Phase 0: Finalize Your Investment Thesis
You will begin by creating an investment thesis. As you make your way through our training, you will make multiple iterations to that thesis as you look at dozens of deals and bring a select few to our Investment Committee.
🏁 Phase 1: Find and Close Your Business
During this phase we train you how to source businesses through traditional brokerages and listings. You also gain access to our internal deal pool of exclusive deals.
We also provide you with:
- Well-packaged training (calculators, tools, resources, templates)
- Tried and true systems for screening deals
- Vendors for legal and due diligence
- A community of smart entrepreneurs who share ideas and best practices
- Access to our team to help you analyze the business, get through bottlenecks and challenges and avoid costly mistakes (we make sure you know what you don’t know)
Finding the perfect business takes a combination of hard work and good timing. In order to take full advantage of that combination, you will take the businesses you find – whether they are off-market or on-market – through a roadmap using the above tools, in order to qualify, close and purchase a deal.
Our Investment Committee is here to help you plan for any eventuality by going over your deals to poke holes in them. The process is similar to Shark Tank, where Acquisition Entrepreneurs present a potential business and all of the research they’ve compiled on the company.
The Committee usually contains at least one person who understands issues around the deal (ie: financing) and another person who is more tuned into the operations side of the business. The Committee then spends time going over the details of the deal, looking for potential issues, before giving feedback.
Once you have brought at least one deal to the Investment Committee that matches your Investment Thesis, you will be invited to an in-person workshop where you will have the opportunity to tour a business we bought, network with other Acquisition Entrepreneurs, and meet Acquira’s team. You will also gain access to our Last Mile training, which will take you from LOI to the close of the business.
🗂Phase 2: The ACE Framework – Integration & Systematization
This phase happens after the business has closed. The ACE Framework is designed to systematize and grow the business by taking it from an owner-run operation to a management-run company. The goal of this phase is to get the business running like a well-oiled machine so you are an owner, not an operator and to also prepare the business for growth.
During our first acquisitions, many of our partners were not ready to take over a business. They were overwhelmed and this led to a low quality of life. They became owner-operators, just like the sellers.
This Framework was battle tested on several businesses and has led to a completely different owner experience and a significantly improved company culture.
📈 Phase 3: Business Growth
The purpose of this phase is to grow the business. To do this, you need to take advantage of low-hanging fruit primarily around digital marketing and sales initiatives, while carrying out a strategy to “manufacture a workforce”. The goal is 30-40% year-over-year organic growth.
🌴 Phase 4: Do More Of What You Want To Do
By this phase, you will have a well-systematized, management-run business on a growth trajectory providing you with steady cash flow.
Now what? Some people want to sell their business and highly systematized, growing businesses are more attractive to private equity at 5-10x multiples. We are also looking to buy businesses that have been integrated through the ACE Framework.
Others semi-retire and spend more time with people they love doing work they love. The choice is yours!