Classified people... I am launching a second Skool. It is for high-MRR Skool owners who want to learn how to think like a buyer to earn more now -- and to have a bigger payday if they decide to sell their community later. It will teach my 6 big sale-prep steps. And then the upsell is that I will come alongside you and consult in your sale if you want to exit. I may also partner with brokers to help sellers find a buyer. Ideas I have so far include: SKOOL M&A DEPT SELL YOUR SKOOL YOUR COMMUNITY EXIT YES YOU CAN SELL YOUR COMMUNITY COMMUNITY EXIT DEPT THE CASH OUT PLAN Why am I starting this community? Well, there are plenty of Skools out there teaching rich people how to get into BUYING small businesses. There is NO ONE here for the Sellers. Your buyer has usually bought multiple times, but you are usually selling for the FIRST TIME. Having SOLD my first community in '21, I know this unlevel playing field from painful experience. And I'm here to improve the odds for community owners who want to have a more profitable business, both now and when they sell. What do you like for a name for this? Do you have other ideas? Appreciate your input --

In a post in Skoolers from 2024, someone asked what a "good" retention rate is for your community. Sam Ovens gave the following statistics for churn. Churn is the opposite of retention. It is the number of paying members who leave your community: 2-9% = Amazing 10-19% = Good 20% = Average 21-30% = Bad If we translate this into retention rate, which is what is what is now reported by Skool in your settings instead of churn, it looks like this: 91-98% = Amazing 81 - 90% = Good 80% = Average 70-79% = Bad I looked at my own numbers and was confused, so I asked him for clarification. His response was that the retention rate in the CLASSIFIEDS is "exceptional!" Why exceptional? Because the retention rate is better than 100%. It is actually 105%!!! Retention is defined by Skool as "the amount of MRR revenue at the start of last month which is still active at the end of last month." In the Build Lab, my other community, the retention rate is 96%. Want to know how to improve your retention rate in your community and the #1 thing I do to ensure that my own retention rates stay high? Check out the new Standard tier of the Build Lab. We discuss this and many other factors that play a real role in making sure that your community is successful for the long term (and none of them have anything to do with flames, games, or insane MRR goals)! I'll be doing a live training at the beginning of August on my top 6 retention strategies so that you can start implementing them immediately. Oh, and there's a 38% discount if you sign up for the year - because we all know that it's going to take longer than a minute to get your community where you want it to be. 😉 Check out the Build Lab here! I can't wait to support you in creating a successful Skool community that gets meaningful results for both you AND your members!

Your free community, your free ebook and your free summit are not really free. It's paid with time commitment, with emotional investment, with privacy and mental energy. Many cretors forget about that and get frustrated when they realize their freebies are not getting the attention they thought they would. But it's free! Why are people not joining, downloading, talking about it? But few ask themselves what they are charging of their members besides the non existing money transaction. How much time do they need to dedicate? How much are you asking them to share? What level of emotional commitment are you asking from them? And is it all of it worth it for the value you provide? Roast & Promote has a lot of value for free, but I'm aware of it's costs, even at the free tier: - It takes courage and willingness to get your work roasted. And although this is basically a free audit made from the most relevant members, there is an emotional investment there. The time commitment for that is low though, as you only need to submit a link and wait for the roasts. - I greatly reward my most active members that dedicate their time to help other people with helpful roasts by creating ads for them that are pinned at the top. But not everyone likes competition, some are even repulsed by it. And some just don't have the time. - An open community like mine require the willingness to be open about your projects at a place where others can find your comments. And some people like to search for more private spaces to expose themselves. So there is a privacy cost also. If you're not charging for money, what are you really charging for?

Now that I've had an exit with my first paid community (back in '21), I've learned the hard way how business buyers think about our businesses. If I'd understood how buyers look at communities back then, I could have gotten $100,000 more in my sale. Yes, it burns. And I'm here to help other founders avoid my mistake! Right after I sold, the buyer fired about half my staff. Eliminated what I thought were vital member services, including our job board and our weekend helpdesk hours. At first, I was furious. Now, I get it. To them, a business isn't their baby. They're not up nights worrying about the members' success. It's all dollars and cents to them! They looked at my business... and then they bought it. Because it was a valuable asset. Then, they made it MORE PROFITABLE. Because they're just in business to maximize profits. That's how they get the money to buy the next business. The painful part? If *I* had done that cost-cutting before I sold, I could have had a more profitable business. That's what your sale price is based on -- net profits. NOT gross revenue (which everyone talks about endlessly here on Skool!). Not only would I have had a higher sale price in my exit... I also could have taken home more cash every year, for many years before I sold, by trimming the extras. What could you cut in your business that would bring focus and make you more profitable? Want to talk with me about ALL the things buyers look for? I'm currently doing FREE calls for $10K+ MRR Skool owners (but not for much longer)! Not quite there yet? Come on down to Community Growth Academy and check out my course, Built to Sell. I unpack everything buyers look for in an acquisition and all my hard lessons learned!

I didn't want to leave #FriendFriday out of the challenge. It's the perfect way to build relationships and support each other! In the COMMENTS BELOW, please share a Skool community you think is doing really great things. It can be one you've participated in yourself or one that you've heard from others is amazing. Please do the following: 1. Tell us the name of the community and link to it (affiliates allowed). 2. Tag the person who owns the community. If they are not in the CLASSIFIEDS, then please send them a DM and let them know that you mentioned them here. I promise you will make their day! 3. Describe why the group is so wonderful and how it has helped you. Please DO NOT just copy and paste the About page! 4. Comment on each others comments and scroll through the referrals to see if there's an amazing group you are missing out on! Thanks so much for supporting each other and this community! Please note that any #FriendFriday mentions that are created as new posts will be deleted. Thanks! Please DO NOT promote yourself. 🤨. The entire community is for promoting yourself. This post is for celebrating someone else. 😊