Ep 205: [Content Website Case Study] What It Takes To Buy An Online Business with Patrick

Jaryd Krause (0:00)

Patrick just bought his first online business. And this is the story of how he did it. And now he wants more. Hi, I'm Jaryd Krause, host of the Buying Online Businesses podcast. And today, I'm talking to Patrick, who is a member of our online business community who just bought his first online business. He's in ministry, and he wants to earn an income online so he can have more financial and time freedom with his young family. Now, Patrick almost gave up right before the finish line. But stay the course, and he couldn't be happier.

And in this podcast episode, Patrick, and I talk about how he discovered buying a business and why he decided to buy an online business. What was the hardest part that he had to endure about buying a business, and what are his words of wisdom to people who are thinking about buying their first business? We're talking about what you've learned, during due diligence, we're going to talk about what got in his way, and how he almost abandoned ship. And what sort of changed his ideology around that. Then we talk about mindset. We need to buy a business, which is absolutely critical.

There's so much value in this podcast episode, and Patrick also asked me a question on how I sort of stay off social media with personal branding, because it's toxic on social media, even though I'm an influencer and don't use Instagram. So, when Patrick directs a bit of attention to me, I direct it back to him, and then talk to him about things like, what are his plans for the future in online business? And then Patrick shares his advice on what you should be doing or thinking about and how to stay the course and have the right mindset to buy your first online business. Because there's so much that goes into it beyond just due diligence, there's so much value in this podcast episode, and I know you're absolutely going to love it.

Before you dive in, make sure you realize that if you are going to buy a business, you must do due diligence and that you know how to do due diligence. If you don't and you want to get a free tool or you just want to get better at due diligence, take the guesswork out of it. Get my framework, it's what I use and what Patrick used to go and buy a business.

It's helped people save millions of dollars and make millions of dollars, and you can get this by buyingonlinebusinesses.com/freeresources/ its due diligence framework, and you can get it for free. Check it out there. Also, enjoy the podcast. Let's go.

Patrick, congratulations! You just bought your first online business.

Patrick (2:15)

How's it so exciting and freaky all at the same time?

Jaryd Krause (2:19)

Tell me about that. Well, hang on; you're excited and freaked out all at the same time. Let's move on and get to that. Let's get to the feeling you've got right now. But I sort of want to learn a bit more about how you got here. Because it's not like, "Hey, I just went to the supermarket or the broker and bought a website for business.

Patrick (2:42)

What I wish is that it were that easy.

Jaryd Krause (2:45)

Definitely. That's what? So, what's your background? Where do you work? What do you do for work? Are you still working? Now? What's the deal with the guy?

Patrick (2:54)

I have a small family here in Kentucky, America. And I work with college students’ kind of do something similar to your GIG a little bit. Life coaching a bit, I guess. I talk to students about life and spiritual things and help them navigate through anything like, relationships, and what classes they should take thinking about God and things like that. I help navigate the spiritual life. And I love it.

So, I kind of got captivated by that kind of stuff in college. I've had a mentor who has connected with me periodically and kind of coached me in that. And then, when I graduated physical therapy school, that was the plan. So as a biology that was going to be PT, and then I just felt things kind of radically change for me. And for the last eight years, I've been working with college students.

Jaryd Krause (3:47)

So awesome. And what a beautiful job.

Patrick (3:49)

It's definitely exciting. And I kind of make my own schedule. So, it's a little bit entrepreneurial, but also the nine to five is still there, too. So, it's there.

Jaryd Krause (3:58)

It's there. It's a thing. It's still anything fun or anything at all, but consistently over time it becomes less fun. Right? That's why I want to ask you, I was like, So why, why? Like, I mean, you like what you do? It's probably maybe for everything. What's your reason for wanting to get into this online business? Was it your goal to make money online? Or was it to just say, what was your goal? What's your reason for this?

Patrick (4:29)

That's a really good question. Jaryd. For me. It started in college; I have had a little bit of an atypical journey. In that my dad passed away in college from my brother and I, we kind of had this like lump of money kind of fall in our lap with like insurance and he steward that stewarded life insurance pretty well.

And it blesses my brother and me, and it kind of started this journey of like, "What do we do to be good stewards of the money that kind of fell into our laps", and ministry is kind of, you know, an opportunity to go into ministry because I felt a calling and a passion. But then I kind of moved into this, okay, like, how do I use this money? So, we went full Dave Ramsey, you know, pay off the debt, and make a budget and live within your means, all none of that necessarily bad.

And we started thinking, like, how can we use this to kind of speed up things we started thinking about financial independence, retiring early. And we started doing that through real estate. And I felt like the market was going to crash at any moment, because I experienced that, that didn't experience that I knew about that in 2008. But I was really nervous when I started watching podcasts and learning about how to buy real estate.

So, my wife and I kind of bought a few things, which was great, because we rode that wave up a little bit. And when the market got so hot for us, it kind of priced this out a little bit. So, we refinanced, and we were looking for some other asset classes to get into, and buying websites was the idea in general. And then we came across your material, and it kind of worked its way toward buying content websites. And that's kind of where we're at, at the moment. So no, at the moment, I mean, that's where we're at—we're two feet in the deep end.

Jaryd Krause (6:12)

definitely. How did you find it? How did you find my content?

Patrick (6:18)

I found it initially on YouTube, okay. And I'm trying to think what even made me start thinking about my friend and I, two years ago, started to try to make a coffee company. And I, we knew nothing about that. And we were just like, trying to figure it out. And it didn't even get off the ground. But it was a fun learning experience doing that with him. And we started looking into how to start a business and somehow found your, your content on YouTube through that.

Jaryd Krause (6:45)

So well, that's good. That's a good sign. Because that is my goal, to help people or prevent them from starting a business if it's not the right move for them, I believe and believably believe that there are two types of people. And you really need to know what your goal is, if your goal is to just make money online, I think that's crazy. Or if your goal is just to make money, I think it's crazy to start a business to make money.

Because you can rely on someone who's already doing it and has a proven track record. The other person, and the only person that I believe should start a business, is somebody who has a problem that they can solve in an area that they're super passionate about, and they're prepared to not make money for a long period of time.

Patrick (7:28)

And I would say you asked, but our goal is for my wife, and I, with our job, like I look at it relationally, I love my job. And we have a bunch of partners, because my wife and I are missionaries, and they partner with us to do what we do. So when I think about the money that kind of fell in our laps, I would love to get that in a place where our main income is from our investments and from our businesses and things like that. And then we can kind of do whatever God calls us to do go wherever he wants us to go.

Jaryd Krause (7:55)

So cool. So, is that the goal—to build up your asset base through online businesses and other assets to be able to have a bit more freedom? Or what's the what's the plan that.

Patrick (8:05)

And I'll say what any entrepreneur or wannabe entrepreneur is like, someone who has said or thought that Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad really changed my life by making me think about things like assets, liabilities, and taking money out of my pocket.

And it's like, if, hypothetically, you had enough assets that paid for your expenses, then you're financially free. And it was probably like 2017 or 2018, we wrote all the numbers down, and we're kind of thinking, "Okay, what do we need coming in, to just be good. And you said something in our call a few weeks ago, like that the survival stage is sometimes the most difficult part of getting up to maybe $5,000 a month or $7,000 a month. And we're just kind of churning that out, trying to get to that point.

Jaryd Krause (8:53)

It's a tricky one. And you will compromise on things that you like or don't want to do. It's like, depending on where our prostitute archetype comes out to play, we will prostitute ourselves off in different areas. And, hey, I've been there, like, I've been in the survival phase, and I was in it for most of my life, right? My parents weren't healthy. That's for sure. They had four kids; they needed to be fed. So, and one and one person working very differently than getting along couldn't do that these days.

I don't think so, with the way the economy is. But yeah, getting through the other survival phases is a tricky one. And I think we just recently touched on this in one of our recent causes, like we will make decisions based on fear. That's what a lot of people were doing when they came into our space, right? They're like, "I need to buy a business as soon as possible to get me out of the survival phase. and they're doing it out of fear. And they have this fear of missing out on a good asset. So they rush into something. One of the guys in the group said, "Hi, I just joined the group. I found a site on Flipboard. It's about to end in two days. Should I skip parts of the course to just get to the GDL in this part so I can do due diligence and buy this business.

And he got absolutely shut down by some other graduates in the group—not shut down, but just like, "Hey, this is a different perspective on how you could, how you should approach it. What do you think? What did you think about that when you joined, and through your journey in the community.

Patrick (10:22)

There's a difference between a scarcity mentality and an abundance mentality, when I hear you say that and when I hear about that new Bob member, because if the scarcity mentality tells you, it's like, there are only a few good deals out there. And if I don't jump on this one at this very moment, then I'm not going to win. And the abundance mentality is that, like, there are opportunities everywhere, if you know where to look for them.

And I don't have a huge track record of buying online businesses, but, in just life, if you put your nose to the grindstone and you're looking for opportunity, that's when opportunity kind of finds you. And those opportunities are not going to find if you're just kind of sitting on your butt kind of just waiting, waiting it out, typically. But then you mentioned something in one of your podcasts that I heard a while back.

But it's like, if your goal is to get out of the job, in a month, maybe you should even do this, because you're probably going to pull the trigger on the wrong thing. And, if you bought the wrong house, if you bought the wrong piece of real estate, like at the end of the day, it's still four, there's still a fourplex there, it's not going to burn down. But like, I feel like buying online businesses perspective, if you buy the wrong one without proper due diligence, like you could really buy limit. So, your course is super helpful in trying to do the due diligence to find the right thing.

Jaryd Krause (11:44)

That's great. I love that you said that. So, let's talk about your journey from the start to where you're at now, in terms of due diligence, and learning. What do you think was the hardest part for you to get to the stage where you bought your first online business? I'm not sure, but I think it's probably similar to where most people get almost tripped up or struggle as well. But yeah, what do you do? There's some of the hard, hard things about it. Because we've got to be realistic here. It's not like, yeah, it's just go by, like you said, you wish it was easy as just going to the store and buying a business. But it's, you know, it takes some work.

Patrick (12:19)

I often compare it to real estate. And when I was buying real estate, I was working with a realtor. And I felt like we were on the same team, on the same page, in that. And I think I came into this process, thinking the brokerage side was like my realtor, whom I know and trust, and I work with a great brokerage side. I mean, there's no shade on the brokerage side I've worked with, but I remember when I was plugging in my copy and pasting it into the due diligence framework, and you were like, "Don't use the graph that the brokerage side gave you."

That kind of blew my mind. I was like, "Well, this isn't accurate information. And I totally understand going to Google Analytics now. But their goal there is to sell the site. So I think, yeah, that was good for me to kind of take a step back and be like, "Who are the players?" Here, you have the seller, you have the brokerage site, and you have me. So that was something to learn. But then also just that general due diligence and getting into the mindset of, like, I have to churn these out.

My personality is not typically like, nose to the grindstone, like I want to discipline do this every day. Like I'm kind of bigger picture like moving other parts and delegating. But especially in this case, it's my wife and I, but it's mostly just me working on this business. So, there's no one to delegate to at the moment. It wouldn't be very wise of me to go delegate my due diligence framework, I thought about it. I was like, who can I hire to do these due diligence frameworks, that was a that was a thought that came through my mind. But then I was like, that probably wouldn't be good for my own growth in buying businesses, if I'm going to outsource this at this point in my career.

Jaryd Krause (14:02)

Such an amazing point. Because people want everything with a minimal amount of work, and then they buy like you could go get a DD service done. And I've thought about just creating a DD service for people. But I've always had the philosophy of feeding a man rather than giving him a fish. The Majan Could you imagine if you did hire somebody to do DD and you didn't look at any businesses, you didn't do DD on any businesses and they bought you on? And they go, Here you go, like, how much more anxious would you be? Or, like, how do you feel like the progress of your asset would go with that?

Patrick (14:38)

Well, if you're doing this appropriately, then this is big boy money we're talking about, like if we were buying age domains that we were going to build off of, then you're talking about a manageable kind of mountain, but I feel like jumping in the deep end with this.

Not that we're throwing all of our money at it and every asset we have at it, but it's a significant amount, like for me per se when I look at my net worth. And I think about how much we invested in this business. That's why it's significant. So, it's daunting. But at the same time, I am thankful for the frustration of learning a new skill, it's harder to learn new skills as you get older.

Jaryd Krause (15:16)

All of that aside, I love that you're grateful for the learning process. What other things were hard, hard through your journey? I remember there was a stage you were like, oh, I don't know about this thing. Do you remember that?

Patrick (15:27)

I just wanted to go to the market, like you said, and just pick it out. And I knew that that wasn't happening for me because I was used to going back to real estate, because that's where my framework is. You know, in 2018, I didn't realize all the deals that were there. So I could, and I wish I had gone faster, four or five years ago. And I think I came into this with the mentality that there are so many deals out there that I can put my nose to the grindstone and do the right thing.

And then I'll just pick what I want. and that wasn't the case. Because, yeah, the frameworks, took a couple hours to get done. And then I got those whittled down to maybe taking about 40 minutes. But sometimes I was looking at it kind of whittled down to exactly what we were looking forward to in business. And it just wasn't out there. Like it wasn't in a motion picture. It wasn't on Empire Flippers. It wasn't on Flippa. And it was like, "What do I do now?" And I tried to do due diligence on a few other ones to kind of train my brain, but there are still some that, like, I should probably take out.

And my personality is that I feel like I'm standing still right now. So we had a conversation, and I looked into buying a couple of age domains and building them up from the ground up. And maybe that works for some people. And I had a good conversation with a company that would do it. And then I went back and talked to Jaryd. And he, Jaryd, had pretty strong words. But the success rate is not nearly as high as I thought would if I put quality content on each domain. It's still hit or miss. I was investing a good percentage of my net worth, on this website, I can't really do hit or miss and I need to make sure there's good bones to this business. And ultimately, that's going to be me learning how to check good content, figure out authority, figure out how Spass thing things load and, and even spitting out and handing off numbers.

I don't know what they mean. I'm like, well, Jaryd knows what they mean, don't put that due diligence and just send it off. So, it was it was faith in, you know, Jaryd, your message and your, your fundamentals. And I'm excited about playing that out. And I am a someone that likes to push the envelope, a little bit of a rule bend vendor, but on this stuff, I want to play it by the play by the book.

Jaryd Krause (17:53)

That's interesting. I'm glad that you mentioned that. Because a lot of people and I don't get to speak to everybody, but a lot of people will come up against resistance. And people in times of adversity, a lot of people unfortunately fold and look for an easier path, a shortcut. And when they're doing that with wealth, they forget that it's the long game, like you're playing a long, long game to replace your income is not, I'm just going to buy a business in three months. I don't have to work ever again. It's like the real estate.

Real Rome wasn't built in a day if you want to build real wealth, and you want to build a real income stream that is unshakable, and you will never have to go back to work again. Because it's unshakable, it takes that time, but a lot of people because of instant gratification and the way the internet is now it's like, oh, look at this shiny object. Oh, look at this shiny object. I just heard this podcast that this guy has just bought a you know, or just did this in a in like three months and is this rich, and they don't think about the other person's background, how much wealth they do or don't have, how much time they do or don't have to put towards it. So how much resources they have to put towards all of this.

And they just see it for the tip of the iceberg and go I want that tip of that iceberg without any substance underneath that. And it's a shame to see because people have actually left have come to Bob, they've left and then got birds and then came back and like damn, Jaryd should not say that I'm right. It's just to say that that could be done in any aspect or any vehicle just stay the course even if it's not buying a business just freak in stay the course like yeah, I'm biased towards buying an online business.

But if somebody just stays the course without going to shiny objects, they will they will win in that vehicle. And so the left came back and like damn, Alright, I'm going to stay the course vehicle.

Patrick (19:47)

In a lot of times, those expectations are the greatest enemy when going after these goals. And social media is the biggest culprit, like, you know, I work with college students, and I see a textbook stereotypical example is like body image for women or something like that, or even body image for men too. But then I realized that I was feeling, oh, Loki depressed about the state that I was in.

But what was in my feed that I was following was almost, how to say it, like Uber productive accounts that I was following. It's like Gary Vee this, an entrepreneur like success over here. And it's like, and then the algorithm knows me. So it's like, it's feeding me even more. And then I'm like, "Everyone's going 100 miles an hour, and I'm sitting still." That's what it felt like.

And yeah, it just missed the mark. It wasn't true. No other person in human history has had as much pressure as we're putting on ourselves to succeed right now.

Jaryd Krause (20:43)

Yeah, I think if I had a real superpower, it would be not no addiction to any social media, because I don't, I don't use it. In fact, to my auntie about this last night at dinner that I just can't like, even are buying online businesses Facebook group, our community group, private group, I only leave that open in my tab and I can't I can't let myself go to the newsfeed because then I will go and see, oh, this person is doing x and this person is doing that.

And then you go, Oh, how come I'm not like, I don't have $5 billion in my bank account yet. And then you forget— this is happening so quickly. And that's just one post, right? Imagine how many posts people are looking at, and then doing it unconscious of this, most people are unconscious of it. So, because I'm conscious of it, I can unravel this and then make myself feel better. Because I have the tools and understand the education on how to do it with my consciousness, I can see the process playing out for me, whereas most people don't. And the toxicity of it all, as well as the motivation. I'm a big believer that we don't do things based on motivation, because motivation is like a flame, it burns out.

But if we do things based on inspiration that comes from within, we can turn this into what I like to teach people in our communities is how to have inspiration, and vision, and tap into them without needing external motivation like Gary Vee, and I'm the winner at life and all that sort of stuff. Because that's the term, and then people don't get the progress. Right?

Patrick (22:15)

Well, and you know, I'll ask a question to you about that. You know, when I had been researching about branding, because there's another little project I'm working on, it's kind of building a brand. But when I look at branding, per se, the idea of personal branding keeps coming up. And it's like, here are the things you do to kind of build your personal brand. And then, as I was kind of categorizing this, I was like, "Oh, that's kind of what Jaryd does—it's kind of like a personal brand. Like, this is Jaryd's brand.

You see your name, your face, or something like that on the website. Everywhere I'm seeing this, it's social media, this Instagram, this Facebook, this have you balanced those that like building up a personal brand? But then also not giving into the demons of social media?

Jaryd Krause (22:57)

That's a really good question, because I had this same call with another person, Matt, who's in our mastermind sort of thing. He's thought about building a personal brand around one of the businesses, and I'm helping him scale. And I don't like it; I mean; I live literally about 50 meters from the beach. I don't go every day and on social media be like look how good my life is.

And if you my liking, I'm sure I could have more members, and we could have a bigger business and all that sort of stuff. If I did overshare about, like, because I have a pretty, blessed I have a very blessed life. I go surfing just about every question, which all these good things right. I can afford a lot of things. But it's coming with comes with hard work. That's the iceberg that people see like, I've still got that breadth to answer your question is that how you can build a personal brand is be very intentional with only putting yourself in certain areas. So, I just I make it super simple, I create long form content that is evergreen, not short form content that's not evergreen, like a real or a story. Or like oversharing my life I do very little content creation, but it looks like I'm everywhere because I do it consistently.

And then when we pick apart all these pieces of content, I have a whole team that distributes that everywhere. So I don't log into Instagram I have one Facebook page open which is the group I don't log into LinkedIn people message me on all these apps and they don't get anything because by the way guys contact me by email if you want because I have somebody helped me manage my email so I don't have to like I'm about not more money I'm about less stress and a fun life.

And then because I've empowered that way the money comes as a byproduct and so you don't need to this is where most people believe is like I need to become an influencer is like I think I feel I could be wrong. I feel like I have a good influence in this space without having to force to be looked like an influencer like on Instagram. You don't I mean, so you can do it.

Patrick (24:58)

I appreciate that. too, because I feel like I'm on a coaching call right now. Like, you didn't you didn't get where you're you were, you didn't get where you are currently, by happenstance.

You know, this was like a plan that however long ago, you were like, okay, I kind of want my life to look this way in the sense of like, I don't want to be addicted to social media, it's going to be long form content. It's not going to attract every person, but it's going to attract the right people. And then that's going to do for me what I needed to do. And that excites me at this point, when I like, think about what I want my life to look like in you know, 5 to 10 years.

Jaryd Krause (25:32)

That's awesome, man. Thank you for the question. I've got some more questions. Yeah. This is all about you and your awesomeness and what you've done. So, it's a short episode? Definitely not. So yeah. So, you've just gone away? What are some of the things that you learned that were very valuable tools for you that you feel that first time first timers would get value from knowing or learning?

Patrick (25:57)

There’re definitely things I learned in this process? I'm 31 now. And we started buying real estate in 2018. Actually, if you go before that, when my wife and I first made the jump into ministry, there was quite a bit of adversity in that and there's quite a bit of sales like me, I kind of categorize that as sales because it's like we had to talk to people about our ministry and have people join our team and there was a lot of highs and lows and difficulties and rejections and, and stepping out into the unknown, that I feel like, in this process, it was more applying what we've just been through in over the last eight to 10 years, which was great. Because I feel I felt like oddly prepared and unprepared at the same time.

So, like I was, I felt prepared in the sense of like, when you spoke, I was like he's been there before I look at XYZ and I'm like, okay, like we can do this. This is fundamentals. This is not a crazy idea. By faith, let's step into this. And faith is just trust. And by trust, we're going to get it get into this. And it really hit me after the purchase. I feel like where I realized I was like, what is this asset that I just bought?

Because I had like so much trust that I was like, I feel totally unequipped. And then there was like, there was like this freakout not a terribly long time, but just like a time of, okay. It's going to be okay. I know, this is a good asset, because of the time I put into it. And I know there's some unanswered questions about how to like, proceed. And that's all here it's in the growing your business. The class that you the lessons after just yet if someone got Yeah, yeah, it's all there, and I have access to you.

And the training wheels are still on, and the ship still afloat. So yeah, it was a weird sense of like, just using a muscle that's already been worked out for the last 10 years, but then doing it in a different way. And I feel like maybe that's something for the listeners of like, maybe online businesses are completely new to you. But you didn't just wake up in the position you're in like that you have a history, you have a past of doing bold things. This is just another opportunity to do something bold. And there's that phrase like Fortune favors the bold, which is kind of cliche kind of overdone, but it's like totally true.

Because no, there's you know, it feels like everyone's buying businesses, the price is going up, the multiples are getting bigger, but the fact is very few people think the way we think. And I think it's the best way to think personally.

Jaryd Krause (28:31)

I agree. And you know what, when you have that freakout stage, I absolutely love that not because you're feeling the freakout because that's the feeling you get when you step outside of your comfort zone. And we all know growth happens outside the comfort zone.

And I when I have like, when I have those feelings as well, I'm, I don't know, I feel like I'm kind of I'm a weird one where I feel like I have a slight addiction to that feeling. Because I'm so obsessed with growth like if you ask friends and family about some of the stuff I do with my health and things it's like it's there's a nut job. But that's a good thing. In a good way that anxiety of like what have I done like what is his asset but that's just the start of the journey as well.

And I think what you're alluding to and saying as well is that people may feel like oh, that's the end of the journey because he just bought this thing but no that's like really the start.

Patrick (29:30)

Yeah, and that's why I appreciate so much that you had me on you have me on to talk me to talk about these things. And because I still feel like I'm at the beginning I'm still at the you know, I'm at the starting line on this whole thing. And you said something in your email and I've done quite a bit of thinking about it since you sent it here like people love hearing from winners like you and I guess that never registered because you don't really consider yourself a winner and you know, they're still like what is winning is putting food on the table if you're fat Emily, and like, being content and all these things, but in this instance, it's like we need to celebrate, like the tiny wins that are going to move the ticker of life.

And this is a win and for me to think, okay, well, let's do an X amount of money per month now. Now I need to get up to this. I'm forgetting the success that's happened in the last couple of weeks.

Jaryd Krause (30:23)

Yeah, count your successes. This is a big turning point. It's a massive turning point, even if somebody's to buy like a $15,000 site or a $10,000 site. I know that might be massive for some people might know, my first site was $15,000. But that was a turning point, you know, massive turning point for me. And it's a massive turning point for you. And I'm really excited. So, you bought this site? How did you? How did you work out? What site is like? How did you choose what sort of what website you wanted to buy?

Patrick (30:53)

It's funny. The first site I was planning on buying was e commerce site. And we had our first meeting, I don't know, I feel like we had an incredibly awkward first like three conversations. And it was all my fault. I was I just didn't totally understand what's going on. I had my wife on the call. And I wanted to walk through this business. And for you, it was a consultation, like, do you want to do more one on ones? Yeah. And we walked through this thing.

And I felt like I had 30 minutes to pitch this thing. And I was like, the guy in the in the Facebook group that you're mentioning, that was like ready to buy the site without, sight unseen, basically, with no knowledge. And I'm glad that didn't work out. And actually, I have a I have a, I'm wearing these shoes right now that I bought from the seller. So, I could test the quality of them. And I never wear half shoes before now. And I love them.

So, it's like there's one success one good thing that came from the site that you didn't buy? Correct? Yeah, the site I did buy, I was so invested in it that I bought something of them, like a 25% discount, to test it out to see if I wanted to buy it. And now we're on every day. And I think about how much of an idiot That was eight months ago.

Jaryd Krause (32:03)

So, it's a part of your day-to-day process. That’s a win.

Patrick (32:07)

Yes, that's a win. And my feet are always warm. So, this is just a good, good place to be. And but anyway, the question, yeah, so what was the question?

Jaryd Krause (32:18)

How did you get How did you come to the idea of like, what type of site you wanted to buy, stay calm? And then we'll having chats? And then yeah, like what evolved?

Patrick (32:27)

So, it started ecommerce. And then because I could kind of wrap my head around that like, you know, product, get the product sold. And like I said, my friend and I were thinking about doing the coffee business for a little bit. And I remember the first time you really pitched a content website, like, I was very skeptical and skeptical in the sense of like, there's this engine that exists. And the timeline is always changing.

So, it's like, how long is this system going to be? Like churning? And it made me really nervous, I found myself getting bogged down with like, details, like, how does someone find this side? How does the algorithm work? I mean, we all like to know how the algorithm works.

So, it's like, and then I had to slow down and think, okay, people are making money in this. And while I'm analyzing this, dollars are being made, while I'm analyzing this, people are opening their sights for one to three years. And it, it hit me I was like, okay, if I want the most passive thing for my family, it's not going to be ecommerce, it's not going to be, it's not going to be something I got to make calls to China to make sure there's things in the factory.

But if I can get down this system of getting content on a site, building links, keeping building and maintaining authority, then that's the game and staying in the game is the name of the game. And I was like, this is something I can kind of wrap my head around.

Jaryd Krause (33:54)

I love it. It's the other side of it is that it is more passive, but it's also more profit as well like in a content site when you have I feel like e Commerce has an ego I don't know it depends on where you come from with your with your with your econ thing that there's some people like I said, that have a product that they're so passionate about because it's going to solve a problem it's going to change people's lives.

They're great people to be an ecommerce business and then sometimes people will want just a big massive ecommerce business because they sell a lot of product and cool you can have that but you take all the competition with their gazillions of dollars with it that are trying to beat you and your low profit margins that needs to their own.

Patrick (34:38)

And with content like my thesis and everywhere like "It's not about me," which is really nice, like the low-key nature of that is nice.

Figuring out how to get authority for my new website without plastering my face on it without becoming an expert in lawn care. Like that's not my goal is to like become an expert. We're already in this space. So, it kind of takes the pressure off. Because one thing I am pretty decent at is like speaking with people and networking and doing things like that.

And building those relationships, when it comes to like content websites, is all about relationships. You treat your writer, well, you treat your brand ambassador well, you talk to the person on the transfer team with motion, and at your best you're trying to build good relationships, so they can fix a future problem for you. Like, it's all relationships.

And that's what I'm kind of learning in this process is I can manage relationships, that's something I've learned from my time in ministry. So, I hope that that kind of gives me a leg up here in the coming months and years.

Jaryd Krause (35:42)

The biggest leg up, it's the biggest value, it's the most valuable thing in life to have to manage and build and keep good relationships, because it's not just content sites like this might be a newsflash to everybody. And hopefully, it's like a massive insight that all businesses have relationships, and it's not just all businesses; if you look at your life as a business, which I do sometimes as well, the most valuable things you have in your life are the relationships, because when everything goes That's the extent to which my lawn care experience goes.

And if it does 50 to 70,000 pageviews per month, then it was a little bit of a risk in this sense. It's only a little more than a year old. And it's at a low point now, but as you would expect, it is higher in the spring and summer. And I really expected, as we looked at the fundamentals of what's there, to come back up in the spring. So, we're trying to do everything we can to prepare for that game in terms of pageviews, and things like that.

Jaryd Krause (37:35)

Awesome. Congratulations. How did the transition of purchasing the business go for you? Like what? Tell me about that.

Patrick (37:42)

There's a phrase from the seller, "You're buying the seller. And I feel like that's not true in content websites, especially if you're not a technical person. I feel like there are so many ways I could get screwed over if I'm not paying attention. When I met with a seller, he walked me through everything. I felt good about it, like he was helpful. He was catching things after we agreed on the amount and began the transfer process. I mean, no shade on motion; invest.

But there were like two or three things that he messaged me, and he was like, "You need to have them check on this. You need to have them do this. You need to have them do that. And then I would email them. They were like, "Okay, we're working on it. And so, I felt like he was in my corner. He wanted the site to succeed. It wasn't just a quick flip for him. And really, I had no idea about that going forward. I mean, you don't really know.

But he was just really great to work with. And emotion did a good job, too. I mean, it was quick. It had been a week, and the socks were mine. And then there were even a couple little quirks that didn't totally get transitioned; I emailed them, and they got on it, and it was fine within two hours.

Jaryd Krause (38:55)

Awesome. Awesome, man. Cool. Now you've changed the accounts. And you can have money come into your own account. How does it feel to make money online?

Patrick (39:09)

Yeah, well, I got to get my account set up to make money for the first time. So yeah, whatever it is, I was supposed to do that today. And I was having some trouble making the bank account; there was just a small technical glitch. So, I haven't yet made money on this site. But the ads are there, and I just have to fix them and get my routing number in there to get it worked out. So other than that, theoretically, it is pretty wild to me.

And it's wild because then I'm making money online. I'm a millennial. I've heard over and over again that there's so much opportunity, like the Boom, and that, like, things happened in the early to mid 2000s and that things are going crazy. People are making money, and I feel like that's true.

And I haven't made any, and I haven't really invested time in growing or developing anything. So, I'm excited because I know the internet is massive, and it's not slowing down. So, I'm excited just to get my toe in the water, and I naturally go to the next step and the next step, and the next step. The big vision is that I don't want this to be the only site that I use to buy and sell. I would love the portfolio of sites.

So, I have no clue how I'm going to get there yet. But, as I set up that bank account and as I set up, you know, the growth, that's wild to me, too. It's almost as if I get caught up in thinking, okay, it's making X amount of money; I'd love to make 3x that money, your insert the x that money. But then every time you do that, the value of that business goes up, too. Yeah, it's like buying a three Plex. Yeah, I'm paying the walls, and suddenly, it's a six Plex, like, it's wild. So anyway, I have yet to make money. But I'm excited about how the mind works in this space.

Jaryd Krause (40:58)

I'm excited for your big vision. I was going to ask you about that. But I'm glad that you shared anyway. So yeah, I'm really, really excited for you. And like I said, this is just the beginning. So, congratulations. Would you have any parting words for somebody who's, like, "Oh, maybe I'll buy a business?"

Patrick (41:14)

It has to be a mind shift because I don't want to do things the way I've been told they work. And that means, okay, I want more money in a month. What do I have to do? Well, I got to go grab more hours at this job, or I need to go get a raise, or I need to switch jobs and go do something else. That's the Rich Dad Poor Dad phrase.

That's how the middle-class lower class works, like, what the upper class teaches their kids? Well, you want to build this portfolio of assets that pay you, and maybe buying a business isn't the right thing for you. But something is, you know, you can take advantage of an opportunity now that you may not have in the future, and time is your biggest asset. If you're, you know, and Tom has relatives, I mean, I'm from Kentucky, so we had the late great Colonel Sanders, who, you know, had KFC Kentucky Fried Chicken, and he started KFC when he was like 70.

So, it's like Tom is relative. But, you know, at the same time, I would rather start a business now at age 31 than at age 75. Did they like old Colonel Sanders? "When is the best time to plant a tree to me?" says one. Yeah. When's the second-best time to plant a tree today? and I'll just say it's today. So cool. take a lot of initiative.

Jaryd Krause (42:33)

I can't say any more. Let's wrap it up. That's too good. Patrick, thanks so much for coming on.

Patrick (42:37)

Thanks for having me, Jaryd.

Jaryd Krause (42:38)

Everyone who's listening. Thank you so much for listening. Take a leaf out of Patrick's book. If you do want to buy a business. Check us out at buyingonlinebusinesses.com. You can see them all.