Quiet Light Podcast – Do You Have an Acquisition Criteria Checklist?

Welcome to our first Quiet Light Brokerage podcast! Over the next several months, we will experiment with a series of interviews in which we interview buyers, sellers, and experts in the industry.

Please forgive any quirks, odd audio, or hiccups in these first few podcasts. We are still learning the space and format. If you have any tips, please feel free to comment below.

About This Episode: Developing a Criteria Checklist

For potential website buyers many things factor into their decision on finding the right fit for them. Quiet Light Brokerage client Simon spends some time today discussing his process in looking for the right website. Simon has a digital media background and creates digital strategies for large companies. He knows he is looking to buy a website that has very specific characteristics in the healthcare space.

We begin by discussing the buying versus building of websites. Simon favors buying an existing site because he knows what he is looking for and his needs are very specific. He’d rather find an existing online business website that addresses everything he is looking for and that he can scale. Simon is not in a rush to buy and is instead looking for the right fit.

He explains his checklist in considering existing sites:

• A strategically sound business
• Something in the healthcare space where he is knowledgeable
• A niche market as opposed to mass market
• Large customer database in existence
• Solid Google organic search rankings
• High customer satisfaction
• A business where most of the execution has been outsourced or can be outsourced
• Diversified distribution channels
• No legal problems
• A good value

Simon credits Quiet Light with taking care of the detailed documentation process which can slow down the overall progress of moving forward. He explains that he knows that Quiet Light will be offering high quality sites. An attempt to buy a website in his niche didn’t work out for him, but he was able to turn it into an opportunity to fund a new purchase when the right one comes along.

His advice for those also looking to purchase websites is to line up your capital sooner than you might expect and decide on how comfortable you are putting your personal finances at risk if you are self-funding the purchase.

Simon explains that he is in no rush to find the right business and he feels it’s better to wait and have a great business than to buy something that’s going to suck the life out of you and have no return. For those who wish to be more proactive in the process, Simon suggests going out and finding the people who meet your criteria in a site and asking if they’re willing to sell.