On this episode of Still Searching with Jed Morris, Marine Corps veteran Michael Johnson breaks down how he bought SpeedPro, a wide-format print and sign shop near Raleigh, with an SBA loan, then bolted on a second shop with 100% seller financing.

Michael's path was not a weekend course. It was Fallujah as an infantry NCO, restaurant floors, five years running a metal fab shop, crane and rigging operations, and a stretch as a full-time financial writer. By the time he found SpeedPro on BizBuySell, he knew his numbers cold: two years of expenses banked, not two years of salary, and $50,000 liquid before he let himself look. He wrote a one-page buyer profile, got a banker on the phone, and went from first conversation to a closed deal without a guru in sight.

Then the part most first-time buyers never hear. Every employee stayed. Raises and paid holidays on day one. And when the sign shop across the parking lot needed an exit, Michael structured a 100% seller-financed acquisition, a tool that works when you already own the cash flow, not when you are broke.

A buyer walks away with: how to size your runway in expenses instead of salary, why a one-page buyer profile opens doors, what day-one retention actually looks like, and when seller financing is a tool instead of a trap.

Full transcript: https://jedmorris.com/podcast/sergeant-to-ceo-michael-johnson

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7fg94YqyF8

Connect with Michael Johnson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keeptrading/