How To Buy a Business With Almost No Money

Well almost no money. When John Chen was working at a hedge fund years ago, he thought he was going to be the next Warren Buffet. Little did he know, his life was going to change once he left the company. 

Now, John has six transactions on Flippa, totalling $750,805, with no plans to stop.

With no funds or connections, but an entrepreneurial spirit, Chen took this eagerness to Flippa and purchased his first company, a jewelry business, for $7,500. 

“When I first got the jewelry business, I didn’t know how to grow it, so I tried a bunch of different avenues,” Chen says. “Long story short, I figured out different avenues like Facebook ads and paid social media marketing and was able to grow it through there.” 

Buy, Grow, Sell, Repeat

Chen grew that company and later sold it for an incredible $550,000.

He then went on to purchase a plus-size clothing business for $60,000 from a husband and wife duo. This year, his second company purchased on Flippa is on its way to making 2 million in revenue. 

This is the story of how he became a serial entrepreneur by buying and selling e-commerce businesses on Flippa.

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“It’s considerable growth. When I first started out it was kinda in my apartment, had no employees, now we have a whole team, we have a warehouse, and we’re going to continue growing,” says Chen. “It’s been a good journey for sure.”

When it comes to successfully purchasing a business and making a stream of profit from it, Chen knew right off the bat that he wanted an e-commerce business that incites emotion. 

According to Chen, there’s a science when it comes to how people purchase online.

For example, if someone sees an ad for a jewelry item or piece of clothing, they have to see themselves in it. 

Before user conversion, there’s a psychological element that plays a role in it, and if you’re able to achieve that successfully, you’ve unlocked a whole new level of e-commerce. 

Chen believes that Flippa makes it more accessible for people who want to get started in the entrepreneur space and start a side hustle, while not necessarily committing a ton of money from the get-go.

“Without Flippa, I would be working another job, probably unhappy,” says Chen. “Flippa gave me this career path I didn’t know existed. Flippa has been a game-changer for me.”

Read more about the first business John bought and sold on Flippa here.

John Chen was also our very first guest on Humans of Flippa, you can watch his interview here.