Three Things Small Business Owners Should Consider When Looking For An Acquisition

getty Just over a year ago, the company I started alongside my co-founder was acquired. This was both a short and long time coming: Any entrepreneur worth their salt will always be on the lookout for a valuable exit opportunity, but rarely do these opportunities evolve into something concrete. While my co-founder and I had been in discussions with the company that acquired us for years, there was still an incredible learning curve when it came to navigating the acquisition process. Despite almost always being on our radar, the acquisition highlighted both new challenges and opportunities for our company. Small businesses, in particular, face a unique set of challenges around an acquisition—especially when the potential parent company is much larger. Every company is for sale, always. One of my company’s board members once told me, “A CEO has two main jobs: raise money and sell the company.” What changes over time are the opportunities for exit and whether there’s a match between those opportunities and your goals. For most of the life of a company, you’re looking for that alignment and it isn’t there because it’s rare. That alignment can evolve, too, developing years later even if it wasn’t […]

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