Business Buyers Institute | The world's leading buy-side M&A training institute
APAC · USA · UK · Canada

The world's leading buy-side M&A training institute

We train people to become business buyer's agents.
We build the agencies that represent the buyers.

For people breaking into the profession, buyers who need somebody on their side of the table, and the advisers who refer them.

2.5m
Trading businesses in Australia alone
500k+
Australian owners over sixty
$25,000
Typical fee on a million dollar deal
12 weeks
From starting to open for business
The problem

When a business is sold, the seller has a broker. The buyer has no one.

The broker runs the process and is paid by the seller. The accountant prepares the numbers and presents them favourably. The lawyer drafts the contract. Every one of them is working for the person selling.

On the other side of the table is somebody making the largest financial commitment of their life, with no reliable way of knowing what a fair price looks like, whether the numbers say what they appear to say, or which questions have not been asked.

A business buyer's agent is the buyer's answer to the broker.

The service is well understood in property. In business it barely exists, and half a million Australian owners are heading for the exit at the same time.

The solution

This is not a course. It is a business you own.

Twelve weeks, two phases. You learn the work by doing it on a real acquisition, then you build the agency around it. Certified at week six. Open for business at week twelve.

Phase one · weeks 1 to 6

Buying businesses for other people

Represent a buyer through a real acquisition: find it, verify the numbers, negotiate, and take it to settlement. Assessed and certified at week six.

Phase two · weeks 7 to 12

Launching your business

The agency structured, priced and equipped to acquire clients. Niche, engagement letter, referral engine, lead generation and the sales conversation.

Then

Open for business

Your own agency, your own brand, your own clients, and every fee yours. The live calls and the tools stay with you for as long as you want them.

What is included

Everything you need to open. Nothing you do not.

The whole method

How to find, verify, negotiate and settle a deal, applied to a real one as you go rather than taught in theory.

Live calls every week

Taken by Sanjay. One on buying businesses for other people, one on launching and running your agency.

AI deal tools

Tools that read a set of financials in minutes, so your time goes on judgement rather than spreadsheets.

The document library

Scripts, checklists, engagement letters and agreements, pre-built. Nothing you do starts from a blank page.

Client acquisition

The outreach, the referral engine and the sales conversation, built with you and pointed at your own market.

The certification

Certified Business Buyer's Agent, in the Institute's own methodology, awarded on completing the work and passing the assessment.

Where you play

The size of the deal decides the size of the fee.

Not every acquisition is worth your time. Most people entering this work chase the wrong ones and wonder why the money is thin.

T1

Mid market

$5m and above

Institutional buyers, formal processes, long timelines. Where you build toward, not where you begin.

T2

Lower mid market

$1m to $5m

Serious businesses, serious buyers, and fees that justify the work. The target for a well positioned agency.

T3

Established small business

$500k to $1m

Real trading histories and real buyers. A sound place to run your first deals and build a reputation.

T4

Micro business

Under $500k

Thin margins, informal books, and the same workload for a fraction of the fee.

T5

Distressed and unsellable

Avoid

Businesses that should not change hands at all. Recognising them early is part of the work.

We teach you which deals to take, which to walk away from, and how to tell the difference before you have spent a month on one.

Who this is for

This suits some people and not others.

We are deliberately clear about it, because the wrong fit costs everybody time and money.

It is for you if

  • You want a profession of your own, not another job
  • You have commercial experience and want it working for you
  • You are comfortable talking to people about money
  • You can give it three to four hours a week
  • You are in a position to invest in starting it properly

It is not for you if

  • You are looking for passive income
  • You want something that runs without you
  • You expect clients to be handed to you
  • You want results without doing the work
  • The investment would put your family under pressure

Everyday professionals stopped selling their hours to somebody else

And started getting paid on the deal, in a profession the market cannot get enough of

Jason
Jason
Was a musician
Glory
Glory
Was a property buyer's agent
Shane
Shane
Worked in a pool shop
Jim
Jim
Worked in a chicken shop
Who you learn from

You are not working with a coach. You are working with an operator.

Sanjay Pandaram, The Acquisition Guy, Business Buyers Institute

Sanjay Pandaram

The Acquisition Guy

Twenty years inside the institutions, and over $500m of businesses reviewed. I did the corporate thing at the highest level there is, and I still walked away, because I wanted my time back and no salary was ever going to give me that.

So I built the thing I actually wanted. Now I train people to do the same, and I take both live calls myself every week.

  • Head of StrategyCitibank Asia Pacific
  • Head of FinanceMacquarie Bank
  • Head of AnalyticsLloyds International
  • Executive Manager, Corporate BankingCommonwealth Bank
  • Structured financeRabobank · Orix
  • CPA$500m+ of businesses reviewed

Become a business buyer's agent. Own a business buyer's agency.

We train people to become business buyer's agents, and we help them launch their own agency.

Business Buyers Institute provides education and training only. It is not a registered training organisation, and this programme is not nationally recognised or accredited training. Certification is in the Institute's own methodology. Nothing on this page is financial, legal, taxation or investment advice. Becoming a business buyer's agent may require a licence depending on your state, and confirming and holding the right licence is your responsibility. Any fee figures shown describe the professional fees this work typically pays, based on a percentage of transaction value. They are not a projection, forecast or guarantee of earnings. What any person earns, if anything, depends on their own effort, skill, market and circumstances. Outcomes are not guaranteed. Seek independent professional advice before acting.