Entrepreneurs with the desire to run a small business have two choices: start their own company or buy and run a company. Among the advantages of taking over an existing business: you don't have to birth the company, you just have to make it grow up. But Entrepreneur 's Jennifer Wang warns that you better buy a company that is healthy. Citing data from a Northeastern University study, Wang places the failure rate for purchasers hoping to turn around a struggling startup at 85%. Wang shares some valuable advice from a business matchmaker: Buying a profitable business, on the other hand, is another matter entirely. You've got cash flow from Day One, an established reputation and, if you're lucky, a seller who will help finance the deal, says Ted Leverette, president of "Partner" On-Call, a franchise based in North Palm Beach, Fla., that matches buyers with sellers of small and midsize businesses. Leverette has several baseline requirements for a business purchase. First, no matter how glowing the sales talk, don't buy anything that hasn't been profitable for the last five years--and that includes the Great Recession. "Absolutely don't buy anything that has an annual pretax net cash flow under $100,000," he says. "That's the smallest you want to go." Read the full article here .