Four months ago, I decided that the time was right to start the next and possibly final part of my career. Thus DJWORX was put up for sale. A four-month period of meeting good people, understanding the true depth of love for DJWORX, but equally getting a reality check, I’ve decided to take DJWORX off the market.
Why? well, I was somewhat optimistic with my own valuation. After all, I have poured a full third of my life into it. This was reflected in the “best pitch deck we’ve ever seen” and “we love DJWORX more than the rest” feedback. But essentially:
- I am perceived as being DJWORX, but as I’m definitely leaving, the perceived value is impacted hard.
- Social media decimated ad revenue in recent years, and I refused to compromise content integrity just to get money.
- COVID is impacting the very industry that we cover and beyond. And it’s making investors nervous, with good reason.
Being brutally honest — it’s a bad proposition with worse financials at the worst possible time.
Offers have come in, but none of them have worked for me. I could sell, but after lawyers and taxes, what’s left isn’t worth the time or emotional pain of watching DJWORX potentially compromised to make money, or worse still wither and die. And damn it, 18 years is worth more than that.
It has however panned out exactly how I expected it would, so I’m neither surprised or sad. In fact, I can’t emphasise enough how happy I am right now, because for the first time in years, I know exactly where my future lies, and it’s all under my control.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
As original planned, DJWORX will officially stop 27th December. There are a few longstanding commitments I need to honour, and there are still things I want to write about too. But my focus has shifted to building my new business.
On a personal level, what’s happening right now is freedom, peace of mind, and restored bandwidth. And pure uncluttered clarity for the future. Not a bad start.
I plan to maintain skratchworx and DJWORX as a near-complete timeline of the digital DJ age. It’s too good not to, and you just won’t find this kind of detail anywhere else. But it won’t be added to. My days of running a tier one media outlet are over, and at the top seems like the best time to do it.
SUMMING UP
DJWORX is no longer for sale but will close at the end of the year. The irony hasn’t escaped me that DJWORX is truly valued but has little financial value.
Rumours of my retirement however have been greatly exaggerated. I’m 54, not 74. My best work lies ahead. More on that another time.