Your Questions Answered by Industry Experts

Loading...

Answers from Industry Experts

Entrepreneurship Hiring

Does Phantom Equity for LLC makes sense ?

Nate Gunn answered: Thanks for asking this question, its a good one with little answers out there. Having been a phantom equity partner in a start-up myself, I would say phantom equity didn't give me the push to be all in as much as real equity would have. I never felt like a true partner. Reason being, the owner wasn't fully committing to me, so how could I with him. If you have the right potential partner who's quality and is going to come into your start up with all their time and heart, equity will pay off. A SARs based system works great for entry level employees that join early. Helps to justify the risk on their end. Good luck.

3 answers • over 10 years

Entrepreneurship

What should entrepreneurs do when feeling stuck and finding things aren't going anywhere?

Steve Fanale answered: It depends on what you mean by 'stuck'. Emotionally or business not moving? I am going to assume the latter. Then by your business being 'stuck' are you referring to revenue growth, profitability, business not expanding, business you are in is boring or all the above? For the purpose of my answer I will assume you are referring to revenue growth. There could be many causes behind a business not moving. The key is to find the thing(s) that will get the wheels turning and then put that thing(s) on steroids so you can ramp up quickly. Some reasons why your business may not be moving are the following: - Your product/service is not meeting a strong enough need - The quality of your product/service is not good enough - Pricing is too high or too low - Your target market doesn't know about your business or your product/service - You don't have the the right members in your team to improve any of the above - You are short of funds and find it difficult to improve any of the above - Your experience and skills. Are you doing what you are good at? Therefore the way out is analysis. Objective analysis. - Speak to your customers. Existing and prospective. - Review the feedback you are getting. - Review product and site analytics if you are running an online or app business. - Try different ways of marketing. - Honestly assess the skills and ability of your team and yourself. - Of course speak to an experienced advisor. If you'd like me to assist further please give me a call

10 answers • over 10 years

Product Design Product Development Business in China

How do you get a product prototype developed in China sitting in the US?

Gerald Friedland answered: It varies and it's very very specific to what you want to develop. The concrete design of your circuit matters. Also prototype building costs are usually a factor 10-100 higher than series. If you already have your prototype then you can shop around various manufacturing companies. To do that, you need Gerber files (your PCB design) and a bill of materials. You also need to think about casing: designing it and creating the mold is expensive. If you don't have your prototype yet, I recommend having it engineered in eastern Europe. Custom engineering is cheap there and high quality. IP protection is a problem. One thing to do is to distribute the work to different manufacturers. For the design phase you are safer if you design your prototype in Europe or the US where international patent laws apply. I could give you more specific advise in a phone call, getting to know a bit better what you are trying to build.

8 answers • over 10 years

Mobile Technology Telecommunications Customer Support

How to Create a Smart Phone Support in a Virtual Business?

Drew Blas answered: If you want a system that doesn't require any hardware or infrastructure, then a virtual PBX is the best bet. These systems just use your existing phone numbers (cell phones or whatever) and routes the calls among them. The big player in this space is http://grasshopper.com/ They have been around for quite awhile and have a lot of features for managing calls. They're well known for their reliability and customer service. I've also used http://www.ringcentral.com/ and they are very good as well. Never had any issues and they support various softphones and hardware phones as well. I've also heard about a new up-and-comer https://aircall.io/ - But I know very little about them and they look to still be in beta. But you should definitely try it for comparison.

1 answer • over 10 years

Business Development

How can I effectively network and find with future clients?

Eamonn Carey answered: Meetup is a great resource for events, so that's a good start. Have a look on Eventbrite and other sites to see what sort of networking events are happening in the city. See if there are relevant LinkedIn groups that you can join and use those to find interesting people to connect with. You'll also find that a lot of the bigger/more popular groups will have news feeds with useful links to events and more. Find out what big conferences are on and head along to one or two that are particularly relevant. You'll find a bunch on Lanyrd and other sites. Ask your existing clients for intros - not leads - but just intros to people they know in NYC. Can they help you get coffee with a few people. If they can and you manage to impress those people, there's a good chance that referral will lead to some work. Cherry pick some of the people you'd like to work with - specifically ones where you think you could add real value. Reach out to them with a two or three sentence email saying hello and seeing if they have five mins for a coffee. It's never a bad thing to meet more people. Follow people you'd like to work with on Twitter and build a bit of a relationship with them that way. Use that relationship to potentially get a meeting or a coffee with that person. Maybe they can do some relevant intros or help you in some way. Be useful - if you're going to meet all these people, make sure that you provide them with some reason for meeting you. Maybe you can intro them to someone or help them with some advice or insight. Whatever it is, make sure that you have something to add into the mix. Good luck!

3 answers • over 10 years

Business Strategy Patent Strategy Entrepreneurship

New idea. Better to get a provisional patent with risk so I can start selling/manufacturing, or to get a full utility patent now with more protection?

David Berman answered: The patent process can be fairly expensive (depending on the product and your claims). I went through it over the course of several years (yes, you read that correctly) and it took MUCH longer than anyone projected and cost MUCH more as well. So depending upon your financial situation it might be cost prohibitive to proceed until you secure sufficient capital. Since the implementation of the FITF (aka FIF) system the rules and recommendations that stood for years have shifted. So the general recommendations you may think are good ideas may no longer apply. Know that if you DO decide to file a provisional patent you have 12 months from the date of filing to file a non-provisional patent. And if you make any changes (aka "new matter") you may have to file another provisional patent because you cannot add any new matter to the non-provisional patent. The provisional patent can be a useful tool - but depending upon the product and the strategy you are planning to execute during development and market testing - it may or may not provide the protection you desire. I would highly recommend that you consult with a patent attorney to get an idea about what's involved (i.e. costs, processes, time-frames). At the very least hire a skilled professional to do a patent search FOR you - not only to ensure that it in fact is unique but also to ensure it is "patentable". You may already know this but it's worth repeating: (1) Your fear of your idea of being "stolen" is one that almost every entrepreneur with a "big idea" holds and (2) It's far less likely to happen than you might think. I wish you the best of luck!

3 answers • over 10 years

Enterprise Software SaaS - Enterprise & SMB B2B Valuation

What is the average pre-money valuation of a enterprise/SaaS stat-up that is pre-revenue?

Tanyalynnette Palmo answered: There is no valuation until you sell something. An idea or a company is only worth what its sales are. Once you have your initials sales, sales strategy and forecasting length (ie 9 months from first customer lead to close) then you have a formula for valuation. Valuation for start-ups is generally 3.5 x last years sales model should be the growth factor. When you are looking for investors, you will want to have atleast 9-18 months of SALES, not just pipeline and they will be looking at 5x revenue for a 3-5 year payback.

3 answers • almost 10 years

Social Media Marketing Marketing Strategy

How to market and gain awareness for a non-electric iced coffee maker ?

Bruce Chamoff answered: Sounds delicious. I LOVE ice coffee. My advice is to definitely generate buzz on social media as well as a series of YouTube videos of every day people using the unit and enjoying the iced coffee. Some ideas: 1. Join a coffee lovers group on Facebook and LinkedIn. More importantly, an iced coffee lovers group. There are several on Facebook for both regular and iced coffee. 2. Once you join those coffee lovers groups, definitely start talking about making iced coffee manually. Don't push the product yet, but if you have an employee who can post on Facebook every day, I suggest posting, liking, and getting into the group conversations. Make your brand known by making your presence know. 3. YouTube videos. You do not need anything elaborate, but definitely decent. Have several YouTube videos of people using the product and enjoying it in the hot outdoors. Also, a video where you can teach people to make iced coffee like a recipe and have your product in the spotlight throughout the video. I have so many more suggestions for Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Google Plus. I'd am available to provide you more solutions as well, if you are interested. Bruce

5 answers • over 10 years

Email Marketing Clarity Email Strategy

What's the Technology Behind Clarity's "Are you interested in booking {advisor} for a call?" Email?

Vincent Roy answered: I'm a developer at Clarity and was involved in the development of this feature. This specific feature was developed in house. We keep event logs around for a log of things and this feature is built on top of that. When you visit a certain page showing interest in an expert, we'll schedule a job to send this email. A few hours later, when the job runs, it verifies a few things against other logs and we send the email if it's a good fit. These days I would take a good look at Intercom (https://www.intercom.io/) to do this. They recently came out with event tracking (http://insideintercom.io/power-of-behavior-driven-messaging) making this kind of feature a lot easier to build.

1 answer • over 10 years

Startups Startup Consulting Early Stage Startup

A tech startup fully outsourced. What problems would be in this situation?

Sunil Mayreddy answered: The ideal way would be to hire the engineer while the project is still under development. You and the engineer should follow up with the outsourced partner in the process. This will give hold to the engineer and later more staff can be trained in upgrading or follow on versions of the product/service.

16 answers • over 10 years

Domain Names Web Marketing Web Analytics

What's the best way to manage over 200 domain names? I want to get a landing page set up on each.

Abinav Thakuri answered: I have been managing multiple domains/sites for my clients since a few years now and I think the easiest and best way to do it in your case would be setting up simple WordPress sites on each one of them and managing them with something like ManageWP(https://managewp.com/) . If they're niche domains, you can monetize them through ads or use them as affiliate sites. Selling them can also be also an option. If you can get the sites to look fairly nice and if they are niche domains, you can sell them on sites like Flippa(https://flippa.com/) . Overall, you have many options. I'd be glad to help you in detail through a call if you want.

4 answers • over 10 years

Writing Blogging

What is the most efficient way to have a steady source writing/blogging/tweeting ideas?

Todd Levy answered: A few approaches I'm currently using: 1) StumbleUpon Once you create an account, add in some interests. These can be general (e.g. "Technology") or more specific (e.g. "User Interface"). Then, at the top of the page is a big dropdown that by default says "All Interests." Pop that open then poke on the interest you're looking to get ideas for. Start stumbling and see what comes up. 2) Facebook Create a new Facebook page for yourself. It doesn't need to be public. Then, when on that page, open the "Edit Page" menu at top and choose the last item, "Use Facebook as PAGENAME." Then, use search or whatever means to find pages that post like-minded content to what you're looking for and "Like" these pages. {NOTE: Because you are "acting as" your page, YOU are NOT liking these pages, your page is liking them.} Okay, so now you should have a page that you're acting as, and you've liked some other pages. Now if you go to the FB homepage, you'll see a custom newsfeed of posts from JUST those pages that you liked (plus ads). Over on the left (in today's interface at least) there's a little arrow next to Newsfeed. Click that and switch to most recent. Voila, the freshests posts from the pages you like. You can switch back to "Use Facebook as YOURNAME" using the arrow at the very top right of the desktop interface. 3) Sharegrab.com This is from the EdgeRank Checker people. Basically, you log in and create Pods (read: groups or lists) of FB pages. Then, you can choose a pod, and a date range, and it'll show you the most "shareworthy" posts from those pages. Hope this is helpful. Please feel free to reach out to me if you need any assistance implementing these ideas, or creating a custom blended RSS feed (which is still a fantastic way to achieve your goal). https://clarity.fm/toddlevy

7 answers • over 10 years

Start-ups Founder

As an entrepreneur and founder of a mobile app startup, what skills are required for me to know?

M Asif Rahman answered: The answer is what you do best! I have seen from programmer to UIX Engineer to Marketing or someone who dont know any of this managing App Developing Team. As any other business knowing HR and having clear vision and understanding of the industry is most important. In generally a Mobile App StartUp should not be a very big Team, I am assuming 3-10 is ideal team size. But retaining good developer and designer in most demography is a challenge. If you have not a programmer you could hire a CTO, if you are not a marketer you could hire a CMO. But to really run a company like Pro, a insider you have to have clear idea, which language, framework platform you are using, how marketing for your specific sector. You dont have to code, but you need to have basic idea, so you could at least understand your team's work load and time frame. Or you could also have a co-founder who knows what you don't. I hope it gives you some idea. I could give specific answer if I know your specific situation. Best of luck!

6 answers • over 10 years

Bitcoin Cryptography

What's a "meta coin" in the Bitcoin world?

Brad Mills answered: Meta coins are just another name for altcoins that are issued on the ledger of another coin or cryptocurrency platform. IE Ripple, Mastercoin, Ethereum, NXT are example of standalone blockchains/legers where you can issue new coins that transact on top of that network. metacoins can also be referred to as Digital Assets, Smart Contracts, DACs, DAOs, etc. There's a lot of buzz words around altcoins, the terms are fragmented since the industry is just starting.

3 answers • over 10 years

Startups Mobile applications Consumer Internet

Do you think it's impossible for health apps focused on low-income/Medicaid populations to make it in the consumer market?

Dan Waldschmidt answered: YOU ARE ASKING THE WRONG DAMN QUESTION.... Who cares if anyone here thinks you can make it. Do you think you can make it? More importantly -- do you have the guts to create something that is memorable in a space that has seen enough start-ups angling for consumer attention. Fair enough?

4 answers • over 10 years

Human Resources Strategic Hiring

What qualities do you look for when hiring for an executive operations position?

Mike Pouraryan answered: Having been on both sides of the coin, I would say trust is the first factor. Mentor the one with less experience and as he develops, your time will thereafter be freed up to work on long term strategic goals & objectives.

4 answers • over 10 years

Email Marketing Email Management Email List Building

What is the most effective way to store emails prelaunch?

Pamela Hazelton answered: My first question is, how did you get these email addresses? If they physically entered them, simply store them in an encrypted spreadsheet or database for importing into a platform. Of course, the best method is utilizing an email service to initially collect those addresses.

3 answers • over 10 years

Sales Sales Process Sales Operations

What kind of sales roles are there in a company like i.e. Box?

Alexandre Sartini answered: To help you with this, look at the offers on Box's website. There would be a sales support team for general questions and getting quotes and is basically the online sales. However, based on my experience, the biggest sales activity is probably focused on Business for the integration of Box within a company's infrastructure. This is what will generate the highest margin. This clearly a job on the field, being in contact with the companies day to day.

5 answers • over 10 years

Fundraising Funding

What's harder, creating the opportunity or financing it?

Alexandre Sartini answered: Personally, I have always found harder to finance and than creating opportunity. It is quite "easy" (once you have the right value proposition and target customers) to sell but getting paid is way more difficult. Most small business are dying not because they are not selling, but because they are not getting paid early for their work and finally lacking liquidity for their operations. So funding is a bit like getting paid in advance. What we usually do is split the total bill in bits to be paid out gradually based on progress and well defined target. I have seen your situation before with other customers. What they did was to start developing the product with the budget they had focusing on the most interesting part and then they went with this half finished but functional product to pitch investors. And this how they got the missing part of the funding.

4 answers • over 10 years

Content Marketing Conversion Optimization

Need to install a pop-up to convert visitors on our blog for a B2B SaaS product

Sarah Brody answered: Pop-ups are generally pretty obtrusive to the user experience and may actually have a negative impact on your conversion rates. I'd recommend refining and testing your calls-to-action (including offer, copy, image, & placement) to make sure those are as optimized as possible. I'd also recommend setting up your calls-to-action as "smart content" -- in other words, show different CTAs to your subscribers, leads, and customers so you're asking each visitor to take the next step that's most appropriate for them. Happy to discuss leveraging smart content in more detail if you're interested -- it's helped us tremendously in increasing our blog conversion rates.

9 answers • over 10 years

Work Life Balance Life Coaching Leadership

How do you, as a working parent, balance work/life? Do you think it's stressful to be a parent? If yes/no, why?

Dan Waldschmidt answered: OF COURSE IT'S STRESSFUL TO BE A PARENT!!! It's the hardest damn job in the world. Not sure you can have balance though. You just need to have a dream, execute your plan, and fix what is broken at the time. It's about priorities... Use tools to keep you scheduled and accountable. You'll be OK.

8 answers • over 10 years

Software Licensing Travel Technology Travel

If I have a question about licensing software to the travel industry, should I talk to a Clarity expert in licensing, or in travel?

Dilip Dand answered: I would say travel industry experts first. Based on what you have described, it sounds like you need to figure out what the market segment within the packaged travel/tourism industry that can benefit from your product. Then look at your competition in that market segment and see how they sell their product. Once you have a good understanding of these, you should then be able to figure out whether licensing is the right way to go or if there are other alternate models. All the best.

4 answers • over 10 years

Business Development Name Development Customer Relations

Should I continue chaara.org under "Uvavi Inc" or open "Chaara Inc"? Chaara.org is a for-profit fundraising platform for Chaara Fund Foundation (NPO)

Tom Williams answered: You should make the name that the donor sees on their credit card match the brand name as close as possible. Structurally though, your npo should be collecting the money directly. Having built Canada's first - and at the time it was operational - largest crowdfunding platform for charities, I'd be happy so share my experiences with you in a call.

3 answers • over 10 years

Sales Marketing Strategy

What is the best way to find the appropriate decision makers of Fortune 500 companies?

Dilip Dand answered: Marketing to large companies is a team sport. You cannot expect to just target the decision maker and convert them. You need to really understand how enterprises make purchase decisions and also that you have diverse groups of stakeholders, from the end users, to IT, to Finance to Purchasing to the Decision Maker, to market and convince. So if your marketing strategy is just to target the decision maker, you will fail. What you need is to have a credible story for each of the constituents and reach out to them and help them build a business case as to why they should go with your product/service. Only then would you be successful in reaching the decision makers.

3 answers • over 10 years

Sales Sales Management CRM software

Looking for help determining ideal marketing automation -> CRM workflow.

Sarah Brody answered: It sounds like you're off to a good start with your lead generation. While it is important to keep lead volume strong, it's even more important to have a way to follow up with these leads and continue pushing them through your sales funnel until you can convert them into revenue. Without that follow-up, especially if you're generating leads through PPC, you're likely wasting the budget and energy you're putting toward your marketing efforts in the first place. The first thing I'd recommend you do is create an automatic "kick-back" email that triggers as soon as a lead downloads your ebook. Be sure to thank them for downloading, give them a link to access the ebook, and then (most importantly) include your call-to-action for the next step you want them to take. Second, figure out how you're going to handle these leads from a sales perspective. If you're stretched for bandwidth, I'd recommend a system where you assign dollar values to different types of leads, and only have a sales rep follow up with your highest value leads. How much is an ebook lead worth to your business? How much is a demo lead? What about someone who actively requests to be contacted? You'll find that as you get these systems and processes underway, it'll be extremely useful to have a CRM system both for integrating with your marketing efforts and for helping your sales team to be able to sort and prioritize the leads they're reaching out to. Lead conversion is a daily focus of mine in my role at HubSpot, and I'd be happy to chat further about how to get a strong marketing/sales funnel set up so you're better equipped to manage the leads you generate and better able to convert them into dollars. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help!

9 answers • over 10 years

May I apply the term "lean" if I adapt lean startup concepts & apply them outside entrepreneurship w/o infringing on any legal protections of "lean"?

Brant Ellston Cooper answered: Ries owns 'Lean Startup' trademark. I doubt 'lean' by itself is trademark-able, and isn't claimed by Eric. Someone else may claim 'lean career development,' so might be worth a trademark search.

4 answers • over 10 years

Fluent English Internet Marketing Affiliate Marketing

How to improve active English skills and confidence communicate in English when I'm not from English speaking countries?

Erin McWalter answered: Practice. Practice. Practice. You will improve. Do you have people to practice with who can give you feedback?

3 answers • over 10 years

Networking Building Relationships

What are some ways to build meaningful relationships at large conferences?

Alana Muller answered: This is an important question that I am often asked as my clients prepare to make the most of their time at large events. Remember, your primary purpose for attending is to establish meaningful connections. Sure, you might hear and exciting speaker or two, but the most important reason to go is to connect with others with whom you can exchange "value." To make the most of your time there, be sure to do some pre-conference prep and outreach. Find out who is going to be there -- everyone from speakers to attendees to vendors to organizers. Research them and connect in advance to express your interest in meeting them at the event. And, once you are on the scene -- be present. Engage, ask questions, stay focused on the person or group with whom you are interacting at the moment. Your attentive curiosity will help to forge the relationship. For more details, check out http://www.coffeelunchcoffee.com/2013/04/i-need-your-help-2/. Happy to discuss further, as necessary. Good luck!

6 answers • over 10 years

Entrepreneurship Business Strategy Technology

If you had to pick one book on developing a competitive advantage for a tech company, which would it be?

Brendan Gahan answered: This is a good one. I'd recommend reading The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen. It provides a lot of insight into how companies get so invested into what they've built that they have a tough time identifying if/when to adapt to emerging technologies, behaviors, and helps identify how organization can better identify those opportunities.

4 answers • over 10 years

Entrepreneurship Banking Commercial Banking

What is a good bank for an high tech start-up?

Peter Pham answered: Silicon Valley Bank. Tell them I sent you and they'll take care of you ;-)

4 answers • over 10 years

Entrepreneurship Strategy Competitive Strategies

How was Twitter able to become a leading company without attracting serious competition. It seems their service could have been copied easily.

Brendan Gahan answered: Agreed. Pownce and FriendFeed were both hailed as Twitter competitors in the early days. In 2008 Twitter was consistently plagued by downtime as they had trouble scaling. However, the service was simple and easy to use and they did a great job getting early digital influencers and celebs onboard evangelizing the platform. When Twitter first got started they also had a suggested user list and recommended lots of famous people and digital influencers to follow. This created a bit of a self-fulfilling prophesy - those on the list would evangelize twitter helping to funnel even more people in and boosting their own popularity, etc.

5 answers • over 10 years

Entrepreneurship Strategy Competitive Strategies

What are the best sources of competitive advantage for a fast growing Internet software company?

Kumar T answered: There's never a substitute for building your product and talking to customers. If you're not well versed in growth hacking, let's talk. Depending on your market, there's a variety of algorithmic ways to pursue customers and hundreds of API's to power the pursuit. The one insight I have here that isn't often mentioned is the number of high fidelity backlinks per an hour that you're able to produce. If you use http://ahrefs.com you'll notice that the highest growth ventures have a strong correlation with backlinks. (Causality is difficult to identify, but correlation isn't. ) The internet was built for land-grab tactics.

4 answers • over 10 years

New Product Development Patents

My friend and I started a new business to patent and license a new piece of equipment. What kinds of pitfalls should we avoid?

Jared Joyce answered: Below is a link to a resource I provide my investors. The 50 questions are specific to product design/development but the 15 categories are questions that apply to any industry. If you can answer these questions about your deal you will have gone a long way to avoiding the common pitfalls in the product commercialization process. http://www.jaredjoyce.com/freetreats/50questions.pdf Once you have answered the questions for your deal if you'd like to call me I can evaluate your answers, educate you on what strategies are available that would be the best fit for you, and then help you execute your strategy.

3 answers • over 10 years

Business Strategy Entrepreneurship Web development

I have this social media idea,but no coding skills. How do I get someone to do the coding (cant afford to pay them) and not give away half of my idea?

David Berman answered: Dilip was very kind in his response. My answer might be a bit on the "tough love" side. But that's for you to decide. My intention, just for the record, is to help you (and those like you) on your path to success. And that starts with having a viable philosophy about entrepreneurial-ism and business. And I'm going to answer this because I get asked some form / version of this question very frequently from newcomers to entrepreneurial-ism. The scenario goes something like this: "I have a great idea. It's amazing, I love it, and I just KNOW it's gonna make me a ton of money. But I have no money right now so I can't afford to (fill in the blank with things like "to build it / create it / market it / etc" or "to hire the required staff needed to work in my business to sell it / develop it / etc"). And I don't want to tell anyone about my great idea because I'm worried someone will steal it and make MY million / billion dollars. But I can't afford to legally protect it either... So how do I launch without the skills to personally create the product AND no money to hire anyone else to do that either??" The answer is ... You don't. Look - let's be honest. All you have is an idea. Big deal. Really. I'm not saying it's not a good idea. I'm not saying that if properly executed it couldn't make you a million / billion dollars... But an idea is NOT a business. Nor is it an asset. Until you do some (very important) initial work - like creating a business model, doing customer development, creating a MVP, etc - all you really have is a dream. Right now your choices are: 1. Find someone with the skills or the money to develop your idea and sell them on WHY they should invest in you. And yes, this will mean giving up either a portion of the "ownership" or of future income or equity. And the more risk they have to take - the more equity they will want (and quite frankly be entitled to). 2. Learn how to code and build it yourself. MANY entrepreneurs without financial resources are still resourceful. They develop the skills needed to create what they don't have the money to pay someone else to do. 3. Get some cash so you can pay someone to do the coding. You'll probably have to have some knowledge of coding to direct the architecture of your idea. So you will likely still have to become knowledgeable even if its not you personally doing the coding. (This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of options... And I'm sure some of the other experts here on Clarity have others to add - and I hope they do) To wrap up - Here's my final tip to you that I hope you "get"... It's FAR more valuable to have an idea that a very specific hungry crowd is clamoring for right now - One that THEY would love and pay you for right now - Maybe even one they'd pre-order because they just have to have it - Versus YOU being in love with your own idea. [Notice I didn't say "an idea that some as-of-yet-undetermined market would probably love"] I wish you the best of luck moving forward.

23 answers • over 10 years

Cold Calling

How to go past gate keepers in calling?

David Berman answered: There's a reason that most CEOs and M.D.s are hard to get to and why their gatekeepers won't let you through... They WANT it that way. They are constantly being bombarded by people trying to sell them something! My best advice is to discover ways to put the target on YOUR back. Position your business/product/service in a way that compels them (or more likely someone from their office) to contact YOU. Tip: Make sure you develop and maintain an very high level of integrity - because even if you get through to one and make a sale - if your product/service is of poor quality then word will spread and your reputation will get destroyed. Best of luck!

7 answers • over 10 years

Trade Shows Advertising Marketing

Trade Show Experts: What are some good practices in pulling in some people to educate them on our products/services?

David Berman answered: Trade shows are excellent for: 1. Exposure - getting your name out there to the industry. If you are looking to get established (i.e. you are just starting out) attending let's others "discover" you. If you are established it let's others know you are still in the game. 2. Recon - you get a chance to literally MEET some of your competition. Grab their marketing materials and even take time to meet them (sometimes strategic alliances are possible!). You may also discover some trends in the industry that you can integrate into your strategy. As well trade shows can be great networking events. Be sure to collect as many business cards as you hand out.TIP: make notes on the back of the card to remind you why you took it so you'll remember the conversation when you get back home! Then take the initiative and follow up IMMEDIATELY. 3. Lead Generation (this seems to be specific to what you are asking) - gathering contact info from those that expressed interest and getting them into your funnel. I have developed some excellent ways to do this - to get them into the booth (or over to your table) and to engage them. 4. Sales - if you have product on-hand (which I HIGHLY recommend) or a way for people to "sign up" then and there you can actually generate pretty good income for the day. My goal for every trade show is to generate AT LEAST as much income from the booth as I spent to get there (so I AT LEAST break even for the event). If you are interested in discovering more about how to do these things - give me a call. Have fun... And best of luck to you!

4 answers • over 10 years

Freemium B2C marketing Mobile applications

How do you get traction for a B2C app? More importantly, how does a Free B2C app make any money?

Austin Church answered: B2C apps typically use a freemium model to make money off of in-app purchases and ad revenue. You could also make a paid monthly subscription model work in several categories, such as Newsstand. The challenge is finding the balance between giving enough functionality away for free so that your app can attract and retain users. Only if user retention is high does your app stand to monetize well over time. A word of caution though related to free-to-play apps: http://m.ign.com/articles/2014/04/10/two-thirds-of-mobile-free-to-play-gamers-quit-after-24-hours. Basically, the only safe bet in mobile development in particular (and business in general) is to create something beautiful, unique, and entertaining (or helpful), and then to market, market, market it and build a tribe of fans. Hope this helps, Austin

3 answers • over 10 years

Apple iOS Apps App Development

How to know if my app downloads are real or spam?

Dilip Dand answered: Well, hopefully you have analytics embedded in your app. That should also give you an idea of how many users are real vs spammers. Also, what sections of your apps are being used more often. It is not too late to add the analytics to your app.

3 answers • over 10 years

Fundraising

Pre-seed / seed funding for a community appvaluation and how much to take from investors

Dan Martell answered: As much as you need to build out the product and raise at a 3-4x increased valuation. Typically that's 500K-1.5M and gives you 1.5-2 years of runway to build product, customers and team.

2 answers • over 10 years

Graphic Design

What are the Dos and Donts when hiring a creative to do graphic design?

Marissa Louie answered: First, get a sense for what kind of design you like by looking on Dribbble.com. If you have any more q's, feel free to call me here on Clarity.

3 answers • over 10 years

Fundraising Seed Capital Mobile applications

Pre-seed / seed funding for a community app... valuation and how much to take from investors?

Tom Williams answered: To answer your questions: 1) Mobile companies at your stage usually raise angel funding at a valuation equivalent of $5,000,000 for US based companies and $4,000,000 to $4,500,000 for Canadian companies. 2) The valuation is a function of how much you raise against that valuation. For instance, selling $50,000 at $5,000,000 means you are selling debt that will convert into shares equal to roughly 1% of your company. 3) I would encourage you to check out my other answers that I've recently written that talk in detail about what to raise and when to raise. Given that you've now launched and your launch is "quiet", most seed investors are going to want to see substantial traction before investing. It's best for you to raise this money on a convertible note instead of actually selling equity, especially if you are intending on raising $50,000 - $100,000. Happy to schedule a call with you to provide more specifics and encourage you to read through the answers I've provided re fundraising advice to early-stage companies as well.

5 answers • over 10 years

Public Speaking

What is the best way to get paid speaking engagements?

Saif Siddiqui answered: Hey there Without knowing the specific industry you're targeting I can only provide general advice. However, my background is in the technology sector with primarily specific experience in the Telco & Transport sectors. So if I draw on my own experience I would work through the following steps. 1 - Brainstorm the top 3 topics you feel you are confident to speak about and could mould around a specific engagement. 2 - Identify the regular speaking opportunities locally and regionally that you could attend without too much trouble. 3 - Reach out to your network. Let people know you are looking for this kind of opportunity 4 - Be totally willing to speak for free to build up experience as well as a name for yourself. Everyone would love to walk straight into a paid speaking gig. The reality is that you have to build up a reputation first and only then will people be willing to pay for your services. Some events, once convinced of your value add, will be willing to pay for your travel costs but not your time. If you can start by getting those you are doing well. Go to the event. Smash it out of the park. Network like crazy. Build a list of other opportunities to pitch for. Once you have done a few 'free' engagements you can use those as a springboard in your marketing to help draw in paid work. Obviously having a strong social media presence with videos of you speaking at events and details of where you have spoken in the past and are due to in the future greatly help. Also look at local business support groups where you can build up a following as a 'go to' guy for your sector. There are a number of approaches you can take and will vary by your background and target audience. I hope that gives you a little bit of a pointer in how to get started. Feel free to schedule a call if you would like to discuss further. Wishing the best for you Regards Saif www.saifsiddiqui.com

6 answers • over 10 years

CDN Cloud Storage Web Hosting

How do you approach moving a large site onto a CDN?

Aneil Singh answered: When you go with Cloudflare you will have the ability to use or not use the CDN. The great thing here is you can see if your site has problems quickly. Make sure your QA team goes through your site to ensure you find any issues.

3 answers • over 10 years

Social Media Strategy Social Media Marketing Social Media

What are successful social media marketing strategies to reach physicians?

David Berman answered: I work extensively in the healthcare market. In particular I have quite a bit of experience marketing to MDs and other healthcare providers. And in my experience - that audience is not likely to be reached via social media. Medical professionals (particularly MDs) are mainly offline. Online business related activity is generally limited to reading journals and correspondence with other medical professionals. In fact - they have such a huge "target" painted on their back that they are very challenging to market TO at all. This is not to say that you can't be successful in working with them. Only that if you "target" them you're likely to get stonewalled. I'm curious why you are intent on reaching them in this manner (i.e. social media)? One of the main tenets I teach my coaching students is to find out where your market is... Not to choose a form of media (i.e. twitter, FB, etc) and hope to reach them there. You may have greater success (and waste less time/money) re-thinking your business model. I can certainly help with this if you decide to go in that direction. In any case - Best of luck!

5 answers • over 10 years

Cash Flow Internet Entrepreneur

How does one create an income without having a job, while you work on a big idea that may take time to become cash flow positive?

David Berman answered: It worries me when I hear a (budding?) entrepreneur use words like "reliable" and "consistent" and "income". Entrepreneurs know there are no such guarantees on the road to potential success. As well your statement "may take time" also indicates that it's just a matter of time. In many (dare I even say MOST) cases your big idea will flat out fail. Sure, some people get lucky and hit it big on their first outing... But the wise ones know that luck was a HUGE factor. And they hold no such expectations for future endeavors to succeed or pan out that quickly. I say none of this to discourage you. On the contrary - these things are the reasons why being an entrepreneur is so amazing. -Most people fear failure and as such will avoid even trying. -Most people give up after their one big idea doesn't start cash-flowing immediately. -Most people have an aversion to risk so they take the path of (seeming) least resistance. Entrepreneurs aren't "most people". Entrepreneurs embrace risk. They do everything they can to MITIGATE that risk - but they also know that "sure things" are for suckers. Entrepreneurs move forward with confidence and passion but also do so knowing that there are no guarantees. They may have to hold down a "j-o-b" while pursuing their vision. It might takes years. They may spend nights and weekends toiling away. But they do so knowingly and willingly. The answer to your question - how to do it - is just to DO IT. Start taking action today. In my opinion - a better question to ask is "What can I do to increase the probability of turning my idea into a business - a profitable reality - one that creates value for the marketplace while kicking off profits to me, the owner?" Find a great mentor or coach and then just go for it. I sincerely wish you the best of luck!

5 answers • over 10 years

Entrepreneurship Successful Business Owner Entrepreneur

How should one measure entrepreneurial success?

David Berman answered: I'd suggest that there is no "should". The beauty of being an entrepreneur is that YOU get to decide what success is. In fact - In the system I use with entrepreneurs you learn to define "success" for yourself and build it into the requirements of your business model.

6 answers • over 10 years

Entrepreneurship Business Strategy Business Development

If you're building a "Quora for a niche", how would design it?

Dan Martell answered: Follow how http://growthhackers.com/ has done it / it's Q&A plus a resource for links and community. Pure brilliance.

3 answers • over 10 years

Management Time Management Management Consulting

What are your tips to manage two jobs?

Kosta Stavreas answered: There is a legendary example of this: Jack Dorsey being the CEO of both Twitter and Square simultaneously. Yes, it is possible to hold two jobs. It's even possible to be the CEO of two billion-dollar companies. It's far from easy, but it's possible with an extreme dose of discipline and time management. I heard Jack personally tell the story of how he managed his time at a fireside chat he did in New York. The closest I can get to an online article that talks about it is this: http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/13/technology/dorsey_techonomy/ Take a look at the way he splits the days of his week into themes. Each of his 6 working days has a purpose. Monday: Management meetings and "running the company" work Tuesday: Product development Wednesday: Marketing, communications and growth Thursday: Developers and partnerships Friday: The company and its culture Saturday: (no work) Sunday: Big picture strategy But he then goes next level and splits his time between two companies by alternating mornings and afternoons in each office. The article mentions him working 16 hour days – 8 hrs at each company – but when Jack told the story himself, he said he was splitting mornings and afternoons between the companies. Monday Morning = Twitter Monday Afternoon = Square Tuesday Morning = Square Tuesday Afternoon = Twitter Wednesday Morning = Twitter etc This might be an approach you can think of taking. It means you make it clear what your schedule is, when you will be working on different aspects of each job, and then be incredibly disciplined about sticking to the schedule so other people can accommodate and work with you.

4 answers • over 10 years

Foreign Affairs CPA Accounting

Do I have to file a tax return with the IRS?

Dan Waldschmidt answered: Great question. Check out this link: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Do-I-have-to-File-a-Tax-Return%3F PLEASE go speak to a professional about this. You might call one of the tax dudes here on Clarity (go figure...). In the past I have always filed a return -- even if taxes were not owed. It buttons things up nicely.

4 answers • over 10 years

Go-to-market Strategy Marketing Strategy

How to assess consumer market size? We Have a consumer app for prediabetic iPhone users...

Dilip Dand answered: Can you segment by the demographic markers for the prediabetic users and then co-relate to similar groups in the prediabetes iPhone population?

4 answers • over 10 years