The Smarter Business Buyer course

A business that has passed the basic filter is investigated here topic by topic, before any professional fees are committed — the largest stage of the system, and the one that does most of the work. It builds the financial models the later stages depend on, including the budget adjusted profit and loss that carries your own findings forward into a value.

Part of the full system.

How a value is arrived at, using the valuation approaches in common use, the factors that move a price, and how tangible and intangible assets are treated. It works through to a return on investment view, an updated total cost of acquiring the business, and how the purchase will be funded.

Part of the full system.

What an offer actually contains, and the difference between one that binds you and one that does not. It covers the terms and conditions worth considering, termination clauses, and what happens next whether the offer is accepted or refused.

Part of the full system.

Due diligence is a formal legal process, and these lessons set out how to run yours: the information process plan, the requisition list, and the timeline from contract acceptance through to settlement. They work through each area in turn — financial, legal, insurance, tax, plant and equipment, employees, stock, customers and suppliers — and what to do when something does not check out.

Part of the full system.

Completing the purchase: what happens as ownership transfers, and the handover period in which the outgoing owner trains you into the business. It closes with their departure and the first stretch of the business being yours to run.

Part of the full system.