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HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business: Think Big, Buy Small, Own Your Own Company
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 12, 2026
HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business
I love Rick and Royce. They changed my life as my professors and mentors. This course at HBS changed my career and life. Having taken the very first iteration of the Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) class at Harvard Business School from which this work emanated, I cannot say enough about how much I loved the course and how profoundly helpful I found its practical frameworks. Because the book's content matched the coursework perfectly, I never actually read the text back then. Now, after spending the last 8 years as a practicing entrepreneur, I decided to revisit it. It was a thrilling, full-circle experience to relive those principles through the lens of actual, hard-won experience.
Reading it now, I deeply appreciate the authors' message that while acquisition can be a great way to make a very comfortable living, you should ultimately choose this path because you genuinely love the daily reality of leading teams and building a business. The core strategic insights hold up incredibly well—especially the principle that you should look for an enduringly profitable, slow-growth company in a fragmented, completely unglamorous niche. Furthermore, the book correctly debuts a liberating truth for new CEOs: you do not need deep, niche technical expertise to succeed. What these small businesses actually require to thrive is basic, steady operational leadership—managing people, navigating cash flow, keeping customers happy, and refining simple day-to-day processes. It remains the gold standard guide for anyone looking to skip the startup grind.
"Leading a firm means you can be your own boss, put your executive skills to work, fashion a company environment that meets your own needs, and profit directly from your success."
"In a large corporation, your career path can easily feel like it is out of your hands. When you own the business, your success is tied directly to your own actions and decisions."
"Your employees will know your face, your customers will know your name, and your decisions will have an immediate, visible impact on the business every single day."
"Choose this line of work because you enjoy the process of building and growing something sustainable, not just because you want a quick exit."
"The ultimate reward of this path is that you build equity in something you control entirely. You are no longer building someone else's dream."
"Almost all of the successful entrepreneurs we know are happy with their jobs, while we know that many successful executives in big companies are not."
"We’ve never seen an entrepreneur who wants to return to working for somebody else in a large organization."
I love Rick and Royce. They changed my life as my professors and mentors. This course at HBS changed my career and life. Having taken the very first iteration of the Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) class at Harvard Business School from which this work emanated, I cannot say enough about how much I loved the course and how profoundly helpful I found its practical frameworks. Because the book's content matched the coursework perfectly, I never actually read the text back then. Now, after spending the last 8 years as a practicing entrepreneur, I decided to revisit it. It was a thrilling, full-circle experience to relive those principles through the lens of actual, hard-won experience.
Reading it now, I deeply appreciate the authors' message that while acquisition can be a great way to make a very comfortable living, you should ultimately choose this path because you genuinely love the daily reality of leading teams and building a business. The core strategic insights hold up incredibly well—especially the principle that you should look for an enduringly profitable, slow-growth company in a fragmented, completely unglamorous niche. Furthermore, the book correctly debuts a liberating truth for new CEOs: you do not need deep, niche technical expertise to succeed. What these small businesses actually require to thrive is basic, steady operational leadership—managing people, navigating cash flow, keeping customers happy, and refining simple day-to-day processes. It remains the gold standard guide for anyone looking to skip the startup grind.
"Leading a firm means you can be your own boss, put your executive skills to work, fashion a company environment that meets your own needs, and profit directly from your success."
"In a large corporation, your career path can easily feel like it is out of your hands. When you own the business, your success is tied directly to your own actions and decisions."
"Your employees will know your face, your customers will know your name, and your decisions will have an immediate, visible impact on the business every single day."
"Choose this line of work because you enjoy the process of building and growing something sustainable, not just because you want a quick exit."
"The ultimate reward of this path is that you build equity in something you control entirely. You are no longer building someone else's dream."
"Almost all of the successful entrepreneurs we know are happy with their jobs, while we know that many successful executives in big companies are not."
"We’ve never seen an entrepreneur who wants to return to working for somebody else in a large organization."
June 14, 2026
This book helped me decide whether acquiring a business is something I'd like to explore further.
As someone without a business background, I think it was a good overview of the considerations and process.
As someone without a business background, I think it was a good overview of the considerations and process.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews