Tony Conanova·September 29, 2022

Ups and Downs of Buying Small (and Keeping a Job)

Tony Conanova, a former Google employee of nine years (most recently in a product incubator role), acquired Right My Wrongs, a self-publishing services agency offering editing and ghost writing primarily to older adults writing personal Memoirs, for $500k in May 2022 using an SBA loan with 10% down. The business had $600k in revenue and ~$200k SDE in its most recent year with strong 30-40% annual growth, and Tony paid roughly 2.5x the prior year's SDE. Tony's background in linguistics, editing, and traditional publishing made the business a natural fit, and he saw clear improvement opportunities in SEO, digital marketing, and sales scalability. By the time of recording (roughly 3 months post-close), the business was cash-flow negative: the founder-salesman exited as expected but two replacement salespeople (including the owner's undisclosed daughter) had already come and gone, the owner's wife's hidden labor contributions surfaced as a new cost, and collections on pre-existing customer invoices proved far more difficult than anticipated. Tony simultaneously took a product management job at a fully remote startup, putting roughly 10-12 hours per week into the business, which he frames as a financial experiment and potential platform for future roll-up rather than a career pivot.

Deal facts

purchase price: $500k
multiple: ~2.5x SDE (last year) or ~3.3x SDE (3-year average per SBA evaluation)
sde ebitda: SDE ~$200k (most recent year), ~$125k year prior, ~$150k 3-year average per SBA
revenue: $600k (most recent year), $400k prior year
financing structure: SBA loan, 10% down, ~$30k working capital, no seller financing
notes: No asking price — bidding process; Tony offered $500k, accepted. Owner had serious health issues and waived seller financing requirement. Tony kept his Google job through the SBA underwriting process, which resulted in more favorable terms (lower down payment). Accounts receivable/payable reconciliation at close resulted in additional $30k from seller.

Why this business

Tony was drawn to the business because it was growing 30-40% per year in a growing sub-market (self-publishing inside a declining broader publishing industry), had a clear area for improvement (terrible website, Google ads only — no SEO), and he had a personal background in linguistics, editing, and traditional publishing. He also saw the owner's sales role as replaceable through consultative sales training, opening a path to semi-passive ownership.

What's working

Reduced marketing spend by optimizing existing Google Ads campaigns, achieving the same number and quality of leads at half the cost
Introduced operational infrastructure that didn't exist before: workspace accounts, call recordings, call routing, Calendly booking — laying a scalable foundation
Strong unit economics when sales close: large up-front payments from authors (average $3k-5k for editing, $15k+ for ghost writing), with contractor payments deferred until project delivery
Found a third salesperson internally (chief editor promoted to executive director) who wanted the sales role and knows the product
Continued to hold his tech job (product management at a remote startup) providing financial stability alongside the acquisition

What's hard

Lost the founding salesman (owner) who drove all revenue; first replacement salesperson (owner's daughter from a prior marriage, undisclosed) quit after one month when commissions were insufficient
Accounts receivable collection was far harder than expected — many customers were elderly or had unusual circumstances (some in prison, unable to access funds, or unable to pay online), consuming far more time than anticipated
Significant cultural clash between the guest's data-driven, systems-oriented approach and the emotionally-driven team that came from a family-like culture under the previous owner; two key 'lieutenants' departed in the first months
Business was cash-flow negative at time of recording (3 months post-close), partly due to outstanding contractor payments for projects sold before acquisition
Ghost writing projects initiated in 2021 were still unfinished at time of recording, creating contractor liability and complexity
Owner's wife contributed untracked labor (accounting, coordination) not reflected in the financials, revealing hidden costs post-close

Notable quotes

I think the freedom part is the important word here. There is never real freedom but I think freedom is my key value.

I never thought that like oh that will really be my career to like buy a business and then like spend 10 years doing just this one business. I really like the idea that you can roll up some smaller businesses.

It turned out that this person was his daughter from previous marriage. But I mean if I knew I would probably still take the deal because it was like really good deal when you don't need to pay a salary to someone right, but there is always this risk that like if it doesn't play out the person can quit especially when they don't have the same type of connection with me as they had with their father.

I think the calculations that are provided in the Buy then Build is like okay you put 100K down you buy one million business then like you grow it like to maybe 200k in profit — but like all of this is below the junior level salary at Google so it's just not interesting for most people.