Buyer journey
The buyer journey
What actually happens between deciding to buy something and running it, in the order it happens, with honest timescales rather than optimistic ones.
One thing to know early
The price you agree decides the funding you can get
Most buyers treat price and funding as two separate steps: agree the number, then go and find the money. In practice they are the same problem. A lender services debt out of what the business earns after someone has been paid to do the work, so a price agreed without reference to that figure can be perfectly reasonable commercially and still be unfundable.
That is the single most common reason a deal that everyone was happy with stalls at the funding stage. It is worth reading valuation basics before you agree heads of terms, not after.
It is also the reason to talk to us early rather than late. We know this market and we know specific people who have funded these businesses before, so we can tell you what a lender is likely to make of the price you are contemplating while it is still a conversation rather than a signed agreement.
The stages
The stages
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Article
Completion, conditions precedent and where the money actually goes
The day the business changes hands, the list that has to be cleared first, and the money that leaves before it reaches the seller.
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Guide
Defining what you are actually buying, and why
The brief comes before the search. What it has to answer, and why a lender reads the same document.
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Guide
Due diligence, and keeping the funding intact while you do it
Verifying what you have been told, in four streams, without losing the lender you already have.
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Guide
The first hundred days, and the covenants nobody mentioned
The period where the price gets justified or does not. Retention, cash and the reporting your lender is...
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Article
Heads of terms, and the funding points that belong in them
Mostly not binding, and it still decides the deal. What to settle in it, and what to leave for the lawyers.
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Article
Timelines, and what actually sets the critical path
Honest durations for each stage, the dependencies that cannot be compressed, and the delays that are...
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Guide
Valuation basics, and the number a lender actually uses
Price is negotiated on one number and debt is serviced from another. What the second number is, and how it is...
Tell us where you are in this, and we will tell you who funds it
The funding conversation is easier the earlier it starts, because the price you agree changes what you can borrow. Tell us the sector and the stage you are at.