The Quiet Light Podcast

Kevin Williams was the guy investors would call to come in and make sure their venture capital monies were being well spent. Often times he discovered they were not. This experience lead him to a methodology that enables him to test the viability of a product and see how the audience reacts, before investing monies in inventory. He does this with a few hours of his time, and a relatively small budget. Kevin’s path also has led him to work with patent holders who are experts at what they do, but do not have the online direct marketing experience needed to take a product to market. One of his recent deals, Brush Hero was featured on Shark Tank! Kevin talks about his positive experience with that process and how it helped his business. Episode Highlights: Test a product concept without inventory. Fail fast and don’t fall in love with a product. Know what you are looking for. Set up the test and let it run. Don’t micromanage it. Use Facebook advertising for testing. It is not rocket science. Landing pages are designed and up in an afternoon, and FB testing runs for a week. The budget is small, $50-100 per campaign (2-3) per day for 7 days. A CTR minimum is established. Write the goal down, put it in an envelope, then check the number i 7 days. More testing can be done if the results are positive. Negative ones are scrapped. Licensing deals with patent holders are ideal. His Shark Tank experience was fantastic…did he get a deal? Links: Kevin’s LinkedIn Profile RGK Innovations Brush Hero Elevated Cook

Kevin started his online venture with a $300 content site about Tattoos. Today he runs a portfolio of SaaS businesses on behalf of investors and himself. In this interview Kevin shares insights on how to build a portfolio business and set it up to exit one or more of the assets cleanly. He also shares his process for making investment decisions and comparing one opportunity against another. He does what he can to not play favorites because he likes the owner or the business, and let’s the stats lead the way to investment decisions. If you want to be an investor and not a buyer, Kevin’s firm delivers 15-20% return on investment to investors! Episode Highlights: Learn how to set up a portfolio with a clean exit on any of the assets if desired. Discover why Kevin buys SaaS businesses over any other. Managing workload on each business is handled with a proven, trackable system Hear Kevin’s thoughts on his acquisition model and process. The sites he likes the most are not always the best investments You can earn 15-20% ROI investing in Webfolio Management Kevin coaches others on building and managing SaaS companies. Links: WebFolio Management Kevin Petersen LinkedIn Profile Investor Contact Email: dan@webfoliollc.com

David Henzel is the founder of MaxCDN a content delivery network that is behind many WordPress sites. The business was doing really well and things were moving along and growing when David found out that his wife had cancer. This was an earth shattering moment for David and forced him to take a step back and reevaluate his priorities. He knew it was time to sell the business. David is a serial entrepreneur who has built and sold businesses. He is also extremely proud of how he has achieved work life balance and promotes family time. He is also the host of the Managing Happiness Podcast. Today, one of the things we’re going to talk about is reasons why people sell their businesses. Sometimes people don’t even know why they are selling, but they know it’s the right thing to do. For David, the reasons were pretty obvious. We discuss reasons to sell, the selling process, and what to do when life gets turned on its head. Episode Highlights: Planning and having everything in order with your business relieves a lot of pressure if and when you need to sell. MaxCDN had over 15,000 customers and was integrated on over 6 million websites. David knew he wanted to create a larger impact on the world and decided to sell the company. Motivations for selling businesses usually tend to be quite personal. David had received other offers to buy his business, but when his wife’s illness was diagnosed he knew it was time to do something more in line with his life’s calling. The selling process was quite involved and distracted him from the day-to-day business. It’s a lot of work to sell a business. David wanted to find something where he could offer more value to the world. He created a course to apply business principles to family life. He also has an outsourcing business and he mentors other business people. David is an entrepreneur and is still drawn to business and business principles. Because of the resources and knowledge that David had it was easy to start a new business. Entrepreneurs see opportunity everywhere. How the needs of a buyer are often different than the needs of the business owner. When you start a business make sure you spend money on a lawyer. It’s so much easier to have a custom tailored operating agreement for your business. David spends time making sure that processes are in place, so he can work on the business and not in the business. Resources: MaxCDN David Henzel David Henzel on LinkedIn @DavidHenzel on Twitter Managing Happiness OptinMonster taskdrive

Jason is more or less responsible for the Quiet Light Business model of only hiring seasoned entrepreneurs as brokers. He sold a business through QLB and then begged to join the then 2-member team. Mark said no, and then no again. And again a few days later. Mark finally (and fortunately) relented and Jason has, ever-since been helping online entrepreneurs successfully exit and purchase web based businesses. Jason is our de-facto legal disclaimer and naysayer expert. Have an idea? Jason will poke massive holes in it that we never saw. Want to sell a business that is tanking? Jason will structure the offer that will appeal to just the right buyer, and close a transaction that is sage and satisfying for both the buyer and seller. Do you want a broker that has started a total of seven businesses in his lifetime? That’s what Jason did. One was an epic failure during the dot.com bust ($10,000,000 poof!). And one was a grandslam that will change the lives of Yelowitz’s for generations to come. Jason shares his life and business experiences everyday in his work as a Business Broker/Advisor for Quiet Light Brokerage. And during the next 30 minutes he shares some “golden nuggets” that can only be found with real, true, hard fought, failed and won entrepreneurial life experiences. Episode Highlights: Jason shares his success and failures over 7 entrepreneurial ventures. One lost 10 million in 12 months. The other made 15 million with $300 in startup costs. What 2-things should be the “laser focus” of every entrepreneur. Is “one big payday” the right path or is selling sooner the wiser decision? Why listing for too high of a multiple increases negotiations and reduces the final price. How to price a listing to sell for a higher value, even if at a lower multiple than other brokers suggest. How helping buyers see the “big picture” is a big part of what he does. Learn the top 3 things every seller should know. Learn the top three things every buyer should know. https://youtu.be/DS3wVGgLbJc Links: Jason’s Profile @ QLB Jason’s LinkedIn Profile The Bathrobe Millionaire

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. Episode Highlights: 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. Links: EnviraGallery.com Soliloquywp.com Optinmonster.com Wpbeginner.com List25.com

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. Episode Highlights: 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. Links: 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

Entrepreneur Shakil Prasla discusses his experience of buying and managing multiple internet-based businesses. He shares his strategies for acquiring companies, expanding sales, and increasing profitability. Prasla emphasizes the advantages of buying small businesses to mitigate risk and gain experience. He also discusses the challenges of managing multiple businesses and the financial aspects of acquiring companies, including financing options and due diligence.

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