BUSINESS ACQUISITION FOR SUCKERS
Warning: When it comes to teaching people how to buy a business, there are a lot of highly suspect courses, books, webinars, seminars and videos around! Do not spend money on any of them till you've read our reviews below.
THE RECOMMENDED COURSES
After decades of reading acquisition material pumped out by experts and self-proclaimed experts, I'm happy to make only two recommendations. Neither pays me any commission. I recommend them only because after almost 40 years of running, buying and selling businesses I recognise these as the best.
And neither of these makes any outlandish claims about being able to teach you how to do £1 deals.
David C Barnett
David has experience as a business buyer, as a seller and as a business broker.
For many years, David has been generously sharing his expertise via a ton of Youtube videos, podcasts, interviews. The best part is that this material is all free. You'll learn more from his free videos than you'll learn from any of the "£1 Charlie" courses below (some of which cost £10,000!).
Check out David's Youtube channel here.
You can buy David's further material and/or book a call with him here.
Richard Parker
Richard sold his first business at the tender age of 13!
Since then he has bought and sold businesses and written extensively on the topic - a lot of it available for free online. I believe he's the most read author on the subject of business acquisitions. He has been writing on this subject for over 30 years.
Richard does not do any consulting any more, but you can buy his amazing content at the Diomo website. It's less than $200. The knowledge you get will cost you a fraction of what all the below courses cost and, importantly, there's none of the BS that you'll find elsewhere. Solid, honest, savvy warts-and-all advice.
THE OTHERS - The £1 Charlies Who Claim To Teach You How To Do "No Money Down Deals"
THE OLDER PLAYERS
Dan Pena - the "£50 Billion Dollar Man"
Perry M Anderson
Jeremy Harbour
Carl Allen
Guy Bartlett
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
(since 2017)
Michael Kohler
Zulfaqar Faraz
Moran Pober
Shane Stamford (real name Shane Turrell)
Ken Mack
Roland Frasier (US)
Gordon Bizar (US)
Jason Paul Rogers (US)
Many con artists have jumped into this game. Contact me if you spot one.
Before You Proceed To The Amazing Geniuses Who'll Teach You How To Make Gold ...
The UK is awash with all kinds of £1 Charlie courses run by people promising to teach you how to buy an established, profitable business without using any of your own money - the "Buy A Business For £1" courses. The US doesn't have this disease to the same extent, it's just the UK.
Yes, it's possible to buy a business for £1 but the chances of you being able to pull something like that off are close to zero. This business lawyer does a great job of explaining why:
But the £1 Charlie message is very seductive. Learn a few techniques from them on how to "structure deals", how to do "leveraged buy outs" , how to do fancy "financial engineering" and you can become the proud owner of a business that generates large revenues for you despite the fact that you invested nothing.
Yeah, sure.
But you'll be amazed at how many suckers fall for this. £1 Charlie courses generate thousands of new wannabe business owners every year. People get seduced by the message, they pay thousands for the course, they come out knowing a bit more about business. But that is nowhere near enough.
This is all part of the fake guru market.
Most people signing up for these courses never succeed in acquiring a business. It turns out that there's one thing they didn't realise. It's a lot, lot more difficult than it was made out to be. They usually end up bitterly regretting the fees they paid for the course.
If and when you investigate any of the below you'll find some a lot more plausible than others.
But before you pay anyone any money, be extremely sceptical. Do a lot of research and watch the contrapreneur video. to learn the tricks they use to snare you. Tempted to sign up for one of these courses? Just...
If you've already seen any videos by Jeremy Harbour, Dan Pena etc - people who sound like the real deal, you'd be forgiven for buying into their pitch. They've bought and sold businesses and have made the money. They must know what they're talking about, right?
Right and wrong. What they've achieved with buying business is because of many factors that they can't deliver to you in their course: their personal wealth that is guaranteeing instalment payments to the vendor, their personal assets standing as security for the money being borrowed to do the deal, their extensive personal experience in an industry (to compensate for the lack of capital being invested), their contacts / reach / connection / related businesses they own etc etc.
There's hardly anything in any of the below courses that you can't learn from a good book on the subject. Buy a book and you'll spend a fraction of the time and money. Importantly, you'll get genuine information (rather than some smooth talking salesman trying to justify his fee or trying to upsell you some other junk).
Still tempted to waste your money on a course? Watch this poor sap's story first. He did what you are about to do - he spent a large sum of money on one of these courses. This is how it went for him:
The Amazing Geniuses
Michael Kohler - Reviews & Testimonials
Kohler is one of the best. I'm opening with this as nothing sets the tone for this page better than Michael's videos.
Don't bother watching the whole thing. From Mike's opening "Hey guys, what is going on?" to his promise at the end of to show you how to do this "for real" ...it's a load of the most awful garbage. You'd be forgiven for thinking it's a spoof.
But do spend 30 seconds to watch from 7:00 to 7:30. Just half a minute, guys, like, you know what I'm saying? It's worth the effort, I promise. Yo, it's dope.
Update 2021 Feb: Sorry, folk, he's realised how embarrassing this video is and he's taken it offline! But here's a discussion about it if you scroll halfway down that page.
Dan Pena - THE TRILLION DOLLAR MAN - Reviews & Testimonials
Ol' Dan used to call himself the $50 billion dollar man, but he figured that this wasn't bullsh*t enough so he upgraded himself to the Trillion Dollar Man.
Dan calls his seminar the Quantum Leap Advantage. Here is Dan's website but I can't figure why on earth you'd want to go there.
Dan's videos on YouTube and elsewhere are expletive filled rants that may have you thinking he's a certifiable lunatic. He isn't half as successful as he makes himself out to be. Or a tenth as successful. But, as he claims in the below video, his left testicle produces more testosterone than anyone in the room (3:05 to 3:15), seriously!
You'll enjoy Mike Winnet's Contrapreneur Bingo, Dan Pena edition:
Please don't stop there. Check out Tom Nash's review here. "If God created Dan Pena, He must have been drunk at the time."
Roland Frasier - Reviews & Testimonials
Roland is an attorney in the US and, as his page tells you, he'll give you "8 Proven Strategies To Acquire A Business With Little Or No Money Down".
Roland's programme is called E.P.I.C.
Of course it is! EPIC, apparently, stands for Ethical Profits In Crisis. So, join him and your journey is going to be EPIC. That's the message you've got to take away.
And Roland will teach you all this for just $55 (it was previously $997. Don't miss the big cross on the $997 so you can see what a great deal you're getting. It's down from $997 to $55!),
The problem is that it's not really $55 though. You pay $55 to attend a pitch. By paying the $55, you're showing what a mug you are so you are ripe for the upsell and you'll get sold the other product - the $2,000 package!
$2000? That's an investment, bro. That's what serious entrepreneurs do, you know - they invest in themselves! Are you a serious entrepreneur, or are you not? You'll make a lot, lot more than $2,000. After all, as the headline says, you can zero in on 5 No Cash Down deals within 5 days!
What Roland doesn't tell you is that he was charged with fraud, he settled with the SEC (the financial regulator in the US) and has been banned from practising as a lawyer: more here.
Certainly a colourful character, but then all £1 Charlies are!
Perry M Anderson - Reviews & Testimonials
Perry (LinkedIn profile) does a "4 week Live M&A Seminar" which he also refers to as a "4- Week M&A Live Workshop".
You can avoid reading his pitch by not clicking this link. He calls himself a "Private Equity Investor". I don't know if this genius is having trouble selling his courses, but here's an extract from his website:
£5,000 reduced to £950? Wow, that's some discount! Or is it the typical fake-guru tactic of trying to get you to see a larger value than what you're actually getting? Who says it's worth £5,000? My bet is that he picked a random figure to make the £950 look good.
But Perry's page is best summarised by this cliched image:
The sub-conscious message that you're meant to take away is that if you pay him £950 you'll learn all his tips and you'll get so rich you can swap your clapped out Nissan for a better car.
The photographer screwed up on this one though. The obligatory hot babe sitting on the bonnet - the one you get in all Get-Rich-Quick promotional shots - is not in frame!
Jeremy Harbour - Reviews & Testimonials
Where do I start with this one?!
Jeremy of The Harbour Club (LinkedIn profile) founded one of the earliest "Buy A Business" course in the UK. To be fair, he doesn't push a line that some push ie. that you can buy an solid, established, profitable business for £1. He displays some honesty not seen with some of the others and does disclose that the £1 deal is best suited to a distressed business, a clapped out basket case on which you have to spend tons more money and time if you want to "turn it around".
But like the others, Jeremy exaggerates, pumps out half-truths and otherwise bluffs his way. Here's an exchange with him in a forum thread that might give you an idea of how he operates. (Jeremy posts under the username @unitygroup.)
When the forum discussion wasn't going well for him a stooge stepped in, one of his employees, pretending to be a satisfied customer and giving him a rave review ...till she got caught out!
Stooges are quite common at £1 Charlie seminars. "Gurus" often wheels out characters who claim to have been hugely successful following the guru's advice.
Jeremy often claims to be "Coutts Entrepreneur of the Year" runner up three times in a row. I've been unable to come up with any information on this award. It's probably a made up one. He wouldn't have made one up to award it to himself, would he? I don't know.
A typical bullsh*t line from Jeremy (from the forum thread above): "I personally have not bought a loss making or turnaround business for probably 5 years, they have all been profitable usually aim for 500k to 5m profit, occasionally little smaller or a little bigger. Never with cash from me, all win win deals that work for both parties and designed to create value for all concerned."
If you fancy doing some digging, this thread in Reddit has some interesting links and back story on what seems like a colourful past.
Gordon Bizar - Reviews & Testimonials
Here's good old Gordon's site. First, get impressed by the yacht in the video. Then get impressed by the fancy car. He doesn't actually claim to own this stuff, but that doesn't matter. Suckers will go away with the subliminal message is they, too, can have all this!
From Gordon's page: "The Essentials Program teaches you how to buy and how to build a business with none of your own cash through using leverage buyout techniques."
Techniques which ol' Gordon claims to have invented himself. Of course he has. As has everyone else listed on this page.
And if you act today you can get 40% off the $500 price. Damn, that's only $200 off! Didn't he get the memo telling him how this is done? You've got to claim it's worth thousands - something like $4,997 or $9,997 - and then discount it to whatever the price you're charging today.
Gordon, go RTFM.
Jonathan Jay - Reviews & Testimonials
Jonathan issued a defamation claim against me for the content posted here. After nearly two years of this claim being in the High Court, Jonathan and I have now amicably resolved our differences and by mutual (confidential) agreement we have decided to not proceed to a trial.
Ken Mack - Reviews & Testimonials
Ken describes himself as a high-energy transactional investor entrepreneur who specialises in buying and selling businesses with no money down.
What more could you want? He has squeezed investor and transaction and entrepreneur and high-energy (whatever that is!), and more, into one sentence. So why wouldn't he be able to squeeze a million pound transaction into £1?
Oh ye of little faith! If you don't believe he's the real deal, here's a photo of him posing with the obligatory flash car to show you how rich he is:
On Ken's About Me, Me, Me page, he says he has not invested a single dollar into attending courses, mentorship or seminars
We recommend you don't either.
Zulfaqar Faraz - Reviews & Testimonials
Zulfaqar (LinkedIn profile) will teach you "How To Buy 7 Figure Companies With Little Investment, So You Can Build A Corporate Empire That Changes The World"
Don't just settle for becoming a millionaire, set your target higher, change the world!
It used to be the case with the original sellers of these courses, like Jeremy Harbour and co, that all you needed to buy a business was a roll of gaffa tape and two glasses of water. But now it's becoming easier, you don't even need the gaffa tape.
And unlike the smooth talkers like Carl Allen, Jeremy Harbour, Guy Bartlett etc, who do often seem to convince people of the credibility of their offering, you don't need to pay £5K to £10K!
Zulfaqar will tell you all the secrets for just £178.80.
What are you still doing here?! Go pay £178.80 today and you will get "status, power and generational wealth"!
Carl Allen - Reviews & Testimonials
Carl (LinkedIn profile) is the founder of Ninja Acquisitions (no, I'm not making the name up!) He, too, will teach you how to buy a business without investing any money. And he can do this because he has experience buying £250 million worth of businesses. Or is it £250 billion? Something like that.
Here's a good review of Ninja Acquisitions.
"His webinars are faked to look like large events with a bunch of participants. In reality, they are pre-recorded videos staged to appear live. None of the other "participants" are present, they are just randomly generated names...."
Ninja Acquisitions is now called Dealmaker Wealth Society. For a small fee to get you to attend a seminar of some sort - that gets you into the funnel - then they try to sell you more and more stuff - the inside secrets, the REAL inside secrets, further inside secrets ...
But people like Allen and Harbour did at least have some experience at the coal face before they started their courses.
This Buy A Business For £1 world is an incestuous little world - people who run these courses often do interviews with each other, give each other awards etc. Here's an interview Carl Allen's done for Jeremy Harbour and one he's done with Zulfaqar Faraz .
There are a million other examples of mutual back scratching in this seedy little industry.
THIS PAGE STILL IN DEVELOPMENT. PLEASE BE PATIENT
But below are a few quick links to some other names.
Jason Paul Rogers - Reviews & Testimonials
His site. More coming later.
Moran Pober - Reviews & Testimonials
Moran Pober (LinkedIn profile) attended other Buy A Business For £1 courses, became an overnight guru, launched his own course.
The course he attended was Jeremy Harbour's (2016) and also Dan Pena's. Prior to that he was an internet marketer and then, bingo, he saw the light in 2016 and was born again as an M&A guru. Praise the Lord.
He started off his gurudom with a Dan Pena style ie. sprinking his videos with f*cking this and f*ck that. But he seems to have sobered down a bit of late. Maybe the limited supply of f*cking expletives f*cking ran out or something.
How full of brown stuff is he? Watch this review and remember, Moran is now on his path to own more businesses than Richard Branson.
Shane Stamford (real name: Shane Turrell) - Reviews & Testimonials
Here's a link you may want to check out.
Dan Lok - Reviews & Testimonials
Before you touch him with a barge pole, do some research. Maybe read this Reddit thread. Or watch the dozens of videos people have made "exposing" him and his fakery.
Dan Lok claims to teach you "How To Buy A Business With No Money".
"You don't need money, you just need a strategy" according to this Dan Lok video.
But if you have enough money for this clown, he'll give you the strategy.
Coffezilla has a few good videos exposing Dan Lok, you could start with this one. Spencer Cornelia has exposed Dan here. There are plenty of other videos and articles in the same vein.
Dan's also been accused of theft and that these lessons he's got on how to buy a business without using your own money ...are actually nicked from other people who are selling lessons on how to buy a business without using your own money (people who probably also nicked it). Related video: Dan Lok - A Scammer Going to Prison?
Guy Bartlett - Reviews & Testimonials
Here's an award Guy Bartlett's claims he got from an "Elite Investors Club". He was awarded Entrepreneur of The Year. As Guy claims on his site: "typically modest, Guy was shocked but honoured to be recognised for his efforts".
What he doesn't say is that the guy giving him the award is an old mate of his and they probably came up with idea of an award based PR stunt while having a few beers in the pub!
It doesn't appear that this award was ever awarded before. Or after! It was just a contrived PR ploy with a £10 trophy bought in Timpsons.
What's the term one of his reviewers used for this kind of award where mates stroke each other's ego in reciprocal arrangements? Ah, yes, circle jerk.
Guy's original pitch back in 2015-16 was very much about the £1 deal. Never pay more than £1 for a business. He even wrote a book about it!
Guy says on his site: "Just to be clear, this is NOT a get rich quick scheme. BUT, if you put the work in and invest your time wisely, you can generate more wealth in 1-2 years than most business owners will see in a decade".
"If you work hard you'll get wealthy" is a standard line with the "this is NOT a get rich quick scheme" folk. And, unfortunately, there are enough suckers who fall for this and conclude, "Yes, I can work hard. So if I take this course I WILL become a millionaire".
For instant access today, this course is only £2,997. Yes, it ends in the obligatory "7" used by all the "this is NOT a get rich quick scheme" Charlies.