Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (October 09, 2020) Entrepreneur |
- Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (October 09, 2020)
- If you needed an excuse to have a little fun amidst all your hustle...here’s why doing so can transform your business (and the best way to do it)
- I raised $1.3M funding as a solo founder. With not much other then good designs and a first prototype
- Helped my ex business partner / best friend out of being broke and he betrayed me
- What keeps some people poor while another person another makes millions?
- Quickbooks Duplicate Expenses After Linking Accounts/PayPal/Shopify
- Would you hire a consultant to train employees on clear communication?
- Entrepreneurial Lessons from a Copywriting Book
- Instagram flagged all of my promotions for “inaccurate information ”, when I’m a clothing business…
- I can’t afford to pay a salary to an employee, but I need one. How can I make this work?
- Creating app using product information from company’s?
- Startup name?
- You guys might like this.
- What are weird unique things you would pay a monthly subscription for?
- Rose oil extract through your own plant..low cost businesa
- Searcing for a nutrition supplement sponsor
- Searching for partner / co-founder for new business
- Creating an eCommerce website on Woocommerce for the first time? Checklist for Website building and what plugins and extensions should I install?
- How do I find high-quality drop shopping vendors?
- Anyone have experience ordering custom designed clothing from China/Alibaba?
- Meeting potential client
- Analyze competitor's advertising
- School Business Idea Project
- Any indie chefs out there? I’d love some advice.
- Anyone knows how much Fanjoy takes from influencers?
| Accomplishments and Lesson Learned Friday! - (October 09, 2020) Posted: 09 Oct 2020 06:11 AM PDT Please use this thread to share any accomplishment you care to gloat about, and some lessons learned. This is a weekly thread to encourage new members to participate, and post their accomplishments, as well as give the veterans an opportunity to inspire the up-and-comers. Since this thread can fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2020 04:09 AM PDT Entrepreneurs are artists that produce at scale Beethoven used all twelve musical notes to compose his symphony number nine. Twelve tools, uniquely combined into 136,000 sounds (closer to 70,000 distinct sounds due to the prevalence of tied notes). For years in running a startup, I thought I could get by with only two notes: On, and off. On, as in running full tilt toward the next objective, and off, as in recharging (either sleeping or in front of the TV) so I can do it again. Saying nothing about the myriad costs to my relational, social, mental and spiritual health, this binary way of living that I was so convinced was the secret to my success actually stagnated innovation within my business. I've since learned that there's a spectrum. On the one side is productivity, and on the other, creativity. As tilted as I was toward the productivity side of the spectrum, I checked a lot of boxes while slowly but surely our innovation stagnated. What had once been a font of creative output, slowly, by degrees, became an optimized machine driving ever more efficiently to where the puck used to be. If this sounds like your average slow, legacy company, let me just say it's remarkable how quickly nimble startups can turn into those if they're not careful to nurture at least a little of the creative recklessness that they started with. Legislating creativity vs the role of the leader As a leader it's up to you to model the behavior you want your team to exhibit. This means, yes, to increase the innovation at your company you may have to work in a slightly less regimented way yourself. Schedule less meetings. Intentionally give yourself some time to be creative. To do less, better.. Recall that this is where Google's 20% time comes from. The structure that birthed Gmail and so many other excellent products. And it's not just tech companies — 3M's 15% time actually predates Google's 20% time, and was responsible for many scientifically developed manufacturing products still in use today. Google, 3M, Atlassian, and a metric ton of small businesses around the globe, when faced with a lack of innovation, structure unstructured time for their employees to putz around and try shit. And it works. This type of legislated fun goes a long way, but if the leader of the organization doesn't participate, if she drives herself to the end of the productivity spectrum while telling her team to be creative, the senior leadership will pick up on that disconnect and err toward productive as well (as that's what the boss actually values, they can see), regardless of what she says. Then, so will the people reporting to them, and on and on down the chain until it takes a countercultural effort by an employee to actually take advantage of their 20% time. Thus does a good cultural idea go down the tubes, with the leader often wondering why the heck people don't just listen. This dynamic (the leader's behavior talking louder than any program she creates) is at the core of all culture work, not just innovation. While legislating creativity through unstructured fun-time is possible, it's not practical unless you as the leader do the same with your own time. Of course this ebbs and flows, and there's absolutely a time for extreme output in growing a company. But as a leader it's important to monitor how you're navigating the spectrum between creativity and productivity, and recognize the impact that has on your team, to ensure you don't limit your success by getting stuck too far to one side for too long. So… Fun... Shit. How do we do that again? This may be remedial for some, but I can speak from experience in saying it's not for all. It's easy to optimize yourself so far toward productivity, toward doing the right thing, that you forget how to have fun (as in, play. As in, no goal, no winner, just, play. Like your kids do. Yes, that's ok for adults, too). So do we just deliberately not do work things for some arbitrary amount time and hope for the best? Or might it be possible to optimize for creativity? The question seems sort of nonsensical for obvious reasons, but in my experience there are effective frameworks for creativity. In other words, there are more productive ways to be creative. If you're one of the lucky founders who knows exactly how to have fun, then please do it right now. Further, please talk about it on social media to at least the same degree as your productivity porn, to help normalize fun-having in the founder set. It's needed. On the other hand, if you're convinced of the importance of a little fun in the name of innovation but wondering where to start, I have an exercise for you. The Imaginary Lives exercise (modified from The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron) not only played a role in helping me rediscover the ten musical notes I had been missing — catalyzing a depth and breadth of creativity that is directly responsible for this newsletter, my coaching practice and many other projects — but it also made life more fun. Imaginary Lives: If you had five other lives to lead, what would you do in each of them? I would be an astronaut, an author, a professional basketball player, a hippie, and a physicist. You might be a cowhand, a psychic, a scuba diver, a cop, a writer of children's books, a belly dancer, a painter, a performance artist, a history teacher, a healer, a coach, a scientist, a doctor, a Peace Corps worker, a psychologist, a fisherman, a minister, an auto mechanic, a carpenter, a sculptor, a lawyer, a painter, a computer hacker, a soap-opera star, a country singer, a rock-and-roll drummer. Whatever occurs to you, jot it down. Do not overthink this exercise. The point of these lives is to have fun in them—more fun than you might be having in this one. Look over your list and select one. Then do it this week. For instance, if you put down country singer, can you pick a guitar? If you dream of being a cowhand, what about some horseback riding? Next week, do the next one. And so on. The secret to this exercise is in realizing that you only have one life. You probably don't want to sacrifice your current life en toto to go off and become a cowboy, but you won't get another chance to experience the thrill of landing a lasso unless you take steps to make it happen now. Today. In this life. Not only does this work wonders for juicing your creative capacity (which as a leader impacts more than just you) it is a great launchpad to a more nuanced, complex, and complete way of life. ——- From Second Mountain Startup the weekly newsletter for purpose driven entrepreneurs. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2020 01:53 PM PDT Last year I started the work on Amie. Here's the timeline:
Happy to answer any fundraising related question. Honestly anyone can do it. But it does require a lot of very focused work. [link] [comments]  |
| Helped my ex business partner / best friend out of being broke and he betrayed me Posted: 08 Oct 2020 05:28 PM PDT I had a best friend of 12 years, we both had a common interest in entrepreneurship. Throughout the years we would try different ventures together. We both went broke together attempting a startup for 3 years. I discovered dropshipping in 2016 and grinded my ass off every single day with only $200 to my name and then I hit success in dropshipping, made over $100K profit within a month. My life turned upside down. At this time he was doing nothing but selling weed, struggling to pay rent every month. Feeling so grateful for what happened to me, I offered to help him, gave him 50/50 share to work together on ONE condition... I told him not to make money from teaching other people. No business partnership agreement either since we had pursued a 3 year startup in the past with no agreement. I trusted him, we were best friends. In the 2 years afterward I taught him everything, mentored him in both dropshipping and also entrepreneurship. Everything that took me years to discover on my own, I was an open book and taught him for free. We made a lot of money together, did multiple 7 figures in sales in 1 year. We got carried away with partying and dropshipping was getting harder, business started drying up, and I wasn't aware he was having major tax troubles. One day he stole all the money, blocked me and moved overseas. I essentially went broke again. Thought about bloody revengeful thoughts. I stopped myself every time. I spied on his IG the other day and he is using our old screenshots, posing as an Ecom expert, and charging people for consultation calls. He also aggressively pursued the authors of some of the books I recommended him, big time Ecom experts, and one even offered him a job. My blood boils when I think that this guy is getting opportunities off everything I taught him. I was too much of a nice guy in the past so I know I deserved it. I sometimes go to a very dark place in my mind. But I know that doing anything will only come back to me. I try to focus on the lesson but the betrayal affects me to my core. I don't know what I want out of posting this other than to express my pain. Might delete this later... TL;DR people suck. [link] [comments]  |
| What keeps some people poor while another person another makes millions? Posted: 09 Oct 2020 02:25 PM PDT |
| Quickbooks Duplicate Expenses After Linking Accounts/PayPal/Shopify Posted: 09 Oct 2020 02:23 PM PDT I just linked my Shopify, business bank account and my PayPal to Quick Books and imported everything. Everything went really smoothly in terms of organizing my expenses vs income when linking my Shopify and bank account, but when I threw PayPal into the mix, I saw duplicate transactions in my expenses. It's not exactly wrong because I did use PayPal to purchase some job supplies before my debit card came in. It lists them as 'split'. Which duplicate expense should I delete, if any? I tried to read into the 'matching' and I'm not sure I understand. I have to file my quarterly taxes at the beginning of November so I just want to straighten this out well in advance so I'm not scrambling to get stuff squared away. Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Would you hire a consultant to train employees on clear communication? Posted: 09 Oct 2020 02:15 PM PDT I'm a technical writer and have thought about being a business consultant focusing on teaching clear communication. I know poor communication causes a lot of inefficiency and costs business money, but am wondering if it's something companies would pay for? A pitch I came up with, that I think sounds good, is "Poor communication killed the seven crew members of the Challenger space shuttle and cost NASA $3.2 Billion. What could clear communication save you?" But I'm unsure if companies would pay for training. [link] [comments]  |
| Entrepreneurial Lessons from a Copywriting Book Posted: 09 Oct 2020 01:57 PM PDT I've been a relatively unsuccessful side-hustler in my short time trying, but a copywriting book called The Boron Letters helped me realize what I had been doing wrong. I was hoping to pick up a couple tips to improve my copy. To my surpise, I got a lesson on business fundamentals. Lessons from the Boron LettersThe first lesson was something I had already learned, but the book drilled home. It's the biggest mistake made by budding entrepreneurs (like myself):
The second mistake I made was working on things I wasn't enthusiastic about:
So the lesson here is to find a market first, and work on things you're enthusiastic about. But the book goes further. The author shares how he found these markets in the first place (back in the 80s) - he used the SRDS database. Now, in today's world, that might not work the same way, but the principle of finding people who have ALREADY bought a similar product via a distribution channel you have familiarity with is critical. What I'm Doing NowI've combined this advice with the wisdom of Rob Walling (see: Stairstep appraoch to bootstrapping), and am now focusing on learning distribution channels, one at a time:
More lessons from the book?The book has quite a bit more to offer - copywriting advice, life advice, business advice. Some of it may be obvious to the veterans here, but for someone who is relatively new to the game, it's kind of great to have a mentor give you advice on the psychology of what makes people buy. If you're interested, the book is available online for free - or if you don't want to read the entire thing, I've prepared a list of takeaways from the book here. Link: Takeaways from The Boron Letters Hope this is helpful. Good luck! [link] [comments]  |
| Instagram flagged all of my promotions for “inaccurate information ”, when I’m a clothing business… Posted: 09 Oct 2020 01:34 PM PDT I'm a young entrepreneur and I recently started my own clothing business. I use Instagram as many businesses do to growth my audience. I make hoodies, shirts, etc and have been experiencing great growth through Instagram Promotions. Today I started a promotion for a hoodie and Instagram flagged it for "inaccurate information that was debunked by a third party"? Not only that they stopped all of my other current running promotions for that same reason. Is this a glitch or is Instagram actually flagging me?!? [link] [comments]  |
| I can’t afford to pay a salary to an employee, but I need one. How can I make this work? Posted: 09 Oct 2020 12:17 PM PDT Hi I'm opening a mold remediation company. I've been in the industry for a few years as a business development manager, so I have lots of connections and lead sources. I've already purchased all the equipment I need, and a work van. I've got a mold remediation license, and everything I need to get operational. I'm just needing a lead technician to help with the actual work while I'm out closing deals, and looking for leads. I cant afford to pay a salary, since I'm just starting out, and jobs will be a little inconsistent for right now. I could pay them hourly, but they won't be getting consistent weekly hours. How can I keep a potential employee interested since they wouldn't be getting consistent hours? At least not right now.. Any ideas on how I could make this work, and keep an employee from leaving me? [link] [comments]  |
| Creating app using product information from company’s? Posted: 09 Oct 2020 12:14 PM PDT I want to incorporate information about cosmetic products from brands and company's into an app ,how can I go about it legally .where I would talk about the product ,direct the user to the company's webpage for information. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2020 12:09 PM PDT I have made a search engine Can I use altavista name for my website? (Because the original site is shutdown) Assuming domain is available or prefering .in, .us, .org.. Etc.. Just had a doubt so asked Thank you [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2020 04:59 AM PDT We made a simple NodeJS API for using Google Spreadsheets as a rudimentary database. https://github.com/fwd/sheets-api Great for simple projects where building a UI for a DB is out of the question. [link] [comments]  |
| What are weird unique things you would pay a monthly subscription for? Posted: 09 Oct 2020 10:38 AM PDT |
| Rose oil extract through your own plant..low cost businesa Posted: 09 Oct 2020 10:24 AM PDT I am from india and looking for investors who can invest in rose oil extracting plant [link] [comments]  |
| Searcing for a nutrition supplement sponsor Posted: 09 Oct 2020 10:18 AM PDT Hello, I'm the co-founder of Spartan Apps, the first app was developed in 2013, released in 2014. Since then the portfolio has made close to The main focus of the portfolio is on Home Workouts and MMA, currently, we have introduced a nutrition tracker similar to my fitness pall, but it has some key differences. We are currently expanding our vision and we need more capital for it. We are a self-funding company that employs 12 people, but to execute fast on the whole grand vision we need more capital. Instead of getting investor money and giving a piece of our company, we have decided to find sponsors from the supplement world.We can advertise all of their supplements in our nutrition tracker, as well we can feature them in our nutrition plans, we are open to other ways of collaboration as well. If you are a person who can help, or if you know someone who could be interested I would be willing to talk. DM me I'm located in the EU, the other co-founder is located in the US, we can adapt to any time zone. Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Searching for partner / co-founder for new business Posted: 09 Oct 2020 10:07 AM PDT I'm starting a company in the coffee / functional beverage space (packaged powdered product) and I am looking for someone that would be interested in partnership. I'd be looking to raise $300- $500k through friends and family, potentially do a Kickstarter/ Indiegogo campaign, and eventually exit the company in 5-7 years through a sale or acquisition. MY BACKGROUND - I've been an entrepreneur for the past 10 years having owned and operated several small businesses in the food and beverage sector. My most recent experience consists of owner / oerations manager for a food truck / catering company, owner / director of operations for a brewery, continuous improvement on production, sales and distribution, branding and some marketing. The ideal candidate has business experience either running a company or the right skills to complement an entrepreneur like myself - I would envision their role having a large focus on marketing, sales and social media. I can give more details to the right person, but just wanted to start to put my feelers out. Thanks for reading and any interest. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2020 10:00 AM PDT Hello Internet, I am creating an eCommerce store on woocommerce with the help of a web developer, haven't hired one but I am about to hire someone. This is the first time I am making a website so don't know about many things. I would be forever grateful if you could help list down all things that I should take care of to develop a great and smooth running and working eCommerce website. I know of few things that I am required to do such as domain registration, web hosting, SSL certification, theme/template for my website, web builder, payment gateways, security (not sure what is the right terminology used for it), etc. But I know there are also a lot of other things that I should take care of, so if you can, then please help me note down what other things that I should take care of. I will personally research each and every category to know what is the best solution that works for me or makes my website better, for example, I know for SSL Certification - Let's encrypt is a good option. If you have a personal recommendation in those categories then please feel free to mention them. Also same with the plugins and extension that I should/must install for woocommerce. Both different types /areas of plugins such as payment gateways, shipping and tax calculations, and other areas, also recommendations in those plugins if you have any. I know I can ask the web developer but knowing all this stuff will help me make better decisions and know what and why they are important for my website and what I am paying for, it can also help me in the hiring process for a web developer. Some context about the store. It's an eCommerce website for modern toys and games for kids with around 500 to 1000+ products, both local and international shipping and maybe even drop shipping, rental, and slot booking functionality. Thank you, and would really appreciate any input, Thanks once again. [link] [comments]  |
| How do I find high-quality drop shopping vendors? Posted: 09 Oct 2020 09:57 AM PDT I think I managed to snag a ridiculously good domain name that can be positioned to be a curator and drop shipper of high-end clothing. The problem is I work in video production for influencers and I know nothing about dropshipping. The real differences from any other drop shipper is the incredible domain name, free influencer marketing, great teams, tech, and financing. 1) Where do I find someone with experience in dropshipping to be a partner or consult on this project? I would love to find someone experienced I can split profits with but will take more control over the growth of the company. I have great tech and talent at my disposal. 2) Where can I find platforms with drop shipping vendors? Should I try drop-shipping brand names or boutique manufacturers? p.s have 1000 custom designs from my creatives for POD but I think Printful is too expensive ($18 after shipping) for t-shirts so I scrapped that plan for now and will focus on dropshipping existing brands. [link] [comments]  |
| Anyone have experience ordering custom designed clothing from China/Alibaba? Posted: 09 Oct 2020 09:55 AM PDT I've been running affiliate websites for years but I'm looking into developing an online clothing brand. I don't want to do the dropshipping route and I'd like to have the items somewhat customed designed. By that I mean custom prints or logos, not changing the actual product dimensions. I've found factories on alibaba who offer custom designs but they are not clear on what is actually required. If anyone has experience here or can point me in the right direction I'd be thankful, in return I can offer SEO or affiliate site advice. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2020 09:48 AM PDT Whenever I meet a client to talk about our products and services I think that I'm not capable enough to face him with the facts, it's just I feels like I'm not worthy of his time, when at the end he agrees to work with us but I still feel like I didn't really close the deal as good as possible Any tips? Psychological tricks? [link] [comments]  |
| Analyze competitor's advertising Posted: 09 Oct 2020 09:34 AM PDT Is there a way I can find more information on what ads my competitors are running as well as the views/clicks associated with them? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2020 09:22 AM PDT Hi everybody, For a school assignment I have to come up with 3 ideas and share one of them on social media for feedback. So if you would be so kind as to give me all the feedback you can, that would be amazing! Below I will post as much information that I can think of. Feel free to ask for more details! THANKS! Car DetailingMarketing Mix Product: · Offer car detailing to working people who don't have time to clean their car. Also can offer it to businesses and trades who need their work vehicles cleaned after a messy job. · Has detailing van to travel with equipment that offers home or worksite detailing so the customer does not have to travel to get their vehicle detailed Place: · Distribution is available at an owned location or via the mobile cleaning van Promotion: · Social media would play a big role in promoting service. Traditional Facebook and Instagram would work well for pictures of clients that received a detailing job · Radio ads would also be a route of interest. For example Q-104 and their construction job site contests Price: · $150 for cars · $180 for trucks and vans Demographics: · People between the ages of 30-55 · People who live in HRM and surrounding · Businesses who use vehicles on site such as: o Construction o Plumbing o electricians [link] [comments]  |
| Any indie chefs out there? I’d love some advice. Posted: 09 Oct 2020 08:48 AM PDT I'm considering starting up a side business where I sell baked goods from my home. Does anyone have experience doing something like this? What tips, tricks, and tools should I be aware of? [link] [comments]  |
| Anyone knows how much Fanjoy takes from influencers? Posted: 09 Oct 2020 08:38 AM PDT Hello there, Anyone knows what % Fanjoy takes from influencers? If they are selling a shirt for $20 - how much goes to the company/influencer? Thank you. [link] [comments]  |
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