# Financial Tips: His expertise helps buyers secure financing, and they'll conduct due diligence to help close profitable deals.

An episode of [Money Making Conversations Master Class](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1264705641), 30 Jun 2025, 28 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/b1db7263-d1a3-4d00-8976-af62012aab44/01260226-d4d7-4711-a820-b2f30153d058/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=35a10561-3e1b-4d05-a529-af62012aab6a

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and three-time NAACP Image Award-winning television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Elliot Holland. The managing partner of Guardian Due Diligence. Here’s a breakdown of the key topics and highlights: Key Themes & Highlights • Buying Small Businesses vs. Franchises • Holland explains the differences between purchasing a franchise and acquiring an independent business. • He highlights the risk-reward balance, noting that franchises offer a structured model, while independent businesses can be more lucrative but require deeper due diligence. • Financial Strategies for Business Acquisition • He discusses the SBA 7(a) loan program, which allows buyers to acquire businesses with 90-95% financing, making ownership more accessible. • Holland explains how leveraging financing can turn a small investment into a million-dollar business. • Due Diligence & Avoiding Bad Deals • He emphasizes the importance of financial diligence to ensure buyers don’t acquire failing businesses. • Holland shares red flags to watch for, such as misleading financials and sellers masking poor performance. • Masterclass for First-Time Buyers • Holland introduces his Business Buying Masterclass, designed to educate entrepreneurs on the acquisition process. • He provides one-on-one coaching, helping buyers navigate financing, negotiations, and deal structuring. • Success Stories & Case Studies • He shares examples of clients who successfully acquired businesses, including a 24-year-old entrepreneur and a 60-year-old investor. • Holland highlights how his expertise helped buyers secure financing, conduct due diligence, and close profitable deals. About Elliot Holland & Guardian Due Diligence Elliot Holland is a Harvard MBA, private equity investor, and business acquisition expert. He founded Guardian Due Diligence to help first-time buyers confidently purchase profitable businesses. His firm specializes in financial diligence, ensuring buyers make informed decisions and avoid costly mistakes. Through his masterclass and consulting, Holland empowers entrepreneurs to build wealth through business ownership. #BEST #STRAW #SHMS Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies Startup funding opportunities Executive leadership training Financial literacy education Success mindset podcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. I'm Rashwan MacDonald, the host of
[0:08] Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to stop
[0:11] Speaker 1: reading other people's success stories and start planning their own.
[0:16] Speaker 1: Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
[0:19] Speaker 1: talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
[0:22] Speaker 1: their companies, and speak with dog profits who are making
[0:25] Speaker 1: a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and
[0:28] Speaker 1: listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on
[0:31] Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. My next guest is managing partner
[0:36] Speaker 1: of Guardian Due Diligence, a boutique financial firm focused on
[0:42] Speaker 1: helping everyday entrepreneurs confidently acquire profitable small businesses. A Harvard
[0:48] Speaker 1: NBA and former private equity investor, he is on a
[0:52] Speaker 1: mission to close the ownership gap by giving first time
[0:55] Speaker 1: buyers the tools and insight to make million dollar decisions
[0:59] Speaker 1: with clarity and confidence. Let's find out how his company
[1:03] Speaker 1: can impact your bottom line. Please weapon the Money Making
[1:06] Speaker 1: Conversation Master Class. Elliott Holland, how you doing, Elliott?
[1:09] Speaker 2: I'm doing very well.
[1:10] Speaker 1: How are you well, Elliott? When I first hear something
[1:13] Speaker 1: like this about buying small businesses, he know, we've immediately
[1:17] Speaker 1: get the word franchise. Are we talking about that when
[1:20] Speaker 1: we start this conversation or you're talking about something different.
[1:23] Speaker 2: I'm talking about everything, So franchises and non franchises to me,
[1:27] Speaker 2: franchises or special instances of regular businesses. You start a
[1:31] Speaker 2: subshop over in the West End in Atlanta, you get
[1:34] Speaker 2: really good your subway. I'm just talking about buying any of.
[1:37] Speaker 1: Those, Okay, So is there an advantage to that because
[1:40] Speaker 1: they tell me, like buying a franchise is turn key,
[1:44] Speaker 1: and then you go into a business, there's a lot
[1:47] Speaker 1: more of the learning curve that you may not be
[1:50] Speaker 1: ready for, even though you see the opportunity. Help me
[1:53] Speaker 1: out with that, Elliot.
[1:54] Speaker 2: Sure, I think it's degrees of confort with risks. So
[1:58] Speaker 2: I would say that in level of difficult buying a
[2:00] Speaker 2: non franchise business is harder, probably more lucrative, buying a
[2:04] Speaker 2: franchise is a little bit less difficult, probably a little
[2:07] Speaker 2: bit less lucrative on average, and then real estate and
[2:10] Speaker 2: other investments will probably fall in a bucket that's a
[2:12] Speaker 2: little bit less lucrative and a little bit less risky
[2:14] Speaker 2: than that. So it just depends, It depends on your
[2:17] Speaker 2: risk appetite. So here's the thing. When you buy a franchise,
[2:20] Speaker 2: you get the FDD and you get help from the mothership.
[2:23] Speaker 2: So you kind of have like a training wheel scenario, right,
[2:26] Speaker 2: you kind of get a walk into it and learn.
[2:29] Speaker 2: But here's the thing with a non franchise business. The
[2:32] Speaker 2: owner of that business, the employees of that business, and
[2:35] Speaker 2: all the study you do about that business before you
[2:37] Speaker 2: buy it and be close to that same manual if
[2:40] Speaker 2: you play your cards ro cool.
[2:42] Speaker 1: Before we get deeper to the interview Elied Holland, let's
[2:45] Speaker 1: get a background on you to make sure you're an expert.
[2:47] Speaker 1: Tell us about your educational background and your journey.
[2:51] Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a kid from rann Arbor. In fact, both
[2:53] Speaker 2: my parents did similar work as myself, helping black business
[2:56] Speaker 2: owners and Detroit get financing to buy their first businesses.
[3:01] Speaker 2: I came down to Atlanta. It's in Morehouse College. I
[3:03] Speaker 2: did the due A degree program with Georgia Tech. I
[3:06] Speaker 2: did some consulting. After that, I got into Harvard Business School.
[3:09] Speaker 2: This keep shirt that I have on and then I
[3:11] Speaker 2: got into the business of buying businesses private equity, so
[3:14] Speaker 2: I worked on Wall Street doing that. I very quickly
[3:17] Speaker 2: learned that the game of buying businesses was a whole
[3:20] Speaker 2: lot better you owned the equity, and so I spun
[3:24] Speaker 2: out of the private equity company I was working for,
[3:27] Speaker 2: convinced a mentor to help work with me to buy
[3:30] Speaker 2: businesses under the name elsewhereth Partners. So we bought three
[3:33] Speaker 2: companies into that business, and then when he effectively retired,
[3:37] Speaker 2: I spun out and went out and tried to buy
[3:39] Speaker 2: businesses myself. I was a bit earlier Sean, so I
[3:43] Speaker 2: was in twenty fifteen. The market wasn't as frothy as
[3:46] Speaker 2: it is now, and so I kind of tipped and
[3:51] Speaker 2: fell and bumped my head. So I had to take
[3:53] Speaker 2: a year off of twenty seventeen, and because we're talking
[3:57] Speaker 2: to my audience, I had to move back in with
[3:59] Speaker 2: my mom six seven years after Harvard Business School. And
[4:02] Speaker 2: I looked at these unique skills I had about buying
[4:04] Speaker 2: a business, and how can I both help people and
[4:07] Speaker 2: monetize those skills. And the solution was Guardian due Diligence,
[4:11] Speaker 2: a way for people to find businesses that they want
[4:13] Speaker 2: to buy, but go through my due diligence services to
[4:16] Speaker 2: make sure they're not a limit. Because you can't take
[4:18] Speaker 2: them back, just like the used car lot. And so
[4:21] Speaker 2: I started guarding due diligence at twenty eighteen, and then
[4:24] Speaker 2: last year I launched a masterclass around helping people who
[4:27] Speaker 2: are just thinking about should I buy a business and
[4:30] Speaker 2: moving them educational wise until they're ready to pursue acquisition
[4:34] Speaker 2: all the way through to closing the deal. And so
[4:36] Speaker 2: that's a quick synopsis to media.
[4:38] Speaker 1: It's a good one, a very good one, because the
[4:40] Speaker 1: journey is important because you're about to tell us how
[4:42] Speaker 1: we could make money.
[4:44] Speaker 2: In the simplest foreign businesses are priced at a multiple
[4:48] Speaker 2: of cash flow. Let's do the easy thing. So four
[4:51] Speaker 2: times cash flow for small businesses is about it. What
[4:54] Speaker 2: does that mean for a business that has profit, so
[4:56] Speaker 2: revenue minus costs of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
[5:00] Speaker 2: or we call it a quarter million dollars, the price
[5:02] Speaker 2: will be about a million dollars to purchase that asset.
[5:05] Speaker 2: And the world that I live in, there is an
[5:08] Speaker 2: SBA seven a loan that will give you ninety to
[5:11] Speaker 2: ninety five percent of the money you need to buy
[5:14] Speaker 2: the business. That's as soon you get lucky, and it's
[5:17] Speaker 2: the ninety five percent rever scenario. What that means is,
[5:20] Speaker 2: with fifty thousand dollars, you can buy a million dollar
[5:24] Speaker 2: business that is throwing off a quarter million dollars of
[5:27] Speaker 2: profit a year. If you spend four to five years
[5:31] Speaker 2: paying off that debt, you will take your fifty thousand
[5:34] Speaker 2: dollars and make a million dollars. That is a twenty
[5:37] Speaker 2: extra turn if you can only get ten percent leverage. Now,
[5:40] Speaker 2: people who buy houses recognize the bank's going to tell
[5:42] Speaker 2: you how much you turn your one hundred thousand dollars
[5:45] Speaker 2: into a million. That's why I'm here talking to you today.
[5:49] Speaker 1: My buy the business may be smarter than starting one
[5:51] Speaker 1: from scratch.
[5:52] Speaker 2: Down the percentage of success. So you're talking to you
[5:56] Speaker 2: a four or five time failed startup. Dude, try a
[6:00] Speaker 2: whole bunch of stuff that didn't work. If you think
[6:02] Speaker 2: about it, ninety something percent of startups don't work. Now,
[6:05] Speaker 2: you should cut your teeth on a startup because it's
[6:08] Speaker 2: low investment. This shouldn't be the first thing you do entrepreneurially. However,
[6:13] Speaker 2: if you have your teeth, then you kind of have
[6:14] Speaker 2: you done some stuff. Businesses that I look at that
[6:19] Speaker 2: have been around for five ten years have employees they
[6:23] Speaker 2: stick around with the ninety percent dance of probability. The
[6:27] Speaker 2: loans that I'm talking about, the SBA seven a loan
[6:30] Speaker 2: has a default rate under five percent. So if you
[6:33] Speaker 2: wanted to go to Vegas and I told you the
[6:34] Speaker 2: crap table had a ninety five percent chance of success
[6:37] Speaker 2: for Sean, and I think you bet. I'm not saying
[6:40] Speaker 2: it's full proof, but I'm saying it's a bet worthy
[6:42] Speaker 2: of consideration.
[6:43] Speaker 1: Absolutely. I'm talking Elliott Holling that he's the managing part
[6:46] Speaker 1: of Guardian Due Diligence, a boutique financial firm focused on
[6:50] Speaker 1: helping every day entrepreneurs or people like you who are
[6:54] Speaker 1: listening want to change your life financially to confidently acquire
[6:57] Speaker 1: profitable small business conversations. Not you see something, We're gonna
[7:02] Speaker 1: just dump you off into a business and you're gonna
[7:04] Speaker 1: make a miracle return out of it. He's talking about
[7:06] Speaker 1: profitable small businesses. Now, what I keep doing in this
[7:10] Speaker 1: conversation is I'm just a guy who's seen homes all
[7:13] Speaker 1: my life. I drive out, I see it for sale sign,
[7:17] Speaker 1: so I go, oh oh, I can go on Zillo,
[7:20] Speaker 1: Nikked Telby. But in this zip code, they tell me
[7:22] Speaker 1: all all do comps? Now, how do I find out
[7:26] Speaker 1: what businesses are for sale?
[7:28] Speaker 2: Elliott Rashan, I feel like I might have paid you.
[7:30] Speaker 2: What a perfect question. So the zillo in my world
[7:34] Speaker 2: is called biz by sale. I call it the McDonald's
[7:36] Speaker 2: are buying the business. It might not be the best
[7:38] Speaker 2: burden you ever had, but you probably started there. So
[7:41] Speaker 2: you go to busbuy sale dot com and there are
[7:45] Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands of businesses for sale, each represented by
[7:48] Speaker 2: a broker, a business broker, and you can say, hey,
[7:51] Speaker 2: I like this one here, I'm gonna send it lie
[7:54] Speaker 2: information to the broker. I'd like to find out more
[7:56] Speaker 2: about this. They will send you a non disclosure agreement
[7:59] Speaker 2: and then you get the package on the business. And
[8:01] Speaker 2: so it's not all that different. You just go to
[8:03] Speaker 2: a different place to get the information.
[8:05] Speaker 1: So look at it, Rashon McDonald just say, I'm just
[8:09] Speaker 1: gonna throw all it down. I got maybe fifty thousand dollars.
[8:12] Speaker 1: Can I do anything with fifty thousand dollars? In the
[8:15] Speaker 1: conversation of Alan hap it with you, Elliott Hollom.
[8:18] Speaker 2: Absolutely, you can go buy a million dollar business. You
[8:22] Speaker 2: can go find a manufacturing business off a fault Induster
[8:26] Speaker 2: or down in in East Lake or wherever in Alpharetta
[8:30] Speaker 2: that's doing a quarter million dollars a profit and you
[8:33] Speaker 2: can go put an offer in to buy that business
[8:35] Speaker 2: with your fifty thousand dollars. And here's the nice thing, Rashaan,
[8:39] Speaker 2: This ain't you going to get financing from some special
[8:42] Speaker 2: bank in New York? Uh huh? The SBA seven A
[8:45] Speaker 2: program is a bank is a program that any bank
[8:48] Speaker 2: on your block, the one you already banked with, can
[8:50] Speaker 2: work with and work with you to get. Meaning that
[8:53] Speaker 2: the closest bank to your house is the exact bank
[8:56] Speaker 2: you can go use to make this transaction happen. This
[8:59] Speaker 2: is not or the high falut folcus for everybody.
[9:03] Speaker 1: What would you say will be a safe business to
[9:06] Speaker 1: try to buy for a person who will not go
[9:10] Speaker 1: in and do any of the work. That's me? How
[9:13] Speaker 1: does that sound to you? And how do you walk
[9:15] Speaker 1: how do you walk me through the steps?
[9:17] Speaker 2: So you would want a business with contracts? You want
[9:21] Speaker 2: a business like a like a property management company where
[9:25] Speaker 2: there's two to three year contracts, where it's a simple
[9:27] Speaker 2: office where they're doing the simple maintenance grass cutting on
[9:31] Speaker 2: a whole bunch of houses. People who are rented houses.
[9:34] Speaker 2: You already said you know a real estate a bits,
[9:35] Speaker 2: so this is a real estate business, but it's a business,
[9:39] Speaker 2: and so that would be a good one. Any businesses
[9:41] Speaker 2: with contracts digital marketing company sometimes have long term contracts,
[9:45] Speaker 2: some other service businesses. But what you want is both
[9:48] Speaker 2: the business with contracts for seine and one where there's
[9:51] Speaker 2: somebody in the business is probably not the owner who's
[9:54] Speaker 2: like a number two who's ready to step up into
[9:56] Speaker 2: the owner seat or not the owner seat, but the
[9:58] Speaker 2: president's CEOC and they don't have the money or the
[10:02] Speaker 2: interest to take all the risks you do that, but
[10:04] Speaker 2: they have the skills and knowledge to run the business.
[10:06] Speaker 2: And basically you'd work with that person to execute the
[10:09] Speaker 2: transaction in the way where you wouldn't have to go running.
[10:12] Speaker 1: I'm talking to Elliott Holland now. When you submitted your
[10:15] Speaker 1: information to me for this interview, Elliott, your business title
[10:19] Speaker 1: was chief deal closer.
[10:21] Speaker 2: That's right, that's right.
[10:23] Speaker 1: What does that mean?
[10:24] Speaker 2: I'm the chief deal closer?
[10:25] Speaker 3: Why?
[10:25] Speaker 2: Because I'm working week to week for hours to help
[10:29] Speaker 2: people get through the process, and so I'm the chief
[10:31] Speaker 2: deal closer. That's what I'm doing in that business.
[10:33] Speaker 1: Let's talk about this masterclass. What is it exactly?
[10:37] Speaker 2: It is a way for you to not have to
[10:39] Speaker 2: go through all the hardships I had to go to
[10:41] Speaker 2: to learn how to buy a business in a streamlined
[10:45] Speaker 2: way with the person that's available online, so you don't
[10:48] Speaker 2: have to go to this fancy place to leave your city.
[10:50] Speaker 2: We do all the classes online, but it is essentially
[10:54] Speaker 2: most people wake up one day, like you said, I
[10:57] Speaker 2: used to buying houses. I'm looking at stocks. I heard
[11:00] Speaker 2: this thing about buying buying a company. Maybe I want
[11:03] Speaker 2: to do that. But the thing is, there's not any
[11:05] Speaker 2: schools for that. You can't just go downtown in your
[11:08] Speaker 2: city and figure out how to do it. I have
[11:10] Speaker 2: a class to help walk you through. I just got
[11:12] Speaker 2: interested in the process, so I know what I'm doing.
[11:15] Speaker 2: So here's examples of how to get it done. And
[11:18] Speaker 2: then and I'm weekly one on ones. Hey, Elliott, I
[11:21] Speaker 2: looked at these four deals. I have these three issues,
[11:23] Speaker 2: these three things I need to figure out. We're going
[11:25] Speaker 2: to talk through each one of those things one on one,
[11:27] Speaker 2: so that by the time we go through six months
[11:29] Speaker 2: of one on ones, it's likely you're going to have
[11:32] Speaker 2: a deal closed. And that's way quicker than twelve to
[11:35] Speaker 2: eighteen months it takes most people to get their first
[11:37] Speaker 2: deal done.
[11:38] Speaker 1: Now that that's important to have that whole process. Now,
[11:42] Speaker 1: what does your team look like? Are you a team
[11:44] Speaker 1: of one, Elliott?
[11:46] Speaker 2: No, I'm a team of ten. So the weekly one
[11:49] Speaker 2: on ones are me because you need somebody that has
[11:51] Speaker 2: all the knowledge. Now, people like that doesn't scale. I'm
[11:55] Speaker 2: not trying to create the world's biggest company. I'm trying
[11:57] Speaker 2: to create the world's best at this specific thing, working
[12:00] Speaker 2: one on one. I have accountants on my team. I
[12:03] Speaker 2: have consulting on my team. I have people in the
[12:05] Speaker 2: industry to do all the ad hoc stuff that's around
[12:08] Speaker 2: the core business acquisition that are on my team. So
[12:11] Speaker 2: we have the full list of people you need to
[12:13] Speaker 2: get this done. I'm just the main person helping you.
[12:16] Speaker 1: I got to have my house in order in order
[12:20] Speaker 1: to look at this opportunity. So, Elliott, what do I
[12:25] Speaker 1: have to look like before I even step up. I
[12:28] Speaker 1: might have fifty dollars dollars, but that doesn't mean that
[12:31] Speaker 1: I should be giving it out because I don't have
[12:33] Speaker 1: the tools to be able to maintain even I might
[12:37] Speaker 1: cause that company of the clothes because they don't have
[12:40] Speaker 1: my act together. So talk to me about Rashawn McDonald
[12:43] Speaker 1: and what he has to have straight in order to
[12:46] Speaker 1: participate in his business.
[12:48] Speaker 2: So the number one thing you have to have is
[12:50] Speaker 2: the time to go spend three to nine months looking
[12:54] Speaker 2: for a business to buy. Here's why, Rashan. If you
[12:58] Speaker 2: find it Beyonce of deals, the Michael Jackson of deals,
[13:02] Speaker 2: you will find investors for that business. I guarantee it.
[13:05] Speaker 2: And if you can't find them, when your deal is
[13:06] Speaker 2: that good, come talk to me and I'll help you
[13:08] Speaker 2: find them. So the number one thing is go find
[13:11] Speaker 2: a knockout amazing deal. Then I would say you don't
[13:14] Speaker 2: need fifty thousand dollars because there's an infinite amount of
[13:17] Speaker 2: investors that want to invest in good deals. You need
[13:20] Speaker 2: to have a little bit, have a little ten thousand
[13:23] Speaker 2: dollars in the bank, something borrow some get some from
[13:26] Speaker 2: a friend. Right, need to have your credit house and order.
[13:29] Speaker 2: You cannot get that without having your credit house and order.
[13:31] Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be the greatest in the world,
[13:33] Speaker 2: but it can't be the worst. And you need to
[13:36] Speaker 2: have your entrepreneurial chops. This is a process like a
[13:40] Speaker 2: sales process. Where you're gonna have to get used to
[13:42] Speaker 2: a lot of no's, a lot of wonkiness. Business brokers
[13:45] Speaker 2: can be a pain in the buck. Sellers can be crazy.
[13:48] Speaker 2: And so if you want to feel good every single
[13:50] Speaker 2: day with the work that you did in the business
[13:52] Speaker 2: buying acquisition process, that's not this. This is how to
[13:55] Speaker 2: get rich, but you gotta be willing to take some punches.
[13:58] Speaker 3: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
[14:02] Speaker 3: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
[14:09] Speaker 3: Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald.
[14:13] Speaker 1: I used Rashan McDonald's a exam as an exam. Do
[14:17] Speaker 1: you have any other examples? Lead to a couple that
[14:20] Speaker 1: can look to both of them different that you can
[14:23] Speaker 1: show how they've come into your business format. Participate in
[14:27] Speaker 1: your master class and this is the results of that.
[14:30] Speaker 2: Sure, So Clinton townsend another more house grad. I helped
[14:33] Speaker 2: him buy a manufacturing business in New York earlier this year,
[14:38] Speaker 2: and so Clinton came in. He was interested in buying businesses.
[14:41] Speaker 2: He had done some research, but he got into the
[14:43] Speaker 2: process and he was having some issues with the financing
[14:45] Speaker 2: piece and some issues with due diligence he used us
[14:48] Speaker 2: for due diligence, and then during the financing piece we
[14:51] Speaker 2: kind of helped coaching through some of those nuanced things
[14:53] Speaker 2: that banks can do to try to stumble you up
[14:56] Speaker 2: and not give you the money. And we pushed through
[14:58] Speaker 2: and now use the proud owner manufacturing business and he's
[15:01] Speaker 2: looking to buy more. I'll tell you another. So there
[15:05] Speaker 2: was a Lucas Phillips bought a automotive after parts manufacturing
[15:11] Speaker 2: business in Jersey. He was twenty four when he bought
[15:14] Speaker 2: the business. Young, so you don't have to be old
[15:17] Speaker 2: with a whole bunch of seasons. He was twenty four
[15:20] Speaker 2: he bought the business. He had the idea, he had
[15:24] Speaker 2: some sort of experience with investing, his family had some
[15:27] Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie about that. But he needed due diligence,
[15:30] Speaker 2: so he used us for that. But he also needed
[15:33] Speaker 2: discretion help withshan So with the house, you can go
[15:35] Speaker 2: get an appraisal on somebody will tell you what the
[15:37] Speaker 2: value is. And the small business, a lot of that
[15:39] Speaker 2: work you have to do yourself. And so he helped
[15:41] Speaker 2: him get comfortable with the decision he was making to
[15:44] Speaker 2: make that purchase. And now he's made two or three
[15:47] Speaker 2: add on purchases. The business is four or five times
[15:49] Speaker 2: bigger than it was when he bought it, and he's
[15:51] Speaker 2: doing really well. And I could tell you about a
[15:53] Speaker 2: sixty year old person that I helped buy a business
[15:55] Speaker 2: last year, just to give you twenty four to sixty.
[15:58] Speaker 2: It's the age.
[15:59] Speaker 1: Range all over, which I like because I always tell
[16:02] Speaker 1: people on this show, don't allow age to be an
[16:04] Speaker 1: ex qus to pursue your dreams. So let's hear that
[16:07] Speaker 1: sixty year old story. Because I let people stop at forty,
[16:10] Speaker 1: stop at fifty sixty, they try to cheek out retirement.
[16:14] Speaker 1: I'll tell you, no, live your dream and don't let
[16:17] Speaker 1: nobody tell you what you can't do. Lit's hear that
[16:19] Speaker 1: sixty year old story.
[16:21] Speaker 2: Yeah. So Ed found me through my YouTube channel crazy Enough,
[16:24] Speaker 2: and he came to me and said, hey, look, Elliott,
[16:26] Speaker 2: I had two businesses before, and I had a health
[16:29] Speaker 2: situation that made me put those two businesses down. Now
[16:32] Speaker 2: I've gotten past the health Scareed, and I want to
[16:34] Speaker 2: get back in the game. And now I'm buying versus
[16:36] Speaker 2: building and I need your help. So we walked through
[16:39] Speaker 2: three different acquisition attempts that he was going through, and
[16:43] Speaker 2: the best one was a manufacturing company in Kentucky, So
[16:47] Speaker 2: we helped him think about how to do it. We
[16:49] Speaker 2: actually helped him get his team together. He had some
[16:51] Speaker 2: members on his team that really needed to get out
[16:53] Speaker 2: of there on the first one. That we got some
[16:56] Speaker 2: better people in the mix on the second, and we
[16:58] Speaker 2: were able to get him the confidence from financial due
[17:00] Speaker 2: diligence perspective. Again, a business owner does not make you
[17:04] Speaker 2: a forensic accountant. We are forensic accountants. We are like
[17:07] Speaker 2: detectives for numbers. So he gave the comfort that the
[17:09] Speaker 2: business was making the money that they said it was making.
[17:13] Speaker 2: He closed that deal, and now we're Sean. I'm working
[17:15] Speaker 2: on two more deals for him right now. So he's
[17:18] Speaker 2: not just not doing this.
[17:19] Speaker 1: Man's going for it, which I love because all deals
[17:22] Speaker 1: are like good deals.
[17:23] Speaker 2: That's right.
[17:24] Speaker 1: So I come to you is what is a bad
[17:28] Speaker 1: deal in how the spot won before is two date before.
[17:31] Speaker 2: The easiest way is that people won't let you look
[17:33] Speaker 2: at the books. So they wanted to look at the
[17:34] Speaker 2: books in two seconds. Wow, So my books are good,
[17:38] Speaker 2: you can look at them forever, Rashan, because I know
[17:41] Speaker 2: they're solid. Right, if my car is good, you can
[17:43] Speaker 2: take it to whatever mechanic you got. But if my
[17:46] Speaker 2: business on my car is junk, no, no, no, man,
[17:49] Speaker 2: we're not taking off a lot. Got to make a
[17:50] Speaker 2: deal here. That's the first sign. The second sign is
[17:54] Speaker 2: a lot of people will mask terrible financials with a
[17:58] Speaker 2: one time situation, or we just don't overspend on financing accounting,
[18:04] Speaker 2: and just make sure that if you're not the kind
[18:06] Speaker 2: of person that understands how to look at instead of
[18:08] Speaker 2: small company messing financial books, you get somebody like myself,
[18:12] Speaker 2: or there are others to do what's called a quality
[18:15] Speaker 2: of earnings, which is essentially a mini audit on a
[18:17] Speaker 2: private business ahead of buying it, so you don't get had.
[18:21] Speaker 2: Because there's a lot of bad examples of people getting
[18:23] Speaker 2: in a lot of trouble, almost all of them did
[18:26] Speaker 2: not do financial diligence.
[18:28] Speaker 1: You know, hey, I made mistakes to laed. You know,
[18:31] Speaker 1: we want to pray, we want to hope, we want
[18:36] Speaker 1: to they wouldn't they look like nice people?
[18:39] Speaker 2: That's right.
[18:40] Speaker 1: I've never been played in my life before. Why would
[18:43] Speaker 1: I get played now?
[18:44] Speaker 2: That's right? Now we're talking one.
[18:46] Speaker 1: Thing I know. Once you signed that contract, brother.
[18:50] Speaker 2: That's it.
[18:50] Speaker 1: You'll own the hook. That's it, and that's key. Just
[18:54] Speaker 1: like once you drive that car off that lot, that's
[18:57] Speaker 1: your car.
[18:58] Speaker 2: That's your car.
[18:59] Speaker 1: That's your car.
[19:00] Speaker 2: That's just your car. And let me tell you something else.
[19:02] Speaker 2: So I mentioned earlier that a business is valued at
[19:05] Speaker 2: four times proper plus or minds. So here's the thing.
[19:08] Speaker 2: If I'm a seller, for every dollar of bogus profit
[19:12] Speaker 2: that I convince you as in there as I don't
[19:14] Speaker 2: get one dollar for it, I get four. You know
[19:18] Speaker 2: how motivated even a reasonable person is to lie in
[19:21] Speaker 2: that scenario.
[19:22] Speaker 1: Right right right, especially when they know the truth.
[19:26] Speaker 2: Yeah, and they know it better than you.
[19:28] Speaker 1: So you know, like I said, you know the homeowners,
[19:31] Speaker 1: they are supposed to get an inspected to respect the
[19:35] Speaker 1: home before you buy the home. Same situation there, You
[19:40] Speaker 1: bring an account it, you bring your legal team in.
[19:43] Speaker 1: You do inspect the background, the history. So don't assume
[19:47] Speaker 1: just because they're nice people, or they wouldn't do that.
[19:50] Speaker 1: They don't look like those type of people. See the books.
[19:54] Speaker 1: See the history of the books, not the current history.
[19:57] Speaker 1: You know, find out why the books went down. You know,
[20:00] Speaker 1: like you might be buying a descending business. You know,
[20:04] Speaker 1: it might be profitably, we'd but what was it four
[20:07] Speaker 1: years ago? What was that number four years ago was it?
[20:10] Speaker 1: What was the staff, what was the atmosphere, what was
[20:12] Speaker 1: the community? I always tell people I buy a home,
[20:15] Speaker 1: I drive in the neighborhood in the morning, in the afternoon,
[20:18] Speaker 1: late at night, I just sit on the streets sometimes
[20:21] Speaker 1: just to see, yep, what kind of traffic floor is
[20:24] Speaker 1: going back? That's what you have to do. That's what
[20:27] Speaker 1: he's talking about. Due diligence.
[20:29] Speaker 2: Due diligence.
[20:30] Speaker 1: Yes, and that's important that I say it, And it
[20:33] Speaker 1: is coming from an expert, because you're a subject matter expert.
[20:36] Speaker 1: I'm just a good storyteller and saying that's due diligence.
[20:39] Speaker 2: So the same thing. You might want to do the
[20:41] Speaker 2: same thing in the business. So there's the accounting stuff
[20:43] Speaker 2: that I'm going to help you do. But you may
[20:45] Speaker 2: want to sit so a lot of sellers can tell
[20:47] Speaker 2: you all I only spend ten hours in the business
[20:50] Speaker 2: a week. Well maybe you want to sit out there
[20:52] Speaker 2: for two or three days and see if they're not
[20:54] Speaker 2: spending sixty hours in the business each week.
[20:57] Speaker 1: Wow, elliot, how could we reach you by friend?
[21:00] Speaker 2: So Guardian due diligence dot com The business buyingmasterclass dot
[21:05] Speaker 2: com and then search Elliott Holland YouTube. That's my main
[21:08] Speaker 2: social channel. I've got over three hundred amazing videos to
[21:11] Speaker 2: coach you and talk you through all of this. Those
[21:13] Speaker 2: are the best places to findment.
[21:14] Speaker 1: Well, let's continue talking here because one of the terms
[21:17] Speaker 1: out here all the time, the big no money down
[21:21] Speaker 1: oooh with that business blind myth. Talk to me, brother,
[21:24] Speaker 1: is that true? No money down?
[21:27] Speaker 2: No, it ain't true. It's like a unicorn, you know,
[21:30] Speaker 2: with skittles coming out the back. Now now, does it
[21:34] Speaker 2: occasionally happen on some high hill with the rainbow going
[21:37] Speaker 2: over it and Jesus preaching on top every once in
[21:40] Speaker 2: a while, But typically I'm not selling my profitable business
[21:43] Speaker 2: for no money down. And so here's what I tell you.
[21:46] Speaker 2: I had a business partner that like no money down deals,
[21:49] Speaker 2: and I spent several years trying to figure that out.
[21:51] Speaker 2: I lost. You will lose. The thing is you can
[21:55] Speaker 2: find one if you have ten times the amount of
[21:58] Speaker 2: months that you probably have to actually figure it out.
[22:01] Speaker 2: If you're looking to do this in six to twelve months,
[22:04] Speaker 2: figure out how to either save the ten percent down,
[22:08] Speaker 2: get it from other people, talk to anybody in the industry.
[22:11] Speaker 2: There's plenty of third party investors that love these deals.
[22:14] Speaker 2: Get ten percent down, ninety percent leverage, just like a house,
[22:19] Speaker 2: and go get in the driver's seat again. If you
[22:21] Speaker 2: buy a business for ten percent down and pay off
[22:24] Speaker 2: the debt ten x your money. Opportunities like that don't
[22:27] Speaker 2: come for nothing. You got to put a little skin
[22:29] Speaker 2: in the game.
[22:30] Speaker 1: Now, know you're based here in Atlanta, but I've been
[22:32] Speaker 1: here in New York, I've been here in other states.
[22:35] Speaker 1: How does that work for you? Who exactly am I
[22:38] Speaker 1: talking to l Elliot Hollam.
[22:41] Speaker 2: You're talking to a brother from anaver to live twenty
[22:43] Speaker 2: years in Atlanta, and we do business online. So I
[22:47] Speaker 2: have clients all across the states. I have some in Europe,
[22:50] Speaker 2: I have some in North Africa, and I go to
[22:53] Speaker 2: conferences so you can see me in person. So and
[22:56] Speaker 2: I'm easy to catch. My email or my phone number
[22:58] Speaker 2: on the bottom of my website, so I'm not not
[23:01] Speaker 2: hard to catch, just the regular dude helping people buy
[23:03] Speaker 2: businesses because.
[23:04] Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just trying to connect the dodds with
[23:07] Speaker 1: you know, with the world I know, which is real estate,
[23:10] Speaker 1: home ownership. Okay, And it sounds that they have restricted
[23:14] Speaker 1: areas of opportunity. This is where you're supposed to do
[23:17] Speaker 1: business in this state. This is where you've been licensed.
[23:20] Speaker 1: Now you're telling me, is it the wild wild West
[23:23] Speaker 1: out there in the business buying world?
[23:26] Speaker 2: Yes, but it's also the safe, safe West. So the
[23:29] Speaker 2: nice thing about finances is that there's only two accounting
[23:33] Speaker 2: standards in the whole world. There's GAP this US and
[23:37] Speaker 2: this IFRS. That's the rest of the world. Once you
[23:39] Speaker 2: understand those two, or once I understood those two, I
[23:43] Speaker 2: can do deals anywhere in the world where somebody on
[23:45] Speaker 2: the team speaks English, because the numbers are the numbers.
[23:48] Speaker 2: So what I tell you is that one of the
[23:50] Speaker 2: great things about today's world is you don't I don't
[23:53] Speaker 2: have to be located where the business is. Your lawyer
[23:55] Speaker 2: doesn't have to be and when you start, you don't
[23:58] Speaker 2: have to be a lot of the stuff you can
[23:59] Speaker 2: get remotely. Now, you still want to go drive around
[24:02] Speaker 2: the business once or trice with Sean, like you said,
[24:04] Speaker 2: but that doesn't mean you have to live there before
[24:06] Speaker 2: you start your process.
[24:08] Speaker 1: Well, you know the whole thing about business. You know,
[24:10] Speaker 1: first of all, this is an educational conversation for me,
[24:13] Speaker 1: and I have to be honest with you. I have
[24:16] Speaker 1: no idea, I have no clue. I did an expert,
[24:21] Speaker 1: and this is what this conversation is. I've had several
[24:24] Speaker 1: people on my show who've talked about buying businesses, but
[24:28] Speaker 1: never at the level of confort that you're talking. And
[24:32] Speaker 1: I want to go back to you know, see no evil, ill,
[24:36] Speaker 1: no evil. Your parents did this for a living. How
[24:39] Speaker 1: did they influence you and do you go to them
[24:42] Speaker 1: for mentorship, advice or why? How much do they play
[24:45] Speaker 1: in your life today? Sir?
[24:47] Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely so. I tell people I don't have white privilege,
[24:51] Speaker 2: but I have two professional entrepreneurial parents privilege, and that's
[24:54] Speaker 2: a big step up. So I knew how business ownership
[24:57] Speaker 2: looked when I was young. I still talked my mom
[25:02] Speaker 2: every week about stuff's going on in my business, and
[25:04] Speaker 2: she can give me advice. I lost my father at fourteen,
[25:07] Speaker 2: so unfortunately he's not around anymore, at least on this planet.
[25:10] Speaker 2: But I think a lot of what influences me is
[25:12] Speaker 2: I knew it was possible, not just for my parents,
[25:15] Speaker 2: but in Michigan at a lot like Atlanta, there's a
[25:19] Speaker 2: long legacy of black business ownership of very successful businesses
[25:22] Speaker 2: at the forefront of all these industries. And so I
[25:25] Speaker 2: just knew that I came from that claw, and I
[25:29] Speaker 2: wasn't scared to go try my hand at.
[25:31] Speaker 1: It now and closing the hair, Why did Elliott Holland
[25:36] Speaker 1: lead big money to empower first time owners?
[25:40] Speaker 2: Because people need an on REMP when you don't grow
[25:43] Speaker 2: up with a silver spoon in your mouth saying hey,
[25:46] Speaker 2: just go to a fancy Ivy League school and then
[25:47] Speaker 2: all these things will fall into your player. Just go
[25:49] Speaker 2: work on Wall Street and everybody, if there's investing that
[25:52] Speaker 2: ain't gonna work for us. Right, I'm talking to my
[25:55] Speaker 2: HBCU folks. I'm talking with folks that might not have
[25:57] Speaker 2: gone to college. I didn't say you need to go
[25:58] Speaker 2: to college to do this. I'm talking to everyday folks.
[26:01] Speaker 2: And for me, it ain't all that exciting to help
[26:05] Speaker 2: rich people get richer, you know, to help everyday people
[26:08] Speaker 2: get rich. Now, that gets me up out of bed
[26:10] Speaker 2: every moere and that gets me taking like nine calls
[26:12] Speaker 2: early running calls. It gets me doing podcasts. So you
[26:15] Speaker 2: can probably see it in my eyes. This matters to
[26:17] Speaker 2: me a whole lot more. So forget the money on
[26:19] Speaker 2: that absolute basis, let me do the work that needs
[26:22] Speaker 2: to be done just like my parents did.
[26:24] Speaker 1: Well know again, as we close out, let us know
[26:27] Speaker 1: how to reach out to your Elert Holland.
[26:29] Speaker 2: Guardian Due Diligence dot com, the Business Buyingmasterclass dot com,
[26:33] Speaker 2: and the search Elliott Holland and YouTube that's my main
[26:36] Speaker 2: social and you'll find me there with over three hundred videos.
[26:39] Speaker 1: Yeah, Managing partner of Guardian Due Diligence, a boutique financial
[26:43] Speaker 1: firm focus on helping everyday entrepreneurs are people confidently acquire
[26:48] Speaker 1: profitable small businesses. But again caveat, you must have the
[26:53] Speaker 1: time and you must have your act together. Just don't
[26:56] Speaker 1: jump out that this is not buy the house. You're
[26:59] Speaker 1: not flipping on home. You flipping employees, you flip for
[27:03] Speaker 1: a lifestyle, you flipping a community. And so as a
[27:07] Speaker 1: lot goes into these business decisions that you want to
[27:10] Speaker 1: bring it to your life. But if you make the
[27:12] Speaker 1: right decision, like Elliott said, it can be a home
[27:15] Speaker 1: run not only for you, but create a legacy for
[27:17] Speaker 1: your family. Elliott Holland, thank you for coming on Money
[27:20] Speaker 1: Making Conversation Masterclass.
[27:21] Speaker 2: For God, I thank you cool.
[27:25] Speaker 1: This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
[27:28] Speaker 1: posted by me Rushaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
[27:31] Speaker 1: on the show today and thank you our listening to
[27:34] Speaker 1: the audience now. If you want to listen to any
[27:36] Speaker 1: episode I want to be a guest on the show,
[27:38] Speaker 1: visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money
[27:43] Speaker 1: Making Conversation. Join us next week and remember to always
[27:46] Speaker 1: leave with your gifts. Keep winning.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.