What are /r/Entrepreneurship's favorite Products & Services?

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What you are doing now (asking questions) is good!

It'd be easier if you started with some industry experience, but since you've already started, you should try to learn as much as possible.

Generally in a startup, there are two broad types of people: programmers and hustlers. The programmers build products and the hustlers work on everything else (crucially, sales and marketing). Because the person you partner with is a programmers, your job is to learn business in general, understand your business model (ex. b2b vs. b2c) and how to make the business profitable, etc. And programmers/developers are most likely not very good with UX and really understanding the users, so you could do work in that front.

You might need to have a vision (a small vision would do but you need to have at least a bit of direction of where to go) for the business and go out validate the idea or engage with the users.

As for VC, know that fund raising is not necessary if you are just starting out. Most startups that have to rely on outside funding without a good understanding of business operations don't survive. If that's you, save yourself your youth and go get a good job where you can learn a ton, save money, and come back to entrepreneurship later.

Here is a good resource.

Thanks for the list!

I'm reading his new book, The Hard Thing about The Hard Things. Interesting take on entrepreneurship.

I just posted something like this over on r/startup. I have 15 tips for you instead of just one. From this list, though, I'd say probably number 4 or 15. Being flexible in your idea and product and not fearing failure are critical for entrepreneurs. If you refuse to change your product because of fear of failure, you will never get off the ground. No one's idea or product is perfect from the outset (or ever, really). You need to be able to change.

There's a higher rate of depression among entrepreneurs than the general population. There's a higher rate of trauma among entrepreneurs than the general population. Is it worth it? Now that I am coming through the other side, I think I can protect myself more and focus on my self-care. I was born to be an entrepreneur and that's just who I am.

I highly recommend Dr. Sherry Walling's book, Keeping your shit together. My business partner and I have each been working with her and she has helped tremendously with our recovery and healing.

It's so easy to be overwhelmed...just know you are not alone.

Read:

 

• The War of Art -Steven Pressfield
• Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less -Greg McKeown
• Eat That Frog! -Brian Tracy

 

Those should do ya good.

Please this , read but get out there and fail a few times…those lessons will teach you more than a 100 books.

Tim Ferris book. I like the guy but this book when it came out sparked some ideas but outside the principal is a waste of time.

A book that does not get recommended a lot but I have ever employee I’ve ever hired read “The Go-Giver. This book has been the foundational principal for the past two companies I’ve built and culturally is impactful.

https://www.amazon.com/Go-Giver-Little-Story-Powerful-Business/dp/0241976278/

Thanks for the great list! I like Trello, used it for one year, but now I switched to Quire as my project management tool. I switched because Trello is difficult to work with if I have too many cards. I've been using Quire for the past 5 months and so far, I've had no complaint.

I seek support from people to fill out a surveymonkey for a concept which I am beta testing. Patent pursuit in process. If you live in a state where there is snow or ice, please help me by filling out the survey at this link;https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6V7SW9Q and commenting as well.

Hi, I want to share 100 free startup resources with you. You can find them here https://www.slideshare.net/Lotasoft/100-best-free-startup-resources-165213657.

The resources cover such aspects as idea management, writing/blogging, business name generating, SEO, website analysis, email management, typography, tools and many more.

Hope it helps.

Update:

We are so excited to inform all of you that we are currently at ProductHunt, we appreciated if you can help us getting top of the list by upvoting us if you used and think would be helpful for others too:

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/deepnamer

You could start with WordPress.com and then export your content if you decide you need a bunch of plugins and want a more complicated setup. If you want help setting up WordPress.org, I can help you set it up (been a WordPress user for over 16 years now).

I'd take another look at Kickstarter. Many of the projects aren't artsy at all. They're typically highly technological, though, or at least novel. If you're looking to manufacture something more mainstream, you might want to give Indiegogo a try.

You are right when you said that, for a long time, companies have considered customer support a cost rather than an effective way to drive more revenue. But things have changed. A lot.

Times change. The way we used to do business has evolved radically since the last few years, and yes, it also includes customer support. Thanks to technology, it is possible to make it effortless and also a driver of revenue for our business, it is therefore a smart investment, because it allows you to protect your reputation, boost customer satisfaction and loyalty, and ultimately, generate more profits. Amazing.

This is the reason why every single company needs a proper customer support software that is up to the level of what the modern customer demands. Treat them right and you will open the doors of heaven, treat them poorly and you will open the gates of hell.... yes, and I'm not kidding. It is real.

As real as the fact that, if you are currently struggling with customer support, because it is consuming way too much time and resources, and the control is escaping out of your hands, you have got to solve it now. You cannot wait. Fortunately, the solution for your problem has one name: Kayako.

Live chat for immediate support and driving more sales. Social CRM software for managing social media requests and conversations like a pro in no time. A self-service portal for the customers who want support but don't want to speak. A cutting-edge ticketing system and inbox manager... everything in one single place. Effortless and smooth, that is how you will feel once you try Kayako.

Words mean nothing without evidence, you know it. That is why you can take a FREE trial with Kayako and prove that everything I've said is true. Try it free of cost for 14 days to make customer support effortless and amazing driver of sales: https://www.kayako.com/free-trial

Intercom has several great use cases. Recently I've been getting a lot out of their Customer Lifecycle Management tool. Free trials for Intercom are available and I would definitely recommend giving their other tools a go as well!

Stripe is what you'll want. It's extremely developer friendly, lets you securely access bank accounts and stored credit cards without needing to go through major compliance audits.

The only thing is they take a %. Usually it's like 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. If you do over $80,000/month, contact them and they'll lower the fee.

If you're not a developer and just want to accept credit cards, Stripe has a JavaScript library you can add to your page. Stripe.com/docs.checkout

Plus they have a super easy dashboard where you can manage all your money. And the money is deposited into your primary account automatically (or manually, or on a schedule, whatever you decide)

I'd recommend Zoho, because of its clean interface and it's pipeline visuals.

There's a few good reviews and a demo here: http://www.capterra.com/p/155928/Zoho-CRM/

That link should help you decide if that's the product you're looking for.

Here's a great blog I just read about becoming a data analyst with no experience.
https://hackr.io/blog/become-data-analyst-with-no-experience

Sounds great, thanks! As for the pricing, we will definitely think of other options as we move forward. We know that manually searching for relevant investors is a tedious work and doing it at scale takes lots of time. So the value we provide is pretty much helping founders/entrepreneurs save hundreds of hours of their time.

We already have 12 paying customers, here is a link to our revenue and other data: https://www.indiehackers.com/product/angel-match

My team of ten people use various apps to help with productivity.

1. Quire- a free task management software, we use it to manage deadlines and track progress of each tasks. The gantt chart feature is used to set plans and assign individuals to different tasks.
2. Slack- used to communicate with each other and send files
3. Google doc/sheets/drive: to save all our files and edit them together.

Hope this helps!

I just read the exact book you are looking for, It's currently free on Amazon. The Entrepreneur's Guide to Consumer Packaged Goods: The Winning Growth Strategy for a Food & Beverage CPG Startup. It's free on Kindle Unlimited and provides a high level overview of all the info a CPG entrepreneur needs to know prior to starting a CPG food and beverage company.

https://www.amazon.com/Entrepreneurs-Guide-Consumer-Packaged-Goods-ebook/dp/B08KT2JKSP/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Cpg+guide+entrepreneur&qid=1603133904&sr=8-3

I use Gates and Musk as examples because most people have heard of them, but there are plenty of small business owners who also demonstrate my point: You have to start somewhere, even if that means starting very small.

As for the "lots of people" point: Have you ever heard of Tim Paterson? Probably not, unless you are a hard core computer nerd. But you have heard of Bill Gates, the hacker genius who built Microsoft from the ground up, right? No, actually. Bill Gates did build Windows, but it was based on another OS, called DOS, which was originally built by Tim Paterson. Bill Gates paid him for the right to use DOS, thus speeding up his entry into the market. Paterson either failed to see the potential of what he built, or had no interest, who knows. But for whatever reason, Paterson didn't build Microsoft, and Gates did. That is why you have heard of Bill Gates, and hardly anybody knows Tim Paterson.

That is just one example, but in any hot industry, there are a lot of people grabbing for the same pie. Just look at social media now, or biotech, or app developers, or even the gold rush. My point is that the titans we see in hindsight are the products of natural selection, but they certainly are not the only ones trying. Those who have previous experience in business stand a much better chance of succeeding.

Finally, the part about 9-5 jobs: You cherry-picked out the second half of my statement without addressing the whole point. I didn't say a 9-5 job is worthless, I said if the goal is to learn business skills, then most normal jobs don't help. Sure, they pay the bills, but most of them don't teach much when it comes to business.

And while we are recommending books, I suggest you check out books like "The Lean Startup", "The $100 Startup", or "The Ultralight Startup". It doesn't take nearly as much money to start a business as you seem to think it does.

I used to struggle here as well. The best book that changed everything for me was "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. All about being disciplined instead of motivated - makes you a stronger person.

No. Entrepreneurs need to be risk takers and be street smart, not book smart. I wouldn't see any benefit of getting an MBA. Go to a local library read up on some Think and Grow Rich, How To Win Friends and Influence People, $100 Startup, Nothing To Lose Everything To Gain and 4 Hour Work Week.

Then start learning about the finances and running a business (all can be found on the internet).

If I could go back I wouldn't have traded my college experiences but my degree was useless. If I had started my business 5 years sooner I'd be better off.

This is a really good idea. Napoleon Hill talks about Mastermind groups in his book, Think and Grow Rich, which you can get on Kindle for $0.99 (http://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Financial-Wealth/dp/1557427836) - one of the best business/entrepreneur books I've ever read.

Innovative idea. Doesn't this fall under the category of social enterprises instead of a startup?

Also, maybe you could give us more information about your incubator/accelerator program?

(Everything you need to know about building a startup: The Strawberry Startup)