What kind of entrepreneur are you?

Newsletter · Sep 01, 2024

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An entrepreneur's recipe for sweet success

3min Read

Today I'm breaking down three simple concepts that when understood; can completely change the way you look at EVERY SINGLE OPPORTUNITY moving forward.

Roll ups
Virtual Mergers
Entrepreneur types

The story behind #3 will help explain #1 and #2, so we'll start there.

What kind of entrepreneur are you?

Wait, there are different kinds?

I mean yes… and no. I’ll explain.

Today in the entrepreneur world, there’s just so many ways to create a business, acquire a business, or grow one into something that encompasses OTHER businesses.

But if you boil it down, there are two main differentiators here. START or BUY.

What used to just be called “investor” is now entrepreneur through acquisition (ETA).

The scrappy, relentless, sweaty startup traits of an entrepreneur are bleeding into the business acquisition world and dumping fuel on the fire.
That’s why we’re seeing so many high level techniques that were once only done by the top dogs, now just common practice.

So, what kind of entrepreneur are you?

In my opinion, you should be both. Or at least understand both.

We’ve talked about this duality before, but I’ll paint the picture for you of a VERY well known entrepreneur who built a company that began as a “starter” and is now a massive “acquirer”.

Let’s see if you can guess who I’m talking about:

The founder was an artist. He discovered his passion and obsessed over becoming the best at it.

His work was innovative and playful. He applied techniques that hadn’t ever been done before and recreated familiar stories we all knew, just in new ways.

He built a team and trained them to be the best of the industry. His mission was to CHANGE the industry.

But road blocks came up and he had to pivot. One time it was a war, another time it was a tough time economically, one time it was a bad business relationship.
Through that he continued to improve his craft. Learning from failures and some bad business relationships, he knew he needed to do more than just create, he needed to OWN.

He developed merchandise to go with his art. He owned the rights to those products and distributed them to the masses. He knew HIS brand would never be owned by someone else again.

As time went on and he understood the value of “equity” in business transactions, this led to his company growing to heights beyond most people’s wildest imaginations. Not his.

Today his company owns massive real estate around the world. They have rolled up television networks, gaming, movies, audio platforms and toys. They are known globally and are the epitome of a money machine.

Any guesses?

Disney.

Most of you know the history of Walt. That’s nothing new. But when you really dig in here, you have two things.

Start ups
Acquisitions

Now this is a HUGE example. But the concept remains.

He built a personal brand by starting something he was passionate about.

He was innovative and relentless in his pursuit

He saw opportunity and went for it. Failing several times but still getting back up.

He understood the importance of ownership and expanded his dream and empire through acquisition.

All that can be done on a small scale.

What I want you to understand more than anything is that “you don’t need to see the whole staircase to take the first step.”

Wherever you fall on the spectrum of entrepreneurship, lean into it. Start building OR buying right NOW. And then once you have that “figured out”, learn what your weaknesses are and fill in the gaps.

When you keep your mind open to the possibilities of entrepreneurship through BOTH of these paths, you’ll begin to look around and see more opportunities than you know what to do with.

The world will truly be your oyster.

Roll ups & Virtual Mergers:

In 30 sec I'll deep dive with you on these to incredibly important and highly underused concepts

Roll ups--

One company buys multiple smaller companies and combines them into the same company to create ONE large company.

You don't need to be a big company to do this, you just need to have your systems in place and have the big picture in mind.

This requires an industry that is at least partially fragmented where you can go after one business to begin with (maybe you already own one) and then start looking for small to medium sized businesses to integrate.

Rockefeller did this, Waste Management did this, Disney did this... it's done ALL the time. It's a common practice in this space, but if you don't know about it, you can't plan for it.

Virtual Mergers--

Now this one gets interesting.

Simply put, you're orchestrating the merging of multiple companies to gain the benefits that a larger portfolio would have, specifically when selling.

You dont even have to own one yourself, but if you can put the "virtual merger" together and get the agreement from the group of companies to sell all together, you can take multiple small companies and sell as one BIG one. You take a success fee and maybe even stay on as part of the board.

Super high level, but that's the gist.

I'll keep diving into these concepts, but if you want to chat more; email anytime!

If you have deals or business ideas you're working through, let me know if I can help in any way. I LOVE this stuff and genuinely want to help you reach whatever level of success you are aiming for.

Until next time...

Stay in the fight,

My best tweet of the week: