Overview

The lure of being your own boss and having control over your future is very appealing. At this point, you likely have made the decision to buy a business. You may have decided not to buy a franchise because of the high capital cost, ongoing royalty fees and rigid structure. You may have also rejected the idea of starting a business from scratch due to the lack of established customers, employees and suppliers. You are ready to consider buying an established business with a good reputation for quality, innovation, and growth.

Welcome to Preparing to Purchase a Business, the first of three modules that will help prepare you to become the owner of a small business. Once you have completed Preparing to Purchase a Business, you will have carefully considered your own suitability as an entrepreneur. You will also have determined the growth potential of your target business using data from Statistics Canada.

In Preparing to Purchase a Business, you will explore the following aspects of a business valuation:

1. Current and future labour availability—researching demographics of your area to confirm you have a suitable labour and customer supply for now and in the future
2. Estimation of how large a market exists—predicting market potential
3. Various legal forms of ownership
4. Contracts and fiscal responsibilities impacting business
5. Evaluating the human resources of a specific business
6. Confirming that owning your own business is a good fit with your personality, ability and future

Learning Outcomes

By the end of Preparing to Purchase a Business, you will be able to:

1. Evaluate whether or not you are well suited to be an entrepreneur.
2. Determine the growth potential of your target business using data from Statistics Canada.
3. Characterize demographics of your area and determine if there exists a suitable labour and customer supply for now and the future.
4. Practice and evaluate market share.
5. Select the appropriate legal form of ownership for your new small business.
6. Characterize and evaluate contracts and fiscal responsibilities when taking ownership of a small business.
7. Effectively communicate Human Resource responsibilities of owning a small business.