Which companies are on your shopping list?

Some entrepreneurs like building their own business infrastructure, but I like to go out and buy it. I don’t want to start from scratch when someone else has already created a working business model supported by high-value resources and proven cash flow. But no company is perfect — to buy a company is to inherit a set of problems on their way to becoming a solution.

Acquisitions are expensive and time-consuming, but they grant business leaders access to a new pool of resources to more fully achieve their vision.

Between 2000 and 2013, I bought eight companies and assembled a vibrant, harmonious portfolio.…