HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business

Think Big, Buy Small, Own Your Own Company

By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff

Narrated by: Brian Holsopple

Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Are you looking for an alternative to a career path at a big firm? Does founding your own start-up seem too risky? There is a radical third path open to you: You can buy a small business and run it as CEO. Purchasing a small company offers significant financial rewards - as well as personal and professional fulfillment. Leading a firm means you can be your own boss, put your executive skills to work, fashion a company environment that meets your own needs, and profit directly from your success.

But finding the right business to buy and closing the deal isn't always easy. In the HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business, Harvard Business School professors Richard Ruback and Royce Yudkoff help you:

• Determine if this path is right for you
• Raise capital for your acquisition
• Find and evaluate the right prospects
• Avoid the pitfalls that could derail your search
• Understand why a "dull" business might be the best investment
• Negotiate a potential deal with the seller
• Avoid deals that fall through at the last minute

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2017 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Written by HBS professors, meant for HBS students

This book goes into detail on how a recent MBA graduate can start a search fund to raise $1M - $2M, search for a company for up to 24 months and in the end purchase an "enduringly profitable," non-sexy, low-growth company with recurring customers. The authors call this "entrepreneurship through acquisition."

They walk you through preliminary due diligence, gauging the owner's commitment to sell, deal terms, making an offer (LOI), confirmatory due diligence and beyond.

Too Academic

Decent overview of the topic, but definitely too academic in it's approach, not as practical in 2022. They suggest a multi year 750k effort, hiring staff and securing office space just to conduct your search. Not how business is done in this century.

Anyone serious about Small Business Acquisition should instead look up Kyle Mallien and Michael Byars.

Worth reading if considering buying a small business

I read Buy then Build while listening HBR Guide to buying a business. Both provided a lot of good information. HBR is focused on larger acquisitions in the $5million and up range, which is larger than I am looking at but there were a lot of good takeaways for me.

straight to the point

I live how the book is straight forward and brings things up that you may not have thought of in the business buying process.

Love the layout of information

Information was laid out in a way that is easy to understand and act upon.

A great primer

There are plenty of helpful examples, recommendations, and sensitivities called out throughout that process which help contemplate the various edge cases one might encounter.

Interesting

Interesting introduction. Examples seem to be more towards medium sized businesses than small ones, but that's a matter of definition in how you divide SME:s

Helpful

Currently negotiating on a small business transaction, and this book has been very helpful. I would recommend.

Informative, inspirational, action-oriented

Really enjoyed this audiobook. As an MBA student who has worked in various industries and functions, this book provides me with tools and processes for acquiring a small business upon graduation.

Good for MBAs

Really directed towards recent MBAs, so would be great for that crowd. Not as helpful for everyone else.

Very detailed and practical

A very detailed step by step guide on how to do this. Good book if you wonder how this is done.

For me ...inspirational

Thank you for publishing this book. As well as excellent audio performance, this book will become for me a tremendous reference book as I look to acquire a business. I have a background in corporate M&A as a director of acquisition for large corporates now I'm venturing into acquiring my own business and perhaps several more in time. This book has been inspirational in that way for me...through the content provided, I felt like I have a playbook that will guide me through the processes. I hope that my experience of corporate acquisitions will give me the confidence, professional network and background to successfully acquire. Without doubt Sourcing the prospects is the key at the outset and I plan to give myself up to 2 years to source a business (thanks to my wife's agreement..!). I would love to attend the course as a separate module as it was something not covered on my own MBA in London.
Once again many thanks for a wonderful thought provoking book.

Good book for overall high level information.

I have learnt a few new things from this book. Gives a good overview of eta and search funds. Just feels like that some keys areas were not touched in greater depth.