The 7 Year Collapse of an SBA Acquisition | Scott Duncan Interview

Today's interview covers the painful seven-year journey from self-funded, SBA business acquisition, to going to zero and shutting down. Scott Duncan bought a tool and die business that seemed to offer good business-buyer fit for his mechanical engineering background. It also seemed to be a good, searchy business: revenue was highly re-occurring, and the service it provided was critical to its customers' manufacturing operations. Unhappily, a number of factors conspired to undermine the business and Scott's efforts. Key person departures, poor culture, Covid, inflation. So when that customer stopped buying, they took half of Scott's earnings with them. Huge learning there: watch for concentration not just of revenue, but EBITDA as well. We thank Scott for coming on stage like this. If you find his story helpful, please consider shooting him a quick note saying so; you'll find his LinkedIn in the show notes. And here he is, Scott Duncan, former owner of F&M Tool and Die.

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Chapters:
00:00 Scott’s background
12:51 Finding & evaluating F&M Tool and Die
27:47 Early operational challenges & employee issues
44:45 COVID impact, layoffs & uncertainty
47:56 2021 recovery & move into injection molding
58:26 2023 decline & financial distress
01:08:03 Final struggles & closure in 2024
01:18:52 Personal bankruptcy & legal process
01:26:38 Reflections on failure & future plans

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ABOUT Acquiring Minds
Acquiring Minds is a podcast about buying businesses. Acquiring an existing business is an awesome opportunity for many entrepreneurs, and host Will Smith talks to the people who do it. New episodes 2x per week.

Credits:
Edited by Anton Rohozov
Produced by Pam Cameron

#business #acquisitions #buyingbusiness