Clef @tryclef

One of Clef's founders built etameetup.com yesterday so everyone in #ETA can find each other a bit easier. He struggled finding his community while he searched. So now no one has to find out about an event after it already happened.

Alex @foundaholic

3 hours ago

built a little thing yesterday. I was always struggling to find #ETA events BEFORE they happened. So I brought them all into one site. Check it out etameetup.com find every ETA event happening across the US so you don't find out AFTER they happen

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built a little thing yesterday. I was always struggling to find #ETA events BEFORE they happened. So I brought them all into one site. Check it out etameetup.com find every ETA event happening across the US so you don't find out AFTER they happen

@JD_DeYonker It's wild how many times I've picked up the phone expecting all hang ups, and ended up building a fruitful relationship. Now mind you I do get hung up as well, but the small wins make it worth it 😂

Hot take: Contrary to what every guru will tell you, not everyone should try to buy a business. Or be an entrepreneur for that matter.

So we built an AI matchmaker named Charlie. The best part is he doesn't sleep, so call anytime. Whether you're looking to buy a business or thinking about selling, call him. No account needed, and he's new, so tell me if he sucks. +1 628 468 8265 #smallbusiness

So before you go looking, write your four corners down. Do that work. This box will quickly tell you what's in, and what's out. Then go look.

4. Might be the hardest part. It requires you to look inwards. What is the reason this owner should sell to me. Why me? Not "because I'll take care of your people."

Lack of clarity in search is at an all-time high. Almost 90% of the searchers I speak with don't actually know what they want to buy, nor have they spent the time to figure it out. This is a recipe for failure. Fix it in 20 minutes 👇

The thesis around blockchain/crypto in general I wouldn't call gambling, it has a real use case. However the volatility and sentiment around trading it, is basically gambling. Similar to options. So like others mentioned, it's a fun moonshot diversification play with ~5% of your portfolio. But hey a lot of people I know are ~80% all in on it. To each their own!

Live now: tryclef.com/off-market

How much of off-market sourcing can you actually automate? We just launched an off-market engine on Clef. You describe what you want to own and it helps you draft a thesis. Say an HVAC company in the Southeast, at least $2M in revenue, owner near retirement. From there it pulls matching companies from proprietary databases, researches each one against live data, and comes back with the few worth a call. Owner's name, phone, email, and a first outreach already drafted. Finding, early vetting, and skip-tracing, done for you. Your time goes to the outreach instead of building and cleaning a list. It won't replace real relationship building but it takes the legwork out of finding your next targets. Take it for a spin and tell us what you think. #ETA #smallbusiness

Full breakdown is on our blog: the spend thresholds, how to stress-test a supplier price increase, and the diligence questions to ask before you sign. tryclef.com/blog/supplier-…

Everyone buying a business checks customer concentration. Far fewer check the supplier side, even though a supplier problem is harder to fix. Lose your biggest customer and you have a sales problem you rebuild over time. Lose your one critical supplier and you can't produce or deliver at all. Supplier contracts add a second risk. The exclusive-distribution ones often carry a change-of-control clause, which lets the supplier walk the day the business changes hands, when a new owner has the least leverage. One supplier at 20 to 30% of spend is when you need to start asking questions. Above 30% usually moves the price. One last thing. The good pricing and payment terms a business gets from a supplier often depend on the seller's personal relationship rather than a written contract. Ask which it is.

New to buying a business? Here's a trap that catches first-timers and costs real money: working capital. Every business needs a cushion of cash and unpaid invoices to cover payroll and expenses until customers pay. When you buy, that cushion isn't automatically yours. The seller can collect the receivables and take the cash right before closing. So you can close on a profitable business Friday and not have enough to make payroll Monday. The business earns money. The cushion that funded it left with the seller. The fix is a working capital target: an agreed minimum that stays in the business at close, with the price adjusted if it comes up short. Skip it, and your first month gets scary fast.

20 years can fly by. And if you never build it into more than a job, this is where it ends. Talked to a neighbourhood shop owner yesterday who sold his 20-year-old business on Kijiji last week. No broker. No BizBuySell. Kijiji. Next to a used couch and a snowblower. One offer came within a few days. He took it. And this wasn't a distressed sale. He just felt it was time to move on. Said he's tired of managing everything. So he posted it on Kijiji. He's staying on as an employee for a year. Said he really only ever thought of his business as a job. Never treated it as anything but that. No systems, no real value at the end, except the inventory. The Main Street deal market is more broken, and more human, than anyone thinks. #smallbusiness