Many aspiring entrepreneurs love the idea of eCommerce – no infrastructure, little overhead, etc. But becoming even moderately successful in eCommerce is a herculean task for the average person. Let’s put this in perspective: Amazon is #1 in eCommerce Sales, They Outsell Their Next 12 Competitors Combined And we’re not talking about eCommerce businesses we’ve never heard of, we’re talking Walmart, Target, eBay, etc. Perhaps you’re thinking, “A lot of the top websites are too broad, we want to start niche like Amazon did when they sold only books.” Well, unless you’re selling diamond rings for dogs I doubt you’ll find a niche that has zero competition.

Let’s say you want to start a shoe business and want to rank in search engines for “Shoes.” Think again. Zappos has spent the last 15 years optimizing for footwear related keywords. You think that Zappos trolling Kanye West after he called their product S&^% was a coincidence? You think they spent the time and money to produce a new video, create a new product page and push it to the press for a simple lol? Inbound links are quintessential for SEO and well known to be the strongest ranking factor for Google.

That PR stunt landed them links from Gawker, The Huffington Post, E! Online, Spin and that was just from a quick Google search. Using Majestic’s site explorer (a tool for evaluating backlinks), we can see that another 100+ domains point to Zappos’ viral product page. Most eCommerce businesses have trouble landing a single editorial link from any publication.

Thus the number one tip is an unconventional one: 

1. Think outside the box and find angles that can land you press coverage

Press release services can help, but for bootstrapped companies I’d recommend compiling a list of journalists within your niche and contacting them manually. It’s difficult, but many companies have spent years blogging and churning out “great content” without a significant return. One timely story about your company can land dozens (if not hundreds of links). At a macro level, HARO is the best way to connect with journalists. At my company, SorianoMedia, we’ve used them to secure mentions in many top publications.

2. Don’t just build an eCommerce website, build a brand.

To be successful in eCommerce, you have to build a brand. And it’s just a coincidence that this post explores a business named, BetaBrand. If you’re a subscriber to any technology publications, they probably need no introduction. They’ve grown exponentially since I heard about their Executive Pinstripe Hoodie on TechCrunch and this post explores what they’ve done up to date. In 2005, San Francisco-based BetaBrand faced a potentially business-destroying threat:  The New York Times published a story featuring the clothing retailer, and hundreds of thousands of people nationwide descended on the website, hoping to snatch up the latest fashions. The company was two weeks old. BetaBrand – then operating as cordarounds.com – was in serious danger of being defeated by their own success.  As a startup, they didn’t have the staff, resources or infrastructure to meet the sudden onslaught of orders.  So the CEO, Chris Lindland, started sending out e-mails to customers – but not just any old e-mails:  He turned out to be a great comedy writer, and his jokes kept people engaged and entertained while they endured delays of up to two to three months before BetaBrand could fill their orders.  They also contained earnest explanations of the predicament the company faced, descriptions of the efforts they were making to fill the orders as quickly as possible, and apologies for customers’ inconvenience. In other words, the e-mails were honest, funny and sincere, and reached customers at a personal level.  Ultimately, they worked.  BetaBrand not only survived the initial rush of demand, but went on to achieve explosive growth in successive years, with a large, devoted customer base, robust sales and plenty of venture capital money lining its pockets.  But the initial experience of those e-mails, in which Lindland desperately searched for a way to make a personal connection to thousands of customers in order to keep them happy while they waited, would go on to form the core of BetaBrand’s marketing strategy. Lindland describes is as a simple motto: ” 99% fiction, 1% fashion.”  He realized something that fiction writers – and every fan of shows like Game of Thrones or Downton Abbey – already knew:  If you can tell a great story, you can keep people hooked.  This focus on narrative has informed multiple innovative, wildly popular viral marketing campaigns, and in the process, has helped BetaBrand grow into a household name in fashion.

3. Growth Hacking Ideas for eCommerce Startups

Here are a few of (many) BetaBrand’s most memorable memes:

1. The Executive Pinstripe Hoodie.  San Francisco is home to some of the most powerful people in the world – the CEOs of companies like Google, Facebook and PayPal.  Unlike traditional businesspeople, tech executives are just as often seen in comfortable, practical clothes as in stuffy, sartorial suits and ties.  Recognizing this, BetaBrand – itself a Bay Area tech startup – created the executive pinstripe hoodie, a piece of clothing that neatly summarized the dress ethic of countless young and iconoclastic entrepreneurs, engineers and tech workers.  In the same vein, they released “dress sweatpants” shortly thereafter.  Both pieces of clothing attracted national attention from fashion blogs and larger news media organizations. According to Majestic, the product has been linked to by over 100 domains including Forbes, Business Insider, TechCrunch, and The Verge.

2. Using graduate students as clothing models.  Earlier this year, BetaBrand put out a call for young female students pursuing their PhDs to come and model their clothing.  By focusing the ad campaign on the models’ intelligence rather than their beauty (although all of the accomplished young women in the ads also happened to be quite beautiful), they created a counterintuitive subversion of a classic fashion stereotype.  The press ate it up – and so did consumers.

3. Gay Jeans.  Of course, not all LGBT people are hyper-conscious about what they wear, but no one will deny fashion’s elevated status in gay culture.  Instead of taking this for granted, BetaBrand decided to capitalize on it by releasing “Gay Jeans.”  When you buy them, they’re blue – but as they break in, they reveal rainbow-colored fibers.  With classic BetaBrand humor, the company insists that straight people can wear them, too – in their FAQ, they write, “If you put on a pair of Gay Jeans and begin experiencing gayness, chances are it’s because you’re gay.”

4. Split Testing. Want something that’s a little more directly associated with growth hacking? How about their report that Crotches are King in BetaBrand’s test of 30 different photos. Or how…

5. They Literally Built the Worst Webpage, Ever. They wanted to hire UI/UX designer, so they changed their homepage to this to attract new candidates (and of course press):

Image Source: BusinessInsider   

It doesn’t have to be expensive, you just have to get creative. Heck, we’ve showed you could even use Fiverr for SEO and be successful (provided you avoid the many, many landmines on there!)

All of these elements tell a story about BetaBrand – its employees, its mission and its culture, and in so doing, invites consumers to see their own reflection in that story.  This is the opposite of conventional corporate wisdom, which attempts to whitewash its communications in the hopes that they can reach the largest audience possible without alienating anyone.  BetaBrand is loud, controversial and unapologetic, and has earned its share of detractors, but it has built a ravenously loyal customer base by saying, in effect, “that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.” Of course, success in marketing doesn’t just come from telling a good story.  Many other elements in the marketing strategy have helped the clothing company grow into a powerhouse today.  Here are a few of the most important takeaways:

• Sincerity matters.  Yes, the branding geniuses behind BetaBrand are very, very good at reaching customers in an age of overwhelming ad saturation and concurrent consumer marketing fatigue.  But this is more than just slick marketing – the brand is an authentic product of the company’s culture and values.  They are distinctly San Francisco:  A young, technology-minded and socially liberal company targeting young, technology-minded and socially liberal buyers.  The company resembles the consumers, so the products reflect common tastes and values.  It is easy – natural, even – for BetaBrand’s target market to form a personal connection with them, thus creating unbeatable brand loyalty. 

• They aren’t afraid to pick a side.  As mentioned previously, BetaBrand clearly harbors socially liberal political values, and they are not afraid to wear those on their sleeve.  Earlier this year, the company decided to eschew traditional ads featuring impossibly lithe fashion models, and instead asked graduate students at American colleges to model their clothing.  This move delighted scores of feminists, activists and bloggers who regularly criticize the modern media’s rampant objectification of women.  These liberal culture warriors were so happy to see their ideas taking hold in popular consciousness that they ran BetaBrand’s ad campaign as a front-page story on widely-read (and widely-shared) media platforms like Gawker Media, Buzzfeed, the Huffington Post and more.

• They were the first to field modern, powerful growth hacking techniques in the fashion industry.  Growth hacking is the interdisciplinary marriage of product development and marketing that has driven the explosive growth of many Web companies like Pinterest, AirBnB and DropBox.  Essentially, growth hackers work to design virality directly into products.  This is much easier to do for software, of course, but it’s also possible to growth hack products in the offline world with a little creativity.  Until BetaBrand came on the scene, no one had done it in the fashion industry.  By crowd-sourcing designs (meaning that customers vote on which clothing items will go on sale – BetaBrand usually launches three to five products per week) they give their customers a direct investment in the clothes they buy and a natural incentive to share the brand through social media and word-of-mouth.  Additionally, their iconic products are designed not only to be high-quality and fashion-forward, but also to build brand identification.  The sales of executive hoodies and sweatpants are not insubstantial, but the brand definition and identification those products provide are priceless.  Similarly, Gay Jeans are a functional, quality product – but there is a viral coefficient programmed right into the rainbow-colored fibers that has already inspired widely-shared memes in the press and on various LGBT blogs and social media groups.

eCommerce growth is much more than SEO. I remember a fashion company with many competitors asked me, “How can we differentiate ourselves from our many competitors?” The answer is so simple, yet there’s so much that goes into it – build a brand. It’s difficult to differentiate a brand in any industry – the market is crowded with more producers, and more savvy marketing teams, than at any time in history.  It’s especially difficult to do so in fashion, with its highly cyclical nature and penchant for flavor-of-the-month designers that quickly pique buyers’ interest – and lose it just as quickly. BetaBrand’s customers are fiercely loyal because they do more than consume the products – they identify themselves with the clothing, and in so doing, advertise the brand to their friends, family, co-workers and social media circles.  That personal connection between consumer and brand, and BetaBrand’s wild success in an exceedingly difficult industry, is a direct result of the narrative-based marketing strategy – the mythology around the company that it has worked so hard to create and to maintain.

I’ve been an entrepreneur for 10+ years now, and throughout that period I’ve been meticulous on cultivating and curating the best sources on growing a business. Today, I’m opening up almost a decades worth of knowledge – broken down into the exact order of operations you need to start a business.

Though this post is targeted for the new entrepreneur or freelancer, it really is 100+ resources for anyone that is starting, or growing their business.

I’ve saved my favorite resources in Evernote over the years, and now I’ve narrowed hundreds of articles and guides down to a list of 100, leaving only the best of the best.

I will try to keep this list as updated as possible. If you have anything that you think would be a great fit, please do not spam your link in the comments below, instead send me an email at jay@launchastartup.com and I’ll check it out. 

If this post was any help to you, I’d appreciate if you could spread the word.

I’ll break it down to what I think are the five basics that can help any freelancer or new entreprenur, and additional resources that dig into details will be listed below.

1. Legal / Starting Your Business – First off, full disclosure: I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice. But you know who is? José Ancer. I love people who spend a lot of their time providing information completely gratis, and this is one of those guys. Ancer touches on a very delicate subject, as an entrepreneur getting started most of us aren’t excited to plunk down a thousands of dollars for company formation. And while he does not advise that you should try to form your own company. He knows there’s a good percentage of entrepreneurs who will try anyway – and this guide is very helpful for that. Forming a company? No lawyer is better than a crappy one.
   • José Ancer is a startup lawyer, and his post is really for tech startups. I’d personally make money before you incorporate, it doesn’t cost a dime to become a sole proprietor. And when you’re ready to incorporate, from what I gathered from my research, if you’re the sole owner, it should be relatively straightforward to incorporate a single member LLC. Again, might be worth having this discussion with a lawyer, Ancer did point to DIY-ish option in Clerky, they currently specialize in incorporation, but they soon plan to expand to NDA’s, employee documents, convertible notes and more. Another popular and cost-effective option is LegalZoom.
2. Accounting / Bookkeeping / Payment Processing – While Quickbooks is definitely the most popular, I’ve tried them and Freshbooks, both of which are paid services, but they feel dated compared to Wave – which is free. While Wave does have online invoicing, if you’re working with local clients I’d recommend Square for payment processing, plus they offer a free card reader for your phone, and free payment processing to get started. And if I could recommend one book to businesses – it’s Lower Your Taxes by Sandy Botkin. A former IRS attorney and Senior Tax Law Specialist, this is a book that will get your comfortable with a rather sensitive topic, and it will pay for itself over and over for years to come.
3. Starting Your Website – First, you have to decide what type of website you need. Believe it or not, most businesses can launch a create a website for under $100. But if you’re a tech startup, you might need something for intricate and our guide on how to hire online freelancers is a must-read.
   • Domain Registrar: Personally, I use to use GoDaddy because they’re the cheapest for the first year with their coupons. But long-term, with renewals at 8.99 (vs $~15 everywhere else), and free domain privacy (usually another $4-5), NameSilo is now my registrar of choice. Another popular option is NameCheap.
   • Web Hosting: It’s usually good to separate your hosting from your registrar. I use multiple hosts and have had only had one issue with HostGator (though it was lengthy), so that would be my recommendation. Shared hosting should suffice, and you can always change in the future. When you get your new server, check the speed and setup Pingdom.com (it’s free) to check for downtime. If you have extended downtime I would recommend asking to be moved to another server. If they don’t comply, I’d cancel and switch.
   • Email: While Hostgator does provide free email hosting, as do many other hosts. I would recommend Google Apps for Business  especially if you’re familiar with the Gmail interface. It’s not free anymore, but $5/mo is well worth it in my opinion. I did test Outlook as they provide free email hosting for custom domains as well, but I had a horrible experience and ended up switching to Google Apps.
4. Launching / Getting Press – Tim Ferriss is a well known best-selling business author, and his post on How to Get Local and National Press is probably the best on the subject. Everything else is really a derivative or regurgitation. His post helped me land a spot on NBC.
5. Setting Pricing and Charging What You’re Worth – This short eBook will take you less than an hour to read, but it really is one of the best resources on understanding the difference between price and value.

The above covers the basics, five points that can help any business. Now let’s dive into the additional resources:

Getting Started

A part of becoming an entrepreneur is learning how to ignore the haters. There will be people who tell you that you can’t do it. That you should just get a job (because climbing the corporate ladder is so fun). Your environment conditions your behavior. It’s why many entrepreneurs end up moving to entrepreneurial cities like Silicon Valley, Chicago, New York, Las Vegas, etc. It’s one way good ideas are formed. It doesn’t matter where you are – this post from TheNextWeb can help show you how to stop giving a f@$% what people think.

Books to Rewire Your Brain:

1. Rework by Jason Fried – I’ve heard about this book since it was released, but I strayed away from it after reading one popular Amazon review that said it was “good advice, but not really anything new.” But I would disagree. Sure, it has some advice that has been talked about before. But it’s the perfect book to rewire someone’s brain and start thinking like a modern entrepreneur.

2. The Startup Manual by Steve Blank – Although the author states that this book is geared towards startups, this book provides step-by-step actionable advice that could help you immediately.

What is the best order of operations if you have a great idea for a website? A short summary on the order of operations you should be thinking about. Here’s another post that delves into a step-by-step guide for launching a startup from 6 months prior to launching, to post-launch.

How to: Guerrilla Bootstrapping. Essentially a super short version of this article that highlights how entrepreneurs can get started with little money.

SEO Tips for eCommerce Startups. Written by yours truly, this in-depth post looks at the creative strategies BetaBrand used to rise to the top.

A Freelancers Guide to Recurring Revenue – Freelancing can be a nightmare if you don’t when the checks will be rolling in, especially true for those quitting the 9-5. Dunn explains how recurring revenue is predictable revenue and something every freelancer should be thinking about.

How to Charge What You’re Worth – This is a 90 minute interview, featuring NYTimes Best Selling Author Ramit Sethi, asking Chase Jarvis how we grew in the photography industry, an industry that’s become very crowded over the past few years. 90 minutes, but well worth it. And even though this is perfect for photographers, this applies to any freelancer as we’re often times tempted to work for below market rate because of increased competition.

A consultants answer on, “How did you make your first million dollars?” A few good insights on building and bootstrapping a company, many other answers in that thread are worth reading as well.

How I Built a Web 2.0 Site for $12,107.09. A little old, but still very relevant today. I’m a huge Guy Kawasaki fan, he’s very personable and a good public speaker – in this post he’ll give you an idea of how to start a business, and what costs are associated with it.

How to Make $1,000,000/mo with Digital Products. A solid outline, even if you’re not planning on selling a digital product. Relevant: How to (Really) Make $1,000,000 Selling eBooks.

An eBook Pricing Model That Resulted in $100,000 in Sales.

How to Organize a Conference: How We Made Over $100,000.

How to Become a Millionaire in 3 Years.

The 6 Counterintuitive Ways We Grew Barkbox into a 100m eCommerce Business. I love this post because the “box of goodies” subscription model has popped up in every niche, and many have failed. But Barkbox is one that succeeded, and Co-Founder Henrik Werdelin describes how they did it.

You Don’t Need a Business Plan, You Need a Business Model

While a business plan can be useful for internal purposes, if you’re starting a business it’s all just projections. Everything shifts as you move forward. They’re still a good idea for traditional B&M businesses, as commercial real estate agents often request your business plan, and banks will ask for the same if you want a loan.

13 Ways to $10M in Revenues Part I and Part II. This is a great post on TechCrunch that breaks down numerous different industries, and how they can get to $10,000,000 in revenues.

Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur – A book book full of business models from startups all the way up to Google and Apple.

Legal

Disclosure: I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice. 

How to Do What You Really Shouldn’t Be Doing: “Rolling Your Own” Website Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Antone Johnson is another lawyer who’s active an active blogger as well as popular on Quora, he’s worked with MySpace in their prime and eHarmony. Here he talks about how to roll your TOU and PP.

What are common legal problems among web startups? Another important post that helps you avoid the problems companies before you have found themselves in.

Lawfully – Lawfully’s goal is to create an open community for sharing legal information. Most entrepreneurs don’t want to be wrapped up in the legalese, Lawfully annotates legal documents with plain language to help entrepreneurs understand key terms, issues, etc.

Raising Money

First off, do you need to raise money? This video explains why less than 20% of high growth companies take on venture capital:

How to Hustle with AngelList

Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist

Do Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists prefer investing in LLC’s or C-Corps? An important consideration if you plan on raising money.

Finding a Co-Founder

Many entrepreneurs can’t do it alone. Some have a sharp business acumen, others are skilled programmers, and some are blessed with design brilliance – but seldom do people have all three qualities. This is something I’ve battled with, and ultimately I decided to hone in on my business acumen, while learning just enough about programming and design to be able to successfully outsource that task if needed. But it really depends on what you’re starting. Seldom do solo founders raise venture funding and thus you’ll need a team. If you’re a freelancer starting a service based business, that’s a different scenario.

How do I find good technical co-founders? Dropbox’s Founder/CEO Drew Houston compares finding a good technical co-founder to “How do I find a really hot single girl to go out with me?”

You Can Do It Alone. Ryan Carson’s (Founder/CEO of TreeHouse) personal anecdote of how he started his startup alone.

If you have a little money, consider hiring someone. Kevin Rose found a developer through a Craigslist ad and built Digg  With the advent of online marketplaces, you could find developers on freelance marketplaces, see our guide on How to Hire a Freelancer and also checkout our reviews of UpWork and TopTal.

Software

HR Software from CIPHR – Scalable HR software that can take care of HR, payroll and a host of other things that could help entrepreneurs and startups save a lot of time and money.

DataMax – Offers a host of solutions for C-Store daily operations, both affordable and scalable, whether you run a single store or a nationwide franchise.

How to Get (More) Clients and/or Users

How to Get Your First 3 Paying Clients. Ramit Sethi is one of those no-nonsense guys that provide actionable advice that hasn’t been regurgitated 1000’s of times. Anyone starting their own consultancy needs to read this post.

How We Got Our First 5,000 Users. iDoneThis is not only a useful tool, but they crafted an interesting post showing exactly how they got their first 5,000 users.

Website, Web Design, UI/UX: 

Logo Design: You’re logo is the part of your brand everyone remembers. If you’re absolutely on a budget I would checkout our post on the 7 Best Business Gigs on Fiverr, one being a logo design gig. If you’re shooting for a higher quality and want to save time, checkout our guides to crowdsourcing platforms 99designs or DesignCrowd.

Breakdown of Web Development Costs. There’s a lot that goes into a new website, this post breaks down an estimate of what you need, and how much it costs.

Startups, This is How Design Works. I’ve referenced this website several times since I found it a few years ago – very useful.

How to Conduct Interviews for UX Research – Design is only one piece of the puzzle, usability is equally (if not more) important.

What are the best resources for learning bleeding-edge web, UI and UX design? Bunch of great answers on this Quora question.

What qualities are shared by most successful startup home pages? You don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

What are the best practices for converting blog traffic? What’s the point of blogging if your traffic doesn’t convert? This answer illustrates a few high converting tactics used by popular blogs.

How to Outsource Web Development. If you’re considering outsourcing web development, this is a must read.

Anticipatory Design: Dangers and Allures – An interesting examination of anticipatory web design, it’s appeals, potential, and concerns as it relates to UX and website users.

Launch

PR

Huge list of blogs and websites that a new startup could announce their pending launch.

Two Cold-Emailed TechCrunch Pitches that Worked. Getting press usually requires prior relationships with journalists. This post shows you that isn’t always a requirement. Although this post is about a technology startup shooting for press under a major tech publication, this post is relevant for any business looking to get press.

Pitch Perfect: A Startups Guide to Getting Coverage. This one’s great because it’s written by a journalist at a major tech publication, TheNextWeb.

The Hacker’s Guide to Getting Press. This entrepreneur wrote in-depth guide for getting press, showing exactly how he got featured in Time Magazine and other notable press sources.

Are Press Releases Still Worth Sending Out? Press releases use to be gold for digital agencies. The potential for press and a legitimate way to essentially buy backlinks. Things changed last year when Google essentially forced all press release services to no-follow all links within a press release. Related: What’s the best press release service after Google’s latest update?

Scaling

Branding

Why Apple Uses 67 Characters to Describe the iPhone 5.

The Difference Between PR, Advertising, Marketing and Branding.

Marketing

Noah Kagan was employee #4 at Mint, #30 at Facebook. Today he’s the CEO of AppSumo and he shares his thoughts on “What are key strategies to acquire your first 100k users with zero marketing budget?” Relevant: How did Mint acquire 1.0+m users without a high viral coefficient, scalable SEO strategy, or paid customer acquisition model?

It’s the CEO’s Job to Email the First 1000 Users. As an early adopter to many technology startups, I have always found it reassuring when the CEO sends out an email (even if it is automated).

Digital Marketing Strategy by Portent. I love in-depth guides like this, and when it’s created by a well known internet marketing agency – even better!

Startups: Don’t Outsource SEO. SEO isn’t something that you should just jump head first in. One wrong mistake and you could be de-indexed from Google. Before reading the following posts about SEO strategies, read this post and gain a better understanding of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Link Building: The Definitive Guide. The SEO world is filled with so much regurgitated garbage, but Brian “Backlinko” Dean is a no-nonsense guy that uses data to back up his methods. If you could only read one guide on link building – let this be it.

SEO: The Advanced Guide to Link building. Backlinks are the #1 driver for SEO, and this 30,000+ word guide shows a multitude of different ways that you can build backlinks. It’s similar to the one listed above and could provide a few additional tips.

5 Unconventional Tips to Boost Your SEO with Fiverr Gigs. It can be tough to wade through all the garbage SEO gigs on Fiverr – but that 1% could provide the boost you need. In this post, we show you how to use Fiverr whilst staying on the white hat of the SEO spectrum.

Advertising

Anyone who tells you a particular channel will work 100% of the time with any business is probably lying. My view about advertising is simple – test what works. If you find a channel where you can put a $1 in and receive $10 in return – repeat it, and scale it. The following posts look into the most popular advertising channels:

Note: Google AdWords, Yahoo/Bing, and Facebook Ads often run promotions offering free ad credit, usually from $50-100, though sometimes I’ve seen $200 coupons. It’s worth Googling before you start a campaign. 

Google Ads:

Facebook: With its continually improving advertising platform, it’s futile for me to post guides I’ve used in the past. Though I do feel compelled to share with you that GM says Facebook Ads don’t pay off and this video went viral illustrating Facebook Click Fraud. Though the flaw with the ladder video is that their targeting wasn’t narrow enough. When you’re targeting a smaller user base, your click throughs will be a lot more relevant.

I do use Facebook ads, both personally and for clients, but for a lot of people it won’t work. It just depends on whether or not you can reach your target market. For example, if you’re a wedding planner you can target engaged couples. If you’re a realtor, you can target people who recently moved or who are planning to move. If you’re a plumber you’re not likely to find people who need plumbing services.

Yelp: Answers on “What’s your experience with buying ads on Yelp?” The consensus is that Yelp tends to work better for service based businesses. Relevant: Half-Star Change in Yelp Rating Can Make or Break a Restaurant

Direct Mail vs Groupon – By The Numbers. Reddit is usually filled with memes and funny videos, but you can find gold if you subscribe to the right subreddits. This is a complete breakdown of advertising via Direct Mail vs Groupon which not only compares cost, profit, but also retention rate, cost to acquire customer, etc.

Sales

Your #1 Sales Rep Should be Driving a M6 Convertible by Month 12. Why? In short, you want to prove to prospective future sales reps that your business model works. 

The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes. I come from a newer generation that hates to be sold, and that’s what a lot of sales books (including this one) tend to preach. But this book came as a recommendation from Noah Kagan so I had to at least check it out. If you’re a little close minded on sales, this book will open you up to a whole new world. If you only read one sales book, let this be it.

Sales Outsourcing Pros – If you or your team is struggling with sales, another good option is to outsource sales. This gives you access to an on-demand force of cost effective sales specialists that you can scale up and down as you please. Another pro to an outsourced sales force, is that instead of being restricted to the 9-5, you could have a sales force working in different time zones allowing you to hit different markets.