John Concrane August 31, 2019

Buy a business? There are several places where you can sell your business or buy a an established business. Businesses are bought and sold every day, maybe you want to enter a new market or you want to exit a market. Maybe you think your business will expand to a new level with another person leading and you reached the ceiling of how high you can develop it. Let’s see some successful business deals and discuss a little about places where you can buy or sell a business.

Any business can be sold! Even websites, that are not really businesses, can be sold for a lot of money. Deadline Hollywood started off as a column in the LA weekly, in 2002 by Nikki Finke. The column itself was basically an informative entertainment column based around the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Nikki decided to take her now well-known columnto the online world, and the site first went live in 2006 as a blog. She decided upon calling it the ‘Deadline Hollywood Daily’. It was so popular that in 2009 the Mail Media Corporation bought it from her in a lucrative deal with $14 million. The website has since been changed to deadline.com. Wonkette is a website that was established in January 2004, it was part of the Gawker Media Network, and it’s founding editor was Ana Marie Cox, who has also been the editor of the well known website suck.com. Gawker Media thought a downturn in the internet boom was on the horizon, and not wanting to lose all the money they had poured into the website they sold it. The buyers were Ken Layne and his business partners, paying $12 Million in 2006. It’s also worth mentioning that Ken Layne was also the editor of the site at the time he and his partners bought it.

Advices for selling a business: Finding the right broker and/or consultant to help you sell your business is crucial to your success. Often business owners go with the first person they meet just to list their business and get the process going. This can cost you time and money in the long run. Within a few months, you may see no results and have to go on the search all over again. Taking time to interview many brokers and looking at a realistic outcome of what is expected will get you going in the right direction. In my case, I signed up with the first broker I spoke with. He seemed like the perfect person to sell my business. After all, he had a background in retail (and that was my industry), he was friendly and best of all he came up with a BIG price tag. Unfortunately, it was too good to be true because he was asking too much. By raising the price he got me to sign the contract but never made the sale. After six wasted months without even a lead, I finally decided to move on. Learning from my mistake, I interviewed 12 more brokers before signing another contract. See extra info on Buy a business or sell a business.

Shopify Exchange is one of the newest marketplaces you can use to buy and sell online businesses, and it’s the only platform that specifically focuses on Shopify businesses. There are advantages and disadvantages to this, but the main advantage is that when you buy an online business for sale on the Shopify Exchange, you know you’re getting a Shopify store. Since Shopify is one of the top and most highly recommended ecommerce platforms in the industry, (we discuss why in our Shopify Review: The Pros & Cons of Selling on Shopify article) this is a good thing! It’s also great because Shopify sellers integrate their stores directly with the Shopify Exchange, so they can’t edit or change any of the data that gets pulled into their store’s sales listing like their traffic and revenue numbers. This means that you’re less likely to have any of that important information withheld from you by the seller.

Speaking of Shopify stores, back in November 2017 Shopify officially launched Exchange after testing the model on their website (subdomain exchange.shopify.com to be exact). Model is very simple in this marketplace. You can buy established stores and starter stores that are based only on Shopify. So if you are into dropshipping, for example, this could be the perfect gateway! Why? In these listings you already have almost everything laid out, and in some cases, even the inventory is stocked up! Although you can theoretically get your foot in the door by buying a low-value store with $500, and there are a few stores priced that low. I wouldn’t recommend it. Usually, what I’ve seen, stores that make some sense are priced at $7,000, all the way up to $2.5 million (highest I’ve seen on the time of creation of this post). Out of all the marketplaces listed here, this one is the newest.

Craigslist is a no-frills, essentially text-based marketplace for virtually any and all products sold. The site is categorized by Country, State, Territory, with listings from the United States to Africa. Clicking on a specific State or Territory allows merchants to post products to sell based within the “For Sale” and “Services” sections. Once registered merchants can create a Craigslist post and upload an image and description; the post “masks” the contact email so that the seller remains anonymous to individuals looking to purchase items or services. Craigslist has the look and feel of old-school online forums; there are no product amount limits, no buyer or seller programs, and few restrictions. A good place to sell products but not the best place to drive your business marketing strategy. You might be surprised by the sales volume you get off Craigslist.

BizForSell works as a hub for business brokers as well. Business sellers can search and contact business brokers on the website to assist them with the selling process or business brokers can post advertisements themselves to find buyers of their clients’ business. All the related stakeholders can help each other this way through BizForSell connection. Moreover, we also allow registered brokers to publish business related blogs and connect to businesses in general. We offer very convenient options for sellers, buyers, and brokers of businesses. Business buyers can easily browse businesses locally and find the best possible deal . With a fast-growing audience of sellers, buyers, and brokers, you can be sure of finding something suitable for you on this marketplace if you search! We provide solutions to sellers, buyers and brokers worldwide. Source: https://www.bizforsell.com.