Running a small business isn't easy—but the best operators don’t go it alone.
Searching for a company to buy isn't as straight-forward as we wish it was—you shouldn't pursue it alone.
Smart entrepreneurs and business operators learn from others, adopt proven strategies, and surround themselves with people who’ve done it before. That’s exactly what SMBash was built for: to bring together a community of owners, operators, searchers, investors, and entrepreneurs who are serious about building better businesses.
If you're looking for a path to successful searching or small business growth strategies that go beyond the surface-level fluff, SMBash delivers. Here’s how!
📘 We Share the Operator Playbook—Not Just the Highlights
At most conferences for small business owners, you hear the polished version of success. SMBash is different.
At SMBash, our speakers don’t just talk about their wins—they walk attendees through what worked, what didn’t, and what they’d do differently. We dive into real P&Ls, process breakdowns, team management frameworks, and more.
These operator playbooks are built by owners who are in the trenches—scaling HVAC companies, growing doggy daycares, running multi-location franchises, or leading home service teams. Their stories offer tactical frameworks you can apply immediately to your own business.
Some past topics:
- Winning Methods in Deal Sourcing w/ Peter Lehrman
- Investor Equity Raise w/ Tony Cappaert & Saumil Jariwala
- Starting Over After Exit w/ Mike Botkin
- Deals Gone Wrong w/ Denisse & Evelin Montenegro
- Building a Holding Company w/ Chase Murdock & Palmer Higgins
Check out our speakers’ LinkedIn pages – they are the real deal! Here at SMBash we are lucky to host such hardworking and open business owners. Like us, they believe that real success comes when we succeed together.
🎯 Growth-Focused, Not Buzzword-Driven
We design our content around practical execution, not theoretical strategy. Think fewer acronyms (okay that’s a lie), more actual results (that’s for real). Whether you're dealing with margins, org charts, marketing channels, or vendor headaches, our sessions are built to help you find clarity and move forward.
Panels, deep dives, and keynotes are structured to give you practical tools—not just inspirational soundbites. During most of our content we allow time for questions, some of our speakers even encourage it throughout their panel. We let them decide the best way to deliver their knowledge to you. The thing about becoming part of the SMBash community, is that we support, cheer, and advocate for each other.
🤝 A Community of Builders, Not Bystanders
SMBash is full of owners and operators who are actively building something. That means you’re not just listening—you’re connecting with people who are scaling, leading, hiring, delegating, and improving right now. And they welcome the searchers into their midst, because they were once in those tough and tiring searcher shoes as well!
The networking isn’t transactional—it’s personal. You’ll meet people who genuinely want to see you grow, and who’ll openly share what’s worked for them along the way. It can be intimidating to put yourself out there, but we try to make it easy for you with two Happy Hours, open seating at mealtimes, service provider areas—ready to answer all of your questions, and more.
Plus, another benefit of SMBash is that people come back year after year. We make sure our content stays fresh and current. Those awesome attendees that return are a little more outgoing on year two, three, and four; they help break the ice for our newbies.
🏁 What You’ll Leave With
• New ideas to improve your operations
• Honest feedback from people who’ve faced similar challenges
• A bigger network of like-minded entrepreneurs
• And most importantly, a clearer roadmap to scale
We could keep listing the benefits, but really, you need to attend to understand. We have worked hard to build the ETA conference not to miss! Every step of the way we have our attendees in mind. What do they want to learn about the small to medium business space? What do they need to learn that they might not even realize? Who are the best people in the space to deliver that content? What service providers do we trust to attend as sponsors? How can we keep the content original for our repeat attendees? What the heck should we feed everyone!?
At SMBash we aim to create not just any old business conference, but a can’t miss, life-changing ETA and SMB conference!
If you’re ready to stop guessing and start growing with the support of a high-trust, high-impact community, SMBash is the conference for you.
📍 The Rayleigh Underground, Dallas, TX (close to both Love Field & DFW airports)
🗓️ April 22–24, 2026
🎟️ Get your ticket at smbash.com