HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business: Anyone read this book?
January 08, 2019
by a searcher from University of California, Berkeley in El Dorado Hills, CA, USA
Wondering if anyone has read this book? Pretty good overview of the process. Happy to discuss the book further if others have read it.
from Washington University in St. Louis in St. Louis, MO, USA
Ruback and Yudkoff wrote a great book. so much so that when it came out I almost stopped writing Buy Then Build. When I read it I felt they absolutely nailed the concept of "eternally profitable" businesses. In my opinion this favors risk-reduction over growth--which is a great way to practice acquisition entrepreneurship. In fact, if there is a difference between the terms "ETA" and "Acquisition entrepreneurship," this might be it right there.
In other words, I found many acquisition entrepreneurs who didn't want that model at all. Some, will only buy distressed companies while others were willing to take on more risk for a better growth opportunity. And yet, none of them truly captured my own experience acquiring multiple companies. So I kept at it, and tried to incorporate all of those various models in Buy Then Build.
But this is not your question!
Let me ask you, Atul: What 2-3 things were the best takeaways for you from this book?
from Northwestern University in Denver, CO, USA