As far as targeting a single high school, I don't know. But, in terms of platforms this audience uses, Tumbler, Instagram, Snap Chat & Vine would be good targets.

Hello, If you have time, I suggest that you learn coding yourself. That saves you money but takes a great amount of time to do. And if your interested, I'm a coder myself. You can give me a call and we'll discuss the details of your idea.

In my opinion, phone support is frequently requested but hardly ever needed. I worked at Twilio and as part of my role as a Developer Evangelist I responded to help desk tickets part of the week. We didn't do any phone support and we were able to help people effectively. The key is to be very detailed, thorough and courteous in all your correspondence and also to ask for clarification if you don't understand their questions. You should also have a library of online resources like documentation, frequently asked questions and forums that you can refer people to so they can easily find answers for themselves once you point them in the right direction. One caveat to all that though: I worked at another company that provided phone support but it was something you had to schedule and pay for in advance. At first, I thought it was crazy but our phone support people were busy all day helping customers. It wasn't a lot and it didn't even cover our costs but it prevented your phone from ringing off the hook and people calling to ask really stupid questions. Hope that helps! Also, if you're looking for technical advice on setting up phone support options I'd be glad to help you... over the phone! :)

Try using Geckoboard. There is definitely a time investment in the setup, but you can get a great suite of products/metrics integrated into one dashboard. https://www.geckoboard.com/

I disagree with Sal's answer that you shouldn't be pitching at conferences. I built a good chunk of my early network doing exactly that. To be clear though, Sal is right that most investors hate being "pitched" at a conference and that's because the vast majority of founders do it completely wrong. The right way is to selectively identify people that are attending that conference by screening them for relevancy and interest. It's your job to know who is in the room and to find the people most likely to be excited about what you're doing. The right way to do this is to use a combination of LinkedIn, Twitter, AngelList and Google to map attendees to relevancy of your company. You're looking for prior operational interest or successful investments that have similarities but not competitive overlap to your own business. Approaching them with a relevant and respectful opening line that makes it clear you know what they're about is a great way to start. And then either they will ask you what you're doing or you can find the opportunity to explain what you're doing. If they take interest, say that you'd love to reach-out and talk more in a few weeks time. The most important thing is not to press hard on closed doors and don't waste their time or yours trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole. The founders job is to be always raising awareness and building an army of people that are excited about and potentially helpful to the company at all times. As to the metrics that matter, Sal is correct that without knowing what kind of company you have, it's impossible to provide a useful answer to that specific part of the question. Happy to talk in more detail anytime.

There's no downside to raising on a note other than that any fundraising is time-consuming. It is becoming standard practice to raise money from angels on notes with caps adjusting upwards based on key points of the business proving more viable. The worst mistake I see many accelerator companies make is that they don't fundraise enough to really stand-out at Demo Day or whatever the conclusion event is for your accelerator. The reality of it is that there is significant accelerator fatigue and most cohorts from even top accelerators are failing to find much investor interest/enthusiasm upon graduation. Companies must really be striving to be the *most* exciting (by way of traction or evidence of viability) by the time they graduate, so raising additional money now makes a lot of sense.

10% of the total monthly sales churning on an absolute basis is near fatal. That means that within 5 months, you have 50% absolute churn per year, which reveals fundamental flaws with the service itself. Anything above small single digit churn is telling you and your team that customers are not seeing enough value in your product. I'd start by doing as many exit interviews as you can with those that have churned out, including, offers to reengage at a lower price-point while you fix the issues that matter to them. Happy to talk through this in more detail in a call.

A specific solution just came to mind utilizing wooCommerce. If WordPress is your platform, this could be very simple with a subscriptions plugin.

I own and operate several brick and mortar shops (health related) and have had good success with online strategies. By good success I mean that nearly 50% of my client base finds my business via online search. While I am certainly happy to share my strategies with you - I'd strongly suggest you do some initial work learning more about your market before taking action. If the goal is to build your business and gain more market share your strategy should include the highest probability venues that get you the highest return on investment (ROI). And this may or may not include online marketing. So social media and/or reviews may or may not be the top choices to invest resources in for your business. This will depend on the behavior of your market and your overall business strategy and business model. Of course it's up to you to decide how to build your business... You can take the "ready-fire-aim" approach and just give it a try. Just be prepared for a low probability of success using this approach. Even with excellent execution you'll potentially burn through valuable resources (time and money) that you could have otherwise spared if you were more patient and strategic. A wiser approach would be to invest in learning WHO your market is and where they are looking for your service or where you can find them to educate them about your services. And this will ideally be a part of your overall business strategy and the business model you constructed. Doing this initial work will save you time and money. In my opinion it's one of the best investments you can make in your business as these factors will all other business activities (including marketing) to give you the greatest probability of success and the greatest ROI. I am happy to help you with both approaches (though I'd strongly suggest the latter). Give me a call if you'd like to explore this further. If you are interested - message me and I'll send you a code for a free 30 minute consultation here on Clarity. I wish you the best of luck and massive success!

The Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) is applied in Ontario, Canada, to most goods and services, including marketing services. When determining whether to charge HST on marketing services, you should consider the following factors: 1)Exemptions and exceptions: Certain types of marketing services may be exempt from HST, such as services related to printed materials. 2)Client location: If your marketing services are provided to clients who are located outside of Ontario, you may not be required to charge HST. 3)Place of supply rules: The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has specified rules to determine the place of supply for services.

My approach is simple. If it comes from a trusted referal, then I use my free Clarity VIP link and still conduct the call using Clarity. If it comes in cold, and there's no association to a cause, alumni or area of interest, then I just say "I'd love to talk, but I'm heads down with Clarity and other existing commitments - if it's truly urgent and requires my advice, I conduct all these request via Clarity here: http://clarity.fm/danmartell" That works well and sets the expectations. Clay Hebert http://clarity.fm/clayhebert wrote a great post about that here: https://medium.com/@clayhebert/the-new-way-to-say-no-6a7d29282c1d

The best way to find board members is to find people in your industry (or market) that show signs of being someone who would enjoy being on your board. These are typically people who 1) Are on other boards similar to the kind of organization you're starting 2) Are part of organizations that give back to the community 3) Publicly display that they are charitable and give back. Using those filters, then you'll want to find people who have the right type of experience that will help you where you need. Ex: Operations, Fund Raising, Marketing, etc. The best way to get started is to find someone who's done it before and ask them directly (wink wink). Here's a list of people we like: https://clarity.fm/browse/funding/nonprofit/s/best-match/f/all

The first thing to understand is if they're looking to be a venture funded startup. Not all startups plan to raise money. If they have in the past, then issues equity is very standard and they should bring it up - if they havent, you can ask. If they aren't looking to raise capital, then having equity won't be that important so you should try to get fair market value for your skills unless you want to work with that company / team, then negotiate. If they are offering equity, then read through this: https://www.themuse.com/advice/getting-startup-equity-everything-you-need-to-know Hope that helps.

We're very lucky today to live in the "global village" we do. I can't imagine how hard it would have been for a young entrepreneur to find the right people before the world was so connected. Then again, I suppose that explains how so many entrepreneurs are popping up all the time today. Being an entrepreneur is not about going it alone, it's about identifying needs and being able to get the right team in place to get make your vision a reality. There is no better way to make yourself a successful entrepreneur than by finding the right people to help you when you need help. To run a successful business today you need so many skills which draw on so many fields that it's pretty much impossible to do it yourself, and that's ok... As an entrepreneur you should see your primary role as 3 fold: 1) You're the dreamer responsible for coming up with the next big thing and the plan to make it big 2) You're the communicator who has to be able to effectively turn your vision into a clear, communicable plan which you can share internally to help your team get it built, and externally to get your product sold 3) The financier in charge of coming up with the cash to get people paid and to get your idea off the ground. While you're bootstrapping you'll need to leverage any other skills you may have, to try to cut costs where you can, but it's always important to recognize that cutting costs while costing time is a net loss. Only cut costs when you can do as good a job as someone who you can get to help you, in the same amount of time. Find yourself couple of key resources you can afford, you can trust, and who "get it" and understand your communication style and you'll be able to press forward at a pace you'd never imagined.

If it were your own channel, I'd recommend this for WordPress: http://wordpress.org/plugins/youtube-analytics/ Since it is not your channel, though... this should do what you want: http://channelmeter.com/ Also, try this tool: http://www.socialbakers.com/youtube-statistics/ Hope this helps! Book a session with me if you need some clarity on your social media marketing plan. Pete

First thing to do is to research other crowdfunding sites other than the big two as neither was really meant to raise funds for startup businesses. I would suggest something in the nature of www.crowdfunder.com or www.seedinvest.com might better suit your needs.

You don't seem to have any customer engagement and informative work beyond the 10 articles I see on the site. If you are getting 10k UV already, you need to only combine content and email marketing to increase the visits, but if you really want to grow to 500K UV or more, you will need to do a lot of activities, repeatedly for about 6-9 months.. Then there are other things you can do.which will result in more downloads or purchases for you. (You should not assume that traffic means business, there are other methods such as Performance driven marketing, which is something you can easily qualify for...) Anyhow, if you just need traffic and links, here is a brief summary list of things you can do and it will generate traffic, will not be flagged or getting booted by Google for any algo changes...: Since Content is the KING, we will focus on content driven marketing, here is a rough layout of the activities: 1. Set a Regular Writing Schedule 2. Create a Free Giveaway Worth Wanting (but it should get you subscribers) 3. Create Your Social Media Accounts 4. Join Quora 5. Leverage Rich Snippets & Google Authorship 6. Interlink Your Posts 7. Leverage Your Expertise, do some presentations and publish them on slideshare and such places 8. Get a good Guest Blog done 9. Blog Commenting is important, but only so so... Forum Commenting will help you build up your online reputation 10. Expanding on Social Profiles, Advertising on Facebook, Marketing on LinkedIn, Google+ Pinterest (do checkout tools like hootsuite.com) 11. Create an Infographic, Gifographic at least 1 in a month, this is sure to get you good places and backlinks 12. Look for Interview Opportunities, yup, some PR and Help A Reporter Out (http://www.helpareporter.com/) they need stories & you can provide them, if any... will be fantastic. 13. Don’t Neglect Local SEO 14. Creating Animated & Whiteboard Explainer Videos (cost about 15$ on payperhour type sites) 15. Using Zemanta, a “Content Discovery Network” 16. The Power of Retargeting - yes, check out sites like http://www.adroll.com/ http://www.ebayenterprise.com/marketing_solutions/display_retargeting/ http://www.chango.com/solutions & https://retargeter.com 17. Syndicate your content, case studies through Outbrain.com type sites, that will show your quality posting in probably all top media sites. Hope this helps. Ravi VC

See Joan Stewart's website, PublicityHound.com . Joan was a journalist for years and is also a publicist, so her site will help you out a lot. I think she recently put together a pack of media templates you can purchase. If you don't see what you need, email Joan and she'll direct you to what you need. She's fantastic.

What a great question! You are on the right track. First, lets define Avatar as "An icon or figure representing a particular person." In business application, an avatar is a representation of your ideal client/customer. A business may have multiple avatars representing several target demographics. Some prefer to distill this down to one person as an “avatar.” I recently interviewed super entreprenuer John Lee Dumas of EOfire.com and he has a very clear Avatar he calls "Jimmy" that he uses for business decisions you may want to check out. I hope that you have already gone through the exercise of your UVP, or Unique Value Proposition. If not, may I suggest the worksheet on this page, first: http://bit.ly/1kYTLbf Ok, so once you've clarified the why choose me, then start working on your Avatar, that's the who, or as we marketers like to call them: personas that represent segments from your target market. You have to start somewhere, right? So do. Are you going to first focus locally in your zip code and surrounding area? That can be one piece in helping you visualize your Avatar's lifestyle. Target marketing has to do with breaking your potential global audience into segments, specifically only the potential buyers of our product, service, or cause. As much as we might be tempted, we can’t be all things to all people. We have to commit and put some stakes in the ground. Are you ready to write your personal ad? Who are you looking for? Some of the most basic questions you should ask in forming an idea of Customer Segmentation has to do with what these people want, need, think, and feel. No time is wasted from this exercise because it will ultimately lead you to where and with who they hang out (their tribe.) Why is that our desired end point? Because that virtual or real (coffee shop, tradeshow, website, search engine, twitter feed, health fair, street location, podcast, meetup, traditional media) is where I should be hanging out with my product, service or cause and shouting my UVP from the rooftops as part of the conversation! Taking this thought experiment all the way through will also assist you in the critical understanding of whether the segment is large enough for you to be successful. I like using the Personas app (available on iPad) to put forth a visual representation of my potential target markets, but a white board works too! Literally put in a photo representation of your Avatar with a Name, and start brainstorming out: Think and Feel? See? Hear? Say and Do? Hangs out with/where? For you, offering your B2B services, maybe explore linked in to find where your peeps hang out and get a clearer idea of, let's call her, Samantha. Samantha is a small business owner of a growing service business whose revenues just got in the black. She has two employees and she's looking to hire another. She is struggling with getting her website up and mobile friendly and feels like she needs to be more effective in communicating what she does. She is overworked, in her mid 40s and recently divorced with 2 boys ages 10, 12. She has little time for fluff and needs guidance in creating a system that will help run her business. Can you help Samantha? :-) If you'd like to get more tips that sound like this, I'd be tickled if you let me know if Sell Local. Think Global. speaks to you. It's my first book and I'm feeling very vulnerable putting myself out there! eep! Available now on Amazon: http://bit.ly/olgasbook

The answer is yes, but it always depends. Let me begin by saying that the more knowhow, etc. involved, the easier it is to sell something without any patent protection. Otherwise, you are trying to sell something without protection and you get no protection until the patent issues, which may take years. The acquirer may just run with it (I would) without licensing knowing there is no cost until your patent issues. Then, when you file, they will see your claims and try to modify their product around your claims. It is slightly vicious in nature. That said, I may not act much different if you file first, unless I can buy your patent or the license costs are very inexpensive. Secondly, many countries have absolute novelty and you will not be able to protect your invention there ever, even if a licensee arises and wants to enter those markets. This too, is a serious limitation for licensing. My conclusion would be that you are underfunded to address your IP and that I can get away with murder. Filing the application is your way of telling people that you are serious. That said, it is not necessary and I have a lot of clients that file later or never file.

I would think that they market the you are attempting to target would dictate what the best platform to start would be. Without knowing your market or idea, this is impossible to say. Both mobile and desktop apps have their benefits and traffic/search opportunities, but only if targeted correctly. I am not sure if this helps, but without more info this is the best I can do. I am willing to chat more, if you would like. Take care.

Four years ago, I started a local daily deal site which grew to the largest in East TN & Southwest VA. In that period, we pivoted by learning how to solve the digital marketing problems of the restaurants and spas we featured on our site. I have a number of tips for you on this. First, most small merchants will be lost and not truly see the value of SEO and citations. Those are long term efforts without short term results. Even then, the results are not tangible, at least not readily visible to the owner of a store. Reviews however are an immediate pain point - and also a quickly solved problem. So I use this as the way to prove value upfront to our clients. In fact, I have yet to pitch our marketing program to a small business owner and get a "no" since I began my emphasis on Reputation Management. Why? Because normally only disenchanted customers leave reviews. And the negative reviews seem to personally affect the ego of the business owner (as they should). Especially because they can massively affect bottom-line revenue, especially now in light of new developments and agreements between the search engines and the review sites. Reviews directly power search to a large degree. Feel free to reach out to me if you want to talk specific cases - I have found that the pain points and need are the same across almost all industries (hospitality, food service, medical, etc).

I like Harvest both for time-tracking and for invoicing clients. It's simple, which I love.

It seems like you have managed to move into the coveted market of Enterprise level SaaS, well done. If your market can sustain a high enough monthly cost to keep using your software then you are set. If so, you have a template for each compnay to follow and also a proven track record to sell from. Now you just need to find more companies and sell them a custom application for their businesses and get them paying a monthly fee for security and support. Unfortunately, if you are in a market where the businesses cannot afford a $2000/month+ application fee, you may need to step back and rethink where you have ended up. Let me know if this helps or if you need further assistance. Thanks.

As an angel, what I look for is founder/market fit. Does this entrepreneur have a fire in their belly to solve a problem and a really unique and inspired look at the market they are attacking? The motivation to angel-invest for me as an active entrepreneur is to build a strong network of founders who can help each other and share commonly applicable experiences.