Use less time per one lead I have used a lot too much time per leads that eventually did not fly. I should use max two days per lead to leave the initial indikative offer. Now I have used weeks per one lead, that is clearly not usefull.

It is very personal I drive to a company and meet real people, who have real attachements to the company. It is a handicraft. And running the company would be very personal also. In one target company the wife of the owner ceo is also working there. Maybe she does not want the husband to sell the company. Maybe she knows that she would not get a new job easily, if things would get tense with the new ceo. Psychological factors play a huge role in these small company acquisitions.

Private investors believe in the model It is possible to find individuals who see potential in the model. The challenge is, that it is too easy to invest in apartments and make secure profits that way. Only way to compete against these investments is to be a more adventurous investment opportunity. There are people who are interested in board work and who want to have an effect on something real.

There are thousands of targets and hundreds of good targets There are lots of companies in Finland, where the owner ceo is getting old and sick. And the target company actually should be such, where the owner needs and wants to sell it. If the owner is too young, they are reluctant to sell. More so if they are making profit, which should be the case.

They can ask ridiculous amount of money from a shitty company I have seen the dealers present me with companies, where the profit is###-###-#### €/year and they are asking for 1M€. There is no sense whatsoever in these asking prices. Another was a company with growing losses of###-###-#### € and they did ask 1M€. There are so many bad companies that have only negative value and still they ask for a million euros. Madness.

I should search through databases To find good targets, I need to use database search. The companies at agents are at times really lousy. The databases are free or quite affordable in Finland. I need to use those more. Also I need to use Hubspot or Pipedrive to keep track of leads.

You can succeed if you have statistics on your side I need more targets, it is the only way. As the deals fall apart for numerous reasons, there has to be more bets going at the same time.

Real assets are needed It can all fall apart, if you don’t have the real assets that the bank wants to secure the loan. Lets see hot this will end up. How do you deal with this in the US model? If you don’t have an apartment to use as a real asset?

You need to build confidence When I started the search, I was quite insecure, even if I had seven years of experience as an entrepreneur and two master degrees and 14 years of B to B industry experience. I also speak three languages, but none of this gave much self confidence. It is such a different game! But after half a year of learning, I am starting to feel that I know a bit of the game. More than in the beginning! And there are not so many in Scandinavia even learning the rules yet.

So, join our Refinery7 adventure and join our team, either as a investor or as a fellow searcher. Let us join forces!

terveisin, Laurisi. (Finns will understand this reference to Jari Sarasvuo)