Open Letter to Business Owners Who Are Struggling. You've got this. small business |
- Open Letter to Business Owners Who Are Struggling. You've got this.
- You can get professional product photos even if you use your mobile phone to shoot at will.
- How to Not Stress About Sales Calls?
- Ppp PayPal loanbuilder approved PPP second draw and funded
- COVID Lockdown Provisions in Lease Agreements
- Suggest me a product to sell online( Canada)
- 130K Animals Niche Insta For Sale / Huge Demand For Ads
- Pre-Startup - cool idea, works too but what to do now?
- Despite what they're declaring online, HMRC's Self Assessment Payment Helpline is in fact not open today. Any advice on eligibility on eligibility for payment plan welcome!
- I am cheap, uncreative, and pessimistic. Every idea I've ever come up with I've dismissed because I could think of a way to do or get that product/service for cheap/free. Are there any books I could read to become more creative or figure out what I could do?
- Marketing advice?
- Will loanbuilder/PayPal use my legal business name or dba to wire my funds to my account?
- Cold pressed oil
- Instagram gift cards is gone?
- Soon-to-be boutique owner confusion !
- Where to find used equipment?
- Help! I don't know if there is any room left for my idea!
- Bookkeeping Software
- Best business bank account for a single member llc?
- crtm, sndl, inuvo y inspiremd������������
- So close to winning a consulting project I really want--should I just cut my price?
- Small Businesses Collapse: Rising Unemployment - The Financial Victims - Economic Catastrophe
- PPP round 2 using previous owners payroll
- Getting kicked out of copacker's warehouse. What's a practical way to store smaller quantities of pallets? (+/-1,000 sq ft)
- Bluevine 2nd ppp under review no updates!
| Open Letter to Business Owners Who Are Struggling. You've got this. Posted: 29 Jan 2021 02:33 PM PST EDIT: this ended up being way longer than I wanted it to be sorry guys haha I was on here yesterday. Saw someone who made a post about struggling with scaling, and how $0 days terrified him. And boy could did it bring back some memories. Inspired me to write this and share some insight/give a little perspective. This is purely therapy for me, and felt like someone could use some words of encouragement. My name is Stanford Nix. Im a twin, I'm addicted to coffee and I have an I am a consumer behavior analysis advertising consultant. In a one-sentence answer: I help people understand their consumer data, where they are getting traffic from, and help them scale their revenue through the analysis and application of behavioral economics. Basically, I help people generate more sales through effective advertising. The "if you spend 1$ here, you'll make $3 back" kind of advertising. Super detailed and super helpful. On paper, Im a typical wall street MBA kinda guy. Dual MBA in Finance and Business Intelligence/ Analysis. Currently in process of getting a PhD in behavioral economics. Work in private equity where my twin and I make capital allocations to become activist investors in various companies. But heres the thing: who gives a shit? You dont need an MBA or a PhD to be a successful entrepreneur, because the truth is, its all the same for everyone. When I was reading a post on here yesterday about someone experiencing repetitive $0 days, it hit home. MBA or not, we all experience that as we start out, and it's tough. Its discouraging, its terrifying and its real. And when I read that, I was inclined to give him my advice and background. After spending years learning theoreticals of buyside economics and financial prediction (GME to the moon btw), I found myself in a situation I didnt like: about to embark on a journey I knew I didnt want to be on, which was about 100 hour work weeks at Goldman Sachs in Manhattan. I knew I was going to be a slave and it would take me years to get where I wanted. So I walked. Woke up the next day with the most exhilarating feeling ever: doing what I wanted to do.And I was immediately hit with "what the hell DO i want to do?". That was a tough answer. It was months of living off savings, budgeting, and eating cheap food but Jesus Christ was is the most fun I ever had. Waking up everyday, progressing with my twin, learning a skill, and making it happen. Long days, even longer nights. Many days of $0 made, and many days of stress. There was 2 things I knew I wanted to do. 1) work with my Twin, and 2) work in a sector I loved. He had already ran a successful coffee subscription company, and I was out of grad school and had experience in data mining and analysis. We embarked on our first venture. A simple mens watch company that were swiss movement and didnt cost a fortune. He focused on product manufacturing (oem) and fulfillment, and i worked on the advertising and data gathering side. We went from literally $0- to $115,000 in revenue...in two weeks. It was insane. Literally unbelievable. Remember at the end of 'the social network' where Zuckerberg kept refreshing his page to see if his paralegal accepted his friend request? That was us. refreshing, refreshing, refreshing. We started on day one, with a good business model and a plan. We had a good product, and knew how to get people to see it. Thats it. Having a good product/service, and then getting people to see it. After one day of gathering consumer data, and analyzing it, we made changes to our advertising strategy, and spent more money. Did that day after day, and boom, $115,000 in two weeks. Many employees, contract workers, changes, and pivots later: we still own that business, among 3 others that we also wholly own. Two in the fitness sector selling online subscriptions, and the watch business. And that brings us to today. As we nicely have automated a lot of the front end work for these other ventures, we have started to become consultants for small business that want to scale their revenue in a similar manner. The end goal is to build a firm with fully integrated account managers, media teams, analysts, and buyers. It will add to our arsenal of businesses we own under our holding company (with the aim to go OTC public), but this gives us a chance to do something different: give people who were in our positions the tools to progress in their businesses, effectively. We consult businesses about advertising and their data analysis. Businesses that have passionate owners who feel stuck, who feel they dont know what direction to go. The owners who do well, but on a lot of the days: wake up, sit down at their desk and quite literally dont know what to do to progress forward. And it resonated with me yesterday when someone said they had a $0 dollar day. Its terrifying and seems helpless. And this annoyingly long post is to tell you: keep going. Keep punching at it. Because one day you will look back and think of it as the most fun time you ever had. At least I do. And aside from building more business for our firm, thats why we consult. To give people some direction in scaling their business and give them to opportunity to actually see meaningful growth. If ANYONE wants to chat about what they are struggling with, or get some pointers on what to focus on, feel free to call me. No, Im not an asshole. This isnt a 'SaLeS PiTcH". Keep in mind, we both have businesses to run, so I cant chat for hours on end. But if you want to vent to someone who understands how to push forward, feel free to reach out. Stanford Nix, 214-616-5944 [link] [comments]  |
| You can get professional product photos even if you use your mobile phone to shoot at will. Posted: 30 Jan 2021 12:48 AM PST I created a website, which can automatically and quickly turn any product photos into professional product photos. AI drives all editing, no manual editing required [link] [comments]  |
| How to Not Stress About Sales Calls? Posted: 29 Jan 2021 09:14 AM PST How do you handle sales calls / calls with clients? Any mental tips / tricks? I'm a web developer / agency co-owner. And while I love love love coding and the freedom of running my own ship, the sales aspect freaks me out every time. When I have a call scheduled, it's all I can think about all day until it's over. Even when the lead is reaching out to me (I've never done any cold calling), it's still so anxiety inducing. Can anyone recommend a good resource for getting over it? [link] [comments]  |
| Ppp PayPal loanbuilder approved PPP second draw and funded Posted: 29 Jan 2021 03:07 PM PST Last year, got PPP thru PayPal and it was much faster (got funding within 3-5 days). This year, it took longer: about 10 days to get funds into my account. Here's my timeline: Tues Jan 19: applied for second draw and uploaded documents. No email confirmation or anything after applying which seemed odd. Loanbuilder account now in the "3 stages" message. I did notice there was an account inquiry from WEBBANKPYPL on my credit report on Jan 19 .................................................................................. Weds Jan 20: woke up and checked loanbuilder account and it's asking me to upload the same documents AGAIN. so went ahead and uploaded again. Now it's back to the 3 stages screen. Still no email from PayPal. For reference, all my documents are organized and each file is labeled accordingly. For example, each 941 quarter is a separate file. 2020 Q1 would be one file. 2020 Q2 is another file. And so forth. .................................................................................. Rest of week goes by: no email or any kind of communication from PayPal. ***This got me worried thinking PayPal going to screw us over like what chase did the very first round. So I applied to Biz2credit just in case. Weds Jan 27 (A week later) Finally some communication from PayPal!! 2:16am: PayPal email "Thank you for applying for the Paycheck Protection Program Loan through PayPal. We have received your application and documentation. Currently, your application is in a pending status..... blah blah blah" 1:35pm: PayPal sends Docusign email. Quickly signed those. 2:36pm another PayPal email: "We have submitted your Paycheck Protection Program loan application to the SBA for approval...." Loanbuilder account still stuck in the "3 stages" message. *I withdrew my application from Biz2credit as soon as I received the Docusigns from PayPal .................................................................................. Thurs Jan 28: 3:24pm checked CAWEB and I see second draw PPP loan (PPS) ACTIVE- UNDISBURSED I Emailed sba.gov to find out who the lender was. And they replied an hour later and stated the lender was Webbank (which is who PayPal uses) I checked my Loanbuilder account, it's still stuck in the "3 stages" message. .................................................................................. Fri-yay Jan 29: 12:02pm: PayPal approval email "Congratulations! Your application for a Paycheck Protection Program loan through PayPal in the amount of $$$$ has been fully approved and accepted by the SBA. The loan proceeds will be transferred to the bank account you provided....." 12:18pm: Another PayPal email "Great news! Your Paycheck Protection Program loan has been successfully funded in the amount of $$$$. The loan proceeds have been transferred to the bank account you provided......" I checked Loanbuilder. Now shows both my PPP initial draw and second draw loans. 5pm: Officially funded and in my bank account today. Overall, PayPal process was easy as long as you have your documents together. Yes they did take longer this year (vs last year) but they are approving and funding businesses. [link] [comments]  |
| COVID Lockdown Provisions in Lease Agreements Posted: 30 Jan 2021 02:57 AM PST I'm looking to lease a location inside a mall and as I'm reviewing the lease terms with my lawyer, he mentioned I should look to add a provision within the agreement to account for any potential lockdown that may occur. What would some creative examples of a provision be? [link] [comments]  |
| Suggest me a product to sell online( Canada) Posted: 30 Jan 2021 02:23 AM PST I know how dumb this title sounds, but it is really what i intend to ask. I am on long parental leave- want to start an online shop to see how it will go before i return to work and continue at nights and weekends until ( if) it gets volume. I can be your re-seller or canadian sale point. Thankyou/Merci [link] [comments]  |
| 130K Animals Niche Insta For Sale / Huge Demand For Ads Posted: 30 Jan 2021 01:34 AM PST |
| Pre-Startup - cool idea, works too but what to do now? Posted: 30 Jan 2021 01:26 AM PST Me and a friend have been working on a project, I think it has a great deal of promise but we are men of idea's not of business. The project is a next generation form of armour protection, lighter than just about anything out there and it has stopped some significant threats so far. This work has benefited from my previous endeavours into graphene production. I have my own highly scalable production methodology, the material has been lab tested. These armour plates are 100x100x25mm in dimension and weigh 390 grams each. We are now pressing ahead with a revamped design that is 18mm in thickness. See Linkhttps://imgur.com/a/hpFvuZ6 We have something cool but we're two guys working out of our kitchens at home with a non existent budget. What is my best bet going to be (Assuming there is one) to obtain some investment into this work? Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Jan 2021 01:18 AM PST Self Assessment Payment Helpline I'm now employed full time and despite my best efforts to get through to HMRC this week, I've hit a dead end each and every time. Seeing that that they were open over this weekend gave me hope.... Useful I'd say at the end of what I can imagine has been a nightmare year for millions of business owners across the UK. I tick all the visible boxes for setting up a payment plan, yet online, I come up against it; Please call us You are not eligible to set up a payment plan online. For further support you can contact the Business Support Service and speak to an adviser on 0300 200 3835. Yes I've tried this number also... I guess this means I can expect fines/ interest added to my already high tax bill? I know its in the final days of the tax year but come on, don't say one thing and do another! Please can anyone give any guidance on moving forward, where do I stand, any secret numbers to get through to a person? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Jan 2021 01:00 AM PST Hi guys! So, I am a software engineer. I've wanted to develop a SAAS style business, but my problem is I cannot for the life of me think of something that a free and open source alternative does not already exist for, or something that wouldn't be so easy to implement it wouldn't be worth charging for. So, I have just given up and read a bunch of investment and real estate books. My only ideas at this point are a real estate company, a holdings company, and an IT consulting business after my wife and I amass enough capital from our day jobs over the next 15 or 20 years and finish our Ph.Ds. Are there any books any of you have read that would help us become more creative? We have tried reading "The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life" and "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience", but they were not of much help. Other than that, we've tried writing all our ideas on lists but we just end up striking through all of them since there is invariably some hole in each idea that kills its viability (edit: e.g. too much competition, too much easy for customer to implement in-house, etc). [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2021 09:11 PM PST Ive noticed that everyone says that their first sales are from family and friends, but im afraid of telling them that im starting a small business because thwyll doubt me and say "i told you so" in the case where it flops. Because of this, i need to make sure my marketing game is on top. Do you guys have advice on how to reach a wide audience? Im planning on using facebook, instagram, tiktok, and pinterest. Any tips on how to go viral on tiktok or get a lot of impressions on pinterest? [link] [comments]  |
| Will loanbuilder/PayPal use my legal business name or dba to wire my funds to my account? Posted: 30 Jan 2021 12:52 AM PST I listed my legal business name and dba on my application. But only my legal business name is on my bank account. Will they send the funds in both names or just my legal business name? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Jan 2021 12:51 AM PST Does anyone here makes cold pressed oils? I want to start small production and looking for any advice. Any pros and cons? As far as I calculated it should be quite profitable business but I'm wondering what might be the point that may turn everything upside down. If you have any experience, please share in comments! Many thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2021 10:12 AM PST I had my insta account's Action Button set up to sell eGift cards. I just checked and gift cards aren't an Action Button option anymore. Did instagram discontinue this function? [link] [comments]  |
| Soon-to-be boutique owner confusion ! Posted: 29 Jan 2021 11:41 PM PST Hi! I'm in the process of filing for all of my licensing for my upcoming online boutique (sole proprietorship) that will be run out of my home. I'll be purchasing clothing, jewelry, and shoes wholesale from vendors. I contacted the small business development help line in my county and now I'm even more confused! The person in office was unaware of resale/wholesale licensing and said that I won't need a business license. Now I'm a little bit more confused than I originally was LOL. All I know for sure is that I need a resale license, home occupation permit, EIN #, and a FBN. I was considering using LegalZoom's $99 program but I'd love to avoid the extra costs if possible. Any tips or information is greatly appreciated!! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2021 09:06 AM PST Do any of you know good resources to find used warehouse equipment like carts, boxes, gummed tape machines, strapping materials, etc. I would like to find liquidation sales for office but mostly warehouse and of course kept an eye on Craigslist, EBAY and Offer up but I thought maybe someone knew of better sites. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Help! I don't know if there is any room left for my idea! Posted: 29 Jan 2021 04:55 PM PST I'm writing my master theses on a new business idea I'm planning to launch but I'm getting more and more convicted that the wellness/health/fitness market is getting too saturated! I doubting my idea and if there is room for it, how should I test it? Did you experienced this kind of uncertainty? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2021 07:02 PM PST Hey Guys, Long Time lurker, first time poster. I am in the process of putting together the systems for a new Construction/Maintenance company. The company will be started by 3 of us, and the structure and systems are being specifically designed to handle rapid growth in case its needed. We all have a moderate level of experience with Office 365, so we used excel to create all of our test reports, safety documents, and many of the project sheets. Furthermore our projects cost tracking(hours and expenses) are using excel documents. The forms I have made turned into a relatively complex system(Complex for me) and do a good job tracking everything. I've started looking into setting up the bookkeeping side of the company, and I dont like my solutions. The first thing I looked into was QuickBooks, and it would work, but it would not be very efficient. I am suspicious this will be a common issue with the software solutions. The problem is, integrating the current excel based system with the bookkeeping software. Right now, the project management documents do many of the same functions as quickbooks, but I dont see a way of transferring the expenses and manhours recorded in our system to quickbooks. I would like to avoid the need of entering data twice, once into the project management excel file, and again into quickbooks. Quickbooks does not allow importing data other than their proprietary format. I am considering making my own bookkeeping file as most of the systems that are in place already have the data that's needed, and it just needs to be transferred to the bookkeeping record(and reformatted). From what I've read online, excel has many limitations for recording and storing this kind of information. I was looking into Microsoft Access as a potential solution, except I am not as familiar with this. I am willing to put time into learning it, but I dont want to waste my time if its not going to be a good solution. Does anyone have some insight into possible solutions that I may be overlooking ? Anyone have any relevant experience that they could share? Am I crazy for considering making my own bookkeeping documents? [link] [comments]  |
| Best business bank account for a single member llc? Posted: 29 Jan 2021 03:13 PM PST Hey all, I had a bank account with Azlo and they were perfect. unfortunately, they are shutting down. My LLC has little to no actually expenses, any bank recommendations for me? Just me in the LLC and would love to have just a simple bank like Azlo. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| crtm, sndl, inuvo y inspiremd������������ Posted: 30 Jan 2021 01:42 AM PST |
| So close to winning a consulting project I really want--should I just cut my price? Posted: 29 Jan 2021 06:00 PM PST My small team responded to an RFP for an organization I'd love to work with. The key decision-maker there wrote me to say he loved the proposal, but it's a little over budget. There are a few components, and he asked if we could find a part to trim to make the budget (about 7%--not a huge amount, but not small either). The truth is, I don't want to trim the project because what my team specified is what they need and I want to do the best job possible. But I would love to work with them. They are good people in a good organization, and it would be prestigious for my small firm (and keep my team busy in a slow time). My small firm is expensive for the work we do, so the prospective client is not being cheap or unreasonable (I've lost on cost before and was considering revisiting this). I'm thinking I could just eat the price (it would be out of my professional time), but I'm concerned about just giving a discount out of nowhere because I don't want to look sketchy or like my firm is not based in any kind of reality. Or perhaps I could make a small trim somewhere (that wouldn't meet the shortfall) and still say it would work for the desired budget. Am I overly concerned? Any advice about how to approach this? Truth is, I would be very excited to win this project. [link] [comments]  |
| Small Businesses Collapse: Rising Unemployment - The Financial Victims - Economic Catastrophe Posted: 29 Jan 2021 09:04 PM PST Small Businesses Collapse causes rising unemployment. Today, the number of small businesses in the United States is close to 31 million. The number of people working in small businesses, which are some of the hardest-hit financial victims of economic catastrophe, is close to 60 million. In just a few months, the number has drastically reduced. Since 2020, many of these have had to temporarily close or limit their activity. For some, this temporary closure was unfortunately made permanent. Many businesses that are still open or temporarily closed are doing whatever they can to resist the unpredictable financial tsunami heading towards them. Small businesses account for almost 45% of the GDP, and if even just a fraction of it collapses, it is a very huge problem. If we include the families of these 60 million people as well, we have no better reference point to observe how the crashing economy is affecting people's livelihoods. Small businesses, which make up 99% of the businesses in the disintegrating U.S. economy, are falling by the wayside. Even though some are talking about it, it appears many don't truly don't realize the alarming significance of it. Current measures and incentives are not going to restore anything. Despite the applause and exclamations of "all-time highs" you hear from Wall Street when they discuss the economy, they don't include you, they don't include your family, and they don't include the economic reality of this country! I described what's REALLY happening in the economy with charts… The retail and restaurant industries have been hit hard. When we look at the specific sectors, an even worse picture awaits us. Another dramatic topic is unemployment, which isn't getting enough attention, similar to the plight of small businesses. We are entering what will be the most chaotic period of the last century. Although it makes me relax that some people are economically prepared for this chaotic period, or at least try to be prepared, it is not the case for everyone. TOPICS: 00:00 Small businesses are collapsing 00:00 The number of small businesses that remained open decreased by almost 30% 00:00 Total small business revenue decreased by 31.1%. 00:00 The retail and restaurant industries have been hit hard 00:00 Somehow, specific companies get bailouts 00:00 Danger of centralized supply 00:00 Historically high unemployment figures (unemployment benefits dropped to 900,000) 00:00 The problem with the current economic system 00:00 Stimulus checks did not salvage much 00:00 The real victims of the economic catastrophe are small businesses 00:00 The inflated stock bubble and big business 00:00 Prepare yourselves [link] [comments]  |
| PPP round 2 using previous owners payroll Posted: 29 Jan 2021 08:34 PM PST We purchased our business in Jan 2020. When it came to ppp round 1, our accountant and the SBA said we could use 2019 payroll from the previous owner as we obviously didn't have any payroll ourselves for 2019. We got the loan okay. For round 2, the same bank is saying that i cant do this now and i have to use my 2020 payroll - which due to the pandemic is a lot lot lower than it would have been normally. I want to use the previous owners 2019 payroll again. Has anyone else had a similar situation? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2021 02:18 PM PST I have a 2 year old DTC ecommerce business that is growing quickly. Up until now, I was paying rent to our copacker to lease space in their warehouse for raw materials that were not being used and shipping finished goods to distribution centers and Amazon. Since covid though everything is backed up and we aren't able to ship as many pallets despite steady demand. Also because of COVID spacing requirements, my copacker is kicking us out to make room for employees. We have a budget of $2,400/month. Thoughts are:
[link] [comments]  |
| Bluevine 2nd ppp under review no updates! Posted: 29 Jan 2021 04:06 PM PST I applied 2nd ppp on 20th, still under review no email no updates, is anyone had same problem? [link] [comments]  |
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