An open plea to the “I make 2 million a week from a beach in Bali” scumbags who are starting to post here. small business |
- An open plea to the “I make 2 million a week from a beach in Bali” scumbags who are starting to post here.
- Are we subjected to 'modern slavery' or is that just a myth?
- I don't know if my business partner is setting unrealistic expectations
- Taking Over Small Business, Need ELI5 Advice
- Business ideas in Germany.
- Just got a grocery beer license (NYC) and need to train staff
- Product Shipping Boxes Suppliers and Customizations
- Interest in website development/design, hosting, and Digital Marketing Services!
- Lots of friends work in the industry my saas was made for. I've signed my first big client and now they are taking notice. I want to offer kickbacks.
- Use the right FB ads objective please.
- Top 5 Digital Cameras
- Let’s discuss the merits of Incorporating verses professional liability insurance and solid release wavers as ways to protect ourselves and our businesses.
- How to determine which marketing is important
- Starting a subscription box service... any advice?
- Advice on starting a home automation business
- What industry is your small business in? Do you have a virtual or physical setup?
- Tool to pinpoint a bunch of addresses on a map?
- Help me decide a strategy for my hair transplant and plastic surgery aggregator business. Do I need international partner?
- Chirps Cricket Protein Chips
- Landlord Steals Security Light While Staging a Fake Break-In
- Marketing Manager
- Any questions on email marketing?
- Alternatives to paid market research?
- How much should I reinvest into my business?
- How to Make "Sound Wave" FB/Insta Videos Like Gary V?
| Posted: 26 Oct 2018 04:17 AM PDT Can you please please PLEASE not let this sub turn into the entrepreneur and entrepreneur ride along sub? This sub is the only place to join real business owners in having honest, realistic, and non-soliciting discussions about being a business owner. I'm starting to see marketing agencies and other salesman post on here, and at the end offer up a DM for a screen grab video or other service, As if that's not a shitty advertisement. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't let this shit keep happening, because it starts small like this, then next thing you know every post will be "HOW I MAKE 2 MIL A DAY FLIPPING SCREEN REPAIR ADS ON INSTAGRAM". PLEASE. In a mostly lonely world of being a real business owner, this place is one of the best outlets to hear like-minded people going through the same unique situations vent, provide solutions and maybe have a few laughs. Thanks for your time. [link] [comments]  |
| Are we subjected to 'modern slavery' or is that just a myth? Posted: 27 Oct 2018 04:34 AM PDT I am flabbergasted by how many people don't realize that they are subjected to modern slavery and that their lives aren't really theirs. Just the other day before my meeting with a business acquaintance of mine, he and I were having the 'small talk' when he told me that as of lately he's been preoccupied with and stressed about his son's future. As it turns out, he and his wife haven not been able to enroll their only son in one of the most prestigious universities in their country – the Ivy League equivalent – because of tough competition and limited seats availability. He went on to tell me that particular university would have cost them north of $350K which he and his wife have been saving for over the past 20 years. Unfortunately, they will now have to send their son to some other university, I guess far less prestigious and a lot cheaper. While I feel for them, part of me is baffled by the whole thing. Being a straight shooter, I told him my inner thoughts and feelings about the whole 'saving up for university' thing, many of my business acquaintances do on a regular basis. I said to him, isn't it crazy that you and your wife have been saving up for your son's university for the past 20 long years so that he can graduate and get a job? A job?! A job, which straight out of university with no professional experience would pay him at best, $50K per year (pre-tax) and I am being super generous and optimistic here. A job which would enslave their son from 9 to 5, five days a week if not longer hours, depending on the corporate culture of the business organization that he joins. A job which would most likely be completely meaningless in the bigger scheme of things and wouldn't be contributing to the mankind but shareholders and senior executives. A job, which would possibly pay off in 7+ years which is a terrible investment if you ask any business and finance savvy professional. But what's the alternative? What could have they done differently? The answer is nothing – they couldn't have done anything different because they simply didn't know any better and here's why… https://www.parttimerz.com/blog/2018/10/26/modern-slavery-or-entrepreneurship [link] [comments]  |
| I don't know if my business partner is setting unrealistic expectations Posted: 27 Oct 2018 04:17 AM PDT I've partnered up with someone to find me web development projects. He finds someone and then expects me to budget it and give him a price quote in 5 minutes with just vague information. If he wants to pitch an e-commerce website to someone, I am expected to have a demo up and running (with custom products) in a matter of minutes. If I don't come up with the demo within the set timeline, the client apparently gets a bid from someone else and vanishes. If I say I feel these demands are unrealistic, I'm being told this is because I'm unprepared and we're losing business because of it. Is he right about this? I'm getting frustrated with the constant negativity and making me feel like a failure. [link] [comments]  |
| Taking Over Small Business, Need ELI5 Advice Posted: 27 Oct 2018 03:37 AM PDT My father has owned a record store since 1985. He's been ill a few years, so I'm going in and taking over for him. What I need is some advice for when the worst happens- how do I guarantee ownership passes to me in the event of his death, how do I go about getting this done, and how does my tax situation change? I've been keeping receipts for anything I buy for the business but as my dad is my dependent, I don't know how this will change things for how I file. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Oct 2018 03:28 AM PDT Is anyone here who currently owns a business or knows enough to start one based in Germany? I am Italian and have 2-3 good ideas but my German isn't good enough to get through it alone. If anyone can help me, please let me know. Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Just got a grocery beer license (NYC) and need to train staff Posted: 26 Oct 2018 05:07 PM PDT The title mostly says it all. We are two small retail stores that specialize in selling craft meat and we just got our license to sell beer to go. I've worked in bars and beer retail stores before and I never received any extensive training. Just make sure you check for an ID and you're (mostly) good. One of my shop managers is very concerned about training his staff to ensure we stay compliant. While I understand his concerns, I'm not convinced we need to hire a third party trainer and/or require our staff to take any certification courses. I'd prefer to just offer training (make sure people enter DOBs in the POS) while educating staff about the cool craft beers we now carry. Should I be more thorough on this matter or is my manager slightly over reacting? [link] [comments]  |
| Product Shipping Boxes Suppliers and Customizations Posted: 27 Oct 2018 12:27 AM PDT I'm having a hard time finding boxes for shipping our products. They're not a totally unusual size, but larger than normal and pretty thin. There are some folder mailers that are adjustable depth that are nice, but are expensive per unit. Does anyone have any experience in ordering custom shipping boxes for your products? What kind of cost am I looking at, in your experience, per unit? [link] [comments]  |
| Interest in website development/design, hosting, and Digital Marketing Services! Posted: 27 Oct 2018 12:25 AM PDT Hello Owner, Hope you are doing well! We do develop small-mid-high level of mobile apps and websites. However our Development centre is in India and our office is located at Noida, India. Please feel free to share your requirement to take our conversation forward? Thanks You Dipanshu [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Oct 2018 07:51 PM PDT We are expats in a bit of a wild west country so tax isn't an issue. These friends are in a prime position to use the software directly and then bring it to their bosses. One friend is already doing this for free as he genuinely loves the product. Is something like 50% for a year reasonable or wise? This could be anything between say 6k-15k for them. The saas is monthly subscription. It seems like a lot but some of the places they work are very reputable and would make my business really take off. [link] [comments]  |
| Use the right FB ads objective please. Posted: 26 Oct 2018 06:38 AM PDT When you create a new Facebook ad - the first decision you make is an important one - choosing an objective. But what does choosing an objective actually do? I speak with a lot of business owners, and audit a lot of their FB ads accounts, and I get the feeling from these conversations - that this is a misunderstood area of FB ads. Basically - the objective does two things: It determines which people in your audience will be shown your ads first/at all. And it decides the metrics you are shown. And the fact that Facebook gives you so many options doesn't help people. There are 13 different objectives you can choose when creating an ad, but 8 of those (61%) are probably pointless for you. What Facebook is actually doing when you choose an objective, is taking the audience that you've specified, and thinking "Of these people, who are the most likely to complete this objective?" - so if you use PPE, then Facebook will prioritise the people who generally comment on stuff, So if you've defined an audience of say 760'000 people by selected certain areas/interests/age ranges - and then you choose the conversion objective - Facebook is going to put all those people in order from 1 through to 760'000 of who is the most likely to click through and then do the thing you want them to do - based on their historical actions. You can test this by choosing to click every ad you see with a [Message Now] button. You will then be seen as 'someone likely to click [message now] and be shown more and more of those types of ads. For most small businesses, you should probably only ever use one of these 5 objectives:
If you are promoting an event, or getting people to sign up for an app - then there are specific objectives for those - but 90% of businesses never need stray from the above 5. A consideration to make is that if you have any kind of funnel in place, then you're likely going to combine different objectives. A typical funnel is going to be made up of something like this: >> Top Of Funnel - Building an audience of people interested in what you do - Video views ads, Traffic ads or Page Post Engagement ads talking about either the pain points that your product solves, or introducing them to your products. >> Middle Of Funnel - Pushing those people who engaged in the TOF to sign up/buy from you. - Using Conversion ads or Lead Forms to Get People to buy/download/sign up. >>Bottom Of Funnel - Retargeting the people who clicked the MOF ads, but didn't cross the line, maybe using incentives/discounts/social proof/urgency to persuade them to pull the trigger. - These would likely be Conversion ads or Lead Forms again
--- Here are extracts from Audits I've done on clients ad accounts in the past few months to show some real life examples of how to best use objectives: Ecomm business - [They were running conversion ads, but all their ads were just 'Look at these, buy them' type ads. They weren't testing other approaches] "You are all set up fine for conversions, but it's worth testing other objectives and post types for the Top Of Funnel ads, try videos and blog posts." SEO service business - [They were putting out solid regular content and boosting it to a specific saved audience that had set up] "For most of what you're doing, boosting posts and driving traffic to your blog, there's no problem here. But if you apply a funnel/strategy as I outlined (which will help take people from "huh, that's interesting, these folks know their stuff" to "maybe we should get in touch and see if these guys can help us rank higher"), then you're going to want to start using conversion ads more, as you'll be driving people to take specific actions, and these are what you want to measure." "Wellness Coaching [Proper scattergun stuff, she seemed to choose a different objective for every campaign] "You're using a mix of different objectives, and they're not helping you. If you're sending someone to your website for any reason other than reading a blog post, you want to use the conversion objective, this will track people who go to your site and then do the action you want (i.e. sign up for a guide). Using post engagement (boost) is a perfectly good strategy as part of a larger effort, so that's all good if you then retarget the folks who engage. Using reach is unlikely to ever be the best objective for you." B2B Saas / consulting [They were putting out good content and boosting it, then retargeting people with an ad for a webinar where they sold them on the software] "For the blog posts, I would test running a Page Post Engagement ad alongside a Traffic objective, this might get cheaper clicks on it's own, but the social proof of seeing likes/comments will most likely enhance the click-through-rate and cost per click of the Traffic campaign. For the webinar/ zoom call ads - is there a confirmation page that people are sent to once they register? If so, you want to be using a Conversion objective, pointing to that page, rather than Traffic." Personal Trainer "You use a combination of conversion ads, lead ads, and boosted posts -there's nothing wrong with that combination, though I can see your best results are coming from lead forms (this has been my experience with other similar campaigns too), so I would stick with those for most campaigns." Charity [They had multiple campaigns for the various services they offered, all set up as traffic ads pointing to their website homepage] "As mentioned earlier, I expect that using content to warm up your audience before going for the 'sale' could be worth testing, in which case getting link clicks wouldn't be the aim. But even if the best strategy does turn out to be going straight for the sell, the ads are setup with the 'traffic' objective, which isn't the best route. You should either be using the 'conversions' objective (which means that Facebook will optimising the campaigns to get the people most likely to fill out your contact form once they get to the page, rather than just click), or the 'Lead Generation' objective, which uses a small built-in form right on the Facebook news Feed, and typically gets lower costs per lead." Driving Instructor Training [He was using a variety of ad types to get people to download his book] "This is a mix, you have setup ads previously with a custom conversion set up ("book request"), but other times you haven't. I would always recommend using conversion ads in place of link clicks - especially if you are leaving them running for any length of time, because Facebook will always optimise towards the objective you set. If you are pushing content first, as I recommended above [taking sections of the book and using them as content], then using the page post engagement objective is likely best." B2B Events "For the events - you're linking to EventBrite, which is OK - but there is actually native functionality with Evernote built into Facebook, meaning you can get use the event promote objective, get eventbrite signups directly on FB, without having to send people off Facebook." Influencer/Affiliate [They ran a LOT of ads for big clients, where they linked to clients websites. They only ever used the Page Post Engagement objective] "Running these ads purely as PPE is clearly not a terrible idea, as seen by your results, and indeed a couple of years ago it was often the best producing objective.However, the algorithm has changed, and not having your campaigns optimised for traffic is going to cost you conversions.For what you're doing, traffic campaigns optimised for link clicks and landing page views is the go-to campaign.However, in your case, I would combine the two so as to match the cost at optimal performance. This is done by running traffic campaigns using the same post IDs. Set PPE at around 20% of the traffic campaign's daily ad budget. This means you're still getting the social proof, but at the same time letting FB's algorithm work for you." --- Hope that's helpful, and clears up any confusion about how to set your ads up - let me know if you have any questions. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Oct 2018 12:37 AM PDT |
| Posted: 26 Oct 2018 06:05 PM PDT No one has mentioned simply getting professional liability and having your lawyer putting together a release of liability form for clients to sign. Not to mention general liability insurance for your premises. Thank you. I'm very hesitant to owe one more dollar to our government or have yet one more thing I need to properly maintain or it's worthless. Not to mention if your a sole proprietor you need to personally guarantee those LLCs anyway so what's the point? [link] [comments]  |
| How to determine which marketing is important Posted: 26 Oct 2018 01:51 PM PDT Hi All- I need some help. We have a very small pet products company (300,000 revenue this year, 215,000 revenue last year). We sell to the general public through our site and amazon; we also sell direct to vets and distributors. We VASTLY overspent on marketing namely due to our fault in not keeping track of the spending; dumb, I know. We spent 60,000 in marketing this year through a combination of Facebook, AdWords, Vet conferences, Vet magazine print ads, and public print ads. We also pay an outside company to manage our social media. I cannot keep track of the effect of marketing on the veterinary side but we can keep track of squarespace traffic. We have sold ~70,000 through our squarespace site. Here is the breakdown of sources of revenue: Google: 50% Direct: 33% Social media: 14% Other: 3% Here was our expenditure: AdWords: 18,000 Social with salary: 14,000 Conferences: 18,000 Print: 10,000 We need to reduce this significantly. Based on the 8% rule, we will cut this to ~22,000 next year. I'm able to easily figure out ROI on google and it drives our largest sales. We are thinking of tossing social media but, of course, the company that we hire touts the intangible brand awareness benefit of it. I just don't think they are giving us value for what we spend. We are also going to cut back print but veterinary print sources are still a decent option for us: we often get increased interest after an ad is ran. How do you determine where to spend a drastically decreased marketing budget? [link] [comments]  |
| Starting a subscription box service... any advice? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 04:48 PM PDT Hello Team! I'm starting a subscription box service soon and I was wondering if anyone in that vertical could offer any advice or shed any light on obstacles I will encounter! This is not my first business so no need to provide basic business advice (feel free tho!), mainly looking for notes relating to the sub box industry. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Advice on starting a home automation business Posted: 26 Oct 2018 02:47 PM PDT Hi guys I'm just looking for some advice on starting a home automation business. First I should mention I'm based in the UK and a qualified electrician, so in terms of the installation side (pulling, terminating cables etc) I think I'm covered. I'm just not sure where to start in terms of what brands and training courses to go on. From what I've found out so far; Control4, Savant, Crestron & Lutron are the best ones to install, but as I understand you need to be a partner to install these products? How do you go about becoming a partner? I also have zero experience in design so wouldn't have the first idea of how to get things like drawings done. I also don't know about programming and the network/ IT side of things, so any courses you could recommend to get up to speed with these would be great! Would also appreciate any other suggestions Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| What industry is your small business in? Do you have a virtual or physical setup? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 07:11 AM PDT |
| Tool to pinpoint a bunch of addresses on a map? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 02:35 PM PDT Is there something out there where I can start dropping a pin on all our service customers and see it grow over time? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Oct 2018 02:31 PM PDT Hello everyone Thank you for showing a lot of passion in my previous post hair transplant and plastic surgery strategy help.All of your inputs forced me to have a great brainstorm session. Thus I wanted to participate in a crowd-thinking with you guys. I think I need do find a local partner who can handle low-cost operations for each country. Operations which can include offline and online marketing. I am happy to handle things on Turkey hand. We can try our best to turn each lead to a sale. Do you think this expansion method is suiatble? Should there be an outlined plan for potential partners. I am willing to share with a partner and İ will also help the marketing budget if its fruitful. How do you think I can reach potential sales oriented partners? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Oct 2018 08:08 PM PDT |
| Landlord Steals Security Light While Staging a Fake Break-In Posted: 26 Oct 2018 02:45 AM PDT This is a clip from footage showing this douche and his "manager" staging the back area to make it seem like the building's basement had been broken into (by me, I think). The landlord steals our security light. This is the least of this guy's creepy behavior. - Defrauded us by including the soda coolers & dispenser in the business purchase price - didn't own them. - Wouldn't hand over any accounts related to biz he sold us, claiming ignorance about them. - Allowed the former biz manager that lived on-site (that he was evicting for not running the biz right or being able to pay rent after getting fired) to harass us & take their anger out on biz for their loss of jobs and living arrangement. Cops were called on our biz several times, vehicles were damaged, etc. - Busted him snooping our iPad's sales data 3 mos into it - has had an agenda to kick us out since. - Has created problems for nearly every person I hire. - Tried to chat up my 1st manager, offering him the job of running the biz after he "gets rid of me". - Approved the art for a $3,500 artist's mural and then told us to cover it up or get evicted after it was done - Bolted access to the roof so we couldn't get a professional to fix the swamp cooler. Summer saw 115 degree days and ruined thousands $$ in product. - Reported us to the city for our outdoor sign that replaced his. - City zoning says we're violating their revised regulations, landlord has arranged it so our day to vacate (for breaking the lease for zoning violations lol) is day after hearing. This guy is weirdly obsessed with me and became determined to prevent us from prospering at this location because he thinks we're engaged in some competition of success. Has tried very hard in all communication to employ tactics to appeal to social status, i.e.; "nobody likes you", "you're awful to look at" etc. Tried everything over the last year to get him to chill the fuck out, which ended with his effort to instigate me into making a threat, tries in vain to "get me" doing something that would give him an edge. I'm consistently like, wtfever dude. This, though, this is some next-level, putting others in danger bullshit. It's truly fucking weird. What to do with a landlord like this? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Oct 2018 10:03 AM PDT Hi, So I own a small fitness business, and would like to hire a marketing manager. The problem is, I don't know what a fair price would be (1099 or hourly?), or what roles to assign them. Does anyone have a marketing manager fort their business that they could shed some light on? Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Any questions on email marketing? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 01:20 PM PDT I'm looking for ideas to write for my LinkedIn articles, and coming up dry. I've been in lead generation/cold email for a longgg time, so I have a good bit of knowledge in the area. Since the people I am trying to connect to on Linkedin are probably very similar to the community here, I am wondering what topics, questions, services, etc.. you might have the most questions about regarding cold email, or outbound lead generation? [link] [comments]  |
| Alternatives to paid market research? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 12:33 PM PDT I've started doing some market research to help in possibly opening a coffee type thing up. I've found a ton of info for a lot of money and not much that would be even relatively inexpensive. I have looked at local places and even regional places but have pretty much come up short. I have also found some of the older versions online for free which help but are a few years behind in the trends area. What are some alternative places I can find more market research that I may not be thinking of? [link] [comments]  |
| How much should I reinvest into my business? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 12:26 PM PDT I have a clear strategy and plan for how I want to achieve my business goals, but as growth projects are become more complex, I'm honestly having difficulty on how much I need to budget project elements. For example. Project goals: Improve brand positioning, strategy and identity Project elements: Market research tools + analysis Consultation Creative assets Web Design/Dev It's not really possible to measure the impact a new art style, colour palette or UI will have in isolation This project could cost upwards of $50,000 if I go ahead with specialist agencies, or less than $1,000 if I use overseas freelancers and DIY elements myself. We definitely do not have the budget to spend 50k, however we're not on the opposite end of the spectrum either. How should I go about allocating a budget to each element of my project? [link] [comments]  |
| How to Make "Sound Wave" FB/Insta Videos Like Gary V? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 11:43 AM PDT Hi, There's gotta be a way to easily make these videos... A monthly software or paid subscription? The videos where it's a branded image as the background and then the sound waves align with the audio of the video. Can someone point me in the right direction? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
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