I examined 135 businesses before one was worth buying. I bought it, ran it for three years, and sold it for over fifty percent more than I paid, before selling costs.
Learn the process I used to investigate what was behind the numbers — and to recognise when to walk away.
Two minutes. No sign-up. Nothing saved. · The full system is A$1,495 for twelve months — see what it costs.
This was not built from theory. It was built while looking for a business to buy, and it was shaped as much by the 134 I did not buy as by the one I did.
Bought in 2022 for $247,946.66 including stock. Sold in 2025 for $396,425.00 including stock. Both settlement statements are reproduced in full on the About page, alongside the contract of sale for the first business I built and sold. The lesson was not how to find more businesses to buy. It was how to become comfortable walking away.
Financial statements record what happened under the existing owner. You will be running it under different ownership, and several things can change at settlement. None of these makes a business bad. They are things worth understanding before it becomes yours.
Professional due diligence matters. But your lawyer and your accountant should not be discovering basic problems for you, at their hourly rate. Before that stage there is a great deal you can establish yourself — and you do not need to investigate every business that catches your attention. You need to know which ones deserve more of your time.
Rule out businesses that cannot suit you, before spending time or money on them.
How it operates, where revenue comes from, and what drives its profit.
Beyond the headline profit, to what sits underneath it.
Customers, staff, suppliers, systems, owner dependence, and what changes after settlement.
What you are being asked to pay, against what you believe you are acquiring.
Payment terms, finance, working capital and structure all change the risk.
With your own accountant and lawyer, on a business that has already passed your own investigation.
Buyers arrive at different points, and they need different things. Only one of these is a course.
Run the free check on a business you have seen. It plots whether the profit looks sustainable and whether there is improvement you could realistically add — the two things that decide most purchases.
A short one-to-one conversation on a single question about where you are in your search and which part of the system applies to you right now.
The complete eight stage system, the video course, twelve analytical tools and the templates. Built to be worked through on your own, across a search that usually runs six to eighteen months.
The business may be sound and the price still too high. The finance may put more pressure on cash flow than the business can carry. The seller’s terms may transfer more risk to you than you realise. Quality, price and structure have to make sense together.
For some buyers this means committing years of savings. For others it means borrowing against assets built over a working lifetime, including the equity in their home. Either way, it is not a decision that should rest on an advertisement, a broker’s memorandum, or a headline profit figure.
Judge it against the cost of eliminating a business, not against the cost of a course. A buyer who works through this system and rules out fourteen businesses has paid roughly one hundred dollars for each one they did not buy.
One-to-one sessions are available separately for buyers with a specific business in front of them. Every engagement is private and one to one. All prices and sessions.
It issues no verdict, and neither does any tool in it. Smarter Business Buyer is an educational framework for investigating an opportunity systematically, asking better questions, and recognising where professional advice is required. You make the decision. The system helps you make it as an informed buyer rather than a hopeful one.