Shawn Allard didn’t set out to buy a business in the food and beverage space. Fortunately, he stayed open minded during his search and ended up finding a business that was a great fit for him: Novel Ice Cream. Almost a year into his acquisition, Shawn is opening a coffee shop and has two new ice cream locations in the works.
In this episode, Shawn shares lessons learned from his search and transition into business ownership.
00:00 Start
05:30 Search criteria
06:56 How Shawn evaluated deals
08:54 How Shawn found Novel Ice Cream & why he decided to acquire it
12:39 How Shawn got comfortable buying in an industry he didn’t have experience in
15:02 Financing for the acquisition
19:29 Why Shawn kept his W2 for a few months
21:09 The impact of keeping his W2 post acquisition
25:58 Spending money on growth
27:35 Surprises and challenges during the first year
29:40 Maintaining and building company culture
33:46 How Shawn’s life changed from W2 to business owner
36:22 Shawn’s new coffee location
39:30 Lessons learned from opening a new concept
42:15 Where Shawn wants to go from here
44:54 The qualities that make someone successful in ETA
47:39 What’s actually hard about owning a business
49:33 How Shawn has grown from the experience of owning a business
Watch this episode on YouTube.
Connect with Shawn: LinkedIn | Twitter
Connect with me: LinkedIn | Twitter | keira@arenacommercialcapital.com