If you have an enforceable contract, the client is obligated to pay for the services received. As a business owner, I would be very concerned if a SAAS was demanding upfront payment for 2 years.

Hi, check out my previous response here https://clarity.fm/a/10228

There is inherent risk to running a business and building a team of folks to help you grow it. That said, hiring the right people is paramount to your success and reducing the risk of theft or abuse. Hire people for their integrity rather than their skill set. Almost anyone can be taught skills of the trade, but no one "learns" ethics on the job. Lastly, many franchises have systems in place to reduce the risk of employee theft with verified cash drops, deposit tracking, and such. The cash in the register drawer is *ALWAYS* at risk of walking away. That's why many retailers require cash drops when the register reaches a certain amount. -Shaun

There are a lot of great resources about running a business on trusted sites like Inc.com, the Small Business Administration, and countless (countless) other advisors and experts publishing their advice for free. Additionally, udemy.com is PACKED with fantastic content available for $19 per course if you sign up on one of their deals. Another source of information is to approach a business mentor, someone who has "been there, done that" and made all the mistakes along the way. I have a blog post that covers how to approach a mentor (LINK: ). Running a business is often made more complicated than it actually is. Find a need. Talk to prospective customers. Listen. Fill the need. Rise & repeat. I'm happy to help more, just reserve some time here on Clarity and we can get your well on your way to launching your first successful business. =) -Shaun

Add the CEO on Linked In and tell them you want to intern for them!

Using Google Places API and storing the results in your own database likely violates the terms of service. Likewise, you are limited to the number of calls per day to the API. If you expect users to appreciate (and pay for) the software you are generating, you should do likewise. Go with the licenced database.

I think you're not fully embracing the lean startup methodology. Is your SaaS handling some operations that are a matter of life and death or critical mission thing for an organization? if the answer is No start with simplest option and do a soft launch and invite some carefully selected (50) beta testers. Get the service going and gather feedback as much as possible. Then when you're at version 1.5 or 2.0 you'd know the problem you're solving a lot better. Slavi, Orbisius & qSandbox

Your question is too generic and carries no details about what kind of business you are looking or and what niche you want to target but if you would like to sell the business when it matures (or nearly matures), better go for a single product business as it will have less complications and an easier exit strategy for you.

In China there is not much.And most of them did the work of reselling/localizing the US stuff into China,such as Alexa,PR. But nonetheless,here's a short list: http://www.aizhan.com it monitors Baidu rankings,index and stuff. http://www.chinaz.com tools and articles about SEO and SEM. http://www.cnzz.com website statistics and not so much analytics http://shu.taobao.com consumption indecies offered by Taobao

You'll need to include a lot more detail here. In what capacity are you recording the screen? Locally, you can use something like ScreenFlow, which is a third-party app you have to download and install. For a remote screen, there are several proprietary solutions that all require plugins. Without third party software or plugins, you can do this (on bleeding-edge browsers only) with WebRTC. This is currently way too unstable for a production rollout. But it won't be for too much longer. (This is an area where I can help, if you're looking into in-browser/custom solutions.) Your best bet is probably Google at this point, followed by actually using the various apps out there for the end you're looking for. See what works best for you. Good luck!

Personally, I think you sould focus more on social media than PR. PR can be great, especially if you need to deal with some bad press, but all PR tends to work very short-term. Social media can be a great way to build your brand and make a connection with your audience in a much more personal way than any PR can do. I would specifically hire a PR expert or agency that has experience and knowledge in other areas of web marketing, as these things are often tied together.

Once your profitable and have a concept that works - finding investors is not the problem, its getting rid of them. Who doesnt want to put money into something that has proven to work and make a return? Seeding and funding is more for people trying to build a concept they think will work, and need investors to make it happen. You guys are doing well, focus on increasing your revenue, monitization strategies and customer acquisitions. Dont give away a bit of your company for more capital - unless you fear your company is about to close if you dont get funding - then push on - learn to do more with less just like you did to get to where you are today. Most services are BS when it comes to expansion and growth. So my advice is always avoid funding if you can - the benefits -You stay in complete control - no responsibility to investors, no debt, if you actually solve the revenue problems then you will be capital positive. My recommendation is break down what excatly you want to do in terms of product developement and sales & marketing - come up with some budgets and what return you would expect - do this for two scenarios - one with no external funding and one with external funding - then get started with the no external funding you will quickly see that had you got funding for sales and marketing you would be literally getting an investor to throw their money in bin on the condition you will go back to the first plan anyway just to pay back your investor. Really hope this helps you out, all the best

Too little information to answer. Ask yourself these questions: * What can they get in your community they can't get anywhere else? * Is your community going to see a value *more* than what the people in the community provide, i.e., are there tools, processes, vetting, moderating work that you do, that provides high value * Are they going to save significant time, effort, money if they join your community? If you are able to answer yes to these, then perhaps charging would work. There are negative consequences too. Would be happy to help over a call.

First, I think you need to look at why no one showed up for your writing on Medium. Did you just publish and forget it? What's your view-to-read ratio? Are the people reading your articles engaging with it (or at least reading to the end)? Selling ebooks is about 5% writing and 95% marketing. I wish that weren't the case, but the fact is that most ebooks are utter trash: riddled with typos, mostly packed with useless information, and generally executed poorly all around. But those terrible ebooks sell because they're marketed well. You can find tons of free resources on marketing, or you can buy (warily) any number of books about marketing ebooks online. You can also talk to someone who's helped other people set up successful ebook-selling operations — I'd be happy to help. The basics are: 1. Write something people need. If no one has the problem you're solving, it won't sell. 2. Put out lots of content around the subject matter on your own site/Medium that links back to your sales page for more info/next steps. 3. Write for other sites with big audiences. Guest post about your subject matter. Most sites are constantly hard up for content, so you have a decent shot of getting a post run of you submit it properly. 4. Be consistent. You can't run two guest posts and expect millions of dollars in sales. Many of the best sellers are putting out dozens of articles a month. 5. Test and iterate. Set up simple split testing on your site. Watch the conversion rates from your articles and see where spikes and dips are happening. Adjust as necessary. Making money from ebooks is not easy, and it's mostly an effort in self-promotion and sales. But if you follow through and keep testing, there's a lot of money to be made. If you'd like an experienced set of eyes to help with putting together a launch/marketing strategy, I'd be happy to give you a hand. Let me know. Good luck!

Are you a professional? (I assume you'll say that you are) As such, you deserve to be paid for your service and skill. Rather than offer your services for free, focus your efforts on understanding the need of your big-brand clients. You can underpromise and over deliver without sacrificing the value of your product. By deeply discounting, or offering your service for free, you actually come off as an amateur who doesn't deserve (or believe in) your rate. You deserve better.

In the realm of custom work, fixed prices are dangerous ground. It puts you in a position to either say "no" or ask for more money when a project has extra needs, and that's never a comfortable situation to be in. You said yourself that speaking to a lead is the best way to make a sale. I'd echo that. I'd also argue that letting potential clients know that custom animation is complex, and prices will vary based on their needs (which require a conversation to determine), is a great way to start out the relationship honestly. If you're worried about lack of a stated price being a deterrent: people who shop on price without any eye toward quality are not the clients you want. If your portfolio is good, a serious lead will contact you and several other shops to get an idea of your approach and pricing. The BEST clients will hire the team that makes the best initial impression and shows the highest level of understanding the project; price will be a secondary consideration. My general stance is: if you're selling on price, you're doing it wrong. If you're selling custom work, sell custom work. Don't try to shoehorn custom work into a prepackaged box; it'll turn off high-end customers and attract the deal-seeking, high-hassle clients that are less fun/lucrative. Good luck!

I've found great success in using LinkedIn for find accredited investors individually. Additionally, look at industry-related news websites (GeekWIre or TechCrunch, for example), specifically those who cover funding. Their announcements include the groups backing the project.

you are on the right track mate, i have been working with apps for over 4 years, and only recently been working with paid advertising - there is a lot you can do for free marketing - just google it, and keep trying and learning - this is great learning tool for understanding the entire App market place dont let the lack of funds stop you - i built everything with nothing myself also. Just focus on this Your app is your business - your product. Your active users are your customers - when a customer uninstalls your app you have done something wrong - and have lost a customer. Focus on the quality and service of your app. Once this is perfect then you can worry about marketing - u dont want to market a product that doesn't work well. Start a blog - talk about your experiences, what you are working on the app, get people involved, have a beta test group for testing out new versions, work on your play store keywords. Analytic are good for dissecting each parts of your app - just like any business - treat your customers well and with respect and you will get it back. All the best - the app game is not an easy one but as long as you take it seriously, you will outperform most apps by a mile. As really most are just devs trying to make a living by flooding the market with cheap apps, so quality always outperforms

The easiest way to promote on a shoestring budget is guest posts. Write about the problem your app solves on sites where your target customers will read them. Make sure you've got a strong marketing funnel for the people who click through your articles — if you're not capturing leads properly (and converting them) all your marketing efforts are wasted. I've worked with a lot of new businesses and helped them bootstrap to success using this approach. It works as long as you stay consistent and *truly* help your reader in the articles (trust is huge). I'd be happy to review your strategy and help you adjust it for maximum exposure (and potentially adjusting your inbound funnels). Let me know if you'd like to set up a time. Good luck!

What do you/the founders want to do? The scenarios you describe all have their own positives and negatives, and all represent very different paths. I'd like to dive more into your statement, "we have tried in the past to get our marketing team up and selling..." I suspect your marketing team was tasked with doing non-marketing things. Like selling. Marketing and sales are very different, although they are aligned. If you'd like to explore this more, book a call. Or you can add additional details here.

I have done exactly this with my business. I originally made mobile apps for entrepreneurs. You can find a number of them on Problemio.com - but after that I wrote books based on the apps, started a YouTube channel, made online courses and started coaching people. I completely self-branded as a business coach/expert, and have turned it into a business. I can explain exactly what I did if you want to have a conversation about it.

Are you looking for a partner or a vendor?

Do you have a contract with them that expressly states 1) who the ideas belong to, 2) establish the timeline or expectations of the project, 3) when the working relationship is concluded? It is not unethical to work with one firm to produce one part of a project, and another to implement or take action on the plan. It *is* unethical to go behind the back of the first firm if the intention or contract states that you will continue working with them. Consider their position. If you were them, how would you interpret the actions you're proposing? Happy to help more if I know more details. -Shaun

Hello, I have worked on a number of rebranding projects for large companies, and can tell you color is very important. Color gives the subconscious context to what your brand is about. For instance, most Eco brands tend to use Green as a base. This is also why McDonald's spent millions recently in changing all the designs of the Mcdonald's in store and branding from red to green. Blue typically denotes many business to business companies. Look at IBM, AT&T as examples. Depending on what your business is, will also determine how much the color scheme will define who you are to the market.

I've never experienced Google not giving *any* reason, typically they give a range or number of reasons that could have possibly triggered a disapproval. Do you have any other insights?