Can you help with purchase of $200K site?

[storas]

Hi all.

I have reached an agreement with a competitor to buy his business. Can you assist with
a) researching the site and identifying areas of strength and weakness
b) researching other site related issues (I don't know what needs to be investigated)
c) doing the moving of the site to my preferred hosting company and changing all the passwords and access
d) customizing the site to my requirements
e) making suggestions on how I can benefit from the acquisition

What would be a reasonable fee for that work? Would it be a fixed amount contract or paid on an hourly rate? How can I find someone with the right skills?

If you can help, please provide details of your experience in doing jobs like these.

Thank you.

[nEquity]

Sounds like for most of these jobs you need a wedsite developer/programmer. In my experience for doing jobs like b), c) and d), Ive used online freelance websites. That is websites were you post the job to be done and people bid on it for you. Ive used guru.com, can get some really cheap service there and if you pick a bidder with a good rep the quality of the work is good too.

[TrustButVerify]

a) researching the site and identifying areas of strength and weakness
b) researching other site related issues (I don't know what needs to be investigated)
c) doing the moving of the site to my preferred hosting company and changing all the passwords and access
d) customizing the site to my requirements
e) making suggestions on how I can benefit from the acquisition

I hate to be the one to ask this question, but it stares back at me when reading your post...

It sounds like you've already agreed on a price, is that correct?

Is this mainly an online based business with most of it's revenue being generated online?

I mean this with the utmost courtesy but... are you really prepared to evaluate a web property like this without having the basic knowledge you're requesting help on?

Again, I don't know all the details of the transaction so I'm not in a good position to judge but I think it's a question that's worth asking in this thread.

[benitez17]

If you purchased this competitor primarily to take over their customer base, it could be that their website isn't your primary concern, but it is hard to tell from your post if that is the case. If you provide more information either here or by PM, I'm willing to take a look at the site.

[storas]

nEquity, not just a programmer. It needs someone with a lot more internet, design, database, programming, SEO, webmastering and other experience that I don't have. Are you saying I'll have to employ multiple people?

TrustButVerify, yes, the price is agreed, the deal is sealed so to speak and the competitor will be retiring. The main revenue is not being generated online, but the website is very important to the business and is used to manage customer contact via an integrated CRM system and for managing leads. Sorry I didn't mention all that earlier. I haven't evaluated the site and my decision to purchase the business was based on what I know about the overall business. The site is a tool that comes with it. I know the site exists and that it works. I'm not worried about some dark secret lurking in there. But it does needs someone to give it the once over and investigate it thoroughly, someone who isn't already "emotionally" invested in the site development/maintenance and can give me unbiased advice.

Thanks for your offer benitez17. I'm looking to hire one person for the entire job I mentioned earlier. Could you do all of it? Would you like an email address to send me a CV/description of your skills and experience? How would the pricing of the job work?

[nEquity]

Storas, I am sure if you cant do that all yourself you could find people who can undertake several of those tasks. As I said, freelancers are good for those tasks often. If you have time you could obviously learn them yourself, but it takes a long time to master obviously which you probably odnt have.

Additionally Id ask people on here, maybe they know of some good contacts who can assist with all those things.

With regard to help regarding an analysis on how to benefit on the acquisition and the potential synergies created or that can be created etc I am happy to help with some brief info (free of course), I can also send you an article about this if you like that I have written.

[benitez17]

I am a computer engineer with several years of experience writing software and managing my own online business, so I could handle all of your requirements. If there are any gaps in my knowledge, I would be able to find someone else who is capable without requiring any additional work on your part. If this interests you, please PM me and we can continue this conversation in private.

I generally don't do much work for others online because I haven't had many positive experiences in the past, but this sounds like an interesting opportunity.

[TrustButVerify]

Would you like an email address to send me a CV/description of your skills and experience? How would the pricing of the job work?

Sounds like you got to apply for a job benitez17!

Not to take this off topic but it's weird when you offer to help someone out and then they ask to see your qualifications

Storas, you are correct in wanting to know the person's qualifications if you're hiring them for the work, so don't take that lighthearted joke the wrong way.

The point I'm making is that many of us do this stuff for fun, we're constantly analyzing deals and neck deep in the business.

I think Clinton mentioned that he did some due diligence for a large transaction site purchase for about $500 (correct me if I'm wrong) but what he got out of it was mainly the chance to see the inner workings of a large value site.

I was approached about some due diligence work and the person was asking me about pricing and qualifications, etc, etc... and for me it wasn't really worth it.

Also, I think many of us are what I might call "deal killers"... we would show a lot of the negatives of the site, the hidden areas not exposed or the potential risks that might tell the seller many things he doesn't want to hear...

And since I'm on a roll about doing due diligence here, the DD I've offered to do for some friends in the past took all of about two seconds to show them the site was a template site or similar pile of crap.

Anybody feelling me here?

[benitez17]

Well I am not going to help for free if he wants more than basic advice, so I understand why he would ask for qualifications or a resume.

However, I have been jerked around in the past by people who were:

- looking to pay someone below minimum wage to manage their entire website and marketing for a product they were planning to sell hundreds of dollars per month
- constantly requesting help that would "only take a minute" and wanting it for free
- clueless, and suspicious that every recommendation that I made was the lead in for some sort of scam I was waiting to spring on them
- giant time wasters who wanted a ton of information about me up front, got all excited about the project, and then vanished

Unfortunately, I could go on, though I have learned a lot of lessons by now about how to evaluate a potential client.

I have more work for myself than I can handle already, so I don't spend time seeking out additional work, and I don't jump through a lot of hoops for people who are interested in what I can offer. If storas is not looking for a slave, a person who is willing to provide free advice at his or her beck and call, and isn't planning on changing their mind every time I speak to them, I'd be interested in this opportunity.

[Clinton]

I think Clinton mentioned that he did some due diligence for a large transaction site purchase for about $500 (correct me if I'm wrong) but what he got out of it was mainly the chance to see the inner workings of a large value site.

I didn't want to get into interfering with price discussion in this thread, but as a price was quoted for me, I feel I should say something.

First, I'm not looking for DD work and when people contact me via links elsewhere, I send them to this site. With regards price, when I did take jobs on I often did them for free if I thought they were particularly interesting, but I've never done anything for as low as $500 or even $500 a day. The last job I took was before I started this forum and it was $9,000 + some other benefits for about three days' work. I took it because a friend persuaded me (I had turned it down initially).

<added>TrustButVerify may have been referring to this post I made some time ago