Startups acquired by bigger player. Left me without job but with promised stocks. What should I know? How to act? Entrepreneur |
- Startups acquired by bigger player. Left me without job but with promised stocks. What should I know? How to act?
- So you want to open a food franchise...
- Launched my first e-commerce store.
- I am a failed and now lost entrepreneur and now I don't know what to do.
- Iopened a healthcare staffing agency...
- Can you guys recommend me a good guideline for creating a business plan?
- I tried the "Coding for Marketing" growth hack and the results are remarkable
- I’m looking for good books about starting a company.
- I need a co-packer for small batch sauce run
- Folks in the home-based service industry, how do you deal with unvaccinated employees/contractors?
- Help with Thier Amazon selling accounts?
- What to expect / How to approach
- Looking to contact the right people for cold sales
- What name do u prefer for a street wear brand reasonings in second text
- Networking and Connection
- How do I know the durability of my products?
- Got My TPT License, are There Any Brick and Mortar Style Distributors I Can Buy From to Resell?
- I'm feeling a little bummed with my progress. My business was once an exciting endeavor with unknown potential and now I am wondering if it was all worth it and if im on the right track. What do you guys think?
- Anyone know the costs and profits associated with owning a franchise like Subway or something similar?
- What advertising/marketing do you recommend.
- Can I Wholesale a product from China directly to the retail store location in USA?
- LLC vs S-Corp
- Going to local biz school to find my partner?
- Looking for website feedback
| Posted: 18 Sep 2021 04:07 AM PDT Hi, I was working at startup and just made awesome work. I felt as cofounder and founders agreed that they felt the same. We agreed for shares. Our startup was acquired by big player. Founders promised me that I will get job for sure in new company but it didn't work. So, founders gave me a bonus salary and promised shares even if I will not work one day in new company. As I know, my and other employees shares are connected to one of founders. I should get agreement soon. What should I know? How to know if anything is great? Should I go to lawyer to check agreement? Should stocks be assigned to me directly instead? What should I do? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| So you want to open a food franchise... Posted: 18 Sep 2021 06:48 AM PDT I've seen quite a number of posts from folks who have saved up a bit of money, and are wondering about opening a franchise. I owned an ice cream store franchise for 9 years, and provide software to thousands of franchisees who I get to talk to every day, so wanted to lend some hopefully helpful information based on my experiences. My opinions only - feel free to disagree or add yours! Is a franchise the right choice for you? It probably isn't. A lot of people are looking for passive income, and hear the stories of a guy who owns 50 McDonalds and lives on a yacht. That story probably isn't true, and it definitely is not the case if you're starting out. The good franchises have multi-year waitlists; do you think they want the person who is going to put their blood and sweat into the business, or the one that wants to kick back and do nothing? If you want a passive play in restaurants, buy the stocks of the publicly traded ones. Or slightly less passive, buy some commercial real estate that leases to franchises. The people that do well in this business love operations and leading a team. You have to be a person who gets excited by finding a 5 second faster way to do a repetitive task, or working in a rush with a huge backlog of orders. You have to be good with people, and be really thoughtful about the team you want to build. You don't control a lot of the other stuff (menu, processes, sales), so these are what should get you excited. Go in with a 10-year time horizon. You may sell the business or plan to rapidly expand before then, but if you can't see yourself running a single location for 10-years and being okay with that, it's a strong sign this might not be for you. How can I find a good franchise? You probably know them already. There's a top 100 list for a reason. Not all of them on those lists are going in the right direction these days. Here's some common stuff to look for: - Unit Growth - have they consistently grown over the last 5 years? How many stores have closed in that time? Does the growth appear to be sustainable? Be wary of any franchises saying they plan to double in size over the next 1-2 years. That's a recipe for operations nightmares and inconsistency. Definitely avoid any franchises that are contracting. - Multi-unit ownership - get an idea for the split between single-unit owners and multi-unit. A high percentage of single-unit means you are likely buying yourself a job without great prospects. Example: Subway vs. Tim Hortons - both have some big multi-units groups, but the majority of Subways are singles. Some franchises are very hard to expand in unless you come in with huge financial backing already. - Technology investment - cannot stress this one enough. My franchise talked about a mobile app for 5+ years and it never came out - and they already had a version of it in the US stores. Domino's former CEO famously said they wanted to be a tech company that sells pizza, and they have crushed it in the last 10 years. Look for what the franchisor is investing in. Are they a leader with their own IT team, or just trying to keep up? Food trends change every couple years. If they're not investing in tech themselves, they are on death row and may not even know it yet. - Stable concept - I made this mistake myself, to an extent. There are always hype concepts. Frozen yogurt, juice bars, freakin' dick-shaped waffles. Franchisors get ahold of these and sell franchises to anyone with a check book and a pulse. You might make money with some of these, but at the end of the fad, good luck selling the business and not going down with the ship. Stick to food that can adapt to the trends and has consistent demand. Quality coffee, pizza, chicken, and burgers are boring, just the way you like it. - Stable ownership - who owns the parent? How many concepts do they own? Just one - great. Several (Inspire, RBI) - probably okay but proceed with caution. Many - stay far, far away. There are lots of private equity and buying groups that swallow up a bunch of midsized concepts, consolidate the operations (aka fire most of the corporate support), and try to turn them into cash cows. Focussed ownership means stability and resources for franchisees. - Start-up costs - you may be looking at buying an existing location, but you need to study this no matter what if you want to expand eventually. It's not just about the overall number (that's obvious), but which direction it's going in. This tells you what the franchise is prioritizing. Starbucks isn't a franchise, but is the best example of what to look for; they spend money on what the customers sees from knee to eye, and spend as little as possible anywhere else. Go look at the ceiling or tile in a Starbucks - that's pure utility right there. Bad franchises will have you spend money on really stupid stuff - neon signs, fancy light fixtures, hyper-trendy furniture. This is a sign that the franchise is not prioritizing the franchisee's ability to drive profitability. Good franchises try to drive down build-out costs, or at least keep them stable. How can I do more research? Googling is a good start, but a lot of the information will be very high level. If you're getting really serious, you'll need to get some better insider information. - Spend time in the business. To start, just go sit in one for a whole morning or afternoon. Are there "now hiring" signs everywhere (chronic staffing challenges)? How many customers are coming in? What's the demographic of those people? Are lots of customers using the loyalty app? Do the staff seem happy to be there? Is there an exhausted guy who looks like the owner making your sandwich? This step alone may be enough to tell you that you don't want to go further, so spend the time before you really start to dig in. - Get your hands on the Franchise Disclosure Document. There are databases for these, or if you go through the initial process screening process with a franchise, they will have to provide you with this by law in most places. This is a thick-ass document that lists a metric ton of useful stuff. Parent company financials, pending lawsuits, operations procedures and policies, lists of franchisees, and so on. Read the whole thing, jot down concerns and questions. - Talk to owners. This is the only way to get a true, unfiltered perspective. You can try to contact folks from that Disclosure Document or cold outreach, but the best way is a warm intro of some kind. See who is in your network and if anyone can connect you. Talk to as many as possible, from different regions and backgrounds. - Avoid getting your information from the franchisor itself. The person with "Franchise Development" in their title is usually a commissioned salesperson. They are not going to give you the most honest information, or point you to anyone other than people that are deep in the cult. It's a good idea to talk to successful and unsuccessful franchisees, but make sure you can do it with as little of a filter as possible. Summary This got long. I think I'll stop it here, as that covers most of it. tl;dr - know what a franchise is (hard work, just like any small business), and what it isn't (passive income), Make sure to pick the right franchise brand that is going to support you, cares about your profitability, and will allow you to grow. Do a lot of research - like an obsessive amount - because you don't want to buy-in, and then uncover a complete shit show that you could have spotted before you invested your savings and life in a business. Stay fresh out there (but don't Eat Fresh)! Cheers. [link] [comments]  |
| Launched my first e-commerce store. Posted: 18 Sep 2021 08:56 AM PDT Getting into e-commerce (Shopify) and even drop shipping has been something I've always wanted to do. I've helped some friends launch their stores and they're seeing great successes. I kept kicking myself for not doing my own, and now here I am! If anyone who runs an e-commerce/dropshipping business wouldn't mind checking out my site to let me know what you think, that'd be awesome! Any tips and feedback would be super appreciated. There is always so much to learn! [link] [comments]  |
| I am a failed and now lost entrepreneur and now I don't know what to do. Posted: 18 Sep 2021 01:10 PM PDT I have been financially independent for the past 4 years. Between trading, running a few different very small businesses (hustles really) and occasional bartending on the weekends for extra money, I have been able to get by. I have been working on a big tech startup for the past year and because it is a little out of my league in terms of things I can do on my own I have been not getting where I want to be with it and starting to feel like its out of reach. The sad thing is that I have put a lot of work into it and by me feeling it only proves the product is needed even more considering my startup is for helping founders connect and find co-founders and guide them through the startup process. I don't know what I should do now. I have no real career path because I always have been a generalist. I know a little excel, a little python, a little sql, I know how to create content for marketing, create logos, basically I know how to get what I have to get done which is what being an entrpreneur is all about the problem is careers are all about just being an expert at one thing. I am lost and feel hopeless in terms of getting a job. [link] [comments]  |
| Iopened a healthcare staffing agency... Posted: 18 Sep 2021 10:37 AM PDT I opened a healthcare staffing agency here in the US and I have lots of nurses and doctors signed on but I need more instutions looking to hire. Any idea on how to get more clients? I heard of workforce trust but I don't know how to access it. Any other options? please and thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Can you guys recommend me a good guideline for creating a business plan? Posted: 18 Sep 2021 11:18 AM PDT I want to prepare a professional looking business plan for my ideas so I can present them in front of an investor. Can you recommend a book/website/guideline, or just tell me how it should be structured and what must be included? [link] [comments]  |
| I tried the "Coding for Marketing" growth hack and the results are remarkable Posted: 17 Sep 2021 07:21 PM PDT Hi folks, wanted to share a little growth hack that worked very well for me. My product is called HelpKit and essentially helps you to turn Notion docs into a professional help center. The Background I am a huge Notion fan but there's this one thing that is still not available: A simple table. Yes, there's no way to add a simple to your Notion page 😆 However, I found out a hack where you can use the math equation block and LaTeX notation to create beautifully-looking simple tables. What does "Coding for Marketing" mean? For those of you who don't know Rob Walling. He is an amazing serial entrepreneur who basically made bootstrapping and building micro-startups a thing. The "Coding for Marketing" hack refers to the action of developing a very small but helpful website that you provide for free and essentially use as a way to build reputation and traffic for your main business. What did I do? So I decided to follow Rob's advice and built a simple and free table generator so that Notion users can easily generate their tables without messing around with the complex LaTeX notation. The problem of not having a simple table is very well known problem in the Notion community and there are countless Reddit, Twitter and Facebook threads demanding it. I called it Notion Simple Table so that I can benefit from all the SEO juice that is already out there. This is exactly what people search for. How did I promote it? Besides my audience on Twitter, I made quick explanation video and tried to look for some other places where the Notion community hangs out: A Facebook group and r/Notion That was basically it. I gave the Notion post the name: "How to create a simple table in Notion" and boom ⚡ The community absolutely loved it! It's honestly a great feeling providing these people with a tool they truly wanted. You won't believe how many "You are god sent" comments I have received 😂😊 Ok... and now the results so far
The great thing about "Coding for Marketing" is that it can organically and steadily bring new traffic to your startup. Similar to a blog post. Hope I could inspire you to give this option a try 🚀 Let me know if you have any questions! [link] [comments]  |
| I’m looking for good books about starting a company. Posted: 18 Sep 2021 10:25 AM PDT It can be about startups, creating a company or how to manage one. I appreciate any help! [link] [comments]  |
| I need a co-packer for small batch sauce run Posted: 18 Sep 2021 02:17 PM PDT Hey! I have reached out to no less than five copackers and I cannot get anyone to reply. One replied, we completed the NDA, sent them our recipe and didn't hear back for weeks. I would like to do a run for about $5k. I really have no idea what that will get me. The sauce is kind of a cross between a mustard based and vinegar based BBQ sauce. We have been making it at home and people love it. I have had some local stores ask to carry it but we can't produce enough at home. Can anyone recommend a co-packer that will do a small batch like that to start? [link] [comments]  |
| Folks in the home-based service industry, how do you deal with unvaccinated employees/contractors? Posted: 18 Sep 2021 10:31 AM PDT I really don't want to spark a giant debate. I want to stay as neutral as possible. I see both sides of the debate with regards to individual choice vs public health so let's please just leave that alone on this thread. My question: If you have someone unvaccinated on your team, going into people's house how do you go about talking to your clients? Do you tell them up front? Only if they ask? Do you leave it to the client and the customer to discuss? This is all so new: what's our duty as business owners? [link] [comments]  |
| Help with Thier Amazon selling accounts? Posted: 18 Sep 2021 02:03 PM PDT Hey does anyone need help, support or advice for Thier Amazon selling accounts? I love to help out and I get a passion for problem solving and I'm also an expert in Amazon ads Have a good day. [link] [comments]  |
| What to expect / How to approach Posted: 18 Sep 2021 05:19 AM PDT Over a month ago, I started a fitness clothing brand with a very limited budget of $650. We have a small selection of items for our "Vol. 1 Collection". Some of the items sold out while others didn't sell at all. Most of our margins for products are great, but the biggest margined products were the ones that havent sold many. Our gross revenue was only $550. Most of our customers were family/friends so I don't expect them to be repeat customers. So after taking a $100 loss I am wondering what is the best step would be? Lower quantity of the products even though the quantity was already low? More money into marketing? Also, Ive done discounted prices to try and sell more products to break even. But even that didn't work towards selling more. [link] [comments]  |
| Looking to contact the right people for cold sales Posted: 18 Sep 2021 04:58 AM PDT Hello everyone, I joined an small entrepreneur program and we created a product in our group project. But everyone in my program dropped out and our mentor went awol. So shitty... That left me to sell these products by myself. Which is fine because I ended up getting a buyer that order almost 200 of them at $100 each. So now I want to keep doing this and I want to target large organizations, corporations, etc to promote this product to and get large orders. But who do target specifically in these organizations/corporations? Is there a specific title that the company purchasers are called? I can email everyone in their company directly or email a few and hope i get the right person. But i rather be strategic and contact the right person from the start. So i am hoping you can help me out with what these people are called and what they might be listed as in a company directory? Ultimately I want to talk to the decision maker. Also in another forum someone asked for additional details so they could give me titles, but they gave me useless advice and wasted my time. I honestly believe answers to my question can be provided without additional info. If there are no titles, then are all cold sale reps just calling every single person in the company? [link] [comments]  |
| What name do u prefer for a street wear brand reasonings in second text Posted: 18 Sep 2021 01:37 PM PDT Wich one do u prefer more for a brand name for street wear MXD short for mixed refers to me being mixed and to represent mixed ppl and to put awareness out about being mixed with the brand if it gets big and can base cloths idea around that or tmc / the middle child the stereotype that the middle child is always over looked and ignored and rebellious that I could design the cloths like that [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 18 Sep 2021 01:24 PM PDT Hello everyone! I am a Union Certified Master Hypnotist and owner of a private hypnotherapy practice with an emphasis on remote therapy. Forgive me if this is off base, but does anyone know of any weekly or monthly Zoom networking meetup groups? I've found that with what I do, this is one of the most effective ways of outreach. Anyway, nice to be here and I look forward to connecting with all of you. [link] [comments]  |
| How do I know the durability of my products? Posted: 18 Sep 2021 09:17 AM PDT Hi, I sell wooden customizable items and I make sure they are super solid, but I can't really know how solid they truly are after a couple of years or months.. Is there a way to find out how in such a short time? [link] [comments]  |
| Got My TPT License, are There Any Brick and Mortar Style Distributors I Can Buy From to Resell? Posted: 18 Sep 2021 01:02 PM PDT Just got my TPT license and I have my EIN. I was curious if there's any brick and mortar style distributor companies that require TPT/EIN to buy from and resell? I do not have a physical storefront, I may in the future. I've been doing a lot of buying and reselling locally and now took this step forward but not really sure where to go from here. Most of my sells are through online sites/apps. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 17 Sep 2021 07:05 PM PDT So my main company is 5.5 years old. It has always grown pretty dramatically, but to keep up we always had to reinvest a lot. This year we are on track to grow only 3%. Its a major blow to my motivation. Last year we grew 73% but about half of that was because of covid. We will do around $673,620 this year. Our net last year was 27%. Im expecting a little less this year. Next year is a toss up. I need to promote 2 team members into management. Thats gonna be $100,000 in non productivity labor. Then with rising wages, im gonna have to drop another $50,000 to keep my team well paid. By my math, thats almost all of what my wife and I make. Another blow. But we will be spending a lot less on equipment next year because we didn't grow. I know we can raise prices. But we are the leader in our city, and any competition that matters is already undercutting us. ($135 for 30 real estate listing photos-- main service.) I've got 40k in my operating account. Ive got 40k in the market. And I've got another 20ish in IRA index funds. Almost all of that was from the last year. The company will probably bleed out that first 40k this year during the slow season. I own a $350k house. Thats it. I've built the company to where I am free. This happened about a year ago. My wife still works 8am to 10pm just about every day. Mostly light duty. (This is why I need managers) I did just drop 45k this year on starting a second company. Its an hvac business thats 4 months old. Its done 30k so far. I own 51% but am not required to work. (I do for fun and to support the company) I'm just looking at all that we have done and wondering if it was worth it. We put in, tons and tons of time into this company. My wife still is. I want to get her out. For years we have been sprinting to the light at the end of the tunnel. We keep having to push it back for her. And now I'm looking at all these wage increases and I'm feeling terrible that I may have to tell her to wait another year. We are 34 years old How am I doing? Lay it on me. Good or bad. Happy to answer any questions. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 17 Sep 2021 05:03 PM PDT I live in Canada. I'm getting tired of my labor intensive, high pressure job, but the pay is about 90k per year. I have a rental condo I'm thinking of selling for a profit of 180K. Would that be enough to franchise a Subway or similar chain, and what kind of costs/overheads/profits are associated with owning one? Edit: Holy smokes it doesn't have to be a Subway, or even a restaurant, just wanted some real world info on the prospect of opening a franchise. For what it's worth, I like Subway, so kiss my butt. [link] [comments]  |
| What advertising/marketing do you recommend. Posted: 18 Sep 2021 12:00 PM PDT Started a residential cleaning company and want to try and bring in more business to help expansion. What advertising in your experiences have worked best to target middle to high income clients? Thank you in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Can I Wholesale a product from China directly to the retail store location in USA? Posted: 18 Sep 2021 11:42 AM PDT My first guess is this can get real sticky real quick. If im operating out of one small office space and simply drop shipping an entire order from China then what happens if it gets rejected or even damaged and I have no actual warehouse space to take the returns? Im sure some people out there have found a sufficient way to do this. Thanks for thoughts un advance. I am already in the USA myself. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 18 Sep 2021 11:41 AM PDT Total Noob questions…been self-employed for years, but now starting to make real $. Will be filing an LLC for my contract work, also have w-2 income…is it better to file an S-Corp or an LLC? Married 3 kids Own house Joint income close to $400k/year. [link] [comments]  |
| Going to local biz school to find my partner? Posted: 18 Sep 2021 11:25 AM PDT Has anyone gotten involved in a local business school and found a hungry student you wanted to invest in? Would this work? I'm looking to fund a startup (I don't even have an idea) but I just need to find the right person. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 18 Sep 2021 09:46 AM PDT Hey! I haven't made a lot of sells even though I started a month ago, is there something wrong with my products/website? [link] [comments]  |
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