Every discount a seller has given is a cost you're about to buy, and it appears nowhere on the income statement. Same 30% gross margin business. He knocks 10% off to win the job. The price drops to $90, the cost is still $70, and the margin falls from $30 to $20. To make the gross profit he made before the discount, he now has to sell 50% more. Not 10% more. Fifty. More trucks, more invoices, more scheduling, more support calls, more payroll — all of it to arrive back at the number he started with. That's what you're buying: an operation sized for revenue it isn't earning. The diligence move takes an hour. Ask for the published price list and the last hundred invoices. Compare average realised price to list price. That gap is the discount habit, and I have never met a seller who had measured it. It's a discount, not a dealbreaker — pricing is the one fix that needs no capital, no hiring, and no new customers. Which is exactly why you pay for the business as it is, not as it will be after you fix it.