Loading...
Answers
MenuIs it a good idea to work with a remote business partner in the e-commerce space?
Answers
It really depends on your relationship with this person, which I didn't think you mention. Do you know him and trust him?
If you trust him that's fine. The only issue I see is the time zone difference, you'll just have to work it out between the two of you.
You could ask yourself this question: Do I really need a partner? Partner relations as it is are difficult to manage for most startups but having one on a remote basis will make it even tougher.
I personally think that avoiding partnerships unless they are absolutely critical is a good idea.
You could hire someone as an employee or you could hire someone with an understanding that he gets some equity but is not a part of the decision making process.
Feel free to try a 15 minute call to discuss more:
"Mutual benefit" is the main idea, must be in the mind for every step of the designing of the partnership.
There is no certainty of viability, need many factors for consideration
~ Is it really viable?
Distributed teams are very common. If you are startup is not having to deal with shipping/receiving or if onsite events are not critical; then there are plenty of proven examples where a remote team is viable.
~ Will it be harder to bounce ideas and be innovative?
As long as all stakeholders communicate regularly and a system like Slack or Discord is adopted, it shouldn't be.
~ Will this kill momentum?
Only time this might is around an actual product launch where timing is critical for success. Otherwise it shouldn't impact anything.
~ What are your immediate concerns?
My only concern would be that adoption is key. If you both are unfamiliar with or haven't adopted agile methods for remote work, I think there will be some growing pains. But if you both commit fully to the process and the project, being remote shouldn't slow you down.
Nothing, not even video conferencing will replace face to face exchanges. Make sure you connect regularly face to face to keep the relationship tight and to make sure you are in control or at least aware of what is really happening when you are not present.
Related Questions
-
Do co-founders decide everything together or does the CEO call the shots?
Hi! Partner disagreements happen all the time. The good news is, most of the time, they are disagreements that get resolved for the better. I'm a business performance expert, a CPA, a CGMA and highly experienced at leadership and managing companies. Allow me to suggest some options for you. This looks like you and your partner need to reach an agreement on how to operate the company. You can do this verbally or you can do it in writing with an operating agreement. I suggest you get this agreement in writing. The results you seek are to clearly define, and understand between both of you, the way both of you may smoothly run the company. Operating agreements may have many different segments in it including (but not limited to) defining everything from who has an operating role vs who doesn't, your responsibilities, how the company ownership and profits are split, entry and exits of partners and even the method of accounting chosen. Once you decide with your partner who has authority regarding your product direction, the person responsible should provide good leadership to see the products are well developed, and the other should follow their respective role as agreed and defer product development decisions to the other. If one partner breaks out of the agreed role, you should have a private, positive conversation with your partner to set your boundaries and remain in your agreed roles. When this happens, you need to have this conversation within a reasonable amount of time after the disagreement. Don't be afraid of what they think, because your product and your company are at risk. Just be respectful and let them know they crossed the line and ask that they step back behind it. I hope this helps! Please feel free to call me if you need help with this operating agreement, including a sample for your reference. To prepare it, you can expect you'll need a legal expert and a business expert to contribute to your desired operating agreement. Best of Luck! Rodger Stephens, CPA, CGMA Business Performance ExpertRS
-
I want to start an ecommerce business that imports goods from India to sell in the U.S.. Where in the world do I start re: tax/legal implications.
TAX is US. For export paperwork (free tax delivery) is India. Use business location may in delaware for lower state taxML
-
What is a good/average conversion rate % for an e-commerce (marketplace model) for customers who add to cart through to purchase order.
There is quite a bit of information available online about eCommerce conversions rates. According to a ton of sources, average visitor-to-sale conversion rates vary from 1-3%. This does not mean the Furniture conversions will be the same. The bigger problem is that visitor-to-sale conversions are not a good data point to use to measure or tune your eCommerce business. All business have some unique friction factors that will affect your final conversion rate. It's very important to understand each of these factors and how to overcome them. The best way to measure and optimize is to take a conversion funnel approach. Once you have defined your funnel you can optimize each conversion rate to better the total effect. For example: Top of the funnel: - All web site visitors, 100,000 / month First conversion: View a product page, 50% of all visitors Second Conversion: Add to Cart, 10% of people who view products Final Conversion: Complete Checkout, 80% of people who put items in a cart In this example we see that only 10% of people who actually view products put them in to a cart, but 80% of those people purchase. If you can figure out why visitors are not adding items to their cart and fix the issue to increase the conversion rate, revenue should increase significantly because of the high checkout rate. You can use free tools like Google Analytics to give you a wealth of information about your site visitor and their behavior or there are some great paid tools as well.DM
-
How do I deal with a partner/investor that hasn't delivered on his end of things and now wants his money back?
This sounds as a deja vu to me. I have been in a similar situation back in 2000, we could only solve the issue thanks to a good mediator. However every situation is different and hence your route to a solution might be different. It also depends where you are in the world that defines how an email and/or verbal agreement might be a sufficient ground for legal actions. I am not a lawyer and can not judge that.PS
-
How can I make a small, profitable business on Wordpress?
It sounds like you have plenty of skills to get started now. There's no need to keep re-training in different areas when you have experience to get started today. My suggestion would be to pick a niche and try and become the go-to guy in that particular niche. Let's say, for example, you are interested in men's fashion. You have experience in creating Wordpress ecommerce sites. You could call up maybe 10-15 of the local businesses in that niche in your local city/state and offer to make their website and get them in on a set-up fee and then a monthly maintenance retainer. This approach would be lower stress (because it's something you're interested in) and also because you could create a methodical framework that you could apply to other businesses in that niche. That's just one idea. Second idea - create a course on WooCommerce development and put it on Udemy (or Coursera etc). Note down 10 of the biggest obstacles you've had to overcome when building sites for friends and family and then note down 10 of the most important considerations people should consider before people get started. Now you've got 20 video lessons for your course. Charge for the course on Udemy or use it as a marketing tool to get more b2b development work. Idea 3: Go make money on freelancer.com, peopleperhour etc. Perhaps you've tried this already? Skills like yours are in demand on those platforms. Idea 4: Take the things I noted in the second idea above, and turn it into a handbook. Sell that book via Amazon. Idea 5: Go on Tweetdeck. Create a column that searches for people who are using keywords like "Wordpress woocommerce issue" "Wordpress woocommerce help" "WordPress woocommerce problem". Give them your clairty.fm link and tell them you'd be happy to have 5 minute discussion to see if you could help them resolve their problem. Idea 6: Find 10 major theme development companies. Sign up to their help or support forums. Do a similar thing to what's noted above on Twitter and offer to have a quick call via clarity.fm to see if you could help. Idea 7: Go down the route of finding existing Wordpress/Woocommerce blogs. Write posts for them about specific WooCommerce issues, problem solving or project management tips. Do this with the aim of improving your inbound consulting gigs. Idea 8: Do the exact opposite of whatever those friends are telling you. Idea 9: With your skills you could easily start a dropshipping company. I won't go into all the details here but just start looking at sites like Clickbank or Product Hunt to get a feel for something you're interested in. Build your site and start dropshipping products. https://www.woothemes.com/2015/06/dropshipping-beginners-guide/ Wordpress consulting alone, yeah it's probably quite competitive, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of opportunities for revenue. I think you will be even more motivated, successful and less stressed if you pick a niche industry, product or service to focus on. Enjoy it!SC
the startups.com platform
Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.