Hi First of all, the fact that you are talking about market validation is great. I've seen so many startups invest time and money, only to find that no ones wants/needs their product, or that they only want a certain aspect of it, or they aren't willing to pay the requested price. So you're already one step ahead. Answer: the sooner you validate your product, the better! That said, the version you are validating needs to be representative of the end product, or else the validation isn't reliable. So in your case, I would: 1. create a business model canvas (which is what all startups should start with before creating a business plan), 2. Setup a Wix or Wordpress website (this can be done for free / very low costs). On the website, include the price of the product, and enable people to order it (even if it doesn't exist!). I am happy to explain how this can be done even though you don't yet have the final product and by still being fair to the people who click the "buy/order" button. 3. Spend a small amount (say $100 - but depends on your budget) validating the idea. This way, after only spending a very small amount, you will be able to know (if done right): a. Do people like your product. b. Do people want/need your product (not the same as 'a'). c. Are people willing to pay for your product? d. How much are they willing to pay? (you can check this by having 2 landing pages for payment - each with a different price). I'm happy to help you with this matter further, as this is a critical stage. Best of luck!

I would suggest using your old domain, unless you are changing your complete, brand identity into a new entity. 1. Your domain name is a part of a hierarchy that Google reads, meaning that if you create a new domain, it will lose that ranking. 2. The new domain also means you will "tell" the search engines that you have a new website. The age of your website gives you relevancy according to Google and the older it is, the better you rank. 3. The activities that you have on your old website help with Google ranking and are indexed. This means you will either need to re-create these and build them back up with the new domain or may just lose some of the content and structure that you had. Of course, there are several other factors that Google uses to help you rank, but these are all very important and take time to build. If your website is being rebranded with completely different services, then it's worth making the change. Brand identity, quality and transparency are always first. If it is simply additions and changes, then it's best to keep the SEO value from the site you have. Continue to use what worked for you with the SEO and add into it as an improvement. Have more questions? I'm available to help. Please contact me at any time or set up a call.

Ideally yes you would want to work with someone who is a Food Scientist or Chemist who can give appropriate recommendations for preserving the food, multiplying the recipe and etc. Also, depending on your location, there may be differences based on the governing food or agricultural body for requirements to commercialize a recipe or get appropriate licensing. That way you can ensure that you and the baker that you partner with follow necessary protocols and scale the recipe effectively.

New answer: yes, you should have one.

Hello! I want to ensure that I understand the question. Are agents having to call customers back in order to resolve their issues or concerns? If so, I would ask how well-versed are the agents in the business/product? Do you have a knowledge base or ongoing training to help the agents to stay on top of the changes in questions that are being asked and how to resolve certain issues? I'd love some more information about the timing and reasons behind the timing to make a better recommendation.

It depends on how similar the businesses are. For example if you are moving from selling shoes to selling hats versus you are moving from selling shoes to creating web apps – they are very different situations. Since you said that the marketplace model is the same, then it is probable that you can reuse a lot of the code from your current website. Both React and Node.js are up to date tools for building web apps. An experienced developer should be able to do this for you.

Hard to give specific advice without knowing what the app is. If you’re interested in going down the sales route I can assist as I have sold several apps and developed 100s for clients. On the revenue side, I am assuming your already tried a freemium model with in app purchase as well as ad supported? Do you capture users email address? Are you utilizing push notifications properly? How many DAUs?

I'll divide your question into 2 questions, because I am not sure which one you're really asking :-) 1. Should I hire him despite the costs involved? You seem to already agree to this, based on what you wrote ("I am willing to set aside...assuming I see some ROI..."). 2. How to I justify his high salary to other employees? A few options: a. You don't tell them. b. The CEO's compensation can be structured in a way that his 'salary' isn't that high (and this is what the other employees will see - so no problems), and he gets a large bonus based on results (which could be measured within 6 months and then 12 months). This is also better for you seeing that you don't know how good is will be. Additionally, if he is so confident he can do the job, he shouldn't object to that structure. c. Make it clear to your employees, that if he manages to generate more income for the company, they too will benefit from it (end of the year bonus/increased salaries/holiday gifts?). d. the tough option: tell them that if you don't make some hard choices, there won't be a company for them to work at down the line (due to the yearly decrease in profits) It's your company (which you seem to have managed successfully), so I am sure that you know what would work best with your employees. I'm happy to help you construct the employment contract with the potential adviser. Good luck p.s.: let me know how things turned out. I'm curious :-)

Sounds wonderful. Well done. In order to find commercial viability (or a business model), it would be best to try answer the following question: which 'pain' / problem does your solution solve for people (or can solve for them with certain changes). For example: if there is a known problem/pain of people who come to Nigeria and are then unable to communicate properly because of the language barrier, then this could be a wonderful tool (mobile app?) for them, which they would be willing to pay to use. Or maybe vice versa: many Nigerians have difficulty speaking English to people who come to Nigeria (although you need to be sure that they would be willing / able to pay for your service). I think that there are many other options and would be happy to help you discuss them (free of charge - with the intention of 'partnering' with you if it looks to be profitable) - https://clarity.fm/assafben-david/probable653 Good luck

These apps are as good as the overall functionality that you require. Goodbarber is probably the better choice overall amongst the two. Goodbarber has more options when it comes to making design changes and also has many different templates you can choose from. Appypie well sucks. The interface for making design changes is very basic so you can just take a basic designer course to learn to apply your ideas using the interface of goodbarber. As far as the backend is concerned there are quite a few options that you can browse through. Creating logins, integration with databases etc are pretty much taken care off. So if your goal is to develop good prototypes for your business idea for basic fitness apps etc. good barber should be fine. You can use good barber possibly for a longer life cycle if you could hire and outsource the work to developers in Eastern europe to add some additional basic functionalities to your app within the platform. At the end however, it will come to the idea and how you want it to be executed. I hope this answers your question. If you have any further let me know.

Hello! Do you have questions about specific social media platforms or how to grow and scale the business?

There are a few ways you can go about doing this. The first way is to get your business into trade shows and do some old school marketing. More exposure for your company only increases your chances of getting in with a big company. Ideally there will be a buyer for home depot. In case you did not know what a buyer is, they typically work on the corporate side of businesses. Their primary job is to introduce new products into their company's stores, and to manage the ones that are already in the stores. If a buyer thinks that your product will sell better than the competition, then they will bring your product on. There are a few variables that can go along with this. Feel free to call for more info on that. The second way is to file for a new product submission. You have to contact home depot and request the form. They will ask various questions such as financials of your business ( costs, retail costs, margins, logistics etc. ) Once submitted, it will take 60 days for a representative to reach out to you. Feel free to reach out to me with any question. I am always available to help.

Your best bet would be to connect with a few folks in the talent acquisition departments at each company on LinkedIn. Once you are connected, you can follow up with a kind note asking for more information on employment opportunities and advice on getting started in those organizations. They will be able to best guide you are areas of the organization that you might be interested in working and what types of positions to look out for - as well as the types of things they look for in new hires.

This is not an easy question as there are many items to consider. Management structure, wages, job descriptions, benefits offered and more. Turn over is a costly part of business, instead of asking the question what is acceptable, I would ask what is not acceptable. Make changes, get insight, conduct exit interviews and find out why you seem to have turn over. Make adjustments accordingly.

Approach it as if you were applying for a position in an organization. You will want to find the right industry, the right management team, the right opening on the board [either governance or advisory], the right person to help you. Next create a statement that says why you on this board. Then sell it.

This varies from $500 onwards. More information is required, i.e. is there a subscription, payment integration? What about membership roles and what will each member get once logged onto a website?

In hopes to point you in the right direction, as it relates to the future of society and business advancements; A company that has arguably the most potential for drastically altering and revamping the way professionals execute verifications, background checks, and other skillset certification validations etc. etc. - is the wide spreading Smart CARDS. Not the mini cars, but the universal ID Cards that contain your underground pass, you medical records, your financials, and your criminal records. All in one. Whether or not you feel that is a good thing, is up to you. I think that it has terrible implications and far greater potential for it to be misused than it would serve as an actual "perk." Last bit I might add, is that you should look into the fantasy sports & gamer betting app called Dribble, based out of London. Thats the other token I hope will send you in the right direction. Sorry for not having a go-to direct answer for you. Best of luck.

In my experience there are a few things that you want to focus on with KPIs, prior to technology - if you have not already. 1. Validate that the calculations are consistent throughout the organization, regions etc. 2. Validate that the selected KPIs are truly indicators that will help drive success. 3. Validate that each KPI and calculation is understood by the people accountable as well as the managers reviewing. 4. Have regular meetings or coaching sessions with staff members and managers to review KPIs. The display method depends on what technology you have available. If can auto-calculate the data and have it pulled into a dashboard that compares items (by person, over time, locations, groups, etc.) that is great. However, you can do something as simple as a Confluence page or an excel spreadsheet. I find that it is most important to make sure that the data is very clear and concise. People should be held accountable, but they should also have an opportunity to be coached so they can improve. Feel free to give me a call if you would like to discuss in more detail.

Not clear on the type of software you’re looking to get this info on but go here and it’s likely going to have data you want and i think you can also pull reports / lists for a fee. Lmk if this works. Enjoy! https://builtwith.com/

Hi: Now that you have some experience under your belt, you know what you like and don't like about a relationship with an accountant. You also know more questions to ask before you start your next engagement, such as: * What do you base your fees on? * What do you provide on a monthly basis for your standard fee? On a quarterly basis? On an annual basis? * How often do we review the contract? * How much extra is doing the book keeping? * How do you help ease the money management pains of running my business? Once you've found an accountant who answers such questions to your satisfaction and determined what rate you'll be paying monthly, assess the time the accountant will work on your business, calculate the hourly and compare that to your hourly. If you're comfortable with that difference and with the fact that a professional will be overseeing your finances, then it makes sense to sign on with him or her. If you wish to discuss, send me a PM through Clarity for 15 free minutes. Cheers, Kerby

When it comes to brands like Gucci and other designer clothes, these are sold under license from the houses themselves or buy distributors. You could apply to become an authorized retailer of their brands. Not following these channels could lead to creating a gray market or black market supply, both of which could be seen as illegal supply of goods. I would be very wary of doing business that does not follow the proper channels.

Yes, you can vest equity based on milestones instead of time. Just be clear in defining what the milestones are and what constitutes acceptable performance so neither party feels there is a "moving goalposts" situation. For more specific information, please feel free to set up a call!

I think you are missing the market research step. You need to ask the people that you would be targeting, because at the moment, I'm unsure why someone would use your product, over say using a platform where they can hire an online tutor and learn from them, or use Rosetta for example. I get that you have the learn about Latin Culture component, but are potential clients really falling over themselves to learn more more about this market, that they would pay for it, especially when google is so helpful. Also, freelancers, entrepreneurs, business owners etc is a pretty large group, maybe start with narrowing that down, then asking them directly, if it would be something they want to buy, or you could also test the idea using something like Udemy. If you need any further help with this, feel free to book a call with me!

Hi: Not sure how well you know the market you're targeting, but to best know what you need in a partner, get a strong handle on what the target market needs. Who is your ideal customer? What pain points does she or he have? What is your solution to those pain points? Is it unique (so you need to educate)? Or is it a variation on an existing solution? Once you have a handle on that and you validate it with potential customers, ask how their current providers handle the relationship. Dig into those likely competitors and learn what you can about their business models. What are their commissions based on? How do they manage the business while conducting business development? What's the most valuable aspect of the business? If you wish to discuss, send me a PM through Clarity for 15 free minutes. Cheers, Kerby

Hi This is a very broad question on: 'what makes someone a successful entrepreneur?' and 'how to raise seed funding?' Entire books have been written on how this is done, so any attempt to give you a professional answer in just a few lines would be unprofessional. Nevertheless, I will say that there are numerous factors that affect an entrepreneurs ability to raise early stage funding, among them are (in order of importance): 1. The team (how long they've been together, their skills, their past experience, their passion)/ 2. existing customers / practical market research: how many existing users/clients are there. If your product/service doesn't exist yet, then how many people showed that they would buy the product/pay for the service (you can check this without actually having the product/service). this information is very important to investors (just throwing out potential numbers doesn't cut it). 3. The idea - yes, the idea only comes 3rd, as in most cases you will pivot (change the idea) at least once or twice before reaching the final version of the product/service. 4. Your connections / the amount of investors you approach. 5. Timing / luck. If you give me more specific information (such as the type of product/service, the market, the team etc..basically your 'deck'), I will be happy to try advise you on the best way to raise money. For example, for a product, you should try avoid crowdfunding platforms unless you already have the entire manufacturing process and selling/shipping process ready. If not, you will be seeing 'fake'/copied versions of your product even before you hit the market. Good luck