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tl;dr - Have a website earning $10,500 per month profit. Expecting it to reach at least $13-15k/mo. soon. Wondering if I should sell it or hold it based on my situation.
-----
I have a good history of making large, important decisions quickly with good judgment, but this is one I'm really struggling with.
I will try to keep this short, but I'm including the background information since otherwise I bet the only answer is "it depends".
Background:
I just turned 24 this week. I did not grow up well off. Up until last year, I lived in a crowded, water-damaged mobile home with 4 people (family) for about 5 years. We weren't destitute, but it wasn't great. Some of the floors and walls were falling apart in the home and we couldn't get that fixed.
In 2020, I went through a lot of rough things. My father got sick and almost died, we found out he was cheating on my mother after 20 years of marriage, he recovered, then he died suddenly, my soon-to-be fiance broke up with me, and I found out my mother was an alcoholic (all that happened in 12 months). I worked a lot on business during this time as a distraction which led we towards where I am today.
Health:
In late 2021 I got sick and never recovered. I have severe cognitive issues, extreme food intolerances, and exercise intolerance. This is all despite being in the best shape of my life leading up to this. A month before I got sick I did a 20-mile mountain traverse in New Hampshire in one day.
I am finally starting to get some answers. I believe it is CIRS (chronic inflammatory response syndrome) caused by mold exposure from the water-damaged mobile home (and possibly my childhood home). My body was primed with disease and it was triggered during a rough virus.
Because of my health, I can only work 2-4 hours per day to prevent my mind and body from completely giving out. And those hours are rough with my cognitive issues.
I expect another 1-2 years before I start to heal, assuming that we're on track for understanding the root cause.
Businesses:
I have two businesses:
Finances:
Below is my personal and business balance sheet.
ASSETS
Cash - $35k
LIABILITIES
Student Loans - $38k
Credit Cards - $4k
PERSONAL EXPENSES
My personal expenses are $4-5k per month. I don't eat out or buy nice things. I even sold my car. A lot of my expenses are related to my healthcare.
----
Automotive Website #1 has been seeing fast and steady growth over the past 1 year. Each month revenue has been increasing by about $2k per month. I expect the website to reach $12-15k per month minimum soon, which would put my valuation anywhere from $400-700k (assuming growth hits a peak and slows down).
85% of my traffic comes from Google Search, which is risky. In April 2023, my traffic and revenue were cut in half because I was penalized by a Google Search update. However, it was clear why my website was affected. I hired an expert and we fully recovered the site in 2 months. It was my fault for failing to keep my website up to par with the quality that Google is looking for.
Because I am considering selling within the next year, I am hesitant to spend money developing new traffic channels. However, if I'm going to hold for the long term, I need to start developing new traffic channels NOW.
The big question:
I am trying to figure out if I should sell in 8-12 months, lock in mid-6-figure exit for financial security purposes (especially given my health situation), and use those funds to support new acquisitions for my holding company.
OR
Continue to grow the business, develop new traffic channels, and save/invest the monthly cash flow. I'm afraid my website traffic will tank and decline indefinitely and I would've missed out on an exit that might be "life-changing" for me. If I lost my income and could not cover my personal expenses, my health would suffer severely. I cannot work a job because I can only work in 10-15 minute bursts with huge breaks in between, and I would need quite a high-paying part-time job to support my expenses anyway.
Thank you for taking the time to read. Your input is greatly appreciated.
-----
I have a good history of making large, important decisions quickly with good judgment, but this is one I'm really struggling with.
I will try to keep this short, but I'm including the background information since otherwise I bet the only answer is "it depends".
Background:
I just turned 24 this week. I did not grow up well off. Up until last year, I lived in a crowded, water-damaged mobile home with 4 people (family) for about 5 years. We weren't destitute, but it wasn't great. Some of the floors and walls were falling apart in the home and we couldn't get that fixed.
In 2020, I went through a lot of rough things. My father got sick and almost died, we found out he was cheating on my mother after 20 years of marriage, he recovered, then he died suddenly, my soon-to-be fiance broke up with me, and I found out my mother was an alcoholic (all that happened in 12 months). I worked a lot on business during this time as a distraction which led we towards where I am today.
Health:
In late 2021 I got sick and never recovered. I have severe cognitive issues, extreme food intolerances, and exercise intolerance. This is all despite being in the best shape of my life leading up to this. A month before I got sick I did a 20-mile mountain traverse in New Hampshire in one day.
I am finally starting to get some answers. I believe it is CIRS (chronic inflammatory response syndrome) caused by mold exposure from the water-damaged mobile home (and possibly my childhood home). My body was primed with disease and it was triggered during a rough virus.
Because of my health, I can only work 2-4 hours per day to prevent my mind and body from completely giving out. And those hours are rough with my cognitive issues.
I expect another 1-2 years before I start to heal, assuming that we're on track for understanding the root cause.
Businesses:
I have two businesses:
- Website management services for small businesses (subscription-based)
- Revenue: $8,000/mo.
- Profit: $4,000/mo.
- I don't care for this business, but it provides me with steady income
- Takes me 2-4 hours per week to run
- I may get 1-2 new customers per year because I'm not trying to grow this. I don't have a good system for bringing in leads. I could see this business slowly fading to half the revenue and profit over the next couple of years, which is perfectly fine with me since I would be okay moving on from this business (as long as I had other income).
- Online business ownership and acquisition
- With this business, my goal is to buy, grow, hold, and sell online businesses (perhaps eventually brick-and-mortar)
- My current portfolio:
- Automotive website #1 (This is the subject of this post)
- Started from scratch 1.5 years ago
- Revenue: $12k/mo.
- Profit: $10.5k/mo.
- I really enjoy running this (and all businesses in this portfolio, honestly)
- Takes 2-4 hours per week to run
- Automotive website #2
- Started from scratch 6 months ago
- Revenue: $50/mo.
- Profit: (-)$1,000/mo.
- Following the same strategy of Automotive website #1 and expecting similar results
- Agriculture services directory
- Started from scratch in 2019
- Sold in 2021 for $10k
- New owner neglected the site for 2 years
- Just bought it back last month for $1,500
- It has some solid traffic, but negligible revenue and profit until I monetize it
- Automotive website #1 (This is the subject of this post)
Finances:
Below is my personal and business balance sheet.
ASSETS
Cash - $35k
- $10k emergency fund
- $15k in business accounts
- $10k in misc checking/savings
- $6,500 stocks/ETFs
- $2,500 crypto/speculative
- motorcycle
- no loan
LIABILITIES
Student Loans - $38k
Credit Cards - $4k
- Paid in full each month
- Run most of my personal expenses through here
PERSONAL EXPENSES
My personal expenses are $4-5k per month. I don't eat out or buy nice things. I even sold my car. A lot of my expenses are related to my healthcare.
----
Automotive Website #1 has been seeing fast and steady growth over the past 1 year. Each month revenue has been increasing by about $2k per month. I expect the website to reach $12-15k per month minimum soon, which would put my valuation anywhere from $400-700k (assuming growth hits a peak and slows down).
85% of my traffic comes from Google Search, which is risky. In April 2023, my traffic and revenue were cut in half because I was penalized by a Google Search update. However, it was clear why my website was affected. I hired an expert and we fully recovered the site in 2 months. It was my fault for failing to keep my website up to par with the quality that Google is looking for.
Because I am considering selling within the next year, I am hesitant to spend money developing new traffic channels. However, if I'm going to hold for the long term, I need to start developing new traffic channels NOW.
The big question:
I am trying to figure out if I should sell in 8-12 months, lock in mid-6-figure exit for financial security purposes (especially given my health situation), and use those funds to support new acquisitions for my holding company.
OR
Continue to grow the business, develop new traffic channels, and save/invest the monthly cash flow. I'm afraid my website traffic will tank and decline indefinitely and I would've missed out on an exit that might be "life-changing" for me. If I lost my income and could not cover my personal expenses, my health would suffer severely. I cannot work a job because I can only work in 10-15 minute bursts with huge breaks in between, and I would need quite a high-paying part-time job to support my expenses anyway.
Thank you for taking the time to read. Your input is greatly appreciated.
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