Hello this is Jonathan Jay – and welcome to episode 185 of the Business Buying Strategies podcast.

This week, I talk with author, investor and entrepreneur Graham Rowan – about how I have built the fourth largest chain of children’s day nurseries in the UK in little more than two years.

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Hello this is Jonathan Jay – and welcome to episode 184 of the Business Buying Strategies podcast.

This week, we meet another of my mastermind clients, Hari Krishnadasan. Now Hari had actually bought a business a few years ago without realising that growing through acquisition could be a viable business strategy.

But when COVID forced Hari to diversify, he made two new acquisitions and is now fully signed up to the principal of buy and build.

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Hello this is Jonathan Jay – and welcome to episode 183 of the Business Buying Strategies podcast.

This week we meet John Richardson, whose expertise is in acquiring coffee retail businesses, and establishing a chain a coffee shops.

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Now a couple of weeks ago, I introduced one of my online audiences to two of the most prolific dealmakers I know.

You might have heard the name Peter Lidgitt before – because he was on the podcast just a couple of months ago. But since then, during one visit to the Burgundy region in France, he has managed to acquire three businesses – including a sausage factory – and has his sights on another two.

Another dealmaker who has joined me on the podcast previously is Gavin (Add Surname Here).

Now Gavin’s experience is in the printing sector – and he first approached me when he had built up his businesses to a turnover of £900K – but was struggling to get it over the £1m he’d set as a target.

By changing from growing organically to acquiring other businesses and then joining them together, everything changed for Gavin. He and I discussed the skills and personality traits needed of a successful dealmaker.

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Back in November last year I introduced you to one of my mastermind students, Kris Bark.

At the time, Kris ran a software business that he had started with a business partner several years ago. Having bought out the partner, and after attending my programme, Kris realised that growth by acquisition was the way to go – and so began a rapid succession of acquisitions.

Eight months on and Kris is well on his way to his target of 60 acquisitions, with a combined turnover of £60 million within the next two years.

Earlier in May, I invited him to meet my current intake of virtual students, and we talked about his methods for deal flow, negotiation, financing deals and ways to exit.

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This week I talk with a legendary jewellery entrepreneur who grew his global business almost entirely through acquisition. Gerald Ratner left school at 16 with no qualifications, and went to work in his father’s jewellery business.

In 1984, he took over the business – and after just six years in charge he had created the world’s largest jewellery retail company – with 2,500 stores, 25,000 employees, annual sales of £1.2 billion.

How was that possible? Last month I invited Gerald to share the lessons he has learned with my private audience. Afterwards, I joined him on stage to talk about each of the significant acquisitions he made.

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This week I am talking with Michael Girdley, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of US based Dura Software – and last year, Michael completed the acquisition of 6Connex – a technology company specialising in large scale virtual events – a great acquisition that in 2020 was definitely a case of ‘right time right place’ – and it was the fifth acquisition he’d made since 2018.

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