I recently bought and completed the Micro PE course from Micro Acquisitions (Ryan Kulp), and to be honest, it’s one of the most interesting courses I’ve done in a long time. Years. So many of the courses I review here on One More Cup of Coffee are for the reader. I’m vetting products for you to see if they are good enough to buy.
Are You Ready To Work Your Ass Off to Earn Your Lifestyle?
Are you tired of the daily grind? With a laptop and an internet connection I built a small website to generate income, and my life completely changed. Let me show you exactly how I’ve been doing it for more than 13 years.
This one was for me. Why?
As a content site creator for 10 years now, it can be super exhausting building a website from scratch. You’ve really got to grind for months just to make headway in the SERPs, and then you actually have to figure out how to make affiliate sales!
Since my side-project started in 2015 is finally taking off, and self-sustainable to some degree, I’ve really been looking at buying an affiliate website to bypass the starting phase. I haven’t found exactly what I’m looking for yet, but I have gotten more interested in the idea of buying and selling online businesses.
Somehow or another, I was introduced to Ryan Kulp’s Micro PE Course, and was instantly hooked by the tagline: How to Buy, Grow, and Sell Small Companies by Micro Acquisitions. It was impossible to say no.
I bought the course for $150, but it’s now $199, and going up to $249 very soon. It was really a no-brainer to buy, and I still think that even at the new price points. That’s basically the main conclusion of this review. If you’re going to be buying and selling businesses for thousands of dollars, or if you finance, risking hundreds of hours of your time, the cost of this course is not significant at all.
The fact is, this is information that you can’t really get anywhere else online. Who else is teaching how to buy and sell small internet-based companies? Sure, you have the drop shipping course, the affiliate courses, the Amazon FBA courses, and the local lead-gen courses. There are tons of those. But buying, growing, and selling small businesses? Nobody. Doesn’t exist.
As I said above, I was an instant buyer, but the second part of that story is that Ryan did not disappoint. You can buy Micro PE here (affiliate link). If you are a content/affiliate site creator like myself, there’s just one negative thing to consider, and I’ll get into that further below.
Micro PE Course from Micro Acquisitions Review
What’s Inside Micro PE?
The way the course is laid out is pretty simple. Find a deal. Vet the deal. Get the deal done. Exit.
- Module 1 – Getting Started
- Module 2 – Sourcing
- Module 3 – Negotiation and Diligence
- Module 4 – Financing and Closing
- Module 5 – Relaunch and Scale
- Module 6 – Exit Strategy
Most of the course is videos, but there is some written material. Most videos are pretty short, 5-10 minutes long, but some are 30-60 minutes. Some are just straight videos, while some have additional content written below. Each module has about 10 lessons.
The vast majority of videos are done by Ryan himself. Some are of him with a whiteboard for demonstration visuals, some are of him speaking directly to the camera, and some are over-the-shoulder tutorial style videos. I think it was a good choice to mix up the content like this, and it added some interest to the learning process.
There are some quizzes at the end of the lessons, but they aren’t really intended to check if you know the material in a serious way. I think this was set up as part of the launch. I think it would be useful to have a real quiz, to see how much of the content I actually retained!
There is also a comment section, but not much engagement there from other students.
My Comments On The Course Material
Ryan definitely delivered on what he promised. Micro PE covered start-to-finish, how to find, make, and close deals, as well as how to sell your business. Solid. 10/10. Every single business is different, so this isn’t a step-by-step “click here” type of course, but it does a great job explaining all things you should consider before acquiring or selling a small (micro) business.
I think the best thing about the course was that is was clear Ryan has tons of experience in this field. A lot of online courses in the affiliate space are just by a guy who did one thing one time, so now he’s an expert. Actually, a lot of the SEO world is like that too. Ryan, on the other hand, has bought and sold multiple businesses. Because each deal was different, he clearly learned a lot, both positive, and negative.
Being able to hear about those experiences and what he learned is something that could potentially cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars to learn on your own.
Here’s what I mean. If Ryan did a deal for $50,000, and learned one important lesson, then tells you, how much is that lesson worth to you? You might not have learned that same lesson without also spending $50k to buy an app or website.
Within the lessons, he has also brought on a couple experts to talk taxes and patents, for example. How much do you think it would cost you to consult with a tax attorney? A hundred bucks an hour?
Personally, I found the financing section of the course the most exciting. I would have liked to see more of this in the lessons, just because I think it’s interesting how you can leverage other people’s money to make money. Actually, I think it was Ryan’s wife that does this section, but the lesson on how to use financial leverage was my favorite.
From the screenshots above, you can see two scenarios. In scenario 1, you use a $30k investment to create a $110k exit. You 3.6x your investment. In scenario 2, you use debt to fund your deal. This time, you use $6k for a $78k exit.
78 is less than 110, right? Not exactly. In the second scenario, you 13x your investment money. Pretty freakin’ cool, right?
The course is full of bit of information like that. You really just need one thing to click for you, and that’s your money made back from the purchase price of the course.
What About Buying & Selling Affiliate Websites?
I mentioned in the introduction that there was just one negative thing to consider about the Micro PE Course, and it related to buying and selling affiliate websites. The main issue, is that the practical discussions center around apps, because that’s where Ryan’s expertise is.
For example, in the 90-day marketing plan section, he talks about how giving the product a visual facelift would have a positive effect. He digs into specific examples about an plugin he purchased before, and does a live example of a random app he found online.
Another example of this is that there are a number of lessons and discussions about acquiring financing and investors if you don’t have the money to do deals. I don’t think there’s a lot of investors clamoring to buy content-based websites simply because so many people are unfamiliar with the business model. No products? All you do is blog and put Adsense ads on?
However, this is only a problem if you really need hand-holding instructions to get something done. If you need someone to say, “OK, here’s step one to doing a deal. Here’s step 2”, then I think you may struggle with the information Ryan lays out in the course.
For me, I think it was pretty easy to figure out how certain information could apply to an acquisition of an affiliate or display ad site. For example, though a logo and color update of a website making money through Adsense alone might have little impact, you could still do other facelift work to increase your revenue. Adding a plugin to display related posts could increase pages per visit. Removing garbage from the sidebar could give you more views of a sticky ad. Decreasing paragraph size could increase your RPM.
For an affiliate site, simplifying the menu structure could get more clicks to your money pages, or reducing the header size could move your content further above the fold, creating more interest, and get more clicks.
So even though the course is very app-focused, the vast majority you can still apply to buying and selling content-based websites.
Plus, they recently posted an interview with a content site owner who sold his business. The story of how he built the site, then got the deal done was very insightful. Every deal is different, so I love to hear more people’s experiences to add to my own, and become a better business owner.
Course Updates & Exclusive Stuff
Since the launch of Micro PE, there have been several rounds of additional material. The material was added throughout the course. I think there’s a new one about automating your deal flow, and one about developing a good reputation. I can’t remember exactly what it was since the additions are not announced, and I’ve completed most of the material.
I know for a fact they added a very interesting interview recently with a niche website creator who sold his business recently. It’s a 47 minute interview about how he started is business, why he decided to sell, and the step he took to complete the deal. Obviously, this type of deal is right up my alley, and it was nice to see some focus on content site owners.
Really, this type of insight is hard to find anywhere else online. Maybe the Empire Flippers podcast. I haven’t listened yet, so can’t vouch for the quality or interest.
So far, Ryan has really gone above and beyond what I expected from his course.
What are Rainmakers Club & Dealfow?
There are two other products you’ll see related to Micro PE, and that’s the Rainmakers Club and Dealflow. Rainmakers Club (affiliate link) is a forum where you can communicate with other entrepreneurs looking to buy and sell businesses. This is a very cool idea. There aren’t a lot of places where you can connect with people who are serious about doing deals. I’m part of a couple of Facebook groups, and they are kind of a joke, filled with a bunch of sketch deals and rude people looking to churn a buck.
So far, Rainmakers is not that. However, the community is pretty dead ATM. So even though the cost is very cheap, $9/month doesn’t get you much. The last post was 15 days ago, with zero replies.
Obviously, it’s a new community, so needs time to grow, but I’m just letting you know how it is.
Dealflow is another product worth considering if you’re serious about buying businesses. Well, you should sign up anyway because it’s free. It’s a platform where you can monitor deals from across multiple platforms, including Empire Flippers, Flippa, 1kP, Shopify Exchange, FEInternational, and more. You can set criteria for businesses you want to buy, and even get emailed when those deals come though. Very cool.
Final Thoughts
Micro PE Course was worth way more money than I paid for it. I’m stoked that Ryan continues to add material. It’s clear that this is a subject he’s passionate about, and he’s giving away a lot of information he could easily sell. I’m glad to be an “insider”, and have my finger on the pulse of the small, but growing micro acquisitions community.
If you’re at all interested in buying established businesses, or selling your business in the future, then Micro PE is worth your money. You’ll buy for less, sell for more, and get deals done faster. At the very least, you’ll learn something new expand the pool of opportunities that are open to you.
> Get Micro PE Course Here <
(affiliate link)
Nathaniell
What's up ladies and dudes! Great to finally meet you, and I hope you enjoyed this post. My name is Nathaniell and I'm the owner of One More Cup of Coffee. I started my first online business in 2010 promoting computer software and now I help newbies start their own businesses. Sign up for my #1 recommended training course and learn how to start your business for FREE!
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