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Business Plan for Buying a Business

Business plans are developed for new businesses and when buying an existing business. Sometimes, entrepreneurs want to buy an ongoing business because they believe they can grow a business with new ideas and approaches. When buying a business, it’s still important to write a business plan to ensure that all aspects of the purchase have been considered and future growth is planned. In many cases, the business plan is also used to attract investors like venture capitalists or angel investors.

There are advantages to buying a business and those advantages should be highlighted in the business plan. The first advantage is the fact the company already has a financial record. That can make it much easier to attract investors if there is less risk of business failure. However, if financial projections are made by the current business owner, it will be important to verify they are not inflated. You will want to develop your own sales and expense projections for 5 to 10 years based on plans for business expansion.

Another advantage of buying an existing business results from the knowing the market already exists for the business. Current customers are identified and market proven, making it much easier to identify potential growth areas or new niche markets. Since the basic customer profile is already developed, you can build on it rather than starting from scratch.

It’s also good to enjoy the advantage of having access to insider information. Since you’re buying the business, the current owner is going to be willing to share a lot of information you would have to research if starting a new business. This information can be incorporated in the business plan, making it clear that the plan is based in solid facts and information.

Buying a business can give you a competitive advantage because the name, location, products and services, and customers are already in place. The business plan goals are to develop that competitive advantage to attract investors and to plan growth. It’s always nice to begin from a point of success.

Browse www.funded.com for more advice about getting your business funded

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Enter the Angel Investors at the Startup Stage

Financing a small business is done in stages with angel investors usually funding startup expenses. The amount of startup funding needed is figured in the business plan financial section along with projected revenues. Startup funding is actually just one stage of business financing because a new business must be funded from idea conception to expansion.

Businesses operate on a continuum. Initially, seed money is needed to do the original product development, business filings, research and market survey. The  entrepreneur often gets the seed money from personal savings, family and friends, or personal loans. Some even use their credit cards or house equity. In other words, seed money usually comes from personal resources because at this stage the business is only an idea and the risk of losing the money is too high.

Once it’s determined that the idea can be turned into a solid business, the picture changes. The business plan is prepared and the enterprise begins operating. At this point, the first revenues are generated which establishes the fact that the products or services are market viable. It is at this stage, often referred to as the series A or first round investment, that angel investors are approached. However, sometimes entrepreneurs will look for outside investors who will actually pay for startup. In other words, the business doesn’t begin operating until funding is obtained from venture capitalists willing to accept higher risk investments.

Angel investors can also be approached during the second round or series B investment stage. This is the stage at which initial expansion after startup takes place and funding is needed for inventory, staff or marketing expansion.  Later expansions using angel investments would be referred to as series C, series D and so on. In this way, each investor knows by investment reference how their investment ranks in the history of the business funding.

Eventually, a successful business will look for a larger funding source like a bank to finance a major expansion. Angel investors play an important role in the launch of new businesses and enter the business at one of its most critical stages. It’s no wonder they are called “angels.”

More detailed information and useful advice can be found at http://www.funded.com/ Created by Mark Favre, it offers expertise and assistance with developing and funding your concept, including a private forum for queries and discussions. If you need access to investors and funding providers, please do check our website.

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What is your Business New Years resolution?

What is your business New Years resolution?

Say goodbye to 2011 and say hello to 2012 but before welcoming 2012, have you listed down your New Years resolution? It’s the beginning of a New Year and most small business owners are making their New Year’s resolutions about their businesses. But before doing your list you can back track your previous resolution and see if you were able to accomplish those. Pull out your business plan and any other planning documents such as last year’s action plan and review last year’s goals. After that you can go ahead and do your resolution. We have come up of some list that you can add on your New Years resolution.

Budget, Your budget doesn’t have to be in a fancy spreadsheet with graphs and charts. A simple, hand-written list of expenses and incomes can get you started, and can be expanded later if needed. A budget will help keep you organized and have a plan as to where all your money will go. Budgets should include the amounts that go to bills, your savings, as well as leisure and other spending.

Save, saving money may sound so easy but really, its not. Getting used to money-saving techniques can be a lengthy and involved process, especially for those of us who haven’t had much experience with it. It’s also a good idea to learn how to save more money and become more pennywise. Using coupons, looking for store discounts and sales, tracking our expenses, and utilizing a budget are skills many of us have learned to do without until recently. Once you become thrifty, it’ll be hard to go back to spending so freely.

Debt free, freeing yourself from debt. Whether this is a realistic and attainable goal is really dependent upon your financial and debt situation. The easiest way to living debt-free is to cut your spending and put the extra money in your budget towards paying off your debt a little at a time. The key is sticking with it.

Start investing; having an extra income or other investment can be your financial resolution. Even if you can only afford putting away $10 a month, you can still find cheap quality stocks or mutual funds one share at a time. They are a nice introduction to the investment game and a great way to begin to secure your future.

Keep track of your Tax record, this could be the hardest task you will encounter over the year but if you are using a computerized accounting program, this resolution should be pretty easy since the software will do the work for you. Enter your accounting receipts on a daily basis. Your software is only as good as the information you give it.

We all know how important business planning is, but it’s easy to put off in the press of daily events. Hopefully this year end checklist has inspired you to get to it and made your business planning easier. Though goals take discipline and motivation, all you have to do is remind yourself how bad bringing on debt is and how nice it would be to be able to retire one day.

More detailed information and useful advice can be found at http://www.funded.com/ Created by Mark Favre, it offers expertise and assistance with developing and funding your concept, including a private forum for queries and discussions. If you need access to investors and funding providers, please do check our website.