Na na na na na...Batman!

Okay, okay, so I'm not actually Batman - though my old friend from my Army days ('06-'14) does still call me Bruce. (It's a long, and rather entertaining story.:))

My real name is Aaron, and I'm the CEO and co-founder of a content marketing agency called crowdwon.

Our business model is pretty straightforward - we exist to help small businesses attract and retain more customers through the use of high quality content, where every article, blog, social media post, etc. is tailored to each business's needs and target audience. We place a HUGE emphasis on connections, and we believe that helping your customers connect not only to your brand, but also with each other, is the true path to increased profitability.

Another way I like to explain it to people is that we help you put more white space back on your calendar. So those hours you were spending (or should be spending) researching your target audience, developing topics and headlines, and writing articles to post on your blog can now be spent doing other things (like growing your business, developing new products, etc.).

A bit more about me...

I'm a US Army veteran, husband (11+ years and counting), father to two amazing kiddos (one is a musician, one is into coding and robotics) and lover of all things tech.

Very glad to be a part of this forum, and I look forward to learning from all of you!

Can you name any influential Small Business IT gurus?

So if you look around the internet you can find many lists of influential people that you should be following as an Entrepreneur / Small Business...

To wireframe or to not wireframe. That's the question.

I hate doing wire frames. It just adds so much unnecessary work to a project, especially low cost projects.
On the one hand, if you're building completely from scratch it makes sense for the developer to create and submit a mock up.

On the other, it's a nightmare when the client has come up with a PDF that they basically just drew with no understanding of design, copy writing, or anything else...just based on what they think is pretty and then want that "converted" into a WordPress theme. Those NEVER end up like the PDF because it's generally garbage, and you spend so much time on correcting the PDF that you could have just built the site.

Even though I suspect my website design days are going to be behind me soon, just wondering what others do or how they feel about wire frames.

I have no problem photo-shopping a mock up, but wire-frames for basic websites have always seemed like overkill to me.

What do you guys think?

Storage Solutions

I am having a small home based business. I am facing storage problem, not enough space to store stuff, so I want to know what are the best storage...

Advice for a booking agency?

Hello, I am going to attend the KENTEN 2017 expo for building materials and housing equipment in Osaka this June. Do you have any suggestion for a...

Hi Everyone

I'm Susan. My partner and I run a small (micro?) business. We're originally from Melbourne but based in Berlin at the moment. I'm hoping to learn -...

How to Find and Remove Duplicate Files

Hello fellas I see there are a lot of suggestions on what to do and which program to use, but I have the best solution for everyone of us. Long story...

Sole proprietorship or LLC??

Hello everybody, I have a few questions for you all. I am starting an automotive restoration business by myself. I plan on working alone for a few...

How to optimize a Responsive Web Design Project?

Responsive Web design frameworks like bootstrap, foundation 3, Semantic UI comes with a big size bundles, they will contain large size of css and jquery. But our website should be lite in weight and faster in loading in order to get best visibility in search engines.

How to optimize a Responsive Web Design Project?

Converting an LLC from a Partnership to a Sole Proprietorship

Well, our business hasn't made any money yet, and for this reason my partner was getting kinda impatient and decided that he wants to leave and...

Can someone review my website

Hello! We recently launched our website: Herozite (http://ift.tt/2rUzCKg) and I'm looking for some feedback on what we've got so far. I'm...

Getting traffic to seller page on website

Hi guys.

My question is how to get traffic towards our potential sellers page. We have been doing the traditional method of getting emails/calls out to companies with the proposition of listing on BuyAnyPart and want to know how to/if there is a way to also do this digitally? Here is the page itself if you would like to check out the SEO and give me some advice on if anything needs changing. http://ift.tt/2qHGIEe

Any and all suggestions are welcome. I look forward to hearing from you! Many thanks!

Advice on Employee and Theft

We recently purchased a business and have a wonderful staff. However shortly after the purchase, we heard from several people that one of our employees was suspected of stealing from her second employer. Weeks later, we find she has been terminated from that position (unknown reason), and a potential police investigation pending. Some more weeks later, we hear she is now suspected of stealing from her new second job, but haven't heard anything further about the police investigation.

My question though is simple: what would you do in this situation? I understand this is all hearsay, and could at the very worst be 100% fabricated (however unlikely as it is from multiple sources). Rumors beget rumors, which in turn beget trouble of all kind. I need to quash this.

Should we talk to her directly?
Call her (first) former employer?
Contact the police?

I would sincerely love some advice from anybody who has had a similar experience. I am at somewhat of at a loss.

Greetings from an IT problem solver

Greetings! I just joined up here and thought that I should introduce myself. I have worked in many different roles in the IT industry since the...

Can you please review my website

Hi, As the majority of you, I'm likewise an entrepreneur. I possess a little FanxFan organization situated in Spain and attempting to grow my...

Employee S.S. Number

Good day everyone, My company is based in FL and is applying for a government grant to aide in the company recertification and employee training....

What are some ways to build a email list for my website?

Hey guys, I am making a website right now and I done a couple of things like typeforms and posted them on different social media groups to try to get...

Hello Buddies!!! Whats up?

Hello Folks, Nice to see you all here!

Is it better to hire a freelancer or write blogs yourself?

I'm in the midst of creating a blog for a new website I have a small budget and have been debating on hiring a freelancer to write SEO optimized content. Is it worth the money or should I just go ahead and put in the time and create my own content so its more personal?

The content I'm looking for needs to be fitness related
Here is my email if you would like to contact me for also a possible freelance hire cbrookes338@gmail.com
Remember that my budget isn't huge

Using LinkedIn and AngelList for investors?

Hello, everyone! The long-awaited (to the SBF veterans @harold) 18th birthday of mine is coming up in only a couple months and it's time to start looking for some startup money for my startup. I've been working on this company for about 5 months now developing plans, a prototype, etc. and I'd like to take this thing full time with my business partner, who is a 21-year-old banker. Point is, my wealthy awesome business partner has covered the cost of hiring the accountant, and we're in the process of registering an S-Corp in Delaware and operating in New Hampshire (most likely).

Here's the tricky part: we need to start developing. The product is incredibly complicated and is going to require a pretty smart Javascript developer with extensive knowledge in Node.js and other APIs and frameworks. Obviously, this person would be expensive and we need some financial help in getting this off the ground. My partner and I made the decision to stay away from banks for the time being as we both don't have a ton of collateral to back the investment and no one will give us an unsecured investment. I do own a car (2004 Honda Civic) and he leases a Volkswagon, but obviously, that's not enough to collateral to back up a loan.

We are looking for some sort of angel investment (as venture capitalists won't touch us yet) and I am stuck. I was thinking about looking via LinkedIn by messaging some investors and AngelList by doing the same and then maybe getting some sort of meeting with one of them. My family isn't going to invest. I'm putting $5k into the startup, however, the problem is I'm also doing a lot of the work in developing the company and would most likely take a higher position as I know a lot more about the industry than my partner does. He's putting about $10k in. Is this a good idea to use LinkedIn or AngelList for this? For a minute I was thinking I'd message a couple people here but I honestly don't know anyone that would listen to my pitch to invest... but you know how to private message me ;)

New TV Commercials for WordPress

I thought this was interesting. Automattic is producing TV commercials for WordPress.com. You can watch three 30 second commercials on Matt Mullenweg's site, which is where I learned they existed.

At first I thought it strange, but I often see commercials for Squarespace and Wix and I think it's safe to say WordPress.com competes with both. I wonder if WP.com has been losing signups the last year or so or if this is just a natural next step for them. Either way it's yet another service where people can get a website for free or low cost and it's something every freelance web designer/developer should be paying attention to.

I have to select between Magento and WooCommerce for my store, which one to choose?

I am starting an online apparel store, which will have around 100 products to start with. I need a platform has good performance and unlimited...

Managing a Loan Received for a Project

Hello everyone. I just registered and I need advice on managing a loan that I received so that my project of manufacturing women's and brand clothing...

Businesses owning shares in their competition

I've been doing some research into some of the businesses in my city, and I came across the concept of cross sharing, and particularly businesses...

Help! Participate in a 60 minute ($50) usability study

Hello small business owners! I need help with my new idea! I am scheduling participants for 60 minute usability research sessions on Friday May 19,...

Referrals from friends

I'm sure we all appreciate referrals.
However, I cringe when some of my friends tell me they've referred me to someone because although they think they are helping, inevitably they aren't "trained" to sell your product or service the way you've learned to do.

They can over promise, under promise, give people the impression that you'll "take care of them", and so many other ways that they can screw you before you even talk to the person.

Recently one my friends refereed me to someone and used the phrase "He's not the cheapest, but he's the best". I'm sure that sounded like a glowing recommendation to him, but it made me cringe when I heard it. Like he just shot me in the foot and put a negative spin on it that now has the person thinking about how expensive I am that they will carry with them throughout the entire process, that they probably would may never had before.
No to mention, this friend has no idea where my prices lay in the spectrum..so why add that unsolicited information?

I'd much rather them just refer people to my website or just give them my phone number. Stop trying to sell me. Please. You're doing it wrong.
Of course that now makes you appear ungrateful and of course they get offended.


How do you guys handle it?
Do you tell your family and friends to stop trying to sell you, or do you just grin and bear it?

Еhe transfer of money from the company

Hello, I'm from Europe, I study American companies and their organization.
I'm writing a report for the Institute.
Tell me who of the employees can transfer money to accounts of other companies?

I learned that you can CEO, CFO, Accountant.

What employees can do Bank transfers from company accounts ?

Hello Everyone

I am Joseph. I'm working with financial consultant company. if you need any help related funding/finance feel free to contact me. :-)

Official Owner of my Own Web Design/SEO Company !!

Hey guys and gals,

I just wanted to drop a line and say hello. I am new to the site. Hoping to join some of you on the journey to success. Super excited!

Small number of product to sell

I have a small number of product to
sell, so a shopping cart seems like overkill.
I find there are simple web forms out there
that calculate totals every time you select products
(products are all on the same page). It's cheap,
fast and easy to use:

http://ift.tt/2qx5FTQ

The main issue I have with using the web form is
my web address does not show at the top of the
form. It's the web form hosting companies web address.

Any suggestions?

Which one is the Best Business Listing Sites in Bangalore?

Hi, I am running small business. So i have to list my business in any best business listing sites in Bangalore. Please suggest me.

Hello everyone

Hello everyone from YRC, I'm new in this forum. Thanks

What is the difference between profit and proceeds?

Hi,

I am trying to understand the difference between “profits” and “proceeds”. For some reason it’s been difficult to find this on the web. The reason I want to know the difference is we would like to donate a certain percentage of the business to a charitable organization. We want to make sure we are advertising the type of percentage accurately.

I would like to use an example to help me to understand the difference, with jewelry as the example. Say in one month these were the numbers:

Sales: $1000.

• Lets say 50 necklaces were sold at $20 each. 25 were sold at a retail store that takes a 20% commission and 25 were sold at a vendor event.
• Assume each necklace costs $5 each to make (cost of beads, chains, charms)

Expenses: $500 (beads, chains, website fees, advertising, equipment, $100 retail store 20% commission, $100 vendor event fee, etc.)
Taxes: $150 (sales tax, business tax, income tax), assume 30% of (sales – expenses)

My understanding is the profit would be $350. What however would be the “proceeds” in this example be? And maybe it's different for both the vendor event and retail store?

I’m not sure if I’m even on the right track with my question here and how I’ve set things up, thanks though for helping me out.

Co-retailing or sharing retail space - anybody tried this?

I've discovered that although my shop is online-only, I'm getting a much bigger sales volume and better marketing ROI of my shop from in-person sales events. I've been doing pet expos and things like that. Which makes me wonder about things like pop up shops or co-retailing. I've done some Googling and emailing some local resources but I would love to hear if anybody here has tried these with a retail business.

In my research so far I've found that it will be some years before I can afford a "normal" lease for either a small warehouse or small retail space. I currently run my shop out of my house. One property manager for a large retail mall near me said that they'll do temporary retail leases for no less than a 90-day period. That doesn't work for me yet. I'm thinking I would love to do something in a small space one or two weekends a month. Sharing a retail space may be the solution but I don't know who to inquire with on such a thing.

I've also found that there are several "business incubators" around me, but they all cater to businesses that are more office/research/meeting oriented, not retail. Do you think I should reach out to them and suggest they try some sort of "retail incubator" where two or three small retailers share a space for limited time periods?

Help with a college project - Survey about App for billing/scheduling/CRM?

I'm working on a group project for a college course and we are trying to get feedback on how useful an App would be to help small businesses with billing, scheduling appointments, and keeping track of customers. I'd appreciate if people can help by filling out a short Google survey. You don't need to login to fill out the survey and it won't get you on any email lists.

Thanks for any help!

The survey is at: http://ift.tt/2pVDXPk

Concerns about merging our business with another

Hello everyone, my name is Anne. I just joined small business forum today. I thought of joining this community in order to seek out advice, thoughts or insights. It is actually my husband who owns the business and I am working for him. He has this guy he met less than a year ago who has the same business as his. He encouraged my husband to share his space and split the rent, (we sublease to him). Four months later, he said he already wanted to retire and he said he will just give his business to my husband. His business however has been slow the past four months. And he had been having problem collecting from his clients... I just don't feel excited about this transfer of business thing, what are we suppose to be aware of in order to take on his business even if he doesn't ask money from us? Hope anyone here can give me advise.. would truly appreciate it.

Hello everyone, my name is Anne.

I just joined small business forum today. I thought of joining this community in order to seek out advice, thoughts or insights and also to learn from all the members and in return, share my knowledge too

Thought I'd start a WordPress security thread

I hear all the time from people who don't use WordPress, that WordPress isn't secure. This is a little unfair since nothing that is on or connected...

Hello

Hello eveybody. I am Arsha from India. I am searching for the best franchise consultant for my small business. I hope you people will suggest me the best franchise consultant.

Offered a business, But what a mess.

My boss is in breach of 4-5 aspects of his lease to own contract since February 1 of this year. Today during a meeting with the owner/seller i was informed he wanted a coworker and i to take over the business. The problem is my boss technically owns the work trucks an equipment, while the original owner/seller who wants me to lease to own,as he owns the customer database. He (owner) says we may have to start new, since he doubts the current boss, ex-boss of mine will not give or sell us the vans because he's an asshole which i agree. What can i do ???? What steps can i take to get this company. Current boss is sole proprietor so all money from the company is in his person account.

Any help will do. Im confused as to all this.

Manage 17 Social Networks From A Single Dashboard

Hello,

This is my new project and i need to know your suggestions to make more big. This is my new site smmnim.com where users will get access to 7 social media marketing apps. The main features of the apps are below mentioned:

APP 1 FEATURES:

schedule and publish on 17 popular social networks

Facebook
Facebook Groups
Facebook Pages
Instagram
Youtube
Dailymotion
Reddit
Flickr
Imgur
Linkedin
Linkedin Companies
Twitter
Tumblr
Google Plus
Pinterest
Medium
Blogger
Wordpress
VK and
Vimeo

Instagram, Facebook, Facebook Groups, Facebook Pages and Twitter Chat from single dashboard.



APP 2 FEATURES:

Instagram Marketing Tool

Auto Post You can post image and special is video. The Instagram video posting tool post from your DESKTOP – PC or MAC
Auto Direct Message
Auto Comment Search and comment all the post you want
Auto Like
Auto Follow
Auto Unfollow
Auto Follow Back
Search top hashtags and user
Spintax Supported on message and photo or video
History follow/unfollow/followback Save all user follow/unfollow/followback



APP 3 FEATURES:

Youtube auto comment tool

search videos based on your keyword and comment on them

schedule your comments

emoji support


APP 4 FEATURES:

Facebook Messenger Marketing Tool


Multiple Facebook Account.
Sync. Page’s Messenger Leads.
Send Bulk Message to Leads.
Auto Sync. Everyday.
Multi-page Campaign Set option.
Custom Campaign Set Option.
Full Report of Campaign(Delivery/Unsuccessful).
Custom Message With Individual Leads Name option.
Delay Option For Each Message Send.
Unsubscribe Link Embed Option.
Manual Unsubscribe Option.
Auto Unsubscribe Leads Who Blocked Page Message.
Lead Generator:
Auto Private Reply for Post Comment.
Highly Customization Auto-reply Text.
Filtering Word Based Reply Option.
Full Report of Auto-reply.
Send Message Button for Your Website.
JSON code generation tools for Facebook Messenger Ads.
“Send Message” CTA Poster.
Facebook Chat Plugin for Website.



APP 5 FEATURES:

Survey creator tool

create online surveys with autoreponder integration supported

share your surveys from your app dashboard and track your clicks.




APP 6 FEATURES:

Viral link creator tool

Show your call to action on any web page.


APP 7 FEATURES:

Leadmonster lead generation tool



and many more new apps to come.....


I am planning to add more apps in future. Let me know your valuable suggestions regarding this.

Legal Structure Advice

Hi all,

I would like to start designing, developing and delivering live Internet-based seminars business.

where I can find legal structure advice ?

Thank you

We made the list at #3

The Internet's 18 best small business forums
http://ift.tt/2h04kPT

Equipment Financing, Startups, Business Capital and Bad Credit

We are an equipment finance company based in St. Petersburg, FL helping businesses grow all over the United States and Canada.

1 business day approval!
24-hour funding!!
24 to 60-month term
Below 600 credit score ok!
Financing all industries!
FREE application and easy approval!
Software only is ok!
Vehicles ok!
Working Capital!
3k minimum

We would like to assist all start-ups and expanding businesses.

Best Regards!

David Pozzuoli

Very Odd Situation

I'll try to keep it short. I hope this is allowed and in the correct forum. Hoping I can get good suggestions. 8ish yrs ago I needed a machine to do a certain task. Nothing available but there were a cpl machines that were overkill but also very limited capabilities and expensive ($200k +). Not having much choice and never really intending to sell to public, I designed, built and tested a prototype for 5ish yrs before starting a patent and releasing to the public. The cost of this machine is $45k.

It's a very small niche and on the extreme side so you kinda have to be the extreme type to even want one so it is a small market but again it was originally built for necessity. The last 3 yrs it's been available for purchase. Website, social media, etc all been up also. It's tough to market as it's very custom and no normal type places for good return on marketing. I've had good interest but no sales.

It's easily expanded into other fields. I marketed almost specificly to one of those markets but found out real quick that I wanted nothing to do with that particular market so backed away quietly. I've a long back ground on similar machines so it's fun for me and the machine performs very well. Very proud of it. I've done everything myself. First PROBLEM: I don't like dealing with people. I like the design, building & testing part. I dislike the public relations part!

Biggest PROBLEM: I retired about the time I released the machine to the public. At that time my tank was empty but I was still having fun. I'm currently running on less than fumes!!! I'm extremely tired and want to act like I'm retired! Even though I wish I did, I have no family interested on continuing what I started.

Questions: What do I do? How do I try to sell the business? How do I place a value on the business? I've thousands of hours in developing it. Testing it. $$$ invested in it. Current intentions are to build another model with upgrades. I enjoy using it so want an upgraded model anyway. My only thoughts are to put some kind of for sale statement on the website very much like I've written here after the upgraded model is up and running and see what kind of interest there is.

When I first released it, I received many calls from engineers and others in similar industries and some that have tried but never finished similar machines. I think they were most interested in how I did certain aspects but not wanting to buy. Suggestions on how to proceed appreciated! Arctic

Need feedback on redeeming a discount code on my site

Hey guys, For the last year I've been setting up business "partnerships" with rescue groups which seem well-received but never used. Would like...

Hi

Hi,

New on here today and thought I would stick up an introduce post so you can feel my presence :D

Existing LLC to a S Corp

I have had an LLC sole proprietorship 8 years and have recently contracted to a company the requires me to change to an C Corp or S Corp. Research tells me the S Corp would be the way to go. It is only me and less than $100,000 annual income and will not change. What is the simplest/cheapist way to handle this.

a new business ready to go

hey guys!

hope we are all well, so I am currently still building my site but would welcome some feedback. And does anyone here use google PPC and had good results?

<Please set up a signature>

Pete From Wilmington, NC Here!

Hey everyone!

My name is Pete, I run giddy.graphics. We just launched a small online store, and would really love everyones feedback on the user experience and whether or not the order process makes sense. Thank you all in advance for your input!

Hey! I just joined This is my shop

Hey everyone!

Thought i should introduce myself , My name is Jamie and I am currently in the process of building my site http://ift.tt/2pFxcRS we sell everything from TONERS/MEDICAL/COMPUTERS/CLEANING/STATIONERY the site still needs lots of work but should wanted some feedback from the profesionals as i am new to all this. I am currently working on marketing via social media and email marketing. anyone deal with PPC click is this really worth it?

Regards
Jamie

Hello

Hello, needing some help and been reluctant to ask. Hoping to find answers, suggestions. Arctic