Curated Pt. 10

A weekly roundup of cool stuff I hope you'll like

Jan 30, 2024

Morning,

After every meetup I have great conversations with future business buyers.

A common question I get is whether experience in the industry they’re looking at matters.

While having relevant experience is a plus when buying a business, from my experience, if you don’t… you can learn quickly.

Either way, your first acquisition is a giant experiment.

Every choice you make, system you build, and employee you hire is an experiment.

You throw everything at the wall until something sticks.

Especially if you’ve never operated a business before.

I did everything I could to find something I could understand, first.

But if the perfect opportunity came my way, I wasn’t going to turn it down because I didn’t have direct experience.

Hope that helps.

Don’t forget to forward this to a friend, partner, colleague, or your mama.

Projects

Novel Ice Cream - 3rd location is underway, hopefully we’ll be ready to go mid March. I’m now pondering whether I should put the deposit down on our 1st mobile buildout.

New Concept - lease is signed, long list of equipment purchased and heading out to pick up a turbochef that weighs a thousand pounds this afternoon. Hopefully, we’ll have this rolling by mid-March as well.

Here’s a pic from inside the shop last night:

2nd Acquisition - future partners and I are searching for another business to buy. We’re industry agnostic but we’ll focus on what we know first and branch out from there.

Food Hall - talks have slowed down with the property being in probate but I’m keeping my eye on the ball. This project will be massive so I’m looking to bring on capital partners for it. If you or someone you know is interested, reply to this email.

SMB Community - wrapped up the 4th meetup last Tuesday and I’m blown away at how quickly this community is growing. Thank you for being a part of it and spreading the message around The Valley.

Upcoming Events

SMB Morning Coffee
Date: February 6
Time: 8-10 AM
Location: Dialog
RSVP here
Small Business Social
Date: February 22
Time: 6-9 PM
Location: The Duce
RSVP here
Austin Small Business Social
Date: February 17
Time: 6-8PM
Location: Meanwhile Brewing
RSVP here
Austin Business Owners Private Workout and Dinner
Date: March 1
Time: 5-9 PM
Location: Squatch Fitness & Private Restaurant
Apply here
Denver Small Business Social
Date: March 15
Time: 6-8 PM
Location: TBD
RSVP here

For real-time updates and to stay in touch:
Twitter/X: @shawnwallard
Linkedin: Shawn Allard
Instagram: @shawnallard

Book

I’m not reading as much right now so no book rec this week.

You probably don’t need another rec anyways.

Maybe finish the book that’s been sitting on your desk for 3 months.

Podcast

There’s nothing better than chopping up business ideas with your boys.

Episodes like this are a great reminder that you’re overcomplicating everything.

Check it out:

Video

In my 2nd post I mentioned that I don’t watch TV so when I recommend a show, you better believe it’s good.

If you’re into documentaries and history, it’s worth a watch.

Health

Don’t go against your nature…

Let me explain.

There’s a label for everything.

OCD, ADD and all the other nonsense are labeled as deficiencies.

Growing up I had them all.

Truth be told, I still do.

It’s interesting that society tries everything to curb these strengths (as I like to call them) at all costs.

And as you know, the most successful people show signs of almost every known deficiency.

But they’ve learned to harness them in the right direction.

They actually lean into their nature.

Doing so may affect other aspects of their lives, but it drives results in what they care about most.

And that’s all that matters.

So instead of labeling these things as dificiencies.

Lean into that shit.

You’ll be surprised how valuable they actually are.

Community Supporters

Daniel Cheetham is the Founder and Principal of Captains Club and has been an incredible supporter of this community. He and his team help business owners find the highest quality successor when the time is right.

I highly recommend scheduling a call with him to learn more about his process here.

Elyse Gonzales is the Vice President of SBA Lending at Live Oak Bank and is supporting small business owners and buyers across the country in so many incredible ways. If you’re looking to purchase your first or next business or would like to learn more about the SBA and their lending process, right-click here to copy her email address.

Matthias Smith is the CEO/Founder of Pioneer Capital Advisory. He’s helping acquisition entrepreneurs through SBA7a lending and has been an incredible resource to me and hundreds of fellow business buyers in the space. Schedule some time to connect with him about working through an SBA 7a loan.

Curated