How to Buy a Ferrari for $20k


I mentioned in my first post that one of the things I wanted to do here was to help you think outside the box.  There is a reason successful entrepreneurs capitalize on opportunities other people miss. It’s important to not just look at what decision a good entrepreneur makes, but WHY they made it. What I’m going to share with you will help you begin to see things differently, and maybe allow you to attain some things you don’t currently think are possible. Enjoy.

About a year ago, I was scouring the web for some e-commerce stores to buy. I had only been doing online stores for a couple months, so I was still a bit of a newbie.  I came across a deal that seemed appealing.  It was in a niche I was somewhat interested in, and the owner was willing to sell at a low multiple.  I was planning to offer around $100,000.  I didn’t know if I wanted to put up all the money since I was still learning the ropes in this space.  I decided to approach my friend about partnering, since he’d been in the e-commerce game for years.

My friend (we’ll call him K) is the perfect example of someone that lives the 4-hour workweek lifestyle.  He travels around to different countries all the time, prefers to work very little, and often sets income goals just based on the things he would like to buy— whether it be a big vacation, a new toy, or in this case, a Ferrari.  He works just enough to reach his goal, and enjoys the rest of his time.

I called K and told him about the potential deal.  Because of the lifestyle he desires, he didn’t want to deal with the operations side.  K was interested, but wanted no part in managing it.  I was right in the middle of scaling up my store business, and already had employees handling operations.  I told him I’d take care of that end, and explained that more than anything I was interested in him coming on board to hedge my bets.  First, from the standpoint of me not wanting to put $100k into a business I didn’t have much experience with yet.  Also, with his expertise in the deal, it increased the level of success the business could achieve.  He said he’d call me back in 5.

The phone rang a few minutes later.  K was in.

Here’s how the Deal Would Look

K would be putting up $20k, and would bring in another $30k from his friend.

He would help advise on the site, but would not have to manage any of the day to day.  His other friend wouldn’t have to do anything, he just wanted to be in on the deal.  I would put $50k in and be in charge of it.  Because of what people were bringing to the table, here is what we agreed on:

K: 25%
Friend: 15%
Me: 60%

K:  He gets in on a good deal without having to do much work.  He makes an expected return on his money much higher than he can get elsewhere, in a deal with someone he knows.  Because of the skin I have in the game, he can feel pretty confident that I’m going to try and make sure the business succeeds.

Friend: He gets a ride on a deal without having to do any thinking.  He knows K well, and knows of me, so when he heard we were both involved in a potential deal, he said “let me in.”

Me: I give up 40% of the deal but limit the money I need to bring in and get a good adviser with skin in the game to hedge my bet of the business not succeeding.  Normally I would hate hedging my bets on +EV(expected value) deals, but this was a rare occurrence where it made perfect sense.

note: I will be discussing the concept of EV more in depth in a future post

So, you’re probably asking…

“How is it that you can get a Ferrari for $20k???”

Let me explain.

K had been looking at a few Ferrari’s that had payments starting as low as $2k/month.  The store was expected to sell for a low multiple, roughly 1x yearly income.  Because of this, K could pay for the Ferrari with the income the business would kick off to him, with just a $20k investment, and no work, because of the deal structure.

note: K’s shares would have been expected to return him roughly $25k/yr, or $2,083.33/month

So…

With that quick phone call, we had the agreement on how we’d split up the deal.  One catch was, he was leaving for Peru in the next day or two, and he wouldn’t be around by the time the owner was going to sell his site.  With that in mind, we agreed on a max price we’d pay.

A few days later, the seller had someone agree to give him an amount that was higher than the max K and I were willing to go up to.  If he was in town, we might have talked and decided to outbid the buyer, but we had a set number so we stuck to it.

So unfortunately for K, he was unable to come home from Peru to a Ferrari, but it was interesting to look at the deal like that.   It was cool to see how little it would take to get something like a Ferrari just on the simple structure of a deal and the desire to have your money work for you and give you things that you’d like to have.

K’s logic was, why would he ever pay cash for something if he could just buy an asset that gave him what he wanted without tying up anywhere near the same amount of money.  It leaves him with that cash to use for other deals that would get him a substantially higher return than if he just paid off the car.

Despite K not getting the Ferrari on this deal, there was a happy ending.

K had made a pact with himself at the beginning of the year.  He set a goal that if he increased his income by a certain amount for 2011, he would purchase a Ferrari by the end of the year.  Several months later, having not purchased an asset to buy his Ferrari for him yet, he reached his income goal and decided to go ahead and just buy the Ferrari anyways.  Cash.

Despite K not acquiring the car in a creative deal through an asset this time, he easily could have waited and done a similar deal to the one we had looked into.

He was dumbfounded as to why more people couldn’t pull deals like this off…

“Why wouldn’t this work?”

“Why doesn’t everyone do this?”, he asked.

Valid questions, especially since most people don’t have the money available to buy a Ferrari in cash.  They would however have a much smaller amount available to do the same sort of thing.  They could buy an asset that would produce enough income that could pay for a Ferrari, or whatever else they wanted to buy.

note: I’ll discuss ways to find high yielding deals in a future post

People are afraid to do things that are outside of their box.

Why doesn’t everyone do this, or at least put themselves in situations to be able to do this?

I believe their fear of failure along with their lack of knowledge outweighs their untrained logic.  This keeps them from acquiring knowledge that would reduce their fear of failure, leading to action, which would lead to Ferraris.

He told some people about his intentions to do this initially, and many people didn’t believe it could be done.  It was “too good to be true”, they said.

From my experience the deals that seem too good to be true, sometimes aren’t. But because others are regurgitating what they’ve heard and assume something must be wrong, it creates a window for people willing to dig in, research, and snap up steals. Often deals most people classify as “too good to be true” are easier to get than stuff that’s run of the mill.  Everyone assumes run of the mill is legit, and “too good to be true” must not be.  People like us can then swoop in and pick them up while everyone else is on the sideline instead of doing their due diligence.

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The risk tolerance most people have is not one that will allow them to be successful entrepreneurs, since they’re waiting for the sure thing instead of just taking a calculated, super +EV risk.

The first store that I purchased last year was for $4,000.  Within the first 4-5 months I had already made my money back on the store.  Since the purchase, I’ve made over $15,000 from that one store.

I can remember looking into it and figuring something must be wrong if they were willing to sell for that low.  “They must be trying to rip people off.”  Or, “there must be some sort of a catch” is usually the first thought that goes through your head when things seem too good to be true.  However, that’s usually what stops other people from doing the research necessary to determine if something IS off, or if it’s just a good deal that other people have passed over because of incorrect assumptions.

I decided, what was the worst that could happen?  I lose $4k.  What’s the best that can happen?  I have a site that kicks off $10,000+ per year relatively passive, and I learn a bit about e-commerce stores to see if that’s something I wouldn’t mind doing.  I did my due diligence, and it seemed like a good bet to make, so I made it.  Even if it hadn’t worked out, was it the wrong decision?

Even if there was some catch I missed, and I lost everything on the deal 50% of the time, that deal is still very profitable.

50%: -$4k
50%: +10k

EV = +$3k

The simple math would tell you that even in this horrible case scenario, the first year your EV would be +$3k.  That’s only IF you were going to lose all your money 50% of the time, which isn’t going to happen.

This calculation is also not factoring in that when you don’t get ripped off, the site is still making you money long term, and you still have an asset.  So this decision should be a no-brainer, yet most people decided not to buy it because it “seemed too good to be true.”

It’s important not to be results oriented in business.  Even if I lost money on this deal, it was the right decision to pull the trigger.  It has very little to do with the end result of the investment, and mostly everything to do with the decisions that led you to that result.  The final outcome is usually irrelevant.  In the long term, everything works itself out if you are putting the work in and consistently making +EV decisions.

Don’t let emotion get in the way of making money.  Some simple math will tell you everything you need to know, and it’s often going to lead you in a different direction than your initial emotional response would have.

You will have much better end results once you start making decisions logically instead of emotionally.

Whether it’s a Ferrari you want, or maybe you just want to build up some passive income.

Back to K’s original question.

Why wouldn’t this work?

Why aren’t you doing this?





245 Responses to “How to Buy a Ferrari for $20k”


  1. Alex

    Everyone else should just quit blogging now that your blog is up. your posts are incredible dude!

    Reply
  2. Mike

    I always thought I needed cash or a loan to buy something I wanted. You’ve got me hooked man.

    It looks like I have a new favorite blog.

    Reply
  3. Chris Waldron

    This is a great view of how to factor EV and due diligence into everything. If you take everything at face value nothing in business or any risk would make sense. But that’s why success is rare and is also hard work! Nice post.

    Reply
  4. Yary

    Nice post !!!!

    Reply
  5. J.J.

    “note: I will be discussing the concept of EV more in depth in a future post”

    “note: I’ll discuss ways to find high yielding deals in a future post”

    Epic! Can’t wait for these posts so I can find a similar deal!

    Reply
  6. Regev

    You nailed it. Awesome.

    Reply
  7. Tom

    You never know when the right opportunity or venture will come knocking. You must be willing to take worth wild chances! Great post man.

    Reply
  8. PatrickP

    WOW those are 2 great stories!

    I am dying to know. How is the 100K store doing profit wise?

    How is the 4K store doing profit wise?

    Reply
    • Billy

      Patrick,

      We didn’t end up buying the $100k store- that’s the one that someone paid a little more for, and K was out of the country so we didn’t revisit changing our max offer.

      The $4k store is doing alright. Got hit by Penguin, but it’s already returned about 4x the investment, so can’t complain too bad on that one. In the process of scaling it up by adding new products as well as selling through new channels.

      Reply
      • Sebastian

        Hey Billy,

        what kind of store is it? Which niche is it? Could you share the domain? 🙂

        Thanks for your inspirational post!

        Sebastian


    • Billy

      Hey Sebastian — I’ll probably share several of the domains I have for the stores in the near future for case studies on here.

      Glad you liked the post.

      Reply
  9. Steve

    Fantastic post Billy… think I’m going to go look for a Ferrari!

    Reply
  10. BFLBob

    Bill:

    I was just bragging you and “K” up to a few of the folks down here in Atlanta and then I see you’ve starting this blog.

    Amazing stuff, but I would expect no less. Now if you could only get “K” to do one 😉

    Bob

    Reply
  11. Greg Brister

    Looking forward to a refresher course in EV Bill. Great post.

    Reply
  12. Craig

    What kind of due diligence would you conduct? Just good old fashioned Google to look for anything of interest?

    Great post by the way.

    Reply
    • Billy

      Craig,

      I’ll check their sales records. You can talk to their suppliers as well to see if the margins they claim to get are accurate.

      I also talk to the person on the phone to get a feel for them and if I think they’re being honest with me. It’s much harder for a person to lie to you on the phone, and they have to answer questions quickly, rather than thinking of what they want to say through email.

      There’s always going to be some risk. If there was no risk, there’d be no upside.

      Why?

      Because everyone would be in, and the multiples you could purchase the sites for would change accordingly.

      Reply
  13. Allen Crawley

    Great post Billy. Indeed out of the box thinking. I admit that in the past I have been guilty of thinking if something is too good to be true it must be. Now, I find myself digging deeper to verify. As your post hinted at, it’s actually a good thing the 99% think this way as it allows us to swoop in and profit.

    Reply
    • Billy

      I think we all have been at some time Allen. It’s definitely our initial “avoid pain” reaction. Just takes practice overcoming it with logic.

      Reply
  14. Mike

    Inspiring!

    Reply
  15. Jon Symons

    Good stuff Bill. Congrats on getting this blog rolling.

    Really looking forward to the EV stuff.

    Reply
  16. Terence

    Bill:

    Great stuff. Now I remember I’ve seen you at B&P few years back. Great stuff here.

    I also now remember you talked about the EV at B&P before. You just remind me that I should not have emotion controlling my direction.

    Gotta think outside of the box!

    Looking forward to hearing more about your joble$$ story!

    Reply
  17. Afftastic

    Fantastic! Was linked here from wickedfire & I must say I’m impressed!

    Reply
  18. Ahuva Lahav

    great, very inspiring story, Bill.
    you show the opportunity to change the way we think,
    without beeing on my couch for a year!
    I might stay jobless, but still appreciate your creativity.

    Reply
  19. Jeff s

    Nice blog post. I use a similar method. I have sites that cover certain bills and extras. If the money in those sites ever dried up it would kind of suck.

    Side note: I hope your friend isn’t paying $2k for a 360 modena.

    Reply
    • Ken

      Yeah, you can’t do this if you can barely cover your expenses. If google changes its algo or something else happens you could get screwed. A better solution would be to make sure your income is double the expense of what you wanted to buy. But if you had $100k laying around and were deciding between the Ferrari and a biz, then you are in the position to do something like this.

      Just curious as to why you think $2k/mo is too much for a 360? You don’t even know how long the payments are for or what the down is?

      Reply
  20. Wade

    It’s funny. I hear the poker thought process in your business thought process. Or is it the other way around? Making the correct play every time will turn out profitable in the long run.

    I very recently have discovered an opportunity that exemplifies your post. It seems to good to be true, but if I do nothing it could cost me six figures. I will start my due diligence tonight and keep you updated.

    Reply
  21. Chris Guthrie

    lol leave it to a poker player to start talking about expected value when calculating risk in investments. – nice!

    When I’m buying websites I don’t really do the calculation, instead I look at the quality of the website and ask myself what the likelihood is that I can pay off the investment given all the risks (example: changes in Google etc etc)

    Perhaps I should be more mathematical about it.

    So far that generally seems to do well. If I take my first website buy of the year at $10k – its already paid off in a little under 8 months. Gravy now…

    Reply
    • Billy

      Nice, very cool. Definitely looking forward to chatting with you more about what you’re doing.

      Reply
  22. Diggy

    Hey Billy,
    Awesome post. It reminds me a little of the 4HWW where Tim Ferris also gives some sort of breakdown on how to buy a Ferrari super cheap.

    I love how statistical and mathematical you are, comes from the poker playing of course. My ex-pro poker player friend also talks about everything in terms of +ev all the time. Haha.

    Anyways, I guess in reality it wouldn’t quite work out this way since you would need to factor in tax (in some countries that would be as high as 50%) and I don’t know about the US but I know in South Africa for example a Ferrari costs like $200-$300k (the good ones) and monthly payments spread over 5 years would be closer to $4k-$5k a month. I think that the US is much cheaper though so cannot really comment on that.

    I hope you’re going to do some posts about ecommerce stores since that is something I’m really interested in but have no idea how it works really.

    Great first post man, I’m sure it won’t be long before you get a book deal or get featured on TV!
    Cheers
    Diggy

    Reply
    • Billy

      I hadn’t thought of the 4HWW reference to this until you mentioned it. Yes, this is definitely along the lines of what Tim talks about, as well as RDPD, with putting your money into assets that produce income for things you want to buy. If the assets sell for low multiples, people can get things substantially lower than they assume they could.

      Definitely will have some e-commerce store posts coming.

      Thanks for the very kind words Diggy.

      Reply
  23. Another

    Great post ! It really helps putting things in perspective. Thank you !

    Reply
  24. Eskil

    Good stuff, and definitely something I would want to try out at some point. My only concern with websites though would be to make absolutely sure they stay at their top of the game – and not fizzle out. But I think by bringing on someone to manage it – and have regularly updated content etc, most sites could probably just increase in monthly profit. Tender Love and Care… 😉

    Reply
    • Billy

      Eskil,

      Part of the point to this post, is that you DON’T have to be absolutely sure something will work out. You just have to calculate the EV to make sure it’s a good investment, and if so, you should often do it regardless of whether it may or may not work out in the future. I’ll talk more about this concept in future posts.

      In regards to regularly updated content- that’s good, Google likes that. However, there’s much more important things to focus on with a business. If a business is 100% dependent on Google deciding whether or not to rank your site high, it’s not the ideal business.

      Reply
  25. vega

    Very interesting post. Thanks for sharing. I’ve always thought the
    same way but you described it in words I couldn’t.

    How do you find ecommerce websites that are for sale? I’ve stumbled
    across a few networks but thy always seem to be sketchy businesses. I
    guess I need to do more due diligence like you stated. Cheers.

    Reply
    • Billy

      Thanks Vega.

      I’ve actually got a post coming up relatively soon where I’m going to talk in depth about a lot of e-commerce stuff, and how I’ve found a lot of sites that other people are not seeing. Not sure when it will be up, but it’s mostly done.

      Reply
      • Vega

        Sounds great billy.
        Btw found this blog from buddy Steve Mayeda. In case you were keeping track or anything. 🙂


    • Billy

      Very cool – I’m being interviewed for his podcast tomorrow.

      Reply
  26. DrP

    Thinking like a poker player in making business decisions pays off.

    Reply
  27. TJ

    Where did you find the site for 4k?

    I’d love a post about that story in detail. Very in depth detail. Would be very valuable for readers to see step by step how you found the site, did the due dilligence, and kept it running.

    Thanks! Awesome blog. I am hooked as well.

    Reply
    • Billy

      I got that one from Flippa.

      I have a post coming up about e-commerce stores soon, and I think that store is included in the story.

      Thanks TJ, glad you’re enjoying!

      Reply
  28. Mats

    Nice blog and posts! 🙂 Love it, found you via TheFastlaneForum 🙂 Keep up the good work!

    Ps. A good tip is to harvest emails like crazy, look at SmartPassiveIncome.com and how he puts his form in the sidebar, bottom of posts, and bottom of pages. He almost never sends out emails unless its a really great offer, or has something good to say. Keeps the list interested 🙂

    Reply
    • Billy

      Thanks Mats.

      I have an email sign up form on the sidebar, as well as the bottom of the posts. Are you saying it’s not noticeable enough?

      Reply
      • Mats

        Didnt nootice the one at the bottom at all, before you said so 🙂 maybe an icon or something? And a freebie pdf report/ebook to people when u get the time 🙂 keep up the good work!


      • Billy

        Thanks Mats


  29. Amail

    Great post!

    I learned a valuable lesson about Due Diligence. I bought a website from Flippa, and thought I had done my due diligence. As it turned out, I hadn’t done nearly enough. I lost $900 for a complete sham of a website. If I had insisted on seeing actual analytics for the site it would have been an obvious pass.

    Sometimes if your gut tells you it’s too good to be true, it is. I think another post on exactly how you handle due diligence would be really useful.

    Reply
    • Billy

      Amail, it happens to the best of us buddy.

      When your gut tells you something is too good to be true, it should force you to want to do a lot more due diligence though, just don’t give up on it there. Natural “fear” reactions cause the same feeling sometimes.

      I’ve got a lot of posts that I’m working on right now, but it seems like that would be helpful, so I’ll try to put a “due diligence” post on the ‘posts to write’ list. May be a little while, as there’s a big backlog of topics I’m working on.

      Reply
  30. Mark

    How is the EV of the situation +3? I feel like it’s a pretty broad guess that the over/under is 50%. Just because something has two outcomes (either it fails or succeeds), that doesn’t mean that they have an equal percentage chance of happening.
    Look at the lottery – either you win, or lose. But you won’t win 50% of the time, and the EV is very much in the negative.

    I’m sure you already know this, as you seem like a smart guy. I’m just interested in how you valued the store to come up with that +EV.

    Reply
    • Billy

      Mark,

      It was an estimate. It was a ‘horrible case scenario’ estimate, which showed that if even in a horrible case scenario it would be profitable, it was a deal I should do. I’ll go into an exact case scenario in another post when I dive deeper into the math.

      Also, sometimes you won’t have all the information you need, so you calculate an estimate based on some different scenarios and you run with it.

      Other people will spend a month trying to figure out every little thing, and others will think there’s no way they can know if it will work or not, so they won’t do anything. I can already be through many deals by then because I figure out an estimate based on the most important aspects of the deal, and I run with it.

      Reply
  31. Steven

    Any jumping off point for looking at low-value stores like the one you mentioned for 4k?

    Reply
    • Billy

      My best advice is to approach people who have a lot of stores and get ones they’re not doing anything with. You can pick up some good stuff very cheap this way. It’s a grind, but you can come across some gems.

      Reply
  32. James Hannah 

    Great post. I am facing a couple of these problems.

    Reply
  33. Chris

    Great post.

    I’m trying to get my head around it still though!

    So basically

    K: 25%
    Friend: 15%
    Me: 60%

    So bascially K is going to receive a 25% return on his capital (20k) on the income of the site vs a low return he’ll received in bonds or at the bank (2-3%)? While not needing to do anything, due to the structure of the deal.

    And the monthly payments + interest (less then 25%) on the Ferrari will be less then the expected return from the site.

    Is that pretty much it?

    My experience with most websites is that they can be high risk.
    Unless its a brand, has returning customers, has a sales system which can change the buyers buying criteria away from price, etc.

    If it’s a site which gets most of its traffic from organic/google (90%) search. I would say pretty big risk, especially if it can’t afford to pay for traffic.

    Thanks,
    Chris

    Then

    Reply
    • Billy

      Chris, buying a website would be riskier than putting your money in the bank. That’s why you can calculate the EV- which incorporates the risk into the equation. I’ll have a post coming up on this soon which will help explain it much more in depth.

      Most people don’t take risk because they are too afraid to lose their money. This holds most people back from going far in business, because they can’t correctly calculate the EV of the deal.

      The post coming up on EV will help you understand this idea a lot.

      Reply
  34. Jason

    I will now be buying a Ferrari instead of a Honda next month.

    Great article for real!

    Reply
  35. MJ

    I’m not sure Dave Ramsey would agree.

    Reply
    • Billy

      I’m not sure Dave Ramsey advice is the type I’d be following if my goal was to make a lot of money.

      Reply
  36. G

    Interesting way to translate EV from poker to business…Good read

    Reply
  37. Christian Scott

    Ambitious and definitely appealing to a poker player’s mind. It’s real life EV.

    Reply
  38. Rob Brennan

    Good post.

    This reminds me of the Tim Harford book “undercover Economist” ; and the quote:”The ego is the enemy of innovation”
    How many hours will the due diligence take?

    Rob

    Reply
    • Billy

      Due diligence doesn’t take too long on a small store like that. It probably took me longer on that one since it was my first one- few hours max. A lot of that time was asking friends like K, “this can’t be legit, can it?”. He wasn’t sure either as he’d never done a purchase, so finally just had to go ahead with it. You’ll never know 100%- just use the information you have, and make your best judgement call based on what the EV is using the numbers found during due diligence.

      Reply
  39. Gazz Wong

    Wow, great creativity and innovation.
    A joy to read, especially being unemployed myself.

    Reply
  40. Cernunnos

    What an interesting article, thanks!

    Reply
  41. Peter Cho

    Thanks for the article! Great read. I completely agree with your emphasis on creativity, which is definitely something that the most successful people posses.

    Reply
  42. Frank

    Great post. Purchasing an asset with an asset is something I had never even considered of doing but now that you say it I can not agree with the question “Why isn’t everyone doing this?” more. It makes absolutely no sense not to creatively purchase assets this way. I can not way for the next article that talks about finding high yielding deals. Well done, great read.

    Reply
  43. Tomi

    Very good post!

    Reply
  44. Bryant

    It does sound too good to be true to find stores with solid ROI, but how do you find them? It’s not that people are afraid of hedging their bets or can’t think outside the box, its because they don’t have the expertise in the business.
    Isnt this just financing the ferrari with money you arent sure is coming in? What if the store fails? What happens to his payments to his ferrari? Alls well if the store succeeds but..passive income or not, relying paycheck to paycheck in order to pay for your lifestyle doesn’t sound too appealing.

    Reply
    • Billy

      Bryant,

      I’ll have a post coming up on how to find stores.

      If the store fails, K has money he can use to pay for it. I wouldn’t recommend(nor would K) putting $20k into a deal like that if you only had $20k to your name. K is in a very different situation than that because he has other businesses making him money.

      Make sense?

      Reply
  45. Ricardo Nunez

    Your blog seems to be my new favourite, nice lesson on your first entry, you got me hooked, im very interested in that store deal, hope you can get us some more detail on future entries.

    Thanks,

    Rich

    Reply
  46. Bjørn

    Top notch article!
    Cheers

    Reply
  47. C. W.

    Looking forward to the next post about e-commerce. Thank you for the information so far.

    Reply
  48. Oleg

    What is the best way to go about looking for web-businesses for sale? I know there are some “business marketplace” websites out there, but what is your process Bill?

    Thank you

    Reply
  49. Peter

    Hi Billy,interesting reading but I would like to get some more info!Where to buy the kind of sites you have discussed here in the blog?!Can you add a a link/s to a place/s where they are up for sale?

    I say like TJ above: “Would be very valuable for readers to see step by step how you found the site, did the due dilligence, and kept it running.”!Can people with a low investmentbudget > 1000-5000 dollars get something going!

    My dream would be to make enough to prospect and mine for gemstones in Australia!I like the freedom to choose my own schedules!Right now I am looking for a solid investor!I believe it is plenty of gems to be found in the Australian outback!The best place to find investor/s?I am from Scandinavia but to set up a meeting to get this going should not be to hard if the interest is there!

    To make a passive income must be everyones dream to make money!No money no honey:))Please give me your best advice how to achieve my goals!I have not really started to advertise the homepage yet,so let’s see if you can help to get this going!?I send you a few gems if IT HAPPENS:))

    Regards Peter – CHARITY OPALS MINING DIVISION

    Reply
    • Billy

      Peter, I’ll be doing a post in the future about how I’ve found some stores and what type of due diligence I’ve done.

      I don’t know anything about mining.

      The best way to find an investor is to have something that makes money. Money is easy to get if you do. Most people instead spend their time on convincing others something can make money, rather than going out and proving it. If you spend your time proving any idea you want to do makes money, raising money is not hard. Most people do it wrong and/or don’t have an idea that can make money.

      Reply
  50. Gustavo

    Hi Billy.

    That’s a terrific article and you’ve earned a new RSS subscriber for it.

    I’d love to see more info about where you find your websites to buy and how do you analyze them to check for profitability. Maybe this could be the subject of a future article.

    Keep up the great work,

    Gustavo

    Reply
  51. iwant2drum

    Great article. Good to see some of your work outside of Bluefire.

    Reply
    • Billy

      Thank you. Ya, I’ve pretty much stayed behind the scenes at BlueFirePoker because it makes more sense to have the pros in the spotlight since they’re the ones making the videos. Thought it’d be nice to start talking about what it is that I do.

      Thanks for reading, good to have some BlueFirePoker guys here!

      Reply
  52. Placebo Effect

    Love the post. Got here from an email you sent out to your BlueFirePoker.com people.

    Poker really opened up the way I think about things, particularly risky things, and I love that there is a lot of poker/business crossover.

    I’m a business novice, but I know there’s a ton I can learn. Looking forward to more blog posts, particularly on how you do your due diligence. Subscribed.

    P.S. In case any other poker folks don’t know yet, those of us with funds still locked up in Full Tilt should be getting it back soon (finally). https://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/july12/pokersettlement.html

    Reply
    • Billy

      Ya, you should have a big edge on a lot of other aspiring entrepreneurs because you’ll come in knowing a lot about things like risk, and EV. That is a big struggle for most people.

      Glad to have you here. What’s your name?

      Reply
  53. darth wager

    such a awesome read. I if your the type to read the comments and check for ratings before reading.. STOP RIGHT HERE AND READ IT! I promise you will love it!

    great stuff thanks for contacting me. im emailing back write now i hope im in the top ten!!!!

    Reply
  54. Angie

    Great posts so far and I am really enjoying how you explain your thought process and the correlation between business decisions and poker decisions.

    Looking forward to more….

    Reply
  55. Nestor

    Hi Billy,

    Great article. I had to ask myself the question “Why am I not doing this!?” This is a good example of making money work for you instead of working for the money.

    I listened to your interview on the Eventual Millionaire podcast. Great interview. I am looking forward to your upcoming posts.

    Thanks,
    Nestor

    Reply
    • Billy

      Thanks Nestor. Any plans to try and implement something like this?

      Reply
      • Nestor

        Yes, definitely will try to implement something like this.I always had an interest in an e-commerce site. I always thought large scale instead of thinking small. Instead of having one large site generating income you can have several small sites generating income. With that income you buy other “assets” which will in turn generating more income. I don’t know why I didn’t look at it that way before.


    • Billy

      There’s actually a lot of benefits for having 1 large sites as opposed to many small sites. I’ll be talking about this in a future post.

      Reply
  56. Collin

    Wow! Love the post Mr. Murphy! Just found a new blog to follow!!

    Reply
  57. Ronnie Valko

    Just have to say that so far what I’ve read of your post have been pretty impressive. I’ve always been one to try to think outside of the box and learn from my failures but seems last couple of years I’ve started basing my thought pattern to conform with the norm probably for fear of failure. Finally something to come along to jolt me out of it and inspire me to once again Think outside of the box. It’s not about working hard, it’s about working creatively. Can’t wait to read more posts, keep up the excellent work…..

    Thanks,
    HollywoodRon

    Reply
    • Billy

      Thank you, really glad that you found my post helpful! Keep me posted in the comments on the progress you’re making.

      Reply
  58. Luke

    Enjoyed reading the post. Makes me ready to get back to working on my debt collection website I had started a few months ago.

    With the SEO updates (I watched your interview video), do you feel that spending money on SEO is still a good investment? I got my site on the first page for some big terms, but then got killed via panda update.

    Where do you put your resources on marketing the sites most? SEO, social, PPC?

    Thanks

    Luke (Luke12321)

    Reply
    • Billy

      No one can know for sure. Am I still investing in SEO? Yes.

      Where I put marketing resources is going to be irrelevant to where other people should put them because it’s going to depend on what market someone is in, what their margins are, if they have some certain skill sets that make one way more optimal than it would be for someone else, how much money they’re trying to make, etc…

      Reply
  59. tanya

    Can’t wait to read more. Have you got an ETA of the next post?

    Reply
    • Billy

      Thanks Tanya. Probably within the next 10 days or so. I plan to focus on quality over quantity, so will only be releasing a few posts per month, but all of them should be pretty in depth.

      Reply
  60. Mike

    As a fellow jobless investor (SEO & internet marketing for companies then on my own is actually what got me out of a day job!) this site and the thought processes behind it are a breath of fresh air. It’s tough to find people that think like you, and one can always learn more! Listened to your podcast also and enjoyed it.

    Best of luck in future endeavors, and let me know if you’re looking for biz partners 😉

    Reply
  61. Mike

    Didn’t see the comment above mine!

    The short answer of spending money on SEO is…it depends.

    If you have a quality site/product/service that brings value or is necessary, then SEO is worth it.

    “Black hat” SEO in this post penguin/panda world is much less useful to the point of almost not useful, and a good thing too. Google wants to 1) rank sites of big companies (controversial, but true) and 2) rank relevant content.

    After you’ve done your basic groundwork, consistent, constant quality content updates is really the key to long term organic SEO success. If ranking well means a great deal of business (for instance, ranking in the top 3 spots for, say, New York Plumbing Repair, which is a kw spot likely worth hundreds of millions) than a long term strategy (and a large investment) would pay off.

    If your goal is to build a quality site with quality information that helps people, ‘build it and they will come’ is the frame of mind one should have. Predicting the profitability of an information based website is difficult unless the keywords you are attempting to rank for are highly trafficked and you know exactly how to monetize that traffic.

    There really is no shortcut to ranking anymore. Sure there are always loopholes and tricks, and I’ve found several in their latest algorithm updates, but they are temporary, and Google will shut them down. If you’re not planning a ranking strategy measured in years, you’re setting yourself up for failure even in the short term.

    Perform your own research in your own niche and make a determination. None of us have a crystal ball, so groundwork is your best bet to an informed decision. Hope this somewhat rambling response has helped! 🙂

    Reply
  62. Fabian

    Why dont you make videos about entrepreneurship for bluefirepoker and add some value to the site instead of giving it for free here?
    Cant wait for future posts.

    Reply
    • Billy

      Fabian, I’ve thought about putting some videos on there. Is that something you’d like? Or you’re just surprised I’m giving it out for free?

      Reply
      • Fabian

        This would be a reason for me to consider getting a membership again on bluefirepoker.
        On Leggopoker for example, they added Chessvideos – which I thought was brilliant. A lot of poker players share a lot of interests (especially when there is logical thinking involved).

        And yes, I am thankful and at the same time surprised you re giving it out for free.


    • Billy

      Cool, thanks for the feedback Fabian.

      Reply
  63. KJ

    Glad I am not the only one who is constantly calculating EV in business from my poker background. Great site, looking forward to more!

    KJ

    Reply
  64. Graham

    Hey Billy,

    I really like the blog concept and content so far.

    I’m 23 and live in Jamaica, I originally heard about the blog from Steve aka El Topo. I’m about to launch my first e-business so I really get the concept of not letting emotions govern you once the risk you’re taking is calculated.

    I’ve paid a film crew and chef to do a caribbean vegetarian cooking dvd, and I plan to sell it online through google adwords. I know the traffic for the keywords monthly and I know the potential, but I still had that fear of loss before I dived it. You just gotta push on through man.

    I’ll tell you how everything works out; the product is being edited and should launch by the second week of September.

    Best Regards,
    Graham

    Reply
  65. Daniel

    Awesome post, thanks for this…now i need to find where to buy assets.

    Reply
    • Billy

      Thanks Daniel. They’re everywhere, just make sure not to rush into everything and you’ll be fine.

      Reply
      • Daniel

        is there any online site that you can recomend ?


  66. Adam

    Hey Billy. I’m around your age and also in Austin. Small Internet. I’m definitely intrigued, and I love what you’re doing here so far. I have to mention that I sense elements of an entrancing, overly-optimistic type of reasoning in this post, but of course that could just mean you actually do know something the rest of us don’t. I’m sure many of us here are hoping this is the case.

    I have a hard time accepting the idea that companies like you describe are actually selling on the open market (or any market) for the equivalent of the revenue they take in on a 4-5 month basis. Unless there is significant risk of losing part or all of that revenue stream within the same 4-5 month window or shortly thereafter, what does the seller stand to gain outside of crisis situations? Basic reasoning tells us that an investment like this must at least carry significant risk; why would someone just give up a semi-stable, long-term source of revenue for so little?

    I look forward to reading your explanation of EV, and perhaps that will help with some of my questions, but please don’t hold off too long on specifics about where and how to buy. We are hungry to see if this is real and tangible in 3D reality. At this point in the evolution of the internet, it’s put up or shut up in my opinion. My impression is that you mean to share this information openly here, so you’ve set yourself up to shine very brightly. Will it be a quick flare in the dark or a sustained fusion reaction? Here’s hoping OP delivers.

    Save Our Springs and all that. Take care.

    Adam

    Reply
  67. Edmund | FlagTheory.com

    Great example of how doing something beats doing nothing. Also shows the power of using OPM.

    Looking forward to your coming posts.

    Best,

    Edmund
    FlagTheory.com

    Reply
  68. dc_publius

    Pretty lame.

    This post has nothing to do with a Ferrari. Or “creative deal”.

    It has everything of luckboxing into buying a 100K site selling for 1x multiple, and blowing the profits on a car. Wha’st so “creative” about that?

    Nothing.

    The waste of time is that you don’t disclose the good bits – where you found such an amazing deal and what the web site is.

    Reply
    • K

      Yeah, because knowing what the URL is would make the concept soooo much more informative. Idiot

      Reply
      • dc_publius

        No, the key to this strategy is magically finding a 100K site selling for 100K. Good luck trying to find that magic deal.

        Go to any place that sells websites and you will see them selling for much more than 1x earnings. Much, much, more. You can start shooting in the dark and asking random people all day and it will be the same thing – people asking for waaaay too much, thinking that their craptastic sites making 1K/year are work 10K.

        That’s the key to “buying a Ferrari for 20K”.


    • Billy

      dc, I’d recommend you read this post: https://foreverjobless.com/how-to-get-lucky-in-e-commerce/

      Because the competition is thinking exactly how you’re thinking, is why business is so easy. It’s not magic. It’s hard work.

      Reply
  69. Trevor O

    I really enjoyed this post. I found you from your interview on Eventual Millionaire, and your story was a real inspiration. I hadn’t really considered EV before when branching out or picking up new assets, but it makes total sense. Can’t wait to read what else you’ve got on the subject.

    I’m struggling with my own risk aversion at the moment. I’m bringing in a decent income from self-publishing ebooks, but I’d like to go one step further into more traditional types of online businesses and diversify my income. Putting down a few hundred or several thousand on producing audiobooks, acquiring online stores, etc. freaks me out because of the money involved, but I feel a lot more comfortable thinking about it with EV as an evaluation tool.

    Thanks again for your piece. I’ll be eagerly watching Forever Jobless for more.

    Reply
    • Billy

      Thanks Trevor!

      A lot of people are risk averse. I’ve got a post coming up soon that should help with that.

      Reply
  70. Kevin

    Billy,

    Just wanted to say thanks for the blog! Being a professional poker player with some experience in small business,(started an ecommerce site a few years ago) I am really looking forward to learning from your experience.

    A topic I would love to hear you talk about in the future would be on something I think many of us struggle with….Poker was easy for me because I knew where to start. I just started playing. Then learned from training sites, learned from other players, got coaching, and just kept playing and playing and studying and studying. It’s very easy to see where you can make a profit from in poker. In business, however, I really have a hard time finding a starting point. I want to bust ass and put in the work, I just don’t know where to start and fear spinning my wheels with something I know nothing about.

    Thanks again. Looking forward to all your future posts!

    Kevin

    Reply
    • Billy

      Kevin, totally understand where you’re at. I was there for a long time, and spun my wheels with all sorts of stuff.

      I’ll do my best to help point you in the right direction.

      How did the e-commerce site you started turn out?

      Reply
      • Kevin

        Awesome! Very excited!

        The e-commerce site is going alright. I sell parody sports team t-shirts. I make a small amount of passive income, however feel it’s not worth putting in more time/money/effort into expanding because I have ran into some issues with copyright stuff. Some of the major sport leagues came after us a bit, but then left us alone…long story short my lawyer says everything is completely legit, but has advised me that if we get too big it’s very possible they start coming for us again. I don’t really feel like trying to fight someone with unlimited pockets. Rather just stay small and under the radar. I just want to find some new opportunities to start working at.


  71. Jared

    I like your posts a lot so far and cant wait to hear from you more. I think my avoid pain/risk reaction that I had has sky rockted at least for me in a few years and something I need to work on. I was in amway for a bit and things just didn’t pan out and before that I wanted to do my own thing but wasn’t sure what to do. Im now thinking writing an ebook/publishing might be where to start. I’ve heard though that unless you find a good niche and market it right it won’t profit though.

    I’ve looked into Trafford publishing though as an option. The problem with writing ebooks now is the past few years ive developed some health conditions (some of which are genetic or might possibly have a genetic component to them) and I have brain fog so writing at my best or to a high quality is out of the question.

    I don’t have much in resources either as of now its either get a loan or save up on an online savings account. Have you run into these issue or have others?

    Reply
    • Billy

      Ewww, MLMs. Stay away from stuff like that.

      In regards to publishing an ebook- it doesn’t matter what you heard. What have you found out?

      Most people don’t know the most optimal way to do things, so listening to random advice will mean you’re probably thinking of doing something in a suboptimal way. Find people you want to emulate, and learn from them, but more importantly, research what you learn from them and come to your own conclusions.

      Also- why ebooks? Cause you heard you could make money there? It sounds like you might be chasing money, which is bad. Focus on the need in the market first, and worry about the money later. The money comes if there is a need. Don’t work backwards.

      Reply
      • Jared

        Well at first I just wanted to write an ebook to make money which I do. I have a few ideas but want to write a health ebook but not something that many people have written about. Only ones I can think of that does anything similar is Chris Kresser, Matt Stone of 180 Degree Health and a few others. Its similar to what the Four Hour Body but more in depth and about fixing some complex health issues which sometimes come up as a result of dieting or lifestyle factors, some are genetic. In a way I would like to make money fast to get out of my job which is negative. I’ve found a good blog at Jeff Goins about publishing. I’d like to do something I can at least somewhat enjoy doing. Also ebooks seems like a way to start out and at least make some money, I have very little to start with at all and ebooks require little resources, especially money, I have no savings or investments.


  72. Yannis

    Quite inspiring post 😉

    Reply
  73. Sheyi | ivblogger.com

    Another fav blog. I sure agree with alex, everyone should quit blogging except me though!

    You got me hooked from the onset till the end of the article. why is everyone not doing this? why can’t i write great blog posts like this as well?

    Sheyi

    Reply
    • Billy

      Haha, thanks Sheyi! It might be better if there were less bloggers I think 🙂 Quality over quantity works out for the best in just about everything.

      Really appreciate your comments on my writing. The writing part is the part I’m trying to improve on- it’s my first time really writing, so have been trying to learn to write in a way that flows better.

      Reply
  74. Paul

    Hey Billy

    Interesting article. I love that every successful person I’ve ever come across has their own system. I think that’s the secret, you work out a system, test it, and stick to it. Great to hear about your system. I’ve ran successful businesses offline for years, but Glen A really gave me a spark for what I could do on-line to a much bigger audience. Good luck for the future Billy. Look me up if I can help you out.

    Reply
    • Billy

      Ya Paul, you’re right. It really is about creating a system that works for you, and testing and trying stuff until you get it how you want it. Then, it’s just about scaling and replicating it. The exact way I do something might not be the exact way someone else should, but maybe my way will give them a lot of things to think about for how they’re already doing it.

      There are a few principles I believe should be applied to just about everyone though.

      Reply
  75. Chris

    Oddly, I’ve traveled much of the same path as you did, but with a little different results. I bought and sold sports cards collections during high school and then in college started playing poker my sophomore year, and was able to pay all my expenses and then some each month and work up to about an 8K bankroll (not quite ballin, but I was quite happy at the time). But then when the first bill banning poker got pushed through in the Port Security Bill in 2007 (I think?) I cashed out and used the money for a trip to Europe.

    Since then I’ve lived in Asia for 2 years and in the South Pacific for a few months working different jobs. I ran a bunch of blog-style sites selling affiliate products and Adsense clicks that made quite a bit of money pre-Panda. Now I’m down from a few thousand to a few hundred dollars a month on those sites.

    After I got hit, I went back to the drawing board and learned a lot more, probably more than I would have with a college degree in advertising, about copywriting, headline writing, and what makes people tick in general. But, I’ve been kind of sitting and looking for a starting point to apply what I know for a few weeks. Like you said in your initial post, blogging for blogging’s sake doesn’t really make lots of money for most people. I’m really looking forward to finding some more about owning e-commerce sites and how I can use them to build some extra income on the side.

    Reply
    • Billy

      Chris, great to have you here man! Sounds like we have traveled a path with a lot of similarities.

      I think almost everyone I know got hit by the google updates(me included on some of my e-commerce stores) so don’t feel too bad. My best advice is always to focus on the quality of the business. To give an example: BlueFirePoker didn’t get affected by the google updates because the business doesn’t depend on SEO. That’s a good business to be in, because you have way more control than google basically being able to determine your income at any time.

      Stay away from most adsense and affiliate stuff if you can. There’s more money to be made creating real businesses.

      I hope the stuff I have coming up helps you and can be applied to the projects you’re going to be working on.

      Reply
      • Chris

        I agree, I’m saying well away of affiliate and adsense stuff – which is why after Panda I’ve stayed away from trying to un-Pandaize my sites. There are a few things that could probably eek more money out of them, but I don’t see it as being worth it.

        I’ve got some ideas for a product (specifically a fitness drink I’ve researched) and might start a site aimed at drumming up consulting services/showcasing knowledge for if/when I have to apply for jobs in the future.

        I am looking forward to the future posts, I’ve learned enough about “blogging for dollars” in the past, I’d rather have a real business that sells real products. I won’t be buying a 100K site anytime soon, but I’m excited about starting small and then scaling up, just like building my bankroll up from $5 Full Table NL to $200 short-hand NL back in the past.


  76. brian

    Great info. I also am curious about your insights into eCommerce(are you dropshipping or sourcing direct from Manuf.). I looked at eCommerce and was trying to figure out what my USP/barrier to entry is for all these niche commerce stores, and how to leverage my time with eCommerce so I am not dealing with returns/updating inventory availability/customer issues ?

    It seems with new stores you can spend a ton of time getting them going. Seems like buying pre-established is the way to go and going direct webmaster rather than Flippa.

    Reply
    • Billy

      (Brian, made slight edit to your post because the site you mentioned does sell several services, so let me look into that more, because I don’t want anyone going somewhere from here that they might risk getting the wrong advice or buying something they may regret. Thanks for mentioning.)

      With my stores, I’m doing 98% dropship.

      Getting a USP with a niche e-commerce store is extremely tough. I’m actually in the process of looking into China to create some of my own brands to help with that.

      Ya, buying pre-established has it’s pros and cons. Depends what your goals are. If someone has a bunch of cash sitting around that they aren’t doing anything with, buying stores already making money for relatively low multiples is not a bad way to invest, assuming they know enough to make sure the store maintains where it’s at, or else they buy a depreciating asset and the return they thought they were going to get ends up not going like they’d planned at all.

      Reply
  77. Nura

    Such an amazing info! 🙂

    Reply
  78. Steve K

    Hi, I found your blog from your interview at Global Wealth Protection. I’m looking forward to more posts. Especially anything that will help me gain knowledge on calculating EV and getting better at due diligence.

    Steve

    Reply
    • Billy

      Steve, I’ve actually got one coming up very soon on EV. If you’re on the email list it’ll notify you as soon as it’s up. Stay tuned!

      Reply
  79. Edgar

    Great site, I found you thanks to ViperChill, saw your interview.

    keep up the great work.

    Reply
  80. Nate

    In the words of Emeril, your blog just kicked it up another notch. The internet marketing “gurus” will have to either step up their game or see their authority get kicked down several notches.

    Reply
  81. Towhid Zaman

    That’s some kickass information. GOod work. Thanks for the Ferrari.. 😛

    Reply
  82. Steve Warwick

    Whaddup from Austin. Billy, I can’t agree enough about the concept of purchasing an existing asset and building it up. Some of my success have been —

    Content site on health issue: Price $300, revenue to date $5,500
    Directory: Price: $3,500 revenue to date about $45,000
    Content site on home biz: Price: $3,500 revenue to date about $55,000
    Consumable product site: Price: $3,500 revenue to date about $309,000

    And that doesn’t cover things like borrowing $15k from my 401K to buy preferential shares and then flipping them 4 weeks later for a $25,000 profit.

    NOthing ventured, nothing gained

    Reply
  83. AlinG

    Well, this will be the second blog I read, the only one till now: viperchill.com

    Reply
  84. Toby

    Just read your second post, I have to admit I have no business background whatsoever, but it would be helpful if you could explain a little more about some things, like EV for instance, which I’m absolutely flabbergasted about. No worries, I’d love to learn and coninue to read, thanks!

    By the way, I really like how you’ve almost responded to each and every person that’s posted, must be time consuming on your behalf, but really shows how you really do care on helping others!

    Reply
  85. Mario Mendoza

    Enjoyed the read, very true how decisions are based on such a fear at times. Great information, investment comes in many forms.

    Reply
  86. Jamie Alexander

    I’ve got a funny feeling this is going to be a blog I’ll learn something amazing from every post.

    Can’t wait to see what’s in store.

    Reply
  87. Allen

    Great post. I think I’m hooked. Can’t wait to hear more. The devil is in the details and the execution and I’m anxiously waiting for more info.

    Reply
  88. Tim

    That’s a great post. As a keen (not great) amateur poker player, I like how you use the same kind of logic and calculations that apply on the poker table when making decisions about doing business deals.

    Reply
  89. Derek

    Bill,

    I’m not sure if anyone said this yet, but “PARKOUR!!”

    Reply
  90. JP

    Billy,

    I’m gonna say the same thing as everyone already said, Great post and it was a nice and pleasant read.

    I’m looking forward to learning how to calculate EV’s and how to search for sites to buy.

    Jason P.

    Reply
  91. Mario

    One of the most interesting blog posts I’ve read in a while!

    I’m adding this blog to my bookmark bar 😀

    Reply
  92. Chieko Goerlitz

    Thanks a ton for this – love the info and agree with your perspective. However many others will not, so thanks for speaking up. Nice blog, well done!

    Reply
    • Billy

      Thanks Chieko! Ya, I assume a lot of the blogging world won’t like that I’m outing the flaws with the industry, but several of the legit ‘make money’ bloggers have already reached out glad that I’m doing it, so it’s a good tradeoff.

      Reply
  93. John

    Very nice post. Only place I’ve read content this good so far, is at viperchill and deleted blog(edited by mod: is this your blog?). Keep up the good work.

    Reply
    • Billy

      Thanks John. Part of your comment was edited because it seemed off. If this was a mistake, let me know.

      Reply
  94. JP

    Came here from Viperchill…

    Great couple posts so far! I’m really interested to read more from you. I’ve always heard the make money online niche is “saturated”, but oddly enough, there’s a lot of crap floating to the top. Your two posts so far have been a breath of fresh air (and made me pause and think, which is getting rare online), and I’m really hoping you keep it up!

    Thanks for the inspiration!
    – JP

    Reply
    • Billy

      Thanks JP! I actually have a post coming up regarding saturated markets soon. Glad you’re liking the posts you’ve seen so far.

      Reply
  95. Jacko

    no risk no reward no risk im bored.

    the office space workers don’t understand that what makes life exciting is the break from the mundane. They feel it in their bones but are too fn scared to do anything about it.

    Congrats on the rari don’t get a crazed speeding ticket. what’s the url of the shopping site you guys started?

    Reply
  96. Lejla

    Excellent blog! I recently made a decision myself to follow something that I initially thought was “too good to be true”. Let’s hope it works out as well as your own experiences.

    Reply
  97. Burgerking

    Depending on how certain K was that he was going to make back 25k per year on his 20k investment, he could borrow the 20k on a credit card & put the $2,083 per month into repayments. He’d have the 20k paid off in 11 months (at 18.5% interest) and then everything is his after that. You can probably find cheaper borrowing options, but credit card companies don’t ask questions.

    So thats a Ferrari for $0 – if you can wait 11 months (and you have a huge appetite for risk 🙂 ).

    Great blog, btw. Looking forward to more posts.

    Reply
  98. Victor E. A. Silva

    Hello from Brazil, Billy,

    I really liked your blog and am looking forward for more posts, especially on the process of finding nice niche business opportunities. I enter here every day looking for a new post. Keep up the good work 🙂

    Victor

    Reply
    • Billy

      Thanks Victor! I might be checking out Brazil later this year — I’ve heard it’s amazing.

      I’ve definitely got some niche e-commerce stuff coming up.

      My goal with this blog is quality > quantity, so there won’t be anywhere near as many posts as other blogs, but hopefully I don’t keep you waiting too long. If you sign up to the email list it will email you whenever I post a new one, so that you don’t have to check each day to see if one is up.

      Reply
      • Victor E. A. Silva

        Cool, thanks. Actually I had already signed it but didn’t know that every new post would be advertised. I see Forever Joble$$ has that early Bluefire Poker orientation (quality > quantity). Well, now Bluefire Poker has a lot of quantity too. I took a 50% off deal so I left Bluefire to sign up with another training site and don’t think I made a great deal even though I got a year long membership for a much cheaper price. Next year I’ll be back to Bluefire, so I’m now all in for quality > quantity. If you come to Brasilia, capital of Brazil, I’ll be glad to show you the city.


  99. Nabarun

    Hi Billy,

    I traced this blog of yours from the Viperchill interview post. Your mindset is something I gel with and am trying to do the same with my blog (provide real value)

    Although I operate at a much lesser degree in terms of money than you yet the idea of giving utmost value rings a similar chord in me..Would love you to visit my blog and share your inputs as how to improve upon it.

    thankd buddy for the great post 🙂

    rgds

    Nabarun

    Reply
  100. J.J.

    When on flippa should I browse sites that are the most active? I saw this one was at the top of the list. Could it be a site that could fund a ferrari for 20k? Im sure it’ll get higher since theres 22 days left of the auction but just say you got it for 20k. It has 70 bids so far. Not sure if all these can be faked but it shows google analytic pdfs and many bank statements for the past year.

    https://flippa.com/2781556-250k-yr-profits-w-400k-income-truly-automated-turn-key-business-no-reserve

    Reply
    • Billy

      J.J. — that’s where the due diligence comes in. Dig in, and find out all the info. Then, you’ll have a different set of questions, that will help you get closer to an answer.

      Whether it’s active or not doesn’t matter to me. More obviously better sites will be active, but harder to see better sites won’t be.

      For example — one site I bought was listed in the wrong section, in a bad place for that site. It was a domain that was worth low to mid 5 figures, that I purchased for $2k.

      Look everywhere- put in a crazy amount of effort. That’s where the money is made. You’ll see a lot of things you won’t end up buying, but all the extra work is what will lead you to something other people won’t come across.

      Reply
  101. Rich Erd

    Salutations Billy! ✌ツ

    Just wanna say thanQ for confirming 2 investment decisions I made (1st for $27,000 back in 2009 & 2nd for almost $3,000 today) were both SMART #SomethingMoreAreRealizingToday decisions when EV #ExpectedValue comes into play! #nods I’m so glad I landed on your blog thru Greg Rollett’s Facebook about an hour ago & JUST MOMENTS AGO realized the payout from having majored in Statistics with an emphasis in Economics almost a decade ago! #FeelingGitty I will ‘expect’ to find more ‘valuable’ future posts from your blog~ thanQ once again! #nods iLoveStatistics!! ✌ツ

    Reply
  102. maheedhar

    billy u rock but there is not much content in your site need more

    Reply
  103. Talos

    Bill,

    Do I understand correctly? K bought a Ferrari by investing 20k and using the return to make the payments. So instead of “saving” for what you want like most people do to death, including myself, find ways to “invest” for what you want. Is that how it works??

    Reply
  104. Kate Phillips

    Love the post, Billy! Now you’ve got me looking for an article I used to share that talked about a guy who has a windfall and wants a boat, so he buys a rental house instead. He finances the boat with the rent payments from the tenants, and at the end of the day, he owns both the house and the boat outright, plus the house’s cash flow.

    Very “Rich Dad Poor Dad” – buy assets, not expenses!

    p.s. Lynn Terry sent me here. And now you’ve inspired me to blog about assets and expenses… will happily share green infographic.

    Reply
    • Marc

      Greetings from Amsterdam Billy! The article, like Kate Philips stated here, indeed reminds me of a book I read the other day: Rich Dad Poor Dad from Robert T. Kiyosaki. Please keep up writing articles like this 🙂

      Reply
    • Billy

      Exactly Kate! Thank you!- keep me posted on how your blog does.

      Reply
  105. Awais

    Hey,

    Found the blog via your Mixergy interview. I think you approach business and deals this way because of your poker background. You’re thinking in terms of Risk/Reward and probabilities (aka Expectancy) and most people don’t think that way.

    You’d make a good trader 🙂

    Good luck with the blog.

    -Awais

    Reply
  106. Rob

    This rivals even the thoughts of Richard Branson, because you don’t just say “You can do it, it can be done, look at me, I did it…” You actually connect the dots for people. I’ll be following!

    Reply
  107. Talos

    My second time asking this same question with no response, but other people were responded to waaaay after me. Should I take it personally, do I have to be on your email list just to get an answer? Here’s the question again from September 8, 2012:

    Do I understand correctly? K bought a Ferrari by investing 20k and using the return to make the payments. So instead of “saving” for what you want like most people do to death, including myself, find ways to “invest” for what you want. Is that how it works??

    Not a big deal to skip. Sorry for bothering you.

    Reply
    • Billy

      Hey Talos — you should take it personally 🙂

      jk

      Sorry for missing your first one- some posts get a lot of comments and I miss some and forget to go back.

      K intended to buy the Ferrari with the way listed, but as I mentioned in the post, someone paid more than the price we agreed while K was out of the country, so he ended up just buying it cash.

      Yes, the his intention initially was to buy it with the proceeds from the business, which would be enough to cover the Ferrari payments.

      Reply
  108. Mike p

    Interesting blog. I am a software engineer. I always have great ideas for developing online applications. I launch with fear, what happens next is I slack on updating the project. Thereafter I give up. It’s like I don’t use logic and take risk, while I waste time starting something I never finish. It’s failure, I wish that this advice you provided can simulate in my mind to be motivated instead of restarting simultaneous. Thanks.

    Reply
  109. Adam Ayer

    I have to agree with the 230+ other comments on here…your blog kicks ass. I came over from a fastlane forum and got hooked on your posts. Great job man.

    Reply
  110. Maruthi

    Hi Bill,

    I did not understand the K’s ferrari deal.Can you just explain in a simpler terms.

    Thanks

    Reply
  111. Rob

    This idea has been in my head for years…since reading about it in the 4 Hour Work Week. Now that my stores are netting over $1000 per month, by problem is I feel I can’t “waste” the money on something like a car…although I can lease a Lotus Evora for $1000 per month : )

    Anyone else feel guilty about spending on frivolous “stuff” or is it just me?

    Reply
  112. https://www.2pondo.com/ana/1213142

    Hi! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering
    which blog platform are you using for this site? I’m getting fed up of WordPress because I’ve had problems with hackers
    and I’m looking at alternatives for another platform. I would be awesome if you could
    point me in the direction of a good platform.

    Reply
  113. Jordan

    “The first store that I purchased last year was for $4,000. Within the first 4-5 months I had already made my money back on the store. Since the purchase, I’ve made over $15,000 from that one store.”

    How do you purchase a store? I suppose the more appropriate question would be; How do you get started with an investment in e-commerce?

    Reply
  114. Rich Cosh

    Your friend has a fantastic mentality! I first learned this type of thinking from Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad!

    Poor people buy luxuries that make them look rich.
    Rich people buy assets that pay for their luxuries.

    So simple, but so genius 🙂

    Reply

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