We’ve discussed the many options when it comes to starting the best business in college. If you’ve been following along you also know what online business tools you need to get started with a bang. Now it’s time for us to look at the completely polar side of this spectrum. As important as starting a business is, deciding to sell your business (or not) is just as important.
Let’s say that you end up launching your own small business and you run it for a few years. The business starts to generate some decent revenue. You’re enjoying the work and the money is good. A few more months or even years go by and you’re tired of working on your business. You want to get out of the game. You don’t want your business to just fade. You also don’t have the mental or physical energy left to continue running it at a level of high quality.
What do you do? Do you sell your business? Do you let the business die down on its own?
I wanted to look at the idea of getting out of the game by presenting both sides to the argument of selling your business.
Should you sell your online business?
There are many personal finance blogs (and general blogs) that have sold in the last few years. The top two that I want to mention are Get Rich Slowly and Bargaineering. These blogs became extremely popular over time and thus highly profitable. JD mentioned that he was burned out and the economy had just collapsed when he was given the opportunity to sell. He ended up selling the blog to Quinstreet Inc. The price tag wasn’t revealed but we can assume that it was over a million dollars.
The best part for both bloggers is that after buying the blogs, the companies allowed both bloggers to still post articles on their respective blogs. Actually let me rephrase it. The bloggers are not only allowed to still post, but they earn a salary to stay on board. Sounds like a decent offer to me.
I also do realize that there are more online businesses than just personal finance blogs. I just wanted to speak about a topic that I’m familiar on.
What’s the case for selling your business?
If selling your business wasn’t worth it, then nobody would ever put their online business up for sale. Why’s it worth selling your business?
- You can get out of the game. If you’re really burned out or just tired of the field, you can sell your business and get out of the game. This can be the best decision that you make when it comes to your health. Being constantly burned out just isn’t worth it.
- Start a new business. It could be time for your to start a new business in a totally unrelated field. This is totally normal and if you have a new passion, why not chase after it?
- Selling your business is a nice pay day. When you sell your business you get a decent pay day. This is money that you could do a whole lot with. You could pay off your debt, figure out how the stock market works to make some more money, or just save it up for a rainy day.
Those are three clear points in favor of selling your business. I’m sure there are more so please feel free to leave a note in the comments section.
What are the negatives of putting your online business up for sale?
As great as the pay day can be when selling your business, there are also plenty of negatives to getting out of the game.
- You haven’t reached your full potential yet. The online game is always changing. You never know what’s going to happen next. Why get out before you hit your full potential?
- The burnout is temporary. You’re not going to be exhausted forever. Sometimes we just go through a stressful time in life where we feel totally burned out. That’s normal. Things will get better eventually and you might regret selling your business.
Those are the main negatives to getting out of the game.
Have you thought about selling your business?
Great advice in your article. You are so right, selling the business can be a big payday but you might be giving up before the business has reached its potential. That’s a hard decision to make, to sell or not to sell.