Sale Of A Business – Growth

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Mar 212011

Part Eight of Sale Of A Business – Growth

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

Part Six of Sale Of A Business – Gotchas!

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.

Every owner needs to have a growth plan. The question of the future of your online business will be asked by every single buyer that reviews your business. As the owner you can probably articulate actions you would take to grow your business. However, can you back it up? A buyer enjoys the excitement you express about the future of your business; but when they consider what you say will they translate that into “intrinsic” value of your online business?

Although every potential buyer will want to know what you think of your online business future they will not put much weight on this when calculating the value of your business. The value of your business is based on historical results.

From time to time I get a call from a new online business owner. They want to tell me how much they spent, and how beautiful and effective, on building their website. I acknowledge their wonderful online investment, but ask how is traffic and revenue growing. Sometimes the response is, “I am working on it”. Meaning it is a great looking website, all the bells and whistles, that is floundering in trying to find visitor traffic and income.

Let me say, I have seen some really ugly websites that are making obnoxious money! The key is income over beauty. The key is pleasing both the “reader” and the “robot”.

The lesson here is your visitor and income history is your key to maximizing the sale of a business. The buzz is showing your future. Though, showing your future with facts more than excitement.

Some tools to see what your future might look like factually:

Google Trends – The trend of searches for your keywords.

Google News – Is your category increasing or decreasing in news articles. This can portend the future interest in your category of Internet Business Opportunity. Imagine the news articles increasing related to “radiation poisoning”. If your category of online business has radiation testers you are probably noting a dramatic increase in traffic and sales.

Quantcast – What are your competitors up to? Check how your target market matches up with other websites. Do you see adjustments to make in your target market. In my category, “Internet Business Opportunity” new buyer consultations are down, new inquiries on listings are up, and consultation to existing online business owners is up.

What is happening in your category? How are you adjusting your online business? Keep up to date on your business category to show the best results for the sale of a business.

This is Part Eight 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.