Official Entrepreneur/Business Thread vol.1

[capital sb]

I'm from Boston. I live in west Roxbury but I work and the space is located in Jamaica plain. It's right on centre st. The rent where I work now is 6000/month :x

It's just such a big jump to take. I've been working in restaurants for a while but I've never managed one let alone owned one

Unless you have someone experienced going in with you don't do it. Restaurants/Food industry is a different beast most go out of business within the first 4 months. Do research on your market and figure out what your expected value is before jumping in.

 

[cs02132]

I'm from Boston. I live in west Roxbury but I work and the space is located in Jamaica plain. It's right on centre st. The rent where I work now is 6000/month :x

It's just such a big jump to take. I've been working in restaurants for a while but I've never managed one let alone owned one

Unless you have someone experienced going in with you don't do it. Restaurants/Food industry is a different beast most go out of business within the first 4 months. Do research on your market and figure out what your expected value is before jumping in.

Ya that's what I'm worried about. Like i said I've been working in restaurants for like 8-10 years (started when I was either 14 or 16 I can't remember and now I'm 24) so I'm well aware of the risk but I'm also well aware of the fact that if you do it correctly there's no way you can't make money. Once things are settled and smoothed out there's a constant stream of $$. Especially with what I'm talking about..just a smoothie, juice, breakfast sandwiches, salads plus some other breakfast/lunch options type of place. there wouldn't be that much food cost because it'd be mostly produce and not much meat and dairy (judging based on what I know)

I've been working at the same place (2 minute walk from the available location) for 5 coming up on 6 years. I do deliveries + work inside so i know the area and people very well. I live in the next town over but I grew up here with my friends too. It's a very hippie, yuppie, DIY, type of place. With super expensive rent .. It's right in front of a bus stop/sitting area on the main street


Idk man I agree with you, if I went in with a pro I'm confident it'd succeed. With just me and my non owner/managerial experience I'm still confident but not as much as the other

I've been thinking about it a lot but it's a huge jump so I gotta think about it more. But the idea of owning my own spot, with my own logo, on my own cups, being delivered in my own van.. is so

 

[cs02132]

Btw I've also thought about this

The place that closed was a tedeschis,a chain of convenience stores in New England. It was there forever and always busy.. So why not open a different convenience store right there?

 

[bronamath]

Running a Facebook marketing campaign will most certainly pay itself off, I've been running it for my business for some time now.

If you have enough capital to run a paid for click campaign I also advise it.

I'm running a direct mailer campaign that combines postcards and 10-15 pop ups/web impressions to specific addresses that fit my demographic.

Paid for click/Google ad words, Facebook, direct mailers, and a tv commercial campaign has been my current marketing strategy.

 

[capital sb]

Running a Facebook marketing campaign will most certainly pay itself off, I've been running it for my business for some time now.

If you have enough capital to run a paid for click campaign I also advise it.

I'm running a direct mailer campaign that combines postcards and 10-15 pop ups/web impressions to specific addresses that fit my demographic.

Paid for click/Google ad words, Facebook, direct mailers, and a tv commercial campaign has been my current marketing strategy.

How much is your FB campaign running you per month ? We will be ramping up marketing on FB and Twitter soon .

 

[bronamath]

How much is your FB campaign running you per month ? We will be ramping up marketing on FB and Twitter soon .

I ran a beta test at $150 a month, but as soon as my TV commercial campaign comes to an end I'm going to up the Facebook to $700-$1,000 per month.

The beta test worked great - esp if you can track it.

I advise running a FB ad that has a coupon specific to The FB ad.

 

[flyknitlvr]

^ What are you selling?

 

[bronamath]

^ What are you selling?

I'm a franchise owner of a business that provides multiples services.

I ran the corporately owned franchise for 5 years prior to opening up my own location.

 

[flyknitlvr]

Ok cool. Assuming the campaign is profitable, why are you limiting yourself to only $700-$1,000 a month?

 

[bronamath]

Ok cool. Assuming the campaign is profitable, why are you limiting yourself to only $700-$1,000 a month?

When I set my budget I allotted a target % to marketing (11% of revenue - which is high) and I want to stay at that mark.

Part of my franchise fee each month already goes to a national marketing fund.

 

[capital sb]

@FLYKNITLVR Are you just drop shipping products that already exist for your ecommerce store or are you selling your own brand of products that you got manufactured?

Looking to launch my first store in 2017.

 

[wj4]

@FLYKNITLVR
Are you just drop shipping products that already exist for your ecommerce store or are you selling your own brand of products that you got manufactured?

Looking to launch my first store in 2017.

That's the whole premise behind drop shipping. No cash to start since you own no inventory. You're the middle man/marketer.

If you're talking about private labeling an item (even if it's just taking a generic item and branding your own logo on it), you need to buy orders. You can send your inventory to a third party vendor that can ship on your behalf if you want so you don't hold any stock at your house. Of course gotta figure out the fees too to make sure it aligns with your numbers.

MOQs are negotiable to an extent. Less so on stuff that needs a lot of tweaking.

It will obviously take more money if you want to make changes to an existing widget. That's the route I went with for my niche.

If you plan on dealing with oversea manufacturers, make sure you do everything you can to build a rapport and fly out to see them if you can. Hire third party to do QA before your items get sent. Been burned through that route before. Samples were great but production items were not.

 

[capital sb]

That's the whole premise behind drop shipping. No cash to start since you own no inventory. You're the middle man/marketer.

If you're talking about private labeling an item (even if it's just taking a generic item and branding your own logo on it), you need to buy orders. You can send your inventory to a third party vendor that can ship on your behalf if you want so you don't hold any stock at your house. Of course gotta figure out the fees too to make sure it aligns with your numbers.

MOQs are negotiable to an extent. Less so on stuff that needs a lot of tweaking.

It will obviously take more money if you want to make changes to an existing widget. That's the route I went with for my niche.

If you plan on dealing with oversea manufacturers, make sure you do everything you can to build a rapport and fly out to see them if you can. Hire third party to do QA before your items get sent. Been burned through that route before. Samples were great but production items were not.

Thanks appreciate it. I have been looking into both routes not sure which avenue I want to try first. It seems like creating your own product/ brand has a better reward and harder for more people to enter in to . Do you think that it is hard to make money drop shipping, since so many people have started to do it?

 

[wj4]

Thanks appreciate it. I have been looking into both routes not sure which avenue I want to try first. It seems like creating your own product/ brand has a better reward and harder for more people to enter in to . Do you think that it is hard to make money drop shipping, since so many people have started to do it?

Margin is low on typical drop shipping. And you're not in control of everything, I.E. Late shipping to the customer. There are exceptions of course like Flyknit. And it all depends what you want from it. I have friends who drop ship and are "only" making $15-20k a month and they love it while our other friends are making millions. These guys work a few hours a week and they live in other countries around the world where cost of living isn't so high. They have no need to become super rich but enjoy being world citizens.

Let it be known that it takes a lot of work. It's not easy as these "gurus" said. It is NOT just sending emails to China, get products, be rich.

It took me 8 months to launch my product. That's me working from 4-6AM, after work and on weekends.

What I did in those 8 months, I learned more than in my entire mba program at a fraction of the cost though.

Best advice I can give is to research enough and get going. Don't get stuck in analysis paralysis. Drop shipping is good if you want to learn the ropes. I've seen guys getting millions in revenue but only netting low 5 figures because of the margin. Again there are exceptions.

 

[dathbgboy]

I've been doing a good amount of side jobs that require W9's, after the 3rd one I figured that I should've just registered an LLC. I need to get my hand in some more consistent things though. Gon visit this thread more often.

 

[capital sb]

Margin is low on typical drop shipping. And you're not in control of everything, I.E. Late shipping to the customer. There are exceptions of course like Flyknit. And it all depends what you want from it. I have friends who drop ship and are "only" making $15-20k a month and they love it while our other friends are making millions. These guys work a few hours a week and they live in other countries around the world where cost of living isn't so high. They have no need to become super rich but enjoy being world citizens.

Let it be known that it takes a lot of work. It's not easy as these "gurus" said. It is NOT just sending emails to China, get products, be rich.

It took me 8 months to launch my product. That's me working from 4-6AM, after work and on weekends.

What I did in those 8 months, I learned more than in my entire mba program at a fraction of the cost though.

Best advice I can give is to research enough and get going. Don't get stuck in analysis paralysis. Drop shipping is good if you want to learn the ropes. I've seen guys getting millions in revenue but only netting low 5 figures because of the margin. Again there are exceptions.

Thank you , I am definitely aware it isn't easy work. I've been listening to forever jobless and the people who have created products said the same as you they worked on their business before and after work.

How is your product doing? How long did it take for your friends to hit 15-20K mark?

 

[flyknitlvr]

The problem with creating a product is the second you get any traction it's going to be replicated in China. E-commerce is one industry where I would say being a first mover is almost a disadvantage.

 

[capital sb]

The problem with creating a product is the second you get any traction it's going to be replicated in China. E-commerce is one industry where I would say being a first mover is almost a disadvantage.

Yeah seems like people have a lot of success with finding a product that already exist and seeing if they can make it better.

 

[trynafeelmink]

Lots of good info in here appreciate you guys

 

[Chopper]

If you have an idea for an app and hire a 3rd party to develop it, who's to say they won't just take your idea and run with it?

Do you just write up a contract?

 

[capital sb]

If you have an idea for an app and hire a 3rd party to develop it, who's to say they won't just take your idea and run with it?

Do you just write up a contract?

You use a non disclosure and an IP agreement. That's what we did with our developer and we have had 0 problems. They are looking to make money not run off with your idea.

Our developer is in India $20/hr. We are looking to get rid of him and find a talented developer at GTown, VTech, JMU, UMD, Mason , GW etc. Whoever can get the job done for a reasonable price $30-$35/hr or just a flat fee.

 

[OBAMA]

Starting a lit clothing line $$$$

 

[hennessy]

Starting a lit clothing line $$$$

I wish you luck but 2003 came and went already man.

 

[flyknitlvr]

You use a non disclosure and an IP agreement. That's what we did with our developer and we have had 0 problems. They are looking to make money not run off with your idea.

Our developer is in India $20/hr. We are looking to get rid of him and find a talented developer at GTown, VTech, JMU, UMD, Mason , GW etc. Whoever can get the job done for a reasonable price $30-$35/hr or just a flat fee.

NDAs and IP agreements are essentially worthless. What happens if they infringe? Do you have the money to retain counsel and go after them? Keep in mind that they are 5,000 miles away, in a different jurisdiction.

 

[sea23ttle]

Nice like to see people getting to the money! I am working on an amazon store. Lot of random products just trying to make profit on each sale.