When you launch a search fund, your budget is more than just a financial plan. It's your oxygen tank. It dictates how long you can breathe, how many doors you can knock on, and whether you'll find the right business before time runs out.
We've seen that the searchers who succeed are the ones who budget with intention.
They plan for the obvious costs - salary, travel, diligence, legal - but they also make room for proprietary outreach. If you want to uncover businesses that never make it to a broker, that outreach has to be a line item, not an afterthought.
Start With the Big Picture: How Much to Raise
Most traditional search funds raise between $400K and $500K to cover about 24 months of runway.
Self-funded searchers can sometimes pull it off with $100K to $150K in liquidity, but that typically means fewer flights, fewer conferences, and a tighter tool stack.
Your number isn't as important as your discipline. You need enough cushion to run a serious search, but not so much that you lose focus.
What Search Funds Actually Spend On
Here's what a typical search budget looks like. This should help you put rough numbers to paper:
| Expense Category | Traditional (Investor-Backed) | Self-Funded | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salary and Payroll Taxes | $100K–$150K per year plus 10–20% payroll/benefits | Often minimized or skipped | Salary is about stability, not luxury. Keep it reasonable. |
| Travel and Outreach | $36K per year | $8K–$11K total for leaner searches | In-person visits build trust. Group meetings to stretch dollars. |
| Broken Deal / Diligence | $20K–$30K per failed deal | Same cost per deal | Assume at least one failed deal a year. It's part of the process. |
| Legal Fees (Pre-Funding) | ~$5K for incorporation and filings | Similar upfront cost | A necessary box to check early. |
| Infrastructure & Tooling | $5K–$10K per year | $2K–$5K per year | Professional domain, CRM, email sending platform, data sources. |
| Office and Admin | ~$3K startup; $500–600 per month ongoing | Lower if home-based | Mailers can add $4K–$8K total. |
| All-in Search Costs | ~$98K average (excluding salary) | ~$47K average | Some searches run cheap, others push $900K. Plan your lane. |
Keep Your Tools Lean
You don't need a private equity tech stack. You need just enough to find owners and keep track of conversations. A few must-haves:
- Data sources: Clay for enrichment, Apollo.io for affordable contacts, and free options like Secretary of State filings, industry directories, and plain old Google Maps.
- CRM or tracker: Hubspot or a well-built Google Sheet. The key is logging every owner touch so nothing slips.
- Outreach basics: A professional email domain and website, maybe Calendly for scheduling. These little things make you look legitimate.
- Research and monitoring: LinkedIn Sales Navigator if you can afford it. Pair it with free Google Alerts to catch news on your target industries.
- Legal and accounting: Plan on $20K to $30K over the life of your search. This is one area where cutting corners costs you more later.
Every dollar here should either help you find more owners or help you manage those conversations. If it doesn't do one of those two things, it probably doesn't belong in your budget.
Why Outreach Needs Its Own Budget
Outreach is often buried under "tools" or "miscellaneous," and that's a mistake. To run consistent proprietary outreach, you need a clear allocation. Here's what that usually covers:
- Email and domain setup: $200–$400 per year
- Enrichment tools (Clay, Apollo.io): $50–$300 per month depending on volume
- CRM or deal tracker (Google Sheets or HubSpot starter tier): $0–$50 per month
- Scheduling software (Calendly): $10–$15 per month
All in, you're looking at $2K–$10K per year, depending on how lean or sophisticated your system is. The important thing is that it's explicit in your budget so you never have to choose between saving money and sending the right message to an owner.
Final Word
Smart searchers know that the math has to work. Salary, travel, diligence, and legal are the backbone of your budget. Outreach tooling deserves its own line because it's the system that gets you into conversations with owners who would never take a broker's call.
Budgeting is strategy. Pay yourself enough to stay sharp. Travel enough to build trust. Assume a failed deal or two. Keep admin simple. And give outreach its own space in the budget. Because the best businesses are not waiting for a buyer — they're run by people who will only talk to you if you have the time, the tools, and the focus to reach them.
That's the work we do every day. Helping searchers turn budgets into conversations, and conversations into deals.
