Good morning!

This is my weekly update email.

I am not an acquisition entrepreneurship guru.

I have not done this 100 times and can not show you how to do the same in one simple Twitter thread.

I am just a guy with a vision executing a process I believe in, and this email is my journal.

I share that because I found myself getting a little self-conscious this week.

Are people expecting me to be further along?

What’s “the juice” I can bring in my email this week?

Then I remembered that’s not why I’m writing this, and it’s not what this is.

(If you came for that, I can point you in the direction of some acquisition entrepreneurs way more advanced and savvy than me.)

The main reason I’m writing this newsletter is because I need an outlet to talk about this stuff. I can drive family/friends IRL crazy, so this helps. If you get psyched about these businesses like I do, we might get along. And that’s, really, why I’m writing. To meet more likeminded people in this space.

I upgraded my Beehiiv account, so now I can give you a referral link. If you know someone you think would like to read this, I’d love to meet them through this email.

I don’t have any “rewards” or anything for getting a referral. Maybe at some point I’ll think through how to gamify that.

Warming up my cold emails

Last week I shared my pipeline was quiet, and I wasn’t getting responses to my cold emails.

After spending some time testing a couple different things this week and thinking through the problem, I think it’s very simple.

1. I’m targetting super outdated websites — some so outdated there’s no one awake at the wheel anymore

2. My emails are too generic

I went through old emails that got responses, and all of them were emails I typed out (not a generic copy/paste template I normally use) after actually spending time on their website.

So I decided to slow it down this week, do 5 min. of research on the website before I sent an email, and send a thoughtful first outreach (instead of a generic inquiry).

I’ll probably go slower this way, but I don’t really care to optimize for speed at this point. I’ll continue to shoot for a couple of solid responses a week.

Two new businesses on my radar

The change in approach got me in front of owners with two interesting opportunities this week, one of which I’m particularly excited about:

1. Software for farm management

2. A website development agency

Farm management software

This is a software that helps farm owners oversee their farm operations.

Chuck bought this business and seemed eager to discuss it. I’ve texted him and played phone tag, but haven’t connected with him yet. No clue how big of a business it is, but the category is very appealing to me.

Website development agency

I have a lot of web dev agencies on my lead list. I’ve already talked to owners of two others in the last couple of months.

I’m really interested in this model for a couple of reasons:

1. Customers on retainer can be sticky

2. Work is easy to outsource on Upwork. I’ve hired exactly 50 people on Upwork over the last three years, and I’m confident in my ability to find great talent at a competitive cost there, especially with a skill like web dev.

The business does $15k a month in new development. The owner (after two emails totaling over 1,000 words) decided he doesn’t really want to sell that part of the business.

He also has a portfolio of 80 websites that he charges a retainer to keep active.

I think there’s a lot of opportunity to sell other marketing services to those 80 clients that he’s not taking advantage of. I also think his monthly retainer is priced too low.

I’ve asked him if he’d consider selling that part of his business only. Knowing what I know now, it could be a great win-win: I get the piece of the business most attractive to me (hosting), and he gets to keep the piece most exciting to him (new development) while getting some cash.

So, I’m excited about this.

Planting seeds

I’m thinking long-term

So, when I come across a business that has home-run potential (they’re hard to find), I don’t stop thinking about it.

Even if the owner said “No, thanks” when I asked if they’d consider selling.

I wrote two short letters to two businesses I’d love to explore further. And, it’s fine with me if that conversation is today, in 12 months, or in 3 years.

Just planting seeds where I see opportunities. Maybe, just maybe, they’ll consider me if they ever start to think about selling

Thanks for reading.

P.S. I added this poll (below) to try and get a feel for what subscribers like to read about in my weekly updates. If you have a strong preference, please vote… I’ll try to consider the polling when thinking about future weekly updates.