Sell My Business | Internet Business Guide

Part Seven of Sale Of A Business – 3 Cs

Buyers Of A Business – Although this article series is advice for the sale of a business consider the inverse as the questions you should be asking the Seller.

Content is King!

How many times have you heard that?

With online businesses there are 3 Cs. Content is #1. Commerce is #2. Without content you will not be maximizing your Commerce. The search engine robots are hungry for content; and to index that content based on its value to its searchers.

Why does Google control more than 60% of the search market? It is because their algorithm is the best at organizing and indexing “relevant” content!

The third of the 3 Cs is Community. Community is “original and relevant” content that you, as the online business owner, do not have to source and write! Community is a Forum or Chat, or social networking.

When you have fully engaged all three Cs you have the most successful sale of a business.

…but is your content “original”? Google will only index what it believes to be the “original” content. One way you can test your site for original content is to use a service such as Copyscape. Check a page of content on your site against the results returned in Copyscape. If you wrote the content on your page (you did, right ), then if Copyscape returns identical content to yours’ it is time to send a “cease and desist” to the offending website.

When it is time for the sale of your business you want to be king of the content in your category of online business.

This is Part Seven of a multi-part article that will provide the knowledge you need to maximize the sale of a business.

Three years of data on SOLD Internet Business Opportunities. Use this information to strengthen your position when making creating an asking price. Read the details on dozens of Sold Internet Business Opportunities.

Read Part One of This Multi Article Series – Analytics

Read Part Two of This Multi Article Series – Recast

Read Part Three of This Multi Article Series – IP

Part Four of Sale Of A Business – - The List

Part Five of Sale Of A Business – Financing

Part Six of Sale Of A Business – Gotchas!

Part Six of Sale Of A Business – Gotchas!

Read Part One – Analytics

Read Part Two – Recast

Read Part Three – IP

Part Four of Sale Of A Business – - The List

Part Five of Sale Of A Business – Financing

Buyers Of A Business – Although this article series is advice for the sale of a business consider the inverse as the questions you should be asking the Seller.

So, you are wondering what is a “gotcha”? A gotcha’ is the leprechaun (hey, it’s St. Pats Day today) that can tank the sale of a business and prevent you from reaching your pot-o-gold.

E-Bay is an example. Should your online business include an eBay store you will experience a gotcha’. The terms and conditions of your e-Bay store state that you may not transfer the ownership of your store without the express written permission of e-Bay. E-Bay has never issued a written permission. Their dilemma is the “Power Seller” ranking. They don’t know if the Buyer will continue on with the Power Seller criteria. With the new default ranking of products showing power sellers over closing soon of an auction this could have a huge negative affect on a new owner.

Another common gotcha! in the sale of a business are your site images. Are you in compliance with copyright and permissions to use all of the images on your site? If you are in flagrant violation of image copyrights you can expect the sale of your business to be suspect. Even in the most mundane of situations. Back in 2004 I represented the seller of a geo-targeted resort site. On this site were images of the resorts provided by the resort owners. After Closing a professional photographer sued the new owner over use of a photo from one of the resorts. Claiming the site and resort owner were never given rights to use the photo online. It was meant to be used only in a brochure. Cost to the buyer? $3,000 in settlement.

Another gotcha! are vendor relationships. You have a great relationship with suppliers. This may include advertisers and advertising intermediaries (Google). Will these relationships transfer? Not necessarily. For example, manufacturers are still based on the brick and mortar economy. To support the brick and mortar stores are company sales representatives or manufacturers reps. If you are in San Diego County you have a different sales representative than if you are in Orange County.

This is a real case of an online business buying from a lighter manufacturer (Zippo). The buyer lived in Orange County; the seller in San Diego County. The Orange County sales representative did not want to let go of this lucrative account (+$80k in sales) and the Orange County sales representative did not want “channel conflict” (online is a channel – brick and mortar another channel of sales) and was reluctant to approve the new owner of the online store. It was resolved, but it took months of intervention to accomplish the transfer of the supplier account from the seller to the buyer.

These types of situations are the reason to plan now for the sale of a business.

This is Part Six of a multi-part article that will provide the knowledge you need to maximize the sale of a business.

Read Part One of This Multi Article Series – Analytics

Read Part Two of This Multi Article Series – Recast

Read Part Three of This Multi Article Series – IP

Part Four of Sale Of A Business – - The List

Part Five of Sale Of A Business – Financing

Part Five of Sale Of A Business – Financing

Read Part One – Analytics

Read Part Two – Recast

Read Part Three – IP

Part Four of Sale Of A Business – - The List

Buyers Of A Business – Although this article series is advice for the sale of a business consider the inverse as the questions you should be asking the Seller.

Every seller wants 100% cash at closing! Every buyer would love to finance the whole darn thing?

What is reality?

Any seller should be comfortable to take a note from the buyer for at least 20% for the sale of a business.

Any buyer can be guaranteed that the seller will carry back at least 20% of the purchase price.

Here is why… escrow the domain name!

If you, as the seller of an online business, can be comfortable with financing you will maximize the sale of the business.

As the seller, it is perfectly natural to decline financing in your business for sale listing. You have no idea about who might be your buyer. Are they going to buy your business and fail? Would they default on a note to you?

Here is a true story about a seller in 2006; who had every reason to want “all cash” at Closing. His products were quite sensitive and his customer list was even more sensitive. He sold women’s clothes to men. We searched for the right buyer for over a year. It took another six months to close a transaction. The Seller became so comfortable with the experience of the Buyer (alternative style content in the UK) that at Closing he agreed to carry a note for 30% of the purchase price, and provide the buyer $150,000 in product on consignment. Bottom line, never say never to carrying a note for the sale of a business.

This is Part Five of a multi-part article that will provide the knowledge you need to maximize the sale of a business.

Read Part One of This Multi Article Series – Analytics

Read Part Two of This Multi Article Series – Recast

Read Part Three of This Multi Article Series – IP

Part Four of Sale Of A Business – - The List

Part Four of Sale Of A Business – - The List

Read Part One – Analytics

Read Part Two – Recast

Read Part Three – IP

Buyers Of A Business – Although this article series is advice for the sale of a business consider the inverse as the questions you should be asking the Seller.

A mature online business should have a “list”. A list that is cultivated and gleaned. Surprising how many new, and experienced, webmasters never use this list of registered users. As an owner a clean list of users, in other words cleaned of non-functional email addresses, can be a huge selling point to a buyer. Thereby maximizing your selling price.

Typically, any email list over 5,000 will require outsourcing in order to manage and utilize your list of registered users. Think about the value. Visitors that felt strong enough about wanting to be updated about your website that they provided their email address. What better way to achieve return visitors than sending a notice of yhour website update.

If you don’t have an email list, start now! It is a very simple process to cultivate an email list. This list is an added value that can maximize your price when you make a sale of your business.

This is Part Four of a multi-part article that will provide the knowledge you need to maximize the sale of a business.

Read Part One of This Multi Article Series – Analytics

Read Part Two of This Multi Article Series – Recast

Read Part Three of This Multi Article Series – IP