How long does it take to buy a business? Step by step

"How long will this take?" is one of the first questions people ask, and there's no single honest answer. Some purchases move quickly because everyone is ready. Others stall for months on one missing document or one nervous seller.

What you can know is the sequence: the stages every purchase goes through, what each stage is waiting on, and what tends to slow things down. That's enough to plan your job, your savings and your expectations.

Stage 1: Finding a company and reaching the owner

When you buy a company that isn't for sale, the first stage runs on the owner's clock, not yours. You write a first letter, follow up politely, and wait. Some owners reply quickly. Some reply a year later. Many never do.

What it waits on: the owner's readiness. You can't hurry any one owner, but you can cast a wider net: writing to more well-chosen companies is the only reliable way to shorten this stage.

Stage 2: Getting to know each other

Once an owner is interested, you talk, starting with a first call, then a visit or two. If both of you want to keep going, you sign a confidentiality agreement and the owner shares tax returns and financial statements, the documents in our post on what to ask for.

What it waits on: the owner gathering documents (often from their accountant), and your own review, ideally with your CPA.

Stage 3: The offer and letter of intent

You work out what the company is worth to you and how you'd pay for it, talk to your lender about whether that structure can be financed, and put it in a letter of intent. Expect some back and forth on price, the seller's role after closing and the timeline.

What it waits on: agreement on the big terms, and your lender's view of whether they work.

Stage 4: Due diligence and the loan, side by side

Once the letter of intent is signed, two tracks run at the same time.

Due diligence is your detailed check of the company. Your CPA ties the financial statements to tax returns and bank deposits and reviews the seller's adjustments to profit. Your attorney looks at contracts, the lease, licenses, lawsuits and liens (legal claims on the company's assets). You look at operations: equipment, systems, customers, employees.

The loan moves through the lender's process. For an SBA-financed purchase, SBA rules require the lender to:

• verify the seller's financial figures with tax transcripts from the IRS (if the IRS hasn't responded within 10 business days, the lender has to ask again);
• get an independent valuation of the business when the price is over $350,000;
• get a quality of earnings report, a deeper review of the company's earnings, when the price is $3 million or more;
• visit the business; and
• approve the loan, either under its own delegated authority (for lenders in the SBA's Preferred Lenders Program) or by sending it to the SBA for review.

What it waits on: the seller producing documents, outside reports (valuation, appraisals if there's real estate), and approvals. This stage is also where surprises turn up, because it's the first time anyone has looked at the company this closely.

Stage 5: The purchase agreement and third parties

While diligence and the loan are underway, the attorneys draft the purchase agreement and the documents that go with it. This is also when you deal with everyone else whose agreement you need, and some of them work on fixed timelines you can't change:

• The landlord, if the business rents its space. You'll need the lease assigned to you or a new lease, and landlords move at their own pace.
• Licenses. In Florida, a contracting company needs a licensed qualifier (the license holder responsible for its work) in place for you. For a health care provider licensed by AHCA, the seller's notice and the buyer's application must reach the agency at least 60 days before the change of ownership. A restaurant's new owner needs a food service license before operating, and a pest control company needs a new license when ownership changes. Our post on licenses has the details.
• The Florida Department of Revenue. You'll want a certificate showing the seller's state taxes are paid, because a buyer can otherwise be liable for them. Holding back part of the price to pay them is a fallback, not a guaranteed release.
• Customers and suppliers whose contracts need their consent to transfer.
• The seller's lenders, who need to provide payoff amounts so their liens can be released at closing.
• Insurance, which has to be in place before the lender will fund the loan.

What it waits on: other people's calendars, mostly. Starting these conversations early is one of the best ways to keep a deal moving.

Stage 6: Closing

When the loan is approved, the paperwork is agreed and the conditions are met, you schedule closing. The lender sends its closing documents, you sign everything, money moves, and you get the keys. Then the transition starts.

What it waits on: the last few conditions, final numbers on the closing statement, and everyone's signature.

What slows deals down

Some delays are unavoidable. These are the common ones worth planning for:

• Records that don't match. If the tax returns, financial statements and bank deposits tell different stories, the CPA and lender will need time to reconcile them, and sometimes the price changes.
• A valuation below the price. Under SBA rules, if the price is higher than the independent valuation, the difference has to come from equity, not the loan. That means renegotiating, bringing more cash, or both.
• Fixed notice periods for licenses, like AHCA's 60 days, that weren't started early enough.
• A slow landlord or a lease that can't be assigned.
• Seller hesitation. Selling a company someone built over decades is emotional. Sellers sometimes go quiet for a while, and pushing hard rarely helps.
• Surprises in diligence: a customer about to leave, an unpaid tax, equipment that needs replacing. Each one has to be priced and negotiated.
• Your own paperwork. Lenders need to verify where your down payment comes from. If it's from several sources, as covered in our post on the down payment, gather the statements early.
• Busy seasons. An HVAC owner in July may have little time for due diligence calls.

How to keep things moving

1. Build your team before you need it. A lender, CPA and attorney who already know you can start the day the letter of intent is signed. See your deal team.
2. Get pre-qualified. Know what your lender needs from you before you make an offer.
3. Put target dates in the letter of intent, with a way to extend them if a third party causes delays.
4. Ask for everything at once. A single, complete document request beats a dozen small ones.
5. Start the landlord, license and tax certificate conversations early.
6. Hold a short weekly check-in with the seller and your team, with a written list of open items.

Planning your life around it

Because the timing is uncertain, don't time your exit from your job to a target closing date. Keep your income until the loan is approved and the documents are close to final. Set aside money for accounting and legal fees on a deal that might not close: if due diligence turns up a reason to walk away, you'll still have paid for the work, and that's money well spent.

And keep the next conversation going. Until one deal is clearly moving toward closing, it's reasonable to keep talking with other owners, as long as you're honest with each of them about where things stand.