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Buying and Selling a Business in Florida

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

CONTENTS

I. Buying versus Starting Your Own Business

II. Business Brokerage

III.

I. Buying a Business versus Starting Your Own

Each approach has its advantages. By starting your own business, you are establishing a fresh, unblemished business reputation. Many like the fact that they get to make all the decisions, create the business from the ground up, and make it uniquely “theirs.”

Frequently, you can purchase an existing business from someone who, for whatever reason, “wants out,” often for less money than you would have to invest to start anew. Sometimes, depending upon the market, locating an advantageous business location is difficult or impossible, and occasionally even locating key employees is harder than purchasing a business with those assets already in place. Another advantage to buying a business is that you get what the seller has already built, and you can use any cash left over after the acquisition to “add on” to the operation, that is, add products, services, upgrade facilities, infrastructure or staff, perhaps even seek entirely new markets. That gives you the best of the old and the new combined. You save time and attention on the “basics” that are already in place, putting most of your energy into creating the new.

II. Business Brokerage

Just like buying and selling residential real estate, the process frequently starts with the selection of a broker to represent you. In Florida, buying and selling businesses is a “service of real estate,” i.e., an activity which one can only do for another for compensation if licensed as a real estate broker.

Contents

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Buying versus Starting a Business

Business Brokerage