Bob GauvreauAsk Bob Gauvreau Questions Based On His Training

Buying a Business? Don't Make This Costly Mistake #shorts

7 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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In this short instructional video, Bob Gauvreau outlines the two primary ways to acquire a business. The first method is purchasing the company's shares, which transfers ownership along with the entire corporate history and liabilities. The second method is buying the company's assets, which allows the buyer to depreciate the assets for tax deductions, provides immediate tax benefits, and offers a "clean slate" by avoiding the seller's historical liabilities and negative reputation. Gauvreau emphasizes the strategic considerations of each approach for investors looking to acquire a business.

Chapters

how one could go about acquiring a business. There's two specific ways that you can go about doing it, and this is really just a matter of fact in how you can acquire it. So the very first way that we can acquire a business as someone who wants to invest in it is to acquire the shares of the business. We would likely want to acquire the shares of the business. Now, all of that history comes with it. The second way that we can acquire a company, which is going to be acquiring the assets. When we acquired the assets, what I can do is I can actually depreciate that value and get a tax deduction. The other reason it's beneficial is that as a buyer, if you buy the assets, it's a clean slate. You can essentially start a new company to acquire the assets. The new asset comes in, clean slate, no history. So no negative history. If you're looking at acquiring a business and you buy the assets, it's going to have greater upfront tax benefits.