The 2nd biggest mistake most searchers make:

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by a professional from University of Southern California - Marshall School of Business
in North Palm Beach, FL, USA

4yrs ago

The 2nd biggest mistake most searchers make:

Not, upfront, sufficiently widening their funnel of potential business opportunities. (Think about your monthly lost opportunity income.) The BIGGEST reason why most searchers unnecessarily delay their success or give up: They simply overestimate how they'll be perceived in their marketplace. Too many failing searchers unrealistically believe their own messaging. I see it every week when doing this for searchers: redacted

• Anyone want to suggest or prove a better #1 reason for failure?

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reply by a searcher 4yrs ago
from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Believing that you can find businesses that they write about in text books for the multiples they mention. For the searchers looking for a history of growth, no customer concentration, recurring revenues, a significant moat / barrier to entry, strong industry trends, and a strong management team.... those businesses exist, but they aren't going to be 3-4x.

I think a lot of searchers believe there is the perfect business out there, and review a lot of opportunities only to realize there is a lot of risk in acquisitions--you just have to find an opportunity where you can get comfortable with the associated risk.

reply by a professional 4yrs ago
from University of Southern California in North Palm Beach, FL, USA

^redacted‌ I bet you agree with this: Insight provided by a longtime dealmaker (contributing to my book, “How to Prepare Yourself and Find the Right Business to Buy”):
"There is no such thing as a perfect business, every business has warts; you need to make sure that the warts are not malignant. That being said, most problems can be fixed, with a good plan of action by a good business person. Specifically, . . . "