About this episode

Lee Smith discusses his unconventional approach to business acquisitions and the importance of deal structure in achieving success.

Council estate South London to 30 mergers and acquisitions. No capital, no plan, but always knew wealth was what he wanted. Lee Smith went from DJ to jewellers to law firms to web design and IT—then discovered mergers and acquisitions in 2014 and everything changed. Now he's building two sector groups to £10M in profit, buying businesses at 3-4x multiples and exiting at 7-10x, and he's got some contrarian views that'll make you rethink everything about UK business ownership. In this episode, Lee reveals why buying 100% of a business is almost always the worst deal structure, why you don't need to understand what a business does to own it successfully, and why by the end of this decade the most valuable asset in Britain will be an SME producing profits. He shares his ethical partnership structure that keeps founders and directors aligned, explains how he bought an HVAC company he barely understands and grew it while only being there one day per week, and why he thinks the UK government is waging war on business owners—making it harder to employ people, easier for rogue employees to sue, and creating a clear choice by 2030: own a business with options and spare cash, or be an…

People in this episode

Host: Dominic Monkhouse

Guest: Lee Smith

Topics covered

• mergers and acquisitions
• business ownership
• deal structure
• entrepreneurship
• profit generation

Keywords

• 80/20 deal structure
• business acquisition
• founder retention
• director equity
• SME profits

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: UK government

Places: South London, Britain, HVAC

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