But, it can also be very frightening for those just starting out! We’ve all heard about high mortality rates for new business ownership; 50% won’t make it through first three years. There are many reasons for this. Wouldn’t it be great if potential problems could be eliminated for you as a new business operator? Well, they can!

Buy an existing profitable business instead of trying to start one from scratch! There are three key advantages to this:

Existing successful businesses have a proven track record of profits that will most likely continue long after business sale. Now you get to apply your new ideas, expertise, and renewed energy to take business to even higher profitability.

You’ll have established customers for immediate cash flow. No suffering through a long start-up period where you struggle to attract customers to your business. Use these customers as building blocks for future growth.

Typically, you’ll be able to use a business seller’s financing of a large portion of purchase price to maximize your buying potential.

There’s no question that success rate for new business owners that have purchased an existing business is much higher than for those who start a newly formed business. This is because an existing profitable business has already proven that it’s successful.

However, actual process of purchasing an operating business can be a challenging undertaking and you’ll want to be fully prepared. You need to gather as much information as possible which will help you to; find a suitable business for sale, value business, arrange financing, conduct negotiations, and finally, to actually close deal and transfer ownership.

The first step in this process is to find out if you’re truly fully motivated to operate a small business (whether you start it or buy it). Ask yourself:

Do I know what kind of business you want to buy? Am I technically qualified and experienced enough to run business? Am I prepared to “eat, sleep, and drink” business 24-hours a day?

Next, you need to determine what your key reason is for buying and operating a business:

Buying a job to earn a living or making an investment. Buying prestige (many business owners are respected community leaders). Seeking self-fulfillment and control of your own destiny.

There are many sources of businesses for sale and quite a few businesses can be relocated. The Internet is one good source but you should start with business brokers who serve your area. You will find them in phone book yellow pages.

A blog is a Web log, an online journal. Blogs started out as online diaries, in which diarists shared their everyday lives with world. From their beginnings as a weird Web fad in 1998, blogs have moved on, and are well on way to becoming a standard business tool.

Why? Because in February 2003 Google.com bought Pyra Labs, company which owns Blogger weblogging tool. Blogger.com, one of main sites providing blog software and hosting, boasted a million hosted web logs in early 2003.

Google.com's interest in blogs indicates that blogs are mainstream. A blog help your business in many ways, depending on whether you create a private or a public blog. Blogs are so useful that you'll want to create both.

=> Your business's private, internal blog

These days, no one works alone. Even if you're a solo business operator, you have colleagues --- partners, contractors, and suppliers with whom you communicate daily. A private blog makes working with a group easier, because you can streamline your interactions, saving time and energy.

A private blog can contain notes to yourself, or to colleagues. It's a place to store information and tips that might not warrant a special email message. You can post information like meeting notes, project tasks and summaries, and updated price lists. You can also post links to large files --- no need to email, fax, or mail them to and fro.

Your blog is more useful than email, because blog postings are dated, and easily searchable. You can post a message you want everyone to read, and message stays on blog. With email, you read and delete, or read and forget.

If you've worked on a project with someone in another state or on other side of world, you've blessed email, because it makes sharing information so easy. Using a blog to share information is even easier than using email.

=> Your business's public blog