Finding deals · Topic guide
Sourcing
Creating and qualifying a pipeline of businesses whose owners may consider a sale.
Sourcing turns a broad acquisition interest into conversations with identifiable owners. Listed opportunities provide a seller already exploring a transaction. Direct outreach may reach owners before a formal sale process, but willingness, timing and expectations still need to be discovered. A database entry is a lead; an owner who understands and accepts the outline economics is a materially different prospect.
Sey describes both personal outreach and later delegation to brokers or operating teams. His proposed search routine combines sector and size filters, company checks, lead tracking and owner contact. The mechanism is repeatable follow-up: record what is known, the next unanswered question and when a conversation should resume. A rejected transaction may remain a useful relationship if circumstances change. Watch source Watch source
Measure progress by qualification, not simply the number of messages sent. Before preparing an offer, establish whether the owner wants to sell, what role they play and whether the price expectations could be funded. The source’s contrasting funnel illustrations show why a carefully discussed offer cannot be compared directly with a mass mailing. Neither funnel is a verified conversion benchmark. Search capacity also has a cash cost: travel, time and advisers consume runway before a transaction produces income. Watch source
Follow the connections
Target selection · Brokers · Letter of intent.
Continue in the course: Building a deal pipeline.
See it in an example
- Hypothetical
£5k a month funds a search, not the acquisition
Compare search duration, monthly spending and the ownership offered to an early backer.
Numbers in context
- UK business-sale statistics · 97% not for sale; 3% for sale; 1 in 5 transact; 80% do notUnverified claim
The speaker uses listing and completion estimates to argue for direct owner outreach.
No dataset is supplied; a one-in-five completion claim cannot establish that a particular seller will wait five years. Includes audio recovered with Whisper; amounts and wording have not been independently verified.
- HVAC acquisition target revenue · £5m–£25mRule of thumb
The HVAC search uses an annual-sales band to narrow suitable targets.
A screening preference does not prove availability, quality or financeability.
- Information-package scale · ~30-page IM listed deal; ~5–6-page off-market summaryRule of thumb
Listed and directly sourced deals are contrasted by the amount of introductory material available.
Page counts are preparation examples, not evidence that the information is sufficient.
- Information memorandum length · 12–16 pagesRule of thumb
A sell-side information memorandum is described as a relatively short initial overview.
Length is not a substitute for checking the underlying records.
- Seller balloon illustration · £2m over 4 years at £500k/year versus £333k x3 plus stated £3m year 4Hypothetical
A balloon-payment example aims to move more seller consideration to the final year.
The alternative payments total about £4m, conflicting with the starting £2m obligation.
Sources & further viewing 4 videos
The explanations on this site are independent synthesis. Follow each original for full context. A reported experience is not independent proof of a transaction.
- Personal experience From hands-on search to delegated pipeline
- Rule of thumb Qualified LOIs and funnel
- Educational Systematic search routine