Deciding how to grow through acquisition

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(FORTUNE Small Business) -- Dear FSB: I own a small real estate company and now I want to expand aggressively into other sectors through acquisitions. How do I get the right expert advice to help my company select "winner" acquisitions?

-- Ejiiro Akoptu, Chicago, Ill.

Dear Ejiiro: Before you dive in, choose which sector to focus on.

"Think about fields that complement your real estate expertise," says Ellen Rudnick, executive director of the Michael P. Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. "Leverage your core competencies and network of resources and focus on something related to what you know."

Investing in a similar field can still allow you to explore new sectors. Take, for example, the healthcare industry.

"Find a sector within healthcare where you can use some of your real estate expertise," Rudnick suggests. "If your experience is in real estate, you wouldn't want to go into something like biotech - that's more long-term and you know nothing about it. Instead, you could focus on long-term care facilities, where there's a growing market and demographic."

Once you've selected an industry, connect with boutique investment banks and consultants that specialize in that field to learn about the marketplace. Find the industry's leading professional association.

"Go to conferences and network," Rudnick says. "The knowledge you gain will help you refine the space in which you'd like to make your acquisition."