🟠 The SMB Scoop - 5 things that happened this month

Welcome to the first SMB Scoop where I'll send you things happening in the world of small-medium sized businesses (SMBs) and entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA).

I promise to deliver value.

5 things that happened this month you should check out:

• Will Smith of Acquiring Minds released an interview on Buying Franchises with the 'Wolf of Franchises', a micro-famous anonymous Twitter personality, incredibly interesting to peek behind the curtain of the franchising industry from the viewpoint of an industry insider.

• Johannes Hock gets real talking about the emotional roller coaster being a first-time SMB owner. SMB ownership is not all rainbows and butterflies.

• Bruce Marks of of First Bank of the Lake says that he's received confirmation "multiples are coming down". It seems fed interest rate hikes are finally starting to impact small business transactions & valuations.

• A 'HoldCo' owns multiple related or unrelated businesses. Berkshire Hathaway is an example of a large HoldCo. Colin Keeley of Indie PE did a great job of distilling down how he's structured his SMB HoldCo to save millions in taxes for himself and his investors. HoldCos come in all different shapes and sizes, their structures tend to be customized to the manager & investors.

• Have you heard of Qualified Small Business Stock, sometimes called QSBS or Section 1202? Business owners can avoid 100% of the capital gains tax on up to $10M of proceeds (seriously!). The structure has mainly benefited venture backed founders & VCs (almost all of them are C-corps), but I'm seeing it used more and more with sophisticated small business buyers who want to take advantage of...free money. My favorite resource is called QSBS Expert. The biggest hurdle for SMB owners is usually around the requirement of being taxed as a C corp.

Accredited Investors: Want to get in the flow of passive SMB and ETA deals? I'm starting a LP/investor list where I'll send you off-market SMB deals through my network.

Feedback? Have any questions or topics you want to see relating to SMBs or ETA? Or just have a question? Send them my way by replying. I intend to play around with the format of this newsletter so open to ideas & suggestions.

Talk soon,

Ben Tiggelaar