Ep 183: Why People Fail To Replace Their Income & Make Money Online (through starting a business or buying a business) with Scott

Jaryd Krause (0:00)

How do you know if you are ready to buy an online business and replace your income? Hi, I'm Joe Krause. I'm host of the buying online businesses podcast. And today, I'm speaking with Scott, who is a blog community member who's been quite active in helping people with their journey of making money online silently in our group. And I wanted to bring him on the podcast to talk about some important topics that not enough people are talking about in the online business space, topics around buying a site, topics around starting a site, the differences in those Scott has, you know, done both and is looking to continue buying sites and why we also talk about where you should start in online business in terms of you were to buy a site how much or and why we talk about money mindset, we also go back to the start about where did Scott started his online business, we talked about how he got into drop shipping, how he sold that business, and then wanted to buy a business but in fact, got itchy feet and try to start one without any luck, which you will all see is very normal.

When starting a site, we also talk about how much money and, most importantly, the time you can lose when chasing site shiny object syndrome. We talk about the path and how long it can take you to replace your income. With different methods and modalities, we talk about mistakes people make on their journey. When trying to replace their income. We talk about money mindset and many philosophies that I believe that you must know to be able to get yourself closer to success, which is probably replacing your income with less effort and less money.

If you understand some of these philosophies. There's so much value in this podcast episode, you're absolutely going to love it. Before we get stuck in Scott and I talk about due diligence a little bit in this podcast episode. If you haven't got my doodles framework and you want to buy an online business, you'd be silly not to get it. It takes the guesswork out of buying an online business. That's what I use what Scott's uses what all of our clients use to buy online businesses. So make sure you get that buying online business.com forward slash free resources.

There's other cool resources on that page as well. Let's dive into the episode. Do you want to build or grow your content website niche website builders have helped hundreds of people take their content websites from a few $100 per month to over 10s of 1000s of dollars per month with crafted content creation buying age domains and link building strategies. These strategies have helped people increase their Traffic Authority, monthly earnings and their website valuation to head to niche website dot builders forward slash VOB. Forward slash to get 10% of any link building or 10% more from their content creation services. That's niche website dot builders Ford slash Bob Ford slash I'll put a link in the description too. Scott, welcome to the buying online businesses podcast.

Scott (2:56)

Thank you, buddy. Great to be here.

Jaryd Krause (2:57)

Yeah, great to have a chat with you. Everybody this listening, Scott is a BB member in our buying online business community. And Scott put a really cool post in the it was a public service announcement post wasn't it Scott in the Bob community Facebook group, and since then has been getting messages of frequently, from people wanting to do a similar thing that you've done, read your public service announcement and one of those sort of chat and discussed you about discuss with you about that we're going to come to that post in a second.

And we're going to come to all of that that discussion around starting a site with buying a site and some of the things that you've mentioned in that post. But first and foremost, I wanted to ask you, how did you come to the point that you wanted to earn an income online? And then the second question would be once you realize you want to earn an income online, how did you find the route? Like what how did you get to? Alright, I'm going to join Jerris the Bob buying online businesses community and by business.

Scott (3:56)

Yeah looks like a lot of people just probably, you know, looking to diversify, you know, what they're already doing. And then, you know, seeing the, you know, we've got money in hedge funds and stocks and just a whole bunch of other alternative investments. So I'm quite stocked up on those sorts of things, crypto, you, you name it, so I'd always would have I, you know, I I bought a website a couple of years ago, which was a drop shipping site and sold that.

And that was a bit of a nightmare to be honest. And, and then, you know, when I was looking at the kind of something else, and kind of came down this, this rabbit hole, if I'm if I'm really honest, which has been great, you know, so I think the word that you know, sort of the phrase that you coined a couple of weeks ago which was you know, teaching the men how to fish because I'd been you know, going to the store buying the fish and then wondering what stunk to be honest. But I was lonely. And you know, so that's how come I came to you know, I'd seen you quite a lot and listening to you and then you know, we had a few messages and just trying to you know, work out what you do how You do it and then going, okay, there's a certain part of the market that you look to help people in.

And this was one of them, because I think this is the due diligence is the hardest part. So and plus all the knowledge that you have behind the due diligence plus buying sites. So you're not just a preacher, but you're also a teacher, because you're walking, you're walking the talk.

Jaryd Krause (5:19)

You know? Yeah. Cool. Thanks. So you've got a drop shipping site, let's just, let's just unpack that quickly. Because you have mentioned this to people in the community as well, for those of you who aren't in the paid community? And there's a lot of interaction and cool things going on between members and learning from one another, and people asking questions, how do I do this sort of SEO thing?

How do I do that? How do I do this through due diligence. And it's not just a course where Jared is telling you what to do. It's everybody that's helping you and supporting you. So I'm really proud of everybody that's in that it's pretty cool place, Scott, but we don't harp on that. Tell us about the drop shipping site, and yeah, share, share everything in anything that you do want to share, and then hold back on Tigger’s. Yeah, I'll share figures and stuff, too.

Scott (6:03)

No, I shouldn't. You know, me. I'm pretty Yeah, I'm always upfront. And I don't give a shit to be really honest with you, Jared. Because so it was a done for me. It was a done from a drop shipping site. I'm based in New Zealand, it was a luxury outdoor furniture. So high ticket items.

Jaryd Krause (6:18)

So they, so you went and hired somebody to start your business?

Scott (6:23)

Yeah, it was kind of an acquaintance knew about it. And so he was he was sitting at drop shipping sites for himself and other people. So why did he set it all up? And I effectively bought it off, you know, so the biggest the biggest, the biggest expense to that business, as you know, was Google AdWords. And finding people that are good at Google AdWords was really difficult. At that time, it was just a freaking nightmare, to be really honest with you.

But we started getting a bit of traction down the road, maybe six, seven months. And then just that was just before COVID. And then of course, the supply was just where we were, it was running all through shop, Shopify, which is a good site, of course, but we were just doing more refunds, then we were getting orders through. So we weren't making money, which was great. But it was friggin hard work. And, you know, we just looked with our ratings with Shopify, we get a few messages from them going what's going on? How come you refunding Is this a scam, blah, blah, blah, you know, so we got a few minutes, a couple of messages like that.

And I was just like, oh, so the guy that I set it up and bought it from he said to me, I'll look, you know, if you're ever thinking about selling, let me know. And it was it was kind of timely, because I was like, Holy heck, yep. I'm pretty keen to get out of this. Because it was just like, we just, you know, by that time, we were refunding more than we were putting through, and we were just trying to make the business, you know, it was easy to run, I was pretty spending maybe a couple of hours a week, putting orders through, they were being shipped out, find the stuff was really good quality. So I was really happy with the quality, I was really happy with the suppliers. But when they had the stock, and it was fantastic.

And most of the time towards the end of it, they didn't. So I sold that I've been to finance the guy out of Atari, who was wanting to buy that he was based in the States. And he lost us it was just before COVID Then he lost his job. So there's kind of this thing on the back end guys damn, you know, vendor finance, all that sort of stuff. So he wanted to be it took him two years to pay me out. And that's okay. But, you know, kind of that once bitten, twice shy, type thing. And it took an it was a bit of a bit of a bit of a nightmare. So I got his I don't have all the figures in front of me. Sorry, Jared. I can't remember.

We were probably we were making 50% margin on the stock. Before. Okay, yeah. So that was just a bit of a Yeah. So it's true that most of that profit. Yeah, correct. Yeah. So yeah, that was that was kind of a it was a it was a it was a bit was it was good. It was good to learn that, but I sure wouldn't want to do that again, man. But again, I was well, because I think you know, it was it was really tough to get it out. The supply chain is obviously quite, you know, quite hot at the moment with E commerce. And also, you know, I just felt really bad for not being able to get clients the stock.

So you know, you're taking money in and then you know, unlike straight onto it, I believe they've got a great customer service as you need to have with any business, but I did, I felt like I was scamming them. And I know that sounds weird, but I honestly felt that way. Because I was like, I've got your money. I don't know when I can get you this product. And so I would just email them straight away and go, Hey, look, I'm not sure when this can come in.

And they're like, Well, hey, what's going on? It says, you know, you can do it. So there was that side. And then they just adjust the margins after so we'd have to look for something if I did it a game. I mean, that was those were high ticket items. To be fair, mate. We were probably spending two to 300 us a month in Google ads. Words. So stat probably about close to 404 50. New Zealand, I suppose.

Jaryd Krause (10:07)

It was outstanding. Yeah. Okay, so it's not much at all.

Scott (10:10)

Yeah. So that was it. It wasn't a lot. But by the time you took, you know, yeah, that was about, yeah, two to 300 a month just to start with, we just kind of did a bit level. And we spent a bit more some months. And because the states has varying seasons, we could kind of, you know, we'd target that the season that was applicable to say, Florida versus, you know, la versus New York versus say the Midwest.

Jaryd Krause (10:37)

Was customer base us your products? Yeah. Okay. Got, yeah. Everything.

Scott (10:42)

Everything. All the suppliers. Were there. Yeah.


Jaryd Krause (10:44)

Yeah. Cool. All right. So yeah, let's move on from that one, unless you find this pretty, pretty important lessons in in that that you would share with somebody?

Scott (10:54)

Look, these are the main two things, like I said before, was the Google AdWords, finding someone if you can do it yourself, or you know how to do that, or you can find somebody to do it great. But also the, the supply Jarrett, the supply was a really kicker. It was just a really hard business. But drop shipping as a whole was is fine. It just wasn't me.

Jaryd Krause (11:13)

Yeah, it can be done. It's not me either. You've probably I think a lot of people will have my drop, drop shipping stories. But it's this there's so many hats to wear and ecommerce business. And I don't, I don't I don't do it myself. Like I don't, I'm not looking to buy more e-commerce businesses, because I'd rather have some more simple business to run. Cool. So let's talk about your public service announcement. What Why did you? Why did you make this public service announcement in our in our bulb community? And what was it about?

Scott (11:45)

Yeah, look, two parts of it. About a company and a few friends on site, as I've kind of come in and answer questions that I kind of know a bit about. And or, sorry, a few friends on the on the, you know, the Bob community, I've made a few friends and kind of listening to them and how they were struggling to find a site. And then I saw a few posts every now and then talking about people starting their own sites, or that you know, finding done for you sites or whatever. And I was just, I was compelled to say, hey, look, here's where I'm at, here's what I've done.

And you kind of knew a little bit about that backstory with the site that I had, which is small dogs. And I was just like, right, I've just got to say something because this would be really unfair to sit on this information without saying this is only my point of view. This is what I'm doing. But doesn't mean that that's, it's the right or the wrong answer. So the, the public service announcement was just to help people kind of rethink about where they were going, because, you know, at any one time, and this happened to me, right? I went to motion invest. And I said, hey, look, I'm looking, I'm trying to find some trends. I'm trying to find a site and you know, I went down there, this is before I came to you, of course.

So this is, you know, I'm trying to do a bit of due diligence deep and not really knowing what to do. And then the guy was our best, like, sold off fudge. Alright, you go to the next one, you know, the story, Jared, it's nothing new, and you’ve already been down this track. And so I got, you know, one of the one of the salesmen who was from brand builders, which is also owned part of the motion of this group said, Oh, why don't you do you know, I want you to a site that you like, you know, it'd be easier. And, and so, you know, I unfortunately, took his unfortunate trip as advice, because, you know, frustration had set in. And also, it was a niche that I kind of knew a little bit about. And so I was thinking, oh, cool, you know, these ideas how to do it.

And so, yeah, look, it's been a really interesting experience, but I've really wanted people to know that, you know, trying to, I don't know, cut corners by cutting corners by either setting up your own. You know, like, I still haven't proven the concept, because, you know, you talk about a lot, this concept still got to be proven. It's only a what are we now, it's the end of July. So it's still only a really early site, it's still learning, you know, six, seven months old. And we launched just into January, you know, we've put probably close to 70 80,000 words on there, of content.

And that's, at its own expense. So I guess I wanted people to know that, you know, technically, I've spent around about 72007200 American, which is, you know, which is the cost of the sites, plus the cost of content, buying content and for lots of content, you know, and so with, you know, with that, Jared, technically, if you had to say even a 35 multiplier, I should be sitting on 200 bucks a month, 100 bucks a month, you know, that's, that's revenue, not profit, but I should be sitting you know, somewhere around that.

Jaryd Krause (15:00)

So we still we still need to give it a bit of time. Totally, totally Well, totally. And we'll probably have to have this conversation in another six months’ time and see how it's going. But the fact is that it's very, it's like people have this ideology of that. I want to buy an online asset and earn income online. So I can replace my income of my current job. And they have this idea of wanting to do it as quickly as possible. Usually, they hear a case study from our like, you know, our community members that have bought a site within three to six months of joining. And yeah, that can be realistic.

But everybody's got a different, different situation. And more often the case it takes so much longer, like you're going to replace your income. Like, why would you only give yourself three to six months? Why would you only give yourself under a year, under two years to achieve that goal, like, it's not just in most of this is where it's stuff that most people is they hear a case study, or they see something that somebody's made a million bucks in one year, and they go, Alright, I'm going to set my goal at that, and they don't achieve it, then they run off and try and chase the next thing, because they think that that model, or that caught that route of earning an income online doesn't work for them, when the fact is, any, any of the routes, like buying a business can wrap can work for anyone, as long as you stay the course.

And I think there's so many people that leave, it's unfortunate people will leave this space and go, it's too hard to find a site, they're not patient, they don't know how to do due diligence, and they'll leave this space and then go and try and start these sites like you have. And then so basically, similar steroid use, try to try and find one don't know how to do it can't find a decent one that they can't execute on quickly enough, because they're not trained and skilled in due diligence. And then they go to the route of like, I'm going to start something realized 90% of all startups fail. And there's so many people that have come to the boat community that have done this exact path, and then come in and go on, okay, I need to give myself a big chunk of time.

Because this is the big goal, like it's a life changing goal once you achieve it. And they understand it can take two to two years or more to do four years or more, I would say I would if it took me four years to replace my current income. Let me have it. I do it right. It's totally worth that time. But why do people? Why do people have this short sighted mindset of I'm going to do this in like, under a year? Well, under two years, even most people will be like, I want to buy a business within three to six months.

And like you, do you understand what it takes to buy a business? Do you understand that? How much of fate this is? And it's not like, we'll come back to another point about Oh, cool. Compare this to stocks and crypto and investing amounts and stuff like that. But like you said, you’ve spent around 10,000, Aussie dollars, and you're still crossing your fingers.

Scott (18:00)

Totally crossing, that's exactly what it is. That's exactly what it is. And so, you know, I've still got to keep pumping the car full of gas. That's the thing, you know, it's still aka content, it's done into more content. And, you know, if you thought about buying a business, like, I don't know, getting married, like you were single and went, you know, what, in three to six months, I want to be married. You know, you that's what I'm saying? That's, that's we're in because you got to remember that, you know, if you're looking to replace your cash flow, all the wealthy people, people that would they didn't just try and replace their cash flow, right?

They take a path and they go right, I will replace part of my cash flow. And with that, I'll do some more and more and more and more, that's how you become wealthy, not just rich. So, you know, to just say, Well, I'm going to replace it's an investment. This is what you this is what people forget, it's an investment because I always said look, sure, and replace part of my my cash flow at some point. But right now, you know, even if I bought one, you know, that was say, earning, I don't know, at 25k, US earning five or 600 bucks a month. You know, it's going to take you a while. You've got to think about that. And if you think about four years, holy hate to replace your income, and four years that is friggin nothing.

Jaryd Krause (19:21)

It’s an amazing feat like to replace your income in four years, five years even. It's life changing. I think about it like if people are going to go to college or university, what do you get after you go away and do that like to go through four years of education? What do you come out with? And is it life changing? You come out with a ticket that can help you and or aid and assist you to get a better gob. But if you go away and educate yourself in a year, how to buy a business and then spend the next year or two after that, buying a couple and working with them.

And then four years, five years later, you've got this whole education. And you've actually it's mostly action based, not theory based, which is why I believe that you achieve so much more because in in college and stuff like that, it's all just theory, like mostly theory, you have some practice stuff, of course, but there's so much more action in the doing of buying a business. And, yeah, after a four year five year education, you come out and like your life can be completely different. Like you don't, you may not have to work for the rest of your life. Whereas when you finish college, you do have to work for the rest of your life.

Scott (20:41)

And most people do that, because they're going to pay off a loan, right? They've got a loan, well.

Jaryd Krause (20:44)

That’s correct. And the cost the expense of college is, I don't know how much cut I've never been to college. Like, it can be what 20 to 60, maybe even 100k? I don't know, like, it's imagine if you took just like, let's play the middle ground, right? Let's measure it, if it was 50 50k for a four year education, Maja if use went, right, cool. I'm going to take 50k and two or three years, and I'm going to buy a business with it, imagine how much better off you would be, you wouldn't have that either. You would have a business for probably more than 50 grand by the time you finish your four years, because you're going to build it as well. Like it, it’s how are you investing your time and money? I think that's something we'll come back to as well.

What do you what do you tell people, because you said there's a bunch of people that are in the book community, and it's so good, everybody's like, connecting and networking and chatting with you and stuff about this stuff. And, you know, everybody's talking with everybody else as well, which is really cool. The networking and the support around the community is phenomenal. And what do you guys, you know, what are these people coming to you and chatting with you about what and what then what sort of advice you you're giving to them.

Scott (21:52)

Start with the experience first tell them you know how much I've spent, where I'm at right now. And there's still a lot of the runway to go, okay, and I still got to put like, looks at before so we're put some more money in. So and then, you know, this is still it's still pretty rough. So it's not it's, it's a startup, it's zactly a startup it's, it's not poetry, it's that. So they've come to me and they've gone, hey, I've got a you know, I've got some skills in SEO, or I've been headed up by someone who said, they can set up a site for me, and then you know, in a couple of months’ time, like, it's just like, yep, that's fine. It's really cool that you've got those skills or whatever.

But what you're trying to do is you're trying to circumvent the whole Bob community, right? You're trying to circumvent that by saying, well, actually, if I set it off, I can get rid of the due diligence part. Or I can get rid of searching for a site, or I can get rid of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, and I'm just gone. Look, just because you can't find one doesn't mean you want imaging if you're trying to find a girlfriend or boyfriend, and you say I can't find one in a month that said, I'm off the market, I'm going to make my own wife. You know, it's, it's that it's that it's, I don't mean to say it's crazy, but I'm just trying to say this, this is hundreds of 1000s of sites for sale, you just got to keep tracking, you got to keep looking, got to keep finding that sort of to say, and I say you know, know how much you want to spend?

And then what parts in that middle do you need to do? Okay, so if you've got the due diligence course, you know how to do it. You know, what, what's the part that scares you? That you need to do? Is it talking to the seller? Is it? Is it negotiating? Is it what it you know, what, what books do you think? Is it post? Is it post buying? Once you bought it, you're going shit? I'm not sure I know how to run this, and how would I grow it? Great.

Well, you know, jump back in the community, but you're still going to have those problems, but you're going to have them and a larger extent, because you right back at the beginning, do not pass go do not collect on her dollars, because you're still trying to do something to get forward again, you know, so I just try and point into that just given them info.

Jaryd Krause (23:53)

Yeah, it's really cool to explain that, in that sense, like, the way I see it is people will come in and this is why I mentioned people have a goal of like, I want to buy business in three to six months, and they can't, they find it's, it's harder than they expect, right? They have like, oh, just go and buy a business off the rack, you know, off the shelf. Yeah, there's a lot of them. But a lot of a lot of the good ones get sold really quick, which is why you need to be skilled and trained in due diligence to execute properly. And then also people will just take it and go, oh, this is too hard, then they'll run off and chase the other shiny object syndrome and get burned.

And don't that's why I'm trying to tell people like and this podcast episode I guess we're going to disqualify a lot of people and I'm glad because I don't want to I don't want them to waste their time and their money joining Bob and rich and then working out that like this isn't the route for them. And I'd also don't want to waste their time and money mostly a lot of time years and years in the startup realm when they could be like well, maybe I will just spend a year or two in Bob and, and put that money towards buying something established and VP Shouldn't with it. So you've got these different routes. And they're not the only two routes to make an income online.

But I so glad you mentioned that because literally what's happening is people come to this route if I want to buy a business realize it's too hard, and then they go to work, go towards something even harder, realize that that's too hard. And then they come back. And they're like, I really stuffed up and I spent a lot of time and money, I should just stay the course. Which is a total shame, right? And that's what you're trying to help. And I've just, I'm grateful to you, because people are, you know, on the precipice of going away and, you know, even want to stay in Bob and do it. So, like, they're on the precipice of taking that route of chasing this shiny object syndrome. And, and it really, really stuffing them up.

So you're so yeah, I'm grateful towards what you're doing, and chatting with people. And I'm sure that they are as well, because you're saving them a lot of time and money. And the point of that come back to the startup, right? Yeah, there's a lot of people out there that can say you could start one from scratch, and play on the part where it's really hard to buy a business. Why don't you just start one in a niche that you like, right, they tick all the boxes of the things like can't find a niche that I like, I can't find something that's well, they just tell you what you want to hear, sell, you start a site, and then you forget that 90% of startups fail.

So I've spoken to a lot of great people like Caleb, in the in the niche content site space that start businesses start content websites, Carl Broadbent and also forget his name from WPS, Eagle, WP Eagle. And, and even people that own content agencies that do start science. I know, as a matter of fact, that the, the big portion of the them that they do start fail, like a big portion. And even these agency owners are open to sharing that they don't share that publicly.

But it's the reality, it's like the numbers, it's a numbers game, it's just like, when you're doing sales, you know, you can get x amount of leads in, there's only going to be a certain amount that do convert. And it's the same with status sites. So I think it's not the best service to be selling that sort of stuff. Make sure if you don't have confidence that you can achieve a result for people, and it's just something for people to consider. So yeah, thanks for your share in the public service announcement. Would you have anything to add to that? Or any other questions for me around this?

Scott (27:22)

Yeah, look, I do actually, the one part of the I think I've always believed in and I kind of forget about it is kind of that law of attraction, right? Which is the universe and, and how you get things and how they come to you? Well, when you're deciding whether you want to buy a business, or you want to do a start a site, you've literally got your feet and in both camps, so you need to take your feet out of one of the camps and decide which one you want to do. And I would say take it out of the state your own site and put it firmly all in on buying a site.

That's what we're here for. And you know that that's going to be it's going to pay off a lot quicker then then starting your own site. So I think, you know, like I said, I put in the you know, keep the faith, because that's literally what it is. It's about keeping the faith that you know what's going to happen. And each one that you miss out on will be closer to the one that you want that you get. There's just no doubt about it.

Jaryd Krause (28:21)

yeah, yeah, for sure. And so what's your take on people that want to dip their toe in to this space of buying a site? Or like, what's yours your take on that?

Scott (28:32)

Yeah, look, I think the takers, that's fantastic. You know, it's like, like I said before, it's another form of investment, whether it's, you know, at some point, it's got to be cash flow, positive, or whatever that is. So, you know, for me, I think you've got to look at your reasons for getting into these types of things, you know, because everything's going to be smart, let's be honest, whether it's time money, both or other things that you're trying to learn.

So if you're trying to get into it for, you know, changing a life for learning something, you missed the real estate market. So, you know, this could be an easier way to get in with money, exactly. As an example, then that's the title different, that's totally different realm as well. But I think in this realm, you know, you've got, you know, we're in one of the best times, you know, technology times, and we've got a ability to make money.

It's, it's whatever that that time looks like. So if you're going to dip your toes in, don't just dip your toes in, put your whole body in, you know, that's, that's how you can make this work. I think to do that, you know, oh, sorry, you're going to do that.

Jaryd Krause (29:40)

Yeah. I think it's just really good that you said don't just dip your toe in. And I want to bring this up for a topical discussion because this is something that people are asking in the blog community a lot and I think it'd be helpful for people publicly to know is like, should I buy a site for, you know, 10k and dip my toe in or five Okay, and dip my toe in, or should I, you know, spend a bit more of my money and buy something closer to the 100k range.

And I think you've got to look at it from the point of view is like, are you going to, if you do just spend a little bit more cash like 10k ash, and I appreciate that some people are not at that point of having 10k. And I totally understand everybody's in a different light position. And, you know, living in different areas in the world and stuff like that. So I totally appreciate everybody's in a different, different position financially, some people have just been born into better position. So this may not be relevant to everybody. But if you've if you do have, you know, maybe 607080 to 100k.

And some people are saying, well, maybe I just buy something smaller on the 10k price range, I say, Yeah, okay, you can do that. But to buy a site for 10k is very different to buying a site for 100k. I would say before you think about just dipping your toe in ask yourself, How long do you want to spend replacing your income? Is this a journey that you're going to stay on until you replace your income for four or five years? If so, then why, like spending 10 10k, when you've got a bit more money, why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you spend it on a, you know, on the little bit bigger scale, not obviously, you got to play within your comfort zone and not spend all of your money.

So you're, you know, you can't afford rent if something happens and stuff like that, depending on what your financial position is. But I'll give you an example here. The reason I say this is because some people want to buy a 10k site or under and learn it, and learn how to run and manage it, when they're in reality, to learn and run and manage a 10k site isn't the same to own and run and grow 100k site is very, very different. And it's the same with like a lot of brokers out there as like, before you go away if they don't have enough money to buy a business, or at the level that these brokers are selling their businesses that like 100k. Plus, what they're telling people is that you should go away and start your own little site, and just learn WordPress and learn how to use it.

When the reality is like you can pick up WordPress like this. And the best way I'll explain the best way to learn businesses to be in business. Yeah, I'm a bit biased because I teach people to buy businesses. But I also know that in reality is what you're learning through the startup phase is skills and time that can be wasted. And that you're not going to use when you're trying to take something from 50k to 100k. Because you're not using the same skills, you're not doing the same work. It's to take a site from 50k to 100k is very different to take a site from zero money to 50k. It's very different strategy, and of your skills and different tactics you need to learn.

So people are misled that they need to learn from the from the ground to get up when the reality is like it's not, it's not the same once you're on level two to three. It's not the same as going from level zero to two. It's just not. And I think that that is the well is that the size of the business is really important. So somebody says, Should Jared, I've got 50k, should I buy a 20k site? Or should I buy a 40k site? Well, the fact is, and this is a very, very general statement, that a 20k site is more a 40k site is two times more established than a 20k. Site, it's very general statements, it's two times less risky, it earns twice as much money for half the amount of work.

And then the same goes for 100k, a 10k. Site to 100k site, a 10k. Site, sorry, 100k site earns. It's 10 times more established. It's 10 times less risky, earns 10 times more money for a 10th of the effort and work. And I don't think people have really thought about that or have had that explained to them. So what's your take on the starting from scratch? Because you don't have enough money? Do you think that's a worthwhile skill learning? And then what's your take on the different sides of the businesses and getting it in a different levels?

Scott (30:00)

Few times, and we've got a ability to make money. It's whatever that time looks like. So if you're going to dip your toes in, don't just dip your toes in, put your whole body in, you know, that's, that's how you can make this work. I think to do that, you know, oh, sorry, you can't do that.

Jaryd Krause (30:17)

Yeah, I think it's just really good that you said, don't just dip your toe in. And I want to bring this up for a topical discussion, because this is something that people are asking in the blog community a lot, and I think it'd be helpful for people publicly to know is like, should I buy a site for, you know, 10k, and dip my toe in, or 5k and dipping my toe in? Or should I, you know, spend a bit more of my money and buy something closer to the 100k range. And I think you've got to look at it from the point of view as like, are you going to, if you do just spend a little bit more cash like 10k ash, and I appreciate that some people are not, at that point of having 10k.

And I totally understand everybody's in a different light position. And, you know, living in different areas in the world and stuff like that. So I totally appreciate everybody's in a different, different position financially, some people have just been born into better position. So this may not be relevant to everybody. But if you've if you do have, you know, maybe 60 7080 to 100k. And some people are saying, well, maybe I just buy something smaller on the 10k price range, I say, Yeah, okay, you can do that. But to buy a site for 10k is very different to buying a site for 100k. I would say before you think about just dipping your toe in ask yourself, How long do you want to spend replacing your income? Is this a journey that you're going to stay on? Until you replace your income for four or five years?

If so, then why like spending 10 10k, when you've got a bit more money, why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you spend it on a, you know, on the little bit bigger scale, not obviously, you got to play within your comfort zone and not spend all of your money. So you're, you know, you can't afford rent if something happens and stuff like that, depending on what your financial position is. But I'll give you an example here. The reason I say this is because some people want to buy a 10k site or under and learn it, and learn how to run and manage it, when they're in reality to learn and run and manage a 10k site isn't the same to own and run and grow 100k site is very, very different.

And it's the same with like a lot of brokers out there as like, before you go away if they don't have enough money to buy a business, or at the level that these brokers are selling their businesses that like 100k. Plus, what they're telling people is that you should go away and start your own little site, and just learn WordPress and learn how to use it. When the reality is like you can pick up WordPress like this. And the best way I'll explain the best way to learn businesses to be in business. Yeah, I'm a bit biased because I teach people to buy businesses. But I also know that in reality is what you're learning through the startup phase is skills and time that can be wasted.

And that you're not going to use when you're trying to take something from 50k to 100k. Because you're not using the same skills, you're not doing the same work. It's to take a site from 50k to 100k is very different to take a site from zero money to 50k.It's very different strategy, and a very different skills and different tactics you need to learn. So people are misled that they need to learn from the from the ground to get up when the reality is like it's not, it's not the same once you're on level two to three. It's not the same as going from level zero to two. It's just not. And I think that that is the well is that the size of the business is really important.

So somebody says, Should Jared, I've got 50k, should I buy a 20k site? Or should I buy a 40k site? Well, the fact is, and this is a very, very general statement, that a 20k site is more a 40k site is two times more established than a 20k. Site, it's very general statements, it's two times less risky. It earns twice as much money for half the amount of work. And then the same goes for 100k, a 10k. Site do 100k site, a 10k site. So 100k site earns it's 10 times more established.

It's 10 times less risky, earns 10 times more money for a 10th of the effort and work and I don't think people have really thought about that or have had that explained to them. So what's your take on the starting from scratch? Because you don't have enough money? Do you think that's a worthwhile skill learning? And then what's your take on the different sizes of the businesses and getting in at different levels?

Scott (34:53)

Yeah, look, if you'd asked me about, you know, 6389 months ago, I probably would have had a different answer. But I think it's not think I know that you asked me that question now looking at it and then being in the middle of going, this is what I've got, aka my site.

And then this is what I could have, I'd be, I'd be a fool to think that they were they that learning the experience to get there, I don't need to know how I know I want to I think I've spoken about this before, I'm not a mechanic, I don't need to know how my car works, I just need to know that it isn't a problem, you know, MS, what you're doing is you're going back to the car in bits and pieces, putting it together, and then trying to get it out on the road, I couldn't give a crap. So you know, I think we've got to say.

Jaryd Krause (35:40)

You don't need to, you don't need to know how to build a car just to drive it to get from A to B.

Scott (35:45)

And this is what we're trying to do to shortcut so that we can get. So get a car that we like, or get a car that makes money or what?

Jaryd Krause (35:54)

Amazing analogy, Scott, because you don't need like imagine going I need to get from A to B; I'm going to build a car. What crazy. I mean, it.

Scott (36:03)

Doesn’t Lewis Hamilton know how to, you know, to tune the engine of a, you know, a Formula One car? No, he doesn't. He just knows how to drive them. That's it. Yeah, you know, and that's what we need to know even if we don't know how to drive them. So the point being is that you know, if I'd looked back and gone, so what I think Sorry, I'm what I'm going to do is I'm going to go back, but I'm going to go forward by saying people are stuck in this account of what 20 Or to 18 to 20 or 30k.

And then, so if that's not working, right, because this is a very hot market of stock out there as the stock is going really quickly. So then you've got to look at your you got to look at the amount that you've got and say, why would I want to go backwards? Why would I want to buy a site for five or 10k There's just too much work it masovia started site show you might earn, maybe, you know, put out 10 grand, you might earn, say 250 bucks.

Jaryd Krause (37:00)

It’s in the same category of buying something under that price range is what I say under 10 days still a starter?

Scott (7:06)

Yeah, and audio. Yeah. And there's so many people looking for those businesses, you've got so much competition out there, and that's fine. So then you've got to look at and say, Okay, what do I need to do? If I need to look at potential sites that are above the say, the 50k range? Do I have that cash? Okay, I don't have that cash. How can I skin that cat? So I don't want to be in that market of you know, zero to 2020? Plus, yep. 50k, or whatever.

I'm just giving us a as an example, like you said before? So the question that you asked is, you know, what are my thoughts? My thoughts are, you know, you've got to, you've got to look towards higher, as much as you can, you can afford it.That's okay. If you can't afford it, what could you do? So if you can afford 20, but you can't afford 40 for as an example, because, you know, there's lots of people trying to buy in the 20k range. What can you do? Is that a group buyers at Grant buying with a whole bunch of people? Is it trying to get, you know, parts of it vendor financed? Is it waiting for another couple of years and saving that money?

Yes. You know, Gary Vaynerchuk spoke about when he was running Wine Library, and he worked for his dad, you know, and he was just earning was it 50 or 60k a year living at home. But when he finished, you know, after, what, 13 years or something, something crazy, it was I think it was 20 to 33 or something. And then he said he went and took all that money, and bought into Facebook and Uber and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, it's so you got it a gratification.

Jaryd Krause (38:48)

Totally, and people Just want it now. Right? Like, I just yeah, I'm all about, not about like, this is the money mindset things people like how do I have more money, and sometimes people are like, you need to save more money? Well, I'm like, no, like, if you want to afford things, firkin make more money, and work out how you can make more money to get to that goal of buying a site that you at the size that you want to buy, maybe its tuck, work out how to get there.

Because you could go the route of spending all of your 10 and 20k on the starter thing, and years and years and years and be left with nothing in four years’ time or three years or two years, and then have to go off now I've got to earn more money to get to that 50k level and you've just wasted so much more time of your life, which is a shame to see.

Scott (39:29)

Totally. So yeah, so just answered your question. I think the biggest thing is finding out which part of the market you want to be in and then move yourself further say great what, what would it look like if I could afford a $50,000 site? And that's it mindsets that law of attraction going Hey, okay, well, what does it look like? Who can I partner up with or? Okay, well, this is going to take another year of saving great well guess what, in that meantime, sharpen the sword you know, which is do the due diligence find this, you know, find the heavy conversation shins with sellers.

You know, like I said, I got into, I'm doing due diligence on a couple of sites yesterday on one site yesterday that one of the members sent me through and said, Scott, I think this could be a good site for you. I just went straight to the seller and said, Right, let's have the conversation, you know how much you're looking for. But a lot of people, you know, they need to go back to I, I'm straight up. So I like to just go to the seller and go, right, you told me about this. Here's your traffic and understand that. Here's your revenue. Yep, that's cool. But I can see, I can see some issues here. Hey, by the way, do you write the content? I do? Right? Well, I'm not going to buy that, you know. And that's what it came down to.

It was because that, basically, that the whole revenue, sorry, the whole net profit was going to be taken up on content running. And this is something that you learn, right? But I'm better to learn that now than I am to learn there when I bought a 50k site, two years down the track, and I've got that and I've gone Oh, shit. Oh, okay. Well, that's half of it. Got you. That's half the revenue. That's half the profit gone, you know?

Jaryd Krause (41:00)

Yeah. Yeah. So all these little things that you that, it seems like a little thing, but it's not. So it's a big thing. And you just pick it up along your journey. Like if you know, if you're trained well, and how to do due diligence. Let me ask you thinking about it now. And you probably never thought about this. But in hindsight, when you were looking at sights on motion best before you even went down the Starter Site route?

Do you feel like the course and the Bob course and the community has, like, what do you feel it's done for you? And just I know that you're straight up, so you tell me if it if it didn't really help that much, but just yeah, be honest. Like, what do you and this is for everybody listening? What do you feel it has or hasn't done for you? Yeah. I think it started.

Scott (41:48)

Totally, totally. What it's done is it's kind of cemented in things that you perhaps know, but you subconsciously know? Well, things that you don't know. So it's probably done a lot more of I don't know that I don't know, which has been fantastic. But also what it's also done is it's kind of with people asking questions, and I see them and I go, Oh, shoot, I never thought about that. So there's kind of taking people coming at it from different points of view, whether it's cash flow, whether it's trying to find a specific task, or contractor or something.

So I think it's, it's all that information there. But it's also helping you to know that you've got, you know, you've got the course, as your kind of your Bible in the background going, Hey, refer to that, you know, if you need to, or, Hey, you know what, there's something not quite right here. I know that Jared, or somebody spoken about that before. I don't know what it looks like. But it rings a bell. And I think those little gut feelings and those bells that go off in your head are the ones that kind of save you the time, hopefully, you know, and you've got to listen to those.

So I think that's, you know, definitely that's what it's given to this deck is a huge sense of community. And Bob, which is fantastic. And there's a huge sense of people that want to help other people. So it's not just about the community, but it's helping in the community of saying, Hey, I like me, I just wanted to help people and say, Do not go down the track of setting up your own site or doing that done for you site a lot. I'm very, very adamant on that. Okay.

And that's why I said to people, if you want to have a chat about it, ping me, you know, because we'll have a chat, and I'll just give it to you straight. That's what I've, if you look, if you're really good at that stuff, setting up a site. Fantastic. But it comes with a huge caveat, if you're.

Jaryd Krause (43:34)

Really good at setting up the site already know.

Scott (43:42)

That, like, they're not on your they're not in your community, not nine times out of 10 Yeah.

Jaryd Krause (43:59)

And they were already gone and done it. Yeah. And they already know that a big portion of the ones that they start, again, a fail, like you're going to find the people that go are coming in to really give this a crack, they'll start like five, and like, right, the ones that are working, we'll keep monetize, a bit more optimized. And then the other ones out, some of that will just dish aside.

And then the other ones some that had a bit of traction they'll just like put it the sale on in a group or something somewhere and they won't make much money, they won't make their money back, or their time back. But they get that it's a numbers game in the startup realm. And I've like, I'm just really grateful to have you come on Scott, especially, you know, you talking about the car analogy. Like if you want to get from A to B, which is a you want to go from your current job to replacing your income.

There is a vehicle that you can buy, which is a car, which is a website, right? It could be an online business, you can buy that. But say you can't afford that car. Would you go away and start build your own car? Would you go away and learn how to build your own car just to be able to drive from A to B because you can't afford to buy one? Or would you wait until you've got enough money to buy the right vehicle that can get you there? That's an amazing analogy. So thanks for that.

Scott (45:02)

Yeah, yeah. And I probably actually look at it more. As pretty more a to see if it makes sense. So, so when you were looking to, you know, get out of whatever that looks like, you know, and that's one of the good reasons that you know, a lot of us are looking for content sites is that, you know, you could still, if you wanted to have a job, and still have a content site, you know, so don't think of it as I'm trying to get from A to B, I say, I want to get from A to C, and the B could be anything in the middle, that is going to take me a little bit longer to get there.

So what is your See look like? Who knows can be one site could be just one huge site could be whatever you want to make it into, you know, I think you've also got to think about it is, you know, it's nice to build your own house looks nice to have a brand new house that you build. But also, there's always issues that come up when you buy when you bought a house, right? Well, it's like the site, nine times out of 990 9.9% of the time, the issues have been taken care of when you've got them. So they're normally you know, it depends on your where you get to right.

Jaryd Krause (46:11)

Yeah, cool well, good, good lens and good frame to look at it through. So thanks so much for coming on and chatting, Scott. I think, guys, my pleasure. Yeah, it's been a great chat. I'm sure we'll have more guys. Thank you for listening. I'll do a shameless plug here. If you haven't gone away and checked out the community go to buying online business.com Check it out. There's Scott's in there. There's more awesome, great people that you can connect with and network and Scott, you've made a bunch of good mates in there. So it's really good to see you.