If you think your business is in great shape right now — this episode is specifically for you. Blockbuster had 9,000 stores, 65 million registered customers, and a market position no one thought was vulnerable. They also had $800 million in annual revenue tied to a pricing model built on customer frustration. When Netflix removed…
You negotiate for months to land a $3 million purchase price. Then the deal closes and after debt payoff, taxes, transaction fees, escrow holdbacks, and earnout risk, you walk away with significantly less than you expected. Most business owners don’t know this is coming until they’re already sitting across from a buyer. And by then,…
McDonald’s generates nearly 47 cents of operating profit for every dollar of revenue it brings in. The average small business generates 5 to 15 cents. Same dollar coming in. Completely different amount staying in the business. The gap isn’t scale. It isn’t luck. It’s operational efficiency — and it comes down to three levers that…
Red Lobster had $2B in revenue and less than $30M in cash when they filed for bankruptcy. Spirit Airlines generated $4.9B in revenue in 2024 and burned $758M in operating cash. Both companies watched their revenue. Neither controlled their cash. Christian and Stephen break down the five cash flow rules every operator needs — and…
What do Kroger paying $1.65 billion for Giant Eagle, Sycamore Partners taking Walgreens private for $10 billion, and Bain Capital’s $3 billion acquisition of commercial HVAC giant Service Logic all have in common? Strategic positioning. In every case, the buyer wasn’t just purchasing revenue — they were buying a defensible, hard-to-replicate position in a market….