Paul Lajoie·February 9, 2026

$20m Net Worth After 25 Years Buying Businesses | Paul Lajoie Interview

Paul Lajoie is a Dallas-Fort Worth serial acquirer who has spent 25 years building a diversified portfolio of small businesses, starting with a $900k flooring store acquisition in 2000 that he and his brother bought at 3x SDE using an SBA loan, seller note, and equity. Paul, a CPA by training, quit his corporate job six months after close once the business could pay both brothers $10k/month after debt service; the business grew 75-100% within two years partly by joining homebuilder trade associations. Over 25 years he has completed roughly 12 acquisitions (one failure) and 4 startups (3 failures), including a sandblasting/painting company serving the oil and gas industry, a failed lighting store caught by the 2008 crisis, and a fencing company where emotional over-attachment led to a bad purchase later partially recovered. His most successful venture is a 50/50 pipeline survey JV (pig tracking for Phillips 66 and TransCanada) that he co-founded based on domain knowledge from his earlier oil and gas acquisition. Paul's central philosophy is buying at fair value based on current earnings, not projected growth; maintaining extreme frugality to accumulate capital for diversification; and holding commercial real estate alongside operating businesses. He now earns over $1m/year and holds ~$20m in net worth, and has launched Bisby Pro, a small business acquisition education community.

Deal facts

purchase price: $900k
multiple: 3x SDE
sde ebitda: SDE $300k
revenue: $1.8m at acquisition; ~$2.5m today
financing structure: SBA loan (~70-75%) + 10% seller note + ~15-20% equity
notes: First acquisition was a Dallas-Fort Worth flooring store (carpet, tile, hardwood) that had been in business ~20 years. Brother Bob co-acquired as operating partner; Paul kept his W2 for 6 months. Subsequent acquisitions include: lighting store (failed, closed after 2008 crisis, ~$300-400k lost); industrial sandblasting/painting company (bought ~2x SDE due to customer concentration risk, later sold but retained real estate now worth ~$3-3.5m cash-flowing ~$150k/yr); fencing company (failed deal, bought back cheaper, sold at a net gain); oil and gas pipeline survey/pig-tracking company (zero-to-one startup, 50/50 JV, most successful venture). Total: ~12 acquisitions, 4 startups. Current income $1m+/yr, net worth ~$20m.

Why this business

Paul and his brother were not looking for a specific industry — they were open to anything local in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The flooring business was the first deal presented by a business broker (a soccer teammate of Paul's). The numbers looked good: it had been around 20 years, great reputation, a lot of repeat and referral business, 50% new construction with high-end homebuilders, and it generated $300,000 SDE at a 3x purchase price of $900k. As Paul put it, 'the first company that he presented to me... the numbers looked good.'

What's working

Buying a clean, established business with no major adbacks, strong repeat/referral base, and a trustworthy seller who remained a resource for years post-close
Joining trade associations (Dallas-Fort Worth Homebuilders Association, NARI) early on, which landed a major homebuilder customer (Oakley Homes) and effectively doubled revenue
Extreme frugality and lifestyle sacrifice pre- and post-acquisition — downsizing house, selling Lexus, living on $10k/month each — allowed capital accumulation for future acquisitions and a buffer against downturns
Buying businesses that have operated through at least one economic cycle (Paul's rule: 10+ years in business preferred)
Diversifying across multiple businesses and commercial real estate rather than concentrating all capital in one entity
CPA background enabling tax structuring savings estimated at $2-3m over 25 years and ability to ask sharp questions of subject-matter experts
Wife now managing the flooring store's money, reducing theft risk in a small-team environment
Oil and gas pipeline business (50/50 JV, started from zero) became Paul's most financially successful venture, enabled by domain knowledge from his earlier sandblasting/painting acquisition
Sandblasting/painting company pivoted from 100% one-customer outdoor crews to an indoor facility with 50+ customers before the original customer's revenue collapsed — preserved the business

What's hard

Severely underestimating working capital at close — despite both partners being CPAs, they ran the flooring business down to $20 in the bank account 90 days in with a $4,000 payroll due
Customer concentration risk: Oakley Homes (a homebuilder that represented a doubling of revenue) went bankrupt, sending revenue back to where it started
2007-2008 housing crisis cut flooring revenue ~50%; timing was especially bad as they had just bought the lighting store, which was 80% new-construction dependent and had to be closed
Lighting store acquisition: bought one month before Lehman Brothers collapsed, revenue down 50% within 30 days, threw $300-400k at it over ~2 years before closing it
Fencing company acquisition: got emotionally attached, let ego override diligence, bought a combined retail/wholesale company without separate financials so the retail financials were not verifiable; seller's represented numbers did not materialize
Fencing industry was too commoditized — customers always chose lowest bid regardless of quality, warranties, or reputation, making it impossible to grow on merit
Wasted money on advertising for ~10 years without knowing the ROI because they didn't hire marketing expertise early enough
Took ~15 years to find mentors and a like-minded peer network (GoBundance mastermind), which Paul believes significantly slowed his wealth accumulation
Starting businesses from scratch: 3 of 4 zero-to-one ventures failed vs. only 1 of 12 acquisitions

Notable quotes

It's a path to generational wealth, but you got to know what you're doing. It's not easy. And this is your baby. You take it home at night. There's a lot of sleepless nights and pinching pennies and wanting to know where the money is going to come from for the next payroll in the first couple years.

I didn't want to buy something. I don't want to buy a boat or do this or buy a bigger house. I'm already living in a big enough house. What do I need another one for? The partnership thing is really important to talk about for a minute. I was super lucky and I would think equally my brother would say that he was equally lucky that we found the right partnership. One that we trusted each other, we had the same mindset and we had the same long-term of what we wanted to do.

Don't try to get into something or fix something because it's not going to work. Fix something on business number five. On the first one, it needs to be as clean as possible. The numbers are good. The tax returns are there. There's not a gazillion of adbacks. You trust the seller.

I've acquired 12 companies and had one failure. 12 companies and one failure. I've started four from scratch and three of them have failed.