Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (June 28, 2019) Entrepreneur |
- Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (June 28, 2019)
- How I fixed my mindset:
- How The North Face 'hacked' Wikipedia - A Guerrilla Marketing Masterclass or Taking Advantage of a Non-Profit?
- How can I avoid being the "scheme guy" who spends his whole life in poverty?
- ATM Business.
- How realistic is my business idea/dream
- Google my business "Short Name" confusion
- Custom boxes to ship orders in
- Who knew that Fiverr affiliate program had so much to offer !
- When to chose to developing New Product Lines or Improve Current Products?
- How do I approach local firms about a website?
- General ramblings on Entrepreneurship, Dropshipping and Creating Value (no self-promo! ��)
- Using your rich relatives ?
- Can someone TLDR what a social media panel is? (smm)
- Tunercult
- What would you do?
- $74k/mo as a clothing manufacturer.
- How do I find those first clients starting from nothing?
- Interested to hear your feedback
- DBA-ception (impossible to Google question)
- How to Write a Business Plan - Step-by-Step Guide & Tempates
- Unsatisfied with business name
- [NSFW] I can't even watch porn anymore without getting an ad from a 'guru'.
- How can I automate email scrapping on tripadvisor ?
| Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (June 28, 2019) Posted: 28 Jun 2019 06:17 AM PDT Please use this thread to share any accomplishment you care to gloat about, and some lessons learned. This is a weekly thread to encourage new members to participate, and post their accomplishments, as well as give the veterans an opportunity to inspire the up-and-comers. 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]  |
| Posted: 28 Jun 2019 09:33 AM PDT I used to have a panic attack almost every morning. I used to feel stuck in life... feeling like nothing was ever lining up and my world was going nowhere. I used to have dreams but no plan to make them reality. I used to smoke a pack of cigarettes everyday. I used to feel like the world was out to get me. I used to be a pretty negative person. I used to be about 60 pounds overweight. I used to not follow through on my word. What changed? I got sick of being that person. Over a period of a few years, I started Jiujitsu training, quit bad habits, joined the army, and started a business. My mentor Alex Charfen told me once that the habits, beliefs, and behaviors that I had in my life had created the life that I had. And that if I was unhappy with 100% of my life, it meant I'd have to change 100% of my behaviors, habits, and beliefs. So that's what I did! I got really into Jiujitsu and Crossfit. I started meditating everyday. I began drinking a lot more water. I cleaned up my lifestyle across the board. I turned my dreams into goals. I changed my mindset around what's possible from life. Life has gotten a whole lot better since changing things up. The Panic attacks stopped as soon as I got healthy, started meditating, and began hydrating... my adrenal system was in need of repair. If I can make the switch, anyone can. It all starts with you. With believing that you are made like those who succeed. Trusting the flow of life. Learning everything you can as you go. Developing a champion mindset. Helping other people. Becoming useful to the world. I've still got a long way to go till my goals are achieved. This has all been a warmup. If you want to know where to begin, check out the book "An Iron Will". Get yourself some great mentors. Keep an open and beginners mind. Do some Jiujitsu EDIT: Thank you kind stranger for my first Reddit gold. I love the Reddit community as a whole and I'll be here for a long time to come. HMU if you want to connect. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Jun 2019 09:15 AM PDT "How can a brand be the first on Google without paying anything for it?". Is a question The North Face asked at the start of video they released in April. They go on to claim they reached "the top of the world's largest search engine, paying absolutely nothing". How did The North Face manage to 'hack' their way to the top of Google?The North Face is an outdoor adventure company who want people to see their brand before going on holidays. How could they get their products in front of these travelers? Wikipedia ranks in well in search engines for an encyclopedias worth of topics and the corresponding images within those articles rank highly in the image results. Before going on holiday, most people will do some research on their chosen destination. When I type, "Galapagos Islands" into Google the first result is returned is Wikipedia. How could The North Face get their brand seen when Wikipedia was dominating the top spots? They found out they didn't need to compete... You see, wikipedia pages are community controlled. Anyone can edit them. The North Faces' ad agency in Brazil decided to test replacing images on wikipedia with photos of their product. Using high quality imagery with backgrounds that are relevant to the given wikipedia page, they removed previous images and added their own. When people searched for holiday destinations such as Huayna Pichu in Peru the top image result would show a picture that included the North Face brand - a subtle product placement. Since it's inception wikipedia has had 899,004,724 edits. The North Face campaign going under the radar is unsurprising given this and it wouldn't be surprising to hear of others using a similar method. "It features exclusively free content and no commercial ads, and is owned and supported by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization funded primarily through donations." How Were They CaughtLeo and his team began scaling their method after initial success. Relevant images combined with the fact that wikipedia is community moderated meant this went unnoticed. Upon finding out about the campaign, the Wikimedia Foundation - the nonprofit that runs Wikipedia tweeted: "Yesterday, we were disappointed to learn that @thenorthface and @LeoBurnett unethically manipulated Wikipedia. They have risked your trust in our mission for a short-lived consumer stunt." Leo Burnett and his agency thought they were taking a unique approach to gain exposure but now understands their method went against wikipedia community guidelines. "We're always looking for creative ways to meet consumers where they are" The agency has since accepted an invitation to learn about the guidelines of Wikipedia. The North Face apology takes a genuine approach with a representative stating: "We believe deeply in Wikipedia's mission and apologize for engaging in activity inconsistent with those principles." "Effective immediately, we have ended the campaign, and moving forward, we'll commit to ensuring that our teams and vendors are better trained on the site policies." Who is in the wrong here?This is a case of an agency trying to figure out a clever way to promote a client company. It was effective because The North Face already has a brand associated with high quality adventure clothing, so any individual case of their clothing appearing in a destination photos is not out of the ordinary. Wikipedia gained additional high quality images from top photographers which in itself is a nice idea. However, smuggling in images and boasting about sits less well with the public. The Wikimedia Foundation summarises the situation well in a statement released shortly after the event: "In fact, what they did was akin to defacing public property, which is a surprising direction from The North Face. Their stated mission, 'unchanged since 1966,' is to support the preservation of the outdoors' — a public good held in trust for all of us." A multi-national company trying something different to gain some free exposure is nothing new. The North Face bragging about manipulating a non-profit does not reflect well on them. In the video, that has since been taken down, they state they were "collaborating with wikipedia", a partnership unbeknown to wikipedia. This seems more akin to the relationship a shoplifter has with a supermarket. Volunteers have since taken down the images and blocked all the accounts associated with the breaches of Wikipedia's terms of use. If you enjoyed this post, the full article is here. [link] [comments]  |
| How can I avoid being the "scheme guy" who spends his whole life in poverty? Posted: 27 Jun 2019 03:21 PM PDT I want to pursue entrepreneurship, because it would be like the journey of a lifetime. I want to live the best life imaginable. However, I hear stories about guys that become entrepreneurs, but can't even afford their kids' Christmas presents because their businesses fail. And they die that way. I don't want to ever be in that situation. I only want to provide a good life to those around me. I've always been one who wants to help others. I don't want to fuck up anyone's life. How can I avoid being "that guy" [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Jun 2019 08:16 AM PDT Hi, I have a little bit capital laying around and wanted to get into a ATM business. I was wondering if anyone in this group has started one or has been working on ATM business? My question is. Does it with with starting with one ATM? What are the best companies to purchase the ATM? Thoughts on ATM merchants loading the money? How to buy insurances for ATMS? Appreciate your answers.! [link] [comments]  |
| How realistic is my business idea/dream Posted: 28 Jun 2019 07:54 AM PDT Hello all, I am currently 19 living in Texas. I have been going to college for information systems and have been asking myself what it is I really want to do with my future. With that being said, I recently have gotten interested in starting a merch manufacturing/fulfillment business similar to FanJoy where we would work with clients in helping with designs, creating a website for them, assist with marketing, and making/shipping all merchandise in house. My dad started a custom apparel/uniform business a few years back which has been doing decently, but no crazy numbers. I have access to professional level equipment, and have been thinking of ways I could potentially start a business out of it. Of course, for now I would have to start small and really focus on this if I want it to be on the level I want. The problem is I have absolutely no idea to start. I currently have an internship at one of the top 3 tech companies, and still feel unhappy doing what I do. I don want to settle and constantly do something I hate because the pay is good. I have sold personal clothing designs in previous year and made about 9-10k when I was 16 and fell in love with that field. I just don't have any idea how to get clients or where to start. Any tips? [link] [comments]  |
| Google my business "Short Name" confusion Posted: 28 Jun 2019 11:32 AM PDT Anyone else get notified to add this to their GMB profile lately? I looked at googles help page but I am still a little confused? What does it do and why can't I use spaces? [link] [comments]  |
| Custom boxes to ship orders in Posted: 28 Jun 2019 07:48 AM PDT Do you make use of customized boxes (with branding on the box) and where do you get them? We've started looking around but everything is incredibly expensive. [link] [comments]  |
| Who knew that Fiverr affiliate program had so much to offer ! Posted: 28 Jun 2019 02:25 PM PDT I knew that Fiverr was somewhat great to make some beer money out of it. But this person just went another direction. instead of promoting his own stuff on FIverr he joined the affiliate program and made bank... Now I am like, why!!why didn't I do it sooner, instead of struggling to sell a product, I could've promoted other peoples stuff and still gotten a cut out of it. [link] [comments]  |
| When to chose to developing New Product Lines or Improve Current Products? Posted: 28 Jun 2019 02:08 PM PDT There are a lot of product that I see that release an mvp then periodically improve every 1 - 2 years. This is cheaper than developing a new product. Then there are new products that are develop and release every 4 years or so. When does it make sense for financial reasons to develop a new product line over improving an old one? Strategically when does it make sense to develop new product lines of different functions to broaden your potential customer base? [link] [comments]  |
| How do I approach local firms about a website? Posted: 28 Jun 2019 01:56 PM PDT Hi, I'm new to freelancing and I've asked around in various places about how I can promote myself. Lots of people said I should approach local firms for small projects. The thing is that I make websites and that almost all local companies already have one. Should I still take those into account because I cannot send an e-mail that basically says "your website is ugly I can make a better one" because it probably comes over like that. After searching for companies on google maps I've found a couple that don't have one yet. How should I approach those? Thanks for reading! [link] [comments]  |
| General ramblings on Entrepreneurship, Dropshipping and Creating Value (no self-promo! ��) Posted: 28 Jun 2019 01:55 PM PDT Hello, I follow this sub a lot. Not because of its content but because of the desire from the community to get out there and achieve something by making a difference in the world. A lot of us, including myself - are motivated by money. We dream of that one big idea that's going to make us millions. The reality is that it is highly unlikely to happen to you. I made a web game that turned viral about 4 years ago. Just a little side project. It blew up on YouTube, and had been played a billion times and over a million in revenue. I didn't see any of that money because I made the game under an employer. Such is life. It was a once in a life time fluke. The right game, at the right time, shared by the right people. You can't replicate that success (I've tried). I tasted a glimpse of success. But ultimately, it faded away. Now I've started something from scratch, on my own. The reality is, entrepreneurship is hard as fuck, messy and stressful. There isn't really a magic lottery ticket that will grant you success in the millions. It's all a fluke. Hard work doesn't really pay off either, you've got to work smart. You've got to constantly validate your assumptions to determine if you are moving in the right direction or not. I visit this sub every day. I read a lot about drop shipping, and just selling cheap stuff from China to some suckers on Instagram. If that's what entrepreneurship is all about then it's not what I come here for. I come here for the once in a while desire to change the world. Even if only in the smallest way. Giving value to people. I think getting caught up in generating profit, over everything else is the wrong way to do it. But that's why dropshipping seems so enticing. It's a seemingly low-effort endeavour you can do without leaving your computer chair. You are sold on the prospects of fortune from people selling coaching and guiding on how to drop ship. It should be clear what their true motives and intentions are. The point I'm trying to make is - to be successful, and to be an entrepreneur - you have to get out of the building and speak to people. You have to make something and test it. You have to relish in failure in order to steer yourself towards success. Value over profit. Give your customers value first, and profit will follow. My advice is, take advantage of what you know most about - and what you are already an expert on. Use that and your peer group to your advantage. I'm in the digital product industry and I've seen a need from my half-decade of experience that facilitating workshops and meetings is a lacking skill. I'm addressing the need of eradicating unproductive meetings. I've created a product that is innovative. Innovation is simply putting two things together that already exist, into a new thing. Tesla did not invent cars. Apple didn't not invent the smartphone. I did not invent workshop techniques, nor the modern language in which to convey them simply. I saw a need, and I filled it. But, what I did is a complete assumption that it is useful. That's why I follow the Lean Startup approach. Test your assumptions, reduce risk. I believe that people would buy my product. I will know this is true when 5% of visitors to my website attempt to buy the product. (Set up a landing page, + analytics + drop some money on ads and work out your value proposition) Boom - I learned no one wants to buy my product (for landing page A) That's right! I split tested my website with multiple product images and headline statements - and I got a few conversions! But before any of this - I went out and spoke to REAL people about the idea. You are not an entrepreneur if you are selling cheap sunglasses, dolled up to look high quality, running ads on Instagram. You are just selling junk. Find a need, solve a problem. Create value. Test your assumptions. Validate your learning. Test, test, test. Be an expert on one thing, and find the need. Speak to people. Ask questions. Schedule meetings with people you've never met. People love to talk. —- This has been a ramble. I apologise, but I've been meaning to dump my brain on this sub for a while. I'd like to open up a discourse about how we can all be better entrepreneurs. Forget this drop-shipping malarkey [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Jun 2019 01:36 PM PDT New entrepreneur, starting on physically building my enterprise and contacting people in the summer . My question is mainly about using your rich family members and the morals of it . I have at least 2 millionaires in my family , aunt's husband and mother's cousin : Both of this people are close to my family and we go trips and such together.. , they both run small companies but I feel like I could use bunch of there data/resources as a starter and it would significantly cut a great amount of money for me and time . Do you recommend it? What's the hazard ramifications of such actions? [link] [comments]  |
| Can someone TLDR what a social media panel is? (smm) Posted: 28 Jun 2019 01:09 PM PDT I have this one IG at 65k from shoutouts and promos. I want to stop buying those for the time being, and look into SMM panels. Are these followers all fake and botted? All the likes are from botted accounts? Or are some real? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Jun 2019 12:33 PM PDT Is it just me or does something seem off about their business model? They're an online car culture/retail store, which gives away cars left right and centre, one after another with lump Sums of cash on top. They're not toyota Corollas either, I'm talking seriously modified evos, honda nsx (Japanese supercar status) etc. How is this feasible? I've never seen any large business give away items that are worth so much frequently. What are your thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Jun 2019 12:24 PM PDT Only looking for advice I have a proof of concept when it comes to trading large cap stocks. I can find ideal trigger points and trade off of them. Tickers like NFLX, NVDA, TSLA are all high priced, and you make such a little return day trading them. I trade the Options of these tickets. This isn't Wall Street Bets where you guess on earnings. I trade the option because I have a good idea of how the original stock will move. I am not selling anything, I do not want anyone to know who I am. I have no reason to lie about what I'm saying. I honestly feel stuck in life while I have this way to make a lot of money. 24 years old & helping out my family doesn't give me the opportunity to fund $30k for an account since you need over $25k to maintain the PDT rule. I made a lot of money before consistently, but after taxes and unwise decisions I don't have much to show for. Everyday I have been tracking charts and how they move, and never quit. So I have a strategy that I'd say is a result of the last 4-5 years that I believe can make a lot of money (I'm willing to bet $1000 if you think my strategy is too risky). 2 years ago I borrowed $50k to start off, I used my rental property as collateral. I paid that $50k back with profits the next month. That was a big reason for my lack of funds now imo I rushed to pay the debt off. Also not looking for $50k this time, looking for less. So now I want to showcase my strategy to the right people. I wouldn't be looking for a partner, someone that is looking to flip their investment within the year and then I'm a one man band again. I was thinking of calling financial advisors, and seeing if they have any connections with anyone. Like I said, I can prove how the risk is minimized and how profits can be great. I can't put my property up as collateral since i'm owner financing it to a tenant, and I have exhausted options from what virtually feels like everyone I know. I live in VA, we don't have hedge funds here, which is why I thought a Financial Advisor would be best. Sorry if this is a little messy, I wrote this off the top. Future thanks [link] [comments]  |
| $74k/mo as a clothing manufacturer. Posted: 28 Jun 2019 12:20 PM PDT Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview. Today's interview is with Donovan Mathews of Bryden Apparel, a brand that sells clothing manufacturing agency. Some stats:
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?Hello from sunny Singapore! My name is Donovan and I am the founder of Bryden. We are a clothing manufacturing agency with offices in Singapore & China and we specialise in providing an end to end service for fashion brands to create & manufacture their products. Our goal is to help fashion businesses all around the world to create quality products easily from the comfort of their office or home. Our customers are typically small to medium sized businesses and we take delight in helping them to compete with the bigger brands by offering a wide range of customisation & product options that are usually out of reach due to large order quantities imposed by manufacturers. I started Bryden back in 2015 with my partner and we are now a team of 8, with an average monthly revenue of $74,000 and serving customers in more than 20 countries from French Polynesia to USA. Some of the designs we made for our clients at Bryden What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?I started my own t-shirt brand called Ardentees back in 2009 when I was still in school as e-commerce was starting to get popular. I was intrigued by the whole idea of e-commerce as you could reach a worldwide audience easily. I especially loved the idea of waking up to see emails of orders from customers around the world. After getting 2 friends on board, we spent a year sourcing & testing different manufacturers with major hiccups along the way before finally able to settle for one and start selling. One of Ardentees's designs. Traction for the t-shirt brand business was pretty decent and we even got picked up by a few stores abroad, which I thought was a mean feat for a little brand from Singapore at that time. We went on and created another online multi-label store with the idea of stocking cool labels like Life After Denim, Free People, Love For Lemons & Finders Keepers alongside Ardentees and other local brands. My first job after graduating and promotion from an intern to manager in 2 weeks After my graduation, I noticed that Zalora, a large ecommerce fashion retailer was entering the local market. I applied for a job with them, with the intention of learning & gaining more experience in the industry. While working in this company, there were several events pivotal to the journey that led me to where I am today. As I was still running my own business and I did not plan to stay long in Zalora, I didn't disclose that I was running my own company on the side. I was posted to their dropshipping department to help bring brands aboard their platform. After a few days, I decided that I have to come clean as I had to contact the same local brands that were on my online store. As my manager brought me to explain to our managing director, I thought that it was going to be a quicker end of my tenure than expected. However, to my surprise, she said it wasn't a big issue and recommended that I should be promoted to a manager and be remunerated accordingly! During this time, I received an offer to buy over my business and decided to sell it as both my partner & I were tied up in our respective jobs. Another promotion to regional sourcing manager Several months into my job, I got wind of the news that the company was looking to create their own in-house brands. I applied for the role of regional sourcing manager and managed to get an internal transfer. The company decided to source & manufacture in China and I was posted there to set up operations from scratch. When I went over, it was a real eye opener for me. I knew there and then that my connection to China wouldn't be a short one. imageOne of the many clothing factories that I visited Naturally, after visiting hundreds of suppliers and factories there, I picked up a lot of the intricacies on what goes behind making a successful or bad product and the whole supply chain. One of the key things I learnt was that even with a big sourcing budget, you really need to understand how a product is made and need a team of knowledgeable people to help you at the different parts of the process to ensure the most chances of success. Joining my ex-boss in his new start up After a year, my ex-boss in Zalora reached out and asked me to join his new fashion startup. In the new job, I was travelling to China and staying there for 2-3 month stints, taking care of the entire operation from the design development process to shipping the products. We also pitched & secured a contract to design the uniform and manufacture shoes for our National Postal company, Singpost. While my time there was great, I always had that inner voice urging me to start something on my own related to sourcing & manufacturing and I decided to register a business to reserve the name Bryden for my future company. The company I was working for eventually shuttered as they burnt through all their investment funding. Faced with another junction in my journey, I was looking at 3 choices for what I was going to do next. One of the choices was creating a womenswear brand with the designers from my previous company, starting an e-commerce fulfilment company or doing Bryden. Testing 3 ideas at the same time and failing terribly in 2 Not wanting to put my eggs in one basket, I decided to try all 3 at the same time and tried to validate all 3 businesses. With the womenswear brand, I spent a fair bit on creating a nice lookbook & video to use that to reach out to stores and build a launch campaign. However, the launch didn't turn out as well as expected and with a high starting operating expense, I decided to drop this idea. For the fulfilment company idea, I actually pitch the idea to my current business partner, Kai, and convinced him to leave his job in Thailand to join me. We tried reaching out to companies with our sales deck and a website but was unfortunately unable to secure the minimum number of paying clients to secure warehouse space. Faced with 2 failed ideas, the only choice left was Bryden. As I had maintained a good relationship with my former bosses, I asked if it was fine with them to transfer their supply contract with Singpost to Bryden. Thankfully both my bosses and Singpost agreed and that helped to bring in some money for me and Kai and validated the idea of doing Bryden. That's me (on the right)! With my business partner Kai (on the left). Photo is taken in support of Fashion Revolution - campaign for transparent, ethical manufacturing. Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.Coming from the buyer's side over to the supply's side has helped me to know what our potential clients look out for when selecting a supplier. Any fashion brand will ideally want to lower their inventory risk, have great product quality at great prices and for the whole process to be easy. As we thought of how we can differentiate ourselves, we decided that our USP will focus on providing a one-stop service to create great quality products at a low minimum order quantity. The aim is to benefit our clients in reducing their inventory risk by producing a lower quantity of a particular design and to maximise their sell-through rate, and by hedging their investment in more designs and reiteration if the design proves to sell well. As I have cultivated a really good working relationship with my manufacturers, I shared my plans with them and asked them for their support to offer a really low minimum order quantity of 36 pieces per design so that I could use that as our unique selling point. During this launch period, my ex-assistant in China reached out to me that one of the factories I used to work with had closed down and their account manager was looking for a job. I decided to hire her as I had a great working relationship with her and we needed someone in China that we could trust and rely on. With the 3 of us wearing multiple hats, we started Bryden! Describe the process of launching the business.When we first started, it was only the two of us and we worked out of my living room to keep our costs as low as possible to give ourselves more runway. We are blessed to be doing business in Singapore as our government is very supportive of startups. At that time, they had a scheme where they rebate 160% of your equipment & software purchases required for your business. This rebate was capped at $15,000 and 60% after the $15,000 limit. We used our personal savings to purchase laptops and other equipment & software and got $9000 free capital and free equipment to launch our business. As I had prior experience from my previous jobs and we didn't have to build a physical product, the speed of our launch was pretty fast. imageOur first website Our first step was to create a presentable looking website which we used Strikingly for the ease of use and that cost us $192. For the photos, I reused the professional photos of the factory & products from my previous company and spent $0 on that. With a working website, the next step was to find customers. As we didn't have the budget for paid advertising, we manually build an email list of 1000 brands & send personalised emails with our offer. After working through the whole list, we only managed to get 2 customers from that list. The 1 month spent on doing this wasn't scalable and worth the time and effort. With the doubts creeping and our hope diminishing, we had to quickly brainstorm and find other ideas to acquire customers. While researching, I read a lot of Hubspot's blog articles about inbound marketing and realised that we should put ourselves in the shoes of our customer and simulate what they would do if they were looking for a supplier. It would be easier to get a customer if they have the intent and we could be easily found. One of the questions I answered on Quora. We started using related keywords of what our customers would potentially use to search on google and begin posting on websites and directories that appeared in the search results. Answering questions on Quoraand forums for anything related to creating a clothing brand also helped to bring in significantly more traffic and customers and we got 11 customers in 1 month after using these methods. The biggest lesson from our launch we learned was that we need to think in the customer's shoes and test as much as possible to find out the best platforms to acquire customers. Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?From the lessons learned during our launch, speaking to our customers and analyzing our website traffic, we found that the combination of inbound marketing with a great looking website optimised for converting leads was the biggest factor in attracting customers. A lot of customers shared that the reason they worked with us was that our website looks legit compared to our competitors. The website also gave them the impression that we would be a good fit and could really manufacture what they wanted to do. With that feedback, we upgraded from a single page site to multi-page site on wordpress to optimise for better conversion rates. Our new site was very heavy on pictures and branding as we wanted to create an experience that visitors would remember and associate with quality. We added more photos of our work and highlighted our portfolio, providing relevant content to what they are looking for like the manufacturing process and client reviews. For acquisition channels, we tested Facebook, Instagram and Google Ads. Google Ads proved to be a real game changer for us as it brought in much more leads faster than other methods. Our strategy for Google Ads was to buy all the relevant keywords with search volumes over 500 monthly. We also include phases that people might use like "Good quality clothing manufacturer" so that we could capture more long tail search terms as they were cheaper than popular search terms like "clothing manufacturer". We further optimise the campaigns by adding negative keywords which create better quality leads as we got a lot of people asking us if they could do 1-2 pieces per design. Facebook Ads didn't work too well for us as we found the audience there were not looking for anything in particular and were just curious about our ads. Instagram also didn't work as we got too many messages from people who weren't serious. We also received plenty of spam messages from other factories, which I found really strange at first as it seems they didn't even look at our profile and know we are essentially competitors. With that said, we are still looking to use these platforms in the future with different strategies as I think these platforms could be used more effectively for awareness or educational campaigns. As most people got to know about us through Google, SEO & content marketing is one of the initiatives we have taken with the long term strategy of using it to reduce our Google Ads costs. We tried working with an agency but they disappeared on us even before we started. From then on, I took it upon myself to learn about it and do it in house. Checking on the pattern measurements before the clothes are assembled. As the reputation of our company depends on the product quality and service we provide to our customers, we are very strict with the quality and perform quality checks at each crucial juncture of the process. Our team in China checks the fabrics, trims and prints before the garments are assembled to weed out as many issues before we do a last check once everything is complete. Although these extra checks make timelines a bit longer, we are at least safeguarding both our client's and our interest and our suppliers are kept on their toes. How are you doing today and what does the future look like?Our revenue has grown every year since we started and I was really happy to reach my personal goal of building a million dollar company (In Singapore Dollars) last year. In our 2nd year, our revenue grew by 456%, 39% in our 3rd year and 70% in the 4th year. We have not been profitable for the past 2 years due to the rise in our marketing & operating expenses to pursue our 5 year growth strategy. The main goal for this and next year is to chase profitability and we have started on our plans to reduce our operating expenses by 25% while trying to increase our lead pipeline by 100%. We plan to do this by optimising what is currently working well for us and to testing new channels like PR, networking and revisiting social media with a new strategy. In the last 2 months, we have seen an increase in visits from our SEO efforts and paid advertisements. We average about 10,000 visitors a month with a conversion rate of 4.5%. My personal plan is to delegate more of the operational aspects to my staff and focus more on strategy, marketing and searching for new growth or collaboration opportunities that will also benefit our customers. One of the challenges for myself this year is to be proficient in SEO so that I can also help other fellow entrepreneurs in the future. Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?While it's great to be ambitious, on hindsight it would be wiser to expand it in a scalable way. As our sales grew exponentially (550%) in our 2nd year, we were struggling to keep up with our new clients & orders. I made the mistake of over-hiring & hiring too quickly, thinking that the new hires will be able to help us to take on more orders and expand the company. However, the sudden influx of new people in a short period of time had the opposite effect. Without the time and a systematic approach to onboard & train the new guys, there were a lot of confusion which slowed down our operations and consequently our cash flow cycles. I believed that the key reasons for our growth was having a flexible and open mindset to change. In the beginning, I wasn't too keen on using paid advertising as I had a few friends who told me it was a waste of money. However as I have always been inquisitive, I decided to test it for myself and found a winning formula with google adwords that spiked up our sales significantly. As the numbers of our clients grew, their needs & requirements also became more diverse. Instead of sticking to what we know and are good at, we decided to listen to them and expand our sourcing capabilities & product lines. This change led to an increase of the average revenue per customer and help us to reach our revenue goals without having the constant pressure to acquire more customers. What platform/tools do you use for your business?
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?I read The Art of War when I was a teenager and it remains as one of the books that has the largest influence on how I think and approach solving problems in daily life. It resonates with my belief that there is more than 1 way of solving a problem if you can be creative. Other books that I read and found inspiration from are Everything Store by Jeff Bezos, The Art of Less Doing, 4 Hour Work Week, 10x Marketing Formula by Gareth Moon & No Man's Land by Doug Tatum. Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?Business is not for the faint-hearted and the journey will be long and tough. You will need a sense of bravado as you won't have the answers for everything and no one might be able to give you the right answers. Mistakes will be definitely be made and instead of looking at them as failures, turn them into something positive. I look at them as being "upgrades" on my acumen as without learning from my mistakes, I will be in a better position to make the right choice on decisions in the future that could have a bigger impact. My last piece of advice is that It's always better to be in motion than to be stuck in limbo. Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?Currently, we are not looking to hire but we may be looking for a dedicated operations person in the near future. If you like helping brands and being involved in turning ideas into products we will love to chat! 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. For more interviews, check out r/starter_story - I post new stories there daily. Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM [link] [comments]  |
| How do I find those first clients starting from nothing? Posted: 28 Jun 2019 12:00 PM PDT I'm starting a product design consultancy right off the bat after finishing university. I've got 5 years of constant solidworks usage under my belt and have dealt with private clients a few times who have been happy. However they're not clients I can get useful recommendations from since I was working with a marine laboratory and a cookware client (via the university) respectively. Most advice I've found talks about using extant contacts but since I'm now relatively new on the scene I don't know where to go from here. [link] [comments]  |
| Interested to hear your feedback Posted: 28 Jun 2019 11:22 AM PDT Most businesses will go through the ups and downs of cash flow, especially those with high job cost. Just started a company that will provide capital based on invoices for businesses that don't qualify for traditional bank loans. Instead of waiting for 30+ days to be paid we created a way to get paid in 24 hours without any dilution or personal guarantees. Interested to hear thoughts/feedback on if this would be a valuable tool. Would appreciate it greatly! [link] [comments]  |
| DBA-ception (impossible to Google question) Posted: 28 Jun 2019 11:14 AM PDT I formed an LLC in Florida with a name like, say, Pelican Express (I'm making this up as an example). I want to be able to do business online with my real name at the fore front. Do I need to file a DBA? I don't expect anyone to dig up Florida law for me, but aren't DBAs filed for when you want to do business under a fictitious name that isn't your real name? Typically I would think this applies to sole proprietors or maybe Pelican Express LLC might own subsidiaries or something like that each with fictitious names. For me this is a weird situation where I'm starting with a "fictitious" name but I also want to be able to do business as the spokesperson online. Any advice or gotchas? Does it matter if I'm operating 100% online? Happy Friday! [link] [comments]  |
| How to Write a Business Plan - Step-by-Step Guide & Tempates Posted: 28 Jun 2019 11:13 AM PDT Writing a business plan can be a tedious exercise, but it's a crucial one for the future of your business. It's not just about attracting investors. Creating a business plan helps you and your team organize your business better, with one eye on its present state and the other on building a future together. cover the basics of how to write a business plan: The definitive guide on how to write a business plan (free templates)
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| Unsatisfied with business name Posted: 28 Jun 2019 11:03 AM PDT I am about to start a new business and I already bought a domain for my business. I am not going to post the name here since I did not register the business yet. Although the domain name is the same as my business name, I am not 100% satisfied with it. Do you think I should think of a new name or just start with a mediocre name and change the name later as the business is flowing? [link] [comments]  |
| [NSFW] I can't even watch porn anymore without getting an ad from a 'guru'. Posted: 28 Jun 2019 10:41 AM PDT I was doing a bit of wank research and low and behold nonother than the infamous Grant Cardone shows up before one of the videos. Here's a screen capture for those interested: https://imgur.com/FLgZ6SL I redacted some of the text because you really don't wanna know the depraved shit I was watching. What are your thoughts on using a site like pornhub to promote non-sexual products? On one hand, I wonder if it makes your brand look super sleazy (too late for Grant anyways IMO). On the other hand, I know porn sites have much cheaper ad rates so I guess that's a plus. Would you advertise your business on pornhub? [link] [comments]  |
| How can I automate email scrapping on tripadvisor ? Posted: 28 Jun 2019 10:41 AM PDT I've found a chrome plugin that collects them automatically when I open a new page. Do you know a way for me to automate the openings of these pages ? [link] [comments]  |
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