MGMT 5050: Strategy for Buying and Operating a Small Business

MBA studentTHE COURSE   

The goal for Western Michigan University’s MBA course in small business acquisition is for you to complete successful acquisitions and transitions of small business ownership. To do so, we connect you with sellers, aspiring owner-operators and capital.

What we do

Program faculty engage MBA students at the Haworth College of Business and others who want to explore acquiring a small business. We provide an experience that opens up the opportunity for you to buy a small business. Specifically, we train, back and provide ongoing support to aspiring small business owner-operators. 

What can you expect?

  • To learn how to buy a business and run it with profit and purpose.
  • To be inspired to think about owning your own company, being a CEO and making your business thrive by creating genuine value for others.
  • To learn about growth, enduring profitability and strategic decision making through actual experience.
  • To value both the opportunity and challenges of small business strategy, ownership and decision making. 
  • To explore what you can bring to a company to ensure its profitability, and, most importantly, how you might own and become the CEO of that company as a career alternative.
  • To complete a self-analysis to determine if purchasing a small business is right for you.
  • To research strategic opportunities consistent with your personal passions and capabilities.
  • To learn business valuation strategies and alternatives that will help you determine which businesses have the greatest potential for success.
  • To learn how to secure funds for the small business purchase.

Learn more about the MBA

Small business owners

Program faculty and students know that owning a business is more than just a personal investment. It is an extension of self, forged through years of hard work. Often, your employees are your extended family.

We want to partner with businesses owners who understand the sale of a business is more than just a financial transaction. It is about a legacy. 

We look to partner with sellers in the following ways:

  • Quiet, discrete transactions.
  • Straightforward negotiations done in earnest.
  • Smooth transitions from owner to purchaser.

Contact us

Dr. Derrick McIver
Associate professor of management 
Co-director for the Center for Principled Leadership and Business Strategy
3124 Schneider Hall | (269) 387-5419
Email Dr. McIver

Dr. Doug Lepisto
Assistant professor of management
Co-director for the Center for Principled Leadership and Business Strategy
3273 Schneider Hall | (269) 387-0940
Email Dr. Lepisto