When you think about it and actually get involved in pursuing a
company purchase, you quickly realize that your success rate
of finding your “ideal” company to purchase is a direct result
of your ability to effectively locate viable potential
acquisition candidates and cost effectively DIS-qualify them
via your own, “well honed” business purchase criteria
checklist.
One of the first things you want to do in development of your
business purchase process is establish a list of “initial” DIS
qualification questions for use with business owners.
We use the term disqualification because you clearly throw
away a lot of hay to get to the needle in the stack! This list
of questions will add a tremendous amount of efficiency to
your business purchase methodology and make the job of your
merger and acquisition intermediary of choice much easier.
For simplicity of use, we have listed our most practical
questions categorically. You are encouraged to edit, add or
delete any of our listed questions. Our list of questions
cover many fundamental business attributes, but not many of
the subjective benchmarks to be considered in any business
purchase disqualification process. Again, you can add whatever
number of questions that correlate to your own personal
purchase criteria or preferences, business experiences,
knowledge and risk/ reward tolerance levels.
Suggested Initial Acquisition Qualification Questions:
INITIAL / BASIC QUESTIONS:
* Why is the business for sale?
* How long has it been for sale?
* Has there been other formal purchase offers made to date?
* Will the business sale include any transfer of real estate?
* What is the ownership structure of the company?
* How is the company legally organized?
* Who with the business will be involved in the negotiation of
the sale?
* What are the owners desired transition plans?
* Is senior management willing to stay and invest in the new
company?
* Does a new company leader candidate exist in the company now?
* Who knows the business is for sale? How confidential is this
subject?
* Is there any known outstanding litigation or environmental
concerns?
BUSINESS PROFILE QUESTIONS:
* Are all products manufactured “in house”?
* What % of products or services are “custom” or “made-to-
order”?
* Is there proprietary technology?
* Any protected technology or patents, existing or pending?
* How many full time employees?
* Locations of all office/ manufacturing sites?
* Is the labor force organized in any form?
* What are the financial/ technical barriers to entry of this
business?
* Are there purchase contracts? If so, are they assignable?
FINANCIALS:
* What financial information is available?
* Income statements and balance sheets for last 3 years?
* Are the company’s financials audited, reviewed or internally
compiled?
* Are the inventory and accounts receivable in a healthy
status?
* What is a replacement cost estimate for the fixed assets?
* Are there forecasted financial performance documents?
MARKETING AND SALES:
* Assuming investment, how can the business be doubled?
* How are products sold? Direct? Agents? Distributors?
* What % of revenues are domestic?
* What % of total revenues are from the top 5 customers?
* What is the company’s estimated market share?
* Who are the primary competitors?
* Are there noteworthy new products being developed/
introduced?
TERMS:
* What is the current business valuation? How is it defined?
* Will the owner(s) carry a note?
* Will the owner(s) also accept an “earn-out” portion?
* Is the owner willing to re-invest in the new company?
It is important to define early on in your business purchase
process what your most critical business purchase criteria are
and what attributes of a company are “deal makers” or “deal
breakers”. Companies with noteworthy attributes that did not
make your critical attribute filter list will have to be
evaluated on their own merits.
You will find that once you are actively involved in finding
your “ideal” company to buy that every purchase candidate is
different and each purchase opportunity you initially
disqualify with this list will generate another
disqualification question you did not think of before.
Disqualifying acquisition candidates is truly an iterative
process. There are no standardized procedures or required
evaluation sequences in this initial step.
Take the time and effort to develop and write your own business
disqualification questions. The return on your time invested
in development of a tool of this nature will allow you to look
at more potential deals in less time.
Finding business purchase candidates is also very critical to
meeting your acquisition objectives. Locating companies that
meet your EXACT purchase criteria is a major challenge. Also
investing the time and effort to generate quality acquisition
candidates cannot be over emphasized. Creativity, discipline
and tenacity will yield you the best results.
About the Author:
Mark Smock is President of
,
the FIRST international business buyer directory of its kind.
Business Buyer Directory provides a non-traditional means for
proactive business buyers to locate businesses for sale
worldwide that meet their exact registered purchase criteria.
