The Life Starter
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Money · Guided lesson

Identify what is actually for sale

About 14 minutes · 4 reading + 10 practice and checks
Time includes reading, practice, and questions. Extra videos or further study are optional.
See this course’s project requirements

A fictional purchase due-diligence file with disclosure questions, normalized earnings, owner labor, recurring fees, financing stress and a proceed/revise/stop decision.

Keep your working files in your own notebook or software. Save a private description, checklist, and work link in My Proof.

What to include

  • An acquisition-scope and price-component exception file.
  • A claim-definition, sample and selection-audit worksheet.
  • A reported-to-normalized-to-owner-adjusted profit bridge.
  • A recurring-fee and contract-control reconciliation.
  • An operating-to-cash coverage bridge and downside financing stress.
  • A conditional acquisition due-diligence brief with decision gates.

Review and revise

Use these criteria to check your work and choose what to improve.

  • Scope: price/rights gaps are explicit.
  • Claims: sample/owner labor/normalization are checked.
  • Finance: fees and debt/reserve/downside bridges reconcile.
  • Decision: supported conditions and qualified review remain visible.
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Before you begin

The idea in everyday life

Original fictional practice. All money is USD. No account, payment, personal record or outside participation is required. Fictional Atlas Desk franchise proposal: price 60,000 buys listed physical assets 20,000, inventory 5,000 and 25,000 goodwill; initial franchise fee 10,000 is additional. Local lease/brand rights/customer data transfers need separate approval not assumed. Earned annual sales 200,000, reported expenses 140,000 including variable 80,000, recurring fixed 56,000 and documented one-off repair 4,000. Seller’s claimed profit 60,000 excludes unpaid owner 2,000 hours/year; practice replacement labor 15/hour. Prospective contract royalty 6% gross sales plus adfund 2%, neither included in seller expenses. Annual debt repayment 15,000 and maintenance capital reserve 3,000. Downside 20% less sales, variable cost 40% of sales, fixed 56,000 and owner labor 30,000 unchanged. Comparable earnings sample ten open outlets: k USD -12,0,5,8,15,18,20,22,28,50; two closed outlets omitted, and their results unknown.

The idea

Buying assets does not automatically transfer every permission or contract.

Follow along

Identify what is actually for sale — complete worked case

Buying assets does not automatically transfer every permission or contract.

Fictional Atlas Desk franchise proposal: price 60,000 buys listed physical assets 20,000, inventory 5,000 and 25,000 goodwill; initial franchise fee 10,000 is additional. Local lease/brand rights/customer data transfers need separate approval not assumed. Earned annual sales 200,000, reported expenses 140,000 including variable 80,000, recurring fixed 56,000 and documented one-off repair 4,000. Seller’s claimed profit 60,000 excludes unpaid owner 2,000 hours/year; practice replacement labor 15/hour. Prospective contract royalty 6% gross sales plus adfund 2%, neither included in seller expenses. Annual debt repayment 15,000 and maintenance capital reserve 3,000. Downside 20% less sales, variable cost 40% of sales, fixed 56,000 and owner labor 30,000 unchanged. Comparable earnings sample ten open outlets: k USD -12,0,5,8,15,18,20,22,28,50; two closed outlets omitted, and their results unknown.

Earnings reconciliation

Paste at A1.

AItemBAmountCStatus
Revenue200000Seller record
Variable8000040% case share
Recurring fixed56000Before unpaid owner
One-off repair4000Documented addback case
Owner labor300002,000 h×15
Royalty/adfund16000New 8% gross
Debt/reserve18000Cash stress

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  1. 1. 1.1 Identify

    List price components and sum their values independently.

    You should see: 50,000 listed against 60,000 price.

  2. 2. 1.2 Identify

    Flag unexplained 10,000 gap and separate additional franchise fee.

    You should see: Known price+fee 70,000 before other costs.

  3. 3. 1.3 Identify

    Create acquired asset versus transfer-permission matrix.

    You should see: Lease/data/brand approval remain unverified.

  4. 4. 1.4 Identify

    Add new required training 5,000; update known outlay 75,000 and preserve questions.

    You should see: No automatic ownership/authorization claim.

Now change one thing

The quote requires purchase price 60,000 and separate franchise fee 10,000. New required initial training costs 7,000. Enter the known initial outlay before working capital.

Your work

What to finish

An acquisition-scope and price-component exception file.

Common mistake

Watch for this

Assuming brand/lease/learner data or all liabilities transfer just because a price is quoted.

How can I tell I understand it?

Verify that your completed acquisition-scope and price-component exception file meets the three lesson-specific checks and retains the supporting original records.

Try 3 questions

Quick knowledge check

Answer all 3 questions. Get at least 2 right and the lesson completes automatically.

Not yet passed

You’ll get an explanation for each answer. Signed in? Your results save to your account.

1Listed components 20,000+5,000+25,000 sum to what?
2What must be checked separately from buying the physical assets?
3Why include the additional 10,000 franchise fee?
0 of 3 answeredApply the lesson to a short question, then review the explanation.
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Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.

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Sources and further reading

Explore the references behind this lesson.

SBA: Buying a business or franchise
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Read actual redirected acquisition section on differing rights/control, full landscape and due diligence. Course uses current FTC terminology FDD rather than older source UFOC terminology.

Access: Public primary page body opened and relevant sections read through the web reader on 2026-10-01; no account required for reading.

Reuse: Original Life Starter cases, datasets and questions; no source exercise or worked dataset reproduced. Links support further reading.

FTC: A Consumer’s Guide to Buying a Franchise
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Read costs, continuing royalties, controls, disclosures and earnings evaluation. Original proposed acquisition is entirely fictional.

Access: Public primary page body opened and relevant sections read through the web reader on 2026-10-01; no account required for reading.

Reuse: Original Life Starter cases, datasets and questions; no source exercise or worked dataset reproduced. Links support further reading.

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