Thank you Thursday! - (October 31, 2019) Entrepreneur |
- Thank you Thursday! - (October 31, 2019)
- How I started and grew a software design service with $0, by letting my customers lead the way and have been hired by Elon Musk's team, Fortune 500 companies and B2B Software Startups from around the globe.
- [Book Summary] - I read the book "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and summarized it in case anyone wants a refresher or hasn't had a chance to read it yet. Here's the summary.
- “Aristotle...considered hedonic happiness to be a vulgar ideal, making humans slavish followers of desires. He posited, instead, that true happiness is found in the expression of virtue - that is, in doing what is worth doing” - Ryan and Deci, 2001, Annual Review of Psychology
- Amazon cleaning services percentage?
- Systems are the key to effective delegation
- 9 Clever Solutions if the .com Domain Name of Your Brand is Taken
- Who has successfully started their own software development agency?
- I’m a European who lives in Europe. And I’m going to incorporate my startup in Delaware ����
- Would you be interested in joining a group to learn and share best practices for advertising on Facebook and Instagram?
- Looking for entrepreneurs (at any stage) to interview
- Organic marketing - automated?
- tweaking and changing business to become more efficient?
- How do you deal with upset clients and the fear of being a fraud?
- Cases where a dominant online marketplace gets overthrown?
- the most important thing you could do when marketing your product ...
- Daycare Center Name Trouble
- Mindset Switch Skill
- With a friend, decided to venture into FBA - What is the first topic or skill I should master?
- You've got 100 trainable workers/technicians, and a fleet of about 50 vehicles in a developing country, what would you do with them?
- Dynamic project map updates
- The SMMA Gold Rush
- Need Advice With Value Proposition and Competition for Esports Related Startup Finishing Accelerator
- First deal, how to split
- Entrepreneurs, I have a question (UK)
| Thank you Thursday! - (October 31, 2019) Posted: 31 Oct 2019 06:08 AM PDT Your opportunity to thank the /r/Entrepreneur community by offering free stuff, contests, discounts, electronic courses, ebooks and the best deals you know of. Please consolidate such offers here! Since this thread can fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 31 Oct 2019 10:28 AM PDT I usually skip the long stories in this sub so I'll try to share my story through bullet points (based on what I can recall from memory).
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| Posted: 31 Oct 2019 08:58 AM PDT Hey everyone. "Rich Dad Poor Dad" has been one of the most inspirational books that I've ever read. The book opened up my eyes to a different way of thinking at a young age. I wanted to make a summary of it in 10 minutes. I hope some of you find this book helpful and are willing to have a conversation on the lessons of the book. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 31 Oct 2019 08:39 AM PDT How do you feel this quote relates to your entrepreneurial experiences? I am working on a research paper comparing entrepreneur to non-entrepreneur eudaimonic well-being. It would be interested to hear your perspectives on how your business experiences have shaped your pursuits of pleasure (hedonic well-being) vs. Personal fulfillment(eudaimonic well-being). [link] [comments]  |
| Amazon cleaning services percentage? Posted: 31 Oct 2019 01:41 PM PDT I've had it done twice by two different providers and I've been happy. Before I enrich Amazon further, I want to know how much of the fee they keep and how much the provider gets. [link] [comments]  |
| Systems are the key to effective delegation Posted: 31 Oct 2019 07:15 AM PDT Delegation + crappy systems = more problems. Delegation + good systems = more productivity. Delegation is important and it is the only way to scale. But if you delegate before you create bombproof systems you'll do nothing but amplify your problems and stress. So don't just start to delegate and figure it out as you go. Take a step back and build a system that works. Build a system where your employees have a framework on which to make all decisions and there are no questions they go to you. It could be a logical framework. It could be a literal framework. Just make sure that it's there or you will be a babysitter and the bottleneck in your business. [link] [comments]  |
| 9 Clever Solutions if the .com Domain Name of Your Brand is Taken Posted: 31 Oct 2019 12:38 PM PDT After countless hours refining your brand story, brainstorming names and designing your marketing materials you have finally come up with a stellar brand name for your business. You complete all the official paperwork to register your business under this name. Finally, you go to the registrar of your choice to register the .com domain name that matches your brand name. To your shock and horror you find that it has already been registered. You are not alone, this happens to countless new businesses every day. You can't go back in time. So what do you do? 1. Try to buy it This one seems so obvious, however, many people just give up when they find that the domain name is registered. Type the domain name into your browser and see what it resolves to. If you get a landing page indicating that the name is for sale then contact the owner to see if you can acquire it. If the page is parked at a registrar or the domain does not resolve to a website then use [Whois](https://www.whois.com/) or [ICANN Lookup](https://lookup.icann.org/) to find out who the registrant is and contact them. The above is actually a good situation to be in because at least it means that the domain name is available. If there is a business using the domain then it can be extremely difficult and even impossible at times to acquire it. Many business owners say "we will buy the domain later when we become a big company and can afford it". Even if you're a unicorn and can afford it, the business might still not want to sell it to you due to the value that it provides to them. What do you think is happening with [Cruise Automation](https://getcruise.com/) which was [acquired by General Motors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruise_Automation) and [Cruise.com](https://www.cruise.com/). There are numerous other cases exactly like this one. Would you sell a domain name that your entire business depends on? 2. Rebrand All your marketing materials contain this name. All your customers know you by this name. You have incorporated with this name. You tell yourself that rebranding is not an option. However, the truth is that on average [businesses rebrand once every 7-10 years](http://anthillonline.com/time-wear-new-look-frequently-rebrand-business/) for a variety of reasons. If you cannot acquire the .com domain of your current brand name you could see this as an opportunity to find a new name. You should ask yourself why you are in love with this name and cannot let go of it? You are not married to this name. Even married people get divorced every day! Paul Graham, one of the founders of Y Combinator, doesn't mess around telling you why in this situation you should [change your name](http://www.paulgraham.com/name.html). 3. Append an industry identifier to your brand name If you can find a natural and short industry related word to append to your brand name then go for it. This can add extra meaning to your domain name and retaining a .com extension has the benefit of preserving trust. Even a massive company like [Tesla was using the domain TeslaMotor.com](https://www.autoblog.com/2016/02/19/tesla-motors-url-website-breaking/) until 2016 as the domain Tesla.com was already taken. Do not append inc, llc or corp to your domain name as it's redundant. The only people who care about the legal name of your company are the taxman, law enforcement services and people suing you. It's just ugly and the world doesn't need anymore ugly domain names. 4. Prepend your brand name with a verb We only suggest doing this if prepending a verb to your brand name leads to a powerful call to action. The type of example that works is something like GoNeural.com (this is an actual domain name we have available for purchase). We see many examples of businesses using verbs like "try" and "get" which are just weak. Don't do it unless it sounds really good like TryHarder.com or GetSmarter.com. 5. Use a company slogan If you have a powerful company slogan that is short and memorable then this strategy can work. A great example of this is JustDoIt.com which redirects to Nike.com. Of course in this case, the slogan isn't actually their main domain name, but you get the point. 6. Use a country-code TLD (ccTLD) There are actually 3 types of ccTLDs. There are those in general usage across all industries like .co. It is an alternative abbreviation for company as well as the ccTLD for Colombia. There are those that have been adopted for specific industry usage such as .io (tech startups and the ccTLD for the British Indian Ocean Territory) and .ai (artificial intelligence companies and the ccTLD for Anguilla). Finally, there are those that only have country specific usage like .de for Germany and .ca for Canada. The later type is acceptable if your business activities are primarily tied to a specific country and you have no intention to expand globally. The former types are acceptable if you operate on a global scale and/or are in one of these industries. Note that having a [domain name with a ccTLD has minimal impact on your ability in Google to rank globally](http://therankmachine.com/can-cctld-affect-seo/). However, the downside of ccTLDs is that they [lose direct (type in) traffic to the .com version of the domain](http://domainincite.com/7992-o-co-loses-61-of-its-traffic-to-o-com) and are perceived to be [less trustworthy by customers](https://growthbadger.com/top-level-domains/). An important point to mention is that if you are based in the United States, using the .us ccTLD is not really a viable option. Customers expect reputable businesses in the United States to have a .com extension in their domain name. 7. Use an alternative Top Level Domain (TLD) You could opt for one of the historic generic top level domains (gTLDs) such as .org or .net. If you are a non-profit organization then .org is even better than .com, so use it. However, if you are business then .net suffers from the same downsides related to trust and direct traffic mentioned above for the ccTLDs. You will have exactly the same issue using one of the numerous new gTLDs. If you go this route then at least make sure that whatever extension you have to the right of the dot matches with your brand name. Great examples are Home.loans or Poker.club. 8. Try to register the domain name on expiry You could wait and check if the domain name expires using a tool like [Domain Monitor](https://research.domaintools.com/monitor/domain-monitor/). If the domain expires and the registrant does not renew it then you may be able to [acquire the name either through a backorder service, an auction or registration](https://www.dropcatch.com/HowItWorks/DropProcess). This can be a risky approach if the domain is in high demand as many more people will become aware of it. 9. Go the legal route According to trademark law, the first entity to use a trademark in commerce is considered the owner. Note that a trademark covers specific classes of goods or services. So if you used the name (or a confusingly similar name) to market your businesses products or services prior to the domain name registrant acquiring the domain name, you may have a case. In such circumstances you may be able to prevent them from using the name or require that they turn the name over to your possession. It's important to note that the name does not necessarily have to be a registered trademark for you to take legal action. The trademark is established by your use of the mark for particular classes of goods and services. You have several options to enforce your legal rights. You can submit the matter to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to be resolved under its [Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy](https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/help/dndr/udrp-en) (UDRP) and seek a ruling that the domain name be transferred to you. Also you can file a [trademark infringement lawsuit](https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/is-it-trademark-infringement) seeking damages and compensation and a court order that the registrant transfer the domain name to your possession. We give these tips as practical solutions for businesses in this predicament. However, we stress that if your brand name is [brandname] then ideally your website should be at [brandname].com. Intuitively this is what your customers expect and trust. [link] [comments]  |
| Who has successfully started their own software development agency? Posted: 31 Oct 2019 11:58 AM PDT I'm a software developer that's getting burnt out from working for employers. I hate putting in 200% and being better than people who have 5x my experience, but getting no recognition for it. I want to start my own software agency where I get to "eat what I kill" and give other engineers that are in the same boat as me that same opportunity. I'm honestly not really sure where to start or how to go about it. I've owned a local service business before, but B2C is a whole different beast than B2B. How do you go about finding clients that are looking for a contracting agency? What's the entire process like from first interaction with a prospect to placing a bid to completing a contract? What are some things you wish you knew when starting? What are some of the gotchya's that can really screw you over if you don't plan for it? Anything helps. [link] [comments]  |
| I’m a European who lives in Europe. And I’m going to incorporate my startup in Delaware ���� Posted: 31 Oct 2019 12:38 AM PDT Does my statement make sense? I'm sure a million of us have been in this situation before. I'm European, living in Spain for the next 12 months (not sure afterwards, perhaps I settle perhaps I move somewhere else in EU). I'm launching a SaaS startup with a cofounder who will "legally" join me in a few months. My plan is to go big or go home: aiming to be a $50M company, hire talent, raise capital, issue ESOP and exit. Although I want to start small to avoid unnecessary expenses and bureaucracy. After all, we're still at MVP stage. Would you recommend incorporating solely in the US (Delaware) if you fully operate somewhere in Europe? Perhaps using services like Gust Launch, Clerky, Rocket Lawyer or Stripe Atlas. Or would it make more sense to simply setup in Spain? Might be easier if I hire people in Barcelona, but the problem is Spain is so much more expensive and the startup infrastructure isn't there (I mean online consultants, attorneys, ready made templates). I know I should ask an attorney, but I prefer asking founders who went through this first. Thanks everybody for helping! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 31 Oct 2019 12:37 AM PDT A little bit about me:
But I still find myself asking questions like:
If you're at all like me and wish you had a support group to learn and share best practices (and even mistakes), please send me a PM, and I'll create a WhatsApp/Slack group for us. [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for entrepreneurs (at any stage) to interview Posted: 31 Oct 2019 01:34 PM PDT Hello people, I'm starting a series in my channel where I interview small and medium sized business owners and startup founders. I do this to demistify and dispell the romance around "starting your own business". In order to bring real stories to the table, basically. Any business owners (online, offline, small, medium sized, etc) here who would be interested in participating, feel free to comment or shoot me a pm! My channel is small but I can link to whatever you've got going on in the video, you never know when something's going to blow up! Besides, you'd be doing a lot of entrepreneurs a service by sharing your stories! Thank you all! [link] [comments]  |
| Organic marketing - automated? Posted: 31 Oct 2019 01:33 PM PDT Organic marketing - Auto Response to Hashtags I'm interested in promoting a product on social media (lets say promoting a book on Twitter) by offering the following deal: Send a tweet with a #SpecificHashtag and receive the first 3 chapters for free. Questions about this: [link] [comments]  |
| tweaking and changing business to become more efficient? Posted: 31 Oct 2019 01:03 PM PDT How would you tweak businesses internally to improve efficiency(improving business processes, improving entire departments,)? How do you also tweak to improve effectiveness? core capabilities and competitive advantage. (being more effective at marketing and manufacturing)? [link] [comments]  |
| How do you deal with upset clients and the fear of being a fraud? Posted: 31 Oct 2019 01:02 PM PDT Hey guys. I sell a lead gen service that I basically pioneered the method for. It's really interesting, when new clients sign up they get really excited because the service is cool. I have multiple testimonials/case-studies from incredibly satisfied clients. A majority of the time my service works, but sometimes it doesn't. I do some smaller $500-$1500 deals with companies just so we can figure out whether or not my service is a good fit for their business. A majority of the time, when the lead gen service doesn't work incredibly well for new clients, they completely understand the amount of time and effort I put into their project and still satisfied with the work I've done. If something doesn't work well at first, I try to evolve the strategies and keep testing new methods in an effort to figure something out for their business. However, sometimes people's expectations are way to high, and expect to immediately receive amazing results. When they don't they get very, very upset with me. I don't promise results or a refund (there's no way to undo the work I did for them) so when people are freaking out at me, even though I delivered everything I promised, I don't know what to say to them. If they're being reasonable I'll take the hit and do another project for them so they're not absolutely furious, but sometimes I just feel like a terrible person. I'm not scamming people. I have numerous happy clients, testimonials, case studies, etc. So why do I feel like I'm a terrible person when this happens??? I know this happens to alot of people who sell marketing services (SEO, web design, etc) - in-fact, a lot of my clients are in internet-marketing, so you think they'd understand. What do you guys say when the clients are upset with the results?? When this happens I just try to stay firm and I do my best to make them happy. But people can be incredibly unreasonable and it makes me feel like a complete fraud. It's not like I'm just going to shut down my business because I wasn't able to get good results for a few clients... especially considering I have numerous other clients who are super satisfied with the work and pay me regularly. It's not like I'm going to stop testing my service on new industries/businesses and never try to find new clients again. How do you guys cope with the anxiety in these situations? I can't handle it... It stresses me out. Legally speaking I'm covered (no guarantees or refunds in the contract), but the stress drives me crazy. [link] [comments]  |
| Cases where a dominant online marketplace gets overthrown? Posted: 31 Oct 2019 09:08 AM PDT Is there any? I mean there are some really crappy ones out there (upwork) but the network effects seem to strong. I mean look at ebay, theyve been the only consumer auction site since the beginning of the internet. What do you think? [link] [comments]  |
| the most important thing you could do when marketing your product ... Posted: 31 Oct 2019 12:41 PM PDT Writing a good Lead or Title. Journalists obsess about their leads. Don Wycliff, a winner of prizes for editorial writing, says, "I've always been a believer that if I've got two hours in which to write a story, the best investment I can make is to spend the first hour and forty-five minutes of it getting a good lead, because after that everything will come easily." In 1982, Naura Hayden released a book called Astro-Logical Love. Looking at the title, what do you think this book is about? Does it grab you and demand your attention? Is it clear and specific as to what you'll learn? Well, when they print a book, the first print run is typically 5,000 books, and most books don't sell out in their first run. This book also didn't sell out in the initial 5,000. In fact, it sold only 2,000 copies. So Hayden sold the rest of her books to discount book stores and flea marketers who sell books for 99 cents. It was there that a New York publisher stumbled across the book, bought it, read it, and thought, 'This is a great book about how to seduce women'. He called Naura Hayden and bought the rights to the book and republished it. He didn't change one word inside the book. Exact same book… The product was the same. But he changed the title to this: How to Satisfy a Woman Every Time and Have Her Beg for More! Which book would you rather read if you were in the market for that type of thing? Well, the result was 2.3 million books sales in the first 18 months! It became a massive cultural phenomenon and a New York Times #1 best seller. Same book, same content, just a different title. It wasn't the picture on the cover that made the difference (actually there is no picture). It was the title, and more specifically the offer in the title that changed. hope you like the post. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 31 Oct 2019 08:54 AM PDT I am opening a daycare center in the mid-west and have run into some trouble when thinking of names. Most daycare centers use the same few words in their names (sunny, bright, beginnings, etc.) but I would like it to be somewhat unique. Our ultimate goal is to have multiple locations so we want it to be a name professional enough to scale with us. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 31 Oct 2019 08:53 AM PDT Hey guys, some of you put out some amazing content that I'm very grateful for. I had a significant breakthrough with something the other day that I wanted to share on more of the personal side. One of the issues I had faced as a serial entrepreneur over the last 15 years was flipping and switching mindset. A lot of people talk about "abundance mindset" etc etc. In start-up mode and the first 2 or 3 years of a business, I operated somewhat from a survival mindset when evaluating P/Ls as any one decision can make or break your business. Then my house burned down 2 years ago and I lost my business at the same time. I went into survival mindset hardcore, and just recently got out of that back into "thriving mindset". What I found to be the most important skill that one of my mentors really instilled with me recently, is the ability to walk into one meeting and operate from survival or thriving mindset, walk right back out into survival or thriving mindset depending on the circumstances. Being able to control mindset internally which in turn operates emotion control which then allows proper execution of strategy is what I believe to one of the golden keys to unlocking success. Hope you enjoyed my TedTalk /s [link] [comments]  |
| With a friend, decided to venture into FBA - What is the first topic or skill I should master? Posted: 31 Oct 2019 08:41 AM PDT Hi All, So after many months of deciding on what side hustle to venture into, i decided to go into Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA) and explore e-commerce. He has a bit more experience as he has sold on Amazon before a conflict with his ex-partner caused him to quit the business. We decided to try this out again as we get along as financially it would be easier if the costs are split among 2 people. So, what advice (if any) would you give me? I am operating out of South East Asia. Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 31 Oct 2019 12:17 PM PDT Hey guys, this is probably a dumb ask without more context lol, but what would you do in this situation? You can jump into any sector/industry (except transportation & delivery) and have your workers trained to perform almost any technical task. How would you use them to turn a profit? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 31 Oct 2019 12:06 PM PDT Hey everyone, Have an interesting problem, can't see to find a good Google search to give me what I want. We are running a project with multiple locations in about a 10 acre area that will change over the course of the project. We want to color code the map based on how we are doing. I want to create a map and then have it update dynamically as we progress. Is anyone aware of a saas solution that has some functionality like this? We want to change locations from normal or red indicating issues, to yellow which means it's under deconstruction, to blue meaning it's being repaired, and green signifying that it's done. I've played with a couple of ideas but I'm now short on time. This has to be updated daily and weekly so id prefer if it wasn't a manual process. Appreciate your input. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 31 Oct 2019 12:06 PM PDT There are thousands of ecommerce stores being made every day, it is quite literally a gold mine everyone is trying to make the next top store. And as a social media marketer selling marketing services for these stores is like selling shovels during a rush. So instead dont jump in the mine trying to find the gold like most people be the one who sell the shovels. Use your skills to help these stores get results. So I tested this out myself and the first few days hindered amazing results, take a look :) https://youtu.be/aUAQlCj-ezU [link] [comments]  |
| Need Advice With Value Proposition and Competition for Esports Related Startup Finishing Accelerator Posted: 31 Oct 2019 11:53 AM PDT Hello! I thought I just would ask this here, but I am in need of some outside input. My startup is about to finish an accelerator program and will be getting a convertible note with decent seed. We just finished doing over 200 lean startup interviews with esports gamers, and they we found a consistent pattern of issues, verifying our assumptions. We now are building our mvp and have some very excited early users. All of them are really excited and some of them even cheered when I spilled the beans. Here is the weird part, as we are building I am continually doing research and networking with other esports startups, and I find some serious competition. The main feature set I am launching with is covered by one of these competitors, very similar value prop with a lot more than I am launching with. So I have some really excited users who want to see me build this, but on the flipside I now realize there are some serious competitors that have some big partnerships. Most of my users have never heard of the competitors. I want to add more features to differentiate, but when I look at the ones that users would like I spill into other competitors with serious funding from Silicon Valley and connections to top folks in the industry. I could really use some advice here on how to interpret that data, and dealing with a competitor that is better funded and connected. (even if you aren't in this industry, just in general dealing with a early stage startup like this) [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 31 Oct 2019 11:45 AM PDT I'll make this short, we're looking to fund our first deal as a company (finance related). I bring the capital and enough know how to imagine how to scale the business, my partner brings the first client ( and likely the next several as we scale) and an in-depth understanding of the market and numbers. I think a 50/50 split is fair on the first few deals, what sayest thou? [link] [comments]  |
| Entrepreneurs, I have a question (UK) Posted: 31 Oct 2019 11:02 AM PDT So I'm assuming most of us, from what I've seen on this forum are self-made entrepreneurs who seem to have started from £0/$0, in their bedrooms, garages and all that sort of thing whilst learning most things the hard way as we go. So just over a years ago, I opened up my first company which is all focused around health and wellbeing. All in all, things are going amazingly well and the future looks fantastic for me and my company. But I have a question that I'm struggling to find an answer to. I want to one day (in the coming year or two) open up a second company with my new business partner which stands as a middle ground for both of our ideologies and aims in life. My partner is much less knowledgable and risk taking than I've become, like most of us, I'm fuelled off failures, risks and huge leaps. So my plan is this, I open a new company and brand and my partner wants to have her own brand and product line that falls into my companies ethics, but doesn't want to face all the legality and apparant risks or business. So my question is this; Let's say I create the business and a product line of my new own (eg. food) can my partner design her own product line (eg. drinks) and trademark her brand etc and then use my business and platform for selling her products? Of course, I understand I will need a retail licence, product insurance within both of our fields (to sel both products) and all the other things that come with business. My second question is will she need anything other than a licenced trademark to be legally covered, IF all she does is manufacture the products. Bonus; If you have anything to add, such as important things I've missed, other legal requirements (whether licensing or written agreements signed between us both), it would be extremely appreciated. Thank you for all and any response :) [link] [comments]  |
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