Thank you Thursday! - (June 06, 2019) Entrepreneur

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• Thank you Thursday! - (June 06, 2019)
• I've read over 200 business and self help books and these are the 19 I learned the most from
• Registered My Business Today
• Make Something! (A guide for non-technical founders to release their first app/website) (xpost r/startups)
• Who here has hired someone to manage the business for you? How did it work out?
• Trend I've been following: founders are "stacking" products
• Bar/restaurant owners here, what metrics on your customers would be of value to you?
• How I grew my Shopify micro-SaaS to 2000+ users in 40 days
• How to Boost Your Close Rate With Lead Nurturing
• StarterStory alternatives?
• How to Report Hiring/Payment to Independent Contractors?
• How to be happy and life a simple life as an entrepreneur and escapsim
• Schedule C with/without business license
• Trying to find a particular type of hire, but don't know what to look for exactly
• Site owners - how many companies provide ads on your site?
• Started an online business, now Burned Out before sale...
• What are the best ways to discover new trends?
• Any advice on software consulting for a startup?
• Advice for getting product made/sourced...
• Happy to help anyone with any SEO questions in return for data
• Hosting a live Q&A tonight on Instagram about our Techstars-backed outdoor apparel company. Will answer questions here too.
• How would you grow my side-project into a business?
• Best practice for assembling a product from multiple different suppliers in China
• Questions Regarding Incorporating, Investors & Business Plans
• Sales Forecasting

Thank you Thursday! - (June 06, 2019) Posted: 06 Jun 2019 06:13 AM PDT Your opportunity to thank the /r/Entrepreneur community by offering free stuff, contests, discounts, electronic courses, ebooks and the best deals you know of. Please consolidate such offers here! 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 [link] [comments]

I've read over 200 business and self help books and these are the 19 I learned the most from Posted: 05 Jun 2019 03:11 PM PDT Never Split the Difference – Chris Voss The most important book on this list. It outlines and reinforces the fact that business, negotiation and any human interaction is inherently very emotional. It's centered around negotiation but this book has so many solid management and leadership principles. Mirroring, tactical empathy, starting with no and labeling are all phenomenal. The E-Myth Revisited – Michael Gerber The first stop for any beginner. This is a great book about the importance of creating a business that can thrive without you. Preaches a lot of my favorite business principles like working on the things that are important for the long term but not necessarily urgent or pressing. Can be a little satire / elementary at times (the hotel description and Sarah's "all about pies" are poor examples) for the more accomplished entrepreneurs but the principles are rock solid. Entreleadership – Dave Ramsey This book just has non stop quality advice about how to build a business the right way. Dave doesn't preach about politics or religion. He just tells it like it is and tells the stories of what worked for him. Phenomenal read. Ego is the Enemy – Ryan Holiday Ryan studies and preaches Stoicism and how to handle emotions, rejection and stress. Managing that split second between an event and your reaction is what life is all about. The Ego is the Enemy shows the incredible importance of remaining humble and the dangers of overconfidence and an inflated ego. I also recommend The Obstacle is the Way and The Daily Stoic by the same author. Principles "Life & Work" – Ray Dalio An awesome book but my main takeaway is the discussion on strategic decision making. "Radical Open-mindedness". It's human nature to want to be right and appear right in the eyes of others. People who make the best decisions know they don't have all the answers so they are open to many other points of view. They change their minds often even at the expense of their own ego. Built to Sell – John Warrillow This book talks about how to get your life back once your business takes over. How to specialize in your niche and do it really well. Make it scalable an take yourself out of the equation so that it is valuable to a potential buyer. Story format. Very good. The Goal – Eliyahu Goldratt Also in story format this is all about removing bottlenecks from your business. Find out what is holding you back and really focus on fixing that issue so you can break through and expand. The owner of the small business is almost always the bottleneck. Company of One – Paul Jarvis Large scalable companies aren't likely and aren't the goal of many entrepreneurs. Starting small and specializing is the key to building a great lifestyle business and then an asset that produces money while you live the life you want to be living. This book helps you question if growth is really the goal. How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie A bit cliche but this is packed full or resources that are useful when it comes to dealing with other people and selling yourself or your service. Don't criticize, condemn or complain. Give honest and sincere appreciation. Become genuinely interested in other people. These are just a few. This takes practice and I recommend reading and thinking on a summary at least once a year after. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey The original productivity guide. How to set goals and make them happen. 1. Be proactive. 2. Begin with the end in mind. 3. Put first things first. 4. Think win-win. 5. Seek first to understand, and then to be understood. 6. Synergize. 7. Sharpen the saw. This is worth reading and studying your notes at least every year. Good Boss Bad Boss – Robert Sutton How to lead and empower your employees. How to delegate and how to make sure people are living up to their full potential. My dad always told me that Michael Jordan made the players around him better. This book explains how to be the Michael Jordan of your business. The Greatest Salesman in the World – Og Mandino Life is all about being comfortable in uncomfortable situations. Everyone is a salesman and sales is uncomfortable. This book is a pump up about determination and perseverance and its importance. Its not always going to be fun. Its not always going to be easy. 2019 Small Business Taxes – JK Lasser The best tax resource there is for small businesses. Reads like a text book but for some reason I absorbed it quickly and it was an enjoyable read. Explains all the important concepts around deductions and how to make sure Uncle Sam only gets what is actually his. A good accountant is critical but its even more critical that you understand this yourself. High output Management – Andy Grove (founder of Intel) More on the techy side of things but this book is a great way to think about building a business. A little older (1983 originally) but a look into the mind of one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time. Everything is a process. Focus on data and other measurable variables. How to run meetings. How to make great decisions. Long term plans and short term objectives. And so much more. Good to Great – Jim Collins How so many companies get complacent and turn over in our economic lifecycle by failing to constantly improve and stay on the cutting edge. Its easy to stop looking at the big picture when you are winning. Then all of the sudden its too late. The Lean Startup – Eric Ries The business plan is just a hypothesis until you get out and prove it. Get out and interact with your customers and be ready to shift gears at a moments notice. As Steve Blank says "there are no facts in the building so get the heck outside!" Lots of great case studies and proof of each concept. Epic Content Marketing – Joe Pulizzi Writing amazing content that stands out from the crowd is the new way to dominate SEO. Create content that is the best on the internet and you'll succeed at driving traffic and increasing sales. Avoid sales language. Remember that its a process and a long term goal that requires consistency. The Dip – Seth Godin This is a short book (75 pages) and it only took me a few hours to read. Its meant to get you thinking and the real works when you apply the concepts to your life and your business. Loopholes of Real Estate – Garrett Sutton This book explains, in a simplified version the advantages of building long term wealth through real estate. Taxes, appreciation and cashflows are all covered. 1031 exchanges, capital gains, depreciation and more. A great read from the standpoint of housing and apartment rentals but can be applied to any asset class. I'd love some other recommendations! If you are interested in this type of thing hang out with us over in r/sweatystartup! submitted by /u/sweatystartup [link] [comments]

Registered My Business Today Posted: 06 Jun 2019 07:59 AM PDT Today I finally reached another important milestone on my journey. I've been working on an SaaS (Software as a Service) prototype for about 6 months and finally got to the point where I was ready to register a company and start getting feedback. To get to this point, I would get up around 5am and program for a few hours before work. During this time, I never really needed motivation to wake up and work. Fortunately, I was always so excited to work on my project so it was never a problem. Any time I was procrastinating in bed I'd just think, "Nobody is going to do it for you and the power to change things is wasted every minute you lay in bed." That pep talk worked every time. To give some background, about 10 years ago, I was working in a hotel for under minimum wage, no college degree, living in an apartment with no furniture except a bed, a desk, and a computer. I didn't know how to program but I had always wanted to learn because as a kid, Tron was my favorite movie. (80's Tron so that should date me). Desperation and poverty can be a powerful motivator. To make a long story short, I bought books (There wasn't as much material online when I started) and taught myself over the years. Then I got an entry level programming job and picked the brain of all the smart people I came in contact with. The more I learned, the better jobs and the more money I made. I used that extra money to go to college and get a degree in web design and eventually a MS in Human Computer Interaction. I knew that design skills and programming skills together would help me create my own things one day. So here we are. I lurked here for a while and only recently started posting. I hope that in a year, I can update anyone who is interested about the progress I've made. One thing about pulling yourself up from a bad situation, you realize that you can control much more in your life than what most people think. You can't control everything, but many of us are much more capable than our current situation indicates. Stay positive and focused. Thanks to everyone submitted by /u/Indy_Sima_Yi [link] [comments]

Make Something! (A guide for non-technical founders to release their first app/website) (xpost r/startups) Posted: 06 Jun 2019 09:52 AM PDT Intro I'm thinking of making a workbook for making an iOS or web app. I'd like to get some feedback and input. This is part 1 (of 19... potentially). ​ It will be written primarily for non-technical founders, and will work with you to go from your idea to a working product, while turning you into a product owner / get you on the road to being a CEO. ​ Through doing the tasks in the workbook, you will learn how to define a product, do wireframes, how to outsource, and how to save money on development. The focus is on releasing a product. ​ I will include information on outsourcing, including the exact briefs that I use at each point of development and how I decide on a developer/designer; alternatively, with the work you go through you will be a much better candidate for a technical co-founder to partner with. ​ We want to build important skills; staying open to feedback, understanding users, time boxing, setting objectives, focusing on what matters — but the main purpose of this book is to make something. ​ Alongside writing the book, I'll be going through the tasks myself to make 1 or 2 digital products and will share those examples. I think that's a big part of this, so that you can see what each stage actually looks like. ​ My goal for this first run through is to get some people who are interested, and perhaps start a slack channel. I want to get feedback from experienced and inexperienced people, to understand the challenges and pitfalls, and learn how to do this better. ​ For transparency: This would be completely free. In the future, I might try to turn this into a self-standing product and monetize it if that would produce a better experience and more successful users. My thought is that with access to the right processes and methodologies, people can make the tools/solutions they (and other people) need, and that would make the world a much better place than I can by hoarding this knowledge. --- Contents Idea Competition, Inspiration & Lookalike Apps User Interviews & Survey Methods (V2) Idea Refinement (V2) Writing User/Job Stories Screen by Screen Requirements Wireframes Prototype 1 User Testing Mockups Prototype 2 Pre-Launch Marketing Back End Front End Launch Traction Monetization Growth Additional topics / Appendix (machine learning, virality, optimizing for learning, web vs mobile, iOS vs android ) (as necessary) --- 1. Idea How to use this Copy the tasks into whatever note app you use (I use bear - I like using hashtags to keep my ideas organized). Scroll down for short explanations of each task. Write the answers as you go along. Or, better yet -- print it out and use pen and paper, or use post it notes. Use a timer to keep yourself on track. If you have several ideas, choose the one that you are most passionate about. There are other things to think about here — feasibility, monetization, market size — but we aren't going to worry about that for now. Our goal is just to make something. It would help to be familiar with the idea space, so that you understand your users and where to potentially find them; but that isn't necessary. I will write more about app vs web at some point, but for now, if you don't have a good reason to make an app, go with web first. When I do my examples, I will go into more depth. The time suggestions are given to push you forward and prevent stalling; feel free to use 1.5 or 2x the allotted time for each section if necessary. --- Day 1 Objectives - To narrow down your idea so that you can understand it, be confident in it, and sell it to others - To think about the needs of your immediate users, and how to help them do the job they are trying to do - To understand the growth of your product over time, and how the value proposition can change for your users as you grow --- Tasks i. What is your product called? ( < 3 minutes ) ii. How would you explain your idea, in 60 seconds or less? ( 4 minutes) iii. Why are you making this? (2 minutes) iv. What problem(s) does it solve? (4 minutes) v. Brainstorm potential first users and where to find them (4 minutes) vi. Narrow down your first users (2 minutes) vii. Map the User Journey for your first users (6 minutes) viii. Which features are required for that user journey to be possible? What features are not required for the first versions of the app? (4 minutes) ix. How does your app grow from 100 to 1000 to 10000 users? (6 minutes) x. How would you explain your MVP/MRP in 60 seconds or less? ( 4 minutes) --- Task Explanations ​ i. What is your product called? Write up to 5 names down, and choose one to go with. Don't worry about picking the perfect name, and don't worry about availability right now. Use something easy to remember. A lot of this project will follow this format of not worrying about things that don't matter. We're going to really focus on the important parts, and we're especially not going to worry about things we can change later. An important thing to remember is that as we keep working on the project, we'll have more ideas. We don't want to get attached to a name, or idea, early on. Keeping an open mind and being open to listening to our users and learning is a skill we want to constantly work on. --- ​ ii. How would you explain your idea, in 30 seconds or less? Being able to concisely relay your ideas is important, and it also helps you get down to the bare minimum of what your product is really for. --- ​ iii. Why are you making this? The 'why' informs your long term vision, which should inform all of your decisions moving forward. This is your north star. This is what makes you keep moving when you're tired, unmotivated, want to do anything else in the world other than what you're doing now. Having a good answer will also help you craft a story around the project; this is important in motivating yourself, employees, partners, and selling your idea to cofounders, users, and investors. You may want to include your long term goal for the app here (18 months is a good horizon, in my experience). So : "In 18 months, _______________ will be _____________" --- ​ iv. What problem(s) does it solve? It can be useful to use sticky notes for this. What jobs are your users trying to complete? Here you want to be thinking explicitly about all of the issues that your users are facing around your app idea. What are the main outcomes they are looking for? Try to think way more generally, and also specifically about the problems they are facing. (this section will be much better once there are examples) --- ​ v. Brainstorm potential users and where to find them Who could your users be? Where do they currently exist, what do they talk about? Try to list as many different sources of where you might find your first users. i.e. These might be competing sites, social networks (i.e. what facebook groups are they on, what instagram hashtags do they use, what subreddits are they on). They could also be potential ideas for blog posts, or guest blog posts, or ideas for generating press. --- ​ vi. Narrow down your first users From your list above, try to narrow down your first set of users. This should be a group who has the same goals/problems they need to be solved, and should be easy to target. Who would be willing to try out your app? Who has a problem you have a solution to? --- ​ vii. Map the User Journey for your first users Think about your first group of users. Write "first users" on the left side of a sheet of paper. In the middle, write a square with "download app" or "visit website" (depending on which you are making). In between the user and the middle square, write all of the steps that have to happen or what causes them to take action. What makes them download your app? On the right side, write down the steps that they would possibly take once they are on the app/website. Each page they visit or screen they see / action they take should a separate box. What is the final outcome of the steps them have taken? --- ​ viii. Which features are required for that user journey to be possible? What features are not required for the first versions of the app? Based on the group you chose above, what are the main features your app needs to have? What problems does it need to solve to be useful (and worth downloading) for that group of users? Another way to think about this is that you've just released your product for the first time, what is the first tweet you send out? If it's a B2B product, what is your first cold email? We want to think about your product holistically, and grow it with your user base. These most important features for the first version of your app is commonly referred to as an MVP (minimum viable product). I would suggest instead thinking of it as a Minimum Lovable/Beneficial/Remarkable product, because you want to make sure it is something that actually benefits your first set of users. --- ​ ix. Who are the second set of users of the app? What features do they need? What do you need the first users of the app to produce or do to attract more users? Ideally, our first set of users will create more value for our second set of users (i.e. they could provide User Generated Content, or form one side of a two sided marketplace). If the second set of users is different from the first set of users, we may want to think about which features are necessary for the first set of users to create value for future users, or if the initial app is enough on it's own. --- ​ x. How would you explain your MVP, in 30 seconds or less? By narrowing down your idea, we now have an MVP. Think about how this has changed from the start of the process. Next up, we'll consider your competition and using user interviews and surveys to get a better idea of where to go from here, and then get into user stories and wireframing our first prototypes. --- Questions for feedback: Am I wasting my time? Is this needed or does something similar already exist? Feedback on methodology, how it's written, improvements, or suggestions for future sections would be great. What are the main problems you are facing and what would you like to learn more about? submitted by /u/sobbuh [link] [comments]

Who here has hired someone to manage the business for you? How did it work out? Posted: 06 Jun 2019 11:45 AM PDT submitted by /u/jakelr [link] [comments]

Trend I've been following: founders are "stacking" products Posted: 06 Jun 2019 11:28 AM PDT Something I've noticed recently on ProductHunt/Indiehackers: quite a few founders are spending less time revamping their products, and instead are breaking them into smaller launches/separate products entirely. ​ Here's why I think it's working: The classic MVP strategy of "have an idea, build an V1, launch it to an audience and get feedback" has a major flaw: the "V1" mental model forces us into a corner, thinking of one product instead of many. And when we start thinking about building a company with a single product, some things don't evolve as easily as others. For example, pricing. How are we going to charge for this product? ​ Too many founders stick to their first pricing plan, even if there's evidence it's not working. It's easier to remove or add a feature than it is to dealing with grandfathering in users and announcing that you're raising prices. Pricing is also notoriously difficult to get right the first time. And product. What features do we leave out for V1? There's nothing easy about building a stripped down product only to feel guilty charging for it. If we cave and make the product free, it's tough to charge for it later. ​ The same problems don't happen for founders following this "stacked" product plan - they have a lot more flexibility. For example, anyone following the story of Carrd.co, the seemingly overnight success in the drag + drop website builder space, is in serious awe of solo-founder AJ and how he built that business. But not enough attention is paid to the product he launched before it, a site called HTML5UP, that offered a variety of HTML5 templates he designed free of charge. ​ That site didn't make money directly, but it gained him a small audience and more importantly, served a market that was struggling to quickly build a good-looking website. The same problem that Carrd would solve in a **more valuable** way later on. Instead of building a V1 HTML5 and eventually turning it into a paid template site, AJ started from scratch after learning how to deliver more value to his audience. That's stacking, and it only works if you're building on the previous momentum solving a similar problem for a similar market. ​ EDIT: figure I'd also add some ideas I've had for ways to stack a product before the main product you're working on currently ​ - curated website/spreadsheet that helps organize information around the problem you're trying to solve - 5-day email course, hosted on a landing page that gives valuable insight into the industry or even just shares what you've learned from researching the market - community site that brings together passionate folks in the market that are currently conversing on Twitter or a loosely organized subreddit. - If your idea is a marketplace, you can build smaller products that focus on each side separately. Ex. A site for restaurants with resources showing how to streamline delivery, and a site for delivery carriers with resources explaining how to maximize delivery revenue. ​ Remember, only half the battle is delivering something of value. The other half is making sure that your product is actually "stacked" - it shares the same core audience, and is solving a similar problem to the app/sass product you ultimately want to build. submitted by /u/BetterLearner [link] [comments]

Bar/restaurant owners here, what metrics on your customers would be of value to you? Posted: 06 Jun 2019 11:25 AM PDT Hello guys I'm a long time lurker here and decided to make an account to post because I finally have a good question. First a little back story, I recently started a 4 way partnership with some of my close friends from college that is a foray into app development. We are all software engineers and work well together and even if the app doesnt take off it will be a wonderful resume builder. ​ Now I cant give too many details as to what the app actually is just yet but at a very high level it aims to be a new ad space for bars. In addition to the ad space some value that we plan to give bars from our app is data collected on our customers. One of the current metrics we have is something we are tentatively calling "conversions". We define a conversion as when a user views a bars ad earlier in the day and ends up in the bar later in the day. We figure this will be able to give bars an idea of what ads work and what ones don't. We will be bale to collect some data on our customers because of other features I can't explain here. Long story short we will be able to know where a user is, what ads they've viewed, how many of our users are currently in a given bar, how long they were there, and what deals they attempted to use. ​ So I have 3 questions to ask of you. 1: Is our idea of "conversions" actually of any use, why or why not? 2: From our current data collection methods can you extrapolate any other good metrics that will allow ownership to run their business more effectively 3: Theoretically if we could collect any type of data on a customer what would actually mean something to the management of a bar? ​ Basically we have the technical know how of how to develop an app but none of us have any experience running a bar. ​ Thank you all so much for looking at my post here. I'm sorry I can't give too much detail on the application at the moment but we hope to have a 1.0 released in august of 2020 at which time I will make a post describing what we think we did right and what we think we did wrong along the way. submitted by /u/softwareQuestionGuy [link] [comments]

How I grew my Shopify micro-SaaS to 2000+ users in 40 days Posted: 06 Jun 2019 02:41 AM PDT ..and got featured on Shopify app store 📷 3 months ago if someone had told me that I would launch product that got thousands of users and ended up getting featured on a prominent marketplace, I wouldn't have believed them. I mean, I'm an optimist, but this one was borderline surrealist. And yet, that's exactly what happened! 📷 My micro-SaaS product, WhatsApp Chat Button, was launched on April 24th, 2019 on the Shopify App Store. I built this product together with Sankalp Jonna. Here's what we've been up to in the 40 days (as of June 4th) since launch: 💬 Conversations with 100+ Shopify store owners from 10+ nationalities (Google Translate FTW!) 🏆 #1 ranked app for WhatsApp keyword 🛍️ 2000+ active Shopify stores ❤️ Highest-rated "WhatsApp Chat" app on Shopify with raving 5-star reviews 💻 2 major iterations launched (v3 introduced a paid plan) 🌟 Featured on the Shopify App Store How did we do it? I'm glad you asked! Topics covered in this post Why we built a micro-SaaS Why Shopify and the e-commerce market Uncovering opportunities on Shopify Solving tech challenges while building a Shopify app Ranking on the Shopify app store Monetising our Shopify app What's next Why we built a micro-SaaS In my previous post, I explained "What is micro-SaaS?". In this post, I'll explain why I picked micro-SaaS. I've been enamoured with the startup world and coming up with ideas to startup ever since I joined the industry, back in 2015. I've dreamed and imagined and fantasized about building billion $ startups so much, I was consumed by it. It's a cultural thing - you work for startups, you live in the startup capital of India, you read startup blogs and you discuss ideas with your friends in social gatherings. So of course your mentality becomes one that is constantly seeking and evaluating potential "unicorn)" startup ideas. I never paused to consider that the entire world around me is building small, local, profitable businesses around me. If you walked down the street near your house this morning, chances are you crossed about half a dozen different "businesses" that are operating and thriving (if they weren't, they would shut down, as they do not have millions of $ in funding to burn cash). I started to appreciate the beauty of a business. A startup that is successful often has many things going, including and not limited to validation of core value proposition working channel(s) of acquisition providing continuous value or retention great product and customer service Guess what, a local business has a clear and well-validated core value proposition, they have a channel of acquisition (street walk-ins, or Google SEO), and they are already providing continuous value else customers would stop coming and the business would shut. As I became increasingly frustrated with the "how do I come up with a Zero to Oneidea", my mentality shifted from the obsession with "unicorns" to is this problem real and validated? is there an acquisition channel we can tap? would users come back? can we build a great product and provide excellent customer service? can we grow a business to $100k/yr in revenues? I also accepted that not everyone, and not all the time, does one have to aspire to build a unicorn. I can just build a business. And having never actually run a business before in my life, micro-SaaS seemed like the perfect launchpad into the world of business. Sankalp and I spent months discussing these questions before we both bought into this concept, and believed in it, and therefore decided to work together towards it. Why Shopify and the e-commerce market Short answer? My friend Shashank runs a thriving and highly-profitable Shopify app called PushOwl. His journey, his learnings, his success taught me and inspired me and made me believe in Shopify as a platform. He also helped me realise just how HUGE the e-commerce market is (have you heard of Amazon?). 📷 Long answer? Back in 2017, I tried my hand at building an online store. Dropshipping was the 🔥 back then, and I wanted in. I did manage to build a store that raked in ~$500/mo in revenue, but after multiple copyright violations (that's what happens when you source generic products from Aliexpress) and a lack of general understanding of how an e-commerce business is built, I shut it down. Aftwards, I took the time to understand what makes a valuable e-commerce business. I could understand and relate to people who started out of their homes, packaging their own products and selling to a niche audience, making a livelihood out of their business. I truly wanted to enable and support these people, especially considering that I'm trying to do the same thing. In the previous section, I highlighted how "is there an acquisition channel we can tap?" is an important question. Turns out, Shopify's app marketplace is a potential answer. I also asked "can we grow a business to $100k/yr in revenues?". Thanks to the humongous size of the e-commerce market (in trillion $), the answer was YES. But why Shopify, and not Atlassian or Slack or Google Chrome Extensions? we were familiar with Shopify we knew about e-commerce due to my past experience we knew people in our network succeeding with Shopify All these tiny reasons and more made Shopify the most obvious choice for us. Uncovering opportunities on Shopify In the first section, I highlighted the questions that need to be answered in order to have a shot at building a successful business. Let's apply them to Shopify. Browsing the app store was a perfect way for us to understand what problems e-commerce store owners face, and care about. Shopify breaks things down by category and sub-category, giving you a very granular idea about the different types of problems you could solve. 📷 Additionally, you could type in keywords on the Search bar, and that would give you more ideas about what problems to solve. I used Shopify's search autocomplete as a heuristic for sufficient demand. After all, why would Shopify's search team include a keyword in autocomplete if it didn't have enough demand? 📷 Before narrowing down, we did a very general approach by researching the entire app store. I personally visited every single page on the Shopify app store, under every category and sub-category, which helped me in creating a mental map of the ecosystem. It also gave me ideas on how to evaluate any particular idea. Is there enough demand? is the problem being solved a "keyword" in Shopify's search autocomplete? are the existing apps for that keyword getting new reviews? Since new reviews are a signal that new users are searching, installing, using, and liking the app enough to write a review. Who are the competitors? Can I beat them? what is the average rating and #reviews that my competitor has? how strong is their recent reviews? is it all 5-stars? if so, is there a way for me to beat them? What are the competitor's strenghts and weaknesses? what keywords do people use in positive reviews? what keywords show up in negative reviews? are there enough negatives that give a newcomer an opportunity to make a better product and acquire users? 📷 (screenshots from my research spreadsheet...ssshh) 📷 What is the business model of competitors? are they charging a very high amount (say >$50/mo)? if so, is it because of costs, or can I build the same product and price it 5x cheaper at $10/mo? is the app free/freemium? if so, are they using this app to drive business to another? can I compete with a different business model? what features are my competitors charging for? can I make those features available for free and find a way to monetise with something else? What is the tech effort involved? can we build an MVP in 2 weeks? can we build out the entire product and feature set in 2 months? What keywords, categories, and sub-categories do they rank for? how do I acquire new users? Is there a keyword where they rank #1? If yes, can I beat them? If not, can I rank #1 for a different keyword in the same domain? Market outside Shopify can I launch the same app for other e-commerce platforms like BigCommerce, WooCommerce etc. in the future and expand my market size? Solving tech challenges while building a Shopify app If this is your first time building a Shopify app, I highly recommend that you start from their excellent documentation. During development, you are sure to get stuck at many places. If you are unable to resolve something on your own, your first response should be to check the documentation. It's not very likely that you would find answers on Stack Overflow, hence I recommend joining a Facebook group full of helpful Shopify App Developers. This group was recommended to me by Shashank, and it helped immensely as the other developers are friendly and helpful. And now I'm paying it forward by recommending it to you. Ranking on the Shopify app store Shashank helped us understand the lifeblood of any Shopify app - ratings & reviews. How to get them? The answer is no hidden secret. build a beautiful and easy-to-use product provide 11/10 customer service optimize store listing for right keywords win!!?? From Day 1, we were obsessed with serving every user with the best possible customer service. In the process, Sankalp and I ended up chatting with 100s of Shopify store owners from countries like Brazil, India, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, United Kingdom, South Africa, Morocco, Chile, China, United States, United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Denmark, Pakistan, Netherlands, Costa Rica, and more. Sometimes, we spent hours talking to customers about their business and trying our best to help, even when it wasn't related to our app! This is a perfect example of "do things that don't scale", as our customers were overwhelmed with how far we were willing to go to help them. As a result, we have 100+ reviews on the app store, and are rated 5-stars. 📷 From Day 1, we also ensured that our app was simple, and easy-to-use. We paid extra attention to the first-time setup, making it a breeze. All the fields that a user needs to configure would be pre-configured out of the box. Only the phone number field needs to be populated, and our user is good to go! In the store description, we made sure to include keywords such as "whatsapp live chat" and "customer support" in an organic manner. We were also very clear on the search terms we wanted to rank for, and our store listing reflected that. 📷 Monetising our Shopify app In order to acquire users, we launched v1 of WhatsApp Chat Button for free. Our aim was to provide a bare minimum feature set that every other app was providing, but give it away for free in order to attract users. This set a simple flywheel in motion: more users > more conversations > more reviews & ratings > higher search ranking > more users In v2, we added the most common feature requests which included basic customisations to the button design, display position, etc. In v3, our focus was to provide premium features that users had been asking for during conversations. We also wanted to ensure that a paid plan didn't affect any of the existing users, so we decided to keep the base feature set free forever. 📷 By keeping the free plan, we essentially want to ensure that our acquisition channel remains strong and that users prefer us over alternatives. v3 with our first paid plan was launched on June 3rd, 2019. Since the plan comes with a 7-day trial, we are still awaiting results on trial-to-conversion % at the time of publishing this post. What's next Our immediate plan is to launch v4 and v5 in the month of June. To collect information about what features to build in an automated manner, we designed a simple Google form and added a link in our dashboard saying "Vote for the next feature". Here are the results: 📷 The goals behind of launching v4 and v5 are provide more value to our user base to make our product more resistant to competition charge a higher monthly subscription amount This is how we will do it: 1. Abandoned Cart E-commerce shops already send abandoned cart notifications using push, email, SMS. But what about doing this over WhatsApp? Since this cannot be completely automated (API limitations), we are focused on building a solution which allows a store owner to send ~100 abandoned cart messages per hour manually on WhatsApp. Our feature will remove all the manual work except one - actually hitting the send button from inside WhatsApp. In our survey, we found store owners more than willing to spare 30 mins/day to send abandoned cart notifications. Why wouldn't they, when it could lead to >$1000 in additional revenue every month? 2. CRM Store owners want to stay in touch with their customers. After all, it is more valuable to retain customers than spend more to acquire new ones. This could involve sending lifecycle messages, follow-ups after a product is delivered to ask for feedback or review, or informing customers about new launches that may interest them. We want to build an easy way to enable this behaviour over WhatsApp. 3. Pixel Retargeting What if you could retarget people who were interested in a product, but didn't see through to a purchase? Retargeting ads for e-commerce is no new concept. It's proven to work and there are several great companies such as Shoelace that are built on top of this concept. The key is to understand context: who to retarget? what to retarget them with? 4. Better designs for WhatsApp Share Currently, we offer 10+ premium chat button designs to our paid users. We plan to make them available for the Share feature, so that a store owner can have matching buttons. 📷 We also plan to add new templates like a sticky button, and a pop-up message. The aim here is to help shop owners initiate more conversations with their store visitors. That's all folks! I hope readers of this post find value, especially if you're planning to build your own Shopify app. If you have more questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Just drop me a message! ​ Originally published on my blog - https://www.preetamnath.com/blog/shopify-micro-saas-growth We are live on ProductHunt - https://www.producthunt.com/posts/whatsapp-chat-for-shopify submitted by /u/takingcontrol_xyz123 [link] [comments]

How to Boost Your Close Rate With Lead Nurturing Posted: 06 Jun 2019 05:55 AM PDT Lead generation is only half the battle. The real struggle is working your leads down the sales funnel to make a purchase. That's where lead nurturing comes in. Here are some stats: 50% of leads are not ready to make a purchase (Marketo). About 80% of new leads never close (MarketingSherpa). Effective lead nurturing processes increase sales by 50% and reduce lead generation costs by 33% (Marketo). Lead nurturing reduces the length of the sales cycle by 23% (Market2Lead). Lead nurturing can increase your email response rates by as much as 10 times vs. standalone email blasts (DemandGen Report). Effective lead nurturing means the difference between success and failure in most industries. So before you blame your low close rate on bad leads or a lack of product-market fit, take a look at your lead nurturing efforts. Why Leads Need Nurturing Lead generation, to use another tired metaphor, is just the tip of the iceberg. The real work comes in when you nurture those leads. In many cases, your prospect will know very little (if any) about you when they first come to you as a lead. You have to build a relationship that's strong enough to win their business. The amount of time and effort that takes will vary depending on your industry, product/service, price point, and a number of other factors. There's no one-size-fits-all solution, because leads will come to you at different stages of the buyer's journey. You'll get some leads that are already in the Decision stage. Maybe another company has convinced them they need a product like yours, and then your search ad distracts them and they end up with you instead of the other company. Or maybe you're the one doing the heavy lifting, and you want to make sure no one swoops in and steals your potential customer. Either way, the lead nurturing process relies on being there to provide everything your leads need at every step of the sales cycle. The Lead Nurturing Process While there are plenty of variables to consider, the main process is the same in every industry. You'll walk them through the buyer's journey. For instance, if you sell tour guides, you need to be there when they're using Google to research potential destinations. You need to be there when they're looking for answers to potential problems they might run into. And you need to show up wherever else you can with helpful tips that are contextually relevant to them. (Find more information and examples in my earlier /r/Entrepreneur post about marketing funnels: How to Build a Marketing Funnel.) This will involve a multi-channel approach with a foundation of relevant, high-value content. Lead Nurturing Strategy I recommend a holistic strategy that is based around creating content that speaks to leads at every stage of the buyer's journey. That includes everything from entertaining, broad-based content for people at the tip-top of the funnel, to detailed purchase information at the bottom of the funnel. By creating a strong foundation of useful content, you'll have what you need to establish credibility with your potential customers. Tactics Once you have that content, There are numerous channels through which you can nurture your leads. Email, paid social, content marketing, display, and on and on and on. Audience segmentation is crucial, because that's how you'll know who needs to see what. Once you know that, you should make an effort to be everywhere you can afford to be. Aside from the usual suspects (organic and paid search, organic and paid social, display ads, video ads, etc.), direct mail remarketing can be a really effective way to reach your audience. Get creative. Most of your leads will need multiple touches via multiple channels before they're ready to make a purchase. Best Practices When nurturing leads there are some best practices to follow. Here are 4 guidelines to follow in order of importance: Respond quickly! The most important rule of lead generation and lead nurturing is to follow up as quickly as possible. Don't be a nuisance! Too many emails, calls, remarketing ads, etc. will just get on your prospect's nerves. Vary your approach (i.e., use a number of different channels), make sure you keep your ads fresh, and don't contact your leads every day. Personalize wherever you can. This is especially true with email marketing, where you can use your leads' names, but you can also offer personalized offers through remarketing ads. Or send them a coupon for a product they were looking at via direct mail. Create pillar pages of content based around the buyer's journey. Lead Nurturing Tools If all that seems like a lot, it's because it is. The good news is that you don't have to manage all the moving parts directly. There are lots of marketing automation tools like Drip and Hubspot, that will do a lot of the work for you. Lead nurturing with Hubspot (or any similar tool), is basically just a matter of building out your content, optimizing your landing pages, and setting up your ads and emails to trigger at the appropriate times. And if you segment your remarketing audiences based on the buyer's journey, all you'll have to do is refresh your ads when necessary. Your Thoughts? How do you nurture your leads? Do you rely solely on email or do you take a multichannel approach? I'd be interested to hear what channels are working best for other folks out on /r/Entrepreneur. submitted by /u/BennyDelSur [link] [comments]

StarterStory alternatives? Posted: 06 Jun 2019 11:27 AM PDT I'm looking at business idea inspiration.. I went through all the business case studies on StarterStory... Are there any other similar websites to get more ideas and inspiration? submitted by /u/FlippinFlags [link] [comments]

How to Report Hiring/Payment to Independent Contractors? Posted: 06 Jun 2019 06:43 AM PDT This is really a two part question. How do I (as a sole prop or llc) report payments to my independent contractors if I am paying them through Paypal. I've read from multiple sources that payments to independent contractors are not required to be reported via 1099 as the payment processing company handles this. Also, how do I go about reporting my independent contractors to the government. I've read about the DE 542- Report of independent contractors but want to make sure. Thanks submitted by /u/HackActivist [link] [comments]

How to be happy and life a simple life as an entrepreneur and escapsim Posted: 06 Jun 2019 03:32 AM PDT I believe, the happier you are, the more successful you will be as an entrepreneur. ​ Let's face it - entrepreneurship blows sometimes. It's amazing, but hard at times. I notice some people try to escape or fill their life with drugs or entertainment. That's OK, but I just wanted to share some thoughts on how to structure your life so you have more peace, happiness, and can succeed more in business. ​ My thought - Don't live a life that you need to escape from. It's OK to escape by watching netflix or going out to party, but that can't be your only happiness. If you say that you NEED a vacation, thats a sign that you re analyze your life. Make every day feel like a dream, or a vacation. How? Start saying no to shit you don't want to do. Even if it means quit your job. If you have a desire to start something, do it. But, it's important to first cut shit out that drains your happiness. Of course do more things you like (travel, eat good food, write, listen to music - whatever you are into) But, happiness and simplicity begins with deletion. Get rid of toxic people or obligations. Take complicated people out of your life, and only make time for the right things and the right people ​ Trust me - watch how much money you will make when you live a simpler life and focus on making every day a great and chill day. Don't do too much, don't hang around with negative people. ​ that's it. Just a rant for the day submitted by /u/ajcassata [link] [comments]

Schedule C with/without business license Posted: 06 Jun 2019 11:36 AM PDT I've tried searching how these two things work in relation to one another, but I have yet to come up with a proper answer. For a few years, I've done some freelance work out of my home in addition to whatever regular day job I've had. By no means have I made any crazy profits from it, but I've reported it utilizing a Schedule C none-the-less. I'm considering expanding that home business, and I realize that everyone and their mom will say "Get your EIN/business license!". From what I understand, once I have a business license as a sole proprietor, I continue filing through the Schedule C. Therefore, what actually changes in regard to completing taxes after obtaining a license? What are the pros of obtaining a business license from a taxation standpoint? submitted by /u/kainxavier [link] [comments]

Trying to find a particular type of hire, but don't know what to look for exactly Posted: 06 Jun 2019 07:46 AM PDT Hi everyone! So I'm trying to find a particular type of worker for hire which will do recurring posts to particular websites plus social media engagement and additional marketing related work (data entry in catalogs). To be honest I don't know what type of hire should I exactly look for - digital marketing manager, social media manager, online community manager? Please help me figure this out... submitted by /u/Ikinoki [link] [comments]

Site owners - how many companies provide ads on your site? Posted: 06 Jun 2019 10:34 AM PDT Or rather, how many different entities pay you for your web traffic via CPC ads? submitted by /u/CJMA19 [link] [comments]

Started an online business, now Burned Out before sale... Posted: 06 Jun 2019 01:08 PM PDT TL;DR: Started an online furniture business. Executed in starting a business, now burned out before any marketing. ​ So I have started an online business which has taken me over a year with developers. Did all paper work, found a distributor, now I am burned out. I don't even feel motivated to market. I am also low on cash and have generated $0.00 since no advertisement has taken place. Every month, I pay fees to maintain website and other accounts such as bank and now, I have to renew my registered agent. What advise would you give someone that is in this position. Who is low on fund but feels finally ready but extremely demotivated to get any business. submitted by /u/abstainjimbeam [link] [comments]

What are the best ways to discover new trends? Posted: 06 Jun 2019 12:48 PM PDT I've always been interested in seeing what's new, and see if it fits in with anything that I'd like to work on. ​ Any good ways to discover new trends, besides Google Trends, and word-of-mouth? submitted by /u/sikorloa [link] [comments]

Any advice on software consulting for a startup? Posted: 06 Jun 2019 08:55 AM PDT An acquaintance of mine has started a profitable company selling services to rich people. The client wants me to help in building the company website and is willing to pay for the service. It's my first paid consulting gig and it has been years since I did any frontend web work myself. I want to note that my client is non-technical, and could be a very needy based on my read. ​ I have strongly advised my client that I am not the right person ( I am a backend engineer/appsec professional) and is willing to help her find a better-suited person. She insisted on me taking it and is willing to pay so here I am, considering to take her offer. ​ That said, my client's service has only been around for two months, I am a little skeptical about their longterm prospect and their leadership. ​ They want to hire me, but I prefer to start as a part-time independent contractor due to the lack of trust on my side. ​ Here's my laundry list of questions: - What are some of the things I should watch out for when dealing with my client? - Do you have any recommended read/resources that I can use to learn project management? ( I would like to be prepared to gather requirement from my client and give her a best effort estimate). - What is the best way to bill my client? Should I do x% up front, and the rest on delivery? Or should I bill my client weekly based on an hourly rate? - Because I am not an expert in web dev, I am considering bringing in outside help in frontend and design. Any recommendation or general advice on how I should go about this? - Has anyone worked longterm and can recommendation a upwork designer/ web dev? ​ This is a rather long post :) Thank you for reading and for your advice! submitted by /u/cyc115 [link] [comments]

Advice for getting product made/sourced... Posted: 06 Jun 2019 06:37 AM PDT I want a product that takes inspiration from an existing unique design but on a totally different product (but the material/design are almost exactly the same). I tried a RFQ on Alibaba and made-in-china but didn't get any responses. I heard another option is that you can get an agent to help you source a product from China, however I am poor and don't have tens of thousands, is an agent still an option when the initial order will be quite small? I have a multi million audience so within 6 hours to a year we'd be able to make 5 and 6 figure orders, but until I prove the concept and get some money in I'm limited. If an agent wouldn't work, what are my other options? I'm highly eager to get this product created, as I know once I have a source I can sell tens of thousands over the next couple of years (and beyond). I'm not sure I could get investment as I've literally done nothing except come up with an idea and grow an audience. I considered crowdfunding but the issue is, as soon as any big players saw it, they could just use their own factories to make it and get it out before the crowd funding was even done. submitted by /u/wheredoestaxgo [link] [comments]

Happy to help anyone with any SEO questions in return for data Posted: 06 Jun 2019 12:28 PM PDT I'm looking for a two minute survey to be done, I'm creating an infographic. ​ Happy to give you SEO advice in return. submitted by /u/Craig0412 [link] [comments]

Hosting a live Q&A tonight on Instagram about our Techstars-backed outdoor apparel company. Will answer questions here too. Posted: 06 Jun 2019 12:21 PM PDT Hey /r/Entrepreneur community. We're hosting an Instagram Live Q&A on our account this evening (Thursday 6/6) at 6pm CST. We do it every Thursday and Sunday at the same time. Tonight's episode will be about the people behind the brand, but I'm open to answer any questions you have. I'm passionate about sustainability, product design, conscious capitalism, and startups so feel free to ask tough questions about any of those topics. @livsndesigns on Instagram Link As I said though, I'll happily answer questions here as they come in. This isn't meant as purely self-promotion. I worked my way up at another apparel brand from warehouse to CEO, and have built this one to scale efficiently. I don't know everything, or even a lot, but I do know something about product development, supply chain, and branding. Love this sub and want to see more good content that's not drop-shipping or local landscaping. Happy to make an effort! submitted by /u/livsndesigns [link] [comments]

How would you grow my side-project into a business? Posted: 06 Jun 2019 11:43 AM PDT Hey I've made a little side project where you can get some feedback for your product feedbacktoaster.com. You can get an email with private feedback and you can get a review video. You can decide if you want it harsh or mild. How would you grow that into a business? In which way could a service like that become useful to you? submitted by /u/wishsurfer [link] [comments]

Best practice for assembling a product from multiple different suppliers in China Posted: 06 Jun 2019 02:36 AM PDT What are the best practices for getting a product assembled when the components are in different parts of China? A product I have designed in about to go into production. It has multiple components, most of them are produced in Shenzhen, but one is produced in Shanghai. The Shanghai component is a custom glass bottle that we could only source in Shanghai. Both factories have offered to supply the packaging and do assembly, and their prices are competitive, but I trust my Shenzhen supplier more. These two places are hundreds of kilometres apart – should I ship the glass to Shenzhen, or ship everything else to Shanghai? How much should I go with my gut on trusting the suppliers? submitted by /u/comeunsprung [link] [comments]

Questions Regarding Incorporating, Investors & Business Plans Posted: 06 Jun 2019 06:23 AM PDT I have a few questions regarding where to go with my idea that requires some kind of significant funding in order to proceed with. It's based on the model of a very small trade school with housing in a niche industry and as such would require building leasing, some staff, beds/bedrooms, etc. I haven't done all the numbers entirely (I'm finishing up my business plan right now) but it'll take at least 75k for me to get the leasing, furnishings, marketing, lawyers, etc. going for just a few months. Now, it'll still be profitable year over year at over 50% margins but I've never had an idea quite of this scale before. I've done some small business stuff before alone and as a teen with my father years ago, but now I think the completely unique idea I have is truly my big break. How do I go about shopping the business plan to investors? What else is there to "angel investors" than posting on AngelList and ... what, praying? Is GoFundMe really so powerful that it could be the difference? Also, do I have to incorporate and copyright and otherwise make sure I "own" everything related to my business idea before I start shopping it around? Or is it assured that it can't be stolen because of my business plan being written up before anyone else had the idea? P.S. I apologize about how stupid the post may be, but I've just never had a situation where I wanted to pursue this kind of business. submitted by /u/Sleepless_Devil [link] [comments]

Sales Forecasting Posted: 06 Jun 2019 08:34 AM PDT I'm working on my business plan for a board game bar and have hit a bit of a roadblock with sales forecasting. Anyone know a few tips on it? I'm not sure how to find private business sales numbers to compare or how to accurately give an idea of sales growth since it is such a niche idea. submitted by /u/weasol12 [link] [comments]

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