Hi,

One great advantage of writing this email weekly is it’s a forcing function to keep moving forward and reflect.

I’ve found writing a weekly update is kind of like a status meeting with a boss. You come prepared. You come on your game.

It’s really helpful to have that when working on a project by yourself. Everyone’s motivated by a little accountability, and this is mine in some ways.

So let’s get to the update.

The business I can’t stop thinking about let me down

Months ago I found a business monetized as an ecommerce store with lots of untapped potential. And I mean lots.

Here’s the link to the business in my CRM.

When I wrote about my 2024 goal to connect with 12 home run businesses, I considered this one the lowest hanging fruit. It’s the “half-colored” circle in my progress bar.

I was just biding time to invite myself over to Iowa for an in-person visit.

Last week felt the right time to start that conversation with the owner.

Womp womp.

To my surprise, the owner said no thanks to my request to visit and have lunch or coffee.

I thought about this for a while before responding.

Did they think I was asking to buy the business right now? I just wanted to have lunch.

Was I too forward? Maybe not clear enough???

I don’t know, but it hurt my biz buying feelings (and messed up my plan).

Can I do this for a long time?

This process and the general slowness of the search over the past few weeks has made me think about doing this over the long haul.

It’s hard.

The reality is, I’m kind of on a needle/haystack mission. Here are a few things I reflected on that help me stay the course:

1. I work a full-time job. It’s not a W2 — I contract for my brother’s agency. Additional income opportunity, builds skills, and frankly, it gives me something else to be excited about when the biz search has me down (it happens).

2. I have multiple years of living expenses saved. It helps me think more longterm and not feel like I need to make a transaction happen in a short amount of time.

3. My wife is incredibly emotionally consistent. My days are either up-and-to-the-right or in the tank with few in between. She’s steady (and I love her for it)!

So, yeah, I think I can do this for a long time. And, of course, most great things are very hard.

Getting on the phone with businesses that feel kinda like a needle in the haystack is like gassing up for the journey.

Here’s an example

I love responses like this.

These responses tell me I’m on to something because, trust me, the cover of this book (the business’s website) does not draw much attention.

These are the folks I’m trying to build a rolodex of.

In his case, we ended up trading 17 emails after he said “no thanks” to my first email.

At the end of it, he invited me to lunch if I’m ever in Rhode Island. No promises he’ll sell his business (he’s planning to transition it to his kids), but the connection is all I can ask for.

I need to talk to more owners

I’m focused on finding 💎 businesses. That focus led me to handpick who I reach out to instead of email blasting.

Last week, my VA started vetting leads so I don’t have to.

This week, we stepped it up and asked her to start emailing them, too.

The hope is that I’m only engaging with highly vetted leads who showed interest in my initial outreach (sent by Merry, the VA). She’ll get a bonus if we get six responses this week (at the time of this writing, we’re at two).

I waffle in the tension between wanting full control over customized outreach and not wanting to spend time on that.

I probably overrate the value of me controlling so much of the outreach. I’ll wait to see the quality and quantity of responses from businesses Merry emails. Her emails are less personalized than mine, but it’s hard to know how much that matters right now. Perhaps, in a couple of weeks, I’ll test bulk emailing the leads Merry vetted.