Greyson Boerner 3x Founder, CEO at Bedside

It's really a numbers game. I'd recommend reaching out to 50 companies. If you only have 2% say yes, you've got an internship.

That being said, there are a ton of great training programs online which you will probably learn far more from which are taught by established people. There are many companies where the digital marketing person isn't super savvy.

How have the results been on your ad campaigns? If they are good, you can easily mention your results to get a foot in the door. I'd recommend not looking needy when talking to the business owner. Try to show how much value you are going to bring and it won't take much of an investment on their part. It should look like a no brainer.

Let me know if you'd like to discuss the best way to craft your intro to get a good conversion from these companies. I'd have to learn more to best tailor your approach.

I've been doing online marketing for over 9 years and have helped a lot of people/companies bring in sales.

Start with figuring out your target customer. What problems are they having? What blogs to they read? What events do they like to go to? What kind of education do they have? How old are they. The more specific you get, the easier it will be to direct targeted ads to that core target customer. These are the people that will take the least amount to "sell" before they pull the trigger.

Next set up ads on platforms like FB, Instagram, Etc. targeting your core customer to get them to your sales page.

Have you already built up inventory? As you know, the hard part about building physical product companies is they require a lot of capital outlay to build up inventory. A good way to work around this is do a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter or a related platform. It will help bring in capital to work with, and more importantly, prove there is a market for your product before risking all your money.

Let me know if you'd like to go more into detail with how this relates to your specific product.

Unless you have a mid size and up company, this probably isn't the best use of your resources. Are you running a startup? It's rare that a company will blatantly steal another company's logo.

If you must get it protected, services like LegalZoom can do it pretty cost effectively.

Happy to jump on a call and talk this through with you more if you'd like.

I've gone through this exact experience 2 times. It can be hard to figure out if someone is going to do everything they say they will if you haven't already worked with them.

One of the most important skills an entrepreneur can learn is how to pick amazing people to join them. Otherwise a company will be mediocre like most out there.

It's really hard to build a company on your own. I've done it a few times now and I would advise you to be open to others helping you. It makes the road much easier and more fun. There are plenty of trustworthy, hardworking people out there. You just need to understand how to find them and set expectations.

If someone is interested in working with you, start with a trial period to test them out before getting far into an equity split (assuming you don't have the capital to pay a salary).

Can you presale any customers to get funds?

If it's a employee, they need to vest over time. 4 years is typical. This protects you if they don't work out.

Let me know if you'd like to talk through this more.

To me, a mentor is someone that is living the life that that you want to live and is quite a bit older. They've already accomplished the goal you set out to reach. It could be that they've created a lifestyle that you want. They are the people you ask advice on for the large life decision moments.

For example, do you like the relationship they have with their spouse and kids? Have they created a business that allows them to spend time with their family? Think about exactly what you want to accomplish in your life before seeking out mentors.

If you're looking for someone to give you marketing or sales or HR advice, you're more seeking an advisor that knows a particular field.

Let me know if you'd like to talk about how to find top notch mentors.

I'd start with Angel List. I'm not sure if there is a comparable sight in Africa. This link may help.

https://angel.co/africa/investors

It shows a list of investors that live out there and others that are interested in the market. You can drill down farther from there.

Let me know if you need help talking through the process of reaching out to them.

Without question you can!

I've put out over 150 apps into the app store without knowing how to code and have gotten over 1 million downloads in the consumer space. You just need to find the best people to help you see your vision through.

Start by putting together a clickable prototype so that people can see your vision. Tools like POP are great for doing this. https://popapp.in/ It's hard for people to get a grasp on an idea until they can see it in action. If you want a more high fidelity prototype, get a professional designer and use Invision . https://www.invisionapp.com/. This is especially important when talking to developers or investors.

Is it a SaaS (Software as a Service) type product? If so, you can try to get some pre-sales by showing your target customer your clickable prototype to help validate your idea before spending money to get it developed. This alone can save you a lot of time and money. It sounds like you're a good salesman if you've got 1 M in revenue.

If you have any questions about how to find people to build it, how to oversee the process, how to quickly validate the idea, or talk through anything else related, I'm happy to jump on a call.

Thanks,
Greyson