About 70% of our members are acquisition entrepreneurs who've bought at least one business. Something interesting I've found is that in peer group discussions, people seldomly seek advice on additional businesses they're buying.
We'll talk about this a bit when people are just giving their recent updates. "Oh, I'm under LOI on a local company. Everything looks good right now." And we'll get small status updates along the way. "Still under LOI." "Closing delayed." "Seller pulled out."
Occasionally when someone buys a business that is in a new industry, they'll ask "does this make sense?" or "am I crazy for wanting to buy this thing?" And we'll go deeper on it. Or if there's real hair on the deal, they'll bring that up.
But for the most part, all of our discussions are focused on operations. Hiring, incentivizing, lead flow, systems and processes. The operational stuff is where people want to spend their time.
Not sure what this says, but it feels like once someone's bought one business, they need less general help acting on the next one. They'll still get their attorney's involved, run a quality of earnings analysis, and do all the standard due diligence. Or if they do need a fresh eye, they'll call someone else.
But more of what they're in a peer group for is just talking with other operators on how they can run their business better. They're bringing up challenges, opportunities, and the day-to-day decisions that actually move the needle. That's what fills the conversation time.
The pattern is clear. Business owners who've been through an acquisition already have their process. What they don't have is a room full of people dealing with the same operational headaches they are.
That's what draws people back to peer groups. Not the deal talk, but the shop talk. How do you hire for this role? What's your lead flow looking like? How are you handling that incentive structure? If you're looking for real conversations with other business owners facing similar challenges, that's exactly what we cover in the HoldCo Builders Podcast.
After facilitating these conversations for years, the observation holds. Acquisition entrepreneurs join peer groups expecting to discuss deals. They stay because they get to discuss running their businesses with people who actually understand what that means.
The real value isn't in the due diligence phase. It's in everything that comes after. If you're curious what this looks like over time, I documented five months of uncensored updates from a business owner's diary that shows the real highs and lows.
Just an interesting pattern from years of watching how these groups actually work.
