UK Businesses For Sale

What Are Businesses For Sale?

As the name implies, a business for sale is an already established business being sold on. If you're familiar with franchising, then you'd agree that franchise resales are also considered businesses for sale.

A business will be sold by the owner in varying circumstances. Maybe they're looking to retire, or the business has been so successful they're looking to explore other avenues. But buying a business for sale has many advantages over starting up a business from scratch or franchising.

Advantages of Businesses For Sale UK

The main advantage of buying an existing business is the pre-established client base. For example buying an oven cleaning or window cleaning business, you've got customers from day one. If you're buying a windscreen repair franchise, again you'll have commercial clients in place from the previous business owner.

If you're buying a business for sale (as opposed to a franchise resale), you've got the benefit of having full control over the direction the business takes. That's marketing, branding and the like. If you want to go down the route of a rebrand - that's up you. In the case of a franchise resale, you do still need to stay within the franchise agreement and operations manual, but you'll still have the headstart that is the already-established presence in the local vicinity.

Disadvantages of Buying a Business For Sale

When you take in to consideration all of the work the previous owner has put in for 5, 10, even 20 + years, it should come as no surprise that the upfront cost of buying an established business might be immediately out of reach. But if the business is successful, there's no reason why banks and lenders won't favour assisting with finance. After all, if a bank is favourable at financing a franchise up to 70% of the investment, there's no reason why they'd reject helping you finance buying an existing, successful business - right?

Obviously the past experiences of customers will impact on the performance of the business. If local customers have had a bad experience this may carry over - but then again, being your business, you can rebrand it "under new management" to wipe the slate clean.

You're Not Buying a Business For Sale - You're Investing in One

It should be emphasised that you're not "buying" a business. You're investing in one. Your success will determine whether your investment increases or decreases in value. 20 years down the line, you may find yourself in the same position the existing business owner is in now. With the complete control you have over the business, there are a number of routes you can take. Perhaps you even want to franchise the business. But remember as with everything in life, the more you put in, the more you'll get out.

Business Opportunity or Franchise Resale?

But which should you choose? An independent business for sale, or a franchise resale? Well with this question, you're back at square one. Business startup or franchising? If you go down the route of buying an independent business, as with starting up alone, you're not getting the full training and support the franchisor would give you. There's no operations manual to keep you on the right track (unless the previous owner compiled one). With a franchise resale, you'll be benefitting from the ongoing training, R&D and support in exchange for the monthly fee. Having that safety net is one of the reasons so many people prefer franchising over starting up a business, and this still applies with buying a pre-established business. Browse Franchise Resales UK.