-successful-hunting-decoy-manufacturing-operations💼 Sponsors:Capital Pad – Buying a small business and need funding? Or looking to invest in others' deals? Capital Pad is the go-to marketplace for acquisition entrepreneurs and investors. It handles all the legal and governance headaches so you can focus on deals. Backed by entrepreneur Travis Jamison. Check out https://capitalpad.com and tell them Acquisitions Anonymous sent you!Franchise Help with Connor Groce – Curious about franchising? Connor Groce, franchise expert and operator, helps people navigate the franchise world. He owns multiple franchises and now helps others find the right fit. https://www.connorgroce.comIn this episode, the hosts dissect a truly odd listing — a duck decoy manufacturing business for sale in Canada for just $5,999 CAD. With reported gross revenues of $500,000 and earnings of $25,000 (from 2018), the team explores if this could be a garage-cleanout or a diamond in the rough. From foreign exchange confusion to speculation about what's actually being sold, this episode highlights the weird, wonderful, and often questionable world of micro-acquisitions.Key Highlights:- A Canadian duck decoy business priced at just ~$4,300 USD- Earnings based on outdated 2018 data- Speculation on whether it’s a hobby, real business, or inventory liquidation- Discussion on 5% margins and the dangers of thin profit businesses- Why side hustles can be a great launchpad for new entrepreneurs- Thoughts on niche e-commerce and Craigslist deal huntingSubscribe 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 [e-mail]

So I went on Twitter and I said, hey, give me the craziest business listing that you've seen lately. And I got 30 responses. It says retirement. Maybe the person needs like money for a flight. I'm just going to sell my business so I can go to Bora Bora. One day I will find a diamond in the rough on Craigslist. Our most popular episode of this podcast for the first couple years was we interviewed a guy and he came on and he talked about how he found a business on LoopNet and he bought it and six months later how happy he was.

Hey everyone, it's Bill and I want to tell you about maybe the most exciting sponsor we've had in a long time on the pod. It's called CapitalPad and it is the thing that I wish existed when I started my journey of operating and investing in small businesses. So Capital Pad is a marketplace for acquisition entrepreneurs that is people who want to buy a business and need capital to list their deal. and solicit capital from other people who want to invest in acquisition deals. So if you want to back somebody buying a small business, CapitalPad is a place to do it. And if you want to buy a business and need capital, you can go on CapitalPad to be introduced to

investors. So the really great thing, too, from the investor side is that CapitalPad takes care of all of the details that can get hairy with small business acquisitions. They handle standardized terms, standardized terms, standardized governance, standardized distributions all up front in black and white, basically Capital Pad professionalizes investing in small businesses. And the returns can be really, really good. I'm so stoked they exist. It's founded by my friend Travis, who is a phenomenal entrepreneur in his own right. So if this sounds like something that's appealing to you, if you want to buy

a small business and need capital, or if you want to invest in small businesses, go check out capitalpad.com and tell them that Acquisitions Anonymous sent you. Welcome to Acquisitions Anonymous. Internet's number one podcast about buying and selling small businesses. Today's episode was a crazy Canadian deal that evolved hunting and for co-hosts. So it was really fascinating because the business, as you'll discover, was for some reason priced at like 0.1 times earnings. So like a tenth of the annual earnings was what they promised in this deal.

So super fun. There's the episode. All right. So I got one for you guys. So here's what I did last thing. I went on Twitter. I don't know if you guys are aware. I tweet a lot.

So I went on Twitter and I said, hey, give me the craziest business listing that you've seen lately. And I got 30 responses. 29 of them were spam porn bots. But one guy did respond. One guy did respond with a deal. And it's this deal. It's up in Canada. And I'm not sure if it's really ridiculous or not.

but it looked cool. And a real person responded. So let me try to share it. This is from buy and sell a business.com, which is not, this is the first time we've ever looked at this listing site, a village wealth company. And then they misspelled wealth.

What is this? W-E-L-L-T-H. What the hell is going on here? It's actually a really good company in Canada. I know the founders. This is like Chuck E. This is like Chuck E. Started a business listing service.

All right. So the picture on the front is a duck. And it appears to be a fake duck. And the title is, a unique and successful hunting decoy manufacturing operations. Our motion duck decoy products are the result of our latest development collaboration with the hunting experts in Canada and the United States. Rotating plastic molded wings attached to a heavy-duty direct-drive water seal DC motor,

which produces motion that creates an unstoppable natural attraction. Powered by a single six-fold sealed lead acid battery, this motor rotates these spinning wings at just the right speed. The on-off switch is conveniently located on the outside of the duck decoy body beneath the duck's tail. Our motion duck detail offers unrivaled durability. So the business is for sale for $5,99 Canadian. So how much is that in real money? I have no idea. I don't know the conversion. I don't have that foreign exchange calculator in my head. So the business is for sale for 6,000 Canadian. Let's say 5,000 US dollars. They last year of their completed statements was 2018. Their gross revenue was 500,000.

thousand dollars and they make twenty five thousand dollars a year they're selling a hundred percent of business and they are retiring and that's it business is for sale for like a point two five earnings multiple uh it looks like it so mills you look like somebody that would own a gun what is this uh what is this business do i actually i i i know these decoys they're so i don't have i don't have one of these but i've seen them you know whenever you duck hunt you set out decoys and most of them 99% of them are just ducks that sit in the water and they have like a little lead weight on them and a string and you call the ducks and when they come in they see your your decoys and then they land and when they go to land you shoot them this is like a step above that and this is a moving decoy that

flaps its wings and then it confuses the ducks even more and they they want to come land by your decoys even more you would intersperse these with like a regular decoy what's weird to me is that this is not unique and proprietary to them. Like these, these exist. You could Google search this and there's tons of people who make them. I don't think it's, you know, protected by any intellectual property or anything like that. Maybe some of the design is unique, but moving decoys, especially duck decoys that flap their wings, is not unheard of.

And the components, they're showing a picture of the components probably come from China because it's a little electronic components. A little electric motor with a. Yeah. Like you import these little electronic components and you assemble them. They call it manufacturing, but it's probably pretty close to just kind of assembly because you probably order the duck. I assume it's plastic parts from somewhere and then you bring it all together and you put it together and sell it online, I suppose. Or I don't know if they're wholesaling it as a manufacturer.

Yeah, they don't tell us. No. Chelsea, you look at a lot of deals. What do you think is going on with this listing? I'm so confused. I don't know because I almost feel like it has to be a typo because that's just not any money. Maybe it's maybe they meant $50,999 Canadian dollars. I did check the conversion.

This $5,999 Canadian dollars is like $4,300 US dollars. It's getting cheaper every minute, Mills. So maybe it's like a. two, maybe they want a two times earnings multiple? That would make more sense. It says retirement. Maybe the person needs like money for a flight somewhere. I'm just going to sell my business so I can go to Bora Bora for, you know, I'll never come back.

I don't know. This is, I'm just confused. I mean, the business is almost 25 years old. So. I mean, it sounds more like a, and I don't mean this disrespectfully, but like kind of like. kind of like a hobby? Because 500,000 in revenue after that long in service, like, is it possible that this person is just making them? Right? Like, I don't know that there's a team given that it's, I don't know, I'm just confused by a lot of things. I feel like someone's

got a garage full of these parts. That's literally what is in my head. Yeah. They put them together and they're hoping they can, someone can buy it and keep going. It's like you're just buying them out of the inventory they have left so they can make room for their four-wheeler. I don't know. These things are, they range from like about $65 to maybe, you know, $90 to $100. So, I mean, they're, they're selling a shocking amount of these to me, right? You know, so it makes me wonder if maybe there is some some kind of wholesale relationship. Oddly enough, I have a friend here in Columbia who owns an e-commerce business that does pretty well. And all they sell is duck decoy bags, which is a really specific kind of mesh waterproof. Because like these things,

you're pulling them out of the water and you put them in a bag, but you can't like put them in a duffel bag. And I might, I might send it to him. It's kind of interesting. It's very related. So I have a friend and I was speaking positive of a business like this. I have a friend who basically was not your all-in kind of entrepreneur guy. And he went and basically started a business similar to this in his garage, has some Chinese parts, has some domestic parts, manufactures these things. He started doing it himself and he started hiring people. And now he's got a team about eight people.

And his garage just turned into this like 4,000 square foot warehouse that's got to be air conditioned in Texas. And he's like doing pretty well. Like he's making low six figures every year. And it was started as like a side hustle. So like I really like this as a pay. I've talked to a lot of entrepreneurs. I say, you're like, I want to buy a business?

I was like, why don't you consider one that you can own, like, either start or do from your garage and, like, have, invest $25,000 to start it rather than, and no offense, Heather, take out a $5 million loan, right? You're not the, there's some people that that's just not right for. And I like this kind of business for that type of person, because I've seen it work for my buddy and for other people. Hey, everybody. If you've listened to the show, you've probably heard us talk about franchises.

While franchises can be a great path to business ownership for the right person, like, There's a lot of pitfalls, and it's important to be really careful as there are certainly good franchises to be in and bad franchises that you don't want to be in. Connor Gross is a friend of the pod and a resident expert on franchises. And Connor not only owns and operates his portfolio of multiple franchises, but he's also a franchise consultant and helps others work through while picking the right franchise for them. So as he's sponsoring today's episode, everyone should totally click in the show notes below to join Connor's newsletter and attend one of his gateway to franchise ownership workshops. If you're ready to move and move quickly, schedule a call with Connor and his team today. I like the concept. I guess I'm just confused because we're talking like a 5% margin, correct?

I'm not doing the math wrong. Am I? Well, I think here's the other thing. Last year of completed financial statements was 2018. Correct. I'm very confused. I didn't notice that. But that was seven years ago.

Right. I don't understand what we're buying. I don't understand much of anything. Maybe it's seasonal. You know, this business could be seasonal, but maybe it's like every seven years. Like a locust thing or something. Yeah, like the cicadas. Yeah, it's very strange.

They do have a website. It's a Facebook page. Okay. So is it possible that you're just buying, what you're buying is, I mean, you could buy the domain apparently for $4,000. If it comes with the domain, it's a steal. It doesn't. That's another $4,000. It's $4,000.

And then you pay $4,000. So you're $8,000 in on this business, and I'm not sure what the business is. It doesn't look like they, you know, have an e-commerce presence based on what we're. No. It smells like you're buying the leftover parts, designs, maybe an old customer list. It wouldn't surprise me if this was the type of business that a guy started with 10 or 15 customers. His buddies were, and he was selling to local stores and stuff like that. And then eventually those local stores all switched to buying these directly from China or someplace like that and cut them out.

wound down to basically nothing after being somewhat thriving for a period of time. It was one of those businesses that just kind of died on the vine. That's what it feels like. And like it probably was a great to your point, like the value of side hustles. You know, it's probably a really great side hustle for this guy. And, you know, they were able to help fund their hobby and probably connected them to a lot of other people in the hobby. I think with businesses like this, you can catch them before they die on the vine.

You know, like I don't think a hobby business like you, to your point, earlier, Michael, I don't think a hobby business means it's not viable. You just want to buy it while it's still a viable thing that has like blood flowing through its veins. Well, anything that you, like most side hustles are because someone, and this is my opinion, is because someone just doesn't know how to scale it, right? There's a different skill set to scale a business. I think with this one, regardless of the business, I think buying a business with 5% margins is dangerous. Like that's, that's very, quickly could have, especially with the tariffs, that these are parts coming from overseas.

Like, I can't imagine you'd have any money left over. Yeah. And so, anyway, this, this, I like that someone answered your call, Michael, and you asked for the craziest deal. Yeah, I have questions. No disrespect to the beautiful business owner, I'm sure. Like, I don't mean to speak ill of it, but like, I just don't understand. Heather, what do you think the chances that this listing, when they saw gross revenue,

this person listed all of the revenue they did in history of owning the business for 20 years. Very possible. Gross. Gross revenue. Didn't say gross annual revenue. Growth cumulative. That's what you're right. That could be. Yeah. It's true because it says annual earnings. So it's like since 2001, they have sold $500,000. I bet that's what it is. Because like to your point, Mills, if they're that cheap, that's a lot of units. maybe they sold those units over all that time 10 years. Yeah, probably. And I think this is like clean out my garage kind of listing. Please kind of get this stuff. Let's talk for a second about like

the clean out my garage, you know, business deal. In certain cases, if you're a strategic buyer, I wish Bill was here because he did something like this once. But if you're a strategic in some way, shape, or form, like you could, you could get, you know, bottom dollar pricing. You could buy this stuff, especially if it's been sitting for seven years with no revenue. You know, and if you have some, if you're like my friend who owns the duck decoy bag business, you know, you could get it for 20 cents on the dollar and you don't have to sell that many to break even. We've had a member growth acquisition very similarly in two situations came across these kind of this. And you get a really good price.

Again, I just think that you don't, we don't know anything about this business. But for the listeners, 5% margins is dangerous. Yes. If there's one takeaway, Chelsea's like, run away from 5% margins, please. Like I just wanted on the record that you guys need to be careful of margins. But I think you're right, Mills. This could be like a garage sale fine for somebody, right? If you knew he should have just listed or whoever this is, should have just listed what the inventory is.

You know, how much of it and what it is. And, you know, it could retail for X. and I'm just trying to get rid of it for $6,000. Yeah, it's like listed on Craigslist or something. Yeah, right. That could work. You guys ever look on Craigslist in the business section? No.

Didn't know they had one. Oh, it is fascinating. 99% of it is like, you know, use kitchen equipment and stuff like that. But occasionally you get these off the wall things where somebody's like, I want to sell my print shop, you know, or whatever. And it's a, it's kind of the sample, you know, the sample size is not great. rate in terms of what you find and the quality is not good. But I'm like the contrarian in the back of my mind says like one day I will find a diamond in the rough on Craigslist. And so I check it periodically. And you know, you might be able to buy like booths from a restaurant, you know,

that need to be re-apulstered. But also there could be like a great, you know, manufacturing business in there. So I remind you, Mills, just before you get your hopes up, our most popular episode of this podcast for the first couple years was we interviewed, um, a guy. and he came on and he talked about how he found a business on LoopNet and he bought it and six months later how happy he was. Twelve months after that, he came back and told us how miserable he was. That was terrible and he hated it and he didn't know what he got into and it didn't make any sense. So it's like, we're still in the honeymoon base.

It's great. Yeah. Okay. Give it time. This is a writer. All right. You guys want to wrap it? Anybody calling on the duck decoy business, Chelsea?

Any of your members doing this? Yeah. Sure. Yeah. They can help, like they can sell them as they fund their search to find. Yes. Duck funded search. And then they can tell, then they can tell prospective sellers that they have real operating experience.

Exactly. Exactly. It's a duck fund instead of a search fund. I really like it. Yeah. Yeah. A real duck dynasty. Wait, isn't that what the duck dynasty guys did?

Didn't they make duck decoys? I literally have no idea. You guys have like reached like very interesting deals today. Chelsea's like, please bring better ones next time, guys. Actually, if you look at it, I mean, the Duck Dynasty guys were kind of, I mean, yeah, they were just so early. Like, they were like six years early to this like conservative trend that America's going down. Like, you know they would be at the White House right now if they were still popular. Like it would be Kid Rock comes in.

The Duck Dynasty guys come in like, you know, advising on natural resources and stuff. I'm such an elitist pig. I'm so sorry. All right. Can we wrap it up there before I get. canceled? You're going to get canceled. You're already canceled. Yeah. Bye.