NooB Monday! - (January 28, 2019) Entrepreneur |
- NooB Monday! - (January 28, 2019)
- How I made $10k in one weekend as a college student with no cash
- Built a content marketing agency, year 2 update: We just hit $1 Million ARR - AMA
- How as a “un hireable” teen I make ~700$ a week
- Friends and I own the domain birdbox.com, and @birdbox on Instagram and Twitter. Need some advice.
- Pitching my software to a large company but they have concerns about the size of my company (just me)
- Don't Listen to Guru's
- High Traffic, Low sales???
- Monthly copywriting subscription service a good idea?
- What kind of free online courses are offered that can help young entrepenuers?
- 11 Things You Are F-ing Up But Don’t Need To.
- Starting a digital marketing agency — is there a good place to get leads? I don’t mind paying for them.
- Choosing name for my company - incorporating this week! Just have one question:
- Small sublet business ideas
- If you were going to hire a small business consultant, would you put any stock into if the person is certified as a consultant (e.g. small business consultant)?
- How to say no to employee ideas?
- 15 Years in Business- Surrounded by successful people- The Second One
- A True SEO Tale
- What is the best approach for setting up an affiliate program for my store?
- Social Media Questions (Need a response by tonight for university project please)
- Any sites or apps where can you find an accountability partner ?
- UK house share / office
- How much to prince cakes for a bar/coffee shop?
- T-shirt prints?
- Do NOT ask for advice. Trust your gut. Advice might be wrong (it probably is). (xpost)
| NooB Monday! - (January 28, 2019) Posted: 28 Jan 2019 05:06 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]  |
| How I made $10k in one weekend as a college student with no cash Posted: 28 Jan 2019 06:48 AM PST It was about 8 weeks before graduation weekend in my college town in 2012. I was a senior about to graduate. My mother was bugging me to help her find a hotel near campus for graduation weekend. For her, my father, my grandparents and my sister. Three rooms. I called about 10 hotels around campus. Checked Priceline. There was nothing available at all. AirBNB was the same. The closest city with availability was about 30 minutes away. They only had 3 rooms left in the entire hotel and they were $350 per night plus fees, each, with a three night minimum. Even they were cashing in on graduation. Thats $3,150 + fees. I refused. I'd rather them stay home and miss graduation. The closest hotels with normal pricing and availability were over an hour away. I thought about my friends who were sophomores and juniors renting apartments in the area. Classes ended about 10 days before graduation. They all were gone for the summer working internships or back home. Their apartments were empty. I texted a group of three friends living in a three bedroom apartment. I offered them $500 if they let my parents stay there over the weekend. They quickly agreed. All set with my family and we saved about $3,200. My college had recently added a feature to the email (Google powered email). If you started typing someone's name it would autofill and provide you with their email address. My school had about 4,000 students in each class and the facebook group had about 3,000 each. I joined each group. I then went through using one screen on the facebook group members page and one screen on the gmail page typing in names and mining email addresses. About 20 hours later I had a list with the email addresses of 3000 juniors and 3000 seniors. I typed out a nice email to the Juniors:
I then typed out this email to my fellow seniors:
I sent both emails and then headed out to track practice. When I got home 4 hours later I had over 400 emails in my inbox. I ended up tiering the pricing based on location, cleanliness, ability to provide linens and amount of rooms. I paid out about $35 per room per night on average and I did a three night minimum for everyone. Graduation weekend is quite an ordeal so that was pretty standard anyway. I rented the rooms at about $100 per room per night. This was a big savings over hotels but the guests had to be okay with a dirty apartment and bringing their own linens for the most part. But they got to stay in the heart of the action and save a lot of money. I set low expectations for the renters. I told them it would be dirty. I told them it would be sweaty. I told them to bring linens and cleaning supplies if they wanted to. I strictly told all of the underclassmen to clean their apartments very well. I sent them detailed checklists. I did the best I could to make sure it would be presentable. As soon as I collected payment from the senior I would pay the underclassman and connect them on email telling them to organize the key hiding and check out stuff. I kept a few apartments extra in case of emergency and ended up using one of them so I'm glad I did that. Overall I brokered about 60 rooms and cleared about $10,000. EDIT: A few people have asked what I'm up to since this time. Here is my story I posted here a few weeks ago. If you enjoyed this you might enjoy my podcast on service based entrepreneurship. [link] [comments]  |
| Built a content marketing agency, year 2 update: We just hit $1 Million ARR - AMA Posted: 28 Jan 2019 10:02 AM PST Last year, I posted about growing Optimist from 0 to $500k ARR in our first year. It was super popular and got a lot of folks who were interested. So, figured I'd come back and share another major update from year 2 of business. After launching Optimist in December of 2016, we have grown the company to an MRR of about $85k. That puts us on track to do $1MM run rate in 2019. Trajectory: https://imgur.com/KtKHvwp Just a quick recap on Optimist and our business model:
As of today, we have about 14 total clients on monthly retainer. This last year has been one of growth and reflection. As a company, we have evolved our model into something that looks and feels more like a real business. We've reinforced our team, created a more fluid structure, and focused on improving operations and communication. It's also been a year of growth for me. This company grew out of my own personal freelancing business. It was an extension of me—and I felt a lot of need to control and own so many of the moving pieces. I've learned to step back. In focusing now on shaping my own role—thinking about what part I truly want to play in the future of Optimist, what parts of my job can scale, and what parts I'll need to hire out or delegate. Our next goal is to get to $1.5MM ARR. That should roughly cap us out in terms of our current capacity to manage clients (have 2 principals now, capable of managing 6-10 clients each). When we get there, I'll likely put the brakes on the company and stop accepting new work without churning any of our existing clients. I want to focus on slow and controlled growth—I want the business to feel strong. I want the work to be less hectic and stressful. No kinks in the process. Over the last year, I have found myself really trying to return to my initial state as an entrepreneur. I want to unpack my ultimate goals/motivations and try to figure out how to build that thing that will ultimately make me the most happy. My main question has been: How do I want to spend *my* time? What kind of company do I want to have? Obviously. I could focus entirely on revenue and growth. I could grind it out -- and maybe we would have grown larger/faster if I did. But, at the end of the day, I realize that my passion is the strategy and the operations of the thing. I like to have time to incubate and come up with ideas. I don't like the treadmill of growth-at-all-costs and I think it reflects in the level of work that we deliver. More importantly, I know what makes me happy. And it's not the "hustle" of the thing. Yes, growth and sales are exciting. But, I'm a natural introvert. I'm a numbers and words guy. I like spreadsheets, data, and reading. So, I want my time to be spent on these tasks. And part of that probably means sacrificing some potential growth to shape the role that I want and to build a company that I want to run. Anyway -- I'm going to cut my rant here. I'm happy to answer questions. We operate with basically 100% transparency; so very few (if any) topics are off-limits here. AMA! --- Finally... I got bombarded with requests last year. So, to avoid that and hopefully comply with the rules, our website is: yesoptimist dot com. If you go to Articles & Guides in the nav, I actually wrote a 5,500-word recap on our last year that goes into much more detail about changes in our company structure and operations. [link] [comments]  |
| How as a “un hireable” teen I make ~700$ a week Posted: 28 Jan 2019 12:27 PM PST I'm a 15 year old high schooler that is "un hire able" for non minimum wage jobs because I have Aspergers I went on kijiji (Canadian Craigslist) ALOT at 14 because I was looking for a phone to replace my iPhone 4 But I would always sort by electronics as looking "phone" doesn't give resorts for androids only iPhones but while doing so I'd get allot of ads for Wii's,Xbox 360's, pc's, and PlayStations and also noticed the prices vary into a lot for the consoles Wii's 25-50 PS3 80-130 (more expensive because they also have blue ray) Xbox 360 60-90 And pcs vary wildly in price I decided to take a plunge on a Xbox 360 with 5 games and 3 controllers at 70$ and cleaned out the fans Than sold the console with 1 controller at 80$ all 5 games at 7$ each and all 3 controllers at 25$ each and just like that I made 120$ profit so I did it again and again and again until I worked up to 800$ which took me 2 weeks and opened up my next avenue, computers The profitability with buying and selling consoles is in the things that come with the console and not the console itself so I used that same logic with pcs. My first pc buy was a old sandy bridge system with 16 gb of ram and 2 1 tb hard drive and a DVD drive so I bought it at 120$ and it didn't have a gpu so I bought a gtx 660 at 40$ Sold the pc with gpu at 250$ 8 gb of ram at 40$ (this was during the ddr4 "shortage") DVd drive at 10$ and the hard drive at 20$ so I made 160 profit plus 120 profit = 280 profit, this was in my first 3 weeks but now I've made it to the point I pick up several consoles a day and have people picking up a console every day and gave up on the whole pc thing as it's hard to bike with all that added wait What should buy next? [link] [comments]  |
| Friends and I own the domain birdbox.com, and @birdbox on Instagram and Twitter. Need some advice. Posted: 28 Jan 2019 01:29 PM PST Really wasn't sure if I should post this but my friends and I own the domain birdbox.com, we also own the Instagram and Twitter handle @birdbox. To give some background my friend and I are software engineers and the other is an entrepreneur with a degree in horticulture. We've gone through many different ideas, but we've ultimately decided we'd like to use this great name to develop some type of web application that everyday people would use. The name obviously has been receiving some traffic due to the recent Netflix film but we aren't relying on this primarily as we know this is short-lived (and has already died down). We've compiled a large list of ideas and have spent every single day over the past month just debating back and forth about what we should build (it has been exhausting). It seems that it's very easy to come up with ideas that are useful for companies but coming up with ideas that are consumer-facing is a bit more challenging. Every time we come up with something it either gets shot down or it's already been developed and is killing it in the space. With the name and social media all aligned perfectly we believe it would be a waste to develop software for companies under this name. So to save us from more of these painstaking debates, what would you suggest/recommend? Trust me even if you suggest something we've already thought of I will still appreciate it and it will receive a reply. (except selling the domain, no, Netflix isn't interested). Feel free to message me if you'd need/want to know more. EDIT: If you believe your idea/suggestion is that good we would be willing to offer equity in exchange please message in this case! Thanks in advance! Willing to reply to all suggestions :) [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Jan 2019 08:29 AM PST Hi, I'm currently pitching some software to a company on a yearly subscription basis to automate all their staff login and data analysis that could save them thousands of man-hours across the company and be used to present data in a way it can be used as a tender for new projects. So they could make money using it. They know its work in progress but so far the people within the company who have seen it, loved it and it exceeds expectations. Today it was pitched to senior execs but they had some concerns about security, and the fact I'm just a self-employed software engineer. What can I do to reassure them this won't be an issue and that I'm perfectly capable of handling this project? I am a little nervous about the scale of this thing but from a technical point of view I know I can figure things out as I go along if I don't know already. But from a business point of view, I'm not sure what to do, I need to put something together to address their concerns in a way they make sense to them, and speak in their language but I'm not 100% sure what they'd want to hear. Are there any common things people do when in this situation? This might be a bit vague of a question so I do apologise, I just need some help/advice. B2B software owners, CEOS etc, How did you get started and did you run into issues like this? Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Jan 2019 02:43 AM PST Let me break this down. Most of the entrepreneur gurus on Instagram, Facebook etc are a load of shit. Simple as that. That's not to say all of them are. Gary Vee has some good advice, but he, like most of them, is also out of touch with aspiring entrepreneurs. The advice guys are okay for the most part, but remember, they are always trying to sell something. The ones you have to avoid are the ones selling a template. The guys selling a Shopify course, or an FBA course. You know the ones. Some of them cost £499 and show information you can find anywhere for free online, it is very basic. These guys aren't entrepreneurs, they are con men who were in the right place at the right time. Simple fact is, you can't operate a hugely successful business and be an influencer' online. The guys killing it in business aren't making videos telling you to drop out of college. Just something to bear in mind, hope it makes sense. I spent a long time following this advice, and some of it works, but most is just regurgitated drivel. Follow them at your own discretion, but just ask yourself, if what they are selling is so good, why aren't they doing it? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Jan 2019 01:22 PM PST Hey everybody, Been running an online store for a couple days now and have seen a substantial amount off traffic to my site (apx 150-200 sessions per day) spending about $20 total over the past 5 days on Instagram & Facebook ads but haven't seen that translate into many sales. Came out of the gate strong with 5 purchases in the first 2 days and then nothing for the past 3. Wondering if its my product pages? the images? or maybe even the products them self? If anybody has some experience could ya take a look at my site and the product pages and give me your expert advice on how to increase conversions. Anything is appreciated, even buying a product or two ;) lol Thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| Monthly copywriting subscription service a good idea? Posted: 28 Jan 2019 02:32 PM PST I am thinking about creating a monthly copywriting subscription service. For example 2,000 words for $100/month, which you could use to get 5 articles with 400 words each done for your blog or for content marketing. You could also use this service for product descriptions or any other sort of texts. [link] [comments]  |
| What kind of free online courses are offered that can help young entrepenuers? Posted: 28 Jan 2019 12:05 PM PST I just started taking the Accounting basics offered on accountingcoach. Does anyone recommend a better one or any other courses offered online that can really improve my skill set for running a business ? [link] [comments]  |
| 11 Things You Are F-ing Up But Don’t Need To. Posted: 28 Jan 2019 11:41 AM PST 11 Things You Are F-ing Up But Don't Need To. A list of self sabotaging behaviors that are hindering your success. Learned from personal experience on my long journey towards success. Over and over and over again. #1 Paralysis by Analysis: You are overthinking everything. Worrying about every detail. It doesn't need to (and never will) be perfect. Just go out and get your hands dirty. "Done" is the new "Perfect" \**The secret to getting ahead is getting started***- Mark Twain* #2 Worrying about what other people think: You are doing this for you. Not them. The more success you have the more haters you will get. What they think is meaningless. What you think is what matters. #3 Listening to your inside doubter: Don't be your own biggest enemy. NO ONE knows WTF they are doing at first. Even the most seasoned athlete, celebrity, scientist has doubts but they use them to 'energize themselves' NOT to self-sabotage. Don't listen to that doubting fool inside. You go get yours girl! #4 Counting closed doors instead of looking for open ones: You need to look for open doors or windows to break through instead of counting closed doors or opportunities. All it takes is 1 YES! Stop looking for ways out and start looking for more ways IN. Kick those doors in if need be bro but you will be surprised by how easily many of them open with just a light knock. #5 Letting failures stop you instead of using them as stepping Stones to success: You don't learn to be the world's best 'anything' without failing and retrying many many times. Same goes for your goals and life. Embrace the process and learn from failures using them as your main building blocks towards your goal. #4 and #5 are where most people lose. Quitters quit and the people who succeed didn't. Plain and simple. Failures will happen. Plan for them and use them. If you aren't having failures then you aren't doing enough. Failure is a healthy by-product of effort. #6 Competing against others instead of competing against yourself: You are your only competition. You need to work harder each day and be better than yourself the day before. Not your competition. As long as you are getting better and learning as you go you are doing it right. If you spend time worry about other people accomplishments you waste time not attending to your own. The only person you should be reckoning with is the person in the mirror. #7 Not making periodic honest assessments: We all need to make 'honest' assessments of ourselves periodically. Do this without judgement. View yourself as a 3rd person objectively for a few minutes. Write down where you went wrong and make sure to write down what you did right. Don't beat yourself up on all the bad stuff. You need to know what to fix. Then get to fixing it. Without self judgement. This is actually pretty hard to do but go easy on yourself! The fact that you are making an assessment that most people are afraid to do means you are worthy of your own kindness. #8 Making excuses and Blaming others: This is the most popular way to F-Up your life. Blame and excuse are our natural mechanism to protect our inner psyche. It's much easier to quit, let ourselves off the hook and blame someone else than to admit there is a problem and work to overcome them. Scapegoating will just hurt yourself. We all have issues. We all have something in our past that holds us back. Some worse than others for sure but what WE DO from this point forward is our own responsibility and no one else's. How YOU react to these issues, traumas, problems, setbacks and failures is what matters now. There are very legitimate roadblocks that occur in our lives but we need to assess the problem, find possible solutions to overcome them and then act on those solutions. The more blame you put around is less energy you have to complete your task. #9 Saying no when you should say yes or Saying yes when you should say no: Don't lose out on opportunities because you don't know if you are up to the task or have anxiety about it. Say yes then work through to accomplish them. Grasp opportunities when they are presented. Conversely, if you truly want to meet your goal. Don't say yes to something that goes against your goal. Trying to lose weight or get physically fit? Say no to that night out of drinking. 95% of the time it's someone who wants to pull you back down. Use your intuition. Deep down you know when you should say "no". Caveat: saying yes to most invitations is worth it. See #10 #10 Not taking that leap of faith: Networking and meeting new people is essential to thriving. Most of all my greatest business and social gains were from meeting someone unexpectedly because I said 'yes' to something. I said 'yes' to talking to someone even though I felt shy. I said 'yes' to quitting my job and going out on my own even though I was scared to death. I said 'yes' to walking up to people and initiating a conversation. It turns out most people want to interact with each other. Taking a risk is how you get things done. A body builder has to stretch out and overwork their muscle to see gains. Same applies to us in our everyday lives! #11 You Don't Believe You Can Do IT . **Beware**Positive thinking without works doesn't work. We need to think we can do something in order to do it. Otherwise, we never get started on the journey. "Oh I can't do that" or "Get that idea out of your head. Our family just isn't made to rich" etc are deadly to your future. If you think you are cursed you will be. If you think you can do something maybe you will or maybe you won't but you need to believe that it IS possible in the very least. Again, conversely, All the positive thinking in the world won't make anything happen much less your dreams if it isn't followed by 'works". You need to WORK toward your goal for it to happen. But you need to believe it can happen as well! BONUS: Not letting yourself day dream: HOPE is your biggest ally. Without it we stop to engage, compete or care. Let yourself day dream. Imagine what you want to accomplish. Dream about where you want your life to be in 2 or 5 years. Let yourself dream as big as you want! The bigger the dream the more work needed but even if you fall short you will be MILES from where you began and you might just find that place to be where you wanted to be after all. Don't let inspiration go. Take advantage of it while you can and let yourself be your own biggest asset! A little about me. My name is Dave Giovacchini. A lot of my friends and colleagues call me Bluehair Dave (I used to have blue hair when I was a musician in San Diego and the name stuck.) I work from home running my own digital marketing company and have won or been nominated for a few awards in my industry. One of them being the "2 Comma Club Award" for doing over 7 figures with one website in a year. I have worked at home for myself successfully and beyond my own dreams for over 11 years now. (All mostly done in swim trunks or sweatpants!) I also do consulting and education in my industry and found that just about everyone faces the same challenges that I did and still do face regarding our own self-sabotage in our personal and business lives. This list is a short compilation of my own self-defeating behaviors that I took stock of while on my journey towards success. I was broke most of my adult life and had to rely on others or my girlfriend (now wife) to cover my expenses and rent. I Felt pretty crappy about myself and where I was and where I was headed. One day after the death of my long time buddy/dog "Astro" from cancer I was in a pretty deep rut and more than a bit depressed. I was in my early 30's and nothing to show for it except a lot of fun times from playing music. (which were some amazing times!) But I was broke and without direction. I was envious of my friends who were able to buy homes and take nice vacations. I couldn't even afford to go out to dinner with them because I didn't have the money. When I took a really painful and oddly liberating self examination of myself and my life I noticed I was committing these cardinal sins. And all of them and in high amounts. I didn't even know what they were at the time. I was hustling and working but nothing was coming of it and so I naturally blamed everything and everyone except the one person in charge… Me. Once I recognized that the only constant was change… and embraced it. Things began to change for me. Once I began recognizing and utilizing these tools and enacting them (stumbling mightily along the way I might add!) my life literally did a 180 degree turn for the better. I was the person responsible for my failures and, in turn, my successes as well. Once I did this success quickly followed. It also helped my generalized anxiety and reduced my panic attacks which I suffered from since I was a young adult. Even the smallest of accomplishments felt like huge victories and massive amounts of weight were lifted off my back. I was amazed at how much this changed my life. I also noticed that the people I met that I admired or wanted to emulate also had this same outlook on life. I also noticed that the people who had my old outlook were stuck in the same place that I used to be stuck. This led me to believe that outlook and attitude has a profound effect on people's lives. So I wanted to share this with all of you and maybe someone out there can get the same help from it that I have gotten. I also realize that everyone is different and this is just my own personal experience but once again. Just about everyone I interact with whom I or other people consider to be 'successful'.. my neighbors, professional athletes, business owners and wildly successful corporate executives all share these same beliefs. Almost down to a "T". There has to be something to that. Try it out for yourself and let me know how your journey changes. Best Wishes, Bluehair Dave [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Jan 2019 01:31 PM PST I currently work for a digital marketing agency, and I've been looking at going out on my own. I got my first client through a co-worker of mine, but I want to get more work. I got spammed by some company called bark.com promising me leads. But everything I read about them online said they were scammers. It got me thinking though: are there other companies that sell leads that are legit? Like I said, I don't mind paying for good leads, but I don't know where to get them. I was just wondering if anyone has had any experience with this. Thanks so much for any help. [link] [comments]  |
| Choosing name for my company - incorporating this week! Just have one question: Posted: 28 Jan 2019 09:28 AM PST I'm a filmmaker Canadian. Incorporating for tax/business reasons, otherwise it's just me working. So I will probably keep working under my own name anyway. My question is, if I choose name like "ALPHA TREE STUDIOS" (just picked two random names for the purpose of providing an example) , but there are already names like "ALPHA TREES PRODUCTIONS" and "ALPHA TREES FILMS" out there, will I be fine going with the ".... STUDIOS" ? Is the suffix enough to make the name unique to avoid lawsuit? Also, in my case, those other two (FILMS and PRODUCTIONS) are not trademarked now, and they don't seem active. My second option is going with my LASTNAME films. This would be the safest option. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Jan 2019 12:59 PM PST Hi, I'm moving my dance studio/gym to a larger space. It has extra rooms that I don't really need. What are some small one-man business ideas to fill them? So far I've thought of massage therapist, small coffee bar, chiropractor, and/or physical therapist. Any other ideas are VERY welcome! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Jan 2019 12:45 PM PST Looking into starting a small business consulting practice. I have the skills and relevant experience, just looking into if I should try to get certified in addition. Thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| How to say no to employee ideas? Posted: 28 Jan 2019 10:30 AM PST I have a few people on my team and I encourage an open communication culture where anyone can come to me with concerns, ideas, improvements, etc. I want my team to know their opinions matter and that they can voice their concerns or ideas. The problem I'm having is that one employee in particular keeps having bad ideas and I feel bad shutting them down all the time. I can't enact an idea I know won't be good and will just drain time and resources. How specifically should I go about accepting the message, replying, explaining, etc. So that they don't feel like their always getting shut down, while me still being able to say no? [link] [comments]  |
| 15 Years in Business- Surrounded by successful people- The Second One Posted: 28 Jan 2019 03:01 PM PST I don't want the title to sound like I'm attempting to write some epic series. I'm more surprised than anything that the first post was so well received. I think subconsciously I hoped it would sink and that I would have scratched my itch. As it does seem to be helping a few of though and I did say I'd keep writing if it helped, I feel the need for at least a couple more posts and I'll hopefully take the time to answer some of the comments individually on the previous one. To continue then, here is a 'Don't- Do- Don't' sandwich to keep the positive and negative even. I'm certainly not bashing on entrepreneurship, far from it. I really do think everyone that has the desire in them should start something- I'm just really concerned for others that feel they have to start something in the way and with the aim that other people are telling them to. I've jotted down 4 more Don'ts and a handful of Do's here. As I mentioned in my previous post on here- I personally think that by scaling back your ambitions and intentions, focussing on the tiniest actions and letting go of too much need for a return on your efforts you are far more likely to either do something a little worthwhile that you can benefit from or even surpass these humble goals with something closer to your unrealistic goal than you would otherwise. Apologies in advance again if I hit anyone too close to the bone and please bear in mind that I have probably been there. (Side note: On browsing through yesterdays comments I think there are some people that could do with a 30 or 60 day detox from self help. Don't tell yourself you're quitting them forever- just swinging the control in the relationship with your books and authors back in your favour) Two More Don't Do's for the Day. So yesterday I touched on the Don't Do's of 'Aiming for the Stars', 'Looking for too much advice', 'Desperation towards starting a business/ Lack of patience' and 'Overthinking'. I genuinely think if you avoid them you'll do better than not. To build on them and go a little deeper here's what I have maybe done and didn't work or have closely observed in the people in my circle (ie happy, decently off, mostly non millionaires although there are a few).
I don't know what it is with us when we start out on this journey but I think it's the innocent care free child inside us hiding from this new scary creature we're trying to mould ourself into. Depending on who your'e copying, you may naturally start to try and emulate them. Most stereotypical famous entrepreneurs (not all btw) are either quite aggressive/ arrogant or quite 'know it all-ey'. From what I recall anyway. They're either strutting and yelling and power shaking the soul out of people or they're trying to come across as some type of hippy wizard who just 'knows' everything and can see round corners. Again, to compare that to the people I personally know- they are far more ordinary than any of the personalities- they're far less intense barring a bit of good old enthusiasm. I can't quite think of how to describe the ones I know but one thing that covers it is that they are all great to socialise with and good at parties, I can imagine the ones I haven't been to a party with are also. I don't mean they are the life and soul by any means- some of them are found with me in the kitchen or corner- what I mean is that they'll talk about varying and interesting things, will bang out a few dad jokes or take the p!ss out of others and themselves. They like a laugh an most of them did before they made it. Every single one of them has a pretty involving hobby/ interest outside fo their work or business (I've now written a list/ mind map of these people to help me write about them!) and I wouldn't describe a single one of them as intense or preachy. Actually come to think of it- I believe deep down that a lot of them come across as being aware how lucky and possibly average they are. This was a big realisation I came to myself prior to 'doing well' and I now feel better in myself with this opinion. - Lighten up, chill out, put more effort into your hobbies and outside interests (or get one), laugh; and enjoy life a bit more.
Bear with me on this one. A few years ago, after harassing my health service for several years prior to get me in front of a shrink to diagnose me with the Adult ADHD I 'knew' I had, I was finally aloud to go in for some tests- the lovely Indian lady doctor told me the reason I kept getting into a funk of lack of focus, indecision and spiralling 'anxiety' (which has similar symptoms- more on this later) was partly due to the fact that I had Seasonal Affective Disorder (and partly due to the fact that I was sadly desperate for success- she knew!) I was told by her to get a blue light and try mindfulness. Of course I took that as 'become a meditation teacher who's not into the woo woo and open a centre' and 'start a specialised website that provides advice to sufferers of SAD and sells blue lights etc'. I then went home, looked up all the keyword search volumes and started to analyse the competition- I felt sick when I realised the lo and behold someone had beaten me to it... by at least 20 years. The keywords were really competitive and it just wasn't worth it. I begrudgingly bought a light from the top result and when it came I think I kinda hoped it was crap. These last few winters I've actually used the blue light in the mornings and feel far better this time of year than I ever remember. I know that many of us that are naturally drawn to entrepreneurship are problem solvers, opportunity grabbers and make things betterers but we only have so much creative energy and decision making juice in us each day. By looking at every damn object or service we come across as something that we 'could get into', it drains our radar and puts everything into the same swamp of ideas. I think it's better to be more of a disregarder- again Im sure that the people I know know this. I've personally found that the businesses that have happened for me were a bit like with me and my wife. The first few encounters were random, meaningless events... we spent a little time together and took things slowly with no agenda. Then without even realising it we were in love and then married with children. - The opportunity will come if you let it and you'll just know when you know. Time for some Do Do's (Stop it Chandler!) Finally, some things that can be done! Like I said, I think having a business is great, has made me a better person and has made me a good bit better off. I genuinely attribute a large part of my 'average' success and subsequent happiness to things I stopped doing rather than new habits that I formed but here are a couple of things I and those I observe do/did and may be worth trying yourself. When you stop fantasising, researching and frantically flicking through motivational books & videos, you're left with some space that needs filling. I already mentioned hobbies and interests, but I'll cover that after what I think should head up the list.
I haven't called it family or friends etc as I don't want to marginalise anyone who doesn't have them. I don't want to brag but I am lucky in this sense- if you're not so, I genuinely think you can do something about that. I also appreciate that people may be shy, be introverted and/or have social anxiety. I still think that its really important that you spend more time with the people you like spending time with or go out and find some. I guess it doesn't matter if they are online even- just spend time chatting and getting to know others more intimately... and remember, not too serious yeah. Have a laugh, get drunk, go fu shi up, go bowling, play frisbee, walk/ hike, play pool, fish, shoot, dance, knit... whatever..... with other people. More importantly make sure its people your'e not trying to sell to, buy from or otherwise advance yourself in business/ finance. Also, when things get going in your business life, don't bore these people with it a) It usually is boring and b) they like you cos you're who you are- not what you are.
Yep, I know I'm beating this drum to death- trust me, its important. If you're the active sort, go and do something physical, just drop the goals and the aims etc, especially if you're into bodybuilding or running etc. Swing on some bars or look up calisthenics if you want to use your muscles. Take a look at woodwork, building heavy things or something like that. Try not to replace your addiction to being an entrepreneur/ wantrepreneur with another addiction though. You're just killing a bit of time and giving yourself something to take your mind off of things. Using your body and mind for something other than 'trying to succeed'. Remember- no outcomes. You're doing what the soft headed teacher told you at school about just taking part and not winning. Although I like video games, I don't like to feeling I get after sitting down in front of screen for too long so I can't play them. I do love movies and gripping documentaries so probably watch about an hour a day and film or two at the weekends after the kids are in bed (usually with beer/ wine and snacks). A few years ago I would be sat the on my laptop or iPad 'looking things up'. I couldn't even bring myself to enjoy a few hours in the evening to watch a film. Jeez- what a waste. I've taken to building things and renovating my house- it's coming along quite well, I'm really improving my DIY skills and am amassing a fine array of tools. I've built a shed out the back, moved the kitchen from one end of the house to the other- according to the mortgage broker I've added nearly 50k to the value of my house.... what's important though is that I've really really enjoyed it. I have plans for many other things and am learning CAD (which I should know being in engineering anyway but this time its for fun) and am watching several CNC routers on eBay to further the fun. I also love growing and cooking food- not trying to be a masterchef or thinking about opening a restaurant- Just messing about with flavours and/or following recipes to the letter and switching off. This post isn't about me though- I just hope it's a decent example. The others I know are into motorbikes, following sport, also building things, also food and cooking, art/ painting/ drawing, animals etc etc - Find out what what floats your boat and go do some. Tie it in with other people for added enjoyment but also give yourself a bit of 'me time'. Right- some businessey stuff.
Okay, a kind of a reiteration here but as before.. bear with me. Take a step back and if needs be take some real time off of thinking about starting if you haven't done so yet. If you are in business and are feeling disillusioned, give yourself a bit of a break- systemise and consolidate a few things and try and get yourself on a plateau. Of all the self-help and motivational things I hate most and feel are the most damaging- it's the 'It's only too late if you don't start now', 'Quit your job', 'Drop out of college' crap. If you want to start a business and get started, you would be far far better doing it small and part time alongside a job. I know you're tired on an evening and just can't get your brain to do something- I've been there. You're not thinking small enough yet, you're too caught up in whether you will be wasting time on something without an eventual payoff for it or whether it's worth it and will lead to the fast track of being a millionaire or more. Seriously, give yourself some space- take the next few weeks/ months to just enjoy doing nothing and then when you're ready- Start Really Small. If you're not sure what business to start- keep doing nothing. Stop resisting the real world- it will be there along with all it's wonderful opportunities when you come back to it. You'll hopefully be more realistic and willing to be a shade more mediocre when you come back. If you hate your job or someone in it, the next ones for you.
And by others, I also mean other things. I actually think it's rare that we actually hate our jobs. I think it's more likely that we hate the fact that we are there. Whether it's because we feel too good for the job and it's inherent shortcomings or we can't really believe that we are on the same pay scale and worthiness as some of the dumb@sses we share our workplace with- we are really hating our belonging to that situation more than anything else. In order to move, and again this is the direct result of conversations with some of the successful people I know, we have to transcend the situation. Yes, we work alongside some horrible/ stupid/ pedantic/ lowly/ very special (not good special) people and hence in the eye of our colleagues and society we are on the same level as them. I feel for you and if we met I would quite possibly agree that you are better than them. Feeling bad about it isn't going to help you though so you must transcend. I'm not quite sure how the universe or its evolutionary system works (sorry Abrahamic religion people) but I think it's kind of a promotion system. I'd bet that the fish that made it onto the shore and grew legs were the descendants of the better of the fishes- I just don't think evolution created reptiles from the offspring of really crap fish- like 'Hey youre terrible at swimming and eating other smaller fish- you should try being a lizard". I think then, that it's kinda the same in society and as I said, in particular with my self made friends. Quite a few of them actually got into their present business by the way of an opportunity presented to them by being good at their previous jobs. It's similar to me as well. I ended with my 'day business' as I turned myself round and decided to start working hard at what I was doing and putting the troggs to the back of my mind. It got noticed and I was given several pay rises, I then ended up on the radar of my friends dad who owned his own business and asked me to run a project for him. 4 years later I'm flying and have invested in several other ventures/ people since. - Transcend and overcome the drudgery of what you are doing now while you are still there. Move on when its time and you're ready.
I've decided to make this a separate post as it really covers too much for an already far too long post- I'll let you know when this is up fully but for now.... Turn everything you do into a system. When you do eventually get going, think of every single step as something you might have to do again. Make a game out of making things into a system. Using either a basic paper notepad/ filing system or one of the free or built in word processors or spreadsheets, make a list of the things you are doing. It will speed up any rework, it will make you better at remembering things and it may force you into trimming wasted activities out of your day. You might feel silly writing down "Spend 4 hours browsing r/Entrepreneur" followed by "Watch 10 random guru videos back to back- but only halfway because they haven't given me the missing secret yet and the search must continue hastily" I promise I'll add more to this in the week but for now- Think 'Systemise It'. The last couple of Dont's I hope the majority of these items being dont's doesn't put you off- I do think you can do it if you get realistic and start being easier on yourself. Avoid things is easier than doing things and yields similar results. You don't have to run the 8 miles if you don't eat the extra donut (You can have one though!). A couple more things to avoid.
Apps and Services Any time spent looking at organisational, project management, CRM, email management, keyword/ adword, accounting, team comms etc etc etc apps, that you don't currently have a pressing need for is a complete waste of time. Especially if you are just starting out- by the time you need one the market will have changed and you will have to look though them all again. Trust me...been there and done that. Again, by all means have a browse. If you start evaluating them and heaven forbid buy any, you are fantasising and feeding your delusional side. Pen and paper works fine if not better than most apps. Particularly for a one man band or small team. Talking The last but not be ignored thing I have noticed in others and has turned my life around since I stopped, is the ability to work on my stuff in silence and to keep one's counsel in general. If you need to tell people what you are doing, I think you are giving yourself some kind of reward internally. If you're getting the reward from telling your friends, family or colleagues- you won't feel the need to get the reward from selling or creating something when you finally get started. Bigging Up your business may have the same effect. You may not need to take it to the next level or wrap it up into a more passive income with the work being done by others if your ego is already getting it's hit. Secondly, it increases the anxiety towards the fact that you must be doing something right now. If you've told people you're going to move on from this situation and become a millionaire, your mind will be frantically looking towards things to do to make this happen. Until your opportunity has come along or you are ready for one, this could manifest itself in more addiction to the non worthy activities we've already been through. - Keep quiet until you get started. - When you do get started, continue being quiet about it. - If you're already in business, quieten up a bit. That wraps this one up and again I hope some of you find something useful. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Jan 2019 09:04 AM PST I hired a web developer over a decade ago to produce a website I designed for one of my startup clients. Maybe nine months later, I called her to bid on another project. She told he she was no longer doing web development, but devoting all her time, energy, and even some money, into starting her own startup. Envy probably leeched from every pour in my body as I listened to her describe the idea she'd launched only ten months early, and was already clearing over $10,000 a month. Her idea was simple, but unique for its time, 2007, when internet commerce wasn't as popular as it is today. She combined her knowledge of traditional print and digital reproduction, and created a digital printing service. Visitors to her site got to choose from a wide variety of stunning announcement and invitation templates. Weddings to birthdays, to death announcement, these beautiful templates were displayed on her web pages in an array of thumbnail pictures. Click on any one, and the UI allowed you to fill in names, dates, locations, and personal information on the template you chose. They were digitally printed on thick paper to your desired amount, and mailed to the buyer within 48 hours, anywhere in the U.S. It was a great service that was clearly needed, because she told me in the first few months of the roll-out of her website, and publishing a consistent stream of SMM posts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn announcing her launch, she was getting 20 – 30 orders a day. Even better, her website link was #1 on Google returns with search queries like "invitations" or "announcements." In fact, she was considering purchasing a digital printing press to eliminate the cost of contracting a printer. Four months later, she called me looking for work. Her business was struggling, since she'd been "thrown off of Google," a few months earlier, just weeks after she'd told me of her success. They'd "blocked" her site from appearing in their search returns, she'd said. Since then, her phone stopped ringing, and people stopped visiting her site, and her sales dried up to just a trickle of what they were. What? I'd never heard of being "thrown off of Google." They are the premiere search engine. It is the function of their service to return web page links of legitimate businesses related to our search queries. Wasn't internet censorship illegal in the U.S.? Google didn't just bury the list position of her website links. They removed all of her website links from their platform. Her company was not among Google's search returns when someone searched for anything similar to what she was offering, including search keywords like "invitations" or "announcements." Why? A few weeks after I initially spoke with her about her successful new startup, she hired an SEO marketing firm. They claimed their firm would use exclusive SEO techniques to increase her reach far beyond her meager SMM on Facebook and Twitter. This SEO firm promised my web developer that, for a mere $10,000, they could take her from a small business to a global company. And she believed them, and hired them. One month later, Google sent her an email saying they were removing her from their search results for violating their user agreement. Her crimes: 'Over-stuffing, over-optimizing,' and link-backs to her website were appearing on sites that Google considered 'bad neighborhoods.' The email went on to explain that if she wanted to object to the charges, she could do so by emailing them. However, Google would only restore her web links to their search returns if she fixed her SEO violations. My web developer then invested another $10,000 in another marketing firm. This new firm promised to remove all her web links from the 'bad neighborhoods' that the first firm stuck her URLs on, but it was simply not possible to find and remove them all. She sent literally hundreds of emails to Google's legal department, and got no response. Two and a half years after Google removed her links from their search returns, they sent her an email they were returning her to their search results. Unfortunately, she had already lost her business. My web developer screwed up by hiring a self-proclaimed SEO Marketing firm she knew nothing about, who claimed they knew all about a newly evolving marketing technique we're still trying to figure out. What did that SEO firm do wrong that got my web developer in trouble with Google? • Overstuffed―they used the same terms in their SMM posts repeatedly. DON'T DO IT. Google doesn't like it, but even more to the point, it's boring, bad marketing. • Over-optimize—they used too many anchored links (back to her website) on keywords in the post's text. Example: Create your stunning invitations and announcements quickly, easily, and for less, today. Personalize, and invite your besties to your next big bash. And/or…the evil SEO firm used misleading keywords or key phrases that had nothing to do with what she was selling to increase the SEO ranking using trending (though unrelated) keywords. Example: Create the stunning body you've always wanted, and get invited to the best Hollywood parties. When you look thin, you feel beautiful. DON'T DO IT. Google doesn't like it, but more to the point, it's stupid marketing. This type of post may get someone's attention, but they are likely not interested in the invitation and announcement templates my web developer was selling. Effective marketing means communicating what we have to offer to our target audience. Over-stuffing and over-optimizing are often considered one and the same, just expressed in a variety of different ways by those trying to game search return results. • Bad neighborhoods—according to Google, are pornography sites, or racist sites, such as the KKK, or 'hate' websites expressing extremist views. The evil SEO firm my developer hired put her website URL in the 'comment' box, or 'discussion forum' on these types of sites. When your company URL appears on another website, this is known as a LINK-BACK. Google considers most legitimate companies 'good neighborhoods.' However, for a link-back to increase your SEO, the 'good neighborhood' must have some relationship to what you are selling. A bakery might have a link to my developers invitation site on their site, since they sell wedding and birthday cakes, and these occasions often require invitations. It is unlikely that a site selling chainsaws has the same target audience as those interested in invitations and announcements. Therefore, putting her invitation template site URL on the chainsaw site would not increase her SEO, and possibly flag Google's violation detection algorithms Penguin and Panda, for an infraction. The Function of Search EnginesMarketing pros know the power of SEO―reaching #1 in Google returns in your business, and similar categories. They are always trying to game the system to get to that #1 ranking. Google's job, and that of any search engine, is to return the most relevantlinks to your queries. But evil marketers make performing Google's job function particularly difficult by over-optimizing, and putting link-backs on 'bad neighborhood' sites, or sites with no relationship to what is being sold. It may help the ranking of their company, but Google returns irrelevant, and often improper links to our queries. (Pornography is notorious for using SEO tricks.) DON'T PLAY SEO GAMES! Even if you get away with it, effective marketing sells features and benefits of your offering and/or company, to fulfill a desire of a specific group of people. [link] [comments]  |
| What is the best approach for setting up an affiliate program for my store? Posted: 28 Jan 2019 06:08 AM PST I want to set up an affiliate program for my store. My products sell for $149 to $299. What would affiliates/influencers prefer: 1 - A fixed commission of $30 for every product sold Also, how important is it to give affiliates their own discount code? Giving them $30 + a discount for their followers is to expensive. Would I be better of giving them $20 commission + $10 discount for their followers? Thank you for your input! [link] [comments]  |
| Social Media Questions (Need a response by tonight for university project please) Posted: 28 Jan 2019 02:23 PM PST I am a Sophomore at University, taking an English class. For my current assignment I have to interview someone in the business field about their usage of social media. Here are my questions (Feel free to PM me or leave it down it the comments): Tell me about your startup/company, what do you do? What social media platform(s) do you use, which one is your favorite, why? How has social media impacted your business? How often do you post on social media? How do you generate interest/grow your company via social media? What kind of tools do you need to be successful in social media? What have you learned through your social media adventure? Anything else you would like to share? It would mean a lot to me if you guys could leave responses here or PM me. Thank you so much for your time :) [link] [comments]  |
| Any sites or apps where can you find an accountability partner ? Posted: 28 Jan 2019 02:22 PM PST I tried getmotivatedbuddy but it's been 3 weeks with no matches. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Jan 2019 01:51 PM PST I'm thinking of getting to get her with a group of around 4-5 like minded people and renting a house in a reasonably priced area anywhere in England. The idea is that we could all live extremely cheap (£200-300pm rent) and still live in a nice clean new build. We would be able to only work a temporary job and focus on our businesses. I'm about to start an e-commerce business however I currently pay £800 a month and have to work full time to keep up my expenses. This has to change. For example a 4 bed beautiful new build in a pretty nice area (Cheltenham) is £1000 a month, only £250 each. You could work 20 hours a week and be fine. Or if you already are making money through a business then you could quit you're job and live super cheap while you grow it. This could be the perfect opportunity for people who want to start something but right now can't afford too, it would be a very relaxed, quiet environment where you can focus and get things done without normal flat mates partying etc. Think the TV show Silicon Valley, that sort of house. Everyone in the same boat, mental support and the opportunity to bounce ideas etc on each other. Essentially it would be living super cheap, with like minded entrepreneurs, who are all focusing on there businesses and doing what it takes to make it. I have an American Bulldog called Bill, all dogs are welcome if they get on with other dogs. PM me or comment on here if you're interested. [link] [comments]  |
| How much to prince cakes for a bar/coffee shop? Posted: 28 Jan 2019 01:48 PM PST Im having headache trying to figure out how much to price cakes for a new local that serves coffee and drinks. I usually work with orders and I also have a small shop, so this is something I have never done and right now they are having troubles because the sizes they are selling the cakes are too small for the price they are selling them, so I thought that maybe I am the problem. To be honest, my bakery is all homemade, with good ingredients, and we make EVERYTHING, so we dont buy any product that is premade. and this is something I already told them (they arent mad or anything, but they told me we needed to work out in the sizes and I dont want to lose this client) So, now I'll give you some numbers, easy ones, I'm not going into any deep expenses A red velvet, costs me like 4€. the size is 16cm (6 inch) diameter x 10 cm high. I told them that this cake, 8 portion sizes were really good for a coffee place, like, it will be a really big size, but when you go to a place to eat cake, you want a good portion. They asked me if they could cut in in 12, and I told them, that well, they can cut them in 12 if they wanted. I sold the cake for 12€ to them, and they want to sell the portions at 3.50€ - 4.00€ depending on flavor, this one is 3.50, so they have 42€ for cake, 30€ profit (i also want to add that their moto is "chill & cakes" so the cakes are important) But, as I thought, that cake in 12 portion size is too small and now they are telling me they are having problem with it. So, keeping in mind that this cake is one of the easiest to make, how much do you think I should price it to them? Also, if a cake has the same cost, but is difficult, how much more should I add? Or maybe you have any other suggestion? thank you, sorry for my english, and I hope you understand my english >< pd: I wanted to add that I deliver the cakes to their places, which is like 30-40 minutes depending on traffic [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Jan 2019 01:25 PM PST I had a good idea for t-shirt prints but I have no recourse to make print and deliver the t-shirts because I live in a third world country, Is there any store like printful that works for Brazil? [link] [comments]  |
| Do NOT ask for advice. Trust your gut. Advice might be wrong (it probably is). (xpost) Posted: 28 Jan 2019 01:21 PM PST Quick thought of the day, Among other ventures, I own a fresh online marketer's startup (link tracker/traffic tracker). Anyway the point is: 1) Everyone has been telling me "do not market to India cause there's no money there". We have subscribers via paid ads (pricey path!), but today we've received our first organic, Google-fu subscriber. Guess what... he is from India. That's not the only thing. 2) About everybody out there has "suggested to make it freemium" including reddit (not absolutely everyone, but most). We went freemium for a try (had the way to go back) and guess what, we didn't convert. Since removing freemium, gone full paid (our prices are rather cheap BTW), it has been converting and it's profitable. Trust your gut. Not the crowd. Hope it helps! Edit: To clarify, in the end you still have to measure and get data. Not follow blindly, even overwhelming advice pointing in one direction. If you're not sure how to start, make sure you keep all options open then hedge your bets. Like A/B testing. It's not always possible but if you plan for it from the very beginning, you will create that option. Even if 90% of the posters even some specialists tell you not to do that, you need to do both this and that and compare. However in many cases we are influenced by overwhelming advice and we go against our own entrepreneurial instinct. Besides, your personality and being different is what would probably support you in your ventures. [link] [comments]  |
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