This is a special edition of Buying and Selling Adult Sites. Now that we’ve gone all the way through the process of selling and buying sites, let’s talk about a very important issue: When is the best time to sell your adult website or company?
I’m sure you remember Kenny Rogers’ famous song “The Gambler” with the epic chorus “You’ve got to know when to hold em’, know when to fold em’…”
I get this question almost every day in one form or another. “Is it a good time to sell”? “Should I wait a little while to sell”? And so on.
The first thing I will tell you is that there is no one size fits all answer to this question. The right time for one company might not be the right time for someone else.
There are many factors that may cause you to sell your site.
Among these are:
*You’ve been in the business for a long time and you’re ready for a change. Many go into mainstream.
*You might have a new project you need money for.
*Maybe you have health issues and can’t work on the business anymore.
*Your business is dropping, and you want to salvage some value.
*Your business is soaring or has peaked, and you feel it’s the best time to make an exit.
*You’ve been in the business a long time and you’re ready to retire.
There are many more, but these are some that come up a lot.
Of course, the best way for me to assess your situation is to do a free evaluation of your company. We’re always happy to help, even if we don’t end up doing business with you now or even ever.
So, let’s speak in general terms here and I’ll give you some examples.
I had one client whose business was fairly new but growing and he asked if he should sell. This was about three years ago. I told him to wait, based on the growth patterns I could pick up from his financials. Back then, we might have been able to get 300K for the site. Today it’s worth millions of dollars – and we’ve got it listed.
I’ve also had the opposite hold true. In fact, unfortunately, it’s a lot more common. A client comes to me with a site that has clearly peaked, and I can see from the information they’ve given me that it’s the right time to sell. I voice this to the site owner. The client decides to wait. I hear from that client a year later and it’s worth less than half what it was worth and it’s much harder to sell, because sales are clearly dropping. That’s not a situation you want to find yourself in.
I’ve seen clients lose from hundreds of thousands to a million dollars in this scenario. I feel really bad, but it’s not like I didn’t give this person my best possible advice. All I can do at this point is do my best to sell a declining asset and salvage my client some value from his or her property.
Another very common scenario that happens all too often is that a site owner will let their sales decline and then contact me about selling. Depending on how far business has dropped, I may or may not be able to help them. It’s like a doctor trying to save a dying patient: Sometimes, unfortunately, it’s too late.
The best general advice I can give you is this: Keep a close watch on your sales, profits, and traffic trends monthly. Don’t take your eye off the ball, EVER. Continue to try to optimize your profits by closely examining what you spend money on and see if you can find vendors that can do it better and cheaper. They’re out there. Contact Us if you ever have questions on any specific cost item.
If you see drops in your business, try to find out why this is happening and work hard to turn things around. Along with that, even if business is good, keep trying to up your game. Too many people just let things go and wake up one day to realize they’re in a very bad situation and should have either fixed things or should have sold the site.
And of course, always keep your end game in mind. Otherwise, you may have waited too long to fold em’.
If you have any questions about anything covered in this article series, feel free to reach out to us on our website. To contact Adult Site Broker with any questions about what you’re reading here, or about buying or selling adult sites or companies, go to our contact page.
