Acquiring Minds

Buying Small, Growing Big: From $1m to $26m

John Wilson bought & grew a very small plumbing business 26x over the last 7 years, and today has plans to reach $100m.

Topics in John’s interview:

  • Growing up in his family’s home services business
  • Taking over the business at 23
  • Acquiring a turnaround to grow his business
  • His first time doing layoffs
  • Using CertainPath’s model to grow
  • Tripling his ad spend during Covid
  • Why he believes in buying small
  • His take on installing an operator
  • His plan to get to $100M
  • The taxonomy of blue collar businesses

References and how to contact John:

  • Owned and Operated (his podcast)
  • The Wilson Companies
  • Twitter
  • John’s tweet thread breaking down homes services business
  • CertainPath

Work with an SBA broker who focuses exclusively on helping entrepreneurs buy businesses:

  • Matthias Smith of Pioneer Capital Advisory

Learn more about Walker Deibel's done-with-you buy-side advisory:

  • The Acquisition Lab

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

  • See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel
  • Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
  • Follow Will on Twitter

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