• Breaking News

    Thursday, April 29, 2021

    Home Unlabelled Thank you Thursday! - April 29, 2021 Entrepreneur

    Thank you Thursday! - April 29, 2021 Entrepreneur

    April 29, 2021

    Thank you Thursday! - April 29, 2021 Entrepreneur

    Thank you Thursday! - April 29, 2021

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 02:00 AM PDT

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

    Please consolidate such offers here!

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

    submitted by /u/AutoModerator
    [link] [comments]

    What are your thoughts on a webapp that converts complex legal clauses into simple english?

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 10:23 AM PDT

    I've built an app which recommends converts complex legal jargon or difficult to understand legal documents into simple english using artificial intelligence.

    The whole central premise of the app is to make it easier, faster and cheaper to understand a legal document that an entrepreneur will run into without requiring the time consuming and costly assistance of a lawyer. It obviously isn't as good as a real lawyer but its instant and costs barely anything.

    We have done some initial user testing and people seem to really like it. Right now the service is free until we iron out the bugs and find product market fit. It would be really great to get in touch with a few of you to see if the app is beneficial to you in any way. Feedback is also welcome.

    Best,

    S

    submitted by /u/Educational-Donut-95
    [link] [comments]

    Pmarca's "The only thing that matters" is the bible for Entrepreneurs

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 02:10 AM PDT

    This post is all about the only thing that matters for a new startup.

    But first, some theory:

    If you look at a broad cross-section of startups -- say, 30 or 40 or more; enough to screen out the pure flukes and look for patterns -- two obvious facts will jump out at you.

    First obvious fact: there is an incredibly wide divergence of success -- some of those startups are insanely successful, some highly successful, many somewhat successful, and quite a few of course outright fail.

    Second obvious fact: there is an incredibly wide divergence of caliber and quality for the three core elements of each startup -- team, product, and market.

    At any given startup, the team will range from outstanding to remarkably flawed; the product will range from a masterpiece of engineering to barely functional; and the market will range from booming to comatose.

    And so you start to wonder -- what correlates the most to success -- team, product, or market? Or, more bluntly, what causes success? And, for those of us who are students of startup failure -- what's most dangerous: a bad team, a weak product, or a poor market?

    Let's start by defining terms.

    The caliber of a startup *team* can be defined as the suitability of the CEO, senior staff, engineers, and other key staff relative to the opportunity in front of them.

    You look at a startup and ask, will this team be able to optimally execute against their opportunity? I focus on effectiveness as opposed to experience, since the history of the tech industry is full of highly successful startups that were staffed primarily by people who had never "done it before".

    The quality of a startup's *product* can be defined as how impressive the product is to one customer or user who actually uses it: How easy is the product to use? How feature rich is it? How fast is it? How extensible is it? How polished is it? How many (or rather, how few) bugs does it have?

    The size of a startup's *market* is the the number, and growth rate, of those customers or users for that product.

    (Let's assume for this discussion that you can make money at scale -- that the cost of acquiring a customer isn't higher than the revenue that customer will generate.)

    Some people have been objecting to my classification as follows: "How great can a product be if nobody wants it?" In other words, isn't the quality of a product defined by how appealing it is to lots of customers?

    No. Product quality and market size are completely different.

    Here's the classic scenario: the world's best software application for an operating system nobody runs. Just ask any software developer targeting the market for BeOS, Amiga, OS/2, or NeXT applications what the difference is between great product and big market.

    So:

    If you ask entrepreneurs or VCs which of team, product, or market is most important, many will say team. This is the obvious answer, in part because in the beginning of a startup, you know a lot more about the team than you do the product, which hasn't been built yet, or the market, which hasn't been explored yet.

    Plus, we've all been raised on slogans like "people are our most important asset" -- at least in the US, pro-people sentiments permeate our culture, ranging from high school self-esteem programs to the Declaration of Independence's inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- so the answer that team is the most important feels right.

    And who wants to take the position that people don't matter?

    On the other hand, if you ask engineers, many will say product. This is a product business, startups invent products, customers buy and use the products. Apple and Google are the best companies in the industry today because they build the best products. Without the product there is no company. Just try having a great team and no product, or a great market and no product. What's wrong with you? Now let me get back to work on the product.

    Personally, I'll take the third position -- I'll assert that market is the most important factor in a startup's success or failure.

    Why?

    In a great market -- a market with lots of real potential customers -- the market pulls product out of the startup.

    The market needs to be fulfilled and the market will be fulfilled, by the first viable product that comes along.

    The product doesn't need to be great; it just has to basically work. And, the market doesn't care how good the team is, as long as the team can produce that viable product.

    In short, customers are knocking down your door to get the product; the main goal is to actually answer the phone and respond to all the emails from people who want to buy.

    And when you have a great market, the team is remarkably easy to upgrade on the fly.

    This is the story of search keyword advertising, and Internet auctions, and TCP/IP routers.

    Conversely, in a terrible market, you can have the best product in the world and an absolutely killer team, and it doesn't matter -- you're going to fail.

    You'll break your pick for years trying to find customers who don't exist for your marvelous product, and your wonderful team will eventually get demoralized and quit, and your startup will die.

    This is the story of videoconferencing, and workflow software, and micropayments.

    In honor of Andy Rachleff, formerly of Benchmark Capital, who crystallized this formulation for me, let me present Rachleff's Law of Startup Success:

    The #1 company-killer is lack of market.

    Andy puts it this way:

    • When a great team meets a lousy market, market wins.
    • When a lousy team meets a great market, market wins.
    • When a great team meets a great market, something special happens.

    You can obviously screw up a great market -- and that has been done, and not infrequently -- but assuming the team is baseline competent and the product is fundamentally acceptable, a great market will tend to equal success and a poor market will tend to equal failure. Market matters most.

    And neither a stellar team nor a fantastic product will redeem a bad market.

    OK, so what?

    Well, first question: Since team is the thing you have the most control over at the start, and everyone wants to have a great team, what does a great team actually get you?

    Hopefully a great team gets you at least an OK product, and ideally a great product.

    However, I can name you a bunch of examples of great teams that totally screwed up their products. Great products are really, really hard to build.

    Hopefully a great team also gets you a great market -- but I can also name you lots of examples of great teams that executed brilliantly against terrible markets and failed. Markets that don't exist don't care how smart you are.

    In my experience, the most frequent case of great team paired with bad product and/or terrible market is the second- or third-time entrepreneur whose first company was a huge success. People get cocky, and slip up. There is one high-profile, highly successful software entrepreneur right now who is burning through something like $80 million in venture funding in his latest startup and has practically nothing to show for it except for some great press clippings and a couple of beta customers -- because there is virtually no market for what he is building.

    Conversely, I can name you any number of weak teams whose startups were highly successful due to explosively large markets for what they were doing.

    Finally, to quote Tim Shephard: "A great team is a team that will always beat a mediocre team, given the same market and product."

    Second question: Can't great products sometimes create huge new markets?

    Absolutely.

    This is a best case scenario, though.

    VMWare is the most recent company to have done it -- VMWare's product was so profoundly transformative out of the gate that it catalyzed a whole new movement toward operating system virtualization, which turns out to be a monster market.

    And of course, in this scenario, it also doesn't really matter how good your team is, as long as the team is good enough to develop the product to the baseline level of quality the market requires and get it fundamentally to market.

    Understand I'm not saying that you should shoot low in terms of quality of team, or that VMWare's team was not incredibly strong -- it was, and is. I'm saying, bring a product as transformative as VMWare's to market and you're going to succeed, full stop.

    Short of that, I wouldn't count on your product creating a new market from scratch.

    Third question: as a startup founder, what should I do about all this?

    Let's introduce Rachleff's Corollary of Startup Success:

    The only thing that matters is getting to product/market fit.

    Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.

    You can always feel when product/market fit isn't happening. The customers aren't quite getting value out of the product, word of mouth isn't spreading, usage isn't growing that fast, press reviews are kind of "blah", the sales cycle takes too long, and lots of deals never close.

    And you can always feel product/market fit when it's happening. The customers are buying the product just as fast as you can make it -- or usage is growing just as fast as you can add more servers. Money from customers is piling up in your company checking account. You're hiring sales and customer support staff as fast as you can. Reporters are calling because they've heard about your hot new thing and they want to talk to you about it. You start getting entrepreneur of the year awards from Harvard Business School. Investment bankers are staking out your house. You could eat free for a year at Buck's.

    Lots of startups fail before product/market fit ever happens.

    My contention, in fact, is that they fail because they never get to product/market fit.

    Carried a step further, I believe that the life of any startup can be divided into two parts: before product/market fit (call this "BPMF") and after product/market fit ("APMF").

    When you are BPMF, focus obsessively on getting to product/market fit.

    Do whatever is required to get to product/market fit. Including changing out people, rewriting your product, moving into a different market, telling customers no when you don't want to, telling customers yes when you don't want to, raising that fourth round of highly dilutive venture capital -- whatever is required.

    When you get right down to it, you can ignore almost everything else.

    I'm not suggesting that you do ignore everything else -- just that judging from what I've seen in successful startups, you can.

    Whenever you see a successful startup, you see one that has reached product/market fit -- and usually along the way screwed up all kinds of other things, from channel model to pipeline development strategy to marketing plan to press relations to compensation policies to the CEO sleeping with the venture capitalist. And the startup is still successful.

    Conversely, you see a surprising number of really well-run startups that have all aspects of operations completely buttoned down, HR policies in place, great sales model, thoroughly thought-through marketing plan, great interview processes, outstanding catered food, 30" monitors for all the programmers, top tier VCs on the board -- heading straight off a cliff due to not ever finding product/market fit.

    Ironically, once a startup is successful, and you ask the founders what made it successful, they will usually cite all kinds of things that had nothing to do with it. People are terrible at understanding causation. But in almost every case, the cause was actually product/market fit.

    Because, really, what else could it possibly be?

    [Editorial note: this post obviously raises way more questions than it answers. How exactly do you go about getting to product/market fit if you don't hit it right out of the gate? How do you evaluate markets for size and quality, especially before they're fully formed? What actually makes a product "fit" a market? What role does timing play? How do you know when to change strategy and go after a different market or build a different product? When do you need to change out some or all of your team? And why can't you count on on a great team to build the right product and find the right market? All these topics will be discussed in future posts in this series.]

    submitted by /u/deadcoder0904
    [link] [comments]

    Canadian provinces should simplify incorporating

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 06:21 AM PDT

    In most Canadian provinces, a lot of small businesses skip the incorporation option because of burdensome paperwork and elevated costs associated with it. But not in Quebec. In what is being called a progressive approach to small business, Quebec allows businesses to incorporate, but bypass a lot of the troublesome processes that other provinces require.

    TOO MANY REQUIREMENTS

    Cost and time are two of the most important factors for a small business. Right behind revenue. And incorporating impacts both. Well really all three I guess.

    For most other provinces, when you incorporate a business, you as the shareholder are required to:

    • Establish a board of directors
    • Hold shareholder meetings
    • Keep records of the aforementioned board and shareholder meetings
    • Adopt by-laws, such as issues around corporate governance
    • Appoint an auditor

    Those items thusly require professional services (ie: lots of $$), to ensure they are done correctly. If you're a small one or two person operation just starting out, why would you bother spending the time and money to complete those things if you don't need to.

    TAKING THE OTHER PATHS TO BUSINESS CREATION

    So if not incorporating, then what? You could go Sole Proprietorship. That is the easiest and least expensive set-up available. It gives you as the owner sole control and the tax reporting is simple.

    On the flip side, you have unlimited personal liability (you and the business are one and the same - and well, that's a bit scary). It's difficult to raise any sort of capital or equity financing. And it's very difficult to sell.

    You could start a Partnership. The advantages are you share the risk with your partner. You share the management duties of the company and the tax reporting is also simple (no separate corporate tax return).

    However, you run the risk of having a conflict with your partner. If your partner wants to screw you hard, they can rack up a lot of debt in the company which you are now personally responsible for your portion of. When it comes time to sell, buy-outs or sell-outs can be tricky as well.

    (Partnerships actually kinda sound like sh*t when you think abou it....)

    THE ADVANTAGE IS IN THE INCORPORATION

    Incorporating truly is the way to go, if you can afford it and can stomach the headaches. You have limited personal liability (umm yes please!). It's far easier to raise capital with lending institutions. If you want to do any sort of business with the government, this is generally a requirement of theirs. And you can also get fancy with how you pay yourself. Salary or dividends are options available to you if incorporated and that sort of flexibility allows you to optimize your tax situation.

    So why isn't the rest of Canada getting on board with this? No damn clue! Quebec has had this in place since 2010! This is common in other countries around the world already.

    It seems common sense that a company of 1 owner and maybe a staff or two, doesn't need a board of directors, shareholder meetings and all the other stuff. Governments should be encouraging and helping entrepreneurs create companies that grow the economy and employee base, not burying them in red tape.

    Thanks for reading this far! If you liked it, maybe I could entice you to sign up for my small & family business newsletter which publishes content like this 3 times a week-ish. ♥

    submitted by /u/deepdivenewsletter
    [link] [comments]

    7 Apps I use to be a more productive entrepreneur.

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 08:52 AM PDT

    Hey👋

    I've been using apps to boost my productivity for a while. For the past 3 years to be exact. This is the reason I've decided to share the ones that have broken into my daily routine and that will probably help you too. I know there are millions of apps that are supposed to increase your productivity and to be honest, I've tried a lot of them. After filtering if this app is useful enough, I have come to the 7 apps I cannot live without. I hope this saves you some time from researching everything!

    7. Slack

    It's not what you think! It's actually not. I don't use Slack to communicate with anyone. I am in some groups but that's not the point. The point is that I use Slack to take quick notes. How? I make up new channels for each one of my projects and whenever I want to remember something related to a project I send it as a message. You're probably wondering, why don't you use some kind of fancy note-taking app, like Roam or Drafts. That's because I find most note-taking apps cluttered, and not to the point, and others very simple for my liking.

    6. Forest

    This one is pretty obvious. I think. Pomodoro is one of the few scientifically proven methods to be more productive. For those not familiar with Forest, it is basically a fancy timer. You can set a work timer and a break timer. I usually do 40 minutes of work with 5 minutes of break. This can help you feel like you have something to anticipate. You can say to yourself "It's just 24 more minutes of work. That's not that much" and continue to be productive.

    5. Newsify

    Next on the list is Newsify. You may not know what Newsify is, so let me explain. Newsify is an RSS reader, it basically gathers all the articles and blog posts from people you follow and displays them to you. This helps me keep up with the blogs that I want to follow, without having to look up every single one. I used to use Feedly, but I prefer the interface of Newsify 100x times more.

    4. Mist

    In short, Mist is a Chrome Extension that helps you practice mindfulness without fully detaching from your work. Every few hours, I will do a simple Body Scan Meditation, because I have found that I am more productive that way. I prefer Mist rather than all the other mindfulness apps because it is built into Google Chrome. I got access to it a couple of weeks ago because they currently have a waitlist, but it's a tool that I use every day.

    3. Asana

    Asana is my one-stop project manager. I use it to do everything from tracking progress on projects to writing down deadlines. I discovered this software about 3 months ago and it has really changed y workflow. You can organize your projects in a calendar or task view, but I personally use the calendar for almost everything. It is very easy to plan out what you have to do on a day-to-day basis for every project.

    2. Superhuman

    Superhuman is one of those apps where you don't think it's that useful at first, but you can't live without it. Simply, it is a fancy email app. They claim to help you get through your emails in 2x the time, and I find that to be true. They also helped me declutter and organize my inbox which is a big thing if you take into account my 21.000 unread emails. Yes. 21.000. After all that, I am proud to announce that I've hit the fabled Inbox Zero.

    1. Notion

    Have you ever googled anything related to productivity? Then you have probably come across Notion. Notion is an amazing note-taking app in which you can organize… your whole life. I use Notion to keep track of my Reading List. I write down every book I get recommended and when I have time, I listen to them on Audible. I also have my goals and weird trips I want to do there. If I listed everything, this article would be a book, so let's move on. You can use the app in every way you like, as it's super customizable.

    Thanks for your time!

    submitted by /u/Bananas8ThePyjamas
    [link] [comments]

    The importance of interviewing users and incorporating their feedback in real time. Why I continue to do this after reaching 2000+ users and my tips for engaging superusers.

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 09:36 AM PDT

    I'm tyring to make these a series, so here is the previous post describing my journey in building this app.

    Too many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of "I think users will want this", spend months building it, only to find people do not want it or at least want a different variation of it.

    A lot of entrepreneurs also think that the product should be in a "presentable" state before showing it to users and asking for feedback. Some may disagree with me here, but I think launching with the most basic version of your and interviewing ASAP beats slowly iterating an MVP in isolation every time.

    As an example, the first iteration of this idea only took 3 days to build before getting it on the App store: and it was garbage. The feedback was harsh, but also entirely changed the direction the app was to go in (I realised it needed to be social). Every day after those 3 would have been wasted if I hadn't interviewed early.

    ​

    Why should I interview people?

    • To figure out if people want your product BEFORE spending time building it.
      • Michael Seibel from YCombinator: "You shouldn't have a problem finding initial users for your product because you just go back to the people you interviewed in the first place with a solution to their problem".
    • To understand the pain points of the current version of your product.
    • To build an engaged community who have an impact on the direction of the idea. This is probably the aspect which people overlook most, but bootstrapping a business is infinitely easier with a core set of people who love your app.

    ​

    How do I interview people?

    Everyone has mentioned you should interview users, but how do you actually do it? If you take away anything from this post: use Discord.

    • You can chat or call in real time with groups of people or single community members.
    • You can segment the server into different areas (e.g. feature requests, bug reports, new releases etc.) for organisation.
    • Discord naturally fosters community, so as your server grows the community starts to interview eachother. I cannot stress just how useful (+ awesome) it is to see people discussing ways to make the product better without direct questions.

    A small note: the community won't grow itself magically and you need to promote it. A good way I've found to do it is to put a link to join the Discord in several places throughout the app. Also, when conducting interviews through other mediums (i.e. Reddit DMs / Comments etc) it helps to link to your Discord.

    If you have any interest in how I've set my Discord up you can come down and take a look.

    ​

    Why do I continue interviewing even with 2000+ users?

    Having an active community is great to test out ideas and really understand the needs of those actually using what you've built. It's not good enough to always be guessing whether people will like something, GO AND ASK THEM.

    Also as the userbase grows and the product becomes more complex, maintaining connections with the OG users is extremely important to sticking to an overall vision for the product which is in line with what your superusers actually want. Want to try and monetize in XYZ specific way? Ask the OG users if they think it is fair, and if it would piss them off.

    ​

    I'll try my best to answer any questions anyone has, and if you have anything you would like to add please ping me! I'm still quite new to all this myself and don't pretend to have all the answers.

    submitted by /u/No_Target4299
    [link] [comments]

    Getting a product designed. Has anyone else used a design agency and how has your experience been?

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 07:59 AM PDT

    I reached out to a local agency who has done some good work and dang it was expensive. They were amazing in their reception of the idea and i felt it would be honestly useful to work with them but the cost is prohibitive.

    The alternative is to use freelancers online but that hasnt been a good experience for me as well.

    For product based businesses, how did you manage to solve this issue?

    submitted by /u/crickypop
    [link] [comments]

    Where do I get started...

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 01:27 PM PDT

    So I've been working in IT for 7 years and I can't stand it. I'm now in a position where I'd like to start my own Landscaping business and I have no idea where to start. I was hoping there was a wiki or something like that here that I could run off of. There's so many scams and online services for this so googling wasn't all that helpful. Right now I'm looking at franchises, as well as doing it myself from the ground up. To understand if the franchise is the right direction for me, I want a better understanding of the costs and effort involved in starting things from the ground.

    submitted by /u/DansAstro
    [link] [comments]

    Best brand name for a garbage can for a car?

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 05:56 AM PDT

    Every time I start trying to build a business I always spend hours on a name because I want it to be easy to find and say. Any recommendations for a name for a garbage can that is compact and fits in a car? I wanted to do Car Bin, Car Can, Car Tin, but they are all taken. Any suggestions would be great.

    submitted by /u/avan295
    [link] [comments]

    How to bill a customer outside the US?

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 08:36 AM PDT

    Hello,

    I do digital marketing and I'll be doing digital marketing and making payments (fb/google ads) while making commission.

    How do I bill my client? Is there a site?

    I'll be making flat commission. Apart from that, is there any taxes I should be charging him (such as sales tax)? I'm in California.

    Since I'm the sole owner (self employed) that just started, I'm a bit rusty and clueless.

    submitted by /u/Kasthamandap415
    [link] [comments]

    Sites to find a business partner

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 04:04 AM PDT

    Looking for a site that you have had success with finding a business partner. Thanks

    submitted by /u/HeshoMike
    [link] [comments]

    I got a job offer from a client

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 11:21 AM PDT

    So I'm an internet marketing entrepreneur where I promoted other companies products for commissions. My main bread and butter partnership ended from covid.

    I had one other partnership that made me a few k a month on retainer for not a lot of work.

    Financially I've been losing money but I have a solid savings.

    I tried to increase the partnership with my current client. They in return offered me a job.

    The offer was less than I hoped. I spent a few months working extra hard for them for very little to in order to secure an increased partnership.

    They ended up offering me 75k salary and a commission of 5% on net profits that I generate.

    So if I drive 1,000,000 in sales and the profit margin is 25% on the ad spend I get 5% of that 25%. So that bonus would be 12,500.

    To give you an idea the entire companies ad campaigns only generate about 700k a month in gross revenue on the easy platforms aka Facebook.

    I'm tasked with alternative platforms that are much harder such as snapchat, Pinterest etc.

    75k isn't enough to pay my bills where I live (Seattle). The ceo said hey you can make like 30-50k a quarter in bonuses shouldn't be out of the question.

    Yet I'd have to make more sales than the entire company currently does on harder ad platforms with a 25% profit margin and only get credit for up front sales.

    Seems fuckkng impossible to me. Not sure what to do as this is my only opportunity right now.

    I have a lot of value creating ppc campaigns that take a lot of talent (I got 10 years exp) running seo at director level, also years of experience with brand protection and online legal assistance with law and researching companies and competitors.

    Any advice ? This is going to be remote so I could possibly do other projects at the same time.

    submitted by /u/Tyr616
    [link] [comments]

    How do you build a small business while being a full-time employee?

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 10:30 AM PDT

    I work a full-time job as a marketing director. My role is pretty demanding (I sometimes work 11 hours a day!), but I love it. However, I have lately started pursuing a passion of mine and working on turning it into a small business. I do not plan on quitting my main job anytime soon because it is my only source of income, which I also use to fund my business idea. Is anyone else juggling a full-time job and working on a "side gig" at the same time? If so, all power to you! How do you do it? I have just realized that I haven't worked on my business idea for over a month, so I decided that I will be dedicating my weekends to work on it.

    submitted by /u/moedarecluse
    [link] [comments]

    How can I write a business plan to become a distributor?

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 06:42 AM PDT

    I am in Turkey and I want to become the distributor of a British sports equipment company. When I talked with them they told me that they need me to send them a business plan, but I don't really know anything.

    submitted by /u/alpthelifter
    [link] [comments]

    Networking for E-Commerce Product Marketing Startup

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 10:12 AM PDT

    I see a problem in E-Commerce that's negatively impacting most brands and retailers, especially the smaller ones. It's the ages old problem of product exposure, eyeballs on products. With E-Commerce we don't walk into a store and see random stuff anymore. Algorithms now determine what we see based on our previous interactions and which sponsored products paid the most to be seen. Thus as consumers we need to know exactly what we want to buy and the keywords to search for it. Impulsive shopping is slipping away by the day.

    What does that mean for products without searches? or only a few per month? Should the lack of searches be seen as the public's disinterest in the products? Absolutely not! People can't want, search or buy things they don't know about.

    Solutions to these problems exist, but there's not and never will be a single solution. Therefore I'm looking to throw my hat in the ring providing high-quality & low-cost product exposure as a new venture.

    I've been writing code and doing digital marketing for 26-years. I've been the co-founding CTO/CMO of 5 ventures with successful exits, the latest being an Amazon retailer in a highly-competitive space (understatement) that was acquired on a $4M EBITA in '17.

    I have an MVP (minimally viable product) ready('ish), and I believe I've got the foundations of a solid business plan. I'm looking to own my own large Consumer Audience where brands/retailers pay-to-play and promote their products. I can't give more details publicly yet, but there's a plot twist as to what my audience wants.

    Next I need to setup the corp, get a business license, establish banking and card processing, and get the legalese done.

    BUT.... to put this in a musical context, I don't have a band yet. I just play guitar.

    There's no way I can do this all on my own. I can't play every instrument, and even if I could I'm not qualified as someone that specializes in it. I'm among the best at what I do. I'd prefer to have people just as qualified doing their thing. I just don't know any such people. Which is not unusual for an introvert such as myself.

    So, any extroverts out there that are passionate about this type of stuff? Want to help connect brands/retailers with consumers in a impactful way that generates sales and greater demand?

    I'm looking to start doing this part-time until it gains traction. Should be profitable from the start. I'm not seeking investors or financing or anything like that. Just some people with the skills I don't have with time to spare for something potentially very cool.

    I already have interest in the product from a large Amazon Retailer with many Brands, and a full-service Agency that manages lots of Amazon Seller Accounts for their clients. The agency asked again 2-days ago when I'll be ready. They're waiting impatiently because they know what it is.

    I just need a team to get this party started. Or perhaps I just need to hire one. Unsure. Let's discuss.

    submitted by /u/ecomrick
    [link] [comments]

    Brainstorming Company Name Ideas - IT Solutions Startup Help

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 10:00 AM PDT

    I've had a few businesses for a good amount of time, but one of them I kind of rushed to get started and the business name is not really fitting for what it now does. I'm going to keep it as sort of an umbrella to own the other businesses, but I need to come up with a name to use either as a new S-Corp or a DBA for my IT services.

    This part of the business offers:

    Web Design
    Graphic Design
    Marketing (digitial and print)
    IT Solutions (support, backup management, cloud solutions, server management, etc)
    Lead Generations
    CRM Implementatinon
    Process Automation
    Virtual Assistants

    _______ Technology Solutions
    _______ Business Solutions
    _______ Technology Services
    _______ Business Services

    Etc.

    I'm trying to think of a name that invokes the idea of offering comprehensive solutions.

    I can figure out the rest of the name, but I'm at a loss for a word that invokes that idea.

    Thanks in advance for any input.

    submitted by /u/FrankGrimesAKAGrimy
    [link] [comments]

    Hiring non-Top 1% Devs

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 09:53 AM PDT

    Hey gang,

    Trying to put together a development team for my app. However, the firms that boast "the Top 1% of Talent" in their given language/codebase are too expensive for me.

    The screens/UI are done. Need to find a React Native group that can build it and implement a 3rd party SDK.

    I have about $15K of my own money to get to MVP. Totally open to using remote devs/international hires. But most of the firms I've spoken to want double that, or ongoing placements, or...

    I realize $15K isn't a massive amount of money, but it's not nothing – that's $30/hour for 500 man-hours. Which may be laughable for the top 1% of of talent, but I'm hoping somebody in the other 99% could find it equitable.

    Anybody had good luck outsourcing devs? Can you point me in a closer direction? Thanks in advance!

    submitted by /u/cesrep
    [link] [comments]

    What are your favorite books on negotiation and persuasion?

    Posted: 28 Apr 2021 06:55 PM PDT

    What books have you found to be the most helpful for business and everyday negotiation? I currently am in the middle of high stakes business negotiations that will affect my business for the next decade and would like to refine my approach.

    Edit: I should clarify I didn't necessarily put off working on these skills before this particular business negotiation. There's been a lot of opportunities for practicing negotiation in my line of work, so I've been mostly paying attention to other people, thinking about situations and improving in a self-taught way. I also read How to Win Friends & Influence People and some other books on persuasion in the court and legal sense which was all good but I'm ready to expand. I should also point out that this high stakes negotiation that's going on right now has been a very slow moving process.

    submitted by /u/smm97
    [link] [comments]

    Opportunities for buying businesses hurt by COVID? 100-300K investment

    Posted: 28 Apr 2021 06:03 PM PDT

    Just thought I'd ask here to get some ideas. My ventures are doing really well and I'm looking to invest in some businesses that are more hands-off and easy to hand over to employees. One that immediately jumps to mind is frozen custard. Those shops seem to always do really well and you can just staff it with college kids. Another I was talking to a friend about was float tank centers. They don't scale well but they can generate a decent steady return and again are easy to staff.

    I've had gyms before and suspect that theres a lot of struggling gyms. But they're a lot more difficult to find good people to run. Hit me with ideas. Looking for something in the range of 100k-300k investment.

    submitted by /u/Thehealthygamer
    [link] [comments]

    Where to start?

    Posted: 28 Apr 2021 04:19 PM PDT

    I'm over my job, I've always wanted to own my own business but have never had that "I've got it" idea to start. I want to work my ass off for myself but just have no idea what kind of business to start?

    Are there any books or recommendations anyone can give as to where to find that idea so that I can turn it into a reality?

    Edit: I'm 25, have a business marketing degree & BootCamp coding certification

    submitted by /u/bored-at-workk
    [link] [comments]

    I'm new to Dropshipping and Ecommerce, and have a couple questions!

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 07:17 AM PDT

    For background information, I'm 14, and I'm about a week into my journey. I have a really positive mindset about this project, and I'm prepared to fail, but I'm wanting to succeed. I'm pretty sure I am going in the right direction by using Shopify to sell the products, Instagram and Facebook to Market, Oberlo to track Inventory, and AliExpress to ship products. My website is not public, as I haven't set everything up yet, but I have some questions.

    Is it okay If I sell my products on Shopify, then order then myself on AliExpress, and ship it to the customers address. I've heard of people using automation, but I'm not expecting an instant hundred orders, I know its going to be slow, so is it okay that I order it myself, then use Oberlo to solely track inventory?

    How do I find my niche? I've been using Google Trends, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook to try and browse for popular products, which aren't oversaturated in the market, and I've found about 3, all in the same category of room furniture/design, but I don't know if there's a certain app I should use to make the process more effective.

    Is it worth it to start? I've been really motivated to start Ecommerce and Dropshipping, and I'm prepared to fail, but ready to succeed, like I said. This is my first attempt at anything related to ecommerce, so I'm not too experienced with it, but is it worth doing? I've invested $150 into it currently, and I am planning to invest more money into Instagram Influencers and Facebook ads. So, is it worth it?

    Should I start an affiliate partnership program to try and get my name out there and sales up? I was thinking of paying the Influencer 20% of each sale I make, but again, I don't know if it is worth it.

    How do you get your customers to buy from you instead of going on AliExpress to buy it for cheaper. Right now my products have a good margin, and the only place they are cheaper is AliExpress. Even though that is the only thing cheaper I can find, it still makes around 50-60% profit per sale, before ads, etc.

    If you're reading this, thanks for reading through. I know some of this, or all of it, may sound dumb to someone who is veteran to Ecommerce and Dropshipping lol. I'm pretty sure I am going in the right direction by using Shopify to sell the products, Instagram and Facebook to Market, Oberlo to track Inventory, and AliExpress to ship products, but I would love some feedback from someone who knows more than me. Thanks!

    If you need any images of my store, or any other questions, just DM me or reply!

    Edit: My product is the Heng Balance Lamp (With the nagnetic balls), I buy it for around $17-20, including shipping, and sell it for around $35-45 (CAD), depending the model, with shipping. Most other retailers put it for around $60-80.

    submitted by /u/17thChapter
    [link] [comments]

    What’s wrong with my niche website SEO?

    Posted: 28 Apr 2021 10:30 PM PDT

    Hi all, I am a web developer and I noticed that some ppl are developing niche website/tool and get passive income by adsense with traffic.

    A year ago, I tried to make my first niche website, [typingeagle.com](typingeagle.com) but still get no traffic since first day. I read some books and online resources to learn SEO, I did the technical SEO and keyword research, however it can't even be searched by the keyword "typing test".

    I know many of you are SEO expertise and full of experience, so I would like to know what's wrong with my niche site and how could I improve in my next project:

    1. Is the topic too competitive? I checked on moz explorer "typing test" is not a competitive keyword, but indeed I could see many similar products

    2. Is tool website a wrong idea? I saw most of the success niche website are boosted by content/articles. Is tool website too static on content and hard to get traffic?

    3. Is it a low quality product? I tried to support more languages and platforms to stand out from other products. I also spend many time on UI/UX design and ask for user's feedbacks

    4. Is my SEO goes wrong? I don't have much experience on SEO, and I'm sure I must miss sth on SEO. But is there any critical reason/factor for the failure?

    Thanks for all

    submitted by /u/ivanhoe0523
    [link] [comments]

    Website For Sale - New Business Oportunity

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 09:34 AM PDT

    Hello. I am trying to sell my website 1kviews.com - making atleast $1800 profit/month. Make me an offer, if you are interested.

    submitted by /u/prkshlight
    [link] [comments]

    Looking for advice on a project I've been working on using Etsy a recently created informational website.

    Posted: 28 Apr 2021 11:40 PM PDT

    I don't want to post my website and Etsy here unless it's allowed. I actually did post it the other day on Cryptocurrency and got an amazing set of replies, reddit awards etc. But I don't want to overstep my bounds here.

    Here's my question: I've created an Etsy shop where people can download a set of PDFs and can easily fill in their Exchange and Broker information, along with any PINs, Two Factor Authentication, email address information etc. The idea came to me because I had a major health scare (pulmonary embolism) and I realized my wife would have no idea how to access all of my many accounts and our crypto would be as good as gone. I almost died that day so it was a real eye opener.

    The forms essentially make it as easy as possible for those not well versed in crypto to log in and access their spouse's or loved one's account information.

    I also created a website I'm still working on to "dumb down" cryptocurrency for new users and spouses who don't know what it is.

    I don't shill crypto, I don't offer any financial advice, and I make sure to word my blog posts very specifically to avoid offering financial advice. It's more of a helpful website and the Etsy shop provides PDF forms to help people organize their accounts.

    With that said, I'd like to promote it as best as I can for people who can really use these forms. I feel that it's such an important and overlooked part of the cryptocurrency world. I don't want anyone to have their assets tied up and stuck in limbo especially with prices steadily rising.

    Does anyone have any ideas on how I can promote this without coming across as a shill? I'm truly not and I want to help people as best as I can. Making a few bucks would be great of course but that's not my only goal.

    So far I created a Facebook page, Instagram, Pinterest, and Etsy. I'm pretty well versed in technology but promoting my Etsy and website is not my strong suit. I did get 5 Etsy sales so far but it died off pretty quickly after my first Reddit Post.

    Should I consider starting a Twitter account? I'm working on SEO now with the site and plan to populate my site with good keywords.

    Any advice is greatly appreciated.

    submitted by /u/HeyManHowAreYa
    [link] [comments]

    What are currently the best wholesale clothing manufacturers that ship internationally?

    Posted: 29 Apr 2021 12:29 AM PDT

    In particular, companies that ship to Australia.

    We have had consistent problems with the quality coming out of China lately. We have sought other suppliers which appear to have good reputations. We have received multiple quotes from manufacturers in Indonesia, Bangladesh & Pakistan.

    submitted by /u/EarthAliens
    [link] [comments]
    Read more
    at

    No comments:

    Post a Comment