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Ask HN: Ways to sell a failed business

3 points by sabertoothed ↗ HN
Is there a way to sell a failed business? Are there common platforms for that?

I am talking about my own business but also the idea in general.

Are there platforms that allow you to sell your failed business? The idea is that the potential buyers are aware that what they are buying needs to be turned around and the sellers are aware that they are selling at a discount.

It is often the case that people have built their niche, invested money in domains, trademark, other IP etc. and then shutting everything down seems like a waste of money. Often the reasons for shutting down might not even be related to the business; maybe it is just lack of time or other incidents.

Any hint on this? One obvious obstacle is publicly admitting the failure and the resulting bad PR.

3 comments

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davismwfl
Failing is relative. Many failing businesses are sold every day, it is what IP, what value does the business contain that can be sold. There are entire industries built around buying failing companies and selling off the assets, or sometimes turning them around.

A huge percentage of all small business sales in the US are asset purchases, not stock sales. So for you, depending on your situation you may have valuable assets, e.g. client lists, clients themselves, technology, trademarks etc that all can be sold. Don't get hung up on a web address (unless it is hugely popular and almost a household name or similar). Also, just because you paid $5k for something last year, doesn't mean it is worth anywhere near that today, so don't get hung up on what you paid, get focused on how much things are worth.

You can approach competitors about purchasing your client list or technology if you strongly feel they can benefit. You can list the entire business for sale through a broker and just point out the warts but also the position and strengths. Lots of ways to go.