It’s always difficult to start everything from scratch, especially when it comes to setting up your business. Instead of that, why don’t you avoid those problems by purchasing an established online business?
In this article, we would like to analyze the advantages and disadvantages, key things to consider, and places to buy a business. Check it below!
Advantages
It’s obvious that buying a business also means you have bought an existing customer base from the old owners. Besides, the whole logistics have already been in place: no matter if it is dropshipping, manufacturer, or wholesale, all of the processes and procedures are all ready to be up and running, therefore can save you a lot of money and effort.
Moreover, an established business prevents you from the risks during several first years. According to a survey, 20% of start-ups can’t survive during the first year, while 60% can’t make it past their first three years.
Last but not least, a settled business can sometimes be a good lesson for you. Based on its annual profits, you can decide to continue the existing market, or should you change into another product for future growth.
Disadvantages
Due to those benefits mentioned above, you need to pay a bigger amount of money when compared to grow a business from the start. In addition to that, if you don’t like some particular steps in the process, it’s not always easy to deal with a third party to change them. That might make you feel like you are lacking control in your business.
Key Things To Consider
During the negotiation with the seller, you should make sure that the price includes the following factors: The domain, email list, branding assets, media accounts, inventory & supplier list, and so on…
Some key information you need to be clear about is:
- Financial history
- Profit margin
- The origin of website traffic
- Reasons why the owner wants to sell their business
- The time they operate the business
Places To Buy A Business
Shopify Exchange: Being Shopify’s own marketplace, the Shopify Exchange now has more than 10,000 stores available to be purchased, ranging from $50 to nearly $1,000,000. The biggest advantage of this website is the ability to see uneditable metrics like revenue and site traffics so that buyers can have the most reliable and clearest view of how the businesses have really worked up to now.
Flippa: Flippa allows merchants to list their online businesses and charge them for that. After that, it will match buyers with suitable sellers, and if the sale takes place, there will be a “success fee” based on the sale price.
Freemarket: It’s free to list on this website; and there is a simple filter to search for potential businesses with some criteria like price, website traffic, and revenue.
Via Brokers: When the marketplace doesn’t work, some investors will look for brokers’ networks to guarantee the best fit for them. One such example is Digital Exits, with the profit reaching $100k every year. Not only do they show available businesses, but they also draw out marketing plans, present a summary of the business, and find multiple buyers around the world.
After successfully purchasing an online business, you can help your Shopify store rank higher on Google with useful SEO tips.