When choosing to become a business owner there are two main ways of doing this (ignoring slightly unusual things like franchising) and these are either starting a business from scratch and buying over an existing business and working it from there.
The one thing about starting from scratch is that it is generally a lower initial cost to entry, as there is no buy-in but you will still need to equip the business (if the type of work requires this).
If you buy a business this could be especially pricy upfront, but if you’ve done your homework it should be ready to go and already profitable.
How Quickly Do You Need To Be Trading
If you want to be going straight away then buying a business is a wise strategy as it’s trading. The down-side to this is that any existing business will come with a legacy, both good and bad.
So if you are buying in it’s essential to do your research, check online reviews for any reputation issues and have your accountant analyze their accounts to flag up any issues.
If you have the time to build something from scratch then you at least have the comfort of knowing there are no skeletons in the closet to worry about.
What Are You Like At Building A Marketing Strategy
Are you good at marketing something? If it worries you then getting in with an established business can help in this regard. You can see how they have done it and depending on the size of the business there may even be dedicated staff taking care of this for you. But if you have the skills and relish the challenge of building something from scratch then go for it and start your own thing.
Online Promotion
Online promotion is key for any business these days and one thing we can say about an established business is that it will have an established web presence and it’s well known that domain age is a major ranking factor for SEO meaning that Google and other search engines value long-standing businesses.
Reputation: For Good & Bad
Reputation can be key for aged businesses. If it has a great track record, lots of previously satisfied customers then this would be very valuable. If you are looking to buy out a business then you should ask if they can let you speak to some of the customers to see their impression of the business and if this is good then you have a valuable thing there. If the company has a history of bad reviews and lost customers then this could be difficult to turn around and should put you off or at least lower the asking price.
What Changes Would You Make
Finally, you should simply ask yourself what changes you would need to make to the business you are buying into to make it what you would like and how this would take and is there a great cost to that.
