He Bought a Small Business, Doubled Profits, and Sold for 24x

Today I sit down with Chris Edwards, who bought a flooring business in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. He bought the business for $1.7 million, grew revenue by 50%, and doubled SDE (seller discretionary earnings). He then exited the business after about 3 years, earning himself a 24X return on his invested capital (most of the deal was financed with SBA debt, so he was able to make a large return on his down payment).

Highlights:

5:19 Getting into ETA
7:17 Chris' search criteria
9:54 How long did the search take?
13:56 Process of buying the business
17:04 Structure of the deal
20:21 How he improved the business
22:50 First 6 months was a knife fight
27:30 Why deals go bad
34:15 Exiting the business


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Connect with Chris:

X: https://x.com/toph_edwards
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-edwards-44664052