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LATEST INSIGHTS
At Core Team Partners, we are spending a lot of time on acquisitions right now. What has become increasingly clear is that finding a business to buy is actually the easy part. The harder and more important question is whether that business helps build the company we want to create.
Some of the companies we are working with are looking at acquisitions for immediate revenue and cash flow. Others need experienced people, customers, infrastructure, distribution, a new geographic market, or capabilities that would take years to build organically. In several cases, it is a combination of all of those things.
That is why we usually start with the company we want to build, not the company available for sale.
We are currently helping companies evaluate acquisition opportunities across trucking and logistics, professional services, food and beverage, retail, events, technology, and other industries. The businesses may be completely different, but the questions we ask are remarkably similar.
Of course we look at revenue, profitability, cash flow, recurring business, customer concentration, expenses, debt and working capital. But the numbers only tell part of the story.
We also want to know what comes with the business. Is there a good team? Will management stay? Are there valuable customer relationships? Can technology improve the operation? Does the business give us infrastructure or capabilities we would otherwise have to build? Most importantly, does it create a stronger company after the transaction?
A lot of our work right now is actually happening around what comes after the acquisition.
We are working through seller transitions, management structures, operating support, financing, employee continuity and post-close growth plans before transactions ever reach closing. In some situations, we are exploring short-term management agreements so a client's team can begin learning and operating the business while the purchase agreement, financing and closing continue in parallel.
Financing is part of that same conversation. A transaction can look great on paper and still become a problem if the financing puts too much pressure on the business after closing. The same goes for operations. Buying a profitable company does not automatically mean the buyer is ready to operate it.
So we are increasingly looking at the acquisition target, financing, seller transition, management, technology, integration and growth plan as one process instead of seven separate projects.
Some of the most interesting strategies we are working on involve more than one acquisition.
One business might bring production. Another brings retail locations. Another brings customers, distribution, technology or an experienced operating team. Individually they can be good businesses. Put together correctly, they can become the foundation for something much larger.
That is where acquisitions fit naturally into what we do at Core Team Partners.
Sometimes the right answer is to build. Sometimes it is to fund the next stage. Sometimes it is bringing in the right leadership. And sometimes it makes more sense to acquire the revenue, people, customers or infrastructure the company needs.
Right now, we are doing a little bit of all of it.
The goal is not simply to buy a business. It is to use the acquisition to build a stronger company.
