“You’re either growing or you’re dying.” 

It’s the mantra you hear in every MBA program, startup incubator, and entrepreneur circle. But is it actually true for acquisition entrepreneurs?

What if you could just buy a laundromat, a car wash, or some boring, cash-flowing business… and coast? No aggressive expansion, no scaling – just steady income and a laid-back lifestyle.

It’s a tempting idea. And on paper, it seems possible.

But after seven acquisitions and writing a Wall Street Journal bestseller on the topic, I’ve seen exactly when this works – and when it leads to disaster.

Let me take you inside my $250,000 mistake in e-commerce, what it taught me about the real role of growth in business acquisition, and why the difference between buying and building is the key to long-term success.

If you’re new here, I’m Walker Deibel, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of Buy Then Build and the creator of the Acquisition Lab.

 

 

Between 2006 and 2016, I acquired seven companies outright using a simple playbook – 10% cash infusion and 90% SBA financing. That’s the fundamental model I laid out in Buy Then Build, and it’s the same structure many acquisition entrepreneurs use today.

 

The E-Commerce Acquisition That Taught Me Everything

In 2016, I bought an e-commerce business that looked like a great deal. The product was established in Europe but still new to the U.S. It had been around for about 10 years, and even during the Great Recession, revenue had gone up, not down.

At acquisition, it was doing $1.9 million in revenue and generating around $35,000 in monthly cash flow, with $15,000 in principal and interest (P&I) payments – a healthy 45% debt service ratio.

For the first eight years, everything was solid. Revenue dipped slightly after acquisition (which almost always happens), but I got it back up. Eventually, we hit our best year ever – nearly doubling revenue from when I first bought it.

But then came the problem.

This business wasn’t a brand I owned – I was a reseller of a product from a single supplier. And that supplier kept raising prices. I had no choice but to comply because my reseller license depended on it.

However, I warned them: You’re pricing yourself out of the market and creating an opening for competitors.

And sure enough, Chinese knockoffs flooded the market.

 

Source: Avery Chan

 

In just one year, the brand’s U.S. market share dropped from nearly 100% to 10%. My business took a massive hit.

Revenue dropped to 60% of what it was when I first acquired the company. But I had seen this coming.

Because I understood my supplier risk from day one, I had diversified my revenue streams. My second product line kept the business afloat, covering my debt payments even as the original business got hammered. I also leveraged my network and repositioned the company for a pivot – one that could completely redefine the industry.

Now, eight years into my SBA loan with two years left, I can confidently say that in 24 months, I’ll have a multimillion-dollar business that’s completely debt-free.

Lessons Learned About Business Growth

Here are two lessons I learned from this experience:

1. Business Is Volatile – And It Demands Your Attention

You can’t just set a business on autopilot and expect it to sustain itself. While it might seem like a cash-flowing business can run on its own, the reality is that acquisition remains the fastest path to building wealth and creating real autonomy – but only if you stay engaged and actively manage it.

2. Growth Isn’t Optional – It’s Survival

Had I not made the effort to grow and diversify, my business wouldn’t have survived. This wasn’t some bloated, high-overhead operation – it was a cash cow. But if I had simply coasted, assuming things would stay the same, I would have lost everything.

Markets shift. Competitors move in. And if you’re not actively growing, you’re putting yourself in a position to fail. Growth isn’t just about expansion – it’s a form of risk management. It’s the insurance policy that keeps your business alive when the unexpected happens.

 

Understanding Acquisition Profiles: The AE Matrix

In Buy Then Build, I introduced the Acquisition Entrepreneurship (AE) Matrix, which classifies businesses into four categories:

1. Eternally Profitable
2. High Growth
3. Turnaround
4. Platform

 

 

At acquisition, my e-commerce business was a platform for me, but most buyers would have classified it as eternally profitable – the classic Main Street business people think they’re buying.

It had strong tailwinds (growing U.S. awareness), a proven product (established in Europe), and an intrinsic value opportunity (no competitors had built SEO around it).

I spent seven years relentlessly building content and backlinks. Today, I own all the top Google search rankings for this space. If search were a highway intersection, I own all four corners. That’s going to be the key to transitioning to a different product while maintaining market dominance.

Here’s the key takeaway:

• Starting a business from scratch = pulling revenue off the ground.
• Buying a business = buying existing revenue, using debt to do it.

Your equity builds up inside the business over time. That means your cash flow must stay stable.

You can’t just buy an eternally profitable business and expect it to be an ATM forever.

And if you don’t understand your biggest risk factor – whether it’s supplier power, industry trends, or shifting consumer behavior – you could be in trouble.

Bullets, Then Cannonballs: Testing Before Scaling

Jim Collins, one of my favorite business thinkers, talks about a strategy called “bullets, then cannonballs.”

The idea? You don’t just fire a massive cannonball (a big investment or expansion) and hope it works. You fire bullets first – small, calculated bets. You see what gains traction, and then you go all in.

 

Source: Ahmed Idris | LinkedIn

 

I applied this strategy when I built a bidet site. I was reselling all the major brands, and during COVID, it absolutely crushed it. I made $75,000 in cash flow that year – from this one side project.

But here’s the thing: it didn’t have staying power. It was a bullet, not a cannonball. The site wasn’t a long-term play, but it taught me a valuable lesson in SEO and digital visibility.

That’s the process:

1. Test small ideas (bullets)
2. Find the winning one
3. Go all in (cannonball)

Debt Is Overhead – And Growth Is Insurance Against It

When you acquire a business, you’re almost always taking on debt – SBA loans, seller financing, bank loans – whatever makes sense for the deal. But debt means fixed payments every month.

It’s just like a mortgage. It doesn’t fluctuate with revenue. That’s overhead.

• Hire employees? Overhead.
• Sign a lease? Overhead.
• Take on debt? Overhead.

And overhead is what can kill you in a downturn.

People love to say they went out of business because they were over-leveraged. Maybe. But leverage is how you get into the game. The real problem isn’t debt – it’s failing to grow.

Growth is insurance against overhead.

Whatever business you’re in – laundromats, car washes, window washing, franchises – you have to keep growing. You can’t just buy a business, sit back, and expect the cash to flow forever. That’s not how this works.

That’s why it’s called Buy Then Build.

As you scale your business, your debt payments shrink as a percentage of cash flow. The bigger you grow, the less weight that fixed overhead carries.

And that’s what gives you financial freedom.

If you’re looking to acquire a business in the next 12 months, the Acquisition Lab is your first stop. Reach out to us today and get on the fast track to becoming an acquisition entrepreneur.