Introduction
My business acquisition strategy evolved dramatically over two years of searching for the right business to buy. What started as an unconventional path led me to acquire a $3.5 million revenue printing business with $750k SDE in Miami. Here’s exactly how I did it, with real talk about setbacks, mindset shifts, and practical tactics that worked.
Founder Success Story QnA
What does your unconventional background look like prior to buying this business?
I do not have an MBA. I had spent 12 years prior to coming back in 2020 in Ecuador working for family businesses, although not my family, my former spouse’s family. I was running commercial bakeries, running an incredible construction remodeling project of a 182 room hotel, which was an absolute pleasure and also complete chaos at all times.
When you reflect on it, did that Ecuador experience actually give you skills you’re using now?
When I reflect on it, when I have my moments of self-doubt, I do look back and go, “Wait, I have all the skills. I have all the tools in the toolbox from that experience.” So absolutely it was definitely a huge leg up in taking on this role which is just figure it out.
Why did buying a business grab you?
I had spent so long being my own head of house and captain of my teeny tiny ship that I had no inclination to return to being somebody else’s first mate. And I needed to be a pirate like the woman I was named after.
What were your initial search parameters?
I opened my search with everybody’s ideal search parameters. The unicorn deal that everybody wants. It’s the 750 to 1.3 IBIDA with no adbacks and recurring revenue and 40 years of stable earnings and all of those things that simply aren’t for sale. At least not for self-funded solo searchers on BizBuySell. So I definitely had to make repetitive adjustments to that buy box and to those parameters.
Did you talk to people about your search early on?
Most of it. I didn’t talk much about the fact that I was searching to buy a business for the early I don’t know how many months. When I began my search, I don’t have an MBA. I don’t have a background in finance. I chose to keep my cards very very close to my chest and spoke to close friends who are entrepreneurs about it. For people who I love and I’m very close to but wasn’t willing to open up to yet, I just said “spy.” That was my response.
What changed your approach to being more open about your search?
Very recently last December I was speaking to a lifelong excellent friend of mine who held my feet to the fire and said every time we hang out you and I have the same conversation about just a different deal that you’re trying to work on. What is it going to take for you to close a deal? Something snapped in my head and I thought, I just have to tell everybody that this is what I’m doing.
How many LOIs were you sending initially and how did that change?
How many LOIs you were sending out initially? One a month maybe. And I would belabor these LOIs and then oh no I have to speed this up. It would go to about a week. And once I had this conversation with my friend I just gave myself the assignment this needs to happen. This needs to be an everyday occurrence.
How many LOIs were you sending after that mindset shift?
You started sending LOIs every day. Yes. That’s And so And what what changed? Did you get takers? The answer to that question became more of the cadence of offers I was sending. That was the real lead indicator that changed.
How did you find deals? Was it exclusively through BizBuySell?
100% broker deals meaning BizBuySell. I didn’t spend time developing specific relationships with specific brokers but more I found that the kind of deals I wanted tended to live in certain brokerage houses. After 2 years of getting on people’s CRM, all of a sudden these deals are just hitting your inbox.
What made you choose this particular business?
I think I manifested this one. I wanted something that existed in the real world. And printing and manufacturing exist in the real world. You can touch them. I promise. I’ve been out there. I go touch stuff all the time. And when I found this and I met the seller for the first time over Zoom, she was sitting in this chair right here. We realized that we had a connection from 20 years ago.
What exactly does this business do?
We have really, really, really big printers. We do a lot of luxury retail travel displays. If you’ve been in an airport in a duty-free and you see a popup with products within the store that had to be built. We’ll build a false wall. We’ll build a canopy. We’ll build a stand, a desk, a seat, a shelving unit. We’ll decorate it with all of the company logos. We also do large format printing like backlit signs and acrylic prints directly on sheets that become stunning frameless art pieces.
Can you share the revenue and profitability numbers?
Top line was 3.5. Earnings were 750. No adbacks, discretionary earnings, I should be clear. And the multiple was fair. Very, very fair. I paid 2. Margins were about 17-21%. Headcount was 20.
What were the deal terms?
I initially offered because of the customer concentration issue. I pushed for a 15% note from the seller and I got it. Throughout the course of negotiations, I actually pulled it out of the deal to simplify it. Instead of the seller note, I took on the general manager (the seller’s daughter) as a partner with under 20% equity. It is on a vesting schedule.
Day one – tell us that story.
I dropped the kids off at school and got in my mommy mobile and drove up and I was still practicing my day one speech… And we get here to the warehouse and the seller pulls together the team on warehouse floor and proceeds to tell them very, very quickly, I’m retiring. This is the new owner. However, prior to announcing that, she noted that there’s no one who only speaks English in the room and gave the speech in Spanish. So I had to flip that switch in my brain, try to translate all of the carefully curated wording that I had in English into Spanish while remembering to make eye contact with everybody.
What early challenges did you face?
I had a key employee come to me two days after the acquisition and ask for a significant raise. Then a couple of weeks later, we had another key employee decide he wanted to quit. Later, we had another employee was served a letter informing him that his right to work in the United States had been revoked. And hours before an interview two days ago, I let our controller go. Headcount was 20 when I bought it. Now it’s 17.
How much are you paying yourself?
I pay myself 125. I did a little bit of math on how much my lifestyle was costing me and how much the salaries around me are and came up with a number that was going to keep me happily living the lifestyle that I have, which is not terribly extravagant, and making just about what the GM makes. I am also the weakest player on the bench right now. I have not got the industry expertise that everybody else does and I’m making myself earn it.
What’s your bigger “why” for doing this?
I want to build an empire for my three daughters to watch and earn and inherit and see that in a man’s world, women are perfectly capable of playing the game and sitting at the table.
Grana Michel Business Stats
Grana’s acquisition of Associated Photo and Imaging represents a successful business search with realistic metrics most solopreneurs can relate to. Her journey from stalled search to closed deal demonstrates practical revenue and growth potential in the manufacturing space.
- $3.5 million annual revenue
- $750,000 SDE (Seller’s Discretionary Earnings)
- 2.0x multiple paid
- 17-21% gross margin
- 20 employees (now 17 post-transition)
- Top customer concentration at 28%
| Business Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Annual Revenue | $3.5 million |
| SDE | $750,000 |
| Multiple | 2.0x |
| Gross Margin | 17-21% |
| Headcount | 20 (now 17) |
| Customer Concentration | Top client 28% |
Grana Michel Method
Grana’s business acquisition strategy evolved through trial and error, with specific techniques that ultimately led to her successful purchase. Her approach demonstrates how mindset and mechanics work together in business acquisition.
- Started with “unicorn” parameters but adjusted search criteria repeatedly based on market reality
- Increased LOI frequency from one per month to one per day after mindset shift
- Was private about search initially, then shared with everyone which dramatically changed her results
- Focused on businesses in the “real world” she could physically interact with
- Geographically constrained search to Miami area to maintain family stability
- Leveraged SBA 7(a) financing which limited purchase price under $5 million
Grana Michel Tools
While Grana’s acquisition relied more on mindset and relationships than specific software tools, she strategically leveraged certain resources to facilitate her search and close. Her toolset demonstrates how solopreneurs can build effective acquisition teams.
- BizBuySell.com as primary source for brokered deals without developing direct broker relationships
- Viking M&A (Trip Lawson and Mike McCoy) for professional deal management and negotiation
- First Internet Bank (Jared Johnson) for SBA financing despite initial reservations about seller financing
- Colin and Dykeman attorneys (Joe Spina and Taylor Gorman) for contract expertise
- Spanglish language skills as unexpected competitive advantage during transition
- Aspen HR for complete outsourced human resources management post-close
Key Notes
Grana’s journey offers practical insights for solopreneurs at any stage of the acquisition process. These distilled lessons reflect both tactical approaches and mindset shifts that made the difference.
- Early privacy about your search can protect vulnerable ideas, but public commitment creates accountability that drives results
- Customer concentration becomes manageable when clients have decades-long relationships with the business
- Work-in-progress billing structures create significant post-close administrative complexity – consider buying it outright
- Family dynamics in acquisition can work well with proper equity vesting schedules for key family members
- Employee transitions will happen regardless – build contingency into your headcount and skill planning
- Language and cultural fluency can make or break employee relationships during transition
Get Started in Just 5 Steps
Grana’s journey from stalled search to closed deal offers a practical roadmap for solopreneurs ready to commit to business acquisition. These five steps reflect her hard-won lessons.
- Define realistic but flexible search criteria – start broad then narrow based on market feedback
- Commit to daily activity metrics like one LOI per day rather than outcome metrics
- Build relationships with brokers by consistently engaging with their listings over time
- Create detailed transition plans for work-in-progress projects before closing
- Assemble your deal team early – financing, legal, HR, and quality of valuation experts
Conclusion
Grana’s business acquisition strategy proves that success comes not from perfect conditions but from adaptable execution. What began as a stalled search transformed when she shifted from perfection to daily action, from secrecy to commitment. Her story reminds us that the most powerful business acquisition strategies often hinge on mindset more than mechanics – and that $750k SDE is within reach when you combine consistent action with strategic flexibility.