Own a Business
Own Your Future

Wall Street insider turned Main Street millionaire, Codie Sanchez, gives you…

The step-by-step playbook to buying a small business that’s cash flow positive starting on day one.

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The American Dream is Alive and Well

And it’s your turn to get a piece of it.

Teal arrow connects the "what we're like" box with the "what you're like" box.

Don’t fall for the lies

  • Buying a business means betting the house.
  • Only the really rich can afford a business.
  • Being an employee is safer than owning.
  • Start-ups are sexier than boring businesses. 

When the truth is

  • Owners buy income streams not jobs. 
  • Owners buy profits not projections.
  • Owners know terms are king.
  • Owners get the deal done with less upfront $$.
Collage of website headlines about Baby Boomer retires selling their businesses, including Forbes, Business Insider, and The Wall Street Journal.

The $10 Trillion Ownership Opportunity

Ten trillion dollars worth of profitable small businesses are about to change hands for the first time in history. 

Unlike risky start-ups that can take years to reach profitability… over 75% of these unsexy businesses are already profitable.

Which means, when you buy one, you’re profitable starting on day one.

It’s the biggest opportunity in our lifetime for ordinary people like us to become owners and take control of our futures.

But you’re running out of time…

If you don’t act fast, the big guys will end up owning everything and you’ll be left with scraps.

Don’t worry, I’ve got you…

Hi, I’m Codie Sanchez

and while working for some of the biggest names on Wall Street, I quietly bought my first cash flowing business on the side.

Since then, I’ve successfully negotiated and purchased over 23 different Main Street businesses and left Wall Street behind. 

Now I’m sharing my 10,000 hours spent mastering finance, dealmaking, mergers and acquisitions with you. Because I believe business buying is for everyone, not just the really rich.

My comprehensive business buying course, Main Street Accelerator, gives you a clear path and the exact steps to follow to successfully acquire your first, second, or tenth business. 

It’s not easy, but I promise you, it is simple.

In this course, I reveal the closely guarded acquisition secrets of the world’s top private equity firms.

I show you the best way to buy a business and grab your share of this $10 trillion dollar opportunity.

But don’t take my word for it…

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Contrarian Thinking For Business Buying Advice.

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Introducing the Main Street Accelerator

A step-by-step guide through the entire acquisition process from deal sourcing to financing to closing.

This self-paced course includes dozens of video lessons, 32 proprietary templates, scripts, spreadsheets, checklists, sample documents, financing strategies and more. 

01.

Target the Best Business For You 🎯

Get clear on your unique skillsets, business criteria, and income goals to find the best on-market or off-market deals for you.

02.

Figure Out What It’s Worth ⚖️

Learn how to analyze any potential acquisition from start to finish. Determine the right purchase price based on 10 different business value markers.

03.

Don’t Skimp on Due Diligence 🕵🏻‍♀️

Dig into the dirty details, ask the right questions, and avoid the landmines. Do NOT sign on the dotted line until you’ve checked every box.

04.

Learn Creative Financing 💰

Discover 21 creative ways to finance your deal including seller financing, SBA loans, and sweat equity – without risking your family’s future.

05.

Negotiate Like a Pro & Make an Offer 🤝

Negotiate and structure the best deal using our proven templates and scripts. Create compelling offers and win-win outcomes for both you and the current business owner.

06.

Get the Deal Across the Line & Close 🏃🏻‍♀️

Half of all deals never close because shit goes sideways. Follow this detailed checklist to get YOUR deal across the finish line.

Become an owner

Enroll now

The Course Outline

Learn the foundational mindset and knowledge needed to successfully buy a business, including the deal lifecycle and what it takes to run a company.

  • Gaining ClarityWhy acquisition entrepreneurship?
  • Gaining ClarityThe 10 Acquisition Entrepreneur Mindset Pillars
  • Gaining ClarityThe deal journey & lifecycle
  • Gaining ClarityDo you have what it takes to run a business?
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Action Steps Checklist
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Acquisition Journey Reference Sheet
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Acquisition Self-Reflection Worksheet

Gain clarity on your personal acquisition criteria using the Contrarian Deal Clarity Framework, focusing on income goals, skills, and target industries.

  • Gaining ClarityGet clarity on why you want to own a business
  • Gaining ClarityCharacteristics of the business you should buy
  • Gaining ClarityWhich industries you should target
  • Gaining ClarityCreate your own Deal Box to find your ideal business
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Zone of Genius Worksheet
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Deal Clarity Worksheet
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Industries Database Selector
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Personalized Deal Box

Discover techniques for finding on-market and off-market deals that fit your criteria, and learn to track deal flow using the Contrarian CRM Database

  • Gaining ClarityHow deal sourcing works: finding businesses to buy
  • Gaining ClarityFinding deals through marketplaces like BizBuySell
  • Gaining ClarityHow to find off-market deals
  • Gaining Clarity7 other methods for finding off-market deals
  • Gaining ClarityHow to track if you’re making progress in business buying
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Business Sourcing List
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Business Broker List
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Deal Sourcing CRM

Master the art of positioning yourself as a qualified buyer, engaging sellers, and building relationships with owners and brokers.

  • Gaining ClarityHow to position yourself as a qualified buyer
  • Gaining ClarityHow to engage with sellers (including scripts)
  • Gaining ClarityFROG Method for meeting sellers
  • Gaining ClarityHow to get responses from on-market deals
  • Gaining ClarityBonus: 3 methodologies for seller outreach
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Buyer Profile PDF
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Cold Email Outreach Scripts
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Questions To Ask Sellers

Learn to evaluate potential deals, sign NDAs, assess valuation using cash flow and market comparables, and decide whether to make an offer.

  • Gaining ClarityHow to assess valuation before submitting an offer
  • Gaining Clarity2 methods for assessing valuation
  • Gaining ClarityHow to calculate SDE
  • Gaining ClarityThe 10 Contrarian Business Value Markers Framework
  • Gaining ClarityHow to quickly crunch the numbers on a deal with our deal calculator
  • Gaining ClarityResource: NDA Template
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Deal Decision Tree
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Contrarian Deal Navigator
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Deal Calculator
  • Gaining ClarityResource: SDE Calculation
  • Gaining ClarityResource: 10 Contrarian Acquisition Value Markers

Understand the differences between LOIs and purchase agreements, structure creative deals, make offers, handle counteroffers, and negotiate win-win outcomes.

  • Gaining ClarityHow & when to use professionals at the offer stage
  • Gaining ClarityWhat to include in your LOI (with templates!)
  • Gaining ClarityWhen to use LOI vs APA
  • Gaining ClarityWhat money is at risk during this stage
  • Gaining ClarityHow to present your offer
  • Gaining ClarityHow to negotiate your offer with sellers
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Offer Checklist
  • Gaining ClarityResource: LOI Template (advanced)
  • Gaining ClarityResource: LOI Template (simple)
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Asset Purchase Agreement Template

Navigate the due diligence process, build your deal team, evaluate key information, and identify potential issues or red flags.

  • Gaining ClarityHow to perform due diligence
  • Gaining ClarityHow to build your deal team to verify due diligence
  • Gaining ClarityWhen to use LOI vs APA
  • Gaining ClarityWhat information to look for during due diligence
  • Gaining ClarityHow to present your offer
  • Gaining ClarityHow to negotiate your offer with sellers
  • Gaining ClarityResource: 60+ item due diligence checklist

Explore the five main acquisition funding methods and 21 specific financing strategies, including seller financing, SBA loans, and sweat equity.

  • Gaining ClarityLearn the main ways deals are financed
  • Gaining ClarityHow & when you should leverage debt to finance your deal
  • Gaining ClarityHow to combine debt & equity
  • Gaining ClarityDeep dive into seller financing
  • Gaining ClarityDeep dive into SBA loans
  • Gaining ClarityDeep dive in sweat equity
  • Gaining ClarityResource: 21 Financing Options Sheet
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Expertise to Equity Terms Worksheet
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Seller Financing Avatar Checklist

Master the formal closing process, resolve outstanding issues, finalize legal documents, and understand escrow and purchase price allocation.

  • Gaining ClarityLearn how the closing process works
  • Gaining ClarityHow does escrow work during closing
  • Gaining ClarityWho are the key people involved in closing?
  • Gaining ClarityModels: Services, products and systems
  • Gaining ClarityBuying franchises with Wayne Lucier
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Closing checklist

Prepare for the transition to ownership by completing essential tasks and setting the stage for a successful first day.

  • Gaining ClarityWhat do you do on day 0
  • Gaining ClarityHow do you prepare to operate the business
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Day zero checklist
  • Gaining ClarityResource: Working capital needs

Frequently Asked Questions

More than half of the people who buy the course or join the Contrarian Community are traditionally employed. Most are well-paid and highly skilled, but either burnt out in their jobs or tired of building someone else’s wealth— or both. This course will teach you how to leave (or supplement) your full-time job so you can stop the side hustle once and for all.

Yes, the course starts from where we all start—the beginning. We even have a module to help you determine what type of business to buy (since there are quite literally millions to choose from).

Don’t worry if you don’t know much about the industry or have had no previous experience – we’ll guide you through it all.

The key difference is how we approach this course vs. every other course we’ve experienced. Our Main Street Accelerator Course takes you down a specific path. Instead of dumping 15 choose-your-own-path of what to do and when to do it video hours on you, we give you play-by-play instructions so you know what, why, and how to do it. You even get templates and exercises.

Then we give you the next step. That produces momentum, gives you small quick wins, and keeps you motivated and excited to keep going. All of which give you confidence and increase your chances of reaching your goal.

It’s the same process we use to buy our own businesses, so we know it works (even during recessions).

Another key difference is we specifically teach you how to buy the best off-market deals and use seller financing to creatively negotiate the most profitable deal possible.

Other courses don’t teach this, or don’t teach it well, and expect you to use a broker (who works for the seller, not the buyer) and go into debt to buy a business (not ideal).

We want you to get the best business, with the best deal, using no money of your own (or as little as possible).

Yes, absolutely. If you have the ability to buy a small business in your country, these concepts apply.

While some things are specific to the U.S., like SBA loans, there are a number of similar programs through local banks and through local governments that provide small business loans. We have a bunch of information on our course about those options. So the structure and framework we provide will still be beneficial to you.

Yes! Updates are coming, and all updates are free for 1 year.

Simple – buy the course if you only want the information and resources. Plenty of people have been able to learn the ins and outs of business acquisition and become owners from it.

However, most people want more than information and resources. They want connection, accountability, and support.

This is where the Contrarian Community comes in. If you would benefit from a full year of expert guidance and accountability, weekly support calls, deal review calls, and an active and growing online community supported by expert facilitators, the Community is where you want to be. It’s where most future business owners people end up.

Buying a business (especially your first) can be long, challenging and lonely. So, if you’re fully committed to buying a business within the next 365 days, we recommend joining the Contrarian Community.

For everyone else, we recommend sticking to just the course. You can always upgrade to the Contrarian Community when you’re ready (and we’ll credit 100% of your course purchase towards the Contrarian Community).

Think of a blog post as a distilled chapter from a book and the Main Street Accelerator Course as a graduate-level college class. (But much more fun to attend.)

The course goes into more detail, with use cases, examples, checklists, and video tutorials on every single strategy.

Blogs are flat. Singularly focused on tactics. The course is dynamic and specifically engineered to help you buy your first business with easily repeatable strategies so you can continue to acquire more (if that’s what you want to do).

Yes. And we’ll credit you $2,000 towards the Contrarian Community.

In fact, it’s the best way to get into the Contrarian Community in the future. Because we know you’ve already got skin in the game and are doing the work, you’ll skip the waitlist.

Absolutely. It does every day.

This system has worked for actors, marketers, engineers, analysts and just about everyone else. You don’t have to be a business expert. Far from it.

In fact, it’s probably better that you’re not. That way you’ll be more open to following our proven process.

All of the strategies taught are built on universal business and dealmaking principles and are not industry-specific.

At the end of the day, that’s a question you have to answer.

However, I can tell you that the strategies in this course are the same ones I use to buy businesses, and what hundreds of other people have used to buy their businesses and generate millions in revenues and profits.

Of course, I can’t guarantee you’ll do the same. There are zero guarantees in life.

But it sure is a lot easier to acquire a business that is already making 6 or 7 figures than trying to start one from 0.

Let’s say you do join the course, spend $2,000 and acquire a business using seller financing or an SBA 7a loan (both strategies we teach in the course) so you have to put zero or very little of your own money down.

And let’s say – being conservative here – you buy a company that then profits you only $5,000 per month. That’s $60k a year in your pocket.

Is it worth it for you? I think so. But everyone has different financial goals. What’s yours?

The course is self-paced. Once you complete one lesson, you can move on to the next. We recommend that you take about 4 weeks to complete it, but you can go faster. There are about 20 hours of total video, in 9 units. It goes by faster than you think.

Discover Why So Many People Trust
Contrarian Thinking For Business Buying Advice.

Ranked 4.8 out of 5 Stars on Trustpilot

Want more support? We got you…. We can make business buying easier and faster

If you want to move fast, if you want a team of M&A experts and investment advisors to review your specific deal in real time… then check out our business buying academy. 

In the Contrarian Community, you get accountability, expert deal reviews, and deal structuring advice and support. Plus, you can find your next operator, investor, or partner.

Want to learn more?

Book your call with my team here.

But hurry, your shot at the American Dream isn’t waiting around.