I am looking to buy an established business within the Los Angeles or
San Francisco Bay Area, that is bringing in a high profit.  Where I
can look for businesses for sale or franchises that are for sale up to
$100,000.00 that are profitable?

Dear jasmine717,

Thanks for your question.  First, let me request that if any of the
following is unclear or if you require any further research – please
don’t hesitate to ask me for a clarification.

You requested information concerning the purchase of an established,
profitable business within the Los Angeles or San Francisco Bay Area. 
You further clarified that you would like to see information about
businesses or franchises that are for sale with a price point up to
$100,000.00.

In what follows, I will direct you to several sources where you will
be able to locate such businesses.

The Wall Street Journal has a list of franchises for sale at –

http://www.startupjournal.com/franchise/

You can request information about several franchises with a single
form.  I have used this in the past, and companies are extremely
responsive.  You’ll have to contact the company directly to see if
they have licenses available in the SF or LA area and what exact
startup costs will be.

The Wall Street Journal also has a list of businesses for sale.  The
publication claims to have over 15,000 businesses in its database at
this time.  The address is –

http://www.startupjournal.com/partners/bussale.html

Search by location and category.  You can also search for businesses
asking less than $1m, but you can’t limit the price to $100,000.

Inc. magazine offers a great guide to starting up a franchise –

http://www.inc.com/guides/start_biz/20674.html

Inc. also has a business search engine accessible from the magazine’s
home page at –

www.inc.com

But it was not available when I looked.  I suggest you try reaching it
later.

SmallBizNetwork offers a huge selection of small businesses for sale.

http://www.unitedcountry.com/ucforms/uconline/uconline/searchv2/search_start.htm

You can perform a geographical search using various criteria – or
click through to the SF and LA areas through the interactive map.

The best franchise directory is the one managed by Entrepreneur
magazine.  It is available at –

http://www.entrepreneur.com/Franchise_Zone/FZ_FrontDoor/0,4670,,00.html

Around this time of year they put out their “Ultimate Startup Guide” –
last year’s issue included 1,193 different business opportunities
including 100s of franchises.

Entrepreneur also has a business opportunity search engine at –

http://www.entrepreneur.com/bizoppzone/0,4997,,00.html

Franchise Solutions, at –

http://www.franchisesolutions.com/index.cfm/fa/searchMain/google/1

Will let you search by financial range, so you can bring up all the
business opportunities in their database that are in the $100,000.

Home Business Magazine offers a plethora of opportunities and ideas –

http://www.homebusinessmag.com/tmain.html?mID=2

I hope this response adequately addresses your request.  Please let me
know if you are in need of additional information concerning this
query.

Thanks,
ragingacademic


Search Strategy:

None – visited sites in own favorites.

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Request for Answer Clarification by jasmine717-ga on 18 Dec 2002 13:36 PST

just what i was looking for, but is there place i can read about which
ones would be more profitable?
thanks................

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Clarification of Answer by ragingacademic-ga on 19 Dec 2002 09:36 PST

jasmine717 -

Since the vast majority of these businesses are privately held,
profitability is a mystery unless the seller or franchisor discloses
such data at the offering time; obviously, if you were to reach a
stage of serious negotiations such information would be disclosed. 
Typically, however, business owners do not disclose profitability
unless they absolutely have to.

You could estimate the profitability of various franchises based on
your familiarity with their business, and reports in the media. 
However, other small businesses are really difficult to assess without
insider information.

I found a good, comprehensive analysis of the franchise industry at -
http://www.franchise.org/resourcectr/MA%20Franchise%20Companies%20Seminar%202001.PDF

This may help some as you think about evaluating such opportunities.

This is provided by the International Franchise Association, located
at -

http://www.franchise.org/default-flash.asp

I hope this clarification will assist you some.

thank,
ragingacademic

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Clarification of Answer by ragingacademic-ga on 19 Dec 2002 20:30 PST

jasmine717 - 

A couple more things I came across -

http://www.entrepreneur.com/mag/0,4430,,00.html

Entrepreneur's Web site is still on the December issue - but I just
picked up the January issue, and the cover story is the Franchise 500
+ a complete guide to buying a franchise.  Either wait for it to come
online - or you can pick up a copy at your local bookstore.

Also got a copy of the March issue of "Small Business Opportunities" -
turns out they are also online at -

www.sbomag.com

Finally, I also picked up a copy of "The Franchise Handbook" and of
course they are online too at -

www.franchisehandbook.com

The franchise directory is at -

http://www.franchisehandbook.com/directory/

I hope this information will be helpful to you.
If you are satisfied with this response, I would appreciate if you
could rate it for me.

thanks much and good luck -
ragingacademic

Exactly what I was looking for, excellent work.

Try Sunbelt Business Brokers  www.sunbeltnetwork.com   They have lots
of offices in CA.

thank you.......