Business Growth through Acquisition

There are various options to consider when growing a business. This course focuses on one of the most common methods of business growth: Acquisition.

By ‘acquisition’ we mean expansion through buying another business or finding a partner business and merging it with the existing business. Whether it’s a merger or a takeover, expanding a business in this way requires a leap into the unknown; no matter how much preliminary investigation and negotiation goes on, the full truth never emerges until the businesses are actually joined.

This online course on Business Growth through Acquisition provides learners with the tools and techniques they need to be able to understand how to grow their business through mergers and acquisitions as well as the pitfalls and issues.

This course allows learners to work through activities, share their learning with peers, and gain the knowledge and skills that will enable them to successfully manage a merger or acquisition.

Business Growth through Acquisition enables the learner to:

• Get to grips with the alternative finance market
• Understand the details of how the options work
• Decide which options are right for their business or clients
• Secure the best deal on the option chosen
• Understand what they need to do to apply

The right move
• Is a takeover different to a merger?
• Why expand your business?
• How do you make the decision?
• What can go wrong?
• What is due diligence?

Financing the deal
• How much will it cost?
• How do you value a business?
• How do you raise the money?
• What is the cost of borrowing and the risk premium?
• What is mezzanine financing?

Merging the businesses
• How do you identify synergies in operations?
• How can you merge employees?
• How should you deal with management?
• How should you deal with staff?
• What about redundancies and cost savings?
• Cultural blending – do they work the same way as you?
• How do you identify bottlenecks and problems?

Customers, suppliers and assets
• What factors should you consider?
• How should you handle customers?
• What do you do about products?
• What is the management challenge?
• How can you rationalise assets to avoid duplication?
• What should you do about suppliers?

Accounting and finance
• What factors should you consider?
• How can you merge MIS?
• How do you integrate other support systems?
• What about overheads and the effect on pricing?
• How should you start to revise processes?
• What about cash flow planning?
• How do you tackle write offs and provisions?

This course is designed to appeal to accounting and finance professionals working at all levels.

John Taylor specialises in teaching auditing on ACCA professional courses and Forensic Accounting at Masters Level at Leeds Metropolitan University. He is a Chartered Accountant who spent many years advising small and medium sized businesses across the North of England. John specialised in dealing with the particular problems faced by large family owned companies as a Chartered Accountant. He is now a freelance author and lecturer.