Buying your first business
The asymmetry in a first acquisition is brutal. The seller has run this business for years and has probably sold one before. The broker does this weekly. You are learning the vocabulary while negotiating in it.
From $49 per report.
Nothing is left as jargon
SDE, DSCR, add-back, CAM, earn-out, holdback — every term of art is defined where it first appears. You should never have to nod through a sentence you did not follow.
The questions are written for you to send
Twelve to eighteen questions, ordered so the deal-breakers surface before you spend money on lawyers, each with why it matters and what a concerning answer sounds like. Copy them into an email unchanged.
Decision gates, so you know when to stop
Deals build momentum, and by the time you have spent $8,000 on professionals, walking away feels like failure rather than judgement. The gates are written before you are attached, and they are specific.
It tells you when you are buying a job
If the earnings depend on the owner working sixty hours a week, the report says so and computes what the business is worth to someone who will not. That is the single most common thing first-time buyers discover too late.
The financing reality, upfront
What a lender will actually fund, what down payment it implies, and whether the business services the loan and pays you at the same time.
Questions
I have not signed an NDA and have no financials. Is this still useful?
Yes — that is exactly what the Deal Scan is for. It tells you whether a listing is worth pursuing before you invest time in it. Upgrade to a Full Deal Report once you have the documents.
Do I still need an accountant and a lawyer?
Yes, and the report says so throughout. What it changes is that you arrive at them with a specific list of what to examine, which usually costs less than arriving with a box of paper and a general question.
What if I am looking at several businesses?
Run a Deal Scan on each, then go deep on the one or two that survive. That is how professional buyers work, and it is far cheaper than deep-diving everything.