10/02/2026
Why do good businesses get passed over? 🤔
Sometimes, it isn’t because there’s something fundamentally wrong with the business.
It’s because the buyer’s buy box has become too tight. 📦
A buy box can be incredibly useful for focusing a search. But when too many requirements get stacked together—industry, location, revenue, margins, owner involvement, growth rate, financing, customer mix—the search can start filtering out opportunities that deserve a closer look.
When evaluating an acquisition, I encourage buyers to separate fundamentals from fixable imperfections.
Fundamentals worth protecting:
💰 Sustainable cash flow
⚙️ Transferable operations
📊 Reasonable valuation
🏦 Financeability
👥 Durable customer demand
Then there are imperfections that may actually represent upside for the next owner. 📈
📣 Underdeveloped marketing
⚙️ Inefficient systems
💻 Outdated technology
🎯 An underdeveloped sales process
📋 Operational inefficiencies
The goal isn’t to overlook risk or convince yourself that a bad business is a good one.
It’s to understand which problems threaten the investment—and which problems you may actually want the opportunity to solve.
🧭 The perfect business may be costing you the right business.
The opportunity is likely in the imperfections.
If you’re actively looking to acquire a business, start a conversation. Sometimes a second set of eyes can help you see an opportunity differently.
