Your Questions Answered by Industry Experts

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Answers from Industry Experts

Licensing Licensing Agreements Sports Industry

How do I become a licensee of the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NCAA/US Colleges, NASCAR?

Shaun Nestor answered: A 0.31 second Google search located this: http://i.cdn.turner.com/nascar/.element/pdf/2.0/sect/kyn/NASCAR_Prospective_Licensing_Application.pdf

3 answers • about 10 years

Start-ups Music Industry Market Research

Where would you look to find communities of musicians?

Stanley Lee answered: I would suggest spending some money and cash hanging out at bars where some of these bands perform, Also, try to find a way backstage to talk to the musicians after they perform to do your research. If you're going after well-off musicians, contact their agents or band managers. They are always looking to make or save more money.

3 answers • about 10 years

SEO Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

How to validate quality links for link building?

Koby Conrad answered: 1. You want to make sure that your backlink is a followed backlink. Right clicking on the link and then clicking "inspect element" in the html code, it shouldn't say "nofollow". 2. One of my favorite SEO tools is www.ahrefs.com - they have a free version you can use. The more backlinks that the site has that's linking to you, then the higher quality those backlinks are. You can also tell if the website that's linking to you is trusted and has organic SEO by looking at the countries that are linking to it. If 20% of the websites backlinks are coming from Russia or some 3rd world country it's probably safe to assume that the quality of that website is fairly poor. ahrefs also gives you a quality score for domain authority and page rank. My personal website is www.HippiesHope.com (feel free to look it up in ahrefs), if you have any more questions about SEO feel free to send me a message or schedule a call.

4 answers • about 10 years

Social Media Marketing Small Business

Is it possible to start a Social Media Marketing Agency with not much experience in Social Media and not much money?

Amy Vernon answered: I have to ask why you would start an agency in an area you don't have much experience in. Perhaps you'd be better off getting at least a little experience first?

9 answers • about 10 years

New Business Development Investors Start-ups

How much of my company should I be giving up? This is the biggest decision of my life. Please help!

Liam Gooding answered: Hey, A few points (and as someone who has sold a digital agency, I have some experience here) 1) "This is the biggest decision of my life"... No it isn't. Not even close. I mean no disrespect but, agencies are easy to start back up. You build a team, build a client base, maybe take investors, scale it, sell it. Sit on your hands for the non-compete period, then start another one. Don;t sweat this too much, you aren't facing a decision that you can't work your way out of in a year or two. So my tip number one: relax! 2) This investor is taking you for a ride Giving yourself a minority ownership in an early-stage company or startup is a very, very bad idea. You need to feel like you have a "big win" ahead of you. A CEO shouldn't own a minority stake in the company she or he founded until you're doing $Millions in revenue 3) This guy is bringing very little to the table He has no background in your area. If he's bringin money, sure. On £30k run rate you aren't hugely investible but hey, a £20k injection of cash at 20% equity might work for you. But seriously, right now you have a very early stage business and it's too early to see how his flower shop expertise would help. 4) It's really, really early for you Taking investments into agencies is usually a bad idea until you have some solid revenue. £30k is very admirable and you should be proud to be more successful than a LOT of small business owners. But honestly, just keep selling and hustling. Hire SLOW and fire fast. Move your sales reps to a basic and give them quotas. Use contractors to scale out delivery without taking on as much risk. It sounds like you have the beginnings of a great agency. but from the information you've provided and from remembering my very early days where I transition from freelancer to agency, an investor right now would be a bad move for you. Happy to jump on a call to discuss my specific experiences and how I scaled out my team and client base and then moved everything to SWEET retainers so we could sell the biz.

4 answers • about 10 years

Facebook Marketing Affiliate Marketing Email Marketing

What are some of the most effective ways to build an email list using Facebook?

Jerry Rocco answered: I use the FB Login App to collect FB Verified leads thru an App on my Fan Page. See this video which explains http://youtu.be/5tjVNf9H_Uk. I have mainly offered a free software trial - 7 day ecourse, or registrations for live hangout events which I also host on my Fan Page. It has been very effective, generating over 40,000 leads in the last 15 months for one of my businesses. The best part is that 90% of the traffic is a result to a high viral coefficient. Best, - Jerry

5 answers • about 10 years

Coaching Business Coaching

What are ways to start / launch a coaching program targeted to healthcare professionals (helping them grow their practice)?

Corey Michael Blake answered: Assuming you are qualified to create this kind of offering, I think you can safely determine that there is need for this service. I know many doctors who struggle with the business of their practice and could benefit from coaching. That being said, if you believe this is an area you want to devote years of your life to, I would consider the infrastructure that will be required to support your success. Over time, you're going to want to build out the following (or a version thereof): Creating your brand identity Building your website Developing your funnel to generate leads Developing your pricing model Inbound marketing strategy and execution Social media strategy and execution Sales strategy Long-form content creation for email capture Short-form content creation for traffic generation SEO for organic traffic Advertising for paid traffic Presentation planning and coaching Possibly a book I would recommend thinking about as much of this ahead of time as possible to give yourself the greatest chance for success.

6 answers • about 10 years

Mobile applications Mobile Development

What is the best way to start with mobile considering that I don't have have programming background? (only html and basic CSS) ?

Tom Williams answered: I admire your ambition but I really do need to caution you against learning to code as a means of building out your app. If you want to do this as a fun hobby to teach yourself to code, then by all means do it but if you seriously want to build and launch an app that you think has a potential commercial appeal, then you need to do it in a way that maximizes your chance of success. I'm happy to refer to you reasonable mobile development shops that do excellent work. You should budget a *minimum* of $25,000 USD to build a single platform app that is fully functioning and launch-ready and another at least $25,000 in reserve for paid user acquisition. If you can't invest $50,000 or find friends, family or strangers willing to support this pursuit financially, I'd argue that you'll be wasting your time. Happy to talk to you in more detail in a call.

4 answers • about 10 years

New Business Development Entrepreneurship Business Ideas

How do you determine if a business idea is worth pursuing?

Daniel Freedman answered: You ask the customers, and gauge their level of interest. Better yet, get yourself in front of some customers, and instead of telling them what you make or do, ask them what they need. When you notice that many of them need the same thing, and if it is something you can make or provide, you then have a business idea worth pursing.

8 answers • about 10 years

Building Relationships Investors New York City

New York: is it considered a nice gesture to give a branded t-shirt (of an event) to an investor that I'm meeting?

Ian Ippolito answered: If the investor is spending his precious time meeting with you, then I assume he has at least some interest in your event. If that's the case, then in my opinion, yes it would be a nice gesture and appreciated. Good luck with your pitch!

5 answers • about 10 years

Packaging Hardware Shipping

What do I need to put in my product's box? (in Europe)

Stanislov Krapivnik answered: Can you give more information on what your product is? Then we can figure out what you need in it. Sounds like electronics...but what?

4 answers • about 10 years

Information Technology Consulting Trading Systems

What does a Securities and Exchange Commission do, and what technology services/solutions does it need to operate?

Paul Trachtman answered: The SEC is tasked to monitor, and punish if necessary illegal acts committed by trading in securities. They are the "Watch Dog" of Wall Street. Unfortunately, there are not enough skilled employees, and funds to really do their job, so a lot of unlawful acts slip through the cracks. The SEC does enforce their regs. and will levy huge fines and other sanctions. If you have additional questions, just call me. Thank you, Paul Trachtman

1 answer • about 10 years

Tax Accounting

Bookkeeping automation resources for early stage enterprise health IT software company?

Dmitry Lyfar answered: I did not actually have too much experience with bookkeeping platforms before. But we stick with Xero and there is no reason why I should look for another option.

3 answers • about 10 years

Retail Industry CPG Industry Food Industry

What are the demographics for people who shop at Costco and other wholesale clubs?

Ryan Draving answered: COSTCO AFFLUENCE: You might be surprised to know that 54% of CostCo's Wholesale Club (CWC) members are considered wealthy, or "affluent", with only 15% just "getting by" or "poor". BUSINESS VS CONSUMER: Approximately 24% businesses, 76% individual consumers. Even though business customers drive about 60% of CostCo's revenue, about half of that is for home use, so it's about 30% business revenue and 70% individual consumer revenue. HOUSEHOLD: 35% of CWC members have 2 person households. 56% have three or more in their home. I have a ton of paid tools at my disposal for market research. For much more detail on other demographic data for CWC, along with info from BJs and other wholesale clubs, set up a call with me on Clarity.

4 answers • about 10 years

Web development Web Applications Databases

What is the easiest way to store log-in and customer information obtained from our company website?

Stanislov Krapivnik answered: Well you should store it in a database, most probably an SQL based database. MySQL is a fine start, free and easy to set up. But, you had best start thinking about security issues, especially if you are planning on storing credit card and other personal information. Hackers go right through the standard fare and many companies do nothing to encrypt their data at all, which in some countries is a criminal offense. Best hire a professional to look at your system setup and see what can be done.

3 answers • about 10 years

Legal Advice Business Advice Legal

I've been ousted from a project. What can I do?

Laurel Mintz answered: It depends on what your contract says and what you want to do. Ultimately you need to decide what you want and then we can work backwards from that. But no just having the conversation does not automatically oust you.

5 answers • about 10 years

Mobile applications Mobile Technology

Anyone deploy a large scale iBeacon initiative yet?

Lane Campbell answered: I've been recommended to speak with Leigh Rowan in the past for iBeacon projects. I haven't had the pleasure of doing so yet but he came highly recommended. His contact information is on his LinkedIn account. https://www.linkedin.com/in/leighrowan

4 answers • about 10 years

Entrepreneurship Increase Productivity Generating Revenue

What are some ways to make passive income?

Brad Brown answered: After I sold my 2nd company (to Equifax) in 2011, like you, I was looking for a good way to capitalize on the knowledge I had. I'm a tech guy (i.e. developer). I worked for Oracle in the late 80s, then started an Oracle consulting firm (TUSC) which we sold in 2008. With TUSC I travelled to Oracle Users Groups around the world presenting on various topics. I wrote 6 technical books from 1997 through 2010. So I was interested in continuing to share the knowledge I had. In 2012 I started InteliVideo (www.intelivideo.com) to help provide an excellent way to make a passive income. We help people sell their digital products...from audio books to video lessons and more. We hear stories every day from our customers about how they are making an amazing passive income with our platform. It's SO much easier than writing a book and provides more information and a better learning opportunity for my customers. Best of luck with your passive income journey. It's a great dream that can become reality!

9 answers • about 10 years

Direct Sales

Where do we look for venture capital for a debt-free direct sales/party plan business that is expected to do 1 million in its first year (2014)?

Ian Ippolito answered: I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but generally, these are not the types of businesses that venture capital pursues. Due to the risk they are taking, VCs generally want to see a large market (meaning $1B potential) and a significant return on their money (10 times return). However, you can look for an Angel investor. These are generally individuals who are not looking for as large market or a return.Here are some places to start. Best of success to you! http://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaprive/2013/12/16/20-most-active-angel-investors/ http://www.cbinsights.com/blog/top-angel-investors/

6 answers • about 10 years

Software Engineering Software Design

What is the software development life cycle?

Daniel Freedman answered: I hate to say it, but Google would have got you a much faster answer than this site. I just typed in "Software life cycle" into google, and there are many great articles.

7 answers • about 10 years

Email Marketing Marketing Automation

What platform would you recommend for White labeling email automation / self hosted email marketing?

Casey Cheshire answered: Pardot is the easiest to learn and then execute. Will take your team the least amount of time to provide managed email marketing & automation services to your client. Naturally you'll want to bill fixed rates.

6 answers • about 10 years

Recruiting Entrepreneurship Sales

What is the best way to recruit high profile people to speak at a conference?

Shaun Nestor answered: Nearly every high-profile speaker has a website outlining their process, fees, and requirements for speaking engagements. They also have instructions on how to contact and book them.

9 answers • about 10 years

Online Marketing Digital Marketing Innovation

What's new in the world of Online Marketing? Are there any new opportunities in this space to do something innovative?

Shaun Nestor answered: There are still countless opportunities! We live in an exciting era. As humans, we still want to connect and share our experiences, meet new people, and deepen our relationship with those already in our circles. We must balance our privacy (which is unique to both users and publishers), as well as our desire to be accepted and approved of. Marketing will continue to become more personal. Brands must adapt a scalable 1:1 marketing strategy and consumers' needs will continue to evolve. These are real human needs and, as a result, creates limitless opportunities for technology and online marketing to connect.

4 answers • about 10 years

Marketing Product Marketing

How to figure out the product market fit for your new launched product and service?

Maria Marsala answered: Sorry, but this question is a bit backwards. You need to have an audience/need for your product or service BEFORE you create it. Having said that, I'd go back to the basics: a) create a niche b) determine an ideal client profile c) design a business plan

7 answers • about 10 years

Sales Customer Acquisition Growth Hacking

If the goal is to be an entrepreneur, given the digital age we live in, what skills should sales professionals develop?

Daniel Freedman answered: All successful sales come from the customer realizing that something of great value is being provided. Therefore, to be an entrepreneur, a person should be searching for something that many people will assess as having great value. In other words, look for something you can design once, and sell over and over again to many people. Techniques such as cold calling may be more or less efficient than the "new" techniques such as social media, mobile marketing, and so on. But none of that matters until you have a product/service that resonates with customers. As a salesperson, you are used to being told "Sell what you have." But as an entrepreneur, you need to be much more interested in "Having what sells."

5 answers • about 10 years

Consulting Marketing Consulting consultant

How can small consultancies close BIG companies as clients?

Martin Zhel answered: Hello, I've been working in one of the biggest agencies in the world before and now I own a small digital agency. I've found a way to close big clients really easily by doing the following: Connecting with them directly and identifying their biggest pain points. Then you need to showcase that you understand them (mainly with content marketing and talking with them) and you know how to deal with that and making an offer. The first thing I do is I find my niche, the people I want to work with. I connect with them and I ask them for an interview. During that interview I don't sell them anything, I just want to learn more about their business, what are their current issues, challanges, etc. I'm looking for the biggest pain that I know how to solve. If I identify one, I ask them if they want to receive free content on that topic. When they say yes, I put it in my database. Then I start releasing some great content for them on the topic. Then at some point a make a sale by telling them we're growing and we have a few spots open for new clients. I make them fight to become one. I used this system to talk to and close Fortune 500 and Inc 5000 companies so if you're interested to learn more, feel free to schedule a call. I'd love to share my ideals & methodology with you.

8 answers • about 10 years

Sales Process SaaS - Enterprise & SMB B2B Higher Education

I started a Saas service for colleges in India. In Marketing to whom do I follow-up in college, whether The principal or The correspondent ?

Daniel Freedman answered: In any business to business sales situation, you need to evaluate who is involved in the decision chain that leads to a purchase. Typically, there are at least three parties involved. These are: Your Champion, who noticed your product, and decided it would be a great fit for his organization. This is your cheerleader, and your best friend within the organization. Your Champion's management, who decide whether things that your champion recommends should be acted upon, given the context that the business is operating in. This includes someone who ultimately will request "budget" to pay for your product or service. The company's financial management team, perhaps the CFO. This is the person who needs to understand the financial impact that your product will have on his organization. Will it cost capital up front but quickly save money in operational costs over time? What is the payback period, and so on. There may be others involved too, especially if the company is highly regulated (i.e.: regulatory approvals may be needed). Bottom line: Through your champion, you map out the network of your customer's organization, and work on each person in the chain that is involved in making a decision. Don't be put off if, as often happens, you find that your champion is highly enthusiastic, but the rest of the organization isn't. You can beat your head against this kind of brick wall for a long time. But please don't. Instead, move on to the next prospect. The job of your marketing efforts should be to ensure that there are enough leads that you can spend most of your time working on people who will ultimately become customers. Note that you can happily disqualify 99% of your leads if you can end up spending most of your time on the other 1%. Qualify quickly, then spend time with qualified prospects, even if they are in the minority.

4 answers • about 10 years

Writing Feature Articles Content Writing

How might one find a good tech startup writer for a few articles per week?

Ryan Draving answered: Find someone on Elance.com for a fast hire. LinkedIn.com for a more targeted approach at someone looking for a full time job... but expect a standard recruiting/hiring cycle time-wise. TextBroker.com will get you through in the meantime with pay per word writers on demand.

6 answers • over 10 years

Entrepreneurship Marketing Sales

What is the best website to get contact information of company executives (email)?

Ryan Draving answered: Try Dun & Bradstreet (DNB.com) to buy email addresses with one time fees instead of monthly subscriptions. I get them for free using an automated combination of tools that allows me to target specific people. If that's something you want, request a 15 minute call, which will be enough time for me to walk you through the set up.

6 answers • about 10 years

Marketing Strategy Sales Prospecting Direct marketing

What is the most creative way to introduce myself (and therefore my service) to 100 key decision-makers without selling or pitching anything?

David Ingham answered: You've answered your own question. Reach out to your prospects with the question, such as "How would you...". Ask what people want then give it to them if you can with integrity and thoughtfulness.

11 answers • about 10 years

HTML emails Email Marketing Email Design

Editing HTML email is a pain. I use Interspire's self-hosted software. Is there an app or website where I can edit HTML email without editing in code?

Ryan Draving answered: Set up a free account on MailChimp. Use their drag and drop visual editor. Click the "HTML" tab and copy the code. Paste it into Interspire. Remove any MailChimp-specific code.

3 answers • over 10 years

Pricing Strategy

How can I figure out the pricing of our competition?

Martin Zhel answered: Why do you need to know about the pricing of your competition in the first place? If you're offering great value, people will buy from you even if you're charging 5 times more. If you want to offer the lowest price possible to get more clients, then ask yourself how little can you actually charge. And put that price. Spending the time to identify the price of your competitors is a waste of time. In 99% of the cases.

5 answers • about 10 years

Product Strategy Licensing Manufacturing

What is the best way to get a physical product to market in 2014?

Ryan Draving answered: I've been in ecommerce for over a decade and have co-founded and helped start companies collectively driving over $10MM in ecommerce sales. I've consulted for Fortune 500 ecommerce stores. Here's my advice if you're just getting started without a big budget. Note: Some of this is copied from my answer to a similar question. #1) PROVE THE ASSUMPTION: Start with a dropshipper's existing products to figure out what sells best before you spend money on manufacturing and warehousing. Amazon is perfect for this - they will pay you 4%-10% to promote 253,000,000 products (http://bit.ly/1q2M85R) - you can sign up at https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ Alternately, get very small amounts of the product (maybe even just buy some from a competitor) and try selling them on ebay and amazon. Nothing hurts more than having $50,000 of imported product gathering dust in your fulfillment warehouse while listening to a voicemail from a debt collector. #2) SOURCING There are several options here. Many people prefer Alibaba.com. Warning - if you use Alibaba, you are stepping into a tank of pirahnas. There are more scam "manufacturers" on Alibaba than real ones. Use Escrow or AliSecure Pay if you buy. If the supplier says they only take T/T, Western Union, Moneygram - just say no! I prefer American Made when possible. If you're like me, try Ariba's Discovery Service - http://bit.ly/1q2NFZu - which will allow you to find suppliers with a physical presence in the USA. Note: Many things can be made on demand (someone purchases, one gets made and shipped) instead of in 500+ manufacturing runs. Start there if you can - Books on CreateSpace.com, Clothes on CafePress.com, Playing Cards on MakePlayingCards.com, etc - to test out your exact product. If you decide to source by purchasing product in bulk, find a fulfillment company to store and fulfill (ship) your orders. Amazon does this - http://services.amazon.com/content/fulfillment-by-amazon.htm - but they might decide to crush you like a bug if you're successful (http://bit.ly/1q2V7DX). Other fulfillment companies for e-commerce include http://www.shipwire.com/ and http://www.webgistix.com/ #3) LAUNCH YOUR SITE This is an entire topic in itself. One of the fastest ways I know for newbies to start in e-commerce is with a SquareSpace.com store. Other options include GoDaddy.com and BigCommerce.com. If you can stand to use the templates they provide instead of trying to customize them, you'll save yourself a lot of hassle and expense - customization usually looks terrible unless a designer/coder was hired to do the work. If you do customize, find someone on odesk.com or elance.com. If you're not hard up for money, just build a custom store from the start. If you can't do that, save up some money and then go for it. Focus on increasing conversion rate - for every 100 visitors, get 1 to buy. Then 2. Then 4. Then 8 (8%). #4) MARKET Figure out where your competition is advertising. Are they getting free, "organic" SEO results on Google? Using social media to drive billions of dollars of sales? (NOTE: That was a joke - don't count on social media as the nucleus of your marketing campaign. Please!) Are they paying for Google ads ("PPC"), buying email lists, using strategic partnerships for promotion, relying on shopping portals, using banner advertising, or something else entirely? There's probably a good reason - figure out what it will take to play in those waters. At the same time, try to find a small enough niche that you can win in it. #5) BEWARE Be careful about artsy things. If someone is attracted to something artistic, it's usually because there is a story behind the art for them, or because it's cheap. If you're going to try to sell artistic things, you may want to consider doing some serious research first about who has been successful in that area. Look at etsy.com to see handmade artsy items (very cool). #6) WORTH A LOOK Worth checking out as you start your journey: Art.com, yessy.com, Artfire.com, ArtPal.com #7) DEEP FOUNDATION If you need help, reach out for a 15 minute call and we'll discuss a go-to-market strategy specific to your goals.

3 answers • over 10 years

Project Management iOS Development Scrum

What is the best project management tool for a startup developing and scaling a mobile application?

Dmitry Lyfar answered: I tried Basecamp, Jira, Unfuddle, Trello and PivotalTracker before for different projects which were developed with agile approach. All of them worked fine to me and I needed some time to setup my framework and processes there. I think it would be worth checking Trello or PivotalTracker which I personally like more than Basecamp because of better agile oriented structure.

5 answers • about 10 years

Mobile applications Monetization iOS Development

Is it possible to push new in-app puchase content (such as audios) to a native iOS app?

Jordan Valeriote answered: You can do this by using a server backend such as Parse. They have a free SDK. There are other similar options and I believe apple is rolling out the same thing in iOS 8 with CloudKit.

3 answers • over 10 years

Invention Cosmetics Business Ideas

So I have an invention idea but do not really know how to go about

Michael Von Irvin MBA BSN RN answered: Everybody has an invention. The question is this....Is there a demand for your invention. My experience with the invention idea companies is that they are out to make money for themselves and will submit your ideas to companies and sites that you can to without spending 10 grand. If it is a great invention there will be a great demand. Start with google adwords to find out if there is real interest in the product. Don't stop taking massive action. Best of Luck, Michael T. Irvin michaelirvin.net My books are available exclusively through Amazon Books. Check out my book "Copywriting Blackbook of Secrets" Copywriting, Startups, Internet Entrepreneur, Online Marketing, Making Money

6 answers • about 10 years

eCommerce Import Import/Export

How to start an eCommerce site with imports?

Ryan Draving answered: #1) PROVE THE ASSUMPTION: Start with a dropshipper's existing products to figure out what sells best before you spend money on manufacturing and warehousing. Amazon is perfect for this - they will pay you 4%-10% to promote 253,000,000 products (http://bit.ly/1q2M85R) - you can sign up at https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ Alternately, get very small amounts of the product (maybe even just buy some from a competitor) and try selling them on ebay and amazon. Nothing hurts more than having $50,000 of imported product gathering dust in your fulfillment warehouse while listening to a voicemail from a debt collector. #2) SOURCING There are several options here. Many people prefer Alibaba.com. Warning - if you use Alibaba, you are stepping into a tank of pirahnas. There are more scam "manufacturers" on Alibaba than real ones. Use Escrow or AliSecure Pay if you buy. If the supplier says they only take T/T, Western Union, Moneygram - just say no! I prefer American Made when possible. If you're like me, try Ariba's Discovery Service - http://bit.ly/1q2NFZu - which will allow you to find suppliers with a physical presence in the USA. Note: Many things can be made on demand (someone purchases, one gets made and shipped) instead of in 500+ manufacturing runs. Start there if you can - Books on CreateSpace.com, Clothes on CafePress.com, Playing Cards on MakePlayingCards.com, etc - to test out your exact product. #3) START YOUR SITE This is an entire topic in itself. One of the fastest ways I know for newbies to start in e-commerce is with a SquareSpace.com store. Other options include GoDaddy.com and BigCommerce.com. If you can stand to use the templates they provide instead of trying to customize them, you'll save yourself a lot of hassle and expense - customization usually looks terrible unless a designer/coder was hired to do the work. If you do customize, find someone on odesk.com or elance.com. #4) MARKET Figure out where your competition is advertising. Are they getting free, "organic" SEO results on Google? Using social media to drive billions of dollars of sales? (NOTE: That was a joke - don't count on social media as the nucleus of your marketing campaign. Please!) Are they paying for Google ads ("PPC"), buying email lists, using strategic partnerships for promotion, relying on shopping portals, using banner advertising, or something else entirely? There's probably a good reason - figure out what it will take to play in those waters. At the same time, try to find a small enough niche that you can win in it. #5) BEWARE Be careful about artsy things. If someone is attracted to something artistic, it's usually because there is a story behind the art for them, or because it's cheap. If you're going to try to sell artistic things, you may want to consider doing some serious research first about who has been successful in that area. Look at etsy.com to see handmade artsy items (very cool). #6) WORTH A LOOK Worth checking out as you start your journey: Art.com, yessy.com, Artfire.com, ArtPal.com #7) DEEP FOUNDATION If you need help, reach out for a 15 minute call and we'll discuss a go-to-market strategy specific to your goals.

12 answers • over 10 years

Start-ups Marketplaces Customer Acquisition

How do you solve the chicken and the egg problem for an online marketplace with two distinct set of customers?

Scott Porad answered: I am currently the CTO of a vibrant online marketplace. As prior responders said, we started with demand. Once we had people who wanted to pay for our services, it was easier to find suppliers to fulfill the demand. In addition, we started with a narrow focus, and then expanded. We are a local service marketplace, so that meant starting with one geography, then expanding to a second, and a third. After we had figured out the formula in three geographies, understood the dynamics of the business thoroughly, then we expanded nationwide. As we roll out new features and services, we repeat this same pattern again and again: start in one geography, figure out the feature functionality/business dynamics/etc. then expand. Coming back to the demand point for a moment, in every business, marketplace or not, demand is the hard problem. The fact that you're an online marketplace is irrelevant. So, to be a successful business, say focused on finding repeatable, scalable and affordable ways to generate demand and you'll be on the right path.

6 answers • over 10 years

Partnerships Equities Start-ups

What are my risks in entering a partnership with 50% voting shares, but only 25% equity overall? How can I protect my interests in this scenario?

Nick Harriss answered: The first matter for you to conclude is to agree the terms of a shareholder agreement between the two founders. This shareholders agreement should govern the management of all significant governance matters. Without this you will subject to the constitution documents of the company and local company company law. This is a standard type of agreement that any decent corporate lawyer will be able to advise you on. As the voting shares are held equally, then no major changes will be able to be made without both founders agreeing to the changes. The non-voting shares (assuming all other terms are the same) will have equal rights to financial returns (dividends and liquidation rights), but will not be able to participate in voting issues. In simple terms, you will have an equal say in the running of the company with your co-founder, but will receive 25% of the returns, while they receive 75%.

4 answers • over 10 years

Marketing Start-ups Entrepreneurship

How much equity should I ask as a CMO in a startup?

Ryan Draving answered: Greater risk = greater equity. How likely is this to fail or just break even? If you aren't receiving salary yet are among 4-6 non-founders with equivalent sweat investment, all of whom are lower on the totem pole than the two founders, figure out: 1) Taking into account all likely outcomes, what is the most likely outcome in terms of exit? (ex: $10MM.) Keep in mind that 90%+ of all tech startups fail (Allmand Law study), and of those that succeed 88% of M&A deals are under $100MM. Startups that exit at $1B+ are so rare they are called "unicorns"... so don't count on that, no matter how exciting it feels right now. 2) Figure out what 1% equity would give you in terms of payout for the most likely exit. For example, a $10MM exit would give you $100k for every 1% you own. 3) Decide what the chance is that the startup will fail / go bankrupt / get stuck at a $1MM business with no exit in sight. (According to Allman Law's study, 10% stay in business - and far fewer than that actually exit). 4) Multiply the % chance of success by the likely outcome if successful. Now each 1% of equity is worth $10k. You could get lucky and have it be worth millions, or it could be worth nothing. (With the hypothetical numbers I'm giving here, including the odds, you are working for $10k per 1% equity received if the most likely exit is $10MM and the % chance of failure is 90%.) 5) Come up with a vesting path. Commit to one year, get X equity at the end. If you were salaried, the path would be more like 4 years, but since it's free you deserve instant equity as long as you follow through for a reasonable period of time. 6) Assuming you get agreement in writing from the founders, what amount of $ would you take in exchange for 12 months of free work? Now multiply that by 2 to factor in the fact that the payout would be far down the road, and that there is risk. 7) What percentage share of equity would you need in order to equal that payout on exit? 8) Multiply that number by 2-3x to account for likely dilution over time. 9) If the founders aren't willing to give you that much equity in writing, then it's time to move on! If they are, then decide whether you're willing to take the risk in exchange for potentially big rewards (and of course, potentially empty pockets). It's a fascinating topic with a lot of speculation involved, so if you want to discuss in depth, set up a call with me on Clarity. Hope that helps!

20 answers • over 10 years

twitter marketing Social Networking Twitter for Business

How can I reach out to Twitter users who have an immediate need for my services? I can see local tweets from great prospects but a reply would be SPAM

Sarah Brody answered: Twitter is actually a great prospecting tool, and these are people you should absolutely be engaging with as a brand. The key is to engage without coming off as spammy. Instead of "Buy our product now to solve your issue", try something friendly like, "Hey XYZ! We'd love to help you [solve problem]. Let us know how we can help!" or "We'd be happy to put you in touch with one of our experts on this topic. Let us know if you'd be interested in chatting." In other words, as long as you're focused on providing value over pitching your products, your responses won't come off as spammy, and you'll not only be able to get more qualified prospects from Twitter, but you'll also grow a stronger and more lovable brand presence.

8 answers • over 10 years

Marketing Strategy Enterprise Software

Do you have software recommendations for presenting demo software for large presentations?

Scott Porad answered: After having many live demos go awry, I attempt to avoid live demos as much as possible. That being said, a few thoughts, in no particular order. I prefer to rely on screenshots and animation which can typically illustrate my product as well, if not better than an actual demo. Screenshots and animation allow me to craft a narrative that focuses on the products key value proposition. A live demo often results in an audience member asking a question, then diving deep down into some sort of non-critical feature. A demo based on screenshots with animation will allow you to stay focused on our key narratives and primary value proposition. If you must give a live demo, you could use a wireless hotspot instead of relying on somebody else's network. Another option would be to run the demo on a remote machine, and show it using a screen sharing tool (such as join.me, WebEx, etc.), so that you're only relying on the firewall to allow HTTP traffic. (Though, that might have a lot of latency.)

3 answers • over 10 years

Facebook Advertising

What's the most effective way of uncovering profitable target audiences for Facebook Ads.

Adomas Baltagalvis answered: Hi, if you need to uncover new interests, you might find Facebook Graph Search useful (you need to have your Facebook language set as English US before anything else). Start typing this phrase into your Facebook search bar: "Pages liked by people who like XYZ" - this will open a list of the most common pages of people that also like XYZ. You can get even more granular: - Pages liked by people who live in United States and who like NBA - Pages liked by people who live in United States and who like NBA and Houston Rockets - Interests liked by people who live in United States and who like Basketball As you said, trying out lookalikes based on your custom audience, website custom audiences, or conversion pixels could be another way. Also, one additional way to bring your CPA down would be to remarket to everyone who have already visited your website by using Perfect Audience or Facebook website custom audiences. Finally, you should have some strategies implemented for overcoming ad fatigue. Instead of running a campaign continuously for a very long time, use the newly added scheduling feature to spread it out: have it active for 1-2 days, then add 2-3 days off. Also, upload numerous different visuals for the same campaign and set up ad rotation, so that every 2-3 days a different ad is shown to the audience. I hope this will help you improve your campaigns, and if you wanted to discuss it further, feel free to let me know! Cheers, Adomas

4 answers • over 10 years

Hospitality Hotel Management

Would hotels be interested in branching out into domestic staffing services?

Trishul Patel answered: My family is in the hotel business. I can tell that we would have absolutely no interest in doing this. We make sure out employees look after our property and provide great customer service. We do not have down time for them. We run a tight ship. The liability and other headaches that come with what you propose is incredible. The only thing we would consider doing is using one of our banquet facility rooms as a senior day-care center from 9am to 2pm Mon-Friday because a company would be paying us for the space and food. Everything else is on them.

6 answers • over 10 years

Affiliate Marketing Affiliate Management Affiliate Networks

A StartUp is looking into setting up an affiliate marketing platform, I believe the setup is different to the industry standard. Any insights please?

Angel Djambazov answered: So this model has been attempted before in various formats. As a direct comparison, 3-4 years back there was a company called WidgetBox. They were a startup. Successful in getting funding. Raised at least $8 million. Their changed up their model a few times but their most successful one was nearly identical to what you described. They went directly to various advertisers on a CPA basis and then guaranteed publishers a set CPM based on the agreed CPA with the merchants. Got as high as doing 500 million impressions a month. But they didn't appropriately account for fraud, had to back out on payouts, ended up nearly folding. They were able to pivot and be absorbed into Flite. A less direct comparison of your scenario is very common. Many affiliates these days operate what is considered a sub-network (against the rules of most larger affiliate networks) or a super-affiliate program. Examples are the dozens of loyalty affiliates out there like Upromise who also have their own affiliates (as well as members tracked on sub-ids) underneath them. Being the advertiser's "sole" affiliate is partially where I don't see the model you describe work. Unless your advertisers are completely unfamiliar with the digital space they are unlikely to only work with one company as their sole affiliates. Advertisers like to scale. It's why they work with networks. What ever you decide, Post Affiliate Pro does not have a robust enough of a platform for you to launch with. Beyond that the software's ability to help detect fraud is suspect. HasOffers (know called Tune) is a way better choice. Also recommend looking at Performance Horizon Group. Either way, highly recommend rethinking the "exclusivity" or "sole" component of your model and asking yourself why an advertiser would just go with you?

3 answers • over 10 years

Small Business Development Marketing Strategy Growth Strategies

Taking over the family business. Where do I start?

Ryan Draving answered: Find someone in that industry and give them a path to partnership. If you want DIY training for online marketing, you can try MarketMotive (nationwide business marketing) or CompeteLeap (local business marketing) or Lynda (random assortments of tech training). If you want to discuss your business specifics, let's chat on Clarity - send me a message about the type of business you're in so I can let you know if I can help or not.

5 answers • over 10 years

Business planning Entrepreneurship Education

Post secondary education vs. experience and self learning/mentorship. Is it worth it for me to go back to school for formal business training?

Kris Kelso answered: I am an entrepreneur without a single degree or certification to my name. I'm certainly not anti-education (in fact, I've taught some university classes), but higher education wasn't the path I chose. My question for you is: what type of learner are you? I learn best when I'm self-directed, studying things that fascinate me, and able to either apply or teach what I'm learning (in fact, I think teaching is one of the best ways to learn). So, I've taken ownership of my "education", and I am constantly learning. I read books and articles, listen to podcasts and other audio programs, attend conferences and events, and seek mentors and peer-learning environments. It has worked well for me, but not everyone is built that way. Some people learn better when the education is structured for them, or when they have schedules, deadlines, and feedback (i.e. grades) on their learning. Even for structured learning, college / university is not the only option. There are incubator / accelerator programs, entrepreneur boot camps, mentoring groups such as SCORE - some of it depends on where you are located, or whether you're willing to travel. The bottom line is that education is not optional (especially for an entrepreneur), but there are several ways to get an education. You need to figure out what kind of learner you are to determine what path (or combination of paths) you should take.

6 answers • over 10 years

Domain Registration Business Strategy Domains

What is the best way to bid on a website domain auction?

Joseph Peterson answered: Not enough information. Tactics depend on various factors: (1) the venue, since auction formats differ greatly across domain market places; (2) which of various auction types at a given website you're looking at; (3) listing settings decided by the seller such as "buy now" options or a minimum reserve; (4) the seller's past habits with regard to promoting, altering, or even -- unfortunately -- rigging auctions; (5) Quality of the domain itself relative to the price. Without knowing the details, no general answer that applies to all situations can be given.

4 answers • over 10 years

Android Development Android apps

How is the accelerometer on lg's Optimus 34c? Will our pedometer work on this one?

Michael Von Irvin MBA BSN RN answered: I have worked with lots of healthcare internet startups. Please be more clear on your question. Best of Luck, Michael T. Irvin michaelirvin.net My books are available exclusively through Amazon Books. Check out my book "Copywriting Blackbook of Secrets" Copywriting, Startups, Internet Entrepreneur, Online Marketing, Making Money Best Of Luck, Copywriting, Startups, Internet Entrepreneur, Online Marketing, Making Money

3 answers • about 10 years

Product Development Android SDK Android Development

We are moving into android development with our mhealth platform, what are our options for testing environments?

Alexandre Marcondes answered: I think there are two very different things you want. One is test our application on a great number of devices and Android version combinations. This is to make sure your app runs smoothly on all the environments you need. The other is a way to collect usage data, core dumps and physicians feedback. The first thing can be accomplished with a device farm and automated tests. Xamarin Test Cloud ( http://xamarin.com/test-cloud ) allows you to to automated testing on about 600 devices. There are other providers but this is the one that I would use and trust the provider. The second thing can be accomplished using many tools, even the ones you already use, e.g., trello or slack, for feedbacks. I have seen many companies go for beta releases on Google Play linked with private Google+ groups for beta testers. For crash dumps and usage monitoring you can use Twitter Clashalytics ( http://try.crashlytics.com/ ) or other tools like: * http://www.mobtest.com/ * http://ubertesters.com/ * http://hockeyapp.net/ * http://www.centercode.com/

3 answers • over 10 years