Topic: Would you rather start/grow a business from scratch or buy an existing business? - page 6. (Read 1625 times)

That's the tough part, if you have the money to buy a business, that means you also have money to start a business as well. It's going to be hard and we are going to have some trouble but that doesn't mean that we are going to end up with anything decent anytime soon, we need to be a lot more careful about what we are willing to do.

This is why it's quite important to realize that we are going to end up with a situation that is different and should be considered an important part of the deal. I think if you start a new business with that kind of money, you could do better as well. So you take a risk, do you think we should do something all known, or should we take a risk about it at all? That's the question.

The point is that building your own business from the start does have more value, where we can go through a long process to the stage of success. Our own hard work and ideas can be applied if we build a business from the beginning independently, because there is no connection with others as investors. Ideally, when we do not have a large capital to handle business, we should try to build a small business that has good prospects in the long run and certainly this process will be far more difficult and requires patience to achieve the level of success.

Buying a business that has developed is also not necessarily successful in developing it, sometimes a person's ability to build a different business and some even fall up and down many times. But when we buy a business at a relatively high price and on its journey it fails it will be difficult for us to rebuild the business because maybe the money we have is up.

Well I would much rather start a business from scratch because I know that I'll be running a business that I am truly passionate about. I know that I'll do what needs to be done to get my business up and running, whether it takes hours of research it will get done because I know it will benefit my business.
I also feel that I would be focused and truly dedicated to doing what I can to make my business successful. I would I want to be able to put a successful business plan for my company, be my own boss, and give employment to other people.
What would truly make me happy will be the satisfaction of all the hard work that will eventually pay off for sticking with starting a business from scratch. And knowing that I can help others with my company and being able to lead and run my business as I see fit.

it seems that it will always depend on each person. even if I want to buy an existing business, I am still don't have enough money for it. the best thing that I can do is only by join a successful franchise business.
like you said, each person has their risk tolerance level, resources and etc so know about the most appropriate things for us is the first thing that we have to do.

When it comes to  personnel fulfilment and finding sense of purpose in life, embarking on a new venture is indeed a commendable choice. Achieving financial goals in life is unquestionably important to meet with economic requirement of our daily life but the gratification derived from achieving goals through the journey of creativity is truly indescribable.

Going with a well established business will be good when it comes to revenue and the risk will be low. As stated everything will have their pros and cons. In terms of productive development we won't be able to do much in it. Different people will have different choices and mine used to be developing from the scratch. Whether we succeed or not is secondary, it gives a fulfilment like something achieved whenever we reach some milestone. Even the milestone reached can be very simple, but it had come out of our hard work and our plans and the execution taking place in the right way.

The decision to start a business from scratch versus purchasing an established business, especially in times of economic uncertainties and inconsistent government polices is very challenging. Both options have their pros and cons and choice ultimately depends on your risk tolerance level, resources, professional expertise and prevailing conditions. If I were to to place myself in your position, I would prefer to acquire an operational business that is generating reasonable sale revenue with well established customer base.

I agree. I sure want to have the sense of success knowing that all the hard work and ideas started from me once my business starts making a name for itself. If an individual has the drive and money to start their own business and the patience to handle competition and hurdles then of course building a small business is ideal.

That is one way we can do it if we don't have big capital to buy all of the company's assets. In terms of effectiveness, I agree more with building our own business, even if it's on a small scale compared to buying shares, because we can develop the business according to the strategies and plans that we have.

Everyone definitely wants to see the results of their own hard work in building a business and there will be satisfaction when we succeed in achieving success. Usually this type of person prefers to deal with risks and doesn't want to be in the comfort zone to make money. Hard work will be proportional to the results we will receive and anyone who can be consistent in surviving will surely achieve success.

This question reminded me in one of my class in entrepreneurship which is about the difference between a businessman and an entrepreneur. The thing about these two is that an entrepreneur are the people who creates new market while businessman starts business in existing markets. And to answer the question, I would love to start a new business rather than buying an existing ones. If given the chance I wanted to follow the footsteps of the greatest entrepreneurs in the world like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. They revolutionize the market and that is something I wanted to be remembered for. Thus, buying an existing business is quite expensive so starting a business from scratch is ideal. And having a business from your own, means you're creating your own legacy.

Developing a business from scratch is actually not easy. Both in terms of capital, insight, planning and so on, there are too many things to do. Even though we have large capital, it is not certain that the business we start will be successful. Because actually the success rate in building a business is always 50:50.

In contrast to buying a business that is already running like Elon Musk who bought Twitter. I think he's made great strides. It's just that the drawback of buying a business that is already running is that we have to pay a very high price. But the advantage is that our business will immediately run and produce immediately without having to bother looking for loyal customers and customers. Because a business that is already running must already have its own customers.

Or more specifically, some of the advantages of buying an existing business are:

✓ If it's a shop, then we don't need to make a lot of promos like a new business. Because a store that has been around for a long time must be widely known and has many customers.

✓ Strategic location. because a business that already exists and is running well must already be in a good location. Because without a good location, the business must be difficult to succeed until now.

✓ We don't need to think about equipment, or all the material things that are needed in business. Because everything is already available.

✓ and many other advantages.

Interesting topic, there are pros and cons of both approaches. When you start from scratch it's an uncharted territory: you need to create a business plan, rent office space, recruit staff etc...

If a company is for sale, my first question would be why the owner is selling it? Most of the time such companies are having issues with liquidity and what not and owners are trying to get rid of them. On the other hand, if the company is not for sale and you want to buy it, that's going to be expensive. On the bright side, you acquire a fully working company with staff, management, premises, customer base etc. Just my 2c.

OP, it really depends on certain factors. First, I can say it depends on what kind of business it is, and it also depends on how knowledgeable and experienced the buyer is about economics and business generally. There are some people who don't have very good ideas about business, and such people will really need to be very experienced in business before they can be able to handle the business and maybe maintain it like the real owner was doing.

Let me give you this scenario: there was one woman who owned a very large grocery shop and also had employees, but at some point the husband of this woman got a job overseas, so he had to go along with his family, and she had to sell the business to someone else. The new operator of that business did not manage that shop for more than two years, and everything folded, while the real owner of that shop had run that shop for more than eight years.

There's this saying that "a tree grows from a seed before it becomes a tree, not the opposite." That's to say that some people cannot start from the top to the bottom; they can only start from the bottom before they can get to the top. Some people cannot sustain a business that has already been established to a great level; rather, they can only build from scratch.

I am a business person, and if I have the opportunity to buy a business, I have to access the business and be sure that it's something I can manage very well and even take the business to a higher height than what it is. Only then will I agree to buy the business; otherwise, I would just build from scratch because it's better to build from scratch rather than crashing what has already been built so perfectly. That's just my opinion.

Both are really good but for me I would rather buy an existing industry and retain some of there intelligent staffs. Although in this case, the money you have will determine what to do. But if all things equal, an existing industry might have solved some industrial problems like marketing challenges, challenges from raw materials source and many more.

This is really a tough question, very critical but there is a lesson to be learn in both sides. If you start a business from scratches and survive every turbulence and hindrance, you will appreciate yourself when you get to the top, you will find a reason to smile because even if you encounter any problems, it will be very easy to patch it up and get the business moving. However, in a situation where u inherit a business without any experience, no form of challenges in the past, that business will collapse right in front of your eyes, the person who handed over the business will still be in your premises while observing your failures. How can you even think of grow Elon musk business when you don't know some of the underground networking he has done that he never reveal to the public. There is more to successful business we see they displayed outside.

True. Running a new business is never easy. You could have all the talent and skills, but that won’t guarantee your business success. There are still more important factors to consider aside from that, so instead of struggling to achieve that, it’s better to buy an existing business that is still in profits and would continue to gain profits with proper management. The price may be costly but you’ll definitely recover your capital faster than you expected. However, for some business enthusiasts, they also have different mindset about that. They’ll prefer to create their new business and establish their new brand especially if they want to stay unique from their business competitors.

If the business is thriving I think I'd prefer buying it as long as it has a good location and I can afford the price as well. But it would really cost high. The owner must have a good reason for selling it too which I would wonder.


Starting a business is hard. I have done this before and simply was just not a success since it was my first time. I am trying to make it work for 6 months and it's just not working. This was back 2016. Elon must have learned a lot from those failures.

I prefer to set up a business from zero so that I have good ability in business slowly. btw, Elon Musk has several businesses that he started from scratch, so that he has good business skills and is very good at seeing companies with great potential in the future, from here we can conclude that all business people must have a business that he started from scratch. besides that we will have a great sense of satisfaction when the business we started from zero grows well over time and also our relations are becoming more and more confident in our abilities in business.

It really depends because for me Franchising is good as long as they make a feasibility study for it. Creating your own brand is kinda hard, I must admit because I experienced it first hand, some people might not be successful like me to create their own but some people can do their brand well and that's good and really impressive to have a good branding. It really depends on your capacity and capability.

Deciding whether to start a business from scratch or purchase a setup and network can depend on the specific situation of each case. If the business has the ability to enter the market easily and does not require too much time and resources to set up, then creating from scratch can be the logical choice. However, in cases where it is more complicated or needs to build an existing relationship, buying a setup and network can make the go-to-market process easier.

Buying relationships and establishing already can save you time and effort in starting a business. This is especially important in areas that require established relationships and reputations.