Free lessons for business buyers at every stage.

If you are

Deciding whether to buy at all

Should you buy a business, start one, or stay where you are

Buying, building and staying put fail in different places. Learn which constraints settle the question before preference does, and how to write the decision down so it can be checked later.

It does not cover: The industry-fit scorecard that scores three candidate industries against the same criteria. That is a worksheet, and it is in the paid course.. How to tell what any specific business is worth, or how to test the earnings a listing reports. This lesson never looks at a listing.. Anything about licensing, transfer or tax treatment where you live. Those rules differ by state and by industry, and a free lesson that picked one state would be teaching the wrong one to most of the people reading it.. The written buy, build or wait examples with the reasoning marked up..

Read it, about 7 minutes

If you are

Looking for something to buy

Where businesses for sale come from, and how to screen one quickly

Listings reach a buyer through four channels and each one distorts the information differently. Learn to read a listing as the advertisement it is, and to reject most of them in minutes.

It does not cover: The screening worksheet and the pipeline template that record why each listing advanced or left.. The first broker call preparation script, including what a buyer should and should not disclose on that call.. The off-market outreach process, which is a sequence rather than an idea and lives in the paid course.. How to value anything. A screen decides whether a listing is worth an hour, not what a business is worth..

Read it, about 7 minutes

If you are

Looking at a specific business

What a deal packet is actually telling you

A first information package is a set of arguments, not a set of facts. Learn what each document is evidence of, why reported profit is not buyer earnings, and how to keep your unknowns visible.

It does not cover: The normalisation worksheet that rebuilds earnings line by line, and the annotated teardown of a real package with the findings marked.. Valuation. Which multiple, applied to which earnings measure, and why, is a method rather than a concept, and methods are what the paid course carries.. The reusable red-flag checklist. This lesson teaches you to notice categories, not to work a list.. The diligence document request list, which belongs to a later stage and a different course..

Read it, about 7 minutes

If you are

Trying to fund one

How a small acquisition actually gets paid for

Cash, borrowing and seller financing each cost more than their rate. Learn to build a sources and uses page, size working capital, and see a deal the way a lender sees it.

It does not cover: The lender packet template, the debt coverage calculator, and the structure check. Those are executables and they are in the paid course and the tools that come with it.. Whether any particular buyer or deal meets any particular program's requirements. Program rules and each lender's own credit policy change over time and differ between lenders, so the only reliable answer comes in writing from a participating lender and your own advisers.. The legal and tax structure of the purchase, which is a question for qualified counsel rather than a course page.. Projections. Building the forecast a lender will read is a method, and it is not free..

Read it, about 7 minutes

If you are

I already own one

The first ninety days after you own it

The business does not know it has been sold. Learn what to stabilise immediately, how to tell a habit from a control, and why the first weeks are for reading rather than changing.

It does not cover: The ninety day plan template and the handover checklist, which are the executables and are in the paid course.. The conversations with an inherited team, the key-person risk work, and the retention decisions. That is a whole course of its own.. Documenting the core process so the business stops depending on you being in the room, which is a later job and a different course.. Employment, licensing and tax obligations at handover. These differ by state and by industry and often by the specific business, and the people to ask are your own advisers..

Read it, about 7 minutes

Also

How to read a CIM and find what it leaves out

A confidential information memorandum is the seller's version of the story. Learn to read it as a set of claims to test rather than a verdict to accept.

Read it, about 5 minutes