Buying a Business Newsletter - Page 10

The seller's finish line is the buyer's starting line. Once you buy a business, the real strategy and work begin. It's important to have a plan.

When you buy an existing business with a proven track record you are buying an existing cash flow with proven services to a known market. If you run it at least as well as the seller, it pays for itself.

A message to first-time business buyers: owning a business has risk. You can minimize it, but never eliminate it. If you can't handle risk, don't do it.

Numbers don't lie. Just make sure you are looking at the right numbers. One sign of a well-run business is the condition of its financial documents.

The history of a business is a good, but not the only, predictor of future performance. It's important to look at how an industry as a whole will do in the future.

Franchises vary widely in the level of training and support they provide. If you're thinking of buying a franchise, talk to other franchisees about their experience with training and support.

No business is without risk. Do an effective investigation, or due diligence, but at a certain point, you need to listen to your instincts. If you do not want risk, don't buy a business.

You've heard the saying "timing is everything." If you are in the market for buying a business, it would be difficult to think of a better time than now.

As with most things, there are advantages and disadvantages to buying a business. With the right advice you can help ensure the advantages significantly outweigh the disadvantages in any particular case.

There are a wide variety of funding options for buying an existing business with a good track record. The primary concern of most lenders is whether that track record can be repeated into the future.