Selling my business advice

lcharm

Mistral001 wrote: »

What about just renting it to them with an option to buy at the end of say a year?

That way they would not be taking much risk at the minute, but if they saw that sales through your site were being profitable they could then decide to buy it.

Perhaps would need a commercial lawyer to set up the contract with option etc.

That's such an unusual idea but sounds interesting. This sort of thing ever been done before?

Mistral001

lcharm wrote: »

That's such an unusual idea but sounds interesting. This sort of thing ever been done before?

I have not done it, if that what you mean. I was just looking at it from the other firm's point of view. It depends on the firm you are selling it to. If it is a small firm where the hands-on boss who instantly knows the value of your site you might get a cash sale (but he/she is likely to know that they can give you a fairly low price), but if you are dealing with a big firm you will probably be dealing with a sales manager wanting to increas sales. He/she will want a watertight fairly low risk proposition with which to go to the head of the firm .

A solicitor once did suggest the "option" idea in relation to another matter to me the term has stuck with me.

pleasedelete

Go and ask soolin on the ebay threads but I believe that as eBay accounts cannot be sold or transferred without their consent your business value may be limited to liquidating the stock or the amount that you sell through other outlets. Is the company the registered owner of the eBay account? The account can move with the business but I imagine it's a question of how much of the business is eBay and how much the rest. The feedback would not automatically be retained.

Acc72

How much do you want ?

Although the business is only worth what somebody will pay, you will need to quote a price as a starting point.

The problem from your persepective is that as you are emotionally invested and have spent a sum of money in developing a website, to an outsider all they see is a £35k turnover business that generates a GP of £5k (no mention of Net Profit).

What is the business / how much effort/time is required ? - eg. if it is simply drop shipping requiring a couple of hours a week then somebody may be interested, but at those amounts if it involves buying stock and having potential stock losses etc. then it would be very difficult.

patman99

OP, I know you want to take-up teaching, but unless you have a degree you may find it hard to get into a teaching job.

How about concentrating on growing your business (the more you sell, the more you can buy and so the bigger the discount you can get). If you concentrate on it hard-enough, then you can get it to the point where you can employ someone to do the donkey work for you, or to the point where a competitor offers a large amount of cash as they see you as a threat.

lcharm

patman99 wrote: »

OP, I know you want to take-up teaching, but unless you have a degree you may find it hard to get into a teaching job.

How about concentrating on growing your business (the more you sell, the more you can buy and so the bigger the discount you can get). If you concentrate on it hard-enough, then you can get it to the point where you can employ someone to do the donkey work for you, or to the point where a competitor offers a large amount of cash as they see you as a threat.

I have a biochemustry degree and research masters which I haven't really made the most of since graduating. There's a shortage of chemistry and physics teachers so I'm doing my teaching postgrad degree this year.

I'm thinking of breaking up aspects of the business and just keeping the ebay account running but selling anything on it instead and diverting any traffic from my websites to the ebay account instead. I don't have time to manage selling the business, keeping the business running at the same time and teaching applications/interviews!