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    Wednesday, January 29, 2020

    Should I lower my prices to gain and retain more customers? small business

    Should I lower my prices to gain and retain more customers? small business


    Should I lower my prices to gain and retain more customers?

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 02:42 PM PST

    Hi, I'm a 22 year old and my family opened a a small buffet/takeout spot in my hometown 2 and a half years ago. The past 5 months or so our sales have doubled and we've made over $125k in revenue the past 3 months. One thing I'm concerned about is most people who live around the area are not making high incomes and we charge $5.50/lb. A lot of people complain about the prices and don't come too often. To combat this we've offered a "free" can of soda or water bottle with a purchase over $10, since the time we've opened. I feel that has helped us tremendously in retaining customers but I still feel like maybe dropping to $5.25/lb or $5.00/lb may make our existing customer base even more happy and also attract more clients to our business. Any opinions on this would be greatly appreciated.

    submitted by /u/Yungcurry
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    I live abroad and visit family in the UK once or twice a year. This time I helped a local charity who asked me to invoice them £250 for the work, from my limited company. I don’t have one. For a one-off, can I simply send them an invoice with just my name and address on?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2020 12:46 AM PST

    How to approach customers using contact information I recently found that belonged to a company no longer in business

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 07:25 AM PST

    Hi there! My business is located in the exact same warehouse that another company in the same industry was using before they went out of business several years ago. I recently discovered boxes of order information from the old company that contains addresses, emails, phone numbers of customers and what they had previously ordered from the old business. I obviously can use this info because I can sell them mostly the same items they had purchased previously but I don't know exactly how to go about contacting them. Mass email? Individual emails explaining the situation? Call? Any thoughts/ ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

    submitted by /u/SuperFly125
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    How do you guys track your business?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2020 03:35 AM PST

    A bit of a random question here, but here it is. Among other things, I manage a digital business (finance website where users can run some calculations on their investment portfolio) and I've been creating over the course of a few months a pretty detailed dashboard that completely tracks everything related to the business. How many visits, how many repeated users, how many new, how do they use the product, how they convert, how many monthly revenues, etc.

    I haven't built it in one go. Say I started a few months ago and then little by little I've been adding pieces and charts one piece at the time. I showed this to a friend today and he made me realize that as it stands today I can basically answer any question about the business, just from looking at my phone.

    So I was thinking: for those of you that own a physical biz (retail store, shop, services, etc) – how do you currently track your business? Would you want something like this for your activity too?

    I think eventually every biz will be "instrumented" and very measurable, but I'd love to hear what's your perspective as of today. Thanks!

    submitted by /u/federiconitidi
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    Seeking advice. Shutdown or scaling up. My small digital agency

    Posted: 29 Jan 2020 01:30 AM PST

    ​Hey guys,

    I'm looking for knowledge sharing, mentoring, some tips? I'm at a stage where I'm thinking about to quit, even though I'm almost at a point I dreamt of starting as somebody with little goals in mind. But I just feel burned and alone and don't know what to do next.

    I'm running a small one-man part-time digital agency that focuses on creating websites and online shops as well as synergies like google ads or e-commerce services.

    I know that sounds a lot but in the digital age, there are really a lot of similarities in these services when it comes to the needs of the clients.

    Here some facts:
    - Founded 2 years ago
    - First year was okay, I had no expectations. Made around 8k in 10 month
    - Last year I made around 20k but somehow managed to almost go bankrupt in October
    - Never paid me a single cent though. Just reinvested. In the beginning in some basic setup for me like a MacBook or iPad. I know that i shouldn't do that on a regular base and that's also not my plan for now anytime soon
    - Started having virtual assistance in December but quit the relationship a couple of days ago because we both weren't happy
    - Soon have a brand​​ new website online that really doesn't look too bad and have SEO and ad language optimized text and some more services offered (like 6 instead of 2)
    - Have some money in the bank (not too big though, I can get more concrete if relevant)
    - Almost 10 client websites online, just one with a maintenance package yet (turned out this way, want to change that very soon)
    - Potential Clients for like 10k over the next 3-4 months, like 30k+ for the year. Without new perspectives

    ...and still, I don't feel very good. It's mainly because I don't know what to do next, how to do it all by myself and how to leave that loop in the first place.

    Personally I think I feel like needing people that I can't afford to pay just yet. Of course that all lead down to getting staff but where who and how to pay them long term?

    Some thoughts of mine include things like hiring some individuals for something like wireframes and screen design and hire somebody to actually build the website with Wordpress. Stuff I'm doing right now and the results are good but I'm not a true expert on those fields. They could be from India, Asia or local. Another option would be to hire another agency or freelancer fix for a particular project.​ But everyone I watch online is recommending local employees or at least none from these countries because you won't' be able to compete with your competitors in a local market with local clients.​

    If the website creation part is checked off, there would be also the need for somebody that assists me, manages the projects at least to some point, makes sure everything runs smoothly in the background and creates things like graphics and documents that relate to the company so tasks and topics I wouldn't be able to tackle in the daily business.

    On the assistance part, one remote try with somebody that is pretty new to the industry didn't make me happy. The development team expanding part was planned with the assist still on board so I don't know if I leave that one for now.

    I think that I'm in a good way but that I also can massively fuck it up at this point too. Like if I take on to many clients at the same time and then don't meet their expectations and time and / or rush to the hospital caused by all the stress. I feel like somebody in person as a staff could help me, but something like a mini job wouldn't give him the quality and experience I need to keep my standards, nor the time to really make an impact on my situation. At least that's what I believe.

    Side note: I think I can finish around one project from scratch to finish in a month at the maximum by myself. I know that I could get more effective but some things just take time...

    In general, I'm not worried about getting new clients long term, especially with the new website and some possible investments in PPC ads. Extending the relationship with existing clients is an option too.

    So.... here I am... with mixed feelings and thinking about quitting or getting it on the next level, but not feeling comfortable doing it all alone.

    Excited about your comments. Thank you in advance and greetings from Germany!​

    submitted by /u/Bridgestone68
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    What are the implications of buying a residential property and rezoning it to commercial to use as 100% office space

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 12:02 PM PST

    We want to purchase a house and turn it into an office. It seems complicated and I want to make sure I am not missing something that could cost alot of money.

    We own a holding company that owns our operating company. To seperate liabilites should this property be purchased by a seperate company owned by the holding company?

    What are the hst implications. I know hst will be due if we were to sell it as a commercial property but what about if we rezoned it back to residential before selling? Would we be responsible for paying the hst ourselves in that case?

    I know property tax will go up for a commercial building.

    It cant be rezoned until we own it so we need to buy it with a residential mortgage and then switch to a commercial mortgage after its rezoned. Can someone walk me through how this works/the negative implications this would bring? We are considering cash purchase.

    Is there anything else Im not thinking about here? I have a weird feeling im missing something that could come up and cost us big.

    Fyi i am in discussions with lawyer,accountants, etc but i never follow them completely.

    Thanks

    submitted by /u/jenski1987
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    How to find a quilty small business accountant?

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 11:47 PM PST

    I started a Shopify store in the Fall of 2018. I thought I'd do a few thousand in sales over the year and could do my own accounting. Over the course of 2019, I've sold approximately 45k of merchandise with records of all transactions. I haven't even paid myself anything out of the sales since I wanted to figure out the tax situation first for the business.

    So now I'm trying to figure out how to accurately report this. What type of accountant should I get? Where do I find them? I've looked at Yelp but it seemed a bit overwhelming and I'm not sure if I need a fancy business accountant with an office downtown type of deal. Could I possibly do it myself if I have accurate records of transactions, costs, profits for each sale?

    Thanks

    submitted by /u/Kidault
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    Post tax season work

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 11:17 PM PST

    For those that prepare taxes as a small business, what do you do to keep afloat after April 15th? Amendments, etc. Please let me know as this is a recent venture.

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/playa20164
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    Staff Meetings

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 08:49 AM PST

    Hi all. Looking for some advice/. I own a retail store with 10-15 employees and I would like to start implementing some sort of a regular staff meeting to share goals, recognize accomplishments, keep everyone on the same page, etc. I am not sure the best way or frequency of doing this as we are open 7 days a week and typically only have 4 employees scheduled at a time. Is it better to do it less frequently so it's not a burden for the 5-10 staff members who are not working that day to regularly come in on their days off for a 30 minutes meeting? More frequently but only managers/supervisors are required to attend and then they pass the information to the other employees next time they are scheduled? Also any suggestions of other topics to cover during the meetings would be appreciated.

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/GlorifiedCabanaBoy
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    How can I set up an inventory system to catalogue items for sale and raw materials?

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 10:54 AM PST

    Hello, as the title suggests, I'm wondering how I might go about setting up an inventory system.

    A few years ago my friends started a business selling crafting supplies and cross-stitch related items, including many items that they make themselves. They have asked me to come on board recently to help.

    Over the last few months, as the business has expanded, we have run into problems with inventory stock levels.

    Most of the raw materials are purchased from China and then manufactured in-house. Unfortunately however we are often finding that our stock levels are often running low and so when items are ordered there is a significant delay in the order being placed and the item being built and being shipped.

    So please can I ask for advice on how to set up an inventory system that is simple but efficient? I have thought about using MS Access to create a database, but I'm not sure if this is the best product to use.

    I'm happy to provide more information if necessary. Many thanks in advance!

    submitted by /u/PalmzOFire
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    Any ice cream shop owners in here?

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 06:25 PM PST

    When you first opened what was your initial capital investment, what were the top 5 categories/things you had to purchase to get started? What ice cream makers do you use?

    Any other words of advice?

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/mrbigbluff21
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    Easiest way to accept money over the phone

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 09:36 PM PST

    Hey,

    I'm getting a few people a day calling my business and looking for free advice. At first I got annoyed, but then I realized this was a money making opportunity. I wanted to monetize this by asking them to make a payment and then ask their questions.

    Does anyone have suggestions for the quickest and easiest way to make small amounts (25 to 50 bucks) over the phone?

    submitted by /u/vivek_david_law
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    Financing options for start up

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 12:47 PM PST

    Ill try to keep this short.

    I am wanting to open a bicycle sales and repair shop in my hometown. This is a huge dream of mine and it feels so close to happening! I just need the little help to push me over this initial hurdle. SO EXCITING!!!

    I feel that i can get this off the ground safely with about $80k - $100k. That amount of capitol or credit would allow me to open the doors, have a credit line or two with some vendors, and pay employee until business started picking up.

    I have already formed the LLC as well as opened bank accounts and have a small credit card. I have $25k cash on hand and a $3k credit card. I also have a LOI on the lease space offering close to $60k reimbursement to finish out the lease space.

    The negative that i have is a 680 credit score, and that has been a steady rebuilding of credit over the last 2 years. I am willing to do almost anything to get this going. So my question is, What can i do to secure the $80k - $100k, with the cash i have on hand and a sub 700 credit score?

    Thanks in advance.....reading all of your posts have given me the courage and determination to get this far!

    submitted by /u/skididinmypants
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    How do I ship my product without actually touching/packaging the device??

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 12:35 PM PST

    Just got funded! Bringing a small product to market. Very small, about the size of a fist and the weight of a carrot.

    With this in mind, does anyone have a suggestion of a fulfillment center or shipping solution that can handle all of the shipping/delivery of the product to my customers? I don't actually want to ever receive the product. I'm looking for something that can handle holding, fulfillment and shipping for when orders are placed... Any suggestions??

    Is amazon fulfillment something I should look at? Or does that only assist with direct amazon purchases?

    submitted by /u/papa023
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    Creating your own labels vs Ordering? (need suggestions)

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 07:33 PM PST

    Going to start selling peanut butter soon under cottage food laws and was wondering what would be more efficient when it comes to labeling. For someone just starting, would it be better to learn how to make my own for future reference or order them professionally made? Anyone willing to share how they went about when dealing with labeling and any suggestion on labeling companies ( i only know of avery)

    Thank you in advance!

    submitted by /u/Olympian_Breed
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    Sports car rental business start up.

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 07:25 PM PST

    Hey I'm only 18 but im really interested in business management, I have a few pretty good ideas in my opinion and one of them was to start a car rental lot. I was talking to my step-dad who works in a used car dealership and was asking why he doesnt make his own company. A sports car rental business. I've done some math but dont know enough about business yet so I'm unsure. Cars rented would be around the lines of: VW Gti, Dodge Chargers/ Challengers, Cameros, Mustangs, Honda Si, frs/brz, Genesis and such. Cheap but sporty cars. A lot big enough to hold atleast 6 cars would be ideal for the business. I was thinking of a loan of around 40k each, 3 of us maybe 4. Does anyone know how much the cost would be to start it counting cars, lot and etc? I live in California, Santa Clara county. If that helps with the prices. Any help would be appreciated.

    submitted by /u/RandomQuestions102
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    Social media question

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 07:10 PM PST

    How can I best leverage Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn to grow market awareness of our business and what we do and eventually bring in business?

    Is something like Hootsuite a good fit for this?

    Should we post the same thing on all channels?

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/Koflako
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    Producer won’t refund deposit

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 06:42 PM PST

    [NC, US] I am in a situation. I met with a producer two Saturday's ago because we had talked about him producing some music for my album. At the time, I had background vocalists who were dropping out left and right. So I messaged him prior to this initial meeting letting him know that I was unsure if I was still going to go through with the project. He asked me to come meet him in person so we could work through some solutions together. He was about 20 mins late. Red flag to me already seeing as though I am a strict professional. During the meeting, he offered to have his vocal coach and his vocalists brought on board for no extra charge. I was very excited to hear this because it would take so much weight off of my shoulders seeing as though I was already exhausted from doing all of the work over the past few months. He spoke highly of them and raved about how committed they were to their work and how they would never leave me hanging. This was the only reason I chose to continue the project and not cancel. The promise of the vocalists. ESPECIALLY the vocal coach.

    So we agreed on this arrangement and he asked me when I could pay the deposit or if I could pay part of the deposit that day. The full deposit was $2250 but I offered to pay $750 that day and the rest after I met with the vocal coach to make sure he was on board and could satisfy my needs. I asked for a contract but he said he did not have a printer, but would make sure that his vocal coach brought it with him when I went to go meet him later in the week. I trusted him and wanted to show that I was serious about the project, so I paid $750 that day and told him I'd pay the rest of the deposit at the signing of the contract. He agreed to this. I realize now that that was stupid.

    Two days pass and I don't hear anything from the coach. I message the producer and he sends me his number and tells me to reach out to him. This was the second strike because I felt it was unprofessional for the client to have to track someone on his team down. I was able to get in contact with him and we agreed to meet the following Wednesday. Wednesday morning, 2 hrs before our meeting, I get a text from the vocal coach saying he could not make the meeting. We reschedule for Monday. At this point I'm kind of annoyed and worried because he seems flaky and I didn't pay $750 for people who couldn't commit. By Thursday, I'm realizing that I have to cancel the Saturday rehearsal for the vocalists that I still had due to not having a vocal coach or at least some new information to give them that was decided by the vocal coach and I. This alone costed me time and money due to venue cancellation fees, rebooking fees, and rebudgeting. At this point I am so stressed out that I decide to cancel the project altogether. This may seem very brash but please remember that I was already on the edge of cancelling the project prior to making this arrangement with the producer. When I realized that this vocal coach was just as flaky as the people I had before, except $750 more expensive, I decided that it was not at all worth it.

    I asked for a refund of the partial deposit on the basis that his vocal coach did not seem at all interested in the project, was flaky, and did not behave at all as described or promised. They are giving me a very hard time because the producer claims he already paid musicians/vocalists with the deposit. This all happened in a span of 6 days.

    Is there anything that can be done here?

    submitted by /u/cw9241
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    Car wash web site

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 06:29 PM PST

    I want to make a small web site for my car wash. I already have a domain name thru yahoo. What service would be the cheapest to host and help create a simple web site? I only need a few pages. Some pages will just show what services are available, and some I want for surveys and comments pages, etc. Not good at designing web pages and yahoo pretty much is geared toward merchant sites. Any suggestions?

    submitted by /u/Kramkiwzoj
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    Forced switch from AccountEdge - need payroll/check writing/reports

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 02:32 PM PST

    Small biz peeps - what do you guys use for accounting/payroll software?

    We just learned that the software we've used for 20+ years (AccountEdge) is throwing in the towel and will not be compatible with Mac OS Catalina ever. So we can either switch or never upgrade our computers, lol.

    We don't use it for invoices, inventory, billing or purchasing (we use Filemaker) so most of the software goes unused. We use it for payroll, writing checks, balancing and keeping track of expenses. And reports of course.

    We were paying around $300/yr for ours but Quickbooks is looking to be around $1,000+/yr for the cloud based option which would be nice but it's just a lot more. They do offer a desktop version but not including the first year's discounts, it's still around $900/yr.

    submitted by /u/MidlifeSituation
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    Creating a business card, have a question

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 06:03 PM PST

    Simple enough really, I'm running a small card game stall and wanted to know if there might be any legal repercussions for making the backs of our business cards look similar to any of the games' cards backs (think Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, or Pokémon cards).

    Thanks ahead of time!

    submitted by /u/AdrianMonjula
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    Tax Question: How does my boyfriend expand his business to include me?

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 05:49 PM PST

    Hello there - this is my first time posting, and I have a question about my boyfriend's business. I recently quit my job in order to work for my boyfriend full time. He is a musician, and he has a sole-proprietorship business that makes enough money for both of us to live comfortably on. I would be taking over the budgeting, marketing, scheduling, sales, etc (so I will be back on this sub very soon, I'm sure - haha). I have been dedicating almost all of my time to researching these things recently, but I have a question that I would like some real human input on before going any further:

    What is the best way for us to expand his business to include me legally? Since we are not married, we don't file a joint tax return, but as of now, all of our finances are joined - so it doesn't make sense to have an arrangement where we each take a paycheck from the business. Is a general partnership the best option for us? If so, what are the requirements to start one? Also, any tips for how to file our tax returns as a partnership and keep really good records of our finances would be very appreciated.

    Thanks so much!

    submitted by /u/eedraptia
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    First Ecommerce Website at 17. Opinions? Feedback appreciated. Ecwid starters.

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 05:22 PM PST

    Ive opened an account with Ecwid for a while now but never did much to it. It just popped up as an option but never continued with it. Prior to that, Ive been selling on Mercari (simplest option) for almost 2 years now with new electronics I get wholesale. From October-December of 2019, sales were going rapid (prob the holiday season) and even before that it was still passable. My account is still up under the name techboundhq ( I made that name up too), but now I notice sales are going down badly, views stay the same for weeks, and buyers are beginning to lowball and become shady. I dont know where the good clients went but its rare to bump into any. I know selling takes patience but Mercari is becoming dead. I know how to input the important keywords and tags to be relevant but either way, nothing. I still have a surplus of stuff to sell and I've decided to take the next step and create an independent website to apply my own marketing tactic. Apart from that I noticed that Ecwid sale fees are WAY LOWER than Mercari's. Heres the link: https://techboundhqstore.ecwid.com/

    I took about a few hours setting up the personal configurations. OF COURSE, this isnt the final product. I plan on extending the design further such as make uploading an unlisted youtube slideshow the items pictures I sell and apply it to the cover background and other things to get the idea of what I plan on doing. I only had time to upload two listings (copy/pasted from Mercari, including pics) but later tonite I may do the rest. Also made a short description to try to REEL-In potiential buyers. Format looks noobish but that'll do for now

    I hope you guys could check it out and leave me some opinions or feedback of how I'm starting. Maybe there isnt much to see but anything is appreciated. Also asking for some marketing tactics that wont cost me too much (sinse I dont have a job and I'm not allowed to, at 17, crazy? ikr) and can get my page to obtain a progressive. I was thinking of opening a youtube channel and making reviews of my products and advertising them on my website on how they work, packaged, etc.. Hope to see some comments. Thanks

    submitted by /u/Ch33syB0iCh4RLiE
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    How can I Market/ Advertise a Tailoring/ Alterations Shop to get more customers and increase brand awareness

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 01:10 PM PST

    Hi all!

    I'm currently running marketing & social media for @flatirontailorshop located across from the flatiron building in NYC.

    I know when it comes to content, before & after, hi res images always are a good go to.

    If you were to follow a tailor/ alterations shop, what would entice you to follow them/ engage with their content?

    Also, if you see anything we should change or have any ideas at all on marketing strategies/ how to gain more clients, I'd truly appreciate it!

    submitted by /u/Low__arugala
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    How to go about getting your first clients

    Posted: 28 Jan 2020 06:48 AM PST

    Hi, I'm starting a mobile auto detailing business and was hoping to get some help with how exactly you land your first few clients doing something like this. I know it's largely word of mouth, but I've lived here less than a year and don't really know anyone outside of work, and wouldn't like to tell my current employer I'm working on quitting over the coming months. Thanks for any tips

    submitted by /u/woooo4
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