The Acquisition Process - Deal Flow

What are you trying to do? Let’s get a strategy of how you’re getting this.

So you can work out what your targets are, What do they look like? Where are you going to find them? Go find your targets, understand a bit about the business to the extent that you can agree on commercial terms. How are you going to buy it, price and timing of payment. Then you put this out all together in a term sheet. And term sheets can be called so many different things, which is very exciting. You can call them term sheets, heads of agreement, memorandum of understanding, letter of intent, non-binding letter of intent, and so many names for them.

I did a podcast one day on this because someone called me and said “Oh no, not an MOU.” I mean, no, no, I’m talking about a commercial terms document.” I’m like, “Okay, stop! The industry has got to stop.” This is all the same thing. 

Find the target, the commercial terms are like you have a conversation with them. Then you come to some sort of initial short two-page agreement. And in that, one of the things that you should be building in is making sure you have the period of exclusivity while you’re kicking in funds to due diligence.

You don’t want to be spending money on advisors if someone is just going to come and buy some business from under you. We get term sheets in place and they’re usually called non-binding but what we keep finding and which is important, some people don’t realise you need legal advice at this point, because we need to make sure it’s working right.

The right place is right in the beginning before you’re starting, because the best place to start with all of these is making sure your current business is strong enough to withstand an acquisition.

It is about making sure you’re super clear about what you’re doing. And I think at that point, you need to get together with your deal team, your accountant, and your lawyer to sit down and get clear on what your strategy is and how your business is looking from a strength perspective before you start it.

Watch the full webinar, ‘Acquiring a Business’ at https://learning.benwalker.com/courses/acquiring-a-business