If you are looking for a business for sale online then probably one of the best sites that I have found so far is businessesforsale.com.

With this site you can register for free and browse the businesses for sale without having to register until such time as you want to make contact with a seller of a business.

You can opt to upgrade to a Premium Buyer if you wish for £14.99 per month or £89.99 per annum which entitles you to certain added benefits, like seeing newly advertised businesses 14 days before the non-premium buyers.

In my opinion there is no need to upgrade, as it is highly unlikely that a business would be sold within 14 days so you are paying out money unnecessarily.

If you are looking to sell a business and you are looking for a site to use, then I would also recommend this site too. I would recommend that you disclose as much information as you can too and as a minimum the buying price, the business turnover and annual profit. There are many businesses on this site that do not quote these figures, which in my opinion is crazy and will limit the number of enquiries.

Before you put your business particulars on the site – take a look at what the others have said. Read the ones that would make you interested and then write your advert and read it back to make sure you feel it would make your businesses inviting to potential investors.

Always be honest with the information you provide about your business, if you don’t the true picture will always be found out at the due diligence stage of the purchase, which should be carried out by the buyer – the sale could then fall through. This would be crazy to have this happen, as it can take a long time to sell a businesses and it will also cost solicitors fees to get to that stage.

Click here to go to businesses for sale.

A good video to watch if you are considering starting or buying a business or if you have a business and you are looking for some inspiration.

The BBC’s TV series Dragons Den has found and inspired many successful business owners and in this first video the focus is on Duncan Bannatyne – Success stories in business.

I am a risk management consultant in forex from Malaysia seeking for investors from around the world . We are outsourced by GBtrade International located in Auckland, New Zealand to provide consultation for the investors in Forex.

We are specialised in market analysis and trained to minimised the risk and maximise the profits for investors.

A Brief Introduction.

In this contemporary society, we have numerous kinds of investments which are involved by entrepreneurs, business corporate, high, mid and not to forget low income workers. Kinds of investments which are available here in our country are Share Markets, Bond, Commodities, Mutual Funds, Unit Trusts, Insurance and so many more. Our company is dealing with Forex, also known as Foreign Exchange Market. It is the largest market in the world, even larger than all the market in the world combine together with the amount of USD $4,000,000,000,000 (4 Trillion) flowing up and down within a day. The reason is simple, all the investment market have one thing in common. All of them involve money or cash flow, which also means currency flow in all the investments. Which puts Forex above all of them combine together.
Where do we stand between YOU and FOREX.

We are known as a Business Management Consultancy. The reason is that, we are marketing a Platform provided by our principal company in New Zealand, Auckland known as GBtrade. The platform provided is to allow individuals to trade currency from anywhere provided there is laptop/computer with internet connection available. We also educate our clients which counter, when and how to tackle the market to earn a relatively good income for the size of your investment by minimizing the risk and maximizing your profit in this field.
Myths and Protection.
Yes, Forex companies are illegal here in Malaysia. Numbers of company has been closed in recent years. The reason is that, those companies have done two wrong steps in the process which is, illegal deposit taking and also money laundering.
In our company, the deposit is well kept in the bank by our customers depositing in bank External Accounts like in Public Bank and RHB. Customers outside of Malaysia can deposite their investments via Telegraphic Transfer (T.T) addressing to GBTRADE International. Which means the customers money is well kept in the bank. WE ARE STRICTLY NOT ALLOWED TO INVOLVE IN ANY TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN THE BANK AND THE CUSTOMERS. AND ALSO WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO RECEIVE A SINGLE CENT FROM THE CUSTOMER EVEN THEY INSIST WE DO THE TRANSACTION FOR THEM.
We are consultants who consult customer when to enter a trade and when to exit the trades then quote how much profit can they make from this. Also not to forget, we also quote customers how much profit can they gain from it.
To know more why is Forex an investment better than any other. We welcome investors from all around the world.
Please Contact to know more, Vicknes +610123999375 or vicknes_g@hotmail.com

TIELC- (full name) TEACHING INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH LAS AND CERTIFICATE – is a limited liability entity formed and authorized to transact under Secretary of State of Georgia, USA

The American franchise chain Subway has announced that it plans on opening 600 new stores across the UK.

This is both an opportunity for those who have lost their jobs and who might be looking for a new business venture in setting up a franchise and good news for the UK economy, as it will create up to 7,000 new jobs.

If you have been made redundant you might think about using your redundancy money (if you received any that is) to set up in business. A good opportunity in this is to set up a franchise, as you are setting up a business which is a known quantity and one that the market already recognises, which not only means a higher likelihood on making it a success, but also the banks would look on this type of business more favourably.

Have you ever considered buying a business or are you in the process of buying a business? Or perhaps you are considering or have thought about setting up your own business from scratch.

If your answer to any of these questions is yes, then you will probably recognise how difficult and daunting this process might be. This article is therefore directed to help you with that decision process.

So the first question you need to answer is:

Do I set up a new business from scratch or do I buy an existing business?

There are pros and cons for both and you will need to weigh these up when deciding upon which route to embark upon. If for example, you have invented the next best product that does not presently exist on the market, then clearly, if you consider this to be a product that does indeed have a market, then setting up from scratch is the route to take, subject to patenting the idea and then doing some initial market research.

However, if you are not the inventor of the next TV or telephone etc. then you need to weigh up whether it will be easier for you to buy a business or start one in a field that you already know. To help you consider the answer to this question it is important to consider the following advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages and disadvantages of buying an existing business:

Advantages

- Some of the groundwork will already have been done in getting the business up and running.

- It might be easier for you to get finance as the business will have a proven track record.

- A market for the product or service will have already been demonstrated.

- There are established customers, a reliable income, a reputation to capitalise and build on, and a useful network of contacts.

- A business plan and marketing method should already be in place.

- Existing employees should have experience you can draw on.

- Many of the problems will have been discovered and solved already.

Disadvantages

- The present owner may have close relationships with the existing customers and therefore when they sell and leave you need to ask the question, will the customers leave as well? This is one of the important question you must ask, when you do your initial checks on a business for sale.

- You often need to invest a large amount up front, and will also have to budget for professional fees for solicitors, surveyors, accountants etc.

- If the business has been neglected you may need to invest quite a bit more on top of the purchase price to give it the best chance of success.

- You will need to honour or renegotiate any outstanding contracts the previous owner leaves in place.

- You also need to consider why the current owner is selling up. Normally if they are selling for genuine retirement reasons or ill health this is okay, but always check the reasons for the sale of their business!

- Think about the feelings of current staff – it’s possible they may not be happy with a new boss, or the business might have been run badly and staff morale may be low.

Having listed a number of advantages and disadvantages attached to buying an existing business, I would you to consider the following further points:

If you buy an existing business you know for a fact that a market exists for the product or service that it sells…

You might be saying, however, that the new business I had intended to set up from scratch has an existing market because there are other companies already selling the product or service.

That might be true, however, you must recognise that it takes time and money to gain market share and when you start from scratch you are starting from zero. Whereas, if you buy an already established business, you are buying both customers and an income stream so most of the hard work has been done for you. That is not to say however, that the business you are buying is in a shrinking market or in a market that is badly affected by a recession.

So you need to consider the economic cycle you are in when you buy a business, because you might not want to buy a company that sells televisions and other luxuries in the middle of a recession, for example.

When you buy a business most of the hard work has been done for you…

There is no doubt that the hardest part of any business is the early days and getting it set up, getting your first clients and getting your initial cash flow. Setting up from scratch requires you to find premises; employing staff; setting up computer systems; deciding on the marketing; getting to be known in the market place; finding suppliers; getting accounts with suppliers; etc. all of which takes time and can in some cases mean a steep learning curve.

Other areas of setting up a new business that you might require is funding and sorting out banks and finance; accountants and other financial advisers; setting up systems and processes within the business; business insurance; telephone systems; etc. whereas most of these will have already been sorted out by the present owner of the business you are considering to buy (not always correctly mind you!)

When you buy an existing business, most of the hard work has already been done for you and whilst you will probably want to appoint your own accountants and financial advisers, most of the other points will have been addressed by the previous owners. Once you have your feet under the table, as it were, you will very likely want to change the way the business is run, especially on the marketing front, however, it is probably much easier to change an existing set up than to start from scratch, because the existing business will already have clients, but more importantly have cash flow.

This existing client base is something that you can go to work on and to build upon and it is important to recognise the value of a client database. Most businesses forget to market to their existing client base so this will probably be your easiest route to growth, by marketing to the businesses existing clients. It costs much more to gain new customers than to sell to an existing one! Which is point missed by most business owners.

If you are swaying towards buying an existing business then it would be better to look to one where the marketing is being done very well right now. This way you are buying “Potential” in the business and can make “Easy” profits and faster gains, let me explain:

When I mention the word marketing – I mean this in the widest possible sense of the word. So for example, does the business make full use of its existing customer base for other products or services that it sells or could sell? Are the premises of the business presentable and the employees welcoming and well dressed? What forms of advertising is the business using and are these being optimised?

There are many more questions of this type you could ask, which are all linked to the marketing of a business. There are some businesses that trade and survive despite themselves and the way in which they are run. You must have been to buy something from a company in the past and received a shoddy customer service! Did you ask the question; how on earth does this business survive?

The truth is that if this is a business you are considering to buy, they are surviving, they sometimes do and these types of businesses come on the market for sale all of the time. So I commend you to buying this type of business and with a little bit of tweaking here and there you will likely turn a loss or a small profit into a good profit in no time. What’s more you should be able to pick up a company like this for a cheap price because of the low profits and of how it is run. A more profitable business is worth more and will be easier to sell again in the future.

My final consideration in this article is in terms of assets at a discount…

If you were to set up a business from scratch, it is likely that you will need to purchase the assets to run the company, at full retail price! For example, all businesses will have computers, telephone systems, office desks and chairs, together with the specific assets needed to run the type of business you might be looking to set up. However, when you purchase an already existing company you will get the assets thrown in for “FREE” because the business cannot be run without them. Admittedly, some of these assets might need to be replaced, but on the whole they work and will come within the value of the business you are buying.

in-business is proud to present its new business to business forum launch today.

This new business forum is for business owners and for would-be entrepreneurs about to venture into the business world! The forum has the following categories to post, discuss and comment:

 - Business to business forum – for general business discussion. Click here

 - Marketing, selling and PR – For marketing advice and ideas, advertising and business press releases and networking places. Click here

 - Business administration – The legals about business and accounting software advice, tax advice and tax savings ideas. Click here

 - Online businesses – SEO, PPC and online marketing, e-commerce shopping cart and online payment. Click here

 - Start out in business – Buying a business, starting from scratch and business franchises. Click here

 - Selling your business – For business owners looking for advice on selling their business. Click here

 - Forum feedback – We also invite your feedback on the forum and ideas for new forum headers. Click here

Why not be the first to register and first to post – we look forward to seeing you online Click here

New business to business forum Click here

I have secured the UK licence for a product that has a 10 year track record in the USA. The product improves fuel economy and cuts engine emissions as a result. This has a potential market of £300M and the possibility of turning over £25M within 3 to 5 years. I have scope to extend into Europe, which has a potential market of £3.5bn.

As the economy slows and companies look around at ways to reduce costs and as pressure to meet carbon reduction targets bite, this product can help hundreds of those companies and hundreds of councils in the UK to face these challenges – creating a sustained and growing cashflow.

I have secured £140K start up funds from the USA and need to match this here in the UK. Scottish Enterprise have indicated that they see this as a potential “Account Managed” business – turnover to exceed £5M turnover within 3 years.

Small businesses and radio journalists currently using the product in East Central Scotland all report cost savings and lower engine emissions. The product was used successfully in the engines of Indy racing cars last year in the Firestone Indy Lights Series. A technical report is currently being compiled on this and will be available soon.

Loal government in the UK, for example, could save in excess of £100M and cut harmful emissions by more than 300,000 tons a year – creating a turnover of around £30M to the business. Add a range of major international transport operators right down to small businesses and this can deliver a very positive return to any investor.

Contact me at info@fuelsaver.bhen.co.uk for more information.

This is an opportunity to help develop a very valuable and profitable business that is projected to turnover £7M (Year 1), £19.6M (Yr2) and £23.6M (Yr3).

Vendor finance is where someone selling a business is happy to effectively lend the purchaser money to buy it.

If you have not heard of this before, then you may well be thinking, why would I lend someone money to buy my business? This is a good question and is worth explaining.

Let’s say for example you are selling a business for £180,000 and you have a purchaser that is willing to pay you this £180,000. However, it might just be, and especially with the present credit crunch situation, that the buyer is unable to raise the finance through the banks. This could be for a number of reasons, one of which is that there is no security for the loan, either on the business itself or the purchaser has nothing to secure it against. In most cases, people tend to use their house as collateral to raise money, however, with recent events loans are harder to come by and house prices have fallen. Therefore, a loan that might have been easier to get say 12 months ago, might not be available or the amount available might be less.

In the case where you, as a seller of a business, are lucky enough to have found a purchaser would be silly to turn someone away simply because they are not able to raise all the funds by normal means. You could therefore, for example, ask for say £60,000 up-front with two further instalments due in 12 and 24 months time. Of course you could have any other combination of payment options and could even ask for it on a monthly basis.

You could also go for charging interest on the loan and I would urge you to take some form of security for the payment of the money lent, which might include their home and/or the business itself. So if in the event the purchaser does not pay you will get something back for your troubles. Getting the business back might not be what you had hoped for, but the purchaser, in this example, will have already paid you £60,000 up-front so if you can on-sell the business again, you will have cleared an extra profit at the expense of the “failed purchase”.

Benefits of “Vendor Finance”

One quite obvious benefit is simply you will be able to sell your business sooner rather than later, rather than leaving it until you find someone with the cash or with the necessary security to get bank finance.

The other not so obvious benefit is that you will be showing your would-be purchasers a level of confidence in your business, over and above someone who is not, if you are happy to accept finance secured on it. You may also find that this is an “Industry Norm” to take payment by instalments, for example the accounting industry it is normal to buy and sell accounting practices over 2-3 year period.

Disadvantages of providing “Vendor finance”

There are of course disadvantages of you letting someone pay over time, not least the person that buys your business may go out of business and you end up with no money, or just with the initial deposit paid at the outset.

The other disadvantage is that you will not receive all you money straight away, but if you charge interest, and you may well be able to charge a higher rate than you would normally get from the banks or building societies, you will earn something on your investment too.

The other disadvantage is that, should things go wrong then you may end up with the business back and it might be in a bad way, after having been run by the new purchaser for however long. There other thing is the business might go broke and, unless you have taken other security over the purchaser’s house or some other asset, you will have lost your money.

I would certainly advise you to make sure you do receive a substantial payment up-front of probably no less than a third of the selling price, thereby qualifying your purchaser. You don’t want to sell your business to someone and then a few months down the track, they have messed things up and you have no money up-front.

I would also advise you to do some form of credit referencing on the purchaser to make sure that the have no bad credit history, thereby making the whole transaction a higher risk.

Finally, if you are reading this article as a business purchaser, then I would suggest that you ask the seller whether they will accept “Vendor Finance”, as they might not have heard of this option and it could be the difference between you getting the business and not. It could also mean that you could buy a much larger business than you might have originally thought possible.

You might also want to take a look at Bowraven’s business purchase funding tool here.

We are looking for a business to buy in the Essex, Cambridge or East Hertfordshire region and can move quite quickly as we have the cash.

If the business you are selling is outside of this region and you consider it to be genuinely relocatable then contact me as well.

I am not too bothered what type of business it is except that I am not interested in hotels and pubs – all other businesses will be considered.

I do have cash available for businesses that are selling for up to £100,000 and can move quickly for the right business. So for example, if you are moving abroad, there is a death of the owner of perhaps you need to sell because of sickness or simply because of retirement.

If the selling price of your business is in excess of £100,000 and you are willing to take “Vendor finance” then please contact me too. I am in a good position to also raise money through loans for the right business and this can be discussed when you contact me.

I would prefer a business that is “recession proof” and is not in dire trouble because of the recent credit crunch and I will need to look at the last three years accounts at the outset.

So if you “Need to sell your business” please contact me via info@in-business.org.uk please with your details.