Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Financial Tips: His expertise helps buyers secure financing, and they'll conduct due diligence to help close profitable deals.

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Financial Tips: His expertise helps buyers secure financing, and they'll conduct due diligence to help close profitable deals. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. I'm Rashwan MacDonald, the host of
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Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to stop
0:11
Speaker 1: reading other people's success stories and start planning their own.
0:16
Speaker 1: Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
0:19
Speaker 1: talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
0:22
Speaker 1: their companies, and speak with dog profits who are making
0:25
Speaker 1: a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and
0:28
Speaker 1: listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on
0:31
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. My next guest is managing partner
0:36
Speaker 1: of Guardian Due Diligence, a boutique financial firm focused on
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Speaker 1: helping everyday entrepreneurs confidently acquire profitable small businesses. A Harvard
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Speaker 1: NBA and former private equity investor, he is on a
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Speaker 1: mission to close the ownership gap by giving first time
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Speaker 1: buyers the tools and insight to make million dollar decisions
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Speaker 1: with clarity and confidence. Let's find out how his company
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Speaker 1: can impact your bottom line. Please weapon the Money Making
1:06
Speaker 1: Conversation Master Class. Elliott Holland, how you doing, Elliott?
1:09
Speaker 2: I'm doing very well.
1:10
Speaker 1: How are you well, Elliott? When I first hear something
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Speaker 1: like this about buying small businesses, he know, we've immediately
1:17
Speaker 1: get the word franchise. Are we talking about that when
1:20
Speaker 1: we start this conversation or you're talking about something different.
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Speaker 2: I'm talking about everything, So franchises and non franchises to me,
1:27
Speaker 2: franchises or special instances of regular businesses. You start a
1:31
Speaker 2: subshop over in the West End in Atlanta, you get
1:34
Speaker 2: really good your subway. I'm just talking about buying any of.
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Speaker 1: Those, Okay, So is there an advantage to that because
1:40
Speaker 1: they tell me, like buying a franchise is turn key,
1:44
Speaker 1: and then you go into a business, there's a lot
1:47
Speaker 1: more of the learning curve that you may not be
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Speaker 1: ready for, even though you see the opportunity. Help me
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Speaker 1: out with that, Elliot.
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Speaker 2: Sure, I think it's degrees of confort with risks. So
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Speaker 2: I would say that in level of difficult buying a
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Speaker 2: non franchise business is harder, probably more lucrative, buying a
2:04
Speaker 2: franchise is a little bit less difficult, probably a little
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Speaker 2: bit less lucrative on average, and then real estate and
2:10
Speaker 2: other investments will probably fall in a bucket that's a
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Speaker 2: little bit less lucrative and a little bit less risky
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Speaker 2: than that. So it just depends, It depends on your
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Speaker 2: risk appetite. So here's the thing. When you buy a franchise,
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Speaker 2: you get the FDD and you get help from the mothership.
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Speaker 2: So you kind of have like a training wheel scenario, right,
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Speaker 2: you kind of get a walk into it and learn.
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Speaker 2: But here's the thing with a non franchise business. The
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Speaker 2: owner of that business, the employees of that business, and
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Speaker 2: all the study you do about that business before you
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Speaker 2: buy it and be close to that same manual if
2:40
Speaker 2: you play your cards ro cool.
2:42
Speaker 1: Before we get deeper to the interview Elied Holland, let's
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Speaker 1: get a background on you to make sure you're an expert.
2:47
Speaker 1: Tell us about your educational background and your journey.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a kid from rann Arbor. In fact, both
2:53
Speaker 2: my parents did similar work as myself, helping black business
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Speaker 2: owners and Detroit get financing to buy their first businesses.
3:01
Speaker 2: I came down to Atlanta. It's in Morehouse College. I
3:03
Speaker 2: did the due A degree program with Georgia Tech. I
3:06
Speaker 2: did some consulting. After that, I got into Harvard Business School.
3:09
Speaker 2: This keep shirt that I have on and then I
3:11
Speaker 2: got into the business of buying businesses private equity, so
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Speaker 2: I worked on Wall Street doing that. I very quickly
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Speaker 2: learned that the game of buying businesses was a whole
3:20
Speaker 2: lot better you owned the equity, and so I spun
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Speaker 2: out of the private equity company I was working for,
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Speaker 2: convinced a mentor to help work with me to buy
3:30
Speaker 2: businesses under the name elsewhereth Partners. So we bought three
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Speaker 2: companies into that business, and then when he effectively retired,
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Speaker 2: I spun out and went out and tried to buy
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Speaker 2: businesses myself. I was a bit earlier Sean, so I
3:43
Speaker 2: was in twenty fifteen. The market wasn't as frothy as
3:46
Speaker 2: it is now, and so I kind of tipped and
3:51
Speaker 2: fell and bumped my head. So I had to take
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Speaker 2: a year off of twenty seventeen, and because we're talking
3:57
Speaker 2: to my audience, I had to move back in with
3:59
Speaker 2: my mom six seven years after Harvard Business School. And
4:02
Speaker 2: I looked at these unique skills I had about buying
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Speaker 2: a business, and how can I both help people and
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Speaker 2: monetize those skills. And the solution was Guardian due Diligence,
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Speaker 2: a way for people to find businesses that they want
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Speaker 2: to buy, but go through my due diligence services to
4:16
Speaker 2: make sure they're not a limit. Because you can't take
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Speaker 2: them back, just like the used car lot. And so
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Speaker 2: I started guarding due diligence at twenty eighteen, and then
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Speaker 2: last year I launched a masterclass around helping people who
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Speaker 2: are just thinking about should I buy a business and
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Speaker 2: moving them educational wise until they're ready to pursue acquisition
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Speaker 2: all the way through to closing the deal. And so
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Speaker 2: that's a quick synopsis to media.
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Speaker 1: It's a good one, a very good one, because the
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Speaker 1: journey is important because you're about to tell us how
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Speaker 1: we could make money.
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Speaker 2: In the simplest foreign businesses are priced at a multiple
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Speaker 2: of cash flow. Let's do the easy thing. So four
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Speaker 2: times cash flow for small businesses is about it. What
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Speaker 2: does that mean for a business that has profit, so
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Speaker 2: revenue minus costs of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
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Speaker 2: or we call it a quarter million dollars, the price
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Speaker 2: will be about a million dollars to purchase that asset.
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Speaker 2: And the world that I live in, there is an
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Speaker 2: SBA seven a loan that will give you ninety to
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Speaker 2: ninety five percent of the money you need to buy
5:14
Speaker 2: the business. That's as soon you get lucky, and it's
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Speaker 2: the ninety five percent rever scenario. What that means is,
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Speaker 2: with fifty thousand dollars, you can buy a million dollar
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Speaker 2: business that is throwing off a quarter million dollars of
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Speaker 2: profit a year. If you spend four to five years
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Speaker 2: paying off that debt, you will take your fifty thousand
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Speaker 2: dollars and make a million dollars. That is a twenty
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Speaker 2: extra turn if you can only get ten percent leverage. Now,
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Speaker 2: people who buy houses recognize the bank's going to tell
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Speaker 2: you how much you turn your one hundred thousand dollars
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Speaker 2: into a million. That's why I'm here talking to you today.
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Speaker 1: My buy the business may be smarter than starting one
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Speaker 1: from scratch.
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Speaker 2: Down the percentage of success. So you're talking to you
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Speaker 2: a four or five time failed startup. Dude, try a
6:00
Speaker 2: whole bunch of stuff that didn't work. If you think
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Speaker 2: about it, ninety something percent of startups don't work. Now,
6:05
Speaker 2: you should cut your teeth on a startup because it's
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Speaker 2: low investment. This shouldn't be the first thing you do entrepreneurially. However,
6:13
Speaker 2: if you have your teeth, then you kind of have
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Speaker 2: you done some stuff. Businesses that I look at that
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Speaker 2: have been around for five ten years have employees they
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Speaker 2: stick around with the ninety percent dance of probability. The
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Speaker 2: loans that I'm talking about, the SBA seven a loan
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Speaker 2: has a default rate under five percent. So if you
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Speaker 2: wanted to go to Vegas and I told you the
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Speaker 2: crap table had a ninety five percent chance of success
6:37
Speaker 2: for Sean, and I think you bet. I'm not saying
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Speaker 2: it's full proof, but I'm saying it's a bet worthy
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Speaker 2: of consideration.
6:43
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I'm talking Elliott Holling that he's the managing part
6:46
Speaker 1: of Guardian Due Diligence, a boutique financial firm focused on
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Speaker 1: helping every day entrepreneurs or people like you who are
6:54
Speaker 1: listening want to change your life financially to confidently acquire
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Speaker 1: profitable small business conversations. Not you see something, We're gonna
7:02
Speaker 1: just dump you off into a business and you're gonna
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Speaker 1: make a miracle return out of it. He's talking about
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Speaker 1: profitable small businesses. Now, what I keep doing in this
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Speaker 1: conversation is I'm just a guy who's seen homes all
7:13
Speaker 1: my life. I drive out, I see it for sale sign,
7:17
Speaker 1: so I go, oh oh, I can go on Zillo,
7:20
Speaker 1: Nikked Telby. But in this zip code, they tell me
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Speaker 1: all all do comps? Now, how do I find out
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Speaker 1: what businesses are for sale?
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Speaker 2: Elliott Rashan, I feel like I might have paid you.
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Speaker 2: What a perfect question. So the zillo in my world
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Speaker 2: is called biz by sale. I call it the McDonald's
7:36
Speaker 2: are buying the business. It might not be the best
7:38
Speaker 2: burden you ever had, but you probably started there. So
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Speaker 2: you go to busbuy sale dot com and there are
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Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands of businesses for sale, each represented by
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Speaker 2: a broker, a business broker, and you can say, hey,
7:51
Speaker 2: I like this one here, I'm gonna send it lie
7:54
Speaker 2: information to the broker. I'd like to find out more
7:56
Speaker 2: about this. They will send you a non disclosure agreement
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Speaker 2: and then you get the package on the business. And
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Speaker 2: so it's not all that different. You just go to
8:03
Speaker 2: a different place to get the information.
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Speaker 1: So look at it, Rashon McDonald just say, I'm just
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Speaker 1: gonna throw all it down. I got maybe fifty thousand dollars.
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Speaker 1: Can I do anything with fifty thousand dollars? In the
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Speaker 1: conversation of Alan hap it with you, Elliott Hollom.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, you can go buy a million dollar business. You
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Speaker 2: can go find a manufacturing business off a fault Induster
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Speaker 2: or down in in East Lake or wherever in Alpharetta
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Speaker 2: that's doing a quarter million dollars a profit and you
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Speaker 2: can go put an offer in to buy that business
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Speaker 2: with your fifty thousand dollars. And here's the nice thing, Rashaan,
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Speaker 2: This ain't you going to get financing from some special
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Speaker 2: bank in New York? Uh huh? The SBA seven A
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Speaker 2: program is a bank is a program that any bank
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Speaker 2: on your block, the one you already banked with, can
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Speaker 2: work with and work with you to get. Meaning that
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Speaker 2: the closest bank to your house is the exact bank
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Speaker 2: you can go use to make this transaction happen. This
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Speaker 2: is not or the high falut folcus for everybody.
9:03
Speaker 1: What would you say will be a safe business to
9:06
Speaker 1: try to buy for a person who will not go
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Speaker 1: in and do any of the work. That's me? How
9:13
Speaker 1: does that sound to you? And how do you walk
9:15
Speaker 1: how do you walk me through the steps?
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Speaker 2: So you would want a business with contracts? You want
9:21
Speaker 2: a business like a like a property management company where
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Speaker 2: there's two to three year contracts, where it's a simple
9:27
Speaker 2: office where they're doing the simple maintenance grass cutting on
9:31
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of houses. People who are rented houses.
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Speaker 2: You already said you know a real estate a bits,
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Speaker 2: so this is a real estate business, but it's a business,
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Speaker 2: and so that would be a good one. Any businesses
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Speaker 2: with contracts digital marketing company sometimes have long term contracts,
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Speaker 2: some other service businesses. But what you want is both
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Speaker 2: the business with contracts for seine and one where there's
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Speaker 2: somebody in the business is probably not the owner who's
9:54
Speaker 2: like a number two who's ready to step up into
9:56
Speaker 2: the owner seat or not the owner seat, but the
9:58
Speaker 2: president's CEOC and they don't have the money or the
10:02
Speaker 2: interest to take all the risks you do that, but
10:04
Speaker 2: they have the skills and knowledge to run the business.
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Speaker 2: And basically you'd work with that person to execute the
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Speaker 2: transaction in the way where you wouldn't have to go running.
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Speaker 1: I'm talking to Elliott Holland now. When you submitted your
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Speaker 1: information to me for this interview, Elliott, your business title
10:19
Speaker 1: was chief deal closer.
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Speaker 2: That's right, that's right.
10:23
Speaker 1: What does that mean?
10:24
Speaker 2: I'm the chief deal closer?
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Speaker 3: Why?
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Speaker 2: Because I'm working week to week for hours to help
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Speaker 2: people get through the process, and so I'm the chief
10:31
Speaker 2: deal closer. That's what I'm doing in that business.
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Speaker 1: Let's talk about this masterclass. What is it exactly?
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Speaker 2: It is a way for you to not have to
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Speaker 2: go through all the hardships I had to go to
10:41
Speaker 2: to learn how to buy a business in a streamlined
10:45
Speaker 2: way with the person that's available online, so you don't
10:48
Speaker 2: have to go to this fancy place to leave your city.
10:50
Speaker 2: We do all the classes online, but it is essentially
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Speaker 2: most people wake up one day, like you said, I
10:57
Speaker 2: used to buying houses. I'm looking at stocks. I heard
11:00
Speaker 2: this thing about buying buying a company. Maybe I want
11:03
Speaker 2: to do that. But the thing is, there's not any
11:05
Speaker 2: schools for that. You can't just go downtown in your
11:08
Speaker 2: city and figure out how to do it. I have
11:10
Speaker 2: a class to help walk you through. I just got
11:12
Speaker 2: interested in the process, so I know what I'm doing.
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Speaker 2: So here's examples of how to get it done. And
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Speaker 2: then and I'm weekly one on ones. Hey, Elliott, I
11:21
Speaker 2: looked at these four deals. I have these three issues,
11:23
Speaker 2: these three things I need to figure out. We're going
11:25
Speaker 2: to talk through each one of those things one on one,
11:27
Speaker 2: so that by the time we go through six months
11:29
Speaker 2: of one on ones, it's likely you're going to have
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Speaker 2: a deal closed. And that's way quicker than twelve to
11:35
Speaker 2: eighteen months it takes most people to get their first
11:37
Speaker 2: deal done.
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Speaker 1: Now that that's important to have that whole process. Now,
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Speaker 1: what does your team look like? Are you a team
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Speaker 1: of one, Elliott?
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Speaker 2: No, I'm a team of ten. So the weekly one
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Speaker 2: on ones are me because you need somebody that has
11:51
Speaker 2: all the knowledge. Now, people like that doesn't scale. I'm
11:55
Speaker 2: not trying to create the world's biggest company. I'm trying
11:57
Speaker 2: to create the world's best at this specific thing, working
12:00
Speaker 2: one on one. I have accountants on my team. I
12:03
Speaker 2: have consulting on my team. I have people in the
12:05
Speaker 2: industry to do all the ad hoc stuff that's around
12:08
Speaker 2: the core business acquisition that are on my team. So
12:11
Speaker 2: we have the full list of people you need to
12:13
Speaker 2: get this done. I'm just the main person helping you.
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Speaker 1: I got to have my house in order in order
12:20
Speaker 1: to look at this opportunity. So, Elliott, what do I
12:25
Speaker 1: have to look like before I even step up. I
12:28
Speaker 1: might have fifty dollars dollars, but that doesn't mean that
12:31
Speaker 1: I should be giving it out because I don't have
12:33
Speaker 1: the tools to be able to maintain even I might
12:37
Speaker 1: cause that company of the clothes because they don't have
12:40
Speaker 1: my act together. So talk to me about Rashawn McDonald
12:43
Speaker 1: and what he has to have straight in order to
12:46
Speaker 1: participate in his business.
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Speaker 2: So the number one thing you have to have is
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Speaker 2: the time to go spend three to nine months looking
12:54
Speaker 2: for a business to buy. Here's why, Rashan. If you
12:58
Speaker 2: find it Beyonce of deals, the Michael Jackson of deals,
13:02
Speaker 2: you will find investors for that business. I guarantee it.
13:05
Speaker 2: And if you can't find them, when your deal is
13:06
Speaker 2: that good, come talk to me and I'll help you
13:08
Speaker 2: find them. So the number one thing is go find
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Speaker 2: a knockout amazing deal. Then I would say you don't
13:14
Speaker 2: need fifty thousand dollars because there's an infinite amount of
13:17
Speaker 2: investors that want to invest in good deals. You need
13:20
Speaker 2: to have a little bit, have a little ten thousand
13:23
Speaker 2: dollars in the bank, something borrow some get some from
13:26
Speaker 2: a friend. Right, need to have your credit house and order.
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Speaker 2: You cannot get that without having your credit house and order.
13:31
Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be the greatest in the world,
13:33
Speaker 2: but it can't be the worst. And you need to
13:36
Speaker 2: have your entrepreneurial chops. This is a process like a
13:40
Speaker 2: sales process. Where you're gonna have to get used to
13:42
Speaker 2: a lot of no's, a lot of wonkiness. Business brokers
13:45
Speaker 2: can be a pain in the buck. Sellers can be crazy.
13:48
Speaker 2: And so if you want to feel good every single
13:50
Speaker 2: day with the work that you did in the business
13:52
Speaker 2: buying acquisition process, that's not this. This is how to
13:55
Speaker 2: get rich, but you gotta be willing to take some punches.
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Speaker 3: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
14:02
Speaker 3: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
14:09
Speaker 3: Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald.
14:13
Speaker 1: I used Rashan McDonald's a exam as an exam. Do
14:17
Speaker 1: you have any other examples? Lead to a couple that
14:20
Speaker 1: can look to both of them different that you can
14:23
Speaker 1: show how they've come into your business format. Participate in
14:27
Speaker 1: your master class and this is the results of that.
14:30
Speaker 2: Sure, So Clinton townsend another more house grad. I helped
14:33
Speaker 2: him buy a manufacturing business in New York earlier this year,
14:38
Speaker 2: and so Clinton came in. He was interested in buying businesses.
14:41
Speaker 2: He had done some research, but he got into the
14:43
Speaker 2: process and he was having some issues with the financing
14:45
Speaker 2: piece and some issues with due diligence he used us
14:48
Speaker 2: for due diligence, and then during the financing piece we
14:51
Speaker 2: kind of helped coaching through some of those nuanced things
14:53
Speaker 2: that banks can do to try to stumble you up
14:56
Speaker 2: and not give you the money. And we pushed through
14:58
Speaker 2: and now use the proud owner manufacturing business and he's
15:01
Speaker 2: looking to buy more. I'll tell you another. So there
15:05
Speaker 2: was a Lucas Phillips bought a automotive after parts manufacturing
15:11
Speaker 2: business in Jersey. He was twenty four when he bought
15:14
Speaker 2: the business. Young, so you don't have to be old
15:17
Speaker 2: with a whole bunch of seasons. He was twenty four
15:20
Speaker 2: he bought the business. He had the idea, he had
15:24
Speaker 2: some sort of experience with investing, his family had some
15:27
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie about that. But he needed due diligence,
15:30
Speaker 2: so he used us for that. But he also needed
15:33
Speaker 2: discretion help withshan So with the house, you can go
15:35
Speaker 2: get an appraisal on somebody will tell you what the
15:37
Speaker 2: value is. And the small business, a lot of that
15:39
Speaker 2: work you have to do yourself. And so he helped
15:41
Speaker 2: him get comfortable with the decision he was making to
15:44
Speaker 2: make that purchase. And now he's made two or three
15:47
Speaker 2: add on purchases. The business is four or five times
15:49
Speaker 2: bigger than it was when he bought it, and he's
15:51
Speaker 2: doing really well. And I could tell you about a
15:53
Speaker 2: sixty year old person that I helped buy a business
15:55
Speaker 2: last year, just to give you twenty four to sixty.
15:58
Speaker 2: It's the age.
15:59
Speaker 1: Range all over, which I like because I always tell
16:02
Speaker 1: people on this show, don't allow age to be an
16:04
Speaker 1: ex qus to pursue your dreams. So let's hear that
16:07
Speaker 1: sixty year old story. Because I let people stop at forty,
16:10
Speaker 1: stop at fifty sixty, they try to cheek out retirement.
16:14
Speaker 1: I'll tell you, no, live your dream and don't let
16:17
Speaker 1: nobody tell you what you can't do. Lit's hear that
16:19
Speaker 1: sixty year old story.
16:21
Speaker 2: Yeah. So Ed found me through my YouTube channel crazy Enough,
16:24
Speaker 2: and he came to me and said, hey, look, Elliott,
16:26
Speaker 2: I had two businesses before, and I had a health
16:29
Speaker 2: situation that made me put those two businesses down. Now
16:32
Speaker 2: I've gotten past the health Scareed, and I want to
16:34
Speaker 2: get back in the game. And now I'm buying versus
16:36
Speaker 2: building and I need your help. So we walked through
16:39
Speaker 2: three different acquisition attempts that he was going through, and
16:43
Speaker 2: the best one was a manufacturing company in Kentucky, So
16:47
Speaker 2: we helped him think about how to do it. We
16:49
Speaker 2: actually helped him get his team together. He had some
16:51
Speaker 2: members on his team that really needed to get out
16:53
Speaker 2: of there on the first one. That we got some
16:56
Speaker 2: better people in the mix on the second, and we
16:58
Speaker 2: were able to get him the confidence from financial due
17:00
Speaker 2: diligence perspective. Again, a business owner does not make you
17:04
Speaker 2: a forensic accountant. We are forensic accountants. We are like
17:07
Speaker 2: detectives for numbers. So he gave the comfort that the
17:09
Speaker 2: business was making the money that they said it was making.
17:13
Speaker 2: He closed that deal, and now we're Sean. I'm working
17:15
Speaker 2: on two more deals for him right now. So he's
17:18
Speaker 2: not just not doing this.
17:19
Speaker 1: Man's going for it, which I love because all deals
17:22
Speaker 1: are like good deals.
17:23
Speaker 2: That's right.
17:24
Speaker 1: So I come to you is what is a bad
17:28
Speaker 1: deal in how the spot won before is two date before.
17:31
Speaker 2: The easiest way is that people won't let you look
17:33
Speaker 2: at the books. So they wanted to look at the
17:34
Speaker 2: books in two seconds. Wow, So my books are good,
17:38
Speaker 2: you can look at them forever, Rashan, because I know
17:41
Speaker 2: they're solid. Right, if my car is good, you can
17:43
Speaker 2: take it to whatever mechanic you got. But if my
17:46
Speaker 2: business on my car is junk, no, no, no, man,
17:49
Speaker 2: we're not taking off a lot. Got to make a
17:50
Speaker 2: deal here. That's the first sign. The second sign is
17:54
Speaker 2: a lot of people will mask terrible financials with a
17:58
Speaker 2: one time situation, or we just don't overspend on financing accounting,
18:04
Speaker 2: and just make sure that if you're not the kind
18:06
Speaker 2: of person that understands how to look at instead of
18:08
Speaker 2: small company messing financial books, you get somebody like myself,
18:12
Speaker 2: or there are others to do what's called a quality
18:15
Speaker 2: of earnings, which is essentially a mini audit on a
18:17
Speaker 2: private business ahead of buying it, so you don't get had.
18:21
Speaker 2: Because there's a lot of bad examples of people getting
18:23
Speaker 2: in a lot of trouble, almost all of them did
18:26
Speaker 2: not do financial diligence.
18:28
Speaker 1: You know, hey, I made mistakes to laed. You know,
18:31
Speaker 1: we want to pray, we want to hope, we want
18:36
Speaker 1: to they wouldn't they look like nice people?
18:39
Speaker 2: That's right.
18:40
Speaker 1: I've never been played in my life before. Why would
18:43
Speaker 1: I get played now?
18:44
Speaker 2: That's right? Now we're talking one.
18:46
Speaker 1: Thing I know. Once you signed that contract, brother.
18:50
Speaker 2: That's it.
18:50
Speaker 1: You'll own the hook. That's it, and that's key. Just
18:54
Speaker 1: like once you drive that car off that lot, that's
18:57
Speaker 1: your car.
18:58
Speaker 2: That's your car.
18:59
Speaker 1: That's your car.
19:00
Speaker 2: That's just your car. And let me tell you something else.
19:02
Speaker 2: So I mentioned earlier that a business is valued at
19:05
Speaker 2: four times proper plus or minds. So here's the thing.
19:08
Speaker 2: If I'm a seller, for every dollar of bogus profit
19:12
Speaker 2: that I convince you as in there as I don't
19:14
Speaker 2: get one dollar for it, I get four. You know
19:18
Speaker 2: how motivated even a reasonable person is to lie in
19:21
Speaker 2: that scenario.
19:22
Speaker 1: Right right right, especially when they know the truth.
19:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they know it better than you.
19:28
Speaker 1: So you know, like I said, you know the homeowners,
19:31
Speaker 1: they are supposed to get an inspected to respect the
19:35
Speaker 1: home before you buy the home. Same situation there, You
19:40
Speaker 1: bring an account it, you bring your legal team in.
19:43
Speaker 1: You do inspect the background, the history. So don't assume
19:47
Speaker 1: just because they're nice people, or they wouldn't do that.
19:50
Speaker 1: They don't look like those type of people. See the books.
19:54
Speaker 1: See the history of the books, not the current history.
19:57
Speaker 1: You know, find out why the books went down. You know,
20:00
Speaker 1: like you might be buying a descending business. You know,
20:04
Speaker 1: it might be profitably, we'd but what was it four
20:07
Speaker 1: years ago? What was that number four years ago was it?
20:10
Speaker 1: What was the staff, what was the atmosphere, what was
20:12
Speaker 1: the community? I always tell people I buy a home,
20:15
Speaker 1: I drive in the neighborhood in the morning, in the afternoon,
20:18
Speaker 1: late at night, I just sit on the streets sometimes
20:21
Speaker 1: just to see, yep, what kind of traffic floor is
20:24
Speaker 1: going back? That's what you have to do. That's what
20:27
Speaker 1: he's talking about. Due diligence.
20:29
Speaker 2: Due diligence.
20:30
Speaker 1: Yes, and that's important that I say it, And it
20:33
Speaker 1: is coming from an expert, because you're a subject matter expert.
20:36
Speaker 1: I'm just a good storyteller and saying that's due diligence.
20:39
Speaker 2: So the same thing. You might want to do the
20:41
Speaker 2: same thing in the business. So there's the accounting stuff
20:43
Speaker 2: that I'm going to help you do. But you may
20:45
Speaker 2: want to sit so a lot of sellers can tell
20:47
Speaker 2: you all I only spend ten hours in the business
20:50
Speaker 2: a week. Well maybe you want to sit out there
20:52
Speaker 2: for two or three days and see if they're not
20:54
Speaker 2: spending sixty hours in the business each week.
20:57
Speaker 1: Wow, elliot, how could we reach you by friend?
21:00
Speaker 2: So Guardian due diligence dot com The business buyingmasterclass dot
21:05
Speaker 2: com and then search Elliott Holland YouTube. That's my main
21:08
Speaker 2: social channel. I've got over three hundred amazing videos to
21:11
Speaker 2: coach you and talk you through all of this. Those
21:13
Speaker 2: are the best places to findment.
21:14
Speaker 1: Well, let's continue talking here because one of the terms
21:17
Speaker 1: out here all the time, the big no money down
21:21
Speaker 1: oooh with that business blind myth. Talk to me, brother,
21:24
Speaker 1: is that true? No money down?
21:27
Speaker 2: No, it ain't true. It's like a unicorn, you know,
21:30
Speaker 2: with skittles coming out the back. Now now, does it
21:34
Speaker 2: occasionally happen on some high hill with the rainbow going
21:37
Speaker 2: over it and Jesus preaching on top every once in
21:40
Speaker 2: a while, But typically I'm not selling my profitable business
21:43
Speaker 2: for no money down. And so here's what I tell you.
21:46
Speaker 2: I had a business partner that like no money down deals,
21:49
Speaker 2: and I spent several years trying to figure that out.
21:51
Speaker 2: I lost. You will lose. The thing is you can
21:55
Speaker 2: find one if you have ten times the amount of
21:58
Speaker 2: months that you probably have to actually figure it out.
22:01
Speaker 2: If you're looking to do this in six to twelve months,
22:04
Speaker 2: figure out how to either save the ten percent down,
22:08
Speaker 2: get it from other people, talk to anybody in the industry.
22:11
Speaker 2: There's plenty of third party investors that love these deals.
22:14
Speaker 2: Get ten percent down, ninety percent leverage, just like a house,
22:19
Speaker 2: and go get in the driver's seat again. If you
22:21
Speaker 2: buy a business for ten percent down and pay off
22:24
Speaker 2: the debt ten x your money. Opportunities like that don't
22:27
Speaker 2: come for nothing. You got to put a little skin
22:29
Speaker 2: in the game.
22:30
Speaker 1: Now, know you're based here in Atlanta, but I've been
22:32
Speaker 1: here in New York, I've been here in other states.
22:35
Speaker 1: How does that work for you? Who exactly am I
22:38
Speaker 1: talking to l Elliot Hollam.
22:41
Speaker 2: You're talking to a brother from anaver to live twenty
22:43
Speaker 2: years in Atlanta, and we do business online. So I
22:47
Speaker 2: have clients all across the states. I have some in Europe,
22:50
Speaker 2: I have some in North Africa, and I go to
22:53
Speaker 2: conferences so you can see me in person. So and
22:56
Speaker 2: I'm easy to catch. My email or my phone number
22:58
Speaker 2: on the bottom of my website, so I'm not not
23:01
Speaker 2: hard to catch, just the regular dude helping people buy
23:03
Speaker 2: businesses because.
23:04
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just trying to connect the dodds with
23:07
Speaker 1: you know, with the world I know, which is real estate,
23:10
Speaker 1: home ownership. Okay, And it sounds that they have restricted
23:14
Speaker 1: areas of opportunity. This is where you're supposed to do
23:17
Speaker 1: business in this state. This is where you've been licensed.
23:20
Speaker 1: Now you're telling me, is it the wild wild West
23:23
Speaker 1: out there in the business buying world?
23:26
Speaker 2: Yes, but it's also the safe, safe West. So the
23:29
Speaker 2: nice thing about finances is that there's only two accounting
23:33
Speaker 2: standards in the whole world. There's GAP this US and
23:37
Speaker 2: this IFRS. That's the rest of the world. Once you
23:39
Speaker 2: understand those two, or once I understood those two, I
23:43
Speaker 2: can do deals anywhere in the world where somebody on
23:45
Speaker 2: the team speaks English, because the numbers are the numbers.
23:48
Speaker 2: So what I tell you is that one of the
23:50
Speaker 2: great things about today's world is you don't I don't
23:53
Speaker 2: have to be located where the business is. Your lawyer
23:55
Speaker 2: doesn't have to be and when you start, you don't
23:58
Speaker 2: have to be a lot of the stuff you can
23:59
Speaker 2: get remotely. Now, you still want to go drive around
24:02
Speaker 2: the business once or trice with Sean, like you said,
24:04
Speaker 2: but that doesn't mean you have to live there before
24:06
Speaker 2: you start your process.
24:08
Speaker 1: Well, you know the whole thing about business. You know,
24:10
Speaker 1: first of all, this is an educational conversation for me,
24:13
Speaker 1: and I have to be honest with you. I have
24:16
Speaker 1: no idea, I have no clue. I did an expert,
24:21
Speaker 1: and this is what this conversation is. I've had several
24:24
Speaker 1: people on my show who've talked about buying businesses, but
24:28
Speaker 1: never at the level of confort that you're talking. And
24:32
Speaker 1: I want to go back to you know, see no evil, ill,
24:36
Speaker 1: no evil. Your parents did this for a living. How
24:39
Speaker 1: did they influence you and do you go to them
24:42
Speaker 1: for mentorship, advice or why? How much do they play
24:45
Speaker 1: in your life today? Sir?
24:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely so. I tell people I don't have white privilege,
24:51
Speaker 2: but I have two professional entrepreneurial parents privilege, and that's
24:54
Speaker 2: a big step up. So I knew how business ownership
24:57
Speaker 2: looked when I was young. I still talked my mom
25:02
Speaker 2: every week about stuff's going on in my business, and
25:04
Speaker 2: she can give me advice. I lost my father at fourteen,
25:07
Speaker 2: so unfortunately he's not around anymore, at least on this planet.
25:10
Speaker 2: But I think a lot of what influences me is
25:12
Speaker 2: I knew it was possible, not just for my parents,
25:15
Speaker 2: but in Michigan at a lot like Atlanta, there's a
25:19
Speaker 2: long legacy of black business ownership of very successful businesses
25:22
Speaker 2: at the forefront of all these industries. And so I
25:25
Speaker 2: just knew that I came from that claw, and I
25:29
Speaker 2: wasn't scared to go try my hand at.
25:31
Speaker 1: It now and closing the hair, Why did Elliott Holland
25:36
Speaker 1: lead big money to empower first time owners?
25:40
Speaker 2: Because people need an on REMP when you don't grow
25:43
Speaker 2: up with a silver spoon in your mouth saying hey,
25:46
Speaker 2: just go to a fancy Ivy League school and then
25:47
Speaker 2: all these things will fall into your player. Just go
25:49
Speaker 2: work on Wall Street and everybody, if there's investing that
25:52
Speaker 2: ain't gonna work for us. Right, I'm talking to my
25:55
Speaker 2: HBCU folks. I'm talking with folks that might not have
25:57
Speaker 2: gone to college. I didn't say you need to go
25:58
Speaker 2: to college to do this. I'm talking to everyday folks.
26:01
Speaker 2: And for me, it ain't all that exciting to help
26:05
Speaker 2: rich people get richer, you know, to help everyday people
26:08
Speaker 2: get rich. Now, that gets me up out of bed
26:10
Speaker 2: every moere and that gets me taking like nine calls
26:12
Speaker 2: early running calls. It gets me doing podcasts. So you
26:15
Speaker 2: can probably see it in my eyes. This matters to
26:17
Speaker 2: me a whole lot more. So forget the money on
26:19
Speaker 2: that absolute basis, let me do the work that needs
26:22
Speaker 2: to be done just like my parents did.
26:24
Speaker 1: Well know again, as we close out, let us know
26:27
Speaker 1: how to reach out to your Elert Holland.
26:29
Speaker 2: Guardian Due Diligence dot com, the Business Buyingmasterclass dot com,
26:33
Speaker 2: and the search Elliott Holland and YouTube that's my main
26:36
Speaker 2: social and you'll find me there with over three hundred videos.
26:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, Managing partner of Guardian Due Diligence, a boutique financial
26:43
Speaker 1: firm focus on helping everyday entrepreneurs are people confidently acquire
26:48
Speaker 1: profitable small businesses. But again caveat, you must have the
26:53
Speaker 1: time and you must have your act together. Just don't
26:56
Speaker 1: jump out that this is not buy the house. You're
26:59
Speaker 1: not flipping on home. You flipping employees, you flip for
27:03
Speaker 1: a lifestyle, you flipping a community. And so as a
27:07
Speaker 1: lot goes into these business decisions that you want to
27:10
Speaker 1: bring it to your life. But if you make the
27:12
Speaker 1: right decision, like Elliott said, it can be a home
27:15
Speaker 1: run not only for you, but create a legacy for
27:17
Speaker 1: your family. Elliott Holland, thank you for coming on Money
27:20
Speaker 1: Making Conversation Masterclass.
27:21
Speaker 2: For God, I thank you cool.
27:25
Speaker 1: This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
27:28
Speaker 1: posted by me Rushaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
27:31
Speaker 1: on the show today and thank you our listening to
27:34
Speaker 1: the audience now. If you want to listen to any
27:36
Speaker 1: episode I want to be a guest on the show,
27:38
Speaker 1: visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money
27:43
Speaker 1: Making Conversation. Join us next week and remember to always
27:46
Speaker 1: leave with your gifts. Keep winning.