Re: First time buyer - Gas station

"dabul" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Hello,
>
> I am planning on purchasing a gas station  by the middle or end of
> 2004 and thought about starting my research now and would appreciate
---snip---
Does the gas station/store exist? If so, get into their books and find out
gross sales for the last few years. Gross sales per year will start the
negotiation as to pricing since the rule of thumb for the purchase of an
existing business is yearly sales - not profit nor confusing accounting.
Also find out the market value of the property upon which it sits. This
would be your fallback position should the business fail the day you buy it.

If the business does not exist, study the demographics of the area. Go to
the census database and figure out the historical growth in population,
homes, cars, stores, etc and plot that growth to determine if there is or
will be a market for your entry into competition with existing gas/stores.

For an independent to own a gas/store you are facing highly sophisticated
computerized studies of every corner in the US by all kinds of giants. If
you have your eye on a corner and there is not gas/store you can bet that
somebody in Dallas or London or Timbuktu is looking at it too.

SBA loans usually require that you have been in business for over a year and
they will ask for you to put your home up as collateral for such a large
loan.

Wayne
See my son's exciting new business at www.rcsailcars.com