Wantrepreneur Wednesday! - (December 06, 2017) Entrepreneur |
- Wantrepreneur Wednesday! - (December 06, 2017)
- I make a living swearing. AMA!
- Change Your Social Circle for Fast Success
- Client won't pay $7500 CAD invoice. It's been a year, collection agency didn't work.
- My name is Deins and I recently started my own Instagram management agency. To test it out, I'm asking you guys to help me test it for free for 1 week which would result in about 250-700 targeted followers for your business. If you don't like it, Big starbucks cappuccino is on me.
- Using a Trademarked word from a Publicly Traded Company for your Start-Up Company
- Does anyone have a great template for a competitive analysis?
- What are some of the best ways you've found to reduce IT costs?
- How To Stop Looking Like An Idiot
- I'm about to make a six figure investment for an Amazon FBA business. Is this model still viable in terms of growth potential for the next 3-5 years? I understand the market is competitive but is it too saturated at this point?
- I started a tech news site and am looking for some feedback!
- Have you done press releases? What went right and what went wrong?
- Is this a scam?
- The Challenges of Launching a Sex-Positive Boutique
- Let’s find some market gaps
- [Question] Those of you who don’t use email marketing for your business. Why not?
- Those making over $1k/month net profit from your Amazon affiliate website, approximately how many words have you written on your website? And how long did it take you to reach the $1k/month profit milestone?
- Thoughts on BNI?
- If I built this would you use it?
- I had a good idea
- People with T-shirt companies
- No idea where to post this, maybe someone in the import/export business can answer?
- 3 Months, 2000+ Pageviews Later - A Personal Journey
- How do people work 80+ hours a week without a job?
- Best payment option if stripe is not possible?
- New companies: worth creating a Glassdoor profile?
- How do you create that sense of urgency to change and pursuit your dreams if you are living in a comfortable situation in your parents house.
| Wantrepreneur Wednesday! - (December 06, 2017) Posted: 06 Dec 2017 05:06 AM PST Please use this thread to ask any wantrapreneur questions. We do this to not overflow the subreddit with wantrapreneur questions, so please try to limit the questions to this weekly thread. Since this thread can fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. [link] [comments]  |
| I make a living swearing. AMA! Posted: 06 Dec 2017 11:01 AM PST Hey Reddit!!! My name is John T and I am a self-publisher of swear word adult coloring books. I have sold nearly 90,000 swear word adult coloring books in less than two years and just started expanding my portfolio to other markets. I am a big fan of /entrepreneur and have been lurking here for a long time. AMA about the business, marketing, publishing, or the art itself. I won't disclose my income or how much I have made, but, if you really want to know you can do some research, find out how many books are sold on Amazon per ranking per day, find out how much royalty you get per price point from a POD, etc. and you can arrive at a ballpark figure. That's what I do to find out how successful authors or titles are on Amazon. The Story A bit about me. Almost two years ago, I was down to nearly nothing in my bank account. I launched several online websites to make extra money but nothing materialized fast enough. Every day and night I searched for a way to make something happen. I had followed the adult coloring book trend for a while and revisited the idea of publishing my own coloring books. Swear word coloring books just started becoming a thing so I figured that I could take advantage of this "new life" in adult coloring books, even though the initial trend was in decline. I finished my first book in less than 24 hours (I don't recommend doing it this quickly and probably wouldn't do it this fast again for a couple reasons). But hey, I was determined to make something happen and to see if this venture would even be worth it, so what are you going to do? I self-published the swear word coloring book and a couple days later it was on Amazon.com. While the sales weren't amazing, there was quite a bit there to suggest that this could become something more. I began working on a brand new swear word adult coloring book and joined some Facebook groups. I gave away free coloring pages in exchange for email addresses and built a list. I released my book about 3 weeks after my first one to much better success and started the 3rd one. 13 swear word adult coloring books later and nearly 90,000 copies sold, I make a living off of my creations. I built an audience and just started to diversify my portfolio with other types of books which includes: Cussword Puzzles! and Swear 'N' Search! Of course, the last 3 months out of the year (holiday season) generates the most sales because people buy gifts for friends, family, co-workers, white elephant gift exchanges, secret santa, etc. but this year as a whole has been very consistent throughout in terms of sales. The Reward Obviously, it's very rewarding to make a living off of my books, but by far, the biggest reward is when someone reaches out to let me know that I have changed their life, or the life of others. As some of you may know, adult coloring books are considered to be therapeutic. They allow the user to relax and destress from everyday life. Some doctors have been know to even "prescribe" adult coloring books as a stress and anxiety reliever. Here is one of my favorite testimonials I received: "Thank you for your coloring books!!! I have purchased several for my mom; who unfortunately is in a nursing home. I purchased Make Life Your Bitch and she is loving it!!! Someone suggested coloring books for her but I think they were thinking more along flowers and animal designs. She is loving her swearing books and she has become very popular; other residents and staff have stopped by her room to check out her books. One of the therapy ladies borrowed one and copied some pages (guess they were afraid to try and pass a swearing coloring book through their budget)." - Frances O. If you can make a living doing something you love, and change lives in the meantime, you really can't ask for anything more, IMO. The Downside Not everyone likes swear word coloring books and they will let you know that. I've ad a couple nasty emails written to me, reviews, and I have had a couple of family members question my venture, etc. But, when that happens, I always look back at the reward. The Goods You may view my adult coloring books and website here: You can check out my Facebook profile and add me as a friend here: AMA! [link] [comments]  |
| Change Your Social Circle for Fast Success Posted: 06 Dec 2017 09:25 AM PST Who you are around, your social circle is so influential to you, and could be a main reason of your success or failures in life. People, communities, or even countries behaviors can be sometimes impossible to change, no matter what new developments of information are learnt. You can give all the right reasons on why somebody should listen to you, adopt a new attitude or behavior, do business with you, even to just change a hygiene problem that could save their life or community well being but they will not change because of the habits they have carried for some time and most importantly the social influence with their peers. Social influence has a major role for everyone to change behaviors, habits or patterns and to keep their current ones. When a change in behavior is required and influence is needed to get people on board, even when it's difficult, unpopular, or possibly even questionable, it often takes the support of the right person, an "opinion leader" to have people change their minds, have them listen, or to influence them to change. People who are respected and connected can create enormous amounts of influence on people over even their strongest beliefs. To be able to change our way of life to manifest something we've never had before, to achieve success that you never thought possible of achieving, it really just comes down to our behaviors and how we act and react to each day and moment. When we surround ourselves with others with these different behaviors or outcomes w, to achieve the goals we want, it forces us to do as they do. We all are very analytical with others we see and this holds a massive influence on our lives. While we are around these new people and behaviors, not only will we pick them up but they will hold us accountable to do as they do and show us the way of how to react in our environments, with all the small details, forcing us to deal with the circumstances as they would. We are influenced by our peers so strongly, so when you are in the realm of the people you want to be like, your peer pressured to be as the others. If they are who you want to be, have the morals you want, standards you want, this is a perfect recipe to develop into the great success and person you want to be and fast. The book I read on this subject had an amazing real life example of this theory. It was to do with drug and alcoholic addicts. There was group created to change their behaviors and had 100% success rate by getting them to join and live with another group of former addicts. The former addicts learnt new behaviors and how to function in society by working and living together. The older members taught the ones below them and the newest learned from the recent newer members but all lived, worked and helped each other together. This showed the new addicts how to act and created new behaviors instantly. All members supported and showed them how to handle themselves and it didn't take long before they moved up to the next stage of becoming a better person and handling the addiction relapse. Alcoholics even served booze and didn't have any urge to drink. This is how vital taking on new behaviors from your peers is and how influential people are to us in person. The majority of people, groups, and public communities usually discuss openly with others before they change behaviors in many circumstances. Some change efforts could be so profound that they require the help of everyone involved to enable people to make the change. Such as new health concerns, washing hands rigorously because of a new epidemic breaking out or what have you. When changing habits that have been reinforced for some time by a person's social network, people must be plucked from their support structure and placed in a new network where virtually everyone is their new social circle supports and rewards the right behaviors while punishing the wrong ones. This is why you've heard the theory you are who your closest 5 friends are. The company you keep you become. This is so true, we watch others what they do and start to do the same. This might be because of how we learnt from a baby to even an adult and beyond. We have always been learning from other people and especially the closest people to us. If you want success stay around good people that have what you want or who you want to be. If you want fast success stay around the best people of whom you want to be. Our behaviors are what determine what type of person we will be and the outcomes we will achieve. [link] [comments]  |
| Client won't pay $7500 CAD invoice. It's been a year, collection agency didn't work. Posted: 06 Dec 2017 08:39 AM PST Hey guys, I'm in need of some help right now. So it all started around exactly a year ago. We're a manufacturing shop based in Quebec, quite a big one at that. We got an order for some PULLEYS by a company based in Woodstock, ON. After a bunch of arguing with shipping time and struggles, they were finally shipped out. We received a check in the right amount of around $7500 CAD. The check bounced and we immediately contacted them, we never heard ANYTHING back from them and they would not answer their calls. They are still a 100% functioning company. We used Dixon collection agencies and it still didn't work. We would really like this money, how can I get them to pay me? I'd prefer not pay for a lawyer etc.. as the fees would probably be higher. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Dec 2017 02:42 AM PST There is no doubt that instagram plays a huge role for all sizes of businesses. It's a way to grow more intimate connection with your audience and clients, and pull in new people in the process. The problem is that it takes so much time to see a good, tangible results. Here's where we come into play. We automate the boring tasks of instagram leaving you more time to tend to your core business. Before we launch full time, we need to test our servers and structure, so we are inviting 5 members of /r/entrepreneur to test the service for free for 1 week. In this week we will get your instagram account additional 250-700 followers depending on the niche you're in. If you're interested, please PM me and I'll send you the sign up link. EDIT: Thank you all for reaching out to me, now we've got tons of work to see if everything works like we want it to. Cheers! [link] [comments]  |
| Using a Trademarked word from a Publicly Traded Company for your Start-Up Company Posted: 06 Dec 2017 11:00 AM PST I was hoping to open a Start-Up Company and have a company name in mind, but I'm not certain if I can use it legally and/or if there is another Company/Business using the same word but not the same name. Below is an example of the company (Using fake but similar name example): Business model: Manufactures and sells textures -Former name: Texture, Inc. -Current name: Text, Inc. -Company website: Text.com -Trademarked: Text My Company Name and Information: Business model: Live stream/Social Media -Company Name: Text.TV, Inc. -Company website: TextZone.tv (I wanted to use Text.tv as my domain name, but it was taken by an unrelated company in this thread) Will I be able to use Text.TV, Inc. as my company name legally if the other company Trademarked, "Text" Also, if there is another company using the domain name, "Text.tv", can I still use the company name, "Text.TV, Inc." and trademark "Text.TV" later? [link] [comments]  |
| Does anyone have a great template for a competitive analysis? Posted: 06 Dec 2017 10:02 AM PST It's been awhile since I've done one of these and I can't find the one I did years ago. Would love it if someone could recommend a template they've used successfully. It's for a client's company to uncover weaknesses, strengths and primarily differentiators of their product offerings. [link] [comments]  |
| What are some of the best ways you've found to reduce IT costs? Posted: 06 Dec 2017 01:36 PM PST Every business needs technology to be able to operate effectively. The larger the business, the larger the IT spend. What are some of the ways you've been able to reduce IT costs in your business? There are lots of creative ways to reduce the cost of some of the big ticket items that come along with IT (hiring/training staff, managing on-premise servers and infrastructure, cost of new hardware/software). There are a few ways listed in this article: What Are the Best Ways to Reduce IT Costs? (mainly cross-training, renegotiating license/vendor agreements, modernizing). I want to hear from others about what has worked for them. Or conversely what hasn't worked out or continues to be the greatest technology-related cost magnet in their business. [link] [comments]  |
| How To Stop Looking Like An Idiot Posted: 05 Dec 2017 03:05 PM PST You know when someone asks you a question and you instantly know, before you open your mouth, that your response is going to suck? You panic, because you know you're going to look dumb in front of this person (who's usually someone intimidating, who you want to impress). And because you panic, your response does suck. Think job interviews, for example. Or talking to a hot girl. What's happening here is that we're afraid that we won't meet this person's standards in some way. We actually believe deep down that we're not good enough (for the job, for the girl, etc.) so we try to distract them from our inadequacy by responding quickly. BEFORE we've had the time to craft a well-formed response. We think that if we hesitate for too long, they're onto us. The jig's up. They know we suck. But the opposite is actually true. Imagine you were 150% confident that you were going to get this job, or this girl. Because that's all confidence is... your belief in your own competence. Would you feel pressured to respond quickly? Would you stress about what they're going to think of you if you pause? Nope. You'd feel completely comfortable taking your time, saying things like, "Hmm... that's a great question. Let me think about that for a second..." and then crafting your response thoughtfully and purposefully. And the interviewer or the girl would SEE your confidence (your belief in your competence) in those pauses... which increases THEIR belief in your competence. So you'd absolutely nail those conversations... because you KNOW you have it in you IF you simply give yourself enough time for it to come out. On the other hand... the person who gives fast, messy, unpolished answers is clearly and obviously showing that he believes he's not good enough. And if he doesn't believe in himself... why should they? So build the habit of buying yourself time with phrases like... "Woah, I need to think about that for a second." "Hold on, that's a good question." or even just "Hmmmmm...." (with a thinking face) Do this in ANY situation, not just girls and interviews. And then use those pauses to the fullest. Don't start talking until you're confident in your response. You WILL give a better answer. Some of my past clients would actually make up project deadline dates, outright lying to their boss, because they couldn't remember the true deadlines on the spot. They thought it was better to say ANYTHING quickly than it was to respond slowly. And of course they looked like an idiot. But they were actually really smart... It just never occurred to them that taking MORE time actually makes other people see you as MORE confident (and more competent). Which actually increases your true confidence over time. Because people will react to you as someone who's confident... and then you'll then react to THEM reacting to YOU. And if you want learn how to connect with colleagues on a more meaningful level, check out Stop Being Boring: Flex Your Interesting Muscle. It's a free course that teaches you how to never run out of things to say, how to network, and how to comfortably be your authentic self in conversation. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Dec 2017 08:55 AM PST |
| I started a tech news site and am looking for some feedback! Posted: 06 Dec 2017 11:11 AM PST A small group of friends and I started a website called Product Watch. We originally were using the site as a creative outlet as we write general tech content about things we find interesting. We recently rethemed it to position it next to mashable, wired arstechnica etc. Feedback & Guest Posts Welcome! [link] [comments]  |
| Have you done press releases? What went right and what went wrong? Posted: 06 Dec 2017 09:41 AM PST I want to hear your experience and thoughts before funneling money into this! I'm part owner of a predominantly B2B business and our sales channels so far have been 'traditional'- sales people, sales pitches, golfing(!) and all that jazz. We're at a stage where we need to start expanding or risk falling behind competition which is why I figured we can submit press releases about our new product launches. Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? I'm open to all [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Dec 2017 08:46 AM PST http://imgur.com/a/VRzrR My s.o. and I own a small skin care business as a partnership. We have no employees, but we got this in the mail. It looks like it was from a true government agency, but it is from a company called Personal Concepts. I'm 95% sure it is just a scam to get my bank info, but now I'm second guessing myself on our compliance. Can anyone give any insight into partnerships and labor law postings? Should I just ignore this as junk mail? [link] [comments]  |
| The Challenges of Launching a Sex-Positive Boutique Posted: 06 Dec 2017 07:09 AM PST We're looking for some insight on unconventional growth hacking. Two months ago we launched Nox, a women-run online boutique looking to reimagine a stigmatized industry by changing the imagery behind sex, toys, and intimacy. We've launched to amazing feedback and strong sales but there are limitations on how we can get the word out on our business. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram don't allow the promotion of 'adult' products. So even though we also sell candles and bath and body products it's really uncertain when they will allow us to boost certain posts compared to others. 🤔 Has anyone else experienced these challenges? Perhaps with companies elevating cannabinoid products or other previously stigmatized industries? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Dec 2017 12:34 PM PST Any period has some market gaps that need to be filled. We don't talk about solution. Just about existing, in your opinion, market gaps! [link] [comments]  |
| [Question] Those of you who don’t use email marketing for your business. Why not? Posted: 06 Dec 2017 10:53 AM PST |
| Posted: 06 Dec 2017 09:34 AM PST |
| Posted: 06 Dec 2017 09:51 AM PST Is anyone here a member of BNI? Do you have any thoughts on it? I run a software development studio and while we focus on eCommerce, the challenges are often similar when building software for an insurance broker or a law office, etc. BNI seems to have many legal, real estate, insurance members in their various niches with little tech presence other than tier 1 tech support and web design. I can't tell if I've tapped into a goldmine of potential or if other backend developers have avoided these groups because they're too far out of the know and too unaccustomed to bespoke automation. The fees are acceptable if I get referrals, but they're insane if I'm wasting my time, so I'd like to do my due diligence in research. Does anyone have positive/negative experiences with them? [link] [comments]  |
| If I built this would you use it? Posted: 06 Dec 2017 07:22 AM PST Hey everyone. I hate buying cards for people. Weddings, Christmas, and yes even Mother's Day. Not only are cards now priced around $6 but if the receiver is anything like me it is in the garbage about a week later. I usually buy wedding cards because I need something nice to put a cash gift. So I have this idea for a small project and I am asking for input and most importantly, if it showed up at your door would you embrace it. A recycled card that is being sent around the world for various occasions. Signed and kept until you need to send your next card for whatever occasion. The card itself is somehow customizable so it can be meaningful for both Mother's Day as well as your sister's birthday. Inside are instructions about what it is and what to do. You sign it, date it, wright your location, and occasion which you receive it for. Keep it and send it as the card for the next occasion in your life. Yes you have to pay for your own postage. Obviously this will expand beyond your family or group of friends and even internationally depending who gets it. My thought is I am saving you money because the card you just got (awwww) has now done you the favour of not having to go out and buy a card for that wedding next month. But hey, you could go buy a Hallmark for $6 and know that it will likely be thrown out. After a few sends it will gather signatures and dates from people who enjoyed this card on a special day in their life. The card may include an area to write something for future receivers. How do I monetize this? No idea. Maybe on the instructional insert it asks for a $2 donation to keep cards circulating. Thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Dec 2017 10:50 AM PST Is going to a big company to pitch my idea so they can help me start it and have it be a part of the company a good way to get it started? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Dec 2017 12:53 PM PST Hi, I'm looking to start a small tshirt commerce site on the side. What software do you use to design shirts? I am a beginner, with no experience in design. Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| No idea where to post this, maybe someone in the import/export business can answer? Posted: 06 Dec 2017 10:27 AM PST Hello, I have a wooden box in Europe that I need to send over here to the states. It's about 6x6 box which has two limestone coffee tables and a few other things in it. However, the guy that wants to send it to the states wants to charge about 1000 euros. This is too much for me. My questions is, how can I go about on sending this myself or go directly to someone else that can send it for me? UPS/DHL/FEDEX is out of the question. I have done this plenty of times, and they send it on a container ship, but it was never this much money. Any advice would be great! [link] [comments]  |
| 3 Months, 2000+ Pageviews Later - A Personal Journey Posted: 06 Dec 2017 04:51 AM PST I don't know how many times it took me to convince myself to start my own blog. But it took a while. Looking back, it was so silly thinking of all the excuses not to just start right away. I've always been a firm believer in personal finance. I've budgeted since I was young, graduated college with no debt (tried to avoid it as best I could), and saved a good amount. But just talking with friends and families, it became very apparent that personal finance takes a personal effort to learn, because it's not really (if at all) taught in schools. This is what pushed me to start my personal finance blog. I know. It's a flooded market out there. Believe me - I didn't even know how I would break into community. One thing I always kept in mind was that I was in it for the long haul. Persistence. Consistency. All of that. I started off enthused. Excited each week to write a blog post. I had so many ideas. And I enjoyed writing. It was going easier than I thought. I started tracking my stats. "One day it will go up," I told myself. I jumped on the social media train. Everything I was doing I was learning myself, researching, looking at other people's successes (quite demotivating early on, mind you). After being pumped for a month, I fell silent. Even with mentally preparing myself that I was in for the journey, I was obsessed with the daily hits. It was discouraging to see no one visiting my site after spending so much time writing a post. I thought that my content was worthy, but it was tough getting the message out. So i stopped writing. I stopped for a good month. My already abysmal view count dropped to 0. I had no motivation to keep going. It became apparent that my whole motivation for this whole thing wasn't what I thought it was. I lost sight of my original intent of starting the blog - to help others. Well, a person emailed me one day of how one of my blog posts (on the Equifax data breach) had saved them. They had used it and called in and found fraudulent activity and managed to stop any future damage to their credit. This was motivating. Some people asked me why I had stopped. I didn't even know people cared! More motivation. Having gone through this, I reminded myself that I was just going to focus on the content. Yes, analyzing traffic, sources, promoting was important. But to be so thrown off my original purpose so quickly the first time was quite shocking. With that, I went back to my weekly posting schedule. And I've never felt better. Yeah, there are times I hit writers block and get stuck (I will improve, I promise!). But, it's been great limiting myself to checking my stats. And I'm glad to say traffic, users, engagement - all of that has been on the up and up. I'm just sticking to my routine. And people are enjoying it. I've started to receive emails with suggestions, ideas, improvements. I love all the feedback I get, because it shows that people care about what I'm talking about. I had my best month last month. A solid 2,000 page views. Page views don't mean everything. But this number was nearly 1% of that in the first month. I hope to keep on going with my current trajectory. It's been a great experience, and I'm excited to see where this goes. edit: link to blog (for those interested) [link] [comments]  |
| How do people work 80+ hours a week without a job? Posted: 06 Dec 2017 12:19 AM PST I always see people have all these hours worked but what do you do the whole time? What type of business do you have to have to be able to work so endlessly? [link] [comments]  |
| Best payment option if stripe is not possible? Posted: 06 Dec 2017 01:54 PM PST I'm starting a business to sell software to B2B. Stripe, which seems very well liked, isn't available in my country. What are other good options for receiving international payments? I'm considering bank transfer, i.e. this process: (1) get a contract/agreement made (2) giving people the software after verifying manually they're legitimate and (3) giving customers my IBAN number and waiting for money to arrive. Will using bank transfers look unprofessional to corporate customers compared to using credit cards (stripe or other)? Are there other downsides? I'm thinking verifying the purchasers identity by getting the user to click 'ok' in a web form and then getting them to respond to a verification email. If the buyer verifies the email, and if the email domain name looks legit (manual checking), I'll send a download link back. Do you people think these are reasonable steps or am I missing something? [link] [comments]  |
| New companies: worth creating a Glassdoor profile? Posted: 06 Dec 2017 10:08 AM PST I'm wondering if it would help with recruiting new employees. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Dec 2017 01:44 PM PST I have been struggling for the past month to push myself to chase my dreams and use my passion to create something and profit from it. Im trying so hard to create this sense of urgency in me. The more I try the more conflict that I feel within so it creates this torment inside of me. One is wanting to change, and another is a resistance against that change [link] [comments]  |
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