She left a 6-figure school job to buy... a pool company?

Making six figures doesn’t mean much when you’re working 24/7.

That was Melissa’s reality last year.

She managed 500 employees as a school superintendent, but the stress (and office politics) was crushing her.

She wanted out — badly.

After toying with the idea of opening her own business, Melissa stumbled on one of my Instagram posts about acquisitions.

She was pretty skeptical at first.

(She cross-checked with two of my students to verify it wasn’t a scam!)

But five months later...

Melissa bought a commercial pool service company in Myrtle Beach that’s absolutely crushing it.

The company mainly serves resorts and hotels, doing pool resurfacing, deck work, and maintenance.

Here’s a breakdown of the numbers:

• Annual gross revenue: $1.5 million

• Cash flow: $400,000

• Purchase price: $995,000 (the bank valued it at $1.75M!)

• The owner threw in a $25,000 bonus for the employees to stay on board

• Melissa took out an SBA loan to cover the purchase price, with a down payment of 10% ($100k).

• Leaving her with around $300,000 positive cash flow in the first year.

That’s a 3X cash-on-cash return on her initial investment!

As soon Melissa closed the deal, she went from 24/7 stress to working 30-hour weeks. And now her workday ends at 5 PM.

She didn’t know the first thing about pools when she started.

But the whole thing was practically gift-wrapped for her, with:

• 53 companies on the waiting list, and only 3 employees to meet demand

• Zero marketing (all word-of-mouth)

• Huge modernization potential (they were using all paper invoices, had no website, didn’t take credit cards)

• The previous owner staying on for a few months to show her the ropes

The growth potential here is insane.

Just by modernizing operations, Melissa thinks revenue could double.

Does all of this sound familiar?

It should.

It proves the same three points as the other success stories I’ve shared:

1. You don’t need industry experience to buy a profitable business

2. Your management skills are more valuable than technical know-how

3. There are incredible deals hiding in plain sight

If you’re making six figures at your W2 job, but crave more freedom (and better returns), buying a business could be the right move.

After all... Melissa didn’t even know what a skimmer was before she bought this pool company!

So why not take the plunge?

(No pun intended.)

If you want to learn how to find and finance deals like this:

Fill out our 2-minute Interested Investor Survey, and tell us more about your goals.

Or, if you’re on the other side of the fence and want to sell a business...

Tell us the details here, and we’ll reach out if we find a buyer that’s a good fit.

Catch you in Tuesday’s issue!

P.S.

To listen to Melissa’s full deal breakdown (with all the details that couldn’t fit into a single email), check out the video below:

[Video]: Former Teacher Cash Flowing $300k/year on Her Pool Business Acquisition!