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Business
Ecommerce financing: debt vs. equity
June 17, 2014 • Manish Shah
Many business owners come to a point when they need to raise capital to continue growing the company. They don’t want to sell the business. Perhaps they simply enjoy their ...
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Business
Recap of selling an ecommerce business
April 17, 2014 • Manish Shah
Every time I sell an ecommerce business, I write an internal summary with highlights of that deal. This includes statistics like: Asking price vs. selling price; Terms offered vs. terms negotiated between ...
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Business
How EBITDA affects valuation of ecommerce companies
March 12, 2014 • Manish Shah
I recently valued an Internet business that had a good looking website and all the desirable social media hooks with respectable follower and fan counts. The site has been in ...
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Business
How to sell your ecommerce business for a high valuation
February 13, 2014 • Manish Shah
I just finished reading Built to Sell, a book by John Warrillow that describes a fictional business owner who is struggling to sell his company. The cover of the book ...
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Business
Learning from BlackBerry and Twitter
December 2, 2013 • Manish Shah
You may have read that BlackBerry’s recent takeover offer of $4.7 billion from its largest shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings of Toronto, collapsed on Nov. 4. Only three years ago, the Canadian ...
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Business
Why some owners sell sooner, not later
November 7, 2013 • Manish Shah
When Sam Hogg went into business for himself, he probably never really expected the company he founded to take off as fast as it did. Launched in late 2008, his ...
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Business
How to Determine When to Sell Your Ecommerce Business
September 30, 2013 • Manish Shah
It’s easy to forget now, but Michael Dell was the Mark Zuckerberg of his day. Hailed as a young genius, he created the inexpensive, made-to-order personal computer in his University of ...
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Business
Top 5 Mistakes Ecommerce Owners Make When Selling their Businesses
September 12, 2013 • Manish Shah
Recently I stumbled upon an article on Entrepreneur.com titled “10 Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Your Business.” I found myself relating to five of them, from my own experiences brokering ...
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Finance
eCommerce Business Valuation Case Studies : Effect of Inventory on Valuation Multiple
August 12, 2013 • Manish Shah
In this series, I will share my experiences selling online businesses for my clients and lessons learned. Effect of Inventory on eCommerce Business Valuation Multiple Some time ago I was selling an eCommerce business that had a large amount of inventory that needed to be sold with the...
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Business
Nurturing An Unrealistic Value for your eCommerce business
July 11, 2013 • Manish Shah
Nurturing An Unrealistic Value Many of us can still hear the admonition of our parents, “You’ve got to learn the value of a dollar.” From our first piggy bank to our current savings and investment plans, we have been faced with the value of our hard earned dollars. What happened when ...
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Business
Secrets of getting top valuation for your eCommerce Business
January 27, 2013 • Manish Shah
Ecommerce businesses that sell at the top valuation in marketplace are not the ones where owner invested the last year or two of their time preparing the business and it’s systems for sale. In reality, they are the businesses where the owner has planned, created and perfected the auto-p...
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Business
Overcoming Challenges for Qualifying Potential Buyers of eCommerce business
June 22, 2012 • Manish Shah
In my last post, I discussed the importance of qualifying buyers when selling a business. The two-tired, gated approach I outlined is a great way to provide maximum exposure for your business while protecting your confidentiality and sensitive information. It keeps all parties on equal ...
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Business
Checklist for Qualifying Internet Business Buyers
March 4, 2012 • Manish Shah
So, you are thinking of selling your internet business. You understand the importance of exit strategy planning. You are excited to learn that good internet businesses can be sold quickly.. You have carefully analyzed your financial statements and calculated a fair market value for your...
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Business
What website seller can do to maximize sale price
January 3, 2012 • Manish Shah
The best thing seller can do to make it very easy to sell the website is by creating a system in which business runs for itself (i.e. without sellers participation). If you can remove yourself from the business for year or more and still maintain the profitability, you can prove to the ...
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Business
What does it mean to sell your business when hundreds of internet businesses are for sale?
November 2, 2011 • Manish Shah
Business for sale marketplace is receiving hundreds of new listings every day and setting your business apart from the competition is becoming harder and harder. There are usually few hundred internet businesses on sale at any given time and in the recent months this number has surged s...
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Business
Good Internet businesses are sold quickly – If you don’t grab it – someone else will
October 3, 2011 • Manish Shah
I recently finished my assignment with a buyer; let’s call him Mike, who contacted me after losing a good internet business that he liked to another buyer. He said this internet business was selling product line that he and his wife liked and it had all characteristics of good business...
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Business
Types of eCommerce Business Buyers
August 23, 2011 • Manish Shah
Different buyers pay different Prices. Buyers can be categorized into four broad groups. It is very important to understand the differences between them, how they think and how to identify them to have a successful Exit Strategy. If you carefully study these buyer types, you will find ...
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Business
Opportunity vs. Potential while valuing your ecommerce company
July 17, 2011 • Manish Shah
It is interesting to see the wide range of value various buyers will attribute to a same online business. One buyer may find a business as worthless while other is willing to pay hundreds of thousands. Valuation of your ecommerce company is in direct proportion to the amount of opportun...
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Business
eCommerce Business Valuation
May 24, 2011 • Manish Shah
eCommerce entrepreneurs often ask me what profit multiple they should use to calculate their business value. Profit multiples are a valuable tool to find a direction or a range of selling price but you can’t rely on them to determine exact value of your business. You will regret if you ...
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Business
Why Exit Strategy Planning is important?
April 23, 2011 • Manish Shah
In this blog, I will share specific information about ecommerce business valuation, factors that drive higher business value, profiles of buyers who are looking for web based businesses ( and who is likely to pay the highest price for your website ), deal structures, how to prepare you...