Elliott Holland has 10+ years of experience executing middle market deals as an entrepreneur. He fully understands the challenges in executing good deals and avoiding lemons. He is a Harvard Business School (HBS) trained, seasoned buy-side deal advisor who spent almost a decade as an independent sponsor & business buyer
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- Frederick Macdonald Owner/Managing Member Horizons Capital Partners LLC
- Robert F. Smith Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners
When business started difficulties overcame:
“the biggest challenges were dialling into who had the most severe need for the service that I was able to deliver the best. And it took me awhile to figure that out, it took me awhile to be bold enough take a guess really at whom would benefit from my services and then based on the market feedback be able to adjust. Another challenge was business development. So, the traditional model for marketing my services involves a lot of golf Neil and a lot of dinners with pieces of cow meat on the plate and I am in my thirties almost forties and so for me growing the business meant having a digital front to my sales and marketing channel and there’s not many people that do that in the mergers and acquisitions space. And so, I had to write book in a lot of ways around how to do that and that took several years to dial into”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
How To Win Friends and Influence People Book by Dale CarnegieFavourite Quote:
“prior proper planning prevents piss poor performance”
Recommended Online Resources:
- Yahoo Finance – stock market live, quotes, business & finance news. At Yahoo Finance, you get free stock quotes, the latest news, portfolio management resources, international market data, social interaction and mortgage rates to help you manage your financial life
- SpyFu – Competitor Keyword Research Tools for AdWords PPC & SEO. Search for any competitor, download their keywords. It’s that simple. Learn competitors PPC SEO tricks and avoid their mistakes
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“Create a future you actually want to live in. I think a lot of people follow previous models of success or put absolute dollar creation as the success metric because the world uses it as that. And they end up creating a future that they hate. But had they looked at the people who are living in that future when they started, they would have known those people hated it. And so why would they think they would like it when most of the people who are in it hate it. So, the advice I would give is think about what is the future you want to be living in? And part of it will be business and part of it will be personal and part of it will be other things that are important to you. And if you are going to build something why not build that?”…[Listen for More]
More About Elliott Holland:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang out.” Abraham Lincoln
Other Quotes From the Chat with Elliott Holland:
- “I think there are a few times in people’s lives where they have a higher incentive to lie than when they are selling their business. Why is that, Elliott? Because they don’t get a one for one benefit for lying, they get a multiple of their lie when you pay them. Well how does that work? So, people pay a multiple of cash flow for businesses. For businesses of around 1,000,000 dollars in cash flow you are problem looking at something between two and a half and four and a half times. So, let’s just call it four. So, if the person is able to lie to you and convince you that there is 100,000 of profit in their business that there actually isn’t they don’t get 100,000 dollars back they get 400,000 dollars back. ”
- “I think I’m good at this stuff Neil. And so, if I’m good at it I am betting on myself because I want to get the upside”
- “I think the founder sets the culture almost by themselves for a very long time after the business starts”
- “I can’t speak for everyone but for me my entrepreneurial journey has been one where I refer to be collaborative naturally. I think my social disposition is to be collaborative with people. However, my entrepreneurial journey when I’ve had to trust other people in business it has not worked out for me. And not that I think you can never trust anyone in any capacity but I think for me the thing that would have Shortcutted my process is realising that because it’s entrepreneurship and because it’s ownership you should have a path to you being okay in business on your own even if you want to incrementally team up or partner up with someone that way you are not really subjecting yourself to a scenario where you may succeed in your own work. You may be in the right business line and business model but because your infrastructure is dependent completely on another person that has their own constraints, motivations and whatnot you put a level of risk in your business that you might not understand. So, I would have cocreated two things from the beginning, one that I own myself and one that I partner with someone else on so that I am always growing my own thing in case I had to fall back on it if the partnership and/or collaborations didn’t work”
- “Planning I think is half of it. I really, really, really believe that planning which impacts allocation of time, energy, what ponds you are fishing in. I think that’s at least half of it”
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