Connor Pera

In the recovery community we have a saying that goes “you get sober with your feet, not your head.” This lesson applies to so many other areas of life. Stop thinking and planning - take action.

@JackieHirsch_ 100%. You know better than most the delta between the number of people who say “I want to buy a business” and the people that actually do is massive. In a world of sayers, be a doer.

@connorpera Conner very true statement. Buyers want repeat business, clean books, experienced team…wouldn’t a seller want those qualities in a buyer?

Reminder that the best way to convince brokers you are a credible buyer is to have a track record. Sometimes doing a smaller deal is the best way to do that. Get off the sidelines and into the game!

I mean I only look at deals in one very specific space and quality varies considerably, but I consistently see printing businesses with valuations that pencil comfortably with a pretty standard deal structure. You’re not going to enter at 3x and exit at 10x but you can enter a really strong asset at a good price.

@connorpera Heard — but I’ve honestly struggled to see many niches these days that are both 1) decent quality industries and 2) reasonably priced/structured.

Think this is true from a rate standpoint but I also think the search ecosystem is still ignoring vast parts of the market that have tons of opportunity. Look beyond home services and niche manufacturing and you will find reasonable multiples. As someone in a non-target searcher industry I can tell you there are great assets that trade at 3x. They’re out there, but you’re probably not going to find them in “hot” spaces.

Great reflection. I’m glad you wrote it and I’m glad I took the time to read it. This is one that will stick with me for a while I had similar feelings watching the interview - how could this man be anything but devastated and terrified? But our identity in Christ helps us navigate anything with grace if we surrender. Even death.

"The interviewer, @DouthatNYT, broke down crying during the conversation. And when he did, Sasse laughed. Not unkindly, but the way a man laughs when the heaviness and the lightness of something are both true at the same time and he’s decided not to pretend otherwise."

@BuySellSMB @SBA_Kelly @Jason_A_Scharf @RandBusiness @TomHudson @TheMcKenzieReed @DBGraf Will you do PR for my business? Awesome stuff man. Excited for you!

We had a fun event at HQ yesterday. @SBA_Kelly joined us to chat about Main Street and the work her team is doing to support local SMBs. In honor of the fight she’s leading for American owners, I presented her with her own “Not for Baseball” bat. I assume it can get a lot of use in Washington 😂😂 Thanks to all the owners who joined us!

@joshsendstweets Very fair take!

@connorpera Hard Pass unless 1) all or majority of the customers are also your customers or 2) if it’s an integral part of their business or 3) you’re buying just net asset value

Has anyone done a deal with significant customer concentration? I would love to hear about it and how you handled it. Shoot me a DM if that’s you.

@kelceylehrich @jjtejkl Obviously, but an earn out can only mitigate so much, the higher the concentration the harder it is to solve with just an earn out.

@connorpera @jjtejkl I believe it’s spelled E-a-r-n-o-u-t I think it’s French but the true origin is a mystery

@nathan_e_hill Inspiration to ETA bros everywhere.

@connorpera A true baller!

Been reading Brad’s book and it’s an awesome read if you’re not familiar with him. Dude is married to the game. I love it.

@irentdumpsters The ultimate.

@connorpera ALLoCatoR

@DanesawyerSMB Love it!

@connorpera Thanks! Amazing what you can do when you put your head down and grind.

Looks like acquisition of my only competitor is a go. Will bring all his work in house and probably only need one of his employees. Huge customer concentration but 40% increase in revenue overnight. If I can pull this off it will be life changing. Crazy what you can do in 18 months of joining an industry you have no business being a part of.

@DanesawyerSMB Awesome! Congrats man! Sounds like a great opportunity.

80% of his work is with customers we share, so I already hold the relationships with them. It’s near impossible for anyone to provide the price point we both were at, especially in our market, so even if they wanted to diversify down the road it would come at a huge cost. No true need to create an earn out, but it will be a complete seller note paid over 3 years.

@FranchiseMnA Taco Bell consistently blows my mind. What a fantastic business they’ve built.

Taco Bell trades with the tightest valuation bands in franchising Whether you are selling 150 locations or 5, the EBITDA multiple is going to be ~10x and the entire industry just accepts it One of the most consistent performers in the industry that does well in all macro environments!

@sodacitysimpson Really strong start to the year revenue wise again! Profit wise not where we want to be but making progress there too.

@connorpera How’s biz going

Going to b-school at a top program carries certain stereotypes, but it has its advantages (beyond the obvious ones). I’ve always thought of myself as pretty smart and hardworking, but during orientation at Kellogg, one of the speakers asked the room to stand up if they were valedictorian of their high school. Fully 25% of the room of ~500 stood up. It was one of the first times I realized that there’s levels to the game. Being around that group for 2 years pushed me hard, changed me for the better, and helped me realize that, while I was far from the valedictorian of my high school, I belong among them.

@Accrual_Reality It’s so hard though!

@connorpera lol I was actually thinking about your tweet from a week or two ago when I wrote this Inspired me to try and be better about this

The hardest thing about running a business in 2025 isn't strategy. It isn't competition. It isn't even cash flow. It's finding two uninterrupted hours to actually think. Slack notifications. Emails. A customer with an urgent problem that probably isn't urgent. An employee who needs something. A phone that hasn't stopped buzzing since 7am. By the time you clear the queue it's 4pm and you haven't done a single thing that actually moves the business forward. Deep work - the kind where you actually solve problems, build things, and think clearly - doesn't happen in the gaps between interruptions. It requires protecting time like it's a meeting you can't cancel. The business will always have more noise than your calendar has space for. The owners who figure out how to work around that build something. The ones who don't just stay busy. If someone else has found a way to do this, let me know because I'm still working on it 😬