Trying to sell my online business

[fisicx]

No it isn't. I've sold many UK online businesses, and never valued, priced or dealt in USD.

Maybe it’s because Mr Wiz sells his platform in dollars.

 

[KeithGreen]

Maybe it’s because Mr Wiz sells his platform in dollars.

Could be I suppose. And I believe Flippa works in USD also. The OP could try other sale platforms such as businessesforsale.com which has an international presence. Or eBay, although I don't know how successful that is for business sales - lots on there though.

 

[japancool]

How does Flippa actually value businesses? Multiples of turnover?

 

[Mark T Jones]

How does Flippa actually value businesses? Multiples of turnover?

At a guess I'd say much like estate agents - say a number that thd customer wants to hear, get them to sign and watch the price drop

 

[Pish_Pash]

It's always a popcorn moment when some poor soul ventures this way about selling an online business.

the problem I see with one-man online business is it's not a business ...it's a job. I have a business...turnover about £800k, pre-tax profits circa £180k+ ....assets of around £520k (about £120k stock (almost no dead stock) .... & the rest in cash held in accounts), excellent growth potential (hint: selling from within Europe via Amazon vs distance selling) it's run by just me (so can be run by one person) ...but *nobody* has the kind of spare cash lying around that I'd seek for it .... to buy a job (with long hours to boot)

 

[Clinton]

No it isn't. I've sold many UK online businesses, and never valued, priced or dealt in USD.

Which businesses?

I've been involved in over 50 deals for online businesses (names available on request). Over 45 were in USD.

Adsense, Bidvertiser, Infolinks, most affiliate programmes etc. all operate in dollars (even if they make payment in pounds). That's why online businesses listed for sale quote in $.

It's been like that since the early 2000s when I first started buying online businesses at Sitepoint (now floated off to Flippa) and hasn't changed much since.

 

[WizMac]

It's always a popcorn moment when some poor soul ventures this way about selling an online business.

the problem I see with one-man online business is it's not a business ...it's a job. I have a business...turnover about £800k, pre-tax profits circa £180k+ ....assets of around £520k (about £120k stock (almost no dead stock) .... & the rest in cash held in accounts), excellent growth potential (hint: selling from within Europe via Amazon vs distance selling) it's run by just me (so can be run by one person) ...but *nobody* has the kind of spare cash lying around that I'd seek for it .... to buy a job (with long hours to boot)

Its not a job. its also one person business.
You don't have the information and are already trying to tell something and promote your business here.
And about "poor soul" phrase, Im sure now that your avatar is your real photo.

 

[Clinton]

...excellent growth potential

You know what, I've seen literally thousands of ads / IMs / listings of businesses for sale. I've yet to come across a seller who doesn't think his business has "excellent growth potential". Seriously, not one.

Someone else taking over the business can always do more advertising, hire a manager, expand to new markets, whatever ...and they'll become billionaires.

There's a term for this is M&A - the hockey stick. That's shape of the revenue / profit curve. The bottom end of the hockey stick is past earnings, the sharp rise is the projected figures for the next 5 years.

In numerous articles, I've advised against that as canny buyers will ask you for projections and then play you at your own game and pin their offers to actual delivery of those figures via earn outs and what not.

How does Flippa actually value businesses? Multiples of turnover?

They base it on past sales, I believe. However, Flippa are known to manipulate stats (Flippa sue me for defamation if you want, I've got extensive evidence to back me. My spiders use to crawl all of Flippa every single day and I extracted tons of intelligence from that crawling).

They also long turned a blind eye to shill bidders, encouraged some right bullsh*t blog posts talking up "flipping websites" and how easy it is to make money from buying a site, improving it and selling it for a big profit. They've done a lot of other shady things as well (like providing 'due diligence' services. Talk about fox in the hen house!).

Why anyone believes their valuations is beyond me!

 

[Pish_Pash]

You know what, I've seen literally thousands of ads / IMs / listings of businesses for sale. I've yet to come across a seller who doesn't think his business has "excellent growth potential". Seriously, not one.

Someone else taking over the business can always do more advertising, hire a manager, expand to new markets, whatever ...and they'll become billionaires.

You may not recall, but my business is run from a residential property...my warehouse (aka garage) only holds so much stock (in actual fact about 6 weeks stock, which is how often a lorry with stock from Asia rocks up). For me to expand into the EU (physically sending stock there would see MUCH more sales ...as currently I'm fulfilling remotely & in doing so, there's both extra costs for the EU buyer ...but also some EU buyer reticence as he's unsure of the import duty/customs status if he/she purchases from me this way) ...so for EU expansion, I'd have to order/hold a helluva lot more stock, which means I'd have to either move ...or go into an industrial unit.....and probably would have to hire staff (& after a budget like that why would I?). Nope, I choose to stay at this turnover level. Some choose lifestyle over £££s/hassle grief ...but it's a certainty growth is there for the taking.

So for once, have a day of from being King Cynic.

If I recall, you always liked to come across as the big deal maker ,...yet, you choose to hang-out on a small business Mom & Pop forum, beating up posters asking for advice on how they can sell there business. I wonder

 

[fisicx]

Its not a job. it’s also one person business.

It’s both. If you are necessary for the business to continue then it’s a job. If you can walk away and everything continues to function then it’s a business you are selling.

I know this is semantics but the buyer needs to know their commitment to the success. If you are working 10 hours a day supporting platform then this needs to be made clear as it means the potential buyer can’t be employed and take on your business.

 

[Clinton]

Nope, I choose to stay at this turnover level. Some choose lifestyle over £££s/hassle grief ...but it's a certainty growth is there for the taking.

Yeah, sure, there's potential.

And you didn't exploit that potential because it'll take 'hassle and grief'.

But isn't that the case with every business? There was once a domain called Google.com and it was going for $5.

Nobody bought it for a long time.

But it had the potential to become the world's biggest search engine.

"Potential for growth"!

You'd do well to ditch those bullsh*t lines if you ever put your business up for sale, it annoys the hell out of buyers.

They're sick of sellers telling them, "we couldn't be bothered with the growth, but there's tons of potential there so we expect a higher price to reward us for this potential we've built".

But yeah, you wouldn't be the first to go to the trouble of explaining all that crap you gave me to try and demonstrate how "easy" it would be to expand the business.

But you're learning. At least now you accept that you've got a job

Respect to anyone who's making a profit in business, whether it's a job or a business, but it takes some smarts to recognise when one has a job. Not everyone has those smarts.

Just a FYI, I'm not a 'deal maker', I don't sell businesses. I've pointed that out already in this thread.

 

[Soulstudio]

Guys, I specifically registered to leave a comment when I read this topic, everyone who discusses and gives advice here you are really great guys(I lost faith in people a long time ago, and would ignore this type - looks like you can balance me out) - in such a community I wanted to participate and also share my experience of 20 years in business, so Hello to everyone )

And as for WizMac, so I am 99% sure that he does not sell anything, he does not have any profitable business and just inflates the topic here, from the first of his messages I realized that he does not understand a damn thing, and having a business for several years, which brings profit - it is impossible, unless he is not a complete idiot who every day finds money on the asphalt and thinking he is a pro.

 

[WizMac]

Guys, I specifically registered to leave a comment when I read this topic, everyone who discusses and gives advice here you are really great guys(I lost faith in people a long time ago, and would ignore this type - looks like you can balance me out) - in such a community I wanted to participate and also share my experience of 20 years in business, so Hello to everyone )

And as for WizMac, so I am 99% sure that he does not sell anything, he does not have any profitable business and just inflates the topic here, from the first of his messages I realized that he does not understand a damn thing, and having a business for several years, which brings profit - it is impossible, unless he is not a complete idiot who every day finds money on the asphalt and thinking he is a pro.

Wow, Christmas clown is here.