Wantrepreneur Wednesday! - January 26, 2022 Entrepreneur |
- Wantrepreneur Wednesday! - January 26, 2022
- 10 Years in Business. 10 Lessons From Failure.
- Started a content marketing agency 5 years ago - $0 to $4,539,659 (2022 Update, Part 1): Lower the stakes
- I'm going to roast your business' website, SEO, marketing, or copy (Episode 4!). Drop your link below and let's go.
- 99% of successful startups I read had SUBSTANTIAL family and friends + angel investor investments. None of the super successful ones I have read about haven't.
- Is it realistic to think that a successful online business could make me a millionaire, or close, by or before 30?
- I got to see the American dream in action today
- Quit job to pursue business full time. But job counter offered, should I take it ?
- Never had any role models in your life?
- Flexible side business recommendations?
- Why are businesses commonly valuated so low compared to real estate or listed companies?
- X posting my question here bc I figured some of you guys have faced this already and found solutions
- Looking for that Entrepreneur Person Success Story of being at the physically right place and right time!
- Nail Salon - Accounting Spreadsheets Tools Workflow Advice and Tips - So lost and Clueless
- What do you do to focus on your mental health?
- How Paypal may kill your startup
- Distribution of fish for potential store
- How to work best with remote editor
- Tips to teach a staff member?
- Are there any bar/club owners in here?
- How to determine how many customers there are for your product?
- How can I go about creating a consulting business for being a professional plaintiff?
- I’m getting back in to running google ads for my art/clothing business. Would you recommend running shopping,display, or search ads?
- Advice on Amazon Adjacent Website?
- Roast my landing page
- Is being particular bad?
Wantrepreneur Wednesday! - January 26, 2022 Posted: 26 Jan 2022 02:00 AM PST Please use this thread to ask questions if you're new or even if you haven't started a business yet. Remember to search the sub first - the answers you need may be right at your fingertips. 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] |
10 Years in Business. 10 Lessons From Failure. Posted: 26 Jan 2022 04:16 AM PST 👋 My name is Jeff. Want to know a secret? When I started my digital agency, Huemor, 10 years ago I had no idea what I was doing. 10 years later, we've won over 100 international awards, we have 40+ people in our Hue-Crew, and we've helped over 200 clients create memorable websites. I want to help you avoid the biggest mistakes I made, so I've compiled a list of my 10 biggest mistakes and what I learned from them. Lesson 1 of 10: Books are great tools for learning, hands-on experience is better. Early in my journey, I started reading a lot about business (Good) and then implemented those teachings verbatim the way they were taught (Bad). Business books are a great catalyst, but it's up to you to adapt and customize their teachings into a system that works for your business. There is no silver bullet or one-size-fits-all solution. Lesson 2 of 10: Brand identity and marketing are paramount for long-term success. When we started the agency we focused a ton on making Huemor unique. Then we got busy, and stuff started to slip. Guess what happened next? Our sales started to slip as well. Never get so caught up with client work that you stop working on your own brand. The effort there will always pay off in dividends. Lesson 3 of 10: Seek out, form, and nurture partnerships as early as you can. When we first started out we were SO focused on obtaining clients directly. Partnerships weren't even on our radar. Then a pretty cool company called Shopify came knocking in 2014 and changed our perspective. We became an advocate for them, and they became one for us. This allowed our business to bloom. From there, we formed more and more partnerships with key companies surrounding what we do. This allows us to have a healthy referral pipeline full of quality opportunities. PS. If you're reading this and want to become a partner, you can learn more about it here. Lesson 4 of 10: Project management and client relationships are the backbones of any successful agency – never cut corners with either. When we first started out I was our project manager (Amongst other things). I hired designers, developers, interns, but kept project management responsibilities to myself. Big mistake. Before I knew it, I was focused on building everyone's business but my own. Even worse, client relationships began to fray because I couldn't keep up. Ultimately, we had to lay off employees and fire clients to reset the deck. Starting over with a PM at the helm allowed me to focus on Huemor. It also provided a better experience to our clients. This set the foundation for a scalable and sustainable business. One that I'm proud to say is thriving today. Lesson 5 of 10: Letting go of a bad client will always be a net positive. Saying no to guaranteed revenue can be scary. But what is a bad client costing you? In my case – a lot. The client was unhappy, the team was unhappy, and I was unhappy. At some point, the paycheck just isn't worth it. Letting go of a bad client relationship will cost you some dollars in the short term but net you and your team a lot more in the long term. Increased positive energy results in better work and better results. Spend your time chasing that. Lesson 6 of 10: Document everything, build process early, and iterate frequently. I was aware from my previous reading that documenting was important. What I didn't realize is how deep you need to go in order for it to be effective. I would document process from a high level but skip the in-between steps. Big mistake. The more time I spent covering even granular details, the fewer questions I received and the smoother things went. This allowed me to put time back into Huemor instead of spending a ton of time training. It also, has now, allowed me to have team members onboard new team members effectively without my involvement. Just documenting however isn't enough. Set a cadence to review your processes at least every quarter with key team members. As you grow, so will your number of documented processes. Make sure you're always working towards simplicity and repeatability. Lesson 7 of 10: Start by hiring for experience and leadership – then focus on hiring for potential. Make sure the first few people you hire are people you can see yourself building the company around and already know how to perform their job really well. Once you have that base, you can then focus on hiring folks who have massive potential but then lack experience. If you do it the other way around, you'll find yourself stretched too thin and lack the ability to scale over time. Lesson 8 of 10: Failure is inevitable – what you learn from it, and how you overcome it will accelerate you faster than success. I've failed countless times in the last 10 years as a business owner. I've screwed up hiring decisions. I've put together processes that are ineffective. I've lost accounts. I've damaged relationships with employees. I've had to do layoffs. If you're in business long enough, you're going to fail. It sucks, and no one likes to talk about it, but it's the truth. Sitting down and doing the hard work to assess what went wrong, admit to your failures, and come up with a path forward will yield your biggest improvements. Lesson 9 of 10: Expressed gratitude (to clients, partners, and employees) can never be too much. One day I had an employee come to me point blank and say "Do you think I'm doing a bad job? I never seem to get a compliment from you." I was shocked. This person was doing a kick-ass job, and apparently, I was doing a really poor one of letting them know that. I was taught to say words like please and thank you from a young age. These are courtesies I carry throughout my day-to-day life for mundane stuff. So why was I forgetting to say it to my employees? I was too preoccupied with what was next or some looming issue to take the time to do the small stuff like say "great job!". A simple thank you goes a long way. A small gift goes even further. Show anyone around you the respect and gratitude they deserve, and you'll receive it back 10x. Last but not least... Lesson 10 of 10: Seek out those who know more than you and learn as much from them as you can. When I first started out I had major imposter syndrome. Because of that, I didn't reach out to people for help or advice. Big mistake. Don't be afraid to ask a question. Business owners are a small group, and more often than not they are more than happy to help one another. I hope you find these lessons useful. Feel free to comment below with any questions you may have. I'll be on for the next hour or so to answer :) [link] [comments] |
Posted: 26 Jan 2022 05:52 AM PST Hey friends, This is my yearly update post on my content marketing business. I don't really have anything to promote. But feel free to follow me on Twitter if you're interested in what I have to say about entrepreneurship, content marketing, SEO, and hip hop. My name is Tyler and five years ago I started a content marketing agency called Optimist. After quitting my full-time job at a venture-funded startup to work as a freelancer, I quickly, "filled my dance card." From there, I started a content marketing agency called Optimist to focus on using content to drive growth—primarily for startups and tech companies. In the last 5 years, we've grown the company to about $1.5MM in annual revenue. It's been a fun and challenging journey:
Each year, I've shared lessons and progress as we've grown, trying to document a transparent look at our victories and our failures. I've gotten tons of feedback, questions, and messages over the years. It's been one of my favorite parts of growing this company. Coming off of 2020, last year was a much different experience. Thankfully, 2021 was less stressful and less hectic. But it wasn't without its own challenges. Nevertheless, I do feel as though having 5 years under my belt has given me a new level of understanding—and a healthy dose of perspective—that I want to share in this update. How Optimist WorksFirst, an overview/recap of the Optimist business model:
Second, a breakdown of Optimist by the numbers, as we stand now:
Here's our monthly revenue from January 2017 to December of 2021. Optimist Year 5 (2021): A Year of Maturity and StabilityWhile 2021 was not a year of huge growth, it was still our highest revenue year to date. We hovered pretty close to our target of $125k/mo and ended the year just under $1.4 million gross. That brings our lifetime earnings to just over $4.5 million. Most importantly, it was definitely one of our most stable years to date. 2021 felt like a transformational year in terms of finding both stability and maturity as a business. My wife, Laura, also took on a new role this year—at a venture-funded startup. She's been a rock—my partner through all of the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. And, now, with us operating in the same universe (startups, broadly), I'm inspired by her ability to find balance—even when the stakes seem high. As an entrepreneur, I feel like I've learned some particularly valuable lessons this year and spent a lot of time trying to shift my thinking, focus on my mental health, become a stronger leader, and also think long term about my journey as an entrepreneur even beyond Optimist. With the benefit of 5 years of hindsight, I also feel like I have a much healthier perspective on the company and the trajectory. When I sat down to write everything I was thinking about in 2021, it turned into a monster post. So this year, I've decided to break it down into a short series. I'll be sharing 5 parts over the coming weeks:
Hopefully you enjoy the posts and each one offers a different and detailed look at my experience and the lessons I've learned (and been learning) over the last 5 years. Thanks to everyone for your support. Anyway—here's Wonderwall. 😁 Part 1: Lower the StakesWhen you first start, everything feels like an emergency. Every small hiccup feels like a massive challenge. Every lost dollar feels like your last one. Every piece of criticism stings like a fatal flaw. I spent the first 4 years of Optimist feeling an almost-constant hum of dread. There are a million things that could go wrong:
Some days I felt like crying. Some days I felt like hiding. Some days I felt like quitting. I felt vulnerable. Other days, I felt invincible. Everything went right and these fears evaporated from my mind as I was confident that we were on the right path and things could only get better. Then I'd remember those fears and it would bring me right back down to reality. This, my friends, is the reality of entrepreneurship. It's a rollercoaster. That may be a cliché, but it's true—and it's important to keep in mind when you're going through the worst of it. Others have felt this same way; they are feeling this same way. And it's normal. All of the things I fear will happen probably will happen. Most of them have happened to Optimist at one point in our 5 years. But guess what? We've gotten through it. We've survived. As an entrepreneur, there is almost always a fire burning somewhere or a fire that's about to start. If you allow yourself to be overrun by the anxiety and the stress of trying to put out every single fire, you'll burn out. (No pun intended.) You'll crumble under the pressure. To whatever extent you can, you want to anticipate and prevent problems. But, just as important, is your ability to put those potential problems into perspective. Focus on doing the work that needs done right now rather than jumping at the latest minor disaster. Then, come back and solve that problem in a thoughtful way rather than reacting in the moment. If everything feels like an emergency, it means the stakes are too high. You've got too many eggs in a single basket or you haven't done enough to build a stable business. And this puts you in a constant reactive state where you're bouncing from problem to problem, hoping to salvage each situation. But isn't permanent—at least it shouldn't be. Instead, imagine that you were already a billionaire. You run this business for fun just to give you something to fill your days. In that context, the stakes would be low—even arbitrary. When the stakes are low, you can think and act more clearly. You're not rushed or pressured. But you don't have to win the lottery to lower the stakes. I personally use a combination of business strategy and personal mental models to help me reframe the business and put myself into a position where I feel more invincible than vulnerable. (There's always some vulnerability.) Here are some things that have worked for me. Set Goals & Build ForecastsThis is probably obvious to anyone with any kind of formal business experience or education. But entrepreneurs come from all walks of life. Take the time to set goals for yourself and for your business. Then, turn those goals into some kind of forecast and action plan. Ask yourself if it's a reasonable expectation or what you'd need to do differently to make it reasonable. This helps you assess yourself objectively and put problems into perspective. Maybe you lost a big sale today and you're feeling The Dread™️*.* You can come back to your goals and forecasts to remind yourself of the big picture, assess the damage, or change your plan if necessary. You may find out that you're already ahead of your target and this is really no big deal. Crisis averted. Or you may realize that you're nowhere near your goal and you need to simply rethink your entire strategy. This sucks, of course. But it's better to proactively make changes than passively roll through your days and only look at what went wrong in hindsight. Build RunwayOne of the best things you can do for the stability of your business and your own mental health is to simply build more runway. "Runway" is the length of time your business could survive if you don't hit your goal or bring in new revenue. It's like your emergency fund—taking into account your expenses and your earnings. If you lost your largest customers, had a cold sales streak, or had something else go wrong, would you have enough time to right the ship before you have to close up shop? The more runway you have, the more time you have to respond to a bad situation, the more leverage you have in difficult situations, and the lower the stakes will feel on a day-to-day basis. For us, building runway means not just having cash in the bank, but also having future revenue and growth on the horizon that will help us compartmentalize a single bad event like having a client churn. I've done a few key things that have helped provide runway and stability:
Hit "Save"There's an old rule in gambling that says if you want to win, you have to take some money off the table when you're up. Take some of your earnings and pocket it. That way you can only lose what you're still betting. As a casual gamer, I also think about this like saving my game before I go into a difficult area where I might die and lose my progress. (I know, most games autosave these days.) Whenever possible you want to create a "fallback" — a soft place to land if things get hairy. I don't have a wealthy family or a trust fund to get me by. If my business fails, it'll hurt personally. So I'm always trying to hedge my bets and make sure that if things go wrong, I'll have something in the tank to get me through. I try to do this in a few ways:
Something that we haven't done but is also an option here is looking for investors, partners, or even an acquisition. If you really want to, "take your chips off the table," you might consider offering up equity in the business to an outsider (or team members!) in exchange for a cash payout that will stabilize your personal financial position. Shift to Long-Term ThinkingAnother key to surviving as an entrepreneur (and making smarter, better, less-emotional decisions about your business) is shifting your thinking from a short-term to a long-term mindset. View each challenge, problem, or fire as a speed bump rather than a mountain. Understand that everything that could go wrong likely will go wrong at one point or another. When you're in the thick of it, ask yourself: Is this going to happen again over the course of 1, 5, or 10 years? Chances are yes—many times over. Imagine that one of your critical team members leaves tomorrow. In the short term, this feels like a massive blow (and it may well be!) But if you look at your business over the course of years and decades rather than days or weeks, you'll see that this same scenario will likely happen many times. You will likely lose an important team member every few years. (Or more frequently!) Once you realize this, it's no longer an emergency. It's an inevitability. And therefore you can—and should—plan for it. Your business priority should not be reacting to emergencies but executing on the things that will turn oh-shit moments into okay-we-have-a-plan-for-this moments. Secondly, you can see that these challenges are indeed just minor setbacks in the grand scheme of things. Again, if it's something that is likely to happen over and over again throughout the life of your business, then could it really be considered an emergency? Over the years, we have lost dozens of clients. But we've ultimately gained more clients than we've lost. Losing clients was a setback but not a barrier. As Bert Cooper (Mad Men) once said, "I don't want to have to walk down here every time we lose an account. This is an advertising agency. I'll wear out the carpet." You need that perspective. Rather than reacting to every hiccup like a life-or-death moment for your business, you can see it for what it really is—another problem to solve. Step AwayThere's a lot of talk about work-life balance, mental health, and the other "soft" aspects of entrepreneurship. I'm a big believer in this. I think that having hobbies, taking vacation, and just stepping away from the business for a bit can give you the mental fortitude to make it through tough times. Working insane hours and "grinding" 24/7 may seem like the way to get ahead, but you're paying a tax on every extra hour you work, every hour of sleep you're losing, and every experience you're missing out on. That tax bill will eventually come due in one way or another. Stepping away (even for an hour) can also make you a better leader. Stepping away from a difficult situation or perplexing problem gives your brain a chance to better process and helps you develop stronger and more creative solutions. That's just scientific fact. Rest when you need it. Rest before you need it. Rest. Disconnect Your Identity from Your BusinessMy last piece here is really sort of a "meta" solution to relieving the anxiety and lowering the stakes. It's to separate your business from your personal identity. Last year, I shared some pretty personal thoughts on this subject in another post. But just to put a point on it: You are not your business. Some days, it may feel like your entire identity is your role as a business leader and entrepreneur. But the reality is that all of us have many pieces of our identity. We're children, partners, parents, friends, cousins, gamers, bikers, runners, pet owners, volunteers, singers, chefs, and many other things. We are all complex humans. And our careers—our businesses—are only one facet of that. When you feel at your lowest, try to remember that your failure or success in business does not determine your value as a human. Even if you fail spectacularly at this one element of your life, you are still all of these other things. You are still worthy. Don't allow your entire identity to be consumed by just this one piece of who you are. This is something that I've tried to remind myself at my darkest moments. When things felt most stressful—when I felt the most dread and thought seriously about quitting—I tried to remind myself that this was just one aspect of my life and doesn't define me as a human. If my business fails, my wife will still love me. I will still be an entrepreneur. I will go on. This has been such a critical piece for me. And at this point, I don't feel that same hum of dread. I don't see problems as an existential threat to my business and my life. Instead, I see them like all of the other problems we've dealt with over the years. I even see some of the same problems cropping up—things we can address systemically. But, most importantly, I feel confident that we'll be able to push through and become better and stronger. This is perspective. I'm not sure if this is something you can have without at least a few years experience. But I hope it's helpful for other entrepreneurs to know that those grueling and heart-wrenching moments may feel like minor stressors when it's all said and done. Chances are that the worst-case scenario will seem trivial, all things considered. Alright friends — that's the first part of my update for 2021. I'll be posting the Part 2, Working "On" The Business Rather than "In" the Business, probably next week. As always, I'm game to answer questions, hear feedback, and even battle a troll or two. Feel free to share your thoughts, feedback, etc, and I'll pop in throughout the day. You can follow me on Twitter for more on:
Cheers, Tyler [link] [comments] |
Posted: 26 Jan 2022 06:30 AM PST Hey Reddit, it's your favorite roaster here back for another episode of "drop your website and I'll tell you why it sucks." Here's how this works:
Q&A:
[link] [comments] |
Posted: 26 Jan 2022 11:32 AM PST I am referring to the many business case studies published by places like Harvard et al. Nearly all of them have the following chain: 1) well-off, well-educated student finds some niche area of business to develop on, 2) that student finds a cofounder(s), 3) they start the business and receive ridiculous amounts of money from mommy and daddy (most recent I just read was $250,000+), 4) they then receive advice, connections, and investments from Ivy League school faculty, 5) they then enter the business world. The system is completely rigged. How to compete against that, exactly? [link] [comments] |
Posted: 25 Jan 2022 02:02 PM PST I'm almost 23. I want a nice condo and to be able to travel more because I have never traveled in my life due to being poor, and I've never had a nice home either and I'm sick of it. Tired of this poor lifestyle. You could say I'm chasing money and big things, and yes I am and I don't believe there's anything wrong with that as long as I'm not being greedy about it. You only have one life, and you're only young once which is why I want to become a millionaire before I'm middle aged. So that way I can have health, youth and time to enjoy my wealth and lifestyle. I want I start an online business. But I'm just not sure what exactly I want to create and sell right now. EDIT: To everyone saying being a millionaire won't make me happy and that it's not important, it is to ME because my dream life requires that I'm a millionaire. PLEASE stop acting holier than thou. It's very cringey. [link] [comments] |
I got to see the American dream in action today Posted: 25 Jan 2022 05:58 PM PST This morning on my way to the office, my Uber driver shared with me that he was an immigrant from Senegal, and at 10am that morning he was going to get the keys to the new retail food market he just purchased; his very own business. He was telling me about how it was his life dream, and his excitement was so fantastic to see as he counted down the minutes to making his American dream come true. I shared a couple stories of when I started my first business with him, and wished him good luck. Made my morning. I wish him all the success in the world. [link] [comments] |
Quit job to pursue business full time. But job counter offered, should I take it ? Posted: 26 Jan 2022 07:34 AM PST I put in my two weeks, 12 days ago to pursue my side business full time. Today my job called me offering a raise, and relocation closer to home. I'm getting paid $19/hr and drive 40 mins to work. They offered me $22.50/hr and new location is 20 mins away. Should I take it for the time being or walk? I feel like a few more checks will help my transition to become a full time entrepreneur a lot smoother. The downside is I'm tired of working. I started a clothing brand in august that is consistently doing 3-5k a month. I know if I gave it my full attention I can quickly scale to $10k a month. With all that being said, what should I do? Thank you in advance [link] [comments] |
Never had any role models in your life? Posted: 26 Jan 2022 10:48 AM PST Having antimodels is just as, or even more powerful than role models. All about perspective and interpretation. If you struggle with negative thoughts, I can recommend meditation and CBT. [link] [comments] |
Flexible side business recommendations? Posted: 26 Jan 2022 09:54 AM PST Hi, I'm looking for suggestions for flexible side business ideas. I work full time in IT, operations/infrastructure side, and would like to start a side business in my free time. Looking for ideas that are flexible since I also have a family to consider, but this would be the type of thing where I would probably sacrifice sleep to get the job done. Since I work in IT I have considered IT support for businesses, but that may not match up well with their hours if I am occupied during the day at my normal 9-5. I then thought about IT support for real estate agents since their work hours are all over the place. I would need to evaluate demand and what a realistic hourly rate to charge. My goal is to make an extra $1,500 to $2,000 in income per month. For those of you that created a side business while working a full time job, what route did you go? [link] [comments] |
Why are businesses commonly valuated so low compared to real estate or listed companies? Posted: 26 Jan 2022 12:57 PM PST Hi all, I can understand that there are reasons why small to mid-sized businesses would be valued less (apart from simply offer and demand), but 3 or 4 times profits compared to 20 to 50 times for real estate and listed companies? [link] [comments] |
X posting my question here bc I figured some of you guys have faced this already and found solutions Posted: 26 Jan 2022 12:24 PM PST |
Posted: 26 Jan 2022 12:20 PM PST Hey everyone, I'm looking for stories from high-profile entrepreneurs' recent or historical past, that were at the right place at the right time and made all the difference in their success. You know, those stories we have all heard like where .. Mr/Mrs. Success, whose original flight was canceled, took a seat on a different flight, next to a person who just happen to have the connection to resources that their business couldn't acquire, and lead to the partnership that started business "X" everyone knows about. Looking for any stories like this, if you have if you could share. Thanks. [link] [comments] |
Nail Salon - Accounting Spreadsheets Tools Workflow Advice and Tips - So lost and Clueless Posted: 26 Jan 2022 12:17 PM PST Ok so one thing led to another and out of nowhere I decided to open up a Nail Salon & Studio with my wife. We both left corporate a few years back and have been living in a cave for the past 2 years. We have ALOT of skills. Business Accounting and money management is NOT one of them. My single mother has owned a salon for 30 years, doesn't speak English so I've helped her out a lot when I was younger with her salon but I'm just a peasant and we just did cash and did most stuff under the table. Im trying to get my life together and want to do it right. Well we both started helping my mother out with her Nail Salon during COVID which she has owned for 22 years. It's a small town in rural Georgia where Cash is King and her ways have worked pretty well. We took it from a rundown salon with barely any customers to being the best salon in town. Well fast forward to November and me and my Wife decided to open a small Studio Salon of our own. Again this is a small Rural town in the deep deep South so the accountants around here are not very helpful because they don't understand my industry and unless your friends with the elites no bank is willing to help me. Why should they? In their eyes I'm a 30 year old loser with bad credit and a tiny budget who has no idea what he is doing. Nobody in the Nail Community around here wants to help or mentor me, they all just want a piece of my business, partner up or just buy it out from under me. So essentially Since November my Wife and I have done everything ourselves in terms of Paperwork, Licensing, and Construction. Covid us both out in December for 2 weeks and I've just been scrambling to catch up. Bills are hitting, funds are dry, and budgets are blown. Luckily we have a VERY VERY loyal group of Clientele that has been seeing us even during the construction phase. Our lease/rent is cheap but the place was very rundown so it took ALOT of work on my end to make it look good, lots of plumbing and electric work as well along with many all nighters. Well since I've been scrambling to get things done and have no advice or guidance I let paperwork go to complete crap. This is what we had to work with when we signed our lease. I set myself up as an LLC as a single owner and my wife just being a 1099 employee. Budget/Startup Cost
I pretty much have everything done, I just have to purchase a Sign for the building and get some blinds and tinker with the lighting and we should be set to do an Official Grand Opening. I need some more supplies but we can manage for now. All my business bills rent, utilities, personal bills, personal utilities etc all hit on 1/20/2022 and we survived our first wave. We are essentially a salon under construction with no signage, with just only my wife taking her regular customers while I'm doing construction and we made a Gross Profit of $3,331.34 and a Net Profit of $1,590.62. Our Industry standard is each Nail tech is a 1099 contractor and I take a 40/60 split on their services. Me being an ex software engineer Im all about overthinking things and being optimal and efficient to the point where I can't get anything done. A lot has changed and its a sea of apps and software out there. I have simple spreadsheets and formulas to track my income and expenses. I use Square as my POS and have IFTT to automatically add my transaction to a spreadsheet. I have 3000 business expenses to sort through & catagorize and its becoming a nightmare. TLDR; Can I get some workflow tips and advice on how to manage my business financially I have thousands of transactions to categorize. Youtube videos or guides to quickly teach me accounting. Yes I will eventually get a CPA but I can't afford one right now. We need more supplies and pay bills first. Any additional tips, advice, resources to help? Google just isn't what it use to be, I don't mind reading and researching, its just I get stuck with so many ads and marketing BS. [link] [comments] |
What do you do to focus on your mental health? Posted: 26 Jan 2022 06:12 AM PST Today is Bell Let's Talk Day. Bell Let's Talk is a wide-reaching, multi-year program designed to break the silence around mental illness and support mental health all across Canada, BuyAndSellABusiness.com is a proud supporter of this initiative. As entrepreneurs, we need to stick together. At times it can be a lonely and scary journey. The reality is great highs, terrible lows and unrelenting stress. Most don't want to hear (or at minimum ignore) the last two - but you can't. Let's keep listening, keep talking and keep being there for ourselves and each other. [link] [comments] |
How Paypal may kill your startup Posted: 26 Jan 2022 12:08 PM PST Paypal is holding funds for almost a year now. This is insane. It's clear that big corps don't care about small startups and can do whatever they want. Be careful with the Paypal guys. Read the full story. [link] [comments] |
Distribution of fish for potential store Posted: 26 Jan 2022 12:08 PM PST Hey I want to potentially open a pet store in South Carolina when I move hopefully this next summer. I've been researching everything I need for it, but the one thing that always stumps me is where to get my fish. I know a lot of local breeders sell to fish stores, but does anyone else know where one would buy fish in bulk for cheaper? [link] [comments] |
How to work best with remote editor Posted: 26 Jan 2022 11:47 AM PST We record a ton of content for Youtube and TikTok. The editing takes up SO much time and we are honestly not great at it. Our videos require inputting Clips in between our talking points and inserting cool font captions. We need to outsource a remote video editor, and I am just unsure of the best workflow to make this happen in an efficient way. We produce about 8 youtube videos a week (5-10 minutes) and 34 Tik Tok (10 seconds to 3 min) [link] [comments] |
Posted: 26 Jan 2022 11:42 AM PST Hey all, I've taken on some freelance projects recently and have seen some success. I've now taken on an "apprentice" of sorts - but I need to train him on some pretty complex concepts and softwares. Does anyone here have any experience holding a training workshop for employees? Anything I should know or keep in mind? I've heard it's always good to speak slowly and pretend like your audience doesn't know anything. But I don't want him to feel like I'm treating him like an idiot. [link] [comments] |
Are there any bar/club owners in here? Posted: 26 Jan 2022 07:51 AM PST A dream of mine is to open up a club/bar and I was wondering if there are any owners in this sub. If so, how is it like and do you enjoy it? Also, do you have any advice? [link] [comments] |
How to determine how many customers there are for your product? Posted: 26 Jan 2022 11:14 AM PST I sell clothing that is location specific. Aside from census data, what are some more boots on the ground east of determining how many people would be interested in my product based on their location? [link] [comments] |
How can I go about creating a consulting business for being a professional plaintiff? Posted: 26 Jan 2022 11:07 AM PST I have been successful in litigations with companies who have broken the law. How can I go about becoming a consultant in being a plaintiff? I know that the basis of what I am doing is b2b but would you suggest creating LinkedIn ads to target companies or is there another way to get consulting clients? [link] [comments] |
Posted: 26 Jan 2022 10:37 AM PST The item item I'm trying to market is a hand knitted hat. [link] [comments] |
Advice on Amazon Adjacent Website? Posted: 26 Jan 2022 10:35 AM PST Hello, I am now the sole US distributor of a product and bought a domain to build out a website to complement my Amazon sales. The Amazon side has been going well for the last several years, so my hope is to create a website that capitalizes on this and compliments it. I can hopefully drive social and google traffic there, be a place for customers to get more value, and act as a showcase for the product. Here is the website for the distributor that sells overseas: https://arttec.store/ I am looking to improve on this and synergize with Amazon. Any tips or references to other websites would be appreciated. Thanks, [link] [comments] |
Posted: 26 Jan 2022 06:31 AM PST Hi everyone, My landing page is needing some work based on some feedback that I've received. The value proposition isn't clear. I was wondering if you'd be able to let me know what makes sense and what doesn't. Thanks so much for your help! [link] [comments] |
Posted: 26 Jan 2022 10:01 AM PST So, I was having a discussion with my business partner for my dad gig about being particular. I have this cooking gas cylinder (butane), we get gas in cylinders with two options 5kgs and 13kgs. I have had my 13kg cylinder since 2007. Normally you trade it in and get a replacement immediately. However, my brand, let's call it C died in 2010, and my cylinder lasts a year as I don't cook much, I found a guy who can refill it for me using the old platform, but it takes 4 days. The guy rented me a short 5kg and I did not have to pay for the cylinder, just the gas until my cylinder comes back from the refill. The whole process took 15 minutes, and since it is a controlled substance, prices are fixed, so my "loss" would be about $1.00 cause of volume discount. The issue here is that how I have handled this for years is a bad thing, and translates downwards towards other aspects of your life and in this case business. I know I am not the most efficient when it comes to business, but my qualitative work speaks for itself, and people seek me for my day gig and we have die-hard customers who refuse to change to newer stuff that our business sells simply because the original stuff I did is solid, before we outsourced. We have die-hard customers who would rather cease to be customers than give up my stuff. My new business is based on quality, with efficiency in mind, but he says, better efficiency first, and I need to move with the times. I don't quite get where it's all wrong. He said that makes me a bad businessman. I don't think so, but, I could be wrong. Am I? [link] [comments] |
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