Hey all,

I’ve been traveling for much of the last couple of weeks and the next, so my business search is slow.

I have a couple of short updates this week related to the search and my plan to touch base with the owners I met in-person a couple of weeks ago.

A couple of tweaks to my search process

I’ve waffled back and forth between thoughtful research before contacting leads and the spray-and-pray approach.

Recently, I had my VAs try to do the research and send my email, but I didn’t find that very effective.

So, instead, I’m spending a little bit of time most mornings going through yesterday’s leads. This accomplishes two things:

1. Change 1: No more spray-and-pray. Certain leads really stand out at first sight. I see one and know immediately it’s a business I have to talk to (like wirelessestimator.com). The spray-and-pray approach would miss these leads if they didn’t respond to a canned cold email. And, my search is all about finding the diamonds, not sending a lot of emails.

2. Change 2: Reinforcement learning for VAs. I’m tagging my very favorite (< 5%) leads with a 💎 emoji based on my first impression (see 1 above). Then, I have my VAs review the 💎 leads in depth. I want them to get a more refined feel for what I value in a first impression. They’re getting trained on my “instincts” so they can better recognize a 💎 opportunity upfront. So far, this has been a helpful coaching exercise.

I’m pretty confident I can get any business owner to either block me, tell me no, or reciprocate some interest. I just can’t get everyone to respond. It takes a thoughtful, persistent approach. My tweaks are an effort to make sure I’m investing time on the most compelling leads.

I haven’t sent any emails the last couple weeks, so my pipeline of upcoming conversations is dry.

Goal the rest of December: find 5 💎 leads and do what it takes to get a hold of them.

I let go of a VA

Sad update: I let go of one of my VAs. I originally hired two VAs:

• VA #1: DJ at a local radio station

• VA #2: Salesforce consultant

I almost only hired DJ #2, because his technical background was stronger.

However, instead of hiring one VA for 40 hours, I elected to hire two VAs for 20 hours each.

This allowed me to benchmark them against each other. Over time I found VA #1 was producing much more quality leads and applying my feedback more quickly.

Both of these folks are fantastic people who’ve done good or better work.

When I hired them, I promised them a 12-week contract, which we’ve surpassed.

I think it makes sense to end here with VA #2 and double down with VA #1.

I’m still processing my in-person visit

I got a lot of great feedback when I wrote about my first in-person visit.

In the afterglow of the meeting, one thing is really clear: the business may not be doing enough earnings to invest in it at the level I want, especially when factoring in potential debt payments.

Anything is possible. I can envision terms where a deal starts to pencil out (i.e. 100% seller financing), but I don’t see those as likely (for now).

I’m going to reach out next week to the owners to schedule a follow-up FaceTime call and share my thoughts.

I’ll do my best to stay relational and objective, because I’m still just planting seeds.

Have a great rest of your week!

Thanks for reading,

Mike