How to sell online personalised stationery business

[rak5a]

In 2019 I set up an online personalised stationery business - wedding invitations, birth announcements, Christmas cards, notepads and notecards, etc. I took a huge leap and invested a big chunk of my inheritance in starting it up and it took off really well. I launched in Sept 2019 and I was doing wedding fairs and online marketing and it was starting to show promise. Then of course COVID hit. All weddings and events cancelled and no idea when they would start back up. I had to go back to full-time work and that took off so my little business was sidelined. I finally decided I had to sell it and I just have no idea where to do so. I don’t even want much money for it - just a tiny amount compared to what’s been invested in the site and all the designs, but of course the accounts show no profit so no “business selling” companies are interested.

It’s the perfect little passion project as you simply find a local print partner to do the production and customers design themselves on the website so it’s just a matter of pretty packaging and dispatch. But it needs someone who has time and knowledge to market it. It just kills me to have to shut it down.

Does anyone know of any genuine sites or contacts to offer the business for sale?

From the sounds of it, you don't have anything tangible that is worth anything. If there is no reputation, no regular visitors to the site, there isn't anything you can sell besides stock and any digital designs you have.

What's the name of the business? It sounds very lovely, but have to agree with pp - what do you think you are selling?
Can you package up what you did to make it a success and sell that as an online course or something?

I don’t want to say the name of the business as I don’t want it to look like I’m touting for a buyer here! But I will say it is a good name and I have a good .com web address.

I guess the value is in the website build and all the designs. The website itself cost £35k to build bespoke and took about 6 months to design and develop with a reputable web design company. It allows customers to easily customise the stationery on the site. The backend then generates the artwork to send directly to the print partner.

There are hundreds of designs and these cost quite a lot to commission as well.

The initial outreach and marketing resulted in a mailing list of subscribed contacts of 1200. And I have an Etsy store linked to it with a 5 star rating.

If I had any spare time at all I would be doing marketing but I literally have a more than full-time job with a long commute and two kids, so it’s totally unrealistic.

I would even be happy to hand it over to someone who is willing to invest the time and some money in marketing in return for a share of future profits (when they come!).

As I said it just kills me to close it up and negate all that money and hard work!

Sounds like a brilliant opportunity - it's just the sort of business I would love to run! I'd imagine you would have lots of interest once listed.

Maybe look at freelancer groups on Facebook or sites like daltons where businesses are sold.

Sorry to say I think you'll struggle to get much money back from it. "Online" businesses are pretty complex and there'll be hefty legal fees for your own and a purchaser's solicitor to deal with the transfers of the web domain, designs, name copyright, and transfer of limited company name (if a ltd). One of my clients sold what was basically a "website" and the legal fees, disbursements, etc for both parties came to nearly £10k.

It sounds lovely. I would totally love to run something like this also!

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

@Kazzyhoward is correct, and unless you have a limited company, the Etsy store cannot be transferred. Could you employ someone to run it for you and you dip in and out part time.

@DelilahBucket it is indeed a limited company.

Also employing someone isn’t feasible as I have no more spare cash to invest. It’s frustrating as if I did have the money/time for employing someone or marketing I know it could be successful.

That's just what I was going to suggest, would it be worthwhile hiring someone, part time, to work it? Someone who wants to work really flexible hours.

You'll have to cut your losses then because you can't sell something on the back of "well of someone could just spend and do x, y, z then I know it would be successful". It would be very foolish of anyone to buy something on that basis. You're selling a concept not a business.

I Personally think you would be better off hiring a VA to do the marketing for you, especially if the actual business side is quite hands-off (ie you aren’t actually making or posting the stock). There are plenty of VAs just starting up who might offer you a good rate as their first client

It's worthless apart from any equipment you've bought. You'll be lucky to get 50% of cost price for that.
Did you trademark the business name?
The etsy shop cannot be sold or transferred
Without at least 2 years accounts showing a profit, I can't imagine anyone buying it as a business, especially as you don't even print in house.

Can't you just advertise on facebook wedding/party planning groups for now, until you can devote more time to it? I have a niche wedding planning group/page with nearly 3k members, I'd let you advertise on my group.

I've been trying to establish my own stationary business for the last year (as a passion project for now, then building up to full time over the next few years, once both my DCs (DS4, DD2) are in school). So far I've made a pretty good start on my first card design collection, got started on social media and started an Etsy page, but my progress with the overall infrastructure has been rather slower than I'd hoped (I've been going through an incredibly messy/time-consuming divorce for the last 2 years - the final hearing is next month though 🥳🥳🥳)!

I would be incredibly interested in having a chat about your site if there's a way of connecting directly?

Stationery! 🤦🏼‍♀️🤣

Happy to chat and offer any advice I might be able to give. Have sent you a pm. X

I can't see how the business is worth anything, as you haven't actually traded, have no accounts. What do you think it's worth it? How much do you hope to sell it for? My best friend, who also has a job, had tried to sell cards, and wedding stationary and now boxes for the last 15 years, wedding fayre's etc and has never made any return.

2019 you set up

so most of your trading has been through covid. Where no one was sending out invitations for anything!

op, I think you need to be realistic. There is nothing to sell aside from a website. Whoever will be starting such a business won’t have thousands knocking around and if they do - they’ll want to spend it on product development

Oh op

you were utterly fleeced on your website cost

Could you bring on a partner and work on a profit share basis with them? I'm a marketing professional who's going back to work on a freelance basis after 20 years in the business and this would be the kind of project I'd be interested in.

Unless you own Zazzle I don’t think it’s sellable.

@yepgoingforarun i was thinking the same thing 😢

I can assure you I wasn't. My husband is in online retail and works with designers and developers all the time. We tendered the project to 10 different companies and chose the best. It's not a basic website. It has a bespoke design tool that allows you to personalise the designs yourself with a backend that generates all the artwork. The website is offline now as I'm winding up, but have a look at Papier's website and design tool, and that gives you a feel for how it was built. By all means, show me the websites you have built for much less that perform these functions and are beautifully designed and then I will take your unsolicited advice!! 😂