Building for an exit, Josh Summers [Nomad Summit 2020]

This past weekend in Chiang Mai, Thailand, was the 8th Nomad Summit.

I attended the full conference day on Saturday & then taught a writing workshop on Monday.

Below are my notes from Josh’s presentation: Building for an exit.

For an overall review of the Nomad Summit event, venue, high-level takeaways, book recommendations, and links to all the other speaker notes I took, check out my main review:

Nomad Summit 2020 Review

• 4 years ago, sold his first business for $120K but realistically left a lot of money on the table
• An exit strategy is worth having to increase the value of a business, even if you never sell
• Average online business sells for 20–60x net monthly profits averaged over 12 months
• Total annual net profit / 12 months = $X average monthly * 30x multiple = what a buyer would pay for your business (his ex: $4K monthly * 30 = $120K)
• While we often focus on the profit, it’s actually relatively easier to focus on improving the multiple — which significantly increases value without having to increase revenue
• Profits follow processes — create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in google docs with workflows, checklists for everything
• We tend to overestimate our value in the process — we need to hire people who can also do things, take your ego back out of the process / attachment to doing it yourself
• Build automation
• Clean up financials
• All content gets stale — must refresh it to stay relevant
• Important to know if you are buying / renting your audience or if you have a dedicated audience that you own

Josh emphasized having good processes and smart investment of time & resources in order to be effective & efficient in business building. Operations matter so much!

Katherine Conaway is a digital nomad, working remotely while she travels the world — on the road since June 2014.