Calgary Business Buy Lawyer

DUE DILIGENCE - BUYING A CALGARY BUSINESS

Due diligence is an absolute priority to any business acquisition, as buying a business without knowing what is behind that company's external appearance (and financial statements, if they have been disclosed) is a recipe for disaster. The process begins with proceeding through a due diligence checklist that has been tailored for the business that you are looking to acquire, but also requires the ability to scrutinize those results and ascertain where further investigatory action is required and questions posed as to the validity and/or completeness of the answers and information provided.

What must be remembered in the due diligence process is that you need to understand what you are looking for and what the objective target is in such investigation, including, but not limited to:

Financials: understanding what the target company's financials for the past 3 to 5 years truly means, whether the financial projections are realizable or they are reliant on too lofty expectations, are there realizable areas for cost savings, are there under-utilized financial and/or tax opportunities

Sale Composition: what is exactly being sold, will it all be transferred, what might be lost in the transference, what will be necessary to achieve proper transference, what liabilities are being assumed, what can possibly be divested prior to the completion of the transaction

Contract / Client Transference: what is the impact of the contract, will the contract be a burden, should the contract be cancelled, what challenges might exist to to the contract's transference and potential extension, will clients / customers follow the move, what can be done to insure client / customer retention, how will new clients / customers be attracted

Establishing Market Demand: what is the current market demand, what is the future market demand, how will it be retained in the transference, how can market demand be increased

Projections: are your projections confirmed, what deficiencies will need to be addressed to meet those projections, and most importantly, is the deal really what is intended to be or is it something less than what you originally anticipated - and you need to brutally honest in this assessment, otherwise you will find yourself in considerable trouble down the road

To understand the value of retaining the services of an experienced acquisition lawyer when buying a business, contact lawyer Christopher R. Neufeld at Chris@NeufeldLegal.com or 403-400-4092. There is far too much at stake to not get the appropriate legal counsel and thereby make wiser and more effective decisions when purchasing a business.