Real Business published an article this week on how to purchase an existing business, and we thought we’d share the information!
There is an apparent stigma surrounding buying a business, in that it makes you less of an entrepreneur than starting your own – however, there are many advantages to going about things this way. The Financial Times reported in 2017 that the number of self-starting entrepenurs had broken records, and that startups founded in the UK had gone up by £160,000 from 2015 to 2016. In 2018, it was reported that 5.6 million small businesses existed in the UK, and accounted for 99.3% of all private sector businesses that employed around 16.3 million people – so quite a few!
However, around 8 in 10 companies go under during their first year of operation in the UK; the Financial Times reporting that out of all UK startups founded in 2013, only half survived their first three years of life. And there comes the point of this post – how do businesses avoid floundering? Well, one option posed by Real Business is to become the owner of a business which is already operating! Now just because the company isn’t being started from scratch, it doesn’t mean that you are not an entrepreneur looking for creativity, impact and innovation – all of which can be found when purchasing an existing business – as long as it is the right one for you. So what are the advantages?
- It’s easier to gain finance
- There’s income from day one and less investment is needed
- The brand is already known to consumers
- You can get to know the business before you make changes
- It’s less stressful than starting a startup