COURSE

Small Biz Buying Course

You’re ready to be a business owner. Now what? Learn everything you need to buy your first business – from finding the right businesses to go after, to savvy negotiation and financing tactics, to your first 90 days in charge.

headshots of a diverse group of people

1,100+ students

Does this sound like you?

You make decent money as a W-2 employee, but you’re working too hard and earning too little to live the life you really want. Maybe you’re totally new to investing. Maybe you have dabbled in real estate or tried to build a company from scratch and it didn’t go so well. Either way, you know you want to buy a business in the next year and you’re excited to take the first steps.

“One week ago from Friday, I closed on my first business. I’m still soaking it in and celebrating at the same time. 🥳 I’m elated to be a new business owner and looking forward to my next acquisition. Thank you, thank you, thank you 🙏”

Odette C.

“I joined the course a few months ago and while I’m still going through the trainings, I built up the courage to take a leap and bought a vending machine, secured an awesome location at a gym, and am soooo proud of myself and my little revenue-generator!”

Kaeli S.

“This has reenergized me a ton and sparked a new path. I can’t wait to see where it goes and I’ve already been targeting my next potential acquisitions to build an integrated offering.”

Bret C.

Ditch your day job

As long as you’re trading time for money, there will always be a cap on how much you can earn.

This course will teach you everything you need to buy a business in the next 12 months, using little to no money of your own. It’s less risky than starting a business from scratch…and way less work, because somebody else has already done the hard part. At the end, you’ll not only own a business—you’ll own your future as well.

What you’ll learn

Our Small Biz Buying Course teaches you to buy, value, structure and finance a small profitable business. We’ll start with identifying what kinds of businesses you should pursue based on your goals, and how to find them.

You’ll learn how to sweet-talk prospective sellers and navigate negotiations like a pro. We’ll also share our framework for valuing businesses to make sure you’re getting a fair price, and – of course – some unconventional approaches to financing.

We’ll even go over some pointers for making the most of your first 90 days as a business owner.

9

Units

15

Hours of video lessons

17

scripts, templates and checklists

Course outline

  • Welcome to buying a business
  • What will you learn?
  • Why buy a small business?
  • Why buy a business now?
  • Pros and cons of biz buying
  • Building your team
  • Can I really buy a business?
  • Getting prepared to buy a business
  • Your personal P&L
  • Business buying calendar for Excel
  • Gaining clarity
  • Characteristics of the business
  • Goals and objectives
  • Models: Services, products and systems
  • Buying franchises with Wayne Lucier
  • Lisa Song field interview
  • Resource: Business buying checklist
  • Bonus interview: Buying laundromats, add-on companies
  • 5 worst businesses to buy
  • 5 best businesses to buy
  • Targeting the right sellers
  • Don’t try to do it all – pick 2
  • Leverage your network
  • The FROG method
  • Roleplay: Soliciting dealflow from friends
  • Leverage your community
  • Roleplay: Reaching out to COIs
  • Build your personal brand
  • Roleplay: Cold calling a business
  • Overcoming rejection with Andrea Waltz
  • How many businesses do I need to look at?
  • Resource: Network email outreach scripts
  • Resource: 1-page seller email outreach
  • Resource: Business broker list
  • Resource: Bizscout
  • Your unique skillset
  • Your track record
  • How does the seller benefit?
  • Roleplay: First meeting
  • Resource: NDA template
  • Bonus interview with David Osborne
  • Example: Laundromat due diligence and value
  • How we value companies: KISS method
  • Financial model walk-through
  • Common methods to value a company
  • Value of relationships: Valuing customers
  • Resource: 3 M model for adding value
  • 5 steps to due diligence
  • Negotiate: Two warnings
  • Seller needs analysis
  • Levers: Negotiating price vs. terms
  • What to bring to the negotiation table
  • Determine your level of competition
  • Buying a closed business
  • Create your own inflation hedge
  • Resources: Term sheet and LOI template
  • 8 questions to ask to save time
  • Negotiation tactics for win-win
  • Financing – important levers
  • Structuring owner finance
  • SBA loans: Lender interview
  • Alternative lending sources
  • International – Canada lending options
  • International – United Kingdom lending options
  • Milestones & earn-outs
  • Cash influx for percentage of equity
  • Investor & operator partnership
  • Sweat equity, revshare, profit sharing
  • Bonus interview: Empire Flippers CEO
  • Case study: Seller financing structure
  • Legal: Oversight and access
  • 13-week cashflow
  • Most important legal documents
  • First employee meeting
  • Hiring your operator
  • The first 30-60-90 days
Codie Sanchez

Meet your instructor:
Codie Sanchez

As the founder and CEO of Contrarian Thinking, Codie helps people learn to think critically about money and build wealth through unconventional business buying strategies. She’s a reformed journalist, Wall Streeter and investor who has built a $50 million portfolio of “boring businesses. Bottom line: Codie knows her sh*t. She created Contrarian Thinking to spark a new generation of free thinkers and business owners. Will you be the next one?

Want more? Upgrade to our Contrarian Community

If you know you want to ditch your day job within a year and you have at least $25k to invest, our Contrarian Community is your best bet to get there.

Small Biz
Buying Course

Self-guided business buying course

  • 15 hours of in-depth video lessons
  • 17 scripts, templates and checklists
  • 5 interviews with top business buyers

But without the benefits of Contrarian Community

  • Personalized mentorship
  • Expert deal analysis
  • Private community access
  • Weekly accountability calls with experts
  • Member-only dinners and events
  • Annual Main St > Wall St Event in Austin

$2,000 (1 payment, lifetime access)

Contrarian
Community

Self-guided business buying course

  • 15 hours of in-depth video lessons
  • 17 scripts, templates and checklists
  • 5 interviews with top business buyers

Plus the Contrarian Community

  • Personalized mentorship
  • Expert deal analysis
  • Private community access
  • Weekly accountability calls with experts
  • Member-only dinners and events
  • Invite to our Main St > Wall St Event in Austin

$10,000 (1 payment, annual renewal option)

Not sure yet if you want to commit to the Contrarian Community?

Go ahead and get started with the Small Biz Buying Course. You can always upgrade to our Contrarian Community later if it’s still a path you want to pursue.

FAQ

Simple – if you just want the information and resources, buy the course.

Plenty of people have been able to learn the ins and outs of business acquisition and become owners. However, most people want more than just the information.

That’s where the Mastermind comes in. If you want a full year of expert guidance and accountability, in addition to weekly support calls, deal review calls, and an active and growing online community supported by expert facilitators, that’s where you want to be. The Mastermind is where most future business owners people end up.

Buying a business (especially your first) can be a long and challenging process. If you’re fully committed to buying a business within the next year, we typically recommend joining the Mastermind.

For everyone else, we recommend the course. You can upgrade to the Mastermind in the future when you’re ready (and we’ll credit 100% of your course purchase towards the Mastermind).

More than half of the people that join the course or the Mastermind are traditionally employed. Most are well-paid and highly skilled, but they are either burnt out in their jobs or tired of building someone else’s wealth or both. This course will teach you how to leave (or supplement) your full-time job so you can stop side hustling once and for all.

Yes, the course from where we all started–from the beginning. We even have a module to help you determine what type of business to buy (since there are literally millions to choose from).

Don’t worry if you don’t know much about the industry or have had no previous experience – we’ll guide you through it all.

The key difference is the approach we take in this course vs. every other course I’ve bought. Our Small Biz Buying Course takes you down one very specific path. We don’t dump you into 15 hours of videos to listen to and then leave you to choose what to do and when to do it. We give you every step of the process, show you what to do, why to do it, how to do it, and give you templates and exercises to do each thing.

Then we give you the next step. That produces momentum, gives you small quick wins, and keeps you motivated and excited to keep going. All of which give you confidence and increase your chances of reaching your goal.

It’s the same process we use to buy our own businesses, so we know it works (even during recessions).

Another key difference is we specifically teach you how to buy the best off-market deals and use seller financing to creatively negotiate the most profitable deal possible.

Other courses don’t teach this, or don’t teach it well, and expect you to use a broker (who works for the seller, not the buyer) and go into debt to buy a business (not ideal).

We want you to get the best business, with the best deal, using no money of your own (or as little as possible).

Yes, absolutely. If you have the ability to buy a small business in your country, these concepts apply.

While some things are specific to the U.S., like SBA loans, there are a number of similar programs through local banks and through local governments that provide small business loans. We have a bunch of information on our course about those options. So the structure and framework we provide will still be beneficial to you.

Yes! There are updates coming, and all updates are free for 1 year.

Think of a blog post as being a distilled chapter from a book and the Small Biz Buying Course as being an entire graduate-level college class. (But much more fun to attend.)

The course goes into much more detail, with use cases, examples, checklists, and video tutorials on every single strategy.

Blogs are flat. Singularly focused on tactics. The course is dynamic and specifically engineered to help you buy your first business with easily repeatable strategies so you can continue to acquire more (if that’s what you want to do).

Yes. And we’ll credit you $2,000 towards the Mastermind.

In fact, it’s the best way to get into the Mastermind in the future. Because we know you’ve already got skin in the game and are doing the work, you’ll skip the waitlist.

Absolutely. It does every day.

This system has worked for actors, marketers, engineers, analysts and just about everyone else. You don’t have to be a business expert. Far from it.

In fact, it’s probably better that you’re not. That way you’ll be more open to following our proven process.

All of the strategies taught are built on universal business and dealmaking principles and are not industry-specific.

At the end of the day, that’s a question you have to answer.

However, I can tell you that the strategies in this course are the same ones I use to buy businesses, and what hundreds of other people have used to buy their businesses and generate millions in revenues and profits.

Of course, I can’t guarantee you’ll do the same. There are zero guarantees in life.

But it sure is a lot easier to acquire a business that is already making 6 or 7 figures than trying to start one from 0.

Let’s say you do join the course, spend $2,000 and acquire a business using seller financing or an SBA 7a loan (both strategies we teach in the course) so you have to put zero or very little of your own money down.

And let’s say – being conservative here – you buy a company that then profits you only $5,000 per month. That’s $60k a year in your pocket.

Is it worth it for you? I think so. But everyone has different financial goals. What’s yours?

The course is self-paced. Once you complete one lesson, you can move on to the next. We recommend that you take about 4 weeks to complete it, but you can go faster. There are about 20 hours of total video, in 9 units. It goes by faster than you think.

It depends. Are you still hungry?

If so, yes! We’ve had existing entrepreneurs and business owners take our course to help them acquire additional businesses to add to their portfolios or complement their existing businesses.

Own a business,
own your future.