{"id":47670,"date":"2023-10-20T15:54:33","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/dont-wing-it-by-buying-a-business-without-research-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:54:33","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:54:33","slug":"dont-wing-it-by-buying-a-business-without-research-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/dont-wing-it-by-buying-a-business-without-research-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t wing it by buying a business without research – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

An old friend of the Taskmaster \u2013 we\u2019ll call him John \u2013 was heading into semi-retirement. He was having trouble finding another full-time job in IT due to age discrimination.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So he decided to use the golden nest egg he\u2019d saved for his retirement to buy a business. He traded his gold nuggets for the deep fried variety by buying a local neighbourhood chicken shop called the \u201cSuper Rooster\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Recently, the Taskmaster decided to visit the store. It was a good opportunity to catch up with an old friend, get a feed and help a local small business owner earn some scratch.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Painted on the solid brick walls, overlooking the rapidly fading \u201870s canary yellow plastic furniture \u2013 was a cartoon character that somewhat resembled Foghorn Leghorn.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s our mascot \u2013 Plucky Brewster the Super Rooster,\u201d John says, pointing to the cartoon cockerel. (At least it wasn\u2019t named Punky.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was lunchtime on a Saturday. The store should have been packed out like a factory farm henhouse. Instead, the shop was so quiet you could hear the faint hum of the neon lights outside the shop windows.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is I really got a really fowl deal!\u201d John says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was looking to buy, the former owner gave me a whole heap of numbers: Revenue projections, estimated patronage. All of it as fake as a Terry Taylor fight. He even said there was no immediate competition \u2013 I\u2019d have the suburb to myself!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, what this chickenhawk didn\u2019t tell me was that a Red Rooster franchisee had just won council approval to open a store just down the road from my shop! That\u2019s why he sold when he did! He knew this place was well and truly stuffed!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cSales were reasonable for the first few weeks \u2013 until it opened. Then the problem wasn\u2019t that they began eating my lunch \u2013 the problem was my former customers didn\u2019t!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I bought this place, I was worried I\u2019d be running around like a headless chook when I retired. It turns out I\u2019ve just had my savings plucked \u2013 then been slowly oven roasted by the competition!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

John was in a world of trouble. He looked like he\u2019d just laid an egg. And it all stemmed from the fact that instead of researching his business before buying it, he decided to wing it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All he had to do was read some of the local papers to know the former owner was the lead NIMBYs protesting against the Red Rooster down the road. And just sitting in this place for five minutes \u2013 hearing the hum of the drink fridge with the out-dated ’80s Pepsi-Cola logo uninterrupted by the sound of paying customers \u2013 made it obvious this was not the world\u2019s busiest takeaway shop.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By not doing his research, he didn\u2019t realise that instead of being sold a viable chicken shop, he was sold a turkey.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Are you thinking of buying a business? When the former owner says it\u2019s viable, don\u2019t just take their word for it. Do your own research! Count the customers! Phone the suppliers! Research the competition! Take note of anything that doesn\u2019t quite add up! Ask the former owners why they\u2019re selling a successful business that\u2019s making money!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Otherwise you could be stuck with a paltry \u2013 or should that be poultry \u2013 future, like John.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Get it done \u2013 today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An old friend of the Taskmaster \u2013 we\u2019ll call him John \u2013 was heading into semi-retirement. He was having trouble<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,22,23,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}