Your Questions Answered by Industry Experts

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Answers from Industry Experts

Real Estate Investment Construction Funding

How can I find partners to fund a home construction business for flipping revenue purposes?

Alexander Crutchfield answered: I have built spec houses, built tract houses against contracts, renovated houses and flipped houses. One way to fund projects like this is a rich partner or partners who puts up collateral (like an LC) so that you can borrow to complete your projects. If the first one is successful, you would be surprised how easy the second one is to get funded. The profit sharing is negotiable-it can be anything form 50/50 to 20% to you the promoter. If you would like to discuss this further, please feel free to get in touch.

3 answers • over 9 years

Business planning Investments Business Plan Formulation

How do I include war crisis effects and recovery expenses in a business plan for a new investment round?

JD Carluccio answered: Usually it comes as "extraordinary events", which it would be a specific line apart in the P&L and would necessary have a note to explain the whole situation and how it won't happen again, and what are you doing to mitigate those risks (this is kind of from an accounting perspective and so you can also explain this line item won't show up again -hopefully- in your balance sheet)

2 answers • almost 8 years

Licensing Business Strategy Start-ups

How do I go about getting my invention licensed by a big company?

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: First off, stop calling it an idea. (might be just that, but in licencing efforts you don't want to call it that). Second, what do you mean time is of the essence? This already started sounding risky. With that said, I believe you have two options, assuming that you can spend the next quarter reaching out and performing poorly in presentations and pitches to executives for licencing deals. 1. Learn the art of pitching and presenting, in my blog I have listed some books, one of them is presentations like Steve Jobs. Check it out here: unthinkeverything.blogspot.com (books are listed on the right) and hopefully secure a deal. The risk with this is that if you don't is time wasted. 2. Figure out a creative way to launch your innovation yourself, even if is simply to test for validation. It can be relatively inexpensive to do this (you didn't provide information on your patented idea so I can't help you on that yet). The upside of you launching your product or validation effort yourself is that it gives you exposure, it gives you business experience and most importantly it adds tangible value to your idea no longer putting you on the spot putting a random price point for it. This also makes it easier for you to approach companies and executives and if the licensing deal doesn't go through you have a business out of it. The reality is that if another business can make profit off a license, so can the owner of the product itself. Just have to figure out how.

5 answers • over 9 years

SEO SEM Online Marketing

SEO: I've just found a keyword niche that has low competition and high traffic, should I optimize like crazy? What are my options moving forward?

John Bentley, II answered: First of all, finding keywords that are relevant to your products or services is the first step in an SEO effort. If the words are not under high demand for advertisements, the keywords can be more cost effective as long as there is still sufficient search volume. In other words, you want to make sure they keywords are something people use. The next step is a solid content strategy to employ the keywords in a natural way. I find the SEO Table at search engine land to be the best guide. You can find it at http://searchengineland.com/seotable. The key is to use the good practices, such as incorporating words in your articles and posts as well as URLs, and capitalizing on external sources, such as Social Media. At the same time, you artificially loading up on keyboards.

6 answers • over 9 years

Private Equity Partnerships International Business

We have an MVP for a Latam product that we may or may not spinoff later. Is it too early to hire a regional CEO?

Rui Delgado answered: 100% yes. Make sure it works in your area. Having a regional manager or CEO doesn't make sense at all. Not for the market, not for investors, not for you either. The Founder-CEO should be able to pull it off, otherwise you don't seem like a good bet as a product or as an investable venture.

3 answers • over 9 years

Technology Tech startups and entrepreneurship Video

How do I create a video-conferencing business from the ground up?

Jason Lengstorf answered: You don't need much to get an MVP together. Check out SimpleWebRTC for a free, open source video conferencing solution. I just built a live video platform using a variation of that software (the next generation, Otalk, which is more complex) and found it really simple to get things breathing. Once you have a prototype, just get people using it. See if someone will pay for it. Keep asking. Run targeted ad campaigns where your target market exists. You don't have to start with a well-defined niche; see if a group buys in, and your niche may identify itself. I have a lot of experience with both realtime video and validating/building/marketing new products and services. I'd be happy to offer some insight if you're interested. Good luck!

3 answers • over 9 years

Contract Negotiation Legal Advice

What is the ideal payment arrangement between contractor and subcontractor?

Raza Jaffri answered: I would first attend that person's actual training sessions to judge his quality of delivery in a live setting. Once convinced, the next question is the revenue sharing ratio. If he is doing most of the work, including development of the training material, while he is using my training company name then I would consider something like 70:30, to him after paying for all the direct expenses. Of course, if the course fails to sell enough seats and is cancelled, or not cancelled but does not breakeven then the costs incurred including those on promotion should be evenly split. You are free to negotiate any other ratios.

2 answers • over 9 years

Sales Direct Sales

I would like to build an experienced and skilled sales team, however I can't afford the base salary. How do I approach this problem?

Bob Hatcher answered: What do you mean you can't afford a base salary? What has a higher priority in your spend plan than bringing in revenue? If you don't have enough to cover a base salary you are probably not ready to launch your company. In many cases the founders will do the sales themselves. In some cases offering sales people equity might work. But, few will work without a base. Here's a tip I did with two startups. For the first five deals, do them at cost. This is essentially buying the business. BUT, they need to know that you are severely discounting the price and in return you must get from them an agreement to be a reference for you (assuming, of course, that everything works out). In the beginning, breaking even is a good thing. And, doing that while building a cadre of reference accounts is even better. Bob

6 answers • over 9 years

Business planning International Development Video Production

I'm looking into opening a video production company in both UAE and France. How do I test/research the market to know if this is a relevant idea?

David C Barnett answered: Find a business similar to the one you wish to open. Speak to the owner and make a wholesale pricing agreement. ie: he gives you a discount and produces work for you that you provide to your client. Go find customers and sell the services. If you can sell enough services for it to make sense to start providing the service yourself then grow into production. If not, you haven't risked anything more than a lot of your time. Whether you are great at video production or not, what matters is that you can generate enough sales for your business to be successful. Testing your sales ability 'in the trenches' is a much better measure of potential success than most market research I've seen. Thanks David Barnett www.InvestLocalBook.com

5 answers • over 9 years

Public relations Branding

How can I create a media hero?

Joanne Sonenshine answered: Hi there.... I am not a media giant or PR person but I do know social impact and my guess if this guy has really great story to tell, you'd be able to find resonators with a large audience simply by cherry picking the right groups with whom to share his story. It's like any sales, really. Find the selling point and get the message out far and wide. Perhaps there are like-minded organizations that may want to hear him tell his story over a working lunch for their staff. Or an organization that is looking for a great conference or event speaker. There are many ways to turn his story into something heroic as long as the right ears are listening.

4 answers • over 9 years

Advisory Boards Business Advisory Advisor

With our product being developed, we are looking for a good team of advisors - we need input, challenges and connections, how can I find them?

Michael Silverman answered: Great advisors are driven by 3 primary variables: the industry/sector of your product, your existing network, and where you are physically located. Industry - Your industry may or may not be network driven, in the sense that industry members regularly come together organically (venture capital) or stay relatively separate (accountants). If they regularly come together, industry events are great ways to building your network and eventually finding advisors. If they do not, this is where the value of your network comes into play. Network - Your network is the first place to start, going first through 1st degree connections and then to 2nd degree connections. 2nd degree connections can ultimately be more helpful as the individual has less of a personal relationship with you and may be more amenable to a business relationship that is more objective than your close friends could ever provide. Physical Location - While this may be difficult to permanently change, your location matters, and your proximity to the circles you care about matters. If you are not already in the center of where you want to be, it may be worth a trip to where the highest number of potential targets are if you can stack enough meetings together. Happy to further expand on a call if you'd like.

6 answers • over 9 years

Getting Stuff Done Entrepreneurship Productivity

Is it possible to create a passive income stream for under $1000? Where should I start?

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: Very possible, the hardest part is finding the area of interest. What niche market or opportunity do you see yourself enjoying as a hobby. Enjoyment or purpose is key because passive income often requires putting in some time. At least at the beginning and on going. Here is an example: I'm good at marketing, enjoy talking business tactics, sharing my expertise and like to write, although I'm not good at it. :) One option I saw a few years ago was starting a strategy blog, this blog shares random thoughts, stories, tactics, tips, FYIs, etc. regarding business. I run Adsense on the blog to generat income from there. But my bread and butter when it comes to making passive income from the blog is the affiliate links I have on there. I enjoy reading and think I'm really good at finding great stories, bios, and How To books and I share some of those there, I think I have one of my favorite albums listed there and links to courses and services offered by other companies and some for my own companies (I run a web development firm, a business analytic and advertising team, and a hosting platform that is cheaper than GoDaddy) I have links there. All affiliates or ads to my other services. All I do is drive traffic there once in a while and see the commissions add up. I do my homework in driving the right traffic. Also, another example which is connected to the prior is that I have landing pages (see: trainer.unthink.me for example) where i get registrations for single page landing pages done by a contractor that works for me and we split the earnings. I don't do anything, but post them once In a while on Instagram. I also have an affiliate system for online programs im vested in, and help drive traffic to increase the bottom line and get commission. I also don't do anything for this one. did take time and effort in finding the right market to advertise and message to use. Once that was done the rest takes care of itself. Another example, a friend of mine has a blog about a particular lens piece for a camera loved by many professional photographers, they come to his blog (which he doesn't invest much time in anymore) to find information about tips and how tos for the lens... During the time he updated the blog daily and then weekly he would share his own affiliate links to Amazon and collects money that way. Because the niche was so targeted and there are a ton of people looking for that information he gets good return on that. This is what you call a lifestyle business, but what the people that make money off selling lifestyle businesses don't tell you is that is for those who don't require much income. Another passive income is investing, consider investing in family or friend that maybe wants to start selling Mary Kay or something, you invest in them by buying the products for them. The person sells you collect either an interest or perpetuating until you find some agreement of full repayment to you. Buy a soda or vending machine if you have a truck and are handy with fixing stuff. You can always find deals on snacks and sodas and in a good spot a machine can generate average $50 per cycle. May not sound like much, but if you get yourself a couple of them you have a small income stream that can be saved and used to buy a candy machine or another vending machine... And give you weekend spending money. These are just some ideas I hope help you get your brain flowing to see that you might not need money to do something and if you do you might have more choices than you realized before.

7 answers • over 9 years

Legal Advice Legal Services

Can we change the operating name of our business while keeping the legal name the same? How?

David Ledgerwood answered: Yes. That's called a "fictitious business name" or an "alias" or "doing business as (DBA)" depending on what state you are in. Should be a fairly easy filing option available from your Secretary of State. If you can't figure it out on your own any attorney could do that for you, although you should be able to do on your own.

5 answers • over 9 years

Growth Hacking Growth Strategies IT Outsourcing

We're a successful Indian software outsourcing company. How do we implement a growth strategy that will allow us to achieve 5M USD turnover in 18 mos?

Dhawal Barot answered: That's indeed a great idea!! Basically all you need is leads.!! This can be achieve with multiple channels. 1. PPC (a bit costlier for IT agency) 2. Referral Marketing 3. SEO 4. Niche Emailing (Not Bulk) 5. SMO And for mode I need to see nature of your business in detail Tx, Hope that helps!!

8 answers • over 9 years

Legal Advice International Development Private Equity

We want to give equity in a B2B product for LatinAmerica, as a spinoff. Can we provide alternative equity in a parent company if we don't spinoff?

Alexander Crutchfield answered: I am an investor and advisor and have been structuring deals like this for many years. You can provide equity in the parent if you do not spinoff, provided that the people you provide the equity to agree to it in advance and you comply with all existing shareholders agreements and securities laws, which you would need to to even if you were offering equity in the spinoff. Let me know if you would like to have a call for follow up. Thanks.

1 answer • over 9 years

Marketing Strategy Healthcare Marketing

Do you have experience as a marketing consultant to a Skilled Nursing Facility?

3 answers • almost 5 years

Project Management

How do we develop a small-project management workflow, or hire someone to develop it for us?

Steve Wilfong answered: I don't know how much your workflows vary from project to project which may have some impact on the best way to develop this, but a good starting approach could be to analyze the current workflow(s) that you are using now and then document best practices based on that as well as incorporating research-based best practices into your workflow(s) depending on they type of workflow that needs developed. Checklists, templates, etc. could be developed to assist your staff based on this analysis. Happy to discuss further. I have developed many processes and project plans for IT related processes in the Healthcare sector. Steve

8 answers • over 9 years

International Relations International Sales International Business

How do I become the go-to market person for foreign startups entering my country?

Jason Kanigan answered: Show them how you will bring them customers. Get your plan written down. Present it to them. So many people are dreamers. You'll stand out merely by having your plan written down, and taking the action of getting in front of them. Think about it from their perspective. What would they like in a local rep? What level of sales would they expect? How would they like to see you reach the marketplace? If a physical product is involved, how will you transport, store and deliver it? Are their border issues? How will you overcome these if so? Every decision maker has room for a person who has a definite plan. Don't be worried about size.

4 answers • over 9 years

IT Outsourcing Information Technology Human Resources

Should I allow external clients to conduct a technical interview of my employees, as we are an outsourcing company?

Andy Hilliard answered: If it's a client you want to work with and this is part of the client's requirements then yes, you should allow this or politely decline the business. The client has the right to ask for anything and you have the right to approve or decline. I ran an offshore software services company in Costa Rica after being a Division Manager at Cognizant and now I advise and work with 50 software companies in 25 countries and this is a common request that is complied with. This isn't to say you shouldn't make the reasonable argument that it is preferred that interviews are conducted just with team leads who will then vet and manage the rest of the team. Even though you recruited, vetted, hired and trained your employees, the client wants to validate that your standards and definitions of capabilities are in line with theirs. That is a reasonable exercise assuming you want the business and you feel that this investment of time and validation will lead to a long, fruitful relationship.

4 answers • over 9 years

Start-ups New Business Launches Compensation

How do you recommend paying employees if your start-up is not generating revenue yet? We are a service-based start-up that is still in its seed stage.

Damien Melle answered: When taking on employees you have to be mindful of state labor laws. If they are sales people working on commission only then you might get away with this form of payment. However if they are providing you skilled labor then you maybe required to pay them minimum wage. The bigger question should by, why would someone want to work for you with little or no pay? And who would trust the growth of their company with staff making little to no pay? It's the old saying, you get what you pay for. Without knowing too much about your company I would say that if you do not have revenue your not ready to hire. The free labor comes from founders (sweat equity). I would be glad to speak with you further on the topic. Best of luck.

4 answers • over 9 years

Marketing Strategy Social Media Marketing Email Marketing

What is your experience working with interns? I was thinking of hiring mostly interns for social media marketing.

David Ledgerwood answered: It can be hit or miss. I have found at times that it's more management than it's worth. Most of the time I have instead taken the same budget and hired a part time virtual assistant for the same tasks and gotten better results. Now, there's certainly something to be said for building your community and hiring local interns from local colleges in order to give back. I do think that's a real and important motive. If you are set on an intern you might reach out to marketing professors at local colleges and see if you can back channel and isolate great students from their classes, though at this point in the season you are going to be late. Most internships for top students are going to be solidified early in the Spring. This goes without saying for any job, but you want to make sure you carefully write down and explain expectations and remember this will be someone who has not worked before (much) so things you take for granted with an experienced professional might not be second nature to them. That said, social media and online is going to be a good area for this generation of young workers.

5 answers • over 9 years

Health

Are fitness gyms still necessary in today's world? What is an ideal price to pay per month membership? What makes one gym differ from the others?

Tamir Dayya answered: I recently started my own fitness based company, tailored to athletes, and I've been an athlete in organized sport for 14 years. It really depends on what you're looking to work on. For example, if you want to gain mass, you're going to need access to weights. If you're strictly looking to do cardio, you could easily bypass the gym and go for a run 3-4 times a week. There are so many gyms out there now that you could easily get a gym membership for as low as $10 a month, but on average I'd say you'll be paying around $30 a month. Then again, there are gyms that offer a lot of amenities, that can charge as much as $200 a month. Again, this all depends on your needs, budget, and comfort level of working out in front of strangers. I'd love to hop on a call if you'd like, and talk more about this, or answer any other questions you have about the topic. Good luck! :)

3 answers • over 9 years

Adult Education Entrepreneurship Education Educational Technology

Does anyone here have experience on setting up a provider that can offer "continuing education credits" in Texas?

Tamir Dayya answered: I work at Long Island University in NY. You should start by reaching out to local universities and requesting their criteria for providing credit for continuing education courses. The incentive for most colleges is to offer the course on their campus, collect tuition for each class, and gain campus exposure. The three options that may work for you are: 1.) Reaching out to university continuing education programs and finding out who the director of each program is. If they accept outside resources providing classes for credit, then you could review their criteria and tailor your curriculum to match their requirements. It's important to remember that they may only accept classes taught at their university. 2.) Initiate a partnership between universities and and the school district you teach these classes at, which could then potentially lead to credits since the school district would now have the endorsement of the colleges. 3.) See if you could bring your curriculum to neighboring universities and "increase their scope" in terms of continuing education programs, which could lead to credits being granted for your class. Again, this is very subjective to each university and how strict they are on accepting outside curriculum, but coming from a school district, I think you may find luck with one of the three approaches above. I'd love to hop on a call to learn more about what you do and possibly help you on this journey if you're interested. Good luck! :)

1 answer • over 9 years

Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Medicine

I want to create a new wearable/portable healthcare device. What area of medicine should I focus on?

Curt Prins answered: Focus on apps/devices that make it easier to manage chronic diseases--asthma, COPD, diabetes, or other issues like infertility. Managing these ailments can be cumbersome, and most patients fail at managing them. This is where mobile devices can offer the most benefit.

8 answers • over 9 years

Cloud Consulting Content Management System System Architecture

Need help with my outdated legacy system. How would you architect this? API First Cloud CMS or custom CMS? (see details)

John S. Farhat answered: Maybe the prudent approach is to create a parallel system which includes all the newer technologies. Instead of an all or nothing transition, transfer one (or a few) functions at a time. If something goes wrong, you have a failback. If things work well, you can speed up the transition until everything is moved over.

4 answers • over 9 years

Renewable Energy Lean Startups Prototyping

How do I build a prototype and team with a small budget?

Beau Griffey answered: Just get started. I have been using this site with great success. https://www.freelancer.com/affiliates/bgriffey I am working multiple ventures at the moment and the resources available on this site are tremendous. Very affordable high quality work. You can have an instant team of professionals. I concur with the other poster. A 3D printed mockup is a great place to start. I would not worry about your idea being stolen at this stage. Investors are going to be more concerned that the idea was someone else. For that sake seek patent pending when feasible. The most critical thing is to get outing the market to validate the product. That is what business is really about.

3 answers • over 9 years

Sales Direct Sales SaaS Sales

How do we get customers to skip the trial version of our B2B SAAS product and instead make the purchase directly?

Arjun Buxi answered: You would want to hinge the purchase on a key feature that gives you a competitive advantage - and that is not fully incorporated in the trial version. I have advised SAAS Product Managers and your dilemma is certainly a shared one - getting customers to pick a) paid over free/basic/trial and b) getting them to pick the most lucrative package of the paid ones. If as you say, the software is complex, then we need some interface-based simplicity: try explainer videos for starters. http://www.powtoon.com/ So in sum - a friendly interface, and feature-based price marketing are two good places to start. Happy to have a conversation with you for further details.

6 answers • over 9 years

Start-ups Sales Direct Sales

We are technical founders of the product for a B2B SAAS product. We qualify (budget and authority) with the customer before showing the demo.

Koby Lif answered: Few suggestions: - When you say your customers like your product, how do you know that. - I would recommend asking customers specific questions that correspond to the strengths and features of your product, e.g. 'Are you concerned with your on-premise costs of HW maintenance ?' while you're addressing this issue with your product. - You can add to these questions, assertions that other customers you spoke with highlighted issues such as '...'. Your prospect would empathize with such pains Bottom line - don't start with product & features, ask your customer about their pains and 'match' your product to address these pains

3 answers • over 9 years

Rapid Prototyping Startups Raising capital

What is the fastest way to get a working prototype developed and funded at an early stage?

Miles Matthias answered: It really depends on what you're building here. If you can do any part of your product manually, I would suggest doing that in the first version. The absolute fastest way is to hire a contractor to get it done, but that can be expensive. If your first prototype can't be built with a prototyping tool (even a Keynote presentation) and it's too expensive or difficult to build on your own, you have to convince other people that you are solving an important problem, that your solution solves that problem, and that you have the right team to do it. VCs in a seed round will care more about the team than the idea, but crowdfunders will care about both. And obviously getting designers or developers to join your team for equity will require convincing them of all 3. Happy to give more specific advice based on your app thrugh a Clarity call!

3 answers • over 9 years

Start-ups Business Strategy Marketing Strategy

How to target the right set of customers?

Mike Wienick answered: A couple of quick notes to add on top of some good answers: 1. Have you done any blogging / writing around the concept? If so make sure you have google analytics on your site and you have demographics functionality turned on. You will get some good high level demographic info on who is interested in your product. 2. Work up 1 - 3 personas of people you think will like the product look at gender, geo location, income, interests, careers, etc. of these personas. Find individuals or groups of people that fit into each persona and give them a survey. You may want to go to meet up groups or other gatherings that fit personas and speak to them. Offer to buy them coffee or sponsor your own coffee gather and use it as a consumer research group.

5 answers • over 9 years

Recruiting Screening Resumes Startups

What are some of the unusual/creative ways to apply for a competitive startup?

Mike Wienick answered: This isn't very unusual or creative, but really go down every path you can to connect with someone who works there. It's the best way to get your resume past the initial gatekeepers. Some ideas: - Are you connected to anyone at the Startup on LinkedIn - invite them out to coffee -Does any alumni from your college or High School work there reach out and introduce yourself -Is anyone from the company speaking at any local events or meet ups go and introduce yourself. Good luck!

4 answers • over 9 years

Corporate Finance Finance Loans

How do I get $500k - $1m in capital for marketing expenses for 3-6 months?

Mike Wienick answered: If your looking for financing and not wanting to give up equity you could try to get venture debt. Check out Hercules http://www.htgc.com/ and their competitors these companies can provide big loans. Be ready to provide a lot of info on your company and your financial health. Be aware these companies exist to make money so make sure you end up with payments you can handle. You'll also have loan covenants which will outline certain financial performance metric you'll need to hit. If you miss covenants your loan terms will change for the worse and it can even end up with bank taking control of your company. Obviously a worst case scenario, but you need to be aware and make sure you are very comfortable with the covenants you agree to. - mike

7 answers • over 9 years

Start-ups

How do I start my company

Mike Wienick answered: A high level / quick answer - write your idea out, understand what the plan is. What will your company do? How will you make money? What will be your approximate costs? The plan will change over time but have clear view. - create a corporate entity like a llc to protect yourself (check with a lawyer and accountant) to make sure you form the right corporate entity for your business, you'll also have to start a company bank account, and register for a federal tax id) - register a domain via a domain registrar like name.com - choose a host to host your website and platform/ technology to create I could give you much more specifics over the phone. Would love to learn about your business and help you get started. Sign up for a call with me if you're interested. - mike

3 answers • over 9 years

Brand development Branding Brand Strategy

We're rebranding our mobile app with a new name and image after 2 years. What should our timeline look like? Are there any pitfalls we should avoid?

Dimitry Chamy answered: Your strategy should encompass at least four components: (A) Complete Visual/verbal/social/technical audit to find/create needed assets for transition: know which assets need to be retired or replaced and what transitional assets are needed to bridge the gap. Prioritize: not everything always needs to change at once and the more you have the longer it will take or cost. Plan to convert brand book concepts/guidelines into tangible or digital deployables: how much "stuff" do you need?; vendor selection; budgeting; designing production files; ordering; quality assurance etc... (B) Internal (team) awareness & asset deployment program and monitoring compliance. (C) External publicity plan: aimed at existing clients & prospects, and any other stakeholders: social networks, media, affiliate partners, etc... Timing should be coordinated with industry / sector calendar (trade shows, if applicable), and major app update for maximum effectiveness. Do you need specialized short term PR/AD help? How can you leverage your 10K+ users to buy in / get the word out? (D) Technical migration & Monitoring Plan: seo strategy & tracking including all affected url redirects, landing pages, email changes, whatever is affected. Monitoring & analytics to see how effective the transition is (compared to old name stats) and when transitional assets can be retired.

5 answers • over 9 years

Piano Copyright Law Music Licensing

Legally selling transcribed sheet music?

Ryan Rutan answered: Disclaimer: I'm not an intellectual property attorney - and I am not attempting to, nor qualified to give legal advice. That said - here is what I know on the subject. Copyright was once explained to me as a bundle of sticks, where each stick was a different right. Two sticks that might be important in this situation would be: 1. Distribution Rights: Creating the sheet music in itself may be harmless, but copyright does cover right to distribute - and so your idea to distribute for profit may infringe upon this right. 2. Derivative Works: Copyright also gives the owner the right to create derivative works based on the original - so even if your version is different - it becomes an issue of "how different" - so you may also be infringing on this right. One path forward is to determine who owns these rights (the original artists or label often sell the rights) and license the right to produce and sell the sheet music. My guess is this could be cost and time prohibitive. Another would be to see who is already selling sheet music for these songs - and simply act as an affiliate, taking a portion of the revenues per sale. Consider trying the affiliate route first, to determine how many of these sales you generate from your audience, before going to the trouble of licensing the content etc. I'd be happy to discuss ways that you can validate demand within your population before you do either, and recommend doing so with or without my input. Cheers, Ryan

2 answers • over 9 years

Investments Raising capital Venture Capital

When's the best time to raise capital for your startup?

Alexander Crutchfield answered: The best time to raise capital for a startup is when you have a clear idea of what you want to do and a clear idea of how much money you need to get to a milestone that will set a higher value for your company. In general its better to bootstrap and do friends and family as long as you can, because the more mature and successful you are the better deal you will get from angels or VCs.

7 answers • over 9 years

Marketing Healthcare Marketing Strategy

Do you have experience offering marketing services to skilled nursing facilities?

David Ledgerwood answered: I've worked on marketing in the home healthcare space and found it rather fragmented. The growth in the industry is so fast and there are so many mom and pop services that it was hard to find anyone specialized in it. What we ended up doing was a full competitive analysis in our geographic region and with some major players nationally in our particular space and then working backwards from there. We also evaluated trade groups with which we could advertise. I'd be happy to chat with you about it.

3 answers • over 9 years

SQL Cloud Computing Microsoft Excel

Need easy cloud based SQL service for non-SQL user.

David Ledgerwood answered: PhpMyAdmin would probably work for this. http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/index.php Lots of hosts have it pre-installed.

4 answers • over 9 years

Real Estate

I'm thinking on buying an apartment/house to rent it out. What should I know before I embark on this

David Ledgerwood answered: First step is to read about other peoples' experience in this space by looking at the top rated real estate investment books on Amazon. Second you will have to do the math to understand your budget, taking into account all your expenses such as mortgage, taxes, HOA fees, etc. Then you need to allocate a vacancy rate (you won't always have it full) and you also need to think about how to keep a good maintenance budget because things will go wrong. Quality of tenant is a huge issue so make sure you do background and credit checks as well as check references. There are management companies who can do all this for about 8% per month which might be worth it. Again, all this should go into your planning budget.

3 answers • over 9 years

Content Marketing Blogging Monetization

I'm about to publicise my weight loss journey through blogging & vlogging. How do I monetize the content?

William Harper answered: I've actually done this, signup to monetize your youtube videos, signup for Google Adsense, become a member of the Amazon Affiliate program and find products to push. Find affiliate programs for gyms (yes they exist). I went as far as to create a weekly podcast to talk about my struggles, answer questions from my user base (first month I faked the questions but the end result was achieved) Its a great way to build engagement and thats where most of your efforts needs to go towards. The more personal, or connected they feel to you the higher the reward. Those are just as few things I started out with, I'd be happy to go over how I created my vlog and sold it with you anytime.

3 answers • over 9 years

Website Promotion Blogging Content Strategy

How does a website become so popular while millions of others get lost on the internet?

Joseph Peterson answered: Why does 1 object sink while a nearly identical object – just a fraction of an ounce lighter – floats effortlessly to the top? Because there's a critical threshold above which you're expanding and below which you're losing ground. There needn't be any qualitative difference between the 2 outcomes. It may be simply be a small difference – a bit more of the same stuff. That's why it's important to work hard on every aspect of your project – because neglecting any area might cost you your buoyancy. Think about everything – content quality, types of media, publication pacing, social sharing, email list segmentation, return visit rates, user interface design, cross-marketing, SEM, link building, branding, yadda yadda yadda.

4 answers • over 9 years

Business Ideas Selling

I'm working on a potential business idea which I want to sell to Amazon. How can I approach them?

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: Why not grow it yourself? I'm sure you've heard of angel.co I'm sure you can find a good network there for investors connected to Amazon in many ways. But if not, either way you put in a disadvantage if you are the one pitching for the sale. Look for investments instead and make firms bid for you, you never know if a company you haven't thought of or heard of sees value in your assets. Best of luck.

4 answers • over 9 years

elearning Online Marketing

What advice do you have for selling online courses?

Denise Wakeman answered: It's a competitive market for online programs and takes concerted effort to make a splash and get noticed. Before providing tips since there's little context, here are some questions for you: 1. Do you have a platform/audience already developed who want the courses you've developed? 2. How did you launch the product? Putting a sales page up isn't enough. Your targeted audience needs to be primed to know that the product is coming, what it does for them, when it's being launched and then told it's available. 3. Follow up, follow up, follow up. Without out consistent reminders, your audience moves on because there's someone else promoting their online course. Building and nurturing your audience is the primary and ongoing activity that will create demand. Your calls to action, urgency and keeping your courses top of mind will help keep sales consistent. If you'd like to discuss a strategy and specific tactics for your products, feel free to schedule a call. I've been working and marketing on the web for 19 years and have seen a lot of tactics come and go, and it comes down to haveing a solid foundation, an audience for the service/content you're selling and a consistent way to connect with them. Denise Wakeman

4 answers • over 9 years

Management Consulting M&A experience Team Management

Selling fast-growing business for personal reasons. Keen to tell our exec team asap (w' equity) so aligned/we're transparent. Good idea?

Heather Wilde answered: You will need to weigh the situation. If it were my company, we have a Core Value of "Truth", and we have an expectation of open communication with each other and with our clients. Therefore, if it was me, by running this through our values it would be a no brainer to tell people not just what was going on with me personally but also the decision to sell the company. The other stuff about it being good for them and they'll make out on the deal - you don't have any control over how they'll feel about it. They may feel cheated, betrayed, or they may feel ecstatic. You can't know, and it's not up to you to decide for them. However, you can give them the information so they can make the choice. Or, if you are a company where communication is lacking, transparency is not a value, and you honestly don't care what they think, then don't bother. (Since you said you're keen to tell them though, I'd go with your gut.)

3 answers • over 9 years

Marketing Strategy Business Strategy Strategic Planning

Veteran software/mobile developer. Trying to decide best model for a new business. Advice?

Jason Lengstorf answered: How important is scaling? For example, if you're charging $400/hour for consulting and filling 20 hours a week, would you need to scale? Products are great, but there's a lot of unbillable hassle involved in the path toward getting there. Your product needs to have a big enough audience to give you a strong paid user base. You need time set aside for marketing, support, new features, maintenance, and all the little things that are sure to come up. You probably need to create a second (and third, and so on) product as time goes on. And if the product only grosses a few grand a month, it can feel like you're stuck: on one hand, you have paying customers; on the other, you're making barely $40K/year for the effort. All that being said, a product with a solid user base and a solid team can pay serious dividends in the long run (assuming all goes well). It's just the struggle through the opening months/years to get the product to a place where you can actually pay yourself and staff and marketing budgets and such. I've had successes with product businesses, but they've always been a bit more high-touch than I prefer. (That whole "there's no such thing as passive income" thing.) Consulting offers a much shallower curve, and you can always "scale" by raising prices until you hit the proper blend of hours:billing. However, consulting also puts more responsibility on your shoulders to be available to your clients. In my experience I've found it's not impossible to make a good living as a consultant without killing yourself (six figures, <30 hours a week) if you set things up responsibly at the outset and know how to sell your own value. I'd be happy to share my strategies on this with you if you're interested. Good luck!

4 answers • over 9 years

Marketing Strategy Marketing Digital Marketing Strategy

Does anyone know of a service provider that sells a "Marketing Cheat Sheet" by industries?

David Ledgerwood answered: I can appreciate the goal, but you should be aware that anything like this is just going to be a starting point. Every company has different marketing needs. Industry alone isn't the only variable. Geographic location, price points, market position, existing customer base, and many more variables could completely change what any simple plan told you to do. Yes, a simple checklist could be a good way to start on an "average" plan, but please don't fool yourself into thinking you can shortcut marketing. It will be a very expensive mistake.

3 answers • over 9 years

Insurance Automotive Rentals

When starting a rental car company where is the best place to look for insurance?

Billy Van Jura answered: I am regularly asked questions similar to this by new business owners or business owners expanding to a new venture. Insurance has many niches that exist in the commercial insurance space, this is one of them. A couple of places to start; 1. If you already have a broker who handles commercial insurance this would be your first conversation. 2. Even if you have that, a second opinion is a good place to start. Do a quick search in an area in a different part of your state. Try and find a similar operation. Call and introduce yourself and see who they use. Since you are not competition they are likeley to gladly make a referral. 3.Typically associations have a ready made policy just for you. Give this a shot; https://www.acraorg.com/ 4. if leasing from a larger operation, I bet they have someone ready and willing to speak with you as well. Best of luck. Happy to chat further.

4 answers • over 9 years

Legal Advice

What paperwork do we need signed by our partner that is leaving the company, and giving up his equity and rights to all projects he worked on?

Laurel Mintz answered: it depends on what your partnership agreement said but ultimately you should be able to create or execute on your buy sell given the terms of your partnership agreement. He should also forfeit any stock shares issued. If none of that has been done if the partnership was never inked properly, then it would just take an attorney to draft the dissolution paperwork and take him off any shareholder docs, etc.

3 answers • over 9 years

Funding Start-ups Entrepreneurship

Should I take the funding?

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: If you are having doubts about taking the money then don't do it. The reality is that as an investor, a day will come when you are succeeding and there is room for a lot of growth - you are there now. If you think you don't need them, either raise the amount or lower their stake to were it is as cheap of funding to you as possible. If your recent sales are enough to generate a longer burn term while you go out and get more sales... then definitely don't take their offer. There is nothing wrong with declining investment requests. I'm sure this won't be the last; either from your own pursuit or their own interest. Best of Luck, Humberto Valle #thevirtualcoach

4 answers • over 9 years

WordPress

What are the best WordPress plugins to help with user-generated content?

Dimitry Chamy answered: As with most things WordPress there are several solution paths you can take with this and the best will depend on the particular type of site you are trying to build. Your question suggests you may be relatively new to the platform and more comfortable with available wysiwyg / plugin tools rather than raw coding it all so here are three suggestions: (A) Types & Views + Cred Front-End Forms Builder http://wp-types.com this combo will allows you to define your CPTs; add as many metaboxes with custom fields as you need; build templates to display your content. (B) Gravity Forms + Custom Post Types: https://wordpress.org/plugins/gravity-forms-custom-post-types/ This can be used with above solution or ACF or Pods etc... (C) Formidable Forms: https://formidablepro.com/demos/real-estate-listings/ An example that shows Formidable has a built-in ability not just to create front end forms but can display the results in a ajax parametrically searchable listing with accompanying single pages. All of these will show submissions on both front and back end and can be set to appear as draft pending approval. Submitters can also be given permission to edit their own entries or pay for display of premium tiered content if your system requires that ability. If you provide me with more specifics we may be able to narrow it down or discover an entirely different and perhaps simpler way. There may be free plugins that do most or all of this but these are the ones I have personal experience with.

3 answers • over 9 years