The job board business is a very cyclical one. Our fortunes rise and fall on the back of the overall labor market. Anyone who tries to sell in a down market (like today) will get less because no one knows when the employment picture will stabilize. It wont be a good market to sell until we see steady decreases in the unemployment rate.
But you can do things to optimize your job board for a sale. Here are my tips.
1. Make it as automatic as possible. Can the site still survive and thrive after you are gone? Any site that is too heavily reliant on its owner to drive sales is less valuable since the potential buyer will have to find the resources to replace you. Try to make your site as self-serve as possible.
After 13 years I have been able to generate six figures on my boards while only putting in 10 hours a week. I can do this because of the huge word of mouth my sites have and the repeat business that loyal clients bring in. I only get a few calls per day. All of the business operates in the cloud 24/7.
2. Strive for repeat business. Its been said that 80% of businesses revenue come from the 20% of the clients. Concentrate your efforst on building trust with your most valuable clients. Give them free stuff from time to time. Make sure they keep coming back. A repeat customer is worth his weight in gold!
3. Build a network. My business (allcountyjobs.com) is more valuable because it’s a network of sites. When I eventually sell it, I believe it will attract more interest because more sites equal more page views equals more revenue.
4. Have a good niche. Whether you have a niche/industry site or a local job board make sure you are in a sectore where you can make money and where there’s potential for more. If you own a site in an industry or location that has been hit hard by the economic downturn you wont get very much for it. I wouldnt be investing in any teaching job boards for example. There have been 300,000 teachers laid off since 2008 in the U.S.
5. Don’t be too reliant on SEO for traffic. If this years Google Panda update taught me anything its that too much SEO can be bad. I had several Jobamatic sites raking in traffic and postings only to have the rug pulled out by the Panda Update. Those sites lost virtually all their traffic. Any buyer today has to be wary of sites that have too good SEO because there is NO guarantee that traffic will continue to flow.
6. Make money. If your job board doesn’t produce a decent amount if revenue you’ll be hard pressed to find a buyer for it. I think it takes 3-5 years to build up a descent revenue stream so be prepared for a long haul. The longer your board is online the more valuable it is.
And if you want to know more about how to sell your business read this book. I did.
