Why Do I Have to Get Verified to See Listings?
October 3, 2022
If you’ve got your sights set on joining the online business world then you’re in luck because we’ve got dozens of quality online businesses on our marketplace just waiting to be snapped up by the right buyer.
But before you can take a deep dive into each business to see if it’s the right fit for you, you will need to be verified.
In this article, we’ll break down the verification process to help you understand exactly what information we need from you and why we want to verify you in the first place.
Protecting Businesses by Verifying Potential Buyers
When you visit the Empire Flippers website, you can view all of the businesses listed on our marketplace.
However, the information that you see about each business will be limited until you complete the verification process.
We’re committed to selling quality businesses that will be great cash-flowing investments for buyers. This means being transparent about the business’s history, potential flaws, and growth opportunities.
Part of this promise includes protecting the future of the business. If we reveal sensitive information about the business’s operations to the general public, then copycats or competitors could use the information to threaten the business.
To prevent this from happening, we ask users to submit two key pieces of information to our verification team…
The Areas We Focus on When Verifying Users
During the verification process, our goal is to confirm your identity and your liquidity.
Verifying your identity helps to limit fraudulent activity and reassures the seller that buyers truly are who they claim to be. Buyers aren’t the only ones we put under the microscope. We also verify sellers’ identities and thoroughly vet each business to ensure that only top-notch businesses make it to our marketplace.
Establishing buyer intent by verifying liquidity helps to build trust between buyers and sellers. Sellers share a large amount of sensitive business information with us. Verifying buyers’ funds helps to level the playing field.
We pride ourselves on the efficiency of our sale process. Since a large portion of our business is geared towards all-cash upfront offers, having buyers verify their liquidity limits tire kicking and window shopping.
Ensuring buyers have the means to purchase businesses prevents sales from falling through at the last minute due to a lack of funding. It also makes sure our sellers are spending their time with only serious buyers.
Limiting the number of people who can view the specifics of the business benefits buyers too as it reduces the number of potential buyers competing for the acquisition.
So, what information is waiting for buyers on the other side of the verification process?
Everything You Need to Make an Informed Acquisition
Verifying your identity and liquidity opens you up to a whole new world of information.
Verified users gain access to our unlock system. Each new user is granted 100 unlocks that they can use to access more information about businesses that they are interested in buying. Don’t worry, if you run out of unlocks, you can simply contact customer service to request more unlocks.
Once verified, you’ll be able to unlock businesses worth up to 1.5x your verified funds.
For example, if you have a verified liquidity of $1 million, you’ll be able to unlock business worth up to $1.5 million.
By unlocking a business, you’ll gain access to information such as:
- The business’s name and its associated websites/ Amazon listings/ apps
- Social media accounts and pages
- Analytical data (TACoS, COGS, Ahrefs site data, etc.)
You will also be able to set up a call with the seller to learn more about the business, or if you like what you see you can submit an offer to purchase the business.
How to Complete the Verification Process
Before you can begin the verification process, you’ll need to create an account on our website.
Accounts cannot be created under the name of a business or corporation. Each account must be linked to an individual.
As previously mentioned, the verification process is made up of two parts: verifying your identity and verifying your liquidity by providing Proof of Funds.
Verifying Your Identity
To verify your identity, you simply need to upload a copy of either your driver’s license, passport, or another type of government ID documentation.
It’s important to enter your name and date of birth exactly as they appear on your supporting documentation. If the details you input don’t match your ID documents, your verification will be rejected. Keep in mind that you may get an error for characters not found in the Latin alphabet.
Make sure the photograph and lettering on your ID document are clear and legible before uploading.
Once you’ve uploaded your documents, you’ll need to complete a quick video verification using either your webcam or phone camera. The purpose of this is to ensure that your face matches the image on the ID documents provided.
Our video verification is provided by Persona, a cyber security firm that meets the highest standards of privacy and data protection.
You’ll be asked to look directly at the camera, then left, then right so that the software can capture your face from various angles. Once complete, you’ll be provided feedback on whether your ID verification has been successful.
Verifying Your Liquidity
There are two ways to provide proof of funds when verifying your liquidity. You can connect your bank, crypto, or brokerage account using Plaid, an encrypted, secure 3rd party software used by the biggest financial institutions.
Or, you can also manually upload proof of fund documents if you’d prefer not to connect your account.
The documents you submit do not need to reveal account numbers or any other sensitive information. Empire Flippers goes to great lengths to protect customer data, and only a limited number of employees can access your documents.
The funds you’re verifying need to be liquid (able to be easily withdrawn). We don’t accept assets such as real estate or physical goods as proof of liquidity.
The Plaid system generates a one-time snapshot of your account. To maintain your privacy and security, we do not store any information about your bank account apart from the screenshot.
Bear in mind that if your account balance changes after you’ve been verified and you want to reflect that on our marketplace, you’ll need to repeat this process again.
If you’d prefer not to provide a snapshot of your account, you can choose to upload your financial statements manually. Make sure that your chosen document is not older than three months, and clearly shows your name (matching the name you verified earlier) and the liquidity amount.
You can upload any of the following documents:
-
- Bank account statement
- Stock portfolio
- CPA letter
- Home equity line of credit (HELOC)
- Cryptocurrency wallet
- Retirement account
- Other Available Credit Status
We reject over a third of submissions because documents are either out of date (older than 3 months) or the wrong types of documents are submitted.
The review process typically takes less than 24 hours before your verification is approved. Please note that we do not verify documents during the weekend.
Once we have verified your account balance, you’ll be able to unlock listings and be one step closer to owning an online business.
Conclusion
When buying an online business, you can’t predict how future trends, industry changes, or global events may affect the business.
The best you can do is try to anticipate problems and build a protective moat around the business to shield it.
That’s what we aim to do with our verification process. We shield businesses from competitors trying to steal market share and protect intellectual property and trade secrets from copycats.
This gives buyers confidence that they are acquiring a solid asset and reassures sellers that the business they’ve put so much effort into growing has a bright future.
If you’re ready to explore the best online businesses our marketplace has to offer, then register your account and begin the verification process today!
