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    Home Unlabelled Marketplace Tuesday! (October 20, 2020) Entrepreneur

    Marketplace Tuesday! (October 20, 2020) Entrepreneur

    October 20, 2020

    Marketplace Tuesday! (October 20, 2020) Entrepreneur

    Marketplace Tuesday! (October 20, 2020)

    Posted: 20 Oct 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.

    submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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    Never Compete on Price: Why Clients Pay Us $7,500/mo for 4 Blog Posts

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 06:27 AM PDT

    Hey all,

    You may have seen me around. I've been posting here for the last few years as I've built a content marketing agency called Optimist. Over the last few years, we've grown it from $0 to over $1.5MM ARR.

    Today, I wanted to share something a bit different. A topic that's been on my mind a lot lately.

    I don't really have anything to promote. But feel free to follow me on Twitter if you're interested in what I have to say about entrepreneurship, growth, marketing, and random pop culture hot takes.

    ---

    Asking for money is hard.

    That's why one of the most difficult parts of being an entrepreneur is the element of pricing.

    Whether you sell widgets or work as a consultant, you've spent countless hours learning, honing your craft, building your product. You've invested blood, sweat, and tears into making something that you think other people would be willing to pay you for.

    So, when it comes time to put a dollar figure on that effort, it's no surprise that it can be a scary process.

    In a way, you're not just setting a price tag for what you built.

    You're putting a price on yourself.

    What if no one else thinks I'm worth this much?

    What if they laugh at me?

    It's these moments where the imposter syndrome, self-doubt, and fear start to take hold.

    And because of that, our natural inclination is to dial back our pricing. Lower the bar — lower the risk. Undercut your competitors and avoid having a difficult conversation about why you're worth more than someone else.

    Maybe if I just charge $10 instead of $100, no one will question it.

    But, competing on price is a losing strategy.

    Instead, consider what that fear means.

    The reality is that if you're worried about the price you're charging, it likely means:

    1. You're selling something of little value (commodity)
    2. You haven't defined the true value of what you sell
    3. You haven't communicated that value to your customers

    Each of these problems leads to the same outcome — a race to the bottom.

    Over the last 4 years, starting as a freelancer and now running a content marketing agency, I've learned to fight off that imposter syndrome.

    I've learned to re-frame my value.

    I've learned to communicate it clearly.

    And, it's worked.

    Clients hire us every month to create content for them. And on its face, our pricing may seem astronomical. But I never flinch when I share the cost of what we do. Because I focus on how to communicate the value in a way that makes sense.

    Selling 4 Blog Posts for $7,500 per month

    How much is a blog post worth?

    I run a content marketing agency. So, you might think that this question crosses my mind a lot.

    You might assume that the price of our services is related to the cost to create and publish content — because isn't that how pricing works?

    And you might also assume that we have to price our services to be competitive with all of the freelancers, agencies, and offshore operations that sell content for pennies per word.

    Maybe you'd do some back-of-the-napkin math and come up with a number.

    Say you're even generous — you might come up with something like $1,000 per blog post.

    So, what if I offered to sell you one blog post for $10,000?

    You'd probably balk.

    Hell, you might even laugh in my face. (That's our worst fear when it comes to pricing, isn't it?)

    How could a single post be worth that kind of money?

    It can't take more than 20 hours to create, publish, and promote a blog post. And if you threw a rock, you'd probably hit 3 people who would be happy to write one for $50.

    In other words, if Optimist competed on the basis of price — we'd be fucked.

    Now, imagine that instead of offering you a blog post for $10,000, I offered to grow your business by 10% for the same price. You might spring at the idea.

    Depending on the size of your company, that investment could easily pay for itself — and then some.

    Would you care if that outcome only required me to create a single blog post?

    Probably not. Because, at the end of the day, you're no longer paying me to deliver a blog post. You're paying me to deliver a result — and that has changed the calculus for how you determine its value.

    This is how Optimist operates.

    The value of our work is not measured by the time spent on production. It's not even measured by the deliverables that we're able to produce.

    The value of our work is measured by the outcome that we generate.

    In other words, our customers are not buying blog posts.

    We sell growth.

    What that means is that we don't compete on price per blog post. We aren't locked into a race to produce content cheaper than freelancers or offshore teams.

    Instead, we focus on how we can turn blog posts into value.

    We don't quite charge $10,000 for one blog post.

    But, we do charge somewhere in the ballpark of $7,500/mo for packages that often include just 4 posts in total.

    What makes this reasonable to our clients is that they aren't buying 4 blog posts for $7,500 — at least, not in their mind.

    They're buying sustainable, compounding growth.

    Even though, functionally, the work that we do might look similar to any content mill on the planet, we've managed to escape from the treacherous world of under-selling our competition.

    We've found ways to disconnect the price of time and materials from the value of the product.

    Never Compete on Price: A 3-Step Manifesto

    The way that we often think about pricing and value is wrong.

    First of all: Price is relative.

    Unless you're selling an openly traded commodity, there is no fixed price for the work that you do. It's worth what people are willing to pay.

    That means that your pricing is only limited by your ability to define your own value.

    So, if you don't want to compete on price, then you need to learn to define that value in a new way.

    1. Define Your Value on New Terms

    Before you can communicate your value to customers, you need to first understand it for yourself.

    Why do people hire you in the first place? Why do they buy what you're selling?

    Chances are that it's not because of the raw materials or the time that goes into creating it.

    Most people buy stuff because it fills a need for them.

    Sometimes, that's purely a functional need. But, more often than not, it's something bigger or something deeper.

    It might be growth, love, happiness, freedom — something big and powerful.

    If you're a freelance writer, you're not selling time or words.

    You're selling rocket fuel.

    Without your work, the company's marketing plan dies on the vine.

    So, how much is that worth?

    On a macro scale, it could be worth everything — the whole company depends on what you do.

    But, even if we just think about it through the lens of the direct tangible and intangible benefits of your work, you have to consider the whole picture of what you're selling.

    Your work creates value in a number of ways:

    1. It fuels growth for the company
    2. It creates peace of mind for the person who hires you and doesn't have to keep looking for someone to do the work
    3. It saves, say, 10 hours per month, for someone internally who was previously writing (like the CEO); that time could be spent on activities that generate thousands of dollars on their own
    4. If you're good and reliable, it saves them the headache of chasing down a writer or bugging people about upcoming deadlines
    5. You help shape and craft the voice of the company

    So, what you're truly selling isn't words or time. It's a package deal.

    It's all of these things.

    And the price should reflect the value that you're providing.

    If your writing work frees up the CEO to close $10,000 in new sales, then wouldn't you say that you helped create some of that value for the business?

    Even if your product or service can't, on its own, lead to some kind of spectacular outcome, it's better to define its value by its critical role in the machinery than as a commodity or a raw material.

    Consider your work not through the lens of time or thought or input, but in terms of the value that it creates for your customer.

    All of the value.

    2. Connect Your Work with the Value it Creates

    Next, you need to think about how you begin to communicate the value in a direct and tangible way.

    In a way, this is a classic value-based sales.

    It means framing the entire conversation through the lens of the value that you create versus the price of the work or the amount of time that goes into its production.

    What are they really buying?

    If you've followed step 1, then you hopefully have in mind an itemized list of the value that you think your work creates for your customers.

    These are the benefits — the value that you create.

    Now, instead of selling 5 hours of time or a 1,500-word blog post, you're selling a mission-critical piece of marketing. You're selling 5 hours of time for the CEO to focus on running the business. You're selling 5 hours saved editing the work of a less-experienced writer. You're selling a scalable business model.

    If possible, now is also a good time to try to identify opportunities to link your product or service to specific outcomes. Maybe your writing work helped drive $50,000 in sales for a past client. That's an indication of value.

    It's time to communicate that value.

    3. Communicate The Value (Positioning)

    Finally, you need to outwardly communicate and position your product or service on the basis of the value that it creates.

    This is the critical piece of the equation where you pull your rabbit out of the hat and stop talking about your product or service through the lens of hours, words, or whatever other arbitrary input stops you from raising your price.

    Start by rethinking how you communicate versus product.

    Anytime you're presenting pricing to a potential customer, you should make sure that you are framing it with the value of your work and not the basics of the deliverable.

    No one buys SaaS software because they get "1 login and 1 password".

    They buy SaaS software because it saves them 10 hours/week of manual accounting work.

    And any good SaaS software will communicate, validate, and reinforce that value creation — even hinting at how those precious 10 hours could be better spent on more valuable work.

    Sell the benefits — not the features.

    But, you also need to take it one step further. Before there is even a discussion about pricing or deliverables, your customers should be thinking about your product or service not for what it is, but for what it does.

    This is positioning.

    You need to extract the value that we've worked hard to define and turn it into a specific, desirable result that you can communicate to potential customers.

    "Freelance Writing" is a commodity.

    "Writing that Drives Business Growth" is a benefit.

    And, as a customer, once I am thinking of your product or service in terms of the benefit that I will get from it, then my perception of its value has officially shifted.

    This should be reflected in every communication that you have with potential customers:

    1. Website
    2. Emails
    3. Proposals
    4. Twitter
    5. Whatever else

    When you do this, you've reframed the conversation that you have with potential customers.

    More importantly, you attract a completely different customer.

    They no longer come to you to buy a commodity.

    They come to you to buy an outcome — business growth.

    In this space, there is no race to the bottom.

    Your differentiator is not your price. It's your ability to deliver the results.

    Optimist (my content marketing agency) has done this since day one.

    We've never sold words and pictures. We've never really even tried to sell "content marketing" directly.

    Instead, we've sold growth.

    In particular, we've sold the promise of sustainable, compounding growth for startups.

    And we've sold it in a done-for-you, don't-even-have-to-think-about-it, we've-got-it-from-here kind of package. That creates even more additional value — time and resources to focus on other parts of the business.

    By and large, this strategy has worked. Almost without trying, we've been able to attract our target customer (startups), have value-based discussions (growth goals, targets, and revenue), and price according to that expected value rather than the day-to-day work.

    And, at the end of the day, isn't that what entrepreneurship is all about?

    It shouldn't be about selling your time to the highest bidder. It should be about figuring out how to create value for others and then profit from that value.

    submitted by /u/mr_t_forhire
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    How We Designed A $1.1 Million Fashion Product Without Being Into Fashion. This Process Works For Any Product.

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 10:36 AM PDT

    Hey entrepreneurs,

    First, since redditors always ask for proof, here's a quick resume. I design products, and have been pretty successful at it. I've been featured in Fast Company, The Washington Post, Business Insider, and more. I currently operate a $1.1 million suspenders business, a theatrical mask company, and design luxury cat furniture with my business partner.Anyways, neither my business partner, nor I are designers. We are marketers who appreciate data. Before doing this, I knew nothing about fashion. We just build products because we saw the niche was there based on data from keyword research tools - or in our instance, the tool ahrefs.We have replicated this process multiple times, for multiple successful businesses, so it's not a one off.

    Anyways, I thought that using keyword research for product development was a pretty basic thing, however, when you search for "product-market fit keyword research" or "new product keyword research" there isn't a lot of information on it, except from a short article from Wordstream. According to our keyword tools, it's not even something people are searching for either.

    So, therefore, I want to detail the keyword research process that we used to find the product that we developed for our seven-figure suspenders business, JJ Suspenders.

    This process is not complicated. As a matter of fact, technology nowadays allows us to do this pretty easily. However, you may have to be relatively dispassionate about the product, or service, that you decide to develop here. This dispassion may be a good thing, as it allows you to view your product objectively, rather than with the pride that comes with spouts of truly original creativity.

    The process goes like this:

    1. Create a blank Google Sheet for brainstorming. You will be going down many rabbit holes.

    https://imgur.com/hxUL9Yl

    1. Open a keyword tool like ahrefs in a separate tab. Start with a broad idea. To land on the kind of suspenders we developed, we started with "mens fashion."
    2. Keyword tool will spit out tons of different Google search phrases that include that keyword. One of the keyword's we found was "mens fashion suspenders"

    https://imgur.com/ZwNEtG6

    1. We then searched in the tool for "mens suspenders," and immediately recognized several different categories "mens skinny suspenders," "mens formal suspenders," "hipster suspenders," "leather suspenders."

    Note in the pic that the KD (Keyword Difficulty) is low for all of these keywords. This is how we suspected that we had a market that wasn't super competitive.

    https://imgur.com/7et5Y4G

    https://imgur.com/IenCtS0

    1. We Googled around "men's suspenders", "leather suspenders", "tan suspenders", "nice suspenders", "skinny suspenders" and opened as many tabs as we possibly could and tried to put ourselves in the position of a buyer. Originally, our goal was to find the best possible product that existed, import it to the US, and re-sell on our site. But everything looked pretty much the same - generic, cheap looking suspenders.
    2. We then went to our local shopping mall as if we were groomsmen looking for suspenders, and could only find super cheap skinny suspenders from H&M or these insanely expensive ($200+) suspenders from upscale suit stores.
    3. Eventually - we found three options for suspenders. The first was a traditional suspenders maker in England - the OG of suspender makers from the 1800s. But their stuff was insanely expensive and super old school or traditional grandpa style suspenders that we didn't think younger people wanted to wear. Second was this factory in the US that makes almost all the elastic suspenders in the country, but they were so generic, boring, and cheap looking that we didn't feel we could differentiate in any way. Finally we found some on Etsy, but they were these old vintage suspenders that weren't being made anymore. We purchased this old vintage pair from the sixties and modeled our new designs after it's style. So basically we couldn't find any suspenders that we thought were nice enough to resell on our site, so we decided to make our own which led us down the manufacturing path.
    4. We went one step deeper and searched "leather suspenders" and found specific colors to manufacture without taking on much risk because we knew demand was there, and that there was a gap in the market. "Tan leather suspenders" or "cognac leather suspenders" were not on our radar as potential colors, but is now our best seller due to the insight we were able to tap from the keyword tools. If you look at the attached image, you will see that there are a lot of different keywords that revolve around these specific kinds of suspenders.

    https://imgur.com/Y3irQAP

    It should be noted that because this process is easy, doesn't mean that the entire process is easy. The product development itself took us a year. This is just a tried and true process to know what to develop so you can enter the market with minimal risk.

    Have any of you had any luck designing products this way?What strategies do you use to design products?

    Have any of you used keyword research in novel ways?

    Any questions for me?

    EDIT: To clarify, this double's as a marketing strategy. Notice the search volume numbers next to the keyword difficulty. It's basically telling us what kind of content we need to make, and that we can expect traffic from it.

    submitted by /u/Birchlore
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    How to find and negotiate with manufacturers?

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 01:18 PM PDT

    Hi! I'm a young adult and fairly new to entrepreneurship, but with dreams of launching a small business in the fashion & beauty industry. My question is, how do other people find manufacturers to produce their clothing or makeup products? I've done some of my own preliminary research but have so far only found companies that produce stock garments with different prints and private labeling companies for makeup.

    Thanks so much for the help!

    submitted by /u/shoujoglitter
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    How Do You Do It With Your Own Start-Up? (Professional Website + Email)

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 12:30 PM PDT

    I wanted to know how people do it because I ran into a funny situation with my old blog.

    Basically what I did was get a professional email from Google(Gmail).

    Let's say it's: [example@mybusiness.com](mailto:example@mybusiness.com)

    So I bought the "mybusiness.com" domain and I acquired a professional email that cost me like $5/month.

    After that, I wanted to create a website so I went for a WordPress blog because I am not great at coding.

    When I had to choose a domain, I had the option to pick between getting a new domain from the hosting provider or use the one that I had already.

    Because I wanted to use the same domain, I picked the second option. This forced me to transfer my Gmail account to the hosting provider which means that I can't use Google's UI anymore to check my messages but the one provided by the hosting provider(which was awful).

    This got me thinking about how other people do it. So here are my questions:

    1. Do you use Gmail for professional emails?
    2. How do you keep using Gmail UI while having a website with the same domain?
    3. When you create a [support@mybusiness.com](mailto:support@mybusiness.com) email do you do that with Gmail or with the hosting provider?
    4. What do you use for your own website(e.g to present software, how it works, updates, etc...)? Wordpress? Or do you do it yourself(HTML, CSS, PHP, etc...)?

    Thanks in advance,
    Nour

    submitted by /u/Noursaidana
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    Top 5 Reasons Why Your FB Ads Don't Work

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 06:12 AM PDT

    These days I just focus on direct response copy but I ran (and coached people on) FB ads for a long time. Most of the time their problems had less to with targeting and more with the list below.

    As a note I focused on lead-gen for services and selling courses. Ecomm is a different ball-game so may not apply as much.

    With that said here you go:

    1. Your offer is the same as everyone else.

    I will guaran-damn-tee you that this is a problem for 90% of businesses.

    - All the marketers are offering a strategy session.- All the dentists are offering a $99 new patient offer- All the courses are offering a $1 week trial- All the software boot camps will help you become a developer in 12 weeks.

    Answer me this - why should I go with you over the other guy? Hell, why should I even give you the time of day when I'm busy arguing politics with virtual strangers?

    Now you can try to do it through your copy. Put together an amazing story that tugs at my heart strings and show me just how oh so relatable and interesting you are.

    Or if you want to do things the easy way you can make a better offer.

    Making your offer different comes in one of two ways.

    Actually make something truly unique. Fix a problem that frustrates the market. Niche down to a particular customer avatar and write the copy just for them. Figure out a way to do it faster, better, and more conveniently.

    Or...you can change the packaging.

    What sounds more enticing to you?

    A 1 hour free strategy session?

    Or

    Give me 1 hour and if I can't find a way to increase your revenue I'll pay you $500.

    (Obviously you have the right criteria in place so that you only get the prospects who can help).

    This applies for all. B2B or B2C.

    2. You don't understand the stages of market awareness.

    To really get this down I suggest everyone read "Breakthrough Advertising" by Eugene Schwartz.

    By suggest I mean that an angel cries every time someone tries to market something before reading that book.

    But here's a summation:

    Unaware: I didn't realize I was sneezingProblem-Aware: Why am I sneezing?Solution-Aware: How do you cure the common coldProduct-Aware: Which cold medicine should I use?Most-Aware: MOM! I need chicken soup!

    The copy you need for each stage is different. Most-aware and product-aware is where your retargeting comes in.

    Solution and Problem aware is where your cold traffic lives.

    That's why it drives me insane when an ad to cold traffic starts with "Here's what (company's) customers have to say"....

    If the the traffic hasn't heard of you, the traffic doesn't care.

    But really this is even easier than it sounds.

    When you make an ad (or LP, or sales page, or funnel, or email, etc.) just ask yourself this question…

    "Does my prospect care about what I'm saying?"

    And actually think about the answer.

    3. You're not testing with a purpose.

    This is one of the big differences between marketers who know what they're doing and those who are just fumbling their way through.

    If you're testing something - image, headline, copy, etc. have a hypothesis behind it.

    Are you trying a different angle? Appealing to a different emotion? Do you think you need to put more qualifying language to repel bad traffic?

    By all means throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. But throw intelligently.

    4. Your ad and your landing page aren't congruent

    This is the fundamental problem with ads that focus completely on generating attention at the expense of being relevant.

    Bounces happen because people don't see what they expect to see after they clicked your ad.

    99% of the time the headline of my ad is the same as the headline of my LP.

    I am perfectly happy to lose some clicks if it means that I get highly interested traffic.

    Which leads me to my last point…

    5. You don't let the FB algorithm do its work

    Facebook's machine learning is far better equipped to predict who is going to convert than you are.

    Your job is to feed FB the data it needs to be able to bring the right prospects in front of you.

    Now - this doesn't always mean a purchase.

    According to FB it needs 50 conversions in an adset within 7 days for the algorithm to do its job.

    In some cases this is easy. If you're trying to get signups to an email list, or a strategy session, or any other 1-step funnel, than the conversion is landing on the ty page.

    But in other cases you might have to see just how far the funnel you can go to get the 50.

    It might be adding to cart, viewing a particular page, or something else. If you want to turn engagement into a conversion you'll have to get some technical help.

    Now there are people who'll argue that once you've established your basic cost per conversion, you can then test other objectives and see what works better.

    That's true - but I find that most people get overwhelmed by that.

    So keep it simple. Keep it really simple.

    Campaign objective = conversions
    Conversions = The url you want them to land on

    Get 50 of those in a week.

    submitted by /u/InitialGrand
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    Morning thought: when encountering resistance, should we stop or pull through?

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 02:08 PM PDT

    It's an age old question. One I've been asking myself for a long time. Is encountering resistance a sign that I'm doing something wrong and I should stop, or is it a sign that I should pull though and no matter what, never give up? Some on one side will say that giving up is what leads to failure 98% of the time. Others say that repeatedly doing something, in hopes for a different outcome, is the definition of insanity.

    In retrospect, both arguments are completely true. But are they the only truth? My mentor once told me that you need to fail to succeed, and you can only succeed if you've learned why you've failed. Success is a growth mindset principle.

    submitted by /u/evolveliving
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    Cousin thinking of going all-in on a small book store... Seems like a real opportunity. Thoughts?

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 11:27 AM PDT

    Hi all. So my cousin just discovered that the owner of a legacy small book store in his town is trying to sell.

    He had an hour-long conversation with the owner the other day and shared some of the napkin figures with me. I wanted to run them by you because it seems (seems) like a big opportunity. Here are the facts:

    Area / Demographics

    • The bookstore is THE anchor shop in a really nice downtown strip. (The owner is retiring to spend more time with his family and travel.)
    • The community served by the bookstore is one of the wealthiest in the country, super highly educated, lots of disposable income. Also very into "shop local" and supporting community institutions.
    • The shop is very small, about 500 sq feet.
    • Primary bookstore for a population of about 50k.

    Numbers

    • 360k+ annual revenue
    • 80k+ annual profit (after all expenses, employee wages, rents, inventory, etc.)
    • Owner spends ~15 hours/week in the shop, otherwise managed by employees.

    Trends

    • Y/o/y 1-2% decline in sales over the last four years.
    • Profitable for 30+ years it's been in business.

    Asking

    • ~300k, with 50% down and seller financing for the rest at $1k/mo (no interest!)
    • Price includes the owner acting as an ongoing consultant to help the new owner transition successfully.

    Now here's the kicker. All of this is due entirely to walk-in traffic and phone orders. THE SHOP HAS NO WEBSITE (!). No digital presence except for what's passively accumulated over years of being a rock in the community. There's no...

    • Website with targeted SEO plan
    • Customer email list / rewards program
    • Digital newsletter
    • No community events (readings, book groups, events of any kind)

    Given that this is the case, the 1-2% annual decline both makes sense and seems really possible to reverse. My cousin is interested in buying the store, creating a site, building email marketing, implementing customer surveys to tune up offerings, launching a dedicated content strategy and search optimization strategy, creating community events, the whole works. The profit margin relative to the ask seems tantalizing on its own, regardless of the annual decline. But the amount you could do with some digital refurbishing and a new vision for building it into a community space... Interesting.

    I'm curious about your feedback and take on something like this. Would love to hear all thoughts so I can share reddit's best with my cousin. :)

    Thanks!!

    submitted by /u/MisterMcNeil
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    How can I grow my web dev business as a 17 years old still in school?

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 06:29 AM PDT

    Hi!

    I am 17 years old and this summer I started my little web dev business. I got 3 major contracts: a 4000$ with a startup (for 200h), a 750$ for a small business and a 2500$ for a recruiting agency that wanted a web platform. 7250$ in two months. I know I could have asked for more, but beginner mistake I guess.

    I finished the 750$ contract in two weeks while working on getting to 200h for the startup. Both were done by mid-august (while I started in the beginning of July). However, I still have the 2500$ contract where it's way more complicated, takes way more time than expected and way more boring to work on. I get pretty vague information on how it's supposed to look/work according to them, they often ask for changes of things they already agreed to, etc. I have been working on my 2500$ contract since mid-August for around 2-3h/day.

    I would love to work more on that, but I have around 4h of courses per day (online school, thankfully), have maybe 1-2h of homework/studying each night and it leaves me with some time for that contract. Bad thing is, while I'm working on this one, I see a lot of good opportunities (business that need website) that I can't try to get since I have this enormous contract to finish.

    I would love to grow my business a bit more, work a little bit more and get a little bit more money. I already started offering hosting to the 750$ website and the 2500$ website, the first one at 25$/month and the second one at 50$/month. For the next websites, I will offer more options for the hositng, including one at 150$/month with a customized report each month, etc. that will bring a lot of value to my customer.

    I was wondering if taking contracts for making websites and paying someone else less money to work on the website. This way, I could get more contracts, make some money on the side, offer more hosting (so more passive income!), etc. Of course, I would supervise the work and do any adjustment required, deploy the website, etc.

    I am not 100% sure how I should go about that tho. What is the maximum of contract I should have at the same time? How do I determine the pricing. I ask for a quote first to the designer/web dev, I add a little bit of money and send that to the customer or do I make up a price and try to bargain with the web dev? How much profit should I make on top of the web dev I hire to make it reasonable, etc? If any of you have experience with that kind of thing, let me know! :)

    In summary, I just want to grow and not be stuck on one contract at the time without overworking myself.

    Thanks a lot for your advice. r/entrpreneur has been really useful for me in the past and I am happy in can count on you all to help me figure out these kind of things!

    submitted by /u/AsteroidSnowsuit
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    Social Media Marketing Basic Guide for Entrepreneurs

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 08:18 AM PDT

    What is Social Media Marketing?

    Social Media Marketing is a process of using social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to connect with the audience. It also involves building brand, driving sales and increasing traffic to a brands website.

    The Social Media Strategy is the thought out plan of posting great content, interacting with the audience through comments and direct messages. It also includes using statistics to analyse results as well as running ads on different social media platforms.

    As an entrepreneur to entrepreneur, I can tell you that the best tip would be to start and focus on Social Media Marketing right now. Don't give yourself excuses.

    Start now. Get perfect later.

    Little Story

    I love social media and social media marketing. You fall in love with it after you grow your page from 0 followers to 100k followers just by doing hard work(with the solid plan).

    There has been more and more scams and scam-like activity around Social Media Marketing. As an Entrepreneur it has been harder and harder to find good sources of explanation and inspiration.

    I want to tell you, only my personal opinion on how exactly to do it right and how not to fail.

    This is a full and very professional guide on Social Media Marketing, make sure to get the most value out of this.

    1 — The essentials.

    2 — How to do it right.

    3 — Industry's best practices.

    4 — How to sell.

    1 — The essentials:

    The building blocks of any Social Media Marketing strategy are the trends and patterns of user behaviour on a specific platform. We will be looking at Instagram here.

    This can be applied to any social network or any website/app in general as these are the most important fundamentals.

    The most important question people ask is — how do you get followers.

    Value matters? Value matters.

    It is easy. You simply give your followers value.

    As soon as you open an Instagram profile, you read the introduction. You need to see what value you will get.

    Then, you open one of the posts, you read it with interest and you send it to someone(maybe the information is that useful). You save it for later, for reference.

    All of this is amazing for Instagram algorith

    When you open a story, you engage with them. After all the stories are finished, you think to yourself:

    Dam, I learnt something. I will need to come back for some more. This is value.

    You can also think of it that you get an active reader, listener or just a follower in exchange for the work you put for the content on your page. So, here is the deal:

    You worked on that content, you put your time. In exchange, you get a follower.

    How direct ads affect your following count:

    If a potential follower sees an ad in your account, he will leave.

    If your timeline is only ads, he will leave.

    If your stories are only ads, he will leave.

    All of us Entrepreneurs are going into Social Media Marketing for the same reason.

    To sell.

    To promote our product.

    To show why the service we provide is the best

    I have been trapped in the same thinking pattern as well. I had no results and I didn't know what to do.

    The change came when I started experimenting and thinking different. That is when the growing happened and when the sales started rolling in.

    The thing I changed was:

    I started giving value.

    The hardest part is realising that just selling won't work.

    The standard on Instagram is increasing every month. Your content needs to be better and better, but even a small amount of value makes a huge difference.

    This blog post is also sharing value. I am expecting that some of you will find this useful and will subscribe to the newsletter, follow me on Twitter and join my channel on telegram. 👍

    How to be human:

    One of the key principles is to show that you are also a human being.

    You have to be human. If you behave like your profile has no soul and you are a corporate machine, you will have no way of appealing to potential followers.

    Corporate = ignored.

    Human = followed.

    The Easiest way to show that you are human is to show yourself behaving like one.

    How does that help you?

    You need to reach out and interact. Do some unsexy work that will not look good and will take time and effort.

    It is not scalable. It is not something people brag about. But it is what matters.

    Investing in ADs is a good way to scale and get new customers.

    But it is not the way to do Social Media Marketing for Entrepreneur doesn't matter how rich and successful your company is.

    Every single successful company have organically scaled their following.

    ADs are the best to boost your engagement with the following that is already established.

    Be smart.

    If you are in some niche which is taken by at least 10-200 other businesses for your target audience, YOU will have to go out and talk.

    What do I mean by Talk to people:

    • Follow people
    • Make comments relatable to the posts(don't make them spammy)
    • Send Direct Messages telling people what you like and what you appreciate

    If you are doing all of this with correct people, that is at least 100 potential customers/hour.

    Let's say 5 hours per day, 5 days a week and you have:

    2 500 customers per week

    10 000 customers per month

    120 000 customers per year

    If you can afford on skipping this much potential clients, you do not need me to tell you what to do or how to do it. 😉

    In my opinion, if you are starting out, you are not allowed to skip this part.

    After you did all that, do not forget.

    It will take time.

    How much work it requires?

    If you are searching for help you have probably realised that there is no such thing as free lunch. You need to work for everything.

    If you are smart you can take shortcuts, work more efficiently and smarter and it will take 100x or 1000x less time.

    But it will not be free.

    If you are running a REAL business, it will be unsexy and most likely boring at first. But what will be coming after is amazing.

    As a side note. Please don't believe in success overnight. It doesn't exist and you will only waste your time. If someone is selling a course on How to get rich quick it is already a dying niche and all the profits are taken(think fidget spinners).

    2-How to do it right.

    There are a couple of different ways to look at content on Instagram and the way to get results from it.

    It is either you post consistently with decent content or you post less often but with content that blows your mind.

    I am afraid that the second option doesn't generate nearly enough engagement and impressions. The insane hard work doesn't pay off by itself.

    What matters now is consistency and quality all together.

    What you need to do is post content that is interesting, engaging and relevant to your followers but as often as possible.

    You wonder how often you should post?

    The magic number has been 1 post per day. At least for me and every single SMM professional, I speak to.

    It allows the post to get traction as well as get promoted in the timeline to the relevant followers who have missed the post.

    Any more than 1 post per day and your posts will be competing with each other in the timelines of the followers. That means some content will be buried and never seen or engaged with.

    How about Stories?

    For stories, there is also a magic number, but it changes depending on your content.

    If you are an entrepreneur and you are running a blog where you personally show face, then the good number of stories would be 15-25 but not more.

    If you are a corporate account showing deals, testimonials and photos and videos of your products than 5-10 is a good number per day.

    Also, a great tip on Instagram Stories is to delete all old still alive photos and videos once you are starting a new day with a new set of stories to share.

    What really matters with content

    Every time a follower sees a post from a corporate account, a user is looking for an excuse to unfollow you.

    Posting bad content creates a chance that the user will unfollow you.

    Your most important job is to not give followers excuses.

    So here is the deal:

    Great content is the main reason why people share posts. This will get you more followers.

    Or they can get annoyed and just unfollow.

    Every time you create great content for post or story you might get no traction and engagement. Especially if you do it using no planers for time and topics.

    But if you put bad content. It is only a matter of time until there is a huge drop in engagement, impressions and ultimately followers.

    You are probably wondering how does Instagram algorithm work:

    The Secret of Instagram Algorithm is actually simple. It was stated in one of the Instagrams personal blog posts for the Japanese community.

    It looks at how many people got impressions of your content and how many of them engaged with the content. If the ratio is good, then Instagram promotes it to the rest of your followers, doing check every time it is shown to see if it is still relevant.

    In other words:

    People saw your post 1000 times(impressions) and only 10 people pressed like. That is a 1% engagement rate!

    Do you have 100 000 followers? And you only got 10 likes? That is 0,01% followers/engagement rate. Instagram will never promote that.

    That is why you should never use bots!

    Bots are bad.

    I get it. You just started out with Instagram. You have no budget for expensive ADs. Your page looks irrelevant with small followers to count.

    Those are not excuses to get bots. Those are reasons to work harder and harder every day on your account.

    There is also an incorrect understanding that your corporate page will be more strong, will be more trustworthy to the new customers and will convert better when you get bots to boost followers numbers. That is wrong and incorrect logic.

    Any normal Instagram user checks posts before following as there is an overload of information and the users are very-very picky about what they choose to consume.

    That is why if you have 5 thousand followers but 5-10 likes that shows you even worse than having no followers and being an underdog.

    Content is key

    To sum up:

    Bad content is going to be shown less and less.

    Good content will be shown more and more, getting more impression, reach and organic sharing and in the end - followers.

    If you are struggling to post quality content every day, skip a day.

    Don't feed junk to your followers, organic followers don't deserve it.

    Paid followers are too expensive to be neglected with bad posts.

    3 — Industry's Best Practices.

    Influencers are hot

    Influencers have been a hot topic for the past 5 years, since the invention of this term.

    If you want to get far on Instagram, you have to interact with influencers. There are a couple of ways to do it.

    I have written a full post about [Nano Influencers](#)(https://klimy.co/blog/nano-influencers-and-social-media-marketing) and why I think they provide the best value.

    The categories of Influencers:

    Nano-influencers: 1,000 – 10,000 followers ✅

    Micro-influencers: 10,000 – 50,000 followers 😉

    Mid-tier influencers: 50,000 – 500,000 followers 🤤

    Macro-influencers: 500,000 – 1,000,000 followers 🤠

    Mega-influencers: 1,000,000+ followers 🤑

    If you are starting out, then Nano Influencers are your go-to. They don't charge too much and most of them don't even consider themselves influencers.

    You might be wondering what is so good about Influencer Marketing:

    The key is that you get impressions and engagement from people you have never interacted with. You get a second opinion and a testimonial as well.

    By using Influencers you are creating a social proof bubble where if you combine it with correct outreach and following, commenting, DMing and ADs strategy, you will get yourself not only a follower but a customer for life.

    This will happen as the user will be believing that everyone he knows also uses your product. The most important thing here is to not disappoint.

    How to get the best value from bloggers:

    Value for yourself is calculated by using this formula:

    value formula

    Or simply:

    easy value formula

    The higher the number, the better.

    And the best thing is to put 0 money down.

    That you can easily achieve by offering some part of your service for free for a fair review on their profile. Usually, you have to specify it to be a post and a story.

    The most beautiful thing is that you already getting profit for your product so the cost for you is less than a cost to a customer(value here). You get real feedback of the product instead of just blunt recommendation(value here) and you get impressions from people who generally feel that influencer uses your product(value here).

    It is a win-win situation no matter how you look at it. What even better is that sometimes influencers will accept your product even though its price is less than what influencer could ask as an equivalent in money.

    What matters the most:

    Make sure that when you are finally paying money that you are certain that the influencer has something to offer for your brand. And I mean it.

    Follow the influencer for a week. Ask for their statistics screenshots.

    Read comments, write comments, like comments.

    Click on likes and see who exactly the people that are liking.

    See what content is posted in stories.

    Are there too many promos? No promos? Useless content that will be skipped?

    Only you can decide if it is a good idea to cooperate with the influencer.

    After the integration with influencer was done, you must ask for statistics on posts and stories with your advert to see engagement, clicks, reactions as well as saves and DMs.

    My Integration didn't work!

    If you have done all the checks and the integration still didn't work.

    Then you need to look at your page or website to see where the fault was.

    Is it your pricing, your landing page, your social proof or your product positioning that is causing this failure?

    The time to do checks is when 2-3 integrations that went through full checks didn't pay off. There is something wrong.

    Buzzwords that matter

    If you are looking at using ADs in your social media marketing strategy then make sure to stick to these principles.

    Of course, all of this has been said by probably every marketing "Guru" in the industry.

    But hey, I am here for you all in one guide so here it is:

    • Common sense. > Make sure that if you are selling SAAS platform for a business you are targeting to the business owners. Do not put woman age 18-65+ in your targeting. Do not put interests "business" in your Facebook ad cabinet. Use common-sense. If you need to, get a friend or a colleague to check it for you. This is the most crucial and most important. Don't underestimate.
    • Impactful copy > If you have written price and free delivery, then that is not a good selling copywriting. Make sure to explain the situation where it can be useful. Tell who use this product and how it helped them improve their lives.
    • Call to Action > Tell people what you want them to do. Subscribe! Shop Now! Read! Comment!
    • Great Picture > Something that really captures your eyes. Use general world studies on what is best performing in visual ADs right now. Sometimes it is interesting with your name or slogan of what you do but the picture is not even related to you or your brand. Think of Bee with a human head super converter AD.
    • A/B Testing
    • Target Demographic
    • Test. Test. Test.
    • Treat every AD launch as an opportunity to learn

    Direct Sales Still work!

    Direct sales have been discussed and talked about over and over again ever since the invention of sellers walking from home to home. It has been discussed so many times that you have a choice out of thousands of amazing books on this topic.

    Grab one. Read one.

    You can thank me later.

    This will save you years of researching useless topics that actually get you nowhere.

    Direct sales give you exactly what most of us are seeking. Direct sales.

    Guess what? You can combine everything said above about social media marketing and use direct sales.

    Each follower, becomes a lead.

    Each comment, becomes a lead.

    Each like, becomes a lead.

    Each Story view, becomes a lead.

    Use the correct strategies and methods and there is no reason to do anything but reaching your goals.

    There will be an additional post written on Direct Sales later. It is an extensive topic requiring a separate post.

    ADs

    As you might know, there are multiple types of ADs that you can use.

    Targeting based on interests with your product video or photo directly.

    Targeting with a video showcasing your product.

    Retargeting on people already interested in your product with a video showcasing its best features.

    Up sale your other products to those that already purchased your main product. And the list can keep on growing.

    New client

    Most of us are in dire need of traffic and additional customers that can generate sales.

    This is where direct sales ADs come in.

    Most business do them wrong

    I want to tell you about a new type of ADs.

    Tell people about what your brand is and what your product is. Not selling directly. Getting to know each over is half a step to a successful sale.

    Most people are not sure about buying what you are selling.

    There are 4 types of clients.

    1. Those that want to buy your product right now.
    2. Those that are not interested in buying just yet.
    3. Those that need to save money, before buying.
    4. Those that are not going to buy and not your customers.

    Direct sales ads are for the first type of clients. They will buy NOW.

    ADs that introduce yourself to customers are for the second and third type of customers. Those that need to remember you when they are ready or in need of your product.

    Which ADs to use with others

    The type of AD can be anything but a direct call to buy.

    Bring value to your target audience that will buy the product in the long run. Make an infographic explaining the benefits.

    Make a meal plan that you will give away for free.

    Make a style guide for potential customers out of your clothes and types of clothes.

    Make content that will WOW people and promote that everywhere. Look at the example:

    example video of add that adds value

    example video of add that adds value

    example video of add that adds value

    Lazy method of indirect sales

    Advertise a giveaway.

    People love love love 💕 free stuff. If you want to capture someone's attention, but they do not want to buy your product. You can give the product away and keep them engaged after by having them follow you to enter a raffle.

    If you are actually giving out your own product, you only have costs that you bear for the product. Nothing else but the AD itself is a cost for you.

    If you are not ready to make amazing content, or you can't spare the money or energy for it. Giveaway is the best way of engaging with the new audience.

    A quick note that if you actually just starting out you need a decent number of people reposting your content initially to make sense running a giveaway.

    After using ADs

    If you have a good number of followers and engagement on your posts and stories, then you can start using Call To Actions to sell.

    This is just like the story of Lil Nas X and Old Time Road. He started as a MEME Twitter channel and grew into the hugest star out there.

    Grow your audience and reach with useful and impactful content and only after gaining trust and engagement, start selling.

    4 — How to Sell

    I do not want to go backwards from why YOU can not sell anything.

    I want to otherwise tell you that you can sell, by just being smart.

    It is not rocket science to sell something.

    A customer has a problem, you solve it.

    Social Media Strategy to Sell

    If you are on Instagram and crying out loud that it's a waste of time, you just don't have your strategy fully figured out.

    Nothing in this world is easy any more. Everything takes time and effort in saturated markets.

    You have to critically think and make sure that each action you do is thought through.

    Will this bring me, followers? How will my followers react? Have I posted something similar before? How did that look? Was there a high engagement?

    What do my followers want?

    If you haven't asked yourself that, then you are surely on the wrong path.

    People follow you on Instagram not because they can't get enough of your product, they follow you because they get value or expect value from you. Something that will improve their lives in one way or another.

    Put yourself into your follower's shoes, if you don't want some content to be put into your Instagram feed, then followers don't want that either.

    Would you follow a commercial brand that only posts some stock photos and brags about their product?

    Probably not.

    Especially if it is something not really innovative or new.

    Think about your customer and your product together. That what will make a great social media strategy.

    Choose the medium for promotion

    If your product naturally can fit into the everyday life of a lifestyle blogger than it is a good strategy to share it through that channel.

    If your product doesn't have an everyday user or a wide customer base (marketing software for companies), then you are stuck with using niche influencer(marketing specialist) to reach your target audience.

    When communicating with customers don't forget it is not about what your product is. It is more about how can your product be useful for your target audience.

    Quick tip - Choose your Influencers carefully

    If your product has not many influencers you are then better off using ADs.

    If you waste money on ADs and you see the results not being there. Then your logical thought should be to try Influencers.

    There are over 50 million business profiles using Instagram worldwide up from 15 million in July of 2017.

    So, if 50 million businesses could find someplace on Instagram, I am certain that you will be able to as well.

    The most important thing is:

    Make sure to have something unique about your brand and your page. That will make sure that you stand out from 50 million others.

    The Best Advice:

    Don't be afraid to copy what works.

    If you see someone succeed and be successful you should not be put out from copying what they did and what they do.

    Most of the successful people borrow inspiration from something done in the past. History helps you to be the best, as you can borrow from past failures and successes.

    So, why should you shy away from taking some excellent strategies and ideas if even Amazon or Apple do it?

    See big companies Instagrams. Most of them are copying each other success. Be it posts, viral hashtags or some type of product. Just think AirPods and Samsung Buds.

    Constantly check your market and most importantly the most successful players in your niche.

    By staying on top of the game you get to the top.

    I hope that this extensive article helped. If you have any more questions, please contact me by Twitter or on telegram.

    Don't be shy, DMs are open.

    If you found this helpful, retweet this!

    submitted by /u/KlimYadrintsev
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    Anyone doing lead Gen business?

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 11:18 AM PDT

    What's your pricing model?

    submitted by /u/Project7000-Youtube
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    Anyone own a cafe/coffee shop?

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 02:19 PM PDT

    Or know anyone that does, or done research on what it takes to own one? I am wondering what it is like.

    How did you come to own it? how much money is required to start? What are the expenses to maintain? what kind of profit does it turn? Are you there working all day or do you depend on your staff to run the place in your absence? Did you know a lot about coffee before coming into ownership of the cafe? What are some problems you run into that are unique to cafes?

    submitted by /u/what-if-hes-right
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    What skills are most in demand at the moment?

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 02:12 PM PDT

    Looking to read the room on this one. Some suggestions we've had so far are:

    • Virtual Pitching
    • Managing Remote Teams
    • Well-being and Resilience

    Would love to hear your thoughts!

    submitted by /u/Elephant-and-Castle
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    Going to present in front of a potential partner on Thursday - needing advice

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 02:10 PM PDT

    Hello! This may be a bit of a weird, unrelatable post for most entrepreneurs here, but I'd like to pick some brains.

    I am the owner of a business whose main goal is to bring professional, touring Broadway shows to my city. Everything came together really quickly and we're actually waiting for approval on non-profit status, but until then I'm running my business as a sole proprietorship. The town we live in has many, many theatres and is known for its live music industry. We already have a theatre on board that meets all of the qualifications.

    I am currently on a business trip and on Thursday I meet with potential Broadway presenters who would take the cost of bringing the shows here (average is $2mil for 7 days for an equity (union) show). The meeting is purely exploratory at this point, we're feeling each other out and getting to know each other as businesses and humans, but we've been asked to provide information on our town and make a case as to why they should invest this money. They are well known and legit and are responsible for making several cities Broadway hubs and we really, really want them on board.

    I currently have the following pages for our presentation folders:

    • Who we are/our mission statement
    • The timeline of my company & our rapid growth
    • A Brief History of (city)
    • Shows that have been featured in (city)
    • Current shows
    • Favorite local spots (what sets us apart/makes us unique)
    • Transportation available/Airports/private jet charters

    Is there anything else I should add? I'm very new to this and this all happened so fast. I don't want to walk in under-prepared and look stupid.

    Thank you in advance!

    submitted by /u/reineluxe
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    Struggling with the pricing on this project?

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 02:09 PM PDT

    Hi,

    I'm debating if I should price this or not?

    It's basically an AI restock system that takes in your sales and provides recommendations on the number of stocks that avoids overstocking and understocking.

    Link: https://azhantest18.pythonanywhere.com/

    submitted by /u/azhan15
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    To make an app?

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 02:07 PM PDT

    Over the course of the winter I am willing to learn any coding language necessary to create an app for a lawn-mowing business. Simple features like book appointments, just focused on very ease of use concept.

    What would you recommend or have any tips for pointing me in the right direction?

    submitted by /u/Effective-Salesman
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    Why I sold my dream car after battling depression to become an Entrepreneur

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 10:04 AM PDT

    Driving is my passion. I always loved it for as long as I can remember. And the ultimate driving machine, if you ask anybody who likes that sort of thing, it's the Porsche 911 Carrera. It's about the purity of the driving experience. The pedal box, a stick shift and a roaring engine on a twisty back road in the sunset is the apogee of freedom for me. And so after years of working toward that goal of owning my dream car, in 2018 I finally became the owner of a 2007 Porsche Carrera 4S.

     

    Except I already sold it.

     

    Hi, I'm Patrick! Before Covid hit Canada, I was the Director of Technology for seven years at a shipping reseller of courier companies here in Canada. Think of it as Expedia, but for your parcels. I had the perfect job. A great team I hired myself, a great relationship with my boss and colleagues. I had complete free reign of the Tech department. It was a family business, but no one in the family was technical, so I became the "adopted son"! I had zero objective complaints.

     

    Yet, despite all the praise, compensation, freedom, and the Porsche, I slowly became less and less happy. The motivation was waning away, and I couldn't pinpoint why. Why?! I had EVERYTHING to be happy. Little did I know that I was, in fact, slowly creeping into depression.

     

    Then COVID hit. Complete lockdown in Montréal and daycares closed. I got stuck home with a hyperactive 18 months old baby who required 100% attention. My wife had started a new job, THE DAY of the lockdown; she needed to work hard and prove herself. My mum couldn't help with the baby because she's immunosuppressed. My mother-in-law was working. At work, we were uncertain, like many businesses, how this pandemic would affect us. The stress levels were off the charts, and one day, I just snapped.

     

    Readers who had the same unfortunate experience will know how it feels. It's like your spirit crumbles like a castle of cards on the slightest breeze. All your resilience, willpower, self-construct, identity even is wiped out. You don't even know who you are anymore. It feels like you're falling into the darkest abyss with no end in sight and nobody to hear you scream despite them seeing you falling. Your loved ones feel helpless, and you feel even more miserable for making them go through that. I had to take sick leave. At that point, I was exhausted all the time and just barely going from hour to hour. I have little to no memories left of that time. Apparently, it's common in extreme depressive episodes. I was extremely fortunate to have a fantastic therapist and to respond incredibly well to antidepressants. Sometimes you've got to be cognizant of your good fortune, and this is really one of those times.

     

    After a few months, Spring finally came (which is basically mid-June in Montréal <.<). It was sunny and warm, perfect for taking long walks, and my local track reopened to go lapping. I finally started the rebound from my abyss, and I saw things with much more clarity.

     

    I had always wanted to be an entrepreneur. To build something from the ground up. It's something that had been in the back of my mind forever but that was buried extremely deep. I guess that is why I always loved legos (my wife got me a Porsche Lego Technik set for Christmas…) always loved building games, always loved making things. I never had the guts to act on it, for many reasons, all with more or less merit. The biggest fear was to be a failure compared to my dad's and grandfathers' businesses.

     

    At the time, the therapist told me something that really resonated with me: "There is no path in life on which happiness comes from putting oneself on a ranking ladder, even more so if you compare the ladder with others." I'm sure you've heard this argument a thousand times, as I did. But at that moment, at this time, something clicked, and it became clear to me that I needed to follow the entrepreneurship path for myself. The business's success is independent of how I value me as a person. As long as I give it everything I have, I'll be happy with myself for trying, regardless of the outcome. Clearly, money or material things like the dream car are no substitute for internal motivation and happiness.

     

    Thankfully, I had an idea that had been percolating in my mind that we had already discussed at work. I wanted to offer WooCommerce as a service. Indeed, we saw many, many customers struggling with their e-store. We saw it because shipping is the last step in the sales pipeline of your typical e-store. It was just hard to get people connected, despite all the apps and plugin available that we created for Shopify or WooCommerce. A lot of our customers felt overwhelmed by the settings and abilities of their platforms. So what if, I thought, we could leverage our technical knowledge to help people get a managed e-store without having them deal with all the "IT" headaches that come with it?

     

    I talked to my boss about it, and after the surprise (of myself included) of announcing that I needed to quit and start a business for myself, he agreed to split as partners. With my extensive knowledge of transactional websites and issues people were having with their e-stores, I'd take care of their customers' needs for e-commerce solutions. I'd get them to ship more via API, which would be a win-win-win for everybody.

     

    After talking it over with my wife, knowing that I wouldn't have revenues to support the family for a while, she agreed with my project and has been a supporting force since. And so, I sold the car, bought a VW Golf instead, and Woogo Stores started. A fully managed e-store solution on WooCommerce. I genuinely believe the world doesn't stop at Amazon and Shopify. More and more, people are looking for a branded e-commerce experience, and business owners don't want to become IT specialists to run a shop.

     

    And this, my friends, is my story so far!

     

    You're welcome to reach me on Twitter @patsleb. I'll be happy to talk about everything from entrepreneurship to depression or WooCommerce and WordPress questions!

     

    For any readers suffering from depression, please reach out for help, even it's just to talk it over. Remember, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. I know it's almost impossible to believe it when you're in the darkness, but you have to have faith it's coming.

     

    And just a reminder: Canada Suicide Prevention Service 1–833 456–4566

    The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (USA) 1–800–273–8255

    Original story posted on medium

    submitted by /u/sephiros9883
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    Any technical resources for non-technical?

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 01:24 PM PDT

    Can anyone point to some really clear and easy to understand resources that can give an overview (and some detail) of modern web architecture and development to a non-technical like myself?

    submitted by /u/noodledreaming890
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    2 questions that i want to ask entrepreneurs here

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 01:09 PM PDT

    Hey everyone, so I've been in the fitness field for a while and one thing i noticed when it comes to friends and other people i know who own businesses is that usually fitness is a big problem for them due to their lifestyle, gaining muscle mass in particular as many of them tend to be underweight

    I wanted to learn a little more about how one can make the lives of entrepreneurs easier in thia regard

    Which is why i have two questions

    1. As entrepreneurs what are the two biggest issues you have when it comes to gaining muscle mass?

    2. Regarding gaining muscle, what would you wish for more than anything else?

    submitted by /u/Chance-You3704
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    Where do you find serious entrepreneurs who need coding/technical help?

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 10:58 AM PDT

    So, as a developer, I've been looking to work with or partner with serious entrepreneurs. Not the "hey, I've got an idea for an app" crowd. I'm talking about people who are actively looking to see their projects through. People who know their market. Passionate entrepreneurs committed to building a business.

    I keep running into people who want to use WordPress to build the next Facebook. Not that it's not their right; I want to do something more realistic. Where do you find the right people?

    submitted by /u/SaaSWriters
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    E-commerce Question for winter 2020 - For an aspiring small business

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 10:48 AM PDT

    Hey guys, So Im sort of in the position get something going in e-commerce. Ive got some cash, a decent computer and some free time, but I'm reaching out. - for me and others here for some advice from you lovely people. The question I have is this. - what are the products services that we should avoid & what is an opening up area for money making and creating a business - like now ? What is the area that is a decent bet / or decent place for a small start up like me, and can anyone recommend a business theme / idea that is opening up. Look I know there will be a few experienced guys on here but your help will be really appreciated.

    submitted by /u/Marleston
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    What are some educational podcasts I can listen

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 10:39 AM PDT

    Drop YouTube channels? >>>>

    submitted by /u/That369magic
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    What a skill that you learned and leveraged to start a business?

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 10:21 AM PDT

    I noticed that everytime I'm not busy with school im on social media and this accounts for like 5-8 hours a day!! I promised myself that I'm not wasting anymore time and have realized that it's 2000 hours a year that I waste. I can put that towards learning something useful. I'm young (19F) and unemployed

    I really want to be good at something (ex. Mechanical hinge, sewing, etc) and if the skill is leverable it's even better!! Are there any recommendations of things that someone like me can learn and make much better use of time?

    submitted by /u/brownprincess99
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    Free Favicon Maker — Design Stripe-like favicons in seconds!

    Posted: 20 Oct 2020 10:04 AM PDT

    Hey Entrepreneurs,

    I've been creating letter-based favicons for all of my projects using different tools (mostly Photoshop). They took me of course more than a few seconds to build them! So I thought why not make a tool to solve this problem for myself and probably others?!

    Currently, this tool can make letter-based favicon and emojis (just for fun), but if people like the builder, I'll add support for creating favicons from custom SVG. Take a look and design your next favicon with this tool: https://formito.com/tools/favicon

    Would love to hear your feedback and suggestions to improve the tool.

    submitted by /u/hosshams
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