Greg Kells is the Founder and President of Sunbelt Canada, the number one business brokerage in the country. He has directly facilitated the sale of over 1,000 businesses and is a two-time winner of Businessperson of the Year in Ottawa. Greg is passionate about mentoring and teaching, with experience as a guest lecturer at Harvard, Yale, Duke, and various colleges across Canada. He is active in numerous community organizations and advocates for economic empowerment, the environment, science, and technology.
We have talked about how to go about selecting a business. You get that none are perfect and that you will never have enough information to feel 100% confident about your choice. You have decided that all things considered—after reviewing the documentation provided by your broker, your meetings and discussions with the business owner and your personal visit to the business—a business will work for you.
Seller financing is a gate you want open on your road to business success. You may have made it past all the other checkpoints, but if you’re unable to secure financing for the business you want to buy, your journey ends here.
What makes one business better than another for you when you are buying a business? Some of the considerations are obvious. Others are not. As you explore the business landscape, keep these 12 markers for choosing a business in view.
You have a good sense of the size and type of business you want to buy and how such a business will help you accomplish what you want in life. You’re ready to make your vision a reality.
So what are buyers looking for in a business? Whether it’s their first purchase of a business or their 10th, buyers are looking for an ongoing income. Not surprisingly then, they’ll be attracted by businesses with a proven track record of consistent financial performance with solid, growing revenue and earnings.
The evidence is out there: more women in Canada now own businesses and more women in Canada are now engaged in starting businesses. The count varies according to who reports what and where.
Most of the people who come to us to buy a business are first-time buyers. And likewise, most of the business owners who contact us about selling their business have never gone through the process before. Buying or selling, there’s a lot for them to absorb. And while we do our best to guide them each step of the way, the subject matter can be a bit daunting for those unused to the terms that come up as we help them get to their goal line.
As a buyer, you are excited about the opportunity to purchase a business and confident you have enough money for its purchase. But do you have enough money to keep it "working?" If you plan to grow the business, do you have enough working capital to fund its growth? Growing businesses require more working capital than shrinking businesses as receivables are growing.
Raising kids doesn’t come easy. Neither does running your own business. Both provide significant life lessons and great rewards. So, what about combining the two? No, I don’t mean raising kids AND running your own business. Many of us do that already. I mean having your kids run their own business. Or at least learn the ropes of what being in business means.
