This Issue: Many paths to entrepreneurial success

Information that can change your life from our free special report, The 10 Golden Rules for Buying a Business. 

If you spend any time on this blog, you'll soon catch the excitement about starting your own business. Entrepreneurship is so hot here, it's like a bonfire.

Today, I'd like to throw a new log onto that fire for you to consider. It's another kind of entrepreneurship: buying a business.

I've been buying and selling businesses all my life. I actually started my first when I was 12 and sold it when I was 13 - a true story. Since then, I have bought more than 10 businesses. I have started businesses too. Based on my experience, I know that buying a business offers a reliable, quick path to independence and wealth.

In future blog posts, I will give advice that you need to hear before buying a business. I'll cover negotiating your deal and offer other "hard advice." But today, let me give you a list of compelling reasons why buying a business, not starting one, can be your first step toward becoming a triumphant entrepreneur.

When you buy a business, you get these benefits:

• On your first day you own your business, a customer will probably call. That is a statement that very few people can make when starting business of their own.
• You get to review financial information about the business you will buy. That helps you decide whether to buy the business or not. But it serves other purposes too, such as showing you where you can improve operations or cut costs to generate greater profits.
• You can negotiate on price. There are many reasons why people sell businesses for reduced prices. Perhaps they want to retire. Perhaps they have started other businesses and need quick cash. Perhaps they simply like you and want to see you take over the businesses they built. You will be struck by how many bargains are available.
• Your dollar goes a lot farther. You save the costs of buying brand-new equipment, acquiring facilities, staffing up - and lots more. You get a lot more bang for your buck when buying a business.
• Your new business can be a platform for additional enterprises. Perhaps the seller sees his company as little more than an accounting firm. But you see that you can expand it into financial planning, investment counseling, lending, business consulting - and more. You're not just buying a business. You are getting a platform for new activities and remarkable success.

So should you buy a business? In coming weeks I will throw more logs on the fire to help you decide. Buying a business changed my life and I know that it will change yours too.

Richard Parker is author of the free special report, The 10 Golden Rules for Buying a Business. An authority on business acquisition, Richard is developing a soon-to-be-launched new home study course, The Art of Buying a Business for Trump University.

Wealth-generating secrets from our free special report, The 10 Golden Rules for Buying a Business

Owning a business is, without question, your best path to riches.

And buying an established and thriving business can be the quickest way to achieve that success. In today's business climate, buying a business can be a much better option than starting one from scratch or buying a franchise, where your upside may be severely restricted.

Before acquiring a business, you can review its past performance. You can negotiate on price. You will save on the costs of new equipment and staffing. On your first day of ownership, a customer will call. That's something you can never say about a new business you are starting.

Better yet, acquiring a successful business is well within your reach - probably a lot closer than you realize. All you need to do is properly prepare and educate yourself about business-buying processes and select a business that can flourish under your ownership.

When selecting a business, you need to keep these points in mind:

1. Your strongest skills must align with the driving factor of the sales and profits of any business you purchase.

2. A good business for you must be one that will thrive from your strengths and not suffer from your weaknesses.

3. When you are buying a business, don't pretend you are something you're not. It's OK to stretch the truth a bit in a job interview, but you can't afford to fool yourself when buying a business.

Those principles, and more, are explained in The 10 Golden Rules for Buying a Business, the free special report that we have prepared for you today. It can be your first step toward taking charge of your financial destiny and your life.

Recently, I happened to read about the 79-year-old grandmother in Atlanta who was convicted of killing her 85-year-old former boyfriend. Lena Sims Driskell was sentenced to life in prison for shooting Herman Winslow to death.

Lena said she killed Herman - her boyfriend of 14 months - because she was convinced he was cheating on her. According to media accounts, she shot him four times in the temple with an antique handgun. Holding the still-smoking murder weapon in her hand, she confessed to the police by saying, "I did it . . . and I'd do it again!"

Obviously, that made it a pretty open-and-shut case, so the jury had little problem reaching a verdict.

I guess there is truth to that expression: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."

There's a lesson to be learned here, men. When you cheat on a woman - even if she's a 79-year-old grandmother living in a nursing home - you could be literally taking your life into your own hands.

Are you sure it's worth it?

Donald. J. Trump, Chairman of Trump University, is featured in the Trump University's course, The Trump Way to Wealth.