Deals

Selling your business? Get diligence-ready.

Issue

A buyer is interested. What will they want to see?

Rule

Serious buyers run due diligence before closing, and what they find shapes the price, the terms, and whether the deal closes at all.

Translation

Clean up the closet before company comes over.

Expect requests for several years of financial statements and tax returns, customer and vendor contracts, leases, licenses and permits, employee and payroll records, and any past or pending claims.

Get a confidentiality agreement signed before you share anything, and organize documents in one place before the first request arrives. Gaps found late make buyers nervous, and nervous buyers renegotiate.

Read the letter of intent carefully too. It is often described as non-binding, but certain terms, like exclusivity and confidentiality, are usually written to bind you.