
Ask HN: How do I approach buying a company from someone? - marcamillion
Are there dos and don&#x27;ts when it comes to approaching someone to buy their business?<p>Especially businesses that are going well and growing organically and the owner&#x2F;founder is comfortable and has no need to sell.<p>How do I broach the subject that can optimize the likelihood that they would realistically entertain the idea of selling their company or more importantly selling to me?
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Bucephalus355
You should feel fine approaching someone to buy their business.

In fact, if someone wasn’t at least willing to talk to you about selling, I
would consider that a red flag on the business. I’ve always read in business
books, or for the CEO’s I’ve worked for, that you should always have the “for
sale” shingle outside your business no matter what.

Also in a way you are flattering them. You think the company they’ve created
is so cool you’re willing to spend hundreds of thousands or millions of
dollars to buy it. There is something deeply rewarding about hearing that,
since all owners have a little bit of doubt no matter how good things seem on
the outside.

For actual tactics, I would Google “business broker”, or type that into
LinkedIn. Business brokers are like the real estate agents for buying
businesses; it’s been the default model for the last couple of decades.

EDIT: even if the business is doing _fantastic_ you can always play the “what
if this is a bubble” card. They could lose everything overnight, especially as
this trade war heats up, and you could eliminate all of that risk for them.

