Thousands of new startups each year, and those entrepreneurs all have high hopes for their success. However, forming a simple freelance business from home isn’t as easy as you might assume. That’s why so many firms fail within their first year of opening.
If you want to start a new business, you’re probably reading this article because you wonder if there’s a more accessible or better route into the business world than starting from scratch.
The truth is, people have several options for joining the business world. Take a look at the following examples for some inspiration and ideas.
Buy An Established Business
If the thought of building a startup from scratch fills you with fear and anxiety, why not avoid that aspect of creating a brand by acquiring an established one?
It might surprise you to learn there are many businesses for sale you can consider, either on online business marketplaces or through word of mouth.
When you look at an existing business for sale, you can scrutinize its trading history to determine whether it has the potential to grow in the future and how you can keep it a sustainable company.
Buying an established business is often easier than starting an unknown brand from scratch.
Invest In A Startup
Have you ever heard the saying, “work smarter, not harder”? When you launch a new brand from nothing, you have to put in a lot of time, effort, and money into giving it the best possible chance of success.
There’s a lot of research, reporting, and feedback that you have to go through before you can make an informed decision about starting a business or not. One exciting way to skip doing all that is by investing in someone else’s startup business. Why? The answer is simple: they’ve already done all the hard work for you.
Invest In An Established Business
Another option is to invest in a well-established business. For example, you could offer some capital to help the business expand rapidly in exchange for a company’s share and all future profits and dividends.
You would carry out the same due diligence as if you were buying an established company. That is, reviewing all financial information and trading history and forecasting all future turnover and potential profit.
Once you’ve invested and purchased shares in the business, you could keep doing so and buying more of the company until you are eventually a majority shareholder and then the sole owner.
Start A Franchised Business
It’s no secret that franchise business models can work very well and become highly profitable. You might not realize it, but many of the retail companies you frequent in your daily life are, in fact, franchisees of established companies.
When you start a franchised business, you don’t need to worry about market research and branding because they’ve already completed all the research.
All you need to do is concentrate on setting up your business and begin marketing the franchise in your local area or to specific target markets.
Work In Your Family’s Business
Before going down the path of a new startup, is there a business in your family that might include several generations of your relatives?
If the answer’s yes, it might be a case of “better the devil you know” – meaning, you should get involved with your family business instead of starting a new one that no one has ever heard of before.
Work For An Established Brand
Lastly, you might want to consider working for an established brand in the niche or industry you wish to enter. But, you might be thinking, what’s the point in that? Are you not going to own the business?
While that’s true from the first day you join, you could get opportunities to own the business or part of it as your tenure with the company continues.
Final Thoughts
You likely have your heart set to be the boss of your own startup. But, sadly, that’s not always possible, and it can sometimes be due to circumstances beyond your control.
Thankfully, several viable alternatives mean you can still be an entrepreneur, and most will result in the same outcome as starting a new brand from nothing.
The above ideas are the most viable alternatives to starting a new business, and they’re ones that you should put some serious thought into before making any decisions.
