Filed under: Small business

Starting a business can take months — and can be pricey. Also, it’s tough to anticipate some of the problems. That’s why buying a business can be a good alternative.

So where do you get financing? Well, one approach is to get an Small Business Administration loan.

Basically, this is like any other business loan. However, the main difference is that the loan is guaranteed up to 85% from the SBA, which is a federal program. Because of this, there are usually advantages versus conventional loans, such as:

• Longer terms (10 years for the business, and 25 years if there is real estate involved).
• Lower interest rates (prime rate plus 2.25% to 2.75%)
• Lower down payments (20% to 30% or so). In fact, the down payment also includes seller financing.

OK, what does it take to get such a loan? Let’s take a look.

Credit History and Collateral. According to Scott Gabehart, the author of The Business Valuation Book (with CD-ROM): “You don’t need a perfect credit score. But it’s important that you don’t have personal bankruptcies and chargeoffs.”

He also states that collateral is a huge help. Some of the things you can use include are your 401(k), financial assets, and home (assuming there is equity).

Business Plan. “A business plan can be five to ten pages,” says Brian Carlson, who is the CEO of Excel National Bank in Beverly Hills. “I want to see cash flow projections and a strong understanding of the industry. For example, if you want to buy a Subway location and your business plan assumes a $15 average menu ticket, then there is a problem.”

Types of Businesses. For the most part, some businesses have more risk than others. That is, a restaurant has a fairly high default rate. Then again, a franchise restaurant is likely to be a much better bet.

Thus, it’s a good idea to do some research on various sectors.

Relevant Business Experience. Banks want to see that you have a good background with managing operations, hopefully in the industry you plan to buy a business in. If not, it’s a good idea to work in the industry for a few years.

Resources. Finally, you can get some helpful tools, such as business plan templates, from the SBA. What’s more, there are some good books about SBA loans, such as The SBA Loan Book: Get a Small Business Loan — Even with Poor Credit, Weak Collateral, and No Experience.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar On the web Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

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Filed under: Estates

The mysterious billionaire who just bought the world’s most costly home - the $750 million Villa Leopolda (above) on the French Riviera - is none other than controversial Russian precious metals mogul Mikhail Prokhorov, the AFP reports. Luxist readers might remember Prokhorov as the over-the-top tycoon who announced plans in April to spend $150 million launching a magazine for snobs in Russia, called simply Snob. Prokhorov is ranked as the 24th richest man in the world with a $22 billion fortune. Some earlier reports had erroneously identified the villa’s buyer as Roman Abramovich. Last year Prokhorov was briefly detained during an investigation into a suspected prostitution ring at the ritzy ski resort he frequents in the French Alps.

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Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

Just when I was despairing of finding a fun celebrity home to dish about this Sunday, the Real Estalker Mama delivered with the news that infamous porn goddess Jenna Jameson has put her Los Angeles home on the market. Jameson’s three-bedroom home is a sweet little piece of Los Angeles history, a Spanish style charmer that was a former Valentino family home.

The multi-story Mediterranean is a quirky mix of California casual with some of the more bold choices you might expect from a woman with a reputation to uphold such as a bordello-red loo and a media room with black striped walls, a zebra striped ottoman and sliding glass doors leading out to the courtyard spa. There’s much to love here including the tiled staircases, gleaming hardwood floors and beamed ceilings. It also must be noted that she has one impressive shoe collection in her massive dressing room. But the home does seem to be one of those hillside homes that gives you stairs at ever turn, stairs to the entrance and the home has a piecey multilevel vibe. Not great as a family home.

Jameson must be in a hurry to move (there is that pregnancy rumor after all) because she’s put the home on the market for the same price she paid in 2006, $2.7 million.
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Continue reading Jenna Jameson Slept Here, Estate of the Day

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Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

From the LA Times Hot Property:
–NBC This day Show travel editor Peter S. Greenberg has listed his home in Sherman Oaks for $2.395 million.
–Emmy winning director Todd Holland and actor Scotch Ellis Loring have sold the Studio City house that’s been their temporary home for the last two years while they were remodeling their principal Mulholland Drive residence for $1.66 million. The buyers are songwriter Pamela Sheyne and her husband, Nigel Rush.
–Irwin Yablans, an executive producer of the original “Halloween,”has listed his Hollywood Hills home, shown above, for $2.95 million. The property website for the three-bedroom, 4 1/2 -bathroom traditional home near the Sunset Strip is here.
A hilltop vintage Spanish villa in the Highland Park area of Los Angeles owned by French artist Sylvain Copon has hit the market for $1.899 million. The home, which was built in 1939 has four bedrooms and is full of charming details such as and-hewed wood beams, bronze window screens, an octagonal breakfast room and is decorated with over 800 Batchelder tiles. The property website is here.

From Newsday Real LI:
–An Upper Brookville, NY home used in the filming of Gossip Girl is on the market for $12.9 million. It was our estate of the day on Friday.
–James Seuss, the chief executive of Cole Haan has put his four-bedroom getaway home on Shelter Island on the market for $1.485 million. The listing is here.

From the Real Estalker:
–Jenna Jameson has put her Hollywood Hills home on the market. It’s our estate of the day later today.

From the Wall Street Journal’s Private Properties:
–Earlier this year, Roman Abramovich spent almost $50 million for two houses in Snowmass, Colorado, now another wealthy Russian, energy tycoon Eugene Shvidler has paid $14.5 million for a house in the same town.
–In nearby Aspen, a mansion has sold for $20.75 million to a Greenwich, Conn., family, making it one of the biggest buys in the area recently. You could state they got a deal though, after all the house was listed at $27.5 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day last year.
–Baseball player Mike Piazza has put his condo in the the Murano at Portofino development in the South Beach area of Miami, Florida on the market for $4.9 million. The listing is here.

From the NY Post’s Gimme Shelter:
–NY Yankees Alex Rodriguez is in negotiations to buy a four-bedroom unit at 15 Central Park West.
–Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter have sold two apartments in the vintage 27-story Art Deco tower at 1 Fifth Ave. in Greenwich Village that had a combined assking price of $8.75 million.
–Chef Thomas Keller has closed on a new condo two years after signing a contract at 20 Pine St. He aid $1.46 million for a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment in the Armani-decorated former Chase Manhattan Bank building.
–Male model Tyson Ballou is taking one of the first apartments in the Charles, a planned 34-story condo with 45 units at 1355 First Ave. Ballou is rumored to be buying a two-bedroom with a terrace priced in the vicinity of $2.5 million.

From the Luxury Property Blog:
–Kenneth Brown, star of HGTV’s reDesign, has listed his loft in The Broadway Hollywood building for $1.899 million. He designed the pad himself and you can check out his work on the two-bedroom space at the listing here.

From the NY Observer’s Manhattan Transfers:
–Ren

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