Buying & Selling a Business: A Step-By-Step Guide

I loved this book. The author does a wonderful job telling us what is involved in buying and selling a business. If you are thinking about buying a business to run yourself, or buying a business to add to an existing business, then this book will open your eyes to the process and demystify the process if you aren't knowledgeable about the subject already. When covering how to evaluate the target business (the one you are considering to buy) the author discusses how to analyze the seller's operations and its financial statements. He also emphasizes that it is important to consider why the seller is selling. When covering how to negotiate the sale the author discusses how much to pay, when to pay, stock purchases, asset purchases, and the purchase agreement terms. Since stock purchases were mentioned, I probably would have liked the book better if it had included a chapter on tax-free reorganizations. Adding such a chapter would have at least let readers know that such an animal exists. But maybe it would have been beyond the scope of the book? The book is organized into 8 topics: 1. How to choose the business that is right for you 2. Evaluating the Target 3. Negotiating the Sale 4. How to buy a franchise 5. Choosing the form in which to conduct business 6. Financing the purchase 7. The closing 8. Some thoughts on selling a business Appendices included: Sample Letter of Intent, Sample Purchase Agreement, and Sample Business Plan. My favorite sections of the book for me were the third and fifth topics. The author did a wonderful job of explaining how to put a value on a target company. And he did a great job explaining Choice of Legal Entity issues. The annotated purchase agreement with exhibits in Appendix II was very helpful. And the sample business plan included in Appendix III for a building components manufacturing business was great. 5 stars!