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There is a new wave of players coming in who are focused on the long game and what it takes to see a company through multiple decades, not just years. Enter Trish Higgins. Trish, her husband James, and his brother Palmer started Chenmark with the mission to buy small businesses in order to hold on to them and preserve their legacies long-term.

Today Trish opens up about choosing the C-corp route and how that influences her acquisition choices. She also talks about why she looks at the owner's personal drivers as well as the cash flow statements of the company to determine fit. One thing you’ll notice is that Trish tends to buy up those “boring” companies because they have sustainable and predictable cash flow, plus those types of companies don’t require a lot of hyper-skilled managing partners to run them. Her unique strategy is proving quite successful—to the tune of 31 acquisitions since 2015.




WHAT WILL YOU LEARN:

-Why Trish made the shift from finance to starting her own holding company

-What types of businesses Trish focused on out of the gate and why

-Why Trish never wrote up a “grand plan” for her investments like most business owners

-How Trish finds business owners that are ready to step back and sell

-Why Chenmark is structured as a C-corp

-What drove Trish to allow her employees to use their holiday bonuses to buy equity in their company

-How Trish structured Chemark’s first deal

-Why Trish goes after “boring” and “uninteresting” businesses

-What factors into making a deal that preserves the legacy of a company and how that goes beyond numbers

-Why small business owners need to understand how to deploy their capital, even if it’s not directly into business operations

-Why Trish looks into a company's cash flow statements rather than EBITDA to evaluate the deal



PODCAST INTERVIEW QUOTES:

11:15 - “There were businesses that we’re just boring… old… but were the backbone of the economy.” – Trish Higgins

17:40 - “You have to take a couple steps back to take a step forward.” – Trish Higgins

21:15 - “You are double taxed on a C-corp - profits and personal.” – Trish Higgins

39:30 - “If people are disinterested in their businesses… That's a good litmus test." – Trish Higgins

57:00 - “How are you running your business if you aren’t looking at it? [Cash Flow Statement]." – Trish Higgins



ABOUT TRISH:
Trish Higgins is a founding partner at Chenmark, a firm based out of Portland, Maine, focused on the acquisition and long-term ownership of small businesses throughout North America. She is currently acting CEO of Cap'n Fish's Cruises, a Boothbay Harbor-based whale watching, puffin tour, and sightseeing operation founded in 1936, which Chenmark acquired in February 2020. Outside of work, Trish can be found spending quality time with her husband and business partner, James, and their two kids. She also tries to get to her local Crossfit box as much as time permits.