Are you in the market for a reliable and trustworthy broker, but finding it overwhelming to choose one among the many available options? Look no further! In this article, we will be digging into Latona’s, one of the leading brokerage firms in the industry.
When it comes to selecting a broker, it’s essential to consider factors such as transparency, reliability, customer support, and competitive fees.
Through an in-depth analysis of Latona’s, we will evaluate these crucial aspects and provide you with valuable insights to aid in your decision-making process. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced investor, this article aims to provide you with the necessary information to determine if Latona’s is the right broker for you.
What is Latona’s
Latona’s is a professional brokerage firm specializing in selling profitable web-based businesses. They offer a comprehensive suite of services for sellers, including a free evaluation of businesses, access to a large network of buyers, and full assistance with the sale and transfer digital assets. Their expertise lies in matching entrepreneurs with a global network of investors and acquirers, ensuring the best possible deal.
For both sellers and buyers, it’s reassuring to know that Latona’s maintains high standards throughout the sale process. They ensure confidentiality and protection for sellers by having NDAs signed, adhering to safe Escrow policies, managing the transfer of business assets and inventory smoothly, and providing access to a large and diverse network of vetted investors and acquirers. This comprehensive approach has earned them a reputation for achieving high multiples in the industry.
What Types of Businesses Does Latona’s Offer?
Latona’s works with a wide variety of online business models, including content sites, eCommerce businesses (including Amazon FBA and Shopify stores), lead generation sites, membership sites, SaaS businesses, and domain portfolios. The price range for these businesses varies widely, from under $50,000 to over $5 million.
They emphasize their ability to find the right buyer for even the most unique or niche online businesses.
Latona’s Commission Fees & Pricing
Fees and Pricing for Buyers
There is no fee levied on buyers to acquire from Latona’s.
Fees and Pricing for Sellers
Latona’s takes a 15% commission for selling businesses. This remains fairly high success fee by industry standards, though their reputation and history of successful deals allows them to charge this rate.
Buying a Business through Latona’s
Buying through Latona’s is an easy process. Buyers can review live listings available on the marketplace where they will be able to review key elements about the business including:
- Annual revenue
- Annual profit
- Asking Price (List Price)
- Executive Summary
- Revenue Sources
To access more information about the business, a buyer must set up an account with Latona’s. With an account, buyers can receive full access to company financials, prospectuses, and seller questionnaires.
Due Diligence Process with Latona’s
While Latona’s does some vetting to ensure listings for their marketplace are a good fit, that doesn’t mean that deep due diligence has been done on the listings. Buyers must be willing to do their own due diligence on listed businesses. This helps the buyer understand if the business matches their buying criteria as well as protecting themselves from red flags or issues the business might have.
Selling Your Business with Latona’s
For sellers considering Latona’s, it’s important to understand their focus and requirements. They target established web businesses with annual profits ranging from $20,000 to $100,000,000 and at least one year of positive trading history. This ensures that they can sell these businesses at a strong price.
How to Get a Business Valuation
Latona’s has several online business calculators, broken down by individual monetizations. They have a generalized online business calculator as well as calculators for SaaS, e-commerce, FBA, and Lead Gen websites.
In their general online business calculator, you follow four steps of information submission to get a valuation. The necessary information and steps are as follows:
On their “sell your business” page Latona’s lists the following criteria as factors in generating a valuation:
- Sales volumes required to reach your revenue
- Revenue distribution patterns across your full product range
- Your ongoing cost base, including current marketing spend
- EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization)
- The sorts of multiples achieved in recent comparable deals across relevant sectors
Keep the above information in mind when compiling information for your valuation to ensure that no detail is missed.
Latona’s List Multiples
There is no specific average list multiple with Latona’s, however, they do give ballpark figures. For e-commerce businesses, they have closed deals from anywhere between 2x-10x annual net profit. Latona’s adds that outliers in the industry exist and that they have seen businesses close for much higher multiples because they understand how to pitch businesses to the right buyers.
Listing and Selling Process with Latona’s
Latona’s has a fairly straightforward sales process similar to other brokerages. Here’s how selling your business with Latona’s breaks down:
Set Up Your Account
To start the sales process, set up your account with Latona’s. From here you’ll start the valuation process.
Agree on a Final Valuation
Once you submit all the required information to Latona’s for your valuation, they will return with a list price for the business. If you’re happy with the selling price, you can accept and from there they will work on building your business listing. If you want to see a different price, negotiate with the team for the price you want, but be ready to validate why you want a different price with data and information about the industry.
List Your Business with Latona’s
Latona’s will build a listing for your business is list it live on their marketplace. The listing will be promoted to their email list and the assigned broker to the deal will start to reach out to interested buyers.
Connect with Buyers
Potential buyers will start to reach out about the business and will have questions for their due diligence. Ensure that you answer these questions thoroughly and promptly to keep the due diligence process running smoothly for all buyers. Latona’s will also help field questions from buyers to keep the deal moving along.
Negotiations
Prospective buyers who are interested in buying the business will start to send offers over. From here you have room to negotiate the offer and to create a deal structure that works for all parties. This is an important part of the sales process where having a broker like Latona’s to help negotiate for the best terms will be key.
Deal Closing
After all the terms have been agreed upon, you and the buyer will sign the necessary contracts and start the transfer process.
Business Transfer
Transfering the business includes setting money aside for the business in Escrow to ensure payments go through legally and securely. During this time Latona’s can offer some advice on transferring the business over to the buyer, but a majority of the technical work will be taken on by the seller, buyer, or a third-party provider.
FAQs About Latona’s
Is Latona’s Legit?
Latona’s has been around since 2009 and brings years of successful deal experience to the table. They ensure that their team has real, personal deal experience to help provide sellers and buyers with the best possible broker support.
Does Latona’s Offer Post-Sale Support?
While Latona’s seems to advocate for helping get the right buyers in on deals, actual hands-on support through the deal is a little more sparse than other brokers. There is no guaranteed post-sale support with Latona’s, so if you’re a buyer looking for support you may need to negotiate that with them and the seller during the deal process.
Who Handles the Migration of the Business?
With Latona’s the buyer and seller have access to some support through the transfer process, however, Latona’s does not handle the technical transfer of accounts and assets. If migrating a business alone is intimidating, there are third party services that can help with this process.
Pros and Cons of Using Latona’s
Pros of Using Latona’s to Buy or Sell a Website/Online Business
- Experienced Deal Broker: Latona’s hires brokers who either own their own online businesses and have executed their own deals. This is a huge value add to the deal as the broker understands the technical and personal significance of an exit.
- Solid Buyer Network: Latona’s advocates that they help sellers find the right buyers for deals within their established network. While other marketplaces list a business and promote it to their audience, Latona’s tries to connect known buyers to deals that fit their criteria. This helps close deals faster with better outcomes.
- Businesses Marketed to over 20,000 Buyers: This brokerage advertises a growing email list of over 20,000 active buyers. They are confident in the strength of their network and use this buyer base to sell businesses for higher multiples.
Cons of Using Latona’s to Buy or Sell a Website/Online Business
- Fairly Limited Broker Support: According to reviews from sellers and buyers with Latona’s, there seems to be feedback that support could be stronger from Latona’s. Considering other brokers fully handle migrations, have full-fledged marketing engines behind listed businesses, and several dedicated teams during the deal process, Latona’s fairly hands-off approach to deal-making does stand out as a potential “con” for buyers and sellers.
- High Commission Rate: Coming in at 15%, Latona’s commission is one of the highest in the industry. This alone could be a strong deterrent to list for some sellers.
- Long List Periods: Reportedly deals tend to be listed with this broker for 3-4 months. That list time can be double the time that other brokers list and close deals. If you want a quick deal, this may not be the brokerage for you.
The Final Review: Is Latona’s a Good Option for You?
In conclusion, Latona’s is a good option for sellers and buyers looking to close deals at higher multiples with an experienced broker.
With a large network of eager buyers, the right business listed with them can lead to a lucrative exit for a seller. Considering they do the leg work to get the right buyer in on the deal, that may be enough to tempt sellers to sell with Latona’s.
However, those wanting full-fledged support and lower commission rates may want to look elsewhere. Coming in at a 15% commission rate, sellers may consider other brokers like Empire Flippers who charge a similar rate but handle all parts of the deal including migrating the business to the buyer.
If you’re still unsure of who to sell with or want more insight on brokers throughout the industry, jump on a free discovery call with our team at Acquiring Digital. With a quick call, we can explore your buying criteria and point you in the right direction for brokers and deal flow in the industry.
