You will find a number of third party services that will offer you discounted USPS shipping including stamps.com, shippingeasy.com, shipstation.com, etc. Note that many of these services are getting bought up by stamps.com, which actually may end up benefiting everyone as they will have more leverage to get better rates from USPS. You'll also be able to get a discount when you use some shopping carts like Shopify.com. Bottom line - shop around and see which one will give you the best rates - the higher the volume, the better the rate!

Asterisk is a good choice for integration as it is customizable to meet the needs. If you want to break into larger business you may also want to consider Cisco Call Manager with its API access. This is widely deployed in corporate America in mid to large corporations.

Ah, Tinder for introverts? I have used SurveyMonkey before and I am using it now to test an online/on demand PR course that I am filming. Yes, it is a great idea to test with SurveyMonkey and it is a very easy site to use. You can add the link to your survey on all social media and in an email. I would start by emailing all of your contacts. However you may want to consider giving your testers something to try. Have you developed a prototype? I also recommend finding out what people think about your idea via meetups and events and by creating an opt-in page. Let me know if you need any help.

First things first - you have 2 ways to monetise. 1 - build an audience 2 - get paid to write (not necessarily on your site). 1 - How to get readers and build an audience If you have an audience then advertisers will pay to promote to your audience. It's important that you ensure your audience find the adverts relevant and appropriate or they will unsubscribe. As a fashion blogger you can often get free product (clothes) from retailers in exchange for your writing about them. I recommend you then sell the clothing to raise funds. When you're a very good popular blogger you can charge money, till then, ask for product. The easiest way to get paid is to install Google AdSense on your site and in your email newsletters. I use FeedBlitz.com as my newsletter distribution service and they also insert adverts (from a different service) into the newsletters. 2 - Get paid to write - go research the online freelance marketplaces like Upwork.com, guru.com, freelance.com and find paid writing gigs. You can often re-purpose writing for your own site at the same time. I often re-use Answers from Clarity.fm for my own blog. Here's a good list of places to learn more http://www.bloggersclub.com/ is an agency representing bloggers to brands. http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/sites-to-get-paid-blogging/ Read anything by Neil Patel on how to grow your audience http://neilpatel.com/2016/01/17/six-figure-consultant-4-proven-services-every-blogger-can-offer-to-make-money-online/

Whenever you assign them a task, break down the task into small chunks. Make the chunks as small as you can (within reason, and to the extent that your knowledge allows), and tell your devs that if any chunks seem large, that they should further break those chunks down into bite size pieces. For instance, for the overall task of making a new webpage, _you_ might break it down as follows: 1) Set up a database 2) Make a form that takes user email, name, and phone number and adds them to database 3) Have our site send an email to everyone above the age of 50 each week When your devs take a look at it, _they_ might further break down the third step into: A) Set up an email service B) Connect it to the client database C) Figure out how to query the database for certain users D) Have it send emails to users over 50 You can keep using Asana, or you could use something like Trello which might make more sense for a small company, and might be easier to understand and track by yourself. In Trello you'd set up 4 columns titled, "To Do", "Doing", "Ready for Review", "Approved" (or combine the last two into "Done") You might want to tell them to only have tasks in the "Doing" column if they/re actually sitting at their desk working on it. For instance: not to leave a task in "Doing" overnight after work. That way you can actually see what they're working on and how long it takes, but that might be overly micro-manager-y At the end of each day / week when you review the tasks completed, look for ones that took a longer time than average (since, on average, all the tasks should be broken down into sub-tasks of approximately the same difficulty). Ask them about those tasks and why they took longer to do. It may be because they neglected to further break it down into chunks as you had asked (in which case you ask them to do that next time), or it may be that some unexpected snag came up, or it may be a hard task that can't be further broken down. In any case, listen to their explanation and you should be able to tell if it sounds reasonable, and if it sounds fishy, google the problem they say they encountered. You'll be able to get a better feel of their work ethic and honesty by how they answer the question, without worrying as much about what their actual words are. Make sure that when you ask for more details about why a task took longer, you don't do it in a probing way. Make sure they understand that you're doing it for your own learning and to help predict and properly plan future timelines.

You should consider purchasing a company already in business that provides those services in one of the "business friendly states", Delaware, Texas, Nevada. Doing so will set you apart from your competitors and will give you credibility based on the reputation of the company you are purchasing.

Side Note: I would have loved to have done this for my wife's wedding bouquet - and even more recently for the flowers my daughters carried as flower girls in a dear friend's wedding. Very cool concept! People are far more likely to believe what they can see. Produce a short video that shows your process - from start to finish - so they can see the magic happen. It can be quick clips of each stage showing the exciting moments (like putting the flowers in, and sealing the glass). This doesn't need to be (and probably shouldn't be) more than 30 seconds. Example Storyboard: Scene 1 - We take amazing flowers (3-5 seconds) Scene 2 - and preserve them by "xyz" (10-15 seconds) Scene 3 - and seal them in glass to keep them beautiful forever. (10 to 15 seconds). Hope that helps! Cheers, Ryan

Take a SMALL deposit upfront (the actualy - not marked-up cost - of the materials. That way if they skip out on you at least you didn't lose anyting. Second, you won't give them back their car until they pay, so you always have their vehicle as collateral. The point at which you buy materials will depend on how long the lead time is before you get them, and how quickly you're guaranteeing the service. In this day and age, the faster the better. How long will it take you to paint the vehicle? You should schedule their appointments before they pay. You can start with a free "consultation" where they bring their car in, you walk them through the process, and explain to them how its going to work. I would have the option to accept deposits online, but anything outside of that, I would not. In person, you need to be able to accept cash AND credit...especially credit. My suggestion is to have a process like this: 1) customer calls asking for a paint. Likes what you say, agrees to use your service 2) Collect the deposit 3) Go get the materials 4) Schedule a time for them to drop-off their vehicle AFTER you've purchased the materials so there's less downtime 5) Paint the vehicle 6) Customer picks up the vehicle and pays I'm more than happy to speak with you on this further. Feel free to schedule a follow-up call and I can walk you through this step-by-step: https://clarity.fm/taylormitcham

Most payment processors on the internet have a Recurring Billing option to bill for a specific interval for a specific recurrence count. I recall Authorized.net specifically does it and can meet PCI compliance. Most processors offer recurring option but may not provide a daily option. You may need to a custom solution such as Authorized.net Customer Information Manager (CIM) for dynamic recurring billing (you bill your customers different amounts or on different days each month).

How to start a company: 1) Come up with an idea (one that can make money) 2) Build a prototype (hardware, software, whatever) 3) Get evidence that people want it 4) Further refine the prototype and start selling it 5) When you've sold your first thing you now have, "a company" At some point in that path you'll probably want to A) Register your company (usually before step 4) B) Get a cofounder (usually some time before step 4) C) Get investment (usually not until after step 3) to be able to grow faster

Hi there. It depends a lot on your budget and what is needed. If you are looking only for some initial site audits, which would include full qualitative and quantitative research, testing ideas, identifying low-hanging fruits, funnel drop-off points, etc or if you also want someone to implement the experiments. The reasons for a high bounce rate are many but the first place I would look at would be the relevance between your clients' landing pages and the banners/content that are bringing the users to the site. Also, do they have a clear Unique Selling Proposition on their landing pages? Is it clear what the site is about and what they will find there? If you are looking for more information and ways on how you can reduce their bounce rates, please feel free to message me and I will be more than happy to help.

Team is the most critical component for a venture builder organization. You need to hire people who have the right "studio mindset", who accept your vision and operating procedures and who can work on multiple startup initiatives in parallel. Also here you can find some more hints about CEO selection for the portfolio companies: https://medium.com/@aszig/startup-studio-advice-1-how-to-build-the-founding-team-of-a-studio-938efd0caffe#.4hb3n7jy8

Depends on how you plan to get hired. If you go the traditional route, which I say is akin to using stones and clubs in today's era, then you want your resume littered with keywords the HR departments of the large companies you're targeting are looking for. If you want to do something that will take a bit more effort, but will get you a much better-fit role, create content and get it in front of the people who have the power to hire you. I describe this second approach, which I have used to get four custom-made job offers and roles created just for me, in this radio interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW7VITbQPzU Speaking plainly, there are a ton of "you IT guys" running around out there. So your first job is to Stand Out. Stand out to employers. If you don't do this, you never get the interview. They have to want to meet you. And a run-of-the-mill resume isn't likely to accomplish this. Make a list of employers you'd like to work for. They should fit a profile: size, industry, top officer style, culture, etc. Then create your content, and start marketing it--get it in front of the executive who has the power to hire you. LinkedIn is a good way to do this. Here are a couple blog posts describing the rest of the process: http://www.salestactics.org/?s=job+hunting Most of all, Have Fun! Yes, it is a job to get a job, but this way you are meeting the kind of people you want to meet, and showing them how you uniquely create value. As they keep seeing your content, their minds will begin to turn to "How can I make use of this person within my organization?" And that's when the seed of the idea of customizing a role for you appears.

Did you lose your passion for your startup or have you not been rewarded with the success you thought you should have attained? There is nothing wrong with moving on to another project, sometimes it's the "next" thing we do that brings success however oftentimes when I work with individuals who are starting the issue is unreal expectation and not recognizing the small success. I do believe we frequently know what the answer is we just don't want to make the decision. We are afraid of what we may lose instead of what we stand to gain. Trust yourself and keep falling forward friend.

There are a couple possibilities: 1) The perception you're creating with your ad, and the perception you're creating on the app store page are not matching up. So the type of people that are being attracted to your ad, are not being attracted to your app store presentation. Meanwhile, people that would be attracted to your app store presentation are never getting there because they're not attracted to your ad. This discrepancy between ad and store presentation could be due to many things including bad looking screenshots (or just different from what they pictured from the ad), bad reviews (or no reviews), etc. 2) There may be some inherent flaw in your product that doesn't appeal to humans in general. An example of this could be a cost that is far above what most people would be willing to pay. If you'd like advice more tuned to your actual product, send me a link and I'll be happy to take a look at it.

You can try here, there will most likely be some 'experts' in the mix of people that check it out. https://www.reddit.com/r/AlphaAndBetaUsers https://www.reddit.com/r/NewProducts Also, I would do a search through Clarity for 'wordpress' or 'video' and book a call with someone that's an expert in the field. Send a link via a Clarity message and they might have time to check it out briefly before your call, and then they can also go through it with you on the call. Other than that, you could google blogs about wordpress plugins and contact them. best of luck, Lee

Here's a good guide to get you started: https://adespresso.com/academy/guides/facebook-ads-beginner/create-first-facebook-ad/

Hi, there are a few different possibilities I’d look into, based on this limited information: First, I’d double check that you set up the ad campaign so that you’re paying by CPC (and not CPM), and that you’re looking at website clicks specifically and not clicks overall (the latter includes, likes, comments, etc). Are the ads in the same ad set? Are they running at the exact same time? Against the same target? Facebook ads are priced on a bidding basis, and the number of advertisers you’re competing against may vary. Second, consider the amount of text on the image: If you have more text on the image, Facebook warns that the cost of your campaign can be higher. Finally, take a look at your relevance score: This is a score on a scale of 1 to 10 for how relevant Facebook thinks your ad will be to the targeted audience, and your cost will be higher if relevance is lower. Get in touch if you want to dig into the details of your results together and plan an effective strategy for your next campaign!

I am not a tax expert and this is not legal advice. But I believe that the only reason to secure a 501c3 (as opposed to one of the designations for a nonprofit membership group) would be to provide tax deductions to donors. If all you need is an entity that won't pay income tax (like a fraternal org), then that might be an easier way to go. Depends on what you are trying to achieve.

Hello, this is Ann. I am a business coach for small entrepreneurs with a lot of experience in business. About your question, I would love to make some suggestions. Scannable or Evernote are developed for this purpose. They are created by verified provider, so you don't have to worry about the quality. In addition, if you want to have a variety of choice, you can log on AppStore and simply search the phrase "scannable pdf". If you have any other question related to business tools or strategies, please remember that Ann is here. Have a nice day!

There are only two ways to do it. Option 1: You could just post an update on your feed saying, "hey everyone I'm headed to [conference] on [date] in [location]. Let me know if you're around and we can meet up!" That will at least get to people that check in on Linkedin occasionally. Option 2: The way your doing it now (manually) Linkedin made it impossible to message multiple people at a time without manually adding their names (or clicking each person), one by one. You can't paste in a list of names like you can in email. You have to put in a single name, click the profile that pops up, then put in the nest name, etc.

Google is your friend: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsive_web_design

You can use WordPress as a REST API, which allows you to read/write data from WP in JSON format. However, this won't be as performant as other database solutions, so you may want to consider alternatives unless there's a strong business reason to use WordPress. I've built apps without WordPress, and also with WordPress as a back-end to meet a client's requirements, so I'd be happy to discuss the pros and cons with you if you'd like a second opinion. Good luck!

Do you have a clearly defined target audience? If so, great! If not, that would be the first place to start. Second, where does your target audience hang out, online and off line? Be specific and create some lead generation strategies to reach them with a call to action. Hope that helps.

I have worked in the mortgage industry for over 20 years. My experience spans origination, MSR, banks and mortgage companies. I understand the current issues with mortgage pricing, servicing, and regulatory concerns. I have a very deep research pool and can provide analysis, commentary, and opinion on the current state of the mortgage industry and the outlook for the players and the industry as a whole.