Ultimate Guide to Buying an Existing Business

Some legal steps to buying a business that you may want to consider taking first include:

• Creating a budget to know how much you can afford to spend on buying a business;
• Hiring a business attorney to perform due diligence on the business you plan on purchasing;
• Discussing the purchase with the other buyers (if there are any) and understanding their goals before you enter into negotiations;
• Developing a business plan to see if it is feasible to continue operating the business;
• Requesting to see an existing business’s current financial and legal documents;
• Making a list of items that are non-negotiable for you to purchase the business or that you need to confirm that the business has before you buy it;
• Checking that the business has a good reputation; and
• Researching the industry to ensure that you are not buying a business that will soon be obsolete.

Of course, many of these steps can be performed by a local business attorney. An attorney is also a valuable resource to have because they can provide legal advice that is relevant to the purchase. These include what types of documents you will need to purchase a business and how to check if a business is a wise investment or if it carries too much debt.