Business for sale on Craigslist

I think if my business was bringing in around 70K a year I would do the following:

1) Hire someone for $25 to $30 K a year and keep the difference for myself.

2) Have a weekly massage by an expert.

3) Take two or three cruises a year.

4) Buy a super Lotto ticket on a regular basis

5) etc, etc.   

I think if my business was bringing in around 70K a year I would do the following:

1) Hire someone for $25 to $30 K a year and keep the difference for myself.

2) Have a weekly massage by an expert.

3) Take two or three cruises a year.

4) Buy a super Lotto ticket on a regular basis

5) etc, etc.   

AGREED

I thought some more about this and some profit suggestions made by the seller would also work FOR the seller if he used my idea to hire someone for $25 to $30K a year and keep the remainder for himself.

IF the seller were to make $40K profit for a year (after expenses of hiring a worker as stated above) the seller would pull in $160,000 in FOUR YEARS and would be making $10,000 more than if he sold the business for the $150k (firm) asking price.

Sure, it's a smaller return initially, but as several of us have said on this forum, that regular income is nothing to sneeze at either.  For instance, I love buying something for $20 and reselling if for $200 or more, but buying $5 items and selling them for $25 to $50 pays off too, and there are MORE of those cheaper items to find and turn over than there are of the other items.

Just a thought and if I was the owner of that business valued at $150,000 that is what I would do. Hire someone and pocket the rest.

Here's another thought.

How many people have $150,000 laying around to invest in a business?  Sure, there are some but are they going to plunk it all down on an INTERNET business?  There are a lot of scams going on in general and probably more in the internet arena than in brick and mortar businesses.

My personal feeling is that someone with that kind of cash on hand isn't going to be as interested in laying it all out at once on the prospect of earning it back in two years before a profit is turned.

Of course, we don't know what the business is and until a prospective buyer makes the call he won't either, but my guess is the business seller wants an in-person chance to sell the prospective buyer on the possibilities of future success and therefore doesn't want to tell what the business is in the listing.

Hopefully, the seller has the personal skills to promote and sell this business, but if that doesn't pan out, my idea of hiring a worker and pocketing the remainder is still a valid option...in my opinion. 

Hi, I'm trying to find a buyer for my web based business. We are a subscription based information service with established clients and an excellent reputation in the industry.

Travis, fess up, did you post that ad?

Travis, fess up, did you post that ad?

Isn't it obvious? Why else would our resident sleuth post a random business for sale ad?

I think if my business was bringing in around 70K a year I would do the following:

1) Hire someone for $25 to $30 K a year and keep the difference for myself.

I've thought about hiring someone and I might still. The problem with that idea is that it would take months to train someone. That's not really a big deal, but what if the employee were to quit without notice? We've never missed a deadline on our site and if we ever did, it could cripple the business.

A little deeper: I truly care about our members and I know they depend on us. Sure, it's just an auction schedule, but people rely on us to provide accurate and timely information so they can earn their living.

I'm in a tough position right now. My time is being stretched between two businesses. One business is my bread and butter, the other is my passion. I may not ever find a buyer and I'm perfectly content with that. Who knows what will happen? One thing for sure, if the site does sell, I'll make sure the buyer is well trained so that that the quality stays the same and the service goes uninterrupted.

Here's another thought.

How many people have $150,000 laying around to invest in a business?  Sure, there are some but are they going to plunk it all down on an INTERNET business?

You'd be surprised. Plus, there is business financing for ventures like this. $150,000 isn't really a lot of money, especially when you consider a full return on investment in 2 years. If you look at real estate investments, on average it takes 8-10 years to recover your initial investment. Plus, a person willing to invest a year or so into marketing, SEO and expanding the site into new cities could easily double their earnings.

Isn't it obvious? Why else would our resident sleuth post a random business for sale ad?

Actually, from the way he phrased it I don't think Alloro knew. But he does now.

Isn't it obvious? Why else would our resident sleuth post a random business for sale ad?

Oh, I don't know. How about this one ?

Internet lounge business - $40,000 (Killeen)

Very popular Internet Cafe in Killeen, with 6 computer stations, a snack area, and a back room for other activities. The right person(s) can make $65,000 or more per year.
Monthly lease is $900.

We are leaving the business because of health issues.
Contact me by text, call, or email for more info.
(name and number deleted)


*******

(use your imagination for the back room activities) 

The right person(s) can make $65,000 or more per year.

Who is the right person? Robert Irvine from Restaurant Impossible? And, if the right person COULD make 65K, how much is the business bringing in now? 30-40K? Is that before or after expenses? Subtract $10,800 for rent, F&B cost, electricity, water, computer repair, internet, labor. Not much left. Besides, that's not very much money for an internet cafe. I would imagine most Starbucks make that every couple of weeks. Personally, I would be scared to sign the lease. Low income + high operating cost = high risk. Last but not least, how much time do you have to devote to running an internet cafe? If it requires you to put in 80 hours a week, is it still a deal?

Who is the right person?

You'll note I refrained from analyzing either the internet cafe ad OR your ad. 

Yeah 150k is a lot of money but you can't say that's alot of money who would buy a business for that, if that were the case no busiensses would ever be sold as 150k is actually quite low for a business, although in this case it's not like you get property, inventory, etc your basically getting his domain name, customers and best practices and policies so that is sorta a lot to pay for something non tangible. Another thing to consider, not sure if this guy has a hands off approac all online or if he has a rapport withh customers but with businesses where the owner has a relationship with customers how many of those customers will stay around when the owner is no longer there and its a new owner?

Internet businesses are hard to value. With businesses they typically say 5 years profits but internet biz tends to be kinda fads so you can't relaly plan on making the same consistant income for 5 years, also since the internet is contsantly changing. My business makes 15k-20k a month but nobody would ever give me 5 years profits for it. I had an offer last year for 200k and the guy said he was overpaying. I tink i'd be lucky to get 50k for my biz however I would never sell it for that as 3 months I can make that.

in this case it's not like you get property, inventory, etc your basically getting his domain name, customers and best practices and policies

Actually, you'd be getting a site with about 30K in coding, 15K in content, and tens of thousands of hours of SEO, marketing, real social media followers and customization.

Another thing to consider, not sure if this guy has a hands off approac all online or if he has a rapport withh customers but with businesses where the owner has a relationship with customers how many of those customers will stay around when the owner is no longer there and its a new owner?

Customer service/interaction is minimal. (Less than an hour per week, usually by email.) As long as the new owners are trained properly (and they will be) the transition will go unnoticed.  An incredible amount of effort has been made to answer and resolve every customer service issue before it even arises.

I'm actually thinking of going in an entirely different direction with the site. I truly love the site and our members. Plus, we recently made a few changes to the site which so far have increased growth by 4% per MONTH! Instead of selling it, I'm thinking about merging it with this site and then selling state franchises to others.

Franchisees would be able to build their site (using our proprietary coding) as an extension of OnlineStorageAuctions.com. For example, if a franchisee wanted to develop New York, their URL would be OnlineStorageAuctions.com/New_York. Franchisees would benefit from the OSA brand, media presence, SEO, traffic and AuctionsTX.com's proven system. A business in a box if you will.

My business makes 15k-20k a month but nobody would ever give me 5 years profits for it. I had an offer last year for 200k and the guy said he was overpaying. I tink i'd be lucky to get 50k for my biz however I would never sell it for that as 3 months I can make that.

If you're serious about selling, I can get you in touch with someone who can help you get 2.5 times annual net.

there is flat out something fishy about this whole offer. you are making approximately $70 per hour running this thing and are willing to sell it for a pittance. If you have actual numbers showing 70K in profit yearly you will have no problem selling this business for 350-700k. Or is the 70k estimated and youve only been open a few weeks/months? I'm just confused i guess

there is flat out something fishy about this whole offer. you are making approximately $70 per hour running this thing and are willing to sell it for a pittance. If you have actual numbers showing 70K in profit yearly you will have no problem selling this business for 350-700k. Or is the 70k estimated and youve only been open a few weeks/months? I'm just confused i guess

If you read the whole thread you would see that Travis (from here) posted this ad. He wants to sell his auction listing business where he sells lists of places having storage auctions to people who are to lazy or don't have the time to look at legal notices or websites of their area auctioneers.