To me if it doesn’t work without you, it’s worth nothing without you
I was just looking at businesses for sale yesterday and it struck me that most of the owners or agents involved must be delusional. I actually saw a “Business” that was in reality a self-employed job with less than £50,000 turnover and they wanted £50,000 for it.
Why would anyone in their right mind pay £50,000 for a job?
It doesn’t stop there though, I hear “I am my company” every day, if you are your company what happens if you want to sell it? Do you have to sell you too?
Most of the time the answer is yes you do that’s why for the vast majority of businesses that are sold the owner has to stay on for anything between 1 and 2 years as a part of the deal, 2 years you have to work for someone else after spending all that time building a business so you didn’t have to, madness right?
I know there are lots of agents out there that will argue with me and that makes sense, they make their money on the sale of a business so of course they tell you it’s worth a lot, there are lots of business owners who are probably shouting what an idiot I am right now, there are more that have sold a job to someone else and think they got a fair price for it and I’m ok with that.
How much would I pay for a business that didn’t work without you?
Zero, Nothing, Nada, Zip to me it’s not worth a penny, as a rule you have leases, HP, Service contracts and Telephony contracts that all cost money and why should I pay those when without you there is no profit in the business?
How much would I pay for a Business that works without you?
It depends on what it’s profit and potential is, it’s a lot more than nothing though.
