Part IV
Prepare
The readiness gate comes before the machine. Personal runway and family alignment, the credible buyer profile a seller actually picks, the thesis and buy box at the data layer, capital pre-work, and the deal team you hire knowing their incentives.
Personal Readiness
- L4.1.1
The Runway Rule
Bank expenses, not salary, before you look, and hold liquidity for after the close rather than spending it to get into the deal. Post-close cash matters more than getting the deal done.
TraditionalSelf-FundedCore - L4.1.2
The Kitchen Table
Family alignment before the search begins. Read every personal guarantee aloud at the kitchen table, treat a spouse's red line as a governance instrument, and brief yourself on deal fatigue before month one.
TraditionalSelf-FundedCore
The Credible Buyer
- L4.2.1
The Seller's Two Questions
Can you actually close, and can you actually run it. Everything a seller asks is one of those two questions in disguise, and your preparation should answer both before they are asked.
TraditionalSelf-FundedOpen - L4.2.2
The One-Page Buyer Profile
Who you are, what you buy, proof of funds, timeline. Be the buyer a seller picks when you are not the highest offer: trust beats every clause, and sellers routinely take a lower number from a buyer they believe.
TraditionalSelf-FundedOpen
Thesis and Buy Box
- L4.3.1
The Search Thesis
Geographic constraint as a thesis lever, industry selection through the misalignment lens, and the discipline of choosing your hard before the market chooses it for you.
TraditionalSelf-FundedCore - L4.3.2
Building the Buy Box at the Data Layer
Observable filters before scoring: industry code tiers, revenue proxies, geographic clusters, inclusion signals that suggest an owner near transition, and hard exclusions. Taught with a worked buy box built from public databases.
TraditionalSelf-FundedCore - L4.3.3
The Scoring Rubric
A weighted score with hard gates and action bands that decide whether a target is pursued, investigated, held conditionally or passed. You may overrule the rubric, but only in writing, with the override memo on file.
TraditionalSelf-FundedCore
Capital Pre-Work
- L4.4.1
The Search Budget
Fund the pipeline you mapped in Part I, including a dead-deal reserve, and know the weekly burn of the search before it starts. A search that runs out of money produces the deal it can afford rather than the deal it should take.
Self-FundedAdvanced - L4.4.2
Pre-Conversations
Have the lender and investor conversations before you have a deal. The SBA eligibility pre-screen, the capital stack you are heading toward (roughly 65% SBA debt, 15% seller note, 15% investor equity, 5% your own capital), and investor talks that start from a balanced term baseline.
Self-FundedAdvanced - L4.4.3
The Borrower's File
The SBA loan as a process you run rather than something that happens to you: the personal financial statement, the borrower information form, credit preparation, the resume a lender actually reads, and a realistic underwriting calendar with its late-stage deal killers named in advance.
Self-FundedAdvanced - L4.4.4
What Never to Collateralize
The injection sources first-time buyers reach for and what each really costs: retirement rollovers, home equity lines, retirement accounts, family money. The house rule is never to pledge an asset whose loss you cannot recover from.
Self-FundedCore
The Deal Team
- L4.5.1
Hiring the Conflicted Experts
You mapped every advisor's incentives in Part I, and you still need an attorney, a CPA and a QoE provider. How to pick a deal attorney by transaction count in your size band, what the engagement letter should say, fee caps, and managing advisors without outsourcing the decision to them.
TraditionalSelf-FundedSponsorCore