Announcer | 00:00
Online with Amr the Internet Guy. Stream it today on your favorite podcast platforms. This podcast focuses on entrepreneurs and business owners, helping them become more successful in conducting their business on the web without being stuck with technology, getting a headache, pulling their hairs out, or buying expensive software.
Amr The Internet Guy | 00:17
Yes, this is a new season and we’re in 2025 in October. And that’s the start of the new season. Season four is starting at the end of 2025. And I’m really sorry that I haven’t been more active and haven’t been interviewing more people. Life got on the way, business got on the way, things are going well, but I got extremely busy and I’m sorry about that. I intend to follow through and continue during 2026 and so on. One thing though, I didn’t completely leave you with nothing. I started the new mini series, which is called Web Tips for Entrepreneurs. And the aim of the new series, the mini series, is to help startup business owners, enable them to build their own websites. Using WordPress, using good themes, using good practices on their own.
So for those who are not going to hire a web designer for one reason or another, and they want to go and build it solo, if you watch my mini series videos, Web Tips for Entrepreneurs, it will actually prevent you from doing any work. Common mistakes and it will speed up your build.
So good luck with that. I’m planning a full on course for startups and small business owners starting who still don’t want to hire a web designer. I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to hire a web designer, but the aim is, to help you build it correctly from the first time, to help you build a fully functional Professional looking website from the get go in one weekend max. That’s it.
Like in a few hours. I’m working on this course now, expected to launch in sometime in 2026, maybe around spring, March-ish. Let’s see.
So, Enough with that and let’s come back to online with Amr the Internet Guy and today we have a very special guest who’s doing something really interesting something that I haven’t seen before For the first time, I’m interviewing somebody from this type of industry and i don’t want to like you know burn it for you i want you to come in and watch so let’s welcome our special guest right now hello everyone and welcome to online with the internet guy i have a special guest today hi azari And I learned that, okay, you’ll see her name has a G, but it’s not pronounced.
Azgari | 02:51
Hi.
Amr The Internet Guy | 02:55
It’s like French. Azari. How are you doing?
Azgari | 02:59
Good. How are you? Thank you so much for having me today.
Amr The Internet Guy | 03:02
Glad to have Texas on board. So the first thing I would like you to tell people, I mean, I, well, I gave it away. I said Texas already. I usually ask my guests to say, where are you right now? And like, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t have to be where you’re from, but where are you recording from? And like a quick thing to what do you do?
Azgari | 03:24
I am currently located in Austin, Texas. But our company is nationwide and we help individuals who are high net worth, who want to have a cash flowing business, either as a absentee owner or as an investment.
So that is our normal bread and butter. Individuals who want to have a service-based small business as part of their portfolio.
Amr The Internet Guy | 03:51
Okay, there’s something that scares me there. Watson, hi. You said what? High net worth?
Azgari | 03:59
So individuals who have, let’s say, six-figure jobs, right? They’re earning six figures at their job.
Amr The Internet Guy | 04:04
So what, lawyer, dentist, who else?
Azgari | 04:07
Anyone in tech. I mean, lots of people in tech make over six figures.
Amr The Internet Guy | 04:10
Yeah, the techies, of course. Yes.
Was making, I don’t know what, 250,000 or more a year or is it more than that?
Azgari | 04:27
Nope. Six.
I mean, anyone who’s making it.
Amr The Internet Guy | 04:30
Yeah. 100k.
Azgari | 04:32
Anyone who has a portfolio of investments that they’re managing, anyone that wants to have other things in their portfolio outside of stocks and the usual EFTs. And because service-based businesses are cash flowing, it’s businesses that generate revenue every month. It’s relatively stable, which we can’t say about the stocks. Right.
Amr The Internet Guy | 04:58
Protect.
Azgari | 04:59
Bye.
Amr The Internet Guy | 05:01
Okay. And he said absentee. What’s an absentee business owner?
Azgari | 05:06
Absentee business owner is… It’s their business, right? On paper, they own it. But we as the operational partner run the business for them.
So we not only launch the business, but we operate for them so that they can keep their nine to five job. They can not have to invest the full 40, 60 hours that a business owner would have to invest.
Amr The Internet Guy | 05:30
So you’re kind of like Dark Tank. But only you are the person operating. And they are the sharks.
Like kind of, Okay.
Azgari | 05:40
I guess we’re more like a fractional team, right? A fractional operational team.
Amr The Internet Guy | 05:46
So. I had a quick look at your site and some of your posts on social media. And it kind of I had lots of questions, so that’s why we’re here. But the thing that jumped to mind, I follow a person on YouTube. You probably know her, Cody Sanchez.
Azgari | 06:06
I was a year old.
Amr The Internet Guy | 06:07
And she says, she always says, refers to these types of businesses as boring businesses. But she always says that this is where the money is.
So is that what it is? Is it?
Azgari | 06:20
Yes, it is absolutely a thousand percent true. That is where the money is. About 55% of U.S. Economy is based on service-based businesses as part of small business.
Amr The Internet Guy | 06:32
Okay, so…
Azgari | 06:34
Do you want me to give you examples of what a service business is? We’ll.
Amr The Internet Guy | 06:38
Get to that. But like I’m saying, you would, because like, for example, with the person with my background, I’m a techie. Right.
So it’s always the shiny object and the next shiny object and When people do invest in tech, sometimes you hit it. Like, if you’re lucky, you can like, if I got to Bitcoin when someone offered it to me at a dollar, guess where I would be now. But I said, no, if I can’t touch it, I’m not, you know, I’m still a techie, but I’m not into virtual stuff. I’m not into, NFTs and like I it’s not because I don’t understand it it’s because I felt like it’s not for me it’s kind of you know I like the black and white sort of thing.
Like it’s either work or it doesn’t kind of a science. I don’t like things that are based on opinions or that are based on inflated demand, like a bubble or, that will burst. And I feel that physical business is immune to all this.
Azgari | 07:35
You’re quite accurate. I mean, no one’s going to stop getting their house cleaned.
Amr The Internet Guy | 07:41
Yeah. God.
Yeah. Yeah. Try to convince the kids.
Azgari | 07:45
No one’s going to, if they have a home, right, they’re not going to stop getting their lawn mowed.
Amr The Internet Guy | 07:50
Or the gutters cleaned or… Pressure washing.
So yeah, let’s get into some examples. We’ve gotten to examples that are related to homes. What do you think is Unusual.
Some… Brick and mortar business that is really good in cash flow that either nobody knows about or not many know about, or it’s not sexy so people don’t get into it. What do you.
Azgari | 08:18
Think? Well, if you want something that’s really not sexy… I would say biohazard cleanup. Okay. But you Well, for some of the jobs, yes, you absolutely should because you’re dealing with bloodborne pathogens.
Amr The Internet Guy | 08:28
Have to wear the whole thing. God. Okay. But that’s a good cashflow.
Azgari | 08:39
Very good, because a lot of times, I would say 80% of the time, insurance will cover it as well.
Amr The Internet Guy | 08:47
Okay. And they don’t have to operate it themselves?
So you’re saying… That you come in as a partner Literally, you are a partner in you become a partner in the business and you can run it. For the person and split the income. That’s how it works?
Azgari | 09:03
Okay. We don’t do that. We come up with a business that’s going to do well for that individual based on their skill sets, their existing contacts, where they’re located, what type of competition is there for different things. Then we pick a model.
Like we pick the.
Amr The Internet Guy | 09:20
Business. Okay. But if they wanted absentee, how would that work? Not necessarily the biohazard one, but like in general.
Azgari | 09:30
Yeah, so we would set up the entire team, right? The sales operations, the administration side, the technical technicians that are going to do the job fulfillment. We set everything up and operate remotely so that the business owner doesn’t have to.
Amr The Internet Guy | 09:47
Okay. Okay.
Azgari | 09:50
So it’s true sense of fractional operational team.
Amr The Internet Guy | 09:55
I want to make a difference between two things because I can see on your website, they teach the stuff.
Azgari | 10:01
We do. Yeah.
So let’s can afford our price tag for a full absentee owner.
Amr The Internet Guy | 10:03
Have. Okay.
So you… Kind of, let’s say I’m a, well, lawyers are too busy to have another business. Let’s say I’m a high net worth government employee. I don’t know, some director in some department that Trump is going to close soon.
Azgari | 10:24
Very real problem.
Amr The Internet Guy | 10:25
Yes. And then you have a bit of money on the side and you don’t know when you may or may not be losing your job or maybe you’re retiring soon. And you want to have a business because many people think, okay, I don’t want to retire. I’m not going to sit on the beach sipping margaritas. I want to run a business, but I have… No idea. About business.
So I find your website and I come to you. How would you know which track would like, I know, I mean, I assume when I saw that on your website, you’d have a discovery call and everything, but like in general, there are two tracks I can either learn. Business, or I can team up with you and we can… Attack this together? Kind of Did I say it right?
Azgari | 11:13
Yeah. In hindsight, sure. If you simplify it, sure. There’s two tracks. One track is where it’s more DIY, where you’re doing it, but we’re telling you what to do. And we’re checking in every week, every day to make sure you stay on track. The other track is for people who are really busy, right? They already maybe have other businesses or other interests, and they don’t have the time bandwidth to run another business. Or if they have their nine to five job.
Amr The Internet Guy | 11:43
Okay.
Azgari | 11:44
So the part where we, they hire us to operate the business, that’s more attractive for that demographic. But then, you know, it could be someone where, They had a great job, now they’re laid off. They want something else that they can run and operate themselves. Then the DIY track or the track where we just launch the business and then train them as a business owner on how to continue running.
Amr The Internet Guy | 12:13
Perfect. So it’s kind of a combination of both. Here’s some stuff that you learn you have to do on your own. Here’s some stuff that will do for you to make your life easier. As a startup, like the things that maybe people don’t like, Or know.
Azgari | 12:27
About, right? If you come from the corporate world and you’re used to having millions and billions of dollars to run a corporation.
Amr The Internet Guy | 12:35
My God, now you have to bootstrap.
Azgari | 12:36
It. Very difficult. You’re not bootstrapping because every business we launch is And that’s why we focus on, you know, individuals with service-based business interests is because we’re able to get small business administration loans for them.
Amr The Internet Guy | 12:52
Okay. Okay.
Yeah. I was going to ask you what is SBA? Now you said that.
Yeah. So these are kind of like state loans, is it?
Like kind of like we have provincial loans here? Yes. For small businesses?
Azgari | 13:08
Correct.
Amr The Internet Guy | 13:09
So if you’re in a certain industry that the state deems They need more people doing that. They kind of give you a bit of money.
Azgari | 13:17
Up to 5 million.
Amr The Internet Guy | 13:19
Wow. I got to move to Texas, man.
Azgari | 13:22
Well, it’s not just Texas, anywhere in the U.S., Perfect. Yeah.
Amr The Internet Guy | 13:28
So… I come to you out of my cushy government job and I say, I’m thinking of starting a business. I don’t have a lot of cash, but I have some. Maybe I have, I don’t know, 50K a side. And off.
I mean, I’ve been offered franchises before. So when I moved in from the Middle East… My last job before coming to Canada and becoming Canadian I was in Dubai. And the moment everyone hears the word Dubai, they think I’m loaded.
So I got offered different types of franchises. My biggest problem was There’s some Obsecure franchises that no one heard about. And they’re 175K as a start plus some… Annual fee plus whatever.
Azgari | 14:16
Monthly fee correction.
Amr The Internet Guy | 14:18
Or monthly, yeah. And like if you’re not McDonald’s or Starbucks or Tim Hortons is like, who the hell are you to take 75?
I mean, I know that these big guys don’t take 75. They take more, but it’s kind of. Their business model brings the money from day one, so your return on investment is there. But like, if I’m going to be Like you even asked him the question. How are you marketing your brand? Silence in the room is like, so you expect me to pay you? To take your brand, which I don’t own, and locally expanded in my market, and I’m the one paying you, Like it’s, I don’t know. It blew my mind.
Azgari | 15:00
Yeah. I, I’m, I have fallen trap to that as well in the past. And that is one of the biggest propellers as to why I do what I do today. Because I did buy into a franchise where I did pay that upfront fee. And, you know, in the beginning, they sell you such a pretty rosy picture.
Amr The Internet Guy | 15:23
We have manuals.
Azgari | 15:24
Yeah. Take Literally, it was literally me paying them over six figures, right?
Amr The Internet Guy | 15:25
The PDF, son. You’re on your own.
Azgari | 15:34
And I had nothing other than checklist of go get this vendor, pay that other vendor. I’m like, what did I pay you for exactly?
Yeah. – Where did that money go? It went nowhere. It went to the fact that they allow you to use their logo, which nobody usually knows about. – Nobody.
Amr The Internet Guy | 15:53
Knows about you. It’s like your brand doesn’t bring money. There’s no equity in your brand. Why would I invest in it? It’s basically I’m investing in your holiday or something.
Like…
Azgari | 16:06
Yeah, it gets people who are risk averse. Right. And they think because they’ve never done it that, I’m buying into a business in a box system. No, you’re getting a job because now you work for this corporation that constantly gives you permission or not gives you permission.
Amr The Internet Guy | 16:26
Yeah. Actually, that’s a very good way to put it. You’re You kind of you became like a high level employee for that big corporation, rather than a business owner.
Azgari | 16:38
I could explain it in a more crass way, but it’ll make sense. It’s like strippers where strippers pay the house dance there.
Amr The Internet Guy | 16:44
To.
Azgari | 16:48
It’s kind of like, or nail techs where the nail tech pays the nail salon.
Amr The Internet Guy | 16:53
To work there. Stripper Niltex? No, okay, sorry. No, yeah, it’s what, yeah, when you… I’m kidding. I’m kidding. I know.
Yeah. It’s like you’re buying, you’re renting a place, a piece in a physical location to do your business in it, no matter what the business is.
Yeah. Whether it’s the strippers or the hair salons, nail salons, whatever you have.
Some professionals coming They rent like a, they call it a chair. Like you rent a chair in a saloon. But the idea is like you, it has to already have the traffic.
So you have to have the food traffic. Like if you rent it in an insecure place, you’d rather just get your own shop then.
Like what’s the point of, you know, but if you, if they have like a location in the mall, And the mall has, I don’t know, 20,000 visitors a day. And the saloon gets at least like 1,000 visits a day or even 500. And you rent a chair there, you kind of guaranteed that all your six or seven hours spent there will be productive and you’ll make the money.
Azgari | 18:06
Right. I guess that’s actually better than franchises.
So that was actually a horrible analogy on my end.
Amr The Internet Guy | 18:13
So it seems anything is better. Okay. I’m not going to say anything as in anything is better than franchises. But it like if you take the biggest franchises, they’re a different case, but the other franchises are not like that at all.
So like, you know, they’re not the McDonald’s of the world. So it’s not, you’re going to end up with a company that is probably known in its state and local city but not known outside of that geographical location and it’s on you. To spend so much money on marketing unless They are… Either marketing themselves, or giving you like paying you back for whatever you spend. Or I mean, there’s a shared model, but it’s still a lot of money.
Azgari | 18:59
So what ends up happening if you think about it, for example, let’s go back to the same thing we talked about, right? Lawn care. I’m pretty sure when you hired your lawn care guy, you didn’t look at his logo. Right. You look at the price he gave you. Maybe your neighbor is already using Yes.
Amr The Internet Guy | 19:15
Him. Yes. Referrals.
Azgari | 19:17
Exactly. You don’t care about his logo. He’s cutting your lawn, for God’s sake. As long as he’s You know, he seems like a good man, going to come do the job on time, gave you a good price, your neighbors are using him, so you feel, you know, there’s trust build up. That’s it.
So why pay a franchise $75,000? To do that, when you give you.
Amr The Internet Guy | 19:40
A PDF about mowing the lawn. Yeah.
Yeah. And nowadays the PDF would probably be AI generated too.
Yeah.
Azgari | 19:48
But people don’t realize that, including myself, until you pay that money. And then you’re like, my God, where did it go?
Amr The Internet Guy | 19:56
So this is okay, we’re doing the podcast backwards. But I would usually ask someone, what made you do what you do? There you go. What’s the story? Let’s say the story.
Like, why are you doing this now?
Azgari | 20:11
So I have, I’m a squirrel brain entrepreneur. I started at 16 and I haven’t stopped.
So I did have to go and try the franchise route to see if it’s what it’s all, you It was in the home service construction space.
Amr The Internet Guy | 20:25
Know. Okay. We’re not going to say the name, but at least give us an idea. What was it about? Okay.
Azgari | 20:34
But I have my other construction companies as well. Unrelated to the franchise.
Amr The Internet Guy | 20:41
So what made you interested in construction to start with?
Azgari | 20:44
The ROI made sense for me and there was high demand for that specific sector in the Austin market. And my focus is primarily commercial and government work anyways.
So I look at what job bids are out first. Rather than start a company. It’s more looking for where there’s a job and then creating a company that can support that job. The.
Amr The Internet Guy | 21:12
Service is the job. Yeah. It makes perfect sense. The only caveat of this is like you need to know that similar jobs would keep coming.
Like it has to be a sector that’s expanding, right? Yep.
Azgari | 21:27
And yeah, so I did a 10 year trajectory and I do the same 10 year trajectory with any business I launch, unless the client is very explicit that they want to build a business for exit in three years, five years, seven years.
Amr The Internet Guy | 21:40
What’s the most boring business you dealt with?
Azgari | 21:44
The most boring business, septic tank management. Okay.
So you need a annual maintenance package, right? But it’s kind of running. You never, once you have a guy that you’re working with.
Amr The Internet Guy | 21:57
These are the things that they place like for, I don’t know, construction workers to go to the toilet or? This is what we’re talking about. This is the septic tank.
Azgari | 22:06
Yes, so septic tanks that go under the Those need maintenance.
Amr The Internet Guy | 22:08
Homes. Okay.
Sorry, the one that’s buried. Okay.
Yeah. You got to like pull out the stuff, like the big cars with the big.
Azgari | 22:17
Hose. Yeah. Stuff that no one wants to talk about. Don’t want to know they exist. You have a company. You don’t even know you have the company because you hired them three years ago.
Amr The Internet Guy | 22:25
Yeah. That common empty or septic tank. That’s good money in this, actually. Very And what’s something that people Someone came to you and when they started the business, they got really excited.
Azgari | 22:30
Good money. Yeah.
Amr The Internet Guy | 22:38
Like, it’s kind of like, I didn’t know that it was going to be so much enjoyment.
Azgari | 22:44
So I had a client who… Came about a year before he was ready to retire. And he’s, you know, he’s always had a managerial position his entire career.
So never actually He’s managed teams, but never actually ran a small business. So he was pretty scared.
You know, he’s in his 60s now starting working fresh. Yeah.
Yeah. Backyard deck. And Okay.
Amr The Internet Guy | 23:18
Building company.
Azgari | 23:20
Yes. You know, like backyard.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
So like outdoor kitchen.
Amr The Internet Guy | 23:25
Even though he was never in construction his whole life.
Azgari | 23:28
Well, the reason I went with that is from our conversations during onboarding of how much he himself enjoys carpentry as a hobby. Okay.
So combining where there’s a demand with something that he naturally likes to do. It seemed… It seemed like the right choice to go with.
Amr The Internet Guy | 23:49
Okay.
Azgari | 23:50
What happened? And he absolutely loves it. Absolutely loves it.
Amr The Internet Guy | 23:54
How long ago did he start?
Azgari | 23:56
Around 19 months.
Amr The Internet Guy | 23:58
Okay. And I would assume now that he’s like, he’s probably, his phone doesn’t stop ringing, right?
Like everyone wants a deck or a patio, especially when you have good weather.
Azgari | 24:10
Yeah. So in his location, he’s doing really well. And what ends up happening with most home service businesses is After about 12 months, most of your steady clients are referrals.
Right? Because People who go to your house and you have a great backyard kitchen, they’re going to ask you who got it done for you or you’re going to brag about it.
Amr The Internet Guy | 24:33
Yeah.
Azgari | 24:34
Why else have a Sunday barbecue if you can’t brag about your new kitchen?
Amr The Internet Guy | 24:39
Of course. Yeah, this is exciting. It’s interesting.
So You would talk to like, I mean, of course you do, but like just for the listeners, because they cannot see us for people who are just listening and not watching it on YouTube. You would have a conversation with the person who wants to have the business First, to figure out if you can work together, if it’s a good fit. But sometimes like, you know, for one reason or another, you cannot work together. And the second thing is for you to gauge the natural interest To see… Which type I mean, how many types of Small business is like real cash flow, brick and mortar businesses are there.
Azgari | 25:25
– Hundreds, well, think of it another way. For example, something as simple as cleaning, right? Biohazard cleaning is cleaning.
So you may consider cleaning as one type of business, but I can tell you 20 different verticals within cleaning. Yeah. That makes sense. And you I would recommend you only do one, but.
Amr The Internet Guy | 25:45
Don’t have to do all of them. You can just specialize in one. Yes.
Yeah. To be known for like, as the expert in this area. For this specific, I don’t know, outside pressure wash or whatever.
Azgari | 26:01
The training is different. The material is different.
So you do want to specialize in one thing.
Amr The Internet Guy | 26:08
Nice. So yeah, so… You’ve gone from… The construction business yourself, Okay.
Azgari | 26:16
I still have my companies.
Amr The Internet Guy | 26:18
You don’t strike me as a construction woman anyway.
Azgari | 26:22
Well, when you’re a business owner, you’re not out there putting up drywall. I know.
Amr The Internet Guy | 26:27
But you definitely have a hard hat, don’t you?
Azgari | 26:31
I do have one.
Amr The Internet Guy | 26:32
So you’ve gone from this to helping people construct a business. Not in the physical way, but Well, I mean, it is, but like not in building the building that will house the business, but it’s actually building the actual business. What? At what point did you feel like This is like, I’m interested to know, let’s say you have your construction company, you’re bidding on contracts, as you said, like kind of government contracts and so on. And all of a sudden something happens and you decide to do something different, what happened?
Azgari | 27:07
Are you saying I had something that happened that I did something different? Is that the So it was more of a natural progression, to be honest.
Amr The Internet Guy | 27:12
Question? It doesn’t have to be something bad, but what gave you, where did the idea come from?
Azgari | 27:20
It wasn’t like a… I guess if you were to say an event, I would say it is the investment I made in a franchise that was very eye-opening for me, where, wow, I’ve done this myself, made things very successful launching by myself from scratch. But I wanted to see if my Indoe franchise can propel that process, which it cannot. Not only can it not propel, it actually holds you back and it pushes your ROI back. And I hated how I mean, I don’t know if you’ve ever looked at an FDD, Franchise Disclosure Agreement. But… That’s stricter than a Massey prenup. It’s a very sad process. And… Going through it was more like, you know, when something really bad happens to you, you’re like, God, I want to make sure it doesn’t happen to other people. – Yes. – Cheesy as it sounds.
So that was a big propeller. But even long before that, I’ve always, you know, I started at 16. And I’ve always had friends, family, people who lean on me. When they have an idea to start a business. And from there, I’ve had unofficially clients per se.
And then those friends go out and get their neighbors. Who want to start a business.
So I’ve unofficially been doing this. Organically. Right, exactly. But recently, I’ve decided to turn this into…
You know, an official, separate entity of its own.
Amr The Internet Guy | 28:54
So I’m struggling to find the name for it. Is it coaching? Is it, Like, how would you describe it? It’s.
Azgari | 29:02
Business acquisition. No, it’s business acquisition. I hate the word coaching, even though we do have programs for coaching. It’s more of a done for you service. Right. We’re not just talking to you about it or coaching you or training you. We’re actually building and executing. We’re operating.
Amr The Internet Guy | 29:23
Okay.
Azgari | 29:25
I’m not going to call you if you’re my client and tell you to go tell your staff this and that. I am calling your staff and having them do X, Y, Z. My team is working to… Do the due diligence. Do the registration, whatever needs to be done for that business.
Amr The Internet Guy | 29:44
So let’s say, okay, here’s an example. Let’s go back to the example of the gentleman who did the decks. I’m pretty sure that the biggest problem with anything that has to do with the deck is to go to the city and get a permit. He hasn’t done that before.
Yeah, so… Were you… Telling him where to go to get this done or you’re like kind of Sending a team member to go with him or like, how does it work?
Azgari | 30:13
So anything to do with compliance, licensure, we do anything that’s remote. The application process, the online registration process, we handle all of that. If there’s a part where they want to see the physical business owner in person, and for a lot of licensure, you do have to. A lot of licensure actually comes with an exam that you have to pass as well, depending on the industry.
Amr The Internet Guy | 30:39
Yeah. You don’t want to build something that will fall.
Azgari | 30:42
Yeah. So that we can’t do, right. We can help you study for it, which we do and train you.
Yeah.
Amr The Internet Guy | 30:49
But you’ll have, of course you’ll have the curriculum and I don’t know, a bank of practice exams and stuff like that.
Azgari | 30:55
Yeah. Right.
So whatever you need to prepare you to do the part that we just can’t do. Which is you passing the exam and getting the license or having one of your staff go and do that.
Amr The Internet Guy | 31:06
And I’m assuming that this is why it’s really important When you talk with the person for the first time or first couple of times to nail the which business will suit them the most because you don’t want them to start something that they will later on Not like.
Azgari | 31:24
Yeah, if someone hates babies, getting them started with the daycare is usually not a good idea.
Amr The Internet Guy | 31:30
Yeah. Well, if somebody has kids already, it’s like probably they don’t want to deal with kids again. I’m kidding. I’m kidding. They’re upstairs. I don’t know if they can hear me.
I mean, I call them kids. They’re 21 and 18. They’re not really kids, but like…
Yeah, There’s a man and a woman, a young man and a young woman.
Azgari | 31:45
Not anymore. They’d live in your house for free, probably.
Amr The Internet Guy | 31:52
Yeah. God.
Yeah. Don’t get me started on the cost of living. And I think America is the same, but Canada is getting worse. Our dollar gets weaker. We’re shipping more jobs and more money to the United States. Which means we should be shipping Canadians to the United States too. My daughter is American.
Azgari | 32:10
Ship your children over.
Amr The Internet Guy | 32:13
She’s a Californian. Okay.
Yeah, we did some time in California. California.
Yeah, so… It’s so interesting for me. It’s like many people don’t go into brick and mortar business anymore.
I mean, it’s… I’m the online guy. And like, it’s even in my name, the internet guy. But I always tell people technology is not a magic solution. It’s not a magic, bullet or a magic pill Things will have to happen offline in order for your business to take off. And earlier, before we started recording for the podcast, we were discussing things like SEO and conversions and stuff like that. And the problem, in my opinion, that most people don’t They fall… For the SEO scam, and I’m not saying that Every SEO agency is a scammer, but There is a – SEO itself can be useful, Or it can be a scam, even if you’re dealing with a good agency who know what they’re doing. Because the problem is most business owners don’t know what they want out of it. It’s kind of… They don’t know what to measure. When you don’t know what to measure, you will not know if it’s a success or a failure.
Azgari | 33:31
So most of these marketing companies, they’ll just give you a report with all these numbers and jargons. And, you know, you’re like, I guess I paid up. I paid 500 a month for SEO. And I guess it’s working because this page has a lot of numbers.
Amr The Internet Guy | 33:46
Yes, exactly. You see something there. It’s funny because it’s kind of… There are some companies who exactly know what they’re doing and then they can give you exactly what you’re looking for, but these companies are not cheap.
So these companies are not the ones that you will hire for five, $600 a month, or even a thousand dollars a month. These are companies who start at least at 5k monthly, and you have to work with them for Six to eight months. That’s not something that a startup can do. Or a small And if you cannot do that, please do not go and hire the $500 agency to In the States or anywhere else in the world, you’re not going to get anything worth your $500.
Azgari | 34:20
Service business.
Amr The Internet Guy | 34:32
What they usually do, they go and buy ads. And then you end up paying them the $500 and then paying Google another thousand or 1200. And after three or four months, you realize your business did not increase as a result of this. Yep. Your business. Increases as a result of what you as a person do Offline.
So if you’re servicing your clients, well, if you’re getting referrals, I mean, the referral itself can be online on Google, my business or whatever, but it, It’s your relationship offline that results to this referral. So I always tell people, okay, we can build you the best website ever. The website is built to convert, but if you’re not working to convert the website alone will not convert. It’s kind of, you have to… Look at it as, okay, you got a boss. You got some people who want to get on the bus to get from point A to point B. It’s on you to get on the steering wheel and drive the bus. The bus is not going to drive itself, even if it’s a Tesla. It’s not going to drop itself.
Well.
Azgari | 35:45
I think the other piece people forget is it’s a 360 results, right? It’s not just SEO. It’s not just paid ads. It’s not just posting. It’s not just business development. It is marketing. All of these things, then you see results.
Amr The Internet Guy | 36:03
And time. Right. You got to add the time because people, they think.
Azgari | 36:07
Magic. This is the.
Amr The Internet Guy | 36:08
Problem. You get into a contract with digital marketing agency. And the digital marketing agency have their fees and Google or Facebook or whatever they have their ad fees as well. And you end up spending, let’s say 8k or 10k. But you won the result in three months. Okay. You’re not going to get the result that you want in the three months. Unless you’re dealing with one of the larger and more expensive agencies, or you’re working with Google directly. Which they do now, actually. They work with even with small businesses now.
Azgari | 36:43
Yeah, Facebook started doing that very recently. Yeah, bad.
Amr The Internet Guy | 36:46
I think it was a matter of time before they realized how many scammers are out there and they’re making them look And, but…
Azgari | 36:53
Yes, exactly.
Amr The Internet Guy | 36:56
Here’s the thing. Whatever you did there in Whatever work you did with a digital marketing agency, It’s not zero. It will help your business, but it’s like over a longer period of time.
So it’s kind of When people ask me why you don’t do SEO, you’ll never find the word SEO on my website. I mean, you’ll find it as SEO coaching. Because I could It’s… Natural, you build a new website for a business owner, You want to tell them about what SEO is and what they need to do? And I always tell them, okay, you’ve got two arms. One is the organic and one is the advertisement based So you don’t go advertisement based first. You have to do the organic first.
So you have to keep posting and people think I have nothing to post about. Well, dude, we have it. That’s what AI is for. AI is not going to replace you. AI is there for when you have an idea that you want to put on your website, but you’re not really sure what to write.
So ask AI, give them the main idea, see what it comes back with. Take it and edit it. Don’t take it and publish it. Take it and edit it yourself. But at least it will get you over that first hurdle of, but I don’t know what to write. The other thing is people ask, Let’s say you’re a pizza joint.
And then you tell them, you got to post on your blog at least once a week. And they come at you and say like, What would they post about pizza?
Well, you’re the expert. Post something.
Azgari | 38:33
If you don’t know, then I’m scared.
Amr The Internet Guy | 38:35
Yeah, exactly. And then you can talk about flavors. You can even talk about funny stuff about how people don’t like, The Hawaiian, because it has…
Azgari | 38:45
I know.
Amr The Internet Guy | 38:46
Yeah. Pineapple or why pineapple and whatever, why this source is better than that source. Why think cross thick crust is like, I could think of, you know, a to write about pizza and I’m not a pizza expert.
Azgari | 38:59
Lot of different things, but I don’t know. 100 different things Yep.
Amr The Internet Guy | 39:04
Right. And then, but would people read it?
Some would. You would be surprised some would We have a pizza restaurant nearby. And they ended up, it’s a Napolitana.
So it’s an Italian family. They came from Italy. They ended up shipping the oven. From Italy, because they couldn’t build it here. They couldn’t find it here.
So they had this story on their website. For me, it’s fascinating.
Azgari | 39:34
It is fascinating. This.
Amr The Internet Guy | 39:35
Explains that In my opinion, their pizza tastes so different. Than any other place is probably the oven.
I mean their expertise and the oven, but like, So How many people know about the oven? You’ll be surprised. Probably so many already saw that. Right. It is important. And, Once you do this organically, Google now sees that your website is not stale anymore. It’s not something that’s like has been there exactly as is forever.
So it will come more often because it knows that There are updates here and the more you get these updates and I tell people, Don’t worry about like all the Jargon. Keyword research and ranking and like, don’t, You know what happens? People get scam emails.
From all over the place telling them your website is not ranking. And it’s like, okay, what does that even mean? It’s meaningless. What does it mean? Your website is not ranking. He’s not ranking in what? What is the keyword? What’s the, what are you talking about?
Like, but, automatically they get scared. Like I get like past clients and sometimes even existing clients sending me emails like forwarding, and it makes me laugh. Because they go to panic mode right away. My website is not ranking. It’s like, What is ranking?
Azgari | 41:03
Do you know what ranking is, bro? Exactly.
Amr The Internet Guy | 41:06
Like… It’s kind of like if you’re selling shoes… And someone is telling you, Your website is not ranking.
Yeah, you’re not beating Nike. That’s what they’re saying. And you… You can beat Nike if you have deep pockets, but like…
Azgari | 41:21
At this point, I’d say that’s serious deep pockets.
Amr The Internet Guy | 41:25
Yeah, serious deep pockets. But like, yeah.
So you should be ranking for… Like something, some service… In your local community that you’re known as the expert for.
And then that email that you receive Has nothing to do with this. It’s not.
Like, And it’s funny at some point, although… Boring businesses will end up having kind of 100% of their business on referral. It’s like at some point, even your website would not matter. Your website matters when people want to research you. That’s it.
Azgari | 41:58
Yeah, with most service businesses, after what I’m normally seeing is after two years, we don’t need to do any website or social media there. And Most small business owners, they have a cap, right? If they’re making a million, they’re super happy. If they’re making 500, they’re super happy. And once they hit their number, they’re not looking to grow. As long as they can keep their existing clients happy, Exactly.
Amr The Internet Guy | 42:25
My business is now, I used to say 90% referral. It’s 100% referral. Yes, sometimes I get the odd email from someone filling the form on my website. And yes, every two or three years, I go refresh the look and feel of the website. And every… Week I have to make sure that the back end of my website is optimized. It’s running smoothly. My forms are sending those emails. Those emails are not ending up in the spam folders or anywhere.
So yeah, I do my homework. It’s basically like your car maintenance, changing the oil, making sure your tires, they have enough PSI air in them and whatever. Right. But this is something It doesn’t take a long time. When you do this for your website, it’s kind of a, an hour a week sort of thing. And you’re not a, I mean, sorry guys, I’m going to have to use this word, but you’re not a social media. You’re not kind of like bang. I’m on Instagram all day. I put everything that I eat. I put everything that I wear. I’m like, This is surely a recipe for burnout. This is not a recipe to grow a business.
Azgari | 43:33
Or like just having a life, right? Anybody who goes out with you, like, are you going to just take pictures now?
Amr The Internet Guy | 43:39
My God, I hear it. You go out with a group of friends. They’re not talking to each other. They’re like, Or maybe they’re talking to each other, but on Snapchat or Instagram rather than physically talking to each other.
Yeah. I mean, if I want to see my kids, I go disconnect the router. Two minutes, they’re all down. Dad, what happened?
Yeah, so I mean, this is It’s funny coming from the internet person who’s telling people focus more offline. But it’s kind of life happens offline. Life doesn’t happen online. Even if you’re a millennial or Gen Z.
Well, I guess Gen Z is the generation that called it boring businesses, but there’s money in it. There’s money to be made. You said 50 states. Okay.
So… How different in general they are?
Like, I’m assuming that I mean, we only have 10 provinces and 3 territories. I could be wrong. Is it 13?
Yeah, I think it’s 10 and three or yeah, it’s 10 provinces. Okay, I’m a new Canadian. Okay, guys. No, yeah, I know it’s 13. I just can’t remember. I remember two territories. I forgot the third one, but it doesn’t matter. But with something as vast as the United States with 50 states and each one of them, they have their own laws and regulations and everything. I’m assuming that each state would have Some kind of a focus on types of businesses that they want more of And some businesses that they kind of don’t really encourage, Am I right in making this assumption?
Azgari | 45:16
When it comes to service-based businesses, there’s demand for those in every state. It just comes down to… If there’s too much competition in a particular niche in a city or state, I’m not going to pursue it. But that doesn’t necessarily mean from a state perspective. From a state standpoint that there isn’t an encouragement or discouragement, not in service space.
Amr The Internet Guy | 45:41
It’s not the government.
Azgari | 45:43
Right. Exactly. Okay.
Amr The Internet Guy | 45:46
You guys are lucky. Our government probably wants to know what we ate today.
Azgari | 45:50
Wow.
Amr The Internet Guy | 45:51
If you look at the bills in the parliament, but that’s another conversation for another time. They all look like their surveillance stuff must as… Protecting this and protecting that. But anyway, I don’t want to get too political.
Some people would hate me. But again, it’s like, I am not a political animal, I follow just enough to know what’s happening around me. But for me as a person, I’m very pragmatic. I get behind what works.
So it doesn’t matter which party presented it. If you have a policy that works, If you have a policy that doesn’t work, regardless of what is the idea behind it, what’s the ideology that’s carrying it, I’m not going to get behind it because it doesn’t work.
So it’s, If I see a bill… That will require an internet service provider to be ordered by the government to stop somebody’s internet I don’t know, guys. That’s pretty draconian to me. Call it we’re doing this for protecting kids or we’re doing this for whatever and dude like you’re not kids are going to go to Starbucks and get connected there. It doesn’t matter. You’re not like, There’s no way any government in any place in the world is going to stop a person from accessing a piece of information that they’re hell-bent on accessing, no matter what you do.
So it’s kind of a… It makes no sense to me.
Anyway, it’s the same thing like we talk about security of your website. We can only do so much. There’s no website in the world that’s 100% secure.
Like, not even the FBI.
Azgari | 47:30
Not even the FBI. Yeah, Yeah. They get hacked.
So what is.
Amr The Internet Guy | 47:36
Your… Sorry, Mr. Patel.
Sorry. But we make it so difficult. For the average hacker, for the average person with malicious intent to just go try elsewhere.
Like if it’s going to take them so much time. I mean, many people who do bad stuff, they do bad stuff because they’re lazy. They can’t be bothered to do the good stuff.
So, you make it harder for them, they’re going to go and invest their time elsewhere. That that’s. That’s what it is. And that’s, Another thing that we, I mean, I do tell business owners, and I’m sure you do as well, you talk to them about having a website, I talked to them about making sure that website is secure. Safe, secure, the updates are done on time, or you’re using one of the platforms that do their own updates for you. Which I would… Suggest not to use.
So here’s the thing, you know how we’re discussing franchises. Yeah.
So when you go to WIC’s Squarespace, Shopify, the likes of these. Networks. These are software companies.
So you’re actually renting a space on their platform. So their platform is their software, is their code. It’s proprietary. It’s great when you’re starting off. Because it’s easy. Everything is drag and drop. It’s visual. You build your website in like a few hours. If you’re not fussy, you’ll be ready in a day. If you don’t want to change this part and change that part and get like over fixated on font size and which background is better than which background. If you just have content, some texts and some images and you, throw them on a page that looks good, and you choose the templates that they already have, you’re done. The good thing about it is that they take care of security, maintenance, and everything for you.
So you don’t have to worry about this. And it’s a very low barrier to entry. And you just pay a monthly or an annual fee and you’re done. The bad news is as you grow, you will definitely need to add stuff to your website.
So you need to add some new functionality. You need to add a different form. You need to add a form that does something different from the form they have.
And then you soon realize that You cannot do anything. You cannot expand whatever you want to expand on your website.
So now you decide, you know what, I’m going to get out. I’m going to build my own website.
So I’m going to go by hosting and use WordPress. And then soon you realize that after two years of business, you cannot take anything out of these platforms. There’s no export function. And the only export you have is the export of your text and images, which you already had to start with, but you cannot export your posts, you cannot export your pages, you cannot export the design.
Yeah. The two years perfecting.
So that’s why I would tell people it’s like an Airbnb. You go to an Airbnb, it’s like it is. You use it like it is. You can’t change the furniture. You can’t get your own electrical connection, internet connection. If the internet connection sucks, you’re going to have to live with it.
Right? So that’s why I tell them, okay, if WordPress is scaring you, There’s ways to do it right. ” And there are people who, Like me, like others. Who can take care of the scary technical part so that you can Throw your text and images on a template like you want them to do. But you own everything. That’s the difference. You don’t like your hosting? Guess what? Buy another hosting for 1099 a month. Move it in a couple of hours, you’re done.
You know? You’re whatever you have a problem with your designer. Millions of people work on WordPress every day.
Like, you know, your designer ghosted you, which is very it’s a famous thing that I get.
Azgari | 51:37
That’s a thing I had no idea.
Amr The Internet Guy | 51:39
Some web designers actually either get out of the business, like they burn out, they decide it’s not for them anymore. So this is a good segue. Have you had Someone. Starting a service based business.
And then realizing after a period of time that, Either they don’t like that specific industry, Or they don’t want to be a business owner to start with?
Azgari | 52:07
So I get clients who have already done that, where, you know, for example, I have two new clients in the last two weeks. Who they already have three other businesses, three and two other businesses. And they want to do this because they want to get out of those. They don’t want to do it anymore. The difference when you work with us is when people do things on their own, they’re by themselves, right?
Like you have to drive yourself to do everything. And in the beginning, people have that energy, that mental bandwidth to go and do it. But as time passes, they burn out or they’re just They’re so burned out that they’re just, they have a bad taste for it. They don’t want it anymore. But when you do it, it’s not just me, right? We have a full team. And everything that somebody would have done or tried to figure out, you know, run around in circles trying to figure out by themselves getting burned out. They’re not doing that with us. And it’s a business.
So of course, you’re going to have bad things happen or something happens that wasn’t planned. But the difference is you’re not doing it yourself. You have a team that puts their head together and figures it out.
So your chances of getting burned out are pretty low. I don’t know if that answers your question.
Amr The Internet Guy | 53:31
Yeah. I mean, it’s very lonely to be a business owner these days and it’s The beauty of having it as a service-based business, which is I mean, I call it brick and mortar, but so many of these services can be done from home because you’re the one going to deliver everything. At the client’s place. They don’t come to your place. You don’t even need. To have a shop. Or anything like that.
Yeah. Or an office. But in my head. It’s still called brick and mortar. Because it’s physical. It’s not. – Yeah, so the beauty of it that you’re already meeting people and talking to people.
Azgari | 53:59
Online only? Yeah, it’s a physical service.
Like we’re going to someone’s home or office or building.
Amr The Internet Guy | 54:08
I mean- I hate the reset that happened after COVID, even though that reset pushed everything online. Like I got lots of businesses that, coming to me to build their e-commerce websites and whatever.
So, but it made me feel like the year or the two years, He was extremely lonely. You have no idea.
Yeah. And again, We came out of it, most of us, we had some scars, some like… And it kind of there was as If almost that there was a… A force that we did not see that wanted to close all the Mom and pop. Small businesses here and there. The tailors, the accountants, the little… And you see it, if you go to any strip mall, you see like many of the small services that you used to use. Are gone.
Yeah. Right. It could be like higher rent for the shop or whatever. But anyway, so if you have a service based business, the beauty is you’re already out Servicing people, talking to people, so you’re not alone anymore. Right. Then when you need to do the back end stuff of your business, like bookkeeping, whatever.
Azgari | 55:21
Administration, operations, Yeah.
Amr The Internet Guy | 55:24
They have you and your team to deal with this.
Azgari | 55:28
But even with the sales process, we’re heavily involved with the sales process, right? Because sales is the heart of any business. If you don’t have money coming in, what are we doing?
Amr The Internet Guy | 55:39
Yeah.
Azgari | 55:40
Exactly. Even if, you know, even if. The business owner Most of the time, we don’t have the business owner doing the sales part, right? The estimations or whatever for the job. There is a staff that we’re training, but we do have some instances where they don’t want to hire a staff and they want to be the ones going to the clients, at which point we have to do a lot of training.
So even though they’re going to the client themselves, we’re probably on the phone with them in the car. What to say and especially what not to say.
Amr The Internet Guy | 56:13
Don’t scare the people.
Azgari | 56:16
Sales is not a national secret.
Amr The Internet Guy | 56:18
What happens? Okay, Do you? Because I worked in an outsource. I managed an outsourcing call center back in the day in… 2006. How long ago was that? I’m not going to say. I’m young, guys. I’m young. And one of the things that we had, so we used to hire the staff train them for the client.
So we have, let’s say we have a bank and the bank that want like 15 customer service agents. So what we did, we took their curriculum, their training curriculum for customer service. We hired the people, While we’re interviewing them, We’d get the client’s approval, like on their profiles, bios, whatever, so that they know that we’re on the right track. Once we hire them, we train them We do the customer service training like our own, and then we train them on the bank systems and whatever they will be using and the bank’s policy, customer service-like policies and procedures.
And then… They go and sit actually at the bank.
So the bank pays me, I pay the staff. It’s kind of a, you know, it goes in circles.
So in the beginning, when I first joined that company, They had no clothes. For… Coaching.
So what happens after a year, these people get really good in the job and the bank wants to hire them to become the bank staff directly. And then we end up hiring new people. The problem is there’s a gap in the service because, you know, if you Kind of you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Because you hire the staff that I have helping you but still And then the service would go down a little bit until it picks up again.
So I ended up putting Like I know poaching clothes, like, okay, because… There’s no point like you’re gonna tell me Why did the service go down?
Well, the service went down because you took the staff that were experienced and now we replace them. Like, yes, you took them in the bank. They’re helping you somewhere else. But in this specific job, Yeah, the service goes down until the new staff.
Azgari | 58:28
What you train them for.
Amr The Internet Guy | 58:33
So do you, how does it work? Do people end up hiring your team members? To be like full time with them.
Azgari | 58:41
I think, well, there’s a, I think what you’re not understanding is I don’t, it’s your business. For example, let’s say you come to me as to be a client. It is a hundred percent of your business. You pay us to launch the business and operate it for a year at a time. Okay. Right.
So the staff that were yours anyway. No, they’re yours as the business.
Amr The Internet Guy | 59:05
Owner. No, I mean yours, yeah, not yours as RE, yours as in the client.
Like, yeah, the business. Correct. The person working on your business is not working On any other business. He’s just working on your business.
So he’s… Or she’s…
Azgari | 59:20
It’s your staff.
Amr The Internet Guy | 59:21
They’re your staff. Okay. Okay.
So it’s not like the outsourcing model when you have, I don’t know, call center agent answering calls for two or three different companies. It’s just dedicated to one company, one business.
Azgari | 59:35
I mean, depends on the role. We do have virtual clients. Administrative staff and virtual assistants that we hire sometimes for business owners. But if it’s a, if it’s an estimator or a salesperson, then it’s full-time for the, Because.
Amr The Internet Guy | 59:51
Of the technical ability, yeah. Yeah. But if it’s somebody who’s going to enter some data in a system, they can do this for five companies. It doesn’t matter.
Azgari | 59:59
Right. So different parts of the business we will parcel out, but we try to maximize using as much software as possible, right?
So that you are hiring the least amount of human stuff.
Amr The Internet Guy | 01:00:13
Yeah. Yeah. You only hire what you need, like the, for the things that only a human can do. And for the things that have touch points with your customers because like, you know, you, yeah. You’re a customer facing service business. Yep. Okay, perfect. How would people find you?
Azgari | 01:00:34
Asgari.com.
Amr The Internet Guy | 01:00:35
Okay. So it’s A-Z-G-E. Which is silent, but it’s still written, guys. A-R-I.
Azgari | 01:00:44
Correct.
Amr The Internet Guy | 01:00:45
Okay. Thank you very much, Azaria. I really enjoyed this conversation.
Azgari | 01:00:49
Yeah, this was fun.
