Here’s our checklist for making sure you’re in the best position to buy:
- Talk to a business sales specialist about your plans. Use our expertise to gain a clear understanding of each business’s value and how the value was arrived at.
- Commit to a deadline. If you don’t want the process to turn into an endless search, commit to the process and be disciplined in your search efforts.
- Set aside time every day to work on finding a business. Nearly 90% of all searches are done via the internet, work out how much time you must commit to it.
- Assess your strengths and weaknesses and identify only the businesses that you know are right for you and focus your efforts accordingly on those types of businesses.
- Get your financial position established early, understand how much you can invest in a business, produce a statement of personal finances from the outset. List your assets and liabilities and assess your net worth.
- Establish with absolute certainty how much of your cash you are prepared to invest.
- Don’t look at businesses you can’t afford. As the majority of business purchases require an element of funding, understand how much cash you have, how much funding you can raise and only look at businesses in that range.
- Educate yourself on the buying process and the necessary knowledge and information you will require to complete a business purchase.
- Have your advisors at the ready and listen to their advice, but always remember it won’t be their business and it won’t be their money, it will be yours. If you are going to invest your money, understand it’s your decision. Invest the time and energy to ensure you have the knowledge to buy the right business. Properly prepared, well informed buyers are the ones who acquire the good businesses.
