Dilemma between two partners

Myself and my business partner decided to start a company. I'm the engineer and he is to handle the business side of things. Ownership has been split...

Any tips to boost my business’ online reputation?

So I know that online reputation is important for businesses nowadays. But how should I build and maintain it? Any tips would be helpful! Thank you :D

Clearance Question

This year I purchased some unique U.S. quarters at .35 cents each (wholesale). I was able to sell these items for a profit for awhile; however, interest has strongly fallen. So here are the options I am looking at:

Option 1: Sell the remaining quarters at .30 cents, which will sell at a steady pace. (I will be selling at a .5 cents loss, but instead of being .35 cents in the hole I will be .30 cents in the hole)

Option 2: Sell the quarters to myself at .25 cents and use as normal currency. (I will be selling at a .10 loss, but instead of being .35 cents in the hole I will be .10 cents in the hole. As well as having + .25 cents personally)

This is my first go at clearance. Please let me know your constructive thoughts and if I am missing something. I want to explore all options, but also avoid any unforeseen pitfalls.

//There is no sales tax for US currency. I have 250 quarters remaining.

Thanks,

Valuable and Honest Feedback Would Be Greatly Appreciated

Hey all,

I've been doing internet marketing and blogging since and year and a half now.
I would like to hear your opinion regarding my website http://ift.tt/2zeP3F5
It is a movie blog revolving around action movies, reviews, news, facts and all kind of movie collectibles.
I am part of the Amazon Associates program as well so it includes affiliate links.
I would like to receive a feedback related to the overall functionality and user-friendlinness of the website as well as some words regarding the content (I am not a native US speaker so I have some concerns in that direction:p).
Anything else that comes to your mind that you think can help me improve the site would be highly appreciated!
Please be brutal and sincere in your feedback.
Many thanks!

Hello from Bulgaria

My name is Asen and I am a blogger and online marketer.
I found my passion in life 1 year ago - blogging and internet marketing and since then I put a lot of efforts to escape the hamster wheel and to work from home.
I hope to meet like-minded people here and to learn a big deal about Blogging and IM.
To your health and success! :)

Looking for some of the better Ali Baba global sources to deal with

Hi I am hoping to get a small amount of merchandise from one of the Asian wholesalers/sourcers/manufacturers but I have heard that in some cases you can lose your money , I realize that this kind of thing is possible with many companies all over the world but I am simply wanting to start out small then if it is successful get more stock from that supplier. Ari was originally looking and considering other wholesalers/sourcers/manufacturers anywhere in the world but I could not find any that dealt in everything I’m looking for and I do not want to start selling and having to purchase products from many different suppliers.

First of all I would like to know which show wholesale company is best on the whole then a number of individual companies within that company eg - either Ali Baba or global sources and then smaller companies within those ones.

The products I would like to sell are the following so I would prefer to do with a company that sells all of what I am looking for.

1- Micro SD cards

2- flash drives (usb 3)

3- external hard drives

4- a laptop for my own use



Thank you Craig

What do you to stay in shape?

Hey all,

Was hoping to pick your brains on how you all stay in shape. I'm trying to shed some weight before the holiday season and could definitely use some advice. My sister has a had a lot of success with Beachbody workouts so I just started one of their free trials: http://ift.tt/2i9yzmF.

Has anyone else tried their stuff? Any programs you recommend for newbies? Beyond exercise what are you all doing to stay in shape? Any diet plans you've found that really work for you?

How do you create user personas

I'm currently reading a book about how to build a good following with marketing your business/building a brand and one of the steps it advises is to create several customer personas. As described, this is very similar to making user personas as part of a UI/UX design, so I'm a bit familiar with it. But the thing that has my brain stalling is, how do you fill in the details or is it normal to pull details out of your bum (aka guessing)? For example after you write down the bigger picture items like gender, name and other basic demographics, you should fill out details like political affiliation, hobbies, etc.

More specifically, how do I do this without making them a complete fiction which isn't going to help me at all?

Also, is this something that can start as near-complete fiction but gets refined and replaced with facts over time as I learn about my customers?

What is Bootstrapping

I know that it has something to do with websites or so..but the person explaining it to me did not explain well. So i will ask again what is bootstrapping?

KFC only follows 11 people on Twitter and it's genius

An Easter egg that's been there the whole time is just getting noticed.

KFC the fast food chicken joint only follows 11 people on Twitter. They follow all 5 Spice Girls and 11 guys named "Herb".
They follow 11 Herbs and Spices.

That's genius. One might say finger licking good marketing.

https://twitter.com/kfc

WPA2 WIfi Krack and what it means to you.

As many of you have probably heard, WPA2 has finally been hacked. WPA and WPA2 is pretty much the standard of most wifi today...home, business, public..petty much all of us.

It's not all bad news. The attacker has to be in range of your wifi and it's is wifi, doesn't work if your plugged into Ethernet.
Also hear that Microsoft already has a patch and has been distributing it with normal updates.

The thing that bothers me most is all the devices that may not get updates anytime soon. I would think my Google and Amazon stuff will get an update, but what about all the other things i have on my wifi?

Here's a video from Hak5 that explains it in detail

Amazon seller tools looking for testers

Hi every one:

We are looking for Amazon seller as testers to use the software for free in exchange for straight and honest product reviews.

1. keyword tracking and research
2. super URLS, increase the rankings by bringing traffic off-amazon to your listing using the Super URL tool
3. increase your conversion rate
4. negative reviews alerts.
5. Hijack alerts
6. competitor analysis
7. auto -pricing, auto-on shelf and auto-off shelf.
8. daily account performance analysis, including daily sales, inventory and market fees etc.

Should I find a different CPA?

I recently registered an LLC in my state. I quickly realized I needed a professional for my taxes, to ensure I have everything set up correctly. My...

Sourcing manufacturers overseas

Hey all,

Hope everyone's having a good day. I have a question.. I'm looking to start up a business and need to find an agent to help me locate a manufacturer in China (Most likely, since China seems to be the cheapest country to have things manufactured, giving me the most profit). I need to locate an agent to help me find manufacturer/s for a headwrap that will be used for paintball. I guess I'll need an agent that can find apparel manufacturers?

Thanks all for your help in advance.


J

Paid advertising

I'm trying to figure out if I should be doing some paid advertising. My company has been growing at about 10% per year. Revenue is about 80% organic, 15% direct and the rest from email newsletter, links, and an app I'm using. I do paid ads on Facebook sometimes but after costs I'm not making much on those orders. Was spending a lot on adwords a few years ago, but they decided I couldn't use them because I sell weapons. I sell medieval type replicas and gifts. Adwords of course works with big companies who sell guns and other weapons. Strange thing is sales didn't slow at all after adwords dropped me and I was getting pretty good numbers. So now I'd like to grow more and looking for ideas. Should I put more into Facebook? Should I do something like Adroll? Or should I just not use paid advertising and keep improving my website and offering?

Money transfer provider

hello I'm about to start my own business. And I need your help about choosing right money transfer providers for money transfers from Europ to US ,...

Please Review My Website exerciserecumbentbikes.com

Are there some warm up techniques necessary before biking on stationary bikes. On my site exerciserecumbentbikes.com, I am creating a list of all possible techniques of warming up before biking. Please, pay a visit and read them to let me know if this information is helpful, have I missed something or any other ideas that can add some value.

I will also appreciate if you could help me to find out the popular brands of recumbent bikes out there. Also highlight the points and headlines to make product reviews, such as pros and cons, company’s data, price and availability. Waiting for your valuable response!

Are You Looking for business idea..?

I would like to do some good business. My investment aim is around 250$. Anybody has any idea what kind of business can be done with this amount of money? Also profitable partnership business ideas are welcome. To know more about business idea. Please see it:Business Name Ideas | We Craft Titles for Companies

How do I present or write a persuasive elevator pitch (speech)?

I need your help. I wanted to do something different so this is what I came up with. It's directed at investors. Some things are blank for anonymity reasons.

Standing in front of potential investors might make me a bit shaky. After all, my business will depend on your decisions. But money aside, what if for once we don’t think about that tiny green sheet of paper that rules the world of capitalism and turn that money switch off. What if we take a moment and focus on our customers needs. We find ourselves in (state)’s newest and fastest growing town the “2016 Community of the year”: __. In other words, we see an opportunity. We also see tennis courts that are offered to us as part of our partnership with the town’s very own international school. We see a _year old coach. Let me elaborate, we see a coach who has been playing tennis passionately since the age of _,who is former Berlin Tennis Champion, who worked with and was taught by Wimbledon champion Boris Becker’s coach himself and who has been giving tennis enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels lessons with unique techniques for over _years. We see someone that approaches coaching by not only teaching them how to play but also mentoring them into creating a positive mindset and becoming the best version of themselves. But most importantly we see a coach, ready to be more than just a coach, but the very founder of ______’s first Tennis Academy. Because as of right now, what we don’t see, is an affordable opportunity for those residents of the fast growing town to pursue their desire to play tennis. We might see some too expensive clubs 40 minutes away from town, but what if we can save our customers the expensive and time-consuming drive back and forth?

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I want you to turn that money switch back on ( i’m sure as investors you never really did turn it off) but hey after all we do live in capitalism, and no life changing idea can ever be pursued without our generous investors. I’m asking you to participate in helping those who desire to excel and reach their full potential on and off the tennis court at _______Tennis Academy.

whole sale merchandising for retail, well, any one

as an investor, i guess it is hard to sell product, if you do not have a solid relationship built. Tried amazon, ebay, ebay is weird, got people from Africa who want product first, but won't pay for it.
When I got into the sales of products I have in inventory, I knew I was going to compete against 100,000 some odd people, but I also knew I was going to go low on prices to flip this stuff at, but I didn't think it would be as much of a bidding war. Having products like laptop computers, alcohol, health, make up, etc...

So if there are flippers who want stuff, I'm all stating what I got, and hope to make, develop new relationships...

Is it legal to sell Michael Jackson, muhammad Ali, frida kahlo items online?

I own a small ecommerce website where I sell some items bearing the names of very famous people from the past, like Michael jackson, muhamad ali, marilyn monroe, etc, can I get in trouble for doing that? A corporation recently contacted me regarding using the name of Frida Khalo on my site, she is a famous mexican painter, a very inspirational figure, she has been dead since 1954, they ask me to remove all mentions of her name from my site, what should I do?

Excerpt of the email below:

-----------------------------------------------------

To whom it may concern,

Frida Kahlo Corporation objects the sale on .................. of the products bearing the image and name of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, as shown on the site ............... The product is advertised and sold as Frida Kahlo.

Frida Kahlo Corporation owns several registrations worldwide for the Frida Kahlo mark including registrations with covers the products sold on your website

Based upon our investigation it appears that your company is indeed infringing upon FRIDA KAHLO trademark(s) and/or used or is using a confusingly similar trade name for the sale of your items under the brand name Frida Kahlo. Frida Kahlo’s valuable good will and business reputation has now been tarnished by your actions. Therefore, we urge you to immediately discontinue bearing the FRIDA KAHLO trademark(s) to avoid further damages.

We expect a written reply from you with in five (5) days from this email. If you or your company does not respond or act as requested, we will asume that you are not interested in resolving this controversy amicably and we will act accordingly.

Sincerely yours,
Frida Kahlo Corporation
-----------------------------------------------

The items that i sell on my site are items that are currently being sold all over the internet by hundreds of sellers here in the U.S and internationally, why am I being the target of this? I am not manufacturing items in the artists' name, I am just a reseller. If the corporation is coming after, then shouldn't it also go after all of the other sellers that are also selling the same items. For example, many sellers on Amazon are selling the same stuff, and I am pretty sure, it would be exhausting going after all of them, it's not something that is even possible. What is the best way to go about this?

Paper trail order records

How much do you keep actually printed on paper? Right now for each order I print the quickbooks order, invoice from website, and record of payment from PayPal. It is becoming very cumbersome. Is this too much? In theory all is backed up and could be printed at any time if needed. Can't say I have needed these print outs.

Life is throwing me a curve ball...

Well, looks like I'm stuck. I'm officially at my first bump in the life road, and of course that bump is going to decide my life. I am now 18 years old, and I have no idea what I want to do with my life---specifically. At the moment, I am balancing working full time making about $75k a year, maintaining a 4.0 community college GPA, a girlfriend, and obsessing over finding a startup idea.


I love web design and computers, I consider it to be one of my passions. I am very talented at web design and am considering starting my own web design / IT management firm. However, I love business as well. My other issue is, I have very high expectations for myself and where I want to go to school. Where I go to school depends on which degree I choose, and at this point it's either computer science or finance.


I didn't do the greatest in high school either (so I'm not going to get into Harvard, MIT, etc.) I rocked a 3.6 GPA and did horribly on the SATs (1070 out of 1600). I blame the GPA on Stacktron and everything else I was more focused on in high school and I can pretty confidently blame the fact that it's a timed test because I took the Accuplacer and hit the max scores in english and doubled the recommended scores in math.


I don't know what to do. I am very big on name, and I want to go to the best school I can phsyically go to. Payment won't be an option as I can pay for my college in cash when I transfer. I have a 4.0 in community college at the moment, so it will stay above 3.5 by the time I need to transfer. What should I do? Any advice?

Starting my business seems hopeless.

So a friend and I fell in love with a drink called Kombucha (non alcoholic) and we decided we both wanted to make a business brewing, making, and...

Technology Research

Hi everybody,

At ZoomSupport, one of the best remote tech support companies in a world, we are developing a new product for small and medium businesses. I’d be really thankful if you could spend 3 minutes of your time and answer these three quick questions:

How many computers do you use in your business?
Do you have any tech related issues once in a while?
Do you have a person (full stack employee) responsible for computer systems?

Thank you.

Should I be nervous?????

I tend to answer questions more than ask them but here goes. We have a number of web sites for my business. Basically each major product line has...

Manage Internal Control for instance.

From two different past incidents of internal control breach, the value of specific and timely reporting has proven to be significant. The importance of adequate policies and especially procedures would be for naught without well designed and timely reporting. Written office procedures inform the employee what is expected but, only good reporting tells the manager what actually happened and, at the same time, provides an audit trail.

Anyone looking for a job

Hi everyone, is there anyone here who is looking for a job in Kerala. A firm in Kochi is looking for content/copy writers with minimum 2 years of...

if need any help in Hong Kong for your business...

Hi all,

have been following the threads and you guys here for a really long, was now wondering why not post something which may turns helpful for those of you who are about to set their business up.

I do work here in Hong Kong for one of major company incorporation service providers, so whereas you need any heads or simply interested in the procedure, feel free to approach me, as in this field is always a good thing get some insider's tip.

Don't wanna bother you with all details on our list of services which you may assume, since any kind of company registration procedures (relatively short), all company secretary duties, accountancy/auditing and so taxation, bank acc. opening and so on.

Well, anything let me know and i'll be happy to help with further details, TX for the attention and congrats for the forum )

Question about business hours

For those of you who have a business with some kind of walk-in clientelle, I want to ask your experience with business hours. I read somewhere on Reddit a complaint about small local businesses that are only open something like 8-5 and then complain about not having enough customers. The complainer commented that if they were open later, or open during evening hours, then they could patronize the store after work.

Has anyone here used evening hours? What were the average sales during those hours compared to the 8-5ish hours? Also, knowing that it can be a bit hard to staff a long day, has anyone tried having hours that were ONLY afternoon/evening and weekends?

From Canada with love.

Hallo new friends. I am Amanda from the UK but moved to Canada this year with my family. Cheers to you all.

Negotiating income split with existing business partner

My business partner (also my wife) and I are having a difficult time negotiating with our other business partners, who are also two people who own a company together. Together, our two companies co-produced a feature length documentary film, which is finally finished and is making a tour of the US, Canada and more distant places. By poor planning, we did not have a written agreement up front about how we would divvy up whatever income we can get from screenings and distribution of the film.

The entire budget of the film was funded by grants and donations; neither of our companies infused any cash into the production, although I did provide a lot of computer equipment for editing, and about 15% of our home has been production office space for about 5 years.
In addition, no one among the 2 companies was paid for nearly 2 years, as the grant money got low, and ongoing expenses (other peoples' salaries plus video post production and technical services) ate up all the grant money we could find. However, the film's director- one of the partners from the other company- took a full time job for about 6 months, leaving my wife alone in the edit room and managing production for that period. Obviously the director was also involved, but she had a full time teaching job, so she did not contribute full time to the film during that time. She was getting paid during that time, my wife was not.

Now that the film is finished and going on tour (with one person from each company), our partners from the other company (the film's director) insist that they deserve a hefty premium payment based on the gross revenue! They have not fully justified the reasoning behind this 10 percent of gross premium, but vaguely it is about "leading the distribution effort" and "managing distribution". Of course, my wife is also managing distribution, to the tune of 60-70 hours per week, and only one partner from the other company, the film's director, is fully engaged in the project. The director's company is a handling all the money, but they are keeping track of time and getting paid based on hours worked, so their company is not providing free bookkeeping and accounting services. Everything is paid for by the project. Modest salaries are being paid again, but limited to what money is coming in, so there is no guarantee that the salaries will continue. Over half of the monthly income in September was paid to other vendors and personnel, so the 10% fee (of GROSS revenue) that our partners are demanding is really a huge percentage of what is left.

Is this fair? They insist that they are getting a bad deal! I feel that we are getting a worse deal. How do you negotiate with a narcissist who is sure she is working harder than everyone else, when we know that everyone is putting in as much of their time as possible. She is of course the film's director, but this was a co-production and making a documentary film is a major collaborative effort; she was not solely responsible for making the film. Any comments would be appreciated; how would a non-film related business view such a situation?

benefits from purchasing the foreign debt (credit card individual bad debt)

Hello everyone,
I am curious about the potential benefits from purchasing the foreign debt (credit card individual bad debt) for individual person or a company. Would that be possible to write off this bad debt and cut the base of income tax? As an example the Germany based person purchase will buy distressed UK individual credit card debt and after sometime announce it as doubtful debt and make write off.
I would be grateful for all advices.
Regards

Hello all

Lourdes Fernandes is the Business Head of cFirst Background Checks, one of the leading employee background verification companies in India. Lourdes is an industry veteran and often writes about the various aspects of employee background verification.

Equipment, lease or buy?

Hi all, I'd like some opinions on equipment. I'm putting together my retail and processing location. I need about 10k worth of equipment. In the big...

Farm and retail

Does anyone out there run a farm/retail operation? I kinda got burned a few years ago when I filed all of my taxes against a form "F". I have a...

Business acquisition - seller breach of contract for retaining undisclosed deposits

Hi ... I recently closed on the purchase of an existing moving company. The business has a strong reputation in a niche market, and enjoys a steady...

Hello from Virginia

Glad I found your forum!
I've been working on getting my business up and running for about two years now.
We are Hive Five Apiary and Bee Supply in Tappahannock VA.
I'd like to share our adventure with you and pick you brains for suggestions and ideas.
Glad to meet you all!

From London

Good evening, Great to be around, and hopefully learn and collaborate with you. I am looking for businesses in the Greater London area, annual...

Learn How to Start and Grow a US Federal Government Contracting Business

Hello everyone, Mr. Pradhan is taking questions now and giving free advice on the topic of business opportunities feel free to drop your questions in! http://ift.tt/2xZEaVU

Corp-to-Corp v.s. 1099

I'm going to be doing some work for someone that will average around 150K a year in total services per year. The issue is that I need to make a decision to do this via 1099 or Corp-to-corp. It seems the customer wishes to do it corp-to-corp as I suggested 1099 early. I didn't know the major differences between each and I'm seeing now that corp-to-corp is more of a headache and requires more taxes. Is this so? I have an LLC under my name and I can invoice the customer with that LLC, however I was reading that I would end up paying myself a salary as well as employer/employee taxes? Also I can't deduct my personal home office with corp-to-corp, not sure??

I have w-2 employment income of around 135K a year so we will be talking around 280 - 290K a year. I'm married and own two homes (one rental) and have two kids. So with this considered would it be better off going corp-to-corp v.s. 1099. I think the customer is scared that they could get hit up with re-classification and end up paying all the extra taxes since I would be considered an employee v.s. a 1099.... Which is better overall? If corp-to-corp can obtain lower taxes but a high amount of paperwork I can do that, since I believe the paperwork is needed for experience....

Please advise

Thanks

Bus Ride from Penang to Kajang

Penang is one of the most tourist friendly destinations of Malaysia and is categorised into two main parts – the part, which includes the capital...

Hello!

Heya, my names Dave and I'm a small business owner in Burlington Ontario. I'm always looking to talk business, SEO, marketing, etc, etc. I just wanted to say hello!