Why I Bought A Business For $24K Down

"It must be a mess!"

November 05, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

When I tell people I bought a business for $24K down, they usually hear the number, but not the strategy.

"It must be a mess!"

They imagine some ultra-small, side hustle–sized operation. Or they assume it’s a “starter” business I’ll quickly flip. They rarely assume it was intentional.

But it was :)

There’s a phrase that has stuck with me since I started operating businesses:

Messy is margin.

If something is disorganized, underperforming, chaotic, or simply unclear, there’s likely a business model buried underneath. And a lot of room to create value.

I could’ve put $240K down. Or $2.4M down on another deal. I’ve seen (and passed on) plenty of deals in those ranges.

Cleaner operations. Smoother diligence. Often a team already in place.

But this deal? It only required $24K down. Here’s why I said yes:

The Owners Were Done

A lot of deals coming to market right now aren’t distressed because of bad business strategies, they’re emotionally distressed. The owners aren’t failing, they’re just over it.

Out of energy, out of patience, and ready to walk away. If you’ve still got fuel in the tank, that gap between where they stop and where you begin becomes one of your biggest points of leverage.

No One Knew What Was Going On

No clarity on goals. No metrics. No pulse. No plan. The thing that kills momentum in these businesses isn’t capital, it’s confusion. I know how to solve that. I’ve seen what happens when you spend a few weeks building a simple scorecard and tightening feedback loops. The fog clears fast.

The Winners Were Still There—Just Confused

I don’t believe in “cleaning house” on day one. That’s a PE playbook. What I’ve seen in these kinds of deals is simpler, and better. When energy returns and structure gets rebuilt, the right people start to stand out. Often, they’re the ones who’ve been holding it all together without support or vision long before you arrived. Give them both, and you won’t need to push, they’ll pull the whole thing forward.

Why This Matters

Small deals get overlooked. They’re messy. They feel risky. And they often come with more questions than answers.

But if you know what to look for (and how to bring clarity fast) they’re some of the highest-upside opportunities you can touch.

Here’s what I’ve found to be true:

The messier the deal, the faster it moves. And the fewer competitors you’ll have. Most people are too scared to step into confusion. But I’m an operator—I don’t need perfect conditions to make progress. If anything, I do better when things are a little broken. Because I can fix them.

These kinds of deals won’t make you rich overnight. That’s not the goal with these deals. But they will add asymmetric upside to your portfolio, both in financial return and impact. You’re not just buying a business. You’re restoring one. That work compounds.

Just because others might call it a “bad deal”, doesn’t mean it always is. The deal in question here has turned out great. The business itself needed some love, some energy, and we were back on track. Those are two things I’m confident in doing.

And yes, there will be bigger deals ahead, like the one I’m working on now that might take $1.6M down to close. But this one? This $24K deal? It fits right into the playbook.

And I’d do it again tomorrow.

Working Theories

If you’re interested to see some of the past working theories I’ve shared, click the link below. It’s an ever-growing list of resources/plays/tactics I share with companies that are in the portfolio.