Finding and buying a small business for sale in Gauteng needs a bit of savvy and research.

I am writing this short page for those of you that are seeking to buy a small business and plan to invest an amount of capital and time into that business.

My name is Rob Anderson and I am a specialist in helping people start up new small businesses – normally the smaller work from home style businesses and setting up the website side of a business. However I realise that many of you would initially be looking to buy into an existing business and need to know all your options. So while I talk all about the pitfalls or perhaps opportunities that you need to watch out for here in your quest – I remain a big fan of starting up a small business from scratch. I will talk about what I offer at the end of this page.

I do though have very good skills that I could teach you that apply to both a brand new business and the scaling up of an existing business. Almost any business has a lot of potential in the marketing and there are a number of great opportunities that you could explore that will generate business for whatever business venture you start.

I Have titled this page as small business for sale Gauteng for a very good reason.

Many people will prefer to find a business that is for sale near to where they have their roots. Owning a property and having schools etc are all factors that will affect the choices that you make when buying a small business.

Now looking for a business that is for sale within your local area (Gauteng in this situation) will severely restrict your options and you need to take that into consideration.

By doing quality research into the business that you are considering buying you can save yourself a massive amount of financial and legal problems down the line – when you should be spending your money and time on developing the business and not running around putting out fires.

Firstly I suggest that you make sure of one important fact before you start to do your research.

You need to be very certain that the nature of the business that you are looking to buy is in demand and is the best fit for you.

It does not help that you do no research – and months down the line you realise that your specific business is dying out (from a trend point of view) and a very similar business model that offers skills that you have – is growing in leaps and bounds.

So what you need to do BEFORE you do anything is to research your niche first.

I suggest that you do a detailed keyword research online for this check system. The Internet has become very busy both locally and internationally and you can find out some very interesting facts by looking into fine details on what people are actually looking for right now.

This keyword research will immediately give you a very good idea as to how many people are looking for your services in that business that you were thinking of buying. In some instances you will even be able to see how much opposition you have in that niche. It should also give you the option in some cases of being able to buy a business that has potential of being re-aligned and re positioned to become triple its existing size.

This exact knowledge can be a vital factor to how much you should be paying for your new business. (This is another service that I offer – doing this keyword research for people – ask me about it)

Looking for that diamond in the rough – What to look out for when buying that small business that is listed for sale.

Once you are sure (well lets say fairly sure) into which type of business that you are going to research, you need to consider the following aspects.

But before you go into fine detail in the small business that are offered for sale there is something else that you need to do.

Spend a lot of time looking at all the similar businesses that are for sale – both here in Gauteng and all over the country. In fact comparing this research with international businesses that are similar and also for sale will help you here too.

What you need to do is to get a feel as to the average offer.

This means that the more you dig into the classifieds and the for sale listings – the more experienced you will become in spotting the rubbish, the bargains, the scams and the best opportunities.

Do this carefully – only a fool buys a business without first looking very carefully at what other similar businesses are offering for the same price.

I am going to list some short bullet points here that cover a lot of the items and factors that you need to investigate when looking to buy your small business that is for sale in Gauteng. I naturally cannot go into a ton of detail on this page – but by just having mentioned the points you will be able to consider those factors into your research.

I know that a lot of these are obvious – but please bear with me.

• Why is the business for sale? Seriously – find out the real reason. (When they tell you it is because they are retiring, divorcing, moving overseas, dying or whatever – double check those facts.)
• Are you buying the assets or all the legal “risks” that could come with the business. There are hundreds of factors like land claims, current legal court actions that could bite you in the x if you are not careful
• Is the business built on a “personality”? This can be very important. If the current owner has amassed the business following solely on his personality – and as soon as he leaves your business drops 50% because he has gone , is something that you need to be aware of.
• The real books. LOL – things like are all the taxes paid? are the VAT side of thing 100% up to date etc, this needs a professional to look into it, but you cannot avoid this side of your research.
• Handover period. Get the seller to stay for an agreed period of time. This has massive benefits, things like allowing existing customers to get to know you, unearthing gremlins of all sorts, getting the staff to know you and adapt and a dozen more very good reasons. Do not drag it all out for to long, that will not help anyone. Minimum one month preferably two, and not longer that three.
• Leases and rental agreements. This is something that could seriously derail your business, as expiring leases and other factors that are similar could be the hidden reason for a sale of the business in the first place. Be 100% certain that it is correct – do not just take the sellers word for it.
• Staff. This could be quite detailed as you could lose key staff with the changes, you need to look into contract agreements, casual staff arrangements and a whole lot of other factors. Remember that the staff and their happiness account for a large portion to the health of your business.
• Outstanding debts. Take care here – this can be a financial and legal minefield. One of the easiest ways to falsely inflate the value of a business is on the cash-flow, but a seller might have squeezed all the outstanding moneys from the good payers by offering specials, and leave you with the ones that are slow payers or have recently run into problems and now cannot pay.
• Sign an indemnity. Both the seller and buyer need to know that they cannot be sued for actions that occurred when not on their watch.
• Key clients. Arrange to meet the big clients that the business has and get a feel as to the future and current prospects from those meetings. This could be done in a soft way – by telephone – or more forcefully with detailed meetings – take care with this – you could upset the applecart by doing this wrong.
• Patents. If the business comes with something that is exclusive to that business – like patents or specific molds etc – be certain as to who has the ownership or rights to use those.
• Restraint of trade. One of my personal irritation points, as I have had to change career in the past because of this aspect. However you need to be certain that your seller cannot start up next door to you tomorrow and steal all your clients. I have heard that some restraint of trade agreements are not enforceable and others are – so seek legal help here.
• Other assets. Some businesses rely very heavily on core machines, and it is possible that the entire business could collapse if the machines die. Be sure that the machines do work, are healthy and are still able to get spares and be maintained. Vehicles, trucks, forklifts, lifting equipment and the car fleet are all items that should be looked into.

Wow, every time I look at this type of list I remember why I love to start up my small businesses from scratch. I can choose the location, the product, the assets, the staff and a whole lot more.

Jokes aside – I hope that this will be a help in your efforts to find a good small business for sale – gauteng, and give you a great business.

What I offer you from a small business point of view.

Market research. I Can show you a number of different ways that you can use to check the potential market share of your new business idea. I have training courses, I can do the research for you or I could do a consultation with you to go through the different methods.

Craft market training. I have a complete course that takes you through the entire process relating to a craft business.

Website. The website of a business is so often badly done, I can show you how to fix an existing site – or how to build a very targeted website from scratch, step by step.

Affiliate marketing. This is a great business model and if done the correct way could give you a second income stream well over R100 000 a month. It is not a “magic button” business as is often advertised online – but if done right, and constantly over time can be a perfect business. This is my favorite business model by far.

Get all the reports that I offer on this website for more details.

Want to see a business example? A work from home business? An easy to start – easy to run Business?

Finally – Thank you for reading my page on – Small Business for sale gauteng.