Many years ago I wrote a blog post that looked at the reality of how much money you actually make when you run your own business.
You can read the article here – Do You Want to Run Your Own Business? Read this First!
My premise back then was that most business owners don’t make a whole lot of money until they sell their business.
This situation is very similar to what an employee, who stays with the one company for many years, goes through. A business owner can make a salary level income year after year, and then one day, likely at retirement age, the business is sold and a nice lump sum of cash is returned, much like a superannuation or retirement settlement an employee receives at the end of a long career.
Obviously this situation isn’t ideal if you are an entrepreneur looking to create freedom in your life, both time and financial freedom. If you spend all day, possibly beyond normal working hours, in your business, and you’re taking home an income pretty much equivalent to a salary (plus you have many more responsibilities than an employee), you are not in a great situation.
Turning Cash Into Assets
If I look back over the last five years of my business life, there have been a handful of significant “spikes” in my income.
The spikes have occurred because of either of these events –
- I sell a web property
- I conduct a launch
If you go back to before I sold any websites and before I did any product launches of my own, I was in a good situation in terms of time freedom, but not ideal in terms of financial wealth.
I had web businesses that made cash flow that I didn’t have to work hard to generate, but the income was on par with the average starter salary for a university graduate. That’s not bad mind you, certainly enough spending money to have fun, but like a good entrepreneur I craved more.
At that point I didn’t have a car, I was either renting or living with my parents, and although my sites were not time-sucks, I had to look in on them at least once or twice a day.
The day I realized that an income producing website is a saleable asset, was a good day, and in a few short years after this my financial situation changed dramatically.
In the space of two years I sold several websites, bought some more, sold them for a profit and used the cash, along with what I was making from blogging, to buy a car and a home.
At exactly the same time as I was receiving the final payment for the sale of my proofreading business (my biggest one time cash injection up to that point, see here – How I Made Six Figures In One Day), I was conducting my first ever launch of the Blog Mastermind program. The end result of these two events was a huge spike in income.
I used the money I made to travel the world for eight months, returned home to Australia and within a few months had paid back my entire home loan.
I now owned my house, my car, had traveled the world and come back with more money than I had left with. I had both freedoms I was striving for – time and money.
It’s Not Easy To Get Rich
The tax year in Australia finishes at the end of June. Just a few short weeks ago as I write this article, once again some major changes happened in my life:
- I paid tax – BIG tax
- I purchased a second property
The tax year I just paid for was an interesting one because it covered a year where I did those major income producing things I talked about above, like selling websites, plus my business structure was very simple from a tax point of view (i.e. not good).
I wasn’t structured to get maximum tax deductions for the year, so I feared a large tax bill. Initially I wasn’t too alarmed because I had prepared for a specific amount and had kept the money aside to cover it.
Unfortunately it turned out that my tax bill ended up twice what I was expecting, plus I had a university loan that needed to be paid off because I had seriously jumped in income brackets. This led to a rather hefty tax bill, equivalent to what I would probably be earning now in a year if I went down the employee path.
It’s a good thing when your tax bill is as much as most people earn a year working a professional job, but it’s still a shock when you have to pay for it. What made things even more interesting was I had made an offer on a new apartment, which was due to settle around the same time as my tax needed to be paid.
The new property is an inner city party-pad as I like to call it. It’s located in my favorite area of my hometown, it has a huge balcony, a great kitchen, is very modern…and darn expensive!
Unfortunately my favorite suburb is also a favorite for a lot of other people, so there is a big demand, pushing prices high even for apartments. Nonetheless, this purchase was all about me. I want to live in my dream location, with a great lifestyle, and although it cost me, I’m extremely happy to be moving back to the inner city (I’ve been driving in nearly every day anyway!).
I certainly have no rights to complain, I’m doing very well financially, but buying a second property, getting a home loan (again) and paying tax, showed me how difficult it is to accumulate wealth rapidly, even when you are earning well above the average.
Is It Still True?
So, the question begs to be asked? Do I still believe that you really only make big money when you sell your business?
In many ways, I do. Most of the really big success stories I know of that result in a millionaire being born, came about because the person built a great business and then sold it.
Usually while the business is developing, the owner might be wealthy on paper because of the valuation of the enterprise, but in terms of real dollar wealth, they are not taking home anything more than a salary.
The salary might be large, but as I learned recently, after you take out tax, even if you are making $100,000+ a year (which could be almost half that after tax in terms of dollars in your pocket if you live in Australia), if you don’t have any potential leverage beyond that, you’re facing a slow and steady path to wealth.
Obviously there are exceptions to this situation and many millionaires are born simply because of the business model they use and the system they have set up, but it’s not common. If you want wealth quickly, building something and selling it, is the typical path to wealth.
Of course not everything is about speed. If you take to heart the message in a book like The Richest Man In Babylon, long term wealth can be created by simply saving 10% of your income and reinvesting it at a 10% or greater return. Compounding will take care of the rest.
What Should You Do If You Want To Be Rich
I’ll end this article with a few key take-away points based on my experiences from the previous years, to help you if you’re still not as rich as you want to be…
- Websites are assets, so even if you’re not making millions now, a website that turns over a few hundred thousand a year could make you a millionaire if you sell it.
- Selling one web asset is great, selling more than one is even better.
- Product launches that create income producing assets are like the best of both worlds: you make a lot of money and you still have the asset after.
- One product launch is good, more than one is even better.
- Make sure you see some form of leverage in the business model you go after.
- That leverage point should not be correlated to an increase in your direct labor input if you want time freedom.
- Investing business profits in real world assets, like property, is a good strategy, especially if your cash flow is consistent and increasing.
- Don’t keep working a job or running a business if you don’t see an endgame you like (it’s okay if it is a stepping stone or a support tool to something bigger).
One last point I feel important to mention: Don’t forget to think beyond the big pay day.
Often we get so caught up in meeting a financial goal, that once we get there, we realize that it’s having the drive and acting on your passion to meet the goal that is actually more satisfying than getting there.
It’s about the journey, so if you don’t have a destination, you can get quite depressed. Take that to heart, because you might think it is rosier on the other side, but usually it is not. The pursuit of one’s passion provides much more ongoing satisfaction than meeting a financial goal, although it’s certainly nice to be rich too.
Yaro
Creating Wealth
I think the name of the game is continuity. Building an internet business that is based around this model will always succeed because you have a residual stream of profits and you can almost predict how much money that you will be bringing in each and every month
Yaro! your new web design is awesome! I love it.
I work all day because I want to write for a living and I write 2 blogs now and work on my novels one at a time of course. I have learned to be patient even though I am old enough to be worried about time passing.
It would be nice to get rich. I figure writing one best seller would do it faster than blogging once it is out the door. I have one in the Story Cupboard just waiting for things ease up….
Stay calm,
Arlene
Great advise, the book you recommended is one of my favorite books. I read it about 3 times so far and just told my sister to read it last week.
Yaro,
What you say is so true, and yet so many in Internet marketing fail to realize the greatest truth: you are building a business. And as such, one needs to approach it as a business and not a “get rich quick scheme”.
When people ask me “Is it easy to make money online?” I always answer the same way: “Internet marketing is the hardest ‘easy money’ I’ve ever made. It does take work. It does require commitment. But if you continue and not lose hope, you can make a good living online.”
Great post!
-David
Thanks Yaro. I can’t see myself ever selling my blog, I’m too passionate about it!
I love that you paid your house off. I’m all about working towards a debt-free lifestyle, because that lends itself to more freedom!
Josh Nankivel
pmStudent.com
It’s good to hear you’ve done well and paid your taxes Yaro!
This post inspired me a great deal and reminded me to keep on enjoying the “chase”, but keep the end goal in mind while at it
Hey Yaro,
Buying and selling websites- how would you sell your blog if someone wanted to buy it? I know you have sold sites, but they are more impersonal- like they are selling products not your views, comments and personality, like a blog.
You sell products and add space but people come to read what you have to say.
Lets say you sell the blog for 500-600k (which would be highly unlikely I would imagine, as it is a very large cash cooooow, mooooo!) you would maybe have to stay as a writer, so the blog still has your touch- to keep your readers satisfied and the money flowing into the new owners. With out you, the blog is not Yaro’s Entrepreneurs Journey.
This is quite true AP, and while I’m not thinking of selling anytime soon, I don’t see myself blogging here for forever so I have considered the future.
The likely scenario is a gradual progression away from the focus on me by introducing more talented writers. If I sold the blog I’d expect to spend the next 12 months helping the new owners transition the site away to a brand totally dependent on me, to someone else or a group of writers.
It would obviously result in a loss of some people who just like my writing, but it would not kill the blog.
Take copyblogger for example. It’s no longer just Brian’s work, though he is still the loudest voice.
It would make the best sense to gradually transfer the reins, but to still do some posts in order to keep continuity and integrity. How much time do spend working on your blog per day, Yaro?
Yaro,
Nice article discussing various aspects of wealth. I used to work in investment banking, have worked with financial advisors at 3 different firms and have personally seen businesses make people phenomenally wealthy from both an entrepreneurial and corporate perspective. I’ve also seen some of the downside of wealth and success.
One key point I didn’t see highlighted enough.
Asset Rich people vs. Income Rich people.
I know many income rich people up to their eyeballs in debt because all they do is spend, spend, spend. They get very caught up in the glitz/glamor and then upgrade their spending. It takes $$$ to make money some of them justify….Times are good but rainy days happen. I know more than a few that ended up in BK cause they spent, spent, spent and then something broke that they didn’t expect when their market/industry surprisingly turned south on them.
I know some people who keep their spend rates low, save $$$ and are millionaires but you would never know that if you met them. They are humble, made pretty good money in their days but put their $$$ into income / return generating items vs. items that depreciated in value or were just “pissed away.”
I know that I have partied away too many $$$ over the years. If only I had some of that cash back 🙂 Fortunately for me I kept my burn ratio fairly low, had cash in the bank & ZERO debt.
Debt is what kills companies. Debt is what kills relationships (many end due to financial problems) & causes personal bankruptcies. When people have $$$ in the bank and zero debt FREEDOM occurs. When cash burn rates are low, opportunities can appear limitless because the financial shackles/constraints have been removed and allow people to pursue opportunities only as large as their imagination can think of.
Keep up the great work
Dan
@BetterBizIdeas
That’s a great point you raised! I observed quite a number of income-rich people like sports celebrities became debt-ridden after they retire, like a former world tennis champion who had to auction his trophies.
What we should go for is asset-rich by building an internet business, and this takes a different mindset from the typical blogger, a self-employed who is just holding on to another job.
I’d be happy making the average workers’ income off my blog ($50-$100 per day). I’m passionate about it, but it makes only a few cents a day, and unfortunately websites get expensive to maintain and keep online. You make a good point when you say that websites are an asset though. The way I see it is that the more work you put into it, the more it’s worth. Even if it doesn’t make you any money at first, it’s never a waste of money to build a good website. Thank you for another inspirational post.
All Very true but selling ads is sometimes selling your self short – you are better off sell product TOO – if the ads are bringing you penny the products could be bringing you dollars – Why do you thing all those people are buying the ads???
Hey Yaro,
This seriously has to be the best blog post you’ve done in a while. A fantastic message from someone who has been there. You’re a great inspiration.
I’m taking a combination of the slow and steady way to wealth myself (property) and am on my way there, but in the mean time looking to create a business I can really be passionate about. It’s fantastic to receive advice like this. Great points about leveraging your websites as what they are.. assets.
Thanks Yaro for another great post! You are right on that it’s all about the journey – the learnings are priceless. It’s about pursuing your passion rather than making huge money. Yes it’s good to be rich but your riches will last longer if you become rich because your pursued your passion.
I make less than I did when I worked for someone else. However, I LOVE what I do, and I love the flexibility that I have working for myself. I am following my passion, it makes the hours worthwhile.
The Richest Man in Babylon is a great book, unfortunately a lot of people don’t like the fact it takes time to build wealth. We live in an instant society, people want instant wealth, instant businesses.
This article justifies the name of your blog more than anyother article you have ever published.
“It’s about the journey, so if you don’t have a destination, you can get quite depressed. ”
Yes. It’s Entrepreneur’s Journey.
SO NEVER SELL YOUR BLOG YARO!!
I think working for yourself you are willing to do a lot more for far less financial reward, you wouldn’t get many people doing the same if they worked for someone else.
Hi Yaro, this is a great post. I love to read motivational posts each morning just to start my day. I am already at the stage where I can pull a above average monthly income from my sites. Anyway, one point I don’t really understand. If you have to pay so uh taxes in Australia, why don’t you move your biz to Canada (you said you are half Canadian in another post) . It is not like you need a establishment in Australia to drive your business. A single step like this saves you at least around 50% of the taxes you pay now … but you better consult with somebody who is deeper into this subject.
That’s something I haven’t considered CittyCaty. I wonder what the tax rate is in Canada?
I might have to look into that!
Having just come back to Canada from vacation in Australia, I would expect the Canadian taxes to be much lower than in Australia. Australia pays very high welfare rates and a high minimum wage. Things like that are likely balanced out by high taxes. Of course you can’t choose your home based on taxes alone. Sometimes you have to pay more to live where you want.
Being Internet based, you could probably have a corporation in the Caymans or something like that, as well.
Hey Yaro,
I’m a brissy boy as well that makes well over a full time living off my online ventures. and I have also been doing a lot of research into tax effective ways of operating an online business.
I don’t know if you have already spoken with an accountant about the issue, but with earnings from website sales if your websites is classed as an asset, you should be able to claim a 50% tax break if you have held the asset for over a year, in addition to this you can claim a further 50% reduction of the tax payable if the asset is deemed to be an “active asset” in your business, but this is where present Australian tax law gets a little bit grey.
I will probably be looking to get a private ruling from the ATO on the tax implications of some up coming website sales in the next few weeks. I’ll keep you posted if you are interested.
Also from the extensive research I have done into more tax effective places to live when it comes to Australians managing an online businesses, for me Singapore has been the clear winner when all things (including non-financial) are considered.
Best of luck getting a “fair go” when it comes to minimisiing your tax payments!
Have a good one.
Another meaningful article Yaro. I think you need to do tax planning to save some bucks.
I like websites because they are like virtual real properties which you can generate monthly revenue from them or sell them right away and get some great amount of penny.
Aside from business destination we really need business direction.
Vic.
As usual, a post of great interest. One needs to remember that even if one does not want to sell a business, one will have to keep re-inventing the same business, if one has to continue in business. Businesses are also subject to the law of diminishing returns, and this is the only strategy that will work.
I think the most important point in starting an internet business is to begin with a possible exit strategy in mind. Perhaps this will change over time, and that is okay, but you still have to start with some long-term goal, so that you have the mindset of building a business. This post is a great reminder of that. Very nice!
Great article, Yaro! You inspired me with this post. I’m looking forward to pay as much in taxes as what an employee gets in income, just give me another few more years 🙂
I’d like to mention that many bloggers are treating blogging as a job and not as a business. The result is when they become a full-time blogger, (though they have flexible schedules unlike a typical employee) they become tied to just another job. A real business is one that grows without the person, and that’s really how a blog business can get us rich.
Many new bloggers also treat it as a job that they are not getting paid for and become discouraged easily. But like all businesses, a blog takes time to become a profitable asset. If we would change their mindsets and treat it as homework and as a learning opportunity to improve our blogging and marketing skills, we would be more patient and focus on building our blog, that is, our business asset. Eventually, we will get paid for what we do, with the option of selling our blog or monetizing it, and become rich.
I’m on the fence about the concept of selling my own websites. If you spend a ton of time and effort on something, it is difficult to give up that asset. When it is producing consistent income, that becomes even tougher. Personally I’d rather keep working on improving that income flow instead of selling and having to start from scratch again. The price would really have to make it worthwhile.
Yaro,
This was a very satisfying post to read. Top blogger or internet marketers usually talk about how much they make painting very glamorous picture for their readers.
-G
Selling website? Why not? If you are getting the right price for it. Your post gave me some great ideas on how to secure my financial future. Thanks a lot.
Yaro, you wanted to know how much tax we pay in Canada. Well, I will try to give you an idea. I work full time and have online business as well.
Based on my day job income, I come under high income bracket. Your tax is dependent what income bracket you some come under. The more your earn, the more you pay. On average, Someone earning 40k and over pays 25%+ of their salary in taxes. Based on my salary, I pay approximately 17k in taxes every year.
I also have a registered business in Ontario (cooperation). AS per accountant, a company who is earning less 400k a year I believe pays something like 8% in taxes. This doesn’t not induce the 5% GST tax every business has to pay in Ontario. I will be filling my business taxes next month for the first time and I will out how much of my hard earned money I will have to give up.
-G
Yaro & everyone who has posted a comment,
WOW! Certainly a very thought provoking article today with some great comments.
As someone who is just starting out on my journey it is great to be able to read about somebody’s ‘real’ experiences. Life is a journey and you just need to know where you want to end up. Sometimes we take the wrong path or we follow a path that takes us slightly off the track but it’s worth remembering that lessons will have been learned and hopefully some skills too.
It’s great to be able to share the journey with others.
Keep up the great work.
Hi Yaro,
Forgive my asking, but why do you base your businesses in Australia?
My wife takes care of my taxes and corporate structures, and is very good at it, so I haven’t had to deal with this yet, but when the time comes that our online income outgrows her tax skills, I will likely move the business to a low-tax country.
I will still pay personal taxes in my country of origin (as it should be), but as an almost entirely Internet based business with members around the world, I don’t feel much need to have my business entity tied to any particular country.
Moving your business may or may not work, depending on where you live.
Here in California, the state takes great pains to ensure that if you actually live in California and control a business elsewhere, you might as well be a California business. The wonders of unitary taxation! This situation has crippled me from doing business internationally. My options are leave California, or ultimately, leave the US.
Total tax rate for last year with directly paid taxes plus all the implicit or hidden taxes (gasoline, etc) was well over 50%. Long term, that’s not supportable for the state. It was too much work for how much they took away from me. This year, I’m living on savings and have no income while I’m building my business. So, no taxes from me for California. Or the feds.
I live in CA too. Haven’t calculated all of my hidden taxes, but 50% seems like a bit much. Are you a c corp?
That option is very rapidly running out as an option.
Just a warning Yaro, often selling an income producing asset is actually a bad idea. What do you do with all the money from the sale? Put it in the bank? Invest it? Any option involves risk and the reality that all the money could end up down the drain.
If I had an asset that was consistently generating $100k a year, I probably wouldn’t sell it, even if I was offered $1m cash. There’s risk in keeping the business of course, but depending on the economic climate, that risk may be the better option.
It’s like playing Monopoly Yaro, you don’t sell your income generating assets, otherwise you’ll lose the game.
That’s a good point worth highlighting Will. There are no sure things, but in my experience turning cash into property has worked well, but that’s probably got more to do with my mother, who invested pretty much everything she earned in disposable income back into property so she would have something to retire on.
Of course you can get rich with your business. You will need lots and lots of dedication, hard work and patience. Rome was not built in one day. The time you spend at your job 40 hours/week can give you exponential growth in income if you spend it on your business. Important thing to remember is to spend time on the business and not in the business.
If you do plan to sell the blog I think its a great idea to slowly introduce new writers so that your blog will have the best chance to survive without you.
Hi
I want to tell you that Rich Dad Poor Dad is a great book. If your not a reader then get the audio. Personnel development is very important. If you are teachable and willing then you can do it.
I’d say that it depends on what you consider rich.It’s not really what you earn, instead it’s what you’re worth most likely assets which are most convertible to cash.
I think the only way to make it big is to work hard and also smart. Love your website design as well Yaro
If I had the choice I would keep my business. All that hard work…although i might be rich from selling my business….but again… all that hard work
I often find that yes the Journey is more satisfying than the end result. On another note… I think it is true Yaro, that the big pay off for alot of the rich people have come from the day they sold their business, I mean look at the guys that sold youtube as a great example!
Till then,
Jean
It’s always good to hear success stories such as yours. It often leaves the reader wondering, how has he done that? Your tips explain rather clearly how you’ve built your wealth and how you are making to earn more than 100,000 Dollars per year. It however, needs devotion and passion, optimism and good strategy to help and online business develop into a successful one so that it can be sold for millions afterwards…
Sow a seed and watch it grow, and you have to keep watering the seed to make it grow. Then you can sit back and watch at how beautiful it has become.
Can Your Business Make You Rich? This is the question and the American dream we are all working toward. But many try and many fail. Why? Do they not persist or follow through? Or become overwhelmed with life and obstacles?
Why is one person’s achievement another person’s endgame?
I enjoyed the post. thank you
p.s. jean I agree: Journey is more satisfying than the end result in many cases!
Reminds me of a mentor I had once who said that if you’re just making a salary-level income from your business, you don’t HAVE a business. You have a JOB.
Yaro,
Very interesting info here- I truly believe that you are on to something. Put me in the mind of Kiyosaki who professes that you have to be self employed in order to be rich- Take that to the bank!
Great post, and congrats on having a big tax bill lol… leverage is important, i like how you structured this post, now I just wish I was making enough to buy a second property 🙂
Hi Yaro,
What I learned from Robert Kiyosaki of RichDad PoorDad is that he made his money in business and invested it into real estate. It sounds like a simple plan. I haven’t done it myself because I’m still working on trying to create a profitable business, but if you want to learn more, I highly recommend reading Robert’s books because it is what reignited my interest to start my own company and think about my future to make a better life for myself. I’ve read eight of his books and want to read everything that he has wrote. I don’t want to be poor when I get older. I want to be rich and be a millionaire. I plan on reading The Richest Man in Babylon because it has been mentioned before by other people that I have read from. I have enjoyed your posts lately more than usual because you have come up with some really juicy ones. Keep up with the great posts and providing valuable information.
Cheers,
Rick
Liked how you ended the article
“It’s about the journey, so if you don’t have a destination, you can get quite depressed.”
True words, if you want something you must know where you are, and where you want to be, this way you will be able to make steps, setting the progress rate, knowing how much have you progressed and when you will be where you aim to be.
Another A+ article.
It’s all about understanding the difference between cash flow and income. I have a full time job, so I don’t really care about the cash flow at the moment. Just the increase in value of my assets.
Yaro, you’re a true inspiration!
Tax is the thing that really irks me. The government is entitled to the percentage, for sure, but sometimes one feels like all your hard work is actually just being whittled away by ridiculous charges. A good tax consultant is definitely worth the expense, but do make sure that you got a bona-fide expert, and not some fly-by-night that attracts you with a cheap rate and eventually leaves you in even deeper trouble!
I hate taxes, but they are a necessary evil I guess. My biggest peeve over taxes is the waste, for example our govt here is spending 18 million USD to develop a website with information about the economic recovery programs that are going on.. You khow what kind of website I could develop with 18 million dollars?? Wait, I wouldn’t.. I’d just take the money, move to Fiji and live out the rest of my life there lol
Hmm but as far as I see.. Office job won’t make you rich… Business will!
Yaro,
Yes, it’s a good post, and all we are here because we are trying to make money online using our blogs, sites, email lists and so on. Some of us have products/ physical, ebooks, etc/ some of us don’t, but the whole point of everything here is to find a better way or learn how to SELL , right?.SELL anything that can make you a couple of bucks, or even help you quit your day time job. But if we are trying to SELL something, there’s got to be someone out there, who will actually BUY this thing. And my concerns now are, that there are not THAT many people willing to BUY informational products.
Why? Because nawadays there is extremly high level of FREE information on that particular topic. IM, Blogs, Affiliates, Products, Information , etc. Two, three years ago the demand was HUGE, and just a few people were able to offer some useful info, but today..well, I doubt there are many people with a credit card in their hand ready to spend a couple of hundreds dollars on something they think it’s going to help them make more money online.
You can call me a newbie or unexperienced “wanna be” marketer, but that is what I am thinking, and BTW I am talking as an average guy willing to learn more about IM, not as a guy trying to sell other’s products.
All the best and good luck to everyone.
Im a newbie and I hope to get to the point where I have to pay a ton of tax,it means the plan is working!
baby
It can make you rich…or poor. Wanna start your own business? Get financial backing. Have enough money to live on for at least 1 year. Do your homework–have a solid business and marketing plan. Work 60-80 hours per week. Good luck.
I’ve always had the problem that I’m not really that concerned with getting rich from business, I set out to make a comfortable income and to primarily enjoy what I’m doing.. whether that’s good or bad, I’m not certain… But it’s how I’ve always done it
You make a lot of sense.
I’ve worked in both physical and web based businesses. I find that the majority of my earnings are from the physical businesses. I sold one last year for a fair amount of cash but before that I was making a decent living from the salary, although working a lot more hours than the average employee.
With my web based business it’s a lot more time consuming, creating content and marketing the products but because of competition and it becoming increasingly difficult to get good rankings it struggles to make real world profits.
@Jesse right, maybe they are developing google.gov to search for the information’s you need, cuz when you go to a information center at most of the institutions you realize that searching on google is less annoying and more productive 🙂
Yaro,
Interesting read and the first article I have read on your blog, I have recently started a business. I have been thinking about how to scale it, how to market it, raise capital and a myriad of other things. But I haven’t thought of an exit strategy, I just knew that the industry need a new take on things.
As I am working from home and funding the site myself one of the first things I did was us a financial comparison site like http://mozo.com.au/credit-cards to figure out which card to use to bank roll the business. I then went about doing research on where there were gaps in the industry (that’s how I found your blog).
I am now working on rolling out some products that I think will really help SMB in Australia. Now that I have read this great post it has given me an boost to think about the end game.
Great blog mate, keep up the work I will definitely be reading more in the coming months.
Great article. I like how you mention selling a business. I think if it isn’t working for you, to sell it. There is bound to be someone that can make something of it. Stay positive. Thanks Yaro
“Websites are assets, so even if you’re not making millions now, a website that turns over a few hundred thousand a year could make you a millionaire if you sell it.”
Agreed, but I find it very interesting that you use such high figures to make your point. How many of this blog’s readers are anywhere close to making “a few hundred thousand a year”? Heck, how many are wishing they were making 1/10 that much (i.e., 20k + per year on their blogs)?
It’s taken me along time to figure it out but It really is about creating multiple income streams, this is the main reason why I’ve started my new blog
http://CraigDawber.com not only does it give me another source of income, it’s a median to which I can teach my subscribers how they can make money online.
You have to promote other people products as an affiliate, have your own products, build relationships with your list and other marketers and most importantly build a good responsive list, once you crack this, I’ve found everything else just starts to fall into place.
Great post buddy
Craig
For a successful comment you require a lot of patience and commitment. Your post inspired me a lot
Candy.com sold for 3 million and that’s just one example. Websites can be sold for a lot of money. However, I’d rather keep a good domain name and use it to make money. Vaulable domains don’t seem to come everyday so I’d like to keep one as a cash machiine.
I am more into the product launch than selling of my website. Personally if a site is able to generate constant income to me, it is like my little golden goose and I will not kill it by selling it to another person.
When you say destination, do you mean in the long term or short term? As in healthwise or what? Or making a website.
And when you sell a web property, could you still have something to do with it? If i ever sold mine, i’d like to hold onto something from what I built. If i did i would at least still have something to do with it just to keep it flowing.
I know this is more of a subjective point, but coming from you, what would or what did you do? I still think not selling property could have more advantage if done the right way.
I really enjoyed reading this