Buy a Small Business in the United States

Summary:
Advice for anyone looking to buy a small business in the United States.

Article Body:

If you are looking for a business opportunity, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has an excellent website, including a search option for small businesses for sale in the United States.  They also have financial options for those who are looking for a business opportunity to consider.

Small businesses consistently employ fifty percent of the workforce in the United States.  Fifty-three percent of all small businesses are home-based, while three percent are franchises.  You can always find a business opportunity that has to do with franchises.  Franchises are a worthwhile consideration, simply because in most cases, the name and products are well known.  If you take advantage of this type of business opportunity and buy a successful franchise, you usually don’t have to worry about it folding in the first year.  Franchise.com has a list of franchises offered for sale in the United States, as well as in other countries.  You can look at a list of franchises and decide on the one you are interested in, and then learn more about it.  The website also lists the franchise fees and investment required.

According to the SBA, there were 24.7 million small businesses in the United States in 2004, the last year for which figures are available.  580,000 new small businesses opened in 2004 and 576,000 closed in the same year.  The competition for any small business to succeed is ferocious, but with more than 24 million in existence, it’s clear that they do succeed.

If you are going to be working in the business yourself, it’s important that you buy a business that you truly care about.  If however, this business opportunity is purely an investment for you, then certainly the best business deal financially would make sense.  Some people who open new businesses work 14, 16 or even more hours per day until the business really gets off the ground.  This would be almost impossible to do if you didn’t like what you were doing.

Home business opportunities are as far and wide as your imagination.  You can start your own business or buy an existing one.  You could have an online business, or a more conventional store or office.  If you select a business opportunity that will have you doing something that you love, the money will likely follow.  

It’s not difficult to find a business for sale.  There are listings all over the Internet, as well as in almost every newspaper in the country.  What matters, obviously, is finding the right business - one that will meet all of your needs, not just your financial ones.  How much time do you have to devote to this business?  Will this be your only business or one of many?  Will you run it yourself or will you hire people to do that for you?

You can do, or you can hire others to do, some sophisticated market research to ensure that your product or service will sell in certain areas.  Of course, if it’s an online business opportunity, you can do plenty of your own research quite easily.  You can look at what other websites are selling, whether it is a product or a service, and to a degree, you can see how popular they are.

If you need to get a loan for your business opportunity, you have several options.  The SBA can direct you to several loan options, although they don’t lend money themselves.  The SBA is a great place to start anyway, simply because they do have so many resources.  They have a lot of statistical information that you might find helpful in your market research, and they have several free publications to help you along in your small business journey.

Probably the most important thing you can do before buying a small business is your homework.  Investigate more than one business before settling on a specific business opportunity, and above all, make sure it is something that you enjoy!

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