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How to Sell Your Business or Brand

Looking to get out from underneath your company but don’t know what to do? Your Company, Brand or Business may be worth more than you think. Don’t kill it, try to sell it. If you are looking at selling an online business or social media account, keep reading.

Do you have a great product, a company or a brand you have built? Maybe you even have a successful Etsy store you want to sell. Perhaps you don’t have the capital or time to invest anymore – but you know the brand and the company is still worth something. Sometimes there are many reasons why a person can’t move forward with their company. When this happens, think about selling your company, don’t kill it.

Your Brand or Company May Be Worth More than You Think

Capitalism, as its name suggests, is based on the ownership of Capital. What is capital? Basically, capital is anything that can be traded for something else. Any amount of money is capital, as it can be traded for a huge variety of things. Personal items are also capital because they can be sold. Items such as houses, cars, and ‘other items of value’ fall under this category.

Capital is anything of value that can be turned into cash. If a blog is earning a #1 spot on Google, it’s worth about $250,000 in Google SEO Adwords for search results alone. But unless it’s a blog that can turn a profit for products sold, it’s nothing more than good content. That is, unless, it’s in the hands of someone who knows how to really market a blog to its fullest potential.

But in Economics 101, we learned what Capitalism is. And it usually boiled down to a tangible item like a house or a car. In reality, there may be digital goods that far outweigh a tangible object in monetary value. We need to start thinking about that idea more.

A lot of business owners and even small Etsy makers, crafters, etc. don’t know what to do with the small business or brand they have spent years building, so they just quit. That’s the worst thing to do. Because you just never know if there is someone out there looking for what you’ve built. And you could be underestimating what you HAVE.

Yes, You Can Sell Your Social Media Account

A lot of people are now in the internet real estate business of selling their Instagram accounts. Sites like FameSwap or Social Tradia let you buy and sell Instagram accounts with engaged audiences. So, the process of getting traction for your product is kind of turnkey. YouTuber, Thor Aarsand talks about flipping Instagram accounts for profit.

Think about it: If you have built up a social media following, a list of customers, a product that is scalable and blog content, etc. you have a solid foundation and a brand. Now, I’m not saying that every brand created is worth half a million dollars, but your brand could be worth more than you think. And if you can no longer stand to look at it, it could be a fresh new venture for someone else, and a little cash in your pocket.

How to be safe with buying an Instagram account

Make sure the person actually owns the account they are selling. Make sure they send you a message from
The Gmail account linked to that IG account must be sold with the IG account for your safety.
Request a video call to validate the Seller
How does the seller want to proceed in selling? Escrow, PayPal or a Broker is the best way to do the transaction (Buy with ‘Goods and Services’ if you’re going thru PayPal)
Make sure you get the login details foGmail gmail account linked with the IG account and then change the passwords to both
Change the IG account to a Business account. If it is already a business account, change to Personal and then back to Business.

Buying Established Businesses

A lot of people are looking to buy already established businesses, or breathe new life in old business that existed decades ago. If you think about it, it makes sense: Buy a company with a product or brand that is already known, or a proven seller. Such is the case for old brands getting a new life and being bought for low prices at auction. Or take Narragansett Brewing Co., which was founded in 1890, closed it’s doors in 1985 and was purchased in 2005. The stories are inspiring: old brands getting new life

Maybe you have a website in place with e-commerce and the product just needs a little tweaking or marketing expertise. Farmhouse Fresh products are awesome products on their own, but the reason it became wildly successful so quickly is that it was in the hands of a marketing professional who got it in the hands of Oprah. She knew how to do this. There are hundreds of Farmhouse Fresh-esque products out there on Etsy who will never see the pages of Martha Stewart Living or Oprah’s Favorite Things because they don’t have a PR or Marketing professional behind them.

If you aren’t sure if you want to sell your business outright and just need to raise capital or seed funding, check out my article on Angel Investors and Venture Capital Firms

What is your company worth, or How much can you sell your business for?

Valuing a company can be tricky, but the general rule of thumb is to think of a business as a stream of cash. Then value your business based on that stream of cash. Revenue is the best approximation of a business’s worth. If the business sells $100,000 per year, you can think of it as a $100,000 revenue stream. Depending on what your business or product is can make it harder to value.

Do you offer products or services?
Are your products scalable (meaning, can they be made or recreated by someone other than you)?
Do you see a long term future and growth with your products or service?

You can also take your current YTD sales and combine it with marketability and future growth estimate to give you a basic ballpark figure for what your asking price can be.

For example:

“Bridget’s Widgets” creates cloth dolls and sells through her online Etsy store. She has been in business for 3 years. Her first year she sold $4,000 worth of product. In year 2 she sold $8,000 worth of product and in her 3rd year, she is at $15,000 per year. Based on the current yearly sales and the steady growth in sales per year, we can see that her client base is growing and sales are steady and increasing. Her product is one that can be scaled and either recreated in-house or outsourced by a factory. We also know that the long-term growth for her brand/product could easily be sold for the next 10 years.

Based on that info, we can estimate that Bridgets Widgets the Company is worth somewhere around $32,000

Here is a helpful business valuation calculator I have found online to give you a rough estimate of your company’s worth.

Be totally honest about your financial figures and any assumptions, as fabrication serves nobody when buying or selling a company. Note the smallest grey circle, that will be your estimated business value based on your calculations.

Selling Your Business

A lot of people are intimidated by the thought of selling their company, or they don’t even think about it when the need arises. We are still kind of stuck in an old mindset and fail to realize that online businesses (or products) are definitely worth something. Don’t fall into the mindset thinking your business or product isn’t worth anything to anyone else. If you have a product, a following and sales, it is worth something to the right person looking for it. Keep in mind, it may not be thousands of dollars, but it is worth something to someone, and you owe it to yourself to find out.

A lot of business buyers won’t even touch a company unless it is turning major profits but what I think they fail to see is if the product and idea is there, the growth they want can happen if it’s just marketed well. Business buyers have the chance to get in on a ground floor opportunity and earn quite a bit for a product that is already doing well (with a limited budget).

Bottom line: If you have a strong company or brand you have built online, you have a company that is worth something. Let the buyers decide what it’s worth if you’re not sure. Your Following and client list alone could be worth something. Don’t discount the hard work you have invested in your company, product(s) or brand over the years.

The best places online to buy or sell a company:

Flippa -So far, this is a #1 site for selling or buying websites (mostly). There are a lot of turnkey websites and blogs listed here.

Businesses For Sale. com I like simple, user-friendly interface of this website a lot. If I were going to list a business for sale, I might go with this one. Although I do think BizBuySell gets better traffic (see below)

Merger Network MergerNetwork is a social network for business professionals. Create a post about the type of business you want to buy or sell, and send it to your connections. It seems to be relatively active, but I am not sure how it is working for the members.

eBay – People list physical businesses as well as online businesses, e-commerce sites and blogs here all the time.

BizBuySell, You can list your business for sale or browse and find a business for sale on this website. There are also brokers out there who may be willing to sell your company for you.

BusinessBroker.net This is a good site to list and find businesses for sale. As with the others, the pricing is about the same to list ($99 for 2 months)

BizQuest BizQuest is also like BizBuySell. There are all kinds of businesses listed, from Franchises to indepently owned Hair Salons to online gift basket businesses.

KEY: Once you list your business for sale, make sure you are utilizing social media to get the word out. Use Twitter, a blog (great for SEO) and Facebook, and share the link to your business listing for sale.

LinkedIn – You can try posting your business or website for sale in a relevant group board. I have found this Buy/Sell Business Group, however, I have requested to join twice and still no response. So unless you are approved by the moderator, you won’t be able to post or connect there.

Find a Business Broker – Most brokers may only deal with higher profit businesses, so unless your company is turning hefty profits, it might not be in their best interest to sell your company, as they earn a cut from the sale. Still, worth exploring.

Can Being Fired from a Job Cause PTSD?

When we hear the term PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) we automatically think: War Vets, medical first-responders, victims of violent crimes and experiences. But have you ever stopped to think that a form of PTSD can also affect anyone, even the average guy or gal who never served in combat or witnessed a traumatic scene or experience?

I am going to refer to this experience as ‘PDE’, or Past Distressing Experience because rightfully so, I cannot call it a Disorder if it is not diagnosed or diagnosable by a doctor. Secondly, I hate the word “disorder.”

I feel as though it holds entirely too much power than it deserves.

I recently discovered that PDE can affect anyone, at any time and for a variety of reasons, not just violent traumas. Let’s first think about trauma and what it means.

Trauma is a deeply distressing or disturbing experience.

Can You Have PTSD from Job Loss or Being Fired?

Can suddenly losing a job be a traumatic experience? Of course it can. Can being left with nowhere to turn and no money in reserves be a traumatic experience? Absolutely. The trauma can affect our entire state of well-being. We rely so much on our jobs for emotional and financial security, stability, identity, provision, future plans, the roof over our heads, food in our refrigerators and warmth. Imagine what it feels like when this is suddenly taken from us without warning. Can this not cause a devastating effect, a deeply distressing and/or disturbing experience? Of course it can.

Related Reads:

How to Deal With Energy Vampires

How to Manifest Your Perfect Job

Should You Quit Your Day Job for your Day Dream?

There aren’t any terms or words for those who experience trauma in our lives. We aren’t given permission to grieve or process trauma when we go through it unless it’s “real trauma” or horrific.

Who gets to slide the scales on what’s traumatic enough to be called PTSD? Dr. London says it best in his article relating to PTSD-like symptoms:

I have seen a fair number of cases where people had symptoms that masqueraded as anxiety and depressive disorders, but when we explored the historical events in a person’s life, these symptoms could be traced to milder traumatic or unpleasant experiences that are not normally associated with PTSD. And yet, their symptoms were exactly those of PTSD. In my experience, a milder traumatic event does not necessarily lead to a milder set of symptoms.

Causes of PTSD

PTSD (or PDE) can happen to anyone, and for a variety of reasons. Regardless of the circumstances, it’s essentially a huge loss of any kind that rocks your life upside down. You may suffer a major loss and disruption of lifestyle, or even the betrayal of trust, or the loss of a relationship. We can all experience trauma from shock, betrayal, and loss in many different forms and from different sources, whether a job loss, a death of someone close, a house fire or bankruptcy, walking in on a cheating spouse or seeing something horrific that continues to haunt us.

The emotional impact can be the same.

Symptoms of PTSD

If you are not sure if what you’ve experienced, or what you are currently experiencing is PDE or PTSD, here are some of the signs:

Having recurrent nightmares, flashbacks, upsetting thoughts, or memories; feeling distressed when you’re reminded of it; having physical symptoms, such as a racing heart or sweating when it comes to mind; irritability, jumpiness, angry outbursts, or difficulty sleeping; or feeling distant, negative, or uninterested in activities you used to enjoy.

If you are experiencing trauma from a loss, or job loss, I encourage you to give yourself permission to grieve and feel whatever shock, pain or loss you feel. Talk to someone (a friend, relative or professional) about how you feel and work through difficult feelings.

In time, it will pass and you’ll come out on the other side with a lot more clarity and wisdom from the experience.

On a Personal Note:

I experienced a form of PTSD after a job experience and loss a few years ago. It was hard moving through those feelings, but once I learned what it was that I was experiencing, it helped me to navigate and overcome the fear and negative emotions. I realized the job I “lost” was nothing more than a job with a toxic environment. And while being cut loose was the best thing that could have happened, the portion that caused the most trauma was not having a plan in place when it happened. Relying too heavily on an untrustworthy company to give me what I needed to give myself (security) put me in a place of vulnerability. Ask yourself what you can do to empower yourself, or explore what you learned from your experience and how you can set yourself up for success the next time you’re in a workplace that feels unstable or toxic. If you find yourself in a job where there is no stability, give yourself permission to leave, and change the scene.

The Anatomy of the Bubble in Fashion

Let’s take a classic Bubble pattern (mind you, this is schematic of a financial bubble):

Bubbles happen when the price of (fill in the blank) rises to an extreme level – way beyond its fair market value. So what causes a product’s price to rise so high? The simplified reason is strong demand and, of course, investors and businesses capitalizing on that demand.

Generally bubbles are used in relation to Housing or Financial, but I see the same ebb and flow in our Fashion and Fast Fashion industry.

As explained by John Mauldin, Bubbles generally operate on 5-part phases:

1. Displacement (All bubbles start with some basis in reality. Often, it is a new disruptive technology that gets everyone excited, although Kindleberger says it doesn’t need to involve technological progress.)

2. Boom (Once a bubble starts, a convincing narrative gains traction and the narrative becomes self-reinforcing.)

3. Euphoria (In the euphoria phase, everyone becomes aware that they can make money by buying stocks in, creating and/or selling Widget X)

4. Crisis (The momentum is disrupted. In the case with retail, it’s generally by a flooded market of competition and lowered price points. The only way to sell is to offer prices at a much lower level. The bubble bursts, and euphoric buying (producing) is replaced by panic selling. The panic selling in a bubble is like the Roadrunner cartoons. The coyote runs over a cliff, keeps running, and suddenly finds that there is nothing under his feet.)

5. Revulsion (Just as prices became wildly out of line during the early stages of a bubble, in the final stage of revulsion, prices overshoot their fundamental values. In other words, consumers discover the ugly truths of marketing, inflated pricing and the products themselves)

The first recorded bubble occurred in the Netherlands during the early 1600’s and involved tulips (yes, the flower). Tulips became so popular that their price soared, even to the point where some bulbs allegedly cost more than 10 x the annual wage of a skilled worker.

Sounds silly, right? There are similarities, however.

The average cost to manufacture a yoga legging in China = $6

Retail Cost = $90

Demand upon entering market: High

Why? New. Different. Comfy

Worker’s wage to manufacture that legging = $1.78/hr.

I can see this Bubble in our entire fast fashion industry, but for the sake of simplicity, I will narrow it down to say, jeans and activewear (yoga pants).

Denim hit quite a boom for several years and the premium denim market was soaring to great heights. Premium denim was king and everyone started producing with Italian, US and Japanese fabrics. LAs garment district for denim was crazy. Big brands emerged from nowhere and exclusive boutique brands popped up all the time before burning out. Denim’s bubble definitely burst when companies started creating premium fitting denim without the premium price. As a result, consumers found value in brands such as Uniqlo and American Eagle. A lot of companies either went under, lowered prices considerably or sold their brand to dept. stores like Kohls (Rock & Republic). The premium denim companies who are still alive after the bubble are struggling to climb and compete with: Yoga Pants.

Activewear has been around for a long time, and it was gaining popularity in 2005, followed by a slight decline before it began to rise again in 2011 (1. Displacement). But Activewear really begin to soar around 2015 (namely yoga pants), outselling Jeans. Leggings became the new jeans and the price and numbers reflected as such. (2. Boom)

Leggings followed the premium denim market, and it wasn’t unusual to see leggings retailing for $90, although in reality, the true cost of manufacturing spandex or nylon leggings in large scale production in China is only about $6-$8 per piece (far less than the average $15-$35 manufacturing of better to premium quality jeans). The machines involved with manufacturing a legging are roughly 3, whereas jeans require about 8 different sewing machines and also require more skilled labor as well as washing and finishing machines, techniques and processes.

So it stands to reason that what we are seeing in Activewear is also trend and a Bubble created not only by consumer demand for new, fresh and comfortable, but the capitalization (over-capitalization) of this demand. The hot trend of activewear has allowed brands, manufacturers and investors to do what they do best: jump on a bandwagon and run it into the ground and saturate the market.

What we saw in 2014-2015 was new yoga wear brands and existing brands expanding to activewear (3. Euphoria)

Rebrand, New Brands, New Collections, Sell, sell, sell – at whatever cost it takes. Make up fancy fabric names for what is really just nylon or spandex. Increase the prices to make it appear more interesting. Create expensive marketing campaigns to increase the demand.

But consumers get smart. When they see brands like American Eagle and Forever21 offering the same $85-$90 pants for $20, they begin to question everything. The illusion is shattered and there is no turning back.

The market is now totally flooded. Sales (and perhaps interest) will begin to decline. Investment will become limited, brands will scale back their SKUs. (4. Crisis)

I’d presume where we are right now in the Activewear bubble is right around the Delusion and New Paradigm (or on the cusp of Euphoria and Crisis) area.

Brands are scrambling to market the same product with fancy names or reinvent the yoga pant and what we see are innovative fabrics that promise to melt your fat and eliminate cellulite while you wear the leggings. Or better yet, they’ll step up their game with even more expensive leggings and target a luxury market. (5. Revulsion)

Consumers are aware of the true value and product availability now exceeds the demand.

The Bubble has burst.

The same happened with denim. There was a premium denim bubble. And it happened much in the way I’m seeing the activewear market. It rose, hit hard and then the market was flooded. The prices declined, the lower fruit bearers shut their doors and the strongest brands who were the first and best players survived.

The bubble is bursting with Junior brands also. PacSun, Aeropostale, etc. Same clothes, different stores. Homogenized.

The fashion industry is totally flooded.

The activewear market is absolutely flooded at this point, with a big range of price points. And the bubble will burst within the next year or so, leaving tons of brands in the red with tons of inventory to be sold on sites such as Overstock, 6PM and Zulily. In fact, I am already seeing this. While new companies and brands are jumping on bandwagons, they are missing the silent Stealth phase of what’s to come.

So what creates a demand or drives a trend?

Truthfully, I think the biggest portion of the activewear market right now is in women’s yoga and fitness. It’s strong not because Lululemon introduced it to us. Activewear has been worn since the 1980s. Activewear is a reflection of where women’s interests are right now. Women want to be healthier, live healthier, more soulful lives. They want to run, be active, do yoga, feel beautiful and be comfortable. Women are tired of wearing shit that isn’t flattering or comfy. Women are becoming more self aware, more empowered and either starting their own companies, or taking jobs that allow them to just be themselves.

“A report from the Institute of Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) shows that women are steadily increasing their presence in the world of small-business ownership. About 29 percent of America’s business owners are women, that’s up from 26 percent in 1997. The number of women-owned firms has grown 68 percent since 2007, compared with 47 percent for all businesses.” – Gillian White, The Atlantic

In order to see what trends are ahead, it’s important to see who your target customers are and where they’re heading. What are their interests and who do they want to be?

So what’s next?

As with any bubble, there is a burst and a return to normal.

My guess is: Minimal.

Comfort and quality over quantity.

Comfortable, classic. Leisure loungewear that plays double duty as day to active wear? Perhaps.

Less is more? Probably.

Where is our focus these days?

The basic little black dress of casual wear (black yoga leggings) will probably never leave our closet, but the athleisure trend will fade.

The next phase, or our Return to Normal is not another sport bra and yoga legging. It’s simplicity. The only way to see where we are going is to see where our focus, as a whole, lies.

Sources: Forbes, The Atlantic, Google Trends, Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Mauldin Economics.