The Step-By-Step Guide To Buying A Profitable Business – Matt Uhler

 

Are you ready to start buying businesses and building your own private equity portfolio? In this episode, business broker and entrepreneur Matt Uhler shares his journey from starting a janitorial business at seventeen to owning and brokering hundreds of successful ventures. Matt explains the critical importance of transferable industry experience, the mechanics of using Small Business Administration (SBA) loans, and why the “silver tsunami” of retiring baby boomers is creating a unique landscape for new acquisitions. Discover the essential recipes for assessing business value and managing risk in an ever-shifting economic market. Whether you’re a W-2 employee looking to transition into ownership or a seasoned investor, Matt’s decades of hands-on experience offer a masterclass in navigating the complex world of business acquisitions.

Get in touch with Matt Uhler:
Website: https://MattUhler.com
AmpedSuccess Website: AmpedSuccess.com
AmpedSuccess Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ampedsuccess
AmpedSuccess YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AmpedSuccess

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Watch the episode here

 

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Important Links

• Matt Uhler
• Amped Success
• Amped Success on Instagram
• Amped Success on YouTube
• What’s Your Deal? on Spotify
• BizBuySell
• Rich Dad Poor Dad
• Think and Grow Rich

 

About Matt Uhler

Matt Uhler is far from a typical business broker and acquisition strategist. Over the course of his 27-year career, he has evaluated more than 2,500 businesses, completed over 800 transactions, and successfully owned and operated more than 35 businesses across multiple industries.

Matt’s journey was not without its challenges. In fact, he attributes much of his expertise to the early setbacks he faced, where he learned firsthand the pitfalls that derail many entrepreneurs. What set him apart, however, was his ability to turn those experiences into powerful lessons. This mindset, combined with his focus on strategic partnerships and creative deal structures, has allowed him to help countless clients build wealth through small business acquisitions.

Matt is founder of Amped Success, a company dedicated to educating and empowering entrepreneurs, business owners, and investors with the tools they need to confidently navigate acquisitions. He is also the creator of the Buyer’s Acquisition Formula, a proven framework that is designed to reduce risk and maximize opportunities for long-term success. 27 Years Experience Over 35 Businesses Owned Over 800 Deals Completed Over 2,500 Deals Evaluated $350+ Million Transactions Funded

 

The Step-By-Step Guide To Buying A Profitable Business – Matt Uhler

Thank you, everyone, for being here. I’m excited about the show. As you see, I am alone. We have been running this show for the past seven years. It is the first time I am doing the show on my own without my co-host, Ava Benesocky. She is right there in the picture over there. We have to get the show. The show cannot stop, right? The show must go on as they say, as the classic saying goes. Ava is busy with a couple of live deals that we have. A multifamily value-add acquisition in Dallas and a development deal in San Antonio, Texas.

She is busy with teams trying to raise the capital on that deal. She will not be joining me. We have a great show. I’m excited about it. Matt Uhler is on the show, and I have been on his show, energetic, great attitude. He is doing a very interesting space. He is in a very interesting space, has some similarities in the space we are in, which is real estate private equity. He is in the private equity space, buying businesses. I will bring in Matt, and we will start the conversation. Matt, how are you doing?

Doing great, August. Thank you very much for having me.

I was preparing for the show. I was watching another show that you were on. I know what your age is, man. You do not look your age. You’re looking great. The skin looks good. The energy is there. Full head of hair. Your teeth are looking nice, white and perfect. What is your secret there, man, before we get into the good stuff?

I appreciate that. It is funny that my age snuck up on me. For the audience, I am 55. I do not know where it came from. I have been trying to live healthy. A large part of that actually was driven by being a business owner. I have a fair amount of stress, so I try to eat healthy. I work out every day if possible and walk and all of that. It is an effort.

 

 

That is great. Are you not on any special regimen as far as special diets, or are you doing biohacking as known these days? Just living a healthy life, exercising every day, keeping the stress down.

That is really it. If you are curious, I stopped drinking alcohol long before I was even the legal age to drink alcohol. I drank enough of it before seventeen to make up for a lifetime. I just try to eliminate stuff that does not contribute to lifelong well-being. I guess that’s the long and short of it.

That is a giveaway right there as far as not drinking alcohol. I quit drinking. It has been 16 or 17 years now. The best decision of my life. Next to other great decisions of being a father, getting married, and starting my business. Not drinking when it comes to self-preservation, that is probably the best decision I ever made. That is great. Let us get into our conversation. The business you are in is buying businesses, acquiring businesses. Is it done through, or do you raise capital to buy businesses in the world you are in? Is it just mainly people’s own capital when they buy businesses?

Really both. I work as a broker. I help people buy, sell, and finance businesses. In a lot of those, people are bringing their own capital and seeking typically Small Business Administration funds to fund the deal. When I am participating in the transaction, sometimes there is a small SBA loan and/or private equity. In most of those transactions, there is some element of individual funds and/or private equity funds.

Got it. We will get into all the details and the mechanics of how that is done. Tell us a bit about, prior to the show, we were chatting a bit. I have an understanding. I would like the audience to know as well. How did you get involved in the world of buying businesses? Did you become a business owner first? Did you become a business broker first? Now you do all of it. You buy businesses, you broker businesses, and you help others be able to buy businesses as well. How did this all come about? I would love to hear your journey quickly.

From Janitor To Business Owner: A Decade Of Growth

I started out by starting a business at seventeen years old. For those of you who have tried to start a business, it is a tall order. I started it at seventeen. It was a very, what you would consider to be, a simple business. It was a janitorial business. I built up to 40 employees and covered two states, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, with the services we provided, and then sold it. I sold it in two parts. I was introduced to this process of buying and selling businesses.

 

When did you sell it?

Twenty-six when I sold it.

It was a good, almost ten-year run for that business.

Just about ten years, and the business was running me. I was not running it. I learned a whole lot about it. That is part of the reason I wanted to exit it. It was a successful exit for me and more money than I had imagined I could accumulate in one place at one time. I was also unemployed once I sold it. That is when I transitioned into becoming a business broker. I have been brokering deals for people for 28 years now. I have been a business owner buying and participating in those for 20 of the 28 years. I have owned 40 businesses in that time and still have an ownership interest in 20.

Now, touching on the brokerage side, a lot of listeners and viewers have an understanding of how brokerage works when it comes to real estate. You can either be the listing broker, be the buyer’s agent, or you can do both. Realtors want to be the listing agent. You want to be a listing agent of really expensive real estate so you can get that commission. I am guessing it is the same thing in the business brokerage world. You want to be able to get those listings of tens of millions of dollars of business that are for sale, is it fair to say?

Yes, there is a distinction between Main Street businesses and mid-market businesses. Main Street businesses are most of what I have sold. I will say that those are, call them, ten million in revenue or less. That would be considered Main Street. What you said is absolutely the case. A couple of weeks ago, I listed a great business, and we had over 50 prospective buyers contact us within the first two days because it was priced right. Everything was dialed in and ready to go. There is far more buyer demand than there is high-quality inventory in my world.

Spending a little bit more time on the broker side, I think it would be great to get a crash course on how this works. It is important to understand the broker side because of the majority. I would say, if I had to guess, similar to real estate, the majority of businesses are sold through the broker. It is not private. This idea of private and off-market, similar to real estate, is probably somewhat rare. Brokers are involved in it.

It really is. It is much rarer than you would see in residential real estate transactions because the complexity is unique and most people have never done it before. I would say many times a year we have somebody contact us who already has the buyer, and they just cannot get the deal done. A lot of times they have already tried, and they could not get the financing, or they could not figure out the structure. If you are going to purchase a business, having a qualified business broker or coach is really beneficial because for a lot of people, it is one of the biggest financial decisions they make in their life. If it goes wrong, it can be devastating.

 

 

How about the platform? I know that MLS is the platform that real estate gets listed on, at least residential real estate. Not commercial. Commercial is a different model. How about businesses? Is there a platform similar to MLS?

Business Brokerage Vs. Real Estate: Understanding The Market

There is not a multiple listing service. Each broker decides whether they want to cooperate with other brokers or not, and whether they want to advertise their listings or not. There are websites for business opportunities, which would be like BizBuySell.com and Merger Network. There are those platforms. The rules are not set in stone for how you work with them, unlike residential real estate. It is different in that way as well.

Got it. Similar to commercial real estate, where the broker has a network, the deal gets promoted to that network and so on. It is not a platform per se that it goes on. There are some platforms similar to this as well in commercial real estate where deals get posted. Let us talk about this again, following on this theme of similarity between commercial real estate and businesses. In real estate, you have a market or location factor.

If you are an investment firm and an investor or even a broker, there is a market that you are focused on and an asset type that you are focused on. You are a multifamily broker or your group, like CPI, which acquires multifamily deals in Texas and Florida. Those are your markets. Those are the asset classes. As a business broker, is there a market that you are focused on, and is there an industry that you are focused on, or are you just agnostic? No matter what, you will buy and sell it?

There are specialists. People looking out there, they will find brokerage firms that specialize in maybe manufacturing or convenience stores or restaurants. I am a generalist in the sense that I have sold about every business you can imagine. In my career, I have sold 800 businesses, so just about everything you can imagine. I do not sell distressed businesses. For me, they need to demonstrate that they can afford to pay for themselves and support the new owner. Otherwise, it is something I do not participate in.

How about the market?

As far as the market goes, I am licensed in Arizona, so I can consult with people outside of Arizona and do that to help them with their transactions. What most people will find is if they are looking for a business in Texas, they are going to talk to a broker in Texas. If they are going to the states generally, what are the boundaries for where business brokers operate?

Great. Now we have a good foundation of how the broker side of the business works. In this day, I am guessing since 2013 when the Jobs Act came out, and the process of raising capital got simpler, I would not call it retail, but the smaller investors got involved in the real estate space when it came to syndication, made that process a lot easier to raise capital and put deals together. I am guessing that also was somewhat rocket fuel for the world of acquiring businesses or private equity on a smaller scale.

Talk to us about that, particularly when it comes to raising capital to buy a business. Is that common in your space? Do you see that normally? I personally have been on the receiving side, people saying that there is an HVAC business that we are syndicating or there is a plumbing business that is being syndicated, or there is a paving company that somebody was syndicating, raising capital. Maybe because I am in this space, I hear this a lot. Do you see that normally as far as raising capital and for purchasing businesses?

The Power Of SBA Financing For Business Acquisitions

Yes, so much more in mid-market transactions. Transactions where their revenue is 10 million to 50 or 100 million is when you would typically see that syndication aspect. Now, I have done that, and a lot of my partnerships are designed that way when it comes to Main Street businesses. About 70% of the transactions I help facilitate are financed through the Small Business Administration. That is a much, much simpler process than a syndication. For most people who are going to be working in the business day in and day out, we help them obtain an SBA loan to complete the financing. That can be done in 60 to 90 days, as opposed to where syndications can take quite some time to piece together.

You have got to have the database. You have got to have connections with investors to know, like, and trust you to come and want to write you a $100,000 check. The moment that you say that, I right away guess that SBA. Is it SBA?

Yes.

SBA loans go fairly high in loan-to-value because it eliminates the need for, on commercial real estate, as investors, we need to come up with at least 30% of the purchase price plus closing costs, plus any capital expenditures, plus other costs and fees that we are raising. We are raising not only 30% of the purchase price, but also another 20% or 30% in those costs that are needed. If you are buying a $10 million deal, we need to have $3 million to close, but we need approximately another $3 million for renovation.

These are totally hypothetical numbers I am throwing out there, ballpark numbers. I am guessing that when you utilize an SBA loan, the LTV goes a bit higher because if purchases were in need of this big sum, there was a need to go and probably raise capital. Maybe that is how I am totally guessing.

You are right. With an SBA loan, there are some caveats. I will not go into the weeds there. The bare minimum that people should anticipate is a ten percent injection. They need ten percent of the project cost in down payment funds. The reason I used project cost instead of purchase price is that project cost takes into consideration operating capital, which the lender will lend you as long as the deal can support it. Those kinds of things can get built in, even closing costs.

In a transaction like that, ten percent down is the bare minimum. I usually tell people to anticipate twelve percent. You can imagine, August, that a lot of people, if they are looking at a $2 million transaction, that is a couple hundred thousand that they need to have available, 250, 300, with post-closing liquidity, and so it is much more obtainable for the masses as opposed to what might be the case with $3 million on a $10 million deal.

Interesting, great. How about valuations when you are going? I know the term in commercial real estate is BOV, broker opinion of value, when it comes to a property. You are going in, looking at a business. What does that process look like? You are assessing what the business is. A lot of people hear EBITDA. Earnings before taxes, or something, I believe it stands for. Talk to us about the assessment you make or what a business is worth. How are these businesses assessed? We also have cap rates in the commercial real estate space. You guys have EBITDA. Talk to us about that. How you assess businesses and how these businesses are valued really through their income and other means.

The Art Of Valuation: Multiples And Discretionary Earnings

That is honestly one of the tallest tasks because if it is not evaluated correctly, then it creates all kinds of problems downstream. The valuation of a business has to do with it being an art and a science, like so many things, but the science is math. How much can the business afford to pay for itself and be available to support a new owner? When it comes to the art, it has to do with whether the owner is working twenty hours a week or are they working 80 hours a week.

The valuation of a business has to do with it being an art and a science. Share on X

Do they have three family members working in the business, or is there a key person that just left, or all of these factors, they just had to relocate to a new facility. Those are things that, when it comes to the artistic valuation of a business, can matter. They either decrease value or increase value. If you were to think similar to the world you are in with multifamily, if I am looking to sell a business and one just like it opened right nearby, that exposes a competitive threat that was not there before.

Same thing with a commercial, with a multifamily building. If there is a new apartment complex opening right near one you are purchasing, it might give you pause. The valuation is key, and it is where experience comes in. It is very hard to say that it is just that you apply a cap rate. That is a factor, but all of the other unknowns with an operating business are where it gets tricky.

Leaving those aside, when you go in and you are trying to appraise what a business is worth so you guys can come up with a price to list the property at and advertise it. How is that determined? Taking the key man out of it, taking those other variables, looking at what the revenues are of the business. How is that determined?

If you wanted to simplify it, what people would find is that it is typically a multiple of discretionary earnings or EBITDA. All of those terms have to do with what the bottom line is. The bottom line for a new owner is not likely to be the net income. It is likely to be some combination of personal owner benefits and all of those things that get tied into it.

Multiple is basically the income that property produces on an annual basis times about 5 or 7, depending on the business, right?

Yes. Actually closer to 2 to 3 times. In your world, I know you are looking at cap rates, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. In our world, we are looking at cap rates typically 20, 30, 40. When you get into the mid-market, you might see 5 multiples and 6 multiples in certain niches. Most Main Street businesses are going to sell for 2 to 3 times the discretionary earnings. If it generates $200,000 a year for the current owner in discretionary earnings, it is going to sell for two to three times that.

Discretionary earnings is net to them, or is that before taxes?

Discretionary earnings is exactly what the word says. It is the discretionary earnings of the owner. As an example, the net income on a business owner’s tax return is generally driven down for tax purposes. However, most business owners are writing off everything they can to drive that net income down. Let us just take a business I own. If I have a net income of a hundred thousand, but then I have a home office that I charge myself 50,000 a year for, and then I have a leased vehicle that my wife drives.

That is, say, another 50,000. My discretionary earnings are actually 200. I have chosen to spend 50 on a home office and 50 on a car, and then the hundred in the net income. When a buyer buys that business, my car and my home office go away. Those expenses fall to the bottom line, which is where the term discretionary earnings or EBITDA comes in. EBITDA is usually mid-market.

The businesses you are involved in will pay for themselves as long as those creative tax savings are not implemented. A business should pay for itself in three years.

 

 

I am going to say again, generalization, but yes.

That is great. Looking at that coming in for somebody who has a W-2 or somebody who has a small business looking to purchase a bigger business to be able to pay off a business that you bought that you got a 90% LTV loan from the government. That is a great proposition that stimulates a lot of movement in the business buying and selling world, I am guessing.

That is why I have used that for my retirement. That is why I invest in them. I have built a mutual fund of small privately held businesses exactly like we are describing because the returns are so great. As long as the business is operating, the returns are great. I would say the primary people who contact me are either W-2 workers who want to leave their business. They want to leave their job and work for themselves. It is exactly that. Most of them have a significant increase in their income. Plus they get to own the business, and they are building an asset that is saleable as opposed to working for somebody else.

Let us spend some time there because I know you also run a coaching program where you coach individuals to buy businesses. Probably somebody who has been doing it since they were seventeen and looks this good at 55 is a guy you want to work with. Talk to me about a journey that somebody comes in. You just touched on it a bit. If it is a W-2 worker, you come in, and they want to leave their work. They want to run a business. Talk to me about what those check boxes are that you are looking to tick. Is it about their current net worth? Is it about their liquidity? Is it really about their age, about what their goals are? Talk to me about when somebody comes in. What does that first call look like with you?

The Truth About Absentee Ownership And “Boots On The Ground”

It is really fairly simple. It is a lot. I am going to say it is different from what people hear on social media most often. What I am looking for is that when I talk with the buyer, A, they need to have good credit. They need to demonstrate financial responsibility. They need to have some down payment funds, injection. That can be home equity, can be gift funds, can be retirement funds. There are lots of ways to do that. The key piece that leads to success.

There are two of them. One is transferable or direct industry experience. Now, somebody comes into my office, and they have worked in a restaurant their whole life, and they want to buy an HVAC company. That becomes way riskier than them buying a restaurant, or something where they have got transferable industry experience. The next is proximity. This is one of the biggest myths that is out there regarding social media.

You buy a business in New Jersey, you can live in California, whatever, you run it, absentee. We could go down that road if you want. I have owned lots of them. I can tell you that it does not work well for very long, or forever. The key employee leaves or something. When I am helping people find a business to buy, it being close enough that they can manage it is important. The idea that a business will run itself or somebody else will run it for you forever and just make you money is not what I have experienced at the Main Street level.

 

I was on a call recently with Dunkin’ Donuts, which is trying to break into Canada with a thousand locations they are looking to build. I saw their advertisement. I got on a call with them, and I explained to them as far as the capital needed for one of these locations. I gave them a reason why I want to do it. I want to have some extra cash coming in outside of the real estate world. I do not have the time to spend at all in their business.

I said, “Can I bring like a key individual, like a friend of mine who maybe has a W-2 who wants to run the business for me and I will be the capital guy?” They said, “Yeah, absolutely. You can do that.” Have you seen that model where somebody like me comes to you and says, “I want to buy a business because I want to have $20,000 of monthly income, but I have a friend of mine who is going to manage the whole thing for me, and he is going to be the manager of this business.” Do you see that ever happening? That type of setup?

Yes, that is what I have done with my own portfolio. In my case, it is usually I am partnering with that person. The person who is going to be what I call boots on the ground and run day-to-day has got an equitable interest. When I have tried to do it with employees, it may work for a while, but typically that employee wants to leave or do something else or whatever. The owner of the business can be in a real pinch, especially if they do not have transferable industry experience. I’m going to dive into this just for a second.

I got a call not too long ago from a guy in New Jersey who wanted to buy an HVAC company in Arizona. He said, “I’ll hire a manager to run it.” I said, “Okay.” He’s in the IT business right now. He does not know anything about HVAC other than how to turn it on and off. Nothing beyond that. I said, “If that key employee quits, what are you going to do?” He goes, “I’ll hire another one.” I said, “How do you know how to interview the person who’s going to be running your million-dollar asset?” “I guess I would ask them important questions.”

“Are you going to know if they’re bidding jobs correctly?” You can imagine where this conversation could go, where somebody could get themselves in real trouble without transferable industry experience. That’s why, in your example, and just like mine, I do not necessarily need to have direct industry experience as long as my partner, the person who’s as committed to that business as I am, is going to run the day-to-day and they’re capable of it. Have you ever seen skin in the game? Yes.

Have you ever seen that the buyer actually turns the current manager of the business into their sort of equity type of partner?

Yes, I have. Those are deals I’ve participated in as well. Yes, it’s part of what I love about this business and the path. It’s an opportunity for sometimes people who are just working for a company to actually own part of it, continue to do what they’ve done, get an increase in their wage, and have an ownership interest in an asset that they would never have otherwise. It really can be amazing when you just put the pieces in where they’re proven to work as opposed to trying to reinvent.

Continuing on the conversation about your coaching and the mastermind you have. We talked about the onboarding process. Now that people come onto the platform, there’s an opportunity that they’re continuing to learn. I’m sure you have these ongoing meetings with them, but there is an opportunity that they could joint venture with each other and look for business. Have you seen that happening within the platform as well?

Yes, I have. I am a big advocate for recipes. A recipe is a formula for getting a particular result. Most of us think of that with food. It’s very common. Just like you and your partners have a recipe for acquiring multifamily homes that’s different from somebody else, it’s proven to work. When somebody goes in and they’re just trying to reinvent the wheel, like start a business, it can be difficult.

A recipe is a formula for getting a particular result. Share on X

The recipe that I’ve developed around how to buy a business safely and how to partner in businesses with key people in secure positions with a vested interest and life insurance and all of the things that are necessary to make sure that partnership runs effectively. That’s part of the formula that I teach as a coach and that, through my platform, people have access to, and then they can do on their own. Once they understand it, it’s just plug and play.

You provide them the right connections with legal teams and accounting teams. How about the SBA process itself? Is there a playbook for all of that they get from being part of it?

As I mentioned, 28 years of doing this, I have got a few playbooks. The financing piece is a huge part of it. It’s very rare as a firm. As a matter of fact, I cannot remember the last transaction that we had that was not approved for financing, because we know what it takes to get them approved for financing. Also, once we’ve got the deal in place, we present it to the lender in a way that is approvable. They want the deal. Those are all pieces of what we guide people through. Having personally been a buyer and a seller and a partner and a borrower and a lender and all of those seats, I’ve sat in all of them.

If you’re tuning into this, definitely, and you’re thinking about buying a business, I’ll definitely get you to connect with Matt. Talking about the business itself, talking about this space, the industry, the ecosystem itself, are there any dos and don’ts? Are there any businesses that people should not touch? For example, I touched on franchises. Is a franchise a good direction to go for somebody who wants to buy a business?

Franchising Vs. Buying Established Businesses: The Pros And Cons

A franchise is a recipe. A lot of times, if somebody is going to just go out and start a business, they’re starting from scratch. If somebody is going to go into a franchise, you’re buying into a recipe that’s proven to work, but you still have to make it work. The disadvantages of franchising are that you’re going to pay them forever. They get a royalty, what’s called a royalty, part of your revenue forever because of that brand. Most often, unless it’s an existing franchise location, it is a startup. I see people where they’ll spend $ 300,000 to $400,000 of their cash to start a franchise, and then they need to attract customers.

Ideally, the franchise is such a strong brand that customers are attracted to the location or to that business because of the brand. It shortens the curve. Part of the reason that I’m such an advocate of helping people buy businesses is that there’s a recipe there. There’s a proven history, and you do not need to bring customers to it. I’m not saying you do not need to maintain it, but the ideal transaction is that the business is in place. You can analyze three years’ worth of historical financials or more.

As long as you come in as the buyer and do not break it, you should get the same result moving forward. From a mathematical standpoint, it’s very strategic and calculated. Whereas with a franchise, sometimes I’ve got a good friend who owns quite a few franchises. Some of the locations are awesome. Some of them are in the fitness industry. Some of them are losing significant money every single month, and they cannot quite crack the code. The franchise alone is not the guarantee that it’s going to be successful.

The big upside, I mean, is the ability to just sell a bunch of locations you’ve built or build something huge with your name behind it that doesn’t exist in the franchise. I know a guy who, when I moved to Naples, owned, I think, 30 Taco Bells or something. A crazy number, and people like, “He owns 30 Taco Bells,” or something like that. In that case, I’m sure big revenues are coming in, but when you’re building your own business, you can scale it and build something great to have a huge exit or have your name behind it.

That gives you that motivation, that upside that exists in building a business. Going back to the earlier part of my questions, is there any, I do not want to call them red flags, but are there any businesses to stay clear of as soon as you see warning signs? For example, a Greek restaurant that a family has owned for 30 years, that they’re coming there because of that name and a brand, but they’re retiring, and they’re going back to Greece. Is that a good idea to buy that Greek restaurant? What have you seen over the years of what not to do?

From an industry perspective, there are very few that I blackball because you could take an industry that in one city, you just think, “It’s saturated, or it’s horrible,” but yet it’s a goldmine in another city. I do not spend so much time focusing on the industry unless literally it’s an industry that’s dying and going away because of economic trends. Your point, your question is a great one because let’s say you’ve got a 40-year Greek restaurant and the question would be, is the buyer able to step into the shoes of the owner and create a similar result?

Is the owner, the person who’s exiting, willing to transition to the new owner? I’ve sold lots of businesses where the owner had owned them for 20, 30, 40 years. The buyer came in and was very successful because most consumers care far less than we think they do about who actually owns it. They just want the product or the service or the food in your example. It’s a consideration. It’s not like, “I would never do it.”

Most consumers care far less than we think they do about who actually owns the business. They just want the product or the service. Share on X

It’s just a consideration. Can the people make it work? Can you design the deal in a way that you’re ensured that that’s going to go on? In that example, you might have what’s called a seller carryback where the seller is owed some money based on the future success of the business. That can be a way to help ensure that the seller is still vested in the buyer’s success. The buyer’s vested. They’re going to work together to make sure that the torch is handed to the buyer in a way that continues the legacy of that business.

That’s why you need an expert like you to provide support to somebody wanting a business. Before getting to the next segment of our show, the Championship Rounds to Financial Freedom, I want to talk to you about where the market is currently, where the economy is, where we are at right now matters a lot, even in the case of buying a business, because it’s important what phase of the cycle you’re buying a business, taking any cataclysmic events like COVID out of it. We’re just looking at the market that goes into these ebbs and flows and kind of cycles. You have your own show as well. I’ve been on it. You interview many expert guests there. Where is the market today? Where is the economy today? What do you think about that?

Navigating Economic Shifts: The Silver Tsunami Opportunity

The economy that I see is a little bit soft, but not in a downturn. It’s just a little bit soft. I think consumer confidence is a little weak right at the moment. Most of the businesses that I know of and see across the country are either flat or down a little bit. Once in a while they’re increasing, but most of them are flat or down a little bit. When you buy a business, you build that potential into the analysis, because nothing’s forever. There are times when things need to adjust. Really, that’s what I’m seeing. From the world of business opportunities, the trend is that this is called the silver tsunami.

It’s all the baby boomers that are retiring and either just closing their businesses or selling them. It’s anticipated that there’ll be a whole lot more inventory available in business opportunities moving forward. I cannot say that I’ve honestly seen that yet, but the statistics would suggest it has to happen. There are people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s that are just not going to continue to run their businesses. They’re either going to close them or sell them. It’s one or the other, only two options.

Personal Development, Financial Freedom, And Defining Success

Their kids do not want to have anything to do with the business either. They want to do something else. I’ve heard about that. I’ve seen that as well. That’s a great point that you make. Thank you for sharing that. Now let’s move to the next segment of our show. Thank you for all the knowledge. I’m sure somebody looking to buy a business and get involved has learned lots, but let’s get to our first question. Who’s been the most influential person in your life?

I care about this question a lot. I do not want to pick. I’m going to start right where we started. There was a gentleman who was in his mid 60s when I was a young man, and back to us talking about giving up alcohol in our lives because it was hard to find a good reason to continue. He challenged me when I was sixteen and said, “Listen, you’ve got alcoholism all through your family.” He said, “I’ve never seen anybody who had an excess of alcohol in their life, who ever got where they wanted to go without losing it all.”

He said, “I’m going to challenge you right now to never drink again.” He said, “I promise you that if you make that decision, it’ll be one of the most powerful decisions you make in your life because you’ll never have to wonder how much is enough. Did I say what I didn’t mean to say? Do I have an issue like some of my family has had?” That was a real turning point for me where I eliminated something from my life that I never had to consider or manage again. I have never regretted that decision, even as a sixteen-year-old.

Do not we all wish we had met that guy or had that guy in our lives? What an incredible story. What’s the number one book you would recommend?

I’m a Christian. The Bible certainly is filled with, it’s like an owner’s manual, and I cannot say that I’ve ever made it all the way through it in one sitting, but there’s an enormous amount of wisdom there that I followed the teachings of a lot earlier. I could have spared myself a lot of pain.

That person who gave you that advice, were they on the religious side?

They were actually. The gentleman who suggested I give up drinking and commit to never drink was actually a Christian. It wasn’t heavy in his life, and I would not say it’s heavy in my life. I’m not preaching all the time, but I’m grateful for Heavenly Father.

Any other books quickly you recommend? Doesn’t have to be business, any book.

 

Rich Dad Poor Dad. That was also a book that was significant for me. I had the honor of interviewing Robert Kiyosaki on my show a couple of months ago. That book sold 40 million copies. For our audience, the people that are joining us here, he was declined by over ten publishers before he finally got a publisher. Ten people said, “No, you’ve got nothing here.” He sold 40 million copies of it.

Next question. If you had the opportunity to travel back in time, what advice would you give your younger self?

That’s a tough one. That it’ll be okay. The way I grew up, there was a lot of fear and anxiety and scarcity and all this stuff that just had me on my heels a lot. At the end of the day, it’s okay. There are people out there who want to help and can contribute in almost every circumstance. It’s going to be okay.

Do not stress.

It’ll work out.

Next question. What’s the best investment you’ve ever made?

The best investment I ever made was into my personal development education. When I decided to turn away from the lifestyle that I had grown up watching in my family, which included substance abuse and all kinds of negativity, I knew I wanted something different. I started focusing on personal development in every sense of the word. I went head over heels into that with everything I had. Literally, it changed my life. I started that when I was about 16, 17 as well. I am still a huge advocate of looking into finding the answers as opposed to just running around trying to create results to feel better.

Amazing answer. Next question. What’s the worst investment you’ve ever made and what lessons did you learn from it?

The worst investment. It would come down to a financial investment. I’m going to just say it was an investment in a business where I didn’t listen to what I was feeling sure about. I decided to focus more on what the team wanted. I’m not saying I’m right and they’re wrong, but it turned out that they were incorrect and that business failed, and lots of heartache and hardship around that. I stuck to my guns and tried to persuade my partners that some of the things I was concerned about actually ended up coming true, or just simply said, “This isn’t for me, care about you all, but I’m just not going to participate.”

That would have been far better for me with less struggle and some financial loss, but really just relationships and all of the struggle that came along with three and a half years of just trying to make something work, when really the writing was on the wall. We were going to have problems from day one. This team was an external team that came with you to buy a business, or were they already in the business? They came to me wanting to participate in a business, and I agreed to partner with them. There were things that were concerning me as we progressed about the business, really fundamentally. I decided to overlook those as opposed to sticking to my guns.

Makes sense. Next question. How much would you need in the bank to retire? What’s your number?

I’m in a position where I could do that if I chose because I’ve invested in businesses. I’m going to say that number was probably $6 million. Appropriately invested, it would provide me with the quality of life I am accustomed to and enjoy. For me, I focus on work optional. At my age, at my advanced age, August.

Advanced age, but not advanced looks.

I really want to be doing what it is I want to be doing these days. That includes work. I love to work, but I’m trying to spend less time on stuff that I do not enjoy.

The way you’re answering that question is “I can retire if I want to, but I’m still here having fun.” There you go. If you could have dinner with someone dead or alive, who would it be?

Napoleon Hill. That was Think and Grow Rich for any of you who have not. Napoleon Hill was an amazing man. I’d love to have a conversation with him.

If you weren’t doing what you’re doing today, what would you be doing now?

It would be very similar to what I’m doing, but I would be traveling more, and I would be pouring into young people some of what I’ve learned about life. That’s an aspect again of what I get to do now, but I would love to do that on a higher level. We started out with one of your questions, and it’s so important to me. People helping people. I do not know where I would be if it weren’t for some of the people that just decided to give some 15- or 16-year-old kid a hand up. It’s made all the difference in the world to me. I’m very passionate about trying to make a difference in people who want it. Some of the shortcuts I’ve learned through hardship.

How about any dreams you had in sports, in arts, in travel, in things that you could have pursued, but your focus on your business kind of said, “This is the direction I’m going in life.” Was there anything there on that front?

I guess just more time living. I take my business very seriously and have no specific focus, but I’ve been working real hard for a long time, and I’ve certainly carved out lots of time over the past ten years to vacation and travel and those things. I could have been doing a whole lot more of that a lot younger and smelled the roses along the way.

Next question. This is my cohost’s favorite question. Book smarts or street smarts?

Street, for sure.

If you had a million dollars in cash and you had to make one investment today, what would it be?

Because of my core competency, we talked about transferable industry experience, I would find a great business to invest in, and I would be the one running it. I know that it doesn’t sound sexy to a lot of people, but I’ve learned that where attention goes, results show. If I were starting all over again, I would want to buy a business that I knew I could run, and I would work at it hard and create the result and rebuild.

Find a great business to invest in, and be the one running it. Where attention goes, results show. Share on X

Maybe you can tell everyone what the best way they can reach you, Matt.

MattUhler.com will certainly reach me, but AmpedSuccess.com, and we’re on Instagram and YouTube, and the show is called What’s Your Deal? We bring on people from all areas of expertise, and it’s really a fun forum for understanding what people do and why.

Thank you so much, Matt, for being here. Thanks so much for the conversation we had, talking about a lot of different topics. Thank you, my friend.

Thank you, August. I really appreciate it. It was fun.