Tweet

How to Buy a Business Opportunity

Written by: Michael Laleye

Article Overview: This article describes how you can find good turnkey business opportunities and easy ways to make extra money.

How to Buy a Business Opportunity

We all know that ideas are a dime a dozen. While ideas may be cheap, good ideas can be rarer than free diamonds. If good ideas were that easy to come by, however, ask yourself why you didn't invent the personal computer or compact discs.

So consider buying a good idea for your business. Besides buying a franchise or an existing business, or starting a business from scratch, you can buy a business concept. You may see some of these concepts referred to as business opportunities and easy ways to make extra money.

With a franchise you're buying a name and concept by paying an up-front franchise fee and a continuing percentage of your earnings. With a non-franchise business opportunity you also buy a concept by paying an up-front fee for your easy ways to make extra money. You may also pay the seller for equipment and supplies. What you don't pay is a continuing percentage of your earnings.

While you do get a business idea that is a turnkey business where you can immediately begin your operations, you don't get many of the things that come with a franchise. Sometimes these things are good, sometimes not so good.

Understand that there is no requirement to pay any ongoing fees. Once you pay for the business opportunity, you're basically on your own. You may continue to order supplies from the seller, but there are no other fees. With a franchise you have a continuing obligation to pay franchise fees.

There are also no restrictions. With a non-franchise business you aren't required to conform strictly to a franchiser's code of operations. You have more flexibility to run the business as you see fit. And because you don't have the ongoing fees of a franchise, you have more money in your pocket to do with as you wish.

There are other things that aren't quite so favorable for a business opportunity. First is the trade name. With a non-franchise business you get the concept, such as college scholarship matching in which you help students locate scholarship opportunities, but you probably won't get the trade name, such as American College Planning Services, a franchise providing the same type of service. Although you can negotiate to keep the current business name, in most cases, you run the non-franchise business under the name you select with your easy ways to make extra money. You must establish your own name recognition.

You also don't get a protected territory. Unlike a franchise opportunity, the seller of a non-franchise business may sell the same business opportunity to your next-door neighbor, unless you have a non-compete clause in your contract.

It also lacks extensive training. You may get some reference guides or tapes to instruct you in how the business operates, but the seller of a non-franchise business opportunity will not show you how to run a business in general. You have to pick this up on your own. There may be a trade association that covers your business type that can help you.

Related Articles
  Opportunities vs Information
  Today is an Opportunity, Hear the Knocking
  Top Online Business Ideas For Work At Home Moms
  The Perfect Work At Home Business Opportunity
  Most Successful Home Business: Do You Know What You're Looking For?

Article Tags: business concept, business idea, business opportunities, buying a franchise, college scholarship, compact discs, dime a dozen, easy ways to make extra money, franchise business opportunity, franchise fee, franchise fees, franchiser, free diamonds, money in your pocket, personal computer, scholarship opportunities, scratch, t pay, turnkey business, ways to make extra money



Related Forum Posts
Home Care Business Opportunity - You should not buy a franchise until you review our Senior Care Business Opportunity... Michael Gultz
Fed rate cuts . . . - So just what do the newest Fed rate cuts mean to Franchise and Business Opportunity investing? Is it immediately felt? What timeframe do you think, or rather, where are we in terms of new vs. existing business investment? A similar question can be composed for the economic stimulus checks - will they a have any effect if consumers spend a little $$
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Franchising & Licensing Can Be The Same Thing - FTC Rule 436 defines franchising as anyone offering an Agreement that contains these 3 things: 1. Licensing a "Mark" - which can be a trade name, service mark, commercial symbol, slogan, etc. 2. In the body of the Agreement, there contains, significant controls and assistance. 3. The licensee is paying the licensor in excess of $500 within the first six months of the actual offering of the business. Licensing and Franchising can mean the same thing today. If you do not decide to franchise and comply with FTC Rule 436, you may be in violation of Business Opportunity Laws that exist in 24 individual States.
Franchising 'where to advertise?' - Great Forum. It took me a while to find you, but well worth the efforts... I'm launching a Business Opportunity and I have a few questions that I'm pondering. Mainly where to advertise and what online directories to target. directoryfranchise.com looks good, but I have no idea if they're worth the cost. They want 99.00-199.00 to list my site at up to 40 different listing sites. franchisegator.com and franchiseopportunities.com look solid... any suggestions? I'm currently devoting a significant amount of my time writing articles and plan to submit to the article directories. I'm already seeing good results from the few articles that I have released. My site is up and I have most of the puzzle pieces in place. Any comments on the site, and suggestions are welcomed. Thanks in advance.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Avoid Burnout: Do the Limbo Regularly

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Log On

Time management for DIY PR

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.