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    Wantrepreneur Wednesday! - (January 02, 2019) Entrepreneur

    January 02, 2019

    Wantrepreneur Wednesday! - (January 02, 2019) Entrepreneur

    Wantrepreneur Wednesday! - (January 02, 2019)

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 05:05 AM PST

    Please use this thread to ask any wantrapreneur questions.

    We do this to not overflow the subreddit with wantrapreneur 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.

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    $600K in 8 months selling eucalyptus sheets.

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 09:15 AM PST

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

    Today's interview is with Colin McIntosh of Sheets & Giggles, a brand that sells eucalyptus bedding.

    Some stats:

    • Product: Eucalyptus bedding.
    • Revenue/mo: $76,000
    • Started: May 2018
    • Location: Denver, CO
    • Founders: 1
    • Employees: 4

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

    I'm Colin McIntosh, Founder & CEO of Sheets & Giggles, a pun-based, eco-friendly bedding brand that launched in May 2018 on Indiegogo with our first product: lyocell bed sheets made from eucalyptus trees.

    Our bedding is softer than cotton, more breathable, and more moisture-wicking, and it also uses up to 95% less water than cotton sheets to make. (Major trade-off: it's generally more expensive than cotton, and you have to take better care of it [no bleach, cold wash, low heat, etc.].)

    In our first 6 months in business, we received over 6,000 orders and nearly half a million dollars in revenue, and in September we won first place at Denver Startup Week 2018. In October, we began shipping preorders and got about 4,500 out the door, and we're still catching up with demand! Nearly ⅘ of our customers are women, and more than half are in their 20s and 30s.

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

    From 2015 - 2017 I ran biz dev at a Techstars-backed wearable tech startup in Denver. We raised a $3M seed round, grew to a full-time team of 25, and were in most major retailers in the US… and then it all abruptly ended in September 2017. It was pretty devastating, and I can't really go into the reasons why it ended, but leaving retail partners at the altar without holiday inventory was particularly upsetting for me as the partner lead.

    After that experience, I decided that the timing was about as good as it was going to get for me to found a company: I had a great CO network, had just been through Techstars, was on the founding team of a company that launched two crowdfunded physical products at nationwide retail, and had built a skill set in marketing and distributing physical products. That said, I didn't have much money in my bank account (working at startups will do that to you), and I didn't want to raise VC right off the bat, so I knew I had to do a crowdfunding campaign.

    My criteria for a new business

    I decided that I needed my own physical product brand to sell, and I started by listing the criteria for my new company. I wanted:

    • A large commodities market (so I didn't have to build a category out of thin air), but one that I could differentiate meaningfully in.

    • A highly fragmented market with no clear leader

    • A market with no brand loyalty or affinity

    • A market with little brand differentiation

    • A product that was traditionally physical retail that I could help bring online with a DTC model

    • A product with a low-complexity supply chain (i.e., no electronics or software components)

    The domain

    I really believe that a good brand name and .com can make or break a company, so I looked through all the domains I owned to see if anything matched. I owned SheetsGiggles.com, and I thought "Does bed sheets fit?" and it did, almost perfectly.

    (Side note – I owned the domain because in the summer of 2017 I was watching War Dogs, and Miles Teller's character tries to sell bed sheets to retirement homes that all reject his product. I couldn't believe that his character didn't do market research and validation before buying all that inventory, so I told my girlfriend to pause the movie so I could write a full business plan for a bed sheets company named Sheets & Giggles, and I bought the domain that night. She and I have since broken up because, well, yeah… who does that.)

    In short, I built a business model I felt very passionately about, and then designed a product that I thought plugged nicely into that model.

    Validating the product

    In February, I then validated that people would actually pay a profitable price by initially running a few hundred bucks worth of Facebook ads to a landing page I built with Kickoff Labs and Shopify. (Link is to an old page that's still the same, though the CTA changed after April to funnel traffic to the Indiegogo vs email capture.)

    With the help of a crowdfunding agency I trusted, I targeted crowdfunding lookalike audiences, told people the expected price and launch date on Indiegogo, explained the product with some punny copy, laid out a few fun pictures we had taken at a photoshoot that cost us $500, and asked for their email.

    To this day I'm still a little shocked, but 46% of people gave us their emails during this time, and we collected over 11,000 emails from interested buyers in just 8 weeks.

    We also used this prep time ahead of the crowdfund to lock down a manufacturer and send them initial designs and order quantities, and on May 1 we launched on Indiegogo with nearly 500 customers on day 1 and $45,000 in day 1 funding (on a $25k goal).

    Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing the product.

    Because I didn't have any textile experience, I had to hire outside consultants to help me design, develop, and test our products.

    I gave them my high-level criteria (lyocell for sustainability, has to be super soft, has to be premium, must be durable, must be made by a socially conscious manufacturer, etc.), and they created my tech packs and other designs for me.

    We sourced our manufacturer at market week in NYC in March 2018, and we left with a handshake agreement with an Indian company who hit all our criteria more so than anyone else. I had a blast visiting them to inspect production in June (fun fact: India is hot in June). We had massive fabric rejections due to poor quality in our first production runs, which lowered our overall sales potential for the year and set our ship date back, but we had to make sure our product was perfect.

    The unboxing experience

    I also had a particular vision for our packaging centered around one goal: because we were a DTC company and wouldn't do physical retail in year 1, we needed to focus entirely on an incredible unboxing experience that made the product feel as premium as possible.

    Outside: a white box, nice wax coating, logo front and center with no other copy, easy to open, nice and sturdy.

    Inside: make people smile from the get-go, have a social call-to-action, include free extra surprises (a knapsack that wraps the sheets and an eye mask), put funny copy all over the place, and add a donation bag that people could use to donate their now-defunct cotton sheets (sheets & blankets are the #2-most-requested item at shelters behind socks).

    Describe the process of launching the business.

    We founded S&G in October 2017, but we started work in earnest on January 2, 2018. I actually have a longer blog post on our site from Week 2 about what we did from October - January.

    We spent our first 3-4 months building a brand identity map, getting the bare bones website set up, getting a logo finalized, refining our messaging, and setting goals for "what success looks like."

    I also hired a part-time intern and a marketing agency that would help with our crowdfunding campaign (that's now my agency of record), and I hired a PR agent in Denver that I knew through the grapevine.

    I brought on a small 2-person product team to design the products I had envisioned, and in March we found and signed our manufacturer in NYC at Market Week (met with a bunch of manufacturers for interviews, described what we needed, got to know people, sampled different fabrics, and left with a handshake deal).

    In February, we did our first photo shoots, and in March we did a video shoot in preparation of our 30-day Indiegogo that was planned for May 1. Luckily I knew people locally in Denver that I could ask for photography and videography help, and all in all we spent about $3,000 making our initial collateral for the Indiegogo.

    We had a single set of white sheets that we used for all our lifestyle and product shots, and because I'm an idiot I didn't even wash them or iron them, so we've got visible creases in all the pictures that we use to this day :p

    Prepping for crowdfunding campaign

    We budgeted 10 weeks to get ready for our Indiegogo (that's a must), and we spent that time running Facebook ads to landing pages that were set up for email capture.

    Working backwards from a $100K goal and an estimated $100 average backer value, we knew we needed 1,000 backers, and we knew that we had to get about 30% of those (300) in the first 24 hours to be successful.

    Assuming a 3% conversion on our email list, that meant we had to get 10,000 emails to ensure 300 day 1 customers. I budgeted $1 - $2 per email lead, and I hoped to convert at a high enough rate to come in under that (ended up being $0.89 per lead).

    Building our email lists

    During this prep time, we used Kickoff Labs for our landing page software, and we ran a social sharing competition so people would share our landing pages organically as well (we got about 15% of our leads organically).

    We ran about 50 different ad variants to about 12 different landing pages to find out what converted the best (different images, headers, subheaders, text, value props, calls-to-action, layouts, etc.), and then we picked the best combo of 4 ads and 2 landing pages that converted best.

    We ended up capturing 11,000 emails in 10 weeks at about 46% conversion, which was insane – that's when I knew we were on to something.

    Building hype and the launch

    We sent out one email per month to our list to keep them engaged, got customer feedback in the form of surveys (which colors to they want, most popular sizes, etc.), and that informed which colors and sizes we chose to make for our launch (had to hone in on 25 SKUs tops to ensure limited logistical complexity).

    Ahead of May 1, we sent out "72 hours" and "night before emails," and on May 1 we ended up raising $45,000 on our first day from over 400 backers! (We also did a ton of product development and testing / approvals, designed and approved packaging, placed our first PO in April with a deposit to our manufacturer, and spent time planning out the cadence of our Indiegogo communication and marketing.)

    In June I traveled to India to inspect production and our facilities, and I made sure the production quality and pace was what we needed to succeed. Love our Indian partners.

    We began shipping thousands of preorders on October 1 (pretty much all 5-star reviews!), and now we're just holding on for dear life through the holidays.

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

    Social media engagement

    I think the single best thing we do to drive conversion is answer all Facebook comments and messages within minutes. I have the Pages Manager app on my phone (it's terrible but it at least works), and when people comment on our ads we respond immediately to almost every single comment with on-brand straightforward answers, questions, jokes, pics, gifs, etc.

    I honestly think that some people are deciding to buy before they ever click on our ads based on our answers to questions and interaction with commenters.

    A lot of people (especially customer service folks) don't understand that you're not just responding to the person who asked; you're writing marketing language to convert the thousands of people who will read the comments before clicking.

    SEO

    We have about 50-50 paid/organic traffic right now. On the SEO side, we've worked to become the #1 result for "eucalyptus sheets" (ahead of Bed Bath, even) and top 5 for "lyocell sheets," which are both small but very targeted organic search queries. Good steady revenue flows.

    We also have a ton of word of mouth with our customers and are starting a referral program that gives people 10% cash back for sales they refer when they share S&G with others and $10 off for their friends that use their link. (It's already been used by large media outlets with good success.)

    Only funny emails

    We also almost never email our list of customers or broader email list. If we email people (maybe once a month), it's something objectively funny that will make them laugh (and may not even have a CTA), or it's worth their while in the form of a targeted sale. (I.e., "Hey you love your sheets, did you know they also make a sheety gift?")

    Purple Friday

    Our most successful day post-Indiegogo has been Purple Friday (PF), which we did on 11/16 (Friday before Black Friday). We got over $22K in sales in one day, and to accomplish that we ran a 30% off sale (normally 15% off for preorders) and pushed 24-hour ads to Facebook to spread the word to our followers, general audiences, existing customers, and prior site visitors.

    We also sent out an email about PF to our existing customers that focused on giving the gift of S&G to someone eco-conscious in their life. This strategy allowed us to preemptively tap into holiday purchases without competing with everyone's Black Friday (BF) sales; we were able to elevate our brand "above" the insanity of BF; and we were still able to double dip and participate in Black Friday and Cyber Monday because of the natural increase in conversion on those days (but we didn't send out emails about those days).

    Customer service

    We bend over backwards for customer service; I literally put my cell phone on the contact page and get about 10 calls a day.

    • Defects? Free replacement.

    • Delayed shipment? Amazon gift card.

    • Follow us on Twitter / Insta / FB? You're gonna get free money, free pizza, and free sheet.

    Reviews

    And of course, the social proof that comes from reviews has been crucial.

    In my opinion, our reviews are responsible for upping our conversion rate from 4% in August (no reviews, pure preorder) to 5% in October (first reviews) to 6% in November (more reviews).

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

    We operate profitably, and in 2018 we'll grow at a 25% compound monthly growth rate (60% from last month).

    We'll probably end the year at about $600K in revenue (constrained by inventory), with 65% gross margins and about 10% net margins when it's all said and done.

    Our cost of acquisition is under $30 for the year, we're converting at over 5% on SheetsGiggles.com right now, and 100% of our sales come through the site.

    Average initial cart values are about $140, and lifetime values should be > $1000 if we play our cards right (38% of Americans buy new sheets every year).

    Our day-to-day operations revolve around production management, customer service, digital marketing, website improvements, content creation, fundraising, and logistics.

    Next year, we'll expand our product lines to new sizes (Twin, Split King), add new colors (red, green, beige), and add our first non-bedding product: a eucalyptus lyocell throw blanket. We also plan to dip our toes into international sales next year with the UK, Australia, and Canada, and likely the EU too (gotta start translating the pun somehow).

    Short term, I start paying myself in December (sheet yeah, only took a full year...), and next year we plan to grow 4-5x in revenue. To accomplish that, we'll expand to a couple new channels without going overboard or doing physical retail (Amazon in January, and HSN or QVC would be my Q3/4 target).

    I can talk for hours about why we're not doing physical retail. Main reasons:

    • Their margin share requirements for this category are ~40-60%, which means our "cost of acquisition" for that channel will at least be the margin cost, which is 2x our standard CAC.

    • For little-known brands that don't "sell themselves," merchandising costs add up super quick. I.e., if you're a new company and need to educate people on your product to sell through, you need to spend money on displays, which can wind up being hundreds of dollars per store. If you're in 1000 stores and you're merchandising correctly, you'll spend over $100,000 before you sell a single unit.

    • You need to train sales associates to talk about a product well, which costs money and will give you little long-term ROI (high turnover in sales associates). I can't tell you how many bedding stores I've walked into and asked questions about competitors' brands, only to be given totally incorrect information with poor sales efforts (I'm weird and do this too often).

    • Your packaging needs to "sell" the product in person, or it at least needs to grab someone's attention and make them stop. Ours is a clean white box with our brand name on it; it would be DOA at retail until we revamp it.

    • Return policies can cripple a startup. If we sold 50 units into 100 stores on Nov. 1, that's 5,000 units and hundreds of thousands of dollars, right? Nice. Except if on Jan. 1 each store still has 25 units on hand, those 2,500 units are coming right back to you, and you better have kept half the money you from that PO in escrow. Otherwise, you're cooked. (And if you think you can negotiate away return rights, they'll just dump your remaining inventory on Amazon, stealing the buy box away from you and harming your brand in the process.)

    • Philosophically, instead of rushing into retail headfirst, I think it's strategically wiser to spend a few years building a well-known brand that will sell itself at retail and that will give you more supplier power when negotiating with retailers.

    As for what long-term success looks like, I envision storming the last Bed Bath & Beyond in a sort of Helms-Deep-style raid.

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

    Habit: I always try to have an action bias, and I try to focus on getting items done that "unlock" my team members' work. If someone needs me to write some copy that allows them to do 4 hours of work, I'll take care of that first thing in the AM. Or, if someone needs to be trained on logistics software to do customer service, I know my life will be made easier if I train them ahead of tackling my must-do's for the day.

    Lesson: We should have been a C-Corp from day 1 (we were an LLC at first). Corporate transitions cost attorney fees.

    Unforeseen problem: Political season drives up the cost of Facebook ads big time (50% increase).

    Lesson: Don't hire people you know are assholes just because you need someone to do the job. Suffer and do it yourself, or delay the launch, but don't hire assholes. It'll hurt you more in the long run.

    Lesson: You get lonely, and personal relationships will suffer. Make time for family; why even start a business if you can't spend time with important people in your life?

    Good decision: Stay heads down on building a business that's revenue-positive and growing, and investment will come to you.

    What platform/tools do you use for your business?

    Google Sheets is my everything; I obsessively update my pro forma before I go to bed every night with daily numbers.

    Shopify is an amazing platform and I love that they calculate and collect local sales tax for you.

    Bold Cashier + Bold Upsell are the best apps on Shopify for upselling after someone has already made a purchase, which is incredibly valuable (about 20% of people add something else to their cart after they've already given you money, which increases average cart values).

    I use Judge.me's Shopify app for my product reviews – best cheap app by far and allows people to post verified reviews, pics, videos, edit reviews, etc.

    Hypervisual Page Builder is the perfect Shopify app for building out landing pages that convert.

    Streak is great – I track leads (out of stock requests, etc.) all from Streak.

    Lastpass for password management.

    Slack for team comms.

    MailChimp for email.

    My logistics software… I would not recommend and we're switching. Open to suggestions.

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

    It's embarrassing, but I don't really read books at this point. I hate that I've become this person who just works when I'm awake, and I need to make time to read more. I do love the Dan Le Batard Show podcast – it keeps me up to date on sports and pop culture and is my lifeline back to Miami, where I'm from.

    Rand Fishkin did a 40-minute talk in September of this year that was stellar and that I think is a must watch for someone starting a business. He's learned a lot the hard way, and you can almost hear the desperation in his voice basically telling you "learn from my mistakes."

    The best thing I ever heard from him is something like "If you make $10M in revenue, you hear crickets. If you raise $10M, your family comes out the woodwork, your friends trip over themselves to congratulate you, your team throws you a party, you become the toast of the town, TechCrunch writes an article about you. This is how we train people to raise money and not make money."

    My best resource has been and continues to be the Techstars network (went through Techstars in 2015 in Boulder). I'm on the Colorado Techstars alumni board and love that I have access to the network for mentorship, investment, amplification, and recruitment.

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

    My #1 thing is: build a business model first, not a product. So many entrepreneurs spend time and money (lots of time and lots of money) building a solution for a problem they perceive without ever validating that it's a viable business.

    Make sure you feel passionately sure that the business model is sound – sustainable margins, strong product-market fit, engaged potential buyers, and long-term growth potential.

    Spend a few hundred bucks on Facebook ads to a landing page that describes what you're building – are people giving you their email to lock in to the Kickstarter price? No? Then you have to go back to the drawing board before you spend more money and figure out if your value prop isn't good enough, if the product vision needs improvement, if your proposed price is too high, or if your marketing just sucks. The last thing you want to do is to spend $100,000 building something over a year of your life and then find out nobody wants it.

    I genuinely think that people do the opposite of this because when you work on a product, no one can tell you no. In your mind's eye, it's going to be a huge success, and you can stay heads down on building it. You can envision a perfect future. The moment you begin selling and someone tells you no, that rejection stings worse than anything in the world, so I think people avoid that inflection point (sales) for as long as possible to avoid possible rejection while they work on building the "perfect" MVP.

    Going headfirst into sales / gathering leads can actually really help you, though. You'll gather a user base who can give you feedback on how they want you to build the product, and more importantly you can go to an investor and say, "I have 500 leads signed up who will give me money if I can give them this thing. Give me money to build this thing." It's a much stronger value prop than "I want to build this thing and here's why it makes sense," and it doesn't cost you that much to do (costs far less than product development).

    Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

    Yes, I'm hiring in marketing (someone who can do everything including creative, copywriting, and digital), supply chain management, logistics (inventory management, international freight, and domestic shipping), and customer care.

    Where can we go to learn more?

    SheetsGiggles.com or @SheetsGiggles anywhere on social, including /u/SheetsGiggles on Reddit. (I have a weirdly viral post on resumes on Reddit from back in February.)

    My email is colin@sheetsgiggles.com if anyone wants to drop me a line (787 unread and counting… sorry if I don't get back right away!).

    Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos.

    submitted by /u/youngrichntasteless
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    Had our first sale today. Feel f*cking awesome

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 01:14 AM PST

    Just wanted to share it with yall

    submitted by /u/Terjupi
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    " You have 1 mind, and 1 body. Protect them!" -Warren Buffet ��

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 05:51 AM PST

    I was in just watching a documentary on the struggles of Warren Buffet and his family growing up. I discovered a lot of things I had no idea he had been through as well! What have you learned from him?

    submitted by /u/MusketeerInc
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    How do entrepreneurs overcome information overload?

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 08:23 AM PST

    I find absorbing a lot of information both a positive and a negative. I am super excited about my business so I read a lot about my industry and come up with all kinds of ideas which is great. However, I also have trouble falling asleep at night because I can't stop thinking about my progress and goals.

    It's super exciting checking analytics and revenue numbers and seeing progress, and I find myself checking these multiple times per day. This article reinforces for me the idea that it's super important to consume good information. Particularly with an online business there is so so much information to deal with...

    How do you guys as entrepreneurs deal with all the information you encounter while staying focused on your goals and not distracted by it?

    submitted by /u/Thepropertydude
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    Don't race to the bottom

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 10:16 AM PST

    I know the frustration. Price shoppers are killing me. Craigslisters are underbidding me. I can't hire good help and make any money.

    Is your service a commodity? People don't care about the quality because its all the same? Just get it to me?

    I bet it isn't. I bet there is a big difference in the price people are willing to pay the craigslisters vs the real professionals.

    Differentiate yourself with a great website. Professional communication on the phone and by email. Online payment methods. Recurring billing. An online portal where customers can get updates on your work and see photos and professional invoices. All of this is available out of the box with Jobber and others. Have your employees wear a nice polo instead of a cut off t-shirt.

    Offer your service quicker. Show up same day or within 2 hours. On demand is ruling now and customers are willing to pay a premium.

    Simplify your tasks so you can hire average employees and they can deliver your service consistently with minimal training.

    Don't race to the bottom. Stand out. Demand a higher price. Find the customers who are willing to pay your price and forget the rest of them.

    submitted by /u/sweatystartup
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    My business partner is useless

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 01:02 PM PST

    Long story short: taught him everything I know about about seo, smm, and digital marketing. Wanted to partner with him because I thought he was good at selling to people. He constantly says he is "working" and cold calling people, emailing people etc (for local digital marketing agency). But whenever I ask him to show me results or proof nothing is there. He's blown 3 big deals with 3 potential clients; messed up our prices constantly, told clients fabricated lies etc. He always has excuses and bullshit and its extremely annoying. He's my friend but I don't know how to tell him he actually needs to not bullshit me because i can see right through it. He demands 50% of the profit while I do literally all of the technical work; and i've closed all of "our" clients by myself. He says 50% will "motivate" him to work harder. Right now it seems like he's just taking my money. Anyone ever had a similar situation? Recommendations?

    submitted by /u/Rivengoditachi
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    How do people start off an Internet (or any kind of ) business?

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 12:40 PM PST

    Hi,

    ​

    I am a 23 yo young professional living in Canada. I have a 3 year advanced college diploma and working in a large Canadian retail company as a Supply Chain Analyst. It is a job I enjoy and it pays fairly well, however, I really feel like I am missing something important in my life - my own business. I am searching for numerous videos and articles online on how to start and what do you need to start your own (online) business, and I really feel like I am capable of becoming an entrepreneur sometime, however, there is some strong barrier between me and the world of entrepreneurship.

    They say (successful entrepreneurs and online articles) that the most important thins in starting off a business is a true passion in life alongside with a hard work.... Basically that means turning one of your hobbies into a profitable business. My biggest hobby right now is electronic music, and I enjoy listening to it, learning about it, mixing, creating various music libraries, organizing, and even producing ( some basic level so far). However, I do not see any ways it would become a business or profitable thing as I am not a musician and never played a single instrument.... considering how many people out there who learnt how to play piano/guitar/flute/violin since like the age of 5, I stand no chance to become a real producer considering that I have a full time career in a completely unrelated field.

    Are there any ways to identify my true passion or search for a way on how to learn about starting a business? My real goal is to keep my daily job and have some small business that would be making me some part-time income. Yeah I sound like a complete dummy, but I know that there are people who work for a company and make some extra money from their businesses.

    ​

    Anyone can share knowledge/experience?

    submitted by /u/KLVLV
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    What are your thoughts on the .io domain extension?

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 01:40 PM PST

    We recently purchased our Domain in .io, having decided that it's not worth yet investing a large sum of money in the .com domain.

    I know of .io SAAS companies that make millions of dollars per month, but what do you guys think?

    My thought is like, as long as the software is good, .io is cool and futuristic sounding, not something shit like .store and if it makes money, purchasing a .com is pretty easy in the future.

    submitted by /u/bigboyparpa
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    phone solutions for a new business

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 09:21 AM PST

    Hello,

    budding entrepreneur here. I was wondering if the community had any input for phone solutions for a new business. Like many people starting out, I am the sole employee. I answer my own phone. I also dont have an office yet, so its a cell phone. My current number is not local. So I guess my question is, what do people like me do about their phone? Id like a local number to put on my website and for people to call. At some point I will get a virtual assistant, so I would need to be able to forward the number. I also need a fax number. Anyone have any suggestions or advice?

    ​

    thanks!

    submitted by /u/cantwalkandchew
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    Instagram page building

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 06:37 AM PST

    Hi All,

    I've got a health and fitness page.

    I have quite good knowledge on the way the algorithm operates, i just want to know how to get explosive growth or if anyone could help me?
    My account is _leangeorge_

    i'm keeping my posts consistent, having a theme, hashtags and great content however i want to accelerate that growth.

    Also is it worth buying an instagram account?

    Thanks!

    ​

    submitted by /u/MadMike91
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    Has anyone had success (or failures) using Pay Per Lead/Sale services?

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 01:53 PM PST

    Outsourcing research

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 01:42 PM PST

    Do any of guys have good recommendations for services to do research? Example use cases: market research, competitor research

    submitted by /u/sunstah
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    Should I start a business? I ask myself every day if I'm passing up on an opportunity to build something from the ground up by myself, in a field I'm incredibly passionate about.

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 09:56 AM PST

    Hi r/Entrepeneur

    ​

    I'm asking for your expert advice on starting a business. I'll skip any other BS, and get to the point.

    I want to open my own business in an emerging industry. Full disclosure it is the recreational marijuana industry. No, it's not a dispensary. I've already read tons about the industry itself and what other players are doing in this space. It's a lot of information. Although I've read a lot, I discover something new every day, and it's great.

    ​

    Pertinent Information:

    Age

    23

    Education

    B.Sc Chemical Engineering

    Employed?

    Yes, full time. $52k annualized + benefits

    Savings?

    Cash - 20k

    Retirement- 22k

    Brokerage - 5k

    Assets - 3k

    Monthly Fixed Expenses

    ~ 750 (400 rent, 350 everything else)

    The (Theoretical) Business

    Without divulging too much about the business, I can say that it is in the recreational "pot" industry. It will likely take a significant sum of money to start the business and acquire the necessary licenses and certifications. I've constructed a business plan, but have yet to show anyone.

    Extra

    I'm also in the middle of interviewing with another company and potentially relocating for a ~23% raise but unsure if it will happen. Expenses will also go up.

    Bottom Line

    What does everyone think I should do? If I were to move forward, would VC be the way to fund this project? Or should I approach my (or a) bank about a small business loan? I'm lost and there's so much information and nothing is guaranteed, which is OK. It just seems like an impossible task to acquire the amount of money I'd need by myself.

    ​

    Thanks for reading.

    submitted by /u/ChE_from_VT
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    Considering selling my one-man shop sole proprietorship to a bigger company that then wants to hire me for less to do the same work. How to value the business? And is this a good idea?

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 01:36 PM PST

    Advice for starting my business Facebook page tomorrow?

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 01:35 PM PST

    It's a financial broker and I know that finances isn't a hot topic on Facebook but I'm just looking to get followers to begin with.

    Tomorrow I plan on posting a video about what we do and do a $100 giveaway to get more followers. I will promote this giveaway of course, do you think I should promote each subsequent post after that or would I be wasting my money?

    Is there anything you would do differently or any input is appreciated?

    submitted by /u/pepsichug
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    Splitting Revenue Amongst Partners

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 01:28 PM PST

    I'm starting a new online business with a partner. We will be splitting revenue 50/50. Is there a way we can set our site up so that every time someone makes a purchase, it automatically sends me half of the money and my partner the other half? We prefer to use Shopify but we can use another platform if need be. My partner is extremely adept in computer coding, so if we needed to edit our theme code to achieve this we can with no worries.

    submitted by /u/ExcludedImmortal
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    I don't want to work in CS

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 01:25 PM PST

    High school senior here. I'm applying to college now so the looming "what do you want to do with your life" is always there. Ever since I've learned about CS, I've been super interested, making projects with my friends, trying to learn as much as I can, just getting immersed in that world. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I'm pretty good, too. More than anything, I want to be super successful (duh) and start my own business, and CS is the best way to do that. It's also where the money is, and it's growth isn't slowing down anytime soon. Student tuition isn't going down and I also need some way to pay it. I've always seen myself working in CS in the future and doing something running related on the side. The title is admittedly a bit misleading as I do enjoy learning about CS and coding. However, I've realized that running is also one of my passions and I want to do something related to it in the future (coaching, research, etc.). I've always been the type of guy to think that following a passion is cliche and misguided but I don't really know haha. Not really sure what I'm asking but I figured if there's anyone that knows about following their passions, it's you guys. Sorry for the ramble lol.

    submitted by /u/JimHalpert64
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    DNSApe - Fast, simple network tools

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 01:25 PM PST

    Today we're releasing DNSApe, a free network tool for anyone that deals with websites on a daily basis. We provide the following tools at launch.

    • DNS Records - list DNS records for a domain
    • DNS Traversal - show DNS records from root, TLD, and authoritative name servers
    • DNS Cache - show DNS records from popular DNS servers
    • HTTP Headers - get HTTP headers for a domain
    • Whois - Whois lookup (we never save any lookups)
    • IP Whois - just what is sounds like...
    • RBL - troubleshoot email deliver-ability by checking if domain is listed in email reverse block lists
    • Ping - a simple ping from our server

    Future features include keyboard shortcuts, upload time calculator, subnet calculator, and other network-related tools. You can vote on features here.

    We also released a large update to our primary srvAudit application. If your IT requirements have a need to track logins and command history for Linux servers, check it out!

    We're releasing this as open source under the MIT license here soon. We're looking for feedback and suggestions, and of course contributors are welcome!

    submitted by /u/codercotton
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    What's your best tip for reaching out to a company or person to "pick their brain" or network

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 09:38 AM PST

    I remember a few short years ago when this wasn't such a bad phrase, pick your brain. But I can't think of anything better lol. But I just want to know how do you guys reach out to people to ask them questions or net work?

    I know for myself I like to work with someone -- as a designer, it's typically pretty easy but there's not always something available to help with or create, but I like doing that create trust.

    Suppose you've found someone online or a company online that you're really liking. How would you reach out to create a relationship?

    submitted by /u/yusbishyus
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    Tips to Improve Your Business Marketing

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 12:59 PM PST

    I hope the new year is going great for you all. I want to help you make 2019 the best year for you and your business with some strategies you can be using.

    Many of you are small business owners or start up entrepreneur that are just getting started or are established companies that want to move further into the digital scene but have some question about how to do it, listen up. Here are some tips to that every business owner should know and use to have a secure and successful experience online - with no cost (with some paid recommendations).

    1. Make a modern website

    Well I hate to feel like a liar right off the bat. I promised that most of these tips would be no cost but the first suggest is going to involve paying up a bit. But in my defense, I assume that many of you have a website. But I feel like it's important to express the different avenues for those who don't and those who may not be happy with what they have, as a website is an indispensable part of running a business online. It hosts your landing page, information about your business and your team, contact information, product information, testimonials, and more.

    a. Think it Through: This sounds very obvious, but many businesses don't have a website or have not updated it in years. A website it the foundation of your online presence and it is where many potential clients start or end their time looking at your business. So it's important to make your website presentable and fill it with attractive content. Think about what you want your site to accomplish, how will it facilitate your business, what are you willing to invest into it?

    b. Get a Domain - You can use Namecheap.com, Domain.com or Godaddy.com. Namecheap is usually a bit cheaper (who would have guessed) but I find Godaddy more easily accessible. There will be a few extra steps when you are transferring the name server to the host site. Godaddy requires fewer steps for this process, while Namecheap requires a bit more manual effort.

    c. Choose a host: There are many great servers: Bluehost (my preference) Hostgator, Dreamhost, and many more. All in 2018 there are so many great host servers, but it's good to know the specific features of each. I suggest doing some research about what the features the provide and choose the one that best represents the goal of your site. (Some have better customization, others offer in-house security certifications).

    d. Design your website. I highly recommend using the plugin Elementor (for WordPress) as it has full-page templates that you can customize, so if you need something that looks professional, most of the work is already done. Of course there are many tutorials online that can help you craft a completely personalized page. My favorite is this video by Tyler Moore: https://bit.ly/2r8OVUk.

    i. Side note, make sure to optimize your website for mobile devices. There are usually features to adjust layouts, text, and images for different size screens. Make sure you do this so that everything lines up and looks presentable no matter the platform your site is viewed on. For your reference tablets are 768px and mobile is 360px.

    1. Take advantage of Search Engine Optimization

    Search Engine Optimization is more art than science. Marketers, data analyst, and programmers are continuously trying to discover all the hidden mechanisms of search engine indexing systems. Sites like Google and Bing have to index billions of web pages everyday, constantly dealing with new pages, updates, and shutdowns. To manage this the use algorithms called crawlers to index and rank them, for example Google calls their crawlers 'spiders'. It is hard to say for certain what factors benefit SEO as Google, Yahoo, and Bing have only reveal some information, but we take the info we have plus extensive research and experiments to get pretty close. If you want to learn more about SEO, check out this beginners guide by Moz, https://moz.com/blog/beginners-guide-to-seo-chapter-1

    a. Keyword - One of the best and creative way to boost your search results ranking, boils doing to the types of words and phrases you use to describe your site/business. Crawlers scour your site to get an idea of what it is you offer/service you provide. But the algorithm can't read and interpret the exact meaning and contexts of the words you use. So it uses keywords, keyword density, and bids to categorize and rank your site. To make sure the crawlers understand what your site is all about, you must use keywords.

    i. Make a list: I suggest making a list of words and phrases that best describes your business. Make sure to really think about it (be as technical as possible). Then make a second list about what words, phrases, and questions you think the average person would use to look up your business or a problem your service resolves. This distinction is important because the most technical and accurate terms may actually hurt your results and rankings, as most people do not use them. An example could be a car repair shop promoting a sale on their recarbonation of the exhaust valve (not sure if this is actually a thing), but most people would just look up exhaust tune up.

    ii. Find the perfect blend: Take your list and try to merge the words and phrases together, mix and match, and replace them. I suggest coming up with many different slogans and pages descriptions then having a less savvy friend read it. Ask them 'does this make sense to you?' 'Does this accurately describe the service in your mind?' Use their responses to adjust your keyword choice.

    iii. There are tools you can use that give you suggestions on keywords, bidding cost, and traffic. Some of the best are SEMrush, Google Keyword planner, and Soovle, just to name a few.

    iv. Word Count - a good rule of thumb is to have at least 300-500 words on every page, whether they be on display or within the metadata of the page. Warning: don't try to cheat the system by adding invisible text for greater keyword density, bots and crawlers are designed to see and penalize this.

    1. A side note for this would be making sure you use proper grammar and spelling. The crawlers only can index. Although this is not confirmed it makes sense. If you you are offering a Spa service but you mistakenly type sap multiple times, the crawlers will improperly categorize those keywords and may even your entire site (i don't know what kind of weirdo is looking for sap online but i don't want anything to do with them).

    b. Backlinks - Thought by many to be the most important factor in SEO ranking should definitely be a top priority. Backlinks are links to your website on other pages, so if your website and business are featured on a popular website or blog and link to your site, Search Engines will rank you more favorably. A great way to do this is network with other established website, this could be a feature from a news source or blog, or collaborating with another company and have them give you credit. Another great way to get backlinks is to create a free display of your talents, offer it for the public to use, and ask for credit and a link to be used to your site. This can be anything, for example a detailed, easy to understand graphic of how to change a tire can be used by Driver Ed site or social media page for young people, which can link back to a mechanic shop, thereby increase traffic and reputation. As long as you are creative, there is some way to get your business out there.

    c. Speed: Your pages speed not only helps with viewer satisfaction (no one like surfing a site that takes forever to load), but it also make helps search engines crawlers index your site faster which they will remember, and rank you higher. You can think of the crawlers as workers and the have to index as many sites and pages before they clock out, the longer your site, the longer it takes them to do their job. You can get a faster website by mitigating extra, unneeded features like images, videos, and plug-ins. Another way to increase speed is by adding the plug-in WP Super Cache and turn on caching.

    Side note- You can test your website speed using a site call Pindgom.com

    d. Use images - Like I said before, crawlers look for a well rounded and robust website so mixing it up with some vibrant images and graphics can greatly improve your ranking. Depending on what you use to make your site you can add descriptions, captions, and alternative text (for those who are blind and use text to voice programs). I highly recommend filling each of these out thoroughly.

    There are a lot of ways to find photos and graphics to use but you MUST ensure that they are royalty free or you have permission to use them. Some sites I like to use are Pexels.com and Unsplash.com. Some may ask you to credit the creators, in that case I would follow the directions they have on the site, usually linking an Instagram or Twitter page.

    e. Add a Snippet - a Snippet is a short description of each page on your site that can be viewed from the SERP (Search Engine Result Page). Crawler rank sites and pages with snippets more favorably.

    f. Plug-ins - you can add certain plug-ins to critique each one of your pages specifically and offer suggestions. My favorite is Yoast SEO, but once again I only know that it works on wordpress so I can't guarantee it will be available anywhere else. It also creates an XLM sitemap, for you website.

    g. Evaluate your site: I like to use Upcity.com's SEO report card. Evaluates and grades many of the things discussed above.

    1. Q and A

    This has recently been published by google that they will be putting a greater focus on Q and A information and creating features on the SERP to answer frequently asked questions. The idea is that this information will be take from your site and displayed on Google when a question is asked. (You definitely want to be the one answering the most questions, because what's an entrepreneur if not a problem solver)

    i. The best way to do this is add a comment or FAQs section to your site and generate answers. Of course you want to answer questions directly related to your product or service, but there are more way to utilize this feature. Get involved in topics similar to yours. If you sell camping tents, try to open a forum about camping tips and survival skills. Anyone interested in that subject to ask questions maybe willing to purchase your tent.

    ii. As you may assume this is huge for your ranking to have your information and jointly your website be displayed on a popular Google search page.

    1. Security

    The internet is an amazing but dangerous place. With tens of millions of transactions flowing through the internet in America alone, people would be wise to take caution before giving their information out to just anyone. To ensure that people trust you and your business, it's important to make it secure. The most common way is to use an SSL certification. This verified identification of a website and encrypted information (good for both sides).

    a. Free Option: There are a few free SSL Encryption services you can use like letsencrypt.org or cloudflare.com, but this would require a little bit of effort on your part to transfer your host server to their service and your site may even go down or feature disabled while the host server is transferred.

    b. Preferred Free: Another free option use a Plug-ins on WordPress (I don't use other website services so I don't know if there is anything like this on elsewhere). I like the Plug-in Easy HTTPS (SSL) Redirection, its free and easy

    c. (paid) Other types of SSL. The most basic and probably what you will get for free is changing the http to https (Thesstands for secure). But the more recognizable one and the ones that go the extra mile to keep you and your clients safe paid service. You can usually find this feature on your host program but there are many, many more. Other include a small padlock with the word secure in green text before the domain called OV SSL and one that contains a short description your business in green text before the domain, and example is Costco Wholesale Corporation [US] https://Costco.comcalled EV SSL, and another called DV SSL, each have different criteria and advanced encryptions that you would have to research more to find out which suits your needs the best.

    d. Another tip is to make your passwords hack proof. The best way to not get hacked is to have a password that includes a variety of lower-case, upper case, numbers, and special characters (ex. iB8#Hu4WsA3^6*jOp). If you are having trouble coming up with a password you can use websites like Passwordsgenerator.net. You can customize the elements and length too.

    i. You should also have a new password for every account. This may seem excessive but this is your business and contains all your work ambitions, information about you co works, associates and clients. You must be a little paranoid. One way to do this without having a super memory is to make one strong password and use it to protect a text file offline on your computer, which contains all of the other passwords.

    e. Backup your site - There are free options to do this. I recommend the BackUpWordPress plug-in on wordpress. You can also find paid services like Dropmysite.com.

    1. Use Google Analytics

    i. First you want to set it up with your website. The easiest way is you use a wordpress plug-in, otherwise you might have to embed some code onto your website. (are you starting to see why I like wordpress)

    a. Since there is so much that can be done in analytics it would be too difficult to explain it all here, but here are a few notable features.

    . On the home page you have options to see the amount of users on your site (how many visited), sessions (how many time a each person visited), bounce rate (how many leave without interacting your site - lower the better) and duration (how long visitors stayed on your site). You can customize the time frame you view your data at the bottom of the graph.

    i. Acquisitions can show you what ways people are getting to your site (organic search, direct, referrals, etc.). This can help you see which methods are working best at attracting visitors.

    ii. Behavior

    iii. Audience you can see more specific data how when people visit your site, you can zoom in to see what time of day people view your site or zoom out and see what months or season affect your traffic. It also shows you data about the demographic of your visitors (age, gender, location, etc.).

    1. Social Media

    Social Media is arguably the fastest growing outlet to operate and market your business. I would say it is imperative that to have a social media presence in this day and age. Social media is a great way to engage your audience, market your product, and above all establish and foster a brand. Social Media introduces your business to a well of information that can be used legally for market research and targeting. It is also an inexpensive way to advertise. Although there are paid ways to advertise, I believe it is possible to use the free built in mechanisms to market and advertise.

    a. Facebook- Its thirds most visit site in 2017. It has more than 1 billion daily active users. 40% have liked a Facebook page to receive a special offer or promotion (more stats) it's a great way to keep your users updates, share photos and videos, and connect with your fans. This also helps track your performance as Facebook has a detailed an intuitive analytical section. There are features of likes, comments and shares, the most valuable being shares as it broads the amount of people who will be see your content. That being said the only metric a smart marketer and business owner should base their performance on is ROI, but it's still fun to look at. These metrics still gives you invaluable information and access to new ways to expand your brand (ex. sharing post lets all of an person's friends to view it, allowing your content to be viewed by many others for no extra cost)

    i. Start a Facebook page.

    ii. (Paid) Run Facebook ads: I'm breaking the mold again but this one is definitely worth it. Facebook ads operate on a Pay Per Click system (PPC), so it only charges you every time someone views the ad so to know you are getting your money's worth. Facebook also boas one of the best targeting systems. All Facebook users are asked to input personal information, preferences and interests. This is valuable information that can be used to target specific audiences.

    iii. Start a Facebook community. Depending on your product this could be a huge feature for your client base. For example if you have an app video game with a large fan base you can start a community so your users communicate, ask questions, and build relationships. This will increase engagement of users as well as help establish a brand. If people continually go to your business or affiliate social pages for continues entertainment and relationships building, your business becomes more than just a product, it become apart of their lives.

    b. Twitter: The second biggest social media site. There are over 330 monthly users and over 500 million tweets sent everyday. It's a great place to communicate with peers and keep your audience engaged and up to date. Tweets are limited to only 140 characters so it's best to keep your messages succinct.

    i. Tweet regularly: Tweet frequently to keep your business constantly on the mind of your audience. The worst thing would be for you to stop tweeting and have your audience forget about you. Conversely do not go overboard. I suggest 7-20 tweets a week.

    ii. Don't make it all business: Of course you are using social media to generate more business, but people will get turned off just seeing promotions and products. Wish your audience a happy holiday, give out free stuff, comment on related news/current events, comment on unrelated news/current events, post a funny or cute picture or joke. The more human you can make your account the better reception and engagement you can muster from your audience.

    iii. Follow People: Make sure to follow other leaders and peers in the industry. This is a great way to learn new things, keep and eye on competitors, and open doors to network,

    iii. Retweet: Retweeting is where you repost someone else's tweet, article, picture or video. This is a way to tweet with little to no effort, and it shows your audience what interests you. It is also flattering to those got retweeted and can gain you more followers.

    c. Snapchat- this is a relatively untapped platform for marketing but I believe it will be soon dominate the field. It also provides the easiest mode to share real-time notices, videos, and pictures.

    i. Snapchat Stories- this is probably the biggest feature a business will utilize. You can upload videos, and photos to hundred, even thousands of followers instantly. The style of videos in snapchat require little preparation or editing so you save time and money using this method. This aspect also adds to the charm of using this technique. The informal feel of it makes your business more human and builds a more friendly relationship with your audience. Some things you can uses this for is Q and As, behind the scenes, updates, and meet ups.

    1. The ability to foster meet ups, I believe is the most alluring aspect of snapchat. Having large group demonstrations and meet ups id the ultimate way to engage your audience. You can also utilize a paid feature known as location filters to boost excitement of the event. This can be used as a marketing tool as everyone within the area has the ability to see this filter which may attract more people and clients.

    d. Use quora

    Quora is a site dedicated to answering user submitted questions. Answers are also user submitted, and ranked by the question asker and other onlookers on its accuracy, effectiveness, and functionality. The top rated answer is shot to the top of the page. Although it may not seem like the best way to attract new clients or build your business, it's a great way to show that you are an expert in a particular field, and depending on the problem, you may be able to help that person directly by providing your product or service. Either way if you get more exposure. Quora has over 300 million monthly users.

    i. This one doesn't need much explaining. Make sure to put some time into setting up your profile and link your site. Then, just answer any questions that relate to your business. To really get the message across you can tag your answers like this:

    Hope this answers your questions.

    Best,

    Bob, Founder of Bob's Burgers.

    1. LinkedIn

    LinkedIn should be on the radar of every business owner. It's a create interact with other professions, stay up to date on information regarding your field article, and learn about your competitors. LinkedIn has over 332 million profiles and the average number of connections is 932.

    a. Depending on what your business is and what stage in its development you are in it may be beneficial to contact others in the field. You can connect with others by searching for people with a certain occupation or experience. You can then added or connect with them and wait for them to respond. To increase the rate at which people accept your request, you can write a short message when you send the invitation. I suggest looking at their profile and learning a bit about them first and use that information to your advantage. After you connect, you can ask them questions, learn from their experiences and possible collaborate with them.

    1. Network

    Networking is key to learning new information within the industry, collaborating with others, and acquiring talent. Of course social media is a great place to start, but there are other options.

    a. Shapr - This is a recently release app that connects professions and encourages them to meet, call, and do business/hire each other. (Think of a business orientated tinder account) The app operates with a swiping mechanic, where people view the profiles of others in their area. You can set preference on what type of people you want to match with and what your goals are. It's still in its adolescence stage as and I like many are still trying to figure out the culture. But I have personally have had some interesting conversations on it and I believe its worth a try. Just set up a profile and start swiping.

    b. Reddit/discussion boards - There is an online discussion board for almost any interest or industry. By discussing topics with others in the same field as you on these pages you can gain all the benefits from networking from the comfort of your home. A great place to start is reddit, has thousands of discussions easily accessible in one place.

    1. Press Relations (PR)/Influencers

    I mentioned this earlier but we will go a bit more in depth. Getting featured on a news outlet, blog, or social media profile can do wonders for your business or product.

    a. Make a list: First you have to find the right blog or news outlet. Some of these pages are very niche so put in some research (don't ask an IPhone lover blog to talk about your new android only app). Make sure this list is organized and comprehensive with relevant details. I like to have record of how big/how much traffic each one gets. If you are having trouble think of names a good place to start is Alltop.com. This site has the latest news and blog post from some of the top sites. Be sure to get a varied list of large, medium, and small pages

    b. Make another list: After you have narrowed down the options it's time to start making a list of authors. Each author is different and likes to write about different things. Find one or two authors that fits your needs the best. One again be detailed with this list, find their social media pages and emails if you can.

    c. Build rapport: Now you have to get the authors attention. I suggest narrowing the list again to a small group and continue to read their work and comment at the end. Even the bigger sites don't get too many comments so after a while you will be notice. Next, I suggest following them on social media, Twitter is the best as you can really find out about what their interests and personality. Now start to like and comment on their posts. Like before, even authors from big outlets may have small personal followings, so they will notice

    d. Contact: After building up the rapport, send them an email or a message over Twitter. Make sure to reference their work previous work, so it comes across more genuine. I recommend exchanging a few messages before bringing up to proposition to write having them publish information about your product or service.

    e. Do the Work For Them: This works because authors are overwork and have a lot of deadlines. Many of them get paid by the article or blog they post, so if they don't post enough they won't get paid or even get fired. So, if you come up to them with a story there a good chance they will be interested. But to further increase your odds I recommend writing the blog/article for them. This is why you should take to read their work, so you can better imitate their style. I also suggest doing the research for them. Use and cite credible sources like scholarly articles, databases, and books (if a statistic or fact is false, they have a lot to lose).

    i. There are no guarantees: even if you follow everything and the author likes you, they may not be accepting ideas of the nature you are offering, or it may get shut down by the editor. Whatever happens there are many, many, many, blogs and news outlets, so don't be deterred.

    And that's all for today. Of course there are always new ways to improve your business. I encourage everyone to be proactive, learn new methods, and network. If you believe you can manage all this go ahead, but keep in mind that for many of these marketing tactics that you have to stand out among a sea of competitors. An analogy I like to think about is using SEO and marketing can be thought of where and how your product or service is presented at a store. If you don't try at all, it's like having your product be in the back of the store (yea its there but you'll have to ask someone to go in the back and get it for you, not the best method). If you adhere to the standard of marketing, by doing just enough then you will be placed in a spot on a shelf among hundreds of other product (of course this is better than being in the back but are you really standing out?) But if you tailor your marketing techniques to the image and motivations of your business you are going a step further. This would be like having your product display in the window of the store, the first and best thing every customer sees when he or she walks in. Now you will have to ask yourself, how would you like your business to be perceived. Just another one of many, or is it something special, a passion that you want to stand out.

    I understand it is hard to work to bring quality content to your customers as it is and now you have to add more work, some of which will not immediately garner returns. But this is rapidly becoming the standard in this age and if you don't think you can manage it all, I provide premium digital marketing service catered to your business goals and values. If you are interested send me a PM or email me at [CanyonDMG@gmail.com](mailto:CanyonDMG@gmail.com)

    I hope this was helpful and I wish you a happy New Year!

    submitted by /u/SkeeterMcGoo
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    Last year my startup saved around $50k in travel expenses using VR for business meetings and investor pitches.

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 12:52 PM PST

    Hey guys! The last year or so we've been only flying one or two people to events and conferences, but also scheduling meetings with our employees who actually travel. For example, let's say our CEO stayed in Seattle and the CTO and I are in NYC. We'll schedule an investor pitch for our CEO and then when we meet, we put the investor(s) in VR where the pitch deck is being presented virtually, inside the actual software that is being pitched to them. Best of all, I don't have to share a hotel bed with my CEO anymore. More info, here if you want to check it out.

    Has anyone else here using VR for cost-saving use cases? I'd love to hear other creative solutions.

    submitted by /u/kittysparkles
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    Ex-entrepreneur in my 40s: need advice on getting back to a corporate job

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 12:50 PM PST

    Hello all, I need advice on transitioning from 7+ years of being an entrepreneur in a variety of tech and energy fields to corporate life. I made decent money in one of my previous projects, but I have exited and now have nothing to do. With family expenses piling up, I need a steady source of income. So I've been searching for corporate roles, but I think my entrepreneurship experiences are not helping me land a job! It could be ageism as well. But most likely my experiences make recruiters uncomfortable (I don't fit easily with typical candidate profiles). Would love to hear from others on what worked to make the transition happen.

    submitted by /u/magutah_the_second
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    Starting an Airport Business

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 12:49 PM PST

    I have an idea for a business that I think would be good for an airport. I live in the SF Bay Area. Any thoughts, ideas, or stories from those who have done this? What would be the quickest way to validate the idea?

    submitted by /u/LavoP
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    Finding quality interns?

    Posted: 02 Jan 2019 08:36 AM PST

    Does anywhere know a good place to post classifieds to find quality interns interested in web design and SEO?

    ​

    Has anyone had good or bad experience with interns in this area?

    ​

    ​

    submitted by /u/anjoid
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