Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, the number of listings for online businesses for sale has been on an exponential rise, although the demand far exceeded the supply for a while. Within 12 months, online transaction volumes in March 2020 rose by 74% compared to those in March 2019, showing a significant paradigm shift in consumer behaviour and presenting highly profitable opportunities for anyone willing to take them.
With global lockdowns and business closures, the only way for anyone who didn’t belong to the “essential” category to stay afloat was to take their business to the virtual environment. And while a temporary disruption caused this digitization, the trend of taking businesses online and embracing the work from home business model is only set to take up speed.
So, if you’ve been dreaming of becoming your own boss and starting a company, it might be in your best interest to give internet businesses a try. With some effort and dedication, you might even have a chance to establish an international brand that appeals to global audiences.
However, while the possibilities are endless with online businesses, you should still do your due diligence when buying an established company. You need to find your niche, examine all your options, and make a data-driven decision before you sign the paperwork.
But before anything else, you need to find an online business for sale, and there’s no better place to start than at FindBusinesses4Sale.
How to Find a Good Online Business for Sale
Finding an ecommerce business to invest in isn’t an easy task. A good business for sale won’t just drop into your lap as you’re browsing your social media newsfeed or streaming your favourite TV show. You need to devote yourself to the search, and you need to know where to look.
Unfortunately, searching for online businesses for sale can quickly turn into a full-time job if you attempt to do so manually. It takes a lot of time and effort to browse through random online and offline listings that are too often incomplete. If you want to perfect your search, your best bet would be joining FindBusinesses4Sale.
It’s a free online marketplace that welcomes all buyers, sellers, brokers, and franchisers. Developed by experts who grew increasingly more annoyed by the difficulty of buying and selling a business, the platform contains an abundance of features that will simplify your search for the ideal company for sale, whether we’re talking about a brick-and-mortar or solely online one.
FindBusinesses4Sale has a growing community of serious buyers and sellers, so it boasts an expansive database of thousands of unique businesses across industries and niches. Some of the online businesses that are in the highest demand on the platform include:
- Ecommerce stores;
- Drop shipping;
- Online marketing;
- Affiliate marketing;
- Blogging;
- Online auction businesses;
- Fashion retailers;
- Real estate;
- App development;
- Graphic design;
- SEO consultancy;
- Social media management.
All business sellers on FindBusinesses4Sale are required to provide as much information as possible when creating their listings, so every ad published will contain everything you may need to gauge at first glance whether the business is right for you.
As a buyer, you can make use of every advanced feature available to narrow down your search without spending a cent. Save your preferred filters, add personal notes to each listing, turn on email alerts that’ll notify you when new listings matching your criteria get published, and more.
Things You Need to Know When Looking for an Online Business for Sale
Buying an established business isn’t a decision to be made lightly. It’s a huge investment, most likely one of the biggest investments you’ll get to make in your life, so it’s important not to be rash. Otherwise, your investment can backfire and leave you empty-handed. So, stay organized and pragmatic, and take your time.
Before you find the most exciting online business listing, you’ll need to consider a few things. Primarily, you’ll need to know what kind of business is best suited for you. Figuring that out requires some introspection.
Even though the global mobile application market is set to grow at a CAGR of 11.5% between 2020 and 2027, for example, if you don’t know the first thing about app development, you won’t get to profit from the ever-more lucrative app market. So, it’s critical to assess your skills, experiences, strengths, and weaknesses before you get set on a niche.
Choose a business type that you’re familiar with and that you’re good at. If you have a gift for creative writing, buying a blogging business could be a good idea, but buying an online auction one might not be the best choice.
Once you’ve done the much-needed introspection and figured out the type of business that’s well suited for you, you can start browsing different online companies for sale in your preferred niche.
However, before you buy a business, make sure to learn the following:
- Why is the company for sale?
Business owners can have a variety of reasons for selling their companies. Some are simply ready to retire; others have found that the niche doesn’t suit them. However, if someone’s selling their online business because of internal (or external) problems that affect its performance, you’ll want to know about it as it could impact your new company’s cash flow.
- What are the employees like?
Even an online business needs manpower to run it, so you’ll want to know the current situation with the employees. Are there experienced teams already onboard? Do they work remotely?
Find out what the company culture is like, and assess the current employees’ strengths and weaknesses. The more you know about the current staff, the easier it will be to get to work as soon as you take over the company.
- Who are the (target) customers?
If you want to get set on a path to success, you’ll need to learn who the current customers of your new business are. Knowing your customers will help you run your business more efficiently as you’ll know how to target them, communicate with them, and promote your products and services to them.
Why Choose an Online Business
With so many different businesses available for sale on FindBusinesses4Sale, you might wonder why buying an online business would be a good choice. The main reason is the evolving consumer behaviour.
For the past several years, consumers have been turning more and more to online businesses to supply them with everything from clothing and entertainment to food and medicine. The pandemic of 2020 has only pushed more people to embrace online shopping and change their purchasing habits.
The trend is only set to gain more traction in the coming years, especially since even brick-and-mortar business owners realized how resilient online businesses are and how attractive they are to diverse audiences.
Buying and Selling an Online Business: Checklist
Although running an online business is quite different from running a brick-and-mortar one, the process of buying/selling it is pretty much the same. The most important thing is to stay organized and assess the business from every side before you take it over.
The more you know about a business before you buy it, the easier it will be to future-proof it and make it profitable. You need to collect and analyze all the relevant information before you make your decision, and you’ll need to prepare for the transfer of ownership.
If it’s your first time buying an online business, it can be difficult figuring out how to prepare and where to start, so it might be in your best interest to create a comprehensive checklist that could look something like this:
- Get your finances in order;
- Analyze the business’s finances;
- Review its stocks;
- Examine all permits, licenses, and contracts;
- Inspect the insurance policy;
- Check the business’s intellectual property;
- Analyze all business assets;
- Inspect all existing offices and premises (if there are any);
- Obtain the employee list;
- Do market research;
- Analyze the customer base.
This isn’t a finite checklist, and you can always add more items to it depending on your priorities and requirements. However, every single item mentioned here is critical, and you’ll want to devote time to following through with each step. It’s demanding, but it’s essential as it will help you smoothly transition to the position of a new business owner.
If possible, you’ll want to hire a team of experts who will help you along this process. Alternatively, you can always hire a broker or a reputable agency to help you out.
Pros and Cons of an Online Business
Running an online business, regardless of its industry or niche, comes with an abundance of benefits, but it has some drawbacks as well. Take a look at the pros and cons of an online business before you make your decision to buy one.
Pros:
- Lower overhead costs;
- Recurring revenue stream;
- Easier collection of customer data;
- Wider reach;
- More flexibility;
- Easier scalability;
- Higher margins;
- Access to the global market.
Cons:
- Harsher competition;
- More difficult to breakthrough in the market;
- Online security risks.
Running any kind of business comes with its own risks, but that doesn’t mean you should give up on the idea of being your own boss. Online businesses create unique opportunities and come with great potential.
If you’re ready to take over an online business, join the growing community at FindBusinesses4Sale, and get started!
