How Do I Sell My Website Business?

[Splatercash]

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post so please move the thread if it's not.

I'll try and keep this short and sweet. In 2012 I build a little website in the Bi-Folding Doors niche, which was the top of page 1 in Google the search term "Bi-Folding Doors Scotland". Initially, I partnered with a supplier in England and acted as their Scottish sales agent. The website brought in leads and I made some sales and commissions.

It's never been anything more than a side hustle really. I've now slipped towards the bottom of page 1 and, until recently, was using a new supplier on a similar basis. I'm at the stage where I'd rather fully automate revenue from the site or, better yet, just sell it and move on.

The problem is, I don't know how to sell it or value it. It's a bit of a weird situation insomuch that the website itself doesn't generate turnover or profit and - mostly because I've been engaged in other things - I've not generated much income from the leads provided in recent years.

However, the aforementioned search term gets 260 searches a month and the site is pulling 714 unique users per annum (down 50% compared to 2018/19 when it was higher on page 1). People still regularly complete the quotation request form and the domain has 8 years of solid white-hat SEO based domain authority. The average order value on a sale of an aluminum bi-folding door set is in the order of £4-5,000 so the leads/sales that can be generated by the site can be lucrative for a company/person that poised to actually make use of them.

I guess the ideal "purchaser" would be a company that can supply and fit bi-folding doors throughout Scotland but currently doesn't rank well for the search term. By building out a new site they could probably capture 100s of leads per year they otherwise would miss.

All in all, I'm a little lost as to what to do. As you can hopefully see, the website doesn't really fit into the model of most "websites for sale" so I'm not sure what to do with it. Suggestions/advice welcome.

 

[Mr D]

Its value is zero.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Contact a company that can supply and fit bi-folding doors throughout Scotland and offer them to buy it for £500. You would be lucky to get that money but low asking price might be enough to get some interest. I can buy aged domains for under £100

 

[intheTRADE]

What is the actual domain?

 

[Splatercash]

I'm not allowed to post links until 30 posts. If you search, "Goval Bi Folds" the domain will come up top

 

[Clinton]

The average order value on a sale of an aluminum bi-folding door set is in the order of £4-5,000 so the leads/sales that can be generated by the site can be lucrative for a company/person that poised to actually make use of them.

No.

As is not uncommon with people who own sites like yours - you're looking at the big numbers and ignoring the small ones.

#1 ranking in Google gets, what, 30% clicks?

Bottom of first page gets, what, 1% clickthrough?

260 searches a month, or 3120 for the year, gets 31 visitors to the site.

What percentage of visitors go ahead and make an enquiry? 10% would be massive?

But let's go with 10%.

So, that's 3 for the year. Maybe.

How many enquiries convert to sales? 1 in 50? 1 in 10?

Even assume one in 10 - your traffic over three years generates one, solitary customer who generates them £1000 in profit.

All the above with a big MAYBE.

Let's say £300 a year is their total benefit from your site. Why would they bother paying you, taking the site over, dealing with all the hassle of owning a site and maintaining it, paying for SEO to not lose the ranking .... in order to get that kind of chicken feed?

 

[Splatercash]

No.

As is not uncommon with people who own sites like yours - you're looking at the big numbers and ignoring the small ones.

#1 ranking in Google gets, what, 30% clicks?

Bottom of first page gets, what, 1% clickthrough?

260 searches a month, or 3120 for the year, gets 31 visitors to the site.

What percentage of visitors go ahead and make an enquiry? 10% would be massive?

But let's go with 10%.

So, that's 3 for the year. Maybe.

How many enquiries convert to sales? 1 in 50? 1 in 10?

Even assume one in 10 - your traffic over three years generates one, solitary customer who generates them £1000 in profit.

All the above with a big MAYBE.

Let's say £300 a year is their total benefit from your site. Why would they bother paying you, taking the site over, dealing with all the hassle of owning a site and maintaining it, paying for SEO to not lose the ranking .... in order to get that kind of chicken feed?

While that's great in theory from your perspective looking in. It doesn't align with my perspective of actually owning the site for 8-years. I still regularly get enquiries every month through the "get quote" form. In fact, it's those enquiries that prompted this as I've been declining to quote for over 6 months which is wasteful of my time and also the person filling out the form.

 

[Mr D]

While that's great in theory from your perspective looking in. It doesn't align with my perspective of actually owning the site for 8-years. I still regularly get enquiries every month through the "get quote" form. In fact, it's those enquiries that prompted this as I've been declining to quote for over 6 months which is wasteful of my time and also the person filling out the form.

Enquiries are nice. But they are not sales.

 

[Splatercash]

Enquiries are nice. But they are not sales.

No, but they were when I actually quoted, followed up, closed, etc.

By that logic McDonalds UK had no value in April because they weren't making sales of burgers in the UK.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

year; I have the analytics up right now and it got 714 last year. You assume it takes 3-years to generate 1 customer. I've sold over 10 jobs in the last 3 years with no follow-up, uncompetitive pricing, poor sales technique, and literally zero USP.

I was wrong £500 was too much. Based on those numbers start with £100

 

[STDFR33]

What sort of figure did you have in mind?

 

[Splatercash]

What sort of figure did you have in mind?

I honestly don't have one. It would have to be something that's worth the hassle of speaking to a seller, figuring out terms, arranging the transfer, etc. Someone said £100 at some point but that's nowhere near worth my time to do anything other than just delete the website and let the URL expire.

 

[Mr D]

I honestly don't have one. It would have to be something that's worth the hassle of speaking to a seller, figuring out terms, arranging the transfer, etc. Someone said £100 at some point but that's nowhere near worth my time to do anything other than just delete the website and let the URL expire.

So what is worth your time to do anything?

You've established £100 is not. So 10 times higher? 20? 50?

 

[Splatercash]

Well, from my main job I make around £100 an hour so I guess if it takes 5h to market, sell and transfer it would be £500 or £1,000 for 10h. I have no idea what's actually involved as I've never sold a website or URL before and, in any event, it's only worth what a) someone is willing to pay based on b) the value they can see it in.

 

[UKSBD]

I've a similar business/website
Set up for what was a niche product, a bit cheaper £300 - £600 occasional up to £2k

I used to drop ship, never really full time as I was still working initially and then always doing other stuff, early 2000's I was earning £500 to £700 a week from it, had potential to make a lot more but I never really set it up as well as I should have done

I doubt I'd have sold it if someone offered me £30k

A few years later it wasn't quite so nice, cheaper imports were everywhere, a few really good competitors joined the market. I was still making reasonable money though for time I was spending on it

A few years later, the product started to appear in Google Shopping, more people were using AdWords, because I was only drop shipping I couldn't control prices and my products were no longer competitive, rankings dropped to mid/lower 1st page.

It still just about makes enough now to pay all the business expenses and a small wage.
Probably not worth £100 now though

Annoying thing is, it still gets over 200 unique visitors a day, most are looking for information though and when they are looking for products mine are just too expensive.

Thing is, although it's probably not even worth £100 I still doubt I would sell if someone offered me £10k

You're probably in similar situation, no one will pay you what you would sell it for.

 

[Splatercash]

I've a similar business/website
Thing is, although it's probably not even worth £100 I still doubt I would sell if someone offered me £10k

I can see you relate. That's exactly how I feel. I'm not daft, I can see that the potential marketplace for it is so small that is has little to no value and yet it's simply not worth me selling it for £100. I'd trip over a sale in the next year that would make me £600-800 just by quoting the leads and never following up. It put's me in this weird position where I don't want to sell it for less than I'd make in one sale but I also don't want to see or deal with any emails from the site or even have it as a feature in my "mental space".

I probably just need to cut it loose have a wee cry [figuratively] and concentrate on my other businesses/work.

 

[UKSBD]

I just let mine tick over.

The running costs are minimal; hosting, domain reg, insurance, accountants fees is less than £1k a year and I can still make that in a week with a couple of good orders.

Every now and then I'll spend a few hours tweaking and updating the website but I enjoy doing things like that, plus I drop links to other sites I'm working on at the same time and use it for testing out new ideas

I might have to answer the phone a few times a week, reply to a few emails and my daughter puts in 10 hours a week helping out.

As long as it earns enough to pay all my expenses and covers my daughters wage I'll just let it tick over.

If it ever gets to the stage where it isn't making enough to cover outgoings then I'll have to decide on what to do.

 

[intheTRADE]

It put's me in this weird position where I don't want to sell it for less than I'd make in one sale but I also don't want to see or deal with any emails from the site or even have it as a feature in my "mental space".

Would you consider letting some run and manage the website whislt retaining ownership and taking a % of converted sales?

 

[Porky]

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post so please move the thread if it's not.

I'll try and keep this short and sweet. In 2012 I build a little website in the Bi-Folding Doors niche, which was the top of page 1 in Google the search term "Bi-Folding Doors Scotland". Initially, I partnered with a supplier in England and acted as their Scottish sales agent. The website brought in leads and I made some sales and commissions.

It's never been anything more than a side hustle really. I've now slipped towards the bottom of page 1 and, until recently, was using a new supplier on a similar basis. I'm at the stage where I'd rather fully automate revenue from the site or, better yet, just sell it and move on.

The problem is, I don't know how to sell it or value it. It's a bit of a weird situation insomuch that the website itself doesn't generate turnover or profit and - mostly because I've been engaged in other things - I've not generated much income from the leads provided in recent years.

However, the aforementioned search term gets 260 searches a month and the site is pulling 714 unique users per annum (down 50% compared to 2018/19 when it was higher on page 1). People still regularly complete the quotation request form and the domain has 8 years of solid white-hat SEO based domain authority. The average order value on a sale of an aluminum bi-folding door set is in the order of £4-5,000 so the leads/sales that can be generated by the site can be lucrative for a company/person that poised to actually make use of them.

I guess the ideal "purchaser" would be a company that can supply and fit bi-folding doors throughout Scotland but currently doesn't rank well for the search term. By building out a new site they could probably capture 100s of leads per year they otherwise would miss.

All in all, I'm a little lost as to what to do. As you can hopefully see, the website doesn't really fit into the model of most "websites for sale" so I'm not sure what to do with it. Suggestions/advice welcome.

Google is in the business of selling keywords, it likes to rank businesses for certain keyword sets so they get use to a certain number of free referrals and then shuffle its algorithm so they then need to start paying google.

It also likes to cap traffic levels for keywords and will do this by changing the results sets shown from different data centres. In one you are rank 5 and in another you drop to 12 it’s not constant and it’s not guaranteed again it’s to drive you towards pay per click advertising.

I know this for fact because I have done “white hat” seo to get sites to rank for prime keywords and the saying “make hay whilst the sun shines” is never truer for sites ranking top of the SERPS in google.

Armed with this knowledge I would not buy your website in a million years as in another weeks time it could be page 20 or nowhere to be seen however that is not to say that someone else might want it.

The obvious place to try would be the company you sent the most referrals to last year? You could say to them that last year your website was referring x to them, you are consolidating your interests and would they be interested in buying it? Frankly, anything you got offered I would take - let’s face it you are selling it now because it’s not returning the referrals it once was?

It’s either that or continue to draw affiliate income from referrals until it ultimately stops ranking and it becomes more hassle to administer than it’s worth and it’s lights out. Kind of sounds like you are fast approaching that point now?

Good luck

 

[Darren_Ssc]

If your site is making a small amount of money then that is what it is worth to you. To someone else, the £100 figure you mentioned before is about right.

Realistically, how much effort would it take to duplicate what you're already doing and move on from there? The fact you can save someone that small effort isn't worth the premium you are thinking of.

Sorry if that is harsh but you'll make more money by doing nothing.

 

[Splatercash]

Google is in the business of selling keywords, it likes to rank businesses for certain keyword sets so they get use to a certain number of free referrals and then shuffle its algorithm so they then need to start paying google.

It also likes to cap traffic levels for keywords and will do this by changing the results sets shown from different data centres. In one you are rank 5 and in another you drop to 12 it’s not constant and it’s not guaranteed again it’s to drive you towards pay per click advertising.

I know this for fact because I have done “white hat” seo to get sites to rank for prime keywords and the saying “make hay whilst the sun shines” is never truer for sites ranking top of the SERPS in google.

Armed with this knowledge I would not buy your website in a million years as in another weeks time it could be page 20 or nowhere to be seen however that is not to say that someone else might want it.

The obvious place to try would be the company you sent the most referrals to last year? You could say to them that last year your website was referring x to them, you are consolidating your interests and would they be interested in buying it? Frankly, anything you got offered I would take - let’s face it you are selling it now because it’s not returning the referrals it once was?

It’s either that or continue to draw affiliate income from referrals until it ultimately stops ranking and it becomes more hassle to administer than it’s worth and it’s lights out. Kind of sounds like you are fast approaching that point now?

Good luck

I can see that being true for more competitive keyword terms with more of a global interest and I don't question your experience, but it doesn't align with my experience building more local sites going after more local terms. This website has been on page 1 pretty consistently for 8 years and IMHO the only reason it has slipped rankings is that the competition has grown/improved and I've done nothing. My other business website (again, a local business) has been top of page 1 organic for the relevant search term for 3 years. I notice this with most "local businesses". If I search "plumber in Edinburgh" today I'd be confident the top 5 listings will all be on page 1, likely be in the top 5 and possibly in the same order 12 months from now. Just my experience.

 

[Splatercash]

Would you consider letting some run and manage the website whislt retaining ownership and taking a % of converted sales?

Yes definitely, it solves the problem of getting some form of revenue with little to no ongoing commitment of time.

 

[LanceUk]

Let me get this straight.. You have a website - looks OK, is falling down the search rankings.. when you work on it, it can generate a little bit of cash.. but not enough to warrant you working on it.. or giving up your job/contract and you want someone else to pay for it? I may have missed something in the posts, but turn it around. Say I have this great web site that as slipped down the rankings, not generating any cash, could generate a decent passive income but for the few hours, I can't be bothered doing it because I earn c. £100/hr. And, it is essentially a referrer to one supplier, who no doubt has their own online marketing - and if not and not intending to - will probably go bust in the not too distant future.

Would you buy my website - honest, it will take a lot less work to get the £ rolling in than yours?

Of course you would.... not..

Although, I hope you prove me wrong...

Unlike Clinton I think certain one man bands can be a good buy... for real money.. but never on a WIWO basis and always with strings attached before anything more than a small token of cash to show I am genuine parts my account. One vendor had to wait three years for his money and I can always walk at any time without further obligation.

 

[The Byre]

I'm a little perplexed as to how this all became so complicated/bordering on personal. Reading LanceUK's post, I find myself having to reflect on yesterday to figure out if I've done wrong in the world. Did I wake up with some evil scheme to rip someone off or sell them a dud website?

A business is worth its equity plus a factor of profit minus risk.

You asked at the beginning "What is my website worth?"

It has zero equity. It has zero profit. The Google ranking can only really be counted towards equity if it is in a mainstream field and for one or two words for a major industry or mainstream activity.

Looked at in the cold light of day, your question was a silly one! That is why you got the responses that you did get.

 

[fisicx]

@Splatercash - put a bit of effort onto the site and start passing on those leads to the service provider. You can then demonstrate an income for the business.

As has already been said, the website itself is worthless. It's the income from the site that matters. If you can show you earn X per month as a passive income just from the leads you might find someone willing to pay a couple of hundred for it.

 

[LanceUk]

But that is the issue. If Splatercash wants someone to splashthecash (I made a funny!), then is the amount of cash they are willing to splash going to be worth his effort? I had a look at the website and it is, to me, not a bad site.. I think someone else mentioned that it may be worth pedalling it to a bifold door company that hasn't yet got a web presence.

It didn't look like is a responsive web site, but for Bi-folds, I wouldn't think that was a big issue. If I were a bifold company just starting out, I would fork out £100 for it... maybe... Depends on what fiverr is charging...

 

[socktorelS]

If it has potential why are you thinking of selling it? if you don't have time hire someone and split the revenue.

If you really want to sell it, there are other forums that has listings for, domains, business, etc.

 

[Mr D]

If it has potential why are you thinking of selling it? if you don't have time hire someone and split the revenue.

If you really want to sell it, there are other forums that has listings for, domains, business, etc.

Pretty much every small business people think of selling has potential.
To get money from that potential however means someone has to do something - a seller who implements the potential they can see can make the business worth more to others.

Its also an extremely overused word in business selling.

 

[Lee Oakley]

"Bi-Folding Doors Scotland".

I'm at the stage where I'd rather fully automate revenue from the site or, better yet, just sell it and move on.

I've not generated much income from the leads provided in recent years.

The average order value on a sale of an aluminum bi-folding door set is in the order of £4-5,000 so the leads/sales that can be generated by the site can be lucrative for a company/person that poised to actually make use of them.

I guess the ideal "purchaser" would be a company that can supply and fit bi-folding doors throughout Scotland but currently doesn't rank well for the search term.

Hi, I've outlined above some parts of your original post that I feel could use some context and perhaps in doing so, steer the post this back on topic.

SEO
In terms of ranking, "Bi-Folding Doors Scotland" is not a barrier to entry.

Looking at the competition on Google page 1, 2 and 3, even a half decent SEO such as myself could get a brand new website on page 1 in a couple of months, or move some of the sites that are currently lower down (that have potential) up from page 2 or 3 in far less time.

Note: A client of mine was testing the water with "flush german windows" "flush windows" and "bi-fold doors" etc as he sells German kitchens and thought about expanding into conservatories, windows and doors as a complete project.

I mocked up a draft version of a website, didnt do any real SEO, and got page 1 result in two months.

The site doesnt even have any links. It even has a page two result for things like "sovereign composite doors". That was just 2-3 hours of my time to put the site together from a migration of an existing site structure I had been using for the client, strip out the old content and add the new (windows&doors) content.

Sell to an existing company?
An existing company whom already does bi-folds but not in Scotland, and has a good ranking website could in theory (if the demand in Scotland warranted it) add a new page, for example their-website.co.uk/Bi-Folding-Doors-Scotland and could rank on page 1 in a matter of a week or two, such is the light competition for that search term.

Light competition in an established market usually indicates low volume due to a small / niche market with low demand.

High value / low volume can be attractive but at £4500 order value, once or twice a year, (on your site) or for those higher up page 1, perhaps 5-10 orders a month (with £500 profit or so each) it is not high value enough to attract a buyer (imho) as an established company would simply add a page to their existing website and get the result quicker and cheaper by paying their web guy for a couple hours.

Given the low volume / low competition you may spend more time searching for that elusive buyer than you would need to spend on your website to improve its results.

If you did it before, chances are, your time could see it improve again. More leads means more potential?

If automating it requires time you are not willing to put in, selling it is unlikely to satisfy the value you place on the time to date you have put into it thus far, then perhaps keep the site and strike up a deal with a supplier/fitter and sell them the leads?

Let them quote and do the work and you get whatever rate you negotiate for selling the lead and forwarding on the email or more if the order goes forward?

But at £500 or so profit per order, a couple of times a year, the rate maybe minimal, if anyone is willing.

But at least it will give you some real world data to validate or reject the 'potential value' idea you have and give you an indication of how to proceed from there.

best of luck, whatever you decide!

 

[MOIC]

@Aniela

You've been on this forum for a couple of weeks and you've managed to slag off in very undiplomatic language some UKBF 'notable' contributors.

Some of your posts are informative, but you have a slant on criticising posters who you do not share their point of view, which is fine, but you go too far in my book.

Are you truly whiter than white and smell of roses from every orifice?

What's your main purpose of joining this forum - it's a genuine question?

My guess is that you'll hide behind your 'I live life perfectly and so should everyone else' attitude.

Please prove me wrong, but I doubt you will.

Being anonymous suits people fine, what's your reason?

 

[MOIC]

I'd value the 'website business' at £100 - £200 max.

I would keep it and devote 1 spare hour a week to get orders to squeeze what you can out of it.

Show some real earnings for 2 years, then start thinking on 'selling the website/business'.

 

[Porky]

I can see that being true for more competitive keyword terms with more of a global interest and I don't question your experience, but it doesn't align with my experience building more local sites going after more local terms. This website has been on page 1 pretty consistently for 8 years and IMHO the only reason it has slipped rankings is that the competition has grown/improved and I've done nothing. My other business website (again, a local business) has been top of page 1 organic for the relevant search term for 3 years. I notice this with most "local businesses". If I search "plumber in Edinburgh" today I'd be confident the top 5 listings will all be on page 1, likely be in the top 5 and possibly in the same order 12 months from now. Just my experience.

Hi again,

Self fulfilling prophecy;

If the keyword value was greater/ in higher demand the site would be worth more but equally Google would shift you down the serps and into adwords quicker than you could say “where’s my website”. The fact that you are making “hay whilst the sun shines” pushing non competitive terms on local searches doesn’t offer any guarantees to a potential buyer as they have zero control over future visitor clicks. Historic traffic is well Historic, tomorrow could be different. Should google at any point decide it wants to squeeze a bit more revenue out of local low value click traffic, watch out.

Because it is low value traffic someone in that space could bid on those keywords if they were so inclined fairly cheaply without the need to buy your site and have the associated hassle of running it. I think the situation here is that you “think” the website is worth far more than it actually is? It’s already starting to fall in the SERPS and you realise time is running out for it hence why you would like to sell it?

Sorry to say, but I think this will just run it’s course until you switch the site off and that’s because any offer, if you did get one, won’t be enough against your perceived value,

Good Luck

 

[Porky]

Hi Clinton,

You raise the point:-

While I agree with your point that the OP's keyword is hardly a competitive one, I'm not sure that Google shift you down the SERPs just to sell you Google Ads

Let me rephrase that; what I mean is that he will have his work cut out, updating his site, writing blogs, posting on social media adding content, links, fully maintaining the seo of the site in order to rank and maintain positions. He admitted himself he doesn’t have the time to maintain that site and let it slide.

However, Even with doing that work Google can still shuffle the serps. It’s easy to rank for lower value keyword strings You can maintain that if the site is your primary business that you spend time updating. it’s also possible to hold high value positions for a few select strings but not all of them indefinitely. The more strings you want to rank number 1 for the harder the job becomes. Google WILL move adjust the SERPS and deliver variations at different data centres on higher value keyword strings to effectively force sites into buying Adwords to maintain the same traffic levels. I have seen this loads and loads of times.i know what I’m talking about Clinton.

Finally, in your own case, you are the perceived authority for the term “business brokers” because the term is in your domain name AND more importantly you have lots of rich updated content on the subject on your website and you have lots of social media content and links on topics about business. Further even your posts here at UKBF contain rich links to your site so you are linking from a site with “Business” in its domain, that’s about business to your own site about “business” again endorsing why you are the perceived authority for the keyword Business Brokers. If tomorrow you wanted to also rank 1 for say “Mergers” or “Acquisitions” you would have to put the spade work in AND more importantly constantly maintain it.

 

[Clinton]

Google WILL move adjust the SERPS and deliver variations at different data centres on higher value keyword strings to effectively force sites into buying Adwords to maintain the same traffic levels. I have seen this loads and loads of times.i know what I’m talking about Clinton.

I can't say for sure whether Google is doing it in some industries or not, but in the terms I monitor on sites I own (not just the business broker site), I'm not seeing any change in my #1 rankings despite not using Google Ads.

Like I said, I'm not a Google fanboy. I've been heavily critical of them in the past, but I haven't seen them play this particular game.

The term business brokers itself doesn't deliver that much traffic. It's highly competitive but lacking in serious volume. It probably accounts for just 1% or 2% of my organic traffic. Maybe Google doesn't fiddle the SERPs on this because the term doesn't have volume. I don't know.

Let me rephrase that; what I mean is that he will have his work cut out, updating his site, writing blogs, posting on social media adding content, links, fully maintaining the seo of the site in order to rank and maintain positions.

You'll get no argument from me there.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

Google WILL move adjust the SERPS and deliver variations at different data centres on higher value keyword strings to effectively force sites into buying Adwords to maintain the same traffic levels. .

Have you considered that results for high traffic search terms between data centres will sometimes vary for other reasons than the conspiracy you are suggesting?

 

[gpietersz]

I do not think Google is changing the SERPS to encourage people to buy ads.

What they are doing is putting ads (and other things) above the SERPS which means a first place is not as visible for commercial searches.

Take @Clinton 's ranking for "business brokers". A few years ago it would have meant he appeared right at the top of the page. Now, what I see is:

1. Between two and four ads (together with the header) take up most of what is left of space above the fold
2. Then comes a map
3. Then come some local search results
4. Then comes Clinton's site

I do not think the map and local results require payment for this search, but for some searches (e.g. hotels) you can buy a higher ranking.

Have you considered that results for high traffic search terms between data centres will sometimes vary for other reasons than the conspiracy you are suggesting?

and vary between countries, locations, and be personalised.

For many searches I get results in my village first, even when not logged with cookies deleted.

 

[Clinton]

Given the low volume / low competition you may spend more time searching for that elusive buyer than you would need to spend on your website to improve its results.

Exactly. But people struggle to see this.

I was quoted this week in a Growth Business magazine article (link) as saying, “The biggest mistake small business owners make is believing they have something of huge value when (the business) may have little or no value at all."

I've been saying that in UKBF for ages. Really small businesses usually ain't worth nothing, and this one isn't even as big as a really small business. However, the perennial problem remains which is, as I stated in the above article, how do you tell a new mum that her baby is ugly? There is just no good way to say it. Sometimes I trythis approach. It doesn't seem to work very well.

 

[Maxwell83]

All in all, I'm a little lost as to what to do. As you can hopefully see, the website doesn't really fit into the model of most "websites for sale" so I'm not sure what to do with it. Suggestions/advice welcome.

I was in a very similar position to you not long ago. The first business I started in 2012 was in a weird niche. I built a website from scratch and all my business was generated from leads from the site. A lead that converted to a client was worth around £1k on average. In its glory days, I was doing enough business to make about £100k a year in profit. It required most of my time though, and a level of specialism that made it inappropriate for most people to be able to get into.

In 2016, I started another business which was more profitable and which I preferred. I lost interest in the first one and shifted my focus.

I let the business just wind down naturally, but I didn't take the website down. An employee from a 'competitor' got my number from a mutual associate in the industry and called to ask to buy the site - it still generated leads and he was going to start up on his own. We agreed £2k and the deal was done.

Regardless of how much I could have made if I put my time into the business, I was just not willing to do that anymore, so to me personally the site had no value other than what I could sell it for. For him, on the other hand it was a shortcut into generating leads and the work had been done already.

If you can find that one person who just happens to need that right now, it will have some value to them. Not mega bucks, but better than a kick in the teeth at least.

 

[Alan]

Its value is zero.

I think that is a tad high

Well, from my main job I make around £100 an hour

Just turn it off, don't waste a second more thinking about it

 

[LanceUk]

That reminds me.. I know of someone who had a site in a niche that was always on the google search page using common search terms and had generated a bit of money. He wanted to offload it and eventually decided to advertise it for sale on its home page. I think he got a rude awakening of the disparity between his abd the rest of the world's valuation of his site. However, he did eventually offload it to one of his competitors for a small sum - think peppercorn in terms of magnitude.