THE BUYER'S BRIEF - MARKET PULSE
Private equity just became your competition.
According to the latest IBBA Market Pulse data, PE firms now account for 59% of all transactions in the $5M to $50M range. A few years ago that number was closer to 30%. The dry powder pile didn't shrink. The platform deals got scarcer. So sponsors moved downstream, into the space most of my readers are actually shopping in.
Bloomberg ran a piece on April 1 about this exact phenomenon. A plumbing company owner in Atlanta said he's fielded hundreds of inquiries from PE firms. Some Main Street owners are now getting multiple calls a day. And here's the part most buyers miss: a lot of these owners are flat-out refusing to sell to PE.
They don't want their employees processed through a roll-up playbook. They don't want a name they spent 30 years building to become a line in someone else's portfolio deck. They want to hand the business to a human being who will keep it intact. If you're the human being who shows up with a clean 80/10/10 offer and a real plan, you win deals PE will never touch, at prices PE can't match.
Here's what changes for you this week.
First, your competition is loud. If a PE firm has called the owner seven times this month, a thoughtful letter from a qualified individual buyer stands out like a handwritten note in a spam folder. Lead with who you are, why you want this specific business, and what you'd keep the same. Not what you'd optimize.
Second, your math has to be tight. PE can absorb a bad purchase multiple because they're buying for a 5-year exit and a financial engineering story. You can't. You're buying cash flow you'll live on. The Bulletproof 3.0x purchase multiple ceiling exists specifically because a deal that makes sense for PE at 5x does not make sense for you at 5x. Different buyer. Different math. Run your numbers through DealScorePro before you get emotionally attached to a listing.
Third, seller financing is a moat. PE almost never asks for a 10% seller note. They want clean exits. You should insist on one. It keeps the seller accountable after closing and signals to the seller that you're a serious operator, not an arbitrage play. That one ask filters out half the noise in the deal pool.
The silver tsunami is real. The PE pressure is real. But the window for a patient, prepared, individually-financed buyer is wider right now than it's been in a decade. Most sellers don't want a suit from New York. They want you. Show up like it.
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