Selling unprofitable business

[jeandearme]

Hi everyone,

I'm having eCommerce store for almost 3 years now that I'm trying to sell, but not sure how much could I ask for it. I'm not sure if that's allowed, but let me post the link to it: TeePlusPlusClth.com - website listed on Flippa

Throughout those years I spent around $30k in Facebook ads and profit is slightly below break even. I have sold couple thousands of inventory and my customers list is around 1.2k. There are almost 100 different designs, but I eventually got burned out and couldn't do this anymore (in spite of being a programmer to this day).

I'm not trying to sell it here because it's not really a business because one normally brings profit and this one is barely making any. How do you think I should list it for? There's a lot of work put there and I'm sure there are ways to sell it better. I even got customers from NASA and SpaceX (I sometimes read email that orders come from).

 

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[Greg R]

Hi everyone,

I'm having eCommerce store for almost 3 years now that I'm trying to sell, but not sure how much could I ask for it. I'm not sure if that's allowed, but let me post the link to it: TeePlusPlusClth.com - website listed on Flippa

Throughout those years I spent around $30k in Facebook ads and profit is slightly below break even. I have sold couple thousands of inventory and my customers list is around 1.2k. There are almost 100 different designs, but I eventually got burned out and couldn't do this anymore (in spite of being a programmer to this day).

I'm not trying to sell it here because it's not really a business because one normally brings profit and this one is barely making any. How do you think I should list it for?

Cost of inventory with a 10% discount and move on.

 

[jeandearme]

Cost of inventory with a 10% discount and move on.

It's a print-on-demand model so no inventory upfront.

 

[Greg R]

Sounds like $0.00

Unless you can justify value in the domain name, designs, and customer list to a potential buyer wanting to start something like this.

You would have to come up with a price allocation for each item of value.

For instance;

1) Email list = $120.00 ($.10 x 1,200)
2) Facebook followers = ......
3) Domain Name = ....

 

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[SparksCW]

I'm surprised it's not done that well, site looks okay and the product is cool (assuming there's not 100 other people with the same designs I guess) maybe coders don't like to impulsively buy t-shirts.

Personally I'd say if I had the choice between trying to sell a business with no inventory for <$10,000 or just closing it down I'd probably just close it down and move on (unless of course there is a really easy path to a sale)

I am having similar thoughts about the app I've spent $15,000 on. Great product but not enough time/money to push it, having thoughts of trying to sell or just simply closing it down and concentrating on my main business which is actually making money.

 

[jeandearme]

Sounds like $0.00

Unless you can justify value in the domain name, designs, and customer list to a potential buyer wanting to start something like this.

You would have to come up with a price allocation for each item of value.

For instance;

1) Email list = $120.00 ($.10 x 1,200)
2) Facebook followers = ......
3) Domain Name = ....

At a first glance - yes. I think the only tangible value there is are:
- email list (existing customers)
- facebook ads data (so you know exactly who buys it)

I'm surprised it's not done that well, site looks okay and the product is cool (assuming there's not 100 other people with the same designs I guess) maybe coders don't like to impulsively buy t-shirts.

Personally I'd say if I had the choice between trying to sell a business with no inventory for <$10,000 or just closing it down I'd probably just close it down and move on (unless of course there is a really easy path to a sale)

I am having similar thoughts about the app I've spent $15,000 on. Great product but not enough time/money to push it, having thoughts of trying to sell or just simply closing it down and concentrating on my main business which is actually making money.

I think it's the biggest store of it's kind out there. Store is selling mostly tshirts, but also sold some mugs and even canvases. Oh, and I can't afford just moving on since I have a significant debt so at least want to get whatever I can and move on.

 

[minivanman]

Another lesson here kids...... DEBT. Just sayin.....

 

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[biophase]

Hi everyone,

I'm having eCommerce store for almost 3 years now that I'm trying to sell, but not sure how much could I ask for it. I'm not sure if that's allowed, but let me post the link to it: TeePlusPlusClth.com - website listed on Flippa

Throughout those years I spent around $30k in Facebook ads and profit is slightly below break even. I have sold couple thousands of inventory and my customers list is around 1.2k. There are almost 100 different designs, but I eventually got burned out and couldn't do this anymore (in spite of being a programmer to this day).

I'm not trying to sell it here because it's not really a business because one normally brings profit and this one is barely making any. How do you think I should list it for? There's a lot of work put there and I'm sure there are ways to sell it better. I even got customers from NASA and SpaceX (I sometimes read email that orders come from).

What’s with the weird domain name?

 

[ZeroTo100]

Hi everyone,

I'm having eCommerce store for almost 3 years now that I'm trying to sell, but not sure how much could I ask for it. I'm not sure if that's allowed, but let me post the link to it: TeePlusPlusClth.com - website listed on Flippa

Throughout those years I spent around $30k in Facebook ads and profit is slightly below break even. I have sold couple thousands of inventory and my customers list is around 1.2k. There are almost 100 different designs, but I eventually got burned out and couldn't do this anymore (in spite of being a programmer to this day).

I'm not trying to sell it here because it's not really a business because one normally brings profit and this one is barely making any. How do you think I should list it for? There's a lot of work put there and I'm sure there are ways to sell it better. I even got customers from NASA and SpaceX (I sometimes read email that orders come from).

Flippa sucks!

Their website sucks!

Their customer service sucks!

And most of their sellers suck!

Sell it somewhere else. -smile-

 

[minivanman]

What’s with the weird domain name?

Maybe his keyboard stutters......?

 

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[jeandearme]

What’s with the weird domain name?

Since one of the top programming languages is C++ I wanted to make a twist on that name so initially it was T++, but my designer made it Tee++ which looked better to me, but still I had to use wording for url and teeplusplus.com was unavailable.

 

[jeandearme]

Flippa sucks!

Their website sucks!

Their customer service sucks!

And most of their sellers suck!

Sell it somewhere else. -smile-

I was thinking about other sites. They seem to be the biggest marketplace, but if you can recommend other it will be highly appreciated And yeah - flippa really sucks. Time you have to wait for response is outrageous.

 

[biophase]

Since one of the top programming languages is C++ I wanted to make a twist on that name so initially it was T++, but my designer made it Tee++ which looked better to me, but still I had to use wording for url and teeplusplus.com was unavailable.

I meant the clth part actually?

 

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[ZeroTo100]

It depends...

For a brokerage, I doubt any would pick that site up as it’s just too small.

I don’t know if anybody else realizes this, but from all of the big brokers, flippa is the only one that I know of that is an auction house - or at least was the last time I check...And they have always been crap!

If you’re looking for an opportunity...that’s a pretty big one. Do everything right that flippa did wrong.

Anyway, these are the ones I use.

• AcquisitionsDirect.com
• QuietLightBrokers.com
• Centurica.com
• EmpireFlippers.com
• Latonas.com
• Flippa.com
• BizBuySell.com

 

[jeandearme]

I meant the clth part actually?

It's abbreviation for 'clothing' - I had to put something there.

It depends...

For a brokerage, I doubt any would pick that site up as it’s just too small.

I don’t know if anybody else realizes this, but from all of the big brokers, flippa is the only one that I know of that is an auction house - or at least was the last time I check...And they have always been crap!

If you’re looking for an opportunity...that’s a pretty big one. Do everything right that flippa did wrong.

Anyway, these are the ones I use.

• AcquisitionsDirect.com
• QuietLightBrokers.com
• Centurica.com
• EmpireFlippers.com
• Latonas.com
• Flippa.com
• BizBuySell.com

Nice! Will check that out for sure!

 

[broswoodwork]

Wouldn't it make more sense to ask the dudes here how to turn the venture around? Maybe there's something you missed, or that you can tweek, to bring it to life.

Anyone can start an unprofitable business for free.

 

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[jeandearme]

Wouldn't it make more sense to ask the dudes here how to turn the venture around? Maybe there's something you missed, or that you can tweek, to bring it to life.

Anyone can start an unprofitable business for free.

That's true. Maybe after 3 years of striving I got burned out. Today I found that Patreon developer that normally had all (4) slots for $2k sold out had one free to take so I took it because documentation for his framework hits 6 million impressions (500k unique) per month. So it's easy to calculate that CPM for so targeted audience is really low. Will see how it will work out - I did it because for months it wasn't available until now so I rolled the dice and see if it'll be swan song or break out.

 

[broswoodwork]

That's true. Maybe after 3 years of striving I got burned out. Today I found that Patreon developer that normally had all (4) slots for $2k sold out had one free to take so I took it because documentation for his framework hits 6 million impressions (500k unique) per month. So it's easy to calculate that CPM for so targeted audience is really low. Will see how it will work out - I did it because for months it wasn't available until now so I rolled the dice and see if it'll be swan song or break out.

I'm curious, have you tried lookalike audiences, based on your previous 1200 buyers, on Facebook? May be more bang for your buck than a $2000 spray and pray influencer plug.

Disregard if you've tried it all already.

 

[jeandearme]

I'm curious, have you tried lookalike audiences, based on your previous 1200 buyers, on Facebook? May be more bang for your buck than a $2000 spray and pray influencer plug.

Disregard if you've tried it all already.

Oh yeah, I got to the point here I made lookalike audiences from lookalike audiences. I spent $30k after all

Well, it's not as much influencer as that the framework hat he builds is widely used (I use it in my projects also) and documentation is really heavily used by the users. So my store's logo will be on every single page load which I think is worth trying.

To back this up I made some math. He has 6 000 000 impressions.
Let's do 0,4% CTR => 24 000 website views
Out of that let's be really conservative: 1% conversion rate => 240 orders/month
On each order I make $12 * 240 = $2880 so I took the risk.

Oh, and with facebook ads you always pray because they are never delivering same results every day

 

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[broswoodwork]

Oh yeah, I got to the point here I made lookalike audiences from lookalike audiences. I spent $30k after all

Well, it's not as much influencer as that the framework hat he builds is widely used (I use it in my projects also) and documentation is really heavily used by the users. So my store's logo will be on every single page load which I think is worth trying.

To back this up I made some math. He has 6 000 000 impressions.
Let's do 0,4% CTR => 24 000 website views
Out of that let's be really conservative: 1% conversion rate => 240 orders/month
On each order I make $12 * 240 = $2880 so I took the risk.

Oh, and with facebook ads you always pray because they are never delivering same results every day

The math looks good. Good luck, bro! I hope it all turns around starting here.

 

[jeandearme]

The math looks good. Good luck, bro! I hope it all turns around starting here.

Okay, I think I didn't took one factor under the scope. This is how traffic sources spread within that 6m impressions. My market is United States (never had any order from China despite having orders from all over the world, but I don't want to sit with my fingers crossed). So from 6m it goes down to 384k.


So to break even now I would have to have:
2,20% CTR => 7 680 website views/month
2,42% conversion rate (that's the actual historic CR from my Google Analytics) => 204 orders/m
$12 profit * 204 orders = $2 448 profit/m ($3 067 if we go with avg profit per order of $15)

The reason I use $12 profit because it's the lowest I have per order (avg. profit per order is around $15) to play it conservative.

And to earn something on it I would need to have bigger CTR which I don't have much control over - it's just my logo standing there in it's whole glory. Or count on upsells.

Now it doesn't look that well and it's a bit of a gamble. I'm now thinking about pulling that out since I can ask for refund within 10 days.

@biophase how that looks for a seasoned player as yourself?

 

[Mill0006]

At a first glance - yes. I think the only tangible value there is are:
- email list (existing customers)
- facebook ads data (so you know exactly who buys it)



I think it's the biggest store of it's kind out there. Store is selling mostly tshirts, but also sold some mugs and even canvases. Oh, and I can't afford just moving on since I have a significant debt so at least want to get whatever I can and move on.

You're doing the right thing by listing it on flippa. There will be a few people that will be interested and will make you an offer. What people are willing to purchase the business for is what you can sell that business for. If it was a well run business with a stable positive net income, you can get 1-3 times the annual net income for it. Let me know if you have anymore questions. I've sold 2 businesses.

 

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[Mill0006]

I'm surprised it's not done that well, site looks okay and the product is cool (assuming there's not 100 other people with the same designs I guess) maybe coders don't like to impulsively buy t-shirts.

Personally I'd say if I had the choice between trying to sell a business with no inventory for <$10,000 or just closing it down I'd probably just close it down and move on (unless of course there is a really easy path to a sale)

I am having similar thoughts about the app I've spent $15,000 on. Great product but not enough time/money to push it, having thoughts of trying to sell or just simply closing it down and concentrating on my main business which is actually making money.

Hey Sparks, I'm just curious, what is the app that you were working on?

 

[ZCP]

move this to the inside and get the group to dig in .... then offer to pay everyone's INSIDERS subscription that helps you ......

 

[jeandearme]

Hi guys, quick update: I sold my store on Shopify's Exchance because it was the safest (Escrow) and I've completed it on September 2019 - then I gathered all the historic data and turned out I profited a bit. Around $3k after 3 years of work. I'm happy that I broke even - most businesses just leave you with big hole in your pocket

Thanks everyone!

 

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[Deleted74396]

Hi guys, quick update: I sold my store on Shopify's Exchance because it was the safest (Escrow) and I've completed it on September 2019 - then I gathered all the historic data and turned out I profited a bit. Around $3k after 3 years of work. I'm happy that I broke even - most businesses just leave you with big hole in your pocket

Thanks everyone!

You did well to get $3k, congrats! What're you doing now, moving on?

 

[jeandearme]

You did well to get $3k, congrats! What're you doing now, moving on?

I've just quit my job and looking for new opportunities - look at this thread of mine. I will still code, but this time on my terms And maybe I will get back to e-commerce too!

And I sold it for $2k, but Escrow and Exchange took it's commisions, but after them plus historical finances yielded in $3k total if that makes sense.