How You Slice It: A Scrappy Small Business Novel

Ty Spengler has eleven dollars in his checking account, a job at a pizzeria that's closing in two weeks, and no idea what business to build for his college seminar.

Then his professor asks the question that changes everything: why start a business from scratch when an existing one — with ovens, a lease, and a corner location — is sitting right in front of you? It's cheaper for his boss to sell him the pizzeria for $1 than to close it down. Her advice: buy, don't build.

With no money, no experience, and no safety net, Ty sets out to turn around the Leaning Tower of Pizza. Every step — the deal, the customers, the margins, the leap from running a business to owning one — teaches something you can use Monday morning.

And here's the part you won't believe: the $1 deal is real.

More businesses change hands for one dollar than for any other price. Every negotiation, structure, and number in this story is drawn from real experience — how small businesses actually get bought, fixed, and sold. Ty is fiction. The playbook isn't.

Inside the story:

• Why buying an existing business beats building one from scratch

• How to structure a deal when you have no money to put down

• How to find the profit hiding inside a business that's losing money

• The shift from operator to owner — building something that runs without you

In the tradition of Goldratt's The Goal: a genuine business education you absorb by living it, in a story you'll finish in a weekend.

Because in business, as in pizza, everything depends on how you slice it.

Dave Mason has built, bought, and run businesses for over two decades. His books — combining fiction, personal growth, and business — have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. This novel distills what he's learned buying and optimizing businesses.