Before acquiring a company, the most valuable preparation is to work as a "right-hand person" to an existing small business owner. This apprenticeship provides crucial, ground-floor experience with the operational realities that financial models and spreadsheets completely miss.
The anticipated flood of businesses for sale from retiring baby boomers—the "silver tsunami"—has not materialized as predicted. Owners are holding on longer while the pool of buyers has increased, causing demand to outstrip supply and keeping acquisition multiples high.
A profitable business can be a bad investment if it creates unsustainable operational stress. This non-financial "return on headache" is a key metric for evaluating small business acquisitions, especially for hands-on owner-operators who must live with the daily consequences.
Contrary to the popular search fund model of targeting $1M+ EBITDA businesses, a less risky path is to start with smaller companies ($100k-$250k earnings). This lowers complexity, reduces the potential for catastrophic failure, and provides invaluable hands-on experience for first-time acquirers.
While most acquirers rely on brokers, platforms like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace can be a hidden source of off-market deals. Very small, less sophisticated business owners often default to these simple platforms to sell, creating unique opportunities for diligent searchers.
A company can achieve a public listing without a traditional IPO. The strategy involves first using Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) to raise capital from customers, building a wide shareholder base. With this pool established, the company can then pursue a direct listing on an exchange.
Society thrives not on virtue alone, but by channeling flawed human motives like vanity, greed, and envy ("private vices") into productive outcomes ("public benefits"). This 18th-century concept argues that civilization's engine is often our messy, selfish desires, not our noble intentions.
In small business acquisitions with high leverage, the key variable for success is not the interest rate, but the 10-year amortization schedule offered by SBA loans. This extended repayment period creates crucial cash flow flexibility that shorter-term conventional loans cannot match.