NooB Monday! - (October 21, 2019) Entrepreneur |
- NooB Monday! - (October 21, 2019)
- I hit my first $5,000+/month. Here's every mistake I made on the way.
- Take Ryan Holiday’s advice, be more George Clooney.
- Non-tech founder, Learned Coding at the age of 30 to build a tool which now processes 5M events per day.
- Sales Advice for Novice
- Slogan Ocozy mini enterprise
- Where to learn the fundamentals of business and its vocabulary?
- Selling a business
- Reoccurring clients for video studio? brainstorm needed!
- Where do I find someone to stitch and design?
- Anyone have marketing/advertising advice for someone who has just made her first 5 sales ever? Here's what I've done so far to launch my subscription box!
- What are the fastest growing industries in specific countries in the developing world
- Am I a failure? What do I do? (Please be gentle, I'm on the brink)
- A cure for ads addiction?
- Creative way to do Beef Jerky sample packaging?
- How do i work for 365 days consistently without burning out?
- Setting Up a company with foreign partners
- I've studied the exact sciences: math, physics and IT. What book(s) do I need to read to get the same understanding as 3-4 year student of business has if I wouldn't get back to school again?
- An entity wants to use my photos to put on her shirts for commercial use
- $2,000/month selling re-usable paper [while working at Facebook]
- Advice on growing a "viral" content style site
- Names for market data startup?
- What do you do when a company that you're trying to contract with is a pita?
- Question about worldwide shipping from Pakistan to Canada for a small startup business.
- Closed a Single Member LLC. Still have a business CC with a balance.
| NooB Monday! - (October 21, 2019) Posted: 21 Oct 2019 06:13 AM PDT If you don't have enough comment karma here's where we can help. Everyone starts somewhere and to post in /r/Entrepreneur this is the best place. Subscribers please understand these are new posters and not familiar with our sub. Newcomers welcome! Be sure to vote on things that help you. Search the sub a bit before you post. The answers may already be here. 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]  |
| I hit my first $5,000+/month. Here's every mistake I made on the way. Posted: 21 Oct 2019 05:59 AM PDT The headline is more to grab your attention than to brag because the rest of this post is not going to be nearly as sexy. I wanted to write this post for people who are struggling to make their first $1,000 or $5,000 - I want to give you an inside look to how I did this, not overnight, but what the ugly, drawn-out process looked like for me. There's no get-rich-quick tips here. There's no "hacks." No "shortcuts." I'm a very unlucky person who feels very lucky to be able to make this amount from my laptop at home while dealing with my endless medical issues. Background information about the business:
Tidbit about me for context:
Starting Expenses:
How I Hit $5,000/Month + All The Mistakes Made:I didn't really know what a virtual assistant was or how long I had been doing it. I was roughly 18-19 years old, homeless (couch surfing), and needed money fast. I looked at Craigslist's "odd jobs." Found a job from a now popular porn site that paid people $35/hour with a $250 bonus, to label like 800 porn videos in 1 week. I was making about $1,000/week doing this but being young and naive, spent it all at once thinking that this money would always be there. Then they outsourced to India and every American lost their job. Mistake #1: I put all my eggs in one basket. From here, I continued to make this mistake. I made a good amount off of Fiverr, only to get my account closed because a client complained about something I don't recall doing (I rather not call her a liar). If it's on r/WorkOnline and doesn't require a degree, I've probably been there, done that, and continued to put all my eggs in one basket until I burned myself out. Mistake #2: Lack of self-care/sleep because I wanted to "grind/hustle" = Burn out = Declining mental health = Poor sleep habits = Poor eating habits = Poor hygiene habits = Health problems = etc. This phase of my life was a blur, but a very important blur because here, I was trial and error-ing different things I could do. I was blogging. I was messing around on Twitter with tools like HootSuite and MeetEdgar. I made websites on Wordpress and Wix and Blogger. I took $5/hour r/slavelabour-style jobs because it's all I was qualified to do. If I didn't know how to do it, I didn't let the client know. I Googled and spent hours on the forgotten corners of internet forums and Reddit, hoping to find the answer to a hopeless problem. I didn't sleep much or slept too much. My mental health went ignored. I literally started hallucinating and having meltdowns, which eventually led to my divorce, which will be more relevant later on. Mistake #3: I widely underestimated what people were willing to throw money at. Eventually, I learned what a "virtual assistant" was and called myself that. I also learned that a lot of people will pay you to do simple things they can't be arsed to do themselves - like upload a blog post, write an email, or do customer support. Or label porn. Think of a virtual assistant as a virtual "nanny" or "nurse" who does everything for the business/entrepreneur so the business/entrepreneur can focus on making money. (You're probably wondering where I found my clients. Upwork. Craigslist. Seriously.) By this time, I was making about $1,000/month - which is barely enough to live on. I apply for food stamps to eat, at this point. I slogged like this for a few more years, until my ex-husband had a mid-life crisis. He kicked me and the kids out. Mistake #4: Being comfortable. Not having a savings/emergency fund. My credit score sucks due to poor money decisions (don't worry, I'm subscribed to r/personalfinance and r/leanfire now to learn money handling skills) so I couldn't take out a loan to move. My Discord friends and 3 IRL friends (I don't have family, it's just me) loaned me about $500 altogether. I told all of my clients what was happening - partially so they could find a replacement or expect me to go MIA. To my surprise, ALL OF THEM, immediately asked, "How can I help?" One of my clients gave me a $500 advance on our retainer and contracted me to set up a Squarespace website for another $500. Another client put together a PDF of resources for single mothers and government assistance. I spent every penny I made as a virtual assistant, on this move. There is something life shaking about being homeless and alone (which I was when I started this journey). There's something terrifying about the idea of being homeless and alone - especially when children are involved. This is the turning point that lit a fire under my ass. I set a goal to hit $5,000/month by December 2019 - 3 virtual assistance clients at $1,000/month a pop and 4 writing clients at $600/month. I also take side projects that are non-retainer. Problem? I was very fucking alone. Mistake #5: Underestimating the power of people. Being a dick. Thinking I knew better. Shitting on coaches and guru's that I've never met. Here was my strategy, since I don't have friends, ad spend money, or time:
I don't have a "page" by the way. This is all my personal account. I did this religiously for 2 weeks and posted a lot of business-related memes. I shared stories about labeling porn. People laughed and told me they really liked my "energy." They felt safe. I went into Facebook groups and answered peoples questions and calmed them down when they had business issues. "My email marketing tool is not sending out my broadcasts" "I am not reaching over 10% open rate in my emails." All those years of Googling and slogging away paid off. Where do coaches and gurus come in? They have an audience. I learned that they are not necessarily going to make you rich but they are a pay to play model. I joined some girl-power group led by a guru ($15/month) and bought myself into her audience. I told her straight up, "Look, I'm trying to book out and this is what I do. Here's my website." She blasted my info to her audience. I ate a slice of humble pie and stopped doing the shit-on-coaches crap. My funny memes? People shared them. Every time someone offered "free coaching calls" I took them up on it. I wrote glowing reviews, which they SHARED. For the last month, people in these circles constantly saw my name and face. If these coaches and gurus with thousands of followers were vouching for me, I am trustworthy, and if I am trustworthy, my website is worth looking at. The rest was a waiting game. If people emailed me, I emailed back within 6 hours. If they inquired about me on Facebook messenger, I messaged back the same day. People booked calls with me and talked to me. I had to talk to a lot of people before someone finally said yes, but who the fuck cares. THEY SAID YES. This weekend, I booked out. I had to decline two people this morning because I just don't have time for more clients. I put them on a waitlist. But now I've secured $5,000/month minimum on retainer clients and I'm building my waitlist. Also, paid all my friends back. But, this brings me to my latest mistake: Mistake #6: No source of passive income and capping income. I've capped myself at $5,000/month :( So... what the hell do I do now? I'm going to create a source of passive income which I won't talk about here so it doesn't become a pitch. I'll attempt to scale it to $5,000/month. After that, I'm going to convert my virtual assistance clients to digital marketing clients and work on commission so my income ceiling is higher. I've never made more than $5,000/month so I don't know what I don't know and I intend to continue making mistakes along the way. Also, this subreddit hates coaches, but the majority of my clients are coaches. Best part? They have money. I plan on hiring one who offered me a very valuable free coaching call a few weeks ago. TL;DR:I spent a lot of time learning random skill sets and then learned people will hire me for the skill set. Spent years doubting myself and undercharging. Ex kicked me and the kids out. I panicked. Set up a website. Mass networked on Facebook. Did a shit-ton of free calls to get free business tips from guru's. Bought into low-entry groups for more visibility. Made people laugh. Did even more shit-tons of "discovery calls" for potential clients. Answered a lot of emails and inquiries. Asked. For. Help. And there you have it. None of this was glamorous or sexy, and I took almost a decade to get to $5,000/month but every journey starts somewhere, right? Hope this was helpful to someone out there. Have a good one. [link] [comments]  |
| Take Ryan Holiday’s advice, be more George Clooney. Posted: 21 Oct 2019 04:17 AM PDT Have you read Ryan Holiday's book 'The Obstacle Is The Way'? If not, you should. I'm on my 3rd listen via audible & one story stuck out. "George Clooney spent his first years in Hollywood getting rejected at auditions. He wanted the producers and directors to like him, but they didn't and it hurt and he blamed the system for not seeing how good he was" But he realized that casting is an obstacle for producers too – they need to find somebody & they're all hoping that the next person to walk in the room is the right somebody. Auditions were a chance to solve THEIR problem, not his. From this new perspective, he was that solution. He wasn't going to grovel for a shot. He was the answer to their prayers, not the other way around. That was what he began projecting in his auditions -not exclusively his acting skills but that he was the man for the job. He understood what the casting director & producers were looking for in a specific role & that he would deliver it in each and every situation, preproduction, on camera & during promotion. That bit should be your marketing. Are you showing that you understand your clients well enough to get what they want, rather than grovelling for a sale? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 21 Oct 2019 07:59 AM PDT I am an entrepreneur from Non-tech background (10+2 in non-science stream ), after running a successful marketing agency for about 5 years we decided to build a SaaS product in the same industry. After the initial ideation phase, the product looked complicated and hiring a developer to join us without fully understanding the tech infra or scope was becoming difficult. I started to explore the tech space and did research on how we could achieve the goal at hand, the more I explored the more I started to like these things. The crazy javascript front-end space with React, Vue Angular wars, the backend scene with Python, Node & Larvel or the databases like Mysql, postgresql, Mongo. Learning about Different APIs, each with their own implementation of how they worked, getting into Rest vs Web-sockets threads etc. It was so fascinating and a very different world from my earlier life which revolved around SEO, SEM, ROI, CPM, CPA, CPC Conversion rates, backlinks & traffic etc. Soon enough, I was spending 6-8 hrs a night to learn more and more and after about 2 months hacked together the first prototype which kinda worked on command line. Half of the code was lifted from GitHub and the other half from Stack-overflow, but somehow it worked :) With that, Now I was in a much better position to hire a full-time programmer and get the product (MVP) built and hired a new CTO. With him onboard, It took us about 2 months to build a presentable MVP, from there we went on to get to $25K MRR in next 6 months. We just recently closed a funding round as well from few of the top investors, if that counts. About the tool While the MVP was being built I was working on potential marketing lead magnets which could attract lots of potential customers to our website. Being in the industry for years I knew few of the pain points the industry had and decided to address them by building those tools. This tool allowed users to check if a given domain is available for registration or not, 20,000 domains at a time. Since the CTO was already occupied working on the product, I decided to build it myself and test my newly learned skills in real-world. Here is the technologies I selected for this -
I built it in few weeks and shared around in our circles for testing, people from the marketing community loved it and soon I had hit scaling issues. Later I replaced rest API with web-sockets for real-time results & Vuejs with Nuxt for Server-side rendering & SEO. So far It has been used by over 20,000 marketers to check 737 M domains (lots of them checks same domains multiple times). You can see the uses graph here - We now limit uses for non-logged in users and ask them to signup for a free account or free trial, a 7 email series then encourage them to use rest of the product line with a good success rate. My learning from this is : Even if you are a non-tech founder It's a lot easier to build a product or business when you spend time to learn the inner workings of how things works at a micro level. You will have so much more respect for your tech co-founder / CTO when you have a first hand experience of how frustrating fixing even a small bug is. Which ultimately leads to a far better working environment. Questions ? PS : For those who gets tech, I didn't go into much technical in the post, If you have specific questions feel free to ask in comments. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 21 Oct 2019 12:17 PM PDT I just built a product and a friend has made some introductions to potential clients. I have no experience in sales. I've always been a mildly shy, technical contributor. What are some basics that I should know? Made some business cards and some documentation, pricing information. Anything else that I need? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 21 Oct 2019 02:18 PM PDT Hey there For our schoolproject, we had to start an "enterprise". Do the book keeping and the advertisment. The first problem was to find our product and subject/theme. After a long time of thinking we decided to go "cosy" and sell handmade lamps/light. For our name we chose; "Ocozy". The only thing missing is our baseline or slogan. Maybe anyone here had some ideas to help us out ? Thank you [link] [comments]  |
| Where to learn the fundamentals of business and its vocabulary? Posted: 21 Oct 2019 01:20 PM PDT I am a guy in my 20 following an engineering degree but I would love to put myself into the business world let it not be something technical. I am having some minor problems with business vocabulary especially when it comes to rules and regulations and I would love if some of you guys could recommend some online courses to me on that matter. I really appreciate! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 21 Oct 2019 10:57 AM PDT My parents (60) are looking to retire and sell their business. It's unique in the fact that it's an arts and crafts festival that generates 300-500k in net profit in about a 6 day span, and in its 25 years, it's managed to grow every year. It's a lot of work however, and my dad has been fighting cancer, so they officially decided recently that this was their last year doing it. In an interview they did on local news, I guess they hinted at the fact that they would consider selling, which has since generated 7 inquiries from people interested in purchasing the business. They have estimated the value of the commercial and residential property owned by the business, and the business itself, to be worth somewhere around 2.6-3m. My mom is trying to come up with a proposal to send to these potential buyers, but I told her that I really feel like they need to hire legal help to protect their interests. She said she was trying to "keep things simple" and do it herself, but I told her this isn't a simple matter and that even the proposal should be drafted by someone with legal experience in selling a business. Somewhat unrelated, but she also said she would prefer the buyers to be able to purchase the business without involving a bank, because she feels there is "too much blue sky", so I guess she thinks a bank isn't going to put an accurate value on what the business is worth. The actual property is a lot more simple and she said it would be ok if the buyers wanted to use a bank to purchase the property, but she would prefer the business to be a cash sale. I don't know if that's a lot to expect or what, but it's what she said. How are things like this usually handled? I know there are also people who specialize in selling businesses, and that is something to consider. But since they already have potential buyers lined up, it's not likely that they will be looking to put the business on any sort of "open market" and try to advertise. I came here knowing there are likely people who are experienced with selling or buying a business, so if there's any direction you could point us in, it would be greatly appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Reoccurring clients for video studio? brainstorm needed! Posted: 21 Oct 2019 12:45 PM PDT Hey guys, so my studio does video production of both motion graphics as well as actual video being shot on camera (both talents and packshots). I'm trying to find a way or "the best client" recipe basically where we could turn a client into a reocurring client. Now here is my current problem. A lot of the clients are a one-time product buyers. They buy our video for their company, product, what have you and just use it. A lot of the times, some clients might come back to us if they have a new product that needs a video. This doesn't happen on monthly basis obviously. So in a way I'd say we sell our videos like unique products, not service. What'd I'd love to do is find a way I could turn our product (video) into a service, where the client could get a monthly "plan/subscription" for a video service in exchange. Now how could we turn the video product into a video service, is my problem. I'd love to hear your ideas! If you have a video company that works for you, etc. I'd love to hear your cases. Let the brainstorm begin and thanks a lot beforehand! [link] [comments]  |
| Where do I find someone to stitch and design? Posted: 21 Oct 2019 10:15 AM PDT I'm looking for a local textile/stitching/design company to work with. I'm not wanting to work with Chinese suppliers as I'll inevitably find my plans on Alibaba for the rest of the world to enter the market and be a competitor with. Can anyone provide some insight on how/where to find? Thank you Edit: to be more specific without giving away the product. It is not apparel. It is more related to designing/sewing bigger specialty items like backpacks, or similar in that complexity [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 21 Oct 2019 09:12 AM PDT I'm one of those people who has followed this sub a long time but have had a hard time getting started because of fear of failure. I just decided to go for it and accept that I'm fumbling through this and not everything will be perfect. So yesterday, I made my goal of making at least $1 online this year lol. My subscription box is launched and so far I have 5 sales. I know it's nothing so far but I'm damned proud of myself for starting and now to figure out what is next! And I know, I know, subscription boxes... but it makes sense for my audience and I'm having a lot of fun with the subscription model! What I've Done So Far:
Now at this point I was kinda discouraged because I had 300 emails and I knew I needed more like 3,000. I had reached out to some other influencers in my niche but not gotten a response. I think it was because I didn't actually have a product yet. I was stalling because of lack of motivation to be honest. So I just said fuck it, I'll move forward with what I have. I can test to see if anyone buys what I've got so far, and set aside some free boxes to send to YouTubers for unboxing videos later, so that maybe the second box would get more traction. I sent out to my email list the link to pre-orders for the first box (I said I would ship in December so I have a little more time). I posted to my Instagram and Facebook groups the same. Immediately I got 5 purchases! This made me feel much better, since I hadn't really been able to validate yet if people would purchase it at that price. The price of the box is going to be $35 per month, but since this is a pre-subscribe I decided to put it on sale for $29.99. So on this first box I'm only making $6-8 per box, but the margin will be better later on, especially when I can scale it and get better bulk pricing. I've only spent about $200 so far to get this started, which includes setting up the website and ordering samples. Now here's where I would love some help and advice: I've got a month to try to sell more of my pre-order boxes and I'm not sure what the best way to market/advertise would be. My long term strategy will be to send this first box to YouTubers, because that's where the influencers in this niche seem to be. Also SEO and content marketing seems like it would work quite well for this niche, but it will take me some time to work on that since I've never done it before and it will take time to put together good content. More about my audience:
Any and all advice welcomed! I didn't post my niche or website for privacy, but I'm happy to PM it to you. It's been an amazing learning experience for me since I didn't know anything about starting a business or marketing when I started. But of course, the most important thing I learned was to get past my fears and just get started, and just show up! [link] [comments]  |
| What are the fastest growing industries in specific countries in the developing world Posted: 21 Oct 2019 02:32 PM PDT Do you all know what are some of the fastest growing industries in specific countries in the developing world? For example, scotch distilleries in India or mid-size banking in Myanmar. [link] [comments]  |
| Am I a failure? What do I do? (Please be gentle, I'm on the brink) Posted: 21 Oct 2019 02:23 PM PDT I am 37. I was in rock bands full time from age 14 to 28. I put everything into music until around 2008 when the internet changed the music industry so much that we couldn't figure out how to make real money. My son was 4 years old, and it came down to two options: tour incessantly or change occupations. I couldn't keep going on 30k/yr (in California) on the hope we would "make it." We were basically an opening act for 8 years. 2 records, 3 EP's. Maybe we just weren't that good. We had a fan base, but never really broke. So I quit for my family, changed gears, and moved into graphic design. By 2014, I had opened and closed a little design shop in So Cal, and ended an 8 year marriage. At our peak, we had a 7 man team including me and my ex wife. We were pulling around 400k sales, and started moving into branding and marketing. Constant struggle. When it ended, I was depressed and feeling lost without an outlet for art (music). I missed the family life, but my ex and I just weren't working. I missed music. I felt like I was living someone else's life. I was and am willing to sacrifice for the betterment of my kids. My philosophy is when you become a parent, it's not about you anymore. After we divorced and shut down the shop, I started freelancing; picking up the crumbs of old customers. It was originally a temporary thing... I thought I'd build another business. After a couple years, I transitioned into full fledged marketing, mostly handling Google Ads and online stuff. I've been earning about 60k ever since. A few people have come in and out, but nothing has really stuck. Money is always tight. I'm alone every day. Kinda going nuts the last 5 years. Feeling almost suicidal 3x a year. Not good. Here we are at the end of 2019, 5 years later, and I'm stuck in this cycle. I'm hounded by clients morning till night, underappreciated, unfulfilled, unhappy, and generally lifeless. I'm good at what I do, but feeling like it's futile. I'm charging half of what I charged 10 years ago with a shop, and people are still hitting me for discounts, because they know I'm on my own. The kicker is that throughout this process, I've come up with some INCREDIBLE ideas for the future of small business marketing. I'm not going to give away all my ideas, but imagine you are sitting on Netflix or Redbox in 1996 in a sea of Blockbusters... it's a game changer. Everyone I have told says the equivalent of, "That is the future. That's amazing." Yet oh fuck it what's the fucking point. All you internet trolls are just gonna put me down anyway. Fuck the world. Why do I even try. I'm ready to die. Go ahead, push me over the edge, assholes. I have no faith, no hope. I'm drunk at a fucking Island Burgers at 2pm on a Monday. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 21 Oct 2019 02:14 PM PDT I am looking for alternative ways to grow a project without using any ads. One interesting approach I'm looking at is referrals. Similar to Pinduoduo in China. They really proved that alternative models like group-consumption can reduce CPA by boosting the incentive behind referring friends. Do you think this approach is possible in the western market? I found a site from a year ago which outlines the concept in more detail: sharebuy DOT io [link] [comments]  |
| Creative way to do Beef Jerky sample packaging? Posted: 21 Oct 2019 02:14 PM PDT Thanks for this community, I learn something new every day here. I am pre-sales and doing a free jerky giveaway on next door to build publicity. I am running into a rut and need the communities help. What is an interesting yet cost efficient way to give away my beef jerky samples? I am having a hard time thinking of cool ideas besides plastic/mylar bags w a sticker on them. Do you think customers need to see the jerky before buying? (Clear window on packaging) This will be dropped off in mailboxes or physically handed to. Or am I obsessing over a detail i shouldn't focus on? This is product I am giving away for free after all. Any help or feedback appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| How do i work for 365 days consistently without burning out? Posted: 21 Oct 2019 02:14 PM PDT I'm intending to work for the next 365 days on my projects (that doesn't mean I'll stop after that). It's my small goal, and i don't want to wake up one day completely burned out. What's the best strategy i can follow to make it happen? [link] [comments]  |
| Setting Up a company with foreign partners Posted: 21 Oct 2019 01:49 PM PDT I'm looking to setup a for profit US based Web Solutions company with foreign partners. I want to use the proper setup and I'm undecided between LLC and S Corp. I want to protect their rights and mine as equal partners of the company as well best solution for tax purposes, any thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 21 Oct 2019 01:45 PM PDT |
| An entity wants to use my photos to put on her shirts for commercial use Posted: 21 Oct 2019 12:49 PM PDT How would I split it? Or what would be the legality of how the split would work? Do I make a contract to get a percentage of all revenue or could I just sell the rights to the picture for a fixed price for them to use it commercially [link] [comments]  |
| $2,000/month selling re-usable paper [while working at Facebook] Posted: 21 Oct 2019 09:00 AM PDT Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview. Today's interview is with Caylee Betts of Swipies, a brand that makes reusable paper Some stats:
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?My name is Caylee, and I'm the founder of two businesses by night/weekend and a Product Design Manager at Facebook by day. My primary business, Swipies, is a reusable paper company. Swipies are essentially portable, flexible whiteboards that don't smudge because they use wet-erase markers (instead of dry erase.) I sell Swipies in kits through my Shopify store (shipped to 42 states and 30 countries so far!), and I sell custom-branded Swipies to companies like Airbnb (see below), General Assembly, Moz, and Indeed. I've had my share of $10,000 and $500 months, but my revenue averages around $2,000 per month. I spend between an hour (minimum for fulfillment) and 20 hours a week working on Swipies and my other business, The Spreadsheet Shop. Wha t's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?I've been a designer for almost 15 years, and I've had an entrepreneurial itch for just as long. Being a designer has given me the advantage of spinning up websites, logos, and products (physical and digital) quickly. My first entrepreneurial pursuit was opening a design studio in the food and beverage industry about 10 years ago. During that time, I also helped open a restaurant, which is among the scrappiest types of businesses you can run. Aside from the restaurateur stint, those 5 years were spent doing the mostly digital design but I had an itch to create something physical. With that in the back of my mind, I stumbled upon the idea for Swipies when I received lamination samples for a project I was doing. The sheets were big, clean, and smooth and I really wanted to write on them. I ordered wet-erase pens from Amazon (recalling the joy of writing on overhead projectors as a kid) and within a few weeks, my team and I were using them for everything — note-taking, illustration, list-making — and we'd even cut them down to a variety of convenient sizes for different uses. Fast forward a year, and I was starting my first job in tech. I was doing a lot of app design, so I printed phone frames onto paper with "Swipies" scribbled in the corner. My husband coined the name because of the common "swipe" gesture used on apps, as well as the "wiping" required to clean Swipies. I made a few copies and took them to work, and my coworkers started asking for their own copies. I ran out every time I made more, but I wasn't happy with the quality. I wanted a sleek product that was also fully waterproof, but I hated the lamination lip that traditional laminating got me. So I started talking to some manufacturers. Fast forward another year, and I had my first order of 200 Swipies in hand. Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.First, I couldn't get anyone to take the project on, partially because I wanted to start with a small order, and partially because my ask was surprisingly difficult. I found one lone manufacturer that'd help me, but it took us a long time to get Swipies right. I wanted the product to be fully waterproof which required us to use expensive, special-order materials. From there, we had issues with bubbling, smearing, and warping. Finally, we found the right mix of products and processes, and it was onto the design of the sheets. I wanted a pattern that could fit a variety of needs. I played with lines, a standard grid, a crosshair grid, a dot grid, and even plain/blank. I surveyed a few potential users and landed on the dot grid for my first run. I added a simple outline to make the product feel intentional and complete, and I used super minimal branding so the focus was on writing and drawing without distractions. I also (very intentionally) kept one side of the sheets blank, because I personally love to draw and write without restrictions. Each sheet gives the user two options: the dot grid, and the blank side. After the design and production were done, I pulled together the first version of the packaging, which left a lot to be desired. In true scrappy fashion, I used neon yellow stickers from Uline that I laser-printed at home to make the labels. I bought 1000 of them for $12. Looking back, it wasn't the best design decision I've ever made, but I was able to start the business all up (domain, web hosting, materials) for under $800. It's been self-funded since. Describe the process of launching the business.When I was first launching Swipies, I was interviewing for a job at Etsy, so I decided to build my initial store with them to test the product. I coded a super simple HTML/CSS landing page that directed people to Etsy store. I took my own product photos on an elementary school basketball court in the lower east side of Manhattan. I sat in the now-shuttered Spitzer's Corner bar and hit the launch button, super excited to see what would happen. It's hard to beat that incredible feeling of excitement when you launch something totally new. During this phase, I just made it work and got it out there as fast as I could. Since I was already active on social media, I hyped up the launch to my friends and started to see sales come in pretty quickly. I had an email list of people interested before I had received my first shipment, and a good percentage of them bought when I launched. My first shipment of Letter-sized Swipies was billed on November 3rd, 2015 for $550, and by November 16th I was placing a $1600 order, which included a restock of my Letter Swipies, 2 new sizes, and 200 custom units for my first B2B client, Spec.fm. This was the first hint that something doesn't need to be perfect for people to be interested and supportive, but to this day it's a lesson I struggle to absorb. Since the initial launch, I've introduced more products based on customer demand. The simple addition of some cleaning accessories lead me to build my best selling kit, "The Full Starter Kit." After many requests for list-sized Swipies, I introduced a tall, skinny lined version. My customers really wanted it to be magnetic, but when cost and design were prohibitive, I decided to create some complementary magnets to go with the list Swipies. I researched common use cases for list-writing and mapped 5 emoji designs to those uses (an avocado for groceries and meal planning, a clipboard for all things work, and the bicep/muscle emoji - with a Swipies tattoo of course - for workout plans, honey-do lists, physical labor projects) and hired a local designer to custom-illustrate them. Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?Many of my early sales spikes came from mentions on Twitter, YouTube videos, and popular blogs. $200 from a tweet here, $600 from a blog mention there. When I first launched Swipies, a woman in the personal planner community found the product, cut it down to the size of her planner, and talked about it on her YouTube channel. Even a chopped up version of my product drove a ton of sales; so much that I ended up introducing that size in my next run. I highly recommend taking advantage of the opportunity to tailor to communities that show interest in your product. I also found success in doing podcast ads within niche communities (for me, UX designers). I was able to work out revenue share deals that made it easier to dabble in advertising without cost risk. For many years, reputation and word of mouth were my biggest drivers. As of lately, I'm experimenting with ads and seeing some success there. I've been able to save money and iterate on the ads frequently by shooting my own videos. What's weird (and dumb of me) is that I've never sent a Swipies marketing email, and I'm horrible at creating native social content. I'd love to (and plan to) do both of these things (and more), but I'm spread thin with everything I'm involved in. I've been super lucky to have had growth through word of mouth and ad hoc marketing efforts over the years but am finally starting to lean into maximizing that with intentional marketing efforts. On the B2B side, I've built out a workflow for Custom Swipies that allows me to scale myself out of investing too much in each project. I've created extensive sales materials and scalable pricing tables that allow me to quickly price any custom project at any margin, both of which allow me to do mass outreach without custom-bidding each opportunity. How are you doing today and what does the future look like?I currently fulfill Swipies from home, and I invest my profits into inventory so I can keep lowering my cost. Before the ad spends, I'm at about 70% gross margin. I've been running ads for only a few months, and my CAC via ads is only a couple dollars less than my average order value, so there's plenty of work to be done there. I get a few sales a month from Amazon and Etsy, but the majority of my business is done through Shopify. Custom Swipies are generally direct through word of mouth, but I've received several inquiries through my ads so I'm curious about targeting B2B customers, like employees who buy swag. I'm also starting to get listed in some swag catalogs, which may quickly scale my B2B business. I don't sell to any brick and mortar and am not listed on other websites, but I regularly do conference swag and plan to do more outreach there this year. Plenty of avenues to further expand down! Generally speaking, there's so much I'd like to do. I'd love to spend more time selling Swipies to distributors, other retailers, and businesses and conferences — essentially, getting the product out in bulk. My B2B game is strong — I am able to price, design, and manage production in a few hour's time, and my average custom order is $1,900. I'd love to do more of this work and to look at ad targeting specifically to swag decision-makers. I'd especially like to build a more branded organic social experience, and build more community around the passions that lead me to start my businesses. I'd love to find opportunities to work with schools at all levels, but especially with college bookstores. I'd like to use Amazon more effectively (but Seller Central is truly the worst). I'd also really like to become more eco-friendly as a company. Because Swipies are reusable, they can offset single-use paper waste. But, the production of plastic is harmful to the environment, too. I'd like to find ways to generally offset my production, do a study on how many Swipies uses offset the plastic production in terms of paper saved, and even look into creating a more green product from the ground up, with a biodegradable "plastic." Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?As a side hustle, where I'm not trying to make my entire income from the business, learning new skills is one of the greatest gifts my endeavors have given me. I highly encourage others to take the time to learn to do things themselves when starting out. Writing code, learning to optimize ad campaigns, negotiating, selling, shooting video, sourcing materials, working with manufacturers. I'm not sure where all of this will lead me, but I'm a significantly more savvy business person across my businesses and day job because of my entrepreneurial experiences. I've also learned that despite my desire to make everything perfect before letting the world see it, it's not necessary. People want to support other people, so even exposing your work to friends and family is a great start. Get your product out there and start getting feedback. Finally, my husband often reminds me to "sharpen the saw." If I don't get enough sleep or breaks or exercise or food or water, I won't be my best self nor do my best work. I've burned the candle at both ends for most of my life, but I've learned to be more balanced over the past couple of years. Long walks through parks, weekends away, social outings with friends, 8 hours of sleep, and plenty of TV on the couch — these might not happen every day, but definitely a couple of times a month each. What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?If I could, I would watch new episodes of Shark Tankand listen to new episodes of How I Built This every day. I also think The Lean Startup had a lot of influence over me in my early days as a software designer, and it has bled into how I think about running my own businesses. I work super iteratively in everything I do entrepreneurially. Something I've found to be super useful lately is multitasking when it comes to self-care. Working out is incredibly helpful for creating mental clarity, but I feel I never have enough time to do as much working out (or reading) as I'd like. So as of late, I've been reading business books on my Kindle while on the elliptical, and I feel super energized and motivated after. Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?A few random tidbits:
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?I'm not officially, but I am curious about a virtual assistant. Email me if that's you! 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]  |
| Advice on growing a "viral" content style site Posted: 21 Oct 2019 12:14 PM PDT Over the last 7 months I've attempted to build a content site that essentially aggregates interesting topics from around the internet. The focuses have been technology, science, nature etc. I do a brief write up about the topic, usually 300-500 words. My ultimate goal would be to have a site similar to ladbible.com, obviously on a much smaller scale. I'm wondering if this is a viable path to continue on as I am a one-person operation. These sorts of sites are typically updated multiple times a day and employ full-time writers. Perhaps I should try to narrow the focus of the site? I'm hopeful to one day earn a little bit of side income. Happy to PM anyone the site if they're willing to offer advice. [link] [comments]  |
| Names for market data startup? Posted: 21 Oct 2019 12:10 PM PDT What are some clever names for a smacap-focused startup that provides current and historical fundamental data through an API (like Refinitiv or Intrinio)? Some I've thought of are TenQuant (a play on 10-Q filings) or GetTheFilings. [link] [comments]  |
| What do you do when a company that you're trying to contract with is a pita? Posted: 21 Oct 2019 12:04 PM PDT I am just starting out, literally got my LLC last week, so very beginning stages. My business is basically as a facilitator, I do mobile collections, and send samples back for processing. I have done this work before, but moved to a new area, and I am branching out on my own. There isn't another collector within 100sq miles of my location, so really good spot. I have worked directly with this company before, they are a strong, global, company. I do not know this region rep though, and I was not a main contact for my last company, so they don't really know who I am. This rep is incredibly hard to talk to, they did half of what they said they would do, and they are really bad at following up. I need this, it isn't quite all eggs in one basket, but it is an excellent basket to connect with. I can still contract with different processing companies, but this is the biggest one, and it would streamline the entire business. How hard do I push? And how do I push? I have already called/emailed/texted, after they missed our phone meeting Friday, and they haven't responded today, so what now? [link] [comments]  |
| Question about worldwide shipping from Pakistan to Canada for a small startup business. Posted: 21 Oct 2019 11:54 AM PDT Hello everyone! I have questions regarding how small businesses offer worldwide shipping while still being profitable, for both individual packages and bulk shipments? Would the package fees be taxable? Are there loopholes out there which one can take advantage of when it comes to duties, taxes and custom fees? The small business in question is a clothing brand which manufactures products in Pakistan to cater to the North American market. Any help on where I could start reading into this would be very much appreciated. 😁 [link] [comments]  |
| Closed a Single Member LLC. Still have a business CC with a balance. Posted: 21 Oct 2019 11:45 AM PDT Hey I closed a Florida based LLC I stupidly created for a one product, Amazon FBA attempt, that sold to slow and never became profitable. I submitted the paperwork to dissolve the LLC, but I still have the business checking/credit card open and it has a balance of like $2,500. Is there any thing I should be worried about while I pay it off? Like does paying it off count as income for the llc or need to be reported or anything? [link] [comments]  |
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