Thank you Thursday! - November 04, 2021 Entrepreneur |
- Thank you Thursday! - November 04, 2021
- Update 4 years later: Started a candle side hustle with $50, about to clear $200,000 this year
- Ways to position your service as premium?
- 4 Healthcare startups + 1 Home services Startup + 1 Plumbing Company acquisition + 1 Exit + 6 years in corporate world + Management Coach for internal managers.....
- 3 things entrepreneurs can learn from kids
- What’s the best website for logo design on a $100 budget?
- Vending Machine YouTube Channel
- How do you get over the guilt of paying yourself in business?
- Does anybody know of any actual free pre employment assessment tests I can use?
- Adhd entrepreneurs what are your secrets?
- Jobs While Starting Biz (or Doing Homework)
- What skills do I need to learn?
- Anyone near San Diego with a high quality 3-D printer and experience using it want to start a business with me?
- Hi entrepreneurs! We are a young startup looking for help in reaching people from the fashion industry
- What are common problems that cause a cosmetics brand to go belly up?
- Getting lots of App Store impressions, but zero downloads...
- I need help finding myself in unoriginal ideas
- Making a product
- LLC and TradeMark?
- Dissolving LLC
- The life of an employee vs The life of an Entrepreneur
- A community for sharing feedback about your startup idea
- Why I don't trust the "Free" web design services offered today.
| Thank you Thursday! - November 04, 2021 Posted: 04 Nov 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. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Update 4 years later: Started a candle side hustle with $50, about to clear $200,000 this year Posted: 04 Nov 2021 10:12 AM PDT Just wanted to drop in and make another update post since the last few seem to be appreciated. I have provided links to the past three posts showing this progress for anyone that want's to check it out. I had to briefly scan last years thread to see where I was in the business so I could give every update that's happened since then.Since last year the facebook group (DIY Candle Making Beginner to Advanced) has grown from 52,000 members to 105,000 members.The youtube channel (Standley Handcrafted) grew from 62,000 subscribers to 108,000 and both are still growing strong. And in may of this year I opened my own candle supply company, West Sound Candle Supplies.The facebook group and youtube channel have been incredible for growing the brand and generating sales, but I will say neither one are used specifically for those reasons. The main goal for both is about education first, and of course sales naturally come from them because people watch and search my brand and products used. I will say I have followed u/garyvee advice on this one the entire time and use more of a jab, jab, jab, right hook approach with everything I do except tend to hold back on the right hooks a little too much and end up with twenty jabs before taking the right hook. Not really a fun part of the journey but one that a lot of entrepreneurs deal with, is divorce. I spent the last two years ending a 27 year marriage and finally signed papers this year. The main reason I bring this one up is because a lot of people would throw in the towel on their dreams and say what's the point in continuing. I initially started this side hustle to bring in extra money for our family and got pushback from my ex. She constantly told me how "weird" it was for "a guy to be making candles", it would never go anywhere, and it was a stupid idea that would never work. So, me trying to calm the storm, I always held back and slowed my own growth. I kept a balance of keeping peace at home while building the candle business in the background without disrupting that fragile balance.During that long two years I of course moved on with my business and started to attack it much harder than I had in the previous years. I also ended up meeting someone who was unbelievably supportive and really helped me grow it further. Now the fun part.Since last year I had someone reach out to me and redesign my website which was a huge help. I could not keep up with everything even if I knew how to do it all myself. I had to give up some control and hand it over to someone else who was more talented than I was. This also have me more time to focus on actually making candles and videos. I wish I would of done this sooner.I started to ramp up the online candles classes a little and get one scheduled at least once every 2-3 months out which was a hit. I open each class with 25 seats and almost every class was full.I will also say that I did not ever hold back or take away my free content to transition it to paid classes. People can still get everything I teach in these classes for free on youtube, the group, and my website.The classes are meant to take all that information and condense it into a quick one stop place to get all that info in 3-4 hours. I think this has been important for my growth as well. For those that cannot afford the ticket price, they can watch videos and read articles at their own pace. The youtube channel is still doing really well but took a bigger slump in the first quarter of the year than I expected. Views normally go down around this time but with the addition of more candle making channels to the space I don't think my channel is featured in the algorithm as much as it was previous. Which makes perfect sense with more competition out there now. Last year the channel made just over $32,000 and this year was on track to make around $45-$50K. With the slow down in views I knew it would drop a little from the $50,000 target. Along with that I have opened my supply business which is taking time and I have missed quite a few videos the past 2-3 months which has also hit monthly ad sense. I am still on track to make just over $32,000 again which in my mind is still beyond amazing. The candles are still doing really well but have slowed down with everything else going on. Markets still not going so I kept everything to online sales and started the year strong with candle sales, e-book sales, and candle classes but have since slowed that a little with the opening of the candle supply website. This is another area that has slowed down since the launch of the candle supply site, but even with that slow down the candle website is still making around $4000 a month. With the holidays being the busiest season for candles I expect to end the year with around $50,000 in sales from the candle site alone. The facebook group is still going strong and a huge help to people wanting to make candles and also a big driver in sales to not only my candles and e-books but now my candle supply company. I still keep the group a place to learn and not a place to straight sell. I still operate on the jab jab jab right hook philosophy in keeping it about helping and then the occasional post about my supplies for those interested.Not only myself but there are numerous people who benefit from the group, makers, to suppliers to designers, we try to keep the group a nice environment for all involved which is why I created the group in the first place. Some of the groups before hand had very negative culture which made it very intimidating for new candles makes trying to learn. I think this approach alone is why my group has so successful, we try to maintain the safe and helpful environment to new as well as advanced. I can't even begin to calculate how many sales are driven by the group but its around 30-40% of traffic coming from facebook in general. The candle supply company kind of came out of nowhere fast and really just made sense. With so many people coming to me asking what wax to use and who sells it, where can I get this and that, I finally wanted to say you can get them from me. Its always been in the back of my mind but I kept the idea growing slowly until around May. I have been talking with a larger candle supply company wanting to get into the U.S. market and they wanted to go through me to break into the market. After more than a year of talking back and forth about candles and ultimately building that friendship. They ended up sending me a large shipment of wicks and I created a website and started selling the stock they sent me. The wick order they sent me was about $4000 and I quickly paid that off as I sold them. I didn't go find investors, no one helped out other than the wicks they sent and I didn't take any loans to launch this. The only reason I say this is when I read stories like this it always takes a turn for me when someone says "and with a loan, or a gift from my Dad of $200,000 dollars I was able to make this all happen." Which is always a little defeating to hear. I wanted to make this relatable to people like me who don't have those opportunities coming to them. Now having said that I did have someone give me $4000 in wicks. But, it really wasn't given at no cost to me. I spent the last four years building a brand that was just as valuable to them as them sending me the wicks to get started working with each other. Once those wicks sold I took all that money, paid the invoice, ordered more wicks and took that profit to order $2000 my first eight fragrance oils. Once those eight fragrance oils sold for $4000, I took the profit from those and ordered eight more fragrance oils. I kept that going and currently have twenty six to choose from with another eight on the way. I also ordered two more types of wicks to put on the site and currently looking for more supplies to add all the time. This has not been easy at all and I am making mistakes and learning from them every day. Once the wicks sold they shipped me candle was melters and I began pre orders on those which turned out to be a mistake. The over seas suppliers were giving me an arrival date of the end of July, beginning of August so I started to take on pre preorders at the end of June. Of course customs issues started to really ramp up since talking about the melters and what was the first of August quickly turned into another two weeks, then another week, and another week, and finally received the melters the first week of October. I of course kept everyone in the loop who ordered one but having to tell people its going to be delayed week by week for over a month was not fun. I would not do pre orders again unless I had concrete dates of arrival. Lesson learned for sure.Shipping times have also killed me and something I am working my ass off to improve. I am still doing all of this by myself for the most part. I get some help from my son and friends here and there but I am putting everything together pretty much myself and trying to keep up. This is why I am trying to hire someone ASAP. I need help and can't keep up with orders which of course turns into delayed delivery times which sucks. I take full responsibility on this one, it turned out to be busier than even I expected. To this date the supply website is about to cross $100,000 in sales here in the next week and based on previous months sales I am projecting to clear around $130-$140,000 in sales. Next year I think I can easily double those numbers. Adding up the supply site, the candle site, and yotube I know that I will clear minimum of $200,000 this year and if I can really kick it into overdrive with the last two months of the year being the busiest time for candles I think I can actually make closer to $250,000 this year. I also just opened my first brick and mortar retail and warehouse location! I am very excited about this one and I will try to attach pictures to the post. The finishing touches are being put on the retail side and the warehouse side is ready to go. I met with my first potential employee last night and really excited to get this going.I am still working my full time job which is in I.T. with the plans to transition to the candles full time within the next 1-2 years. There are a couple more things that add to the overall numbers like affiliate links which is another $3000-$4000 a year. All in all it's been an amazing journey and one that has ben way more than I ever thought it would be. I also have to give a huge shoutout to u/garyvee who has been the one guy I looked to for little tips and help along the way. I have to say that because someone was talking shit just a while back about how his advice is bullshit and no one actually makes money from "his motivational bullshit"Well I for one can honestly say his advice, videos, and books have helped me tremendously. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ways to position your service as premium? Posted: 04 Nov 2021 09:13 AM PDT I'm looking at providing a niche b2b marketing-type service. I see some people providing a similar service for $3k/mo for a defined, limited offer, and other people selling it for $500/mo for unlimited work (presumably outsourcing the work.) What are some strategies to position yourself as the higher-valued offer and not compete on price? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 04 Nov 2021 05:53 AM PDT Resume is in the headline. Even more important = 3 major health issues due to 'being an entreprenuer'. Ive made every mistake in the book and Ive paid for it. Made a million in some years and lost a million some years as well. Switched from corporate to entrepreneur and havent looked back though. Have trained/transitioned roughly 15 from staff to management. I notice on this sub there is usually more psychological questions rather than technical. If anybody is struggling, ask me anything! [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 things entrepreneurs can learn from kids Posted: 04 Nov 2021 08:55 AM PDT 1 → Ask "why" multiple times to make sure you dig deep enough into people's problems What else am I missing? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What’s the best website for logo design on a $100 budget? Posted: 04 Nov 2021 01:04 PM PDT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vending Machine YouTube Channel Posted: 04 Nov 2021 02:33 AM PDT I purchased and have been running a small vending machine business for the last few months. The business turns a decent profit and it has been fun. I have 7 machines and fill them weekly and collect cash out of them. I want to make a YouTube channel to potentially create another income stream from this business. I wanted to see if anyone had any ideas for a cool YouTube channel besides just showing me emptying/filling the machines every week and doing a sales count. I have thought about creating an interactive channel where one of my machines is somehow controlled by the public in one way or another, and maybe somehow the public can decide what goes in the machine or based on their engagement earn money from this machine ? Just looking for ideas. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How do you get over the guilt of paying yourself in business? Posted: 04 Nov 2021 04:59 AM PDT Okay, I'm sure a lot of people can sympathise with this one. You start a business, bootstrap it yourself and fund it from a job until you get to the stage where it's doing well enough to support you financially and you jump ship… But how do you overcome the issue of feeling like the business needs the money more than you? Ive been in business for 5 years now and have a lot to show for it - tonnes of awards, great clients, profitable accounts and an ever-growing balance sheet of assets, equipment and stock. The only thing I don't have to show for it is personal financial gain Every time it comes to paying myself, I always think "what's the absolute minimum I can take out of the business to live" and always think it needs it more than I do. I suppose this mindset got me to where I am (not overspending, trying to do as much in-house as possible) and so on, but when is it enough? Any tips would be great! 😁 [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Does anybody know of any actual free pre employment assessment tests I can use? Posted: 04 Nov 2021 09:04 AM PDT I realize this may go under the radar. I'm looking for somewhat basic, language and computer skill pre-employment assessment tests that I can provide to potential employees after an initial interview. The tests don't need to be customized, I just need a general understanding of employee capability. Is anyone aware of a site or app that I can use to e-mail these test to potential employees, and then review the results afterwards. Everything I've found so far is not free. Best [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Adhd entrepreneurs what are your secrets? Posted: 04 Nov 2021 12:36 PM PDT As a 35m who is a very driven, high achiever. I always find myself making it to the top in companies and then faltering under pressure or not having the right strategies for the way my brain is wired. My goal is and always has been to start my own business but my I get discouraged when I look at my performance under high pressure working for someone else and wonder what exactly I need to do to be able to succeed on my own. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jobs While Starting Biz (or Doing Homework) Posted: 04 Nov 2021 10:46 AM PDT Wondering in this labor market, what the best opportunities are for a paycheck while starting a tech business. For example, my college had desk workers at the dorms who just ensured you had an id and didn't interact much. I saw an independent ice cream shop worker doing homework on a slow night. I want to fulfill the job without cheating them of my ability. Don't need to take calls but would like to have my PC and be able to dedicate meaningful time to my project while making a paycheck. Health insurance is a plus. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What skills do I need to learn? Posted: 04 Nov 2021 10:22 AM PDT I am looking to start my own online business in the next few months, which will probably be a clothing brand, and I wanted to ask you guys what kind of skills do I need in order to kick off my business and help it grow. I already started learning about social media marketing and media buying (still didn't work in the field tho) and having lots of free time, I would like to dedicate this time to grow my own business skills. I have background skills in marketing and sales. What do you guys think are essential skills for growing my business? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 04 Nov 2021 01:48 PM PDT I have an idea that I'd like to prototype, market, put into production and patent. Small piece (1.5-2" or so) with 2 separate and different color LED. 33/33/34 profit split (you/me/buisness) with "pool bonus" quarterly preferred. DM if interested! [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 04 Nov 2021 07:43 AM PDT Context: What is our startup, getdressed, about? We create new solutions to support the fashion business by our intelligent stylist based on artificial intelligence. If you use Zalando, you can see outfits generated on the product page, under the product. There are customers who buy more when they see the context (outfit) and ones who buy the whole set as they don't have time to decide what to wear. We created a technology that can create outfits and we can simply add it to any fashion e-commerce. This way we increase sales and engagement on fashion e-commerce website. Thanks to us e-commerce can offer the right product to the right user. Customers will receive outfits fitting their style. The sets will be based on the trends, knowledge of fashion experts, but also behavior and taste of the user. Our AI takes all of those signals to give the user personalized outfit propositions.. In B2B model we offer: → artificial intelligence algorithms that understands fashion style; → plug-in for ecommerce stores offering outfits to customers; → Intuitive customer panel used to easily track the sales performance and measure the results → full technical support, simple and quick implementation (really quick, less than 72h!) We already gained ~$260K equity-free R&D grant to build it and gained some interest from clients in Poland as it is our home country. The help we need: (A) advice on how to reach people from the fashion industry internationally, including USA, Canada, UK and others, (B) the recommendations to fashion companies.. Why is it worth recommending us: Our smart recommendations increase the average order value by 6-8% and conversion rate by 5%. You can easily check the effectiveness with our measurement tools. The plug-in is easy to implement and it can be implemented in less than 72h. The first 30 days test is free of charge, after that a company can decide if the results satisfy them. We are open to offer 20% of the deal value to the recommender if the company becomes our client. Any help will be highly appreciated. We can also send you more information about the solution and provide any additional context if needed. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What are common problems that cause a cosmetics brand to go belly up? Posted: 04 Nov 2021 09:41 AM PDT I was watching Dragon's Den the other day and came across an episode where two British women with African heritage come on for their brand, Daughter of the Soil. This is the episode in question. I've been doing my own research as I wish to start my own indie shampoo and body wash line, eventually. They seek £60,000/$81,000 for a 10% investment in their company, which they tout as 100% natural and naturally derived. They hope to have £500,000/$676,000 in sales, although they were at a starting point of £12,000/$16,000 in sales over 4 months. They have put in around £160,000/$216,000 into the company (or they have collected it so far?), which is an insane amount considering a modest start can be near $30,000. They said that they spent £4,000/$5,500 just to protect their intellectual property by doing it through some solicitors. Their landed cost for their body butter is £9/$12, with a wholesale price of £13/$17, a tiny margin. The women come across naive in the aspects of business, as they want to target foreign markets before having a strong sales figure in the UK. Based off of this, they walk away without an investment. After that episode, I was in awe over the amount of money they raised for the project and did some digging. The company was established on 5 February 2015 and is currently active. There are 7 shareholders, two of which are pension groups, the remaining 5 being the women and their family members, as it seems. Looking at the link that says, Total Exemption Full Accounts shows their net worth to be -£250,000/-$338,000. Having a look on their website, their homepage has a link to a crowdfunding site for them to launch a new product, which I assume is because they are out of money. Additionally, they still have their products, but they are at luxury level pricing, as a 250ml/8.4oz body wash retails for £18/$24. While I really admire these ladies and their spirit, I fail to see an advertisement as to why that price is worth that volume. Additionally, the site and bottle design fail to instill that sense of luxury. With all said and done, I was curious to hear from you all regarding this and cosmetic brands.
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| Getting lots of App Store impressions, but zero downloads... Posted: 04 Nov 2021 09:22 AM PDT Hello everyone, after working on ASO, I've seen a big uptick in app store impressions from searches. However, there's been no change in downloads. People aren't even clicking the app to view more details, they just scroll past it. I'm starting to think my screenshots, app icon, etc. might be the problem. Any ideas? Also, feel free to roast my product page [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I need help finding myself in unoriginal ideas Posted: 04 Nov 2021 12:44 PM PDT I have been interested in testing the waters of entrepreneurship for a long time now. I have a passion for creation! I love creating content or stories, or art and just being able to see the final product and know that I brought it into the world. That's my biggest draw to entrepreneurship, honestly, I love the idea of creating a new product or service and knowing it's my brain child. I've had several ideas, but some of those that I feel would be most profitable or feasible with current circumstances are fairly unoriginal; essentially a new take on a something that's already fairly common. I feel like most of invention is innovative, and this some of the most successful businesses don't just bring something entirely new to the world. It may also be safer, as it's easier to understand an existing market. However, I have personal struggles with the idea of being unoriginal. I understand that I can make the product my own by developing a unique brand, but I struggle with the idea of getting fully committed to something not entirely original. Anyone have a similar mindset? Any suggestions? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 04 Nov 2021 11:54 AM PDT So I have an idea, I want to make a planner that's different than most planners. More customizable. DIY but here's all the shit you need to make it yourself. But I don't know how to go about finding someone to help me make this. Please help. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 04 Nov 2021 11:44 AM PDT Already have a website for my business. Up until now I have just been filling out my taxes as basic as possible really only did this as a side gig for people I wanted to work with. Now I have some more free time and would like extra money so I am going to start marketing more so I figured I should go somewhat legit. My name is nothing special and honestly can't believe no one else in my industry has not used it before. I also plan on diversifying my business into other spaces both local and online. Right now my business is location based but I would like to offer some remote consulting and support. On top of that I also want to dabble with ecommerce as a second side income stream. I have another website for that but was wondering if one LLC could encompass it all. I really don't understand the legal side of things and I havnt made enough money yet to justify going to a lawyer but I will if someone thinks its worth it. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 04 Nov 2021 11:43 AM PDT I had an idea for a zoom lighting system which didn't work out. I registered a single member LLC in California just to keep business separate from personal. I'd like to dissolve it now. I know you have to file a final tax return before you can dissolve your LLC. What does that mean exactly? I filed my taxes this past May does that count as the final tax return if I haven't done anything with the company since? Thanks! [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The life of an employee vs The life of an Entrepreneur Posted: 04 Nov 2021 11:13 AM PDT
What are we missing? What are we chasing? Do you understand that making more money than we need is useless? Working 8 hours a day as an employee still really sucks, but it works. Instead, in the environment the bosses and managers work more than 10/12 hours. Those miserable 2 hours that will seem few to some, are not at all, because those hours allow you to lead a better life than an entrepreneur who is always at the office. You will also tell me that there are entrepreneurs who work 2/3 hours a day, thanks to the internet. You are absolutely right, but how many of them in percentage? I really believe, a small part! Even if you tell me that entrepreneurs retire soon, I do not believe it ... because We've seen and heard so many which the disease of making more and more money attracts them into the deep well. Being able to think about anything other than money is difficult then. What do you think of this argument? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A community for sharing feedback about your startup idea Posted: 04 Nov 2021 07:20 AM PDT Hi folks This r/ is great but I want a place where we can exclusively discuss startup ideas. I've made r/FoundersFeedback for that specific purpose. What do you think? Do you have an idea you want feedback for? Drop-in and share it. I'm trying to get as many community members on there as possible so we can all share our feedback. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Why I don't trust the "Free" web design services offered today. Posted: 04 Nov 2021 10:42 AM PDT https://www.twine.net/blog/scam-design-to-beware-of/
Conclusion. "free" web design services offered by internet randos have rather high odds of being actual scams. Even the "free" web design services that are made by people who are merely incompetent are probably a bad deal for you, the end user, as "free" might actually cost you more than just paying a competent, trustworthy web-firm in the long run. Additionally, "beware geeks bearing gifts" really should just be the rule, rather than the exception on the internet. Even if the people who offered so-called "free" web design services on this subreddit today are entirely lovely people who only had the best of intentions, fact of the matter is, that the average business person is better off just giving the job to a reputable, paid professional, and truth be told, most reputable web-designers (and most reputable businesses in general) WILL NOT ASK FOR YOUR BUSINESS VIA COLD CALL. Also, also, for those keeping score at home, the entire plot of the movie Jurassic Park revolves around the fact that they hired a single IT guy, and that IT guy, was dodgy as all fuck, stole their IP, locked them out of their own computer network, and disabled all of their security protocols. The entire disastrously awful chain of events in that movie, could have been avoided if they had hired a reputable IT firm, as opposed to hiring a single rando with a questionable moral character/professional history. That could happen to you! Take the time to get a real web designer, and don't waste your time with strangers offering so-called "free" services! [link] [comments]  |
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