(05-12-2016 05:58 PM)gmoneysauce Wrote:  

(05-12-2016 05:36 PM)Nascimento Wrote:  But admittedly this is likely an excuse because I'm lacking self-confidence at the moment to act. I'm sure all of you guys doing well on your ventures had your own share of doubts before you started.

You have to understand the risks involved with a new venture. Most startups or new businesses fail. Many times due in no part to the actions of the founder(s). Sometimes success is based on a random happening.

You should read 'Fooled By Randomness' by Taleb, or The Drunkards Walk (can't remember author). To understand how random some things are.

With that said, you can't have a success unless you have risk. It is just part of the equation. My first venture at age 19 was very successful for about 7 months, then the last two months were so-so and then at nine months I lost a lease on a property and it was all shut down. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life and I lost 90% of my savings that I had at that time.

A couple of years later, I engaged in another venture which was very successful in its first year then had several years of marginal profits. I left the venture in the third year and gave it to my business partner. He still runs that company to this day. Again, it was an incredible adventure and I learned so many things and I lost all of my savings. My ex-partner has made an lower middle class living with the business but has never been wildly successful. I went on to join an international company and had more adventures.

So, I have had some winners and losers, but I am still in the game. I recently had a business for 5 years that was very profitable but then turned south. I made a leap into a related industry and ended up taking a job. I have so many more experiences versus the guys I know that just stayed with a job for years and years and I have more versatility due to the variety of my experience.

Nothing ventured nothing gained.
G

(05-04-2016 04:57 PM)Disco_Volante Wrote:  Putting up with someone else's standards is only worth it if they're paying you big money like 50k plus. I don't see any value in 'accelerator' programs.

Networking. They put you in touch with type A entrepreneurs, VC, etc.

(05-12-2016 05:36 PM)Nascimento Wrote:  Just found this thread today. Lots of good info here.

I wish I could contribute, but for the moment I'm on the sidelines.

I have plenty of ideas, but for all of them so far I either feel they aren't good enough, will not be ultimately profitable, or will just fail. But admittedly this is likely an excuse because I'm lacking self-confidence at the moment to act. I'm sure all of you guys doing well on your ventures had your own share of doubts before you started.

The main difference is between doing and not doing, much more so than failing or not failing. You are going to fail and learn from it.

I'm having some trouble with copywriting. I've been in the process of developing some curriculum products. I'm good at this. I know how to come up with an idea, test it in a real classroom and make alterations based on how it performs. Currently, I have some strong products that I really believe in.

My issues are on the marketing side. I'm a perfectionist at heart, so no matter what copy I write to describe my products to potential customers (the parents of children who may join classes that use my curriculum), I'm never satisfied with what I've written and quickly abandon it and start over. I've been doing this months now without any forward progress in creating a some writing that describes my products in a way that I feel happy about.

The curriculum products I've developed are based on a teaching method that is very advanced and to properly explain it to other people requires sharing a lot of information. I feel comfortable describing it when I'm talking to someone, because I can witness the person's reactions and answer any questions they have. But when writing, I have no metrics with which to judge how effective my writing is.

I want to keep it simple, but also feel compelled to share enough detail so that potential customers understand how unique and value my product is.

Any suggestions?

It is very slow for me to do copy writing but I have written some good copy. I will say what I can, and others can chime in. If you use the book "cashvertising" and write the appropriate skeletons, then flesh them out, you will make good copy. Don't be concerned about the cheesy title.

A good way to prevent millions of reworks is to set a deadline and get feedback immediately (think: agile dev). Google/fb/bing ads pointing to a landing page could fill this role.

In general this sort of issue appears when the problem is not completely well posed, so it may help to write down and internalize exactly what the role of that copy will be.

Business had been on the upswing recently and I was getting a good flow for the first time in a while.

Then yesterday a contract I had that brought in $2.5k a month was canceled. It had been about two years so in my mind it was going to last forever. I used this money to pay all my bills, mortgage, rent, food, ent, etc. All other income was pure bonus.

Stable income from good contracts can be life blood in this game fellas. Even smaller amounts can add up to pay for all your living expenses, which is often the most freedom we can ever ask for.

My update.

I invested more money into my Ebay account, per suggestion of several members.

Doing well so far, I got like 1/4 of my money back from just two sales (better than expected).

Looking for one, maybe two high ranking members willing to proofread and give me serious feedback on a 3500 word philosophical ebook I plan on releasing either for free or $2.99 eventually. Haven't decided. Send me a PM if interested.

Anyone else love doing keyword research? Good times.

Has anyone ever bought many (say 10 plus) exact match domains all relating to the same topic and then linked them up? I've selected key words that get 100-900 monthly views. People pay anywhere from say $2-$6 dollars to generate a click for these keywords.

I'm in the process of testing out writers to see who can do the content I want. I think it's possible to get to the first or second page of google for each website after a couple months. So ideally I'd have a couple thousand people per month seeing my websites on google. Of course not everyone will click on the link.

Because these are niche keywords they are searching for what will be on the website. The ultimate product/service has a high price. So depending, I can sell ads, sell the lead, or try to convert myself.

I've had some success with another website with even more niche keywords. And those were just blog articles with no inbound links. Here the idea is to setup a whole network of websites to create a loop.

Anyone ever done anything similar?

Have a book that I'm thinking about writing as self-contained, independently marketable chapters. They unite two separate fields - one that I am a professional in, the other I dabble in - to allow for a lot of cross-pollination.

My thought process:

First released chunk (really an appendix of a complete book) - free or low cost guide for a chunk of freeware that is extremely useful but not well known and could be marketed well if people knew how to use it. I plan on using this to help build an email list.

Second released chunk - a low price chapter focused at teaching those unfamiliar with my area of specialty the very basics. Haven't seen much like it, anywhere

Then, I plan on monitoring both of these products while I complete the rest of the book. Have started writing some of it already.

I think in this market, there is a tipping point where I could be considered an expert, and focus that on consulting gigs or other work on top of my main job until I make a break for it.

(06-02-2016 09:37 PM)PartManPartMonkey Wrote:  Anyone else love doing keyword research? Good times.

Has anyone ever bought many (say 10 plus) exact match domains all relating to the same topic and then linked them up? I've selected key words that get 100-900 monthly views. People pay anywhere from say $2-$6 dollars to generate a click for these keywords.

I'm in the process of testing out writers to see who can do the content I want. I think it's possible to get to the first or second page of google for each website after a couple months. So ideally I'd have a couple thousand people per month seeing my websites on google. Of course not everyone will click on the link.

Because these are niche keywords they are searching for what will be on the website. The ultimate product/service has a high price. So depending, I can sell ads, sell the lead, or try to convert myself.

I've had some success with another website with even more niche keywords. And those were just blog articles with no inbound links. Here the idea is to setup a whole network of websites to create a loop.

Anyone ever done anything similar?

The CPC price on the Keyword Tool doesn't equal the average AdSense click price. There's a ton of variables (including Google's cut which also isn't deducted) to factor in to your equation. Just a heads up when you're crunching the numbers. Not sure why you'd be monetising with AdSense if it's a high ticket end product/service, though.

Currently you'd be a huge amount better off building one main authority site in a niche and then breaking down your content in to silos. More on that here.

An EMD's ranking power has been toned down drastically. You also face manual spam actions if they suspect a PBN, which, if all your sites are linking in a loop as you suggested, is a high possibility. Unless you have resources and/or experience to combat this, you're building your castle on quicksand.

Build a brand - less work, less worry and bigger multiples when you flip. If you're itching to have a ton of properties for whatever reason, build out web 2.0's and tier the links to your money site. But you're heading for a world of pain with your current plan mate.

Tyler, thank you for the comments and the link. I really shouldn't have mentioned ads. I am 99 percent sure I won't be doing that. I mentioned the CPC because I think that has some correlation to interest in the keyword and the ability to monetize in some fashion, however one chooses to do that. But I could be wrong.

I agree with your authority site comment. I wish I could get into more detail, but that wouldn't be a good idea. But each site will be built out with lots of relevant information. The reason for having many different domains is sound, I think, but I can't go into detail for anonymity reasons.

Before starting out with this idea I did research EMD ranking power. I did discover that Google cut down on the ranking power for EMD's. My DD indicated that this was because EMD's correlated more highly to spammy website content than other domains. I also read that the Google update affected only a small portion of EMD's and especially those with spammy content. I believe my different websites will have relevant content that people want to read.

Again, thanks for the comments and I think your suggestions are sound.

(06-01-2016 01:56 AM)Suits Wrote:  I want to keep it simple, but also feel compelled to share enough detail so that potential customers understand how unique and value my product is.

Any suggestions?

This is a classic challenge, to give enough information without giving away the goods. What do you think of using video?

I owned a marketing agency for about five years and we found that some things worked well with website copy but others with video.

How are you delivering your 'pitch'? website? email? paper?

G

Guys so I would really appreciate some guidance, I'm not going to lie I'm pretty lost on what direction I'm going to move after college. I know for a fact that I want to be a business owner, and my entire paternal lineage has been comprised of extremely successful businessmen, but they are gone and can offer no guidance.

Anyways, i'll be graduating probably in a year and a half with a biochem degree from a extremeley prestigious university but shit GPA and decent experience (I'm going to hustle this last year and land one last corporate internship).

What direction should I go in? the plan is to work at a mediocre paying job with a 9-5 schedule or better so that I can dedicate the rest of the time to developing a quality prototypes, testing said prototypes with dummy sites, etc.

Finding said job is the fucking problem...Is it a waste of time to start off with consulting? or what kind of sales can I get into with a biochem degree?

The end goal obviously being that I run a company that I can make a living off of. I just want to take the dive in, but I need investment capital and my pride won't allow me to work for minimum wage.

(06-04-2016 07:47 PM)Gyro Wrote:  Guys so I would really appreciate some guidance, I'm not going to lie I'm pretty lost on what direction I'm going to move after college. I know for a fact that I want to be a business owner, and my entire paternal lineage has been comprised of extremely successful businessmen, but they are gone and can offer no guidance.

Anyways, i'll be graduating probably in a year and a half with a biochem degree from a extremeley prestigious university but shit GPA and decent experience (I'm going to hustle this last year and land one last corporate internship).

What direction should I go in? the plan is to work at a mediocre paying job with a 9-5 schedule or better so that I can dedicate the rest of the time to developing a quality prototypes, testing said prototypes with dummy sites, etc.

Finding said job is the fucking problem...Is it a waste of time to start off with consulting? or what kind of sales can I get into with a biochem degree?

The end goal obviously being that I run a company that I can make a living off of. I just want to take the dive in, but I need investment capital and my pride won't allow me to work for minimum wage.

Start your own thread when you're ready.

(06-04-2016 07:47 PM)Gyro Wrote:  I know for a fact that I want to be a business owner, and my entire paternal lineage has been comprised of extremely successful businessmen, but they are gone and can offer no guidance.

They must have left you a substantial inheritance if what you're saying is true. So that means you have capital, ahead of the game 5-0 already.

(06-04-2016 07:47 PM)Gyro Wrote:  Guys so I would really appreciate some guidance, I'm not going to lie I'm pretty lost on what direction I'm going to move after college. I know for a fact that I want to be a business owner, and my entire paternal lineage has been comprised of extremely successful businessmen, but they are gone and can offer no guidance.

Anyways, i'll be graduating probably in a year and a half with a biochem degree from a extremeley prestigious university but shit GPA and decent experience (I'm going to hustle this last year and land one last corporate internship).

What direction should I go in? the plan is to work at a mediocre paying job with a 9-5 schedule or better so that I can dedicate the rest of the time to developing a quality prototypes, testing said prototypes with dummy sites, etc.

Finding said job is the fucking problem...Is it a waste of time to start off with consulting? or what kind of sales can I get into with a biochem degree?

The end goal obviously being that I run a company that I can make a living off of. I just want to take the dive in, but I need investment capital and my pride won't allow me to work for minimum wage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBXZlYdiizk

Watch this. Hope it helps.

(06-04-2016 07:47 PM)Gyro Wrote:  Guys so I would really appreciate some guidance, I'm not going to lie I'm pretty lost on what direction I'm going to move after college. I know for a fact that I want to be a business owner, and my entire paternal lineage has been comprised of extremely successful businessmen, but they are gone and can offer no guidance.

Anyways, i'll be graduating probably in a year and a half with a biochem degree from a extremeley prestigious university but shit GPA and decent experience (I'm going to hustle this last year and land one last corporate internship).

What direction should I go in? the plan is to work at a mediocre paying job with a 9-5 schedule or better so that I can dedicate the rest of the time to developing a quality prototypes, testing said prototypes with dummy sites, etc.

Finding said job is the fucking problem...Is it a waste of time to start off with consulting? or what kind of sales can I get into with a biochem degree?

The end goal obviously being that I run a company that I can make a living off of. I just want to take the dive in, but I need investment capital and my pride won't allow me to work for minimum wage.

Have you looked in Pharmaceutical sales?

(06-04-2016 11:34 PM)Suban Shelvey Wrote:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBXZlYdiizk

Watch this. Hope it helps.

I really wish I had done that instead of going to graduate school.

Do you guys ever use keyword research to validate business ideas?

I did a little myself and put out an ad for a freelancer to do market research but I am not even sure it will validate or refute a prospective venture.

(06-05-2016 06:38 AM)storm Wrote:  Do you guys ever use keyword research to validate business ideas?

I did a little myself and put out an ad for a freelancer to do market research but I am not even sure it will validate or refute a prospective venture.

I guess it depends on what kind of business it is and how novel it may be.

Never forget the Henry Ford quote (sic):

"If you'd asked the people what they wanted, they would have said 'Faster Horses'"

(06-03-2016 01:56 PM)gmoneysauce Wrote:  

(06-01-2016 01:56 AM)Suits Wrote:  I want to keep it simple, but also feel compelled to share enough detail so that potential customers understand how unique and value my product is.

Any suggestions?

This is a classic challenge, to give enough information without giving away the goods.

Actually, this isn't an issue at all in my case. It's taken years of experience to develop the methodology that my product is based on. There's absolutely no way someone could copy what I do without using a lot more money than they would if they simply work with me.

My business plan is to give away the goods as much as possible and then sell them on services and software at a very reasonable premium compared to the expense that would be involved in copying my work.

(06-03-2016 01:56 PM)gmoneysauce Wrote:  What do you think of using video?

Definitely planning on it once I have the funds to produce something of quality, but I still need written copy to distribute in the form of brochures and for use on my website.

(06-03-2016 01:56 PM)gmoneysauce Wrote:  How are you delivering your 'pitch'? website? email? paper?

I'm primarily B2B. I pitch educational venues. I have no problem with this, because I have no trouble getting more meetings than I can handle.

The copy and marketing materials are for me to supply them for use with their clients to sell them on the programming that we would then run together.

So, the marketing material is generally delivered on paper in the form of brochures or via social media (WeChat).

I have experience delegating technical / "trenches" work -- took me years, but have fully delegated it.

Has anyone successfully delegated Technical Project Management work?

The challenge I see is that in my small firm, the TPM role is not just to manage devs and liaison with clients -- it is really to WATCH MY MARGINS and know when to say "yes", "no", or "how about this alternative" from an economic / time / budget perspective.

If I delegate this role out, aside from extra costs and time spent training them and teaching them the actual project knowledge, I'd also need to train and incentivize them to ruthlessly watch MY margins.

In larger firms I've seen, the most wasted profit potential comes from shitty project management. PM layer can tie everything together wonderfully but it can also be a time-suck, especially if the PM doesn't have a personal stake in the role aside from their hours/wages.

I'm efficient, a multi-tasker, and pretty ruthless when it comes to this stuff, and have been in the owner/PM role for a while now. But now I have too many projects (good thing?) and my management time has become the bottleneck.

My fear is that the quality level, efficiency of dev time, and maintenance of my margins will go to shit if I delegate this out. But choosing to "stay small" seems like a bad idea. I want to grow but not to the point where other firms go -- where it becomes about quantity over quality, and huge burn rates. (I have another business on the side so I don't want this tech firm to occupy too much of my bandwidth).

I had the same (perhaps silly) internal monologue when I finally delegated all the nitty gritty tech work I used to do to my contractors. But this feels different..

456 -

It doesn't have to be all-or-nothing. Try and separate the tasks. There is the day-to-day management, and there's client laison and the few moments of higher-level decision making in each project. Can you somehow split them?

Often we are used to doing things a certain way in our biz and bundling a few different tasks altogether in our head under one role. The trick is to break down the task and find a way to process-ize as much as is not critical to margins etc and get someone else to do it. Maybe you could train your PM to come to you with a summary of options every time there's a big decision to be made that will affect time/cost/effort.

Kinda like how instead of answering email every day, you can train a VA to read it and respond to it, and just come to you with a summary of decisions to be made from the important ones, for you to choose. Can cut your personal effort input by 80% even though you're still making the big decisions.

The other alternative is to streamline and focus your biz - go from a variety of different projects to a standard offering - one type of project, for one type of client. E.g. really niche down and focus on the best kind of projects - the most profitable ones that you do well. The more specialized your offer, the less high-level decision-making needs to be done by a PM, and the more you can process-ize everything, delegate it and actually make the whole thing more of a clockwork machine.

Custom projects with a large range of scope mean it's different every time and need constant high-level decision making.

^^ Thanks RichieP -- great advice.

I'm sure there is a way to split this stuff up as you describe. Even if I do this correctly, it's still adding a big expense and huge communication overhead for the first few months. That's another thing I'm being kind of a puss about. But like hiring any new workers, it pays off over time.

I'd basically create a system of how/when to bubble decisions up.

One thing I'd also like to avoid is giving the client the impression that there's just some liaison there acting as a copy-paste trafficker. The "T" part of TPM is quite important then, so they can do some thinking and problem-solving on their own. A good PM is probably not technical, and a great technologist is probably not a PM. Finding a technical PM is going to be a challenge.

(06-08-2016 07:12 AM)RichieP Wrote:  It doesn't have to be all-or-nothing. Try and separate the tasks. There is the day-to-day management, and there's client laison and the few moments of higher-level decision making in each project. Can you somehow split them?

Often we are used to doing things a certain way in our biz and bundling a few different tasks altogether in our head under one role.