When you think you’re interested in buying another business the proper place to start is being able to articulate why you want to buy that business and how that business is going to fit strategically with your business; strategically and financially. Once you’ve got that figured out and you can articulate that and you may be using your CPA with the financial side of things, make sure you involve your attorney early.
The reason for that is that a savvy seller, your target, is not going to want to disclose information until he has a non-disclosure agreement in place. Your attorney will prepare one in advance and one that will not scare the seller and one that will not trip you up by having traps that might snare you as you trade information and then maybe decide not to do the deal.
Once you’ve explained all of these sorts of reasons why you want to buy this business, your attorney can help you prepare a proper negotiation strategy which will lead to a letter of intent that your attorney will draft so that you can get the deal that you want.