• Breaking News

    Saturday, March 31, 2018

    Home Unlabelled Second business for competition Entrepreneur

    Second business for competition Entrepreneur

    March 31, 2018

    Second business for competition Entrepreneur

    Second business for competition

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 06:33 AM PDT

    Say you have one business that has a market cornered. Would it be worth starting a second business in the same niche that sells slightly different products to basically compete with yourself? You would be offering customers two choices but benefiting from both. Am I thinking too much into this? lol

    submitted by /u/indigobud
    [link] [comments]

    Can i work for someone For free?

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 05:40 AM PDT

    Hey guys, I'm Chase I'm 17 years old(19 april I'll turn 18) And i live in The Netherlands.I really want to spend my time on learning, instead of gaming and netflixing i want to do thing that makes me smarter, i dont want to do 9/5 I study International Marketing & Business. I wanted to start with dropshipping but we all know that its not good for long term. So my question is: Can i work for someone on here (Online) for free? so i can learn and be more valuable on the market. Thank you

    submitted by /u/ChaseUnforgotten
    [link] [comments]

    We built a free day rate calculator for those entrepreneurs who offer services...

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 05:14 AM PDT

    I hope this is useful to some people here - we work with a lot of entrepreneurs building their businesses, and see those who offer services struggle to set pricing when it comes to day rates or hourly rates.

    The calculator is here: https://www.whatismydayrate.com and it figures out a profitable day rate regardless of industry. I'd love feedback on it if it's useful to you!

    submitted by /u/mintone
    [link] [comments]

    B2B Entrepreneurs: What are your unconventional ways to grow your business?

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 10:28 AM PDT

    If everyone names 1 good way, we will have a pretty cool list. Here's mine:

    *Target businesses on facebook and send them messages. More often than not they'll refer you to the right person you need to talk to cutting out valuable time of finding a decision maker and reaching more businesses much more quickly.

    submitted by /u/GSMM17
    [link] [comments]

    Taking on free designs to help out Reddit entrepreneurs

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 08:37 AM PDT

    Hi everyone, a while back i posted about taking on certain design projects to help the reddit community. Well, i am offering the same service again. Feel free to send me a PM with your project and we would love to help you out (keep in mind that we cant take on every project). We like to focus on branding for this selection round.

    submitted by /u/redfirm
    [link] [comments]

    I can't see myself working a 9-5...

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 12:03 PM PDT

    If you're the type of person who is saying this, understand what it means. Understand that growing a startup is not something you just do because you don't want to work 9-5. It's fu**ing much harder than a 9-5.

    If and when you actually do start your company, expect 12-14 hour days just to get your startup off the ground and functioning. A 9-5 job provides safety/security and starting a company is not for everyone. It's not easy to grow something that can supplement the type of income a standard 9-5 job can provide, so expect to struggle financially before you succeed.

    Let's say you do start making some money! Great, you made it! WRONG. Remember how you didn't want to work that 9-5? Everyone on your team didn't want the same thing either. Because of this, you MUST get to the point where everyone can be paid as much as they would typically make in the job market. Trust me, if you don't make enough money within a certain time frame, team members will get frustrated, they'll quit, and your chances of failing just increased 10 fold.

    When you're young, you don't think about the money side of things, but trust me when I tell you, money will be your #1 motivator when your back is up against the wall. If your company isn't making a sufficient amount of money, people WILL want to get "normal" jobs. You might want to as well.

    Okay great, let's say you do make it. The company is making money, everyone is being paid at a normal pay-rate. Now what? It might surprise you, but after all of the hard work and struggles, your day might actually start to look more like a 9-5 job. Everything you were trying to avoid right?! You no longer have to put 12-14 hours a day of work in so you scale back to 8 or 9 hours. You might have people working for you and since you're the boss, you'll want to lead by example and show up when they show up and leave around the same time you do...roughly around 8-9AM to 5-6PM (a typical work day).

    So was it worth it? Of course it was! You built something you can be proud of, you don't work for anyone else, you call the shots, you can have more flexibility in your schedule, your pay-rate will never be capped off, your equity is a valuable asset, and the list goes on and on. The purpose of this post is not to deter you from starting a company. I just want a lot of you guys to understand that when you say you can't see yourself working a 9-5, you need to realize what that means. Getting away from a 9-5 job is a short-term struggle, but can be a long-term endeavor.

    Disclaimer - This post is not directed towards the drop shippers, affiliate marketers, eCommerce millionaires who only work 2 hours a day making a million dollars a month.

    submitted by /u/Millionaire_
    [link] [comments]

    Just got accepted into Amazon merch! Any Horror stories/tips?

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 10:28 AM PDT

    So I've been using red bubble to sell shirts for the past 9 months, no huge sales(enough to pay my spotify/netflix), no marketing

    Looking to port my designs over to merch, but should I put some money into marketing?

    I'm positive everything but my time so far, I've created all my designs myself, and used redbubble since I'm a little short on space to sell shirts from inventory

    submitted by /u/aliencamoose
    [link] [comments]

    I made a tool that lets you lookup any company and see all their employees, photos, emails, position, location, etc. w/ exports and integrations?

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 12:13 PM PDT

    I built it for my own needs, and wanted to ask if any of y'all have a use for it. You can basically type in any company and it'll automatically pull up all of it's employees, their emails, and other details. You can filter by department, position, etc.

    You can then either download your search results as CSV, or automatically send them to your CRM as leads, or wherever.

    Basically 1 tool for end-to-end prospecting - I'm charging around 20 bucks a month for unlimited usage, hit me up if you're interested :)

    submitted by /u/fatalecs
    [link] [comments]

    The 6 Steps I Used to Sell Over 215,300 Fitness eBooks in 3 Years

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 11:34 AM PDT

    I've been making a full time, VERY good living online since 2001.

    And I can say for sure, there are MANY different ways to make money.

    Amazon, Facebook, Affiliate sales, Services, Kindle books, the list goes on and on.

    The 6 steps below are the ones I've used, again and again, to do VERY well. I used these same 6 steps to release my first ever fitness eBook back in 2002, and they are the same steps I used to release an eBook I wrote last week.

    This is NOT meant to be a complete guide, but rather it just gives you a brief outline of what I did, and what I still do today.

    You can use these steps to launch just about any business online... it is not just for eBooks.

    I'm not suggesting you'll make any money, but I CAN say that if you follow these 6 steps, the likelihood you will increases GREATLY.

    Again, this is not the ONLY way as I'm sure folks here have done better, made more, and did it faster and easier.

    All I know is, if you're stuck... these 6 steps can help you get unstuck.

    Step 1: Find LOTS of People & Help them Solve a BIG Problem

    I've learned that the true secret to making money online is helping a LOT of people solve a painful problem that's really affecting their lives and their happiness.

    Make sure there's a lot of people LOOKING for a solution. Then set out to PROVE you can help them. I'll show you how to do that in the steps below.

    Problems, wants, desires are ALL potential markets that are profitable.

    So if you want to make money online, start trying to HELP as many people get what they want.

    This is why the "make money" niche, sex, relationships, weight loss, health, and dating markets will always sell well and make business owners money.

    These are markets where people continue to have problems they want to solve or at least get help with.

    And many of these niches?

    The need keeps popping up, over and over.

    In other words, "sex" is a very profitable niche.

    Why? Because the demand never goes away... so neither does the chance to make money selling to that niche, and others like it.

    I'll take it a step further: Target problems in which people spend a lot of money to solve and are already doing it. Don't start selling a product if there's no other successful people doing it.

    It could mean there's market for it or that it's not profitable.

    Piggy back on successful markets or niches and just try to make a better product. Make it faster/cheaper/stronger/more durable.

    The questions I ask myself when creating a new product are...

    1. Is there a large enough group of people looking for a solution?
    2. Are these people easily reached?
    3. Are there already products selling well?
    4. Can I find a new and better hook?
    5. Is there repeat business potential (memberships, supplements)
    6. Can you offer complimentary products (paid newsletter that sells vitamins)

    If I can answer "Yes" to all of these, it's a good market.

    Step 2: Give Away Something that PROVES You Can Help

    The secret sauce that has worked really well for me is to be helpful enough in my marketing and content... it ATTRACTS people who want to buy.

    I do that by first giving away valuable information that prospects can use right away to get a quick win or rapid result they can see or FEEL.

    When it works and they get the desired results they want… there's a very good chance that prospects will come to their own conclusion that YOU and your product are the solution to the problem they want to get rid of.

    When you help someone first, without even asking for money, you've gone from "pain in the ass marketer" to a trusted resource.

    I've been doing this for over 19 years now. I give away something so valuable, the prospect sees a quick win or a result and then wants to come and buy or hire me.

    Of course, you can't give away everything you have… but you CAN give away some advice that helps prospects see SOMETHING that moves them closer to a desired result.

    I can assure you, if you do, you'll be seen as someone who cares for them and has their best interests at heart. You'll be unlike other marketers who just try to sell all the time.

    And by offering up something of value, you can get their email address and build a quality relationship that can last years.

    Think of your free report as the key that unlocks the purchase of the full priced product.

    Also, with the free report, you trigger the law of Reciprocity in which your prospects will feel almost compelled to do something nice in return for you.

    Step 3: Promote Your Free Report/Get Traffic

    Let me tell you from personal experience… the only way to make a lot of money online is by getting a lot of traffic.

    You'll never make a decent income if people aren't seeing what you're selling.

    Google ads, Facebook, forums, email marketing, solos ads, press releases, interviews, media buys, offline marketing, JV's, etc... you need to work hard at promoting your free offer.

    Twitter, Linked In, Affiliates, Media Buys, Solo ads, Bing, Email list buys, article marketing, and more.

    These days, to get traffic, you'll get the most from Google Adwords, organic SEO on Google, Facebook ads, and media buys.

    Step 4: Lead them to the Solution to their Problem

    Once you've given them valuable insight with your free report , you want to either create a product that solves their biggest problem or point them towards one, as an affiliate.

    You do NOT have to own the product to do very well online, you can do just fine as an affiliate.

    Think of the biggest, most painful problem in your target market and make sure you have a product to solve that.

    When creating your product… think of your target market's BIG problem and write a solution to solve it. If it comes out to 30 pages, so what?

    Each chapter can offer an exact step that helps solve the one big problem or each chapter can be written to solve individual problems the prospect has.

    Either way, just create your program so it offers a solution and gives the steps to solve the problem.

    Or, become an affiliate and promote products you know will help your prospects.

    "Product creation" is nothing more than offering a solution to their BIG problem. You can do it in video, audio, written, or a combo.

    Don't spend years creating your product because the money is NOT in the product.

    The money is in the marketing. So focus on marketing it anywhere you can.

    You can mention your full length product at the end of your free report, on a Thank you page after someone opts in to get the report, and you can mention it in the emails you use to deliver the free report.

    Step 5: Send Prospects to a Persuasive Sales Letter that Promotes the Full Product

    You can create a million dollar business with just a few pages on your website.

    I know, because I've done it and dozens of colleagues have as well.

    Using sales copy that persuades visitors to invest in your product... you can use the free report, download page, and emails to do the pre-selling.

    If you have a lot of products that complement each other, you can set up what's called a Sales Funnel to offer your different products to the leads who come through.

    But for the most part, the action takes place with your opt in page/squeeze page and sales page, which you can send people to once they opt in to get that report.

    After they fill in their name/email to get your freebie... you send them to a thank you page that persuades people, right then and there, to solve that painful problem they have.

    Again, whether it's a sales page, video sales letter, or download page... come up with a good hook which captures attention and have your sales page offer benefits and a solution.

    People don't buy products... they buy results and solutions. So focus on the problem and use sales copy to PROVE you have the unique solution that's better and different than anything else.

    Step 6: Rinse and Repeat to Build a List of Customers

    When someone buys one of my books, courses, or programs... they're sent to a download page that has another opt in box.

    I ask them to enter their name and email address to get their bonuses immediately emailed to them.

    This way, I can put them onto a customer list. I treat this list like gold because that's what it's worth. Over time, this list can become your biggest asset that brings you in a recurring, predictable income.

    There were times when I'd send out an email to my customer list, recommending a certain product and I'd earn a LOT in affiliate commissions. Like, what I used to make in a month at a job.

    That's why you want to build an email list of customers… because if you treat them right and help them get what they want... they'll help YOU reach your goals.

    Do not email a bunch of sales pitches to your list.... send them incredible, life-changing information often.

    Occasionally you can recommend a product... either yours or an affiliate product.

    For me, it all started by selling a fitness eBook… then I'd sell supplements, workout reviews, webinars, seminars, other fitness programs to my initial eBook buyers.

    But again, only sell occasionally and make sure it's something of the highest quality that will help them reach their goals.

    Over time, if you did nothing else but create products to continually sell to your ever- growing customer list… you have the makings of a 7-figure business.

    There you have the 6 steps I've used to sell hundreds of thousands of my eBooks online.

    I hope these steps help make it a little bit clearer as to what's needed in order to sell online.

    If you have any questions at all about these steps, shoot me a PM and I'll do my best to answer and clarify things.

    Thanks for reading!

    submitted by /u/shawnlebrun
    [link] [comments]

    Con artist potentially working for my dad. Everyone sees it but him. How valuable is an internet marketing expert?

    Posted: 30 Mar 2018 10:31 PM PDT

    The guy was being paid $22/hr. He just bullied my dad into giving him an extra $10,000 per year. My dad has always had a problem against strong personalities. Let's put that aside because theirs nothing I can do about it and focus on whether or not this guy is as valuable as he says he is.

    He doesn't really know any computer programming. He just seems to know how to use a bunch of internet based "tools" like spyFu and google adwords. Every problem that comes up, he knows a tool or a platform that solves it.

    He has contacts for things like scraping, but my dad ends up paying his contact to do it rather than him, so let's keep that in mind.

    Also, the guy has spent 6 months developing an e commerce website. He initially said it would be done in a month, but every couple of weeks there's a new setback. This is the thing that screams "con artist" the most to me.

    Without giving too much away, my dad has a PhD and it's not in business. He's had two major setbacks in his career and both times it had to do with a strong willed employee basically taking over. I feel like he's got his third setback and he doesn't even know it.

    There's actually more to it than this, but I think the only thing I can put in front of my dad that would get him to fire this guy is proof that he's not worth $30+/hr and he can find someone else to develop his auxiliary businesses.

    My dad says the reason he doesn't fire "This jackass" is because he thinks the guy is going to make him a lot of money. My personal feeling is that my dad is easily won over by arrogance and that's what's happening here.

    If I'm wrong, tell me I'm wrong. I don't know the first thing about internet marketing, and maybe the guy is worth $30/hr, maybe it takes 6 months to develop a website, and maybe knowing how to use spyFu and adwords is valuable. I just get a strong feeling in my gut the the man is a con artist.

    submitted by /u/zeusophobia1
    [link] [comments]

    Business Model That Can Start With Little To No Capital (Beginners)

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 08:17 AM PDT

    EDIT: Sorry, I messed up the title.

    I made 3 videos covering this, you can watch them here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN2Dht1U9S4

    This answer is supplemental to the videos, so you can both read and watch.

    Before we start, a few assumptions:

    You are currently interested in becoming an entrepreneur, and you want to start a business.

    The problem you are trying to solve right now is that you want to determine what business to start.

    You also may not necessarily have the money, but you do have enough time that you can put into your business. If you don't, I would recommend considering looking into starting a business when you have either time or money/capital. You can't start a business without either of those resources.

    BUSINESS MODEL YOU SHOULD CONSIDER

    My recommendation is to start an affiliate marketing business. Affiliate marketing business is just like a traditional business except you don't have to deal with manufacturing, shipping, handling, fulfilling the product, customer support, etc.

    That will take out most of the costs associated with starting a business. Affiliate marketing is done over the Internet, so you don't need an office or any physical location for your business which is usually an additional expense.

    HOW THE BUSINESS MODEL WORKS

    Your job as an affiliate marketer is to market and advertise already existing products. Here's how it works in a nutshell.

    You select a market you want to be in. Then you find a company that is already selling products that you want to sell and one that also offers an affiliate program which allows others (businesses and individuals) to market and advertise their products in exchange for a commission (percentage of a sale, e.g., 10-50%).

    There are probably tens of thousands of such companies, Amazon (sell any physical product), Clickbank (digital products), and many more, etc. (I know some really good companies – that I am affiliated with – that offer USD $1000 in commissions per sale)

    Next, you sign up with them as an affiliate and you begin your marketing their products. There are multiple ways to attract customers (drive traffic), some of them include:

    • Building a website and ranking it in google

    • Building a following/audience on social media like Facebook and Twitter

    • Running paid ads on the internet, networking and collaborating with others in order to get in front of each others audiences, etc. (I will be making educational videos on YouTube teaching the aforementioned things in the near future)

    Ultimately, when your prospective customers click on your unique link (issued by the affiliate program) that takes them to the company which sells the product, you will be attributed a commission for each sale (typically 10-50%).

    All the manufacturing, inventory, shipping and so on, will be taken care of by the company that you are being an affiliate for.

    In short, your job is to:

    • Select products to market

    • Market the products / attract customers

    • Receive commissions

    • Let the other company do all the leg work, e.g., handling orders, shipping, manufacturing, customer support, etc.

    CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING THE BUSINESS MODEL

    Regardless of what type of business you want to start, there are certain criteria you have to consider when deciding on the business that you want to start:

    • Likelihood of achieving your target revenue goals

    • Market demand for the product

    • Ability to make a quality product

    • Passion for the market, business or industry

    • The size of the financial investment required to reach the point of profitability – you don't have a lot of money to burn, so you need to begin generating profit as fast as possible

    • The size of the financial investment required to achieve target revenue goals – you don't have a whole lot of money in the first place, you need something to live off of

    • Percentage of revenue generated that is profit after all business expenses

    • The cost of producing/manufacturing a product

    • The size of the financial loss if the business has to be closed pre-maturely, e.g., because it is not working out, not how envisioned, etc.

    • Probability of making costly mistakes when starting a business, e.g., making inappropriate purchases, losing money on poor business practices, etc.

    ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE BUSINESS MODEL

    Now I'm going to "evaluate" the affiliate marketing business model for you, each criterion at a time. This is so that you would better understand the advantages and disadvantages of the model.

    Likelihood of achieving your target revenue goal

    For comparison a traditional business requires education on manufacturing, inventory, hiring, handling returns, customer support, etc. As you can imagine there are quite a few moving parts and things that can go wrong that can lead to failure.

    When running an affiliate marketing business there's less training and education for you to take on because you're "partnering up" (not literally) with a company that manufactures it's own products, has its own customer support, has its own staff, and holds its own inventory.

    The end result is you have fewer things to take care of, fewer moving parts in your business, fewer things that can go wrong that can lead to failure to achieve your revenue goals.

    Market demand for the product

    A traditional business requires comprehensive market research that you will have to conduct on your own if you are strapped for cash (or pay and hire somebody to do it for you).

    In affiliate marketing, you only need to pick an already existing product that has lots of demand already. The company that you are promoting has already done all the research, otherwise they would not be in business.

    Ability to make a quality product

    Traditional business: proper market research and a thorough understanding of your market's needs is a must if you want to appeal to your market's needs with surgical precision.

    Products that deliver exactly what the market wants have a higher perceived value (hint: you can charge more for the product). Moreover, let's not forget that a product has to manufactured using good manufacturing practices in order to achieve high quality.

    In contrast, in affiliate marketing, your only concern is researching and selecting a quality product to promote. And this you can figure out by checking how well existing products (ones that you can affiliate market) are received by customers, e.g., reviews, testimonials, popularity, etc.

    For example, if you find that a particular pair of Nike shoes are in high demand, maybe you could identify an opportunity reach a particular market as an affiliate for those shoes.

    Apparently, Nike has an affiliate program and this means you wouldn't need to deal with opening an expensive physical store, deal with the costs of holding inventory just so you sell those shoes.

    Passion for the market, business or industry

    An affiliate marketing business you can be started in a fairly large number of industries and markets that you are passionate about, as there are quite a few brands and companies that are willing to have affiliates drive additional sales for them.

    The size of the financial investment required to reach the point of profitability

    It often takes anywhere from a couple of thousand up to a few hundred thousand US dollars to get a traditional business started, whereas one could start an affiliate marketing anywhere form ZERO (for free) up to a few thousand dollars (if paid advertising is used).

    The size of the financial investment required to achieve target revenue goals

    Traditional business like stores, restaurants, factories usually operate at a loss for some time incurring hundreds of thousands or in some cases even millions until they turn their first profits let alone achieve their target revenue goals.

    As far as affiliate marketing goes, as long as you not using any paid advertising, then it is possible to bring the initial investment down to ZERO. One caveat though, the process of getting to your revenue goals will be slow, it can take many months and years.

    Conversely, if you are indeed using paid advertisements then the initial investment could be up to a few thousand US dollars.

    Percentage of revenue generated that is profit after all business expenses

    As an affiliate, you can be making anywhere from 5%-10% for physical goods, and 10%-75% for digital products like training & education, software, etc.

    I have made a video explaining this in greater detail (see PART 2, but you should also watch PART 1 in order to see the "big picture" of what I'm explaining).

    I also realize that this answer is already running really long (1700 words, I apologize for that, but this is what happens when I get into the state of flow), so if you are interested in exploring a couple more criteria against which I evaluate affiliate marketing and how it compares to a traditional business see the videos above.

    Here are a few examples of criteria that are covered in the videos (there are obviously more):

    • The cost of producing/manufacturing a product*

    • The financial loss if the business has to be closed pre-maturely, e.g., because it is not working out, not how envisioned, etc.*

    • Probability of making costly mistakes when starting a business, e.g., making inappropriate purchases, losing money on poor business practices, etc.*

    WHY YOU SHOULD START WITH AFFILIATE MARKETING FIRST

    My recommendation is to start with affiliate marketing if you are beginner entrepreneur. Start small and scale big only when you find what products are selling like hot-cakes.

    Try selling your competitors products first and see if you even have the skill to sell that type of product. You will have an opportunity gather feedback from your customers by then you will have plenty of information on what's working and what is not and how to improve the product in order to get ahead of the competition.

    Begin generating revenue by starting with the affiliate marketing business model. You always later branch out into other markets or replace the affiliate products with your own.

    3 IDEAS FOR MARKETS YOU CAN PURSUE WITH AFFILIATE MARKETING

    1. Learn everything about maintaining good health and weight management and then teach others. The world population does not seem to be getting slimmer and healthier. You could become an affiliate for high-quality online courses, physical products such as blenders (for juicing, making healthy dishes, etc.), as well as nutritional supplements, Omega 3, Vitamin D, etc. (people don't get enough omega 3's and vitamin D).

    2. Another idea: Learn how to do marketing properly and then teach others to do it as well. Robots and automation are coming, help others develop the necessary skills in order to survive an era of A.I. and automation and you will be rewarded for helping the world make the transition smoother.

    3. If you are into dogs, start a blog teaching dog owners how to take of their dogs. Dog owners are in need of help and they are willing to try solutions even if they cost money.

    CONTINUE LEARNING

    If you would like to get an overview (the big picture) of how an affiliate marketing business model works, see

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQoF6gzF8Ts.

    I hope you find my answer helpful. Best of luck!

    submitted by /u/Upvancing
    [link] [comments]

    18 y/o in large city looking to pivot to a service-based business - Where to start?

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 11:50 AM PDT

    Hey guys, confused 18 y/o here. For the past three years, I've done just about everything there is to do on Instagram (selling, buying, explore page, rounds, etc), as well as freelance copywriting, graphic design and video editing. I've made about $6000 to date through this. I'm at a professional level of Instagram management and copywriting, but on a more intermediate-level for the other two skills.

    I'm now stuck on how to scale. The inner Instagram business has become highly saturated and requires a massive amount of effort for little reward, and I've had a hard time finding clients for remote freelance work (copywriting is insanely competitive and my design/editing skills aren't up to par). I need something local and scalable.

    I've read hundreds of posts on here and the general consensus seems to be that the most solid, lucrative business model is a service-based business on a monthly retainer. I have the motivation and dedication to take this on, but I honestly have no idea how to reach potential clients! I'm also in my last year of high school, which I feel will be an obstacle (I've never revealed age to remote freelance clients).

    I live in a large city (Vancouver, Canada) with high rent prices and am not sure who or where to target for an Instagram-management/copywriting/content-creation service.

    Has anyone done this model successfully in a large city?

    TL;DR - How do I reach clients for monthly Instagram/Writing/Content services in a big city?

    submitted by /u/e_lvn
    [link] [comments]

    17 year old looking for some advice

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 10:01 AM PDT

    Hi everyone, I'm 17 years old from the UK and I am 100% positive that I want to become an entrepreneur. The idea of a 9-5 is something I can't see myself being able to live with.

    My problem is, I feel like I have a lot of motivation but just don't know what to put it into. I've found that in the past I struggle to stay motivated with things that I don't at least somewhat enjoy.

    Currently, I am running a YouTube channel with a friend and, while it's growing at a nice rate, it takes about 2 hours of my time each day to maintain. This leaves me sitting around procrastinating on YouTube or playing video games for the remaining ~8 hours of the day.

    I feel like I need to start something that I have an interest in to be able to consistently work on it at a standard that I am happy with. However my interests really only go as far as video games and football (soccer). Needless to say, they are both highly saturated niches that I would probably need some capital to invest if I even want a chance of it working out.

    Maybe it's analysis paralysis. Maybe I think I am motivated but in reality, when it comes to actually executing the ideas, I'm not. I don't really know where to turn at the moment and was wondering if anyone has gone through anything similar to this. Thanks in advance.

    submitted by /u/Kruciial
    [link] [comments]

    Why don't coffee shop owners capitalize on those who work from cafes?

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 01:38 PM PDT

    I'm curious if there is a way for a coffee shop to capitalize on those of us who use cafes to work out of. Are there cafes that already do this? Would love to hear your guys' thoughts on this.

    submitted by /u/digitalnomad2017
    [link] [comments]

    Just Landed a $3.5M funding at a $15M valuation. AMA

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 01:34 PM PDT

    Is there a service that will monitor and protect your physical IP?

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 01:18 PM PDT

    I want to protect my physical products both in the US and in China. Is there a company that monitors and helps take down products that infringe on my intellectual property? I recently had an issue where before I created an item from scratch with a factory in China. Before I even received my first order there was a company selling it on Amazon. Needless to say, I'm out of my mind.

    submitted by /u/mjaviss
    [link] [comments]

    How to Price a New Service/Product

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 09:14 AM PDT

    (the same article with medium formatting https://blog.refineri.co.uk/how-to-price-a-new-service-product-dcbfbccf00cf - I really suggest reading this one on blog format because of the references to little charts on the side, but it should work here as well)

    Life is a little bit harder for the ones on the front-lines. If you are someone who is innovating on new stuff rather than imitating or refining existing ones, you'll have more decisions on your hands, with much less information to make them. And unfortunately, one of the hardest of these critical decisions is, you've guessed it, settling on a price for your service or product. Doing this when entering a traditional market with established competitors might be relatively easy, especially if you are a stable player with well-defined practices. But what if you are trying to create a market instead of entering one? What if competitive pricing is out of the question? What's left to help you decide what to charge people then?

    Some people would say pricing is more art than science and that is true in a way. But it doesn't mean it's impossible to make it more sciency. Over the course of this article, that's what we'll try to do. By asking ourselves a few questions that will increasingly narrow our ranges, we will create a simplified pricing model together. Hopefully, by the end of it, there will be much less space for artistic license.

    A Simple Pricing Model

    It is the empty canvas with the grey background on the side. Yes, it's a little too simple for the moment, but I heard good things about virtues of starting things and adding stuff to it should be easy enough. For starters, we can look for some hard boundaries for the values that we're after. Limits that don't make any sense to go beyond in any case. It would be a sensible starting point for our model, and calculating those should be quite simple with questions that have objective answers. From there, we could complicate things by getting more subjective as much as we wish.

    Upper Limit

    This is the reddish border that we shouldn't cross. The one that would make people go "Screw that!" when we do. Some people approach this with profit margins in mind. That's almost always a bad idea because people's impression of a product and its costs to you mostly do not correlate. You can charge as much as your customers willing to pay and to have a meaningful sense of how much that is you need to ask yourself these two questions:

    • How much money are you saving them? Selling anything, including ideas, most of the time is about the value proposition. You should know your product and what kind of benefits it provides better than anyone. Try to translate all that value into currency, so that it's clear as day to anyone who considers buying. How much you are going to save on their operational costs, how much more efficient they are going to be, and how it will affect their bottom line in total? In the end, if a service costing you a thousand dollars to provide, helps your customers more than a million with their finances, you'll see that you could easily charge a million, and people would prefer to pay you that than not.

    • How much worth they are putting on the need: Sometimes the service you provide doesn't save money but satiates needs like hunger, entertainment, social status, or combination of those. Research time, if that's the case. You need to know your target market a little bit better. Try to find out how much money they are willing to spend on services that satisfy the same needs. Social status is a tricky one here because it could rise with your price. More you charge for a diamond, more dopamine for the people that have it weirdly.

    That was easy. Unless you were considering giving money to your customers, we just limited the infinite possible answers to a finite set. That's good!

    Lower Limit

    Now if only we knew where our lower border is standing too. That greenish one that we should definitely cross on average throughout our financial plan. The one that would make our investors go "Screw that!" when we don't. For that, we have two fundamental questions to answer once again.

    • What's cost of your product to you? Sounds simple right? Although unfortunately, this isn't as straightforward as it sounds. Of course, we have the initial costs to create the thing. But then we also have the ongoing costs, and the cost of goods sold that's dependant on each sale for every kind of product. So your total costs depend on how long a game you're playing in your financial plans. Decisions, decisions.

    • How big is your target market?: This one is straightforward though. How many customers are there that could buy your product? Do you have something niche on your hands, or are your going for mass appeal? The problems you solve could only exist for five companies in the world in total, but you could also be targeting every hungry student in your neighbourhood. Whatever the case, find the approximate number of your potential customers.

    Divide the former answer with the latter, and voila, we now have our lower limit. Yes, cost of goods sold will make this a little bit more complicated than a simple division, but let's keep it simple. On average we can't go lower than this or we'd, sadly, go bankrupt.

    Going over some examples should make this more palpable: There are 50 or so AAA game studios in the world. So a graphics engine targeting those has to be priced around $1.000.000 like CryEngine used to do to be profitable. On the other hand, a business intelligence software targeting enterprise companies, which there are 50 thousand of them, usually charges around $20.000. At the other end of the spectrum, Netflix, which has a possible customer base of around 500 million people, could get away with charging as low as $5 a month, even though the cost of operating it is probably higher than all of them.

    Before going further, obviously, if your lower limit is higher than your upper limit, well, don't do this. Bad venture. Sad. You'd be bankrupt. Not feasible.

    Price is a Time Function

    This might be unexpected, but what we're trying to decide on is a function, not a constant. We have to be aware that price is something dynamic that is changing with time. It could and probably should differ along various phases of projected timeline for your product. So to correctly reflect this in our chart, let's put some axes on it. Yes, those bold borders that we just outlined could change over time as well, but we'll neglect that for the clarity of our chart.

    Now finally, to chart a meaningful pricing line between these boundaries, we need to go over the factors that could affect the wanted y-axis at specific points in time.

    Pricing Factors

    There are many, sometimes conflicting, reasons that can guide you in directions regarding price. These might affect you differently in different phases of your product. I'm going to list four specific questions that should help you find out some of those. Depending on the circumstances of your venture and properties of your product, you'll have to identify your situation and plot your price accordingly.

    • Will the market penetration be easy? Do you have the resources to create market dominance immediately? Maybe you've already established necessities such as the supply-chain structure or marketing channels to get your product into the hands of your customers. If this is the case, you'll have the opportunity to start with a steep pricing point. But maybe, customer habits are working against you, and you need brand awareness, customer trust, or even user content until you're there. If you're expecting hardship penetrating the market, lowering your price is one of the most effective tools in your box

    • How long can you sustain a loss? How much cash you have, how much investment can you find, and how much time you have until you need to settle your debts? Lots of big players today operated at a loss (some still do) for years and survived with investments. A little loss today with a lower price point today might mean lots of revenue down the road.

    • Are you a risk seeker or risk-averse? Not everything is about your product; some things are about just you. How ambitious are you and how close can you get to the edge until you're growing at a rate that satisfies you? If you want to outpace everyone by continually undercutting your opponents' prices until they're no more, so you'll finally show the world that Jeff Bezos evil laugh you've been practising every night, why not go lower?

    • How high is the barrier to entry? Some companies have some awesome trade secrets and avoidable patents. Some managed to create an impenetrable unethical monopoly, so they have some time until their competitors emerge. They are the ones that can get away with charging high prices much longer than others. But if your big successful idea was selling potato chips in a cup, and now the wolves are coming for your profits at full force, you may have to cut your prices at some point sadly.

    So it's done! After we apply these factors, we finally have our completed pricing chart. Looks simple enough. Now, let's give examples of two types of products or services that could follow different paths, so everything makes a little bit more sense.

    Pricing Examples

    Our first product is a dazzler. It's from a company with so many resources that it was even on the evening news when it debuted. It caught the eyes of its customers who have no idea of its costs and charged a high price for a long time. Or it was something like a VR headset, which had high initial R&D costs, but its enthusiastic early adopters were willing to pay for that anyway. But over time, as its competitors emerged sniffing the money, and as its on-going costs are going down, it has gone cheaper and cheaper.

    The second product is a late bloomer. This one had to start low until its value proposition reached its potential because it depends on customer-generated content. Or it could be that its business model has raised some eyebrows and they need to put some known brands in their customer portfolio to get going. Maybe it was even a free service in the early days, though at some point, everything went right and customers start flocking to it by themselves. Consequently, they raised their prices bit by bit. This could be that free club membership so hip now that you need to put some good money to get in.

    Don't be afraid to start low because of retention problems. You could always raise prices only with just your new customers as your base grows. In an exponential growth curve, they will continuously be the bulk of your total sales.

    Other Factors

    I know I said the chart is completed. But there are a few more important details that I'd like to mention that could help you get this right before I wrap up.

    Localization

    If the primary factor in your price is the worth your customers are putting in, and not your costs, almost always localise the price because that worth will fluctuate with their buying power.

    Segmentation

    Similarly, customers in the same locale could also have different reactions to your price based on their segments. That might be the reason Windows Ultimate and Home editions have such varying price points, even though they are more or less the same.

    Don't be afraid to change your plans

    Be on the constant lookout because circumstances change. Even if they don't, you could always try different price spikes to gauge your customer's response. Who knows maybe you could find something that works better for you.

    Wrapping up

    There are other monetisation methods to go through. Also, pricing is tightly coupled with marketing, so promotions and the way you disclose your prices are relevant subjects too. But I'm feeling like we have covered the basics on this article, and I really hope this works for you as a concise introduction to the topic. Cheers!

    submitted by /u/fakalitt
    [link] [comments]

    I'm currently making about 1200$/month on the side running popup campaigns - What is the best way to scale now?

    Posted: 30 Mar 2018 03:32 PM PDT

    Hi guys,

    So basically I've been teaching myself internet marketing while being a fulltime student. By reading a lot of material online and trying out methods and strategies, I've finally found a niche that I was able to turn into a stable profit. You might find it odd, but this niche is essentially running popup ads as marketing for affiliate products and services.

    Let me state that I dislike popup ads as much as the next man, but I don't mind making money with it haha. But I must say that I really enjoy picking out interesting offers, designing a creative popup page for it and then seeing it convert. It's really exciting to see something you have designed to actually work out!

    I have a couple of ads that are turning a profit right now and that just need some tweaking or analysis now and then. I was thinking of innovative ways to scale this "side hustle" into a fulltime business.

    I would love to one day have a small office with employees who I can teach the trade and who can then go out there themselves and find interesting products/services and design ad campaigns around them. But what is the best way to get there? I can keep running parallel ad campaigns myself right now to increase profits to maybe 3-4k/month, essentially making money with my laptop sitting on the toilet. But at some point I would like this to turn into a real business with an office space and employees.

    At what point does it make sense to start hiring people and office space to scale your internet business? I really want to get to that point quickly, but right now it doesn't really feel right to create such overhead. Teaching people to do what I'm doing will be pretty easy though I reckon, there is no doubt in my mind that I can have anyone designing profitable campaigns in no time.

    Are there any internet marketeers out there who have turned their business into a fullblown company and who could maybe give me some guidance with this? I thank you all!

    submitted by /u/cantbelieveitsnotmud
    [link] [comments]

    Need help to improve my Venture Capitalists (VC) list

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 12:30 PM PDT

    Hello,

    I've been working on a Venture Capitalists (VC) list for a while. It's a simple spreadsheet. I started making it as I've seen a lot of questions regarding VC list on Quora.

    With this list I want to help startup Founders to quickly find and contact Venture Capitalists. Currently the list has following columns

    • Venture Capitalists (Partner) Name
    • Venture Firm Name
    • Firm Overview
    • Firm Investment Stage
    • Firm Location
    • VC (Partner) Email
    • About Partner (something like www (.) vcfirm (.) com/partners/partnername). Got Idea?
    • VC Location
    • VC Social Links

    I want to improve it as there must be more easy, quick and effective way to find right Venture Capitalists and learn more about them. I've got some ideas but I want know yours.

    I'm really looking forward for your responses. Help me to create a better list your response will help to kill my doubts.

    Thank you

    submitted by /u/pankmahar
    [link] [comments]

    I am 17 years old and I am making 3k atleast per month with youtube, what should I do next?

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 06:15 AM PDT

    Hello, As I mentioned above, I am looking for a way to expand my business and use the money I am getting from youtube to open and build a business in the internet world.

    submitted by /u/Zed_cze
    [link] [comments]

    What's a good book to read about Jack Ma?

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 11:41 AM PDT

    I've always found his wisdom very inspiring and meaningful. Has anyone read any books that includes his advice, management style, life stories, etc?

    submitted by /u/bijansha
    [link] [comments]

    Trying to get a patent for a design

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 11:37 AM PDT

    I'm looking for anything that might help me smooth out the process for getting a provisional patent. How long does it take? Do I really need a lawyer? Do I need a design?

    submitted by /u/romandagreat
    [link] [comments]

    Can you really make money with a pressure washing business?

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 05:32 AM PDT

    I see people post on here and other subreddits saying they're making 6 figures pressure washing, I just can't understand it. You can buy a pressure washer for less than £100 which will do a decent job on a driveway, fence etc, so why would somebody pay £100s to get it done professionally? Obviously a professional would do a better job, but still. Perhaps I'm missing something... Thanks

    submitted by /u/Kitchenbasin
    [link] [comments]

    How to contact a factory / manufacture your own product?

    Posted: 31 Mar 2018 11:27 AM PDT

    Hello, I am starting a webshop for a unique niche, and I would like to make a stuffed animal for it.

    How would I find someone that can manufacture those in a good manner?

    submitted by /u/ACRIMSat
    [link] [comments]
    Read more
    at

    No comments:

    Post a Comment