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View original thread:  Established Web Hosting Business - $400


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QTHosting
Hey guys,

After long hours of discussion with my partner in this excursion, we have decided to put QuasiTech Hosting up for sale. It is only 400 dollars, and it comes with a domain reseller account (not due for renewal for another 11 months), a dedicated server (398 / month), our website, a client base of about 14 people...Overall, it's a bargain.... you can read a much longer and in-depth thread discussing the sale of QuasiTech Hosting here: http://www.hostingdiscussion.com/sh...22430#post22430

Mods: Sorry if this in the wrong place.

Alex Goldstein
Co-Owner
QuasiTech Hosting
zendaze.co.uk
What exactly are you selling? It all makes absolutely no sense whatsoever? Stop treating people like idiots and do something honest with your time.... you have been asked on many, many occasions to be clear about what you are trying to sell and have failed to be clear. You are obviously incapable of clarity or are trying to sell 'potential'.

If you wish to sell the obligation to host your clients just be clear about it.

You are trying to spin a sale based on unfulfilled promises and are failing to spin it.

Please explain in detail the logic behind it being 'a bargain'.
QTHosting
Hey,

There's not much of an obligation to host our current clients - 5 are yearly basics, 2 are montly basics...after another week, the current clients only will take up 1/2 GB of space. On the other hand, we have over 300 dollars worth of clients ready to sign up within 3-7 days of the transfer...2 personal accounts (45.84 a year), 3 basic accounts (9.17 a year), and one premium account 183 dollars / year. We are open to bids, please contact me if you are interested.

Alex Goldstein
Co-Owner
QuasiTech Hosting
zendaze.co.uk
See ?????????????????
Nick Jones
QT would you like to advertise your sale on http://www.buysellhost.com ?
dmetzcher
Quote:
Originally Posted by QTHosting
Hey,

There's not much of an obligation to host our current clients - 5 are yearly basics, 2 are montly basics...after another week, the current clients only will take up 1/2 GB of space. On the other hand, we have over 300 dollars worth of clients ready to sign up within 3-7 days of the transfer...2 personal accounts (45.84 a year), 3 basic accounts (9.17 a year), and one premium account 183 dollars / year. We are open to bids, please contact me if you are interested.

Alex Goldstein
Co-Owner
QuasiTech Hosting


Not sure if I would take into consideration any potential clients when thinking about purchasing a hosting company.

"300 dollars worth of clients ready to sign up within 3-7 days of the transfer"

What are they waiting for? Why are they waiting to sign up AFTER the sale of the company? Why not now?

Also, regarding the thread you mention at: http://www.hostingdiscussion.com/sh...22430#post22430
You say, "totally web based so you can run it from home and make hundreds of thousands a year". Hundreds of thousands of what? Dollars? With 14 clients? You're selling a business that you HONESTLY (honestly?) believe is worth that...and for $400? Is it Christmas, or is something not quite right?

You also say, "I'm sorry that we had to let it go, but it was just a little bit too much time for a college student to spend away from his studies."

I'll tell you what, when I was in college, I would have left in a heartbeat to run a business that I started that could return "hundreds of thousands of dollars a year". Or, I would have hired a great manager and continued on at school while someone ran the business for me. Now, if we are talking about what you think this company's potential is...well, everyone wants to believe that the company they start is going to bring in that kind of money. Some do, most do not, and it doesn't matter what market you are in, hosting or widgets.

Also, the thread over at HostingDiscussion that you posted (and I referenced above) states that this business is going for $500. You have dropped the price. Why drop the price? This looks like you are trying to get rid of this company quick, after only one month in business.

This was an interesting post in reply to your offer at HostingDiscussion:
"So your current monthly income at time of sale is $14??
and therefore making a loss of $384 a month?
I have to concure with a previous poster and ask what you are asking $500 for since the new owner will presumable inherit your losses on the server??"

So true. You are selling a liability on the basis that it COULD be profitable if someone took it over and ran it properly. For that many clients (14), you might actually be profitable right now if you were on a low cost reseller plan. The buyer could then upgrade that plan a couple times before moving to a dedicated server at about 50-100 customers, depending on storage/transfer usage. As it is, it seems that you jumped right in a got your own server, and it's costing you a great deal of money every month. Plus, you got a dedicated server at $400 per month to host 14 annual paying clients at less than $10 per year each?

You say that you have made $150 from sales...yes, but your customers have paid you for a year up front, so your math is wrong. Let's say, like you are saying over at HostingDiscussion, that you sold 14 Basic accounts, which you price at $9.17 per year. That would be $128.38 total thus far. Let's also assume that you sold several domains and that equals $150. That's it...for this year. The fact is, whomever buys this company from you has no money coming in unless they get new customers. So they have a server that they are paying for every month (should have been a reseller account), and no income, but they have spent $400 for the this company.

Then you say this:
"We have seven cusomers that have currently paid -> Basic Plans

7*9.10 = 64.19 - Already paid and on our server
2 * 45.84 = 91.68 - 2 or more personal accounts to be paid to new owner
4 * 9.17 = 37.08 - 4 or more basic plans to be paid to new owner"

So, really, you are selling 7 clients now, and a possible 6 more? That would be 13, not even 14.

I also noticed that you use the term "about" a great deal. "About this many clients are on this plan", etc.

And:
"I can guarantee that I can bring in 6 new customers (at a minimum); 4 on the basic plan, 2 on the personal plan. This totals up to be just over 120 dollars...and I'm positive I can get many more customers for you than just 6 in the long run."

So you are going to work for the buyer once this company is sold? You are going to continue to bring in sales?

And here, you confirm what I said above regarding only having 7 clients:
"how many clients in total *existing* - 7
how many monthly on each plan - 2 basics, will probably not renew
how many annualls on each plan - 5 basics, will renew
how many domains sold - 6"

Oh, and two will not even renew now?

Then you admit you are selling a liability:
" Am I selling a liability...YES....all hosts have a liability to host their customers after they have paid..."

Except that we are not talking about THAT kind of liability. Take a business class at whatever college you attend.

You still have not answered the question that someone on HostingDiscussion asked:
Is this business registered in any state?
Also, from me, are there merchant accounts associated with this business?
(Probably not, so how about a PayPal account?)
Are there bank accounts that would transfer over?
(I would hope so, if it's really a business.)
Or, is this a sole proprietorship that you and a friend started?
How about trademarks/servicemarks? Do you have a trademark on "QuasiTech".
(The answer to this, before you reply, is no. You could not have obtained a trademark in one month.)
My points above are simple - no one knows the answers to these questions because you are only dispensing information when it's pulled out of you after several people ask or someone blasts you for leaving OBVIOUS things out. When selling a business, all of the above should be shared, in addition to the ACTUAL number of CURRENT hosting customers, which is NOT 14.

I really would not have posted a response to this thread. I would have just moved on and written it off as someone trying rip someone else off. But when I saw that you actually posted the link to the HostingDiscussion thread (http://www.hostingdiscussion.com/sh...09&page=3&pp=15) as if it were a selling point ("you can read a much longer and in-depth thread discussing the sale of QuasiTech Hosting here..."), I had to respond. Some poor fool is going to buy this company thinking that they are going to start their own company, and get a lemon.

Anyone can start their own hosting company like you did. I am assuming the business is not registered (i.e. - not a legal entity, so no liability protection at all for the new owner, and who knows what you have done with it, or to the customers, as you are not very open about the details when others have asked). If someone wants to start a company like yours, they can head over to [insert hosting reseller company's name here] and get a small reseller plan. Presto! A new business is born. Ok, it might not be registered anywhere, but it doesn't seem yours is either.

Not to mention the fact that you are selling plans for less than $10 per year. Not many people are going to want those customers.

This just smells like a kid who started what he calls a business and wants to sell it after the first month. Good luck with the sale. P. T. Barnum said that there's a sucker born every minute, and you might just find your sucker.
JoeFowler
Quote:
Originally Posted by dmetzcher
Not sure if I would take into consideration any potential clients when thinking about purchasing a hosting company.

"300 dollars worth of clients ready to sign up within 3-7 days of the transfer"

What are they waiting for? Why are they waiting to sign up AFTER the sale of the company? Why not now?

Also, regarding the thread you mention at: http://www.hostingdiscussion.com/sh...22430#post22430
You say, "totally web based so you can run it from home and make hundreds of thousands a year". Hundreds of thousands of what? Dollars? With 14 clients? You're selling a business that you HONESTLY (honestly?) believe is worth that...and for $400? Is it Christmas, or is something not quite right?

You also say, "I'm sorry that we had to let it go, but it was just a little bit too much time for a college student to spend away from his studies."

I'll tell you what, when I was in college, I would have left in a heartbeat to run a business that I started that could return "hundreds of thousands of dollars a year". Or, I would have hired a great manager and continued on at school while someone ran the business for me. Now, if we are talking about what you think this company's potential is...well, everyone wants to believe that the company they start is going to bring in that kind of money. Some do, most do not, and it doesn't matter what market you are in, hosting or widgets.

Also, the thread over at HostingDiscussion that you posted (and I referenced above) states that this business is going for $500. You have dropped the price. Why drop the price? This looks like you are trying to get rid of this company quick, after only one month in business.

This was an interesting post in reply to your offer at HostingDiscussion:
"So your current monthly income at time of sale is $14??
and therefore making a loss of $384 a month?
I have to concure with a previous poster and ask what you are asking $500 for since the new owner will presumable inherit your losses on the server??"

So true. You are selling a liability on the basis that it COULD be profitable if someone took it over and ran it properly. For that many clients (14), you might actually be profitable right now if you were on a low cost reseller plan. The buyer could then upgrade that plan a couple times before moving to a dedicated server at about 50-100 customers, depending on storage/transfer usage. As it is, it seems that you jumped right in a got your own server, and it's costing you a great deal of money every month. Plus, you got a dedicated server at $400 per month to host 14 annual paying clients at less than $10 per year each?

You say that you have made $150 from sales...yes, but your customers have paid you for a year up front, so your math is wrong. Let's say, like you are saying over at HostingDiscussion, that you sold 14 Basic accounts, which you price at $9.17 per year. That would be $128.38 total thus far. Let's also assume that you sold several domains and that equals $150. That's it...for this year. The fact is, whomever buys this company from you has no money coming in unless they get new customers. So they have a server that they are paying for every month (should have been a reseller account), and no income, but they have spent $400 for the this company.

Then you say this:
"We have seven cusomers that have currently paid -> Basic Plans

7*9.10 = 64.19 - Already paid and on our server
2 * 45.84 = 91.68 - 2 or more personal accounts to be paid to new owner
4 * 9.17 = 37.08 - 4 or more basic plans to be paid to new owner"

So, really, you are selling 7 clients now, and a possible 6 more? That would be 13, not even 14.

I also noticed that you use the term "about" a great deal. "About this many clients are on this plan", etc.

And:
"I can guarantee that I can bring in 6 new customers (at a minimum); 4 on the basic plan, 2 on the personal plan. This totals up to be just over 120 dollars...and I'm positive I can get many more customers for you than just 6 in the long run."

So you are going to work for the buyer once this company is sold? You are going to continue to bring in sales?

And here, you confirm what I said above regarding only having 7 clients:
"how many clients in total *existing* - 7
how many monthly on each plan - 2 basics, will probably not renew
how many annualls on each plan - 5 basics, will renew
how many domains sold - 6"

Oh, and two will not even renew now?

Then you admit you are selling a liability:
" Am I selling a liability...YES....all hosts have a liability to host their customers after they have paid..."

Except that we are not talking about THAT kind of liability. Take a business class at whatever college you attend.

You still have not answered the question that someone on HostingDiscussion asked:
Is this business registered in any state?
Also, from me, are there merchant accounts associated with this business?
(Probably not, so how about a PayPal account?)
Are there bank accounts that would transfer over?
(I would hope so, if it's really a business.)
Or, is this a sole proprietorship that you and a friend started?
How about trademarks/servicemarks? Do you have a trademark on "QuasiTech".
(The answer to this, before you reply, is no. You could not have obtained a trademark in one month.)
My points above are simple - no one knows the answers to these questions because you are only dispensing information when it's pulled out of you after several people ask or someone blasts you for leaving OBVIOUS things out. When selling a business, all of the above should be shared, in addition to the ACTUAL number of CURRENT hosting customers, which is NOT 14.

I really would not have posted a response to this thread. I would have just moved on and written it off as someone trying rip someone else off. But when I saw that you actually posted the link to the HostingDiscussion thread (http://www.hostingdiscussion.com/sh...09&page=3&pp=15) as if it were a selling point ("you can read a much longer and in-depth thread discussing the sale of QuasiTech Hosting here..."), I had to respond. Some poor fool is going to buy this company thinking that they are going to start their own company, and get a lemon.

Anyone can start their own hosting company like you did. I am assuming the business is not registered (i.e. - not a legal entity, so no liability protection at all for the new owner, and who knows what you have done with it, or to the customers, as you are not very open about the details when others have asked). If someone wants to start a company like yours, they can head over to [insert hosting reseller company's name here] and get a small reseller plan. Presto! A new business is born. Ok, it might not be registered anywhere, but it doesn't seem yours is either.

Not to mention the fact that you are selling plans for less than $10 per year. Not many people are going to want those customers.

This just smells like a kid who started what he calls a business and wants to sell it after the first month. Good luck with the sale. P. T. Barnum said that there's a sucker born every minute, and you might just find your sucker.



Quote:
I'll tell you what, when I was in college, I would have left in a heartbeat to run a business that I started that could return "hundreds of thousands of dollars a year"



LMAO! Yeah, who wouldn't! Fact of the matter is, this company isn't making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, in fact, I don't even think it is making hundreds of thousands of pennies.
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