NooB Monday! - (January 07, 2019) Entrepreneur |
- NooB Monday! - (January 07, 2019)
- The best opportunities are in the most expensive cities
- How did YOU make it big?
- Recovering alcoholic, lost everything, time to rebuild, back to humble beginnings.
- How do you scale a marketing agency?
- Introducing /r/roastmylandingpage, the place to get your landing pages critiqued on design, copy, usability, and more!
- entrepreneurs like me who's most productive time is late afternoon/evening, how do you manage that eating into your social and family life?
- IAM someone who had over $2M in revenue and was making 6 figure profit annually by selling stuff on eBay that I purchased from cheaper sites online (Amazon, Walmart, Target), AMA!
- I need advice on scaling up/changing my production methods
- Make fast decisions to move fast.
- Seeking advice / direction on attempting to promote a product I just released online via bloggers/influencer in the product area (other means as well)
- Why is the patent process so shitty?
- If you had a million dollars to start a business, what business would you start?
- Thinking of buying a starter/dropshipping site on Flippa
- To those that purchased an existing business....
- How do rich people avoid being overwhelmed and driven insane by the amount of work they have to do?
- Advice on Selling Video Game IP
- Thoughts on airplane tour business in Japan?
- East Coast Headshop
- Using the word "Stud" in my brand name
- How do people bid for larger IT projects?
- Selling PCB's without buying crazy amounts of stock?
- CRM Advice
- Seeking entrepreneurs who need website redesigns (free, not an ad)
- X post - Suggestions for a task
| NooB Monday! - (January 07, 2019) Posted: 07 Jan 2019 05:07 AM PST Please use this thread to ask any newbie questions. We do this to not overflow the subreddit with newbie questions, so please try to limit the questions 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. [link] [comments]  |
| The best opportunities are in the most expensive cities Posted: 07 Jan 2019 04:52 AM PST I posted my story a few days ago and it turned into a brainstorm surrounding different cities and what opportunities might be present. Expensive cities with high cost of living have amazing opportunities for service based entrepreneurs. NYC, DC, Boston, all of Cali, all of Canada, all of Europe. Anywhere where hourly labor is in low supply. Here is why: First of all there is a huge demand for services in expensive cities because people and companies are earning more money and specializing more. People are getting really good at one thing, earning a bunch of money doing that and outsourcing everything else. Nobody is bothering with their lawn, cleaning, basic maintenance, etc. 20 years ago 5% of homeowners outsourced lawn care. Today 40% do. That number is higher in expensive cities and will only grow over the next 10 years. The second one is the big one. Labor is expensive. Not many people are willing to work in hourly positions. This makes it hard for MOST service companies because they have trouble staffing, keeping up with demand and maintaining a consistent workforce and a consistent service to the consumers. They end up offering a very slow service because they are always 2 or 3 employees shorthanded. Most owners run around saying "I can't hire anyone worth a damn." or "I have to pay my employees too much to make any money." This sounds like a reason to avoid major cities but its not. This is your opportunity. This is where a good operator can win. Stop looking for better people and start simplifying your operations so normal moderately trained employees can thrive. Take as much off their plate as possible. Build a streamlined training process. Implement tech into your day to day operations. If you do this you can offer a more consistent service, you can offer it to the consumer much faster and you can basically name your price. You can charge a higher price and thus pay employees better to keep them around. You can stop competing with the providers on craigslist. You can grow a viable scalable company. More information on my podcast here! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jan 2019 10:26 PM PST Success is indeed relative but what sort of business or investment did you make that helped you gain between 500k$-1m (or more)? Just an average college kid that is interested in what experienced professionals have done to make a living for themselves. [link] [comments]  |
| Recovering alcoholic, lost everything, time to rebuild, back to humble beginnings. Posted: 07 Jan 2019 01:20 AM PST Six month goals as written on the whiteboard in my office/bedroom at my sober living house. I'm a software developer and business consultant, bootstrapped my last business about 15 years ago from the basement of my house with a similar budget. Eventually opened an office, hired employees, worked up to ~30k/mo payroll, then drank myself and my business into oblivion. Lots of lessons learned. Anyways just wanted to say that entrepreneurship is a state of mind, a frame of reference; it doesn't matter how much capital we have, who we're pitching to, or how much revenue we expect to generate in 3-5 years. Being an entrepreneur is to take from our surroundings and make something more. Everyone has a ground floor, a humble beginning - we all start somewhere and we do something with it. Oh and not being drunk all the time helps too. [link] [comments]  |
| How do you scale a marketing agency? Posted: 07 Jan 2019 11:03 AM PST The last few marketing startups I worked at all failed or stagnated for the same reason. They were relying on more clients to make more money, but staff growth was slow and expensive. The business owners were making a lot more for every new client they brought in, but we weren't. Every new client ended up being 2x more work for our design team without 2x extra pay, and even if the pay had scaled, there would've been a point of severe diminishing returns. After a while, growth slowed because the team just couldn't keep up with the workload, and people were starting to burn out and leave for calmer waters. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Jan 2019 08:04 AM PST There are so many incredible subs for help with digital marketing, but as CPC's rise, having a high converting landing page is a must. Come here to get your landing page critiqued. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Jan 2019 11:35 AM PST |
| Posted: 07 Jan 2019 09:17 AM PST Hey guys, I've been wanting to share this post for a while and I've attached two links as photo proof (https://imgur.com/a/aEjfRUE, https://imgur.com/a/kRCr2tk for confidentiality reasons I've hidden my seller name). I started my journey in 2014 importing stuff from China to sell on eBay. However, I found long wait times and poor quality control was killing me so I tried to optimize around having a high SKU count. I didn't have a ton of money to invest in inventory so drop shipping (buying single items and shipping directly) was my fastest way to scale. I realized it was more profitable to have a high SKU count than to try predicting what would or wouldn't sell (you wouldn't believe have many Lazy Susan's I've sold from blind luck). I would spend most of my day trying to identify products that were selling well on eBay that could be found cheaper on another site. Most "drop shipping" suppliers I looked at were BS and I learned I could find cheaper products just by looking for them on Amazon, Walmart, etc. Usually, my only criteria was that product must have a $6 profit after fees. As the market got more saturated with other people doing it (when I started it was just me and thehoneyroastedpenut and maybe five more people) I was able to stay competitive by building tech that could help me identify when a product was significantly cheaper on one platform. **SHAMELESS PLUG HERE FOR TWO REASONS ( 1) to get new users, 2) because this tool really really will help drop shippers, I built it for myself). So why am I here sharing my secrets? Well, I've been sucked into the glamour of the startup world and have turned my tech into a consumer application called Compass, https://letscompass.com. The app was literally built as a drop shipping tool but now I've realized it can help serve both B2B and B2C.IMO to stay competitive you would need a tool like Compass if you aren't able to build your own price comparison tech in order to quickly recognize arbitrage opportunities. ** END SHAMELESS PLUG Over the years I've seen it all, chargeback fraud, Cease & Desist letters, massive sales spikes in a single day, eBay suspensions, so please ask away and I'm happy to answer any questions! P.S - PM me if you don't want to share your question in the comments [link] [comments]  |
| I need advice on scaling up/changing my production methods Posted: 07 Jan 2019 10:34 AM PST I created a niche product 6 months ago that I assemble myself. Things started going well and I was getting 2-3 orders a day right at launch, and things have slowly been ramping up and I am getting more and more orders. Right now I am getting around 10-15 orders a day. The biggest issue I am having is that when I first started this, I created way too many skus for myself. I had never done anything entrepreneurial so I didn't realize having this many skus would make things difficult for me in the future. With that being said I have around 30 colors the user can choose from. All of the colors I am selling are all doing equally well, there really isn't any specific colors that don't sell, and there aren't any colors that do extremely well. There are a few others that creating similar products to mine, and they all also have this many colors to choose from as well. Right now I am fulfilling all of these orders as they come in. Creating an inventory with this many skus is obviously very difficult to do and would be very capital intensive for me which is why I haven't been able to do it. I've thought about reducing the amount of skus I have, but since the skus are simply different colours, I feel like this would be quite detrimental as I wouldn't have nearly as much variety as competitors, and a large factor that users purchase, is because of the options they could choose from. I've considered trying to get these manufactured instead of putting them together myself, but I worry that these manufacturers may "steal" product idea. Also having so many skus would make getting them manufactured difficult as well. I've thought about looking at patents, but I am still quite small/starting out, so I am not really sure if my product qualifies for any type of patents, as it's quite a simple idea. Does anyone have any ideas or advice they could offer that may give me some insight? Much appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Make fast decisions to move fast. Posted: 07 Jan 2019 08:53 AM PST This is something that I realised I should have improved a long time ago: The faster your decision-making, the faster your execution is, and the faster you're growing. It does take courage but usually being really decisive helps you get to action faster which moves you forward to the next step. (Of course you need to make "good" decisions as well but that's for another post ;)) [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Jan 2019 09:32 AM PST I've spent the last month and a half working 10-12 hours a day on a fairly simple product idea that I felt might be of value to consumers. It solves a basic issue, doesn't reinvent the wheel, and can be made (in the short term) by me in my house. Much of this time was spent doing the graphic design for product photos / infographics as my initial plan was (and is, as of yesterday) to list this on amazon - where there are no competitors as this product doesn't yet exist in its current state. However, as a new amazon "seller" I've also been working to understand the competitive system and the many restrictions that drive the titanic machinery that is Amazon. I've come to realize that, when listing a product, it's of great importance to promote it in a variety of ways. One of these ways I've seen is giving away your product to influencers / bloggers / reviewers in the product's area in exchange for a review (in this case, ideally an amazon review to push the product up slightly in the searches and / or a linked review to the product page on the person's respective website). I also know it's important to have organic purchases and reviews on amazon for the product from people who bought it off the page, but feel it might seem shady to make the dual request of these hypothetical influencers to buy it through the page, in exchange for a rebate of the cost from me - just seems questionable as a practice. Can anyone offer some direction? I just want to start taking the first steps to at least getting the product page in front of people so they can decide for themselves - I fully understand the idea might be unwanted and unneeded, and I've had my doubts through this process - but I've made it to this point and it's good practice to try, and to fail / revise and start over. I didn't feel ready to link the product here quite yet, as I've been trying to keep the process of pursuing this contained to avoid analysis paralysis - I know there's value in taking that plunge, but I don't feel the specific product is really necessary to the questions I'm posing above - however, it is a cellphone accessory of sorts, with no power / batteries, and improves the function / longevity of a popular smartphone and / or it's accessories in a cheap, reliable, and cool way [link] [comments]  |
| Why is the patent process so shitty? Posted: 07 Jan 2019 06:55 AM PST This is more of a rant than anything else...I haven't submitted a patent, I just don't understand why they take so damn long and are sometimes too costly or ineffective to defend. It takes up to 5 years to grant a patent. Yes they take many man hours to research and examine....so what? If the wait time for a Tesla was 5 years, they'd soon go out of business...but they don't because they meet demand with supply. So why isn't the Patent Office? Is it just another case of 'we're the government so tough shit'? Do big companies like Apple have to wait up to 5 years for their patents? Why do they not outsource the whole shebang or introduce payment tiers, including a free tier that takes the longest? (That way brilliant but broke inventors could still patent their inventions...they just have to wait longer.) It seems like a 230 year old industry ripe for disruption. [link] [comments]  |
| If you had a million dollars to start a business, what business would you start? Posted: 07 Jan 2019 02:00 PM PST |
| Thinking of buying a starter/dropshipping site on Flippa Posted: 07 Jan 2019 10:07 AM PST Hey all! I've work in online advertising for about 8 years and after some political shifts in my country I was out of a job for some months, doing some freelance work and odd jobs. After finding a new home office job at an agency, some soul searching happened and I realised I'd rather be doing my own thing like those months than building things for some else. So, I searched for some solutions and the one I'm considering the most is buying and growing a starter dropshipping site on Flippa. Since it will be a side gig, my goal would be to reach montly profit of 400-550 USD per month, I've got enough money for monthly FB, Google Ads and Instagram campaigns and free time to tend it. Has anyone done this before? Have you had any experience with these type of dropshipping sites? [link] [comments]  |
| To those that purchased an existing business.... Posted: 06 Jan 2019 05:48 PM PST My business partner and I are playing around with a business brokerage website idea. Essentially, we hate the experience of searching for a business through websites like vestedbb and bizbuysell. He's bought and sold several car washes using brokers - I've just recently bought a car wash. So I guess my main questions are:
Any other comments are welcome. [link] [comments]  |
| How do rich people avoid being overwhelmed and driven insane by the amount of work they have to do? Posted: 07 Jan 2019 01:31 PM PST Let's say you are the sole owner of a large company that, in turn, owns several other sizable companies. How would you maintain your sanity amid the sheer volume of work that would entail in the first place, let alone after your workload is multiplied by any new companies you might acquire? How would you have time to do anything besides work and sleep? Would it even be possible to take a vacation? How would you ever have time to enjoy all the profits? [link] [comments]  |
| Advice on Selling Video Game IP Posted: 07 Jan 2019 01:26 PM PST So I've been in the software business professionally for over 7 years and even managed to rack up quite a few clients before branching out and doing my own thing in 2014. It might not be that typical here but my niche was in writing payment processing systems for adult business. I've also been developing a video game in the NSFW space that has managed to touch ~$10k last year but my lifestyle has changed a lot since. Simply put, the digital nomadic/late-night lifestyle of crunch time isn't really cutting it anymore. The problem now is that I have quite a few people invested in my work which makes me feel a bit obligated, although I also don't have the resources to keep pushing out updates on a regular basis. I just do what I can. Still I'm looking for an exit strategy here which would preferably be a fire sale. I just want out. I actually do lots of M&A as my secondary business is flipping digital assets. So I'm no stranger here, but games are a bit more abstract. Any ideas? Flippa is my jam but is geared more toward mobile apps, websites and raw domains. [link] [comments]  |
| Thoughts on airplane tour business in Japan? Posted: 07 Jan 2019 01:04 PM PST I have recently finished pilot training for the air force and was assigned to go to Okinawa, Japan. I am seriously tinkering w/ the idea of starting a air tour/sightseeing business on the island, but really have no clue on what it takes to do so and make it successful. It's a hard topic b/c of the unique nature of the job, combined with it being overseas. One of my biggest concerns is how would I get all the funding/capital necessary for what seems like a big endeavor? I will try and contact various states-side businesses to receive their input. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Jan 2019 12:43 PM PST Debating on opening an online headshop/social media presence on the East coast before marijuana has become state/federally legalized (which all signs point to so far). The marijuana industry is quite saturated on the west coast at the moment, with THC soft drinks, edibles, papers, pipes, and even pot-head newbie/renewal product subscription plans. With all this market saturation in the marijuana industry..what would be the smart move, business model wise? Please do not suggest to decrease retail pricing as this is not a sustainable competitive advantage, so going head-to-head with headshops is not ideal (no pun intended). Great entrepreneurs' develop something new, unique, solve a problem...I'm not quite sure what problems these pot-heads are facing besides running out of herb, no ability to roll the papers they buy, and glass pieces consistently breaking. Open to suggestions for "Pot-head problems". [link] [comments]  |
| Using the word "Stud" in my brand name Posted: 07 Jan 2019 03:51 AM PST I am working on a new startup/site and my brand name has the word "stud" in it. Its related to men's clothing. I am not a native speaker but from what I have known the word "stud" is used for attractive handsome man. So using it in my clothing-related site seems okay to me. Now I have been reading at some places that the word used in a sexual manner, which might make it inappropriate for a clothing related startup? Will it make people dislike my brand? Will it cause trouble if a few years down the line if I wish to sell it? Also, I found this thread on Reddit which is making me even more confused. https://www.reddit.com/r/MensLib/comments/9ycpfe/a_rant_about_the_word_stud/ Any native speaker or anyone who could guide me a bit on this, I would be very thankful. [link] [comments]  |
| How do people bid for larger IT projects? Posted: 07 Jan 2019 01:07 AM PST I have been working on my startup over the last few months. As things wind down on the first set of deliverables l was looking at getting some projects onboard for my team, instead of letting them go. I was looking at projects on freelancer and upwork, however most of the projects there seem to have ridiculously low quotes. How can I check for projects from larger companies which will be interested in the code quality and how the project is delivered? [link] [comments]  |
| Selling PCB's without buying crazy amounts of stock? Posted: 07 Jan 2019 12:18 PM PST Is there a way to manufacture custom pcb's by the piece, or by up to 5 pieces in a batch? and have them store them and then fulfill it? That would be amazing, as I have some custom pcb designs that I would like to sell, but I dont want to buy 100 pieces or so. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Jan 2019 12:06 PM PST Basically, I'm looking for advice on ZoHo CRM or an alternative. - I run a digital ad agency and we have a Sales Team that calls on leads and pushes them through a pipeline to a closed sale. - Sales can take a few days to a few months to close. - Our Sales Team never stops calling until we hear a real objection or until they ask us to stop calling. - A closed sale for us turns into a project that then get handed off to the Creative Team. I am looking for a CRM or a way to organize our existing ZoHo CRM in a way that is conductive to this process. I am having difficulty doing so right now, but I am well aware that Zoho CRM can be used for this. I can feel we are not using it effectively yet. Please help me (: * I might post this in different threads, and if that is against any rules, please let me know\* [link] [comments]  |
| Seeking entrepreneurs who need website redesigns (free, not an ad) Posted: 07 Jan 2019 11:58 AM PST I'm an MBA with several years of experience in creating sales websites that sell products and services exceptionally well. I'm looking to create one or two websites for established businesses that have a decent revenue stream coming in that know their current website isn't making as much money as it could at no cost to the people I do this for. Helpful are things like high resolution photos of the business and other media that could effect sales, and then a budget for marketing (not for me, but a brand spanking new website that has no people coming to it needs things like Google ads to start moving people over). The only thing I'd ask is that the client share feedback with me a few months after it's done. I'm branching out on my own and since my previous jobs required NDAs, I need to get a few sites under my belt for portfolio examples. Please respond in this thread or direct message me. [link] [comments]  |
| X post - Suggestions for a task Posted: 07 Jan 2019 11:56 AM PST Hey, my boss gave me a task by providing me some excel files and telling me to do an analysis on the files and draw some conclusions. Thing is, I have very little experience and I am not sure what she wants from it. She did mention COGS, but I dont think that is correct considering the things she provided me with, though I could be wrong. Any suggestions of interesting information/analysis that can be drawn from this data? [link] [comments]  |
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