Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (May 01, 2020) Entrepreneur

Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (May 01, 2020)
How to make sure your startup doesn't fail from co-founder misfit
I just secured a manufacturer to produce my invention, here are some lessons learned.
Why did Your Business Fail?
My answer to "Should you quit your full-time job to be an indie hacker?" - after a year of being indie
I made over $400 in sales today!
I launched a brand, LMK what you think
Is there a golden standard TAM, SAM, SOM metrics in Pitch Decks?
9 ways to grow your business during COVID-19 while saving money FULL GUIDE
People who majored business in college, did it help?
Does someone know what deal database means?
Is the American Dream alive in 2020?
First time we will be selling on amazon and I'm worried if amazon is known for copying products and if it's a place to sell a product that we made from the ground up ?
Free design for manufacturing advice this weekend. Mechanical Engineer with 10 years experience in product design and development. (Bored from quarentine)
How many times do you pay yourself?
Having a distinct way of doing business?
What are some effective business etiquette?
Are there any Canadian hair salon owners in here?
Are there any Canadian hair salon owners in here?
Are there any Canadian hair salon owners in here?
Are there any Canadian hair salon owners in here?
Helpful Online Resource for small businesses
Where do you start in self teaching yourself business/entrepreneurship? Also-Can you become successful with a cognitive disability and an IQ in the 80's?
"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value." - Albert Einstein
Google Ads question ... when should I show them the $99 price?
Google Ads question ... when should I show them the $99 price?

Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (May 01, 2020)

Posted: 01 May 2020 06:15 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.

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How to make sure your startup doesn't fail from co-founder misfit

Posted: 01 May 2020 11:57 AM PDT

👋 Hey everyone,

7 months ago, I started a company with my co-founder, who I only met 3 months prior. Fast forward to now and we've raised funding and have hired a small team, but I wanted to share the method and framework that we used to assess whether or not working together was a good idea since I figured this might be useful for some of you thinking of starting your own thing.

To evaluate co-founder fit, you have to answer four key questions:

Are you aligned in your goals, mission, and values? It's important to get a deep understanding of what drives each other, and if you're guided by similar values in the workplace.
Are your working styles compatible? You don't have to be clones in the way you work, but this section is meant to realistically assess if both your working styles are compatible, and what you might need to adjust to get there.
Do you have complementary skill sets? It's important to understand each other's natural competencies and work experience thus far. The goal is to find someone else with a complementary skill set and interests (e.g. branding, growth, product, design, engineering, data etc.) Some of these may be different depending on what space your startup is in.
How would you behave in certain scenarios? The startup journey is long and hard, and along the way you'll be faced with many difficult macro and micro decisions. Talking through how you would react in some of these scenarios, like what you would do if your vision diverges midway, can help you suss out how each person would behave.

If you found this helpful, I created a template on notion (completely free & no strings attached) that you can duplicate and use for yourself here. You can also read the full blog post I wrote on this here which goes into deeper into the framework.

I hope this was helpful, feel free to ask me any questions! You can also DM me on Twitter (adayeoyh) --much more active there!

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I just secured a manufacturer to produce my invention, here are some lessons learned.

Posted: 01 May 2020 10:28 AM PDT

I just secured a manufacturer to produce my invention here in my home state of Connecticut.

As a new entrepreneur here are a few lessons I learned through this part of the process :

1.) Some manufacturers are hard to find. The best deals I found were with small shop owners who usually do jobs for bigger shops. They don't necessarily have the best advertising, but will have better rates. Try thinking of other search terms that might bring them up, and search multiple places including google maps, ebay, etc.

2.) Have some patience. The manufacturer I finally went with took 3 weeks to get back to me. Keep in mind small shops usually have one guy that is secretary, owner, and chief engineer. Good shops are usually busy because they are good.

3.) Don't get discouraged if you get bad news up front. I made the mistake of taking the first quote I got too seriously and assumed that all manufacturers in the USA were that expensive. Turned out they were 3x more expensive that the smaller shops I started finding.

4.) Don't be afraid to call around, and remember, its a chance to learn. I made NDAs and shopped around half a dozen places. Remember not only are you gaining a quote each time, but also knowledge. Take advantage of learning from each supplier about their processes so you know more about what to ask the next guy.

5.) Ask for feedback. The first manufacturer I talked to ended up turning me down for a quote (mostly because of the pandemic.) Since they already knew me and my product, I took some time to draw up some questions. Over the phone I then asked them to rate me on each question and give suggestions for how I should approach them or other manufacturers in the future. The responses I got changed the way I was planning my business and made me look more professional to the next guy.

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Why did Your Business Fail?

Posted: 01 May 2020 07:01 AM PDT

Sharing what happened can be such an effective tool for moving forward, and for helping others. After all, looking at the reasons why something didn't work is just as, if not more valuable than looking at what did work.

It can be difficult to dig into why your business didn't work out and to admit to mistakes. But it is a very powerful took for yourself and others going forward. It can:

Encourage learning based on exploration rather than blame.
Equip teams with valuable knowledge and experience that they can use to avoid future losses.
Cultivate cross-team communication between teams in and outside of sales.
Act as a reminder that there are many important pieces on a chessboard. When a sales team loses a deal, lots of teams are involved in different ways and problem-solving should be tackled by many minds, not few.

So, if your business didn't work out, why? What do you identify as the biggest contributor to its fall?

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My answer to "Should you quit your full-time job to be an indie hacker?" - after a year of being indie

Posted: 01 May 2020 01:38 PM PDT

This is not going to be a theoretical post with a vague conclusion such as: "Either way is ok, it's up to you." That kind of posts doesn't end up telling you anything lol.

My answer is a definitive "Yes". However, if you're currently employed, you can be better prepared and strategically choose the time to take the jump.

I became an indie hacker (solo tech founder) a year ago. I've been employed for 12 years by then and I've tried to start many side-projects over the years with various milages. The thinking was "I'll do this thing on the side and if it explodes, I'll quit my job to focus on it. If I fail, I can say it's because it's a side-project and I wasn't serious."

Last year, I decided this is a waste of time to me. Life is too short to try a few things casually and conclude that it won't work. So I quit and started working on the idea I am most passionate about.

3 months later, when the progress was slower than I thought, I felt "Oh man, I should have prepared better before I quit. What if I go back and keep this as a side project?" My wife then told me "Don't give up, keep doing it. Give yourself a chance." So I continued.

What a classic example of lack of conviction - wishing I could work on a project full-time but when it actually happens, wishing I could work on it part-time. lol.

So here is what I learned being an indie and why my answer ultimately is "yes".

Launching a startup full-time is already hard. Doing it part-time requires MORE discipline to become successful, not LESS. So launching a successful start-up part-time is actually an "ADVANCED" mode, not the "EASY" mode as I thought.
I get 10X done when working on my product full-time than part-time. When I can work on it every day, there is no context-switching, I can use the most productive part of my day to work on the most important tasks, instead of doing them after a long day of work. That means I can see the progress and get feedback much faster, which keeps me motivated.
I can sustain momentum and traction. When I can consistently tweet to my followers, release updates, it really creates that sense of progress and boosts my users' confidence in this new company they've just heard. It's impossible to build that momentum when you release once every 2 months or tweets every 2 weeks working part-time.
Ultimately, the reason we all want to become an indie hacker is to build wealth, instead of selling our time. I am 3X happier working on what I am passionate about and it really boosts my energy level. I think choosing to create our own product is definitely the right path.

Lastly, I want to share what I could have done better before I quit. This is completely optional.

Build an audience. "Shamelessly" promise some products that you will deliver in the future. Don't feel guilty or insecure that you can't deliver. You can. Because when you have 1000 users waiting to see what you'll create, you'll be motivated to deliver like crazy. And if you ended up pivoting, nobody is going to blame you. They just move on.
Talk to customers. Figure out the pain points before you actually start building things. I generally find talking to customers to be less energy-draining than building things, which makes it perfect to do on the side. Try to avoid quit and then figure out, "Oh, who am I selling this to?" Which is what I did lol.

I hope this gives some insight to the many talented developers who are looking to create your own products one day.

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I made over $400 in sales today!

Posted: 01 May 2020 01:05 PM PDT

I know there are plenty who will see this and laugh and think that $400 in sales in one day is a pittance. I will look back on this day very soon and think it is a pittance. Today though, it is a cause for celebration. Three weeks ago, I broke down my first two weeks doing this. At that time, my total sales for my first two weeks was just under $400. Three weeks later, I have eclipsed that in a single day.

Like me or hate me, I'm literally giving you all the blueprint for starting at absolute zero and scaling up from there. I started out by straight up buying things from Goodwill.com and flipping them on eBay. I didn't put an exorbitant amount of cash into starting this up. What I have been doing and will continue to do can be replicated by literally anyone.

I've told people throughout my entire career that business is business. I started my career in Manufacturing and Distribution then made a huge jump mid career to the tech startup space. People thought I was an idiot when I did that too. Manufacturing and distribution is absolutely no different than IT I would tell them. Warehouse logistics and enterprise level systems logistics are literally the exact same concepts. Now those people no longer doubt me.

Scaling from $0 is the exact same concept as scaling from $1M, just harder. That's what I will prove to everyone next. Yeah, I'm basically in the household junk business at this very moment. My junk continues to get more expensive and more profitable though. A month and a half ago, I was dealing in 100% used junk. Now, I am tipping those scales so that they're about 30/70 IOB vs used with the IOB category comprising the bulk of my most recent purchases. I have discovered exactly what household junk is easy for me to scale and what isn't. I've figured out what categories give me headaches and which ones are easy money.

Waste Management Inc is one of my favorite companies in the world. One of the biggest companies in the US. The entire company is built on literal garbage. I have always believed that you can take garbage and turn it into an empire. Just putting my money where my mouth has always been.

If you're interested in seeing exactly what I sold, I made a short video going over the items. When I was doing research about getting into all of this, I watched a lot of the "What I sold today" videos. This is my first actual attempt at one of those types of videos so it's definitely not as good as the ones I learned from but I'll get there too. https://youtu.be/dfh976PQzc4

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I launched a brand, LMK what you think

Posted: 01 May 2020 08:07 PM PDT

I recently launched a brand and would love constitutive feedback. My first attempt at entrepreneurship.

www.wordsoferos.com

Thank you.

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Is there a golden standard TAM, SAM, SOM metrics in Pitch Decks?

Posted: 01 May 2020 09:26 PM PDT

Is there a golden standard industry size in TAM, SAM, and SOM that investors would be interested in investing? For instance, would a niche industry size - TAM - of just $100M seem attractive enough for investors? I've glanced through a few pitch deck examples and have noticed some TAM, SAM, SOM seems either low or ridiculously BS'ed. Am I missing something?

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9 ways to grow your business during COVID-19 while saving money FULL GUIDE

Posted: 01 May 2020 09:25 PM PDT

I want to share with you something that my partner and I created to help entrepreneurs and business owners during COVID-19:

It's a short guide that you can download here 9 ways to grow your business during COVID-19 while saving money

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People who majored business in college, did it help?

Posted: 01 May 2020 08:40 AM PDT

If it did, to what extent?

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Does someone know what deal database means?

Posted: 01 May 2020 07:08 PM PDT

My boss is asking me to find it but I have no idea what it means. Supposed to be in regards to accelerators.

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Is the American Dream alive in 2020?

Posted: 01 May 2020 06:09 PM PDT

Firstly, I apologize if this is too abstract for this sub. I've been here for a very long time and I feel as though the minds in here are capable of a comprehensive discussion about this - the ultimate entrepreneurial question.

Everybody has their own definition of it. Generally speaking, we're talking about the ability to go from having nothing, knowing nobody, and being nowhere, to the exact opposite - provided you work hard and do the right thing.

Also generally speaking, everybody seems to agree that to some degree, the dream is "dead." Maybe this means that due to monopolies, it is more difficult now than ever to go from rags to riches. Maybe not on the scale of low class to top tax bracket, but certainly on the scale of average joe to Fortune 500 CEO.

I look at individuals such as Bezos, Iger, and Jobs - none seemingly born into rich families, none with extraordinary connections or top 5 educations, yet these are just a few of the men who essentially run/ran the world. As big data and technology have a social and economic influence that continues to exponentially expand, some companies will almost inevitably become more powerful than some governments.

I'm not asking whether the dream is still alive in the sense that you can go from being the first in your family to attend college to owning your own six figure revenue start up. I'm asking whether we're at a point in civilized human history where the giants are too powerful.

Bezos started amazon in the late 70's. Now, 40 some years later, he owns supply chains, industries, and most importantly, data. He has the predictive intelligence to make nearly anybody buy anything. Can somebody who starts their "amazon" in the late 2020's compete with the amazon empire in 2050? Or are we simply too far gone?

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First time we will be selling on amazon and I'm worried if amazon is known for copying products and if it's a place to sell a product that we made from the ground up ?

Posted: 01 May 2020 05:00 PM PDT

Hi guys a little background , me and my mom have been working on this company for a while now , we have a product that would be categorized as skin care or beauty. She made this product through traditional means that take root from her family history. But since amazon is such a big platform and is another means of getting our product out to more consumers , I thought it would be a good idea to sell on amazon and not just our website. However I notice that not all businesses sell all their products on Amazon just a select few and I'm wondering why ? I'm also wondering if I missed some fine print that allows amazon rights to our product ? I'm asking this because I stumbled upon an old question regarding someone stating that amazon copied their product. Is this something me and my mom should be worried about ?

I have trademarked everything about our product. But I'm curious on exactly how much we should be utilizing amazon. We shouldn't be dependent on it right ?

The most I see sold commonly are products that people can buy wholesale and redistribute.

Any insights for people experienced with dealing with amazon would be greatly appreciated. I'm here to learn , I'm always learning so any info would be appreciated.

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Free design for manufacturing advice this weekend. Mechanical Engineer with 10 years experience in product design and development. (Bored from quarentine)

Posted: 01 May 2020 08:20 PM PDT

Looking to help anyone with any engineering design questions. I am stuck at home and bored!

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How many times do you pay yourself?

Posted: 01 May 2020 08:08 PM PDT

I'm a sole prop. and pay myself once a week. My bank allows only 4 transactions a month. Should I figure out what I owe a month in bills and pay myself a 1-month lump sum? I have citizens bank for business. Any suggestions?

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Having a distinct way of doing business?

Posted: 01 May 2020 07:14 PM PDT

Some business owners might be focus heavily on Product. Other business owners might focus heavily on Brand.

If a company wanted to try to get a competitive edge they should commit to doing business their own unique way? And keep doing it that unique hard to replicate way( hard for other business employees to replicate).

This is the goal for most businesses to create their own unique mix of brand, product, marketing? Or should businesses be looked at who can run a 'tighter ship' so to speak?

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What are some effective business etiquette?

Posted: 01 May 2020 06:41 PM PDT

Can you recommend a set of best practices or business etiquette for dealing with client relationships?

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Are there any Canadian hair salon owners in here?

Posted: 01 May 2020 06:17 PM PDT

I am having trouble sourcing some products for the startup of my salon and I would like to pick your brain if so!

submitted by /u/CzechThisOut
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Are there any Canadian hair salon owners in here?

Posted: 01 May 2020 06:17 PM PDT

I am having trouble sourcing some products for the startup of my salon and I would like to pick your brain if so!

submitted by /u/CzechThisOut
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Are there any Canadian hair salon owners in here?

Posted: 01 May 2020 06:17 PM PDT

I am having trouble sourcing some products for the startup of my salon and I would like to pick your brain if so!

submitted by /u/CzechThisOut
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Are there any Canadian hair salon owners in here?

Posted: 01 May 2020 06:17 PM PDT

I am having trouble sourcing some products for the startup of my salon and I would like to pick your brain if so!

submitted by /u/CzechThisOut
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Helpful Online Resource for small businesses

Posted: 01 May 2020 06:13 PM PDT

Hi fellow Entrepreneur's , Newbie and short time lurker here. I was wondering if there might be opportunity to help small businesses in local area by providing them guidelines how to navigate through covid.

Sorry cant make a poll, maybe don't have enough karma !

Options :- 1. Yes, it will help people out.

2 There are already too small help manuals/ you can look it up online.

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Where do you start in self teaching yourself business/entrepreneurship? Also-Can you become successful with a cognitive disability and an IQ in the 80's?

Posted: 01 May 2020 05:45 PM PDT

I live in a rural area, have a cognitive disability and an official psychologically tested IQ in the 80's, can't drive due to my cognitive disability, etc. School was an absolute nightmare for me and I can't afford college. I still can learn new things it just takes me a little longer than most people. I really struggle with reading books especially. I learn a lot more from videos. I'm wondering if I could still be a successful entrepreneur long term if i'm willing to work 14 hour days / 7 days a week and learn business. I feel like i'm in a hell I can't escape from but i'm staying very upbeat and positive-proactive about my situation. No excuses! Not even a disability. The market doesn't give a shit. So to sum it all up "How can I self teach myself business and entrepreneurship online?" Do I start with Accounting? Finance? Marketing? Computer Science? Where the heck do I start? Thanks everyone for your time.

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"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value." - Albert Einstein

Posted: 01 May 2020 05:40 PM PDT

Focus on this and you're far more likely to be a successful entrepreneur.

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Google Ads question ... when should I show them the $99 price?

Posted: 01 May 2020 05:28 PM PDT

I'm releasing a software product soon and I'm toying with text for Google Ads.

Theoretically, let's say it read:

"Need to do XYZ? This tool does it for you. Watch the 30 second demo video."

I'm thinking of putting the price in there, like so ...

"Need to do XYZ? This tool does it for you for $99. Watch the 30 second demo video."