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Join over 90,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.
Free registration at the forum removes this block.UPDATE: I got a new profile name, in tribute to Shia Labeouf. Look it up. If you ever need good motivation or a laugh, he's your guy. But in all seriousness, "do it" is my mantra.
My most recent transaction was a bust. Luckily we were able to unwind it, and I didn't lose much money in the deal. But it was stressful, to say the least, especially with the amount of money on the table. I won't go into detail about it, but I will tell you that I've learned a lot about improving my vetting process of business opportunities. I am much stronger and hardened by this most recent experience, and much wiser as well. Many sleepless nights on this one for the past month. But the ordeal is over, and it's time to move on.
While dealing with all of that during this past month, I did unify most of my businesses under one brand finally. My web hosting, web site maintenance, and accounting software businesses fall under one name, my US corporation. My contractors all now handle help desk tickets through our WHMCS system. It's all centralized now. My last step is to get the remaining customers out of Freshbooks and into WHMCS.
WHMCS is a great billing platform. I won't go much into this since it's a large topic. But if you do any eCommerce, you should check it out.
For the new year, I will be rewriting a lot of our accounting software products to prepare for mass marketing since we are one brand now. Also, since all of our customers will be in WHMCS, I will be able to "cross-market" all of them very easily, offering any of our other products and services. The trust has already been established and engrained. Lastly, I'll plan on launching an online school linked to our online community. It's a lot on my plate, but since my last day of consulting is March 31, 2020, I will have a lot more free time come April.
Retirement from the slowlane.
UPDATE: I got a new profile name, in tribute to Shia Labeouf. Look it up. If you ever need good motivation or a laugh, he's your guy. But in all seriousness, "do it" is my mantra.
My most recent transaction was a bust. Luckily we were able to unwind it, and I didn't lose much money in the deal. But it was stressful, to say the least, especially with the amount of money on the table. I won't go into detail about it, but I will tell you that I've learned a lot about improving my vetting process of business opportunities. I am much stronger and hardened by this most recent experience, and much wiser as well. Many sleepless nights on this one for the past month. But the ordeal is over, and it's time to move on.
While dealing with all of that during this past month, I did unify most of my businesses under one brand finally. My web hosting, web site maintenance, and accounting software businesses fall under one name, my US corporation. My contractors all now handle help desk tickets through our WHMCS system. It's all centralized now. My last step is to get the remaining customers out of Freshbooks and into WHMCS.
WHMCS is a great billing platform. I won't go much into this since it's a large topic. But if you do any eCommerce, you should check it out.
For the new year, I will be rewriting a lot of our accounting software products to prepare for mass marketing since we are one brand now. Also, since all of our customers will be in WHMCS, I will be able to "cross-market" all of them very easily, offering any of our other products and services. The trust has already been established and engrained. Lastly, I'll plan on launching an online school linked to our online community. It's a lot on my plate, but since my last day of consulting is March 31, 2020, I will have a lot more free time come April.
Retirement from the slowlane.
Richard, please share what new vetting you learned in the recent transaction.
I'm currently under contract for 10 days (transferred funds to escrow.com yesterday) buying my first online business. Domains transferred to me yesterday. Hosting transferred tomorrow.
Would love to learn from you before it's too late!
Excellent point. And thank you for sharing. Sounds simple, but hard to make the ask (for me)... curious, what would you do in my situation.Quick thing. Verify the customers. If you can speak with them or email them, do it. Do not just trust the seller on the accuracy of their data.
UPDATE: 32 days until fast lane freedom! I gave my final notice to all of my managers. Yes I have a bunch. That will leave me with only one... My wife.
I've been busy building our new server infrastructure, full with firewalls and disaster recovery features galore. This is not only to beef up security of all of our online assets, but also to prep for our new business ventures, namely an online school. Such a massive undertaking in my opinion. But I'll have the necessary bandwidth come April.
I'll also have time for my family. 2 years is a long time to go all out. I've been doing 100 hour weeks lately, and I'm all done with it.
My rebranding under one name has been a success. Meaning we haven't lost any customers so far that I'm aware of. I think in April we will start a new marketing campaign both with cross marketing to our current customers of all of our services, and mass marketing. Maybe you can tell, but I'm very excited.
If I buy a business like a retail store or a cafe, but I want to be as hands off as possible
Can I just hire a manager ?
I have read all of your posts for several times. Very inspiring. I'm also in the mid 40's. I have a full-time job (running digital marketing at a startup), but have also started a side hustle consulting/coaching business. The side hustle is slow lane but it provides another source of income. I have been thinking about acquiring businesses as I have done turn-around at several employers. So, your story is both inspiring and relevant to my plan. Thank you for the generous sharing.UPDATE: 32 days until fast lane freedom! I gave my final notice to all of my managers. Yes I have a bunch. That will leave me with only one... My wife.
I've been busy building our new server infrastructure, full with firewalls and disaster recovery features galore. This is not only to beef up security of all of our online assets, but also to prep for our new business ventures, namely an online school. Such a massive undertaking in my opinion. But I'll have the necessary bandwidth come April.
I'll also have time for my family. 2 years is a long time to go all out. I've been doing 100 hour weeks lately, and I'm all done with it.
My rebranding under one name has been a success. Meaning we haven't lost any customers so far that I'm aware of. I think in April we will start a new marketing campaign both with cross marketing to our current customers of all of our services, and mass marketing. Maybe you can tell, but I'm very excited.
I have read all of your posts for several times. Very inspiring. I'm also in the mid 40's. I have a full-time job (running digital marketing at a startup), but have also started a side hustle consulting/coaching business. The side hustle is slow lane but it provides another source of income. I have been thinking about acquiring businesses as I have done turn-around at several employers. So, your story is both inspiring and relevant to my plan. Thank you for the generous sharing.
I wonder if I can ask you a few questions:
1) How are your acquired businesses performing during current Covic-19 crisis?
2) My plan is to use my consulting/coaching revenue to fund acquisition. But, with the Federal government stimulus package, there is some benefits for SBA loans. I'm curious to get your thought on using SBA loans to acquire businesses.
3) I have been monitoring BizBuySell and Flippa, but have a hard time to find businesses at the $20K-$40K range that fit the criteria you outline. It seems that drop-ship e-commerce businesses take up a large portion of them. But, I have been only looking at this for about a month. My question: How long did it take you to search before finding a good candidate for acquisition? (1 week? a weeks? A few months?)
Thanks in advance.
I think it's my first post in the forum, although I have been browsing for a couple of years now.... Great thread!
I am looking to potentially acquire a business, which main source of income is from AdSense and found that there may be issues when taking over the AdSense account.
How have you usually organised the switch in AdSense?
If I buy a business like a retail store or a cafe, but I want to be as hands off as possible
Can I just hire a manager ?
Lol, there is no secret sauce. It's all laid out in this thread. The playbook is written. Honestly, everything I've done up to this point like raising capital, setting up a strategy, targeting businesses based on that strategy, and then executing the simple strategy is all in here.
For the people that have read this thread, let me know if this all makes sense. And if there are any grey areas, or you're not sure about certain details, pm me. Lots of people have already done so with their thoughts, what businesses they have targeted, and asked for my opinions on those opportunities. Just get out there and start looking even if you are window shopping. You can save money in the meantime.
Ma prima di iniziare il targeting, assicurati ancora di venire con i tuoi criteri di ciò che la tua attività futura dovrebbe soddisfare. Quindi trova quelle opportunità e torna da me. Non lasciare che la mancanza di capitale, la mancanza di esperienza o la mancanza di fiducia ti impediscano di iniziare a cercare opportunità di acquisto.
Sembro una pubblicità! Ma te lo prometto, non ti sto vendendo niente. Diavolo, sto trascorrendo molto tempo a lavorare con così tanti di voi. Ma non sto chiedendo in cambio denaro o guadagno finanziario, né lo farò mai.
L'unica cosa che ti sto vendendo è francamente un modo per entrare nella corsia di sorpasso. E il mio unico compenso è vederti avere successo.
[/CITAZIONE]
Wow You are a very humble person, a man with a big heart .. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us
Lol, there is no secret sauce. It's all laid out in this thread. The playbook is written. Honestly, everything I've done up to this point like raising capital, setting up a strategy, targeting businesses based on that strategy, and then executing the simple strategy is all in here.
For the people that have read this thread, let me know if this all makes sense. And if there are any grey areas, or you're not sure about certain details, pm me. Lots of people have already done so with their thoughts, what businesses they have targeted, and asked for my opinions on those opportunities. Just get out there and start looking even if you are window shopping. You can save money in the meantime.
Ma prima di iniziare il targeting, assicurati ancora di venire con i tuoi criteri di ciò che la tua attività futura dovrebbe soddisfare. Quindi trova quelle opportunità e torna da me. Non lasciare che la mancanza di capitale, la mancanza di esperienza o la mancanza di fiducia ti impediscano di iniziare a cercare opportunità di acquisto.
Sembro una pubblicità! Ma te lo prometto, non ti sto vendendo niente. Diavolo, sto trascorrendo molto tempo a lavorare con così tanti di voi. Ma non sto chiedendo in cambio denaro o guadagno finanziario, né lo farò mai.
L'unica cosa che ti sto vendendo è francamente un modo per entrare nella corsia di sorpasso. E il mio unico compenso è vederti avere successo.
[/CITAZIONE]
So, I'm sitting on my $200,000 nest egg from all that hard work. I'm researching businesses for sale. And I find one that is a software company that sells proprietary accounting software. Promising! I'm a programmer with tons of experience in accounting. The business has been operational for 30 years, with recurring clients going back 10+ years, and has been run by this one couple who are well into their retirement years but hadn't pulled the trigger. And guess what? This software business satisfies all 11 of my requirements above. Well, I send their broker an offer of about $200K with half of it owner-financed for 5 years. They accept. Done deal. The profit annualized is $70,000 with an initial investment of $100,000. ROI = 70%. Nice! Since taking over, I'm happy with the performance, and I only spend maybe a couple hours a week on it. I outsource the programming.
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