Acquisition Collective
This Podcast is your go-to hub for buying, building, and scaling businesses—designed for entrepreneurs, professionals, and investors looking to escape the 9-to-5, gain financial freedom, and take control of their future through business acquisition.
Acquisition Collective
Should You Buy a Business With Your Spouse? What Actually Breaks
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In this episode of Acquisition Collective, Jay Bourgana sits down with Philip Concas and Vera Kolesnik to discuss what actually matters when buying a business as a couple. Many aspiring buyers focus on financing, valuation multiples, and finding the perfect deal. In reality, successful acquisitions are often built on trust, communication, patience, and the ability to operate and grow a business over the long term.
Philip and Vera share how their backgrounds in commercial real estate, corporate leadership, product development, marketing, and operations have shaped their approach to business acquisition. They explain why they prefer buying an established business over starting from scratch, how they evaluate opportunities, and what characteristics make a company attractive in today's competitive market.
The conversation explores the importance of understanding employees, preserving culture, and learning the business before making changes. Philip and Vera discuss how they assess recurring revenue, customer concentration, employee retention, operational systems, and competitive advantages when evaluating acquisitions. They also explain why seller trust, transparency, and alignment often matter just as much as financial performance.
Jay and the guests discuss common mistakes first-time buyers make, including implementing changes too quickly, underestimating the value of key employees, and failing to appreciate the systems that made a business successful in the first place. They also cover acquisition financing, transition planning, growth strategies after closing, and what sellers are really looking for when choosing a buyer.
If you are interested in buying a business as a couple, small business acquisition, entrepreneurship through acquisition, business acquisition process, acquisition entrepreneurship, and long-term business ownership, this episode provides practical insights from buyers actively pursuing their first acquisition.
The best acquisitions are not built on quick fixes or aggressive changes. They are built on understanding what already works, earning the trust of employees and sellers, and creating sustainable growth through disciplined execution.
00:00 - Introduction to Philip Concas and Vera Kolesnik
04:21 - Why Buy a Business Instead of Starting One
07:03 - What Happens on Day One After Acquisition
08:10 - How They Think About Employees
09:44 - How They Evaluate Businesses
13:41 - What Makes a Business Attractive
20:09 - What Makes Them Walk Away From a Deal
21:16 - Their Growth Strategy After Acquisition
23:02 - Common Mistakes First-Time Buyers Make
24:59 - Why Sellers Choose Certain Buyers
28:03 - Financing Business Acquisitions
31:09 - Creating a Smooth Transition After Closing
32:58 - How Involved New Owners Should Be
33:23 - Why Business Ownership Matters
36:01 - Their Experience Inside Acquisition Collective
39:10 - Lessons Learned as Acquisition Entrepreneurs
40:23 - Advice for New Business Buyers
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Comment: would you buy a business with your spouse?