The Complete Guide to Business Acquisition: Step-by-Step Checklist

What You’ll Learn

• Navigating each stage of the acquisition process, from initial interest to final transition.
• Identifying key tasks and considerations at every step.
• Understanding financial, legal, and operational aspects for a successful acquisition.
• Making the transition into business ownership with confidence.

Thinking about buying a business? The Complete Guide to Business Acquisition provides an in-depth checklist to make sure you’re prepared at each stage of the process. This guide is ideal for aspiring entrepreneurs, investors, and anyone ready to skip the startup phase and own an established, profitable business.

For many, the thought of business ownership means starting from scratch—building a company from the ground up. However, many successful entrepreneurs have taken a different route: purchasing an already established business. With its own set of advantages, buying an existing company can be an efficient way to begin your journey in business ownership and reach profitability faster.

Whether you're looking to expand an existing company, diversify your investments, or acquire a complementary business, this checklist will support you through the acquisition journey.

What's Inside

This checklist is designed to guide you through each stage of the business acquisition process, from preparing to buy to successfully closing the deal and integrating your new business. Start by working through each section in sequence. You’ll find essential tasks, priority statuses, and recommended readings to ensure you're thoroughly prepared at every stage. Use the “Personal Notes” columns to add any specific details or reminders relevant to your acquisition journey.

To customize this checklist for your unique needs, make a copy of the sheet by clicking the link inside the sheet. This will allow you to track your progress and edit the sheet as you go.

Key Content Highlights

This guide is packed with essential tips and expert insights. Some of the most valuable topics include:

Sign up for the Accelerator Program.

This marks the very beginning of the journey. By this point, you would have spoken with an Acquira representative and been told about our training. Acquira’s training is comprehensive and in-depth. It includes guides and materials that will teach you how to analyze a business in order to determine whether it’s a good deal. We provide calculators, tutorials, and case studies that will help you weigh potential acquisition targets to find the best deal for you.

Begin working on your investment thesis.

The investment thesis is a crucial aspect of the business search. It is made up of a combination of variables and considerations that will define the scope of the AE’s search.

Define your geography.

While you probably know a lot about your local community or a city, there is a good chance that you have less perspective on exactly how your local area stacks up against other areas when it comes to attractiveness as a business buying location.

Acquisition Entrepreneurs can be rigid about the location of their target business OR the industry, but not both. So if due to family or work you prefer to stay in a smaller number of cities, you should try to be flexible with industry.

Most AE’s begin their search within a relatively small geographic radius. When options become limited within that scope it is not uncommon to expand the radius or start looking in other regions.

Prerequisite reading:
“Accelerator Lesson 1: Geographic Location”

Need more guidance?

If you’d like to learn more about acquiring a business, many of the resources we discussed above—along with in-depth guides, templates, and checklists—are available through our Acceleration Program. By signing up, you gain exclusive access to essential tools and resources to support every stage of your acquisition journey. Set up a call with us through the form below, and we'll be in touch to help you fast-track your path to successful business ownership.

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