This article was originally published on Lindekin

I started my first business out of necessity. At seventeen, the idea of spending an entire summer working for minimum wage felt both inefficient and limiting. So I took matters into my own hands. I printed off signs and offered odd jobs around our family cabin—yard work, cleaning gutters, minor repairs. I wasn’t great at any of it, but I made it work.

But building from the ground up isn’t the only way into entrepreneurship. In recent years, there has been a noticeable resurgence in search funds, a model where individuals raise committed capital from investors with the goal of acquiring and operating a single existing business. These entrepreneurs aren’t starting from scratch. They are stepping into ownership by buying companies that are already profitable, proven, and often run by founders nearing retirement.

As the founder of an M&A advisory firm that works across Canada’s mid-market, I’ve seen this approach gain real momentum. It’s a smart model when done right. But what’s become equally clear is that many search fund managers aren’t getting the traction they expect. And more often than not, it’s not because they lack capability, it’s because they’re approaching the process without the readiness that the M&A world requires.

As we head into a market cycle where capital is available and generational turnover is driving deal flow, here are three concepts I believe every search fund manager should understand before stepping into the M&A process.

Clarity on Deal Parameters Save Time & Increase Chances of Success

One of the fastest ways to signal inexperience is to present yourself as open to anything. I regularly see search fund managers tell us they are industry agnostic, size agnostic, geography agnostic, and will move anywhere for the right opportunity. In reality, that’s rarely true, and it’s never helpful in having an M&A firm assist in finding the right business match.

If you don’t know what you’re looking for, we can’t help you find it. As an M&A advisory firm, our job is to match buyers and sellers. If your investment thesis is vague or overly broad, we don’t know where you fit. Worse, it signals that you may not fully understand the range of complexity between running a business with no profitability versus one generating $10 million in earnings.

Buying a $10 million EBITDA company is not the same as buying one barely breaking even. The financing, operational demands, leadership expectations, and diligence processes differ completely. Being “open to anything” sends the message that you haven’t thought deeply about what kind of business you’re truly ready to operate.

Clear deal parameters: industry focus, size range, preferred regions, and value drivers, don’t limit your options, they save everyone time. They show you’ve done the work. They allow professionals like me to take you seriously and sellers to trust that you’re prepared for what you’re trying to buy.

Make Sure You Have The Money Secured Before You Put in An Offer

Every deal lives or dies on execution. That includes how the deal is financed. If you’re submitting an offer without the necessary capital secured, or at the very least, aligned through committed backers, you are not ready to make that offer.

Search funds don’t benefit from the same reputation or track record that private equity firms or strategic acquirers often bring. That means your credibility is under more scrutiny, not less. One of the fastest ways to damage trust with an advisor or seller is to put forward an offer you can’t realistically fund.

It’s also a matter of timing. The M&A process moves quickly. If we discover halfway through diligence that your financing still needs to be arranged, it slows the deal and can make sellers nervous about your ability to close. I’ve seen deals fall apart entirely because of this—and I’ve also seen search fund managers who were never invited back into another process again.

Before you put forward any indication of interest, ensure your capital structure is real, and your investors are aligned. Without it, you risk wasting everyone’s time—including your own.

You Only Get One or Two Chances to Make a Strong Impression

There is a perception among some search funds that the early conversations are informal. They’re not. For M&A advisors like myself, those first meetings are assessments. We are deciding whether you are someone we can bring into a process with confidence.

We want to know if you are serious, credible, and aligned with the deal. If you show up unprepared, vague about your thesis, unclear on your funding, or overly polished but light on substance, that feedback is shared behind closed doors. And more often than not, it means your name doesn’t make it to the next conversation.

The sellers we work with are deeply invested in their businesses. Many of them built their companies over decades. They want to know that the person on the other side of the table understands the weight of what they’re trying to do.

This isn’t about perfection. But it is about professionalism. Be thoughtful. Be clear. Be honest about where you’re at and what you’re looking for. When you do that, you give the rest of us something to work with. Every search fund manager wants to be the ideal buyer. And many of them have the potential to be. But potential isn’t what closes deals. Preparation, clarity, and humility do.

The sellers you’re hoping to engage probably didn’t go to the same schools you did. They didn’t build their businesses from pitch decks. They built them from grit, risk, and experience. If you want to be taken seriously in M&A, meet them where they are. Know what you’re looking for. Have your capital ready. Respect their time.

And above all, lead with integrity.

You don’t have to be the most experienced buyer in the room. But you do have to be the most prepared. That’s how you get included in the right conversations, and eventually, how you close.

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