Few business decisions are easy ones.  In fact, the larger they are and the more important they are, the more difficult decisions can be.  For example, the choice to buy a gas station is just such a decision.  More than likely, you have seen gas stations for sale from time to time.  This should come as no real shock.  After all, the number of gas stations in the world is truly staggering, and this makes sense considering the car-obsessed nature of our culture.  Plus, there is the wide scale acceptance of the concept of suburbia.  As a result, people spend a great deal of time in their cars.  Let’s be honest, on average, those cars get dreadful gas mileage and that adds up to a real business opportunity for those seeking to buy a gas station.

However the issue of whether or not you should buy a gas station is a bit more complex than it might initially seem.  In this article, we will explore some of the ups and downs that go along with grabbing that “Gas Station for Sale” sign and putting your name on the dotted line.  Gas stations for sale can be quite lucrative, but is this truly the right business for you?

Are You Comfortable Turning Over the Reigns to Someone Else?

When you see a business for sale, it is important to question whether or not that business is a good fit for you.  Can you envision yourself owning and perhaps also operating that particular business?  Many who own gas stations actually turn over that operation to other employees instead of operating it themselves.  If this is something that you are comfortable with doing, then a gas station might be one of the businesses for sale that you will want to consider.  However, if this idea makes you uncomfortable, then you might want to gear your search elsewhere.

The practicalities of who will operate your company are more relevant with a gas station than many other businesses.  If, for example, you buy a store that sell picture frames and does custom frames, you don’t have to necessarily stay open long hours.  However, this is typically not the case with gas stations.  Instead gas stations are usually open long hours and sometimes even 24 hours a day.  That means that an owner-operator is not likely to be present most of the time.  This is an important concern and one that any prospective owner should consider before buying a gas station for sale.

The Need for Gas is a Big Plus

Even if fuel efficiency goes up, it is also very likely that the price of gasoline will also rise as well.  The likelihood of this occurring is only amplified by the ever-growing need for gasoline, thanks in part to the industrialization of nations like China and India.

Thus, when you buy a gas station, you are likely investing in an aspect of the transportation industry that will be healthy for years, if not decades, to come.  There are alternative technologies and approaches on the horizon, but it will likely be quite some time before we see them.  These factors definitely make gas stations attractive in the array of businesses for sale.  Further, it is also quite possible that the existing infrastructure of gas stations will in some fashion be incorporated into any major “switch over” if one does actually occur.

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One of the main factors in owning a restaurant is your energy levels.  We are not referring to the energy that flows out of your wall sockets, but instead the energy that flows out of you.  If you feel exhausted and tired all the time and feel as though you are trapped working too many hours a day, then it might be in your best interest to hang the “Restaurant for Sale” sign in your window.  Simply stated, if you don’t have the energy that a restaurant can demand and you must be a “hands on” owner, then it might be time to sell.  Remember the sight of a “Business for Sale” sign is not an uncommon one, as some businesspeople and entrepreneurs in fact make their living “flipping” businesses for sale just as others flip houses.

Not Able to Stay Involved

If you were never deeply involved in the day-to-day operation of your business, then it may not be that critical if you are not physically present a great deal.  Perhaps you found a good support staff years ago.  You may have a great manager and are thus able to check in time from time to make sure that everything is working well.  If this is your experience, then the business may be able to handle a lower level of involvement from you.  Perhaps, in this case, you can talk to your team about how you plan to hand over more responsibilities.  Often your staff will be extremely receptive to this idea, especially if it means a raise and a new title.

However, if you are a owner-operator who just doesn’t have the energy you need to operate the business, that is an entirely different issue.  If you feel strongly that you are just in over your head, this could mean that it’s definitely time to sell a restaurant.

Quality Might Be Slipping

Quality is a simply massive factor for any business.  This holds true for restaurants as well.  If you feel that your quality is slipping and customer feedback is backing this up, then it might be time to join the businesses for sale club yourself!  This issue largely comes down to whether or not you feel that you can fix the problems that are impacting your quality and get your restaurant back on track.  Taking that “Restaurant for Sale” sign and hanging it in the window might not be an easy decision, but it may be the only one you are left with if your quality is slipping.  If you don’t think you can fix the current situation or you lack the energy or motivation to do so, then it is probably time to move on and put up your business for sale.

Is It Time to Go?

Owning a restaurant can be very rewarding, but it can also sometimes be draining.  Those who feel as though they have given all they can to any business might want to consider walking away.  There is no shame in knowing when its time to sell a restaurant or any business.  Holding on too long, however, can be a major problem and one that can, in theory, bring with it a good deal of financial problems and even disaster.  Just as in gambling, knowing when to fold is sometimes what the whole game is all about.

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

No one we know of has the crystal ball to tell us precisely when the economy is going to bounce back for business owners and consumers. Times like these lead many people to take matters into their own hands, and the good news is that there are business opportunities out there and a consumer base to go with it.

 If you want to hit the ground fast and hard you might want to go in the direction of buying an established business, one with a proven track record of course. Less risk is typically involved in buying a business that already exists. Reasons for this are: a profit-loss sheet is already active, live and present and it should clearly show positive cash flow and profits; customers and prospects exist and perceptions are in place; trained employees are familiar with day-to-day procedures and likely ready to help. If working, trusted employees and a working system are already in place you are good to go. There certainly may be some initial tweaks and changes in that you have your own way of doing things, are familiar with the concept and can bring new ideas, and may want to add a right-hand person(s) that you have worked with in the past.

 Different types of business models carry different commitment levels. We will overview two— websites for sale, restaurants for sale—going from less commitment to more commitment:

 Buying a website business can be rewarding if you are in the right market for you, your passion, your background in management and understanding of technology and distribution models. Almost any business, either selling a product or service or combination, can go online. But here we are talking about an established or premium website (both with vastly different cost and time commitments). If you are interested in primarily being the principal/owner of the business who is more savvy with financials and marketing, then you will need to find the technology expertise and hire that person on your team right away. When you’re ready to buy the web business, you need to communicate with the seller and get the business plan for the site, including how they attain leads, customer traffic numbers, partnering opportunities, advertising models, proof of income/revenues (monthly/yearly); ask and get answers to questions that are not in the plan. 

 If you are buying a restaurant, be sure you are ready to commit big to the love of food, people and service on all fronts, from back-of-the-house operations to front-of-the-house cosmetics and ambience. This can be a fun family commitment if other familial partners are interested, qualified and involved. Business valuation, again, and its potential down the road, is the first step to saying “yes”. In the restaurant space, you have no shortage of choices, including independents, fine dining, family/casual, quick-service, bakery/cafés, simple hot dog stands and pizza places, among others. You can also collaborate to create a website and printed catalog that offers your most famous restaurant items and merchandise that can safely be shipped to your growing customer base.

Almost every business has it’s own email list, which is one of it’s most valuable assets.  But an important question to ask regarding your business is how effect is your email list?  Over the years, marketers have had to get very creative to engage their audience enough to get them to submit their email addresses.  To build your email list, use the below ideas:

1. Provide information: users like receiving relevant articles, to do lists, effective tips, and useful resources that will help enhance their knowledge.
2. Interactive tools: everyone needs an easy to access calculator or template, why not be the one to provide it?  Before you know it, users will come to you for additional resources.
3. Deals: With the economy on it’s way to recovery, many users are still looking for deals.  Offer exclusive deals only to your email subscribers.

After you engage a user long enough to collect their email address, send them constant and relevant information and newsletters.  Before you know it, the user will have build a relationship with your business.

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.

BuyTradeBiz.com, internet’s best new entrant in the business for sale and franchise for sale online listing service, continued to increase in traffic to its site. The site broke through the 70,000 mark for US sites in Alexa within 8 months of launch of the site. In addition the number of unique and repeat visitors continues to grow rapidly.

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 started to roll out a new Marketing Campaign that helped increase our presence within Social Media and continually increase our search engine ranking. We have introduced a Summer 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 increased marketing efforts are being noticed within the Broker community. We have noticed the increase in number of views and enquiries of our business opportunities we have posted on this site”, says a leading business broker. In addition, Franchisors appreciate the sites clean design and highly navigable interfaces. “With our organic search results increasing everyday, it is helping us drive more Buyer traffic to the site. We have also increased our marketing efforts to help generate additional traffic. Be sure to look for us at the Spring 2010 IBBA conference in Orlando, FL!” 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 find a 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.

BuyTradeBiz.com, internet’s best new entrant in the business for sale and franchise for sale online listing service, continued to increases in traffice to its site.  The site broke through the 70,000 mark for US sites in Alexa within 10 months of launch of the site.  In addition the number of unique and repeat visitors continues to grow rapidly.

The number of franchise opportunities and business opportunities that are listed on the site continues to increase daily.  The number of brokers that have listed with site has been increasing steadily.  This shows the effectiveness of the company’s very active marketing campaigns.  In addition as a member of IBBA, the country’s largest broker organization, BuyTradeBiz.com has increased its visibility significantly in the broker community.  Attending the fall conference of IBBA in Reno, NV gave them another opportunity to showcase BuyTradeBiz.com’s value proposition.  Also in January 2010, we attended the Franchise Expo Sout show in Miami, FL for the first time and received a lot of recognition from the franchise community.

Early this month, BuyTradEBiz.com moved into its new office located at 10475 Medlock Bridge Road, Building 400, Johns Creek, Georgia, 30097.  “It is important to us to be able to provide the highest level of quality service to brokers, franchisors, and individual buyers and sellers looking to buy a business, sell a business, buy a franchise, or sell a franchise.  Buy growing our office and adding services, we can take care of individuals looking for businesses for sale and franchises for sale.” says Sweta Shah, Marketing Director for BuyTradeBiz.com.  The site has started to roll out a new marketing campaign that helped increase our presence within social media and continually increase our search engine rankings.  We have introduced a Winter Promotional Offer where Business Brokers can register for One Year membership for $199.00.  This is a great way for the brokers to gain visibility to their posted business for sale and look for potential feedback on entrepreneurs looking to buy a business or businesses.  Also, Business Brokers have the option to choose from two different membership levels which include benefits such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing search engine exposure, customized web brochures, and online tracking of views and responses to name a few.

“The site increased marketing efforts are being noticed within the Broker community.  We have noticed the increase in number of views and enquiries of our franchises for sale listings we have posted on this site”, says a leading franchisor.  In addition, Brokers and individual sellers appreciate the sites clean design and highly navigable interfaces.  With our organic search results increasing everyday, it is helping us drive more Buyer traffic to the site.  We have also increased our marketing effors to help generate additional traffic.

BuyTradeBiz.com is internet’s newest business for sale and franchise 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.

With the April 15th deadline quickly approaching, there are many tax breaks small business owners should know about.

1. First year profitable businesses can depreciate cost of business property and equipment purchased in 2009 up to $250,000
2. First year non-profitable businesses can depreciate 50% of their office related property
3. General business credit limit has been raised for non-profitable businesses
4. Work opportunity tax credit is available to small businesses who have hired employees that fall into “target groups who have consistently faced significant barriers to employment”
5. NOLs carry back allows small businesses to carry back net operating losses for five years instead of the previous two years.

Be sure to contact your accountant and ask about all the tax breaks your small business qualifies for.

The Small Business Administration’s flagship lending program backed twice as many loans in the past three months as it did a year ago during the same time period.

In the second quarter, the lending program processed 16,558 loans, more than doubling the loans offered in the same time period in 2009.  Overall in 2010 the SBA has lent out $3.7 billion.

For those considering starting a business or buying a business for sale, now is the time!

When the recession hit a low point last year many small businesses shed their payroll and didn’t realize they would have to pay unemployment insurance tax.  The tax increases will impact thriving businesses as they expand their payroll because they will have to pay based on their growing wages.

State unemployment insurance taxes are paid throughout the year, as owners pay their other payroll taxes.  States typically have a base unemployment tax, which owners will pay according to the size of their payroll.  But as a company lays off employees, it develops a negative “experience rating” that can boost that tax.

According to a survey conducted by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies numerous states are running out of funds to pay for thier out-of-work populations.  With jobless claims swelling and coffers depleting, at least 35 or the 50 states are hiking unemployment tax rates this year.

“The business that has laid off folks gets hit proportionately higher because while they pay less in total wages, and therefore less in employment taxes, their experience rating will go up and it takes numerous quarters of no layorrs to get that experience rating back down.” says Henry Paula, a tax principal at Reznick Group PC.