Why Buying a Business Beats Building One From Scratch

The Remote Work Reality Nobody Wants to Say Out Loud

At age 18 Mike Swigunski boarded his first commercial flight. Over the course of a decade he would earn income while working in over 100 countries. This was not a gap-year dream — it was the result of 10 years of constructing leverage through hard-work and planning that few people ever undertake.

He began this journey in 2011, which at that time did not include ‘digital nomads’ as a category — instead, remote work represented an engineering solution for developers. There were no digital nomad visas, no remote-first hiring practices and no companies using Slack as their native platform. At 22 he traveled to Prague to teach Financial Economics as it seemed to be the only viable option to live outside of his country. From there he constructed outward: a tech startup in Australia, a remote role at Empire Flippers and finally his own acquisition business. None of this occurred in an amount of time that could fit well inside an Instagram Reel.

“It took 10 years to build and develop this. It didn’t happen overnight.”

This is important to note, because many of the most vocal advocates for the digital nomad lifestyle shrink the time required to achieve such success into a weekend workshop. Swigunski does not. He is open about the true costs associated with this lifestyle, not in terms of dollars, but in terms of compromises made along the way.

The Romanticization Problem

Living in another country provides considerable runway in terms of extending the period in which you may afford to invest, acquire additional income-generating assets, etc. If you are generating $7000 per month and spending $5000 in the United States, you have very little room to maneuver. However, move to Thailand or Eastern Europe and reduce your cost of living by moving from $5000 to approximately $2000 and you have substantially more breathing room — that’s substantial financial leverage — money you may use to invest, create other businesses or simply not live in constant stress.

However, the digital nomad community tends to leave out several key elements relative to the above-stated benefits: if you have problems at home, the majority of those problems will follow you wherever you choose to reside. Moving to a foreign country will not cure poor mental health, a poorly structured business plan or a lack of self-discipline — it will merely relocate them.

Swigunski recommends to all interested parties considering entering the digital nomad lifestyle that rather than immediately blowing-up their lives, they should take a short-term trip (either two weeks or one month) in a major hub city and experience firsthand how much fun and freedom they will enjoy prior to making long-term commitments. As Swigunski states: “walk before you run.”

For those currently employed full-time and enjoying their jobs, Swigunski’s primary suggestion is not to quit but to negotiate. Many employers are willing to accommodate employees wishing to work remotely or from various locations and hybrid arrangements with an existing employer may be the least friction-filled route to achieving location independence prior to establishing additional sources of income.

Entrepreneurship Isn’t for Everyone — But Exposure Matters

As mentioned earlier, Swigunski does not romanticize entrepreneurship any more than he does the lifestyle of being a digital nomad. He is unapologetic that a business can lose money rapidly — in fact, most businesses do at some point during their lifecycle. A salaried employment arrangement offers a floor. A person’s own business does not.

Swigunski believes that rather than quitting your job to start a business in an industry you know nothing about, you should find ways to expand upon your current skills set — take on one or two freelance or consulting clients on the side — produce an extra $2,000-$3000 per month — learn what problems people actually pay to have solved — then build your business around that problem. The progression from an employee/freelancer/business owner is lower risk and produces higher quality signals than attempting to start a business cold.

What Brokering $120 Million in Acquisitions Actually Taught Him

When Swigunski joined Empire Flippers in 2016 as employee #4, he found himself a backseat observer to how over 300 Internet-based businesses operated; including how each business was monetized, valued and transferred. Most people would never have access to this level of information. Swigunski did.

Most people will never see that data. He has.

“I’ve seen how quickly you can buy a business and scale it up because somebody doesn’t have the skill sets or the vision to go from 1 to 10.”

This is his fundamental theory. The 0-1 phase of creating a business is the most painful, most expensive and most likely to fail. When acquiring a business that has existing product/market fit, paying customers and existing revenue, you eliminate the worst part of the journey. In essence, you’re purchasing a problem that has been partially solved – and you’re paying for the evidence that proves it works.

Swigunski’s first acquisition in 2018-19 returned its entire purchase price in eight months. All subsequent acquisitions have produced pure cash flow.

His Buy Box — What He Actually Looks For

Swigunski does not invest in businesses. Instead, he uses a particular filter:
Age: At least three years old. Younger businesses do not have enough operating history to establish sustainability.
Revenue: Monthly recurring revenue of at least $10,000.
Founding Team Profile: One technical founder who created the product but lacks sales/marketing experience.
Business Model: Software/digital products with 80-90% profit margins. Companies using physical products with supply chain dependencies are eliminated.
Dependence on Operator: If a business cannot operate without the founder investing 20+ hours/week, then the potential buyer base dramatically decreases.

This last issue is also one of the most commonly ignored aspects of small business acquisitions. Swigunski described this as “key man risk” – a condition where a technical founder is essentially charging themselves $125/hour for 20 hours of work/week – and the margin of the business cannot afford to replace this labor. This is not a business – it is someone doing a job while pretending to be a business.

What Kills a Sale?

Having viewed numerous transactions, Swigunski has identified several common elements that kill a sale:

No Customers

Regardless of how great the product may be. He has spoken to founders who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and 3-4 years developing software products that were never tested for product/market fit. It does not matter how long you worked on the product. Buyers care only about cash flow — end of story.

Founder Burnout During the Sales Process

Selling a business typically requires 3-6 months. Many founders are burnt out before the sale process even begins and tend to disengage from the process itself, allowing their business to begin to decline during the middle of the sale. Any business that is declining in value during the sale process is red-flagged by nearly every buyer. An asset that was considered salable at the beginning of the transaction now becomes extremely difficult to sell by the time the transaction closes.

Dependence on a Platform Without Margin

He tends to avoid mobile app development due to the frequent updates required for the App Store. Mobile apps require continued maintenance by developers, and for smaller businesses (those generating $3,000 per month) there is rarely sufficient margin to pay another developer to perform these tasks after the original developer leaves. The structure of the business does not provide for survival post-transfer.

During his due diligence process, Swigunski focuses on far more than financials alone. He reviews sellers’ answers to tough questions and examines how sellers respond when some irregularity is brought to light — their response helps him determine if they truly understand their own business. His due diligence process is akin to an interrogatory conducted with decorum.

Swigunski’s work currently fills that void directly. He’s working with creators — identifying proven businesses in the creator’s space, buying those businesses, and allowing the creator to use their distribution as intended. The creator provides the audience. The acquired business provides the revenue and product/market fit. Together, as he puts it, “it’s shooting fish in a barrel” compared to where most creators are today.

The difficulty is that the creation of this synergy happens relatively infrequently. Business-minded operators and creator-focused communicators rarely find themselves in the same meeting room or on the same cap table. When they do pair up, the outcome tends to be significant.

Finding Vetting Expertise in a World Filled with Pretentious Gurus

There are many individuals online who claim to teach a subject they’ve never actually performed. Swigunski developed a three-pronged approach he uses — and advocates others should utilize — when determining whether to learn from or pay an expert.

Have They Actually Done It?

Has this individual actually completed the activity they’re claiming to teach? Is it the exact process they describe, or merely a related one? Does this person have obvious third-party verification for their claims, such as press coverage or tax filings?

Have They Helped Others Do It?

Has this person assisted others in achieving the same results? Can they provide testimonials, case studies, and documented results — not simply claims?

Have They Helped Someone Starting From Worse Off Than You?

How often do we see someone bragging about being able to help someone from a similar background succeed? If their examples show their successes beginning at a place of privilege or existing resources, then you don’t really know if their methodology will be effective for you, someone starting from scratch.

One student he mentions — a farmer earning $35,000 annually and driving to work three to four hours each way and rarely visiting his family — illustrates the last filter. In two months, that student had increased his earnings via a remote job and reduced his drive time to zero. That’s the kind of proof of concept that matters: can their methodology create value for someone without resources, not with resources.

He also makes a very clear distinction between free information and paid accountability. YouTube videos are typically used as entry points. They do not require viewers to act upon anything. According to Swigunski, based on his experience, it is those that invest something (have skin in the game) who will ultimately receive results.

Underutilized Opportunity: Cash-Flowing Businesses vs. Appreciation

In terms of the case Swigunski is presenting against typical investment vehicles, he states it clearly and concisely: they generate paper gains, not cash. Your house may appreciate over time — how much money did it give you last month? None. Your Bitcoin may double in price — what were you able to collect? None. Your stock portfolio may be up 15 percent — how much went into your checking account? None.

Purchasing an online business generating recurring income gives you actual cash from day one. That is a completely different asset class — requiring operational involvement but providing income rather than just appreciation.

The historical barrier to entry for this asset class has been capital. Quality acquisition targets typically range from $500k+, which is outside the realm of accessibility for most people seeking cash-flow exposure.

This is the reason Swigunski built a solution for this barrier with his new company, Dividends — an online platform utilizing a REIT (real estate investment trust) type model using profitable online business acquisitions instead of physical properties. The goal is creating an investible product of multiple already-profitable digital businesses that could offer investors a potential cash yield of 15%. The minimum entry point for investing through Wefunder is $100.

If He Lost Everything Today

His response is revealing. No generic “I would rely on my network.” He would begin by selling underpriced items on Facebook Marketplace — something he was literally doing while relocating from Thailand to the Czech Republic. Identify demand signals, locate inventory, sell. No startup funding necessary, just focus.

Once he knows what he now understands: a high-ticket sales role, primarily on a commission basis. Utilize this income to fund a side project. Allow the side project to develop until it merits transitioning full-time.

The pattern is the same regardless of what he is discussing: minimize risks, demonstrate evidence, raise stakes only once you have demonstrated that the model works at a smaller scale. It is not exciting — it works.

One Unlocked Mindset

Swigunski concludes with something he includes in virtually every keynote he delivers: you’ll never become successful until you define what success looks like to you. Not your parent’s definition of success, not what your peer group indicates as success, not some amorphous “made it” benchmark. What does it literally look like written out on paper?

Success for him has three components: work from anywhere; control your own schedule; generate enough money to allow him to enjoy the lifestyle he wants. He achieves all three criteria. That’s enough — and still allows for additional opportunities.

In his opinion, the best route to achieving any of these objectives is by making a decision. It’s about taking action. It’s not always about having the perfect plan. It’s rarely about waiting for the ideal time. Instead, it is about making thousands of decisions before other individuals can make one.

Visit mikeswigunski.com, find him on social media as @mikeswigunski, or visit dividendscapital.com or wefunder.com/dividends to see information regarding his active capital raising.