Podcasts about income store

From a failed investment with the Income Store, to successful online Amazon FBA and affiliates sites, we'll hear about the importance of persistence – especially when trying to have success with online business! Blair Quane has many years of experience in business — both failures and successes. We'll also cover this week's SEO tip — … Podcast: Persistence in Online Business — an Interview with Blair Quane of EmilyAndBlair.com Read More »

We discuss:An Income Store court case updateAWAY Travel has a sale, DTC Twitter takes noticeGymShark's billion dollar valuationAnd then we tear down the Gymshark store.Links MentionedIncome Store ReceivershipAttorneys Quitting? (Income Store Update)Emilia Gardner's Income Store YouTube PlaylistAWAY TravelIs Gymshark worth $1.4 Billion?Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company, Part 2 - Sahil Lavingia, Gumroad's founder, shares what he's learned along the way about strategy, product, and growthGymSharkSponsorsGet powerful marketing automation with Klaviyo's revenue-driving email platformTry Bold Product Upsell, free trialSave 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify theme - Use code KURT20 at checkoutImprove your shop's search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta ManagerNever miss an episodeSubscribe wherever you get your podcastsJoin Kurt's newsletterHelp the showAsk a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook GroupLeave a reviewSubscribe wherever you get your podcastsWhat's Kurt up to?See our recent work at EthercycleSubscribe to our YouTube ChannelApply to work with Kurt to grow your store.

Our guest today has a long track record with ecommerce: both successes and failures. We're joined by Ryan Daniel Moran, founder of Freedom Fast Lane and Capitalism.com, to discuss what he believes are the fundamental appraoches that create the enduring ecommerce success stories.Key Moments:How the Income Store affected himWhy the pandemic can be good for youThe dangers of short term decisionsWhat most entreprenuers get wrong when scales 7-figure businessesRyan's product & audience formulas for successAs a serial entrepreneur, author, speaker, and investor, Ryan's main focus is on creating lifestyle freedom --- helping people create lasting businesses and investing the profits, while enjoying a higher quality of life, and working less.In addition to operating, selling, and investing in multiple million dollar ecommerce brands, Ryan is best known for his work at Freedom Fast Lane - where he leads "The Tribe" and helps entrepreneurs develop their business plan, get results rapidly, and invest for passive income.In The Tribe, he is responsible for creating 100+ millionaires, many of which occurred in 12 months or less following his philosophies on creating products people want, marketing them profitably, and creating life-long customers and brand evangelist.Ryan's mission is to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs to create jobs, contribute to the economy, and uplift their families and local communities to create a better world.Links MentionedCapitalism12 Months to $1 Million: How to Pick a Winning Product, Build a Real Business, and Become a Seven-Figure Entrepreneur Kindle EditionSponsorsGet powerful marketing automation with Klaviyo's revenue-driving email platformTry Bold Product Upsell, free trialSave 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify theme - Use code PODCAST20 at checkoutImprove your shop's search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta ManagerNever miss an episodeSubscribe wherever you get your podcastsJoin Kurt's newsletterHelp the showAsk a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook GroupLeave a reviewSubscribe wherever you get your podcastsWhat's Kurt up to?See our recent work at EthercycleSubscribe to our YouTube ChannelApply to work with Kurt to grow your store.

In today's episode we start with an update on the SEC v. The Income Store. They've fired back at the SEC's Receiver for not “maintaining” the sites at the level they need to be run at, and some new details are revealed.Then we answer the top questions we've heard from Shopify merchants on the impact of COVID-19:What advice do you have for a company that sells products that people aren't buying right now? How can we maintain our business?We have seen a spike in new business due to COVID-19, how do we keep things going after things return to normal?We have seen a spike in traffic in recent weeks but people aren't converting...how can we take advantage of increased traffic?We are a retail business that's starting to sell online for the first time. What advice do you have for businesses starting to sell on Shopify?What's the best offer we could be running to get people to shop?Plus, Paul bought a house.

This episode is also available on YouTube: Last month we told you about the SEC's case against the Income Store, an investment firm that purchased over Shopify stores.On January 14th, the SEC announced that, "it filed an emergency enforcement action and obtained a temporary restraining order and asset freeze against Illinois resident Kenneth D. Courtright, III and his company, Todays Growth Consultant Inc., in connection with an alleged Ponzi-like scheme that raised at least $75 million from more than 500 investors throughout the United States and abroad."Since then, the SEC has established an receivership and published loads of documents about the case.In this episode, Paul takes us on a deep dive into the SEC's handling of The Income Store.Links Mentionedincomestorereceivership.comSEC StatementChicago Tribune: SEC freezes assets of suburban owner of The Income Store, allegedly a $75 million Ponzi-like website investment schemeNever miss an episodeSubscribe wherever you get your podcastsJoin Kurt's newsletterHelp the showAsk a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook GroupLeave a reviewSubscribe wherever you get your podcastsWhat's Kurt up to?See our recent work at EthercycleSubscribe to our YouTube ChannelApply to work with Kurt to grow your store.SponsorsGet powerful marketing automation with Klaviyo's revenue-driving email platformTry Bold Product Upsell, free trialSave 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify theme - Use code PODCAST20 at checkoutImprove your shop's search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta Manager

Last Spring, a listener invited me to lunch with the Courtrights, a couple who ran a business that invested in Shopify stores– hundreds of Shopify stores– and offered a guaranteed rate of return to investors.On January 14th, the SEC announced that, "it filed an emergency enforcement action and obtained a temporary restraining order and asset freeze against Illinois resident Kenneth D. Courtright, III and his company, Todays Growth Consultant Inc., in connection with an alleged Ponzi-like scheme that raised at least $75 million from more than 500 investors throughout the United States and abroad."Let's unpack that.Links MentionedSEC StatementChicago Tribune: SEC freezes assets of suburban owner of The Income Store, allegedly a $75 million Ponzi-like website investment schemeNever miss an episodeSubscribe wherever you get your podcastsJoin Kurt's newsletterHelp the showAsk a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook GroupLeave a reviewSubscribe wherever you get your podcastsWhat's Kurt up to?See our recent work at EthercycleSubscribe to our YouTube ChannelApply to work with Kurt to grow your store.SponsorsGet powerful marketing automation with Klaviyo's revenue-driving email platformTry Bold Product Upsell, free trialSave 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify theme - Use code PODCAST20 at checkoutImprove your shop's search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta Manager

"Through 150+ podcasts, Ken & Kerri Courtright show exactly how they grew their company to become a 5X Inc.5000 honoree. They explain, in detail, what growth formulas they've used at Income Store (https://incomestore.com/) as well as many of the techniques used by consulting 3100 clients in 25 years." The Income Store

Ken Courtright has proven once again that you just never know until you ask. Ken owns Income Store which operates about 1,000 revenue-generating websites. He has set a goal two years back of getting a CEO for the company, and not just any CEO but one that his people would immediately respect. Having been introduced and worked on a quick packet with a gentleman introduced by a common associate, Ken never thought that he would call upon a person of such impressive resume to come out of retirement to run Income Store. He did ask anyway and his offer letter was accepted. That just goes to show once again that you never know who should be leading your operation until you ask. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join Today’s Growth community today: kencourtright.com Today’s Growth Twitter Ken Courtright LinkedIn

Ken Courtright has proven once again that you just never know until you ask. Ken owns Income Store which operates about 1,000 revenue-generating websites. He has set a goal two years back of getting a CEO for the company, and not just any CEO but one that his people would immediately respect. Having been introduced […]

Owning a portfolio of over 100 revenue-generating websites may sound impressive, but it can be more pain than it’s worth, especially if you put your trust in the wrong partners. There are so many details, financing options, manageability, scalability, performance metrics, valuation, negotiation and due diligence. Googling for the answers is not going to cut it. Doing adequate or even deep due diligence is the linchpin. My guest for this episode knows that better than anyone. At one point, Tom Shieh owned a portfolio of over 100 websites. He was making bank so much in fact that he was able to travel the world in Tony Robbins Elite Platinum Partnership, which is a six-figure investment per year. That’s where I first met Tom, by the way. Since then, Tom has lost nearly all of those 100 websites in an elaborate swindle. These days, Tom owns and operates Crimcheck, a company that does criminal background checks of potential hires and potential business partners. If you ever plan on building a portfolio of multiple websites, buying a business or website, going into business with anyone or selling your business for that matter, this episode is a must read. If all you get out of this episode is Tom’s due diligence checklist, you will save yourself a fortune. Also, make sure you check out my interview with Ken Courtright, cofounder of Income Store for more amazing tips on building up a portfolio of revenue generating websites to the tune of eight figures.

If you run an online business, you know that it can be tough to keep the revenue flowing. There's so much competition out there these days, you've got to stay ahead of the curve. That's exactly what today's guest serial entrepreneur Ken Courtright does so well. His company, Income Store, operates about a thousand revenue-generating websites, and the portfolio expands every year. The company has been in the Inc. 5000 list for the past four years consecutively, which is no small feat. Ken has not only achieved success, he's systematized it. Stay tuned to learn his secret formula for massive growth and scaling online success. This episode is absolutely a must-listen for anyone interested in online marketing or entrepreneurship. Get ready for some truly game-changing insights.

Achieving growth means having to agree on a goal that your company, your business partner, or your client agreed upon. This agreement is called statusing back in the day from Jack Welch of Six Sigma. Ken shares the goals of Income Store, what he is statusing, and what their critical drivers are. Laying out the […]

Achieving growth means having to agree on a goal that your company, your business partner, or your client agreed upon. This agreement is called statusing back in the day from Jack Welch of Six Sigma. Ken shares the goals of Income Store, what he is statusing, and what their critical drivers are. Laying out the processes, he guides you into getting a good view on how you can do the same for your business to also propel you forward to growth. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join Today’s Growth community today: kencourtright.com Today’s Growth Twitter Ken Courtright LinkedIn

In episode #665, Eric and Neil tell you what you should do instead of starting a business. Tune in to hear why you don’t have to start your own business. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Forget Starting a Business, Do This Instead [00:46] Neil thinks starting a business is one of the hardest things to do. It is far easier to buy a business. [01:25] Buy a company and grow it. [01:48] Income Store has over 800 websites. They buy other websites and promise a return to their investors. [02:09] They brought in $28 Million last year. [02:29] If you think you can’t afford to buy a business, you can always do cellar-based financing where you pay a monthly fee. [02:53] You can do a lot of creative things to cut costs and improve profits. [03:05] You can also only buy a portion of the company and include a clause where you can buy them out in the future. [03:34] FE International has great content about buying businesses. [03:45] Buy Biz Sell, Flippa, and Empire Flipper are also great resources. [04:02] If you are looking for low-cost deals, Flippa and Empire Flipper are good for that. [04:34] Neil’s favorite business purchases are blogs that aren’t properly monetized. [04:45] Buy a business once you have proven that you can grow someone else's business. [05:00] Use those skills to grow your own site. [05:30] Grow things on your own and once you're confident, buy a business. [05:34] That’s all for today! [05:37] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway! Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In episode #665, Eric and Neil tell you what you should do instead of starting a business. Tune in to hear why you don't have to start your own business. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today's Topic: Forget Starting a Business, Do This Instead [00:46] Neil thinks starting a business is one of the hardest things to do. It is far easier to buy a business. [01:25] Buy a company and grow it. [01:48] Income Store has over 800 websites. They buy other websites and promise a return to their investors. [02:09] They brought in $28 Million last year. [02:29] If you think you can't afford to buy a business, you can always do cellar-based financing where you pay a monthly fee. [02:53] You can do a lot of creative things to cut costs and improve profits. [03:05] You can also only buy a portion of the company and include a clause where you can buy them out in the future. [03:34] FE International has great content about buying businesses. [03:45] Buy Biz Sell, Flippa, and Empire Flipper are also great resources. [04:02] If you are looking for low-cost deals, Flippa and Empire Flipper are good for that. [04:34] Neil's favorite business purchases are blogs that aren't properly monetized. [04:45] Buy a business once you have proven that you can grow someone else's business. [05:00] Use those skills to grow your own site. [05:30] Grow things on your own and once you're confident, buy a business. [05:34] That's all for today! [05:37] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway! Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

Google will find you if you do a great job indexing yourself and if you show up and deliver the service or product that you are marketing. Getting 50,000 searches isn’t impressive to Sean Kavanaugh. It means you’re popular and that’s all. What he says you need to ask yourself is are you there for those people that find you valuable? Sean explains how authority website power has been misunderstood. The common misconception has been that if someone types their name on Google, they need to come up first. Content marketing goes beyond that and helps you capture people who don’t know about you, but need your service or product. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join Feed Your Brand community today: FeedYourBrand.co Feed Your Brand Facebook Feed Your Brand Instagram Feed Your Brand LinkedIn Feed Your Brand Pinterest Feed Your Brand Youtube

Google will find you if you do a great job indexing yourself and if you show up and deliver the service or product that you are marketing. Getting 50,000 searches isn't impressive to Sean Kavanaugh. It means you're popular and that's all. What he says you need to ask yourself is are you there for those people that find you valuable? Sean explains how authority website power has been misunderstood. The common misconception has been that if someone types their name on Google, they need to come up first. Content marketing goes beyond that and helps you capture people who don't know about you, but need your service or product. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join Feed Your Brand community today: FeedYourBrand.co Feed Your Brand Facebook Feed Your Brand Instagram Feed Your Brand LinkedIn Feed Your Brand Pinterest Feed Your Brand Youtube

Google will find you if you do a great job indexing yourself and if you show up and deliver the service or product that you are marketing. Getting 50,000 searches isn’t impressive to Sean Kavanaugh. It means you’re popular and that’s all. What he says you need to ask yourself is are you there for […]

Every company struggles to find good employees. Where can you find them? Well it isn’t easy for certain. The most effective way is to put out feelers in multiple places. Listen to Ken as he touches on how Income Store has hired some of their best employees. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join Today’s Growth community today: kencourtright.com Today’s Growth Twitter Ken Courtright LinkedIn

Every company struggles to find good employees. Where can you find them? Well it isn’t easy for certain. The most effective way is to put out feelers in multiple places. Listen to Ken as he touches on how Income Store has hired some of their best employees.   Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and […]

One of the best ways to attain success is to find a mentor (someone who has already accomplished something that you would like to) and learn from them. Ken Courtright is a father, husband, Serial Entrepreneur and podcaster. As the founder of Todays Growth Consultants and Income Store, Ken assists people in creating, growing and […] The post Episode 008 – Interview with Ken Courtright appeared first on Success Left A Clue.

Ken Courtright is the founder of Today’s Growth Consultant, a two-time Inc. 5000 designee with revenues that have doubled in each of the last 5 years. Started in 1992, the company is now an international, multimillion-dollar enterprise. TGC has worked with over 3,300 companies in 49 states. Ken is the author of the upcoming book Guerilla Marketing Today, part of the best-selling Guerilla Marketing series, and best-selling author of Online Income: Navigating the Internet Minefield and co-author with Brian Tracy of Against The Grain. He is currently working on his next book Trust Trumps Everything: Why Your Digital Footprint Determines Your Income. He's a popular speaker for business and academic groups. As a regularly requested guest on business growth Ken has been interviewed by WGN in Chicago, The Daily Herald, The Biography Channel, A&E and USA Today, among others. In 2012 Today’s Growth Consultant launched “Income Store” which helps individuals, companies and private equity firms buy revenue-generating websites at two times earnings. He lives with his wife, Kerri, and their three children outside of Chicago. Here's the transcript: Interview with Ken Courtright Hugh: Ken, what does legacy mean to you, and how are you creating legacy? Ken: Kerri and I have spoken of legacy since day one, since 1992, before children. We were talking about getting into business, creating at least a very strong revenue stream. In the mid-to-late ‘90s, it switched to a desire for multiple revenue streams. Then it became vocal, and we even did a dream board of it in 2006 to where we wanted to ensure that our children started on our shoulders. What I mean by that is we don’t want to spoil our kids. As a matter of fact, our second oldest and our youngest—we have four kids—are at coding camp this summer. They were learning Python and other coding languages. Our oldest daughter, she is 18, just spent ten days at our corporate office in Pennsylvania studying under our chief marketing officer and one of our creative directors so she can work part-time for us when she goes off to college. Our view is we had some very difficult times in 1999 financially. To put it lightly, we couldn’t wait to be broke. We were in such debt. We were in such a financial situation. We couldn’t wait just to have no money, to not owe people. What we wanted to do was: How do we raise four children in a way where we don’t spoil them; we don’t give them too much; they work for what they get; they have a complete respect for money, time, work, and effort; but at the same time, when they hit young adulthood, they are physically standing on our shoulders with a different vantage point? I don’t want them pulling cones at Dairy Queen, not that that’s bad. I want them getting a different vision, and I want them to be able to hit the ground running financially. At a very young age, we started teaching them about savings accounts, just like how my dad between 16 and 18 years old brainwashed me that I will not have a credit card, I will pay my home off in five years, and I will buy used cars until I can afford a new car. I lived exactly the lifestyle of my father. We had 17 years in a one-bathroom home with multiple children. We delayed gratification, where the rest of my friends were driving fancy cars and living in massive homes. Today, we have the fancy cars and the massive home on a private ski lake. But because we delayed gratification for so long, our children understand how we did it, why we did it, and more importantly, when we did it. We did it in our 40’s. We didn’t go out and buy a massive home in our upper 20’s to mid 30’s when we could have. We absolutely could have, but we taught our kids through example what it means in this very difficult society of keeping up with the Jones’s to delay gratification. That gets us to legacy. We also started a business that has evolved overtime that allows my wife and me well over 100 different revenue streams that are all independent of each other. If one or three or ten revenue streams go down, they will not affect our lifestyle or our income. We decided in 2009 to diversify our income and our legacy by helping other people create revenue streams through web properties. Whether you are a private equity fund, an individual, or a business, we might be in partnership with you on a website. It’s all built in a company that is willable to my kids and grandkids. When it is time to pass this thing on, my one daughter is going to Pepperdine for Business Administration with a minor in Marketing. My second daughter just got out of coding camp and can’t wait to go into writing and programming, which our company needs at a high level. All of our kids are physically pursuing paths with a current want—and we have not asked them—to come in and take over this company. But the key is even if they didn’t want to, and I could just will something to them, we have a portfolio that will run a billion eyeballs in 2017. That will give our kids a traffic pattern, eyeballs, a platform for whatever business they want to start, and more importantly, a revenue stream that will provide them options. You and I both know, Hugh, that money has nothing to do with people. Money is an inanimate object. If you were a good person before money, you’re a good person with money. If you’re a bad person before money, you are a bad person with money. The odds of your character changing because of a positive or a lack of money, I’ve never seen it personally. What Kerri and I wanted to do was help the kids avoid the trauma we faced in our early years in business of lacking capital and that traumatic event for a year and a half where we almost lost everything. We want to be there for them and give them a legacy that they can respect and grow further. Hugh: That’s amazing. One of the things that we don’t do well in charities is establish a succession process. What you described is a succession process is your legacy for your company. Thinking of charities and legacy, you support a number of charities in a number of ways. Part of your legacy is helping charities be more successful. Talk about that a little bit. Ken: As you well know, we support SynerVision and your organization. I think we are at seven organizations that receive 5% of our gross revenue, not net revenue. 5% of gross monthly revenues that come in get dispersed between seven organizations. My wife’s and my church is the biggest recipient; they are building a very large addition. It’s actually three times larger than the current church that they are building onto the church. We actually had our church on payroll for three years. We physically have God on payroll at $600 a week for no other reason than why not? That does not count as one of the seven. We are a big believer in Malachi 3:8 that says, “You have to give him back the first fruits.” That is the only time in that best-selling book where he says, “Test me on this.” I have definitely tested God on that. I believe we are seeing the results of that as we have hit the Inc. 5000 list three of the last four years. In our early days, we doubled our gross revenues five out of seven years in the early years. Outside of those couple lean years in the middle where I diversified so wide in so many businesses without management, we have been consistently growing. I do believe there is a lot to be said for corporate tithing and dealing with worthy causes because I believe that is why we are on this planet. Hugh: We did a podcast earlier where you talked about companies asking the legacy question. Could you reframe the legacy question inside of a church or a charity? What is the legacy question that these organizations need to be asking so they don’t go out of business? My church is a Methodist church. Currently they are losing 1,200 members a week. That is typical of most mainline churches. They are not asking the legacy question of what they need to do to maintain our members. Ken: First things first, you have to understand that a charity or any type of organization is a business. It doesn’t have to be a for-profit business, but it certainly is a revenue-generating entity. Parishioners who tithe and parishioners who buy different books and equipment from churches like CDs and coffee, they are supporting that church. It is a revenue stream any way we slice it. Let’s get to the fundamentals. The legacy question was built to counter what is called entropy. The definition of entropy says anything manmade or God-made was built to go from order to disorder. It’s built to break down. A business is breaking down; our body is breaking down. Everything is breaking down at all times. It is our job as leaders of businesses, which charities are, to be asking the legacy question, which is the counter to entropy. The legacy question says: What can we do nights and weekends that doesn’t cost us any extra time or resources that could bring in a secondary source of revenue to our organization? A church for example. Many churches do bake sales or kids’ camps. They come up with 5-20 things throughout the year to raise or supplement income, one of the reasons being they themselves as a church support smaller churches or organizations overseas. For themselves and what I will call “their children,” they want to protect these entities. They are coming up with what I call one-off revenue streams. For a church or a charity, if they simply shifted the mindset from the bake sale or the kid’s camp and go away from a one-time event to creating something that provides a monthly revenue stream. For a big church, I don’t know why I don’t see big churches getting with what I call the floating pastors who love to go from church to church just to give sermons. I don’t know why they don’t capture some of that information, some of those sermon notes into a think tank, like a Lynda.com. Lynda.com just got sold to LinkedIn for a billion and a half. All Lynda did was turn to the teachers of the world and the universities and ask, “Will you donate to me ten minutes to two hours to ten hours of the greatest video you have of the greatest teaching points of your classroom or institution?” Whether it’s Notre Dame or a mom and pop teacher in Milwaukee, she got all of these great videos donated, and then she simply charges the world what used to be $9 a month and $29 a month for the monthly rates to access the greatest teaching tutorials of the world. She just aggregated great content. I don’t know why churches and organizations, even the Cub Scouts or the Girl Scouts have these great speakers come in and talk to the kids. Why don’t they record them, transcribe them, and then create some form of 100% monthly contributions getting donated to this church getting put to use and create a second passive revenue stream because that would be what is called an S-curve, or a response to the legacy question? That could be done three times a year. You would pick your head up in ten years, and that church has 30 additional monthly revenue streams that support their church and their expenses and allow that church to grow and then provide the necessary changes that need to take place so those 1,200 parishioners don’t leave every week. Does that make sense? Hugh: Absolutely. In the podcast we just did, we talked about leaders who dealt with the situation. You hit it head-on. I find a lot of charities are hoping it’s going to change. They have one source of revenue, and you can’t create a legacy if your one source of revenue, which is mostly donors, dries up. Certainly donor money is up and down. Define the legacy question. Be clear so a pastor or a non-profit executive director understands how to frame that. Ken: For a back-up, I have a 20-25 minute podcast. It was the first episode on Today’s Growth: Growing Business Today. That is the technical name of the podcast. Go to iTunes and type in “Ken Courtright.” There is a podcast that describes in detail what I am going to give you in 60 seconds. The legacy question, which comes from Jack Welch, the CEO of GE Capital in its greatest growth spurt, says this: What can we do nights and weekends to add a secondary revenue stream to our main source of income? Jack Welch is presupposing that every family, every business, and every charity, which is a business, has a main source of income. We will call that the 9-5 income. So the legacy question says: What can we do 5-9, meaning in our off hours, that doesn’t cost any extra money or time, no extra equipment or expenses, with the creative energies we have to build a second residual repeating revenue stream? Initially, it’s to take the pressure off the main revenue stream. But once you do three or four or five of these, you realize Holy mackerel! One of these has just become bigger than our main source of income. What you do is every couple years, you stack another two to five revenue streams. In the business world this is called the research and development department. You just continually keep stacking as what is now mandatory at every major corporation. There is not a single Fortune 500 company today that does not have a research and development department that is currently spending money knowing it is not going to come back. It gets wasted and exhausted in the pursuit of the next decade’s revenue stream. If major corporations have to have the R&D division, why don’t households or charities have R&D divisions? It doesn’t make sense to me. Again, what you don’t know, you don’t know. That is the legacy question. Hugh: Do you want to do a summary before we quit here? Ken: The summary is: The first step of all success for business, a charity, and a household is to stop lying to yourself. As soon as you stop lying to yourself that things are good, things are going to maintain, things are going to continue, the reality is 100% of main sources of income fail. 100% of them. Not most, not half, but 100%. Whatever the main source of income is in that charity, at some point it will fail. If you take a church, that body of parishioners today is not going to be the body in 65 years. They will all die. So the reality is, as the world changes, every organization has got to say to themselves, “Okay, what are we going to do when, not if, our main source of income fails? What is our next source of income?” If they are not asking that question, they are lying to themselves. That’s my summary.

Hey everyone Ken Courtright here from Today’s Growth Growing business today. This podcast is called Need To Be Heard. After being on Bill McCluskey’s excellent customer service podcast which will be out in June. After being on the podcast the question’s Bill asked made me go back and want to change this one. This podcast revolves around your customer’s and your clients “need to be heard”. It’s a physical need. Many of you know we have two sides to the company, one side builds authority sites for authors, professionals etc. and the Income Store takes people who are not necessary an authority but they could be, we take their investment and buy a website that is already earning money and split the profit 50/50. In both of the these companies we overlay an operating agreement with a guarantee of a 12% to 22% profit. In 2009 when we first got into the authority site side of the business I made it a point to model Google’s customer service division. The funny thing is Google doesn’t have a customer service division. It didn’t work out so well. Ken explains why customers need to be heard. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join Today’s Growth community today: kencourtright.com Today’s Growth Twitter Ken Courtright LinkedIn

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0085 Part Two Of Sean Kavanaugh's Interview On Contractors Success M.A.P. Podcast The Following Is An Outline From Sean Kavanaugh's Guest Appearance On The Contractors Success M.A.P. Podcast. It is on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Pocket Casts and all popular podcast directories. Editors Note: In case you missed Part One you can click on this link to listen to it. The text below is a recap of the entire interview.-----------------------------------------------------------------Hey Randal thanks so much for having me on the show. I really appreciate it.I guess before we dig in I should probably give a bit of background on myself. My name is Sean Kavanaugh and I've been in the plumbing business in the Chicagoland area in some capacity for 22 years.Right out of college I began working for my father at Litvin Plumbing where he was the president.Litvin was a fairly famous hi-rise contractor and one of the first high rise contractors in Chicago doing the plumbing work for the John Hancock Building, Water Tower Place, Marina Towers (Think Bullet with Steve McQueen) and many others.I was hired to help out in accounting but ended up being the purchasing agent at 22 years old for a company with 75 employees doing about 18 to 25 million in annual revenue.It was sink or swim because I knew very little about actual plumbing even though my dad had been in it for my whole life.It was there that I learned a ton about buying commodities like copper, cast iron and steel, job staging, scheduling truck loads of cast iron, copper, steel and plumbing fixtures not only for the job but to prefab what we could in our shop.(I learned how frustrating and expensive it could be when a scheduled delivery never showed up to a job. 1 foreman, 1 journeyman and 5 apprentices standing around waiting for a truckload of bathtubs that never shows up?) Believe me a couple major fixture manufacturers hated me for the butt chewing and back-charges I gave them for not showing up with 1100 tubs.)In 1998 my father and I founded Kavanaugh Plumbing. We did tenant improvements, commercial, industrial and multiunit residential rehab and commercial and industrial service work.My goal was to be the biggest plumbing contractor in Chicago. Not because I had a plan but because I thought we were really good at putting in plumbing and people liked us. Three Quarters of a Business Life For the first five years it work real well we made a lot of money, then we grew. Then I had to take out a line of credit because we were doing bigger work and we weren't being paid in a timely manner.The next five years were stressful but OK. Money became our master, we did some big work with a ton of change orders and were paid barely 50% of them so winners became losersThe next five years were a complete mess. I told my wife I put boxing gloves on every Monday to start pounding customers for cash to do payroll on Wednesday. We had no one to tell us to stop. No one to tell us how to get out of the madness so we worked harder and longer for shear pride. A very big job for us didn't pay us for 7 months and we called it quits. Words of Wisdom From Sean Kavanaugh #01 - Don't ever do a job you can't pay for yourself. I know there is a need for banks and business loans but you need a really good accounting partner to let you know if its right. I never had that innate feeling of when that should be. I just did it because it's what plumbing contractors did at least the ones that I knew#02 - If you can't pay the Employment taxes it's probably a real good time to think about shutting it down before it gets out of hand.#03 - Don't be afraid to ask for your money. You provided a service you deserve to get paid on time within terms.#04 - Never and I mean never run your business to run your home. I see so many "contractors" price their work so they can make their car payment or their mortgage and insurance. Price your work so the business works. Your house will run like clockwork if the business is running well.#05 - Never let an employee be disruptive to your firm just because they are good at a certain task. If you aren't all moving in the right direction it will hold you back eventually. Four years ago I developed a website called ThePlumbingInfo.com with a web developer. I was an English major in college so I thought I could write. So I set out to build an authority website on plumbing for the consumer and professional.At first it was a great distraction from the actual plumbing business. Cathartic as it grew it became a source of income and the company that developed the site Todays Growth Consultant hired me full time to manage content on 235 authority websites.We are kind of hybrid web development, marketing company and our other company Income Store buys income generating websites for individuals, companies or private equity firms and by the way that’s a heck of a product.I guess you can say I'm an SEO guy but I hate the term. I really love to build relationships with people who want to grow their base site traffic and reputation using content as the bridge.For instance if a plumbing contractor wanted to grow their site organically we would give them a keyword silo and guide them in how to write for those keywords. Eventually I would use theplumbinginfo.com as a springboard for their content. They gain authorship credit by writing for an already established site and it expands their online footprint.-----------------------------------------------------------------Editor’s Note: I have known Sean Kavanaugh since late 2013 and I trust him and find him to be very knowledgeable and capable on the subject owning, operating and growing Plumbing and Mechanical Companies as well as a skilled marketing expert for all Contractors.I Highly Recommend all contractors spend some time on his website ThePlumbingInfo.com and get to know him. He is a valuable resource to all contractors, not just Plumbing and Mechanical Contractors. Please be sure to let him know Randal DeHart, The Contractors Accountant, recommended you.Sean Kavanaugh and I met on Google+ in late 2013 and found we had a lot in common. We were both licensed journeyman plumbers earlier in our career paths and had the pain and pleasure of owning and operating plumbing companies.We have both moved on to other careers that involve construction. Sean manages 235 authority websites and one in particular near and dear to his heart is ThePlumbingInfo.com.Sean invited me to contribute articles to ThePlumbingInfo.com that are directed specifically to the wants, wishes, hopes, dreams and challenges of Plumbing and Mechanical Contractors.Frankly, I was very appreciative of the opportunity to serve Plumbing and Mechanical Contractors; however, my time is limited, having a 60+ hour workweek (it is because I want too, not that I have too).The thought of adding another 1-2 hours a week to construct a decent article and post it did not seem to be a good use of my time. After giving it, some thought I remembered one of the Journeyman Plumbers who mentored me in the Plumbing Trade and what he said "It is the responsibility of all Journeymen, in all trades to give back by mentoring" and the decision was made.I submit new articles every week to Sean Kavanaugh's website at www.ThePlumbingInfo.com with the understanding that he, as the editor, can add images and other graphics as he sees fit and that he decides when and if an article is published.It has been an absolute blessing to my Soul to have met Sean Kavanaugh and I am so very grateful to Sean Kavanaugh for the opportunity to contribute and will continue doing so until it is time to stopMany Thanks To You Sean Kavanaugh For All you Do For Contractors Everywhere!For Part One of Sean Kavanaugh's Podcast Interview click here

This podcast is episode number 00061 and it will be about Sean Kavanaugh's Unique Plumbing and Mechanical Contractor Insights The Following Is An Outline From Sean Kavanaugh's Guest Appearance On The Contractors Success M.A.P. Podcast which you can listen to below. It is on iTunes, Stitcher Radio and all popular podcast directories. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hey Randal thanks so much for having me on the show. I really appreciate it. I guess before we dig in I should probably give a bit of background on myself. My name is Sean Kavanaugh and I've been in the plumbing business in the Chicagoland area in some capacity for 22 years. Right out of college I began working for my father at Litvin Plumbing where he was the president. Litvin was a fairly famous hi-rise contractor and one of the first high rise contractors in Chicago doing the plumbing work for the John Hancock Building, Water Tower Place, Marina Towers (Think Bullet with Steve McQueen) and many others. I was hired to help out in accounting but ended up being the purchasing agent at 22 years old for a company with 75 employees doing about 18 to 25 million in annual revenue. It was sink or swim because I knew very little about actual plumbing even though my dad had been in it for my whole life. It was there that I learned a ton about buying commodities like copper, cast iron and steel, job staging, scheduling truck loads of cast iron, copper, steel and plumbing fixtures not only for the job but to prefab what we could in our shop. (I learned how frustrating and expensive it could be when a scheduled delivery never showed up to a job. 1 foreman, 1 journeyman and 5 apprentices standing around waiting for a truckload of bathtubs that never shows up?) Believe me a couple major fixture manufacturers hated me for the butt chewing and back-charges I gave them for not showing up with 1100 tubs.) In 1998 my father and I founded Kavanaugh Plumbing. We did tenant improvements, commercial, industrial and multiunit residential rehab and commercial and industrial service work. My goal was to be the biggest plumbing contractor in Chicago. Not because I had a plan but because I thought we were really good at putting in plumbing and people liked us. Three Quarters of a Business Life For the first five years it work real well we made a lot of money, then we grew. Then I had to take out a line of credit because we were doing bigger work and we weren't being paid in a timely manner. The next five years were stressful but OK. Money became our master, we did some big work with a ton of change orders and were paid barely 50% of them so winners became losers The next five years were a complete mess. I told my wife I put boxing gloves on every Monday to start pounding customers for cash to do payroll on Wednesday. We had no one to tell us to stop. No one to tell us how to get out of the madness so we worked harder and longer for shear pride. A very big job for us didn't pay us for 7 months and we called it quits. Words of Wisdom Don't ever do a job you can't pay for yourself. I know there is a need for banks and business loans but you need a really good accounting partner to let you know if its right. I never had that innate feeling of when that should be. I just did it because it's what plumbing contractors did at least the ones that I knew If you can't pay the Employment taxes it's probably a real good time to think about shutting it down before it gets out of hand. Don't be afraid to ask for your money. You provided a service you deserve to get paid on time within terms. Never and I mean never run your business to run your home. I see so many "contractors" price their work so they can make their car payment or their mortgage and insurance. Price your work so the business works. Your house will run like clockwork if the business is running well. Never let an employee be disruptive to your firm just because they are good at a certain task. If you aren't all moving in the right direction it will hold you back eventually. Four years ago I developed a website called ThePlumbingInfo.com with a web developer. I was an English major in college so I thought I could write. So I set out to build an authority website on plumbing for the consumer and professional. At first it was a great distraction from the actual plumbing business. Cathartic as it grew it became a source of income and the company that developed the site Todays Growth Consultant hired me full time to manage content on 235 authority websites. We are kind of hybrid web development, marketing company and our other company Income Store buys income generating websites for individuals, companies or private equity firms and by the way that’s a heck of a product. I guess you can say I'm an SEO guy but I hate the term. I really love to build relationships with people who want to grow their base site traffic and reputation using content as the bridge. For instance if a plumbing contractor wanted to grow their site organically we would give them a keyword silo and guide them in how to write for those keywords. Eventually I would use theplumbinginfo.com as a springboard for their content. They gain authorship credit by writing for an already established site and it expands their online footprint. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Editor’s Note: I have known Sean Kavanaugh since late 2013 and I trust him and find him to be very knowledgeable and capable on the subject owning, operating and growing Plumbing and Mechanical Companies as well as a skilled marketing expert for all Contractors. I Highly Recommend all contractors spend some time on his website ThePlumbingInfo.com and get to know him. He is a valuable resource to all contractors, not just Plumbing and Mechanical Contractors. Please be sure to let him know Randal DeHart, The Contractors Accountant, recommended you. Sean Kavanaugh and I met on Google+ in late 2013 and found we had a lot in common. We were both licensed journeyman plumbers earlier in our career paths and had the pain and pleasure of owning and operating plumbing companies. We have both moved on to other careers that involve construction. Sean manages 235 authority websites and one in particular near and dear to his heart is ThePlumbingInfo.com. Sean invited me to contribute articles to ThePlumbingInfo.com that are directed specifically to the wants, wishes, hopes, dreams and challenges of Plumbing and Mechanical Contractors. Frankly, I was very appreciative of the opportunity to serve Plumbing and Mechanical Contractors; however, my time is limited, having a 60+ hour workweek (it is because I want too, not that I have too). The thought of adding another 1-2 hours a week to construct a decent article and post it did not seem to be a good use of my time. After giving it, some thought I remembered one of the Journeyman Plumbers who mentored me in the Plumbing Trade and what he said "It is the responsibility of all Journeymen, in all trades to give back by mentoring" and the decision was made. I submit new articles every week to Sean Kavanaugh's website at www.ThePlumbingInfo.com with the understanding that he, as the editor, can add images and other graphics as he sees fit and that he decides when and if an article is published. It has been an absolute blessing to my Soul to have met Sean Kavanaugh and I am so very grateful to Sean Kavanaugh for the opportunity to contribute and will continue doing so until it is time to stop Many Thanks To You Sean Kavanaugh For All you Do For Contractors Everywhere! ----------------------------------------------------------------- This is one more example of how Fast Easy Accounting is helping construction company owners just like you put more money in the bank to operate and grow your construction company. Construction accounting is not rocket science; it is a lot harder than that and a lot more valuable to construction contractors like you so stop missing out and call Sharie 206-361-3950 or email sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com Thinking About Outsourcing Your Contractors Bookkeeping Services? Click On The Link Below: www.FastEasyAccounting.com/hs Need Help Now? Call Sharie 206-361-3950 sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com In closing I want to caution you that we may or may not be a good fit for your contracting company. This guide will help you learn what to look for in outsourced construction accounting. Thank you very much and I hope you understand we really do care about you and all contractors regardless of whether or not you ever hire our services.Bye for now until our next episode here on the Contractors Success MAP Podcast Warm Regards, Randal DeHart | Contractors Accountant We Remove Contractor's Unique Paperwork Frustrations

Of all the ways to create a consistent and passive income stream, purchasing an existing, revenue generating website is the smartest.  What does that mean? What does that look like? The concept of purchasing a website to create an income stream for yourself, your company, or your private equity fund is new to many people. […]