Hi There, I'd be happy to help walk through the growth process with you directly, but I should be clear that there isn't a "one-size-fits-all-solution". You can't simply "growth hack" anything. But you can quickly find strategies to reach customers, and if you have a product that people want you'll start to see growth! First we'll need to work through the confirming that your product is a real need for customers (product market fit). After we've confirmed this we'll begin setting up a process to brainstorm the top channels for reaching customers and then rapidly testing each of them. At the end of a few iterations you should have some solid information on what works. There is no quick fix or hack to this process, but with a little discipline you should be able to find solid growth.

Samples are traditionally 100+ people. Can you get 100 customers? How many customers (users too) do you have participating on the idea? Once you've shared it past friends and family, strangers are interested in what you're doing I believe that is all that is needed for a product/service to be validated. Feel free to call me on message me on LinkedIn to discuss this more in detail.

If your goal is a proof of concept, use what you know and don't stress about performance yet. Other options for using a web stack to build native apps include Steroids (native transitions with web views) and React Native. From what you're describing, it doesn't seem like you'll hit any major challenges in the alpha stages. Once the project grows legs, it would probably be worth consulting with an expert to dig deeper into the architecture and requirements to make a more informed judgment. Good luck!

Mock role-play with both parties at the same time (remote or in the same building). Schedule an hour session, pay for their time. This is the fastest method. In your question, you mention "often takes several months". I would assume there is a scenario that doesn't take several months. I would focus on testing only those shorter scenarios if possible to reduce the timeframe from other types of lengthy encounters with your service.

I have some thoughts on this, that I hope could help you: Your traffic comes easy: Who doesn't want to make a million dollars in no time? But after jumping from your articles, people realize, that this is harder work than they thought. You are not just pushing product - you are asking people to make a career choice. And that is a harder sell. So make it easy for them to say yes. Create information products: - People are initially suspicious: If it is so easy as they say on the sites, why don't you do it? What is the risk for me, if I sign up for this. - Provide examples from your own experience: People love storytelling and to step in the footsteps of others - at least process wise. When they are familiar with the setup, they will create their own paths. - Business plan for the first 100 days. What is the time commitment? What is the upside and downside? What must be in place competencewise to be successful (product knowledge, network to sell, other things?) - Tell your own story in articles: this is how you did it - these are the pitfalls of setting up your own business. Let them know, that you can help. - Think about building it into your own site instead of Quora. That way you could integrate with your information products more easily. Good idea to be very open that you are affiliated. That sends a message of honesty. But make the article by itself worth their while, so they leave with something interesting - even if they haven't clicked through to the affiliates. Best of luck. Let me know, if you want me to clarify any of the suggestions further. Best regards Kenneth Wolstrup

The main advantage of having the company and the product/service sharing the same name is that it is much more cost effective to build the brand in the early stages. You also need to consider what relationship any future products are going to have with your first (if any) - do they complement, compete, same markets/customers, etc. Generally, you will be better off by keeping the names the same. Think about how you pitch your company vs the product - is it a different story? Which name do you want people to remember? Think about where the names would live - business cards, urls, websites, app (icon), signage, etc. There are countless successful examples of different brand naming structures that work - there is no "best" way. Keep it simple. We wrote a book on naming and identity design a few years back. Happy to send you the first chapter pdf to see if it can help. Dann Ilicic WOW Branding

If you're on a PC then Camtasia is great. - but paid for. There are other solutions for Mac

Yes to both. Because it is a lucrative business, there is a lot of competition. There are very few barriers to entry in the staffing/recruiting space (cash flow being one if you are focused on contract placements as you'll need free cash to support payroll). You need to be prepared to stick it out for the long term. Time is your friend here, because most recruiters and sales reps (those building and cultivating relationships with clients) come and go. The relationships you can scrape together in your first year will serve you well if you are still in business in years 2, 3 and beyond - because you'll still be around, where many of your competitors will have moved on (not necessarily the agencies they worked for, but as owners of the relationship, they take that asset with them when they leave). Good to hear you are focused on technical staffing - stay in your lane, figure out what the core in-demand skills are in your market (likely software engineering like everywhere else), and focus on direct hire placement initially to get some early traction and cash in the bank. Then, when the time is right, hire a business development/sales professional and get them out in the field meeting with hiring managers from growing companies in your market. Track their activity and incentivize them to generate contract business, so you can start building up a book of business. Good luck!

Not at all. To me your suggestion is not discounting - it is a free trial period for potential customers to try out your product. And you want to limit it to a one day test. In my view, you could go up to a week without devaluating - especially if you integrate it with a testplan, so you show the potential customers how they can quickly clarify, whether your product is for them or not. The risky discounting is the type, where you give f.eks. 25% discount for the first three months, thereby making people used to a lower price, and by increasing the price you create a situation, that will make them look for alternatives. Alternatives are a om hard to know, when I am not familiar with your market, but here goes some general suggestions that should get your ideas flowing. Your ultimate goal should be to be the service, that knows the most about this market. People should look to your service as not only a service but as a source of advice and knowledge: Web presence - Discussion groups on web (like clarity.fm or Quora) - solve issues for people, and mention your service as the solution. - Establish a newsletter or website about topics, that are interesting to your prospects, where they would get benefit from their participation by itself. Use the traffic to lead into your solution. It could be about the technical or business side of your service. Physical promotion - - Phone promotion - call them - either yourself or through lead generation services - you provide prospects, they will call through them and book meetings for you. (Could be pricey, though). - "Physical" promotion - have a seminar, webinar or slideshare - depending on your physical closeness to your prospoects - where you present how ingenious your solution is compared to your competitors. - Affiliates - have other agents sell for you with a no pain-no gain-model. Maybe there are people, who already visit or have contact with your prospective clients, and your solution would maybe enhance their brand as well through synergy? Could also be through your network, where your emotional connection replaces the professional connection from the affiliate. - Member-get-member - existing users of your business get a commission for attracting new members. Would also be an indicator of satisfaction with your brand, as unhappy customers do not recommend. Social media - If you are up for it, create videos about your subject matter. It takes time, but it is a relatively cheap way of getting your message out to your audience as most people just write emails or websites. - Depending on the general interest for your subject matter, you could also create a podcast, where you invite experts in to discuss relevant topics for your online service. All this could also sharpen your idea of what you want to be for whom. - Promote your service on Linkedin, Facebook, slideshare or whichever social media, your prospects are on. Write articles about your subject matter on those platforms. Again, be the guy who knows the most. I wish you the best of luck with your venture. If you need clarification for any of this, let me know. Best regards Kenneth Wolstrup

Hello! I am a former automobile dealer, and I had an auto repair shop, body shop, and licensed vehicle inspection station in central Missouri. I am very familiar with this industry. I entered this market at the wrong time, grew quickly, and hit the Great Recession at the wrong time. My goal was similar to yours, to wholesale vehicles, but also to export classic cars to the middle East. Canada is a great source for people here, because the prices are in fact lower for US buyers. I am still somewhat involved in the automotive niche, and I even recently purchased a replacement engine on a Scion from Canada because it was about one third of the price that I would have paid anywhere close. One thing you mentioned that stuck out in my mind is focusing on SUVs and trucks. When you specialize, you create your biggest potential. If you can create a name for yourself for supplying a particular size of truck, say a 1/4 ton pickup with an extended cab, you might be able to connect with volume buyers who are looking for low cost alternatives to buying new. This could be municipalities with tight budgets, small transport companies, service industry companies, etc. Once you find a hot niche, word could spread fast, and if you've mastered the supply side, you will be able to move vehicles super fast. And if you have the capability of doing some mechanical upgrades on the vehicles before you sell them, you'll make a greater return on your investment. One example of a hot niche is Jeep Cherokees in Colorado. Cherokees sell for 20% to 30% higher in Colorado than what they go for in the Midwest. I know of a person who did nothing but purchase Cherokees and fix them up for selling in Colorado. He had a very solid business. The advantage to focusing down on a very tight selection of vehicle models is knowing what to expect. You'll know what parts are likely to be worn out at a particular mileage, where these vehicles tend to rust first, what mechanical issues are common, or electrical problems that you can run into. When you are wholesaling and buying anything and everything, you'll heighten your chances of getting burned. I've been there myself, and learned some hard lessons. At the end of my run in the business, I wish I could have hit the rewind button and only scoped out a narrow variety of vehicles that I had the most knowledge on. I plan on re-entering the business soon. I've got a particular car in mind, the 1995 Ford Mustang. I rebuilt one of these, and I know all of the gory details for this car. Right now, they are a dime a dozen, and you can find them everywhere. My plan is to restore them and sell them, because this body style and the Fox body are the next ones which will become "nostalgic". Drill down and find out which pickup truck is your best prospect. Factor in common problems, cost of repair, and demand out on the market. Then stick with that model within a certain range of years, and make a name for yourself in that niche. You are guaranteed to have better success if you take that approach!

I can help with registering your brand with Amazon. Contact me if you would like to talk.

*It Depends What are you trying to accomplish? You can do this with an email provider like MailChimp, AWebber, or Memberful, HubSpot. There are a number of WordPress plugins that work with your site if you are going to gate content for members or release content at certain times. I'm happy to help more, but I'd need a little more detail to give you an appropriate answer. Book a call and we can discuss more. All the best, -Shaun

You'll want to establish what the lowest hanging fruits in terms of customer acquisition are and maximize their leverage to grow other channels. Where is your traffic coming from? Check keyword volumes for related searche terms and optimize your SEO strategy to retain that traffic. Run ad campaigns targeting competitor searches. Develop a strategic partnership with an existing company.

Google company formation agencies in respective areas Contact them and get the requirements for registering your company and start the process If you dont have money and starting small you really need to register a off the shelf company just to be legal in the country. You can have your partners as your directors, shareholder etc.. so they are legal too. Consider where your main business will be and start from there. A US citizen can buy a company for 150$ on internet. Heading to US? Open a company in Cayman Islands. Need more help, text me... Take action!!!

I mentor Startups and Business Leaders and of course was mentored myself in years past. The best way to find a mentor is to first know who you are. What are your goals, your unfinished challenges and projects? Where do you fall short in your own estimation? Generate these notes and form lists. I can help you with this part of your journey. Now we look for people that succeeded in those areas. I've found mentors and peers through a variety of places - we had shared connections (or none at all) on LinkedIn, I took part in LinkedIn discussion groups and commented on people's ideas, I sent cold emails and made phone calls to people I found interesting thereof. The weirdest place was guests on my favorite podcast or radio show, or even local TV. These are prominent people - local government officials, University Administrators, Business Owners, Entrepreneurs - but not too prominent that they can't take a call to help someone. Pay a sincere compliment and sincerely ask for help. Show you are driven and want to be someone. I can help you understand this more, and in any case, best of luck on this path.

I use ad monetization tactics to drive revenue for global mobile game brands. (Phase 10, Skip-Bo, Scattergories, etc.) Finding a way to monetize your users with ads without pushing them away is definitely a delicate balance. Answering your questions depends on 4 main factors: 1) Type of App 2) Number of daily impressions 3) Location 4) Revenue Goals. There are a number of ways to display ads in your app. Some include; banners, static interstitials, video interstitials, rewarded video and native ads. The most acceptable way to display ads in your app will depend on the factors I stated above. Are you trying to design your own solution or are you looking to partner with different ad networks (there are hundreds)? It is important to understand the types of partners and what types of ads are right for your App. I would recommend using an ad network mediation layer when you build your solution so you can 1) increase your fill rate 2) diversify your ad offering 3) simplify your reporting 4) maximize your revenue. If you would like more specifics just let me know, I would be happy to help you out.

Hi, I specialise in eCommerce strategy and marketing, helping eCommerce people make better decisions, and run more efficiently and effectively. The short answer is 'no'. Your target market isn't "subscription buyers" it's "cigar lovers". So unless there's a lot of subscription programs targeting the cigar lover, you're fine. However, if your market strategy is to go after people who like subscriptions - then I think you're not going to do so well! A cigar is a tough first sell! If you're coming at this from the "I love cigars" point of view first consider if Subscription is the best way to serve that customer base. If you're coming at this from the "I want a subscription business" point of view - then make sure you've researched cigars thoroughly before going down that road. Not least the legal restrictions on advertising - these differ from country to country, but it can be pretty hard to market tobacco online. Hope that helps. Chloe

How many people are you looking to roll this out to? I would caution against trying to automate what should be handled in person during the early days of your business. Talk to people. If they don't feel like you care (because you're automating the process), they won't give you valuable feedback.

Your first step is to bootstrap funding to obtain a rough prototype. Then you can seek out additional funding to develop additional iterations of a prototype. If a development expert doesn't weigh in here, contact the countless success stories on Kickstarter to find out what they have learned during their startup process.

yes. ofcourse. y not. but your product should be having USP(unique selling power) and quality edge. There are various products in the market which have single product line and also have investors.

A few years back, my ambition was the only part of my life that I cared about. I was neglecting my health, relationships, and my happiness — all in the name of "more". I got a rude awakening when my beard turned white and fell out in patches. I was LITERALLY killing myself with the way I was working. At that point, I took a self-destructive stance: I'd focus on my health and happiness more than work, even if it meant I wasn't making as much progress at work. The irony was that I had been overworking before, so my productivity and success IMPROVED when I scaled back and approached work with more balance. I'm currently living in Thailand with my girlfriend, working roughly 30 hours each week and earning twice as much as I did before. I'm also making more progress on my hobby projects than I did when I was only focused on work. I've also lost 40 lbs and generally just enjoy being alive. And my beard grew back. I've worked with some of my clients to bring in more balance, and they've seen similar improvements across the board. I'd be happy to discuss philosophy and strategy behind all of this with you if you'd like. Just remember: we work to create the opportunity to live life on our terms. If work is preventing us from living the life we want, we've lost sight of the purpose of working. Good luck!

The biggest mistake I see startups make is attempting to scale a product before validating the direction that their customers want it to go. You'll see companies validate pre-launch via closed beta testing, crowdfunding, or building landing pages and testing everything from messaging to price point to conversion funnel. Given that it seems like you're already doing some of this testing, I assume you've got a good handle on your options here. The challenge is this: looking for the 'perfect fit' is an incredibly easy way to justify never launching a product, and launching too early is a surefire way to spend your first few months scrambling to figure out why people aren't buying your product like you assumed they would. Launch when you are sure you've got a core set of customers that will buy your product. Don't wait for the 'perfect' moment - get it out to these customers as early as is practical (even earlier than you probably think) and use them to test your price points, messaging, and product fit. Scale when you know what is driving them to buy, the price they are willing to pay, and how much it costs you to bring them on board. The numbers that drive this decision vary for every company based on product and industry - if you're selling an online course for learning jiu jitsu, your optimal rollout is going to look much different than a consumer tech product. One thing holds constant - to scale, you need a repeatable process that you know will drive conversion and customer acquisition while keeping your costs at margins that make sense to your business. Questions I would make sure I can answer between launch and scale: 1. Can you say for certain that you know what customers are willing pay? It's great if they are paying $79, but do you know if those same customers would pay $99? What about monthly vs. annually? 2. Do you know where to find more of these customers in large numbers, and how to drive them to your site/product? If so, how much will it cost you to access these customers? 3. When you do drive them to your site/product, what percentage indicate a level of interest (giving an email address, signing up for your platform, getting on a pre-order list)? What percentage click with an intent to buy right away? It seems that you're already doing the right things by testing your product first and exploring next steps with an intelligent outlook. Keep that up and you'll continue to make decisions that move you in the right direction. Cheers, Chris Justice

The age of your site is a minor factor. Since there are several factors that will drive you to the top in Google, you have a great chance at ranking high with your new startup. I don't know the details of your company, but can offer you some basic guidelines. 1-follow onsite SEO best practices and ensure you new set is set up properly, 2-follow off-site SEO best practices to drive traffic to your site and build social proof, 3-run some basic PPC ads to further drive traffic to your site. I hope this helps and please don't hesitate to reach out if you have further questions!

I'd suggest that "best" depends on who you're targeting and what your conversion goals are. Have a look at Facebook ads, I've had better performance there recently.

The DIY startup method - build an audience around an area of your expertise, deliver that audience content they care about, then engage them to see what product of yours they would be willing to buy. Tim Ferriss (FHWW), John Lee Dumas (EOF), Bryan Harris (10KSubs), and countless others have taken this approach and turned out scalable businesses. It's great to have an idea of what visitors may want to buy, but the minute you build product before you build an audience for it, you immediately risk taking the wrong path at the expense of time, money, and momentum. Even without knowing your industry, how you engage your visitors should be the biggest piece here - it's great to bring a bunch of people to one place, but if you aren't getting their contact info and making them stick around with content, discussions, videos, emails then it's going to be much harder to bring them back, let alone get them to buy from you. This can be as simple as blog posts, as timely as real-time video webinars, or as easy as delivering curated relevant articles via email. The end result should be you as founders and/or your site being seen as the best place to get information your audience cares about. If costs to you are low (negligible, or easily offset by adding a small revenue stream), and you have the ability to deliver a knowledge base to your audience around your expertise, then go for it! The right level of engagement with that audience should give you some great insight into what they would buy, how much they would pay for it, and how likely they would be to share their experience with others. It can take a few shots to find the right balance of product vs. demand, but having that knowledge base and content allows you to be flexible in your approach. Don't assume you know what your visitors would buy - test your assumptions by simply asking them. Get an understanding of the biggest questions they want answered, answer them through content, and use this insight to build product. There is no 'right number' of visitors - even getting 100 email addresses can be a huge start to understanding what to build. Cheers! Chris Justice