Storage, Accounting & Acquisitions
LinkedIn Post
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I’m still learning, but understanding the acquisition process of one thing translates into others. I’ve been on a reddit rabbit hole in the bookkeeping space to acquire another and expand what we already have. Someone just asked this on one of my threads and here’s what I said:
Great questions! First I would say figure out your buy box. What is it that you want out of the business. Variables you'll want to know are things like this. Have a clear idea for these so that you can talk the talk with the seller or broker:
- price range
- Do you want the owner to stay on at all
- What services offered
- Geography - Financing
- Are you going virtual?
- Do they own the real estate?
- how many on staff
- How many clients
- Rate of clients / how long has it been the same rate
- What marketing is done
- Is there a particular niche they service
- How many whales? Or percent of service for a few clients
- How many big accounts do they have? Are those based on relationship?
For us it all started on sites like bizbuysell. We search accounting firms, then clicked through and found deals that had good multiple (how many times the asking price is over cash flow).
From there, we reached out to each broker individually about that particular deal but then also let them know EXACTLY what we are looking for so that if they had anything else in the chute, to let us know. We subscribed to their newsletter and then followed up with an email after thanking them for their time.
That's a pretty good start right there. Figure those things out and start reaching out and chatting with brokers. Just be honest with them and let them know its your first time. It doesnt benefit them to scam you. Their reputation is their paycheck. You want to let them know you are highly motivated to buy. They live off of these sales, you dont want to waste their time either.
Hope this helps. Happy to help out more whenever you have questions :)