The Nerd Cave: Losing $100,000 Building a Space for Gamers Entrepreneur |
- The Nerd Cave: Losing $100,000 Building a Space for Gamers
- Entrepreneurs who decided to sell their service/product to a big well known company. How did they made their first contact with you?
- Tons of resources that answer or provide guidance to many questions posted here.
- How do I buy/offer to buy a failed kickstarter?
- 45+ ways to make money in 2018
- I'm hosting The Remote Work Summit 2018 with 26+ speakers from MS, WordPress, Buffer, Zapier, Github, Trello, Evernote, Toptal & more!! (Phew)
- Thoughts on Failure
- If you haven't watched "The Greatest showman" this is very inspiring for entrepreneurs
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| The Nerd Cave: Losing $100,000 Building a Space for Gamers Posted: 04 Mar 2018 09:57 AM PST Hey /r/Entrepreneur. I am Rich Clominson, from Failory, a community where we weekly interview failed startups.
A few weeks ago, we published a great interview with Dave Desi, one of the founding partners of The Nerd Cave The Nerd Cave was a new kind of retail model, a truly safe space for gamers of all kinds to go and enjoy their passion and hobby. They were doing it great, earning $16,000 AUD/month. But when they moved to a new location, they saw a big loss of income, which provoked the closure of their doors.
Here are some of the main points:
Let's get into the interview! Hi Dave! Who are you? Heya! My name is Dave Desi, one of the founding partners of The Nerd Cave in Sydney, Australia. Longtime retail manager and 2-time business owner.
What was The Nerd Cave about? The Nerd Cave was supposed to be a new kind of retail model. One that blends community centers, retail and hobby store all into one place. Our focus was on building a truly safe space for gamers of all kinds to come and enjoy their passion and hobby, without the pressure that is generally present in a standard retail store. The idea was rattling around in my head for many years, but (believe it or not) the idea actually comes from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle live action film. There is a scene where April O'Niell's editor's kid heads to the foot clans city hideout. When he arrives, he is greeted into a massive space where kids are playing arcade games, gambling, skateboarding and more. My plan was to make that place a reality, minus the gambling, drinking, and smoking… and foot clan. Our plan was to approach it slowly and build the play space rather than being purely focused on retail. We were always working with key people in the community to facilitate events and make The Cave the most desirable location to run games/events.
How did you build it? I initially started by finding some business partners. I knew that I wouldn't be able to get the loans out I needed by myself. After we gathered and all worked out our individual loans, we pooled our money and began building. We did everything on an EXTREMELY tight budget. This meant fine tooth combing almost every aspect and finding the most affordable means of achieving every goal (this became known as doing it "Cave style" between us). That's not to say the equipment we purchased was bad, but it was always on a budget. We were worried about stepping really deep into it without being able to 100% ensure our methods would work. We built each of the 10 PC's by hand, ordering parts from the cheapest locations we could find. Those PC's lasted the full 4 years of operation. Through our time being open, our focus was always smaller upgrades as we felt comfortable. When we had more people using our board game tables than we used to be able to seat, we upgraded our tables and seating to be more functional and space efficient. When certain games weren't playing or selling as well, we moved them on as quickly as possible to maximize retail space for only current best-selling items (where possible). When we found the first location to be overly full and capped out with customers, we moved to a new location. We only made changes once it was past the tipping point. This kept our setup constantly changing and flowing with what worked. Initially, the business plan was a gym membership style model, but this quickly changed as we heard from our original (and small) community that they would only be willing to pay for use of the electronic items, rather than the "analogue" stuff like board games.
Which marketing strategies did you use to attract your first customers? Our strategy was simple. Approach the existing gaming clubs, find out their needs and fill them. Offer the local ones a new location to run their meetups and events. Once we had that ball rolling there, we moved onto more consistent social media advertising which always worked for us. Our biggest generator (as for most business') was word of mouth. We made sure to always have time for our customers, this really helped with word of mouth as we became the store that had staff that was interested in interacting with people. We utilized multiple different websites to advertise events, local "things to do" guides and websites like Eventbrite. We didn't always sell tickets online, but it always generated traffic.
Which were the causes of The Nerd Cave's failure? Much like any failure, I don't personally think it was due to any one singular reason. Through the Cave's lifetime, we moved 3 times. Our first move was based on a lack of space within our store. We had people sitting on the floor and we were turning customers away at the door. It was obvious that we had outgrown our first tiny location. The 2nd location was the longest-term location and it proved to be our best. It was, however, within a fairly decent proximity to 2 other game/hobby stores (both franchises of the same company) which caused many issues for us. Our retail sales dropped off after this move and we had to adapt a larger portion of the store towards a wider variety of retail items to be able to compete with them. Our 3rd location was a move we weren't all that excited about. The 2nd location's building was slated to be knocked down and the owners refused to settle a new lease agreement with us, leaving us on a month by month lease with an axe dangling above our necks. It took us 8 months to find the 3rd location, mainly due to the constraints on location and size. In our 3rd location, our demographic shifted. We were further away from the universities, meaning we lost a little bit of the 20-30 age bracket. This caused a shift on what was selling well for us and generally less income. We closed our doors after being in the new location for only 5 months. I believe during our time of operation, board gaming and gaming clubs evolved around us to be similar to what we were trying to do but distanced enough away from a normal gaming store to stand out. A lot of "gaming bars" have come about in the last few years (we never sold alcohol) and many other locations offering table space for board games. The market became more diluted than when we started and I am not sure we did enough to set ourselves apart. Near the end of the business, I spoke with a few other store owners about our situation and someone said something that struck me as quite prolific; when people start a business, we all think that the "thing" that will set us apart is "us". We all say, "Well I will treat my customers well and always have time for them". The problem with this mentality and thought process is that we aren't selling ourselves. Your customers don't know you are a nice guy until they have already become a customer. So, find the "thing" that makes your location unique.
What were the biggest challenges you faced and obstacles you overcame? We started with a very low capital ($75,000AUD). This meant that our start was slow and we really had to prove ourselves in the early portion of the Cave's existence. Another challenge we had was defining ourselves. We had a little of everything, which meant some people were confused as to what we were actually doing. This was generally overcome once they stepped through the door and experienced it for themselves, but we definitely should have had a stronger identity to really breakthrough.
Which were your investments? Did you achieve some revenue? Did you lose any money? As stated above, we had an initial capital of $75,000AUD. We took on one additional partner in our second year to help with moving and equipment costs which added $25,000AUD to the initial investment. I am quite happy to say that we all only have a very minimal debt after the 4 years of operation, with the majority of it being rental debt based on exiting our lease early.
If you had to start over, what would you do differently? This is a tricky one. Me and the other partners have had lots of thoughts on this one, but if I'm being honest I am not sure I want to share them! Keep your eyes peeled in the future. What I can say is that having a strong identity and selling point would be key.
What did you learn? Apart from general retail management, I learned skills that I am not sure they have come from any other experience. Negotiation, interpersonal skills, economic, the list goes on and on. The most valuable lessons are the ones you learn through experience and running a store gives you plenty.
Which are your favorite entrepreneurial resources? The only thing I ever looked at in regards to business was /r/Entrepreneur. Me and my partners have never been a "by the book" group of people, so it never made sense to us to follow old practices. We did, however, seek advice from other store owners in similar industries, in an attempt to widen our knowledge pool where necessary.
Where can we go to learn more? The only living vestige is Facebook! Feel free to drop us a line there and we will always try to answer as best we can.
Original interview published at https://failory.com/interview/the-nerd-cave [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Mar 2018 09:17 AM PST |
| Tons of resources that answer or provide guidance to many questions posted here. Posted: 04 Mar 2018 08:30 AM PST Hi, I'm usually just lurking here but I came across http://startupstash.com/, there are TONS of resources to help you keep moving forward or realize new possibilities (not my site). Enjoy! [link] [comments]  |
| How do I buy/offer to buy a failed kickstarter? Posted: 04 Mar 2018 09:50 AM PST There is a failed kickstarter product that I would like to buy. I mean: buy the plans, specs, production, etc outright. The product is not copyrighted. Do I have a lawyer make some calls to the original kickstarters? Do I instead start from scratch and make my own design? The concept is great and I think the product itself is decent and something I am personally very interested in. However, it would be faster/cheaper to buy and build on someone else's idea and production processes than to recreate the wheel. How does one go about this? [link] [comments]  |
| 45+ ways to make money in 2018 Posted: 03 Mar 2018 08:58 PM PST There is lots of work to do if you want to reach your goals or at least get a little closer in 2018. The best way to change your financial situation is to take matters into your own hands and start working for yourself. Build a business you can start and run out of your home or from anywhere in the world. There are so many different business opportunities where you can make more money. Here are 45 business ideas that I hope can spark your journey into entrepreneurship. 1) Affiliate Marketer Affiliate marketing is partnering with brands that offer a commission as a reward for your endorsement and referral. Affiliate marketers or resellers generally act as middlemen between customers and products. As an affiliate marketer, you can earn commissions by referring web traffic and sales through their own promotional efforts using a coded URL or web address to track each referral. There are thousands of products you can resell for a profit. Many of the bloggers you read online are probably affiliate marketers. 2) Amazon affiliate business The Amazon Associates program offers many ways to make money on the largest selection of books, music, DVDs, toys, electronics, kitchen, apparel, jewelry, tools that you can find on the Amazon website. As an Amazon Associate, you can earn commissions on products and services that you refer customers to. There are thousands of people earning a living doing this and you can do it too. The trick is finding a niche and focusing on that. Do your research and learn the best way to profit as an Amazon Associate. 3) Teach a specialized skill Everyone has a specialized skill they can share with the world. You can take your specialized skill and turn it into a blog, a course, an ebook or Youtube channel. Let's say you are a sailboat repair technician. You know all about fixing sailboats. You could create a simple online course for on "How to maintaining your sailboat" or "Getting your boat ready for winter". Your specialized skill could be an underserved niche in the marketplace. 4) App Designer There are almost 5 million apps in both the Apple App store and the Google Play App store. If you have a great problem to solve for a specific niche, building a mobile app can be very profitable. With over 5 million apps, you need to do your research and really understand both your target audience and the specific problem you are solving for them. Right now the most downloaded paid apps include Games, Health apps, Productivity tools and other entertainment apps. 5) Become a YouTube Video star Some of the highest paid Youtube stars are earning over $10 million dollars a year. Felix Kjellberg(PewDiePie) makes over $12 million a year playing video games and making jokes, Rosanna Pansino making $5 million as the Cupcake Wizard and Michelle Phan makes over $3 million a year with Makeup tutorials. If you have a knack for being in front of the camera becoming a youtube star can be very profitable. These people are at the top of the game but there is always room for new talent. There are many people making a good living in smaller niche areas doing things as simple as teaching people how to draw. If you have the talent for this, you don't need to much. A good fast computer, a quality camera & microphone and video editing software. 6) Being a Gigwalker Gigwalk is a crowd-sourced service that helps businesses with various types of tasks that help them learn how they're doing. It's an app that pays people to do these task for them. Anyone can apply to be a Gigwalker. You download the app, view a map full of tasks in the neighborhood immediately around you and get to work. Tasks can include things like:
When you complete a gig, Gigwalk reviews your work and deposits money straight into your PayPal account. Learn more and start earning. 7) Being a Task Rabbit Similar to being a Gigwalker, people that sign up for Task rabbit are looking for someone to do tasks like cleaning, fixing and even furniture building. When you sign up as a Tasker, you can apply for these tasks around where you live. TaskRabbit notifies you of potential jobs nearby, you select the one you want to complete, confirm the details with your Client, complete the work and submit your invoice. Taskers can earn good money. Some of the elite taskers are earning over 6 figures doing all kinds of interesting jobs. 8) Blogging The process to make money as a blogger is simple. You set up your blog, start creating useful content attract and nurture your readers, build engagement with them and make money from the readership through one or more of a variety of income streams like digital goods, affiliate products, sponsorships and more. The process sounds simple but there is a lot that goes into each of these steps. You can start right now with my Tutorial on How to get WordPress setup on Bluehost. You can also check out ProBlogger. He has one of the best blogging startup guides if you want to become a blogger. 9) Bookkeeping Bookkeeping is the recording of financial transactions, generally into an accounting system. It's part of the process of accounting in business. A bookkeeper is tasked with adding transactions like purchases, sales, receipts, and payments by an individual person or business. Because all you need is a computer with an internet connection, being a bookkeeper is a low-stress job you can do from anywhere. If you are good with numbers, it doesn't take much to start a bookkeeping business. You can find jobs on Upwork and sites like Freelancer and start today. 10) Buy an Existing Website If you are short on time and have some money to invest, there are plenty of existing websites for sale. Empire Flippers, for example, has all kinds of websites for sale on Amazon affiliate sites, to Adwords & eCommerce sites. Sedo also sells profitable websites that are already profitable. They can cost a bit but they can save you lots of time. 11) Buy and Sell Domain Names Buying and selling domain names can be profitable when done right. There are stories abound of people buying domains $10 dollars 15 years ago and then selling today for millions of dollars. The chances of this happening to most is low but there is still opportunities to make money buying and selling domains. especially since there are new Top level domain extensions like .travel, .legal and hundreds more. The key to buying and selling domains today is about knowing your niche and what domains may be worth more than others. 12) Buy Used Electronics and Refurbish Them Gary V was quoted answering the following question. "If I was starting again and I had to make $2,000 as quickly as possible, what would I do? Without all the brand equity I have, obviously right? It's funny usually I say go to a garage sale." Also called garage-saleing, if you know a lot about electronics and their value, you can hunt at garage sales and flea markets for undervalued electronics, clean them up and then sell them on Amazon, ebay or even craigslist for a profit. It's a quick way to create cashflow. 13) Car stereo installer I did this when I was a kid. Of course back then it was tape decks and eventually CD players but as a 16 year old I made some good money. If you have a passion for mobile audio and video being a mobile car stereo installer could be a great side hustle. 14) Car Washing and Detailing Starting a mobile auto washing and detailing business eliminates the need for a physical business location, therefore start-up costs considerably less. You can start with inexpensive supplies and tools and grow as your needs arise. As a mobile detailer, you can work in shopping mall parking lots, people 's home driveways and garages. You can start on your own and build a brand or you can buy an existing business or franchise. 15) Clothing Designer Attention to detail and a creative mind are all what it takes to create some world-class designs desired by any fashion house. As soon as you come up with authentic, eye soothing designs, rest assured that fashion houses will be willing to spend big to entertain your works. This might be the perfect seasonal gig you have been looking for. 16) Commission-Only Sales A commission-only job will take you to prove your patience, diligence, and integrity. With the right motivation and the mentality to work hard, you could be the one of the best in this field and see your bank account soaring with cash. Though commission-only sales offer a flexible timeframe to work in, be sure, you are being involved with legit job providers. This is similar to affiliate marketing. 17) Computer Repair Some of us have the ability to repair personal computers with knowledge gathered through intense curiosity. This is time to turn your computer mastery into something profitable. Do some local digital advertising in your neighborhood and wait for calls. There is still millions of people that need help with technology. Find your niche and start selling. 18) Consulting As the future of work evolves more and more people are turning to consulting work to be in more control of their lives. Provide your knowledge and experience for a fee and help others at the same time. If your expertise revolves around a specialized field like engineering, planning, business, or financial handling, you can expect some lucrative offers for your opinions and capabilities. 19) Develop an App In this era of smartphones, mobile apps are high on demand. There is an app for almost everything. Every day we see new apps springing up to claim a share of the $31 billion market. Just one super hit app can make you filthy rich. Focus on solving specific problems that big groups of people experience and you might find yourself with a hit on your hands. 20) Drone Pilot or Trainer There are many ways to make money for drone operators. Mapping, aerial inspection, and delivery are a few of them. It is a fun way to earn without getting yourself bored. Check out Dronebase to learn how you can profit as a pilot. If you have mastered being a drone pilot, why not teach others. Possessing a drone is just the beginning of a long journey. Without knowing how to navigate, it would not make a difference. If you are a skilled operator, you can cash on this by teaching people how to fly like a pro. 21) eBay Sales eBay is the place where you can sell almost everything and anything. You can dropship products or sell stuff you find on Craigslist, at garage sales or you can source a particular product on Alibaba for cheap and sell it on eBay, with a handsome profit. 22) eBooks Today readers prefer to read everything on the screen. It's cheap, convenient, and accessible from anywhere. eBook readers like Kindle are revolutionizing this online reading trend. What do you know that others want to know. Everyone has something they can teach. Start writing on any hot topics, and turn it into an ebook. You can sell it on Amazon, or on your own website and earn money from your book. With Amazon's self-publishing services you can reach millions of readers worldwide and keep control of your work. It's fast and easy to independently publish your print book with CreateSpace and create an audiobook with ACX. 23) Freelance Content Marketing In digital marketing, content creation and promotion are integral. If you have the right knowledge and experience, you can take this as a career opportunity. Experienced content marketers are paid very well by big companies. 24) Freelance copywriter Copywriters give voice to a brand or product. It is an art of playing with consumers' wit to persuade them to incline to particular products or services. Necessarily, businesses hire skilled copywriters with a higher wage, to ensure smooth promotion. 25) Freelance Data Analysis Data scientists are nowadays a part and parcel of any business strategy. For their service, which includes logical and analytical reasoning to reach a conclusion, they charge higher than any other freelance professional. Top data analysts even make $50,000 a year. 26) Freelance Proofreading and Editing You can simply work as a freelance proofreader and editor on major freelancing marketplaces like Freelancer, Upwork, and Guru. Based on your expertise and profile feedback, you can make about $10-$30 per hour. 27) Furniture Upcycler Investing in small furniture could be a good and stable source of income for you. Alert your neighbours about your intention to buy their furniture whenever they want to get rid of them. The armchair that cost you $6.5 can be sold for almost twice the price the very next day. 28) Ghostwriter Working as a ghostwrite you write an academic paper, books, and other contents for people who would pay for your service. Ghostwriting is a nice way to maintain a steady income flow. 29) Google Paid Ad Specialist Once you set up an ad campaign that works, it generates income against every click. But to make a campaign fruitful, you need to know every dos and don'ts. Also you have to come up with new strategies to add momentum. A Google ad specialist gets about $60k every year in pay checks. 30) Graphic designer The role of a graphic designer is widening with the expansion of different sections. On average, graphic designers charge about $25-$50 per hour for their service. If you want to work from home, there are many freelance websites where you will get suitable jobs. 31) Inbound Marketing Specialist Inbound marketing is a blend of all available content marketing strategies. So, an inbound marketer has a big responsibility to coordinate between all the phases. The average annual income of an inbound marketer is roughly $76,000. 32) Instagram Marketing Photo sharing site Instagram gives a much-required boost to aspiring celebrities and brands. To get effective promotion on Instagram, hiring specialists is nothing new. 33) Landing Page Specialist Landing page is the lifeblood of any website. It creates the first impression for any business. If you can help a brand develop a killer landing page that sells, this job is for you. 34) Language tutor You are a polyglot who speaks French, German, Italian, and many other European languages. In this world of globalisation people are interested in speaking more than one language. Offer language learning sessions on an hourly basis. 35) Life Coach The duty of a life coach revolves around consulting people on matters related to life or coaching. There are many ways to be trained as a life coach. The income of renowned life coaches' often hit the million dollar ceiling. 36) Private Labeling and Selling Products on Amazon Find products you can resell for profit on Amazon. Jungle Scout can help you get started with this. 37) Sell stuff on Etsy Etsy is a great place for selling and buying handmade or vintage products. Build your reputation as a seller on the platform and see your income hit a peak. 38) Social Media Manager The task of handling different social media in the most efficient way is challenging. No wonder companies spend thousands of dollars in paying their social media managers. 39) Start a Popup Shop Popup shops are a brilliant way to generate income without having to commit permanently. It also takes barely any investment. 40) Stock Photographer There are many websites today that buy stock photos. Shutterstock and iStock are two of them. 41) User Testing You can make money testing websites and apps using User Test. It's quite simple. You get $10 via PayPal for every 20-minute video you complete. UserTesting pays you to visit websites or apps, complete a set of tasks, and speak your thoughts aloud. 42) Vintage Clothing Reseller The fascination for vintage clothing is never dull. They also sell for more than regular clothing items. Join Esty, a creative marketplace where 24 million buyers around the world shop for unique items including Vintage clothing and much more. If you have an eye for vintage, buy from the local shops, mark them up and sell them online. 43) Virtual Assistant Made popular by the 4 hour workweek, VA's or virtual assistants are exploding. You can work for a busy persons located in a different city, or in a different country or right in your backyard. A virtual assistant has to carry on with different tasks like appointment settling, online research, scheduling, or anything that can be done online. With more people starting online businesses, they are going to need help. If you have the skills, check out Upwork for freelancing VA gigs. 44) Web developer It's never been a better time to be a web developer. If you have competency in any of the major programming languages, like PHP, you can secure a higher hourly pay. Either start a web development shop, freelance your skills or build an app that people love. If you have the skills, there is so much opportunity for web developers. 45) WordPress Website Consultant WordPress is the first choice in the world of blogging when it comes to content management systems. 74,652,825 sites out there are depending on good ol' WordPress for their personal and business websites. Business owners & bloggers hire professional consultants to take their blog to the next level, support it on an ongoing basis and even develop custom plugins and themes. If you are a WordPress pro or know enough about it to help others, this can be a lucrative area for you. Hope you found this list of 45 ways to make money in 2018 the spark you needed to start your own side gig. Opportunity is there for the taking, you just have to take the first step. If you want more, check out the source article on my blog. There is links to more ideas and references. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Mar 2018 10:40 AM PST I'm hosting The Remote Work Summit 2018 with 26+ speakers from MS, WordPress, Buffer, Zapier, Github, Trello, Evernote, Toptal & more!! (Phew)
Quick Overview: It's a virtual summit. Free to attend. Spread over 5 days from March 5-9th. With 27 speakers from - Buffer, Evernote, Microsoft, Trello, Github, Appirio, Zapier, Toptal, Automattic (WordPress), Helpscout, Treehouse, WomenWhoCode, Mailbird, Flexjobs and others!
The Remote Work Summit 2018 - Free & Online
Why remote work? I'm a big supporter of flexible work, remote policies, sharing economy, diversity & gender balance at work. Imagine if all of us could work from anywhere, anytime, however, we want to, without any barriers.
Remote organizations are able to hire people for their skill & value instead of who's based where and how they or their resumes look. I'm not saying that every job & company can go remote today. But those who can, should. I think of remote work as a big equalizer that will finally break down the last few geographic walls we face.
To make sure there is real value in this online conference, we got together a phenomenal panel of speakers. See & judge for yourself.
Speakers:
Agenda Items:
Background Story: Me & my team of 3 spent the last 3 months putting the whole event together and getting the right set of questions for each of the speakers.
There's tons of value for entrepreneurs, freelancers, people managers & those already working remotely.
Remember, it's free to attend with an optional upgrade for those who want lifetime, on-demand access (I still have to eat & pay bills)!
Try and attend at least a few sessions and give me your feedback. I'm here all day so ask me anything on remote work. Ignore typos, I'm running on coffee for the last 36 hours. Cheers! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Mar 2018 06:44 AM PST You know, I never thought I'd fail. All through the ups and downs I thought I'd be able to work it out, I even thought I'd work it out when the ups and downs turned into downs, downs and more fucking downs. Perhaps it was arrogance and cockiness but I think it was largely just stubbornness. I was willing to throw myself at it until either me or it broke, and I am tough, so it didn't look good for it. It was tough too. Tougher than I'd thought. I was so proud of my little company, I thought it represented something good. It was hard for me when it went under. I never jumped ship on it, even after everyone else had and it was clearly going under. Even as it went under the waves I tried to pull it back up, with it just dragging me under with it. Even when it was already a wreck on the sea floor I was willing to drown trying to drag it back up. I had tried the best I knew how at the time and my best was not enough. It made me very sad. What I learned, though, is failing is rather like standing on the edge of a cold swimming pool. If you dip a toe in, maybe even get as adventurous as a whole foot in its horrible. You retract from it, you do not want to get any deeper into that shit. This is just mild failure though, this is "oh well, I gave it a shot". I never done that, I failed epicly. Everyone around me told me it was not working out but I never listened. I'd not let them tell me I could not do it, it was not their call since it clearly never meant a fraction as much to them as it did me. Instead, I hammered on until I'd made an utter fool of myself and it was entirely nonsubjective that had not worked out. I proved pretty damn conclusively I was not able to do it and exhausted my resources in the process, and myself. Which, strangely enough started to get a bit easier to deal with. Now, if you dive right on into a cold pool, see its cold and jump right back out, you tend to think "fuck me, that was cold I am not doing that again". If you stay in there for a while though, flounder in the failure, meh, you get kinda used to it. I am not saying "Come in, the water is lovely" but I started to notice that is probably about as bad as it can get and, I can take this. Just don't stay underwater for too long because that is how you fucking drown. You need to get up and start swimming. It was the shock that got me, very much in the same way your body gets shocked entering the cold water, the shock of suddenly switching from pride to shame was a lot to take. This kept me lying at the bottom for a while thinking "Oh well, maybe I will just die then". Once that wore off, things started to seem less gloomy. I was able to console myself with the fact I really had tried as best as I knew how at the time and I never threw my principles overboard when things got hard and it would have been easier to toss they fuckers aside. I'd failed but at least I'd failed trying to keep a standard that I thought was right. Whether I was indeed right or not is subjective but that matters not to me since if I'd taken the easy way out and avoided all the pain that was to follow, I'd sit here today feeling I'd done the wrong thing, feeling I'd sold out my values and not even got any money for them. It would have been cowardly and a case of quitting when it got tough and I'd not like that feeling, not at all. I do not like to quit. When I was very down, at the very depths of it all I really did consider it may be the best option to just kill myself. Futility is a hell of a drug. Killing myself really felt a lot like quitting though. A lot. So I never. Throughout the struggles of trying to save the business I always thought that once I had it'd be a great benefit to me to have went through it. No matter what happened in the future I'd be able to think "Well, it's not as hard as it was then and I got through that". Funnily, even although I ultimately did not succeed I still got the same thing. After failing and feeling the rawness of my best not being enough and after the unpleasantness of having to stand up in front of public firing squads (I did fail publicly), after the tears and bouts of depression, after the sting of it all subdued a bit I noticed I was still here. I'd not "made it" but I'd made it through it. It was a hard time and I cracked up a bit but then I healed up also and I think I healed up too and it hardened me. It'd have never wanted it to happen, I'd have far preferred for to have all worked out but now that it has happened I can see there are positives that can be taken from it and it offers the chance of improvement. [link] [comments]  |
| If you haven't watched "The Greatest showman" this is very inspiring for entrepreneurs Posted: 04 Mar 2018 12:33 PM PST |
| Interactive guides and feedback about it's usefulness Posted: 04 Mar 2018 09:42 AM PST A friend of mine is trying to assess the usefulness of interactive guides to teach users about any product. An interactive guide is a guide where the user sees the actual product screens and take actions while learning. The user can also control the pace of learning. He has created two simple guides to demonstrate the same. Constructive feedback on the idea would be very useful. [link] [comments]  |
| Reasons that will keep you poor, unsuccessful and depressed forever Posted: 04 Mar 2018 12:00 PM PST There are a lot of people that need attitude and mindset shifts if they ever want to be a successful entrepreneur. Here are the main reasons that will keep you poor, unsuccessful and depressed. Feel free to add to the list. 1) You keep complaining and blaming others for your life situation 2) You hate on the rich and successful 3) You never set SMART goals 4) You say YES to everybody and everything 5) You resent others 6) You think you know it all 7) You find fault in everything 8) You play the blame game. 9) You justify your situation to yourself and to those around you. 10) You are waiting to start. 11) You spend more than you make 12) You complain instead of committing 13) You live for today, hoping tomorrow will care about its worries. 14) You are always distracted 15) You are all talk and no action 16) You spend your time with losers 17) You procrastinate 18) You don't listen to others 19) You are lazy 20) You are not a nice person 21) You are a pessimist 22) You fail to build strong relationships 23) You are not persistent enough 24) You lack humility 25) You are a quitter Got any to add to the list? [link] [comments]  |
| Need some advice about a non compete agreement between 2 companies Posted: 04 Mar 2018 01:57 PM PST We are in NJ and the companies that we are dealing with are in various other states. My partner and I have an idea for an airport business, we want to talk to airport concession management and consulting companies to see if they can help us get it into airports. We would want them to sign a non compete agreement that says that they won't take our idea and do it themselves (they have already said that they won't sign an NDA since they would need to discuss the idea with airport officials and they don't want to be liable if the idea is leaked). I am aware that most non compete agreements are between employers and employees. My question is, is the kind of non compete that we need (which is not between and employer and employee, but rather between 2 companies) enforceable? Does it depend on the state? In states where non compete agreements between a company and an employee are not enforceable, would this kind of non compete also not be enforceable, or is it different (maybe because the reason they aren't enforceable is to help employees get new jobs, which doesn't apply in our situation)? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Mar 2018 11:52 PM PST Long story short, we had a three year old ecommerce / retail business 50/50 with my ex best friend. Last night, he kicked me out of everywhere: Facebook, Paypal, the website, email... everything. I drove over to the shop and he had packed up and taken our $70k stock. I will obviously ask for legal advice first thing Monday morning, but my stupidity of not having a written contract of this 50/50 ownership might make it so that I lose everything. If this worst case scenario happens, and I do lose everything, how do I leverage what I got to the best of my abilities and start a new similar business? What I have: I still have access to our Instagram account and have changed the password and email there. I managed to download our entire email list with all customer emails (+10k). I am the one who's been running the business (he paid the bills and helped with technical stuff) so I have all the connections to all brands we buy from, all b2b customers (pretty small part of our revenue though), I know many of our regular customers (however we have around 700 orders per month, so it's not like a couple regulars are responsible of the majority of our business) and I'm very knowledgeable in the niche. So let's say I have no legal way of getting anything back, how would you proceed to launch your own similar business leveraging what I have now. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Have any one successfully completed any business collaboration through reddit Posted: 04 Mar 2018 09:34 AM PST I have seen many subreddits for collaboration and co founding. Pls share your experience collaborating or confounding any business ventures with people you met via reddit. Was it good bad if so why, what was the most important things to take care of while collaborating. [link] [comments]  |
| Documenting My Road to 10k legit followers on Instagram Posted: 03 Mar 2018 08:02 PM PST hey all, My name is Serafin and I'm going to document my journey to 10k followers on instagram without buying influencers or using bots. I am tired of just learning; for the past 2 years I read books, browse forums, listened to podcasts and watched videos—-and in all honesty, I see myself in this endless loop of just learning and never actually starting anything: I'm tired of it. The reality is, I don't know what I'm doing or how to grow to 10k or even consider myself close to an expert on the social media topic; I'm also intimidated by the competition because it seems like everyone is now a social media expert. Why am i doing this? I want to bring people behind the scenes with me and show the real challenges someone may go through and how I overcome them and in return my followers learn from my failures. I plan to be 100% transparent on what I do and why I did a certain strategy. The reason why I chose 10k followers is because at 10k following I am able to take stories to another level by having the "swipe up" feature to a landing page. Would you be interested in this? [link] [comments]  |
| I'm trying to make the NEXT big Thing/Website Posted: 04 Mar 2018 12:19 PM PST I have an idea but I have to convince a friend to jump on the idea as well. We would both be financially responsible for this website. I have to understand how to get users to our website and keep them on there. And from there to keep competitors from stealing our ideas. I know what I want to do and how to do it. But I dont know the typical pitfalls and things I should be weary about. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Mar 2018 11:58 AM PST I have started a Bloody Mary Seasoning Mix company. It's a stick pack that has all the necessary ingredients to make an instant Bloody with just tomato juice and booze.. The products did very well on Kickstarter, and the social media accounts are fired right up! Everyone's wired for sound and can't wait for my product. However, I'm lacking in the lead generation department. I need to get into the heads of more retailers. I signed up on Hubba couple weeks ago and got a call already, but they are like a distributor with middle man syndrome.. I mean, the packs go for 10 bucks a piece retail. I can't afford a middle middle man.. I'm running low on ideas to keep the public Interested for the next 5 weeks while my product is being manufactured by my contract packaging agency. I don't want my first week open to be slow. Currently Devil Daves is in the production phase with an expected arrival of product in 2nd week of April. I have just completed a successful Kickstarter and currently have a pre-sale campaign going as well. We have secured so far, 600 presale customers (Kickstarter included), 6 stores, 3 restaurants, a hotel, and possibly a couple sub box companies.. I want this pre-sale number to grow heavy! I have press kits, media kits, and information on our product line. Just looking for some solid experience based information. What would you do in my situation? Have a look and let me know.. Also, once I get my inventory in, I'll get some better Product photos and build a better site. https://www.facebook.com/devildavesbloodymarysticks [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Mar 2018 11:36 AM PST Hey guys I'm thinking about starting a business with my somewhat decent baking abilities. It would most likely start by me baking these cake push up pops that I'm calling cake ups. If you could take a minute and give me your feedback on a couple things I would greatly appreciate it. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSew9fRXGTz3kLPbfkK4Xzgxcyu2a5t2k8twYtGe-ZpJ-Sj5IA/viewform [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Mar 2018 01:44 PM PST Hey! So I am a sales consultant and ad agency owner. I send 4 emails prior to someone signing up for a free live training / webinar style to increase conversions. I I figured I would share my invitation and reminder email structure, and throw it on reddit so all of you guys can learn! Pay attention to the details with copy. The big takeaway here is to increase traffic/signups and reduce no-shows with frequent and strategic emails. INVITATION - STEP 1 Title - How to generate free leads and close 4-6 figure deals with ease Think it sounds too good to be true? It's not It's free and if you are in any form of sales, you must watch this and learn how to get better results, I will show you how in the video in less than an hour. If you already have some success and a good service to sell, you have everything you need to double your income because I have the formula. What's the secret? It comes down to having 2 key assets in your business.
Curious how to find those two things? I will give you a good idea in this video. I just created a 45 minute training walking you through the exact process I used to get better at sales and learn how to make 20k am month at age 22 *This process was used to teach a college kid how to start a service based business and generate 133k of revenue, with 0 dollars spent on advertising. Just effective cold calling , good lead quality, and good presentation / closing, and follow up systems. Click here to sign up for my all-new training, titled "how I blew past 6 figure income at 22 through by mastering sales and lead generation" https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_aJmnR2YnSdGmMdFeFY4kNg Okay, so after someone signs up, this is how we increase the chance they show REMINDER - STEP 2 - Much more straightforward Hey This is a friendly reminder that my VERY FIRST free webinar "Secrets to success with lead generation and closing deals that I used to blow past a 6 figure income at age 22" starts tomorrow at 7:00 PM Eastern. If you are trying to learn what really works with marketing and sales - you don't want to miss this! Looking forward to having you, here's the link again:https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_aJmnR2YnSdGmMdFeFY4kNg REMINDER 3 Hey! Another friendly reminder, the value packed 45 minute free training you signed up for is starting in less than an hour. Make sure to be in a quiet spot, and be ready to take notes, you are going to learn a TON, and find out the secrets I normally teach private clients in a 1 on 1 setting only. Then - another email 10 minutes before. I have a following and fanbase, and often I don't use this email structure to get people sold on attending, because they normally are excited by the topics I teach and the value I give. I really use this email frequency and format just to give them reminders - how often do you sign up for things and make commitments and forget. Some people say 4 emails is a lot, but if you signed up for something interesting (like a free sales training webinar) normally you won't mind the reminders and the link being re-sent to you. Who else here uses webinars/email sequences to scale their awareness and number of inbound leads? [link] [comments]  |
| I have an email list, what is the best way to send out email marketing for cheap? Posted: 04 Mar 2018 09:51 AM PST To cut a long story short I have a decently sized (2000+) targeted email list from a previous business. I'm starting a new business in a similar niche and want to drive my initial sales through it. My main concern is budget right now for a variety of reasons and I need to bootstrap this as hard as possible. What is the best and cheapest (preferably free) way to send out mass emails? Also any additional resources on how to create an effective email marketing campaign, etc, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Mar 2018 06:17 AM PST I'm looking to purchase a website or app. My background is in software development, so ideally I'd like to purchase something where I can leverage my existing skills to grow the business at low cost. I've checked out empire flippers, but the properties there seem to be relatively pricey, additionally a lot of the sellers use things like PBNs which I don't trust. Does anyone have any advice of other places I could find small businesses to purchase and grow? or maybe my approach is flawed from the get-go? Any advice appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Entrepreneur Going to Community College or State College? Posted: 04 Mar 2018 12:12 PM PST I am currently choosing my college and need help. My two options are 1) My local community college ($5k per year) 2) An in-state school ($23k per year) I have invested a lot of time and money into eCommerce, however I have not made a significant amount of success, but I am always working on projects to get me there. Option 1 Community college will save a lot of money but the social aspect is non-existent, however I will have a lot of time allotted for business projects. I will have to live at home with my parents. I can transfer after 2 years, however I am hoping to hit something that takes off within 2 years. Option 2 I am worried that by going to in-state college, I will be wasting potential and that the passion/drive may go away while in college. However, I will be around a lot more social people and get the "college experience". My parents will be able to help me afford it. I will have networking opportunities. Would love to know what the community thinks! [link] [comments]  |
| Social Media Marketing Agency owners, how did you get your first customer? Posted: 04 Mar 2018 12:10 PM PST |
| Please help me validate a Car Sharing App idea. Posted: 04 Mar 2018 11:47 AM PST Hi. Would you use a car sharing app where you login with your work email, you use it only to go to and come from work with other coworkers. You don't pay anything and the person that posts an ride offer receives points that can be exchanged for car products. You would get notified offers near you appear and when your pickup is close to the pickup location. We would track how much carbon dioxide/money you save and there would be a review system. Also if you own a company would you pay for such an app subscription for your employees. The app could be branded with your company's logo and colors. Thanks for the help. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Mar 2018 11:31 AM PST My mom approached me about starting a business with my brother and now I'm looking for advice. Were thinking it will be an autoshop. My brother has the labor side covered as he's an experienced mechanic. I cover accounting and possibly HR in the beginning. My mom would like to join but she makes a hefty amount at her current job with a nation bank in their mortgage department, I think she should just invest if she wants and stay out of the day to day. We would need to find a lead on marketing a sales as were all sort of inexperienced when it comes to that department. Me and my brother have always been very close and he is the hardest working most honest person I know so I trust him and eventually I'd like to back out of it and leave him with some ownership. He's not interested in business though so that's where I come in for the beginning but then I can find and train a replacement befire leaving. I guess what I'm looking for are tips or stories regarding working closely with family. This is all new as it would be all of our very first business and first time working together on such a large project. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Mar 2018 11:18 AM PST The title pretty much says it all. But here's some more details: I'm in a city of around 400K people in Florida. Right now we have a lot of service-based businesses that are doing well, with more springing up each day. Pool cleaners, landscaping, house cleaning, car detailing, you name it. I'm a web and software developer by trade, and figure this could be a pretty decent market to build something towards, considering the fact that most of them don't have anything more than a phone number or email address on their website. However being that I'd be working on my own, tackling a service that is marketed nation-wide seems like a stretch, at least for right now. I figured narrowing my scope to just locals would be beneficial. I'm torn between one of two options, both weighted pretty equally in my mind. I could either build a feature-simple SaaS app to help them take in leads, schedule appointments (recurring or otherwise) and give their users notifications for when they're going to be coming to their house/office/establishment to perform their service. Payment through the app could be offered as well, but it's a feature that would take some time to build out and might not be necessary in the beginning. Marketing this could be difficult. I imagine it would be mostly cold-calling these companies asking if they'd like to demo my app and what the potential boost to their business they could get from it. The second option would be to create a referral service site like Thumbtack, or HomeAdvisor. Again, it would be branded and aimed toward this one specific region. It would mainly be an amalgamation of every service-based company, organized into categories. Users would be able to see reviews, request services, and get general information about each company. I'm less sold on this idea, because building up a site like this would be hard to market (e.g. why would anyone go here, when they could just go to the two sites I've mentioned above?). Profit could be in offering premium listings or ad spots. Right now I'm leaning toward the SaaS app, but I would love any and all suggestions anyone has! [link] [comments]  |
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