Menu
December 22, 2017 |
Subscribe:
David Fairley estimates he has sold more than 20 online properties but admits it was the sale of Hammocks.com—one of his first exits—that taught him the most.
Fairley had grown Hammocks.com into a seven-figure website with a pre-tax profit of more than $300,000 when he decided to put it up for sale. He received a “low seven-figure” offer and agreed to meet with the buyer.
That’s about when things started to unravel.
The buyer questioned Fairley’s bookkeeping and dropped their price to around $700,000. Exhausted, Fairley felt cornered and decided the only thing he could do was to accept the lower price.
In this cautionary episode, you’ll learn:
Are You Tired of Always Carrying Your Company?
One of the reason Fairley agreed to a lower acquisition price was that he was exhausted by the weight of single-handedly running a seven-figure business. Is your business too dependent on you? If so complete the Value Builder questionnaire to identify some quick ways to free up more of your time.
David is a serial Internet entrepreneur who started a hammock importing business back in the early nineties which he expanded online, establishing an early internet presence that eventually became Hammocks.com. After selling this company, David went on to personally develop, buy and sell over 60 website businesses in multiple niches and of various business models including strollers.com and unicorns.com.
David started WebsiteProperties.com as the first online business brokerage that specializes in selling established and profitable Internet based businesses. For over 12 years, he has helped over 500 internet entrepreneurs successfully sell their business.
Cracking the Amazon e-Commerce Code
Sophie Howard built and sold a 7 figure Amazon e-Commerce business in less than two years. Here’s how she did it.
Bootstrapping a 2-Sided Market to a 7-Figure Exit
Anna Maste built Boondockers Welcome, a kind of Airbnb for RVers, to $100,000 in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) when she received an offer of 3.9 times ARR. Maste was about to accept the offer when some soul searching led Maste to believe she could do much better. That kicked off a two-year journey of building the value of her business.
How To Get Acquired By Facebook (Twice)
The market for digital assistants is booming. Apple has Siri, Amazon has Alexa and Google has Google Assistant. Now, thanks to Charles Jolley, Facebook has Ozlo, a digital assistant designed to outsmart Siri and Alexa at their own game.
Lessons from Home Depot’s Acquisition of a $100 Million Juggernaut Blinds.com
Jay Steinfeld started selling blinds online in 1993. The e-commerce pioneer went on to build Blinds.com into a $100 million category killer before Home Depot decided enough was enough and made Steinfeld an offer he couldn’t refuse.
In this episode, Stephan Spencer details three strategies he pursued to withdraw from his business’s day-to-day operations. By 2010, he was able to take a six-month sabbatical which ultimately lead to a sale in 2010 with only a six-month earnout.
From Food Stamps To A Seven-figure Exit
While Michael Pedone survived off of food stamps as a kid, he dreamed of living a lifestyle where money wasn’t scarce. Fast-forward a few decades, and Pedone sold his first company for $1.2MM.
Julie Cole and her partners built Mabel’s Labels into a $10 million business before acquisition in early 2016. Cole and her partners were able to add hundreds of thousands of dollars to their sell price using this negotiation technique.
Part of what made Mabel’s Labels attractive to Avery was the brand Cole and her partners had created. To see how your brand will impact the value of your business, get your Value Builder Score and turn to the section in the report titled “Monopoly Control”.
How to Turn Beta Users into Customers Plus 3 Other Stories
This week, we’re featuring four recent guests and highlighting transferrable lessons they shared about exiting their company.
The Philosophy of Building to Sell
Dan Faggella started Science of Skill, an e-commerce website selling self-defense videos and paraphernalia, in 2013. His goal was to sell the business as soon as possible, and he started soliciting offers just 14 months later.
Bitcoin – The Investor vs. The Acquirer
Back in 2013, Dave Ripley became fascinated with Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency market was gaining notoriety and Ripley and a friend decided to start Glidera, a company focused on creating tools to help developers integrate cryptocurrency.
How Much Are Your Employees Worth To An Acquirer?
Impact LABS had no hard assets and little intellectual property, so why would ContextLabs want to acquire them for millions?
A strategic acquisition is a different animal. The strategic acquirer will place a value based on how much more of their product they can sell, which is exactly what Business Objects did when they bought Next Action Technologies, for 8X revenue.
