How Chris added nearly £500,000 in turnover to his audiology business in just five months by acquiring a distressed competitor during the COVID-19 pandemic.
When the COVID-19 national lockdown first hit in early 2020, Chris and his brother lost roughly £500,000 in revenue from their Glasgow-based audiology business. Chris' first instinct was to simply batten down the hatches and survive.
However, a Zoom call with the Dealmakers Mastermind group completely shifted his mindset. Hearing other members casually talk about lining up deal after deal motivated him to take aggressive action. Rather than waiting out the storm, Chris realized that organic growth was going to be far too slow to recover their losses.
He began actively hunting for acquisition targets, a decision that transformed their company into the fastest-growing hearing healthcare provider in Scotland.
"The motivation I got from that Zoom call alone was worth its weight in gold to me. Just knowing that other people were out there doing those deals made me feel as though I was being a bit lazy. And that is not really my approach."
Chris discovered a potential seller who owned a chain of nine clinics. The owner had made some poor expansion decisions, notably trying to open in London too soon, and was now sitting on £120,000 in bank debt. Despite generating a very healthy turnover of £460,000, poor cost management and a high director salary had completely wiped out the profitability.
Chris smartly structured the deal to purchase the assets of the business rather than the shares. By securing a £120,000 peer-to-peer loan, Chris merged the assets directly into his existing business, instantly adding massive turnover without absorbing the previous owner's liabilities.
Brilliantly, when government-backed COVID loans became available, Chris refinanced the deal to entirely remove his personal guarantees and secure a 12-month interest-free window.
It originally took Chris and his brother four to five brutal years to organically reach a £1 million turnover. By executing this single acquisition, they successfully added £420,000 in turnover in just five months, saving them nearly three years of organic grinding.
Their business emerged from the lockdown vastly leaner and significantly more profitable, jumping from a 7% net profit margin up to an incredible 21%. Word quickly spread that Chris was acquisitive, bringing multiple highly motivated sellers directly to his door.
His ultimate goal is to roll up enough clinics to hit a £10 million turnover for a massive exit multiplier. His biggest piece of advice for other entrepreneurs? Never start a business from scratch. It takes too long, and life is simply too short.
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