Have you wanted to become an entrepreneur but couldn’t decide on an idea to run with? Maybe starting a business seems too risky, or you can’t be without an income and need to make a living wage to support your family while you start your business?
There’s another way to become an entrepreneur; buy your way in!
How it works
Along with your down-payment, some creative structuring with the current business owner, and access to institutional lending, you can acquire an existing business.
Benefits of Buying an Existing Business
- An existing business has established, and most importantly, paying clients. You‘re likely to have some revenue from day one.
- If there are employees, you are inheriting trained staff.
- Processes are already in place that have been tested and proven. These should be recorded in handbooks and manuals so you are receiving a guidebook when you acquire a business.
- If the business sells a product, you are getting access to suppliers and often with better rates than if you were to set up the same business from scratch. Because the business likely has a proven track record, the business may qualify for volume discounts or be “grandfathered” in at a preferred rate.
- There will be an existing brand that people know and trust.
- Training and mentorship are typically negotiated into the purchase price from the exiting owner.
- A salary can be carved out for you that meets your needs if the profitability and purchase price are aligned.
- Best of all, if you’re looking to buy an established business that has good cash flow, you have a good chance of acquiring financing to buy the business with help from a bank. The monthly loan payments are then paid for from the cash generated from the business itself and not your own pocketbook.
These are just a few of the benefits. Still wanting something of your own?
Make it Yours
Buying a business is only the first step, once you get your hands dirty and learn the ropes you’ll have a good sense of how you can make improvements to the business, continue to grow it, rebrand, and make it your own. The strategy is to BUY first; then ADAPT. Over time the business will feel like your own concept, but the risk and time it took to get you to that point should be greatly reduced.
Re-Sale
In time you will have grown a business that has become your own, paid down the original purchase price and built equity in the company that you can extract. When the time comes for you to sell, you’ll reap the reward of your initial investment at a multiple.
Buying a business can be a strategy to fast forward your entrepreneurial journey, but it’s not for everyone. Some deep self-discovery is important when setting your search criteria and understanding how the buying process works.
About the author: Elizabeth (Liz) MacRae, CEPA
Elizabeth is a Certified Exit Planning Advisor & the Co-Founder of the tech start-up: Village Wellth, a digital acquisition platform built to connect buyers of small businesses to the business for sale ecosystem.
After missing the opportunity to take over her father’s company due to a lack of succession planning Elizabeth and her husband Scott ventured into business ownership through purchasing a franchise. The experience of starting a new franchise and coming full circle to sell it led her into the business succession space; training as a business broker and later, exit planning advisor. Over the last 10 years Elizabeth has acquired and exited 2 companies and lives to tell the tales. She is an active speaker and is passionate about sharing the advantages and process of business acquisition with aspiring entrepreneurs and founders alike.
Through her work with Village Wellth she is devoted to improving the acquisition ecosystem by way of collaborations, partnerships and developing technology that helps to accelerate the acquisition process.
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