Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (August 03, 2018) Entrepreneur |
- Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (August 03, 2018)
- $6M/year selling jewelry online.
- Living in China next to lots of factories and suppliers, any ideas to take advantage?
- Does anyone here absolutely kill it with google adwords?
- Is writing articles on LinkedIn a thing ?
- Rate these business ideas and help me search for more
- I built my fully-functional website/web service. Self-funded, has value, no profit. Unique and useful service - well liked. Really struggling...what next?
- SEO Agency Owner. I have phone anxiety & at a day job 3 days a week, how can I stop incoming phone calls to me & still look professional?
- Any places that print CDs and packaging to order?
- Amazon fba or my own Shopify site?
- How do I grow my entrepreneur community?
- Pitch Deck Mistakes
- Amazon Affiliate Program comissions question
- How do you get paid?
- Entrepreneur Looking For Other Entrepreneurs or Wantrepreurs to work with.
- How to do market validation for a product?
- Does Cross promotion marketing works and what are the factors to consider?
- Fitness apparel
- Need Ideas For Remote Part-Time Work!
- Making Money (x-post from r/PracticalPhilosophy)
- Did this “Shark Tank” contestant make the better deal?
- How do I set my pricing for my new big customer.
- Charging Credit Cards for Rental Item Damage
- Does selling via shopify still make sense?
- In college and decided I want 5k start a business - whenever I'm ready - what steps would you recommend I take?
| Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (August 03, 2018) Posted: 03 Aug 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]  |
| $6M/year selling jewelry online. Posted: 03 Aug 2018 06:16 AM PDT Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview. Today's interview is with Julien Plouffe of Moonglow Jewelry, a brand that makes custom jewelry and sells online. Details/metrics:
Hello! Who are you and what are you working on?My name is Julien Plouffe. I'm a Canadian living in Miami Florida. I am the owner of Moonglow Jewelry. I love snowboarding, car racing, surfing, motorcycle racing and anything that involves adrenaline. Naturally, this makes me a risk-taking entrepreneur. My Company Moonglow sells jewelry featuring phases of the moon from the date of your choice. People normally choose a meaningful date like their birthday or anniversary, and we customize their jewelry with the moon phase associated with that date. We have been growing quicker than I ever imagined we would, but I feel we still have a lot of room to grow. I started this business out of my apartment doing about $200,000 in revenue, and now we're aiming to hit $7,000,000 this year. What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?Unfortunately, I was always messing around in school, I loved socializing and was friends with everyone, I was pretty bad at everything except theater and sports. Bad in a classroom setting, but I flourished out in a crowd selling. When I turned 16, the principal told my father I should quit school and work for him. I did. My father had a pitch business selling infomercial-type products in fairs across the United States, but most products I sold were either passing trends or did not hold my interest, at least not until Moonglow. In 2011 at a fair in Springfield, MA called The Big E is where my life changed direction a bit. I was 23. I was selling Moonglow for the first time and the sales were great. People loved the idea, the concept, and I knew this was the product I wanted to focus on and could really build a brand. At the age of 25, I broke off from my father's business and concentrated on building Moonglow with a business partner. We set up a website and continued selling in fairs, markets and many other events like Comic Cons. It wasn't too long, we had a crew of four people travelling and doing events for us. One day I was selling at an event and thought, "There must be a better way" than one on one sales. I really wanted to scale Moonglow and I was getting tired of the traveling; the setting up and taking down at each event; just to do it all again. I decided I wanted to work with boutiques and stores to sell our awesome line to their customers. I spent the money to enter a B2B trade show in New York, (a pricey $10,000) and covered the costs of the show in less than a day, with new orders from stores. I knew from that moment, this is the way to go and scale. Shortly after the trade show, we hired our Director of Sales who handles all of our in store placement and customer acquisition on the wholesale side. With ever increasing sales, I could no longer run the company out of my Miami Beach condo. It was time for an office and a warehouse. We opened a small office/warehouse in Doral, FL. Hired two employees, one for customer service and another for picking and packing order. Now we have a talented team of 12 employees and seven contractors. There are plans to hire additional members as Moonglow continues to grow. Describe the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing the product.Manufacturing is a process. We contracted with some amazing designers and through a lot of trial and error we came up with a process that has become polished and seamless. I truly believe we produce some of the nicest jewelry pieces around. But more often than not, it's trial and error and most designs are not on time, there is so much back and forth, get ready to never give up and learn from mistakes. I write them down to make sure I don't do them again Most of our jewelry is made in Canada and brought into the United States for assembly and shipping. We service both our wholesale and online customers through our U.S. facility. We needed more money to purchase more inventory. Financing for initial manufacturing costs came from a $40,000 line of credit I convinced my banker to extend to us. Within a few months that line of credit was increased to $140,000 and we were off. Most of the funds was used to buy merchandise and to market VIA live events where people can see and feel the product from one of our team members. Describe the process of launching the online store/business.The revenue raised from fairs and events provided the capital to launch our first website. We used an agency from San Diego and paid $3000. It was terrible, pictures were horrible, the branding colors were not consistent, the flow was off, I cringe at it now but it was 2012 and we were focused on fairs and events and less so on internet sales. Even though, the site was bad, sales still trickled in. A few years later. We started to focus on our website as we really wanted to ramp up this channel. We kept a close eye on conversion rates, branding, photography. We also hired an SEO agency back in 2013. We now rank for most of the moon jewelry related keywords generating over 50,000 qualified visitors monthly who are looking for us. I hired a conversion rate expert who told us our site flow was really bad, we identified that people needed to click way too many buttons in order to checkout, every button you add, the more people drop out and you lose potential customers along the way. Our branding was off and we needed to become more of a lifestyle mainstream brand if we wanted to keep growing. We needed great photography and videography. This is so important, we use to go cheap on these things, but not anymore. Don't be afraid to invest in your business. If you're always going cheap, you'll generally get what you pay for. One summer in 2014. I was walking in Huntington Beach, CA and met a marketing agency. We chatted and they convinced me to spend $1,050 a month on social media marketing. They were bassically posting on Facebook and Twitter. This was before the time of sponsored posts and ads. I believe one of the keys to Moonglow's success was reinvesting a lot of our early profits into marketing. Earlier on, almost all profit went back in to marketing, additonal tradeshows, Facebook ads, Instagram ads, new displays, new packaging. We always try and make things better and never stay complacent. If you don't innovate, you'll get left in the dust as the bar gets higher every day. Since launch, what has worked to attract new customers?Social Media marketing works. Today we spend over $1,000,000 annually on Facebook and Instagram ads and our website generates over $5 million annually. One day, I was in Greece reading Forbes about a brand that went from $0 to $1,500,000 in a year all from Facebook ads. I called up the agency they worked with. They were not cheap and most people who I asked if I should work with this agency said it was way too expensive. Don't listen to the noise, trust your gut. Since we started working together, we went from a website that was selling about $400,000 a year to about $5,000,000. We run a lot of Facebook campaigns and are always monitoring. Were not afraid to take risks here but don't bet the farm either. When something is working, I continue to invest and see how large we can go. The sky is the limit. We work with a lot of influencers, we use this platform called Socialix to help us connect with influencers looking to work with great brands. Before Socialix, we would just DM a bunch of influencers. It worked, but it got way too messy and was hard to track. We continue to create content to stay ranking in search engines. On site optimization along with good content has helped tremendously. We are constantly writing about our brand and creating content with other writers. We do about 34 different events every year to get our brand out there. We do the NY Comic Con, NY Now, Las Vegas Market and others. It's important for people to touch and feel your brand. Next year, we are doing our first pop up in NYC. How is everything going nowadays, and what are your plans for the future?We spend quite a bit to acquire customers, about 30% of our costs go to customer acquisition. It's important to have good margins or you won't have enough money for marketing and advertising. I recommend a margin of 75% or higher. Our online traffic this year will hit about 5,000,000 visitors. We try to hit a 2% conversion rate consistently. Our social media impressions are around 3,000,000 impressions weekly. Our next goal is to reach ten million sales if all goes right by the end of next year. In terms of product, we update and add new designs yearly and are considering a jump into fine jewelry. Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?The success of Moonglow is our focus. Whether it's our brand strategy, our financial goals, or our level of commitment. The management and employees of our company are goal driven. Another key focus is hiring the right people. Like a chain, a company is only as strong as its weakest link and we have had to do a lot of hiring and firing to come up with the strong team we have now. The fun of running a business, some days are amazing and the next, you think the whole ship is sinking. When you do the right things, reinvest your money back into your company, and put your heart into every single aspect, the results just seem to come. What platform/tools do you use for your business?Of course, our biggest platform is our website with Shopify Plus and have a strong presence on Facebook, and Instagram to ensure maximum visibility for our brand. What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?The most influential book I have read is Rich Dad, Poor Dad. It shifted the way I think in terms of money and now I use my business earnings to fund other real estate projects, generating an income for myself that will last a lifetime. The last thing you want to do is make a bunch of money and spend it all. Make your hard work last. Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?My personal success depends on waking up early, staying in shape to keep my mind fresh and lots of coffee. Love what you're doing and the day flies by. I was working twelve hours a day and loving every minute of it. You've got to love what you're doing. It's the reason why you do something that is the most important, and that's something you can only find in yourself and only you can answer. Some advice to give other entrepreneurs is to first figure out if being a business owner is really for you. I remember when funds were low I had to take a loan on my car to make ends meet. You must be willing to put IT ALL ON THE LINE. Many people say they want it, but they really don't, they're not willing to invest their money to learn, wake up early to hustle. They only seem to want the rewards, get rich quick type stuff, and that doesn't happen 99% of the time. Set a plan and follow through. Focus. Follow one course and success will follow. Liked this interview? Check out more founders that shared their story on StarterStory.com. [link] [comments]  |
| Living in China next to lots of factories and suppliers, any ideas to take advantage? Posted: 02 Aug 2018 09:01 PM PDT Hey guys and gals, long time lurker- first time poster. I moved to a huge factory city in China (Yiwu, Zhejiang)a few months ago. There is a giant market that sells basically every product in the world here for cheap. Its like aliexpress but in person and 1,000 times better. I am a rookie entrepreneur and want to know how you veterans would do to take advantage of my situation of being on the ground out here. Cheers! [link] [comments]  |
| Does anyone here absolutely kill it with google adwords? Posted: 03 Aug 2018 11:22 AM PDT Im diving in to adwords to really understand how it works, become certified, etc. I was curious if anyone here gets a lot of business from adwords? I know a lot of things go into it like creating good ads but just want to hear from anyone who has real success with it. [link] [comments]  |
| Is writing articles on LinkedIn a thing ? Posted: 03 Aug 2018 09:20 AM PDT I got inspired the other day and wrote and article on "how to read more books". Well, from the stats, 14 people read it and they were not in my circle. Should I continue to write about business stuff on this platform ? [link] [comments]  |
| Rate these business ideas and help me search for more Posted: 03 Aug 2018 11:16 AM PDT I've just graduated from college. For now I plan to move back home and work for a while to save up money for 1-2 years. However I'd also like to work on something in the meantime, and then later down the road establish something bigger. I have a number of ideas for businesses, but want opinions on whether you think they are viable.
Edit: beard* products I haven't seen anyone wandering around the forest selling things to bears [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Aug 2018 04:47 PM PDT I don't think of myself as an "entrepreneur". 2 years ago I had an idea that relates to my industry in which I have valuable knowledge and experience. I was able to build a functional and good-looking website that helps a wide market of people that need help solving an important problem. This is not the type of site the users make an account on, and they'll most likely only use it once, and once every couple years. Using the service on my site is 100% free - right now I ask for basic information to learn about visitors, but I don't even require giving an email (I want zero barriers to use). I've spent maybe $400 on advertising and had some good results but marketing and SEO is not my strength. My current full-time job is great - I make around $120k/year and am happy. I have an entrepreneurial background and a desire to create something of massive value. My past work has been locally based and I'm lost building a business online. From the few start-up type events I've attended, I've seen a lot of people looking for an idea to "start a start-up". I have a great idea and get great feedback from my users. I've shown this to a couple successful entrepreneur types I know and they are also impressed. My big issue is...what next? I know my next step is increasing traffic flow and maybe adding ad revenue. There is a ton of previously untapped industry knowledge here and that's my strength. I truly don't know what my next 5 steps are. I am in a spot where I could stop working and focus on this 110%, but that doesn't make sense yet. Any direction is much appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Aug 2018 04:33 AM PDT Hi there, I own an SEO Agency, but I also have phone anxiety and work 3 days a week at a day job so am unable to take calls. I want to eliminate non scheduled phone calls to my business altogether. I'd be grateful if you could share your ideas on how to do this and still remain professional. If you have done this yourself, I would love to hear what you did. My ideas were to:
Thanks :) [link] [comments]  |
| Any places that print CDs and packaging to order? Posted: 03 Aug 2018 01:45 PM PDT I have a continually growing volume of inventory of varying "popularities", and it doesn't make sense/ is logistically impossible for me to have physical copies of them all on hand at any given time, given the very large up-front cost it would take to order them. I'd be okay with paying a few dollars more over the wholesale rate in order to keep my physical inventory to near-zero. Therefore, I'm looking for a company that is able to print small volumes of CDs, with the complimentary packaging, to-order, and either have them shipped to me, or drop ship them. Similar in concept to Printful. Surely a company like this must exist? I've been unsuccessful in my searches though. Seems like humans can print everything under the sun to order except CDs. [link] [comments]  |
| Amazon fba or my own Shopify site? Posted: 03 Aug 2018 01:36 PM PDT Or both? Essentially, I created a product that I want to sell. I was wondering if I should just use amazon fba or my own Shopify site. The reason I ask is because it would be more difficult to route traffic to my own site rather than just use amazon fba. Or should I use both? Thanks guys. [link] [comments]  |
| How do I grow my entrepreneur community? Posted: 03 Aug 2018 01:30 PM PDT I have started an entrepreneur chatroom on Slack with the intent of connecting entrepreneurs around the globe to ask questions, help each other, and establish meaningful personal and professional connections. Most of all, we are creating an environment of like minded individuals. Our group is called Internet Visionaries, and we currently have 15 active community members. We would love to grow and gain more active community members. Any feedback and advice on how to properly grow and manage such a community would be appreciated as we would like to have a couple thousand members. Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Aug 2018 01:27 PM PDT Full Article: https://levelup.gitconnected.com/pitch-mistakes-2018-edition-e401f0020b4 1.) Don't use "Millennials" to define your market 2.) Don't use CAGR and other Acronyms 3.) Don't use Hyperbole 4.) Stop talking about your "Brand" 5.) Don't use complex language 6.) Get to the root of the problem 7.) Don't explain your market in $billions 8.) No more hockey stick slide 9.) Don't use subjective thoughts and feelings 10.) Don't BS or Exaggerate [link] [comments]  |
| Amazon Affiliate Program comissions question Posted: 03 Aug 2018 01:21 PM PDT If I have a special plugin for my Amazon Affiliate links that redirects, for example: • an US person to US Marketplace & • an Indian to Indian Marketplace, and is the same link just to both of them from this example, Question is, if I am registered only to US domain, does the Indian customer sale give me a comission if it has been redirected to his domain through my link? Even if I am not registered to Indian domain? In other words... Do I need to sign-up to every Amazon Domain (U.K., U.S., Brasil, France, Mexico, etc.) if already my links redirects every customer to it's domain? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Aug 2018 12:45 PM PDT People who offer a service. I'm referring to like life coaches, social media marketers, copywriters, etc, if you do not work for a company, how do you get paid? What system do you use? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Entrepreneur Looking For Other Entrepreneurs or Wantrepreurs to work with. Posted: 02 Aug 2018 05:47 PM PDT I have a few small online businesses I run and a few more that I am starting on. I am looking for people who are motivated and want to help me grow them. The current business I run does about 1M in sales yearly and I want to get these smaller ones to that size. I've got a lot of projects and they don't all get my attention, so I'm looking for people who are dedicated and willing to stick it out for some equity. [link] [comments]  |
| How to do market validation for a product? Posted: 03 Aug 2018 12:24 PM PDT Bottom Line Upfront: How do I validate a product, and where do I find people to get feedback from. Hello, I have been working on developing a b2b cyber security product, but I have realized as the project grows more complex that I want to make sure that I am actually: 1) Solving an issue 2) Creating a Good Solution The perceived issue is dealing with too many uneducated users that have problems with getting computer viruses, thus saving time and money. The solution is a sandbox environment to protect the host machine. Making IT jobs easier while saving their companies money. In the end I am trying to find communities online where I can communicate with IT people to get a better idea of their problems, and then run my solution as an idea by them. This is just initial validation, I understand proper market validation goes beyond this, I am just looking for a starting foothold. [link] [comments]  |
| Does Cross promotion marketing works and what are the factors to consider? Posted: 03 Aug 2018 12:13 PM PDT Hello, As startup many of us struggle with discoverability and visibility for our brand and products. Either we need to spend thousands of dollar or patiently wait for some result.As a indie game studio we are facing the same challenge for our newly released mobile game. After searching through internet it seems like the current trend is on cross promotion and influencer marketing. But there are few things which comes to mind like:
Basically we would like to take this discussion as a platform for all those who are interested in getting into cross promotion marketing.Lets discuss and collaborate :) [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Aug 2018 11:58 AM PDT I'm starting my own brand.. I have my brand name and logo but having trouble finding a fitness apparel manufacturer. Any ideas?? [link] [comments]  |
| Need Ideas For Remote Part-Time Work! Posted: 03 Aug 2018 11:49 AM PDT Hello! First time posting on this subreddit. I started working for myself as a consultant/freelancer almost 2 years ago and from home. My job requires 3-5 hours a day of work. Last year I made around $70K. This year I am HOPING to beat it. But I really don't know. But I have SO much free time. I could literally be doing another part-time job on the side. Does anyone have any recco's on remote part-time work that is available online? I don't have any specific skill sets like coding or graphic design, but I'd love to do something for that extra 2-3 hours a day and make a couple hundred bucks extra a week. Looking for that side hustle! [link] [comments]  |
| Making Money (x-post from r/PracticalPhilosophy) Posted: 03 Aug 2018 10:59 AM PDT r/Entrepreneur and r/business should be where someone can learn and share their thoughts, ideas, struggles, advice, etc on making money. But they are not great for that. Maybe in the past they were. If you want to make money by building real products and services, and not do something vague ('passive income'/ dropshipping/ SEO/ building a brand) where you are not the maker or provider of a product or service that takes investments of time, money and effort to gain unique skills, then r/Entrepreneur is for you. Of you want to talk about the drop in FB share price, or Musk's tweets, or Bezos' muscles, then r/business is the place for you. I would like a place to contribute and debate and learn about the huge gray area on the timeline between mowing lawns ( r/Entreprenuer) and building a chain of ultra modern and convenient and affordable 5 star hotels with low carb Michelin start restaurants ( r/business), for example. And talk to all the people in various stages along thay grayed out timeline. I guess that is why I started this ( r/PracticalPhilosophy ) sub. I don't know how to organically (read - honestly) start that, so for now, I will just write out the thoughts. If you join this group feel free to argue/ debate anything I have said, even if you only come across this when it is no longer recent. [link] [comments]  |
| Did this “Shark Tank” contestant make the better deal? Posted: 02 Aug 2018 11:24 PM PDT They turned down an offer from Robert [300k for a 25% equity] and instead went with Kevin's offer [300k for no equity and 33% royalty]. [link] [comments]  |
| How do I set my pricing for my new big customer. Posted: 03 Aug 2018 09:28 AM PDT I am completely stand alone and this is the first place I thought of for asking advice, so sorry if i am in the wrong sub. I sell music productions to DJs who can't make them themselves and usually I use a fixed price so it's affordable for smaller clients aswell. This is my first big client, he opened DJ concerts for some of the biggest djs on the planet right now. In his vlogs you see him flying private jets and performing for huge crowds.. Normally my fixed price for a project is around 250. But this guy could be making 30k a month for all I know. If anyone can help me out here that would greatly be appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Charging Credit Cards for Rental Item Damage Posted: 03 Aug 2018 09:00 AM PDT Is it legal to require a customer input their credit card information in order to charge for potential damages to rental items? If this scenario happened, we would simply charge their card to our company's paypal account. If that's not appropriate, what other ways do you suggest to protect the company's assets? This is for small items under $100. [link] [comments]  |
| Does selling via shopify still make sense? Posted: 03 Aug 2018 08:47 AM PDT It seems like Amazon has such a huge market reach that people just go there to make most of their purchases. Almost everything can be bought there now. What type of products can be sold via shopify that aren't on Amazon? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Aug 2018 08:14 AM PDT Currently I'm studying to be an engineer and plan on finishing my degree. Additionally I am trying to improve my skillsets in professional communication, research, coding, and art (I feel like this is valuable). I'd really enjoy to run an online service such as a banking app and have many other ideas for computer based work but am not sure where to get started and reading about how to actually do this. I am not very wealthy so it may be a good idea to work out of college for a couple years all the while learning about business, finance, etc. But I really want to start small companies at least because obviously I'll learn best by doing. How do you recommend I get started? And should I consider things outside of online based companies? Edit: the 5k in the title is supposed to be to [link] [comments]  |
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