Syed Balkhi is the Co-Founder of Opt-In Monster, WPBeginner, List25, WPForms and is the President of Awesome Motive, Inc. His philosophy is “People First” and he proudly wears a t-shirt stating this very fact during our Podcast.

Syed recently sold a multi-million dollar business and made what many would deem an “odd choice”. He chose a buyer that required a 10% seller note over an all-cash buyer. Both offers were for full price. Why? He explains in detail what his buyer did during the initial conference call that swayed him to choose an offer with a seller note over all cash.

Syed, at the age of 27 years old, seems to have the wisdom and experience of someone twice his age. He talks about how partnerships have helped in grow his businesses to heights he could never have gotten to on his own. And how critical hiring the right team and taking great care of them allows one to live more freely and grow their business beyond expectations.

Syed’s various software and plugins are installed in over 4,000,000 website worldwide. That’s FOUR MILLION (just to be clear). He’s building an empire the right way with good people, the right corporate structure (for an easy exit) and in an environment that astounds many. He does this with 100% remote employees and works from a home based office.

Oh yeah, and he’s a Gators fan.

• What the process of selling a multi-million dollar business is like.
• Why the right buyer is better than the all cash one.
• Why it is NOT always about the money.
• How to setup your portfolio of businesses for an easy exit.
• How to build a better empire with partnerships that last.
• Why using remote employees and a home office works for Syed.
• How to use influencers to launch a great product.

EnviraGallery.com

Soliloquywp.com

Optinmonster.com

Wpbeginner.com

List25.com

CJ Rosenbaum is the founder of AmazonSellerLawyer.com, a law firm that specializes in work with Amazon Sellers protecting their intellectual property and working with the often confusing rules and landscape that is the Amazon marketplace.

As the legal representative to many high-profile Amazon sellers, CJ and his team have seen just about everything when it comes to Amazon, and he loves the opportunity that Amazon presents for entrepreneurs today.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t risks. In this interview, we talk to CJ about the risks buyers need to navigate when buying an Amazon business, how to handle a suspension, what happens if you need to fight Amazon, and how to balance the difference between risk and rewards of the Amazon ecosystem.

Joe Valley: There seems to be this really big diversion between Amazon’s public stance and what they’re willing to let go in actuality.

Speaker 2: Welcome to the Quiet Light Podcast with Joe Valley and Mark Daoust. Since 2007, Quiet Light Brokerage has been helping thousands of online entrepreneurs realize their dream of buying and selling online businesses. And now, we’re bringing all the knowledge our team has acquired straight to you. No matter your niche or industry, these lessons, tips, and strategies will help you build, grow, acquire, or sell your online businesses better. And now, here’s Joe and Mark.

Joe Valley: Hey Mark, how are you today?

Mark Daoust: I’m doing great.

Joe Valley: I understand you had a call, a podcast recording, with someone that specializes in Amazon businesses on the legal side of it. Is that right?

Mark Daoust: Yeah. So this is an attorney. I’m sure a lot of our listeners have heard of him before, amazonsellerlawyer.com, CJ Rosenbaum. And it was fascinating. I’m going to ask you a question, Joe. What do you think of when you think of an attorney? How do they typically approach most deals?

Joe Valley: I always tell my clients that I will not work with them if they have an attorney that is related to them. Mother, brother, father, sister, aunt, uncle. I’m not in. I’m out because I’ve had deals fall apart because relatives fight like rabid dogs. I think a good contract attorney has to be reasonable and see that it’s an equitable deal for both sides and approach it from that aspect. If they don’t do that, things can get pretty emotional and ugly as we get toward signing an asset purchase agreement.

Mark Daoust: Yeah, and my experience with attorneys is that they’re hired to protect their clients from potential liability. They tend to be so risk averse that they can kill deals often. Right? Because as a potential buyer of a business, buyers are looking for opportunity. Obviously, you want to protect yourself from risk. You hire that attorney to look out for bad case scenarios or worst case scenarios. Fraud or what am I missing? What are my liabilities here? And so, advice I hear from attorneys almost always is heavily s

Nathan Hirsch is a 28 year old serial entrepreneur who is an expert in hiring online and building eCommerce businesses. He co-founded his first eCommerce company out of his dorm room in 2009 drop shipping products on Amazon.com and built it to sell over $25 million worth of product over 5 years. While scaling, Nathan discovered the power of outsourcing and ended up building a remote army of freelancers.

In 2015, Nathan co-founded and became the CEO of FreeeUp, an online hiring marketplace that allows business owners fast access to a handpicked network of top talent freelancers in eCommerce, digital marketing, web development, and much more who have already been vetted for skill, attitude, and communication. FreeeUp interviews hundreds of freelancers each week and only allows the top 1% of applicants into the network. The company has been growing at rapid paces (500%+ YoY) and has quickly become a top destination to hire online for over 3,000 businesses around the world.

Nathan has built his personal brand to be synonymous with online hiring and entrepreneurship through 75+ guest appearances on top podcasts. Nathan has also become a regular speaker at industry conferences where he teaches other business owners how to hire freelancers and gain back more time in their growing businesses.

• The FreeEup.com marketplace is US Based.
• 40% of VA’s are US based, 40% are from the Philippines, and the balance are from around the world.
• Skill, attitude and communication of the focus when vetting VA’s for the marketplace.
• VA’s memorize 15 pages of communication best practices before being listed on the marketplace.
• No turnover guarantee – FreeEup.com will cover all replacement costs of VA’s if they quit, and find a new one for you.
• Find exert PPC Managers, writers, designers, and experts in a variety of fields.
• Optional buyout of VAs available.
• Timeclock software helps workers track their time and client can access/login.
• Feedback is encouraged from clients and VAs.
• FreeEup.com just hit 10,000 hours billed in one week.
• Nate practices what he preaches and works from home with outsourced VAs.
• Nate’s calendar is at the top of his website and he’s free to talk with anyone.

FreeeUp.com

Skill Sets Rates for FreeeUp

Video testimonial on FreeeUp from Ben Cummings

How FreeeUp Works Infographic

Free Up Your Business: 50 Secrets to Bootstrap Million Dollar Companies

The Ultimate Online Hiring Pack

Viber.com

If you’ve ever wanted to expand your knowledge of affiliate marketing or guaranteed cost per acquisition advertising – you have to listen to this Ex-Google executive share his story and expertise. Mike Nunez launched Affiliate Manager with his brother John, introduced himself to a “captive” audience and changed the course and direction of his life forever.

Mike’s company, Affiliate Manager is essentially “Google for affiliates”. They “spider” the internet for sites that monetize using affiliate and build a searchable database for clients.

Episode Highlights Affiliate Marketing can be summarized as online referral services. All affiliate advertising can and should be 100 percent traceable. The “affiliate” or “publisher” is the owner of the Facebook account, Instagram account or blogger. The “advertiser” is the product or service owner. The “network” is the platform with the affiliate or publisher list. Affiliate Manager is the intermediary around all three For the affiliate or publisher they find more advertisers. For the advertiser they get more affiliates. For the network they find more advertisers. Earnings Per Click defined. There is “power” in affiliate marketing. Every tweak or slight improvement brings cost per acquisition down. Affiliate Manager makes calls on their clients behalf. A good affiliate program might on have 50 bloggers in the program “Program” is the relationship between the advertiser (product owner) and network (i.e. Avantlink.com) 5-10 percent of affiliates in program generate the revenues. Affiliate Manager automates FTC compliance for clients. Sleep niche related product owners are “hot” right now. As a Google executive he learned how often advertising do it wrong. Every advertising account he has ever reviewed has wasted ad spend. Find the wasted spend, reinvest it into profitable advertising and grow total revenues. Resources:

AffiliateManager.com

ThePerformanceCompany.com

AvantLink.com

Since 2013, Shakil Prasla has bought 8 internet based businesses ranging from smaller 5 figure businesses up to 7 figure enterprises.

Obviously, acquiring and running 8 companies in just 4 years is both time consuming and requires significant capital. In this conversation, we talk to Shakil about both managing 8 companies as well as the capital resources he uses to continue acquiring online businesses.

Rather than try and do all of the work himself, Shakil developed a system in which he hires a business manager before he even closes an acquisition. By doing this, the manager is able to work with the seller and learn, firsthand, how to operate the nuances of the business. Business managers are compensated on a salary and bonus structure with goals oriented towards business and revenue growth.

Shakil has used a variety of funding sources to close deals. While he has done a few deals using SBA loans, he has also managed to secure friendly bank financing on Internet acquisitions outside of an SBA loan. He believes strongly in the power of carrying debt to leverage your overall value.

• Shakil has been in ecommerce for 6 years. It took him a lot of time to build his first site.
• He saw a Quiet Light ad and looked into buying a business. He bought his first business for $60,000.
• He was able to make his money back in about 6 months.
• He has now acquired 8 companies from 6 figures to 7 figures in various niches.
• That is buying roughly 2 companies per year.
• Buy smaller and audit. Take less risk, learn, and grow intelligently.
• Save your cash flow for larger acquisitions.
• There is more competition when buying small, but there are more opportunities to grow.
• Larger companies have more complex strategies including having employees and SOPs. The bottom line will be higher.
• When Shakil acquires a company he keeps the previous owner on for 3 months to transfer their knowledge to the business manager.
• He uses a hiring company to find someone with a marketing and business background. They are paid on salary and incentives on next year’s growth.
• Shakil uses agencies for marketing and email campaigns.
• The business manager comes up with high level goals and then they work backwards. They use software and weekly calls to track things.
• Shakil’s time is valuable, so he delegates so he can focus on growing the business.
• Shakil takes on debt and does paid advertising, so he tests strategies and grows the company. He looks at growing the overall value of the business. He is ok with sacrificing short term cash flow. He does want to see an ROI on the new manager.
• He has done SBA, owner financing, owner holdback, and unsecured short term five year loans.
• The bank asks for tax returns and balance sheets. The seller needs to provide the information.
• Making true money through financing.
• You have to have a stable income and high credit score to get the bank financing. Shakil reached out to multiple banks. With smaller banks it is easier to move the process along.
• Shakil looks at about 80 deals a month. He has a set of initial questions. He places one or two offers every quarter.
• Patience is key, don’t rush into buying a business unless it is the right fit.
• Put yourself in the seller’s shoes and build trust with them.

• Shakil Prasla on LinkedIn
• SZVentures
• @SHAKILPRASLA on Twitter
• Indeed
• Noah Kagan
• Help Scout
• BizBuySell
• MailChimp

Helium 10 helped Manny Coates launch three of his own products and go from 0 sales to over 1,300 per day. Manny is a multi-million dollar Amazon seller, a podcast host, a Mastermind mentor, a Facebook Group founder with 25,000 members and the founder and developer of a SaaS product called Helium 10.

Helium 10 will show you your competitors inventory levels and help you know when they'll run out. Manny used the tool, paused his own campaign until the competitor ran out and then raised his own prices during the holiday rush to boost his profits.

In this podcast Manny shares how Helium 10 helped him with his own business and how it is helping 1,000s of product owners with both its free and paid service.

1. C.P.R. Formula for Launching Products
2. How a Special URL Helps “Juice” Products to the Top of Page One
3. Why You Must Do a Product Launch to Rank and Sell on Amazon
4. How to See What Keywords rank on Amazon
5. A Tool to See Where Your Keywords Rank on Amazon
6. How Images can Make or Break Your Sales
7. Why Seasonal Products Make More Money
8. How a Product Owner Went from 10 Sales a Day to 100 a Day with Image Edits.
9. Influencers Are Important Long Term for Building Brands
10. Facebook is Used to Run Advertising to Amazon Product Pages
11. Why Using a Wide Variety of Tools is Important
12. You Need Trademarks to Get Enhanced Brand Registry
13. How COGS Impacts Your Launch
14. Why Ranking For One Keyword Helps Your Title Keywords Rank
15. Some Sellers do Perpetual Giveaways to Maintain Rank.

Cerebro Product Launch

Helium 10

Helium 10 Chrome Extension

AMPM Podcast

Illuminati Mastermind

FBA High Rollers

A business can’t really be sold until the seller has all of their ducks in a row and is able to sell. Having everything done to prepare a business for selling can also make the transition easier and command a much larger price. If a business is built on your personal success, you have to remove yourself from the business and the process.

Daniel Fagella always knew that he was going to sell ScienceOfSkill.com, but it didn’t happen as quickly as he expected. After reaching out to us after just a few years in business, he learned that he would need to hang onto the business for a few more years and work to transition himself out of the business. After growing the business to over $2 million in annual revenue, Daniel worked with Jason Yelowitz to sell his business for seven figure acquisition. His deal closed early in 2017.

• How a roof collapse was the beginning of Daniel’s adventure of having an ecommerce site.

• Marketing automation based on segmenting based on behaviour.

• In order to build a sellable business, you often need to wait until you have enough history to justify bank financing

• Creating a transferable business is key to getting more value out of a business

• Working yourself out of your business involves two principles: removing your name and your image, and removing your knowledge of processes

• How Daniel had to split his time between both businesses until he had the runway to sell.
• Problems with banks not understanding ecommerce business. They had to convince them with more financials than he would have liked.

• Daniel built his business using email marketing automation.

• Tips on how to first dissect an email marketing automation campaign.

• What you need to know to build an automation campaign.

• How bad events can lead to big, positive changes in life.

• Everything worked out, but it was tougher than he thought it would be in the early days.
• Being a grown up and implementing systems and processes to get himself out of Science of Skill.
• Dan’s buyer got an SBA loan. It took some time, but the deal went through.
• Life after the sale. No regrets. Transition wise, Dan couldn’t have hoped for anything better.

• Dan Faggella
• Dan Faggella on LinkedIn
• @danfaggella on Twitter
• Tech Emergence
• Jason Yelowitz
• How a 28-year-old turned a hobby he picked up as a teenager into a business that earns over $200,000 a month
• Infusionsoft
• Why I Bootstrapped TechEmergence – from Dan Faggella
• Science of Skill

Many larger deals are SBA-oriented. This is a better method for buyers because they get a 10 year repayment period, and it is better for sellers because they can get more money. In 2018, SBA lending limits are changing and they will be bringing 90% of the funds to the deals. It is really good for buyers and sellers.

Today, we are talking with Stephen Speer who is the VP and Business Development Officer at BankUnited Small Business Finance. Stephen is a lender, not a banker. Bankers have a tendency to over-promise and underdeliver. We had a bank deal that took over 90 days to close. Both the buyer and the seller were beside themselves with frustration. With a transaction we recently did with Stephen, we got a commitment letter in 34 days which put us two weeks away from closing.

This is an SBA transaction that will close in 30 to 45 days which puts us on the same playing field as cash buyers. Today, we are going to cover benefits of the new SBA guidelines and how they benefit both the buyers and the sellers.

• How the SBA aspect of buying and selling online businesses is becoming more prevalent.
• Stephan has been lending for 25 years and is now located in Tampa, Florida.
• He works in the ecommerce business acquisition space.
• He has been with BankUnited for the last two years.
• The SBA allows lenders to take a greater risk by guaranteeing 75% of that loan.
• The purpose is to encourage small business lending.
• Stephen has formed an ecommerce lending team around him.
• BankUnited is a preferred lender and everything is underwritten and funded in house, but the loan has the SBA default guarantee.
• Buyer qualifications include income, assets, assets after closing, credit, and collateral. Does the actual business cash flow based on the structure of the deal.
• Asking the right questions to make sure the buyer is the right fit for the ecommerce space and business that they are purchasing.
• Getting financials up front and looking at a solid year of tax returns and a ramp up year.
• How most sellers in ecommerce sell within three years because the trajectory is going up in large multiples.
• Profit and loss statement plus addbacks equal total earnings. Interest and one time expenses area add backs. Most people want to minimize their tax exposure.
• Do not commingle two businesses together when you are trying to sell one.
• Getting off of schedule cs and doing business tax returns.
• Having an independent third party do a business valuation.
• Have someone do ecommerce due diligence to poke holes in the financials.
• 25% injection or down payment with 10 or 15 from the buyer and 10 or 15 from the seller in a seller note.
• In 2018, the buyer will only have to come up with a 10% injection, and the seller won’t have to come up with anything.
• This will have more sellers open to financing.
• BankUnited feels comfortable up to a $5 million loan. There are different variables, but with the right buyer they can go high.
• They will work with buyers on the SBA process.
• What does an SBA loan cost? There is a deposit for third party fees like business valuation, appraisal, titles, and attorneys. It’s usually about $12,000 that is financed into the loan. Plus a 3.5% SBA fee.
• It the deal falls apart the money can be used on the next deal.

• BankUnited Small Business Finance
• 629 South Fort Harrison Avenue
• Clearwater, FL 33755
• 813.382.7543
• [email protected]
• BankUnited.com/SBF
• How To Buy An Online Business With A SBA Loan – Updated for 2017
• Centurica

Most entrepreneurs struggle with hiring and keeping VAs. Norm Farrar (affectionately known as “The Beard Man”) runs a $10,000,000 ecommerce business with 30 VAs. Norm has SOPs in place to hire, train and keep his VAs loyal. His SOPs are so detailed his VAs take over creating many SOPs for new VAs.

Norm shares all of his top tools to help get and stay organized.

• SOPs from a $10,000,000 Business Owner
• 39 Employees with 30 remote VAs
• How to Train VAs to create SOPs
• What types of VAs to hire and where to find them
• How to create loyalty in VAs so they love you and don’t leave
• Tips on improving productivity
• Don’t be cheap when hiring VAs, they’ll just go to work for someone paying $1 more.
• Pay your VAs to be trained on a weekly basis.
• Links to tools used by Norm and his VA team.
• Screen recording software that makes recording “repeat work” a snap.
• Conferences and events to attend and how to get the most bang for your buck
• Mastermind groups and why they can make a HUGE difference in your success
• Managed Service Provider (agency) helping owners great products but no ecomm experience
• Learn about the latest screen recording tools
• Best book on entrepreneurial management and leadership E-Myth Mastery by Peter Gerber

• VPS Service – https://greencloudvps.com/
  • – Check out their Budget VPS
  • – You will also need to download Microsoft Remote Desktop
• Screen or Video Capture – https://www.techsmith.com/
  • – Norm uses Snagit & Camtasia
  • – They offer a free screen capture tool – Jing

SOP Automation

• – Sweet Process – https://www.sweetprocess.com/
  • – Simple solution to help build SOPs
• – Step Shot Guides – http://stepshot.net/guides/
  • Takes a screenshot whenever you move your mouse – great tool for documenting the process
• Project Management Tools
• – Teamwork – https://www.teamwork.com/
• – Trello – http://trello.com/
• Communication Tools
• – Skype
• – Teamwork.com Chat –https://www.teamwork.com/
• – Slack – https://slack.com/
• Storage
• – Google Drive
• – Evernote – https://evernote.com/
• Contractors
• – Freeup – https://freeeup.com/
• – Upwork – upwork.com
• – Onlinejobs.ph – https://www.onlinejobs.ph/
• The book I mentioned – Michael Gerber’s – The E-Myth
• Norm’s Mastermind is AMZ & Beyond with Dave Kettner: http://mentor.amzandbeyond.com/

Scott Voelker’s Podcast has had more than 8 million downloads and his Facebook group has 52,000 followers. That is the equivalent of everyone in the city of Los Angeles downloading his podcast…twice, and almost everyone in Maine’s largest city (Portland) joining his Facebook group.

With these numbers he’s clearly doing something right. Is he teaching hacks, tricks and tactics to help people sell more products on their ecommerce site and Amazon? No. Is he selling tons of courses and charging huge sums for mastermind sessions? No.

Scott’s motivation is to help first, and then help some more. The end result is something we can all learn from, huge success. This can be applied to most business models regardless of the platform.

In this podcast Scott shares his not so secret secrets, tips on staying focused and well organized, and talks about how his teachings focus on going well beyond Amazon to build a sustainable and valuable online business.

• How to block your day to get more done
• How to commit to your schedule
• How to build a business part time
• Why it is risky to sell only on Amazon
• How to go beyond Amazon and build a more valuable business
• Where to start and validate the business model
• Building your own email list
• Why Scott has business partners and how it works
• How Scott splits revenues with partner
• 10x10x1 goals and why they are better than selling 100 a day
• How to spike the Amazon algorithm
• How Scott launched his first training program
• Why smaller events are more personal
• Workshops to build email lists and sell more products beyond Amazon
• Free training is all on the Podcast

• The Amazing Seller Podcast – The best place to get started is listening to the podcast series of how to get started.
• Private Label Workshop – This is a FREE Workshop where they cover the 5 phases for getting started and how to launch your first PL product.
• FREE Private Label Course – This is a FREE course 10 Day email/video course that teaches the 5 phases for launching a product on Amazon.
• The Private Label Classroom – This is a Paid Class and Community that teaches and connects you with a support group that helps you launch a successful business. The class also meets for LIVE hangouts twice per month and has access to exclusive seller interviews.
• Joe Valley’s Guest Appearance on Scott’s Amazing Seller Podcast