Size Matters? What are the most frustrating aspects of being small? Has anyone here found a way around them? small business |
- Size Matters? What are the most frustrating aspects of being small? Has anyone here found a way around them?
- How did you turn business around? What were the trials and errors you experienced before? How long did this take? Lastly, how did this experience change you? Not just as a business owner, but as an indivdual?
- Small Businesses Find Micro-Influencers A Good Marketing Avenue
- Should we cancel our SEO specialist's contract?
- Suing Commercial Property Manager
- Perception of SMEs towards a data breach
- Need Of Business Explainer Videos
- Best way to expand and advertise? New to this.
- Marketing for a service business
- Vendor offering $20 gift card for review
- How do you forecast sales/costs/other numeric data for your small business?
- Financial controls for small business restaurant
- Healthcare Reimbursement Plan - Individual vs Family question
- Why are stickers so expensive?
- Advice please: A thrift store is moving next door to my salon.
- Hiring method
- Getting product to retailers
- Loading / junk removal with pickup truck
- Converting to a POS system from a book and paper system
- Medical Practice Startup Loan - Rent not included in loan?
- How exactly does "equity" work in a small business?
- 50/50 business partner and I had a falling out. What type of legal advice should I seek?
- Looking for advice from the pros
- Recommendations for line of credit online
| Posted: 02 Aug 2018 06:13 PM PDT I'll start. Two things drive me crazy about being a small business:
Does anyone else have these problems? Has anyone found a way around them? Any massive problems you have because of your size that someone here might have a solution to? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Aug 2018 12:24 PM PDT Doesn't matter if it's profit, culture, or managment, etc. I'd like to hear what you did. [link] [comments]  |
| Small Businesses Find Micro-Influencers A Good Marketing Avenue Posted: 02 Aug 2018 10:58 AM PDT Story on how a small business, Mason Jar Storage, used micro-influencers to help with getting sales. While not a deep dive, it's a good piece and something to consider - using micro-influnecers as opposed to more traditional paid advertising or "celebrity" influencers (celebrity in quotes as I only mean someone with a huge following that prospects will recognize). I think more small businesses are starting to realize the value of micro-influencers and the fact that they can drive targeted engagement for a reasonable price making it more sustainable method of marketing/advertising. Link to the article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dinahwisenberg/2018/07/31/small-businesses-find-micro-influencers-a-good-marketing-avenue/#9425d1f6f9fd [link] [comments]  |
| Should we cancel our SEO specialist's contract? Posted: 03 Aug 2018 02:13 AM PDT I'm a VA turned social media marketer and blogger for a small health and fitness startup company. We launched the business this year in February. At first, I was the one tasked to manage and create content for our social media so during the first few months we were actively posting on Instagram and doing curated contents on Facebook since we haven't started publishing blog posts that time. But we had made some changes in our strategies and the role for handling the social media was turned over to my client's business partner and then on May, he also hired an SEO specialist to help our website's ranking since it is important for the business to have good online visibility since it is offering online services (online yoga, personal training, physiotherapy). The problem is since then our online presence has declined since she hasn't started with the social media campaign and we are just starting to create blog posts (we only have like 3 blogs on the website as of now) and we do not have even a single full-paying customer at the moment. All of our existing "customers" are discounted or free in exchange of them promoting the business on their personal pages. So now, my client is thinking of cutting his cost. He would like to pause or cancel the contract of our SEO specialist. We know that it takes time to see results especially since we have a lot of competitors in our niche, but base on the weekly reports he is submitting I can see that there is barely an improvement in any of our keywords ranking. His strategies for off-page optimization includes profile creation, social bookmarking, image, classified, and PPT submissions. I see no sense in the social bookmarking and image submission strategy since we do not have any good content yet to share to our main social pages let alone to social bookmarking and image sharing sites. So he's creating images on his own and directly posting them to the website profiles he had created without consulting to us about them. On my judgment, the text posts, images shared to the websites seem spammy to me and doesn't give value to people and they are just there posted for the sake of backlinks and I'm concerned that it would give a negative effect to the website ranking or worst the company. Sure, they are links and those backlinks are getting some traffic to the website but those links are causing us to have a high bounce rate. My question is, do we cancel his contract and focus first on getting our heads on straight on our plans and more importantly on our content marketing? This is a very small company that doesn't have an income yet, do you think that the SEO service is necessary at this stage of his business? [link] [comments]  |
| Suing Commercial Property Manager Posted: 02 Aug 2018 11:12 PM PDT Hi, I am the son of the owner of a restaurant. Recently, for the 10th time this year, there has been a leak from the upper floor down to us during business hours. Ultimately, due to the weight of the water, a tile fell and collapsed. It has been occurring multiple times a month - more often than the number of months this year. We have been in this property for over 20 years and the problems rooted since the beginning. I did not know how pressing this issue was until I saw it happen in front of me tonight, all the while customers were dining. At this point, I am unsure if the building is up to code and standard, which I highly doubt. As Asian-Americans, I feel that my mother's restaurant is being cheated. She has been paying the large electric, cleaning and misc. fees associated with these faults. From leaks to power outages, I am unsure how viable it would be to conduct business moving forward. I want to take action for my mother. This is truly upsetting and unprofessional. Also, while an employee of the property company called us at 9 PM, she hung up after I started expressing how unprofessional she was - I have requested that the recording of the call be sent to us. We have video proof and testimonials from customers who were there. I just want to know if this would be worth the expenses. My current emotions are heated due to the fact that I feel like my mother is being cheated for being ignorant of the law. She did not make her way from Asia to birth me into someone who cannot defend for her. I currently work full-time as a self-sufficient 25 year old, but I will exhaust everything that I can to get justice. If this was the first time, I could call it an accident, but happening over 10 times in year? Impassable. I know not many of us are lawyers here, but any advice is appreciated. I will also do my due diligence and seek the best course of action. Thank you. Update 1: Would this be gross negligence? - employee hung up in the midst of our conversation, she never gave us concrete resolution on when/how it was going to be fixed. She said "I do not have time to hear you".... I asked for the recording. - LiveFutura [link] [comments]  |
| Perception of SMEs towards a data breach Posted: 03 Aug 2018 03:38 AM PDT Hi, I am conducting a survey which I believe is important to SMEs particularly those that use IT. Will be very grateful if you can help complete the survey. It won't take much of your time. [link] [comments]  |
| Need Of Business Explainer Videos Posted: 03 Aug 2018 03:17 AM PDT Why marketing business explainer videos have become so popular among small businesses? The answer is they quickly introduce your brand, explain your offering, and show potential customers, about how said offering can solve their queries. All this information can be conveyed effectively in only one form and that is a video. Watch More...http://www.radiancevisiongroup.com/video/video-need-of-business-explainer-videos [link] [comments]  |
| Best way to expand and advertise? New to this. Posted: 03 Aug 2018 02:19 AM PDT Morning all, [link] [comments]  |
| Marketing for a service business Posted: 03 Aug 2018 01:46 AM PDT I'm starting my own property maintanence business and am wondering how I should go about marketing ? Any tips and tricks would be appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Vendor offering $20 gift card for review Posted: 02 Aug 2018 08:13 AM PDT I'm pretty satisfied with this subscription software service. The account manager just e-mailed me offering a $20 gift card to leave a review (with the next sentence saying "we really love 5-star reviews!"). If he simply e-mailed me asking for a review without the financial incentive, I would have gladly submitted a deservedly positive one. But this rubs me the wrong way, and also places me in an awkward situation. Since I'm not going to accept money, I don't know how to respond without coming across as offensive or sanctimonious. And I don't even know if I want to leave a review now. What do you recommend? Edit: thanks for the advice, everyone! I'll go the donation route. [link] [comments]  |
| How do you forecast sales/costs/other numeric data for your small business? Posted: 02 Aug 2018 11:19 AM PDT Hi Everyone, I'm doing research on how solo businesses and small businesses forecast things like costs, revenues, and inventory. Being able to confidently forecast is key to being able to plan for the future and allocate resources efficiently. What is your preferred way to forecast? Spreadsheet functionality? Gut feel? Linear regressions? More advanced data science techniques? No forecasting at all? If you'd prefer to chat over email, drop me a line at my username @gmail.com. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Financial controls for small business restaurant Posted: 02 Aug 2018 08:50 PM PDT Currently, I'm the only person in my company's finance department, and I work very closely with our outsourced accounting firm. I'm wondering if you guys have any suggestions on how I can improve the company's financial controls to better manage cash flow. Recently I created an expense book in excel to track all expenses (and payables) but of course, it's not very efficient given that i have to log all receipts/purchases manually into the expense book (which takes me away from working on other important finance area like FP&A and forecasting). Any suggestions on what controls to add to get the bookkeeping to run more smoothly? [link] [comments]  |
| Healthcare Reimbursement Plan - Individual vs Family question Posted: 02 Aug 2018 08:26 PM PDT Hey r/smallbusiness! I have a question that my modest googling skills haven't been able to decipher definitively, and I was hoping you would be so kind to help. We offer Healthcare Reimbursement Plans to W2s. I know you need to offer the same amount to individuals, but I've also read there's an exception for families. Basically, I want to bring on an employee who has a family, and I'd like to cover nearly all of his health insurance costs. What are the rules/restrictions that I should be aware of? Thanks so much!!! S69 [link] [comments]  |
| Why are stickers so expensive? Posted: 02 Aug 2018 06:17 PM PDT I want to offer a variety of different designs on my product using 4x2 inch stickers/labels. Because I want to see how each design sells, I don't want to spend too much on each design. But when I price it out, I need to buy at least 50 labels for each design, which comes to over $50. Then I found a company to do 25 labels for $15, but then shipping costs are ridiculous (They charge $15 shipping per item, so 10 different designs ends up costing over $100 in shipping). Why are labels so expensive to get printed? Why can't the person running the machine print all my designs at once? [link] [comments]  |
| Advice please: A thrift store is moving next door to my salon. Posted: 02 Aug 2018 04:58 PM PDT I have owned my salon for three years. I have a psych degree then decided to do cosmetology school. I closed on my Salon the day after graduating. Which was a huge risk but parents (their idea to buy) were backing me financially in case things went south. They own their own business together and have had it for about 25 years. A year into ownership, we had a baby. I had to go on bedrest early and with maternity leave you can guess we were close to closing down for good by the time I got back. I pulled the Salon off the ground and by a miracle and long long hours and never being home- we are alive and thriving. Roughly 10 salons have closed near us- a lot are suffering. So of course business has really picked up beyond what we can handle. Which is amazing. Things were looking good until yesterday when I saw the unit next to us is going to be a thrift store. Every business on our very busy road has actually torn down and rebuilt. Everyone is renovating except our strip. I own a mid to high end salon. The rent is very reasonable for the part of town I'm in- so moving would definitely hit my income, which honestly isn't a lot because I'm constantly trying to upgrade the salon. (I know, I got irresponsible for a while) I know most clients won't leave me, but I have a stylist whose still building clientele. Her success is important to me. I don't think we will gain extra clients. I have worked my ass off (literally) to get where we are. My parents think I'm being snobby and that this won't impact my business negatively- although they agree it won't help. Am I unreasonable? Is this not a sinking ship? TLDR: is a thrift store next to my Salon the kiss of death? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Aug 2018 04:51 PM PDT How do you go about finding reliable employees? I started a cleaning service and I'm starting to get quite a bit demand, but I'm having such a hard time finding people to work for me. My only requirement is some cleaning experience, a reliable vehicle, dependability, and work ethic. I pay $12.50/hr but can only offer PT hrs until I ramp up. I constantly no shows for interviews [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Aug 2018 03:31 PM PDT Good Evening Everyone! We are pet foods manufacturing company. We currently see a demand online, but wanted to expand our selling channels, and therefore contacted retailers of wide range, including small brick and mortar, as well as those as Chewy.com If anyone had experience with getting products to retail please advise what should be done,a s for now we getting no repsonse at all. No positive, no negative... I would also appreciate if someone could share what it takes to get product to such retailers as Chewy.com Thanks, any insight is helpful! have a great friday! [link] [comments]  |
| Loading / junk removal with pickup truck Posted: 02 Aug 2018 03:24 PM PDT Cross-posted from /r/roastmystartup. Since this subreddit only has 2K subscribers I want to post here as well as broaden my roasters/gather more input. I'm looking to start a side gig that I can pick/choose jobs and also scale up as my free time increases. I have a pickup truck with a 5ft bed and access to a trailer if need be. I'm considering a side gig for moving items, junk removal, loading/dropping off items. Why the business? As said above, I have free time and a pickup truck. I also have a roll-down cover to protect items, tarps, appliance dolly, tie down straps, moving blankets and other items. Knowledgeable about loading items and able to do so independently (although I would first insist on customer helping). Most local companies seem to market to bigger jobs or box trucks whereas I feel I can market to more of the smaller guy. I don't require much, if any, upfront costs as I already have everything required. Possible additions would be trailer, box truck/cube van, etc. For junk removal, I live 5 minutes from the city dump and the charge is $80 per ton, both of which are reasonable. Who to market to? I would start off with Craiglist postings. The postings I see advertised are mostly for box vans or actual moving services. I would cater more to smaller jobs such as Home Depot loading/drop-off at customer site, moving a washer or dryer, junk removal items, etc. I would advertise as more of a "guy with a truck looking for some work" as I feel that this would attract more smaller jobs instead of people calling for a box truck to move a washer,dryer, something smaller. Older people, people without vans/trucks, DIY homeowners, etc. Basically anyone who would be looking to borrow their friends/family's truck but can instead use mine while also getting my assistance loading and delivering. Pricing Unclear about this aspect. Not sure if I should just charge a flat price of $30-40/hr or $20 to start and another .50 cents per mile. I'm in the southern part of a large city so I can generally get anywhere within 30 minutes, barring traffic or if they're out in the boondocks/far out suburbs. Also unsure if I should charge extra for dolly use, blankets etc. I feel a broad approach would be best instead of "OK now you're at $25. The blanket would put you at $30. Oh now you need the dolly? That's another $5". I'd like to make this as hassle-free and easy going as possible. Again, more of a casual "helping out" approach instead of an actual business approach. One company advertise 2 guys for 2 hours, $100 bucks flat rate. HD has their moving truck for $20 for 90 minutes and then you return with a full tank. I want to be competitive but not undercut pricing. If junk removal, it would be $40 per appliance (on par with local rates and you can also recycle) and either a per-hour approach or "how much of my pickup bed is full" cost structure. Opportunities to scale I've been watching some Youtube videos and guys have started off, by themselves, with just a pick-up truck, then add a trailer, then add a box truck, etc. I don't want to turn down jobs because I don't have a big vehicle but if this turns out to be a profitable venture I can always grab a used trailer for 1K or so and work up from there. Again, with being able to pick/choose jobs and hustle, I can scale this business up the harder I work. I could easily create a website, throw together a simple pricing contract, make business cards and shirts, etc. I can then advertise on Facebook, Google, etc. Ideas/thoughts/input? I am serious about this and will start it regardless. If it doesn't pan out, I already have all the products so I'm not out any money. Would prefer input about pricing structure as well. I'm thinking about this as what would attract me if I were a customer looking for this kind of product so I hope it makes sense to everyone. [link] [comments]  |
| Converting to a POS system from a book and paper system Posted: 02 Aug 2018 10:00 AM PDT My dad owns a small plumbing and heating business that's been up and running since the 70's and it's always ran the same way. We do all of our sales and ordering through multiple catalogs from our various vendors. We currently write out all of our sales by hand and spend countless amounts of time looking up pricing on every sale. We want to convert to something that's a little more up to date, but we currently have no idea where to even start. We need a system that we can bring all of our products together into one database, scan goods, print receipts, and keep inventory. I would really appreciate any and all advice that you guys have! [link] [comments]  |
| Medical Practice Startup Loan - Rent not included in loan? Posted: 02 Aug 2018 01:03 PM PDT Wife and I are are starting a new Optometry Practice in Texas and spoke to the loan officer who said were looking at abut $350K available. She is an OD and I am just helping while doing my ft job. That would cover the internal construction and build out of practice (approx $200K) + ($100K for equipment) + Payroll. Rent is about $108K year ($35/sqf + $9nnn) with 150 days free. Is it normal to not account for Rent in a new Business Loan? I assumed the loan would be about $450-500K to cover at least 1st years rent while we get established. Do we take out a secondary loan? We do have about $40/sq in Tenant Allowance coming back so I guess that could cover Advise Welcome. [link] [comments]  |
| How exactly does "equity" work in a small business? Posted: 02 Aug 2018 12:49 PM PDT I am looking for an ELI5. Say, for instance, I start a business and invest $20,000 to get it started. A friend says he wants to put $5,000 in as an investment. This would mean that the company is worth $25,000 to start and my friend would own 20% of the company.Therefore, if my company issued 100 shares, he would own 20 shares at $250 per share. What determines the value of these shares? For example, lets say in 2 years my friend wants to pull his investment out. It wouldn't be $5,000. How is the new share price determined and is this how it really works in these situations? Would it be more along the lines as each quarter my friends would gain/lose depending on net profits? [link] [comments]  |
| 50/50 business partner and I had a falling out. What type of legal advice should I seek? Posted: 02 Aug 2018 12:41 PM PDT We have an attorney for our business, but of course that is a conflict of interest. Has anyone been through this before? I will post this in r/legaladvice as well. But any general advice would be much appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for advice from the pros Posted: 02 Aug 2018 12:28 PM PDT At the moment, I'm providing freelance chat support to one company and I want to provide customer support chat to other small businesses as well. Since I'm an individual, what marketing strategies do you all suggest? Should I stick to freelancing or do you think pursuing this under a company name would be a better approach? All sorts of suggestions are welcome. [link] [comments]  |
| Recommendations for line of credit online Posted: 02 Aug 2018 08:26 AM PDT We receive 90% of our revenue from one contractor right now. Working on changing that. But for now, it is what it is. They are pretty flaky when it comes to paying in a timely manner. So sometimes when payroll comes around, we struggle. Other than local banks, does anyone have suggestions as to what online company may be a good resource to obtain a line of credit? I appreciate your help [link] [comments]  |
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