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Considering Selling My Online Business

Rem

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This is not definite but I own 50% of an LLC with someone else and we may actually consider selling it. I know there are people here who are looking into investing online so maybe I will offer this here first before I decide to try and sell it publicly.

What I would be selling is an entire blog network with 83+ blogs. We are adding more and more blogs daily. I have several Niche Managers that you would also have doing most of the work. Right now, as CEO I spend most of my time promoting the network and communicating with Niche Managers. I make my own hours. Some days I do nothing. Other days I spend 6 hours working.

The business brings in about $3500-$4000 each month.

I also have a network of magazines I would include with it as a combo deal. The magazine sites are all in one niche but each site is for a specific state in the country to deal specifically with what's going on locally. I have one Managing Editor for that and a couple state editors.

I would also include 2 active forums running on vbulletin. One has a Moderator. The other forum has 3 Admins and 4 or 5 Moderators.

With all of these I continue to make more and more revenue each month. I am currently on task to double the revenue in 2010 so by Jan 2011 the business would be pulling in anywhere between $7,000 and $8,000 per month. Growth could easily be exponential which makes me not want to sell. But for the right price we have decided we would walk away.

Across all those sites we generate anywhere from 700,000 - 1,400,000 page view per month. Edited to add: This includes over 100 domains. I haven't counted them yet but I can do that easily enough.

I mentioned this was my baby but if I can sell I have plans to start a new project.

If anyone is interested please PM me with any offers. I would be willing to help in the transition and if you want to hire me for a short period to help run some of the operations then I would be willing to do that.

Now I may want to stay in it longer since I have faith in it generating more and more each year. It is based on solid networking.

I would probably part with it for taking 1 year revenue plus a projected 2nd year revenue... meaning...

Current: $4,000 x 12 = $48,000
Projected: $8,000 x 12 = $96,000

$48,000 + $96,000 = $144,000

This would be a long term venture of more than 2 years. After 2 years you would have made your money back and then earning about $8,000 per month gross. After expenses maybe $7,000 or so.

$7,000 x 12 = is $84,000 per year with the unlimited expansion possibilities. Your potential in 5 years makes that number seem minute.

So I will say I would probably be willing to sell at $144K but I would entertain any offers over $100K with conditions.

I would also be willing to possibly partner with someone who can bring value to the company and earn us potentially more money quicker through some sort of contractual agreement. If anyone is interested in doing business at any level I am always open to discuss any avenue. But thought this forum would be a great place to start. :smxF:
 
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Jonleehacker

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Just to give you an idea, I recently sold a site with decent revenues and it sold for 15 months PROFIT, not gross.

It was a very well established, stable business with lots of upside.

Quite a bit less than your valuation, not to say you can't get it, but your calculations are a lot more than what I would pay... from my experience sellers always want to sell based on future potential, but buyers will seldom pay for it.
 

Rem

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Thanks for the advice. I am not in that dire need to sell it and would rather reap the benefits of earning month to month and being rewarded long term than to sell it for merely 18 months of profit.

The only reason I would sell it is probably for someone who can see this as a long term venture and not a get money quick and flip type deal.

But again, if anyone is interested or would like to offer anything, I will always consider it.
 

biophase

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Seems about right for a regular business but a little high for online. When you say revenue of $4k a month, is that profit or gross. If it's profit then you are looking at $48k profit a year. My guess is that the asking price would be at 3x or $144k, but would eventually come down to 2x or about $100k.
 
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Rem

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The only costs I have are hosting and domain costs. I pay 4 people a small amount each month to blog. Those are my top bloggers.

I would say spanning across the year and dividing it into 12 then the profit is roughly $3,000. I just doubled the size of the blog network in the last 3 months. Although revenue is starting to pick up it still takes a bit of time for those blogs to pick up and earn. I am actually looking to triple the initial size in the next 3 -4 months. I may wait and try to sell it for more when it takes hold.

I honestly think $144K isn't that bad of deal once someone understood the dynamics and all the income streams associated with the network and how young it all is. I have almost convinced myself I am not gonna sell. Probably will wait. I could probably get more in another 6 months to a year.
 

EastWind

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The only costs I have are hosting and domain costs. I pay 4 people a small amount each month to blog. Those are my top bloggers.

I would say spanning across the year and dividing it into 12 then the profit is roughly $3,000. I just doubled the size of the blog network in the last 3 months. Although revenue is starting to pick up it still takes a bit of time for those blogs to pick up and earn. I am actually looking to triple the initial size in the next 3 -4 months. I may wait and try to sell it for more when it takes hold.

I honestly think $144K isn't that bad of deal once someone understood the dynamics and all the income streams associated with the network and how young it all is. I have almost convinced myself I am not gonna sell. Probably will wait. I could probably get more in another 6 months to a year.

You are thinking like the seller, think like the buyer. if I had a similiar web site, and you had $500k cash. Will you happily shell out $144k to buy it, because you know it's a great investment? I highly doubt that.

The problem with a business like yours is that it can go from $144k to $0 fast. If someone buys a house at $144k and it loses value and they screw up, they can sell it for say $70k and get out. If someone buys your BM business for $144k and screw up, they can liquidate, sell equipments, inventories etc.

Your online business doesn't have proven revenues, the value you see is in the FUTURE. That value is going to take a lot of WORK, you are not taking that into account. If i wanted to buy a business, I wouldn't want to do a lot of work, I would want the work to be done. All I would have to do is routine up keep and collect my money.

If someone buys your business right now and does no work. In 1yr, it will be worth $0. If someone buys myspace.com right now, does no work, they can still be generating income in one year. Big difference.

fastlanetomillions.com could still be running in 1yr, people will still be joining without MJ updating the forum software or putting up a new articles. These sites have a feedback kind of effect. Your business doesn't. It requires having to pay those bloggers.

I'm sorry but I think you will be lucky if you are able to sell your business for $25k. Figure a way to make it that it will feedback into itself and keep itself alive. Then it's worth something!

You are in love with it, no one else is.
 

Rem

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Honestly, I don't pay those bloggers. I pay 6 people each month in leadership roles. Right now the only work I put into it is if someone wants a new blog. I set it up and it takes about 20 minutes. Once they join, the Niche Manager takes over. As CEO I promote my business, submit articles, and motivate my Niche Managers.

Maybe I can't get $144K but to say I couldn't get $25K is just as silly when the company generates more profit than that in a year.

I have a lot of income streams so to say all of a sudden it could be lost overnight. I guess you could be right if someone tripped over the plug and accidentally unplugged the internet.

If I took what I am generating for profit and extend it 15 months as jonleehacker suggested then I would be looking at $48K

Personally it's not worth it for me to sell it at that. Maybe someone would buy it at that but I would rather take the profit each month for the next 15+ months, and the trend over the last year or so has been upward so it's probably not something I want to sell when in 15 months I will be generating more profits. It would actually be stupid to sell it at that price.
 
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