NooB Monday! - (April 08, 2019) Entrepreneur |
- NooB Monday! - (April 08, 2019)
- "Getting Things Done" by David Allen | Animated Summary | The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.
- Why We Turned Down a Chance to Double Sales
- I have a great idea but I am not sure how to pitch it
- Inexpensive fax service?
- Marijuana farms question !
- 37 yo, 17 Years in Business- What I learned about Charging Well.
- I’m turning 18 and I want to control my finances
- I want to make a business out of selling my comics
- Looking for an entrepreneurial AUDIO ENGINEER to discuss (and possibly start) an interesting business idea
- Importing cosmetics from China to the UK - what should I be aware of?
- $21k/mo selling nespresso pods.
- How do you discern what is honest and what's shilling for a product?
- How do I get started on inventing a product?
- I have 20K to invest. Completely sick of the corporate world and want to be my own boss.
- How to start with proper accounting for established small business?
- If you have a demographic between ages of 18-29 you have to check this out!
- Need help what seems to be a "niche" market
- $10,000 in 3 months and growing quickly...How should I gauge my progress?
- Useronboard.com (1 million unique hits) just posted a design-centric business plan for growth. I see testing and experimentation mentioned a lot here, but not data-driven design explicitly--thought this could help!
- Has anyone used Alibaba for long-term projects?
- Buying a catering/event group
- Understanding people vs understanding money
- Reaching out to potential vendors/sponsors
| NooB Monday! - (April 08, 2019) Posted: 08 Apr 2019 06:15 AM PDT If you don't have enough comment karma here's where we can help. Everyone starts somewhere and to post in /r/Entrepreneur this is the best place. Subscribers please understand these are new posters and not familiar with our sub. Newcomers welcome! Be sure to vote on things that help you. Search the sub a bit before you post. The answers may already be here. Since this thread can fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. [link] [comments]  |
| "Getting Things Done" by David Allen | Animated Summary | The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Posted: 08 Apr 2019 04:00 AM PDT Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCNN2pyO5Yc I've done summaries of the following books:
If you're interested and want to subscribe here's a link:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfbLDMh6uGOZePAfqqjVZ-g?sub_confirmation=1 If you'd prefer to read the script instead of watching the video, here it: Getting Things Done By David Allen Irrespective of how you define success, to progress rapidly towards it, you need to be productive and an effective time manager. David Allen's book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity is the best time management and productivity book in the self-help genre. It offers timeless advice that when applied, will transform your personal and business life. "You can do anything, but not everything." David Allen If you're interested in this book you can get 2 audiobooks for free with a trial of audible using the link in the description of this video. Subscribe and turn on the notification bell so you don't miss any future summaries. The Premise of the Book At the heart of the David Allen's book is the Getting Things Done system (GTD). At its barest, the system states that to do get things done, you first need to define what it means to have something done and what that process looks like. Once you have that in mind (and preferably on paper), you then need to get into a state of flow (workflow). Getting into this state requires that you manage where your attention goes, what that means to you, and when your attention is not on something that improves your productivity or allows you to Get Things Done rapidly and productively, refocusing on what matters and doing so as often as necessary. "If you don't pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves." David Allen In this book summary, we look at the key ideas you will learn from reading and implementing Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity Lesson 1: Employ pre-work The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines pre-work (also prework) as "preliminary work, any work conducted as preparation for some other work or activity." Whenever you are about to embark on a new undertaking, plan it out in the mind and then put it down on paper as fast as possible. This frees up your mind's computing capacity. "Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them." David Allen Prework is all about organizing your work (what you need to do) so that by having a system in place, an idea of the steps it will take to achieve your aim, it shall be that much easier to remain attentive to the things that matter, the things that improves your productivity and allow you to get things done. "You don't actually do a project; you can only do action steps related to it. When enough of the right action steps have been taken, some situation will have been created that matches your initial picture of the outcome closely enough that you can call it "done." David Allen When you prework or preplan your work in your mind but preferably on paper, it becomes easier to recognize distractions including seemingly urgent tasks that eat away your time but do very little to improve your overall productivity at the end of the day. Lesson 2: Create a someday list We all know the value of a To-do list: it gives us a broad idea of the things you want or need to do. What most of us fail to realize about a To-do list is that when the things on the list are cyclic and we barely take action towards their achievement or completion, they become counterproductive and therefore detrimental to our productivity and wellbeing. "It's a waste of time and energy to keep thinking about something that you make no progress on." David Allen Getting Things Done introduces the concept of a someday list, a list whose primary purpose is to help you get ideas off your mind so that they stop taking up your attention and mental capacity, and on to paper for later review. "Most often, the reason something is on your mind is that you want it to be different than it currently is, and yet: you haven't clarified exactly what the intended outcome is. You haven't decided what the very next physical action step is; and/or you haven't put reminders of the outcome and the action required in a system you trust." David Allen What ideas or tasks should go on your someday list? According to Allen, the items on your someday list should be ones that require incubation or immediate action but that are worth keeping for the future. By having them off your mind and on to a list, it becomes easier to concentrate on what you need to do right now, which makes you more attentive to important tasks and therefore more productive at days/week's end. "Everything you've told yourself you ought to do, your mind thinks you should do right now. Frankly, as soon add you have two things to do stored in your RAM, you've generated personal failure, because you can't do two things at the same time. This produces an all-pervasive stress factor whose source can't be pin-pointed." David Allen Conclusion To become more productive, free your mind from the nonessential so that you can concentrate on what it essential and impactful to your ability to use time productively. [link] [comments]  |
| Why We Turned Down a Chance to Double Sales Posted: 08 Apr 2019 05:46 AM PDT
Back in 2018, we acquired Restaurant Furniture Plus, a B2B ecommerce business that sells food service furniture to restaurants and other hospitality companies. We recently received a request for proposal from one of the most recognized restaurant brands in the world. If secured, the project would have doubled our sales overnight. We walked away from the opportunity, which may sound silly to you. But, here's why. Our core business.First, let me give you a little background on our business. To date, our core business has revolved around two key things. First and foremost, we are marketing company, which means we resell the products of others and don't typically take part in product design, manufacturing, importing or warehousing. And, second, our average B2B transactions are typically in the $5K-$200K range, sold typically to up-and-coming chains that have yet to build in-house procurement departments like the national brands. In no year has any one of our customers comprised more than 10 percent of our sales. The new client opportunity.The proposal we received was a huge order for more than 1,000 franchise locations of the chain, which meant it would have been a huge multi-million dollar order, around 25x bigger than any other order we have ever closed. It was a complex order that involved custom manufacturing new designs exactly to the customers' specifications -- and the customer required us to build prototypes upfront at our own cost. And, it was not an ideal contract. The customer was not buying from us; their individual franchisees were (one at a time), and the contract included a 10-year product warranty. Why the project size was a problem.If we had closed this deal, yes, we would have loved doubling our sales. But, all of a sudden, we would have a customer that solely comprised more than 50 percent of our sales. That's a really high concentration of sales in one customer, especially since the nature of the transaction was a "one and done" project. Those sales would have evaporated in the following year. So, instead of showing nice growth in 2020, we would most likely have shown sales declining in that year, which was not an optic we wanted to share with banks or other investors down the road. Plus, when you have a client as large as this one, it is really easy for that project to become all-consuming at the expense of our long-term clients. We didn't want to risk mis-serving our loyal base of customers by investing the vast majority of our energy into this one big project. Why the complex project was a problem.If we had been selling "off the shelf" products from our typical vendors, this project would have been a layup. There would have been no new product to design or warehouse. But, the fact we needed to custom manufacturer a specific solution meant we needed to go around $50,000 out of pocket to build the required prototypes for the customer to approve, as they would not fund prototype development. To us, that was a big number to swallow without any guarantee of a sale on the backend. And, this particular product had to be manufactured with required components only available from one overseas manufacturer, which would have made assembling the product with other U.S. or China-based components a logistical challenge. Why the contract was a problem.This $5,000,000 project wasn't going to be funded in one check from the customer. It was coming in $5,000 at a time from 1,000 individual global franchisees over the course of a year. That meant going out-of-pocket around $3,500,000 worth of inventory day one to get the best-priced manufacturing terms, without any financial support or guarantees from the customer, and then, crossing our fingers all the franchisees actually buy the product over time as there were supposed to. Then, there was the issue of having to send the orders individually to 5,000 locations across the globe; it wasn't simply going to one customer warehouse. So, the warehousing of the items and the shipping logistics for heavy furniture going overseas would have certainly created its challenges, operationally and financially, as that was not part of our core competency of selling only to U.S.-based customers to date. And the final deal breaker was the 10-year warranty. How many products have you purchased with a warranty of 10 years. This was for outdoor patio furniture getting baked in the sun and being used in a commercial setting where things could naturally go wrong. The last thing we needed were warranty claims showing up in years eight, nine and 10 that could have bankrupted the company down the road. Related: Why Sales Development Representatives Are Becoming Obsolete Why we passed on the deal.As you can see, there were a lot of reasons we decided to pass on this opportunity. It would have been so tempting to close the deal, and pat ourselves on the back for doubling sales. But, the downside risks here were way too high to swallow -- the upfront prototype costs, the upfront inventory financing, the global warehousing and logistics, the 10 year warranty. These were all potential pitfalls. Concluding thoughts.The lesson here is be careful what you ask for because it could be your undoing. Don't get so romanced by the idea of driving revenues that you don't think through the operational or financial challenges. Only bite off what you can easily chew, otherwise your business will choke. Know what your core competencies are, and stay firmly focused on what you can do best. It is perfectly acceptable and prudent to say no to a sale if there are high odds it will end up capsizing your boat. For more insights here, be sure to read this companion article Pitfalls to Avoid When "Reeling in the Whale." [link] [comments]  |
| I have a great idea but I am not sure how to pitch it Posted: 08 Apr 2019 10:56 AM PDT So as the title says I have a great idea, really innovative and does not exist in my region. It will help a lot of people and I believe will revolutionise marketing in my country. In order for this to come to life I obviously need resources and money. I have a very innovative company (with about 12-13 employees) in mind that can provide both. I love their work and I believe they would be interested in my idea. Now the problems are: • I am studying in a different country but I will be back home for 4 months in the summer (plenty of time to set up the startup) • I don't know how to contact them, i thought of linkedin or just straight up emailing them asking for a meeting • What measures can i take in order to stop them from "stealing" my idea? • How can I make sure that in case I contact them and they like the idea I will be involved to the fullest, as I am not part of their team of anything, i'm just a student with an idea [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Apr 2019 06:56 AM PDT Hi. I hope it's ok if I ask this here. I just need a cheap reliable online fax service, nothing more. Can anyone suggest one? Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Apr 2019 10:34 AM PDT Hey , so the new wave of the political parties in my country are to legalize medical marijuana and the use of it . I may not be the most knowledgeable on this subject, but 2 friend of mine are pretty good with anything related to marijuana (i'll let you guess u ). Long story short , we have been thinking of doing a business related to marijuana, but were pretty afraid because of the legal issues . After the most powerful political parties in my country promised to legalize it , I think There would be no better time for us to enter the market and capitalize . As far as I can tell the marijuana farms are the most profitable and the easiest to start with . Would love if someone can tell me his experience in the subject and if I'm headed in the right way . Thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| 37 yo, 17 Years in Business- What I learned about Charging Well. Posted: 08 Apr 2019 02:02 PM PDT Well, as I've said before, I'm not trying to make this a thing. That said, I figure if I can help few people out though and get them off the vague recycled common sense books, blogs and videos for a bit (and encourage them to do something useful with that time) I've done my bit for my fellow man for now. I appreciate all the comments and questions to my previous posts and will endeavour to answer them. Its been a long Monday though so they might have to wait. A few of the comments and messages in my inbox were about the comment I made 'they nearly always have a good work ethic and they don't mind asking for the higher price' Im glad they asked because I think it's one of the more important things in business. Being cheap doesn't help anybody and neither does being lazy. I'll expand on the idea in a dedicated post but its kind of to do with the mental model Ive seen referred to as the 3 balls or the 3 options. Its basically a venn diagram with the sections of cheap, good and fast- you can only pick 2. I substitute fast with convenient or availability, good can mean a variety of things around quality and cheap is… well just cheap. Cheap and Fast= Lower Quality Fast (Convenient/ Available) and Good= Expensive Good and Cheap= Out of stock/ Unavailable or Slow. Everyone I have experience with who has done well (including myself for the last 4 or 5 years) has been 'Fast/ Convenient and Good. You set the price for your time and you set the standards for your work. If you are good and cheap you will be constantly jumping from one to the next, chasing your backside and not being available for those with money to spend. Learn to put up with the lean times in the early days if you have to and don't be afraid to supplement your income with something else fitting of a lower price until you cross paths the customers you deserve. If your skill set or service is genuinely useful and has a demand you WILL come across them or they you. By all means put yourself out there but never ever lower your prices. Reputations are fluid but some things will stick- don't let it be that you are the lowest price in the market. There aren't many happy and wealthy 'busy fools' in my experience. I'm gonna give you a few examples: Printing Guy- has a printing and web development business. Is notoriously expensive. His customers use him (including now several big internationals like McD's, H&M, Haribo, Formula 1) because he and his team of about 60 now are on time and deliver quality. He can afford to rectify mistakes and/or expedite orders because he has built in the fat on the bone. If you think the big boys only work on price you are dead wrong- they work on trust and payment terms. Try being able to cover 180 day terms when you are already sailing close to the wind. Waste Guy (I also worked for briefly- more on that later)- I could never believe people paid what he asked at the time. Now older and wiser I realise that the people who were using his company weren't paying for it out of their own wages, it was the firms they worked for's money and they often needed a 24 hour solution to a 7 day problem in the industry. Most of the big continuous orders came from multinational facilities management firms or were subbing out their own dropped balls to cover themselves with their own big clients who they were also charging strongly to. Commercial Kitchen Guy (again worked with)- Just plucked zany figures out of the air because he was able to provide a turnkey solution (disconnect, remove from site, store for weeks/ months, clean and redeliver back to site) to a problem that would normally involve at least 3 other businesses. He ended up farming out the disconnection and cleaning and then went on to take on more and more sites. Again, he was charging more than the sum of the parts but nobody cared. He always answered the phone during work hours and arrived earlier than required for the start of a rip out. The goods were cleaned straight away before storing and he replaced the damaged goods in transit because he could afford to do so. He could be bothered doing a good job because he was getting a premium for it. He had a bit of gap in between contracts so he pottered about and took a few holidays. He was picked back up by the restaurant chain AND one of the contract managers who had gone elsewhere started using him for another chain as well. I guess I could go on but I hope Ive given some context to the point. Work Smart and Charge Hard. Spend some of the winnings on some branding, better tools/ equipment/ staff etc and have some capacity for the next worthy customer. If you get overrun, which you probably will- you can afford to farm out (even at cost) to deliver the goods/ services on time without compromising quality. I don't need to go on much about being cheap but I know a few in that category and all I know is they have to work more hours to make the same money and are generally miserable. I'll take it back to building that skill set. You don't have to be the best in the market by the way or even 'great'. Good is generally good enough. People aren't looking for perfection, they're looking for satisfaction and that usually just means getting what it says on the tin. People dont want extras or to be wowed and amazed. They just want to receive no less than what they asked for and preferably on time. Another thing I've learned is (and this is very very true for me right now) that your customers are creatures of habit. I won't say lazy because that isn't quite right. They just use you because they used you before and know that you'll do what what it said in the brief. They only go looking elsewhere if you let them down. If your customers are constant penny pinchers and always trying to squeeze you- you might need to replace the customer or niche down a bit. Anyway, I hope this helped. [link] [comments]  |
| I’m turning 18 and I want to control my finances Posted: 08 Apr 2019 01:59 PM PDT Hey, Ive been buying and selling for years and I think I have finally found a product which is good and consistent! I'm turning 18 and currently have a current account and savings account, I want to have multiple cards to control money, A current account for business, A current account for spending A savings account for saving A credit card for building my credit score! Now I am unsure as to what I can and can't do, is it easier to set up as a sole trader and just obtain a business card? Than have two current accounts? Taking on the extra liability of opening as a genuine sole trader is maybe risky at 18? What would you advise? I hope to be making minimum 10k a year off of this side hustle and rev will be double most probably as at the moment I am doubling my money on each transaction! Thanks for any help! Delete or tell me if this isn't needed for here! [link] [comments]  |
| I want to make a business out of selling my comics Posted: 08 Apr 2019 09:47 AM PDT My comic is getting a fairly good following on social media (with 9,209 followers on Instagram and gaining more at every post), so I figured I could make this a legit business. How do I proceed? Would it be better to self-publish and then sell the printed comics on etsy/etc, contact a proper publisher, etc? I know virtually nothing about making or handling money. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Apr 2019 01:20 PM PDT As the title says it: I'm looking for someone with deep understanding of audio who would like to jump on a call with me and discuss a business idea I have. It's in a very infancy stage but I need someone passionate in this area who could give me a feedback and possibly partner up if he/she likes the idea. Is it you? Do you know someone? Thanks for help folks, hustle on! [link] [comments]  |
| Importing cosmetics from China to the UK - what should I be aware of? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 01:02 PM PDT Hey fellow Redditors! I've recently come across a cosmetic product in China which I'd like to private label and sell in the UK. I'm currently in talks with various Manufacturers who produce the product, however I'm struggling to find clear-cut information on what documentation and regulatory steps I need to take in order to legitimately sell these products in the UK, understanding that the cosmetic industry is a heavily regulated one. I've managed to source an MSDS document from a couple of suppliers, however know there must be more to documentation required to sell cosmetics legally. Does anyone have any previous experience in sourcing cosmetic goods from China to sell overseas? And if so, what things I should be looking out for, and how best to approach my search going forward? Any help, advice and tips would be highly appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| $21k/mo selling nespresso pods. Posted: 08 Apr 2019 09:15 AM PDT Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview. Today's interview is with Jack Bramhall of Mugpods, a brand that sells nespresso compatible pods. Some stats:
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?Hello there, my name is Jack Bramhall and I am the co-founder of Mugpods - Nespresso compatible pods. Mugpods began back in September 2015 to bring the World's First hot chocolate pods and coffee range for use in Nespresso machines to the UK market. Initially starting with $6500 capital, we sold out in a matter of weeks following launch, fast forward to today we now average around $21,000 USD per month in revenue with millions of pods sold. What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?Throughout my teenage years I had a few small ecommerce businesses and loved the idea of being an entrepreneur. I am a self-taught web designer, and have quite a lot of experience with digital marketing and search engine optimisation. That being said, my previous websites/businesses never really succeeded due to lack of funds and/or operating in highly saturated markets. In 2015, both myself and my co-founder (Mike) owned a Nespresso machine, and the company I was working for (IT/Telecoms) had one on every floor! Colleagues would "club together" to place giant orders direct from the Nespresso website and we were both spending a small fortune a month on these little colourful pods. Quite simply the original idea came from asking the question "Why can't I get hot chocolate for my Nespresso machine?", combined with "Surely I can get cheaper Nespresso pods?". Using Google's own tools such as the keyword planner and trends, we were able to quickly identify that there were thousands of people asking the same question that I was - but nobody providing the product! The Nespresso and coffee pod market was also quite clearly growing exponentially across the whole of Europe. To be clear, there were other companies making "compatible" pods for these machines, but coffee only and from my own research there were a lot of issues with compatibility and quality. After further research we found only one manufacturer in the World that had managed to crack hot chocolate and so we got in touch about samples and whether they would be open to us buying and selling their products. Initially, I think they possibly doubted if anything would come of it - asking us whether we had relationships we retailers etc which we did not. To prove how serious we were I built the mugpods website in a weekend. The samples arrived and Mike and I (very excitedly) spent an evening trying each and every flavour, they tasted fantastic and worked perfectly across multiple machine models. We then invited friends and family to give them a try and had 100% positive feedback. We immediately got back in touch to formalise everything, and decided to take the risk and committed to a minimum order. Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.We were quite fortunate enough that the "range" of products already existed from our manufacturer - we simply needed to decide which products we wanted to launch with and then agree on terms (such as exclusivity) which, until we proved ourselves was not on the cards. That being said there were so many "hurdles" that we did not have any prior experience of such as importing, for example learning about commodity codes (codes that are applied to different products when importing) - these codes link to tariffs/taxes which you pay on import. Obviously, one of the first things we had to do was decide on our name, we came up with around 60 different words - the majority contained "pod" or "mug", each one we checked whether the name already existed and whether the relevant domain names were available - eventually leading us to mugpods! The logo took far longer, we used a website called zillion designs where basically designers submit proposals and you vote/provide feedback on each one. It took 74 revisions for us to finally get to our logo (that we then trademarked). We also perhaps naively thought that if something is organic in one country that means it is organic in ours - how wrong we were! On importing an organic coffee one of our products got quarantined (at a cost per day) for lack of UK certification, then we were told by customs that we could not sell the product AND had to have an inspection to ensure they were not being sold. This mistake cost us thousands so our learning was to ensure any certificates must be valid in your own country and double and triple check your own countries laws around packaging prior to order/manufacture. Describe the process of launching the business.As previously mentioned, we built the website in a weekend using the Prestashop platform and accepted Paypal. Our initial capital came completely from a personal loan of $6500, which was spent almost entirely on our stock (and freight/import costs) right at the beginning, we opted for air freight to get it to us quickly and be able to launch within two weeks. Our official launch was only via social media. The fact we had World's 1st products made it very easy for us to quickly get our message out via facebook, immediately getting hundreds of comments (and most importantly traffic). We quite simply used images of the chocolate "pod" with the product and text to show it was the World's 1st. Following that we ran a continuous "boosted" post targeting anyone who liked or had an interest in "Nespresso" and "Hot Chocolate". Following launch, we were immediately getting daily orders, but at the time both Mike and I were working full time - with all of our stock sat in Mike's parents garage we would get up early every morning, go to Mike's parents house to pack orders, then take them to a local drop off point before going to our day jobs. Within a few months Mikes Mum Lisa started helping during the day as the volume continued to increase. One of the biggest issues right from the beginning was that we had no spare cash, demand was always higher than supply causing us to go out of stock regularly. Almost all funds were going straight back to buy ever increasing amounts of stock. To help fund our growth we sold shares to Mike's parents and a family friend. Mike and I were also regularly paying for things personally or loaning money to the business just to keep things running/actually having stock. This was both exciting and very scary, the business was growing which is surely a good thing - but we never had any cash! All cash was being tied up in the stock which we were roughly doubling in size every time we ordered, we were paying in our own money, Paypal working capital and even Amazon lending just to find funds. A turning point was when we were able to purchase much larger quantities of stock by sea freight which massively improved margin by >30% (this is known as Less than Container Load LCL). When you finally get to a Full Container Load (FCL) is when you are getting the best pricing in terms of freight which ultimately improves your profit per unit once sold. Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?Once we got to a point where we had enough stock to last (which being honest we still struggle with even today) we began looking at multiple ways to increase our visibility but also to retain customers. We have always been very confident in our products, knowing they are a great alternative to Nespresso, all customers are asked if they would like to join our newsletter for offers and promotions when they place their orders (we are explicit that their info is only used for this purpose, and following GDPR have a very detailed privacy policy) and we have quite high signup rates >70% of customers. This has meant a continuous increase in our newsletter subscribers which is now in the thousands. In our emails we tend to share a facebook competition (link to facebook), spotlight a single product and then have a voucher code of around 10% off. We also operate a referral scheme where existing customers can get discount if they invite friends (and the friends make savings too), we have had approx 10% of our customers refer others. Our marketing includes Google Ads, Bings Ads, Facebook Ads to drive relevant Ad traffic, one learning from this is that they are certainly not a set and forget. You can burn through cash if not optimised so need constant tweaks testing new ad's. We regularly A/B and even C test ads across different demographics. We have also spent a lot of time optimising our website for SEO to appear organically, for example we created a blog full of helpful articles and guides like "How to find the best Nespresso compatible pods" or "Which Nespresso compatible capsules are the strongest?". Originally we posted new content at least monthly, but in keeping up with latest SEO trends, quality content is far better which ultimately leads to longer dwell time and hopefully in our case leads to a purchase. In addition to the above we have an Affiliate scheme paying commission for any referrals that turn to an order - this has meant we are now on cashback websites and voucher sites. eBay and Amazon Our products are also available on Ebay and Amazon as additional sales channels. Ebay is a pretty stable income stream, but at least for us (for some unknown reason) we get more "problems" from the customers of that channel than any other - i.e saying a parcel has arrived damaged, wanting refunds etc. Amazon, on the other hand, can be a double-edged sword, indeed it creates revenue for us (we even trialled fulfilment by Amazon, which we saw an immediate increase in sales volume) however the fees (of selling but also if you opt for the Ads) tied with marketplace forces create a race to the bottom which ultimately destroyed most of our margin. I have seen with my own eyes that when Amazon sees a product selling quickly - they begin stocking that product or even a competitor's similar product which is not good longer term for any small business solely relying on that channel. In our particular circumstance - where we need every penny to buy more stock - it seemed stupid to give all of our profit to Amazon, so we made a decision to increase our prices on Amazon to maintain margin - which reduced sales but we are comfortable with. How are you doing today and what does the future look like?We are quite positive about the current and future outlook of mugpods, our revenue is still increasing but (as you would expect) now starting to slow its growth - which in turn is having a knock on effect to not needing to increase stock at the levels we were, building up cash for the first time. With the increased capital we are now beginning to re-invest this in products and are very pleased to be launching biodegradable pods and pouches within the next 6 months. In addition to this we are now looking at creating custom labelling (also known as white label) all of our products to truly position mugpods as its own brand. We are particularly pleased that September to December 2018 was our biggest on record in terms of visitors to our website, units shipped and revenue - with over 50,000 sessions to our website as shown below. Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?We would definitely recommend tackling "best practice" things early on, and avoid anything manual. For example at the beginning we did not have an SSL certificate on our website, but moving from http:// to https:// actually caused us quite a lot of problems, the same as originally we manually created labels for our parcels - but months later this was taking us hours whereas now we use API's to automatically generate them. As already mentioned, having an understanding of your own countries laws from product import to taxes we would highly recommend you get right from the beginning. What platform/tools do you use for your business?Prestashop - open source ecommerce platform. Although there are some frustrations with it around getting support with modules (that you pretty much are guaranteed you have to buy from 3rd parties) I have always liked the fact it is hosted on our website and I can physically change any aspect in the code unlike other cloud based platforms such as Shopify. Mailchimp - for newsletters and various automated promotions based on past spend/orders. Reviews.io - for automated review collection and those all important Google stars. Zenstores - to combine and generate shipping labels (I believe this is UK only). Facebook, Google, Bing Ads. What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?I enjoy listening to the wired podcast to keep up to date with what's going on in the world of tech. The four hour work week by Tim Ferris - not because of the idea of not working many hours from a beach, but I enjoyed the insight into driving efficiency and automation. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight - a really interesting story about the beginning of Nike and how it grew to the multi billion business it is today. Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?I think Mugpods has proven that there are still plenty of opportunities that in our case thousands of other people thought about, but we were the first to go and do it, so if you have an idea - research it as fast as possible, work out your costs and commit. The above being said, the moment we realised we were onto something - we ran out of cash. I would recommend you do everything in your power to make sure you have enough capital to launch - but also make sure you have some capital available for unforeseen problems and growth. After that, operational efficiency is then your key to scale - remove anything manual/time consuming as fast as possible. 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]  |
| How do you discern what is honest and what's shilling for a product? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 12:48 PM PDT Maybe I've become cynical, but the further I go on this entrepreneur journey, the more I've realized there's a lot of fakeness. This was an article I found through Angel.co mailing list. I can't help but to think the whole story was just some fluff with the real intention of promoting "app mining" company as repeatedly stated in the article. I see this everywhere now with any advice or answer given. Such as Quora responses. How do you discern what is honest and what's shilling for a product? [link] [comments]  |
| How do I get started on inventing a product? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 12:43 PM PDT I'm trying to basically invent a product that would be made completely of memory foam and is for your feet. What are the steps to making this into a reality? Are there any threads that already list the steps involved to turning an idea into a product? Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| I have 20K to invest. Completely sick of the corporate world and want to be my own boss. Posted: 08 Apr 2019 12:10 PM PDT I quit my job because I was simply tired of it. I am hitting a breaking point in my job search. Everything that I apply for seems like a soul crushing 8-5 corporate office job sitting at a desk all day. Now that I am done venting, I saved up over 20k and I needed ideas for how to invest it or maybe a way to start a sustainable source of income. Any suggestions are welcome. [link] [comments]  |
| How to start with proper accounting for established small business? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 11:56 AM PDT If you have been in business for few years doing all the accounting except taxes yourself and probably messed a few things up, may have a few financial skeletons in the closet, How do you get on the right foot to have a proper accounting and paperwork handling, having someone who would oversee if everything is done right and would be looking into what we should do to reduce taxes and proper way to handle the accounting? And it is being a small business who can not afford a full time person, but looking to have it as a service. [link] [comments]  |
| If you have a demographic between ages of 18-29 you have to check this out! Posted: 08 Apr 2019 11:50 AM PDT Hi everyone! Hope you are all doing well. So I came across this post in Entrepreneur Ride Along subreddit, and thought I could do something similar with what I have to offer. I am a Snapchat marketer who is wishing to build up my portfolio to eventually build my own agency which specializes in Snapchat marketing. Because of this, I would like to offer my marketing abilities to businesses for free, for one entire month. No contract, no money, no hassle. Just a guy trying to build up his portfolio who does not mind helping businesses out for free. Snapchat is a HUGE resource which is underused by so many. With Facebook and Instagram marketing being the talk of the nation in marketing, Snapchat has been overlooked. There are a vast amount of Facebook and Instagram marketing gurus out there who have been riding the wave of the Social Media Revolution in Marketing. It is a no brainer to be on Facebook and Instagram, but what a lot of people have overlooked, is the potential of Snapchat marketing. Snapchat marketing is a relatively new thing, and has been growing steadily over the years but is still not used by nearly enough businesses. If you have a demographic which is between the ages of 18-29, and you are not on Snapchat, you are losing out. More than 60% of this age group is on Snapchat, and that number is only rising. With big names such as Gary Vaynerchuck advocating for businesses to be on Snapchat, it is probably one of the best marketing decisions you will make, if you have a demographic which uses Snapchat. Also, with the versatility of Snapchat ads, you can do things you could not hope to achieve on other platforms. You can get right in front of people's faces with Snap ads, go onto people's discover pages with those type of ads, and even create a Geofilter for a specific area! Unfortunately I do not have a Portfolio for Snapchat campaigns I can just give you. The campaigns I have created have all done well, but the companies I worked with were fairly poor at communicating which led to me making ads not on specific things they wanted. I do have an in depth knowledge within Snapchat ads as I have spent countless hours researching, testing, and running ads on the platform. I was hired as a Snapchat expert by a business to create a video course for marketers to learn about the ins and outs of Snapchat marketing. I can help you out with paid advertising, and tips to grow your profile organically if you are leaning that way. If you are interested in paid advertising (which will give you a huge bang for your buck), you MUST have at least a $10.00 a day minimum budget to go into your ads (none of this money will go to me, it will be directly linked to your SC account). If you are interested let me know and we can set up a phone convo and put a Snapchat Marketing plan together. If you like what you see, we can move forward and get it running for your business! P.S Snapchat is mainly video advertisement, so if you are camera shy/have no idea how to create a video ad I can help you out with that also. Thank you for your time :) [link] [comments]  |
| Need help what seems to be a "niche" market Posted: 08 Apr 2019 02:57 AM PDT I work for a company that supplies spray guns, spray machines, PPE and repairs/services on said machines. My task is to monitor the social media and keep the ecommerce website in check. My problem is, all of our orders are always placed physically in our shop or over phone / email. Mainly repeat customers, sometimes new ones who have found us online. We never, ever sell anything through our website and I can't for the life of me get this to happen. Our market is so niche and to put it truthfully full of technical knowledge I just don't have. Any tips on increasing not only traffic to our site but actual purchases? I'm happy to share the link of the website in PMs. [link] [comments]  |
| $10,000 in 3 months and growing quickly...How should I gauge my progress? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 11:13 AM PDT Hey reddit, I started a CBD infused juice company that launched in January, and we've been growing really fast, but I'm not sure how to tell if we're heading in the right direction or not. We've done about $10,000 in sales since January and we're now in 25 retail stores in the Boston area, but we've been having trouble getting distributors interested in the product. The velocity seems great (our best customers average almost 2 cases a week), but I have no background in beverage and I'm not sure how to tell how good (or bad) that is. I know as an entrepreneur you're not supposed to compare yourself to others, but I have no idea if these numbers are good or not. Does anyone with a background in beverage have any advice? vv (shameless plug) vv drinknectar.us [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Apr 2019 11:05 AM PDT Useronboard is one of my favourite design analysis websites. It breaks down each step of a sign up or buy process for a product or service online, with notes on how the design affects the experience. A lot like McMansion Hell (another favourite) teaches readers about architecture, the onboarding teardowns on Useronboard can teach readers a lot about design for trust, loyalty, and conversion. Here's Useronboard's plan for growth: https://www.useronboard.com/uoe-intro/ Here's the execution of the first step of the plan, a design change to the newsletter: https://www.useronboard.com/uoe-002/ [link] [comments]  |
| Has anyone used Alibaba for long-term projects? Posted: 07 Apr 2019 10:16 PM PDT I'm looking to start a sneaker business, more specifically sneakers for people with larger feet. I was just wondering if anyone has used Alibaba merchants or if i should even go this route for long-term. Any suggestions on other places that manufacture custom shoes in bulk? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Apr 2019 10:34 AM PDT A partner and I are looking at buying a company in the catering/event space. It includes a catering company, an event venue, a few restaurant outlets, and a b2b catering component. My issue is how to value this company. Anyone in the space have any resources they can point me to? [link] [comments]  |
| Understanding people vs understanding money Posted: 08 Apr 2019 12:50 AM PDT What's more important for a businessman of any kind? It's obviously depends on a field, but lets talk in general. Communication skills and networking or deep financial understanding and money management? What do you think? [link] [comments]  |
| Reaching out to potential vendors/sponsors Posted: 08 Apr 2019 09:52 AM PDT Hello! I am a partner at a local women's-only fitness studio. We are hosting a large summer kick-off event outdoors, complete with group workouts, fitness-related activities/giveaways/contests, and fitness vendors. Tickets will be either $10 or $20. So far we've secured several vendors to have a booth on-site, but we're going after a few larger names to help boost the event even further. One vendor in particular is a massively popular supplement company also owned by a woman that is based out of our metropolitan area. Ideally, we'd achieve one of the following scenarios: a) they donate product for us to give out, whether that be individual drinks, sample packs, etc b) they set up a booth on-site with representatives to sell the product at retail cost or a slight discount I have a connection at the company (went to university with one of the co-owners), but I'm struggling with how to approach him. I want to lead with the benefit to their company, but they're already quite large. I think it'd be a great opportunity to get in front of a slightly different demographic to increase their brand exposure, and support the local community of women and small business in the health/fitness community. Any insights or best practices for cold-emailing vendors asking for sponsorship? Topics to highlight or avoid? I want to make this "ask" as compelling as possible. Thanks so much! Important note: Our business is in no way in competition with theirs. We operate in a completely different arena. [link] [comments]  |
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