01
Finding your fit
Which industries suit what you already know. Buying versus building, from someone who has done both, and how to score an industry honestly instead of romantically.
The Business Buyer's Blueprint
Twelve courses across ownership, every calculator at the depth the membership opens, and the Deal Room, for twelve months. Ordered around different decisions, so you can start at the stage you are actually on.
Why this shape
A course you finish is one you needed this week
Most people who buy a recorded course never finish it, and the usual answer to that is a deadline somebody else sets. This does the opposite. Everything opens at once and it is ordered the way a purchase happens, so you take the diligence course in the week you are in diligence rather than four months before.
Your deal is still not the deal in the lesson. The Deal Room gives you member resources, existing membership tools, and peer discussion, and it is included for the full access period.
There is a third reason. The material comes from a deal I actually closed. When we get to financing, you are looking at the real SBA package: the document list the bank required, the payroll model, the projections, the personal financial statement. When we get to valuation, you are looking at a seller's reconciliation with add-backs that appear in exactly the two years he was marketing on.
Watched on the site
Lessons and calculators live here, so a correction reaches you rather than sitting in a file you downloaded last spring.
Yours to keep
The worksheets, checklists, templates and scripts are downloads. A diligence list is used in a meeting, and a lesson is not.
Real materials
The checklists, templates, and scripts I use, not summaries of them.
The curriculum
The six buying courses, and six more on operating
Ordered the way a real purchase happens, not the way a syllabus is organized.
02
Sourcing deals
Where listings come from, how to work brokers so they bring you deals, and how to screen a listing quickly enough to widen your search without wasting a season on it.
03
Evaluating businesses
Reading a CIM line by line. What is missing, what is inflated, and what it means when the numbers do not reconcile. SDE, add-backs, and why the asking price is rarely the value.
04
Negotiating
Where your leverage actually comes from. Using furniture and equipment condition as a price lever. What a lease commitment does to a seller's position, and how to structure an offer.
05
Due diligence
The ten days that decide it. What to demand, what a refusal tells you, and how to verify what you were told on the tour. This is where deals should die, and where most buyers get lazy.
06
Financing and closing
Cash, SBA, and seller financing compared by someone who has closed with two of the three. What the bank really asks for, how long it takes, and what seller financing tells you about the seller's confidence.
Before you buy
I would rather you bought something smaller than the wrong thing.
- This is the whole catalog at one price, and six of the eighteen courses are still being written. They land inside your year at no further charge, and no date is being promised for them.
- Choose this if you expect to use the courses, tools and room during the twelve-month access period, at the stage of ownership you are working on.
- If you only need two courses, buy two courses. The themed packages exist for that and they are cheaper.
- The right outcome may be walking away from every deal you look at. That is a successful year, and I will tell you when I think you should walk.
- I cannot promise you a business, a return, or financing approval. Anyone who does is selling you something.
The shape of it
What twelve months looks like
The published library opens on day one. Choose your starting point across Buy, Own, Run and Sell. This is self-paced access, not a cohort timetable.
Day one
The published courses, calculators at full depth and Deal Room open together. Start with the stage you are working on: Buy, Own, Run or Sell. Planned courses remain in development and become available only when published.
Buy: choose your entry path
Finding your fit and sourcing. What you can actually operate, scored honestly. Where listings come from and how to work brokers so they send you deals rather than a mailing list. You should finish with a search narrow enough to act on.
Buy: examine the deal
Evaluating and negotiating. Reading a deal packet line by line on a real listing. What the headline number is made of, which add-backs survive a lender, and what it means when the numbers do not reconcile. Then where your leverage comes from and how to structure an offer that reflects it.
Buy: verify and close
Diligence and financing. The demand list, what a refusal tells you, and how to verify what you were told on the tour. Cash, SBA and seller financing compared. Bring the listing to the Deal Room while you are in it, which is the part that is hard to get anywhere else.
Own, Run and Sell
The Operating program covers the first ninety days, inheriting a team, documenting recurring work, growth, resilience and exit preparation. Start here if you already own a business; the buying sequence is not a prerequisite.
Month twelve
Access ends unless you renew. What you keep is what you downloaded: the worksheets, checklists and templates. The lessons and the calculators stay on the site, which is the trade for the price being what it is.
What you are actually buying
Two of these have prices you can check on this site. The third does not, and says so.
Every course written, and every course added while your year runs
$2,100 bought singly
Twelve months in the Deal Room
$390 a year
Every calculator at full depth, including the ones behind the membership
Not sold separately
Bought one course at a time, the twelve courses written today come to the number above, and the room is its own published price. Add them and you have most of the way to the package price, before the calculators and before the six courses still to come.
Compare the included courses, tools, room and access period with the work you intend to do. If you only need two courses, compare those individual courses and the relevant package. The complete option covers multiple stages of ownership and does not require a purchase target.
The objections, in your words
Twelve months and then it stops. Why would I rent this?
Because the alternative is paying more for the parts you can guess at now. Every course still to come lands inside your year at no extra charge, and there are six of them. If you would rather own two courses outright, buy the two courses. Both options are real and both are priced on this site.
What happens at the end of the twelve months?
Access to the lessons and the calculators ends. The worksheets, checklists and templates are downloads and you keep them. You can renew, and I will tell you what renewal costs before you are anywhere near the end rather than emailing you the week it lapses.
It costs more than every course you sell put together.
The courses are one part of it. The room for a year and every calculator at the depth the membership opens are the rest, and the six courses still to come are included as they land. If none of that is worth anything to you, then the courses on their own are the better purchase and they are on the courses page.
I do not have a business picked out yet.
You can begin with finding your fit, including whether to buy or build. If you already own a business, begin with the owner, operations or exit material instead. Compare the individual courses and packages with the work you intend to do during the access period.
Does the library help if I already own a business?
Yes. The published Operating courses cover transition, the team, recurring processes, growth, resilience and exit preparation. Choose the material relevant to your current responsibilities. The buying sequence is available but is not a prerequisite.
Why can I not download the lessons?
Because a course that leaves the site is a course I cannot correct, and the regulations under this material change. The worksheets and checklists are downloads, because a diligence list is used in a meeting and a lesson is not.
Was there not a cohort?
There was going to be. It was retired before it ran, so nobody paid for a seat and nobody is owed a session. Everything it was going to teach is in here.
The terms, in one place
Twelve months from the day you buy. Everything is purchased in one payment.
Refunds follow the same rule as every course here. Before you open any part of it you can have all of your money back, for any reason. Opening it delivers it, and after that the purchase is final. A refund still reverses the access it opened.
12 months of access
The Business Buyer's Blueprint
Twelve months of access to every course written, every course added while your year runs, every calculator at full depth, and the Deal Room.
$3,500
paid in full
3 x $1,250
monthly, total $3,750
Questions
Was this not a live cohort?
It was going to be. It was retired before it ran, so nobody paid for a seat and nobody is owed a session. Everything is now a 365-day self-paced access package.
How is this different from the Deal Room?
The Deal Room provides member resources, existing membership tools, and peer discussion at thirty nine dollars a month. Everything includes the current course library, applicable tools, and Deal Room access for 365 days.
What if I do not find a business inside the year?
Common, and not a failure. Most people who look seriously for a year buy nothing that year. You will finish knowing how to evaluate one, which is the part that takes months to learn and minutes to apply.
What happens after twelve months?
Access to the lessons and the calculators ends unless you renew. The worksheets, checklists and templates are downloads and you keep those. I will tell you what renewal costs well before you are near the end.
Has anyone actually bought something working with you?
Yes. Zoe O'Neal bought a beauty supply store after we went through her listings and numbers together. Two others I have worked with started businesses rather than buying them. And I have done it myself: bought with cash, bought with an SBA loan, sold that one early for more than double what I put in, and built one from scratch. I am not going to claim a track record of hundreds of students. I am going to point at what exists.
Why should I trust you on financing specifically?
Because I have closed one purchase with cash and another with an SBA loan, and started a third business from nothing. I can tell you what the bank asked me for and how long it took, rather than describing a process I read about.