The Exit - Presented by Flippa - Shakil Prasla

What I Ask When Scouting 6-7 Figure Online Businesses

Presented by Flippa: http://www.flippa.com

For this episode of The Exit presented by Flippa, Steve McGarry sits down with Shakil Prasla, the founder of a successful investment firm that specializes in acquiring, managing, and growing eCommerce companies, SZ Ventures. They dived into the nitty-gritty of how SZ Ventures look at buying businesses and how this company has scaled up to its massive size that they are currently in right now.

Where it All Started - A Work From Home Job

Shakil Prasla shares how his journey started in 2014 when he was just looking at google.com for a comfortable job to have from home. He came across a few links talking about how one could sell products online and how one could import stuff. Prasla described going into the rabbit hole and he found this kind of business interesting. This prompted him to visit the world’s largest trade show – the Canton Fair in China.

Prasla had the idea of importing fashion jewelry from China and brought these products to Elance-oDesk, now known today as Upwork. He then hired a bunch of contractors. Without any background knowledge about SEO at that time, Prasla built his own website and it started driving some traffic. He took some courses, self-educated himself, and took notes from competitor companies. Prasla had the mentality of “This or Nothing” and continued to work hard. It took about a year when Prasla had made his business profitable and he was able to achieve the comfortable lifestyle he’s aiming for.

‘What’s next?’

Prasla was able to achieve his goal of living a comfortable job at home, but he thinks it’s still not enough. “Okay, I've done it, so what's next?” Prasla started other ways to grow his business and he found Quiet Light Brokerage, a brokerage company that sells online companies. He found it interesting, so he ended up buying his first eCommerce company. He noticed that the business particularly was getting all their sales on their website, all organically. Prasla thought of taking the business into Amazon, made use of google ad, and he was able to make money back in about six months. He was able to make money out of it quickly.

Buying and Selling eCommerce Businesses

From Prasla’s first-ever company acquisition, he now has over a dozen acquisitions. He bought more eCommerce Businesses and is earning on six to seven figures mark now. He also has grown his company with 80 employees, 40 based in the US, and 40 based overseas.