Host: There are many things about acquisition entrepreneurship that I love. Here are just three. Often you have the opportunity to buy a business where the seller is tired or conservative or otherwise resting on their laurels and you can come in as new owner with a new set of eyes. Bring all your vigor and vision and in the happiest of cases, just grow the business like crazy. Another thing I like the niche, hiding in plain sight, funky nature of so many of these SMBs that you can buy out there. And lastly, how buying a business can set people on a whole new trajectory, one that is very often more exciting, more fulfilling, and let's not forget, more financially rewarding than whatever they were doing before. Today's guest, Jason Klein embodies all three of these. Last year at age 50, Jason, with his wife Linda by his side, stepped off the corporate path he'd been on for over 20 years to buy a flower distribution business in Florida. Florida. I like distribution businesses and I like flowers. So I was eager to sink my teeth into this one. Hopefully you're eager to hear it. Here is Jason Klein, owner of Kauai Isle Flowers. Welcome to Acquiring Minds, a podcast about buying businesses. My name is Will Smith. Acquiring an existing business is an awesome opportunity for many entrepreneurs and on this podcast I talk to the people who do it. August Felker is a two time successful searcher, first with a traditional search fund. The second time around he did a self funded search. Today August runs Oberle Risk Strategies, an insurance firm with a dedicated practice group for searchers and acquisition entrepreneurs like you. If you've got a business under loi, Oberle will provide complimentary due diligence on that business's insurance and benefits program. A great no risk way to get to know August and team. They love helping searchers. They've worked with hundreds. Oberle is a specialty insurance brokerage for searchers by a former searcher. Check out oberle-risk.com O B E R L E- risk.com link in the show notes. Jason Klein, thank you for joining me today on Acquiring Minds.

Guest: Thanks. Thanks Will for having me. It's great to be here. Thank you.

Host: Jason, you acquired a flower distribution business in South Florida. You are a mid career professional undertaking this venture. So you've actually been a corporate guy for 2025 years but as of June, last June. So you just passed June 2021. So you've just passed a year. You you are the owner of Kauai Isle flowers which distributes 40,000 flowers a month to 600 stores. So we are going to learn Today how you went from point A to point B here. Start us off, Jason, with a quick history on you. Condense those couple of decades of corporate life into a couple minutes and we'll kick it off.

[3:14] Guest: Sure. Well, I appreciate you first characterizing me as mid career. So I'm currently 51. Gosh, I hope I'm, I'm well past mid career, but I appreciate the compliment. Sure. So a quick bio. I actually started out professionally in the military. I was in the military for six years in the Air Force. Left that. It was a great, enjoyed it. I loved it and loved getting out just as much and then left the military, was actually a police officer and joined a tiny little healthcare software company and really stayed in healthcare it for quite a few years. The better part of the 20 to 25 years. Grew along, progressed through the executive ranks, eventually made my way to senior executive positions, stayed in healthcare almost exclusively the entire time. So my last sort of big stop was at a very significantly sized Fortune 50, if you will, healthcare company doing laboratory diagnostics work. And so it was a great career. I for the most part loved it. But then reached a pivotal moment, I think both with where corporate has gone nowadays and my age and things that I wanted to do and sort of reached a moment where I had to make a decision and made that decision to buy the flower company.

Host: And where has corporate gone these days? And what was this decision like? What are you kind of alluding to?

Guest: Yeah, sure. No, thank you for the follow up. So first I'll describe the moment that I had and then actually my wife and I had. So in the midst of COVID just like everyone else, we were stuck at home and doing phone calls like this on Zoom. And this particular company I was with, we were debating vacation policy with some M and A that we had done. And as those acquisitions came in, vacations had to sort of be reconciled and consistent throughout the organization. And gosh, we probably spent no less than six weeks over and over again debating the same topic over and over and over again. And it was, it was my wife actually who looked at me and said, how many times are you going to discuss this? Are you, are you serious that this is what your job is now? And that was sort of the moment where I said, you know, it's just time to do something else. And as far as my comments about corporate, you know, from my experience, the major corporations now once you reach sort of mid level management, upper management, your, your day is going to be occupied with 80% work day tickets, you know, just dealing with what I call the mayonnaise of, of sort, of any sort of corporation that's going to be 80% of your job and 20% is actually getting your hands into the subject matter that you, that you joined or that you. That you enjoy doing. And, and this just wasn't fulfilling for me. At the end of the day. It wasn't fulfilling to sit on phone calls and. And sort of debate bureaucratic processes. I wanted to get my hands dirty and do what I enjoyed to do. So.

[6:51] Host: Great. Thank you for that, for that explanation. You know, as I heard about when you described your early, early career right out of the military as a, you know, you kind of glossed over it, but you're a police officer.

Guest: Military. A military police officer. Yeah.

Host: Okay. Okay. Well, you're actually my second former police officer, or military police officer in this case, who's bought a business. And John Hubbard actually also is in Tampa. So I don't know what it is about former police officers buying businesses in Tampa, but there you go.

Guest: I'll look John up. I'll have to look him up.

Host: You should. He's got a great story. But anyway, it sounds like you have done a big career pivot before now. I don't know how long ago. I guess it was about 20 years ago or plus that you did the, that you went from former military police officer to corporate guy. But you've taken leaps before in your career, so I guess maybe you have a track record of big moves. So anyway, I did. Or care to elaborate?

Guest: I'm largely not afraid of some risk, which I think is helpful in what we're going to be talking about today. Right. I mean, I guess maybe the military or my family upbringing, who. They were all military as well. You don't shy away from risk. Right. So if you're going to enjoy life, one of the sayings that I've always lived by is you get one ride on this planet, you only get one ride. So how are you going to spend it? And in my opinion, you're going to ride it. You're going to ride the heck out of it. Have a good time, be fulfilled, be happy. Go do the things that you want to do. Cause you only get one shot.

Host: Yeah, I love it. I try to live that way myself. Perfect. Tee up to this decision. So you finally have reached your wit's end with the corporate mayonnaise and you choose to buy business. You could have chosen any number of things. Why buy a business? And as a follow on why, if you wanted to do something, be a Small business owner. Why not start a business from scratch?

Guest: Great questions. Yeah. So when we reached our moment, when we had our sort of. Okay, you know, we've always sort of. When I say we, my wife and I. My wife and I, Linda, we've been together for 30 years. And so she's been with me by my side through thick and thin. So there's no way I would have ever done anything without her being on board with it. So it was a very much an us decision to go ahead and take the risk and. And make the leap. And so we had always sort of dabbled in the idea of like, wow, gosh, wouldn't it be great to own our own thing, do our own thing. And you know, so we reached that moment in corporate. So now, okay, great, we're convinced it's gonna happen. What are we gonna do? So the first thing that we sort of reflected on is we can't be miserable. So we're not gonna go buy something where we're not going to love what we're doing. You got to enjoy what you're going to spend your day to day on. Right.

[9:55] Host: Back to your life philosophy.

Guest: Absolutely, absolutely. Forget it. I'm not interested in doing anything that is going to. I love Mondays. Mondays are great for me, it's a fresh opportunity to dive into a fresh week and do some pretty cool stuff. So, you know, so we had to love it. And for us, you know, we have moved quite a bit. So we had. This is our 12th home that we own. So we had sort of looked at the idea of, well, hey, maybe some sort of home improvement business. We got very close to that. We explored it, we looked at that opportunity. I enjoy it. We love to sort of dabble in the house and do some fix them up kind of things and. Sure, you know, so that, that was a great business opportunity. We live in Tampa, Florida and you know, over this Covid timeframe, there's a lot of people coming here. Housing has just been great. So there's a lot of renovation opportunity for us here. So we saw the market, we enjoyed it. We were very close. The best opportunity for us would have been a franchise. And once again, the wisdom of my wife prevailed. She said, franchise. And we were close. We were this close. She said, franchise. Interesting. So you're gonna have a boss again. And I said, well, that's one way to put it, but you know, there'll be freedom. And she's like, yeah, but not the freedom that you want. I said, you're absolutely right. So the good news the blessing with that is it had started to put us in the circle, the circle of brokers. Sort of put yourself out there that you're interested in buying a business, you're interested in starting something, and now you're in the network. And sure enough, we had stumbled on the right broker. And he actually said, hey, take a look at this. Which happened to be Kauai Isle flowers. And you know, at first, you know, flowers is something that we're interested. We like to, we like to plant and landscape and sort of do this thing. And who doesn't love flowers, right? So, so we were, we were sort of big fans initially of, okay, well, the, the genre certainly seems right, but, you know, then there's this, this thought of like, okay, well, but flowers. I don't really want to own a flower shop. Right. So I really wasn't interested in the, the, you know, let's open up at 8, let's close at 5, let's make some bouquets. And it just wasn't very interesting to us. Not that there's anything wrong with that type of business, but it just wasn't the retail aspect. The retail, typical mom and pop, you know, flower shop. It just wasn't, you know, to me, it just wasn't going to be an interesting enough business to jump into.

[12:44] Host: Okay.

Guest: And then we, you know, so we asked our broker, we said, well, how much, you know, let's take a look at some P and L. And I started to look at the volume and I said, my gosh, this is a ton of flowers. What in the world do they actually do? And it turned out to be a pretty cool opportunity. It's a niche business. It serves some of the more underserved stores in the realm of flowers. And this particular company started 30 years ago and sort of had grown to a point where it needed some fresh eyes on it. And it just seemed ripe for what we were looking for. Wow. It's big enough, it's exciting enough, it's got a great track record. This could be the fit for us. And so that's how we got there and then took the opportunity.

Host: Cool. Well, I want to get into more about the business itself, but first, a couple other questions. I am really struck by your use of the word we and how you're collaborating with your wife on all these big decisions. Is she working in the business with you?

Guest: She is. I would say she's sort of the back office side of it. So the business requires sort of a front end. Right. The flowers have to be. We acquire flowers from Ecuador and Colombia. Those all have to be brought in, prepared, shipped out. There's a lot of distribution work that has to get done. So we sort of call that the front of the house. That's where I spend the bulk of my time. And then there's the back of the house. Right, so the back of the house is things have to get paid for, accounts payable, accounts receivable, the books, working with the accountant, those types of things. And that's where Linda helps out.

Host: And was she doing something before this or when you were looking at businesses, the idea that you would both be participating in the business.

Guest: Great, great question. Yeah. So our children, we actually, let's see, what was now about 16, 15, 16 years ago, adopted two children from Siberia. And so that was her full time job for quite a few years. So sort of another pivotal moment for us is we're soon to be empty nesters. So this was a great opportunity for her to transition from being a full time, full time mom to now getting her hands back into typical sort of work, I guess you would say.

[15:14] Host: Sure. Great. Well, it really does sound like a great fit for the two of you. And then just the question about starting something from scratch. It sounds like you guys had kind of decided at the outset you'd buy something. And is that kind of the typical reasons that you wanted something that already had legs, already had sde, that you could live off of all of that stuff, or were there other reasons?

Guest: I think so. I think a big influence was having SDE to work with. We wanted something that was ready to be taken to another level, that was ready to be invested in the idea of starting from scratch. It just wasn't going to fit our, I'll say lifestyle, to be honest. It just, we wanted something that was already on the ground.

Host: Sure, sure. So, Jason, on the appeal of buying a business, of course supporting a lifestyle that you and your wife already had, the SDE is the number you're going to be looking at first and foremost. Can you share what Kauai was doing when you were acquiring it? Wouldn't it be great to have experts at your back when buying a business? People to help you polish up your pitch and processes as you go to market as a searcher, then help you evaluate opportunities once you get some deal flow? Such experts exist buy side advisors, but they'll cost you to the tune of tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars. But another option exists, the acquisition lab. The lab is a do it with you buy side advisory service, not do it for you. Founded By Walker Deibel, author of Buy Then Build the Lab represents Walker's vision for what is most needed to make a searcher successful and available at an accessible price. It's cohort based and you will come out the other side of your cohort prepared to go to market as a savvy searcher with a tight message and process so brokers take you seriously. Pre approved for a loan and with an entire community at your disposal to help you along the journey to buying a business. To learn more, check out acquisitionlab.com link in the show notes.

Guest: Sure. So the, the, the, the business at that time was slightly over a million in revenue and I would say they were. SDE was around 250 at the time. And so that's where we started, which for us was a good enough starting point, certainly not where we wanted to be, but was enough for us to get started.

Host: Okay, and when you say it wasn't enough? Well, first of all, did you take a loan to acquire the business or did you, what was the deal structure?

[18:00] Guest: I did not. This was a cash deal. So as I had mentioned earlier in the interview, I had been with some pretty large companies and had done conversely to where things are right now. The stock market used to be a pretty good place and still will be, still will be. But we did pretty well in the stock market and so I funded it myself.

Host: Oh wow, that's great. And did you consider an SBA loan or did you just. Would rather have just. It wasn't drawn to it?

Guest: I did, I did. And then re enter mayonnaise. Right. So the, so, so the unfortunate process with, with an SBA loan and getting a bank and, and you know, just going through the, well like I said, going through the mayonnaise is just, just wasn't, it just wasn't timely. It just, it's too long, too slow and wanted to move and had the money so it just skipped it.

Host: You know Jason, you had said earlier about when you were looking at the franchise deal and in doing this kind of outreach and getting to know the local network of brokers, that, that, that process kind of. Yeah, it connected you to this network. And one of the things that my guests actually sometimes struggle with is being taken seriously as, as a buyer, as a searcher, you know, if they're first timers who. Many of my, many of my, almost all of my guests are just because in the world of business brokerage there are a lot of tire kickers, there are a lot of people who say they want to buy a business, but aren't very serious. And so brokers can be dismissive, can be not get back to you if you're a first time buyer, because they just don't want to waste their time with people they don't take seriously. But it sounds like you didn't have that problem. And I wonder if part of it was because you made it clear that you were a cash buyer. Because that's probably pretty unusual at this end of the market, I suspect.

Guest: So I suspect that changed things quite a bit. Cause we did not experience that. And at no time during the process, either with the franchise that we were looking at or ultimately the business that we bought. And we sort of hedged our bet in the conversation as to how we would fund it. It's a normal part of the conversation. How are you going to fund this? How are you going to purchase it? Well, we're looking at a couple of options. I might do a mix, I might do this. But hey, Bo, the way I actually have the cash, I just don't know whether that's going to be the way we finally finance it. And I do think that having the cash and being able to prove it sort of changes everything. You know, the whole conversation just sort of pivots once they know you have the money and can get the deal done. So.

Host: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Okay. So it was doing 200, 250 in Ste. And you felt that as a, that would be a good start to support the lifestyle that you all had and, and reinvest into the business. Because it sounds like you were. I mean, most buyers are growth oriented, but it sounds like you were particularly so. So I imagine you were looking at that SDE number and allocating a part of that in your mind to reinvestment in the business. Talk me through that.

[21:10] Guest: Absolutely. So. So one of the criteria, you know, I sort of shared the first criteria. The first criteria had to be something that we enjoyed doing, that we wanted to get up every day and, and sort of deal with. I use the word deal with, not in a negative context, but we were not naive. Right. You know, with my age and my experience, I know that there's nothing out there that is in business that is just, you know, wake up and it's all rainbows and unicorns and lollipops. I mean, it's, you know, everything. That's why they call it work. It's called work. So. So in order to sort of be motivated to get up and work, you've got to love it, you've got to enjoy it. But the Second criteria was that it was something we could take and grow. So I am experienced. I did go to business school. I did want to do something, so I wasn't interested yet. I'm only 51, and as you said, I'm only midway mid career. I was not interested in just putting my feet up. So I'm not ready to just sort of have something, generate sde. I'm not really going to do anything. That's not what we were interested in doing at all. We wanted something that we could see potential in to say, okay, how do I take this? Grow it, double it, add customers, you know, increase revenue. Right? So I didn't want something that's just like, okay, well, you can figure out how to cut cost, right? I mean, you can cut 10, 20% cost. That's sort of an easy thing to do. But was there something out there that we could. That we could get a hold of where, you know, we could double, triple, quadruple revenue? And we believe we found it.

Host: Okay. And I want to. I want you to explain to us why you thought this business, what potential you saw in this business. But first, describe a little bit more about what the business does. It's flower distribution. Pretty simple, but just give us a little bit more of the kind of economics. You said that it's really serving stores that might not otherwise be. Otherwise be served by flower distribution. They're not florists, so give us a little bit more color on all that.

Guest: So here's. Here's the business in a nutshell. So we import the same roses that you can get from anywhere else. I mean, pretty much all roses, all fresh flowers, come from either Ecuador or Colombia, at least on this side of the ocean, so to speak. We're not talking about Europe. We're talking about the United States. So the primary source for most flowers is South America, Ecuador or Colombia. And then second to that, most of those flowers in the United States come through Miami. So we have a partner, and that partner is in Miami. And we import the flowers from either Ecuador or Colombia. Right now it's exclusively Colombia, given all the unrest in Ecuador that's happening right now. So those flowers are prepared and brought to our office in St. Pete. So we're headquartered, our depot is in St. Pete. And then we distribute exclusively to convenience stores. So all convenience stores, small grocery chains, mom and pop grocery stores. So this is not, you know, we're not taking flowers to the traditional locations of, say, well, here in Florida, it's Publix, Publix grocery stores. You know, Costco, Sam's or you know, your, your normal mom and pop florist. We don't, we don't do that. We, we serve the convenience market and, and small grocery chains.

[24:42] Host: And so that would be 7/11, I think you mentioned in our pre call. So, so both mom and pop, but also larger franchisees of like a 711 and then just. Yeah, your corner bodega sort of thing.

Guest: Exactly right. Yeah. Seven Eleven, Seven Eleven and sort of Circle K are our two biggest customers.

Host: And do you have relationships with corporate at circle k and 711 or do you and, or your predecessor, did they go out and develop relationships with each individual franchisee? How does that work?

Guest: Yeah, great question. So you know, it's a little different for each chain. So if you, we'll talk about Seven Eleven. Seven Eleven primarily operates with the franchise model. So most of Seven Elevens out there are not corporate owned stores. They are franchise stores. And that's exactly how it works. They have groups or consortiums in different regions where you develop a relationship there. So you harness the relationship with those regions. Word gets out word of mouth and then you're in those stores. Circle K, conversely, is primarily a corporate owned store. Most stores are corporate owned and there you have category managers who decide the products that go into the stores. And so there you develop a relationship more at a corporate level and manage the relationship that way. And then of course, mom and Pops are exactly how they sound. They're mom and Pops. So you're on the street and you're visiting those stores directly and hearing what they want as a customer and, and providing them the same service.

Host: Great. Well, obviously there's a lot of what you bought is the relationships. A lot of the value of this business that you acquired is in those preexisting relationships. And so what did you and your wife see in this business that you thought made it so growable?

Guest: Ah, great question. So there were two things. One, when we bought it, it was a predominantly 711 customer base. And so we knew right away, gosh, there's a lot more convenience stores out there than 7 11. So we saw the potential to reach out to other organizations. The other was that it was regionally confined mostly to central Florida. So really in between, I'll just call it Daytona and Daytona beach, which is on the Atlantic side, in Tampa, which is on the Gulf side, and sort of that stretch in the middle, Orlando being there. And so there was both opportunity to add additional customer relationships as well as grow into other regions. And so that's exactly what we're doing. So. So we actually added Circle K as a customer. And then I guess I'll announce here on your show that next month we are going to launch our second location up in. Near the Jacksonville area so that we will go and capture the same customer base up in, I call it northern Florida. Because right now we are limited. You know, roses are a perishable product, so you're somewhat limited in the areas that you can distribute by how fast you can get a car there. So, you know, I can't drive from St. Pete to Atlanta, so I have to have depots that are close enough to distribute the flowers. And as I said, we're launching our second location in August and we've already got. We probably already have another over 200 customers waiting for us to get up there. So. Wow.

[28:31] Host: Congratulations.

Guest: I know. I'm very excited about it.

Host: Yeah, that's awesome. Wait, so help me understand the sales process here. So. Well, first question is just to get a lay of the land. So if I'm. I feel like many distribution businesses, the pie isn't necessarily growing. Correct me if I'm wrong. So in your case, are you seeing a lot of kind of greenfield opportunities where there are convenience stores that are not currently selling flowers and you can just go right in there and say, hey, so start selling flowers with me, or are you having to eat some other guy's business and take the relationship from a different flower distribution company?

Guest: Sure, a little both. A little of both. In, in. In one scenario, we have displaced competitors. And I'll explain the. The advantage that we have in. In others there. There's a tremendous amount of convenience stores that are just not being served. So it is not typical or traditional to have flowers inside of convenience stores. So there is still a tremendous amount of greenfield opportunity, as you said, for us to go out there, get on the street and get flowers into these organizations.

Host: Yeah.

Guest: And so what's helpful is we already have. So. So it's very easy to do. I say easy, but when you already have the established route and you're already passing some of these stores, you know, it's. It's not too tough of a sell to go in and say, hey, listen, we already pass ask you. We're already here. We're in 600 stores of your competitors. We'd love to put this in your store. And, you know, if it works out, great, it's a win. Win. If it doesn't work out, you know, we're here every week, so we deliver the flowers weekly. And if it's Not a good fit or doesn't work out, then it's okay, you know, we move on. So it's not a particular difficult sell given the way that we're were already sort of in place and established in such a wide network.

[30:29] Host: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and get, and getting the decision maker, like if you, you know, you walk in to a convenience store to do the sale to kind of make your pitch, is getting the decision, getting the, the attention of the decision maker difficult or.

Guest: Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's kind of a double edged sword with what's been going on in the economy. With the economy being as tough as it is. A lot of these convenience store owners and managers are having to actually work so they can't get staff. And so the absence of that staff, meaning they're in the shop, they're actually running the store and so they're available to us. So they're there now. Of course the downside is you got to hit them at the right time. So you know, they're typically there wanting to open up the store at 6am and they'll usually work a day shift. So you've sort of got this window of time that you've got to be there and you can usually get the decision maker that needs to be there. The other nice thing with convenience stores is they are typically not just owned. One person doesn't own one store. Typically they own a network of five to 10 stores. So when you do land that person, you sort of make that relationship. He or she is typically. Yeah, yeah. And I have five of these other stores. Go ahead and take all of them too. So you land the one and it's going to get you a network of another five to ten stores which.

Host: So I was going to ask about these 200 locations waiting for you in a, in a market that's brand new to you, how do you have so many locations waiting for you? Is it because you talk to the 10 right people and they each own 20 stores or what?

Guest: Yeah, great question. As I mentioned, remember there were two types of relationships. One, the 711 franchise model, the other Circle K, which is a corporate model. In this case, the bulk of those stores that are waiting for us are Circle K corporate. So you make, you know, we reached out with our success that we had here in Central Florida. I sort of piggybacked on that, built a relationship with the category manager in the northern parts of Florida up near Jacksonville and she was welcome to it. She's like, great. Here, here, let's have you know, here's the network of this region of stores. Let's get the flowers in all of them. And of course, once word gets out to 711 or other competitors that you're coming in and you're going to put flowers into Circle K, well, now they're interested and they're saying, hey, you know, we got to get these into our store. So we went up and did a show with 711 and had plenty of folks sign up as well. So it's, it's, it's a very interesting network. It's a very, very small, you know, you hear this all the time about how small the world is or how small the network, how much everybody knows everybody is really true. So once you're in there now, don't mess up because it can equally, it can equally go away. Right? So if you're exactly not providing good service. So I don't, I don't mean to, to sort of suggest it's, it's easy. You get a relationship and it's just, you know, hey, you know, just do it. It's not, you have to maintain your service levels. The flowers have to be good. You know, they have to know that they're getting taken care of. We can talk about Valentine's and Mother's Day and what that means, you know, because there are sort of two Super Bowls that happen. You have to be there for the customers. So, yeah, it's, it's, for me, in my experience over the last year, it's less about getting the customer, it's more about keeping them

[34:04] Host: well and just about about getting the customer. I'm just struck. You're, you're, I feel like you're right in your, your comment that it's not typical to sell flowers at convenience stores, but it's also not completely novel because I can, I can just envision the kind of plastic wrapped single rose, like kind of flower pot of single roses, you know, that are for sale at the counter. It's often a spot buy, I guess, or yeah, at, you know, you know, a Sheetz gas station in Virginia or sort of sort of thing. So I am surprised. It's, it kind of seems like it would. Either the industry would have taken to the concept by now or not. So I guess I'm repeating a previous question, but just that the Greenfield opportunity exists surprises me because it doesn't seem like it's an entirely novel or foreign idea to sell individual stem roses at a convenience store.

Guest: Yeah, it's interesting. And just for clarity, we don't just sell Single stem roses we'll sell. We have four products that we sell. We sell single stem roses, we sell a three rose bouquet. And then we sell what's called a seasonal bouquet, which is just really anything that you can imagine. It sort of varies through season. And then we sell a, a, a rose, a real life rose that is encased in a glass bubble filled with a preservative. And it's sort of a decorative item. And so we sell those, those four products. And I think you're right, it's not a total foreign concept to, to have flowers in a store like that. I think what's, what's different about us and what has typically been the trend is small mom and pop florists. It's where you can touch, it's the region. Right. So small mom and pop florists would sort of say, hey, you know, these five or six convenience stores are right near my flower shop. Let me go in and see if they'll put my flowers in. We're able to provide the same consistent product to the whole network. I will tell you the other sort of secret item that we have, I guess or a secret to our success is we are one of very few florists that are willing to do what's called scan based trading. And scan based trading is really where you make a difference in the convenience store setting that gives you a huge edge in getting your product in the store. And I can elaborate on that a little bit if you.

[36:44] Host: Yeah, tell us, tell us what that is.

Guest: So, so, so back in the day, or the traditional model, let's just say you sold chocolate. And so great. The Will Smith chocolate bar is debuted and Will Smith wants to go into a store and say, hey, I've got these wonderful chocolate bars here, have a hundred. I'll sell you for a dollar a piece. Well, the typical transaction for a convenience store would be you would expect them to give you $100 for your hundred chocolate bars and the transaction is done. And then they will add their margin and they'll sell them for $1.50. And so the world works that way most of the time.

Host: Right.

Guest: So convenience stores quite a while ago came out with a new model called scan based trading, which now let's take the same chocolate bars. Now instead of handing Will a hundred dollars, what they're going to tell Will selling his chocolate bars is, you know, what will we do? Like your chocolate bars? We think they're amazing. We're going to allow you to put those chocolate bars here on our shelves. And every time Somebody buys one, you'll get your dollar and we'll get our 50 cents. That just changed the entire cash flow model for the convenience stores. Right. They're not giving, you're not handing out, they're not taking risk. So they're not handing you $100. They're gonna. Every time one sells, that's when you get paid. So that's how actually how our roses work. So our flowers are all scan based. So I don't collect. I put them into these stores completely at my risk. So I only get paid when one sells. So.

Host: Well, I was just gonna say ask the obvious question like how are you able to absorb this risk where your competition isn't? And you know, and did you make this change or did you inherit the scan based model from your. From the original founder owner?

Guest: I inherited that. I inherited. That was the other sort of thing that we saw that was like, you know, that was sort of the third, the third piece. So. So we saw that there were competitors not served. We saw that regions could be expanded upon and we saw that it was scan based. There was an actual differentiator. So we're like, aha, now we've got an opportunity here. This sort of market meets all the criteria to sort of go in and conquer the world. And so we learned a lot about the relationship. There's a third party involved with sort of monitoring, keeping everybody honest with the scan based nature of things, watching their point of point of sale system and they take care of the payment. So that, that was a real game changer for us. When the acquisition came around, we're like, aha, that's going to be the way to do it. And so yeah. Is there risk? Absolutely there's risk, right? I'm taking all of the risk. So how do I offset that? Well, one of the things that our drivers do. So in the case of. Let's go back to Will's chocolate bars. So how's Will, you know, Will's gonna, you're gonna say, well my gosh, I'm putting these chocolate bars in there. How do I know that they sell or don't sell? Well, you're going to watch that point of sale. So it's all analytics. So I have a system. And so I would go into the store, I would drop off your hundred chocolate bars and I would say, hey, I dropped off 100, put that into the system. And then I go in the following week and I'm going to take returns of those chocolate bars that didn't sell because they're not Going to be fresh forever. I'm going to say, hey, I dropped off 100 last week and now I'm picking up 50. This is not a good store. This is not a good store. We don't need to drop off 100 anymore. So I do the same thing with my roses. So each store I monitor through the analytics systems that we have, and I'm able to sort of watch and monitor how well the sales are performing on each route. So each driver goes in and does that data entry for me and then I can scale down or move up. Right. That's the other thing too. Right. Is this, you know, 100 Will's chocolate bars didn't. And if they all sold out, well, they need 150, they need 200. So I do the same thing with the roses is I will, I will increase or decrease based on those analytics.

[40:55] Host: Yeah. And. And I assume after just a few weeks you can really get a sense of, I assume sell through is pretty consistent outside of your two Super Bowls, outside of Mother's Day and what was the other one, Balance Day. Outside of that, it's probably pretty consistent or at least consistent within a season. So in the summer it's, you know, it's at a certain level. In winter it drops or whatever. But yeah, I mean, yeah, after four or six weeks, you can probably tell what a store is going to pretty reliably tell what a store is going to do and how many flowers you should be delivering to it.

Guest: You absolutely can. And one of the nice things is there were analytics in place. There was a data set that already existed with the previous owner. So we're able to see this now. I will say this. The major caveat right now is that's all true, everything that you said, except nobody's ever live through what we're living through right now in this business. Right. So, you know, with the price of gas going where it's going, the recession word getting used, we are seeing some variability that we had not seen before. So we're starting to see some just, I don't know, interesting data. It's funny that, you know, usually it is consistent. Now there's a lot more choppiness to the analytics. And so I think, you know, the consumers are, you know, they say much of this, whether a recession is true or not, is largely driven by attitude. And we're really starting to see the attitude. And of course, roses are a disposable income product. So I can see as the attitudes are moving, I can see that reflected in the sales.

[42:32] Host: When you diligence the business. How far back in the P and LS did you look?

Guest: Was it three years?

Host: Did you just go back three years?

Guest: Yeah. Okay, three years.

Host: Okay, cool. Let's talk a little bit about the. The team and employees that you inherited, and also about change. I thought it was really interesting, your approach to change. Really clean and effective sounding. And also just a reminder to folks, you said you kind of glossed over it, but at the top, you said that you had been involved. In fact, your mayonnaise moment at corporate was dealing with an M and A situation. So you'd seen M and A in the corporate world and you knew how important and delicate change management is. Anyway, how big was the team that you acquired? And then how did you deliver the message of your new. That you were the new owner and assuage their concerns about what that might mean?

Guest: Great. Yeah, thanks. Great questions. Early in my career, gosh, what seems like 100 years ago, I remember being on the A side. We were acquired, and at the time, I was a young manager, and I remember this executive coming in and the typical process where the acquisition has finished and now the new executive team comes in and they sort of have their little meet and greets and coffee talks and firesides. And this one particular executive team said, listen, we bought this company because we loved it. There will be no changes. And of course, over the years, I have learned that is the stupidest thing to ever tell anybody, especially a group of employees who are full of anxiety. Of course there's going to be changes. Of course there's going to be change. Change is going to happen whether the acquisition happened or not, because outside forces change. So of course change is going to occur. And to say that you bought a company and you're not going to change anything, well, then why did you buy it? I mean, come on. Of course you're going to want to influence it and do different things. So having learned from that and being a part of corporate America, I sort of learned a lot of good lessons about what not to do. And so when I came on board, we finished the acquisition, we got introduced to the team. One of the commitments I made to the employees right away was, I will make no changes for six months. And that was the truthful caveat I said. I said, unless it's an outside force of which we could have done nothing about anyway, I will commit to not changing anything for six months. My job at the time as the new owner, in my opinion, was to shut up and listen and learn and do every job That I could do right. So I learned how to prepare the roses, I did the purchases, I drove on routes, I delivered to customers. It didn't matter what time of the day it was, I did the job and that was imperative. I had to learn what were good things that existed, what were bad things that needed to go, what all had to change. But I wouldn't touch it for six months. And so that was important. It was important that I kept my word to the employees because of course they're anxious, they don't know what's going to happen, what am I going to do? Are they all going to. Everybody sort of immediately goes to disastrous, thinking he's going to lay everybody off, he's to going, going to bring in his own team. And of course I didn't, I didn't do any of that. I have, I have. Most of the employees that I acquired, I still have today. Most of the drivers are all still the same drivers. And so that was just an important approach to change. And I highly recommend it for, for, for those that ever, you know, want to make an acquisition, be a part of something new. Number one, don't tell them you're not going to change anything. Of course you are. They're not, they're not stupid. And number two, do give them some time. You need to learn. You need to learn what's working and what's not. So don't just go in there, rip it. Don't feel obligated. I think as a new owner, well, I'm going to change everything to be my way. I'm going to have to make it the way I want it to get done. Resist that at first. Your time is coming. You're the owner. You don't need to sort of prove yourself. You've already bought the business. Now just relax, learn and then implement the changes over time. They'll appreciate you for it a lot. A lot.

[47:21] Host: And communicate that very clearly at the outset that you won't be changing six months. That particular bit of communication assuages the anxiety a lot.

Guest: I assume it does, it gets rid of the anxiety. And then what you'll find, here's what you'll find, what I found during that six month time, when they see that you're not going to do it and that you're going to leave it alone, there is no, there is a line at your door of the things they want changed. They will come to you. They will start telling you, oh, this has got to go, this has got to go. We don't like this. He's got to go, she's got to go. You know, all of this sort of stuff, sort of, sort of bubbles to the surface, you know, now that they see that you're just going to wait and listen, they're more than happy to talk to you. And that's so funny.

[48:05] Host: Yeah, it worked out an interesting. Worked out psychological.

Guest: Absolutely.

Host: Kind of reverse psychology.

Guest: It was, it wasn't by design. It was just, you know, it's just, it's fascinating what happens if you actually shut up and listen.

Host: Well, and to this point about saying that you won't change anything for six months, I think you also said that when you, when six months and a day, six months and a day occurs and you are going to start implementing the changes, that you'll involve them in the changes. I recall you telling me. So what was that bit of the message?

Guest: Exactly. So that's the other thing. Don't do anything in isolation. Don't do anything because no matter how smart you think you are, you're not, you're not as smart as you think you are. And it's so tremendously important to understand the ripple effects that are around the corner and five ripples away from the decision that you're about to make. You think it's wise, but you want to have them on board. You want to exercise the change. You want them a part of the decision. So you want to, you want to premeditate, I call it premedicate your team. Okay, guys, I've listened. It's six months in a day. I've heard your feedback. We don't like, like. So in our case, we used one at. One of the changes that, that was a pretty significant one in our business was we, we carried around these little printers that you see like at a rental car, when you return the rental car, you know, and Avis will rip off a little ticket for you. We had that and we, we use those for, for almost all stores, even if they were scan based. Now, of course, realize when they're scan based, they don't. You could put 100 flowers, you can put a thousand flowers. They don't, they don't really care how many you put in there because they're not taking the risk. And so, and here we are delivering tickets to them. And so there was just all this flurry of all this ticketing going on. And of course, the staff, the team is looking at me going like, we hate these tickets. We hate these tickets. Nobody wants to do the tickets. You got to do a ticket. You got to wait in line, then you got to get the store to stamp it, sign it, all this kind of stuff. So we ended it. We just ended it. We said, look, if you're a scan based customer, get in, do the change on the computer, you don't have to print them a ticket. And but I like to test things. So what I will often do is I will choose a driver, right? So another change that I did was the workflow on the computer. But I don't just roll that out, right. So I choose someone, I say, hey, let's test this. You're going to be the only guy who does this. Run this through, let's see a couple cycles of how that works for the customer, how that works for the analytics, how that works for you as a driver. If we like the change, we'll roll it out to everybody. But when they feel like they're a part of gives you, you don't look like a tyrant. First of all, if you do and you will make mistakes, but when it's a mistake, it's all our mistake. So then you're not alone. You're not alone. Like, wow, you made a boneheaded decision. But then they all feel a part of it and they'll embrace it. And so if you do mess up, you go, hey guys, we all made this decision, it didn't work out. And they're like, okay, they're not going rocks at you, you know, and so just it's important, I think especially as a small business team is everything. I mean, yeah, you know, I can't deliver all the flowers, right? There's 600 stores, it's, it's 10,000 a week. It's, it's, I can't do that by myself. I need that team and they have to feel a part of it. So, so I, I not only involve them in the changes, I think I do one other important thing and I highly recommend this to everybody. Give them skin in the game. I give them a bonus, I bonus them every quarter. So every quarter I look at how well we've performed and I make them a part of it so that they all feel like they're part of this business together and we're going to make it together or we're going to die together. So again, it's just constantly sort of reinforcing the concept of team I think will serve you, serve you well as a small business entrepreneur.

[52:25] Host: And that new bonus structure is net new salary for them or compensation for them or did it. Wow. So that, well, that was a happy change when you Delivered that news.

Guest: It is. Now I do tell them it is discretionary first and foremost. It's the performance of the business. Right. So if the business is impacted and it's starting to get tough, you know, gas is, you know, doubled since I bought the business. So it doesn't, you know, we're not always going to have really big bonuses. Sometimes we'll have small bonuses, but I'll do, I'll do the best I can to always share in, in our rewards, for sure.

Host: And it's kind of a typical kind of profit sharing program.

Guest: It is, it is. Although it's, it's completely discretionary by me. So I don't, I can't say that I have a formula that sort of works because there's always so many exceptions to these formulas. We've tried to figure one out, but with the team. With the team, as a change, you know, I said, hey, let's openly and transparently work on a formula together. We never really came up with one that we all liked. So I said, okay, well then I'll just decide. And everybody's been comfortable with that so far.

Host: And how many employees were there when you acquired the business?

Guest: So when I acquired, there were six. Seven. Eight. There were eight. Eight.

Host: And does that include the seller?

Guest: That does not include the seller. It would be 10 if you included the sellers, husband and wife. So eight.

Host: Husband and wife team. And so there are eight. And then you did, as I recall from our pre call, you did have to let a couple people go, but I did.

[54:03] Guest: We made a change.

Host: Can you talk about that?

Guest: Yeah. So as we started to, you know, the, the first six months got under our belt. We're now working on the year. I can see growth not only happening, we're starting to work on the, the north, the Jacksonville area extension, that depot. So I can sort of see around corners now of like, wow, our volume is going to go from, you know, 10,000 a week to 15,000 a week to possibly 20,000 flowers a week that we're going to be distributing, which is great. So now one of the things you got to think about is scalability. Well, can you scale it and does this work? Where are all the choke points in the process? One of the things that we were doing was we were actually sleeving the flowers ourselves. So we were actually, you know, taking the roses would come in raw, they'd come off the bush, they'd package them up. We would get them in pretty raw form. We'd have to pick the stems, pick the leaves off. So to Speak. You know, any thorns that were sort of out of whack and the petals and sort of get that rose to look very Beauty and the Beast like. And so. And then once it was there, you had to put it inside of a bar coated sleeve. Well, imagine doing that 10,000, 15,000, 30,000 times because, you know, Mother's Day comes around, Valentine's Day comes around, now you double the flowers. So, you know, there we are in our holidays doing 30 to 40,000 roses in a week's time. So it was, you know, at the size of the business at the time, it was sort of a funny thing to be watching. I mean, it's just, there's flower petals everywhere, there's leaves everywhere. It's just, it was chaos. And so, you know, on one, on the one hand you can sort of laugh at, go, wow, this is just a beautiful disaster. But on the other hand you sort of like, but how am I going to do this if I grow the business? I can't, I can't grow the business. So I had to reach out to some different suppliers and say I need this volume and I need these things sleeved when they show up at my door. So I need these things barcoded and prepped and ready to go in Colombia. And that's what we did. So, so we made the decision to go ahead and have that done in South America so that when I got it, I did not have that choke point and we could just get these things loaded up and sent out and that's what we did. So unfortunately, you know, it's the right change for the business and I stand by it. The drivers are extraordinarily happy because they're not. There's no choke point that they're waiting on. But it did unfortunately mean the end of two very good, two very good employees we had to let go.

[57:03] Host: And you provided a severance to them. How did that work?

Guest: I did. So I. One of the employees had been with us probably, oh, I think she was 15 to 17 years. So she'd been with us for a very long time and all she did

Host: all day was this process of wrapping.

Guest: Correct. Had done it for years. But I felt they deserved respect and appreciation for what they had contributed to the business. And I severanced a couple months salary for them so that they had what I call the soft landing. Right. So that they were able to transition successfully to another role. So I just thought that was important. It's not only important, I think for. It's the right thing to do for the employees themselves. But it is equally as important that your current employees see how you treat exiting employees. So they know how they're going to be treated. Right. So. So it's important to me that they see how, how I treat people so that they're not, you know, concerned or worried that if, if something happens and they need to, you know, their position goes away. They know that I'll do the right thing.

Host: Yeah. You know, Jason, as you talk about that process of, of sleeving flowers. Yes, it sounds like, just really laborious and messy. On the other hand, what you often find with businesses is that, like, they'll, at a certain size, they'll want to go up or down their own value chain to capture more of the value. So in your case, going up the chain would mean, you know, basically just buying raw flowers and doing the packaging, the sleeving yourselves. Like presumably there was value capture there by your business. More, more profit to be had. And so, you know, I guess that's, that's kind of classic vertical integration is like if you can go all the way up, you know, and grow your own flowers, your fol. Fully vertically integrated. And so your business was kind of going a step in that direction. You still had a long way to go, presumably to grow your own flowers. But, but anyway, it just, it just strikes me that you, you were, you were kind of disintegrating your supply chain with this, this decision more than integrating your supply chain, which is, you know, the reverse of what I usually hear when it comes to decisions like these.

Guest: Sure, sure. Well, I'll, I'll just, I'll throw on a couple additional variables about flowers that might be interesting in what you decide to capture on the value chain. Let's go back to your chocolate. Right. So chocolate doesn't perish at the same rate as a flower. So there might be more opportunity for Will's chocolate bars for you to capture different pieces. One of the things to keep in very, very important to remember about flowers, any flower is it's a dying product. It's dying the moment you have separated it from the bush. So you're on the clock. Right. So there might have been or there might be opportunity. One could make the argument there is opportunity for me to keep, Keep that piece of the equation. But anything that you do that risks the time affiliated with getting, you want to keep as short as possible. The moment that thing comes off the bush to getting into the hands of the consumer and anything that you do in between, that disrupts that time or extends that time, it's a detriment to yourself. So it's not really value. So it's just something to keep in mind with a perishable product that's sort of different than, say, other types of products that you don't have the clock on you as much as you possibly do with roses. And so that's what I was forced to look at, is. Yeah, should I give up? I would also say that in business, you're constantly robbing Peter to pay Paul, making these decisions about what the right ones are, the wrong ones are. In our case, I was exchanging time. I'm exchanging time. I need. I need. I'm. I'm giving up a little bit to. In exchange for shortening that time window to get the flowers out the door. It's just great.

[1:01:37] Host: Great.

Guest: Critical.

Host: Yeah. Your. Your business is just kind of living under the, like the tick, tick, tick.

Guest: You're on the timer. You're on the clock. It's. It's. It's. It's dying when they cut it.

Host: Yeah. Yeah. Jason, a few more questions for you. Kind of all over the place. Give us a sense of a single location. I know it varies, you know, from a big convenience store with tons of traffic to, you know, a tinier one. But can you give us a sense, a ballpark, a range of how many, how much revenue per month, a single location, a new location would represent for you.

Guest: So let's see. As you said, you're right. I mean, we have stores that struggle to sell 10 a week. That it's tough for them. Sometimes it's about where they're located. Sometimes their location is a struggle for them. In other cases, it's. There's construction or something happening at the store. Others are absolute gold mines. It's unbelievable. We have stores that sell as high as I think our top performing store is, is 80 plus flowers a week. And so it's kind of interesting. The more. The more rural and out there a store is. It's interesting that these. These convenience stores become the grocery stores of the communities. Right. So if there's. If your location's not. If your area, your community is not big enough to be a Kroger or a Publix or a food line, whichever. I don't know where all your viewers are, but the Publix is the big grocery chain here, then the small mom and pop convenience store becomes the grocery store. And it's not unusual. By the way, we've seen some locations have plumbing supplies in them. They become little tiny Home Depots. It's a Home Depot, it's a grocery store, it's a gas and it's flowers. And so they sort of have to, so it does sort of run the gamut. If you, if you, if you average it out, I would say the average, the, the average store is about 15, 15 flowers a week that I sell. Right. So that, that I can count on get sold. So just you take all the tens and all the 80s and you sort of amalgamate it and that's what you get is on average about 15 flowers and that would represent about 40 to 45 dollars of revenue a week.

[1:04:26] Host: Okay. And then your profit on that is about 33%.

Guest: A third maybe, correct? Yep, yep, a third to about 40%. So somewhere between there. Now, the reason I'm giving a variable is my prices are different depending on different stores and the, the prices vary on seasonal bouquets, three rose bouquets, singles, single roses. But generally speaking, that's correct. Yeah.

Host: Yeah, great. Thank you for that. The, one of the things that, that people looking at buying a business, acquiring minds, listeners think about a lot is how big a business to buy. And there's, there's some kind of conventional wisdom that for a certain type of searcher, you're a little bit different. But for a certain type of searcher, a business with 700,000 SDE up to a million is the sweet spot. It's big enough, it's too small for private equity, so you're not going to be competing against really deep pocketed serious players, but big enough that with 800,000 in SDE. First of all, these folks are all taking SBA loans. You weren't. So they have debt Service. So that 800,000 in STE immediately drops to, let's call it half got 400 SDE. And then from that 400 they want to pay themselves a, you know, a salary competitive with what they could get at a corporate job. So 100, let's call it 150, that's 250 left over to reinvest at the business. But, and, but some really nice cushion there as well where they can really on day one just be working on the business, not in the business. And, and so your business is quite a bit smaller than that, but you also didn't have the debt service. So that changes things considerably. But any, just any immediate reaction to that and size of business. Like were were you for example looking at, was 250sde like your hard number or were you looking at a wide range? Did you have that dialed in even? Or were you just kind of open to all opportunities or what?

[1:06:24] Guest: Right? So, I mean, first and foremost, of course, you got to live, you got to eat, right? So you examine your lifestyle and you look at how much do I have to be bringing in every year to live and to eat? So there's your starting point. Forget everything else. You got to make sure you're okay. And so we did that. You're right. We were in a different place, we were in a different spot, given that we were going to use our own money. So I think, to answer your direct question, when people think about how big, I'm hesitant to suggest that SDE is the right measure. So I'd be careful with that. I'd be careful. Certainly it's a piece. I mean, the numbers should be positive for starters, and the numbers should be enough for you to, you know, that there's enough, you got enough nickels left over at the end of the month that you can make a living. But first and foremost, it's some of the same principles that I shared, right? You got to love what you do. And you better first make sure above all else, I don't care how much the money is. Can you handle it? Can you handle it? Right. And by handle it is, you know, a lot of people want to jump into this, you know, small business ownership, medium sized business ownership. You're everything. I mean, I've, you know, all the cliche things are all true, right? You're the chief bottle washer. You know, I've done it all. You know, nobody cares about the business more than you do. So you've got to first make sure that everything, all the moving parts, you're capable of handling. Because I don't care what SDE is. SDE is not going to be there if you can't keep the ship floating. So you've got to be able to do operations, you've got to be able to do sales and marketing, you've got to be able to understand accounts payable. Are you losing money? Do you have theft going on? Not anything intentional necessarily, but do you have leakage? You got to be able to detect all those things. So if you don't have all the right pieces in, I really don't care how big of a business it is, you've got to be able to handle it. So I would just be, I don't know, I think I'm a little more wary than others of just sort of using financials. P and L is not everything. Yeah, because you'll hate it in six months if you can't keep up if you're putting in 10, 12 hours a day and you're still not keeping up and you don't have your arms around the business and you can't manage things on a pinch, I don't, man, I don't care what the number is. You're gonna hate it. You're gonna hate it.

[1:09:21] Host: Well, and actually that's a great point because one of the arguments that I failed to make for a larger business is that usually, that's usually a good proxy for a business having a management layer. So if a business is doing a million dollars in cash flow, it's likely to have some management that's not going to be just you on day one. Fair enough.

Guest: Fair enough. And I'll validate your point and talk a little bit about the success that we've had. So we will probably be at. If all things stay on their current trajectory, we'll be at about 700 of SDE this year.

Host: It's awesome.

Guest: It is great.

Host: I mean, congratulations.

Guest: We're really thrilled with it. And I've added another manager, so I've had to add another. So you're exactly right that you've got to be wise enough to know, okay, this is getting bigger than just I'm going to have to, to eat my own food here. Right. What I said is true. You got to make sure you can handle it. And I recognized that. I can't. Right. I recognized that. Okay, a second location is going to require some help. I can't be at two places at one time. I can't. You know, I know what is involved and what it takes to do one location. And so now I had to hire on in this case, a very dear friend who's, who's probably been with me for, for over 10 years. So somebody that I trust. But absolutely. So now I have a chief operating officer, somebody that's going to help me with operations of a second location. And so it's kind of funny that you said right around that number that's when you got to start to add a management layer. And you do. It's true. It's true. There's just enough moving parts that you've got to have it with you.

Host: But your day to day, let's say prior to opening Jacksonville, are you. Would you, would you say you're working in the business or on the business? You know that that distinction can be over overstated some. But like, you know, actually on our pre call, you may recall you were, you were actually sitting in one of your vans.

Guest: I was on a Route.

Host: You, you were on a route, so you were definitely working in the business at least sometimes. Although I realize that was an exception. But talk to give us a sense of your day to day at a business of this size.

Guest: Yeah, I would say, you know, I'm not going to count the first six months. Of course this, the first six months you're in way in. If you're smart, you're in as far deep as you can go making the

Host: decisions because you made the deliberate decision to get in there and learn every.

[1:12:00] Guest: Everything I wanted to know everything. And by the way, I've done that even in my corporate jobs. If you go back when I was doing laboratory diagnostics, I did every job I was legally allowed to do. Right. Because I didn't think you could be a good executive. How in the world do you participate and make decisions if you don't actually know what it takes to unpack a box or move a specimen or drive a forklift? So I did it all and so there's no difference here. So I did all the roles. So you dismissed the first six months. You're just in these last six months on average, on net I would say it's about 80, 20. I'm 80% working on the business, 20% in the business. And that's because I have a great team. I have a great team. You know, I've, I've sort of made all the decisions that we've made, retained who we've retained and I've got a really good team and set expectations with them that I need them to sort of step up and do different things. But the 20%. The 20. You know, a lot of our business is distribution. So you're going to spend a lot of time making car decisions. So you're going to be doing a lot of stuff about flat tires and oil changes and these types of things. But the, I would say I would spend about 20% there and a lot of that too is sort of self inflicted. I do that so that I stay in touch. You know, I think it's important, important that my, my folks see me involved in the business and that I always keep my hands so that my finger's always on the pulse of what's going on. Makes me a better leader to that point for sure.

Host: And to that point. Are you folks all seeing each other at the depot? Is there an office? What, what's the. Just the lay of the land there.

Guest: We have an office depot, warehouse, walking coolers, that type of thing with all the flowers in it. And so everybody Sort of comes and goes from that place, that location, and so we all see each other in passing. It's interesting. One of the nice, beautiful things about convenience stores is they're open 24 hours. So I have some routes. One of the ways I retain and sort of attract drivers as opposed to like Amazon or somebody like that, is I offer flexibility. So I have, I have drivers that leave. Some start their routes at 11 at night and they're done 5 in the morning. I have others that start at 5 in the morning. And you know, they choose to drive during the day, so, so they choose their schedules. I don't tell them what they have to do.

Host: That's great.

Guest: They get to pick their hours. They get to, for the most part pick their days. I just have one sort of overall demand, which is once a week, your flowers need to get dealt with for your customers. However you choose to do that is how you do it. And they love that. They love that flexibility.

Host: Aside from flowers specifically, fundamentally yours is a distribution business. What would you tell other people out there who are thinking about buying a distribution business? How do you find it?

Guest: Sure. Well, I think you said it right. It's flowers. But flowers are almost about 10% of, of what we do. You need to be prepared in the distribution business. You are in the car business. Make no mistake. You're in the car business, right. And you better understand oil changes and tire rotations and how long tires last and how long vehicles last. And it's a real challenge now with the chip shortage. So the chip shortage has by default caused a vehicle shortage. So our, the best vehicle for us in our case are the small vans, the sprinter van. So not quite the size of an Amazon van, but a little the next sort of version down. Well, they're not, they're gone. I mean, you can't get anymore. So it puts you in the used market and in the used market you're paying new car prices. So that's just sort of a reality. But, but even under, so even if you normalize it, you're still in the car business. You're, you're very much your, your day to day, your week, your month is going to be spent making sure that those vehicles are okay. And I mean, that's your, that's your lifeblood of the business is making sure the cars. Now in my case, you know, there's all sorts of distribution businesses, but in my case, I have to keep the flowers cool. So I get away with air conditioning. But, but air conditioning is very important. Other distribution businesses need Refrigerated vehicles, which, you know, now, a small van, a small refrigerated vehicle, you're looking at 60 to $70,000 just to get a nice used one. So, yeah, make no mistake, whatever you're distributing, whether it's Will's chocolate bars or Jason's flowers, you're in the car business.

[1:16:49] Host: Well, and you're also in the driver business sort of thing. And how have you been dealing with labor? Because, you know, we all hear about the trucking industry, or maybe this is a year or two ago, but for a while there, everyone was talking about trucking and how difficult it was to find truck drivers. Have you found it difficult to. On that.

Guest: On that front, I have not. I would say a couple things. One is you good drivers, drivers with clean records. Important to have clean record. Right. Because your insurance costs are going to be highly variable. If you have a driver who's been in accidents or had a previous DUI or anything like that, you're going to pay for it in your insurance. So it's something to be very, very careful about. As I mentioned earlier, what I offer that is a bit unique, I think, to some industries is complete flexibility. So I allow the drivers to decide. Actually, there's two wonderful things, things about the business to the driver, from the driver's perspective. One, it's the same stops every day. So it's not like Amazon or anything like that, where you come into work, you pull up your computer, you don't know where you're going. Right? Yeah. You know, my drivers have the same 30 to 40 stops. They get relationships with the customers that they meet. So it's the same thing every every week. The other is it's completely up to them. So it's totally up to them. You want to deliver Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, you want to deliver Monday, Wednesday, Friday, you need to shift the day. It's no big deal. You need to leave at 11 at night, 5 in the morning. Whatever you want to do, just get it done. You got 24 hours to make it happen. So that flexibility has, I think, really given me an edge. In fact, I'm right across the street from. You can see from where we're at the Amazon sort of launch area where they keep all their vans. And it doesn't intimidate me at all.

[1:18:52] Host: Jason, it seems like you've actually. A lot of people say that small business and corporate life are just two different universes, and I suspect you agree. But it does seem like you've actually really been able to leverage a lot of your Corporate experience in this business that you really are drawing on a lot of. A lot of. Certainly, you know, the transactions, the acquisitions you were involved in in corporate, while they were probably a lot larger than your own personal acquisition, it seems like there are some principles carried through. So. So would you say that your corporate experiences, how helpful would you say your 20 plus years of corporate experience were to this endeavor?

Guest: Sure, I would say they've, they've been helpful. I'd be unwise to sort of dismiss all of the experiences that I had. And by no means am I anti corporate or do I think it's just not a fit anymore. Right. It's just you start to, you know, as companies have evolved and, you know, that 80% I talk about just isn't attractive to me anymore and I'd be at risk in my own company and I'm starting to see a little bit of it, you know, that mayonnaise start to encroach in. So I have to be very careful about not becoming a victim to the very thing that I didn't want to be a part of. Yeah, but, but I'd be foolish not to, to leverage the, the experiences that I had and lessons that I've learned. Right. I mean, and they were very large organizations, smart organizations, wonderful people, wonderful teams, good experiences, bad experiences, and I've taken from that. I paid attention in business school, so I leveraged business school. University of Maryland was great. I would say it's hard to put a number on it, but I would say very much I'm leveraging what I've learned over the years. I didn't get these gray hairs from nothing.

[1:21:00] Host: And now. Would you have done what you're doing now earlier if you'd kind of, if you'd known better or known different?

Guest: Yeah, it's fair. I, I would say. I, I remember telling Linda, my wife Linda, I said, you know, I think I now I, I've long sort of prided myself on never having any regrets. And I think I have one right. I should have done this 20 years ago. 20 years ago. I should have scratched the entrepreneurial itch, so to speak. I'm loving everything about it. Like I said, Mondays are still exciting, so I'm ready to go. It's not like everything is wonderful. There's 10%. It's sort of irritating, but no, I wish I had done this much, much younger. I think I would have had a far better time. But I don't know. I'm still working on that. As to whether it's officially a regret or not. Because at the same time I had wonderful experiences in my previous career as well. And so who knows, it might not have been as successful as this is had I not had those experiences.

Host: Exactly. I mean, part of the reason you're feeling so good is that you're crushing it.

Guest: Yeah.

Host: And part of the reason you're crushing it may. May well be that you had, you know, 20 years of wisdom accrued.

Guest: Correct. Correct. And you know, learned. Learn some mistakes on somebody else's dime.

Host: Right.

Guest: You know, I could have been boneheaded and silly on. On my dime and that would have made for a different interview. Possibly. So.

Host: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, Jason, just to. To take us out, so let, let's just recap your growth again in one. In one answer. So tell me, do I have this right? You. Why don't you do it for us again? So you've revenue was in a million dollars when you bought it? 200. 250 STE. That was 13 months ago. Where are you now?

Guest: Yeah. So right now in the first six months we're over 700,000 in revenue and I expect. Well. And right now in the first six months we're over 300,000 in SDE. So you can plot that out more

Host: than a doubling of revenue.

Guest: You can plot that out for the rest of the year. Yep.

Host: Phenomenal.

Guest: Yeah. So I don't know, so long as their gas doesn't go too crazy on us here and inflation stays somewhat in check, we should be okay.

Host: Well, it's a really neat business. It has to. It attracts me. I like distribution businesses for reasons I can't put my finger on, but they just draw me for some reason. I just find them neat and fun and at the risk of inviting competition, if somebody is looking at a business like this in Seattle or some other region that you're not going to go conquer anytime soon, sounds like this, this phenomenon of kind of there being a lot of green field for this. Is your impression that that's the case around the country or do you know?

[1:24:14] Guest: I do know. We. I did a show, I did a show in Orlando, gosh, about three or four months ago, and I was approached by multi unit owners. Multi. Multi hundred unit owners. Owners who wanted me immediately to head to New Jersey and Chicago. And I just. I'm out of gas. I mean, I can't, you know, my growth is sort of set. I'll spill to you as well here at the end that in August it is for sure that we are opening up near Jacksonville. I have in the pipeline to open up Locations in North Carolina, Virginia and Miami. So I could be, I would say, within the next 12 months, operating out of five locations. So is it out there? Yes, it is out there, and I don't mind competition.

Host: That's phenomenal. And last question, really. Why do you think your previous, the founder, owner, didn't this thing was so primed for growth? Why didn't they, why didn't they see it or what was the story there?

Guest: Yeah, fair question. I think they had run the business for 30 years, so I give them a tremendous amount of credit. They built this, you know, they built it. They put all the right steps in place and, you know, there was some personal circumstances and, you know, I would guess that, you know, when you do something for 30 years, you're. You're kind of done. You're ready to do something else. And, you know, they have, they had a set of personal things, things that they were wrestling with as a family, and they, they had done it for 30 years. And so I think that just everything sort of lined as equally as it had lined up for us. It had lined up for them to move on to something else.

Host: Well, how fortunate that. I mean, just right time for both, for both parties.

Guest: It's been great, and we remain great friends and we talk as often as possible. I see them from time to time. They're still, they're still. They spend a couple months out here in Florida and the rest in their new state. But, yeah, so we're still in touch. And they're, they're, they're very happy about the growth for everybody.

Host: Yeah, yeah. Imagine. Cool. Well, Jason, a hearty congratulations on the growth. That is, that is quite an impressive first year in the business, and as I said, a really neat business to me. So really, really cool to hear. Hear from you. Own a year and how many locations you're in at that point.

Guest: Oh, it'd be great. I'd love to do it.

Host: Great. All right, Jason. Thanks for your time, sir.

Guest: All right, thanks. Will.