Shaugn Lindley·March 19, 2025

From Tech Sales to Forklift Repair | Shaugn Lindley Interview

Shaugn Lindley, a former SAP regional VP with a decade in enterprise tech sales, was laid off on New Year's Day 2024 while vacationing in Hawaii and used the severance window to pursue ETA full-time. After an extended proprietary search focused on Austin-area landscaping businesses — including direct-mail campaigns and a paid weekly mentorship arrangement with prior Acquiring Minds guest Mike Loftess — he pivoted when a 31-year-old forklift repair and maintenance business (RNR Lift, based in Kyle, TX) appeared on BizBuySell. The business generated $1.2m in revenue with $550k SDE, operated with minimal overhead and no customer concentration, and had done essentially zero digital marketing. Shaugn acquired it for approximately 2.7x SDE using an 80/10/10 SBA structure (80% SBA loan, 10% seller note, 10% equity), and negotiated a Wells Fargo line of credit at prime minus 2.5% to fund future truck purchases. Within 100 days, he had established a Google presence and was receiving inbound calls from new customers. The primary ongoing challenge is hiring specialized forklift technicians in a supply-constrained labor market, which limits how quickly he can grow to meet strong demand in the rapidly expanding Austin-San Antonio industrial corridor.

Deal facts

purchase price: $1.49m (approx; 2.7x on ~$550k SDE, listed at $1.8m)
multiple: 2.7x SDE
sde ebitda: SDE $550k
revenue: $1.2m
financing structure: 80% SBA loan + 10% seller financing + 10% equity down; also secured line of credit from Wells Fargo at prime minus 2.5%; asset sale structure
notes: 31-year-old forklift repair and maintenance business in Kyle, TX (south of Austin). Sellers retained AR from pre-close period; structured AR split 50/50 every two weeks during transition to provide buyer working capital float. Business name: RNR Lift.

Why this business

Shaugn was attracted by the asset-light, high-margin profile (close to $200/hour labor rate), no customer concentration, a retiring owner with 40+ years in the trade, and a glaring marketing gap — the business had no Google presence and spent only $5,000/year on Yellow Pages advertising. He saw his sales and marketing background as a direct value-add to modernize the business. The B2B recurring-revenue mix (43% planned maintenance, 57% repairs) and the booming Austin/San Antonio corridor growth also fit his criteria for an established, durable business with room to grow.

What's working

Asset-light, high-margin model: minimal overhead (operates out of a small storage-facility office), no truck debt, close to $200/hour labor rate with parts markup
No customer concentration: largest customer was 6% of revenue at acquisition
Strong recurring-revenue base: 43% of jobs are planned maintenance (PM services) that generate the repair upsell pipeline
Immediate marketing wins: getting on Google and earning five-star reviews generated new inbound calls within 100 days of ownership
Seller relationship and transition support: high-integrity retiring sellers stayed on during transition and provided operational continuity
Geographic tailwind: rapid warehouse and industrial growth in the Austin/I-35 corridor (e.g., Tesla supplier accounts) creating new demand
Competitor dissatisfaction: large national forklift dealers underserve customers on response time, creating openings for a nimble independent operator
Working capital and line of credit secured at favorable rate (prime minus 2.5%) to fund truck purchases and growth

What's hard

Hiring forklift technicians is the single biggest bottleneck — it is a niche, specialized craft with limited supply of qualified techs
Technician retention is difficult because national players offer sign-on bonuses and tuition reimbursement, driving wage competition and turnover
Growth is supply-constrained (tech headcount) rather than demand-constrained, requiring a disciplined, slower pace of customer acquisition than Shaugn was used to in enterprise sales
Asset sale structure meant the new entity had no credit history, complicating financing for future truck purchases (required proactive negotiation of a line of credit at close)
Missed the initial listing for nine days on BizBuySell and lost the first LOI to another buyer — had to hang around and wait for the deal to fall through
Margins slightly compressed from seller levels as Shaugn rebuilds the team and invests in competitive technician pay

Notable quotes

I about jumped through the roof because the website was, you know, from 1999. They were not on Google. You literally could not find them on Google. And the only marketing and advertising spend in the last two years was $5,000 per year to Yellow Pages.

Anything that a man can't lift, they need a forklift.

I am very glad that I ended up in the B2B space. I'm in this for the long haul. I'm in this to build a family business. And I'm in this to keep my sanity, not to burn out.

I slip her a note — a sticky pad note — and I say, 'Where did they find us?' And both of them found us on Google. So that was a small win for us.