Posting Anonymously because I am still working full time. I asked a few months ago about searching while working full time and it seemed like responses were mostly on the negative side and there weren't many who had gone down this path. I have gotten a ton of value out of this website so wanted to share my experience to maybe help other folks who are considering a search while working full time. Below are my learnings after 4 months of searching and working.

1) Your work needs to be flexible & ideally remote. I happen to work in an office during covid, but have been the manager of a large supply chain team for a few years now so I have been able to build a strong team that enables me to coast on ~ 75% effort. If you're working 60+ hours / week, doing both is probably not doable.
2) My weekday schedule like this. 4AM-6AM Search. 7AM-4PM Work. 430-730PM Family (Wife & 2 kids###-###-#### 10PM Search. I block off 1130-1PM to do lunch and schedule any meetings with brokers, sellers, etc then. I live in CT and searching in EST so this works OK. Add ~10 hrs on the weekend for 30hrs/week available to search. How busy you are goes up and down depending on deal flow.
3) My deal flow is almost 100% broker or listed. I briefly tried to get propietary going but realized the work to get even an interested seller to move forward was just something I didn't have time for. Time for me is better used building relationships with intermediaries and connectors like CPAs and Lawyers in my target region.
4) You will get better and more efficient with more reps. The first LOI I submitted, I spent probably 2 weeks on preliminary DD and figuring out how to write an LOI. Now if I really like a deal, broker phone call, seller meeting, offer. 3 days maybe.
5) More on reps. You will build relationships by actively and seriously pursuing deals. Don't wait for the perfect deal, you won't be ready to close it. Pursue an OK deal and learn the process, maybe you'll find it's a better deal than you thought.
6) I am currently under LOI. I think I submitted 6-8 and this is the first I've gone under contract on. I was nervous about DD, but think it depends on size and complexity of the business you are looking at. For a smaller biz $1-3MM EV, I feel the 30 hrs / week is doable until you become more certain that you will close.
7) I didn't need CPA or QoE to find a red flag that has this deal back in the negotiation phase. Be careful before dishing out $15K+ on CPAs, retaining lawyers, etc.
8) Search posts for topics you have questions on as you move further in the process. If someone has responded to that topic before, contact them directly & I have found almost 100% of the time they will take the time to speak with you. This is an extremely helpful and generous community.

Hopefully that helps someone out there. Any thoughts or questions?