CEO of Argenia; Co-founder, past CEO of Agility CMS; Co-founder Inner Circle Meetups; Founder, Recall Media. Entrepreneur for life who loves helping others.
I have developed a methodology for generating inbound leads that brings in over $1,000,000 a year in business. It's not as hard as you think!
I started a web development company as a freelancer in 2002. I bootstrapped it into a successful SaaS software company that I sold in 2013. I love doing more with less!
Have you noticed that a handful of your employees seem to get most of the results? Those are the greats. I can help you fill your company with the top 10% of people available.
I am the co-founder of Agility, a SaaS content management system. Call me to bounce ideas about pricing, feature management, marketing, sales and strategy for SaaS products.
I recently exited Agility CMS, a successful SaaS software company. Let's chat about what works, what doesn't work, and how to get the most of a 50/50 parternship.
Does your business provider add value beyond money to counter balance?
Normally, you would share profits according to your ownership stake. If you aren't happy with the current ownership split, maybe you could buy some of his shares.
I would start by calling media buying agenices. You're in NY, so no shortage of those :)
Sounds like you have experience cold calling, so maybe do the calling yourself until you gain traction with a couple of agenices. If you build good relationships and show results, you should get the same agencies coming back and buying for different clients.
It doesn't hurt to learn the ropes on someone else's dime.
I started a web development company right out of school in 2002. The hardest part was winning business because I didn't have much of a network. If I were to do it again, I would prefer to work somewhere first for a couple of years.
However, if you can't find the right opportunity and you feel ready to start a business, then go for it! It worked out okay for me :)
You could try building relations with the big advertising agencies. They have access to huge consumer brands who are all jumping on the content bandwagon. These brands have lots of money to spend.
The agencies can provide a steady pipeline of work. They can help build your portfolio of brands while you're relatively unknown. Once you build a profile, you can start approaching the brands directly.
I would stick to companies with $10m+ in revenue. The cheapest customers are also the most demanding.
You have the power to make or break this persons holiday - maybe the last one he will get for a while.
What if the roles where reversed? What would you want?
It's only one week...
Hootsuite jumps to mind!
I would recommend invoicing for the full year up front. If anyone asks, tell them that this is industry standard. Salesforce, HubSpot and many others do it this way.
If that answer isn't sufficient, here are some others reasons that are beneficial for the customer:
- It simplifies the accounting for the customers - one invoice instead of 6-12 - If you were to buy packaged software, you would pay a huge up front fee and then annual maintenance - we are just asking for the first year - If you pay monthly, there is no commitment, so there is less incentive to get buy-in from the team and users
I wish I knew :)
Maybe someone will answer this if it shows up on the Dashboard :)
Clearly, this is a job for Customer Relationship Management software (CRM). So the problem becomes selecting the best one. Unfortunately, this is no small task!
If you are new to CRM, Wikipedia has an excellent primer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management
There is a company in Toronto called Dashboard that specializes in CRM and Marketing Automation for the Automotive industry:
http://www.dashboard.ca/
I can introduce you to the owner if you like.
Good luck!
I would recommend setting up a profile on elance or freelancer.com and look at doing freelance work.
Pick something specific that you are good at (e.g. Windows PC maintenance or Network Administration) and focus only on that for your profile.
Set your rate low compared to similar people with the same skills as you need to build up references before you can charge more.
Then, contribute to online forums around your area of expertise to build up your profile.
Just some thoughts...
Set up profiles on elance and freelancer.com.
Contribute to as many online forums as possible.
Contribute to LinkedIn groups on SQL Server.
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