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Education

How can I get ideas for an online community for students?

3

Answers

Cengiz Yentur

Medical Doctor,Avicenna Medical Company

website where students can share their knowledge/opinions

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Rey Joshua

Founder @ MotivLeads - Paid Media Pro

Yes, it is possible to sell t-shirts through Instagram direct messages (DMs). I'd recommend using an online payment processor such as Stripe (https://stripe.com/), so you can accept orders and track your revenue. As your business grows, consider using an e-commerce platform like Shopify (https://shopify.com), so you can reach more people.

Jeff Gibbard

Strategist. Speaker. Coach. Leadership Expert.

If you have something that outperforms SEO or PPC for generating sales, then you have something special on your hands. SEO, Email Marketing, and Paid Search generally dominate online marketing as it relates to driving sales. This is true across most, but not all verticals. It is generally the case for eCommerce although social media can sometimes be more effective in certain categories. Since this is well-known among eCommerce marketers, the best chance you have to validate your bold claim is to show bold results. Case Studies and testimonials will open the door for you. If ROI is 100% trackable, then this is the metric that you should focus on almost entirely. From there, I'd suggest that you do two things: 1. Being a direct sales campaign focused on your target audience of ecommerce marketers. 2. Utilize your own platform to generate additional sales. While you will likely not replace SEO or PPC, you could become a valuable addition to an eCommerce company's marketing mix. Let me know if you're interested in discussing this further.

Publishing

How can I publish my book?

3

Answers

Latonya Hostetler

Sales is my life!!

Contact a local publisher. I have done this before when I had a good idea for a book one time. Yellow pages or Google search then make the call. Good luck!

Benjamin Louie

Wordpress developer with 10+ years of experience

It really depends on your relationship with this person, which I didn't think you mention. Do you know him and trust him? If you trust him that's fine. The only issue I see is the time zone difference, you'll just have to work it out between the two of you.

Christy Norfleet

Entrepreneur

I have a link to a free course which should be extremely useful. I often refer my clients to enroll https://www.udemy.com/wordpress-basics-how-to-manage-your-website/

Christy Norfleet

Entrepreneur

Not necessarily I would think that is dependent upon how closely your product will be woven into the routine functions of the business and which areas of real estate it will apply.

Kerby Meyers

Strategic thinker and communicator, author

Hi. Great you have an opportunity to meet with an interested investor so early in the game. Your initial meeting will likely not result in a "yes" or "no," so view it as an information sharing session for both you. Given that, you should: * present the market need you're addressing * convey your competence and expertise * stress the uniqueness of your venture and the product * offer well-reasoned financial projections on revenues and profits for the next three years--ideally a good pro forma * explain what $ you need and what you plan to do with that $ * propose what the $ will get the investor (e.g. equity, debt note) and the structure around what that looks like (e.g. share of the company, interest rate, conversion opportunity) In turn, you should learn the following: * the investor's sophistication in investing and their understanding of risk * the investor's skillset and willingness to lend a hand in those areas if needed * connections that the investor is willing to make * a sense of why they're interested in investing If you wish to discuss, send me a PM through Clarity for 15 free minutes. Thanks, Kerby

JC Quek

Business Transformer and Shepherd

ROAS or ROAS per customer makes a big difference, I normally look at the latter and compare to the total profit made. You can further analysis using ROAS per sq meter (floor area) and study the patterns of the customers and floor areas. Therefore using only a one-sided KPI not only not useful, but it can also be very dangerous. For your question 2 - google for the answer focus on statistical information.

Praveen Puri

Increase sales, profits, and market share

It's a great idea, especially if the bigger company has now made it bureaucratic, or complex, and users miss the days when it was a small, stand-alone site. Also, since you were a passionate user, you probably know a few small ways to improve the site. Large companies that buy small businesses have a bad track record for continuing innovation of the acquired product.

Jason Knott

International Tax Attorney and U.S. CPA

Issuing stock options to employees in a private closely held company can be a complicated matter, from both a legal and tax perspective. The exercise price per share should definitely not be an arbitrary number. It should be the fair market value of the shares on the day the stock options are granted to the employee. The IRS has very strict rules about setting exercise prices for employee stock options, and failure to comply can result in severe tax consequences. For non-qualified stock options, there are no immediate tax implications for the grant of options to the employee; however, when the employee does exercise the options in the future, the spread between the exercise price and the fair value of the shares at that time is reported as taxable income to the employee, which is another reason why it's important to be mindful of the exercise price when drafting these agreements. The IRS will generally require a valuation report (IRC Section 409A Report) to support the exercise price of the options. The vast majority of startups use an independent appraisal to prepare the 409A report. This also provides you some audit protection from the IRS, because they generally fall within the 409A safe harbor rules.

Bhaskar Sarma

Full stack growth marketer for SaaS

Niche down! Find a way to appeal to a certain demographic. You can't compete with Messenger or Whatsapp when it comes to their reach. But you can compete on features or how you position your product. Add features to your product that the bigger products don't have. it could be something like better tools for managing a group chat, or tighter integration with a software product that your target demographic would use. The choice of the platform, as well the launch strategy would then hinge on the user demographic you are targeting.

Jeff Gibbard

Strategist. Speaker. Coach. Leadership Expert.

I'll give you some generalized advice from what you've provided but first I need to explain some of the reasons why this is tough for anyone to answer... First, without knowing how many customers you already have it's tough to strategize a 100% increase. If you have 1 customer, it's different than 100,000. Second, we need to know how long it took you to acquire the customers you have. A 100% increase could be substantial and if it took you 5 years to get 50,000 clients, it's unlikely that you'll get another 50,000 in 3 months. Third, without knowing what you are spending on SEO, Adwords and remarketing and subsequently what you're able to spend additionally, it's difficult to advise you. For instance, if you have a $1,000/mo ad budget I might advise one thing, whereas if you have millions of dollars to spend, I might advise something else. Fourth, and finally, for now, without knowing your current and target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition), it's difficult to advise you on what new strategies or tactics to introduce. All that said, I'd start by running a test remarketing campaign across every social channel that allows it. This will mirror your adwords retargeting efforts by re-engaging people who are you've already had an interaction with. IT should make your SEO and PPC efforts more effective. Next, I'd make sure you truly understand the reasons why your current clients chose you and ensure that your marketing message reflects those attributes. After that, I'd create some awareness advertising campaigns on social media, with the client-informed marketing positioning, targeted toward a lookalike audience of your current customers. Upload an email list of current customers and create a lookalike audience. Show them videos introducing yourself and then run a remarketing campaign to video viewers. Finally, a highly targeted direct outreach campaign on Linkedin featuring case studies of the value you bring to your existing clients is never a bad way to work on bringing in new sales. Let me know if you'd like to discuss this further on Clarity.

New Business Development

Can you try your personal SSN to an EIN vs ITIN?

3

Answers

Jason Knott

International Tax Attorney and U.S. CPA

If you are a U.S. citizen and already have an SSN, you are not eligible to apply for a separate ITIN. When you register a new business for an EIN, the person completing the application is the responsible party for the LLC's EIN application. The responsible party can be either an individual or an existing business. As you've discovered, if you are personally applying for the EIN as the sole member of the LLC, you will have to provide your own SSN. Some new businesses opt to appoint an existing business as the responsible party. The existing business can complete the EIN application for the new LLC by providing its legal entity name and EIN. If you're concerned about the IRS having your SSN associated with the LLC, I would suggest this is a moot issue. The LLC's profits and losses are eventually going to be reported on your personal income tax return each year, so the IRS will know that you are the owner. Also, if you plan to open a bank account or apply for a credit card through the LLC, banks and credit card companies will generally always require an SSN from a responsible party. Banks are hesitant to open accounts and provide credit unless your personal information accompanies the application.

Rebecca G

Management Consulting

Specific is Terrific! But how do you choose? Work to your strengths! What problem do you solve and how do you solve it? Now look to your market: who has that problem, and who wants/needs it solved in your particular way? Start there to build your niche market, then work outwards to demographic criteria.

Lee von

Unique Insights, Creative Solutions

Answering this question efficiently requires being able to see how you are currently going about it, so that we can see what you may be doing wrong, and suggest corrections / additions. Feel free to send a link that we can check out. best, Lee

Mike Gracia

Digital marketing & SEO consultant, over 12yrs exp

Personally I'd: - Crawl the existing site - save to Excel - Run a search in Google for: site:domain.com Then export the list (use Chrome SEO quake extension) and add to Excel Put both lists into 1 Excel file & de-duplicate. Next, get the sitemap of your new site, so you have all the URLs. Then map every old page from the site crawl and Google site: command search export to a NEW URL on your new site structure. Try to match to relevant pages. This way you can build '301 redirects' from the old URLs to the new ones, to help avoid too much loss of link equity (and avoid too many 404 error page views by visitors!). If there's a lot of pages, prioritise older (old structure) pages that have: 1) Most number of backlinks 2) Most amount of traffic (if you have Google Analytics access). Lastly, if you can access server log files, you can parse this info from these and look for other pages to redirect... though this is quite a lot more advanced. Oh, and yes - Google Search Console (WMT) - you can check for 404 error pages there to redirect to (ideally relevant!) pages on the new URL structure. Hope this helps!

Brandon Uttley

Digital Marketing Expert

It all begins with understanding who your best potential customers are. Spend some very focused time in determining not only who they are (moms; small business owners; homeowners; etc.) but want needs and desires they have. How will these align with your products or services? Also—talk to these people! Don't assume you know who they are and what they are thinking. Otherwise, you could build "a better mousetrap" or launch the greatest business ever (in your mind)...only to find it doesn't resonate with anyone. Narrow your focus as much as possible. It's very tempting early on to try to appeal to everyone ("every woman will love this!), but that is a recipe for disasters. As the saying goes, "The riches are in the niches." Aim for a tightly defined audience and ensure they will be treated like royalty. Remember, it's not about how great you are—or how many features you have or how much better you are than alternatives that may exist. It's about the value you can bring to those potential customers. If you are introducing something brand new into the market, why should they care about it? If you are bringing a new twist on an existing product or service—opening a new shop, starting a consulting business, becoming a Realtor or whatever—why should they consider switching to work with you? Once you understand your ideal customers' persona, the strategy part will be easy. Go where they go—online and offline. Pick a few key channels at first and pour your marketing time and dollars into them. As you grow and have more profits to invest in marketing, you can increase what's working, cut what's not—and experiment with new channels. Finally, think more in terms of objectives, which I like to remember with the acronym PLOT: People—whom you are trying to reach L-a measurable level you are hoping to accomplish O-what outcome you wish to achieve T-Timeframe An example could be: • Invite at least 75 small business owners to attend a free webinar (download an ebook; attend a free tasting; etc.) in exchange for signing up for our mailing list by July 1st

Jeff Gibbard

Strategist. Speaker. Coach. Leadership Expert.

There are two parts to your question: finding and convincing. Finding influencers within your industry verticals should not be difficult as there are numerous influencer search engines as one method. To start, try: https://intellifluence.com/ https://thecirqle.com/ https://influencity.com/en/search The second method is manual research. That is a whole topic on its own. The more important part is the convincing. You can find and reach out to as many people as you'd like but if no one engages with you and takes you up on the offer, then it's a waste of time. The important thing to understand is that this is no different than any other marketing or sales situation. Influencers are simply people with influence. If you were trying to get them to do anything their motivations will likely be the same as any other human being: value (monetary or otherwise) or status. Figure out what is important to them and you're halfway there. Understand how they typically engage with brands. Do your homework and be prepared to ask them about the value they can bring to you. Let me know if you'd like to discuss this further on Clarity.

Amit Sarda

Pipedrive, Zapier, Excel, Google Sheets, Tableau

Andrew Chen's blog is probably the most relied source when it comes to learning about metrics like CAC and LTV. For real life case studies, follow Nathan Latka's podcast to know what each of these mean for different startups in different industries. Growth Hacking is ever evolving and hence what worked in the past may not work in the future. But they are still good resources to learn about what worked in the past. Two books that I can recommend are: 1. Viral Loop 2. Traction You can ask me any follow up questions that you may have.

Market Research

How can I do a market research?

6

Answers

Abdeljalil Mouhafid

Fertilizers markets expert

- Define the appropriate market you're targetting - List major producers and consumers by geography and key products. - Visit their websites to get more informantion. - You can buy reports from consulting platforms which are expensive. - Or contact an expert via like me via clarity for calls or in depth reasearch which are cheaper.

Kerby Meyers

Strategic thinker and communicator, author

Hi: Your rationale here is decent, but you run the risk of trampling all over copyright issues. And ending up in a legal soup as a result. Giving credit does not absolve you of profiting off someone else's creation. And just because it's available for free doesn't mean there's no copyright protection. Sorry. Given all of that, consider a pivot for your business idea that involves working with the creators of these videos and podcasts to generate transcripts. If you wish to discuss, send me a PM through Clarity for 15 free minutes. Cheers, Kerby

varun sharma

Growth Consultant & Founder of Upreports

There is always space for expansion, even in crowded markets like hosting services. At the end of the day, all that matters is whether you have a good product and whether your audience can see the value in it or not. If you are entering into crowded market, then, the first thing to do is do a thorough analysis of your top 3 market leaders. Find answers to questions like: What features are they selling on? How are they selling (channels)? How are they retaining? After careful study of your competitors, you will have a fair idea why works. Now, you got to figure out the pain points. What their customers want but are not getting right now. It can be better support, flexible plans, or anything else. Now that you know what people are missing out on, sit with a pen and paper to find out how you can differentiate your product. I hope this helped. For more clarity, let's have a call. Or feel free to email me at varun@upreports.com Since marketing is crucial to success, leaving this blog link for your reference: https://www.upreports.com/blog/marketing-growth-strategies-hacks/ Chao!

Assaf Ben-David

Mentor, Entrepreneur, Lawyer, Public Speaker

From a legal standpoint: an NDA is an agreement - something contractual, and therefore is not limited (by law) to any specific jurisdiction. So, you can select Delaware or California, or India for that matter. From the business aspect, the best jurisdiction to select would depend on: 1. Jurisdictions that are known to be 'friendly' to your type of business. 2. Jurisdictions in which your lawyer is licensed to practice / the cost of lawyers isn't too expensive. 3. Somewhere not to far from where you are physically located - in case you actually have to go to court. Lastly, best to add a required arbitration or mediation clause if you don't have one. Good luck

Mor Assouline

2X VP Sales | Tripled ARR in 12 months

Thank you for posting your question. I took a look at the site and to be honest, it was difficult for me to understand the problem you solve. I started scrolling through your site to get a better idea, which is not a good indicator. I would make it extremely clear about what you do and what problem you solve. If your target audience is Founders, startups, etc, then you need to be targeting them where they hang out. 1. Linkedin - #1 social media platform for b2b. I would start posting insightful content, that leads back to your brand, on Linkedin, daily. 2. Connect with people linkedin, minimum 20 new connections a day. Use the search bar and type in either: Founder, CEO, COO, CMO, Co-Founder and start connecting with each one of them. 3. Once you're connected, send them a short DM with something that you're offering that is literally 100% valuable to them. 4. Go to remote.co and weworkremotely.com and look up the companies that are posting new jobs. Find the name of the CEO/Founder on Linkedin and message them. 5. Consider doing Linkedin ads 6. Network at Meetups The strategy that you'll need to implement is long-form. The only short form strategy you have/can do is advertising. If you have the budget, run with it, if not, then take my advice above.

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