The Entrepreneur Ride Along Podcast - Online Business and Niche Site Ideas for Entrepreneurs

Wow...this was an expensive quarter.

Total operating expenses of $6,563. What happened?!

In this episode I will breakdown my real revenue and expenses for each one of my websites. I will give you some insight behind the scenes into what I am doing with each blog, what happened during the last quarter, and how I plan to continue scaling.

In total, my business generated $17,518 in revenue which resulted in $10,982 in profit for quarter three 2021. This was a good bounce-back quarter after a few down months in quarter two.

For a full list of my income reports, see my blog income reports archived here: /incomereports

Uh-oh...

Things are not looking good with my business AssociatePI. Is it time to sound the alarms?

It was an AWFUL quarter for AssociatePI. My worst quarter of performance since 2017. Only $6,151 in revenue this quarter from AssociatePI. That means I sold less than 10 courses per month.

In this episode, I breakdown what went wrong and I provide a full breakdown of my blog income report. This includes a breakdown of the revenue, expenses, and profit from my niche websites. This income report is for quarter two 2021.

In total, over the two months, my business over $11,000 revenue.

For a full list of my income reports, see my blog income reports archived here: /incomereports

In this episode I am providing a breakdown of my blog income report, a breakdown of the revenue, expenses, and profit from my niche websites. This income report is for quarter one 2021.

In total, this was a pretty solid quarter. My business generated $19,064 in revenue which resulted in $14,358 in profit. That is a pretty good start to the year for my businesses.

For a full list of my income reports, see my blog income reports archived here: /incomereports

In this episode, and in each upcoming blog income report episode, I will talk through the following:

• Revenue
• Expenses
• Income

In this episode I will breakdown my real revenue and expenses for each one of my websites. I will give you some insight behind the scenes into what I am doing with each blog, what happened during the last quarter, and how I plan to continue scaling.

And if this sparks some ideas for you, or encourages you to go out and start an online business for yourself, I encourage you to start today. If you just need some ideas, go ahead and download my five website ideas (the businesses I would start if I had more time): /nichedownload/

Enjoy!

Today, I am excited to interview Kevin Davis of Ourketogeniclife.com. Kevin talks about his online business in the keto diet niche and his journey of starting his medical practice as a physician assistant.

I've used Kevin as a case study in a number of my blogs, because there is so much opportunity in the diet niche (especially the Keto niche) and Kevin is taking advantage of this.

In today's episode, Kevin takes us behind the scenes managing his medical practice at Knott County Family Healthcare and his journey into building an online business in the keto diet niche.

Kevin is featured in chapter chapter three of my book Step One. 

 This Interview 

This interview is part of a series of case studies that I will be publishing to The Entrepreneur Ride Along Podcast over the coming weeks as I interview successful entrepreneurs in the online business space. These interviews and case studies will  be featured in my newest book Step One: The Surprisingly Simple Process To Research, Validate, And Choose The Perfect Online Business.

Resources Mentioned

Resources mentioned in this podcast episode:

• Step One (the book)
• Our Ketogenic Life
• Our Ketogenic Life Podcast
• Knott County Family Healthcare

Enjoy!

Today, I am excited to interview Kris Pavone of Krispavone.com.

Kris is a full-time life coach. He quit his job as an art teacher in 2020, and built a successful full-time coaching practice.

In today's episode, Kris shows us how he progressed through various careers and entrepreneurial ventures to find his calling as a life coach. Kris has done it all. He went from a professional wrestling career in the WWE (he was known as Caylen Croft), to art teacher, to children's book author, to fitness coach, to life coach. Kris breaks breaks down his business in this episode, and takes us behind the scenes describing how he built his business and how you can start booking clients as a life coach.

Kris is featured in chapter two and chapter three of my business ideas book. 

 This Interview 

This interview is part of a series of case studies that I will be publishing to The Entrepreneur Ride Along Podcast over the coming weeks as I interview successful entrepreneurs in the online business space. These interviews and case studies will  be featured in my newest book "business ideation" (still available for pre-sale).

Resources Mentioned

Resources mentioned in this podcast episode:

• Business Ideas Book
• Kris's Business: Krispavone.com.

Enjoy!

Today, I am excited to interview Tom Heffner of Tomheffner.com.

Tom is an executive and leadership coach, he helps organizations accelerate decision making, collaboration, and innovation through his coaching and workshops.

In today's episode, Tom breaks down his business and takes us behind the scenes describing how he built his business selling innovation workshops and executive coaching. 

Tom Heffner Case Study 

Tom is featured in chapter two and chapter three of my business ideas book. Below is the case study from the book where Tom is featured. This comes directly from chapter two of the book:

Online business is incredibly profitable. I love online business because you can charge a premium for high ticket items. You can sell an online course for $400. You can sell coaching for $1,000 per session. You can sell a training workshop for $10,000.

Think about that. Sell ten online courses per month, that’s $4,000. Book five coaching clients and you have $5,000 per month. Sell just five training workshops in a year and you have a business generating $50,000.

Not to mention, your profit margin is nearly 100%. There are almost no expenses, there is no overhead. Your only necessary expense is paying for a domain and website hosting (as we discussed above).

My profit margin is typically around 80%, and that’s because my businesses are big enough that I’ve expanded to hiring contractors and investing in automation. Most entrepreneurs that I coach have profit margins of 90% or higher. That means, the business is operating with limited expenses, and the owner of the website is keeping 90% of the revenue as profit.

When I say highly profitable, I do not mean Jeff Bezos $200 Billion profitable. Though, you can be. When I say highly profitable, I am talking about starting small when you start. I want you thinking about how you can make $5,000 per month from your first online business. Just $60,000 per year. That is achievable to start with. And that is much easier than you think when starting an online business.

Tom Heffner, of TomHeffner.com, is a great example of how profitable this type of business model can be. Tom helps people and organizations accelerate decision-making, collaboration, and innovation through his training, coaching, and workshops. Simply put, Tom is a coach that hosts a workshop teaching employees how to be more innovative. Tom charges $9,500 for his services plus $6,000 for each additional day. If Tom books one workshop, for two days, he’s making $15,500. If he books just seven clients per year for this two-day workshop, he’s making over $100,000 for the year! To put this in perspective, Tom took on his innovation consulting practice full-time in 2018. By the end of 2019, Tom brought in $173,000 in revenue, almost all of which was profit. Not bad for hosting a couple of workshops!

Don’t get me wrong, Tom is one of the hardest working people I know. There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, creating his workshop and booking clients. He has perfected his craft, and fully deserves what he is paid. But let that sink in, think about how this could be you in just a few months. You can copy Tom’s business model; it is highly profitable. That is online business. That is why I love online business.

 This Interview 

This interview is part of a series of case studies that I will be publishing to The Entrepreneur Ride Along Podcast over the coming weeks as I interview successful entrepreneurs in the online business space. These interviews and case studies will  be featured in my newest book "business ideation" (still available for pre-sale).

Resources M

Today, I am excited to interview Cliff Ravenscraft, the Mind Set Answer Man. 

Cliff is a big inspiration of mine. Cliff has been my mentor, and coach, for the past three years. Through his coaching and content, Cliff has helped me to become a better person and better entrepreneur.

This is an excellent episode, Cliff gives us a full behind the scenes of the various businesses that he has started and scaled over the past fifteen years. Cliff has done it all. From an eBay store, to the original podcast coach (when he was known as the Podcast Answer Man), to his current business coaching and teaching entrepreneurs through his one-on-one coaching, mastermind groups, and conference. Cliff tells it all in this podcast episode, sharing the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, and sharing an in-depth analysis of his finances to give you a better understanding of what is possible in the online business space. 

Cliff Ravenscraft Case Study 

Cliff is featured in chapter three of my business ideas book. Below is the case study from the book where Cliff is featured. This comes directly from chapter three of the book:

Start small, start niche as I recommend. Learn the ropes, learn everything you can about being your own boss and building your own business. Then go big and scale this business or launch your next big business with everything you have learned. Take Cliff Ravenscraft for example. Now one of the biggest names in podcasting and personal development, Cliff’s first business was teaching people how to make money selling on eBay. He sold a digital product teaching how to build an eBay business. Then he pivoted, to a totally different interest in his life, and started a blog about the hit TV series Lost. This blog later turned into Cliff’s first podcast. He got hooked on podcasting. He started to experience some financial success from his podcast about Lost and another podcast about The Hunger Games. He was making revenue from affiliate products and selling advertisement space on the podcast, but during this first venture into online business he learned a lot about podcasting. So, he started teaching others how to create podcasts. He later became known as the Podcast Answer Man, turning his hobby into the biggest podcasting education brand in the world making over $500,000 per year! But that is not where Cliff stopped. In 2018, Cliff decided to shut it all down and pivot again. Pivot to focus more on what he loved doing, teaching and life coaching. He totally shut down his podcasting business, a business capable of making $500,000 per year. Cliff took everything he learned about business over the past ten years and quickly became known as the Mindset Answer Man, with a life coaching business generating over $300,000 within the first year.

Like Cliff, like me, like so many other entrepreneurs. Your first business does not need to be your last. If Cliff had continued his eBay store, or never moved on from his Lost podcast, he never would have grown into the Podcast Answer Man and never would have become the Mindset Answer Man. He would probably still be working as an insurance agent in Northern Kentucky. That being said, if he had not started on eBay and learned about online business, if he never started the Lost Podcast and learned about podcasting, if he had not started small and grown, we would not know who Cliff Ravenscraft is and hundreds of thousands of lives would be worse without him.

This is your starting point. This first idea is your “Lost Podcast”. It might be your $500,000 business, but it does not need to be. This is the first step; this is a stepping stone to get you started in entrepreneurship. This is the starting line, start with this one small business. 
Learn to crawl first. Then learn to walk. Then take off sprinting.

Today, I am excited to interview Chuck Marting of Colorado Mobile Drug Testing. 

Chuck shows us how he went from a full time law enforcement officer to full time business owner with his drug testing business Colorado Mobile Drug Testing.

This is an excellent episode, we talk a lot about how Chuck first thought of the idea for his business, how he transitioned from a drug enforcement officer to a full time business owner, and how he scaled his business to nearly $500,000 per year with multiple brick-and-mortar locations and full time employees.

Chuck Marting Case Study 

Chuck is featured in chapter three of my business ideas book. Below is the case study from the book where Chuck is featured. This comes directly from chapter three of the book:

Chuck Marting is another great example. Chuck spent twenty years in law enforcement, eighteen of those years he spent as a drug recognition expert. With the help of his wife Stacy, Chuck took his expertise as a drug recognition expert and built the business Colorado Mobile Drug Testing (ColoradoMobileDrugTesting.com). A business that specializes in doing employee drug testing and employee workplace safety audits. The idea for Chuck and Stacy’s business came from Chuck’s day job. It actually came during an arrest that Chuck was making, when the man Chuck had arrested for a DUI complained he would miss his pre-employment drug test. Claiming that drug-testing companies were not flexible, he would not be able to reschedule his test. Chuck saw an opportunity. After some research and validation, he found that no one in his area of Northern Colorado offered walk-in drug testing, and no one in the state offered a service that would bring drug testing directly to the employment site. This means, if an employer needs an emergency drug test, they need to schedule it weeks in advance and must pay for the employee to drive hours away to a testing center. Chuck saw an opportunity, recognized the pain point, and created the solution. What started as Chuck and Stacy going business to business to perform on-site employee drug testing has grown into a nearly $500,000 business with multiple physical locations, walk-in testing sites, and full-time employees. Chuck took his expertise from his day job in law enforcement, as a drug recognition expert, and turned it into an immensely profitable business. Thanks to Chuck’s day job, his years of expertise, and one irresponsible driver’s off-hand comments, Chuck has built a half-a-million-dollar business in less than eight years.

There are countless examples of entrepreneurs turning their day-job into their first business, which later allowed them to quit their day job (myself included). I did this with the CPCU exams I was studying for, Pat Flynn did this with the architecture exams he was studying for, Tom Heffner did this with his innovation training workshops, Michael Tanner did this with his leadership workshops, and Steven Foust did this with his expertise climbing the ranks in the Army. There is a ton of opportunity, sitting right in front of you, at the place where you spend forty hours per week. You can turn your day job into your first business. There is something there, a certification, program, or subset of your job that you are an expert at. You study, train, and work at it every day. There is something at your day job that you can turn into your first business.

This Interview 

This interview is part of a series of case studies that I will be publishing to The Entrepreneur Ride Along Podcast over the coming weeks as I interview successful entrepreneurs in the online business space. These interviews and case studies will  be featured in my newest book "business ideation" (still avail

Today, I am excited to interview DJ Eshelman of DJeshelman.com.

In this episode, DJ teaches us about the pillars of online business, and how he is building a business in the Information Technology industry (Citrix).

This is an excellent episode, we talk a lot about the various products, services, and revenue streams that DJ is building in the Information Technology Industry. We also discuss how DJ balances his life building an online business while working as a Citrix Consultant.

DJ Eshelman Case Study 

DJ is featured in chapter three of my business ideas book. Below is the case study from the book where DJ is featured. This comes directly from chapter three of the book:

Every career I have ever pursued I could turn into a corporate training business. I could sell workshops to corporations teaching their employees how to write effective stock reports, how to analyze a 10-K, or how to be an effective product analyst. I know there is a need for this because my employers used to pay thousands of dollars to send me to those exact same workshops.Any of my certifications, or qualifications, could be a business. I did this with the CPCU certification, I created my own study material to help people pass the difficult CPCU exams. I could do the same thing with my experience in Agile, I could create training guides, courses, or I could provide one-on-one training.Any of the programs that I have mastered, such as SQL Server or Tableau, could be a business. I could create training guides, courses, or provide corporate training. DJ Eshelman did this. DJ is a Citrix Consultant. He travels around the United States, going from business to business, training and teaching about Citrix. DJ took his knowledge and expertise about Citrix, built his own business, and became one of the go-to resources for Citrix training and coaching. He is now one of the most well respected, and sought-after, consultants and teachers in the Citrix industry. He has turned his expertise from his day job into a profitable business that has resulted in numerous paid speaking engagements, a prosperous coaching practice, paid mastermind groups, and a number of highly-regarded books on Information Technology including his book Be a Citrix Hero. 

This Interview 

This interview is part of a series of case studies that I will be publishing to The Entrepreneur Ride Along Podcast over the coming weeks as I interview successful entrepreneurs in the online business space. These interviews and case studies will  be featured in my newest book "business ideation" (still available for pre-sale).

Resources Mentioned

Resources mentioned in this podcast episode:

• Business Ideas Book
• DJ's Business:  DJeshelman.com.
• DJ's Book "Be a Citrix Hero"
• DJ's Book "Just Do This"

Enjoy!

Today, I am excited to interview Michael Tanner of Credibleleaders.com.

In this episode, Michael talks us through how he came up with the idea for his business, validated his business, and how he is scaling his business (and getting clients). This is an excellent episode, we talk a lot about how to validate a business idea and Michael gives us a step-by-step process to find clients, book clients, and build a profitable consulting business.

Michael Tanner Case Study 

Michael is featured in chapter three of my business ideas book. Below is the case study from the book where Michael is featured. This comes directly from chapter three of the book:

Your expertise is a logical place to look for business ideas. This is why I teach entrepreneurs how to build and scale their first online business. I have been doing this for more than a decade. I have struggled, failed, and succeeded. I am an expert on this topic. I turned my expertise into a business to help others, others that face the same challenges that I did when I started my first business. Teach what you are naturally good at, use your natural gifts to help others.
 
This is the logic that Michael Tanner followed to start his business CredibleLeaders.com, a consulting firm dedicated to developing leaders and growing collaboration within corporate teams. Michael has been in professional leadership roles for the majority of his life, for more than twenty-eight years, going all the way back to his time in The United States Marine Corps. Michael is an expert on leadership. He knows how to lead, he knows how to manage a team, and he knows how to inspire collaboration. This is his particular expertise. This is what he is good at. It is easy and it comes naturally for him. When looking to start a business, looking for who he could serve, Michael quickly took to the idea of serving corporate leaders. It’s what he loves doing, it’s what he has done for nearly thirty years, it’s what he has studied and trained for. He took his knowledge and built an entire business providing coaching and training to corporate leadership teams charging a minimum of $5,000 per session, and over $1,000 for individual clients. Michael is building a highly profitable business by teaching what he knows.

This Interview 

This is the start of a series of case studies that I will be publishing to The Entrepreneur Ride Along Podcast over the coming weeks as I interview successful entrepreneurs in the online business space. These interviews and case studies will  be featured in my newest book "business ideation" (still available for pre-sale).

Resources Mentioned

Resources mentioned in this podcast episode:

• Business Ideas Book
• Michael's Business: Credible Leaders
• Ryan Levesque: Ryan's Book "Ask" | Ryan's Book "Choose"

Enjoy!