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Buying a Business For Dummies
book

Buying a Business For Dummies

by Eric Tyson, Jim Schell
April 2024
Beginner content levelBeginner
304 pages
6h 58m
English
For Dummies
Audiobook available
Content preview from Buying a Business For Dummies

Chapter 5

Evaluating a Business to Buy

IN THIS CHAPTER

Bullet Conducting a comprehensive pre-offer evaluation of the company, its owners, and its employees

Bullet Investigating the company’s financial statements and lease contract terms

Bullet Considering the unique issues in franchises

Before you make an offer to buy a small business, do some digging into the company to minimize your chances of mistakenly buying a problematic business or overpaying for a good business. This investigative process is known as due diligence, and it’s every bit as important as hiring an attorney or signing the purchase agreement.

Smart buyers build plenty of contingencies into a purchase offer for a small business, just as they do when buying a home or other real estate. If your financing doesn’t come through or you find some dirty laundry in the business (and you’re not buying a laundromat), contingencies allow you to legally back out of the deal. However, knowing that all your purchase offers will include plenty of contingencies shouldn’t encourage you to make any purchase offer casually.

Making an offer and doing the necessary research are costly, in both time and money, but you’ll be glad you did both after the

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781394245758Purchase Link