Articles Ranking
Owners who bought instead of building
A $60,000 vending route, an $85,000 Craigslist laundromat, a 1929 septic company bought from a father-in-law. Seven owners who bought their way in, ranked by what the business reports now, and what each one paid.
Most owners in the database started from nothing. Seven of them got in by writing a cheque for a business that was already running, two more bought in other ways, and one purchase failed. This page ranks the seven by the latest revenue reported for what they bought, and shows what each one paid where the price is on record. Every figure comes from the owner's entry.
The column mixes things that are not quite alike. Rolfe's figure is a whole portfolio of parks. Lenahan's is revenue at the time he bought, because that is the last figure published. And revenue is not take-home pay: the margin ledger covers what each trade keeps.
Rolfe paid $400,000 for Glenhaven Mobile Home Park in Dallas in 1996, four months after selling his billboard company for $5.8 million. With Reynolds he went on to buy parks at about two dozen a year. In 2013 the parks generated $30 million in revenue, more than half of it profit. This is a portfolio built from many purchases, not one business grown.
Put roughly $3 million into buying a struggling Parkland, Florida wash in 2013. It was doing 35,000 cars a year under its previous owner and passed 100,000 in the first full year. Rising Tide now runs three locations and reports nearly $6 million a year at over 20 percent margins.
Acquired Gray Brothers, founded in 1929, from his father-in-law in 2013, at about $1 million a year in revenue with 22,000 customers and 10 to 15 percent margins. Terms were not reported. Two years later it did about $3 million at more than 30 percent.
Bought a failing laundromat off Craigslist for $85,000 in 2010 after 25 banks declined him. Then a third store for $75,000 plus $170,000 for its building, and a fourth for about $35,000. Queen City Laundry reports over $2 million a year at roughly 40 percent margins.
Paid $400,000 with partners in 2021 for Bart's Heating & Air, a company doing about $1.2 million, using an SBA loan and a $100,000 working capital line. The column shows revenue at purchase. His target for the following year was $2.72 million, and no result against it is on record.
Bought the Scoop Soldiers Dallas territory in 2019 after managing it as a corporate employee for two years. Over $900,000 and 1,100-plus clients within a year. What he paid for a built territory is not reported. He has since merged with another owner and runs about 30 trucks across three markets.
Paid $60,000 in 2014 for a Tampa Bay route from an owner who was moving away. Hill Vending now grosses over $58,000 a month from more than 100 machines at 40-plus locations, and he typically works two days a week. The column is $58,000 times twelve, our arithmetic.
Bought in, but not ranked
Nick Huber and Dan Hagberg, Bolt Storage. After selling Storage Squad, they bought small rural self-storage facilities from retiring owners at $40 to $70 a square foot, against rents of about $10 a square foot a year. The portfolio is 68 facilities and 2 million square feet across 11 states. Revenue is undisclosed, so it is not ranked.
Joel and Hunter Davis, pool service. They bought into a system rather than an existing business, opening an America's Swimming Pool Company franchise in Frisco, Texas in June 2019. UpFlip's feature puts it at $851,000 a year in revenue. Because the territory was new, we list it here rather than among the buyers of a running company.
The one that failed
Dan Burnside bought a rural HVAC company doing $2.1 million with roughly $800,000 of seller's discretionary earnings. On revenue at purchase it would sit in the middle of the column. After closing he found the seller had misrepresented the business, a key employee left to start a competitor, and the company ended in bankruptcy. It belongs on this page because it is the most expensive lesson in the database, and it belongs below the line because what he bought no longer exists.
What the list shows
The cheapest purchases grew the most relative to their price. Hill's $60,000 route now grosses about eleven times that in a year, and Menz's $85,000 store became a chain reporting over $2 million. Both sellers were in a weak position, one moving away and the other running a store that lost money, and a low price on the exits ranking usually says more about the seller's situation than about what the business could become.
Every buyer who did well changed something specific. Spracklin added inspections and municipal work, put GPS on the trucks and raised prices that had not moved in years. Menz renovated and staffed his stores. The D'Eris took the Parkland wash from 35,000 cars a year to over 100,000. Hill's rule is to never compromise on machine quality, starting with card readers. None of them bought a business and left it as it was.
The buyers with the least risk knew the business first. McCoy had run his territory for two years, and Spracklin bought from family. Burnside bought from a stranger in a market he did not know. Our article on the key employee problem and the comparison of buying versus building go further into why.
The startup cost ladder shows what the founders who built from scratch spent, for comparison, and the Boring Index scores each of these trades. This site is one of SideRoad's weekly builds, and buyers are added here only when an owner's sources document the purchase.
Common questions
What is the cheapest documented business purchase in the database?
Dave Menz's fourth laundromat, at about $35,000. Among first purchases, Adam Hill's Tampa Bay vending route cost $60,000 in 2014 and now grosses over $58,000 a month, and Menz's first laundromat cost $85,000 in 2010.
Which acquisition grew the most after the purchase?
By reported revenue, Dan Spracklin tripled Gray Brothers from about $1 million to about $3 million within two years and lifted margins from 10 to 15 percent to over 30. Relative to price, Adam Hill's $60,000 vending route now grosses about $700,000 a year.
Has anyone in the database bought a business and lost it?
One owner. Dan Burnside bought a rural HVAC company doing $2.1 million with about $800,000 of seller's discretionary earnings. Seller fraud and a key employee who left to compete led to bankruptcy.
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