Hey all,

Here’s an update on my process to find and buy a neglected digital business (off-market).

Update on Virtual Assistants (VAs) & lead list

Two VAs I hired started work on Friday. They’re leading the research effort to find off-market neglected digital businesses. This database will serve as my lead list.

It took me two weeks to hire. I put the interviewees through a lot hoops, and I took my time making excellent training. Here’s a quick recap on the process:

• 115 → applied

• 12 → invited to take a mini skills assessment

• 4 → hired for a one-week project

• 2 → hired at 20 hours/week

Because the process was so thorough, Merry and Bryan hit the ground running.

As of the time of this writing, we’re at: 231 leads after 3 days of work.

So, we’re pacing at about 76 leads per week. We should hit 2,000 sometime between 5 and 6 weeks if we keep this pace up.

I’ve committed at least 12 weeks to the VAs, so hoping to come up with ~4,000 high quality leads by that time.

In a world where the hawks circle Acquire, Flippa, QuietLight, etc. and/or everyone’s competiting for Boomers’ brick-and-mortar businesses, this list is gold to me.

I know there are some extremely undervalued assets in it.

I just have to harness it (more on that below) and keep building it.

The deals are always offmarket.

My process for vetting leads

When we started, I went through every lead Merry and Bryan (the VAs) found and gave them feedback on each — trying to be super hands-on, hopeful that feedback would produce better results. I’m building a research playbook as I go, refining it as more data comes in.

I.e. We don’t want law firms, medical offices, restaurants, or businesses that look mostly brick-and-mortar (not planning to move to Pittsburg).

We’re on a search for the most undervalued, neglected digital businesses. We have to exclude a LOT.

I’m impressed with how they’re taking and implementing feedback. Their leads are getting much better.

Bottlenecks and what I’m working on

Providing hands-on feedback to the VAs is producing better and more leads.

But it takes A LOT of time.

I’m not able to go through the leads fast enough just to keep up with their research.

The rabbit holes on these neglected businesses are abundant — and fun.

For example, the website pictured below (a business management software for small service businesses, like HVAC) led me to the owner’s portfolio, where she lists ~10 other businesses/websites she’s started. Most of them aren’t worth anything, but that’s part of the game.

On top of that, I followed up with an owner who’s business I am very interested in and meets my criteria. He referred me to one of his clients that might be interested in selling (and told me he’s not ready to sell his business yet).

So, yeah, in summary:

1. Finding tons of great leads

2. Every other part of the process is clunky and under-optimized

I need to build the system to manage these leads and work them I’m sorting through these things.

• Qualifying lead / giving feedback to VA

• Get owner’s contact information

• Cold-emailing owners to start relationships

  • This will preceed to a bunch of “Give me a call” responses

• Follow up and work leads - build the relationships!

Over the next week, I wan to build a process to efficiently qualify leads and get owner’s contact information so I can blast out some email outreach.

Always open to your thoughts.

-Mike