When the time comes to sell your business, there are a lot of things to consider. You must ask yourself questions that might be a little difficult to answer. Are you ready to sell yet? How will you make sure that you are getting the highest value for your company? Luckily, there are brokers with a wealth of knowledge and experience who can help you along the way such as Quiet Light Brokerage.
Quiet Light Brokerage has been mediating the sales of online businesses since 2006. Their team is made up of career entrepreneurs who have brokered hundreds of sales since the company’s inception.
Founder Mark Daoust started Quiet Light Brokerage when he helped a friend sell his website after successfully selling his own. This initial success and business owner focused mentality set the tone for the entire company’s approach to business sales. No one understands the complicated emotions of selling your company like someone who has done it themselves.
In this review, we will discuss the different aspects of Quiet Light Brokerage’s business model. We will cover things like the types of businesses they sell and how they place a value on your business. This Quiet Light Brokerage review can help determine whether or not they are a good choice for your website’s sale.
Better Alternatives to Quiet Light Brokerage
As buyers and sellers of business ourselves, we’ve had the best sale valuation and customer service from the following broker.
Overview of Quiet Light Brokerage
There are many benefits to hiring a broker to sell your web based business. It can be tempting to try and sell it on your own, but there are drawbacks. Experience and confidence are the most important things in large sales and will go a long way.
Quiet Light Brokerage offers resources for both buyers and sellers. Their familiarity with both sides of the deal creates a unique insight. Because of this, they could be a good option for entrepreneurs who are looking to move on to another venture.
Their experience in both buying and selling can cut back on some of the headaches that come with transferring ownership. The paperwork alone can be a long drawn out process with the potential to overwhelm anybody. By hiring a broker, you can avoid dealing with all of the extra work on top of the major milestone.
Since 2006, Mark Daoust and his team at Quiet Light Brokerage have helped broker the sale of over 500 websites. This has all added up to a total of over $100,000,000 in transaction value. Those kinds of numbers mean that they might be a good choice for someone who wants their pick of buyers.
Starting an internet business is easy enough. Getting it to the point where it is ready to be sold for a profit is much more difficult and time consuming. Hiring a mediator like Quiet Light Brokerage could help you get the highest value for your sale.
Types of Businesses Quiet Light Brokerage Sells
Quiet Light Brokerage specializes specifically in the sale of web-based businesses and websites. eCommerce retailers are just as welcome on their roster as content based websites. If your business runs on the web, odds are they have sold one similar to it.
The brands and websites that Quiet Light Brokerage has sold in the past are from a wide variety of industries. These include cleaning product properties, training software and pet supplement businesses. With such a large pool of sales experience to pull from, they can tailor the listing specifically to your company.
One of the most common types of companies for Quiet Light Brokerage to deal in are Amazon FBA businesses. FBA businesses are companies on Amazon that act as intermediaries between suppliers and the customer. They have a relatively low initial cost so they are popular for web-based startups.
Another popular business that Quiet Light Brokerage deals in are blogs and media companies. This is a very common industry for web based businesses to be in and can generate a lot of income. These high value, low overhead companies fit right in on their roster.
These are just a few examples of the types of businesses that Quiet Light Brokerage mediates deals for. If your company does its business online, they have the knowledge of how to list and market it. That wide variety gives you more options when trying to find a potential buyer that will be a good fit.
Quiet Light Brokerage Valuation Process
When determining the value of your business, Quiet Light Brokerage has a long history of honesty. This can be one of the most important things to look for in a broker. They find the value of your company based on what you provide and that is what it is listed at.
They offer a free valuation which can be a helpful tool for anyone dipping their toe into selling their company. With the valuation, they will pinpoint areas you could work on to get a higher value. This could help to determine whether or not you are ready to sell.
One of the important things that the valuation can do for your business is help you target growth areas. If you are wanting to sell and find out you aren’t ready, that can be bad news. If you come away from it with ways to grow instead, that can help soften the blow.
Quiet Light Brokerage has a philosophy of digging down deep into your business to evaluate it. They don’t just look at the facts and figures on the balance sheet. They also look at your systems and staff to get the larger picture.
The valuation process can be one of the most important steps in the process of selling your web based business. The fact that Quiet Light Brokerage takes the time to really get to know the ins and outs is key. Knowing you are more than numbers on a spreadsheet can go a long way in gaining the confidence you need.
Sales Process
The process of selling your business can be daunting when you are starting the first steps. Knowing where to start is tough and the fear of not getting what your business is worth is understandable. This is where having a broker like Quiet Light Brokerage can save a lot of time, money and effort.
The first step in selling your business with Quiet Light Brokerage is to take the free valuation. The brokers will work with you to find out whether you are ready to sell and what your company is worth. If you are not happy with their valuation, they encourage you to get second and third opinions.
After your business has been valued by the experts at Quiet Light Brokerage, it will be listed. On their comprehensive marketplace, your company will be viewable by a huge audience of buyers. This ups the chances of your company getting in front of the people who are most likely to be interested.
They will write up a Buyer Summary for your business to list along with it. In this summary, they will include factors like staff, income and net worth. Their summaries tend to be much more detailed than other business marketplaces.
Once your company finds a buyer, Quiet Light Brokerage will handle putting the money in escrow and other transaction considerations. This part of the process is where having a mediator is the most useful. Small transactions can take only a month, but larger ones can take three to five months.
Quiet Light Brokerage Success Rates
One of the nice things about the thorough valuation before selling is that you know where your business stands. Having this information beforehand can help to manage expectations and keep everyone happy. It also helps ensure that your company will actually sell once it is listed.
There are a few factors that can determine how successful your sale is. Having all of your paperwork and balances in order can speed things up and ensure a higher success rate. Also, whether or not there is lending involved in the process can affect the speed of the sale.
Quiet Light Brokerage claims that businesses receive many inquiries and a few offers within a week. This kind of response rate alone is enough to turn anyone off of selling their business themselves. With many options, you more or less have your pick of buyers which can make the transition easier.
In general, if Quiet Light Brokerage has taken on your business, they know that it will be a good fit. This means that you can rest assured that your company will find a buyer on their vast marketplace. There are many different industries represented, so there are many potential leads browsing every day.
One of the advantages of using a broker to mediate your company’s sale is that they have an interest. A broker is motivated to sell your business because they stand to gain as much as you. This mutually beneficial relationship drives sales and overall success rates.
Quiet Light Brokerage claims that 47% of the businesses they sell go for above asking price. This suggests a high rate of sale and shows how well they know they market and what is in demand. Putting your sale in knowledgeable hands will always give you the leading edge.
Fees Charged by Quiet Light Brokerage to Sell a Business
If you are tempted to try to sell your website independently, there are probably quite a few reasons. One of them is that you don’t want to split the profits of your hard work with anyone else. This is a valid reason and understandable to anyone who has started their own business.
The issue with going it alone is that you could end up losing more money in the long run. Bad deals happen all the time and if you don’t know enough about the market, you could lose out. That could end up being much worse than giving a small percentage to a professional sales mediator.
In general, business brokers are going to charge about 6-15% depending on how big or small your company is. This seems like a lot but if you consider the cost of selling independently, that could add up to more. Having someone on your side who has your best interest in mind could end up being very lucrative.
Here is a breakdown of the fees charged by Quiet Light Brokerage:
- 10% $0-$1,000,000
- 9% $1,000,000-2,000,000
- 8% $2,000,000-3,000,000
- 7% $3,000,000-4,000,000
- 6% $4,000,000-5,000,000
- 5% $5,000,000-6,000,000
- 4% $6,000,000-7,000,000
- 3% everything above $7,000,000
Quiet Light Brokerage does have an exclusive engagement letter that must be complied with. This means that you can only work with them while they are working on your company’s sale. This is something to consider when looking for different options of business brokers.
The fees and stipulations of selling your business with Quiet Light Brokerage definitely add up. If you were able to broker the sale on your own, it’s possible you could make more money. However, if you don’t have the connections or experience, that could be very difficult.
Pros and Cons of Using Quiet Light Brokerage
Pros:
Experience – The professional brokers at Quiet Light Brokerage have mediated dozens of sales each. That kind of experience can’t be bought. If you have been busy running your business, odds are you don’t have it.
Large Database Of Buyers – Having your business listed on Quiet Light Brokerage’s marketplace gives it a distinct advantage. Unless you already have a buyer who is interested, you couldn’t ask for better leads. The people who are looking in the marketplace are already interested and wanting to talk to you.
Less Stress – Not having to deal with the worry of such a big sale is worth its weight in gold. Any business owner knows how to manage their stress effectively. If you don’t want to deal with the headaches and uncertainty, this might be a good choice for you.
More Leads – If you want to ensure that the right people are taking over your company, this could be a good option. With a broker like Quiet Light Brokerage, you have your choice of buyers. By having them come to you, you can make sure you are leaving your business in good hands.
Great Fees – Standard business brokerage fees can be up to 15% of a sale. Quiet Light’s fees are much less than most business brokers. With a range if 3% to 10%, they have some of the best success fees on the market.
Cons:
Less Control – It can be difficult for any business owner to hand over any aspect of it to someone else. One of the reasons Quiet Light Brokerage might be a good choice for this is that their brokers are entrepreneurs. They understand that anxiety and can work with you to ease some of it.
Exclusive Contract – While they encourage you to seek opinions on valuations, you do have an exclusive contract. This means that you cannot try to sell your business with multiple marketplaces. This could be a consideration for someone who wants to have more buyer options.
Conclusion And Verdict
Leaving the sale of your business to someone else can be scary. Most entrepreneurs do what they do because they are independent and individually minded. Quiet Light Brokerage understands that through their own collective business experience.
The #1 differentiating factor of Quiet Light Brokerage is their first hand experience of each member of their team. Most of their team members have first hand experience in selling and/or buying their own online ventures. They are entrepreneurs first.
For example, Brad Wayland has acquired over 28 content businesses. Walker Deibel has had the #1 best seller on Amazon for buying businesses for over a year (see here). Amanda Raab was featured in Time Magazine in 2005 for her startup at the time of PurePearls.com.
More importantly, they are decidedly non-pressured. They are looking for a good fit for both their clients and themselves. Many of their current clients have been talking with them for a long time to ensure that they get their client’s businesses in the right place before selling.
The best managers are people who can delegate well and trust others to excel. The brokers you work with have dozens of sales under their belts. Because of that, you can rest easy knowing that they want what is best for you as a fellow entrepreneur.
Quiet Light Brokerage has been around longer than most of the other website brokers. In an industry that is often fly-by-night, this can be a reassuring feature. Business is built on longevity and repeat customers and no one understands that more than serial entrepreneurs.
While you probably started your business because you wanted to be independent, there is a time to ask for help. When it comes to getting the most out of the sale of your company, it’s best not to take chances. Hiring a professional broker can cost money in the short term but save so much more in the long run.
Hopefully, this Quiet Light Brokerage review has helped shed some light on the intimidating world of business brokerage. By getting a valuation, you can start to take the first steps to selling your website. With such a wide open market, there is always room for more opportunity.
