Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (June 08, 2018) Entrepreneur |
- Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (June 08, 2018)
- Everyone who is using or needing a website, don't buy expensive hosting packages, try GitHub or Netlify
- $80k/month selling mini surfboards. ($200k Shark Tank investment from Ashton Kutcher/Mark Cuban)
- I just put together a huge list of 392 tools for entrepreneurs and thought I'd share here
- (Canada) As a new small catering business, I was excited to get a PO for about $1100 event. Too bad I discovered the whole transaction is a scam (open case)
- My wife busts her ass, to the point of tears over her handmade hairbow business.. thoughts/comments/love/hate please?
- Old Co-Founder Wants Back In
- I'm trying to hire remote customer service/sales people. Am I being realistic here? What questions do I still need to answer?
- Why do people hate on Dropshipping?
- Can I Get some Advice on how to start conversations at large Networking events?
- The 7 Biggest Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs Make Online
- I want to build an Ad Sense website.
- Why do people choose to be an entrepreneur and why do they succeed?
- Why do some bright ideas have no market?
- Best way to combine personal and business mobile phones
- I need help understanding jobs in this area or business.
- How should I market this free software?
- Is this a conflict of interest?
- Fulfillment center giving me the run around..
- Is this a good plan to launch a startup?
- Knitwear supplier for drop shipping
- Buying apps?
- Tips on Popularizing your Instagram.
- Family is looking to expand their restaurant business to a new location. Any tips?
- Can you find any harms in my pricing model?
| Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (June 08, 2018) Posted: 08 Jun 2018 06:06 AM PDT Please use this thread to share any accomplishment you care to gloat about, and some lessons learned. This is a weekly thread to encourage new members to participate, and post their accomplishments, as well as give the veterans an opportunity to inspire the up-and-comers. Since this thread can fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 08 Jun 2018 07:45 AM PDT I am writing this because I see so many Entrepreneurs, Wantrepreneurs or Bloggers who would love to try and test some projects but they don't do anything because they think an own website means monthly costs. I see others who are using the benefits of an own website but they are paying extremely high web hosting fees every month. So for all of you guys, there is this thing called GitHub, I am sure many of you heard of that before. GitHub is like Facebook for developers and with GitHub pages, you are able to host your page for free on the GitHub server. This also comes with plenty of benefits, your page is safe since you are using a static site which means not database, you're not hackable. The other benefit and the most important one is, the GitHub servers are pretty fast which means you can have an easy time in terms of SEO. You won't see a long loading time just because you are using a free hosting service. For instance, for my personal web designer page I am using GitHub as well https://lukaszadam.com I never had any speed issues. Of course if you need a dynamic page, a big e-commerce shop or something bigger GitHub is not for you but I am sure, there will be plenty of people and projects who would love to use this free service. More information is here: https://pages.github.com/ Another service which is awesome is Netlify https://www.netlify.com/. Same as GitHub and you even get SSL for free. Let me know if someone needs help setting this thing up, I can point you in the right direction [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| $80k/month selling mini surfboards. ($200k Shark Tank investment from Ashton Kutcher/Mark Cuban) Posted: 08 Jun 2018 07:39 AM PDT Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview. Today's interview is with Steve Watts of Slyde Handboards, a brand that makes mini surfboards (handboards). They also had success on Shark Tank, landing a $200k investment! Some stats:
Hello! Who are you and what are you working on?My name is Steve Watts, I am the founder and co-owner of Slyde Handboards with my wife Angela. Slyde is based of out of San Clemente, California. Handboards are little surfboards that strap to your hand that give you more lift, speed and control when bodysurfing. Handboards have been around for centuries, nobody is quite sure where or when they started, but there is evidence of the ancient polynesians using palm fronds or drift wood placed on their hands to get more speed, distance and lift when bodysurfing. A handboard is the perfect ocean toy, which allows anybody no matter their age or skill level the ability to ride a wave like a pro. Handboards are the most portable and lightweight wave riding equipment, which means you don't have to be the local pack mule when going down to the beach It is a sport that is super easy to learn and safe for kids to get comfortable in the ocean, without having the worry of a big board. As with any awesome sport it's fun to master, plus it's perfect for getting barreled. Our handboards allow you to take your ocean fun to the next level. We also have pro-models that are ridden by the very best bodysurfers in the world at some of the best surf breaks, like Pipeline and Waimea in Hawaii to Australia, Brazil, and beyond. Since we LLC'd the company in late 2010, Slyde has grown. We're doubling in revenue every year. We were on Season 7 Episode 24 of Shark Tank, where we were fortunate enough to land a deal with Mark Cuban and Ashton Kutcher, who are still both very much involved in the company. What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?The Idea of Slyde Handboards started back on the beaches of Cape Town South Africa where I grew up. My Mother would take me and my brother down to the beach a lot to get us out the house. We spent most of the time bodyboarding or bodysurfing. We used to find all sorts of objects that we would use as a planning device to get us a little more speed and lift on the wave from frisbees to flip flops, some worked well others not so much. It wasn't until my teens that I decided to break open an old surfboard and re-use the foam to shape into a mini handheld board that would later become the very first prototypes for Slyde. I figured we were the only ones doing this, but It wasn't until I went travel surfing around the world and met other surfers and water men and women and heard their stories of growing up using all sorts of found objects like lunch trays or even making boards themselves. It was then I realized there was a possible opportunity to create a brand around this awesome growing watersport movement, as no other company was doing this. There is definitely a defined problem that we solve, in that a handboard is easy to learn, hassle free and fun to take to the beach. The idea was really born from simple enjoyment that I was having using one. It felt almost selfish to not share it with the world. It turns out I wasn't wrong, because almost immediately we started to form a community and movement as more and more people started to find out about us either online or through friends. Describe the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing the product.I have a degree in Product Design so my strength lies in the creative design side of the business, from the start that has been my focus. I also grew up immersed in surf culture and it was always my dream to own a surf related company. Prototyping was obviously a huge part of this company. By the time I decided to launch it, I had been prototyping for 16 years and knew exactly which shape board we were going create. We live in a very connected world these days and finding manufacturers in general was not a problem. Finding the right manufacturer was a little more tricky and we have been through 5 or 6 Manufacturers since launch. We found that in many cases the small size of the boards was actually a problem. All the equipment was designed and made for bigger surfboards and our boards are no more than 19 inches. A full length surfboard can reach 12 feet. Also, I had always had the dream to be able to create boards with beautiful graphics, but at the time the cost was very prohibitive. This forced us to look at other manufacturing capabilities. In about year 4 we stumbled on a manufacturer that made snowboards and we figured out a way to mix the manufacturing process of a snowboard with a manufacturing process of a surfboard. It took a bit of tweaking, but the result was a board with the strength and durability of a snowboard and stunning graphics. This is why we offer a lifetime warranty on all our high-end boards. My advice for finding a good manufacturer is to do your research well and inspect prototypes thoroughly for quality. Beyond that make a point to meet face to face and make sure they understand your vision for the product. Watch out for manufacturers that look like they are in it for the short term. Describe the process of launching the online store/business.Starting Slyde in 2010 was a little different than it is now. Shopify was small, Facebook was still very new and Instagram had just started the month before.I knew online was the only way to go, so I taught myself basic code and we started our initial website on Big Cartel and had to patch in a cart. We then moved over to Squarespace, finally in 2013 we moved to Shopify where we never looked back. At the time of starting Slyde I was teaching surfing in Venice Beach. I had just received my green card to stay in the country and that also allowed me to legally start a business. While teaching a student, I told him all about this awesome company I was trying to start. About 2 months later we met for dinner. He loved the concept so much that he decided to invest right there and then, without even seeing a handboard. Russell is still involved and we are good friends 8 years later. In 2011 Russell and I bought a Dodge van and made our way across the country from California to Florida to our first Surf Expo. On the way I had a lot of free time and I wrote a lot of tutorial articles and taught myself SEO and those articles, to this day have, been a huge source of free traffic for the website. For a lean startup (apart from your time) it's a great way to get free traffic until you can afford to pay for traffic later on. Also building valuable content for your customers is really important in creating engaged visitors to your site. Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?Our biggest driver of revenue has been our onsite content. We now have about a thousand blog posts and around 20 long form tutorial type articles. These have helped us grow as we are in many cases the first position in Google and Bing for most of the relevant keywords. We have also become very efficient at getting press and have been featured in New York Times, Los angeles Times, Forbes, Huffington Post and Business insider. Shark Tank was also a massive boost for us that has helped put our story on steroids. Getting a really good story written about your company takes more than an email requesting a feature, it takes (in some cases) months and even years of back and forth. It's important to know what is important to the writer in terms of if your story fits their narrative. Remember these are people that want to write articles that will further their blog or career, so its important to do your research and cater towards their requirements to get the most articles published We also started using AdWords pretty soon, initially using a fairly modest budget to cover all the keywords that the organic traffic missed. Another core ingredient, has been collecting emails. We have a very solid subscription base that we segment to filter the best possible content into the right place of the customer's email life cycle. What are some of the metrics of the business?The sport of handboarding has grown exponentially since we launched in 2010. There are now competitions across the globe in Hawaii, Brazil, Peru, United Kingdom, Chile, Japan and Australia. We have now sold boards to over 40 countries and growing every month. We have 500k visitors a year to our website. We just got our first order from Dicks Sporting Goods this month. Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?Starting and running a company teaches you so much on a regular basis it's hard to list them all. I think above all it teaches you a lot about yourself and what you are capable of achieving. Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Johnson once said that the hardest thing he has ever done was to start his business. As for mistakes, we have been pretty fortunate that we haven't made any really big mistakes or I guess I wouldn't be writing this. Very early on learned the lesson of gross profit margin. It was kind of a funny "Aha" moment that was also the turning point for the company to becoming more profitable. I am sure we have missed some opportunities but none I can recall as very memorable. I prefer to work hard and always be looking for the next opportunity than thinking about the one that could have been. I think in general we have been very good at taking advantage of the opportunities we have been given. I really like the concept of 80/20. I try to focus on the 20% that are going to get the most return every day. It can get tricky when you have a lot of opportunities but generally it is obvious what is going to reap the most reward for the business in the end. The best decision I made was to bring on my, then girlfriend, now wife Angela, who was instrumental in helping to take the company to the next level by getting all sorts of awesome press, including Shark Tank. Bringing her on allowed me to spend more time on the design, marketing and branding. What platform/tools do you use for your business?
One of the biggest opportunities was given to us by Mark Cuban. He offered help with optimizing our Amazon and since that, we have continued to grow exponentially on that platform. What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?For product design and development I would recommend any of Tom Kelley books particularly "The Ten Faces of Innovation". I would also recommend In the "In the Bubble" by John Thackara. For good business advice "The Immutable Laws of Branding" by Al Ries and Jack Trout Also I really enjoyed "Story Brand" by Donald Miller. My favorite podcast are "Master of Scale" with Linkedin founder Reid Hoffman and the NPR show "How I Built This" with Guy Raz. For Practical Facebook Marketing advice look no further than "Perpetual Traffic". Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?Starting a company is not for everyone. Being an entrepreneur seems to be a buzzword these days. The media glorifies the very few billion dollar exits and CEO's that it almost seems easy. In reality, it takes an enormous toll on you and is exceptionally hard. Don't take the idea to start a company lightly for the most part it isn't glamorous and it's downright hard work. However, if you are willing work hard for a very long time and put everything into it the rewards are amazing. My advice for anyone starting a company is to find your "why". What makes you keep on working when any sane person would have quit. That special something that fuels your passion and drives you to never ever give up no matter how hard it is. Another one is: Keep on learning. As a small business owner you need to be the jack of all trades. If it doesn't work, find a way to make it work by teaching yourself. Google is an incredible tool. We didn't know gross margin till 2 years in so go figure. Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?Anybody who has experience with Facebook Ads, Google AdWords and email marketing on Klaviyo. Liked this interview? Check out more founders that shared their story on StarterStory.com. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I just put together a huge list of 392 tools for entrepreneurs and thought I'd share here Posted: 08 Jun 2018 10:38 AM PDT http://www.gedlynk.com/392-tools-for-entrepreneurs/ Let me know your thoughts! :) [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 08 Jun 2018 08:34 AM PDT I am hoping this can help others as after a few red flags with our emails back and forth, a simple google search found this scam in action for over a year in the US and Canada. Sticking with details. (and a copy paste of the email that opened my eyes) I was contacted through my personal email address about a catering quote request. I am the only employee, costs are not cheap and I am only doing this business with no other income, so an accepted quote for $1100 for enough roasted chicken, veg and starch for two weeks from today is a win. I can make more than 50% margin and right now, it is a purchase order that could help me finish paying rent at home for this month. (it has been a struggle). She states early on that she is older. Hearing disabled and will be going into surgery for a couple days to help correct this. (ok, we all go through things) and if I can work with her timeline, it would be great for her. Since catering requests are my bread and butter, why not? Over the past 7 days, we worked out on the menu, delivery and in the end, she insisted on paying with a credit card number and we can arrange the delivery or pick up on the agreed date. I can enter CC numbers but it costs me a little more and the organizer was ok paying the processing fee. Love it. But I did state that I would prefer to have her card in my hand to make the payment since my momma and daddy didn't really raise a fool. I do have to protect my self. But here is where I start seeing some red flags... Red flag number 1 - more than a few requests for them to use my business email and not personal. I emailed them the official quote but they "didn't get it" so I resent it through my personal account. I get it, a lot of older people who are not tech savvy and when they find something that works, they stick with it. Red Flag number dos - Wanting me to enter the CC manually and pushing me to take the funds as soon as possible. ok, I like to pay cash so it's done and I respect wanting her to make sure vendors are paid up and taken care of. But more than one instance to take payment seems more than questionable. Red Flag numero Drie - I receive this email. It is a copy and paste with no actual details to the emailer but I want to show you all what clued me in and to look much much closer... "I am okay with the menu and the price is fine, I would love to make full payment for the food now. However, I will also need you to help me out with a little favor for proper arrangement; I have organized a party planner who would have the house ready for the party, buy the things needed and put them in place before my arrival for the party which I would have loved to pay him directly but they are not setup for credit card payment which is the only way I could make payment at this moment. I will be giving you my card details to charge through the sum of $4375.00 which you could have $1125.00 for the cost of the food and have the rest $3250.00 transferred to them via e-transfer which is their preferred method of payment when the funds must have been cleared in your account so they can have all things arranged before my arrival. I so much wish to pay them directly but I am at the hospital right now and will undergo a surgery soon for my hear disabilities. Due to condition beyond my reasonable control for now it wont be convenient for me doing direct deposit into their account and I am not activated for online banking with my account that is why i want you to assist me. . I hope you will understand me by putting my condition into consideration and I am sorry if however it cause you inconvenience." So, this last email made me do a google search on her name and I used ( NAME + HEARING IMPAIRED ONLINE SCAM). And the third post was nearly a carbon copy report on how this scam worked in many places in the US and Canada. So, I post this here and I will to other Subreddits to send out a warning. Not for the karma but for the help to keep others informed. If you can suggest other pages to post on I would love to share this warning there. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 08 Jun 2018 12:17 AM PDT Hey guys So my wife had stage 4 cancer, had to quit the restaurant business and make a new life for herself that involved not wearing herself out (basically). OK so first things first, yes lets cheer for her beating cancer (medullary thyroid stage 4) basically they couldnt Chemo her due to the cell structure so she has to have surgery whenever it comes back over and over again. So she has put her heart into creating this: https://www.facebook.com/thescarlettrabbit/ The Scarlett Rabbit Bespoke hair bows and hair pieces (also bow ties for gents/boys) I myself come from a rigid finance background and also have sold my own startup a few years ago so I have let her grow with the normal pains that any self made business has- but now she has reached the point where she is scared to advertise in the fear she will be rejected. I do not want to push her off the cliff, so to speak, I am willing to set up a shopify website or similar for her, but could you all look at what shes doing, offer feedback and even show this to your daughters/wives Everything is handmade, absolutely everything. Nothing is skimped in the production, she puts everything together by hand and uses amazing creative thought in this. She has even had Fashion TV, various high profile rappers in the US and producers and even movie stars like her instagram posts, but nothing comes from it.. Heck even your father/son/brother/uncle/neighbor who wears bow ties might like this. She ships internationally- I want to show her all this feedback and she has no idea I am doing this, so please, go for it. Love to you all and thank you in advance. Fish (on behalf of wife) Ps we are in NEW ZEALAND so all prices are in NZD (1 NZ$ is approx 0.70 US$) THIS POST IS INTENDED FOR FEEDBACK ONLY [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 08 Jun 2018 08:11 AM PDT So I work in a communications office for my full-time job and my boss and I had the idea to start a marketing agency together. We had discussed it for a while and decided to go for it. I built our website, got our logo designed and designed us business cards. After it was all ready to go, he decided it may be risky for us to work together while he was still my boss as people where we work may think our meetings may be about our side business. I was fine with that, totally understood and we stopped any progress we had. I kept doing side work and with his permission, I did that work under the name of our company. I offered to buy his half of the business cards and the logo (essentially buying him out) but he refused and said it wasn't a big deal - he was being a nice guy about it. As a compromise, I told him if in a year or so from now, if he still wasn't interested in moving forward together, that I'd pay for his half and he agreed. Fast forward about a year and he is ready to jump back in. Here is my issue... I do all of the work for my company - it's just me and no one else. I do website design, video production, photography and graphic design. My boss does none of those things. He is good at managing people. Let me say this before I move forward. I like this guy a lot. He's a great person, a really good friend and good at his job. He would be great at getting clients and always has great ideas. He just doesn't have the skill set that I have, which is completely fine. My concern is this - let's say we go get a $10k contract from a company. Do we split the money 50/50 even though I'm spending months building a site, producing a video, editing photos, designing a brochure or booklet? What if we acquired the company together? What if he acquired them himself without me? I just recently acquired my biggest client ever and told him about it and then the next day he said he wanted to jump in. He said he doesn't want any of the money from that client, but just feels like it's a great time to get going again. I just need some advice on how to move forward with this. Thanks for any advice you can give. EDIT: I just messaged him my concerns about doing a majority of the work and feeling like I should be compensated for that and he responded, "yea, I totally agree with you. I'm super easy going about building and figuring out the whole thing and our process." [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 08 Jun 2018 12:18 PM PDT I'm a freight broker who needs to hire some outside contractors to call trucking companies and offer them work. I'd be providing the voip phone line, software to find trucking companies to call, and the loads to offer the trucking companies. The contractor provides internet, at least a laptop, and either a smartphone or a headset for the laptop. Hours are any hours contractors want between 0800-1700 US Eastern. I'd be paying 50 bucks per load with it being very realistic for someone I'm on the verge of letting go doing 10 a week and a top performer doing 30. A huge part of this job is building relationships with trucking companies who you call day in and day out, which means that the weekly number of loads covered tends to trend upwards over time. I realize this looks a lot like 'make 1500 a week in your underwear' which makes it sound scammy as heck. How do I get past this? How does it compare to the overall market for remote work for salespeople? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Why do people hate on Dropshipping? Posted: 08 Jun 2018 08:43 AM PDT I've been seeing dropshipping all over YouTube for over a year now and every time I looked into it, I got discouraged by people saying it's "dead" or people are selling you a dream or some shit so I never did it. 3 weeks ago I looked into it again and just said fuck it and literally copied a top trending product and just made a website around it and I had it up in running like 2 days later (site looked decent too). The first few days I had no sales through Facebook ads so I did research and was told to dm bigger IG pages. I hit up 3 different "influencers" (more like spam pages to me but whatever) and ran 12 hour promos for like $20-$35 a piece (1 per day) and I made around $350 in sales the first day I did that ($170 in profit). I've since then been doing the same thing everyday, switching between the 3 IG pages and I've been doing consistent numbers like that for the last 2 weeks. My highest was $500 in sales ($310 in profit) in one day. I really have no knowledge or really any experience in this and I feel like I did well. Now of course I didn't make nearly as much as some of you guys on here or the people on YouTube but it's a start. So I'm just wondering why people shit on dropshipping so much? It worked for me and it seems to work for a lot of others. Also do you guys think it's worth it for me to buy a course to learn more about Facebook ads. I feel like that's the next step for me and I need to learn it since I didn't know what the hell I was doing the first time around. Any suggestions are appreciated [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Can I Get some Advice on how to start conversations at large Networking events? Posted: 08 Jun 2018 11:22 AM PDT Hello, I've gone to conferences and networking events and I have no idea how to start talking to strangers. I'm quite good in conversation, but pulling someone out of a crowd and kicking off the convo is an area I need work in. Anyone have advice they can offer? Is it just a matter of finding a conversation starter, swallowing the nerves and going for it? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The 7 Biggest Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs Make Online Posted: 08 Jun 2018 12:56 PM PDT Lately a lot of troubled entrepreneurs have come to me making their lives 1000x harder. These are especially true if you're a coach, agency owner, consultant, expert, or service provider. Do you or someone you know ever make these deadly mistakes? How many of them have you made?
What else would you add to this list? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I want to build an Ad Sense website. Posted: 08 Jun 2018 11:25 AM PDT Hi Gang, I've seen posts from seemingly legit people who are making thousands of dollars every month from a website earning money through Google Ad Sense. I have about $800 to burn and I'd like to setup a site to do the same thing. I'm not looking for a scammy, get rich quick scheme. I'm prepared to invest years. But.. I don't have a passion to write about and I don't have the time to write the articles. I'm a web developer and know how to setup a WordPress site etc. Is it feasible to outsource all the writing once I pick a niche? Is there a good strategy or am I fooling myself? What is a good, solid, serious way to get going? Cheers, [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Why do people choose to be an entrepreneur and why do they succeed? Posted: 08 Jun 2018 11:12 AM PDT Obviously "wanting to be your own boss" is not enough. So why are you an entrepreneur ? And why have you reach success in your business? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Why do some bright ideas have no market? Posted: 08 Jun 2018 08:47 AM PDT So for example take a look at this: https://dornob.com/get-the-lead-out-cartridge-free-erasable-pencil-printer/ the idea is basically to use pencils instead of ink in a printer. It seems like such a great idea, yet when you search online there is not a single company that actually makes and sells such a printer! I mean, it's not technically difficult to implement, and clearly there is demand for it, so why is no one attempting to make and sell it? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Best way to combine personal and business mobile phones Posted: 08 Jun 2018 08:43 AM PDT I'm in the US, on AT&T Wireless, and using iPhones. When I started out on my own a few years ago, I bought a separate physical phone for work purposes. I originally intended to keep it completely separate from my personal phone (as I had done at previous jobs by company rules). Now I find that to be more of a hindrance than a help. While it's simple to combine the services (email, social media, other apps), I'm struggling with a way to "combine" the phone service. Ideally, I'd like to keep both phone numbers separate, but on the same device. I don't want to lose either existing number, as well. Is a VoIP service the best way to go here? Which one is recommended? How hard is it to transfer my work number to that service from AT&T? If this isn't the way to go, what is? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I need help understanding jobs in this area or business. Posted: 08 Jun 2018 10:48 AM PDT I need help understanding jobs in this industry. Okay i'm 13 and i want to learn entrepreneurship and such. Lets say i start a Mars Colonization company or start up I wont be build the rocket just sending supplys and the infustructor and then humans. Okay so who will i need to hire from the start with just me to later have a full working business with hundreds of workers. Like what type of people from design ( i know there is graphic designes i need to know what type of designer) to what type of coders to engineers to builder and everything else that i don't have a single clue that goes in build something like this. Last question are there any good business classes that will teach me how to start the company from getting it registers to getting add out to get people to see all the way to people to handle the business side of things. any good classes that will teach me from nothing to almost everything for FREE. (i would like to skip business classes in college due to most billionars not doing it and i guess they took classes online or something) Please if you help me i want to start a company that revolves it self around space somehow i just want to learn how. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How should I market this free software? Posted: 08 Jun 2018 02:28 PM PDT Hey everyone, I just finished a free app that saves people money when they shop online. I'm looking for some advice on how to market it to get as many users as possible.
The product is a web browser extension, currently we're on the Google Chrome and Firefox web stores. The business model is to get in between as many online shoppers and eCommerce websites as possible. As the user shops the app will price check for them automatically. If we find a better price it'll display a link near the buy button or price on the eCommerce website. This links to our website which contains affiliate links to cheaper offers of the same product (checked by UPC/ISBN codes), and a search filter (min/max price, 2-3 day shipping only, etc.) We are driving traffic to our own website because Amazon associates doesn't allow affiliate links directly in browser extensions. We make money through these affiliate links. Because the user is already looking to purchase the product, if we offer a better price they are likely to click on our links, giving us 4% - 10% of the sale (depending on the platform). So the user saves money for free with no extra work, and we get an affiliate commission, win win. Note: We currently only support Amazon, Best Buy, eBay, and Walmart. We're adding more general websites soon, as well as college book websites too (see below as to why)
I'm either looking for feedback on this plan, or for ideas of a new plan. I've done a lot of influencer marketing on a previous business I owned, and very little marketing outside of that. I've messed around with Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Google ads but nothing more than some $5/day tests. I believe targeting "active online shoppers" won't have that great of impact. People buy all sorts of things online, but they're not really passionate about "online shopping". They're passionate about what they're buying, could be toys for their pets, fishing gear, etc. With this said I believe I should have different campaigns for different niches I decide to target. An ad for "save money when shopping online" most likely won't work as well as "save money on all your favorite fishing gear" when targeting someone who actively likes to fish. It would connect with them more and hopefully catch their attention a lot more effectively. This makes sense to me, but correct me if my thinking is wrong here. I'm wanting to start off by targeting college students who are looking for text books. There are a lot of websites out there that allow students to buy or rent used textbooks. The chrome extension can work on all of those websites to help college students find the best deals. My reasoning for this demographic? 1) They must buy these books 2) They often have little money and saving money will actually help them a lot 3) College books are expensive, leading to a higher % earned for the company. Downsides? 1) People aren't buying college text books 365 days of the year, so it's slightly seasonal 2) Most college students are younger and often tune out ads a lot easier. In terms of actually taking action on this plan, I will be running a $5/day Facebook desktop ad targeting college students that don't have a high income and use Google Chrome as their main web browser. My goal is to test different targeting options and ad copies until I find an ad that can get users to install my app for a reasonable cost. A Facebook Pixel will be installed on my website to learn what type of people install my app, with the end goal being to run an ad to a look alike audience and scaling from there. Because this is a new software, I don't know what the lifetime value of my users are, so I'm not sure what a "reasonable price" would be to pay per users. However I believe this is the best way of using paid traffic to target my first demographic. Other ways of advertising may include a Twitter bot that looks up "college book" and finds people that are complaining about the high prices. I'll then log those Tweets and manually reply to them with a meaningful reply trying to help them with my app. I'll look into an automated replying system too, but I'll want to avoid breaking any of Twitter's TOS. This obviously isn't something I'll fully rely on, but worth testing out as I've made Twitter bots before.
Not sure of the official term for this, but I've heard "viral loop" a few times. Aside from giving users cash back based on referring friends, how would I get users to invite other users? I feel like if I had an effective way of getting my users to tell their friends then this app would go a lot better. But currently I'm not sure if there's a great way to do that.
The main goal for this post is to see if anyone has any ideas on the best way to market an app like this. I believe the app is well designed and works great. I've gotten around 30-40 friends to try out the website and around 20 to install the Chrome app and try it out. Been basically all positive feedback and they are telling me how it's already saved them money so I believe it's a good quality app. I'm just not sure on how to market most effectively. If anyone would like to try it out for themselves you can find it at https://neverpayextra.com Any feedback would be great. Thank you for reading! [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Is this a conflict of interest? Posted: 08 Jun 2018 02:22 PM PDT Hey folks. I'm moving 26 hours away and starting a group training business with a friend. I have to find a part-time job as we begin the building process, but I was going to avoid group training at a place like Orange Theory, Burn, etc. because I assumed it's a conflict of interest. However, last night a manager of an Orange Theory (in my current hometown) said it's not a conflict of interest for trainers at OTF to train elsewhere. I still think she assumed I was referring to training individuals on the side, not groups. So, I'd like some extra 2 cents from people- is it a conflict of interest or not if I work in a group training facility while also creating my own group training business with a completely different structure? How would others go about this? I can get paid best by using my training certifications to teach groups instead of something part-time like lyft or whatever thanks lads and lasses [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fulfillment center giving me the run around.. Posted: 08 Jun 2018 01:50 PM PDT Has anyone else experienced this? I have been trying to send out our remaining inventory but they keep giving me excuses about why they are busy or just don't answer me or send me to this or that person and nothing has happened for about 2 weeks now. I have tried to call every number on their website but the numbers are disconnected. I have tried to call the accountant that has been dealing with us but that number doesn't work. It's just super sketchy. We have been dealing with them for a year now and everything has been fine but now for some reason they're just acting super shady and evasive. If there is anyone that has experienced anything like this or has any potential solutions I am open to suggestions. Is there someone I can call? I really have no idea about what to do at this point and its overwhelming... [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Is this a good plan to launch a startup? Posted: 08 Jun 2018 01:30 PM PDT So I'm a college student with very little savings but I want to launch a startup. I have an idea for a line a products which I think is going to sell very well. Here is my plan: 1- spend the next few months developing the blueprint for the product. The end product would be simple enough to manufacture a few units by hand per week. 2- Build an inventory of around 10 units or so on my own 3- Start selling my products on ebay and amazon 4- keep building and selling units online till I reach a sufficient amount of savings from the profits 5- Use the savings to hire a small team to build a more complex product with better build quality and handle things like marketing and such better than me. This would also be the stage where I would document my startup so it becomes a real company 6-At this stage, if the product is selling well, I know it would be safe to start asking for investors to join. Or take out a loan to expand the business and hire more people. Would this plan work? Is there a better way to do things? My plan is to have profitable business within the next 5 years [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Knitwear supplier for drop shipping Posted: 08 Jun 2018 12:49 PM PDT Hi everyone I want to start an online store focusing on knitwear and I am looking for a reliable supplier for knitwear in the US who can drop ship within the US. Can anyone make recommendations? Thank you all in advance! [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 08 Jun 2018 08:05 AM PDT Not sure if this is the right sub, but I'm curious how to buy an app. I don't want to develop one from scratch and a preexisting app would already have users. How do I find an app for sale? What business and functional criteria should I consider in the buying process? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tips on Popularizing your Instagram. Posted: 08 Jun 2018 01:10 AM PDT I've googled a lot about how to get more and I've read through some stuff on here but most of the suggestions don't really seem applicable to me. For example, I don't have a specific theme, because it's my personal account, so I just post pictures of my life. That said, I do try to edit the so that the colours complement each other as much as possible and I only post high quality photos (i.e. nothing blurry). Of all the people I follow, most of them do the same type of thing - personal account, no specific theme. Recently I purchased an eBook called Instagram Mastery by Michael Khieu, and I got many more tips from there. I started my Instagram not to long ago, and after reading this eBook, I was able to start growing my Instagram! My passion for Instagram has exploded recently because of my ability to understand how it works. I just wanted everybody to know that it is possible to grow an Instagram account and that if you are hesitant, you should just jump onto the creation of your passion because there is never going to be a right time. You just have to go for it. By utilizing different techniques I suggest many of you when creating your post, make sure you look up how to get into the algorithm of Instagram. Let me know some other tips you have on growing your instagram and how you did it! Always looking for new tips and tricks. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Family is looking to expand their restaurant business to a new location. Any tips? Posted: 08 Jun 2018 07:31 AM PDT It's Grab and go style. I'm just asking if anyone has something they use to help find the "perfect" location. I'm using LoopNet, is there a way I could find business going out of business and convert? (Kitchen equipment can be expensive) any tips would be liked, thank you! [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Can you find any harms in my pricing model? Posted: 08 Jun 2018 07:09 AM PDT My company provides training workshops to a few different industries. For each industry, I have a quote calculator with the following inputs:
A "flat" rate is then built by summing:
There are then percentage modifiers to that flat rate:
Finally, this gets rounded to a certain "nicer" figure depending on the signficant figures. (e.g. $149.50 gets rounded off to $150). So, a full quote breakdown of a 3 hour workshop might look something like:
This is all shoved into Excel, of course. My question is — what harms might there be from this pricing model? Right now, I'm trying to think through the question of whether any flat rates should be applied AFTER the percentage modifiers (especially the flat cost per hour), and whether any of the percentages should become flat fees instead... Not really sure how to compare these decisions! Any other feedback would be amazing :) [link] [comments]  |
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