The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

What’s the best way to sell a very profitable online business?

RadicalShift

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
214%
Jul 26, 2019
22
47
Have an online biz that has doubled in growth for the last three years and is on target to generate 6mm this year.

Looking to sell and get out of the business (for a number of reasons) and I’m looking for ideas/suggestions from anyone here who has sold a company (or companies) in the past.

We’re an online coaching business in the Real Estate space with brand awareness as well as tons of social proof.

Any ideas and/or advice would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. Anyone here ever sell (or know of anyone who has sold) through Empire Flippers?
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

amp0193

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
444%
May 27, 2013
3,639
16,159
United States

SD Entrepreneur

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
226%
Jul 12, 2019
86
194
San Diego, CA
Have an online biz that has doubled in growth for the last three years and is on target to generate 6mm this year.

Looking to sell and get out of the business (for a number of reasons) and I’m looking for ideas/suggestions from anyone here who has sold a company (or companies) in the past.

We’re an online coaching business in the Real Estate space with brand awareness as well as tons of social proof.

Any ideas and/or advice would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. Anyone here ever sell (or know of anyone who has sold) through Empire Flippers?
Congrats on the achievement/growth and good luck with the sale!
 

Tubs

Starting fresh
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
276%
Apr 5, 2019
258
711
VA

empireflippers

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
613%
Mar 1, 2013
39
239
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Hey OP - Justin w/ Empire Flippers here.

We regularly sell websites and online businesses from as low as $20K in to the low-mid 7-figures.

If you're $6M in sales per year is top-line with smaller margins I think this could fit in well with what we've done. If you're at $6M/year EBITDA this would be larger than businesses we've handled in the past, to be fair.

Either way, I'd suggest giving Quiet Light Brokerage a call as well. They run a quality business and are honest/trustworthy brokers.

Our fees range from 15% for smaller businesses down to 8% for businesses valued/listed at $5M+.

You can setup a call with our team here and we'll have you walk us through the business and numbers to see if there's a good fit or not as well.

Congratulations and best of luck with your business and the potential sale!
 

QDF

Gold Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
401%
Jan 1, 2014
363
1,454
Does anyone care to share what multiples they received for their Ecom businesses?

I've seen the 30X monthly profit often used as a standard, but I'm curious how much that varies from one broker to another for similar sized businesses.

I've read "Before The Exit: Thought Experiments For Entrepreneurs" (highly recommended by @amp0193 in his thread), and even before reading this, I thought 30X just doesn't seem like a high enough multiple anymore.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

amp0193

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
444%
May 27, 2013
3,639
16,159
United States
Does anyone care to share what multiples they received for their Ecom businesses?

I've seen the 30X monthly profit often used as a standard, but I'm curious how much that varies from one broker to another for similar sized businesses.

I haven't heard of a monthly profit multiple being used at all.

2x-3x for ecommerce business is what I think is the "normal" range.

The more variety of income channels, the higher the multiple will be.


My business sold for ~2x TTM profit. It would've been higher, except many buyers were wary of potential liability with the products, so I had to take what I could get. The business revenue was 80% amazon, 10% website, and 10%wholesale to retail stores.
 
Last edited:

biophase

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
474%
Jul 25, 2007
9,121
43,261
Scottsdale, AZ
Does anyone care to share what multiples they received for their Ecom businesses?

I've seen the 30X monthly profit often used as a standard, but I'm curious how much that varies from one broker to another for similar sized businesses.

I've read "Before The Exit: Thought Experiments For Entrepreneurs" (highly recommended by @amp0193 in his thread), and even before reading this, I thought 30X just doesn't seem like a high enough multiple anymore.

Mine sold for 3x in years, which is 36x months. It sold at that because it was growing.

Meaning that when I listed it, I was asking for 3x annual earnings. But it took 10 months to sell. By the time month 8 rolled around, business was increasing by 20%.

So my asking price (which I didn't adjust up) was really 2.5-2.7x at the time of closing. I didn't calculate it as I didn't care. But I'm sure the buyer took that into account.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Monkeycom

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
97%
Aug 20, 2019
183
177
UK
Have an online biz that has doubled in growth for the last three years and is on target to generate 6mm this year.

Looking to sell and get out of the business (for a number of reasons) and I’m looking for ideas/suggestions from anyone here who has sold a company (or companies) in the past.

We’re an online coaching business in the Real Estate space with brand awareness as well as tons of social proof.

Any ideas and/or advice would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. Anyone here ever sell (or know of anyone who has sold) through Empire Flippers?

EF have a facebook group, full of value. You'll have direct access to the buyers there.
Also, look at FEInternational, and DigitalAcquisition.
 

RadicalShift

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
214%
Jul 26, 2019
22
47
I second Quietlight. Used them to sell my business. Went very smoothly. Also had lowest commission of the several I talked to at 10%.

Nice little write up: Who are some of the best website brokers? - Quora

Thanks man. Yeah, we were really impressed after several conversations with them and will be making a final decision soon...but I'm thinking it will most likely be QL. Thanks for the article, really good.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

RadicalShift

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
214%
Jul 26, 2019
22
47
Hey OP - Justin w/ Empire Flippers here.

We regularly sell websites and online businesses from as low as $20K in to the low-mid 7-figures.

If you're $6M in sales per year is top-line with smaller margins I think this could fit in well with what we've done. If you're at $6M/year EBITDA this would be larger than businesses we've handled in the past, to be fair.

Either way, I'd suggest giving Quiet Light Brokerage a call as well. They run a quality business and are honest/trustworthy brokers.

Our fees range from 15% for smaller businesses down to 8% for businesses valued/listed at $5M+.

You can setup a call with our team here and we'll have you walk us through the business and numbers to see if there's a good fit or not as well.

Congratulations and best of luck with your business and the potential sale!

Thank you so much for the info, and transparency, Justin. Due to the nature of our business, it's not a cut and dry situation when it comes to an easy sale. There are definitely some obstacles for a potential new owner to overcome...but it's very doable. Besides that, there's a TON of growth opportunity with the business. Our margins are also quite high and we run with fairly low expenses, which makes it quite appealing for any savvy business buyer.
 

RadicalShift

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
214%
Jul 26, 2019
22
47
How heavily are you personally branded in the business?

For real estate, many coaching businesses succeed based on the personal branding of the founder, and without that person's involvement, the value of the brand diminishes considerably. I'm a perfect example of that -- I could likely start a 7- or 8-figure real estate coaching/training business based on my brand, but I don't think I'd be able to sell it for anywhere near that valuation, as without me to back the brand, the business isn't worth much (hence why I haven't done it).

The other question I would have is around margins -- is the $6M top line or bottom line? If top line, what are the operating margins? How would the top and bottom lines be impacted if someone else took over the business? This will give you an idea of the independent value of the business, which will ultimately drive how you want to market/sell it.

You raise some very good (and relevant) points. While I totally agree with you from a branding perspective, there are many ways to overcome such challenges. Just one off the top of my head is a rev share, which is advantageous for both buyer AND seller.

6M is top line and operating margins are quite high (40%+). There is a ton of opportunity for growth... that hasn't been leveraged.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top