I’m crying �� small business |
- I’m crying ��
- I'm interviewing for an admin/receptionist position and the first candidate brought in a gift bag. Is it ethical/legal to accept it? (it had candy in it and I ate one already!)
- Business Loan - Help me not look stupid
- End of year bonus?
- Did owning you own business let you live the kind of life you wanted?
- Ecommerce Website Advice Needed - Pricing and Direction
- Can I Lay Off An Injured Employee in CA?
- How do you automate onboarding and fulfillment?
- Nutritional Info on Products
- Need help. Starting a small art and jewelry business. How do I get customers?
- Startup equity compensation or profit sharing for early international employees
- Filing for an EIN question.
- How risky is starting a business overseas
- Moved my business to another city and I'm struggling to get conversions
- Do you have to go everyday to post office to ship orders for small business?...
- Daily tools to help workloads
- Question... how do you utilize your website in order to get or close sales?
- LLC worth it for small online business?
- To publicize product under development nor not?
- Should I close my business & incorporate a new one in Nevada? Challenge: May be moving to another state.
| Posted: 14 Dec 2021 10:37 AM PST We used our life savings to open a small Mexican restaurant in Edmond. We signed our contract in April 2019 and was supposed to open in may or June. Due to the landlord hiring cheap contractors who did not do the plumbing and electrical correctly therefore we were not passing Inspection we didn't open until January 2020 and that was because we pushed him so much and also used our own personal money so the work would be done correctly. Aside from the fact that Covid was awful for us being we hadn't had a chance to establish ourselves, there was always an issue with our neighbor, he would fry things and we would get a lot of smoke in our unit so we asked every single week if he could have someone come fix that because it was bothering customers, and he has yet to do anything. Also we've had leaks, our AC went out in the summertime and it took him weeks to do anything and we ended up calling someone ourselves yet again. Well this is the cherry on top. We found out our neighbor was moving and another business would be put next door to us. We told the landlord we have only one request and please please do not put a Mexican restaurant right next door to us. We thought to ourselves surely nobody would want to do that anyway. Well there was a sign put outside our business today that a Mexican restaurant is opening next door to us. I've been bawling all morning, we've struggled so much just to make it week to week and put up with bullshit just to keep it professional and not have any more problems. We've done everything right. Why would someone do this šš I don't know what to even say at this point. I truly think we're going to just be closing our business soon because I cannot with any fiber of my being work with a property manager who is this awful to others. Thanks to anyone listening. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 14 Dec 2021 10:23 AM PST I've never had anyone ever bring in a gift bag for an interview. It was super polite and the candidate seemed great, but I was just worried that if I didn't hire her, could there be any problems associated with her giving me a gift? [link] [comments] |
| Business Loan - Help me not look stupid Posted: 14 Dec 2021 11:15 AM PST My wife and I are considering starting a business and I need to get a good understanding of our loan options, rates, terms, the application process, etc for some property. There is a ton of information out there and the recommendation from other owners around here is to just go down to our bank and start a conversation. However, I really dislike how much of an information disadvantage we will be at and would like to have a good grasp on what to expect. Hollywood tells me I should go in with a suit and tie, present the detailed plans for my life-long dream, and then get crushed by a disinterested banker. What sort of things do you wish you had known before you talked to a bank? What information should we gather ahead of time? Do we need to walk in for that first conversation with a fully fleshed out business plan ready to go? For reference:
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| Posted: 14 Dec 2021 12:18 PM PST How do you figure out how much of a bonus to give employees? I have 5 part-time employees whom I cherish and want to gift an end of year bonus, but not sure how much to give them, especially as they all work different amounts of hours for me. [link] [comments] |
| Did owning you own business let you live the kind of life you wanted? Posted: 14 Dec 2021 11:56 AM PST |
| Ecommerce Website Advice Needed - Pricing and Direction Posted: 14 Dec 2021 11:55 AM PST We are a startup company that will be selling 10 - 20 products on our website to start. I currently am signed up with premium WIX account. I have set the website up to about 50% completion (some content and copy but not products or product pictures) but I dont have the time to take it to completion. I have received quotes from a few companies that will redesign and complete the WIX website for us ranging around 2500 - 3000. We are wondering if this is a good price and if anyone has feedback on WIX being used for ecommerce. Also, the latest company suggested that I do not use WIX at all because it will limit our growth down the road, so they will develop a website from ground up for min 5000 so we are not tied to WIX. We have paid WIX premium for the year with Godaddy domain. I need to know if it is best that we walk away from WIX, go with the web developer and dish out the top dollar, or stick with WIX and get someone to redesign it for cheaper. Is it true that several companies outgrow WIX and then find that they need to spend the dollars on getting a website developed regardless? [link] [comments] |
| Can I Lay Off An Injured Employee in CA? Posted: 14 Dec 2021 11:05 AM PST I have a small 6 person residential painting business in San Diego, CA. I'm very new to having employees and worker's comp. A W-2 hourly employee of 3 months fell from a 16 foot ladder. We filed a worker's comp claim. It turns out he broke his leg, got surgery, and is now about to start doing physical therapy. It's been 4 months since the accident. I had to replace the injured employee. I did not expect the injured employee to be out this long, but regardless, I don't have work for him (I had to replace him), so I can't really have him come back to work. There's no other positions for him to work within the very small company. I don't want to make it seem like I'm firing him for getting injured, but at the same time, I legitimately don't have work for him. This is California, so I'm sure there's some sort of law against firing an employee for being injured, which isn't the case but may seem like it. Can I dismiss him with the reason being lay off? Or do I say reason for dismissal is the position was eliminated? Both are true. Work was seasonal (painting demand much higher in the summer when he got injured)? What do I do? [link] [comments] |
| How do you automate onboarding and fulfillment? Posted: 14 Dec 2021 11:05 AM PST Hey all! Just looking for resources or software automations that can help streamline onboarding and/or client fulfillment. What software/platforms do you use? How user friendly? Is there anyone you follow that knows automation well? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 14 Dec 2021 07:16 AM PST I run a small bakery out of my home and have recently been asked by a few customers about nutritional information for my breads, bagels, etc.. I'm sure there are ways for me to find this information out through other companies but I really do not know where I should start to look. Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated! [link] [comments] |
| Need help. Starting a small art and jewelry business. How do I get customers? Posted: 14 Dec 2021 10:16 AM PST Hi. I started a small art and jewelry business about 2 months ago. For now, I sell my products on etsy but I want to create my own website. The thing is: a website only makes sense if there are people willing to buy my stuff. Du you have any tips on how to get more customers/ build a customer base? [link] [comments] |
| Startup equity compensation or profit sharing for early international employees Posted: 14 Dec 2021 10:12 AM PST Apologies for the long post. I wanted to include as many details as I could. I started bootstrapping a small software business in 2020. I'm 100% owner with 100% of the financial and decision-making responsibility. I hired an international team of engineers, analysts, and designers located in South and Central America that I've been paying with my savings and income from my primary job. At one point I was paying as many as 10 employees out of my personal salary. I hired and trained junior engineers and analysts at rates that I could afford, but after they accrued experience with my team, some were able to find higher paying positions at other companies that I could not compete with. Until this month, we were a pre-revenue development stage company, but recently received a nice windfall sufficient to cover many months of the entire company budget. I am using a good chunk of these funds for end of year bonuses to show the team how essential and appreciated they are. We currently have 6 team members other than myself, 1 full time and 5 part time. I have increased pay company wide several times with both cost of living and performance based raises in order to motivate the team and retain talent, but I don't have much wiggle room with pay increases due to my limited cashflow. My project manager (the full time employee) does not feel further pay increases are necessary right now as she perceives team moral to be great, but I insist on at least basic cost of living raises that soundly beat inflation, especially given the economic situations in the team members' countries of origin. I do believe the current team has good morale and motivation and I'm highly pleased with the entire team's dedication and performance. All team members are also aware that our recent results have exceeded expectations. I'm looking for additional ways to retain talent, but I am not ready to seek outside investment at this point. I was advised by a friend to consider equity compensation, and more specifically - phantom shares or a phantom stock plan due to the international nature of the team, and especially given the countries of origin of the team members. I'm the only US citizen in the company, and I'm not even living in the US, although the company is based out of Texas. The longest tenured employee has been with me 18 months, 3 employees for 16 months, and the newest employees only 2-3 months. Recently, I explicitly told all 4 senior team members that it is my hope and intention to offer them equity compensation or profit sharing, and that phantom shares might be a solution. But it's a bit complicated to me, as my primary background is engineering, not finance. The last thing I want to do is make the situation unnecessarily complicated in case of an employee departure, future fundraising, etc. Perhaps profit sharing is a more clear cut and direct method appropriate to my situation. The employees are paid weekly, but equity compensation was not even discussed when I hired them. I pay them well for their countries of origin, but it is a fraction of the salary of a similar role with similar responsibilities in the USA. I expect that at least 2 of my superstars could easily find much higher paying jobs, but choose to stay with me because they enjoy their work and believe in the company. I recognize that the employees' individual skillsets are growing rapidly, they are becoming more sought after workers, and that offering them equity compensation (maybe vested over 5 years) or profit sharing could my best chance at talent retention and company success as a whole. Every team member has been essential to our success, but I admit that some employees have skillsets more central to our core product than others. The team is like a family, and I can't imagine leaving out any of the team members who have been with the company almost since the beginning. Due to their short time with the company, the 2 newest employees have not yet put in the time to qualify for the same level of compensation as the others. My initial thought is to create a pool of shares dedicated to employee equity compensation, perhaps in the 5-10% total or 1-2% individually for each of the 4 senior team members. But I want to avoid making things too convoluted or unnecessarily diluting my own personal shares since I have accepted significant financial risk, personally investing tens of thousands of dollars into the company whereas the employees have all been receiving salaries. I live off the income from my primary full time job, so I have yet to pay myself a salary out of the company budget, but it would just be paying myself anyway, so I'm not sure the best way to go about that part. I assume there's some sort of accounting advantage to one approach or another, but I'm most concerned with putting a plan in place for the specific purpose of retaining these early employees because I have to admit that losing even 1 of these original core members would be a major setback to our progress. I appreciate any and all advice relevant to my situation. I've been part of startups before, but never with this much decision-making responsibility. I'm happy to provide further details if there are any questions. It's so exciting being part of a startup in our industry. I am becoming more optimistic at our changes of survival, and it's time to put a few more elements in place to secure our plan for long term growth. I've been a lurker here for a while, but it's finally time to seek out some specific opinions and ideas from the r/smallbusiness community. Many thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 14 Dec 2021 10:07 AM PST I just made an LLC and am applying for an EIN but I'd like to file as an s corporation. Do I file as an LLC under the IRS page for getting an ein or a corporation (s corp included) ? Or is this something I can change down the line without applying for a new EIN? [link] [comments] |
| How risky is starting a business overseas Posted: 14 Dec 2021 09:39 AM PST Hi, I have an idea at the very initial planning stage and wanted some insights on how feasible it is. I am a software engineer with some years of experience on infrastructure and decided to start a VPS selling business. since I can take care of most of the operational heavy lifting initial costs will be low and I can validate the idea before going bankrupt. The thing is, I live in Brazil, things here are really expensive and tendency is to get worse, so i decided to run this business on Canada where I have a friend who can help with marketing. I did some research and there are companies offer services that does all the regulatory stuff so you have a legal company abroad without needing to live in the country, is that something people do frequently? How risky it is? What are you recommendations in this scenario? [link] [comments] |
| Moved my business to another city and I'm struggling to get conversions Posted: 14 Dec 2021 09:32 AM PST I'm a photographer who moved their business from a small PNW city to a large southern city. We relaunched down here last month with new branding/new site, and launched insta and google ads in tandem with it. My insta ad target is my city location with the qualifiers of 'engaged' or 'newly engaged'. I made a video ad I'm pretty happy with and targeted insta feeds/reels/stories only. For google ads it's also by location with targeted keywords such as 'City wedding photographer' and 'City photographer' and 'City wedding venue' with exact match on. So far I've spent $180 on insta with 27 link clicks and zero conversions. My average CPC for insta is about $6/click. I've spent $80 on Google with 14 link clicks and no conversions. I know these are small-ish numbers but I haven't gotten a single inquiry from any of these and I'm worried my targeting and/or messaging is off. I still have weddings booked in my old city but I'd really like to start booking down here to cut down on travel time. Any advice would be appreciated! My site is here: www.shutterkey.com [link] [comments] |
| Do you have to go everyday to post office to ship orders for small business?... Posted: 14 Dec 2021 05:20 AM PST Do you have to go everyday to post office to ship orders for small business?... [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 14 Dec 2021 08:57 AM PST What SAAS tools are people using to help their small business? [link] [comments] |
| Question... how do you utilize your website in order to get or close sales? Posted: 14 Dec 2021 08:53 AM PST Hi, all! I'm just doing some research on website sales funnels and I'm curious just from a random sampling of folks here on how you actively leverage your website as a sales or closing tool for your own business? Thanks for your time and discussion! [link] [comments] |
| LLC worth it for small online business? Posted: 14 Dec 2021 08:22 AM PST Hi Everyone, my wife is selling some goods online. Its nice little side business and we are considering opening a shopify site because there is sufficient demand for $1-2k monthly sales. [link] [comments] |
| To publicize product under development nor not? Posted: 14 Dec 2021 08:19 AM PST Last year I tested a new design for one of my product lines and it sold super well, but I couldn't find a reliable supplier so I decided to do it myself. I now have a fantastic design that I'm really excited about. I'm getting my 3d printed prototype this month and after the holidays I'm going to do some tests to validate the design and look for necessary tweaks. I'm estimating having it in inventory in the spring. Did I mention I'm super excited? I've been posting in my business Facebook page, without any pictures. But I would love to get my customers excited too, by posting pictures of the prototype. Here's my concern.... if I post pictures, what are the odds some rando will rip off my design? Is that just paranoid? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 14 Dec 2021 07:55 AM PST I'm an Illinois resident who runs a small marketing consultancy as a S-Corp where I'm the sole owner and employee. I moved to Illinois several years ago from California where I started the business; my company is set up as a California corporation that's registered in IL as a foreign corporation and pays taxes in both states. The problem (apart from paying double taxes of course) is that my business has outgrown our corporate name. I'm at a point where I can concievably hire an employee next year (yippee!) but our corporate name is sort of goofy and doesn't fit the kind of work we do now. I get a lot of double takes at the bank, interesting conversations with AP departments, etc. I'd like to start a new corporation with a different, more "professional" name and transfer my business over there. The only rub is that my parents are both in their 70s with chronic health issues that are getting worse, and there's a non-zero possibility I may have to move to the east coast to help more with their care in the coming years. My accountant floated the possibility of starting a new corporation in Nevada and registering it as a foreign corporation in Illinois, and then setting it up as a foreign corporation in NY/NJ/etc if I had to move out there. Does that sound like a possibility, or is there another option that might work better in my situation as well? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
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