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May 05, 2025

by a searcher from The University of Iowa - Tippie College of Business in Boston, MA, USA

Beyond “Buy Then Build” and “HBR Guide to Buying A Small Business” are there any other useful tools or platforms people have used to get started? Feels like the first step is the most daunting
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Reply by a searcher
from The University of Chicago in Chicago, IL, USA
Honestly, just start. Now. Go on BizBuySell and request info for businesses that look interesting to you. Sign those NDAs and get the CIM. That's going to teach you way more than anything else.
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Reply by a searcher
from University of Illinois at Urbana in Naperville, IL, USA
Those two books are great. From there, do this: I double down on listening to acquiring minds. Also listen to acquisitions anonymous. While you are doing that to get a qualitative feel for the experience of those who have done it, make sure to sign up for every webinar that acquiring minds plugs. They are all helpful. Now start looking at teasers on broker sites and bizbuysell. Maybe even request some cims. Don't be nervous this is just getting your feet wet. Contact Lisa Forrest at live oak and attend their office hours. Good overview, good banking perspective. They will offer some free Excel models and resources. Take them! Definitely attend some Sam Rossatti webinars. Information packed, good practical views of what the market is for terms and interest rates and ROI for investor funds. He also will make some legal template examples and excel models available for free. Take them! He is awesome. Find the Stanford study on traditional search outcomes and the SIG partners study on self funded search outcomes. Read those. Look into Sam Rossatti's boot camp, and into Acquisition Lab. And see if either is for you. Set up a call with brad hettich. Get the lending broker point of view and process. Get serious about defining a buy box. Think about the size business you need to meet needs. Think about the capital you have, model the capital stack and figure out whether you can do it yourself or need outside equity. Seriously on this last one... Don't call me a looney. Start telling chatgpt all about yourself. Upload a resume. Take some personality tests. Tell it about your goals. Attach the SIG and Stanford studies to a chat session and start asking it about what you should buy. It will not give you the answer. At times it will be a hot mess. But it will make you think in a way that will challenge you.
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