Pre Purchase Business IT Due Dilligence

While a good accountant will help you dissect the financial figures of the business, and make sure you are on a sound financial footing to success after completing the purchase, that doesn’t cover all the potential pitfalls you might face on day one as the new owner of that business.

Many business buyers neglect to consider the state of the information technology in the business they are buying, and only find out how bad things are after settlement, when often it’s too late to do much about it.

You can avoid a lot of cost, hassle and drama by having a detailed report on all the business technology and intellectual property before you reach settlement.

You’ll need to seek permission from the seller of the business to have your IT Consultant come in and review the business technology infrastructure. Once that’s done, we just book a time to meet with the existing owner, and gather as much information from them verbally as well as interrogating their existing equipment (if they give permission).

We then give you a report on what weaknesses exist with the business IT setup, and let you know what sort of investment you are likely up for over the next 3-5 years, so you can factor this into your plans, and if need be, use it to negotiate a better deal.

Further to that we do extensive searches on the business intellectual property; Websites, Email, Social Media accounts. We’re looking to make sure the current owner has their ducks in a row, and is in fact able to hand you the entire business on settlement day.

You might be surprised to learn that it’s not uncommon for business owners to not have access to their own intellectual property, and not even realise it’s a problem until you ring them complaining you can’t take ownership of what you just paid for!