Your Questions Answered by Industry Experts

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Answers from Industry Experts

Mobile Advertising Mobile Marketing Mobile Apps

What are typical CPIs for iOS-device targeted paid ads on Facebook?

Tom Williams answered: It depends on the economics of your revenue model but as a general rule, $3.00 is the high point and $1.00 - $1.50 is the target range.

4 answers • about 10 years

Fundraising angel investing

I am an expat with a thin network in the US but a great product and hundreds of new signups a week - how do I get in front of seed stage investors?

Dr. Sean Wise answered: As a seed stage investor (13 deals in the last 12 months) I'm happy to tell you it is easier than ever before to meet seed stage investors. Here are a few ways: 1) conect with founders in your city who have been funded. Ask for their advice. Impress them and let them introduce you to their investor. 2) apply to an accelerator (eg techstars) and nail it on demo day. The audience is filled with seed stage investors. 3) attend an event featuring the seed investors and ask for their advice after the show. Requests for advice are a great way to showcase your venture. 4) kickstart your project. Raise funds and engage early customers. Nothing impresses as much as sales and users. 5) leverage clarity, LinkedIn and product hunt. 6) use the same service providers (eg lawyers, accountants) ask them for an intro. 7) find out where their funds originate from and ask those LPs for an intro. 8) apply to present to your local angel group. If I look at the deals we've done this year. 80 percent come from the channels above. Until then -- bootstrap it.

3 answers • about 10 years

Sales & Biz Dev Brainstorming Business planning

What is essential for the skeleton of a business plan?

Sushant Bharti answered: 1. Lucid understanding of the objective behind business plan development 2. Customizing the content plan (skeleton) per objective 3. Adopting planning the business approach than writing a business plan 4. Knowing "How-To" and "What-If" Hope above to be of some help. Looking for anything specific? Feel free to reach out.

9 answers • about 10 years

Mobile applications bootstrapping Angel Investor

Have traction on iOS. People want Android app but we're bootstrapping and have no resources. Best way?

Tom Williams answered: Ignore them and stay focused in growing your iOS community while proving out your CAC and engagement and retention numbers. Small, resource-constrained teams need to absolutely *nail* one thing at a time. Stay focused on the feedback from real, existing users not excuses from people who aren't using it.

3 answers • about 10 years

Marketing Strategy Business Development Strategic Hiring

Does anyone have advice on where or how to hire a business development professional?

Chirag Kulkarni answered: Micah, I am usually the "biz dev" guy for many startups and founding teams. I have also hired people in this area. One thing that would be helpful to bring up would be to understand where biz dev guys hangout. Generally, the best places to find individuals are within your ecosystems network. The best biz dev guys/gals I have hired have been people that are tenacious and are willing to make strategic business decisions for the benefit of the company. I know your question is fairly large, so if you would like to chat about it, feel free to reach out! Chirag

3 answers • about 10 years

Google AdWords Google Adwords Professional

I have a software company client who has a problem with brand hijackers in Google Adwords. How can they take them on and drive them out of business?

Nathan Allotey answered: I have worked with a client with a similar issue. Their competitor was bidding on the brand name of my client. You will have to donate some Adwords spent and create “branded campaign” where you focus on bidding on your client’s business name. Your client should have a high quality score for their brand keywords since their website should but an authority on the brand name. As far as stopping a competitor from bidding on the name the most you can do is send a cease and desist letter and I would only recommend this if the brand name has a registered trademark.

6 answers • about 10 years

Mobile Apps Startups mobile

Do angel investors look for a certain number of active users when investing in an app startup that has recently launched, 5,000-10,000+?

Tom Williams answered: First of all, there is no "one size fits all" attitude in angel investing. I will tell you that the *best* angels will make a snap decision by playing with the product and assessing founder/market fit. At the right valuation, the kinds of angels you really want backing you will invest purely based on a killer early product experience and conviction of founder/market fit. But if you have made your app available in the US app store already, you have made a critical tactical error if your app isn't already trending towards 100,000 installs within the first 30 days of availability. Apps should first launch in a non US, english-speaking store to do early product/market fit work. Your "day one" event in the US app store matters to seed investors and many angel investors. While there are exceptions (most often in SaaS or enterprise mobile models), there are only 4 times to raise funding from seed funds for a mobile start-up stage company: Pre-product: A deck, a market opportunity and a team. Pre-launch: Product fully built but holding launch for funding. This will usually involve a private beta of at least 1000 users or a soft launch in an international store. 30 - 90 days after US launch: Must be at or trending towards 100,000 installs with very strong month-over-month growth. If you miss those windows, the next time to raise is after you pass over 1,000,000 with strong retention and engagement that correlates to your business model and user personas. As a mobile-first entrepreneur and angel investor, I'm happy to talk to you about this in more detail

4 answers • about 10 years

Web Applications New Product Validation Lean startup

What would you recommend as an off-the-shelf solution for getting customer feedback on product?

Gopalakrishna Palem answered: Many open-source forum software are available (that are easy to use). You can try starting with bbpress (https://bbpress.org/), wordpress. Hope this helps. Thank you, GK http://gk.palem.in/

3 answers • about 10 years

Marketing Strategy

How to disseminate an innovation that is amazing and no one knows about ... and few would understand how it works without a lot of education?

Dan Willis answered: Simplify. Go explain the tool to a group of kids (I usually use my own) but someone else's will do just as well. Explain the tool to them and take notes. Keep track of points that confuse them and make a point to clarify until its clear. Once you are done compile the notes into a presentation of your choosing or a Youtube short. Then market the heck out of that presentation. At the very least this will give people a basic grasp of the tools benefits. Best of luck!

4 answers • about 10 years

Real Estate Real Estate Development Real Estate Investment

How do I go about finding a real estate development partner who has experience with redeveloping industrial buildings into mixed use residential?

Jason Kanigan answered: Go to city hall. There will be a desk for development...what name it is, well, that will change depend on the municipality. Talk to the staff and tell them what you want, and they'll send you to the right place. You want to talk to engineering and development staff and ask them who the best developers are. They will recommend who you should meet, and maybe even introduce you. When you are changing land use designations like this, it is very helpful to be familiar with city staff. The staff are the people who write the reports that go to council. Council depends on those reports for information to help them decide which way to vote. Ideally, you want a developer who is well known at city call, is used to working with staff, and is appreciated for their attitude. Density bonusing can be achieved in exchange for amenities, and if your developer has a history of making these kinds of horse trades with the city, all the better. What you don't want is a partner who gets the staff's backs up, and doesn't know how to get the best bang for their buck out of the development. Six years of city hall experience and in the construction field on my end.

3 answers • about 10 years

Mobile applications Funding

How does one go about finding funding for a mobile app?

Dan Willis answered: Step 1: Innovate Step 2: Kickstart, Self-fund, VC Step 3: Repeat

6 answers • about 10 years

Import/Export Freight Forwarding

I am looking to get into ocean freight forwarding. What is the best way to connect to potential clients besides websites? Databases?

martin kruusmaa answered: Hello, You have not enough information, but I can give some general suggestions. 1. I suggest you make to yourself a friends in that country, in where you looking customers, make many friends and they will help you in the future. 2. You can visit trade shows, exhibitions, fares. 3. You can connect with your country to ask help- Every country have ministry or trade departement, what focuses on expanding and increasing the export. They can help you and connect you with right people in your export destination country. 4. I have good experiences with ICC ( International trading organization), they can also help you Best luck! Martin

4 answers • over 7 years

SaaS Product Development Product Marketing

What product should I build?

James Altucher answered: You can only solve a big problem that changes the world if you solve a problem that is deeply personal to you. Two great examples and why they worked: Roy Raymond was a sad pervert. He'd buy bras and panties at the department store and all the clerks thought their thoughts about him. Roy felt embarrassed. He wasn't really a pervert. He just wanted to buy lingerie for his girlfriend. So he solved this major problem he was having. He created a space where men could feel comfortable coming in and buying sexy lingerie for their partners. He called it Victoria's Secret. But Roy, by solving this important personal issue for himself, apparently solved the same issue for many other men. First year sales were over $500,000 and he quickly opened up three more stores. In 1982 he sold Victoria's Secret for one million dollars before trying multiple other businesses that ended up failing. One MILLION Dollars. A decade later Victoria's Secret was worth over a billion dollars but Roy Raymund was nearly bankrupt and had missed the huge run-up in it's value. -- Picture New York City in the late 1800s on a rainy day. It was disgusting beyond belief. 150,000 horses transported people up and down the busy streets. Each of those horses, according to Super Freakonomics, dropped down about 15-30 pounds of manure. That's up to 4.5 million pounds of manure A DAY on the streets of NYC. And now imagine it raining. Would you cross the street? How long could this last? How long would the city survive without being infested with crap and all the diseases brought with it. What would happen as population of both men and horses increased? Was someone working on inventing a gigantic manure scooper? How would this problem get solved? It never got solved. Instead, Henry Ford invented the assembly line to mass produce cars. Every horse lost their job. People began to drive cars. Manure problem solved. -- In both cases there is a common theme. Someone outside the industry solved a problem that was personal to them that then changed an industry forever. Roy Raymund wasn't a fashion designer or a retailer. He worked in the marketing department of Vicks, which makes over the counter medications. Henry Ford, I don't think, ever worked in the manure industry. Instead, each person focused on a problem that was important to them. A problem that excited them at that moment in time. Raymund wanted to avoid being embarrassed in the future. Ford wanted an efficient way to make cars. The ONLY way to change the world is to solve a problem that is important to YOU. They had to choose themselves for success before they could save the world. Raymund had to convince himself that he didn't belong in the marketing department of a division of Procter & Gamble. He borrowed $80,000 and took the big risk of starting a business. Ford had to survive numerous failures and bankruptcies in order to find a cheap way to make cars. He would abandon investors, people who supported him, and even companies named after him, in his quest to solve his problem in his own way. Nobody gave them permission. And neither of them set out to change the world. They only wanted to solve a problem that was personally important to them. It's unfortunate that often we forget that choosing ourselves is not something that happens once. It has to happen every single day. Else we lose track of that core inside of us that solves problems and is able to share them in a way that makes the world a better place. Ford forgot this and became obsessed with Jews. Ford is the only American that Hitler mentions in Mein Kampf: "only a single great man, Ford, [who], to [the Jews'] fury, still maintains full independence...[from] the controlling masters of the producers in a nation of one hundred and twenty millions." And what happened to our embarrassed marketing manager that has ignited the passions of men and women for the past 30 years? Roy Raymund saw the value of Victoria's Secret jump from the one million he sold it for in 1982 to over a billion dollars a decade later. He failed in business after business. He got divorced. Then at the age of 46, my age, he drove to Golden Gate Bridge, jumped off it and killed himself. Before you can save the world you have to save yourself. But you have to relentlessly do it every day. Sometimes the train wakes me up at night and I feel scared. What will the world be like for my children? I won't always be able to help them. I don't even know if I do enough to help them now. And then I remember. I'm alive for another day.

6 answers • about 10 years

Mobile Technology MongoDB Mobile applications

I have several startup ideas. How do I decide on my technology stack?

Ben Werdmuller answered: You need to be able to get feedback on your product as quickly as possible, so my advice is to choose the technology stack that will allow you to build a prototype efficiently. There's no right answer here: for some people it's LAMP, for others it's node, for others it's a Windows stack. Worrying about the technology at the stage you're at is a red herring: worry about the product, the problem it solves and the user experience of your solution, and get feedback you can iterate on as quickly as possible. I'm a serial startup CTO who's now a startup founder and CEO. Let me know if I can help.

6 answers • about 10 years

Retail Online Retail Wholesale

How do I sell iPhone cases and make a profit out of them?

Roland Zelhof answered: Selling any product including "iPhone cases" on websites with high competition like Ebay is surely not an easy mission. There are hundreds of sellers on Ebay and other websites who are already selling cases. If you need to get some sales, you need at least one of the following: 1. High reputation, reviews or feedbacks on the website that you are selling on. 2. The product that you are selling must be unique in some way or simply not found anywhere else. 3. If your products are featured at your own website, then that website of yours must be ranked properly online and marketed decently around social media networks. In your case, a possible approach would be to create your own website to sell your products on or work as an affiliate marketer for other big sellers in exchange for commissions. Depending on your budget, you need to draw the right plan around. If you have a good budget to invest in your business, then creating a website for yourself is a must. Otherwise, you need to rely on other websites and seek to provide unique or special products to get an edge around. Hope that helps!

4 answers • about 10 years

Social Games Mobile applications Growth Hacking

Are there any examples of games or apps that have a k-factor (viral coefficient) of more than 1?

Dan Willis answered: For the sake of getting your question answered here it would help to simplify but that aside without firm stats on engagement and sharing it would be difficult to say however with the paid expansion of game like Flappy Bird, Angry Birds I would say viral apps come close to if not over a k-factor of 1.

8 answers • about 10 years

Social Media Marketing Marketing Online Marketing

What is the best timing in the new year to launch business marketing?

Roland Zelhof answered: Hi there! In few words, the launch date does not matter a lot as long as you are following with a continuous marketing plan all the year. It is better to tune your lunch date according to your marketing campaign than connecting it to the seasonal event. The timing of your launch only matters if your website is already ranked or has a good authority associated to it. Launching a website is not like opening a local shop. The launch date is defined by the effectiveness of your marketing campaign. In other words, your question must be rephrased as: "When is the best time to launch my first marketing campaign for my newly created website?". In that case, you will need to describe in details what kind of website you have and how are you planning to market it. I would be able to give you a more accurate answer if you explain to me what kind of website are you planning to launch or what products mainly are you selling. Hope that helps!

13 answers • about 10 years

Marketing Strategy Online Marketing Golf

What are the best internet marketing strategies for a niche market?

Hernan Jaramillo answered: You can split in 2 strategies long term and short term. Short term you need ads. Ads via Google work because you get immediate response, trouble is if your not well acquainted with SEM you may overspend do to the lack of bad landing pages, unuseful keywords and just low conversion rates. But if done properly you will have a machine with good ROI. Facebook has now a deeper level of interests, from special demographics to campaign audiences that can be built from previous lists you may have. Lets say you have a landing page where you said soon to launch and collected emails. You could later ran ads to those users via fb or use their lookalike feature to relate to users that may have the same patterns or behavior and thus promote to a bigger list. Long term you could focus on inbound content, videos, lists that add up to content that people may search if you have a good understanding of what keywords are trending and what is their volume of search. Also how hard it is to get your content to rank via SEO based on what your competition is currently doing. happy to get on a call if you need more guidance.

6 answers • about 10 years

Web Marketing Web Design Pricing Strategy

What is the best way to price your product when your company is needing cash?

Marty Goldsmith answered: That is always a tuff call, to take the profit at the start of the project or to make a great profit at the end. Not only is this tuff for you, your customer has the same analysis. I would offer plans that do both, that would give you a mix of the upfront revenue that you need and back end profit that is so nice. Marty

4 answers • about 10 years

Testing MVP

Should I continue developing my site further or keep a simple landing page with email capture to test my idea?

Steve Reaser answered: Depends on your objective. If you really just want to know whether the idea is viable, you'll get the most bang for your buck by keeping things email-capture-only or putting up a "smoke test" where you have a Buy Now button that redirects to a "it's not available yet; but leave your email if you want to be notified when it's ready"... and see if you can get anyone to click "buy now" by clearly articulating on your landing page what the product will do for them. This also lets you test pricing sensitivity. If you can't get anyone to leave an email or click "buy now" based on a really good description with images (or even better a video "demo") then building the actual product is unlikely to be worth it.

5 answers • about 10 years

Community Building

Is it concerning that organizers of community events are very focused on receiving credit for the event's success?

Drew Meyers answered: Yes. Community managers are usually fairly modest, without egos. But that said, everyone wants to feel appreciated from time to time....receiving credit for work done is one aspect of that. I think it's a matter or "credit, in moderation"

2 answers • about 10 years

Marketing Strategy Digital Marketing

How to promote a govt grant that reimburses businesses up to $5000 for money spent on a website? (im a web designer)

Rebecca Caroe answered: Quick summary answer: You must promote this using direct mail to businesses who are in the right geographic region to take advantage. Buy or rent lists from: Chamber of commerce, local business association, local council rates payers etc. Also find organizations that have mailing lists and agree a deal with them to promote to their list. Get each to send a direct response email that drives readers to your landing page which includes these 3 things 1 - re-iterate the offer 2 - give a guarantee of quality 3 - add testimonials Have an on-page registration form to allow you to phone and qualify each enquiry. As an additional benefit you could get firms to refer others to you for an extra discount if their contacts sign up. Note you'll need a strong process for follow through to ensure nobody gets overlooked. Go gettem! This is an awesome promotion and really appropriate for SMEs I'm so glad you have gotten great support. If you need help writing the landing page, or introduction email, please get in touch.

4 answers • about 10 years

Social Networking Community Building Start-ups

How to network from a place of abundance? To network and build your community without sounding pushy, or worse, needy?

Joseph Peterson answered: I make a point of introducing myself to people online who are unlikely to become clients. You for instance. That's not altruism. It's curiosity. Learning about other people's business models, industries, unique challenges and goals -- even absorbing their phrases, vocabulary, and style -- prepares me for some other branding client later on. Being attuned to other people is the starting point of real life interactions, isn't it? Business networking is no different from wandering around from the car mechanic's to the coffee shop and striking up conversations with people along the way.

4 answers • about 10 years

Problem Solving Time Management CEO Coach

How much of a work day should be unique problem solving and what percentage is simply tasks such as following up?

Sunil Bhaskaran answered: It depends on your charter or mission as well as your long term vs. Short term objectives. If your mission involves a larger more expansive view - then you will need to spend a lot more time on unique problem solving that has a strong potential ROI feeding the fulfillment of the mission. It kind of boils down to ROI (return on investment) vs. risk for me: I look at the ROI and risk (opportunity cost) for almost everything that I choose to do - this helps me compare various choices for what to focus on daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. Having clear objectives for the month, week and year also help in selecting what percentage of time as per your question. If the solution of this problem feeds the fulfillment of your objectives vs. the solution of this problem prevents a risky situation: that may be the question to answer. I hope this helps. Feel free to interact so that I can delve into the complexities and nuances that are inevitably there.

6 answers • about 10 years

Motivation Emotional Intelligence Start-ups

How to know when you have bitten off more than you can chew or whether you are not trying hard enough?

Joseph Peterson answered: Define the point where you can take a breather. Map the route between this here now and that there then. If you can count the steps along the way with confidence, that's good. If you know how you might change direction midway through or even turn back, that's good. If you can decide in advance what cues should compel a change of course, that's good. And if you really believe you'll take that breather when you get to the first predefined goal, that's even better. But maybe -- like Zeno's paradox of Achilles racing against the tortoise -- you'll never allow yourself to catch up. No matter how long it takes you to reach where the tortoise was, by the time you're there the tortoise will have moved farther on! Ask people who understand you and your project (and who won't flatter you!!!) what they think.

4 answers • about 10 years

Team Building Leadership Affiliate Marketing

Are there any unique ways to find out what personally motivates individual members of a team?

Joe Putnam answered: I've heard this question asked before: "What is your why?" As in, "Why are you doing this? What motivates you? What are you trying to get out of it?" This isn't a "unique way," but I'd recommend asking people simple questions like that to find out what makes them tick. Once you know, you'll have a better idea about how to motivate team members and how to help them succeed.

8 answers • about 10 years

Mobile applications Software Engineering Programming

What is the best programming language for building multi-platform mobile software that is scalable?

Matt McT answered: I've been involved in several projects that hinged upon this question (generally start-ups or web+mobile apps), and it's not a clean or easy answer unfortunately! Plus every developer you talk to is going to try to sell you their services, but what you need is simply the truth! I'd suggest that you consider shifting your focus away from finding a best language. That sort of premise can eliminate options that are actually quite valid solutions. Keep in mind that any mobile app will require multiple languages working in harmony - all while used in a commercially consistent and standards-based manner. That's the part that determines your technical scalability! Almost every programming language can achieve this functionality with an experienced developer on your team. The best advice I can give you, is to consult with at least two people on this, and three if your app is os-specific. The most important insight will come from a "full stack" developer. One who's got a variety of enterprise experience, and can code at all levels of the stack. This person needs to have experience in leading a team of other developers, which forces the strategy of which technologies to use and why onto their plates daily. Secondly, you'll want to consult with a "front end" developer, who can tell you what's possible using advanced OOP JavaScript techniques (like Google's angular.js), because in an absurdly fast change over the past 3 years, much of the formerly back-end work has made it's way to the front-end, and is driven by JavaScript, predominantly JSON data, and awesome API's. The game has changed and the front-enders are the poor souls dealing with this rapid shift daily. To do this, they're also fantastic JavaScript programmers, which is a language that runs on all mobile devices and all browsers, too. Love it or hate it JavaScript is the most commonly used language in the world. Finally, if your app is OS-specific, you'll want to consult with a developer who works predominantly with the OS your app is built for. This person lets you know what's possible from the device POV, should know what stacks and JavaScript approaches can and can't be done on that OS, and how to leverage the resources of the device for your app as well as extend it's functionality. BONUS - loop back to the full stack developer to double-check the claims of the front-ender and the mobile developers. Always double check with your most senior programmer ;) All of these consults together in addition to your own research and due diligence will get you comfortable and allow you to navigate on this rather daunting but deeply important journey. There aren't any turn-key options. Instead it's a series of inter-connected modules driven by different languages, and all working in tandem. Every solution will have bugs, and no one group of technologies can do everything without proper developers. If you'd like to go further down the rabbit hole, then we should definitely set-up some time to speak. Otherwise, I wish you great luck in research and encourage you to learn as much as you can! :) It's going to seem hard, and might give you a headache here or there, but learn everything you can about how different technologies "talk" to each other, and then you will be able to build a map for keeping your app and business scalable regardless of the changing tides of technology!

4 answers • about 10 years

Affiliate Marketing

What's the best way to gather free trial sign ups to your website's service?

Jason Kanigan answered: Nowhere near enough info provided to give you advice, unfortunately. WHAT is your service? WHO is your target market? WHERE is that target market? WHY would they be interested in your service? HOW can you monetize the value of your service for them? Get in front of your target audience where they hang out. Give them a reason to use your service. Show them its value.

3 answers • about 10 years

Startups

I would like to get some advice on how my business partner and I should divide the equity in our start up?

Mike Moyer answered: The best way to go--by far-- is to use a Grunt Fund. A Grunt Fund is a dynamic equity split model designed to provide a perfectly fair equity split for founders of bootstrapped companies. It will tell you exactly how much you and your partner and later partners and employees deserve. It's based on the relative contributions you have each made and changes over time as new contributions are made to make sure that at any given time you and your partners always have what they deserve to have- no more and no less. The basic model is this: All contributions of time, money, ideas, relationships, supplies, equipment or anything else, can be converted into a fictional unit I call "slices". A slice is calculated based on the fair market value of the contribution and a risk multiplier. To determine shares you simply apply this calculation: Individual share = individual slices ÷ total slices There is also a recovery framework that outlines what happens to shares when someone leaves the company. I call this a "Fair & Square" split. Fair, in that it always tells you exactly the right split. And, square, because it accounts for all contributions. I wrote a book on this model that provides detailed implementation instructions. There is also an online calculator tool on my web site. If you contact me through SlicingPie.com, I'll send you a copy of the book! You're going to love it.

3 answers • about 10 years

Mobile applications Startups Press Releases

We're a new photo messaging app and plan to send out a press release soon. Do you suggest we keep it niche/local region or broad to the US and int'l?

Tom Williams answered: With PR, it should always be about finding people who are genuinely interested / excited about what you're doing, so I would suggest targeting those people regardless of whether they are nice, hyper-local, or broad. Leave no stone unturned but it really depends on what you can use as a hook, which without understanding where you're exactly at, can't help beyond this general advice. One thing I'd add as a note of caution is that if you're not already trending towards 100,000 installs since US app store availability, it's going to be very difficult to get press coverage absent a very unique hook. Happy to talk to you to try and help identify what hooks you might have. Best of luck!

3 answers • about 10 years

Marketing Strategy Team Building Affiliate Marketing

How to display professionalism when cold emailing a private seller that you want to work with? (most sellers only display their email address)

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: Great question! My response is based on experience... There's companies you must assume their limited contact info is for a reason. There's companies like startups, local or midsize firms that are more welcomed even if they lacked the knowledge of value in more contact info in their sites.. What i have done in the past is Google a relevant employee and try a variation of their name and email.. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. If you can't get a name then to that general inbox address yourself with as a higher rank title as possible without lying or becoming liable, state that you are requesting a contact number or address so that you can stop by and introduce yourself and maybe drop off some goodies (I have dropped off sweets, donuts, & coffee) aks that if they prefer to give you a call and schedule a visit to please do so by a certain date. This approach very often works for me. Never, even in person, do you introduce yourself for the purpose of gaining something from others and immediately ask for a favor or their business. Build a relationship even if is a thin one... Then when you know your offering is either welcomed or needed do you pitch or ask... This might limited the amount of pitches you do online but the quality will increase. :)

3 answers • about 10 years

Business Process Improvement Business Strategy Cloud Consulting

What are the best cloud based products for operations compliance, monitoring and reporting?

Dan Willis answered: Easily the best tool out there is www.perfectcloud.io/smartsignin. Not only does it make importing employee databases super simple it provides next gen security to profiles and all cloud sharing and it has a top of the line auditing system. Easily a one stop shop that will change how you manage and monitor.

3 answers • about 10 years

Motorsports Automotive Rentals

I have a business plan for setting up a pre-owned motorcycle financing company but, where do I start?

Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb Superhost answered: Hi! It seems like you're early on in regards to developing your idea still. (Not saying you haven't thought of it for a while) It appears that the idea might still need more refining. The hardest and most valuable things an entrepreneur can do early on is simplify the business and idea as much as possible. You might feel like your giving up a apiece of the pie that can also be tapped into but you need to focus in one value only. That will help the market entry a lot by having a simpler pitch, marketing, value proposition, and finances. Now.. To your first general question (assuming the core idea is financing) simplify a message and value proposition, conduct simple surveys on both bike owners & banks to really dwell into the financial reasoning of why they don't and also a glimpse of the market share by knowing how many on average would opt for financing a preowned bike vs. buying it cash. With that you could start pitching potential investors who would provide you with your website/marketing, financier insurance, legal fees & obviously the reserves and premiums to finance the bikes... An investor once obtained will have his/her own demands for equity or interest/royalties and that will help you calculate your average interest on loans offered... I really recommend you stick to one valuable offering then as you establish the business and grow your stake in the market that you offer more services like handling the selling and buying,etc.. From what you listed it looks like your bp covers several possible propositions.

3 answers • about 10 years

Online Marketing Lead Generation Facebook

Need a good lead generation strategy for chiropractors for getting new patients. Ideas?

Michael Hartmann answered: I think Facebook is great for really targeting your audience and you’re on the right track. But I think you can have a better funnel than that. I find, for getting better conversion today, it is better to get your Facebook traffic off of Facebook as fast as you can to your offer and into your funnel. It is more effective for driving actual sales. If you’re just looking for social branding etc. then your funnel might be ok. A very effect strategy is to create either a video or report that you give away to your audience in exchange for an email. It should be something that helps solve or bring to light the problems patients are suffering from and how to go about solving them. Then mention how having a great Chiropractor can solve all of that and can be the most effective way to get ride of the pain. I would also have some things in there that would help them in other ways. Then I would send them to an event or webinar with your top Chiropractor and you in an interview / reveal-all type webinar to educate your lead and manage their fears of going to a Chiropractor. You could tell them that the first step is making an appointment for an assessment. You should make it easy for them to find the best and most effective Chiropractor in their area. You might have a discount on the assessment only available to them for being on the webinar to get them to sign up at the end of the webinar. By the way, once this is recorded, you can make this evergreen so you don't have to do a webinar all the time. As long as you are reaching more and new people with your Facebook campaign you won’t have to change the video all the time.  Once you have people signed up to make an appointment, make sure they are also putting a deposit of a 100 dollars or something down. This will increase your show rate for the Chiropractors. Then give them a voucher for that Chiropractor, for more than you’re asking for at the deposit for services, to use with that Chiropractor. Allowing you to prevent cancelations etc. so that their getting their money back in the form of a voucher for services which, by the way, is not a discount and shouldn’t diminishing your Chiropractors Rates. This strategy I have used in several markets that has produced more prequalified leads and patients / customers. Remember to test, track and know your metrics. You’re going to need to make some tweaks in the beginning, but this can be very effective for you. So to recap: 1. Setup a landing page with your offer in exchange for an offer. You can build this in software like Leadpages.net or Megaphoneapp.com 2. Make your offer downloadable if an ebook or white paper or present your video after. I recommend using Wistia instead of YouTube for playback as you will be able to have heat maps of your video to know where your fall off points are. You can also make this page with the software mentioned above. 3. Use an email autoresponder to engage your lead and email them about the event you’re doing after they had time to read or download your materials. Or, if a video, I would just pitch them at the end with a link below the video to automatically register. 4. Put on a webinar with your guest using either GoToWebinar or Google hangouts if you know how to set that up. 5. Make sure you have your appointment getting page with your the down payment created. You can use several different type of scheduling services so you can automatically deliver the lead/ appointment to the chiropractor. To Note: The reason I don’t send the visitor to the webinar first is because it is better to get the visitor predisposed to your information before asking them to commit to a webinar and when you do it the way I played out, you will have a much better show rate. This is it in a nutshell. Obviously there is more to it. If you need another funnel idea I am hear to help. I have used other effective strategies in the past to also make money on the front end to make your advertising free. It just depends on what you want to do and how advanced you want to get. Hope this helps give you some ideas. :) If you need help implementing something like this just let me know.

13 answers • about 10 years

Business Strategy Start-ups Corporate Law

How can I become an idea person, as a professional title?

Mike Moyer answered: One word: Royalties This means you generate the idea and develop it enough to look interesting to a larger company who would be willing to pay you a royalty for your idea. This happens all the time. Rock stars, authors and scientists routinely license their creative ideas to other companies who pay them a royalty. Anyone can do it. Your business, therefore, would be a think tank. You (and your team, if you have one) would consider the world's problems, see what kinds of companies are trying to solve those problems, and then develop compelling solutions that they can license from you. You have to be able to sell your idea and develop a nice presentation, a little market research and an understanding of basic trademark and patent law. The nice thing about doing this is that if you develop enough cool ideas you will have royalties coming in from a lot of different sources, this creates a stable, passive revenue stream that requires little or no work to maintain. Start in your spare time and plan on the process taking 3-5 years. Set a goal to have a few products in the market that provide enough revenue (royalties) to cover your basic living expenses. Then you can quit your day job and dedicate more time and increase the momentum. A good idea business should have dozens, if not hundreds of license contracts generating royalties. It's possible to pull this off. And it is a fun job (I'm speaking from experience).

6 answers • about 10 years

Sales Process Growth Hacking Sales Management

What is the best sales material to use to support a B2B outbound strategy. And what should be the order of outreach? I.E email, phone call, mail?

BT Irwin answered: People hate calls. People hate emails. People hate mail. Do you really want your first impression to be that of an interloper and a pusher? Then again, most recipients aren't event going to look at what you send them. What is your niche? Office managers for private family healthcare providers in Peoria? Athletics department directors for NAIA schools? Sales managers at wholesale car dealers that make over $180 million per year in gross revenue? Know your niche and define your buyer (and it better be the CIO or VP). Is your buyer female or male? Older, middle age, or younger? What about her or his college education? What does he drive? Where does he live? Where does he eat his lunch and get his coffee in the morning? What does he read? Etc. Go to your buyer. Find congregations of your buyer. Professional associations. Conferences. Meet-ups. Trade shows. Offer to do free presentations--not on your product but on best practices or trends you observe in the industry. Make your presentation about solving problems your buyers deal with every day. Write blogs or columns for media they read. Again, focus on what they need/want to read. You will have a hard time keeping enough business cards in stock and click-throughs from your byline. This is a true "targeted outreach campaign." Don't waste your money and time with anything less than this. You're going to do great. Please let me know if you'd like to talk about it more!

7 answers • about 10 years

Sales Sales Management Direct Sales

How much do I need to pay in Boston for a Saas salesperson? Interested in breakdown between salary and commission.Software sells for $50 month..

Jason Kanigan answered: Boston is an expensive city to live in. Rent alone is going to be $2000+. So figure $3000 for your salesperson. That's 60 sales a month just to pay that person. Two sales a day just to break even on their cost--forget about you, and your overhead. Of course, your salesperson doesn't have to be local. But it sure helps--managing them, making certain they're actually doing the behaviors they need to be doing (making calls, etc.), helping them with the technical stuff. I don't see this being financially viable under such a model. An automated online funnel is probably a better idea, unless you raise your price to pay for the salesperson and additional overhead.

3 answers • about 10 years

Small Business bootstrapping Business planning

Have a business plan all written up. Which would be the appropriate next step, to see a lawyer or local small business office?

Eugene Buff answered: I guess now is the time to start implementing the plan! What does it say there? :) Seriously - need to think strategy and go for the missing pieces ... I doubt you need a lawyer or SBA advise to get started. But the details of course depend on what is it you are trying to do. Happy to chat if you are interested.

5 answers • about 10 years

Founder Strategic Partnerships eCommerce

Looking for a co-founder and exhausted my network, what would you recommend I do?

John Ramey answered: At this point, move on from dealing with this. Focus on the business. Grow it. Traction solves most problems.

4 answers • about 10 years

Technology Databases MySQL database design

What is the easiest way to implement a membership system technology wise for my social networking company?

Armando J. Perez-Carreno answered: You can work upon one of the many tools that exist for this exact purpose: 1. You can use aMember to create a standalone membership website. 2. You can setup a Wordpress website and install a plugin like "MemberPress", "Paid Memberships Pro" or a combination of plugins like "Woocommerce + Groups + Subscriptions". It all depends of what sort of interaction you want for your customers. Take a look at those options and see if any of them match what you are looking for. Of course you can create something from scratch but that takes time and usually a lot more money. Make sure what you need doesn't already exist before venturing into a fully custom job. Best of luck! Let me know if you have any more questions!

3 answers • about 10 years

Marketing Strategy Affiliate Marketing Mergers

What are the best ways to do a cold approach to ask a store to carry your product or do business with you?

BT Irwin answered: Mitigate risk. You're asking a store manager to dedicate space that costs money (and must generate revenue) to an experimental (unproven) product. I've seen some cottage industry food sellers here in Detroit work out deals to set up and sell their products at local stores. They get a day or two to show the stores what they can do. If customers respond and buy a lot of the product, it opens the door for more shelf space. If not, the store lost nothing in giving it a try. How do you set this up? Free stuff. Give the decision-maker free samples of your product. If he or she likes it, you're on to the next step. Enjoy making your good luck for yourself! I'm happy to discuss further by phone.

3 answers • about 10 years

Revenue & Profit Growth Monetization Money Management

What is the average amount of profit that a business should aim for?

Jason Kanigan answered: One thing I like about your question is the fact that you're ASKING it. Trying to quantify profit. Most people never even get that far. They treat profit--especially if it is that of their own business--as some ethereal thing they will "get later" if possible. "To manage we must measure" is a business maxim and a fundamental one for me. If we don't build Profit into our revenue equation, we're unlikely to get any. And so asking this question and building profit right into your revenue target is a powerful idea nearly all small business owners totally miss. As for an answer...that amount is really up to you. What do you need to survive? There are so many variables we don't know about: what kind of business, what scale, what paths to market are you using, etc. etc. that affect costs, together with the price tolerance of your marketplace, that it's not possible to give an "average" answer. When I train business owners on how to set their operation up for success, I recommend 20-30% of revenue be built in as a monthly amount for profit. However, this is usually for consultants, and may not be possible for other business models. Sometimes 5% profit is what's achievable, say for a commodity provider, and if they make money with that, OK. Have you done any studies of comparative firms in your niche?

4 answers • about 10 years

Start-ups Monetization bootstrapping

How to add variety and dynamics to your source of income?

Michael Eydman answered: I think this is a very generalized question. Without knowing the specifics, such industry and product or service you are offering, it would be hard to answer this. Generally speaking, a lot would depend on the team you have in place. You have to visualize the effort required for each new business model and project and envision how this effort would be executed and by whom. If you have sufficient resources and scalability to afford an expansion, then there is not reason to hold back.

3 answers • about 10 years

Bootstrapping your business Affiliate Networks Small Business

Any rules or formulas for bartering services? How to quantify value of each service so that you could approach a business to barter with confidence?

Jason Kanigan answered: There are two value sets here: yours and the prospect's. You may value your service at $X, but if your prospect doesn't see it that way, that value does not exist. However, you do have to start off with your target value. Have a "base/best case" value, and a "bare minimum/worst case" value. The worst case value is the lowest trade price you will trade your services for. If the prospect values it at less than that, you won't trade. Your trade prospect will probably have the same kind of numbers in mind for their own service, whether consciously or not. When the two of you talk, you need to match up value. How much of your graphic design etc. do they want in return for some of their printing services? Money is the value medium. Think about it as two farmers trading cheese for chickens if that helps you. After setting a qualified meeting, ie. they are interested in what you offer... Begin by asking them how much they value your service at. Note we are getting at THEIR belief here, not yours. Because that's reality. They will lowball, probably, but now you know the starting point. Then ask them what they believe their service is valued at. Now you have a basic idea of how much of your 'Service A' you need to provide in exchange for one unit of their 'Service B'. Is this acceptable to you? Maybe you found a really fair prospect and the numbers are great. In that case you can shake hands and sign the deal. Otherwise, it's time to negotiate. If their valuation of your service was much lower than their value of what they provide, call them on it. "Why is your service worth so much to you, and mine so little?" Always be ready to get up and leave. DON'T get emotionally invested and huff and puff if their valuation isn't to your liking. It's just business. But the prospect will probably start waffling and making adjustments in your favor now. If you just can't get close enough to that minimum figure to make things work for you, consider further trading. What can they give you that isn't a big deal for them but has great value to you, that will make up that difference for you? Bartering is a huge part of the economy and large companies do it all the time. They try to hide this from consumers, because they want regular people to pay retail prices in cash. But up the chain, trade is commonplace. Get some experience with this...keep at it and it will pay off.

3 answers • about 10 years

Sales

Who to contact and how to sell an application to big companies?

Eugene Buff answered: Most companies these days have people responsible for external innovation and business developement. Somebody with the tittle 'licensing' might also be appropriate. But the key is - never try talking to R&D or marketing people and make sure you have a solid value proposition to offer. Some times companies have an official portal or form you could submit for their review. If not, using professional intermediary is a better way than to knock the front door.

3 answers • about 10 years

Mobile applications

What is the best way to sell an app and the business that created it?

Pooran Prasad Rajanna answered: You can approach Airlines for co-branding, ask shops in Airport to promote the app, ticket booking sites to promote your app in signature of the mails they send .. there are lot of avenues. What exactly are you trying to build. Call me if needed. I am consulting architect with 14 years of experience in building iOS, Android, Windows Phone mobile apps, windows and web apps that scale.

5 answers • about 10 years

Trademarks Domain Name Disputes Branding & Identity

Can you claim a name from the US trademark office if someone else was the first to come up with the name and didn't claim it with the office?

Laurel Mintz answered: Yes. That is the whole purpose of the USPTO filing system. Whoever is first to file gets the mark. There is common law usage which they could argue but first to file is generally upheld.

5 answers • about 10 years

Resume Writing Strategic Hiring CEO Coach

Is it true that the bio is the new resume, and if so, can adventures like backpacking through the wild, be adapted to enhance a resume?

Jason Kanigan answered: The resume's purpose is to Get You The Interview. Not get you the job. It can't do that. So anything that helps you Stand Out and get that callback for the interview is fair game. I don't even recommend using a resume anymore. Develop online content and get it in front of employers who have the power to hire you (CEOs, not HR). I absolutely would put your backpacking experience as a line item high up on your resume. I did about 60 information interviews with hiring professionals and found that they scan--not read, note--the top third of Page 1 of resumes. If you don't sell to them in that small space why they need to talk to you, your resume goes in the trash. So get your punchy stuff in up front. I'm an expert in unorthodox jobhunting and getting companies to create jobs with zero competition, custom-made for you...frequent radio interview guest on the topic, and have had four companies do this for me during my career. Resumes and cover letters are totally outdated, but you're free to keep using them if you like.

6 answers • about 10 years

Social Media Marketing Strategy Small Business Marketing

What are some ways that a small business can do more face to face sales if they are uncomfortable with social media?

BT Irwin answered: First, when you make enough sales face-to-face, hire someone to manage social media for you. You don't have to do it like everyone else, but you need to have a presence online to be a serious contender in the marketplace. Even people who meet you face-to-face may be less enthusiastic about buying from you (or even suspicious) if they can't find much about you online. Here are some of the more successful approaches I've used to increase "face time" with clients and prospects: 1. Book speaking engagements and speak on subject matters where my expertise can shine through. Chambers of commerce, civic organizations, trade associations, etc. 2. Join a meet-up group or, better yet, start your own. Figure out what kind of networking your prospective clients want to do and give them an opportunity to do it. You'll create value for them and fill your Rolodex with leads. 3. Join a chamber of commerce, networking organization, or trade association and (emphasis here) take a leadership role. Chair a committee. Run an event. Organizations like these have hundreds or thousands of members. Only a percent show up. A smaller percent actually gets a lot of business from it. Which small percent? The ones who take an active, visible leadership role. I'm sure we could come up with a lot more if we could talk specifically about your business and industry. Please set up a phone call if you want to brainstorm.

7 answers • about 10 years

Photography Business Strategy Business Development

Can anyone shed light on some business models for photography?

Craig Morrison answered: Teaching. Set up some sort of online, or even better, night course at a local college. Charge for it. By teaching, you set yourself up as an authority on the subject. The more you teach, the more people see you as the person who knows those most on the subject. What you'll get out of it is more business referrals and more clients. Seems weird, and most people will say "you'll be training your competition!" but in fact, you won't. Just because you teach someone how to use a camera, it doesn't turn them into a professional photographer, but it does form a relationship of trust and knowledge between you and boatloads of potential clients.

5 answers • about 10 years