Common Misconception: You have to be passionate about your niche to be successful with your business in that niche. Entrepreneur |
- Common Misconception: You have to be passionate about your niche to be successful with your business in that niche.
- What is the most effective way to study an industry?
- How I SOLD $1.1 MILLION Painting Houses
- I made an animation to summarise the best lessons from the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". I hope that you can get some value from it.
- If you could..
- "They Don't Know Their Numbers" - Shark Tank Criticism On Young Entrepreneurs
- A reddit community to connect online business owners with freelancers
- What would you do if you could borrow money interest free?
- Would love some real feedback
- A real shit post! I’m looking to start a dog waste removal company!
- New here, want to take the first step
- Looking for advice regarding what business to start.
- How to calculate estimated revenue?
- Working Smarter, Not Harder
- Distributor Business
- What Legal Work Do I Need To Get To Insure Full Ownership Before Launching My App?
- Selling Software to Companies.. Where are the clients?
- How to sell a small (about $100 a month) site?
- How do I get journalists to write about my startup?
- Research participation request (lean- and agile- related)
- Most people agree the entrepreneurs dont get rich overnight, but what business idea made you a lot of money in a short time?
- Looking for ideas from the big brains...
- I'm 23 and made $268k in 2018 with marketing tech. Here's how I did it and what I learned.
| Posted: 24 Feb 2019 05:17 AM PST It may be helpful to have some passion for the niche, but more importantly your passion should be in the process of starting and growing a business. For example: John is starting a business based around gardening/landscaping, John has no interest in his garden, however John notices there is demand for this line of work in his area and he learns about what it would take to be successful for a business of this type. John enjoys the process of building his business and employs others to do the hands on work. You could argue that too much passion for a niche could be harmful in starting a business due to assumptions about the demand for a product/service in your area based on your own opinion. Emotional decisions come from too much passion in your idea. [link] [comments]  |
| What is the most effective way to study an industry? Posted: 24 Feb 2019 04:38 AM PST I believe that data automation industry will be big in the future. Basically it's about how to take data and move it around in an automated way (i.e. put it into other third party apps or combine it with other data to a data warehouse). I learned quite a few things in the engineering side of this, and since I have hubris inside me, I decided to build a b2b SaaS product. Weeks passed by and I realized that I am not experienced enough in this industry to fill a need/to bring any significant value. I am pretty sure that if I had built the SaaS, it would failed miserably because I know so little about this industry. So my plan is to learn about this industry as deeply as possible by doing some freelance work, I don't know whether it's the most effective way but that's my current goal right now. Is freelancing in an industry the most effective way to learn about it? [link] [comments]  |
| How I SOLD $1.1 MILLION Painting Houses Posted: 24 Feb 2019 12:34 PM PST Let me briefly explain how I've made my mark in the house painting business... This is my 3rd year, and I've sold $1.1 million in total sales. Early on, this was UNHEARD of. Honestly, when I quit my bank job I wouldn't of ever imagined having this type of success. When I first started...this is all I heard: "Your price is too high" "Everything looks great, but we want to get more estimates" "Ok, we'll be in touch!" Just to drive by the house a week or so later seeing my competitor working there...Or better yet, it already painted.
Why? Because I did everything right:
I just couldn't understand why people weren't giving me a resounding "YES!" once I presented them the price?
Yet, they still told me they wanted to "get more estimates", it was "too high", or they'll "think about it, and call me back..." In other words... the answer was "NO" The worst part? When someone said one of those objections to me, I didn't have anything to say...I'd say:
The truth is, it wasn't OK. It was actually breaking my business. At the time, I had 4 guys to find work for... We weren't "booming" by any means... We were booked for 1 more week. How can I tell 4 guys that they don't have work for an entire week? These guys live paycheck to paycheck... I had to figure something out. After a long drive home from a "FREE" estimate, which was over an hour away...(two hours of driving in total) I finally did something about it. I sat down, wrote down everything I could about my sales process... From my initial phone call to my final handshake... What I realized? I didn't have a process.I didn't have a system.I was directionless. I was letting the homeowner control the sales experience. In other words, I went into the house without an objective...essentially, I'd let them tell me if they wanted to buy instead of me showing them why they needed to buy. A lightbulb went off. This was a GAME CHANGER.I began breaking it down even further... I realized that people buy painting jobs for one of two reasons: Reason #1: They Want a paint job. - This is when someone either wants to change the color, or maybe just freshen up the walls. Reason #2: They Need a paint job. - This is the most common. They're selling or buying, the HOA is on them about it, there are cracks on the walls, the paint is chipping or fading. Crazy right? Two simple reasons. Want or Need. Got it. So, I decided when I get to the house, I would first figure out which of these two reasons were what I like to call the: Buyer's Motivation I asked the question and could easily identify what their motive was: Want or Need. Sweet. Next, I realized a ton of people had a big issue with picking colors. Why? Probably because there's 10 Million of them. (or so...) Well, I couldn't wait around for them to decide on colors... In most cases, I had to schedule the job for the following week! (Remember, at this time we only had maybe 1 or 2 jobs booked at a time) So, I came up with my second question: "Have you chosen colors yet?" This is the only foreseeable barrier in terms of production that would postpone the project. So I wanted to help them get it out of the way. So, I would promise them to paint a few samples on the wall to help them decide. They loved it. Lastly, I needed to know if them signing the agreement today was even a possibility... So I came up with question #3: "If everything lines up today, how soon are you looking to get the job done?"This is what I call: Seller's Motivation Essentially this lets me understand where they are in terms of timeframe. (You'd be so surprised how many people say "as soon as you can") Which is a GREAT answer for a salesperson as you could imagine... And it was crazy. I mean... CRAZY. It wasn't just the fact that I essentially DOUBLED my closing rate, It was the fact that I created a systematic sales process that put me in the driver seat of the sale. Once I knew those 3 questions, I knew exactly how to approach each phase of the estimate process. I got so good at it, that I've sold $1.1 Million in Residential Repaint sales (and this is the start of my 3rd full year) What I realized is that it's all about having a system...Like any good sales business, but so many painters just go into the job blindly. Any sales process requires a system...what's yours? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Feb 2019 10:17 AM PST Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nGzZ9m_Xsg Hope it is useful I've done summaries of other books like:
if you're interested and want to subscribe here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfbLDMh6uGOZePAfqqjVZ-g?sub_confirmation=1 [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Feb 2019 10:02 AM PST Start up a business in NYC, where you had up to 100-150k as your start up. What would you start up and why? How would you go about it? [link] [comments]  |
| "They Don't Know Their Numbers" - Shark Tank Criticism On Young Entrepreneurs Posted: 24 Feb 2019 10:48 AM PST Constantly hear in interviews w/ Shark Tank "Sharks" that people don't know their numbers when seeking investment. My Top Five "Numbers Entrepreneurs Didn't Know" Experience - Quarterly Inventory Turnover Vertical : (COGS ÷ Inventory per Quarter - vertical analysis against 8 different quarters) Short Term Liquidity Ratio : (Current assets - Inventory ÷ Current liabilities) Days Sales in Inventory: (365÷Inventory Turnover) Return on Equity: ( Net Income ÷ Avg. Total Equity) A/R turnover : ( Sales ÷ Accounts Receivable Average) What numbers do other people not tend to know when you ask them about their venture? [link] [comments]  |
| A reddit community to connect online business owners with freelancers Posted: 24 Feb 2019 10:02 AM PST Hello everyone! I have created a subreddit for freelancers to market their services to webmasters AND for webmasters to find freelancers. Hopefully the online business owners and freelancers will find this community of help to them. Feel free to join us over at r/WebAllies! [link] [comments]  |
| What would you do if you could borrow money interest free? Posted: 24 Feb 2019 04:38 AM PST Here in the Netherlands students can borrow money against a 0% interest rate from the government. If you had this chance, what would you do with the money to make more money? The maximum you can borrow each month is about €850. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Feb 2019 11:51 AM PST This is my first ever entrepreneurial venture, I'm really nervous but I decided to start small. I opened up an online shop for socks! It's dropshipping for now but I hope to move into handling inventory myself if I can. Any thoughts on how I can improve? Thank so much! [link] [comments]  |
| A real shit post! I’m looking to start a dog waste removal company! Posted: 24 Feb 2019 12:01 AM PST As I stated, I wanna start a company. My HOA community wants to hire a dog waste company to do weekly pickups. I believe I have the tools necessary to do it, but I've never had or started my own business. If something previously has been posted, I apologize. I need help writing a proposal and or contract if accepted. Also, how important is being insured when I'm a community member, not using any equipment other than a bucket and popper scooper?! [link] [comments]  |
| New here, want to take the first step Posted: 24 Feb 2019 09:07 AM PST I'm 28 male, living with parents while I work and go to college, night school to become a social service worker. Paying off credit card debt, and rebuilding my savings and credit. As of now, just getting my life together, been a lot of ups and downs for me. Working full time at a labor job to support myself. I just want to know if they're any books you recommend on me purchasing, or any websites or links to get started. I want to help people with addiction and mental health as an entrepreneur. A good start from now, got the motivation from the latest episode of Psycho Mob 100, Season 2 (highly recommend checking out the anime.) I purchased a book called "Do cool Sh*t" by Miki Agrawal, but I gave it away a while back. Going to repurchase it again. Let me know thanks, much gratitude. [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for advice regarding what business to start. Posted: 24 Feb 2019 02:28 PM PST I am a 15 year old looking to make a bit of money to fund a website/app that will hopefully do very well during a recession. I was wondering what business I should start to help get me a little bit of money within a few months, thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| How to calculate estimated revenue? Posted: 24 Feb 2019 01:52 PM PST I'm starting a small pressure washing business and I'm trying to get insurance, but the site asks for estimated revenue for the next year, which I'm not sure how to calculate. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Feb 2019 01:36 PM PST This is a x-post from /r/videos but I found it surprisingly inspirational for my wife's and mine's small business. I am constantly preaching to my wife about the importance of trying reduce our processes so she will not only have more time to do other things but also so we can scale the business and expand. She runs a photography studio and she is constantly having to work long hours to generate the necessary sales but also keep our labor margins low. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1VhYzxC1KA I feel like there are so many examples like that which I experience at my day job and that we need to uncover for her job. All it takes is an epiphany here or an epiphany there to open up so many possibilities. But, you have to be dedicated to finding it and not settle for the old, longer ways of doing something. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Feb 2019 01:02 PM PST Hello everybody, I am really interested in the international distributor business. I have a strong background in programming and business. ( currently a salesforce developer and sales ops analyst with data science skills). Anyways, my family is in this industry and it seems so ripe for change. Anybody have any ideas on how I can learn more about this space? Aside from my family because... 1. They are not open to change as of now 2. They want me working on my own for a while. 3. I want to start a project on my own. [link] [comments]  |
| What Legal Work Do I Need To Get To Insure Full Ownership Before Launching My App? Posted: 24 Feb 2019 12:44 PM PST Hi Guys I'm in search of guidance here to help me with legal work for my app. I have been developing my app for nearly 2 years now and I have finally found an investor who is very eager to invest. Before I close any kind of deal I was just wondering what is all the legal work I need secured to insure that I am protected with my app and I have full ownership! I am new to all of this and I would really appreciate the help! Looking forward to all of your responses! [link] [comments]  |
| Selling Software to Companies.. Where are the clients? Posted: 24 Feb 2019 11:59 AM PST Hello Entrepreneurs ! To be very concise: I'm a software developer and I would love to build awesome solutions for businesses that need new systems and automations, or people that wants to turn their ideas into reality. I'm qualified to do this, and have a nice tool belt to solve problems regards software. Here is the problem... Where are the clients ?! I know this may sound stupid, but really, I don't know where to look for to find this type of needs. What I know is that they won't come to me asking for solutions. At least not for now. So yeah, have any of you faced something like this? Thank you very much for reading ! [link] [comments]  |
| How to sell a small (about $100 a month) site? Posted: 24 Feb 2019 11:36 AM PST I'm thinking to sell my site that I started because I simply don't have the time to grow it. I have heard about Empire flippers and flippa of course but first seems to be only for big sites and I hear flippa seems to be full of scammers nowadays. So, how and where could I sell this small site? Are there any other places? Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| How do I get journalists to write about my startup? Posted: 24 Feb 2019 11:33 AM PST I am planning to launch my company on Kickstarter in two weeks and I would love to have at least one industry specific(snowboarding hard goods) journalist write about my company before I launch. I have compiled a list of potential journalists but I cant find email addresses for most of them. Any advice for how to find their email addresses and what to say when I reach out is appreciated. Edit: forgot to include my website. It might be helpful for context. www.magbindings.com [link] [comments]  |
| Research participation request (lean- and agile- related) Posted: 24 Feb 2019 11:08 AM PST Good afternoon! My name is Alexander, I am a 4th-year student at the University of Stirling doing research on lean and agile within startups. If you could be so kind as to fill out my questionnaire which would not take longer than 12-15 minutes of your time. Participation requirements:
Link to survey - https://stirling.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/lean-startup-and-agile-development-survey-172 You can opt to have the name of your organisation published in the list of participants. My questionnaire does not ask to reveal any confidential information and was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Stirling. I have received permission from /u/BigSlowTarget to make a post here to make sure I am not in violation of any rules of this subreddit. If you have any questions, feedback or concerns regarding my questionnaire, please let me know below in the comments. Thank you! Kind regards, Alexander Kucheryuk [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Feb 2019 10:53 AM PST Im curious. I know some dropshippers who made 10k in a few weeks and some stock traders who made thousands overnight. What was your "get rich quick scheme" that surprisingly worked. [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for ideas from the big brains... Posted: 24 Feb 2019 10:48 AM PST OK, lets say you have incoming data of people who are looking to SELL their car. What would you do to monetize that information? [link] [comments]  |
| I'm 23 and made $268k in 2018 with marketing tech. Here's how I did it and what I learned. Posted: 24 Feb 2019 01:57 PM PST Alright, so this title is totally click-baitey and makes it sound like I'm about to pitch you a pyramid scheme, but the title is true (will post a snip of my P&L in comments for proof) and all I want to do here is explain the opportunity that's up for grabs to every twenty-something-year-old in digital marketing. I broke into the industry as a nobody with zero 'experience' and anyone can do the same exact thing. Because frankly, the martech industry is lucrative, in dire need of fresh talent, and is also just really fun. 1. Learn It, Because It's SimpleI use absolutely zero of what I learned in college. The beauty of digital marketing is that it evolves so fast that traditional education really can't keep up with it. You want to make a 'curriculum' about digital marketing? It'll be outdated and irrelevant by next quarter. Schools aren't built to adapt as fast as industry does today. There will be new ways to do things faster and more effectively tomorrow. Keeping up with digital marketing is absolutely a full-time effort. BUT, it's not hard or out of reach, it's just time consuming. And that's why people will want to pay you a premium for your insight on navigating this landscape if you actually just take the time to keep up. FACT: Industry veterans profit a lot from upholding the perception that marketing is impossibly complex, hard to break into, inherently nuanced, etc. This is why jargon is so commonplace. There's nothing inherently difficult to it, and if you make the earnest attempt to learn it, I guarantee that you'll agree. I call it Google University. You never graduate. Included below is a list of resources and sites I have Bookmarked and check all the time in order to stay on top of the game. I learn about what works, and then I tell other people about that. Then I offer to do it for them. Then it works, and everyone is happy. What a beautiful and simple system. 2. Why Businesses Need To Pay YouEntrepreneurs and business owners only want to focus on 1 thing — their business. An architecture firm is good at architecture, not digital marketing. A backpack company is good at making good backpacks, not making good ads. As marketing becomes more tech-enabled/automated, it becomes more of a black box for entrepreneurs. This is both good and bad. The truth is, business execs think they know how to best sell their product/service, but they never really do. And they're always hunting for something better than what they currently have. They don't know and they don't care that Facebook Business Manager just launched a new full-screen takeover ad format. They just want to get more customers, and how they get there is really just semantics. Even if they've grown to the point where they can hire their own in-house digital marketing team, it's pretty hard for someone who isn't in the field to effectively manage someone who is. In-house digital marketers *tend* to be masters at manipulating metrics if they want to. Almost every single client I have tells me horror stories from their experience with previous agencies — people who justified a lack of meaningful results with a bunch of vanity metrics having something to do with 'brand recognition' (whatever that means). People feel manipulated, confused, frustrated — you are perfectly positioned to come in and save the day. 3. Team UpHow do you grow your business and get more clients? Isn't that a matter of luck/serendipity? Nope, it's a quite reliable and simple formula: (# of conversations per month that you have with new people about what you can do) + (# of professional events you go to each month) = Probability out 100% that you win new business Having conversations with people is what leads to new business — this is the prerequisite constant variable. So the more conversations you have, the more new business you get. It's a numbers game. Play it with intent and rigor and you'll see yourself start getting a lot more 'lucky.' Your new 'luck' will land you more work that you can handle alone, at which point you'll need to hire people. In the early days, hire the unique brand of people that are down to ride with the unpredictable startup lifestyle. What they know doesn't matter at all — what actually matters is their attitude about learning new things. Then, you might find yourself too busy to have all those new business conversations and go to all those events. Here, what worked for me was to team up with other consultancies that help businesses with their problems, like accounting firms, legal teams, etc. People working at these places are acutely aware of all the problems that a lot of businesses have, and more than 50% of those problems are related to growth and marketing. Work out deals with these people where you give them a commission if they introduce you to new business, and watch the introductions flood in. Give them a little bit more than the commission you initially agreed to the first few times — it'll make a last impression in their minds. Do this and your upfront Customer Acquisition Cost becomes zero. 4. Identify Sources of Friction That Shouldn't ExistProblems are everywhere — friction exists at all points of the marketing process. Some points of friction will never be solved, such as the need for reporting. It takes a person several hours to structure a report manually, but it takes a computer less than a second. I hired my first engineer to build a unique dashboard that automates our reporting process, and the investment paid for itself immediately in the sheer amount of time saved. We can monetize this tool in many ways now that we have it as a hard asset. Now, we're attempting to tackle a much bigger problem — we launched Marpipe to automate the process of making good creative as much as conceivably possible because making good ads is a 'guess and check' process that is essentially an arbitrary exercise in taste-making and norm-following/remixing. Data isn't used in the creative process, which is absurd in a world where we have predictive algorithms. Marpipe is growing faster than we can scale it at the moment, so we might raise a round of funding in exchange for equity. Anyway, enough about that. You will inevitably uncover points of friction in the marketing process — trust me, the problems will definitely find you. Which is great, because then you can propose solutions. The key here is just to be able to recognize and identify the problems that shouldn't exist when they come knocking on your door. There's no better feeling that mercilessly eradicating a frustrating, persistent source of friction. It happens to be profitable as well. That's what I got for you so far. I have an entire career of more humble learning ahead of me, and plan to continue reflecting on it by writing about it. Maybe I'll do a newsletter if you guys think that's a good idea. [link] [comments]  |
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