Buy Or Start A Business

Buying a business or starting your own is different for each individual. The key is to research each option in-depth, know exactly what your financial position is, and whether you have the drive and skillset to work your way up.

buy or start a business

Not every business sold is a viable business or good value for money. Some businesses are overpriced, unprofitable or under-performing. Some businesses seem like good value due to their low price tag but these types of businesses usually take dedication and resources to turn around.

Depending on the business you are starting, it may be low risk, high risk or anything in between. Some businesses are extremely high risk due to the capital outlay required to get started. Most business owners will tell you that they made countless mistakes when they first started. This is true for all start-up businesses, and sometimes those business mistakes can be costly.

If you are deciding up whether you should start or buy a business, you need to work out what is important to you based on your individual circumstances. Everyone is different, so there is no single answer.

The best thing to do is to tailor your decision and strategy to your needs. At the end of the day, having a business is an alternative to working, and much like work, it makes it much easier to stay passionate when you enjoy the work that you do.

Dropshipping is a great way to test product-market fit and launch a business before you invest in your own original products. Just be sure to always order a sample for yourself to make sure your supplier is reliable and that the quality of the products is fit for selling to your customers.

Another dropshipping model, print on demand puts inventory, shipping, and fulfillment in the hands of a third-party supplier. But unlike the dropshipping business idea above, the focus here is on customizing products with your own designs to create something original.

Having a mission to go along with a business and setting aside some profit for a cause gives social entrepreneurs a unique way to position their company in the market while addressing the issues they care about most.

As part of your marketing, you can share the impact that your customers are having by supporting your business, such as a blog post covering your work in the community or a real-time impact calculator on your website.

The Give & Grow Shopify app makes it easy to partner with charitable organizations and incorporate your mission into your business. You can set it up to donate a specific amount or a percentage of sales, or ask your customers to add a donation at checkout.

Writers, graphic designers, virtual assistants, SEO practitioners, cleaning service providers, dog walkers, real estate professionals, and more can build a business around their skills. You could offer these skills as an ongoing service or start a consulting business that advises on projects.

Unlike many of the other ideas on this list, you will need to consider shipping and inventory management, but you can start out simple on a per-order basis or with a small batch until you start generating consistent sales.

In fact, many makers on Shopify started out with a home business idea, selling on Etsy or eBay, or to friends and family through word of mouth, and grew into full-time small-business owners after establishing demand for their products.

Memberships are great for managing members-only access to content on a website, and even for physical businesses that offer guided sessions online. Yoga studios, gyms, clubs, and art schools are a few examples of businesses that can easily take advantage of this business model.

Affiliate marketing refers to a performance-based marketing tactic where a business pays people, a.k.a. affiliates, to promote and sell products for them. Every time an affiliate brings in a new customer, they receive a commission from the business.

Affiliates can promote products on their blogs, social media accounts, or websites, or in communities. For many, affiliate marketing is a low-cost side hustle that turns into a profitable business over time.

I grew up with a dad who was a handyman, always fixing things around the house: a plumbing issue, installing tile, cleaning out gutters, putting up a fence. He was always the guy friends and family would call on for odd jobs around the house. If only the internet has been popular in those days, he could have built his own business website and offered his services locally!

The beauty industry really pulled through the pandemic and the momentum continues to build. Our research shows that 55% of health and beauty business founders reported being satisfied with business performance throughout the pandemic and beyond. Businesses that sell online and offer different delivery services will continue to win.

The key to making this a successful business idea is to offer the right products at the right location. Do your research to find high-trafficked areas and understand exactly who is walking by and what they might need at that moment. With a strategic approach, vending machines can be a profitable business idea with small investment and an overall great business idea.

Think about how you can zero in on a specific audience for your products and how the business you build can serve them. If you already have a sizable audience (a blog, a YouTube channel, or an Instagram account), maybe you can even find a way to base your business off of that existing audience.

With many of the small business ideas explored in this post, you may not be shipping your products, but you still need to cover the cost of shipping. Consider your shipping costs and how they will vary in the different countries you want to serve.

There are aspects of your own business you can always salvage if you try a different product or approach. The brand you invest time into creating and the followers you amass on social media or in your email list can be assets you repurpose for your next business idea.

The easiest businesses to start would be anything online: dropshipping stores, online courses, tutoring, fashion stores, or selling services. Online businesses require minimal startup costs and can easily scale, so you can earn more profit and do less work over time.

When purchasing a business, during the due diligence phase the buyer and his legal representative review the financial statements of the business and attempt to establish a value for the company. Financial statements do not tell the whole story. The company may show significant receivables on the balance sheet, but the question is whether these can actually be collected and turned into cash. Difficulties may lurk on the horizon that have not yet shown up in the financial statements, such as new competitors on the verge of entering the market.

When you start a company, you assemble the management team, selecting the best people you can find--and those who can work well with you and as a team. When you buy a business, you inherit the people already in place. It takes time to weed out the poor performers; a long-time employee may resent the new owner because he thought he would be given the chance to be CEO someday. In an existing company, policies, procedures and a corporate culture are already in place. The new owner may encounter resistance to change.

When you buy a business, the financial rewards begin right after the transaction closes because the company is already generating cash flow and hopefully is profitable. Start-up companies usually go through a painful period where they lose money. The entrepreneur must be patient and not expect financial success too soon. The satisfaction that comes from starting a company and making a success of it is enormous; you realize you have created something--on your own and against significant odds.

Brian Hill is the author of four popular business and finance books: "The Making of a Bestseller," "Inside Secrets to Venture Capital," "Attracting Capital from Angels" and his latest book, published in 2013, "The Pocket Small Business Owner's Guide to Business Plans."

Before starting your own business, consider its pros and cons. Building a business from scratch means having total control of everything, from financing, marketing, sales and technology to even expansion.

You will have to work constantly on ways of improving your operations and systems while at the same time developing new marketing and advertising strategies and other factors involved with the responsibilities of managing your business.

One of the greatest pros of investing in a franchise is the business is already trusted by customers, giving you immediate brand recognition. When you open your doors, there is a high probability that customers in your area will be loyal to the brand and even bring in newer potential customers.

When you buy a franchise, everything is already in its place. Your franchisor will happily provide you with the tools and the systems needed to run your business successfully, as they benefit while you do.

My passions include entrepreneurship, education and great food. I joined Forbes in 2018 as Europe Editor after the company acquired The Memo, my startup which I founded in 2015. I'm also proud to train the next generation of journalists at City, University of London where I've been a visiting lecturer since 2011.

I am a U.K.-based journalist with a longstanding interest in management. In a career dating back to the days before newsroom computers I have covered everything from popular music to local politics. I was for many years an editor and writer at the \"Independent\" and \"Independent on Sunday\" and have written three books, the most recent of which is \"What you need to know about business.\" 041b061a72