Buying a business needs the art of negotiation

Visited a very pleasant part of Kent today to negotiate the purchase of a small design agency on behalf of our web design/developer client.

It was a relatively small transaction and pleasant people to boot, but still a proper negotiation required to get the result our client wanted.

Negotiation is a real art – especially so in the corporate world.

I’ve always enjoyed it and think this is down to the preparation:

• always make sure you know exactly what result you are aiming for,
• be well prepared,
• have some minor points you know you can giveway on in order to maintain your position on the main issues,
• always try to get to the magical win-win result.

When acquiring businesses it’s important that no one feels ‘shafted’ in the process as the negotiation is only the start of a long process and there’s plenty of opportunities for those who feel slighted to cause problems along the way.