FAQ for Buying & Selling an Internet Business

That’s a very common and valid concern. Burnout is a primary driver for many successful entrepreneurs looking for an exit. Our 20+ years of experience navigating multiple market cycles, from the dot-com boom to recessions and periods of high growth, gives us a unique perspective that looks beyond sensational headlines. We understand that the “right time” to sell is a blend of personal readiness, business performance, and market appetite. We provide a strategic consultation, not a sales pitch, to analyze your specific business against current, real-world market data. We’ve seen that a high-quality, well-vetted business with strong fundamentals can command an excellent price even in a so-called “uncertain” market, because our network of 30,000+ qualified buyers is always looking for premium assets.

This is the classic entrepreneur’s dilemma, and it’s a great position to be in. The best time to sell is often when things are going well. We advise clients to look at several key indicators. First, is the growth sustainable at its current pace without significant new investment or a toll on your personal well-being? Second, are market multiples for your business model (e.g., SaaS, FBA, Content) at a historical high? Selling at the peak of a growth curve often maximizes your valuation multiple. Waiting another year could introduce new competitors or market shifts. Our valuation process doesn’t just give you a number; it provides a strategic analysis of these factors, helping you weigh the opportunity cost of holding on versus capitalizing on current momentum.

Our valuation is a no-obligation, high-value strategic consultation, period. We’ve built our 20-year reputation on providing honest, transparent advice, not on pressure tactics. We understand that exploring a sale is a significant decision. Our initial call and subsequent valuation are designed to educate you on your business’s market value and its strengths and weaknesses from a buyer’s perspective. Many of our long-term clients started with a simple “curiosity” call. Our goal is to become your trusted advisor, whether you decide to sell now, in two years, or not at all.

Over the past two decades, we’ve seen a wide spectrum of reasons, but a few common themes emerge. On the personal side, burnout is number one, followed by a desire to pursue a new venture, retire, or simply spend more time with family. From a business perspective, owners often sell when they recognize they’ve taken the company as far as their skillset or passion allows and that a new owner with different resources could unlock the next level of growth. Others sell to de-risk, converting their hard-earned digital equity into liquid capital to diversify their wealth.

Yes, it is absolutely possible to sell a business with declining revenue, but it requires a different strategy. Honesty and transparency are paramount. Instead of focusing on past performance, we shift the narrative to future potential and “hidden value”. We work with you to streamline operations, cut unnecessary costs, and clearly document opportunities for improvement. A buyer might have the capital, team, or marketing expertise to reverse the trend. We position the business as an opportunity for a strategic buyer to acquire valuable assets, like a strong customer base, intellectual property, or market position, at a reasonable price, with a clear path to a turnaround.

Market timing is a factor, but it’s not everything. A truly exceptional business can command a premium in any market. Our approach is holistic. We start with a deep analysis of your business’s unique strengths, what we call the “Four Pillars of Value”: Growth, Risk, Transferability, and Documentation. A business with diversified traffic sources, low owner involvement, and clean financials will always be more valuable. We then overlay this with current market data and multiples to find the sweet spot. Our 20+ years of experience means we have the historical context to know if multiples are truly at a peak or simply stable, allowing us to provide advice that’s tailored to your business, not just the market headlines.

This is one of the most critical concerns for sellers, and we’ve built our process around ensuring absolute confidentiality. First, your business is never publicly identified. We create a professional, anonymous prospectus that describes the business model, financials, and growth opportunities without revealing its name or URL. Second, we don’t just release information to anyone. Every single prospective buyer must be vetted and sign a legally binding non-disclosure agreement (NDA) before they receive any identifying details. Our ‘White-Glove’ service means we manage this entire process meticulously, protecting your sensitive information and giving you peace of mind.

This is a delicate situation where our experience becomes invaluable. Most buyers want to retain key employees, as they are often a crucial asset. If a discovery happens, we advise immediate, transparent communication (at the appropriate time) to reduce uncertainty. We can help you frame the sale as a positive development, an opportunity for growth under new ownership with more resources. We also work with buyers to structure employee retention agreements or bonuses for key staff to incentivize them to stay through the transition and beyond. Our role is to guide you through these sensitive conversations, ensuring stability for the business and its team.

It’s crucial to maintain business performance during a sale, but we understand that fluctuations can happen. This is where our ‘White-Glove’ approach and rigorous upfront work pay dividends. We build the valuation and marketing narrative around the business’s long-term health and fundamental strengths, not just one or two months of data. If a dip occurs, we proactively address it with potential buyers, providing context. Was there a one-time marketing expense? A supplier delay? By being transparent and having a strong, defensible valuation from the start, we can manage buyer expectations and keep the focus on the business’s overall trajectory and potential, minimizing the impact of short-term volatility.

Protecting your proprietary information is at the core of our process. Unlike open marketplaces, our buyers come from a private, curated network we’ve built over 20 years. Our vetting process is multi-layered. First, a buyer must register with us and provide information about their investment criteria and financial capacity. Second, before they can view the detailed, confidential information for any specific business, they must sign a strict NDA. We also qualify their interest to ensure it’s genuine. This rigorous screening weeds out the ‘tire-kickers’ and ensures that only serious, qualified individuals who have been briefed on confidentiality get access to your data.

We understand that selling your business is far more than a financial transaction; it’s an emotional journey. “Seller’s remorse” is real, and it often stems from feeling a loss of identity or purpose. Part of our ‘White-Glove’ service is preparing you for this. We encourage you to think about “what’s next” early in the process. We also focus on finding the right buyer, not just the one with the highest offer, but someone who will be a good steward for your brand and team. Knowing your legacy is in good hands provides immense peace of mind. We’re your partners through the entire process, offering support and perspective that goes beyond the numbers.

Our entire service is designed to lift the burden from your shoulders so you can continue running your business. A private sale requires you to find buyers, vet them, prepare professional marketing materials, negotiate, manage due diligence, and coordinate legal closing, all while trying to keep your revenue up. It’s more than a full-time job. We handle all of it: the valuation, creating the professional prospectus, marketing to our 30,000+ buyers, fielding all inquiries, managing negotiations, and project managing the deal to a close. Clients consistently tell us that our fee pays for itself in the time we save them and the costly mistakes we help them avoid.

While our rigorous upfront vetting minimizes this risk, deals can sometimes fall through. If this happens, our process is designed to protect you. First, we analyze why the deal failed. Was it a genuine discovery during due diligence, or did the buyer get cold feet? This insight is crucial. Second, we often have other interested buyers from our initial marketing push who have already signed NDAs. We can re-engage them immediately and discreetly, often without having to start the marketing process from scratch. Our experience allows us to manage this pivot quickly and professionally, minimizing downtime and getting the sales process back on track.

Selling privately exposes you to significant risks. Financially, you will almost certainly leave money on the table. Without access to a competitive market of thousands of buyers, you won’t create the bidding tension that maximizes price. Legally, you risk inadequate protections in the purchase agreement, improper handling of due diligence, and breaches of confidentiality. Costly mistakes in areas like asset transfer, non-compete clauses, or tax allocation are common. A ‘White-Glove’ broker not only mitigates these risks but manages the entire complex process to ensure a secure and successful transaction.

The ROI on our fee is multi-faceted. First, we create a competitive environment with our network of 30,000+ buyers, which consistently results in higher sale prices, often more than covering our fee. Second, our 20+ years of negotiation experience allows us to secure better deal structures (e.g., more cash upfront, favorable earn-outs). Third, our meticulous preparation of your financials and business prospectus instills buyer confidence, leading to smoother due diligence and fewer last-minute price adjustments. Finally, the immense amount of time and stress we save you allows you to focus on running your business, preventing the revenue dips that can devalue a deal.

This is a key differentiator for us. While price is critical, the right buyer is paramount for a successful exit and your peace of mind. Our ‘White-Glove’ approach involves deeply understanding your goals beyond the sale price. Do you want to see your team protected? Your brand’s mission continued? We present your business not just as a set of financials, but as a legacy. We then leverage our personal relationships within our vetted buyer network to identify individuals or groups who are not only financially qualified but also align with your vision and values. This careful matchmaking process leads to smoother transitions and greater post-sale satisfaction for our clients.

We are the antithesis of a high-volume “factory.” We intentionally limit the number of listings each of our senior brokers handles at one time. This ensures you receive the dedicated, personal attention you deserve. In practice, this means you have your broker’s direct line. You’re not passed off to a junior associate. Your broker personally guides you through every stage: valuation, preparing the marketing materials, weekly updates on buyer interest, strategy calls for negotiations, and hands-on management of the closing process. Our client testimonials consistently highlight this personal, professional, and responsive service as a key reason for their success.

The most common mistakes are poor preparation, unrealistic valuation, and breaches of confidentiality. Poorly organized financials kill buyer confidence and deals. Overpricing a business scares away serious buyers from the start. And a confidentiality leak can damage employee morale and customer relationships. Our process is designed to prevent these pitfalls. We start by working with you to get your financials “buyer-ready”. Our valuation is based on decades of real market data, ensuring it’s both ambitious and defensible. And our confidentiality protocol is ironclad, protecting you from start to finish.

This is a standard and essential part of our ‘White-Glove’ service. We work hand-in-hand with you and your bookkeeper. Our team forensically reviews your P&L statements (typically the last three years) to standardize them for a buyer’s perspective. The most critical step is identifying and justifying “add-backs”, expenses that are discretionary to you as the owner but wouldn’t be incurred by a new owner. This includes your salary, personal auto expenses, or one-time costs. Correctly calculating these add-backs maximizes your Seller’s Discretionary Earnings (SDE), which directly increases your business’s valuation. We then present this information clearly and professionally in the business prospectus.

Being prepared is the best way to ensure a smooth process. We recommend gathering the following:

1. 1. Financials: Profit & Loss statements for the last three years plus the current year-to-date, preferably on a monthly basis and in Excel format.
   2. Tax Returns: Business tax returns for the past three years.
   3. Traffic Analytics: Verifiable traffic data, typically through access to your Google Analytics or equivalent platform.
   4. Customer Metrics: Reports detailing gross revenue churn, customer churn, lifetime value (LTV), acquisition costs, and retention data.
   5. Key Agreements: Copies of all significant contracts with suppliers, clients, or key employees.
   6. Client Revenue Breakdown: Revenue by client, highlighting top clients, revenue concentration, contract terms, renewal details, and whether payments are recurring or project-based.
   7. Team Summary: Overview of team members and key personnel, including roles, responsibilities, locations, compensation, employment status (W-2, contractor, etc.), and tenure.
   8. Pitch Decks, Client Presentations, and Company Overview: Any existing materials or summaries that describe your business model, operations, and value proposition.
   9. Discretionary Expenses: A detailed list of owner-related or non-operational expenses that can be added back to earnings for valuation purposes.

Asset List: A list of all assets included in the sale (e.g., domain names, social media accounts, software licenses, intellectual property, and inventory).

Excellent question. Buyers look for businesses that are stable and easy to transition.

1. 1. Reduce Owner Involvement: Systematize and document your daily operational processes (SOPs). The less the business relies on you personally, the more valuable and transferable it is.
   2. Diversify Revenue & Traffic: If you rely heavily on one traffic source (like Google organic search) or one main product, work on diversifying. Add a new marketing channel or launch a complementary product. This reduces risk in a buyer’s eyes.

Clean Up Your Website: Ensure your site is technically sound, fix broken links, improve site speed, and make sure the user experience is clean and professional. A polished website gives a strong first impression of a well-run business.

We do much more than hand you a checklist. Your dedicated broker will personally guide you through every single step. This is the essence of our ‘White-Glove’ service. We’ll start with an in-depth call to understand your business, then work with you to gather the necessary documents, clean up your financials, and identify areas for operational improvement before going to market. We are your partners in this, ensuring you are fully prepared to present your business in the best possible light to achieve maximum value.

Valuation multiples are dynamic and shift based on the broader economy, interest rates, and demand within specific business models (e.g., SaaS vs. eCommerce). Because we are constantly managing deals, we have real-time, proprietary data on what businesses like yours are actually selling for right now, not six months ago. This allows us to set a price that is ambitious and reflects the top of the current market, but is also grounded in reality and defensible to buyers. An unrealistic price will simply sit on the market, while our goal is to generate immediate interest from qualified buyers and create a competitive environment that drives the price up.

You’re right, the formula itself is simple science. The art comes from our two decades of experience in accurately defining the inputs. An online calculator can’t understand the nuances of your business. We dig deeper to uncover factors that justify a higher multiple: the defensibility of your niche, the strength of your supplier relationships, the diversity of your revenue streams, your brand’s reputation, and untapped growth opportunities. We know what sophisticated buyers in our network value, and we quantify those intangibles in a way an algorithm simply cannot.

Owners often overlook many valid add-backs, leaving significant money on the table. The most common are one-time expenses (like a website redesign or a large software purchase), personal travel and meals expensed through the business, and salaries paid to family members who are not active in the business. Our forensic analysis involves going through your P&L line by line with you to identify every legitimate discretionary expense. This meticulous process ensures your SDE is as high as possible, which directly and substantially increases the final valuation of your business.

Valuation multiples are dynamic and shift based on the broader economy, interest rates, and demand within specific business models (e.g., SaaS vs. eCommerce). Because we are constantly managing deals, we have real-time, proprietary data on what businesses like yours are actually selling for right now, not six months ago. This allows us to set a price that is ambitious and reflects the top of the current market, but is also grounded in reality and defensible to buyers. An unrealistic price will simply sit on the market, while our goal is to generate immediate interest from qualified buyers and create a competitive environment that drives the price up.

Quantifying intangible assets is a key part of our expertise. We translate these strengths into the language of risk and growth, which is what buyers understand.

• • Brand Reputation: We demonstrate this through customer reviews, low return rates, high repeat customer rates, and branded search volume. This proves a loyal customer base, reducing risk for a new owner.
  • Supplier Relationships: Exclusive or long-term supplier contracts are presented as a significant competitive advantage or a barrier to entry for competitors.
  • Domain Authority: We use SEO metrics to show the power of your organic traffic, framing it as a free and sustainable customer acquisition channel that a buyer won’t have to pay to build from scratch. These factors are woven into the business prospectus to justify a premium multiple.

SaaS valuations are highly metric-driven. We analyze Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) and Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) to establish the baseline, but the multiple is heavily influenced by other factors. A low churn rate (under 10% annually is a good benchmark) is critical as it demonstrates customer satisfaction and revenue predictability. A high Lifetime Value (LTV) to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio (ideally 3:1 or higher) proves the business has a profitable and scalable marketing model. The “Rule of 40” (where Revenue Growth Rate + Profit Margin ≥ 40%) is a benchmark for top-tier SaaS companies. If your business meets or exceeds this, we highlight it to buyers as a sign of elite performance, justifying a premium valuation multiple.

For FBA businesses, we look far beyond just profit. Key factors include:

• • SKU Diversity: Over-reliance on a single “hero” product is a major risk. We look for businesses with multiple profitable SKUs, as this shows stability and reduces dependency.
  • Supplier Defensibility: Do you have exclusive agreements with your suppliers? Multiple backup suppliers? A strong, defensible supply chain is a massive value-add.
  • Account Health: A clean record with excellent ratings and reviews is non-negotiable. It demonstrates a well-run operation and strong customer service.
  • Brand Recognition: A registered trademark and a strong off-Amazon presence (like a Shopify store or social media following) can significantly increase the multiple, as it shows the business is more than just a reseller.

For content sites, traffic and engagement are the core assets. We value them by framing them in terms of risk and growth.

• • Traffic Quality: We analyze traffic sources. A high percentage of organic search traffic is more valuable than paid or social traffic because it’s seen as more stable and passive.
  • Engagement Metrics: High time-on-page and pages-per-session prove that users value your content, which is attractive to buyers who want to add their own monetization methods.
  • Email List: An engaged email list is a directly monetizable asset. We value it based on its size, open rates, and click-through rates, presenting it as a ready-made channel for a new owner. We also identify under-monetized traffic as a key growth opportunity. If a site has high traffic but only uses AdSense, we highlight the potential for a new owner to add affiliate links or digital products to immediately increase revenue.

The health of an e-commerce business is all about the customer file. We analyze key metrics to prove the business is sustainable and not just buying revenue at a loss.

• • CAC and LTV: A healthy LTV to CAC ratio (ideally 3:1 or better) is crucial. It shows that your marketing is profitable and scalable.
  • Repeat Customer Rate: A high repeat customer rate indicates a loyal customer base and a strong brand, which is far more valuable than a business that constantly has to acquire new, one-time buyers.
  • Traffic Diversification: We analyze your traffic sources. A healthy mix of organic, direct, paid, and social traffic is less risky than relying on a single channel, like Facebook ads, whose costs can be volatile. These metrics paint a picture of a robust, defensible business that will command a higher multiple.

Our rigorous vetting process is the foundation of our high closure rate and the trust we’ve built with buyers. We turn down a significant percentage of businesses that approach us because their financials aren’t verifiable or their model isn’t sustainable. When we present a business to our network, buyers know it has already passed a thorough initial diligence process. This pre-vetted status means our valuations are taken seriously. They are not inflated “for sale” numbers; they are defensible figures based on clean data, which leads to more serious offers and a smoother final due diligence period.

Our longevity in the market provides invaluable context. During downturns, buyers become more risk-averse. In this environment, we emphasize defensible characteristics like recurring revenue, essential-service products, and diversified traffic sources, which hold their value better. During periods of high growth, multiples expand, and we ensure our clients capitalize on that by highlighting aggressive growth trends and large market opportunities. Our valuation is never static; it’s a dynamic assessment that leverages our deep understanding of how buyer sentiment and risk appetite shift with the economic climate, ensuring your valuation is always relevant and optimized for the current market.

A valuation from Website Properties signals trust, quality, and reliability. Our network of over 30,000 buyers knows that we have a rigorous vetting process and only represent established, high-quality businesses. They know the financials have been thoroughly reviewed, the add-backs are justified, and the narrative is based on verifiable data. This “stamp of approval” means they can spend less time wondering if the business is legitimate and more time focusing on whether it’s the right strategic fit for them. This inherent trust accelerates the entire process and leads to stronger, more confident offers.

Our free valuation is a comprehensive strategic analysis, not just a number. We provide you with a detailed breakdown of how we arrived at the valuation range, including the SDE calculation, the market multiple we’ve applied, and the specific factors about your business that influenced our decision. More importantly, the report will highlight your business’s key strengths (which we’ll emphasize to buyers) and identify potential weaknesses or areas for improvement. This gives you actionable insights that are valuable whether you decide to sell immediately or want to spend the next year increasing your company’s value before going to market.