Tell me about it. I've been plucking away at an online business since 2004. It makes just barely enough money that I'm not quite willing to shut it down but not enough to get excited about or quit my regular job. Hate it.
It’s really hard to change project and recognize the blurredd line between “it doesn’t work” and “I didn’t put enough effort into it”.
My first product worked, but very average. My second project worked excellently, there was quasi-immediate traction. That second thing was resolving an actual business issue.
It’s stagnating now. It’s probably because, even though I don’t feel it, I’m bored (it’s been 7 years). I have difficulty waking up in the morning.
You need to innovate. If not just for your brain and sanity, the market didn’t recognize your first product. Evaluate whether you should trust the sign that the market gives you.
Think not about the hours you have spent, but about the hours remaining in your life. They are finite. Do you want to spend more of them on that thing that has turned dreary? If you can afford it, it's usually better to call it a day and free up time and mental energy for something new and better.
If the result of those thousands of hours is worth <= 10000 by some valuation method which makes sense to me.
More nuanced answer: I have a project that I've been plugging away at for years now. It may never pay for itself if I value my time at the same rate that I charge it out to others, but in that time it's improved the quality and speed of my other outputs significantly.
In that regard it's probably already paid for itself, but I wouldn't sell it because it continues to be valuable to me both in that regard and as a creative outlet.
If it were a throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks saas I'd have no problem selling it for a reasonable valuation of future earnings.
Wish I could edit my comment as I see it has triggered many responses. To me, the effort of closing a deal to sell something that's not losing money isn't worth $10,000. I'd rather keep it alive and let users enjoy it. If I'm losing money, that's a different story, of course. But since selling on Acquire tops at $10,000, I decide that it's not worth my time. I might think differently if instead of $10,000 it was $100,000. That would pay off part of my mortgage. But having to do KT, sign documents, consult with lawyers, do loads of admin for $10,000? No way. I am almost offended
Maybe people are assuming it's $10,000 net after the cost of lawyers and "admin" or whatever it takes to sell your thing on Acquire. $10,000 is a lot of money, if I had some hobby project that was break even and I was getting sick of dealing with it, I'd even sell it for $1,000, let alone $10,000 which can be life changing!
Probably. OP said he can't get excited about the project, and hates the situation, so sure. For a few grand in the pocket, no big deal. Is this really a standard term for selling a failed business? You can't work on something similar ever again for the rest of your life?
Depends. What will I get for it 2 years from now ? Would someone even pay 10K ? You need to know when to let something go. SOmetimes, at a huge loss. And I am a founder so I know how hard it is to let things go that you put your blood and sweat into.
That's also part of the problem. I don't think I could find anyone competent enough for less than $150K or so, and then we'd be losing money. Plus finding them and training them is hard.
Sunk cost fallacy. It doesn't matter how much time or money you've put into something, the question is always what is the best use of my time and money today? The value of something is what someone else is willing to pay for it.
