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    Home Unlabelled Have started my own locksmith business after going on a course, am doing really well but a lot of my work is sub-contracting. What’s some creative ways to get my own work? Entrepreneur

    Have started my own locksmith business after going on a course, am doing really well but a lot of my work is sub-contracting. What’s some creative ways to get my own work? Entrepreneur

    November 25, 2018

    Have started my own locksmith business after going on a course, am doing really well but a lot of my work is sub-contracting. What’s some creative ways to get my own work? Entrepreneur

    Have started my own locksmith business after going on a course, am doing really well but a lot of my work is sub-contracting. What’s some creative ways to get my own work?

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 10:57 AM PST

    Have tried speaking to letting/estate agents and removal companies any other ideas?

    submitted by /u/Bluealien_
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    Some learnings after growing a business to an 8 figure valuation

    Posted: 24 Nov 2018 03:20 PM PST

    Hello all,

    First time poster and TLDR I founded a company 18 months ago and our recent round values our business at +$10m

    I was a late starter to entrepreneurialism and had a good length stint in finance (trying one startup while still being employed) before founding my current business. My family has an entrepreneurial background and because of this, I have always had ambitions for building a business but I genuinely was too afraid to take the risk (for whatever reason). Having now ran the company for just over a year, we have been a lot more successfully than i could have anticipated which has culminated in a proper valuation. While we still have a long way to go (you never know what happens), I guess you have to enjoy the milestones when they come

    Some things I have learned.

    1. Take the risk - if you are fortunate to find a problem to which you can realistically create a solution, you are on the right track. If this solution has a big enough market (it doesn't have to be a multi billion opportunity) and you can find some potential customers who confirm they would pay, you are wasting your time not taking the risk.
    2. Markets don't have to be $100bn in size. VC's will often say that the addressable market needs to be ginormous to even attempt. While it may be true for them to make their 10x return, it is not true for you. If you can get 1% of a $100m market which has high margins and is easy to access, you can begin to build a valuable business.
    3. Stay close to home - my first attempt at creating my own business was in a market that I saw from a distance. Because I didn't have direct business involvement in this market, I could not see the actual pitfalls of the industry and how my assumptions underlying my business model were flawed from the outset....
    4. Don't throw good money after bad - the only good part of my first business (that failed) was that I quickly saw the flaws in my model, determined I could not solve them and closed the business, staying in my current job. I didn't take angel investment which meant that my current business was not tarred by that early opportunity.
    5. Staffing is COMPLICATED - anyone can build the ideal model for an ideal business. Very driven people can even build the infrastructure and launch the business, but the next step is building out your staff. By definition each incremental staff member is less incentivised than the earlier staff member (less options, less responsibility). I have found running a team of staff one of the most complicated parts of our business. It is a completely different skill-set to turn your employee base into a devoted tribe and I have made plenty of mistakes along the way.
    6. Keep the burn down - It is not sexy to boast about how much money your start-up burns. Contrary to popular belief, businesses are supposed to make money. In building the business, I have built our software in steps. For example, when I wasn't making that many invoices, I didn't need to automate invoices. Furthermore, I have built the business (a software platform) as revenue generating features first and useful back end improvements second. I was also more apprehensive adding staff in the early stages which meant our initial growth generated strain and long hours. We have now exited that part of our growth but keeping a tight ship is the only way to show fiscal responsibility.
    7. Have a co-founder - It's fucking tough. You will be in tears, sweats and anxious at some points, at others you will feel the highest of highs. It's a grind and a rollercoaster; most people are normal human beings, you need someone to balance you out. When we went through two quiet days, I was panicking that something fundamental had gone wrong. My co-founder helped me rationalise that business isn't a straight line.
    8. "Why can't a larger player just copy you" - you will hear this from any investor you pitch to, your employees and yourself. If that statement were true, there wouldn't be millions of small businesses in the world. Clearly there is some complexity to copycatting. Most times you don't realise that big players don't care about you and they are unlikely to copy a minnow and spend millions of dollars in the process. If you have something truly unique, a purchase is more likely.
    9. Go into existing markets, don't create new ones - The big ideas that haven't been done before sound super sexy. "Did you know 200 million cups of coffee are drunk every day in the States, we are going to make a Deliveroo for coffee! Just 1% will make us MILLIONS". Creating a completely new market requires MASSIVE capital, MASSIVE time and constantly fails. Look for a market that exists, create a business that segments that market by solving a particular problem. Your customers already know you, they already feel the problem, when you present the solution, some will buy in.

    I'm sure I am missing quite a few other important lessons. It would be great to hear from other founders

    ​

    UPDATE: Thank you all for reading and some great comments. I will try and add more content and share some more thoughts - let me know if any subjects are of interest!

    submitted by /u/prsh_al
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    If you want to start an online store I highly recommend learning basic CSS and HTML

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 10:14 AM PST

    it is truly a wonderful skill to have. i've been working on a dropship store for a while now and purchased a $60 theme to get started. have been customizing the site a lot and have had to send support several messages asking for help with certain things. about 50% of the time though i was able to troubleshoot my own problems using basic CSS and HTML. knowing how to inspect elements, looking at code, and understanding what is happening because of the code is very helpful. by doing this, i am usually able to edit around my pages in whatever way I am thinking of

    writing CSS and HTML starts to become second nature. such as: .page-title { margin-top: 40px }. easy stuff like that. and once you learn it, things become 100x easier compared to knowing nothing. same with HTML. understanding what particular HTML is responsible for what, and zero-ing in and on that piece of code and making changes to get the results you want. Logic and problem solving skills are also extremely helpful

    submitted by /u/AntiCirclejerking
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    Been working on a side project for over a year now - super excited to have just launched the Beta!! Plus lessons learned.

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 01:53 PM PST

    After 1 full year of putting in countless hours of hard work and dedication into this, we are extremely excited to announce that Hippidy's Beta is now officially LIVE!! We truly aim to help people make the best purchases possible.

    My name is Phi and I am one of the co-founders of Hippidy (https://www.shophippidy.com/), a new type of comparison shopping site. We were tired of using sites that focused on profit rather than user experience. So we sought out to change this.

    We first came up with the idea of Hippidy at a friendsgiving dinner in 2018. We discussed how the online shopping experience has become as stressful and overwhelming as shopping at a mall on Black Friday morning. With so much information online, it can be difficult to know where to start the shopping journey. Bouncing around sites looking for the best prices, reading customer reviews from various sources, as well as finding and reading content articles about products from trusted blogs - it's just all too much.

    That's why over the past year, we have been building a new type of shopping site - we believe we've completely reimagined the comparison shopping experience with the shopper in mind. We provide our users with three core features, designed to be completely user friendly - Ad-free Price Comparison, Visual Price Trends & Consolidated Product Reviews.

    Please let us know your thoughts, any type of feedback helps!

    Lessons Learned: Stay motivated and focused on the goal. There will be times where life will get you down and you will feel like quitting. Stick through it. All the hard work you put in will pay off. I am so proud of my team for sticking through it and launching this product. Such a big life accomplishment.

    submitted by /u/Phipham93
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    Hi Guys, thanks to each and every one of you that helped me and are helping me with my marketing of my locksmith business following my post on this sub. I have just gone and created a sub-reddit in which other people with my problem can ask for marketing ideas for their businesses. r/Boostabusiness

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 12:18 PM PST

    I think it's quite enjoyable brainstorming together to find ways to help businesses, well I enjoy it anyway.

    Feel free to get subscribed would love to get this going and help others as a thank you for helping me.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/boostabusiness

    ​

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    ​

    submitted by /u/Bluealien_
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    We built an inexpensive reprogrammable audio playback device!

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 01:55 PM PST

    Hi everyone!

    We're a small group based in Toronto, Canada, and I'm the lead developer of the project Odio.

    I recently completed 'I made this' post and wanted to share the experience as well as Odio with you (link: https://imgur.com/gallery/XiSRNYl).

    Please note that Odio is still in its development stage and we'd greatly appreciate your feedback on our project!

    Thank you :)

    submitted by /u/ilovethesmellofliver
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    How to make money online ?

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 01:49 PM PST

    Is there a fool proof way to make money online ?

    submitted by /u/Decibeladdict
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    Idea Validation

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 01:44 PM PST

    I'm looking for some online ways to validate business ideas rather than designs. I looked at "Fivesecondtest" but it seems that it's best suited for design validation. I would put my ideas here but I'm not sure this is the most appropriate place. I anybody has any recommendations it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

    submitted by /u/sublimenanigans
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    Help getting started selling to small retailers

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 01:33 PM PST

    I sell map prints but currently only online on a few different marketplaces. I'm playing with the idea of reaching out to brick and mortar small retailers to sell my maps. I'm new to this and not sure how to go about it. Do I offer them at wholesale price or commission based? What would be an acceptable wholesale price for what I currently sell them for? It costs me between $7 - $18 to make a map and I sell for between $24 - $44 depending on the size. Are my margins too thin to be able to offer an acceptable price? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

    submitted by /u/Chief1117
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    want to get rid of all my small business projects (some of which profitable) for as low as $500 but where to sell them?

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 01:29 PM PST

    ​

    ​

    Long story short, I want to start a new path of my life in 2019 so I need this fast, some of the projects are :

    small online business that makes some $300/month;

    website registered in 2012...not really making money though;

    steam game that had made me some $8000 that far;

    software that uses ai to control games with gestures

    and more!

    It seems like a super low offer but flippa.com won't allow it as they focus on apps/websites making money directly only.

    Ebay is also slow while amazon isn't for such things, again i am looking to sell everything at once for a low price....10x

    submitted by /u/Nick-Andres
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    I don't know what to do and am loosing motivation

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 01:04 PM PST

    Just a little backstory before I get into this.

    I'm a senior in high school student and club member of my school's Rotary club. At the beginning of this year we started a fundraiser to help people in Nicaragua get access to clean water FOR LIFE by putting up wells for them, it cost $1k for one well but that one well helps a village of 500 people.

    We filmed a video to promote the cause, and even are working on getting a store up to sell merchandise for the cause.

    We haven't made a single penny, I mean we have a few supporters and one person that plans on donating, but currently no money what so ever.

    I don't know how to sell, market, or simply just ask people because my communication skills suck (if any). The purpose of the video is to go viral so people will donate. ( I know dumb idea)

    But currently it's all we've got then we'll have the store ready. I'm thinking of reaching out to influencers to help me with this project leveraging the big crowds to promote the cause and get donations.

    I really want to help the poor thirsty people of Nicaragua, but due to my incompetence I'm starting to doubt it's gonna happen.

    Maybe I wasn't ready to handle the position of being club president or I'm not fit for the job. I really hate to act like this but to be real I'm beginning to loose motivation because of my lack of success.

    I'm still working on ways to promote this cause, I just don't know what to do. By time your done reading this, I either am working on influencer reach outs or figuring out a way to get the word and out there and get donations.

    Any ideas or advice will be well appreciated.

    submitted by /u/millionairennial
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    Programmer turned self-employed headhunter - AMA

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 02:09 AM PST

    I've been an employed programmer but switched to being a headhunter for programmers full-time last year and don't regret it.

    People wonder why I went from coding to recruitment. The answer is simple: It was important for me to leverage my skillset better than as an employed programmer. I am not only into tech/coding but also into selling. In recruitment you have to be double-selling; you have to be selling the company to the candidate and the candidate to the company; it seemed like a fitting domain to get into.

    In tech-recruitment, most recruiters have no clue what programmers want and what they do on a daily basis. In other domains like design or law, it is more common that designers or lawyers turn into recruiters; for some reason this seems not to be the case in programming. I believe marketers who want to start a side-job should try recruiting marketing people, sales people recruiting sales people etc. Recruitment has a low barrier to entry and can be done easily on the side, next to your day-job, on evenings and weekends, without any initial capital investment; at least this is how I started.

    It began with networking with both developers and companies after I moved to Switzerland four years ago, also I started blogging (https://medium.com/@iwaninzurich/eight-reasons-why-i-moved-to-switzerland-to-work-in-it-c7ac18af4f90). Then I made a few placements for free until I noticed that headhunting fees are up to 30% of the yearly salary of an engineer, meaning that I'd have to place three to four people a year to earn more money than in my coding job.

    As my network grew, I signed contigency-based recruitment contracts with around 10 firms and last year I decided to quit my well-paid coding job to focus 100% on recruitment (I did it on evenings and weekends before that for two years).

    Currently, my daily work is finding developers who look for work or want a pay-raise/growth in their career and my job is to connect them with fitting companies that are hiring. Companies compensate me for that. I don't regret switching careers because I love the variety of tasks that I have to do on a daily basis. During a typical day I..

    1. .. source (find) developers on Github, Linkedin, Hackernews, Reddit, via my personal network and check if they are currently happy.
    2. .. talk to technical hiring managers about their hiring needs and which kind of programmers they need.
    3. .. talk to active jobseekers in my pipeline what is important to them in their next job and pitch them interesting vacancies that could fit to them.
    4. .. write e-mail pitches to clients that supplement the CVs of my candidates. I think here is my biggest strength compared to traditional, non-technically versed recruiters: I can turn a shitty CV into an interesting candidate to consider because I technically vet all my candidates.
    5. .. to not forget coding entirely, I add features to my jobboard that helps me attract more developers during the sourcing phase (see 1.) .

    So, please ask me anything or email me at [iwan@coderfit.com](mailto:iwan@coderfit.com)

    submitted by /u/iwangulenko
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    Apple TV App store promotion partners?

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 12:36 PM PST

    Hi guys, recently we launched a new game exclusively for tv app store, but after that realised that we don't have a single clue regarding how to put traffic into it. Traditional tools like search ads and FB/Instagram ads AFAIK are not working on Apple TV. We are ready to do revenue share on your terms

    submitted by /u/atatator
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    I get a lot of ideas but I don't see any as innovative. How do I shift the way I think to start producing innovative ideas?

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 11:45 AM PST

    Construction Company Owner Income?

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 10:52 AM PST

    My partner and I have thought about opening up our own residential construction company. I was wondering how much owners typically make. I have the opportunity to go to dental school, but it is four years away and I believe I could have a more comfortable life if I just stuck with the company. What do yall think?

    submitted by /u/SouthernNM
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    I upgraded my Paypal to business but people still see my name when sending me money. How to change it?

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 10:44 AM PST

    This was one of the reasons I upgraded my Paypal to business account. I thought when people bought from my store or sent me money, they'd see the business name. Instead they get the "You sent $20 to Name Lastname"

    ​

    How to change this?

    submitted by /u/20karaktererastesore
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    I made some changes, some slight improvements, and I am back seeking additional feedback on my website.

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 10:31 AM PST

    I made this website as a tool to help me gain community support before getting in touch with local businesses and proposing a partnership. I want it to both help people understand what it is I am trying to bring to the city and why it matters as well as help me create an email list of early supporters. After I get an initial round of funding from sponsors, I will create a new website with the help of professionals geared toward different goals.

    https://metropolitanleague.org/

    I am happy with the simple design of the site but I think it can be improved. I am considering making it just one longer page / the store instead of breaking it up into individual pages. I think that would make it easier for people to navigate and keep them on the site longer.

    I would love to hear your thoughts. I appreciate your help.

    submitted by /u/CarneyAsada
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    Question about 2 separate LLC's partnering

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 10:27 AM PST

    I recently was able to find a partner for creating an online platform and app for my company. He already has his own LLC, which is a software dev company of sorts, and I have mine. We are currently bootstrapping our way through start-up now, but will hopefully have revenue trickling in within the next 3-6 months.

    Is there some sort of agreement/contract that will allow me to offer his LLC a % profits or capital interest in my LLC, as opposed to him as an employee/person?

    I would like to get some sort of formal contract in order before any money comes into the picture to complicate the situation.

    Thank you all in advance!

    submitted by /u/PMTradeSmart
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    Gonna participate in accelerator event next week and should i pay attention to?

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 10:14 AM PST

    I am currently fine tuning pitch/investor deck.

    I am going there with idea and 90% of finished product with no sales. This would be first event of this soft that i participate in.

    I have no expectations i wanna participate and see how that looks like from inside.
    Do you have any pointers for me?

    Ever since i started looking into pitching i started to feel little bit unworthy since i have no sales.

    submitted by /u/stefan_kurcubic
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    Five steps for creating an employee referral program

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 08:37 AM PST

    Hi everyone,

    I recently published tips on creating an employee referral program to improve hiring. It's based on my experience as an early employee at PayPal, which hired an exceptional team through referrals. Below is the video and transcript:

    https://youtu.be/tf4o03Ro1mY

    Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer.

    --

    This is a photo of the early PayPal team, arguably the most accomplished tech mafia ever. Not only did they build a company worth over $100 billion, early PayPal employees founded YouTube, Yelp, LinkedIn, Tesla, SpaceX, and other startups now worth over $200 billion.

    How did PayPal hire such great people?

    PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel said, "I hired friends from Stanford, and Max brought in people from the University of Illinois. It basically started by hiring all these people in concentric circles."

    When I joined PayPal in 2002, it was also through a friend who worked there.

    Out of all the ways to find great employees, the best by far is referrals. Research consistently shows that referred candidates are more affordable, higher-quality, faster to hire, and stay longer. This video is about how to create a good referral program.

    1. Make referrals easy. Clearly explain how referrals are made and don't require your team to submit a lot of info. Let them give HR a resume or even just a name, with a short description of why the candidate is good, and take it from there. Everyone who makes a referral should then get a follow-up, especially on why a candidate was rejected, to make future referrals better.

    2. Offer your employees a referral bonus. One study of over 700 companies found the average bonus was between $1,000-$3,000, and often more for hard-to-fill roles. This is much less than the typical fee paid to recruiters and usually requires hires to stay 3-6 months before being paid.

    3. Determine who can refer. It's standard for most employees to qualify. Some companies exclude executives and HR people because they have more hiring control, but I prefer trusting them. I like including partners, vendors, customers, and anyone else with a stake in your business. I also recommend always accepting referrals, even if you don't have a relevant opening, because they are more likely to be good candidates later.

    4. Make sure everyone in the company knows your open roles. Mention them in staff meetings or an internal newsletter. When Google wanted to increase referrals, they tried doubling their bonuses, requiring fewer interviews, and reducing response time to 48 hours. None of these worked.
      What did work was reminding employees of open roles and holding recruiting jams with food and music, where Googlers would look through their contacts with recruiters waiting nearby. Booking.com also used food to get referrals. When they were struggling to hire Portuguese-speaking agents, the recruiting team brought in Portuguese food for the office and left referral cards. And it worked!

    5. Track metrics. Your applicant tracking system can track how many referrals are hired, retention rate, what % of your team is referring, and whether any referrers stand out. A survey of over 300 startups by Lightspeed found that 30% of employees were hired through referrals, so consider shooting for that target.

    There is a risk with referrals: you don't want to create a monoculture where everyone is the same. Hire people who share your values, but value people with different skills and experiences. You'll get more perspectives to solve problems.

    Ok, those are five steps to creating a referral program. Build a good one and you can start creating a mafia of your own.

    submitted by /u/MarkGoldenson
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    Turnkey Online Business for sale in Europe (no drop shipping)

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 08:24 AM PST

    Hello everyone,

    The title speaks for itself. I created a brand for luxury women's shoes, made deals with designers, suppliers, manufacturers and transporters, designed custom boxes for the brand, imported the goods to Europe, designed a website and started social media accounts. You might think this is the time to reap the harvest by making sales but I am afraid I chose the wrong market to start with as I do not speak the language of the country I live in fluently. I find it difficult to spare the time this business needs as I am occupied with a full-time job and quitting my day job is out of question due to financial matters. If you are based in Europe, looking for an entry level turnkey business opportunity, interested in women's fashion and got enough time in your hands to take over, this might be the right opportunity. The first batch of goods are currently stored in Slovakia.

    I will not be sharing any details regarding the brand under this post as I do not want to seem as if I am seeking publicity whatsoever. Feel free to message me if you would like to learn more. Serious inquiries only.

    Cheers to all the fellow entrepreneurs out there!

    submitted by /u/ObjectiveMonk
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    I want to create a website like this one, how does it make money?

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 07:58 AM PST

    Hi Guys,

    I want to create a website that is similar to this one > https://gapify.co.uk/

    They don't sell trips they just compare them.

    What is their business model and how do they make money? You can "Make an Enquiry" on their trips but then what happens after that?

    Thanks in advance.

    submitted by /u/Eggsly7
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    Two years in - trouble finding proper funding!

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 07:45 AM PST

    Although I am active on Reddit I dont typically make posts, but here is one I am hoping to get some help with.

    Two years ago I started a global soccer agency (now 5 employees) with main operations in the United States and Central America, and a smaller focus in Europe. On a non-financial scale, we have grown into a well-known soccer agency in professional soccer in the USA, transferred a very good international player, amassed a strong network, have clients in the MLS and other large soccer leagues, and are launching a soccer academy in Central America which we will control, cutting out middlemen and corrupt club negotiations. In addition, we have an augmented reality offering for professional soccer clubs and also have an analytics prototype in production for both professional and amateur use. I am very proud of what we have accomplished; however, there is one small problem. Costs have far exceeded sales (25k in the red at the moment on top of personal debt as well).

    We are now in the position that we must slow down operations and focus solely on paying debt before we get swallowed up despite our positive, fast-paced trajectory. It has been a tough pill to swallow and I have taken on side jobs just to make ends meet. The director of my agency and myself have been out making pitches this past fall looking in an attempt to raise enough funding to keep growing at our projected pace and of course, relieve debt. Our model is unique in ways and investors with whom we speak show quite a bit of interest in meetings and see the potential on top of what we have accomplished so far. However, at the end of the day, we have walked away with no funding at this point, and a lot has to do with that a soccer agency is a niche focus, even though we model ourselves (long-term) more after companies like IMG and Wasserman and not a boutique agency.

    My question for those who have been in this position - So, you have a strong pitch, a high potential product in what many believe a growing and exciting industry. The majority of my team is in Silicon Valley (we met at Google), and have access to the right people, so we think. Where, or to whom, can we turn to find six-digit funding minimum to give the agency the boost we require to hit the next level and really become a profitable company? It's expensive and time consuming to keep traveling and meeting with investors in addition to running the agency. FWIW, we have very deep roots in sports, and to a degree, technology, and have years of overseas experience. Our agency speaks English, Spanish, German, and Portuguese.

    I would be happy to provide more information about the agency and our operations in DM, but wanted to hear from you guys without going too into detail about who we actually are (it's a business us agents like to keep close to our chest in the public eye).

    Even though this is not the first time this topic has been addressed by my agency with others, it is the first time on Reddit and I enjoy hearing what you all have to say. Thanks!

    submitted by /u/Bierman36
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    Government contract bidding

    Posted: 25 Nov 2018 02:54 AM PST

    Hi I've read that government contract bids tend to follow a blind bid process (first-price, sealed-bid), i.e. all interested parties submit a sealed bid with a proposal. But beside blind bids, are there types of government contract bidding that follow different processes that are not blind bid?

    submitted by /u/hoonkai
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