Most of us picture starting a business the same way.

I mean, you pick a name, build the website, and then spend months (sometimes years) trying to get the first few customers to even notice you.

Every time, you start with nothing.

I was reading Business Insider the other day and found a story about a guy in Japan named Kengo Ohama.

It kinda made me look at the whole thing differently.

He’s 31 and always wanted to run a café. Earlier this year he found one listed on a business succession site.

An older couple had been running it maybe for years and just didn’t have the energy anymore. They weren’t after money. They only wanted someone to take care of the place and keep it lively.

So he got the brand, the furniture, the kitchen equipment, the recipes and even the supplier list for zero yen. He only pays rent on the building.

Zero, zero Japanese yen… I had to read that twice to believe it.

And there’s a lot more of these in Japan than you’d think.

In a 2023 survey of over 4,000 small businesses in Japan, 57.4% expected to close when the current owner steps away.

Not always because there’s nobody there. Lots of them just never planned to hand it over. So yeah, a lot of these are just going to quietly disappear.

Now, will you get something for free like that? Probably not. He got lucky that way.

Thing is, small online businesses get sold all the time.

I’m talking about blogs, websites, newsletters, little online stores, even domain names.

Sometimes the owner got bored, sometimes life got busy, sometimes they just want out, and the audience and the setup they built are still there waiting for somebody.

Maybe someone just got tired of explaining to their mom what a newsletter is.

I mean, everyone’s got their reasons, right?

Now there’s one more part of that story I should tell you. Ohama rides an hour on his motorbike to reach the café by 6 a.m., and gets home around 11 p.m. Six days a week.

Getting in was free. Running it, not even close.

And it’s the same online.

A newsletter that “makes $500 a month” might not really make that, and you only find that out if you look at the traffic and numbers yourself before you pay a single dollar.

Look, I’m not telling you to go buy something tomorrow. But starting from zero is one door, that’s it, and most beginners never even check out the other one.

Talk soon,

Minosh

Before you go, if you’re curious what small online businesses actually sell for, Flippa is where a lot of them get listed. Worth a 10 minute scroll, even if you never buy one.

Affiliate link above. Costs you nothing extra, helps keep this newsletter free.