Once you have decided to buy a business, the difficult decision is over.  Well, almost.  Regardless of how you arrived at the decision to buy a business, the decision of what kind of business you buy is a separate and independent decision.  It is true, that for many deciding to buy a business and deciding what kind of business to buy are integral to each other.  However, my strong advice to any one buying a business is to look at all options available to them before deciding to purchase a certain kind of business.

Now let me go through a handful of common businesses that are frequently bought and sold that you may consider.  Let us look at one of Americas long standing business that all Americans use and love, the venerable corner gas station!  Of course who doesn’t thing a gas station is not a good business?  Every one in my family and your family uses it to buy gas and may be a six-pack of beer or lottery tickets or milk etc?  You will find that there are hundreds of gas stations for sale close to your location.  Within gas stations, there are two kinds of gas stations.  The franchise gas station, or the independent retailer.  If you buy a franchise gas station, then you get the name brand recognition and the traffic associated with it.  But with franchise gas stations, you need to purchase the gasoline from the oil company which could be a bit expensive but you don’t have to worry about environmental issues.  With an independent gas station, you can sign contracts with any supplier, but you will have more exposure with environmental issues.  Also the marketing support provided by oil companies will be a lot of help if you are new to the gas station business.  When looking for a gas station for sale keep both options in mind with their pros and cons.  But regardless of which option you choose, the decision to buy a gas station is a good one.

Now let us look at another common business to buy, restaurants!  I would wager that buying a restaurant is a slightly more risky than buying a gas station. Why do I say that?  Because, gas stations main product is gasoline and there is not a lot of differentiation.  And buying gas is a necessity and gasoline for the most part is a commodity.  But the decision to buy a restaurant is a bit different.  There are countless number and kinds of restaurants for sale not far from your location.  But the first step in choosing the restaurant is do you like the restaurant.  In fact I will go one step further.  Do you absolutely love the restaurant?  The type of food being served, the ambiance, the location, the prices etc.  Certainly you can change most of the variables except the location.  However, I would recommend that focus only on a restaurant for sale if you absolutely love it as it stands.

Whether you decide to buy a gas station or a restaurant, it is critical that you go through the recommended steps before buying any business.  You need to evaluate the financials, determine the value, suitability to your operational experience among various other factors.

BuyTradeBiz.Com is internets newest business for sale and franchises for sale listing website.  This is the site for you if you are looking to sell a business or buy a business or if you are looking to buy a franchise business.

With more than 400 million users and increasing everyday, Facebook.com is one of the most powerful social media platforms around.  Facebook advertising platform is very similar to Google Ad sense; it displays ads on the right side of the screen allowing users to find out more information regarding the company/product.  There are a few more advantages to advertising on FAcebook, such as:

1. Target: The ad can be targeted towards the audience by gender, education, relationship status, workplace, and keywords.
2. Engage:  If you are promoting a page of event, Facebook will add the “Become a fan” or “RSVP to this event” button on the ad, therefor the users don’t have to leave their current page to engage with you.
3. Budget: Ads are shown based on cost per click model or cost per thousand model (pay per 1,000 ad views).  Depending on your ad the CPM model might work better for you.

Social media is evolving everyday, why not take advantage of it when you can and list your business for sale?

The number of businesses listed on the site has reached 2,700 and continues to increase daily. The number of brokers that have listed with site has been increasing steadily. The number of franchise opportunities that are listed in the site has also increased in the site showing the effectiveness of the company’s very active marketing campaigns. In Nov 2009, we attended the IBBA show in Reno, Nevada for the first time and received a lot of recognition from the broker community.

In 2010, we will be rolling out a new Marketing Campaign that will increase our presence within Social Media and continually increase our search engine ranking. We have introduced a Winter Promotional Offer where Business Brokers can register and renew their membership for $199 which includes a full year’s Featured Broker Membership and all the benefits the featured membership offers.

“The sites unique design, ease of navigation and clear and crisp content makes it a very user friendly site”, says a leading business broker. In addition, Franchisors appreciate the sites clean design and highly navigable interfaces. “We have invested a lot of time and resources in marketing the site, and we are very gratified with the growth and excellent feedback we have been receiving from our customers” said Sweta Shah, Marketing Director for BuyTradeBiz.com.

BuyTradeBiz.com is internet’s newest businesses for sale and franchises for sale listing website. Designed using the latest Web 2.0 concepts buyers and sellers are increasingly adopting the site as their favorite platform to buy a business and sell a business. Privately held BuyTradeBiz.Com, was founded by veterans of the software industry, to create a new paradigm for the business marketplace.

Seasoned professionals know this little known fact.  Valuing a business is not completely a science neither is it completely an art.  While there are many known and time tested method of valuing businesses, at the end of the day there are a lot of subjective elements that play a huge part in the valuation process.  Several sophisticated methods can be used to estimate potential business valuations but finally it all come down to what the buyers are willing to pay.

Now let us look at the few methods of business valuation that are out there.  One of the common approaches to valuing a business is the income approach.  Under this approach the valuation is based on future discounted income of the company.  This method relies on the accuracy of cash flow projections and will depend on the market conditions that will prevail.  While a financial investor can feel good about knowing the returns the business will provide, in some industries this can be hard to predict.  How many of us would have predicted the current financial meltdown we are experiencing and its impact on income & cash flows?

Click here to continue reading.

Every state in the US is now offering tax cuts and incentives to attract new business, but there are four states that top it all.

South Dakota:  There is no personal or corporate income tax and the sales tax is 4%.  “The favorable tax climate is a draw for penny-pinching startups.”

Texas:  Has no personal or corporate income tax but it does have a gross receipts and franchise tax.  Theses taxes charge businesses 0.5% of revenues if they are in retail and 1% of revenues for non-retail businesses.  To help small business during the recession the state legislature recently raised the revenue exemption level to $1 million, up from $300,000.

Montana: No Sales Tax!  “Despite skipping that revenue stream, the state’s coffers are overflowing: Montana is one of just two states currently in the black, running without a budget deficit. Corporate income and property tariffs are also competitively low. The Tax Foundation ranked Montana as the sixth most business-friendly state when it comes to taxation.”

Tennessee: No personal income tax but it does have a 6.5% corporate income tax.  “Still, as one of just nine states that goes without income taxes on salaries, Tennessee’s “live free!” ethos attracts a fair number of entrepreneurs.”

Have you been hearing how social media is the new face of marketing, but you don’t know how to make it work for your small business? Or have your heard there is a great way to get press at almost no cost? Why not view one of the many FREE webinars that are offered almost everyday but almost everyone! Startup nation is hosting “Strategies to Save Time, Save Money, Win More Customers”. PR Web, the press distribution website is hosting a webinar on a weekly basis related to press releases.

Next time you are at a professional website, search to see if they are offering a webinar. And the best part, you can view and listen to it from the comfort of your own office!

Do you have the perfect idea for a small business but are not sure if your out of the box thinking is what you should be acting on right now? According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch “experts say now’s the time. Not only is there less competition, but also now more than ever, there’s room for new ideas.” So sit down and think your idea through and if you believe it’s time to take it to the next step, than start shopping!

Business Brokers, Buyers, and individuals that need to sell businesses, BuyTradeBiz.com has launched it’s newest promotion – 6 months free (no obligation and no credit card required) membership plus a chance to wince a FREE 42 inch LCD TV!!!

Click here to register and start posting your listings on one of the top five online services for Brokers!