Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (April 03, 2020) Entrepreneur |
- Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (April 03, 2020)
- Facebook charged my credit card for weeks, without my permission. I filed a dispute to stop the charges and get a refund. The charges stopped, but they won the dispute and kept my money. Here's what not to do when using FB advertising.
- $17,876.38 in 7 weeks
- Anyone’s business doing better than usual in COVID times?
- Is there a simple flowchart so I can tell which COVID-19 government assistance my business is eligible for?
- How to move your business forward in tough economic times - tips from very lean, high revenue business owners
- What the hell is wrong with me
- Programmer entrepreneur gives guided tour of his 10-year old profitable web app
- What's the best way to find out who a business's suppliers are?
- Taking Advantage of An Economic Downturn
- Future entrepreneurs! This one is for you!!
- Looking for an Instagram DM Management system
- Local Business Owners: What are your biggest SEO questions/difficulties?
- Monetization Strategies for Marketplaces
- Need advice on how to promote my website most effectively. My budget is very small and I created my website and online shop basically for free so far and would like to keep costs down.
- PPP Application today?
- Survey for a Potential New High-Protein Vegan Snack Bar!
- Need advice on whether I should sell and IG page
- Economic Disaster Loan
- Looking to buy 500+ baby security blankets from China or anywhere
- Advertising on Facebook
- Speaking with a new entrepreneur about how she started her business to help an animal sanctuary got me right in the feels.
- Morning yoga practice to improve attention/anxiety and reduce back/hip pain
| Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (April 03, 2020) Posted: 03 Apr 2020 06:13 AM PDT 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: 03 Apr 2020 05:14 AM PDT First, I believe that's the longest title I've written on Reddit. Second, it took me over a month for my anger to die down enough to write this post. Here's the short version first:
The problem lasted for over a month. I did everything I could to fix it. My account now is still bugged. It all began I was logged out from my account while working on some ads for a client. I've been traveling while using fb business manager for years, without having any issues. I've heard stories, but they never affected me. It may be because I took on a new client and using multiple ad accounts (not different logins; which is perfectly okay, but may have been a yellow flag since I was outside of the US. I attempted to do an account recovery, but the SMS wouldn't send. I waited several hours before trying again. Still no luck. I tried the next day. Nope. No SMS. I found out that if you text a 6 digit code to FB, they'll send you a text back. Sometimes there are problems with SMS when you're in another country. I tried this solution, but the code they sent me was the same – and it wasn't working. After doing this several times, I saw a message at my login that said to slow down. I'm attempting too many logins and I may get my account disabled. I Googled this problem and thought I found a solution. Here's where I admit I made a mistake. But considering FB does not provide support for personal accounts, I didn't have any other option. I wanted to get back to my ads which were active and spending. I couldn't login and use my business manager because it's the same profit as my personal account. The solution I found said to make a second account and add your number to it. This way, it will skip the SMS step on the main account and verify via email instead. The comments in this blog post said it worked, so I tried it. Unfortunately, this made the problem worse. The SMS step didn't go away. I was now stuck at the step before — the part where I select my phone number from a list. Since the number was removed, there's nothing to select. This is the step I couldn't and still can't get past. I messaged a business partner who was added to my account as an editor. He could see my ads, but not make changes. As a side note, you should always have people on your account who can edit your ads. Add a family member or someone you trust, just incase you get bugged like I did. My business partner was able to reach support. He sent a ticket and said it was for me -- the owner of the account. 2-3 days later, I got a phone call at 3am because I'm in another time zone. Since I was asleep, I didn't get the call. I emailed back and eventually reached someone 3-4 days later. I explained my situation and they gave me a list of links I had already tried. It was as if they didn't understand. They were just following protocol, I imagine. I was told there's nothing they can do. Since my personal account was bugged, they couldn't help. That's another department. No support is provided for personal accounts. I told them my ads were off. They said I could request a refund once I got my account back. But since they couldn't help me get my account back... yeah, you can understand my frustration. I got a second call a few weeks later. They told me that my business partner had full access to the account. I was sure he didn't, but they said he did and he can turn off the ads for me. Great, I said, and hung up. They lied. Maybe it was to get me off the call. In my experiences, they are not concerned with actually helping. They're more interested in meeting quotas, etc. I got numerous surveys throughout the process asking how satisfied I was with their help. I told them numerous times to turn off my ads. Every day, I was being charged money. Some days were profitable, so I let them run. But after a while, I wanted control back. They told me they're not allowed to make changes to the ads. I turned off charges via my credit card company. They stopped, finally. When I filed a dispute to get my money back, FB said that I was well aware I had ads running. I send the email conversation and highlighted the parts where they knew about my account being bugged, they couldn't help, and they couldn't turn off my ads. Basically, it's like being locked into a subscription you cannot turn off. I'm not a lawyer, but I think this is illegal. So, that's my story. If it helps one person not have this problem, it was worth writing. Update: Some people are calling out the fact that I kept the ads running. They are correct. I was fine with letting the ads run for a week or two because I assumed the problem would be fixed eventually. But after a while, I starting having doubts. FB support is horrible to deal with. When I requested that they turn off my ads, they said they couldn't. That's when I called my credit card company to reject further charges. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Apr 2020 09:04 AM PDT It's been 7 weeks since the launch of Dracula PRO and I made $17,876.38 in sales (see screenshot). I never thought I could make any money with a color theme for programmers, but it's now a reality. Here are 5 lessons I recently learned with this project. #1 When you launch something new there's a lot of hype. The next challenge is: How you keep the momentum going? What I'm doing now is:
#2 Refund requests will start to come in, but you need to stay positive. In the beginning, I'd care more about 1 refund than all the other sales I made. Don't get personally affected by that 1 negative experience. Focus on the "why" and try to avoid that from happening again. #3 Keep the expenses low. It's very easy to start investing and adding additional operational costs. How much you spend is equally important to how much you make. Stay lean. #4 Your launch was not the finish line, it's just the start. Listen to your users. Here's my system:
#5 Don't get distracted. With everything that is happening in the world, it's very easy to get distracted and lose motivation. If you already have a side-project, keep going. If you don't have a side-project, what are you waiting for? Today is a great day to start. [link] [comments]  |
| Anyone’s business doing better than usual in COVID times? Posted: 03 Apr 2020 12:24 PM PDT Thought it would be an interesting topic to discuss what businesses are doing better than they were pre-Covid. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Apr 2020 01:03 PM PDT |
| Posted: 03 Apr 2020 10:34 AM PDT With all this corona virus stuff going on it's been a pretty interesting time business wise. I thought I was going to lose practically all my clients, but surprisingly some of them have come out of the woodwork with new projects, particularly in response to covid, so it seems like what's happening now might create new work that hasn't ever existed before. I guess it just goes to show that people are really resilient, and will adapt to whatever circumstances come their way, and just have to be open and on the look out for any and all new opportunities. I've been thinking of ways I can try and future proof my business and thought this article had some interesting ideas / takes on things in it. I'm not at the scale of these guys, but my best tip at the moment is to personal keep in touch with clients as much as possible and be kind as so many people are struggling. Eg. If I can afford to do work for less money or help people out if they need it, or to give people more time to pay etc. then I feel like that is going to come back at some point, and people have been very appreciative of it. Anyone else have tips they've like to share? [link] [comments]  |
| What the hell is wrong with me Posted: 03 Apr 2020 02:01 AM PDT What a hell is wrong with me So I've ran numerous businesses for last 10 years and I mean real normal businesses - started from selling christmas trees on a street, to opening up a sushi bar, to representing companies abroad (agent/sales rep) to owning my current only business in textiles manufacturing, to boat rentals I was hit by a big scandalous eviction about a year ago that got me evicted from my place of boat rental business - which was very very unique and a proper success story in the making. Ever since then I was just riding my old horse that brings me home every time I need it - textiles manufacturing business. Whenever I recall from the past it seems like at every business I've created I sort of hit the wall - they all been max 3-8 employees in size, $300k-$500k turnover companies. More like a good paying job I've created for myself. I've started representing another company as a sales agent 6 months ago but just that their offer was too good to say no. Anyhow I feel tires of always ending up with a normal, regular established small business where I need to pretty much cope the shit and try to survive every contract. Instead I want to create and add big value and not to just be a supplier or a contractor, but a brand and a product hitting the frontlines. Now I end up sorting huge complex issues for a couple of thousand a month..I mean yes I'm lucky to have a job, there are poorer people out there, but I do feel there is much more out there to be done. Just do one get there? So I though I'll give it a shot during this pandemic crisis. The way I see it if there is demand there will be supply so I knew few people who can make hand sanitiser etc - and again I've hit a damn wall - I'm now just made myself a full time salesman calling and selling and making bucks.. but no value add, no brand, no perspective in the long run Where is my problem? I see others launching businesses and moving up and selling well without aggressive tactics of mine where I call email and knock on doors Somehow I just can't get out of this sort of middle income, small business trap [link] [comments]  |
| Programmer entrepreneur gives guided tour of his 10-year old profitable web app Posted: 03 Apr 2020 07:40 AM PDT Stumbled across this YouTube channel where a programmer solopreneur gives an inside view of their web app: https://youtu.be/aCzT-LQI6x0 [link] [comments]  |
| What's the best way to find out who a business's suppliers are? Posted: 03 Apr 2020 01:51 PM PDT Either for manufacturing or for shipping the final product? [link] [comments]  |
| Taking Advantage of An Economic Downturn Posted: 03 Apr 2020 09:41 AM PDT I'm using this time to start a business I've been thinking about for a while now and I think it's the perfect time to launch. I'm a supply chain/operational excellence expert and want to help businesses that don't have the resources to effectively manage their spend save money. Why is this the perfect time? Because when you aren't making sales, the only way to grow your business and stay profitable is by reducing your spend. Think about the difference between saving $10 and making a $10 sale. When you save $10, that hits your bottom line by reducing your fixed costs, which affect your operations across the board. It's a true $10 increase to your bottom line. My value prop is to offer businesses a free spend audit with recommendations on how they can save money. I'm also offering to manage those projects for a percentage of the savings that are actually achieved. My question is how can I convince small businesses who are so stressed about everything right now actually dedicate some time to consider this? [link] [comments]  |
| Future entrepreneurs! This one is for you!! Posted: 03 Apr 2020 11:42 AM PDT Take a look around. Open those eyes nice and big and see what is happening to the business world around us. Which businesses are thriving and which ones are gone? You don't need to hand count or keep track just build a mental image in your head of what it looks like. Realize that some businesses are only products of a good economy and will be gone as soon as that economy is too. Look and see what it means to be "essential" and let that be your compass to wealth and riches. That's all. [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for an Instagram DM Management system Posted: 03 Apr 2020 11:36 AM PDT Hello people, i hope you are staying safe. Quick question, two of my clients run their eCommerce businesses through Instagram. They receive 200-300 messages a day from clients asking them questions about products and sending them details about where to ship the products. They currently have some of their employees answer those messages. I was wondering if there are any System/Websites/Programs or anything like that, where they can organise or track all the message that they are coming in, and a way to see which employee answered each message? Thank you in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Local Business Owners: What are your biggest SEO questions/difficulties? Posted: 03 Apr 2020 11:18 AM PDT Hey everyone! I'm doing a bit of a survey to see what sort of questions/difficulties local business owners have around SEO and organic rankings. I'll answer any questions and try to help ouit as much as I can! Looking forward to hearing your feedback :) [link] [comments]  |
| Monetization Strategies for Marketplaces Posted: 03 Apr 2020 11:14 AM PDT The weird thing about running a marketplace, especially in the beginning, is that everyone on the platform makes more money than you. When I started MentorCruise and maybe made $100 or $200 per month from the platform, I had mentors on the platform making upwards of $500 every month. That was weird. I want to show you a few ways to monetize your marketplace, then: taking a commission is not the only way! Some of these are great to experiment with from Day 1, and some more only become a viable option with scale, so hang in there! Become a SupplierAs a marketplace, you are creating easier access to a certain supply, which wouldn't have been as easily accessible without it. A key to that are good suppliers, which will in return often make a lot more money than the platform. The easiest workaround to this is to become a supplier yourself. This has been quite a successful tactic, when looking at the history of some of the biggest marketplaces, since it allows you to:
This is definitely a Day 1 tactic, and also has allowed me to earn a few bucks on top of the platform revenue by mentoring others myself. Take a commissionThe golden standard is to take a commission. As a marketplace, you are connecting a supplier with a customer, so on whichever side there is a benefit, you would take a commission. For example, eBay makes it extremely easy to sell products thanks to the network effects, but buying those products is not much different from doing so through any other website, so the fee is often taken as a part of the final sales price. Airbnb on the other hand makes it extremely easy to book an apartment to stay in and slightly easier for the landlords to rent it out. That's why the fee for owners is often under 3%, while the fees for customers is usually around 10% or more. By taking a percentage A common way of taking a commission is to take a percentage of the sales price. This works usually well, because your suppliers ends up with a bigger check, and so do you. Percentages really depend on how much you, and how much your supplier is offering. For example, Upwork sources all projects and takes care of the application process and charges 20% for that. Airbnb facilitates access to short-term rental, but for a landlord it would be quite easy to source short-term rentals in a more unstructured way, so the fee is a little lower. By putting a fee on top The second way to do things is to put a fee on top of what you are going to pay out to a supplier. For example, at MentorCruise Sessions we promise mentors a certain amount per session that they do, and put a little markup on top for the public display. The difference goes to us. This is nice because it brings some more flexibility to things. You can experiment with different pricing strategies, enable discounts or promotions, and your supplier still receives their flat fee. Charge for AccessIf you are curating a source of suppliers which is hard to find and hard to get access to, you might be able to get away with charging for access to these suppliers alone. The good thing about this is that you will not have to enable any restrictions on the marketplace, and it turns the marketplace from being purely two-sided to…. one-and-a-half sided? GrowthMentor is doing this, for example, as they have created a resource of growth coaches, which are usually almost impossible to talk to. Plus, many of these mentors are ready to provide services for free or non-monetary payments (network, exposure). That's why on GrowthMentor you can pay recurrently for access to the bigger resource, and then use that resource (i.e. schedule calls with mentors) either for free or one-time payments. If you are in a situation like this, where you are creating access to a unique resource on one side, and have a resource looking for exposure or networking on the other side, this may be suitable. Scale: Promotion and Exposure OffersAs a marketplace grows on the supplier side, it will get harder for suppliers to get seen, especially if they are looking to build reputation or it's about a product that is available multiple times on the market. The most prominent example of this is ebay. As a seller on a global marketplace, you are entering a price and service fight with all other sellers. If you are missing the social proof (reviews) to back yourself up, or it's simply a product that is more of an impulse buy than something that people search for, then promoting it could be useful. It gets really interesting in cases like ebay, where promotion leads to a win-win. ebay does not charge the promotional fee, unless the item is sold. The promotions are backed up by data, and on average lead to a x% higher sales price. Makes sense to the supplier, makes sense to the platform. Maturity: Premium Tiers and Exclusive AccessEspecially in consumer marketplaces, navigating a marketplace can quickly become a game. Sellers want to sell the most, get the best ratings. People who are creating courses want to become the best course providers for a skill. Everyone wants to get the best ratings, the most sales, the biggest tips. It becomes competitive. For platforms, this is interesting, because it becomes crystal clear who your best suppliers are, and who is providing the best service. This is interesting because it allows you to curate a premium tier, for example for enterprises or wealthy customers who appreciate the added luxury. That's why Uber Black exists, that's how Airbnb Plus was founded and how arc is getting access to so many freelancers. Pricing strategies are probably the thing I am most excited about when it comes to marketplaces in general. Wouldn't it boring to just charge a recurring fee and be done with it? ;) ---- I write about two-sided marketplaces on my personal Substack, hope to see you over there. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Apr 2020 10:55 AM PDT Is there a way to get it out into a larger audience without spending too much? I don't have a lot of experience but I have a lot of time on my hands (thanks quarantine) so I'm willing to learn anything I need to. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Apr 2020 07:01 AM PDT Has anybody been able to apply for the PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) today? I bank with Chase and they are not taking applications yet due to lack of information from the government. Here's what they posted last night: https://recovery.chase.com/cares I'm wondering if other banks are doing the same, I'm worried I'll lose my chance to apply since it's a first come first served system. [link] [comments]  |
| Survey for a Potential New High-Protein Vegan Snack Bar! Posted: 03 Apr 2020 09:59 AM PDT Loopin Bar is an all-natural lupin-based vegan snack for consumers to enjoy while studying, working, or being on-the-go. It's high on protein and low on sugar. A great treat for people following a keto diet! Loopin Bar is a university project and we're looking to take people's opinion on whether or not they would buy this product if it ever became available. Please take the survey in the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MJ99R2W Visit us on www.LoopinBar.com to know more. Please sign up if you're interested :) Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/loopinbar/ Cheers! [link] [comments]  |
| Need advice on whether I should sell and IG page Posted: 03 Apr 2020 09:52 AM PDT Hey guys I'm new to a lot of this but over the past few months I've been growing an Instagram page in the car niche. This week I hit 5K and have almost a 25% engagement rate across the page. I've been holding strong but a couple of offers to buy the page came this week... One for $950. What's the income potential for this page later on and is this offer worth it? I'm growing at over 1K per week. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Apr 2020 02:15 AM PDT I was just curious if anyone else applied, and if they received it? I applied several days ago and nothing yet - not even an email confirmation, I am just curious if anyone has received theirs. I know that everything is backed up and everything is moving slow. Thanks ahead of time. [link] [comments]  |
| Looking to buy 500+ baby security blankets from China or anywhere Posted: 03 Apr 2020 07:28 AM PDT Like this baby lovey any animals, any brand or no brand. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Apr 2020 07:12 AM PDT Hello. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Apr 2020 06:55 AM PDT Giorgia Davies opened The Dog's Mother to Fund her Mission to Find Animals new homes. Tell me how you got into eCommerce? What made me start "The Dogs Mother '' was that I realized that I felt I had to do something sustainable to keep the wonderful sanctuary growing and reach a wider audience. By doing this, I also felt people would like to receive something for their donations, so allowing them to buy something small, or a novelty gift, and help dogs in need was a wonderful option, as we can donate the profits to Pineapple Pet Sanctuary, as they are a registered Not For Profit organization... And from this, The Dogs Mother was born. I decided to focus on animal (pet) related items, as this is my target market, people who support the Sanctuary, and people who own pets. Also, I did not want to do just standard pet items, as I couldn't compete for price-wise with larger stores, and chain stores, so I focussed on breed-specific handbags (A French Bulldog Bag, etc), jewelry (A boxer dog necklace), Keyrings, and everyday items that people will use that will remind them of their dog, but also remind them of our sanctuary and their kind donations. Starting out in eCommerce, was not only daunting, but completely unknown, as it is so new in reality, and there is so much contradicting information out there. However, it really is simple if you are willing to source, give up your evenings to do it, and commit to chasing every lead from every supplier and giving every order a personal touch. Are You Profitable? My website is making a small number of donations, and every little bit helps, I, however, do not class money as the only successful thing for a business, I class success as are we all happy? Yes! Are my customers? Yes! Am I making a difference in the world? Yes! We excel at the above, and we excel at what we do for dogs in need of rescue, as this is all the success I need. What's the most important thing you've learned through this journey? I would say to any entrepreneur to just go for it! just do it, just try it and if you're passionate enough you won't quit! Let's be honest, what has anyone got too loose? It's cheap to start up a business online, but it's cheaper to do nothing, and that helps no one. Oh, and learn your potential costs! 😃 In my opinion, in light of the world's problems, a lot of high flying entrepreneurs are not doing enough good to help combat these issues such as global warming. I feel that all entrepreneurs should be giving something back, even the smallest amount. THIS IS AN EXCERPT. Below the fold is a community where entrepreneurs share and inspire. Connect with and learn from other founders who are growing their businesses and read the full interview here: https://belowthefold.fm/interviews/the-dogs-mother [link] [comments]  |
| Morning yoga practice to improve attention/anxiety and reduce back/hip pain Posted: 03 Apr 2020 05:31 AM PDT I'm starting a new practice, where I do a series of yoga poses first thing in the morning. I decided to do this yesterday, after I realized that I was not focused on my work, because I was either in pain from sitting, or getting sidetracked with random other things (adhd problems). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5237364/ i think the reason why adhd helps with attention is that you're forcing yourself to do poses that are challenging, and this builds up the part of the brain where you ignore your urge/impulse, and instead focus on your goal: holding that pose for a minute (at least that's what I do). Anybody else enjoy yoga? Or have poses they recommend? [link] [comments]  |
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