Businesses For Sale By Owner (FSBO)
Existing businesses are being sold all the time, but many sellers elect to use the services of a business broker.  This saves them time and effort, although a broker - no differently than a Realtor in the housing market - is paid a fairly substantial commission for handling the transaction.  There are advantages to the seller when it comes to businesses for sale by owner (often abbreviated FSBO in a sort of business shorthand), but there are even more advantages to the buyer of a business for sale by owner.

Advantages - Let Us Count the Ways
With a business for sale by owner, the buyer can expect to benefit in the following ways:

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Let the Buyer (ALWAYS) Beware
As a proper thinking entrepreneur, you have decided that the pizza place that’s been on the corner of your street for 15 years - and is now for sale by its original owner - would be the perfect business to buy.  You have some cash on hand, you know that the owner is willing to provide a loan for the balance (at a below market rate), and you have worked your way up through the fast food jungle from counterperson to assistant manager. All the stars appear to be properly aligned, so what could possibly go wrong?  Well, let’s think about the asking price for a minute.  Pay too much and you may find that it will take a lot longer to reach profitability.  Pay too little and…well, that almost never happens, does it?  How do you value an existing business for sale?

How to Value a Business For Sale
Any existing business has some intrinsic value, even if it’s on its last legs.  Maybe the equipment can be pawned or resold, or perhaps the brand name still pulls in a few customers.  There are many ways to calculate the fair value of an existing business - successful or otherwise - but it rarely makes sense to take the owner’s word for it.  At the very least you will want to apply your own metrics to the process.  It usually makes good fiscal sense to get a business valuation done by a professional or, at the very least, by a trusted yet disinterested third party.  Sad to say, there are literally dozens of methods that people use to determine the value of existing businesses for sale.  Not all of them will apply to the company your eye is on, but there are some basic rules worth following.

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Is Owning a Business in Your Future?
At one time or another, nearly every employee dreams of owning a business.  Perhaps you’re tired of all your hard work ending up helping someone else achieve his or her entrepreneurial success, or you may fear for losing your job in a weakened economy.  Whatever your motivation, the compulsion to own a business is strong in many of us.  But the risk involved in turning that dream into reality has, all too often, acted to derail even the best-laid plans.

How to Own a Business
Every prospective business owner is forced to wrestle with many different kinds of questions.  Concerns about money certainly lead the pack, but knowing what kind of business best suits you is even more important.  The best place to start is by examining the reasons why you want to own a small business.  Here are some benefits to ponder:

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Look Out - Businesses For Sale!
Thanks to the Internet and its worldwide audience, information on anything imaginable (and hardly believable) is only a few clicks away.  If you are an entrepreneur on the lookout for a new business opportunity, scanning the Web can prove worthwhile.  It can also be an immense waste of time, since search engines tend to force you to look at as many as a thousand tangentially related pages before you find something of value.  There are better sources and more sensible ways to uncover new business opportunities, especially those that offer greater local appeal.

How to Find Business Opportunities in Your Locale
There are no fewer than six major sources of information for finding a new business opportunity that suits your interests, your particular financial situation and your location.  While it helps to have at least some glimmer of an idea as to the type of industry you’d like to explore - more on that below - it’s not a deal-killer if you’re just starting out and haven’t a clue.  Believe it or not, the more you read and the more you learn about a particular field, the easier it is to accept or reject operating in that area.  Here are those six broad categories:

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Are There Cheap Franchise Opportunities Out There?
There are three aspects to coming up with the kind of money it takes to buy a franchise - coughing up the initial franchise fee, finding a place from which to do business, and paying for supplies and inventory.  Cheap franchises are an especially hot commodity in a down economy.  But don’t be fooled by a low price tag.  The cost of entry for an inexpensive franchise is only one element of potential success.  There are definitely cheap franchises out there, so let’s do a little exploring.

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A “Take It Or Leave It” Culture?
Companies that franchise their retail operations have a set way of doing business.  In many cases they have created a successful franchising system over the course of many years, and in dealings with hundreds if not thousands of franchisees.  Let’s say that you want to buy a franchise.  There are certain documents that the parent company must provide, including a highly detailed listing of how much you pay in franchisee fees and royalties, and exactly what you will receive for those payments.  In preparation for buying a franchise, your biggest question may well be, “What can I negotiate, if anything?”  The corporation may want you to assume there is no wiggle room, but that is not always the case.

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What Is a Home Based Franchise?
It should be obvious to everyone that a home based franchise is “a franchise business you operate from your home.”  But there is more to it than this simple explanation.  By combining the elements of working from home (no outside office expenses, no commuting time, flexible hours) and the benefits of running a franchise business (instantly recognizable brand, tried-and-true business plan, extensive training), people who purchase home based franchises join 500,000 other franchisees and gain a share of the $813 billion in annual sales, which represents 35 percent of all U.S. retail business.

Benefits of Owning a Home Based Franchise
Working from home is the dream of many prospective entrepreneurs.  It allows you to spend more time with your family and oftentimes arrange your business schedule around family type events that you would have otherwise missed by working in an office or a retail location.  Many franchisees begin on a part-time basis before gradually seeing their business grow into a full-time enterprise.  It is also a more personal way of operating, since you end up living with your franchise much more than the average small business owner.

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Thank You For Your Service!
Veterans of the U.S. military are coming home these days to a fairly bleak economic climate.  Jobs are tough to find, which means that more and more people are looking into entrepreneurship as a legitimate path to personal financial success.  Many veteran business opportunities are available that use the unique skills of leadership and technology that today’s military imparts on its members.  The recent revival of the G.I. Bill, which mirrors educational benefits extended to the men and women who returned from WWII, is one area where veterans are being given the break they deserve.  The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has a special lending plan for vets, and many franchising companies offer discounts to veterans who are interested in that aspect of small business opportunities.

Veteran Business Opportunities - Veteran Franchise Opportunities
Among all the business opportunities for sale, the ten listed below are especially appropriate for individuals who have prior military service.

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