Most business people don’t understand what a Platform Business Acquisition is.

It’s not really an isolated transaction or a one-time event.

Building a Platform business through multiple acquisitions is the best, fastest and often the safest way to grow your business because you are acquiring an already successful company with excellent customer relationships, and other valuable assets, already in place.

You are screening for companies that are profitable and have consistent business systems and cashflows. You’re only going to acquire a good business.

When I first embraced acquisitions, I did so because I had grown my publishing services business, Bookcovers.com, as much as possible over its first three years. When that growth began to slow, in our fourth year, our market share stayed at the same level.

To solve my business growth problem, I tried doubling our marketing volume... nothing changed. I tried entering new markets with different marketing approaches, nothing changed.

It was at this point that I received a call that changed the course of my business and my life. The call was from the owner of a book fulfillment company.

She called to ask me for referrals. She wanted me to refer my customers to her business. Our clients were book publishers and she called to convince me to collaborate with her company on referrals.

That call took an interesting turn when I asked her if she was happy running her fulfillment business with her team.

She answered, “Well... I do enjoy the business, however, what I would really rather be doing is traveling the world and teaching yoga to instructors.”

Her answer to that question sparked an insight for me that lead us both down the pathway of me eventually making an offer for her fulfillment business that turned into an acquisition of that book fulfillment company, which l later rebranded and renamed as Deliver Your Books.

I also changed the business model of Deliver Your Books — the book fulfillment business — immediately after the acquisition. I tripled the volume of sales that Deliver Your Books earned the very first year after I acquired it.

More significant to me at the time was that because Deliver Your Books, was serving thousands of publishing customers, all of them could be offered design, layout, editing and marketing services from my original business, Bookcovers.com!

So, in addition to tripling sales for my newly acquired Deliver Your Books business, I doubled the revenues of Bookcovers.com. A large number of customers needed services from both businesses and there was little overlap in customers.

That one phone call and that one conversation, from that moment forward, set me onto the pathway of turning my business, Bookcovers. com into a Platform Business. I resolved to grow my business from that moment forward through acquisitions.

This meant that as the owner of my company, I could now more than afford and could financially justify shifting all of the daily operations, to other people (including putting out fires and all of the problem solving) so that I could focus on the performance of my business.

That meant finding the right company to become my next acquisition. I decided right then and there that I would be building my Platform Company like a mini-conglomerate.

What was my next “big thing” to focus on?

Remember, every entrepreneur, business owner and person, must have a next “big thing” to pull them forward toward a positive future.

I’m sure you’ve probably been thinking about what your next “big thing” is as well. You already know instinctively, as I did, that it must be something big enough to excite you. For me, at that time, it had to be something would create ten-times or twenty-times the sales results for my business.

As you may have guessed, I focused next on acquiring a book marketing agency. I wanted to acquire one with a built-in base of customers (book publishers and authors), and amazing marketing services that I could offer to the customers from my Deliver Your Books business as well as customers of Bookcovers.com.

As you probably figured out already, the clients of the book marketing agency I was seeking had to be great clients for Deliver Your Books and Bookcovers.com, or I wouldn’t acquire the agency.

I found one, and acquired the agency.

Soon after that, an in-bound telemarketing center to take live orders by phone for publishers twenty- four hours a day, seven days a week.

I acquired two other companies over the several next years — a software company and a digital marketing agency — and built the ultimate publishing services Platform Business!

A few years later I acquired two more companies. During that time I received a call from the largest company in the publishing space.

The name of that company was Ingram Book Company.

They reached out to me because they were opening a print on demand division of their company, named Lightning Print (which later became Lighting Source).

Lightning Print was the first company to have the technology to print, bind and ship a one-off paperback or hardcover book from an online order.

They explained to me that with their new technology that a customer at Amazon.com was going to be able to order a book, which would automatically trigger a series of events.

Lightning Print would have the book cover and book interior files in the servers ready to print.

Upon receipt of the order from Amazon.com, Lightning Print would pull up the book files, print and bind one book and ship it overnight to that customer.

They could scale-up to thousands a day!

The team at Lightning Print was calling me because they knew that we had thousands of customers with book files and the capabilities to prepare book files for Lightning Print and their customers (authors and publishers).

In a few weeks, I negotiated a strategic alliance with Lightning Print and over the next three years, my team and I worked with them to grow their print-on-demand division to over $278 million a year!

I acquired an eBook company later that same year.

I continued building the business this way, with what I later called my Platform Builders Model of acquisitions.

In the year, 2014 I received an offer for a buyout of my company from them and after much thought... I took it!

The amazing benefit I discovered to all of this was that as my business grew with each acquisition, so did the value of my company.

The revenue of my business and of course the multiple I received for my business grew over those years with each acquisition I made.

I also learned that certain types of acquisitions increased the value of my company in different ways. I also learned that two of the acquisitions didn't really add much to my overall business and that was a real lesson learned.

From that point I dedicated my life to working with small and mid-sized companies on building their business by acquiring companies the same size as their, just like I did.

Today, I am invited in to work with mostly mid-size and large companies and clients through my Investment Bank.

My clients tell me they appreciate me for being present with them, dedicated, and having been there myself, they always feel I care. Because I do.

In addition, my clients seek me out for my expertise in making sure their companies get sold for a high-dollar figure.

Today, I'm known for taking a business, working with the owner for a couple of years to massively improve it so that its attractive to larger companies and then attracting the right buyers and offers so that those clients can experience the joy I did upon selling my company.

It's a joy working with a client on building their business by acquiring companies into their platform for growth, or profit enhancement.

I enjoy selling great companies for my clients for top dollar.

Every day, I awaken with excitement and a fire in my belly, for them... for you, should we both be fortunate enough to work together.

I am on a mission to bring the necessary combination seasoned deal-making, financial expertise, and strategic thinking to clients to positively change their businesses and lives forever.

Just as my life changed, through the many experiences I shared with you above on my journey, I'm focused on others and giving as much back to other, through a business world that has been very good to me and my family.