Buying an existing online business?

Before you have a successful online business up and running, it will take 6-12 months. Have you set your sights on an online business with good positions in Google? Then add another 6-12 months. All beginnings are difficult, and that is certainly also the case for setting up a profitable online business.

You can skip the initial process and take over an existing online business. This will save you a lot of time, in return for an investment. In this article, we will discuss points of interest in such an acquisition.

Buying an existing online business

Buying an online business gives you some great advantages. Often there is already turnover, contact with suppliers, accounting and, of course, the online business itself. When you go to buy an existing online business, you have less to do with these factors initially. In addition, the seller has already taken the risk that the online business will not generate a successful business. After all, you are buying a online business with a track record.

The price of a online business

If you are going to buy an existing online business, there are a number of factors that can push the price up considerably. For example, if you immediately have to buy the current stock or if the seller bases the price of the online business on turnover he expected to make in the future. Our advice is first of all to use a broad-based valuation methodology to come to a price with the seller that you both find acceptable. But whichever way you arrive at a price, when the online business has proven itself, the acquisition price will reflect this success and will require an investment.

On the other hand, starting an online business yourself from scratch also has its drawbacks. Constantly tweaking that design, creating valuable content, building SEO positions, fine-tuning the technology or building a regular customer base can be a long and expensive process. On average, starting a serious online business quickly costs 25,000-30,000 euros. If you want to buy an existing online business and are unsure whether it would not be better to start it yourself from scratch, this is definitely something to consider.

Ways to find an existing online business

If someone is possibly thinking about selling their online business they will not immediately describe it in large letters on their online business. Showing that an online business is for sale will quickly cost many customers. Hence, there is usually nothing to show on the online business itself. But as in other business sales, there are special intermediaries and websites for this. These range from simple ads on marketplaces to full purchase assistance.

Risks when buying a online business

Always make sure you research carefully what price you should pay for a online business. In many cases it is based on, for example, numbers of visitors and generated turnover. But does this mean that sufficient profit is actually being made? For example, what are the costs of those visitors? If there are a lot of advertising costs attached to those visitor numbers, then this really has no value at all. After all, we can all advertise! (Effective and cheap advertising is a second) Visitor numbers can therefore drop quickly in the event of an acquisition. For example, the seller may have mentioned his online business on many other websites, such as on his Facebook page, on LinkedIn or on a Startpage subsidiary page he managed. If he no longer owns it, these links will be removed, which may save less direct visits, or even visits from search engines. You will have to rebuild all of this yourself.

So always do good research before purchasing an online business.

Benefits of taking over an existing online business

You no longer have to worry about creating the website, finding suppliers or buying the domain name. Because all of that has already been done. Often there is still quite a bit of stock and if you are lucky, the website already has quite a few visitors. So you can get started right away. And with problems, you can probably still ask the seller for help.

Other Benefits:

An existing customer base
Backlinks to the online business
Existing inventory
Does promotional work

Disadvantages of taking over an existing online business

But there are also disadvantages to taking over a ready-made online business. You have not set up the business from scratch, so some elements are probably not entirely to your liking. In addition, the start-up period often consists mainly of hard work and a lot of investment, but during this start-up period you also get to know an online business through and through. You are present at every decision and every problem, so your business will no longer have any secrets. When buying an online business, you are jumping into the deep end. The new online business is not your product, so you will have to get to know the business with all its peculiarities first.

Check out the overview with all businesses for sale.