Buying A 'Rival' Business?

Tea3

Hi, There is a company selling similar items to us and we would like to offer to buy their business and run their website alongside ours (keeping their website name etc the same). How can we approach them to ask if they are interested in selling? They seem to have low sales etc and can only run the business part-time between studies whereas we can input the capital and run the business alongside ours full-time hopefully making their website as popular as ours are. Should we contact them direct where they might say no because we are technically 'rivals' or should we go through a solicitor or offer to buy via a third party so they dont know who we are? We have never done aything to harm or interfere with their business but they probably would say no direct to us. How can I go about this without offending the current owner?
Thanks, Tea

PasturesNew

And, I guess, how do you plan to work out the "value" to you...

Tea3

We were intending to ask them to value their business based on their stock, sales etc and then take it from there as we can roughly work out future sales based on our current similar lines. We would then work out if their figure was do-able or if we would come back with a lower offer. Think they might want to sell due to amount of out of stock items and low sales etc but just maybe not to us direct We would even be interested in buying a share of the business as we feel it mainly needs time and money input but again they would probably say no to us.

Debt_Free_Chick

Tea3 wrote: »

Should we contact them direct where they might say no because we are technically 'rivals' or should we go through a solicitor or offer to buy via a third party so they dont know who we are?

Even if you go through a third party, they could then refuse to sell once they find out who are you are.

I would just approach them - they can only say no. But you can always "leave the door open" in case they change their mind later.

barrymung

As Debt-free-chick says...just approach them.

However, I wouldn't approach in a "we're bigger than you" agressive manner. I'd act all passive and say "If you were considering selling in the near future then please contact us to discuss" sort of way.

People are very protective, especially if they have built the business from scratch; if you belittle their "baby" in any way (Even unintentionally) they may well take a negative attitude towards your approach..

Tea3

Hi - i wouldn't belittle their business at all I think they have done very well its just limited time and funds I think that stops them growing. I really doubt they would sell to us infact I think they would rather let the business close or go under instead. I just think their business may go under and would rather keep it afloat and buy it or invest money in it even but again I doubt they would consider that as I am sure they see us as rivals even although we found our own customers and did not take any of theirs to our knowledge etc. I will see how they do over xmas etc and maybe contact them after new year.

ukbill69

Don't bother, spent your money in another website and advertising for it, much cheaper and no ghosts in the cupboard.

Tea3

I like the idea of
"If you were considering selling in the near future then please contact us to discuss"
I may drop them an email and see if they reply - if they dont then I at least tried
Cheers

Debt_Free_Chick

Tea3 wrote: »

I like the idea of
"If you were considering selling in the near future then please contact us to discuss"
I may drop them an email and see if they reply - if they dont then I at least tried
Cheers

I'd suggest a letter .... or better a phone call.

They might simply think that an email is of the Nigerian Scam type .....

5limJim

Tea3 wrote: »

I like the idea of
"If you were considering selling in the near future then please contact us to discuss"
I may drop them an email and see if they reply - if they dont then I at least tried
Cheers

Hi,
keep us posted on how this turns out, I'd be curious to see their response. By enquiring you might actualy make them step back and think about their business and throw more effort at it, wouldn't it be ironic if they came to approach you to buy YOU out in a few months


Good luck!

Tea3

hahaha it would be ironic but very unlikely
I will think about it and possibly contact them or just continue with my own websites - we have a couple more non-sales websites planned that will take up a fair bit of our time to set up so might leave this for a while and see whats happening with them over xmas. We have cash to invest and they seem to need cash injection to be a proper business (ie not continually out of stock of everything) so it made sense for us to buy their business or invest in it - should say we sell more or less the same things as they seem to copy what we do however they dont stock enough range or keep items in stock to be a threat, I just dont want to see their business go under or struggle as it seems to be doing.