What I Learned Buying and Selling Over 100 Businesses - Roland Frasier

Roland Frasier is a strategic investor who has bought and sold over 100 public and private companies. He specializes in creative deal structuring and low and no money down acquisitions where he can add value, grow, scale, and sell the businesses he acquires. Roland shared his tips on how to be successful in business and how to balance your time so you maximize your return on joy.

Episode Summary
Growing up I spent a lot of time at my father's tax law firm and I met a lot of small business entrepreneurs that were coming in. I got to know several of them and thought it was pretty cool that they didn’t wear suits and were doing work they loved. I was also introduced to two resources that impacted me which were Nothing Down by Robert Allen and The Psychology of Winning by Denis Waitley.

One of the biggest challenges when starting a new business can be determining what you should focus on. The first tip I share with people is, don’t spend all of your time getting ready to be ready. If you look at the statistics on business failures they say your best chance of having success is only around 30 percent. So early on your focus should be to see if people will buy your product or service. It sounds really simple but the lack of product-market fit is one of the main reasons businesses fail. The second tip I share is to not take money from other people to start a business. That drive to make the business work when it is all you have will help you iterate faster and find the solution to the problem you are trying to solve.

Once you have a proven solution that also has demand, then work towards replacing yourself so that you are not an essential part of the day-to-day operations. Being able to remove yourself from the daily operations of the business is important to your happiness, health, and homelife, plus it provides the option to sell the business in the future. Lastly, there is a point when things are going well that you need to shift your focus towards building wealth so you can have financial freedom that isn’t tied to your business.  

As it relates to your marketing efforts most early-stage businesses focus on direct marketing to jumpstart their growth. This is good and often the right choice however, as your company matures so should your marketing funnel. When you get to the point that your business has share a voice it makes sense to begin brand advertising. While it would be dumb to start with brand advertising as a new business, once you have those direct marketing channels dialed in adding brand advertising makes complete sense.

The biggest untapped opportunity I see in most local businesses is not maximizing the lifetime value of their existing customers. It starts by reviewing the customer journey to see if there are other items they buy before, during, or after their purchase with you that you could offer as well. This allows you to extend your product or service offering to the customers that are already doing business with you.

Time blocking is the time management method I use to maximize my productivity. Not only do I schedule times for appointments but I also schedule time for family or vacations. The key to being successful is to make your schedule in advance because if you don’t your calendar tends to fill up. Something I do that most others do not is I manage my calendar, which allows me to choose what makes it on my schedule. As Steve Jobs said, “it is really easy to drown in opportunity” and I take that to heart when I work on planning. Planning helps to ensure what you choose to spend your time on also brings you the greatest return on joy or ROJ.


Resources Shared:
• Nothing Down by Robert Allen
• The Psychology of Winning by Denis Waitley
• Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars
• Business Lunch With Roland Frasier