Selling your e-business on your own can turn out to be a challenge. Therefore, a little bit of help from someone experienced and knowledgeable always comes in handy. This is why we believe that these series of guides on how to successfully and effectively sell your e-business we have put together for you is very helpful and useful. So if you are looking for a reliable source of information, tips, and recommendations to walk you through the whole process, this is the right place for you. This e-business selling guide will help you find out more about when is the right time to sell your e-business, explore more about how to get your e-business in shape so you can sell it faster and get more value from the deal, advice you throughout the tricky process of assessing the value of your e-business, learn more about how to negotiate the best deal, and so much more.
Selling Your Online Business – When?
One of the hardest decisions you are going to make when owning an e-business and being an entrepreneur is when exactly is the best time to sell your e-business. And the job of this guide is helping you to understand when so you can make it effectively.
There are many factors that will affect your decision to sell your e-business and also when exactly to do it. Some of these factors will be in your control and you can work on them in order to make things work in your favour whenever it is the right time to sell. However, other factors will be totally out of your control. Such factors may be absolutely personal and affect your personal life, but they can also be political and economic factors. Finally, your emotions and feelings also play a very essential role and they should be considered too. Regardless of how motivated, you are to sell your e-business, website, domain, app, software, etc. and what factors affect your final decisions, there is no doubt that the right timing can be everything and this is something you can often control by being smart about it and patient enough to wait when it is needed.
In fact, the timing of the e-business sell can have a major impact on the pricing of the e-business, or how successful, effective, and quick the deal would be. The selling price of your e-business will be normally a reflection of its whole history, all past profits and performance, all the success and fails it has been through, all its timeline, etc. When you consider all this, you will be able to make the best decision on when to sell the e-business.
Decline in Profits and Performance
Indeed, a decline in profits and performance is the most challenging time for your e-business and for you as an owner. Do not let a temporary fail in business performance or a decline in profit affect your motivation and desire to sell your business, but also don’t let such conditions pressure you to sell your e-business quickly. Better take your time and energy and invest them in building up your e-business again to the point when you will be able to sell it for highest value.
However, this situation with overwhelmed e-business owners spiraling down the rabbit hole of performance failure after profit decline is, unfortunately, not a rare thing. The main problem comes from the fact that such situations will affect the selling price of your e-business significantly.
In case you are just stumbling upon such a problem, you are maybe wondering what you can do in order to increase the profit of your e-business and save your e-business from drowning, while you keep it running and foreseeing a good and successful sell of it in the future. In order to achieve the outcomes you are hoping for, you should realistically evaluate the current economic environment in your online business field, how likely it is for your business to recover to its full potential, think about the potential risk of everything spiraling down even further. What do you think, is it worth to invest all the energy and time into recovering it or maybe you will be better at exploring new online business opportunities somewhere else?
So the most important question to ask yourself is whether you have the desire and motivation to keep your online business running and help it grow to higher profits respectively a better valuation price?
Sustained Performance and Profit Variation
This is definitely not the worst-case scenario. If the performance of your online business is sustainable and the profit declines just temporarily, the business sale price is based on the previous three to five years and the average profit throughout this framed period. This is a good thing as the potential buyers will be able to see that the variation of profit is just temporary and, otherwise, the performance of the e-business have been pretty consistent throughout the last few years. However, this can be false security that should not give you full peace of mind. Your most important goal after you list your online business, website, app, software, domain for sale is making sure you are maintaining sustainable and consistent profit and performance, especially considering the fact that the selling process can take a while.
Rising Performance and Growing Profits
Entrepreneurship is an amazing thing, often typical for online businesses such as apps, websites, software, and other online products, and we all want to believe in the success and prosperity the future will bring, especially when we work hard to grow our e-business to this level. However, facts are facts and the current economic online environment and potential buyers favour established e-businesses with a sustainable growth and already proven growth of profit, because investors are always interested in safe future market success. On another side, while your online business is just blooming and doing so well, it is hard to find the motivation to sell it as you want to enjoy it yourself. It is finally time to enjoy the fruits of your hard work. But then again, potential buyers are willing to pay more for e-business with rising profits and performance. Therefore, a period of business growth is a good time to consider selling your online business or online product/service in order to get a good valuation price. Or consider if you want to sell your e-business at all, or keep it to yourself and continue grew it. However, make sure to consider the risks too and are you going to be prepared for potential situations when your e-business may be facing falling profits.
Not Enjoying Your Online Business Anymore
Now, business is business and it shouldn’t be mixed with emotions and feelings, but this is what happens in the real world and we are not blaming you for that. If you are not enjoying your e-business anymore for whatever reason, you are maybe considering selling it. The entrepreneurship and all the motivation that comes with it may be amazing and enjoyable, but once the business starts growing, challenges and responsibilities start growing too. If this is not a thing you enjoy, maybe it is time and consider selling your e-business. Since the selling process may take a while, you don’t want to lose the speed and it will be your goal to maintain the good performance until you put your sign on the paperwork.
Online Business Outgrown Your Skills
It sometimes happens that you emotionally start an online business with a lot of enthusiasm and you manage to grow your e-business quickly. However, once your online business turns into a big thing, you may not have the qualifications, knowledge, and experience to keep it growing and maintain its success. Business ownership and leadership can be very challenging and no one blames you for not knowing what to do next. After all, no one is born knowing everything. So maybe it is time to find someone who can lead your business to the next level?
Threats
Not everything on the online business world horizon is all flowers and roses. So if you feel like a big threat is coming and it will affect your e-business or put it in risk, maybe it is time to consider selling it now, while the performance is good and the profit is growing or sustainable.
Opportunity
It is not necessarily to be a threat in order to make you want to sell your online business or at least explore the opportunities of selling it. Sometimes it is a lucrative opportunity that can engine your motivation to do so.
No matter what is the motivation behind the reason for you to consider selling your e-business or at least explore the opportunities, make sure you have the right exit strategy and you decide on the right timing to make a deal.