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    NooB Monday! - (February 26, 2018) Entrepreneur

    February 26, 2018

    NooB Monday! - (February 26, 2018) Entrepreneur

    NooB Monday! - (February 26, 2018)

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 05:07 AM PST

    Please use this thread to ask any newbie questions.

    We do this to not overflow the subreddit with newbie 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.

    submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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    We are a trending subreddit today. To new visitors: welcome!

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 10:50 AM PST

    Welcome to /r/Entrepreneur. You might be here because we were selected as a trending subreddit today. If so welcome. Hopefully this post will help you understand how we work here.

    • Subscriber or not you are welcome to post comments. We do however ask that you have 10 comment karma in /r/Entrepeneur before making a post and leading a discussion. Consider posting in our Monday and Wednesday stickies for advice to new entrepreneurs.
    • Ask questions or express your opinion about how to do something, what people are doing, chances for an approach to succeed or fail and what might be a good idea. Encouragement, good advice and helpful tips are very welcome.
    • Entrepreneurs need to face cold hard business realities so criticism can be direct. It's much better to uncover problems in a discussion instead of post investment so people here don't sugar coat. Words that dismiss a dream can hurt but not hearing them when you need to can hurt more. However:
    • Personal attacks are not criticism and they will not be tolerated here. Talking about what people are doing: acceptable. Attacking a person or group of people: Not. Report it so it can be removed. Repeated or abusive attacks can result in a ban.
    • Any post must have enough content to have a discussion in this sub. Supplementing with a link is ok but don't spam. Don't self-promote. Don't post empty fluff with a link to your content in the middle. Don't post a title with no content in the post. No one is fooled by a "I need feedback on my xyz site that sells dropshipping Udemy courses to Entrepreneurs, here's the link." All such posts do is get your top Google result to be a link to here and a bunch of posts calling you out on it - if it isn't just quickly reported and removed.

    That's it - again, welcome and I look forward to seeing your posts.

    submitted by /u/BigSlowTarget
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    Why You Should Ignore Every Founder’s Story About How They Started Their Company

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 10:00 AM PST

    This is also available as a blog post with images and is from my newsletter, How It Actually Works

    Founding Stories Are Myths

    Company founding stories are almost always non-malicious lies. Take Netflix:

    Reed Hastings has said many times that he got the idea for Netflix because he once was charged a $40 late fee on Apollo 13.

    That didn't actually happen.

    It's unfortunate because it will inevitably mislead anyone learning how to start a company.

    Sam Walton's Overnight Success

    Sam was already 44(!) when he opened the first Walmart and had been running his own retail stores for over 15 years.

    He wondered why people focused on the beginning of Walmart:

    **Somehow over the years folks have gotten the impression that Walmart was something I dreamed up out of the blue as a middle-aged man, and that it was just this great idea that turned into an overnight success...

    Like most overnight successes, it was about 20 years in the making**

    If you're trying to build your own thing & you want to learn from "the founder of Walmart", looking at the start of the company itself is stupid because at that point he already had 15 years of experience

    So let's start with Sam's very first store.

    The Biggest Mistake Of Sam's Professional Life

    Sam started his retail career at 27 buying his 1st store, a "Ben Franklin" variety store franchise.

    As a beginner he relied on the franchise's playbook but also incorporated his own experiments.

    Things like:

    • putting popcorn & ice cream machines in front of the store to drive traffic
    • doing huge discounts but actually making it up in volume (i.e. not ironically)
    • buying directly from manufactures instead of going through the franchise (which allowed for cheaper prices)

    He worked hard on that single store for 5 years, grew sales 3.5x to $250k/year and became the #1 Ben Franklin franchisee in his six-state region.

    But then he found out he'd made a gigantic mistake.

    When he signed the store lease he didn't include an option to renew it.

    The owner (a local department store competitor) saw his success & refused to renew the lease at any price, thereby forcing Sam to shut down the store.

    Imagine working on something for 5 years straight, becoming the best at it, and then having a single person end it all.

    Sam was devastated:

    It was the lowpoint of my business life. I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn't believe it was happening to me... I had built the best variety store in the whole region and worked hard in the community - done everything right - and now I was being kicked out of town. It didn't seem fair. I blamed myself for ever getting suckered into such an awful lease, and I was furious at the landlord.

    He was mad, but he accepted responsibility:

    I've always thought of problems as challenges, and this one wasn't any different... I had to pick myself up and get on with it, do it all over again, only even better this time.

    If Facebook or Google change their algorithms you at least get to keep your old customer base and your business assets.

    But with a retail store you have none of that.

    And because of the structure of the town they couldn't just open another store somewhere nearby.

    The Waltons literally had to pack up their family of 6 and go find a new town.

    If he'd wanted to Sam had plenty of reasons to sulk: they were starting all over in a smaller town (Bentonville) that also had its fair share of competition (3 other variety stores).

    But Sam said "it didn't matter much because I had big plans."

    Unsexy Determination

    Sam spent the next 12 years in what I call narrative lingo.

    It's the crucial part of any "overnight success" that doesn't get covered in the Successful Entrepreneur genre.

    No one writes about all the random tangents and mistakes you make here.

    Like, say, that time Sam tried to start a shopping mall 10 years too early and lost $25,000?

    Or what about the time a tornado destroyed his best performing store? All he had to say was "we just rebuilt it and got back at it."

    This is important to know if you're trying to learn from Sam, but it doesn't fit into any narrative.

    The lesson here is that there will be mistakes and problems on any path to success. As a recent book title says, those obstacles are the way itself.

    A coworker said Sam excelled here because he woke up every day "determined to improve something", and that he was

    less afraid of being wrong than anyone I've ever known...Once he sees he's wrong, he just shakes it off and heads in another direction.

    You don't get any of this from Reed Hastings when he talks about $40 late fees. You think "oh I need a great idea" when the reality is the idea is nothing and your psychology & persistence is everything.

    Eventually Sam got to 15 stores & by 1960 was the largest independent variety store operator in the US, doing a a total of ~$12M (in 2018 dollars) in annual revenue.

    It Would Seem Obvious

    It was here that Sam finally saw the opportunity for much bigger discount stores and got to work on the 1st Walmart.

    He was the most successful independent operator in the US & had 15 years of experience in retail, surely it should have been easy for him to raise money from investors...?

    Wrong.

    Sam asked other store owners, entrepreneurs, competitors... basically everyone said no.

    He got a measily 5% from his own brother & a store manager and had to borrow the other 95% (signing their house and all their other stores as collatoral).

    Even the great Sam Walton couldn't find investors to start the 1st Walmart, on the back of a near-perfect record in retail.

    The 1st Wal-Mart

    Finally, the point where most people look at to learn, is the end of our story.

    The 1st Walmart was an ugly retail store (8-foot ceilings, concrete floor, wooden fixtures) but it worked because Walmart's prices always beat competitors.

    (Even the name "Walmart" was selected with customer prices in mind: it was cheaper to buy neon signs for 7 letters than the longer names Sam considered.)

    And you think Sam cared 2 cents about what anyone else thought about his stores?

    The New York Times doesn't mention Sam or Walmart until 1969, 7 years after the 1st store opening, and he's just one random quote in the back of the paper.

    And the Walmart 1970 IPO got a single mention on page 44 of the Times

    If you want to learn from entrepreneurs, look at the start not the finish.

    submitted by /u/trevmckendrick
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    Dealing with an insane, incompetent and inconsistent bully!

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 07:24 AM PST

    I have a client that is driving me absolutely insane. This is a high dollar client, so I have debated whether it is worth it - or not - to even try to work with her. The company is owned by a man who is a serial entrepreneur, so he himself is busy and is not very active in the daily operations of this particular company he owns. The woman who is his 'marketing consultant' - is the problem.

    She is a bully, she is mean, she is exceptionally inconsistent with what she says she wants/doesn't want, she calls/texts/email at all hours of the day, she will literally ask for one thing one day and the complete opposite the next (with no recollection of the original request, of course). She has threatened my team with "taking the business somewhere else" (although we have a contract, so she can't). I'm losing my mind and I am at my wit's end.

    The owner of the company is local to me and he is the legal owner of our contract. I have contemplated going straight to him to discuss her involvement in his company. She is undoubtedly the reason why this business has not been and will not be successful (even though they are backed by one of the largest media companies in the world). She actually has customers calling HER DIRECT!! And OMG if she talks to them the way she talks to her 'internal team'... there is no wonder they are not getting sales.

    We have spent countless hours performing competitive research studies, because our professional experience wasn't enough when we told her that stock imagery was not going to work. So we backed our research to conclude that they need more original creative assets and unique video/photo versus stock. She literally just emailed me and said that "photography/videos that are not specifically designed to drive sales would be very low ROI." Um. What? The photos and videos WOULD be SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED to drive SALES!!! I mean, this is what marketing is! If marketing does not drive sales, how have I had a successful marketing agency for 9 years? How does she have a job?

    I am always very professional in my communication, however, I have struggled with this one (as you can imagine). We do have a contract, a couple of months left in it, and I really need advice/input on how to handle this going forward.

    UPDATE: I stopped by the owner's office, and although he was unavailable to meet today, his executive assistant scheduled a meeting with him for Wednesday. I had to request confidence in the scheduling of this meeting, and give her a brief reason why this specific woman should not be included in the meeting. Interestingly enough, she said it was ironic I stopped in to discuss this matter, because another person had made a similar comment "in passing" just this morning (about the woman in reference). She told me that she has sensed that this woman is tumultuous - and she said she believes the owner has as well. She told me that they appreciate the straightforward nature and my level of loyalty and interest in the success of the company. So while the extreme nature of her unprofessionalism is about to be brought into a bright light, it's not coming as a huge surprise to them.

    submitted by /u/tylarblue
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    Building an email list before you launch your startup?

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 06:08 AM PST

    I am just about to launch a Brand that I have been dreaming about for 20+ years.

    I want to start building an email list and I am looking for ideas on how to do it.

    I have reached out to some Sports Companies to see if they were able to provide me with a prize at a discounted rate, and I am waiting to hear back on that.

    I want to build the email list without revealing the brand itself though, because it's not ready for public launch.....

    Any ideas?

    submitted by /u/Kurzinator
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    Thinking of taking a massive pay cut to be able to spend more time on my side hustle. A quick sanity check would be appreciated before I dive right in. Details inside the post.

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 09:48 AM PST

    I have a local service company but its operations are currently on-hold because my day job is high pressure and takes a lot out of me. I found a much lower pressure job that allows me to work from home (key for being able to spend time on my business).

    My job is stressful, but the money is great and the upside for future earnings is even better. I've broken down this situation below.

    Current Salary: 65k (possible to move up to 95k within 6 months) Savings: ~25k New Salary: 40k/yr (where I live, this is barely enough to pay rent and living expenses)

    tl;dr I am weighing the opportunity cost of a high-paying job vs being able to pay my bills and pursuing this crazy thing called Entrepreneurship

    submitted by /u/sadkee
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    Holy crap. I never realized how much people want to sell you stuff after starting your business.

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 11:22 AM PST

    I launched my business 1 week ago (thanks in part from reddit). Putting my service on various places (google, bing, yelp, yellow pages) has made me inundated with these places wanting to sell me marketing packages.

    submitted by /u/shaggywdc
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    Most inspirational video you've seen?

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 01:36 PM PST

    Some days I feel super motivated to work on my startups. Other days, I don't and I don't touch it for an entire day. I then feel bad, begin to feel depressed and just procrastinate all day (I do work FT at the moment).

    I'm looking to build a playlist of video for these times when I'm feeling unmotivated in the hopes that I might feel that tiny bit more motivated to begin working again.

    If anyone has any videos that have really helped them in getting their ass in gear, that'd be great.

    submitted by /u/Mtrandomthrowaway
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    What businesses are generated around Tesla?

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 07:09 AM PST

    Hi all! European here. We don't really have Tesla here in most countries. When model 3 fully enters the market I am expecting it to be really successful. What businesses have you been been successfully built around Tesla?

    submitted by /u/Guau
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    Father Died, Should I continue his business?

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 12:49 PM PST

    My father just died of a heart attack about a month ago. He has owned multiple businesses over his life.

    For about the last 7 years, he did handyman work, employing about 4 people under him. He was so good at this, that he obtained some very large accounts with big name restaurants. In our city. He eventually wanted to just do the office work as his heart was giving him trouble (we didn't know how badly), which is what I think I'd like to do.

    The accounts he had are still on board, the employees I know personally and still want to work. We would need to create a new LLC, as my mother took most of his money and doesn't plan to share it

    My question, am I in over my head? I've had some managerial experience, and currently have a stable well paying job, but I know there's more money and satisfaction in this.

    Any advice anyone can give would be greatly appreciated. This is quite the endeavor for me, but it would feel like such a waste to just drop everything he built.

    Thanks,

    submitted by /u/lymehs
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    How to advertise a small masonry company successfully?

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 05:57 AM PST

    We are a canadian masonry company, we advertise on google, homestars and kijiji. Any other avenue I should be looking at? Door to door flyers?

    So lost with this stuff!

    submitted by /u/ryulaaswife
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    What are your daily routines that have helped you reach success or brought you closer to it?

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 02:22 PM PST

    What routines have you been following everyday that have helped you in becoming successful in your entrepreneurial journey or brought you closer to it? What impact did those routines have on your life?

    submitted by /u/aamirology
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    Anyone in the architectural salvage business or materials recycling?

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 10:27 AM PST

    Really interested in getting into architectural salvage. I was hoping to find someone in the business and hear how you made your start.

    Did you work in demolition, contracting, or antiques?

    submitted by /u/RadFink
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    How to go about obtaining .com domain?

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 02:06 PM PST

    I've got a online business running right now on a .ca domain. I want to purchase the .com domain. It is currently not a live website or business. I carefully checked the whois of the domain and it's not available for sale, own by some corporate domains company.

    How can I go about contacting the owner carefully without getting screwed over by them jacking up the price?

    Someone mentioned I should act like I'm another domain company.

    submitted by /u/hihellothere1234
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    Are ICOs the ultimate crypto business model?

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 01:46 PM PST

    Are you aware of any other innovative business models enabled by blockchain technology?

    submitted by /u/PhyKings
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    Well hot damn, my side project is on Product Hunt(Support us!). Would love for you to check it out -- it's must have tools for internet marketers that lets you verify bulk emails to analyze sentiment for your keywords.

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 06:11 AM PST

    Is there anything that I can do to maximise the opportunity of being featured on the homepage of Product Hunt? I'll keep on top of any questions that are asked, but is there a way to increase the likelihood of getting in the newsletter for example? Or staying at the top for longer? Here it is - https://www.producthunt.com/posts/kintegra-labs

    submitted by /u/steveharrry
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    Website woes.

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 08:49 AM PST

    I have been building a library of information in my field. Currently, there isn't a central location to access this information online. I would like to build a website for the information I've collected.

    I've worked with weebly in the past, but I can't find a decent template on their site. Any suggestions would be helpful! Thank you for your time and effort!

    submitted by /u/JackDalgren
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    How much do you make with your email list?

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 12:23 PM PST

    How much and what are your conversion rates.

    submitted by /u/UniDropout1
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    I'm an Alibaba Supplier and would love to hear about your experience as a buyer.

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 12:05 PM PST

    Hi, I'm Rob and my business has a Alibaba supplier Gold Account (7 years) based in New Zealand.

    I'm looking to up our game on the platform and would love to know what its like as a buyer, specifically what parts of the experience you loved, what parts you hated (or caused you stress), and what things do suppliers do on Alibaba that helps build trust in them?

    Any info would be great! Thanks!

    submitted by /u/RobFromNZ
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    # Help with a Survey for Cold Calls/Cold Email #

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 12:04 PM PST

    Who am I

    I currently work as an Enterprise, Information, Solution, or Application Architect depending on the need; for large financial institutions. I have worked in this capacity for the past 15 years.

    I started out as a Systems Administrator and progressed through my career as a systems programmer, developer, development manager and finally as an architect. As I approach the latter part of my career, I would like to transition from being a wantrepreneur to becoming a true entrepreneur.

    I strongly believe that well-defined Business and IT architectures can be a game changer for small to mid-size companies without the resources to hire this position in-house. To refine my offerings, I am considering cold calling/cold-emailing target business' to identify pain points that I can resolve through architecture and design. I will use their answers to sharpen my offerings to this group of potential customers.

    What I need from you.

    I am seeking your input on the quality and the scope of an open-ended informational survey for target customers.

    1. Are the questions relevant? Do they surface the right issues?
    2. Are they complete? Do they properly span the scope of concerns for the business?
    3. Are they properly scoped? Do they address concerns at the decision making levels of the company?
    4. Have I missed anything I should have asked?

    Also, since some members of this subreddit fall into my target audience; would you be amenable to filling it out and sending it to me via private message.

    I promise to anonymize and summarize results for the group.

    The Questions

    I can identify all the stakeholders whose actions affect my business (Yes/No)

    Comments:

    For each stakeholder identified, I know how their actions affect my business. (Yes/No)

    Comments:

    For each stakeholder action, I have a business process, decomposed into tasks to address the action (Yes/No)

    Comments:

    Each Business Task is clearly broken up into Business Requirements to make it happen (Yes/No)

    Comments:

    I know the Business Capabilities I need to satisfy my Business Requirements (Yes/No)

    Comments:

    I know which Applications/Software provide the Business Capabilities I need (Yes/No)

    Comments:

    I have a complete list of all Applications/Software I use in my business (Yes/No)

    Comments:

    I am confident that my Applications and Information are protected against bad actors who wish to cause my company harm (Yes/No)

    Comments:

    I protect my data at rest and in motion (Yes/No)

    Comments:

    I understand how information flows through my company from creation, through fulfillment and ultimately through archiving (Yes/No)

    Comments:

    I know where the Master Record for all my important data originates and is stored (Yes/No)

    Comments:

    I have a data model that allows me to produce the reports I need to effectively run my business (Yes/No)

    Comments:

    submitted by /u/I_just_read_it
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    Customer Placed $700 order over 1 year ago - now says they never got it. What would you do?

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 11:52 AM PST

    The tracking on it is expired. Order places 14 months ago. It was an international order - which do go missing more than domestic. What would you do?

    submitted by /u/minimaterials
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    How do I tell if my idea is patentable and worth patenting?

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 11:10 AM PST

    With a functioning 3D printed prototype that is in demand, what is my best bet for protecting my intellectual property? How unique does the function of my product have to be from others to qualify?

    How do I tell if it's worth the money and time of trying to patent any part of it patentable, versus just focusing on time to market and market share?

    Can provide specifics if you PM, but my post history should give you an idea of the type of product we are talking about.

    submitted by /u/LockStockGame
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    Anyone sell homemade multi-ingredient products?

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 11:08 AM PST

    It's probably different based on what country you are in but I am in the US.

    For the past few months I have been making my own shower gel from a simple recipe I found online. Aside from being a healthy alternative, I actually like the smell and after shower feel more than other store bought products I have used.

    I'm looking into creating a marketable product out of it and possibly trying to sell it online or in some local retail stores.

    One major component of the shower gel is Castile Liquid Soap which has it's own set of ingredients.

    Legally, you are suppose to list out all of ingredients from most to least used on the package. I can't just list "Castile soap" on the label but I don't know what the percentage of ingredients the Castile soap uses.

    How can I go about listing all of the ingredients?

    submitted by /u/waaaaasp
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    Getting Plenty of Traffic from Instagram. When to Set Up Lookalike Audience?

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 06:55 AM PST

    Hi, I've got a Shopify merchandise store, which I started a week or 2 ago. Since yesterday, I've been working with a pretty big Instagram page (almost 60K followers), and I've been getting plenty of clicks, add-to-carts, and even 2 sales.

    I want to retarget everyone who's been visiting via FB ads. I've gotten 80 visits so far, and I've set up a Custom Audience of 70. Now, I know how to retarget first-time visitors, and I plan to do that with a new shirt design. But, I'm also considering setting up a lookalike audience, too. Problem is, I have no idea when to set up a lookalike audience. Is 70 visitors enough for to create a lookalike audience or should I wait on that and just send a FB ad to my Custom Audience? Thanks in advance!

    submitted by /u/IVYkiwi22
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    Hi! I want to create as much content around sales&marketing on but I want your guys recommendations - the past 30 days, what have been the most challenging issues/probllems you can’t get past in your sales process? As a consultant and content creator I like to know what you all care most about ��

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 10:17 AM PST

    EDIT. I often write and teach about problems I see, FAQ from my consulting work, and experience from being in the trenches but I like hearing from people in industries I am unfamiliar in. I actually want to learn more about medical marijuana tech industry and the marketing side of it.

    From my experience, most entrepreneurs online and students of mine ask me about better cold calling strategies. What else do you guys feel there just isn't enough good advice/content around these days ?

    Appreciate the feedback it helps me serve my audience and a lot of you better 😎💡

    submitted by /u/ajcassata
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    Anybody run CPA offers? PM me

    Posted: 26 Feb 2018 10:09 AM PST
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