How to Evaluate a Business Before You Buy It
The short answer: Evaluating a business before buying it means digging into five core areas: the financials, the seller’s motivation, operational risks, customer concentration, and whether the asking price is grounded in reality. Most Main Street businesses in Indiana sell for 2–3x seller’s discretionary earnings (SDE), and due diligence typically takes 30 to 90 days. A deal that...Read More
How to Negotiate the Sale of Your Business
The short answer: Skilled negotiation typically moves the final sale price of a business by 8–15% above what a seller would achieve without it — and on terms like deal structure, earn-outs, and tax allocation, the variance can be even higher. On a $2M Indiana business, that’s $160K to $300K decided at the negotiating table, not in the marketing phase. The seven strategies below are the...Read More
How to Buy a Business in Indiana and Actually Close: A Buyer’s Guide to High Success Rates
About 60% to 70% of would-be business buyers never close on a transaction. They make it to a signed NDA, sometimes even to a letter of intent, and then the deal collapses — usually for reasons the buyer didn’t see coming. After two-plus decades and 871+ closed transactions in the Indiana market, I can tell you the buyers who actually finish the process and own a business at the end of it...Read More
What to Know Before Buying an Indiana Business for the First Time
The short answer: Buying an existing business in Indiana is one of the fastest paths to business ownership, but most first-time buyers underestimate how different the process is from anything they’ve done before. The deals that close tend to follow the same pattern: a buyer who defined their target clearly before they started looking, got their financing in order early, understood what...Read More
How to Buy a Business in Indiana
Most first-time buyers I talk to in Indiana fall into one of two camps. The first group has been thinking about it for years, has a 401(k) to roll over, and wants to know what’s actually for sale in Central Indiana right now. The second group spotted a listing on a Saturday, called me on Monday, and is already mentally drafting an offer. Both groups skip the same three things — and those...Read More
Owned or Leased? Tackling Real Estate in Indiana Business Sales
The short answer: Whether the property is owned or leased is one of the first questions that shapes how an Indiana business deal gets structured, financed, and valued. When a seller owns the real estate, it almost always gets treated as a separate asset from the business itself, and the two are often sold independently or packaged together depending on the buyer’s financing. When the...Read More
Am I cut out to be a business owner?
Are you “cut out” to own a business? Most successful business owners are not born with a natural “entrepreneur gene”; instead, they possess a specific combination of resilience, calculated risk-taking, and a growth mindset that is developed over time. If you have a strong desire for professional autonomy and the discipline to manage uncertainty, you likely have the...Read More
Why Buy an Existing Business?
Established businesses offer proven cash flow, documented performance, and operational infrastructure that dramatically reduce uncertainty. For buyers seeking stability, predictability, and faster returns, acquiring a business for sale frequently outperforms launching a new startup. Below, we break down why purchasing an existing company is often the preferred option—and how working with an...Read More
What Are the Key Steps to Buying a Business Successfully?
Buying a business offers a faster path to entrepreneurship than starting from scratch, with established revenue, customers, and operations. In 2025, the small business acquisition market is active, with small business acquisitions jumping 5% year-over-year and transaction values increasing 15%, driven by retiring owners and favorable financing options like SBA loans. Understanding the process...Read More
