How to Sell Your Drop Shipping Business For Max Profits

The most exciting and profitable thing about starting an online business isn't the amount of money you can make each month or year, it's the asset value you create from your business.  Meaning when you create a business online as we do with High Ticket Drop Ship eCommerce, we end up launching a business that once it makes money we can sell to someone else for a lump sum of money.  

In addition to reading this article, you can also watch my full youtube video by clicking the video below.  

But first, if you're hungry for more knowledge (and profit)? You should become a member and Subscribe to my YouTube channel to stay up to date with everything you need to know about high-ticket drop shipping success.

You see, one of the things that catapulted me to e-Commerce fame (if you will) is launching my first high ticket drop shipping e-Commerce business. I was able to see it within eight months of launching, and I sold it for 35 times what I was producing a month in profit.

Now some of you might be a part of Elite Drop Ship Academy. Alternatively, maybe you haven't even launched your store yet. Maybe you're just getting launched, or getting your first sell. Nevertheless, you might be thinking “why should I even think about selling when I haven't even gotten to the point where I should think about selling?” Or maybe you’re thinking that you haven't produced enough sales.

But I'm here to tell you the first things you should be thinking about is your exit strategy.

Sell Your First Online Store or Business

It's my advice, and through my experience, that I say you should sell the first store or first business you launch online.

Why, you ask? Because you’re going to use that as the seed money to launch future stores. You're going to use that as the confidence to quit your job. You're going to use that money to create cushion in your savings account, and to invest in other businesses. Then you'll have the experience, the confidence, and the know-how along with the capital to launch and scale multiple on-line businesses- not just in e-Commerce.

Now if you're watching me for the first time, you might not know that I teach high ticket drop ship e-Commerce. I do it because I've had success over the past four years with launching and scaling high ticket drop ship e-Commerce stores from scratch.

I focus on earning 300, 500, $600 in profit, net profit, after the cost of the product, after my ad-spend, and after all other variable costs. I'd rather focus on one quality sell than have a hundred or a thousand low ticket sells.

The reason being is I'm building a lifestyle business that I can enjoy while spending time with my family, hanging out with friends and traveling. That's the purpose behind why we want to create online businesses in the first place.

So back to selling your business, your drop shipping business, for maximum profit. The key to doing that, and positioning yourself in a way that enables you to get maximum dollars for your business when you decided to sell it, is by first and foremost building a brand around your business. So that's step one. 

Create a Brand

When you launch a store, you want a great logo, a good quality name, and you want to build a store around a brand. Meaning, you don't want to just throw a store together to sell products, you want to create a brand. For example, if you have a business that's selling home fitness equipment, you shouldn't be a Shopify store that sells home fitness equipment. Instead, you should be the go-to source for how to work-out from home. Do you see the difference?

When you're the go-to source for working out from home, people will come to you to learn how to work out from home. They will come to get expert advice from your blogs. Maybe you'll release content and articles. Maybe you'll have videos on how to work. Oh by the way, you can buy these very expensive high ticket equipments to work out from home.

So key number one is to build a brand around your store.

Now, I’m sure you have two questions on your mind.

1. How can you sell your store when you're ready to sell it
2. When should you be ready to sell your store? 

My advice here is there's not a true time line for when you should sell your store. I've seen stores sell on-line the day they were built, and people will truly buy and pay money for a store that's already overcome the hurdles of launching. Makes sense, right?

Building a store, setting up a logo, loading up products, getting suppliers, setting up all the back-end email sequences. All of that- even if you have no sales- people will be interested in buying that store.

The only different is when you sell a store that's just launched for the first time and you have no traction, you're not going to get as much money for that store, versus a store that's already producing income.

What Should You Expect When You're Ready to Sell Your Store?

You should expect to prepare your financials. Have your data in order, and consider working with a business broker. There are online business brokers out there like Empire Flippers, FEI International, Website Closers and BizBuySell.com, just to name a few.

You should also expect to pay about 10% in your final sales price as commission for that broker's selling your business. The reason why this is advantageous is because it gives you the freedom to continue running and scaling your business.

Another advantage is when people inquire about your business, you won't have to deal with people asking to see your store and see your financials. Your broker is going to handle all that and filter out people who are just tire-kickers that don't have the money. You want to make sure that they hone in on people who actually can afford to buy your business.

If you don't want to use a business broker, the alternative is to list your business yourself. You do that by going to sites like BizBuySell.com.

Keep in mind that you're building a business asset when you start an online business. You really want to focus on thinking what is the type of business you can start online that will create the highest business asset value for you. 

The Exit Strategy

Most people start an online business thinking that they just want to make a few thousand dollars on-line. They want to supplement their income.

Not many people come to me and say, "AJ, how do I truly position myself to exit from a business a year from now, six months from now, two years from now, where I can retire. I can buy my dream home? I can buy my dream car? I can finally quit my shitty job?” People always start off thinking “well how do I make my first dollar on line?”

Just like any business, you have to think in terms of your exit strategy. If you were a real estate investor, you wouldn't be thinking “how much is this house going to cost me? How much can I make in rental income?” You would be thinking “how much value am I going to get from this house when I sell it if I buy it today for this price?” You should think the same way. Your mindset should be the same mindset when it comes to starting an online business.

Based on the cost of starting your business online, your ad spent, your time and effort. How much will you get in the back end? Don’t think in terms of your monthly profit. You should think about your exit strategy.

Now, this should be at least initially. Don’t get me wrong, I'm not saying don't think about profits- that’s ridiculous, right? However, if you're looking to profit from your online business, you really have to truly think about an exit strategy. This means selling your drop shipping business for maximum profits the moment you're ready to sell it. I think there's not a true time line on when you should sell your online business.

Whenever You're Ready to Sell It, Sell It

Online businesses right now are very attractive. The reason is because there are more and more people, investors, and buyers looking to retire. People are looking to quit their job. Other business owners are noticing that online e-Commerce businesses are really making money. They’re even out-packing the profits of brick and mortar businesses.

Think about franchising, right? If you're going to open a business in the brick and mortar space, they're looking at a start up cost of a few hundred thousand dollars- and with a possibility of still failing. So a big majority of people look towards buying an existing established business. 

We want them to consider your store as a potential acquisition. 

What Are Investors Looking For?

So what are investors and buyers looking to buy right now and pay for in online business? Let’s use Empire Flippers as an example. They are exclusively an online business brokerage firm. They specialize in e-Commerce, SaaS Companies, Software Companies, Service Industry Agencies. Anything that's an on-line business they list it, they sell it on line- and they do a pretty good job.

If you look at their marketplace and you look at what they're currently listing right now for sale, you’ll find an e-Commerce business that happens to be an Amazon FBA.

One thing you'll notice, and one of the reasons why I don't teach drop shipping on Amazon or Amazon FBA, is because there are so many of them out there. The reason is because they're noticing that it's harder and harder to maintain their revenue base. Amazon is making it harder and harder to turn a profit, and competitors are flooding in. You have to buy inventory, you have to buy assets, you have send it off to Amazon to fulfill those orders. I'm not a fan of Amazon, and many of you who follow me know I'm not.

Now, what you can consider when you're looking at an exit strategy is, if you do a $1,000 a month in sales, how much can you sell your business for?

The answer to that question is probably anywhere for 25 to 35 times. It depends on how consistent you've been on generating that $1,000. It also depends on if your store is a brand, how secure your suppliers are.

Other Variables

There's other variables. How solid is your backing? Do you have a virtual assistant that's handling all the backing, or are you doing it yourself?

The more the owner has to take on, the more that you probably have to discount your store. However, if you've provided a true turnkey semi-automated online business opportunity for a potential investor or buyer, the likelihood is you'll be able to ask a lot high multiple for that business. It's a lot less work for that buyer to put in once they acquire your business.

The more you make it passive or semi-automated, the higher you can ask for. The higher and longer your track record is, in terms of your revenue and profit, the higher you can ask.

Zero Sales

What if you have an online store, and you have zero sales, but you're looking to sell? Can you actually sell it? Yes. However, what I've seen stores sell that have zero profits. What I've seen them sell for is usually about 5 to $10,000.

Say you have a store secured with a high-ticket supplier's multiple, and there's reseller agreements in place. You have a good brand, a good store, all the backing is set up, and it's ready to go. However, you haven’t run ads. You can probably sell that store for 5 to $10,000- sometimes less, sometimes a little bit more. It all depends on the niche, and it depends on the quality of your store, and what you're providing to that buyer.

Final Thoughts

I've been asked a lot of questions about how much can I sell my high-ticket dropshipping store? How much do e-commerce store sell? When should I think about selling my store? Should I buy a store? All these questions have been presented to me, and I’ve decided to give you some insights about how much you can sell your store, how to maximize how much you sell your store, and when should you think about selling your store.

If you also want to learn more about how to launch a very profitable high-ticket dropshipping business, how to scale it, how to make profits, but also how to sell it, then consider watching my no-charge training.

It's a 90-minute training that walks you through the entire process of what me and my clients go through to start a hyper profitable high-ticket dropshipping store, and also, how to find suppliers, how to find a niche, how to optimize your store, how to run traffic, the whole 9 yards. If you want to learn how to do it, I recommend you attend that no-charge training.

If you'd like to start now the process of building your business asset with a High Ticket Drop Shipping business and you don't know where to start check out my full one hour webinar that will show you "How to Launch a Business In 21 Days With High Ticket Drop shipping even without any prior experience. 

Until next time, AJ with Elite Drop Ship Academy, signing off.