Ask the entrepreneurs advice
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@masonwheeler said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
While the underlying goals are laudable, the implementation is beyond terrible .
Wait, are you talking about SESTA or GDPR?
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@luhmann He must be talking about SESTA; GDPR is in law (though different EU countries have quite different versions of it, for additional ).
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@dkf said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
GDPR is in law
I now but the quote part applies to both.
Stop it! Your silly facts are ruining my jokes!
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A new money making scheme: selling "well worn" shoes on eBay. Apparently, there are enough foot fetishists looking online that there's a decent sized section of women's shoes that have been worn out.
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@jaloopa said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
A new money making scheme: selling "well worn" shoes on eBay. Apparently, there are enough foot fetishists looking online that there's a decent sized section of women's shoes that have been worn out.
I probably don't have enough pairs of shoes to make that endeavor worthwhile. Panties, OTOH.
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@karla Banned on Ebay apparently.
I reckon if you bought cheap shoes you could probably get a few months wear out of each pair and sell them for a profit at the end of it. Win win
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@jaloopa said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@karla Banned on Ebay apparently.
I reckon if you bought cheap shoes you could probably get a few months wear out of each pair and sell them for a profit at the end of it. Win win
Figures.
Probably not worth the time.
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@jaloopa said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@karla Banned on Ebay apparently.
I reckon if you bought cheap shoes you could probably get a few months wear out of each pair and sell them for a profit at the end of it. Win win
How about socks? Especially singles!!!
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@karla said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
How about socks?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Well-Worn-Woman-Socks-/292260037855?hash=item440c0e44df:g:sb0AAOSw7eFZv-~I
Doesn't look like a huge market from the completed listings but some do sell
Some people are weird
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@boomzilla arbitrage. I like it.
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@polygeekery Given at least one disposal site around here charges $25 to accept a CRT, I'd say they both got a good deal.
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@greybeard It doesn't cost you anything if you do a good enough job disguising it in your normal trash.
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@unperverted-vixen said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
It doesn't cost you anything if you
do a good enough job disguising it in your normal trash.live in a socialist country
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Today I submitted a bid which was approved within 10 minutes.
Ten years ago my response would have been:
Today my response is:
"Shit. That was too easy. I wonder how much money I left on the table on this one?"
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@polygeekery I hate haggling. I wish I could contract some third party to do haggle for me when buying something, but then they would haggle about their rate for haggling.
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@polygeekery
It's not money left on the table, it's client relationship development expenditures
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@izzion client relationship development expenditures do not buy me ivory back scratchers.
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@polygeekery
Or that vacation hone in the Swiss Alps?
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@izzion nor vacation bones, which are much more fun.
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@polygeekery Ok, this raises the question: Can you hone your bone?
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My wife has the opportunity to take over a local magazine. Sent out to residents of our village for free, paid for by advertising for local businesses. It's kind of like a local yellow pages with a few bits of editorial as well. It's already established so relationships with the advertisers are in place, and the old editors reckon it costs £1100 a month to print and distribute. They also don't want any money for it, just want to pass it on rather than let it die.
If we put in a few hours a week it should break even. A few more and it could be a nice moneyspinner. It's also an in with a lot of local businesses who may want services like software, websites or the copywriting and marketing my wife specialises in.
Quite an exciting prospect
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@jaloopa a few years ago I was asked by a friend to take a look at his friend's business that was sort of similar. Free publication paid for by advertising dollars that did little more than break even. I looked over all of it and the rates to advertise were really low, but if they were not low people would be unlikely to pay to advertise in it because it was a free publication.
That is to say that it was hard to get much profit out of it. So what my suggestion was is for them to take that client book and spin it from free shotgun marketing to something more targeted so they could get higher rates and make some money. They took that suggestion and what they came up with was...well it is hard to explain without seeing one but I will do my best.
Basically they took those local businesses and services and spun them in to advertising folders that they gave to local real estate agents. When a person buys a house there is a ton of paperwork and other stuff you have to keep together. So they went to rockstar real estate agents and offered to print them some branded folders for free for them to give all their customers that paperwork in. Inside of that folder they sold advertising to any local business that a new homeowner would be likely to need. Painting services, flooring companies, plumbers, local restaurants, electricians, fence companies, handyman services, you name it.
The folders cost very little to print, the real estate agents got free folders that have all of their information on them and a place for them to snap in their business card, the homeowner got some place to keep all of their paperwork and new homeowners had resources to call for needs they might have in their new home.
You might consider whether you could spin it in to something like that? You already have the client book of local advertisers you could reach out to.
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@polygeekery ooh, nice idea. It's a very desirable area so that could be something of real value
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@jaloopa IIRC your wife works in marketing? That might be an avenue for her to pursue to make money out of the business and you could pursue the web marketing portion of it. That could be highly complimentary. You won't ever build a Google out of it, but you could make a very nice living on your own terms.
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@polygeekery yeah, we were thinking along those lines already. Something like a discount on marketing or custom IT work if they advertise with the magazine. It won't make a huge amount of money by itself but the ready made list of contacts is the valuable bit if utilised properly
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@jaloopa yep. Since you can get it for free you have nothing to lose but your
chainstime. Whenever you look at an existing business (and I don't even know if this would qualify, it seems more like a hobby to the people currently doing it, businesses make money) that is not doing well and you are looking to take it over, you need to ask yourself what you would do differently. It seems like you are doing a good job of that, and your entry point is sufficiently low (sweat equity only), so go for it. It is a cool prospect.Along the lines of:
@jaloopa said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Something like a discount on marketing or custom IT work if they advertise with the magazine.
This may seem dishonest, and if you feel it so you do not have to do it, but you can always inflate your prices to discount them back to their normal asking rate. The customer feels like they got a bargain and if you deliver a good product or service to them then they are happy and that is all that really matters.
If you want to get $8K for a service just say it would normally cost $10K but you will offer them a 20% discount. You still get your $8K and they are happy and feel like they got a bargain. IT services are a black box to most people. They will have literally no way to know. Don't bilk them of course, but there are multiple ways to structure a deal so that it is more appealing to the client. Keep those in mind.
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@jaloopa said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@polygeekery ooh, nice idea. It's a very desirable area so that could be something of real value
Giving it more thought, here is how I would structure it to make it pay more:
Caveat: All my experience is on this side of the pond, I don't know how things work on your side of the pond, YMMV, IANAL, etc.
Get the buy-in from the real estate agents first. Ask them who their preferred providers are, who they recommend, who they will vouch for because they have worked with them before. Approach those people to try to expand everything, both sides of the advertising business. Make your rates based on number of advertising folders and position in that folder. Find out how many sales each agent or group of agents makes in a year and come up with your numbers that way. If you can say to potential advertisers that purchasing advertising with you in this service gets them in front of 500 new home owners for $X, they will be much more likely to buy instead of "Buy this spot and some people who may or may not need your services might see it if they look, but they won't because everyone is so marketed to that they just gloss over adverts anyway".
You can also charge more if you have buy-in from the agents to the point that they are willing to tell the new homeowner "Here is all of your paperwork in this folder, my business card is in there if you are happy with the sale and want to recommend me to your friends and also this folder contains contact information for businesses and services you might need in the future as your make this house your home. I have worked with all of them in the past and recommend them to anyone who might need what they do". If you can get that, stress to potential advertisers that the warm and fuzzy feeling they get from buying their new home will be shared in the recommendation to use their services. You may have to pay the agents or realtor group a percentage to get that buy-in, but if it lets you command a higher rate it would be worth it. You should not have to do that out of pocket. Structure it so that they get paid after you have been paid by advertisers and had the packets printed so you are paying them with cash already received and on deposit.
I would also limit it to only one of a particular service. Let them know there will be no competition in advertising in your premium service. Only one house painter, only one plumber, only one electrician, only one handyman, only one fence company, only one security alarm company, etc
Each group of realtors could feed you potential advertisers, advertisers who would be likely to speak with you if you can call up and say that Jane Doe over at Initrode Realty gave you their number. Start with one group, run the numbers on printing and etc. You will most likely fuck something up on that first round. You will likely underestimate how much work is involved and not make as much per hour as you think. Once you learn from that adjust your numbers for the next round. By the fourth group you should have it down cold.
Try to get advertisers to offer a small discount for mentioning the ad they placed with you so they remember how much business you fed them and make it more likely that they would renew once that first round of packets is up and they need more.
Those are some initial thoughts and things to mull over.
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@polygeekery if people are paid by the hour, wouldn't it make sense to hire more people at a 20h week, so people are never tired?
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@sockpuppet7 no. Some amount of time per day is spent getting up to speed and some is to winding things up for the day. Hiring twice as many people would double those costs.
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So I just sent over a contract for a client to sign. Right after I send it I look at the first line:
THIS AGREEMENT made and entered into as of this 1st day of April, 2018 by and between...
...that might be a bad omen, starting a contract on April Fool's Day.
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@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
So I just sent over a contract for a client to sign. Right after I send it I look at the first line:
THIS AGREEMENT made and entered into as of this 1st day of April, 2018 by and between...
...that might be a bad omen, starting a contract on April Fool's Day.
Only if you are superstitious.
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@karla said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Only if you are superstitious.
I am not. But I do have a sense of humor.
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@polygeekery
Unfortunate that it's a legal document, or you could just work around the issue by scheduling for March 32.
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@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@karla said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Only if you are superstitious.
I am not. But I do have a sense of humor.
I knew someone born on April 1st. Her parents clearly had a sense of humor.
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@karla said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Only if you are superstitious.
I was born on a Friday the 13th, in the month of the dead.
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@karla said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@karla said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Only if you are superstitious.
I am not. But I do have a sense of humor.
I knew someone born on April 1st. Her parents clearly had a sense of humor.
Nah. That's reserved for people conceived on April 1st.
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@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@karla said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@karla said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Only if you are superstitious.
I am not. But I do have a sense of humor.
I knew someone born on April 1st. Her parents clearly had a sense of humor.
Nah. That's reserved for people conceived on April 1st.
That's neat trick. The only way to guarantee is through IUI/IVF. But that's commitment.
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@timebandit said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@karla said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Only if you are superstitious.
I was born on a Friday the 13th, in the month of the dead.
I was born on Easter.
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@pie_flavor said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@timebandit said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@karla said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Only if you are superstitious.
I was born on a Friday the 13th, in the month of the dead.
I was born on Easter.
Me too.
Well, to be fair, it was more of a rebirth.
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Having trouble driving customers to your business? Build an off ramp!
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I just got an email from a fairly large software company asking me to do a discussion group about "contracts with clients" with their sales team and dev leads. That's...quite a compliment.
I know one of their shareholders through a group I am involved with. He has brought a few things to me that I had immediate answers to from experience. He wants me to come talk to the rest of the big wigs at some point. That's quite the honor.
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Story time. Tomorrow. Remind me.
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@polygeekery cue '23 hours from now' bug
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@polygeekery
Since it's already breakfast time you could just tell it now ...
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Maybe remind me on Monday?
It's a busy weekend but on Friday I was mildly inebriated and ran in to a guy who stiffed me for ~$1500 back in the day.
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@polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Maybe remind me on Monday?
It's a busy weekend but on Friday I was mildly inebriated and ran in to a guy who stiffed me for ~$1500 back in the day.
I bet this will be a good story.
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@polygeekery Literally or figuratively? The running-into, that is.
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@polygeekery gets screwed out of $1500! You can hear the gripping story for only 15 easy payments of $99.99!