f you're hoping to buy a business in your home market, where you already live, deal flow is going to be a challenge.

There just aren't that many good businesses for sale at any given time in a single market.

So you're going to have to work at it, and that will almost certainly mean networking.

Alex Holley set out to buy a business in Louisville, Kentucky, and networking — proactively and systematically — was how he made it happen.

He tallied 100 meetings over about 3 months, which is one meeting per day.

It's a good, high standard to measure yourself against.

If you're searching locally and frustrated by deal trickle instead of deal flow, ask yourself: are you meeting with 1 person per day?

For two other interviews where networking resulted in the searcher finding their deal, check out Ben Rizzo, who bought an elevator servicing business in Pittsburgh, and Adam Duggins, who met with over 600 people in & around Greensboro, North Carolina, to find his first deal. (He's since built a holdco to $75m in annual revenue.)

Back to Alex, today's guest.

His networking led him to his acquisition, and in only a few months.

The home services business he bought is actually 2 in 1; we unpack that.

And it's good sized, averaging $4.5m in revenue per year with margins around 20%, so call it north of $800k of SDE.

Here he is, Alex Holley, owner of B-Dry Systems of Louisville and Ram Jack Louisville.