Your Questions Answered by Industry Experts

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Answers from Industry Experts

Psychology Psychotherapy Mindfulness

Why would most people would rather chase high titles and not make as much, than work hard to make more money?

William McKenzie answered: If I understand your current question correctly you're asking about desire towards vs impact of financial reward related to work. If you look at Herzberg's 2 factor theory you could conclude that financial gain is a work hygiene issue. Pay is not a strong motivating factor until it does not reach market or personally assessed value. On the other hand, promotion provides an intrensic variable of success that motivates individuals. Also, if you look at Maslow' s Hierarchy the money based issues are on the base while self-actualization and social status are much higher on the pyramid. Keeping this in mind most will find a higher degree of self-effacacy in a higher position vs a pay raise.

4 answers • almost 7 years

Healthcare Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Management

Are healthcare innovation networks like Avia commonly found in the US?

Jim Rickards, MD, MBA answered: I know there are a number of healthcare incubators in the US such as Start-Up Health. This is a community of healthcare start-ups with some connection to the delivery system entities in Avia.

1 answer • about 7 years

Business Networking

Can you make money by networking?

David Favor answered: Many people use this business model + it breaks my first rule. "Every action must drive to continuity." The challenge with this business model... Once you've made the introduction, how do you get paid... well even once + more importantly over + over again. One way to resolve this challenge is to join Meetup + Fizzle + any association (like a chamber of commerce). Watch what they do. Clone what seems good to you. Call your service something people expect to pay for - membership based course or forum or association, where people expect to pay a monthly fee. If you join Fizzle, I'm pretty sure I still have a coupon or link to a 5 week free trial. Meetup groups provide good education. Meet the organizers + just flat out ask them how they monetize their Meetup... or better... Start a podcast + interview people running introductory services + ask them how they monetize. People tend to be more open to "interviews" where they tell all, then just conversations. When interviewing, there's something for you + the person you're interviewing.

3 answers • over 7 years

Tax CPA Stock Management

Should non-United States residents pay taxes upon receiving stock from a U.S. startup they have worked for remotely?

David Favor answered: Likely your best avenue is to call H&R Block Executive Tax services. There might be one in your country. If not, just pick one from any US City. I'm in Austin, Texas + have been using them for years. They're way cheaper than a CPA + tend to stay current on new tax code, far better than a CPA, as they run internal, company wide trainings, all year round. You're smart to deal with this up front. Avoiding US I.R.S. trouble == a very good idea.

3 answers • over 7 years

Entrepreneurship

What is the best way to ask a company to allow you to carry your own product when you realize the company you allowed is doing a horrible job?

David Favor answered: This depends on contracts you signed + if you're in a legal pool. If you're in a legal pool, makes no difference (to me) how often I'm sued, because I can always go longer in court than the other side, so I always win. https://clarity.fm/questions/4768/answers/15740 covers how this works. You pay a monthly flat rate for unlimited out of court time + 100s of hours in court time. I can't imagine living in the US without Legal Shield coverage. Nothing sucks time + money like lawsuits, unless you don't have to pay any money or invest any time, because you're in a legal pool. Once you have Legal Shield coverage for at least 10 days (which is what use to be required for coverage to begin) then do whatever you like. If you get sued, you'll just laugh, because you might be able to suck the other side so dry, you can pick their clients for your product.

3 answers • over 7 years

Funding Marketing Strategy Entrepreneurship

Are there free or lower cost alternatives to Fiverr?

Serena De Maio, Your Tell You Like It Is Marketing Expert answered: Free? Yes, slavery. I mean, you do still need to feed the slaves. And they might get sick, and you still feed them while they are not working. I know, such a bummer. Jokes aside, nothing comes for free in life and it's insulting to ask somebody to work for free.

5 answers • over 7 years

Marketing Automation Social Media Marketing Social Media

Can I create roles for specific team members on social media?

Kelly Rainey answered: If you are friends with this person on Facebook you can go into your Page Settings and edit Page Roles. Assign them the role you wish, depending on what you want them to be able to do. They will then have access to the Page. In your case I would assume you would assign whoever as an Editor. If you're on your desktop and doing this, Facebook will give you a layout of who can do what in different Page Roles -- you will see link at top of page when you hit Page Roles under Settings.

3 answers • over 7 years

Bootstrapping your business Business Strategy Strategic Planning

If you were starting over, broke, and had 400 dollars to your name, what would be your first steps to make an income?

James Michael answered: Invest it in yourself and find a great job that will pay the bills while you work on your own venture. Whether that means buying new work-appropriate clothes, books in your profession, a new certification or even interview coaching is up to you. I'd find a company that is emerging in an industry that you find interesting and go after working for that company. Good luck!

11 answers • over 7 years

Web Marketing

How do I make my company name show up when I search it on Google?

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: Hello! This is a great question, my name is Humberto Valle, I'm a content and marketing strategist for www.Unthink.me. Our small agency bring big business tools to small growing companies. Your question is related to SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization. The reason why you don't see your company name or website pages come up on a Google search is because your website is most likely very new and Google has not indexed it. With that said, even if your site is older and you have many pages and good SEO, its never a good idea to search for your company or website off your own browser like you would search other things because you are going to get skewed results on the Google Search. One of the things you can do to test how you rank without altering the results from searching on your own IP address is by opening a Google Incognito window or going to third party tools to test your SEO. Now, your question was how to get Google to show your site and the answer is simple, you have to index it. 1) Try submitting your website here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url?continue=/addurl&pli=1 2) Register your business with the over 80 different major indexing sites out there such as Yelp, Yellow pages, white pages, bing, apple, etc. The more you register the most links Google will have to find your website as it's scanning others. If they all have the exact same information then over some time Google will begin to associate your website page with those particular keywords based on the region that you serve based on how Google categorizes your particular industry. For example, a software development company will have different region categorization and SEO than a local pizzeria. 3) Insert the right tags and code snippets on your website so that Google can best validate and read your website, then index it better. Google does not see or care how your website looks to other humans, can't see what a picture looks like so you have to tell it, same thing with phone number or address on a certain page or certain of a website, just because you wrote it and maybe have it linking to a map it doesn't mean Google knows is an address, but properly tagging the code of the site will help google know what each part of the site is and what's it for and the hierarchy of each page and each section. 4) Improve/create content for your website, when people visit your website and they leave within the first few seconds or minutes is BAD. Really bad. Imagine if someone was ranking stores in a mall based on how many people walked in and immediately walked out because they didn't see anything of interest in that store and left right away. That's what Google is doing, but the more people spend time on your site, the more Google rewards you because they are in the business of giving us good search results - they show relevant websites that are being browsed around by new visitors and returning visitors. 5) Improve/create your funnel system, goes hand in hand with the time spent on the site. The more pages a new visitor clicks through the better for your ranking. 6) Make good use of H1, H2, H3, etc throughout your page and your blog posts. 7) Make sure each page has its appropriate meta data and social media descriptions clearly describing the page content intent. 8) Leverage social media, although no business should really be in all social media you should definitely secure each profile and stick to those with a follow syntax. Facebook and instagram for example are no follow which means all your content there will not be indexed by Google, but sites like Twitter, Linkedin, Google Plus and Youtube are follow. 9) Consider registering for a paid membership with BBB, Google and BBB partnered to provide better ranking to its members. This is easier to achieve in certain cities where you may not be competing against many other SEO savvy companies. But for example, in a city like El Paso Texas - companies with a BBB registrations tend to rank better than others with average SEO (all else being equal). 10) DO ALL THIS WHILE KEEPING CONSISTENT WITH ONLY A HANDFUL OF POTENTIALLY PROFITING SEO KEYWORDS OR LONG TAIL WORDS (SEARCH SENTENCES). No body can rank high for everything, but you can rank high for certain keywords. Some agencies like ours use some expensive tools to find out the best keywords and SEO plans companies are implementing and could help you find the right keywords for your market. Either way, even if you were to pick keywords are random on your own - stick to no more than 5 and make sure to alternate them on your posts, pages, headline titles, meta data, etc. The more you have the more you will rank for those keywords or longtails. SEO and appearing on Google results is a constantly evolving game of chasing the cat's tail. Google keeps improving and changing their algorithm to protect themselves and stay with the times which is why is always recommended that you avoid paying to those click farm, link building services that 'guarantee' 1st page ranking in a month or two because all they do is spam the internet with fake profiles everywhere with your link included, they work for a bit but then they don't forcing you to keep paying for such service and when you stop paying it all goes away VS the way I just described above - well, that investment stays for ever building on itself. SEO is not optional if you are planning on ever depending even a little on online sales you need to have SEO. Its like opening a business in a very busy street but thinking a sign with states your product and "open" is optional. How are people supposed to know you're there and stumble onto your products even by accident much less intentionally? I hope I was helpful and provided you with enough good clarity to help you take the next steps in your business. If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to reach out to me. If you are interested in SEO services, we offer a broad range of services and can accommodate most budgets. Continue learning about DIY SEO on our blog at http://blog.unthink.me/100-incredibly-easy-ways-to-have-better-seo

7 answers • over 7 years

Start-ups

Is it better to white label an existing SAAS in development or develop my own?

JC Garrett answered: I have had at least half a dozen clients ask me this and build analysis for them around this specific topic in the last year alone. The answer largely depends on the circumstances (funding, time to market required, reliability of the platform provider etc). But it is a dilemma that many founders (particularly non-technical founders) face. But in general I like being the master of your own destiny and keeping your tech stack fully in your control (that's not to say using open source tools isn't a useful way to still achieve that goal though.) I would say this: even if you are going to white label at the beginning, it is only a matter if when, not if, you will want to migrate in part or in whole away from this third party platform being the entirety of what you offer. In my experience these platforms typically offer too light or too expansive of a feature set and can be unreliable when it comes to things such as uptime, ticket responses etc. So generally I steer my clients away from it, or when necessary help them limit their exposure by creating a hybrid app that has elements you control merged with existing tools from the platform. the good news is that, in general terms, chatbots by and large are not tremendously complex (again, a few caveats aside) so building it with a software firm is certainly a plausible option to consider. If you'd like to brainstorm or talk through specific parameters that could influence your plan one way or the other, or talk through how to roadmap potential issues that should be avoided (both contractually and feature-wise) feel free to reach out and we can schedule some time to dive in.

3 answers • over 7 years

Exit Strategies Valuation Exits

When looking to sell my company, how can I determine its value if it's service based and has no subscription model?

David C Barnett answered: So you're saying that your business is a service business like auto repair, home buying, or any of millions of businesses that have existed for many many years. This is not a problem. Businesses like yours are bought and sold every day. The secret is a track record of profitable cash flow and a demonstrable system of how you get clients. If you want to run down a quick valuation just arrange a call and I'll show you in 15-30 minutes what kind of ballpark value your business may hold. Cheers David Barnett

7 answers • over 7 years

Big Data Decision Making

How can I know when to go with my gut or when to trust the data when making a business decision?

Richard Cooper answered: In my experience coaching hundreds of people, anytime you go against your gut (aka intuition) you will lose. Data is important to consider, but your gut often knows the path.

9 answers • over 7 years

Lean startup Lean Startups

What are some quality examples of companies using lean product cycle?

Honey Jhunjhunwala answered: Toyota and motorolla

5 answers • over 7 years

Growth Hacking Growth

How can growth hacking be applied to offline activities?

David Favor answered: "Growth Hacking" relates to identifying highly efficient ways of growing business. Where efficient, to me, tends to by $0 methods, as these scale forever. If you can create a $0 based system to grow your revenues, you can plow huge chunks of cash for even faster profit increases. I tend to use this approach to validate ideas + just to bring in new waves of customers/clients. My approach is Meetup trolling. Attend Meetups where people will be who can use your product/service/information/courseware + where you have zero competition. For example, one of my companies provides high traffic hosting for WordPress sites. Easy places to pickup new clients/customers include any Meetup.com group event where people network... because... likely many have WordPress sites + most hosting tends toward slow + glitchy. Likely no one else will be pitching WordPress hosting, so I'd have no competition. This example is using offline tech to push to online service. You can use the exact same approach to promote lawn mowing, only you call it... Executive Landscaping... Or coaching or computer repair. Marketing is marketing. Whether your product is online or offline.

3 answers • over 7 years

Growth Hacking Growth

What is your favorite growth hacking trick?

David Favor answered: Search for the term... Meetup Group Construction Kit which explains how to abuse Meetup.com for pleasure + profit.

3 answers • over 7 years

Start-ups Online Learning Entrepreneurship

How can you acquire a unique knowledge that sets you apart from your competition and provides high value while gaining attention?

Cephas Tope answered: What I would recommend is to find out what your competitions are not doing. then figure out how you can add more value at that area. Adding more value to people life that out weight your competitions is the key to stand out.

10 answers • over 7 years

Feedback Ideation

Would a platform that is similar to LinkedIn that focuses more on interests and personal connections be successful?

Maria Mustapha answered: I think as stated below, its important to do some research on who would use this platform and why? I think there are so many platforms out there, you need to be clear about what you’re offering and why your target market would continue to log on to your platform, and not an established platform like Linkedin, which is evolving more and more, and also how you are going to make money from it (unless it’s a charity thing).

3 answers • about 7 years

Payment Systems Billing Systems Financial Technology

How many stripe merchants have dynamic billing descriptors enabled, or the equivalent of dynamic billing descriptor equivalents with on POS systems?

Noblejeet Batth answered: It is difficult to provide an exact number as it would require an audit of all stripe merchants' systems to check for dynamic billing descriptors enabled and their equivalents.

1 answer • almost 2 years

Lead Generation Email Marketing Email Strategy

How can we market our unique lead generation offerings?

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: This is a tricky question and a bit hard to follow, just FYI. My first thought, and I apologize if it sounds rude in any way, is that if you are a lead generation service or can do that, wouldn't you be able to do that for yourself? I am a 10 year veteran marketer and constantly face newbies who try to compare or pitch against us but after running a quick analysis on their platforms and all else, you can tell they struggle even for their own sake. With that said, it sounds like what you have offers a lot of potential if properly 'packaged.' You obviously need to approach this as a SaaS model where you drive and offer as much value to prospects upfront and come back with the ask once a company has tried it or has encountered enough value to commit to a trial. The product packaging should be addresses in a reverse eningeering appraoch from the product market fit based on your realistic value proposition, value innovation, and the targeted demographic. Once you know who is your potential best client - you would then shape the product and its entire experienced based on them. For this, companies like ours www.Unthink.me - can help you find the right target market and do some basic research to get the demographic started and a go to market strategy. On your 3rd question, there are many ways of approaching potential clients once you know who they are... from the ever helpful but slow to kick in SEO, to the quick and scalable Google PPC, to growth hacking is possible or inbound through blogging and content creation. If you would like to some help or have any other questions please don't hesitate to message me.

3 answers • over 7 years

Email Marketing Email Strategy Newsletters

How to make the most out of an email list of 425,000 emails that has been dormant for years?

David Favor answered: Tricky. Likely many email addresses are dead + others have forgotten your name + why they subscribed. Your steps. 1) Clean your list. 2) Place a link at top of each message that says. Report this message as spam, which then connects to a non-interactive, instant unsubscribe mechanism. This keeps people from reporting you to real spam authorities. 3) Wait 10 days, for all unsubs to come in. 4) Create a targeted audience in Facebook or Traffic Oxygen to get your name in front of these people + generate some cash, without emailing them. 5) Then run this for... say 30 days... 6) Then start weekly emails + keep these email going, so your list stays warm. If all this makes your head spin, hire someone to assist you with this.

3 answers • over 7 years

Business Strategy Business Intelligence Early-stage Startups

How can we get more sales from enterprise companies?

Benjamin Milsom answered: Hi there, That's quite a loaded question, and so I would have a few questions to clarify more. How big are your potential clients? e.g. 0-100, 100-250, 250-1000, 1000+? Do you have any early successes/clients? Are you looking for a low (automated) or high touch sales approach? Be happy to chat over a call and run through some of the things we did to get several hundred global clients in 2 years. Thanks, Ben

4 answers • over 7 years

Marketing Strategy

Where can I find western and Europeon companies who may be interested in exporting their goods to Japan?

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: Hello! This is a great question, different that others. I'm surprised others haven't responded to you yet. My knowledge is limited with imports/exports but I will try to be of value matching my experience and insights elsewhere to fit your needs. My name is Humberto Valle, I'm the founder of a small agency in Texas & Arizona www.Unthink.me - we bring big business marketing tools and experts to small startup companies. I am assuming you are a merchant with access to retailers/buyers in Japan then? This is what my strategy would be if I was in your shoes then. Option A) Travel to the origin destination, in this case European countries and personally network with such companies. I had a fellow from Indonesia a few years back that did just that in an effort to find a local distributor who could help with logistics and sales for their metal sculptures (the ones you find on PF Changs...) Option B) What I could try doing would be leverage competing or similar website/companies who import/export products you may have in mind and find what paid ads and keywords they are using to show up on Google Ads for certain searches and if you have a website, even try to implement those searches on your own site so that these European companies can find you as well that way. 1) through paid ads, after finding potential companies and their exact ads 2) through seo and lead generation promoting directly to them through SEO and social sites like Linkedin.

3 answers • over 7 years

Entrepreneurship Competitive Analysis

When starting a company, how do I determine the level of competition I'll have?

Darren Darnborough answered: I've started several online companies where we have been first to market, but there have been marginally similar services out there.... A good investor will probably want to know there is someone else in the space, as if no-one else has thought of the idea, it *might* not be a good idea. Use this to your advantage. First off, it's proof of concept. Secondly, you can study where you think their downfalls are or what they are not doing well, and make that part better. Thirdly, look at which portion of the market they aren't serving, and target that. There may be enough customers to share, or they may end up acquiring you or vice versa. This will also show investors that an exit plan is feasible. In answer to your question about the level of competition, you can probably only estimate. Do some research about the amount of customers they seem to have and what the average spend per customer is. You might find some of this data (or assumptions) in trade press or hire a Virtual Assistant to pool research for you. Think of it not just as determining competition, but as validating your market, which in turn shows investors you're realistic and well-informed. Furthermore, look at some horizontals and verticals in the space. For instance, when I started our Video Chat for Actors website, WeRehearse.com, although there was nothing like it, I could pool data from Auditions sites, Actors Unions, and IMDb to work out how many potential customers there were, and what they are generally spending on similar services, so as to get an educated assumption. Best of luck!

10 answers • over 7 years

Entrepreneurship Joint Ventures Small Business

What is an applicable business model for a group of entrepreneurs that form a corporation and generate dividends from the ventures they do together?

David C Barnett answered: Your question is very open ended. You're starting with the business structure instead of a money making idea. The part that concerns me is that you want to issue dividends to all the shareholders for businesses that they 'do' together. Doing usually entails working for wages/salaries. Dividends are the returns for putting capital at risk. Arrange a call if you'd like to talk and sort out your ideas a little more clearly, I can help give you some direction. Dave

3 answers • over 7 years

Innovation Innovation Consulting Innovation Management

When you are talking about innovation in your company, whats the biggest challenge you have?

Karl Etzel answered: Everyone likes innovation and will rah-rah for it until it gores their ox. The misalignment of incentives and innovation is always the biggest problem. Technology challenges can always be beaten into submission. Real innovation is by definition upsetting to the status quo, and it takes intestinal fortitude on the part of the leadership (not management, _leadership_) to face the incentive issue and get the org properly aligned around change.

4 answers • over 7 years

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Content Marketing

What are the best SEO software tools for startups?

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: Hello! My name is Humberto Valle, I'm a 10 year vet in the marketing and strategy world. I am the current CEO of www.Unthink.me, evangelist for a 100 Software Engineer community called BetaBulls and work with startups and large corporations from many countries. I have been involved with SEO one way or another for many years now, and as you may already know there are a lot of tools available - some free some carrying a high price - but ultimately what things come down to is your value for each of these tools. For example, we use Hubspot and SpyFu primarily for content and SEO driven growth - works wonders for us. One of the key factors to our success is that I created a strategy to follow for our SEO efforts more so than just saying" we want more traffic, lets find the keywords in our industry and match them - No, what we did was pair the right keywords for a very small niche (small innovative business owners who run service based businesses) and the content we create, the places where we promote (paid traffic influences SEO as well), me being here responding, was all intentional to position a real person around a team - to this day we get hire because someone reads an article I wrote years ago, or a response I wrote here years ago... They email me or my team, schedule a call and hire us because of my first exposure to them as a person --> they found it with the help o SEO. There is a new tool http://www.maaxmarket.com/ that offers low-cost SEO help - but it's NEW. So beware. When it comes to content driven growth, what you need to focus on is the value you are providing to your target audience through your content and then lastly making it available to them through a well thought out delivery plan - such as social media channels, scheduling, headlines, cycles, imagery, calls to action, etc. etc. Content is always good right, but also consider that sometimes in order to achieve growth in an already crowded market place you may have to recur to non-traditional marketing efforts to stand out. Depending on what your startup offers, you may be better off not focusing initially on SEO and instead achieve high exposure some other creative way. SEO in itself takes time to build, so good content and creative ways to deliver a message are way more important factors than SEO. Thank you for reading, I hope I've provided some clarity and guidance. If you need further help, please don't hesitate to contact me directly. Humberto Valle www.unthink.me humberto@unthink.me www.linkedin.com/in/humbertovalle

6 answers • over 7 years

Healthcare Holistic Health Online Advertising

How can I best advertise my book on pain relief?

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: I think the problem is not in pain relief but in using the words healing if you don't have data. Relief is measureable yes, but its also very subjective to the person. Take in consideration Chiropractors (citychiropractor.com) or Magnetic Physiotherapists (magneticphysiotherapy.com) - these services provide relief and maybe some healing but theres always debate on the validity of it all. If youre trying to sell a book, your problem wouldn't be FCC, it would be marketing it. My name is Humberto, I'm the founder of www.unthink.me and evangelist of a 100 Software Engineer team called BetaBulls. I have brought products to Shark Tank, and helped some quirky products get to market as well as helped countless startups. I hope my answer provided at least minimum clarity to you. Happy trails and best of luck!

5 answers • over 7 years

Website Development WordPress Marketing

How can I dissociate my categories for my website?

David Favor answered: Describe your goal for categories, as a starting point. Also answer where you'll define these categories. You mention YouTube + you might mean content categories on a WordPress site. If you're referring to a Website, also be sure to state whether you're primarily targeting natural search engine traffic or you're primarily using paid traffic. Provide more context + likely someone can assist.

3 answers • over 7 years

Photo Essays Online Help Writing

why most of the students like to order online papers?

Emma Green answered: I would not recommend using academic writing services. If you get caught you could forfeight your whole degree. It's not worth the risk. Instead, get some personalised one-to-one coaching to improve your writing. I offer these services if you are interested.

4 answers • over 6 years

Sports Sports Management Advertising Agency

How should I start the process of opening a sports agency?

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: I love this question! First off, congrats on the achievements thus far. My name is Humberto Valle, I'm the founder of www.Unthink.me, a small hybrid agency that brings big business solutions to small growing companies. I've helped bring some products to Shark Tank, helped political figures strategize exposure, and helped countless startups. I have a varied portfolio of investments and companies and I'm an evangelist for a 100 Software Engineer team called BetaBulls. Note that I am not a sports agent, your question, however, is more about the creativity of getting started. The very first thing you need is to assume you are an agent if you want to be. With that, the very first thing I would do is ask yourself who your most engaged followers follow - what sport? what athlete? Do you have any athletes as followers? Do they happen to be in the most engaged sport in your feed? Do you have any franchises following you? Even if they are minor, such as MLB and minor league baseball - for example in this sport the players can commonly bounce back and forth from major to minor - it might be easier to start with minor league for example. But what you need to do is not track athletes, if they are known to you - you have to assume they are known to existing and well-connected agents. What you need to do is build exposure and a good relationship with one or 2 franchises and get their direction on who they want, and you try to make it happen for them by finding that athlete, starting the conversation, etc. For the average agent, social media provides little value as far as signing athletes. What you need is the support of the franchises who back you up when you come up to an athlete with a proposal to get them a good deal. For now, it would be a good effort to change your profile info to state that you are an agent (even if you arent) same thing on your website and all other assets.

3 answers • over 7 years

Early-stage Startups

What's the best way to ask for funding to make a prototype for an invention idea that I have?

David Favor answered: You might consider a Kickstarter project.

5 answers • over 7 years

YouTube Video Production

How to get more monetized YouTube views?

David C Barnett answered: Yes, you need to sell something that earns you money beyond the YouTube advertising. I've had a channel for years and sell books, courses, Clarity calls and consulting. YouTube is a great platform for selling yourself and your expertise but as more people come on board, the revenues from advertising falls. Arrange a call if you'd like to brainstorm some ideas. Cheers. David C Barnett

3 answers • over 7 years

Networking Social Networking

What are some top networking tips?

Honey Jhunjhunwala answered: Play golf, join different sports like horse riding etc

3 answers • over 7 years

Email List Building Email Marketing

How do I get people to subscribe to my email newsletter?

Evan Weber answered: I would seriously consider launching a blog and posting content of the same type to the blog, in abundance. Then add a popup box to the blog to collect email addresses. Post daily blog posts about topics related to your blog and your newsletter. If you do this consistently, over time, you will build up traffic to your blog and also get people entering their email into your popup. This is the free way to do it...

13 answers • over 7 years

Twilio Software Development Web development

Where can I find helpful information regarding Twilio integration and VIP pricing?

JC Garrett answered: There are a few resource spots you can consider, but I would strong recommend just sticking with what they offer directly on their site: https://www.twilio.com/sms/pricing?v=7 https://www.twilio.com/voice/pricing (VIP or offbook pricing is a little harder to nail down since they are going to make a specific offer to you depending on volume and just how VIP you are haha. I've seen certain companies get as much as a 25-50% discount on top of the book prices for at least a short period of usage or after they meet certain volume requirements) As for the integration side, your search is going to depend on what type of connection you're trying to make. Integration with mobile? Integration with various 3rd party platforms (Salesforce etc)? Regardless, Twilio does have extensive API documentation available which helps developers understand if/how to best connect your platform and theirs. Doing a feasibility analysis for your idea could be as easily resolved as reviewing the Twilio message boards/documentation, or I've seen it require (in certain cases) an actual prototyping phase for both validation of the connection being made and to better scope out an accurate cost of the functional scope. I've helped 50+ new ventures over the years develop planning around their software needs including feasibility planning, platform diligence, functional specification documentation, project charters, cost analysis, business plans and fundraising pitch decks. If you'd like to connect to discuss/answer product-specific questions for Twilio integration or other product dev best practices feel free to reach out and suggest some times!

3 answers • over 7 years

Relationship Marketing Relationship Coach Coaching

What would be the best way to get clients as a relationship coach?

Abdulsamad Adebayo answered: Email marketing

10 answers • 5 months

Time Management Productivity Timely Decision Making

Has anyone ever used proficient productivity/time management techniques besides the Pomodo one?

Christopher (Chris) Jennings answered: The Pomodoro method really is great, but it isn't the end all be all when it comes to time management. One of the important aspects of the Pomodoro method is that there is a clear start and stop time of your task. Another way that I like to use this methodology is with an app called brain.fm. It allows you to play brain wave music to help stimulate your productivity. That alone is good enough, but it also gives you a timer. Just focus on your task until the timer ends and the music stops. 30 minutes or an hour goes by in a flash when you're hyper-focused on a task. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

5 answers • over 7 years

Entrepreneurship

What are some things that first time entrepreneurs should consider?

Dr. Sean Wise answered: What are some things that first time entrepreneurs should consider? In general or before quitting their day job? I wrote a book on this topic with legendary investor Brad Feld. We based it on hearing more than 20,000 opportunity pitches. On Dragons Den on Shark Tank and first hand in our decades in the seed stage startup industry. We found entrepreneurs should not quit their day jobs until they have: - found something you are obsessed with - enough money to live for 6 months - found an unmet market need that they have unique insight on - tested it with early adopters - confirmed that your solution could add exponential value to those early adopters We also found that access to early adopters was a key Barrier. One often mitigated when the founder is also a customer (ie member for the customer segment). For more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y16VJ4L/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_OmMxzb6AF69QA Hope that helps. Onward and Upward Dr. Sean Wise, BA LLB MBA PHD Partner, Ryerson Futures A seed stage fund and accelerator

9 answers • over 7 years

Mobile applications Entrepreneurship

What is the best apps to use every day for productivity/growth?

Elizabeth Wellington answered: As a consultant and writer, I need to juggle a lot of different deadlines and demands. I've found that the best app for me is Asana. It's customizable, so I can adapt it to every project while maintaining a cohesive calendar with all of my deadlines. That said, I also pair Asana with an old-fashioned notebook and pen. Instead of writing to-do lists, I write have-done lists. At the end of the day, I benefit from a clear picture of what I've accomplished that day — it allows me to step away from my work with a clear mind, knowing that I've tackled a fair number of projects. If you need help managing your projects, feel free to reach out for my input. I've written about productivity for Fast Company, Inc. and Entrepreneur — I would love to share more thoughts with you.

5 answers • over 7 years

Mobile Apps Entrepreneurship

What are the best apps to use daily for productivity/growth?

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: This is a loaded question! Depending on what you do of course the answer will vary. Im the founder and CEO of a Robinhood marketing agency, dubbed www.Unthink.me - We bring big business marketing tools and strategies with small, growing companies. My schedule is very different than that of a CEO in my position. For example, I am very hands on the projects we have, just the way I started my business, as it grew my name got very attached to the brand and thus a lot of our clients hire because they want me to help on a campaign or project, so I wake up around 4am, check my email and my SLACK - which is how me and my team communicates and keeps our conversations seperated from client's convos and per project. I respond to emails and check our Hubspot platform, hangout with my kids then around 9am head to the office where I have a 1 hour coffee & convo with entreprenurs all over the world through a seperate #SLACK channel. Then I check TRELLO - for project management work and follow up on issues I see through Slack as well. I use my Text Messenger App a lot actually to send myself notes through text - i don't open them up until I am ready to take care of them, since I text other people, this is a clever way for me to easily get reminded of a task w/o getting annoyed with the reminders (this would be an awesome app btw! If you're looking for ideas, lets get this one going!) Aside from those that dictate how I work, I use Dashlane a lot to save me time entering passwords, etc - especially for other clients. That's about it, maybe Google Calendars, but don't use it unless is for something way ahead in time.

8 answers • over 7 years

Entrepreneurship Business Strategy

What are some things I should consider when looking to extend my importing/exporting goods business overseas?

Edmund John answered: Laws regarding import/export in targeted country Where you will incorporate (is a new entity needed or can the business continue to run under the current entity). Taxation issues (if any, for instance VAT). There is not enough detail provided to answer further, this is just a starting point and not legal advise.

3 answers • over 7 years

Import/Export Marketing Strategy

Where can I find buyers (direct or wholesale) from Asia, India or South America who would be interested in an authentic spice/paste product?

Pat Villaceran answered: The first thing you should do is isolate your target market. Asia, India, SA are extremely wide if you're at that beginning stage of just looking at prospects. Once you've narrowed down a couple of regions, then you can do a more in-depth research on the key distributors in these markets. If you need more help in preparing this, you can book a call with me here on Clarity.

3 answers • about 7 years

Product Development Product Design

Is there a patent on Kindle's paperwhite technology?

Tom Leung answered: I would be shocked if a company of that size didn't patent a ton of things that involve their Kindle business -- paperwhite is a big selling point to them so if they didn't patent it originally, I'd expect that to have bought it or licensed it from whoever did.

2 answers • almost 7 years

Loans Small Business Lending Commercial Lending

Which lenders offer a fixed rate option for SBA business acquisition loans that don't include real estate?

Malcolm Turner answered: There are no lenders that offer a fixed rate SBA business loan because SBA's fixed rate loan program is only for real estate backed loan. The SBA 7A program which is for non-real estate business acquisitions are variable rate loans. They are available as 10 year fully amortizing loans but they do not have a pre-payment penalty so you can pay them off early or refinance to a non-SBA loan at a later date. Book a call with me if you need more SBA info or want to discuss other lending options.

1 answer • over 5 years

Incorporation New Business Development

Is it best to incorporate a new company or just make a private contract?

David C Barnett answered: Making a new company will cost some money up front with no certainty of commercial success. A simple workaround, if you both know and trust each other, is to make a shareholder's agreement for the company to be incorporated and a contract saying how the shares will be divided. Since you're the developer, writing code before you incorporate puts the risk on your partner since the work will be your property until you put it into a corporation in which he is a shareholder. The critical thing is to determine how many shares you will get for the work you've done and what exactly he has to do to acquire his shares. You'll also want to know what your responsibilities will be after the business is up and running and what compensation you'll get for 'working in the business' at that point. I've helped a lot of people unravel their partnerships because these things were not thought through properly at the beginning and would be happy to discuss your specific situation in a Clarity call. Thanks and good luck. David C Barnett

3 answers • over 7 years

Marketing Strategy Early-stage Startups Equity Funding

Is it possible to hire a marketing agency with equity?

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: Hello! This is a very good question, my name is Humberto Valle, and I'm the founder of www.Unthink.me a small globally known inbound marketing agency. We have helped many tech-related companies such as Software Developers who work on equity as well as traditional payments. For our marketing agency, we have also taken equity in combination of 'cash' payment. So yes, there are many opportunities for startups to hire or partner with an individual or agency on equity. The trick, I would assume is where in your lifecycle do you approach someone to work with you/for you for equity promise? At the end of the day, marketing agencies are not a hail mary approach to growing or making a company sustainable - its all about management and strategic market fits - if your plan is to hire an agency to have them do what you want, you may not find anyone who would be interested, possibly not even for payment. It is very understandable that you want to save your burn rate but you have to be respectful of someone's skillset - for example you mentioned doing 75% equity and the rest based on results - so commission? A good established marketing agency is not in the business of a startup, so unless they have a CEO who gets distracted, any good leader will not take on 'external opportunities' from what they are doing right now - aka a marketing agency won't work on hopes and dreams - which is what this is right now. As a business owner, startup entrepreneur and leder of your team you have to make critical decisions and hiring and spending on marketing is one of them. For example, I would consider myself to be globally recognized ( not a lot but decently enough) on topics that revolve around marketing strategies - my suggestion to you would be to look into marketing agencies and hire them directly while you are also focusing your expertise (is it manufacturing? logistics? sales? what is it? focus on that and outsource/partner the rest such as for example you could look for an existing expert in cosmetic distribution or connections at some of the larger retailers, give them that structure (% equity + commission %) butkeep that that equity to a minimum (don't offer, ask for them to value their own worth and negotiate from there)

8 answers • over 7 years

Entrepreneurship Career Management Career Counseling

What sort of day job should you get as an entrepreneur trying to launch your own business?

David C Barnett answered: If you're willing to simply get by while you work on your dream, look for an opportunity to get paid to work on that dream. Look around. There are jobs that are incredibly boring and even afford the chance to read while you're on the job. That would be a great time for research, catching up on emails, etc Night watchmen, late night store clerk, overnight hotel front desk person. You see these roles all the time and hardly notice. Good luck David C Barnett

7 answers • over 7 years

Book Publishing Amazon Kindle Amazon

Are there ways to line up verified buyers prior to your book launch that can write reviews on Amazon?

Tyrika Williams answered: Yes; if you do a presale, those buyers will get the book immediately upon release. Include a message in either the front or back matter that encourages them to leave a review once they finish the book. You should also encounter them to join your mailing list, that way you can continue to build a relationship with them.

3 answers • over 7 years

Entrepreneurship Venture Capital Executive Coaching

If you are working on a book and a website but feel like you've lost direction, would it be wise to get a mentor?

Dr. Shishir Gupta answered: I will never recommend you to stop ever. Stopping is not the solution, pivot also may not be the solution. All you need is to 'Focus' and little motivation. You thought it right, you need a mentor, a consultant or a guide who can identify your strengths and let you focus upon it. A daily dose of motivation will take you towards your aim. You may talk to me if you need any further advise, I am expert into it. Many thanks Shishir

4 answers • over 7 years

Marketing Strategy

What do "impressions" from Clarity mean?

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: Impressions typically refer to the number of views or visits your profile or page received during a certain time period. For example, I received a few hundred impressions on my Clarity profile this past month, but as you may also see I don't get calls, that's because people email me or google me instead and reach out to me or my marketing agency www.unthink.me that way. If you are trying to grow calls, don't take that approach, instead consider SEO value, and see it as inbound generation. I get a lot of great results from Clarity, but I have been here since it launched. I have also been on Quora for a while now, just last month I received 4k+ views on my responses and profiles, but as far I know we haven't received leads from any of the answers I have published there, I know they are helping people because of the up likes and the follows and the number of views. Impressions are only basic data that make a larger picture - regardless of what you are expecting out your effort. :)

4 answers • over 7 years