The Entrepreneur / Business Owner's / Self Employed Lounge

(08-01-2018 01:52 PM)Ski pro Wrote:  

(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?

you mean like sending messages automatically (e.g. "We're out of office, but...")?

Honestly, I've never used this function, but if the autoresponders don't have it, there are should be plenty of plugins that allow for this functionality.

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(08-01-2018 01:57 PM)Demandred Wrote:  

(08-01-2018 01:52 PM)Ski pro Wrote:  

(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?

you mean like sending messages automatically (e.g. "We're out of office, but...")?

Honestly, I've never used this function, but if the autoresponders don't have it, there are should be plenty of plugins that allow for this functionality.

I’m not sure I explained myself properly. PM

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

I really just need to keep in touch with all the customers that already have purchased from me - in other words, I just need to broadcast.

So from what I understand in what you wrote, MailChimp is fine for broadcasting?

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(08-02-2018 12:53 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  

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

I really just need to keep in touch with all the customers that already have purchased from me - in other words, I just need to broadcast.

So from what I understand in what you wrote, MailChimp is fine for broadcasting?

At the scale you are operating at, what's wrong with a regular email account?

You can use bcc (blind carbon copy) to hide everyone's addresses from each other and they'll receive their messages like they are the only addressee.

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(08-02-2018 01:03 AM)Suits Wrote:  

(08-02-2018 12:53 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  

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

I really just need to keep in touch with all the customers that already have purchased from me - in other words, I just need to broadcast.

So from what I understand in what you wrote, MailChimp is fine for broadcasting?

At the scale you are operating at, what's wrong with a regular email account?

You can use bcc (blind carbon copy) to hide everyone's addresses from each other and they'll receive their messages like they are the only addressee.

Would that not get me flagged as a spammer?

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(08-02-2018 12:53 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  I really just need to keep in touch with all the customers that already have purchased from me - in other words, I just need to broadcast.

So from what I understand in what you wrote, MailChimp is fine for broadcasting?

Mailchimp or similar should be fine, but Make sure you authorise it to send on behalf of your domain. If you don't, a lot of your emails will end up in spam folders.

https://mailchimp.com/help/set-up-custom...m-and-spf/

If that sounds like too much trouble, many email clients have mail merge functionality. For example, Thunderbird with the Mail Merge extension installed: https://www.seas.upenn.edu/cets/answers/...merge.html
You'll have to manually manage unsubscribe requests.

Using the BCC field works for a small list, but you'll be marked as spam more often doing it that way.

Also a tip: try to keep your customers in groups so you know what you've already sent them. For example:
Group A - welcome email
Group B - welcome email, Summer sale
Group C - welcome email, Summer sale, Winter sale
This helps to avoid offering them the same promotions multiple times. Mailchimp has autoresponder functionality to manage this kind of thing automatically, but you have to pay extra for it.

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(08-02-2018 12:53 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  

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

I really just need to keep in touch with all the customers that already have purchased from me - in other words, I just need to broadcast.

So from what I understand in what you wrote, MailChimp is fine for broadcasting?

Yes.

Also, what DaveR said ^.

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Do any of you guys have any experience selling on the street?

There's a place I've been selling in for the past few days that I know contains people who are interested in my product category but my sales have been catastrophically poor. I have sold a few products in the last few weeks and that combined with the area i'm in leads me to a belief that the demand is there. I have had quite a few people look at what I'm offering when they walk past, and since changing a few things after my first day, I have had an increase in engagement.

I know my pitch and what i'm trying to include in it, but it usually takes me an hour or so to warm up mentally and get into it. I also believe that something is missing, but i'm not entirely sure what.

Either way, I really enjoy it, it's great fun, but I need to increase sales.

If you have done it, what's your method, your way of going about it?

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(08-04-2018 12:30 PM)Poker Wrote:  Do any of you guys have any experience selling on the street?

There's a place I've been selling in for the past few days that I know contains people who are interested in my product category but my sales have been catastrophically poor. I have sold a few products in the last few weeks and that combined with the area i'm in leads me to a belief that the demand is there. I have had quite a few people look at what I'm offering when they walk past, and since changing a few things after my first day, I have had an increase in engagement.

I know my pitch and what i'm trying to include in it, but it usually takes me an hour or so to warm up mentally and get into it. I also believe that something is missing, but i'm not entirely sure what.

Either way, I really enjoy it, it's great fun, but I need to increase sales.

If you have done it, what's your method, your way of going about it?

Not done it in the street but I do a few events in the autumn and winter. They key for me is that people don’t expect a business of my type to be at this kind of event. I makE a cool looking stand with some decoration and a few things on it related to what we do, dress sharp and look good, It gets people talking to me automatically, I also give out a free gift.

I basically chat, steer the questions the way I wAnt them to go and then close if there’s something to be closed. I have the option of taking ‘live bookings’ so I can book clients in there and then. They seem to like that.

I expect it’s much like day game.

You have to do treat it like it is, it’s an act, a game, rejection isn’t personal. Treat it as a game or you playing a role, maybe you’ll warm up quicker,

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I don't necessarily endorse everything stated in this video, but there are some good points raised that are good food for thought.



If there's one theme I've been noticing in many YouTube videos I've been watching recently on the topic of entrepreneurship, it's that taking an investment can be very risky for business if you don't already have product with validated demand and a dependable growth plan.

A lot of ideas need to stop at the demand-testing stage. There isn't always demand for great, innovated, smart products, simply because people don't think they want them. If educating the market isn't a reasonable strategy worth pursuing at that point, the best choice is usually to abandon the product altogether.

The problem with getting investment money prior to having a product with validated demand is that you've prematurely jumped off the deep-end. You now have to tread water, keeping your investors happy and burning through money that has no guarantee of being replaced. The bootstrapping approach of paying your own way (through offering a service, running a business selling existing products in the same space as your new innovative product, or working part-time) as you develop a viable innovate product is that it gives you a virtually limitless runway and allows you to make tough choices easier.

I've been following the Elizabeth Holmes Theranos story, which we have a different thread for, and it has occurred to me that the following happened:

• Began with unrealistic expectations for her product and was unwilling to downgrade her expectations until long after a lot of time and money had been wasted.
• Over-promised investors by assuring them that a product that could not be created without decades of innovation was a problem she had already solved.
• Tried to generate revenue by implement a service based on a false promise she had to maintain to avoid being caught out for lying to investors.
• Ended up buying commercial equipment to provide the service.
  

The better choice would have been to

• Gain investment for a company aimed at providing a blood-testing service, with the promise that they would use the opportunity to work on side projects to create better and easier blood-tests.
• Use commercial equipment to perform the blood testing, but use this blood samples to test out new proprietary equipment that they themselves were developing internally.
• Create their own automated multi-test blood testing machine capable of doing the same job as existing commercial products and then....
• ...gradually seek to find innovative solution to miniaturize the system.
  

If they'd started by offering a blood-testing service to build experience and industry reputation, they wouldn't have needed to procure nearly a billion dollars of investment to pursue their goals. Rather, they could have used the income from blood-testing to maintain a business entity and either used profit to invest into R&D or sought outside investment to pay for the R&D costs. Either way, if they at any time ran out of money for R&D, they could simply put the projects on hold, move the staff focused on those projects back to full-time work on their main mission as a company (quality, fast, affordable blood tests) and wait till they had more money to spare for R&D.

As for Miss Holmes, the better life plan would have been to...

• Not drop out of Stanford, but rather finish a degree in biological science, which would have at least gotten her up to speed on the science of the innovation she wanted to achieve and make her aware of the challenges and possibilities.
• Maybe do a research masters program that would allow her to test out some of her ideas on someone else's dime using grants.
• Use money from family friends that she initially used to start Theranos to establish a properly licensed blood testing company after she finished her education and matured into someone willing accept critical feedback.
  

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I've realised recently that I've gotten a lot better at saying no in business. By that I also mean pricing things higher. As I run a bricks and mortar business, my new mantra in my head when pricing is 'I can sit at home and make no money...'

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I need to pivot deeper into a niche.

There is a certain demographic which just makes more sense to service, and I'm about to reorientate the business to serve only them, dropping some service elements to focus on that niche.

It really doesn't make sense to try and do everything. It just raises your overheads and administrative burdens.

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(08-13-2018 01:01 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  I need to pivot deeper into a niche.

There is a certain demographic which just makes more sense to service, and I'm about to reorientate the business to serve only them, dropping some service elements to focus on that niche.

It really doesn't make sense to try and do everything. It just raises your overheads and administrative burdens.

Yes! This is the correct way to evolve a business plan.

This is also why writing out a detailed business plan (predicting outcomes based on unproven demand) when you are just getting started is usually a pointless exercise. Better to experiment with a few things to determine for which products/service there is actually demand. Once you've done that, writing a business plan becomes really easy and usually only needs to be 2 or 3 sentences.

Even large multinational corporations often get into trouble by getting too far away from their core identity. For example, it wouldn't probably be a winning strategy for Walmart to start producing Hollywood films. That would be a really bad fit with their brand and would likely become a worthless money-pit because, despite being a massive corporation, it just isn't what they do and you rarely should do the following two things in business no matter who you are:

• Do activities that don't fit with your brand.
• Do activities that don't match your existing business strategy.
  

While for big businesses, sticking to their core business is ideal, for the small business, having a small enough core business to chew is very important. There's a time and place for diversifying and offering new products and services that fill other needs that your existing client-base has, but you can't put the cart before the horse by failing to establish an efficient revenue process first.

Get the fundamentals right and then consider growth.

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(08-13-2018 01:01 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  I need to pivot deeper into a niche.

There is a certain demographic which just makes more sense to service, and I'm about to reorientate the business to serve only them, dropping some service elements to focus on that niche.

It really doesn't make sense to try and do everything. It just raises your overheads and administrative burdens.

Yes, this is key to your positioning. Line extension (trying to extend to products that aren’t your specialty ) rarely works. Stick to your niche and dominate it.

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God i hate summer so much.

Ive got so much to do and so many things to organise before the winter gets here and I cant get in touch with any fucker because they’re all off on holiday at the beach with everyone else.

I’m literally trying to give these people money and can i get anyone to respond to anything? No.

Bet your ass they’ll all be back in September and be begging for the business. I’ll make a note of who wasn’t working when I was and do business accordingly.

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(08-13-2018 08:19 AM)Ski pro Wrote:  God i hate summer so much.

Ive got so much to do and so many things to organise before the winter gets here and I cant get in touch with any fucker because they’re all off on holiday at the beach with everyone else.

I’m literally trying to give these people money and can i get anyone to respond to anything? No.

Bet your ass they’ll all be back in September and be begging for the business. I’ll make a note of who wasn’t working when I was and do business accordingly.

I was in the market for a small piece of plant recently. Just a few grands worth, nothing major. First brand I rang said 'factory on shutdown, you can't get it till next week' This is a major player in the UK small plant market. Couldn't be arsed to ring other dealers of the same brand to check stock as they were all £200 more for the base model.

Second brand I rang, rep answered the phone, yes, we have them in stock, it can be with you tomorrow. He also mentioned an important spec that I had overlooked that meant that this brand was actually better for what I wanted. Then I managed to haggle another £100 off to get it down to the price of the first brand. Guess who got the business?

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(08-14-2018 04:30 AM)roberto Wrote:  

(08-13-2018 08:19 AM)Ski pro Wrote:  God i hate summer so much.

Ive got so much to do and so many things to organise before the winter gets here and I cant get in touch with any fucker because they’re all off on holiday at the beach with everyone else.

I’m literally trying to give these people money and can i get anyone to respond to anything? No.

Bet your ass they’ll all be back in September and be begging for the business. I’ll make a note of who wasn’t working when I was and do business accordingly.

I was in the market for a small piece of plant recently. Just a few grands worth, nothing major. First brand I rang said 'factory on shutdown, you can't get it till next week' This is a major player in the UK small plant market. Couldn't be arsed to ring other dealers of the same brand to check stock as they were all £200 more for the base model.

Second brand I rang, rep answered the phone, yes, we have them in stock, it can be with you tomorrow. He also mentioned an important spec that I had overlooked that meant that this brand was actually better for what I wanted. Then I managed to haggle another £100 off to get it down to the price of the first brand. Guess who got the business?

Roberto, great story. The "second brand" experience you have shows you that you can go into an existing industry and just do better. So many new entrepreneurs are stuck in their own minds thinking they need a new app or some invention when you can pick a business that you can gain entry to and just answer the fucking phone.

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Thanks fpr sharing!

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Anyone care to PM me if they have gone through a patent application process?

I have an invention detailed out, done research and have not come across anything identical. Based on what I read the entire thing will be around 10-20k assuming the search proves its doable.

Ive been looking into firms out of state for two reasons - its probable cheaper and the industry that the patent targets is non existent in my current state (if it works out I will be moving to actually build the product).

Anything else I should consider/look into?

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I tried searching for a "Real Estate" or "Landlord" thread but came up empty.

I'm coming close to purchasing my first investment property. I already own my house (not paid off) and what I believe to be a great opportunity just came up. Tenants already in place. I've run all the numbers, they look good. Growth in my area looks amazing.

Anyone with experience as a landlord, give me 5 quick tips off the top of your head for a first timer.

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(08-26-2018 11:40 AM)Veloce Wrote:  I tried searching for a "Real Estate" or "Landlord" thread but came up empty.

I'm coming close to purchasing my first investment property. I already own my house (not paid off) and what I believe to be a great opportunity just came up. Tenants already in place. I've run all the numbers, they look good. Growth in my area looks amazing.

Anyone with experience as a landlord, give me 5 quick tips off the top of your head for a first timer.

Is the property SFR or multi-family?

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SFR. 3 bedroom condo, $200 HOA that covers management and insurance

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(08-26-2018 11:40 AM)Veloce Wrote:  I tried searching for a "Real Estate" or "Landlord" thread but came up empty.

I'm coming close to purchasing my first investment property. I already own my house (not paid off) and what I believe to be a great opportunity just came up. Tenants already in place. I've run all the numbers, they look good. Growth in my area looks amazing.

Anyone with experience as a landlord, give me 5 quick tips off the top of your head for a first timer.

There are multiple threads on 'rental property' on the forum.

There is one particularly useful link that is mentioned several times on the forum which I will repaste here:

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/30/bu...ing-99351/

Not quite your '5 quick tips' but maybe it will be useful.

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(08-26-2018 11:40 AM)Veloce Wrote:  I tried searching for a "Real Estate" or "Landlord" thread but came up empty.

I'm coming close to purchasing my first investment property. I already own my house (not paid off) and what I believe to be a great opportunity just came up. Tenants already in place. I've run all the numbers, they look good. Growth in my area looks amazing.

Anyone with experience as a landlord, give me 5 quick tips off the top of your head for a first timer.

What's your total cash down and total cost to take possession?

How much profit will it be earning every month?

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(08-26-2018 01:52 PM)Veloce Wrote:  SFR. 3 bedroom condo, $200 HOA that covers management and insurance

Condo>

#1 Check HOA's reserves and reserve study* before you close. You want to make sure that the HOA's reserves adequately cover any upcoming needed maintenance.

* A reserve study performed by a competent 3rd party firm is critical so that you dont get hit with an unexpected assessment or increase in HOA fees that will blow your numbers out.

For example a property with say 300 units thats 18 yo with a asphalt comp roof in Nevada is going to need a new roof in 2-3 years. At say even $7500 per unit thats
$2,000,000.

The reserve study is designed to create a projected budget based on standard service life of the property's components

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