![]() ![]() ANYTIME FITNESS FEES HOW TOKnowing how to do what they do is the most effective way to call BS. Where it was really effective was for team members who would make excuses about why they couldn’t do this or that, and use some technical jargon. The good team members respected my involvement, but a good team member doesn’t want you to do their job for them. But if there is one thing I actually miss about the business, it is going out and driving the big trucks. ANYTIME FITNESS FEES DRIVERBoth of my parents are endurance athletes, my DNA is as an endurance athlete, my handyman skills were a 2 out of 10 when I acquired the business so to think I would ever become a truck driver is such a role change for me. ![]() To have credibility with the blue-collar workforce I decided to get my CDL (commercial drivers’ license). The gold in a business like Giddings Hawkins is getting in the field and getting your hands dirty as a player-coach. You chose to be very hands on in the business, doing much of the literal dirty work yourself. He used a portion of the sale proceeds to fund some epic hunting trips. ![]() I was able to structure a deal that put me ahead of buyers with more financial resources and got the deal done. The owner was a big hunter - I’m not - so I sent him some elk jerky among other hunting-themed gifts. I built a relationship with the owner and the intermediary. It had the right DNA from an ETA perspective, with repeat revenue, long term customers, a fragmented customer base, mission-critical work and a strong management team. I was looking at a brokered deal in Wisconsin, and during a trip to Chicago for a wedding I decided to meet the owner of the business at this barbeque place, Double B’s, in Wisconsin.ĭuring the hour-long conversation, it made sense to me why the business was doing well, it made sense to me what the owner’s day-to-day activities were. I spent 80% of my time looking at fitness businesses or franchors, because that’s where my experience was. How did you end up buying a business that specializes in industrial services, such as cleaning grease traps and catch basins? I wanted to be a small business owner, not just a CEO, and was able to do a self-funded search thanks to my successful Anytime Fitness franchise. So after I graduated from Booth, I looked for a business to buy. But my DNA was still as an owner/operator. I applied to business schools, got into Booth, and sold all but one club. I was doing well financially, and after a few years I decided I wanted to travel and meet new people. I started looking at franchising options and became an owner of three Anytime Fitness clubs. But I am on-the-ground, ‘grit it done’ kind of guy. How did you become interested in ETA, and specifically in conducting a self-funded search?Īfter undergrad at University of California, Berkeley, I worked in finance for a year in San Francisco. Tileston recounted his ETA journey in this Q&A, which has been edited for length and clarity. Though, as the sole owner, he had no one to answer to but himself, his dozen employees were top of mind as he grappled with how to structure the deal. ![]() The selling process was painstaking, Tileston said. The sale marked the first exit for a self-funded searcher from Chicago Booth, where Tileston remains active in Booth’s growing Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) community. Giddings Hawkins, founded in 1987, will continue to operate under its name as LES expands its service footprint in Southeast Wisconsin. In May, Tileston sold Wisconsin-based Giddings Hawkins to Texas-based Liquid Environmental Solutions (LES), a national recycler of non-hazardous liquid waste. Reid Tileston, MBA ’15, calls himself a “grit it done” kind of guy.Īn endurance athlete – ultramarathons, an Ironman, mountaineering, open-water swims, competitive stair climbing – Tileston introduced the catchphrase as the slogan for the industrial services company he acquired in 2019, inspired by an employee who stayed late and went above and beyond to get a task done. ![]()
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