How to stay poor: 1. Never take risk. 2. Take risks you don’t understand. Here’s how to minimize your risk when buying your first business:

There's no such thing as the right or wrong business. There's only the business that's right or wrong for you. The risk is often in buying something you know nothing about. That's why I created the Contrarian Deal Clarity Framework to help first-time owners find their perfect biz.

You need to define 5 components: 1. Your Ideal Owner Experience 2. Your Zone of Genius 3. Business Size 4. Profit Requirements 5. Industry Focus Let's break each one down:

Your Ideal Owner Experience Saying "I want to leave my 9-5" is too wishy-washy. To trade in your W2 form, your vision board needs to be specific on three things: • Personal goals (do you want more family time or grind for yourself) • Income goals (replace your $75k salary or build an empire) • Business goals (be a hands-on operator or absentee owner)

Your Zone of Genius Think of this as the intersection where these three elements overlap: • Passion (what you love) • Skills & Experience (what you're good at) • Network (who you know) Most people ignore this and buy businesses they hate running in 6 months. Don't be most people.

Business Size It’s easy to fantasize about buying a Fortune 500 company. But we’re not playing the billionaire game here. As a first-time time buyer, look for micro acquisitions: • <$1M cost • $50K-$200K profits • 1-3X multiples Less competition, more opportunity, fewer headaches.

Profit It’s important to remember you're not just buying a business for the sake of it. Your acquisition MUST be an income stream that can cover: 1. Debt service 2. Operator salary (if relevant) 3. Growth/working capital 4. Your earnings I use these two tests to evaluate if a deal is worth looking at:

The SOWS Test Before I buy anything, I ask if the business is: • Stale - Does the owner still use fax machines • Old - Is it 5+ years old with repeat customers • Weak - Does competition suck at marketing • Simple - Can an 8-year-old could understand it The more boxes it checks, the better.

The BRIT Test Then I check to see if it’s BRIT: • Buy - Must be a cashflow, not cash-suck businesses • Resist - Recession-proof • Increase - Can I raise prices (most owners undercharge by 30%) • Tech - Can I add simple technology to improve it? Which brings us to the last component of our Deal Box framework:

Industry First, you have to realize certain industries are designed to eat cash, not make it. Think: • Restaurants • Newspapers • Software • Hotels They all have high failure rates and should not be your first business.

On the flip side, these are my favorite businesses for first-time buyers: • Digital Businesses (build once, sell continuously) • Home Services (people will always need their roofs fixed and lawns mowed) • Professional Services (any business where a license is required has an inbuilt moat e.g CPAs) • Real Estate Enhanced (laundromats, car washes, self-storage)

Once you get clear on your Deal Box, decisions become clearer. You stop wasting time on deals that don't fit and get closer to buying your first biz.