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Smart Business Acquisition: The Practical System to Find, Vet, and Buy Small Companies.
Paperback
Business GeneralInvesting & Finance
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Feb 8 2026
Pages: 180
Weight: 0.50
Height: 0.45 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
This book is different.
Smart Business Acquisition is the forensic playbook for analytical buyers who need checklists, not cheerleading. Whether you're a corporate professional searching for your first acquisition, a software engineer evaluating SaaS businesses, or an investor building a portfolio of small companies, this book teaches you the step-by-step due diligence framework used by professional M&A advisors-adapted for deals in the $50,000 to $5,000,000 range.
What You'll Learn:
SOURCING & SCREENING:
- How to build a repeatable deal flow machine that delivers pre-vetted opportunities (without relying on overpriced brokers)
- The 15-question first-call script that disqualifies 80% of bad deals in 30 minutes
- Why browsing business-for-sale marketplaces guarantees you'll overpay for lemons
VALUATION & FINANCIAL FORENSICS:
- How to reconstruct true cash flow from manipulated financial statements using bank deposit verification
- The Replacement Cost Test that exposes businesses where the owner IS the business
- Why SDE multiples lie-and how to calculate fair market value using comparable sales data
TECHNICAL & OPERATIONAL DUE DILIGENCE:
- The 12-point codebase audit for software and digital businesses (even if you're non-technical)
- How to detect $50,000+ in hidden technical debt before you sign the purchase agreement
- The Bus Factor test: identifying single-points-of-failure that destroy value post-acquisition
DEAL STRUCTURE & NEGOTIATION:
- How to structure offers using seller financing and earnouts to shift risk to the seller
- Asset purchase vs. stock purchase: when to use each structure (and how to negotiate the tax allocation)
- The LOI clauses that protect you from seller deception during the 90-day exclusivity period
CLOSING & TRANSITION:
- The 60-day closing timeline from signed LOI to Day One as owner
- How to transfer digital assets (domains, logins, code repositories) without getting locked out of your own business
- The First 90 Days protocol: stabilizing operations without triggering employee revolt or customer churn
Who This Book Is For:
First-time business buyers evaluating small company acquisitions
Software engineers and tech professionals buying SaaS businesses or digital assets
Corporate executives transitioning from employee to owner-operator
Serial entrepreneurs building acquisition-based portfolios
MBA students and professionals seeking practical M&A training beyond HBR case studies
What This Book Is NOT:
Motivational content about living the dream
Get-rich-quick schemes or passive income fantasies
Vague advice like do thorough due diligence (we show you HOW)
An upsell to a $5,000 coaching program
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