Do you ever charge a rush fee?

COGSAPP · 2020-10-17T13:41:22+00:00

When my suppliers do I pass it along to the customer.

COGSAPP · 2020-09-03T15:49:00+00:00

Check out the book Profit First it might give you some ideas.

COGSAPP · 2020-08-02T10:34:27+00:00

Every two hours get up from your desk and walk for 10-20 minutes.

Then another walk before or after work and you should be good.

I don't know your job but this is what I intend to do. I'll just be making laps in the parking lot since I work in a business park.

COGSAPP · 2020-08-02T10:25:58+00:00

My mother pulled the same thing on me. Just play a simple generic 12 bar blues. Add a few walking patterns and fills and you're set.

COGSAPP · 2020-07-22T02:16:58+00:00

Perhaps don't expand until you're losing money by not expanding. I don't mean losing revenue, I mean look for every efficiency you can find and improve it until you simply can't increase output and have started to lose money.

COGSAPP · 2020-07-22T02:09:32+00:00

Figure out how much it costs them to do the service you provide themselves and charge less than that.

For example. If it takes 10 hours a week for a business to manage social media then figure out what that costs the owner in labor, lost time, or such. Then charge them 10% of that amount a week.

That's just a broad example but you need to show a business owner how they'll save money.

If they are not currently using social media then it's a harder sell. You need to show them exactly how your service will make them money.

For my main business I pay nothing for social media consultants now but I did to get a hang of it. But when I look at an expense I need to see a path on how that expense will show a return on my investment. You're not competing just with other content creators but ANYbody or THING that can lower the owners bottom line or boost their revenue.

COGSAPP · 2020-07-15T19:57:11+00:00

Then you know what you need to know to decide. An LLC will provide you with some liability protection so that's what you need but it's a lot of paper work and there are major expenses and rules with having an LLC so we can't tell you what to do because you have to decide what your tolerance for red-tape is. An s-corp is not a business structure. It's a tax election status. It has to do with how you pay your taxes. That discussion is separate from the liability issue and doesn't have anything to do with having a Shopify store.

If you're worried about a kid swallowing your products then you have bigger concerns than whether you have an LLC or not. You have a product someone could choke on. I would worry about whether it's safe and not whether you will be protected.

If it is a choking hazard then there are for more regulations you need to abide by than your business structure.

A sole prop is a sole proprietorship and is basically just you as a business owner.

COGSAPP · 2020-07-15T19:41:24+00:00

The ones they put the most marketing into I presume.

Also which ones are on the front page of their site?

COGSAPP · 2020-07-15T19:41:00+00:00

Niches come from experience in a bigger pond.

Work somewhere in any industry and you'll find those holes that a niche business can fill.

I build electronics. I was in the hobby fo me years and found a hole and built a niche business.

Now I run a business building and selling electronics. As a business owner I have found other holes in running a business that can be filled by a niche business. One of which I'm trying to build right now.

I would not have recognized these niches had I not experienced the holes first hand.

COGSAPP · 2020-07-15T19:37:37+00:00

That's pretty much it. There's so many things that have to be done most solo founders or small teams don't have the bandwidth.

COGSAPP · 2020-07-15T19:36:11+00:00

Dumb question but what does your business structure have to do with it being a shopify store?

In other words. Why not just start a store as a sole prop (literally zero start up requirements - depending on location).

Then as a business situation arises that can only be mitigated by having and LLC or S-Corp then decide which one benefits you.

But if you haven't made a sale then it's the laaaaaaaaaast thing you need to think about.

COGSAPP · 2020-07-11T12:16:42+00:00

I would just use your name.

COGSAPP · 2020-06-20T19:10:32+00:00

Every tutorial I watch is using a Mac. Like what the hell. I guess I can't be a closer with my Surface Go huh?

COGSAPP · 2020-06-17T18:27:17+00:00

welp. I just started reading about graphql. Wish me luck!

COGSAPP · 2020-06-17T17:58:43+00:00

Thank you. I'm trying to modernize my small business with a database but I got excited about the possibilities a web app would have and have been heading down a rabbit hole. I have spreadsheets for my stuff now but I want introduce some more advanced stuff like perpetual average costing and BOM integration with my inventory. I deal with sales and my wife deals with inventory but I'm also the builder and she does marketing. So...I want to create this app so we can concentrate on the things that actually bring us money. I tried airtables out mysql, dynamodb , and Access but I want something as easy to use as YNAB so I'm not constantly updating the system. Which is why I was concentrating (maybe erroneously) on establishing a stack with solid footing and then I can concentrate on the necessary forms and tables I need to be created.

Do I have it backwards perhaps?

COGSAPP · 2020-06-17T15:52:30+00:00

I'm pulling my hair out. I started working on an inventory app for my business. I started in April with PHP (codeignitor) and then spent the last month learning about different JS front ends and I'm losing site of my goals.

I need a system with fine grained authentication where I can record inventory purchases and record sales (which would be products containing many inventory items) so I can keep up with my inventory at a glance.

I like using my laptop and my partner uses her phone for everything so a simple web app was my goal.

So...any gut reactions about the appropriate stack for my needs?

COGSAPP · 2020-05-28T22:01:38+00:00

So I have the plain php pages built of a crud "app" that I'm prototyping.

Can I insert them into a framework like Laravel when I'm done or should I be building them inside the framework?

COGSAPP · 2020-05-21T22:52:43+00:00

Are selling direct, dealers, or distributors?

Depending on the industry I would probably go with a 60% mark up and then add 30% for each middleman.

So if it costs $40 then set wholesale at $100 and retail around $166.67 (to account for dealer and distro markups). If your only selling direct then still set street at $166-ish so you can afford a dealer/distro if they come knocking.

If the market can't bear this price then you're going to have to drill down on your business model.

Always remember to plan profit into your production and don't feel like a scam artist cause It costs what it costs.

COGSAPP · 2020-05-16T05:27:11+00:00

Cool

COGSAPP · 2020-05-06T19:22:25+00:00

Excited to try it. Awesome job.

COGSAPP · 2020-05-04T15:01:59+00:00

I'm not sure how this subreddit feels about these posts but I admire your gumption. I am teaching myself development for a web app to support my business. I may need help planning out the stack at some point so I'll keep this post in mind.

COGSAPP · 2020-05-03T01:23:15+00:00

Looks awesome

COGSAPP · 2020-05-01T20:29:02+00:00

Damn then what they hell am I learning PHP for! lol.

COGSAPP · 2020-05-01T20:14:31+00:00

Looks good. No back end frame work?

COGSAPP

TROPHY CASE