NooB Monday! - (March 02, 2020) Entrepreneur |
- NooB Monday! - (March 02, 2020)
- 3 step process for coming up with business ideas
- The One Thing That Turned His $350k Stressfest to a $3MM/yr Profitable Business
- Maximizing Your Google Ads Efforts: A Guide For Beginners
- I spent over a year making a free app to fix the biggest problem with playlists.
- How a two year old r/cars post led to a side hustle that’s now earning enough to pay for the dream car it was about
- I hated customer support, so I started a business doing it
- Is anyone here a baker and entrepreneur?
- [Nooks Update] 6 Weeks in - 1k Sales
- What's your process on getting an idea and executing it?
- I want to handle digital sales for a friend's MMA equipment company. Whats a good way to pitch to him selling his products online w/ FB & Instagram advertising?
- Idea to US-Friendlyize my storefront?
- Doing market research for a gym/fitness center
- How to add “in-store pickup” to my retail store?
- On Literary Agents and Book Deals
- 1M Instagram Followers and 199k YouTube Followers
- Tips on marketing for my clothing brand
- What specifically do you find most effective to get the word out about your business's products, news, and/or events?
- Full time Poshmark
- Is the idea of financial freedom hurting me?
- Shutting down my Startup - QueNews.
- Is affiliate marketing still a viable option?
- How to turn an idea into a product?
- How to find manufacturers in countries other than China? (Due to Coronavirus)
- I give my services for free but each client I gain increases my business value by $1000
| NooB Monday! - (March 02, 2020) Posted: 02 Mar 2020 05:13 AM PST If you don't have enough comment karma here's where we can help. Everyone starts somewhere and to post in /r/Entrepreneur this is the best place. Subscribers please understand these are new posters and not familiar with our sub. Newcomers welcome! Be sure to vote on things that help you. Search the sub a bit before you post. The answers may already be here. Since this thread can fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. [link] [comments]  |
| 3 step process for coming up with business ideas Posted: 02 Mar 2020 04:01 AM PST 1. Find a problem.Don't start with a solution, start with a problem. Ideally, the problem should be shared by (at least) thousands of people, it should be a problem you're interested in, it should be growing and frequent, and it should be a valuable problem that people would pay money to solve. Bonus points if it's a problem that you have. Don't rule out already-solved problems. Most successful businesses target problems that are already popular and being tackled by existing businesses. Unsolved problems often are unsolved because people don't care about them. Don't rule out high-value problems. It's actually harder to sell cheap things because people care less about them. You want to sell a product people care about. Have a customer in mind. If you don't know what kind of customer would buy your product, chances are no one will buy it. If you target an underserved niche, this is how your product can stand out from its competitors in an already crowded space. 2. Create a distribution strategy.This is crucial. Think about what distribution channels you'll use to market your product and make sure you can actually reach your target audience. It's easy to just put this off until later, but "build it and they will come" does not work. If you can't reach your customers, then it doesn't matter how good of a product you build. Channels can include things like SEO, press, content marketing, social media, sales, ads, etc. Product Hunt is not a distribution channel and should not be your only strategy. Many times the people who visit Product Hunt won't even be your target audience. 3. Come up with an innovative solution from first principles.You should target your solution specifically to solve your audience's needs. You should start small and validate everything along the way. Just because you're solving a "boring", known problem doesn't mean you should come up with a boring solution. This is where you can stand out from your competitors. This post was adapted from How to brainstorm great business ideas by Courtland Allen. If you'd like to get links to articles like the above directly in your inbox, check out MakerList. [link] [comments]  |
| The One Thing That Turned His $350k Stressfest to a $3MM/yr Profitable Business Posted: 02 Mar 2020 10:34 AM PST "We made 'the shift' in 2014 and it changed everything." says Nick Huber of Storage Squad "In 2013 we did about $350k in revenue at a 20% margin. It was a stressful firework show. We were tapped out. There was not enough time in the day to grow any more. We pointed fingers and blame things outside of our control for our shortcomings. It was clear that our employees were the problem. They were unreliable and were constantly messing the simplest things up. They were missing work. They couldn't be trusted to do anything so my partner and I did almost everything. We complained and pointed fingers and vented to our friends that it was impossible to hire good employees who wanted to work hard. None of this got us very far. The shift was the moment we stopped pointing fingers and started taking the blame for things going wrong within our business. Instead of texting the employees the night before about their shift we scheduled them out a week in advance. Even if we weren't sure exactly what they'd be doing. We overemphasized their schedules and set up automated emails and texts to constantly remind them as the day approached. Instead of training them by walking around the warehouse pointing at things we spent time recording training videos with perfect voice overs. We quizzed them at the end of the training videos with real on-the-job problems. Instead of having them do 25 things and trying to train them to do all of them well we simplified the job. A handful of employees did all of the customer service and we took that off the plate of the drivers and crew members. We had employees focus only on warehousing so our crew members didn't have to do that job as well. Instead of training 300 employees to create invoices and size items we had them take photos and then a few very specialized employees could size and create every invoice. A few amazing things started happening. They started missing work a lot less. They messed up a lot less. Customers complained a lot less. Turnover hurt a lot less. Average employees started performing like our outstanding employees with 3 years experience. And on and on and on. We didn't just do this with our employees but also our customers and suppliers. Everything about the business got easier. 2014 was a growth year but it was a lot less stressful. 2015 was even better. Fast forward to 2018 and we did almost $3MM in revenue on a 20% margin and it was stress free. I even stepped away from the company in 2016 to focus on real estate development while my partner and a few of our key employees ran everything. You have a lot more control than you think you do. Start acting like it! -- As soon as you stop blaming your employees for messing up and look at your processes you'll be more likely to succeed. Stop blaming Murphy's law for fires arising and start spending time preventing the fires. Stop blaming the economy for your lack of customers and analyze your sales and marketing strategy. Stop blaming your customers for demanding refunds and look at the promises you're making them. Stop blaming your suppliers for missing deadlines and look at your communication and how it can be improved. Stop blaming your partners for not pulling their weight and look at the expectations and start to manage them." [link] [comments]  |
| Maximizing Your Google Ads Efforts: A Guide For Beginners Posted: 02 Mar 2020 08:28 AM PST We all need more traffic, and of course, organic traffic is the holy grail. A smart strategy involving content, backlinking and a lot of elbow grease is sure to pay dividends, but it can take months or even years to get your site to where it can thrive on this source of traffic. Negotiating your way through subtle or major algorithm changes can be an art form, requiring focus, a solid plan, skill and sometimes luck. The quickest way to get targeted traffic to your website is through Google Ads. Delivering as much traffic as you want to pay for, you'll see results in as little as one day. It can be pure magic and a game-changer for your business, but it too requires skill to make the most of a campaign. On the surface, Google Ads is pretty straightforward. Choose your keywords, hand over your credit card and appear at the top of the page. Sadly, as many find out, it's not quite that simple. As a Google Ads specialist, I thought I'd put together some information to help others maximize their ad budget and get the most from their efforts. I do this for a living and believe in paying things forward. If anyone here has questions, I'd be happy to answer them or even take a look at your campaign.
Managing your Google Ads account can be extremely time-consuming, especially when its neither your strength nor your focus. Structuring your campaign, keyword research, expanding that list of keywords and improving your Quality Score all take precious hours away from operating your business. When someone is starting out, it makes sense to handle things yourself. You really should understand every aspect of your business, including its marketing. At a certain point though, you may be better off handing the reins to someone whose focus is on this, a specialist who understands the nuances and can work with Google's changes on the fly. After all, you've got better things to do, like running your business. A Google Ads professional may help you to save money and give your site's visitors a better experience. You'll pay less per click, get more quality traffic and convert better, and who doesn't want more of that? [link] [comments]  |
| I spent over a year making a free app to fix the biggest problem with playlists. Posted: 02 Mar 2020 06:47 AM PST Hey, guys like many of you I listen to playlists all the time from running, to parties, to just getting myself motivated. However, the biggest problem is that there is no objective way to order the songs in your playlists. However, when the order is wrong it is very noticable, for example, when running a low tempo song play after a high one, on in a party when a high energy, and dancy song is followed by a sad one. To fix this I have created an app to sort songs by various features, such as danceability, energy, tempo, etc to create a progression curve of what you want to feel or do when going through various parts of the playlists. For example when running you might want to start at a slow tempo, then get faster, easing off a bit, before going for a strong finish with really energetic songs. Or when creating a party playlist, you might want to focus on increasing the dancibility of the songs, with a few breaks in between. I have also noticed that because the playlists flow better, I skip or add songs fewer times, leading me to make fewer micro decisions, which reduces stress, and people enjoy the music more. This is my first app, so feedback would be greatly appreciated. All parts of the app are free and accessible without any limits or premiums. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Mar 2020 12:19 PM PST |
| I hated customer support, so I started a business doing it Posted: 02 Mar 2020 06:27 AM PST I wanted to share something I've been working on since I thought it might help people here. I've been earning a modest income by developing e-commerce plugins for Shopify. When I started, I thought the bulk of the work would be the programming part, and I'd just collect subscribers after that. However, I learned that most of the work actually comes with providing customer support. My users wanted interaction with a human (and felt they deserved it since they were paying for the service). However, I couldn't afford to hire an agent to do support full time (let alone train them). The problem was that most of the inquiries I was getting were repetitive basic. Stuff like "How do I do X?" or "Why isn't Y working" - which they could figure out just by reading the FAQs. I thought other people might have this problem as well. So I went through the Shopify app store and collected 50 emails of other app developers and sent them an email asking if they would be interested in outsourcing their customer support. After a week, 1 person said they would as ticket volume increased, and another signed up! He sent me his FAQs and I was off to the races. I answered the first customer's tickets all myself. I learned what the common questions were, and wrote up a process document. I hired an agent and set out to find more customers. Now, I'm supporting 3 products. Would love to answer any questions anyone has. Please check out my website at forefront.support. If anyone has any feedback I'd really appreciate that too! [link] [comments]  |
| Is anyone here a baker and entrepreneur? Posted: 02 Mar 2020 11:18 AM PST Thinking about a new project. You: a professional baker and passionate technologist, who wants to use novel tech in a bakery setting. Me: a professional programmer and amateur baker. The idea: use my technology skills and your baking skills to build your dream bakery. My quals: I've built software for large restaurant chains and other sorts of franchises that have been deployed to hundreds of locations and thousands of users. I'm intimately familiar with the software dev process and particularly passionate about building great user experiences. And I love baking, especially bread, though my skills are limited and I just want to learn more. [link] [comments]  |
| [Nooks Update] 6 Weeks in - 1k Sales Posted: 02 Mar 2020 04:02 AM PST Hello everybody, back with an update on my ecommerce journey (if you're watching). Today was pretty cool - the store reached 1k in sales after about 6 weeks in business. Around $380 of that was in the last week, so things are starting to pick up. I'm on track to surpass last months sales, which is awesome because it means that there's growth. Proof: Sales since January 23 Facebook keeps playing - disabling, activating, disabling etc. The ad account was reactivated yesterday and it's already brought in some orders so I hope they don't mistakenly disable it again. Overall, this has been an awesome journey. Currently looking to add some more colors and designs (by customer request, but also to add variety and upsell with colors). Here are the most effective channels by sales so far:
People have been leaving fantastic reviews and customers are already starting to purchase again, which is fantastic. I've also recently implemented SMS marketing + Thank You Page upsell and they've both brought in some revenue. Since launch, I've been redesigning a few aspects of the site. Went from a general no "real brand" store and am now moving towards more surreal branding. Think retro-futuristic style gone weird i.e. 1980s arcade meets the future. Brighter colors and generally more fun. People have been responding to that on social media and on the site, but the sample size is still to small for a meaningful conclusion. Lastly, Reddit has been huge for help - from things like tweaking the site messaging to small factors that would increase conversion, trust and design, you guys have been incredible. Thank you all. This is fun, let's see if I can't take it to the next level! site is: getnooks.com if you're interested in seeing it! [link] [comments]  |
| What's your process on getting an idea and executing it? Posted: 02 Mar 2020 12:59 PM PST I'm extremely overwhelmed with the amount of ideas that run through my head. I know I could run a successful business and make great money..but what the fuck should I even open? I'm a beginner and looking for a low overhead-service based business. Is that even the way to go? I just keep contemplating and it's fucking annoying.. Who has a successful business who can give some tips on where and how to start with executing an idea Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Mar 2020 11:16 AM PST I do a lot of design work for a close friend, making him custom logos and the random T-shirt designs for his MMA equipment company. He focuses his time on custom glove requests, which make him by far the highest margin. He gets his business primarily through Instagram and Facebook direct messages. Generally he will message back and forth with a person, get the order, then text his guy in Pakistan. He's not very tech savvy and pulls me in for anything super custom. He has a really great natural following from his time as a profighter and has a really great network. I've been happy to help him along because he is a good friend, and I've really tried to push him towards E-commerce as a passive source of income. It's just way too much for him, and he doesn't want to mess with the 80/20 situation he has going on right now. I really can't blame him. Now to the point: I want to exit our "friendly" business situation and enter a real partnership of sorts. I want to sell his basic stuff online, at scale, leveraging his already strong social media presence. I almost want to act as a dropshipper to his wholesaler. I want my pitch to be, "Nothing will change for you, you keep doing what your doing, just let me sell your stuff online and I'll give you a cut of the profit." I just have no idea what the profit arrangement should be or the best way to go about it, in an above the water, possibly legal contract, type of way. I'm not trying to make me or him rich, just looking for another source of income for myself, leveraging an existing connection I have. What do you guys suggest? [link] [comments]  |
| Idea to US-Friendlyize my storefront? Posted: 02 Mar 2020 10:53 AM PST How can I make my Canadian-owned ecommerce store more US-friendly? 90% of my customers are from the USA.
[link] [comments]  |
| Doing market research for a gym/fitness center Posted: 02 Mar 2020 10:24 AM PST A little background about me/my project: I am currently a director at a large fitness center. My educational background is in sports healthcare but I have experience in sports performance and now the health and wellness field. I also have my MBA and have been trying to find a good business to start for a while. I have experience managing medically-based wellness programming in coordination with a hospital system near my current work, as well as essentially being in charge of all of the gym-related activities and also handle corporate outreach relationships (off-site programming, subsidized memberships, etc.) I recently found out that a residential neighborhood near me has no gym/fitness center of any kind. What I know about the neighborhood:
What I know about myself:
What I need to find out (and could use your advice) is how to do specific market research. How do I get a feel for how many people would join my gym, how much they would pay, and what services they would want? I keep coming back to the fact that most gyms fail and I want mine to be "more" than just a gym. I truly want to make a difference in the community by helping people who would otherwise go unhelped. I can't seem to make realistic projections or business plans without first identifying how many members I could get and what their level of engagement would be. Does anyone have experience opening a new fitness center or any community organization and how they did research before hand to develop a realistic plan? [link] [comments]  |
| How to add “in-store pickup” to my retail store? Posted: 02 Mar 2020 01:52 PM PST Not sure if this is the correct subreddit, but I'm an entrepreneur with a niche question. I own a small retail health store and i want to add in-store pickup. I know how it work, but i don't know where to begin. Can you help me think through this?? I want to have the inventory online (No need for mobile just yet) where customers can see in-stock products, purchase and pick up in store. Now for the details: Would get Shopify to handle this? And then swap delivery for in store pickup. Would I need to find out how to connect my POS systems inventory to the website? Any help would be greatly appreciated, even if it's just a guess. Brainstorming is all I need right now [link] [comments]  |
| On Literary Agents and Book Deals Posted: 02 Mar 2020 12:53 PM PST Any entrepreneurial writers on here? I'm just about wrapping up my first book deal and got the wire transfer now, so that's pretty exciting. For context, my first book is in the non-fiction food and science space (think Alton Brown and J. Kenji Lopez-Alt). It's been an amazing experience and I had an incredible editor during the process. Now I'm looking towards the future and the next deal. I have two non-fiction book ideas at the moment and I'm trying to figure out good advice for moving forward. I've done some preliminary market research and they both have strong commercial potential given the current climate in the food industry. I have a clause in my contract that says I have to give my current publisher first crack at my next book idea, which I have no problem with since they've been pretty great and I'd love to work for them again (albeit, at a higher rate than now). But I'm hedging on them potentially not biting, so I'm wondering what the next step should be. I'm considering finding a book agent. It's not so much that I don't have confidence in my selling ability, but I just don't know enough to navigate book contracts like this. I was actually approached for the first one based on the fact that I've been managing, writing, and editing for a food blog for three years, so a lot of my selling point here was that I had an audience built in. I have plans to move on from that position so I'll most likely not be as intimately involved with that readership audience. Part of me suspects I'm worth more than my first deal, but that all depends on the performance of my book. It could flop, but I'm hoping to still use it as a springboard for the next deal. Anyone dealt with a book agent, or sold their book on their own, have some thoughts or advice on this? [link] [comments]  |
| 1M Instagram Followers and 199k YouTube Followers Posted: 02 Mar 2020 12:47 PM PST I'm a YouTube and Instagram influencer whom is looking for someone who's interested in helping me fund my start up. I have a DIY product that has gotten a lot of attention from my friends and family. The product costs me around $15 to make and the profit margin for my product is easily over 47%. I have the audience and the crowd to make this product be more noticeable in the world and nation. My product is also beneficial for babies and the sickness that's going on worldwide. If interested let me know. [link] [comments]  |
| Tips on marketing for my clothing brand Posted: 02 Mar 2020 12:35 PM PST Hi there, I just recently started my clothing brand called "donotsmile." and I've been looking for tips on how to get influencers to wear it or just spread the word of it. You can check us out on insta @donotsmile.ba [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Mar 2020 11:55 AM PST When I send a press release out to traditional outlets, if we are lucky to have someone pick it up, it gets lost in the noise. Even social media is limited to who might see it. Is there anything specific you do on traditional or digital outlets to effectively market your enterprise? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Mar 2020 11:23 AM PST People who do Poshmark full time, what are your advice/tips and what does your day to day schedule look like? I'm thinking of going the same route but feel like I need to layout a plan first. Edit: I also sell on eBay and Mercari. [link] [comments]  |
| Is the idea of financial freedom hurting me? Posted: 01 Mar 2020 08:53 PM PST Tldr; i want a life i cant have yet and its making me a mess because thats all i think about and i dont care about anything else, and i tell am confisent when i get there i will care about other things. I need to take a step back and ask: wtf do I do? I'm 19, make $3-4k profits per month with an online business, and I have vivid goals for a life I dream of having. No lambos; for now its to save $650k to make around $3k returns a month for the rest of my life via my investment in a mutual fund. Only then do I feel I can spend real time on relationships, family, health, and overall wellbeing and enjoyment of life. I dislike my life now and all I think about is getting the life I want of finacial freedom in a warm place that isn't new york. Only then do I plan to focus on anything but reaching that goal. My main inspiration is the book The Millionaire Fastlane and Grant Cardone/the 10x rule. The dilemma comes to the fact that I do not enjoy work. I seperate it from pleasure. Work is for money which we do because we have to unless you actually care about it and not the money I've shrugged this feeling off, but its been over a year since being in business, finances, and the real world and I hate it all. I just currently cant see myself enjoying my life until the general concept of required work for survival is deleted from my life aka finsncial freedom. So my questions, now that weve established some background:
This whole point of me writing this essay is that I feel that my current mindset of just suck it up, hold it in and move on might not be the smartest. I need answers and its been hard for me to live with these thoughts and unsecurity financially, even if I live with my parents. I hate that I cant support mywelf.Ive been crying everyday man its so unlike me. I've been doing gratefulness excersises and meditation yet I'm so fucking stressed and I'm only 19, I should be partying in college rn like my friends but no I stress about my future and how I currently hate life. Not to mention I have the easiest business in the world. I need help pls [link] [comments]  |
| Shutting down my Startup - QueNews. Posted: 02 Mar 2020 10:52 AM PST Hello everyone, I've been a long time lurker on r/entrepreneur and this sub has given me some very great lessons on Entrepreneurship and Life in general - one of those lessons is - Don't get too attached to your product and learn when to let go. I started QueNews in July 2019, I went through a great learning period since then, including completely bootstrapping the startup to making our own summarization algorithm to news narration and what not. But, all good things come to an end. Anyways, I just want to thank everyone on this sub, bitter or nice, all of you are very important. Our app will still be on the Play store, all work on the Backend/Frontend dev will stop. Anyways, here's to my next idea 🥂 Cheers! [link] [comments]  |
| Is affiliate marketing still a viable option? Posted: 02 Mar 2020 06:50 AM PST I'm quite new to business and the like. But I wondered if affiliate marketing is still a viable thing to make money from, is it? It's just that after a quick search of affiliate marketing it seems everyone is saying it's "dead"? [link] [comments]  |
| How to turn an idea into a product? Posted: 02 Mar 2020 10:08 AM PST I have a design in paper, and I would like to turn this into a graphic design on hoodies. I have experience in graphic design so I know how to put the idea into the hoodie, but I don't know how to start producing it. What websites can I use to design the hoodie, and turn it into a product? I would order a batch of 30 hoodies to my address once I have it done and sell it to my school mates or give it to people to get their feedback. Any word to say on this? Thank you for reading. [link] [comments]  |
| How to find manufacturers in countries other than China? (Due to Coronavirus) Posted: 02 Mar 2020 09:56 AM PST Hi, Anyone have tips on how I can find a manufacturer in other developing countries other than China? Due to their government and coronavirus, I want to see if its economically viable to conduct business with another country. I'm trying to create a plastic product and was wondering what country would be my next best choice to approach - and how would I go about searching for them without Alibaba? [link] [comments]  |
| I give my services for free but each client I gain increases my business value by $1000 Posted: 02 Mar 2020 01:59 AM PST Thanks for opening my post! In this post, I'm going to discuss my business model and why I give my services to clients for no upfront cost. I run a small, one man web design business in Australia. My business is about 4 months old now, I started it just after I turned 19. It's now turning over nearly $500 a month recurring revenue. I offer to build website for clients for free, on the condition that they go on my $49 - $79 a month hosting plan. So far I have secured 9 clients who are paying monthly. My goal is to build this business to a point that I can sell it for $100,000. I'm estimating that each client is worth 20 months revenue and so I estimate that each client will add $1000 value to my business. When it comes time to sell, the work will pay off. In the meantime, the monthly revenue is nice. [link] [comments]  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Entrepreneur. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment