Empire Flippers Podcast

For years, growing an eCommerce business followed the same growth playbook: run ads, optimize your website, and send as much traffic to your store as possible.  But that's starting to change. More and more shoppers are discovering products through creators rather than traditional ads, and platforms like TikTok Shop are changing the way people buy online. Instead of relying solely on paid advertisi...

Entrepreneurship isn't a linear path. Some entrepreneurs spend decades building a single business. Others buy, grow, and sell businesses repeatedly. Some focus on building a portfolio of businesses. And then there are entrepreneurs who take it a step further. After years of acquiring and operating online businesses, Mike Swigunski is now building Dividends, an investment platform designed to give...

Most entrepreneurs don't get it right the first time. In fact, the average founder fails around four times before they land something that really works. What matters isn't avoiding failure, it's what you do to bounce back. In this episode of The Opportunity Podcast, Greg sits down with entrepreneur and solopreneur mentor Moe Choice for an honest conversation about what it actually takes to rebuild...

What separates great entrepreneurs from everyone else is not avoiding failure. It's their ability to get back up and keep trying new things. Grant Hensel started 10 businesses, watched seven fail, scaled one into a 60-person company, shifted from building businesses to buying them, and recently raised nearly $12 million to back entrepreneurs acquiring small businesses.  In this episode of The Oppo...

Most founders think selling a business is the finish line. For Beth Mazza, it was the start of a completely different challenge. After selling her first consulting firm for a modest valuation, Beth rebuilt her next company with an exit in mind from day one. The result? A roughly $40 million exit and a crash course in what buyers actually value. In this episode of the Opportunity Podcast , Beth sha...

For many eCommerce brands, getting the first sale is not the hardest part. Keeping customers coming back is. In this episode of the Opportunity Podcast, Greg speaks with Matthew Holman, founder of D2C subscription agency Subscription Prescription , about how eCommerce brands can improve retention and increase recurring revenue by adding a subscription component to their business. Matt explains why...

Paid ads used to be simple: find the right audience, dial in your targeting, and scale. Now? It's where a lot of businesses quietly burn cash.  In this episode, we are joined by Hernan Vazquez, a paid ads expert with over a decade of experience. Hernan explains why so many business owners are spending more on ads and getting less back. The biggest problem is the math. What used to work at $3 leads...

In a world flooded with AI-generated content, standing out is harder than ever. Which is exactly why understanding why people make decisions matters more now than ever before. In this episode of the Opportunity Podcast, we're joined by Nancy Harhut, co-founder and Creative Director of HBT Marketing. Nancy specializes in blending marketing with behavioral science to uncover what actually drives cus...

Most hosting companies don't start because someone dreams of running servers. They start because something is broken and users are frustrated. That's exactly how Terry Kyle built WPX. In this episode, Terry joins us to discuss how he built WPX from a single server into a globally distributed hosting company with 100+ staff, thousands of loyal customers, and a reputation built on speed and hands-on...

Many online businesses fail to grow not because of bad products, but because of bad hiring. In this episode of The Opportunity Podcast, Greg speaks with Mads Singers, a management coach who runs multiple recruitment businesses, to talk about where founders go wrong when building teams. One of the most important hiring considerations is cultural fit. Culture is defined by behavior, not by what's wr...

What if the smarter path to building wealth online isn't launching a new business… but acquiring something that already works? In this episode of The Opportunity Podcast, we sit down with Paul Lajoie, a CPA turned acquisition entrepreneur who has bought more than 25 businesses over the past two decades. Paul breaks down his experience starting businesses from scratch vs buying established business...

For Amazon sellers, discovery determines everything. If customers can't find your products, nothing else matters. What many sellers haven't realized is how quickly Amazon's discovery engine is changing. Amazon is moving beyond traditional keyword-driven search toward AI-powered, intent-based answers through Rufus. This impacts how products are surfaced, compared, and ultimately purchased. In this...

Many entrepreneurs leave huge sums of money on the table because they don't understand business credit. In this episode, Ty Crandall, CEO of Credit Suite, breaks down how business credit really works and how online business owners can use it as a serious growth and acquisition tool. We start by unpacking the key differences between business credit and personal credit, and why separating the two is...

No one works harder than a founder, but at what point does being the main salesperson for your business stop being a strength and start becoming a liability? In this episode, remote sales expert Kai Law breaks down why founder-led sales often become a bottleneck and what to do before it hurts your revenue and eventually your valuation. Drawing on his experience building and leading remote sales te...

Everyone is rushing to "optimize for AI." Most are doing it wrong. In this episode, Tim Soulo, the Chief Marketing Officer at Ahrefs, cuts through the noise around AEO and GEO and explains why business owners are massively overcomplicating what visibility really means today. While AI-powered search feels new and unpredictable, Tim argues that the same core SEO principles still apply. Create genuin...

When many entrepreneurs go to sell their business, they're more focused on their business than on the buyer . Understanding how buyers approach an acquisition, particularly when it comes to funding and deal structure, can help you position your business for the most profitable exit. In this episode of The Opportunity podcast, Greg breaks down how buyers actually think when evaluating an acquisitio...

In this episode, we're joined by Alexander Kelm, an acquisition entrepreneur and founder of a micro private equity firm focused on buying, growing, and scaling digital businesses across Europe. Alexander shares his unconventional path into acquisitions, including how he sold a business before he had even fully started it. He explains why acquisition entrepreneurship can be such a powerful strategy...

Most online business owners have a complicated relationship with conferences. Some leave feeling energized and full of new ideas. Others leave wondering if they just paid a lot of money for bad coffee and small talk. In this episode of the Opportunity Podcast, Greg breaks down when conferences are actually worth your time and when they're not. He starts by outlining the difference between attendin...

AI tools are already answering your customers' questions. The real question is, how do you ensure your business is part of those answers? In this episode, we sit down with Sergey Lucktinov, an AI search visibility expert who has spent more than a decade navigating algorithm shifts and rethinking how businesses get discovered online. Sergey breaks down how visibility works in the age of AI and what...

You don't need to drain your bank account to buy a business. In fact, many of the best deals are done with very little personal capital. In this episode, Greg breaks down how buyers structure acquisitions using financing instead of their own money. There are two buckets of money you can draw from when buying a business: your own personal funds and external financing. One of the most powerful exter...

Buying an online business can feel overwhelming, especially if you are new to acquisitions. In this week's podcast episode, we sit down with Matt Raad, a seasoned digital business buyer and coach who has helped countless first-time buyers navigate the acquisition process with confidence. Due diligence takes center stage as Matt explains what really matters when evaluating an online business and ho...

Buying a business is one of the biggest financial decisions most entrepreneurs will ever make. For many first-time buyers, it's terrifying. You're putting a meaningful chunk of your net worth on the line and hoping you've chosen wisely. So what actually makes a business safe to buy? In this episode, Greg Elfrink breaks down the realities of business risk and shares practical criteria buyers can us...

If you want to squeeze more revenue out of your existing traffic, this week's podcast episode is a must-listen. We're diving deep into one of the most misunderstood, yet most profitable, parts of ecommerce growth: conversion rate optimization. CRO expert Jasper De Munyk joins Greg to break down the fundamentals of Shopify CRO, including what a healthy optimization process actually looks like and w...

If you know exactly what problems your customers face before and after they buy from you, you could build offers that practically sell themselves. In this episode, Greg breaks down his simple but powerful "before and after" formula. It starts by understanding the before : the frustrations, questions, and roadblocks your customers face long before they make a purchase. Solve that, and you earn the...

Your revenue may be rising… but your business value might not be. And for founders planning an exit, that's the only number that matters. In this week's podcast, Greg is joined by Mark Osborne, author of Are Your Leads Killing Your Business? and one of the only Certified Exit Planning Advisors focused specifically on sales and marketing.  Mark breaks down the most common exit-planning mistakes fou...