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Peter Skrzypinski spent over a decade as a real estate investor while holding down a W2. A couple of rental properties, the BiggerPockets forums, the whole deal…
Then the pandemic gave him some extra time, so he surfed his way to the end of the real estate internet. It seemed like every podcast was just a Russian doll situation of podcast hosts interviewing each other ad infinitum, ’til there was nothing new left to learn.
That is, until he discovered Codie and picked up Main Street Millionaire. He loved the content and got really curious about buying a business. But his honest feeling at the time? “I’m [probably] never going to do that.”
Then he got laid off.
About a year into unemployment, he found a flooring company on the internet one town over. That deal died fast (more on that below), but Peter got bit by the business bug. Hard. So when he got his next deal under LOI, he joined the Contrarian community to pressure-test his due diligence.
Not long after, he closed on a 27-year-old exterior property maintenance business in New Jersey. Deck restoration, house washing, asphalt maintenance... and Christmas lights.
Here’s what he learned on the way.
Peter’s first foray into biz buying was a… learning experience.
He randomly found a flooring company on the internet with a deal that looked incredible, which is probably when the alarm bells should’ve started. The ad claimed $500,000 in seller’s discretionary earnings on a $950,000 asking price.
Then Peter pulled the tax returns.
Turns out, the business only earned $25,000 the year before.
So while the deal died on arrival, Peter walked away with the most valuable habit in acquisitions: verify every number against a primary source before you fall in love.
The lesson: Listings are marketing, but tax returns are evidence. Trust, but verify.
Eventually Peter found a better deal, and joined the Academy.
What he found was a property maintenance business with an owner ready to retire. The numbers looked good, but there was one problem… the seller mentioned it was a “seasonal” business that stopped most of its core services for about six months.
A business that shuts down when snow hits the ground would scare most buyers off. And it almost scared Peter too, until he saw the revenue split.
The summer services carry half the year, which is pretty standard for this kind of business. But once winter hits, Christmas light installs carry the other half, and they do it in about a 6-to-8-week sprint of high-margin chaos.
Talking with Peter, he said 27 years of repeat clients and a marketing budget of about $3,000 a year against roughly $700,000 in revenue, made the “scary seasonal business” start to look more like 2 (profitable) businesses in one.
The lesson: You don’t need 12 smooth months. You need to know exactly when the money shows up, and how to keep it coming back.
Pressure-test your deal before the wire goes out.
Peter joined the Contrarian community mid-deal, specifically to make sure his due diligence covered every base. Inside the Academy, we help owners and buyers pressure-test deals just like this one.
Learn more here.
The seller had promised a big revenue jump for the year, but it came in flat.
Things like that happen, but it triggered a price renegotiation that nearly killed the deal. Then, with the LOI already signed, the seller pulled a $40,000 truck out of the sale. His reasoning: “You could drive anything to do this job. You could drive a Toyota Camry.”
Still, Peter stomached the change and kept moving. The deal that closes is rarely the exact deal you signed the LOI on.
The lesson: Renegotiations and last-minute pulls come standard with the purchase. Decide your walk-away lines early so every goalpost move gets measured against them.
Speaking of the truck…
A week before closing, the seller took Peter and his wife to dinner. Nice gesture. On the walk to the parking lot, he asked when Peter planned to buy a truck. You know, to haul gas and such to the crews.
The same truck he’d pulled from the deal 6 months earlier. The same job he’d said you could do in a Camry.
Undeterred, Peter now runs the business out of a Toyota RAV4, with 4 gallons of driveway sealer riding next to his 3-year-old’s car seat. He confirms: you need the truck.
The lesson: A seller’s advice bends toward whatever the seller wants in that moment. Build your own operating picture and shop it against reality, not their commentary.
On closing day, Peter went to the DMV to retitle 5 work trucks so his crews could keep doing jobs. That exact same day, the entire New Jersey DMV computer system went down. Statewide.
While it wasn’t something anyone could’ve predicted, it still had an impact.
Peter’s business sat idle for 2 days.
And the outage landed at the worst possible moment: he was meeting his new employees for the first time, pretty much mid-speech about how nothing was going to change.
“It’s a credibility killer,” he said. During an ownership transition, you’re just trying to win trust and make people feel safe. It’s never easy, but Peter got handed the controller on hard mode.
Ultimately, the important part is showing up and doing the work. It might be messy, but you just have to start. You can worry about making things better once you’ve built momentum.
6 weeks in though, the crews are still with him and the client relationships are being built up. Credibility came back the only way it ever does: showing up the next day, and the one after that.
The lesson: Your first week will hand you a problem no course covers. How you respond sets the tone for the rest of your business.
Peter’s biggest piece of advice for buyers costs nothing and saves everything:
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He fully expected the seller to vanish after closing, given how much they frustrated each other. Instead, the relationship is in better shape than he predicted, and the seller is still picking up the phone.
Buying a business doesn’t typically happen fast. And when you’re acquiring one like Peter, you can expect the seller to be the key to everything. Don’t get in bed with the deal just because it looks good. You gotta make sure the owner is someone you can communicate with through the rocky parts of closing.
Chances are, you’ll need to ask them random questions about where the remote to the office A/C is, or who exactly you need to call for accounting. Try to keep things friendly if you can.
The lesson: The seller relationship outlives the closing table. Buy from someone you can stand in month 6, in year 1, and at an awkward dinner.
18 months ago, Peter’s honest reaction to buying a business was “I’m never going to do that.”
Now he’s the owner of a 27-year-old company, learning the ropes with a good crew. And even if his RAV4 smells like driveway sealer, he feels like he made the right decision.
- Team Contrarian
P.S. Peter’s journey started after reading Main Street Millionaire…
Will yours start after reading Own or Be Owned?
There’s only one way to find out: sign up for the Own or Be Owned book launch event HERE.
It’s 100% free, and completely virtual. So you’ve got ZERO excuse for missing out.
And ICYMI, when you show up on the stream, you could win part of $1M in cash and prizes.*
See you there!
FROM THE COMMUNITY
Buying businesses is hard. That’s why we love celebrating our members when they make progress. Here are some wins:
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The information contained here is educational, may not be typical, and does not guarantee returns. Background, education, effort, and application will affect your experience and the profitability of any business. Individual results may vary.
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