John Graves explains how experienced buyers acquire distressed businesses, negotiate with administrators, manage insolvency risk, protect supplier relationships, and turn failing companies into profitable acquisition opportunities.
Listen to the EpisodeEpisode 223 | Runtime: 34:58 | Audio Episode
Hear the full conversation with John Graves on buying businesses out of administration, assessing risk, negotiating with unpaid suppliers, and using acquisition to accelerate recurring revenue growth.
Three direct lessons from an experienced buyer focused on distressed and insolvent business opportunities.
Buying from administration can move in 24 to 48 hours, often with limited diligence, hidden liabilities, staff issues, supplier pressure, and serious operational stress from day one.
Insolvency practitioners move quickly toward buyers who understand the process, have funds available, ask the right questions, and can complete without wasting time.
John explains why buying recurring revenue, customer contracts, and established accounts can create faster growth than recruiting, training, and managing a traditional sales team.
This episode features Jonathan Jay speaking with John Graves, an experienced dealmaker who specialises in buying distressed businesses. John shares why insolvency acquisitions can create outsized returns, but also why they are unsuitable for inexperienced buyers who underestimate the pressure, uncertainty, and post-completion workload involved.
The discussion covers John's first acquisition, a hotel and golf course bought out of administration, and the painful lessons that followed. He explains how limited due diligence, lease issues, inherited staff problems, unpaid suppliers, and external shocks can quickly turn a cheap acquisition into a major operational burden.
John then breaks down the deals that worked, including telecom and SMS platform acquisitions where recurring revenue, customer bases, and supplier relationships created rapid growth. The episode gives a clear view of how experienced buyers assess risk versus reward, negotiate with administrators, protect cash flow, and use professional advisers to avoid expensive mistakes.
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