am Rosati is a name you've heard Acquiring Minds guests mention.

Sam is a search bootcamp operator.

A holdco owner.

SMBash co-founder.

Founding partner at SMB Law Group.

Search investor.

Publisher of the search investor list...

...and I'm probably forgetting what else.

Through all of this activity, and particularly by running a bootcamp for entrepreneurs looking to buy a business, Sam has seen countless searches up close.

And he's observed that not being clear on your target criteria can needlessly prolong your search by months or worse.

So he developed a framework to get clear on your criteria for the business you aim to acquire.

He calls it: Big 3, Little 2

Big 3, Little 2 achieves two things:

  1. It allows you to quickly qualify a business you see for sale so you know whether to invest more time pursuing it
  2. It strikes a balance to ensure you have enough deal flow, but not so much that you're looking at everything

As Sam says in the interview, as a searcher, you are a pipeline manager.

I'd not heard it put that way before, but that is an apt label for someone conducting an effective search to buy a business.

Here is Sam Rosati on his framework, Big 3, Little 2.

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