The Business Blog

If you are thinking about buying a business, and are planning to use a business broker, then you need to read every single word of this short article. Doing so can save you not only a lot of money…but a lot of time and frustration as well.

Listen: There are over 20 different ways to find good, profitable businesses to buy besides going to a broker. Years ago we used to go to the newspaper and there was usually two newspapers, the LA Times or the San Diego paper, that had a few in them.

We’d look in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. But what’s happened in the last 10 or 15 years is the Internet. If you go on the Internet, you’re going to find more businesses than you could ever want to buy. All you need to know from there is how to approach them and how to make sure they are good businesses, that make money and will therefore make you money.

Believe me, you don’t need to mess around with a broker anymore. In fact, I have only met one broker — in all 50+ years of buying businesses — that I can say I even trust. Check the Internet, read the papers, talk to your attorney, CPA, investment broker — anyone who deals with businesses. They are usually the first to know when a business is for sale and can many times even give you inside information about the owner you can use in the future.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

It’s a dream shared by many around the world - turning a hobby into a business; actually making money from doing what they love. It’s what journalists and authors do when they write. It’s what mechanics do when they tinker on motors and get paid for it. It’s what artists do when they draw, sculpt, or paint.

Maybe you’re one of those people who have discovered that your hobby is expensive to maintain, and you’d like a way simply for your hobby to ‘pay for itself’. That’s the case of a man I know who loves flying his airplane, looking at all different types of airplanes, and talking about airplanes (this man has miniature airplanes on his “second” Christmas tree). After retiring from his “real” job, he merged his work with his hobby, and now he gets paid to manage the airport where he keeps his plane. Many businesses and careers have been started for that reason.

More…Business savvy individuals and tax attorneys may share with you a semi-guarded trade secret: You can deduct hobby losses from your main income if you can prove the hobby is a legitimate, profit-motivated business. That means you must be engaged in the activity “for profit.” If you want to go that route, you will need to set your hobby up as a legitimate business with: business cards, a separate set of books, a separate business bank account, advertising, business cards, etc.

(more…)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites