[ThomasSmale]

I'm founder of FE International (mentioned quite a few times in this thread already). We've done over $100m deals in the online space and have won various awards (e.g. for my business partner, Ismael: https://www.ibba.org/press-releases/2016-ibba-member-excelle...)

When searching for a business to buy, make sure you do your due diligence. There's a lot of junk out there and many "brokers" just make up their numbers/claimed legitimacy to win business. Once you've got past that, you then need to do due diligence on the business itself.

Passive businesses are not impossible to find, but it does depend on your definition. You can't buy any business and do absolutely nothing (truly "passive"). Even something low maintenance will require 1 hour a week, especially if you want it to last for years. Expect to pay a premium for businesses like this but be very cautious around claims from a seller. Number of hours worked is the easiest to misrepresent (and the hardest to prove). Almost every seller claims to work "2 hours a day" but IRL I've never met a business owner who works less than 10 a day :)

To answer your question directly, don't just look at marketplaces, check out brokers and advisors too. If you're upfront with what you're looking for and budget, most will send you options that are a good fit.

Good luck with your search!

[codegeek]

I had a bad experience dealing with you guys and I hope you can improve your NDA process. You make buyers sign a 2 year NDA. No problem with that except that you claim that the NDA is not specific to one sale but for all sales for the 2 year period. I had signed one already but when I inquired about another company after 1 year had passed, your team tried to force me to sign another NDA and gave the worst excuses when I tried to ask for the reason.

Either it is a 2 year NDA or it is not. If you want us to re-sign the NDA after 1 year, say so. Otherwise it is frankly misleading and a lie.

[ThomasSmale]

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience - happy to take on all constructive feedback so I appreciate you bringing it up!

The reason we ask for a 2 year NDA is that this is the generally accepted length of time that NDAs are enforceable in all 50 US states. We do ask buyers/investors to re-sign after 1 year so that our sellers are comfortable that there is at least 1 year remaining on all NDAs at the point of us listing a business.

That being said, on some listings sellers request that new 2 year NDAs are signed with all buyers/investors irrespective of how long is left to run on a pre-signed document. This is usually limited to 7 and 8-figure listings.

Sellers and buyers/investors both generally appreciate our strict approach. Making sure that we are operating diligent process when it comes to NDAs and sharing information is important for sellers as well as a new owner of the business.

Happy to jump on a call to discuss further if you would like: https://calendly.com/thomassmale.

[sharemywin]

I think I'm looking for a service business that I can focus on the billing, accounting, sales and marketing side. So, yes I get what your saying about "passive" The Risky part there is the employees have a lot of leverage over your business. I'll check out your site, though.