OnwardMarcus R.
Background
Twenty years in manufacturing operations, the last eight as plant manager for a 120-person automotive supplier — scheduling, hiring, budgets, and the 5 a.m. calls.
What they've bought before
A machine shop in 2016, with two partners. We ran it four years and sold it to the foreman when one partner retired. It taught me what a good handover looks like from both sides.
What they'd build on it
Keep what works, fix the scheduling and billing, and grow the service-contract side. No rebrand, no consultants, no drama for the customers.
- Who'd run it
- Would run it themselves
- Where their search is
- Looking actively, reviewing businesses now
- Why they want to buy
- Be my own boss · Take over something that already works instead of starting from scratch · Keep a good local business going and carry on what the owner built
- Has owned or run a business before
- No
- Has bought a business before
- Yes, one business
I've run plants for other people for twenty years. I want the last stretch of my working life spent on something with my own name on the line.
What they’re looking for
The business and owner they're looking for
Home services or light industrial around metro Detroit, $1M–$2.5M revenue, a real team in place, an owner willing to stay through a season.
What happens to the people who work there, and why
The team is most of what I'd be buying. Everyone keeps their job, and the people who've been there longest would be teaching me for the first year.
What would change, and why
How the work gets done is the one thing I would look at. Not the trade itself, the scheduling and the paperwork around it. That is what I did at the plant and it is where a service business usually leaks money.
- Plans for the team
- Keep the team and invest in them, with things like training, raises or benefits
What Marcus would keep the same
- The business name
- The location
- Phone number, website and email
- Key customer relationships
- The services or products offered
- Vendors and suppliers
How long they'd want the owner to stay: 6 to 12 months.
I am not in a hurry and I am not looking for a bargain. I want the right one.
The words and figures here are Marcus’s own. Onward verified their identity and had a reviewer check their funds.
- Identity verifiedEmail, phone and a government ID check, all confirmed by Onward. Checked September 29, 2026.
- Funds checked by a personFunds checked by Onward. A reviewer read the evidence and Onward kept the outcome — the reviewer’s access to the document ended with the decision. Checked September 9, 2026.
- Profile completenessComplete — 6 of 6 sections finished. Thin profiles rank lower here on purpose.
- The words and figures above are this person’s own. Onward did not review, verify, or edit any of them.
- Onward checks facts, not judgement. Nothing here says this is the right person for you — that part is yours.
Owners on Onward read buyers like Marcus before anyone talks numbers — and open the door only to the ones they choose. List privately; nobody knows your business until you say so.
Make a free owner accountHow they'd pay: Cash or savings · Bank or SBA loan
When they'd close: Actively looking now
Marcus decides who opens each file. You can see what they hold and how current it is before you ask.
- Onward records that a file exists, what its owner calls it, and when it arrived. Nothing more.
- Nobody at Onward opens a file unless its owner submits it for a review — and then only the reviewer, only until the decision.
- Ages count from the upload, not from any date inside the document.
- Who's helping them
- M&A attorney · CPA or accountant · Lender or bank
Says they can show: proof of funds for my capital; i've bought or owned a business before — their own words, not yet checked by Onward.