Avoiding Fraud When Buying a Franchise Business

Do You Think You Do Not Need Due Diligence When Buying a Franchise?

Opening up a new franchise location can cost upwards of $250,000. This is a lot of money for a business buyer to invest in a new unproven location.

New investigative reports are now stating that the selling of new franchise locations is where the real profit is earned by franchisors, rather then as previously believed on the 5% franchise fee paid  from the sale of product. The franchise sales staff  earn a large chunk of the $30,000 plus franchise fee charged. Plus the company makes a profit on the construction costs of the new store.

Many people have the idea that our government’s registration rules exist to protects the consumer from being cheated. In truth it has made the problem worse. Read more

How to Value an Auto Body Shop

What You Need to Know to Value an Auto Body Shop

We have developed a comprehensive questionnaire in order to help you determine the value of an auto body shop before purchasing it.

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Due Diligence Iron Works

Due Diligence Analysis: The Iron Works Story

How much error can a buyer expect from a seller’s financial reports? A due diligence investigation will help you discover all you need to know.

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Why Don’t More People Buy Businesses?

Why More People Do not buy a business?

Introduction

You may not believe what they say yourself, but if you have been in the business of buying businesses for a long time you’ve heard someone repeat this time worn statement.

“One in 14 buyers actually buys a business.”

The business brokerage industry throws around this number all the time.

This “1 in 14” number (or only 7% ) is based on statistics gathered from some old-time brokers. They must have actually kept track of how many buyers called their firms versus how many deals they closed. We can’t know how well they tracked this info, or where this data originated from. But, thankfully, the actual number is not the important part. For the sake of solving the problem, we just need to see that it’s low, and really could be better.

Here’s why that number stays so low…

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What Business is Right for You?

The Best Way to Find the Right Business for You

The time to get advice is early in the game, not after you have signed a purchase agreement and suddenly find that you have only 10 days to complete all due diligence

Many people look for a good, profitable business of any type. That makes sense… or does it?

People such as this are not picky as to the type of business as long as it makes money. Using this technique it is very common to look at a hundred businesses and even then to find out – after hours and hours of research – that what you learned did not agree with what you were told. Such an approach is one way to go about it.   Read more

Trouble Shooting Your Business Buying

Being able to trouble shoot a problem is an art that must be developed.

Though there are those who think they are naturally good at it. There are a very small number of business schools that actually train you in the art of doing this, I only know of one. Read more

Crime Does Pay When Buyers Don't do Due Diligence

Crime Does Pay When Buyers Don’t Do Due Diligence

Don’t let your business purchase lead you into becoming the victim of white-collar crimes. Find out more from our business buying experts.

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Accrual Accounting

Vital Things you Need to Know About Valuing a Business

Putting a value on a business is a separate function from auditing, evaluating or doing “due diligence.” There are three or more generally accepted methods of valuing a business. These are:

  • Comparable sales: What have other similar businesses with similar financial information sold for?

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Business Buying Services Due Diligence

Due Diligence Investigation: Just Call Me Sherlock

When buying a business one has to see what is not on the financial documents that are provided by the seller. To do that you need to graduate the Sherlock Holmes College of Observation. Mr. Holmes was famous for seeing small clues that appeared to others to be meaningless.  But in truth they were the keys to solving the case.  Read more

Business Buying Horror Story: Dog Kennel – He Never Got His Questions Answered

Pet Business Due Diligence “Bill” and his family were looking for a dog kennel and went on to the internet and started looking at various “Businesses for Sale” web sites. He located a dog kennel for sale with real estate in another state. Bill and his family had experience with boarding animals so it seemed the perfect business.