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BigDeal by Codie Sanchez

How I Built 12 Income Streams Without Tons of Cash

My new book Own Or Be Owned is out now! I wrote Own or Be Owned to answer one question: How do you make more money, less miserably?

Codie Sanchezhost

Jun 23, 202539mWatch on YouTube

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CHAPTERS

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Chapter summaries

Why Buy Businesses Instead of Starting Them
Codie Sanchez opens with the statistic that most self-made millionaires have three or more income streams, and argues the smarter route is acquiring businesses rather than starting them. She frames the video as a way to get twelve income streams from one business using creative financing.
- •65% of self-made millionaires have three or more income streams
- •Buying a business skips building from zero and brings cash flow from day one
- •The goal is to turn one business into twelve income streams via acquisitions and creative financing
- •Earning ability is framed as ultimate freedom and a way to push back
Horizontal Income and the Argentina Lesson
Codie contrasts passive income with horizontal income, where revenue streams are not tied to hours worked. She tells how her Argentina offshore funds business became illegal overnight, which taught her to decentralize income and make a business hard to kill.
- •Passive income is dismissed; horizontal income stacks streams not tied to time
- •Her Argentina business with hundreds of millions in assets was made illegal within a month of a new president
- •She compares decentralized income to how Bitcoiners view fiat currency
- •She wants businesses to be like a human with multiple income streams, hard to kill
How the Ultra-Rich Buy Profits Rather Than Build Them
Using examples of the world's richest people, Codie argues it is easier to buy profits than grow them. She cites startup failure rates and low entrepreneur earnings to question the start-from-zero dream.
- •The richest people got rich quietly and centralized power
- •One billionaire bought luxury brands cheaply and built a holding company through acquisitions
- •90% of startups fail and the first three to four years are often unprofitable
- •Only about 3% of Americans own a business
Wealth Transfer and the Case for Going Small
Codie explains the opportunity in the baby boomer wealth transfer and the dominance of big corporations. She argues recessions create chances to buy small businesses whose owners cannot survive without cash flow.
- •$5–10 trillion of businesses are set to transfer from baby boomers
- •Owners hold about 90% of net worth in the business
- •Top companies own 25% of industry in most sectors
- •60% of businesses that closed during COVID never reopened
- •Most owners can't last more than 30 days without cash flow
Case Study: Turning One Laundromat into Seven Income Streams
Codie walks through a laundromat bought for $100K with $67K profit and grows it through acquisitions only. Each step adds a stream: vending, a competitor, machines, a delivery fleet, soap, and real estate.
- •Started with seller financing on a laundromat earning $67K
- •Vending machines added revenue without new customers
- •Bought a competitor, struggling laundromats' assets, and a van delivery fleet
- •Added a soap brand and the real estate to cut costs and taxes
- •Growth came entirely from acquisition, not new customers
Proof It's Feasible and Three Ways to Fund a Deal
Codie says her community has bought $266 million in small businesses, showing average people can do it. She says you can bring money, experience, or sweat, and lists SBA loans, seller financing, and investors as funding routes.
- •The community has bought $266 million in businesses, including by teachers and firefighters
- •She says it is hard but not as hard as people are told
- •Competition is weak, illustrated by a Gen Z tarot-card investing article
- •Three funding routes: SBA, seller financing, other people's money
Why Sellers Say Yes to Seller Financing
Codie uses a spreadsheet example to show why owners accept seller financing. She argues sellers can get a higher price, interest income, tax advantages, and a faster close than with a bank or SBA loan.
- •A $1M ask versus a bank valuing it at $750K, with seller financing allowing $1.15M
- •The seller earns interest as an annuity instead of the bank
- •Payments can be structured for capital gains or distributions to reduce taxes
- •Bank loans average 120 days versus closing within about 30 days
Finding Deals: Uncle Eb's Story and Where to Look
Codie tells of her uncle, who shut down a profitable plumbing business when diagnosed with cancer because he did not know he could sell it. She says deals are in the businesses you already pay, compete with, and get paid by.
- •Uncle Eb shut down a business earning millions and his family got nothing
- •Roughly one in eleven small businesses for sale sells in a year
- •Look at your P&L, credit card statement, and Venmo for businesses to buy
- •She calls buying them a moral imperative
The SOWS Method and the Ten-Step Buying Process
Codie describes buying stale, old, weak, simple businesses, with the chat-response company as an example. She outlines a ten-step acquisition process and a five-part framework including the deal team and operators.
- •SOWS means stale, old, weak and simple businesses
- •Fast lead response is a simple way to grow a small business
- •Buy boring, recession-resistant businesses, raise prices, and add tech
- •Ten steps run from deal clarity through the first 90 days
- •Deal team is an accountant, an attorney, and a subject matter expert
Bill Perkins' Challenge and Pushing Each Other Further
Codie recounts mentor Bill Perkins asking whether small business had infected her thinking. She treats it as a gift and says the people in our lives should push us to use everything we have.
- •Bill Perkins, author of Die With Zero, challenged her thinking
- •Few people tell you that you are capable of more
- •The job of partners is to push each other, not just be there
- •She wants people to leave it all in the field
Asymmetric Risk and Surviving as a CEO
Codie lists businesses ruined by regulation in Argentina, money markets, Brazil, and cannabis. She says a CEO's one job is protecting the ability to persevere, and that nobody is coming to save business owners.
- •Regulatory changes hurt four of her businesses
- •Asymmetric risk is fought by making money
- •A CEO's job is to protect the ability to persevere
- •No president from either side will save us; it's up to owners
A Nation of Owners: Equity, Unemployables, and America 2.0
Codie closes by assigning homework: buy businesses and help one other person get equity. She calls on listeners to be 'unemployables' who push back with profits, ending with a critique of what she calls America 2.0.
- •Help one other human get skin in the game
- •People with equity don't burn down the house they built
- •A nation of owners is impossible to contain
- •She criticizes education, debt, and career pressures for young people
Closing Request to Share the Podcast
Codie asks listeners to share the podcast and tag her, saying the show grows only through word of mouth.
- •The show runs no ads or pay-for-play
- •Growth depends on listeners sharing it
- •She asks people to tag her when sharing

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