Work a Deal

Step 1

Screen It

A short screen decides whether this deal deserves your next hour at all.

Step 2

Read the NDA

Which clauses in the broker's agreement are ordinary, and which are worth asking to change before you sign.

Step 3

Read the CIM

What the package claims, what it leaves out, and the questions the gaps turn into before you underwrite.

Step 4

Underwrite It

Flags, the industry's comps, coverage after your salary, and the price the business can actually carry.

Step 5

Project Five Years

Cash flow, coverage, the rate stress, and year one month by month.

Step 6

Check It Can Be Financed

Whether this business, this seller, and you clear the 7(a) rules, before diligence money is spent.

Step 7

Line Up the Lender

The lenders that write a loan this size, approached before the LOI rather than after it; the quote-request template sends every desk the same note so the terms compare.

Step 8

Decide the LOI Terms

Price, structure, exclusivity, and the outs you keep, ready for counsel.

Step 9

Build Sources & Uses

What the deal costs all-in, who funds it, and the computed guaranty fee.

Step 10

Scope the QoE

The verification scope and RFP, so diligence tests the earnings you are paying for.

Step 11

Work the Diligence Checklist

The six workstreams to close, worked from your side before a surprise becomes a retrade.

Step 12

Settle the Working-Capital Peg

The normal level of working capital that should convey, before it is argued at the table.

Step 13

Fund the Close

Every dollar due on closing day, from the injection to the prepaids, line by line.

Step 14

Paper the Seller's Transition

How long the seller stays, at what hours and what pay, agreed while you still have leverage.

Step 15

Plan the First 100 Days

Day zero of ownership: the sequence that protects the value you just bought.

Step 16

Forecast the First Quarter

Which week the account runs dry, with the loan payment landing where it actually lands.