Business

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Business Ownership

Finding a consistent well paying job has been getting harder and harder in recent years. A number of new and great business opportunities are available to the public. These opportunities only cash in if you run a well oiled business plan. Anything from wholesaling vehicles to owning your own pizza parlor are great starts in business. Although, owning and operating a business is a great burden on a person, it can turn out to be very profitable.

While trying to choose a business to start up there are many different factors to think about. An easier choice is to buy an existing business. It starts up as being a lot cheaper to start than your own business that you start from scratch. With no start up fees, you will certainly have a profit now business. Other great opportunities are with pre-existing customers, and easier financing with the bank. "The biggest block to buying a small business outright is the initial purchasing cost." (Homepage, Free Business) The initial purchasing cost of any business is going to be a great financial burden. Because the business is already up and running, along with the customer base, brands, and having the basic work done is a great advantage, but will make the business more expensive.

Good research is a way to distinguish between a good business and a bad one. Once you can comfortably go in and knowingly talk to another person in a business sense then you are a good researcher. Research is the key to running and operating your small business successfully. A good researcher would find out certain things about each business that other unresearched people would over look. Seeing these little important factors are the strings tied to the whole business. These factors could be little things that keep the business from running smoothly.

While reading a website about what not to do while buying a business I found ten points that really caught my eye.

1. DON'T overextend financially when buying a franchise. Never, never buy a business that you can't afford - it is the number one reason that businesses fail. They simply run out of cash to operate and advertise before they have enough customers and cash flow to support the business.

2. DON'T start to look until you have an idea of what you're looking for . Many people look at businesses without first determining what they are seeking. Some people assume that all good businesses are good for all buyers. Your skills, goals, values, and ambitions will all play a role in determining the best business for you.

3. DON'T assume that starting a business is easy! Assume you will have to work longer and harder than others in the same business just to make it work. If you're not willing to do that, walk away.

4. DON'T try to go it alone. Use Experts. Lack of experience is often cited as one of the two biggest killers of start up businesses. Certainly your franchisor will

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help you by sharing their experience with you, but use the experience of other experts, too.

5. DON'T forget about a business plan Before you plunge into a business, in addition to investigating the franchise you are buying, also study both the local market in which you'll operating and the industry that you are contemplating joining.

6. DON'T pick a business because "there are so many of them, they must be good." When buying a business, feeling safe is a strong and undeniable urge. When you look at an already popular franchise, your safety level instinctively is high. You can see how easy it appears to operate, and you know that your skills could easily accomplish the necessary tasks. Right? Not necessarily!

7. DON'T skip talking with the other franchisees. People who are in a business that you find attractive are the best source of information that you'll ever find. But watch out - sometimes there may be a hidden agenda. If you wander into a dry cleaner, tell him you are thinking of going into dry cleaning, and ask his opinion, what value are you going to put on the response? Do you think he will give you an honest answer if he thinks you may be planning on opening a competitive outlet just down the street? On the other hand, when you have done your homework with a franchisor, have read the offering circular, and are calling franchisees all over the United States, you'll get valuable information that you can check out with others to see if it rings true throughout the franchise system.

8. Don't put it on your credit card. Wow. At 18.9% interest (or whatever the current rate), you better pray that the cash flow starts very quickly! Chances are very strong that it won't. Most reputable franchisors would strongly discourage you from using this kind of financing if they feel it could impact your ability to succeed.

9. DON'T pick the business your dad (or spouse) likes best. Each person in the world has different skills, needs, and desires. Why would your dad or your neighbor or your spouse like the same businesses that you do? When you look at a business, you need to think about how it matches with the things that you truly want to do and whether it will fulfill your goals. You need to analyze what is important to you - independence? Money? Freedom? Flexibility? Growth? Challenge? Variety? People?

10. DON'T fall in love with the product. When you enjoy a certain type of product, naturally you'd like to be around it, but RETAIL IS RETAIL, so make sure you can do the things needed to make the business successful. It takes a certain personality type to do the things that retail demands: BE THERE...hour after hour, day after day, being nice to your customers, making change, and keeping track of the inventory. (Explor Biz Homepage)

Small businesses everywhere are failing every day. Many different factors represent a role in the failure of a business. It's hard to make the American public into believeing in your store or product. You need a great sales campaigne and you need to be in a great

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area. Location is one of the most important things in your business. If you are a low priced high volume store your location should be somewhere nearer to the city. If your store is a low volume high priced store you should probably be somewhere in Birmingham or in the suburbs. "According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, over 50% of small businesses fail in the first year and 95% fail within the first five years."(Free- Business page 5)Ten reasons small businesses fail within the first few years from Michael Ames: