Promote your business, week of June 7, 2021 small business |
- Promote your business, week of June 7, 2021
- Employment crisis? Willing to pay top dollar and still having issues finding anyone. Is this a permanent problem going forward or temporary?
- Anyone here that owns a Meal Prep Service? Looking for any tips to take my company to the next level.
- Anyone have a digital ad specialist on staff or do you farm it out to third parties?
- Scaling a Handmade Business
- Small business idea
- Business was doing very well, now it's struggling and I'm having a hard time
- Convert cash profits into a temporary asset like stocks?
- Where can I get these phone cases from?
- Deciding on CRM: Should we Switch or Stay with Insightly?
- Understanding/analyzing the market
- EPLI insurance in CA?
- Advertising for a music and lesson shop
- Employee Health Insurance
- Some type of software for client file/information
- Business Credit Card for maximum cash back bonus
- Considering Selling my $2 million a year eCommerce Business
- Veteran Owned/ SBDC
- Thoughts on naming a business
- Freelance Digital Marketer
- Data science corporate employee looking for advice.
- I really am looking for some comments to better grow our business
- What sort of database software do I need to manage information about 1000 SKUs and growing? Including suppliers, components, barcodes, and custom fields?
- How can I optimize my SEO performance/ Traffic for my new site
- Struggling finding produce suppliers
| Promote your business, week of June 7, 2021 Posted: 06 Jun 2021 06:28 PM PDT Post business promotion messages here including special offers especially if you cater to small business. Be considerate. Make your message concise. Note: To prevent your messages from being flagged by the autofilter, don't use shortened URLs. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jun 2021 04:27 PM PDT I'm willing to pay double and in some cases triple the minimum wage for our business in a low cost of living market. No job requirements but just looking for people that are willing to work. I'm still not finding anyone or at best they leave after 2 days of training. It's super stressful right now. EDIT: Its a small restaurant in a small market. No intense job or hours. We start at 11 am and end at 9 pm. Nothing demanding. Typical 1bd apartment rents for like $650 in our market. It's a cheap cost of living and we're willing to pay $17-20 an hour. We get applicants but they still complain about the pay. Yes there is dishwashing and general food prep. I know it's not an attractive job but I'm not looking for a PHD. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jun 2021 04:21 PM PDT My business has already been operating for over 3 years and we've built up (I have two other partners) to producing over 600 meals per week, we have partnerships with gyms and other businesses were our customers pick up from their locations, plus we have two delivery vans and deliver to customers directly. Taking advantage of the retail location where we set up our kitchen, we also opened a restaurant, both businesses together are producing projected revenues (for this year) of over $600K. Our meal prep does about 70% of the sales. Work is pretty hard since I have to deal with customers, cooking, employees (staff of 7), finances and all the goodies from owning a business. With some of the government assistance from Covid we were able to equip our kitchen with more refrigeration and cooking stations to be able to expand our production capacity to over 1,000 meals a week. But now, it seems we are a little stuck with 600 meals per week. Any advice either on marketing, sales structure, business ventures, or anything else that can help us reach those numbers quicker? I'm hopeful that just keep doing what we are doing we can get there just building up our customer base, but if someone with more experience can help me see any opportunities I haven't thought of would be much appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Anyone have a digital ad specialist on staff or do you farm it out to third parties? Posted: 07 Jun 2021 04:32 AM PDT We're getting ready to take a big plunge into e-commerce moving our 4000 B2B products to our own website and selling direct to the public. Ive always had a boutique website (just a few items) with adwords strategy and managing those ads seems like a hopeless mess of perpetual adjustment and testing. We're over a year out from making this investment but I need to lay down the basics early on and figure out if I'm going to hire a firm or hire a person. Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Jun 2021 03:22 AM PDT Hi everyone! I currently run a small handmade business making mask/glasses chains. Right now my business model is direct to customer with a roughly 60% profit margin. I've recently been approached by a few people regarding dropshipping opportunities. As in, they pay me the full retail price for my products in exchange for selling it without my branding. I simply receive the order from the middleman and ship it out to the customer info they give me. From a monetary POV this seems like a good idea but I am hesitant because my brand will take a backseat. I know for longer term value my brand should take precedence. I'm also worried that providing my designs would mean cannibalising my own business. I was thinking of suggesting a distributor/agent sort of arrangement. My question is: 1) if we do go with distributor/agent: how do I go about this? Do I give the middleman a 10% cut of sales? 2) or should I go with that "dropship" route that was suggested? Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Jun 2021 03:16 AM PDT I was thinking about creating an alcool delivery/selling business. Especially cocktails. It could come as a package with food, cups, ice and other items to enjoy it to the maximum capcity. It could also come as a single small bottle to enjoy it on the go. It has verry small competition in my country. I did the math and if it sells, it's profitable. I did not look into the « law » side of things tho (licence, permits, etc...) I wanted to know what you guys think about this? Is it worth a try? Any comments could help! [link] [comments]  |
| Business was doing very well, now it's struggling and I'm having a hard time Posted: 06 Jun 2021 11:49 AM PDT I've been self employed in some fashion since I was 22, so now in my mid-30s I consider myself a (somewhat) veteran of the lifestyle. My first foray into small business ownership was a website that I started and grew. I then transitioned into what I do now, which involves creation of physical products. I would say that I love the actual creation of products (I'm in the beauty space.) I have a line of 27 products with a few new additions coming this year. I love the challenge of scaling production and I even kind of like managing a team. But I would say that I hate pretty much everything else. The beauty space is very difficult because customers are notoriously finicky when it comes to beauty. For the first 5 years of my biz' existence I was really just trying to claw out a space for myself. It was brutal. I ran through all of my savings and several times questioned whether I should give up. In the midst of this I got divorced and was left with 3 young children to raise with only spotty financial support from my ex-spouse. My parents own a large home out West, so I always have the option to move there with my kids if all else fails, and several times throughout 2018 and 2019 I thought that was my only option. Then things turned around in late 2019 because of one major reason -- I figured out Facebook ads. Now it wasn't completely the Facebook ads. This was also around the time I was becoming a master of extracting sales from my email list. Prior to discovering Facebook ads I had a month where I earned $40,000 in sales from my email list and another month where I earned $50,000 in sales. So I was getting some traction on my own. But Facebook turbocharged everything. I suddenly had months where I was earning $120,000 in sales. More money than I'd ever seen in my life. With the extra money I earned I paid off back taxes from 2017 through 2019, and finally started saving money again. Something I hadn't been able to do in years as my business struggled. I built out a bigger team and started laying the groundwork for scaling up our production by developing new processes for mass creation of my product. At the top of 2021, with the performance of the Facebook ads, I was anticipating doing between $1.5M and $2M in sales. I'm not a materialistic person, so it wasn't really the money that I valued. It was the freedom it brought -- freedom from worrying about how I was going to raise 3 kids on a struggling business. THe freedom to imagine a future of financial security. The freedom to buy necessities without panicking about the financial implication. I started out 2021 super optimistically, between my business doing so well and the vaccination rates in my country increasing and things stabilizing post-pandemic, I thought this was going to be a great year. I'm turning 36 in a few days and I was even looking forward to that. But as many of you know, everything changed with the iOS update. My Facebook ads have dropped in effectiveness. The freefall was terrible, so I put a cost cap on so my ads wouldn't just spend, spend, spend with no results. With the cost cap I'm getting results in my budget, but far fewer of them. Whereas Facebook could easily generate 50 to 60 new sales for me a day, it is now generating 10 to 15 sales a day. With the decrease in revenue I've let go of 4 team members that I hired just a few months ago, and trained meticulously -- thinking they would make the core team of a new era for my business. I am now down to 3 full time and one part time employee. I'm very thankful for them, but it's been hard. I'm scrambling to re-formulate a marketing approach that is more holistic and sustainable (no more putting all my eggs in the Facebook basket!) but even though I work on this every single day for hours, it's clear that a pivot is going to take months, maybe even a year. And for the moment I'm back to counting every penny, back to not being able to save money, back to how I was living before. I never knew how hard it would be to be on the mountain top, and then be knocked back down. I know that I'm not old by any means. But I'll be 40 in 4 years and it's scaring me that I have no savings, no retirement, no college saved for my kids, no nothing. Just this business that I have put everything into. When things were going well last year I could see a viable path forward. I knew that after paying my tax obligations I could reasonably push forward with savings towards retirement and a future. Now all of that is gone and I'm struggling -- really struggling to see a way ahead. I'm wondering if Facebook ads gave businesses the illusion they were more viable than they actually were. By delivering customers via means that are increasingly being perceived as unethical (and, if I'm being honest, kind of are.) Without a cheap flow of new customers, I'm wondering if my business has true growth potential. I'll be able to get by on this business indefinitely. But I am starting to question if I'll be able to actually build a future from it. And it's a scary, scary and depressing thought. Anyway, I'll stop my ramble here. Any words of wisdom, encouragement and honesty are deeply, deeply appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Convert cash profits into a temporary asset like stocks? Posted: 06 Jun 2021 09:56 PM PDT Is it possible for a small business's cash profits to be used to purchase stocks like S&P500 or government bonds, in order to minimize realized profits for that tax year? The idea is to create a company "savings account" for the high costs of business expansion in a few years time. If taxes on profit can be temporarily minimized for a few years, expansion can actually happen earlier, and the many years of accumulated profits can be realized and offset at the same time as the big expansion costs. Is this a correct strategy? Or is there a better way? I do realize this strategy will still be liable for yearly investment taxes such as distributions, etc.... [link] [comments]  |
| Where can I get these phone cases from? Posted: 07 Jun 2021 02:45 AM PDT Hi, I am a small business owner and I just sell customised phone cases by painting over a phone case. I came across this account on instagram and I thought of upgrading my business to something like this. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CL49mTrgiFY/?utm_medium=copy_link this is the reel that raised so many questions. Can anyone please help me and tell me what are the raw materials, the process and where I can get this [link] [comments]  |
| Deciding on CRM: Should we Switch or Stay with Insightly? Posted: 07 Jun 2021 02:28 AM PDT The annual subscription for Insightly for my client renews next month and I would like to make the decision on whether to stay with it or move to a different platform. My client is still new to her niche and we are on a tight budget. Our goal is to choose one with the features we need that is still affordable. Affordable being less than $40 - $50 per month per ONE user (my client) with my client sharing their login. So the expensive ones are already out of the choices. So monday.com is a no for us. We have already done some research Hubspot is cheap with it's FREE and STARTER plan which is at $29 but gets really pricey when we need more features (around $800 - $3200) which is not affordable. Zoho we have considered with it being cheap at first but when we start to add integrations it also starts to get pricey. Features to compare: - Affordable plan. Some start out as free or low cost but get expensive fast when upgrading for important features or bigger plans. - Lots of field customizations. Some plans limit the number of fields. Is there a good notes section? Can birthdays and other important dates be added (client anniversary, etc.). Can images be added - like a photo of a card that was mailed? - A reputation for good customer support. Can they be reached by phone, chat, or at least respond in 24 hours? - Regularly updated, improved, bug fixes, etc. Have users been complaining about or asking for a particular improvement for years to no avail? - Easy to use once trained. Organized interface that is easy to navigate and makes sense. - Good report features. How easy is it to pull, sort, and use the data? - Smooth import and export data. What happens if we outgrow the platform and need to migrate all the data to something better? How hard is it to move the records and be able to match them up with the same fields? What are users saying? - Integrations: Must be able to work with various platforms already in use. I don't want to have to change everything I'm using. - Accessibility: Are there desktop and/or mobile apps? Mac and/or Windows (I use a Macbook). - How many users per account? Can two people use it at the same time, or would one have to log out? Any guidance with our decision would be a big help. [link] [comments]  |
| Understanding/analyzing the market Posted: 06 Jun 2021 04:52 PM PDT Greetings, I recently had a small business idea and did some snooping around my community regarding competition/need/etc. It appears my idea doesn't really exist, and I failed to find any competitors in my niche. That being said, because there is no other business, I'm not 100% sure its actually ~wanted~ by the community. What approach should I take before moving forward? How do you analyze a market that hasn't seen your service/product before? Sorry if this is a silly question and thanks for all your thoughts. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jun 2021 03:48 PM PDT Hi All, Just opened an unpleasant letter from my EPLI insurance company saying they will not be renewing my policy. I'm in California. :/ Can anyone suggest an agent or insurer that can help me secure a new policy? Sidenote: My soon to be former EPLI insurer had a free "legal advice" service. I had called them with a couple questions I had (1099 contractor made some threats, etc.) and, at the time, they listened and gave me good advice. However, now I think this legal advice service is a way to find out of their insureds have any risks and then drop them. So, if your insurer has any sort of "advice service" - DON'T USE IT! [link] [comments]  |
| Advertising for a music and lesson shop Posted: 06 Jun 2021 05:02 PM PDT I own a small music store where I also teach lessons on pretty much all instruments. Currently I do literally almost no advertising. I share products on Facebook in relevant groups and post in local groups, but that's the extent. I know if I want to take the next step I need to step up my advertising game. I wouldn't have a huge budget but I don't even know where to start with it. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jun 2021 08:10 PM PDT As a company we already focus on high pay and expected time off for our employees to enjoy quality of life. We want to offer a true quality health insurance for them and their families I understand it can be expensive. But where and how do I begin to navigate this without a motivated sales pitch? [link] [comments]  |
| Some type of software for client file/information Posted: 06 Jun 2021 11:21 PM PDT I'm not exactly sure what I need/want. I'm trying to eliminate paper for something that is paper heavy. I want the following:
Is there a software like that or do I have to get someone to create it? If I have to have someone create it, who does stuff like that? It's not medical but there's some aspects of it so I assume HIPAA will be a thing. TIA [link] [comments]  |
| Business Credit Card for maximum cash back bonus Posted: 06 Jun 2021 04:40 PM PDT Hello Business Owners, We have a construction business, and we currently use AMEX plum card to make most of our purchases. They offer a 1.5% cashback bonus if paid on time. We always pay on time. We spend more than 60k a month usually. Sometimes we spend more than 100k too. I am trying to see if any credit cards that give higher cashback bonuses or offer other benefits. I am thinking we need to get more benefits for using/spending that much money every month. Let us know if you guys have any recommendations/suggestions. [link] [comments]  |
| Considering Selling my $2 million a year eCommerce Business Posted: 06 Jun 2021 10:22 PM PDT Hi everyone, I'm considering selling my online business and am hoping to get some guidance on the best way to go about it so I can move on to other ventures. I currently solely operate an online business comprised of an eBay store, Amazon store, and website. Revenue is approximately $2 million per year, gross profit about 175k-200k per year. I realize it still has lots of untapped potential and am not desperate to sell, but am considering beginning to explore my options. There are tons of small business brokers, so I really don't know where to begin, and want to make sure I sell it for a fair price without a massive commission to a middle man. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jun 2021 11:40 AM PDT Has anyone taken advantage of working with the Small Business Development Center? I have enjoyed the process so far. Just wondering if there are items I should make sure to ask about. Have any of you filed as being Veteran Owned? Outside of government contracts, how has this helped you? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jun 2021 06:16 PM PDT I have a name I really like but it is not a word from my language. I did not know this when I came up with the name. Should I still use it? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jun 2021 09:50 PM PDT Hey gang, I'm a freelance marketer and I want to understand my best point of entry into the small business market. My question is: at what point in your turnover do you generally start to think about outsourcing to a digital marketing specialist? If it's not factored based on profit, then at what point did you say "f**k it, I need someone who knows what they're doing to help me with this"?. MANY THANKS in advance for any guidance here x [link] [comments]  |
| Data science corporate employee looking for advice. Posted: 06 Jun 2021 05:51 PM PDT Hi everyone. First time small business hopeful here (I just filed the paperwork with the SOS for an LLC over the Memorial Day weekend). Apologies for the long post, but I could use some advice on how to navigate my corporate job while I try my hand at being an entrepreneur. I thought I'd start by taking some consulting/freelance/side projects. My background and work is in data science in a Fortune 50 firm, and I plan to continue working at my corporate job for a while. I really enjoy the work I do, the people I work with, and the pay is fair - however, I want to set the stage for part-time work to support an early exit from corporate-life (I'm thinking within 5-7 years). My "niche" is machine learning and data analytics, but I can basically do the full stack (including website development, data plumbing, and big-data ML). I took a look at sites like Upwork, but I am hesitant to put my name/face out there since my employer might find out. I don't know if I can hide behind my LLC while still getting gig work. How should I go about building my consulting "brand"? I can't really share my corporate work products (NDAs and people would be able to identify me), so I'm unsure of how to proceed. I'm not opposed to working cheap to get started, but my "privacy" is critical. Any advice for how I should navigate this situation? [link] [comments]  |
| I really am looking for some comments to better grow our business Posted: 06 Jun 2021 09:22 PM PDT Greeting! We are growing our IT consulting small business and i believe that we only put the best possible work out there with best quality. However, it would mean a lot to me if i can receive some feedbacks on the website/app work/portfolio our team have done so far to see if there is anything we can change/adapt, any trends we should follow or anything we doing well on so that our work could be improved and hence, we could help more small business like us grow too. Looking for some genuine feedbacks from seniors out there. Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jun 2021 06:27 AM PDT My company produces about 1,000 different physical products and growing. At the moment I have a spreadsheet with a list of raw material suppliers, each one coded. Another spreadsheet that lists all of the SKUs against the information (size, components required, component suppliers, barcodes, lifecycle status and more in-house information). Then there's another spreadsheet that shows what products are currently in production. We produce the goods for retail and once everything is manufactured it's booked into a separate WMS that tracks finished inventory and deals with despatch. I know that I need a database to manage this but where do I begin? I took a course on Access and quite frankly didn't have the time to set something like that up. Lots of software I look into is suited to digital asset management, some is marketed towards enterprise size teams, some includes a mass of extra features I don't want (stock and inventory control, CRM, customer feedback, roadmaps, — most have more features I don't want than ones I actually do). Does anyone have any suggestions? The spreadsheet system does work but a typo can totally throw out the whole thing and way too much relies on manual updating. [link] [comments]  |
| How can I optimize my SEO performance/ Traffic for my new site Posted: 06 Jun 2021 08:17 PM PDT Hello, I'm 16 and about a month ago I launched my first website dedicated to giving young introverts a low-intensity spot to share and interact while also supporting each other to grow and explore opportunitys out of our comfort zones. The initial launch was great but it died down a little after which is fine. I think the main problem was with my landing page, it was too loaded with info, had only one page, and was hard to read. I decided to remake it and its been doing so much better but I want to know how I can optimize my traffic because I know posting on reddit is not an effective way to gain quality users. (If you want to see the site I can DM you but I dont want to break the rule about self promoting, this is strictly a question.) Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Struggling finding produce suppliers Posted: 06 Jun 2021 01:54 PM PDT Hi guys and gals, I'm starting a food manufacturing business and I'm going to be needing 5/600 lbs of produce per month, I'm in California and farms are plenty, I've contacted many, no one ever gets back to me. Any suggestions? I'm mostly after organic produce. I'd even like to contract a farm to plant a crop for me eventually. [link] [comments]  |
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