Big Deal Small Business
At a Glance
The best reality check on this list for anyone romanticizing ownership; read three essays before you write your first LOI.
- Pricing
- Free, Free in full; no paid tier is offered (bigdealsmallbusiness.substack.com, July 2026).
- Best For
- Hearing what ownership actually feels like years after close, from a self-funded buyer still running the company
- Roadmap Stages
- 1. Decide if ETA Is for You8. Close & Transition
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Written by a practicing operator rather than a content marketer; the risk and hiring essays draw on his own P&L
- Free in full and publishing steadily since 2021, with a stated 9,000+ subscribers
- Covers the unglamorous post-close years most acquisition content skips
Cons
- One operator's vantage point in one trade (tree care), so patterns may not transfer
- An essay archive rather than a structured curriculum
- Cadence varies with the demands of the business he runs
What Searchers Say
Deo is a familiar voice across searcher podcasts and SMB forums, and the newsletter is regularly recommended in searcher communities as the operator-perspective read.