Buying a business can be a scary, scary thing. You’ve been over the numbers, you’ve sought expert advice and you’ve spent the entire due diligence period going over everything with a fine-toothed comb. Surely if there was some underlying issue or skeleton in the closet you’d have found it by now, right?

Well, maybe.

Businesses are complex, messy creatures. Taking the step into entrepreneurship by buying a business will require a bit of a leap of faith on your part.

Even if you go over everything line-by-line there’s a good chance there’s something you missed or something that couldn’t be foreseen.

Wait, what? I don’t want to buy a disaster!

If you’ve asked the right questions and spent your due diligence period actually doing your due diligence you probably won’t be walking into a mess. You will, however, be walking into a small business that will have it’s issues and ups and downs – it’s the nature of business ownership. There are going to be things that are completely out of your control, and you need to be mentally prepared for the things you will have to face.

Going into the process of buying a business already knowing that there will more than likely be problems somewhere down the line will better equip you when those issues come up. It’s far easier to deal with a problem you were expecting than to be blindsided.

This isn’t to say that you should be paralyzed by fear that the business you are buying has some hidden fatal flaw. You just need to remember that business ownership is inherently risky, so mentally prepare yourself for those risks and you will be ready to handle them when they happen.

Are you thinking about buying a business but are worried about hidden issues? Would you like to know more about the due diligence process? Please ask us! Leave any questions or comments and we would be happy to help.

Michael Monnot