You decided to buy a business but do not know how to proceed.  Time to plan what you need to do to buy a business.  Here are some helpful hints to find the right business:

• what motivates you
• what is your experience
• what are you leaving behind
• what is business environment like for your particular area of expertise
• looking at what opportunities are available by monitoring The Business Place or subscribing to The Business Place newsletter to get weekly updates on new businesses posted to the website
• investigate the industry (whether is is franchising, retailing, manufacturing, look at industry segment i.e. food, automotive etc.
• contact business brokers – see the business broker directory on The Business Place
• consider franchising
• look at pros and cons of starting a home based business, buying a business or buying a franchise
• contact your bank manager and find out what type of financing may be available to you, if at all
• prepare a budget, how much income do you need personally to survive
• determine how much you can afford to spend
• determine your priorities, are you willing to spend a lot of time building this business, do you want to work only part time, do you have a schedule to work around for example picking up kids from the day care.  All these issues much be factored into finding the right type of business for you.