The Entrepreneur / Business Owner's / Self Employed Lounge

For those of you who used to be employees in your industry, how did you know when it was time to leave to start your own thing? Was it just a case of saving enough money, or were there other factors at play?

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(07-15-2018 03:18 AM)RedKurrant Wrote:  For those of you who used to be employees in your industry, how did you know when it was time to leave to start your own thing? Was it just a case of saving enough money, or were there other factors at play?

For me it was more of a mindset more than anything. I was more savvy than all my bosses and I felt I could do a better job on my own.

An additional factor in my case was having the appropriate qualifications to get the necessary permits, this took time.

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(07-15-2018 03:18 AM)RedKurrant Wrote:  For those of you who used to be employees in your industry, how did you know when it was time to leave to start your own thing? Was it just a case of saving enough money, or were there other factors at play?

I had enough Screw-You money plus I was emotionally aching for a challenge. I was bored and didn't care about my work anymore.

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(07-15-2018 03:18 AM)RedKurrant Wrote:  For those of you who used to be employees in your industry, how did you know when it was time to leave to start your own thing? Was it just a case of saving enough money, or were there other factors at play?

I was an arrogant 18 year old who knew I could do it better.

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(07-15-2018 03:18 AM)RedKurrant Wrote:  For those of you who used to be employees in your industry, how did you know when it was time to leave to start your own thing? Was it just a case of saving enough money, or were there other factors at play?

If it's a calculated choice, I think it comes down to an awareness of your own value and your lifestyle goals.

Some people just take the leap. In some cases, they don't know how they are going to make money, but they are tired of the current status quo and are compelled to do something radical.

Others, like myself, carefully test the waters until there's a clear indication that not only can they sell themselves, but there is a demand for the product(s)/service(s) they plan to offer.

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(07-15-2018 03:18 AM)RedKurrant Wrote:  For those of you who used to be employees in your industry, how did you know when it was time to leave to start your own thing? Was it just a case of saving enough money, or were there other factors at play?

The company I worked for was sold to someone with the ethics of Vlad Dracula. I decided it was time to go.

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Today is the first day of a 5 week period where I'll be able to dedicate myself almost exclusively to product development. I'll have three teaching lessons each week, which won't leave me tired, so getting a ton done each week won't present a challenge if I remain disciplined. I am using this period to complete a very specific product that will give me an edge in offering the sort of consulting services I plan to transition to doing as my primary source of income this fall season.

I have estimated that to complete the entire product over the next five weeks, I'll need to complete an average of 4000 words of writing per day five days each week. Tough, but I do believe that I can deliver. I'll certainly improve at being an efficient writer over the next month.

Two years ago, it would have been impossible for me to complete a task like this in such a short time-frame, but since then I've put a lot of effort into becoming more disciplined in getting work done even when I don't have strictly enforced deadlines or any other source of concrete motivation.

Finishing up this product over the course of the next five weeks will be an opportunity for me to prove to myself that taking a break this winter to focus 100% on similar types of work will be a good use of my time.

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I'm not sure if I am convinced by everything said here, but there are a number of interesting points and perspectives.

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In the next day or two, I will be writing a letter to the owners of a big company pitching my products. I know a few mid-high level staff there and have done for years, so I know it will reach them. I might be able to to organise a meeting with them if they are in town. Any idea how I should approach the letter/meeting, things to emphasise etc....?

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Your pitch letter needs to identify I problem they have that you have identified and how your product or service will solve it and make money for them (and you).

It then needs to say that you’ll call them on x date to discusss more and arrange to meet, make sure you call on this day and do what you said you were going to do. If you know people there it should be easy to get in front of them.

Without more specifics I can’t say more but this general framework should help.

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Things are going well.

I'm moving to Tokyo to work on my Japanese. 2-3 months, just until the tourist visa runs out. If I decide to stay longer there are options. Plane ticket in a week.

I'm looking for a coworking office in Tokyo. I average about 90 hours a week on work so I need a serious place, but coworking is good. Any tips? Otherwise I will go with the usual.

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You're going to learn Japanese in your free time around your 90 hour work week?

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(07-25-2018 11:58 AM)the-dream Wrote:  You're going to learn Japanese in your free time around your 90 hour work week?

I count language learning for the purpose of business as work.

Of course I also look forward to being able to spit game at cute japanese girls.

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Posting because I feel kind of stuck with my business. This Fall will be my last semester of college so I need to figure out what i'm doing. I started a supplement business a year ago and have been trying to sell it online on my site and also got it stocked at a local store. Problem is i've only made around $800 in sales since I started selling it around January and I invested $3000 for the production of 500 bottles. Ig influencers and paid ads haven't been profitable, tried selling on ebay and bonobo and it wouldn't sell, Amazon won't sell it due to an ingredient etc...

I've validated the product as it's hands down the best mood booster on the market, gotten extremely good reviews and a high reorder rate, but I guess the website doesn't look clean enough or my marketing isn't good enough as it's not picking up like I thought it would.

I have a few choices, I can continue to work crappy jobs on the side and work on it after I graduate, hoping it will grow, I could go to law school as my grandpa will pay for the full tuition, or I could teach English overseas. If anyone is interested in checking out my site/business that could give feedback on how to improve or strategize it'd be greatly appreciated just send me a pm, or if anyone has been in a similar situation and could give me advice on what option to take.

It seems like a great opportunity to go to law school for free, but after doing school my whole life I really want a break and want to travel, but ideally I want to grow my business and do that full time if possible as it's what i'm passionate about and if it becomes successful enough i'll be free from the rat race.

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(07-26-2018 03:34 PM)bigolteddies Wrote:  grow, I could go to law school as my grandpa will pay for the full tuition, or I could teach English overseas. If anyone is interested in checking out my site/business that could give feedback on how to improve or strategize it'd be greatly appreciated just send me a pm, or if anyone has been in a similar situation and could give me advice on what option to take.

It seems like a great opportunity to go to law school for free, but after doing school my whole life I really want a break and want to travel, but ideally I want to grow my business and do that full time if possible as it's what i'm passionate about and if it becomes successful enough i'll be free from the rat race.

There is no freedom from the rat race. Running a business is still the rat race because you're running against other rats most of the time, such as the supplement companies that you're competing with...

That aside, Law school could be beneficial in business...

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(07-26-2018 03:34 PM)bigolteddies Wrote:  I started a supplement business a year ago and have been trying to sell it online on my site and also got it stocked at a local store. Problem is i've only made around $800 in sales since I started selling it around January and I invested $3000 for the production of 500 bottles. Ig influencers and paid ads haven't been profitable, tried selling on ebay and bonobo and it wouldn't sell, Amazon won't sell it due to an ingredient etc...

I've validated the product as it's hands down the best mood booster on the market, gotten extremely good reviews and a high reorder rate, but I guess the website doesn't look clean enough or my marketing isn't good enough as it's not picking up like I thought it would.

Supplements is a very crowded space and with good reason. It appeals to wide range of people who otherwise have very little in common, it can be sold to men and women, it's inexpensive to store and ship, the ratio between cost and weight is supreme. It is also an area of products that appeals to people who aren't always that bright and smarter people too. And it's a consumable.

Given the appeal of selling these products, you're going up against massive corporations that have 10000X the marketing power that you have. It's going to take time to build your brand and ultimately, it may prove to not be worth the effort.

(07-26-2018 03:34 PM)bigolteddies Wrote:  It seems like a great opportunity to go to law school for free, but after doing school my whole life I really want a break and want to travel, but ideally I want to grow my business and do that full time if possible as it's what i'm passionate about and if it becomes successful enough i'll be free from the rat race.

It sounds like you already know what you want. Unless your grandpa has indicated that it's now or never, there's no reason why you couldn't pursue law school a few years down the road after building some business experience first.

But let's focus on the positives here for a second. You've gone a million miles further than most people who "want to start a business" by simply putting one foot in front of the other until you had a product you were proud of. You've gotten it stocked in a store. A lot of products don't even get that far.

You've got a high re-order rate. That alone is HUGE. That means that the ratio between your customer acquisition cost (CAC) and the lifetime revenue per customer is going to be very good, even if it is expensive to acquire each customer.

What you need to do is establish a dependable means of acquiring new customers and work out exactly what your CAC is using that method. Then, assuming that the CAC is low enough compared to how much money you'll earn per customer in a reasonable time frame (to ensure that you don't go broke selling any otherwise successful product), you can then throw every available dollar into that customer acquisition process. I understand that you've experimented with this a bit already and the fish aren't biting as of yet, but you're going to have to dig deep and keep trying new things.

You also should be thinking about your next product. A single product does not generally a business make. If you want to build a brand (and you should), you need to be thinking right now about complementary products that you could start introducing once you work the kinks out of selling the first product.

(07-26-2018 03:34 PM)bigolteddies Wrote:  If anyone is interested in checking out my site/business that could give feedback on how to improve or strategize it'd be greatly appreciated just send me a pm, or if anyone has been in a similar situation and could give me advice on what option to take.

Happy to help. PM me.

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Quote:Supplements is a very crowded space and with good reason. It appeals to wide range of people who otherwise have very little in common, it can be sold to men and women, it's inexpensive to store and ship, the ratio between cost and weight is supreme. It is also an area of products that appeals to people who aren't always that bright and smarter people too. And it's a consumable.

Given the appeal of selling these products, you're going up against massive corporations that have 10000X the marketing power that you have. It's going to take time to build your brand and ultimately, it may prove to not be worth the effort.

Yeah I agree there's a ton of competition due to the barrier of entry being so low. Thankfully it's a multi-billion dollar industry so there's plenty of room for me to survive, grow and thrive.

Quote:You've got a high re-order rate. That alone is HUGE. That means that the ratio between your customer acquisition cost (CAC) and the lifetime revenue per customer is going to be very good, even if it is expensive to acquire each customer.

This is a very good point and does give me more leeway when working with paid ads.

Quote:What you need to do is establish a dependable means of acquiring new customers and work out exactly what your CAC is using that method. Then, assuming that the CAC is low enough compared to how much money you'll earn per customer in a reasonable time frame (to ensure that you don't go broke selling any otherwise successful product), you can then throw every available dollar into that customer acquisition process. I understand that you've experimented with this a bit already and the fish aren't biting as of yet, but you're going to have to dig deep and keep trying new things.

I'm thinking of trying out paid ads again and maybe investing a few hundred in a graphic designer or marketer from somewhere like upwork to help optimize my ads. I also can try doing a giveaway sweepstakes to get more social media followers, email subscribers and exposure, the only downside is that there's no immediate benefit and i'll be down a few hundred through paying for rafflecopter and ads for the giveaway.

Quote:You also should be thinking about your next product. A single product does not generally a business make. If you want to build a brand (and you should), you need to be thinking right now about complementary products that you could start introducing once you work the kinks out of selling the first product.

I agree I have a few formulas and ideas written down, the main thing is that I want to first break even on my first batch ($3000) which would be another 70-80 sales probably, before I can think about investing in another product. I'd want to have a reliable marketing strategy to generate sales first.

Thanks for the advice i'll send a pm now.

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^bigolteddies

since you have many returning clients, can you actively target these people and ask them to introduce you to three of their freines, offer them some kind of promo for doing it.

If your product is decent, 1. They’ll want to help and 2. Once those other friends have tried it, they’ll be clients too. Easy way to grow you client list.

As suits said, Work out what channel got you most of your current clients (survey monkey them) and then pour most of your marketing budget in this direction.

I did this recently and discovered most of my clients came through word of mouth and that the people making the buying decisions were women. Currently redesigning my marketing materials to reflect that.

Ps. Props to you for getting this far
Pps. Happy to look at some stuff if you want another pair of eyes.

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Question for you all who have businesses that are running.

Do you have a 5 year plan or some sort of long term planning document?

At the moment, I carry around a sort of plan in my head but essentially, I make it up as I go along, I just have some notion about the quality of the work that we do and that will generate growth in and of itself.

Curious to see if anyone does this kind of thing or whether its corporate bs. Most entrepreneurs I know don;t bother with this kind of stuff, they just get on with it.

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(07-31-2018 07:58 AM)Ski pro Wrote:  Do you have a 5 year plan or some sort of long term planning document?

Nope. I have a very clear idea of the direction I want to go in and the tasks I need to do this week to keep me moving in that direction, but I routinely do activities aimed and determining where demand is and testing my ability to serve that demand, so I'm always learning new things.

I'd have to rewrite my five year plan every three months if I had one.

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Does anyone have any advice to give on how to start and run a mailing list?

A google search turns up way too much information for me to easily process.

I'm planning on using the free version of MailChimp (since I don't have that many people to email yet) to start off with. Are there better recommendations?

I'd appreciate any advice or remarks on the matter, aimed at the beginner level.

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(08-01-2018 04:49 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  Does anyone have any advice to give on how to start and run a mailing list?

A google search turns up way too much information for me to easily process.

I'm planning on using the free version of MailChimp (since I don't have that many people to email yet) to start off with. Are there better recommendations?

I'd appreciate any advice or remarks on the matter, aimed at the beginner level.

MailChimp free version works only for broadcasts, not autoresponders (at least the last time I've checked).

Broadcast = an email you send one time to your entire list (or a chosen segment of that list)

Autoresponder = an email, or series of emails, that each new subscriber gets in order. For example, a Welcome email that is sent to each new customer as soon as they buy your product.

If you can tell me a bit more about your needs, I can give you some more advice. (Send in PM if you don't want to share details here)

In general, the goal of the email list is to develop a relationship with your subscriber, which will make it easier to sell to them.

The general funnel works like this:

A visitor comes to your site via SEO/PPC/etc. => you offer them a lead magnet (something free, usually an eBook or a PDF report) to get their email address => you send them a couple of value-filled emails, where you share knowledge and educate them => you send a pitch email where you sell your thing.

Now, this is very basic, and I didn't even cover segmentation, personalization, etc.

A lot of more specific techniques depend on what you're selling - $50 supplements vs $5000 professional services and so on.

If you have any specific questions feel free to ask.

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(03-28-2016 05:22 PM)456 Wrote:  - If you're not a little nervous while quoting your price -- the price is too low!

- Never give prices in ranges, people only hear the lower end (if they're paying) or higher end (if they're receiving). Anchor if anything.

Very good advice man. I will write it in my agenda

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(08-01-2018 05:19 AM)Demandred Wrote:  

(08-01-2018 04:49 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  Does anyone have any advice to give on how to start and run a mailing list?

A google search turns up way too much information for me to easily process.

I'm planning on using the free version of MailChimp (since I don't have that many people to email yet) to start off with. Are there better recommendations?

I'd appreciate any advice or remarks on the matter, aimed at the beginner level.

MailChimp free version works only for broadcasts, not autoresponders (at least the last time I've checked).

Broadcast = an email you send one time to your entire list (or a chosen segment of that list)

Autoresponder = an email, or series of emails, that each new subscriber gets in order. For example, a Welcome email that is sent to each new customer as soon as they buy your product.

If you can tell me a bit more about your needs, I can give you some more advice. (Send in PM if you don't want to share details here)

In general, the goal of the email list is to develop a relationship with your subscriber, which will make it easier to sell to them.

The general funnel works like this:

A visitor comes to your site via SEO/PPC/etc. => you offer them a lead magnet (something free, usually an eBook or a PDF report) to get their email address => you send them a couple of value-filled emails, where you share knowledge and educate them => you send a pitch email where you sell your thing.

Now, this is very basic, and I didn't even cover segmentation, personalization, etc.

A lot of more specific techniques depend on what you're selling - $50 supplements vs $5000 professional services and so on.

If you have any specific questions feel free to ask.

So do you have a good one that works for auto responding also?

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