What buybox belongs on a Michigan search?
Name mobility supplier, West Michigan furniture and wood, food, or tooling — the clusters research allows — or name a different process you can actually operate. Sub-sectors exist for that. Name size band. Name IATF, ISO, or SQF if you need the card on day one. Name a concentration ceiling by customer and by platform. Name tooling ownership. Name lease versus buy on the plant. Name capital.
Buy a manufacturing business is the nationwide pillar. This page is the Michigan overlay. “Any manufacturer in the Lower Peninsula” is how you waste seller goodwill.
Buy a manufacturing business in Detroit is the mobility-corridor overlay. Grand Rapids is the West Michigan overlay. Kalamazoo, Lansing, Flint, and Ann Arbor stay sourcing words. A metro line is not a multiple. If you will not relocate, write the radius. If you will, write who holds the customer when you are not in the building.
Labor without a Michigan wage series
The research file has no state wage table. Use national backdrop, then the plant.
BLS OEWS May 2025: machinist $58,750, welder $53,750 (Source: BLS). Those are replacement-cost anchors. They are not the burdened rate on the floor. Ask who programs, who quotes, who can run second shift, and who the buyer of record actually calls. If two answers are the seller, price a training period.
Do not publish a union-density percent. If a CBA exists, successorship and withdrawal liability are priced items. If you plan to cut or move work, open WARN. Federal WARN is the 100-full-time-employee statute. Michigan mini-WARN is N in the 2026 table — still confirm. N is not a holiday speech.
Financing the Michigan close
SBA 7(a): $5 million cap, 10% injection, seller note as equity only on full standby and only up to half the injection (Source: SBA). 504: $5 million standard, $5.5 million small-manufacturer project. Occupancy is a fact.
| Path | Carries | Dies on |
|---|---|---|
| 7(a) | Operating company inside the box | A launch year treated as run-rate |
| 504 | Occupied plant and qualifying iron | A building you will not use |
| ABL | Eligible AR | Program WIP a field exam rejects |
| Equipment | Serialized owned cells | Customer-owned tools treated as collateral |
| Seller paper | Real stretch | Monthly pay labeled as injection |
A tooling-heavy file can look asset-rich and still be a working-capital problem. Customer-owned fixtures are not your borrowing base.
Diligence that follows Michigan statute cells
How it works still says tax returns before a tour. Michigan adds Part 201 and express-coverage licensing. The sibling sell page is the owner’s voice. This is the buyer kill sheet.
| Pass | National habit | Michigan cell |
|---|---|---|
| Job-cost | Won vs actual margin | Same |
| Scorecards | PPM, OTD, launch | Access to the book |
| Tooling | Who owns, who pays | Steel life |
| Environmental | Phase I on dirt or wet process | F — Part 201 / disclosure; confirm |
| Tax on M&E | CPA | MfgEx / Occ; successor F |
| Notice | Federal WARN if facts fit | Mini-WARN N — still confirm |
| Who marketed | Engagement hygiene | Express-coverage RE compilation |
Phase I and Phase II follow ASTM E1527-21 and All Appropriate Inquiries (Source: EPA). Part 201 is not a reason to skip the study. It is a reason to have counsel and an Environmental Professional on the same site walk. Components generally stale after 180 days.
Licensing and the Midwest Brokers 2026 compilation are briefing tools. If the file was marketed as a business opportunity in an express-coverage state, counsel should say whether the engagement was properly licensed. The deed is a separate card. Jason Taken is a business broker.
Freeze the peg in the letter. Unbilled PPAP hours are not finished goods.
Part 201 and the dirt decision
Lease the plant and you still want process history. Buy the plant and you want a current Phase I, not a 2018 cover letter. Recognized environmental conditions on finishing, solvents, or tanks are a Phase II budget, not a vibe. Do not invent an ISRA clock. Do not skip AAI because the compilation said F.
Valuation stays on national bands. BizBuySell’s 2.75x SDE median is Main Street (Source: BizBuySell). A certified supplier is a different earnings base. Buyer types on the other side of your letter will not pay a sponsor print for an owner-estimator shop.
How we help Michigan buyers
Jason Taken will write the buybox down, cut the fantasy radius, and source quietly. We will not invent listings. We will not hide a Part 201 question or a lapsed IATF card because the cell photographed well. We will not send an LOI a 7(a) lender cannot fit.
How should a Michigan buyer read a scorecard versus a CIM?
A CIM that leads with bay square footage is a brochure. A scorecard that shows late launches and rising PPM is the book. Ask for on-time delivery, defect rates, and whether the next program is priced. Ask who owns the tool and who pays when it is out of steel. A 28% customer can be a 50% platform. Structure that with an earn-out, a holdback, or a walk. Do not treat “they would never leave” as diligence.
Quality certificates are access gates. IATF, ISO, or a furniture-finishing spec that lapsed is a customer-access hole on Monday. Put the last CB audit and open major NCRs in the first-pass packet. Valuation still starts with size band after you believe the earnings. BizBuySell’s 2.75x SDE median is a Main Street print, not a certified-supplier print (Source: BizBuySell).
What does quality of earnings do to a Michigan recast?
QoE rebuilds job-cost versus tax. Supplier files hide launch years as run-rate. Furniture files hide housing-cycle peaks as “normalization.” Tooling files hide lumpy bookings as backlog. Add-backs that survive have documents. Add-backs that die are speeches about overtime. If the report kills a turn of earnings, the price moves or you leave. Tell the seller in the LOI who pays and how long exclusivity lasts if the report slips.
Write the peg so the QoE and the true-up are not two arguments about the same unbilled PPAP. Customer-owned fixtures stay off the balance sheet.
How should the first 90 days run after a Michigan close?
Operations, not a second negotiation. Keep the people who hold the program manager. Lock the accounts you underwrote. Count inventory again. Schedule the next CB audit if one is due. Part 201 and Phase I work you deferred into exclusivity do not become optional after the wire. If you bought with 7(a), the $5 million box is behind you (Source: SBA). In front of you is whether the owner’s quoting rules vanish.
BizBuySell’s 2025 manufacturing median close was 223 days (Source: BizBuySell). Use it to staff QoE and environmental work. It is not a promise. Stanford medians assume a margin profile most job shops do not have. Do not force a 9% shop into that template because the cell is in Michigan.
How should a Michigan buyer treat the machine list and 504 occupancy?
Serials and liens first. Then an appraisal that states FMV, OLV, and FLV. If the iron floor plus cleaned working capital is close to asking EV, stop modeling a growth story. Customer-owned tools are not your borrowing base. A 504 path still requires occupancy if you want the plant and the heavy iron: $5 million standard, $5.5 million for a qualifying small-manufacturer project (Source: SBA). Occupancy is a fact, not a slogan.
I-9 and OSHA 300 logs are diligence. Repeat citations are priced. A CBA, if one exists, is successorship and withdrawal-liability work for counsel — not a union-density percent this page will invent.
Should a Michigan buyer prefer assets or stock?
Structure is counsel’s job. An asset purchase can leave unknown liabilities behind and can also force new quality listings and a new handbook. A stock purchase can keep registrations and contracts in place and can also keep the liabilities you did not price. Part 201 disclosure and a current Phase I still belong on wet processes either way. Express-coverage licensing still belongs on the engagement that marketed the file. Jason Taken is a business broker. He will not pick the form for you.
Earn-outs are not a repayment source for most lenders. Do not model them as if a 7(a) will count them. If you need them to make the math work, you are stretching. A plant-visit protocol still applies: no branded fleece, no photographing fixtures, no interviewing the second-shift lead without the seller’s script.
Educational information only. Confirm license, environmental, tax, and lending questions with the right professional. No outcome is guaranteed.
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