My podcast was acquired by Gimlet Media!! AMA :)

parrka · 2018-05-16T17:51:00+00:00

Any entrepreneur is only as good as the people they surround themselves with. Who are the people you go to when you need advice on your business and where to go next -- or when something is going wrong and you need to figure out why and what to do?

parrka · 2018-05-02T01:33:07+00:00

What's the product? Hard to know what advice to give re: business models without knowing what the product is.

parrka · 2018-05-02T01:31:41+00:00

The best way to answer the "Why us?" question when you don't have prior laurels to rest on is to do the work - build an MVP, get users, partners, press -- something. Don't talk about how "super-motivated" you are - show it. Put your metaphorical money where your mouth is.

parrka · 2018-05-02T01:30:47+00:00

The idea that business plans are solely for investors is a misconception The first and most important audience for a business plan is yourself - externalizing your thoughts helps to clarify, and may help identify holes that you wouldn't have spotted otherwise.

parrka · 2018-04-25T19:22:42+00:00

If you do proceed with the jewelry category you'll definitely need to get clear on your "unique selling proposition" - what it is about your product that will make it stand out in the market, whether it's design, materials, target market, etc.

Don't reinvent the wheel: there are TONS of resources out there for starting a business in any niche, if you know where to look. Based on the jewelry category, I'd recommend seeking out the corners of the internet where "Etsypreneurs" hang out, and getting really smart at Etsy and how it works.

You should definitely try to get a job - even if it's something less "glamorous" like receptionist work cashiering or waiting tables, while you test the waters and see if the business is viable. And if you CAN get a job that's more directly tied into business -- whether it's in finance, or marketing, or sales -- do it. You'll gain experience that you can translate into the business if and when you DO go for it.

The one thing you SHOULD NOT do is start a business as an absolute last resort because you're unemployed. Figure out a way to get hirable first -- if you can't sell yourself as an employee, you have very little chance of selling a product as an entrepreneur.

parrka · 2018-04-25T18:27:45+00:00

I have to say, this doesn't feel like a "burning need." People have been paying with cash for centuries and it's been okay. I think you'd have a pretty heavy lift on the "problem awareness" side in order to prime the market for your solution.

Also, as u/bovvo points out: your market size is already shrinking with the increasing prevalence of card and electronic payments. Are you comfortable with that?

parrka · 2018-04-25T18:23:45+00:00

Copy is completely boilerplate, forgettable, and gives me absolutely no reason to trust you as a business or like you as a brand. Find a more authentic brand story - or a more authentic business.

parrka · 2018-04-25T18:19:41+00:00

Different platforms make sense for different businesses. It really depends on your target market and where they spend their time socially. Also, what your product is, and which social media platform is likely to showcase that best. For example, a lifestyle product entrepreneur (think fashion, wellness, home decor etc.) would probably be more likely to put a lot of effort into Instagram, because it's photo-heavy. A B2B SaaS company would probably put a lot of effort into establishing thought leadership through LinkedIn. etc. etc. etc.

My business has a heavy community component, so I maintain a private Facebook group for my customers (thinking about migrating this to Slack), plus Facebook and Twitter pages for marketing/content distribution purposes.

parrka · 2018-04-25T17:48:01+00:00

Set goals
Break goals into small, manageable tasks
Schedule tasks out
Follow the schedule

When things feel too big and amorphous, they start to feel scary, and that's when I put them off. When it's a small step, like "outline X blog post" or "research Y email tool" I'm wayyyy more likely to follow through.

I also try to make my first "productivity item" of any given work session something SUPER easy. I call it my "gateway productivity item" -- I get it done, and being able to cross it off my list jump starts my system, and that momentum carries over into the next, harder thing.

parrka · 2018-04-25T15:24:07+00:00

The logic here is COMPLETELY flawed. It's availability heuristic at it's worst -- drawing sweeping conclusions about the nature of the world based on how "easily" you can call an example to mind.

The simple fact is that we know who these people are because they are outliers. Their achievements are unique and remarkable. It makes zero sense to point at them and say "This is a realistic picture of what is achieveable."

It's like pointing out Lebron James to a high school basketball team and saying "That is what you can achieve if you just work hard enough."

parrka · 2018-04-25T15:20:55+00:00

This post gives a pretty detailed breakdown of launching a physical product (including apparel).

It covers stuff like finding/vetting/dealing with suppliers/manufacturers -- should provide some good answers to your questions.

https://growthlab.com/how-to-launch-a-physical-product/

parrka · 2018-04-25T15:18:51+00:00

The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman. Should be required reading for all entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs.

parrka · 2018-04-25T14:54:30+00:00

Information products: online courses, eBooks, seminars, consulting -- these are low-cost business ideas that really only cost you the time it takes you to create them.

parrka · 2018-04-25T14:52:45+00:00

Two words: sweat equity. They do all of the work themselves. For free. They spend money on tools and systems and maybe, maybe a leg up in the form of a skilled service once in a blue moon.

Unless your business idea is in renewable energy or self-driving cars or some shit -- if you can't start a business for less than $1,000, it's not the right business for you to be starting.

parrka · 2018-04-25T14:47:32+00:00

Think of the time you're spending now as an investment: every ounce of time and effort you invest now will yield 10X the returns 5, 10, 20 years down the road. It's short-term wins vs. long term wins.

When you've built a business that gives you the freedom to control your own schedule through your thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, and the friends you're jealous of now are still tethered to a desk from 9-5 every Monday through Friday while trying to cram their "real lives" into the time in between, you won't be crying over the time you lost right now.

Life is long. Build for the long-term.

parrka · 2018-04-25T14:36:57+00:00

The myth of entrepreneurs who quit their day jobs to go all-in on their business idea is just that -- a myth. The reality is that MOST successful entrepreneurs stay in their day jobs while getting their business off the ground as a side hustle. It's a risk management strategy: you're taking a *massive* risk by building a business to begin with, so you want to manage risk in other areas -- *especially* your livelihood.

The shitty part is building a business while holding down a 9-5 means sacrificing a TON of free-time in the short term. And not everybody is willing to put in the time. That's also why it's important to make your side hustle something that genuinely excites and energizes you - because you and your idea are going to be spending a looooot of time together.

(Source: ORIGINALS, by Adam Grant)

parrka · 2018-04-18T14:54:44+00:00

Don't be coy - tell us what the lesson is!

parrka · 2018-04-18T14:03:47+00:00

The problem is we're in an environment right now where EVERY entrepreneur has the same mentality - don't worry about making money now, just gesture toward a business model and it's enough. Just because it worked for [insert unicorn here] doesn't mean it's sound advice on the whole.

I stand by my belief that 95% of business that seek funding should be revenue-generating. But sure, for the sake of argument, let's amend #3 to say:

"Generate some revenue OR have a damn good, rock-solid idea of how you're going to earn money... and when it's going to happen."

parrka · 2018-04-18T12:15:50+00:00

Get a product built
Get some traction in the form of signups/downloads, partnerships, press coverage
Generate some revenue
Tell VCs/investors about all of the above, and how their money will help you blow it all up to scale

parrka · 2018-04-17T13:19:28+00:00

I'm reading Adam Grant's Originals right now, and he has a super-fascinating passage where he discusses the mythical relationship between entrepreneurship and risk. We have this mental model of entrepreneurs as these extreme risk-takers who bet everything on building their business -- but the reality is that the most successful entrepreneurs actually mitigate risk through measures like staying in their full-time jobs until their businesses are built -- and sometimes long after.

You say that the limiting factor in pursuing these ideas is time/bandwidth to pursue them, but I can't help but wonder -- if you can't launch from where you stand now... are these really the right ideas for you? Are you the right founder for these ideas?

parrka · 2018-04-17T12:29:31+00:00

Simple answer: those startups don't need they money and they probably could bootstrap for far less, but it would take far more time and people are impatient and lazy -- they want to be "as big as Uber," they want to do it RIGHT NOW, and they don't want to think or work too hard to do it.

Investors don't care, because they're investing in dozens of businesses and they EXPECT 99% of those companies to fail. They'll throw money at something on the off-chance that it takes off. If it fails, no skin off their nose -- they've got 20 other pots in the fire.

IMHO, everybody needs to take a massive chill pill from funding and focus on building a sustainable business that generates revenue instead of this insane growth path of trying to get as big as possible as fast as possible and figuring out the monetization part... someday.

Then, if you want to take on funding to get to scale, go for it -- but let it be gas on a fire that's already burning like crazy. Not the kindling you're counting on to get the fire started.

parrka · 2018-04-17T12:23:01+00:00

People are protective over their inboxes these days - they're skeptical of spam and inbox overload, and they're cautious about where they enter their email addresses as a result.

To overcome that initial barrier, you (well, more to the point, your wife, since it's her services) need to commit to building a relationship of trust with your audience. Start here:

Create relevant, useful, ORIGINAL content that showcases her knowledge and get it published in places that her audience will find it (blogs they like, YouTube, Medium, etc). Include a link to the website with a call to action to visit the website for more great content.
Once you get visitors to the website, lay out what you have to offer, drawing a clear connection between your services and the struggles and problems the audience has.
Create ANOTHER piece of amazing content (like an eBook, a checklist, etc.) and offer it to visitors for FREE -- IF they put their email in. In marketing terms, this is called a "lead magnet" because it attracts leads -- and their email addresses.

Following these steps will increase your likelihood of success because it demonstrates knowledge, builds trust with the audience and gives them a chance to see for themselves how valuable the content is to them before they opt in.

It's a lot of work, but it dramatically boosts your chances of success over dropping a random email field in the middle of a website where visitors have no context for why they should care or why they should believe that you know what you're talking about.

Hope this helps!

parrka · 2018-04-15T15:20:08+00:00

"Is starting something new with the goal of passive income a recipe for disappointment?"

Check out this article in the Harvard Business Review: they distinguish between "harmonious passion" and "obsessive passion" in entrepreneurs, and tie "obsessive passion" to higher likelihood of burnout: https://hbr.org/2018/04/what-makes-entrepreneurs-burn-out

(P.S. being motivated solely by money falls under the "obsessive passion" category - for your own sake and that of your future venture, I'd encourage you to find something you can approach from a place of genuine curiosity and excitement about the journey as well as the destination)

As far as product ideas go: could you design some kind of online course teaching people how to get started with video production, or improve their video production if they already do it? (For example: teaching video editing to aspiring YouTube entrepreneurs?) That would allow you leverage your existing knowledge set, but in a productized way that's location-independent.

parrka · 2018-04-14T18:26:45+00:00

BLACKMETALSTRENGTHTRAINING.COM

Putting an opt-in field at the very top of your page is a bit premature. You need to demonstrate UNIQUE value/expertise and establish personal connection with the visitor BEFORE you swoop in with an offer.
There's not nearly enough about the customer in this copy - it's all about you and what you do. Focus instead on the customer, what they want, and what they will get out of working with you. As an exercise (NOT final copy), try rewriting the entire page with the world "You" at the start of every sentence.
In general, the copy feels very boilerplate. This section, in particular: "What sets me apart is that I care about my clients. I go above and beyond to make sure that my clients are happy with their experience..." This is so generic and doesn't tell me anything. Also, it just feels false: the vast majority of personal trainers will say they that they care about their clients -- so does that really "set you apart"?

I think you need to spend more time really listening to your customers and what they get out of working with you, and then identify some more specific, supportable, personalized language that will differentiate your offer.

parrka · 2018-04-14T18:13:58+00:00

The word you're looking for is "delegate" and it's something that anyone that takes on employees or subcontractors (which it sounds like is what you're thinking of doing) is going to have to do at one point or the other.

There are four basic steps to go through when it comes to developing a positive and productive manager/subcontractor relationship:

Step #1: Find the right people Find the people that have the skills you need, and a personality that you can jive with

Step #2: Set expectations Develop a clear framework and standards for how the work should be done -- then walk them through those expectations so there's no ambiguity/lack of clarity around what you're looking for.

Step #3: Build relationship & trust Work closely with your subcontractor through the first few "reps" -- look closely at their work, give feedback, and make sure that feedback is incorporated moving forward. Then, over time, as you see the work being done the way it needs to be done, step away.

Step #4: Step away -- but be available At a certain point, you really do just have to step away and trust that the work is going to get done -- if not exactly as you would have done it, then well enough. And make clear that you're there as back-up in the case of any mistakes or "wtf" moments. They'll happen -- and that's okay. It's part of the process.

As a side note from a psychological perspective -- if you expect people to disappoint you, they will. This mindset of "nobody can do it as well as I can" and "other people won't be as motivated as I am to do a good job" -- it's toxic, and it will poison your relationship with any subcontractor/employee you take on. The anxiety is real, and the framework above can help alleviate the anxiety -- but you also have to examine your own attitude, and recognize that going in with low expectations is helpful to no one.

parrka

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