What are /r/smallbusiness' favorite Products & Services?

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I build them up both with new content on the site and very basic SEO.

For content, I do keyword research using tools like semrush.com or ahrefs.com, ubersuggest and then, in the beginning, I would write articles of 1000+ words myself on those keywords. Now I am able to hire writers to do that.

For SEO it's really basic stuff:

• Title tags are generally not good on most sites and if you have the done the keyword research you can easily fix these up. There are many guides to optimising title tags from better SEO's than me.
• Checking for errors in Google Search Console. 404 errors, server errors, I audit all of these and fix them with 301 redirects.
• Internal linking. I add breadcrumbs, cross link between pages on the site.

I also use WordPress for most of these sites as it's generally built very well from an SEO perspective and is ideal for adding the content to over time vs a static site. The Genesis theme was my go-to but I've recently been using GeneratePress with a visual editor called Elementor because I'm tired of dealing with PHP code!

I also add email lists to capture the traffic and send them content regularly (new articles, new products, site updates etc). If my sites disappeared from Google tomorrow I'd still have 300k+ email addresses to promote to.

It's also worth noting that this seems intense when it's written down but I learned a lot of this while doing it. Before you can do something well, you just have to do something.

Hope that helps!

Both, it's not one or the other. Google AdWords will allow you to jump-start your presence on Google, while SEO can take months for improvements to take effect.
I'm a bit biased as I run an online marketing agency, but you could do well if you spend $200 - $500 per month on ads while improving your campaigns.
To improve your SEO you need to get links to your site from other places on the web, here are some low-hanging fruit to get you started:

• Make a business listing on every social media and reviews site (Facebook, Yelp, Instagram, Google +, etc)
• Join Better Business Bureau
• Join business directories
• Join your local chamber of commerce, usually comes with an online listing
  

As far as SEO, depending on the size of your market and competitiveness it could take weeks or months to see results. That means you have to start now!
As far as Google Ads, whether or not you'll setup and manage your ads you should read up on it and learn as much as you can on the subject. Check out Perry Marshall's Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords, which is the best primer on Google ads.

Anti-fraud checklist:

1. Are the billing and shipping address reasonably close to each other? (Most fraudsters do not have a CC with AVS information that's local to their pickup location)
2. Is the telephone number provided with the order local to the billing and shipping addresses? (Run a search for the phone number and, if possible, confirm it's not Google Voice, Skype, etc)
3. Are the shipping/billing addresses a residence or regular place of business? (If it's a mailbox or forwarding service, you'll likely find that out quickly by searching it)
4. Did the customer place the order on your site? (If so, you should have the IP address associated with the order - check the ASN to see if it's a datacenter - huge red flag - or a legitimate ISP local to the shipping address)
5. If everything looks good but the order is high value and you still want to confirm it, call the customer - this will confirm that the phone number provided actually works and provide you with an opportunity to thank them for their order, confirm their shipping address, and (if everything seems legitimate) offer them a "preferred customer" discount on their next order to encourage them to spend more with you in the future

You're coming to that realization way sooner than most people. Some small business owners don't realize this until they're drowning in debt, have a failed marriage, and have declining health.

Running a business and doing a business are two completely separate things, and there isn't a ton of overlap in the skill-sets. When you have a trade that you love, you are passionate about that one specific area - but when you try to run a business in that niche, you all of a sudden have to step back from your trade into things like accounting, marketing, and personnel management. In many ways, it can be a huge step back in life satisfaction for someone (like yourself) that loves what they do.

There's a book called The E-Myth Revisited that goes into some detail about this mental shift, and how small businesses really aren't "businesses" until they can exist separate from their founders. After all, if you create a gym with your brother and both of you have to work there for it to survive, you've basically just created a low-wage high-stress job for yourself.

I don't think there's any shame in admitting that there are simply parts of the business that you don't do effectively on your own. Just like you would hire an electrician to install wiring in your house, you might want to look into hiring a part-time or full-time manager to take care of your business. You could still work as a trainer, but would have to be careful to allow the manager some discretion as to how to run the business. This would be a good time to create process documents for your new business. If you and your brother can sit down and can create a "playbook" for running your gym, it might show you can break everything down into a series of tasks. Then you won't be asking someone to "run the business" for you, you'll be asking someone to do these specific tasks that you've identified so you can both focus on what you enjoy and where you bring the most value for your customers.

Good luck!

Even though it's sort of a crap book overall, give The E-Myth Revisited a read. The basic idea in the book is that lots of small business owners really just want to make cool stuff rather than run a business, and that they are woefully unprepared for the fact that 80% of their time is going to be devoted to the business side (marketing, advertising, personnel, finance) instead of the craftsman side of their trade.

This appears to be one of those situations, where you'd basically be buying a job for yourself instead of a business. The previous owners have already realized that they aren't good at making a sustainable business that can exist separate from themselves, and they're looking to take the portion of the business that they like (the craft/technical side) and have someone else buy the portion they don't like (everything else).

Ask for cash-flow statements, etc., and run the numbers as if you would have to hire someone for the carpentry portion. Does it still make sense to buy the business? Is there still a profit margin to compensate you for the admin side? What about when the current owners decide to retire and you have to source your products from somewhere else? Is there a "business" separate from the quality and reputation of the owners?

Mentor, investor, and potential business partner is a lot to ask someone to bring to the table, when you haven't said what you're bringing to the table. Nor said how someone will benefit from working with you. Put yourself in the other person's shoes. Most people want more time, money, or fulfillment. How can they get one, two, or all three with you?

Regardless, how do you find someone?

First, become the person you want to attract. So remove phases from your vocabulary like, I don't know how-to, I don't have the time, I don't have the motivation, knowledge, etc. The conjunction n't (can't, don't, won't, etc.) is no longer allowed in your vocabulary ever again. If you can't do something, then figure it out. If you don't want to do something, then you must do. If you won't do something, then find someone who will. This is tough love, every entrepreneur must face.

Second, ask yourself what are you bringing to the table and become the best version of it. Then either network with people online or offline (so you will have to make time), to find someone who complements your skills and you theirs. If this is a symbiotic partner (meaning you bring equal, but different value to the table), then you must give before you ask. If this is a non-symbiotic relationship (meaning the other person clearly brings more value to the table), then they must see something special in your raw material that they can mold.

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I'm thinking about the book, Are You My Mother? ( https://smile.amazon.com/Are-You-Mother-Beginner-Books-ebook/dp/B00480OHWK/ )

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Substitute the word mother for mentor and my response is, you don't go around asking, because your mother/mentor will come to you.

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Now, entertain me, if someone on this sub says they're interested in being your mentor, what's next?

Oh man, I hate recommending this book because I thought it was actually sort of a garbage heap... but if you read "The E-Myth Revisited" I think you'll get some valuable insight into how to structure your business to make it easier to find people to work for you. The author stresses the "McDonalds model" of thinking of your business like it were a franchise - creating clear processes and training programs to allow you to become as hands off as possible once you've set systems in place and hired people that are good at following systems. McDonalds didn't get to be a giant multi-national company by finding the best burger chef in every country, they just figured out how to turn high school dropouts into decent burger cooks, and everything else is process :)

https://www.coursera.org/specializations/wharton-business-foundations

You have to pay to do the entire specialization, but if you just do each course separately, they're free. I did the accounting one and learned a lot.

This one is good too: https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-financial-management-acca-fa1-ma1-x-2

I use this platform called Paperform.co for a very similar purpose. I've created a standard questionnaire that I email to my clients every week using Paperform and the results all come through to me in a neat little spreadsheet.

>"advertising my goods"

Be very careful with those words in social media. Gary V has a book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. Hate him all you want, but the concept is clear: spend at least 80% of your posts providing value to your fans, and 20% on advertising (more or less).

• Jab (Top 5 reasons X is better than Y)
• Jab (Our Guide to XYZ)
• Jab (How to start X)
• Right Hook (Need help? Here's our X product)

Accounts that just sell sell sell can turn people off. It's good if they're new - but in the end, you want to build a community, or tribe, of followers.

> I think the primary problem is that the business is "me" and I'm having a difficult time transitioning from a "freelancer" to a "business" in a way that still keeps me flush with reliable income.

Read The E-Myth Revisited.

The first chapter or so will resonate with you deeply as the whole book is about turning your business into an actual business that can function without you so you can get your life back.

OP.

You don't have to justify shit. Its your business, its your time, and its your life!

Tell them, look we both want your bookkeeping to be accurate. It is clear in the past there have been challenges, and we/I are no longer the right firm to support you.

XXXX will be our last invoice.

Thank you and good luck.

Do this by phone, and send the discussion points by email! You can walk away. They may not pay your last invoice, but consider that bad karma on them.

If you need a pep yourself up a bit more go read this: https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Conversations-Talking-Stakes-Second-ebook-dp-B005K0AYH4/dp/B005K0AYH4/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=

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Personally I like how /u/aphex732 worded his response, try that too.

This isn't a direct answer to your question - but as you continue in your business, I'd highly recommend grabbing a coy of Managing the Professional Services Firm.

Maintaining, growing and scaling a Prof. Services business is fundamentally different than, say, an e-commerce biz or brick-and-mortar retail etc.

Highly recommend, “Small Giants” by Bo Burlingham.

I’m a small business owner and the child of a retired business owner who did very well for himself. My business goals are much different than my father’s. The book is excellent and easily one of the best business books I’ve read.

Here’s the Amazon link: https://smile.amazon.com/Small-Giants-Companies-Choose-Instead/dp/1591840937/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?crid=394S08PQFTYSM&keywords=small+giants+by+bo+burlingham&qid=1555416756&s=gateway&sprefix=small+giants&sr=8-2

PayPal is the worst possible payment solution for small business. I’m not surprised they did nothing to help you recover your funds, but I am sorry you had to go through that.

I use Square, but that’s because I run a brick-and-mortar business. If your work is all online or digital, you’re better off going with Stripe. Stripe is built to be a payment service for online businesses.

Stripe is integrated into lots of different eCommerce website builders, so if you use Shopify or WooCommerce (for example), then connecting your Stripe account to your website will be fairly straightforward.

Pancake

It's an online invoicing, project management, time tracking and proposal tool that you pay for once and install on your own server.

It costs $149 and doesn't have any limitations on the number of clients/invoices/users, unlike many other invocing tools like Freshbooks, that costs $12-40 a month.

I've been using Pancake for over a year and it's made my life a lot easier. I highly recommend it.

I’m a fan of the E-Myth book. There’s a good bit of fluff and the writing style is a bit odd, but the underlying principle is sound.

Also The Outsiders (https://www.amazon.com/Outsiders-Unconventional-Radically-Rational-Blueprint-ebook/dp/B009G1T74O/ref=nodl_)

You might think it’s not relevant since it’s talking about CEOs of publicly traded companies but the lessons are broadly applicable. I also like the study-like approach the book takes, versus the “I’m a business guru” approach.

So this got me interested and I started doing some research on these products. What a shit show of obfuscated pricing and b2b sales bullshit. Also lots of overkill with crazy stereoscopic 3-d imaging and crowd density algorithms and such.

Finally found something straightforward: Here's an infrared footfall counter on Amazon for under $100. No contacts, no apps, no sales people. Lord. It has 4 stars with 53 reviews and a Fakespot review grade of "B". https://www.amazon.com/Display-visitor-counter-wireless-directional/dp/B01N7T5005/

I am not affiliated with any products or brands in this comment.

I'm a big Tim Ferriss (four hour work week) fan, but I think for starting a business you would get more value out of just reading his blog and listening to his podcasts rather than paying for the book. (www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog). His book is better to read for someone in an established business.

Here are some books I've found helpful:

Breakthrough Entrepreneurship; The War of Art; Essentialism; Purple Cow; Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook (social media marketing how-to guide)

I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Last year was absolutely fantastic for me, but this year got off to a slow start. It picked up during my busy season, giving me my best summer in 7 years, but it's now back to being slower than normal.

Michael Gerber teaches in his book "The E-Myth Revisited" that 80% of all businesses fail in the first 5 years, and 80% of those that do survive fail in the next 5 years.

I guess what I'm saying is keep running lean and be prepared for things to change. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

Might I recommend Audible? My goal was ALSO to read books however I rarely find the time to sit down, turn everything off and read. However, I do have an hour or so here and there where my mind is available but my body is not: walking the dog, cleaning etc.

Audibooks are a great alternative to books AND you can change the reading pace. I'm up-to 1 book/week right now with great retention.

If you're serious, this is the way to go. That said, here's a quick list:

4 Hour Work Week, How to Talk to Anyone, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The Wealth of Nations, Moral Animal, Debt, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Economics in One Lesson, Millionaire Next Door, Richest Man in Babylon, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Power of Habit, 10X Rule.

Considering he talks about being genuine in the book, I think you might need to read it yourself. You can take any people/relationship book and turn it into a facade. You're missing the point of the books, at that point.

How to Win Friends and Influence People is in the library of nearly every single successful entrepreneur, I'm pretty sure there's a reason for it. Same with Think and Grow Rich and The Go Getter.

Pick up "The E-Myth Revisited"... the book is made for people like you. I just started reading it the other week, fairly easy and good read but covers a lot of the questions you're asking and specifically people in your situation.

I sometimes need to send texts out to hundreds of people as part of event coordination I work with. Used to take me forever and I'd make mistakes until a few months ago I started using a Google sheets extension that just instantly sends texts to everyone on my list with all of their individual information automatically included. Saves me hours per week honestly.

edit: this is the one. us & canada only it looks like fyi

Might not be exactly what you're asking for, but Predictably Irrational is worth checking out.

Predictably Irrational is a great book that covers this and a bunch of related bits of psychology.

This is an easy enough idea to simply test out. Make some posts on Craigslist, ask your friends if they would be interested, etc. to test the market. Actually do a few installs. Then tweak your approach from there. If it still seems promising, make a simple website as another commenter recommended. Research how you can use Google AdWords to acquire new customers (though I would try more DIY marketing approaches first before you start paying, it is good to be aware of). Don't spend too much money, this is something you should bootstrap.

Your margins will be relatively low I think, so you will need lots of customers to make it a full-time business. Be creative in how you price your product/service (test out different configurations).

I would also highly recommend reading The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. The principles are directly applicable to starting (and growing) any new business.

Oh my god! It's my question! And I'm 20 hours late!

My company makes a small business CRM called Less Annoying CRM.

Our system is designed to be extremely simple, but also very customizable. The idea is that you can set up the process tracking to fit your personal workflow so that you won't need training or have to rearrange how you're used to thinking about your work. Most people don't ever need any training, but if you do have questions or want a walkthrough, we'll do it for free. In other words, we sort of try to fit in between the two categories of CRMs that beepo described in this thread.

Oh, and it's only $10/user/month. So it's affordable, unlike some of the offerings from the big boys.

We're also a small business ourselves, if that's important to you -- there are just three of us, and we're completely bootstrapped. We believe in being available to our users; attentive customer service is one of the things that distinguishes us from other players in the space.

Anyway, if you're interested, give it a shot. There's a 30-day trial and we won't collect anything other than name and email up-front, so it's risk-free and all that jazz. If you have any questions, let me know (here or by PM) and I'll be happy to answer. I can't promise we're the perfect solution for everyone (we can't -- and don't want to -- compete with lots of other systems in a feature set comparison), but I can promise that we won't jerk you around.

You can play with a demo account here, if you'd like.

> If you were to combine all of the ones served from websiteninja.pro into a single gzipped file, it would load way faster.

Or enable output compression based on MIME type (like, with mod_deflate). Then you don't have to worry about remembering to zip everything, don't have to unzip stuff to make changes, etc.

Honestly, anyone I hired to do web development should know all this.

I'm the co-founder of germ.io - a personal productivity tool that looks at project management as something more than just a collection of tasks.

Here's how it works:

• Create a new project (we call them Flows) and put in your thoughts - these could be ideas, feature stories, campaigns or top-level objectives...
• Break this down into focussed sub-pieces. You can progressively break each thought down into smaller and smaller more detailed pieces as you go.
• Collaborate with your team - brainstorm and discuss.
• Turn each thought into an action item, assign, and get things done.

We've built germ.io as a project management tool for abstract creative projects (like marketing campaigns, or starting a startup) where you don't have a bunch of defined requirements and task items ready before you start. And here's the kicker:

• It allows you to break down goals - in fact, you can break down goals almost infinitely.
• It's simple - you can visually see the structure of your thoughts every step of the way (kind of like a mindmap), but you still have the flexibility to pour down each thought free-form.
• It's free - we're still pre-beta, so using germ.io is free now... plus we will grandfather our users forever, which means for all our users who get in before we start charging, germ will continue to be free forever.

We are also a small business with a handful of employees, we use Deputy time clock system. We also use Gusto for payroll, and Deputy integrates so I can export time sheets right into Gusto.

We switched to an online time sheet because it allows us to restrict where they can clock in/out from (has to be from a computer in our facility) and I can monitor it easily. It sends me a message if anyone forgets to clock out, and only takes me 5 mins a week to completely run payroll, including approving and exporting timesheets.

It starts at $2/user/month which is the most affordable option I could find.

That’s what anonymity sums up to nowadays. People are cowards and hurt you when you are down. Karma is always around the corner for those type of people. Good luck with your business to try n keep it going in these hard economic times. Yes try something like NordVPN they had an 80% off sale for 3 years.

Read The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. Trust me on this, it talks specifically about structuring your business and making it easy for sale. It sounds like you have already done some of the things on the book but not everything. With that being said, do you mind sharing more about you processes and tools to keep everything organized?

All these helped me in one way or another:

• Business Model Generation, Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz
• Zero To One, Peter Thiel
• The Lean Startup, Eric Ries
• The Start-up Owner's Manual - The Step-By-Step Guide For Building A Great Company, Steve Blank, Bob Dorf

The best book I've ever read about starting a small business is Paul Hawken's "Growing a Business", published 30 years ago... and the advice is still fresh. It was invaluable to me when I starting my own small consulting company. Eighteen years later I'll stand on that opinion.

I found this free Steve Blank class very helpful. It's was on Start Ups but many of the ideas I still use to organize and research what to sell and produce. The free Udacity class is here .

I think you'll need a resale permit and a registration. It will be wiser if you clarify this question with whoever issues these permits in your state so that you won't have any problems with the IRS and filing for taxes later.
And if you plan to sell on eBay, I advise you to find a platform that will help you keep track of all your goods and communicate with customers. I'd recommend a 3dseller; they have an excellent system that allows to save time managing my store on eBay and many sales-boosting features that helped increase my income. I signed up with them after reading https://www.3dsellers.com/blog/inkfrog-vs-3dsellers-what-is-the-best-ebay-listing-software-in-2019, and for the last two years, they were a lifesaver. So in case, you'll need to present information about your sales, you can always open the app and find the correct data.

This link was reported as possible spam. The web page is terrible and doesn't describe the product well. This certainly makes the link look like spam but to be sure I took another look.

A manual describing what this thing really does is here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/59992853/SohoOS-User-Manual-English

This link describes a bit more where they came from: http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/17/with-400000-users-under-its-belt-sohoos-plans-major-revamp/

Given the recent revamp, beta status, review on Techcrunch, apparent subscriber growth and lack of any apparent compensation mechanism for the link I don't really think it's spamming and I'm not going to remove it but we'll watch closely for anyone trying to game the subreddit.

If you're considering adding a link like this consider linking to a review of the product or adding some context rather than just dumping it here. The community will benefit and we'll appreciate you for it.

Here is a link to a comparison sites, http://www.capterra.com/tutoring-software/ they list a few good options for out of the box cloud based tutoring software. Some of the information might not be current so it would be worthwhile to research each company, hope this helps.

Pm me and i'll send you one I converted from pdf. Has all the prompts to change verbiage and distributions.

Anybody else reading this can have it too.

Edit: I had a hard time finding a good template and I like this one because he explains the options for each subheading so you can structure it properly. I can't find the converted word doc at the moment. But here is the pdf: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=854A9F7B4C72CF99!4128&authkey=!AGW_r9wlA4GC74k&ithint=folder%2cpdf

I highly recommend studying the Culture ppt done by Reed Hastings at Netflix (link below). I allow my employees to work from home and to even take days off when needed, but they all know that I am not afraid to take that freedom away if one person screws it up. To earn this, each of them regularly puts in 10 hour days, they travel for work, and they're smart, hard working, extremely valuable to the team.

Additionally, they all know that I refuse to work with the type if person that I can't trust. If someone did that to me, I'd likely just let them go.

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/reed2001/culture-1798664

Read "The E Myth." It's probably the single best thing you can do for yourself, and I would not start a bakery until you've done so. It's a fast and easy read. I own a small food business, and I'm following the book's principles because it would be a waste of time not to.

Amazon link (it's less than $10)

> now i learn many customers are just delusional. I was wondering if there are other similar things happenings in other market?

Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions (2010 book) - covers this as an example of carrying menu items at a restaurant higher priced - that is never in stock. It helps people "decide" on the "right choice". They key word in that book title is Predictably.

Edward Bernays was a master of this kind of thing and using it to centralize power and wealth. Advertising and marketing is built upon theses mental loopholes. And we do not teach psychology in schools to every person - not in Russia and not in the USA. Both agree on this one: don't teach psychology to the masses. Edward Bernays followers will do the teaching 24 minutes of every 60 minutes for "free TV"....

What is the content on the CDs? Are you talking computer software? Pictures or music. You total cost per CD is $17.10.

Music CD prices are largely related to content. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/music/_/N-1z141xdZ8qi;jsessionid=AE8E768BCFD24617CD31E7B395CE97DF.prodny_store02-atgap06

For me as a consumer, you are at the point where most people really have to want the music. If it is your band, and I like you, I might support your band by purchasing your CD at $18-20, but most would rather have digital files.

I'm curious why you think they couldn't find out who you are if they wanted really to and what extra access to your life your name truly provides them?
But to answer your question, I'm pretty sure you can send invoices via Stripe with just your business details on it.

Corndogs, Hotdogs, Fried Twinkies.

someone mentioned mac and cheese and you said it was outside your cooking skills - That's one of the easiest things to make! boil water, drop in noodles, wait 6 minutes, strain noodles, add butter, milk and cheese powder / sauce. Delicious! shopping link

My wife is running a kickstarter project for a portable changing pad for babies.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/758871246/hug-a-bug-portable-changing-pad

It's called the Hug A Bug and unlike other portable changing pads you don't have to attach it or strap it to any other structure to use it. Instead we use a weighted pillow to not only support baby's head and shoulders but to hold baby back while changing a diaper / grooming.

Any backing is appreciated and a level 3 backing earns you a Hug A Bug at 15% off retail.

Helprace (http://helprace.com) is a customer service software i'm working on. It's ideal for small businesses because it's free for 3 team members: There are 3 components, which are also accessible on the free plan. (As you can tell we like the number 3:))

• help desk ticketing system

• feedback community + feedback tab

• knowledge base

Protip: If you set up a Google My Business account it can help with your Google paid search and maybe with your organic Google search (not sure on that one since it's a black box). Since Google tries to find relevant information for searchers, if you type "restaurants open now" it will use that information to help match the searcher to the information.

You can also use this information to create Ad Extensions on Google paid search, which provide more info to consumers, help you get more real estate, and generally help you page rank go up (again, since it helps Google match relevant content to users). All this means your marketing dollars go further!

Neither, go with Xero instead. It's online-based but much more affordable (and easier to use) than Quickbooks. They also offer a 25% discount for nonprofit companies. I use it for two companies I own, a mid-sized S-corp with several employees and contractors, and a small 2-person consulting company.

No way. There are better and cheaper alternatives. You can even start with something simple like the Expensify app or Wave Money (no-fee business banking with built-in free bookkeeping and receipt tracking).

I looked into accounting software recently and decided to move to Wave

Haven't got too deep with it yet but it looks free and easy and covers all the basics of accounting that I was looking for. They make money off of their own payment processing so integrating with square may not be a huge priority though.

https://calendly.com/ for scheduling.

if you hire people and you are a sole, if they fuck up you are responsible personally meaning you are liable to lose personal assets in some cases. LLC means your corporate assets are separated and you are insulated from some liabilities. It's not required but it's probably a smart move.

Mini Lysol cans, paper soap sheets, maybe a small first aid kit with bandaids/ antiseptic wipes or cream, hand lotion, chapstick, etc.

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Billion-Dollar-Bully-Davide-Cerretini/dp/B07QV5RQTZ

iTunes: Billion Dollar Bully by Kaylie Milliken https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/billion-dollar-bully/id1462015384

Automate the process mate, you don't have to personally do the pestering. There are apps for that. I've used this method before for clients who decide not to pay. Don't want to pay me? fine... let's make your phone ring till you do. Set it to dial every 3 minutes, put the phone somewhere and walk away. They'll turn off their phone for a while, but then when they turn it back on it will keep ringing and ringing and ringing and they won't be able to use their phone so you're basically holding it hostage. When they can't take it anymore they pay up and you stop the calls. It's actually highly effective.

You likely won’t receive a small business loan. Those rarely ever go to unproven start ups, so if you have to get a loan, it will likely have to be a personal one with your own money and property as collateral. That means starting this business can literally ruin you financially. I’m not saying that to discourage you, I’m saying it as I think your approach is far riskier than it needs to be. I would recommend reading The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. It will lead you through discovering your MVP for the business and building up from there. Things like starting a dog walking/babysitting service first. Your business can be generating money with so little investment that you’ll never need a loan. Or, if you do, the banks will gladly offer it to you on good terms. My original plan for my business needed a $75k loan. After reading that book, I had a completely different approach and was able to start my business for less than $12k. In less than a year I was debt free and paying myself handsomely. I may still go for the final plan but not until the business can just afford it on its own.

Hey there I've bought the following books about this subject:

• Scaling Up - Verne Harnish (Best book for growing your company, hiring employees etc.)

• Traction - Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares (In my opinion best marketing book)

• The Lean Startup - Eric Ries (Classic..)

• 500 Social Media Tips - Andrew Macarthy (Title says it all)

• Trust Me I'm Lying - Ryan Holiday (Beast of a book for marketing purposes, mostly covering blogs)

• E-Myth - Michael Gerber (Everything about franchising your business, in my opinion one of the best Business books, besides Lean Startup ofc.)

Enjoy reading!

Presumably this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-E-Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses/dp/0887307280

(From googling)

> The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It

Until it ended, I rather liked The Starbucks Experience and I listened to the Sales Wiseguys for a while.

Honestly though, I ended up just going to torrents for a bunch of good audio books. I recommend "The eMyth," "How to Win Friends & Influence People," "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," "How to Lie with Statistics," "The Starbucks Experience," "Blue Ocean Marketing," "First Break All the Rules," "Grinding it Out," "How to Handle Difficult People," and "The Wealth of Nations."

There might be resources in your city for small businesses that could help too.

We setup health insurance at about your size through a broker. The broker we found had done insurance for my previous employer, so it was someone we knew and trusted, and he made things really easy for us. I'm sure if you asked other small biz owners in your area you could find someone good who could help you out. You don't pay extra to have a broker, they're typically compensated by the insurers.

Other people have mentioned that there's the SHOP program through Healthcare.gov, which you're likely eligible for until you hit 50 employees.

OP, I'd caution you on the PEOs! We did a ton of research into this about a year ago and determined it was absolutely not a fit for us. There are some serious consequences to going the PEO route. I would say if it's important to you to cultivate a strong employee value proposition (as you might if you were employing knowledge workers in a competitive market), a PEO is not a good fit.

Finally, though I haven't used it, I've also heard good things about Zenefits, which is not a PEO but offers many of the same upsides. Essentially they become your healthcare broker, and then you get to use their software to administer your HR in general. We probably would've gone this route if we hadn't found a broker we trusted.

Stripe supports both Afterpay and Klarna. It's up to Clickfunnels as to if they want to support it with their integration, however.

https://stripe.com/docs/payments/buy-now-pay-later

(disclaimer: am Stripe employee)

IT guy here if you don’t have a domain name you will need to use email hosted by someone else on their domain name like gmail. If your willing to buy the domain name now you can set it up so that gmail is actually hosting the email but the customer uses your domain name to email you. You don’t have to actually buy or put up a website yet just purchase the domain.

https://workspace.google.com/solutions/new-business/

https://www.braintreepayments.com/ first $50k of transactions have no fees. After 50k you are in same boat as paypal.

also http://www.paymentsystemfees.com/

keep in mind dwolla does not accept credit card which is why they have no % fee. % fee is never going away with credit cards b/c that is how they make money by 'temporarily loaning' it to you for a transaction

Neither. Use Xero.

It's awesome. Integrates with tons of web services (Shopify, Amazon, etc), it's extremely easy to create rules to automate it, and the interface is clean and easy to use. Love it.

Looking for a Valentine's Day gift for that special someone? I run an online jewelry/accessory store that specializes in couples sets. Almost everything I make can be altered/customized to your liking Here's a 10% coupon code off my entire store until Jan 31st :) https://www.etsy.com/shop/thelightandthedark1 Use Code: VDay14

I think you need to put some more time and craft into you product, a good product will create it's own traction in a way, and will build and get noticed through proper channels.

>In simplet we aim to bring new and original t-shirts. Each design is create in-house and with so much effort. We are proud to say that our t-shirts are unique.

I recognize all these photos as free stock photos available on all the various free stock photo sites (https://unsplash.com/photos/ssrbaKvxaos). They're really nice photos and all, but these are free stock photos that appear to be printed iron-on style onto a t-shirt.

Sorry if that's a bit harsh but I think you need to put time into the destination is before you worry about getting people there.

Call the bank and make sure Yelp payments don’t go through.

You can use Privacy.com to create store specific “credit card” details so you don’t have to cancel your card. Privacy is nice because you can set spend limits, easily cancel the numbers, recurring spend limits or single use card numbers.

Here are a couple books that will not make you think of lemons but might be helpful next time you have advice to share.

Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation

Basic English Grammar

This one is not really for communication. Mostly for auto reply part of sms marketing. Like reply to customer service request and a like. (actually you could reply with link to your email subscription form ) Not free (although cheap), but has some free use for covid related keyword based auto replies. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lemi.keywordmarketingautoresponder

There is a new book from Tim Ferris. Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers. Just started reading it on the weekend and I think there are few things that I can learn to become more successful.

Not sure what your budget is... thinking of how many hours small business owners work (especially those just starting out) I'd think a gift certificate to get a massage or get a mani/pedi would probably be appreciated... if she could break away from work long enough to use them.

If she loves to read, buy her a book. Maybe a biography of a successful business owner. Or just a regular business book... as a baker I think she might enjoy reading "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber. First, it's an excellent book on entrepreneurship, but it also uses the story of a baker throughout the book.

Also, you could get her something that might go well in her shop... like artwork or something.

Just some ideas...

	

	

	

	

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to...

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This course for financial accounting might not be exactly what you are looking for, but the instructor is great, it's free, and it's highly recommended.

There are some parts irrelevant to small businesses you might want to skip. But I took the course (as well as the follow up course) and enjoyed it. That's saying a lot for an accounting course.

Melly's Candles!

Hand poured soy blend Aromatherapy candles. We currently have three great scents, Relax, Energize, and Focus. More coming soon!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MellysSoyCandles ((Use coupon code REDDIT15 for 15% off your purchase!))

Our Kickstarter is now in the single digits for our new line of video game, book, and movie inspired candles. Check it out! Every dollar counts towards helping this business grow :)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/geekcandles/geeky-soy-candles-for-the-nerd-within-you

I am not in IT, so I don't have any personal experience other than the common knowledge that typically Apple machines are higher priced that their non-Apple equivalents. As for why they are still not widely used for business, this article covers it pretty well. From the article:

> The average enterprise has thousands of custom, line-of-business Windows apps deployed. Some of those apps are more than 10 years old, and the cost of replacing them with cross-platform solutions such as web-based apps is prohibitive.

That all said, though, this is really a digression from the point I was making - which had nothing to do with Apple, really.

Focus and develop a working process, take feedback from your closest clients. Experience has been the key factor for us (for better and for worse) so I'm not the best one to ask right off what you could do to avoid the same mishaps.

Mainly, developing your core business will bring you to the "big leagues". Having a solid foundation will give you and your clients more confidence, your refined process will limit useless meetings and revisions since you'll have sign offs and steps beforehand that wont cause last minute things to come up.

To be totally honest, I think listening to couple popular talks from Mike Monteiro will be a great help

What Clients Don’t Know (and Why It’s Your Fault) by Mike Monteiro

Mike Monteiro: F*ck You, Pay Me

My wife is running a kickstarter project for a portable changing pad for babies. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/758871246/hug-a-bug-portable-changing-pad It's called the Hug A Bug and unlike other portable changing pads you don't have to attach it or strap it to any other structure to use it. Instead we use a weighted pillow to not only support baby's head and shoulders but to hold baby back while changing a diaper / grooming. Any backing is appreciated and a level 3 backing earns you a Hug A Bug at 15% off retail.

This week we're running a lottery with a sub goal of $1500 by Friday. Anyone who backs $30 or more to date will be entered in to win a $200 level reward instead. A custom Hug A Bug in a limited edition color or design.

Thanks for any support.

Hello everyone! I started a clothing shop through teespring.com with all designs I made myself! The store is called TrippyWays. Feel free to check it out. Thank you!

https://teespring.com/stores/trippyways

Many people have recommended Eric Reis's "The Lean Startup", which is an excellent book. If you can, I would suggest coupling it with Steven Blank's Lean Launchpad series from Udacity or Youtube. https://www.udacity.com/course/how-to-build-a-startup--ep245 It's free and very informative / helpful. You can also read his book if you would prefer. Interesting little factoid....Eric Reis was once Steven Blank's student ;-)

How complex is your workflow?

I personally use Airtable, which I love, but it does require some setup (although there are fantastic templates available, like https://airtable.com/universe/explqIcud6LkuKWzr/project-planning?explore=true)

Trellis is a popular option too, and free for up to 10 users.

There are tons of tools to do it, but honestly it comes down to what works for your workflow. You may want to just fiddle around with a few tools and see.

Thanks for your comment. First of all, this is “SEO strategy guide for small local business”, and it never meant to be a comprehensive “local SEO strategy”.

To all other small business owner who is not familiar with the term backlink, it means link from other site pointing toward your site. And backlink is one of the ranking factors that Google look at. Is it important? moz article research found it is ~ 11% contributing to local SEO.

The reason I avoid talking to non-SEO savvy person about backlink is they easily think it is all about QUANTITY, they start “building link” by spam commenting in non-relevant blogs, ask “link building” company to help them with back link, and in the end causing more damage instead. Identify and getting QUALITY backlink requires a lot more knowledge regarding “dofollow/nofollow” links, page and domain authority, tools and strategies to identify opportunities... and it is just 11% after all these efforts.

Rest assured, however, QUALITY Link will be built naturally when people start sharing your quality content, when you business can be found on different channel and you utilise social networking - just things I have listed.

The best advise I give to small business owner - Focus on your business core . When your products are great, people will find you and your name will be spread. So do what you can in marketing and as natural as you can, and ask for professional help with your marketing when your business grow.

If you have any other questions I am happy to answer.

Having multiple domain names pointing to a parent doesn't really provide any SEO benefit. If you are doing physical advertisement (mailings, fliers, etc.) then having a local domain name that is easy to remember might be beneficial. But overall no it is a waste of time and money unless you want to set up micro sites for each domain.

A better idea that really will help SEO is to set up localized landing pages but all part of the primary domain. e.g. www.acme.com/seattle, www.acme.com/portland etc.

This is a good summary of your question https://moz.com/community/q/is-pointing-multiple-domains-to-a-single-website-beneficial-for-seo-or-not

what i did was make a list of names or things i wanted my business to do. then used http://www.thesaurus.com/ to find other words that mean the same/similar thing. until i found a good one. then cross referenced to see if they were already taken https://namechk.com/ I would stop trying to fit in an exact word before "estate sales" and think of what you want to do and how you want to represent your clients. think of a mission statement and find a name that way, kinda like reverse engineering.

Yep. knife blanks but don't use google shopping, just a web search. Also Duck Duck Go has good results.

I recently started a mobile accessories brand called Blakk Miroir Buddy and we have launched our first case on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TAU4R50

Naturally with any new product on the internet you need social proof. So in efforts to gain honest reviews I will be giving free cases (free shipping as well) to the first 30 people who respond to the survey posted below. All I ask is that you please an honest review upon receiving the case and testing it out.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9Q8SG9Y

I only need a few more email addresses before this promotion is over with so responds as soon as possible!

I created a custom spreadsheet/database in Airtable. You could do it in excel, but we had 400+ components that made up our end product and I wasn't proficient enough in Excel to do all the things I wanted to do, so we used Airtable.com I created a master record of every component and the pricing for that component. I enter the quantity and whatever descriptions I need. I then have line items for overhead, assembly fees, packaging etc. which are standard flat fees.

I'm not too convinced about setting up WooCommerce or Square Space. It feels like setting up a platform in a different platform just to collect payments. Not sure what services you're providing but unless you're an e-commerce provider I don't think it warrants setting up such platforms. PayPal is a good alternative, and you can get cc payments with PayPal too if I understand this (https://www.jotform.com/online-payments/credit-card-forms) correctly. Anyways, using a payment form on your website or just using a payment gateway is way easier in my opinion.

Moz came out with a great video giving tips on businesses to hire an SEO expert. I recommend watching this as well as Google's video before you start thinking about hiring an SEO team.

SEO is simple and complicated at the same time. A lot of people make a ton of money by being ineffective but vague, or just outright scamming.

I do consulting for SEO and analytics on the side. I generally charge between $100 to $120 per hour (depending on project) with a minimum 10 hours a month for comparison.

It depends on the work that you need done. I generally charge $120 - $150 an hour depending on the work, minimum 10 hours. Agencies I've worked for or with in the past have around $1500 a month retainer minimum for some hours of work a month.

It's expensive, but if you find the right company/person to do it the ROI is immense. Check out this video from Moz (13 min) when you start vetting for a project.

You got it! Do these things, and you'll see improved results in no time:

• Your location is nowhere on your website, online profiles, etc. Is this on purpose? Google likes local businesses for local results, but you are hiding your location. If you don't have a "headquarters" (which is what it seems like since you go out to the schools) then make it where you keep your office or work out of most frequently - just make it clear on your appointment that your lessons take place in different locations on different schedules.
• Go to https://moz.com/local and search for yourself. They'll give you a list of websites that your data is missing from - almost all of them it seems. Get profiles on all of those.
• Your page's header is "Welcome" - that's what you have in the H1 tag. It needs to be something more like "Learn Fencing in the Houston Area - Houston Sword Sports".
• Make your blog full of more, relevant information. Right now it's mostly to talk about new classes or locations. Start writing about fencing and its history, techniques, and cool stuff that might be going on. Write tips and guides, and you'll naturally make your site more relevant for search terms.

Hope that helps!

Not knowing your business, I can't give specifics, but here are a few things that most people miss out on.

• Re-engage your customers through email marketing. So many people forget to market to their existing customers!
• Get involved in online communities that are related to your business. Even here on Reddit, there are a ton of subreddits that are full of your customers. But don't spam market them, just be a member of the community and have your business as a side-note and offer it when it makes sense in context.
• Build relationships with the media. Twitter, LinkedIn, and local media sites are great places to start on getting your name out there. Also, use HARO (helpareporter.com) to chime in on articles when you can offer your expertise.

Moz Local is a great place to start to see the websites that your business needs its listing in. Also, any relevant websites that have directories related to your field of business. Don't go for spammy directories, but local and popular relevant ones.

If you're doing online, or any other kind, of advertising right, you will not waste a penny, because all of it will return to you in new and repeat business. MOZ's beginner's guide to SEO is considered to be a good starting point. You can also check out HubSpot's marketin academy, lots of free digital marketing resources, which, imho, teach you to do digital marketing the correct way.

I’ll give you an example for Starbucks.

• Do you want a cold or hot drink?

  • Cold
  • Do you want blended or whole ice?
  • Blended

• With or without coffee?

  • With

Now you know the customer want a cold, blended drink with coffee. Now you can suggest flavors and sizes.

This limits the number of options for each question asked.

For your business:

• Do you want a holiday or non-holiday
  • Holiday
  • Do you want an upcoming holiday or one passed?
  • Upcoming

At this point you can figure out they might want something between halloween and Christmas/New Years.

I’m not affiliated but TypeForms are very nice options for forms. Or you could build it into a few dozen pages.

>Whats the risk of the developer just taking the idea and doing his own thing?

You haven't spent long enough on research. I've had the "There is nothing like this -- nobody else is doing this" discussion dozens of times. Zero times did it stand up to one minute on Google.

Of course, I cheated. I wasn't searching for porn.

Were there to be a zero out there like it, two reasons come to mind. One is there is no market for it. Two it has been tried and continues to surface every so often, then fails consistently. Failure in this second case may not be due to there being no market, just difficulty succeeding with that particular idea.

The real danger is paranoia will prevent you from market testing the idea before you start development. Yes before you code.

Every non disclosure I have signed has been used to keep information from the market from getting into the project. Never for keeping the great idea from getting stolen by competition. Non disclosure is an excuse for not testing -- that is its primary use.

Because nobody competent wants to steal an idea before it has proven successful. Competent thieves want the success, the idea is merely the means. Execution matters more in success, and there are a thousand failed variations for every success, even with the same idea.

One idea is not a fully formed idea. A real idea has many contributing ideas, about user insights, about market desires, about the knowledge domain. So go back to the search engine, due the proper research to find out it isn't all that unique. Then post it.

/r/RoastMyIdea isn't up to snuff just yet. It's desperately needed.

Don't own my own business but a simple employee scheduling software search came up with this: http://www.shiftplanning.com/ It's pretty cheap ($22 for 2-14 employees) and seems ubiquitous. If you're interested in building a competitor product, you should see what they don't offer, tailor it to certain industries, etc. Unsure if business owners just haven't taken the time to find products on the market or if $22 is still too high of a price point.

We make Helprace http://helprace.com - help desk & customer service software for small businesses. 30 day free trial and we also give discounts for non-profits. Around since 2013.

• Help Desk & Email management
• Feedback Software & Community
• Knowledge Base & Docs
• All tightly integrated between one another!

What separates us from similarly priced tools:

• The ability to divide your staff into Teams, Groups, Organizations
• Very intuitive, flexible and easy to use
• Monthly updates. Let us know what your business it about or what feature you're looking for & maybe we'll add it!

Plans start as low as $10 a month :)

Helprace (http://helprace.com), a customer service software for small businesses. 30 day free trial and we also give discounts for non-profits. Kind of like Zendesk, but more user-focused.

• Help Desk & Email management
• Feedback Software & Community
• Knowledge Base & Docs
• All tightly integrated between one another!

Helprace is a complete customer support solution for virtually any company out there. The help desk, knowledge management and customer feedback applications are offered on a stand-alone basis or within one integrated system. Helprace is designed to be used across a wide range of vertical industries including technology, government, media, and retail, and is scalable for businesses of all sizes. 100% free for up to 3 employees.

I don't know if there is a market - it doesn't hurt to start thinking about integrations. Sometimes it uncovers your market.

It's true that a company will not hire chat agents to look at a chat window all day as mentioned earlier, but they will definitely pass this responsibility to their existing help desk agents. That agent may be using a variety of software, so your best bet is to integrate with them.

I am not a huge fan of your tab, however. I would rather have a text field appear right away to start typing my concern, not select "video, voice or chat". I've been working at Helprace, (http://helprace.com) and we have a similar feedback tab, but it's designed around the idea that people will always want to search first, and ask questions later.

This is our approach, but of course your customers may actually look for what you're offering. I would reach out to your existing users and ask them for their feedback - they are usually the ones who can help you most...