- The Next Million with Scott Oldford
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- OnlineBusinessOwner.com Media Property Update
It’s been a couple of months since my last update, if you don’t remember, I’m Scott Oldford a mentor for Online Entrepreneurs and I run a portfolio of companies.
If you missed it, in my last update I spoke about a massive difference in our direction and what I’ve found is the best possible direction going forward.
Since then we’ve exited 26 positions that we owned with another 7 being concluded within the next 2 months.
The focus, as I spoke about beforehand, is on less than 20% ownership of education, media and software companies where we can bring our expertise of scaling by helping the core Entrepreneur (generally the founder) in businesses that are currently generating less than $5M with a pathway to scale with 40%+ profit margins and potential for rollup-oriented exits.
As part of exiting these companies and assets, we decided to exit every media company we owned except for one.
The reason is simple: In building Wisdom Media, we discovered a lot on what is needed to build the infrastructure around media. Further, if we were going to go the approach I was heading we would’ve needed to raise far more significant capital than we already raised and the risk profile was far too high.
Further, after seeing what worked and what didn’t after nearly 2 years, I knew one thing was certain. If we had full ownership of a specific business, we were going to have to focus in order to make it work.
While we’re finalizing the deals on our last remaining media properties (including selling 2 of them to a multi-billion dollar public company) I wanted to give you an update and behind the scenes look at our single most important property going forward.
I acquired OnlineBusinessOwner (I’ll call it OBO from now on) in Fall 2022 and got to work on it quickly.
I raised $250,000 for it and in a small period of time got a lot of momentum through our model. However, I came into a major problem, which is that while it had the most potential, our other properties were causing us to not be able to grow the audience fast enough. Part way through 2024, I decided that I was going to need to slow down growth, sell the other media assets and then come back to the table.
Thankfully, that wasn’t a big deal.
In 2022-2023 we did a lot to understand what might work. From sponsorships, to directory, to pay-to-play, podcasts, summits, newsletter, ads on multiple platforms.
Basically, in trying everything and seeing what worked I was able to understand the true potential.
And now, I believe we have the model that will go into the future.
But first… let me back up a little bit…
First when I bought OBO, I wanted to be not associated with the brand, I wanted it to be something that I hid beyond. Over the past 2 years, I realized that one of the most powerful assets I have, is my personal brand. However, the problem with my personal brand is that I work with the top 0.3% of Online Entrepreneurs.
I no longer do low-ticket products or programs and my start cost for almost anything is $10,000 going up to $500,000. This means when I pay for ads, or have any type of marketing for my Scott Oldford brand, I lose majority of the money.
Think about it…
If I’m selling mostly to those that make $25,000/month minimum… How many actual people can work with me?
If I spend $50,000 on ad spend, I’d expect only $5,000 is being used effectively. That’s a massive waste and I don’t love burning money intentionally.
That’s where my business intention of OnlineBusinessOwner.com comes from now.
By building a media company that allows me to spend money on audience building, I’m able too…
Position myself as a greater authority inside of the niche.
Allow for my marketing dollars to have a return on investment from other influencers and experts.
I will create a sellable business if I decide to exit the online business space.
Aid my clients alongside of the businesses I’m invested in with authority and audience.
Create more influence inside of the space
In essence, by going all-in on a media property, that isn’t just a media company (podcast, newsletter, blog, social, etc) I am able to more effectively use my marketing dollars on my Scott Oldford brand.
When someone is looking for someone to help them scale 7+ figures, they’ll still find me… but if they are looking for someone for funnels… or design… or legal… or social… or paid ads… they’ll be able to find that person as well… And I’ll get paid for it.
Back to the vision of OBO
One of the biggest misteps that I took when building OBO at first was making it about creating original content. I can’t explain to you how difficult it has been to create amazing content, or to get our content partners to create new content.
Simply put… the model sucked and in 2023 if we didn’t do this we would of generated an extra few hundred THOUSAND in profit.
Based on this, going forward I decided that OBO would be a curator and a certification based model.
Allowing people to find the “best of” content, advice, expertise and experts. In essence, there is so much content “out there” but finding what makes sense for you is difficult.
Further, understanding if someone is legit, real, has a great track record, etc. is also difficult, especially for first-time entrepreneurs.
I see OnlineBusinessOwner.com in this context as not having its own content, products, programs, or really anything that is original.
Rather, it is a collection of everything needed to start, grow, scale and exit an Online Business from the best people, who aren’t just the top influencers, but real true experts (because we both know the best person isn’t always the person everyone knows)
The Model of OnlineBusinessOwner.com
Going forward, based on this model, we decided to focus the following when it comes to our platforms for publishing.
Newsletter(s)
Multiple newsletters that are specific to the sub-group audiences (starting vs. scaling)
Podcast(s)
Multiple Podcasts that are niche-specific and building a network of podcasts that are already running and successful.
Social Media
Instagram
YouTube
Website
With the main focus of non-SEO specific content that allows us to repurpose content from our partners and sponsors.
For revenue generation, based on all the data we have from across our portfolio and others in the industry:
Education: Our business will work on mostly low-ticket and membership based education with higher end programs being offered via our sponsors and partners on a commission basis. This content will not be our own but rather will be with those we partner with under the brand.
Sponsorships: Through our directories, newsletters, podcasts, websites and events we will be able to create considerable revenue from selling awareness, clicks and leads that are heavily targeted and valuable.
Certification: As part of our directories and sponsorship model, we’re going to be creating a OBO: Certified program that will allow us to create the first audited program for our industry, allowing consumers to know who they are actually buying from.
Merchandise: While not a large amount of revenue or profit we do believe that merchandise will allow us to build community and brand and further the reach of the brand.
Sister Properties: Through having a variety of domain names such as onlinebusinesstools.com, onlinebusinessownerlegal.com and many others there are many verticals that we can expand the brand allowing for specific properties and super targeted traffic.
No one has brought together our industry to date…
And while the vision is large, I believe we have the highest potential to be able to create a trusted group of experts for Entrepreneurs to look up to, while building deep awareness and attention for those experts and a model that will allow for it all to work together easily and effectively.
Wisdom Media, if looked at by itself, was a success in 2022-2024, however, we needed to raise a large amount of capital if we wanted to bring it to the next step. Based on what we know, our current audience and potential, I would expect OBO to generate a minimum of $500K in 2024 with $1M completely possible.
The Growth Strategy…
In order to grow this at the rate we desire without taking addational capital, we’re doing a few moves to solve the egg or chicken issue of audience.
I am selling my personal Instagram to OBO with 105,000 verified followers. I don’t use Instagram much and in the hands of OBO I believe this can grow and succeed much further.
We are acquiring a business with over 100,000 online entrepreneurs through a stock-only deal which will allow us to spin off an email list of first-time entrepreneurs.
We are acquiring a daily email list of entrepreneurs that will be called OBO: Daily
I am going to be personally hosting the first OBO podcast, which will allow me to get top influencers and experts that will increase coverage of the podcast.
We are going to discount our sponsorship packages in exchange for promoting Online Business Owner, allowing us to get coverage for a lot less than it would normally cost.
Based on this, we believe we can grow our email list beyond 250,000 by the end of the year, our socials by over 200,000 by the end of the year and have the reach required to allow for return on investment from those who work with us.
The end goal?
1). To build a community of “my people”.
2). To help Online Entrepreneurs figure out how to actually grow based on where they are with people who are actually legit.
3). Build a high cashflow business that generates 40%+ profit margins while building one of the largest audiences of online business owners.
4). Allows me to invest money for marketing without wasting it and giving me lead flow for my brand.
5). Have lead flow and authority creation for businesses where I’m an investor or mentor.
6). Can exit for multiple 8-figures in the future to allow for liquidity for other businesses.
Want to be involved?
I’m looking for those who want to elevate their brands, partner with us, along with a little extra capital.
Email me: [email protected] if you think there might be some synergy.
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