
Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game

Keep a to-do list or a project plan and make sure all your concerns can be addressed.
Walker Deibel • Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game
This exists, and it’s called acquisition entrepreneurship.
Walker Deibel • Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game
also recommend a hefty seller financial investment in the future of the company, either through significant financing or some major holdback granted to them at a later date. This will allow you as the buyer to have significant influence on the seller’s actions in the event you do need it.
Walker Deibel • Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game
John Bowen, CEO of CEG Worldwide and coauthor of The State of the Affluent,17 concluded through his research that some 80 percent of the affluent are either retired or own their own company. Further, an astounding 91 percent of everyone having over $5 million in net worth owns their own company—a trend suggesting that the wealthier someone is, the
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give me insight that the lower middle market is a seller’s market. Moving quickly and offering fair offers can be absolutely essential if you see a business that meets your criteria.
Walker Deibel • Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game
Typically, they would begin to cut expenses, raise prices, and begin an organic growth model of one kind or another. From there, they may acquire other firms in the industry, either as an add-on or tuck-in to the platform they established.
Walker Deibel • Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game
What areas, tasks, and even possible industries are off-limits for you? What activities just absolutely do not interest you? What assignments do you drag your feet on? These should be identified so you can concentrate on working within your sweet spot and focus on what you do best. Get it all down on paper: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Walker Deibel • Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game
As a result, I have found that the most “affordable” acquisitions for financial buyers and acquisition entrepreneurs can be had in the $250,000 to $700,000 SDE range.
Walker Deibel • Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game
Cash Don’t buy their cash. Why would you buy cash? It’s doesn’t make sense. The seller will walk with all their cash and all their debt so that the balance sheet will be recreated as a new company under your ownership.