Buy-Side Advisory Services
Our buy-side work is flexible and tailored to where you are in the process.
Comprehensive Support Across the Entire Acquisition Lifecycle
Our buy-side advisory services are designed to support operators at every stage of the acquisition process, from early deal exploration through post-close execution. Engagements are tailored based on deal complexity, experience level, and where you need the most support.
Deal Sourcing Support
We help operators refine acquisition criteria and evaluate both brokered and off-market opportunities. Our role is to quickly assess financial viability, identify early red flags, and help you focus time and energy on deals that align with your operating and return objectives.
Target Evaluation & Financial Screening
Before significant time or fees are incurred, we perform detailed financial screenings to determine whether a target’s earnings, margins, and cash flow are sustainable. This includes evaluating customer concentration, labor efficiency, and revenue durability to ensure the business can support ownership transition.
Buy-Side Financial Diligence
Our diligence process goes beyond surface-level analysis to normalize earnings, assess working capital needs, and identify risks that may not be apparent in broker-prepared materials. The goal is to ensure you understand the true economic performance of the business before committing to a purchase price.
Deal & Financing Support
We support buyers during LOI structuring and financing discussions by modeling debt service, cash flow coverage, and downside scenarios. This ensures deal terms are structured realistically and aligned with both lender requirements and operational realities post-close.
Post-Close Financial Execution
After the transaction closes, we help operators establish financial discipline through cash flow forecasting, KPI reporting, and margin improvement planning. This creates immediate visibility and control, allowing owners to shift from transaction mode to execution mode quickly.
Who We Work With
We support individual buyers, including first-time acquirers and search fund entrepreneurs, who need a clear understanding of what ownership will look like day-to-day.
Our work focuses on cash flow sustainability, operational complexity, and risk mitigation to ensure buyers are prepared not just to acquire the business, but to successfully operate it.
Individual Buyers
For strategic and corporate acquirers, we provide financial and operational insight to support expansion, integration, and synergy realization.
We help buyers understand how a target will perform within an existing organization, identify execution risks early, and align financial expectations with operational reality.
Strategic/Corporate Buyers
We work with private equity groups and family offices that are pursuing platform investments or add-on acquisitions and require deep financial clarity beyond surface-level diligence.
Our role is to validate earnings quality, assess operational risk, and ensure the business can support both the acquisition structure and post-close growth strategy.
Private Equity & Family Office
Toro’s Buy-Side Process
Our buy-side process is built to support operators making high-stakes decisions with limited margin for error. Each phase is designed to create clarity, reduce risk, and support long-term value creation.
We begin by aligning on acquisition criteria, return expectations, and risk tolerance. This includes reviewing capital structure, financing assumptions, and operator capacity to ensure the deal aligns with both financial goals and operational realities.
Buyer Readiness & Strategy
Potential acquisitions are evaluated through rapid financial triage to determine whether deeper diligence is warranted. This step focuses on identifying red flags early, validating earnings quality, and assessing the complexity of the business from an operator’s perspective.
Target Screening & Valuation
Once a target advances, we conduct in-depth financial diligence and scenario modeling to understand performance under various outcomes. We support buyers throughout lender, legal, and broker interactions, providing financial clarity to inform final decision-making.
Diligence & Deal Support
Following close, we assist with implementing financial infrastructure, reporting, and cash flow visibility. Our focus shifts to execution, helping operators track performance, improve margins, and establish a financial foundation that supports growth and scale.
Post-Close Execution
Compare Us With Traditional Advisory Firms
Toro Growth Group
We help buyers define clear acquisition criteria, evaluate inbound broker opportunities, and pursue off market opportunities through targeted outreach and strategic relationships.
Sourcing
We analyze earnings quality, margin sustainability, cash flow durability, and operational risk to ensure alignment with your acquisition criteria. Only deals that pass financial and operational screening move forward.
Quality
Our team can introduce off-market deals, value targets, structure offers, write LOIs, coordinate financing/legal, and quarterback due diligence.
One-Stop Shop
Fair monthly fee to ensure continue focus and mutual incentive alignment on getting a deal done. Success fee in line with industry standards.
Fee Structure
Our process has led to closed deals in countless industries and differing deal sizes; 150+ of which were completed in the past 5 years.
Deal Experience
Traditional Buy-Side Firms
Rely primarily on broker relationships and inbound deal flow. Limited financial screening prior to introductions. Buyers are often pushed into diligence on deals that should have been eliminated earlier.
Minimal qualification beyond broker materials and management conversations. Financial risks are often discovered late in the process after significant legal and diligence fees have already been incurred.
Commonly introduction-only firms or may use independent third parties.
Typically require a large up-front fee to get a team moving and a long-term (12+ month) agreement.
May position themselves as industry experts with industry writeups but typically lack the deal volume to remain sharp.
Common Questions When Buying a Business
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The best time to engage a buy-side advisor is before you sign a letter of intent.
Many buyers wait until they have a deal under contract before involving financial support. At that point, time pressure is high and leverage is low. Early involvement allows you to screen opportunities more effectively, avoid weak targets, and enter negotiations with a clear understanding of value and risk.
Engaging early also saves time and money by preventing you from pursuing deals that do not meet your financial and operational criteria.
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A good opportunity is not just one that looks attractive on paper.
Buyers need to understand whether earnings are sustainable, cash flow is reliable, margins are real, and growth assumptions are realistic. It is also critical to evaluate customer concentration, employee structure, pricing discipline, and operational complexity.
We help our clients assess deals through a real world ownership lens so they understand what they are actually buying and what it will take to run the business successfully.
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First acquisitions should prioritize simplicity, stability, and cash flow.
Businesses with recurring revenue, diversified customers, strong margins, and a capable management team are generally easier to operate and scale. Companies that rely heavily on the owner, have volatile earnings, or lack financial discipline tend to be far more challenging for first time buyers.
We help our clients define acquisition criteria that align with their experience, capital structure, and long term goals.
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Debt, or “leverage”, should support growth, not restrict it.
While debt can improve returns, excessive leverage can limit flexibility and create stress during periods of volatility. Buyers need to understand how debt service impacts cash flow, how sensitive the business is to downturns, and how much working capital is required to operate comfortably.
We model debt service, cash flow coverage, and downside scenarios so our clients understand how much leverage the business can truly support.
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Ownership begins on day one. When working with our team, we keep day one on top of mind from the very beginning.
New owners are immediately responsible for payroll, vendors, customers, lenders, and employees. Without proper financial and operational guardrails, it is easy to lose control quickly. The transition period is critical.
We implement a structured 90-day integration process from the time a Letter-of-Intent is signed so our clients can shift from transaction mode to operator mode with confidence.
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The biggest mistake buyers make is underestimating operational complexity.
Many deals look attractive in marketing materials but prove far more demanding once ownership begins. Buyers often focus on revenue and headline EBITDA while overlooking margin structure, labor efficiency, customer concentration, and cash flow volatility.
We help business owners understand the full reality of ownership so there are no surprises after closing.
