Business for sale by owner, or FSBO, is an attempt by a business owner to sell his or her own company. While it is understandable that offers of this kind can easily attract a lot of interest, prospective buyers of FSBO should exercise a significant amount of caution; such an opportunity can often prove to be far more risky than it may appear at first sight. On the other hand, buying an established company can also be a very rewarding endeavor. What can be done to minimize the risk and foster the chance for success?

Buying a FSBO Business – an Opportunity and a Challenge
Even the most inexperienced entrepreneur knows by heart that you should not always trust everything that a seller says. Why would this be different when buying a business for sale by owner? Here are just a few ideas for thought.

First, it is possible that the owner of that business will attempt to overstate his or her business profits. You definitely do not want to pay a lot of money for a business that will keep bleeding “red ink”. Second, when buying a business for sale by owner, he or she, even with the most innocent intentions, might be unaware of a real price of a particular FSBO. Most likely, you would risk overpaying. Third, negotiations are not an easy task.

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Have you every dreamed of running your own business? Some people think it’s just that, a dream. Now is the time to make your dreams come true. The New Year will be starting soon and it’s the perfect time to take the steps to make your dream become a reality.

1. Brainstorm
Take some time to think about what you like to do in your spare time. Think about what you are currently doing that could be changed into a business of your own. If you work in the administrative field, you could become a Virtual Assistant. If you love to help people you could become a coach. Think about these types of things and write them down. It doesn’t matter if you think it’s stupid or not. You never know what it could turn out to be.

2. Deciding on a business
Once you have your list of ideas go online and see what you can find as far as a business that matches. If you love jewelry why not sell it and make money. If you feel keeping the environment safe is important, then you should consider selling safe cleaning products. Find several businesses that you think might work for you and start investigating them.

3. Investigation
You need to look into a company to make sure you understand what will be required of you, what you will need to do to make money, and how the compensation plan works. These are important to your success. If you start working a business not knowing these things, you will be upset or stressed. You will need to know how much it costs to get started and if you have monetary requirements each month. It’s also important to know when and how you will get paid.

4. Getting started
Once you find a business that will work for you, it’s time to get started.

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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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What Is an Entrepreneur?
The conventional definition of “entrepreneur” goes something like this: “A person who innovates while taking a risk in developing a product, service, or business.”  Another definition, a bit less precise but equally effective: “Someone who identifies an opportunity and creates a means to pursue it.”  Either way you look at it, the concept of entrepreneurship encompasses several traits.  Entrepreneurs want to create something of their own to bolster their feeling of personal achievement, and they do so with the knowledge that risk can sometimes equal failure.  For the new entrepreneur, he or she should concentrate on minimizing risk while maximizing opportunity.  How is this done?  The best way for new entrepreneurs to succeed is by following the life lessons laid out by those who have gone before.

Are You a New Business Entrepreneur?
Running your own business imparts great responsibility.  You will have employees who rely on you to provide a stable work environment.  You will have customers who expect you to deliver exactly as promised.  Suppliers want to be paid on time, and investors look to you as a source of profit for the money they have put into your company.  The successful entrepreneur takes calculated risks, not crazy ones.  By following the fifteen lessons below, you will have a leg up on the competition.

Fifteen Dynamic New Entrepreneur Ideas

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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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The Risky Economy
A job search under any circumstances is no treat - rewriting your resume at least a dozen times, job searching on the Internet day after day, and landing maybe two interviews for every hundred openings you dig up - but in a shaky economy it can be downright brutal.  Business revenue declines, which causes companies to cut payroll, and then the lack of personnel drives frustrated customers away.  It’s a vicious cycle.  But why get trapped in that rat race if you don’t have to?

Starting a Business Trumps Job Searching
Looking for jobs can be a very shortsighted process.  Long gone are the days when people worked at the same company for decades and retired with a nice pension.  Since at least the 1980s, most professionals change jobs every three to four years, and it’s usually the employer’s choice rather than the worker’s.  Starting a business can be a scary proposition - especially if you come to the process with a lot of unanswered questions in your mind - but a job search can take up just as much time, effort and even capital.  Besides, here is all you’re left with at the end of that road - just another job that you might hold for five years, after which it’s the same process all over again, except you’re now five years older!

Four Reasons to Drop Job Searching for Entrepreneurship
If you have reached the stage in your career where you’re earning a comfortable living as an executive or someone with skills honed over many years in business, there are many strikes against you on the job search front.  Here are four reasons why starting a business may better serve your long-term financial goals:

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