Buying a business

**Gaulkin** · 09-06-2007 09:22 PM

Ive been thinking instead of taking my ideas and risking my money to just use it to buy a business that already makes a good amount of profit. Ive been looking at business at http://www.businessesforsale.com/ and am not sure on there credibility if someone could clear this up for me that would be great thanks.

**akula** · 09-07-2007 12:22 AM

Originally Posted by Gaulkin

Ive been thinking instead of taking my ideas and risking my money to just use it to buy a business that already makes a good amount of profit. Ive been looking at business at http://www.businessesforsale.com/ and am not sure on there credibility if someone could clear this up for me that would be great thanks.

son, you're an investor. your job is to buy low sell high.

to buy low, you need to find undervalued assets, and act on insider information. this means trawling the courts for adverse legal judgments, obituary columns and retirement villages to find "motivated sellers"

in other words, you're not gonna find your self a good deal listed on some website, because these listings would have been priced efficiently. you need to find targets which are priced inefficiently.

**teabenny** · 09-07-2007 03:34 AM

Not bad, akula. I like that advice.

**akula** · 09-07-2007 05:25 AM

also..

* approach financial planners. a lot of these guys have clients who want to exit their business

* approach bankruptcy lawyers, who help bankrupts sell their assets

* work with licensed business brokers

the trick is not to get adversely selected against. if the business that for sale is such a great deal, it would have already been snapped up, and when it isn't a good deal, it gets listed in some sort of classifieds

**Gaulkin** · 09-07-2007 05:51 AM

Sounds alot like real estate investing which is nice. I guess all i need is the right connection for leads.

**jasaunders** · 09-07-2007 07:30 AM

Originally Posted by akula

also..

* approach financial planners. a lot of these guys have clients who want to exit their business

* approach bankruptcy lawyers, who help bankrupts sell their assets

* work with licensed business brokers

the trick is not to get adversely selected against. if the business that for sale is such a great deal, it would have already been snapped up, and when it isn't a good deal, it gets listed in some sort of classifieds

Building on what Daniel said, contact some local accounting firms. They may have clients looking to get out of their businesses for a variety of reasons.
My girlfriend's dad was looking to buy a business a couple months ago and sent a letter to several accounting firms in the area and was able to find a perfect business that he would like to run at a much cheaper price than he expected because the guy is in his late 60's and wants to retire and has been trying to sell for a couple years. The deal is still in due dilligence, but it sounds promising so far.

**Gaulkin** · 09-07-2007 08:04 AM

Would you mind sharing the detail on that deal?

Originally Posted by jasaunders

Building on what Daniel said, contact some local accounting firms. They may have clients looking to get out of their businesses for a variety of reasons.
My girlfriend's dad was looking to buy a business a couple months ago and sent a letter to several accounting firms in the area and was able to find a perfect business that he would like to run at a much cheaper price than he expected because the guy is in his late 60's and wants to retire and has been trying to sell for a couple years. The deal is still in due dilligence, but it sounds promising so far.