Increased California Business For Sale Deals In 2013, Noted by BizBen Index, A Positive Sign For 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

CONTACT: Peter Siegel, BizBen.com

petersiegel@bizben.com | 866-270-6278

Increased California Business For Sale Deals In 2013, Noted by BizBen Index, A Positive Sign For 2014

Dublin, CA - The total of 14,764 completed deals involving California business for sale offerings in 2013 exceeds the count of 14,368 sales of small and mid-sized businesses in the state the year before, according to the BizBen Index. The company also said the rate of business sales last month was up about six percent, to 1,403 deals, compared to 1,322 transactions posted the prior December.

"The upward trend in business sales is a positive indication for 2014, suggesting we'll see continued expansion of California’s business for sale market,” said Peter Siegel, MBA , Founder and President of BizBen.com, parent of the BizBen Index. "There are a number of factors contributing to the growth, including easier access to borrowed purchase money and smarter strategies being employed by buyers of small businesses."

But Siegel noted "While last year's sales rate was the best in four years, the level of activity still falls substantially below the number of business transfers recorded up until 2008, when a total of 21,689 restaurants, gas stations, retail stores and many other kinds of small and mid-market California companies changed hands. The difference is that finding and buying a business is more difficult in the New Economy than was the case before the mortgage meltdown, the banking crisis and the recession."

"Only one in five people looking for a business to buy in California will succeed. That’s in spite of the fact that thousands of baby boomer business owners are interested in selling out so they can retire. Buyers who beat the 4-to-1odds are learning to find good offerings among the 70% of the California businesses for sale that are not being promoted publicly. And successful buyers are not among those waiting for a great opportunity to appear. Instead, they're pushing their "brand" with Internet tools such as the ProBuy Program at BizBen.com."

Siegel said a "healthy business for sale market is critical for a booming economy. Many California businesses are energized and expanded by new owners. That translates to increased sales and job growth." He said his recently released ebook Buying a California Business in the New Economy details the strategies that entrepreneurs have used to "graduate from looking to actually owning a solid business."

Mixed Results for Largest Counties

A count of 4,053 businesses were sold in Los Angeles County last year, a 7.85% increase from the 3,758 total sales recorded in the county during 2012. Other large counties recording an increase in business transfers last year were San Diego County with 1,336 deals vs. 1,225 in 2012 and San Francisco, with 582 transactions, a 17% increase from the 497 completed sales the previous year. Year to year declines were posted in Sacramento County, dropping from 481 to 433 sales in 2012 and Santa Clara County which saw 671 deals last year, off by 8.33% from the 732 transactions closed in 2012.

Sales totals posted by California county over the last nine years are available at: http://www.bizben.com/stats/stats-total.php

The county totals recorded last month, available at  http://www.bizben.com/stats/stats-monthly-dec.php, are as follows:

Alameda: 46, Amador: 3,Butte: 1, Contra Costa: 30, El Dorado: 8, Fresno: 38, Humboldt: 6, Imperial: 3, Kern: 30, Lassen: 1, Los Angeles: 406, Marin: 6, Mendocino: 1, Merced: 13, Mono: 3, Monterey: 10, Napa: 8, Nevada: 6, Orange: 140, Placer: 15, Plumas: 1, Riverside: 56, Sacramento: 30, San Bernardino: 63, San Diego: 128, San Francisco: 66, San Joaquin: 25, San Luis Obispo: 28, San Mateo: 34, Santa Barbara: 13, Santa Clara: 60, Santa Cruz: 8, Shasta: 2, Siskiyou: 1, Solano: 8, Sonoma: 23, Stanislaus: 15, Sutter: 7, Tulare: 20, Tuolumne: 4, Ventura: 33, Yolo: 2

The BizBen.com Index has been collecting and reporting information about California small to m-mid-sized business sales for over 16 years.

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