Marketplace Tuesday! (August 25, 2020) Entrepreneur |
- Marketplace Tuesday! (August 25, 2020)
- “Be impatient with your actions. Be patient with your results.” - James Clear
- I turned 40 this summer. I spent my 20s building businesses and my 30s investing in early stage founders. Here are a few things I’ve learned thus far.
- Is there a framework/flowchart for evaluating the viability of a startup idea?
- In 2015, Marvel did an awesome Ad Campaign for Ant-Man that blew me away, here are my ideas on how to replicate the same kind of success but on a smaller scale.
- Tired of running my business. Kind of lost on what to do. Just burnout? Or should I quit?
- Have an idea. Needs coding. Where to start when I don’t know how to do that?
- My startup / idea validation process for great, quick insights.
- My country offers financial aid to start new business for young people. What idea might work here?
- Growth Marketing Sessions: Ask and Recieve #01
- Just launched by B2B SASS and need user feedback and suggestions
- Infiltrating competition advice
- I plan on overtaking an Instagram account that has about 35k followers. I would continue to produce the same content already on the page in hopes to grow the page to over 100k followers.
- Weekday Nugget #9 - Random Lessons From A 7 Figure Entrepreneur - Entrerpeneurship Doesn't HAVE To Be Risky.
- Why do I have a starting problem?
- MOVO Robbed Me Of All My Money
- What's the best way to sell when your product is knowledge or a method. I'm thinking e-book, but not sure if that's the best way. Thoughts?
- How do you come up with business ideas?
- Looking for USA-based wholesale hat suppliers w/ flexible customization
- Selling a web site with low revenue?
- Help sourcing prototype material
- Odd Job Business Liability Conundrum
- Please recommend some good newsletters for entrepreneurs/startups
- Use Interview task to launch my own product?
| Marketplace Tuesday! (August 25, 2020) Posted: 25 Aug 2020 06:08 AM PDT Please use this thread to post any Jobs that you're looking to fill (including interns), or services you're looking to render to other members. We do this to not overflow the subreddit with personal offerings (such logo design, SEO, etc) so please try to limit the offerings to this weekly thread. 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]  |
| “Be impatient with your actions. Be patient with your results.” - James Clear Posted: 25 Aug 2020 07:58 AM PDT I think a reminder like this is so valuable to entrepreneurs. Keep grinding! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Aug 2020 10:40 AM PDT Greetings to anyone else out there in the Oregon Trail Generation that is crossing (or has recently crossed) the 40 mark. :) We're old enough to remember an analog world, but young enough to have grown up with the early days of the Internet. It's been quite a ride thus far. As Anna Garvey wrote in this brilliant post about the uniqueness of our generation:
The whole article is well worth reading. I am regularly thankful that I didn't go through my teenage years with a smartphone and social media, but those came pretty quick in our 20s and we were the guinea pigs. They still mess with my head at 40, and my kids (9, 12, 14) are now part of a new group of young GenZ-ers choosing to limit their own screen time because they don't like how it makes them feel (!). They'd prefer to read old-school/non-kindle books and play hours of Dungeons and Dragons, which is pretty sweet (and highly recommended). Anyway, in my 20s I learned to code, built some online businesses, and got lucky that a couple of them were in the right place at the right time and got rolled up by bigger players. In my 30s I started investing in a bunch of founder teams across digital (B2B SaaS, marketplaces, consumer) and brick-and-mortar (education, food service, on-prem VR, etc…). I'm in the process of writing multiple books on angles/approaches I see relatively open in entrepreneurship and health science space (I did my doctoral work in bioengineering) - and maybe I'll finish some of them before I turn 50 - but I wanted to take a quick moment and share a few things in case anyone out there finds these useful and/or would like to chat about them: Most businesses fail because of relational conflict that leads to operational inefficiency No one really talks about this because it's super, super awkward and embarrassing. If you Google "reasons why startups fail" you'll see lists of things like not having market need/demand, running out of cash, getting crushed by competition, etc… but from my experience the root cause of closing doors is always because of founder/team/investor conflict, or simply a lack of healthy communication that leads to slow relational death, operational sluggishness, and/or an inability to pivot. Therefore, as an entrepreneur one of the most important things you can do before you even think about business stuff is to pick a personal worldview that promotes empathy, generosity, and compassion. Be aware of your biases, personality, wiring, quirks, and dogma that you believe. Actively work on becoming more empathetic, generous, and compassionate (yes, these are worth repeating). Wake up every morning and meditate on these things, and work through conflict graciously...bringing in thoughtful 3rd parties to mediate as needed. If you don't find yourself ever in conflict, you are either not aware of the communication break-downs that are happening around you, or you aren't being ambitious enough. Likely both. Build your own financial model from scratch If you don't know how to build, forecast, navigate, and maintain a basic income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows, take a few hours to learn. A VC friend and I wrote up a series on startup financial modeling here if you are interested in getting started, otherwise ask your accountant (or friend in finance/business) to give you a primer. Having your past performance and future projections in one collection of sheets, with all your assumptions and custom formulas baked in, is a pure gold mine. It will help you face the brutal facts of your business, allow you to smartly make capital and resource allocation decisions, and give you the power to run experiments with a simple model to see how tweaking this or that impacts your long-term cash flow. If you raise money, being able to walk an investor cell-by-cell and sheet-by-sheet through your model is a fantastic way to win their heart (it's certainly one of my love languages, and I know I'm not alone). Understand how to create leverage and build assets If you haven't yet fully digested all of Naval's succinct material on the topic of leverage, read the tweets/articles and listen to the full podcast. Long story short, old-school things like money, human resources, and books, and new-school things like blogs, email newsletters, videos/podcasts, and - perhaps most importantly - code .. are tools/things that can make you and your businesses money while you sleep. If you are a person of integrity and can focus on producing assets that create leverage, you will go far in life. Get into flow often That state of mind where you lose track of time because you are immersed in an activity, project, book, code, etc… you'll want to optimize your life to do this as much as possible. Not only will this help you with the three pieces of advice I offered above, but it's likely to make you a happier person. --- I'll stop there for now. I'd be happy to answer any questions and/or support others who can fill in more color on the above from their own experience. [link] [comments]  |
| Is there a framework/flowchart for evaluating the viability of a startup idea? Posted: 25 Aug 2020 03:13 AM PDT Was wondering if any of you guys used any formal framework or flowchart to evaluate any opportunities or startup ideas that might pop in your head from time to time. Resources would be appreciated! edit: I have googled some random ones but am curious to see your guys' favorite ones. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Aug 2020 06:38 PM PDT I recently broke down this amazing campaign because I was so excited about how creative it was. Essentially the joke was that Ant-Man is tiny, so let's use this hilarious predicament. They commissioned talented artists like Slinkachu to make miniature figurines and put them across London. They made mini billboards and small bus stations too. It was this type of creative guerrilla marketing that made this campaign go viral. The key takeaway here was that it didn't matter that these figurines and mini art installations were local because they were so creative and smile-inducing that people wanted to tell their friends about it. Word-of-mouth in today's landscape is sending a tweet or tagging a friend in a meme - it's got potential to go global, which it did for Marvel. If you can make a physically creative installation, poster, or something that can put a smile on someone's face, you've got a great and potentially very inexpensive way to get attention. Examples:
These aren't crazy creative because I thought about them in a few minutes, but putting in some time to do something different can go a very long way. There's no dollar figure on creativity, the less money you have the more resourceful you can get. Go kick some ass, guys & gals 💪 - Sah [link] [comments]  |
| Tired of running my business. Kind of lost on what to do. Just burnout? Or should I quit? Posted: 25 Aug 2020 01:07 PM PDT Basically I've been running my e-commerce jewelry business for 3 years now nearly. This is my first ever successful business. I've dabbled here and there before for fun but this is the first one that really took off and I've been doing it full-time. I definitely have been chasing money the whole time. This was in no way focused on brand building at all. I started this for fun and it just grew and grew and GREW. I never thought about branding or the long run of this business. I just wanted to make tons of money so I could quit my then shitty job. I did $100K my first year. Did $100k by the halfway mark this year despite Corona. Here's my thing. I don't feel passionate about my business at all anymore. In fact, I truly think I hate it. I hate the direction it's gone in. I honestly just want to take the knowledge I've gained from running this first one and start a new business, this time taking the branding full throttle and do everything I wanted to do with this business. However it's my only source of income right now and despite social media engagement going down the drain, I've been almost consistently doing $10K+ a month in 2020. I'm wondering if I should just quit and start my new business? Quit and get a job again while I start my second business? I have more than enough money to be okay for at least a year. I'm afraid to let go even though I hate my current business. I don't know if I can salvage it either via rebranding or if I even want to. This is a matter of the soul for me I guess. I feel like my business is crumbling before me and nothing I've been doing can fix it. Advice for a young first time business owner? [link] [comments]  |
| Have an idea. Needs coding. Where to start when I don’t know how to do that? Posted: 25 Aug 2020 01:44 PM PDT Sorry if this is a naive question: I have an idea for a business that would profit from being supported by an app. Here's the catch: although I know some basics I am by no means a programmer. Should I put in the time and learn programming or should I outsource this? Just curious to hear your thoughts in general. [link] [comments]  |
| My startup / idea validation process for great, quick insights. Posted: 25 Aug 2020 05:46 AM PDT I've worked with, and mentored, hundreds of startups in recent years. And lack of validation has to be about the biggest, and most prevalent, issue I see in very early stage businesses. This is the short validation process I've been developing over recent months. It's far from comprehensive, but I've been getting great results from it. Would be interested in any feedback, or areas in which you think it could be improved! https://neilcocker.com/2020/08/22/my-startup-validation-process/ [link] [comments]  |
| My country offers financial aid to start new business for young people. What idea might work here? Posted: 25 Aug 2020 09:56 AM PDT So, it is possible to get up to 20k€ and you have to keep business alive for several years (and some smaller requirements). I live in a rather small country of 3 million residents, what kind of business I could start (besides IT stuff) that would not require significant monthly expenses, maybe investing up-front (like canoeing, you buy equipment but then you don't have that much upkeep cost if income drops). I don't expect to become rich, I just need something reasonable to get some extra money as it is very hard to start any business without government help. Any ideas appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Growth Marketing Sessions: Ask and Recieve #01 Posted: 25 Aug 2020 10:57 AM PDT Hey everyone, I posted a while back about my success in my business but recently pivoted and grew my team. I'm now building in the open and often share growth marketing advice for B2B and B2C startups due to previously working in Growth Marketing roles in Vaynermedia's Startup & SMB division and for some big names such as Centrica/British Gas. What I learned during my experience is that most founders and CEOs don't trust marketing or don't know the difference between good and bad marketing. On one side this is due to scammers and poor marketers and on the other end, it's due to lack of knowledge of quality marketing. I want to help out anyone who needs marketing advice, so I can see where the gaps in my knowledge are. This will be a weekly thread but all you have to do is post a question on how to grow your business with your website included and I will reply with a nonobvious strategy/tactic to help. Comment away. [link] [comments]  |
| Just launched by B2B SASS and need user feedback and suggestions Posted: 25 Aug 2020 10:31 AM PDT #UserFeedback #CustomerSuggestions #FreeAccess #NoteTaking #Automation #ProductivityTool Hey Guys, After a long fight and lots of sleepless night of coding, we finally launched our B2B SASS application. Since launch, we have been receiving some great feedback. We still need some more honest feedback and suggestions. So here is what we have made - "ReChord" - an AI-Powered note-taking application that seamlessly integrates with various online meeting platforms like Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and at the end of the meeting it automates the meeting summary, MOM, action items, decision points, speaker information and much more.Here is what ReChord does for your meetings -
We are really excited to talk to some users get their feedback and also we will be giving 1 month of #FreeAccess to the users. Here is a link to book a demo with us, so that we can show you the tool and also get your feedback [link] [comments]  |
| Infiltrating competition advice Posted: 25 Aug 2020 02:01 PM PDT I have found a niche and idea I wish to execute I did market research and analysis to the best of my personal ability, upon research I came across a hidden site that does what I plan to do (B2B), I don't mind this as competition is good and having a playbook there is great, But getting any information on their operations has been beyond aids. This site runs a B2B middle man program for a certain niche, I want to learn what to expect and how to handle it or at least formulate scenarios and solutions. In less then a year of running with low overhead they generated 100k gross revenue (as stated publicly) but The beautiful thing is they don't hit all the fields they can hit and better more they don't hit the fields I intended to hit. They are a Russian site, what are methods I can use to gain research on them with? If I had to compare it to anything it's like a operation where they would connect lawn mowing business to lawn mowers. It's super tight lipped and the site only shows what it needs to businesses. Am sorry if this isn't enough information to go off of but any and all advice would be welcome. They also seem to have weak site security:/ if that counts for anything [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Aug 2020 01:46 PM PDT I plan on doing this in hopes of monetizing my followers down the line while producing content. I enjoy video editing and see this as an opportunity. Any thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Aug 2020 01:18 PM PDT What up all, So I appeared on a podcast today and I was asked a question that caused me to job my brain and basically spit out my 5 step recipe for success. I won't write out the five steps but one of the things I thought about was---why my entrepreneurial career has gotten less and less risky as I've gained more experience. I also wrote a much more aggressive blog post on this 4 years ago that I won't link here, but my overall thoughts are the same. Individual jobs are stable short term, risky long term. Businesses are more risky in the short term but can be a lot more stable in the long term. Why? There is one statement that blew my mind first time I read it and I still have to pause and reflect every time I say it: Every single client you have is an additional source of income Yes, the amount of income you gain from one client is probably small, but if you have 1,000 clients paying you each year and you piss off one of them, you still have 999 clients. At a job, you are one person away from losing your only source of income at pretty much any moment. Yea, I know you techies can go and find another job fast---I get it. I'm also aware that certain businesses can be wiped out overnight---and many have. But for many companies---especially companies that have recurring clients---they can be rock freaking solid. Simply put---there are usually ways you can run your business model that are more protective against failure and therefore less risky. As an example---around two years into running my call center (a premium answering service "virtual receptionist company") we finally got to the point where not one of our single clients was responsible for more than 1% of our total revenue. On average, our clients paid us about $300/month, and I would personally take home ~$1,000/year for each client we had. A lot of call centers will go after some large 5-6-7 figure monthly contracts, land 5-15 of them and call themselves a solid business. ...and the revenue would be solid. But the biggest issue is that when your client pool is that small, you are forced to be beholden to each one of them, especially if one of your clients is particularly large or a big portion of your revenue. In those cases---losing a client means layoffs, organizational change and maybe some mayhem. When we would lose a client? Welp, ask them what we can do better and move on. No one had to be nervous about anything, and it allowed us to focus on running our business in a way that made more sense. My point here is this: my goal wasn't (and isn't) to maybe become an entrepreneur, and make a career out of it. I hated the job world so much I didn't see any other choices. I would tear myself up going to sleep at night while working a 6-figure cushy job because I hated the concept of not having control of my life. This meant I needed to follow an approach that all but guaranteed that I would be able to be a business owner as a career. So I went after simple businesses This approach allowed me to go 7 for 11 on businesses reaching at least 6 figures in revenue (and only one never had a chance) and eventually sell 4 companies in completely different markets (SAAS, Cleaning, Events, Answering) If I tried to build apps or raise capital for every venture or try to do something in a new market---I could very well be 0-20 by now. So today's nugget is---realize that entrepreneurship is an entire spectrum of risk and opportunity, and if you go after the sur-er stuff, you're much more likely to succeed. Thanks for reading! If you'd like to keep up with these nuggets, please join our group at /r/weekdaynuggets Love, Don [link] [comments]  |
| Why do I have a starting problem? Posted: 25 Aug 2020 01:00 PM PDT When I say that I mean I will start a business but never finish it. Like as soon as I get the equipment then its boring and I'm not interested in it. Is anyone else like this? [link] [comments]  |
| MOVO Robbed Me Of All My Money Posted: 25 Aug 2020 12:49 PM PDT Do not use Movo banking or cash app. They froze my account and won't let me access the account or my money. I've called over and over and they put me into their call system in which the music just loops over and over and tells me to please continue to hold or leave voice message. I also created a support ticket with no response. I am a single Mom and that is all the money I had. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Aug 2020 12:47 PM PDT I'm basically selling knowledge on how to do something. The easiest method that I've learned from experience. [link] [comments]  |
| How do you come up with business ideas? Posted: 25 Aug 2020 08:53 AM PDT No right or wrong answer, just interested to hear how you all go about coming up with business ideas, ideas for new products / services for your existing business... [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for USA-based wholesale hat suppliers w/ flexible customization Posted: 25 Aug 2020 12:33 PM PDT Currently building out a clothing brand (I know, oversaturated) and working with Chinese suppliers is the worse (currently working thru Alibaba). Quality is the main component and hard to drill down the right supplier. Any recommendations on US based suppliers at a decent price? Also open to foreign suppliers if you've had a good experience. This is my first venture to get the beak wet so any help is appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Selling a web site with low revenue? Posted: 25 Aug 2020 12:29 PM PDT I've got a web site, airbnb clone with a different angle. I developed it for a few months made a bit of money. I don't have time to work on it anymore. It works well, looks nice, no bugs, looks like it's worth a lot. Good domain name too. Key word, .com 8 letters. It has huge potential. Do you think i can sell it on flippa ? Not much revenue but i guess i could inflate it a bit. Looks like $5000 a month. [link] [comments]  |
| Help sourcing prototype material Posted: 25 Aug 2020 11:23 AM PDT Hi all, I'm an aspiring inventor and have been desperately trying to find a way to source silicone for my prototype (also to be used in final product) and thought I would try here as I've exhausted any leads I had (including Alibaba) to get the material. I can't seem to get anyone to speak to me at length since once they find out that I'm an inventor and don't want to buy in bulk at this time, they stop responding. The stuff I'm looking for is what they make those silicone pot scrubbers out of (double sided with 'bumps' on both sides). This is the only thing holding me up from doing a true test with my prototype so any thoughts or ideas would be much appreciated! Also if it helps, I'm trying to get this material in a large sheet, like the size of a towel. silicone image [link] [comments]  |
| Odd Job Business Liability Conundrum Posted: 25 Aug 2020 11:21 AM PDT I've got a business that connects local residents looking for simple odd jobs - like yard work, lifting an item, etc. - with local college and HS students. It is run with the students being treated as independent contractors. Revenue has been 25-30K @ ~10-20% profit over two months. For the business to continue, I'd like to obtain some sort of general liability insurance. However, these "independent contractors" (the students) don't carry their own liability insurance. They're students, not professional contractors, after all. However, most insurance companies won't provide general liability insurance to a company that technically subcontracts all of its work to uninsured independent contractors. Is it possible to obtain general liability insurance for a business of this nature? Additionally, what other forms of liability and legal coverage would you consider relevant? Thanks for your help. [link] [comments]  |
| Please recommend some good newsletters for entrepreneurs/startups Posted: 25 Aug 2020 10:40 AM PDT |
| Use Interview task to launch my own product? Posted: 25 Aug 2020 09:49 AM PDT So I have been working in a crypto industry for a while. Recently while interviewing for one of the competitors, I was given a task to be evaluated upon. The idea behind the task already exists in parallel industry but not in crypto market. I believe my task's output will be used by the company to launch their own product. I and some of colleagues in the past have been contemplating to start something of our own, but didn't have any good idea. Would this be considered stealing the idea? Does it seems ethical thing to do? [link] [comments]  |
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