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    Marketplace Tuesday! (May 28, 2019) Entrepreneur

    May 28, 2019

    Marketplace Tuesday! (May 28, 2019) Entrepreneur

    Marketplace Tuesday! (May 28, 2019)

    Posted: 28 May 2019 06:11 AM PDT

    Please use this thread to post any Jobs that you're looking to fill (including interns), or services you're looking to render to other members.

    We do this to not overflow the subreddit with personal offerings (such logo design, SEO, etc) so please try to limit the offerings to this weekly thread.

    Since this thread can fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts.

    submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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    10 things great salespeople do

    Posted: 28 May 2019 04:22 AM PDT

    1. Have a sales process

    You should have a sales process in place so you can measure and repeat the steps that work, and weed out ones that don't. If you're going in without a plan you'll never truly know what works and what doesn't, you won't be able to test changes.

    Think about a website, if you changed something on it you'd want to test whether that change improved or worsened your metrics, it's no different with sales. You are constantly trying to get better through testing a variable to see if it can improve your hit rate. That's why you need a sales process, a formalised set of steps you usually take.

    The scientific method boiled down is simply that, testing a hypothesis and look how it has revolutionised the world. The world of sales is not mystical it exists in the material world and through testing you will find the patterns that'll help you improve your KPIs.

    2. Review your pipeline

    You've got to keep reviewing your pipeline so you ensure that you have a constant stream of deals coming down. That way you'll know ahead of time if there's a lean period coming and so that you can keep pushing your deals through each stage of the pipeline. This helps you plan for the future and is crucial to making sure you hit targets.

    ​

    With a pipeline you can see what the average deal is worth at each stage and you can see how big each potential deal is. Therefore you can see if the value of our average deal over time might go down, or if a deal is particularly lucrative and whether its been sitting at a particular stage for a while - what do I need to do to push it forwards or is it a bust and I should focus on another?

    Pipelines are a useful framework to use, if you're not thinking in those terms start doing so because it'll help you decide where to focus your energies.

    3. Be a knowledgebase for your product

    Try talking about a subject you know little to nothing about, there'll be long awkward pauses as you frantically think of something to say. You won't inspire much confidence and you'll lose whoever you're speaking to.

    You need to know what your product is, the benefits and how it fits into the market as well as some of its drawbacks and how to counter or obviate them. If you can do that, then you'll be much more persuasive and it'll help you develop the script for the sale. Plus human beings aren't robots they ask questions, you can't predict every question that'll ever be asked but if you have some depth of knowledge you can create an answer.

    Part of being a great salesperson is being perceived as competent which breeds trust. If you come across as a bs artist who is trying to finesse the prospect you lose that trust and you lose the sale. So do your homework.

    4. Research your prospects thoroughly

    In a similar vein to knowing your product, know who you're selling to. It may seem trivial but we see these schoolboy errors again and again.

    Whenever we get a cold call and we get the question 'can I speak with someone who deals with your marketing?' Our immediate reaction is spam.

    There are a ton of resources like Linkedin where you can look up the person you need to talk to in an organisation, it'll help you get past the gatekeeper and make the case for what you're selling.

    What if the prospect runs a business similar to another one of your existing customers? That's a great case study to use as social proof but if you don't put in the work ahead of time you won't know that, and so you've unnecessarily tied one hand behind your back. If you're interested and you should be, check out our beginners guide to cold calling a prospect here.

    5. Frame your product or service as the solution to your problems

    So your product is amazing, it has all these benefits. Who cares? Generic benefits that have no relevance to me are of no interest to me. You have to make the prospect care.

    How do you do that? By asking questions and finding the problems they have and matching those problems to the solutions provided by your product or service. In the mind of the prospect you've got to make them feel like their hand is cold and you're offering them some gloves. You've got to be subtle about how you do this, you don't want to force the conversation but lead them in this direction and then make them feel like they came to the decision of 'yeah this product might just solve my problem(s)'.

    6. Become a better speaker

    People are quite shallow. Taller men tend to do better at job interviews, same thing with better looking people.

    You can improve those a little by dressing better and trying to stay fit but you can become more charismatic and therefore more persuasive. The most famous example of this is Warren Buffet who had horrible crippling stage fright but in his early days recognised the weakness and took classes on public speaking, today he holds court every year at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in front of thousands who listen intently to his every word. He rates that speaking course higher than his degree in helping him to get to where he has. He had to persuade those first people to invest in Berkshire. He had to persuade Senators at the hearings of the Solomon Brothers not to destroy the company by removing its trading licence after their illegal actions were caught. Just listen to Warren speak and how he uses words to convey contrition, anger and righteousness. In the end he succeeded, if was not a great speaker he would not have done so.

    https://youtu.be/7u7-UNSkr4o

    ​

    7. Ask for referrals

    If you spoke to one new person a day, in a year you would speak to 365 new people. That's a lot of people. That's 365 potential sales opportunities.

    You've got to be able to build and grow your network so don't be afraid to ask for introductions from your existing network to widen it. But when asking be specific about what you want when it comes to getting the introduction. You want to make it as simple as possible for your existing customer, a friend in another industry or whoever it is to help you get to that new person.

    Fish in a pond only grow so big, in the oceans they grow really really big. You should always work to grow your network. If you've got the greatest sales pitch in the history of man that has an amazing conversion rate then the only limiting factor is the number of people you pitch to. The obvious thing you want to do is increase the number of people you pitch to. It's not rocket science.

    8. Build personal relationships

    Quantity is important but so is quality. You don't just want a vast sea but a deep ocean. Being able to build deeper connections with people and get to know them is useful because they'll then be more willing to help you. That's a function of likability.

    You might not be the most charming person in the world but you don't have to be. A lot of it is being a good listener and conversationalist, find a common interest with people and develop conversations around it. Don't just be all cold sales, have in jokes. Make it not seem like work, if it seems like work they'll be very shallow connections that will have a limited shelf life.

    9. Be passionate

    If you're a Debbie Downer you will suck the air out of a room and people will want to get away from you. They certainly won't want to listen to you.

    If you have no passion for what you're selling they'll make assumptions like this company must be awful, this product must be terrible. You have to elicit a strong emotion to get people to do what you want, in the case of making a sale you've got to get them excited and the best way to do that is to be excited about what you're selling too.

    You've got to create a sense of FOMO, fear of missing out. There's been studies that show when a person sees another person yawn they're more likely to yawn. So you've got to set the right tone.

    The lack of passion may have a simple cause and so a simple fix, for example if you're not getting enough sleep at night you're going to be drained and just not physically capable of creating that enthusiasm, diet and exercise are important too.

    10. Don't be afraid to walk away

    Sometimes you're just not the right fit and you're wasting time you'll never get back trying to get blood out of a stone. You'd be much better off spending that time on greener pastures.

    This will come with experience but time is money and don't waste it. We've had potential prospects lead us on a merry go round and never making a decision, it's frustrating and it'll hurt your motivation and harm other more probable deals that are allowed to wither as they lack the sunlight of your attention.

    submitted by /u/Mattrt123
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    My cofounder and I have bootstrapped our SaaS startup from 0 to over 720 paying customers in under 9 months

    Posted: 28 May 2019 11:43 AM PDT

    I dont mean to be braggadocious because I know we still have so much to learn and so much farther to go, but thought this might be helpful for other bootstrapping founders.

    Most bootstrapped startups are time-rich and cash-poor, which means taking the time to really personalize your onboarding is both realistic, and can pay huge dividends. "Do things that don't scale".

    Early on, we decided that we would send all our free trial signups a personalized welcome video, individually recorded by me, greeting them by name and thanking them for checking us out. (Loom is awesome for this)

    The responses from these videos are usually amazing. People always expect the typical automated "thanks for signing up" welcome email when they try out a new service. However, if you wow them with a personalized video, it does 3 great things:

    1. It starts the relationship on a great note, and lets the user see that there is a real person behind the company.
    2. It makes getting feedback much easier. You've already opened up a conversation channel, and built at least some rapport. I've had people take the time to let me know that they will not be using the service, when they would normally just leave without notice. This has given us the opportunity to figure out what went wrong, or what features they were looking for that we didn't have.
    3. Some people are so wowed by the personal touch that they've shared it on Twitter or on Facebook groups, and turn into raving fans.

    We have had some paying customers tell us that the reason they signed up was because of the personal video.

    ------------------------------------

    Now, we are at a point where it isn't realistic for me to record videos for every single free trial signup, but I still try to for our higher potential value trial-ers, which we filter based on certain actions they take after signing up for the free trial. However, if your Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is high, I could see many many circumstances where a startup could see positive ROI from hiring someone to send personalized videos full-time.

    I believe that this early personalization has set the foundation for a lot of the recent growth we have seen: The majority of new customers come from word-of-mouth referrals nowadays.

    Of course, this level of personalization has to be paired with a good product that people actually want. All the personalization in the world won't be able to fix a bad product.

    submitted by /u/daviswbaer
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    The Absolute Best Advice

    Posted: 27 May 2019 10:59 PM PDT

    Entrepreneurs of Reddit,

    If you would have to choose one advice to give to a new entrepreneur.

    What would it be?

    submitted by /u/DismalAd9
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    A message to every young person looking to make it

    Posted: 28 May 2019 09:50 AM PDT

    1. Never compare your chapter 1 to someone's chapter 10
    2. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
    3. It's going to hard. But it's going to be worth it
    4. There is no shortcut. Get in line. Stay in line.
    5. A keyboard doesn't have conversations. Get on the damn phone and talk to people
    6. Work harder - you will make it because your competition is lazy
    7. Someone has already walked the path of success, model yourself on them.
    8. Buy real estate. You need to plan the escape so you can make money while you sleep in the future.
    9. Keep your circle tight. You don't need a hundred mates.
    10. Stop doing dumb shit.
    submitted by /u/hazeminus
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    $13,500/month with a meme.

    Posted: 28 May 2019 09:15 AM PDT

    Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.

    Today's interview is with James Reina + Davis Harari of The Nut Button, a brand that sells the nut button

    Some stats:

    • Product: The Nut Button
    • Revenue/mo: $13,500
    • Started: September 2017
    • Location: Brooklyn
    • Founders: 2
    • Employees: 0

    Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

    We're Davis Harari and James Reina and we're the co-founders of The Nut Button.

    So, what is The Nut Button?

    Our core product is a push button toy based off of the popular "NUT" meme. Our success is largely due to the inherently viral nature of the product - when people see a funny meme, they want to share it with their friends.

    Likewise, when customers purchase our button, they take pictures/videos of it and show it off to their friends. This makes advertising extremely simple for us — up until recently, we spent close to nothing on marketing, as our customers were our built-in marketing team.

    We know that this is a "dumb" product - however, our approach to the company is anything but. We're currently operating at a 65% profit margin and are on pace to do a little over $200,000 in sales in 2019, 75% of which is passively through Amazon FBA.

    What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

    Davis:

    I thought of this product while interning before my senior year of college. I was in a meme group chat with some friends - and everyone thought the nut meme was hysterical.

    the meme

    If you want to learn about the history of the meme, you can read about its origin here.

    I thought it was funny too, and I thought it'd be amazing to buy a real life nut button. After doing some research online, I realized that nobody had manufactured a nut button yet. I called James, and after a 10-minute call, we decided we had to try to make the meme a reality.

    Prior to The Nut Button, neither James or I had any Amazon FBA or e-Commerce experience. I've been reselling concert tickets and sneakers since I was 13, so I was confident in my entrepreneurial abilities.

    James had opened a pop-up coffee shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn that summer, so I thought he would have a similar mindset in regards to a "get-it-done" execution on the concept.

    Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.

    James:

    We knew Alibaba was going to be the place to source something like this, so we started scouting a "sound button manufacturer" (that was the verbatim search term), and sent an inquiry to basically every vendor there.

    It's such a simple product that we weren't super worried about quality — we valued communication and price over all else, with the intention of building a lasting relationship with our supplier.

    We weeded out 80% of vendors on that criteria alone since there was a massive language barrier with most Chinese suppliers.

    With the few remaining, we negotiated a price in broken English, closed a good deal, and 1,000 nut buttons were at my doorstep about a month later. I still remember cutting into the first box, and feeling a mix of excitement and extreme self-doubt (I think that mix means you're on to something).

    We weren't 100% confident that this was going to work, but we broke down the pros and cons like this

    Here's why we thought it might work:

    The marketing was already done, but the product wasn't there. By that, I mean there were millions of shares/views of our soon-to-be-product by way of the meme, and brand recognition was there.

    Also, the risk was only $1,250 each for first 1,000 units (minimum order quantity). And our upside was about $4,000 each.

    Here's why we thought it might NOT work:

    The fact that it's an outdated//irrelevant meme. And we have zero eCommerce experience

    The juice was worth the squeeze, we figured — and if we failed, we could just hand them out on the street or at school for fun.

    Legal Protection

    We also realized that this product would be super easy for a big fish to produce themselves and undercut us. So we spent a good amount in the beginning on legal fees, trademarks, and IP protection to protect us down the road.

    Spending about a thousand bucks on LegalZoom for years of trademark protection was definitely worth it.

    Describe the process of launching the business.

    Davis:

    James had some experience with designing websites so we purchased our website URL and began working on our site with Squarespace. The below photo is a screengrab from our redesigned site, hosted with Shopify.

    From there, we began running Facebook and Instagram ads with a $10 per day budget... Which failed miserably in the beginning because we had no idea what we were doing with Facebook ads at the time. Our conversions were under 1% but hey, it was a learning experience.

    In terms of creating an online presence - our plan was established from the start. The product is inherently viral - people send funny memes to their friends. We planned to rely on our customers in order to build and maintain our online presence.

    In order to fund the first few batches, we both dipped into our personal savings. We had decent liquidity/starting capital for college students, as I was very active with buying and reselling concert tickets and James opened up a pop-up coffee shop called Devil Spit Coffee in Brooklyn that summer.

    In the first month of going live, we had sold a whopping 8 units. We looked into opening other distribution channels, and decided to ship out a few hundred units into Amazon FBA.

    We started selling 4-5 a day, but we knew that we had barely scratched the surface of The Nut Button's potential. Out of the blue, our sales suddenly spiked to 30-40 per day.

    James and I found that someone had posted a video of a dog playing with a Nut Button on their Tumblr account, and it had garnered hundreds of thousands of notes. That was just the beginning though - that video then got reposted by Barstool Sports, which exposed the Nut Button to millions of people. The day that it was posted, we sold well over 100 units, and rode that momentum straight through the holiday season.

    Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

    James:

    So one of the most beautiful things about The Nut Button is that it's inherently viral. In fact, most of the marketing and brand recognition was done before we even made the product.

    In the first year of our products life, we spent a meager $100 dollars on marketing and advertising (which maybe was a mistake, but we'll touch on that later) — yet brought in over $100,000 in sales.

    Our customers are our marketing team. Almost everyone who buys The Nut Button will post it on their SnapChat, Instagram, Facebook, bring it to class, show their friends, etc… They're doing it all for us — so to any Nut Button owner reading this now, thanks for that :).

    In terms of customer retention, we expanded our SKU line through Print on Demand services like Printify and Printful, which allow us to offer Nut merch at zero risk to us.

    Armed with MailChimp and an email list of a few thousand subscribers, we were able to squeeze some revenue out of existing customers, and are positioned for more merch sales down the road.

    One thing that I haven't spent too much time talking about is Amazon FBA: where we see 75% of our total revenue. FBA has been a godsend and is what makes our business passive income. We send most of our inventory directly from China to Amazon warehouses, and they uncrate, repack, and fulfill every order from their site. Last month we did about $11,000 in sales from Amazon, and around $3,000 from our Website. Around the holiday season, we've seen our Amazon sales boost to a peak $45,000 within a 30-day period — crazy.

    Around four months ago I thought it would be fun to do a writeup on r/entrepreneur, — a subreddit with over 537k subscribers, and one that inspired me early on. The post (which you can read here) was well received within the community and is currently the 4th most popular post of the year, and 12th most popular post of all time. About a month later, I got a message from a CNBC reporter who read the article and he asked to interview us for CNBC's Make It column. This was our "mama we made it moment" and it was super legitimizing to see ourselves getting real recognition — not to mention it made our parents a bit more OK with us not having "real" jobs. We didn't see the CNBC article affect our sales too much (their readers don't align with our target audience), but it was a proud moment for both of us.

    How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

    Davis:

    There are a few things to note about our business today, and what we can see ahead.

    • We've increased our profit margins from around ~40% to over 60% This is due to utilizing economies of scale (placing larger orders from our supplier), and Amazon accepting us to their Small and Light program, which reduced our overall FBA fees by 18.5%.

    • Our sales from our website have exponentially increased since switching from SquareSpace to Shopify. In the past 30 days, we have done $2657.28 in sales through our Shopify store, which almost matches our total sales for Q1 + Q2 of 2018.

    • The Nut Button is still experiencing growth. Shopify has enabled us to ship worldwide, we've entered 5 more countries through Amazon FBA EU, and our domestic FBA revenue has increased when compared to Q1 2018, and our profit margins are still growing.

    • We are open to selling equity in the company for the right price. Feel free to reach out with any questions!

    Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

    James:

    Oh man there is so much to answer here. As my old man always says, "once you're done with a job, you know how to do it."

    Every step in building The Nut Button has been a learning experience (and still is), and there are a thousand things I wish we did right off the bat. For starters, we built our store on SquareSpace — which is such a less robust eCommerce platform vs. Shopify. We migrated only a few months ago, but have seen a substantial increase in revenue, customer retention, and ability to track our site analytics for marketing efforts. The extra tools and apps available via Shopify turned our simple little site into a proper storefront.

    Email and SMS abandoned cart recovery automation alone have reclaimed 6% of lost sales. The ability to use POD integrations like Printify and Printful have allowed us to expand our SKUs to shirts, hats, mugs, and even a $250 bean bag (eloquently dubbed "the Nut Sack) — at essentially zero risk to us. Allowing user reviews for our products have helped add social proof, and some pretty comical reviews have come out of it.

    I could go on and on about things we've learned — but to list a few more.

    Testing different product prices

    We found The Nut Button demand to be inelastic; when we raised our price to $14.99 (from $11.99) our unit sales stayed roughly the same while overall revenue increased 25%.

    Continued negotiation with our suppliers

    Our landed product cost is down over 100% since our first order of 1,000 units because we have maintained an excellent relationship with our suppliers, and are not afraid to continue negotiating with them. In fact, we just visited the factory in China earlier this year!

    Start social media engagement early on.

    We basically ignored all forms of social media management for the first year and a half, because it was a daunting task. However, in the past few weeks, we've grown an Instagram to around 7,000 followers and have gotten tons of free advertising and engagement via shares of our posts.

    Amazon review

    From left to right, James, Davis, Rosie the factory boss, Jack (our Intern at the time)

    Amazon sales screenshot

    Here's a screenshot of our Amazon FBA store from this past holiday season! We peaked at $41,500 (at a 62% margin) in a 30 day period.

    What platform/tools do you use for your business?

    • Sales Platform: Shopify

    • Email Marketing and Abandoned Cart Recovery: Conversio + Mailchimp

    • SMS Recovery: SMS Bump (doesn't get too many sales but the ROI is insane, ours is 1194.31%)

    • Email Capture: Privy

    • POD: Printify and Printful

    • Fulfillment: ShipStation, FBA

    What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

    Davis:

    My biggest inspiration for The Nut Button are the people who initially told me that it was the dumbest idea that they had ever heard and that we wouldn't sell any of them. Thankfully, over 20,000 customers (and counting) beg to differ.

    Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

    Davis:

    The most important thing is to start working. Obviously, have a game plan for your proposed business, but talking about an idea only goes so far. As an entrepreneur, you're not going to know how to do everything perfectly at first, but trial and error is necessary.

    We're living in 2019. The amount of resources online that you can utilize is unfamothable. Stay on top of market trends and figure out how you can apply them to your business.

    Before we placed our first order, I asked some friends what they thought of the product/concept. It was generally received positively - however, there were more than a few people who told us to our face that it was the dumbest idea ever. Self doubt is healthy and normal, however the ability to tune out negative energy is an essential trait for anyone looking to be an entrepreneur.

    Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

    Right now we aren't looking to hire. However, if you think you can add value to The Nut Button, feel free to reach out to us! We're always down to toss a free nut button or gear to someone with a large social media following.

    Where can we go to learn more?

    In the news:

    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.

    For more interviews, check out r/starter_story - I post new stories there daily.

    Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM

    submitted by /u/youngrichntasteless
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    I made a google sheet of all the 'link in bio' tools

    Posted: 27 May 2019 06:06 PM PDT

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YZJgnGcwSYui9Tr8rKFmSxMsqjGC7TUtAGI8qINc2AA/edit?usp=sharing

    The link has comment access, feel free to comment with any tools I missed or if some of the info is wrong.

    ​

    Average price per month seems to be about $6

    Link.tree is seems to be the market leader.

    submitted by /u/JoshGreat
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    I was a freelancer and just starting up a web and media agency. How to solve ‘starving artist’ dilemma?

    Posted: 28 May 2019 11:00 AM PDT

    Hi there.

    I have 5+ years of doing custom websites involving CMS platforms as WordPress and Shopify.

    I have a problem with asserting myself with my prices and what I have to offer, considering its so simple nowadays to open-up a Wix and Squarespace page. My primary motivation of doing websites and marketing services is because I genuinely like to help people, but cannot seem to assert boundaries when it comes to cost.

    I focus on bringing ROI results to the client with less of focus on design and more focus on a good landing page packed with SEO keyword research and good speed load times. It also very aesthetically pleasing for the package I provide, but not so much time spent on the visuals.

    TLDR: Hard to assert my prices. My prices are lower than the avg market price for website services. How to avoid the 'starving artist' problem?

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/melaneyes
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    Hear out my idea

    Posted: 28 May 2019 01:50 AM PDT

    Okay I was moving houses today and yes it's a stressful time. While moving I wish I had some hard plastic boxes to throw everything in. Usually they're really expensive to buy good quality boxes so I thought why not a company that rents out a bunch of small, medium, and large hard boxes for moving houses. They drop them off a few days before move and pick them up once you've unpacked. No BS cardboard boxes, no waste, no time wasting with taping everything up.

    They could even come with boxes and a space to write on with a marker for contents.

    Also, you could offer collapsible plastic boxes for ease of transport. The marketing pitch would be "An economical way to move houses without wasting cardboard". Price would have to be competitive and slightly higher than cardboard boxes and include delivery.

    Please critique and destroy my idea.

    submitted by /u/EMC2_trooper
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    How do you figure out what the market wants

    Posted: 28 May 2019 12:55 PM PDT

    How do you figure out what the market wants and where the demand is? Any books on this topic on maybe major demands for the market. I guess I should be specific with the market but I'm not really sure what type since I'm starting out

    submitted by /u/FallsZero
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    I Would Like To Share My Story of Being A Successful Freelance Designer. I hope this would help a newbie.

    Posted: 28 May 2019 12:52 PM PDT

    I've been thinking about so many days what new will I write! In my leisure time, I read the creative success story from a different profession on the internet.

    Recently, I have finished reading a story of an unknown person about his journey to a successful life, where he described, how did he start and how he got his dream position. I know from my life no man in this world can get success without hard work. Maybe I should use "Toil" cause Hard Work is so common, but the creative professional have to achieve it by continuous worship.

    Anyway, I was so inspired by that story. Then I thought if I write my journey to design life how will it be! Maybe I am not a top successful person in my profession, but any newbie or same professional soul may learn something from my struggle life and fault I did. Even someone may show any other example which can add value in my next life.

    It's more than 3k words. It really hard shares all those images and content here. So, I put the link down below.

    https://uxplanet.org/an-inspirational-story-of-being-a-successful-freelance-designer-304a5d0f27d8

    Note: Please delete this post, If you think I broke the group rules.

    submitted by /u/easiblu
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    How to build a side project with a full-time job - Pat Walls

    Posted: 28 May 2019 06:55 AM PDT

    Hey r/entrepreneur, my name's Grant.

    I'm currently working on a side project and I wanted to reach out to some people who have (or had) successful side projects to learn more about how they managed their time and what tips they might have.

    This week's interview is with Pat Walls. Pat's 24-hour startup changed the way I launched my own product and his side project Starter Story has allowed him to quit his job and work full time on his own projects.

    Enjoy and feel free to ask questions!

    What's your background, and what is (or was) your side-project?

    Hi, my name is Pat Walls and I am the founder of Starter Story - a platform that features the stories of successful entrepreneurs. It all started as a side project!

    My background is quite varied - I bounced around a few different careers after university (trying to find my passion) until I ultimately learned how to code and I became a software engineer.

    I started Starter Story in November 2017, and since then quit my full-time engineering job and have grown the site to 70k monthly readers.

    Let's go back to the point in time when you started working your side project. Tell me about that.

    That was a fun time.

    I was fresh off of a startup disaster after two friends and I tried launching a startup and getting into YC. That failed big time.

    After that failure, I contemplated my next move.

    I absolutely loved building and launching that company, but I needed to start something this time that was more of a "side project" and that wouldn't get in the way of my full-time job. So I started doing research on blogging, content and affiliate marketing.

    Getting started was a long and confusing process as I had no idea what I was doing. Everything was a learning process, but it was also a lot of fun.

    It took me a couple of months to nail down the idea, the design, and the first few interviews.

    What kind of hours were you working? How did you manage your time?

    I did everything on nights and weekends. I probably put in 15-20 hours of work per week.

    But also, when I have a new idea or initiative, it's all I can think about… So I probably worked more than those hours just by how much I was thinking about it.

    Managing my time

    I'll be honest, when I started I was bad at managing my time, but I think the process of starting a side project helped me improve that a lot.

    I usually worked a few hours before or after work. So, after I finished up with work for the day, I would go straight to a coffee shop and knock out a few hours of work. Or, I would wake up early and go to Starbucks for a couple of hours.

    I also got a lot done on the weekends - the weekend is such a great time to get 4-5 hours of solid focused time.

    I actually wrote a post a while back about how to be productive with a full time job and a side project.

    Where would you work from, what was your environment like?

    I switched up my environment often, but I had a lot of success working from Starbucks in the mornings.

    There was a Starbucks right next to my old apartment in NYC, so I would wake up at around 7am, pack up all my shit for the day, go to Starbucks and get a big coffee and crank out 2-3 hours of work, and then walk to work after that.

    https://twitter.com/thepatwalls/status/1022474784242843649

    It's such a good feeling to get all that work done in the morning, especially if you have a full-time job.

    And it's nice not to have to sit at work all day and think about what you are going to get done after work.

    Did you use any project management or productivity tools, which ones?

    At first no, just a simple to do list using Standard Notes.

    Over time I got more serious about productivity and tried stuff like the post-it notes method, Trello, and Getting Things Done.

    Here's a screenshot I dug up from my old Trello board

    But thinking back when I had a full-time job, I had such limited time to work on my side project that I really made those hours count, and I don't think I really needed any systems.

    Being so constrained by time was such a good thing for me. I only had enough time to focus on the important stuff, like pushing out more content and driving traffic to my website.

    How did you manage the multiple roles? (Sales, development, customer support, etc.)

    I never really thought about this - but it is a good question.

    I think I was just forced to do all of these things, so I never really had any issues managing it. It just happened.

    But as a general rule - I think it's important to look at all these roles and figure out where you need to improve.

    For example, people will say things like "But I'm horrible at sales and I hate emails". If you find yourself saying something along those lines, it means that you should focus your time on becoming better at those things.

    It's fine to suck at sales in your full-time engineering job. But with your own company or project, you need to solve those issues or find someone who can do it for you.

    You have to get out of your comfort zone.

    An example - I used to be a horrible designer (still bad) so I spent a lot of time improving my skills and learning about design in the early days. I used to suck at cold emails and stuff, now I feel a lot more confident when it comes to that.

    I think starting Starter Story has helped me become a much better salesperson, engineer, designer, manager, etc. That's what I loved about it.

    Even if it wasn't successful, I still had the opportunity to learn about so much stuff and be more confident in my abilities as an entrepreneur.

    What was your biggest challenge while working on a side project while working a full-time job? How did you solve it?

    My biggest challenge was staying focused at my day job.

    As I said before, often all I would think about was my side project, even when I was at work. I couldn't get it out of my head.

    I tried my best to curb that, and I definitely got better over time. I was working on Starter Story for an entire year before I quit.

    I never got fired though - that's all that matters!

    My manager and CTO did end up finding out about it. They were really cool about it and told me they didn't think it was affecting my performance (which I was kind of surprised about).

    It was also good timing, as I left the company shortly after.

    What tips do you have for others working on a side project while working a full-time job?

    First of all, it's really friggin hard, so if you're feeling discouraged, just keep trudging on.

    99% of people won't even try - but they will go into their corporate jobs for the next 20 years dreaming about it, wishing they could get started, but never executing. Don't be that person.

    Just keep working hard. Consistency is key. If you can put in a consistent couple hours every day, you will make it.

    Try to find a good routine. You're going to need to give up some nights out, get out of bed early on the weekdays, and maybe give up watching football for 10 hours on Sundays.

    I am by no means successful, but I will tell you that working for yourself is one of the greatest feelings I've ever felt.

    I've had jobs my whole life, and my parents as well, so the feeling of freedom and autonomy was totally new to me, and it was really crazy.

    Once I felt it, I realized there's no going back.

    It's so weird to think about working for someone else and fulfilling someone else's dreams. Life is too short for that.

    What's next for you?

    After I quit my job last year, I've been traveling around Asia and working.

    I've been focused on growing Starter Story and working on a new SaaS product called Pigeon - to help others launch websites similar to Starter Story.

    Overall, I'm feeling more motivated than ever and I'm so excited for the future. I'm just getting started!

    If you're currently working a full-time job and have some questions for me I'd love to help - please reach out. Find me on Twitter or YouTube, or my blog.

     

    The original blog post can be found here

    submitted by /u/kickpush1
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    Help me with my partnership dilemma.

    Posted: 28 May 2019 06:51 AM PDT

    I run a large sports-based social media blog, and I have 3 partners. I am 20% of the business, however people often associate my as the 'face' of the brand, as I do all the trade shows, go to sporting events, interviews, live broadcasts, YouTube, etc. My partners lay low, as they often feel being in the spotlight would negatively impact their actual careers.

    I feel frustrated, as we sell apparel and products yet I am only 20%; still the face of the brand. My partners do minimal work, aside from basic fulfillment and occasional customer support. 95% of our stuff is drop-shipped. We did about $430k last year, so this is no joke and I am growing increasingly weary of creating content and growing the biz because of it.

    I don't have a non-compete signed.

    Could I just form my own LLC/S-corp and basically sell my own spin-off? Different clothing and apparel designs, but to the same audience. Again, I am the figure people recognize, so that's a plus for me.

    Any help appreciated!

    submitted by /u/OldWolfOak
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    Starting a pool company

    Posted: 28 May 2019 02:11 PM PDT

    Has anyone on here started a pool company? Specifically cleaning, servicing, resurfacing, retiling etc. my husband wants to open his own business after being a CPO for ten years. I've read a lot and there are so many options. Buying a route, buying a franchise, starting from scrap, Llc or inc? So much to think about. Help a girl out. Links, books, articles and any tips are appreciated!

    submitted by /u/Blueeyes1101
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    I would seriously pay $100 for a reliable iphone case that could store my Bluetooth earbuds in the case

    Posted: 28 May 2019 02:07 PM PDT

    Even if it was a little bulkier, I wouldn't care. I would stop fucking losing earbuds.

    submitted by /u/Brazen_Togor
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    How can I serve as MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE as quickly as possible?

    Posted: 28 May 2019 02:04 PM PDT

    I'm not talking to make money.

    .
    I mean...how can I quickly help as many people as possible...as quickly as possible?
    .
    I'm willing to give away everything...the farm, the animals, etc.
    .
    My specialty? I love giving feedback on content and editing copywriting...I'm damn good at it.
    .
    Any suggestions about how to quickly give as much as possible?

    submitted by /u/JakeandOreos
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    What's r/entrepreneurs opinion on Gary Vee?

    Posted: 28 May 2019 02:04 PM PDT

    Just curious.

    submitted by /u/sopacboy
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    What are some 'hot' areas for security/defence/disaster relief startups right now?

    Posted: 28 May 2019 05:07 AM PDT

    I'm thinking mainly in the software space. What ideas and tools would be useful for security and defence, and what problems need solving?

    ​

    This is mainly just an area of interest of mine, not looking for ideas, but maybe just some examples/pointers/problems that need solving.

    ​

    Thanks in advance.

    submitted by /u/DocDaneeka90
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    Do you have to file quarterly taxes if you're in the red? (just starting out)

    Posted: 28 May 2019 01:39 PM PDT

    I'm planning on filling for my LLC tonight but taxes have me concerned. By the first quarterly filling date, I'll have $1000+ in expenses and zero income. Do I still have to file, or do I only file once I start bringing in clients?

    submitted by /u/FrowzyFraulein
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    How can a beginner organize thoughts/stay focused?

    Posted: 28 May 2019 09:13 AM PDT

    So my mind is exploding with ideas and all of them get me excited. I want to start affiliate marketing (already trying the lazy CL/eBay method..just started last night lol), I want to do it on my own future websites, I have 3 different niche interests that I think are profitable, I want to do this and that and this and that and..

    You guys know where I'm at, right? It's easy to get excited about everything but it makes me unproductive and scatters my energy. On top of that I'm unemployed and seeking part time jobs in town and online, and trying to stay focused on my fitness goals, and being an attentive girlfriend, etc..

    So, any advice on how an excitable beginner can chill out and focus on one thing at a time? I want to give myself a real shot but I don't want to burn out or blow up. Maybe I just need someone to tell me it'll be alright lol

    submitted by /u/bleachedArtemis
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    sourcing from alibaba

    Posted: 28 May 2019 12:52 PM PDT

    Hi all,

    ​

    Brand new to this sub and I've done my fair search of past articles on this and I think I need a little more specific help.

    I am looking to specifically source 12mm diameter x 2mm wall thickness colored borosilicate glass tubing.

    ​

    I searched all over Alibaba and there are a ton of sellers of this. All of them seem to be all over the place in their conversations.

    ​

    What should I be looking for to get a legit source of the product? I've ordered off dhgate in the past with great experieces all around. Alibaba seems to be a nut I can't crack for some reason. Aliexpress was the same experience as dhgate.

    ​

    I put out an RFQ on alibaba today to see if I can get better results. Everyone else seems to not want the business as I even ordered a sample from a supplier and they won't confirm anything.

    ​

    Thoughts?

    submitted by /u/destonomos
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    I need an order fulfillment software

    Posted: 28 May 2019 08:48 AM PDT

    I'm managing a small scale exterior door assembly plant. We're expanding and I want to implement a software to input orders to a cloud/folder where my employees can remotely view them, complete them, and mark it as ready for pickup. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas I'd really appreciate it.

    submitted by /u/Swarg
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    Starting an instagram growth service

    Posted: 28 May 2019 12:04 PM PDT

    I'm considering building a SASS that allows people to control there instagram growth automation. I know there are plenty of services u already out there but I know the market is still wide.

    Any thoughts on starting something like this? Has anyone here tried and done so successfully or tried and failed?

    All replies are welcome!

    submitted by /u/terpredpill
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    Looking for digital marketing agency partners - Toronto Canada

    Posted: 28 May 2019 07:20 AM PDT

    I am looking for partners in a digital marketing agency.

    I have 30 years of proven solid experience as a serial entrepreneur and sales professional, and I am looking to start a digital marketing agency in Toronto Canada, with the idea of expanding into international markets.

    What I am looking for is a few good men or women who have a background in the following:

    Facebook ads expert Web designers Content creators through the use of video and editing Copy writers Google ads specialists Funnel experts Email marketers

    And anyone else who believes that they can contribute to a digital marketing agency

    What I am offering is the ability to join a business with a growing team.l, to share in both profit and equity.

    My role will be to focus on sales and marketing of the business driving revenue inbound and the overall growth and direction of the business.

    Your role will be to grow and expand your department and contributing to the overall growth of the business.

    My vision is to have a full-service content creation digital markekting agency.

    Please message me with your experience and why you might be interested as a partner, and be prepared to meet should we be interested in working together.

    You can see who I am at www.adviceinsales.com

    Thank you.

    submitted by /u/bunditbundit
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    Lets discuss the Disney-Fox merger!

    Posted: 28 May 2019 11:03 AM PDT

    Tried to do it in another group, but the discussion didn't really lift off. I think this is the biggest merger in history. Not necessarily from a financial perspective, but in the way that it really affects us, the end-users, the customers. Would love to hear your thoughts.

    submitted by /u/AndrewSaaSHub
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