Every number on this site comes from my own deal
In 2024 I bought a mobile oil-change business with an SBA loan. I'd built and sold a company before. I'd been a director in corporate software. I'd been searching for a year. And I still paid $450,000 for a business whose honest earning power, documented in the seller's own tax returns, supported a price around $300,000.
I published the entire post-mortem: the claimed earnings vs. the tax returns, the $55,000 truck that appeared on none of the seller's filings, the customer list I couldn't see until after I'd paid, and the six checks that would have caught all of it. It's the most detailed public teardown of a small business purchase you'll find, because it's exactly what I do for buyers now.
Everyone at your closing table has a job. Protecting you isn't one of them.
| Person | Who they protect |
|---|---|
| The broker | The seller |
| The bank | The loan |
| The SBA | The bank |
| The seller's financials | The seller's story |
| Burned Once | The buyer. That's the whole job. |
Read it or talk it through. Either way, it's your actual deal on the table.
Send me the deal you're actually looking at: the sales packet, financials, tax returns, whatever the broker gave you. I read it the way I should have read mine.
Deal Workup
- Red-flag report on your sales packet & seller financials
- Claimed numbers rebuilt from the tax returns
- The exact questions to ask before you sign
- How your deal benchmarks against real comps
Workup + Debrief
- Everything in the Deal Workup
- 45 minutes live on your deal, findings in hand
- Walk the red flags, pressure-test your plan
- What I'd negotiate, and what would make me walk
Deal Call
- Live, rapid-fire review of your deal
- Show up with your sales packet and your deadline. That's the whole ask.
- Operator judgment, not a checklist
- Only 4 slots a week. Book early, the price only goes up from here.
LAUNCH PRICING · EVERY ENGAGEMENT IS ME PERSONALLY, NOT A TEMPLATE · IF YOUR DEAL IS CLEAN, THE REPORT SAYS SO
Three days from "here's my deal" to "here's the truth"
Send the file
Pay, then forward what the broker gave you: the sales packet, financial statements, tax returns, asset list. The clock starts when the documents land.
I do what I skipped
Rebuild the earnings from the returns. Cross the asset list against the depreciation schedules. Find what the annual totals are smoothing over.
You decide with open eyes
Red-flag report, the questions to ask, and where the price should actually sit. Walk, negotiate, or proceed, but on purpose this time.
Four slots a week. Bring your deal.
One fixed block on my calendar, capped on purpose. I run a business too, which is the point of asking me. Pick a slot below; payment happens right in the booking.
Operator. Acquirer. Burned once.
I'm Matt. I've built a construction-trades business from nothing and sold it. I've owned online businesses. I spent eight years climbing the corporate ladder to become a director at a tech company. I've bought businesses, sold a business, and overpaid for a business. And I run that last one profitably today, which is how I can show you its books.
That mix is the service: I've sat in your chair, the seller's chair, and the operator's chair. When I read a seller's sales packet, I'm not scoring it against a checklist. I'm asking the question nobody at your closing table is paid to ask: would I buy this, at this price, with my own money? I answered that question wrong once with $450,000 of my own money. You get the version of me that exists now.
- 2014 · Built and sold a landscape construction company
- 8 yrs · Climbed to a director-level software role
- 2024 · Bought a mobile service business (SBA 7a)
- 2025 · Grew it past the sellers' best year ever. The first full year after purchase.
- $150K · What skipping diligence cost me, documented publicly
- Nº 001 · The post-mortem, every number sourced
You know the six checks. Here's the fillable version for your deal.
You just read what caught me. This is the actual template, the same six checks built as a worksheet: drop in your numbers, tax returns, and asset list, and see what the article showed you, but running on your deal instead of mine.
YOU'LL ALSO GET THE DEAL TEARDOWNS: REAL SALES PACKETS, REAL RED FLAGS, NO SPAM, UNSUBSCRIBE WHENEVER