When Flo Kunle found himself without a job after his company went through mass layoffs in 2005, he decided to quit the workforce altogether and start his own site, a business review website which he grew for three to four years, before selling it on Flippa for $40,000.
Fast forward to 2022, Americans are quitting their jobs at near-record numbers and the economy is experiencing unpredictable twists and turns.
Flo understands all too well what today’s workers are facing: not only has the pandemic shifted the way people work, but employees are now prioritizing flexibility over pay.
“Even though it came at a time where so many people suffered, got sick, or died, once people experienced that, they realized how short life is. They’re thinking, ‘I don’t want to spend all my life in a cubicle at an office. I want a little bit of flexibility. I want a little bit more freedom,” Flo says. “I get that. That’s actually more impactful and important for a lot of people. That’s why a lot of people make less money so that they can have a more flexible schedule.”
For the past 8 years, Flo has worked in a home office where he spends 90% of his time running a successful online consulting business.
Flo started the platform in 2006 after experiencing the layoff and scaled the website for three to four years before selling it on Flippa for $40,000.
“I listed the website on Flippa, and one of the big names in the industry recognised the brand… they bought it based on the brand recognition and the list I had built up.”
– Flo Kunle, Market Sell Automate
The website received a lot of attention on Flippa’s marketplace based on the brand name. Ironically, Flo came across the name almost accidentally–he simply thought it sounded good.
“We ran a lot of paid media,” says Flo. “That’s another reason why branding is important. When you’re doing paid media, if people can remember going to your website, that really pays off because they’ll come back to it later.”
When Google experienced a shake-up in 2008 due to the recession, Flo stopped using paid media because things got expensive. However, thanks to the website’s healthy organic traffic and memorable brand name, people kept coming back to the site and revenue remained consistent.
The idea to run a consulting business spawned from the momentum and success the website experienced.
“Federalreviews.com actually jump started my consulting business and that’s what made me want to sell,” says Flo. “To keep up a website that’s getting a lot of traffic takes effort. If you want to be competitive and keep growing, you have to create content, do paid media. You have to do things to make the brand grow.”
Flo started gaining consulting leads through the website and made more money in less time than he did spending on the website.
That’s when he knew it was time to sell.
So he started looking at websites for sale on Flippa, and based on the websites he came across, he set a reasonable sale price for his website.
Flo sold Federalreviews.com to a buyer in his network who came across the business on Flippa. The buyer also purchased the website’s database and made more than his money back in the long run.
“They wouldn’t have known the business it was for sale and I wouldn’t have known to approach the buyer, Flippa was the catalyst… They did their due diligence and within a few days it was sold.”
– Flo Kunle, Market Sell Automate
At the time he sold the business, the website had made close to $1 million in revenue.
“That was my first successful venture in the online world,” says Flo. “It was a pretty seamless process, I was happy with it, and I was able to use the funds to jumpstart my new consulting business that did really well. There was nothing about the experience that I did not like.”
Starting His Next Business
After selling his business, Flo moved to California to focus on consulting. There, “Market Sell Automate” was born.
He hired two sales representatives and they bootstrapped the consulting business in the living room of his two-bedroom apartment in Pasadena, California.
Flo took the skills he learned from growing Federalreviews.com and used it to teach others how to start their own businesses.
Today, Flo gets clients from across the U.S., majority of them with online businesses ranging from the ecommerce to informational software space. His team helps clients implement sales and marketing strategies to gain better results in customer retention, engagement, and revenue.
“We made $20,000 in our first week and I knew this was the path I’m taking going forward,” says Flo.
As of present day, the team has a physical office in the U.S. with developers overseas.
As is the case with running any business, Flo has found loopholes in his consulting business and is actively creating strategies to bridge existing gaps.
“There’s always what’s next, what’s the problem you’re going to solve,” says Flo. “One of the problems we chose is helping people communicate with their leads and prospects and customers from anywhere without using cellphones. That’s one problem we’re trying to solve that came from a lot of sales consulting.”
Advocating for Online Business Entrepreneurship
“I’ve told hundreds of people my story and say, ‘go to Flippa, find a website’,” Flo says. “There’s different phases — people that start websites and businesses and sell them, and there’s people out there looking for something that’s already been started and already has a brand.”
Flo brought up the example of the buyer of his original website, who bought his brand because it made money and the buyer saw an opportunity to capitalize on an existing business model.
“My thinking is that there’s something for everyone, if you’re an online entrepreneur or into entrepreneurship,” says Flo. “Even if you have a brick and mortar business, there’s ways you can acquire businesses on Flippa to use to help your brick and mortar business, depending on what you do.”
“There’s something for everyone. If you’re an online entrepreneur or into entrepreneurship, there’s ways you can acquire businesses on Flippa to help your business.”
-Flo Kunle, Market Sell Automate
“I’m taking time off going on Flippa,” Flo jokes. “It’s getting me excited looking at all the opportunities. It does get the wheels turning and gives you a lot of ideas.”
For those interested in buying a business but don’t have the capital to do so, Flo has some words of advice: “A lot of people think you have to have the money to purchase the business, but they can actually get the money to that purchase the business. If it’s something that you really want, and it inspires you, don’t be afraid to do your due diligence and ask where you can get the resources to make it happen.”
