[PINNED] Promote your business, week of October 28, 2019 small business |
- [PINNED] Promote your business, week of October 28, 2019
- [PINNED] In this post, share your small business experience, successes, failures, AMAs, and lessons learned. Week of October 28, 2019
- Should I start a partnership with a professional peer?
- Anyone want a Free SEO report?
- I am just starting out in the woodworking business, and I was wondering if anybody could kinda just give me a general rundown of what to do and not to do.
- What does it take to be 20% better than the average competition?
- Customer Service: how do I handle responses to my response to customer complaints?
- Website images
- Need help with my bookkeeping business
- Finding "seed" money to start a business
- [For Hire] eCommerce Bookkeeper / XERO Certified Advisor / All-around VA
- Someone posted a 1-star review on Google saying we assaulted them and kidnapped them. Reported the review on Google and they said it doesn't violate their policy, what can I do now?
- Tool that connects social media engagement and rewards?
- Your website should be doing more. How can you help your customer get to where they want to go?
- Smartest way to startup a restaurant?
- Thinking about going into the lumber business.
- How to create a custom magnetic/chip/contactless discount cards?
- Ideas on selling Irish food & alcohol to America
- What are the benefits of having an LLC vs. an S-Corp? What are the drawbacks to each?
- Your thoughts on an app which allows you to manage QuickBooks from Slack?
- Can I fire an employee who can no longer work her schedule?
- Company Logo
- Party Planning Advice
- How can I finance a business purchase based off that businesses books? What type of lending institution is best for this?
- Free / Low Cost for Cash Only transactions
| [PINNED] Promote your business, week of October 28, 2019 Posted: 27 Oct 2019 07:31 PM PDT Post business promotion messages here including special offers especially if you cater to small business. Note: To prevent your messages from being flagged by the autofilter, don't use shortened URLs. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Oct 2019 07:32 PM PDT This post welcomes and is dedicated to:
/r/smallbusiness is one of a very few subs where people can ask questions about operating their small business. To let that happen the main sub is dedicated to answering questions about subscriber's own small businesses. Many people also want to talk about things which are not specific questions about their own business. We don't want to disappoint those subscribers and provide this post as a place to share that content without overwhelming specific and often less popular simple questions. This isn't a license to spam the thread. Business promotion and free giveaways are welcome only in the Promote Your Business thread. Thinly-veiled website or video promoting posts will be removed as blogspam. Discussion of this policy and the purpose of the sub is welcome at https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/ana6hg/psa_welcome_to_rsmallbusiness_we_are_dedicated_to/ [link] [comments]  |
| Should I start a partnership with a professional peer? Posted: 27 Oct 2019 08:10 PM PDT I have been running a small design company for 20+ years. I am at the top of my profession, earning about $160k per year. However, I work about 50 hours a week, and don't really have any days off... even when I try to go on vacation (I have to bring my work with me). I currently have about 15+ jobs in my active queue, and new jobs are currently estimated to start in January (or February). Despite that wait I still have people signing up for next year. I have been asked by a peer about starting a partnership. He has about 6 years of design experience, although only 2 years running his own design company. He has a quite a few clients that bring in a good amount of work, and he has a very good work ethic. He used to work for one of my clients many years ago, where we met. We have collaborated on multiple projects. I trust him (as much as is reasonable) and like him quite a bit. He has a draftsman and I have a draftsman (which is important for getting masses of work done). We would both like another draftsman but they are hard to find and training takes time. I am state certified for my work, while the other designer is not. The certification is not mandatory, but allows me to do some specialized work that is rather profitable. He can do the work but cannot stamp it. I like the idea of having a partner for several reasons... he can help cover for me when I want to go on vacation... he can handle more of the mundane tasks that I dislike doing... he is better at managing queues and job operations (that stuff bores and frustrates me)... he is good with human resources... etc. I know what I would bring to the table... years of experience and a deep rolodex of clients and a crazy work ethic. So what are the pros and cons of having a partnership. My biggest concern is how do I make sure a partner works as hard as I do? I don't mind working 40-50 hours a week and I don't mind if he only works 40 hours. My share of the profits would likely be 60-65% anyway. But I am concerned about how we make sure we both work as hard as we have already been working, and he doesn't slack off because he now has a workhouse on his team. Is it all based on trust? p.s. not needing guidance on the business entity stuff... I have a good business attorney that can write up the partnership along with exit strategies and payout expectations... I am more concerned about the inner workings of the day to day operations... setting reasonable expectations on workloads, hours of work, methods of checks and balances so our workloads are equitable, etc. Thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Anyone want a Free SEO report? Posted: 28 Oct 2019 02:14 AM PDT Hi all, I am an SEO consultant that does SEO reports/audits for large corporations (think American corporate hotel chains, etc.) I want to see if the reports are also helpful for small businesses. I'd love to give 2-3 free SEO reports to any small business or entrepreneur who has a website. In exchange, I just want your honest feedback on what you thought of the report. If you're interested, just private message me your: 1) website domain 2) Where are most of your customers located (aka what country) 3) You can include your top targeted keywords if you like. 4) Also-- if you tell me 2-4 of our top competitors I can do comparison charts so you know where you rank. Let me know if you're interested. Thanks! Valerie [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Oct 2019 10:54 AM PDT I am a high school student that picked up woodburning and carpentry as a hobby and after a few people have offered to buy some projects I was looking into making a true business out of it, although I'm not really sure where to start [link] [comments]  |
| What does it take to be 20% better than the average competition? Posted: 28 Oct 2019 04:23 AM PDT What would it take to be 20% better than the average competition in the product, marketing or design. What does it take for employees of yours to be better than competition? [link] [comments]  |
| Customer Service: how do I handle responses to my response to customer complaints? Posted: 27 Oct 2019 07:18 PM PDT I'm going to be vague because I do not wish to identify my company. My company provides a service. We provide a 90 day 100% satisfaction guarantee (limited warranty) with one treatment for free. My service is expensive, but also extremely effective compared to the next best service. I've had some clients reach out after the warranty expired and express that the issue we solved had come back (the nature of the problem can come back if the client is re-exposed to what caused the problem). I responded courteously and factually and explained that the warranty stands as a limited time period or limited free treatments because we cannot eliminate re-exposure. The clients respond back by stating that it's unfair that my service is so expensive and that because it's expensive I should honor a limited warranty after the warranty expires (or that we have followed through with the warranty and it's now past the re-treatment limit and over 90 days). I have not responded to these yet. I don't want to seem combative or fighting, I feel that any response will be taken as such. I am used to being at a giant Corp and they would do anything to please clients, I was trained to engage and resolve. I am at a very small business and simply cannot do free work all the time when we have clear warranties and we explain the warranty to the clients before we do our work for them. Should I respond? If so, how? Or should I come to terms with the fact that some people will never be ok and I should say my one response and leave it? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Oct 2019 02:40 PM PDT |
| Need help with my bookkeeping business Posted: 27 Oct 2019 07:32 PM PDT Hello all, I am planning to start my own bookkeeping business. I've already thought of the name I want to use. I also plan on creating an LLC as well as a logo and website. I plan on launching by the end of January. One of the problems I am having is I have no idea what to charge. I've tried to do some research online and I've noticed that most bookkeepers have two different fee structures. The two that I saw was either charged a flat fee for the month for certain services or the business is charged per hour. Should I charge by the hour or a flat fee? How do I determine what rate I should charge per hour or what to charge as a flat fee? Also, it would be great if you could share what unexpected struggles that you may have had while beginning your bookkeeping business. If you're not a bookkeeper, please share what experiences may have had working with outside bookkeepers. Any information will help. [link] [comments]  |
| Finding "seed" money to start a business Posted: 27 Oct 2019 05:29 PM PDT I spent quite a bit of time a few years ago trying to get "seed" money to start a business. I'm in Richmond, Virginia. We have an influx of people moving into the City. We have a lot of older neighborhoods that became "run down" over the past few decades. One particular organization, lisc.org has local units that attempt to establish ways to jump start businesses and jump start neighborhoods. It is worth looking into what they offer in your area. In my area, LISC got corporate partners to fund the seed money for entrepreneurs that would locate their business in one of the neighborhoods that are struggling. We also have resources via the State Economic Development and City Economic Development departments. They offer incentives to entrepreneurs such as reimbursing you for equipment you buy and hiring employees. Personally, I never won any of the seed money competitions. A friend of mine got over $10,000 a year for 5 years, plus he got reimbursed for all the equipment he bought for his business. Starting a retail location in a struggling neighborhood is risky. The locals usually don't have much discretionary income. I saw many of the businesses that were awarded the seed money fail and/or struggle to be open just a few hours a day because of cash flow. This is the link for LISC in my state. http://www.virginialisc.org/services/neighborhood-building/ [link] [comments]  |
| [For Hire] eCommerce Bookkeeper / XERO Certified Advisor / All-around VA Posted: 27 Oct 2019 11:52 PM PDT Hi, I am an experienced virtual assistant that has skills of being an eCommerce Operations Manager and Certified Bookkeeper I am a fast learner, tech-savvy and efficient worker that focuses on quality and needs minimal to no supervision when working. If you are looking for someone who can hit the ground running, genuinely loves helping people and can represent your brand well to its followers, you should consider me. As an eCommerce manager/team leader for three years, I have done:
Why am I a good fit for the job? I am a self-starter and self-motivated individual. I am highly organized in my work. I have excellent English communication skills, both writing and speaking. My trial rate is $500. After that, we can discuss more my rate which is negotiable. Hit me a DM and let's discuss more of this via skype call. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Oct 2019 12:49 PM PDT |
| Tool that connects social media engagement and rewards? Posted: 27 Oct 2019 10:22 PM PDT Hi there! Does anyone know of any tool that can help identify and reward users & clients of a brand or business for their social media engagement? Just as you might get a points through Square or Five Stars for a visit or purchase, is there such a thing for snapchat/instagram/twitter/fb usage? BTW, I don't mean points or rewards for MY social media engagement through something like Influenster. I mean of a platform or extension that can help a business learn who their most loyal and prolific customers are and then reward them. Ideally, I'd like to know if it's possible to give extra "points" and discounts for those people who have shown commitment to the business. [link] [comments]  |
| Your website should be doing more. How can you help your customer get to where they want to go? Posted: 27 Oct 2019 06:22 PM PDT I want to understand and empathize with the problems you had building a site or with your existing website. The goal is to make things better when collaborating with other business owners. Better understanding your thought process and problems will allow me to help you and other businesses accomplish their goals.Scenario: You do not have a website, or your web presence is weak Examples:
Here are several questions to get the ball rolling.
Thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| Smartest way to startup a restaurant? Posted: 27 Oct 2019 10:02 PM PDT My parents and I are very interested in owning a restaurant one day, with a specialty in dumplings and baos. I want to keep it local and family owned. We live in a small town in south Texas where authentic Chinese food is non-existent. We're currently not financially able to lease a restaurant nor food truck, so we would have to take out loans. That's why we were hoping to start out in our home and deliver first, but after researching cottage food laws, I'm not sure if we can do that legally since dumplings have meat fillings. How should we approach this? Any advice is greatly appreciated!! Edit: Another question that I had forgotten to include, where can a food truck park? I've tried to find a map of some sort in my area but couldn't find any. Would we have to contact the owner of a parking lot for example? [link] [comments]  |
| Thinking about going into the lumber business. Posted: 27 Oct 2019 03:57 PM PDT Im currently contemplating whether or not to start a small, high quality lumber/wood business. The market id be trying to tap into is literally the highest of high end markets, so I'm a bit unsure on the total demand. I do know that there is a fair and constant demand from a few companies around the world but obviously they already have suppliers. Ive got connections to the community and a couple business owners in the industry so I'd have at least a way to get some information about my products. Most of these companies are decent sized (100ish+) employees so how would i go about getting deals/sales with larger companies? Also, what's some advice you'd like to share. Feel free to share anything! [link] [comments]  |
| How to create a custom magnetic/chip/contactless discount cards? Posted: 27 Oct 2019 09:46 PM PDT Hey all, new here and I'm really in need of some advice, I've googled a lot but to no avail. My goal is to basically have a card for my clients that gives a certain discount to affiliated local stores, which they will pay monthly. I don't know how obtaining the cards and coding(?) it would work though. I want the clients to show up with the cards to the merchants and swipe it or contactless (RFID) and it would give them the discount, but for the clients who don't renew the service it wouldn't work. How could I go with my idea working? What kind of programmer do I have to contact and where can I buy that type of card, and are there any steps the merchants have to do in order for it to work? Thank you so much. [link] [comments]  |
| Ideas on selling Irish food & alcohol to America Posted: 27 Oct 2019 07:02 AM PDT Hi I'm living in Ireland and I'm wondering is there much of a market in the USA to sell Irish hampers with Irish craft beers, chocolate and such. I was thinking Etsy but doesn't allow alcohol to be sold so may sell just food hampers on it only and then on amazon for the alcohol and food. Any advice thank you [link] [comments]  |
| What are the benefits of having an LLC vs. an S-Corp? What are the drawbacks to each? Posted: 27 Oct 2019 09:18 AM PDT Pretty much everything is in the title. Thanks in advance to anyone who helps. Edit: I'm in Florida. [link] [comments]  |
| Your thoughts on an app which allows you to manage QuickBooks from Slack? Posted: 27 Oct 2019 04:30 PM PDT Hey everyone, I've been brainstorming around an app in Slack that allows users to perform simple accounting actions on their QuickBooks account without leaving Slack. Hoping to get thoughts from those here on whether that'd be useful to you as business owners. Know there's lots of integrations/services which enable Slack and QB connections today, but I'm imagining something much more native and robust than event-based notifications through something like Zapier. For example, being able to create a customer in QBO from Slack, with a full form for customer details and address, or see a full A/R aging report and trigger a QBO-sent customized invoice reminder directly from Slack. Idea is a little bit like Troops.ai but instead of managing your SalesForce account, you manage your QuickBooks account from Slack conversationally, with command-line-like efficiency. Benefits:
Possible downsides of this idea:
My main questions are: Would you use this? If so, what kind of business do you run? What accounting use cases would be important to you? All comments are welcome. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Can I fire an employee who can no longer work her schedule? Posted: 27 Oct 2019 10:17 AM PDT Bar owner here! I have a bartender who started off working thursday-Sunday. Then she couldn't work Sundays. Now Saturdays. She's good to work wed/thurs/fri only which is making me have an extra person on staff. I'm just wondering the legality here because she's now just not even putting forth full effort on the shifts she does work. I feel like I've really gone out of my way to accommodate her as an employee and I'm not just talking about her schedule. She's very sensitive health-wise and I've allowed her to call out last minute for all kinds of things. I don't want to be paying her unemployment. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Oct 2019 11:08 AM PDT Hi all. Thinking of getting a logo done but not interested in paying through the nose for it. I'm also not looking for a $5 job as it's not fair and you get what you pay for anyway. I'm wondering if there are any sites that have legit graphic artists that could make a logo for about $100? Also and more importantly, does anyone have advice on to minimize the chance that the person didn't just lift the logo from someone else? Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Oct 2019 10:57 AM PDT This isn't for me but for my cousin who is trying to start up a party planning business. So my cousin has already done 3 kids parties and is now planning to do a New Years Eve party. She has alot of troubles when it comes to finances and planning activities and I wanted to know what could she do better for the next party. Here's the scoop: She wants to do a childrens New Years Eve party but doesn't want to have the responsibility of watching kids overnight. She does however wants to have them do the countdown and set up little tents so they could sleep in them. • What can she do to lessen the responsibility of watching children and making sure that she won't be held accountable if something happens? • Secondly, would it be easier and cheaper(setup reasons) to have an adult party instead of a childrens party? If there are any other questions please do not hesitate to ask! I really want to make sure she is not spending more than she needs to plan these parties. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Oct 2019 07:47 AM PDT Hi. This is my first post on here. So here goes, I currently am 100 percent owner of a car rental business for the past five years. The business brings in about 1.2 million as of last year with steady growth every year and this year on par for 1.35 million. I am in the same building as a car sales business that has been there for the past 20 years, great reputation and he makes good money each year between cash and his salary of about 250k. He shows 135k on the books and the difference +-115k in cash ( undeclared). He is looking for $365000.00 for the business and will stay on for the next 2 years to help with the transition for 60k on the books which I think is more than fair. I am putting down 65k in cash of my own and wanting to get a loan from the tax returns on the business for the other 300k. 1.Is this possible? 2. What if any lending institutions will do this, I have noticed when getting loans from my car rental company that they automatically tell me if I do sales that they do not give loans to car sales companies due to the high risk. 3.perhaps should I creat a holding company to house my car rental and sales from and get a loan on the holding company? Thank you for any and all advice! PS. I should mention I have known him on a personal and business basis for the last 15 years and can see the amount of cash that flows into his business. His office is 10 feet away from mine. This isnt someone I found off craigslist or anything. [link] [comments]  |
| Free / Low Cost for Cash Only transactions Posted: 27 Oct 2019 12:57 PM PDT My grandfather has a side hustle/hobby where he sells espressos from a cart. He is retired and does it to stay active and have spending money. Anyways, we have a small iPad I was hoping he could use to keep track of orders and make totals. Do yall know of any free or one time purchase apps? There are only like 4 menu items and it's cash only. He just needs help with the math and items on larger orders. He's relatively tech savvy for his age, so no worries there. [link] [comments]  |
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