Acquiring Minds

Boom Bust Boom Buying A Whiplash Business

with Chandler Reid · Get Green NOI

LenderHawk analysis. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Acquiring Minds.

The Deal

Business

Get Green NOI

Industry

Commercial lighting retrofit and EV charging installation for multifamily properties

State

Purchase Price

$625K

Year

2021

Revenue at Purchase

$900K

LTV at Close

75%

Deal Source

direct outreach

Financing Structure

Buyer Equity

$156K

Seller Note

$469K

Strategic Rationale

Acquired a distressed but previously successful lighting contractor that had declined from six million dollars in revenue to nine hundred thousand due to founder distraction, with thesis that applying operational attention could restore it to prior scale while expanding into adjacent green energy verticals.

Post-Acquisition Performance

Revenue grew to three million in 2022 during favorable market conditions, collapsed to ten thousand in Q1 2023 when interest rate increases froze multifamily development spending, recovered to 1.2 million in signed contracts by September 2023 as market uncertainty cleared; business remains volatile and project-dependent.

Key Takeaways

1Project-based construction businesses are operationally harder than they appear, with longer sales cycles, unreliable cash flow, liability exposure, and lower margins when using subcontractors.
2People management is the hardest part of operating a business, requiring humility to listen to experienced employees rather than implementing new processes without understanding historical context.
3Market-driven cyclicality can make or break a business; what appears to be operational genius during a boom is often just benefiting from favorable interest rates and capital availability.
4Define what you want your life to look like post-acquisition before choosing a business, rather than structuring your entire life around the business you find.
5Document everything early as you build processes to enable future scaling and your own exit from day-to-day operations.

The Deal

Business

Get Green NOI

Industry

Commercial lighting retrofit and EV charging installation for multifamily properties

State

Purchase Price

$625K

Year

2021

Revenue at Purchase

$900K

LTV at Close

75%

Deal Source

direct outreach

Financing Structure

Buyer Equity

$156K

Seller Note

$469K

Strategic Rationale

Post-Acquisition Performance

Key Takeaways

1Project-based construction businesses are operationally harder than they appear, with longer sales cycles, unreliable cash flow, liability exposure, and lower margins when using subcontractors.

2People management is the hardest part of operating a business, requiring humility to listen to experienced employees rather than implementing new processes without understanding historical context.

3Market-driven cyclicality can make or break a business; what appears to be operational genius during a boom is often just benefiting from favorable interest rates and capital availability.

4Define what you want your life to look like post-acquisition before choosing a business, rather than structuring your entire life around the business you find.

5Document everything early as you build processes to enable future scaling and your own exit from day-to-day operations.