Empire Flippers Delivers a Curated Marketplace Designed to Eliminate Friction When Buying and Selling Online Businesses

TL; DR: Empire Flippers, a marketplace for online businesses, is committed to providing safe and secure buying and selling experiences to users worldwide. The company’s fine-tuned process includes evaluation and vetting tools that ensure buyers and sellers make well-informed decisions. With streamlined negotiation and migration processes, plus plans for enhanced resources on the way, Empire Flippers is providing the tools and support users need to find success.

If you’re hoping to break free from the monotony of the 9-to-5 workweek, you’re not alone. Studies show that 88% of employees in the U.S. yearn for a flexible work schedule — though only 62% of employers offer such a perk.

Rather than wait for employers to catch up with modern expectations, many employees are taking matters into their own hands. Kris and Sandro Kahrs, for example, needed to relocate almost three hours from their home and places of work so their son could enroll in a special educational program, but their employers wouldn’t allow them to work remotely. So the pair traded in their stable, but inflexible, jobs for an opportunity to gain passive income online.

Through Empire Flippers, a marketplace for purchasing profitable websites under the guidance of industry experts, Kris and Sandro purchased two Shopify stores. Soon, with the help of the experts in Empire Flippers, the couple began generating income online. Today, they live close to their son’s school and are available to take time off when needed. “Their time is their own, and they’re no longer tied to a location,” said Greg Elfrink, Marketing Director at Empire Flippers.

Since its founding in December 2010, Empire Flippers has helped customers around the globe buy and sell more than $50 million worth of online businesses. The company is committed to providing safe and secure customer experiences through a fine-tuned vetting, negotiation, and migration process. With plans for enhanced resources on the way, the company is continuing to help buyers and sellers alike find success through informed decision-making.

Empire Flippers got its start as an outsourcing company in the Philippines. When the company lost one of its major clients, Founders Justin Cooke and Joe Magnotti needed something to occupy their time. So they started AdSense Flippers, a side project in which they created niche websites designed to bring in money via Google AdSense. Once matured, Justin and Joe would sell the sites for a profit on Flippa, an online business marketplace.

“We blogged about the entire experience, and our audience of site builders started asking if we could sell their sites through our Flippa account because we had so much traffic,” Greg said. “They gave us a cut of the commission, and we starting selling sites that were much bigger than the ones we were previously creating.”

Realizing they were on to something, Justin and Joe rebranded the company as Empire Flippers, an official broker for websites. Since then, the company has enjoyed significant growth. “With our current manpower, if a business came across our table in $15 million to $20 million range, I’m fully confident we could sell it,” Greg said.

Greg said consumers who buy an established business often enjoy significant advantages over those who start one from scratch. “If you buy a branded business that’s already making money, you can get started on day one,” he said. “Because you already have traffic, you can build out an email list, perform split testing, host giveaways, and, importantly, access an established revenue stream.”

When the stars align, Greg said his customers have found some amazing investment opportunities. One of them, a wealth manager, bought a drop shipping business a few years ago for about $30,000. After applying the skill sets he had learned in wealth management to his new endeavor, the customer led the drop shipping business to success. Today, it brings in a whopping $30,000 per month.

Empire Flippers helps sellers reach a vast network of interested and qualified buyers through a streamlined process that eliminates unnecessary hassles. First, the company’s free valuation tool helps sellers determine how much their online business may be worth.

The tool takes the user through a series of questions to determine how many hours the seller works per week on the business, when the company was founded, monthly revenue, related expenses, and social media efforts, among other variables. “If you’re a seller, that doesn’t mean you’re automatically approved,” Greg said. “Unlike other brokerages and marketplaces, we vet businesses to make sure what they’re saying is true, to the best of our ability.”

The vetting process, which the seller pays for, determines whether the site is legitimate and earning real income. For example, the business must be at least six months old, have six months of steady revenue and traffic, and have incurred no penalties. If a site meets all of the requirements set forth, Empire Flippers will notify the seller within three weeks. If, for any reason, the business is rejected, the vetting fee will be refunded to the seller.

Next, the sales team reaches out to an extensive network of more than 80,000 potential buyers to secure a sale. Greg told us that the company typically prices a website or online business based on the average of the net profit from the last six to 12 months, multiplied by a figure ranging from 20 to 60, depending on a number of business variables. More than 90% of businesses listed on the marketplace sell within three months.

Empire Flippers has successfully migrated nearly 1,000 websites and online businesses from seller to buyer. The company handles all communications between the two parties and eliminates potential scams by charging all buyers a refundable 5% deposit before they receive information about the business.

The company brings both parties together to hash out the fine details during an official Buyer-Seller Conference call. “At this point, we have our negotiator on the line to coach both the buyer and seller and help them make and accept offers,” Greg said.

The seller receives payment after the buyer verifies revenues and traffic. Empire Flippers only collects its 8% to 15% commission fee, a figure based on the total cost of the business, after the migration is complete. “We’re the only company in the industry with an entire migrations team dedicated to transferring assets from the seller to the buyer,” Greg said. “That’s one of our unique value propositions, as the migration process is often the most tedious and stressful.”

Ultimately, Greg said the company’s goal is to ensure that both sides are happy with the transaction. That’s why, prior to the sale, the company advises the buyer on the type of businesses that may be appropriate for purchase. “If we want to stay in business and have a good reputation, our salespeople can’t tell a buyer who knows nothing about coding to pursue a SaaS business, for example,” he said.

To protect the buyer, Empire Flippers will reverse any deals that fail to generate a certain percentage of the revenue promised. “At the end of the day, we want all parties to walk away happy with the deal they made,” Greg said.

Looking forward, Greg said the company has plans to expand its content resources with YouTube videos and podcasts under the Empire Flipper brand. He’s also personally focused on optimizing the company’s marketing funnels to deliver more personalized content to individual users.

“If you’re a buyer who typically purchases affiliate sites, you probably don’t want to read too much about available SaaS companies,” he said.

If that’s not enough, Empire Flippers is working hard behind the scenes to produce a book and an educational course series, both of which are still in production. With resources like this on the horizon, more and more employees may be able to trade in their 9-to-5 grind for something a little more flexible.