Graham Thompson

Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.

Tweeting about buying and operating small businesses.

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

One way to search for and buy a small/medium sized business - a thread from my experience 👇

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

@joepohlen Great reminder. I do not do this often enough but just had a delightful convo with her. Thanks for this tweet.

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

@SullyBusiness Mom takes care of baby
Dad takes care of mom

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

@StrongpointRich @baldridgecpa Post a job and create a test for the applicants to take with your real financial data.

Real world tests are the best way to predict on the job performance.

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

@RegZeller I feel your pain. Stay strong, it gets better.

My #2 and #3 (both were here for over 20 years) both quit within 2 weeks of each other. The bright side is you get to rebuild with the right people.

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

@SullyBusiness Own 51%

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

@EndresenHeather I like this seller already! You control the price or the terms right? So if I’m the buyer I’d say “ok no problem. Points are yours.” And adjust the price as necessary.

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

@MikeBotkin_ @Codie_Sanchez Your commercial needs that is 😉

No thanks for your personal yard but for your HOA, if it’s over $1k/month, call me.

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

@nickfedele @lmmceo J-1

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

I’m finding that these messages actually make a difference

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

@SamtLeslie I imagine a very small number of people actually find these funny……but for that niche, you are nailing it 😂

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

@SamtLeslie Say it ain’t so!

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

Happened again

Customer cancels their contract
Then in 3 months they ask to come back
We raise their price 25% and they sign

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

@J23Moran LET’S GO!

Congrats. Can’t wait to watch you take over and lead the business.

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

@Molson_Hart @Hubstaff So it was a bad hire. Not a problem with hourly. I worked at a company with 5,000 remote and hourly employees…..it works well.

I have some great bookkeeper candidates from the pipeline I used to hire mine. Lmk if interested.

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

Customer A: you guys suck, we’re leaving
Me: Sad
Customer A + 3 months: can u come back?
Me: yes + 30% price increase
Customer A:

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

while running the biz

Yet, we had record month for April and we're slowing fixing the old way and implementing long term solutions

Don't want to be anywhere else. SMB life ftw

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

I love to get on here and tweet my wins. So let me share some non wins

I am dying *metaphorically*. This s*$t is hard. I've done lots of hard things (I have 4 girls under 4 yo) but every day feels like getting punched in the face, ten times. Why?

- Busy season

[Graham Thompson @grahammthompson]

- So I'm hiring a new #2 for the biz
- Customers are not happy with me
- Oh and I'm trying to close on a second biz next week
- My mechanic is slacking off and all our trucks and mowers are breaking

The solutions are so clear and not that hard to solve. Challenge is solving..