Jameson CampAdvising on AI and GTM | 2x Exits

It’s simple really #buyabusiness

16 Oct 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:29

In this instructional YouTube monologue, the speaker shares a step‑by‑step, experience‑based framework for acquiring a small business with a budget under $50,000. The method begins by reserving 25 % of the available capital for post‑acquisition growth and maintenance, leaving the remaining 75 % for the purchase price. The speaker advises targeting on‑market businesses priced at 3–4 × annual profit, which signals a healthy market multiple. Prospective acquisitions should fall into one of two categories: under‑monetized (pricing can be increased) or under‑grown (clear growth path). The speaker then recommends selecting a business model—e‑commerce, content, or software—and keeping acquisition criteria simple for efficient searching. A practical workflow is outlined: create a dedicated Gmail address, subscribe to 5–6 broker listing alerts, review daily emails, and conduct a deeper weekend analysis of the most promising listing. Finally, the speaker notes that typically three offers are needed to close one deal, and that consistent application of this process for a month should build confidence in buying a business.

Chapters

If I had less than a $50,000 budget and I wanted to buy in business, this is exactly what I would do. I bought and sold everything from $500 dog frisbee blogs to $30+ million financial media holdcos. First things first, you're going to want to take 25% of your budget and set that aside for growth and maintenance. And so if you've got a $10,000 budget, it's really— you got a $7,500 budget. The next thing I want to say is you want to look at buying at the right multiple. Most people will come in and think they want to buy a deal. You want to buy a deal at a healthy multiple. Because it means the market is looking for that. This is for on-market deals, not off-market. So 3 to 4x the yearly profit is what you're going to be looking at buying. And when you're looking at the businesses, you really want to be looking for one of two things. This is how you flip a business for more money. You want a business either under-monetized or undergrown. It should be very clear that they are poorly monetized, that you could be charging more, or it should be very clear there's a path for growth. Next, you want to decide type of business. Are you looking at e-commerce business, content business, software business? There's all these opportunities. You want to make your criteria as simple as possible, so when you go looking, it's easy to find. The next thing you're going to do is go set up a new Gmail address. Say it's James looks for businesses, and then you're going to go sign up for 5 or 6 of the business brokerages listing alerts. I'll list them down below. Then every day, you're just going to open up your email and look through the ones that were sent to you. Every weekend, you're going to find your favorite one and do a deeper dive into it. Finally, It's going to take about 3 offers normally to close on one deal. Just follow this for a month and you'll start actually getting very comfortable with buying something.