[PINNED] Promote your business, week of April 8, 2019 small business |
- [PINNED] Promote your business, week of April 8, 2019
- [PINNED] In this post, share your small business experience, successes, failures, AMAs, and lessons learned. Week of April 8, 2019
- Music school marketing strategy (seeking advice)
- Essential Skills you need when starting a business
- Writing a business plan. Where do I start?
- Why is teamwork so hard ?
- Cutting losses early if losing money or not making enough?
- What to do when our best employee doesn’t want to be promoted?
- Free business coaching to build my testimonials
- 2017 ram 1500 - accountant put us on the mileage option vs depreciation - was this the right thing to do? (washington state)
- My idea, his money. What's my stake?
- Should I not try to start my small business, a cat cafe, until I know I can get the cats?
- Advise for connecting with influencers to talk about my product?
- I comingled personal funds for startup costs and don't know what to do.
- Question about S Corp election
- Starting a Web Design/Development Business - Any Tips?
- How do I play a promotional loop video for my waiting room clients?
- Where to sell Instagram account with 71,000 followers?
- Circular Saw machine-Best manufacturing | zeal Tech Automation
- Selling Your Business
- Start up funds/financing
- Turning my small operation into a legitimate business.
- Web Hosting Question
- Travel Company/Agent Taxes
| [PINNED] Promote your business, week of April 8, 2019 Posted: 07 Apr 2019 06:08 PM PDT Post business promotion messages here including special offers especially if you cater to small business. Note: To prevent your messages from being flagged by the autofilter, don't use shortened URLs. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Apr 2019 06:11 PM PDT This post welcomes and is dedicated to:
/r/smallbusiness is one of a very few subs where people can ask questions about operating their small business. To let that happen the main sub is dedicated to answering questions about subscriber's own small businesses. Many people also want to talk about things which are not specific questions about their own business. We don't want to disappoint those subscribers and provide this post as a place to share that content without overwhelming specific and often less popular simple questions. This isn't a license to spam the thread. Business promotion and free giveaways are welcome only in the Promote Your Business thread. Thinly-veiled website or video promoting posts will be removed as blogspam. Discussion of this policy and the purpose of the sub is welcome at https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/ana6hg/psa_welcome_to_rsmallbusiness_we_are_dedicated_to/ [link] [comments]  |
| Music school marketing strategy (seeking advice) Posted: 08 Apr 2019 03:39 AM PDT Hey guys, thanks for taking time to read this. I am a jazz pianist and I've recently opened my own music school. I have two students at the moment which are just enough to cover my monthly running expenses and make a little bit of profit. They found out about me through posters I put all over city, I spent 30 dollars for them and my investment returned 5x in the first month. One of the students parents are interested in long term piano education and they are very satisfied with the way things have progressed, but the other one's about to quit, his parents just can't commit to bring him regularly, kinda irresponsible to pay money and raise your kid's hopes about something and then just drop all the responsibilities. Anyway my posters are almost a month and half old and they are not generating new leads anymore. So I've been tinkering with Facebook marketing to try to get a few more costumers. I've set up a page and I post on it a piano magazine I make once every two weeks (I've just published issue #2), it contains an educational/promotional article, an important music album which every self respecting musician should know like the back of his hand and I suggest events that I think would be good for the kids, in the future I will expand the content with a few ideas I have. My strategy is to catch people's interest and attention with the magazine, for which I run a Facebook ad optimized for link clicks and then inside the magazine I've put a hook ($XX discount, limited time offer, free parent consultations etc.) with which I hope to send people to my lead capture page where they can leave their e-mail and phone number, then I can contact them to close the deal. I shall be tracking the conversions with a Facebook pixel integrated in my Thank You page which opens right after someone leaves their contact information. Next I would like to be able to retarget the people who have clicked and read my magazine, but didn't catch the hook and for that I need to be able to integrate Facebook pixel on the website that hosts my magazine. Currently I use fliphtml5.com (pdf documents hosting) to upload my magazines, but the problem is I can't integrate pixel and that leaves me with no option to retarget people who've shown interest. My plan is to run an ad specifically targeting them, again optimized for link clicks, which will send them directly to my lead capture page. What do you think of my strategy? Can you think of a way for me to integrate Facebook pixel with my magazine, so that I can track the people that have opened the magazine, but not the hook? [link] [comments]  |
| Essential Skills you need when starting a business Posted: 07 Apr 2019 10:22 PM PDT As a business owner you will require a range of skills. Frequently, start-ups are founded with a very small number of employees, if any, which means you will most likely be doing the bulk of work yourself. This is a significant responsibility, and one for which you will need to be well equipped. Key skills to master when starting a businessRegardless of the nature of your venture, there are certain skills that you will need to master in order to manage your business effectively. Your day-to-day success will depend, in great part, on your ability to quickly grasp and apply these skills. 1. Project managementThe ability to efficiently manage projects of any size is vital for any small business owner. Broadly speaking, this involves identifying a specific goal or outcome, and managing your resources in a way that ensures this is achieved on schedule. Projects come in many sizes. For example, when setting up your firm your projects might include developing and launching a website, honing your service before launch, or developing an efficient customer service scheme. Whatever the project, you will need to be able to manage resources including time, money and staff to ensure that you reach your goals in a timely fashion. 2. Book-keeping and accountancyA head for figures is a vital prerequisite for any business owner. You must be prepared to keep comprehensive books, able to make accurate forecasts and predictions, and capable of completing end of year and in-year reports for HM Revenue and Customs. Your financial responsibilities begin before you have even started your business. You will need to master the art of the profit and loss projection and the cashflow forecast, in order to secure investment and provide your firm with a sturdy framework for development. 3. LeadershipIf you are an employer, leadership will be a key skill. You must be able to motivate and invigorate your staff in order to get the best from them. The success of your firm will depend, to great degree, on the morale and productivity of your workforce, and it is your job to ensure that they are at their best. Leadership is not all about dictating. Instead, you must be prepared to listen to concerns and suggestions from your staff. Start-up businesses offer a unique environment for employees as the working style is often more collaborative. It's often true that your staff will also have a more accurate point of view regarding relationships with customers. 4. PresentingAt some point while starting up your business you will almost certainly have to give a presentation. This might be to potential investors, to potential clients, or to members of staff. Many people find presenting and public speaking very difficult. But the people watching you speak are likely to form an opinion of your business largely on the basis of your presenting abilities. This might not be fair, but that is sadly the way it is. If you are unsure of your presenting abilities you might wish to consider taking a course, either in business presentation or public speaking. This can help build up your confidence and provide you with some of the key skills required to get your message across succinctly and effectively. 5. DelegationA failure to delegate is a common malaise with business owners. Entrepreneurs, many of whom are acting on their own singular vision, are traditionally reticent to let go of any degree of control. If you are to get anything done, you must learn to delegate efficiently. Where your time could be better spent on other, revenue-generating tasks, be prepared to pass some of the administrative tasks on to others, whether to staff or to an outsourced company. Part of the skill of delegation is identifying who would be best qualified to carry out these tasks. 6. SalesIt is likely that you will take on much of the responsibility for the sales process, particularly in the early stages of the life of your business. This requires its own set of unique skills. While the sales process is totally natural for some people, others find it very difficult. If you lack confidence in your ability to close a sale, you might want to try role playing exercises with family members, in which you practice and explore some sales techniques. These can be particularly helpful if you lack 'patter', or find it difficult building up a rapport with potential customers. Running a business is a demanding task. As well as being good at whatever it is that your business does, you must also be proficient in business finance, people management, sales and a whole range of other fields. Do not be ashamed to ask for help if you are unsure of your abilities in any of these areas. By developing the necessary skills you are building a firm foundation for your business. [link] [comments]  |
| Writing a business plan. Where do I start? Posted: 07 Apr 2019 09:51 AM PDT I own and operate a small engine repair business. We repair and sale outdoor power equipment. There is a long, sentimental backstory to the company's history and how it came to be. I have never actually written a formal business plan. I am sitting here, staring at Microsoft's business plan "guide", not sure where to start. I have some upcoming business investments and would like to have a proper business plan in place. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Apr 2019 04:03 AM PDT Been facing challenges as a remote team and I've been reading more on teamwork specifically in high-performance teams. Things don't get done on time for no particular team members fault. We spend a lot of time reorienting each other. There is a lack of tools that help us keep each other accoutable. I also scoured the internet and saw how many people hated teamwork, even though it's one of the only ways to create complex work-products. A lot of this There is a lack of mutual accountability, research suggests that most teams aren't exactly teams. If you have a boss who calls the shot, it's mostly a mediocre team. Here is an excerpt from [a HBR article](https://hbr.org/2014/05/the-best-teams-hold-themselves-accountable) >We've found that teams break down in performance roughly as follows: * In the weakest teams, there is no accountability * In mediocre teams, bosses are the source of accountability * In high-performance teams, peers manage the vast majority of performance problems with one another> This is especially bad in early-stage startups where every minute is worth its weight in gold I wrote also wrote a [longer post](https://www.blog.tinyteam.io/why-is-teamwork-so-hard-in-startups-what-makes-it-easier/) on this and want to understand what people here think the major problems to teamwork in early stage startups is. Will update the post with answers to the most frequently mentioned problems. [link] [comments]  |
| Cutting losses early if losing money or not making enough? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 02:48 AM PDT Many people look at profit margins, competition. Then start their business when things line up. No regard to risk to get back investment capital. In day trading (stock invest) which is buying and selling within a day, they end up seeing value at their buy price to sell high later. If the stock goes sour they sell it quickly at 10% loss. Theres a cap to the losses. It is the culmination of investments that make it profitable in stock investing. In the business sense you spend the capital on the equipment, rent up front and need time to get it back. If interest in your brick and mortar is not there within 3 - 6 months, do you cut your losses and sell? Then try another business venture with the same cut stop? Are low start up cost and low running capital OR hobby based businesses better because they are less risky? The only other way I can think is to get investors or in a business where you get "guaranteed" contracts for orders monthly. What method to minimize risk, maximize growth. My thing I am thinking is making back the money fast with a plan that is trackable and actions being taken in every scenario. Low capital start up under 10k. Part time until it can be full time. [link] [comments]  |
| What to do when our best employee doesn’t want to be promoted? Posted: 07 Apr 2019 10:22 PM PDT We have an employee that has been with us since the beginning. She is great and has the most knowledge out of all our current employees. We are in need of hiring a full time manager and think she would be great for the position. The thing is she keeps asking for less than 30 hours a week. We can't promote her if she can't work regular manager hours and to be honest we will need to fill the position very soon. She will have more pay, more freedom if she takes the management position. If she does not, she will have a new boss to deal with. Has anyone dealt with a star employee that is perfectly fine just staying where they are? This is in the food manufacturing business. [link] [comments]  |
| Free business coaching to build my testimonials Posted: 08 Apr 2019 03:22 AM PDT Hey everyone, I do coaching for small online businesses/startups and I'm currently offering free coaching for upto 3 clients for the next 2 months to build case studies and testimonials. This will ordinarily be $500/month but I am not ready to fully launch as yet so obviously will not charge you. If interested, please check out: https://hyperfocused2.webflow.io/ (my prototype site until I finish case studies/project portfolio) and email me at [sales@hyperfocused.co](mailto:sales@hyperfocused.co) - if you fit the criteria I would love to take you on as a client (conditional on you providing a testimonial, happy to have a chat if you need more info!). Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Apr 2019 09:28 AM PDT Hi all, I own a landscaping business with my boyfriend. We're going into our 4th year (first year we're both full time). We bought a 2017 ram 1500 and currently have a loan on it. It's my partner's primary vehicle. He kept mileage on it, because that's what we had been doing before. We discussed this with our CPA and I gave him all of our information. He told us he'd advise us when he got to our return. The firm lost a full time employee and got behind on returns. He moved us to the front of the line and chose mileage over depreciation. Our business grossed around $50k last year and had a loss of 6k (we're done investing in equipment, finally!). This is with the mileage method. If we would have taken depreciation, as I understand it, we would have lost another $7k-$10k for the next 5 years. Is this correct? My understanding is also that you have to show a profit within 3 years (which we did last year) or else the IRS considers you a hobby business.... is this correct too? Is there a recourse for this? The next year, do we have to make up for it if we have a loss? I guess another important question would be: would depreciation have saved us money? It was a new-ish vehicle and considering the write off would be over 5 years with gas and repair... vs $.54/ mile for 2018... Thanks in advance for your help. [link] [comments]  |
| My idea, his money. What's my stake? Posted: 07 Apr 2019 04:43 PM PDT I presented my business idea (product related to health) to a friend. He liked it and will most likely provide 100% of the capital for it. What I bring to the business: idea, free/discounted ads on celebs' social media accounts through family connections What he brings to the business: capital, physical place to sell product (gyms his family owns <- not as important as we expect the bulk of the product to sell online) How do we split the company's stake between us, given that he will provide 100% of the capital? [link] [comments]  |
| Should I not try to start my small business, a cat cafe, until I know I can get the cats? Posted: 07 Apr 2019 08:35 PM PDT First, let me explain my question: I want to open a cat cafe, but I'm not sure how to obtain the cats. Ideally, I would love to partner with the local humane society and possibly allow customers to adopt the cats, but I don't know when I should approach the humane society about this since the business is just a concept at this point. Now a bit about me! I'm 23 and live in a metropolitan area with two universities and a few colleges. I have always been interested in opening a business and have been thinking about a cat cafe for years. I used to live in a small town where small businesses don't tend to thrive. Now that I've moved to the city, I think that this dream could become a reality. I am a little apprehensive, however, because there are no entrepreneurs in my family or in their circles so there isn't anyone I can go to for one-on-one advise. My vision for this cafe is for somewhere possibly downtown or near our largest university. The cafe would be sectioned into a small dining room where the drinks are served, and a separate space that would have the cats and some seating. I would charge a $5 fee to go into the cat room and students would get in free. In the beginning I would only serve drinks, but as the cafe grew in popularity I would offer food/bakery items. I think this would be great to offer students some animal comfort and possibly get some cats adopted! [link] [comments]  |
| Advise for connecting with influencers to talk about my product? Posted: 07 Apr 2019 07:57 PM PDT |
| I comingled personal funds for startup costs and don't know what to do. Posted: 07 Apr 2019 06:43 PM PDT Basically, I have 3 business partners and a few of us were ignorant enough to spend money from our personal checking accounts on some basic start up and organizational costs. We started with a business savings account and didn't have a checking account for a while, and now I've been told that it's obviously a mistake to use personal accounts and cash to pay for any business expenses. It was not a huge amount of money that was spent this way, (maybe like $600 in total), but my question is whether I should even attempt to use them for deductions, since we still have the receipts and such... or should I just not even report these purchases and give up on the chance of a write-off? Obviously, from here on out, we know better, and will be always using our business checking account for everything. I'm getting quickbooks tomorrow since it seems like that's what most people do....Thanks for any suggestions. I appreciate any help. [link] [comments]  |
| Question about S Corp election Posted: 07 Apr 2019 05:46 PM PDT I was looking through some materials, and I was trying to figure out why someone would choose to file taxes as a C Corp instead of an S Corp. I know that there are certain shareholder and class limitations within an S Corp (number of shareholders, single class of stock, etc...) and limitations in terms of looking attractive to investors, but aside from those limitations, would it ever make sense not to elect to be taxed as an S Corp if you have the ability to? [link] [comments]  |
| Starting a Web Design/Development Business - Any Tips? Posted: 07 Apr 2019 03:38 PM PDT Hey everyone! Me and my team are looking for some tips to starting a Web Design/Development business. We will be working in a team of 3, myself being the UI/UX Designer and the other two being developers. So far we have a couple ideas starting off:
The pricing side is where we are confused because we are not sure how much to charge per website and the monthly fee to maintain it. With that being said, any guys/girls in here running a similar business that would able to give us a few pointers? [link] [comments]  |
| How do I play a promotional loop video for my waiting room clients? Posted: 07 Apr 2019 03:04 PM PDT I have a flatscreen TV I'm not using, and I want to play a 5 minute video of my services, on a loop, while customers are in the waiting room. What is the easiest way to do this? [link] [comments]  |
| Where to sell Instagram account with 71,000 followers? Posted: 07 Apr 2019 03:00 PM PDT I have a arts & crafts account with 71k and about 40% engagement(crazy, right?). I am selling it because I don't really want to run businesses on Instagram anymore and want to move onto a new project. Are there any sites to sell an Instagram account safely? I tried Fameswap but it sucked and I stopped using it. Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Circular Saw machine-Best manufacturing | zeal Tech Automation Posted: 07 Apr 2019 10:23 PM PDT Circular saw machine from zeal tech is most demanding saw cutting machine. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Apr 2019 01:09 PM PDT Have any of you ever sold your small business or have been approached by buyers? If so, how did it happen? Did a buyer approach you or were you trying to sell it? What kind of revenue were you making at the time? What industry were you in? Feel free to add any more information. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Apr 2019 12:48 PM PDT My question is this, in terms of starting my small business where do I get the funds? I have some savings but I dont know if it would be enough to go for the first 6moths-year. Would is make sense to get a business loan to finance my start from a major bank or other similar source? Or am I totally off the mark on this? Edits: The business would be a pizza restaurant, which I have a ton of experience in running from college days. I'm in Manitoba, Canada. This would be a solo venture [link] [comments]  |
| Turning my small operation into a legitimate business. Posted: 07 Apr 2019 11:54 AM PDT for the past few weeks my dad and I have found some odd jobs around - home maintenance things - power washing, window cleaning, drywall repair, painting etc. We live in California and want to turn this into an actually business. I went to register for a business license but the Ca.gov website said I didn't need one. I know this is probably and easy question to answer but the problem is we don't know exactly what we're looking for - how can we make this a legitimate operation? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Apr 2019 10:52 AM PDT Hi, I am looking to start a concierge/travel planner/tour guide aimed at a travelers from a particular niche coming to my city. Obviously I will need a webpage. I am not technical although I do learn quickly and can use google quite well! I have messed about before with blogs on wordpress, using plugins and some basic HTML although what I am looking to do goes way past that! I am looking for a hosting service or plugin/platform that will take payments and allow me to take bookings (and block them off if I am away or have too many clients -ha!), send automated emails, collect client details etc. for a few different product/service offers (kind of like a shop). Does anyone have any experience doing anything similar and could advise on some decent (cheap!) web services/providers I could look into? Thanks in advance [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Apr 2019 10:52 AM PDT Location: CANADA Let's say I sell a flight package. Flight Package: $1000 Air Canada flight (Includes all Taxes) $100 service fee to my travel company for booking When I calculate the GST and PST (if applicable) for this transaction, am I charging tax for the entire amount of $1100? OR am I only charging tax on the $100 service fee? Technically, my customer has already paid taxes on the $1000 flight because that was included in the $1000 and I simply gave that money to air canada because I booked it for them. I've had a travel agent I know and respect tell me that you only charge tax for the service fee. So, if that's the case, how do I represent the $1000 that flowed through my companies books? Is it income and the flight was an expense? Will CRA not count that as a discrepancy and say "your customer paid you $1100 and you only charged $100 worth of taxes, that's not okay." How does this work? Couple things to keep in mind: -I never own the flight, it is never in the name of my company. I simply broker arrange the deal between my client and the airline -I am acting on behalf of someone. Much like a real estate agent, or a stock broker. [link] [comments]  |
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