Yes. As a licensed brokerage, the commercial case, the numbers, and the risks all get checked properly before any money moves, which is exactly the step most first-time buyers skip or rush.
The appeal of buying an existing business is real: instant revenue, existing customers, and systems already running, instead of building all of it from nothing. The risk is just as real, and it's rarely visible in the listing. Numbers that look strong can be inflated by one-off events, an owner's personal expenses run through the business can distort what the true profit actually is, and a business that looks independent on paper can turn out to depend entirely on the current owner's personal relationships with key clients, relationships that don't transfer with the sale.
Proper due diligence checks all of this before you commit: verifying the real, sustainable earnings behind the reported numbers, understanding exactly why the business is being sold (a genuine retirement is a very different signal to a business quietly declining), and confirming what actually transfers on settlement, contracts, staff, supplier relationships, versus what walks out the door with the seller. Getting this wrong doesn't just cost money, it can mean buying a business that looks nothing like what was advertised within six months of taking over.
At real deal sizes, this isn't small money either way. A well-established business priced around $1 million typically needs a deposit in the order of $500,000, 30 to 50 percent of the purchase price is standard for acquisition finance in Australia, with the rest funded against the combined business's ability to service the debt. Getting the due diligence wrong at that scale doesn't just cost money, it's the difference between a business that comfortably covers its new debt and one that can't.
The businesses that make the best acquisitions usually aren't the ones being aggressively marketed. They're found through a structured search and properly checked before an offer goes anywhere near a number, exactly the kind of work Smart Growth advisory covers alongside organic growth, not acquisition alone.
I'm thinking about buying another business, can you help?
Yes. As a licensed brokerage, the commercial case, the true earnings behind the numbers, and the risks (client concentration, owner dependency, why the business is actually being sold) can be checked properly before committing, which is the step most first-time buyers skip.
See where your business really stands with a free Comma Score, it's built to help with exactly this decision.