eBusiness Institute

Thomas Smale from FE International with Matt Raad

Where To Invest Your Money During A Recession?

When you want high returns with very low risks, you buy websites.

If you buy using our due diligence process, your websites will continue to grow in value while generating consistent cash flow each month.

But is that still the case during a recession?

That’s what we’re going to talk about with Thomas Smale, CEO and Co-Founder of FE International.

You’ll hear about the current state of the website marketplace, who’s buying online businesses, how valuations have changed, and much more, including if you should buy websites during a recession and what kind of websites to avoid if you’re a beginner.

If you’re not sure what to invest in during a recession, then check out this interview or read the article below.

Thomas Smale On Buying Website During a Recession…

Matt Raad: Hi again, everyone. It’s Matt Raad here, CEO and co-founder of eBusiness Institute where we teach beginners how to buy and sell online businesses. 

I’m excited today because we’re doing a follow-up interview with the CEO and co-founder of FE International, Thomas Smale, who we’ve known for many years. Thomas started online around the same time Liz and I bought and sold online businesses.

But what’s fascinating about Thomas’s journey, if you don’t know FE International, they are now one of the world’s leading M&A firms for large online business deals. These are seven and eight-figure deals, up to tens of millions. 

They have been recognised as one of America’s fastest-growing companies for the last three years running by the Financial Times. Plus, they’re a four times Ink. 5000 company and headquartered in New York. They have over 50 staff doing M&A deals, helping clients buy and sell websites and online businesses.

FE International is well known for doing these eight-figure deals, particularly with SaaS, eCommerce and content sites. So, we’re excited to have Thomas along today to give some insights into what’s happening in the marketplace of buying and selling websites

We caught up with Thomas in a previous interview about six months ago. I wanted to follow up because the world’s economy has changed a little since then. So, we want to hear it from the coal face of these high-end deals, and who better to speak to than Thomas Smale, CEO of FE International. 

Thanks, Thomas, for coming along.

Thomas Smale: Hi Matt, thanks for inviting me back.

Thomas Smale shares the current state of the market for buying online businesses

Matt:               I’m excited to get an update on what you are seeing out there. As I said, you are at that coal face of website sales, and I guess, in a way, you see firsthand what’s happening with the economy in terms of the high-end investors. 

I know there’s a lot of fear out there. There’s a lot of talk about recession, and we can see it in the share market, which is typically a leading indicator of the economy. 

From your end, and since we last spoke, have you seen much change regarding the volume of deals you’re doing? Or in the price of websites you’re selling?

Thomas:          So, it’s been quite interesting, because I think many people look at the stock market and say, “Oh, the stock market is down. The industry must be down as well.” 

But the reality is that online businesses are still relatively undiscovered. Valuations are still way below the public markets. So, there hasn’t really been any slowdown at a high level. Why is that happening? My main belief is that it’s still undervalued versus some other asset classes. 

The 3 main groups of investors buying online businesses

Thomas:          The other thing to consider when it comes to acquiring businesses is you generally have three main groups of buyers:

Type #1: Individuals

Thomas:          First, you have individuals.

An individual might be you and I, or yourself and Liz etc. It can also be an individual partnership: husband and wife, father, son, wife, daughter, whoever it might be. Generally, they’re using their own capital to buy a business.

They might be taking out a government-backed loan, or they may be buying with cash. It might be to quit their job or supplement their income. 

The buyers at this level generally acquire businesses below $5 million in valuation.

Type #2: Strategic Buyers

Thomas:          The second group are the strategic buyers. In this example, these are companies that are already operating and profitable and want to buy out a competitor. They want to buy a synergistic business to help grow their main business. 

Strategic buyers operate at any level, whether for a dollar or $10 billion. So, they’re everywhere. 

Type #3: Private Equity Investment Firms

Thomas:          The final group, probably the ones we do the most deals with, are private equity firms or investment groups. They generally raise money in two ways.

Either they go to a group of investors and get, say, a hundred investors who invest $500,000 each and now have a $50 million fund.

Some of them will just invest out of that fund. Others will raise debt to make acquisitions. So it might be that they have $50 million from investors, and then they have a bank willing to lend them $50 million. So, they have $100 million. 

Is there any slowdown of purchasing websites from these groups of buyers?

Thomas:          Deal volume is still very consistent across these three groups.

But, out of those three groups, the only real slowdown we’ve seen in the last six months is the private equity funds relying on debt. They were taking advantage of the historically low interest rates, primarily in the US where debt was very cheap. And so, if you had a fund, it made sense to use bank funding to get your deals done.

More deals now are happening to funds that just entirely rely on equity. 

Investor capital funds are still buying at exactly the same rate as before.

Have online business valuations changed?

Thomas:          Valuations have not really changed at all. Even in the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen some record deals where businesses have sold much higher than our original valuation. And we’re well-known for being very accurate with our valuations. So, to see companies selling well above their valuation is obviously a great result, but it’s also reasonably uncommon. 

I think it’s a sign that the market hasn’t really slowed down.

Good businesses will always sell. I don’t think there’s any economic cycle where people will not buy good businesses. – Thomas Smale, FE International 

And people who invest for a living (which I guess is our entire demographic) are constantly investing. You don’t suddenly stop investing because the market has slowed down. You must be investing in something. 

I think this is still undervalued compared to other asset classes you could be investing in. You’re buying a profitable business. I don’t think you can go wrong compared to other asset classes, which may have been overvalued.

Matt:               And I guess in a recession too.

Does a recession impact high-end buyer of websites?

Matt:               Liz and I started online in the last recession (GFC) in 2008. And we saw back then that websites are very high cash flow, and cash flow is always king. This is particularly true if you’re a full-time investor, which a lot of our audience are. Many are approaching retirement and are full-time investors. 

As you said, investing in a time of recession is still fantastic because you’re buying cash flow businesses. Plus, they’re very high cash flow, and you can also grab some bargains.

Website valuations and deal sizes have not changed for larger mergers & acquisitions

Matt:               Although, from the sounds of it, the bargains aren’t starting yet. Your valuations are still holding, and you are still achieving record sales, aren’t you?

Thomas:          From a sales side, yes. As an M&A firm, we represent the sellers, and our job is to get the best price possible. You’ll probably never get the best deals as a buyer through an M&A firm. 

There’s a trade-off between the certainty of process and somewhat certainty of buying a legitimate business and working with a motivated seller. That’s what you gain from working with an M&A firm and having a clean process. Buying privately also has its pros and cons. 

There has been a slowdown in Private Equity firms using debt

(…but normal Private Equity has not slowed at all…)

Thomas:          Maybe there’s a bit of a misconception, but people may have seen a slowdown in companies not being acquired outright. It’s venture capital into unprofitable businesses, and maybe they’ve been investing in speculative valuations at FE since day one.

When FE International was founded in 2010, we only ever represented profitable businesses. They’ve always been cash flow positive. We’ve never represented businesses that are speculative and loss-making. So for us, the demographic of clients we’ve always targeted has been buying positive cash flow businesses

We’re still selling cash flow positive businesses. If you had a venture capital fund investing in fast-growth companies, those valuations have completely changed. But to be honest, it’s not a market I know much about. And it’s not anything I pretend to know about or operate in.

Is a recession the best time to buy an online business?

Matt:               You mentioned something interesting when we were talking earlier. From your experience as a broker over the last decade, no matter what the economy’s doing, the state of the economy doesn’t really affect business. 

This is something I’ve been trying to tell our community as well. We used to be involved in brick-and-mortar businesses that are much harder to sell when a recession hits. 

But it’s something we’ve observed ourselves over the last 30 years of being in business. It doesn’t matter if the economy goes up or down; it doesn’t seem to affect business sales, does it? There are always buyers around. 

Here’s why individuals are more likely to buy online businesses during a recession

Matt:               You said something interesting to me, which I’d like you to repeat to our readers.

Even with small buyers (say, like Ma and Pa buyers that you see in America), some people are losing jobs, and one of the things they’ll do is go and buy a business.

Thomas:          Yes, I think that’s interesting. When people want to buy a business, there are many reasons they might create psychological barriers for themselves. Like, “I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve never run a business before. I don’t know how to be a CEO. I don’t know anything about eCommerce. I’m not a marketer.” Whatever the reason might be. 

And then some people have actual physical barriers, which might be, “I don’t actually have any money, or I don’t have enough money to buy the business I want. I have a full-time job. I physically don’t have the time to run a business.” Whatever that reason might be. 

Unemployment hasn’t really increased that much just yet. But when a recession hits and a lot of people lose their jobs, you might think that’s the worst time to buy a business. 

For many, a recession becomes the best time to buy an online business

Thomas:          The reality is, for a lot of people, that becomes the best time to buy a business. Many of the previous excuses (legitimate or otherwise) have suddenly gone away, and people then find a way to get things done. They’ll be more motivated to buy a business and close the deal, where previously, they maybe didn’t have the time

You can pretty much guarantee if someone’s lost their job and they have a mortgage and kids to pay for, they’re going to be working more than they would’ve been if they had their nice secure, safe government job or whatever it might have been. 

Whatever happens in the market and the macroeconomy, people always want the potential freedom of buying and owning their own business.

That doesn’t go away regardless of the economic conditions.

If anything (and I don’t have a huge theory about this), a recession is probably better for buying businesses. When things are booming, people work for a start-up and have their stock options; the stock options are increasing in value on paper every year. You can invest in the stock market and make 20% a year doing nothing. 

So, buying a business has to be quite a compelling proposition for you to want to buy it because there’s easy money to make elsewhere.

Website businesses are outperforming the stock market in 2022

Thomas:          Right now, particularly in the US, if you had your money in the markets at the beginning of the year (which I personally did not, fortunately), I think you’ve probably lost around 20% of your money. 

Instead, if you had bought a boring cash-flow business and let’s say (keeping it simple), it paid five times multiple, a million dollars. You have a business kicking off $200,000 a year, or you can put your million dollars in the market and now have $800,000. 

So, I think there are always good opportunities. And I think if you’ve been on the fence, now is a good time to revisit buying a business.

Matt:               I love that analogy, and you’re right. When it’s easy, it’s like Warren Buffett says, “Always invest in assets that throw off cash, like businesses.” That’s why he doesn’t invest in gold.

You’re taking it one step further by comparing it to the share market. Rather than investing a million dollars in the share market, if you put that into a good online business, you’re still throwing off $200,000 cash a year. And you’ve got an asset that, as we hear from Thomas, you can still sell for a million dollars. The valuations haven’t come down at this point.

And it is good to reiterate (and it’s certainly been our observation as well) that no matter what the economy’s doing, businesses are constantly being bought and sold

How the state of the economy hasn’t been affecting website businesses being sold

Matt:               So, the volumes haven’t changed out there for you guys? And you are hiring staff too?

Thomas:          We’re always hiring and continually growing. I’d say we’ve pretty much seen an increase in deal volume or total deal value every year since we first launched

Obviously, we’re only halfway through the year (and we’re not even halfway through our fiscal year because, technically, we start beginning of March), but I don’t expect to see less volume this year than last.

Matt:               Awesome.

How eCommerce sites can be tricky for beginners

Thomas shares his views on running eCommerce sites compared to simple Content sites…

Matt:               So now changing gears slightly. We teach professional people who want to quit their jobs and buy online businesses. And in particular, our strategy is buying content sites. We don’t do eCommerce because of Liz and my background.

We started our business lives with the manufacturing business and wholesale import businesses. So that’s a bricks-and-mortar business, and they’re really tough to run as a young entrepreneur. You’re always in debt; all your net worth’s tied up in stock in a warehouse somewhere. So, that’s what shaped us. 

It’s interesting talking to you because you do these significant seven and eight-figure deals with eCommerce sites. But if you think about our community, Thomas, who are mostly beginners learning how to buy and build websites. 

What are your thoughts for a beginner getting into the online space in eCommerce? Or someone even for someone who is ex-corporate and has half a million to 2 million dollars to spend on a website. Now that you can look back over decades of experience in this space, what’s your observation?

Thomas:          I think it can be difficult. 

Here’s why eCommerce websites work well for larger buyers…

Thomas:          Many eCommerce deals we sell are to funds with the operating ability to maybe have ten businesses in their portfolio. They can handle the logistics of a supply chain. And they also have access to capital, if to your point, maybe you need to take out a loan to buy some inventory. 

So, from a cash flow perspective, over the long run, your total return from eCommerce business is just as good as any other. 

SaaS and content businesses are the other two types we primarily work on. Over the long term, your total return from those three business models will be very similar. But in the short term, you can be in a bit of a cash crunch in an eCommerce business because you have to invest in inventory.

…And why Content websites suit individual investors

Thomas:          I think a lot of it depends on your skillset. But assuming you are literate (you can read and write), anyone can run a content business because the content is just content. 

I’ve been to your events in person and have met many of your students. So, I know a lot of them come from a professional background.

But regardless of your background, every single person has a skill from a content perspective. They have skills that are adding value or are valuable to someone. Maybe you have experience in banking, mining, finance, real estate, or manufacturing, whatever it might be. There’s always a content business (or multiple content businesses) that could be built around that.

It’s the same with eCommerce. I think most people have a background where they could produce a physical product that could be sellable to the demographic they know. The challenge with eCommerce is you add way more variables. You need to find a supplier and deal with the supply chain, logistics, postage, etc. And that creates a bit of a barrier to entry.

Based on what you would describe as a beginner (someone buying a business for the first time), maybe an eCommerce business is not the best business to buy. Compare that to a content business, which is significantly simpler to operate. 

The concept of eCommerce sites suits a lot of people’s idea of investing…

Thomas:          We often find that first-time buyers buy eCommerce businesses and really like them. And the reason they do that is because they love the idea of a physical product.

I can say to anyone, “Hey, we’re selling pens.” Everyone has a pen, so they would get the idea, “Okay, I can buy this pen for 20 cents and sell it for a dollar.” That makes sense to everybody. 

Whereas content is a bit more difficult because you are like, “Okay, we are going to write about pens, and people are going to click on the ads and make money.” If a thousand people visit and a hundred people click on the ad and you make a dollar a click, you’ve made a hundred dollars. That’s conceptually a bit harder for people to understand.

…But they are much harder to operate and tie up cash flow

Thomas:          So personally, my belief is first-time buyers should look at content businesses. But I totally get why you might look at eCommerce as well. It has more variables that can be a bit more difficult when starting, particularly if you’re relying on that business for cash flow. 

It’s completely different if you’re looking at it as a long-term investment where you don’t mind having cash tied up in inventory. But it can be a little bit more difficult if you are using that to pay your mortgage.

Matt:               So, for our readers, if you’re looking for quick cash flow, look at content sites.

It’s an interesting observation from Thomas, a world-leading broker in selling websites. Conceptually, content sites seem a little bit trickier on the surface. And Liz and I’ve noticed this too.

But we also see that people seem to love the idea of buying something for 20 cents and selling it for a dollar. That’s simple as a physical product, but we know there are a lot more moving parts. 

Whereas with the content site, once you understand the concept, it’s much easier to execute. And as you just said, Thomas, if you need the cash flow, then content sites are just a no-brainer compared to eCommerce. Because with eCommerce, you’re always putting money back in inventory. 

That’s our experience in manufacturing and owning wholesale import businesses. So that’s a fascinating point there.

3 key things that turns a 7-figure website into 8-figures

Matt:               Moving on to my next question, because obviously Liz and I are passionate about content sites. That’s what we live for and it’s what we teach. We set up this whole business where we teach people about buying and selling websites

I’m interested in your experience, Thomas, because there’s been a lot of fear and gloom out there. But obviously, it’s not affecting what you see at the high end. 

Looking back over your journey in the last decade, you’ve been at the forefront of M&As in the eight-figure range.

What do you think is the difference between an eight-figure content site versus a seven-figure content site? Because you and I know there are many seven-figure content sites out there. We’re coming across them all the time, and I’m not going to say they’re cliche or anything like that. They’re awesome.

But to make that exponential step to turning it into a $10 million plus site, what do you think makes a difference here? What things have you observed?

Thomas:          It’s generally one of two things.

Factor #1: The type of monetization the site uses

Thomas:          Firstly, at scale, they might have moved away from selling ads or an affiliate-based model and moved towards selling their own product. And I’m not about talking about physical products. I’m talking about certification or a course. 

So instead of selling an affiliate product for $100 where you’re getting 20% commission, you’re selling a course for, say, $100, but you’re keeping it all. 

For the eight-figure businesses we generally see, most of their income comes from a digital product (or digital products) they’re selling. 

We’ve seen a few eight-figure deals based on ad or affiliate-based income.

Factor #2: Producing volume of quality content

Thomas:          Generally, the only real difference between them and a seven-figure business (or a five or six-figure business) is pure volume and scale of content production.

I remember a couple of years ago when I met a business we represented and sold for eight figures. All of its revenue was from the Amazon affiliate program. So it didn’t have its own product. It wasn’t selling ads and wasn’t selling high-end products. 

The average product they sold on the site was $50 through the Amazon affiliate program. So, they were selling a vast number of products. When I first met them, I almost didn’t believe their numbers! 

They were producing something like a million words of content a month. I’ve been in this industry a long time, and I couldn’t even comprehend that volume as possible. 

And this was not automated content either. They had real writers, but they had built a very scalable system for content production. They had an editorial team and were producing a massive amount of content.

Remember – your content must be high-quality and add value to your readers! If you’re not the expert, then hire someone who is…

Thomas:          So, the only real difference between a $1 million content site and a $10 million content site would likely be the $10 million site producing ten times more content. I know it seems like that’s a stupid answer. It’s like, “Oh, Thomas, of course that’s true.” But most people don’t really believe it’s that simple. 

Most people think that it has to be far more complex. Maybe they have better subject matter knowledge. But the guys running the site didn’t know anything about the products they were selling more than you and I would. And they weren’t writing about it anyway. They had expert writers they were hiring. 

It’s the ability to produce high-quality content at scale. But not just scale; it also must be high-quality content. 

Factor #3: How you market your content (get it found online)

Thomas:          The third thing is you need to have a really good marketing engine behind it. It’s all very well producing content, but people must read it

So be good at SEO, getting distribution on social media, building an email list, all the basics, but doing it really well. Producing content that people want to share, creating content people want to link to

Yes, you can do manual link building, outreach, and all that stuff. But at scale, if you’re producing a million words of content a month, you can’t be growing that business purely from your own outreach. It’s impossible at that scale. You need people to be organically linking to you. 

So, it seems like a really stupid, lazy answer. But if you ask me, what’s the difference between a five-figure site and a six-figure site? It’s usually the same. It’s just volume and quality of content. 

You can’t just produce one really high-quality piece of content, and you can’t produce a hundred pieces of unreadable content. Ten really high-quality posts are far better than a hundred bad quality or just one amazing piece.

Content websites are much easier to run then you might think

Matt:               That is brilliant. And I can remember when you sold that 8-figure website. You were really excited. It was one of those first big sales you did in the eight figures. Liz and I went out for dinner with you when you came to Australia and told us about it. And then you spoke about it the next day at our Bootcamp.

Thomas:          Yes, it was the same business I was talking about.

Matt:               And I remember you blew everyone away, and you said exactly what you said back then – you could not believe how simple this is. It was just run on an Excel spreadsheet

And, as you said, it’s just scaling that content. Thank you so much for reiterating and sharing your experience. 

If you want to go bigger with a content site, it’s as simple as just scaling it up.

That’s what you’ve got to work towards. You’re just scaling that content. It is that simple, and that’s what I love about it.

Obviously, it takes some time to learn how to do that, but that’s what we teach here at eBusiness Institute. And, of course, I’m going to give a plug for that. 

What would Thomas Smale do if he had $100,000 to invest?

Matt:               That leads me to the next question for you, Thomas. 

In this marketplace, if you were someone in our community with about $100,000 to invest. Where do you see the great opportunities now for investing? And they’re not going to do the eCommerce website strategy; this is in content sites. 

I’m not asking for an outright recommendation, financial advisory, or anything. But say you’ve got $100,000 – $500,000 to invest into some websites. What are your thoughts there? 

What do you see as the best opportunities coming up over the next 12 months?

Thomas:          It’s a fascinating question, and there are many different ways to approach it.

Consideration #1: Focus on one business

Thomas:          My opinion on this has changed over the years. I’d probably just buy one business. I wouldn’t buy five; I’d buy one.

Matt:               Okay, interesting.

Consideration #2: Buy in a niche you’re interested in

Thomas:          I would buy something that I’m interested in, or at least have an understanding of. This is particularly important in the content space because it’s difficult to know whether the content is good. 

I personally play golf, so I know a bit about it. So, if I’ve read some content about golf, which was clearly nonsense, then I would know it’s nonsense. And if it had been written by a professional, I could probably tell that just from the fact I know about that industry. 

But if you wrote something about horses, I know nothing about horses. So if I reviewed the content, I would have no clue if their article reviewing the best saddles was good or not. 

I do think particularly for your first business before you build a team it’s important to find something that you at least understand (or have some sort of interest in). Because the reality is at that level, you probably have to do a reasonable amount of work yourself.

Consideration #3: Apply the 80/20 rule to your investment capital

Thomas:          I would probably spend 80% of the cash on the actual acquisition itself

That includes all the expenses related to the acquisition. So, let’s say you buy for $100,000, try and invest:

  • $80,000 in the business,
  • And use the $20,000 you have left to improve the site. 

The site might have a fantastic design, and it might convert really well. But (particularly if you’re buying it for $80,000), it might be a site with 20 pages of content, and only three of them are ranking well for anything. And they’re the pages bringing in all the money. 

How should you spend your 20% capital?

Thomas:          The lazy answer to this question would just be to produce more content. Take your $20,000, spend:

  • $10,000 creating 50 great pieces of content for $200 each,
  • Use the other $10,000 promoting that content.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be equally distributed. But maybe something like $200 per article, then perhaps do some social media promotion. Maybe you can invest in some SEO. You can do many different things to distribute content, but that will give you a kickstart. 

The benefit of buying a website v’s building from scratch

Thomas:          The great thing about buying a business versus launching one from scratch is you can guarantee it’s already established and making money (and already has traffic). So, you remove any of those variables. 

And then there’s the worst-case scenario. Say if every piece of content you produce does nothing (and you see zero increase in the business), you still have a business worth $80,000, probably making 20,000 a year. So, you make money back that you’ve invested. 

And the reality is for most pieces of quality content; it’s unlikely it will be completely worthless. It might just be that the ROI from that content takes a bit longer. So you might not see any results for 12 months and be like, “Oh, Thomas told me to invest $10,000 in content, and it hasn’t gone anywhere.” 

But then, in 12 months, you might start to see its ranking. A particular keyword’s now positioned 13 on page two of Google. No one is reading that. But then three weeks later, you might jump up to position five, and suddenly that article has a trickle of traffic. 

Why it pays to be patient with SEO results for content sites

Thomas:          One thing I will say with content sites; if you are producing content at any scale, you have to be patient.

A lot of the time, the people who fail aren’t because they produced bad content. It’s because they gave up.

They were like, “Well, that didn’t work. I will get a job because the online business doesn’t work.” 

It’s not that it doesn’t work. It’s because they were not patient enough.

Matt:               That’s brilliant, and that’s what we see all the time. We are here to help people stay on the path and stick at it because it takes time. And things can go exponential once they do start taking off. 

Like the business you sold, that first big eight-figure content site, I remember you saying at our Bootcamp, “Look, these guys posted stuff. It was around 12 months later that some of the articles started ranking. And sometimes for keywords they didn’t even expect.” 

Three key points are:

  1. Look at maybe just buying one quality business, and you definitely should contact Thomas about that. 
  2. Buy in a space you’re interested in.
  3. Spend 80% on the acquisition and 20% on improving it, including content. And at the end of the day, you’ve still got a valuable asset. Even if that content doesn’t work, the money is still there. You’re still generating a return of 20% each year. 

So that is absolutely fantastic. Thanks so much for those golden nuggets, Thomas.

How to contact FE International for buying and selling websites

Matt:               If people want to contact you about either buying or selling their online businesses, what’s the best way to get in touch with FE International?

Thomas:          We have a new website since we last spoke. I know you were very happy to see that, Matt.

Matt:               It looks very professional.

Thomas:          So, go to the feinternational.com website. It’s now easier to navigate around. 

If you want to buy a business, there are different sections for buying. And if you want to sell a business, we offer anyone a free valuation. 

If you’re on social media, our team are pretty active on LinkedInTwitter and Facebook. So whatever your favourite platform is, you can probably find me. I’m pretty active on each of those. And you can follow the company socials too. 

You may also want to sign up for our newsletter; we have blog content and white papers. Depending on the kind of content you like, you’ll find something that’s relevant.

FE International specializes in 7 and 8-figure website deals

Matt:               Just to reiterate, FE International specialises in seven and eight-figure deals, particularly with content sites, eCommerce, and SaaS. And they’re very well known for it. 

So, definitely reach out to Thomas and his team if you’re interested in selling or buying one of those styles of online businesses. 

Thomas, I want to thank you for coming along and giving such awesome insights and tips. It’s always fantastic to hear from you, particularly because you’re at that coal face, and it’s so cool to hear. 

I want to say a personal thank you for sharing so openly how you do not see any difference in the marketplace. Recession or not, business sales are always there. They’re always around, and this market exists. It’s not like it’s peaked and is about to crash. It always is happening. 

And so, thank you so much for that, Thomas. It’s unreal having you along again today.

Thomas:          Well, thanks so much for inviting me back. It’s appreciated.

Want to learn more about investing in online businesses?

Matt:               And, of course, if you’re just starting your digital journey and want to learn more about how you can do this, I would highly recommend our free masterclass on how to buy a website.

We will show you the outline of the strategy that Liz and I (and everyone in our community) follow. It’s a 90-minute training session where we go through the whole strategy covering examples exactly of what Thomas and I have talked about today.