Thank you Thursday! - (August 09, 2018) Entrepreneur |
- Thank you Thursday! - (August 09, 2018)
- "I make SIX FUCKIN FIGURES!" **UPDATE**
- Here's what happened with my boss when I quit my job to work on my startup full time
- Is anyone interested in learning about dropshipping on Amazon?
- 3 tips I learned in growing an online community to 4,500 in 8 months.
- Google Chrome v68 marks all websites without an SSL certificate as 'not secure'. My suggestions to fix this are.
- I'm struggling to stand out within my niche
- In need for some solid advice! Looking to open a pizza place in my hometown. What is the best piece of advice you can share for this type of business?
- What's the best way to sell a profitable online business?
- Where do you get your product packaging (boxes / mailers / etc.)?
- What's the difference between content and a lead magnet?
- Do any of you know where I can get a template for a "glossy white paper"?
- There is no such thing as bad advice. Especially advice online.
- Don’t do your emails wrong!
- Can I Use a Name for my Business That's Already Used by Another Business?
- I make some bomb tasty smoothies, can that turn into a side business??
- Trying to find cost effective shipping rates to ship my organic beauty products within the states and UK
- How do I keep my corporation name generic enough to cover multiple ventures?
- Need Help/ideas need to make chicken salad out of chicken poop!
- What are some tips you would give to be a confident (yet respectful) boss, and manage working class employees?
- Lean Innovation Management Software?
- Research: Setup page to sell items or just get kickbacks from referrals?
- I am thinking of a service for assembling toys, furniture, etc. Particularly around Christmas or birthdays. Anyone tried this?
- What are the technical skills an entrepreneur must have?
- Calling UK Side Hustlers - Can you help me?
| Thank you Thursday! - (August 09, 2018) Posted: 09 Aug 2018 06:06 AM PDT Your opportunity to thank the /r/Entrepreneur community by offering free stuff, contests, discounts, electronic courses, ebooks and the best deals you know of. Please consolidate such offers here! Since this thread can fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. [link] [comments]  |
| "I make SIX FUCKIN FIGURES!" **UPDATE** Posted: 09 Aug 2018 10:12 AM PDT Maybe you remember my recent post here. Well, thanks to the great tips I received, I actually landed an IT job at the local public university. 37k/yr, full benefits, and I also found a ride. Not only that, but they offer free childcare to take some pressure off my wife, and after working 6 months, I get study tuition-free (maybe I can pursue that master's degree I had been eyeing for a while). Sure, my end goal is still to be an entrepreneur and make my time my own (and live full time in 5th wheel whilst homeschooling the kids), but I definitely see this as a positive step forward. Thanks again, everyone. [link] [comments]  |
| Here's what happened with my boss when I quit my job to work on my startup full time Posted: 09 Aug 2018 01:12 PM PDT I had been working on my last startup for about a year when I finally decided to go full time. We were generating some revenue, and I had enough savings in the bank from my full time job to keep me afloat for at least 6 months. I wanted to focus aggressively on sales during that time, which meant that I had to quit my job - taking sales calls during lunch and before work wasn't going to cut it any more. I had quit a few jobs before that - once when I decided to leave finance to work in sales, and again when I left my first sales job for an opportunity to run sales for an early stage company going through an accelerator. Both times I had very understanding bosses, making the separation process really easy. This time, I knew it would be different. I had been in my role for over 2 years, and in that time my title changed 3 times as I got more and more responsibilities. At this point I was managing all of our major client relationships, and was basically the only one in the company that knew how the software product worked. I had a decent relationship with the CEO (my boss), but knew he would be incredibly pissed at news of me leaving. In my two years there I saw massive employee turnover, and every time someone quit he would give them a really hard time, in some cases even threatening with lawsuits. Almost every woman at the company was brought to tears at one point or another. That kind of leadership style may have worked for Steve Jobs, but it was debilitating here. For several days I prepared what I was going to say, role playing with my brother to make sure that we thought of every single objection he could throw my way. I recommend role playing for anyone that has to face a similarly difficult conversation. If you anticipate what might happen, you're much more likely to stay calm when the real discussion comes. Finally, I confronted my boss, and two weeks later I was working full time on my startup! Here's what ended up happening:
It's incredibly important to know rights in a situation like this, so if you're unsure, speak to an employment lawyer first. Obviously if you're starting a company you should never work on your business when you should be working at your FT job. You should also never use any company materials. It goes without saying that if you're starting a business that's competitive to the company you're leaving, you should not go after the same clients and you must read the non-compete you signed very carefully. Non-competes are notoriously difficult to enforce, but you don't want to be forced to spend a bunch of money on a lawyers if your old boss decides to sue you because it's clear that you're competing with him/her. With that said, there's countless examples of startups that are built by domain experts that have been working in their field for years, so this shouldn't necessarily deter you - it's a judgement call. If you didn't sign a non-compete, then you can feel free to build a product that directly competes with the company that you worked with (thank you capitalism). Just make sure you're creating everything yourself from scratch, including the business/customer relationships. This experience, which I recreated with my brother in a podcast, taught me that even the most difficult person can be confidently dealt with when you take the time to prepare. There's tremendous power in knowing that you're right, so take the time to understand your rights and remove any possible doubt. [link] [comments]  |
| Is anyone interested in learning about dropshipping on Amazon? Posted: 08 Aug 2018 08:16 PM PDT Let me know, I'm thinking of putting together a write-up on here. If I get enough feedback and some topics you want covered, just comment with questions below! This is NOT about using AliExpress or Shopify or eBay or FBA (fulfilled by Amazon/manufacturing your own private label/brand). Please don't ask questions regarding those business models. This is a Q&A about dropshipping on Amazon and running a FBM (Fulfilled By Merchant) business model, sourcing from U.S. suppliers, and managing Amazon Seller Central with a Professional Seller Plan. [link] [comments]  |
| 3 tips I learned in growing an online community to 4,500 in 8 months. Posted: 09 Aug 2018 02:19 AM PDT Thought I'd share some of my learnings from growing my Five Ideas a Day Community. Here are 3 things that helped me get to the 4,500 mark. You need to give value for free. Prior to launching my community, I posted five ideas every single day for free on ALL my social networks (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & a handful of forums). This helped me build up a community without even knowing it at the time. Find the right audience to promote your product. I've heard a lot of mixed reviews when it comes to launching on PH. Here are my two cents. I knew when it came to launching my Five Ideas a Day website that PH would be a great product match fit. Why? Well, because a lot of my ideas were around apps, technology, and startup ideas. Considering this is 99% of what is posted on PH I knew people would engage. There were trends I noticed with the top voted products - colorful gifs, nicely designed imagery and of course emojis in the description. All of these helped my launch become #3 highest voted on the day with 922 upvotes. It also worked well for my second launch - my 5 Ideas a Day ebook which was voted #2 highest voted on the day. Offer a free plan So, after sharing 5 ideas for 365 days I grew a decent following online. When I announced that I was going to post my 5 ideas behind a paywall it was met with mixed reviews. Some people were annoyed that they would now have to pay a whopping $1.99 per month to continue receiving my 5 ideas a day. I think people forget that I don't have a full-time job and that I pay the bills through my side-projects. I spend around 1-2 hours each day working on my 5 Ideas plus the cost of running the platform all adds up. So to please everyone I offered a FREE membership plan, the free plan offered a weekly review of 5 of my ideas. This kept both parties happy and helped my member count grow. The above is a top-level overview of some of the methods I used but it should help plant some seeds in your head when coming to growing your community. If you have any questions then please ask below and I will get back as quickly as I can. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Aug 2018 05:00 AM PDT Depending on your server setup and traffic there might be a different solution. The bottom line is you need https and you can do this for free. You don't need an expensive ssl certificate.
There you go. Your site is now protected by Cloudflare, you have a free CDN and you have SSL (https) so that Chrome won't mark you as 'not secure' in search results and also when users visit. EDIT: I am not affiliated to Cloudflare but I have done this a few times to solve this problem and wanted to share. [link] [comments]  |
| I'm struggling to stand out within my niche Posted: 09 Aug 2018 05:49 AM PDT I started a consumer brand almost 2 years ago, which is now turning over $200,000 a year. The industry i'm in, is valued in the billions of dollars, in my country alone. In comparison to some of the big competitors, I'm a very small fish. The truth is, i'm not actually doing anything great or innovative at all. I simply compete on price and provide the best customer service I can. There is no strong USP. I am coming close to begin distributing my product to retailers, however, I'm losing some confidence in my brand as it's not doing anything that special, and is currently not something retailers are queuing up to stock. I don't know what to do to change this, and create something that stands above the competitors. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Aug 2018 05:08 AM PDT |
| What's the best way to sell a profitable online business? Posted: 09 Aug 2018 11:00 AM PDT I've been running a website for a couple of years now that consistently nets almost 1k a month. While it's been great, I need a bigger chunk than that to pay for tuition this year (plus the time commitment) and I'm considering selling it. I've looked around and sites like Flippa look to be filled with factory-churned template sites and I feel that my site would either be seriously undervalued or I'd be flat out scammed. Does anyone have any business/website brokers that they would recommend or another way to sell it? [link] [comments]  |
| Where do you get your product packaging (boxes / mailers / etc.)? Posted: 09 Aug 2018 08:00 AM PDT I am looking to order 10,000 units of product packaging, specifically a box and a mailer. Sourcing packaging is something I don't see discussed often here and an important detail. I have a few questions for the entrepreneurs here about packaging:
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| What's the difference between content and a lead magnet? Posted: 09 Aug 2018 06:36 AM PDT Here's a big mistake. You're pumping out content. You're posting to your business' blog every week. That's great and all. But, it's one sided. You're not grabbing your leads' information during the exchange. It's a one-way interaction. (At best, you're launching an email pop-up for 10% off in your e-commerce store, right?) You need a lead magnet. What's a lead magnet? It's a piece of immense value you give away for free in exchange for a lead's contact information. Don't underestimate the power of a lead. A phone number. An email address. A physical address. Lead magnets could be:
Lead magnets start by solving a customers' problems. Let me give you some examples in my niche (healthy food, beverage, and wellness supplements) to help you see how to connect the dots.
I recently wrote a 30 day email course to solve one problem for customers. It was free. (Talk about preeminence! What's that? We'll get into that next time!) I guided readers through the thirty day removal of their pain point. Action takeaway: All content should start with problem solving. Lead magnets are no different. First, what problem are you solving in your business? Not "what service do I provide?" Deeper than that. How can you package the problem you solve into a lead magnet that delivers huge value? What would be the best medium to deliver it in? An ebook? A webinar? A cheat sheet PDF? If you'd like help with sorting out the best lead magnet for your biz, shoot me a message. I'd love to help connect your idea to a real lead magnet you could make yourself. P.S. Lastly, be sure to include a CTA in your lead magnet in case a lead gets so excited by your product they wanna buy. P.P.S. I'm a lead magnet expert...downloading them, that is. Haha! I'm a sucker for lead magnets actually. In my relentless pursuit of copywriting and marketing knowledge to serve people like you, I've signed up for so much stuff. And, what did I get out of it? I learned a ton about the subjects. But, did it work on their end? Did the lead magnet effectively turn me (the lead) into a paying customer? Yes. I signed up for a thousand dollar marketing program based off some emails I received after signing up for a lead magnet. Once I was on the email list, I was a marked man. And, I'm happy I was. If they work for sophisticated and very aware marketers like you and I, they work. The key is figuring out the best medium for your business. This is part six in a twelve part series on how healthy food, beverage, and supplement companies can give themselves a marketing makeover and boost revenue and happy customers. See the previous posts here: [link] [comments]  |
| Do any of you know where I can get a template for a "glossy white paper"? Posted: 09 Aug 2018 01:54 PM PDT Such as: https://imgur.com/a/oLM8Orj I have been all over fiverr and graphic river and I haven't found anything I liked. They mostly have single page flyers and brochures. Not really anything like that example above. I figures someone here may know where the goods are since I assume everyone is creating marketing material at all times, right? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| There is no such thing as bad advice. Especially advice online. Posted: 09 Aug 2018 01:52 PM PDT While its frustrating to hear irrational advice. The best practice is to either completely ignore it or reply as friendly as possible. I have now learned that no matter how ridiculous the advice is, you have to thank that person for their time and consider maybe other people will think in that manner. It's almost immediate that someone will find a reason to hate what you are doing without merit. Be confident, consistent and courteous. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Aug 2018 08:37 PM PDT I see a lot of startups and even established brands doing this wrong. When a startup starts to gain an email list, what they usually do is that they will send out newsletters detailing the "about us" and "our missions"and "tutorials" on how to use their products and what not. This is completely wrong. Remember this: the customer or prospect does not care about your company! All they care about is how they can benefit from your company, be it to take value or relief boredom. What you should do is to remind them how they will benefit from your company's products or services. Tell them of your sales and the urgency to buy now as the sale will end soon. Sell specific products or discounts that will only be available via the email you just sent. The email should be about the customer and only the customer. If you want to write an "about us", direct them to your website, where a giant image link of your product shall be next to the "about us". Every step and move you make should be directed to sell and close, after all, you are not running a non-profit. Selling is your main objective. This is actually quite a simple concept to grasp, but many startups fail to act on it. If you have any questions, consult your copywriter! They are experts in the emails and words. If you don't have one, it's time to do so. Take it as an investment that you will be returned tenfolds. I am a copywriter myself and you can dm me if you have any problems regarding your business and emails, but this is about it and hope you can benefit from my short rant. [link] [comments]  |
| Can I Use a Name for my Business That's Already Used by Another Business? Posted: 09 Aug 2018 11:47 AM PDT There are several other small time businesses or companies under the name I picked, nothing too big to make me feel like it's a problem. The thought occurred to me however that names might work somewhat similar to patents, and as I go public someone else going under that name could cause me trouble. Could that happen? If so how do I check whether the name is alright? [link] [comments]  |
| I make some bomb tasty smoothies, can that turn into a side business?? Posted: 09 Aug 2018 11:40 AM PDT hey guys, I understand most energy bar founders kind of started their business by basically creating things they would enjoy themselves and then scaled up the operation. Personally I hate eating veggie (too much chewing, it gets stuck, taste like grass etc etc), and the smoothies in the market are too sweet, too watery, not enough veggie and frankly bloody expensive. So, I make my own veggie smoothie by blending veggie with other ingredients to make rather tasty and healthy (no added sugar nor sugary juice). I am curious, can that be turned into a business? one thing comes to mind is it is perishable and not really ecommerce friendly vs energy bars. any ideas/ thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Aug 2018 11:06 AM PDT I started my business 3 years ago in NJ and shipped alot of products locally. Now im in Miami and still have customers in NJ/NY. Even to ship locally in FL its costing too much via USPS and i cant charge my customers those prices. To ship to UK its over $25 for a few oz of products. The weight ranges from 5oz to 5 lb. Calculated it via Fedex as well but thats even higher. [link] [comments]  |
| How do I keep my corporation name generic enough to cover multiple ventures? Posted: 09 Aug 2018 11:05 AM PDT I'm looking for some advice in naming my business... I already have a "brand" (which I will call XYZ), but I'm looking for a catch-all word or phrase to add at the end to cover different areas of focus. I'm in Canada, and I'd like to register as a corporation. The business will primarily be focused on selling custom furniture, however I have a few other unrelated ventures (e-commerce shops, web design services) and it would be helpful if they were under the same corporation for sake of simplicity. I don't want to register multiple businesses. For example, if I register as "XYZ Woodworking Inc.", it's fine for one aspect of the business but not if we branched out into concrete or metalwork. I don't really like the shady sound of "XYZ Enterprises Inc." or "XYZ Solutions Inc." but that is more along the lines of what I mean. I am thinking about just simply "XYZ Inc." I don't necessarily NEED to lump them all into one big bucket right now, but it would be nice to expand into other areas later without needing to change the legal name of the corporation. Any advice is appreciated. Be gentle, this is all new to me. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Need Help/ideas need to make chicken salad out of chicken poop! Posted: 09 Aug 2018 10:49 AM PDT To make a long story short my brother partnered with a freind to open a jewelry store things went south my brother ended up getting conned by his partner The jewelry store never opened my brother sunk money into a store that was never going to open I also invested. We are left with thousands of loose precious gems sapphires, emeralds, rubies, tourmalines, etc.... neither of us have experience in manufacturing jewelry we don't have the money to open the store and honestly at this point I don't want to open it. Any ideas on how to sell these gem stones? Where would you guys begin? I'd like to get some money back, PLEASE ANY ADVICE WOULD HELP THANKS! I CANNOT PUT INTO WORDS THE TOLL IT HAS TAKEN ON MY FAMILY! People who con and scam people do not know how devastating it is, my brother turned to alcohol and drugs to cope with it, his partner earned his trust and methodically scammed us it makes me so mad thinking about it! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Aug 2018 10:45 AM PDT Newbie young entrepreneur here. I'm a too gentle of a person, and I suspect this is not good when it comes to command a team of people, because they can get on top of you, or push you around. Yes, I'm the kind of person that needs some improvement on that department. I'm well aware there are many civilized people in general, but you can always stumble upon the harder ones. I'm convinced there are some subtleties and patterns (and desired personal behavior) when it comes to managing people, specially working class people. Which tips would you give about this topic? Many thanks, [link] [comments]  |
| Lean Innovation Management Software? Posted: 09 Aug 2018 10:39 AM PDT I am looking for a good Lean Innovation Management Software other than glidr.io as I think the program is lacking. Any suggestions? [link] [comments]  |
| Research: Setup page to sell items or just get kickbacks from referrals? Posted: 09 Aug 2018 10:32 AM PDT I want to provide an ebook/website that allows for newly married couples with no kids who have amazon, have dietary restrictions (vegan, gluten free), and are learning how to cook/ meal prep. I want to know if any research has been done in reference to creating a page that sells the items mentioned or should I provide a referral code for a kickback. I'm not looking to quit my job, but I would like to use the money to set up a commissary kitchen so I can instruct people on creating fancy meals. Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Aug 2018 10:08 AM PDT I have a successful repair business on the side mostly related to small engines. Late Summer it winds down, so I am starting to look toward other things to fill the gap. I am thinking of offering an assembly service for toys, furniture, computers, etc. Has anyone tried this? I am trying to get an idea how much is a fair price and where to set limits. Like what to say no to, where to draw the line on what "assembly and setup" means. Such as I can assemble a swingset, but I am not putting down sand or staking it down. [link] [comments]  |
| What are the technical skills an entrepreneur must have? Posted: 09 Aug 2018 09:57 AM PDT I'm looking to expand my skills right now and I'm unsure about what to start learning. I'm focused on technical skills more than mental ones, for example: (from highest to lowest)
Any indirect skills that most people are not aware of that helped you? (from highest to lowest) For example:
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| Calling UK Side Hustlers - Can you help me? Posted: 09 Aug 2018 09:35 AM PDT Hi all, I need to interview some UK-based 'side hustlers' for one of my university modules. I'm keen to find out a bit more about how open you feel you can be with your employer and if your employer has any kind of side working policy (apparently only 49% of businesses have something in place to handle this despite the growing number of people setting one up). I do have to record the interviews to enable me to transcribe them for analysis later, but pseudonyms will be used in the transcription and the data will be kept anonymous. If you'd be kind enough to let me have 20ish minutes of your time, I'd be hugely grateful. I can't offer payment, but if you're about in Central London I'd be happy to meet in person and grab you a drink. If not, Skype etc. is suitable too. Drop me a PM if you're able to help or have any questions and I'll send you through more info. If you're not UK-based, I'm still really interested to hear about your relationship with your employer/their side-working policy even though it can't make up part of my formal research. [link] [comments]  |
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