How do I know if I should sell my business?
Selling a business often means choosing between the relief of walking away from burnout and the fear of regretting walking away right before it pays off. Emotional involvement makes it nearly impossible to see the situation clearly, especially when balancing inconsistent income against the prospect of managing a team or handing off five years of hard work.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Selling a 50 percent stake with an earn-out
- 2Asking for a higher valuation
- 3Replacing oneself and keeping the cash flow going
- 4dissolving or sunsetting the business instead of selling it
- 5pivoting focus to a new venture like online live selling
- 6applying for jobs on the side to gain financial stability
- 7relying solely on word of mouth advertising
- 8Doing freelance work and comic cons to keep things going
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I keep going back and forth between "take the bag, you're 28, you have time to build something else" and "you built the thing that's about to work, don't hand it off right before it pays off."”source ↗
“He's been trying to sell for years now, but he lives in the VERY rural Midwest and isn't very tech-savvy so I'm pretty sure word of mouth is the only way he's advertised it.”source ↗
“Because of his remoteness, the buyer pool for a business like this is tiny.”source ↗
“I’m looking for some outside perspective because I feel like I’m too emotionally involved in this situation to see it clearly.”source ↗
“Right now, the business isn’t consistently bringing in enough for me to comfortably cover expenses and pay myself.”source ↗
“After five years, I’m burnt out. I do everything myself, and I’ve realized I don’t have an interest in hiring employees or managing a team.”source ↗
“I’m now wondering whether I should try to sell the body contouring business as an asset or turnkey sale. I honestly don’t even know how realistic selling a business like mine is or what someone would pay for it.”source ↗
“Part of me worries that I’ll sell it and regret walking away from something I spent five years building. But another part of me feels like there could be a huge sense of relief in finally letting it go and allowing myself to move on.”source ↗
“I would still like advice on these particular numbers, largely because I still feel unsure about if I am somehow being a blind fool for even considering this.”source ↗
“The problem is that I individually have no experience in a commercial print shop, and frankly I have less than 7k to my name at the moment.”source ↗
“I feel so on the fence about the whole thing, largely because my personal finances aren't spectacular.”source ↗
“Put about 4.25 lakh into a surgical/hospital consumables wholesale business earlier this year - license, shop, stock, the works.”source ↗
“Pitched a bunch of hospitals and clinics; almost no one was interested.”source ↗
“Feels like I'm underpowered on both fronts that actually matter here.”source ↗
“Genuinely torn between pushing a bit longer vs cutting losses now.”source ↗
“It will take around 1-2 year to establish the connections and i have limited funds to operate the business forward”source ↗
“I have limited funds left to provide credit and stock rotation”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 3Should I keep going with my stagnating business or quit?
- 3Should I sell my paid off car to invest the cash?
- 3Should I sell my farmland or keep renting it out?
- 2How to avoid buying a 60-hour-a-week job instead of a business
- 2How to price a business with no revenue
- 6Should I buy property or keep my money invested?