Buying a business is the fastest way to grow and the fastest way to lose money. The difference is in what you know before you sign. We work with investors, owner-operators and groups across Brisbane and south-east Queensland who are acquiring businesses, from a first purchase to a portfolio, and we bring something most accountants cannot: the firm itself was built by acquisition.
Most accounting work looks backwards: recording what happened and reporting it to the ATO. Acquisition work looks forwards and sideways: what this business will earn under new ownership, what is hidden in its numbers, how the purchase should be structured and funded, and what it does to the buyer's existing group. It is closer to investment analysis than bookkeeping.
Greg Blackaby founded Acquire after building a practice by buying others. The name is literal. The firm has assessed, negotiated, bought and integrated businesses with its own money, and that experience is what investors come to us for.
Whether you are buying your first business, adding a competitor to an existing one, or building a portfolio across several industries, the questions are the same: is the price right, what are we not seeing, how do we structure it, and what happens on day one.
A seller's information memorandum is a sales document. The numbers in it are usually accurate and almost always flattering. Due diligence is the process of finding out what they do not say: revenue that depends on one customer or on the owner, add-backs that are not really one-off, wages that will rise once the family members leave, equipment that needs replacing, tax exposures and employee entitlements that come with the business.
Our due diligence service covers financial, tax and commercial review. We rebuild the earnings from source data rather than accepting the seller's normalised figure, test working capital needs, review the contracts and leases that matter, and give the buyer a written view of what the business is worth and on what terms it should be bought.
The outcome is sometimes a lower price, sometimes better terms, and sometimes a decision to walk away. All three are good outcomes compared with finding the problem after settlement.
How you buy matters almost as much as what you buy. Shares or assets, which entity acquires, where the debt sits, whether the vendor stays in with an earn-out or vendor finance, and how the purchase fits with your existing structure all change the risk, the tax and the return.
We design the acquisition structure to protect the buyer's other assets, keep the purchased business sellable in its own right, and make use of available tax positions on goodwill, depreciation and interest. For investors building a group, we set up the holding structure once so that each further acquisition slots in cleanly.
Funding is modelled alongside: bank debt, equipment finance, vendor terms, equity partners or a combination. Lenders back buyers with credible forecasts and clean structures. We produce both. Our buying a business page covers the basics for a first purchase; this page is for investors who intend to keep doing it.
Deals are won or lost after settlement. Staff are uncertain, customers are watching, the former owner's habits are still running the place and the buyer has a loan to service. The integration plan has to be ready before completion, not written afterwards.
We help acquirers take control of the numbers from day one: Xero migrated or cleaned, management reporting running in the first month, cash flow forecast live, payroll and entitlements correct, and the completion adjustments settled with the vendor. Where the business joins an existing group, we bring it into the group reporting so the owner sees the combined picture immediately.
Over the following quarters we track the acquisition against the case that justified it, so the next decision, whether to buy again, consolidate or fix, is made on evidence.
Some clients buy one business and run it. Others buy several, in the same industry or across different ones, and run them as a group. Portfolio acquirers need the group discipline we describe on our multi-entity page: a holding structure, consolidated reporting, intercompany rules and a tax strategy across the whole.
They also need a repeatable acquisition process: a standard due diligence scope, an offer template, a funding relationship, and an integration checklist. We help investors build that process so each deal gets faster and safer, and the group's value compounds rather than fragments.
We act for acquirers across Brisbane, Logan, the Scenic Rim and the wider south-east, and for interstate investors buying Queensland businesses. Our Victoria Point and Jimboomba offices host deal meetings; the analysis itself is done wherever the data room is. Our mergers and acquisitions team handles the larger and more complex transactions.
If you are looking at a business now, the right time to talk is before the offer goes in.
A small fraction of the purchase price, and usually less than the first problem it finds. The scope scales with the deal: a focused financial and tax review for a small purchase, a fuller financial, tax and commercial review for a larger one. We agree the scope and fee before starting.
Asset purchases let the buyer leave unknown liabilities behind and often give better tax outcomes on goodwill and equipment. Share purchases keep contracts, licences and staff in place without transfer and can be simpler for the seller. The right choice depends on the business, and the price should reflect which one you are getting.
By rebuilding its sustainable earnings from source records, applying a multiple appropriate to its size, industry, risk and growth, and adjusting for working capital, debt and any assets outside the trade. Our valuation service and calculator give a starting range; due diligence refines it.
Often. Vendor finance and earn-outs spread the price, align the seller with the business's performance after sale, and reduce the bank debt needed. They also carry tax and legal consequences for both sides, so the terms need modelling before they are agreed.
Earnings that were overstated by add-backs, customers who were closer to the former owner than to the business, working capital that was lower than needed, equipment overdue for replacement, and employee entitlements or tax positions that were not disclosed. Proper due diligence finds most of these before settlement.
Yes. We regularly act for interstate buyers acquiring Queensland businesses, and for Queensland investors buying elsewhere in Australia. The work is largely done online with site visits where they matter.
