Solo Private Equity

Sarah Moore shares her approach to buying and operating a small business with no money down through an unorthodox private equity strategy. She successfully acquired a multi-million dollar business (egg cartons.com) using creative financing and hustle.

Key Strategy Points:

• Business Search Approach:

  • Scraped databases for private companies within 1.5 hours of Boston
  • Removed obvious exclusions (legal firms, accounting firms, franchises)
  • Focused on consistently profitable businesses rather than specific industries
  • Used interns to manage high-volume outreach

• Financing Structure:

  • 25% seller's note
  • 75% bank financing
  • Required no personal capital investment
  • Shopped 20+ banks to find ones that viewed seller's note as equity

• Creative Marketing Tactics:

  • Mass faxing campaigns with photo
  • Wore "I want to buy your business" sweatshirt with phone number
  • Attended free broker events in distinctive outfits to be memorable
  • Used gender and height as advantage to stand out in male-dominated industry

• Deal Criteria:

  • EBITDA: $1-2M
  • Profitable for last 3 years
  • Seller financing available
  • 100% of business for sale
  • Preference for B2B service (not required)
  • Acquisitions below $25M

• Post-Acquisition Strategy:

  • Identified broader market opportunity (specialty packaging vs just egg cartons)
  • Expanded into new verticals (40% revenue now non-egg related)
  • Focused on proprietary products and custom solutions
  • Maintained existing operations initially before making changes