Exit Strategies for your eCommerce and Amazon Company

Today we’re going to discuss Exit Strategies for web property owners. There are a number of different players in this segment – those that solely own websites, those that solely sell on Amazon and then there’s a mix of entrepreneurs that sell various items on both their platform as well as on the Seller Central platform and other platforms. When it comes time to sell the assets you’ve created, it’s best to talk to a brokerage that understands those assets the way you do. At WebsiteClosers.com, we have a unique skill set because besides being website brokers, we also own and operate a large portfolio of web properties on a number of different platforms, including a number of Seller Central accounts, eBay accounts and more.

Therefore, we understand virtually every intricacy that goes into backend operations, from inbound marketing tactics, creating social signals to email campaigns and blog work. Utilizing a website brokerage that has these skills, compared to a real estate agent or business broker without our experience, is simply setting yourself up for achieving poor results. So the first thing to think about regarding an Exit Strategy for your business is who you want to represent you during an exit. We focus on listening and learning what your needs are, then consult on market trends and valuation and provide an overall strategy that we think best fits your goals. After we discuss the strategy together, you will be in a better, more informed, position to make a decision about your future.

Another important note about an Exit Strategy for your business is to think about it and prepare for it before you exit. This will help you maximize the price “multiple” buyers are willing to pay for your business, and potentially help from a tax perspective. Additionally, you should think about operations after you’ve left the company. Do you represent over half of all work done in your company? Should you begin offloading some of your work onto your employees (or hire an employee) so that buyers don’t concern themselves with whether they can step in on day one and continue operations as if no change had occurred?

Again, we are here to help. We’ve been through this process many times over. We aren’t interested in selling your business as soon as possible; we’re interested in selling your business for the maximum amount you can possibly achieve. Sometimes this means developing a plan of action for exit and waiting until the time is right. And other times, the right move might be to list the property for sale quickly due to great performance results in the near term. We’ll give you all the tools you need to make the right decision.

Another important note when thinking of an exit strategy is to think about what you’re going to do after you’ve left the company. Even if you do quite well monetarily when you sell your business, likely you’ll need to do something else to generate income in the future. So, will you sign a non-compete, and if so, will it need to be limited? Virtually every Buyer on the market is going to require you to sign a non-compete, but as long as you won’t be competing directly with the business after the sale, most Buyers will work with you. The best advice here is to be upfront with your broker about your intentions after the sale, so that the broker, and not you, can be the negotiator on the non-compete. This will help create objectivity into the discussion and focus solely on the transaction at hand.

And this leads us to our final point for today on exit strategies (we could go on for hours, but this is just a small segment). Some site owners believe that they can simply list their site for sale on a selling platform and the buyers will come. While you might see some results, you should be very cautious. First, there are a lot of tire kickers trolling the Internet for deals; people that want to waste your time and energy without having any real interest in buying your company. Second, even those that do have an interest in actually buying a company might not be a good buyer. By a “good buyer”, I mean that he might not have the liquid capital he says he has, or he may have skeletons in his closet. He might also not be “bankable”.

At WebsiteClosers.com, we can help here in two ways. First, we know how to market your business better than most. We’ll get it in front of our group of VIP buyers, list it in multiple locations and use the power of social media to market your business. Second, we know what lenders look for in a good buyer and we know how to filter through all of the responses we receive to focus on the best. Your time won’t be wasted with questionable buyers.  We will handle the entire process through and through.