Acquisition Entrepreneurship — The Dollar Dictionary

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Business

Acquisition Entrepreneurship

Buying an existing profitable business rather than starting one from scratch — inheriting established customers, revenue, and operations, then growing it further.

Where to find businesses for sale: business brokers (Businesses For Sale, Christie & Co, Hilton Smythe in the UK — listings of businesses seeking buyers), online marketplaces (Flippa for online businesses, Empire Flippers for established digital businesses, BizBuySell in the US), direct outreach (approaching owners of businesses you know are good but whose owners might be ready to exit — many business sales never get listed publicly), and accountants and solicitors (who often know before anyone else when a client is considering selling).

Valuing a small business: most small businesses sell for 2-5x annual net profit (EBITDA). A business earning £100,000/year might sell for £200,000-£400,000. Financing the purchase: seller financing (the owner lets you pay in instalments from the business's own cash flow — very common for smaller deals), SBA loans (in the US, government-backed loans specifically for business acquisition), bank loans, or search fund models (investors back an entrepreneur specifically to find and acquire a business). The key due diligence: verify the revenue and profit claims, understand why the owner is selling, assess whether the business depends entirely on the owner's personal relationships (a huge risk — if you buy a business and all the customers leave with the previous owner, you've bought nothing).

Acquisition entrepreneurship is skipping the hardest part of building a business — getting to zero. Starting from scratch means building a customer base, proving the model, surviving the early years with no revenue. Buying an existing business means day one you have customers, staff, systems, and cash flow already. You're not betting on whether it will work — it's already working. Your job is to make it work better.

Real world: Andrew Wilkinson (founder of Tiny) built a portfolio worth hundreds of millions by buying small, profitable internet businesses — software tools, niche media companies, service businesses — that were cash-flowing but whose owners wanted to exit. He's publicly called it "the best business model nobody talks about." At the smaller end, thousands of entrepreneurs every year buy local businesses — car washes, accountancy firms, cleaning companies, plumbing businesses — for £50,000-£500,000 and immediately earn a salary plus ownership upside from day one.

💡 Buying a business is buying proof — you're paying for a model that already works, customers who already buy, and cash flow that already exists, which is a dramatically safer starting point than building from nothing.

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