This Entrepreneur Waited 7 Years For His Green Card Before Selling His Business For $3.7 Billion Entrepreneur |
- This Entrepreneur Waited 7 Years For His Green Card Before Selling His Business For $3.7 Billion
- From lying in bed with zero ideas to negotiating with the biggest superstar on planet Earth
- FedEx Route Businesses
- $6k/month selling allergy-proof earrings.
- Any advice/experience with hiring a web development company
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- I wouldn't treat people like Rogers does....
- Scratching my own itch, branching out to new skills
- There can be multiple LLCs with identical names as long as they are from different states/countries?
- Looking for ideas? Flip your used stuff.
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- Business ideas for private therapist
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- For those of you with content sites, I made a simple chrome extension that gives you the word count on the current page
- advice on a very peculiar situation...
- Sending a cake a week via mail to customers - possible issues?
- Experience with Licensing
- Should I include a "Facebook page like" micro goal in my sales funnel? (Music sales, band marketing)
- Project Management Digest, March 2019
- Any good place to hire web/mobile developers freelancers?
- What is your opinion on this really niche type of eCommerce stores?
- Launching unique products on amazon
- Anyone experienced with Laundry Delivery service?
- Best place to get engineering advice for my MVP / prototype?
| This Entrepreneur Waited 7 Years For His Green Card Before Selling His Business For $3.7 Billion Posted: 31 Mar 2019 08:01 AM PDT Jyoti Bansal fought through our complicated immigration system for over seven years to get a green card so that he could start his own venture. Since then he has created well over 1,000 jobs in the US, sold his first startup, AppDynamics, for $3.7 billion to Cisco, and launched several more projects. Despite having been turned down by investors at least 20 times when trying to fundraise for his first venture, Jyoti refused to quit. He went on to raise $220 million and then received multiple offers to buy his company just days before a planned IPO, one which he is proud to say netted at least 400 of his employees at least $1 million. [link] [comments]  |
| From lying in bed with zero ideas to negotiating with the biggest superstar on planet Earth Posted: 30 Mar 2019 04:58 PM PDT Buckle up cause this is a long one. A few people in the comments are saying, "they don't believe" parts of the story. I'd recommend reading it over on https://thekanyestory.com because there's loads of supporting images / videos as you go through it. Anyways Enjoy, I'll be around in the comments. TLDR
Appended news stories / interviews at the bottom. Just for anyone who's still claiming this is made up 😂 Intro It's Friday night, 1 am. I'm lying in bed scrolling twitter. Reading the usual shit. Getting my dopamine fix. "The Backstreet boys are back with a brand new sound". Yeah, whatever. I read another headline. Then another. "There's a dating site for straight Trump supporters". The mob's getting angry. As you'd imagine the media are loving it. It's the perfect fodder to pump to the masses. But forget Donald Trump. There something here. Free audience. Free attention. Embrace the controversy. Elon Musk sold flamethrowers and made a million. Supreme sold bricks and made a million. You've got to think like the little kid who hasn't had his imagination beaten out of him. Companies splash thousands on "growth hacking" goon squads but having one mind like Bart Simpson on your team is more valuable. I jump out of bed and start writing down ideas. Dating is a good starting spot. It's funny and simple. Now I just need something controversial. Brexit Dating, Harry Potter Dating, Kanye West Dating. Yes Kanye West, I'm a fan. I know the audience. How about — KanyeWestDating.com. Doesn't pop. Maybe Yeezy.Dating. Bingo! Add to Basket. Viral I wake up late the next morning and cook some eggs. I want to start building the dating site, but let's be realistic. The chances are no-one will use it and I'll end up spending 3 months locked in my bedroom, deprived of sunlight, going insane. So, instead, I open up Instagram, change my username from @harrydry to @yeezydating, delete my old posts and upload a picture with the caption "Yeezy.Dating — Coming this March". Bamn. We're cooking. Time to build my blogger hit list. I don't really know what I'm doing so I start googling. 10 minutes later I come across this website called Buzzstream Discovery. Turns out I've hit the jackpot. Buzzstream is amazing. You enter a search term and it spits back the names of all the bloggers who have written stories about that search term. So I enter "Kanye West", filter "within the last 30 days" and Buzzstream gives me a list of all 440 bloggers who have written stories about Kanye West over the last month. These bloggers are my perfect audience. It's their job to pump out, simple, funny, digestible stories about Kanye West and I'm about to spoon feed them a classic. Getting the names is only half the battle though. I've also got to get email addresses. I find this website called Hunter.io where you type the name of any company and it tells you the correct email format which that company uses. Four hours later 220 emails are locked away in an excel doc. I type up the following message: Hey, I just made a dating site for Kanye fans called Yeezy.Dating. Going crazy on Reddit atm. Any questions please let me know :) wack on my headphones, and play through Kanye's whole discography, whilst I send email after email after email after email after email. Go to sleep, wake up, and then I'm back commuting into London for a day's work. My phone rings during a meeting. I turn it to silent. It rings again. I turn it off. As soon as I get out of the meeting I check the database. 9,100 email address'. Surely this can't be real. I click refresh. Now 9,109. My mind freezes. I type Kanye's name into google and Yeezy Dating is everywhere. I check analytics. 250 people online. 65 unread emails. Then lunch break is over and I'm being called back in for another meeting. It's 10pm when I arrive back from work. The press momentum is still rolling on. It feels good to know that my big plan worked. 25 news anchors coast to coast are discussing my imaginery dating site and I'm just in my bedroom, in my pyjamas with an old Macbook pro making the whole thing up as I go along. I start a big Yeezy Dating group chat, and invite everyone from my email list. 7:40 am the next day and I get a text from my pal saying, "Tune into BBC Radio 1. They're talking about Yeezy Dating right now and they want to speak to you". Guess where I am? On a two hour train from Portsmouth to London for another day of meetings. I try and dial into Radio 1 but there's no signal. I'm cooped up on this train carriage and I'm stressing out. The database has over 13,000 emails now. I've told the media the dating site is "Coming This March", its now 17th March and I haven't written a line of code. And to top it all off, I've got no idea how to make a dating site. I get back that evening, call my boss and tell him that I'm going to be out of action for a few months. He asks why. So I tell him I'll be making a dating site for Kanye West fans. He bursts out laughing, wishes me luck and that's that. I'm a free man. Viral It's time to build a dating site. First things first I scout other dating sites looking for something I can copy. The whole Tinder / Bumble swiping thing is too complex. I find a Jewish Dating site called J Date which looks promising. All user profiles are displaying on one long infinite scroll page. A few months earlier I did Wes Bos' "Learn Node" course where he does a similar thing with restaurants. I start merging J Date with some lessons from Wes' course and I'm up and running. At this point, there isn't much to tell you. There's no secret ingredient. Just long days laying bricks. 10 months ago I hadn't written a line of code before and it was too hard. One week into Yeezy Dating it's still too hard. Webpack is a mess and I don't know how to save geoJSON data. Boo-hoo. Nobody cares. I don't care. Figure it out. Everyone else figured it out. I write I AM HARRY DRY on a sheet of paper, buy some Blu Tack and pin it to my wall. Every time I get stuck I look up at the words and snarl. It's Street Fighter II. I'm coding like Diego Costa plays football. No technique. No Barcelona academy. Rampaging from obstacle to obstacle. Problem after Problem. Forum after forum. I'm becoming the most hated man on Stack Overflow. And I'm loving every second of it. Launch I wake up one fine spring morning and it's all done. I'm a couple of weeks late, but that's ok. I fix the final bug from the lab at 3 pm and post on Instagram to build some hype. Then I cycle to town and walk into Vodafone. I tell the store manager I'm "just browsing" whilst I test the site on all their different devices. iPhone's are zooming in on my input fields and it's looking wierd. Damn. I pitch up in Starbucks next door, grab a croissant, and start googling. Turns out my font size needs to be 16px on iOS to the stop auto zoom. I head back into Vodafone, "more browsing" I tell the store manager, and the problems solved. Happy Days. The Yeezy Dating group chat still has a buzz about it. Several hundred messages a day. They're like my army of ultra fans. My plan is to launch with them first to test the site works. I'm back at home, dotting i's crossing t's. Suddenly I have 10 mentions in Telegram. The ultras have found the site and have started making profiles. 10 profiles are up. Now 20. Now 30. Shit. It's happening. Beautiful profile photos appearing up on my screen. Real people are on the site. Real people are matching each other. Real people are messaging. It's working. And I made all of this! Hahaha. Look at me go. I post on Instagram saying that Yeezy.Dating is open for business. Suddenly 200 people flood to the site. Now, legend says that the fisherman on shore only sees a tsunami a couple of seconds before it hits. Capow! Left, right, center, profile images start disappearing. 5 pictures vanishing every second. I refresh the page, images disappearing everywhere. Time slows down. I can't think straight. 3 minutes later the site is stripped bare. 350 profiles. No images. I load up Heroku. 6,700 critical errors. Dad potters in from the kitchen to see how the big launch is going. Not great I tell him. I woke up Steve Jobs. I'm ending the day Steve Harvey. The site's properly crashed now. I'm trying to put out fires everywhere but nothing's working. I can't do this anymore. I apologise to my followers on Instagram, I apologise to the ultras on Telegram, and I fall into bed. Reborn Next day I wake up and do nothing. Eat some cereal. Watch some Peep Show. I'm still at a low ebb. I manage to write a post on the Indie Hackers forum explaining the site crashing and what went wrong with the images. Quite remarkably developers start giving me their email address, offering me help. I'm blown away by their generosity. Within 24 hours there are five pro developers digging through my code. Several changes later they give it the all clear. "Good luck", one texts me from Singapore. A few days later Yeezy.Dating launches again. The feeling is different this time. The first time it felt like the biggest thing in my universe. This time around I've got perspective. There a bigger things in life. If it crashes, it crashes. Testing with the ultras goes well so I start emailing my big list. 1,500 users join within 10 hours. 2,500 within 24 hours. Then 4,200. But growth is slowing. My intuition is telling me that the parties going to end soon. Where's the next 4,000 coming from? There's no marketing budget, no development team, it's just me. Replying to all the emails, fixing all the bugs, trying to keep the momentum up and I'm tired. We need an app. I'm not an app developer. We need ten thousand users for dating to work. I don't know how to get ten thousand more users. The novelty is starting to wear off. I'm thinking 5 moves ahead and I can see cheque mate on the horizon. There's only one way out the water tank. I've got to get Kanye West involved. Billboards So I'm back in the lab. Emailing away. Managers, ex-managers, stylists, PR relations, anyone who has ever worked for YEEZY on Linkedin. But nothing. No replies. I can't get through. I ask my Dad for advice. "You've got to think on a bigger scale son", he tells me. So now I'm thinking what if I make a video, or a mixtape, or a magazine or a painting, or I rent a plane and fly a banner. Then it hits me. I'm going to rent Billboards. YEEZY is opening offices in Calabasas, New York, London, Wyoming. Four locations. Four billboards. Ten minutes later I'm on the phone with Billboard companies. Quizzing them. What's your pricing like? What type of Billboard would you recommend? How quickly can we do this? What's the shortest time each Billboard can stay up for? And in my head, the billboards are already in the sky. But, the next day, I wake up with cold feet. Two halves of my mind in deep discussion: "Two months wages. On three billboards. You're crazy." "Don't use money as an excuse. You know that's not the reason." "Why don't I want to do it then?" "Cause you're scared. Your afraid of what people might think." "But …" "No, don't give me no buts. Relax your mind. You're not going to let the mob control you. Let's do it." So I draft my Dad onto the campaign team and it starts to come together. He's in his element. We take over my brother's bedroom and set up basecamp. Dad buys three alarm clocks, sets one to New York time, one to LA time and one to Wyoming time. "You've got to know your timezone, son," he tells me. The sun goes down once more and now it's the day of the Billboards. I'm working like an Octopus, organising photographers, drafting emails, teeing up interviews and everything starts coming together. London. New York. Wyoming. All confirmed. There's less than an hour to go, and suddenly WACK. 8:11 pm an email drops into my inbox from Lamar, the Billboard provider, and my head spins like I've walked onto Tyson Fury's right hand. (The email essentially says, "we can't run the ads because of legal reasons of you using Kanye West's name") See the actual site for an actual photo) Lamar's supposed to be covering both New York and Wyoming. Without them, I'm left with just one Billboard in London and that's not enough. I'm calling this whole thing off. The game's up. It's over. I'm safe again. Life's comfortable. No billboards. No problems. I walk downstairs to show Dad the email. He looks up at me, smiles like it's nothing, and says "Don't worry. We'll find a way". And maybe that's why you need a team because in that moment I wanted an excuse to give up but the old man wasn't blinking so we fought on. Phone calls start flying everywhere. On one phone I'm hammering the account manager. On the other Dad's posing as a BBC journalist, throwing jab after jab at their legal department, "The kid spent two days clearing this with intellectual property lawyers", "We've got a camera crew waiting outside Times Square as we speak". It's 9 pm now. A wonderful soul called Candice is waiting in the New York rain eyes glued to the Billboard ready to take the photo, but she isn't going to wait all day. Suddenly Dad's beckoning me over. If we change, "Kanye West" for "Mr. West" the legal department will approve it. My gut tells me it's good enough. I export the new text and send to the account manager in Times Square. 5 minutes later the Billboards are live. Candice takes the photo. It appears in my inbox. And I take a deep breath. [See https://thekanyestory.com for the photos and interviews] Soon after, the Wyoming and London Billboard's go up. I start attaching the photos to the drafts we prepped, sending out our emails, hoping to get lucky again. A couple of stories start breaking, journalists start requesting interviews and back down into the depths of the Maelström we descend. The phone rings and rings and it could be anyone on the line. I'm wished luck, sold insurance, thrown onto live radio, taunted by youths, offered jobs, reunited with old school friends. I check twitter. Kanye's name is trending. My heart jumps. Surely not. Have I made it? I click. My heart sinks. "Kanye West has just said 400 years of slavery sounds like a choice". And from there on in I'm dead in the water. A tadpole in a shark tank. The media is at Kanye saturation. Journalists have bigger fish to fry and my little story is left on the shelf. Ok, one last try. I track down Yeezy Headquarters on Google Maps, find the phone number of some offices nearby and start dialing. I start telling this receptionist about the dating site, about the Billboards, and I can't believe it but she's actually listening to me. "Funnily enough my best friend A***** works at Yeezy" "If I send you an email could you forward it on?" "Sure" And that's that. Now I can go to bed, wake up the next day and get on with my life. A few weeks pass and, lo and behold, an email from A****** drops into my inbox. [See "The Kanye Story" website for the actual email from Kanye's team. It basically says they love the idea and the CFO of YEEZY wants to talk with me] And a few hours I get sent a screenshot from Kanye's office chat.[Again, see website. This is basically Kanye's office people talking about site and saying, "direct email Kendall, bcc Chris Jenner. Tell Kanye."] I can't help but smile. After all my efforts emailing journalists, practicing for radio interviews, writing press releases, retouching images, all it took was a simple phone call to the company whose office was next door. YEEZY And that's how we got to now. It's 9:52 pm, Thursday 24th May. In ten minutes time, I'll be on the phone with the CFO of Kanye West's Billion Dollar company. I remember sitting round with my uni housemates last year talking about what the future would hold for all of us. They were all saying, "I'm applying for a finance job" or "I'll do a masters ", stuff like that. And it came to me and I said, "I'm going travel to Nazareth, learn to code, come back to England, finish my book, learn about business and start my own stuff." They were used to my spiel now and started groaning, "None of this shit's going to happen Dry. The real world's going to chop you up and spit you out. You're going to be stuck in the rat race, clocking in, clocking off, packed onto the tube, just like all of us." I smiled. "Tell me that again". So they did. "Reality is going to grind you down. You're going to be clock watching, Monday to Friday. There's nothing you can do about it. And you know it." "Tell me that that one more time", I said. So they did. And I smiled even more. I'm not saying I've done anything yet cause I haven't. But at least I've stuck to my word. I've tried and given it a go. So there we go. Thanks for reading and making it all the way to the bottom. I'm @harrydry on Twitter. I also write an email newsletter about startups, marketing and breaking free which you can find over on https://thekanyestory.com Thanks again and peace out!
And for anyone still hating maybe watch this one before calling me a charlatan! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 31 Mar 2019 12:32 PM PDT Are these good businesses? Has anyone here ever owned one? What are the best type of route businesses to own? Is it possible to be successful buying one of these businesses with no prior fedex experience? [link] [comments]  |
| $6k/month selling allergy-proof earrings. Posted: 31 Mar 2019 09:15 AM PDT Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview. Today's interview is with Jackie Burke of Tini Lux, a brand that sells biocompatible earrings. Some stats:
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?My name is Jackie Burke and I am the founder of Tini Lux. Tini Lux is the first line of fashion earrings made specifically for people with metal allergies and sensitive ears. Tini Lux is an e-commerce business and our customers are mainly women between the ages of 18 and 45 who were previously not able to wear earrings because of their sensitive skin or allergies. I started my business in November 2017, the same month that I moved from Washington, DC to New Jersey, started a new job, AND was in the middle of planning a wedding. I got married in July 2018 and was working full time as an engineer the entire time, so to be honest, the first 9 months I barely put any time into my business and it showed. After July, I had a lot more free time outside of work and was able to focus on Tini Lux and at that point my business really started to noticeably grow. In the 15 months since launch, and especially in the last 6 months, Tini Lux has continued to grow slowly but steadily each month and has gained a very loyal following. Some of my customers' emails have actually made me cry! Many women, like me, hadn't worn earrings in over a decade and are so happy to finally be able to wear them again. This month, Susan Kelechi Watson, a star of the NBC show This Is Us is was on the COVER of Good Housekeeping magazine wearing a pair of Tini Lux earrings. Seeing that cover photo was a serious pinch-me moment. What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?In college, I stopped wearing earrings because every pair I tried, even the ones labeled "hypoallergenic," gave me extremely painful reactions and even caused my piercings to bleed. I researched online and asked around and so many people had the same problem. The solutions online said to try things like putting clear nail polish on your earrings or putting vaseline on your piercings. None of those "hacks" worked. At that point I just resigned myself to not wearing earrings again. A few years later, when fashion influencers became really popular on Instagram, I started buying everything my favorite bloggers posted. Unfortunately, they always wore the cutest earrings and I could never buy any of them. So one day I decided to do some serious Google-ing because I knew there had to be someone that had created skin-friendly earrings by then. Deep within the pages of Google, I found a woman who was selling very basic titanium studs. They were made of pure titanium and manufactured by a medical implant manufacturer. She explained how titanium is an inert metal that does not react with the human body, which is why it is used in medical implants. Because of that, it is perfect for earrings. I ordered a pair right away. They completely healed my piercings and I wore them for weeks with absolutely no issues. The only problem was that I wanted fun statement earrings and hoop earrings that looked high end and I couldn't find any that were made with titanium. As I continued to look for fashionable titanium earrings I learned that more than 20% of the population, like me, has developed a contact allergy to metal. I also continued talking to other people about it and it seemed like every person I asked either had reactions to earrings or knew someone that did. Eventually, I realized that the product I was looking for did not exist. There were zero earrings on the market that people with metal allergies could safely wear. At that point I decided to design my own and Tini Lux was born shortly afterwards. I knew I wanted Tini Lux to be a direct to consumer e-commerce business. I do almost all of my shopping online and I felt like that was the best way to reach people. The only market research I did before launching was asking around to friends and family to see if they had problems with earrings or knew anyone who did. I knew in my gut that there was a market for this product and didn't need a lot of convincing to go after this idea. I studied Nuclear Engineering in college (at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) and had worked as an engineer for 5 years when I launched my business. Although engineering is great for thinking analytically and logically, the skill sets I honed in engineering had very little (if any) overlap with the skill sets I needed to launch an e-commerce fashion business. Every step of the way has been a huge learning experience. I have learned so much about business in the last 15 months. There is so much information available online but until you've put it into practice and seen the results it isn't that useful. Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.I started by reaching out to manufacturers. I found the medical implant manufacturer that made the original pair of titanium studs that I bought and asked her if she could make a couple other styles. I have been ordering from her since then. She is only able to produce basic stud styles though, so I contacted a few manufacturers in China to see if they could produce the remainder of the earrings. Now, my US manufacturer creates the studs which I send to my manufacturer in China who then creates the rest of the earring. Although it is more expensive and complicated to have two different manufacturers for a single pair of earrings, it is very important that the portion of the earring that is in contact with your ear is 100% pure titanium so that is why I do it that way. I know when I order from my US manufacturer that the earrings are pure titanium with no alloyed metals or trace elements that could potentially cause an allergy. Titanium is very difficult to manufacture because of its high melting point which is why it is rarely used in jewelry so that was an added challenge. Once I found a manufacturer in China to create the rest of the earrings I started designing. I designed a simple line of 12 pairs of earrings, all of which I wanted to wear myself and felt that other women in my target demographic of 18-40 would also want to wear. I have since learned a lot about what my customers like and it has informed my designs going forward. I used to be very reactionary when I added new pieces, for example, if someone said they wanted to see silver I would put in an order for silver pieces right away. Now, I have learned that I can't make decisions based on one or two customers or advice from friends and family. It is more important to look at the data and see what people actually are buying and make informed, thoughtful decisions about what to design and add to the collection. I never ordered samples from any of my manufacturers because the cost per item was so expensive. Ordering from my US manufacturer has been very straightforward because the designs are so simple, so I really never needed samples. Looking back, I wish I had ordered samples from my Chinese manufacturer. They have done a good job and I am still working with them, but I think from a design perspective I would have done things differently if I had physical prototypes of the designs rather than just my sketches. The woman I have been working with in China has been very good about sending me photos throughout their manufacturing process and letting me make changes as needed. Overall, it has been a pretty seamless process to work with Chinese manufacturers and I have been happy with their work. Packaging has been iterative. I started with bubble mailers and since have moved on to biodegradable cardboard boxes from Eco Enclose. They are more durable and professional looking than bubble mailers and it is very important to me that my packaging has a low environmental impact. I also like Eco Enclose because they make custom sized boxes and I can order in small quantities. I typically place orders for a few hundred boxes at a time, whereas many companies require you to place orders in the thousands. Describe the process of launching the business.I "launched" my business on Shopify. It was a very, very, very small launch (I basically just texted my friends and family to say it was live). I really didn't know what I was doing at that point and didn't have any kind of social media following so I barely had any traffic the first few months. Shopify makes it pretty easy to customize your website. I bought a custom theme after a few months and have tweaked my site over and over again since I first launched. I don't even remember what the original version looked like but it was definitely bad. As I said above, I launched this is as a side hustle during the same time I moved to a different state, started a new full-time job, and was planning a wedding. So the first 9 months of my business being live I had very little time to put into it so business was very slow. However, I did have customers within the first week. I used Google Adwords from the beginning and targeted keywords related to hypoallergenic earrings and sensitive ears. My first sale was to my mother-in-law but within a week I had a "stranger" purchase a pair of earrings from me and that was such a cool feeling. The first month a lot of my sales were to friends-of-friends but after about 2 months the vast majority of my sales were to "strangers" so that was when I knew I was on to something. It took about 9 months for me to start having multiple orders, every single day. But, it was my side-hustle and I knew nothing about launching a business so if I had put more time and effort into it I definitely could have seen results and sales earlier. I have financed everything myself, 100% from the beginning. There have been many months where I have carried a credit card balance, but I haven't taken on any outside investment. Like I said before, I had been working as an engineer for 5 years so I had some money saved. I have also continued to work since launching the business so I have had money to pay my bills and continue investing in the business as I go. My initial investment was just the cost of inventory and my monthly Shopify fee of $29. From there, I have had smaller costs like ordering packaging and office supplies. The biggest expense has been advertising. I have been spending anywhere from a few hundred a month to a few thousand on ads on Google and Facebook as well as influencer advertising. Before I started my business I thought my only cost would be the physical goods, but advertising is the biggest ongoing cost by far. Lessons Learned Around 9 months in I finally invested in professional product photography from POW Photography and that was the single most important investment that I have made. It was ~$2000 and I wish I had done it from day one. It is SO important to have good product photography because the photos are the only thing the customer has to go on when they purchase items online. I wish I had tried to build a following or some momentum on social media before the launch. Building a following from nothing is very difficult and takes a long time, so the earlier you start the better. There were a lot of moments in the planning process that would have been cool to document and would have made people feel a part of the process. Don't invest in influencer marketing until you are ready. I thought that I could just pay for a few sponsored posts and my Instagram account and sales would blow up, but it doesn't really work that way. Same with advertising, don't dump a bunch of money into ads for a site that isn't going to convert. Make sure that your social media presence is something of value that people will want to follow and make sure that your site is convincing and easy to use. Have your email marketing ready to go from the beginning. Your email list will be so valuable (my conversion rate from email is very high, and it's free!). I use Privy to collect email addresses and then have automated welcome emails sent from MailChimp. It's such a great way to give your customers more information about your story and your brand. Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?For me, Google Ads and SEO/SEM have been the best and most effective way to reach customers. The fact that my earrings are stylish and pretty is an added bonus, but the real reason people are seeking out my earrings is that they react adversely to other earrings. If people start having reactions to earrings their first instinct is to Google their problem, so when people search for things like "why do earrings bother my ears" and see my ad explaining why my earrings are different. Additionally, I have focused a lot in the last 6 months on content marketing. I read case studies on Blue Bottle Coffee and Casper mattress about how they use content marketing to drive traffic and I have implemented the same strategies. Essentially, I am working on creating a blog post or landing page for any potential search topic related to earrings and optimizing that page by including other long tail keywords in the content. So for example, I have a blog post dedicated to the search term above "What are the best metals for sensitive ears?" This strategy has helped improve my ranking in Google, and my conversion rate from this organic traffic is extremely high, some months it is almost 20% compared to a typical ecommerce conversion rate of ~1-2%. Email marketing has also worked very well for retaining customers. When a customer joins my email list, I send them a 15% off coupon and then send them a series of three welcome emails over a couple of weeks that give them more information about my brand and the products. I try not to bombard my customers with emails, I usually send them once or twice a month when I am running a sale or introducing a new product. I like to do flash sales for my subscribers and those are always very popular. I run Facebook ads but my conversion rate from them is very low. They have been good for driving traffic to my website but the traffic takes much longer to convert than the traffic from Google. I think that Facebook could be a really great way to attract customers, but I haven't given it the focus and time that it needs. Improving my Facebook advertising is one of my goals for this year. I am active on my Pinterest page but I have not attempted any Pinterest ads yet. I think this could be a valuable tool for customer acquisition because it functions as its own search engine, but I have not had the time to utilize it fully. I have all my products listed on Amazon, but very rarely get a sale from there. Again, I haven't given it the time and focus that it probably needs. I may try to improve my Amazon presence this year because it is a search engine in its own right and something crazy like 1 out of every 4 dollars spent online is spent on Amazon. I also sell on Etsy, and that accounts for ~10-20% of my sales each month. I tried to optimize my product listings and use their promoted listings on a few of my more popular items and that seems to work well. I just hired a PR team this month to help with my goal of building brand awareness. For PR so far, I have just reached out to media outlets on my own and have responded to HARO inquiries. This has lead to a few placements, but I'm confident that a dedicated PR team will make a huge difference in spreading the word about my brand. There are many articles around the web listing "hacks" for wearing earrings like painting clear nail polish on the posts, so I reached out to bloggers who wrote those articles to see if they would give my earrings a try. Some have responded and tried them and I have gotten a lot of traffic and sales from the resulting blog posts like this. My magazine cover placement was not a result of PR, it came through a stylist who saw my earrings and liked the style. Ultimately I have just found it's much harder to compete based on looks alone. There are thousands of earrings available to consumers so when they are just looking for something that's cute it's hard to stand out. But, when people are specifically looking for a pair of earrings that won't cause a reaction, my earrings sell themselves. So I am always trying to find better ways of reaching those specific customers rather than trying to market to anyone looking for earrings. How are you doing today and what does the future look like?Last month was the first month that I was profitable. My gross margins are around 80% which is great, but I spent a lot of money over the last year trying out different advertising and customer acquisition strategies and many of them did not have a positive return on investment which is why I am just now becoming profitable. My returning customer rate is ~20%, overall conversion rate ~2%, and my website is getting around 6,000 visitors per month. My website accounts for 80-90% of my sales and then I have another 10-20% of sales coming from Etsy. I am projecting that my sales this year will be about 4x higher than last year. Now that I am profitable and have a better understanding of my business, my customers, and ecommerce in general, I have really high expectations for this coming year. I am planning a couple new product launches that my customers have been asking for over the past year. I plan to work with a PR firm to improve my brand awareness and have more targeted, thoughtful influencer and media partnerships planned. Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?Invest in professional product photography. I had terrible product photos that I took myself for the first 9 months and my revenue literally doubled the first month that I updated my photos with professional ones. It was expensive but they paid for themselves almost instantly. I should have done that from the beginning. Don't spend money to drive people to your business if you aren't ready! Don't spend money on advertising if your website is not ready to convert. That money will just be wasted. I also spent a few thousand dollars to attend a trade show about 3 months into launching my business and only got about $500 in sales from it. I was not ready to attend a trade show and I'm sure it was obvious to all the buyers there. I also picked a trade show that really wasn't suited for my product. I also spent a lot of money early on on influencer collaborations that didn't do anything for me. If you are going to pay for influencer collaborations make sure you have a clear vision for what you want out of them. If you are an ecommerce business, content marketing and SEO are slow but they are worth it. Invest your time and money into this because it will pay off down the line. Don't take advice from anyone (friends, family, etc) that hasn't started their own business or is not a professional in the field! Just because someone listened to a podcast or read an article about marketing doesn't mean they know what they are talking about. EVERYONE has an opinion and thinks they know what you should or shouldn't do. In general, if you have limited time and resources then focus on the things that work for you instead of trying to do everything. I know Google Ads and SEO/SEM works for me so I put my time and money into optimizing those channels. Other marketing and advertising efforts haven't been as successful for me so for now I am not worrying about them. I read The One Thing and realized that multitasking just means you are doing a lot of things poorly. It is better to wholeheartedly do one thing that works. What platform/tools do you use for your business?I use Shopify as my ecommerce platform. Shopify is so easy to use and has all the tools you need, I would definitely recommend it. For Shopify apps, I use Judge.Me for reviews, Pagefly for building custom pages, Quickbooks for bookkeeping and taxes, EasyDonation so customers can donate to our charitable partner, Pre-Order Now for items that are backordered, and MailChimp for email marketing. I would recommend all of these apps, they have worked well for me and most are free or very inexpensive. I also use the free version of Airtable for creating a content calendar. For social media, I use Tailwind to schedule posts on pinterest, and Lightroom for editing Instagram photos. What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?Podcasts
Books Methods of Persuasion: How to Use Psychology to Influence Human Behavior by Nick Kolenda - This book is really great for understanding how to write copy and ads that move people. I implemented a lot of the strategies from this book and it honestly increased my revenue by more than 10% within a month. I highly recommend it. The One Thing by Gary Keller: The gist is that you should focus on one thing at a time rather than multitasking Anything from Rand Fishkin (founder of Moz) Particularly this video: 7 Lessons That Will Make You a Better Entrepreneur Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?Be patient and persistent. My motto is "No Zero Days." In other words, do something every single day that contributes to your business. Whether it is just a social media post or an email to a media outlet, those efforts will add up and over time you will see the growth from them. But you should also understand that it will take time to see results and that is okay. Just keep showing up and learning and improving everyday and you will see growth. Be very focused on the things that are effective. Don't try to do a bunch of different things and spread yourself thin. For example: Google Ads have been very effective for me and have consistently given me a positive ROI. Facebook ads have not. So I spend more time and money on optimizing my Google Ads than struggling with Facebook ads. You can't please everyone and your product will not be for everyone. I have made changes to my designs and product based on the feedback of friends or individual customers and for every change you make to please one person, another person will say they liked the original version better. You should always aim to make your customers happy but you will never be every single person's cup of tea so the sooner you accept that the better. Don't take advice from people who haven't started their own business. Everyone thinks they know what they are talking about but if they haven't done it before then they don't. Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?I am not hiring any full time positions at the moment but hopefully will have positions opened in the next year. Stay tuned! If anyone is interested in interning, email me at info@tinilux.com. Where can we go to learn more?If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below! Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data. Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM [link] [comments]  |
| Any advice/experience with hiring a web development company Posted: 31 Mar 2019 10:14 AM PDT In San Francisco. I'm learning to code to build a web company I've been working towards for a while, but think it might be better to hire someone for lots of reasons. Experience, collaboration, outside perspective, security. It doesn't feel right yet to just be coding this by myself. I learn so much more working with people. Any experience or things to watch out for? Referrals maybe? [link] [comments]  |
| How to start a Life Coaching business? Posted: 31 Mar 2019 01:54 PM PDT Hi, I would like to start a life coaching business because I feel my passion is to help others become the best version of themselves. My questions are: 1. Should I make an LLC or C Corp etc.? 2. How should I get my first clients? 3. How do I advertise? [link] [comments]  |
| I wouldn't treat people like Rogers does.... Posted: 31 Mar 2019 01:35 PM PDT Please read this blog and share if you feel the same way. I want to create a community that rallies to enforce fair practices for Canadians... Please feel free to give comments, suggestions, and opinions https://lookingforthereal.wordpress.com/2019/03/31/rogers-vows-to-keep-customer-service-as-is/ [link] [comments]  |
| Scratching my own itch, branching out to new skills Posted: 31 Mar 2019 11:39 AM PDT Years back I would post on here when I was running eCom businesses... I rolled that into getting into software sales straight out of college. A goal of mine, and I'm sure of many others, is to be both the builder and the seller for getting their ideas off the ground. Over the last 6 months I've been doing sales by day and teaching myself to code by night, finally launching a super super simple v1 of something I know my friends and I need, a jobs aggregator for software sales roles. I received a lot of help here a long time ago. I have a long way to go on this project but I know there are others who are closer to the starting line. If you're like me and primarily of a business mindset but thinking of getting into coding to launch your MVPs, feel free to drop me a line with questions or I can shoot you a link to the current project. I felt like the hardest part was knowing where to start and if that's how you feel too, I might have some resources to help. [link] [comments]  |
| There can be multiple LLCs with identical names as long as they are from different states/countries? Posted: 31 Mar 2019 11:33 AM PDT So I'm from the uk, not sure if that changes thing so I thought it would be useful to know. Also I'm not looking to literally buy Compname LLC, it's just a placeholder for the IP I'm trying to get. Let's say I wanted to buy the LLC name called 'compname'. The name was already taken but I want to still follow up with asking the current owners if they wish to sell the LLC just so I can get a bit more credibility as a legit looking company. My first question is, can there be an LLC which is identical to other LLCs but just be from a different state. I.e. both are called 'compname LLC' but one is from california and one from England. Second question: The current LLC I'm wishing to buy is called 'comp name UK LLC' but I'm wishing to have the LLC called 'compname LLC', is it important for the UK to be in the LLC name when the company is formed in the UK, also can I change the name once I have ownership of the LLC to take the spacing out of the words and create a single word like the brand I'm looking to build. Tdlr: basically I tried to buy the LLC called 'compname LLC' but it said that it was too similar to 'comp name UK LLC' so I'm now trying to buy that LLC off the current owners. Have some questions to ask. I heard it was best to gain the perfect company name for when it comes to trademarking etc? Thanks for the help [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for ideas? Flip your used stuff. Posted: 31 Mar 2019 10:38 AM PDT Hey! Two months ago a neighbor moved out and left me a box of gamecube and ps2 games. I used craigslist, letgo, eBay, and Mercari. Mercari was by far the best platform to work with for items that are cost effective to ship. Craigslist is still king for the majority of markets but letgo has opportunities. eBay - I loathe you. From the initial inventory I sold $60 worth on craigslist and another $250 on Mercari. So far I have only pulled out $65 from the Mercari, and spent two months hunting for deals, I only bought items worth 1/8 - 1/4 of it's price. I stuck to what I knew D&D, Dreamcast, and Everquest. Also snagging some early Blizzard stuff. From this free box I pulled out $125 of income and have around $1800 in inventory. Now that is the money part. To set myself apart I used some simple best practices for product photography to enhance my photographs. Make sure to complete these four steps. Photograph the item Post the item Package the item Store the item When the item sells all you have to do is print out a label and mail it. Ask me anything you want about my small side hustle. [link] [comments]  |
| Have you ever found a partner that's not your friend? Posted: 31 Mar 2019 02:49 AM PDT Is it possible to find a business partner that is not your friend (or friend of a friend). I don't mean a partner only in a financial sense, but someone who puts work in making the product. Theoretically, anything's possible, so I want to know if anyone has first-hand experience on that? Edit: I didnt mean like be friends or not be friends with a partner. Im asking if you can ever be partner with a person you just met (Aka not a friend). Is it realistic to expect to go to some event to find a partner rightaway without years of friendship? [link] [comments]  |
| Business ideas for private therapist Posted: 31 Mar 2019 10:06 AM PDT Hi guys, I was hoping someone could give me some insight into areas that are in demand or full of potential in the future. I am an occupational therapist interested in private practice (psychotherapy, CBT, and MSK rehab). I would appreciate anyone who could give me information on the market and what is currently in demand. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Are there any good stories of transforming from a team to a company? Posted: 31 Mar 2019 09:42 AM PDT The context: a Senior Tech Team (software developers mainly) is to start an independent adventure. I am not asking what to do. I'd rather read some interesting stories full of insights and facts. Not textbooks, nor a fiction. Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 31 Mar 2019 09:17 AM PDT As most of you know, one ranking factor on Google is word count. Usually if you have higher quality content and more words, you'll rank higher than your competition. I made this because I'm a freelance developer and needed some experience making chrome extensions. I'm posting this because active users on my extension look good to my future clients and adds social proof. Just wanted to be really clear. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/web-page-word-count/poojadbpgpkiokkenipihadhecgphkfh [link] [comments]  |
| advice on a very peculiar situation... Posted: 31 Mar 2019 08:54 AM PDT good evening fellow redditers! tks in advance for reading the following tale and for any advice you may have! buckle up, its a long one (although hopefully our collective wisdom can come up with a few lesson to help others). --- So, 2.5years ago i joined a startup active in the autonomous robotics field, focused in increasing efficiency in renewable energy maintenance and ops. Clearly, a very specific niche, completely b2b and whose clients are ultimately rather large organizations - but in a very "exciting" and "upcoming" tech space blending hardware/software, iot, etc... The company actually began 4 years ago by a friend of mine who was solo founder, but backed by a public-private investment firm that only funds renewable-related startups - (apparently this made valuation go from 0 to 1M kind of "magically", before any prototype or really, any actual product work was started. clap-clap?). As the entrepeneur in this case had a science background (i myself am a business major and have worked in different countries, for organizations of different sizes, and had my own business in the past) we actually spoke at length during the process he went through setting up the business, getting his first coupe engineers, and actually having an MVP. When he needed to create a board of directors, he asked me to join, as his "delegated" director (4 members, founder has casting vote). At that moment, the company started getting its first enquiries from potential clients, and since they could finally afford paying a salary, i was invited to "officially" join the pre-client, pre-revenue startup as their "COO" (LOL, i know! :D wtf does that mean anyway!?). The actual job was to ensure all the daily operations of the business run smoothly. This meant creating and maintaining systems from acc/fin to HR admin/hiring to marketing to ops, and I even helped in the tech/IT admin side as I find that calming! :) I thought "hell, why not? these guys may actually be on to something but they clearly dont know a lot abt running a business, and i know i can help" - so i said yes, even though pay was shit (literally minimum wage!!!) and NO EQUITY WAS OFFERED AT THE TIME (the usual "lets talk about it latter" scenario... i think you may know where this is going now! :D) After i joined the company (sept 2016), we won a few awards and grants, from applications/submissions i wrote (and stellar pitches given by the founder/ceo!!), got our first client (i went to a different continent to deliver the 20k usd kit to equip the client's robots and link up to our software, then did it again last xmas when his operation doubled in size) and hired a few more engineers. Tech wise, we're still using 2 year old version in "production" - suffice to say shit runs on ubuntu 14!!! theres only 3 engineers fulltime, all above average, but only 1 (!!!) is actually a computer scientist, the other are engineers who code... but the product does work, we've served over 1000 "units" of it, and feedback from industry has been pretty great (although its clearly still seen as a "nice to have" and not a "must have" kind of solution) Fast forward to 2019 and the company is kind of stuttering even though we had our best year last year in revenue (100k,,, :/) and have actually signed up two new clients in Q1 - but the industry is moving fast, our CEO spent most of last year depressing about a failed fundraising round, then on a "startup accelerator" program abroad to "recover his mojo",,, and finally the competition has MUUUUCH deeper pockets (couple of companies,, have raised dozens of millions from vc and work with some of the same enterprise clients we have). Basically he spends most of his time selling, as he should, but unfortunately most of it is spent selling chunks of his company, rather than his companies products/services. In the meantime, I've actually been crazy busy building his business, haven't taken a proper holiday since I joined (literally, 4 days off in 2.5 years!!) and never felt this close to burnout (but im a horse,,, and can handle it "well"-ish. just gimme my caffeine!) "Fortunately", there finally seems to be a new investor in the picture, and a binding TS has been signed for a 1M round at aprox 4M valuation. (YAY??). Now here's where the fun stars,, right? Well, in truth, the 4x members of the core team, myself included (but excluding the CEO and current 66% (!!) owner) have been feeling increasingly uneasy with the "overworked and underpaid, but too busy to talk about equity" routine and have started to care less and less - at least, i see clear signs of this in the team. I've brought it up with the CEO and he seems to think that its "my opinion" and that "the team is fine"... so, after much talking and little doing over the years (everyone is always "so busy",,,,) CEO finally found sometime to prepare a 7 slide presentation that concluded with a table that was borderline funny, if it wasn't so tragic!! He listed our 4 names in the columns (myself, and the 3 engineers, which he now deems the "core employees", and the rows were: "percentage of my equity", "money value of that equity" and "cash bonus". The percentages was around 4% each,, then he had the nerve of multiplying that by the valuation of the upcoming round (!!!) and presenting us a dollar value in the hundreds of thousands... the cash bonus row on the other hand read "8 thousand". The "cherry" on the cake? 50% of the shares on offer were actual shares, from his stash... the other 50% were actually to come out from a "to-be-created-eventually" esop, WITH TWO YEAR VESTING!! :D:D:D:D:D:D Naturally, I left that meeting and went on a two-week "vacation" immediately. Which brings us to the present day. I came back from holidays, all is "business as usual" he keeps saying that "end of next month" the deal should close (and paperwork signed,, making us 4 "official shareholders", and "getting a Mill in the bank", while "maintaining control" (barely,, like 50.01% counting with us 4). We are about to start another season of field operations, meaning ill be out of the office most of the time actually "bringing home the bacon", while him and the engineers keep "daydreaming" next-version-features back in the office. Ok, now, all bitterness aside (hard, yes, but i think I can do it), i actually think this is mostly just the work of an unseasoned and naive entrepreneur, who CLEARLY, has never done, nor thought abt any of this before (before going on holiday, i told him to read "hard thing about hard things", which he actually did for once - first business book he has completed in years!!! likes to say hes a "slow reader"!!!) - and NOT the work of some evil genius visionary. The team is almost as "oblivious", none of the engineers ever heard or really understood what an esop even is!! (ye, have i mentioned we're a loooooooooong way from silicon valley here?) Which brings me to my options: A) "fuckit!" you know how Jared from Silicon Valley always has his resignation letter ready to hand in!?! :D well, I've been carrying one in my pocket for the two weeks I've been back. Just need to date and sign it and done! but there goes the 1%, give or take, of common stock i'd end up owning after this round. Then go start/join new projects in completely different industries, etc.. (is the ICO craze still going on!?!?! :D) B) "take a job with the competition" Im pretty sure I can walk into a job with one the leading competitors, at the middle-management level. funny thing is that job would pay me around 5x what i take home today as "COO" :D However, that would get me back to working for "the man", which is exactly what I thought I was "escaping" from when I joined this startup! :P C) "show him how its done!" Not being one that likes to admit defeat, I thought if there are any "checkmate" moves available to me. Here's what I came up with.. (warning: the following is VERY Machiavellian! :D) Remember how I said the whole team is pretty inexperience? well, turns out neither the company name, nor the main brand that the company uses was ever registered neither in the US, nor in the EU, only in home country. I can incorporate a delaware company using the name of his company (but that name is then "taken" for business, as a japanese company owns that trademark), then register the trademark of his company's product name (which is available also for incorporation), then buy a bunch of related domains and URLs - perhaps even file a utility patent, just for that "patent pending" stamp :P. Then I could either turn around to his company's competition and offer this corporation (effectively blocking his entry into US market without a major rebranding/marketing/legal costs) or offer it back to his company - for the 10% total ownership he should have offered me in the first place!! (im cheap, i know! ;) D) ... you tell me... how do i keep my dignity, not to mention my motivation, to stick with this prototype of a company when clearly, the owner is looking for employees and staff,,, not co-owners and partners? et pour la piece du resistance*,* the CEO and I are high school friends, have been in each others lives for decades, and very much enjoy each other's company outside the professional setting. I actually "miss" just hanging out, as you can imagine this whole mess has put quite the strain of the friendship. There's a saying in a funny language,, that translates to smtg like "you can lose the friend, but you can't miss the joke". Ideally, I'd like to keep the friend, but the joke DEFINITELY won't be on me... ok,, you did it! thanks for reaching ::: THE END ::: go get a cookie before you get busy replying! you deserve it!! :D Have a great weekend! --- TL,DR? hmmm founder of startup i helped build to 100k revenue over last 2.5 years offered me less than 1/5 of the amount ive put in sweat,, a.k.a abt 0.5% at NEXTs rounds valuation [link] [comments]  |
| Sending a cake a week via mail to customers - possible issues? Posted: 31 Mar 2019 08:42 AM PDT Okay, I have an idea for setting up a subscription-based business where customers can be sent a homemade cake once a week/month/etc. I know this idea has been done before, but I have a few questions/concerns, the most pressing being: It's food-related (and for human consumption) so are there rules and regulations I'd have to follow? I'm in the U.K. Would I need some kind of license, or would I legally need to follow guidelines such as displaying the EXACT calories, fat etc in each cake? Or can I literally just start out, and send cakes off to people. If anyone has any input on this it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for your time! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 31 Mar 2019 08:31 AM PDT I'm in the process of acquiring a specific printer for manufacturing. Does anyone have any experience with acquiring licenses to print NCAA/MLB/NFL Licenses? Any help would be great. [link] [comments]  |
| Should I include a "Facebook page like" micro goal in my sales funnel? (Music sales, band marketing) Posted: 31 Mar 2019 04:43 AM PDT I am currently coming up with a sales funnel for my band and I got most of it down except the top funnel. We want to mostly advertize using Facebook. So my question is: Should I create ads (e.g. playthtough videos of songs) target them to a genre specific audience in a specified location and have the ads' micro goal being "click on our webpage" from where they would be taken further down the funnel? Or should I create ads that go for Facebook Likes first as their micro goal and then create further ads that target only people that liked our Facebook page and have them go the our webpage form where they would be taken further down the funnel? Any experiences with that and reccommendations on what might work better? [link] [comments]  |
| Project Management Digest, March 2019 Posted: 31 Mar 2019 08:26 AM PDT Hi everybody, I write a monthly project management digest with the most popular, discussed, and informative articles from different resources and authors. I hope you'll find something interesting there. The digest also includes a few resources which may be useful for product owners and startups. Which topics are the most helpful for your personal growth and career? Also, feel free to share your favorite content for the next releases. [link] [comments]  |
| Any good place to hire web/mobile developers freelancers? Posted: 31 Mar 2019 08:09 AM PDT Hi I tried upwork and fiverrr but all I get are people that are not serious about working and just want to charge for chatting and wasting billed hours to gain more, I need some serious freelancers that will work for a one time payment when the work is done and I'm satisfied , It's a small project nothing serious any idea where I can find these serious developers? [link] [comments]  |
| What is your opinion on this really niche type of eCommerce stores? Posted: 31 Mar 2019 08:08 AM PDT So I know of several companies in my country that focus on creating lots of small eCommerce stores instead of bigger ones. Often times they create shops with exact (or near) match domains that focus on just one product group. An example would be they would have a webshop with domain coaxcables.com selling coax cables and a webshop with domain wirelessheadsets.com selling only wireless headsets and so forth with 10s if not 100s of shops. It seems that they to tend to rank pretty well for these keywords too even though I can imagine it should be harder to rank them without having the SEO power of a big eCom store behind it. I'm interested in hearing your opinions on this approach to eCommerce VS. more broad eCommerce stores. [link] [comments]  |
| Launching unique products on amazon Posted: 31 Mar 2019 07:57 AM PDT Hey! I'm a product designer and after doing some products for customers to sell on Amazon i thought about trying it out myself. Most of the projects i done has been small improvements or direct copies of existing products, and the Amazon search tools i have looked at is designed to look for already existing products to private label which i find incredibly boring. I have some ideas for some products that doesn't really exist. Does there exist something like google trends but for amazon so that i can check if people search for a certain word even if no product exists? As far as i understand the keyword searcher tools outputs data based on existing products. Example: If the product "Green plastic banana with a hat" doesn't exist, is there a way to see how many people searches for it anyways on Amazon? Anyway if anyone have experience launching unique products on Amazon please share your experiences! [link] [comments]  |
| Anyone experienced with Laundry Delivery service? Posted: 31 Mar 2019 07:57 AM PDT In my quest to find the perfect location, I ended up having a conversation about how laundromats are exempt from (NY) state tax. I started to look at laundromats, coin op and delivery. A bit out of my skillset. My thought is to reclaim the dryer heat and lint for another process. Also the vehicles could be dual purposed as well. I have a hard time justifying a van currently for only a few days a week. What am I missing here? Pick up laundry. Hire someone to do laundry then drop back off. My town is a college town, so I envision targeting them. [link] [comments]  |
| Best place to get engineering advice for my MVP / prototype? Posted: 31 Mar 2019 07:23 AM PDT Hey all, I've been looking to create a MVP that would include bending plastic - but am unsure on the best way of how to do so. I believe that some engineers could give me advice on the best mechanisms and devices to use. I would also like to be able to find some engineers that are willing to sign an NDA before talking about the specifics of the prototype. Thank you all in advance. [link] [comments]  |
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This is great advice! Very honest and practical.I really enjoyed this post.Nice post!! these tips may help Great post, Jo! My favorite work advice.Thanks so much for a detailed post! It is very helpful for.
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