Thank you Thursday! - (February 07, 2019) Entrepreneur |
- Thank you Thursday! - (February 07, 2019)
- I design, develop, and market light show apps for iOS & Android (4-year update with metrics) AMA
- Opinions: How would you best spend $100,000 marketing dollars over 9 months for your p2p startup?
- What does the friend of yours that makes the most money do for a living?
- 3 Rules for entrepreneurial success by Peter Thiel’s, co-founder of PayPal and an original investor in Facebook
- How should I price my drone photography services?
- I need your advice really badly.
- Thoughts on Dennis Felix's rule of "ownership at all costs" in order to get rich?
- Fastest growing small business sectors
- Looking for opinions on business idea
- Technical Help (Website / Basic consulting)
- Freelancers: Know Your Value.
- Interested in the frozen food industry, thoughts and advice on how to get into it? Wanting to start small and hopefully all over. Thank you in advance!
- Accounting Software for Vending route
- Running online ad campaigns
- Help with expanding my marketing & increasing revenue?
- How to pick an industry to focus on for the inexperienced?
- How to develop the skills and expertise to spot opportunities in various business industries, w/o experience?
- What is your process and tools for testing product and market viability?
- Setting up a residential recycling program - thoughts?
- How a gold-tier startup accelerator selects its companies
- Trying to market a foreign soap and detergent, how to start with the marketing?
- Affiliate Marketing - How do I find a niche with viable keywords?
- Any help and suggestions i can get
- How would I figure out the startup costs of a neighborhood(one day maybe city) beatification business?
- Work from home or an office?
| Thank you Thursday! - (February 07, 2019) Posted: 07 Feb 2019 05:14 AM PST Your opportunity to thank the /r/Entrepreneur community by offering free stuff, contests, discounts, electronic courses, ebooks and the best deals you know of. Please consolidate such offers here! Since this thread can fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. [link] [comments]  |
| I design, develop, and market light show apps for iOS & Android (4-year update with metrics) AMA Posted: 07 Feb 2019 10:45 AM PST Hi r/Entrepreneur, My name is Kevin and I design, develop, and market a series of light show apps for iOS and Android under the Light DJ brand. 2 years ago, I made a post about my journey into Entrepreneurship which you can find here. Today I'd like to provide an update on my business and answer any questions that you may have about my methods. From 2017-2018 I had few major projects. My first priority was to update the Android app to match the effects of the iOS version. Previously I had decided to build these as two native apps rather than a hybrid app and that's resulted in two slightly different feature sets between the apps as they've grown at different paces. Now the apps produce the same lighting effects and I intend to maintain effect parity going forward. I still think having two native apps is the right option for my purposes. Using native tools and support makes it easy to integrate third-party libraries and debug on Stack Overflow when things go awry. I develop on iOS first because it's easier to prototype with Swift, then I port the feature to Android/Java from there. Writing the code the second time isn't too bad since going from Swift to Java is fairly simple, plus translating it forces you to do a thorough review of your own code. I've fixed more than a few bugs this way. Nanoleaf Aurora support was another focus this period. The hardware had just been released and I was excited to branch out from bulb-based effects to panels. Integrating with new third-party hardware is risky and exponentially increases testing time so I have to be selective as to who I integrate with. I chose Nanoleaf because I could see the potential of the product and because they have mass-market availability in Apple Stores and Best Buy. I've had the pleasure of meeting Nanoleaf's CEO Gimmy Chu and his team a few times. They've been great to work with, open to suggestions, and are just really cool people. My latest version includes support for the new square Canvas tiles too and I'll continue to update the code as new shapes are released. In September 2017 I released a moonshot app called Light DJ Studio which presents a new concept in mobile light shows. Users record a light track guitar-hero style, in sync to any Apple Music track. They can save the track for later playback or (as of Oct 2018) share it with the Light DJ community so that others can enjoy it too. Currently the app is completely free while the library of user-submitted tracks slowly grows (currently ~40) and anyone that submits a track gets free access for life if I ever do monetize it. I designed the light recordings so that they work with any light setup, so even if the creator makes their light recording on Hue it will still work on Nanoleaf or LIFX or vice-versa. There's a ton of potential in this app and I hope to one day work with DJs and other musicians to release exclusive light shows for the app. In January 2018, Philips Hue announced its Hue Entertainment API, which provided an opportunity for my app to stand out from the other entertainment apps for Hue. Hue Entertainment allows games and other media to stream real-time effects to your living room. For me, this meant high-performance effects like faster strobes and smoother waves that travel across the room. I spent about 2 months redesigning all 40+ effects in my app to work with the new API and Light DJ was one of the first apps to have this support. While the performance improvements were astounding, sales were not. Since my business model was "pay-once, get everything" the power users who really wanted this feature got it for free, but users who were new to Hue or my app didn't care or know what it was, so it did not add much apparent value. Add to that the traditional spring slump that happens as people start getting outdoors more around April & May and my daily proceeds started to dropping to double-digits. Clearly drastic changes were needed to save my business. I considered creating more in-app purchases for new hardware support, but I really hate nickle-and-diming users for every little thing and it results in a ton of extra code to handle all the extra limitations. If my business is to be successful then consistent recurring revenue is a must and so in the end I decided that the only rational option was to move to a subscription model. This has provided many benefits:
There were a few downsides to moving to subscriptions, however. The move was not popular with users who were used to the previous freemium model and hadn't upgraded, resulting in negative reviews. Previous purchasers received free lifetime updates, so they are not a source of revenue. The price of the Android subscription started the same as iOS even though it had fewer features so I lowered the price after a month of dismal sales. Though the subscription includes a 7-day free trial, users were hesitant to sign-up so I introduced a preview period for users to try out the app for a bit before committing. Additionally in order to sell auto-renewable subscriptions on the App Store you need to sell something "of substance". For me, that means I'm obligated to produce and provide 2 bonus effects per month to users as part of the subscription (abstract promises like "future updates" won't cut it). I make the effects in batches of a dozen or so and it takes me a few weeks to create and test them for both OSs. While I generally enjoy making these it's still a task that I'll be required to do every 6 months or so for as long as the app is producing revenue. Metrics: Ok, so here's why a lot of you clicked. The truth is that I don't spend all day staring at my metrics looking for incremental improvements. My focus is always on finding the best way to add value to my service and creating a valuable service is what will drive good numbers. I follow the Valve Manifesto as I believe that it's a better way to create a quality product. Of note in the sales data: New Years Eve continues to be the biggest day for downloads and sales of the app. Subscriptions were introduced July 1, resulting in 1 week of no sales (there was a last chance sale on June 30). In addition to subscriptions I continue to offer a fully unlocked version of the app in both app stores (at a higher price) for users that don't want to deal with the subscription. Sales data (viewable for a limited time): https://lightdjapp.com/sales (password: ilovereddit) Daily Active Users: ~1,200 Monthly Active Users: ~33,000 Subscription conversion: 59% Subscription retention: 74% Outlook: For 2019 my focus is on improving retention by increasing the value of subscriptions through new community features including pattern and sheet sharing, cross-platform subscriptions, cloud-backed settings, and a web portal where users can purchase and manage subscriptions. Nanoleaf Canvas support will be a big help when it comes to marketing content creation since the square panels are easier to work with than the triangles. Aside from that I have a whole laundry list of app features that I've been wanting to create and a dozen or so unfulfilled user requests that will keep me busy. I'll also be on the lookout for any new hardware that could work with the app. I hope this post provides a bit of insight into my business and helps encourage future developers to give it a shot on the App Store. I'd love to answer any questions you have about my business or development practices. Cheers, Kevin [link] [comments]  |
| Opinions: How would you best spend $100,000 marketing dollars over 9 months for your p2p startup? Posted: 07 Feb 2019 09:55 AM PST I am asking because I may come into some funds and was looking for unique ways to promote my p2p (think Craigslist) e-commerce applications. How much or should I even spend money on SEO, Digital Advertising, FB, Snap, Reddit, Insta, Viral Media, PR etc? Looking for ideas that are both safe and/or high risk high reward. [link] [comments]  |
| What does the friend of yours that makes the most money do for a living? Posted: 07 Feb 2019 11:26 AM PST |
| Posted: 07 Feb 2019 01:24 AM PST When it comes to entrepreneurship it's important to know is that you're not alone. There are millions of entrepreneurs all over the world. People that try to make their imagination become a reality and create their way to sustain themselves and their families. The beautiful thing about entrepreneurs is that there is always a place for everyone. Many successful people likes to share their experience to help the 'newcomers' learn from their problems, doubts, and failures. This post summarizes Peter Thiel's approach in 3 rules. Here's a bit of a background on Peter Thiel: Peter Thiel is an entrepreneur and investor. He started PayPal in 1998, led it as CEO, and took it public in 2002. In 2004 he made the first outside investment in Facebook, where he serves as a director. The same year he launched Palantir Technologies, a software company that harnesses computers to empower human analysts in fields like national security and global finance. He has provided early funding for LinkedIn, Yelp, and dozens of successful technology startups, many run by former colleagues who have been dubbed the "PayPal Mafia." He is a partner at Founders Fund, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has funded companies like SpaceX and Airbnb. He started the Thiel Fellowship, which ignited a national debate by encouraging young people to put learning before schooling, and he leads the Thiel Foundation, which works to advance technological progress and long-term thinking about the future. Peter Thiel's 3 Rules for Entrepreneurial Success: Be Unique Despite this rather dismissible platitude, 'be unique' is solid advice. No business can expect to survive if its product, service, or platform is identical to the competition. It's about creating a niche for your offering or detecting a gap in the market where an audience isn't being served by existing businesses. For this reason, it's important to consider his three tips from the perspective of Agarwal, who had to apply Thiel's advice but also steer it in a new direction based on what he knew the demands of the Indian market to be. Instead of thinking in terms of Airbnb, Thiel helped him to focus on building an Indian-facing platform first. India's growing middle class has unique needs, and Agarwal's affordable yet standardized hotels and booking platform served them well. A big part of OYO is that his staff will train and even renovate spaces before welcoming them to the platform, ensuring controlled quality and also using incentives to gain market presence. Think Big Imagine the trouble a 19-year-old would have breaking into the vicious energy industry if she didn't think big. Another of Thiel's Fellows is Eden Full Goh, whose wider perspective on the energy industry and fascination with solar led her to drop out of her engineering program at Princeton to pursue SunSaluter. Her device uses gravity and a water clock to follow the sun each day and to produce water as it rotates. Before Thiel, SunSaluter was a side-project, and he helped Full Goh to keep expanding its potential and eventually release it in 16 countries, boosting panel efficiency by 30% and creating 4 liters of water daily. Thinking big is a quintessential part of the Thiel strategy, and it is required by all Fellows inherently as it takes a pretty wide perspective to forgo college. However, remember that it may seem easy when you're consecrated by the Fellowship, it's not a blank check. Full Goh had to make significant efforts to keep her project's momentum, as its board is comprised of volunteers, and those it helps most aren't the key target audience. Invest in Culture (personally that's the rule I'm fascinate about the most) In typical Thiel fashion, the first two components of his advice were notional and largely intangible, while the third goes straight to the heart of the practical businessperson. Culture is a key word when hiring in the current market. When studies show that millennials prioritize work-life balance over anything else when searching for a job, not addressing these growing trends—which together create a workplace culture—is death for a new business. Fellows who get lost in the clouds need to be grounded with this important tip. It's crucial to have a defined culture which matches the founder's own and describing one's culture is a component of being a founder. In the book Zero to One, Thiel says "recruiting is a core competency", and that outsourcing it is a dire mistake. It's true that employees who appreciate the nuances of your company's vibe are more likely to be productive and motivated. However, it's also because being unable to verbalize your mission gives talented applicants no real reason to work for you instead of Google. Learning from experienced entrepreneur is an important key in young enthusiastic entrepreneurs But remember that you can read books all day, but there is nothing like go out and try everything by your self. Try and fail. And try and fail. Until you reach your goal. So good luck in your journey. [link] [comments]  |
| How should I price my drone photography services? Posted: 07 Feb 2019 08:55 AM PST I'm moving from hobbyist drone photographer to commercial drone work (real estate shots, wedding footage, etc.) and am wondering how to even begin building price quotes for customers. I'm not looking to do this full-time, but more of a side hustle to bring in additional income on the weekends and evenings. I personally enjoy the work so I'm inclined to price lower than I probably should and would love input on how to even start thinking about this. Any recommendations about how to price these services would be welcome. Should I quote by job, by the hour, something else? Anyone do this currently and have any best practices or strategies that worked well? Thanks! EDIT: Thanks for all the feedback everyone! This is extremely helpful! [link] [comments]  |
| I need your advice really badly. Posted: 07 Feb 2019 09:37 AM PST 5 years ago, fresh out of college, I co-founded a company with someone I had hardly known. Dumb and naive, I know. In those 5 years, it has been one crisis after another, in large part due to my co-founder's (CEO) poor management, unethical behavior, and irresponsible spending. Time and time again she has manipulated and exploited her relationships (including ours) to her advantage. She has wantonly spent large sums of company funds on personal activities. The culture she's created is more than toxic. Question anything she says, and she'll punish you until you're gone. She's surrounded herself with sycophants. All this time I've put up with it, for the "sake of the business" and to "protect my reputation" amongst the board and investor community. I feel an intense obligation to stay as a co-founder. But I am burnt out, depressed, filled with anxiety, and have become at times suicidal. There's not a day that goes by where I don't feel as if my co-founder is calculating yet another way to exploit our relationship, or just push me out. I've seen some of the smartest, kindest, and most driven people come through here and ultimately leave, by choice or force, due to their desire to work in an honest and open environment. My biggest fears with leaving: 1) that my co-founder tarnish my reputation with board/investors as she has done with past employees, 2) that since founding the company, I have not developed meaningfully given all of the chaos, stress, and crises, resulting in a stunted and unmarketable skillset, and 3) that I have no network to rely on as I moved to SF for this opportunity and have spent the past 5 years here giving my all to this company. I feel stuck, miserable, unmarketable, and it's eating at me every day. Any advice you may have would be hugely appreciated. Thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| Thoughts on Dennis Felix's rule of "ownership at all costs" in order to get rich? Posted: 07 Feb 2019 09:26 AM PST I just finished Dennis Felix's legendary "How to get rich" book. It packs so much great wisdom that I'm just slowly taking it all in. One piece of advice he repeatedly emphasises, that I find difficult to agree with, is the ownership rule. Basically, he says that if you want to get rich, you have to be the dominant majority owner. He advocates not sharing your ownership with anyone else, and if needed be, you have to lie or cheat to gain that few precious percentage points. This few percentage an turn out to be worth millions of dollars in the end. This makes sense in theory as obviously the more you own, the more dividends you end up receiving. But I feel like having equal partners especially in the early days is crucial. I myself have a partner that we share 50-50 ownership of our business, and without him I would never be here today. He deserves it as much as I do. What are your thoughts on this extreme rule? [link] [comments]  |
| Fastest growing small business sectors Posted: 07 Feb 2019 11:09 AM PST What resources are out there that detail the growth of new small business sectors? For example, one that would show commercial cleaning businesses have grown 3% in 2018, and solar panel installation companies have grown 12%, etc. [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for opinions on business idea Posted: 07 Feb 2019 09:16 AM PST Recently I've been looking into starting a side business and I have a couple of ideas. The one I think is more exciting is a full service VR setup company. I have been using an Oculus Rift for about a year and whenever someone tries it for the first time, they're blown away. I'd like to offer consultations to determine what type of VR would be best for the client, but the major problem I see is that it's very expensive to run VR. Based on current prices, I'd be able to make a solid VR capable computer for about $950. That plus the VR equipment means that any VR gaming setup would cost around $1400 solely in parts. It would take me about a day to build a computer and fully set up the equipment, so I'm thinking I would have to charge about $2000 in order to have a decent profit margin. To me, this seems kinda expensive for something that has one primary purpose. Another idea that I have is a light fixture repair company. I am working as an electrician so I have experience working with electricity and wiring. There are very few shops in the area, and most places don't offer fixture repair as it can be risky. While starting, I could offer free consultations to see whether or not I'll be able to fix it. After a couple months, I'd be able to start charging about $40 for a consultation. I believe this will be a decent idea as many people in the area live in old houses with old fixtures. A good portion of the fixtures I've seen were custom made decades ago which makes repair trickier. I would be able to charge a lot for repair however, as there aren't many places to go to repair fixtures. An issue with this is repeat customers will be rare, since these old fixtures are very sturdily built. Which of these do you think is more feasible? The VR setup seems safer but I think it will be hard to find people willing to pay that much for essentially a video game console. [link] [comments]  |
| Technical Help (Website / Basic consulting) Posted: 07 Feb 2019 10:10 AM PST Hi all - I think this is the right area for this, if not, let me know and I'll gladly see my self out. I have a bit of a passion project I've been toying with over the last year, and decided to execute. My problem (like some of you I imagine) is that I believe I can do everything (and think I can sometimes...with a LOT of time) but really end up just doing nothing. I want to make a site / blog for a passion project of tutorials / videos / textual guides on some software platforms that already exist. I made a Wordpress site, started making some decent content, but quickly realized it's becoming a time-suck because of my capabilities on that side. Wondering if someone has some time to help build their portfolio, I'd pay a bit for this project but would really also need help understanding what this would cost. Like I said, pretty basic, and I think anyone with solid understanding of Wordpress could help me spin something up (and recommend proper hosting instead of cheap-o hosting like I had opted to in the past.) The only curve-ball I imagine, is I'm envisioning a pretty decent 'search' type feature on the main page for people to get quickly directed to content. Again, if this is the wrong place, let me know (and apologies if so) - hoping I can collaborate with someone in this community instead of hitting freelance sites. Hoping we can connect and discuss details /pricing more in-depth. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Feb 2019 08:30 AM PST So, ever since I posted my first long post, I've received a slew of PMs from new(er) entrepreneurs asking how I know what to charge for my services. Getting close to a hundred of that exact PM now. The answer to that question is the same for any industry: you have to know your value. In order to figure out what your value is, a few things can be done.
Now, how does factoring this stuff in lead you to your value? Well, it doesn't, not directly. You see, when I am approached by a (larger) client, I often ask for the metrics of the site I'm looking at. What kind of conversion rate do they have, how many unique hits a week, what their price points are, their target market, etc. (I've been around long enough to not have to ask for smaller clients, but if you haven't nailed it down then you should absolutely ask). Now, I know that if I rewrite a page that has sells professional services and has 10,000 unique hits a week, I can increase a 5% or lower conversion rate to around 10% without breaking much of a sweat. Therefore, I know my value. If my client is making $1k in revenue a week from that 5%, then it will reliably double to $2k. This makes me completely comfortable asking for $1.5-$2k, because they are going to recoup that price very quickly. The more they stand to make, the more I charge, simple as that. I have had clients that were doing $8k weekly, and I charged them $12k for a sales letter (around 3000 words) because I was confident I was going to be able to increase their weekly revenue by 15%. This was, of course, a more difficult job, but the point still stands. This works in other aspects of freelancing as well. Are you a graphic designer that provides elegant, complex branding for your clients? Go after bigger clientele, jack the price up. Say no to people who aren't willing to pay you what you're worth. Maybe you're a website developer who provides crisp, clean, fast websites that are conversion-driven. Say no to the people who don't value your time or expertise. Stop selling yourself short. "You are worth what people will pay you" is a bullshit line. That said, I'm sure a lot of people that ask this question potentially don't have any metrics to go by, which is fine. So, here's what you do. Find a mentor (like I did) and while you're working under him, learning all you can, start to build a portfolio. Don't do free work, ever. Set yourself up a website, get some SEO going, use your blog posts and sites like Medium to showcase the work you've done for yourself, stay the hell away from sites like Upwork, and charge clients a fair wage for your work. I like anywhere between 5-10c/word for beginner content creators (bloggers, copywriters, etc), and haven't done much research into other aspects (sorry for everyone that isn't a writer). I've been around a long time - people who begin writing for free (or close to it) simply do not value themselves. It's hard for a client to take you seriously when you tell them you'll spend hours on a 1000 blog post for $10 - I know I wouldn't. All this advice is valuable, I promise. Even offering discounted rates for my services, I have made close to $5k in the last month. This is without a website, people can't even get my portfolio without me sending it to them. That said, my website should be finished by the end of next week, so yay. When you value yourself, others will too. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Feb 2019 01:16 PM PST |
| Accounting Software for Vending route Posted: 07 Feb 2019 08:50 AM PST Curious to know what accounting software everyone is using. We are looking to operate a few vending machines the are CC only. They are similar to a redbox machine and we are looking at the pros and cons of different programs. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Feb 2019 06:53 AM PST Hey all, Wanted to share a few things I've learned regarding marketing as a bootstrapped entrepreneur. Before you rush to buy ads and acquire traffic -Try to use as many free tools as possible to create your web presence and run your BI, to list some of them: Canva, Hotjar, MOZ, MarvelApp, Google Trends, Medium, Groups, Forums, Google Analytics, Similarweb Now that you're all set to start your paid marketing campaign remember the most important thing -Be patient and optimize based on data, not hunchs. Running an ad campaign is like stock trading, don't put all your eggs in one basket, try various ad creative, content, LP's, messages, audiences etc.. Not every channel works for everyone, so try to understand where your users are most likely to engage, put your self in their shoes. Now regarding the campaign itself :
Ask yourself who want what I have to offer (yes I know that everyone will want what you have to offer as it so amazing, but try to divide them to those who are actively looking for your product/service, they need it so bad that all you need to do is present it to them, those who are looking for similar stuff, they need it but they have alternative and those whom you'll need to convince that they'll need it. Once you'll do that it will be easier for you to decide on which channel to promote your offer and what is the message. for the first kind of people explore where they're talking about it (mostly search ads are the best way to go) for the second type, ask yourself what is the most unique about my offer (USP), why someone would buy from me and not from the other guy, price, convenience, trust, customer service, shipping, easy to use, etc... these people need some more time to decide, so be patient and convince them - find out where they are exploring their alternative: competitor BI. Now for the boring/functional part: When you run ads online you have two main options: Programmatic and Direct Ad Buying - Direct buying occurs when you buy impressions in bulk. Programmatic buying occurs when a DSP automatically and instantaneously place ads on publishers' sites after evaluating the quality of individual impressions from the best bidder.... :) Which means: It's about serving relevant advertising to the right person at the right time. So when working on programmatic media buy (FB, Google, and a lot of other display DSP's ) you need to identify the right audience, which means building user persona: depending on your business, you could have as few as one or two personas, or as many as 10 or 20. so how'll you find the right user persona: think who involved in the decision making process regarding your product or service than start to: Talk With Your Customers Sample Multiple Data Streams Facebook Audience Insights Clearly Define Each Persona's Pain Points Craft A Psychographic Profile Focus On The Most Important Persona After you've built your ideal user persona: ask yourself what is the value I'll bring them - explains how your product solves customers' problems or improves their situation - your customers are usually interested in your company product/service because they have a problem that needs solving Delivers specific benefits - how do you make your customers feel? Tells the ideal customer why they should buy from you and not from the competition. Remember your ad is not a billboard: narrowly target your audience and write to them. To be effective in advertising in the online ecosystem, you must write as you're writing to one person—and one person alone. This person, your target, is the one you need to convey. Just as though you were an in-person salesperson, you need to focus all your attention on this person and their needs. Everything in your ad needs to lead to a clear action - stay focused with one call-to-action Use simple language that's easy to understand What you're offering How it benefits them What to do next Be upfront about the prices- if you're selling a physical product, people want to know how much it costs KISS- Keep It Simple Stupid Choosing a channel : Advertising is an art, not a science What works for one product or service may not work for you or the next one There are many different variables that can affect the results of an advertising campaign—from ad copy to the weather Test the effectiveness of your message in each media to find the best vehicle for promoting your product - do so by : Audience research - In which channel can I reach my target audience at a moment when they will pay attention and care about my story? Where is my competitor's advertising? Always be testing - The only way is to test things yourself. Run low-cost experiments to test how your customers engage on a new media platform Neglected channels -Sending letters could generate a much higher return on marketing investment than doing email marketing. Cross-channel ... Use images carefully- humans are social, and we're wired to look where other humans are looking. so if you'll put an image of a person looking at the audience the audience will look back at him and not at your message and call to action. Track every step of the way and optimize based on data Hope you find it useful, also created a spreadsheet with some of the tools and platforms that helped me start and scale: Good luck [link] [comments]  |
| Help with expanding my marketing & increasing revenue? Posted: 07 Feb 2019 01:48 PM PST Hey all, I'll make this short: Been in the beard care business going on 6 years. I was mainly selling in person, F&F, and at farmer's markets here in a popular college town. Branched out to Etsy in 2017 and have seen wonderful success, want to keep up the momentum. What I made the entire year in 2017, I made in the first couple months in 2018. 2018 was a GREAT year. I prefer Etsy because it's a heavy traffic platform, I can customize with coupons and sales, and it's super simple to set up shop. I am hoping to drive my sales more as each year progresses, but unsure what to do in regards to spending vs. my profits. I don't want to cut into them too much, but would like to explore other marketing options. I am familiar with Google Ads and Facebook platform, but unsure of others. I also have recently started a mailing list that I am slowly incorporating in. If it matters, I do all the marketing, branding, labeling, packaging, and shipping myself. Not looking to outsource any of that. Shop link for reference: https://www.etsy.com/shop/redwoodsbeardco Any advice? Suggestions? Feedback? Incentives you may think of would be beneficial? [link] [comments]  |
| How to pick an industry to focus on for the inexperienced? Posted: 07 Feb 2019 01:18 PM PST How do you guys find an industry that interests you? There is a lot of discussion on whether you should look for passion vs opportunity. However, if you are looking for an opportunity in every possible industry that you know of, wouldn't you be spreading yourself thin? How did you guys stick to an industry or find an industry that you like? What made you decide on a particular industry? For a person who has doesn't have that much knowledge of the business world, but is interested in entrepreneurship, how do you find something interests you or that you would be suited for? A lot of people tend to have experience working in a particular industry because they like it, and eventually make something that gravitates towards. However, I find that there are also other people who didn't do that and were successful in their choosen industry. For example, Kevin O'Leary when he working on the learning company after undergrad. Also there are a lot of industries that I found would have high barriers of entry for a just fresh out of university undergrad with no experience, such as biotech and other industries that require lots of upfront capital. So everyone seems to just go into ecommerce or something tech related. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Feb 2019 01:08 PM PST I always see people finding these nifty opportunities and making start-ups that solve a solution, but I am wondering is how did those people come up with that solution in the first place? Where were they looking? Because as a college student, I'm studying subjects unrelated business and I don't have tangible skills that would be of value to a start-up. If I have time, I will read business books (currently reading the lean start-up) and look at business news. But thats as far my exploration goes. How does a college student learn about different industries and find opportunities within them. I know this sounds naïve, but for example, to write a lab report, you might look up publications and journal articles to find evidence for your hypothesis. How can I do this same process, but in a business sense? Does coming up with a solution solely come from being in the field, or can you develop this while just researching the field as a young student? I would like to know essentially, how can I, while in university, research an industry to the point where I can spot gaps and opportunities? Hopefully I could act on them after undergrad when the time comes. [link] [comments]  |
| What is your process and tools for testing product and market viability? Posted: 07 Feb 2019 01:02 PM PST There are a lot of factors into starting out with a new product and I want to stay lean for when I release my product. So I'm wondering what was your process for releasing a new product and testing it's viability in your market? What tools did you find useful to help alleviate the pain points of getting it in front of people, figuring out pricing, and making sure you HAD a market for it? [link] [comments]  |
| Setting up a residential recycling program - thoughts? Posted: 07 Feb 2019 12:54 PM PST Before I get into the details, here is a short background. With a newborn I'm looking for a way to work from home at least part time to generate some income. I already have a pickup truck, and likely buying a trailer which has multiple uses (property management and event management which I do on the sides). I also have access to estimated 75+ 96 gallon bins (and other sizes all possibly free of charge), which I could rent to customers for sorting their recycling. That said, start up costs are very low. Picking up a day laborer is also relatively easy once I get enough customers. While this isn't a new idea, I think there is a hole in the market. My immediate area is a rather dense suburb with single family houses ranging from $450k-$1million, 99% of them are very well kept. Despite high taxes of $10k per year or more, we only have city wide recycling pickup once every three weeks - point is I think people here have the money and likely not the time. There is a city recycling center which I'm hoping I can use (yes, this part is crucial), but businesses are allowed to drop their recycling there and it's not just for residential use. Demographic is mostly families and professionals, with usually long commute times to and from work. This coupled with the uptick in people ordering online = large volume of cardboard boxes and other disposables. For cardboard I have a friend with a cardboard bailer which he bails and sells the bails. I do know that anything placed on the curbside is the city's property, so pickups from in front of their garage may skirt around this. The thought is to canvas the area and offer a schedule of recycling pickup on the weeks not offered by the city. $x per weekly pickup on a subscription basis, refer a friend and get $x off, and then rental of the rolling bins for $x per month or year. Is there something I'm missing, or what do you think? Anything I can add to make it more appealing? I suppose much of the come down to price point, and initial thoughts are starting point was $6 per pickup, and $1 off if you refer a friend in the area, which should be easy enough so they are looking at $5 per pickup. Bins would be $20 per year? (a steal when they are $100+ to purchase). Only issue I see there is that it's pretty difficult to fill a 96 gallon bin with recyclables - but the rental itself is certainly worth it from a consumer point of view. At $5 per pickup, it beats taking 45 minutes of your time to load up your car, drive to the recycling center after work, sort, and drop. If I could get 100 pickups in a day, I'm looking at $500 for the day (less fuel, 1 hired labor, and other expenses). Once established it's easy enough to pass off and have two guys take care of the route. I figured this could eventually establish relationships for clean outs/home repairs, dumpster rentals which I've done in the past and may pursue in the future. [link] [comments]  |
| How a gold-tier startup accelerator selects its companies Posted: 07 Feb 2019 06:46 AM PST For the fourth year, gener8tor received a "Gold" ranking from the Seed Accelerator Rankings Project in 2018, putting it among the top 16 accelerators in the country! Three times a year, gener8tor invests $100K in five startups who receive a concierge experience during the 12-week gener8tor program. gener8tor supports the growth of these startups through an international network of experienced mentors, technologists, corporate partners, angel investors and venture capitalists. So how does gener8tor select startups to invest its time and capital? Want to know more about accelerators, fundraising, venture capital, and/or the startup scene? Ask the gener8tor staff themselves. [link] [comments]  |
| Trying to market a foreign soap and detergent, how to start with the marketing? Posted: 07 Feb 2019 12:41 PM PST Originally my family is not from the US and ever since i was little i remember us using a special soap and detergent from our country that works better than the bigger brands and is much cheaper but i want to brand it, bring it to the states in mass and go about starting a brand but when it comes to marketing for soap products or laundry items what is the best way to go about marketing? should i start with a general website and brand with social media or just throw it on amazon and ppc the crap out of it? i already have years experience with amazon and all their know how so this might be the better option for me As far as commerce, should it be as simple as build social media, google ads, website and wait for sales? or should i be doing something differently like having in person display at like laundry mats and giving out free samples? thanks guys [link] [comments]  |
| Affiliate Marketing - How do I find a niche with viable keywords? Posted: 07 Feb 2019 12:12 PM PST Hello everyone! I am in the process of trying to start my first affiliate site, and my initial idea for my niche was a site that would help beginners learn how to build their own computers. I would compare different types and brands of parts, give guides for how to assemble them, explain why building is better than buying, etc. The issue that I ran into is that, when I began researching keywords, I couldn't find anything remotely close to a low enough competition keyword for me to compete. Especially considering the top sites for my keywords were almost always the same: wired.com, techradar.com, pcmag.com, and the like. Pretty difficult to outrank those guys as a brand new site. The reason I went with this niche was that it is definitely a popular industry and I have a lot of knowledge about it, so I should be able to produce quality content for my site. Now, I'm feeling like that niche is no good. Am I thinking about this the wrong way? Is my current niche usable, or should I cut my losses and move on to something else? And if I do that, where do I even start looking? I would really appreciate any advice. I'm willing to work and research hard, but I'm having a hard time finding a starting point. Thanks for the help! [link] [comments]  |
| Any help and suggestions i can get Posted: 07 Feb 2019 12:02 PM PST Basically, I'm starting an Uber like app , I just need to know what I need to do in the legal environment, do I need users end licenses etc? Just anything you can throw at me would be great, I'm seeing a lawyer tomorrow, just want to know what else has to be drawn up. It's an Uber like app, that's about it, nothing different in terms of function. Also im building the app ontop of a starter kit. Do I have to like patent it or anything since I'll be changing it? I mean the foundation code doesn't belong to me anyway I'll just add some of my own code to fit what I'm aiming for. Please let me know what I need to look into, We all need to help each other at the end of the day, this is what this subreddit is for. ( Since all I see are successful stories of ridiculously high revenues 🤷🏻♂️) Thanks and looking forward to your suggestions! 💪💪 [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Feb 2019 11:58 AM PST When I went to Hong Kong a number of years ago, I was fascinated with the street sweepers and overall maintenance of the city. I'm in Colorado, south of Denver. I'm wondering where I'd start to figure out how much it'd cost to get started. My audience I'd imagine would be HOAs. But I'll admit I'm clueless as to where to start or gauge demand for this sort of thing. One ambition I'd want to combine with this is providing easy work for the homeless and low skilled. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Feb 2019 11:57 AM PST I've been running a couple of creative/media based businesses out of my house for the past few years. It has been nice rolling out of bed and walking straight into my office to get to work. That said, part of me wonders if I'll see improved productivity if I lease a commercial space. Certainly there are pros and cons to each. For me, I enjoy the low overhead and convenience of working from home but feel that I sometimes get distracted too easily. I'd also like to free up some space in my home since I'm currently using two rooms for my businesses. It would also be nice to separate work from my home life a bit more. On the flip side, I'll have some new challenges when I leave all of my files at the office. I don't have the ability to quickly or safely transfer the massive amounts of media from my desktop to my laptop so I'll be committed to completing most of my work at the office itself. Can anyone share their experiences here? Would love to hear why you suggest keeping things at home or instead leasing a separate space for work. [link] [comments]  |
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