Episode 62: How to Buy an Online Business with Kenna Craver

Acquania Escarne 0:03

You are listening to the Purpose of Money podcast, a podcast where we talk about ways to build wealth and create more freedom in your life today. I am your host Acquania Escarne.

You guys welcome back to the Purpose of Money podcast. This is your host Acquania Escarne. I'm super excited to be celebrating black history month. This month, I'm going to share with you tons of episodes with dynamic entrepreneurs, specifically highlighting women and all that they're doing to help grow businesses. This episode is going to focus on buying online businesses. I bet you didn't know that you could acquire a company that already exists, is already making money online, and could be your next business venture. Our guests Kenna Craver used to be commonly known as the biz buyer has rebranded so please pay attention to the show notes to get all of her latest website and Instagram or other social media handles if you want to contact her.

Kenna Craver is now known as the entrepreneur who provides a cheat code on how to acquire online businesses. And I'm super excited to share her tips with you today. In the event you'd like to work with her to create your next side hustle. She specializes as a coach who helps those with nine to five, find online businesses that they can take over and buy and potentially give themselves the freedom they've always wanted. Hope you like this episode.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Purpose of Money podcast today I'm super excited to have Kenna Craver on the show. She is a biz buyer. After spending over a decade working in the tech industry, Kenna decided to pursue a career as an investor. Since then she has worked on several multimillion dollar business acquisition deals, and eventually launched her own private equity firm and acquired an E commerce business. She now spends her time managing her investment portfolio and working with private clients as a coach and advisor on their business acquisition deals.

Hey, Kenna, welcome to the show. How are you?

Kenna Craver 2:19

Hey, thank you so much for having me. I'm doing very well.

Acquania Escarne 2:23

I'm excited to have this conversation. Full disclosure, we met via Instagram. So we're social besties. And I was just super impressed with your profile and what you're doing to help people become their own online e commerce entrepreneurs. So I wanted to share your journey with my listeners today. Because I want to know, how did you do it? But before we hop into that, I want to get an understanding of what you did in the tech industry. What were you doing before you became the biz buyer?

Kenna Craver 2:58

So I did start off in the tech industry. And my role varied from I guess a technical title would be business analyst or product manager. But essentially, I just kind of set in the middle between different business units and engineers to help them develop software applications and mobile applications. So that basically, that basically consisted of me just kind of getting an idea of what the business needed in order to help them grow the bottom line, and then taking that to the development team and saying, okay, build this. So yeah, I actually did that for over a decade. And it was really great. I love it. I've always had an interest in technology. So that for me was just like the perfect career to start off. And from there, I just kind of went into some consulting. And there I worked with just a number of different companies and various industries. And that just kind of led me to wanting to figure out, okay, what are something I can grow or build for myself. And so that career, that early career in tech, like was just a great jumping off point because it gave me a lot of skills and experience. I've got to learn how to work with different people. And all of those, all of those skills are transferable into what I'm doing now.

Acquania Escarne 4:20

I love that did you actually go to school and study a STEM background or science engineering? And that's how you led to Tech because you sounded like you were a boss.

Kenna Craver 4:31

Well, thank you. Um, yeah, I actually did. I got a business administration degree in Management Information Systems. And that sounds super technical, but it essentially just means I had a strong understanding of how business works, and how technology is integrated within it to help that business achieve its goals.

Acquania Escarne 4:50

Yes. And that's important because nowadays tech is really running businesses and in a lot of cases, replacing jobs so to know both sides of the business and still being able to determine where the human factor needs to be included is really important. So I really like that. Thanks for sharing that. And the fact that you did it for a decade, and then still were able to start your own business means that you are like 25. And you just started at 15. And that's amazing.

Kenna Craver 5:19

I'll take that. Yeah, thank you.

Acquania Escarne 5:23

So I want to ask another question. As far as you know, your journey, what was the first business that you acquired? What was your first acquisition deal?

Kenna Craver 5:33

So the first business that I acquired is an E commerce cosmetics company. And I just love the beauty industry, because even though you might think that it's saturated, that just means that there's a huge market with a large number of buyers ready to spend. So I knew I wanted to acquire in the in the beauty industry, health and beauty industry. And like I said, that's just a great industry to be in. But there's also a number of other ones. We could talk about that later if you want to. But yeah, so I started out in beauty.

Acquania Escarne 6:07

I love that. And so now let's get a little deeper. So some of my listeners may only be vaguely aware of some of the terms we're using, like E commerce and acquisition. And what does that mean? You know, I mean, I am a passive investor when it comes to real estate. So a lot of times, I'm using capital to create my ownership, right, but I don't have to do a lot of day to day, when you help someone acquire an E commerce business. How much of it? Are they having to take over? Does the previous owner stay involved in any way? You know, let's, let's talk a little bit about that. What what does it mean to acquire an E commerce business?

Kenna Craver 6:48

For sure. And the answer to that is, it can vary as far as how involved the new owner will be within the business. Because it is absolutely possible to acquire a business that has employees already, or at least some level of automation. So where you don't have to spend too much time actually managing the day to day. But there are also businesses where it's like a full time job where you do have to go in and you're doing everything yourself. And so it's matter, it's a matter of preference, just like you know, with real estate or anything like that, like you said, you're a passive investor. So you just kind of have to know what your personal goals are and how involved you want to be. And as far as acquisition goes, the simplest way to understand it is just basically like someone handing you the keys to their business, you are acquiring or buying that business.

So just like you know, if you're gonna buy a house, you can buy a business, and many people are not even aware that that's possible, much less than the E commerce space. Because from my experience, when people hear that you can buy a business, their mind automatically goes to franchise, and like McDonald's or something. Right. And that's not what we're talking about. Here it is, it is possible to acquire an already operating franchise. But what I'm talking about is specifically with an E commerce, you know, just an online store anything that you you know, log on, and like I said, a cosmetics company, or maybe you sell automotive equipment or electronics, logging on to someone's store and making a purchase and having that order delivered to you. I think Amazon is probably the most apps example of E commerce, right. So yeah, and so when you acquire an E commerce business, that's exactly what it is you're buying an existing e commerce business.

Acquania Escarne 8:43

Okay, so that is true. I don't think a lot of people think about that as an avenue to building wealth when they're considering how to invest their money. Franchises are pretty popular. But there's still not a lot of people of color who owned franchises in comparison to other communities. So it's interesting, why e commerce? Is it particularly easier lower barriers for entry? You know, why do you recommend that people consider purchasing ecommerce businesses and maybe even an E commerce business before setting up their own?

Kenna Craver 9:18

Well, e commerce to me is just the opportunity of a lifetime because being able to operate a business, from your computer from your house or wherever you are, I mean, who doesn't want that? And we're seeing that right now with you know, what we just came out of last year. I mean, we're recording this in May of 2021. So you know, we're seeing a lot more remote workers we're seeing a lot more people desire, the the freedom that comes with working from wherever you are in the world. So that's number one a great reasons to consider acquiring an E commerce business. But my favorite reason is the scalability of it. So with E commerce in comparison to brick and mortar, you can basically market to anyone in the world, your customers could be in a completely different country. And you don't have that same scale with brick and mortar, right, you're limited to wherever the geography wherever you're, wherever you're located, or that business is located.

So the scalability of an E commerce business is just unmatched you can literally go from, and this is something I actually teach my clients, you can buy a business that's already producing revenue, as soon as you take ownership of that business, start implementing new marketing strategies, or even just scale the marketing that the previous owner was doing, and grow it significantly within a short amount of time. Which also means that you get a return on your investment back much sooner than any other type of asset class. So those are, those are just a few of the reasons why I think ecommerce is the move

Acquania Escarne 10:56

I love it, those are a lot of good reasons. Just to recap, you know, ecommerce is the wave of the future, it allows you to be basically a business owner from anywhere your digital, you'd need an internet connection, a good website, and like you said, you could just change the marketing, or target different audiences and scale up your E commerce business. So I love those tips. Thank you for sharing that. And that you did mention helping your clients as a coach. So my next question has to do with that.

What do you do as a coach? How do you, Who's your ideal client? And how do you help them acquire a ecommerce business?

Kenna Craver 11:34

So so far, my ideal client has been someone who either currently works a regular job a nine to five, and they are either seeking to replace that income because maybe they want that location freedom and, and that income freedom that comes with owning an online business, or there's someone who they like their job, and they're happy there, but they just know that only having one income source is pretty risky. And so they want to add multiple income streams. And so they see owning an online business as a way to achieve that goal. Another one could be maybe someone who is an investor, and they just know the the importance of having a diverse portfolio. So maybe they invest in real estate, maybe they do some stocks. And then they know that, hey, I can also own an E commerce business as well. So the ideal client somewhere is somewhere in between those, like I said, it's one of those three, typically. But I just think one of the greatest things about investing in E commerce businesses specifically is, like I said earlier is that you really can be a passive investor, like you can actually acquire a business and still be pretty hands off.

And how I come into play, how I actually help clients actually achieve that is essentially just teaching them the entire process of acquiring an E commerce business. So where to find businesses for sale, how to evaluate them, and do your due diligence to make sure it's actually a good investment, all the way to what to do once the business is transferred over to you because it's important to know how to and this how to manage the business once you've acquired it, because you want to make sure you're maintaining the same level, at least as a previous owner, because you want to keep that revenue coming in and even grow it at some point. So actually help them through that entire process. And then once they actually start searching for business to buy, they might send me you know, emails like, Hey, I found these businesses, what are your thoughts? So I just advise them to kind of guide them and give them my thoughts and my insights. Of course, ultimately, it's up to them what business they acquire, but I just kind of help them through that process.

Acquania Escarne 13:48

You know, great tips. I love everything we've been talking about so far, and how you've kind of outlined your journey, and now how you can help people. So I'm kind of curious, what are you invested in? Are you willing to share a little bit of what has interested you and what you've acquired these days?

Kenna Craver 14:06

Yeah, so currently, I only invested in E commerce, because there's just so much opportunity out there. I would love to get involved in real estate as well. I am a passive investor. So I do see opportunities that allow me to be hands off. That's just because I can see my strength is that I can see opportunity. And I can see growth potential. However, the day to day does not interest me at all. So that's, you know, something to consider for anyone that's interested in taking this path. So like I said, whether you want to be hands on or hands off, this is a path that you that you could definitely consider. So only e commerce businesses and I love different types of E commerce businesses. So it doesn't necessarily have to be physical products. It can also be digital products, businesses, and I'm actually looking at even social media accounts right now. A lot of people don't know that as well. You can actually buy social media accounts, so if you see an Instagram account that has a lot of followers, and they're really engaged, you can actually reach out to that person and say, hey, just interested or curious if you're interested in selling selling this account? And of course, they might say no, but they might say, What are you thinking, like, make me an offer. And the benefits of doing that is that you can actually use that account to number one, it's probably income producing, meaning that they probably have some type of maybe advertising available to where other businesses can advertise on that page. And so there's income coming in. Or if you already have another business, you could use that account to promote your own products. So there's just different opportunities out there. But my main focus are digital assets. And so when I say digital asset, I mean any online property that you can buy and sell for profit, so that could be an E commerce business, it could be social media accounts, it could be apps, anything like that.

Acquania Escarne 16:01

I never knew you provide a social media account. And that's kind of interesting to me, because you, I mean, I never imagined that I actually own it, I know that I have picked this handle, and the platform says it belongs to me, but then they always have the right to kick me off. So I never imagined that I could sell that to someone, but I have seen where some social media accounts will sponsor ads or allow someone to take over their story, but taking over the whole platform that's mind blowing, and definitely a new concept even for me. So I want to know, as far as timeframe, is there a particular amount of time that most people intend to acquire and maintain ownership over an E commerce business and then sell it? Or does it just depend on the investors goals,

Kenna Craver 16:52

It does depend on the investors goals, there are definitely the buy and hold investors that do want to acquire ecommerce commerce business and just keep it for the cash flow. And then exit at some point if ever. And then there are definitely those investors that are flippers you know, they buy an E commerce business, they maybe they have some expert marketing or some other type of skill, like sales or anything like them. So they know that they can acquire this business and scale it quickly. And then flip it for profit is very similar to real estate. And so that's something I always just try to use as a as an example to kind of get people to understand how this process works. Just like you can have, you know, you could flip a house or you could keep it for rental income or anything like that, or even be a developer and started you know, build it from scratch and then sell it then you can do the exact same things, take those exact same concepts and apply them to buying businesses. So definitely. I guess I just definitely think you should you should consider buying e commerce businesses because there's so many different avenues. I mean, you can flip it, you can use it for for cash flow, consistent cash flow, which is what I do. I'm definitely open to flipping as well, but it depends on the investor's personal goals.

Acquania Escarne 18:16

I love it. That's so great. So the name of the podcast is called the Purpose of Money. So I asked all my guests this question, what is your purpose for money?

Kenna Craver 18:25

My purpose for money is to facilitate a life well lived. And what I mean by that is when you are provided for when you have provision that frees you up to just explore your other interests, whatever those things are, you know, like some people, maybe you love music, or maybe you love art, maybe you love you know, working with kids, whatever that is, if you're provided for meaning your living expenses, whatever they are, are taken care of. Which of course money helps with that, then you're freed up to just enjoy life and live the life that you dream of living. So that was my personal goal when and it always will be I think when I first became an investor, it's just to make not just enough of course I want to thrive but just be able to explore my interest and just kind of flow through life without the stress of trying to figure out just how to survive.

Acquania Escarne 19:27

I love that beautiful answer. Since the recording of this episode Kenna Craver, the biz buyer has rebranded to be called Kenna Craver. So if you want to see her on social media, go to Instagram at Kenna Craver, k e n n a c r a v e r or check out her website, The entrepreneurecheatcode.com . That's the entrepreneurcheatcode.com and of course I'll include all of this information in the show notes. If you love this episode, please remember to share it like subscribe and don't forget to leave a review. Until next time, keep building generational wealth.

Thank you for listening to the Purpose of Money podcast. For more resources and information, check out my website, the PurposeofMoney.com and while you're there, please sign up for our newsletter so you have the latest information on new episodes and blog posts. Until next time, keep creating freedom in your life today.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai