Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (January 24, 2020) Entrepreneur |
- Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (January 24, 2020)
- I’ve focused my career on the intersection of cannabis, ecommerce and digital media with the ultimate goal of having a federally legal, scalable businesses. Our revenues passed $30M+ in 2019. AMA.
- We just created a mega-guide to SaaS marketing, covering 41+ tactics and case studies. Here are the highlights.
- Week 9 of starting a fun tech company: My acid reflux from coffee is stronger than my will to live lmao
- Law for Entrepreneurs
- My imaginary business is getting a lot of attention and interest. How do I turn it into a real thing?
- We enhanced over 700k SMS messages in 2019 and learned some things...
- Looking For 1-1 Discussions With Some Fellow Entrepreneurs
- For the last two years I’ve been writing down new business ideas everyday, I've written a free book featuring 101 of the best ideas, here's the first 50 ideas.
- Open a business right after college
- I need to do a 3 year sales projection for a new community pharmacy project in my country (Africa). Can anyone point me in the right direction on how to do this?
- How did learn Leadership
- Platform for early stage project investment
- I have made a prototype and now I need advice on how to finance market entry and if my idea has enough growing potential.
- very small, mobile dog training business: need advice on business phone or phone lines
- Books which don't tell the same thing over and over again
- Where to go with new physical consumer product ideas?
- What to know and expect getting my products in Big Box Retail stores.
- Can I just contact relevant influencers and ask them to talk about me and my product?
- Learning SEO
- Public Service Announcement: If your website is a muffin top of ads, it will most likely be considered spam by all of the top websites out there, so don't be surprised if it gets flagged.
- Wix for a startup?
- Selling or licensing to a large company?
- Dogs’n’Sox is a finalist in the PetTech category in this year's Golden Kitty Awards.
- Week 9 of starting a company pt.2: Startups have so many fun things like foosball, nerf guns, video games, bc there's a 80% chance you're gonna be unemployed in 4 months so might as well make it fun.
- Any neat one-page businesses? I need to move from wanting to doing
- Have You heard About the Kibo Code?
| Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (January 24, 2020) Posted: 24 Jan 2020 05:12 AM PST Please use this thread to share any accomplishment you care to gloat about, and some lessons learned. This is a weekly thread to encourage new members to participate, and post their accomplishments, as well as give the veterans an opportunity to inspire the up-and-comers. 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: 24 Jan 2020 06:00 AM PST Hello everyone, I've been in the cannabis industry since about 2010. I built a few businesses that are ancillary to the cannabis industry with the goal of benefitting from the enormous growth of this sector while minimizing my risk of regulation and legal hurdles. They ended up being:
My Director of Science for our CBD company did an AMA and my team recommended I chat about my background and experience on this subreddit. Would be more than happy to answer any questions on different aspects of the cannabis industry, what niches are doing best, what niches are doing worse, how to jump into the industry, how to deal with regulation, how to avoid regulation, the future of the industry and everything else. I'm also open to answering questions about ecommerce, cannabis & hemp cultivation, and the CBD industry. P.s. I'd like to ask for some help of the brain-trust of r/entrepreneur. We built this grow tent configurator software as more hobbyists are getting into cultivating at home. We're currently brainstorming novel ways to get our site and ultimately the configurator in front of potential customers eyes. Maybe this community can help us brainstorm good go-to-market ideas. Recommendations are very welcome and appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Jan 2020 04:37 AM PST Hey guys! So we just published a gigantic resource for learning how to market a SaaS business. It's a long-ass 14k word guide with 41+ tactics, 50+ case studies, and pretty much everything you need to know to take your SaaS from 0 to 100. We've received amazing feedback (both positive and constructive) over the past two days, and a bunch of people also asked me to post this here, so here it goes. I made a somewhat Reddit-friendly summary of just a handful of the strategies. Hope you find this useful! Strategy #1 - Get your SaaS featured on online mediaGetting that sweet, sweet, TechCrunch mention can have a ton of benefits for your SaaS. You get the social proof of hanging that "Featured On" section on your landing pages, immediate traffic, chance to impress new investors, and so on. A lot of companies invest a ton of money in RP agencies and get "Eh" results at best. See, what most of those agencies do is send a generic press release to their media list, and call it a day. They get you results? Good! They don't? Well, you get the canned "the media wasn't interested in your story, unfortunately." Want to DIY your PR AND get much better results? Here's how: The idea is, you need to find people who wrote about your competitors and send them a pitch they can't refuse. Since they already covered your competitor, that means that they're interested in your type of software/niche. As long as your product is good and your pitch spot-on, they just DON'T have a reason NOT to write about you. So, that brings us to step #1: Create a list of your competitors. Then, Google their names with the following search query:
Or, a real example:
What this does is, it gives you a list of website that talk about your competitor excluding their own domain. For each media feature you find, extract the following information:
Then, find each journalist's email. To do this, use one of the gazillion email finder tools out there. Some of our favorites are: Finally, send a personalized email to each journalist. Here's the template we like to use:
Beware, though, that each email you send should be: 1 - Personalized. Don't just send the same canned email to everyone. Actually understand the points the journalist is covering, and focus on those exact points in your email. Good Example:
Awful Example:
2 - Short and to the point. A lot of CEOs we've worked with think their product is a LOT more than it actually is. Instead of focusing on the product in their email, they write like a long-form essay on what's the mission of the company, what features they're working on, etc. Newsflash: no one cares. Stick to what features you have and how they differentiate you from the competition. Strategy #2 - Cross-promote with complementary productsThis strategy isn't as common, but with the right partner, it can really get you results. The idea is, you find a partner that has something you want and offer an exchange. Some things you could swap are:
Now, since all that is pretty vague, let's cover a real-life case study. Case Study: Hired & PocketPocket, if you haven't heard of them, is an app for saving articles for offline reading. A TON of their users are techies & IT people. Hired, on the other hand, is a reverse job board. Companies apply to developers, and devs get to pick where they want to work. So, the two made a deal: Pocket would blast an email promoting Hired.com to their audience of 1.7+ million people In exchange, Hired would let Pocket hire several developers for free. Here's what the email blast looked like. The deal was a win-win: Pocket saved themselves 5-6 figures for hiring costs (Hired.com charges up to $15K+ per successful dev hire), and Hired.com got 40,000+ registrations. Strategy #3 - Create a micro-siteA micro-site is a small web-based tool that solves a very specific need that your potential customers might have. Then, you market the hell out of this tool and upsell your main product when possible. For example, HubSpot's website grader is a separate website/tool that helps you understand how well your website is optimized in terms of…
It's safe to assume that anyone that cares about how well their website performs could end up using one of HubSpot's gazillion tools. And then, of course, when you land on their tool, you get an upsell for giving HubSpot a try. According to the book Traction, the website grader was used by over 3 million websites since it's launch, and HubSpot gets a very decent number of leads from it every month. Want another micro-site example? If you dabble in SEO, you've probably heard of UberSuggest. In 2017, Neil Patel acquired it for $120,000, completely revamped the old design, and is now using it to generate leads. Sure, the tool is 100% free, but if you want to get the most out of it, you have to sign up, and once you do, you get an email from Neil upselling his agency. ConclusionI hope you guys found this useful! As I mentioned before, this post is a Reddit-friendly list of highlights of our mega-guide to SaaS marketing, which covers 41+ strategies and case studies similar to the ones above. If you enjoyed reading this, I'd recommend checking it out! EDIT: Wow, I am really impressed by all the positive remarks! I really want to thank you all for the constructive feedback. Reddit is more helpful than expensive editors and advisors IMO. EDIT 2: Wow, wow, triple wow. I can't believe someone decided it was good enough to give it a platinum award. Thank you so much! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 23 Jan 2020 02:18 PM PST |
| Posted: 24 Jan 2020 05:54 AM PST At some point every entrepreneur will need a lawyer, but the legal industry keeps itself somewhat shrouded in mystery (mainly because most people don't care to learn about it). Having been in it for the last 18 years, here are some of the things I think will help entrepreneurs. Finding a lawyer I see this come up every once in a while in this sub, and one of the most frequent responses is to Google it – this is probably the worst way to find a lawyer. A strict Google search will only find you the lawyer who has the best SEO skills, not the best lawyer. It's also hard to trust review. In any industry you will find people who are happy or unhappy with service they have received – the problem in law some cases are unwinnable and some cases are slam dunks; somehow the lawyer gets praised or blamed for either outcome in reviews when they may have had very little real influence on the outcome. There's also a disproportionate problem of fake reviews because it is easy enough for adversaries to be angry at a lawyer that beat them. A better way is to get a warm referral. Ask people in your industry for a recommendation. If you need a real estate lawyer, talk to your realtor. If you need a franchise lawyer, talk to other franchise owners. You can go to a full service law firm, but that can be hit or miss (I'll talk more about that in a minute). Or, you can use my personal favorite way – call a few lawyers who don't specialize in your field and start explaining what you are looking for, when they tell you they don't do that kind of law, ask them for a referral – most lawyers will know the best in other fields because of bar association functions, etc., and the best gain a reputation. When you hear the same name a couple of times, that's probably a good lawyer. How do you save money when using a lawyer First, decide if you really need a lawyer – are you forming a single member llc? You don't need a lawyer (or any other pay service) – just jump on your state's Secretary or State or Taxation website and fill in your own forms. Are you entering a contract with someone? Maybe – find out the statutory limit on your state's small claims court – if the total value of the contract is less than the small claims court limit, it probably isn't worth it to get a lawyer (the reasoning is that if everything goes wrong and you end up in Court, you will probably represent yourself in small claims court anyway). Does what you're trying to do involve changing the minds of public officials of some kind? It's probably worth it to hire a lawyer. Second, if you decide you do need a lawyer, understand how billing works. Lawyers bill at an hourly rate, and it is customary to bill by 1/10th hours, which are always rounded up. If your lawyer charges $350/hour, and you call and talk for 5 minutes, you will be charged $35; if you talk 6 minutes 1 second, you will be charged $70. Keeping this in mind, the key to saving money is to limit the time you spend with the lawyer as much as possible. How do you limit time with a lawyer? If you have a contract to sign – read it first. If you don't know what something means, ask. The lawyer can read the contract for you, but they aren't going to know what you are looking for or are concerned about, so if you haven't read it, they will have to go line by line to make sure you're okay with everything – that gets expensive quickly. Also, if you're meeting with a lawyer, in person or by phone, have your questions ready (at least as many as possible) – so that you don't have to call an hour after you leave the office with that one question you forgot to ask (if you call an hour later, you're getting billed separate from the meeting). Same thing with email – the more questions that can be answered at once, the fewer new 1/10th hour bills you will get. Third, lawyers aren't the only ones who know the law – paralegals can answer most of your questions at about a third of the price of lawyers. If they like you, they might not bill you for a short call or email – the paralegals aren't trying to make partner, so they usually don't need to fill the billable hour quota that your attorney might (more on that shortly). Fourth, and this goes back to the point of whether or not you need a lawyer, decide if the money you are going to pay a lawyer is really worth it. I'll give you an example (this is a true story – the lawyer is my current boss) Guy comes in to file a lawsuit. Guy – I want to sue for this and that. Lawyer – On your best day you'll win $1,000. It'll cost you $2,000 in legal fees for me to do that. Guy – leaves grumbling. One week later. Guy – I want to pursue it – it's a matter of principle (counts out 20 $100 bills on the desk) Lawyer – (Picks up the money and counts out 10 of the bills and hands them back to the client) Guy – What are you doing? Lawyer – That was the deal, right? You were going to pay me $2,000 to get you $1,000? I'm just saving some time. Guy – That's stupid! Lawyer – Yeah, it is. Fifth- be a good client. In our office we have good clients and bad clients. Good clients will call us and ask "What are the consequences if I do X" - bad clients call and say "I just did X, how do I get out of it." The former might be a $70 phone call, the latter can be in the thousands. While we're on the subjects of good and bad clients, be honest with your lawyer. If you don't tell them the truth, there's no way they can give you a proper defense. There's no greater waste of money than paying a lawyer to prep for litigation who is blindsided at a deposition or some revelation in discovery that you lied to them about. And don't worry about the lawyer judging you for doing something wrong - they are paid to clean up messes. If you screwed up or did something unscrupulous, let them know. It's the people, not the paper A contract serves two purposes - to specify who is responsible to do what, and to provide something enforceable for courts if the deal goes wrong. What people don't understand about enforcing a contract is that it is generally very costly to do it and, unless there is some sort of fraud, the money to enforce it is coming out of your pocket. In our office we have a saying - it's the people, not the paper. We represent an old farmer who still prefers handshake deals and he will always honor his commitment, even when it turns out to be to his detriment. We have other clients who sign all kinds of contracts and then call us to get them out of them (see bad clients above). When all is said and done, the contract is only as good as the people entering it. While we're on the subject, there are things people don't seem to realize about contracts. For example, you can't enter into an agreement that is contrary to law- this sounds obvious but suppose you're a landlord and your tenant agrees to a rent increase of 10% but rent control in your area limits it to 2% - you can raise the rent that much since the tenant agreed, right? Nope. If a local ordinance says 2% is the limit, then that 10% increase is against the law regardless of the fact that it was agreed to. People also seem to think there is always some magic way out of a contract – some loophole or exception where they can just ignore their obligations. That's usually not the case – many contracts have reasons to get out of them, but if you don't have one of them, you are bound to the terms that you agreed to. That's why you should read the damn thing in the first place. What kind of entity I see this question come up a lot in this sub, and there is never enough information to make a good determination. There are actually two facets to this question – liability and taxes. To the former, llcs and corporations offer the same protection of personal assets – (note that the protection is not absolute, though). What is more important here is that you have a good liability insurance policy; sure your personal assets may be protected if you get sued, but without insurance you are still going to lose what you've worked so hard to build. From the point of view of taxes/accounting, this is more a question for an accountant who will need to examine your actual situation. If you can't afford an accountant, just form an llc – if your assets are that tight taxes aren't your primary concern at this point, and you can always convert your llc to a corporation. Buying a Business Don't. Buy the assets of the business. If you buy a business you are buying both the assets and liabilities – do you really want to accept any debts that the current owner has accrued along with the assets you want? Our office represented an llc (call it XYZ, LLC) that owned an apartment building – they had a bill with our office of $1800 when they sold the llc to another group of owners. Since the new owners bought XYZ, and XYZ owed us the money, guess who had to pay us that $1800? The new owners. If the new owners had formed their own llc and just bought the building, they would owe us nothing and we would have to go after the old llc for our money; but because XYZ owed us the money, they continued to owe it to us regardless of who owned it. Big law firms are law factories I debated whether this should go under the "Finding a Lawyer" section, but thought it needed its own heading. There may be exceptions to this, but the largest firms are law factories – that is, each year they recruit a bunch of students from local law schools and put them to work with the expectation that they will bill 60-80 hours per week. If the new lawyers want to keep their job, they'll do it. The turnover is incredibly high, but a few will work these hours in the hope that they will some day become a partner. An associate in our office had gotten his start at such a law factory and he said it was expected that the new associates work Monday through Saturday 12 hours a day with a half day every other Sunday. Why do you care? Because the quality of the work they put out is secondary to the number of hours billed; and because they have to bill X number of hours per year, they are more likely to "take their time" on your case. Besides, do you want a new grad who is suffering from sleep deprivation and exhaustion really handling your case? Well, what about the partners? Surely they must be the best in their field in order to make partner at a massive law firm right? Nope again – that's not to say they aren't good, but there is only one path for a new associate to become a partner, and that is to put in as many billable hours as possible. Did they win the case? No, but they did put in 100 billable hours. Oh, and remember how I said that you can save some money by talking to the paralegals? Yeah, they have billing requirements too. I interviewed at one of the largest firms in my area and their paralegals were required to bill 1500 hours per year – so, yeah, you aren't getting any time shaved down when you call or email them, no matter how much they like you. I'm not putting down the massive firms – every firm survives on billable hours, and small firms are just as likely to overbill. But just be aware that big firm culture tends to encourage this more than small firms do, and you can't assume that the best lawyers are working at the large firms. Conclusion I'm sure there are other things that I'm forgetting to add. This is all in the U.S. – the legal industry in other countries may be entirely different, but hopefully you find this helpful as well. As a matter of full disclosure, I'm a paralegal not an attorney - but any attorneys on here should be able to corroborate everything that I said. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Jan 2020 12:45 AM PST Sorry for being vague, but I don't want to blow my cover just yet. TL;DR I launched a website and a few marketing campaigns for a brick-and-mortar business that doesn't actually exist. It's totally popping off, and I don't know what to do now. I created an online brand for an imaginary speakeasy in my city. After publishing a website, posting to social media, paying for ads, and reaching out to local bloggers, my "business" is getting a ton of interest. 10k+ people signed up for my mailing list in less than two months. I get calls (Google Voice) about reservations/events/location several times per week. I started this project to demonstrate how easily people believe things online. A little SEO and (paid) social proof goes a long way. So now what...? Should I keep growing the fake brand? Can I sell my ideas, website, and brand assets even though there is no real business? What can I do with this?? I feel like there's an opportunity for real growth as far as my career goes, but I don't know how to move forward. Thank you!!! [link] [comments]  |
| We enhanced over 700k SMS messages in 2019 and learned some things... Posted: 24 Jan 2020 12:20 AM PST Hi everyone. I went through an exercise of writing down insights I picked up in 2019 working with a bunch of companies on their SMS strategies (and over 700k msgs!). The fact is, even though SMS is picking up a lot of momentum, many people I talk to still don't know the basics so I hope this primer with some concrete examples and tips is helpful to other entrepreneurs. I'd also welcome any feedback to my thinking in case you all think i'm off. Enjoy! Why SMS Marketing? Thanks to an overwhelming rise in robocalls and spam, businesses are struggling to make contact with prospects and customers through traditional channels like phone and email. In the US, SMS has represented a viable alternative however with its 98-99% open rate! It's one of the last channels left that people still fully read and one of the last unread badges on your phone that people keep clear. Whoa. OK so how do I use this effectively? Because of the personal nature of the SMS channel, there's a very delicate balance you need to take as a business in crafting messages to be casual enough to pass for the format yet detailed enough to deliver the message you're intending to send. Additionally, you don't want to overwhelm people with a wall of text - this isn't email and your customers will immediately ignore your message or opt-out if you're not careful. You'll also want to keep a few things in mind when it comes to sending these messages:
Ok.. So what am I supposed to do? Honestly every company and campaign is different so testing and iterating your approach is key. There are some tips that we believe in that in various combinations (not all together) have worked for our clients. Here are 8 tips and how we'd apply them to real life SMS campaigns we've run into in the wild. 1 - Empty lines can be your friendCheck out this automated marketing message from Verizon (imgur link). In this case it's obviously an automated blast and there's no need to head fake a human touch, but that doesn't mean there aren't opportunities to improve. This message would read way better if you added some spacing. If you read closely, you'll see two main points that could each trigger a user into action. 1) you have some sort of credit expiring and 2) you can choose a reward at this link. By giving each point its own space, they both stand out like so: 2 - Emojis: make things fun and eye-catchingSquare helps drive more value for their customers by helping grow their mailing list in the automated text messages it sends post IRL checkout. This message however is jumbled and doesn't seem like an easy or fun ask. Especially when it's immediately preceded by boilerplate welcome text, the ask needs help standing out. A few emojis and the same spacing from #1 would go a long way. 3 - Branded shortlinksIMGE ran an interesting study on the SMS strategies of the 2020 presidential candidates (https://imge.com/imge-study-how-the-presidential-contenders-are-using-sms/). In it they shared how important text messaging is for this election. From Joe Biden to Bernie Sanders to Donald Trump to Andrew Yang, all of them are using text messages. In that same study, they mentioned that over 67% of messages include a link. Links are powerful as it allows you to take a message with limited space, and connect to an even more valuable experience on a website like a purchase page, a donate page, or more media. A big caveat regarding links - nothing is more visually unappealing or even spammy though than a super long link. Bed Bath & Beyond should take a page out of Elizabeth Warren's book and invest in a nice branded shortlink. What looks more inviting to click https://bedbath.mobi/c/b2?p=241JPRJRO67FE-1E2VK723 Or 4 You've tapped them on the shoulder with a text, engage more!SMS messages are so incredible because of their ability to immediately capture a consumer's attention. That said, this power needs to be used judiciously and leveraged fully. By judiciously I mean just because your first text message drove X dollars, does not mean you should try texting daily to drive 7x dollars a week. Texting is a sacred channel so you'll get unsubscribed SO quickly. Leveraged fully means, if you are given the OK to enter a consumer's text messages make sure you engage. Take Everlane's dressing room waitlist message. Pretty nice use of technology and I wasn't bothered by getting it. It was like a digital tap on the shoulder saying "hey - don't worry, we've held your place in line". But why not engage more and provide additional value? You should think about every SMS engagement very carefully and take advantage when you can 5 "Maybe: Andrew Yang"iOS does a lot of fun things to try to make the text messaging experience better for its users. One of those things is looking for signal within messages that could help identify a sender that isn't in your address book. You can take advantage of that by identifying a name in the body of your text like starting with "Hey, it's Andrew Yang..." On the low end of reactions, it can simply make a message feel more comfortable or add some curiosity that increases engagement. On the high end, like with Andrew Yang, the 2020 democratic candidate for president, you can trigger a lot of enthusiasm from recipients who might share their excitement on Twitter… Anything else? There are also a few legal details to consider. While there are some exceptions, it is safest to make sure you've gotten express opt-in from your customers before engaging over SMS and don't message them after they've opted out. It's not hard to follow those rules and avoid being another Jiffy Lube (https://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/8/prweb9818865.htm) cautionary tale. Closing Remarks / Feedback: I really hope this has been helpful and would be excited to answer any follow up questions you all might have. Feel free to comment or dm me! Finally, with any goodwill that was created through this post, I'd love to ask for feedback on the new free product my company launched today. Tape (www.trytape.com) is a mobile video platform designed to enhance text message campaigns and I think anyone who got this far in a post about SMS strategy might appreciate it. [link] [comments]  |
| Looking For 1-1 Discussions With Some Fellow Entrepreneurs Posted: 24 Jan 2020 09:39 AM PST Hey everyone I know we are all busy in this new year of productivity but I would love to connect and chat with people 1-1 just a short 15 min call on zoom nothing serious :) I know I'm coming from a place of asking and taking but perhaps you could get some value out of the discussion also I'm currently conducting some market research into the issues all of us face here when it comes to getting into shape due to our busy lifestyles of entrepreneurship, perhaps you have the issues and problems I've found out? Or perhaps you don't because you've solved them or you know someone who does after our chat. Ethier way this is all massively valuable in my journey of trying to help others. If you would like further details on what I'm doing then don't hesitate to ask and I would love for those who are interested to comment below and reach out and I'll post a calendar link to schedule it in. :) Thank you so much! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Jan 2020 06:11 AM PST Hello everyone, Craig here, fellow internet entrepreneur. For the last two years I've been writing down new business ideas everyday. I've filled many notepads with 1000's of ideas. Weird ideas, bad ideas, fun ideas and great ideas. I've painstakingly gone through all of my notepads and picked the 101 best new business ideas. Below I've listed 50 from my free ebook which is available here. Feel free to use these ideas and make something of them : ) Enjoy! Laundry Locker Set up a laundry service that washes your dirty clothes at the gym. Leave your dirty clothes in your gym locker. The service picks them up, washes them and puts them back in your locker. The business model could be a monthly subscription or per load basis. Coffee Run Create an app where you can order coffee straight to your desk at work. The app would summon coffee runners in your office building to purchase and deliver hot coffee to your desk from local coffee shops. The coffee runners would get paid a delivery fee, the app would make a percentage on every sale. Off Peak Office Create a website where you can book and use office space in off peak times from 6pm to 9am when the offices aren't being used. Charge a commission on top of every off peak office booking. A.R. Personal Trainer Create an app that uses augmented reality to create your very own virtual personal trainer. At the gym, your A.R. personal trainer will show you how to use the gym equipment and take you through exercise routines. The business model would be a monthly subscription or a one-off fee for the app. The World's Best Create a website that sells only the world's best products. From cars to watches to vacuum cleaners. Sell only the very best of every product ever made. The business model would involve direct sales or earn affiliate commissions. Money Can't Buy Create a website that sells money can't buy experiences. The site would feature experiences that are extremely rare and expensive. For example, you could sell the opportunity to join a ring walk at a world championship boxing match. Or get a one-on-one meeting with Richard Branson. The business model would be to make a commission on top of the sale of the experiences. Celebrity Morning Routines Create a website that features morning routines of your favourite celebrities, including sports stars, film and television stars and business moguls. The site would feature celebrities taking you through their morning routines via video. The business model would involve charging a monthly fee to access the site. Moving Media Create a global media empire by selling advertising space on the side of trucks and vans. 1000's of truck trailers are on the road each day. These spaces could be turned into huge billboards. Ad spaces would be booked and paid online. You could also charge for producing the ad creative. Speaker Spaces Create an online marketplace that allows you to find and book venues exclusively for speaking engagements. The site would list all the details of the speaker spaces including capacity, equipment etc. Money would be from a booking fee added to the venue hire. Retro Arcade Centre Open an old school arcade venue that features only retro, coin-operated arcade machines from the '80s and early '90s. You could charge an hourly fee for access, or let people pump money into the machines. Office Product Placement Create a company that sells product placement within companies. For example, you could charge to create and place branded coffee mugs within an office space. Another example would be branded stationery. Brands would pay your company to create branded products and also pay a fee to have them placed within their chosen office environment. The Commute Channel Create entertainment that is the length of people's commute. The content would sit within an app where people enter their commute time. They would be presented with a range of podcasts, videos or short reads to consume that are the length of their travel. The business model would be an advertising model or pay a monthly subscription. Bike Valet Create a valet service for bikes. Ride your bike to the front of your workplace, valet staff would grab your bike and lock it up somewhere secure while you're at work. When you want to leave, summon the valet via an app. They bring your bike back to you ready to go. Valet staff could also service your bike for an additional fee. Riders would pay a monthly subscription or per valet fee. Package Concierge A service in large apartment blocks that accepts packages on your behalf. Get your package delivered to a concierge who would hold your package and deliver it to you when you want. The business model could be a monthly subscription or per package. The package holders would also receive a fee for holding and delivering packages. Casual Uniform Store A clothing store that sells casual uniforms. For example, you buy 5 sets of casual work clothes. Your casual uniform is exactly the same for each day. You just have a new set for each day. The casual uniforms would be chosen for you by a top stylist. The business model would be to charge people for a personal stylist and get a discount for buying 5 sets of exactly the same casual uniform. Urban Armour Create a range of designer bulletproof and stab-resistant streetwear. Create casual looking jackets, jeans and even underwear. Sell the range online or open a street store. Directors Cut Films Create a website that streams only uncut or directors cut versions of films. Most films broadcast on streaming services have been cut down from the original to comply with regulations. The business model could be a monthly subscription or a fee for each film downloaded. Anti Snoop Smart Phone Covers Create and sell mobile phone covers and lenses that stop people from snooping on your mobile phone screen whilst in public. Your screen could be viewed only by looking at it directly, and not from an angle to keep people out. Apartment Finder Create a service that finds, views and organises you a new apartment or room rental. The apartment finder find would take the hassle out of the whole process. You could create an app that allows the apartment finder to present you with options for your approval. The apartment finder could even do your paperwork and move your stuff in. Luggage Lugger A service that picks up your luggage and takes it to the airport for you. The service would pick up your luggage at a designated time, transporting it out to the airport storing it securely for you. This service would be great for large families and less mobile people. The service would have to be much cheaper than a taxi to be cost-effective. Business model would be a one-off fee based on weight and distance. Ready Hotel Rooms A hotel room that features a whole wardrobe and range of products ready for you to wear and use. The ready hotel room would eliminate the need to pack and take a suitcase on your trip. Clothes and products would be preselected based on your existing wardrobe and home. Business model would be a premium fee placed on top of the hotel room fee. Winter Wardrobe Create a service that picks up, packs and stores your winter wardrobe over summer. The business model would be based on the volume and length of time stored. The clothes could also be dry cleaned whilst in storage. Sponsored Book Covers A unique way to create awareness of new books would be to create and distribute book cover sleeves. People could be paid to wrap the sponsored book cover over their book. This would be for people in high exposure areas like public transport. Business model would be charge people to create and distribute their book covers to people. People using the covers would be paid a small fee or given book discounts. Do Not Disturb Me Chairs Create chairs for people who work in open plan offices that have a do not disturb sign built into them. Users could flip the sign on when they want to focus and not be disturbed by co-workers. Special chairs would have to be manufactured or you could create and sell signs that fit onto chairs. Personal Motivation Service Create a service where a person would call you and send texts to motivate you. For example, they would motivate you to go to the gym, finish a project or get some study done. The business model would be a monthly subscription. Lifetime Jeans Create a jeans brand that will collect, repair and deliver your jeans back to you when they wear out. Especially good for those holes you always get in the crotch. The business model is simply selling jeans with a lifetime warranty. Dog-Friendly Places Create a site that allows dog owners to find dog-friendly restaurants, pubs and places anywhere in the world. The business model could be charging people a small fee to list their business. Or selling advertising space on the site. On-Site Bike Servicing Create a service that will send people out to fix your bike wherever you are. You could create an app that summons the service with a push of a button that would get to your location in minutes. The business model would be a monthly subscription. Pet Air Create an airline that only flies pets and their owners. Seating within the aircraft would be specially designed with pets in mind. To keep things civilised there would be a 50 / 50 ratio of people to pets. New Employee Welcome Packs Create a company that provides custom welcome packs for new employees at large companies. Like hampers but for new employees. The business model would be on a per pack basis which would be created and delivered on demand. Last Minute Movies Create an app that allows you to buy last-minute movie tickets at empty theatres. Because the movie theatres are empty at the last minute, the tickets would be cheaper to buy. The business model would be a small commission on the sale of each movie ticket you sell. Celebrity Store Create an e-commerce store that only lists products used and endorsed by celebrities and successful business people. The business model could be direct purchase or affiliate commissions. Safest Neighbourhoods Create a data-backed website that lists the safest areas to live in each city. The data would be supplied by the police or government. The business model would be a monthly membership for people or charge real estate agents to access the data. Analogue Restaurants and Bars Set up a chain of bars and restaurants that don't allow any form of digital device. There is no wifi. The business model would encourage social interaction. The money would be made the normal way from selling food and drinks. Life, Automated Set up a website that features only products that automate every aspect of your life. From vacuum cleaners to automated pet feeders. Sell products directly or make money from affiliate sales. Weather Fashion Set up a social media account or a website that has weather forecasts matched with fashion that is applicable to the temperature. For example, if it's going to be just 10 degrees on Tuesday, have a picture of a fashion model wearing warm designer clothes. The business model could be paid sponsorships, or sell clothes directly. Haggle School Create a service that teaches people how to haggle better with advanced haggling techniques. Classes would be taught online or in person. A fee would be charged for the classes. Cracked Phone Concierge Mobile phone repair that comes to you. Book and pay for your repair online, the technician comes to your home or workplace and repairs your phone on the spot. Podcast Ad Network Set up a media agency that sells ad space on podcasts. Ad production could also be done by the company. The business model is creating and selling ad space on podcasts. Food Medicine Store Set up an online store or real-life store that sells products based on what illness you may have. For example, I have a cold. Okay, we recommend these products x, y and z. The Lifebrary Set up a bookstore or book recommendation site lists the best books to read when you're at a certain point in your life. For example, the best books to read when starting a new business. Best books to read when you're pregnant. Sell books directly or make a commission from affiliates. Training Buddy Create an app or that allows you to find people to train within your local gym. Arrange time and place via an app. The business model could be a monthly subscription. A.R. Tour Guides Create an app that allows you to view augmented reality tour guides in your city. Guides would be on every corner telling you about the area. View and listen to the guides via your mobile phone. Business model selling the app in the app store for a one time fee. Flatemately Set up a monthly subscription business that supplies common household goods to share houses. For example, toilet paper, garbage bags and cleaning products. Payment for the service could be split between housemates. The subscription-only comes when each housemate has paid their fee. Blue Zone Food Store A shop that sells only Blue Zone foods. A Blue Zone is a part of the world where people are most healthy and live the longest. A study found these people eat certain types of food, therefore, they live long, healthy lives. Blue Zone recipes and food kits could also be sold. Where I've Been Create a website that allows people to plot on a map where they've visited in the world. People could download and or print a poster of where they've been. The business model would be selling printed posters of world maps and where they've been. You could also monetise the site by offering advertising to travel companies. Dating Profile Optimization Create a service that will optimize people's online dating profiles for maximum conversions. The service would offer professional profile writing done by the opposite sex and also professional profile photo photography packages. Hot People Only Dating App Create an app that only allows people of certain attractiveness to join. New members would be vetted for attractiveness. The business model could be a premium monthly subscription like other dating apps. Modern Speed Dating Create an app that organises traditional speed dating. Use the app to view other speed daters, and also book and pay for speed dating sessions. The business model could be a per session fee or a monthly subscription. Quiet Neighbourhood Finder Create a database that allows you to find the quietest neighbourhood in your city. The site would feature historical noise pollution data and noise pollution complaints data over time. A business model could be charging for a monthly membership, or data could be sold to real estate agents. [link] [comments]  |
| Open a business right after college Posted: 24 Jan 2020 10:51 AM PST Hi, Im currently studying in college (civil eng) and right after i finish ir, i dont want to go work to a boss (i think they treat the employees very bad) and i want to Open a business related to civ eng. How its hard to progress? PS: Im from Portugal and i have 19 years old [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Jan 2020 10:50 AM PST |
| Posted: 24 Jan 2020 02:32 PM PST So many entrepreneurs lack the 🎾 to be good leaders in their organisation because they forget the consequences of what could happen if they don't make the right calls. I saw a post on r/entrepreneur (not this sub reddit) there was a entrepreneur who started a financing business with two of his friends one of which shared some ideas that were less than intelligible and was adamant that this was the right direction that their company should take The other two entrepreneurs didn't share their reasons for why this direction was incorrect effectively and after a month of bad ideas the third entrepreneur was becoming a pain in their "🍑" there was only one option however they were too afraid to take it and remove their friend from the business A lot of people reading this would probably cringe at the thought of doing something like that. You might think that it would be It would be unfair to the third friend and an abhorrent thing to even think about and it's the entrepreneurs who think that who are the one who belong in the negative side of the statistic the 7out of 10 business fail after 10 years Leadership is the ability to make choices especially the hard ones and to make sure that everyone in their team understands what their main goal is to succeed the business and why they are making it this requires effective communication If you read this far please share below in the comments your trials in leadership Thank you [link] [comments]  |
| Platform for early stage project investment Posted: 24 Jan 2020 01:29 PM PST Hello everyone! Would you like to use a platform that allows you to browse early stage projects that are seeking investment? Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Jan 2020 03:33 AM PST Hi, I took a year off from my full-time job for various reasons, one of which was creating aa App prototype, that I had in mind for a couple of years. Now I have a working prototype of it which consists of a website and android and iOS apps. The business is built around selling fishing licenses here in Germany and Europe. I have to start working again in May because of private reasons. Now I have this prototype which would be usable already for fishing clubs and other people that want to sell licenses here in Germany but I have the problem of how to make the market entry. My feeling is that the time is running out and as soon as I have to work again I don't have enough time for it anymore. I checked different possibilities to finance it but I am also not sure if the growth potential is enough to actually try it. There is a competitor which is on the market since several years and they did not reach a big market share either as of right now. My question is how other people evaluate the growth potential and if it is even worth it to put the time in. My target group is consisting of 6 million people in Germany which go fishing once in a while. I have estimated that my break even point is between 50.000 and 100.000 active users per month. And that is probably taking years to achieve. If you need more numbers or information I can give it in the comments. [link] [comments]  |
| very small, mobile dog training business: need advice on business phone or phone lines Posted: 24 Jan 2020 01:03 PM PST Hi! So glad I found this subreddit! I am a certified dog trainer, and I go to customers houses to train them and their pups. I also have a very small boarding business for my clients dogs in my home. I run the business myself and I don't have any employees. Currently I am using my personal phone number for all business calls. I read online that this is not a good idea so I have been looking for separate lines that might be able to link to my phone, like a Google number. But I would like to be able to set up a voicemail and be able to text from that number as well, since many of my customers prefer that method of communication. I dont want to get another phone but I am willing if I have to. Do you lovely people have any recommendations on what I should do? There are lots of options and I am overwhelmed by all of them :) Thanks in advance and sorry about the cross post! [link] [comments]  |
| Books which don't tell the same thing over and over again Posted: 24 Jan 2020 12:16 PM PST I don't really like books telling me the same thing over and over again. It wastes my time. Let's create a list with excellent books that don't keep telling us the same thing over and over. Do you have any in your mind? I'm asking for quality books like How to Win Friends and Influence People. Thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| Where to go with new physical consumer product ideas? Posted: 24 Jan 2020 11:29 AM PST Hey everyone, Looking for some help with an idea I have been trying to bring to life. The idea is a physical product that already exists right now, but a slight modification that has not been done yet for a very specific function. For obvious reasons, I will use a completely random product with a different tweak for an example. Let's say this idea is a product like those iPhone cases with bunny ears or whatever animal features attached using the same rubber as the phone case itself. Where would you begin on bringing this idea to reality from scratch? From research I have learned that you get yourself a prototype and design the product, then reach out to an alibaba type distributor and try to get them to make it for you. This is where I get stuck. How the hell do I design my own prototype without any knowledge of how these physical products work? In this example, would I buy 2 Iphone cases, cut the rubber on one and glue it to another and then send that picture and specs to an Alibaba manufacturer? Do I download a 3d rendering platform and create it myself? How do I know that the manufacturer is good enough to make these the way I want them? How do I pick the right one out of the thousands that are on there? Any links to guides or advice from people who have done this would be GREATLY appreciated. I have tried this before but just never found the right distributor nor had a physical prototype that I was confident enough to send to people as I have no experience with 3d rendering or creating objects online from scratch. Let me know if you have any insight on this, thank you!! [link] [comments]  |
| What to know and expect getting my products in Big Box Retail stores. Posted: 24 Jan 2020 11:02 AM PST Hi everyone, I own a women's sportswear brand and do 100% of my sales online (U.S. Based). We ship internationally and have had orders from 50+ countries since 2015. Over this span we've had many distributors filling out wholesale forms to be able to distribute our line overseas, but I didn't want to rush into this early on and kept growing the business organically and strategically. Fast forward to now and I think I am ready to jump into this opportunity. A few days ago we had a sales partner from a pretty large sports store contact us wanted to sell our line in one store overseas. I am not sure how to go about this and need a little direction. I'd really want to pitch this person the opportunity to sell the product in multiple stores overseas to reach as much as my customer base as possible, but I don't want to come off as desperate. How should I go about this, what to expect contract and logistics wise, and how much profit should i aim to retain if I end up selling to them? For reference, but top selling item I sell for $49 and it costs me $11.65 to make in China. I'm pretty excited but a little nervous as I don't know where to begin. Anything would help, thank you! Tl;Dr - Sales rep for big sporting good retailer wants to sell my workout line in one store overseas. I don't know where to start or what i need to know/learn from A to Z. Any direction would help. [link] [comments]  |
| Can I just contact relevant influencers and ask them to talk about me and my product? Posted: 24 Jan 2020 10:10 AM PST Bit of background: I'm 17, in high school, studying Computer Science. I have a nutrition app that I'm working on as a side project. Fitness is my passion ever since I've lost a lot of weight (100+ pounds) and this project is the culmination of that. Now, while I like how it's coming so far, I don't think I'm going to have any success with this unless I market it somehow. People need to know about this app in order to download it. Since I'm not exactly in the position to pay for a multi million dollar marketing campaign, my thinking was that I could ask fitness influencers, such as Joe Rogan, Obese to Beast, and Every Damn Day Fitness, to talk about my story and my software. Can I just straight up email these people and ask them to do that? Would that be well-received? Or would they just laugh me off and nothing would come of it? Is there a specific way I should go about this? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Jan 2020 09:20 AM PST Would like to learn SEO as a side hustle and see where it goes from there. Any recommendations for online courses or books that will help start me off? Plan on building my own website and practicing on that but would like to have a strong understanding before I attempt this. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Jan 2020 01:40 AM PST A lot of website owners out there think their websites can do no wrong, but I got news for you, they certainly do. A lot of the big internet guys out there, such as Google, hate over saturation of ads on websites, especially above the content section of the website, so if you get flagged by them, or denied the right to advertise with them, that is why. Oh, and I got news for you... visitors hate all those ads too! This is 2020, figure out a new, and non-intrusive way to make money people. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Jan 2020 08:18 AM PST I'm launching a small business that sells digital education products , and am considering using Wix to set up my website. I have no web design background, and can't afford the thousands needed to hire a professional. I've got a few questions for you guys:
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| Selling or licensing to a large company? Posted: 24 Jan 2020 04:10 AM PST Hey guys Have any of you ever ended up selling IP to a large player in your targeted industry rather than productizing and selling? Perhaps you developed something which satisfies a niche but actually best serves its users by being licensed off and integrated into a large piece of software which has established presence in the market, rather than giving users a new independent thing to purchase and download. If you've been in this position, I'm curious to hear how it went. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Dogs’n’Sox is a finalist in the PetTech category in this year's Golden Kitty Awards. Posted: 24 Jan 2020 07:55 AM PST Good News! Dogs'n'Sox is a finalist in the PetTech category in this year's Golden Kitty Awards. Please vote for us! 😊❤️ https://www.producthunt.com/golden-kitty-awards-2019/voting/pettech/ [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Jan 2020 07:44 AM PST |
| Any neat one-page businesses? I need to move from wanting to doing Posted: 24 Jan 2020 07:39 AM PST I've been wanting to dip my toes into entrepreneurship for a while, but I'm frozen by all that entails. Are there any interesting one-website businesses (a single product, a service, a.. chat room?) you know of for inspiration? I figure if I can just set my first goal as something tangible like that, that will make it easier to start. [link] [comments]  |
| Have You heard About the Kibo Code? Posted: 24 Jan 2020 07:39 AM PST Have you heard about a new business model called the Kibo Code which is based on a Japanese style of doing business which is very profitable . If so what are your opinion on this business model? [link] [comments]  |
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