By Mike Handelsman

While economic conditions show signs of improvement, many potential business buyers are still thinking twice about buying a business. However, the increased availability of seller financing combined with lower business prices has actually created an ideal situation for buying.

It’s true that the tight credit environment has made it increasingly difficult to access financing from lenders for a business purchase, but at the same time this lack of availability has necessitated that business sellers become much more flexible when it comes to offering financing. More and more sellers are recognizing the fact that they have to be willing to finance at least part of a business sale in order to attract buyers and successfully close transactions.

In light of this, BizBuySell.com allows buyers to quickly and easily filter through business-for-sale listings to determine which ones have seller financing available. The financing details appear alongside other essential information such as business description and location, asking price and cash flow. Now, aspiring small business buyers can concentrate only on businesses that have indicated they are willing to provide seller financing by sorting listings using the seller financing criteria.

With easy access to listings of seller-financed businesses, the dream of owning a business can become more of a reality for aspiring buyers, who are growing in number. As a result of layoffs and challenging economic conditions, a growing number of people are realizing that buying a business is a viable, attractive alternative to searching for a traditional job.

In addition to it being easier than ever to access seller financing, business buyers can take advantage of declining sale prices, as business sellers have not only had to become more flexible in offering financing, but also settle for lower prices. This means that if you’ve been thinking about buying a business, now could be the perfect time to do so.

Although it can be particularly risky to attempt to succeed with a new business in any economy, if a seller is willing to finance part of a sale, buyers can take comfort in the fact that the seller has a good level of confidence in the business and its ability to thrive even in tough times. If that isn’t incentive enough for aspiring buyers, decreasing prices might be just what it takes to give them the confidence to take the final step.

As always, buyers must undertake all of the necessary research and due diligence before entering into a small business purchase. It’s more important than ever to understand exactly what you are buying. BizBuySell.com recommends that buyers engage trained professionals (e.g. a business broker, accounting firm or due diligence consultancy) to help them assess the business before signing a purchase agreement.

What is the most profitable business to open, with the economy being in a Recession?

From Mary DeBow - Buying a Business - Mar 6, 2010

Hello Mary,

I’m assuming that your question is “what is the most profitable business to BUY?” – as opposed to ” what is the most profitable business to OPEN?” If the latter, you’ve hit upon one of the greatest advantages of buying an existing business – HISTORY.

As to recession proof – all you need to do is look at the financials for the last year – certainly part of 2008 and all of 2009 could be considered a ‘recession;

Good Luck!

What’s a good semi absentee business to own? I have looked at day care, liq. stores, and hair care, Idea’s?   

Colleen Rebuck – In New Business Advice – 1 hour ago 

Julie A. Barnes

Small Business Exchange, Inc.
Travis County, TX

Hello Colleen,

I currently list a maid service (Maid To Perfection) that requires about 20 hours a week – mostly in sales. Once schedules are automated and an office manager is available to put out brush fires, the owner(s) may semi-retire. Weekends are not required and commercial accounts usually take care of themselves.

I’ll admit that the cleaning business is hardly glamourous but it’s a steady producer. To read more about this listing, please visit my website: http://www.SmallBusinessExchange.net – all inquries addressed within 24 hours or less. Also – for some free advice about how to buy, sell, or evaluate a business, please visit: http://www.AustinBusinessesForSaleBlog.com.

Thanks and Good Luck!
Julie A. Barnes, CPA
President, SBX Inc.

Web reference: http://www.SmallBusinessExchange.net

Charles’ advice is spot on – multiples of gross income do no indicate the profitability of a business. The cap rate you refer to is only as good as the data you can gather from similar operations in a comparable location – doubtful at best.

Instead – I would encourage you to approach your listing price more realistically. That is, if a buyer were to pay cash – what would be their payback period? More likely, a buyer will need to borrow some portion of the sales price. Let’s use 80% of the price as an assumption. After servicing the debt, will they be able to enjoy a return of 20% or more? That’s the target for most commercial loans.

For more information about how to value your business, please visit my blog: http://AustinBusinessesForSaleBlog.com.

Thanks and Good Luck!
Julie A. Barnes, President
SBX, Inc.

Web reference: http://www.SmallBusinessExchange.net

Charles Woolweaver
Franchise Your Business in 60 Days
FranchiseConsulting.Net
Palm Beach County, FL

In Florida we don’t use gross sales to determine price because it doesn’t reflect the potential ROI. Instead we use adjusted net profit (owners benefit) and a multiplier based on historical industry sales data

Web reference: www.buyfloridabusiness.net

Rhonda Hays – In Buying a Business – Dec 2, 2009

Author’s Note:  I found the  following answers to Rhonda’s  question posted on the Wall Street Journal’s  website, http://www.BizBuySell.com   to be exceptionally informative, sage advice:

1. Create a life plan. What’s important to you that’s currently in your life that is non negotiable – do you have a partner, children, a charity or church that’s important to you etc.
2.  Once you have a life plan, start on a business plan. Your business plan should be pretty empty when you first start out as the goal is to build it out over a period of time based on things that make sense to you.

 Now one of your first decisions – do you want to start your own business, buy an existing business or buy a franchise. Your question states that you want to buy an existing business? How and why did you arrive at that decision? What research have you done to support your idea.

Now one of your first decisions – do you want to start your own business, buy an existing business or buy a franchise. Your question states that you want to buy an existing business? How and why did you arrive at that decision? What research have you done to support your idea.

As you start answering the above questions things will start to become clearer. You still have a lot more work to do but you final decision will be tempered with many questions and answers such as the industry you want to work in, the hours you want to work, how much money do you have to invest, what are your strengths and what are your weaknesses.

There are some books available from my website which may help if you have further interest.

Finally; be patient with yourself and build a team of people around you to help you make the right decision.

Web reference: www.Andrew-Rogerson.com

Dec 7, 2009

Ash Rasaei

Prudens Business Advisors
Los Angeles County, CA

First-Time Business Buyers: What You Need To Know

Making the transition from worker bee to small business owner involves a great deal of time, effort, money, and personal commitment. It is not a decision to be made hastily nor taken lightly. There are certain questions you need to ask and certain elements to consider, with every step along the way a potential pitfall. Ash Rasaei with Prudens Business Advisors discusses what first time buyers should know before buying a small business.

web reference: www.prudens.biz

Dec 6, 2009

sid diki

Freedom Business Brokers
Orange County, CA

The 4 essential elements required for running a successfull business are as follows:

1. Vision
2. Charisma
3. Knowledge
4. Hardwork
Besides this good decision making is an important factor. Unfortunately every person think that he is making a right decision but they may be making a drastic mistake.   Here is the example:

One buyer bought a Sizzler restaurant many years ago.Immediately after buying he found that Manager was dawing about 4k a month that seemed to be a biggest chunk of revenues. He fired the manager and stood on cash register himself with no experience and no business ettiqutes.

Consequently in 3 months sale went down to one third. Later he realized that the manager used to bring lot of parties every weekend say crew of 6 employees. In the wholesale co there were salesman who used to earn a commission based on their production and seniority. He fired all the staff and replaced with the cleaning crew with a minimum wage who couldn’t sell water to a thirsty person. Besides their appearance and body language contributed to drastic reduction in sales. Another example of bad decision.
If you ask these two sellers now that do you think you made bad decision that led to your downfall?, they will never admit it. Because this world is running with fools and not by smart people. S,ome people are born to commit mistakes, others learn from their own mistakes. Knowledge brings the power and sound decisions made will take you to heights of sky and bad decisions will take you to depths of oceon. So follow the protocol and guidelines for success and run the business with a caution like you are walking on the eggshell. Think before you act.
Good Luck!!
will lead you to the core of earth.

Dec 5, 2009

John Pasqualino

1-Guts. 2. A work ethic second to none. 3.  Brains.A boatload of cash helps also. Good Luck.  

Dec 4, 2009

angie graviola

Ms Hays, do you have anyone who could help advise you such as an attorney, accountant etc.? It helps to have someone you can bounce ideas off of or who you can question about financial matters, business practices etc. Once you determine what best suits you, decide whether you want a web based business or brick/mortar type along with the type of hours you wish to dedicate to your business. A purchase price range is also great to have in mind as this will give you an idea as to what you may expect for yearly earnings for your ROI. If you have any other questions or would like some ideas on types of businesses you could purchase, feel free to contact me at globalnerd@yahoo.com. I have several available you might be interested in. Good Luck to you.
Angie  

Dec 4, 2009

Jensen JS
IA-Design Business Development
IAGD int3D
TX

What kind of business experience do you have or good at?
or… what sort of business are you interested that could some how help you bring you to the next level?  

Dec 3, 2009

Dec 2, 2009

Jon Holmquist
President
Edgemaster Mobile Sharpening
Marion County, OR

Rhonda, the first thing that is a requirement is to decide what kind of business you want to own. Buying a business just cause it is for sale is asking for trouble. Do you know anything about the business, have you had experience in that business, do you think you can fall in need to work, employee management, days you have to work, etc. Then when you find something that sounds interesting, go and find several and talk to people doing the business and see what is “really” required. A franchise is required to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document that lays everything out for you. You can go in with your eyes open and not take a chance the owner is telling you the truth

Does anyone have any feedback at all about this concept?

Hi Scott,

I don’t know about starting a mail box store but I can certainly address buying an existing store. I have sold both independently owned mailbox stores and Pak Mails. Location, demographics, and proximity to competitors appear to be significant factors in each store’s success.

The U.S. Postal system, in many cases, is overcrowded and simply does not cater to folks as these private mail box stores can. Convenience is key. If you find a location in an area with higher income demographics, customers are more than willing to pay for the time and effort saved.

Owner operators also appear to do better – a friendly and accomodating owner tend to cultivate loyalty among customers. Please feel free to visit my blog: http://www.AustinBusinessesForSaleBlog.com for more advice on how to buy or sell a business (the advice is not targeted to Austin Businesses only).

Thanks and Good Luck!
Julie A. Barnes, President
SBX, Inc.

Web reference: http://www.SmallBusinessExchange.net