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Steven Brown, Chairman at Etienne Lawyers
If you use Stock images you will not have exclusive use of the image. As such competitors if they find out could use the image and you may not have any ability to stop them from doing so thereby allowing them to poach your business look and feel.
Yee Trinh, Cofounder at SavvySME
Just because you operate as a sole trader, does not mean you need to be the face or brand of the business. It really depends on the business. There are few businesses that would require you to be the face of the business. The most obvious one stemming from the members on our site would be consultants and business coaches. However, there also exist many accountants, lawyers, web developers and otherwise that have their businesses built around a distinct brand. Being a sole trader business does not mean you are the sole person in the business.
With that said, whether you are incorporated or operating under a sole trader license, your business needs a strong brand to succeed. Your point of difference, your UVP and image amongst all the other intricacies of brand development need to clearly designed and executed to optimise the success of your business.
Melvin Wong, Founder at Lifefram
You start with a provisional patent. Then you have a year to think if you wanna file a non-prov patent out of that patent which is more complicated and needs more $$$. To learn more, check my free YouTube course -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJV8TrKV4-M&list=PLviabXoRMqnfI29AMVSEdbTs7LDXVN517
Most patent regulations and laws are generally the same across the world, so what works in US should work in AUS too.
Stuart Reynolds, Partner at Fullstack Advisory
Business development and marketing are related, but different concepts. They operate at different levels.
I think of the two areas essentially as ‘business-related’ and ‘customer-related’ respectively. It’s not perfect, but it’s one way of breaking down the concepts.
For example, ‘business-related’ (or business development) activities are about growing your business at its operational level. It might involve salespeople visiting prospects or business-to-business relationships.
Customer-related (or marketing) activities correspond with reaching your brand’s customers. These include things like ads, content development, branding activities, PR, promotions and customer service (among many other activities).
Another way of viewing it is ‘marketing’ involves reaching the intended audience, and ‘business development’ happens after the customer is aware of the offering.
As you can see comparing these two terms can be confusing and there’s no real universal rule about how to differentiate between them. Use of the terms can also be contextual, such that they differ depending on the business or industry to which they’re being applied
Amanda Dyason, Founder & CEO at ProfitSmarts
As both Greg and Jef mentioned, you need a plan in place before you talk to soeone from these companies. They are "hard sell" sales people and will pressure you into a deal you're not happy with. "If you sign up today, I'll give you an extra 5% of the commission" type thing.
The only way to make this work for you is to offer a service that requires minimal manpower to provide. Offering a massage for $30 is not going to help - your staff will get angry as will your other clients when they can't get a spot because you are full. Now, an infra sauna on the other hand requires minimal manpower to prep/clean and would still give a reasonable profit margin (assuming you already had the asset).
Offer something that requires them to buy something or return. Using the massage example again, You voucher could be for $50 massage with a voucher redeemable for a second massage at $50. This way your margin is higher and you are enticing them for a second visit, where YOU get all the revenue, not the group buying site.
Be aware, depending on which company is used, the % revenue they take can be from 30% to 70%, giving you the raw end of the deal.
My last piece of advice is set a limit to the number of vouchers sold and stick to it. Do not let them talk you out of it. There is noting worse than waking up and finding you have sold 3,000 vouchers, in a service based business, knowing you can not fulfil them before the expiry date. Asking for the deal to be stopped early will fall on deaf ears.
I've seen many businesses close after trying to provide these deals, but I have seen a few run very smart campaigns. As long as you know what your usual cost per acquisition is and stick to that, you should be fine.
Richard Chalmers, Owner at Tailoredseo Pty Ltd
If you're looking for an SEO tool either for your own website, or a few small webistes, then Ubersuggest is a good cost effective option. There are also companies like SerpStat and SE Rankings which are very similar. If you're managing more websites or want a tool with a better database then tools like SemRush or Ahrefs might be a better option.
Aishah Mustapha, Content Marketer at SavvySME
There are loads of tech experts and journalists online. If we are talking about experts specific to cloud computing, Amazon’s people are pretty active on Twitter, giving updates on their Amazon Web Services and also technology commentaries. You can try Jeff Bar, their tech evangelist. Another one is David Linthicum, Deloitte’s Chief Cloud Strategist. He tweets a lot of his articles, commentaries and opinions, so he is worthwhile to check out. Or try following tech journalists who cover cloud computing for small businesses.
Brian Dorricott, Business Specialist at Meteorical
First question to ask is what sort of people do you want to meet at the event. This will give you a good indication of which events to go to. So, what are you looking for? Drinks for the evening, to learn something, to sell something?
Steve Hui, Founder & Chief Executive at iFLYflat - We make your points FLY
I agree, a business needs to be transparent, and it is the business owner who I am entrusting to provide the service which I am engaging. No need to be shy - its about trust.
This is the same for LinkedIn profiles - I still just cannot believe why so many people do not have any picture or do not have a decent picture on their profile (and having one cropped from a party photo just doesn't cut it), even though everyone has at least a camera on their phone.
Makes me question how professional they can perform in their described roles.
Eloah Paes Ramalho , Community Manager at SavvySME
These are two very relevant points, @Steve Hui ! Trust and professionalism. Having a profile picture denotes confidence and inspires the same confidence in return.
Hatty Bell, Executive Assistant at Country Road Group
The price depends on your targeting criteria and your competition. I've run CPCs from around $2 and run up to $4 or $5 per click, with the higher end typically coming into play when your click-through rates aren't fantastic.
Narine Poghosyan, Manager at OneTouch Ventures
@Aishah Mustapha, do they help to export only from Australia?
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