Your Questions Answered by Industry Experts

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Answers from Industry Experts

Customer validation Online Training Start-ups

How can I validate a start-up idea which is an online training platform for professionals ?

Lee von Kraus answered: To validate your idea you need to show interest from potential students. To do that you need to show them something to be interested in. However, a teacher isn't going to go out of their way to create content for a site with no students waiting. To get around this issue, I would start off by getting a bunch of existing content that you can collect and curate on your website. This is how you do that: Go to YouTube and Instructables (and similar sites), and spend a week searching through videos and instructions, collecting all the best content you can find. Try to get ones that are good, but are not universally recognized already with millions of subscribers/viewers. Then A) Contact the creators of that content, telling them that you're starting a new website and you'd like to embed their content to attract new students. Tell them that you'll be tracking the popularity of their videos and the most successful teachers will be invited to be instructors on your future (more developed) website, with some special offers (e.g. lower % of their profits go to you). Also tell them that you will not be making any money off of the initial Beta-validation version of the website that you're currently building, it's solely to start attracting students. B) If as you reach out to these teachers you find a big negative response (e.g. 90% say no and then set their videos to not be embeddable on external sites), then stop telling the teachers, and just use their videos. You won't be doing anything immoral, because you won't be making any money off of your initial Beta-validation website anyway. And when you launch your more developed site you can still reach out to the creators with the most successful videos on your Beta site. To add some unique added-value to the embedded content, you could maybe even somehow couple your own additional clarifications, etc. with the content, to clarify things you feel they didn't fully explain, etc. As you start getting students visiting your site and watching videos, make sure to be collecting email addresses so you can do a drip campaign to keep them coming back for content you suggest. As your student visitor # starts increasing you can also slowly start reaching out to teachers (either the ones from YouTube, and others from Udemy, etc.) to get more content created specifically for your site. If you'd like more detailed advice relevant to your specific ideas I'd be happy to help, Lee

3 answers • about 8 years

freelancing Agile Methodologies Startup Consulting

For someone who is new to freelancing, what are the best practices in finding ideal clients to sell my services to?

Brian Bagdasarian answered: I've been where you are - it kind of sucks :) I think you need to do a bit of a reset on your personal mindset - Effective agile management is never a "nice to have" - its what keeps things flowing, working, and on time. To that end - do you know who your ideal client really is? Let's break down your options (per your question): Startups - If not funded, move on. You don't need equity, you need revenue. If they are funded it could be a good fit.. Creative Agencies - I think you're giving creative agencies too much credit here - you need to narrow that down. Are you looking at marketing and advertising agencies, or software development shops? The former usually is...lost?... when it comes to Agile, so you'll have a bit of educational work involved, the latter more than likely is already agile by nature. I've also found that sometimes agencies will shy away from outsourcing things like project management (its a control issue). Solo guys - this all comes down to one question - "Do they have money?" I'm sure you feel a bit like you're in a rock and a hard place. There are clearly some variables here that I'm not covering, but would in a chat. The bottom line is that you need to get a handle on WHO you want to work with, WHAT you are solving for them, and WHY your services are better than what they are currently doing. People buy solution, not prevention. With that in mind, you should be able to find a starting point. If you would like to have a chat, schedule one with me - My team and I do growth strategies for businesses of all sizes, and if we have a chat here on Clarity, and I think I can help, I'd be willing to do an in depth 45 minute session with you for free.

3 answers • about 8 years

Loans Higher Education Debt

Why did ITT get shut down and who manages loan payments for student loans while for-profit students are still in school?

Deanna Erickson answered: ITT was perceived to be a rip off. To find your loan servicer, call 1-800-4-FED-AID Here is a link to the federal government's site with lots more information about the closing. https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/about/announcements/itt/faq Good luck!

1 answer • almost 8 years

Rewards Programs Revenue & Profit Growth Marketing Strategy

How do I determine my average margins after implementing a Kohls cash back rewards program at my retail stores?

Shaun Nestor answered: Yes. Let's assume: CURRENT Gross Sales $30.00 Cost of Goods $15.00 Net Profit $15.00 Profit Margin 50.00% NEW DISCOUNT PROGRAM Gross Sales $30.00 Discount $3.00 Cost of Goods $15.00 Net Profit $12.00 Profit Margin 40.00%

1 answer • about 8 years

iPhone Development iPhone Application Development

Creating a TableView Programmatically with multiple cell in swift

Thakor Dhavalsinh vishnusinh answered: class MyViewController: UIViewController, UITableViewDataSource, UITableViewDelegate { let tableView = UITableView() override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() // Set the table view's frame tableView.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: view.frame.width, height: view.frame.height) // Set the data source and delegate tableView.dataSource = self tableView.delegate = self // Register the custom cell class tableView.register(CustomTableViewCell.self, forCellReuseIdentifier: "CustomCell") // Add the table view as a subview view.addSubview(tableView) } func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int { return 10 } func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell { let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "CustomCell", for: indexPath) as! CustomTableViewCell cell.textLabel?.text = "Row \(indexPath.row)" return cell } }

1 answer • almost 2 years

Crowdfunding Funding

For crowdfunding, how many campaigns should you run on a single product?

Ryan Rutan answered: Over the years I have been asked many variants of this question, and the answer is almost always “yes, you can”, so what we prefer to dig in on is the “why should you”. There tend to be three scenarios where people ask this question: 1. A prior campaign failed and the founders want to try again. 2. A prior campaign succeeded and the founders want to repeat it. 3. The founders want to launch on more than one platform at the same time in an attempt to gain more exposure. Failed Campaign In the case of a failed attempt - there is nothing wrong with making a second attempt, as long as you’ve pinpointed where things went wrong the first time and are prepared to overcome those hurdles. The most common reasons for failure are: -Not building an audience prior to launch -Not marketing the raise sufficiently -Product / Market Fit is off Assuming you are ready to address the shortfalls in your first attempt there is no reason that you shouldn’t make another attempt. Successful Campaign If you’ve run a campaign successfully, there are a number of reasons you may want to roll the dice again, including: -We didn’t make enough money to create operational cash for our business. -We made money on it, and we want to make more. -We saw additional demand for the product after the campaign ended. If you were successful, but the money you raised was just enough to cover making and shipping all the product you sold, then you may be tempted to do it again. If that’s the case, ensure that you’ve achieved a better manufacturing cost, raised prices, or done something to increase the margins on the second attempt or you’ll find yourself in the same position. If you did well, and simply want to repeat the process, consider using e-commerce rather than crowdfunding and start building your own store, instead of building on rented land (ie someone else’s platform). In this was all your marketing is pointed to your own site, giving you more control and the ability to add products over time, change pricing, etc. The same would apply if you saw a great deal of demand after the campaign ended. Quickly move to capture those potential buyers emails and find a solution for transacting. More than one platform I’m often asked if it is “okay” to launch on more than one crowdfunding platform at a time, with the hopes of getting more exposure. The answer is yes, it’s okay, but you aren’t likely to get the exposure you are looking for, and in fact will be more likely to fail on both platforms. This comes down to a simple principle of division of attention, and understanding how crowdfunding platforms provide exposure. If you are forced to divide your marketing efforts across two platforms, you exponentially increase the difficulty of driving enough traffic to hit your goals and have a successful raise. Counting on the platform for exposure is also a major mistake people make. While it is true that the platforms will surface and promote a handful of the hundreds, or thousands of projects on their platform, they tend to focus on those that are already showing traction and success. Said differently, if you plan was to launch on a platform (or two) and have all the exposure come from their efforts, you don’t actually have a plan. TL;DR Yes, you can run a project twice, sequentially or in parallel - but you should strongly consider the why, and whether or not a second raise will help you achieve the outcomes you are really after.

4 answers • about 8 years

Ruby

Is Hanami better then Rails?

Trade Shows Marketing Strategy Experience Design

What are some out of the box ideas to absolutely crush a trade show?

Jason Kanigan answered: Look into pitchmen. Joel Bauer started as a pitchman, in which he used his magic act to get attention for his client's booth. He understands that the unexpected and entertainment are big factors of attention. Giveaways...hey, it's possible to give away a lot of things and not get anything in return. Build a feedback loop into whatever you give away: if it's a contest, make sure they have to log into your site to see if they won, for instance. Or call you. Then you get another chance to communicate with them. Match the giveaway to the theme and audience. Giving an iphone 7 away to a crowd at a power generation show isn't a great fit and isn't memorable. I've heard an example of co-opting other people's booths. This is interesting because you expand your distribution channel at little cost. The idea is you ask if you can put your brochure on their countertop, and in exchange you'll by their crew lunch. Of course this works best when your products are complimentary and not in competition. Imagine if you got 4 or 5 of these to work with you. "Everywhere" the attendees go, there's your brochure. You must be legit. But the key thing is: make sure you get the conversation AFTER the show is over. Collect business cards; screen a little for fit; book the next conversation. Don't try to do everything at the show. Yes, it's possible to set up big deals right there; however, you probably won't and your objective should be to get awareness of you and your brand into your target market's (distributor's) head.

3 answers • about 8 years

Corporate Law Startup Law Legal Advice

If my website automatically posts the content recieved onto another website. Who is liable if the content is inappropriate?

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: I'm not a lawyer but I've dealt with similar matters in the past. Technically the author of the post, but you as the publisher you can be liable for the content specially if you don't publish the original credits.

2 answers • about 8 years

Legal Advice Copyright Law Corporate Law

Is it illegal to host a website in an iframe if the terms of the website state not to do so?

Shaun Nestor answered: In the US, terms and conditions do not override the law of the land. Depending on the exact situation, and intent, I would suspect that an entity could make the case for fraud, trademark infringement, theft, or copyright violation. The practice will likely get you blacklisted by any search engine of significances, undercutting whatever your objective was in the first place.

2 answers • about 8 years

Advertising Celebrity Online Marketing

Who can help me with organizing an event in the sphere of celebrity endorsement?

Shaun Nestor answered: A quick search of the experts already here on Clarity result in the following. https://clarity.fm/search/celebrity%20endorsement Reach out to them.

2 answers • about 8 years

Consumer Electronics New Product Development New Product Ideation

I want to build an electronic Home product and need help determining how to establish its industry.

Lee von Kraus answered: I'd be happy to help, depending on what you need help with. I advise early stage hardware startups on rapid prototyping, market testing, etc. I've both founded my own hardware startup (which has gone on to raise over $10 MM), and designed and built hardware prototypes for other startups. If you'd like to schedule a call, feel free to send a Dropbox link to related materials beforehand so I can go over them, best, Lee

3 answers • about 8 years

Tax SaaS - Enterprise & SMB B2B Sales

We are a UK-based SaaS company looking to expand with a US sales team. Are US based sales staff open to being freelances for the right package?

James Scott answered: Hi! Congratulations on your impending US expansion! I'd love to provide a perspective if I may. I'm a UK citizen, SaaS expert, now living in the Bay Area. I'm also a member of the UK Government's new GBx initiative which is specifically designed to help provide support to UK companies expanding into the US market. There are various ways you can progress and I'd urge you to consider a few options, as well as the specific one you've asked about. I've worked with and for a number of companies that have either expanded from the UK to the US or the US to the UK and have seen it go wrong as many times as it has gone right. I'd love to share some of my learnings and help you plot a path that has the best chances of success. Please feel free to reach out if you'd like to discuss further.

4 answers • about 8 years

Marketing Strategy Online Marketing Email Marketing

What are some of the best PBX phone apps/system for sales and for marketing? IE Grasshopper versus Twilio, for small business and startups.

Erik Hanley answered: Hi, My name is Erik Hanley and I'm a Call Center Expert and Senior Analyst Programmer with more that 15 years of experience. If you need help to set up a call center/PBX phone app, you need to evaluate your needs and budget and then look for the telecom providers. Using VOIP providers Vs traditionnal phone lines will impact the cost and phone line qualities. If you need help to set up your telecoms for your small business/start up, i'm the good person to help you. I will be happy to help you on a call. Regards, Erik

2 answers • about 8 years

pitching Raising Venture Capital Raising capital

What are the best practices in finding a mentor to edit and critique a pitch deck?

Lee von Kraus answered: I'd be happy to help, I've advised many early stage startups on their pitch decks. Feel free to send a Dropbox link to your pitch deck so that I can go through it beforehand, best, Lee

7 answers • about 8 years

Immigration

What are the options for a Canadian independent contractor to work in the US?

Rahul Ghosh answered: I am from Toronto as well and you can receive money and work remotely for which you have to pay taxes. However in order to go and work there you need a work visa. H1B - H2B etc.

7 answers • about 8 years

Clarity Business Coaching

What are the best practices for getting more repeat consulting calls on Clarity?

Lee von Kraus answered: Simplest answer to your questions of why people aren't scheduling follow up calls later is because it takes time to implement new ideas, and by the time they have implemented them, they've either A) forgotten about their call with you. They've probably talked with many other people since then, helping to further refine the idea, etc. B) they may have now moved into a phase that they don't think you can help with (i.e. they have new problems now, and there's no reason to waste money just to update you on the resolution of a past problem) C) they're just shy In all cases, the best solution is to just reach out to your previous callers maybe a month or two after your call. Send them a Clarity message and ask how the ideas you talked about worked, and where they are now, and whether they have any new problems that you might be able to help out with. best of luck, Lee

2 answers • about 8 years

Social Media Marketing Social Media Consulting Digital Marketing

What are some entry level marketing services I can offer as a beginner?

Shaun Nestor answered: A few ideas: - Copywriting for their blog - Email marketing - PPC Ad creative - Basic accounting / invoicing - PowerPoint / Keynote creation - Social media scheduling - Email / social media customer service - Outreach - Guest blogging / writing - LinkedIn networking Using your chef example, think of the thing your idea "chef" bogs themselves down with each day. All the best, -Shaun

4 answers • about 8 years

Marketing Strategy Lead Generation

What's the best way to interest busy consultants and service professionals in a new online method to attract prospective clients?

Joseph Peterson answered: "What's the best way to interest busy consultants ... ?" As a busy consultant myself, I can say that you missed an opportunity right here. I read your question from start to finish, but it told me NOTHING about what you offer. By the end of the paragraph, all I know is that you're trying to sell some sort of "managed service" with "custom solutions" for $10,000. Really, you couldn't be more vague. And there's nothing here to entice a customer. Maybe I'm not your target customer. Still, inasmuch as you're asking for advice, your "elevator pitch" ought to explain what it is that you do. What exactly are you trying to sell / offer? Whether the service is attractive to potential customers or not I can't say. However, it's clear that your pitch needs a LOT of work. An elevator pitch isn't just for potential customers or investors. You need a simple way of introducing / explaining yourself, regardless of the audience. That's something I can help you with, if you're interested.

4 answers • about 8 years

SaaS SaaS Sales Pricing Strategy

Moving from a traditional one-time software license & maintenance price model to a subscription fee model

Shaun Nestor answered: Perhaps I am not understanding your phrase or what you're looking for. A simple formula would be 10 years divided by 120 (to get the fee per month). To keep all things equal, this number is now your monthly subscription fee. Feel free to drop me a note if there is something we can clarify. All the best, -Shaun

3 answers • about 8 years

Marketing Strategy B2B B2B Marketing

How should I get in touch with my B2B target audience?

Shaun Nestor answered: There are a number of factors that could be attributing to not having much success. Most likely, it is your messaging. Are you framing everything you say around how your product/service solves the problem your ideal client is facing? For example, if they are banging their head against the wall trying to coordinate the logistics of moving the team and equipment from venue to venue, does your product solve that problem for them? Once this messaging is dialed in, I suspect your email response rate will improve, your LinkedIn messages will improve, and your phone call confidence will improve. If you are just "selling" your product, you will have little to no success regardless of who you talk to or the platform on which you contact them. Think about how you would like to be talked to if you were them. A cold, out of the blue message from an unknown person is likely to end up in the spam or trash folder. Instead, focus on how you can deliver value FIRST, then interest them in a long-term solution with your product. I'd be happy to talk to you more in detail about this and give exact steps once I know more about you and your product. Schedule a call and we can get started. All the best, -Shaun

4 answers • about 8 years

iOS Development

What are the bug tracking tools helping to take screenshots of bugs occurred?

Sevan B. answered: My response is heavily biased towards web applications, and in-browser bug reporting, though some tools may allow native iOS and Android implementations, as well. The answer depends on on the type of audience that needs to report bugs: private and targeted (developers, employees, etc.) or public and open (all website visitors). Private group typically have some level of vested interest in reporting bugs, and may have higher tolerance for user experience (UX) issues associated with the bug capturing process; public groups, however, need much more streamlined tools and less hurdles in order to encourage bug reporting. FOR PRIVATE GROUPS, the top two tools that we have used, may be a bit too complex for public groups, though they can integrate with more user-friendly tools. Both of them also allow annotations on the screenshots that they take. https://getmarker.io/pricing MARKER starting at about $25 per month is the cheaper of the two. It integrates with some tools such as Trello, Jira, GitHub and Slack, and they have plans for integration with HipChat, which may make it more user-friendly for the public group. https://usersnap.com/pricing USERSNAP starting at about $80 per month is more expensive, but has more features and certainly more integrations out of the box. FOR USE WITH PUBLIC GROUPS, I recommend using a chat service, with built-in screenshot capturing, since those generally seem more user-friendly, and have less complexity in the capturing phase, and have an established use pattern. Of course, some of these make great tools even for more private audience groups, as they can be limited to such groups easily using some basic server-side coding. https://doorbell.io/pricing DOORBELL.IO that has a free plan, supports screenshots. and is one that we have not used, but seems simple, very promising, quite open. It is also highly malleable due to having an API for integrating it into your own widgets, and supporting "web hooks" which may be used to post content from it to any web address. https://www.olark.com/pricing OLARK that also has a free plan, is one that we have used extensively, since it has a co-browsing feature. Once initiated by the chat operator and accepted by the visitor, it provides a live feed into the visitor's browser. NOTE: We have been an Olark partner for a while now, though I am writing without bias, and have NOT included our referral link in this response.

1 answer • about 8 years

Equity Funding

If I have a startup LLC and an early investor would like to invest for a 10% equity in my business, does he also need to be a legal business partner?

David C Barnett answered: You're confusing partnerships and corporations. If someone owns 10% of a corporation they are simply a shareholder. Many people create corporations and refer to themselves and other founding shareholders as 'partners.' This may be the source of the confusion. A partnership (general or limited) is a different kind of business legal structure. What you may also be thinking of is a directorship. The investor may or may not want to be a director. This would give them a seat at the table for Board of Directors meetings. In certain states and provinces, directorships lead to some types of personal liabilities. If they want to be a director, you should make sure they get advice on what they may be exposing themselves to. Cheers. David Barnett

2 answers • about 8 years

Corporate Finance Investment Banking angel investing

What kind of return would be expected on convertable notes for: Mid Market Firm, Technology Startup, Traditional small business?

Rui Delgado answered: Normally, investors want startups to either exit or go public. They're not exactly interested in making some small return before. They want to make at least 10x the amount they invested, that's why it's worth it for them, even with the risk of losing the capital (and that's what happens to a considerable number of investments they do).

2 answers • about 8 years

Amazon Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Would love advice on book arbitrage and best practices?

Nick Custenborder - Amazon FBA Expert, Founder @ proamzcoach.com answered: Book arbitrage can be a great way to make extra income with Amazon FBA but it's not for everybody. While I don't have specific experience with the program you posted, I looked at the web page to see what they are all about. First, the link opened 10 identical browser tabs which is pretty suspect and feels spammy. Their program is specifically geared to finding cheap books on Amazon that have few or no FBA sellers. You buy the books and relist them as an FBA seller at a higher price then pocket the difference. I don't have any experience with this type of arbitrage so I can't say if it's a profitable method. If you're just starting out, I would go to places like library book sales and Goodwill to find cheap books. There is a big movement right now for college students to find alternative sources for textbooks since they can be extremely expensive. This is an excellent opportunity to find cheap textbooks locally and sell them on Amazon. You make money and the buyer saves money vs. buying from a bookstore. If you're considering buying this program, I would strongly recommend doing more research as there is a wealth of free information out there on book arbitrage.

2 answers • about 8 years

Webinars Digital Marketing Business Development

How can I improve the rate of attendees for my webinar?

John F. Jones III answered: Have you considered utilizing a tool like Webinar Jam? You can pre-record your webinars, turn them into evergreen webinars and set the entire system up to provide specific dates and times for the recording, including a, "Your in luck, our next one starts in 15 minutes!" option or something like it. Three weeks is a long time to wait when we are a society that want instant gratification so offering something like this may be a key for more frequency. Also, if you have a way to monitor the open rate of those five reminders, I'd encourage you to look at that statistic. Even though your current schedule is three weeks out, five reminders seem a little high and I'm thinking you'll see that the two out of the five e-mails don't even get looked at. Other suggestions would be to look closely at your webinar title, the length of the webinar and even the hook you are pitching to encourage people to watch. You want to give off a high perceived value to entice registration and attendance.

5 answers • about 8 years

Corporate Law Legal Advice Startup Law

How can I protect my Sharing Economy based startup from being fined for stepping on traditional businesses toes?

D. Mathew Blackburn answered: Not a canadian lawyer. You should go find a lawyer that knows these things, doesn't mean you can't keep your old one ut if he doesn't know then you need to seek out a specialist that does for that specific matter.

1 answer • almost 8 years

Business Strategy Small Business Business planning

As a solo freelancer of my company (Incorporation), what are the best practices to grow my business, get more clients, and hire people?

John F. Jones III answered: I'm reading a book called, "Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup" written by Bill Aulet. The 24 steps are broken down into six categories: 1: Who is your customer? 2: What can you do for your customer? 3: How does your customer acquire your product? 4: How do you make money off your product? 5: How do you design and build your product? 6: How do you scale your business Your technically asking a good number of questions and I'm thinking this book might be a good starting point for you.

6 answers • about 8 years

Lead Generation Sales Prospecting Marketing

What are some effective, modern ways of getting traction from prospective clients?

Jason Kanigan answered: No one can give you a legitimate answer to this question. First, while you have pre-qualified your leads somewhat they are not qualified yet. You and I have no idea whether they still need services like what you offer, or are open to talking about another supplier if they are. Second, not all prospects are a fit on personality. You are not going to get along with everyone, and you do not want everyone as a customer. Not wanting "to lose out on any single" prospect is a dangerous and frankly impossible mindset. Again, some people will be "Clients From Hell" and you do not want them in your business. And as above, you are simply not going to get "everyone" as your customer. So every time you do not, you are going to view that as "failure", which is disempowering and incorrect. Third, the message of your offer and how well or poorly it matches up with that target market will determine who even talks to you. So there are many factors here outside the scope of this answer, such as who writes the copy, how good the pain points are and the level they resonate with the target market, the media/distribution channel you use to reach them, and so on. Now if I was in your shoes, I would qualify further and then test. You can certainly estimate what you want as an outcome. However, you will probably get it wrong at least the first time and probably the first several (most of us do, and anyone telling you otherwise is a liar. The best copywriters in the world only succeed sometimes. The rest of the time their efforts fizzle...and the smart learn from that feedback and adjust.) So say out of these 5000 leads you qualify further for size and another pain point or two in your copy. Maybe you have a great call to action that separates the wheat from the chaff and gets engagement. You estimate--because that is all you can do at this point; you don't have any data to plan with, but as time goes on you'll collect some and be able to plan with increasing accuracy--30% will do the action...take a survey...sign up to watch a video...request a white paper. Now you're down to 1,667 better-qualified prospects. If you get 10% of these to buy, you'd be doing well and that's 167 sales. This kind of estimating immediately shows you two things: 1 > Does this level of funnel flow support your money needs? Is 167 X $sale price$ = enough revenue for the period? 2 > Is this a sufficient activity level? The most common thing people discover on a coaching call with me is that they do not have enough leads going into their funnel to generate the revenue they need out the other end. They're flying by the seat of their pants and hoping. Then you run the test and see what happens. Your feedback tells you how pre-qualified your traffic source really was, and how good or bad your conversion tool is. Compare Planned to Actual results, hone in on where you can get your greatest bang for your buck, and adjust. Let me share a secret with you: it's usually the Traffic source. You can work on Conversion until you're blue in the face, but if Traffic is poor quality, you're only going to develop a trickle of sales no matter what you do. But a moderate change in Traffic quality can have a huge impact on Conversion, no matter how poor your conversion tool may be. I've given you indicators to look at here and concepts to think about. But again, no one can tell you truthfully what kind of response you'll get from your list. You have to estimate, test, and adjust.

4 answers • about 8 years

iPhone apps

What is the cost to acquire users for an iPhone game app?

Erik Hanley answered: Hi, My name is Erik and I'm a Senior Analyst-Programmer with more than 15 years of experience combined with 6 years of being a Sales Call Center expert. It does depends on specific factors. Some of them are: Cost of application, quality of the game, is it a unique game, is there geographical limitations, how agressive is your ads campaigns, etc. The average cost to users acquisition is variable depending on the product sold. Some applications/games cost almost nothing to market (like Pokemon Go!) and others that has more challenges. If you want to discuss on a call about ways increasing your users (and revenues if it applies) and how to do efficient marketing for your game, don't hesitate to schedule a call with me. Regards, Erik

2 answers • about 8 years

Failure Analysis Start-ups Startups

What are some notable startups that have been founded in 2011 or later?

Larry Cornett answered: Lyft was founded in 2012. They operate in 200+ cities in the U.S. cities. They've raised more than $2B and they're valued at $5.5B. Udacity was founded in 2011 and is valued at over $1B. Vox Media was also founded in 2011 and is also valued at over $1B. Uptake was founded in 2014 and is valued at $1.1B. Oscar was founded in 2013 and is valued at $1.7B.

3 answers • about 8 years

Tax Tax Preparation Income Tax

Do I have to file a 'zero' Tax Return with the IRS?

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: yes, if you have an LLC you probably already have to file quarterly or as per your state's regulations. Regardless of the frequency even if you are making zero sales, zero expenses, etc. you need to report them as the files are due.

4 answers • about 8 years

B2B Lead Generation Lead Generation Marketing Strategy

For B2B companies, where do you go for lead generation? What are some best practices?

Samuel Korfmacher answered: I have been involved in several multimillion B2B businesses that relied on leads to make sales. The solution is simple, but hard at the same time: you should do this inhouse. Nobody knows your business better than you do. You understand your USPs and the added value that your services can bring to your customers. You basically need to cold-call potential customers but rather than selling your services, ask them what challenges they face in regards to the services you offer. That way, you don't get a "sales call", but have a conversation that the potential customer actually finds interesting. During the conversation you might mention that you can help them address several of the issues they are facing, and can convince them of the added value that you have for them. Selling is easy if you understand that you have to offer a solution to your customers problems rather than just trying to push your product. In order to find contacts you can use the company's website, LinkedIn or Google to find the names of the persons that you could contact. Cold-calling is still the most effective method in getting sales, especially since you only need a couple of new sales a month, so you should really focus on that! If you want to talk in more detail about how to best approach your prospects, conversation tactics etc., don't hesitate to give me a call.

7 answers • about 8 years

Start-ups Partnerships Incorporation

How can I protect my interests as a minority shareholder in an incorporated company?

Edmund John answered: This is not tax or legal advice. Two things stand out - usually people leave it up to the investors to ask for preference shares and also I see a lot of family members in that cap table. He could pool them into one entity to make the structure less complex IMO. You'll want to make sure typical protections are in place but the structure of the company (anti-dilution protections). Furthermore I didn't hear you mention vesting? You'll want to pay attention to how the sale is done (making sure the assets are acquired by the DE C-Corp but short of that, you have a board seat and over a 3rd of the company. Him being at 35% as opposed to 38% will make little difference unless there is something specific in the shareholders agreement I'm missing. They can probably remove you from the board in shareholders quorum but they cannot take your shares, if your shares are vested.

3 answers • about 8 years

Marketing Strategy Marketing Social Media Marketing

We need new ways to get applicants to apply for our open position. What other ways besides billboards and word of mouth there is?

Shem Szot answered: Consider service providers which work in specific employee sub-segments. For example, create a relationship with service providers servicing the aboriginal segment. This is just an example, but you can work with service providers who hire people with certain disabilities, etc.. Service providers are always looking to staff at entry level positions.

5 answers • about 8 years

Business Development Lead Generation IT Outsourcing

What are good platforms for outbound marketing for a development agency?

Erik Hanley answered: Hello, My name is Erik and i'm a Call Center Expert and Senior Analyst Programmer with more than 15 years of experience. I've been working in the outbound sales of one of the biggest telecom company in Canada since 6 years. There's many different options you could use depending of your marketing goals. If you need help building a outbound call center, leads generation and sales productivity tracking and improvement, I will be happy to help you. I can help you to build a custom end-to-end solutions, from developement to operations and revenues. With my IT and outbound sales experience, I will be able to help you acheive your sales objectives. I'm hoping to be invited on a call to be part of this amazing project. Regards, Erik

3 answers • about 8 years

Fundraising Crowdfunding Crowdsourcing

What is a good platform to start a fundraiser for a non-business related circumstance? (already tried gofundme.com)

Nick Custenborder - Amazon FBA Expert, Founder @ proamzcoach.com answered: Thank you for reaching out with his story, unfortunate and heartbreaking as it is. I would love to help spread the word. Please go to my Clarity profile and send me a message.

3 answers • over 8 years

Seed Capital Seed Mentoring

Look for a partner that can add value, reach out to prospective merger and acquisition officers or raise a seed round?

Ken Mack answered: I would be delighted to speak with you as co founder and angel investor for M&A firm Amieva Mack Capital in London these are exactly the types of opportunities we partner with and I personally would be very interested to speak with you. I can guarantee you that the value I could add to what you have will be unprecedented.

2 answers • about 8 years

Tax Accounting Corporate Law Small Business

Running a sports camp, do I need to have two people who are working it with me fill out an independent contractor form? Or can I just cut them a check

Erik Hanley answered: It will surely depends on where you are located. In Canada, you can ask the 2 employees/contractors to provide you a bill like any company does when they sell services to customers and you can pay them by check. The employee/contractor would need to be registered as a company (incorported or registered on their names, it doesn't matter). Expect to pay sales taxes if you go this way but you won't have any "employee paperwork" to do. Regards, Erik

3 answers • over 8 years

Marketing Strategy Lead Generation Strategic Partnerships

What is a good strategy to find new customers, either B2B or final customers?

Jason Kanigan answered: Find organizations that are already sponsoring or buying gamification for their online marketing, and approach them. If you make gaming apps, look at who is already promoting their products or services through similar means. You have a common issue here which is this: for most prospects, you'll have to make TWO sales. I dislike this situation and avoid it whenever I can. First, you must sell them on the *idea* of your solution ("This game will help you increase customer involvement and retention, and convert into more sales".) Second, you must sell them on the idea of *you* as the solution provider. I look for situations where there is only the one sale to be made: you as the solution provider. If you have to sell them on the original idea, it's too much work. If they're already using these media to reach their target market, they already know its value. You don't have to sell them on that. You just have to get their attention and assure them that you will get them results.

6 answers • over 8 years

Referrals Client Relationship Building Marketing Strategy

How can we get happy clients to actually give referrals?

Parker Woodward answered: You need to make referrals a condition of doing business with you and do it upfront. Also, automate the referral ask. More details on "how to" below. To do this: During your first interactions with a client (NOT after you have delivered or closed the sale, that's a rookie mistake), you can tell them.... "Listen, it's our job to treat you guys so well that you'll not only come back to us over and over again when you need help...it's our job to treat you so well that you'll feel comfortable with us enough to send your friends and colleagues our way when they need our help. Does that make sense?" When they say "Yes" (and they won't say no) you say, "OK great, the way we do that is through referrals. So once you're happy and successful with us, we'll occasionally ask you for a referral. So, you get great work from a team you know and trust and you also get to connect people in your network to a service that you know works well so you look like a rockstar to your network.I want to make sure we can agree to that upfront? This is how we do business here and it holds us accountable to you and makes sure we deliver the absolute best product/service you've ever seen. So once you're happy will you send us referrals?" Once they agree, you now have permission, and a verbal contract that they will send you referrals. Now, treat them like gold with this mentality that you not only want to give them a great finished product, but you want them to refer you. That should drive the work. Once you've delivered...ask for the referral. Don't make the rookie mistake and just say one-time "hey do you know anyone that you could refer us to?" That will rarely work. Instead, ask "Hey, do you remember when we started this project and we both agreed that if we delivered and made you both happy and successful that you would refer us to people in your network?" Pause, shut up and listen, and let them say "yes". Ask them first "So are you happy with what we've delivered?" Pause, shut up and listen, and let them say "yes". If they hesitate at all, they aren't happy and won't refer. Don't hold back and dive-in deep here. Say "I sensed a little hesitation. What's up? What are we missing? I want to help." Figure out what's wrong, fix it, then ask them if they are happy. Then say, "well I've been looking at your connections on LinkedIN and I noticed you are connected to (enter 2 names and company names here). Can youintroduce us so we could have a conversation and get to know them?" The above means you have to do the research. You have to do the work. But the work upfront is much easier than dealing with a cold prospect. Most salespoeple/organizations just don't respect referrals enough to make them a priority. It's their loss and your gain if you follow this simple process. It's work. Just do the work and you might also find you get to know people and enjoy it. These are your customers. Treat them like people. Take care of them and they'll take care of you. Once you make the ask, continue to mine referral leads and ask once a month. Follow-up until they answer. Follow-up until they tell you to stop. Phone is best but email works too. Use it as an opportunity to maintain and develop the relationship. Truly care about your clients and they will never tell you to stop following up. It will be like talking to an old friend and often this process leads to more sales from your past clients as you stay top of mind. Want to automate this process... FULL DISCLOSURE FIRST: I co-founded www.referralriver.com If you want to automate the referral ask, try ReferralRiver. It's free and uses artificial intelligence to automatically research who is in your client's network and make the referral ask at the right time every month. It reduces your work significantly while you just Cc'ed on an email from your existing customers to new referral leads. It's freaking magical. There are other services out there as well like LeadDyno (more of an affiliate program). You should try it all but the truth is that you have to make the agreement upfront and you have to get serious about making referrals a priority. Book a call with me if you want to ask me any questions. Happy to help.

8 answers • about 8 years

Employment Law Corporate Law Small Business

Running a sports camp for my company and partnering with two individuals. Can I simply cut them a check, or do they need to fill out a 1099?

Jason Kanigan answered: Consult a tax accountant; I am not an accountant or an attorney and this is not "professional advice." I do have to ask a question about the wording here. Are these partners as in shareholders of the business, or are they working for it? That will make a difference in how you go about paying them. If you are telling them what to do and when to do it, they are employees and you cannot 1099 them. 1099 means you say "here's what I need done", but when they do it and how they do it is up to them. So if you require them to be on site from 9-5 for example, they're employees. If they are owners alongside you, that's different. However you pay them must follow the matching principle of accounting. Their revenue from the camp has to match how they're involved. If they're part owners, they get a dividend check and they must report that as corporate income. If they're working for the camp, my guess is that they are employees and you must go through the hassle of reporting and paying them as such.

2 answers • over 8 years

Business Advice Corporate Law Small Business

If I have a sports camp business registered in Illinois and I want to run other camps in California, do I need to register the company in Cali, too?

Carrie Wells answered: Yes, if you are going to have employees in CA.

2 answers • about 8 years

Twitter for Business Twitter New Business Development

What are best practices to get verified on twitter?

John Meese answered: Did you get denied? Or have you not been approved *yet*? I'm not sure how Twitter is working through the application process, but from what I can tell it is roughly in order based on follower account with a big focus on who they are and how much their name or personal brand are attached to why people follow them.

3 answers • over 8 years

Mentoring Startups

Can you recommend a mentor evaluation form for startups? Thank you!

Erik Hanley answered: Hello, My name is Erik and I'm a Call Center Expert and Senior Analyst Programmer. I've been working on employee/leaders productivity since more than 15 years. I suggest prior to establish an evalutation form, you must align clear revenues and profits goals and also layout your top social values. By splitting those objectives by executive, and then by employees, you will end up having an evaluation form that is aligned with your revenues/profits objectives with a combinaison of respect with the company's values. I will be more than happy to help you with this and please feel free to schedule a call so we can have this evaluation form for all employees and leaders up and running! Regards, Erik

3 answers • over 8 years

Facebook Advertising Crowdfunding

Can I run FB Ads to my launchrock website to see how many people are interested in giving me their email address?

Carrie Wells answered: Yes, you can send FB ads to anywhere you want (landing page, webpage, whatever). You just need to have a business FB page to advertise.

3 answers • about 8 years

Educational Technology

How do you determine if your startup company is a business or a hobby?

David C Barnett answered: If you take less money out than the fair market value of your time, it's a hobby. If you can pay yourself a fair market wage, you own a job. If your business had profit beyond your fair market wage, it's a business. There is a section on this in my book; How To Sell My Own Business. You see, I often direct hobby and job owners to auctioneers when it comes time to sell their 'business.' Hope that helps to clarify things. Cheers Dave

3 answers • over 8 years

Digital Marketing Product Marketing Taglines

Any suggestions of a captivating tag line that has Paperless bidding?

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: Hello! This is a great question and I wish many more asked just like you. My name is Humberto Valle, I'm a strategic marketer with almost 10 years of service with some of the most innovative teams in the world. Here are my thoughts; I would ask for a bit more information, don't be afraid or shy to share more about your company, goals, mission & vision statement. The tag line can be a simple as 2 words or as long as a sentence as long as it makes sense to your target market. If you pay attention, there are a lot of companies which taglines don't even mention the service or product but instead focus on empowering their mission statement or core experience from using the product specially if your company name, logo, or website already mention the product you can drive your goal home with the tag line. Example: having a playful company profile and the name Paperless Wiring, inc. you could go with a playful tagline like: Easy Messaging Galore or Hand Picked Just For You. But if your profile and core is more professional and buttoned up, then your tag line should match that and help drive that style home with your clients; examples: Reliability at its best, tailored services just for you. if you are a local company trying or wanting to leverage your origin consider using slang or accents that emphasize that. I think it was the KFC slogan that's a good example of this with their lickin' good.

3 answers • about 8 years

Funding Pricing Acquisitions

What are different options for raising funds to buy an established online business?

Shaun Nestor answered: Hi there, The options are the same as buying many traditional businesses. You can obviously use your own funds, raise funds from friends and family, use personal lines of credit, crowdfunding/investment or seek personal loans from financial institutions. Any wise investor in your venture should require -- and you should have prepared -- financials for the online business you are purchasing. Does the online brand have tangible assets? Inventory? Existing sales/AR? What about long-term purchase orders or contracts? Where I see most entrepreneurs stumble is buying too much into "blue sky" value, that is, believing the sellers opinion of what future value the brand/company may have. You have to take that into consideration, but it should not be "the" deciding factor. If the business is truly a cash cow, as many buyers would want you to believe, why are they selling it? Do you see opportunity for growth? What skill set or leverage do you have that will accelerate that growth or expand the market of your acquisition? Again, funding options are generally the same between traditional businesses and online businesses. Investors/lenders will require the same due diligence and financials to establish an assess the level of risk. All the best, -Shaun

3 answers • over 8 years

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) E-commerce SEO SEO Strategy

Can you refer me to an SEO GENIUS who can do both on-site and off-site SEO and G. Adwords? Must have proven track record of stellar results.

Stoney deGeyter answered: Obviously I don't know your situation but you might be running across an issue with expecting one person to do the job of many. There are so many aspects to SEO that its near impossible for one person to be an expert in every area. Content, social media, on-page optimization, user experience optimization are all vital components to a successful digital marketing plan. At best, a "genius" SEO can only be great at one or two, but not all. It might be time to invest in a team. That might mean hiring an agency, but you truly do get so much more experience with a team than one person.

8 answers • over 8 years