Your brand must conjure associations beyond the clothing itself. Fabric is only fabric. Attractive design matters, but market competition is enough to drive down prices. If you intend to ask a premium, then your product line must SUGGEST more than it literally is. Eventually, certain brands r...
Productivity challenge: Deciding when to help other people with their projects and when to focus on my own. For example, let's say I am in the middle of something I am doing for myself and a colleague or friend calls and asks me to help them out with their project. Sometimes, their project actu...
Never get in business with people you want to buy out. Do not sign any agreement to give away such big chunk of your business unless you are 100% convinced they're the best people to work with. From your long description, it doesn't seem you believe they are trustworthy nor that they deliver the ...
A lot depends on the service you're offering. But I'd definitely include case studies of previous clients. Don't just offer testimonials but weave a story around your previous clients' experiences. Again, I could help more if I knew what you were offering. Another useful strategy is to offer ...
I have raised money for companies ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies, as a founder, an independent director and as an agent. The main salient difference is not so much deferring valuation (unless you give the convertible buyers a ratchet) as it is the trade off of who gets what in the...
RFP is the first step towards your contact initiation and strategic partnership. Indivisual freelancers generally do not understand the the RFP, RFI and proposal lifecycles. It is a very assessment tool that you can leverage to find the right partner (or vendor or outsourcing company) for your fu...
Disclaimer: my business is based in the U.S. with little experience in the UK and EU. But I'm inclined to believe that if you are the entity legally importing the merchandise, you pay VAT. Your client would pay VAT only if the import documents list their name as the consignee. If you only wanted ...
If you can win a customer on price, you can lose a customer on price. But its not price, that customers are sensitive to...its value. To answer your question, its important to be in a similar pricing range to your competition if you want to play the pricing game and commoditize your product. But ...
Depends on the startup. If you have IP that provides a clear advantage, that's more valuable and easier to make successful than say a mobile app idea. Traction has become investors favorite buzz word. It makes sense though because they aren't gamblers. They are looking to fund proof of concept. T...
Two: (a) Top-line growth and (b) Cancellations. I like businesses where "growth" means "revenue," otherwise to me it's only an indication that people are mildly interested rather than proof that it's a *business* that is turning into a validated business model. But of course with consumer often...