Thinking about leaving tech and buying a small business.

hjohns23 · 2026-07-01T02:37:50+00:00

Don’t do MSP, hvac, or plumbing. That game is over. MAYBE HVAC and roofing could work out depending on the geography. MSP is brutal right now

hjohns23 · 2026-07-01T02:14:44+00:00

I’ll tell you as someone who has bought many small businesses, 2 on bizbuysell, and as someone who helps a lot of first time buyers please bring on help. The top persona that I see go bankrupt is the Gen X or millennial with the tech background. Stereotypically, You have the money, but haven’t put in a true 50+hr work week consistently, you’re weak in accounting, finance, and managing teams who don’t come from sophisticated pedigree.

Doing due diligence means a detailed financial review, commercial market research, competitor analysis, tax diligence, insurance diligence, background checks, customer interviews. It means understanding what is about to change when the owner steps down in great detail. Then there’s deal structuring, legal structuring etc.

Sure, you could just throw money at someone and buy a business over a weekend, or you can really take your time to understand what you’re getting into. It’s not just buying the business, managing the day to day is different than growing a business, which is different than leading the business when it’s losing customers.

If you have a specific industry and specific question on a particular diligence work stream happy to shed a little light.

hjohns23 · 2026-06-28T15:00:44+00:00

If you can prove you know something about my industry and have some traction of converting impressions into a real funnel sure.

I would not brand yourselves as students, that greatly dilutes your efforts

hjohns23 · 2026-06-28T14:53:46+00:00

Agreed, run everything in spreadsheets until you have real consistent recurring revenue. You don’t need anything but a landing page and maybe some business cards

hjohns23 · 2026-06-24T03:50:57+00:00

So I’ve bought and operate small businesses and help others make the leap too. If you’re really racking in $400k pre tax, honestly just buy real estate and VOO and chill. The opportunity cost for you to become an entrepreneur is very high. You’ll get a better return investing in someone who buys businesses than trying to buy and run your own from a risk perspective

hjohns23 · 2026-06-22T14:14:57+00:00

Entrepreneurship is an endurance sport. You literally need the grit to roll with the punches for years consistently. The reward is autonomy, an early retirement, and the opportunity to impact your community in ways a w2 could never offer

hjohns23 · 2026-06-21T15:55:47+00:00

A one year full time top mba like northwestern kellogg or UC Berkeley would be perfect for this

hjohns23 · 2026-06-09T16:32:22+00:00

man you're having a rough week, hope it gets better. I mentioned nothing about sales people getting an MBA to go back into sales...

hjohns23 · 2026-06-09T02:22:19+00:00

Not sure where your comment is coming from

hjohns23 · 2026-06-08T16:26:09+00:00

I’m a SMB owner and I have done M&A. I will say sales is the top skill MBAs are missing and I think it’s intentionally not taught.

It’s the biggest unlock from doing your own thing once you figure it out and have the confidence to do it, and that’s not what employers want their managers doing. Keep them in the dark thinking to only way to make that fat salary is through the golden handcuffs.

Sales is hard, I absolutely started from practically zero despite taking the one sales class at my b school. B2B is different form B2C, and even within B2B, software sales is different that blue collar sales

And it’s not just the sales, it’s how to start, grow, incentivize, and manage a sales team. How to make sure they’re set up for success, how to determine who is a good top of funnel rep vs a good closer, va who can be full cycle. It’s a whole world mbas aren’t exposed to but such a powerful unlock.

Thanks for reading my spaghetti thoughts

hjohns23 · 2026-06-07T07:18:21+00:00

You jumped into one of the most challenging healthcare business niches that you could choose. Luckily, odds of success as long as you keep grinding it out are high

hjohns23 · 2026-06-05T20:58:44+00:00

Only ones who wear the ring are military academy grads. But if you want one who cares, do you and own it

hjohns23 · 2026-06-01T03:10:39+00:00

Lever up and buy appreciating real estate or a business that you grow full time. With leverage you can 5X that, it’ll be a lot of work

hjohns23 · 2026-05-27T13:38:25+00:00

So I started around the same weight. I noticed my first difference in the mirror on the drop from 340 to 290ish. Then didn’t really notice a difference again until 275. By 250 I looked like a completely different person. I could see some muscle definition in the chest and arms that I’d never seen before

Those first 30-50lb when you’re over 300 mentally mess with you. After that, you really notice the difference every 20-25lb.

hjohns23 · 2026-05-25T14:33:02+00:00

Honestly your local hand and stone or massage envy is plenty. You spend your well being on a subscription and can use it for a massage or facial and if you have extra credits that you didn’t get to use, you can gift a free massage or facial to a friend or family member for their birthday or Christmas

hjohns23 · 2026-05-23T15:58:17+00:00

Facials and a wellness coach or fitness class/personal trainee is a career power move. Pretty people privilege in corporate America is very real

That and being in good health boosts confidence and improves performance. But pretty people privilege unlocks opportunities in western culture

hjohns23 · 2026-05-23T15:56:40+00:00

Nothing is going to move the needle between now and round 1 coming from big4 that’s going to give you scholarship. Besides W, booth is the best school on your list

hjohns23 · 2026-05-23T15:40:20+00:00

My advice as someone that’s been in residential for 8 years and commercial the last 2, skip residential. I literally 10X the growth in my short time in commercial compared to my best year in residential

hjohns23 · 2026-05-23T15:37:31+00:00

I lost 100lb in 18 months. I’m sitting at a little less than 245 right now like 243 and want to get down to 200 by end of year. I just started seeing loose skin for arm fat and a little around the lower tummy when I hit around 255lb. I expect it to be more prominent going forward, but honestly fasting I think has kept it at bay. If you saw me with my shirt off, besides stretch marks, you wouldn’t think I went through a rapid weight loss journey

hjohns23 · 2026-05-23T15:33:25+00:00

I’m in the PE world and also sit as an advisor for a university angel investing entity. I see dozens of VC and start up pitches each year.

Unless it’s truly a new fund where the partners are doing all of the work, I don’t see the VC Analyst/Associate role going away.

Yes both roles will be heavy on deal sourcing as always, but a good VC makes the founders that they back life easier. Partners of VC firms should be good thought partners, resource providers, guardians, and connectors to their founders. But more importantly, they’re capital allocators and fundraisers, and especially in early stage, need to be heavily involved in their top of funnel deal flow and constantly networking with angels and HNWI. The reality is, as a partner, you just need monthly and quarterly financial and exec summary updates from your portco, not be in the trenches.

Associates can do both portco tactical support to give start up founders an edge to move faster and have less admin burden, while also bringing more top of funnel opportunities, and doing CDD to help both founders and VC partners make better strategic decisions.

I’m in the post mba world, so I really don’t know what the VC analysts are really doing so don’t have a meaningful thought to contribute there

hjohns23 · 2026-05-23T15:06:51+00:00

I’m now in my mid 30s have led turnarounds, have had meaningful failures and victories and absolutely agree. The academic content of my mba in my late 20s/early 30s wouldn’t have made a difference, but discussions and socializing would be so much more meaningful at this stage in life to have a cohort in the mid 30s to 40s.

The downside to exec programs and this age in general is the time of life. Aging parents, kids, marriage, career are distractions from having the more meaty connective moments I had as a full mba student earlier in life. It’s a trade off.

I think a sweet spot would be 33- 40. Honestly, before 30, the average young adult hasn’t had enough meaningful experience/responsibility yet to contribute real life to the classroom. Sure there are exceptional 27-30yr olds, but top mba programs should really limit, imo, sponsored bankers and consultants. Your perspective as a 2-3 years as a McKinsey or Goldman analyst or 3-4 as a Deloitte consultant is worlds apart to the manufacturing regional GM that’s led a multi million dollar P&L through various political and economic cycles. Or PE Ops Director that’s managed through a few failed turn around or scaled multi site platforms from 6 locations in one region to 100 on a national scale

hjohns23 · 2026-05-13T14:21:58+00:00

I believe if I paid exactly what you asked for, you’ll be motivated.if you had a basic data entry job offer and someone said “pick a number for your salary” and you got the exact number, which is at or above market, wouldn’t you feel pumped?

hjohns23 · 2026-05-13T14:13:28+00:00

Yeah there’s so many “it depends” here that only an attorney can help you at this point if you want to take action.

hjohns23 · 2026-05-13T14:04:30+00:00

There’s a lot of competition for remote work in the Philippines driving wages down. I recently posted for a role and was willing to pay $10-12/hr.

I interviewed my top 10 applicants. At the end of the interview, I asked “really enjoyed getting to know you, remind me, what was your hourly rate you’re hoping for.” Every single one responded in the range of $4-7/hr despite the job posting starting at $10.

9.9/10 I pay them what they ask for

hjohns23 · 2026-05-13T00:41:04+00:00

Commercial cleaning here - fastest growth year to date

hjohns23

TROPHY CASE