Buying Small Businesses with Anthony Perera
In this episode of Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing, Rod Khleif interviews entrepreneur and investor Anthony Perera about the growing opportunity in buying small businesses and scaling them into highly valuable assets. While many investors focus solely on multifamily real estate investing, Anthony explains why acquiring service based businesses can create substantial cash flow, equity growth, and long term wealth through strategic exits.
Anthony shares how he built and scaled multiple companies, including Air Pros, an HVAC business that grew from one truck and one technician into a company with more than 1,000 employees and approximately $250 million in revenue. He also discusses the launch of Exuma Capital, his family office focused on acquiring and growing businesses with strong fundamentals but inefficient systems, outdated operations, or untapped growth potential.
Why Buying Small Businesses Is a Massive Opportunity
One of the biggest themes throughout the conversation is the demographic shift happening across America. With thousands of baby boomers retiring every day, many privately owned companies are entering the market without succession plans. Anthony explains that these businesses often generate strong cash flow but lack professional systems, automation, and modern leadership structures.
Rather than targeting startups or speculative ventures, Anthony focuses on stable businesses with EBITDA between $2 million and $5 million annually. His team looks for opportunities where operational improvements can dramatically increase enterprise value. Many of these companies have been operated as “lifestyle businesses” for decades, creating ideal conditions for optimization and future exits.
Key traits Anthony looks for include:
- Service based businesses resistant to AI disruption
- Companies with recurring demand and strong local reputations
- Businesses with outdated systems or inefficient operations
- Industries where consolidation and scale create higher valuation multiples
This strategy mirrors value add multifamily investing, where operational improvements increase property value and investor returns.
How Exuma Capital Adds Value After Acquisition
Anthony explains that buying small businesses is only the beginning. The real value creation happens after the acquisition through professionalization, systems implementation, and operational scaling.
In one example, his team acquired a roofing company generating tens of millions in annual revenue that was still dispatching technicians using pen and paper. By implementing CRM systems, tracking KPIs, improving marketing attribution, and streamlining customer communication, they were able to modernize operations and position the company for future private equity acquisition.
The Exuma Capital team focuses heavily on:
- CRM and automation systems
- KPI tracking and business intelligence
- Sales process optimization
- Marketing attribution and lead conversion
- Leadership development and organizational structure
- Customer journey mapping
Anthony emphasizes that many small business owners have never documented or analyzed their customer experience. Simply improving response times, follow up systems, and sales processes can significantly improve profitability and business valuation.
The Role of AI and Automation in Business Growth
Artificial intelligence was another major topic throughout the episode. Anthony and Rod discussed how AI is rapidly transforming marketing, sales, operations, and customer communication. Anthony believes businesses that adopt AI early will gain a significant competitive advantage over competitors still relying on manual systems.
His companies already use AI tools for:
- Sales call monitoring and quality assurance
- KPI reporting and dashboards
- Marketing automation
- Customer journey tracking
- Business acquisition sourcing
- Data analysis and forecasting
At the same time, Anthony intentionally focuses on industries where physical labor and human service remain essential. Roofing, HVAC, plumbing, inspections, and infrastructure services continue to require skilled workers even as automation improves backend operations.
Social Media and Marketing Strategies That Drive Growth
Anthony also shares how social media marketing can completely transform small businesses when used strategically. He explains how he acquired a local coffee shop that was generating roughly $10,000 per week in revenue and grew it to approximately $35,000 per week largely through influencer marketing and local social media promotion.
Instead of spending massive budgets on traditional advertising, his team leveraged:
- Local food influencers
- Micro influencer partnerships
- Organic social media reach
- Community engagement
- Consistent content creation
The conversation highlights how many traditional businesses still underutilize modern marketing channels, creating enormous upside for operators willing to innovate.
Lessons on Sales, Customer Experience, and Scaling
Anthony believes one of the biggest weaknesses in small businesses is the lack of intentional sales systems. His philosophy centers around deeply understanding the customer journey and improving every touchpoint.
He explains that business owners should regularly go through their own buying process to identify friction points and inefficiencies. From the first phone call to follow up communication, every interaction impacts conversion rates and long term customer value.
The discussion also covers:
- Why value eliminates price objections
- The importance of listening during sales conversations
- Campaign attribution and marketing ROI tracking
- Follow up sequences for unclosed leads
- Cross selling and repeat customer strategies
These operational disciplines are often missing in founder operated businesses, creating major opportunities for experienced operators and investors.
How Investors Can Start Buying Small Businesses
For listeners interested in buying small businesses themselves, Anthony explains that there are now more financing tools available than ever before. SBA lending programs can allow investors to acquire cash flowing companies with relatively low upfront capital.
He outlines how investors can structure acquisitions using:
- SBA financing
- Seller carryback notes
- Earn out agreements
- Operational improvements to increase EBITDA
- Future exits at larger valuation multiples
Anthony also explains the importance of integration versus simple aggregation when pursuing roll up strategies. True value creation comes from integrating systems, leadership, operations, and processes across acquired businesses rather than simply combining revenue.
About Anthony Perera
Anthony Perera is a Florida based entrepreneur, investor, and founder of Exuma Capital. Over the course of his career, he has built, scaled, and exited multiple companies across industries including HVAC, inspections, hospitality, technology, and consumer brands. He is widely known for scaling Air Pros into a national HVAC company with more than 1,000 employees and hundreds of millions in annual revenue. Today, he focuses on acquiring and scaling service based businesses through operational improvements, technology implementation, and strategic growth initiatives.
If you want to hear the full conversation and detailed insights, watch the podcast video or read the complete transcript below.
FAQ About Buying Small Businesses
What is buying small businesses?
Buying small businesses is the process of acquiring an existing company that already has customers, revenue, employees, and operational systems in place. Investors and entrepreneurs purchase these businesses to generate cash flow, scale operations, improve profitability, and eventually sell the company for a higher valuation. Many buyers focus on service based industries such as HVAC, roofing, plumbing, healthcare, and other recession resistant sectors.
Why is buying small businesses becoming more popular?
Buying small businesses has become increasingly popular because millions of baby boomer owned businesses are expected to change ownership over the next decade. Many owners are retiring without succession plans, creating opportunities for investors to acquire profitable companies with established customer bases and recurring revenue. Compared to starting a business from scratch, acquisitions can provide immediate income and operational infrastructure.
What types of businesses are best for acquisition?
Many investors prefer businesses with predictable cash flow, recurring customers, and strong local demand. Service based companies like HVAC, roofing, plumbing, pest control, landscaping, and healthcare related businesses are often attractive because they provide essential services that remain in demand regardless of economic conditions. Businesses with outdated systems or underdeveloped marketing strategies may also offer significant upside potential.
How do investors finance buying small businesses?
Investors commonly use SBA loans, seller financing, private investors, or traditional bank financing to acquire small businesses. SBA loans are especially popular because they allow qualified buyers to purchase businesses with relatively low down payments while securing long term financing. Seller carryback financing is also common, where the business owner finances a portion of the purchase price.
What is EBITDA in buying small businesses?
EBITDA stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization. It is one of the most important metrics used to evaluate a business during an acquisition. Buyers use EBITDA to measure profitability and determine valuation multiples. Businesses with higher EBITDA and stronger operational systems typically command larger sale prices.
How do investors increase the value of a small business after acquisition?
Investors often increase business value by implementing better systems, improving marketing, streamlining operations, tracking KPIs, upgrading technology, and strengthening sales processes. Many acquisitions involve businesses that have been owner operated for decades without modern automation or professional management structures. Operational improvements can significantly increase profitability and overall company valuation.
What role does AI play in buying small businesses?
Artificial intelligence is becoming an important tool for business acquisitions and operations. Investors use AI to improve customer service, automate marketing, analyze business performance, monitor sales calls, and streamline administrative tasks. AI can help small businesses become more efficient while reducing operational costs and improving customer experiences.
What are roll ups in buying small businesses?
A roll up strategy involves acquiring multiple businesses within the same industry and combining them into one larger organization. Investors pursue roll ups to create operational efficiencies, improve market share, and achieve higher valuation multiples. Successful roll ups usually require strong integration of systems, leadership, branding, and operations.
Is buying small businesses similar to real estate investing?
Buying small businesses shares many similarities with real estate investing because both strategies focus on acquiring cash flowing assets and increasing value over time. Just like value add multifamily investing, business acquisitions often involve improving operations, increasing revenue, and creating stronger long term equity positions before refinancing or selling the asset.
What should first time buyers look for when buying small businesses?
First time buyers should focus on businesses with stable cash flow, simple operations, strong customer retention, and industries they understand or can learn quickly. It is also important to evaluate the company’s financial records, leadership team, operational systems, and growth opportunities. Many successful buyers start with smaller acquisitions and scale into larger opportunities over time.
01:20:07:26 – 01:20:34:16
Rod Khleif
Welcome to lifetime cash flow through real estate investing. I’m Rod Khleif and I am thrilled you’re here. This is going to be a different type of interview today. So I’m interviewing Anthony Pereira. And Anthony is a serial entrepreneur, buying all sorts of service related businesses and other businesses and, basically, I don’t even know where to start as far as the background here, because there’s so much that this guy has done.
01:20:34:18 – 01:20:50:19
Rod Khleif
So Anthony, I’m going to let you tell your story because it’s it’s, you know, I could sit here and read this bio for about 30 minutes, about all the businesses you’ve purchased and, and, you know, where you came from. But, I think you do a better job of it. So welcome to the show, brother Tom.
01:20:50:19 – 01:20:52:21
Rod Khleif
Tell us who you are and where you came from.
01:20:52:23 – 01:21:16:07
Anthony Perera
Yeah, man. Thanks for having us. Anthony Pereira South for, native, actually, second generation, Florida native. So that’s pretty rare. Today’s world. But, yeah, give my background serial entrepreneur. Got my start at 19. Was my first company called Mud Life. So it was a magazine brand. Think off road, mud truck, swamp buggies, ATVs, four wheelers.
01:21:16:09 – 01:21:38:07
Anthony Perera
Was, trying to pursue a military career. Went to, Citadel for a year. Applied to West Point, got my nomination, didn’t get accepted, but, left. Went back to went back to Florida and started my life. And so it was a magazine for trucking and off road. I said before, we grew that from hawking like a hot dog vendor at events to being sold about 16,000 retail stores across the country.
01:21:38:10 – 01:22:00:24
Anthony Perera
Had zero background in magazine publishing or even how to take a photo, grew that, alongside of a, online, retail merchandise business, big events business sold that to a big publishing firm in 2011. Thought it’d be cool at 22 or 23 years old to get in the bar restaurant world. I mean, who wouldn’t want to own a bar in their hometown at 22 years old?
01:22:00:24 – 01:22:21:15
Anthony Perera
Right? And then, so did that for a while. Had a couple of exits in that, in that business. And then in 2017, my father was working for me, as a construction manager, building out bars all over the country. And, he goes, hey, I want to open an Hvac business. And I said, Bob, I don’t know the first thing about air conditioning, but I’d love to get you off my payroll.
01:22:21:15 – 01:22:55:26
Anthony Perera
So let’s go figure this out. And so, we launched our business back in 2017 called Air Pros. One truck, one technician. We grew that business to over 1000 employees and about $250 million revenue. Exited that business multiple times. We launched our family office in 22 called Exuma Capital. And now our thesis is we back, great entrepreneurs, great businesses, really around kind of the, you know, businesses that are where ownership wants to either exit because of retiring, or businesses that have value when they scale.
01:22:55:29 – 01:23:18:11
Anthony Perera
And today Exuma owns, I think it’s 7 or 8 now portfolio companies, we have some commercial real estate. And we’re actively investing and buying businesses in various industries. Outside of that. Right. We, I founded a technology company back in 2021 called inspected.com. That business today is the largest, private provider inspector in the state of Florida.
01:23:18:14 – 01:23:38:05
Anthony Perera
We sold that to Bay Hawk, capital up in Boston, last year. Great partners. But that’s kind of our old thesis, right? As we look for companies that we can help add value to, grow and scale and very similar to commercial real estate, these businesses are great cash flowing assets. Right. And so, kind of how we, how we, look at companies.
01:23:38:07 – 01:23:51:01
Rod Khleif
Wow. A very, very, very impressive brother. Now, now, one thing that that, that that triggered a thought. You said you exited, your air pro’s multiple times. Can you explain what you mean by that?
01:23:51:04 – 01:23:51:14
Anthony Perera
Yeah.
01:23:51:19 – 01:23:55:09
Rod Khleif
So typically an exit is a one time event. That’s why that threw me off.
01:23:55:11 – 01:24:03:03
Anthony Perera
Yeah, well, if you roll equity, our first exit for us was we, we did a, we did a, a debt recapitalization, the business of which we took some shifts.
01:24:03:03 – 01:24:23:03
Rod Khleif
Oh, okay, now I understand. Okay, so I got it, got it, got it. Okay. I just didn’t know where you’re going with that. Okay, so these are these are liquidation events basically what is is it’s exit liquidation event. Got it. Okay. So, you know, you’re in Hvac, roofing. You work?
01:24:23:05 – 01:24:24:08
Anthony Perera
Yep.
01:24:24:10 – 01:24:51:23
Rod Khleif
Inspections, coffee houses. Okay. All right. Hold up. Yeah. So, so so let’s let’s talk about what you look for, because we were talking before we started recording. There’s, you know, 10,000 people a day turning 65 in this country, the baby boomers. And that’s going to continue for literally decades. So one of the reasons I’m getting into senior housing, we’ve got six senior housing facilities under contract in Texas because it’s a tidal wave of of silver hair.
01:24:52:00 – 01:25:15:22
Rod Khleif
And so, you know, that’s that’s got legs. And so does this, you know, buying businesses from these retirees and the people that want to sell that don’t have a, a child to pass it on to, and so what sorts of things, I think before we start recording, you said that your, your, sweet spot is an EBITDA of 2 to 5 million annually.
01:25:15:25 – 01:25:31:06
Rod Khleif
That’s that’s the that’s the financial markers you look for. What sorts of, verticals are you most interested in? Because, you know, you can’t you can’t be looking at everything. You know, it’s easier to shoot with a rifle than a shotgun. Sorry about the analogy, but yeah.
01:25:31:09 – 01:25:50:24
Anthony Perera
For sure. No, no, a great, great question. You know, kind of our whole thesis now is we built a we call private equity starter kits. Right. So there’s two kind of trains of thoughts. One, we we’re big believers that you build real wealth when you exit companies. Right? You make you make a living or you make, you know, great cash flow and you own them, but you can build well, real wealth creation really happens on the exits.
01:25:50:24 – 01:26:17:05
Anthony Perera
And so our kind of train of thought is we look for companies that are 2 to 5, we’ll go as high as ten of you. But kind of, you know, in that 20 to 40 to $50 million of revenue. And our goal is to grow them to, you know, 100 million bucks, 15 to 20 of EBITDA and professionalize these companies, all these all these baby boom businesses, our lifestyle companies right there, companies where, you know, Bob and Betty have run this company for, you know, 30, 40 years.
01:26:17:06 – 01:26:43:11
Anthony Perera
It pays their lifestyle. Maybe they have a boat or a second home somewhere, and now they’re retiring in a run. Or they want to, you know, monetize that asset. And they don’t have a lot of professional organization that some of these companies that, you know, our objective is to sell our businesses that that we need to have when we sell these companies, right, whether that be automation through CRM, whether it be, you know, great leadership teams, whether that be, you know, marketing strategies and, and, and also other thing, KPIs to track.
01:26:43:11 – 01:27:10:16
Anthony Perera
And so that’s kind of been what we look for in companies. And from an industry perspective, you know, you say, you know, shotgun not rifle, rifle, not shotgun. It’s but, you know, we’re industry agnostic. Really, really. Right now we have, automotive dealerships. We’re looking at acquiring under under loi, in the Midwest. Right. And so, similar situation, ownership there was, you know, been at it for 30 or 35 years and, and, and in great value we can find.
01:27:10:16 – 01:27:29:15
Anthony Perera
And that asset, comes with real estate. But, you know, we look we like companies where, you know, I can’t really affect the outcome, right? I don’t think I the next 20 years is going to jump on a roof and do your roof. I could be wrong. I mean, I have seen the movie Terminator right now. You know, Skynet may be coming.
01:27:29:15 – 01:27:52:26
Anthony Perera
Who knows? But, you know, I don’t think AI is going to change or change your AC filter or change your AC system, or fix your plumbing or pave your road. I mean, I think it’s going to help automate those businesses but not actually change them. And so that’s kind of really our thesis is where, where can we find and add value in companies and to is I going to make a giant move in that industry.
01:27:52:29 – 01:28:23:14
Rod Khleif
Yeah. Yeah. And and I will tell you that’s on everybody’s lips right now is, is is, you know, job loss from AI industries that are completely shifting. I mean, I feel sorry for these kids that are getting into legal accounting. It, even medical. You know, I just I literally was just watching a video on TikTok where, you know, my, my ex-wife did eyelash extensions, and it showed this robot doing, like, millimeter eyelashes, putting eyelashes on somebody’s eyelid.
01:28:23:17 – 01:28:46:15
Rod Khleif
And I’m like, Holy crap. The level of detail required for that is, is just extraordinary. So, you know, I think it’s it’s it’s, pretty prudent to be looking at that as you’re exploring business opportunities. Now. Yeah. I mean, you’re basically doing what these, Silicon Valley venture, you know, venture, not venture capitalists. Is that what they’re called?
01:28:46:22 – 01:29:06:24
Rod Khleif
Where they go in private equity? Yeah, they’ll go in. They’ll find a they’ll find a, you know, a brilliant, software, idea. And they’ll bring in the sea level team. They’ll bring in the CEO, the CFO. They establish the KPIs they put in, you know, systems and automation, because every business is nothing but people in systems.
01:29:06:24 – 01:29:17:26
Rod Khleif
Right. And so you you look at that. And so when you look at a business, are you looking for a business that hasn’t maximized those things? Is that is that what you look for.
01:29:17:29 – 01:29:36:22
Anthony Perera
Great. Great example. Yeah. So so we bought a company I give you another quick example. We’ve got a business down here. Big roofing business in South Florida 30 years old. Great. Great company, great reviews. They were dispatching on pen and paper, right. Wow. 35, $40 million a year. Their technicians were coming in and grabbing post-it notes every day.
01:29:36:22 – 01:29:53:11
Anthony Perera
Wow. Going so worth trying to listen. And we look at a hundred businesses a month. Right. And to your point, like our sweet spot is private equity really doesn’t like doing the work that we do as operators. We buy these companies that are 2 to 10 of EBITDA, 2 to 5, whatever you want to call it. Right?
01:29:53:11 – 01:30:08:13
Anthony Perera
They’re not they can’t write checks typically that small write. Think about it. So you go you raise $1 billion fund as a PE shop. Right. And you want to do ten deals in that and that and that fund. Right. 10 to 12 deals, probably the average in that size fund. You’re not writing a check for 10 million bucks of equity.
01:30:08:13 – 01:30:31:14
Anthony Perera
You’re not writing a check 15. You got to deploy 50, 75, $60 million every transaction to really make sense for that size of capital. And so we’re doing is we’re kind of creating that, that, that entry point where, where we professionalize these smaller companies, these these, you know, Bob and Betty retiring after owning it for 45 years, and taking them and getting them ready for private equity.
01:30:31:19 – 01:30:32:22
Anthony Perera
That’s kind of our goal. Right.
01:30:32:29 – 01:30:50:24
Rod Khleif
So one business at a time because, I mean, I’ve got students, that, that are doing roll ups, for example. Right. Paving companies of medical offices. The guy there was one other one as well. So you’re not doing roll ups. You’re basically taking one business maximizing that and selling it to private equity or defense.
01:30:50:24 – 01:31:10:12
Anthony Perera
Right. Every business is different. But we do we do do M&A. So we do. We do we will buy companies we do organically grow. You know, rolling up isn’t like our whole thesis, but adding value and creating, you know, taking that company from 5 to 10 million bucks to kind of our sweet spot of 20 to 25 is kind of our target.
01:31:10:15 – 01:31:18:16
Anthony Perera
And in doing that, you’re adding, you know, all these systems to it, tracking the KPIs, you know, putting in your professional management team.
01:31:18:19 – 01:31:38:17
Rod Khleif
What? So talk about your team for a minute. I’m just curious, you know what what comprises your team. You’ve I’m sure you’ve got people, you know, in your acquisition side looking at businesses, doing your preliminary analysis. They bring it to you if it warrants your look or you’re, you know, maybe a higher level, look, but then what else comprises your team?
01:31:38:23 – 01:31:39:01
Rod Khleif
Yeah.
01:31:39:06 – 01:32:11:15
Anthony Perera
Great question. So, so here at Exuma, which is really our family office, although I say we act more like traditional private equity and do a normal family office, we don’t make many passive investments. You know, we have, nine full time operating partners who all have specific strengths in different, industries. Right. So VP of marketing, VP of, you know, like operations, data analytics, BI you know, fleet facilities management risk that those teams when we once we acquire the company, we’re sure they’re helping out doing diligence.
01:32:11:18 – 01:32:31:23
Anthony Perera
Once we have, we acquire a launch, a new platform. They kind of help with the with the, experimentation, implementation, change management, all that good stuff. And then on the Exuma side, we have a separate team that does all the M&A activity, looking at deals, scouring through, you know, inbound leads, outbound leads, that kind of stuff, looking for opportunities for us.
01:32:31:23 – 01:32:47:11
Anthony Perera
And our our objective here is to have, you know, 4 to 6 platform based businesses at any given time and have 1 to 2 transactions a year. And that’s what we’re doing here as our business, our business, quite literally is buying and scaling companies and selling them.
01:32:47:13 – 01:32:54:09
Rod Khleif
Gotcha. Yeah. No, that’s that’s love it. So,
01:32:54:11 – 01:33:09:27
Rod Khleif
Do you in your hunt for businesses, are you. I’m sure you’re dealing, of course, with business brokers because they have the that they get. They hear about them first. But are you actually doing any outbound, acquisition strategies direct to business owners?
01:33:09:29 – 01:33:27:28
Anthony Perera
For sure, 100%. So, you know, we we we we use funny enough, we use AI a lot of times to help identify, ownership of these businesses. Where they at where, you know, email, contact, whatever it is, we do outreach. I will say we’ve kind of carved a name for ourself in the market for what we do.
01:33:28:01 – 01:33:43:16
Anthony Perera
And so we a lot of inbound leads now at this point where brokers are bringing us deals, whether that be a buy side broker or sell side broker. But you know, anybody looking to, to get into this type of work, I mean, you have some great resources out there. There’s plenty of websites that have businesses for sale.
01:33:43:18 – 01:33:52:06
Anthony Perera
I’m sure you guys have used them before, but, great place to look in those marketplaces for, for opportunities for sure.
01:33:52:09 – 01:34:13:28
Rod Khleif
So you purchase it, you put in all of these systems KPIs, you automate it. Are you, you know, do you find businesses that aren’t maximizing social media, for example, or, or, you know, like you mentioned, using paper for for orders? Holy crap. You know, or I didn’t.
01:34:14:00 – 01:34:18:08
Anthony Perera
Know that was a, that was a $40 million a year business dispatching on pen and paper.
01:34:18:10 – 01:34:36:21
Rod Khleif
Unbelievable. Right. And I’ve seen it, you know, I was I bought a I was going to buy a large mobile home park and, and the it was handwritten checks and the checks where the checks were. The checks carbon onto, you know, paper behind it. And that’s their reconciling system is. Yeah. I mean, holy crap.
01:34:36:28 – 01:34:38:01
Anthony Perera
Get the carbon copy.
01:34:38:04 – 01:35:01:13
Rod Khleif
Exactly, exactly. So so what are you doing? So I got it. Bring in CRM stub, establish KPIs, which are metrics, guys. Key performance indicators. You know, take a look at the leadership, take a look at. I’m certain you’re looking at, at marketing. You’re looking at the sales process. What are the conversions look like? You’re evaluating all of those things.
01:35:01:16 – 01:35:24:17
Rod Khleif
How are you implementing AI, if at all, yet? Because I know I’m implementing it right now in my business. My daughter does my SEO. She’s brilliant and we don’t need her anymore. So I’m helping her start another business because I, I it does it better than she does. And and my social media, guy, you know, basically we’re implementing open claw and it’s basically taking over 95% of his workload.
01:35:24:20 – 01:35:29:20
Rod Khleif
He’s much more effective at this point. What are you doing in that realm, if anything?
01:35:29:23 – 01:35:43:06
Anthony Perera
So I want to touch another point you mentioned earlier on social media, right. Like. Right. Well, two things. One, I fear for I feel for I feel bad for all the marketing agencies out there that exist. Oh yeah. Because a year from now, I mean, they’re jobs gone, but they’re gone.
01:35:43:06 – 01:35:43:20
Rod Khleif
Yeah.
01:35:43:23 – 01:36:08:12
Anthony Perera
One one quick. We have two companies we invested in. One is a product brand called our 30, which launched a product called Space Camp Wellness, which is a lip balm product now being sold in target. Right. Oh, that whole business model they have is they actually marry influencers with products and in the market. So it’s a massive power for anybody today who is not using social media to to help scale and grow your business.
01:36:08:12 – 01:36:26:07
Anthony Perera
It’s 100% the way to go. And I’ll give you a quick example on that. I bought this coffee business here in South Florida called Ella Coffeehouse, had one location. It ran for ten years. I bought it at a pure just. My wife loved this place and every Saturday I have to go get her omelet, baguette and a hazelnut coffee.
01:36:26:09 – 01:36:43:06
Anthony Perera
It’s annoy the crap out of me because I go there on Saturday and it’d be a lie at the door, and they wouldn’t take phone orders on the weekends. And so I happened to meet the owner at an event one day. My wife goes, hey, that guy owns Ella. Go talk to him. I don’t do work. I was like, man, you have to figure out how to fix this problem on Saturdays because it really annoys me.
01:36:43:08 – 01:37:04:03
Anthony Perera
You order anyway, so you want to sell me the business, right? So right when I bought that company, I was doing ten grand a week. It was tiny. And all we did is implement a social media strategy using local influencers. Micro influencers in the market, foodies, whatever it is, paying them a couple hundred bucks, go out and promote, you know, our product that company does now, that one location now does $35,000 a week.
01:37:04:03 – 01:37:28:22
Anthony Perera
And so no, nothing a year and a half. So I mean the power of reach through social media, we are firm believers on. But you know, back to your question. I hey, I can be using anything these days. I mean, from, from from automating outbound marketing strategies to, to, you know, tracking KPIs and building automation tools around, you know, how your sales process and customer journey funnels are going.
01:37:28:28 – 01:37:40:19
Anthony Perera
I mean, it’s such a powerful device. So we, we, we try to do as much as we can early on in our acquisition lifecycle, to have the advantage because first mover advantage is a real thing. I mean, it truly is.
01:37:40:22 – 01:38:00:28
Rod Khleif
Oh, yeah. I mean, we’re we’re right now what we’re doing with open claws and the 1% to 1%, candidly, and one of the businesses I’m thinking about having my daughter get involved in fairly seriously is I implementation for businesses because, you know, it’s it’s Greek to a lot of businesses. And this is the opportunities are incredible. Do you does everybody on your team utilize it.
01:38:00:28 – 01:38:08:25
Rod Khleif
Or do you have one person that specializes in implementing, how is that structured in your organization? Because it’s so brand new. You probably it’s.
01:38:08:25 – 01:38:28:10
Anthony Perera
Such a funny, funny conversation because like we have guys obviously the younger, you know, the associates and younger guys absolutely love it. Right. You got to kind of scale them back sometimes. I don’t know if I’m getting an email from them or from I, you know, it’s pretty funny. But you know, now and we have certain people on our team who who’s responsible for business intelligence and automation tools and that kind of stuff.
01:38:28:12 – 01:38:38:26
Anthony Perera
But every one of my team members now using AI to some, some degree, whether it be create a spreadsheet, to to display at a at level ten meeting or big believers in EOS.
01:38:38:29 – 01:38:41:28
Rod Khleif
Know me to track and Jenna Wickman. Yeah, that.
01:38:41:29 – 01:38:56:27
Anthony Perera
Great author, great book. All of our companies do all tens every week. So, you know, we which is funny, the automation tools that I see on these l10n meetings. So like I said, every one of them are, are pretty, pretty remarkable. What’s happening?
01:38:56:29 – 01:39:26:08
Rod Khleif
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so the the you really your, your business model is 1 or 2 transactions a year, buy or sell. Is that. That’s it. And you just maximize these businesses. What a fun frickin thing to be doing, buddy, I I’m a little jealous, candidly, because I love, I love, I love, I love it. So, so if someone like me is very interested in what you’re doing, I mean, if there were two of me right now, one would definitely be buying businesses.
01:39:26:08 – 01:39:51:05
Rod Khleif
And I mean, I’m, you know, in real estate right now, but I love entrepreneurship and buying businesses. I personally built 29, 33, 30 businesses so far in my lifetime. And, so I love entrepreneurship. But if someone’s listening and they’re, like, intrigued by what you’re doing, how could they begin to get started, possibly, you know, emulating some of the stuff you’re doing?
01:39:51:05 – 01:39:55:05
Rod Khleif
I mean, obviously they’re not going to get to your skill very quickly, but, yeah.
01:39:55:07 – 01:40:13:03
Anthony Perera
Yeah. Listen, I mean, good great. Great question. I mean, it’s there’s ways to do what we do on a smaller scale. We’re we’re playing on the middle scale and even smaller. You can buy companies all day long. And it’s so many great programs out there for this. I mean, SBA and local regional banks like, you know, they’ll loan you money.
01:40:13:03 – 01:40:31:03
Anthony Perera
But I think SBA has got a program. We can get the 5 million bucks. And and don’t you think it’s 10% equity like it’s crazy right. And you could buy a company that’s doing a million, a $2 million a year in EBITDA. And if you structure the deal, right, let’s say you buy a let’s say your first I want to start off with the company is doing a million bucks a year, and that company wants to trade for 5 or 6 times.
01:40:31:03 – 01:40:49:24
Anthony Perera
Right. So they want 6 million bucks. Go the SBA, you get you get a SBA loan for up to 5 million of that. Have the owner either take a hold back note or an out payment for the other million dollars. Now, your $500,000 just bought you $1 million of cash flow. We got a covered interest in debt. But I mean, you’re literally making your money back in year one.
01:40:49:26 – 01:41:03:19
Anthony Perera
You do that at scale. And that company you bought for five times, right? You get you get from 1 million to $5 million. Now you’re trading that same business for eight, nine times. So you’re creating that arbitrage expansion. And so there’s so much to do know.
01:41:03:21 – 01:41:17:27
Rod Khleif
Let me let me stop you for one second. I just want to make sure everybody got what you just said. So basically basically the, the multiple of annual earnings increases the bigger the company gets.
01:41:17:29 – 01:41:19:13
Anthony Perera
Tradition. So that’s correct.
01:41:19:13 – 01:41:22:20
Rod Khleif
Okay. Okay. Okay. So so no no no no.
01:41:22:20 – 01:41:24:03
Anthony Perera
Every industry is the same size.
01:41:24:06 – 01:41:39:19
Rod Khleif
All right. Got it, got it, got it. But but but that’s that’s the model which is kind of what they do with the roll ups as well. Is they’ll put 5 or 6 of these together and the, the multiple is higher than what they paid. And so that’s the arbitrage you’re talking about for sure.
01:41:39:19 – 01:41:57:16
Anthony Perera
The thing to be careful with on roll ups is there’s two types of roll up providers out there. Right. Or guys okay. You have aggregators and integrators. Right okay. So anybody can go out there and aggregate EBITDA and revenue. You can go buy, you know, small businesses all in the same kind of industry and put it together and say, okay, we’re one company, we’re a roll up.
01:41:57:18 – 01:42:08:04
Anthony Perera
But how do you actually integrated the business? And to get the, the, the, the arbitrage on the EBITDA expansion, you really have to integrate them. Are they on the same CRM? Are they on the same.
01:42:08:04 – 01:42:08:27
Rod Khleif
You got.
01:42:08:27 – 01:42:27:23
Anthony Perera
It. Are they getting the same, you know, insurance and benefits packages like that is true integration. And so that’s where value creation really happens. Much like in real estate man you’re in real estate by an asset. You wait for it depreciate. You can refinance yourself out of it. Increased rents drive value very similar such situation. It is operating companies right.
01:42:27:23 – 01:42:35:23
Anthony Perera
And so what’s the what. We’re big believers in real estate too. We own commercial properties. But you know, we love the, the the small business game a lot.
01:42:35:28 – 01:43:00:27
Rod Khleif
Yeah. Yeah. So do I. Honestly I, I’m really intrigued. And so, so let’s, let’s drill down on a couple of components of a business. When you, when you identify a business I mean obviously you see a business that’s still on paper. That’s a no brainer. You implement some industry industry specific software. I know the roofing business, you know, some of the some of the, manufacturers have fantastic software for a roofing business.
01:43:00:27 – 01:43:24:11
Rod Khleif
When my son’s in it, my son is is in the roofing business. So I know that business a little bit and but, you know, talk about sales and marketing because I think it was, Peter Gruber said that every business is nothing but innovation and marketing. So talk about, you know, when you see a business, how do you dissect what they’re doing from a marketing standpoint initially?
01:43:24:14 – 01:43:32:15
Rod Khleif
And, and maybe some of the improvements you’ve made and or seen that need to be made? The start with marketing. Let’s talk about sales after that.
01:43:32:17 – 01:43:50:16
Anthony Perera
Yeah. So marketing marketing to me is it’s truly a function of just performance. Right. So, you know, today’s sales usually dictate tomorrow’s marketing dollars. You know what I mean? Right. But a lot, a lot of times, a lot of companies fail, from a marketing perspective, is having visibility to what they’re actually doing in marketing. Step one.
01:43:50:19 – 01:44:07:09
Anthony Perera
Like, am I tracking my CPM? Do I have good lead versions? You know, and then two is my customer journey. Once I actually get the customer, what is that cycle like? I challenge anybody who runs a company to go and actually go through your own customer journey and see what that’s like. And I guarantee you’d be shocked, right?
01:44:07:09 – 01:44:07:24
Anthony Perera
A lot of people,
01:44:07:27 – 01:44:10:05
Rod Khleif
Disappointed, very disappointed, pointed.
01:44:10:07 – 01:44:33:09
Anthony Perera
Shocked, whatever it is, because you put yourself in that shoe right when you after you make the first phone call, after you submit a request for a call, whatever it may be, what happens next? Right? If somebody’s calling immediately when they answer the phone, what do they say? Right? That whole customer journey is so crucial in converting those marketing leads that a lot of people who are at this level of business don’t have that sophistication.
01:44:33:12 – 01:44:37:28
Anthony Perera
So the first thing we do with our companies is, okay, what is that customer journey? How do we differentiate?
01:44:37:28 – 01:44:42:20
Rod Khleif
And you flowchart it. I guess you just you literally look at every touchpoint.
01:44:42:22 – 01:45:01:01
Anthony Perera
Yeah, they all know. So what happens if they don’t close you close. If they don’t close, what’s the follow up sequence like are we outbound to them again? Are they getting a message if they do close on one product, how are we marketing our next product to them, keeping them informed? If they bought the whole suite of products, how do we keep them happy and get them to refer another client to us?
01:45:01:07 – 01:45:12:21
Anthony Perera
Like there’s so many ways to literally it works so well if we just sit down, go through your own customer journey as an operator, as a business, and then flowchart how you would want to be sold on something, right? Yeah, I love it.
01:45:12:21 – 01:45:27:29
Rod Khleif
And there’s only three ways to increase revenue one, you get more customers. Two, you increase the the frequency of sales are three you you have, you know, you sell more products to your existing customers. That’s it. Correct. Right? Correct. Yeah.
01:45:28:01 – 01:45:45:06
Anthony Perera
And then it’s the sales cycle. It’s just, you know, I’m a big believer. Oh wait. Time price becomes a problem is absent value. That’s it’s an old saying in the sales world right. Like and so a lot of people are afraid to to be the most expensive guy in town. But it’s okay to be the most expensive guy in town if you’re creating value for the customer.
01:45:45:08 – 01:46:05:06
Anthony Perera
Customers will always tell you how they want to be sold, no matter what. They will tell you how they want to be sold. You just have to listen. And most people in sales who are good understand listening is actually the most important step, right? Not a guy. So it’s funny. I was on a call this morning. I still get into the weeds of all of our companies and I’m on this call talking with what do we have a technology business called Fleet Out.
01:46:05:12 – 01:46:23:21
Anthony Perera
What’s the TMS provider? We’re talking about? Objection. Handling all your products more expensive or, you know, it’s a big shift for us. And we’re having this conversation and and what what with our team kind of sometimes fails to recognize is the customer is already telling you how they want to be sold. They already have their pain points. They’re wearing them.
01:46:23:21 – 01:46:44:10
Anthony Perera
They’re talking about them. You have to get them to say yes to that. Then price. Is it a problem at that point because you’ve created value. And so we’re big believers in sales training, obviously marketing, efficiencies, making sure you’re tracking your KPIs, making sure you have campaign attribution. What that means is if you’re putting a dollar in marketing and someone’s going to call that number, make sure you’re tracking that, right.
01:46:44:10 – 01:46:44:26
Anthony Perera
Yeah.
01:46:44:29 – 01:47:12:24
Rod Khleif
Specifically where the leads coming from. Right. Because and then you, you know, you double down and triple down quadruple down on what’s working. You know, instead of wasting money in an area that’s not producing any results. And that’s why those metrics are so frickin important, especially in marketing. So okay. And do you what’s what businesses are you involved with that actually have sales teams?
01:47:12:27 – 01:47:20:10
Anthony Perera
I think most of our companies, you know, have some form of a sales function. Right? Okay. Exercise. I mean, we have we have Hvac businesses still.
01:47:20:10 – 01:47:35:21
Rod Khleif
We have so, so stay there for a second. So on your Hvac business, is there a sales room, is there a is there an actual room? Is it done virtually. Is it done with I how how does that sales process look like in your big Hvac company?
01:47:35:23 – 01:47:38:01
Anthony Perera
The answer is yes. It all fronts. Really?
01:47:38:01 – 01:47:38:28
Rod Khleif
Oh, wow.
01:47:39:00 – 01:47:57:19
Anthony Perera
There is, there is, we use AI tools to to monitor conversations when our, when our reps are in a home to make sure that we are talking about the right things, we’re adding the value. We’re following our our process. There’s outbound sales efforts to rehash calls that haven’t closed. If Miss Smith was thinking about buying it, why didn’t she buy with us?
01:47:57:26 – 01:48:17:23
Anthony Perera
Is it a pricing problem? Is there a was my technician not correct in that job site or that home? Their sales reps actually go into the homes, actually go visit the customer. Do you get an inbound lead for an estimate? Right. You have to present to that customer optionality how many options they create. So there’s a whole sales function that goes on behind the scenes.
01:48:17:25 – 01:48:21:11
Anthony Perera
And most every company has a, some sort of sales function right now.
01:48:21:11 – 01:48:24:10
Rod Khleif
Okay. I just, drilling down a little bit.
01:48:24:13 – 01:48:25:03
Anthony Perera
Yeah, yeah. For sure.
01:48:25:03 – 01:48:47:25
Rod Khleif
Well, listen, I, I know we could talk about this for hours, but I want to value your time. It’s been a fascinating conversation for me. I’ll just be candid. Very impressed with what you’re accomplished, accomplishing, and, you know, and, guys, you know, I think this is an incredible opportunity to right now that, that he just outlined to to by businesses.
01:48:47:28 – 01:49:00:23
Rod Khleif
So, Anthony, I very much appreciate your time, and I’m very impressed with the fact that you didn’t have a an upsell of any sort. You just wanted to add value that that says a lot about who you are as a person. And I’m very grateful for the value you’ve added to my my listeners brother.
01:49:00:25 – 01:49:03:14
Anthony Perera
Thanks, man. I appreciate you having us. It was a great, great time.
01:49:03:16 – 01:49:05:27
Rod Khleif
Yeah. Likewise. All right. But thanks.
01:49:06:00 – 01:49:06:14
Anthony Perera
Thanks, man.
01:49:06:15 – 01:49:07:05
Rod Khleif
Thank you for.
