The government shutdown means no SBA Loans and that's not OK small business |
- The government shutdown means no SBA Loans and that's not OK
- Are SBA loans just BS?
- What are the options to register 1 person software business
- My friend is starting her own small business, and I want to support/congratulate her with a gift of some business swag.
- Parents run a small town coffee shop, been open for a year, not quite turning a profit, any tips for trimming the fat or increasing sales?
- Experiences?
- Why do businesses even bother to use Facebook?
- Would you work with a convicted felon? Backstory in post.
- Doing commercial cleaning business with large corporations [update]
- TurboTax and Quickbooks as W2 employee and sole proprietor
- Question about replying after hours
- Newsprinting agency asking for $1000 more
- EIN
- Register as LLC or Corp? For essentially a sole proprietor in CA
- Starting Small Business, will credit checks make this difficult?
- What’s the process to get people to sell for you as affiliate sales without them being considered employees?
- Need some help brainstorming the effects on timing of new facebook ads on a business that will undergo rebranding within the next 4 months
- retail/bar lease forms, starting point?
- Tips for begginers.
- Product Photography and Video Service Company - Gaining Clients and Starting
- UK based charity donation question
- My husband and I are looking to own a small coffee shop. We are looking for any advice for first time business owners...
- Should I care what my vehicle looks like when looking for new clients?
- Question on paying mobile employees
| The government shutdown means no SBA Loans and that's not OK Posted: 08 Jan 2019 10:10 AM PST I just read a Forbes article that outlined how the government shutdown means that SBA (Small Business Administration) Loans are on an indefinite hold. Simply put, that's not OK. Many small businesses depend on SBA Loans because they don't necessarily qualify for traditional bank loans. With SBA Loans on hold, open/pending applications will be delayed indefinitely and folks who need loans now are out of luck. Has anyone been impacted by this issue yet? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 08:46 PM PST I have a successful service-based business that has been running smoothly for several years, but I'd like to expand and diversify. I've been looking into an SBA loan and, in the course of doing research, met with a local SCORE mentor who has successfully grown and mentored many successful business ventures of his own through the years. He is insistent that SBA loans are mostly BS and more trouble than they're worth, that they don't make doing dealing with a bank any easier, and now I find myself questioning everything. Are SBA loans indeed just hot air? [link] [comments]  |
| What are the options to register 1 person software business Posted: 08 Jan 2019 11:32 PM PST Hey guys, I'm a software developer, currently working for the corporate but meanwhile I want to register my own small business. Not sure if in my case a LLC is even optimal solution because: - I will be the only person in my company, - I will be providing software consulting or selling my small software products based on the customer demanding, - I'm currently living in Texas but my customers might be from all over the world, - it is possible that will have customers only every few months. Considering all above I'm wondering what is the cheapest(one time and annual) and smartest way to register my business? Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 10:08 AM PST I'm thinking some pens, mugs, and a few other small items would be cool. I'm just not sure how to go about this.. I've looked at a few websites, but they all seem to require HUGE quantities for an order (and I have a pretty small budget, under $100 realistically..) Any advice or ideas? Edit: Also, please let me know if there's a better sub to post this in! Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 03:25 PM PST |
| Posted: 09 Jan 2019 04:13 AM PST Hi all I'm new here. I'm looking to start a side hustle that involves food. The thing is I can't start it legit right away.. so I'd have to sell from home/bootleg lol. I'm thinking making appetizers, like egg rolls and teriyaki skewers. What were your experiences starting out? [link] [comments]  |
| Why do businesses even bother to use Facebook? Posted: 08 Jan 2019 06:52 PM PST Some businesses ONLY have Facebook and no website. I'm talking mainly restaurants / food establishments. Some people do not use Facebook at all. You can't view anything without having an account. It pops up the annoying picture and asks you to login right in the center... and greys out the whole background so you have a hard time reading anything. At least Twitter allows you to read tweets. [link] [comments]  |
| Would you work with a convicted felon? Backstory in post. Posted: 09 Jan 2019 02:18 AM PST Last year, I had a particular client. It was a normal business transaction and everything went well. A few months after that, he came to me with a business proposal and it happened to be in the realm of something I was working on by myself for about a year now and in an industry related to mine into which I've wanted to expand. He, like me, saw an opportunity and approached me about it. It turns out he's well-connected in that industry and so far we've had an excellent collaboratory relationship. He is good at the work he does, polite, quick, and very responsive and responsible. Nothing in the past six or so months has even given me remote pause regarding working with him. We've gotten major partnerships with some serious players and I could not have done it without him and his "in" with them. Everything so far has been above board and excellent. A few months ago when I was googling his name to find more information I found out that he took his children across state lines and wanted to run away with them (that's what the news article said). He was convicted and served his time. I brought this up to him and he explained that he and the children's mother were caught in a toxic relationship and he made a mistake doing this. He said he just wants his life back. I decided that I couldn't judge him based on a personal matter and that we would work together (but I'd keep my eye on him). Nothing so far has made me think that was a bad decision. Two days ago someone looked me up on my work e-mail and told me not to work with him. From the tone of the e-mail, it sounded like it may have been his ex wife. No further pertinent details were provided--(s)he simply said "Don't work with him" and provided a link to his Facebook (nothing inappropriate) and let me know where he is living now (but I already know this). What should I do? [link] [comments]  |
| Doing commercial cleaning business with large corporations [update] Posted: 09 Jan 2019 01:42 AM PST A couple days ago I posted (https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/ad446j/doing_business_with_large_corporations/) about a large hotel chain food / drinks manager who responded to a cold email from my commercial cleaning company, he was asking for my pricing and scope of work. I received a lot of good feedback on the post and through messages, for example 1) Make a dope slideshow of my company and what we offer (with work samples) 2) Drop by or call, rather than just email respond (even if you just talk to an admin assistant, that could be good progress). 3) Say nothing stupid to eliminate me 4) Have a niche / differentiation factor 5) Demonstrate how I can solve problems 6) Maybe don't send an hourly estimate (that might eliminate me), even if they asked for pricing So, I took all this advice and: 1) Made a slideshow incorporating y'alls advice. Here is the pitchdeck if you want to provide feedback: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Nmr8AGduxMbUWs3rkJuQb7RQ056r9fCYQ8YEctC009Q/edit?usp=sharing 2) Am thinking of going in directly and ask to speak to the manager, and try to pitch him (any suggestions on this, I will mainly try not to be too hungry/ desperate, rather be more laid back and make the conversational more salesy rather than personal). If I can't meet with the manager, talk to admin assistant, provide her with pitch deck, and send him follow up email. Thoughts on this? In the past I would have just responded with a salesy email and then not gotten a response, so I am hoping this post will help me grow my and improve my business skills. Thanks for the help so far, hopefully in return these posts provide a sort of insight into commercial cleaning / contracts. Edit: Someone PMd me saying he could take a look at my site and offer tips for improvement for free. This was pretty appealing to me because he could uncover problem areas, and then if I thought his suggestions were actually good and of value, I could purchase whatever hes going to sell me, with confidence. I am thinking I could employ a similar strategy when I meet with the hotel manager, rather than just selling him all my services, I can offer a walkthrough where I'll point out areas that could use imrovement (that maybe he himself wasn't able to notice). I think this might be more effective than a straight sales pitch [link] [comments]  |
| TurboTax and Quickbooks as W2 employee and sole proprietor Posted: 08 Jan 2019 10:27 AM PST Forgive me if this question has been answered, but I have not been able to find the clear-cut way to go about this: I am a W2 full time employee by day, and as of 2018 year, sole proprietor by night. Each year I file a standard W2 tax return, single income with TurboTax and all is well with the world. Since this past year I have gone into the sole proprietorship and began using Quickbooks to keep everything on track. I have received a notification from QB that quarterly taxes for the side business will be due soon. But everything I read tells me that my side income should be filed with my standard yearly tax return, once per year using Schedule C form. My question is: Do I ignore the QB notification, and simply use the QB data when filling out my standard tax returns for this year? Overall I just want to make sure I'm filing the right returns, at the right time, while minimizing the amounts owed (For what it's worth, I made over $400 this year but with expenses I'm effectively netting $0 income from the side business due to expenses) Thanks for your time and input [link] [comments]  |
| Question about replying after hours Posted: 08 Jan 2019 08:55 PM PST Hi, I recently launched my local delivery business and thankfully I have been getting orders. Something that I've begun to consider is replying to inquiries during closed hours. I have my hours listed as 9am-5pm on yelp and all social media. However, some customers have messaged me after hours. The first time was on new years at midnight, my customer asked if I could deliver the product and I just didn't reply, but I did reply first thing in the morning. Now today it's 9pm and a customer placed a big order and specified that anytime is fine for drop off. (I will be delivering to him first thing tomorrow) He then proceeded to suggest that I start selling parts (great idea) for the product I sell. It seems kinda common sense to just not reply if my business is closed at 5pm, but part of me wants to reply and give that above and beyond customer service. Is there any tips? Should I just not reply? This is my first business so I'm still learning a lot of things, I'd appreciate any help. [link] [comments]  |
| Newsprinting agency asking for $1000 more Posted: 09 Jan 2019 12:36 AM PST Hey guys before we start I am not the owner of the business in need of advice. To begin with, my parents developed a company which produces weekly newspaper dedicated towards Koreans in Australia. Their company has been going well making a weekly income of around $2500AUD tax included. However, as we do not physically print the papers, the printing company located in our channel has demanded to increase the printing costs by $1000AUD when it previously was around $2000AUD. Logically they have looked around for other printing companies, however their current company has managed to purchase all printing companies within the channel. Thus having complete control on the rates and pricing. What should they do? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 08:15 AM PST Anybody else having trouble obtaining an EIN number in the USA with the partial government shutdown? If so, how are you handling it? Are there any alternatives? [link] [comments]  |
| Register as LLC or Corp? For essentially a sole proprietor in CA Posted: 08 Jan 2019 10:10 PM PST I have been recommended by almost everyone that when it comes time for taxes i should be opting to be taxed as an S-Corp. But actually registering the business as and LLC or Corp. answers have been kinda wishy washy with no solid reason to go one way or the other. Registering an LLC may be ever so slightly easier but what is essentially a one time setup process, I don't care if there is an extra form or 2. Maintaining yearly board meeting minutes, not a big deal either. Something I'm missing? [link] [comments]  |
| Starting Small Business, will credit checks make this difficult? Posted: 08 Jan 2019 09:50 PM PST Looking to start a business and would like some input on funding startup. I have 20k in savings to use as a downpayment on a $180k piece of equipment to be financed. I also plan to use a $30k heloc for working capital, and want to get a credit card for the cashback benefits. Ive been told by the financial institution handling the financing that with my credit score (710) I'll have no problem there, but Im concerned the hard pulls for the heloc and CC will bring my score down to where I wont qualify for the financing. Any opinions? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 11:14 AM PST Looking to do something along these lines. Any suggestions on how to do this sort of thing? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 04:22 PM PST Hello, My family currently runs a salon with no active marketing. The brand identity is very small, but I see a lot of potential upside to the business due to location and other various factors. Prices are about ~40% cheaper than industry standards, but quality is basically the same. My biggest question is: if I get a website, get social media up, and run facebook ads, how will the potential new customers that we gained react when we do decide to rebrand and bring our cost closer to that of our competitors? Would it be better to completely wait till the "rebrand" before running these ads? In this time of the year, we are only at 60-70% capacity till summer. Perhaps should we gain customers now, when summer comes completely rebrand so that supply and demand meet an equilibrium? There is also a possibility of too much demand at this price level if we do marketing now. It's more of a soft rebrand than anything. We will try to put forth more value for customers when increasing prices, but not much will change besides some interior design and other features. We are just facing a problem where we are charging too little, and I am having trouble figuring out a way so as to increase the price without losing too many customers. I appreciate the help, Thank you [link] [comments]  |
| retail/bar lease forms, starting point? Posted: 08 Jan 2019 06:54 PM PST got a bar, own the RE, thinking of selling the biz and renting out the space. does anyone have any good links for starting to work up a lease? and does anyone know if "triple net" leases are fairly common in this industry? thanks, have a drink on me! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 04:51 AM PST Hello everyone, could you pass on some tips to a person who is getting started and wants to open their own business? Forgive any mistake, English is not my native language. [link] [comments]  |
| Product Photography and Video Service Company - Gaining Clients and Starting Posted: 08 Jan 2019 10:44 AM PST Hey everyone, I'm starting a company that is dedicated to product photography and videography. In order to be transparent, I'm writing this to: help expand on my idea with the help of others, gain insight from potential clients (anyone here that sells on Amazon/Shopify/eBay), outline my experience/skills/knowledge. Background: I began photography in high school and throughout college I primarily shot portraiture, weddings, with the occasional corporate event/product shoot. While the pay for weddings was nice, I didn't like the nature of that business. I moved and began free lancing product photography and eventually picked up a job where our main client was an international glasses, and an extremely well known footwear company. A few thousand product photos later I moved jobs to help manage an individual owner's multiple eBay/Amazon/Shopify stores. The main responsibilities were inventory, product sourcing, and the majority of my day was spent shooting and editing photos for our listings. For reasons unimportant I've recently moved back home and I am wanting to pursue this professionally as a personal start up that I own. My main concern is finding clients, I've signed up for Fiverr, however I know that is not going to be a scalable or viable long term solution. TLDR; 99% of income from 2013-2019 has been photography. 70% has involved product photography. Experience/Skills/Knowledge (A bit outlined in the paragraph above, but to elaborate more):
Questions I Have: Could anyone suggest getting traffic to my website or fiverr or just to cut to the chase: how I can find/bring leads to my business? Opinions or things you would change/like to see on my website? Is there a better option than following/liking/dming small businesses on Instagram? If anyone here has any tips, ideas, or advice for the services I offer or has any questions regarding please don't hesitate to comment or DM me. If your business is in need of product photography or videography I'll gladly provide my services to anyone here for an extremely generous discount. Website: https://www.360fullview.com/ Please note, the reason I don't have many samples and no samples of videos is because I can't use content I provided from previous jobs for legal purposes. Thank you for reading, and sorry for the long post. TLDR; Starting a product photo/video company. Looking for tips on finding clients and pitching my services, also if anyone here is looking for a digital media option I would love to offer that to you for an obviously discounted price. [link] [comments]  |
| UK based charity donation question Posted: 08 Jan 2019 12:18 PM PST Hi, Companies that donate a certain percentage of a product sales to charity, whats the easiest way of doing this? Do you seperate that percentage of each sale aside and then donate it all together before your tax return is due? Do you donate more frequently than annually? Many thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 09:20 AM PST My husband and I are both 28 and have never owned a business before. We're very simple people though and love the idea of working together in this environment. We've worked together before and honestly, we compliment each other well. He's much more into the books, money, and marketing, while I'm all about customer service, people, marketing (as well), and running things day to day. We also are very simple people and don't need a whole lot in terms of money, so we're not looking to build an empire but rather a good living doing what we love. And if we could live above the shop, that'd be a dream come true haha. Not 100% necessary, but would be a great addition. We plan to start small and just do coffee/tea/drinks and then maybe expand to some basic foods. Anyway, we have no idea how to get started. I mean, he has a better understanding of it, but I'm clueless. I wanted to see if there were any tips or things we should look out for, what we should expect, and what sort of living we could make. What are even the first steps?? We're living in Virginia right now and want to open a shop in Michigan closer to our family, so he was planning on getting out there sooner rather than later to find a job and get this place started. I was going to stay in Virginia and keep my job for a few months so we have at least one good income while we get it off the ground. He's able to stay at families and friends while he gets this going, and I plan to stay at a friends. Are we crazy? Any advice on how to get this started? Thank you!! [link] [comments]  |
| Should I care what my vehicle looks like when looking for new clients? Posted: 08 Jan 2019 02:09 PM PST Hello All! I've been working in IT for 13 years now, doing my own business on the side. The work I currently have is mainly from co-worker referrals and personal connections. I've made the leap of faith to doing this fill time (IT consulting, MSP). I drive a 95 Geo Metro, I've installed a new motor and trans so it runs amazing with great MPG. The body is a bit rough being what it is, and me purchasing cheap second hand. Should I be concerned driving this to go on sales calls, and door to door business cold calling? Thanks for your opinions! [link] [comments]  |
| Question on paying mobile employees Posted: 08 Jan 2019 01:52 PM PST I'm starting a residential cleaning business and have a question on paying team members. We have a 3 person team and everybody meets at the same pickup point each day. There is one driver and the driver uses their own vehicle which is also paid a mileage reimbursement for using their own vehicle. I'd prefer the time clock to start when they get to the job site rather than starting the clock at the pickup point because I feel employees might take more time in between jobs driving, taking the long way, stopping in between etc. and taking their time because the time clock is running. Rather than being paid from the time of reaching each job site. Is that ok? Or is there any possible legal matter that would say that if they are being paid hourly that the time clock must start at the pickup point or while they are driving to the jobs could that be considered they are still on company time in between jobs and should be compensated for that as well? Or could I set my own different rate for being on the clock in between jobs? Employees are paid hourly + tips if it makes any difference. About the the driver being paid mileage reimbursement is that something that can be negotiated with the drivers or does it have to go by a set amount IE: IRS mileage reimbursement? Thanks in advance [link] [comments]  |
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