If you’re looking to own an assisted living business, you should consider purchasing an existing business versus starting your own from scratch. When most people think of starting an assisted living business, they think of beginning from scratch and developing an idea to build a company from the ground up. However, starting a business from scratch presents many challenges and some distinct disadvantages including the difficulty of building a customer base, marketing the new business, hiring employees, and establishing cash flow . . . all without a track record or reputation to go on. The advantages of buying an existing business however provides many advantages. When you buy an assisted living business, you take over an existing brand with existing cash flow and profits. When you have an established brand name in the business community, it is easier to attract new business than with an unproven start-up. You will benefit from an established customer base and reputation, provided it has a good reputation, as well as employees who are familiar with all aspects of the business. And you won’t have to start from scratch, the existing business and its brand will have a successful business plan for running the business including existing plans, procedures, systems, and policies that have already been tested and established. Sales will be generated the day you take over. An existing business will have a financial history, which gives you an idea of what to expect and can make it easier to secure loans and attract investors. You will also have experienced employees who have been trained in the business. Vendors that have an established relationship with the business will know what the business requires. With an existing assisted living business, a market for your product or service is already established. When purchasing an existing business, you’ll want to put together a team of qualified professionals to help you including a qualified business broker, CPA and lawyer which are all essential for a proper due diligence process. When due diligence is done, you’ll know just what you’re buying and from whom. Starting a business from scratch requires an immense amount of time and effort in the beginning stages without a lot of payoff. There is no guarantee that the business will even succeed, and it requires substantial financial risk. When you buy an existing business, the difficult start-up work has already been done. When you buy a business, you can start working immediately and focus on improving and growing the business immediately. The seller has already laid the foundation and taken care of the time-consuming, tedious start-up work. You will acquire existing customers, contacts, goodwill, suppliers, staff, plant, equipment and stock.
