A business mentoring programme built on deals, not theory.

A business mentoring programme is structured, ongoing access to somebody who has already done what you are trying to do, applied to your actual situation rather than taught in the abstract. It normally combines regular one to one sessions, access between them, and a defined body of material. It differs from coaching, which develops how you think, and from consulting, which delivers a defined piece of work for a fee.

A mentor has done the specific thing you are attempting and lends you their judgement about it. A coach develops how you think and decide, and does not need domain experience to be effective. Both are legitimate and they solve different problems. If your obstacle is not knowing what a good deal structure looks like, coaching will not fix it. If your obstacle is your own decision-making, a mentor with sector experience may not either.

It ranges enormously, from around £200 a month for a group programme to several thousand a month for genuine one to one access with somebody operating at scale. Free mentoring exists through schemes such as those run by growth hubs and enterprise agencies, and it is worth using. What you are really paying for at the top end is the cost of the mistakes you do not make, which in an acquisition is measured in tens of thousands.

It depends entirely on whether the mentor has done the specific thing and whether you will act between sessions. Mentoring is worth paying for when the cost of getting something wrong is high and the situation is unfamiliar, which is exactly what a first acquisition is. It is poor value if you want reassurance, or if you are looking for general business advice you could get free from a growth hub.

Yes. Everybody in it is either an owner of an established small or medium business or a professional buying their first. It is not for startups or pre-revenue businesses, because the entire model is built on acquiring companies that already have customers, revenue and a team. If you are looking for a mentor to help you start something, this is the wrong programme and I will say so.

Three routes. Free schemes through growth hubs, enterprise agencies and industry bodies, which are genuinely useful and under-used. Peer networks and masterminds, where the value is the room as much as the facilitator. And paid one to one mentoring with a specific operator. The filter that matters more than any other is whether they have actually done the thing recently, at the scale you are attempting.

The useful ones do four things. They tell you what you are getting wrong before it costs you money. They shorten decisions you would otherwise take weeks over. They open doors that would take you years to open yourself, which in acquisitions means lawyers, funders and off-market introductions. And they hold you to doing the unglamorous work, which is almost always the part that decides the outcome.

Yes, and a meaningful part of the room is existing owners. For an owner the work is usually growth by acquisition rather than grinding out organic growth, plus getting the business into the shape that a buyer would pay properly for. Those two goals overlap more than people expect: the changes that make a company easier to scale are the same ones that raise what it sells for.

Both run on the same system. The Mastermind is the programme and the live room: eleven modules, weekly sessions, WhatsApp access to ask questions and the member network. One to one mentoring includes all of that and adds private sessions built around your live pipeline, time with me in person, and structures and heads of terms reviewed before they go out.

Very much so. A meaningful part of the room is existing owners who want to grow by acquisition instead of grinding out organic growth. It also tends to make you a far better seller later, because you finally understand what a buyer is looking at when they value your company.

No, and be careful of anybody who does. Whether you complete depends on how much outreach you do, how disciplined you are about walking away from bad deals, and a degree of timing you cannot control. What is on offer is the system, the introductions, the deal flow and someone who has done it 32 times checking your thinking before you commit.

Direct access to Lee. Send the deal before you send it to the seller. A sense-check on a structure or a number takes ten minutes and routinely saves months. Members also get monthly targeted company data and the outreach system behind it, plus personal introductions to lawyers, funders, brokers and sector specialists.

Sometimes, yes. Members get the chance to joint venture on live Verdani acquisitions, which means a real deal with your name on the cap table rather than a case study. It is not automatic and it depends on the deal and on where you are, but it is a genuine route for people who would rather learn on a live transaction than a solo first buy.

Seller financing is when the owner accepts part of the price over time out of the profits of the business, rather than all of it at completion. Owners agree because it usually raises the total they receive, it can be more tax efficient, and for many the alternative is no sale at all: around 2% of businesses that go to market actually complete. A seller who believes in the business is often comfortable being paid by it.

Deferred consideration is a fixed part of the purchase price paid on an agreed date after completion, typically over one to three years. It differs from an earn-out because the amount is certain and not conditional on performance. It is the simplest way to bridge a gap between what a seller wants and what a buyer can fund on day one.

An earn-out is part of the price paid only if the business hits agreed targets after completion, usually profit over one to three years. It bridges a genuine disagreement about what the business is worth: the seller believes the growth is coming, the buyer will pay for it once it arrives. The detail matters enormously, because who controls the costs during the earn-out period decides whether it ever pays out.

Three strands running in parallel. Financial: verifying the profit is real and sustainable, and that the working capital and debt are what you were told. Legal: contracts, employment, property, litigation and anything that transfers with the company. Commercial and cultural: whether the customers stay, whether the staff stay, and how much of the business walks out of the door with the owner. The third is the one first-time buyers skip and the one that most often causes the damage.

Heads of terms is a short document setting out the agreed shape of the deal before anybody spends money on lawyers: price, structure, timing, what happens to the owner, and exclusivity. It is mostly not legally binding, but it is where a deal is really made. Getting it right prevents the slow renegotiation that kills deals three months later, and it is the single document worth having reviewed by somebody experienced.

A bank declining is normal and it is rarely the end. High street lenders assess a business acquisition on security and track record, which a first-time buyer usually lacks. The realistic routes are seller financing, asset-backed lending against debtors, stock or equipment, specialist acquisition funders, and joint venturing with someone who brings the capital while you bring the deal. Most completed SME acquisitions use two or three of these together.

Yes, and use one who does business acquisitions specifically, not your local high street firm. Expect several thousand pounds for a straightforward SME deal, more if the structure is complex or the property is involved. The cost is real but small against what a badly drafted warranty schedule can cost you afterwards. Members use my lawyer panel, which typically lowers the bill and shortens the process.

In a share purchase, nothing changes legally: employees stay employed by the same company on the same terms. In an asset purchase, TUPE applies and their terms transfer with them. Practically, the first hundred days decide whether they stay. The most reliable thing you can do is change very little at first and be visibly straight with people, because a business that loses its key staff in month two is worth a fraction of what you paid.

Five, repeatedly. Buying something too small to carry a manager. Falling in love with the first deal and losing the ability to walk away. Under-estimating working capital, so the business is starved the week after completion. Skipping cultural diligence and losing the key staff. And negotiating hard on price while giving away everything on structure, when structure is usually where the real money sits.

Yes, and the risk is manageable rather than eliminable. The dangerous risks are concentration, working capital and the owner being the business. Each is visible in diligence if you look. The single largest risk reduction available to a first-time buyer is having someone experienced review the structure and the heads of terms before they are signed, because almost every expensive acquisition mistake is structural and is visible before completion.