Why start from scratch when you can leverage an existing business’s traction and capitalize on its untapped potential?

That is the power of entrepreneurship through acquisition.

Mike Swigunski, a skilled entrepreneur and globe-trotting author, discovered this for himself while building his portfolio of profitable online businesses.

In this episode, he walks us through one of his most profitable acquisitions, a SaaS business that he grew to 4x in revenue in just a year.

Mike walks us through the acquisition from start to finish, from uncovering the business’s rare potential to the creative deal structure he negotiated and seizing low-hanging fruits for post-acquisition growth.

Mike also shares his expert insights into the online business industry, including the lucrative gap in the market he spotted when it comes to acquisitions. According to Mike,

“The 500K - 750K range of online businesses seems to be like no man's land. It’s often too big for solopreneurs, and too small for portfolio buyers. It’s a sweet spot that can offer buyers a bit of strategic leverage to negotiate a good deal. Sellers are often more motivated and more open to seller financing and creative deal structures.”

Mike’s firsthand experience and expert knowledge offer a roadmap to successfully acquiring and scaling online businesses. Don’t miss a minute of this insightful episode!

• Mike shares his background and his entrepreneurial journey (02:17)
• A look at of one Mike’s most successful acquisitions - a $500K SaaS business (07:47)
• The creative deal structure that Mike negotiated (13:57)
• The dynamics of buying a business in partnership with another entrepreneur (16:36)
• Finding the right developer to work on a new SaaS acquisition (18:22)
• Mike's unique due diligence process for this acquisition (24:42)
• How Mike 4x’d his revenue by capitalizing on low-hanging fruit post-acquisition (26:59)
• Mike's growth strategies and future goals for his SaaS acquisition (37:57)
• An overview of Mike’s business portfolio (45:52)
• Mike’s productivity tips for digital entrepreneurs (51:06)

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• Mike’s site (with links to his socials)
• Copy Sharks
• Fast Food Spaghetti blog post
• Rize productivity app
• Trello

Sit back, grab a coffee, and get the inside scoop on how to source and scale a SaaS acquisition!

Two of the fastest ways to grow your business are to increase your customer base and improve your offering to attract higher-value customers.

What if I told you there was a way to expand your customer base exponentially and enhance your offering in one clever move?

That is what Josh Springer does through the power of acquisitions. Josh is the Head of Corporate Development at Hawke Media, a powerhouse marketing agency.

Josh specializes in acquiring other agencies and merging them into Hawke’s existing ecosystem. This not only enhances Hawke's services but also brings in a ready-made customer base overnight.

Now they have a more powerful team and a larger pool of clients.

In this episode, Josh joins us to explain his approach to acquisitions, from sourcing potential targets to sealing the deal.

He explains the different types of deal structures he negotiates, his growth strategies post-acquisition, and the key to smoothly merging a new agency into Hawke Media’s framework.

One of the key areas that Josh prioritizes is employee retention. According to Josh,

“The value behind an agency is the people that it comes with. If you start cutting people, you start losing clients, you start messing with culture, then all of a sudden you're left with a shell that doesn't really resemble what you were trying to buy in the first place.”

If you're hungry for rapid business expansion, this episode lays out the blueprint for scaling up through strategic bolt-on acquisitions. Don’t miss it!

• Josh’s background and how he ended up working in M&A (02:26)
• Assessing the right time to acquire a new agency as a growth play (05:10)
• The key to employee retention during an acquisition (08:15)
• How Josh integrates acquisitions into Hawke Media’s existing structure (10:46)
• How Josh sources his acquisitions (14:36)
• The profit margins agencies should aim for at different valuation levels (23:36)
• The quick growth levers that Josh has learned to pull on his agency acquisitions (25:48)
• The types of deals Josh negotiates and structures (30:03)
• How Josh measures the success of his acquisitions (38:38)
• The lessons Josh has learned from all of the acquisitions he has overseen (42:55)

• Empire Flippers Podcasts
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• Hawke Media
• Josh’s LinkedIn

Sit back, grab a coffee, and learn how to scale your business through mergers and bolt-on acquisitions!

The customer is always right.

If this is true, then understanding consumer’s opinions and preferences is the secret sauce to success.

But how do you ask the right questions to the right people in order to gather this feedback?

That’s where John Li comes in. John and his co-founder Justin were scratching their heads over this very question while trying to get feedback for their own business.

Being savvy software developers, they created PickFu – a market research and consumer feedback platform that allows businesses to gather in-depth feedback from real people in minutes.

In this episode, John joins us to discuss how conducting meaningful consumer feedback can drastically improve your business.

He explains that it is never too early to start communicating with your audience. 

Gathering feedback can help you pre-validate your products before they’ve even launched by testing logos, packaging, mottos, etc. This can be the difference between a lukewarm introduction to the market, and a rocket-fueled burst onto the scene. 

In fact, John helped a business 10x their profits by doing just this.

But collecting feedback isn’t all you should be doing. According to John,

“It's so important to connect with and listen to your audience. Run surveys, bounce ideas, have conversations, etc. But it’s also important to do market research. There might be a whole different set of people that you aren’t targeting that could open up an entirely new area of the market for you. So it's important to get feedback from both sides.”

Of course, there's an art to asking for feedback. John explains which types of questions you should ask, the different types of experiments you can conduct, and the ideal audience size for collecting usable feedback.

You don’t have to fly blind. This episode will light the way and teach you how to use feedback to fuel your business growth.

• John’s background and the origins of PickFu (02:20)
• The importance of market research and collecting consumer feedback (06:03)
• How often should you be doing market research? (10:31)
• The different types of consumer research experiments you can run on PickFu (15:54)
• How to encourage feedback and gather the best feedback from consumers (18:05)
• The most common myths about consumer feedback (25:28)
• The ideal audience size for meaningful consumer feedback (27:34)
• Managing negative feedback from consumers (30:23)
• How consumer feedback can save a business from failure (35:18)
• John’s goals for PickFu moving forward (37:44)

• Empire Flippers Podcasts
• Empire Flippers Marketplace
• Create an Empire Flippers account
• Subscribe to our weekly newsletter 
• PickFu

Sit back, grab a coffee, and learn how to gather consumer feedback that will elevate your business to new heights.