selling a business?

[overthemill]

does anybody have any idea how I value a business I want to sell? it's webbased. thanks!!

Have you got a decent trading history? You could look up the PE ratios of public companies in the same area, and apply them to your last year's profit. Or you could do a discounted cashflow projection, picking a discount rate that reflected how risky your business model is (bigger risk = bigger required reward = higher discount rate).

i have no idea what half those acronyms mean! The business is unique to the web - and sells a niche service. it is doing ok but now needs more time than i can devote now that i have a full time job. i don't want it to fail simply because i cant devote the time to it as it meets a very real need met by no-one else as far as i can see. it could be run as a social enterprise easily i think

I only used one acronym - did you not understand the P or the E?

If you really don't understand how to do a discounted cashflow projection, then I suggest you hire an accountant to value your company, and to make sure that you have decent management accounts and financial projections to show to any prospective purchaser.

ok that's helpful - thanks!!