Ask the entrepreneurs advice
-
@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
I have two recommendations.
Three. The E-Myth series are good also.
-
-
@dkf said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@boomzilla said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
critique this guy
“Being vegan, …”
'nuff said.
How do you know if someone is vegan?
Don't worry, they will fucking tell you.
-
@dkf said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@boomzilla said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
critique this guy
“Being vegan, …”
'nuff said.
I love the rest of the sentence. "Being vegan, we believe humans are being exploited [by] modern technology". Nice non-sequitur...
(also, the whole "we are now off the internet" on facebook)
-
@remi said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
I love the rest of the sentence. "Being vegan, we believe humans are being exploited [by] modern technology". Nice non-sequitur...
Not entirely. “Being vegan” tends to usually imply some kind of weird non-sequitur is incoming anyway. This isn't even particularly far out as they go. Fortunately, they can counteract enough of the evil internet rays by using special crystals (special offer: $178.99 per ounce, plus sales tax in the state of California) to be able to still communicate with unenlightened fascist oppressors of mother nature, such as you and me.
-
@dkf said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
to be able to still communicate with unenlightened fascist oppressors of mother nature, such as you and me.
Hah! The joke's on them. I got rid of most of my crappy CFL bulbs so my house is well lit these days.
-
I'm thinking of getting my name out there for consultancy/website work/in house app development. Small jobs that I can do around my full time job and see if I can work up to enough work not to need an employer in the longer term.
My wife is a copywriter, and can do design type work, so combined with my programming experience I think we could carve out a nice niche and it beats waiting for inspiration for an idea that could make me millions. I figure I'll put together a nice website that showcases a few flashy technologies, my wife will write some compelling text explaining how great we are, then maybe put out a bit of advertising, set up a Facebook page for my friends to like and spread via word of mouth etc. It seems to me like getting started would be the main obstacle, costs would be low while it's still a matter of running it out of the home office and hopefully word of mouth and repeat work would get us some regular jobs. Am I being hopelessly naive or is this a viable way to start towards having a small business?
-
@Jaloopa it is entirely possible. I cannot speak for the UK (I believe that is where you are?), but here where I live most of the local marketing and/or web design firms were started that way. Just one or two people and some laptops.
Do you have any prospects right now? Any work that you could possibly take on? It does not have to be anything huge, just something to get your feet wet.
The good news is, you currently have a job that pays the bills. That can pay your bills while you get going.
It is also a hurdle. For starters, you have no sense of immediacy. No urgency in getting going, and that is usually something I need in order to put real drive behind something. Nothing bad will happen if you do not get it off the ground. The status quo is like a warm blanket.
Also, you have to consider how amenable your current employer is to this idea. If they are supportive, that's great. Because, chances are you will have to take an occasional call during business hours. You can do the work in the evenings and weekends. But most clients will occasionally want a phone call during business hours.
If your employer is not supportive, you could still make it work. Take the calls on your lunch break or something. If you want to make it work, you can find a way.
If you want a good, quick read on the subject, check out "Art of the start" by Guy Kawasaki. It is all about starting things. It is aimed towards starting business ventures, but much of it is applicable to starting anything.
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Start-Time-Tested-Battle-Hardened-Starting/dp/1591840562
"The Lean Startup" is another good one you might appreciate.
Do you know how to sell and/or negotiate? It is not necessarily a prerequisite, but it certainly helps. How do you plan on finding work? If your wife is a good copywriter (marketing, correct?), sit down with her and put together a really, really, good website. That will be your calling card. Put some time towards SEO. Then spend some money on a PPC campaign. $100 or so could go a long way if you target it correctly. Also, you will soon be inundated with mailings from Google offering you $200 in free advertising if you spend $100. Make the most of it.
Is it doable? Of course it is. Think of where you can find work and potential clients and go where those people are. Schmooze. A hell of a lot of business is nepotism multiplied by currency.
Most importantly, set yourself realistic goals, then think of ways to achieve them. Write the goals down. Pin them up in your workspace. It all sounds cliche, but for most people the difference between a dream and a goal is writing it down and making a plan.
Part of those goals should be, "When I am steadily making $X per month on my side work, steadily, I will go full-time". That number will likely be less than you are making now. That will also initially suck to do because you will be used to your full salary plus the income from your side work. Try to keep your expenses low as you build up. If you spend all your side income and your salary on lifestyle increases, you will never be able to make the leap.
Lastly, if you have not, watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3RJhoqgK8
After the kiddo is asleep, of course.
Sorry for all the random thoughts. I read your question this morning but did not have time to reply so I had a lot of time to think about all of this today while climbing up and down a ladder eleventy billion times.
-
-
@Polygeekery on mobile so I can't quote reply, bit there's some good advice there.
I haven't asked my work if they'd be ok with it, but I do have flexi time so could clock out for a longer call if necessary. I kind of see my wife being more of the sales side but I realise I'd need to gather requirements and give estimates.
I'm not the best at selling, but can talk a good game to convince people of my skills. My wife's marketing background probably puts her in a better position for that but I'm more comfortable than her with haggling when buying something.
I don't know anyone who's asking for work to be done, but there are quite a few small businesses near me who we could approach.
-
Another good video for budding entrepreneurs to watch:
Guy Kawasaki is an amazing fellow. He knows how to speak plainly on the subject and get his points across.
-
The start of this year has been amazing. Normally the first 6-8 weeks of the year are slow. At the end of the year lots of places burn up their budgets and then at the beginning of the year they are waiting for budget allocations and such before they start any big projects. That makes for slow Januarys and Februarys. So slow that I built a RetroPie machine to fuck off with during the slow time.
That didn't happen. At all.
In the process of getting everything together for the tax meeting with the accountant tomorrow I decided to see how well this year started out. January through March we have billed 60-70% of what we billed all last year.
Not too shabby. It is nice to start the year off with some high margin jobs. Like the "emergency" cabling job that I raped and pillaged on.
-
Also:
-
I signed up to a freelancing website the other day. Some of the jobs posted there are farcical. Someone wanted an exact copy of Uber (With No copy/paste at all!) for $500
I might start a thread for the funniest ones
-
@Jaloopa said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
I might start a thread for the funniest ones
I would read that one.
-
More on topic, it's hard when you're new to freelancing. Most of the jobs that offer sensible rates are more likely to go to the people with an established reputation on the site, leaving me to fight it out with the bottom feeders
-
Find, Manage & Pay Contractors In One Place | YunoJuno
Efficiently manage your freelance workforce with YunoJuno - source, hire, manage and pay contractors and freelancers all in one place.
You can get decentish rates with this. I've got two good jobs out of it.
These guys get really good rates but they will vet you and you have to have a github and open source stuff. PHP, Node, JS
-
@Jaloopa said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
More on topic, it's hard when you're new to freelancing. Most of the jobs that offer sensible rates are more likely to go to the people with an established reputation on the site, leaving me to fight it out with the bottom feeders
My assumption would be that the people who go to those sites looking for devs are
cheap bastardslooking for a bargain. You would be better to sell your services directly. It is not too terribly difficult, but it does take more time and effort than popping up an ad on a job board or responding to jobs posted on freelancing boards.Try to pin down your target market. This might be fairly easy for you, sort of. IIRC, you are wanting to do website and app development for businesses, correct? Find out where the business networking groups meet in your area. If you are good with people, and do not have crippling social anxiety, you can go to them and schmooze. Tell people what you do, ask them what you can do to help them. Don't try to sell your products or services. Try to fix problems. Your product or service will of course fix those problems, but try to phrase it in the sense of fixing problems. But try not to come across as a shady used car salesman.
You will get higher rates by going to the sources, meeting them in person and connecting a human being with the services you offer. If you work with them via a job board, you are a lot less likely to build loyalty. The next time they need a job they will likely post it on the open market, because they are once again looking for a deal. Try to find the people who are looking for quality and value for money. They pay more and they are more loyal.
Also, look for other avenues to be in contact with those who might need your services. Business networking groups are the first thing that came to mind, try to think of others.
-
@lucas1 said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
These guys get really good rates but they will vet you and you have to have a github and open source stuff. PHP, Node, JS
I don't know if I want to mess with space-time continuum like that...
-
@lucas1 said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
You can get decentish rates with this. I've got two good jobs out of it
Might be worth a look, thanks. I've been looking on peopleperhour, and there have been a couple of promising looking ones
-
@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
You would be better to sell your services directly. It is not too terribly difficult, but it does take more time and effort than popping up an ad on a job board or responding to jobs posted on freelancing boards
Yeah, that's the plan for if I get serious on this. I just signed up on a bit of a whim the other night while the wife was away
-
@Jaloopa said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
the other night while the wife was away
It's always at that time that men do stupid things
-
@TimeBandit luckily, hookersandblow.com was down all night
-
@Jaloopa said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@TimeBandit luckily, hookersandblow.com was down all night
Aren't hookers supposed to go down all night?
-
@loopback0 long time, anyways.
-
Ok Mr Entrepreneur, I have a question - maybe more.
A good friend passed away about a month ago. His family approached me about purchasing the business. The business is right up my alley and the price is very attractive however I'm concerned that there will be some loss of revenue after we resume operations - currently the family is filling existing orders but not taking new orders. If it helps, the yearly profit is over three times the asking price and would be double my current salary.
Is there any general rule for loss of business for a situation like this? I'm working on getting contact information for several clients but it would be difficult to contact them all.
-
@Jaloopa You won't get amazing rates, but it is much better than people per hour. I am getting about £50 a day less than I would normally get if I signed up for a 6 month .NET contract.
-
@brianw13a I'm not @Polygeekery (our resident entrepreneur expert), but it sounds like a dream opportunity to me.
Do you think the loss of business will be drastic? Or will there be enough customer retention to basically continue as things were. If you do lose some of the prior customers, will you be able to handle the emotional impact? Keeping in mind your change in actual income (instead of the change in predicted income) can help there, especially if you'd still be making more money than you're currently getting (not that money is everything, but it can help make the difference between being something you'll continue to enjoy doing and becoming something you dread every day).
-
@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
A good friend passed away about a month ago.
For starters, I am sorry for your loss.
@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
His family approached me about purchasing the business.
They don't want to continue the business?
@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
The business is right up my alley and the price is very attractive however I'm concerned that there will be some loss of revenue after we resume operations
Why? And how much of a loss? I realize that any estimate will be a total wet finger in the air asspull, but can you hazard a guess?
@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
currently the family is filling existing orders but not taking new orders.
Fair enough. Given their loss they are only concentrated on fulfilling his obligations. How long have they been doing this? In an ideal world, you would only be missing the revenue from the time that they have been doing this. But, without knowing the particulars of the business, that could easily not be the case. How long is the sales pipeline? Is it a recurring order business, or more of a one-off? Do you think that those who have not been serviced while they are dealing with the loss will have jumped ship to other vendors?
@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
If it helps, the yearly profit is over three times the asking price and would be double my current salary.
Yeah, that helps, a lot. If I understand correctly, the price is 1/3 of what the profits are in a single year? So you should be able to pay off your initial outlay and be solidly in the black in ~4 months? And you love the business and it is right up your alley where you will be passionate about it, and you would double your income?
Fuck me, you have stumbled in to a home run it seems. I mean, unless the death of the owner and not filling any new orders has set the business in to a death spiral...what are you waiting for??
@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Is there any general rule for loss of business for a situation like this?
General rule? No. But most importantly, how long has this been going on and how long is the sales pipeline? Let me know that and I can give you a better idea. If the sales pipeline is 30 days, you have no worries. If it is 3 years, you might have a problem.
@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
I'm working on getting contact information for several clients but it would be difficult to contact them all.
Why would it be difficult to contact them all? Surely they have records of prior sales? If you can step in to the business and be making money to replace your income, you can spend every free minute you have during business hours calling people and letting them know that you are back in business and accepting orders. It seems like the profits are there, offer them a small discount to come back. There are ways to stop the bleeding. It would be better if I knew what sort of business it is though. If you do not want to post it publicly, you can PM me the information if that would make you more comfortable.
-
@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
For starters, I am sorry for your loss.Thank you. He is the person I would have normally turned to for advice like this.
@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
His family approached me about purchasing the business.
They don't want to continue the business?
His wife is far from being technically inclined. His kids are better but they do other things that they are passionate about so no, they've decided to either sell or liquidate.@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
The business is right up my alley and the price is very attractive however I'm concerned that there will be some loss of revenue after we resume operations
Why? And how much of a loss? I realize that any estimate will be a total wet finger in the air asspull, but can you hazard a guess?
Yeah that's what I thought. If I estimated it would be an asspull too.
@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
currently the family is filling existing orders but not taking new orders.
Fair enough. Given their loss they are only concentrated on fulfilling his obligations. How long have they been doing this? In an ideal world, you would only be missing the revenue from the time that they have been doing this. But, without knowing the particulars of the business, that could easily not be the case. How long is the sales pipeline?
Typically 30 days.
Is it a recurring order business, or more of a one-off?
Recurring.
Do you think that those who have not been serviced while they are dealing with the loss will have jumped ship to other vendors?
That's my concern.
If I understand correctly, the price is 1/3 of what the profits are in a single year? So you should be able to pay off your initial outlay and be solidly in the black in ~4 months? And you love the business and it is right up your alley where you will be passionate about it, and you would double your income?
Fuck me, you have stumbled in to a home run it seems. I mean, unless the death of the owner and not filling any new orders has set the business in to a death spiral...what are you waiting for??
Yeah, that's what I think too but I've never purchased a business and the saying that goes "if it's too good to be true..." keeps going through my head. It also complicates thing a little that he came about the business in a very similar way about 2 years ago. His friend's brother in law passed and he bought the business so I oscillate between the idea that there will be some loss and that he was on the upward swing of growth so the outlook is good.
@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Is there any general rule for loss of business for a situation like this?
General rule? No. But most importantly, how long has this been going on and how long is the sales pipeline? Let me know that and I can give you a better idea. If the sales pipeline is 30 days, you have no worries. If it is 3 years, you might have a problem.
30 days is typical with 60 days in a few select cases.
@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
I'm working on getting contact information for several clients but it would be difficult to contact them all.
Why would it be difficult to contact them all? Surely they have records of prior sales? If you can step in to the business and be making money to replace your income, you can spend every free minute you have during business hours calling people and letting them know that you are back in business and accepting orders. It seems like the profits are there, offer them a small discount to come back. There are ways to stop the bleeding. It would be better if I knew what sort of business it is though. If you do not want to post it publicly, you can PM me the information if that would make you more comfortable.
No, I meant contact them all prior to the sale. After the sale I would absolutely contact them all. In person if at all possible.
-
@brianw13a the pipeline is short, how long have they not been taking orders? That could be a possible stumbling block also, given that it gives all of the customers time to think the shop is closing and that they need to find a new supplier. Hmmmm.
Pick a percentage of customers at random. Call them up, tell them that you are taking over the business and can start right back up where he left off at. Gauge their interest in resuming business with the company. In person would be even better.
How much money do you have in the bank? Enough to pay cash for the business and leave yourself wiggle room to bridge any short cashflow gaps? How much margin is on each sale? Does the business have employees?
-
@djls45 said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@brianw13a I'm not @Polygeekery (our resident entrepreneur expert), but it sounds like a dream opportunity to me.
Do you think the loss of business will be drastic?
I don't really have any reason to believe so. I just tend to overthink and usually, when developing, figure out what things can go wrong.
Or will there be enough customer retention to basically continue as things were. If you do lose some of the prior customers, will you be able to handle the emotional impact?
I would imagine there would be. Yes I'd be able to handle it if some went elsewhere.
-
@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@djls45 said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@brianw13a I'm not @Polygeekery (our resident entrepreneur expert), but it sounds like a dream opportunity to me.
Do you think the loss of business will be drastic?
I don't really have any reason to believe so. I just tend to overthink and usually, when developing, figure out what things can go wrong.
Or will there be enough customer retention to basically continue as things were. If you do lose some of the prior customers, will you be able to handle the emotional impact?
I would imagine there would be. Yes I'd be able to handle it if some went elsewhere.
Go for it. Do your due dilligence of course, but all lights appear to be green.
-
-
@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@brianw13a the pipeline is short, how long have they not been taking orders? That could be a possible stumbling block also, given that it gives all of the customers time to think the shop is closing and that they need to find a new supplier. Hmmmm.
It's 2 days shy of 1 month. The daughter has explained the situation to them as temporarily not taking orders and exploring a change in management/ownership.
Pick a percentage of customers at random. Call them up, tell them that you are taking over the business and can start right back up where he left off at. Gauge their interest in resuming business with the company. In person would be even better.
Yes, this is my intention. We're gathering contact information this evening.
How much money do you have in the bank? Enough to pay cash for the business and leave yourself wiggle room to bridge any short cashflow gaps? How much margin is on each sale? Does the business have employees?
Not quite there but the bank has been very helpful so far.
-
@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
It's just shy of 2 days. The daughter has explained the situation to them as temporarily not taking orders and exploring a change in management/ownership.
2 days of not taking orders? On a 30-60 day pipeline? That is basically fuck-all. I would not worry about it. No one has jumped ship yet. Or, no one who was not going to leave anyway. Those who would change suppliers on that short of a timeline were about to be part of normal business attrition anyway.
@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Yes, this is my intention. We're gathering contact information this evening.
Good deal. Seriously man, it sounds like a home run. If I were in your position there is not a thing so far that would keep me from forging ahead.
@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Not quite there but the bank has been very helpful so far.
Good deal. With the kind of profits you are talking about, you should be able to keep your income the same for a while and pay all of that off in short order. Under a year and then be on a cashflow basis and be in awesome shape.
-
@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
2 days of not taking orders? On a 30-60 day pipeline? That is basically fuck-all. I would not worry about it. No one has jumped ship yet. Or, no one who was not going to leave anyway. Those who would change suppliers on that short of a timeline were about to be part of normal business attrition anyway.
No - I must have caught that after you started typing. It should have read 2 days short of a month.
-
@brianw13a said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
2 days of not taking orders? On a 30-60 day pipeline? That is basically fuck-all. I would not worry about it. No one has jumped ship yet. Or, no one who was not going to leave anyway. Those who would change suppliers on that short of a timeline were about to be part of normal business attrition anyway.
No - I must have caught that after you started typing. It should have read 2 days short of a month.
Hmmmmm. Visit some customers as we talked about. You have margin to work with. Offer them X% discount for Y days if necessary. If they are good customers, you likely won't even need to do that. They may just want to return to the status quo.
-
Status: Positioning my old books for the Christmas season, and working on a new book on beekeeping. Big hobby, lots of newbs.
Also, apparently I own a publishing company.
-
@Polygeekery do you have to synergystic a paradigm shift to acquire ROI?
-
@wharrgarbl said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Polygeekery do you have to synergystic a paradigm shift to acquire ROI?
courtesy www.sansbullshitsans.com
-
Anyone got advice on forming in the UK vs the US? I've only done sole proprietorships in the US. We're looking at doing a partnership, and we're not sure if we need limited liability or not (leaning towards yes, doing an LLC). Tech, so data laws may be a factor.
-
@yamikuronue said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Anyone got advice on forming in the UK vs the US? I've only done sole proprietorships in the US. We're looking at doing a partnership, and we're not sure if we need limited liability or not (leaning towards yes, doing an LLC). Tech, so data laws may be a factor.
If you're doing tech with an explicitly UK audience, data laws most certainly will be a factor. The first and best step on complying with them is only collect the data that you actually need and only use it for obviously reasonable purposes (e.g., it's reasonable to collect someone's address if you want to send goods to them). That which you don't collect in the first place can't be accidentally exposed. I believe there's quite a bit more (such as a right for people to have their details be corrected; if only my credit card would believe that my real name is actually my name rather than an @accalia of it) but that's pretty much the core of it.
(Liability limitation might be worth it, but I suspect that it's something you can bolt on later as Limited Liability Partnerships are a thing. Real lawyer advice needed as I don't know what the tax implications are; I work for a “charity” after all and so have very different rules.)
-
@dkf said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
If you're doing tech with an explicitly UK audience
Global audience.
-
@yamikuronue said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Global audience.
EU Data Laws (GDPR) are here to demand a kidney and a random % of your sanity
-
@luhmann yeah I'm kinda looking down the barrel of either GDPR or SESTA right now... advice welcome :D
-
-
@luhmann said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@yamikuronue said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
advice welcome
Run, yami, run!
We're sorry, but until the European Union actually makes it easy and worthwhile to start a business venture within its borders, we cannot offer our {goods/services} to our customers who reside in any of its member states.:D
-
@djls45
Hey, EU only claims to make trade within the union easier ...
-
@yamikuronue said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@luhmann yeah I'm kinda looking down the barrel of either GDPR or SESTA right now... advice welcome :D
SESTA is not a thing yet. If at all possible, please do whatever you can to make sure it does not become a thing. While the underlying goals are laudable, the implementation is beyond terrible and it's virtually certain to do immense amounts of harm if it passes into law.
Art of the Start 2.0: Full Lecture
Welcome To X-Team
