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    Thank you Thursday! - (August 06, 2020) Entrepreneur

    August 06, 2020

    Thank you Thursday! - (August 06, 2020) Entrepreneur

    Thank you Thursday! - (August 06, 2020)

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 06:08 AM PDT

    Your opportunity to thank the /r/Entrepreneur community by offering free stuff, contests, discounts, electronic courses, ebooks and the best deals you know of.

    Please consolidate such offers here!

    Since this thread can fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts.

    submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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    How I scaled my business to $47.5k revenue at 90% profit margins in 13 months

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 06:00 AM PDT

    Hey r/entrepreneur!

     

    Long time lurker, but I wanted to share with you my experience in the last 13 months of building my biz (I quit my job at the end of June 2019 and immediately started working on my company).

     

    So as the title implies, we've been able to grow our company to near $50k revenue a month at essentially 90% profit margins (proof here) (I included that since I know r/entrepreneur has a hard on for cash flow and hates when people talk about revenue without profit haha).

     

    Anyhow, this post isn't going to be just jerking myself off, I'm just going to tell you exactly what I did in terms of client acquisition, strategies, tools used, hires made, and everything else to give you insight on how I made this happen.

     

    And also, I don't want to give anyone this false expectation that hitting nearly $50k a month is normal to do in a year. My UNFAIR ADVANTAGE is that I'd been in sales and digital marketing for 7 years prior at startups. I already knew (more or less) how companies scale from 0 to a million, because I literally was the director of growth at a company that went from 0 to 2.5M right before starting this recent company of mine.

     

    That being said, one thing that should make you feel good is that I had less than 7k startup capital needed. This was totally bootstrapped from savings I had from my previous role. And to date, I've spent 0 money on paid ads, brought in 0 additional funding, had no one come in to take equity in exchange for help. This is totally done grassroots.

     

    Anyhow, I run an online program which combines private coaching, a group mastermind, supported by a learning platform that teaches my clients how to implement certain tactics and strategies.

     

    I have both retainer and project clients, but typically customer LTV is between $5 to $7k. So it's a high-ticket productized service.

     

    So with that being said, this probably won't be relevant at all if you're doing stuff like e-comm, brick and mortar, the "sweaty startup" type thing. This is ONLY going to help if you're selling an expensive online offering (imagine online consulting, maybe agency services, perhaps a more pricy SaaS/software product). I'm not offended if you just skip this post if this no longer relates.

     

    The reason why this is possible is because I spend under $750 per month on client acquisition per month (my costs consist only of some software tools I use to manage biz dev + a little bit of payroll)

     

    On the fulfillment side, I primarily do coaching/consulting + manage my learning platform. This productized service model is very scalable and costs me nothing out of my time doing the coaching + the costs for the tech that support my learning platform (under $100 a month).

     

    Anyhow, with that being said, I wanted to show you the 4 distinct stages of growth I experienced that helped me scale.

     

    Stage One - 0 to $7k per month

     

    So, in the beginning, I was totally reliant on Linkedin cold outreach.

     

    First step was optimizing my profile so it was not just a janky online resume, but more like a landing page (with sales copy, testimonials, content, etc).

     

    That way, if people visited my profile, they would clearly get what I do and how I help.

     

    Here's my Linkedin profile as reference.

     

    At the time, I was serving primarily SaaS companies and agencies, and I figured Linkedin made the most sense.

     

    I set up an automated campaign that reached out to 100 connections per day, everyday (minus weekends).

     

    Now, I think it's important to be a bit cautious with automation.

     

    The two main concerns are breaking Linkedin's terms and getting your account frozen, but also having spammy reachout which annoys people.

     

    With the first problem, I solved it by using a really specific tool.

     

    First off, the tool is NOT a Chrome extension (since those are the ones that get you in trouble). Also, it was a private access only tool (which I was lucky enough to get invited into). The team who built it doesn't actually market it at all, meaning it's user base is much smaller than the other tools which are actively growing and marketing, so it really flies under the radar.

     

    The second problem is (in my opinion) the more important one. How to avoid being spammy.

     

    The way I got around it is that with Linkedin, my automation is only used to connect and start dialogue. I don't do ANY selling or pitching with the pre-built multi-step campaigns I have. The sole purpose of the outreach is to get the prospect to just respond to me.

     

    I do this by asking interesting questions, commenting on industry trends and challenges, relating my own experience in the space, etc.

     

    Because of my conversational approach, my campaigns did quite well. Here is just one of the many campaigns I built, but the numbers are quite similar through my other campaigns.

     

    The thing is, the campaign's outcome is that the prospect responds. No meeting has been booked yet. Meaning I still got to take it from there to a call booked.

     

    So what I try to do is engage in dialogue, establish rapport, identify fit and prospect problem alignment, and then I pitch.

     

    Here's an example of the conversation flow that I use to take a dialogue through to meeting - broken up into a few sections since the convo is too long to screenshot at once.

     

    Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

     

    So when you replicate the initial automated conversation campaign, those 100 new connection requests turn into between 10 to 15 conversations (as shown in the metrics above).

     

    And then, by manually managing the DM's, being personalized, I typically turn a 25 to 33% of them into meetings booked in the calendar.

     

    So this usually meant I was booking 3 to 5 calls a day.

     

    At that point, it was just jumping on the call to close the deal.

     

    Stage Two: $7k to $16k per month

     

    So Linkedin was great, but there was a very clear ceiling in terms of pipeline generation because you can't send more than 100 connection requests per day (or you'll get in trouble with Linkedin).

     

    With Linkedin alone, I was having a hard time breaking five-figures per month.

     

    So what I did was I started messing around on Facebook groups, and sharing content.

     

    Facebook groups are really cool because it's just a collection of like-minded people hanging out, sharing advice, and asking for help.

     

    So I went and joined around 30 FB groups that I thought were a good fit in terms of audience.

     

    It was as easy as typing in "SaaS", "Growth Hackers", "Consulting and Agency Owners", "High-Ticket Coaches", and letting FB point me to the most engaged groups.

     

    Then, what I did was start sharing helpful content in those groups.

     

    The key here is you CANNOT sell or pitch. If you do, the admins of those groups will remove your posts.

     

    So instead, I just tried to help, and avoid talking about my business altogether.

     

    Here's a few examples of me posting very recently.

     

    This is just the preview, but each of these posts are about the length of a blog post (1500 words-ish).

     

    And although they are written like a case study, they DO NOT sell my offer or even talk about what my product is at all.

     

    Most people don't really write this long on FB, but that's why I think people really engage. I'm documenting my process as much as I can, and people tend to see value with that.

     

    What I'm aiming for beyond just likes is engagement, like so (examples).

     

    Naturally, what happens is people who are interested will start adding you as friends, DMing you, and being very open to conversations.

     

    Facebook added an extra 15-ish meetings every week on top of what Linkedin was doing.

     

    I actually found this to be easier to sell than on Linkedin, since I was approaching people on Linkedin totally cold.

     

    As soon as I started doing this, I never went below five-figures per month again.

     

    Stage Three: $15k to $29k

     

    So the problem at this point was actually that I had too many sales meetings in the calendar from Linkedin and Facebook.

     

    It's a good problem to have, but I was probably spending 4-5 hours a day managing my DM's, content distribution, engaging with people to book meetings.

     

    Between working with clients, doing sales calls, and the rest of that work, I was working 80 hour weeks and working through the weekends.

     

    It wasn't sustainable.

     

    So my main goal here was to start removing some of the workload.

     

    First thing I did was a created a webinar which helped me pre-sell my offering.

     

    Prior, I was doing ALL my sales on a phone call, which often meant I'd need to jump on multiple calls to build enough trust to close.

     

    But with a webinar, I could actually make it part of my buyer flow that they consume the webinar first, which will teach them my concepts, the things I help them with, etc.

     

    This made it so that people entered my call already 50% of the way ready to buy.

     

    My sales cycle immediately went from on average taking 2 to 3 calls, to now only taking 1 to 2 calls.

     

    Here's a screenshot of the webinar linked (In which I'm actually talking about using content/webinars to pre-sell. Very meta, I know haha).

     

    Here is my webinar UNGATED so you can just look at the experience

    Another thing I did was really start using my Facebook group.

     

    Technically, I began my own Facebook group even in stage 2, but I wasn't properly utilizing it.

     

    But the cool thing about a FB group is it acts like an email list, on steroids.

     

    It's the best way to nurture prospects, keep them warm, prime them for sales, etc.

     

    But unlike an email list, it's a real dialogue. There's a community feel. It's more interactive. You can use a larger variety of formats (FB livestreams, text, video, etc).

     

    Over time, I built nearly a 2000 person FB group where I consistently engage, add value, and once in a while promote a product launch.

     

    My Facebook Group pt 1 My Facebook Group pt 2

    You can see here I've highlighted a couple things.

     

    First, the group is large because I promote it, BUT ALSO because FB's algorithm will just drive new people to your group organically after you reach a certain size and engagement (1000 is the sweet spot). So it really is free traffic.

     

    Second, I can sort my content so people can self-select the stuff they want to learn about, and consume. It's a better user experience for them.

     

    Finally, I can tag my own content, funnels, and products in the announcements, which help me passively get meetings booked and deals won.

     

    But it's also good for just getting to know your community, getting feedback, and building relationships (like so).

     

    And obviously, just lots of adding value and teaching, since you don't just want to sell (examples).

     

    So this simultaneously makes it easier for me to close deals, but also generate meetings.

     

    And FINALLY, I also hired a person to manage my appointment setting.

     

    Before, I was getting bottlenecked because of all the messages and DM's that I had to do manually.

     

    So to get rid of that, I brought in someone to book meetings and converse for me.

     

    Now, to do that, I actually needed to create a really good script which would help my setter appropriately mirror my voice and way of speaking.

     

    And importantly, I needed them to get the "flow" of the conversation, and how to disqualify poor fit leads and bring good leads into the calendar.

     

    So here's a snapshot of the "DM conversation flowchart" that I set up for him.

     

    As well, the metrics dashboard so I could keep up to date with his progress and help him improve.

     

    So to summarize, the webinar and pre-sell campaign helps me shorten sales cycles.

     

    The FB group helps me passively generate more leads while nurturing and warming up my leads (also shortening sales cycles).

     

    And then my appointment setter helps offload my time spent on booking meetings.

     

    Now I can spend more time with clients and on sales calls.

     

    This system is what helped me scale to around $30k per month.

     

    Stage 4: $29k to $47.5k

     

    So this stage was actually pretty simple.

     

    All I did was increase my pricing and restructure my offer.

     

    To be honest, the entire time, my offer was underpriced at $3-$5k.

     

    I was just scared of charging more because I was fairly new in my business and didn't want to get told "No".

     

    But by this point, it had been more than a year serving my clients.

     

    I knew what I did would provide results, since I now had so many testimonials and proven use cases.

     

    Once I felt confident in the value of my offer, I just started selling it for between $5 to $7k.

     

    And lo and behold, my closing % didn't change at all. We were still able to win the typical 5 to 8 clients a month, just at a higher ticket.

     

    In fact, not only did it not hurt my closing %, it actually helped me bring in better clients who were more motivated to work with me.

     

    One warning I do have for you though is if you increase your pricing, it better be justified by the quality of your product.  

    I didn't make this decision till I was 100% confident people would get an ROI.

     

    And EVEN THEN, when I increased pricing, I spent several weeks just working on the product to upgrade it so I could give my clients a better experience.

     

    Anyhow, by doing this, I increased my monthly revenue significantly without generating any more leads than in my prior months.

     

    Takeaway

     

    So, I think the biggest thing is just that systems and process are really important.

     

    Doing things manually doesn't scale.

     

    But people misconstrue that as "organic doesn't scale" because organic is thought to be quite manual.

     

    What I've learned is that you can build processes that take the manual components in organic and remove them.

     

    But I do want to set a MASSIVE disclaimer. Yes, I manage to do this in 13 months. BUT, I would not call myself an overnight success story.

     

    Prior to building my company, I was an enterprise sales rep for 2 years. Then I was the director of sales at another startup for 2 years. And then I served as the head of growth at yet another startup for the year following.

     

    Without those 5-6 years of developing my skillset in marketing and sales there, I wouldn't have known how to do what I do now. Those years of working at companies were a prerequisite to my growth today. Me saying 13 months is in reality 7 years when you think about how long it took me to acquire the skills I needed to build a profitable company.

     

    Anyhow, feel free to ask any questions below!

    submitted by /u/ly93
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    Easy money using my drone (360$ in 3 hours)

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 06:48 AM PDT

    Hi guys,

    I Want to share a small success I had today. I thought it would be cool to sell drone pictures of someone's house. So I asked people if they would be willing to pay 30$ for me taking pictures and editing them at home afterward. I had four customers every hour in my first neighborhood by just ringing the door and showing them some pictures I had made (50% conversion rate).

    After 3 hours the police showed up and told me that I needed a license for it and that flying over other peoples home is illegal so will search for my big next idea :)

    But a good example that a good idea converts :)

    Take care!

    PS. If you have any idea's how I can use this idea to make money in other ways let me know ;)

    submitted by /u/walviskroket
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    1 Month Follow Up for My Pet Waste Removal (Poop Scooping) Business

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 09:08 AM PDT

    Hello everyone! Very long post (sorry), but hopefully it can give you insight on what happens within a month of starting a local service business.

    If you didn't see my post from last month, I was sharing how I spent $8 on flyers, and that $8 investment scored me a $100/month recurring client with my poop scooping business Scoops. I initially messed up with my phrasing (thank you Reddit users) by offering bi-weekly while meaning twice-weekly. Don't do that. Even if it technically does mean both things. I was pretty bummed initially but I was still looking forward to crushing my first clients expectations and getting those referrals.

    So I'm going to go through what I've needed to build, what I've needed to buy, how I've interacted with customers, and what that interaction has earned me. Hopefully it encourages you with your future simple service business.

    What I Built

    I built out a premium pet waste removal business in 7 days, while having a full-time job, a fiance, a dog, and a different side project. You can check that side project out here.

    I was strapped for time, and time is really the only thing I want. This conundrum had stopped me from acting on something for years. "What if I'm wasting my time building something no one will care about" OR "I'll just keep scrolling reddit" OR "I'll just play Animal Crossing". They never ended. I decided after years of thinking on a service business, that poop scooping was going to be the new thing. Low startup cost, low investment, low ass expenses, low TIME investment. It was just crazy how much sense it made. I made a goal for myself: build this in 7 days at the LOWEST possible cost and then release it into the wild and see what happens. Ended up doing the following:

    Developing the logo and business name

    Creating the site

    Copywriting

    Designing, proofing, and printing business cards

    Creating flyers

    Completing Yelp and Google listings

    Downloading Google Voice app as alternative number (this is free and it rules so hard)

    Doing market research to find out what competitors were charging (I decided to charge more with less hidden fees)

    Contacting local competition and pretending to be a customer to get intel lmao

    Creating workflow for each job

    It was a long 7 days, but I felt excited every day that I got to get off of work and work on this project. I also had the luxury of waking up with my fiance at 3 AM, because she consistently opens at Starbucks. She is the true MVP.

    Startup Fees & Equipment

    These are all the purchases I needed to make in order to get the business off the ground. Total below.

    Registering LLC with The State Secretary - $80 something dollars

    City Business License - $180 (WTF)

    Construction Dust Pans (2) - $18 each // $36 total

    Kids Rake (2) - $5 each // $10 total

    Costco Bulk AF Trash Bags (200) - $15

    Industrial Tote - $10

    Misc Cleaning Supplies - $30

    Flyers - $8

    Total : $369 -- for me

    Keep in mind this is the lowest cost I could manage. But that's because I did ALL of the work. I didn't outsource anything. Most people do not believe they can build their own site, even with the amazing templates out there today. Most people aren't comfortable with designing their own business cards. Most people aren't willing to design their own flyers, thank you cards, referral cards & programs. Most people don't try to push the limits of black and white in an attempt to save on DIY printing costs. Those who do it, most of the time don't do it well. If you want cheap, you need to give up your time to learn the skills you would normally pay for. And that's OKAY! I've learned everything I know over the last 4 years, and I would say those skills came in handy at just the right time.

    Clients

    After the original post, I realized I had a miscommunication with my first client. After going back and forth about the service, I realized he was looking for bi-weekly service, not twice weekly. Unfortunately, my first client was not as lucrative as I had assumed, BUT we ended up landing a second client very soon after the first who ended up wanting that twice-weekly service (and she reached out to ME for a review). Two clients a month got me hyped.

    First client: Male around 30's from the neighborhood where I dropped flyers. Two big dogs. They keep them locked up when we arrive. Text before we get there. Usually service this yard on Sunday after 6.

    FIrst job: Large backyard. Unmaintained. Literally had to search for these piles. Dogs went all over the place. No consistent spots. The job took about 15 bags to complete. A lot of companies would charge by the bag (which I am now doing), after going over a certain amount, but I already had the client pay, and I didn't mention it to him initially. No surprise fees 2020 YAFEELME? Job took my fiance and I 1 hour to complete because it was an initial clean. I gave my client half off of his initial clean to rope him into our subscription. He was a warm lead that went cold, so I pulled out the power of an irresistible offer and now he's all in. I can almost guarantee he will convert to weekly.

    Takeaway: Don't be afraid to reach out to your leads with a personal offer. It can really pull someone back in.

    Second client: Female around 20's looking for bi-weekly services to keep her yard clean for the homeowner. Found us on Yelp. Two big older boxers. It's a relatively normal sized yard for my area. Well maintained. Only concrete, dirt and grass. Very easy to take care of. Only takes about 10 minutes by myself (5 minutes with a partner). That time includes me pulling up, taking the equipment out, cleaning up, throwing away, and calling it a day. Second client was acquired through Yelp (because I'm the only scooper in my area, naturally, I will get all the calls if they're interested in this kind of service).

    A quick note on Yelp: someone once described them as extortionists. I have been doing this for only a month and I think I understand why. After my first review, Yelp decided to not recommend it at their discretion. All the while I'm getting bombarded with ads for upgrades and getting emails from their team trying to upsell me. Not interested. Do ya thing Yelp.

    I've decided to focus my efforts on Google, as that's where the real searching happens. Because Google boosts their own content, those Google reviews are FAR more important to me.

    Second Job: For my first twice-weekly customer, I was going above and beyond to offer them value: offering 5th week free service, free startup fee, lowering visit prices, etc. YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO THIS. You should offer them something irresistible, but just one or two things.

    I ended up only charging $80/month for bi-weekly services for my second client. It works out to about $10/visit. I normally will charge $12, but second client. Sold myself short. There was real potential to make $170 from that initial sale if I included the startup fee, but the client has cleaned most of the crap herself, so I couldn't justify the startup fee being an initial clean fee as well. For the future, I think we'll make that a more general fee related to admin work required to onboard the client.

    While I may have been offering a lot of shiny value to my new client, I wasn't offering value to myself. Clearly if she was willing to invite us over here, she's willing to pay whatever she needs to get this problem taken care of. She is essentially buying back her time. People are willing to pay high for getting their time back.

    I really encourage you to NOT short sell yourself. You are providing a service, and people are willing to pay for it. You've put a lot of time building your business. Get compensated properly.

    Takeaway: Don't undervalue yourself. But provide big value to your customers in exchange for big money.

    The Totals

    So all in all, I'm only looking at $130 of recurring income every month at this point. This is for only about 2.5 hours of physical work throughout the month. That's pretty close to my $50/h estimation. That works out to $1,320 for the year if I only kept these two clients. That ALSO works out to only 30 hours A YEAR to get that income. That number (while low) shows the income potential when scaled. I only make around $1,200 for 80 HOURS at my full time job. WTF is that ratio. It's ridiculous. I can save 50 HOURS of my life and make even MORE than I was making? I'm all in. Nothing held back. When converted, those numbers are so stupid encouraging.

    I understand the impulse to write this off as chump change, but for anyone who has goals and aspirations of paying down debt, actually building a service business, or working for yourself, that number can be motivating. For us lower level plebs, any amount is something. There is a future for you to make money.

    The Conclusion

    My first client recently had a newborn baby. He wanted time with his child. He wanted his yard to stay maintained. He didn't want to be embarrassed by it any longer. He wanted a clean slate to start planning the next phase of his backyard. These are ALL pain points that sell these kinds of clients. So that information alone is going to be helpful going forward with ads and all that junk. Very encouraging.

    But the greatest things that happened to me all involve my second client. I got a chance to meet the owner of the house the other day. I noticed that he had a slight limp, so any number of things could make it massively uncomfortable for him to deal with that backyard. I walked up to introduce myself and the company and he just went off on a tangent about how happy he was that our contact found us, and said "I love the service. Please don't EVER stop" (his emphasis, not mine). It was truly amazing. A lifelong client. The ability to genuinely help people like this is a fantastic feeling.

    I consider myself a genuine person and I really try to put personality at the forefront of any business I do. I think I enjoy it most when it comes to service businesses. It's way easier to be cool in person than over the internet lmao. I think that my attempt at stuffing this business with personality, responsiveness, and doing an awesome job have actually paid off.

    I was going to wait to ask my second client for a review, but she ended up sending me a text after our FOURTH job, to ask if she can share our business on Nextdoor. Totally used that opportunity to upsell a service as well. You can see that and my other client exchanges below.

    First client

    Second Client

    I'm going to leave you with this: pursue your dreams of freedom, of getting cash, or of spending time with your family. Be friendly, be over the top, use a lot of exclamation marks, be professional, and you will get posted by your clients as well.

    Another couple clients like that and this market is more than mine.

    Thanks for the encouraging conversations and questions last time, r/Entrepreneur! You all are the true MVPs. Maybe I'll update in a year if this virus hasn't taken me out by then.

    submitted by /u/zeromoreno
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    After a long battle with Depression, and some inspiration from Reddit. I finally opened my dream online store.. My first design was inspired by a cute Octopus posted to r/woodworking.

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 11:18 AM PDT

    All of 2019 was a roller coaster of a year. And this year is..well you know. I spent weeks without leaving my house. Mid year, my work performance was so bad, I was let go. Started doing freelance design and websites to get by.

    It has always been a 'backlog' dream of mine to open an online store with Limited Edition t-shirt designs, that only sell for limited time.

    About a month ago, I saw this cute Octopus on r/woodworking - and thought. I can design that in Illustrator, and did. Soon enough, I was able to put together a Shopify website.

    Orignal Post & Design: https://i.ibb.co/mDtk7Rr/promo.png

    Shirt: https://i.ibb.co/F4n5n0C/mockup-27a21d26.jpg
    Baby Gear: https://i.ibb.co/tsj02fL/mockup-29247929-grande.jpg

    This little Octopus inspired me to get off my butt, and try something new.

    submitted by /u/shgy1
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    What are some profitable businesses nobody ever talks about?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 11:13 AM PDT

    It seems like everyone is trying to do the same thing.

    Ex: Drop-shipping, Flipping items, Shopify store, Freelance

    submitted by /u/SwayzeBG
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    Affiliate Marketing Boot Camp – The Untold Truth

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 01:21 PM PDT

    Recently I have made an account here that I will be starting an Affiliate Boot camp on My Youtube Channel Mkaed,

    And it will include videos like:

    Why I am quitting affiliate marketing

    · 3rd world affiliate – how hard was it

    · 3 tips to double your sales

    · -----------(Top secret)

    · My google Marketing strategy

    · My Instagram Marketing strategy

    · TikTok Marketing Strategy

    · Mile Stone Complete, what's next?

    But I realized that its missing one important video – that I should really add to this boot camp,

    It will be called: Friendship – The untold Truth about how I made money

    How my friends acted as my own employees and dedicated their time and effort to help me become successful.

    The idea of the affiliate boot camp is to show people, how I followed a different path. I never ran ads for a product I don't own.

    I want to show people that I became successful through pure working skills I learn from my days in the workforce.

    I will see you on YouTube Boot camp starts in September 2020 on my Channel: Mkaed

    Good Day To you All

    submitted by /u/Mkaedx
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    Have you ever asked yourself why you do this?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 12:10 PM PDT

    I'd like to know, why are you doing what you do?

    What pushed you to become an entrepreneur or what pushes you now to become one?

    submitted by /u/chadfabiano
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    Fake work and self sabotage?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 11:58 AM PDT

    Fortunately my business is at a point in which it is starting to grow and I am finding some success. I have been noticing lately I have been engaging in more and more self sabotage, and fake work the more successful my business is becoming. If I have to put together a slide deck for a client, somehow I will start feeling compelled to balance my books at that exact time, or when I'm seeing success in a particular strategy, instead of doubling down and mastering it, I start half working on something else. I don't know if this comes from a place of fear of success, or where, but I was curious to see if you have experienced something similar, and what have you done to overcome it?

    Fake work: Work that feels like you are being productive, but does not meaningfully move the needle forward. Particularly when actually billable or growth related work should be done at that time.

    submitted by /u/BerryP13
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    I’m getting there!

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 10:37 AM PDT

    So, when everything shut down with COVID-19 I was working as a bartender at a little hole in the wall bar with absolutely no money put aside for anything. It was my only source of income and there wasn't much of it at the time. Things shut down and I lost all of that. I had just enough money for one extra month of bills and made it through that quickly.

    I did, however, have my personal training certificate and decided to try and make a bit of money moving into an online space with training and maybe offer a class as well. I gained a couple of clients, nothing crazy, but then I started this class.

    The class is just a basic body weight class that I deliver daily via private YouTube link to the students. I started in May with minimal advertising, mostly word of mouth and some Instagram posts. My first month I had 13 students at $30, which I thought was great! It was enough to start helping with bills.

    This month I signed up 45 people for my class and I couldn't be happier about it! Most of my new students have come as referrals from students taking the class, have found me on Instagram, or have seen me post in a few Facebook groups. I currently have about a 90% return rate for my students!

    I decided that I need to raise my price now that I am starting to see some real traction, am gaining a bit of name recognition, and have student results to showcase, so I'm raising it to $49 a month. This comes out to about $2.50 per class, which I feel is definitely a reasonable price for what they are receiving.

    I'm trying to figure out how to best scale the class up now. Because it's a virtual class that I'm delivering via email, I have no cap on the number of students I can have in it. I've played with the idea of running it as a membership site like a gym, but I'm not sure how to set that up and don't have the capital to pay someone to. And I've looked at hiring affiliates at a commissioned rate, but I'm not sure where to find them.

    If anyone has advice on how to properly scale this, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

    submitted by /u/roybelzer
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    What the best way to collab on instagram?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 01:59 PM PDT

    For example, let's say I sell bamboo toothbrushes and would like to collaborate with someone on Instagram with the goal of growing my following. What method of an instagram collab would work best to achieve this goal?

    submitted by /u/jacoby9089
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    Can anyone recommend any good YouTube videos that talk about Facebook ads and starting with a wide audience, and then narrowing it down as you run tests?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 01:51 PM PDT

    I'm at about 200 clicks with no conversions but I need to watch some videos that talk about how to run the initial ads, and how to get the best info from your ad tests so you're not wasting money (I think I just wasted a bit of money, and more if I let this ad keep running).

    I'm just not sure if it's getting me the info I need to narrow it down further, or if I should pause it and modify it based on what it says to do.

    any recommendations?

    submitted by /u/llilliiiliil
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    Going from strictly graphic & web design to something broader... what do you think?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 01:15 PM PDT

    Hey everyone! Hoping for some feedback on my next move as a business owner. I'm just going to apologize in advanced for my rambling.

    I have really been struggling through the pandemic. I left my 9-5 job to take my design business full time in March, and specialize in branding and Squarespace web design. I've been doing fine business wise, but I have been dealing with a lot of burn out and questioning what I want to do with my life. I've debated switching industries, or just trying to find a remote job for more stability in my life. This has been going on for the past 3 or 4 months and it's really starting to take a toll on my mental health.

    Part of my burn out problem I believe is because I'm undercharging for my services. Through a lot of reflection, what I'm starting to realize is that while I still enjoy branding and web design, I would rather limit the number of clients I take on for this a month at a higher rate, and broaden my focus to offer services beyond design.

    I received my degree from college in marketing and communications, and before entering the corporate world as a designer, I dabbled in different areas of marketing, advertising, sales, etc. through internships. I really enjoy all aspects of marketing and personal branding, beyond just design.

    Ideas that intrigue me – starting a podcast or YouTube channel, creating a course or online resources for a source of passive income, starting a Facebook group or some type of membership site.

    Despite some of the trouble they've gotten themselves into, I do find women entrepreneurs like Jenna Kutcher, Amy Porterfield, Marie Forleo, Melyssa Griffin, etc. inspiring. They all started out in some niche industry as online business owners but have expanded to just being known as marketing gurus and their products and offerings cover a lot of different subjects.

    I'm in a lot of entrepreneur Facebook groups and follow a lot on Instagram, and there's also many business coaches who seem successful despite not having any formal training.

    I know this is a little all over the place, I guess I'm just trying to think of tangible ways to start to broaden the scope of what I do in my business. Do I start by adding in new services, setting up a YouTube channel, or planning a digital course? There are a lot of different routes I could take, I'm just feeling stuck and like I have all this unlocked potential for success :(

    submitted by /u/graphicdesignergal
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    Influencer Marketing

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 08:55 AM PDT

    I've read a lot about different marketing tactics for IG influencers like "under 50k send them a free sample for a shoutout with a affiliate link" "1M followers pay them x amount". What is your/a good system? Up until how many followers can I expect to just send an influencer a sample + affiliate ? 10k 50k 100k?

    submitted by /u/YoungLion_
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    How do I value my SaaS product?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 06:15 AM PDT

    I have a B2B SaaS product at my company and a client is interested in buying it. How do I set a price on the whole product/? Is it the market value (SOM/SAM)? Or should I set a reasonable arbitrary value?

    Is there a method of calculating the product's total value?

    Apologies if it's a rookie question.

    submitted by /u/SamuraiJack_
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    Graphic Designer. I would like to collaborate on something great.

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 11:58 AM PDT

    Hello guys. Don't know if I'm doing this right, let me know.

    Let me just start by saying I'm volunteering my time.

    I'm a designer looking to work on something great. I have a few months to really dig into a project.

    If you have a project but need to create a brand I can help.

    I am looking for serious people with serious ideas.

    www.quentinblanchet.com

    submitted by /u/quentin_atlr2
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    How do i go on about acquiring leads/email addresses without resorting to cold calling every prospective company. Can i use someone to data mine for me?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 11:33 AM PDT

    My business usually deals with other businesses. We are in a firmly B2B area. I want to target real estate agents with specific services i can offer.

    What i normally do is find business which fit my criteria and get their email addresses/phone number and try calling them to give them my pitch. However it would be alot easier if i could pay someone to get me their sales/info email adresss and send mass email chains. I think this is more efficient this way. Am i barking up the wrong tree here?

    How difficult would it be to find a free lancer on upwork/fiver and pay them to do the grunt work of finding emails/contact phone numbers for me. I have learnt this is usually a little more effective than advertising on linked in or facebook since i am hiting mid tier businesses.

    Let me know if you guys have any thoughts about this.

    submitted by /u/crickypop
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    How to re-structure a deal with a partner? Is it possible?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 11:32 AM PDT

    Here is the deal,

    Me and my brother came up with a new idea for a product over 4 years ago, we designed, patented, made the business plan, found the factory, etc.

    We did pretty much all we could do with our limited resources, but we knew that at some point we would need someone to put some money to start manufacturing, marketing and restocking.

    We found our partner, let's call him Joe, 5 months ago. he is the brother of a friend of mine I know since childhood. We were very excited not only because he was going to put the money to get started but also because he has a doctorate in business and experience in the companies administration world, which neither me nor my brother have.

    We like Joe. He is a honest guy and we trust him. We went over the business plan together and came up with the amount of money we would need until we can establish a positive cashflow. That number was 30k. The business plan was based on selling our product initially mainly on Amazon and Walmart.com and it was a lot of guessing involved since at that time we were still prototyping with our factory in China and we didn't have a working prototype.

    Based on all this, considering the uncertainty and risk, he proposed to invest the 30k for 30% of the company. He also suggested paying ourselves a salary ( once there is positive cashflow) of 2k each for me and my brother and 1k for him since we were supposed to work full time and he was part time.

    We negotiated a little bit and at the end we agreed on 35k for 30% and if the sales are over 2M a year his % goes down to 25%.

    So far so good. We were excited just to have someone financing us.

    The thing is that even with all his studies and experience he didn't prove himself to be an asset to us. Basically he did nothing in this past 5 months. He lacks any initiative and his limited understanding of the English language is a handicap.

    So far he only put 5k into the company, the rest he is supposed to deposit into the company bank account once we are able to open it.

    But the more important thing is that, almost by chance, a few weeks ago I discoveredthat our business model was wrong. I discovered that clinics are the main consumers of our product and by selling our product b2c we were missing on 80% of the market.

    So we had to pivot and rethink our marketing approach. Of course the numbers look very different now, our product has a much larger potential than anticipated.

    Also, in the mean time, we received the first samples made with our mold in China and they look very good. We have a product now.

    Considering that we are not satisfied with his level of involvement, that he didn't invest all the money yet and that the numbers we based our agreement on are not relevant anymore (by the way, it was me that discovered the new market and didn't need of his investment to find it) we would like to re-negotiate our deal or buy him out somehow.

    We don't even need his investment now because since we are going to be selling b2b we are going to get the orders before manufacturing so there is no stock to buy upfront.

    If he would have put all the money at once showing his commitment we wouldn't dare to rise this issue, but he didn't.

    Is it feasible?

    Legally there should be no problem, the only thing that is binding us is a LLC with no assets.

    But is it ethical?

    Is that something business people do or are used to?

    What would you do?

    submitted by /u/Tim_Dunca
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    How do I market my service?

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 11:22 AM PDT

    Hi everyone,

    I'm the founder and CEO at Sepia, the ethical way to privately backup your photos and videos.

    My questions is, how do I go about marketing this on a very tight budget?

    Some more information:

    This service solves a problem I had myself, whereas I wanted to service like Google photos that automatically backed up all my photos while still allowing me to view and share my photos, but without the compromises on privacy.

    The closest I found was cryptee which don't get me wrong I love those guys and what they're doing, but among other things they're not as focused on usability (they don't even have native apps) and they don't support uploading videos.

    We're still pre-launch (planning on soft launching in a month) but we've got a website (https://sepia.co) that can collect emails. I'm trying to gage interest in this, but I'm not sure how to get some traffic to my website.

    Any advice is appreciated!

    submitted by /u/epichi123
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    Starting a Log Cabin Instagram - would be happy for feedback

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 10:54 AM PDT

    Hi Eveyrone

    I am trying to start a log cabin instagram where I post photos of log cabins for sale. I would be happy for some feedback on the project. Here is the page u/logcabinusa https://www.instagram.com/logcabinusa/

    submitted by /u/jishyyy
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    Shipping

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 10:51 AM PDT

    Hello everyone,

    I am planning to launch my website (shopify) soon selling skin care products, but i have a few basic questions that need to be answered for me to get going.

    1) what is the cheapest shipping rate in the US amongst dhl fedex usps?

    2) do most small ecommerce retailers actually package the products per each sale and mail them at shipping services? I dont mind doing this but just feels like there is an efficient way of mailing packages

    3) are there cheap boxes that i can buy to package the products?

    Overall, i am just trying to find examples of how to ship products efficiently to buyers

    Thank you!

    submitted by /u/randomQs318
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    Feedback on Business Idea

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 10:34 AM PDT

    I had an app idea similar to Letgo/OfferUp. The idea was that you can find and negotiate with buyers and sellers in your area, as well as ship them to places across the US. The difference is that my app would allow you to pay via mailing cash. The company will handle everything to make sure the buyer is satisfied and the seller receives their money. Any feedback or questions would be appreciated!

    PS: I know iOS Development so I would be programming the app and managing the servers.

    submitted by /u/Ammar_Kha
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    Why is it so scary to start and do a business on your own? And how does one stop doubting themselves?

    Posted: 05 Aug 2020 09:03 PM PDT

    I feel a flux in my situation. I'm starting my second tech startup - the first one failed but left me with good lessons that I have applied for this business. But I'm so fucking scared and nervous mainly because of failure and losing my investors money. I know I can do it but it's still so scary. I'm leaving a well paid job to try this route - I'm nervous if I fail again I'll never get another job in this market or not be sustainable to live my current lifestyle. Sometimes I'm like I have no skills and sometimes I'm like I can do totally do this. It's such a rollercoaster. I guess that's what entrepreneurs always talk and rant about eh. When does it feel better once you have launched the business? Once you made your first million? Like when does it feel secure or does it never feel that way....

    submitted by /u/okaybutwhyfam
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    Starting a disinfecting business on a country where covid is not going away soon.

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 10:17 AM PDT

    reposting for better visibility

    Hey guys, I live in Brazil and for the last 3 months I have been doing research and getting licenses to operate a disinfecting business. The biggest hassle was getting my hands on an electrical atomizer, but after much wait i managed to buy the best one available. I already have contacted a chemical engineer to get a hang on what products to use. I will also need to get some sort of hazmat suit and a filtered mask. So i'm almost set to start operating, which should be next week. I plan on offering the service mostly to Gyms, Markets, Grocery Stores and maybe apartment complex near my area.

    Now I'm having a bit a of a problem on how should I price the service. I've researched with two competidors, and now is the tricky part. The two of them had similar pricing for a disinfection that according to them could last "up to 15 days", so the price was fairly high for one simple disinfection. But that is bullshit, this is straight up a lie, there's no product in the world that would guarantee 15 days of "protection". Disinfection should be done daily. And of course I will be honest with clients and tell them that it's bullshit. I plan on having montly subscriptions where i disinfect the client business daily(or 5 days a week for some) on pre-determined times for a more hefty price, but it seems pretty hard to determine my price when competidors are straight up lying to customers. Of course I plan to use that in my favor marketing wise, but how can I fairly price the service?

    Thanks guys, any tips are appreciated and sorry for any tipos.

    submitted by /u/Igoorr
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    20 Cold Calling Scripts To Change Your Sales Game

    Posted: 06 Aug 2020 10:15 AM PDT

    The following guide compiles over 20 cold calling script templates to help you and be as effective as possible when cold calling.

    With these templates, you can start your own scripts, improve your existing ones, and refresh your techniques, as well as analysis of why a specific script works and the situations it is best for: 20 Cold Calling Scripts To Change Your Sales Game

    Some examples of templates considered are: Setting up a meeting, Getting to the decision-maker, Reaching referrals, Approaching a crisis, Scheduling a demo presentation, Getting to the boss, Perfecting your openings etc.

    submitted by /u/thumbsdrivesmecrazy
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