How will you know when you've "made it"? What's the one achievement you have to reach before you can say you're an unqualified success? small business |
- How will you know when you've "made it"? What's the one achievement you have to reach before you can say you're an unqualified success?
- MIS student wondering how to startup a small Tech business after college
- Semi-custom shipping boxes, where to find them?
- Advice – Struggling to Get Sales / Website Doesn't Convert - 2.5k Website Visitors & 2 Sales
- Need advice regarding a partnership consisting of 2 working directors and 1 semi silent partner.
- What programs do you use to count inventory, make schedules, and track sales/projections
- Supplier Researcher service?
- Web developers notes on the issue of website ADA compliance.
- Buy a property/investment than start a new business or opposite
- Website launched after a successful year on Etsy, now how to drive traffic through Google?
- Any questions about Google My Business? Ill answer them all.
- New member here:) From South Korea!
- Fired a client today and they want to know why.
- Lawn maintenance startup
- Need Advice on website name & social media usernames for new company
- First steps for tiny business
- Going The Extra Mile For Potential Clients
- Premium Domain Names? Worth it to you?
- How long is business debt valid?
- Exterior property maintenance company questions
- What tool or software do you wish your industry had?
- Moving after 9 years in same location.
- Advice/info needed on dropshipping, or stocking
- Advice on expanding my tutoring business
| Posted: 29 Apr 2019 03:47 PM PDT |
| MIS student wondering how to startup a small Tech business after college Posted: 29 Apr 2019 11:22 PM PDT Hello everyone, I'm an MIS student @ Alabama and I have been wondering how I can be my own boss. I like the idea of making my own dollar and waking when I'm ready. I watched a video on YouTube by EngineeredTruth, and he brought up a really neat idea: many doctors, dentists, and lawyers are always in need of MIS guys, but don't exactly need full time employees. What I would like to do is generate 5 consistent clients and charge around $1000-$1600 per month. I guess it could be considered contract work, but I would be doing it under my own brand and have control over my rates. I'm strongly considering moving to Maine or Massachusetts when I leave school, where the tech market is in high demand. Might just live in Maine and gain clients in Massachusetts since they're pretty close in distance and the CoL is much cheaper in Maine. I don't have any experience and I'm still in school, so I don't exactly have everything 100% ironed out, but if I could get some guidance as to how to develop such a business, I would definitely love the advice. [link] [comments]  |
| Semi-custom shipping boxes, where to find them? Posted: 29 Apr 2019 01:13 PM PDT I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but my company is trying to improve the appearance of our products when they arrive to our customer. The primary thing we're looking at is to move away from the typical brown cardboard shipping box and adopt a more customized/colored shipping box. My idea is to have a white exterior with a pink interior (our logo is white, pink, & blue), but I can't seem to find a company that has an option to color the interior of the box. There are plenty of companies that have customizable exterior mailers (although this isn't necessarily the box type we are looking for), but not many for the interior. Anyone have any idea of some companies that may be able to accomplish this? Ideally we'd want a regular shipping box style, not a mailer if at all possible. [link] [comments]  |
| Advice РStruggling to Get Sales / Website Doesn't Convert - 2.5k Website Visitors & 2 Sales Posted: 29 Apr 2019 05:30 AM PDT Hi there, with everm̩e we have created a unique product Рa digital locket that we primarily want to sell in the US & Canada.I don't want to give you more input on the product at this point, because I need your feedback without prior education about the product. Have you checked it out? Ok, thank you! I'd love to hear your genuine feedback about the product and mostly about the website, since it doesn't convert very well:
From 2.5k website visitors, we only got 2 sales. When giving feedback, these things would be of particular interest to me:
---------------------------------------------- Here is some input on our strategy: Now, I'm aware that this product is quite difficult to promote due to
It's a new locket that requires us to "educate" the customer about the product first before we can simply push our branding. We have collected plenty of feedback (inter alea at LVMH Prize at Fashion Week Paris) and when people see the product in person, they love it and quite a few purchased it (offline). We don't have the money to open up a physical store yet and want to create a revenue stream through online sales (also to convert some investors who are only waiting to see sales coming in before they invest). We are in the process of building a retail network, want to get this product into boutiques, airports etc. We also have an SEO strategy in place which we are implementing. All of this takes time, though, and we want to make online advertising work for short-term revenues asap. Problem: Not much budget (see below). ---------------------------------------------- Here is some input about traffic acquisition (on a micro-budget):
We used up a budget of around $400 for testing so far. I'm not new to online advertising and it works for all of my other projects / it usually doesn't take me too long to find a golden formula. But I can't wrap my head around this one – I made sure the audiences are correct, used landing pages, even copied competitor's ads (typically I'm into copywriting something original, which I also did and those clicks are way cheaper), use remarketing etc. Even Google Shopping doesn't seem to work yet, which is weird to me. Influencer marketing is actually promising, but the selected influencers are a pain in the a** to work with. From the date of agreeing on working together in exchange for a free locket, they take around 1.5 months to post something. It's just not scalable at this stage yet (I know of a startup that made influencer marketing scalable, however only for the EU market). In my eyes, there must be something off-putting about the product page or the product itself when selling online. Here are more questions that run through my head:
Any brutally honest feedback would be appreciated, no need to tip-toe around issues – I'm not taking it personal. Also, please feel free to reach out if you think you can sell our digital locket – we are open for collabs of any kind. Thank you for reading and double-thank you if you decide to leave feedback! [link] [comments]  |
| Need advice regarding a partnership consisting of 2 working directors and 1 semi silent partner. Posted: 30 Apr 2019 12:26 AM PDT Hey team, writing hoping someone is able to share some wisdom regarding a position we are currently in within our small business. Our business is a 40 40 20 partnership between 3 members, 2 of which do 98% of the daily operations (the 40 and 20 shareholders). The 20% holder earns a small wage but does 80% of the groundwork and the 40% holder earns a very small monthly figure for carrying out the remainder. Our issue is that the business is getting to a place where it has grown to a size that dividends are being discussed by the other, non working, share holder. He was utilized during the first year but for the last 2 years has been absent. This share holder was integral in getting the business off the ground but has since slipped further and further out of the picture. The dilemma lies in that the 2 working parties believe that they should be fairly compensated before dividends are split amongst all 3 directors. The argument being that these 2 workers have built the company to this size on a wage under that which they deserve so why should any 'profit' be sent to the third party before they are fairly compensated? This has been bought up briefly but the non working partner still believes he is due some remittance for what he contributed physically and financially during the first year - which all three did also. Is 40% ownership of a growing company, in which you do not have to lift a finger to help grow, enough to warrant no dividends until the other parties are on a wage that reflects their efforts? Can you suggest a solution to this problem? TLDR: Partnership of 3. Business grew through the work of predominately 2 partners, third partners wants dividends but has barely helped in the last year. Other 2 partners who contribute to 98% of the business operations want to be fairly compensated before 'silent' partner receives any money. [link] [comments]  |
| What programs do you use to count inventory, make schedules, and track sales/projections Posted: 29 Apr 2019 10:49 PM PDT |
| Posted: 29 Apr 2019 10:03 PM PDT Is there a service out there where I can pay someone to find better prices on cosmetic ingredients? [link] [comments]  |
| Web developers notes on the issue of website ADA compliance. Posted: 29 Apr 2019 07:53 PM PDT So over the last 12 months, I have been asked to perform multiple ADA or what's now being called WGAC audits for a few law firms and business owners. Here is what I've learned about this situation. I hope it helps anyone dealing with ADA compliance issues. Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, and anything below should not be taken as legal advice. I am presenting information can be easily sourced online. The issue People with disabilities regardless of what those disabilities are must be able to have the same experience as people who do not have disabilities or you are in violation of ADA regulations. Visually Impaired
Hearing impaired
Who can be sued (based on who has been sued already)
Who can sue you
The Legal Landscape
The question most of my clients ask is can they be sued, will they be sued and what can to prevent a lawsuit.
I recommend performing an audit on the website to see where it stands currently, and bring it to AA WGAC standards. This will not prevent a lawsuit, as mentioned before anyone can sue anyone for any reason. Reaching the AA standard in the WGAC will prevent the DOJ from taking action against you, which has happened. As mentioned above, the DOJ has said: "absence of a specific regulation does not serve as a basis for noncompliance with a statute's requirements". The DOJ has gone after a handful of businesses of ADA compliance. [link] [comments]  |
| Buy a property/investment than start a new business or opposite Posted: 29 Apr 2019 07:50 PM PDT 26yr old. I own a online drop shipping store and using my savings/profits for a duplex or triplex property for investment. My thinking is if i start a new business and fails at least i have a property. I have 0 debt, i have 135k total investment accounts retirement and non retirement. I want to start as much businesses as i can. I have around 20k to 30k after i buy the property. Which is alot as i started my drop shipping store with only 800 in 2014. Whats your feedback on what is a smart move? Buy the property 1st. Work on new business than quit job and go all in? Im not getting any younger and wanna try. Or start a new business 1st [link] [comments]  |
| Website launched after a successful year on Etsy, now how to drive traffic through Google? Posted: 29 Apr 2019 06:25 PM PDT Hey guys!We have successfully had an online Etsy store for approx 1 year and have decided to expand to our own website. We are going to keep our Etsy store https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/AztecHouse?ref=seller-platform-mcnav but will now also have products and blog posts on our new website: https://aztechouse.com.au/The hurdle is that having our own website is totally different to relying on Etsy traffic for sales. At the moment we are doing a bit of free and paid advertising with Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. Does anyone have tips on showing up in google without paying for ads?Any tips would be very much appreciated :) [link] [comments]  |
| Any questions about Google My Business? Ill answer them all. Posted: 29 Apr 2019 05:57 PM PDT |
| New member here:) From South Korea! Posted: 29 Apr 2019 05:37 PM PDT Hi guys, I just joined the group here. I recently started a import business in South Korea to help the buyers from other countries to be able to source the perfect products for them. (+Personally, own girls fashion store and factory located in dongdaemun.) If you have any questions about products on S. Korea, just hit me up then I will tell you what I know :) [link] [comments]  |
| Fired a client today and they want to know why. Posted: 29 Apr 2019 05:27 PM PDT I want to tell them why but I'm still in an emotional place about it so I need advice. I've typed out what I want to get across. Is anyone really good at this stuff? Sorry in advance for the wall of text...(not intending to send this. Just included for context and what I'd like to convey in a less emotional manner) "While there we some customer service issues, there were a lot of other issues as well. From my side of it, I was blamed when anything went wrong. Like the late delivery today. Partner said I should have been in contact with the customer before today. I actually spoke with her last week about the delivery. But he doesn't know that because the only time I hear from him is to berate me about something done wrong. I know I miss some calls. I wish that I could be available 24/7 but I have another job, a bladder, a sleep schedule, and a life. It's almost like it's believed that I should answer calls anytime they come in no matter the time or where I'm at. The funny thing is when I have questions that I send to the group text and they go unanswered, it's no big deal. I finally got to the point where I can't do it anymore. I can't deal with the unnecessary guilt that I'm letting you down when in reality it feels like you guys expected a lot more out of me and took less responsibility for the errors. I can't deal with the attitude and the way partner feels that its acceptable to treat me. Because it's not. No matter how mad about something he is, he's a business owner that honestly sometimes acts less like one. From my perspective, he has no right to act like an asshole when anytime in the past I've needed something, he's pushed it on you. So, for the past year or so, it's been slowly building to this point. It's been "we depend on you to run things but won't keep you in the loop about any of it. And also, if you make a mistake, plan to be made to feel like you're the worst person on the planet.. We don't care about all of the things you keep running smoothly, though. " [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Apr 2019 05:25 PM PDT Hello all! Starting a small lawn maintenance and landscape construction company and would love to hear from anyone who may have useful info! We are all ears for anything! Marketing, equipment maintenance, brands/products of choice, business softwares...putting the feelers out for those who would be willing to share some tips! We are first time business owners, and from what we've gathered so far, the startup process for this particular industry in our area is very minimally involved with licensing and that sort of thing...a major plus for a couple of rookies! Our intention is to keep things small enough to be able to manage without taking on any employees for our first season. We'd love to hear any thoughts on that as well. Thanks in advance! Looking forward to hearing from some of you wise ones out there :) [link] [comments]  |
| Need Advice on website name & social media usernames for new company Posted: 29 Apr 2019 04:27 PM PDT Need Advice Please What options should I go with for my business website and social media handles? I've changed the names in the examples below, however the following are close to give everyone an idea. We want to build the brand as just the company name, which is three letters. For example: PAX We design & manufacture in-house very niche products that do not exist yet in our industry that are upgrades for one of the prestigious brands in our industry. We have plans to make upgrades for other prestigious brands and well known brands. We also plan to design and make our own products that have the upgrades built in. It has to do with cut and sewing outdoor products (not apparel). However using the words sewing is not a good thing in our industry. Website and social media options are: These examples are not the actual names, just close representations). Option A. PAXTACTICAL.com
Option B.
Option C. PAX-USA.COM
Option D. PAXTAC.com * The Good: Simple, Shortish * The Bad: May be too short. Cannot get instagram username for paxtac. We would have to go with pax_taxc and paxtac for everything else.
Option E. PAXCUSTOMS.com
Option F. PAXAMERICA.COM
Option G. PAXEXCELLENCE.com * The Good: Name associated with precious companies, name available on all social media * The Bad: Could piss off the main brand we are making upgrades for, we want to have a good relationship with them. May come off as too try hard/copy cat, even though are products are unique and not made by others. We may have to change our Logo with just has PAX
TLDR: My options for website and social media are:
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| Posted: 29 Apr 2019 07:02 AM PDT Hi All, I have been doing some graphic design, photography etc as a contract worker for a non-profit. The number of hours is small and scattered and I havn't yet sent them an invoice for 2019. In 2018 I made $600 bucks doing the same, but this year I expect to make about $5000. Im operating with some old equipment and I desperately need a new computer and a new camera. What should be my next step? Should I create some sort of business entity and have my business send the invoice, get paid and then use the revenue to buy equipment, or should I just get a check like i did last year, save my receipts and deduct my expenses from my income? Any advice is very much appreciated. If i should be posting elsewhere like personalfinance please let me know. Thanks!!! [link] [comments]  |
| Going The Extra Mile For Potential Clients Posted: 29 Apr 2019 10:32 AM PDT Hey Redditors, Joe here with another post here. I want this post to be different from the same old post of people spamming their websites or blogs. My field is digital marketing and I've noticed in 2019 that its a huge trend. I feel everyone in their mothers is a social media marketer or can do web design via WordPress. The only thing I ask is you actually put in the work to be great. Don't bullshit people. This post is for the freelancers, digital marketing grinders, and anyone else that sees fit. You can basically adapt this method on any type of work that you do. Its called going the extra mile. (Proof that this method works, and for those that want proof - Not worried about profit yet, still growing hard) JAN: https://gyazo.com/ec79fde28ea43744694d4173b2dd47af (7K) FEB: https://gyazo.com/9f40c8151844dace2abb8c45aa15a632 (10K) MAR: https://gyazo.com/35edd4ca4ad1a0cab76c92cb7790cfaf (12K) APR: Waiting on Statement Lately, I've been messing around with my pricing and talking with other digital marketing agencies and what they charge. $3000-$6000 a website (WordPress), $750-$2000 SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and $500-$2000 for social media marketing. I've talked with them on strategies on how they find their clients and I hear the same old answer: emailing businesses and cold calling. I even looked up guru courses and its the same crap. Rinse and repeat. "Use this lead finder I have an email businesses like this, use this email template, cold call" Now I won't lie. Down the road, I'll probably make my own course, but for the time being, I plan on giving as much information as possible. -- Now I learned this method back in my teen years when my friend would ask out tons of girls and finally, someone would say yes. Same with business. The more businesses you cold call and email you will eventually get someone that says yes let's have a meeting. As this is a good tactic and helped me somewhat grow my business I want to do it in a better way that makes the client already feel invested with you. This method that I've been using the past 3 months has really helped me and I know it'll help you too. It's extremely time-consuming, but nothing comes easy in this life. You have to work hard to achieve what you want. If you really want it keeps working hard and make sure to go that extra mile because people will notice it. Video Audit & Website Audit:We started making video audits for businesses. Here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCnE68BNixw&feature=youtu.be (Actual Client) - Now this was just a fast quick video explaining a few things that I'll break down now. Don't bite my head off if I missed something. Improve on this video. There are always new ways of improving. Make sure these videos are only 2-4 minutes long.
Make sure you do your research on the company. Check their social media accounts, try and find the business owner name and overall just go that extra mile. I normally get out anywhere from 5-10 videos a day (going to up this soon). It's hard work but I'm telling you if you separate yourself from all these other digital marketing companies that do nothing but cold call and cold email with a template you'll start to outshine them. Now obviously doing this and putting things together is a cold email, but I want to say that this cold email with the video audit and website audit feels more than that because you are actually taking the time to put this together. Business owners respect that. I'm sure they've been hit with the same old email template. Once you send this audit I would recommend a type of email tracker. I use Mixmax.com (not affiliated). This tool actually allows you to see when they opened it. This gives you an advantage and more confidence mentality because if they did open it you can always follow up with a phone call in a few days asking if they were able to review your email and ask them what they thought. I can't stress the importance of not trying to sell on the first conversation with the potential client. Set up a discovery meeting figure out exactly what they want and actually listen and then send them a proposal. Regardless for myself I usually follow up with a phone call or an email. I've been having tremendous success from this method. Now I'm not saying I'm the key holder on this method. I'm sure others have done this before but I haven't seen any posts about it. I hope this helps on your way. If any businesses want a free audit video along with an SEO audit I have ZERO issues doing this for you. I do them free (No I'm not trying to look for business) - I've done this in the past, and honestly, it helps me and my team get sharper with more. I refuse to give out my company name or posts any of our blogs - Just looking to help redditors. I wish you all the best. For all businesses out there: What are your methods in finding clients? -Joe [link] [comments]  |
| Premium Domain Names? Worth it to you? Posted: 29 Apr 2019 01:09 PM PDT We all know that an online presence is critical in our current market. There exist domains that are super memorable like yourlawyer.com (Appraised at ~3.3K) but they are either already owned or are owned by a "domain squatter" who is looking to sell or lease that premium domain for a typically very hefty price tag for most businesses. What if you could get that domain for 60$/yr? Do you think easy, memorable, and premium domain names are even important - even just owning the domain and redirecting it? Leasing exists but even that can be expensive for some marketing budgets. [link] [comments]  |
| How long is business debt valid? Posted: 29 Apr 2019 01:00 PM PDT Very strange situation - I own an ecommerce store, and I reached out several times to a company that manufactures only two products, both in my niche. I sent 3 or 4 emails, and no one responded. I sent one last email a few months later, they responded and I sent them a $1500 PO, to be paid by credit card. It took almost 2 months for them to ship, but they were good sellers so I sent 2 more POs for about $2500 each (about $7K total). I've had to send many, many emails to get confirmation that the orders were received, and to get any information on shipping - both times they just showed up unannounced at my warehouse. I owe them about $7K at this point, and the last PO shipped in early January. They have my credit card number, so I'm prepared for them to charge me, but at what point can they no longer charge my card for this merchandise? They have a phone number that goes directly to voicemail, and they've never returned one of my phone calls. I'm amazed that they do business this way - has anyone else experienced something like this? [link] [comments]  |
| Exterior property maintenance company questions Posted: 29 Apr 2019 11:29 AM PDT Hey guys, I'm in the infant stages of starting my business, we're going to do exterior maintenance, focusing mainly on power washing, window cleaning, and gutters. Depending on customer demand, we also are capable of basic landscaping, lawn care, deck repairs, and fencing, plus a couple others. I had a couple of questions, I was hoping someone could shed some light We're set up with square for accepting payments, but how do you handle it if the customer wants to pay via cash or check and is not home when the work is completed? Does anyone give paper quotes? I'm asking for the reason, we'll be dropping flyers to drum up business here in the beginning, and if we get to meet a homeowner in person while we're out walking around, and they're interested, I'd like to give them something on the spot. Am I off base? Does anyone with a service business like this have the customer sign a damage waiver or anything before you begin work? I've got some more questions, but these are some of the big ones I've been looking at here lately [link] [comments]  |
| What tool or software do you wish your industry had? Posted: 29 Apr 2019 11:22 AM PDT I have been working with a team a developers in my spare time and have been focused on under-served, niche industries. What software doesn't exist that you wish did? What are some of your biggest frustrations/problems? [link] [comments]  |
| Moving after 9 years in same location. Posted: 29 Apr 2019 11:13 AM PDT We own a service/retail (body piercing/body jewelry) business that has been in a local mall for 9 years. Not going into a lot of detail about the business, just questions on marketing. We have been telling customers for the past 6 months we are moving. We have done Facebook post about moving in the same time space. Now that the old location is fully closed, we have a banner up letting people know we moved. (The mall is making us take it done this week) It is very obvious that we need to reach more people We have made sales to over 25k unique customers in the 9 years and have done a very bad job collecting info on these customers. We have collected: 5600 email address 14k phone numbers My plan was to mass email/ mass text everyone to let them know we moved, but I am a little concerned about texting numbers I have no written authorization to do so. Not to mention, sending out 14k calls is looking like a lot of money. I have sent out a few email blast in the past with no results at all. I used Sendblaster and it appears 99% of email end up in spam. Looking for advice on what to do next to get the word out. We have thought about radio and billboards. Thanks for reading. [link] [comments]  |
| Advice/info needed on dropshipping, or stocking Posted: 29 Apr 2019 12:46 PM PDT Alright, so I'm not new to making a web shop, I am new to dropshipping though. I've thought of this product to dropship, or get in stock. Can't give you too much details on it, but it's a household product which is priced fairly expensive, but costs not too much. Should I put this in stock? Or should I dropship? When is it best to dropship? When is it best to get a stock? The product cost me about $10-20 dollars each. How do I determine whether I should stock a product, or dropship it? And how do I start dropshipping from ex. China? It got me thinking. Would like to hear your thoughts on this! [link] [comments]  |
| Advice on expanding my tutoring business Posted: 29 Apr 2019 08:02 AM PDT I have been wrestling with something for the past week. I am hoping you ladies and gents can help me work through it. For the last year and a half I have been tutoring in my home. After getting my Masters in Teaching. I love it. I am working at about a 1/3 of my potential. I have 7 students right now. My full roster allows for 15 students. I am trying to look to the future and create a 5 year plan of sorts. Here is my tentative plan: Get a full roster of students (15 kids) at $30 an hour twice a week Once I have a full roster for at least one school year I start creating a waitlist Network with 3- 5 local tutors who teach other subjects and grade levels that I do not. Start matching tutors with students and receive a matchmaker fee and for providing curriculum My question is am I crazy?? Am I being unrealistic. What changes would you make? [link] [comments]  |
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