Ready made muses

[tripleplay]

So I found some business websites for sale. There are websites out there offering auctions on ready made, already established online businesses that people are selling. My first thought was, "This has got to be a scam." But I looked into them, and they seem to be fully functioning legit businesses. Havr you guys seen anything like this before?

Here is an example of one of these business broker sites, although there are plenty of sites out there selling online businesses:

http://marketplace.sitepoint.com/

My next thought was, "Why would anyone want to sell a profitable business?" But I realised there are myriad reasons for getting out of a business. Maybe some of these guys are Four Hour Work Week-ers?

Have you guys considered anything like this? Finding a ready made muse and making it even more profitable?

[obue]

It's called site flipping unless I'm mistaken (Google it). It's a pretty big thing afaik. People buy websites/web businesses that they see unused potential in, fix the things needed and then sell it at a higher price.

[Feenz]

Sitepoint's market place looks like a goldmine, but I think its actually a minefield.

I've scoured it, on and off, for about a year now, and have seen a number of sites I've been really interested in, then to discover that there was somethign very dodgy about them, like someone was launching a duplicate site which would take all the business away from the first one, or the niche they were servicing was becoming illegal within a couple of weeks, or similar things like that.

The problem with it, is that the vast majority of business are successful due to the experience and knowledge of the person running them. This means that the value will not necessarily transfer with the sale. And worse, if you get unlucky and have a slightly inscrupulous seller, he'll just recreate the value for himself as soon as the sale has gone through, leaving you with very little.

There are, of course, some great genuine sites on there, but they're very difficult to sport unless you REALLY know what you're doing, and know the pitfalls of the niche. The downside to that is.. if you already know the niche well enough, you could probably already be successful in it on your own.

I would be REALLY interested in any more positive insights into sitepoint's market place, and others, as it seems like such a great way to build up a small portfolio of already profitable (even if only small turnover) muses, in order to be able to get a feel for what works and what doesn't.

[SimonOzzie]

I echo what Feenz said.

One of the key points is the experience of the founder. that's why you should create a muse in an area you know something about.

next comment is the the profit (and risk) comes from creating a new business out of nothing. That's always where the big rewards will be.

I have a background in banking and finance. I could write pages on how you would value the purchase of a business. suffice to say that there wont be mega-bucks in it. People might buy a business for the cashflow, but it's like a bank term deposit (only riskier). the point is the bigger (and safer) the cashflow you want the more money you'll have to put in up front in order to get it. there is no free lunch with buying a business.

Of course there's such a thing as arbitrage in any market. that means if you see a business that's underperforming, you can buy it, restructure it and sell it at a profit. but you really need to know MORE about the business than the owner/ vendor, and that is unlikely.

If you are looking for the big returns, you've got to take the risk - create a muse in an area you know or care something about, and make it happen.

Simon

[Sven]

If you find a website that you can connect to one (or a business) you allready run it could really be worthwhile. It can bring traffic to your website and you can drive traffic to the new one.