Chad Peterson

Find what you love, and do it daily, and you will never feel like you work a day in your life.

 

Chad Peterson is a serial entrepreneur, author, and renowned Business Broker. His firm, Peterson Acquistions, was recently acknowldeged as one of the best business brokers in the nation. Chad successfully handles business transactions across the United States and abroad in some cases. His firm works on deals from $1 million to $25 million, and in some cases exceeding $25 million. He handles the transactions from start to finish with tenacity and results. He lives a wonderful life, traveling and making deals with movers and shakers throughout the world, but that is not where it started.

It started long ago as a young kid who was impressed by those who were moving and shaking, the business owners, the ones who seemed to have nice things and were on a clock. Chad was driven, not for education, but for business. Somehow Chad knew that his education was not inside those school walls. Walking dogs, shoveling snow, mowing grass, trimming trees, cleaning out gutters. That is how it all started for Chad. Knocking on doors, not being afraid of being told no. He learned how to prospect, how to garner the trust of clients, and learned how to work diligently to earn his money.

He wrote the book From Blue to White, a working man’s guide to self-employment, where he walks an every day average joe how to start his own business with no money and make $100,000 a year within the 1st year of business. This book has enriched peoples lives and gotten the attention of Scott Alexander of Rhinoceros Success, one of Chad’s favorite authors. Scott Alexander forwarded From Blue to White and endorsed his book to his readers. Rhinoceros Success is a mentality Chad adapted young. Be a charging, full of life, force to be reckoned with, charging animal towards success and your goals. It has served him well.

After selling several of his own businesses, Chad began selling businesses for others along the way. It was mentioned to him softly ‘Chad, you are so good at this, why don’t you help others do it”, and a business was born. Peterson Acquisitions became a major success by using Chads’ mentality of tenacity, hard work, and determination to the business owners that have worked so hard to build what they have built and cant afford to hand it to a broker that doesn’t match that business owners grit and determination. It must be equally yoked, equally met by both broker and seller. Chad looks for this type of match in his clientele.

He takes that hard work, and determination and grass roots education to the front doors of business owners today and takes them through a process that is often times not understood by the sellers, or buyers, but with his knowledge and guidance he is able to accomplish the Acquisition through grit and determination for both parties.

Chad Peterson works across several sectors of business, and sells any type of business. He understands what businesses are worth, what they should be valued and marketed at, and how to accomplish the transaction.

Chad resides in the Midwest, as a father where he was raised, but travels the world as an avid traveler and adventure seeker. A pilot, boat captain, an avid snowboarder, a well-traveled scuba diver, a bit of a foodie and “Work hard and play hard” is his motto, though even in his travels it is almost always surrounding work.

Where did the idea for Peterson Acquisitions come from?

Peterson Acquisitions was born out of a necessity to provide business owners the aggressive and competent effort it TRULY takes to sell a business. As a serial entrepreneur, having built and sold many companies that I started from the ground up—I was never impressed with business brokers that I hired to sell my business. There wasn’t a lot of work ethic, grind, gumption, tenacity, or follow up. Anyone can put on a suit and act the part, or put an ad for a business for sale on the internet, but it takes a truly dedicated go-getter to really get it sold.

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

A typical day for me starts around 9 AM, I save the mornings for myself and after 9 AM I work solid, making calls and connections. Sending out emails to potential buyers on the deals I have working. Making cold calls to potential sellers and buyers, trying to find the perfect fit or match for an Acquisition. I make my days productive by making a to-do list, every day. I make sure I check off the items I have to achieve a productive day. If I don’t check it off, it goes to the next day’s list and I get it done. Fail to plan—plan to fail.

How do you bring ideas to life?

Entrepreneurs have a way of doing this, you have to MAKE IT HAPPEN. Not all can honestly, I think it’s innate, perhaps you were born with it, I think a lot of it is inner drive that you either have or you don’t. So many don’t, but we need those people too. I wouldn’t want 1000s of me piled up, it would make the competition so much harder to deal with.

What’s one trend that excites you?

I love the electric car space, and what Elon Musk has done and continues to do. It’s amazing what these cars are doing. Speed and power that we never thought possible, running on electricity.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

I don’t work 5 days a week, I don’t check the time, by the way, what day is it again? I work every day. On something. I don’t sit idle. Some would say that’s crazy, that I need to spend more time with family, or hobbies. Some say that too many hours spent on work, and the gains become diminishing. I think that’s BULL. Let’s say I have dinner with my family, and we talk and laugh and have a good time for an hour or maybe and hour and a half. Maybe we watch a movie, what am I doing right after that? I am going to work. Besides, who’s fooling anyone these days? Kids and the wife are on their cell phones, playing games, or social media. Do people REALLY spend TIME with the family like they used to? I work every day, I don’t play video games, or let my mind rot away watching TV or reality TV, I make my own reality. Daily effort towards my goals and my desires. I wonder where we would be right now if Thomas Edison didn’t take 10,000 attempts at that light bulb.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Find what you love, and do it daily, and you will never feel like you work a day in your life. Which is what has happened. I found what I love, and I do it and that is why I can work and enjoy it daily.

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

Retirement is man-made, by financial firms who want to sell you on the idea of one day not working and sitting on your ass counting your money. It’s RUBBISH. It’s a great idea, to think about one day doing nothing or playing golf every day, but all that will happen is boredom, and you will rot away. We must work, all we can, to contribute firstly to our higher selves, to reach the heights we should, to achieve our goals. Be careful to let the music die inside of you, get out there and work and contribute to yourself and secondarily to others.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

Define your goals, take MASSIVE action, and make sure you are following your own progress. I am continually pushing on my goals, and adding to them, but I don’t color outside the lines. I don’t create goals that are well outside of my wheelhouse. I make goals within what I do. Be careful of that grasshopper mind. Stay in your lane, do what you do, and become the best at it by continuing your expertise and tracking your progress.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

Alignment. I am aligned with what I want to do. It might sound to simple, but It’s the truth. If I was in Alaska, and my job was to cut down trees, or make sure that my chain saw was sharp by sharpening my blades continually. Climbing trees, fighting the weather every day, etc. I would NOT be aligned with what I love. I would automatically be set up for failure. I am aligned with who I am, what I love to do, which is talk to sellers of businesses and help buyers buy them. That is my passion, it is my alignment. I am aligned first, and I work hard secondly. It’s the secret to real success.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

I have failed several times. But not ultimately. I would fail along the way, and teach myself to not do that again and it helped me learn. I have failed 200 or more times, but in the end I ended up with a success. Similar to Thomas Edison, he failed 10,000 times before he succeeded with that light bulb, but in the end he was successful. You must have that grit and determination to keep on the keep on. If you don’t, you will have ultimate failures.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

I think there is a huge shortage of people to handle and manage social media accounts. There is also a whole world of business owners NOT using social media in the way or to the degree it should be. I think anyone in their 20s or 30s right now could start a social media marketing company and handle social media for business owners. One could charge $700 a month for such service, and business owners will pay for good work. If you were to have just 10 clients out of the millions that need the service, you would make $7,000 a month. That’s $84,000, with no college degree and most importantly no student loan debt. It’s not hard to find 10 clients. Hell, find 20 clients and you would be making $170,000 a year and it would continually grow. Work from home, run social media accounts and make a great living. Not that hard.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

I paid $130 for headphones that sit in my ear and I can void out clatter and chatter while listening to books, rather than all the nonsense I hear when I am running through airports, restaurants, etc. Its amazing how much energy is spent overcoming the noise of which one doesn’t want. I get to listen to what I want and void out noise I don’t want. I love it.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

Mail Chimp, I am able to communicate with my clients and audience very easily.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill. Napoleon Hill was a studier of greatness, and he believes he sat down with the devil and had a conversation. I truly believe it. The book is amazing, and it’s a must-read.

What is your favorite quote?

If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me.

Key Learnings:

• Mistakes aren’t mistakes if you learn from them
• Focus on alignment and hard work
• Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life

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