The Art of Buying a Business

Before you purchase a business, there are basic factors you must determine. This program will teach you the ten rules that cannot be bent, avoided, or broken. Before you buy any business, you must subscribe to all ten.

1. Pay for the past, consider the present, buy it for your future: You must evaluate the business for what it can provide you after you purchase it.
2. Buy a good business and make it great: All good businesses possess certain features. Learn how to determine whether your choice already has these in place.
3. Ingredients are nothing without a recipe: After you purchase, can you put all parts of the business together into one cohesive unit poised for growth, and at what cost?
4. Fall in love with the profit, not the product: Learn how this traps so many others. You can't be emotional about your purchase. You must be objective.
5. Do what you do best and you'll manage the rest: Make certain that you already possess what the business really needs.
6. Can the business run on cruise control? In order to grow any business, it must be able to run on its own, so that you can focus your attention on driving profits.
7. Determine what holds the gold: Nearly all businesses have certain features the owner has not exploited. Learn how to identify these sometimes "hidden" values.
8. The three personal things that every business must possess: You must be able to explain it in simple terms, with great enthusiasm, and pride.
9. Evaluate and identify what's not perfect yet: No business is perfect and every business needs attention. Sometimes the smallest improvements can yield the greatest results. You'll learn how to pinpoint all of them.
10. What's it worth to you? Only you can evaluate the benefits of any venture. You'll understand how to take a realistic approach to this crucial exercise.

A lot of buyers fail to recognize what business is right for them. And although only you can determine this, we will help you to identify your strengths, talents, and weaknesses, so that you're searching only for businesses that make sense for you. In this section you will learn how to:

• Review and evaluate the knowledge you already own
• Identify potential businesses that can benefit from your strengths and not suffer from your weaknesses
• Identify the industry you know best
• Exploit a niche within your job or industry
• Establish expectations that are realistic and achievable
• Clearly identify what drives you (money, control, independence)
• Recognize specific tasks that you don't enjoy
• Honestly identify weaknesses, how to deal with them and understand their role

The average buyer spends over a year looking for a business and there's a ninety-percent chance that they will drop out. The longer you look, the greater the chance you'll never buy. Life is short; opportunity comes in a second and disappears in an instant. In this section, you will learn:

• The theory behind time management, its importance, and how to control your time
• The buying process timeline and schedules you must meet from beginning to end
• Why people fall into the trap of becoming chronic lookers
• The rationale and strategy you need to follow to get this done quickly and right
• The specific steps to take to cut the average buying time by seventy percent
• How to get all of the information you need quickly and easily on any business without spending a dime
• How to get the seller and broker to work on your timelines
• The key areas that will cause you the biggest waste of time
• 7 things to do at once so you won't get delayed later on

If you don't know what to look for, it's difficult, if not impossible to find the really good businesses. By the end of this program, you'll know precisely how to identify good potential businesses, as well as how to:

• Examine all of the resources available to you
• Find find what you're looking for
• Determine what to look for in the classified section
• Get more information than what is published
• Understand that "attitude" of every "for sale by owner" seller
• Tear apart buyer-listing sheets and focus solely on what's right for you
• Contact various publications and get them to give you great industry information and potential available businesses
• Navigate the best websites for business for sale listings
• Use the networks of Lawyers and Accountants
• Network banks and other lenders
• Use The Chamber of Commerce as a tool

When it comes to buying a business, no one task is more important than another. This program will ensure that you begin right and set the proper foundation. To do so, you must be organized. This section of the program will show you how to:

• Make organization a priority
• Create a complete list of all of the items that you will need to begin the search
• Set up specific file folders
• Organize the Multiple Listing Sheets
• Highlight and identify Individual Business Listings
• Disect financial information
• Create "post purchase" files
• Create a system to organize all of the thoughts that will come into your head
• Review the money required for the search

Most inexperienced buyers assume that if they hire a broker, the right business will come to them. Nothing is further from the truth. A good broker can help you but the wrong one will prove to be a monumental waste of time. In this program you will learn:

• How brokers can and cannot help you
• Who pays their commission and why it's important to know
• The obligations you have to a broker
• Websites to use to locate local brokers
• Your strategy on your first call to a broker
• One great technique that will immediately identify how effective they will be
• 18 questions to ask each broker when you interview them
• The 17 questions to ask their current clients
• How the brokers negotiate with the seller
• Why you need to call former business sellers for references and the 10 questions to ask each
• How to get the broker to show you all of the listings
• How to create letters to send out to potential businesses

All businesses are for sale, even if they're not currently listed. Under the right conditions every owner would sell. You will quickly learn what types of businesses are right for you and how to creatively approach every business, even those who may not be on the market. You will also learn:

• The 6 conditions by which sellers choose to sell
• How to identify under-valued and potential candidates
• How to tune in to every business you come across and see their strengths and weaknesses
• Proven strategies to approach and solicit a business that is not currently for sale
• How to pursue a business that has always intrigued you -- the ideal business may be staring you in the face

Under the right conditions and if you're a certain kind of buyer, a franchise can be a wonderful option worth investigating. This section will show you:

• How to make money in franchising
• The big three advantages that a franchise can offer
• Why franchises are not for everyone
• The exact steps to find available resales
• How to get the master franchiser to cooperate
• How to find resales that aren't officially for sale
• When to get into a franchise concept
• Contracts: their importance, the details, and what you must be on guard for
• The 25 things you absolutely must know about the franchise contract
• How to avoid doing a deal and having it vetoed by the franchiser
• How to conduct the due diligence and why it's so different from a non-franchised business
• The 17 critical areas to be investigated
• How you can test-drive a franchise
• Key questions to ask other franchisees
• 15 crucial questions to ask the franchiser to ensure that they are the right group to be with
• Resources to find available franchises

Don't let the fear or lack of accounting knowledge prevent you from buying a business. All financial statements follow a similar pattern from one business to the next, and in this section of the program, you'll learn to gain a grasp on this area quickly and effectively, including:

• The aspects of accounting that will give you a glimpse into the future
• A case study that will clearly define the accounting basics
• An understanding of time and its relationship within accounting
• An understanding of cash and accrual accounting
• How to properly interpret financial statements in one hour
• What to look for on financial statements
• What many people fail to overlook
• All the buzz words so sellers will know you're an expert
• The different stages in the life of a business
• An understanding of liabilities
• Determining owner's equity
• All the ways that a seller can manipulate the financials to make them look better than they are

When you begin visiting businesses, it will be a very scary, exciting time. Don't worry. The seller will be feeling the same way. Your mission is very simple: get the information you need to determine if a second visit is warranted or not. In this section you will learn how to:

• Prepare for the meeting (background checks, location, agenda, documentation required, timing, conduct, conveying a sense of urgency)
• Ask the 36 questions you need to have answers to
• Utilize the four-part prospective business portfolio to prepare and evaluate
• Create a post-meeting follow-up checklist
• Evaluate the business after the first meeting
• Create letters to send to all parties involved
• Prepare for the second meeting, strategy and agenda
• Clarify "the secrets" you've discovered
• Review the financials even if they are not ready to hand them over to you

Learn the skills you will need for each and every possible situation and negotiation: the dos and don'ts of great negotiating. Get a complete breakdown of every point to negotiate, your technique for each and a point-counter point strategy for every aspect of the deal. You will also learn:

• The greatest negotiating technique in the world
• A point-counter-point strategy for every type of business and situation
• Your emotional make up
• How to identify the seller's emotions and how to play them beautifully
• The 10 "can't miss" skills to become a great negotiator
• 17 things that you must avoid when negotiating or risk losing every deal
• The different stages of negotation
• The "must ask" questions for any business and every situation
• How to create a letter of intent, strategy, exhibit and when to use it
• The negotiating techniques for Down Payment, Balance of Sale, Deposits, Guarantees, Assets, Liabilities, General Obligations, Contracts, Leases
• Non-Compete clauses, their importance and the exact language to be used
• How to deal with the real estate that may or may not be included
• Due Dilligence clauses and exhibit, the time you need to conduct it effectively and the contract language you must use
• Broker obligations
• A mechanism to resolve potential disputes
• How to draft the points
• How to present the offer
• How to handle renegotiation if necessary

Without the right information, you could end up with terms that are not even close to what they could have been had you been education and prepared. This section will prepare you fully by showing you how to:

• Leverage collateral
• Manage Debt Financing, Equity Financing, Debt to Equity Financing
• Pledge assets (how to get away with the absolutely bare minimum)
• Discern the differences and consequences of Recourse and Non-Recourse Loans
• Get financial assistance and where to turn
• Utilize techniques that will help you negotiate seller financing
• Secure SBA Loans -- Your tax dollars at work
• Structure seller financing at incredible terms
• Negotiate to leverage all of the assets
• Implement techniques and strategies to use with Banks, Asset-Based Lenders, Factoring Companies, and Leasing Companies

Every business has secrets. The question is: how do you learn about them before you seal the deal? We'll tell you exactly how to investigate by showing you:

• A 200-point checklist covers every single type of business that you may possibly be looking at
• 22 key points that you must know in advance
• What specifically needs to be examined
• A complete checklist of the materials required to investigate each and every component of the business
• Historical financial data investigation techniques
• Assets-evaluation formulas
• Methods for sales policies, procedures and personnel
• How to determine marketing strategies, failures, successes, options available
• Establish the viability and long-term prospects of the business and the industry in which it operates
• Interview and evaluate all of the company's employees and see who can help/hurt you
• The current systems and the technology available to jumpstart any business
• Incredible tools to investiate every single competitor
• Simple steps to verify the strength of all of the company's suppliers
• Legal and corporate issues to be sure that you have no exposure whatsoever
• How to get competitors and customers to tell you everything you need to know before you buy the business

The actual closing of the deal includes a number of specific documents to be executed. In this program we outline the legalese for you in a straightforward and easy-to-comprehend manner.