Pricing your asset realistically

Take trailing twelve month net profit, divide by twelve, and apply the range for the asset type. Facebook page assets sit around 15x to 30x monthly profit, content websites around 28x to 40x, and a blended portfolio prices each asset in its own band and adds them up. Those are observed ranges, not quotes.

Then place yourself honestly inside the band. Verified numbers, clean compliance, spread revenue, and a written workflow argue for the top. Twelve months of history, one income source, and an owner who is the operation argue for the bottom. Most assets sit closer to the middle than their owners expect, and the ones at the top got there by preparing rather than by asking.

The third number is set by things outside the asset. How much cash the buyer has, what else is listed at that price, how quickly they need to see a return, and whether financing is involved at all.

The practical effect is a ceiling that has nothing to do with quality. Past a certain price, the pool of buyers who can wire the full amount thins quickly, which is why larger deals more often involve structure. Knowing where that ceiling sits for your asset is more useful than another round of arguing about the multiple.

Offers arrive in three shapes, and the headline number is the least useful part of any of them. What matters is how much of the total is guaranteed at close and how much depends on something happening later.

A holdback is money you will almost certainly receive, held briefly against conditions both sides already agreed. An earnout is money you might receive, calculated from performance you no longer control. Treating them as the same thing is the most expensive mistake a seller makes at this stage.

Compare the guaranteed portions, not the totals. An offer of $80,000 all cash against $110,000 as $60,000 down plus $50,000 earned over eighteen months is a comparison between $80,000 and $60,000, with the rest as an unpriced possibility.

Then ask who controls whether the earnout pays. In a publishing asset the buyer controls the posting, the content, the monetization settings, and the spending after close. An earnout tied to performance the buyer controls and you do not is a payment you cannot influence and cannot easily audit.

Take the lower cash offer when the gap is modest, when the earnout runs longer than a year, when its targets depend on the buyer's own decisions, or when the buyer's ability to pay later cannot be verified. Consider the earnout when the down payment alone already clears your floor, when the targets are simple and measurable, and when the terms are written tightly enough to enforce.

Decide the lowest number you will accept before any offer exists, and write it down with the reasoning. The point is not to hold the line forever. It is to keep the decision away from the moment when a real offer with a deadline is sitting in front of you.

Set the floor from your alternative rather than from your hopes. If the asset earns $4,000 a month and you would happily keep running it, your floor is high because your alternative is good. If you have stopped posting and the numbers are drifting down, your alternative is worse every month and your floor should reflect that.