13 Examples of Successful Entrepreneurs That Bought Their Business

Hello, my name is Cédric Sigoire and I am the owner of the DEMAN Translations group.

We are a translation agency specialized in high-quality translations for business customers.

We cover all types of translations, technical, legal, marketing, and IT as well as interpreting.

Hi there! We are TCM, and we are the owners of Hammock Sky. Hammock Sky provides a wide range of hammocks, hammock chairs, and other outdoor accessories that cater to everyone’s relaxation needs.

Three years after Hammock Sky was founded, the original owner, an American expat living in Thailand, decided to sell his brand to TCM, to give himself the freedom to dream and provide someone else with the opportunity to manage his company. We bought Hammock Sky in 2017, three years after it was founded, and have experienced greater success than ever before, with our products constantly selling out online.

In 2020, we reached $2.4M, selling more than 44,000 units.

My name is Christopher Thomas. I founded a company called MADE SOUTH, and while I didn’t start Eli Mason, I was smart enough to buy it when I had the chance.

Eli Mason began back in 2014 when the founder created the Old Fashioned Cocktail Mixer, a blend of real cane sugar and premium bitters that made creating an Old Fashioned cocktail at home super easy. I discovered the brand at my local bottle shop in 2015 and instantly fell in love with it. I am a native Nashvillian, so I’m a sucker for anything made here. But I also love Old Fashioneds and being relatively new to cocktail culture, I was struggling with making a consistent and delicious Old Fashioned at home. So I bought a bottle of Eli Mason, tried it, and was hooked. It was actually the first whiskey cocktail that my wife also enjoyed!

I reached out to the founder and asked him to participate in some events we were doing, and over the next year or so we developed a little bit of a friendship. When he decided in 2017 that he wanted to go back to a 9 to 5 job, he asked if I knew anyone who might be interested in buying the business. I met with him for a few hours to learn more about the business, and the more he talked the more I wanted to buy it! It was just a great fit for everything else were already doing on the MADE SOUTH event side. We struck a deal and that was that.

Hi! I’m Linda Gonzalez, and I own and operate a third-generation family-owned business - Gloria’s Cake & Candy Supplies. We are NOT a bakery, we sell everything you need to make-bake-decorate-transport your cakes-cupcakes-cookies-candies and chocolates.

I was 10 yrs old when my Aunt Gloria started teaching me cake decorating. I was 12 yrs old when she opened Gloria’s Cake & Candy Supplies in 1972. I worked with her through high school, then went off into the corporate world. We were very close and lived near each other, and over the years I advised her on marketing, social media, and such.

She passed in 2012, and the shop was passed down to my cousins & other family members that had been running the shop with her for 30+ years. My career over that time had me working with very high profile CEOs/million-billionaires and world events, always continuing to make cakes & baked goods for friends & family. February 2016 I went in to get some items and immediately my cousins started telling me how they were going to shut down and go out-of-business. I couldn’t believe it, after 40+ years, I couldn’t let it happen. My aunt worked so hard to open and run her business.

My name is Jake Gaba, and I run Indifferent Broccoli. We are a game server hosting and rental company.

Our customers are gamers who want to play survival video games, such as Minecraft, Valheim, ARK: Survival Evolved, and Rust, with friends on their own server. It’s like real estate, but virtual. Instead of renting a beach house in Miami, gamers rent a private Valheim server and build their own Viking castle.

I bought this business for $25,000 in February, and have since grown it from about $1600 MRR to $5000 MRR. MRR refers to monthly recurring revenue or the amount of revenue generated from paid recurring subscriptions each month.

My name is Beth K., a busy mother of 5 and owner of BingoCardCreator.com. This SAAS (software as a service) online business provides a custom software solution for the creation of custom bingo cards. Most of our customers (about 60%) are educators while the other 40% is comprised of clients using our service for their business or for personal purposes.

This mainly passive income source earns on average $1200 per month.

Hi there! My name is Elise Phillips and I am the owner of Coco & Bubbles Candle Company. As the name suggests, we make and sell candles, specifically, soy wax candles which are our flagship products.

A Coco & Bubbles customer is someone who is looking for an eco-friendly alternative to paraffin wax candles. You see, most of the mass-produced candles you can buy at the store today are made from paraffin wax. Ever heard of Yankee Candle? Yep... the most beloved candle company in the world makes most of their candles are made from Paraffin wax. Paraffin wax is a by-product of petroleum. There is plenty of research out there that shows how harmful petroleum is for our environment. So, naturally, consumers are also concerned about using a petroleum-based product in their homes and therefore many are looking for non-toxic, healthier alternatives.

Our typical customers also tend to be gift-buyers-- this goes for the majority of the industry as a whole. Since our customers are largely gift-buyers our busiest time of year tends to be during major gift-buying holidays such as Christmas and Mother’s Day. Father’s Day is also usually a busy time for us since launching our Man Approved candle line. However, Fall and Christmas are the busiest on average where we’ll typically do 80% of our revenue for the year.

My name is Ray Moyers and I purchased Huskybeard 1 year ago, on June 15, 2018. Huskybeard manufactures all natural beard care products using only the highest quality ingredients sourced in the USA. All of our products are handmade in small batches to ensure the highest quality and longest shelf life.

We mainly sell beard oils, beard balms, beard combs and beard brushes to bearded men. We have also found some success selling to women that want to introduce the bearded man in their life to the benefits of maintaining a healthy beard. We’ve had many women tell us that our products are the first beard products they’ve found that they like the smell of.

I have had men that have used dozens of other products, and men that have used one product forever and refuse to use anything else, switch to Huskybeard because my products are “the best they’ve ever used.”

Hello, my name is Vivian Chen and I am the owner of Modern Innkeeper. We design toiletries and guest amenity kits for short-term rental properties. Our mission is to empower rental hosts with unique supplies & resources and to improve the vacation rental guest experience – one guest, one product, one vacation at a time.

Our main products are the guest toiletry kits. Each kit includes all the essential travel size toiletries one or two people need for a getaway. Modern Innkeeper is an online resource for design-conscious hosts to offer their guests the same details as a larger hotel.

We primarily serve the needs of small hospitality owners, such as owners of vacation rentals, Airbnb, farm stays, campgrounds, cabins, cottages, small inns, and bed & breakfast.

Hey! Well to start my name is Cameron Upson, and I am a 22-year-old entrepreneur. I recently acquired an app development company called Appsitude that a friend of mine started. I am not the original founder but I think of myself as one as I had to completely restart the company from the ground up and get it moving again.

It sat stagnant for a year or so when the former CEO moved on to another project as app development wasn't his calling in life. I have really been there since the beginning of everything and plan on being there all the way through until we are one of the biggest app development companies in the world. We tend to do quite a lot of B2B but we also really enjoy doing B2C as the app ideas can always get to the next level! We are currently doing around $30,000 to $50,000 a month and have big plans to continue our growth, watch out world.

My name is James Montgomery, and I am the owner and CEO of Everyman. Everyman is an everyday carry (EDC) eCommerce company that focuses on providing premium products for men. Our main products are wallets, pens, travel packs, and EDC tools. Over the last three years, we have become best known for the Grafton Pen and the Hideout Pack.

Our main demographic is men between the ages of 25 and 45 seeking the minimalist lifestyle that necessitates the use of high-quality EDC products. We describe ourselves as those with a sense of wonder who, in essence, desire to live Everyday. Better. As one who travels over 100,000 miles internationally each year and takes only what I can carry, I am constantly looking for functional and built-to-last gear.

Last October we completed a major revamp of our brand and website. We are currently producing about $60,000 per month in revenue and plan to continue growing our product line.

It all started over 40 years ago with my Father, Brian Nimens, who began his own sound effects company as a recording studio in Toronto, Ontario called Sound Ideas (a division of The Brian Nimens Corporation). Sound Ideas offers over 1,000,000 sound effects, production elements, and royalty-free music tracks for television, film sound design, game development, post-production, interactive media, and countless other professional audio production uses. With Sound Ideas’ acquisition of The Hollywood Edge Collections, Sound Ideas added over 70,000 high-end, professional royalty-free tracks that were designed by award-winning sound designers

My exposure to the world of sound effects, fostered by my Father, sparked a passion for the art and business of sound, which has grown into a successful family business that I am proud of.

It is important that you understand your industry and that you know your marketplace.

My name is Beth K., a busy mother of 5 and owner of BingoCardCreator.com. This SAAS (software as a service) online business provides a custom software solution for the creation of custom bingo cards. Most of our customers (about 60%) are educators while the other 40% is comprised of clients using our service for their business or for personal purposes.

This mainly passive income source earns on average $1200 per month.