[quote style=”boxed”]Doing some work every day. Moving projects forward slowly. There is a great saying: “How do you eat an elephant?” and the answer is one bite at a time. I think success comes down to a couple of things. Firstly goals and then habits and persistence, combining all of those things and you are sure to succeed.[/quote]
Jock Purtle is the CEO of digitalexits.com a full service website brokerage. They help online business owners find a buyer when they want to exit their company. He personally exited his online business in 2013 and is on track to facilitate over 20 deals in 2014 ranging from $100,000 to $4,000,000.
Where did the idea for digitalexits.com come from?
Digital Exits was a simple progression from a few things. Firstly experience working in the family valuation business gave me the skillset to complete business valuations. Secondly I started buying small websites in 2009 and have been buying and selling websites ever since. And then thirdly it was just a natural progression from both those two skillsets to get to where I am. There was a gap in the market at the time. Remembering that there are only a small number of companies in the world that provide the services that we provide.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
Typical day. Wake up and work generally on creating some type of content first thing in the morning when I am the freshest and most productive. Then it would be any other general to-do list stuff that I needed to get completed for that day. Then the rest of the day, following up on emails, doing scheduled calls, doing sales calls and generally project managing the projects that I have going on.
How do you bring ideas to life?
I am an idea creator. I have a team that develops those ideas into reality.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
The trends that is really exciting me the most is the growth of ecommerce businesses and online stores. There is a massive trend in the way that we are doing businesses. Retail is moving online and we are trying to position ourselves in front of that to take advantage of that. Things like the Shopify build a business competition are a great example of how the trend of business is moving online.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
Doing some work every day. Moving projects forward slowly. There is a great saying: “How do you eat an elephant?” and the answer is one bite at a time. I think success comes down to a couple of things. Firstly goals and then habits and persistence, combining all of those things and you are sure to succeed.
What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?
Can’t really ever say that I had a worst job. There were jobs that I found boring, but all that told me is that type of work was the work that I was not in flow. I think the main lessons I learnt were the type of work that was and wasn’t for me.
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
I would start working on building my network at a greater speed. Business is done between humans and at the end of the day it is not what you know but who you know.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Continue to build your network. Travel and meet people face to face. That has been the biggest benefit for me and my business that I can recommend everyone else does.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business? Please explain how.
The main strategy that has helped grow our business is attending and speaking at industry conferences.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
I lost quite a bit of money on one deal. I think the main lesson from that deal is don’t get emotion about a deal, analyse it purely on the fundamentals of the financials from an independent perspective.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Immigration services. I think picking a country that you love. For example Australia, USA, Singapore etc. and then develop a brand, podcast, blog around that topic about immigrating to that country.
Then on the backend provide legal and immigration services to those people. I think that is a great business model and is only going to increase in demand as the world starts to open up.
Tell us something about you that very few people know?
People only know this if they notice. But I can’t fully straighten either of my elbow’s from years of rowing.
What software and web services do you use? What do you love about them?
www.evernote.com – put my notes, ideas and goals in here
Freedom – use it whenever I need to disconnect form the Internet
Boomerang for Gmail – use it to manage Gmail
Streak for Gmail – use it to manage leads
Don’t break the chain – daily habit app to force you into developing a new habit
Amazon Kindle – For all my books
Mailchimp – managing my buyer database
Wordpress – because it is the best website building platform hands down!
App IOS – no real entrepreneur has a lifestyle business without a Macbook
Google Apps – managing email for my business
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
The “One Thing” by Gary Keller.
What people have influenced your thinking and might be of interest to others?
www.quicksprout.com – general marketing and business growth
www.backlinko.com – SEO tips and strategies
www.superfastbusiness.com – authority building and generation
Connect
Connect with me at digitalexits.com
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.