Finding a Business to Buy- Shopping Around

There are many places to look for businesses for sale and there are ways to go about buying unadvertised businesses. This second way is a little complicated and too much for this page so we will stay with advertised businesses for sale.

As far as looking for advertised businesses are concerned, the Internet is a great place to look. The newspaper is the worst place to look and in a moment I will tell you why.

You will find two types of businesses in your hunt: those for sale by the owner and those for sale through a Broker. You are much better off sticking with Broker based sales. These can be found on Business Broker websites and they also occupy 95% of the listings on general business for sale sites.

I recommended staying away from newspapers because most of those ads are for sale by owner (FSBO) businesses. On top of that, they do not give you enough information to warrant truly looking into the business.

Concerning dealing directly with Sellers in a FSBO sale, it is a rare instance that this is ever a good experience. The pricing is normally way off and the information is very often inaccurate. If you get past that, then the negotiating will often be very unpleasant.

By the way, when I say use a Broker, I mean a BUSINESS BROKER. Do not waste your time with any listings you find with a Real Estate Broker. The majority have conned a not-so-savvy business owner into thinking that they know how to price and sell a business just to lock them into a 6 month contract and hope a sucker comes by to purchase the business.

Don’t be that sucker. Again, this is not like selling or buying a house so stick to a Business Broker. And while you're at it, use my e-book, checklists, templates and tools to know how to find a good business, where to look and what you do once you find it.


To Your Business Buying Success-

The Business Buying Guru