<story><title>What it&apos;s like buying a $128k side project</title><url>http://blog.codetree.com/articles/what-its-like-buying-a-128k-side-project.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ryandrake</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s great to read the details about what it takes to buy a small business. Thanks for posting this and being so open about what went into the negotiation. I always thought (if I were to one day run into money) buying an already-running business would be a better, less risky path towards entrepreneurship than starting with a blank text editor!&lt;p&gt;A few questions:&lt;p&gt;Is it common to have to fork over all cash for these sized deals? Is it possible&amp;#x2F;acceptable to finance? What alternatives to seller financing have you seen? I don&amp;#x27;t imagine it&amp;#x27;s possible to just waltz into your local bank and say hi guys I need $100K to buy a website!&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d be interested in learning more about finding these deals. You found this one through FE. Are there other common places to find tech listings? Do you ever approach companies that you like but aren&amp;#x27;t actively looking to sell? I&amp;#x27;d love to see a play by play of how one of those conversations go.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rstocker99</author><text>kareemm has already answered the questions about financing but I actually think your second question about &amp;quot;where to find these deals&amp;quot; is really the more interesting and important question. The obvious answer is places like FE where we found Codetree but that was a total fluke and it&amp;#x27;s not the right way to approach it.&lt;p&gt;The truth of the matter is that many business are for sale if you ask. The right approach is to think about the type of business you want to buy, build a list of all of the ones that fit and to cold email them and see if they&amp;#x27;d be interested in selling. Basically the same approach you&amp;#x27;d take if you were trying to sell B2B software i.e. Predictable Revenue style.&lt;p&gt;I can already hear people saying, &amp;quot;No way people don&amp;#x27;t do that&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;That would never work&amp;quot; but it does and people do. In fact we know a number of people that bought their businesses using that approach and it is exactly what we were about to start doing before Codetree fell in our laps. It&amp;#x27;s also the way that a lot of PE, VC and search fund deals get done.</text></comment>
<story><title>What it&apos;s like buying a $128k side project</title><url>http://blog.codetree.com/articles/what-its-like-buying-a-128k-side-project.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ryandrake</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s great to read the details about what it takes to buy a small business. Thanks for posting this and being so open about what went into the negotiation. I always thought (if I were to one day run into money) buying an already-running business would be a better, less risky path towards entrepreneurship than starting with a blank text editor!&lt;p&gt;A few questions:&lt;p&gt;Is it common to have to fork over all cash for these sized deals? Is it possible&amp;#x2F;acceptable to finance? What alternatives to seller financing have you seen? I don&amp;#x27;t imagine it&amp;#x27;s possible to just waltz into your local bank and say hi guys I need $100K to buy a website!&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d be interested in learning more about finding these deals. You found this one through FE. Are there other common places to find tech listings? Do you ever approach companies that you like but aren&amp;#x27;t actively looking to sell? I&amp;#x27;d love to see a play by play of how one of those conversations go.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>charlesdm</author><text>&amp;gt; Is it common to have to fork over all cash for these sized deals? Is it possible&amp;#x2F;acceptable to finance? What alternatives to seller financing have you seen? I don&amp;#x27;t imagine it&amp;#x27;s possible to just waltz into your local bank and say hi guys I need $100K to buy a website!&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve discussed this with my local Belgian bank (well, not $100k, closer to $1-1.5m), and they&amp;#x27;d be happy to do it if I put up 25-30% of the capital. So should definitely be doable. The issue is finding a good and viable asset that won&amp;#x27;t deteriorate. Usually there&amp;#x27;s a reason why people sell.</text></comment>