Your Questions Answered by Industry Experts

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Answers from Industry Experts

Viral Marketing Online Marketing Word of Mouth Marketing

How can I get viral power to promote my online bootcamp seminars to 17 - 20 year old?

Andy Renk answered: Hello! First some questions. Are you working in a specific local market? What have you done to attract clients in the past? How did it work? Do you have a client base now? Have you tried any referral marketing at all? What are you teaching?

4 answers • almost 11 years

Business Valuation Start Ups Fundraising

I need advice on a fund raising scenario with a start up i am currently helping out.

Tom Williams answered: I can tell you that this proposed structure will significantly reduce NewCo's ability to raise additional capital. The idea too that the startup's valuation can jump from less than $200,000 to $10m just through the creation of an MVP in a relatively short period of time is also unrealistic. If the investors actually want their investment to succeed, the absolute maximum they should be getting for a $100,000 would be 15%. If there is a tangible asset (not just an idea but a patent, a customer list, whatever), this could also be worth some equity but generally not more than 5%. If they believe that this NewCo is worth investing $100,000, they should want to invest this $100,000 in the best possible way as to attract further outside capital, not structure it such that the deal is immediately toxic to new investors, day one. Happy to talk through this in a call.

2 answers • almost 11 years

Start-ups Mobile applications Prototyping

What tools to use for mobile Prototyping ?

Dan Martell answered: My 2 favourite are: - www.uxpin.com - www.flinto.com Flinto is by far my favorite for mobile. I also us www.balsamiq.com for anything wireframe. Sometimes I jump into Sketch http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch/ for more high fidelity mockups using their Mirror feature http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch/mirror/ Hope that helps. P.S. There's a tonne of Mobile UX experts on Clarity, many $1/min - call them, you'll learn so much. my2cents.

15 answers • almost 11 years

Startups Early-stage Startups Small Business

Business partner I want to bring on will invest more money than me, but will be less involved in operations, how do I split the company?

Tom Williams answered: Cash money should be treated separately than sweat equity. There are practical reasons for this namely that sweat equity should always be granted in conjunction with a vesting agreement (standard in tech is 4 year but in other sectors, 3 is often the standard) but that cash money should not be subjected to vesting. Typically, if you're at the idea stage, the valuation of the actual cash going in (again for software) is anywhere between $300,000 and $1m (pre-money). If you're operating in any other type of industry, valuations would be much lower at the earliest stage. The best way to calculate sweat equity (in my experience) is to use this calculator as a guide: http://foundrs.com/. If you message me privately (via Clarity) with some more info on what the business is, I can tell you whether I would be helpful to you in a call.

12 answers • almost 11 years

SaaS - Enterprise & SMB B2B Deal Making Business Strategy

SaaS platform with 10k niche users and a large company wants to buy a custom version. How do you model a cost structure beyond hourly?

Adam Lieb answered: Great question, I've dealt with this exact same issue. I've found the best way to look at this problem is by analyzing the problem you are solving for this "lighthouse." Is this something they would build anyway? If so, how much would it cost? Anything less than that is probably a win for them. Is this a nice to have, or a need to have for them? Are they price sensitive? How do they usually pay for this type of product/service? If you are able to answer these questions it should help you figure out the best pricing model (up front cost + hosting, monthly service, per user/group etc..). It sounds like you have something pretty valuable that they want. I think pricing it based on "modification" is selling yourself short. If you solve a big business pain for them, they should be willing to pay you something non-trivial. My hunch modification pricing would be trivial for you. Sounds like a great opportunity for you and your company, don't sell yourself short. You'll never get a price that you don't ask for.

3 answers • over 10 years

Sales Marketing Legal Advice

What value is there to auto populate a SaaS subscription module with Businesses/Customers which have not actually registered for the service?

Tom Williams answered: It's certainly been an effective tactic and I'd caution you that I don't think the examples you use are counting these people as customers per se but more as trying to solve issues related to two-sided marketplaces. These businesses are trying to prove their worth as effective lead-gen tools for the practitioners. The service providers are more likely to be responsive/pay-attention to an email or inbound message that says "We have someone interested in booking with you" than "Hi, I'm calling from Company X, would you please-sign up and maybe we'll get you some customers?" There's no implied endorsement and the data is really "directory" type content, so it would be unusual to find someone unhappy that their business profile is being published. So it's absolutely a valid tactic but it's also a case of "devil is in the details." Happy to talk through the specifics of your inquiry and what you're looking to do in a call with you.

3 answers • almost 11 years

Training & Development Business Development Management

What are the best sources for online courses on business and management?

farida mohammed answered: Well there are tons of courses online everwhere, point is how would you know which one works best, i suggest you do online coaching program, i give 1:1 to millennials who need to start their business, my quali in accounting and exp in business helps them get clarity on step by step guidance on how to move forward, connect with me if this interest you or wish to know more.

7 answers • almost 3 years

Marketing Strategy Growth Hacking Local Marketing

What are the best growth hacking tactics for local businesses?

Paul Galbreath answered: Hello, I myself do not have much hands on experience with growth hacking , but I can offer some thoughts on the subject. I'm not quite sure what you're looking for in terms of your question though? Are you looking for ideas or methods for growth using the growth hacker mentality for local brick and mortar businesses? Are you looking to bring these brick and mortar businesses online and increasing their lead captures? If I were to take a local photography service and try to increase growth in a local area there would be a couple of things I would focus on when it comes to growth hacking. The first thing I would look at is the actual product that is being offered. Then I would see if I could use the product itself to increase growth for itself. Make sense? What is the product of the photographer? I would think that the product would be the photos produced. So I would then figure out how I could use the photos to increase the photo shoots done with my photography studio. One way to do this may be to offer some sort of deal to people that share the photos on social media and get their friends and family to sign up. If I were the photographer I would tell my customers that if their friends and family like and comment on my Facebook page about their photos I would give their friends and family a free 8x10 photo on their first shoot. If 10 of their friends sign up for a shoot I would then give my original customer some sort of thank you in the form of free prints or something similar that makes sense for the business. Use the product to market itself. Another thing I would be looking at is the distribution of my product. In the local scene I feel that online directories, live events, local media, and forming business partnerships are critical. If I were a local photographer I would be at as many local events as possible taking photos. I would then place these photos online where they could be viewed and purchased. I do offer consulting in the area of local marketing and would love to chat with you in more detail about what you are looking to achieve. Schedule a time to talk. I'm sure we can come up with some great actionable ideas that can help with lead generation.

4 answers • over 10 years

Sales

What is the best way to sell to dentists?

David Berman answered: Get specific with the "who" of your market (i.e. what kind of dentist? what is their specialty? whom do they serve? demographics and psychographics of both the dentist AND their patients?) And specific with your offer to them. What are you selling? What are they buying? And why do they want it (according to THEM... not you)? Get those factors right and they'll buy from you all day long.

6 answers • almost 11 years

Advisory Boards Start-ups

What is the usual or acceptable number of people for an advisory board? What kind of commitment would I be asking potential members to make?

Tom Williams answered: There are two types of advisory boards: For show (i.e. credibility) or for help. They should intersect but often don't. The "For Show" advisory boards are usually no more than 5 (though I've seen up to 10) and are meant to demonstrate a significant depth of subject-matter expertise and credibility to potential customers. They act as a form of "social proof" for, meant more to be a form of "light endorsement" than to actually provide guidance. A venture I was interim co-ceo of had such an advisory board and running formal advisory board meetings was a really big pain in that when we actually "put them to work" in asking to weigh-in on a specific question or issue, it was almost impossible to get a unified answer. We found it better to hold quarterly events at our office which were meant to be much more social and produced some interesting conversations than formal advisory meetings. For help advisory boards really should be no more than 3 and would advise having diverse experience but all highly relevant to the challenges you are and will be facing. I have a document I'm happy to share that spells out commitments at different levels. Just private message me your email and I can send it to you.

3 answers • almost 11 years

Corporate Finance

Is a 1.6% profit margin good for a year in the dental lab industry? That is with paying all employees and the owner... What is a good profit margin?

Rebecca Caroe answered: That is a LOUSY return. You'd be better off putting the money in a savings account in the bank. I do not know your industry well, but in mine (Marketing Agency) I aim for a net profit of 15% after paying corporate taxes, wages and all overheads.

4 answers • almost 11 years

SaaS SaaS Sales Marketing Strategy

What's the best way to sell a SaaS prior to launching?

Tom Williams answered: I was involved with a SaaS product that launched a landing page and made clear that the product was still in development, but that we would give earliest access to people who pre-paid for the product. We also allowed people to choose what they paid, and promised them that payment would stay in-effect for several months. We generated revenue the first day of posting the landing-page publicly and increased revenue month-over-month. However, we discontinued the product as it was simply not big enough of a market for us to justify continued time and energy. But I would encourage you to pursue a similar model in that it's a great way to test and validate the pain others experience for the problem and a great way to ensure you're building the product to satisfy real customers. Happy to talk this through in more detail in a call

4 answers • almost 11 years

Sales Sales Management Entrepreneurship

Whats the best way to find commission sales reps?

Nickolas Passig answered: This is not my specialty, however, I have been in your position many many times -- maybe this will help. If the product is in-tangible, then look for JV partners on the Internet. Try to find an expert that deals with these JV opportunities (like me). If the product is physical, then look for sales organizations that have networks of sales people across the country. You do the deal with the organization and the independent network of sales people sells your product. It's a sweet setup if you can negotiate a margin that works for everyone. Hope that helps - Cheers - Nick

12 answers • almost 11 years

Marketing Strategy

What is the best way test a market to see if it is profitable?

Clay Hebert answered: This question is very broad so it's tough to answer, but I'll give it a shot. Is there anyone else making money in that market? If so, how? What business models are working well? Take the automobile industry. There are hundreds of business and revenue models in the auto industry (wholesale, retail, repair, parts, leasing, specialization, etc.) There is potential profit in every market, it's the intersection of the market and your particular business model or product / service that determines the profit. If you can be more specific, I can give you a better answer.

5 answers • almost 11 years

Business Strategy Entrepreneurship

If I have a business idea for a large company, how can I give it to them and mutually profit, without them just taking the idea and squashing me?

Tom Williams answered: Probably not the answer you're looking for, but companies have so many unimplemented ideas that the likelihood of partnering to implement someone else's idea is really low. And besides which, the idea is not something that has much value in and of itself. If you're passionate in the idea, build it yourself. That's the only way you can have leverage.

14 answers • almost 11 years

Management Change Management Organizational Change

What advice would you give me when I take over a new department with a weak team?

Mike Hughes answered: For the first 90 days, listen and plan - but don't do anything. You need to understand why they are under performing and 9/10 it's because the previous Manager was just not a good Manager, could not recognize people's strength's, had them in the wrong roles, tried to do their jobs etc etc Read "First break all the Rules" - get to know your team, get to understand their strengths, get people in the right roles (plan a change if reqd) and then your focus after that is break down the barriers that stop your team being successful and get out of their way. “Now, discover your strengths!” that Swier suggests is also a marvellous book\resource to help you in this task. You are in a very fortunate position - there is nothing more rewarding than turning this situation around and there is only one way to go.... up... and that will get you noticed. It is much harder to take over a high performing team and either keep that going or further improve on it, as it's very unlikely you'll get the chance to really meet the previous Manager and understand why they had success and that team's loyalty will be with the previous Manager - this team will be looking for someone to lead, guide them and help them be successful as no-one goes to work wanting to under perform. Show and help them to achieve that and they will do and achieve remarkable things and you will be so proud of them as you watch them develop, achieve, grow in confidence and keep going. So, give thanks for having landed such a great career opportunity and go enjoy it.

7 answers • over 10 years

Infographics Marketing Inbound Marketing

Do you know any good and cost effective infographic designers?

Bryant Jaquez answered: I think the answer to your question is multi-layered. Here are a few things to consider. #1: Do you want a company to conduct the research for you? Market research and demographic-studies are expensive. There's no way around that. However, you can do the research yourself and you'll save a lot of money. #2: Do you want the design to be a standard "top down" graphic with pie charts and trend-lines? If you want that, you'll be able to find a lot of inexpensive designers. If you want something more custom, you'll have to pay for it. #3: Do you want an experienced designer or someone from 99 designs? Either way is fine, you'll just "pay for it" either with your time (looking through 98 bad designs, and working with 1 good ensign to try to make it better) or with your budget. While "cheap fast work" isn't always the best, I can connect you with a designer who can do a good infographic for around $500. It's up to you. Feel free to ask me for a personal reference if you'd like to get in touch. bryant@withnoble.com

8 answers • almost 11 years

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

How do you re-structure duplicate URLs which were already indexed by search engines?

Hartley Brody answered: If you'd only like the content to live at one location, and you're worried about legacy links that people shared across the internet breaking, then a 301 redirect from the old URLs to the new URLs is what you're looking for. Every HTTP Request receives a response code from the web server. Response codes in the 200s mean "everything went well", response codes in the 400s mean "user error" (like the famous 404, "we couldn't find the page you requested") and response codes in the 500s mean server error (Twitter's famous 503 Fail Whale). 300s indicate some sort of redirection and a 301 response code specifically tells the requesting client that this piece of content has moved to a new URL *permanently* and will never be back at this old URL. When web browsers receive a 301 redirect, they'll cache it and automatically forward all future requests for the old URL to the new one without even asking the server. Similarly, when search engine crawlers encounter a 301 redirect for a URL that they had already indexed, they update their information to move that old content (and all of it's old ranking information) to the new URL. This means you don't have to "start over" to get a piece of content to rank if you move its URL. However, your question makes it sound like you actually *do* want the exact same content to be served out of multiple URLs, but you'd ideally like only one copy of that content to be indexed and ranked to avoid splitting your inbound links and any other duplicate content issues. In that case, I'd check out adding so called "rel-canonical" tags to your pages, to indicate which version is the "canonical" version of that piece of content, and have all other versions point to the canonical one with the tag. Google is pretty good about using these, and Bing says they use it has a "hint." More info: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139394?hl=en In a world where websites might choose to organize the exact same content in a number of different ways, adding "rel canonical" tags to your pages adds a lot of semantic meaning and helps you avoid a number of issues that duplicate content brings. Hope that helps!

6 answers • almost 11 years

Strategic Partnerships Partner Management Partnership Development

I need partners to help my company launch. How many shares and/or how much profit do I offer to get them?

Kevin McCarthy - Founder, BlindSpots.com answered: There are several factors to consider: 1. Profit share does not have to equal equity. As an example, two people can agree to split net profits 50/50 even though the percentage of equity is split 60/40. Just get it in writing. So find out their expectations for long term income and equity. Are they expecting a share of net profits or just the ability to recoup their investment when you sell the business? 2. What value do they bring to your business? Are they funding? Are they bringing significant contacts or the ability to secure contracts? Are they helping with infrastructure or product development? What would you pay someone in salary with no equity to do the same exact thing? 3. Are the short term or long term? In other words, once they help you launch, do they continue to have value in building the company? Or, are they no longer needed? There is no right answer to how you compensate them for helping you get started. But, try to look at all the value variables. Maybe that will help you identify what they are ultimately worth and what a fair, win-win offer would be. It sounds like they are very reasonable and you have a good opportunity to get their help for a reasonable compensation package. Good luck. If you would like to talk more about this at no charge, I offer a one time free call to new callers. Just use this link to schedule a call. https://clarity.fm/kevinmccarthy/FreeConsult

5 answers • almost 11 years

Feedback Product Development

How do you approach / engage with users to ask them for advice on how to improve your app and other quality information?

Amy Vernon answered: You need to build your community from the get-go. Start with your beta testers, creating a community where they talk to each other about issues and come to you with ideas, suggestions and bugs. Encourage them to do this, no matter the issue, and respond quickly. If you develop a community like this from the start, it's very easy to get your users to give advice on improvements and the like. You'll quickly see the beta users who are very involved, and ask them privately for suggestions of other beta users. Beta users WANT to provide feedback, and they will provide some of the must useful feedback you can get, so long as they see you responding and taking into consideration at least some of their ideas. If you start this in beta, you'll build a community of users who want to help you succeed and want to help you improve your product, for the long haul.

5 answers • almost 11 years

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

What is the best way to remove URLs from search engines in bulk?

Wissam Dandan answered: My first question to you is what are these URLs? It's important to know what these urls role in your overall website (ie do they carry important search signals or not , or by them being crawled they actually diluting these search signals) so based on your answer above : if they are important , or duplicated then you need either 301 them and if too much dev time you go with your 2nd choice which is use rel=canonical. (PS canonical is a suggestion/hint to google and dnt active like directive ) if they are not important ( search pages, doorway pages or whatever) then you need to remove them either by a 404 or a 410 then after couple of months (when you see all of these urls has been disappeared from the index) apply robots.txt exclusion to not to crawl these urls anymore. please note that the url removal works just for 90 days and if you didnt apply a robots.txt to disable bots from crawling them again then they will reappear. hope this helps

3 answers • almost 11 years

Fundraising

How much traction does a b2c app needs to get to series A?

Tom Williams answered: Bottom-line is that you have to be at a point where the evidence suggests you are ready to spend this capital to create a period of hyper growth connected to a clear path forward to creating a billion dollar business. What that looks like to investors depends on so many different circumstances, namely: How much have you raised previously and when and from whom? What were the metrics that you expected to hit with that raise and what's reality since then if the path stayed unchanged? How many months of "good data" (the data that tells the story that validates the pitch) have you collected and how statistically meaningful are the data signals you're using to sell. 6 months of solid data is really reliable, but three months of good data can create a lot of excitement. And of course, it's important to ensure that what the team defines as traction aligns with investors' assessment of traction, where there can often be significant misalginment. It's good to be asking this question now directly of investors you think are likely good A investor for you. Adam Nash (CEO of Wealthfront) wrote a great blog post about finding the right investors here: http://13hourstothink.com/2011/11/03/vc-tips-sell-burgers-to-meat-eaters/ … You also want to make sure that you have filled any gaps in your team required (as defined not by you but by outsider assessment) to really scale your business. Happy to talk to you in detail about where you're at and try to give you some more specific advice. Hope this helps set a general sense.

3 answers • almost 11 years

CEOs Entrepreneurship Advisory Boards

What are the best strategies for a company to attract & compensate formal advisors on a board? What normal? Is it money, or equity - etc?

Tom Williams answered: Mark is correct that the best advisors should have skin in the game but that advice is applicable only when you and your business are obviously investable. I've engaged advisors at times when I knew I wasn't ready to ask for their money and I've often begun advisory relationships in the earliest of stages where I like in and believe in the entrepreneur and the idea but they don't yet meet my investment criteria. Also, the old adage is true: Ask for advice, and you might just end-up with the person offering or even asking to invest. This has happened to me again on both sides of the table. In terms of compensation, I have a chart that spells out specific advisor expectations and stage-appropriate equity based compensation that I can email anyone who DM's me here through Clarity. Mark's answer is lower than I would accept for a start-up that isn't well funded. But anything above 1% would be really unusual and would have to be a really, really hands-on advisor or partial contributor as a team member. It should never be money on a retainer basis. I now have several people who call me regularly through Clarity to talk through specific things but other than that, it wouldn't be reasonable to expect cash compensation in a formal advisory role. And I would personally be vary of that because if they're not taking equity, then they really, much to Mark's point, have any skin in the game. I have a standard template that I use as an advisor (it was originally given to me by a company I advise) and I know use it with my own advisors, so happy to pass a stripped version of that agreement as it's the best one I've seen and is clearest for both parties. Just DM here via Clarity if you want it.

4 answers • almost 11 years

Growth Hacking Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Conversion Optimization

What does your growth team look like? I'm starting to think through our strategy and would love to hear from other fast growing startups.

Dan Martell answered: 1) The whole team is growth focused, but I'm the only who helps guide and lead the strategy but for the most part, we know our core metrics and we have a development process for reviewing / assessing / testing / adjusting, etc. So I guess that's me. 2) We have many tools, and all depends on the metric, funnels, etc. As a general rule of thumb we use Google Analytics for all external traffic converting to sign-up, Mixpanel as a data warehouse for all events & funnels, A LOT of custom reports and tools we've built in house required when MixPanel or Google Analytics falls short. 3) We actually use Clarity (whole team) for conducting usability testing with members & experts on specific topics. We create clickeable prototypes and use Clarity to schedule a call & www.join.me to share the prototype for feedback. We also use www.usertesting.com for odering weekly baseline videos on our mobile app. It's not a "tool" but we use the Jobs-to-be-Done framework for conducting interviews when trying to understand intent. 4) Dave Skok has written the bible in my mind when it comes to SaaS metrics http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/saas-metrics/ Hope that helps, feel free to request a call to discuss further.

3 answers • almost 11 years

Software Development Bug Tracking Scrum

Which is the best hosted free bug tracking tool for a team size of up to 10 members?

David Rogers aka "AL the X" answered: Being a freelance developer for the last 10 years or so, I have seen and used almost every project management software you can think of, open-source and closed, and I have found that the "best bug tracking tool" completely depends on your process. I employ and direct teams in an Agile process that involves loose story-based requirements with point-based estimates, two-week cycles of iterative development, planning and retrospective sessions, and look-ahead and show-and-tell meetings with the stakeholders. It's important to me, then, that my tools have a method of capturing all those pieces with as much detail as I need but no more. On projects, I've successfully used Pivotal Tracker, Unfuddle, Redmine, Codebase HQ, Basecamp, Trello, and many others. I usually recommend people to Trello for light, agile management; it's essentially a digitized version of sticky notes and swim lanes. If your team actually needs a full-featured ticketing system, see Redmine (Rails), Trac (Python), or Mantis (PHP), depending on your language preference. Hosting a version of these yourself is fairly trivial, and numerous options exist for cheap or free hosted versions. For something in the middle, Github Issues is a good fit and the open-source clone GitLab.org replicates most of those features nicely. However, if you're looking for a hosted version, you're probably looking to offload that tricky "backup" thingy, and in that case, how important is your data? How proprietary? What's your business model? If you're working on an open-source project, Github will give your team a free account with private repos, issues, wikis, and the like. If you're okay with your project being "readable by all", public projects on Pivotal are still free. I'm mostly a consultant these days, leading small groups of junior or intermediate developers into a more productive, more mature, fully operational teams of senior software developers. One of the first things I teach folks is how to use a project management system... and why! It'll save your bacon if it's simple, effective, and reliable. With a few minutes of discussion about your project, I can probably help you select the right tool and service for your team. Let me know if I can help with that. Best of luck!

6 answers • almost 11 years

eCommerce

Is Open Cart comparable to Shopify and Magento?

Kevin McCarthy - Founder, BlindSpots.com answered: Developing the website is the least of your concerns. If you are operating an online store, building trust and confidence with your customer base is critical. So, when choosing a shopping cart to run your store, performance and availability are key. When you use a quality, paid service like Magento or Shopify (or the myriad of others), you are paying for the solid infrastructure, the ongoing development and support. With an open source cart, as you said you will have I do it yourself. You may not have the monthly subscription fee. But, you will have maintenance and development fees. You will also have infrastructure fees - if you plan to do it right. If you would like to discuss this more, schedule a free call using my free consultation code below. I provide up to 30 minute calls at no charge for first time callers. https://clarity.fm/kevinmccarthy/FreeConsult Kevin McCarthy www.kevinmccarthy.com

3 answers • almost 11 years

Fundraising

How much would our startup have to pay angelist out of a 100k raise?

Tom Williams answered: One of the many great things about AngelList is that they don't charge commissions. In the case of an AngelList syndicate, there is both a management fee and a carrying cost, but that is not deducted from what you raise but rather deducted from the investors' profit (if there is one). The likelihood that you will be successful in raising $100k via AngelList on the other hand is quite low. While it would be a great place for you to find potential angel investors, I would advise against you using it to actively fundraise for such a small amount. Happy to talk to you about AngelList and fundraising strategy in general.

3 answers • almost 11 years

Small Business Marketing Growth Hacking Growth Strategies

What are some effective new strategies or tactics for marketing to small businesses?

Kevin McCarthy - Founder, BlindSpots.com answered: Are you targeting new businesses? Try acquiring a list of all new business license applicants. Do you have a budget for radio? Try news talk radio stations in your markets. Also try targeted news feed ads with Facebook and LinkedIn if that isn't already part of our PPC plan.

5 answers • almost 11 years

Start-ups Entrepreneur Startups

What did it feel like to transition from full time to a start up?

Daniel Arroyo answered: I wrote a couple of articles when I was going through it for the first time: http://www.danielarroyo.net/2011/08/can-corporate-employees-become-entrepreneurs/ http://www.danielarroyo.net/2011/09/how-to-transition-from-employee-to-entrepreneur/ I hope you enjoy them. I can talk in length about this as it's still relatively fresh in my mind.

4 answers • almost 11 years

Project Manager Operations Management Serial Entrepreneur

MicroManagers - how do you deal/handle them?

Nickolas Passig answered: The best way is always through helping your people to grow. Think about the micro managers motivation - typically it is fear driven. Alleviate that fear. Give them the One Minute Manager book and talk about it... If they are tough to approach, hire an outside consultant to come in and talk with the whole group. Micromanagers run good employees away...so if you are not betting on this horse, perhaps it is time to restructure the department...

3 answers • almost 11 years

Entrepreneurship Business Advice Business Strategy

What advice do you give to a 16 year old entrepreneur with a start up idea?

Kevin McCarthy - Founder, BlindSpots.com answered: First, hat tip to you for being a young entrepreneur. Keep it up! If you have the funds to build out your MVP, hire a developer and possibly a mentor. If your idea is marketable, you don't need to give up equity by bringing in a co-founder. If this is your entrepreneurial venture, I would recommend you do retain a coach to help you see all the things you may not know. Have you already done your SWOT analysis? Have you identified your target market? What is your marketing plan? What will be your operating expenses? There are lots of questions to ask. If you would a free call, I'd be happy to help you in more detail. Just use this link to schedule your free call... https://clarity.fm/kevinmccarthy/FreeConsult Best regards, Kevin McCarthy Www.kevinmccarthy.com

34 answers • almost 11 years

Mobile applications GPS

What would be the best framework to implement a mobile application?

Micah Alcorn answered: I dove into Appcelerator Titanium as a novice developer with very little experience in Javascript. I put an app in the Apple App Store within a few months by working nights and weekends. If you (1) want to write code, (2) want a native app, and (3) don't have prior experience with Objective C or Java, OR (4) want to write less code and deploy faster, then I recommend Titanium. If you (a) don't want to touch the code, (b) have some compelling feature that requires lower-level access than what is offered by Titanium (I don't know what this might be), or (c) have significantly more experience with a relevant programming language and don't want to learn Javascript, then there are surely more appropriate alternatives.

7 answers • almost 11 years

Management Consulting CEOs Business Advice

What is the best ERP system or any other system for managing a business?

Kevin McCarthy - Founder, BlindSpots.com answered: OpenERP and Zoho are both fragmented modular systems that can be very confusing. Without knowing your industry and complete set of needs, have you considered NetSuite, Sage, MS Dynamics, Aptean or Epicor? Aside from feature sets, implementation and ongoing support and training are critical elements to consider. The other big challenge is getting buy-in from the users. Have you considered starting with an open source or semi-custom, previously developed product and having it customized to your needs? If you would like more information, let's have a phone call so I can better understanding your specific needs and point you in the right direction. Best regards, Kevin McCarthy www.KevinMcCarthy.com

4 answers • almost 11 years

Blogging

I want to grow my blog readership to 1k readers a day. What strategies can I implement to make this happen?

Mack Collier answered: The obvious answer is that you have to create content that has value for educators. Think about the problems they have, the questions they need answers to, and write blog posts that address these concerns and answer their questions. The second thing you should do to grow your readership is to make a list of the top 3-5 sites where educators are going today to get their information, and start commenting on those sites. As you leave smart and relevant comments on these sites that educators are reading, it will increase the chances of them checking out YOUR blog. Do both of these together, and you will see your readership grow pretty quickly.

11 answers • almost 11 years

Compensation Startups Legal Advice

What are the logistics of vesting agreement before anyone is an employee?

Daniel Arroyo answered: I'm going to talk from the perspective of a founder, not a lawyer. I also live in California and your state laws might defer. I think if you are putting hours into your startup, you are also an 'employee' in addition to a founder. Your board (ie. your cofounders) can decide at any time that you are not pulling your weight in the project and don't want you involved. Thus you can also be 'fired'. In most vesting agreements there's a right to repurchase unvested shares that the company has. This is essentially how vesting works. The company decides that they don't want you anymore and they have the right to repurchase from you all the unvested shares at the price they were given to you initially ( not current market price ). You can only keep the vested portion. I hope this helps

3 answers • almost 11 years

Startups Entrepreneur Entrepreneurship

What would you do differently today if you were starting over with your business?

Shawn Matthews answered: If I was going to start over, with a blank slate I would do several things differently. 1. I would hire an accountant and bookkeeper on day one. I know that on the surface it's easy to look at the cost of an accountant and justify spending those resources in other areas, however I have seen this play out horribly for a number of businesses (ours included.) An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. 2. I would make a list of all of my start up items, edit it and then edit it again. Start as lean as you can. We started our t-shirt company with basic equipment in my mom's attic and slowly moved into proper production space as we needed to, however we made the mistake of buying too much equipment early on because we thought we needed it. Get by with the bare minimum for as long as you can, get traction, customers and cash flow and then expand cautiously. 3. Don't listen to salespeople! Talk to friends, other businesses and look on the web for answers to common questions. Salespeople are great when you know what you need to buy, however often times you are going to end up wasting money that would be better spent in other places, like on your accountant. 4. Don't take on bad customers just to make a buck. If you are interested in knowing our 10 tell tale signs of bad customers, schedule a call with me and I'll run down the list. It will save you hours and it only takes a few minutes. 5. Find a team of advisors and listen to them. I wish I would have listened to advice that people were giving me for free when we first got started. There's an old saying, "if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in trouble." Find good council and listen. Hope that's helpful, I've been a freelancer and small business owner for almost twenty years and enjoy coaching startups and entrepreneurs in getting their ventures off the ground. Feel free to schedule a call and I can help get you started.

3 answers • almost 11 years

Business Development Equity Trading Software Development

I want to reduce some dev costs for my startup AND incentivize my main developer. Any suggestions for a possible agreement? Is equity sharing needed?

Tom Williams answered: For a technical co-founder, the minimum should be 33%. If you've been paying him, there is no way he should be 50/50 but how to determine the exact number is a calculation of a lot of variables that are impossible to answer without knowing more about your situation. Most investors want to see a team in place (especially a strong technical team) so incentivizing the right person now might make a lot of sense. What is standard is for all employees (yourself included) to be vesting over 4 years, with a one-year cliff. Given that you have invested cash, that should be treated differently (not subjected to any vesting) but your "earned" equity should be vesting just the same as this developer. BUT, keep in mind that if you are only a month away from launching, you might be best to continue investing cash. After a product is validated (assuming this takes place), the amount of equity a developer should expect to earn could be significantly less than 33% and even single-digit percentages. Happy to talk through the specifics of your situation in a call.

7 answers • almost 11 years

Offshore Software Development IT Outsourcing

What will be the biggest obstacles to offering offshore developer outplacement services to North American clients?

Dhana Galindra answered: Based on my experience, the biggest challenge is getting the right talent that can pull off a quality work, I have done this by sending out small tasks to different developers and evaluate their works after. (But I guess this isn't your issue since you have 4 yours experience of working together). The next challenge I faced was time difference. Both parties need to be flexible enough with their schedule meaning working in the evening to get things resolved right away. Exchanging email with hours/one-day-delay to reply kills the momentum and motivations. Let me know if you would love to get more information about my experience with outsourcing.

4 answers • almost 11 years

Online Marketing Sales B2B Marketing

How to boost sales of LED light tubes on amazon? Or how to sell them online?

Nickolas Passig answered: Simple answers for simple problems - Three quick options that can be used solo or together. For Amazon, you have to get in the Buy Box on the product detail page. Also, having a high amount of positive feedback and the lowest price helps - as well as shipping out for Prime customers. 1. Get a repricing script, there are lots of vendors out there. Set your ceiling and floor pricing and then reprice to be under your competitors' price. 2. Setup an inventory management solution online - that will integrate with other multiple marketplaces. Think fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), eBay, Rakuten, etc for your solution when choose something like Lettuce or UnLeashed. 3. Setup an E-Commerce store through a Shopify or BigCommerce If you are selling a ton - you could have FBA manage fulfillment. I have helped a number of power sellers online so if you need more help, I will have recommendations --

6 answers • almost 11 years

Human Resources Sales Process

What is the best way to get companies to pilot out an application? (Free)

Tom Williams answered: Social Proof (customer testimonials), Press or Analyst Coverage is a key driver in checking-out new tools. Unfortunately, there is such a significant number of vendors offering recruiting solutions that it's difficult to get a customer's attention, even with a free offering. I would focus on your messaging: Why are you better than similar solutions and what proof or anecdotal evidence can you offer? Also, LinkedIn ads targeting just recruiters or HR execs can be effective (though expensive). Happy to talk through this with you as I have built products in this space that have achieved product/market-fit.

4 answers • almost 11 years

Web Servers iOS Development SQL Server

I'm working on an iOS application that will need to have a server that will provide anonymity of data and posted content as well as the metadata.

Daniel Arroyo answered: It's a bit difficult to give an estimate with the information provided. I'm not sure if your question is related to adding privacy to an existing server code or you need the whole server side done. The later is significantly more cost and has an unknown scope based on only the info given. You might also want to look at platforms like Parse and see if you could get all you need done there vs a custom server side system. Happy to chat more on a call if you want to provide more info or have more detailed questions.

3 answers • almost 11 years

Marketing Strategy Online Marketing SaaS

I'm about to launch a client management & reporting web app (SAAS) for SEO Providers & Resellers. What are best ways to market it?

Rebecca Caroe answered: My preference every time is direct response marketing when selling B2B. Write things, with a compelling offer, send them to people. Start by building a database of SEO providers - they all have websites, and create a mailing list from this. Back up the direct mail campaign with awesome content marketing around the SEO space - not telling them how to do their core job (SEO) but other peripheral tools which are useful e.g. client handling, new business development, analytics to prove your success etc. If they like what you write, they'll be more open to trying your app for their clients. Happy to amplify around this area and scope out a strategy and detailed tactics for you to execute. Here's a series of blog posts we wrote around a SaaS offering which we resell http://creativeagencysecrets.com/category/feedblitz/ Should give you an idea of where to start even if you don't hire me to work with you (;-)

3 answers • almost 11 years

Google AdWords Search Engine Marketing (SEM) PPC Bid Management

What are the best adwords automatization tools?

Aditya Dugar answered: Depending upon what aspect of AdWords you want to automate, you can look at various tools. As Megumi suggested, Marin is a good option for bid management. You can have a look at Optmyzr (optmyzr.com) to automate account management activities. Cyfe is another option to automate reporting and building dashboards.

6 answers • almost 11 years

B2B Marketing B2B Marketing Strategy Mobile Marketing

What are the best way was to sell B2B products on mobile?

Anders Börde answered: Hi I have ben working in the field of Mobile Marketing since 2008 and even though most of our activities has been targeted a consumer market the mechanism is much about the sam. If you could provide me with some words about what type of products you are trying to sell to whom - I'd be glad to help out. BR/Anders

4 answers • over 10 years

E-commerce Industrial Design Marketing

What are best strategies to sell LED light tubes and industrial lighting/lamps online a) in general and b) on amazon?

Christina Mendel answered: I'd ask Rocco Baldassarre. He is the best online marketing consultant I've ever seen and can surely give you concrete advice. Said that, my advice would be a) your own e-commerce store so you can drive traffic to it without losing money on commissions b) learn from best selling products (you can see sales ranks of competing products if you register as an amazon affiliate marketer; it's free) and copy their structure, split test regularly Hope it helps!

6 answers • almost 11 years

Funding

Build numbers or build revenue?

Taylor Banks answered: While the development of a "freemium version" might help you build a customer base, it could consume a significant amount of your time and money without the assurance that your free users would every become paying customers. Since you're a one person operation, and running on limited capital, I'd suggest a different approach. If indeed you've gotten good traction with big companies, I'd approach one ore more of these companies and ask them to invest in the continuing development of your product up-front, in exchange for a significant discount on the per-user licensing costs. This will both serve as validation that your application is as valuable to your target customer base as you believe it to be, and would also provide you the additional income necessary to move forward. You might also put serious consideration into trying to find a salesperson who would work with you for either straight commission (if you expect your deals to be large enough to make this attractive), or for equity. In either case, this would enable you to significantly increase the number of paying customers you can target with your unique solution. I'd be more than happy to discuss these and other strategies in detail with you if you'd like to schedule a call with me. Good luck!

6 answers • almost 11 years

Usability Testing Usability User Experience

What's your opinion on using something like usertesting.com vs. real time usability testing (online and offline)?

Tom Williams answered: UserTesting can be instructive in terms of understanding whether people understand your copy, CTAs, and intended flows but generally, I've found the quality of their panels to be pretty low. You're almost always getting people who are not your actual users, so the feedback can only be generally applied as above. I find whatever web analytics package or packages you're using are generally able to provide much better insights. I also really do believe in *real* user panels. Buying pizza or offering small financial incentives to real users to click through new flows where they are talking out loud or answering specific questions is going to give far more actionable insights than anything else. What I like to do is take my best guesses as to what's not working or what I'm looking to improve and then discover/validate via real in-person customer panels. Happy to talk through this in more detail with you in a call.

4 answers • almost 11 years

Google Adwords Professional Inbound Marketing Google Analytics

What's the benefit of being a Google partner?

Bruce Chamoff answered: Being a Google Partner has many benefits, but they revise them all the time. Google seems to protect their intellectual property heavy, so as a partner, you can display their partnership logo to your potential clients. Also, when they roll out new products in beta, you know before the public does. As Google products go, that's a huge benefit. They provide enhanced support when you need it as well. I also do a lot of public speaking, so the one benefit public speakers enjoy is that they let you speak at their events; a very valuable benefit to us public speakers ;) I hope this answers the question. Bruce

4 answers • almost 11 years

Website Development Outsourcing

Where do you go for outsourcing website development and what do you look for when selecting the right one?

Dave Hecker answered: I consult with clients who are looking for the right outsourcing situation all the time, and the best way to get started is to figure out what kind of outsourcing partner will be the best 'fit' for your needs. After that, it's easy to find out where that type of outsourcing partner/contractor/freelance hangs out and pick a winner. Try writing up some notes about things like: 1) You mentioned you had a small budget - how small? If your budget is $1500 your options are going to be very different than if it's $25,000. Both of those could be considered 'small budgets' in the right context, so try to put a number out there. 2) You also mentioned that you wanted 'good quality, clean code'. What does this mean and are you willing to pay for that? If you are building an MVP and are really short on funds, you might have to use a less senior developer/team and take the risk of getting sloppier code - but sometimes with an MVP that's ok! If you are building a production app, that's a different story. 3) What is your technical and management expertise? Can you create specifications and manage a developer on your own (not easy to do)? If so, you can save money by using a freelancer, etc. If you are very non-technical and will need PM support, you might consider a small group or agency. 4) What does 'website development' involve, in your vision? Design? Copywriting? QA? Server migration and admin? ui/ux? 5) What is your tolerance for going offshore? You will hear lots of people saying that offshore teams all suck, and lots of people saying that they did it and it went fine. Like most software projects, there is a high failure rate but lots of success with offshore. You can save a ton of money, but you can also take a bath so you need to consider whether you are up to the challenge or not - going offshore takes much more patience, attention, documentation, etc. but it can work. 6) What are the skills/tech that you will need? It's best to get a team that is great at the skills you need. If you want a ruby site, hire a ruby shop. If you want a augmented reality site, find a team that is great at that. Watch out for the generalists :) By thinking through questions like the above, you can change your statement from "Where do you go for outsourcing website development" to something like this: "I am looking for an outsourcing partner who would be interested in a 15k-20k project that will be build in python. This application will be evolved into our production app so the quality must be good. I am a good project manager and will work with the developer on the requirements/spec side, and help test. We will need application/db design and development, server administration, and technical support but all design, content, copy, ui/ux will be provided. We will consider offshore teams but you must have excellent spoken english." When you expand your 'what we're looking for' paragraph, the whole search for outsourcing partner gets much easier! If you like, feel free to give me a call and share your 'vendor profile' with me and I can help point you in the right direction.

10 answers • almost 11 years

Software Engineering Venture Capital Talent Acquisition

Where can I find top notch Lamp Stack engineers with the business know how and VC connections?

Dan Martell answered: I've always hired only ridiculously brilliant engineers and those that were either entrepreneurs or entrepreneurially minded (i.e. attended startup weekend, contributed to open source, blogged, etc). The best way to find them is to go to the events they attend. Typically it's developer meetups, open source or programming language oriented conferences, etc. To add a heightened filter, maybe only entrepreneurial oriented events like Business as Software, StartupSchool, or StartupDrinks. Also, using Angel.co to find companies that were once listed, but didn't raise or seem to have "Sunsetted" might be a good strategy. The question I always ask myself when I'm about to do sourcing for talent, or marketing is: 1) Who do I want, or what are examples of those people in the real world? 2) What places do they go/hangout, tools do they use, news sources they read, etc? Be strict with your filters and you should find some candidates... the hard part is convincing them that your project is more interesting then their current job/project/ideas/company/etc - cause these people typically have many options for work.

2 answers • almost 11 years