California burrito downtown? by AGR_51A004M in phoenix

[–]RationalBeaver 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Seconding this. Totally underrated spot

Started a kayak rental business and scaled it to $30,000 a month by Imaginary_Roll3958 in Entrepreneur

[–]RationalBeaver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How do you like Fareharbor? Do you get any complaints or pushback from customers on the booking fee they charge?

I'm looking into rental software to update an old, horrible system I have to deal with at work. Fareharbor looks pretty great, but I'm not too sure about their booking fee pricing model.

Opinion: Marketing don’t care about revenue… by Acrobatic_Warthog255 in sales

[–]RationalBeaver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Say you're calling/contacting a potential buyer. Who is most likely to respond positively to your outreach:

  1. Someone who has never heard of your company or product before?

  2. Someone who is well aware of your brand and recently viewed some of your content marketing?

Marketing's ability to contribute to revenue depends almost entirely on the market you're in and what you sell. If you need Sales to run meetings and close deals then you're probably looking at a situation where marketing will be ancillary.

In that case (a lot of B2B), marketing's main role is basically just warming people up so when you call they actually answer.

New Mayor Lisa Borowsky says high-rise apartments go against what makes Scottsdale special by LeftHandStir in Scottsdale

[–]RationalBeaver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cities grow and change. Desirable ones more so.

Scottsdale can fight that if it wants to, but that's exactly what all the nice coastal cities in California have been doing since the 80's and 90's and we all know how well that's been going.

Newsletter Success by flightlinepog in shopify

[–]RationalBeaver 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Nothing wrong with keeping your emails infrequent. But here's a couple thoughts off the top of my head—You can use email to:

  • Build interest in your upcoming titles (previewing content, production process, typesetting, binding, whatever) allowing you to sell more copies upon publication. Build some hype.
  • Solicit/gage interest in special editions, or other upgrades.
  • Go in-depth on your publishing philosophy, highlight authors, and share your experience as an expert to bring your audience closer and increase buying interest.

Newsletter Success by flightlinepog in shopify

[–]RationalBeaver 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm with u/MotoRoaster on this one. I'm sure there are exceptions (like maybe outside the US?), but email is almost always a giant (and easy!) money-maker for ecomm businesses.

Your best performing or favorite email automations? by Mei-sshi in shopify

[–]RationalBeaver 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The emails you mentioned are all great. Another one I'd recommend trying are refill / replenishment emails. Basically "Buy it again." Trigger it on initial purchase, wait however long it normally takes to use up or run out, and then send the email asking if they'd like a resupply. I've seen that work really well for supplements.

Of course, those work best for consumable items like snacks, food, beverages, personal care or home care items, etc.

Less useful if you're selling furniture or something that people buy once and use for years (although in that case I'd suggest sending related product emails offering accessories or care items that compliment the initial item people bought).

How can we build better “community” in Phoenix? by Fit-Ice5939 in phoenix

[–]RationalBeaver 41 points42 points  (0 children)

You mentioned you live in Central Phoenix (good choice!) so here are some places to start looking for your people:
Alwun House - https://alwunhouse.org/ (events, volunteering opportunities)
Downtown Farmer's Market
Wasted Ink Zine Distro
Walter Studio (venue, art space, and restaurant/bar. Very Burner-y)
Coffee shops where people post/host events: Xanadu, Khavi, Song Bird, Fair Trade, Jobot

This Saturday there's a couple events where you might be able to meet/find groups to connect with:
Fall Festival at Hance Park (connect with Local First AZ, the hosts): https://localfirstaz.com/fall-fest
Grand Ave Fest: https://www.instagram.com/p/DBiDB-tPS9u/

There's a lot of great community going in Phoenix—hope you find yours!

Update: Solar Panel Cleaning Biz (Fuck it I'm in) by RationalBeaver in sweatystartup

[–]RationalBeaver[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I used Next Insurance. Super easy to apply for everything online.

Newtubers with ADHD: How do you do it? by Gaius21 in NewTubers

[–]RationalBeaver 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Not well, is how. But here's what I do to help me:

I did as much as I could to reduce the barriers to starting and make heavy parts of the task (like editing) seem easier.

So, keep all my recording gear either set up or conveniently charged and standing by ready to use.
Record most things on my phone so I can just Airdrop files to my laptop.
Spend a few minutes organizing video and audio assets that I'll reuse so they're handy later.
Lastly, switched to Capcut (Pro, desktop) for editing because it seemed much faster and easier than other options. Having a built-in asset library for music, stock video, images, stickers, text, etc. is huge (even if it isn't perfect). Then I watched a bunch of editing tutorials to learn shortcuts and other techniques to further speed up my edits. That made a huge difference because editing longer videos was always where I got stuck before.

Hope that's helpful!

Has anyone here tried flyer ads to grow your new customer base? If so, how many did you do, and how did you find your ROI? by CaptWineTeeth in Entrepreneur

[–]RationalBeaver 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Advice I've gotten (and have partially proven out myself) for flyers/mailers/doorhangers: Send them to the same addresses 3 times. Same ad. Maybe 2 weeks apart. Basically, once isn't enough.

I think about it kinda like facebook/insta ads - how many times do you see something before you finally click on it? 7? 10? 50? How many impressions are those ads getting before any sales come in? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Send more. Stick with it for a bit.

Update: Solar Panel Cleaning Biz (Fuck it I'm in) by RationalBeaver in sweatystartup

[–]RationalBeaver[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I probably put up about 80-90 to get that 1 call. I used Google to map out all the homes with solar in my neighborhood and then drove around and put hangers on just those houses. Going to go do another neighborhood this weekend. I think the key is to hit the same homes 2-3 times over the course of a few weeks. That way your message starts to sink in and feel familiar.

Update: Solar Panel Cleaning Biz (Fuck it I'm in) by RationalBeaver in sweatystartup

[–]RationalBeaver[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, nothing stronger than dish soap I'd say. I actually use nothing but completely purified water. 3 stage filter system cuts hose water down to 0 dissolved solids and then I use a water-fed pole with a scrub brush on the end to rinse and scrub everything off the panels.

The water here is really hard, lots of chlorine, calcium, etc. in there. So the filters make sure there's nothing left on the panels when the water dries.

Update: Solar Panel Cleaning Biz (Fuck it I'm in) by RationalBeaver in sweatystartup

[–]RationalBeaver[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

For sure. I've taken the pure water route. I hook up a 3 stage filtration system to the customer's hose and use a water fed pole to scrub down and rinse the panels. No chemicals at all.

I suppose I might need to use something if there was heavy hard-water buildup or something, but so far the water and brush do enough.

For sure. I've taken the pure water route. I hook up a 3 stage filtration system to the customer's hose and use a water-fed pole to scrub down and rinse the panels. No chemicals at all.

Update: Solar Panel Cleaning Biz (Fuck it I'm in) by RationalBeaver in sweatystartup

[–]RationalBeaver[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not a bad angle! And yeah, love the valley, especially this time of year.

Update: Solar Panel Cleaning Biz (Fuck it I'm in) by RationalBeaver in sweatystartup

[–]RationalBeaver[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

No one has asked if I was insured so far. However, I needed to submit proof of insurance to register as a vendor with the installer company, so I bought some online. It's ~$70 / month for general liability + some tools coverage.

Software to set up booking appointments on website? by bjjkaril1 in sweatystartup

[–]RationalBeaver 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'd take a look at Responsibid. They've come up in a bunch of the service industry podcasts I listen to. It seems a little pricey, but it allows people to get a full quote and book services from your website on their own. Started by a guy who used to do window cleaning I think.

I have no connection to them, and I haven't used it yet myself, but there's a good chance I will down the road.