Businesses for Sale in Melbourne - Tips on buying a business

You can find great businesses for sale in Melbourne - and not so great ones.

Creating a successful business is a thrill, an opportunity to create your dreams, not someone else's.

Yet a wrong business can turn into just ‘another job’, or worse, into an endless nightmare that traps you even more than the old job.

Here are tips on buying a business:

Is the Business for You?

If you want to create a dream business don't go for what others deem to be a great deal. You have to have interest and passion in what the business does.

It's your passion and enthusiasm that will make your business unique and communicate to your clients. This is also what will help you to push through hard times.

Some good questions to ask yourself are: Is the business you are looking at something you are excited about? Are you willing to become an expert in this area?

Secondly, do you (or your staff) have the skills needed to run this business?

List the skills needed when looking at a businesses for sale in Melbourne. They should include Business skills (business planning, marketing, finance), Technical skills of your area, and People skills.

And thirdly, do you have a plan of where you want to take this business? How are you different from your competition? What is your unique quality or selling proposition that will make people buy from you?

Retail, Wholesale, Service, Online Business?

People often automatically consider retail when thinking of businesses for sale in Melbourne. However, this is only a small portion of businesses. Others are wholesale, service and online businesses – just to name a few. Here are some more tips on buying a business:

In a retail business make sure that you can afford staff. Otherwise you may be buying yourself a 7/24 job. Also, make sure that the lease is transferable and has an option to renew, or you'll be out of business in no time.

In a business that involves the sale or production of goods make sure you get what you are paying for: check the condition of the plant and equipment as well as any stock.

To invest in a service business may give you greater freedom more easily. If you don't have an expert skill, you can succeed by running subcontractors such as in a cleaning or garden business.

Remember that you run the business, not do the work yourself. Success comes from establishing trust and by creating a niche or a special spin in an area that's needed and wanted.

When considering service businesses for sale in Melbourne, linking the final sale price to customer retention will safeguard you from the loss of customers loyal to the owner not the business.

My favourite type of business is online. You can use a website to help drive traffic to your existing brick and mortar business, or use it to sell goods or information worldwide entirely online.

There are some great programs that help you create a foolproof online business. With such a business, properly set up, you can have the freedom to work in your pajamas or from a café in Paris.

I am using Site Build It! to create such a business. It does everything from helping me create a website, to generating traffic and a link network, to a shopping cart – and I am not a computer expert. Site Built It! is an affordable and genuine state of the art program that anyone can use to build a successful web business.

General Guidelines for Buying a Business

Make sure you know what you are getting. Have an accountant check the business figures to see that they add up. He or she can also determine if the asking price is fair, and if it is a viable proposition.

Also, don't skimp on having a solicitor look through your contract or lease. Unless you are an expert in this area you could sign something you did not intend.

A good sign is when seller financing is available, or when the seller is willing to stick around and help the transition period after the sale.

If you are adventurous and have business management skills, you may consider locating a business for sale that is not doing so well. Do your research:

If you can identify the reason for such a business not running well - and if you are confident that putting by business systems you can grow it substantially - you can turn such a business around.

I know some people who make a killing doing just this. They usually sell the business once it is running well and move onto the next project.

To find , search the internet or newspapers to either buy directly from the owner or through a business broker.

If you are a foreigner wanting to invest in an Australian business, you will need an Australia business visa.