Is $10500 a good offer for my business?

Greetings:
I have been diagnosed a serious disease and I will have to change many things in my life style. Accordingly, I will have to make a series of treatments and so on so I am forced to sell my business.
I want to thank all who helped me and with whom I made a friendship connection.
My business is content providing. I provide original web content and e-book ghostwriting services as well as copywriting.
My address www.articlesandcontent.com and my traffic stats:

Monthly Statistics for April 2005

Total Hits 49148
Total Files 23781
Total Pages 3115
Total Visits 1084
Total KBytes 163860

Total Unique Sites 889
Total Unique URLs 259
Total Unique Referrers 167
Total Unique Usernames 1
Total Unique User Agents 220

. Avg Max

Hits per Hour 81 1042
Hits per Day 1965 8390
Files per Day 951 4072
Pages per Day 124 440
Visits per Day 43 148
KBytes per Day 6554 27365

Hits by Response Code

Code 200 - OK 23781
Code 206 - Partial Content 34
Code 301 - Moved Permanently 6
Code 302 - Found 22
Code 304 - Not Modified 4901
Code 401 - Unauthorized 46
Code 404 - Not Found 20358

My revenue:
I made around $1500 in the month of April, after paying all my writers ( they are seven) . I do not pay hosting- I have an agreement with my host.I just had my site redesigned and I also barter with my web designer. I am providing him also with original content for free.
I was offered $10500 for my business. Do you think this is a fair offer?
I need to sell it soon but I am afraid of being offered too low a price. I mean, in twelve months you could have $ 18.000 and remember, this is only a new business and I am already making a good amount. I am also selling my list of clients, I have several regular clients-mostly Sao’s and web marketers have a client that makes me $500 orders once every two weeks, the least. I can show proof of payments received and sent (from me to my writers).
I am signing up for adsense before I sell it, so the buyer will also have an extra revenue income.
Please any thoughts about this?
Am I being offered a fair price?
Thank you
Vera

 

A general rule seems to be atleast a years income, so I think you should ask atleast USD18,000.

P.S. Very pleased with the articles you sent me.

 

Based on what you've outlined, I would not sell for less than two years income. It sounds like it has a proven track record and it is making money now which is verifiable. I'd go for $40k.

 

At least 18,000. Its a nice clean site with no inventory and a proven track record. If you can show growth, I would say you should get more.

If I was buying it it would hinge on the employees as I would want to make sure they weren't going to leave as soon as the business was purchased as they are the biggest part of the valuation.

 

Thank you so much for your advice. I am in contact with my potential seller right now. He is not ready to offer more than the initial $10500 so I guess I am going to auction it on the buy sell section. Thank you for your support.If anyone knows of any good resource where I can sell my site, I would appreciate it. Either way, I am making an auction here and see how it goes.
Thank you very much
best wishes to you and yours

 

I would maybe take the price - if you need the cash fast and I would take a small % of the company.

That would show good will. As yfs1 said, It will give the clients and staff a better sense of security. If you feel you can handle it.

BTW: you are welcome to take a recommedation testimonial from me before you sell.

 

My writers are staying. Unless for two writers I need to let go ( they are not showing a good work) but I am hiring two more before I sell.All my writers are professionals and one of them is in the process of publishing her first novel. They all were tested and instructed on how to write for the web .The site comes with the staff .
Thank you for your good words.
best wishes to you and yours

 

I'd say it depends a lot on how much effort you had to put in to make that $1500. If you were putting in 12 hour days, every day, to come up with the $1500 profit, then I'd take the $10500 in a heartbeat. OTOH, if you were only putting in ten minutes a day to bring in the $1500, I'd hold out for a lot more than $10500. That's the problem with simplistic X times your revenue figures, they don't take into consideration factors like the amount of effort it takes.

I'm sorry to hear the reason you're selling. I'll remember you in my prayers.

 

I would be ready to stay on board for maybe one month to help running the place and help the new owner getting used to the business. My writers are aware that I am selling , they are sad but they understand my reasons. I think you are probbaly right Dan, I should stay at least a couple fo weeks after I sell just to give trust to the new owner and my writers. I do not think I can handle it more than one month thou.And thank you for offering your testimonial. It has been a pleasure to work for you
Vera

 

Thank you Peter.They are greatly appreciated.
I work about four hours a day to come up with that sort of income.And no week-ends. Hopefully the new owner will have better conditions to run it fulltime and make it a goldmine

 

I am not an expert on your type of business, but if I were valuing your business I would start by figuring out how hard it would be to imitate it. If at the end of the day someone could be where you are at in less than 7 months (7*1500profit= approx 10,500) than I would do it myself. Is that possible?
Good luck!

 

I used to be a poor man's expert on company valuation, what the various members of the group are saying is valid, however the bottom line is that the business is only worth what you can get for it with the terms that you can get for it.

There are several rules of thumb for different industries, it could be argued that your business is worth $100k, but you have to consider what else is available for someone with $10k, $40k, or $100k.

So far we don't know how many hours a week you have to put in on this business, whether the competition is ramping up or down, what level of skill is required, what potential there is for someone with other skills, Could your business be duplicated for $10k, are there busineses that could be bought for $10k that would be less work, etc.

As far as value of the traffic for advertising it is less than zero, 1000 visitors per month wouldn't pay for the hassel of setting up advertising on it.

Personally I think that you have a business that would be difficult to sell for a premium price, and that $10,500 is a good price. The main reason is that I think that someone that had the skill to run this business profitably and make it grow could duplictate it for less than that amount. Your main advantage is immediate cash flow. If I were you I would run it by my 7 writers and see if one of them would be interested in the business at a higher price, and take the best offer.

Best regards
wiz

 

I just wanted to say I am sorry to hear of your illness and pray for your safe and healthy recovery.

 

Sorry to hear about your illness, all the best for a healthy recovery.

As regards your business valuation, seeing as I think the business is only one month old, you would be unlikely to get 12 months projected income, you would need 6 months income to show stability, hence the offer you received I believe would be a very fair one for such a new site without a good time period of stats to back it up.

 

I will remember you in my prayers too. Really sorry to hear about your illness.

 

Note: Only bother with what I'm about to say if you don't REALLY need the 10,000 or 18,000 right now !!

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If the site might make 10,000/month in 6-10 months, why not keep it ?

Let an accountant pay the employees, and contract a webmaster to maintain and advance the service.

Your business really sounds like a goldmine - especially if it started making that income in a few months.

I can't tell you when, but I know I would love to pay for exclusive content like this. There is a huge need for this service...

Then again, with your experience you could always sell now and start over when healed...

 

That is what I am planning to do. I really don’t have the psychological means to run this business now and I need the money for health expenses that are appearing to be higher everyday. When I heal, I expect to start over yes. I know exactly how to raise clients again etc etc
For now, I need to sell it and need to take this responsibility of my shoulders. I am thinking it will not be easy. I am not getting any offers; maybe I started the bidding at a very high price. But, again, I would rather OFFER it to one of my writers than sell it for pennies. This business has a great value for me. Thou the articlesandcontent company is only up for a few months, I have been working as a writer and web content provider for five years now and that was why I was so successful. I already had my own clients and contacts and reputation.
I will lower the BIN price.
If anyone has any recommendations as to where I should try to sell it, I would appreciate.
Thank you very much

 

Website For Sale - Purchase - Barter - Trade Forum
http://www.geekvillage.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=61

Buyers are constantly looking for buys there... I purchased a website there before.
Then used escrow.com to send the funds.

 

Sorry to hear about your illness. We will be praying for a speedy recovery.

On the business valuation, as YFS and a few others have said, the fact that the business is very new (no track record/income history to speak of) and there are a few unknown variables (employees, employees, employees) it is tough to sit here and say, "Your business is worth $xyz." If we were talking about a website that had been operating with Adsense or some other advertising network on it for 2 years, it would be easier to say what a 'market' price is. I would also be concerned as a buyer that you plan on returning to the marketplace in the future when you have recovered.

In any event, I wish you good luck, happiness and health.

 

Thank you for your good wishes.
Thou I plan to return to the business, ArticlesandContent´s clients are the company´s clients and they will stick with the company. they are with me for my writers and the writers will stay.

Vera