The rewards of working for yourself The decision to purchase a business of your own is not an easy task. There are many things to consider before the final decision is made. First of all, exactly what do you want to accomplish? To make millions of dollars, right? Or is it to have the freedom of being your own boss? Whatever the reason, you must be sure that it is something that you are ready to devote an exorbitant amount of time and energy into and that it is something that you really want. Otherwise, you might be stuck doing something that you hate. If you are ready to commit then you must ask yourself just how far will that commitment extend. How much of your own time, energy, and money are you willing to sacrifice? After the decision is made, the acquisition of a small business can be summed-up into nine steps, in which most will be elaborated upon later. "These are the nine steps to any business acquisition, regardless of its size or industry: 1. The search, locating a business available for sale. 2. Identifying alternative candidates. 3. Valuing the business. 4. Negotiating a price and terms. 5. Investigating the company. 6. Preparing the business plan. 7. Sourcing the financing. 8. Preparing the closing documents. 9. Managing the transition period." (Tuller, 10) Some considerations that cannot be avoided when purchasing a small business include: the question of needing a partner, the current economic factors, considering alternate locations, and developing a tax strategy. When debating whether or not a partner is needed or wanted, you need to know if you're going to need additional equity as well as sharing the risk of failure. For these reasons, a partnership seems to be a great idea, but there are also many cons that should be recognized. Having too many partners can alter the ease of decision-making, shared liability can cause obvious problems, and sharing profits means less for you. Added to this, getting out of a partnersh...
