Unlocking The Door To Success Take a shortcut to start-up by buying a turnkey business.

Getting Into Business for yourself doesn't necessarilyrequire building a company from scratch. If the thought ofnavigating your way through the start-up process is holding youback, consider taking the entrepreneurial plunge a different way:Buy an existing business.

This alternative route to business ownership has some advantagesworth considering. It allows you to bypass all the steps involvedin creating a business infrastructure, because the original ownerhas already done that. You can take over an operation that'salready generating cash flow and perhaps even profits. You'llhave a history on which to build your forecasts, and a future thatincludes an established customer base. And there's generallyless risk involved in buying an up-and-running operation than thereis in creating a whole new company.

"When you buy a business, you're buying something youcan touch, see, examine and evaluate," says David H. Troob,chairman of The Geneva Companies, a nationalmergers-and-acquisitions services firm in Irvine, California.