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    Thursday, May 31, 2018

    Home Unlabelled Thank you Thursday! - (May 31, 2018) Entrepreneur

    Thank you Thursday! - (May 31, 2018) Entrepreneur

    May 31, 2018

    Thank you Thursday! - (May 31, 2018) Entrepreneur

    Thank you Thursday! - (May 31, 2018)

    Posted: 31 May 2018 06:06 AM PDT

    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.

    submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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    I’m Ray Dalio. Ask me anything! Answering questions from 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM EDT.

    Posted: 31 May 2018 07:26 AM PDT

    I'm Ray Dalio—founder of Bridgewater Associates and author of Principles. This is my first AMA. Ask me anything!

    I'll be answering questions from 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM EDT.

    Proof: https://twitter.com/RayDalio/status/1002200755703549952

    Thanks for a great conversation! Let's do it again sometime. https://twitter.com/RayDalio/status/1002240589381996548

    submitted by /u/RayTDalio
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    Going Viral and Building a 1,000,000 USD per Month Smart Home Camera Business

    Posted: 31 May 2018 04:15 AM PDT

    Hey - Pat from Starter Story here with another interview.

    Today's interview is with Yun Zhang of Wyzecam, a brand that makes Smart Home Cameras.

    Some stats:

    • Revenue/mo: $1,000,000
    • Started: July 2017
    • Location: Kirkland, WA
    • Founders: 4
    • Employees: 30

    Hello! Who are you and what are you working on?

    My name is Yun Zhang and I am the CEO of Wyze Labs, as well as one of the founding members. We founded WYZE Labs in July 2017 and launched our first product, a smart home camera – the Wyze Cam – in October of the same year.

    Within our first six months of launch, we've been fortunate to have sold over 300,000 units and foster a thriving user community that we rely on every day for product feedback.

    Our mission at Wyze Labs is to make great smart home products and make those products accessible to everyone.

    What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

    Wyze has four co-founders and we all met while working at Amazon. As a team, we have a very deep understanding of retail operations, including both e-commerce and big box chains. Team members have worked at Microsoft, Best Buy, REI, Groupon, etc. At each of these companies, as well as Amazon, roles varied between team members. Some of our team members have expertise in operations, some in marketing, some in sales, and so on. We complement each other very well when we bring it all together. This is absolutely at the core of our success since we are able to see problems from many angles and perspectives.

    We discovered that in the smart home market, customers only have two options:

    1. Expensive premium brands
    2. Cheap, low quality me-too brands with little-to-no customer service.

    With our extensive background in retail and operations, we thought we could make a difference in the smart home space.

    We also found that most of the smart home products on the market are difficult to use and non-intuitive for the user. Different smart home platforms confuse customers. We believe smart home products should be simple so we decided to build a Wyze smart home ecosystem with one simple Wyze App.

    We also looked closely on competitors and did our market research. I'll refrain from using any competitor names, but we ordered a number of competing units and all of us carefully reviewed them. We discussed the pros and cons of each device and shared our experience with each other. A lot of our research was just being customers ourselves and identifying what we liked, disliked and identified as missing from the experience.

    We believe that if we focus on users and products, we can make great products and offer those products at disruptive prices. This way, everyone will have the ability to enjoy the power of technology.

    Describe the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing the product.

    We have strong relationships with suppliers in China, allowing us to produce great products at competitive prices. We formed this network by completing an intensive search around the world, traveling to meet factory owners and networking. We were able to identify manufacturers that shared the same beliefs and mission as our own: Products should have good design, high quality and affordable pricing.

    We started with a smart home camera because visual connection is a deeply rooted human need. Once we knew which product we wanted to launch, we worked with our ODM partner to license the hardware for Wyze Cam. This turned out to be a great first product, because on the hardware side we were quite satisfied with what the partner already had to offer.

    We then put our focus on the software and hired a great engineering team to create the firmware and the Wyze App. Ease-of-use and the user experience were of utmost importance to us during this process and we think we accomplished that task as our customer feedback has been extremely positive.

    Describe the process of launching the online store/business.

    Direct to consumer is an important part of our business model since it allows us to offer the lowest price to our customers.

    We created wyzecam.com as our e-commerce platform and prepared three months for the launch. We used Wordpress and WooCommerce, which were easy to set up and optimized for user experience.

    For the launch, we targeted the technology enthusiast audience. We chose a technical audience because we believe this customer can resonate with our mission and will understand the enormous challenges we are solving with this tiny camera. Another major benefit of targeting this group is that the audience is a very bright and engaging group; a community that we can lean on for product improvements, upgrades, and general bug fixes.

    Finding this segment was a mix of gut instinct and careful research. Since we're all former Amazonians, we've picked up some great skills along the way in our careers for identifying retail market segments with potential.

    Our thought process looked a little like this: We have a camera with great specs at a $20 price point; an impressive value against what's already on the market. But we have no time or resources to convince people that it's an impressive value offer. Therefore, we wanted to target people right off the bat that would just 'get it.' That is, we wanted to talk to people that would understand right away how disruptive this camera is at a $20 price point.

    On launch day, we sold 10k units, selling out our entire US inventory. We felt incredibly blessed that our customers understood our value proposition and supported our efforts to change the smart home industry.

    One of our mistakes we continue to learn from is our under-forecasting of our product launches. With such rapid success in the first few weeks of launch, it was extremely difficult to know just how successful our camera was going to be.

    Because of this, a good portion of the last few months Wyze Cam has been out of stock, causing a negative customer experience. Fortunately, our strong operations team was able to work closely with our manufacturing partner to get us quickly back in stock.

    Since launch, what has worked to attract new customers?

    We do not invest in traditional marketing & branding. Our spend on digital ads is close to nothing. Instead, we allocate what would have been our marketing dollars into creating value for our customers. For example, we spend all of our efforts towards product development, improvements, and customer support as opposed to Facebook and Google Ads.

    Our tenet is making and being friends with our users. We ask ourselves these two questions every day:

    1. What products are you proud of making for your best friends? And
    2. What price would you offer to your best friends?

    The answer: Great products priced at cost.

    Our main marketing strategy has been word of mouth. We let our product speak for itself and recommendations from our customers have exponentially grown our business.

    This has earned us steady and significant traffic to our website. wyzecam.com is ranked #28,080 in the US by SimilarWeb and our webstore conversion is well above industry average; something our entire team is proud of.

    Several press events also have been extremely successful for us. I would say our most successful mentions have been in the below publications:

    • New York Times
    • CNET
    • Forbes
    • Bloomberg
    • TechCrunch
    • Business Insider

    Also a few of the more popular YouTube channels have picked up on our product:

    • Unbox Therapy
    • CNET

    How is everything going nowadays, and what are your plans for t future?

    Our business is growing and we continue to double-down on our user experience and the value we add to our customers' lives. This means forecasting more accurately so we remain in stock, correcting bugs as they are identified, adding new features and products customers demand, and providing great customer support along the way.

    Regarding the structure of our business, we operate with a low margin, high volume model. This creates value and drives efficiency for our customer. We strive to build long-term trust with our users and do this in a few different ways: We have created an engaging user forum on our website allowing the Wyze team to directly interact with our users, a beta testing program to hear direct feedback related to product experience, and monthly newsletters updating users on our business and any new launches.

    We recently launched an accessory, which is a mounting kit for our camera. We did this because we saw a lot of people from around the forums and social media sites request it.

    In terms of major product launches, we do have products in the pipeline but for the most part we are keeping this close to the vest. For the time being, we want to ensure our v2 Wyze Cam has dedicated resources focused on it to make sure we can provide the customer with the best experience possible.

    Users and products are the two motors that drive Wyze forward.

    Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

    Our big learning: Be honest and transparent to your customers.

    We launched Wyze Cam v2 on 02/15/2018. We took tens of thousands of preorders and promised to ship on the 02/28. We produced 80k units and received them in Seattle but found defects right before we were about to ship them to customers. The defects were not found in all units, but the probability of defect rates prompted us to pause all shipments to customers. From our experience at Amazon, we understood that we would rather take a hit on short-term revenue in favor of long-term customer satisfaction.

    We decided to return all 80k units to our factory in China. We immediately started root cause analysis and discovered that the new manufacturing process for our v2 camera led to unforeseen quality issues. Due to high standards and the complexity of the new manufacturing process, our manufacturing yield was very low.

    We delayed the shipping of preorders by one month. The delay impacted tens of thousands of customers, which was really a hard pill for us to swallow. We did our best to communicate with customers every week, updating them on progress we've made with their orders through email and social media posts. We made sure customers were aware of the delay, the cause of the delay, and the recovery plan.

    We received tremendously positive responses and support from our customers. They supported us to overcome the challenges while going through this difficult time. This incident actually tied the Wyze team and Wyze customers even closer.

    What platform/tools do you use for your business?

    We use WooCommerce & Wordpress for our webstore. We use Stripe, Paypal, and Amazon Pay for our web store's online payment processing.

    We use a 3PL warehouse in the Seattle area and Shipstation for fulfillment.

    We use MailChimp for email marketing. Brand24 and Google Alerts for social monitoring.

    Freshdesk and Stella Connect for Customer Support. Google Suite, Dropbox, and Slack for team collaboration and communication.

    What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

    Podcasts:

    • How I Built This
    • Masters of Scale

    Books:

    • From Good to Great
    • The Xiaomi Way
    • Hooked
    • How to Win Friends & Influence People

    Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

    Be prepared for dark times, but always have a belief and a vision.

    Where can we go to learn more?

    Our Website and Social Media accounts:

    • wyzecam.com
    • WyzeCam on YouTube
    • WyzeCam on Facebook
    • Twitter: @WyzeCam

    Liked this interview? Check out more founders that shared their story on StarterStory.com

    submitted by /u/youngrichntasteless
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    Unsure how much SEO should cost? I surveyed 242 agencies, freelancers, and consultants to find out their rates.

    Posted: 31 May 2018 01:32 PM PDT

    As you may know, SEO is one of the primary opportunities to get repeatable and scale-able growth for a business.

    To give clarity into what SEOs offer, we surveyed 242 agencies, freelancers, consultants, and contractors who provide these services.

    Although we didn't reach statistical significance, this doesn't mean you can't find valuable insights from the survey data. Additionally, I will compare our results to Credo's 2015 survey, and Moz's 2012 survey to help give more context.

    Here's the highlights of our SEO pricing survey:

    1. 62% of respondents price their services between $76 and $150 an hour. 75.6% charge less than $150 per hour. The majority of contractors may be underpricing themselves. Marie Haynes will share why she believes someone good at SEO should charge at least $150 per hour.
    2. 24.6% of respondents indicated that they charge between $1,000-2,000/month. About a third (30.6%) charge less than $1,000/month. But nearly a quarter (23%) surveyed charge $4,000/month or more.
    3. Pricing is challenging to master. 81% of respondents change their rates based on the service they offer.
    4. It may surprise you that of those we surveyed, 6% of respondents are traditional marketing agencies and 11% are web design or development firms.
    5. The top three most popular services offered are on-page SEO (82%), keyword research (81.2%), and content creation (76.8%), yet only 2% identify themselves as part of a content agency.
    6. Only 34.4% of SEO contractors and agencies offer infographic or visual design services. Perhaps infographics are a dying trend. Or maybe this is an untapped opportunity.

    Here is the full research: SEO Pricing is Ugly. Here are the Prices to Expect for SEO Packages [New Research].

    If you have questions about the data, leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer it.

    submitted by /u/jdquey
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    Thank You Thursday - a free online course for learning AdWords & Bing

    Posted: 31 May 2018 12:03 PM PDT

    Rand Fishkin just tweeted this guide to PPC. I've been studying AdWords for a while for my own personal business purposes. Haven't gotten through it all the way yet, but I think it's one of the better free resources out there for those looking to promote services/products/etc. Enjoy!

    https://www.discosloth.com/beginners-guide-to-ppc/

    submitted by /u/herestogoes
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    Python programming: 100% automated robot that scrapes & post deals on Twitter and Instagram

    Posted: 31 May 2018 08:43 AM PDT

    Hello All, I would like to share a little project I have been doing just programming with python. The main objectives of posting it here are to:

    1. Get ideas on how to improve it?
    2. How to monetise it?
    3. Could this experiment be extrapolated to something bigger?

    Background:

    I have always been interested in programming until 2 years ago when I started learning machine learning with Python. My methodology was simple: I needed an objective or project and work towards that. So I joined several Kaggle competitions and got myself quite motivated about it in parallel to my daily job. I work as an engineer (12+ years experience) in a high tech industry and was easy to me to understand and apply the mathematical and practical foundations of machine learning. After I built some know-how I started doing some other things in parallel to my job, web scrapping, applying machine learning to stock exchange and forex to identify opportunities, web scrapping in big retail companies to identify seasonal products and opportunities, etc.

    Then I started learning Flask but realised that web development can be quite tough due to is a very dynamic world and some concepts do not respond to logic, but still working on it. All this with the main objective of building something in parallel with my day job. I have lots of ideas but realised that all of them were quite big and would not be able to do it on my own.

    The reason I do not leave my current job and dedicate to one of this big projects with more people is: I love my job, I have a great work/life balance and I consider myself well paid and I have not found people with the same drivers as myself. However, I have a strong entrepreneur spirit and am always looking for opportunities to build in the side. So I decided to start a little project, small monetisation, but something that worked and that would not take me too long to construct or to maintain.

    The Project:

    This is basically a 100% automated robot that follows this sequence:

    1.- Web Scrapping into a "Retail company X" deals to get all data related to product, time left for the deal, discount, price, etc. mainly in Technology.

    2.- Sort all the deals by discount giving higher weight on the most expensive products

    3.- Get the deals one by one and produce one banner with the main picture of the photo, the product, some text to advertise it, the discount, etc.

    4.- Post it in Twitter and Instagram with some text and funny emoticons.

    So the robot is creating one post every hour from 8:00 to 24:00. There are some rules like it will never post one product twice and before posting is scrapping all the deals, removing duplicates, sorting, etc.

    Then I have a couple of robots that are following people with similar interests, and also giving likes and favourites based on hashtags in both Twitter and Instagram. I am trying to control this since I don't want to create lots of spam. This is how a typical post looks like, currently only in Spanish:

    https://imgur.com/a/56LfIww

    It took me about a week working at night to build the program above. Currently I am trying to monetise it with "Retail Company X Affiliates" and building enough followers to start generating some interest from other vendors.

    The robot is 100% automated and requires minor maintenance. All this is running in a Raspberry Pi 3B+ and my plan is to leave it running for several months and see results. Currently I have been running it for 5 days and I already have nearly 300 followers (probably low quality followers).

    Please, could you let me know your thoughts about it, how to improve it, how to monetise it and/or how to extrapolate this to a more commercial business?

    Thanks for your help!

    Benito

    submitted by /u/BenitoCamelasVG
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    What are your ideas to take advantage of a major industry change: banning of single use plastic?

    Posted: 31 May 2018 01:15 PM PDT

    In the past few weeks reddit has been flooded with articles about the banning of single use plastics. Places everywhere from California, to Chile to the entire EU are taking a stand against single use plastic bags, straws, cups etc. This is clearly a global industry shifting movement, and by 2025 we might see an entirely new landscape.

    What potential business ideas does that inspire? I want to hear your ideas.

    Ideas: Biodegradable straws, bags and cups. Reusable straws, bags and cups. Alternative plastics i.e. hemp or corn.

    Sorry for formatting on mobile.

    submitted by /u/iStayGrizzly
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    Please answer - Research for my business idea

    Posted: 31 May 2018 01:15 PM PDT

    I am completing a business plan and need to measure demand for a service that I offer.

    Please read the info below and let me know how much you would personally pay (monthly) for my service.

    Otherwise, please let me know how I could improve this service to make you interested in paying for it.

    Service

    I forecast profitable products to resell e.g. limited-edition items.

    • The information is published a few days before the item goes on sale.
    • I publish details of the item, it's cost and expected resale price - as well as places the product can easily be sold.

    Performance

    Each product takes about 30 - 60 mins of work:

    • Buying the product online (I provide purchasing tips)
    • Listing and selling it online e.g. eBay, StubHub, etc.
    • Posting the product (if applicable). Most products are digital and do not require postage.

    On average, each sale returns 30\% profit (after all costs)

    • However, profit can easily be several hundred percent
    • There tends to be at least 1 opportunity per week
    • Products tend to resell within minutes (due to high demand and low availability)

    In terms of experience, I have been doing this for 17 months

    • I have sold 63 products and made £8,400 profit (after all costs)
    • £4,500 was made in the first 12 months (34 products, 8 losers, 26 winners)
    • £3,900 was made in the last 5 months (29 products, 0 losers, 29 winners)
    • This is an average profit of approx. £500 per month

    Question

    Please let me know how much you would personally pay (per month) to have access to this information.

    Even let me know if you would not be willing to pay for it.

    Also, please suggest how I could improve this service if possible to make it more appealing.

    submitted by /u/RealTalkOnly43
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    How to handle AWS Lambda errors like a pro

    Posted: 31 May 2018 01:09 PM PDT

    What's the Best Age to Start a Business?

    Posted: 31 May 2018 03:13 AM PDT

    Very young entrepreneurs get a lot of press..What's the Best Age to Start a Business?

    submitted by /u/kev_24
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    When did you know it was time to leave your full time job and work on your project full time?

    Posted: 30 May 2018 11:17 PM PDT

    there should be a networking website for entrepreneurs...

    Posted: 31 May 2018 11:42 AM PDT

    like facebook and linkedin except you connect to discuss ideas, potential business opportunities, partnerships, etc. I think it would be very helpful in today's world unless there is already something out there i am not aware of.

    submitted by /u/Buccyy
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    Problem with my search for a Co-Founder

    Posted: 31 May 2018 11:32 AM PDT

    I've found a great potential cofounder for a business I've been growing this month. His skills exceed mine and he has a greater network of connections, this intimidates me because he can just run away with my idea and his network of people and put me in the dust.

    Apart from a partnership contract outlying equity etc. What can I do to cement myself and be irreplaceable ?

    submitted by /u/koalakid12
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    Seeking social media guidance

    Posted: 31 May 2018 11:08 AM PDT

    Seeking a skilled social media person to guide us how to increase our FB following from under 100 to 1,000+ We are also getting ready to launch an IG campaign as well, so zero to 1,000+ followers also the goal

    We are not expecting to have someone hold our hand. We are confident in the original content we continue to create.

    We are pleased to barter the following:

    Share our expertise with your business with respect to:

    Increasing profitability, safety and efficiency and if you are also in L.A. - coffee/tea or a beer – whatever your preference

    submitted by /u/joshb33071
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    I'm starting my own (online) business. How do estimated taxes work?

    Posted: 31 May 2018 11:06 AM PDT

    I'm starting an online business/blog which will primarily be receiving income from ads, affiliate links, and sponsored content. I have a few specific questions but please feel free to add any advice you have. Thanks!

    • Is there a threshold that I have to reach before I have to do estimated taxes? (hypothetical example: I don't have to pay taxes until I reach $500/mo)
    • Are estimated taxes done in addition to regular yearly income taxes?
    • How much should I be putting aside and when? 30% every month? Higher percentage? Lower? More frequently? Less frequently?
    • Can a reasonably intelligent person do their own estimated taxes or is it best to hire a professional?
    • What are the tax forms I'll be using and how might they interact with/be relevant to my W2s from my day jobs?
    submitted by /u/RickNinePlus298
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    Are there statistics available on the success rates of entrepreneurs?

    Posted: 31 May 2018 11:01 AM PDT

    I'm looking for statistics on the success rates of entrepreneurs, or people who attempt entrepreneurship. What proportion of attempted entrepreneurs go on to make a sustainable income working for themselves many years down the road? How many people quit after one failed venture?

    More accurately, I'm wondering what the chances are of success as an entrepreneur after (up to) 30 years of persistence in working on your own ideas.

    Obviously, I'm doubtful that such statistics exist, but I'd love to hear some thoughts on this. Do entrepreneurs fail because they give up? Have bad ideas? Run out of resources to support themselves?

    submitted by /u/SeventhSectionSword
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    Best to start an LLC in your current state, or future state where you PLAN to be doing majority of business?

    Posted: 31 May 2018 10:34 AM PDT

    Hi there! I'm starting a production company, and our business is booming at a super small scale. I need to make this an LLC, but I'm really stuck with my foot in the mud. We are currently based out of New Jersey, but in 2019 we will be most likely moving out to Los Angeles. I've consulted with a CPA/Lawyer that suggested we LLC in the future state of California where we will be conducting business. But I still have another 6+ months of initial business being in New York/New Jersey.

    I wanted to get some personal business suggestions on top of my qualified lawyer suggestions. I'll obviously take everything you say with a grain of salt, and will consult further with the lawyer/CPA before my final decision. I'm looking for personal stories and suggestions based on your experiences on where to LLC.

    I've also been told that LLC'ing in other states such as Delaware/Nevada/etc might be a good option in terms of business protection and taxes. Though it just seems a bit sketchy to me. And if my company isn't going to be making millions off the bat, I don't know how valuable that advice is. Thanks!

    submitted by /u/Chrisgpresents
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    Amazon FBAers - What’s the best way to begin getting reviews?

    Posted: 31 May 2018 10:21 AM PDT

    I'm reading that Amazon is very particular about reviews and having friends/family review them for you.

    Our website/product has already built an email list of 100k+ subscribers. However, we're just now beginning to test Amazon as a platform for us.

    Can I just email our current customers with an incentive to buy our product again, except on Amazon in exchange for a nonbias review?

    I'm also reading that theirs FB groups that you can do the same thing in, but not sure how effective that is or what Amazon is going to find is against their terms.

    submitted by /u/EntreprenuerDude
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    My Updated Landing Page (Request for Feedback)

    Posted: 31 May 2018 09:57 AM PDT

    Hey All,

    So my old landing page was just plain ugly. I took a ton of feedback and would love if you could let me know your thoughts:

    http://lentement.strikingly.com/

    submitted by /u/allofthelites
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    The journey of a human person entrepreneur

    Posted: 31 May 2018 09:55 AM PDT

    // About Me

    • I'm a natural introvert who has spent most of my working life (15 years) figuring out who I am and what I like doing. I started university at 23, took 5.5 years to get a music degree I haven't ever used, worked in various forms of construction then ran a homeless shelter for almost 4 years.
    • I am nervous and fearful. Pretty much about everything, all the time. A few years ago I found some tools to overcome depression and I'm still working on it.
    • Left home at 16, had a kid at 18, married my high school girlfriend at 20 and we're still married.
    • I'm a functionally creative person. I grew up being taught to stay within the lines so I learned to take my creativity and make it useful. Art for art's sake wasn't encouraged.
    • I'm not competitive but I like personal growth. I do things because I learn and grow. If I'm not doing either, I get bored and complacent.
    • I've started a couple businesses before this that never got off the ground. A music blog and artist accelerator that didn't go anywhere and a songwriting business that sputtered (and that might even be a generous description).

    // My business now

    • A social enterprise food company. We work directly with rural farmers in Colombia to develop and export products. We sell the products and put money back into the farmers' communities through educational initiatives in rural schools and by teaching farmers about sustainable agriculture (not my expertise, but that's why I have partners).
    • Our first (and only right now) offering is 2 series' of coffee, next will be either quinoa or cocoa.
    • I have 4 business partners (3 in Colombia, 1 here with me in Canada).
    • Registered in 2016, started selling hard only 2 months ago (more on this coming up).

    // Sales

    April's revenue from all sources was $1,300. May's revenue is $2,400.

    • I sell direct to customer and to retailers.
    • Less than 10% of revenue is through e-commerce.
    • Most B2C sales right now are done via text, whatsapp or facebook messenger with friends, family, friends of family, family of friends, etc.
    • I focus on sales 3 days a week right now, and the other days I deliver or do other businessy stuff.

    Sales is my biggest area of personal growth. I'm not a natural salesman and I see that as an advantage. I used to hate inconveniencing people, putting them out, or making them feel uncomfortable. I've learned to approach sales through relationship, through a lens of caring for someone.

    For example, I care that you enjoy your coffee in the morning before your brood of offspring get up because it starts your day off right and you hate yourself less because you yell at them less. I care that you have heartburn from your shitty tin-can coffee so I want you to drink mine because that won't happen.

    It's not revolutionary, it's just one of the ways that I've approached the "solve a problem for your customers" sales strategy.

    Cold-calling is out of my comfort zone at this point, but I will occasionally drop into a store/cafe/restaurant if I'm feeling outgoing. I lean heavily on warm referrals and cold emails. My open rate on cold emails is 80% and response rate in the first niche I'm attempting to tackle is 60%. It's a little too early to calculate the conversion rate as my sales cycle can be somewhat long for places like cafes or offices, but as a guesstimate its around 10-12%.

    I need to set some new sales targets for June and July. I hit May's target in the first half of the month. Things are growing better than my conservative estimates (30% for first 4 months, 20% for next 3, then 7% for the rest of 2019).

    // Work IN your business

    At first, I got caught up in what I thought was sage advice. You see it everywhere. Work on your business not in your business. My problem with that advice is that you won't have good accurate knowledge of your business unless you spend significant time working IN your business.

    For example: My books were decent to the untrained eye but I didn't really understand what I was recording and why I was recording it. I didn't understand what I needed my financial statements to tell me because I didn't know what was important (beyond the bottom line) to my business.

    Work on everything for a solid length of time until you can say you are more-than-competent at it... then you can consider handing it off to someone.

    Customer service calls/complaints? That's my chance to build loyal customers. You also get to deeply understand customers' frustrations and disappointments or the things about your product that excites them and makes them happy. Since I'm the one who does the main customer service AND the sales, this info will helps me craft my pitch and increase my confidence in it.

    Don't outsource too early at the expense of intimately knowing your business.

    // Bootstrap until it doesn't make sense anymore

    ... for some it will never make sense.

    I have little authority here, but here's what I've noticed: Bootstrapping forces you to make different decisions than you would if you had a full bank account. Yeah that's not rocket surgery, I know. But we often overlook this important fact because we think of how sexy it will be to raise gargantuan series As and Bs. But the sex-appeal aside, I think you'll typically make more creative and more well-researched decisions early on which could be crucial to future success if you don't.

    It also forces you to spend more time creatively lowering your COGS. I started with a 20% gross profit margin 2 months ago. It's is now 41% and will be 52% by the end of the summer. These still aren't all that healthy for a food manufacturing business, but I'm busting my hump to make sure I get there. Testing my assumptions (such as the type of bag or label consumers prefer) has been the main driver.

    Recently I've been approached by investors and, for me, I believe the timing is right to start the conversation. In order to increase my margins I need to purchase in larger quantities. I need capital to do that and LOCs, loans or investors could get me there. To me that's just a better reason to seek investment than chasing the YCombinator dream from the starting blocks.

    // Passion

    In a day where we have near infinite access to near infinite data I see people starting businesses that they care little about just because they know they can make money at it. Affiliate marketing, t-shirt drop-shipping, etc. That doesn't work for me.

    I'm an introvert. Passion is important.

    For me everything I do is driven by the fact that I've seen firsthand the farming conditions, I've seen the corruption in the supply chain and I love and respect the Colombian people.

    I can do stuff that scares me when I have more passion than I have fear.

    // Learn

    I see it all as a process of learning rather than 'accomplishing.' I've posted some pretty dumb questions in r/entrepreneur or r/smallbusiness as evidence.

    • learning to be a better salesman
    • learning accounting
    • learning about my blind spots or gaps in knowledge
    • learning what scares me and how to manage or overcome it
    • learning what motivates me and how slow-burn that fuel

    Instead of...

    • selling more
    • dominating the market
    • building an empire
    • etc.

    I still get a little bit down on my self for not knowing things. I tell myself stupid stuff like "a good entrepreneur would know this stuff" or "you'll never do as well as [person x] because of [the reason]" or even "I bet [so and so] never struggled with [this problem]."

    As cliche as it sounds (and it is) we all have different starting points and finishing points. My journey is not yours.

    I'd say if you're like me and tend to be hard on yourself or say things like "yeah that was good, but I wish it was like this..." just take it easy and know that you're learning and that's ultimately what it's all about.

    Musk can launch a rocket to colonize another planet. I can help a couple hundred farmers in South America. Both are pretty sweet.

    // The next 6 months...

    • reduce COGS (noted above)
    • learn how to sell better to restaurants/cafes
    • increase social media presence and email list (both are very lackluster, atm)
    • set and hit new - more aggressive - revenue targets
    • get in with a national grocery chain
    submitted by /u/OfAllThatIsElfuego
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    Why help a random guy?

    Posted: 31 May 2018 05:29 AM PDT

    How's it going Reddit? I'm a young man (21 years old) who has worked the same job since I've been 16. I've always had some type of side business to help generate some money. Right now I have a 1 year old son and things are getting tough and I'm looking for some advice from experienced and older users that are looking to help.

    Right now I work 7-3 Monday through Friday. Brining home only $650 every two weeks after taxes.

    My rent & Utilities together each month equal to about $1,100..

    I'm NOT asking for handouts I'm just asking for advice or to see if anyone has anything I can do to benefit them or there business. Thank you

    submitted by /u/mcmilllen
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    How important is the name? Any opinion is of high value

    Posted: 31 May 2018 08:59 AM PDT

    Hello,

    As the description of this subredit stats - Be professional, humble and open to new ideas. Thus I would like to ask you one simple question - how important is the name of an app/business/services or any other form of entrepreneurial venture?

    I am not talking about mindfully coming up with offensive/racial or any other naming.

    One personal example here was mindLESSly coming up with a racial slur as a name for a browser extension I recently launched. As soon as it was on the store, several people contacted me regarding it.

    So, yeah, in such cases the name CAN be important, but besides, that I don't see any significant value that the name can add to your business.

    What do you think? Any good/bad examples?

    P.S. Shameless self-promotion / example - the bad name for the extension was Darky (it enables night mode on any website) and the new name is Night Eye - https://nighteye.app/

    submitted by /u/gfc121
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    What's the coolest niche online business you've ever heard of/seen

    Posted: 31 May 2018 08:30 AM PDT

    I just heard of a full service marriage proposal business that helps guys not screw up the big ask. Got me thinking that there's a lot of things that people wouldn't even consider turning into a business that on second thought would probably make some decent money.

    What've you seen around the web lately that's got you thinking?

    submitted by /u/MarkiiMoe
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    Personal Entrepreneur Milestone achieved!

    Posted: 30 May 2018 04:03 PM PDT

    In January 2018, I left my job as a Software Engineer to build my own product. I got some pilot customers early on to test out the product (3-month trial) and today the first of the pilots converted to a paid plan!

    In reality, it's a small amount of money (£30/month) but it's a really nice boost to see a stranger pay for a product you're built from the ground up.

    Love the sub, learning lots every day from everyone!

    submitted by /u/sq7
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    [general question] If you coupd interview any mentor/coach, who would you choose?

    Posted: 31 May 2018 11:54 AM PDT

    Say you were given the opportunity to interview a mentor or life coach of your choosing,probably in your industry. Who would you choose and what would you ask?

    submitted by /u/Dylman57
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