by Randy Place
Your Career Service was delighted to hear from Abby the other day. She’s looking to buy a business and commented on a previous post, “Should I buy a franchise?
“ Great advice. I’m looking to buy a business (not necessarily a franchise), so this article will come in handy. I think I’m ready for the hard work and challenge. I do have one problem though… I don’t know where to look for a good business. I’ve searched, but with no luck. Do you have any suggestions for places with businesses for sale? Thanks.”
When, like Abby, you’re “ready for the hard work and challenge” of running your own business, there are three ways to go –
- Buy a franchise
- Create your own business
- Buy an existing business
Should I buy a franchise?
To buy a business in a box is a relatively safe way to go. Why? As my article stated, about 80% of all franchise businesses succeed. But in order to buy one, you must pay through the nose. When your objective is to buy into a franchise, you’ll find listings of all franchise opportunitieson the Internet. Explore them. And see which ones resonate within you.
Create your own business
To create a business is the safest way to go because it’s your least expensive choice. But there is a downside. Unlike the support you get from franchisors, you need to do it all yourself when you create a business. You are the CO, CFO, advertising and accounting departments.
Creating your own business makes more sense when you can offer the job you now do in the corporate world to other businesses. Let’s say you’re an advertising professional, accountant, or police officer. You can think about offering your services as an independent consultant to small companies that lack advertising, accounting, or security departments. If you believe you can offer your current job function to other companies, then think about creating your own business.
Buy an existing business
However, when you’re not interested in creating a business and none of the thousands of franchise opportunities out there excite you, maybe it’s time to research an existing businesses in your neck of the woods. Or in Florida, Colorado, and Arizona if you plan on moving after accepting a package from your current employer.
You can research available businesses for sale the same way you would research franchise opportunities. Hop on the Internet again and ask your favorite search engine to come up with sites for businesses to buy.
One site for businesses to buy is bizQuest.com that advertises itself to be “The Internet’s leading business for sale marketplace,” lets you search for over 40-thousand business for sale. You’ll narrow your search by looking at the dropdown menus that let you choose an industry and location. You can choose from restaurants and gas stations, to manufacturing businesses, and retail stores in all parts of the Country.
How to decide which business to buy –
What follows are four steps that are designed to help narrow your choices –
- Determine your skills and interests before you research. Then match them to available businesses or franchises for sale.
- Do you have dreams or daydreams about the business you see yourself in? Experts say that what you dream about all day is a good indicator of what you should be doing with your with your career.
- As you watch TV, observe if you identify with any characters in movies or TV series.’ What do those fictional characters do for a living? Ask your self if you identify with their careers. One of them might be for you.
- After you get a general idea of the kind of a business you want to buy, assess your skills to determine if you need additional training to do the work required. If you lack necessary skills, get some training.
After you’ve gotten an inkling of the kind of business you’re contemplating buying, it’s much easier choose a franchise or business for sale.
When you still draw a blank after doing the four steps just mentioned, research businesses or franchises for sale. As you read about each business that’s on the block, observe how you feel about each one. Them. When a business resonates within you, write down the pertinent information and proceed to the next. Keep doing that until you have a list of businesses from which to choose.
The last step in choosing a business or franchise is to prioritize your list until you have the top half dozen choices. You’ll need to sleep on them for awhile before making a decision. In fact, the decision as to the best buy for business will probably come to you naturally after you’ve sat on it for awhile
Thanks to Abby for her question which elicited this post. Please keep your comments and questions coming.
Click here to read a related post on franchising on Your Career Service.”