How To Start A Business Selling? - Starting Your Own Online Business Broker Website

The amount of persons who want to get into business for themselves is increas­ing day-to-day. There are thousands of potential entrepreneurs and investors searching for new business opportunities daily. This offers you with the per­fect opportunity to take advantage on this entrepreneurship frenzy. So, how do i start my own small business selling? There are two techniques that you can approach this type of business. One is very simplistic; the other is more complex.

The simplistic method to starting up this direct selling business is by offering a listing of potential business opportunities on your Web site. To make income, you can charge businesses a monthly or annual fee for having their business listed on your web site. You can then propose businesses the opportunity to purchase banner ads on your web site or to improve their listings with a company logo, e-mail links, or direct links to their site. This is a very simple and easy approach to launching this type of business.

The more complex method to starting your own home business broker­age consultant is by actively looking for business opportunities for business buyers and investors to review. This requires a more in-depth knowledge of business fundamental principle and first-class sales skills, as you are ultimately negotiating to sell someone else’s business. Earning is typically generated on a percentage-of-sales basis when you operate at this level. You typically list the businesses that you are selling directly on your Web site at no charge. You do this to expose the business opportunities to potential buyers.

The skills requirement to establish this type of business vary depending on which method you take. If you go with the more simplistic method, experience with marketing online would be a definite asset, as you are going to want to actively promote your Web site and generate significant traffic. If you decide to take the more complex method, knowledge of business valuations would be an asset. There are also numerous designations available for business brokers. If you were to get one of these designations, you would add tremendous cred­ibility to your business brokerage company.

Since you are providing a service that has no tangible inventory, your initial costs will be minimal. You will need a computer and appropriate software, of course. Initial costs will also include the design, development, and hosting of your Web site. The cost to start this type of business ranges from $3,000 to $10,000.

If you take the simplistic approach, you are going to face more exten­sive costs associated with the development of your site in that a database will need to be designed and developed to list the businesses for sale. You will also need a strategy to develop considerable Web site traffic, as people are not going to pay to have their site listed on a site that receives no traffic. If you take the more complex approach, you will face different costs: You will have to develop professional marketing collateral and invest more in research and business pro­motion to find businesses that are looking to sell.

The number of employees needed to run this type of business will depend on which approach you take. The simpler approach can be started by one per­son part-time. The more complex business should have a full-time person ready and available to communicate with clients and meet with them at their convenience.

This "business for sale" industry has strong international potential, as business investments are of interest to people all over the world. Using the Internet as a medium to promote this type of business makes the potential for international investment even greater.

If you decide to use a more simplistic approach to this type of business, you should do whatever you can to develop traffic to your Web site. People are not going to want to buy advertising or a listing on your site if you are not receiving any Web site traffic. If you are taking a more complex approach to this business, you should monitor the quality of businesses that you are trying to sell. It can take months, even years, to close a business sale, so you want to ensure that you are not wasting any time on a business that will not provide you with a return on your investment. This is especially important because you are typically receiving pay­ment based on sales commissions.

For online marketing techniques, participating in newsgroups and discussion forums related to your target audience would be a great way to increase the traffic to your Web site. Launching a strategic banner advertising campaign on business- and investment-related Web sites would generate targeted exposure for your business. Develop links from as many Web sites, directories, and meta-indexes related to business and investments as possible. Participating in mail lists and discussion groups related to business and investments would be a great way to communicate with your target market.
Purchasing advertising in or contributing articles to e-zines related to your target market would help generate exposure and would enhance the professionalism of your brokerage firm.

In addition to offering brokerage services, you may also want to provide con­sulting services for struggling businesses. This would be a good way to earn extra revenue and would also add credibility to your brokerage services. You can offer business valuation services to businesses interested in sell­ing, and you can help acquire funding for those interested in purchasing a business.

Online example, Business Brokers Network, http://www.bbn-net.com, America’s largest business brokerage Web site, BBN-Net is the Net’s biggest database of quality businesses for sale. International Business Brokers Association http://www.ibba.org, IBBA is the largest international not-for-profit association operating exclusively for the benefit of people and firms engaged in the various aspects of business brokerage, and mergers and acquisitions.