wow, its already year of owning my first small business! small business |
- wow, its already year of owning my first small business!
- Advice- Verifying employee sickness
- Mastering the art of running profitable facebook ads
- Free Customer Data Validation & Cleaning
- A DIY development startup roadmap. What do you think?
- Would you read a guide on how to be productive as a business owner?
- Just starting out and need a way to take payments
- Be grateful for the struggles( motivational)
- I need help finding data
- Looking for all you card shop owners out there
- Are there any examples of people who have lost a lot of money on Facebook advertising?
- For Interior Designers - What keeps you up at night?
- What to do with excess revenue in a semi-seasonal business
- What's in a Name?
- Is there many people on this sub making a living from their small business?
- Super Low Cost Stamp Printing?
- [NEED HELP] With T-Shirt Business
- Cardboard problem.
- A little help on starting a finance loan company in Canada
- Biometric Timeclock Suggestions without Monthly Subscription
- Starting Architecture Firm - need help purchasing domain, finding host, and email
- Creating Awareness and Traffic to my small Business through Social Media and ADS
- Bank with branches in US and Europe
| wow, its already year of owning my first small business! Posted: 27 Jun 2018 04:24 PM PDT So every year, on the anniversary of my wife and I buying a small breakfast shop, i have sort of shared my experiences and business info. In celebrating our 3rd year, i realized its time again to post! I hope everyone enjoys, and feel free to ask any questions! so usually i give a really big in depth analysis, but this year i think i will keep it a bit more light! however in the comments i will post the prior 2 year summary's if anyone wants to read! ok, first lets do the numbers! Year 3 was the first year our red hot growth slowed a bit. Our first 2 years of ownership ( years 6&7 of the business's existence saw 30%+ growth with us at the helm). This fiscal year we averaged just 23% this year, but more of that was front loaded, seeing only about 10-15% growth since January. That is still nothing to be ashamed about, but it is a since we might be peaking. Our daily average was $1071 this fiscal year, with a peak in September 17' at $1141 and a low in February 18' at $966. Our total sales this was $376k. The original owners last fiscal year was $160k in sales. Profits weren't huge (we have a good accountant, so the business profit was very small) but in combined income ( wife and i) plus our tips, we made about $85k this year, which we are hoping grows to $110k this upcoming year. Our employee situation has improved, though it still continues to be one of the biggest challenges of owning a small business! We currently have 5 employees, all part time though several are getting 30hrs per week. We did have a stretch where the wife and i were working 6-7days a week and 60-70hrs a week, from January thru late April. Overall though our current crew is by far the most capable and reliable we have had in owning the business. Reno's current labor market is RED HOT, which has made hiring any decent employees very challenging. The official unemployment rate here is 4.1%, but literally every business in the city has a help wanted sign in the window. This has caused us to increase our average pay. Our average rate is now $17/hr with incentives and tips. The good news is that right at the moment, the wife and i are working just 4 days a week and 35 hours a week, which feels so weird! We finally payed the original owner off, which was a huge thing for us, seeing as we had experienced a ton of drama with her. So having her out of the picture is a major win! we have also paid down the total debts of the business, which now hover around $55k in total debts, which includes our current bank loan. This year has really taught us how to be efficient. Our store is about 750 sqft in total (including kitchen, but not including our basement storage.). Through constant improvement, and innovating, we have made that space work so very well. We are always looking for how we can use every last inch of space effectively. We were able to squeeze in a 100lbs a day ice machine, which has been a massive win! We have also spent the working to improve every single aspect of the business, from appearance, product, efficiency and staff training. That is probably why in the last year we only have 1 2 star review and 1 1 star review on yelp and no 1 stars on google this past year. we now have over 400 yelp reviews with only a combined 19 2 star or less over 8 years, and 205 google reviews with just 8 2 star or less. Im not trying to brag, its just we take great pride in how good our service is. My life gets the most joy in her days working hard to make sure every customer is happy, and it has really reflected in those reviews. We also work to instill that in our staff. Lastly we were broken in this April, the first time we have. It was kind of a shitty experience. 2 young men broke in on a Sunday night at 3am, jimmying a window open, and entering that way. though they only managed to steal a change box ($300) and an inexpensive tablet, before our motion alarm was activated and ADT notified us. Thankfully we have excellent cameras ( i mean we spent $1000 on them!) and were able to give good footage to the police. But there's a twist! Just 2 nights late on Tuesday at 2am, the same 2 young men tried breaking in again, this time smashing a window (we put bars in the window). This time a local in the area saw them, and called the police, who apprehend them. all in all it cost us around $700, but community support afterward more than made up for it! looking ahead at year 4, besides the usual goals, we hope to start taking more time off and increase our profits. Our goal for the summer is to work 35-45hr per week, and 45hr in the winter months. We are also trying to decrease our debts so we can get a larger loan and open location #2. [link] [comments]  |
| Advice- Verifying employee sickness Posted: 27 Jun 2018 12:44 PM PDT Fellow business owners- I am encountering a problem where I have two employees who are taking sick days more frequently than others. Moreover, they are taking these sick days on weekends, when we are busiest. Staff gets both paid vacation days and paid sick leave, but the main difference between the two is that vacation days require notice and they have to schedule a sub. So the result is we end up short staffed on short notice on the busiest day of the week. We do not require a doctor's note for sick days, first as a matter of trust, but second because there are plenty of times when you feel too ill to come into work, but not ill enough to go into the doctor. I feel these two employees are abusing our trust, and I want to be able to verify that they are actually sick, without violating their privacy. Seems like I'm sitting on a fine line here. I'm guessing this is just one of the things I'm going to have to live with, but if any of you have found a solution here that works, I would appreciate it! [link] [comments]  |
| Mastering the art of running profitable facebook ads Posted: 27 Jun 2018 02:47 PM PDT Facebook has over 2 billion users and that means that there is a potential customer on Facebook for any type of business. Running facebook ads gives you the ability to reach a significant number of people who are likely to buy your products or pay for your services. But the problem is the fact that not everyone has proper knowledge on how to create successful and profitable facebook ad campaigns. So if you are one of those people who are well informed on the big potential that Facebook Ads provide for entrepreneurs and brands, I have compiled a list of resources that have helped learn more about facebook ads.
This is by far one of the top blogs on Facebook advertising out there. Check it out and I promise that there are a lot of gold nuggets to be mined here.
This is one place to go if you want to master anything. YouTube has really helped with figuring out so many stuff about facebook advertising. I recommend checking out Mike Vestil and Kevin David YouTube channels. These guys have some great videos on Facebook advertising on their channels
Attending free webinars is another great way to learn and master facebook marketing and advertising. You can check out Kevin David's Ninja Masterclass Webinar. It's a free training on Facebook advertising and obviously you will get so much value for your time. Here is a review of Kevin David's course and the Facebook Ads Ninja Masterclass Free Training Webinar. https://medium.com/@401bcaf6d08f/a9cab6f5b904 Good luck on your entrepreneurial endeavours. Cheers. [link] [comments]  |
| Free Customer Data Validation & Cleaning Posted: 28 Jun 2018 03:15 AM PDT We offer a strict verification procedure for every type of data submitted; integrated rules and diverse sources are used to confirm validity. Our data processing service is adapted to match the highest expectations of all kind of companies. You can check it out: https://www.adsuisse.com/utilities We also offer 100 Free Customer Discoveries for testing, test us and our service and sign up here: https://www.adsuisse.com/signup [link] [comments]  |
| A DIY development startup roadmap. What do you think? Posted: 28 Jun 2018 12:46 AM PDT We started about year ago in San Francisco and had to pivot our business over the entire course to better find my company's niche' market. The idea came from my roommate and myself as we were both working as freelancers at time (programming and sales respectively) and the difficulties we faced. Those usually included fast payment, overworking, underworking, and just about everything else in between. We were looking at new companies like Upwork as the holy grail until you actually work on their platform and get gouged by their fat cut into your checks. As we have bills to pay and mouths to feed we understandably felt robbed and decided to come up with a solution together. That's when SUPERTEAM was born. [link] [comments]  |
| Would you read a guide on how to be productive as a business owner? Posted: 27 Jun 2018 11:39 PM PDT Hello everyone, I'm looking to get feedback on an idea before I commit fully to it. I work with a lot of business owners on helping them with things like business processes, setting up digital tools for collaboration, individual and team productivity tips and coaching, and other things like that. A lot of the business owners (and managers) I work with have problems like:
I'm thinking of putting together a Mini Book that had tips like:
Is this something you would read? Do you see much value in this for your business? I think that it would best suit someone who is managing at least 3 or 4 staff members but I'm open to hearing if you'd find this useful or not and what your business type is. What things would you like to read about? [link] [comments]  |
| Just starting out and need a way to take payments Posted: 27 Jun 2018 09:37 PM PDT First transaction was a check but I expect a weekly payment for personal training clients and they don't really have checks - what kids do these days? (plus I think bouncing is a risk). I only have two a week right now but expect to move up to six. What's my best, low/no fee option. I just opened a small business checking account and set up PayPal for it but want to see if there's a better option than 2.7%+.30. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Be grateful for the struggles( motivational) Posted: 27 Jun 2018 09:35 PM PDT See this Instagram photo by @kevincdiez https://www.instagram.com/p/BkjJJpXnhw8/?utm_source=ig_web_share [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Jun 2018 09:03 PM PDT I am starting a small business of making a New movers guide, all money is gonna be made from ads. The problem is that I can not find a website that sells data of where/when a person moves in to my area. Please help. [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for all you card shop owners out there Posted: 27 Jun 2018 06:41 PM PDT People of r/smallbusiness, i beseech those of you in america running cardshops/comicshops/etc. I'm thinking of opening one myself, but im immensely nervous. What are some tips, tricks, and experiences youd like to share with a dreamer ready (?) to make the move to entrepreneur? [link] [comments]  |
| Are there any examples of people who have lost a lot of money on Facebook advertising? Posted: 27 Jun 2018 06:20 PM PDT This subreddit is filled with stories of people who have done amazingly well advertising on Facebook. Is it even possible to lose money on the Facebook platform, or is it basically a 100% guaranteed win? [link] [comments]  |
| For Interior Designers - What keeps you up at night? Posted: 27 Jun 2018 05:55 PM PDT I'm doing a bit of market research and would love to hear from interior designers and/or interior design business owners. What frustrates you daily? What do you wish for? What keeps you up at night? What are you afraid of? Any and all insight you can share would be greatly appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| What to do with excess revenue in a semi-seasonal business Posted: 27 Jun 2018 05:19 PM PDT Sorry for the wall of text. Scroll to the bottom for a TLDR if you prefer. My mother has owned and operated a small business for over 35 years now and it has, for the most part, always been profitable. Historically any time she had a bit extra left over from revenue, after paying the bills, she would reinvest in the business, whether it was expanding, upgrading, more advertising, etc. However, within the last few years the business has become much more profitable, mostly from a decision to move locations to a more desirable area during the downturn that has positioned her well for this upswing. Along with that she is getting closer to retirement age and is happy with the manageable size that she is currently at, so no longer wants to reinvest as much in the business. This doesn't mean to be complacent in her new success, just not to try to actively grow but to maintain instead. She tends to ask my opinion on personal finance matters and asked me what I thought she should do with this excess revenue, which is currently around $150k. (A good problem to have, I know.) The business is set up as two LLC's, one for the real estate associated with the business and one for the business itself. The income is taxed pass through to her as she is the sole owner of these LLC's. Because of this she doesn't want to simply take the tax hit from pulling the money out, but she also doesn't want it to just sit there. Currently the money is split between two CD's, a 3-month set to mature in a month and a 6-month at the end of October. However, due to it being a semi-seasonal business most of her inventory bills come towards the end of the year when she gears up for the spring. Therefore she doesn't want the money tied up in the CD's in case she might need a portion of it during that time. I suggested a money market that would give her some flexibility and still some interest, but I didn't know if that was the best option. So if anyone has any advice for this I would really appreciate it. Also, if money market is the best option if anyone has any suggestions for banks that provide these type of accounts for businesses I would appreciate the suggestions. Ally and American Express tend to be the favorites for personal accounts, but they don't seem to have business options. TLDR: Mother has 150k in excess revenue in her LLC and is looking for the best vehicle to gain some interest while still keeping the money accessible. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Jun 2018 05:07 PM PDT Hey, I'm looking to pick a name for my small, currently only clothing company. I wanna sell the best t-shirts. In the future, though, I want to sell shoes, watch bands, shorts, jackets, etc. How do I pick a name? I like the ring of XXX Clothing Co., but will this box me in for the future? Does it seem weird to you to buy a pair of shoes from a clothing company? If I like the name, should I just go with it? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Is there many people on this sub making a living from their small business? Posted: 27 Jun 2018 04:41 PM PDT Hey guys, been considering opening my small business for a long time. Would love to hear from some people on here that have taken the plunge and making some money. Some inspiration for all us lurkers. Thanks guys! [link] [comments]  |
| Super Low Cost Stamp Printing? Posted: 27 Jun 2018 12:11 PM PDT I do a pretty tiny volume of mailing with stamps, maybe 50 envelopes a month. I'd like to print stamps instead of doing it the old fashioned way, but stamps.com and a few similar sites I've seen seem to all charge a monthly fee that, while low, is still a bit silly for me to be paying when I'd print so few stamps. So are there any competitors to stamps.com that makes sense for small volume stamping? [link] [comments]  |
| [NEED HELP] With T-Shirt Business Posted: 27 Jun 2018 03:34 PM PDT I posted this an hour ago, but there was a glitch. Hello guys. I am in need of some tips or advice, anything would be great because I am so frustrated. I have started my t-shirt business about a month ago. I took a lot of advice, searched around everywhere and I overcame the fear of investing money and a lot of time for return of more money, because in my current financial situation, this is really important to me. As for the shirt design, I thought it looked great. I uploaded the shirt, and set up a description that was well laid out. Everything seemed organized, as seen here. design: https://ibb.co/iTsWuo description: https://ibb.co/iw0UfT I even created a discount for $6 off. Mind you, the shirt price is $25. With the discount automatically applied, the price is $19. The shirt being printed on is called the Next Level Tee, it is the highest quality of t-shirt available on teespring, as told so here. http://answers.teespring.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2784486-available-products The profit I make off of each shirt is $5.02 dollars, and that's not even with adding the cost per conversion in facebook ads, which also cuts off my profit margin. The profit i am making is so little compared to the profit that other teespring sellers make, I feel as if I am being very generous here. For traffic, I did the usual stuff: I created an instagram page and a facebook business page, both of which I think are really well laid out. I created two quality posts on my instagram and facebook page, and I wasn't being too pushy for people to buy the shirt by using a thousand sales pitches. Everything I did so far was well organized. My instagram page is @bball_apparel if you guys want to critique my account and give me advice on what I am doing wrong, because so far I don't know why I'm losing money on this business. Now for the last part: my facebook ad. Here is an image of my ad: https://ibb.co/cohpEo As you can see, I wasn't being too pushy with the sales pitch. I made a more neutral statement, and the image for the ad looked nice as well. I set my big goal to cost per conversion, and targeted the basketball audience in facebook. The potential reach was 26,000,000. It said that my audience was defined. As for my data so far, I set up the ad on June 25th. I received over 1000 reaches and impressions, but 0 website purchases. Also, I later checked that I have high negative feedback and medium positive feedback on this ad. What did I do wrong? The sayings on the design? The price of the shirt? The descriptions? I am not interested in making a million dollars in one month selling this t shirt, all I want is to save up some money for something personal that involves my family. My business is not showing any progress, and I am losing money rather than earning it. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Jun 2018 11:23 AM PDT Hope this is the right place to post this question. I manage a small coffee shop and I have a huge cardboard problem. It keeps coming and coming and I want to recycle it but all the places are so far away and the local recycling place only has one dumpster for recyclables and it's almost always full. It's hard transporting all of it to begin with. Is there any service that picks up cardboard? [link] [comments]  |
| A little help on starting a finance loan company in Canada Posted: 27 Jun 2018 02:53 PM PDT I'm currently a mortgage salesperson in Canada. I love dealing with credit but it gets boring always doing the same type of credit. I'm looking to start my own finance creditor company where I can provide not only mortgages, but loans of other types such as car loans, consolidation, etc... I need some guidance on this as I've always worked under a bank and just started this mortgage career this year. What do I need? Do I need a certain certification? How do I get lenders to work with me? Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Biometric Timeclock Suggestions without Monthly Subscription Posted: 27 Jun 2018 02:33 PM PDT I work for a small company (~50 employees) and we are looking for a replacement to our existing biometric timeclock. We have had nothing but problems with it, support is pretty bad and I feel like it is going to stop working any day now. Our current Timeclock is an Anviz and it can't even properly connect to our recently upgraded network switches without routing it through an older switch. What are some good Biometric Timeclocks that do not require a monthly subscription? [link] [comments]  |
| Starting Architecture Firm - need help purchasing domain, finding host, and email Posted: 27 Jun 2018 09:51 AM PDT After 15 years at a firm, I am striking out on my own. I have a .com domain that I like and is still available. I'm looking to do the following:
Is there anything I'm not factoring in that I should? I've reviewed GoDaddy, Gator, Bluehost, etc. but it seems overwhelming. I am decently tech saavy and would prefer to do most of the work myself (to save money). I appreciate any advice. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Creating Awareness and Traffic to my small Business through Social Media and ADS Posted: 27 Jun 2018 08:54 AM PDT I'm fairly new to the concept of marketing, for most of my life I have been a sales man, I'm still fairly young (23) so there is still a lot to learn. I am now a marketing and sales lead for my small signage company. We create Awnings, posters, billboards, A shaped signs, flags and other signage work. With the rise of social media and by extension social media marketing we have seen characters like Gary Vee, Grant Cardone, Seth Godin, Ted Rubin gain a lot of attention. Their general mantra is go out there and make yourself known. Makes sense, I subscribe. My question is, how can I leverage SOCIAL MEDIA and ADS to drive business to something like a sign creating business? [link] [comments]  |
| Bank with branches in US and Europe Posted: 27 Jun 2018 12:11 PM PDT Hey all, Looking for a bank with branches in the US and in Italy where I can hold accounts in USD and EUR. HSBC is not an option, they require a commercial US account and commercial accounts require $10M+/yr in rev. Any suggestions? [link] [comments]  |
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