The fourth path
TAG was founded under the belief that a future where students are out exploring ownership is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not.
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Investment banking, consulting, and venture capital apply your talents towards others’ to-do lists. The fourth path applies it to yours.
Phase I: Search Phase
Every acquisition starts here. Define your why, pick your industry, set your target criteria, and know your numbers before you ever contact a seller. The search phase is not where you find a business. It is where you decide you are ready to own one.
Phase ii: Acquisition phase
The seller has signed the LOI. Now due diligence begins. Your accountant does a quality of earnings, and your attorney structures the deal — from normalized EBITDA to escrow, clawbacks, and indemnities. Structure your financing through SBA, seller notes, private equity, outside investors, or a combination. Then close.
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Sometimes the best deal is the one you walk away from
Phase iii: Post-close phaseÂ
The average small business you just acquired is running without a CRM, without formal KPIs, without documented SOPs, and in many cases without a functioning website or any digital marketing strategy.
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Professionalizing the business — building the infrastructure that makes it legible, scalable, and not dependent on any single person — is where a significant portion of value creation in ETA actually happens.