Guide To Buying a Business

As business brokers, we get a lot of calls from people looking to buy a business. We will listen to what they're looking for, enter it into a database and when we get new listings we'll check the database of buyers. Each buyer gets rated on their financial capability and the probability that we think they can consumate a deal. It's very easy for people to say that they'd like to buy a business — unfortunately few individuals ever succeed in doing so.

We also get calls from businesses looking to expand through acquisition. We take these calls more seriously and often do more thorough searches for them. However, our time is finite and so we are choosy about which businesses get a great deal of effort.

This website is designed to help individuals and companies that wish to acquire businesses. It will take you through the process, step by step, begining with deciding if acquiring a busiiness is the best course of action for you or if there is a better alternative and ending with what to do after the transaction closes. We'll also provide interactive tools, downloadable spreadsheets, and links to web resources along the way.

Our Book

Our companion site Guide To Selling a Business is based on a book that we published and as we write this site, we'll turn it into a companion volume.

The Tools

We have created a series of tools, including a calculator to calculate the value of acquisiton targets to help you determine what kind of offer you should make, spreadsheets with example calculations, and checklists to guide you through every step of the process.

Our Services

You may decide that buying a business on your own is more than you want to do. If so, we stand ready to help. For most users of this site, we expect that a few hours of consulting is all that they will need. If you want to find a reputable business broker, we will consider doing a search on your behalf OR we will help you find a reputable business broker.