It's time to sell it, need advice

[SellingIt]

Hello everyone. I own 2 businesses and want to sell one. The one I want to sell hasn't been very active for about 5 years and I have been in the process of selling off it's assets for the past few years. Currently, the value of the assets is near zero and the website gets almost no traffic and I only get about 2-4 orders per month. The reasons for this is as follows:

- I lost interest and have put no effort into it for years.
- I don't have the resources to compete anymore.
- I found something else I'm more interested in.

However, the business name (and therefore the domain name) is extremely lucrative to my competitors and has been copied many times. There are currently over 6 domains out there which are nearly exact copies of my domain name and at least 2 facebook accounts that are using my business name that are not me. I know that there is demand for my business name and that others want to use it. But I don't know what the dollar worth of my domain name is.

Also, I have a logo that I'd be selling. The logo is my own intellectual property and others have made variations of it also.

I need advice on how to sell my business as a package which includes:

Logo - my own intellectual property (I created it) but not trademarked or patented at this time. I am the sole owner.
Website - I am the sole owner.
Business name - I am the sole owner. Not trademarked or patented at this time.


My questions are:

Should I trademark my logo and business name first? Would this add value?
Should I contact my competitors and see if they are interested in making an offer?
How can I determine what my business is worth?
Should I list my business for sale online?


I'm not here to advertise the sale of my business, I'm just here looking for information because right now, I know just about nothing and don't know what to do or how to go about it. Any responses are much appreciated.

[Fulcrum]

To be honest, you really don't have a business to sell since you sold off the assets. All you have is the name and that's an intangible asset. It's only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

Out of curiosity, what type of business is it?

[SellingIt]

To be honest, you really don't have a business to sell since you sold off the assets. All you have is the name and that's an intangible asset. It's only worth what someone is willing to pay for it

And I know they are out there.


Out of curiosity, what type of business is it?

I am not willing to disclose that information at this time.

[Fulcrum]

I am not willing to disclose that information at this time.

In that case, I've got $100 that I'm willing to roll the dice with. This is of course subject to the standard due diligence that needs to be done.

[turboguy]

There are some business that specialize in reselling domain names that would buy it. Usually they offer a fraction of what they think they can sell it for. For example they offered me $ 100.00 for one domain I have and typically would be selling it for $ 900.00. Depending on how unique the name is it could be worth well over 10 grand but selling it might be tricky.

[Owen]

Hello everyone. I own 2 businesses and want to sell one. The one I want to sell hasn't been very active for about 5 years and I have been in the process of selling off it's assets for the past few years. Currently, the value of the assets is near zero and the website gets almost no traffic and I only get about 2-4 orders per month. The reasons for this is as follows:

- I lost interest and have put no effort into it for years.
- I don't have the resources to compete anymore.
- I found something else I'm more interested in.

However, the business name (and therefore the domain name) is extremely lucrative to my competitors and has been copied many times. There are currently over 6 domains out there which are nearly exact copies of my domain name and at least 2 facebook accounts that are using my business name that are not me. I know that there is demand for my business name and that others want to use it. But I don't know what the dollar worth of my domain name is.

Also, I have a logo that I'd be selling. The logo is my own intellectual property and others have made variations of it also.

I need advice on how to sell my business as a package which includes:

Logo - my own intellectual property (I created it) but not trademarked or patented at this time. I am the sole owner.
Website - I am the sole owner.
Business name - I am the sole owner. Not trademarked or patented at this time.


My questions are:

Should I trademark my logo and business name first? Would this add value?
Should I contact my competitors and see if they are interested in making an offer?
How can I determine what my business is worth?
Should I list my business for sale online?


I'm not here to advertise the sale of my business, I'm just here looking for information because right now, I know just about nothing and don't know what to do or how to go about it. Any responses are much appreciated.

A non-trademarked or non-copyrighted logo has little to no value. However, a domain name with high value can be sold on auction sites like Flippa.com (http://www.flippa.com) for about $8.00. You'll make a lot of money there.

[SellingIt]

A non-trademarked or non-copyrighted logo has little to no value. However, a domain name with high value can be sold on auction sites like Flippa.com (http://www.flippa.com) for about $8.00. You'll make a lot of money there.

I'm not looking for sarcasm. Perhaps this was the wrong place to come for information.

[bytechef]

Selling on a Forum in same category as your business can bring in a higher valuation for your business, otherwise it is just a Website with a good Domain name.

[Business Attorney]

I'm not looking for sarcasm. Perhaps this was the wrong place to come for information.

He didn't mean the selling price would be $8, he meant you could list it for that (actually $9, I believe). Flippa does appear to have a very active domain auction. Others include Sedo and NamePros.com

But if you aren't willing to tell us more, you may be uncomfortable opening yourself to an auction, because everything is public at that point.

Another option is a private sale to a competitor, but that is time consuming. It also focuses on a very small number of potential buyers so you lose the possible dynamics of multiple bidders.

[vangogh]

Honestly it doesn't sound like you have a business for sale at this point. Your logo has no value outside of the brand of this business. By your own admission your site hasn't been active in years. I doubt it's worth much at this point.

The one think you have that might have value is the domain, which sounds like it's of interest to your competitors. Unless it's a common word .com, I'm guessing it's only valuable to your competitors. Why not ask them what they'd pay for it and see who offers the most. You domain is worth what someone will pay for it. You can try to figure out what it's worth in advance, but without a buyer any dollar amount of it's worth is meaningless.

Ask the people who might be interested what they'd offer and gauge the interest. If no one or only one person is interested what to do should be clear. If several of your competitors are interested, you might be able to drive the price up a little.

[Harold Mansfield]

Hello everyone. I own 2 businesses and want to sell one. The one I want to sell hasn't been very active for about 5 years and I have been in the process of selling off it's assets for the past few years. Currently, the value of the assets is near zero and the website gets almost no traffic and I only get about 2-4 orders per month. The reasons for this is as follows:

- I lost interest and have put no effort into it for years.
- I don't have the resources to compete anymore.
- I found something else I'm more interested in.

The above assets, whatever is left, has very little value to anyone.


However, the business name (and therefore the domain name) is extremely lucrative to my competitors and has been copied many times. There are currently over 6 domains out there which are nearly exact copies of my domain name and at least 2 facebook accounts that are using my business name that are not me. I know that there is demand for my business name and that others want to use it. But I don't know what the dollar worth of my domain name is.

The only way to find out is to put it up for sale. Without knowing what the domain is there is no way anyone can even guess. It may be worth $100k, or it may be worth $50, or nothing.

Just because there was once interest, doesn't mean there still is. You said yourself it's already been copied. Most times people move on. There's always another domain or another way to market something.

The domain market isn't want it used to be like it was in the 90's because SE's have advanced past ranking keyword domains over all others just because it has a keyword. With advertising, or solid SEO and marketing plan you can promote a paper bag now.

So the only domains that are worth money are keyword, dictionary words, location, industry, or 5 characters or less that make sense in .com's. Anything else people will pass if the price isn't right. And by right I mean cheap. No one is interested in paying end user prices for domains that don't knock their socks off. And since no one searches with one word anymore, and since most search is local, there's not as much leverage in having single keyword domains anymore. But again, it depends on what it is.

Yeah, if you had trucks.com you can get still get some good money for it.

Since that may be your only asset worth anything, you should brush up on trends, and what people are paying for. Granted this is the top of the market. So don't get any ideas that a 3 word domain with your name in it is worth $50k.
https://sedo.com/us/resources/market-trends/



Also, I have a logo that I'd be selling. The logo is my own intellectual property and others have made variations of it also.
Someone's old logo isn't worth much to a company building their own branding. They can have one designed for the price you're selling it for.


I need advice on how to sell my business as a package which includes:

Logo - my own intellectual property (I created it) but not trademarked or patented at this time. I am the sole owner.
Website - I am the sole owner.
Business name - I am the sole owner. Not trademarked or patented at this time.

The logo has no value to anyone but you.
You said the website gets no traffic, so that's not a boon for anyone.
Depends on what the business name is, and if anyone is looking to open one in the same industry, or wants the expense and trouble of re-branding an existing business. Unless it's industry specific yet general, no one wants your old name for a dead company with no activity.

I'm in Vegas and everything here is called "silver state" something or other. If someone were selling say ..."Silver State Electrical" or "Las Vegas Electrical" that may be worth money.
If they were selling "Tom's Electrical", no one would care.



My questions are:

Should I trademark my logo and business name first? Would this add value?
Should I contact my competitors and see if they are interested in making an offer?
How can I determine what my business is worth?
Should I list my business for sale online?


I'm sorry but you haven't described anything here that's worth any value. The business is dead, has been for 5 years, the website has no traffic, there are no sales, and you've already said that any assets are virtually worthless.

A business is worth how much it makes + physical/digital assets + accounts.
You don't have any of that.


I'm sure it all has sentimental value for all of the hard work you put into it back in the day, but unfortunately that's not worth any money to anyone else.