From 0 To $240,000 Per Year PROFIT In 18 Months (Acquisition Entrepreneurship)

[doitman]

Hey, this thread is the most-viewed thread on the Fastlane Forum in the last 6 months. I just saw this:

 

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[doitman]

UPDATE: On the verge of finalizing another business acquisition for my company. Due Diligence is done. I just had to pour over a ton of sales data, basically looking at PayPal transactions, mapping them to WordPress sales transactions, and mapping that to Google Analytics traffic. Pretty cool stuff, at least to me. It's a job board where businesses post job listings. Nothing fancy. So I can see the PayPal payments, the WordPress orders, and the subsequent traffic from the job posting. Because of the shear volume of orders, and pretty much being able to find the corresponding traffic in GA, this made it the easiest DD for me to date.

Logistically, the sales agreement terms are all set with the seller and myself. We just need to sign. Bridge financing is all set. Funding to my bank account will happen in a couple of days. Seller financing is all set, as agreed upon in our contract. So, in a couple days, I get to wire transfer $90K to the broker who will hold the monies in escrow. Once that's secured, this weekend the seller and I transfer the assets which include the domain, the web site, and the social media accounts. So I should be open for business probably Saturday (about 4 days from now). Then of course I agree to release the funds to the seller.

I can't tell you how excited I am to make this happen. Sure the next 6 months paying back all the financing will be in the forefront of my mind, but assuming the new business does as it should, all the monthly business earnings should be able to service the debt. Then after 6 months, I'm free and clear with the nice shiny new money tree. This thing should profit me about $11K to $15K each month moving forward. Probably a couple hours a day of extra work for me until I hire myself a VA to take over the manual tasks. I don't mind doing that, especially when learning a new business. You get a good feel of how it all flows while coming up with ideas to make it more efficient, either with automation or organization.

It's too early to say what my 2020 ROI will be, but some basic numbers. Sale price is $120,000. My money down is $55,000. $35,000 commercial financing paid back over 6 months. $30,000 seller financing paid back over 6 months. I would venture to guess that we'll do about $130,000 in sales, most of which will be profit Depending on how you look at it, that would mean about $60,000 left over after paying back the financed amount. Over 100% ROI. But technically it would be over 200% ROI since from an accounting perspective I'm gaining equity while paying back the loans. Honestly, I'm actually targeting $15K a month, so if we can get to $180K in sales for 2020, then, well... life would be sweet.

And 83 days to go before I retire from stupid consulting... see screenshot of my phone.

 

[doitman]

I do agree.
I'd not purchase an online business outside of FEI or empireflippers.

Make sure to hire a professional to help you during the DD phase.

FE International is good. During the Due Diligence phase, I sometimes get an accountant. Luckily for me the businesses that I've acquired had basic sale models. And I usually get a copy of their books, and then cross reference their sales with merchant account and bank statements. I have plenty of accounting experience, so the books give such a rich picture of their business. Poor book keeping by the way is a good indicator for being wary of an opportunity.

 

[doitman]

why wait? do it now.

I second this. Start now. I could have been doing this 10+ years ago. But that doesn't matter. Now's a perfect time to get going. I accomplished this in 18 months. But I STARTED 18 months ago.

 

[doitman]

Someone recently came to me with the idea of going into a partnership when purchasing a business. My initial thoughts were that I hated the idea. One of my criteria is to retain control, but when you go into a partnership, you lose some control. But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. Most importantly I thought that if a partnership could be structured that I retained the control, but the other partners received value, then maybe it could work. And just as important, as long as there was an exit strategy that was agreed by all, it could be even more workable.

So I'm throwing an idea out there for everyone. I see a business that I can purchase in 6 months, but I don't have the capital to get it now. I love the business a lot, not because it's exciting or sexy, but because the business model is simple, the barrier of entry is great, and the product/service is in demand and used by thousands. I'm going to get it in 6 months if it's available. It's a no-brainer for me. But there is a risk that it won't be available then. Although I have a feeling it will still be on the market because it is so mundane.

I think I can offer $105,000, but should be able to get it at $110,000. I'd disclose the ROI, but I have signed an NDA, so I won't disclose that. But for the sake of example, let's say the business makes $50,000 a year in profit. If I got a consortium of investors who equally invested the same amount, and then shared that percentage of the profits, the deal might look like this:

1) 9 other investors contribute $10,000
2) I invest the rest, maybe $15,000 or $20,000 depending on the negotiated sales price
3) All investors including myself receive 10% of the profits: for this example each person including myself would receive roughly $416 per month
4) I have the option to buy out each investor of their share at the $10,000 amount any time after 6 months, thus receiving their corresponding profit share moving forward
5) I retain full control of business operations

Does this type of deal seem fair to the other 9 investors? What they get is profit sharing, and a return of their initial investment upon buy-out. I'm curious to know what other people think of this type of deal structure.

 

[biophase]

I didn't make it explicitly clear in my posts. In a partnership of this nature, all partners would be intimately involved in the whole process.

This is a bad idea. You should have 100% control of this process. But you provide daily or weekly information to the others. Else, this deal will fall apart with everyone putting in their opinions.

Can you imagine 10 people going through the purchase contract? It's tough even having 1 person and 2 attorneys doing that.

After the purchase are all 10 people involved in the day to day also?

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

I've made a few inquiries where the listing didn't include seller financing, but I brought it up to the seller. They have been willing if it was the right buyer. One was willing to do 50% down, the other was willing to do 75% down and the rest financed through them. Full disclosure I didn't close on either of those inquiries, but I don't think it would ever hurt to ask if you don't have the capital.

This is great advice for anything in business.

If you don't ask, you don't get.

 

[doitman]

UPDATE: Man, another super day of ad sales! Yesterday was the third day in a row that we eclipsed our daily record in ad sales for my online community. We reached $217 for the day. I think my Hootsuite automation may be paying off due to its efficiency in our social media campaign. On a side note, even though I had a deal fall through to take over an online tutoring agency that was going to be a flagship tied to my online community, I pivoted and am now in pursuit of doing one better. I found an actual private school that is for sale in my general area. I'm working with the broker now to see if a deal can be had.

Speaking of deals falling through related to the online tutoring, I also had a separate deal to purchase the domain etutors.org. I have plans on going global with this business model, and that domain would have been perfect. Unfortunately, the owner of that domain backed out. These are examples of things not going smoothly with business. But the lesson for the day is to learn to pivot. Being discouraged is acceptable and normal, but once you get past disappointment, you need to be able to regroup to advance.

Back to my online community. Today I can already tell based on Google Analytics that we may break our daily record set just yesterday.

 

[doitman]

Richard, you are awesome. We know that.

But how the hell you are handling your accounting, taxes, bookkeeping and other legals for ALL these businesses?

I have only one e-commerce business, inventory involved, and even that takes a lot of time to figure out.

Cheers,

Thanks! I centralized everything using QuickBooks Online for accounting and book keeping, Help Scout for managing customer support, and Trello for keeping track of my tasks. I also use Skype to converse with my contractors.

It was quite a large undertaking to get organized. My current challenge was to free up time to keep up with all this maintenance. Luckily I just hired a guy to take on some of the day to day load. And I set my new quit date for my one large consulting contract for 3/31/2020. Then I'll be back to about 10 hours a week working.

 

[doitman]

UPDATE: $40K in December sales total for all my businesses. And finishing up due diligence in a couple days for my latest acquisition target. All looks good. Financing is also secured. Stress is high, but my ultra organization these past few days is paying off just by clearing up all the noise.

For my online community, we did about $6700 in sales for the month. I'm happy with that. And our Facebook post wishing everyone a happy New Year eclipsed 1.7 million views in 24 hours.

 

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[doitman]

Do one and fail miserably. You will learn a lot and get past this limiting belief. And, it might even succeed!

Agree 100%! I failed big time, to the point of considering bankruptcy. I am successful now BECAUSE of those failures.

 

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[Val Okafor]

I wanted to add a little to my original post. I've been fortunate to be highly skilled with a relatively high earning potential as a full-timer/consultant within the corporate context. If I just kept one gig going though, I'd be living pay check to pay check with my family's lifestyle. Since I decided to take on a second job (and a 3rd and 4th), I was able to raise capital, and then scale very quickly to almost a quarter million in yearly profit. This shouldn't discourage people who make way less in their full-time jobs. Hustle for the extra dough.

I came upon a web hosting business recently that the owner wanted to sell to me for $15,000 with about $22,000 in yearly profit. It would have worked well with my current web site backup business. I would just consider it a business expense to acquire 1000+ customers who I could then re-market our current products. But even as a stand-alone, adding an extra $20,000 yearly income to someone who makes a more modest living than I would be a very good launch point for them in my opinion.

Once you achieve this surplus in income over expenses, you achieve what I call financial escape velocity. The escape velocity is like a rocket going fast enough upwards to reach a speed where it achieves orbit around the Earth due to going faster than the downward forces can recapture the vessel.

In financial terms, you reach a point when your profits exceed your expenses which allow you to increase income/profits by reinvesting any excess money. At this point, you have realized financial independence, since you are fully in control of your income, and keeping your employer will no longer be a requirement.

I cannot thank you enough for this post. I share some of your backgrounds. I am a Programmer myself, even though I prefer the official title of Software Engineer and make high slow lane income with high cost of living - mortgage, kids, etc. I have been wrestling with the ideal transition path from Slow lane to Fast lane and no matter how I dice it, the options of Freelance/Consultant/Agency stares at me and I resent it because of its yet another trading time for money. I end up with this choice of building my own digital product which is taking forever.

My take away from your post is to treat Freelance as a means to an end. Thanks for sharing.

 

[doitman]

@pumpking you don't need to be a software engineer to take on a SaaS solution or any other kind of software. As a business owner, I believe you should focus on managing, not doing day-to-day work. My blog/media news business is brand new for me. Sure I can write, but I was not well versed in the news cycle from an operational standpoint. Nor did I know how to handle celebrities, talent agencies, producers, etc, nor how to manage a staff of writers who have to deal with some of these people. I don't think I have it in me to build this business from scratch, but I'm running it pretty successfully, as we are on our way to having the best ad-revenue month historically.

I like Shopify as a platform, but I don't have much experience with the Exchange since I haven't been focusing on ecommerce during my business expansion.

I decided to extend my consulting contract because I don't think it will prevent me or hold me back from expanding current businesses. I'll have time. I should be able to work extra on nights and weekends. Besides, I can use that extra income as capital to purchase more businesses over the next year. Keep in mind, I work about 10 hours a week extra on my businesses. and 50 hours a week consulting.

 

[doitman]

Hi @Richards amazing thread! Thank you!

I was reading earlier in the thread where you spoke about sniffing out frauds, but I may have missed how you check for businesses that are failing or on the back 9. Any tips?

Edit: Other than ones where the industry they serve is in decline, that is.

Double edit: Could there also be some great values hidden there, a fixer-upper/ refurbish so to speak?

I focus mainly on digital/online businesses. There are some basic trackers that give me a broad picture of the businesses health. Google Analytics shows traffic growth/decline, super valuable. Facebook pages/groups have Insights to see traffic patterns. Monthly/yearly revenue numbers of course show growth or decline as well. Don't be afraid of decline though. This could be to your benefit in negotiating price. Reasons are a plenty why sales might be dropping, often times because the seller is no longer as engaged in the business as before. Fixer-upper is a good term to use in these instances.

For my accounting software business, I've improved the business by changing the licensing model, and automating it. This leads to faster sales. The retired couple was less computer savvy. I also implemented help desk software to improve customer server. And of course, I created a new web site.

For my blog, there wasn't much to improve since it was growing when I bought it, and it was run by a younger techno-savvy person. My management of it these past few months is driving the business to the best revenue month historically for the business though. I'm really proud of that.

The web site backup business didn't need refurbishing. The previous owner is super smart, a web developer.

But I always look for opportunities where marked improvements can be made to improve the bottom line.

 

[doitman]

@richardd Love this thread! Thank you for the valuable info.

Earlier in this thread you called consulting "a necessary bridge between slowlane and fastlane". Is that simply because it allowed you to save enough cash to buy businesses? So in my own life, I could replace consulting with any opportunity that allowed me to save cash? For example, if I was able to get a slowlane job at 200k/yr while reducing my expenses? Or do you think the higher control over your time afforded by consulting is necessary to reach escape velocity?

I'd like to know more about the origins of your contracting. I'm a software engineer also, but my experience so far has been in C++ and DoD contracts. Not a great skillset for consulting in my opinion. Although I'm learning python/Django/web dev on my own time and can see myself consulting with those skills in the future (in addition to using those skills to build my own products/businesses). But how did you originally develop your skills to the point where you could do consulting? How did you move from a 9-5 to consulting and find your first clients? Etc..

Thanks!

For me, consulting is the bridge because it allowed me to accumulate cash quickly. Your situation may vary. The point is that any way to increase your income can be the bridge. So, if you save $20,000, then you can target buying a business that returns $10,000+ yearly.

While keeping your day job, that extra income while reinvesting it in other businesses can allow you to achieve escape velocity.

For my situation, I'm probably more of an extreme case. There were two factors which motivated me to go full speed. 1) I've come to hate working for others and 2) my family and I plan on moving to Central America by the beginning of next year.

It is not necessary to work 100 hours a week for a year. You can do it at a more moderate pace. But I guess it comes down to personal preference, and how much you want the fast lane. I had enough. Even now I have to have talks with myself to keep me going. Consulting brings in a lot of money for me, and the faster I can build my company, the easier it will be for me in a shorter amount of time.

I've been consulting since I was about 23. So pretty much my whole adult life. Interestingly, I didn't study computers in college. I learned it afterwards. I'm pretty good at it. But I think my strengths are more architectural, like understanding computer systems vs. individual programs.

Anyway, we really are in a financial position that I no longer have to work for someone else. Maybe that's why it's getting harder for me to continue consulting. Because there is no dire need to do so. But I think that is another lesson with entrepreneurship. Things get hard, and self motivation is so key to keep moving forward.

EDIT: I forgot to answer your question about how I find those extra gigs. I mainly go to dice.com. I mentioned early in the thread that I do document management consulting. I'm highly specialized. So find work is easy. The more challenging part is finding remote work. But I'm able to periodically.

 

[doitman]

Well done! Where did you find it?

I stumbled upon it here:

Cpanel clients and VPS clients for sale | Web Hosting Talk

Cpanel clients and VPS clients for sale - Webhosting Clients 800 cpanel accounts 15 VPS's 2 Dedicated Server Clients WHMCS Licence Reseller Club and Name Cheap Domain accounts Average Reve

www.webhostingtalk.com

And actually it wasn't listed for sale. The previous owner solicited me because he saw I posted on that forum saying I was interested in buying some web host.

I bought it for $16,500. And it makes about $24,000 a year in profit. We have about 2000 customers, and growing. I haven't even started marketing to them with our web site back services, nor web development services. It's somewhat of a cash cow for me now.

I definitely can off load all the day to day operations to off shore. I'm loving building that team to handle much of my IT work across all my business lines. I just can dabble in the stuff that interests me.

 

[biophase]

Richard,

If I were doing this deal, I’d raise the $100k from 10 people at $10k each and give them each 5%. I’d keep 50% because I’m running it.

They’d get 25% return on their $10k a year and be happy. Where else could they get that?

There’s no reason you need to give up the actual percentage that they are paying in. Their money is not equal to your money and expertise.

 

[doitman]

I've been following this thread from the start. Found it quite interesting but now it's turned into the OP looking for investors I wonder if everything at the start was just bait and now we're getting to the switch. Feeling really uneasy at this. Hope the people on here willing to throw money at the OP does their due diligence.

Actually one of the threads I plan on starting is how to spot scams. And @silentjay has an excellent point. I'd be uneasy too. As a scammer, I'd play a long game to gain trust. Like this thread. Typically scammers try to close "deals" quickly, and I think that is their mistake. But then again, they want to turnover scams fast to move into the next one. This type of quick sale to me is a huge red flag.

But for long game scammers, due diligence saves the day. I would vet those people with just as much vigor. I'd expect that from others with me if we were to get into any partnership.

Nonetheless, I'm not looking for investors nor a partnership. The regulatory hurdles, albeit not overwhelming, just make such an arrangement for me too much of a pain in the a$$. Think barrier of entry. And on top of managing such a venture, I just don't have the time.

So I'll just keep helping people for free. Less of a time sink and commitment on my part.

 

[doitman]

PROGRESS UPDATE: Yesterday my blog just eclipsed it's previous daily record of ad sales! $206. Who said blogs can't make decent money? Well, I did.

My target this month in total ad sales is $5000. I'll see if I can do it. I'm going to start accepting sponsored posts soon. I'll see if it's worth it. Another $1000 a month there would make it worth it to me.

I had a deal in place recently to take over an educational business that I was going to hook into my blog, but that fell through. But in 2020 I'll build it as a startup.

 

[doitman]

UPDATE: My blog/online community is doing very well the last 3 months. Yesterday set another daily record for ad sales of $208. So I started getting my Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Instagram posting done with more automation. I've been using Facebook to schedule posts on our Facebook page, but it is somewhat unwieldy. And I've neglected the other social media channels. Therefore I've decided to research some of the SaaS tools to solve this issue for me.

Looks like Hootsuite does everything that I want. It centralizes my social media campaign, and it allows me to configure my posts the way I want them. Pretty excited about that.

Also, I did submit a letter of intent to buy that business that I've been coveting. I offered $60K down, and $45K seller-financed for 18 months. Let's see what the seller has to say. $7K monthly profits. But the owner uses AdSense which brings him in $300 a month for 400-500K page views. My online community does this volume, and I get $10 CPM, or roughly $4000-$5000 a month in income. So I think I can get the same return especially since the seller's web site has high domain authority, and the demographics are business/corporate/institutional customers.

 

[doitman]

It sounds like you need to set a target "daily hours free as of this date" goal in addition to whatever your annual profit goal is. You could easily get stuck on the "make more money to invest more money" cycle because you're on a roll now, but you obviously don't want to spend your life working yourself to death just to keep getting more money that you don't have the time to enjoy.

I totally get this. There is a fine line where obsession comes into play. I'll describe my determination based on a recent PM that I had with another forum member:

My issue is about financial escape velocity. If you think of investing in general and the concept of compound earnings, the key to early retirement is to invest early. Year over year, your earnings theoretically grow exponentially. Even small changes in financial performance early make huge deviations in the future. So, although I have achieved escape velocity since my business (non-consulting) income exceeds my expenses, the growth curve will be slower than what I'd like. With a "small" positive change in the growth curve, namely consulting for a few more months and then taking on that new business, I'd achieve the escape velocity that I want.

For example as this thread discusses, going from 0 to about $250K in profit over 1.5 years is proven and scalable. I've already done it. What I don't discuss much is what it basically took to get here outside of hard work. Before acquiring businesses starting in April, I was making roughly $340,000 annually as a consultant. Simply put, if I can get my non-consulting businesses to do approximately $340,000 a year moving forward, then I can grow my non-consulting business holdings over the next 1.5 years by approximately $250,000, just reproducing what I've already done.

Do I need any of this? No. But what I want is to end this slow lane chapter once and for all. And I guess since I am still considering doing consulting work for the reasons laid out, apparently that slow lane chapter is not finished for me, at least in my mind.

 

[doitman]

PROGRESS UPDATE: My web hosting company has been a pain since I took it over in October. BUT, I recently hired a new UNIX administrator with a lot of experience handling help desk tickets. I had been handling these tickets for the past two months, and it was taking up so much of my time. Now I have a guy who knows way more than I do, and has way more experience. I was technically capable since I know UNIX and web hosting. I just don't have the time to focus on tickets.

That hosting business has been super profitable though! Cost me $16,500 to acquire. We profit about $2000 a month since I took over. The new guy will only cost me $326 a month handling the tickets. I'm good with that!

$300 a month for support person
$20 a month for extra Help Scout user (ticket handling software)
$6 a month for extra Google Suite user (email)
25 hours a week freed up... PRICELESS

 

[doitman]

This a real good post and good information. I’ve always thought of buying online business already going with customers. Guess my only would be how to scale quickly?

I initial thought about scaling an acquired business quickly, but I decided to scale by acquiring multiple businesses. The end result is similar short-term. Phase one of my plan was to acquire as many profitable businesses as I could in a short amount of time to reach financial independence. Phase two is to grow those businesses, which is the goal for me in 2020.

 

[doitman]

UPDATE: i just finished due diligence, and signed the sales agreement. Funding escrow will have to wait till Monday. But we are pretty much set to go. Should be a smooth transition since I'll take over their GoDaddy account with the domain, the Hostgator account with their web site, and all their Social Media accounts. Next six months are signed away.

Business is going well with our accounting software. Tax season has started, so our e-filing software is selling well. Online community ad sales have dropped considerably, but that's as expected since marketers spend a lot in November and December leading up to Christmas. It should starting picking back up in the coming months.

Web hosting and maintenance businesses are purring. I like my team of techie guys. They all are making my job as a manager very easy.

 

[doitman]

Wary, yes, but I wouldn't necessarily run away.

I end up doing a lot of projects for e-commerce companies who want to sell but have no/terrible books. Brokers want at least trailing-twelve months, and preferably two years.
Usually it's a one-person company who has been so busy growing and expanding that they just don't have time to do the books.

When I'm done, they're usually surprised by their profit numbers - sometimes it's a good surprise, sometimes not so much, but I haven't found a correlation between lack of bookkeeping and poor profitability (so far).
Maybe the fact that they're getting it cleaned up before going to market is a good indicator?

However, I agree you should either know how to do due diligence, or hire someone who does. If a seller isn't giving you access to the information you need, then run.
Even if they have good financials, I'm still going to request direct access to Shopify/Amazon, Bank accounts, credit card accounts, processors, advertising accounts, etc.

I agree on all your points. Poor bookkeeping can be just that. There are ways to validate based on bank statements as well as tax returns.

Yeah and getting access to their accounts, even if only view through desktop sharing or over their shoulder is key.

 

[Create_Value]

I agree on all your points. Poor bookkeeping can be just that. There are ways to validate based on bank statements as well as tax returns.

Yeah and getting access to their accounts, even if only view through desktop sharing or over their shoulder is key.

Can any of you recommend a website, book, online course, mastermind, or something similar for a beginner to walk this path (of purchasing a business with positive cashflow that meets RichardD's criteria)?

Ideally, I'd like to find a mentor who would profit share with me when I do all the work and they save me from dumb mistakes while speeding up my learning curve.

 

[neoswarm]

Wow, this has to be the BEST thread at the moment on so many levels. Everyone loves a rags to riches story -- but nobody talks about the work to get there. (consulting, print shop, etc)

I'm a remote software architect with (5-6 weeks PTO) probably more time on my hands than most (that can go away anytime) - I built a .NET/JS app that helped my company process $30Million/monthly recurring (but making slowlane $). I have a ton of flexibility *at the moment* (not as much control).

So two questions:
1) you mentioned blogging was a waste of time -- did you mean from a financial standpoint?
[I started a blockchain site AND in process of taking on freelance blockchain dev on the side work to accelerate my personal learning on tech and marketing. CENTS grade is giving blockchain site a C range .] Part of me wonders if i'm being too boxed in "tech" but feel this could be a more "product opportunity" down the road as I understand more of it -- no plans on using Adsense ]

2) How much did your early experiences (like the print shop, blogging) contribute to your current business mindset/learning experience?

Dude you've been very generous with your time on this forum and really appreciate your thoughtful responses to everyone else here. So THANK you on behalf of all of us!! Best of luck to your future endeavors and raising your family!!!

 

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[doitman]

@richardd thanks so much for the thread. It came recommended by @MJ DeMarco via my intro post to the INSIDERS forum.

I currently have $10,000 USD to invest. Would you recommend saving up more capital first or invest in a business on a smaller scale to what you did. An ROI greater than 50% on a smaller scale business acquisition is still a workable deal. Also in terms of the industry for the acquired business. Did you have prior experience in each industry you entered? Being 25 years old I don't have a lot of industry experience in any industry. I graduated, got a job, changed industry, travelled in South America (can see why you want to move and hit me up for spanish tips or resources to learn) teaching English, and I still teach English. So, not much industry experience to apply to an acquired business.

Thanks again for this great thread and all of your thoughtful responses!

Ryan,

Welcome to the forum. My answer is a question. How quickly can you save up another $10,000? I do find a few businesses that are about $20,000 that give the 50% return. They are more mature businesses that have been around at least two years. This is key. The ones priced at $10,000 or less are either very new, or are failing businesses. I'd wait and save a little more. But with that plan, you can take action right away, and find other income streams that may be tied to your time like a second job or some other side hustle. I think many people can save another $10,000 in say 6 months. Then you can take that time to analyze the market by browsing business listings.

My industry background is in information technology. I'm a programmer, so I know how to make technology work and run better. This applies to all of my businesses.

I have accounting experience, entertainment experience, and web hosting experience. All three directly apply to my businesses. So I always recommend to go for opportunities that you have some experience with. That's not to say that you can't go into something unrelated. But you want the odds of success to be skewed way in your favor.

What job experience do you have?

 

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[biophase]

They would have no control, only input. It would not be a democracy.

This is what is dangerous. They should have no input at all.

Having input will go something like, "I think we should raise prices to $20". You say no, it's staying at $10. Then the person feels insulted or dismissed.

Then he goes to 7 of the other investors stating his case and why he wants the price to be $20. All 7 agree and come to you to raise prices to $20. They say, it's 70% of the owners wanting the price increase. You say, I don't give a shit, it's staying at $10.

Now everyone hates you.

 

[doitman]

Someone privately reminded me of SEC regulations when it comes to soliciting private investment. I knew a little about it, and I realized, man, what a pain in the a$$! So, I'm just not interested in that headache. I'll come up with some other way of teaching people how to do what I'm doing. Maybe expand it out into a group session. I will definitely continue working with people independently. I enjoy that. I got some prized students! You know who you are.