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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Prospect, evaluate, purchase, and grow an existing business
Buying a Business For Dummies guides you through the process of becoming an entrepreneur without starting from scratch. Before you purchase an existing business, you'll need to know what types of opportunities are out there, how to identify the right fit for your goals, and which strategies to use as you negotiate the deal and manage a smooth transition. This book gives you step-by-step advice on all of that. What about actually running the business successfully? You're covered there, too, with clear information on executing a smooth ownership transition and growing your new business. Let this friendly Dummies guide be your mentor as you embark on your business ownership adventure.
- Know what's involved in buying a business and see if it's for you
- Evaluate your risk tolerance and identify businesses worth buying
- Negotiating a great deal and managing a seamless handover
- Making changes to your new business —without making enemies
Buying a Business For Dummies is a great starting point for entrepreneurs interested in a lower-risk route to business ownership.
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Seitenzahl: 433
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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Buying a Business For Dummies®
To view this book's Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “Buying a Business For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Part 1: Deciding to Buy a Business
Chapter 1: Preparing to Buy a Business
Figuring Your Financial Fitness
Assessing and Replacing Benefits
Understanding Your Time and Financial Commitments to Buy
Stepping Toward Buying a Business
Enlisting Help from Top-Notch Professionals
Estimating the Cost of Your Search and Business Acquisition
Chapter 2: Is Buying a Business for You?
Understanding Why to Buy a Business
Knowing When You Shouldn’t Buy
Recognizing Prepurchase Prerequisites
Do You Have the Right Stuff?
Part 2: Picking the Business that Fits Your Situation
Chapter 3: Determining Your Niche
Why You Don’t Need a New Idea to Be Successful
Choosing Your Business
Chapter 4: Finding the Right Business to Buy
Defining Your Business-Buying Appetite
Generating Leads
Considering a Franchise
Evaluating Multilevel Marketing (MLM) Firms
Checking Out Work-from-Home Opportunities
Chapter 5: Evaluating a Business to Buy
Examining Owners’ and Key Employees’ Backgrounds
Finding Out Why the Owner Is Selling
Surveying the Company Culture
Deciding on Terms
Inspecting the Financial Statements
Uncovering Lease Contract Terms
Evaluating Special Franchise Issues
Part 3: Negotiating Terms and Sealing the Deal
Chapter 6: Figuring Out How Much the Business is Worth
Exploring Valuation Methods: Multiple of Earnings and Book Value
Getting a Professional Appraisal
Tracking Businesses You’ve Explored That Have Sold
Tapping the Knowledge of Advisors Who Work with Similar Companies
Consulting Research Firms and Publications
Turning to Trade Publications
Enlisting the Services of a Business Broker
Chapter 7: Financing Your Deal
Outsourcing Financing
Financing Yourself: Bootstrapping
Chapter 8: Preparing a Purchase Offer
Writing a Letter of Intent or an Indication of Interest (IOI)
Developing Purchase Offer Contingencies
Allocating the Purchase Price
Doing More Due Diligence
Part 4: Managing a Smooth Transition
Chapter 9: Moving into Your Business
Getting Important Things Down on Paper
Considering the Business Entity
Gaining Insight from Others
Chapter 10: Business Owner Basics
Minding the Details of Business Ownership
Outsourcing: Focus on What You Do Best
Simplifying Your Accounting
Controlling Your Expenses
Managing Vendor Relationships
Dealing with Bankers, Lawyers, and Other Outsiders
Chapter 11: Handling Regulatory and Legal Issues
Navigating Small-Business Laws
Complying with Small-Business Regulations
Laboring over Employee Costs and Laws
Part 5: Creating a Growth Trajectory
Chapter 12: Keeping and Attracting Superstar Employees
Motivating Top Performers to Stay
Revisiting the Compensation Plan
Introducing Changes to Employee Benefits
Bringing in New Talent
Training: An Investment, Not an Expense
Parting Company: Firing an Employee
Designing Flexible Organization Charts
Valuing Employee Manuals
Characterizing Successful Employers
Chapter 13: Keeping Your Customers Loyal
Retaining Your Customer Base
Dealing with Dissatisfied Customers
Expanding Your Customer Base
Part 6: The Part of Tens
Chapter 14: Ten (or So) Ways to Learn from the Experiences of Others
Utilize Mentors
Network with Peers
Form a Board of Advisors
Find a Partner
Join a Trade Association
Locate a Small Business Development Center
Give SCORE a Try
Tap into Small-Business Information
Chapter 15: Ten Ongoing Tax Jobs
Keeping Track of Your Small Business Revenues and Costs
Separating Business from Personal Finances
Documenting Expenses and Income in the Event of an Audit
Keeping Current on Income, Employment/Payroll and Sales Taxes
Reducing Your Taxes by Legally Shifting Income and Expenses
Ensuring a Complete and Accurate Tax Return
Tracking Tax Information on Your Computer or Smartphone
Deciding When to Stash and When to Trash
Replacing Lost Business Records
Index
About the Authors
Connect with Dummies
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 5
FIGURE 5-1: A sample four-column profit and loss statement.
FIGURE 5-2: A sample balance sheet.
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Begin Reading
Index
About the Authors
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Buying a Business For Dummies®
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2024 by Eric Tyson and John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Media and software compilation copyright © 2024 by Eric Tyson and John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2024933513
ISBN 978-1-394-24575-8 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-394-24577-2 (ePDF); 978-1-394-24576-5 (epub)
Introduction
Many folks dream of being their own boss and running their own business. Plenty of those dreamers envision starting their business from scratch. Fewer think about buying an existing business but that route may indeed be a better fit for your skill set and situation.
Buying a Business For Dummies can help you to understand what’s involved in buying a small business rather than starting one from scratch. We walk you through all the important considerations to help you decide if buying a small business is right for you and how to find one in the best niche.
As with buying a home or other real estate, making an offer on and closing on a small business purchase involves plenty of research and due diligence. We detail what to do and what to avoid throughout the entire process. And, once you buy a business, we highlight how to improve your business and make the most of it.
About This Book
The following backgrounds and philosophies serve as a guide to the advice we provide — advice from the field that makes this small-business book stand out from the rest:
We’re small-business experienced, and we share the benefits of that experience with you. Between us, we have seven-plus decades of experience in starting, buying, and running seven successful small businesses. In addition, we’ve worked with thousands of small-business owners. Jim has led numerous small-business peer-networking groups and has provided volunteer counseling services to small-business owners. Eric has conducted financial counseling for small-business owners, taught financial-management courses, and worked as a management consultant.
Throughout this book, we share the experience we’ve gained, in the hopes that you’ll use our advice to eliminate trial and error from your inventory of management tools. We also share an ample collection of straight-from-the-horse’s-mouth anecdotes, each one based on a true story.
We take an objective view of small-business ownership. Although we firmly believe in the creative power of small business, we’re not here to be its pitchmen.
Sadly, too many small-business books are written by folks with an agenda: a franchise to sell, a multilevel marketing scheme to promote, or a high-priced seminar to foist on the reader. Free of conflicts of interest, we’re here to pass on the truth and let you decide. If you’re the type of person who wants to get into this competitive career field, we’d like you to enter the race informed as well as inspired.
We take a holistic approach.
Because small business can at times be both demanding and intoxicating, buying and running your own shop can threaten to consume your life. Although everyone knows that life is more than just business, striking a balance and staying in control can represent a colossal challenge. With that in mind, we take care to present the realities of buying and running a small business within the larger (and more important) framework of maintaining a happy personal and financial life.
We look to the future.
As this book is published in 2024, the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going mainstream. Both AI and ChatGPT (just one of AI’s many tools) increasingly should be considered by small business buyers and operators. However, just as with any other technology or innovation, we help you to weigh the costs against potential benefits in deciding which tools and strategies may make sense for your specific small business.
Foolish Assumptions
Too often, books about buying a small business assume that their readers are ready to make the leap into small business and are cognizant of the risks and pitfalls. We don’t make that assumption here, and neither should you. That’s why we include sections designed to help you decide whether buying and running a business is really for you. We spell out the business and finance terms, break down the tasks, and point out the dangers. We don’t think that you’re incapable of making the decision yourself; we just know that time is your most precious resource, and we think we can help you save it. You’ll lose too many years of your career and commit valuable financial resources if you make the wrong choice.
Much of this book is targeted to buying a small business and running it intelligently. Even if you have a business in mind, buying and then operating a small business is much harder than it appears, so we show you the best ways to purchase, manage and grow your enterprise.
We’ve organized this book to satisfy different reading and personal styles. Some of you may read it from cover to cover, while others may refer to it to answer a specific question or address an immediate concern. For this reason, each chapter of the book is designed to stand on its own. We’re flexible — read it as an all-in-one project or use it as a reference guide.
Icons Used in This Book
To help you find the information you need to assist you on your entrepreneurial path, we’ve placed icons throughout the text to highlight important points.
This icon asks you to do some thinking and checking before you take the plunge. You have a lot of important choices to make when buying and running a business, so don’t rush in.
This icon points out stuff too good (and too important) to forget.
If you like to sweat the dull stuff, this icon points out the inner workings of the business world that you’re likely to ignore as you get down to the real work.
This symbol indicates time-tested tips to make your small-business journey more profitable and easier. Often straight from the heart of experience, we clue you in on what works for us as we navigate the oft-troubled waters of small-business life.
We present tales from our own experiences to save you some trial and error. Enjoy the company of your fellow entrepreneurs and benefit from the lessons we’ve learned.
The path of small-business ownership can be fraught with peril. Some deals may be too good to be true, and some people may have their own interests at heart, not yours. This icon points out the dangers and helps you steer clear of them.
Beyond the Book
To access this book’s Cheat Sheet, go to www.dummies.com and enter “Buying a Business For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box. There you will find the key themes that we emphasize throughout this book.
Where to Go from Here
Where you go from here is up to you, but if you’re just beginning to think about buying small business, we recommend that you read straight through, cover to cover, to maximize your knowledge regarding buying and operating a small business. But the A-to-Z approach isn’t necessary. If you feel confident in your knowledge of certain areas, pick the topics that you’re most interested in by skimming the table of contents or by relying on the well-crafted index at the back of the book.
Part 1
Deciding to Buy a Business
IN THIS PART …
Get to know the acquisition process and the professionals you can hire to help.
Assess whether you have the knowledge, time, and financial resources to purchase and be successful with an existing business.
