How To Successfully Acquire and Exit A Landscaping Biz
From NEW to the acquisition world to a successful EXIT in less than 2 years.
Adrian Pinto was kind enough to share 30min of his time and POUR out the value.
I was deep diving into AcquiringMinds and found Adrian’s first episode and knew I had to reach out. Check it out here:
One of the main industries we’re searching in right now is landscaping and Adrian made it happen.
I’m 2 years behind the ball as he recorded that in 2022, and A TON has happened since.
Here are the cliff notes to the convo. I’ll also be dropping plenty more gems as I sift through all the nuggets he gave.
From day 1 post acquisition, he leaned into organic growth.
Reinvesting as much as he could back into the business.
With the growth they had, it didn’t make sense to do another acquisition. Instead the opportunity of an exit came to the the surface.
Things he got right in his this acquisition:
Picking the industry. There’s infinite customers
Using his strengths in sales and networking to grow the company
Most importantly, building with the future acquirer in mind.
Everything he did from hiring to software was with the mindset of how the future acquirer would value those decisions.
“We make every decision through the lenses of what the future acquirer would want.”
Things he got wrong: (which led to great lessons)
Not appreciating the amount of involvement the previous owner had
Fully understanding the customer concentration
Determining asset quality
A point worth noting is that upon exit, the new owner brought in a professional operator.
During transition, Adrian got to see him in action and realized what a true operator looked like.
Operators of that caliper normally wouldn’t have any desire to work for a smaller business if Adrian had tried to bring them on prior to sale.
BUT since the business was acquired by a large player in the space, it became a desirable opportunity for an operator to take on.
Take Aways 👇
1️⃣ Focus on growth and reinvest as much as you can comfortably
2️⃣ Build with the end in mind. Regardless of when that will be.
3️⃣ Figure out the software that the big boys use and use that.
4️⃣ Create systems and continuity.
5️⃣ Have all your documents / financials easily accessible.
6️⃣ Create a company that is easily “digestible” by a larger company.
This was just a 30min convo. Adrian is full of value and I’m extremely thankful for his time.
If you liked this, there’s more in the pipeline.
I talk to as many founders and business owners as I can as I work to acquire more businesses myself.
I’ll continue to share these with you along the way.
I also write a newsletter focused on starting, buying and scaling your business.