We often talk to our students about creating that big multi-million-dollar idea. We all have the idea in each of us, but sometimes we limit ourselves by telling ourselves that we don’t have what it takes.
A great way to start instilling that belief of what’s possible is too take a look at the Australia Rich 250 List. You can actually see everyday people, just like you and me, taking their idea and put it into action to create that multi-million (…or billion!) dollar online asset.
In this short video Matt and I take a look at the younger members of the 2019 Australia Rich List especially the online entrepreneurs and find some very interesting clues into their success. We think you might find this inspirational as well! So, come take a look with us who made it onto the list and how they did it. Even if your goals aren’t to make hundreds of millions of dollars – these strategies can still be applied at any level.
Liz: Hey again, and we want to continue with our theme of The Rich 250 List, because we’ve been having so much fun reading through The List.
Matt: Over our kitchen table.
Liz: But that this time what we want to do is have a look at who’s on The List. Because like we’ve said before, we’re noticing quite a few more younger people on The List and also people from more of a tech world. And that’s one of things we’ve often say, is if you want to be a multi-millionaire or a billionaire, then this is the world to be in. Here’s your proof.
Matt: Can I just qualify that? If you want to do it quick. So, there’s a lot of people in here that have done it over a lifetime, and they’re self-made. But what’s really noticeable this year is the young people that are on here, they’ve seemingly come out of nowhere. There are couples on here we’ve never even heard of. Like they’ve just done it within five years, they’re on the Rich 250 List – pretty darn impressive.
Liz: So, let’s start with them I reckon. Let’s start with the couple that did it in five years. And good on them. They’re from Adelaide and here they are. She’s only 27.
Both: Kayla and Tobi.
Matt: Lovely young couple there.
Liz: And yeah. And they started out with, was it an eBook?
Matt: An eBook called The Bikini Body.
Liz: The Bikini Body.
Matt: Bikini Body the Guide it was.
Liz: The Guide okay.
Matt: The classic eBook like what we teach. That’s the sort of thing that we make money off online. Theirs went particularly well because they…
Liz: We haven’t made it to half a billion yet!
Matt: No. But one of the interesting things that worked for them, because this is the difference between Liz and I and these guys, we don’t use social media. They use social media (maybe we should have) with their eBook. It went nuts and they turned it into an app. And so, it’s now just a membership site, $19.95 a month.
Liz: And they’ve got how many members?
Matt: I think 45 million followers.
Liz: Just been valued at just under half a billion dollars. So, what legends! From Adelaide. Go kids. And yeah, wasn’t she 27?…
The other one I loved the idea, loved to read about was the couple who started Envato Market. So, if you haven’t heard of that – basically, they started a marketplace where designers and people who were building WordPress themes could list those themes for sale. So instead of again – it’s that idea (and here’s another tip for if you’re wanting to make money in this marketplace…).
It’s like the Gold Rush. The people who actually made the money in the Gold Rush, wasn’t the people digging for gold, it was the people who sold the shovels, the wood and the food, and all the other stuff that all the people who were digging needed. So, these guys – Awesome!
Matt: Described as the Netflix for web designers.
Liz: They simply created a marketplace. where people could list the themes and plug-ins and things that they were developing for sale. So, get them out to the market. That’s $600 million.
Matt: Yeah.
Liz: Go fellas.
Matt: Well, the other interesting one for us too is a young guy that started out on – he became one of the top sellers on eBay for jewellery! And we’ve talked about that niche before, jewellery niche. So anyway, talk about friends! He’s out on a walk one morning, it says in here – he’s just walking in the streets and his neighbour had a chat to him, he was an investment banker type guy, and he just said, “What are you up to these days?”, and they got talking. So, they started a business, and you may have heard of this one, only a few years ago – Afterpay.
Liz: Oh yeah.
Matt: That’s how it got started. That’s pretty cool. And now they’re in here.
Liz: Yeah, they’re in the rich list.
Matt: Pretty impressive. And he is what – in his 20s? And the other gentlemen, his mate, his neighbour – he’s my age. He’s in his late 40s, so he’s getting old, isn’t he?
Liz: And of course, well number four and five on the list…
Matt: They’re billionaires.
Liz: In the billionaire, multi-billionaires are the guys who founded Atlassian, software company.
Matt: There you go, SaaS.
Liz: Software as a SaaS, so Software as a Service
Matt: Just being constantly sold every month for a fee. So, it’s kind of like a glorified, the ultimate version of a membership site. They’re selling software.
Liz: Whereas a service where you roped people in. Hey, have you noticed, isn’t it interesting how Microsoft, they saw all this happening and they went, “Hey, we’re selling CDs with our thing on it.”?
Matt: For like $300 a year or something.
Liz: Oh no, but you buy it once and then you have membership to it. Have you noticed now, that we all have to pay for all our Microsoft stuff ongoing, year after year after year? So, they’ve transferred over to the membership model, which is a great model.
Matt: Have you noticed something else really interesting about that Liz? Since they implemented that model, if you took the time to look at their share price, you would notice that their share price has just gone ka-chung.
Liz: Yes.
Matt: So, biggest company on the planet today.
Liz: But that’s actually a really good lesson, and I know we’re going slightly off topic but…
Matt: Oh, we are talking about the richest companies on the planet now.
Liz: Well yeah, and how do you make that happen? It is interesting that one of the ways to value your business when you come to valuing a business. One of the big factors is, how likely is this business’s income to keep going? And if you’ve got everyone on a membership site paying X amount per month, you can see how many people are on there, how many people drop off each month, how many new people you need to get on per month. It makes the figures very, very attractive.
Matt: Well, case in point. The beautiful young couple, Kayla and Tobi from Adelaide, they’re worth $500 million, and it can be valued and at that because you can look at the monthly membership fees that they’re making.
Liz: And it’s also ultimately scalable. So, just the more people you get in there, the bigger it grows, the more profits there are. And really, scalability-wise, as you get a thousand members versus ten thousand members, it probably doesn’t need that much different.
Matt: Well, and hopefully pointing out the obvious though that the field we’re in, like Kayla and Tobi the Internet. It lets you scale things infinitely. Well, maybe not infinitely, but you’ve got a worldwide market. As evidence, these couple, they’re from Adelaide. Most of their market though is in America. That’s where the vast majority of their market is. And it’s just huge. They don’t have to be there, it happens at night while they’re asleep, because they’re just selling this app over and over.
Liz: Very, very nice, so there you go. There’s some more inspiration from The List. And if you can get hold of a copy, I’d highly recommend it. Something that’s worth looking through every year, to just get some inspiration, and see what’s happening out there in the marketplace. So, check it out. We’ll see you then next time.
Have you found some inspiration from the people who have made it to The List? Have you got yourself that big idea that you can use to create your own success story? Let us know in the comments!
Or, if you would like to learn more digital skills to create your own online success story, then join our introductory program, so you can start building your own website in as little as a day!
