How to Sell Your Smoke Shop

Whether you are looking to retire, scale down, or transition industries; there are many reasons why you might be looking to sell your Smoke Shop. While there are a million and three resources out there on how to start your shop, there are surprisingly few avenues available to check on if you are transitioning out of the business.

We will be taking an optimistic approach to this whole endeavor, as no matter the motivation for why you are selling, we want you to get what you are owed for the business that you’ve put your blood, sweat, and tears into. That’s why in this Got Vape Blog, we are going to take a look at how to best sell your shop, so that you come out on top no matter your situation.

Table of Contents:

How Much is My Smoke Shop Worth?

First among your questions when exploring the sale of your shop should be what the total sum of your assets are worth. This would include your inventory, display cabinets, lights, and any other materials that could potentially be of use to those succeeding your ownership.

To help yourself better understand what you value you have, take an extensive look at your inventory and get exact figures for what you currently have. This info will be essential in the coming weeks and months, as every move you make will be hinged on these numbers.

Break your inventory down into categories for sum totals of each type of capital you currently are in possession of. Try using an excel or google sheets document to load these figures into, that way as you sell them bit by bit, you will see what exactly has gone and what’s left.

When is the Best Time to Sell My Shop?

If you are in the market to sell your shop, then it's best to attempt to make the sale before any of your annual fees are due. This allows you to dodge paying for things like a tobacco license for 12 months, when you are only going to get 2 months of use out of it. As the new owners will have to apply for their own licenses, there isn’t any value to salvaged from extending yours.

While this is hard to nail down, as you would always prefer a more profitable sale term than any specific timing, but if you do know you are selling in the next 12 months, then take the time to plan the sale around your upcoming bills. This strategic planning will allow you to save as much money as possible, all the while preparing your shop to sell for the best possible deal.

How To Think Like a Buyer

Like any form of sales, it’s important to put yourself in the shoes of the buyer, to anticipate what exactly would appeal to you if you were looking to break into the market. Think about what you would be looking for if another shop owner came to you looking to make a sale. While you would want to help them out as much as possible, you're not going to risk your bottom line for a competitor. So instead, think about how your current sales situation would directly benefit them. This will make completing the sale infinitely easier and save you the stress of having to convince others of your stocks value.

Parting Out vs Selling the Lot

One of the biggest decisions to make when selling your Smoke Shop is whether or not you want to sell it as one giant whole, or instead part out your different assets.

Selling it as a whole is typically significantly more difficult, as you would have to find a seller with a lump sum available. On the other hand, if you do manage to pull off a sale like this it can be a great way to make sure your shop is continuing on to a second life; instead of having it shut down for good. Other bonuses are the time saved from not having to individually part things out and the potential to get a deal that satisfies all parties involved.

Parting your smoke shop incrementally is the more likely option, as this is a method that can be accomplished over a period of time instead of all at once. Potentially when you sell the parts individually you can make more than a lump sum, as you aren’t having to discount from MSRP as much. It even opens the door for some of your more rare or out of print items to make a return on your investment, to boost your profits as you exit stage left.

To help your shop sale, we are going to do a deep dive into a couple of the ways that you can accomplish parting out your shop. These methods also work for meeting potential whole shop buyers, so always keep your eyes wide and mind open for some on the fly dealings.

Bundling Inventory to Sell to Other Shops

A surefire way to get interested buyers for your shop wares is to reach out to surrounding shops and seeing if they would be interested in potentially picking up some of your wares in separate bundles. This way your inventory is going to another shop that knows exactly what it’s worth on the shelf, this way you get a fairer price that is as close to what you paid for it as possible.

Some shops will be less receptive, but if you call around to those in your extended area you are bound to find someone looking to increase their inventory. Once you find a receptive buyer, see what aspects of your inventory they may be interested in and get to selling.

Targeting stores based on their specific niche is another great idea to move select parts of your inventory to shops that are more inclined to pick them up. Also never forget that these are shop owners just like you, and more often than not they will be receptive to working out a fair price that leaves you both feeling good.

Private Buyers and Your Shop’s Infrastructure (Cabinets, Lights, Ect.)

Another great avenue to explore when selling your shop, is to consider the interests of private buyers that are not other smoke shops, but normal civilians with potentially deep pockets. This market is a great place to bring less obvious items you have, like your specialty display cabinets and their accompanying lights. These types of items appeal to a wide swath of people and industries that can get storage use from them for everything from antique plates and watches, to Funko Pops and Warhammer models.

In order to access this wide swath of potential buyers for your cabinetry, try looking for local flea markets in your area and stopping by. You can see if you are able to sign up for a booth yourself to get a chance to directly sell your wares. Or you could instead peruse the market with the intention of finding sellers in that market and speaking with them privately about a potential sale.

People love to talk at Flea Markets once you get them to open up, so be your normal friendly self and you never know the doors that may open. One of the market sellers could know a private party that is interested in one or all of your cabinets. The main goal is to keep your mind open and try not to discount any options that may arise.

Online Marketplaces

For a different route, let's hop on our light cycles and dive into our computers to consider the myriad of online marketplaces that exist today. While not as reliable as face to face marketing, the use of these online sites can provide you with a massive market, albeit with the caveat that competition also increases when you go online.

Two leading options for this include Facebook Marketplace and Ebay; each of these options has their own strengths and weaknesses but are widely used with global engagement.

Facebook Marketplace could best be described as a wild west environment where there is potential to strike gold, but more often than not you’ll end up with worthless wet sand. This is due to the unregulated nature of Facebook, so while you have the potential to connect with a stable legit buyer, you will almost assuredly have to sift through some scams, frauds, and trolls. In spite of this, posting on the marketplace can still be worth it due to its free entry cost and world wide reach.

Ebay on the other hand is the much more stable older brother, they've been around the block with e-commerce and for the most part the kinks have been ironed out. The only drawback to listing products on Ebay is that as they are specialty items, they will most likely take longer to sell than other methods. Setting an open bid can be a great way to make a killing, but will also take more time and could potentially result in an underwhelming sale if you don’t set your bid minimum correctly. If you know you have the time, then Ebay is a great resource to make use of to list items as well as find out who popular resellers are, reach out to them, and see if you can strike a deal.

Online Sites that List Businesses For Sale

Now when we initially dangled a piece of digital meat in front of our A.I. to give them the scent of selling a smoke shop, we had thought we could compile some legitimate sites to sell your shop all in one go. Unfortunately, we soon found that not only did the A.I. get bored and switch to watching dubstep cat videos, the reality was these types of sites are too much of a mixed bag to solidly recommend one over the other.

What we can say about these online business selling sites, is that they can be sources of general information to see what is being listed and for how much. While a decent portion of the listings are either deceptive about the pricing or are hollow ghost postings, you will see actual legitimate shops being sold through these sites.

Additionally these sites are infested with brokers looking to make a quick buck by flipping a shop, that means you need to be wary of accepting any offers without a face to face meeting to guarantee legitimacy.

The main reason for pointing out these sites is to let you know that they can be sketchy, but also to say use them to your advantage, by taking what you can from them and discarding the rest.

Avoid spending money to list your shop, this is a great way to watch your hard earned money disappear into the void. So make sure to do your due diligence before investing any time or money into these types of sites to dodge bots phishing for personal data.

In Conclusion, You Are the Business

As Jay-Z so elegantly once said, “I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man” and we recommend taking this credo to heart. You have to remember that your business never was just a brick and mortar store, but instead the physical manifestation of your accumulated knowledge, customer service skills, and business savvy. And that is truly something that has no price attached to it, because you will always have your know-how to fall back on, should you ever be inclined to hop back into the market or an adjacent one.

No matter what the reason is, all good things must come to an end, so don’t let the process of moving on from your Smoke Shop be anything less than a profitable bow on a wonderful experience. For more thoughts and industry examination, be sure to check out the rest of our postings over at the Got Vape Wholesale Blog to read stories exploring Legal Mushrooms and the DEA’s recent cannabis reclassification.