How to sell side project making 2k/mo?

Craig, I've had success with Microacquire and Microns both. I'd say list it on either one first, and get into conversations. Find out what people ask. Keep a public google doc with all the questions you get asked and the responses. You'll want to make a P&L, Even with minimal expenses, and only one income stream. I had to do it even when I had like 2 lines of expenses. It just helps to point to it than have to copy/paste info. Also putting all your expenses in a sheet, helps clean up the different time periods. You mention $1/month then $20/ year. so a sheet will help you tabulate the approximate monthly costs and the real yearly costs to run. The buyer just wants to see a number and the expenses and shouldn't have to do the math. a simple google sheet will do the math for them.

I would recommend not saying "loss of passion" for the project itself as a reason to leave. Potentially it could make buyers think there's no more customers, there's no market, there's nothing left to be done.

Perhaps speak about the 2nd order reasons for your loss of passion. Perhaps you don't want to do PPC ads. You don't want to do marketing. This is one of the reasons I sold my newsletter which was growing. I didn't have the skills in fact and didn't want to do advertising, even though I knew it would be the next step for growth. Lo and behold the person who bought it was an absolute expert on PPC ads, and has since used that exact marketing channel to go from 7.5k subs to 22k subs.

I had to write 3-5 marketing channels I thought could work, and also listed out what I tried already. Even just "posting on Indiehackers" was a line item.

The sweet sweet thing about putting all this in a google doc (FAQ) and a google sheet (P&L) is that no matter if you sell or not on Microns, lets say, you can list on Microacquire and have the same info. what I did was kept adding to the google doc every single time I got a question. so every potential buyer I shared the link to the doc and said if you have any questions not in here, please ask. OF course the a-holes with the simple questions already answered... I got pissed at. "wanna buy an app but can't be damned to read a google doc?" Blocked!

You asked about valuation. For this, as far as I can tell, if you really really don't spend any time on it weekly. Perhaps 3 hours a month, I'd list it at 10x and then bargain from there. If you can make the transition as TURN-KEY as possible and someone else can grow it easily, you'll be able to sell for 10x ARR, easily. But any of those become harder and you can notch down some actual sell price. But let them figure it out with you, you don't have to undercut yourself.

So the key things in messaging will be the "market" potential and "marketing channels" you know will work. Also how easily it can be tranferred, and how simple it is to maintain or even add features to. List your rate for working on it. I had to this once. I stayed on for 4 weeks and transitioned one project as part of the sale. For another one I listed 3 developers who could help and their exact rate. If you can fix it/add features then list your rate, or find a few others who have worked on similar projects /techstack and get their rates. A list of 3 people and their rates and contact info is GOLD. I listed people who were familiar with the code based, their contact and their rates. It puts the buyer's mind at ease and they can then pay a higher multiple.

hope that helps.

Say something nice to craighacker1123…

5

Craig, I've had success with Microacquire and Microns both. I'd say list it on either one first, and get into conversations. Find out what people ask. Keep a public google doc with all the questions you get asked and the responses. You'll want to make a P&L, Even with minimal expenses, and only one income stream. I had to do it even when I had like 2 lines of expenses. It just helps to point to it than have to copy/paste info. Also putting all your expenses in a sheet, helps clean up the different time periods. You mention $1/month then $20/ year. so a sheet will help you tabulate the approximate monthly costs and the real yearly costs to run. The buyer just wants to see a number and the expenses and shouldn't have to do the math. a simple google sheet will do the math for them.

I would recommend not saying "loss of passion" for the project itself as a reason to leave. Potentially it could make buyers think there's no more customers, there's no market, there's nothing left to be done.

Perhaps speak about the 2nd order reasons for your loss of passion. Perhaps you don't want to do PPC ads. You don't want to do marketing. This is one of the reasons I sold my newsletter which was growing. I didn't have the skills in fact and didn't want to do advertising, even though I knew it would be the next step for growth. Lo and behold the person who bought it was an absolute expert on PPC ads, and has since used that exact marketing channel to go from 7.5k subs to 22k subs.

I had to write 3-5 marketing channels I thought could work, and also listed out what I tried already. Even just "posting on Indiehackers" was a line item.

The sweet sweet thing about putting all this in a google doc (FAQ) and a google sheet (P&L) is that no matter if you sell or not on Microns, lets say, you can list on Microacquire and have the same info. what I did was kept adding to the google doc every single time I got a question. so every potential buyer I shared the link to the doc and said if you have any questions not in here, please ask. OF course the a-holes with the simple questions already answered... I got pissed at. "wanna buy an app but can't be damned to read a google doc?" Blocked!

You asked about valuation. For this, as far as I can tell, if you really really don't spend any time on it weekly. Perhaps 3 hours a month, I'd list it at 10x and then bargain from there. If you can make the transition as TURN-KEY as possible and someone else can grow it easily, you'll be able to sell for 10x ARR, easily. But any of those become harder and you can notch down some actual sell price. But let them figure it out with you, you don't have to undercut yourself.

So the key things in messaging will be the "market" potential and "marketing channels" you know will work. Also how easily it can be tranferred, and how simple it is to maintain or even add features to. List your rate for working on it. I had to this once. I stayed on for 4 weeks and transitioned one project as part of the sale. For another one I listed 3 developers who could help and their exact rate. If you can fix it/add features then list your rate, or find a few others who have worked on similar projects /techstack and get their rates. A list of 3 people and their rates and contact info is GOLD. I listed people who were familiar with the code based, their contact and their rates. It puts the buyer's mind at ease and they can then pay a higher multiple.

hope that helps.

kamphey

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4 years ago
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1. 2
  
  Great write up Andrew! I'll be taking much of your advice
  
  Craig Walker
  
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  4 years ago
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2. 2
  
  Hey Andrew. Loved reading your detailed and insightful reply - Thanks!
  
  Wyeem
  
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  4 years ago
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3. 1
  
  noting this for future ref
  
  BlueLobster
  
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  3 years ago
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3

flippa.com
microns.io
microacquire.com

Monami

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4 years ago
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2

2-3, 10X multiples, etc, are generally referring too larger enterprises. Less projects, more businesses. The large the revenue, the larger the business, the large the multiple.

Product Quality, and Trajectory.
Multiples are also based on growth, Trailing twelve months revenue, and product road map.
The status of growth, status of product & roadmap (competition), will also dictate how much you can sell it for.

Two good places to list for sale.
https://microacquire.com/
https://getacquired.com/

Twitter DM incoming, i'm interested in this App.

ChrisBertulli

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4 years ago
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2

Congratulations on that run rate, RIP your inbox :)

vados

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4 years ago
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2

At that rev level, it's best to list it on a broker site. EmpireFlippers is probably your best choice but maybe Flippa.

mrgone

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4 years ago
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