Thursday, February 9, 2012

The Guide To Business Buying Process

By Quinn Harris


The business buying process can be easy with the following step by step business buying guide. It is always good to check little things as much as possible when you buy a business for sale since the process takes a lot of details.

The first step is to determine your investment. Minimum down payment made by the buyer is usually 30% of the purchase price. An example would be the business purchase price being $100,000 and the loan amount is $70,000 or 70% which means that the buyer's down payment should be $30,000 which is 30%. Other possible expenses are inventories, supplies, escrow fee, license and permit fees, franchise transfer fee (if applies), etc.

Setting a certain criteria is next -- what location of business, type of business, price range of business, and desired income of business fit within your range?

After you decide your investment amount and criteria of business, you will need to find a right business that fit your needs. Through online business listing site, local newspapers, or through local business brokers or real estate agents, you can search business online.

In case you find a business that you want to purchase, make sure that you evaluate the business through current owner's income information and your projected income for short term and long term.

Making the decision to purchase the business or not is the next thing you need to do. If the business is right for you, then writing a very descriptive and detailed contract (Purchase and Sale Agreement) is what you need to do.

When you are writing an offer, making sure that the contract includes your initial deposit amount, your offering price, financing terms, and closing date is very important. Other terms and conditions that can be added to the contract is buyer's loan approval, lease and lease approval from landlord, buyer to obtain all necessary licenses and permits, franchisor's approval of ownership transfer, the buyer's Satisfaction of books and records, closing cost allocation, buyer training session, business equipment and fixtures in good working condition, inventories and supplies amount, seller's agreement not to compete, etc. When you're done writing an offer, it's time to present your offer to the seller. Negotiate the price, terms, and conditions and settle with final price and terms and condition.

You will then need to allocate the purchase price of the business that you are buying. Applying for a loan, license, and permits is what you need to do after you are done with purchase price allocation.

Obtaining a lease or a sublease is what you need to do next. No matter what happened, making sure that you obtain a lease or get an approval of lease assignment before close of escrow is very important.

Then on or the day before the closing date, you will need to review the equipment list that is provided at the time of the acceptance of the Purchase and Sale agreement and buy inventories and supplies. And then you can do the closing on the closing date.




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