Go small to rollup?

November 05, 2025

by a searcher from University of Nebraska - Lincoln in Lincoln, NE, USA

I've been searching for an accounting firm to buy for a couple of months, and it seems to me that anything doing over a million dollars of revenue annually sells relatively quickly. There are a lot of buyers in that space. Because of this competition and the value of those companies, I wondered if I could accomplish a similar goal by buying smaller firms and assembling three or four in a short period of time to accomplish the same end. The obvious risks I see would be: - Limited revenue to pay myself a salary and have enough cashflow scale to move the business forward in the near term. - Overall limited economies of scale. About the same amount of work on my end for less pay. - Potential infighting if firms have different cultures and approaches to things. On the positive side, though, I see: - A much easier ability to obtain seller financing and at a larger percentage of the purchase price. - Purchase prices at a lower multiple. - Less competition from other buyers. - Less sophisticated sellers with fewer options. - Speeding up the overall acquisition process and getting into ownership faster. Has anyone ever done something like this? What thoughts or things am I missing as I consider this sort of play?

Reply by a lender
from Cornell University in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Hi Anon - nice to meet you. We’re seeing more buyers take this exact approach across accounting, marketing, and home-service industries. The strategy of acquiring multiple small firms can work very well if you have a clear integration plan and access to capital. Lenders are comfortable funding sequential acquisitions under one holding company, but they’ll expect to see combined cash flow and management control across the roll-up. It’s important that each deal stands on its own from a DSCR standpoint before the next one closes. The biggest challenges tend to be integration speed and maintaining consistent service delivery across firms. The upside is that smaller targets often come with seller financing and more negotiable terms, which can help reduce equity outlay. If you use SBA financing for multiple acquisitions, you’ll need to wait six months between each deal - this is the SBA’s required cooling-off period before approving additional debt. Also, if the businesses you buy have different NAICS codes - for example, an accounting firm and a marketing firm - then each industry has its own $5 million SBA loan cap. That means your borrowing limit resets for each distinct line of business. We have a lot experience financing accounting and professional service roll-ups via the SBA. If you ever need help talking through a deal, I am happy to help. We work with all the major SBA lenders. The bank pays us after your loan closes, so this is a 100% free service for you. You can email me directly at redacted or schedule a meeting with me: https://cal.com/francodeguzman/30min. Look forward to chatting!

Reply by a searcher
from Harvard University in San Juan, Puerto Rico

I'm doing this right now with insurance agencies in Puerto Rico. I have bought three so far. If I could buy a much larger platform, I would, I just haven't found any willing to sell at a reasonable valuation. The pros are that you can get a deal done quickly. I typically offer 50% cash and 50% seller note at a 1.5x revenue multiple (standard in insurance). Bookkeeping/accounting at this level is typically bad to non existent so I don't even look at it. Once we get agreement we can close in a week or two. The cons are heavy owner dependency (often just a one man show), so you basically have to do all the servicing, and if you group together three really small businesses you have to do the job of 3 people, which can be very challenging.

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