• Starting a business versus buying a business can be a challenging choice.business 2 image by Nathalie P from Fotolia.com
  
  If you are tired of having to report to someone else, be it your employer (who tells you how many hours you can or must work) or if you're a franchise owner (your corporate headquarters), then starting a business from scratch may be worth seriously considering. Beware, however, that you must have a solid business plan and you must possess a unique idea or product that will sell. Nevertheless, a start-up business does have its advantages.
  
  

Lower Start-Up Costs

• If you start a business yourself, you save a lot of money. According to the SME Toolkit website, these savings result from the absence of upfront costs that a franchise holder or broker may charge. A franchise will cost money to supply you with product to sell every week and corporate will pass these costs on to you. On the other hand, if you make your own widgets, newspapers, burgers or whatever, this totally cuts out the third party.
  
  

You're The Boss

• According to the Evan Carmichael website, as a start-up business, you are in control over every aspect of the business. Instead of having to follow a business model that may very well be proven, you can create your own. You control how many people you wish to hire and you control the work environment policies that they are to follow--except, of course, where the laws of the area are specific. For example, you decide whether your employees wear uniforms or not and what the hours of operation are.
  
  

You Choose Location

• If you wish to rent or buy a center from which to run your business, or do it at home--it's your choice. By choosing the latter option, you can make your overhead costs a lot less. Perhaps you may choose to become a street vendor. This may be a viable option if, for example, you wish to sell hamburgers or hot dogs. A fair caveat, however, would be to check with the laws for your state or municipality.
  
  

Clean Slate

• As the Evan Carmichael website points out, there is no history to overcome when starting your own business. When you buy into an existing business or franchise, you need to arm yourself with the details of the prior owner's profitability history and his debt. You need to research and ask questions about why he failed, and how his business incurred so much debt. In some instances, you may even become responsible for that other individual's debt.