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Closes a Business Acquisition Every Week - JV's and Partnerships
What you missed on How2Exit This week
Ronald Skelton
March 11, 2025
Sponsors:
DueDilio is your go-to marketplace and advisory service for all things related to small business acquisitions.
and
Final Ascent, a premier boutique professional services firm specializing in mergers and acquisitions, exit strategies, and growth consulting tailored for lower middle-market firms across the U.S.
E271: How This Dealmaker Closes a Business Acquisition Every Week—WITHOUT Using His Own Money!
About the Guest:
Rob Richmond is a dealmaker, strategic advisor, and founder of Synergy Groups. With decades of experience in technology, business acquisitions, and rollups, Richmond has developed a reputation for structuring creative and sustainable deals. His ability to optimize businesses before acquisition, leverage vendor financing, and create high-value group exits has positioned him as a thought leader in the space.
Summary:
In this episode of the How2Exit podcast, host Ronald Skelton sits down with Rob Richmond, a seasoned dealmaker and founder of Synergy Groups. Richmond shares his experience in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), detailing his innovative strategies for structuring deals, including vendor financing, virtual rollups, and work-in-buyout (WIBO) models. With a track record of completing a deal nearly every week, Richmond offers valuable insights into how business buyers can creatively structure acquisitions, avoid common pitfalls, and maximize value. The conversation also delves into the psychology of sellers, the importance of profiling employees, and how to build scalable business groups.
Key Takeaways:
Vendor Financing as a Deal-Making Tool – Richmond explains how structuring deals with seller financing, instead of traditional bank loans, helps align interests and often results in better terms for both buyers and sellers.
Work-in-Buyout (WIBO) Strategy – He outlines how entering a business as an advisor or operator before a formal acquisition can lead to stronger deals, minimizing risk and increasing value for all parties.
The Power of Virtual Rollups – Richmond discusses his success with virtual rollups, where companies in similar industries collaborate, scale, and eventually exit together for higher valuations.
The Importance of Value Creation – Instead of simply acquiring businesses, Richmond emphasizes improving them through strategic changes, sales optimization, and operational efficiency.
Overcoming Seller Expectations – Many business owners overvalue their companies. Richmond’s strategy is to shift the conversation from an unrealistic sales price to the actual post-sale cash in the seller’s bank account.
Employee Profiling for Growth – By analyzing staff skill sets, businesses can reposition employees for better performance without the need for external hiring.
The Right Business Mindset Matters – Smaller business owners often struggle with valuations, unrealistic goodwill expectations, and an inability to scale, while those with $10M+ in revenue tend to be more pragmatic and open to creative deal structures.
The Fastest Way to Exit? Management Buyouts. – Richmond highlights management buyouts (MBOs) as one of the quickest and most effective ways for business owners to transition out while ensuring business continuity.
Article:
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Founding Member Shout-Out (Still room here -$400 one time)
Shout out to our new founding member. With over 30 years in M&A, this company offers the lowest priced (way undervalued) course on helping you buy good businesses. Very underpriced - get it now before they finish upgrading the site and very likely up the pricing.
