Thank you Thursday! - (March 08, 2018) Entrepreneur |
- Thank you Thursday! - (March 08, 2018)
- Buying property, renting to students
- I run a Successful B2B lead gen company, using mostly cold email outreach. Is there interest in a live Q/A session?
- Anyone know of blogs or books that dive into detailed CASE STUDIES of regular people starting businesses, growing their wealth, and investing?
- How isolation in the Amazon Jungle lead to launching an ethical fashion Brand
- Best easy-to-use project/lead management system?
- Good product manager/bad product manager, but for design and engineering
- My first gig is not what I expected. Do I still take the work?
- How do you silence YOUR OWN voices of DOUBT when you are developing a STARTUP?
- How tight are you on quality control?
- Unusual web activity
- PinAround: Starting a Successful Business from Sweden (at only 21 years old)
- Biggest red flag during a VC pitch?
- I’m interested in international shipping - ideas/tips/advice?
- Need e-commerce entrepreneurs for user interviews.
- What is the most effective sales strategy for a new SaaS startup with a $50/month fee?
- Slate my store please, brownie points to anyone who can make me cry
- Where To Start Testing the Market?
- Mistakes Behind $9,000/Month Selling Puppet Skins
- How to create a landing page on a shoe-string budget - tutorial.
- Freelance copywriters, what data do you ask for from businesses to prove that your copy is actually increasing conversions?
- For those that import supplies 25% tariff tax on Steel 10% tariff tax on Aluminum is being passed.
- Need to find manufacturer of this product
- Female Founders in Austin are currently doing an AMA, check it out!
- What is the best platform to sell coffee online Amazon, Ebay or Shopify?
| Thank you Thursday! - (March 08, 2018) Posted: 08 Mar 2018 05:06 AM PST Your opportunity to thank the /r/Entrepreneur community by offering free stuff, contests, discounts, electronic courses, ebooks and the best deals you know of. Please consolidate such offers here! 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]  |
| Buying property, renting to students Posted: 08 Mar 2018 08:00 AM PST Hi there, I have a distant friend of my parents who mentioned to me a few years back that I should invest in property because of where I live. This guy, without revealing his name, is the husband of one of the former Miss America's and made a fortune through real estate investment. Here are some details: I'm 21 with a slightly above average credit score. I live in a big college town and want to purchase property, such as a duplex or small apartment building, and rent it to college students in the area. This university is very large and very popular here in the United States. What advice can any of you give me to get started? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Mar 2018 08:39 AM PST As the title says, I run a lead generation firm. We specialize in B2B lead generation. I've been in email marketing for 6 years, and 3 years ago decided to start my own practice with a partner. We've learned a lot, and have a lot of tools at our disposal. We figured it might be of some interest to the community to shed some light on best practices, tools available, etc.. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Mar 2018 12:50 PM PST There is no supply shortage of books/blogs on the practices of those who have gained financial freedom through entrepreneurship.
And in these books/blogs you often hear about people who have left corporate grind to build their own small companies. That they had to make sacrifices, they had to leave the security of a bi-weekly paycheck, that real wealth often requires sacrifices today in order for security in the future. But rarely do they ever get into the stories of these people. They'll say, "My friend James runs an online retail company and because of years of hard work is able to take 30 day vacations 4 times a year and manage his business remotely." That's great! But one sentence doesn't really help my brain understand HOW he did it. So my question is this. I want to submerge myself in long, detailed accounts of how normal people (not savant coders built a GPS app that they sold for $3.2b to Apple) pulled themselves out of the middle income rip current. I want 10,000 word articles on every stage they went through. I want to read about how they were sitting at home, tired of their job, tired of not doing shit with their lives, tired of hoping and praying the company they work for doesn't suddenly decide to do a round of lay-offs forcing them to go through 100 interviews. I want to read about their PROCESS in deciding what business they were going to start. Did they talk to friends? Did they talk to family? Did they research online? I want to read about the failures. I want to read about their internal doubts. I want to read about how they budgeted their lives in order to stay above water. I want to know about the specific sacrifices they made. I want to get in the head of these people. I NEED to get in the head of these people. I want a play by play. Not to emulate exactly what they did. I know that no path is exactly the same. I know you can't say, "well this person started a company that surveys land using drones so I'll do that." But I want to understand the REAL process these people went through. I want to know every detail. I feel so often we live in the bubble of our own experiences. I know I do. My dad was an entrepreneur, but not a good one. He made lots of money, but cared more about looking rich than being rich. He never saved, he never budgeted (ironically his consulting business built budgets for real estate developers), he spent the money as soon as it came in, ect. This is the experience my brain looks to when it thinks of entrepreneurship. I want to re-write what it thinks. I want to replace unhealthy examples with healthy examples. [link] [comments]  |
| How isolation in the Amazon Jungle lead to launching an ethical fashion Brand Posted: 08 Mar 2018 12:07 PM PST My name is Will and I'm 38 years old. I recently worked my way around the world after quitting my corporate job in London, UK. Unsatisfied with working for someone else, expensive rent and generally, well, the weather. I went on a search for meaning. I learned to sail as I thought it would be a great way to travel, good for the environment, good for the spirit, good for my wallet. I took some sailing courses and soon found my first volunteer crew position delivering a sailing Yacht across the Mediterranean sea. This progressed to crewing a 100ft, 200 year old Tall Ship (think Pirates of the Caribbean) and then eventually delivering a million pound Catamaran across from Africa to the West Indies, my first transatlantic voyage. From here, I headed to the Amazon Rainforest to learn about Amazonian plant medicine with the Shipibo Tribe and ended up making a film, undergoing months of starvation and isolation as I sought to understand their methods of healing the soul. During this time I realised I wanted to start my own Fashion company. It's amazing how your mind works when you have months of isolation, with only your own thoughts to read. You just hear the same thing after a while… "What do I really WANT out of life". I realised that I wanted these things… The chance to make some good money. The chance to put my own ideas into practice, without the approval of anyone. The chance to make a difference in the world. So I set out to start an ethical fashion brand. I didn't know how I was going to do it, and I hadn't met anyone that ever had. I also had virtually no money, no job, and nowhere to live. I had also contracted MRSA from the unsanitary conditions in the jungle and was extremely sick. I also had a tooth missing and wasn't in a country where I could get any healthcare, (at least on my budget)! I lay in the attic room of my friends uncles, sick but able to use my computer and got to work. I joined entrepreneur groups on facebook, I started a lingerie site, I got better, I decided I didn't want to sell lingerie. I continued to travel, building log cabins in the forest by day, working on my ideas at night, until I fell from a ladder and broke my wrist. I needed to keep a roof over my head so I headed to another place and found a part-time volunteer position as an Airbnb maid. I cleaned rooms by day and worked on my website at night. I met a man who explained to me that I should think about bags. I liked the idea. I wanted the company to be ethical, so I began researching that. Hurricane IRMA threatened to hit and I went to help my sister-in-law at a homeless shelter. I saw how little the women had, I saw they had clothes, and some had jobs, even-though they were homeless. They fought over makeup. It was scarce and they all wanted it because it made them feel like women, amongst all the harsh reality of streetlife. I decided from working in the fashion industry, this could be done. Hundreds of lipsticks and mascaras enter into landfill sites every day, last years models, no way of selling them. I thought that I could work with cosmetics companies and use some of the profits from the company to donate these items to women who would value them. An idea was born. I realised I had all the pieces of the puzzle to put the 3 things I wanted from the jungle into one place. Time passed and I travelled some more, letting the ideas brew together. Eventually I realised, maybe I could do it. I went home and lived with my parents who had a new puppy to keep me amused. 3 months later I launched Zoonibo Fashion. I have no idea if it will work, I hope it will. The idea is strong and my passion is strong and I think that's a good combination. The road is just starting, but it's has already taken many twists and turns. I'm glad I quit that corporate job and took a chance. Hopefully we'll be able to good things. Wish us luck! [link] [comments]  |
| Best easy-to-use project/lead management system? Posted: 08 Mar 2018 09:32 AM PST I have a consulting project going on that involves about a dozen partners from different industries / companies, and our current system on Trello isn't cutting it. We need something more robust, but not Salesforce-robust as I don't have time to set up a full CRM database plus most of the partners are not super technical. I was thinking of looking into Airtable, Basecamp, or maybe Zoho. Has anyone "outgrown" Trello and moved to one of these, or another system that is more feature-filled but without a tremendous level of complication? [link] [comments]  |
| Good product manager/bad product manager, but for design and engineering Posted: 08 Mar 2018 08:54 AM PST Hey everyone at r/entrepreneur. Hope you're all doing well! I'm looking for documents/blog posts/essays/any other useful material that are to design and engineering what Ben Horowitz' "Good Product Manager, Bad Product Manager" is to product. Essentially, foundational reading that you'd not only want people in those roles to read and attempt to embody, but also documentation that you can share across a company and have everyone understand the role as the role is "meant" to be understood. As a product person, I've found that sharing Good PM/Bad PM with non PMs helps them understand what I'm trying to do a bit better, creates a useful framework for them to give me feedback through, and helps them know when/where I'd like them to push me. Any help much appreciated. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| My first gig is not what I expected. Do I still take the work? Posted: 08 Mar 2018 07:34 AM PST This month I started a parking lot litter collection company (ala Cleanlots). Getting some good traction and there is definitely an interest in my area. [link] [comments]  |
| How do you silence YOUR OWN voices of DOUBT when you are developing a STARTUP? Posted: 08 Mar 2018 12:38 PM PST |
| How tight are you on quality control? Posted: 08 Mar 2018 12:07 PM PST Obviously, when anything is custom a number of things can go wrong, and completely redoing something can be a time issue... [issues with suppliers] [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Mar 2018 10:04 AM PST I own an ecommerce store and recently I have noticed a very unusual surgery in web traffic from a small town in Oregon that is driving lots of traffic to my site and has a bounce rate of 100% while sessions are lasting no more than 10 seconds. I am not extremely tech smart so do not know how to deal with this and if it is any bit malicious..? [link] [comments]  |
| PinAround: Starting a Successful Business from Sweden (at only 21 years old) Posted: 08 Mar 2018 06:55 AM PST Pat from Starter Story again. Today, I interviewed Erika Holm who started PinAround, which sells beautiful maps with pins. Erika has a great story and some awesome words of wisdom. Some high level info:
Hope you enjoy: Hello! Who are you and what are you working on?Hello, my name is Erika Holm. I am currently 23 years old and I'm from Sweden. Since I was a kid, I dreamt about being a business owner. In February 2016, my dream came true and I launched PinAround. We produce wall maps with pins in different designs and dimensions. This year we are going from only selling maps to adding a heap of new products to our assortment. In 2017, we made $44,000 USD, with approximate 35% increase in every quarter. What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?I have known since I was a kid that I wanted to own my own business. You know how adults or other kids asked you the question "what do you want to become when you grow up?". The kids usually answered "policeman, popstar, zoo worker, model, Superman, etc." But I always answered, "I want to have my own company." When I was 10, this buy-and-sell website blocket.se launched back in Sweden (similar to craigslist). People put ads up with their contact number and then buyers could call and make an offer/buy it. I saw this as an exceptional opportunity and asked my parents if we could sell items left in our garage. I ended up dealing with people coming over/buying and calling on these ads - as a 10 year old.
I made cookies, soaps and painted pots to sell outside the local supermarket. I got my first job when I was 13 years old, in an ice cream bar way too young to deal with the till and hygiene rules etc. Money has always been a thing that has thrilled me to work hard. I guess my parents did an excellent job teaching my sister and me the value of money. I never just "got" anything by pointing at it, I had to earn it. Another thing that has really thrilled me is traveling and exploring. The quickest way to get out of Sweden (and my boring hometown) was to study abroad in Spain when I was 17 - that's when I caught the travel bug. This is also the time I came up with the idea of pinmaps. After a couple of years of traveling, working on yachts, and living in Australia, I went back to Sweden in November 2015 to start the business. I turned into a cavewoman, it was tough. Where I live, no one really does this kind of stuff, so I had zero support from anyone except my best friend and her mom. People thought that I've gone crazy after 2 years of "mucking around". According to the Swedish "tradition" I should have gone back to university and start my "real life". After four months of a lot of Googling, hard work and several tears I finally launched the webshop. It only contained one map - PinAround The World. Orders started to come in very quickly and I could notice a huge interest in the product. To bump my savings account back up again, I went and did a second season on the yachts. I dealt with everything from my laptop and had my mum and dad to send of orders that came in. I wasn't mentally done with Australia so to get peace of mind I returned back to Byron Bay in October 2016 after finishing up the yachting season. In November 2016 I took on two business partners (Sandi and Benjamin). These guys are very knowledgeable when it comes to business and structure and a perfect match for me. I have a tendency to get something done right away rather than doing it the "right way", whereas Sandi and Benjamin are extremely detailed and will calculate and measure every tiny detail of the business. Once they joined, we spent most of 2017 improving the business structure, webshop, marketing, etc. This year, we have new and exciting products coming, and we are working hard to improve our manufacturing process. I am moving back to Sweden in June to focus and work 100% with PinAround! Describe the process of creating the initial product and launching.I remember the trickiest part starting up was getting all of the pieces into place, while still keep the costs down. If I started with a lot of money, I could have just outsourced everything. I just didn't know anything at the time. Some of the big questions that I had to solve on my own:
I bought a map in the local bookshop, scanned it in at a local copy shop and borrowed my friend's computer who had Photoshop installed. She taught me how to use the Clone Stamp tool in Photoshop, so I remember spending approximately 50 hours that week clone stamping the map and working on the PDF files. Then I need to find a supplier - my first thought was China aka, "The Jungle". There was a never-ending list of possible manufacturers. For a high-quality product like PinAround, it was not the best option to source from China. I got a few samples sent to me, but they were cheap and made of plastic. After constant searching, I realized China wasn't my market, so I started to look into Europe and Sweden. Out of nowhere - and after months of research - I came across a local factory in the south of Sweden. The price per unit ended up being slightly cheaper than if I would import from China (due to custom tax fees shipping etc.). Also, the factory in Sweden uses environmentally friendly materials, and using high-quality print! It was a win-win!
Starting PinAround was an endless list of question marks, but I really have a mindset that anything is possible. So by breaking everything down and by having a clear goal I got through it. I googled so much, my dad helped me with the accounting side of it, and I went to a few free informative lectures on what to think of when starting a company. I never had a business plan or a set budget. My mindset is that it's better to have something 'half-done' quickly than to spend ages on small details and delay the process. Patience has never been my strong suit. Later on, I realized that in order to grow the company, I would need to work with people who possessed different skill sets than my own. I invited Sandi & Benjamin into the business who are the complete opposite of myself. We balance each other out very well. I launched the webshop after four months, it was made on a "drag and drop" online platform. Like I said - it's better to just get it done quickly than spending too much time. Back then I thought four months was a long time. I remember estimating in my head that the whole start-up process would take around 3-4 weeks and after that time I would be ready to launch the webshop. That was how little I knew about building companies and how much is involved. I also thought people would find my webshop straight away and orders would come flying in. This was not true at all! After not getting any orders the first day I was gutted. But, the first random order actually happened on Day 2, which I'm still really proud of. Since then it has just gone up and up and up. How have you attracted new customers and grown the business to where it is today?In the beginning, when I still hadn't teamed up with the boys yet, I spent hours and hours to send out emails to influencers, magazines, and online forums. I mainly tried to sell myself and my passion for PinAround and how I combined it with my dream lifestyle. I managed to get into ELLE magazine and had few big Swedish influencers to write about it in exchange for a map! When Sandi and Benjamin became a part of the team the marketing really took off. These guys are so knowledgeable when it comes to ads, retargeting ads, Facebook, Instagram algorithms, etc. We are lucky to have a product that has great word of mouth - that is the key to successful engagement. Here are the three most effective marketing strategies for us: 1. Instagram: I'm trying to create an account mixes up the interior side of PinAround, entrepreneurial quotes and of course product pictures from customers and us. 2. Facebook: By using the Business Manager and Ads Manager we started out with some trial and error. We took a deep dive into how it worked and learned how to hit relevant target audiences. Our current Facebook strategy is to have a couple of ads driving traffic to the website then running retargeting ads on Facebook and Instagram to those that have visited our website. But I have to say, that this option is definitely not for everyone to do in-house, I strongly believe that if you don't have the skills yourself or in your team that you should outsource this. 3. Influencers: This is time-consuming but a very good marketing channel when it works. If I contact 100 influencers, I might get only one that wants to collaborate with us in exchange for a map. Unfortunately, we feel like influencers have been very spoiled the past years with companies showering them with merchandise and substantial payments, even small and up and coming accounts can demand ridiculous amounts for a post that will never bring in the sales needed even to break even. Having said that, we have had success with influencers and the best advice we can give is to find influencers in your niche and try and work with them. And if you do pay them, make sure to have things in writing as they can often "forget" or delete posts. Remember, a lot of these influencers are everyday people and may not be totally on top of things. If you could go back, would you do anything differently?There are a few things that I could have done different and better. I am not a strong negotiator and in my personal life, I am the "easy going with whatever-type" and hate conflicts. When setting up the production in Sweden, I was "too nice". I was almost thanking the factory for having me as a customer. Nowadays, I've learned how to be tougher in negotiations but in a kind way - although the boys still think I am too soft sometimes haha. My biggest fear is to come across rude and ruthless. But if I could have had the first meeting with them today, I would have acted more strict and determined. That was especially important since I am a young woman with not much experience in the industry. I have also learned the importance of looking things through before doing it. For example, double checking designs before they go to print (yep, I've sent in wrong files a couple of times to our manufacturer). It's important to read an email twice before sending it or asking someone to proofread it. I suggest having another look around to see if there are any better alternatives before choosing a supplier as well. I believe it is a good mindset and attitude to "just do it", but sometimes it is better to stop for a moment, think twice, and then do it properly. I learned this the hard way! Have you found anything particularly helpful or advantageous that you learned?I have always believed that everything is possible and no dreams are too big. But during this journey (that just started), that has become even more clear to me. Never ever doubt yourself. And it is the toughest problems that give you the biggest achievement when you solve them, so never forget that when you're in the middle of the storm. Where you are at now and what are your plans for the future?Right now, there is a lot happening "behind the scenes". We are getting all the pieces of the puzzle into place before I go back in the end of June. We are changing production and our factory to improve our manufacturing process and improve the product even further be able to meet the requirements of retailers. There are also big changes happening in distribution, packing, warehousing - we are working towards being able to send orders on a global scale. New designs are on their way and we are expanding our range of products as well. I am finishing up my time here in Australia and getting ready to go back to Europe to work with PinAround full time. What platform/tools do you use for your business?We are using Shopify as our webshop and the Swedish accounting software program Fortnox. We also Google Analytics on a rather in-depth level to track and monitor our sales. Google Analytics can be a bit confusing how it shows information without the proper settings. With the default settings, it's difficult to know exactly where your sales are coming from - especially if you get a lot of sales from referrals like us. There are many useful guides online on how to set up Google Analytics. Another thing we have used analytics for was to make calculated conclusions. Digital marketing is excellent with all its tracking but it is not 100% accurate. For example, when we were running a lot of paid advertising we saw an increase in sales but not only from the channels we were marketing on. When we stopped the marketing our sales went down. This is where you have to think outside the box, a Facebook ad seen and clicked on when someone is at work can lead to a direct visit and sale on your website once your customer is at home and on their personal computer or phone. We used analytics to gain new sales channels when we noticed a certain type of referral website working we would reach out to similar ones and partner up with them. Last but not least, make sure to have the correct currency settings in analytics. Do note that analytics will not convert old data into the new currency. This means that actual 1000 USD in sales will be shown as 1000 in the 'new currency' even if that would be 100,000 in local currency. Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?Just do it. It is a cheesy line, but so true. I know so many people with ideas, dreams, and goals who never do anything about them. They are too comfortable and scared. Ditch the "what if-" questions and stop thinking so much. I don't mean you should take a huge loan and put yourself in a financially risky position. But if you have some money to play with, you should give it a go. There are no obstacles such as lack of knowledge or experience. Google is our biggest learning resource - you have all the answers just one click away. Who knows, you might fail but if you do at least you know. Otherwise, you will wonder your entire life what actually could have happened with that idea. The worst thing that will happen is that your idea or project failed, from all the successful people I speak to or read about they all say the same thing - failure is a part of the road to success. Surround yourself with people who support your idea and cut out the naysayers - you don't need the negativity. If you have friends who run businesses and are entrepreneurial, reach out to them! Sandi, Benjamin, and I are all deeply passionate about startups and entrepreneurship. We have a constant dialogue with other people doing business, learning and motivating each other. And one important thing that I cannot stress enough is that business is business. We are all good friends, but we do not sugarcoat things just because we are friends. We tell it each other straight, and we regularly give positive and constructive feedback in every aspect of the business and the work we do. Full post https://www.starterstory.com/pinaround [link] [comments]  |
| Biggest red flag during a VC pitch? Posted: 08 Mar 2018 10:21 AM PST I am working on a pitch for VC's for a product I am working on and was wondering what are some things I should avoid saying that would raise red flags in their mind? [link] [comments]  |
| I’m interested in international shipping - ideas/tips/advice? Posted: 08 Mar 2018 12:25 PM PST This interest stems from a few things:
In general, does anyone have any experience with this? Any advice or tips? What are startup costs like? Pros vs Cons of doing international shipping compared to just being a domestic wholesale distributor??? I know this is relatively general but any insight would be great!! Also, I will be traveling to Thailand soon to teach English and am wondering if there will be an opportunity to connect with the right people to set up a import/export channel there - how would you recommend doing this? [link] [comments]  |
| Need e-commerce entrepreneurs for user interviews. Posted: 08 Mar 2018 10:53 AM PST Hey /r/Entrepreneur. I'm looking for some people to answer some questions for a class I'm taking on UX, specifically on the e-commerce experience of business owners. If anyone would be willing to donate around 30 minutes of their busy schedules to answer some questions on what it's like to use various ecommerce platforms as a business owner it would be much appreciated! I can send a list of the questions or set up a 30 minute chat on whatever platform is easiest. Thanks for reading! [link] [comments]  |
| What is the most effective sales strategy for a new SaaS startup with a $50/month fee? Posted: 08 Mar 2018 10:38 AM PST By the end of the first half of this year, we will have a SaaS product finalised and ready to sell. Our monthly fee (up to 3 users per company, which will be enough) is of $50 with a market potential of 100k companies that we can sell to. Assuming we have a large number of these already profiled in our CRM, what would be the best way to close as many as possible? Clearly cold calling, emailing, inmailing etc each single one of them is one way to go, but can anyone think of a more efficient way of landing multiple of these prospects/leads at once? Any experiences to share? Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Slate my store please, brownie points to anyone who can make me cry Posted: 08 Mar 2018 10:12 AM PST [Millennial Monkey](millennialmonkey.net) Just so there's no confusion the context of my title is I want a ridiculously honest and brutal opinion of my online store it wasn't a "I dare you to try and find something wrong with it" cool glad I cleared that up. So basically I've set up this online clothing store selling black and white graphic print tees and sweatshirts it's basically an extension of a hobby of mine which is drawing designs onto clothing. I have yet to spend any serious dollar on marketing so I just want to get an idea from people what they think of it before I start marketing. Is the navigation of the site good? Are there pages missing? Is there anything you'd like to see? And most importantly do you like the content? I've received some good feedback about the products but this is from people that know me, if my stuff is trash I'd love to know, and again please be as honest as possible I've got thick skin, don't think I've been offended by anything for about 15 years. I see too often people asking for feedback and then deleting the post when they get criticised which I think totally defeats the point soo Roast me good daddy, roast me good [link] [comments]  |
| Where To Start Testing the Market? Posted: 08 Mar 2018 01:57 PM PST I have an idea for a food startup that I'd like to test before I do things such as getting a license to sell food in my state, renting a commercial kitchen and so on. I was thinking about selling my product under the cottage food laws even though they're pretty limiting i.e. I can't ship the food via mail, revenues are capped at $5,000/year, and I would have to deliver the food in person. I just want to see if there is traction, I would only sell in my area and advertise online, possibly selling online too. Do you guys think this is a sound approach? Would you do it differently? [link] [comments]  |
| Mistakes Behind $9,000/Month Selling Puppet Skins Posted: 08 Mar 2018 01:41 PM PST Hey /r/Entrepreneur. Its Rich Clominson here again, maker of Failory, a website where we weekly interview failed startups.
We have just published a new interview, but this time with Laurie, a successful e-Commerce owner. Laurie and Cindy, his mother, manufacture and sell hand dyed fabric used for puppet skins to professional puppet builders around the world. Their e-Commerce is now making $9,000/month. But they had to pass through some harsh moments at their beginning.
Here are the main points:
Let's get into the interview! Hi Laurie! What's your background, and what are you currently working on? My name is Laurie Nickerson and I and the co-owner of Puppet Pelts. At Puppet Pelts, we manufacture and sell hand dyed fabric used for puppet skins to professional puppet builders around the world. Our Pelts are made from a textile that is really only used for puppets. It is a wonderfully stretchy nylon fleece fabric that is milled in the United States. We buy the fabric in white and dye it a bunch of colors to sell to our customers. I was building puppets for fun. I discovered that the fabric you could buy online was only available in white, forcing any puppet builder to have to dye it on their own to change the color. Dyeing the fabric is really difficult in small spaces like apartments where I was living at the time. So, once I got a studio space, I offered dyeing services catered to puppet builders.
How did you build Puppet Pelts initial product? I started by getting one roll (50 yards) of white nylon fleece from our fabric distributor, Larry. And, when I say Larry, he is the only guy on the planet who has access to the fleece mill. Up until this point, to obtain the fabric, you had to know about Larry (he only has a phone number, no website), or shop at another online store that only carried it in white, or a few select colors. (That shop also got their fleece from Larry.) Larry used to run a mill and he fell into this world of puppets as well. Jim Henson approached him about a textile he was making for the interior of shoes. So the two of them created this unique "skin" for puppets. Larry has since sold the mill and now is just a fabric distributor. He is like this mythical elusive fleece unicorn. The dyes we started off using were essentially, craft dyes. They were really unstable and hard to reproduce colors time and time again. So, there was a lot of frustration there. After about two years of fighting these dyes, we switched over to acid dyes which allow us a lot more control.
Which are your marketing strategies to grow your business? I was lucky enough to have a super niche market. Puppet makers also really love to talk about process and share information on materials. There's a Facebook page called Puppet Maker's Workshop and it just is a group for puppet makers to post photos of what they are working on, and questions they have if they get stumped. When I first launched, I posted a message there explaining I was now offering dyed fabric. About 99% of people find out about our company through this Facebook page. I started off by replying to questions, and comments about our product, but now people do that for me atomically. "Oh, you are looking for fleece? Send a message to Laurie at Puppet Pelts." I also really love this venue because it allows me to be a "human." If someone is working on a budget and can't afford to use our fleece, it is important for me to let them know that puppets can be made out of anything. They don't HAVE to be made with our fleece. But, by being accessible, when they do have the budgets to use higher quality materials, they know where to find me. I also started running Facebook ads. What I was surprised to discover that there's a huge number of puppet makers in Mexico that didn't know our company existed before I started these ads. Initially, I used data collected over the past couple of years to determine which countries purchase from us the most. Our ads were then targeted to those countries. On a whim, I added Mexico to the list. While only two or three orders were shipped there, the orders we did have were large. So, I figured, "why not." What I discovered was that once I started running Facebook ads in Mexico, it became one of the top countries for impressions and click-throughs. It also resulted in an in-studio visit from someone visiting Vegas on vacation, and a big increase in orders from Mexico made through our online shop. What I love about Facebook ads is that we can set our budget. Right now, we are spending $30 a month. It makes it really easy to reach potential customers. Another avenue I explored was partnering with puppet builders. One of our customers has a youtube channel where he teaches people how to build puppets. He approached me and asked about potentially swapping material for a shout out on his channel. We sent him a box of a range of skin tones and in exchange, he added our store to his list of supplies. It's actually working out really well. We get a lot of hits from first-time builders who are new to the puppet world that way.
What were the biggest challenges you faced and obstacles you overcame? The first obstacle was actually before we opened our studio. It is kind of beaten into your head that if you want to start a business, you need to get funding. So, I tossed the idea of getting a business loan. I hated the idea of debt because I have done the student loan rodeo and it is such a downer. So instead, my business partner (and mom) decided to make a go of it without a huge bank loan. Instead, we saved up enough for 6 months of rent and approached the landlord of building with our idea. We wanted to pay 6 months of rent up front if he would knock $200 of rent off per month. Miraculously, he agreed. So we had 6 months of wiggle room to figure things out before we had to turn a profit and actually HAD to pay rent. This was such a great buffer for us. We also decided that we would share our space for the first year while we figured things out. We split the rent with a woman who was a costume maker. Her business was similar to ours, but different enough where we wouldn't compete. She ended up staying with us for 4 years and the partnership worked out really well. It cut down on overhead, and we both were able to bounce ideas off each other. Another obstacle was actually figuring out our process. Now, this sounds crazy, but we started a business that we had zero experience in. I had built puppets and dyed fabric just for myself, but never professionally. And when I say I built puppets, I made 4 in total. That's 4 yards of fleece I dyed before I launched into a business. I was dyeing the fleece in a plastic tub in my kitchen. But, I knew there was a need for dyed fleece and began to research how to do it on a larger scale. When I first launched, I was dyeing every piece in my washing machine using Rit dye which is what I call, "the gateway dye." It is available at every craft store and grocery store. So, I bought a bunch of colors and off I went. The challenge came when I tried to recreate the same color twice. Rit has dye particles in it for all sorts of fabric types. So, you dump the dye it, and the dye particles for nylon stick to the fabric and the ones for cotton go down the drain. When you dump out 2oz of the dye into the dyebath, there's really no way of knowing how many nylon particles are in there. One run might come out darker or lighter even if you put the same 2oz of dye in. I found this SUPER frustrating and it created a lot of waste. I also wanted a way to dye more yardage at a time. So, I began researching other methods of dyeing. Because there's not a "how-to-dye-puppet-fleece" tutorial online, I started looking at what costume shops were doing. The gal we were sharing our space with was the perfect resource. She had a connection with the Utah Shakespeare Festival, and they had a DYE ROOM! So, we took a day trip out there to meet with their head of costuming for a tour of their space. What an amazing experience. This trip really took our business to the next level. We were able to talk to a guy who not only had dyeing experience but could help us figure out the equipment we need. Ironically, the item we really needed was a GIGANTIC soup pot. We also were introduced to acid dyes. They are a much more stable dye where you measure the pigment out exactly, based on the weight of the fabric. So, every run of that color comes out the same. SO BRILLIANT. With the knowledge we needed to switch to acid dyes and purchase a giant soup pot, we took a leap of faith and financed the equipment. Our 60-gallon soup pot, whom we lovingly call Gertrude, was over $10,000. She was our first real investment into the business. When she arrived, we had to learn the new process of dyeing with acid dyes. We had to just try colors out to see what happened. We had to rebuild our swatch library from scratch because the Rit dye wasn't compatible with Gertrude. Again, there was a ton of trial and error and figuring out our process. But, I feel we are finally in a place now where we have everything down and can call ourselves "professionals."
Which are your greatest disadvantages? A big disadvantage is not having solid accounting skills. The biggest time-suck we have now is doing our books. We use Quickbooks, and I don't care what anyone says, that program is not quick or easy. If we were to do it all again, we would definitely take a course in "Quickbook for dummies." We have always been the type to just, "figure things out as we go" but with accounting, it isn't something that comes easily to us. So it was, and is, a huge cause of panic and angst.
During the process of building & growing Puppet Pelts, which were the worst mistakes you committed? The biggest mistake was in our pricing. When we first started, we priced the fabric based on materials, but not really our time. So, about a year into it, we raised our prices. I was so nervous to do so. I thought people wouldn't buy our fleece anymore and that everyone would be mad. Basically, I was reacting with my heart, not my brain. What I learned though was, if the product is good quality, people will buy it even at a higher price. We opted to have a range in price so we wouldn't price anyone out of using the fleece. Our value, or Core Colors start at $27 per yard. These are either mill-dyed in bulk, or dyed by us in large batches. They are typically in stock at all times and have your basic color selection. If you want something a bit different, or an usual shade, you will pay more for the premium colors. We have found that new builders who want access to the fleece will splurge to buy a yard at $27, but maybe not $38 for a premium color. Once they get better at building, they then will move up to the more expensive pieces.
If you had the chance of doing only one thing differently, what would it be? I would have started sooner. It's a bit daunting to take a leap of faith and put yourself out there. And especially with my business, I still get a lot of weird looks when I tell people "I dye Muppet skins" for a living. There's always the folks who never really understand that you can make a living in the arts. So my advice to anyone reading this is, it is okay to march to the beat of your own drummer and go against the grain. It took me a while to find my beat, and that's okay. The point is, I found it eventually and I could not be happier.
Apart from mistakes, what are other sources of learning you would recommend for entrepreneurs who are just starting? This is silly, but I never really read up on business 101 stuff. I don't really consider myself a business owner. I guess I am, but I always call myself an artist or maker first. I probably would know how to reconcile my bank account better if I did read up on some of that stuff.
Where can we go to learn more? You should check out our website. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Original interview published at https://failory.com/mistakes/puppet-pelts [link] [comments]  |
| How to create a landing page on a shoe-string budget - tutorial. Posted: 08 Mar 2018 01:33 PM PST This is for the reddit /r/entrepreneur fam. If you're like me, you have hundreds of startup ideas in your head. Well, we're going to help you with one of the initial stages - setting up a landing page and capturing e-mails. You're welcome. Why do this? Our new startup is a media company that provides a weekly newsletter focused around business and tech. So it's a no-brainer to share the building process. Yes, you could use a monthly service to create a similar page. We didn't want to go down that route as we also want to introduce a blog feature and like the flexibility. So, here's the steps: 1. Setting up our hosting and domain name We're calling our company Briefed.co. First thing I'm going to do is check which platforms this is available on using namechk (https//namechk.com). The site lets you search your company name across the web, showing where it's available and where it isn't. In this case - Briefed.co is available as a domain so I'm happy to go ahead. Next up - hosting packages - there's many options available. I like namecheap as it's affordable and they have amazing customer support. 2. Sourcing a theme So for the main website I'm not going to code from scratch as it takes too much time. We're going to use a template and change this to fit our needs as we're only developing a basic MVP. Let's go onto themeforest.net, you can find thousands of themes on here - select what you want and install. Or, you can create your own/find free templates online. But wait, why not use a WordPress site? Well, a HTML page is quicker to load and provides less security issues as it doesn't run on a CMS. We're making all the modifications offline and uploading this onto our server. We edited the site using Atom editor and FileZilla to upload the site. 3. Subscribe feature So that we have a working landing page which captures emails, we need to link up with an email marketing company. This will be to create an email list and capture emails onto this database. We're using emailoctopus to do this which uses AWS (we'll cover this in a later post). You could use Mailchimp or other options too. The steps are pretty simple, you create a custom form, grab the code, copy and paste into our website's HTML and done. If you want to customise the look & feel, you do it here using the CSS properties (tonnes of guides available online so do some research yourself too!). 4. SSL Certificate Before you launch any website, PLEASE, get an SSL certificate. This shows a padlock against the domain of the site to show visitors it's safe and can is trustable. You can buy this from many places, it's easiest doing from your hosting provider. My package includes this as standard so I've followed the instructions provided in the support section and it's loaded after a few hours. 5. Uploading the site Using FileZilla you can access your hosting folder, the login details will be in your cPanel. Once in, we're moving the folder with the relevant files into the public_html folder. Congrats, you're ready to show your masterpiece to the world. Pretty simple right? 6. Products/services used:
If you found this useful, we're also releasing a weekly newsletter soon which provides business and tech news - check our landing page out. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Mar 2018 01:29 PM PST |
| For those that import supplies 25% tariff tax on Steel 10% tariff tax on Aluminum is being passed. Posted: 08 Mar 2018 01:27 PM PST |
| Need to find manufacturer of this product Posted: 08 Mar 2018 12:47 PM PST sorry don't know how to add a photo but this is the product.. https://imgur.com/a/iIr60 I am looking to create something similar to this in china and I need some ideas on how I can find the manufacturer that built this.. any ideas???? thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Female Founders in Austin are currently doing an AMA, check it out! Posted: 08 Mar 2018 12:41 PM PST I am in the same program as these founders and think they are doing some amazing work. If you would like, feel free to ask them about their experience and about the incredible companies they have started! Going on right now: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/830gor/we_are_female_founders_sputnik_atx_redenim/?st=JEIZ0F6O&sh=5b4db67b [link] [comments]  |
| What is the best platform to sell coffee online Amazon, Ebay or Shopify? Posted: 08 Mar 2018 12:23 PM PST Okay, So here is the deal, I have been thinking of starting a small on the side E-commerce coffee business. I have already crunched a few numbers in regards to pricing for per coffee pound. Initially I will start selling coffee from my Native country of Colombia and if the business picks up then I will try to get it from other coffee producing countries as well. The coffee is artisan coffee not sold by major producers in Colombia and the pricing is relatively doable and my initial operation cost would be about 15k to get started, but my main question is which platform offers you a better exposure for your products? I'm not only looking for which one is relatively cheaper in regards to pricing, I'm looking for a platform that makes it relatively easy to scale up your business if there is substantial demand for your product. Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
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