Marketplace Tuesday! (July 02, 2019) Entrepreneur |
- Marketplace Tuesday! (July 02, 2019)
- How I Make Money Off 4th of July Festivities: Selling Glow Sticks!
- About to launch my very own honey business! I'm currently trying to find the value of being local
- Anybody send handwritten notes with orders?
- Little story about opportunity that might be of interest.
- Time Management - Productive vs Unproductive
- Need Guidance!
- 2150% ROI - Disecting a successful Local FB ads campaign
- Book rec's: Moving from 'Just The Founders' into a Small Biz
- $120k/month selling a bicycle lock.
- Did he screw me over or was I naive?
- Filed and received LLC certificate, now what?
- The BiggerPockets Business Podcast
- Instagram bot that automatically follows people who like your ads?
- Does positivity help?
- Graphic startup
- I’m a Young up and coming entrepreneur, and really need your advice
- Managing expectations is such an underrated skill in business
- I was featured in a podcast about building a scalable business out of a small-batch, artisanal product.
- Best books/resources for mobile app development and startups?
- I have ideas for a new digital camera system. This is to shake up the establishment. What are your thoughts?
- I've heard Utah VC steals ideas, is this true?
- Anyone have experience in sharing profits with a SEO marketer?
- Where should I register my LLC?
| Marketplace Tuesday! (July 02, 2019) Posted: 02 Jul 2019 06:12 AM PDT Please use this thread to post any Jobs that you're looking to fill (including interns), or services you're looking to render to other members. We do this to not overflow the subreddit with personal offerings (such logo design, SEO, etc) so please try to limit the offerings to this weekly thread. Since this thread can fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. [link] [comments]  |
| How I Make Money Off 4th of July Festivities: Selling Glow Sticks! Posted: 02 Jul 2019 09:03 AM PDT So in my area, there are a couple different fireworks shows between June 29 - July 6. To capitalize off the festivities, I sell glow bracelets, necklaces, and glasses at the shows! I can usually get the glow sticks in bulk at around $0.05/stick. I then sell them at:
I carry them around on a display made out of PVC pipe, and usually recruit a cousin or sibling to help me sell. Here's the results for the show we went to on the 29th: I spent about $15 in product and had my younger brother help (I held the display, while he made the change and helped people get the bracelets off). I kid you not, as soon as we took the display out of our vehicle, people started running up to us demanding our products. We had a window of around an hour to sell before the show, and during that time, they sold like crazy. All we had to do was slowly walk around and people would either come running up to us or yell for us to come to where they were sitting. We covered maybe half of the viewing area, and made around $120 during that time. Had I gotten more people to help me sell, I could've easily made double that amount. [link] [comments]  |
| About to launch my very own honey business! I'm currently trying to find the value of being local Posted: 01 Jul 2019 10:14 PM PDT Hello! I am a 22 year old from Michigan. I am about to enter my senior year in college. My mom grew up in a small town in Michigan, and funny enough, she recently bought 80 acres there and we are now moving there. Her and her boyfriend have planted vineyards there and will get our first bottle of wine this fall. They're looking to build a winery and start making money from it. My mom also started to buy some bees and bee hives. Last year, we got 50 pounds of honey! It was delicious, and we kept it for ourselves and gave it to friends. I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit, so my mom thought it would be a great experience to start selling this honey. A lot of work has been done. I have an amazing logo that I am very proud of, and that I believe will stand out. We just received 150 pounds of honey a few weeks ago from our property. This is much more than we have ever had, but in retrospect a few small amount of honey if we are planning to sell it. I am now at a point where I am deciding on which jar to use and how I am going to package it. If you were to go to your grocery store, you would likely see a large variety in honey. Most honey goes for around $6.70 a pound and is sold commonly at a pound. At this point, I am looking at spending roughly $1-$1.50 per bottle on packaging. The jars I am looking at range from 9oz to 12. I am favoring 12 simply because 9oz seems too small when compared to other brands. However, what I have on all of these brands is that the honey I am selling is from the small town that it will be sold in (I already have met with a store that has agreed to sell it). This is beneficial because it's local of course, but it also has effectiveness in dealing with allergies. How much can I get out of this perk? [link] [comments]  |
| Anybody send handwritten notes with orders? Posted: 02 Jul 2019 02:39 AM PDT I recently bought some cold brew coffee directly from the company's website and received a handwritten note inside the box thanking me for the order and offering some tips on how best to drink the coffee. While not really scaleable I thought the personalisation idea was a good one. Do people do this? Does it increase sales? [link] [comments]  |
| Little story about opportunity that might be of interest. Posted: 02 Jul 2019 02:13 AM PDT So this literally just happened and I immediately thought of you guys. I have just set up my own business, but I am an accountant by career. This morning I was logging on to the Gov website to check all my corporation tax ducks were in a row when I accidentality entered the wrong details, triggering the 2 factor authentication. When I used to be an accountant I did the books for a few acquaintances and one of these was still saved by the tax site. Gave him a quick call to say "don't worry you haven't been hacked" when he mentioned a shop owner pal of his who was having trouble with his accountant. Got the chaps number and gave him a call. Bad situation, current accountant sounds like total clown and the poor guys are stressed to bits worrying about HMRC (IRS to you Americans) fining them and their payroll not being done on time etc. Finances completely in this guys hands. So I arranged to go round and lend my expertise; look at the situation and get it resolved. So, one tiny little error was converted into a meeting with a prospective client tomorrow; one who is going to need a lot of work doing and will likely become a regular. As the old man says "good business is where you find it". [link] [comments]  |
| Time Management - Productive vs Unproductive Posted: 02 Jul 2019 07:41 AM PDT Just wanted to communicate a time management tool that has always served me well as an entrepreneur. We all want our time to be productive but what does that really mean. Coming from an legal background, the billable hour was all encompassing but there is so much more needed to run a business. Accounting, client development, attorney training, marketing, administration, office management, yada yada yada... For me, I tried to limit my personal use of time to what I'd consider productive and hire others for what was unproductive. Productive - creates and maintains revenues - in the services industries, this is limited to the provision of services to paying clients and client development Unproductive - everything else - important and must happen but the business doesn't end if it temporarily stops Going from a solo practitioner attorney to a firm was simply a process of time management. First, hire assistant to handle client and office administration. All of a sudden there is extra time in your day. So spend the additional time on client development. Then you need another associate to handle the newfound client services; increase marketing with new found time. Then more clients and administration follows. Hire to fill the non-productive roles and stay as focused as possible on the productive - client development and provision of services. Hopefully hire for the provision of services as well in order to start limited daily time requirements. I've seen way too many people try to be one-man-armies. You hurt yourself and your business by trying to do too much. If you aren't sufficiently profitable to hire local help, consider offshore virtual assistants. They can be very reasonably priced and you can find proficiencies in your areas of need. Most business people are loath to tracking time but give it a shot for a week. Where are you spending your time each day. Take an honest assessment and ask yourself if this is the best use of my time. How can I be more productive with less time energy being spent? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Jul 2019 12:00 PM PDT My In laws have offered to straight out give my wife and I one of their businesses. It's a healthcare business and I am somewhat familiar with it as I worked for them for a year. The reason they are giving it to my wife and I is because they can't be there physically anymore as they are trying to build 3 more locations in another area. The business is barely profitable right now and I guess I just need to know the right questions to ask them before I accept. My background is accounting and finance management but I've never owned a business before. Any advice would be appreciated thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| 2150% ROI - Disecting a successful Local FB ads campaign Posted: 02 Jul 2019 07:24 AM PDT Thought it would be an interesting thing to share publicly (minus some confidential bits) a breakdown of a local campaign I ran. *Note - This actually happened a little while back, and I wrote the breakdown at the time, which is why the language makes it sound like it's from today. Background:My client runs a facility that specialises in helping people recover from pain/injury - they offer massage, personal training, osteopathy, and other services in the same vein. He'd run FB ads before with mixed success; some had been profitable (especially early on in the business), some hadn't. Recently he hadn't been able to get much in the way of results. A couple of months back, he was speaking to a mutual friend of ours (also a marketer). He was told to "stop fannying about and pay a pro to run some ads" - I was the person our mutual friend recommended. So this campaign was looking to get paying clients in for a specific type of treatment. Numbers:We had discussed the numbers and knew that the average client for this ends up being worth around £300 to the business.
But knowing the numbers, specifically the LTV (Lifetime Value of a client) is absolutely KEY whenever you're dealing with direct marketing - you NEED to be able to know if a campaign is working or not, and the only way to do that is to be on top of your numbers. So, with numbers & targets in place and the offer sorted, I started creating and testing adverts. Results:Over the course of the month, we ended up bringing in 43 new leads. That's 43 people signing up for a paid initial session at their facility. The cost per lead was less than half the cost (to the client) of that first session. This isn't always the case - and isn't a problem when it's no - that why we know the numbers so that we can know what an acceptable cost per lead is. My client turned out to be excellent at converting* these leads into clients. \Again, not a lovely warm term, but knowing that conversion rate from lead to paying client it VITAL because it allows you to work out the cost per acquisition.* In fact, I've never before had a client be as good as he was, which played a big part in the results of this campaign looking quite so impressive. He converted roughly 90% of these leads. How did he do that? As the business owner, (rather than the person fulfilling the service) he was able to respond VERY quickly to new leads. He is also knowledgeable about the service, and VERY passionate about his staff. Finally, he really grasped the concept that these weren't "sales calls" - these people had already signed up and agreed to pay, his job was to just confirm the booking and help them choose a time that works (often people get caught up in trying to 'sell' rather than just keeping it simple).
All the above meant that after our £540 ad spend, we brought in an expected £11610 in lifetime value to the business. A whopping 2150% ROI Here's a link to a screenshot of the results - https://imgur.com/a/GadjY8S And here's a screenshot of one of the versions of ad copy we ran - https://imgur.com/a/JoAvbUj Analysing the results:What I want to see is patterns that I can learn from. In total we ran 8 different adverts over the month, testing different aspects to get the best results. This is quite a low number, but we hit on a winning combination early and then just tweaked things rather than running whole new adverts. Here are my takeaways: Long Vs Short - Traditionally, I've used (and advocated using) simple, short advert copy - "say who you're talking to, what you've got on offer, why they should care, and what to do next" But recently, I've seen a trend in longer (300-400 words, not very long) ad copy doing well, and this was something I tested. Not only did the longer ads get better results here - they did MUCH better - the short ads were to worst performing of all the variations
(I think this is especially key when you're putting out a paid offer - if it was a freebie, then quick n dirty might actually get better results - as its more of an impulse 'purchase' than a considered one - getting to the point asap is key there. Images - this is an area where we actually could've done better in my opinion - the client didn't have great images from his practice, and I think it hurt the results slightly. However, from our tests - the image that performed best (20% better than the next best) has 2 clear features.
We also tried a 'profile style' image of the therapist but didn't get great results.
Offer - We tried 2 different offers - and the best performing one was a 50% discount. If you offer a freebie - you can expect more leads, but of lower quality on average. There's some debate about whether offering something as free is a stronger position for a business to take than discounting it. You could argue that saying "we're so confident in what we do that you can try it for free" is a better position in terms of being seen as strong, compared to a discount (people know that they can't get the service for free forever, but give a discount away and they might want more and more discounts in future. Metrics - I set my business manager up so that I can see all of the metrics at play. here's what sticks out:
Conclusion...?So for me - there are a couple of takeaways here that I will keep in mind with future clients. - The importance of having quality images needs to be super-clear - it rankles with me that we might've been able to do better. - Keep investing in copywriting skills -the long copy was the big winner here, and I think a part of that is the time I've been putting in recently to get better and better at copywriting, its also why I've been looking at brining a copywriter onboard to help me out. However… There's a hidden LESSON FIVE here that I almost didn't mention. You see, I actually ran 2 campaigns for this client this month - the other was for a different service. And whilst we brought in lots of leads- just shy of 50 for under £400 - not as many of them became paying clients. Yes, a big part of the reason why is that the personal trainer himself was calling these leads, and wasn't as hot at getting them booked in… But for me, the big differentiator was the quality of the offer. Our offer for personal training was too generic, we aimed quite wide, and whilst we got the leads in, the quality wasn't as high. The generic offer got people interested, but ultimately they just signed up for the freebie rather than for 'the transformation' that we were offering. I didn't find out this was the case until too late in the month, but it's a big reminder to me.
Dissection over - feel free to ask any questions in the comments. [link] [comments]  |
| Book rec's: Moving from 'Just The Founders' into a Small Biz Posted: 02 Jul 2019 09:20 AM PDT My partner and I started our tech services biz about five years ago, and for the first few years, it was just us two. Things have really started to take off recently: last year we passed 1MM in rev, and we just hired our 6th FTE. Now the wearing-every-hat approach is starting to take away from time spent on more valuable things like chasing larger accounts and working on more strategic initiatives. So we're looking at doing a capital raise, most of which would be for product + sales/marketing, but also part of that cash would be to hire for support functions and organize the biz into proper departments: accounting, administrative, HR, etc... Are there any book recommendations that help address this transition period of moving from 'just the founders' into more 'small business' territory? [link] [comments]  |
| $120k/month selling a bicycle lock. Posted: 02 Jul 2019 09:15 AM PDT Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview. Today's interview is with Michael Shenkerman of SEATYLOCK, a brand that sells bicycle locks and more Some stats:
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?Hello, my name is Michael Shenkerman and I'm the Co-Founder and CEO of Seatylock. I have been in the manufacturing business for the last 20 years and about 7 years ago I co-founded Seatylock. The company is the developer and manufacturer of innovative high-end bike locks. Seatylock was founded as a platform for innovation. Our first creation was a hybrid product, the first ever product combining a bicycle seat and a lock in one – the Seatylock (not to be confused with the name of the company which is also Seatylock). Since we have continued to develop and manufacture a wide variety of bike locks, from folding locks to U-locks. All of our locks are made only from the highest quality materials, in order to make sure they are not only strong, but also durable. When I started Seatylock my mission was to create the best bike locks in the world and to bring true innovation into a conservative industry, where innovation is rare and scarce. To achieve this, Seatylock aspires to discover new concepts and ideas in the bike security industry and this is the main reason that we founded Seatylock and this is what we strive to do each day. Today, Seatylock operates on a global scale and supplies markets throughout the globe with new security solutions for bike riders. Seatylock continues to pursue its passion and do everything possible to ensure bike riders can get wherever they are going while keeping their bikes safe. We launched our first product, The Foldylock Classic, in 2013 via Kickstarter and managed to raise about $44,000. Next year we launched our Flagship product, the Seatylock, and raised about $137,000 in a campaign that received a lot of media attention and public exposure due to the innovative concept and design of the Seatylock. Since sales have increased steadily from year to year and today are around $120K/month. What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?Well, this is a long story…. I have been in the manufacturing business for 20 years now and I had a lot of experience with all aspects of manufacturing and logistics in China. I have been working in China for years and I had gained a lot of knowledge about the complex process of manufacturing in China and importing goods from China to other parts of the world. Because of my experience, many entrepreneurs would contact me and ask for my advice for how to start a business based on production in China. I knew back then that having a good idea is crucial, but this is just a small part of the big picture, which is execution, how to take that idea and turn it into reality. I was contacted by two young entrepreneurs who had the basic idea for a hybrid product combining a bicycle seat and a lock in one. I loved the idea very much from the get-go, but I also knew that without the right knowhow this great concept will stay an idea and never have the chance to turn into an actual product. My career and financial situation were quite good as I had my own business manufacturing custom metal parts in various metalworking technologies according to the customer's needs. Although I had achieved success with my business, I felt a need to do something new and exciting and when the concept of a hybrid bike seat-lock was presented to me I decided to utilize my expertise and turn this lovely idea into reality. That's how I co-founded Seatylock . Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.The first product we ever designed and planned was the Seatylock. We started working on it even before we founded a company. The process was long and tedious, and it took us about four years since we started work on it till we had finished working on the Seatylock. In retrospect, I can say that we didn't have enough experience with designing and engineering of this type of product when we took on this challenge. The Seatylock was a very innovative project as it was the first and only of its kind and this made the whole process very complicated. The Seatylock is a combination of a bike lock, a bike saddle and an adaptor that fits all types of bike seat posts. Just the adaptor itself was complicated enough as there were no other adaptors in the bike market which fit all typea of seat posts. Furthermore, the engineering qualities of a saddle and a lock are in a sense opposite to each other. Saddles are meant to be elegant, comfortable and ergonomic as opposed to locks which are heavy and robust. Our challenge was to find a way to combine these two parts which are opposite by default and on top of that to add an adaptor which was very complicated to design correctly. It took us about a year to design the initial prototype on the computer and after that almost 3 years of hard work till we managed to manufacture the Seatylock. During this time period we made many mistakes and had to make endless adjustments during the whole process. Besides the challenges of designing and manufacturing the Seatylock there were many other aspects we had to deal with like the packaging. We tried to be very innovative here also because in the bike accessory market packages for locks are very different than saddle packages. We had to find an innovative package for the Seatylock that would reflect the innovative nature of the product. The package we came up with allows you to see the saddle from one side and to see the locking mechanism on the other side. The work process on the Seatylock meant that we had to make adjustments and be agile with our business planning, I'll give you an example. During the 4 years that we worked on the Seatylock we gained a lot of knowledge on folding locks because the locking mechanism of the Seatylock is based on folding links connected by rivets. The category of folding locks was quite marginal in the bike lock industry which was heavily dominated by U-locks and chain locks, but during the years we worked on the Seatylock, folding locks gained growing popularity and we knew that even if our work on the Seatylock is still in process we have a chance to come out with our own folding lock, so that's how we decided to manufacture the Foldylock which was our first product, even before the Seatylock was out. Describe the process of launching the business.As I mentioned our first product in the market was the Foldylock Classic and we chose to launch it through Kickstarter because I think that Kickstarter offers a great platform for substantial exposure. Also, the whole process of the product review is very valuable and helps you be more accurate and professional with how you present your product and how you pitch it. Because we had a positive experience with Kickstarter with the Foldylock we chose to launch the Seatylock on Kickstarter also and we managed to raise about $140,000, but the biggest added value we got from the campaign was the great amount of exposure that the campaign received as the launch video went viral due to the innovative nature of the product. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xifLMpRlXu4 The Kickstarter campaigns gave us the first boost of customers and after that we launched our website and saw initial online sales through the site and also sales in retail stores. The financing of the business was mostly from my private capital and due to the complications and duration of the whole process with the Seatylock I needed to invest a lot more than I initially planned for. If I have one piece of advice for entrepreneurs launching their business, I would definitely suggest that they plan their launch in a very thorough manner. You really need to think about all the details, how to manufacture your product, who needs it, who are you selling to and so on. You must be very precise in the planning and launching phases because there will be plenty of unexpected event during the process and the better you plan for it, the more ready you will be. Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?I've tried many different channels to attract and retain customers. You must consider the fact that we make bike locks which are very functional. This type of product is not very "sexy", it's something that has a lot of practical value, but it's not the type of product that you would consider as a desirable product. It's something that people need, but don't necessarily want. Moreover, with private customers, the chances that you will have returning customers is very low, or a least the time period till they come back will be very long because once you buy a high-quality bike lock it will usually last for many years. This applies to private customers, but marketing to retailers is very different and you need a separate strategy for that, because you obviously strive to have as many retail clients as possible and you want them to be returning customers. Seatylock used a few channels for marketing: Bike industry exhibitions/shows We have been a regular participant in a few large exhibitions over the years. These events offer an opportunity to create contacts and business partnerships with so many players in the bike industry that I think we just had to be there. Through participation in exhibitions you get to show your products to hundreds of people in the industry and to set the foundation for future business. For us these events are crucial because we are coming up against giant companies which have a very strong brand such as Kryptonite and Abus. It's very hard to be a small company that basically nobody has heard about and you are trying to compete against such established and well-organized companies. You really need to make an effort to show how your products are better and how they provide more value for money. Kickstarter We used the Kickstarter platform to launch most of our products since it's just a great platform to spread the word out about your product. Kickstarter is also a hub for innovation, so the more innovative your product is the better it will fit this platform. Email marketing Email marketing is also very important, and we try to get out a new newsletter about once a month, but you really have to be careful and be aware of the amount of content that you are sending people because today we live in the age of information and spamming. You don't want people to get upset with the amount of information you are sending them so today we try to limit email marketing to special promotions or important events and updates. Our newsletters are usually opened by about 25% of subscribers and the conversion rates are low, but I still think that it's worth the effort. It's hard to get high conversion rates with our type of product because most people who have bought from us usually don't need another lock and our products are priced quite high because they are top quality products. Affiliate programs Affiliation is a very good way to get more traffic and increase your business. We run an affiliation program and have a growing number of affiliates. Most of them don't bring in a lot of traffic, but we do have a few high-quality websites and blogs which bring in sales on a monthly basis and gain nice commission from our partnership. Amazon Amazon sales are a big part of our business and we work on an FBA basis. I think that with the power of Amazon today you just must be there. People put their trust into the Amazon brand and rightfully so because the quality of their service is phenomenal. Many customers on Amazon have visited our website and weren't comfortable enough to purchase from us (or needed it within 2 days) and left our website to go to Amazon. They also deal with customer service/shipping so that is less work for our team to handle. Targeted Facebook ads I think that Facebook ads can be very tricky and it's not always worth the money you put in it. You really must target your ads as well as possible and that's something that we have yet to figure out in a satisfactory manner. How are you doing today and what does the future look like?Seatylock is an assembly line-based business. Our products are very innovative in a very traditional and conservative industry which is not associated with innovation. The costs for this type of business are very high and every dollar we make goes back into the company so we can do something new and exciting. We try to come out with new products every year and this requires a great amount of effort and investment. Our mission is to create the best bike locks in the world! To achieve this, we aspire to discover new concepts and ideas in the bike security industry. We firmly believe that innovation and thinking outside the box is the key for us to fulfill our mission. This is the main reason that we founded Seatylock and this is what we strive to do each day. We this in mind, we are working on new products that are bike security based but aren't necessarily bike locks. This will allow us to grow as a company and build our brand as a market leading company with a diverse collection of products. Currently, we are working on strengthening our sales with retailers and for this we are putting a lot of effort into the wholesale segment and expanding our outreach in bike shops where we are still very far from fulfilling our potential. Working with large distribution companies is also an effective way of expanding our outreach in the retail segment and this is also an important avenue for us to pursue. We have a separate wholesale website for our retail customers but it's not enough if you really want to sell your products in stores all over the world, because most people still buy their bike looks at a shop and not online. Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?First, you never know where your next opportunity will come from. I get a lot of emails through the contact mail on our website. Most of these emails are from various companies, distributors or even private people looking for a business partnership. Its hard to stay focused today as you are overwhelmed with the amount of information and the number of emails you have to deal with every day, but you never now what can turn out from all of this and I think that as a small company you have to treat everyone with respect and see if the potential is there, you might be surprised… Second, mistakes are part of the game…I made a lot of mistakes and I will make many more in the future, but I try not to make the same mistake twice. Learning from mistakes is a major key factor in success and I think you should embrace that. I think that many entrepreneurs are too afraid of making mistakes and that type of fear can restrict you in many cases. Another important is stock management. We keep stock in 4 different locations around the world and its almost impossible for a small company like Seatylock to maintain full inventory in all locations all year around. Manufacturing and shipment costs are very high and take a while, so you are always going to have problems. There are good problems and there are bad problems and you should treat inventory issues as the good type. You really need to learn how to be creative and flexible to find good solutions with inventory even if they might hurt sometimes. For example, sometimes we have to absorb high shipping costs that hurt our profits in order to supply orders from overseas warehouses What platform/tools do you use for your business?
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?I enjoyed a couple of books especially: Playing To Win by A.G. Lafley and Roger Martin is a great classic book which shows leaders in any type of organization how to guide everyday actions with larger strategic goals built around the clear, essential elements that determine business success— where to play and how to win. It's more of a general read that really can help inspire people who are looking to build a long-lasting company and are in it for the long run. The second book is Good to Great by Jim Collins which is also a true classic. Collins really showed his readers how great companies triumph over time and the book is full of real-life case studies. I think that most books about business management are usually a waste of time, but these two really stand out for me. Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?I have 3 important tips for entrepreneurs: 1 - Good planning Like I mentioned before, good planning is everything. The more you are prepared for the unexpected than your chances of finding good solutions dramatically rise. Today I can say that if we had planned better with the Seatylock the whole process would have been shorter and much less frustrating. 2 - You need more capital than you think With finance you really need to have more capital than you initially think. There are so many unexpected events that we can not predict… You really need to have that extra cushion. So many startups and small businesses fail because they don't have enough money and not because their ideas and products aren't good enough, so you really must take this into consideration. 3 - Find the right partners** for your business!** By right partners, I mean people that bring a substantial added value to the table and people that have the right set of values and moral principles. I think that if you choose to work with partners, your guiding rule should be to partner only with people that you would like to have as friends and not people that you say to yourself: well I wouldn't want to be their friend, but I don't mind doing business with them… I think that in most cases that would be a recipe for failure. Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?We are not currently hiring out any full-time positions, but this is dynamic and might change any day. 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]  |
| Did he screw me over or was I naive? Posted: 02 Jul 2019 08:35 AM PDT Hey everyone, I'm running a business and have a group of friends who are also entrepreneurs and we actively support each other. There's one friend that I've helped a bunch with consulting and he offered to in return do a business related favour for me. I said that he doesn't have to and that I could hire someone but he insisted on helping me. A few weeks in I noticed he wasnt getting it done, so I asked him if it's ok and that I can still hire someone else to do it in case this was something he didn't want to do anymore. He, again, insisted that he will do it before it's due and that he was excited about it. Because of that I ended up fully trusting and relying on him. Big mistake. He didn't deliver which impacted a lot of my clients. I've already made my peace with the fact that I won't ever receive what he promised and I'm fixing the issues this mistake has caused. However, I'm questioning if there is something wrong with how I handled it. In the end he was doing me a favour. Was I naive to have trusted him to deliver? I checked in every few days leading up to the deadline and he kept telling me it's on the way but then ghosted on the day it was due. We were good friends beforehand but I've never been in a situation where I relied on him in business. How would you guys handle dealing with people like this in business and in life? Is he still worth being normal friends with? I definitely cant trust him in business. But I'm also wondering if I was a dick for expecting he would do it? If someone offers a favour is it ok to follow up on it or did they never owe you anything in the first place? Sorry for the mess of thoughts. I'm just so confused about what happened and wondering if this is my own fault for expecting anything from him or if he just screwed me over and doesn't care about his actions to the point where now I think I'm in the wrong. [link] [comments]  |
| Filed and received LLC certificate, now what? Posted: 02 Jul 2019 11:42 AM PDT I have built a Saas app, and filed for an LLC for my company. What do I need to change in terms of how I do business? The process of filing was pretty easy, but just trying to understand what I need to do to protect myself and use this LLC now. [link] [comments]  |
| The BiggerPockets Business Podcast Posted: 01 Jul 2019 06:40 PM PDT Hey everyone... My name is J Scott -- I'm the co-host of a relatively new podcast called, "The BiggerPockets Business Podcast." It was created by BiggerPockets.com, who currently produces "The BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast," which has over 65M downloads in the past 6 years. On the Business Podcast, we interview entrepreneurs (some small, some tremendously successful) who are willing to share details about the successes and failures they've achieved in business, and who can/will provide actionable tips to our listeners, many of whom are novice or aspiring entrepreneurs. We're always looking for entrepreneurs to interview. If you've started, run and grown a company (at least a couple years) and would like to be considered to be a guest on the show, please feel free listen to an episode or two, and if you think you'd be a good fit, shoot me a message with some information about you and your company. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Instagram bot that automatically follows people who like your ads? Posted: 02 Jul 2019 10:47 AM PDT |
| Posted: 02 Jul 2019 02:00 PM PDT I understand that this is a business form, so I hate to come on here with all of the spiritual stuff that isn't exactly related to the mechanics of building an actual business or company. I have to ask because I feel like I've been spinning my wheels and trying everything that I possibly can to make things work but I'm also a very negative person. I'm not asking for a response tailored to what I am doing wrong, simply wondering if positivity has helped anybody out in the long run? Whether it is as pure as keeping your head up while shit gets tough or something as out there is law of attraction. Do you attribute any of your successes to being positive? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Jul 2019 09:52 AM PDT Hey guys, I'm a nineteen year old student from the Netherlands, I study 3D design and I know my way arround Photoshop and 3D moddeling quite well. I have a lot of spare time on my hands with the summer break coming up and I wanted to start something arround my skills and make some money with this. I'm by no means a graphic designer like making logo's and corporate identities, so its purely with 3D moddeling or editing pictures in Photoshop. Does anyone of you have any kind of advice or tips for me, all help will be apreciated. Thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| I’m a Young up and coming entrepreneur, and really need your advice Posted: 02 Jul 2019 01:31 PM PDT I've recently joined a group of in which our job is advertising and self-promotion, and basically it works like a chain reaction, and you benefit by making sure people join in. So you put people, and earn money by doing so, then they put people and also earn money, and so on and so forth. That's the only way to enter. But basically I've been having troubles doing it anymore, because I had to move and live abroad in another continent because of my degree, and can't seem to appeal to them the same way. I need to find a way to appeal to my costumers whilst I'm abroad, and also expand my network. If anyone knows of a way, please tell me! [link] [comments]  |
| Managing expectations is such an underrated skill in business Posted: 02 Jul 2019 01:22 PM PDT Managing expectations with customers. Employees. Co-founders. Investors. Even your significant other who's support you depend on away from work. Literally every person that touches the business in any way. The majority of conflict arises when someone doesn't deliver and meet someone else's expectations. The service wasn't what they were sold. The job wasn't what was communicated during the interviews or advertised in the description. The marketing department isn't delivering the customers we need to succeed. The value someone is bringing to the table isn't equal to the equity they received. The returns on the investment aren't what were advertised. Business is emotional. When big, life changing things happen like starting a business people are not logical. They are emotional. COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY. So many times the expectations were never communicated in the first place. People don't know where others stand and what others expect. Goals aren't aligned. People have different visions. If you can figure out the expectations off the bat and manage them you'll be more likely to succeed and you will make better decisions from day 1. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Jul 2019 09:05 AM PDT Hey there r/entrepreneur! My little soda-brand-that-could was featured by Launch TN's podcast! It was actually recorded last year during the 36|86 Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. It's been a while and a few things have changed, but I cover a lot of our story from mobile soda fountain to landing our product in Cracker Barrel nationwide. Also, AMA! [link] [comments]  |
| Best books/resources for mobile app development and startups? Posted: 02 Jul 2019 12:48 PM PDT Hi all, I have a few ideas for mobile app startups that I've been playing around with in my head for a couple years. I was wondering if anyone had any advice or resources on how to bridge the gap. I'm heading into my senior year in college and am taking a programming course this coming fall, but have no prior programming experience, so I know I'll need a lot of other resources to get started. In addition, I was wondering if anyone had prior experience with finding programmers/developers to assist on projects. As a college kid, I don't have a whole lot of capital to work with, so finding people to work with is tough. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Jul 2019 12:11 PM PDT I do nature and travel photography. I sometimes use my camera for candid shots at things I go to. I do research on technical and artistic sides of photography. I researched many concepts and problems. They inspired me to establish a new camera lineup. With the mirrorless lineup, it will have:
For the DSLRs, they will have:
For both systems there will be:
I'm aware I have many ideas. Which ones are your favorite and which ones are you indifferent on? What is your feedback and advice (please be polite)? Edit: Do you think it's a good idea for me to start a company to build a new digital camera system? I apologize if I was too technical at first. [link] [comments]  |
| I've heard Utah VC steals ideas, is this true? Posted: 02 Jul 2019 11:42 AM PDT I've been speaking with some of my friends, and one of them mentioned that investing funds in Utah are getting a bad name because they are stealing ideas after people pitch them. Is this true? Has anyone else heard this rumor? [link] [comments]  |
| Anyone have experience in sharing profits with a SEO marketer? Posted: 02 Jul 2019 02:53 AM PDT I did SEO marketing on my projects for a decade successfully, but moved on due to unpredictability. Since most SEO marketers are bullshitters and SEO work is often unpredictable, I want to pay only commission or share profits. This will protect me from bad marketers and wasting money. Anyone have experience in splitting profits with a SEO marketer? I don't have concerns about finding a good enough marketer and having him on board because my relevant background is good and the project is financially promising and convincing. I'm just looking to hear your experience. How did it go for you? [link] [comments]  |
| Where should I register my LLC? Posted: 02 Jul 2019 07:49 AM PDT Hey! I am finishing up an incubator (Norway, with investor interest there) with an international team (U.S. [moving to Sweden, waiting for visa + waiting for Cypriot citizenship], French [living in Scotland], Philippines, and Taiwan). I was wondering where you would suggest we register our LLC, and the benefits or difficulties we might face? We have experience registering in Pennsylvania, Delaware + Germany with previous startups that we have worked on. We are working on a platform for farmers and our focusing our first efforts on consumers in India. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
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