Stacey Salyer: [00:00:00] why growing door by door is broken. And what you can do instead, if you've built a solid property management business, and if you've added doors, built systems and hit your revenue goals, but growth still feels slow, reactive, and exhausting, this episode and show is for you.
Intro: Welcome to the Stacey Salyer Show, the podcast for property management leaders ready to think bigger about growth. I'm Stacey Salyer and the only acquisition strategist in this industry who sat on all sides of the m and a table. I've been the buyer acquiring a 370 door competitor during COVID using seller financing.
I've been the seller building and exiting a seven figure business. And I've been the corporate evaluator as director of acquisitions, assessing over hundreds of companies nationally. That means I know exactly what you're thinking, what you're missing, and what actually works when it comes to buying and integrating [00:01:00] in this space.
On this show, we dig into acquisitions as a real business tool. Not luck, not someday. You'll learn positioning, strategy, numbers, and integration from someone who's actually done it all. Let's go.
Stacey Salyer: So what if I told you the problem? Isn't your marketing, your offer or your operations, the real issue is this, you're still operating when it's time to start acquiring.
Welcome to the very first episode of the Stacey Salyer Show. I'm Stacey Salyer. While Boomers Retire, you Acquire, I teach other business owners how to get off the hamster wheel of growth and instead of hustling and growing door by door, I teach business owners how to acquire other property management companies in their market.
My episodes are going to be full of information on how to do it, how to find them, how to source deals, what to deal with in what I call the messy middle, and also how to integrate several hundred doors at one [00:02:00] time. I'm so excited that you're here and I look forward to you coming alongside me during this journey.
Today I'm gonna hit on three key points. Number one, the industry problem of growth. I'm going to hit on that and what we've been sold and how we can change our mindset and shift from operator to acquirer.
Number two, I'm going to talk about the shift in my business and how it completely changed the trajectory of my life and my mindset as well. And number three, then I'm gonna show you what I teach and how I teach it. So stay with me as we continue on this journey today.
All right. I'm gonna start with number one, the industry problem. Now, I use the word problem, but I actually like to use the word challenge. And what we've been taught for years and years is to grow door by door. And that's just always been the traditional way. So back in 2004, I actually got into property management as a property manager.
I was a portfolio style manager, which means [00:03:00] I handled my book of business from start to finish. So I quickly learned that the more contracts I brought in, the more money I made. And that was pretty simple. Now again, this was back in oh four, so times have changed quite a bit as far as like marketing and all that.
But that's basically what I did was I went out into the market and I hustled. I worked really hard and I would sign up clients as many as I could, and so that I would basically make more commission. And that's just how we were taught over the years. Then we were taught to hire a biz dev manager or A BDM as we like to call them in the industry.
And there's nothing wrong with that, but certainly that's not the only way to grow your company, because if you really think about it, if you're chasing and hustling door by door one month, you may add 10 doors. The next month you may add three, and then maybe the following month you lose five. And so it's this continual hamster wheel of growth [00:04:00] and you're just chasing, chasing, chasing.
But there is a better way. And if you stay with me, I'm going to explain what that looks like and how actually anybody can achieve that. You don't have to have millions of dollars. You don't have to be a millionaire. You don't have to have PE or VC backed money. And I'm super excited to share. How to do it and then how I teach it.
So point number two, today, what shift changed the trajectory of my life? So as you recall, I said I got into the business in oh four 2010. I opened a property management business for a local home builder, and I built that and it was great, and I really enjoyed my time there.
But by 2016, I knew that I had to go out on my own. I had a very specific vision of how I wanted my business. And I was really excited to be using the new tools that were out there as Prop Tech started to really come onto the market. So in 2016, as [00:05:00] a full-time single mom of three, I opened leading edge property management from my living room.
So I took a huge bet and a huge leap of faith on myself. I knew that I could set up a business because I had already done that. I knew operations inside and out, and I knew growth because that's how I got into it. In 2004, as you recall, I knew how to hustle. I knew how to get in my market and grow door by door, so, I was ready and that's what I did.
I took a huge bet on myself. And move forward. So I started to grow door by door, and by about 2019, I had about 200 doors or so under management, which is a great accomplishment in my area. I had built a solid reputation for myself. I had focused on my Google reviews. I was a Rotarian. I still am a Rotarian,
you know, I was working my community and the different people in my community, the touch points, and I knew how to hustle and that's what I did. I hustled super hard as a single [00:06:00] mom to grow this business. But then one day in 2019, a conversation happened that changed my life. I was talking to a local community member and they asked me, they were like, Hey, are you interested in growing your business?
Well, of course I'm interested in growing my business. I was an entrepreneur, of course. I wanted it to be bigger and better, and I had this big vision for what I wanted it to look like. And he said, Hey, I know somebody that's looking to get out. They are what I call a boomer. Now I use that term affectionately because boomers have built amazing businesses for themselves most of the time.
Um, they have long standing contracts and they have quite a few doors under management, but he was looking to get out and, uh, retire and. So he set up a meeting. That meeting changed my life. Now, did I have a lot of money to go out and buy a business? The answer is no. I did not. I was still a single mom of three.
I had a company and [00:07:00] obviously I was making money with that company. I had a pretty good net margin and all that stuff, but I still was not a millionaire. I didn't have, um, a ton of resources and all that kind of good stuff, but I always knew that I could bet on myself. And I didn't wanna turn down the meeting because you just never know what could work out, right?
So I have that meeting and we work out a deal. He agreed to seller financing and that's what he really wanted to do because he just wanted that monthly payment. I put a very small amount of money down on that business and it took a huge leap of faith. So now, this was early 2020 that we had agreed to all the terms. Now, if we all recall what happened in 2020 we were supposed to close April 1st, 2020. I'm in Washington State. We were one of the very first states to shut down in the middle of March, so both the seller and I did decide to take a slight pause.
We decided, okay, let's make sure. The business that you're selling is actually [00:08:00] going to still generate revenue, because that's the cool thing when you buy a business, you're basically buying cash. And, obviously I didn't wanna buy something that wasn't going to be worth anything. So we let a couple of months go by, the dust settled and we closed on June 1st, 2020.
And I was the proud owner of over 350 doors, which. Is a lot. Looking back, it's kind of insane what I ended up doing. But it changed the trajectory of my life, changed the trajectory of my business, and it opened a whole new world for me and shifted my mindset from pure operator to more CEO and just opened all new doors for me.
So then I took that business and I was very strategic about scaling it and adding new revenue into those different doors. So I was able to increase revenue. I did some other strategic moves that I'll share as time goes on, and I really was able to scale it and it, like I said, change [00:09:00] my life and change my business completely.
So then a few years later, a national brand came calling. Now, I was not in the mindset at that time to sell my business, but I did see an opportunity with that national brand, and I did end up actually selling my business to that national brand because I took some of the money.
From the proceeds and I invested that into the national brand. So provided all the stars align, I will actually make back more money than my business would've technically been worth. So we will see what that outcome brings. But that was another strategic move that I made, and with that strategic move I decided to stay on as an employee and build that business. So I took the position of director of acquisitions, and what that entailed was running the acquisitions department. am running the entire team on a national level and we basically ran like front to mid funnel.
So that means all of the initial like cold calling and [00:10:00] relationship building and then what I kind of call the messy middle. And then we would basically punt it off to the final team that would finalize all the financial piece of it, make the final offer. And then they would close up the deal, and I loved it.
I had hundreds of conversations with business owners from all over the United States. I looked at businesses that were like from 50 doors to 5,000 doors and everything in between. If you name it. I have probably seen it. So with that, I was part of, you know, double digit transactions with that company and basically what I did within my market, I got to do on a national level, like basically on steroids.
So that's why I'm so excited To bring my wealth of knowledge to you and be able to show you that you can also move from operator to acquirer, and it can also change your life. So what do I teach? I have built a program called Built to [00:11:00] Acquire. I have three different ways that you can work with me, and I love to be able to teach you on how to grow. I love to be able to show other business owners how they can get off their hamster wheel of growth and stop hustling and instead start acquiring.
There's a huge difference between bringing on maybe 40 doors or 50 doors in one year versus 200 doors. In one month. And it is possible because if you remember, while boomers retire, you acquire, I would almost guarantee you that someone in your market is thinking about exiting, maybe not tomorrow, but there is somebody in your market that is thinking about their strategy on how to exit
and so what I teach with Built to Acquire is I teach you how to go out and find the companies in your market that are looking to exit. Whether or not you use a business broker is completely up to you, but there are a lot of off market [00:12:00] deals, and like I said, a lot of boomers that are looking to retire.
So you can acquire. I also teach you how to evaluate the risk as a buyer and what to look for. I teach that there are green, yellow, and red flags, and I like to say that even if you find a red flag, it doesn't mean that it's a no-go, but it does mean that you should take pause and evaluate if that actually is something that's going to work for you and your existing business.
And then most importantly, I teach you the third step, how to integrate what you buy because of course, when you buy in large quantities, you need to make sure that you have room in your business to bring on that large quantities and that you're set up with your team and your systems and your processes, and then how to build for future growth, and then how to integrate that into your business.
Very important. It's kind of like if you go shopping at Costco. And you have a pantry and you bring in all the stuff that you buy at Costco, [00:13:00] but you haven't made room for it in your pantry and you haven't planned on where you're going to put everything. And now all of a sudden you have five items that need to be refrigerated and your pantry's overflowing, and that's a mess.
And now know you've wasted all this like food and money. It's kind of like that when you acquire, you just wanna make sure that you've been really strategic about your, uh, platforms and your processes and your systems and your team. And then that way once you integrate, it's not as painful.
So what can you expect from the Stacey Salyer show? Well, you can expect me and expect me to bring my slayer energy to every episode. You'll hear solo episodes like this. You'll hear episodes where I interview other people that have acquired. I have some great episodes coming up, with attorneys and business brokers and insurance.
And all the things and information that you would need and to start thinking about, , before you go out and acquire. And [00:14:00] then of course, you're gonna hear great information from me on how, to integrate, what to look for and different things that I can teach you on this podcast. This is for founders who are ready to grow and get out of the operator mode and into acquirer mode.
I want to teach you how you can build your own business and get it ready to sell one day and make it the best asset that it is.
So if this episode has your wheels turning and you are thinking, hey. I wanna go from operator to acquirer or hey. I have been thinking about buying another portfolio in my market, but I just don't know how.
I'm a little bit nervous, like, what if I miss something in what Stacy calls the messy middle? Well then my podcast is for you, for sure. You'll want to tune in weekly, save the episodes, send them to friends and take notes because we are gonna have lots of amazing information [00:15:00] and I love to be able to share and teach.
so in my show notes, I'm gonna have a link to my acquisition readiness checklist. So feel free to pop into the show notes and grab your free copy and then feel free to send me a DM on. Your social platform of choice. I'm on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. I would love to know kind of where you scored, and also I'd love to know what you would love to hear about on my podcast this coming year.
So you can again, find the link in the show notes or you can send me a DM and I'll send you the link directly. So in closing, you don't need to work harder, but you do need to get off the hamster wheel of growth and you, my friend, are in the right place. I'm going to teach you how to get off the hamster wheel of growth.
And go from operator to acquirer. So don't forget, as Boomers retire, you acquire, this is the Stacey Salyer show, and we build businesses that are built [00:16:00] to acquire.
I'll see you in the next episode.
Outro: Thanks for listening to the Stacy Sier show. Here's the deal. You can read about acquisitions anywhere, but you can't learn acquisitions from someone who's done it the way I have as a buyer, a seller, and from the corporate side evaluating hundreds of companies. That's why I need you to subscribe and share this with someone in your network who needs to hear it.
And if this episode landed, leave a five star review. It's how more PM owners find the only acquisition expertise in the space that comes from all sides of the table. And while you're at it, grab my Acquisition Readiness checklist on my [email protected]. Then when you're ready to move from Growth Thinking to Growth Building, explore the Built to Acquire program.
Don't leave it on the table. See you on the next episode.
