There's something quite interesting happening right now I think with people looking to get into business at the moment. Starting your own company has always been the obvious route if you want to work for yourself, but buying a business that's already up and running is starting to look like a much more appealing option.
And when you think about it, why wouldn't it?
Starting from scratch means you've got to find something people actually want, get your first customers, build a reputation, work out how to market yourself and probably spend a fair bit of time wondering where the next bit of money is coming from. It can take years to get anywhere, assuming you get there at all.
Buying an existing business skips a lot of that early struggle - you've already got customers, you've got a product or service people are paying for, and there should be some money coming in. You're not spending the first year trying to convince people your business exists.
Of course, you're also paying for the privilege, and there's no guarantee the business will continue making money once you've taken over, but there's clearly an appetite for it.
According to research commissioned by Rathbones, 5,774 UK business ownership sales were recorded in 2025 - up from 3,393 in 2018. That's a pretty substantial increase to be fair over seven years, and the highest annual figure in the period covered by the research.
Now, that doesn't mean all these businesses are being snapped up by people who've decided they want to become entrepreneurs. There are trade sales, management buyouts and larger acquisitions included in those figures. But it does show that there's a healthy amount of activity around existing businesses changing hands.
And there are some good reasons why people are looking at this route.
You don't have to build everything from nothing
This is probably the biggest attraction.
Let's say you've spent 15 years working in management and have decided you've had enough of working for somebody else. You want your own business, but you don't particularly fancy spending the next three years trying to get a new idea off the ground.
You could buy a small company that's already making money, has a handful of employees and a decent customer base. You're immediately dealing with an actual business, not an idea that might or might not work.
There's a big difference between those two situations.
A local cleaning company, for example, might already have contracts with offices, landlords and commercial properties. An established plumbing business could have years of repeat customers and recommendations coming through. You might even be buying the phone number, website and reputation that somebody else has spent 20 years building.
That's worth something, as you could spend years trying to get the same number of customers yourself, and there's no guarantee you'd manage it.
It also gives you something to work with. Maybe the previous owner hasn't bothered updating the website, the marketing is practically non-existent or the business is still running everything through spreadsheets. If you've got the experience to sort those things out, there could be an opportunity to improve an already profitable company.
A lot of buyers are people who've had enough of working for somebody else
There's also some interesting research from the US that gives us a better idea of who's actually looking to buy a business.
A BizBuySell buyer survey published in 2026 found that 54% of prospective buyers had never owned a business before, while nearly half described themselves as corporate refugees - people who want to leave traditional employment and become business owners, with around 59% of those surveyed were between 40 and 59.
So we're not just talking about somebody in their twenties with a bright idea and a bit of money saved up. A lot of these people have spent years working for other companies, managing staff, dealing with customers and learning how businesses operate, and at some point, they decide they'd quite like to do it for themselves.
The survey also found that 46% wanted to leave their current job and gain more independence. Another 37% were attracted by the number of businesses available to buy, while 32% thought market conditions were favourable for buyers.
There are plenty of people who want to run a business but don't necessarily have a new product to launch or some clever idea they've been sitting on for years. They simply want to own something, make their own decisions and have a bit more control over their working lives.
Buying an existing company gives them a way to do that.
Boring businesses are suddenly looking quite attractive
There's certainly plenty of attention these days in particular around AI startups, technology companies and the next big online business, but a lot of people looking to buy an established company seem far more interested in something reliable.
BizBuySell's 2026 research into recession-resistant businesses found that 86% of prospective buyers were interested in stable, recession-resistant businesses. Around 70% were considering service businesses.
And I can understand that.
A commercial cleaning company might not be particularly exciting, but offices still need cleaning. Plumbers, electricians, pest control companies and property maintenance businesses aren't exactly glamorous, but there's usually a steady demand for their services.
The same goes for accountancy firms, specialist repair companies and other businesses that people and companies rely on - you certainly don't need to be chasing the next big trend if you've got a business bringing in regular customers and making a decent profit.
In fact, I'd argue that there's something quite appealing about buying a company that's been doing the same thing successfully for years. You're not trying to work out whether there's a market for it - you can see that there already is one.
That doesn't mean every boring business is a good investment, obviously. Some are badly run, some have very little profit left after expenses and others are far too dependent on the person selling them. But a business doesn't need to be exciting to be worth owning.
There are plenty of owners who are ready to sell
The other side of this is the people selling their companies.
Some have reached retirement age and don't have anybody in the family who wants to take over. Others have spent years running the business and simply want to do something else. And there are founders who have reached a point where growing the company any further just doesn't seem worth the effort.
A Dealsuite report on UK and Irish business sales, published in February 2026, found that age combined with a lack of succession was the main reason for business sales in its research, accounting for 41% of transactions.
That's quite an important part of the picture. There are established businesses out there with years of trading history, existing customers and staff, but no obvious person ready to take over, and that's where a buyer could come in.
The Rathbones research also points to the difficulties some UK founders face when trying to grow their companies - funding, regulation and rising costs can all make expansion harder, and some owners are deciding that selling is a better option than taking on even more responsibility.
It's not necessarily because the business has failed. Sometimes the owner has simply had enough, so for someone looking to buy, that could create opportunities - although you need to be careful about assuming every business being sold is a bargain waiting to be discovered.
The problem is knowing what you're actually buying
This is where things can get expensive, and sometimes, completely out of hand.
Buying an established business sounds like a shortcut, but you're also taking on everything that comes with it. That could include unhappy customers, staff problems, outstanding debts, expensive contracts, equipment that needs replacing and all sorts of things the seller might not be particularly keen to talk about.
And there's one problem that I think deserves more attention - what happens when the previous owner leaves?
Imagine buying a business that's been operating successfully for 25 years. It has a decent turnover, regular customers and a good reputation. Looks like a great opportunity. But then you discover that the previous owner personally handles most of the important customers, knows all the suppliers, brings in the majority of new work and basically keeps the whole operation together.
You haven't just bought a business. You've bought a business that might struggle without the person who was running it, which is exactly why looking at the accounts isn't enough. You need to understand where the money comes from, how dependent the company is on particular customers, whether staff are likely to stay and what the day-to-day operation actually involves.
The asking price is another issue. Some owners have completely unrealistic ideas about what their company is worth, particularly if they've spent decades building it. A business turning over £500,000 sounds great, but turnover tells you very little about how much money is actually left at the end of the year.
You need to look at profit, cash flow, debts, assets and future costs. And you'll want proper legal and financial advice before handing over a large amount of money.
Financing can be a problem too - in the US, the BizBuySell survey found that 78% of prospective buyers were considering Small Business Administration financing, while 70% would consider seller financing. Those figures relate to the American market, but they show how important funding arrangements can be when people are trying to buy an established company.
Is buying a business actually better than starting one?
I think it comes down to the individual.
If you've got a brilliant idea, know there's a market for it and don't have the money to buy an established company, starting from scratch could be the obvious choice. You've got complete control over what you're building, how you run it and where you want to take it.
But if you've got years of business experience, some money behind you and no particular desire to spend the next few years finding your first customers, buying an existing company starts to make a lot more sense.
You could be taking over something that's already profitable, with employees who know what they're doing and customers who have been using the business for years.
There are risks with both options. A startup can fail because nobody wants the product, while an established company can fall apart after a takeover because the buyer didn't understand what they were getting into.
Neither is a guaranteed route to making money, but for years, the usual story has been somebody coming up with an idea, starting a company and building it into something bigger. And there's nothing wrong with that, but it isn't the only way to own a business.
There are thousands of companies already operating that somebody will eventually want to sell. Some have been around for decades, have loyal customers and make a perfectly decent living for their owners. They might not be the sort of businesses that get written about in startup magazines, but that doesn't make them any less valuable.
If you've got the experience and money to buy one, taking over an established company could be a much quicker way into business ownership.
You don't get the excitement of saying you built the whole thing yourself, I suppose. But if the business is making money and gives you the freedom you've been looking for, does that really matter?
Sometimes the opportunity isn't in starting the next big thing. It's in buying something that's already working and seeing what you can do with it.
More articles to read:
How Much Does SaaS Advertising Cost? Google, LinkedIn & CAC Benchmarks
SaaS CAC Payback Period: How to Calculate It?
Larridin Raises $30M as Businesses Question Their AI Spending