Step 4: Negotiating and Financing the Acquisition Various options to finance your acquisition can be found on this website'sHow to Get Financing page. The way you structure the deal will depend on the seller’s ability to negotiate with you and your own financial disposition. Typically the seller will finance 25-33% of the sales price of their business. This is called seller financing (16).
Once you have an idea about the purchase price of the business you should have a letter of intent (17) written up by your attorney. This letter states that the seller will not sell the business to anyone else, but will work with you for a period of time to make the deal. After the letter is signed then the buyer will go into due diligence (18) to examine in-depth all of the aspects of the business. There are three types of due diligence: legal, business, and financial.
