Ten Commandments of Business Acquisitions pt. 5

Breaking It Down: The Fifth of the Ten Commandments of Business Acquisitions

Our Ten Commandments of Business Acquisitions has been so popular that we have decided to break it down. To briefly discuss each of the Ten Commandments and its import and impact.

The fifth commandment: "Be Proactive."

By all means don't just sit there and wait for opportunity to come to you, do something (and go seek out that opportunity). Make something happen.

After all, with business acquisitions as with so much in life, we make our own luck.

So by all means be proactive, and aggressively so, in identifying acquisition opportunities and in generating leads.

Don't assume that, by merely networking with various accountants, attorneys, business brokers, investment bankers, lenders and other professionals that the ideal acquisition opportunity will come to you. Many of these professionals wouldn't recognize an acquisition opportunity if it bit them in the face, and typically those few who would will have others than you to share the opportunities with.

If you wish to be successful at buying a business, after you have prepared your acquisition criteria and/or a profile in consultation with your professional team, you need to aggressively ferret/seek out suitable acquisition opportunities by, among other things, approaching owners of targeted prospect businesses directly.

The market for business acquisition opportunities is far from perfect, and you need to take advantage of that imperfect market by working hard to develop your acquisition opportunity pipeline.

~ Ben