Buying a business in 2026: the 12 questions every beginner asks

This article is the written version of the video above. I made it for anyone who wants to buy their first or next business in 2026 and keeps hitting the same twelve questions. In my view, buying a business is easier than starting one, if you know what you are doing. If you do not, you can waste months chasing the wrong deals. Here are the twelve questions to ask before buying a business, and my answers, in the order people ask them.

1. How do I pick the right sector?

I use a simple test. Pick a sector where four things overlap:

• Passion, so you do not get bored.
• Experience, so you understand how the business works.
• Knowledge, so you have the basics of that sector.
• Network, so you know people who can open doors fast.

"If you can combine those four things, you'll understand deals faster, you'll spot red flags sooner, and sellers will take you more seriously." Lenders and investors will too. You do not need all four, but every one you have makes the next steps easier.

2. How do I find good deals?

You want motivated sellers. In my experience, owners nearing retirement are the number one source of good businesses to buy. The system looks like this:

1. Build a credible buyer profile, so brokers and owners take you seriously.
2. For off-market deals, use LinkedIn plus email outreach. That works best for us.
3. Have a real website. Owners trust you more when you are not writing from a Gmail address.
4. Talk only to people who have raised their hand and said they want to sell. That saves you months.
5. Use listings too. Brokers and marketplaces are full of owners who already said yes to selling.

At Acquisitions.com our AI reads 15+ business-for-sale marketplaces every day and screens each listing against a client's buy box. The longer guide to the whole process is in how to buy a business.

On size, if you are just getting started, I suggest businesses doing $1 million to $10 million in revenue. Below that you are often buying yourself a job. Above that you are competing with private equity firms. In between there is enough cash flow to pay you and the loan, and not too much competition. "It's not too big, not too small. It's the sweet spot that we found."

3. How do I get the money, and where are the lenders?

Most deals we see are funded from three places at once. These are the averages I tell buyers to expect, not rules:

So on a $3 million business you usually need around $150,000 to $300,000 in equity. It does not have to be your money. "If you have a good deal, it can attract capital. If it's a bad deal, it's going to be more difficult."

In the US, most buyers start with an SBA lender. The SBA's 7(a) loan program is the one most used for buying a small business. Conventional lenders, cash-flow lenders, equity partners, seller notes and earn-outs fill in the rest. Once the seller accepts your offer, you build a capital stack from those pieces to cover the full price.

What matters more than any single source is the system. If you understand the structures and how they combine, you have more options when you make an offer. We introduce clients to SBA lenders and to investors who want a passive stake in small-business acquisitions. Acquisitions.com is an advisory firm, not a lender; the financing comes from third-party lenders and investors.

4. How do I do due diligence?

There are two phases.

Before the offer. Check revenue trends, the quality of the revenue, margins, cash flow and the debt service coverage ratio (DSCR). Look at the customer mix and the basic financial documents. This is enough to decide whether to make an offer and at what price.

After the offer is accepted. Now you go deep. Full financials, sometimes audited. Contracts. Employees. Customers, maybe even talking to some of them. Legal issues. Tax returns.

"Most disasters come from missing documents or not knowing what red flags look like. Even a solid checklist can save your life." Having someone with experience looking over your shoulder saves time and money on top of that.

5. Is Acquisitions.com a broker?

No. A lot of people ask, so I will be clear. Brokers work for sellers. Everything in this video is about how we work with most of our clients, and that is on the buyer's side of the table. I have sat on both sides over the years. We also have advisors who work under our name, but the main work we do is supporting people who are buying.

We help buyers find deals, analyse them faster, make offers, and meet investors and banks. Our goal is to support the acquisition itself, and often to partner with the buyer on the business after the deal.

6. How do I negotiate?

I follow a simple four-part formula.

1. Find out what the seller really wants. Often it is time, certainty or legacy. It is rarely just price.
2. Make terms matter more than price. Seller notes, earn-outs, a consulting role for the seller. If you agree to their price, find a way for them to agree to your terms.
3. Send the LOI at the right time. Too early is weak. Too late and the deal is gone. There is psychology in when you make an offer.
4. Counter logically, not emotionally. "Deals get done when you remove ego and follow the math."

7. How long does it take, and do I need experience?

On your own, starting from scratch, four to six months is the average I see. Buyers who work with an advisor and have deal flow and lender relationships ready typically close in 60 to 120 days. Either way, plan on 10 to 20 hours a week of consistent action: deal flow, calls with sellers, calls with financial partners.

If that sounds like too much, acquisition may not be for you. But remember the size of the prize. One business doing $1 million to $5 million in revenue can change your life. "You don't need ten businesses to start with. You need one good one." Focus on the first acquisition. Whether you buy more after that is up to you.

Do you need experience in the sector? No. It helps, but it is not required. You can bring in outside operators and advisors. You can write a transition period into the deal so the seller stays and runs operations for a while. You can use performance-based earn-outs. We work with people who buy outside their industry all the time, and the structure makes up for the experience gap.

8. What tools do I need, and why do buyers succeed or fail?

The bare minimum is a legitimate buyer profile and a legitimate website. Then the working documents: outreach scripts, LOI templates, NDA templates, a due diligence checklist, a way to make offers, a financial model you understand, and the contracts investors and lenders expect. "These are what separate real buyers from a random person on Gmail that you would never take seriously."

The buyers who succeed with us follow the process. They talk to sellers. They make offers every week. They stay consistent and they do not quit when a deal falls apart, because deals fall apart.

The buyers who fail usually overthink. They do not send the outreach. They never get on calls. They stop too early. Acquisition is a skill, and it rewards volume plus discipline.

9. What happens after I buy the business?

This is where most buyers get stuck. Many lose their nerve before closing because they do not know what they will do on day one. But this is where the real money is made, after the close, not before it.

Once you own the business, the focus shifts to raising profit without adding headcount. With AI that is now very possible. Here is how we do it in the companies we invest in:

1. AI content and distribution. Systems that create content, publish it across platforms and turn attention into sales. More customers without more employees.
2. Paid ads that scale. Most businesses can grow with ads if you track the numbers that matter and turn customers into recurring revenue.
3. An AI receptionist, dialer or SDR. The business stops losing leads. AI answers every call, texts back instantly, books appointments and follows up on its own.
4. Automations and follow-up. CRM automation, lead nurturing, retention systems, referral loops. Higher margins without burning out the team.

The goal is to serve more customers with the same number of people, or fewer, while profit goes up. That is what real post-acquisition growth looks like. We wrote a separate guide on AI after an acquisition, and the AI page shows what we install.

Use this as your playbook. The right deal is probably already out there. Do the work, and if you want help finding deals, analysing them, making offers and meeting lenders and investors, book a call.