Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with business

What metrics are sales professionals guided by?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:27:00 -0800

What metrics are sales professionals guided by? Working with my sales manager to help redefine how inside and outside salespeople should be compensated and reviewed.

Everything from leadership to new accounts to call metrics to closed business... how does your business (or your competitors) judge the success of your sales force?

[Also, if you have any articles of interest or website recommendations, it would be just as valuable.]

Web template for cleaning business?

zeikka — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:39:17 -0800

Where can I find simple, yet professional and elegant web template/ Wordpress theme for cleaning business? I'm helping someone who's starting a small scale residential/ business cleaning service. I have domain and cheap hosting for her, but would like to find nice web template to use.

Wordpress theme would be ideal as I'm not very experience web designer or don't have experience with complex publishing system. Free would be great this as is very small scale.

Is there a crash course on cellular markets?

pwnguin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:40:32 -0800

I've owned a cellphone for ages, and have largely remained ignorant of the business workings. Is there a crash course on cellular markets? I'm curious how cellular companies work behind the scenes. Do they really build multiple competing "networks", or do they mostly build peering agreements? The latter seems technically possible, given "roaming" implies off network usage. Also of interest to me is whether there's a distinction made for data and voice outside of billing the customer.

green vs brown field - jargon decoder?

jennyhead — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:02:32 -0800

Businessjargon filter: 'green field' situation vs 'brown field' situation - what do these terms mean in a business context?

Business leaders who made great strides for the environment?

carrolldamian — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:05:00 -0800

I am trying to come up with names of prominent business leaders through history who took major steps forward on environmental stewardship/protection. These should be industry titans who went against the grain in emphasizing environmentalism as part of their business model. Extra points if the person saw unexpected or un-predicted success as a result of their decision to "go green."

Do I need a business license?

jefeweiss — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:31:10 -0800

Last year I got most of my income for working from home in the state of Virginia. I did work for a company that is not owned by me and was located in another town in Virginia. I got a 1099 as an individual from the company for the work that I did. This work was all conducted by phone and email, no one came to my home. I recently got a letter in the mail from the City of Winchester, VA saying that I did not register as a business in the city and that I needed to pay back licensing fees. I know you're not my lawyer, but do I have to do this?

Conferences with less synergy?

hijinx — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:25:47 -0800

Please recommend conferences dealing with leadership, management, and the like that aren't buzzword-tastic snoozefests. If they exist. The deal is that I'd definitely like to learn more about management (having been a manager for a year), improving communication skills, and leadership goodness. I've been to internal training sessions which have been invaluable thanks to practical examples and keeping light on fluff. We looked at case studies, blue ocean strategy, etc. and I liked this a lot.

I work for a medium-sized tech company, and deal primarily with the UI. I'd prefer for the conference to be in the midwest US but will look at others in the US.

For reference I've been to An Event Apart (very good, obviously more of a tech focus) and Webvisions (very good.)

Are there any such conferences? Any advice? Thanks.

How to form an equitable business partnership

forwebsites — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:44:37 -0800

How to setup a business partnership in an old-school brick-and-mortar manufacturing business between four friends - two of whom will be the major investors (say A and B), one guy is partial investor who will work full time but is new to this business and doing business in general (C ie: me), and the last guy is the one (D) with the entire business knowledge. He is in the field for past 7 years, already running a profitable trading shop (buying in Saudi, selling in India) in this field and is interested in expanding by setting up 'our own' manufacturing facility in Saudi. This is my first time venturing into a business setup after quitting my job. Some things which are different than the norm. We don't plan to take any debt. This is an all cash setup we are planning in Saudi and there would be no lawyer involved it's all mutual agreement and trust between us. Treat this as business amongst friends. There are no trust issues and nobody is fighting for the last margincal percentage. All of us are pretty ok with the plan being a bit flexible and we cover each others backs anyways. As long as it 'looks good and fair overall' it's game.

The investment capital ratio is :
A - 45%
B - 45%
C - 10% (ie me)

Entire capital is going to be invested upfront in setting up the business, visas, licence, machinery etc. There is no staggered investment. The only thing variable in the above plan is: B might decide to remain as just investor or investor + working full/half time based on the need.

D having the full business knowledge is going to do the initial work of sourcing raw materials, setting up shop and selling. He is the only one at this point with all contacts, knowledge the works. Apart from my 10% investment, the idea is I (and maybe B) be working full time alongside with him and learn the trade, eventually come to a position 6 months down the line where I (and B) be managing the Saudi shop and he'll concentrate on the selling side in India.

I will be working full time on this. But since I'm new to it, one way to look at this is also that I'm getting an opportunity to learn the trade. Same applies to B if he becomes a working partner.

All the working partners C, D (and B) are okay with not taking a salary for, say first 6 months or so.

How should we divide the stake in this setup between all of us and how much salary (or any other form of compensation - increased stake in lieu of agreeing to not take any salary) should C, D (and maybe B) get?

Thanks.

Help me start a landscaping business!

Sentus — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:59:42 -0800

I am thinking about starting a landscaping business. I don't really have direct experience in the field. Looking for resources. Hello there,
I am in my mid twenties, moved to a midsized city in Texas about two months ago. As you probably know, our economic condition is not the best these days, which made looking for a good steady job pretty frustrating. To sustain myself I did a bunch of small gigs including small landscaping projects (Through craigslist mostly).

I am thinking about starting my own little landscaping business.

I volunteered in various organic farms for about two years; Have a modest knowledge about edible crops, organic growing methods, love and know my plants. I enjoy working outside, using my body, planting stuff,.

My selling point will be organic/sustainable landscaping.
* Trying to use native plants that require less water. Demand less upkeep and just thrive once established.
* Using organic methods, good soils, heavy mulching, sound irrigation techniques, maybe vermiculture in the future (earthworms castings).
* Showing people the beauty and functionality of edible perennials.
* Down the line get into Permaculture design, and just using Permaculture principles in people's yards.

I don't have a truck or heavy duty tools YET. So I'll have to start out doing smaller projects/rent truck on special occasions (to haul bulk soil/mulch).

Is any one here works/owns a landscaping operation? Any insights? Words of wisdom? Pros and Cons? Warnings?

Any good books on Landscape design? I know there are dozens if not hundreds, do you have any specific recommendations?

Any good software available? With design, plants for climate zones?

What would be cheap and effective marketing channels?

Thank you and have a great day,

What are some good things to consider when starting out as a professional photographer?

ghostpony — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:36:31 -0800

What are some good things to consider when starting out as a professional photographer? This can include equipment (lenses, bodies, flashes, strobes, computers), software, sites, marketing, rates.

I have lots of experience with photography but don't know exactly how to break in as a freelance professional photographer. I have a portfolio better than most and expansive enough to cover pretty much any need (from jewelry, to wild life, to children, to wedding and traditional portraiture). One of the things I have most difficulty doing is finding and setting appropriate rates.

Any help would be appreciated.

How do I create a RSS feed for my Amazon Web Store?

Aegean — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:44:56 -0800

I'm trying to figure out how to create a XML / RSS feed of my Amazon web store products so I can update to Google Merchant. There doesn't seem to be many functions / plug-ins offered by AWS and their help isn't very helpful. I've done a fair amount of searching and have come up empty handed. Would anyone have an idea how I might go about creating this feed?

Taking on the juggernaut that is Ebay?

pakoothefakoo — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:25:14 -0800

Taking on the juggernaut that is Ebay? I'm very well aware that there are numerous of failed Ebay/CL clones out there, but I have an idea for some kind of online marketplace that is a mix between Ebay and Craigslist using some kind of automated arbitrage system (I won't go into details, as it is not pertinent to my question).

Ebay and Craigslist are outliers, they both filled the need while there were no other alternatives and became a beast surviving on its own inertia. Other than technology costs, the barrier to entry in this business is quite high because people are loath to switch and it's difficult when you don't have any buyers or sellers using your system.

So my question is it possible to form a similar, successful business and reach critical mass in this day and age? If so, how do I convince people to use it when I have no critical mass?

I do believe that my vision is nifty, but I am aware of incredible challenges of getting people to use my system, is it worth trying?

backpack be gone ...

ouchitburns — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:16:28 -0800

Help me find the get rid of my backpack! I am a student, but one of those older professional students, and I keeps catching glimpses of myself in windows with my huge backpack and I grimace.

I should no longer have a backpack.

So, I need a bag that I can bring to school and work placements. It needs to be:

1) Functional - (it should be able to carry at least one textbook and binder, and have room for the equivalent of a thin jacket.

2) Strong - my textbooks are heavy and it needs to be able to handle that.

3) Sleek - I want this to grow old with me so it needs to be of classic style.

4) Waterproof - would be nice. Not completely necessary.

I am in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I am willing to spend up to $250.

I like the look of these, but they should be used as a starting point rather than a rule.

http://jkontherun.blogs.com/photos/the_man_bag/man_bag_front.jpg
http://www.bagsnob.com/images/DiorManBag.jpg

Thanks!

Selling raw data for fun and profit

raghuram — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:41:36 -0800

Anybody has experience selling raw data? Anybody here does a business out of selling raw data (formatted and presentable, of course). I know a few sites that do it (aggdata.com, for example). Would like to know the legal and ethical things to keep in mind, while collecting (scraping???) and selling data.

CPSIA - Help me get around this legislation so I can be in business again.

jaynedanger — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:35:57 -0800

CPSIA - Help me get around this legislation so I can be in business again. I started a small online business in January this year selling adorable plushies
It was nothing big by any means, but it made me happier than anything. Since January, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission has passed this piece of work:

CPSIA Guide

The CPSIA pretty much makes it illegal to sell my little guys. They are definitely deemed children's toys and I do not have the means to have each handmade custom item tested for lead, etc.

I'm hoping to find away AROUND the law without hurting the integrity of my tiny business. Once I become more familiar with running a business, I plan to take on other business ventures, so I want this one to follow the rules and be appropriate despite it's small size.

I'm aware of all the small business help I can get locally, but my work schedule has kept me from pursuing this help for months. Before I completely drop this idea, I was hoping some of you may be able to give me helpful insight. I am open to any ideas. Here are some that I have considered:

1. Raising the price. This would make them more of a "collector's" item. My customer base would not buy these at a higher price, unless I can do some major revamping. Before I took them off the market, they sold for $15-25.

2. Naming them inappropriate things. This takes care of the children part of the equation, but hurts the integrity of my business. Not really excited about this option.

3. Making them out of compliant, natural materials such as organic cotton. This is still a viable, but boring, option.

Business in Georgia?

wandering steve — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:23:12 -0800

I'd like to find out what the climate is like in Georgia -- the country, not the state -- for an American business looking to expand overseas. But when I Google for it, I keep getting results for the state! From what I understand, it's a fairly Western-oriented economy -- low on taxes and bribes, a not-unreasonable amount of bureaucracy, that sort of thing. But beyond looking at the Transparency International ratings, I'm having trouble finding actual data. Can MeFi help?

Small business failure.

eschatfische — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:36:10 -0800

What happens to the owners when a small business fails? Let's say that Mr. X started a small brick & mortar business. He had a reasonable business plan. He had a bit of savings, but also got an SBA loan as well as a bank loan to finance the rest.

Let's say that Mr. X sets up shop. He works hard preparing, he hires employees, he buys materials, he engages a marketer and advertises and markets the business, opens the doors and... customers just don't come. Let's say he gradually lets the staff go. Still few customers. He tries to find another business that will buy the business he set up. No takers. His hand is forced, and he liquidates the assets and closes the doors. Since he doesn't have a job, he can't repay the remainder of the SBA or bank loans.

What happens next to Mr. X? Does Mr. X lose his home, his car? Does he have to declare personal bankrupcy? Can his business be bankrupt without the risk of him losing his personal possessions?

How can someone wishing to start a small business insulate themselves against the risk of failure? Actual anecdotes about starting a small business and failing would be appreciated.

(Note: I don't own a business -- this is all purely hypothetical.)

Still trying to figure out what color her parachute is...

RobotNinja — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:20:33 -0800

I need help helping my wife figure out what to do with her life. I am a very lucky person who has known for a long time that I wanted to be an engineer. I love math and science, and truthfully I can think of lots of jobs that would probably satisfy me. However, I recognize that I am in the minority in this position, and my wife, sadly, falls into the other group. She has been feeling particularly down about finding her purpose for quite a while now, and I need to figure out how to help her. Read on for the details! My wife is a business major (communications), which makes things especially hard for me; my peers and I spent much of our college years mocking business for being a "fake major." I am somewhat wiser now, but I struggle with the fact that I personally would probably find almost any businessy, non-technical job to be completely boring and unsatisfying. Like many others, my wife didn't really know what to do when she entered college. She started off as a geography major, but was persuaded by her parents that this would not be useful, and switched to business instead. She still talks wistfully of her geography classes, and I find this story a bit upsetting.

She worked sales for a short while, and then got a job at a high-powered consulting firm. She rose through the ranks quite quickly, and I always tell her that one of her most amazing skills is that she actually cares about doing a good job at work, even if she hates the job itself. She is dedicated and takes pride in what she is doing, but she often hates the environment she is in. She eventually left the consulting firm because she felt sickened by the fact that they were advising people on issues that they had little knowledge about, and also because any further career progress would have required her to "sell her soul" to the company - a huge percentage of the people above her were divorced and routinely working 80 hour weeks. There were other reasons for leaving, but for now I'll leave it that big-name consulting was not for her.

She is now working in project management, but is becoming dissatisfied again. I have trouble getting her to articulate all the reasons, but among them are:

1) She feels that many of the people she works with are bad at their jobs, and she winds up picking up the slack.
2) She has never felt that she has ever developed a specialized skill set. When job searching, she usually feels unqualified for most positions, or doesn't even know where to start looking.
3) In general, she just doesn't enjoy the work very much and dreads the idea of doing this same old thing for another 20-30 years.

I'm sure that part of the issue here is self esteem, and I'm trying to help her with that. However, I don't really know what other advice to give her. She has read through "What Color Is Your Parachute?", "What Should I Do With My Life?", and done various online tests that are supposed to help you find your calling, but to no avail. It seems that a major issue is that she doesn't have any particular passion that translates into a job. What she is good at:

1) Organization. She is highly frustrated by people that don't think ahead and plan for the future. She likes making lists, speadsheets, and databases.
2) Research. Back in the day, she joked about being a travel agent because she like researching vacations. However, she doesn't have much experience with academic research, and isn't crazy about reading through papers all day long.
3) Editing/Proofreading. Goes with #1. She has previously handled "style guides" for various writings done at the consulting firm, and helped manage the publishing of large documents and reports.

Again though, she isn't really passionate about any of those things. She has considered working in editing or publishing, but feels she has very little experience. She is also very prideful, and already took a significant salary decrease to switch to her current job. Taking some "simple", entry-level position in a new field will be very difficult for her to swallow. She does have education benefits in her current position and is very interested in going back to school; the problem, of course, is that she has no idea what for!

My own job choices will always be really obvious. I have specific technical skills that are in high demand, and will likely one day go into technical management of some kind. I have a lot of trouble with the nebulous, vague world of business, and confess that I often wonder what all these people really do all day. I think my wife is confused about her own skill sets and how to find a job that she can enjoy. So what can I do? What can she do? Help me help her, hive mind!

How can I launch my label correctly?

setanor — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:42:20 -0800

I'm launching a digital record label this month. I live in Canada on an unrestricted work permit. I'm still a US citizen. Can I incorporate? Should I incorporate? Where? What should I do to make this official? I've been so busy getting everything in order that I didn't realize I might have to do something with any money that comes in... What steps should I take to make sure everything is legit? Should I incorporate, or is there something else similar I should look into? We're going to be pretty low volume for a while, nothing too serious, but I want to be sure it's solid if I'm talking to artists about releasing their stuff.

Any $100k recession-proof business startup ideas?

schindyguy — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:50:20 -0800

My buddy just landed $100k and we both want to start a business...Any recession-proof business startup suggestions? He's got a little time to work, but I have a lot more time.

I work as a tech consultant for startups so you would think I would have a great idea for us to invest in. But I dont...I am good at starting businesses from an administrative standpoint (state filings, accounting, technical setup, websites, emails etc), but don't have actionable ideas with a lump sum of money.

I have considered buying established business (searching places like bizbuysell) as well as online businesses through flippa.com, but have a problem with the real valuation of a company. Plus from what I have seen on flippa, if a site is netting 10k/month, they want at least 120k/year...and its hard to judge the validity of their numbers and growth potential.

And we dont care about the stigma of the industry (ie adult).

How to start marketing a dental office.

beingresourceful — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:52:45 -0800

How do I start marketing a dentist? How do I effectively start marketing a dentist?

She has been a dentist for thirty years (many of those years as a professor), and now she has started her own practice.

She can do cosmetic dentistry, but she really likes pediatric/adolescent dentistry. She is also excellent (and I think prefers to work) at what I could call "major" dentistry, requiring going under. Her practice is located inside a hospital -- definitely something most dentists don't offer. She seems to think cosmetic dentistry is over-saturated (but if your idea is good I can convince her otherwise). I think she really likes those dental-insured patients that need extensive work.

I haven't marketed dentists before. How do I get this lady new clients? I want her to make lots of money, so I can ask for and make lots of money. If it's not win-win, I'd rather not take the job.

How to bypass Cafepress?

hellbient — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:02:44 -0800

I want to make my own t-shirts. How can I do my own personal version of Cafepress, Zazzle, etc.? Not Cafepress in the sense that I would set up a site and take orders, but Cafepress in that I want to actually print 1-off Photoshopped images onto a shirt. I don't want to do iron-ons, screenprinting or draw anything. Is this possible without spending several thousand dollars on a Fiery or whatever? I would settle for B&W printing if there was no color option. I haven't been able to come up with much from my searches, generally it's just a bunch of Cafepress wanna-be sites.

She works hard for the money...

firei — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:05:20 -0800

A friend of mine wants to open a business, and is looking for information on business loans or grants specifically for women. I've been on the SBA and SCORE websites, but haven't been able to find too much info. Everyone always says that there's a lot of financial assistance for women looking to open businesses, but I'm having trouble finding it!

If it helps: I believe she is looking to open a dog grooming/training facility.

Specifics would be awesome, but general links would be alright as well.

Pros & Cons of bringing web development in-house?

MeatLightning — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:33:22 -0800

Pros & Cons of bringing web development in-house? Hi all -
I manage a mid-size e-commerce website. We currently work with an agency to build and maintain our site. We are considering hiring a dev (C# / .NET, SQL) and taking over development... or at least much of it (still may go out of house for UX, front-end dev).

Anyone have any advice, experiences, warnings, etc they can share?

Have you gone down this road? How did it go? What should we watch out for?

thanks in advance!

a week in the life of a pub owner

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:24:27 -0800

Help-me-write-my-book-filter: Character is the current owner of a small (let's say it can hold 50 people at absolute maximum capacity, no food), family owned bar in a blue-collar but gentrifying neighborhood of a major U.S. city. What's their world like? It's not a trendy bar but also not a dive, just a the local pub. What's his/her day like? How long is it? If the bar is open every day of the week, what kind of oversight would they have when they're not there? What kind of a work week should they expect? How many employees and what's the ratio of bartenders to doormen to barbacks to managers? What kind of "problem patrons" might exist? The bar is well-established (let's say it's been around for at least 25 years) and the only change is that the owner has taken over from a retired parent--what kind of ongoing/maintenance issues would come up?

Obviously I'm going to make a lot of this stuff up in the end, because it's fiction, but I would at least like to understand a bit of the reality before I launch off into imaginationland. I appreciate all insights.

If you need more information, well, that's all I've figured out yet. Just be hypothetical, offer scenarios, make suggestionsetc. and see what comes up.