You want to resume activity in a profession that you master, thanks to a company in good financial health, which has reliable and diversified customers and suppliers with an efficient and renewed production tool, which thanks to motivated and involved men and women, has quality products, which ensures it a good reputation, of which the seller is retiring and wishes to sell you the business at a suitable price while accompanying you in your first steps…. The ideal target! Unfortunately, tell yourself that it does not exist!
To find, you must first of all know what you are looking for! All the art of your research will be based on your ability to define what you want, without embarking on the quest for the five-legged sheep! You are going to define the criteria. Some will be unavoidable; others may be the subject of concessions. Be careful, however, the opportunity may be hiding where you neither envisioned nor imagined it. Stay open, don’t get too locked into your criteria.
Once you have defined the object of your research, you will still need to know where to look! How is the business takeover market structured? Who can “open doors” for you? How to structure your research? How to identify a company to take over even when the manager does not want to communicate on his desire to sell? What strategies will you need to implement?
In this article, we propose to structure your target search process. The starting point? You! Your first step will be to define your entrepreneurial project. Taking over a business is only the means implemented to achieve this project. Subsequently, we will see the main search criteria that you can use during your target search. Finally, we will see what are the paths to take to conduct your research strategy.
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Define An Entrepreneurial Project
Taking over a business is not an end in itself! It is even almost the opposite. It is not an end, but a beginning. And more precisely, the tool you are going to equip yourself with to start your adventure. If you want to be more efficient, more coherent and more credible with your interlocutors, it is better to have taken the time to mature and define your project. How you want to get there: by taking over a business! Okay. But why and how would you like to go there and another question!
Define Your Search Criteria
You have defined your entrepreneurial project. Well! The definition of your project has probably already led you to define certain selection criteria in relation to your target research. Your path leads you to target a certain field of activity. Your family situation or your aspirations have enabled you to define a geographical area. Your skills and your financial means give you a first idea of the size of the company to identify.
In this section, we suggest you browse a list of potential search criteria. Please note that this list is not exhaustive! Only your aspirations, your expectations, your constraints etc. allow you to define your search criteria. They are very personal, so it’s up to you to complete!
Set Up The Right Search Strategy
Ready to go into battle! So forward! But… where is the battlefield?
Where and how to identify disposal opportunities? Your specifications paint a robot portrait of your ideal target, but you still have to know where to look! The business takeover market is opaque and has several layers: an open market, a market through intermediation and a hidden market.
What market to look for? How to gain access to these markets? Who can help you? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
In this section, we suggest you set up a good search strategy. Through the description of the business takeover market, it’s structuring, we will guide you towards the steps that will allow you to see more clearly.
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