The publication
Notes on buying, building and backing private companies. For readers who want to understand what sits beneath the headline.
A reading room for due diligence
Due diligence is the work of checking a business against the claims made about it. It is most useful when it changes a decision: what to pay, how to structure a transaction, what protection to seek or whether to stop. A large folder of documents is not the same as a clear understanding of the company.
Begin with the questions that could change the proposition most. Is the profit supported by records? Will customers stay after a change of ownership? Who owns the equipment, intellectual property and relationships on which trading depends? The answers help determine where specialist financial, legal, tax or technical investigation is needed.
This collection focuses on practical enquiry and the limits of what can be known. A checklist gives structure, but each business has its own weak points. Keep unresolved matters visible rather than smoothing them into an optimistic forecast. Use our glossary to understand the language in reports and contracts, and agree the scope of professional work carefully. No amount of investigation guarantees a good outcome; it should make the remaining uncertainty easier to judge.
Due diligence
You cannot check everything. You can check the things that sink deals. A working checklist for buying a small business, in the order that saves the most time.