How to Buy a Business - Do you really want to Buy a Business?
Buying a business is undoubtedly one of the most daunting investment prospects you can possibly undertake - probably even riskier than getting married!
The safest and most cost-effective way to approach the actual purchase of a business is to look at it as a long process of elimination, involving a number of steps, like concentric rings, each reaching deeper towards the core. Each step should be taken only after successful completion of the previous step.
The important thing is to allow sufficient time to complete each stage of the investigative process comprehensively.
So What Should You Do?
Although buying an operating business is filled with many potential pitfalls, it is still one of the best ways for a beginner to get into business. An existing operating business has a proven track record, an existing customer base, a well known name, location, marketing and sales strategy, etc. If you buy the business properly, without overpaying and not taking on any fatal skeletons in the closet, you'll have your instant piece of the Canadaian dream to be your own boss and to control your own financial destiny. Get all of the information you can to educate yourself about what to look for and what to look out for. Study the particular business that you are interested in and don't let anyone push you into buying. Tens of thousands of successful business sales take place every year and the key to a successful transaction is information and knowledge on the part of the buyer and the common sense to apply it.
