oday's guest bought so small.

The business wasn't much more than a guy and a truck, a hobby for a retired engineer on the cusp of retiring for good.

But his phone just wouldn't stop ringing, calls from real estate agents who needed his radon mitigation services in order to put clients' homes on the market.

A good friend of Kevin Ramsier was one of these agents and, sensing opportunity, suggested that he and Kevin meet with this radon guy.

So Kevin and the real estate agent friend meet with this gentleman at a local Big Boy Restaurant, and the guy's flip phone does't stop ringing the whole time.

They offer to buy the business right then & there at the Big Boy for $60,000.

The seller, eager to properly retire and join his wife down in Florida, accepts — and finances 30 of the 60 grand.

Our conversation today is how Kevin & his partner turned that hobby business into SWAT Environmental, a leading franchise system in the radon mitigation space, and a business that exited to private equity for almost $80m ten years later.

Note that Kevin does not recommend searchers buy a similarly-small business. As we know there are plenty of guy-and-a-truck businesses for sale, and they are precisely the ones you want to avoid.

While Kevin did see dazzling success with his, the journey was harder than it needed to be, he thinks. And they benefited from tailwinds, some alignment of the stars.

"Looking back," says Kevin, "it's a lot easier to own a smaller piece of a much bigger pie than go through the pain we went through."

Which, incidentally, is what he does today. If you want to hear about his now venture as an independent sponsor, we did a second interview with Kevin over on the Minds Capital Podcast to learn how he buys businesses these days. Highly recommend you listen to that as well. It aired last week, on June 11th. The Minds Capital Podcast, check that out.

OK here is Kevin Ramsier, co-founder and former owner of SWAT Environmental.