Can I buy the business in stages, taking shares now and more assets later?

Yes, staged purchases like this are a recognized approach, particularly where a buyer wants to start with partial ownership or a defined piece now, with a plan to acquire more later once certain conditions — financing, performance, or trust between the parties — are in place. Buying a share stake first and specific additional assets in a later, separate transaction is workable, but it's genuinely two, or more, distinct transactions, each with its own liability and tax consequences at the time it happens.

The nuance is that what governs you between stages matters as much as either transaction itself. If you're a shareholder while also planning a later asset purchase from the same corporation, a shareholders' agreement should address how you'll operate together in the meantime, what happens if the later stage doesn't proceed as planned, and how any later purchase price or terms get determined rather than left to be negotiated fresh once you're already invested.

Because each stage is assessed on its own facts at the time it closes, not locked in based on what you agreed at the outset, a business lawyer should structure both the initial agreement and the mechanism for the later stage together, not as an afterthought.