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The 90-Day Syllabus
Weeks 1 to 2: Decide With Open Eyes
- ReadBuying Your Employer?The two doors, and the diligence being an insider makes harder.
- ReadIs Buying Right for You?What the path asks in cash, risk, and years.
- ReadNo Experience?Who can require experience of a buyer, and who cannot.
- ReadHow to Buy a BusinessThe whole path in order, before any one part of it.
- ReadWhile EmployedA search can run beside a job; what that costs and when it cannot.
- ListenAcquiring MindsSingle-deal stories, transcribed, so you can read them instead.
- RunChoose Your PathThe questions that name your lane, and the reasons it leaned that way.
- ReadWhat Is a Search Fund?The model and its three variants, and who each one suits.
- BrowseIntern & Job BoardWhat the employed path looks like: standing programs, and which are open.
Weeks 3 to 4: Money Reality
- ReadDo I Need an MBA?Two years of forgone salary, against what it buys.
- RunSBA CalculatorYour cash to a supportable purchase price, payment, and required SDE.
- RunSearch Runway CalculatorLiving expenses plus transaction costs; searches die of underfunding.
- ReadWhat a Deal CostsEquity injection, diligence, working capital: the full bill, itemized.
- ReadPaying YourselfThe salary added back in diligence is the salary you take after close.
- ReadBuying a Family Business?The two financing doors, and the one you can open early.
- ReadWith No Money DownWhich low-cash structures genuinely exist, and their real limits.
- ReadBuying With a Partner?The guarantee you both sign, and the split you both live with.
- ReadIf the Business FailsHow often these loans charge off, and what the guarantee reaches.
Month 2: Build a Thesis and Open the Funnel
- ReadWhich Business to BuyThree questions decide the trade, and taste is the one to answer last.
- ReadGrowing ItYou pay for the growth you can prove, so write the plan before the offer.
- ReadTalking to SellersThe pre-LOI questions, in the order trust earns them.
- ReadWhat Investors Look ForWho the thesis and one-pager are for, and what each lane weighs.
- BuildBuyer ProfileWrite the one-pager brokers ask for, with a thesis statement.
- ReadWhere Deals Come FromThe four doors, what each costs in time, and how to tell which is working.
- ReadHow Long It TakesThe deal clock and the search clock, and which parts you control.
- ReadBrokers, for a BuyerHave proof of funds ready before the first call; many brokerages gate on it.
- ReadApproaching an OwnerThe first message, the first call, and the seller who goes quiet.
- BuildOutreach TemplatesThe first emails to brokers and owners, and the call guide.
- BuildPipeline TrackerLog what your alerts and introductions turn up, from day one.
Month 3: Screen Like a Buyer
- RunDeal ScreenerScreen three real listings a week; it builds the eye fast.
- ReadThe EmployeesWhether employment carries over, and what keeps the people you are buying.
- ReadHow to Get an SBA LoanThe 7(a) acquisition loan step by step, from eligibility to close.
- RunLendersCall two before you need one, and ask the smallest loan each will write.
- ReadWhen a Deal DiesExpect to lose one. What survives, and why the next moves faster.
- BuildSources & Uses BuilderDraft one on a live listing, in the format lenders expect.
- ReadMaking an OfferThe sequence from first number to signed LOI, before you need it.
- ReadTaxes, for a BuyerSettle the allocation while price is open; it is a term, not a formality.
- ReadWhat You Take OnStart the state tax clearance early; it is issued on the state's schedule.
- ReadThe LeaseAsk the landlord the week you sign the LOI, not the week you close.
- ReadClosing DayWhat clears first, what you sign, where the money goes.