The Pros and Cons of Building a Business from Scratch

It’s one question all entrepreneurs must answer before putting their business idea into motion: should you start building your business from scratch, or is it wiser to buy the bones from someone else and build your empire on top of that? Ultimately, the only one who can make that decision is you – but we’re here to make it just a little easier! Here are the benefits of starting a new business from square one versus buying someone else’s business:

Pros of starting your business from scratch:

• It’s ALL yours: From the name to the color scheme to your store layout and website design, your business is yours through and through. While you’re free to take inspiration and advice from others, the final decision is yours and yours alone.
• Your business’ backstory? You know it all because you’ve been there. There are no stories that you don’t already know – you lived it and can tell the story of your business’ inception whenever someone asks.
• In the same vein, you know of (and can fix) any cracks in your business’ foundation, any bad press, negative PR, customer complaints, or similar things. Think of it this way: there’s no Carfax for “used” businesses that gives you a complete history report.
• You don’t need to wait for the perfect business to go on sale, or for a transaction to be approved and finalized. You can start your own business today and have it running by tonight, if that’s what you want.

Pros of buying someone else’s business

• Many businesses, as long as they’re currently profitable, can be bought and continue to run as-is – so you can sit back and let the profits continue to roll in. The best businesses to buy are profitable operations run by people looking to unload and retire.
• Domain registration, hosting, web design and development are all small headaches that you don’t have to deal with up front. There’s just one transaction to worry about: buying the business. (At least for a few months, while you settle in to your new role.)
• Profitable businesses come with a base of ready-to-buy customers.
• Profitable businesses have a business model proven successful.
• Profitable businesses have working products and messaging
• You can make small tweaks to these things, or decide to do a huge overhaul, to take your newly acquired business to new levels

If there’s one thing all business owners have in common, it’s guts. Neither decision is easy, so kudos to all the entrepreneurs out there going for it!