Episode 325 | Building a Killer Email Launch Sequence
Date: 2017-01-31
Link: Startups for the Rest of Us
Your opener needs to be really engaging otherwise they won’t keep reading.
Use a lot of “you” words (to talk to the reader).
Add on social proof.
Offer a money back guarantee.
The entire purpose of a sales letter is to move someone from where they are today into the position where they are going to take that next step and become a customer.
The more emails you send the more money you make but you also get more unsubscribes and complaints.
Your offer needs to have a reward and be time-limited.
Do not wait until the day before (your launch) to start writing your emails.
Don’t do launches over the weekend because people are not at their computer as much.
If you don’t send emails, or only send one, it is a 5X or 10X difference in results for your launch.
A solid email list is 20% to 60% open rate.
Monthly Archives: September 2017
Should Your Next Employee Be a Mom?
TMBA371: Should Your Next Employee Be a Mom?
Date: 2017-01-12
Link: Tropical MBA
Hiremymom.com
Moms are generally very organized and know how to prioritize things.
Moms represent two-thirds of household purchasing decisions.
Most moms are very good at multitasking.
You have to be proactive if you want to hire the right staff.
Idea Validation & Risk Avoidance
Episode 324 | Idea Validation & Risk Avoidance
Date: 2017-01-24
Link: Startups for the Rest of Us
You’re never going to be 100% sure (that your product will be a success).
Are you solving a problem that people actually have? If you already have people that prepaid you are probably past this point.
Who are you solving the problem for and who is paying for it? These are often two different people (e.g. a business owner pays for it but the marketing guy uses it)
Are they willing to pay for it?
Who is searching for the answer to this problem? How are they searching?
How hard is it for (a customer) to get value from your product?
What roadblocks are there before (someone can use your product)? How do they get data into it (from their existing systems)?
Your launch day should be your biggest revenue day of your first six to twelve months.
It is easier to enter a market and find a position than it is to enter a whole new market.
Try to find ways to disprove your idea.
It is easy to make assumptions and not realize that.
The Saturday Morning Side Hustle
TMBA370: The Saturday Morning Side Hustle
Date: 2017-01-05
Link: Tropical MBA
It is so hard to give a shit about someone else’s business.
It is a lot easier to do a productized service than be an agency model.
Grad school is the worst thing society has done to our generation.
A lot of formal education can be replaced now.
The fastest hack of becoming an expert who is able to teach is to just start teaching.
People learn online marketing either for themselves or they fall into it.
Nobody looks for digital marketing degrees.
Funding, Acquisitions, Firing and More Listener Questions
Episode 323 | Funding, Acquisitions, Firing and More Listener Questions
Date: 2017-01-17
Link: Startups for the Rest of Us
Selling a company (in a strategic acquisition) will get you three to seven times revenue.
You can use Stripe Atlas to set up your company in the U.S. if you are not a resident.
One you need to become a micromanager then that is a breaking point as (the employee) is hurting your business more than they are helping.
Sometimes you need an external force to push you in a direction.
Tropical MBA’s 2016 Year in Review
TMBA369: Tropical MBA’s 2016 Year in Review
Date: 2016-12-29
Link: Tropical MBA
It takes a long time to vet people you don’t know.
Freedom is one of your main assets.
Getting to your first $100,000 in business income is about mindset.
If you are deciding what work to do only do work that you would do free.
Sex & Software (Mike-Interview with Brianna Wu)
Episode 322 | Sex & Software (Mike-Interview with Brianna Wu)
Date: 2017-01-09
Link: Startups for the Rest of Us
Women prefer to be called women (rather than female coders).
If you are asking somebody if they are male or female (on a form) preface with a couple of sentences as to why you are asking.
You are dealing with a culture of men who genuinely believe they are too smart to be sexist but have aggressive tendencies.
When talking (about women’s issues) men are so quick to turn the conversation to themselves and how it affects them.
We are missing a more constructive way to move forward.
We have to get past the point where our own comfort is our highest priority.
The features that get into a product are the ones your team cares about.
We need to own these problems instead of minimizing them.
A woman’s experience is discounted compared to a man’s.
H.R. exists to protect the company–not protect the woman.
The threat of sexual assault is something that men never have to think about and women have to think about all the time.
The 12 Days of an Entrepreneur’s Christmas
TMBA368: The 12 Days of an Entrepreneur’s Christmas
Date: 2016-12-22
Link: Tropical MBA
For some reason iTunes kind of sucks.
Countries are not setup to have an inner-passport relationship going on.
Everybody wants lower churn.
How to Take Your SaaS Upmarket
Episode 321 | How to Take Your SaaS Upmarket
Date: 2017-01-03
Link: Startups for the Rest of Us
When you go upmarket you need a lot fewer customers to grow a lot faster.
(When going upmarket) you’ll have to deal with committees who make decisions and questions about terms of service and legal structure. You’ll have to spend time upfront creating the right answers. They will expect a lot more handholding.
It can be months before you get the first check so make sure you have the runway to make that work.
You can’t be selling to large customers and charging them $30 or $50 a month because the ROI doesn’t work. The time to deal with them is so substantial.
Have your phone number on the top of your page.
Get a virtual phone number with Skype or Grasshopper.
Questions that come up in the middle of the demo are questions you want to write down so you can have a better answer for them.
Don’t do custom work.
There are some questions a company will ask solely because they want to hear an answer. Not because they care what the answer is.
The Business Idea Bonanza with Dan Norris
TMBA367: The Business Idea Bonanza with Dan Norris
Date: 2016-12-15
Link: Tropical MBA
Service businesses are the easiest to launch and to start getting customer feedback.
Every business owner is on Facebook and they see ads for their competitors due to retargeting.
People are going to start hiring videographers to follow them around to do a weekly video.
You can go into BuzzSumo and find out what the most popular blog posts are on sites.
So many books are written by ghostwriters.
With a podcast you miss out on a massive amount of online traction that you get with written content.
You don’t want to create a dedicated lead magnet for every post. You only want to do it for posts that are going to get good traction.
Just because you know (it) is a great opportunity does not mean you have the time or resources to implement the strategy.
Right now there is more money than there are businesses.
Anything that externally validates what you are doing is a good thing.
People don’t naturally have the amount of empathy to know what it is like to be you.