FAQs

As of 2024 the majority of our experience lies in home services businesses and construction/manufacturing businesses. Industries such as:

• HVAC
• Plumbing
• Roofing
• Landscaping
• Electrical
• Kitchen Countertops
• Kitchen Cabinets
• Metal Manufacturing
• General Contractors

Much of business is the same across industries and it typically only takes a year or so to build up a decent level of subject matter expertise.  We work with Acquisition Entrepreneurs across any industry, and especially encourage you to look at other industries that  align with your professional background and network.

We recommend you check out our comprehensive article on the Best Business Sectors To Buy.

Here is a breakdown of the typical capital requirements. Please note that these can vary depending on the specifics of the business. If you add these costs together, you will find that a safe number is ~$150,000 in liquid cash or more.

You should plan to put at least 10% cash down on the business.  We recommend businesses earning at least $500k/year in SDE and multiples are usually between 2x and 3x. This means a minimum purchase price of $1mm to $1.5mm, which means a cash downpayment of $100,000 to $150,000.

Reserves

If you are using SBA, they may want to see $20k-$30k left in reserves post-close.

As always, the caveat is that these costs can fluctuate depending on the specifics of the deal. But in general, you can expect to incur these expenses from LOI to close:

• ~$15,000 for a Quality of Earnings report
• ~$20,000 in legal costs
• ~$2,500 for a site visit (travel, lodging, meals)
• ~$5,000 in potential out of pocket costs related to SBA financing
• $1,000 for entity creation
• $5,000 miscellaneous/unexpected costs

Once again, these are costs paid directly to our vetted vendors, not to Acquira.

Yes, but you must be willing to move to the United States and spend 50%-100% of your time on the business for at least 6 months post-acquisition. Of course, the constant disclaimer here is that it always depends on the specifics of the business. It’s also important to note that if you plan to acquire a business with SBA financing, you must be a US citizen or a permanent resident of the US.

Your workload during Phase 1 has been designed to be easily taken on while still holding a 9-5 job. This phase can last between 6 and 9 months.  During the first few months of Phase 2, it is recommended that you take some time off or work remotely, as at least 30 hours of work per week are needed. If that's not possible, then quitting your job and dedicating yourself to the new business is what we recommend, and we would need to make sure your needed income in covered by the business.

Our diligence process and tools that we provide aim to eliminate any guesswork in the deal search process and ensure you are aware of all the risks and potential threats within each business that you look at. These frameworks have been built from our experience analyzing hundreds of businesses over many years. It’s also important to understand that the businesses we acquire have been around for decades with an established staff and client base. It’s next to impossible for these types of businesses to tank overnight.

Acquira will put you directly in touch with our vetted vendors when appropriate at every stage of the acquisitions process. These include vendors for legal, financial diligence, growth plans, lending, and more.

For example, once you have found a business and decide to issue an LOI to the seller, we will put you in touch with one of our transactional attorneys who will work with you to revise our standard LOI as needed.

You will pay these vendors directly – Acquira does not earn here. The costs of our vendors have been negotiated down based on scale and they are very familiar with our goals and how we operate. This means you will be spending much less time and money than if you were to work with vendors outside of our ecosystem.

Yes, we work with pairs of Acquisition Entrepreneurs all the time. Approaching an acquisition with another partner can be a great way to share the financial and time commitment required.

Also, If your partner is also going to be heavily involved in the operations of the business, we would prefer that they go through our Acceleration Gauntlet so that we can get to know them and start building trust and rapport.

We are interested in making investments in businesses that we feel we are able to add a lot of value to.  Typically that means we are confident our involvement will a) double the value of the business and b) provide an exit path.  The terms of that investment are always on a case-by-case basis, after the deal is closed.