The Story
Seven months ago, I got the Entrepreneur bug, so I started this blog on small business. In realizing that I couldn’t have a small business blog without a business, I bought an e-commerce website a few weeks later for a few thousand dollars. Two weeks after I bought the website, my wife had a business idea that we loved, so we started to pursue that. Since then, the time I spend on side-businesses (which isn’t enough) has been almost completely devoted to this blog and her business.
I have done nothing for Petloversplaza, the dropship e-commerce site. Cashflow was one issue, as all of our extra money was going to Kerry’s business, and time was another issue. But ultimately, I just never cared about the e-commerce site. I wanted to care, really, I did. But I don’t. E-commerce doesn’t excite me – I don’t have any passion for the business.
The Current Situation
And so now here we are, I am sitting on the e-commerce site. I don’t have any real interest in working on it, but I would lose money if I try to sell it (transaction costs if nothing else), and it hurts my pride to think that I was “unable” to make it profitable. Perhaps the easiest thing to do would be to just suck it up, put in the work and the money, and make it profitable. Perhaps.
What I failed to consider when buying the site was “The Dip”, which is a concept from Seth Godin and his book The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
So I either make it work, or I fail. Failure being a resounding lack of effort or results. Some people would perform their best in this situation, putting all of their effort into it and getting some great results. Some people would take the “easy way out”…
I don’t want to fail, but I don’t want to pursue a passion-less business either. Failure is an option, so long as you learn something from it. Regardless of what happens, I can definitely say that I’ve learned a lot from it.
The Resolution…?
Honestly, I haven’t completely made up my mind on what to do. Biz Buy Sell, where I bought the site from, charges $70/month with a 2 month minimum listing to sell a business (for a “standard” listing). Flippa charges $19 plus a 5% success fee. Biz Buy Sell sites tend to sell for more money though. I’m going to list the site on Craigslist and see what kind of interest I get. If nothing – I may just suck it up and put in the time and effort.
