Why Don’t More People Buy Businesses?

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Why More People Do not buy a business?

Introduction

You may not believe what they say yourself, but if you have been in the business of buying businesses for a long time you’ve heard someone repeat this time worn statement.

“One in 14 buyers actually buys a business.”

The business brokerage industry throws around this number all the time.

This “1 in 14” number (or only 7% ) is based on statistics gathered from some old-time brokers. They must have actually kept track of how many buyers called their firms versus how many deals they closed. We can’t know how well they tracked this info, or where this data originated from. But, thankfully, the actual number is not the important part. For the sake of solving the problem, we just need to see that it’s low, and really could be better.

Here’s why that number stays so low…

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What Business is Right for You?

The Best Way to Find the Right Business for You

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The time to get advice is early in the game, not after you have signed a purchase agreement and suddenly find that you have only 10 days to complete all due diligence

Many people look for a good, profitable business of any type. That makes sense… or does it?

People such as this are not picky as to the type of business as long as it makes money. Using this technique it is very common to look at a hundred businesses and even then to find out – after hours and hours of research – that what you learned did not agree with what you were told. Such an approach is one way to go about it.   Read more

Trouble Shooting Your Business Buying

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Being able to trouble shoot a problem is an art that must be developed.

Though there are those who think they are naturally good at it. There are a very small number of business schools that actually train you in the art of doing this, I only know of one. Read more

Crime Does Pay When Buyers Don't do Due Diligence

Crime Does Pay When Buyers Don’t Do Due Diligence

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Don’t let your business purchase lead you into becoming the victim of white-collar crimes. Find out more from our business buying experts.

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Accrual Accounting

Vital Things you Need to Know About Valuing a Business

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Putting a value on a business is a separate function from auditing, evaluating or doing “due diligence.” There are three or more generally accepted methods of valuing a business. These are:

  • Comparable sales: What have other similar businesses with similar financial information sold for?

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Business Buying Services Due Diligence

Due Diligence Investigation: Just Call Me Sherlock

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When buying a business one has to see what is not on the financial documents that are provided by the seller. To do that you need to graduate the Sherlock Holmes College of Observation. Mr. Holmes was famous for seeing small clues that appeared to others to be meaningless.  But in truth they were the keys to solving the case.  Read more

Business Buying Horror Story: Dog Kennel – He Never Got His Questions Answered

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Pet Business Due Diligence “Bill” and his family were looking for a dog kennel and went on to the internet and started looking at various “Businesses for Sale” web sites. He located a dog kennel for sale with real estate in another state. Bill and his family had experience with boarding animals so it seemed the perfect business. 

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Business Evaluation Pitfalls: How to Evaluate the True Worth of a Business: Sanity Check-Buying A Business

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Getting the True Value of a Business.

In the business broker community there is a review process that helps a buyer determine if a business purchase makes sense or not. This check can be done by a Fortune 500 company where everything is figured down to the penny and takes 1000 hours of research or it can be done by a small main street shop buyer who figures it out in one hour. Each item in this review process requires a decision. Read more

Buying a Business: Disasters When You Don’t Have Your Own Agent

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Should you allow a Dual Agent or Get your own buyer’s Agent? A Changing, More Aggressive Business Buying Market

Yesterday, I was reviewing a buyer’s signed escrow instructions.

He came to me after signing the escrow instructions and purchase contract, as his agent had said he should. His agent said he needed to hire someone to do the due diligence after he opened escrow. When I read the escrow instructions, I was shocked.

Read more to see how it turned out.

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How to start your own business & be successful

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Do you want to start a business and be successful?

In the movie and play South Pacific there is a song called “Happy Talking.” The words to that song go something like this (feel free to sing along if you know the tune):

“Happy talk, keep talkin’ happy talk,
Talk about things you’d like to do.
You got to have a dream,
If you don’t have a dream,
How you gonna have a dream come true?”

Surveys of successful people have shown that the love of the work has been more important than the money.

Interestingly, that usually equates into success in the work of love, which is then followed by financial success.  To find out more on how to succeed.  Read more