We purchase best-in-niche, service companies within 150 miles of Lafayette, Indiana. We have closed 12 of 14 signed LOIs. We are presently looking for teams of 25-100 people to join our company. We strive to run the company in such a way that the seller is welcome to remain involved indefinitely. This is our home, too.
Selling is a big deal. The last thing you need is an unprepared buyer.
FOUNDERS
Daryl Starr
Mikel Berger
Latest Blog Posts
Imprimatur
An imprimatur (sometimes abbreviated as impr., from Latin, “let it be printed”) is a declaration authorizing publication of a book. The term is also applied loosely to any mark of approval or endorsement. Wikipedia Imprimatur has become a weird but helpful internal codeword for me and Daryl to use in the office. Daryl and I Read more about Imprimatur[…]
Succumbing to Customized Software in a SMB
There is a debate among small business owners regarding building your own custom software to run sales or operations versus buying or subscribing to existing tools. Well respected friends of mine argue that it’s wiser to simply buy the SaaS tool that is built for your industry or problem. They’re successful and the proof is Read more about Succumbing to Customized Software in a SMB[…]
When Revenue Outpaces Talent
Do you set annual goals for your business? Update them quarterly? What about seizing opportunity in the moment? Most owner-operators develop a cadence for goal setting. As an entrepreneur turned investor I operated under a continuous flow approach. If they goals needed to change, they changed. Unfortunately, this approach only works in very small teams Read more about When Revenue Outpaces Talent[…]
How to Sell Your Engineer-to-Order Service Business to an Employee
The professional service firm is the classic engineer-to-order service business. Consultants, legal, accounting and technical consultants are people-heavy. Mikel calls these companies, “smart people who can type.” Selling these companies is often quite difficult and rarely produces a large, single payday. The reason? Lack of repeatable processes. However, rather than belabor the problems with the Read more about How to Sell Your Engineer-to-Order Service Business to an Employee[…]
Distinguishing Make-to-Order versus Engineer-to-Order Service Businesses
Service businesses often begin by displacing the internal development or employment of a skill. For example, “I’ll hire you to shovel while I move on to this other thing.” As the sophistication of the skils move up the intellectual stack the singular skill is often replaced with judgement balancing across multiple skills. For example, “I’ll Read more about Distinguishing Make-to-Order versus Engineer-to-Order Service Businesses[…]
Run your Negative Service Company with purpose.
Mikel recently invited a business owner to lunch. In his email invite he used the phrase “negative service company” and the owner chuckled. He said he had never heard that phrase before. He runs a multi location restoration business. This sort of shocked me. Our flagship negative service company does autoglass repair & replacement. For Read more about Run your Negative Service Company with purpose.[…]
Summary of the Little Engine Ventures Annual General Meeting 2022
On Thursday, July 21, 2022 many of our 37 partners gathered in downtown Lafayette, Indiana for a report on the previous twelve months and our updates on the go-forward plans. We began with a video, as we have done for many years past. In this year’s video we showcased a single manager, sitting down in Read more about Summary of the Little Engine Ventures Annual General Meeting 2022[…]
Where is the opportunity stored?
Carrying opportunities is expensive. Capturing opportunities can be profitable. Owners and managers alike enjoy identifying and developing opportunities. Many have developed habits and allocations to how much time and expense to allocate to product development. This is usually associated with the pace of customer change or the profit margin of the idea. Developing opportunities is Read more about Where is the opportunity stored?[…]
Geographic Density & Industry Diversity
Little Engine Ventures serves two primary customer types. The foremost is the local, best-in-niche service business owner who wants to sell his or her company to a family member or small group of employees but doesn’t want to strap the business with debt. We provide this group an alternative path compared to selling to a Read more about Geographic Density & Industry Diversity[…]
Words Have the Power to Create
An often repeated, Little Engine Ventures’ value is “confront the facts.” And, one of the facts of life is that integrity is the consistency across word, thought and deed. What is rarely confronted is the power of words to create. As children, we learn that when we cry we often get our way. We polish Read more about Words Have the Power to Create[…]