Ep 214: [Case Study] How To Beat Other Buyers & Do Due Diligence When Buying A Content Website with Robin

Jaryd Krause (0:00)

This is what it takes to buy a six figure content website. Hi, I'm Jaryd Krause host of the Buying Online Businesses podcast. And today, I'm speaking with Robin, who is a BOB member who was a surgeon, now turned online business owner and real estate investor, he chose to start buying and scaling online businesses so you can have more time freedom and schema with his friends and family. He now focuses on building his online business portfolio and continued learning in the space. And this podcast episode is an absolute gem. It's almost a full hour of Robin and I are talking about buying online businesses. We're talking about why he decided to buy a business, what he used to do for work, why he quit that as a job and bought a business and how he started this whole online business thing with absolute no idea of how online businesses work. He didn't even have any social media accounts, he had to get a Facebook account just to become a part of the BOB community. We'll talk about how much time he actually put into the whole buying process of buying a site, what inputs he needed to put in to be able to get the result of buying a great website and what actually took him we will talk about how he was able to get the site that he did buy for cheaper lesser than the listing price and much lesser than listing price as well. We also talk about add xy brokers actually add these in or sellers add these in as add backs and why you can find them or how you can find them if you actually know how we always talk about what he bought the site for in terms of the amount, the multiple and the type of website he bought. We also talk about what he's going to do to grow it. And his next steps for the future. We talked about so much with due diligence and things that you can learn that can benefit you in the buying process of buying the right business, a lot around great mindset of buying a business and how you can tackle some of the challenges that may be coming. And lastly, Robin shares his advice to anyone thinking of buying online business. Now this podcast is so damn valuable. We mentioned due diligence in it multiple times if you don't have my framework that I use, what Robins use and what everybody else has used to save themselves millions of dollars and make themselves millions of dollars from buying a great business. Get that at buyingonlinebusinesses.com/freeresources. There'll be links to that in the show notes. Let's get stuck into this podcast episode. Hello, welcome to the podcast.

Robin (2:16)

Thank you for having me. Well, Jaryd Krause is a real famous guy. So everyone knows him. But the way it started was you know, but about a year and a year and a half ago, I was looking for other assets to invest in. I've been in a real estate investor for nine years and also a doctor recently retired doctor, but I realized in order to prepare for retirement, I needed multiple sources of income. These days, you know that the interest rates and the you know, the ability to invest is getting more expensive. So I looked at different avenues and online businesses came up to the forefront.

Jaryd Krause (3:35)

And so to get out of like you're doing real estate, you've been doing real estate for nine years, you just wanted a different asset or what you know, what were you what sort of asset were you looking for?

Robin (3:48)

I was looking for an asset that had a higher ROI. I was looking to enter the digital economy. But also I wanted an asset that would afford me freedom over the long haul to be able to make it more passive depending on my appetite for work and also to be able to do it from anywhere and there are not a lot of semi passive to pass on acids to the for to hold that that sounds like all this is was a way to go with the ROI.

Jaryd Krause (4:20)

You can send me passive, passive or the ROI isn't as you know, cash on cash basis isn't. It is in online businesses. And that might change over time because online business is relatively new. Not so many people know about it. So how did you just like how did you decide the difference between buying a brick and mortar business or an online business or was brick and mortar not even a thing?

Robin (4:44)

I mean, I looked into creating businesses, brick and mortar ones whether investing in restaurants or you know retail businesses, but they all have limitations, you know as You know, these days, getting money to finance these businesses is coming more difficult finding folks to work in a relaxed, reliable fashion is, is a little more difficult. I think people are interested in working for themselves either as gig workers and things like that. And online businesses thrive on, on outsourcing such employees or people like people who want to work for themselves, like writing or who like doing SEO work, but on their own terms. So that's why online businesses made sense, especially now. And as people start, as the economy moves, more digital and more work from home type scenarios, it makes sense to invest in online businesses.

Jaryd Krause (5:50)

I remember when you emailed me out, when we first started chatting, you had a bigger goal of getting into online businesses for just ROI and cash. What was your personal goal for buying online business?

Robin (6:07)

I mean, our email started with me looking for someone to help me coach the next phase of my life. And so you're open to that and actually had some great ideas. And I'd asked a lot of different online types of coaches. I mean, you are no strings attached. I mean, this is what I would do in your situation. And ultimately, my goal was to leave my day job, which is a busy job, it's, you know, I'm a surgeon, and there's not a lot of wiggle room to do other things. As a surgeon, I was able to invest in over the nine years and properties, but I wanted, I wanted some more diversification. And so online businesses seem perfect. So you, you help you shepherd me through the process. Obviously, people are scared when they don't know about a new asset like this. And you said, listen, based on your decades of experience, and in your own story, which was very similar in terms of wanting to, you know, have control over your life, like I did, it resonated with me, I remember the hours, how many hours are you telling me you're working? You're working? I work in quite a lot of hours as a surgeon, right? It's pretty demanding job. Yeah. Yeah, and not only the, I mean, whether it's 60 days, sometimes more a week, but it's a type of work. It's, um, you know, although it's, it's definitely rewarding. Being a doctor at some point, you know, it takes a toll on you and responsibility of, of lives. And, by the way, I don't, I don't dismiss it by any means. And I highly respect all of my colleagues. But it was time for me maybe to do something less strenuous. So not only ours, but the type of work and the stakes of the work, you know, they were building up.

Jaryd Krause (8:05)

That's like, making decisions as a as a surgeon, but I'm sure it's pretty stressful when you've got people's lives on the line and that they're held on. So I'm sure that would could be emotionally taxing, but not as emotionally taxing as being a plumber and running, running a plumbing company and being the supervisor for that when you've gotten.

Robin (8:27)

I've had some bad plumbing issues. So that and I've had people come over the last minute. So that's like being on call, I guess, in some ways.

Jaryd Krause (8:36)

So you came on businesses you found out about you somehow found me decided, let's go down this route. Let's buy an online business. Where what happened from there, like, tell me about how you decided to choose the right type of asset for you? And why?

Robin (8:55)

I mean, the ROI guys that have been described by not only you, but other online business, mentors are pretty impressive. There's no such thing as 100% foolproof investment. But I mean, if you look at stocks right now, or if you look at real estate, you know, you know, being able to get a loan for real estate, the margins are thinner than ever. Whereas all my businesses, although, you know, they can vary, they're still fairly consistent. You know, it sounds like a monthly multiple of anywhere in between the mid-30s and mid-40s. That's you can't beat that anywhere. So that just as a business model or as a potential business result, you couldn't beat that. So that's what intrigued me not only the lifestyle it could potentially afford, but just the numbers alone. were fairly impressive.

Jaryd Krause (9:50)

Curious because you, you would have had the option to buy cash and also probably do some financing or do mostly financing what made you What helped you to make the decision on whether you wanted to go cash or use financing? And why I no reason to ask you since everybody listening is like what Robin says isn't the answer was Robins, what's ideal for Robin based on his risk tolerance? And what? Yours personally right for you, people sometimes like, just tell me the answer, Jaryd, like, do I need to do debt or not debt? Well, it depends on so many different things. So how do you decide whether you want to use debt or not?

Robin (10:29)

that's a great question. I think, you know, I've had a career already. So I've been able to save and invest. So I do have already some other forms of income with and, and I also have a lot of debt. And so with real estate, it's all debt. And with that comes, you know, responsibility as well. I mean, if a commercial property doesn't rent out for a period of time, you know, COVID was very scary. And so that really gave me pause, you know, do I really want to take on more debt? Versus do I want to be debt free in my net next investment? That's, that's was the main reason why I chose not to rely on debt. Certainly, if you use debt, you know, other people's money. That's, that's the golden rule is you can make more money by using funds from other institutions. But there's a there's a liability like it haven't debt is a responsibility. And I didn't need more of that.

Jaryd Krause (11:31)

But definitely, I like that answer. It's definitely a responsibility. I feel like sometimes people think it's just, like, easy way. And let's get other people's money and used it and realize that it's not the easiest way, it would be easy to buy with cash if you could write, rather than having to pay somebody back and having that way, not just on you personally, emotionally, but the business as well. Types of online businesses, you know, ecommerce membership, SaaS content, when you first get discovered, I want to buy an online business, what type of online business like what model business model, did you believe would be best for you? Or were you thinking about buying and why?

Robin (12:15)

That's a good point. And that's where I really relied on your many of your lessons. I mean, when you when you search online businesses, you're YouTube videos come up immediately, and you've laid it out quite well, the risks and rewards of different types of online businesses. And what appealed to me about content, or, you know, content businesses are the fact that the overheads low, you don't have to worry about physical items. And, you know, supply chain issues. We all we've all heard about supply chain issues over the COVID crisis, I didn't want to have to deal with that. Online content, online businesses felt like it would afford me the most freedom. I could scale it as much or as little as I wanted, I could invest in as much or as little as I wanted. And I really wouldn't have to rely on others, like supply chains or what not. So that's what really appeals to me.

Jaryd Krause (13:22)

You chose a content business, there's I think that's, I don't know, I think that's the best place to start for somebody who's a beginner. But I also think it's the best place for people to end as well. Want to buy a business is quite passive, unless with a caveat, you have some sort of specific knowledge that you can use as leverage in in a different business model. Do you want to leverage I know people that people ask Robin, do some coaching in our mastermind that have specific knowledge and digital marketing ecommerce, and they are going to use that as leverage to build their portfolio, but they want to decide to afterwards exit out of those sorts of deals? So they can have a more passive of different types of online businesses and those models that suit their lifestyle goals, and their financial goals over the E commerce routes or a different business model. Because that can be hard to choose, it can be hard to get the lifestyle goals time wise. And also the financial goals with profit margin wise with those types of businesses, not to say there's anything against it, but different kettle of fish. And I'm glad that you don't have all of that to learn and fumble around with which I guess we'll probably chat about towards the end around taking over the business and what you've had to do and learn and stuff like that, because that's going to be very insightful for people. But your business a couple of weeks ago, congratulations. But what the what was the journey like? Tell me, tell me about some of the hardest things that you came up against some of the things that you that might have been very profound for you that you learned that was critical, but let's probably start with, you know, the harder parts of the journey so people can know what they have coming down the pipe when they decide to go this route as well.

Robin (15:08)

I mean, you know, I'm as new to online businesses and even, you know, digital the digital economy as anyone can be. So if I can do it, I think anyone can do it. I didn't have a Facebook account until I did online business teaching, and I realized, Oh, I probably need to have a Facebook account in order to get on the community. So that's, that's how new I am mean, you know, with, with my background in real estate, I needed something I needed a methodology to create to valuate to justify the value in online business. Those are being a read about that, you know, evaluating these online businesses, I realize is really similar to real estate, I mean, you can get our profit and loss statement. And they can be longer or shorter, or as granular as you want them to be. And then you as a buyer make the decision. This does this does the numbers work out and but ultimately, it deals made between two people or two, or individual, you know, people and so the deal is, I think you feel most comfortable with the deal based on the seller. And that's, that's what I felt comfortable with. In this case, I did a lot of learning. I mean, your will, we'll probably talk about the due diligence methodology that you've laid out your, your templates, and you’re all the different resources that we rely on. And if that didn't exist, then I don't think I'd move forward with buying an online business. I mean, I'm the type of person who needs evidence. And the due diligence framework gave me a way to get reproducible evidence.

Jaryd Krause (16:55)

So grateful that the tool has been so helpful for you and so many others, many years in iteration and many failures on my part. So yeah, it's good to be able to save some people some time and some money with that. You said before about the seller, and a lot of buying the business sort of relies on the relationship and the connection you have with the seller, I think that's so valuable to us sort of you brought that up for may get over and overrun with the data part of it, which is important the data part and getting the data, putting it in the framework. And analyzing it. And getting our view is very, very important in understanding the data and looking at it from the looking at it from the right lens. By the way, guys, if you don't have our framework, make sure you get it there'll be a link in the in the show notes, you can get a free button, but the part about the seller and the connection and the communication, the relationship you have with the seller. Tell me tell me what you mean about that? Because I think that's I think that's fascinating for people to learn more, especially with your background in due diligence in real estate and connecting with the seller of other assets as well. And what you learned from that you brought over into online businesses be cool to hear.

Robin (18:11)

Absolutely. You can get a sense of the seller or the person that you're doing business with, very early by how readily available they are to answer difficult questions. And, you know, I compiled a bunch of questions based on all of the due diligence teachings and all the lessons in your course. And so I had, I had about two or three pages of questions and real questions that are, you could tell if someone's be sad, right? Based on the way they ask questions where they punch a question, or they don't have the data, and sometimes the like, how quickly they answer the questions. And this particular seller had questions answer within 24 hours or less. The individual was in in Asia, living in Asia. So I mean, even with that time difference, we were able to get these things done. So I felt comfortable there from the start, ultimately, you know, the we conversed over zoom. And that was also very reassuring. It was an individual who wasn't in the business of flipping, making, making quick sales. It was a passion project for him. You could tell based on the content, but the nature of the content, it was honest, content. It didn't wasn't spammy. It wasn't overly template. He wasn't trying to sell anything. It was mostly display ads. It wasn't affiliate marketing or anything like that. He wasn't he was an individual who left, lived a lifestyle. And so that was all very reassuring. So it was a very really sincere seller, and it showed up and in his website now.

Jaryd Krause (20:03)

And thanks for sharing now from some of the other conversations you've had with other sellers on Zoom calls, or on any sort of call, not to nitpick or to point out or anything like that. But what are some of the things that you noticed in sellers that you didn't gel with that they in how they communicate it just so people can sort of see like, alright, what should I be looking out for? And how people may deflectors? Or not actually answer the question, the way it was asked, or the communication that you may have had through the calls? Yeah, what was what was what made it night and day? If it was not in day, maybe, but what was the what was the opposition life there?

Robin (20:40)

I think the reasoning for which the individual was selling the site varied, some, some of them didn't have great answers, there's stopped answers. Like we're, we want to go into other opportunities. There, the story behind their investment into its site, whether it was they just acquired it, or they just created it in order to sell it, which is fine. None of those, those are fine to purchase. But that wasn't what I wanted. I think the, you know, the valuations how that I asked questions about justifying the price at which the individual was selling the site, they weren't always up to speed, and also kind of, you know, reasons, explanations for certain blips in traffic and revenues, why the traffic was going down for a period of time. But even more importantly, why the traffic surged three months before selling the site, those, those were red flags for me. And the answers were, they weren't necessarily the sincerest. They're very stock. And so when those answers were not really good, I questioned, the seller, and therefore the site.

Jaryd Krause (22:05)

They're really good pickup, it's a really good pickup. And all those little things I see are from the foundation of somebody who's started a site, or bought a site to flip it, or bought or started a site to sell it. And that's their main goal is, is money, and they may have missed some certain things around building the asset to be so damn solid, that the owner can have a more passive lifestyle and a passive business. Whereas you can see that the owner of the site, the previous owner of your site that you bought, actually just use the business as a great asset because it was built well to leverage off and have a great lifestyle. And there's a theirs, it's so different to see those types of businesses, because when our nation of the sellers, intention being long term, easy run less stress, those businesses are so much more valuable. And you may pay a whole lot higher multiple for them than somebody who's just like, I just need a quick buck. Right? Is that what you notice as well? Or do you have anything to say to that?

Robin (23:07)

Absolutely. Yeah, I think this, this particular seller, had lived off the site and was able to travel based on the revenue of the site for a few years. Cool. And so his livelihood depended on it. And so he created a website that would be sustainable that would, you know, he had answered that, if I didn't sell a site, I'd be okay, because honestly, this is my bread and butter. And so that he put that much care into the site, where it seemed like it'd be a great thing to own as well. Whereas other sellers, you could tell they were really invested in the site in not only monetarily, but otherwise. And they were definitely a little pushy in the sale, if you could, you could sense the inpatients in them in their selling, so I didn't, I didn't like that.

Jaryd Krause (24:02)

Make sense. Now. You are no longer working as a surgeon, you're retired. Congratulations. How does that feel? That feels incredible.

Robin (24:13)

You remember the emails I sent you? I literally, it was the first few emails or this is my situation. You know, this is how I see online businesses, allowing me to move forward, but I'm scared. And then I remember one of your emails saying it's natural to be scared, but just think of it just both emotionally as well as monetarily. And you portrayed both sides and in both in both instances. It makes sense. I mean, I could do it. And so my following email, I announce to you that I took the leap and I retired and yeah, that was great. It was great to see that email.

Jaryd Krause (24:56)

Because there's no right there's no right or wrong answer, right. It's like and decent, you know, decent money and quit or you could do a hybrid, but it came back to what was right for you personally and what you want to like how you wanted to spend your time. And like the fear thing is like, if you're not scared, you're there's you're not a human. I mean, you're you've How long have you been a surgeon for right decades, and you're getting outside your comfort zone, of course, that's going to be scary. But outside the comfort zone is where that growth and the change come from, which is, which is this. So I'm so thrilled for you. And it also gave you an opportunity to lean further into the business and more time focused on that, which is, it says, now that you like how much time per week you feel, or how many due diligence, due diligence did you do? Because I noticed that you a lot more proactive than many other people out like, what did that look like for you? Like, how many hours roughly? Were you? You know, working on this and per weekend? And what did that look like?

Robin (26:03)

Yeah, that's a good question. You know, and as you know, a lot of these brokers introduce new sites, you know, the beginning of week or certain times of the week. And so I would probably at least do a quick due diligence, based on another lesson you taught us which there are eight points, eight bullet points, which you can use to quickly weed out certain, certain sites that are right for you. So I would do that, you know, for 10 to 15 sites a week. But then in terms of when I spotted something that hit my initial criteria, I would do the due diligence. And I, I tell folks, you know, my first few due diligence is to four hours or so. But over the course of just practicing, you know, I got it down to two hours. And I'm sure, probably a little bit faster now. But so I initially did select the funnel kind of method, initially, I cast a broad net, I was able to weed out a lot of a lot of businesses, and then those that were interesting to me, I'd spend more time on them. And it got faster over time, but I maybe did 10 to 15 Due diligence is over the course of two months, right?

Jaryd Krause (27:18)

That's very active. Now that like say, say it was 15 Due diligences is the reason I ask is because a lot of people listening are like I want to buy a business, I want to make money as soon as possible, I want to do it within like a two month period, right? You do this in a two-month period. But you had a lot more time you did 15 Due diligences is some other people have a full time job 40 to 50 hours a week, they have two younger children under the age children are a bit older, a bit more self-sufficient now, which is great, and you get to go ski with them and all that sort of stuff. But they might have two younger children a wife full time job, and they're trying to get out of that full time job. So they can spend more time with their family, which is awesome. That is the at the core why I do this. So people have that time freedom to spend more time doing what they love with people, they love that, oh, I need to put in the I need to do this over a period of time. And the inputs, I should be measuring the inputs, not the time. Whereas they may say, okay, Robin do this in two months. If I if I give myself two months, I can do this as well. Whereas they have time to do a due diligence every week or two every week, or 15. In two months, most people don't have that time. And then they get to that two-month mark and they realize I can't do this, I'm or this system doesn't work, I'm going to go and find a find a get rich quick scheme or chase the other shiny ball. And it's such a shame to see. Because actually, last two weeks, we've had two people in Bob the community because I've left tried something else and then come back in years in between. So they'd spent all this time doing stuff and not getting the result and then coming back and realizing that this vehicle is built well slowly over time vehicle and it works if they stick with it. So what do you think about the timeframe thing and the inputs versus the results?

Robin (29:18)

I mean, you one of your lessons, you said it best it's like time is your enemy, or measuring time is your enemy. And so you can't you can't measure the wrong things, which is and you can't compare yourself to other people because everyone has a different situation. If you were to measure time and say well, I spent two months or two years or two days, and I've done this many due diligence, and I've it's resulted in an or b I mean you're bound to be a little discouraged. He said you said it before. You got to keep your focus on what you want and not just making money. It’s what are your what do you want your life to be in one year, three years and five years, that's how I always plan my life. And if your one year plan a three-year plan is, you know, I want a source of income, in addition to what I'm doing, or I want freedom and be able to travel or be able to spend more time with my family or to start a different project. That should be your impetus to your measurement. It shouldn't be like, I got to get an online business by this time or a failed, it's got to be, this is my stepping stone to what I want one, three or five years. I don't think you should measure your results in by time, I think, you know, when I went to medical school and residency took, I don't know how many years if I was measuring my failures or successes based on time out or not been adopted?

Jaryd Krause (30:59)

That's great time is, time is so different, because by business, and they might actually want to grow it from like, $1,000 a month or $2,000 a month. And they might give themselves a year to do it for a year, and they've gone from $1,000 a month to $1,500 a month and they go it didn't work. And they might try and sell the business. But they don't realize that the next two or three months after that, they might have got to the $2,000-mark range. And in reality, just because you're measuring time, waits on your actual goal, which could come later down the track, but 50% growth in even like, if you're trying to get that in one year, that's huge. Right? 1000 or 2000 is huge. If you give yourself 50% growth over a three-year time period, I still think that's awesome. online businesses can move up and down and sideways and move very, very fast up. But they can also move very, very fast down we need to consider that as well. So yeah, I'm so glad we brought up the time thing, Robin. Now this unit some time learning online businesses as a whole in general, like you didn't do social media didn't have a Facebook account or anything like that. You knew nothing about the online business space when you join people that listen to this podcast, like I want to get into this. But there's got this hurdle, this gap of like, how do I? How do I start to learn some of the stuff? Or can I actually buy an online business or earn an income online, but I don't know how to do the tech stuff. And we get we have people join all the time like this, they get great results like you. But what is parts about going through not know online businesses work to buying a business? What were some of the hardest parts that you think people should look out for?

Robin (32:38)

I think first and foremost, it's these these are so many get rich, quick types of schemes. And so certainly I've been, you know, subjected to some of them, you got to use your own judgement. And you've got to listen to all the different folks that are in the space. And whether or not they're seeing something that's consistent, whether you feel it feels good to you, or whether you feel like it's kind of a quick sale type of scenario, I think folks will be a little suspicious if they've been in other businesses like restaurants, or brick and mortar by the some of the ROIs, or some of the, you know, multiples that you see on online businesses. Certainly, it doesn't happen all the time. But more often than not, the multiples that people describe in their testimonials are valid coming from real estate, if I if I were to see an ROI of 30%, let alone 15% or 20%. I'd be amazed. But I mean, these are wise, are visible. You know, the other important thing is, this isn't a startup type thing. This is these are established businesses, they just happen to be in the digital space. They have track records of profit. And you can see the profit and losses right in front of you where the truth is, is in the numbers there can be confirmed. So that's important thing is to kind of keep an open mind about this type of asset. Use your own due diligence in terms of what are assets that are good or bad. Look at your situation and figure out exactly what you're expecting to get out of it. How much you can invest. Consider the barriers of entry on any business stocks, anyone can buy a penny stock or whatnot. But are you owning anything, versus being able to own something that's tangible that that you can potentially afford to buy and also to scale? There's not a lot out there that you can do that that you can literally get on your phone and look at your website and say this looks great, or I need to fix this and then watch the traffic.

Jaryd Krause (34:51)

You've got something really cool around the stocks like you can buy a stock but all it which means like you can't buy part of a business This and scale it and grow it because you don't control it. Own part of the business but you haven't zero say, which can be okay. But ability to be able to grow, grow your asset is is very, very, very, very valuable. Speaking of the asset and feel free to share numbers, if you're open to it like price, multiple monthly profit if you're open to it, I'd love we'd love to hear that. If not, that's totally cool. Yeah, what was what was the multiple? And how did you work out the deal? Like how did you work out the deal structure? And why did you do it that way?

Robin (35:37)

Absolutely. So the price is above 200k. And as I mentioned, it's a content site. It was primarily it primarily relied on ads, no affiliate. So there's, there's some upside potential to it that you could see over time. And the multiple that was offered initially was 45, no monthly multiple 45. And that was in the hands of the seller who did most of the work himself. And so after creating a rapport with the seller, and the seller had multiple offers at the time, and they some of these offers could have been, you know, better than mine in terms of just about money, I kind of let that person know, this is, I think the site's great, it's an honest site, I respect the fact that he made it from scratch. I know it's important to him, because he is bread and butter, that's his bread and butter. However, in my hands, who, you know, probably will not write all the content will probably outsource a lot of the SEO, but work and things. And quite frankly, there's some work that needs to be done. I said, this is the value in my hand. So from the 45, multiple, we got it to 39.

Jaryd Krause (56:57)

Congratulations. That's so cool. And I want to talk about those expenses. Brokers would call it an ad backs because this is very, very big. Here that helped you hugely. One is you became an attractive buyer, you are an attractive buyer, we have that in the course on how to become an attractive buyer, which helps you so much with getting your offer accepted even over another person who may be at a higher than you. Secondly, getting down from a 45 Multiple to a 39 Multiple is very valuable, because there is a way that with these add backs that you cannot have to pay all of the add back pay for all of the Add backs or have that baked into the deal. The reason so many brokers put add backs in this is they can bump up the price of the deal. And when they bump up the price of the deal. They bump up their commission structure, and the seller and the broker is super happy. Good on him. That's great. But we're buyers here. So I like to teach people and you can learn if you know how to do this the right way in how to decrease the multiple by business for less, less the else's bidding by two things, understanding how you can fight the Add backs. And there's a specific way that needs to be done. Right, Robin, like you need to word it in a way and you need to the business and the expenses and what's going to be moving forwards. And then also have being an attractive buyer. Tell me about how valuable how important that was to you because I'm sure it saved a bunch of money. In the end.

Robin (38:34)

Absolutely. I mean, I was just I was honest with the individual who said this is my first purchase. And I'm fairly new in the space. I also, you know, I went through the whole kind of the math behind it. He realized I mean, he's speaking the truth. This is how much it would cost to hire certain people. So I was I was fairly granular about like, I laid out the numbers in my hands. It would cost him my hands to run it. And so he agreed him in his definition of these values aren't they're not add backs. Those are fixed costs. I mean, you in your hands you would have that's how you would be able to run this business. I don't know that every seller would respect that. I don't know how much whether he liked me. I certainly treated him with a lot of respect. And all the emails were I crafted in a way where it looked like I spent time and thought in them no spelling mistakes. No, you know, it they seem like I really cared which I did. And similarly his emails were like well crafted, they were they were understandable and in we didn't see eye to eye on everything. But I think in the end we valued each other's opinions. And I think that's how we came to an agreement. So it's back to deal making between India Israel's like it like you, you teach us like be respectful, be that be that very, you know that buyer that that may win the deal even though you might not, you know offer the most money.

Jaryd Krause (40:14)

Huge, you can actually knowledge this is what I like to tell people knowledge can buy your, you can literally buy yourself respect, specific by having specific knowledge caring about the person. And it's that's when you think about it that's attractive, right? Somebody that knows where they stand, they know about the industry, they know about what the what the cost of these expenses. And they know if it's a reality of like what a business owner would have to pay. And you communicate that in a way like, this is fair, whether it's right for me, or whether it's right for any other person that's up give the business to this as the fair value of the business, for anybody that owns it, regardless, regardless of its if it's me or not, and being able to communicate in a way that you did, Robin helps so much it literally buys you respect and makes you attractive, and that's what I'm all about. And you had the benefit definitely of learning it through the through the course. But you also got some experience in doing so with real estate. So that definitely I'm feel played a played a good role into it as well. Now that you have the business, what are the next or the next steps? Where do you where do we go from here? Do you have goals? What's you know, where do you go from here?

Robin (41:33)

That's a good point. I mean, I, I'm literally learning as I take over this business, I you know, as you know, there's accounts ad accounts, and I'm logging into and trying to figure out what you know, how much traffic is being earned every day and what the earnings are, I'm trying to not get too emotional or too fixed by the day to day up and down. Because like I said, online businesses, they show daily trend changes. And so I'm trying not to get overly concerned about those things when they go down. Obviously, it's nice when it comes to those up. I'm trying to I'm working with you to help me create a team as well, the technical aspects, the SEO aspects, which are always moving dynamic. For anybody, let alone someone who's beginning like myself, trying to figure out how do I What about the structure of the of the website to be? What do I want to convey to the reader? How do I want to I want to be respected in in the niche either through by myself, but more likely through proxy? And I want to keep the integrity of the of the site, because I think that'll make it a sustainable site. It'll be true to the original creator of the site who did a great job. And I think it'll result in a more profitable aside over the long run. So I'm in it for the long haul, I don't want to flip it, I want to create a portfolio, I want to create a team that I could deploy in future purchases.

Jaryd Krause (43:15)

Highlight what you said, because people may not have really what I heard Nick grow the site, and you went straight into adding value. Before having high integrity in the space and giving value to the reader. Before I just want to get it from X amount per month to this amount per month. That was the baseline that was the foundation. And I'm so glad that I get to work with you on this site helped you build a team because where it's coming from is a really good place. And I think people think take, that's a really good mindset to have when you're looking at growing your content business or any business is come from that place. And then yes, it will become highly profitable, which this business already is. Robin, there are a lot of people listening, that are thinking about buying a site, start their journey, what advice would you give to them to finish off with?

Robin (44:11)

I think you can't do this alone. And so you need to find a mentor there. As you mentioned there, there are folks who have come and gone in this niche before maybe they the timing wasn't right. But I think they're coming back with it because they realize the mentorship is valuable and honest. You can tell you can tell when an individual is a straight shooter. When you feel comfortable with them. They're when they're you don't feel like you're being sold something and I think that's the first thing is to is to have good mentorship. And then second is don't be discouraged. I mean, you're going to have ups and downs. You're going to have you're going to be close to deals and lose deals. You're going to feel stressed straighter that there is no quote unquote perfect deal for you, you have an open mind. And don't be discouraged by small failures, you know, you talk to us about, you always ask us about small wins. And think about those small wins, they add up into a bigger win. They're all moving into a certain trajectory, a certain factor of your one and three-year five-year plan, and you got to think about it that way. I think if you're don't get discouraged, your patient, you think about the long game and you find a good mentor, you'll find joy in the process, as well as the path as well as the outcome, the destination.

Jaryd Krause (45:35)

Thank you so much, Robin, congratulations. I look forward to working with you. And maybe we see how you go and in some time in the future, and then maybe we have another chat again, depending on if you still own the site or where you're at. But thanks so much. There's so much value here for people so read.