What are the most important skills to develop pre-search?

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Thanks for the tag, ^Searchfunder member‌. I just created a full course on this for my women's search community, Our WAEE.

It will depend a bit on whether you're considering traditional or self-funded search. Many of the steps will overlap, but there are a lot of divergences as well. I primarily work with self-funded searchers so this response will be through that lens.

In my opinion, there are 2 perspectives with regard to "search readiness" - what do you need to be technically capable of search and what do you need to be personally prepared for search/acquisition.

On the technical side:

--> How important are accounting / M&A experience? Is this a must have or something that can be fractionalized?

If you don't have a decent understanding of the financial side of things, you're gonna want to learn. You can (and should) outsource some of this (like QoE), but you need to understand enough to know whether the deal has enough cashflow to hit the desired DSCR (usually 1.5 or so as a minimum, depending on where you're getting your funding) as part of your pre-LOI due diligence.

Much of this can be learned by reading the recommended books (HBR Guide to Buying A Small Business, Buy then Build, Search Funds & Entrepreneurial Acquisitions, etc), watching the video version of podcasts like Acquisitions Anonymous on YouTube, talking with folks in the search community (both locally and on forums like Searchfunder), and asking a ton of questions along the way.

A lot of the rest is a matter of learning by doing. Start looking at companies you might be interested in and go through the numbers as practice exercises - getting feedback from people with experience to identify where you may need some extra education/practice. I'd especially recommend this since you have time before going all in on search.
--> What skills are target independent vs target dependent (e.g. all searchers need some familiarity with strategy & general mgmt, e.g.)

This one is an "it depends" answer. If you're going after a specific industry, then there will be some specific/target dependent skills you'll need...but it's hard to say exactly what those are at this stage without more information.

In general, communication skills are a top priority for me. There are so many opportunities for deals to go sideways due to miscommunications on both sides.

The more skill you have in not only being able to understand what is/isn't being said, but also the motivations for why certain things are/aren't said, the easier it will be to navigate the search and acquisition process.

You need to understand people & how to influence them (aka persuasion & influence). This comes into play as part of negotiation and dealmaking.

You'll learn the nuances of how to apply them through making mistakes when you start out, but having a fundamental understanding of them and a willingness to learn more is important.

One skill that isn't talked about much but I believe is ESSENTIAL to both searching and operating a business successfully is nervous system regulation.

The ability to be non-reactive & to effectively manage your stress response is critical in being able to handle the storm of chaos that often is small business ownership without burning out or ending up with serious mental health issues etc.

Your ability/inability to regulate your nervous system will show up in your company culture.
--> Are there non technical skill areas that I should be investing time? E.g. networking?

This is a relationship-based game. If you approach it with a transactional mindset, it's likely not gonna work out the way you want it to. Learn how to really network and connect with people.

Understanding how to "be a human" is a highly underrated skill in a world where so many want to scale by automating everything. Especially if you're going to be doing off-market/proprietary search as a self-funded searcher (meaning you don't have access to PE sized capital), not being a jerk goes a LONG way.

There are a lot more considerations like taking steps to ensure you're fundable if you're going to use a SBA 7a loan, but the biggest things you should ask yourself at this point is:

Why do I want to do this and what do I want to get out of it? What life am I wanting to have in 5-7+ years and is this the best option for me to get it? What does success look like for me re search/acquisition?

Once you clarify/define the end goal/desired outcome, you can reverse engineer the best search route to get there. Then more technical questions make sense.

Hope this helps. Happy to answer more questions.