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    Home Unlabelled Marketplace Tuesday! (January 29, 2019) Entrepreneur

    Marketplace Tuesday! (January 29, 2019) Entrepreneur

    January 29, 2019

    Marketplace Tuesday! (January 29, 2019) Entrepreneur

    Marketplace Tuesday! (January 29, 2019)

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 05:05 AM PST

    Please use this thread to post any Jobs that you're looking to fill (including interns), or services you're looking to render to other members.

    We do this to not overflow the subreddit with personal offerings (such logo design, SEO, etc) so please try to limit the offerings to this weekly thread.

    Since this thread can fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts.

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    $15,000/month flying tourists in planes.

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 09:15 AM PST

    Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.

    Today's interview is with Corey Rust of Envi Adventures, an air tours business.

    Some stats:

    • Product: Air tours
    • Revenue/mo: $15,000
    • Profit margin: 32.16%
    • Started: April 2017
    • Location: Portland, OR
    • Founders: 1
    • Employees: 3

    Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

    If you have ever met me (which is pretty unlikely), then you probably learned relatively quickly that I'm really into airplanes. And by 'really' I mean borderline obsessed. My name is Corey Rust, and I own the Troutdale, Oregon based air tour business Envi Adventures.

    What we do hasn't changed the world, we haven't developed some incredible time saving app, or a revolutionary device that helps anyone make a perfect piece of toast (still waiting). But we have created an experience that provides a 360º scenic view for people from all over the world in an area that we consider pretty special.

    With millions of visitors each year, Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge is considered the most visited spot in the state of Oregon. Huge numbers like that means huge crowds, and with huge crowds comes unavoidable traffic on the roads.

    I was convinced that we could tap into that massive crowd and create a solid business. While that quest has been slower than I unrealistically dreamed, we have continued to grow with more and more people flying with us year over year.

    I remember our first BIG month when we made a 'mind blowing' amount of almost $7,000. I was astonished by that simply because people, that weren't my mother, were actually paying me money for something that they wanted! That was an exciting realization. It was people that I didn't know, from all over the world, who found me on the internet. That was pretty cool.

    Now, our best month was over $30,000 in revenue, and that is only in our second year. For a dumb guy like me, it makes me happy to know that I'm providing a service that people from all over the world are interested in. Not only that, but we have been able to generate a brand that people are beginning to recognize and connect with on a different level. Personally, I think that's the most exciting part.

    What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

    Growing up in Troutdale and learning how to fly in Troutdale, I always loved to fly in the Gorge past all of the waterfalls. I'd hiked the trails by the waterfalls countless times and knew what it was like first hand, but the aerial perspective was always one I enjoyed. Since I loved it, surely everyone else would love it to– right?

    My quest to start an aviation-themed business started about seven years before I actually did. Back in 2010, I was working full-time, going to school full-time, and engaged to be married. So to make things more stressful in my life, I also decided to start a shoe company.

    Now, before we go further, you're probably wondering what this has to do with a flying business. Not a lot, but it's a short back story, so keep reading.

    I started the shoe business and called it Envi Footwear (Ah, see? The connection). I'm often asked where the name Envi Adventures comes from. At this point, you're probably hoping for some deep, symbolic, soul searching reason, but frankly, it was the only thing that wasn't trademarked.

    Time went on, school got busier, I got married, work was work, but my ability to manage everything was starting to get ridiculous and something had to go. As I surveyed my life, I knew I couldn't quit school, most definitely wasn't going to quit the marriage, and quitting my job wouldn't be the most fiscally responsible thing to do as tempting as it was. So away went Envi Footwear in late summer 2012. But my desire to have my own business was always on my mind.

    Years went on, and the idea was still there bouncing around my otherwise empty head. I never invested too much thought into it other than the periodic 'wouldn't that be a cool business to have' thought. Until August 2015.

    My wife and I took a quick trip to Iceland. As most know, it's a country with an economy built heavily on tourism. It's often cold and gray, but unbelievably beautiful and rugged. I loved everything about it. So we flew 8 hours to this awesome little rock in the north Atlantic, and hopped in a car to drive to a waterfall called Seljalandsfoss where we hiked around a little bit. Next stop was another waterfall with a hike, then another waterfall and a hike, and so on. At that point, I thought 'Let me get this straight; we flew 8 hours to hike by waterfalls with a bunch of other tourists? Something we try and time just right to avoid back home?'

    Yes.

    Whilst driving along Route 36 back to Reykjavik, I remember spotting a small airplane flying above and thinking that this would be an excellent place to fly around.

    Ping! Lightbulb.

    At the time, I was employed at a place that I was less than excited about, and financially wasn't hurting, but I also wasn't blowing my nose with $100 bills. We were getting by. That being said, I knew I didn't have the funds to go buy an airplane. I had enough room to spare financially to incorporate the business and to build a website. That's about it. Hard to start an airplane business with just that.

    But as the persistent, annoying individual that I am, I wasn't going to let that halt my idea from happening.

    Describe the process of launching the business.

    I think it goes without saying that in order to have a scenic flight business, you need some sort of method of providing said flight. Humbly knowing that I couldn't purchase, finance, or lease an airplane, I had to figure out another way.

    Meanwhile, I decided to play pretend like I had an airplane, and I had the proper authority to operate the flights. Even though realistically, I wasn't nearly close to being at that point. So I simply opened a Gmail (enviadventures@gmail.com), threw together a logo, made a very basic website without any booking functions and hardly any information, and opened an Instagram account.

    More than a year before the first flight with paying customers took off, I posted a picture on the newly opened Envi Adventures Instagram. It was a crappy picture of Mount Hood that I took from a viewpoint on a hike. It wasn't even remotely aviation related, but it got the ball rolling.

    I continued to seldomly post on Instagram while I continued my search for an airplane. The Catch 22 was that I needed an airplane before I could get operating authority from the Federal Aviation Administration. I also needed to get that before I could get the appropriate insurance, and permission from the airport to operate. Everything, unsurprisingly, was contingent on finding that airplane.

    The airplane search struggle continued.

    I frequented Craigslist searching for airplanes that were for sale, I went to other airplane websites with planes for sale trying to convince the seller to lease it instead of sell it. No luck.

    I perused the FAA's public database of airplanes for weeks. I narrowed down searches by airplane type, location, even engine type. I had spreadsheets saved all over the place with this information. Now, the FAA doesn't give email addresses or phone numbers of the owners of the airplanes. Rightfully so, because they'd have people like me bugging them to fly their airplane. But in today's modern world, there was a loophole...social media.

    I went down the list name by name searching for these people on LinkedIn. Any of them that I found, I'd send them a message asking if I could essentially have their airplane. Believe it or not, few were interested in the idea. This went on for what seemed like forever.

    In between searches, I started to contact flight schools to maybe contract out their airplanes. Had a few meetings that went nowhere, was told the idea had been tried before (like 30 years ago) and it didn't work so I should just forget about it and give up, and had a lot of unreturned phone calls. No bother, I pressed on.

    After several weeks, I finally received a response. Like an actual, respectful, considerate response from someone. It read something like, "Dear Corey, thank you for your offer, and your email about my airplane. Unfortunately, the FAA is a little slow to update their database and that airplane was destroyed in a storm up in Canada. I have another airplane now that I fly periodically. Best of luck in your search."

    Hope, diminished.

    I kept making phone calls, then three weeks after that first email, I received another one from the destroyed airplane owner. It read "Dear Corey, after thinking about it, my work schedule isn't going to allow me to fly as much as I'd like. If you'd like to use my airplane for your tours, I'm sure we could work something out."

    What?!? Finally, I found an airplane! So we talked about my idea, my plans, and for some reason he was convinced. Surely there was divine intervention. He flew it to Troutdale, handed me the keys, and off he went. The airplane was far from perfect to most, but it worked, and to me, it was absolutely perfect.

    Now the real process of getting approval began. It took months to get it, but I got it, then I got the insurance, and the airport's permission. With a website updated and tours loaded into our reservation system, I kept pushing it on social media and I waited.

    Then sometime in December of 2016, I get an email from Viator (now TripAdvisor Experiences) saying someone bought a tour. Surely it was spam? It wasn't!

    Not only did someone buy a tour, but they were from England. I couldn't believe it. My first reservation was from England of all places. A testament to the power of the internet.

    Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

    Before our first official flight, I relied very heavily on Instagram to market the business– still do. At first, I'd go up in the plane and take pictures from my phone and pretend like they were really good.

    Then I made connections with 'Influencers' by offering them free flights in exchange for photos and that made me realize what good pictures actually looked like. As a very visual business, it was the best platform to show off where we fly, and what we do. It worked great.

    Our first flight was actually with people who found us on Instagram. He wanted to propose to his girlfriend, so we made it happen. The weather was crap, but it was a special day for them, and hopefully still is.

    We were in the thick of winter, so I pushed the official start date to April 1st. This gave me some time to do some pre-launch marketing. As the social media accounts grew, I started to get in touch with local media to come out and do a story.

    A couple took the bait and then things started to grow a bit faster. The phone wasn't ringing off the hook or anything, but we started to see organic growth and reservations started to come in a little more regularly.

    In Portland, the tourist season is mid-March to mid-October. Knowing this, I knew I needed to push it heavily on whatever medium I could. We were active on all of the social media channels but I lacked a lot of quality content.

    I made contact with and was contacted by several photographers and videographers who promised the world for a free flight, but only delivered lackluster results. As annoying as that was, I used their content to promote the brand. Eventually, I found someone who was serious about doing a good job and being forthright with his intentions. To this day, I consider him the 'In House" photographer.

    But in spite of the quality content, the one element essential to our growth would be our interactions with people. If customers showed up for a flight and we had nasty attitudes or demeanors, we'd be done. It's an obvious piece of advice, but if you want to survive, you absolutely have to be good at customer service. And I think we are good at it. We do everything possible to make the experience from start to finish the best it could be by personalizing each tour. One way we do that is the pilots don't read from a script and I don't tell them where or what to point out. They say what they want to say making it a very interactive experience between pilot and guest. If they want them to shut up so they can just enjoy the view, that's fine too. Each flight experience is different group to group and that makes it special.

    But regardless of everything you do to make it unique, stuff happens, and sometimes it sucks. Like when you have eight flights on a Saturday and something on the airplane needs to be fixed. What do you do when you only have one airplane? How do you deal with all of those customers? Rather than coming up with some ridiculous excuse why we were needing to cancel all of the flights on a perfect 80º day, I contacted each of them individually and explained the situation immediately. Were they bummed, of course. Was I more bummed? I think so. I hate cancelling flights, but not a single one requested a refund, and they all rescheduled. They knew it was out of my hands, and that to be safe stuff needs to get fixed. Had I just cancelled it and not spoken with them, the situation would have been worse, I'm certain.

    As the first year in business went on, we kept getting reservations through our website, which was great, but I knew I needed additional streams. I kept looking for partnerships and affiliations that would make sense.

    There are a lot of travel websites out there that you can partner with. Some work for us really well, others don't. Mostly because of our location. I think the best partnership we have is with Airbnb Experiences. This huge platform of world travellers has opened up new doorways in 2018 that were otherwise shut in 2017. Remember how excited I was when I got a reservation from England? That was a highlight.

    With Airbnb, we started to get visitors from every single continent (excluding Antarctica of course). The obvious places were dotted on the map from countries like Canada, Ireland, Germany, but when I got a reservation from Egypt, or South Africa, or Kuwait, I was blown away and extremely humbled.

    As you look for affiliates, even though some probably won't perform well for you, sign up anyway, because you never know. Plus, it expands your reach and helps in website rankings. Also, provide solid content. Nobody likes minimal effort from a business. It just screams lazy.

    While things got busier and busier in the first year, some adjustments were needed to reflect what we were and who were. In addition, from the start I liked to pretend I was bigger than I was, and that is still true to this day. I figure if I act bigger and busier, then people are more interested in checking us out. Does it work? I don't know, but I don't think it's hurt us. Of the changes we made, we did some rebranding, cleaned up the website again, and made our airplane look consistent with our brand. This was a game changer. Not only were people immediately able to recognize what airplane they would fly in, but from the ground it was identifiable, which was important too.

    How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

    It's well known that aviation is an expensive industry. The unexpected will happen and it can either make or break you as a business. Knowing that and already being a penny pincher, I made very calculated decisions before spending any money on what I considered non-essentials like little marketing materials such as banners for event (we didn't go to any), personal business cards (I already had company business cards), or stupid branded ballpoint pens. I didn't buy that stuff so that there would be a little extra funds available for the essentials i.e. maintenance, fuel, etc.

    Now, if you're into all that promotional stuff, then by all means, go for it. For me, they just didn't serve much purpose at the time. They do now, but when I was first starting out, I didn't know how things would go and I didn't want to blow money on stuff I didn't absolutely need.

    By the end of the first year (2017), we had money left over. I don't know how, exactly, but we did. In 2017, there was a profit margin of 8.59%. Not great, but I didn't lose money. But, something of more value was that I had a better idea of what my costs were and would be for 2018. Knowing that, I increased my prices which not made for greater profits, but also allowed me more freedom to have sales that would actually be profitable while still being very attractive.

    In 2018, margins nearly quadrupled to 32.16%. Our flight count went from 250 to 570, and the number of passengers we flew went from 589 in 2017 to 1319 in 2018. Needless to say, it's growing, it's not losing money, and people still love it.

    The future is exciting with new tour options, new partnerships, and potentially new aircraft, including helicopters. I'm excited about how this brand has grown and I know it wouldn't have been possible without the help of a lot of people. We have also moved into our own dedicated terminal and will be hiring a full time pilot beginning this spring!

    Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

    For the most part, I try to accept as many offers to collaborate or partner that I reasonably can. I've discovered that partnering with other small/startup businesses and brands is beyond vital. Not only is it great to work with like minded people who share a common goal to succeed, but it expands your businesses reach and exposure.

    Sometimes stuff happens completely out of your control. In our case, September 2017 proved to be one of those situations when a wildfire started in the Columbia River Gorge and the FAA shut down the airspace. What does that mean? We were grounded for about 3 weeks. 80% of our flights are in the Gorge, so that was a big hit. Had that not happened, September would have been our best month of 2017. Nevertheless, it worked out for all in the end and we survived.

    But, it was a good lesson to be prepared for the unexpected be it a wildfire, terrible weather, a broken airplane, or whatever...and there's a lot of whatever's in business.

    What platform/tools do you use for your business?

    We love using FareHarbor, which is our reservation system. This company has built a platform specifically for tour operators and it allows us to scale accordingly with great support. In addition, we use PicThrive to sell photos and videos using our 360º camera.

    With so many tools out there, I'm learning about new ones all of the time. Some I have no use for, but others just make it so much easier to grow our brand and expand our business.

    What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

    I know people love to use Stephen Covey or Richard Branson as influences in their business or success, and I find great value in their lessons and writings. But as weird as this may seem, I find great inspiration from comedians.

    I wouldn't know this first hand, because I'm not funny, but the career of a comedian is full of rejection and struggle. From the beginning, they're heckled on stage. They have what they think is a great set, but when they get on stage and bomb, they're forced to rethink that. Comedians have a long road to success and the ones that are persistent and just keep at it, find that success.

    Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

    A year ago, comedian Larry David provided a list of "10 Rules of Success". I recommend the read. I think you'll find that most, if not all, of these items will apply to you.

    If you think you'll start a business and be a smashing financial success right off the bat because you think you're idea is amazing, more likely than not you won't be. If you are, then awesome. Send me an email and tell me how you did it. But for people like me who didn't have any outside investment at all, and every effort has been bootstrapped from the beginning, it's been a very slow, often frustrating climb.

    I can't say what success is for you. I know for me, success came at the end of the first year. I had so many people say to me that this wouldn't work. Because I ignored that and made my best effort to make it work, I've proven every single one of those people wrong. For me, that's success. I'm not financially richer, but I set out to do something and I did. Maybe it's a little snooty or prideful, but who is anyone to say you can't do something? If you want to do it, then do it.

    I knew what I wanted to accomplish, so I heard a lot of "no" answers, but that was just an unfinished sentence of "no, not me." So I went to the next person. I learned what being resourceful meant, even if that meant being a little (or a lot) annoying to some.

    If you fail, embrace it. If you succeed, be humble about it.

    All in all, keep your head up and don't listen to the cynics. They're usually just jealous or grumpy.

    Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

    While I'm not officially hiring for any positions outside of qualified pilot positions, I am always looking for help with marketing and sales. I know a little bit about digital advertising i.e. Google Ads, Facebook Ads, but I have so many other things that I'm focusing on that the advertising efforts on those platforms often gets neglected. Ideally, a college student looking for marketing experience would be perfect for that slot.

    Where can we go to learn more?

    If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!

    Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.

    Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM

    submitted by /u/youngrichntasteless
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    Weve all heard of success stories where someone risks it all and succeeds but we never hear the other side. What are some stories where someone risks it all and fails?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 09:43 AM PST

    Like the title sais, lets hear some stories and what the potential consequences of that risk were

    submitted by /u/SociallyShyGuy
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    Looking to leverage my position working at a marijuana dispensary.

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 08:40 AM PST

    Hi, I work at a marijuana dispensary and was wondering what sort of ways I could leverage my position here to start my own small business. I have the opportunity to learn a lot about the industry, and I'm around customers all day.

    I'm a a freelance web developer so sort sort of website or web app that could potentially become a SaaS is what I'm interested in. Any ideas?

    submitted by /u/to-too-two
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    The more I look for a job, the more I want my own business

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 01:51 PM PST

    I'm looking for a job, co-founder, other.

    submitted by /u/frankreyes
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    Mowing Business Help

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 12:58 PM PST

    I'm 16 Living in Massachusetts, me and two buddies want to mow lawns when the weather gets warm and try to build a recurring business. We will use our parent's equipment until we can buy our own. We have a gas lawn mower and a gas weed wacker. Our plan is to go door to door and ask, and if they don't open we will leave a flyer on their door. I have some questions and would appreciate some help.

    • Is door to door the best way?
    • What are some good scripts to use for the door to door method?
    • If there is a better way than door to door, what is it?
    • How much should we charge for a mow and edge?
    • Lastly (Broad Question), if you don't think any of this will work, what are some other good door to door side hustles I could do?
    submitted by /u/dalh2424
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    How do i go back on my word ?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 12:19 PM PST

    About 2 weeks ago I gave a lady an estimate and didnt hear back from the lady until yesterday. The problem is that i am not allowed to do jobs over 500 so if they were to pay me a check I could get in trouble so how do I go back on my word ?

    I also underbid a job and ended up losing money and told the lady that i would not be able to help her unless i raised my price and she sent me a somewhat cryptic message but she did say "What new agreement would work for you...please think about it; so I will telephone you this am"...she calls me but i dont pickup and i call her back but she doesnt answer, i call her the second time and she answers but makes no mention of negotiating the price, she says she will just pay me tomorrow and thats it...did i upset her ? Did she even mean it ? I feel bad for everything :/ i really have to get better at reading people and taking my time to give an estimate, sometimes i do great but i also make a lot of mistakes :/

    submitted by /u/Incel24-7
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    Potential partnership opportunity with no financial investment on my part - how can I avoid a bad agreement?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 12:18 PM PST

    I'll be meeting with a potential partner to discuss a business opportunity where we have established complimentary skills and it's relatively evenly split.

    ​

    I have no money to invest while he he's not struggling with money and can invest enough comfortably. My motivation is long term income and stake in the company. I have a 9-5 so I don't need money currently.

    ​

    I don't know what questions I should be asking him and myself in regards to how to structure this. He's mentioned some benchmarks we need to hit could be a good quantifiable factor - most likely revenue. I could use some feedback of what's worked and what else to consider. I feel that naturally he should be getting most of the ownership as he is 100% at financial risk, however, we are both investing the same time into this.

    submitted by /u/m1kesta
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    Just Launched a service that solve Graphic Design problem in business

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 08:19 AM PST

    Hi Fellow Entrepreneurs! A few days ago, I discussed with my old friend regarding what kind of problems that we can solved together while having fun and making money. Then an idea struck us , Why don't we create a business that reduce the expense of other business? We believe that in B2B business there are only 2 ways to create value for other business which are 1. Increase their sales or 2. Decrease their expense or cost. We decided to create a solution to decrease other business cost. My friend have expertise in Graphic Design. She has designed a Mobile Banking UI for one of the biggest bank in SE Asia and designed logo, flyer and many graphic design stuff for various type of business.

    We focus on creating a solution using our own expertise. Today we launched our business. We named it Kamarun Visual, we provide unlimited graphic design service with under 24 hour turnaround time with excellent result. Our unique selling point is providing the best value graphic design services. Our value proposition is low cost but excellent result. Our main customer segment is business or e-commerce who often need to create flyer, logo, website UI or photo editing. In our calculation in USA, designing a flyer cost a company $30-50$ per flyer/photo edit. If they need 30 of it each month they are looking to spend $900-$1500 a month. We created a solution for them to outsource that task to us for only $299 a month. We make company in USA to save almost 70% of their design cost per month.

    How can we do that? The minimum salary of Graphic Designer who owns Bachelor of Art in SE Asia is $320 a month . I pay those designer $400 a month after tax which is 25% above the market rate. 1 Designer can manage 3 clients simultaneously, but we will only assigned maximum 2 customer per designer to maintain the quality of the design. My business creates value for my customer (decreasing their cost) and my employee (increasing their income).

    Why do I post about it here?

    1. I need an input about my website, what can I improve on my website? My website is Kamarunvisual.com
    2. I need an input on my business, do you think I am solving enough problems that make my service interesting?
    3. What kinds of marketing technique/tools that I should utilized to market my service?

    Thanks Redditor 😊

    submitted by /u/GranulatedTeiidae
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    Should I Get a WeWork Space?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 10:04 AM PST

    Hey Everyone, I've been working from my apartment on my side business for the past two years. Year 3 is already off to a great start and I wonder if I should move to a WeWork space. Part of my issue is that while I like to work from my apartment, I have distractions that take me away from work. Here is some additional insight below

    ​

    1) This is a side business, so I do all my work on nights and on weekends which is fine with me. It's been working fine for the past two years. My business is done through my computer, so need need for a lot of space.

    2) My business is profitable and can cover the ~300 a month to have the ability to work at a WeWork location

    ​

    My question to the community is if anyone has done this same thing before? Did you first start off at an apartment (or a house) and then move into a WeWork space? Can you put your business location there on your website?

    submitted by /u/tmblast1
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    What business model is this?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 01:46 PM PST

    I have a problem putting the type of business I have in mind into context. I want to offer an online service to users for free and charge businesses a monthly fee to put them in contact with those users. It's kind of like an advertisement business I suppose. Would this be a B2C or B2B model? I'm offering a free service to online users but making businesses pay to reach those users. It sounds similar to what Google does. What would you call this type of business model?

    submitted by /u/ThomasP32
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    Facebook Business Page Question

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 07:45 AM PST

    Hi, pretty straight forward question which I cannot find the answer to anywhere. I have a Facebook business page and on the right there is a list of personal Facebook friends that is titled "Invite friends to like your Page" How is this list generated exactly? I am asking because the first person at the top of the list is someone I do not want to invite and would rather remove from this list, without removing them from my personal friends list.

    Any help is greatly appreciated.

    submitted by /u/newguymatt58
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    What do you think about “stealing” another companies idea?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 09:51 AM PST

    There's a local company that has come up with, what I personally think, is a great idea. As far as I can tell, they're the only ones offering this particular service. (For context, they do a pick-up and drop-off laundry service). I see this business, and I think to myself: "Fuck, I can do that!" And I think I can probably do a better job with respect to branding / operations. I guess my question is, do you think there's anything inherently wrong or dishonest about entering a market where another startup already exists and is trying to grow?

    submitted by /u/cryptoMadness5K
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    Hey Guys, I am currently in a Target store that’s closing down. Everything is 50-70% off(no limit) can I make money online reselling certain items? Is it worth trying?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 01:35 PM PST

    DBA under someone else's LLC?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 09:39 AM PST

    Hey guys,

    ​

    I just became an IC and have a question for the brain trust. I have a pending contract on the horizon and its a big project. Currently I do not have an LLC but one of the 2 people I've been talking with forming a partnership does. He is suggesting we form a DBA for my "business name" for legal protection and all that. The concern I have with this is that- this project is one that I am bringing on and I need to have full control of it, financially and otherwise. If we do this DBA under his LLC then the revenue would be going through his bank then to mine. Should I make my own LLC and figure out how to partner with them differently or is this normal/fine? This isn't the whole picture but I'd like to get some discussion going and figure out my life. Please advise!

    ​

    B

    submitted by /u/Nrdrage2
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    How to gain customers fast on my Tipster Subscription Company?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 09:32 AM PST

    Hey Reddit,

    I've recently set up a tipping site, we are two tipsters with over 10 years experience each in horse racing betting.

    We have been live for 11 days with 7 paying customers, mostly word of mouth.

    Our service has gotten off to a great start, we are 35 points up (£350 profit in 11 days to a £10 stake) for our customers. We currently have all social media (Facebook temp ban until our application to advertise gambling has been approved), we are posting blog posts on our live website. I have run a few campaigns on google ads and Facebook ads, to only actually convert one customer within the first hour, to endless days of no conversions.

    I have contacted a few tipster review sites to see if they can do a post about our company, as Cheltenham Festival is here in 2 months and we have had a hugely profitable festival 5 years in a row. We actually tipped between our inner circle of friends over £20,000 of winning bets last year and we have the slips to prove it all over the website!

    I want to gain a big following over the coming two months so we have plenty of customers to promote us after another profitable festival. Ideally want to try to grow to 50-100 minimum, with a target to have a following of atleast 500 by the end of the year.

    Subscriptions are currently £12.99 monthly, £34.99 quarterly or £130.99 yearly. We are quite a cheap service compared to some of the other services out there, but I believe our website looks better than most of our competition.

    What avenues can I take to get a quick influx of customers, or what services are available for tipster services where I could pay a company a Cost per Acquisition of customer?

    I have been looking but to no avail, so here I am!

    This isn't an advert, so I won't list my site here but if anyone wants to offer advice and take a look just message me :)

    Cheers Reddit!

    submitted by /u/sheeplad
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    Free website for you!

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 01:11 PM PST

    Hi Entrepreneurs,

    ​

    I am trying to build my professional portfolio for becoming a web designer and developer.

    ​

    I am looking for new businesses who wants to create either a WordPress website or HTML/CSS website. I am willing to do the development and design work for FREE.

    ​

    If you're interested, please send over a DM!
    We can discuss details there :)

    ​

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/jonpak
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    Thoughts on Dan Lok?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 01:09 PM PST

    Is he legit?

    Business guru or scam?

    Has anyone taken any of his courses and received value out of them?

    Any personal experiences of how Dan Lok helped them in their business or field of interest?

    ​

    submitted by /u/Pharmer314
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    Looking for marketing agency website critique? + To show or hide pricing?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 12:48 PM PST

    Hey there! I've been watching this thread for a while... trying to learn as much as I can. I might be suffering from some major imposter syndrome. Or maybe not. I can't tell. I've been working in a vacuum for too long, and I need some outside opinion and thought.

    My husband and I are building a marketing agency together. The website still has some key things that need to be done (a few adjustments to galleries, implementing our case studies, and tweaking our marketing service page copy), but I feel its far enough along to get some community feedback. Unfortunately, the vacuum effect is strong, and I really need some outside opinions on the site, the offerings, your first impressions, etc. https://nolieagency.com/

    I look at other websites, and sometimes I like ours more, and other times, I get serious website envy. Plus, there seems to be so many approaches- such as not even posting past work, or laying it all out to see... showing pricing vs not showing pricing, etc. We've gone back and forth many times on this and can't seem to decide.

    submitted by /u/GiveMeTheRobots
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    Question about Patent or trademark

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 11:56 AM PST

    So I am trying to reinvent a brand from the 80s that is no longer in existence in a different category of business.

    What I am trying to do is use the name and logo, or a combination of the two. I am trying to purchase the name and logo, but I am unsure of how I go about finding who has it, or seeing if it is still registered. Can anyone give me some direction?

    submitted by /u/chasej805
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    How would you market this location-based social app?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 11:42 AM PST

    I just made an Android app that creates chat rooms for anywhere with a Google Maps entry. Cities, businesses, etc, each with their own chat room. I'm a little over 400 downloads in 3 weeks, mostly earned. A challenge that faces many social apps is that it needs users to be useful. Mine is no different. People (not counting my friends) are enthusiastic about the idea, and I get installs whenever I plug it in a forum that allows it, but all of these users show up to a graveyard. I'm trying to think of ways to market this app around specific locations or use cases that would get users who are most likely to actually enjoy the app. One idea I tried was a scavenger hunt within the app for a prize. It got about as many downloads as it did Reddit karma, but not many people played since only smaller subs allow giveaways. What's a good low-cost or free way to expose specific groups to an app they may enjoy, while being mindful of forums that don't allow advertising?

    My app for reference.

    ​

    ​

    submitted by /u/publicNME777
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    Best ways to start: amazon, affiliate, social media etc

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 11:34 AM PST

    I want a career helping people and I'm interested in holistic healing.. but I was curious what is the best way to begin your own business? Is amazon fba hard, which is the best way to get started? Thinking about working a 9-5 job forever and never getting to travel much makes me pretty depressed.

    I watched some of lazy ass stoner's videos but still haven't started yet (affiliate websites with low competition niches and SEO).

    submitted by /u/psychedeliclovex
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    I don't know where to start with this idea...

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 11:23 AM PST

    First i would like to describe my thought process and why do i think this idea is a win win situation for all the parties.

    ​

    I love it here in my home country but the global financial situation in here is rough, there are few to none job opportunities and even if you do get a job its really badly paid.

    ​

    In companies abroad where I worked, mostly i did some manual or mechanical jobs, the thing is I was paid 4x more, and I cost my company 5-6x more then I would in my home country for the same amount of work and most of the time same or even worse efficiency. It always amazed me how there can be such a huge difference in pay, for the same job in two countries.

    The idea came from simple calculations i always had in my head.

    ​

    Recently in my home country there is a new law for foreign investors where every investor that invests ~500k euro and employs any amount of people gets from 2000 to 5000 euro grant per person employed.

    Well still not alot of them are coming in since this new law, and its been well over a year.

    ​

    This got me thinking they (foreign companies) dont care about this program or simply are not aware of it at all.

    ​

    Because if you put in simple math, they get grant ranging from 2-5k euro and every single employee cost them at least 5 times less then in their home country, event without that grant its still a lot more profitable for them. In company where i recently worked, my employer had monthly costs around 3k euro for a manual worker that I was...here that would be in the range of 600-700 euro...

    ​

    So from this simple example i believe you get the idea how that kind of move can help foreign companies from the get go. I dont want to go into any more detail but there are other financial benefits like utilities are also a lot cheaper here then in any other country in European Union.

    ​

    So my idea is to try and start a service company where i could create a bridge between EU and my home country and inform other foreign companies to spread their production or parts of it to my country. Where my job would be to set everything up for them, from hiring people. translators to warehouses, all the documents needed, contact local logistics companies, bookkeeping agencies etc.. because I know someone from every field i just mentioned it would be somewhat easier to set this up.

    My question is how would you suggest me starting this business? I have all these ideas but I believe what most of you starting your own business had i just cant find a way to start this and put in motion.

    Any input, suggestion or comment would be greatly appreciated and welcome!

    ​

    Thank you in advance!

    ​

    ​

    ​

    submitted by /u/tinmarFF
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    God I love entrepreneurship

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 03:43 AM PST

    I've been a slaving away for 60+ hours a week at a job for a number of months now. I have an end date with plans soon but I want a certain amount saved first before I scale back and put all of my energy into my businesses.

    I think about it everyday but I was slowly letting the selfdoubt creep in. Yesterday I finally caught a break. Big snow storm. I was going to call in either way but they actually called us off. What did I do? Bust my ass even harder and took my gf (first time doing this kind of work with me)around shoveling snow.

    I didn't have much preparation so it wasn't perfect but god damn it was the best day I had in forever. I was soaked, cold, exhausted with every possible muscle aching and I loved every minute of it. I was too tired to be frustrated/stressed unlike most other days. My hard work actually paid off, got recognition and made double what I do at my jobs. My gf even had a lot of fun and was an immense help.

    Now I'm completely depressed about going back today haha. But it looks like I'll get another chance tomorrow. The temps are going to be dangerously cold but that only means less competitors. There wasn't much of a point to this post but damn I'm estatic. I have plenty of experience with this type of work so I know everyday isn't like this but my worst days are still a 10000x better than my alright(good as it gets) days at a job

    submitted by /u/Isp89
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    Trying to solve a design issue.

    Posted: 29 Jan 2019 11:08 AM PST

    Hello all,

    I am starting a cosmetics business. All natural, vegan, cruelty free. I have been able to solve all issues up until now, but one issue I haven't been able to solve.

    I am deciding to choose between buying empty eyeshadow palettes wholesale, find a unique way to store the eyeshadow instead of a conventional palette, or trash the original business and partner with a company to do private label to start out instead.

    If anyone has any ideas on what I could do, I would be extremely grateful.

    submitted by /u/imrosered
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