Hi there! In my experience, governance is often considered a function of a legal department, so approaching a VP Legal, or an Ombudsman/Business Compliance Manager may be of value. They'd warm to a risk-reduction positioning, with the compelling factor of avoiding legal issues, government fines, etc. Change Management; however, is likely driven by the functional groups, so their specific leadership (Supply Chain VP, Finance VP, etc) would be the place to start. They'd likely warm to an efficiency, cost-savings, employee productivity positioning, with the compelling factor being them getting their change in place and reaping the benefits ASAP. I would recommend approaching the groups (functional v. legal) one at a time, starting with whichever your company feels the strongest affinity towards and positioning for. If that doesn't click, you can try the second avenue. (I'm not quite sure what you meant by involving auditors - but would be happy to explore your question further!) Devon

You need leverage. The objection "you might not be around in awhile" is semi-valid but not a deal-killer. Something else was missed. "So are you saying you would NEVER, under any circumstances, work with a company less than a year old?" I'd go back to prospects who have turned you down and ask for open, honest feedback. Tell them it doesn't matter now, since they said no anyway, meaning it's not going to hurt your ego and you really want to know the real reason. In future presentations, don't bring up the age of your firm. Have a proven industry spokesperson endorse you. Develop a ton of content that shows you are in the field, are known by other people in it, and are at the forefront of whatever it is you do. And make sure your SaaS really does solve a HUGE problem for your market. Why does your marketplace--not YOU--say they need it? Remember that your customers survived to this point without it. Why should they change? There are many other sales process factors that we cannot see from the outside here.

For any Marketplace platform to function & grow well both sides of the user base needs to be developed in tandem. Initially depending on the service the Marketplace is trying to provide, it is important to focus on users that will provide the service. Uber: Drivers, Clarity: Experts, eBay: Sellers, UpCounsel: Lawyers etc. At the same time these service providers need optimum infrastructure, tools etc to showcase their services in order to attract consumers. Once you have a good number of service providers, you should begin promoting & targeting consumers. Without consumers the two-sided marketplace will not function. Though you can begin focusing on the consumers later, it might make sense to begin targeting a small sample of users so they serve as initial users/beta testers of your two-sided marketplace. Hope this helps. Happy to connect further over a call to get into specific strategies. Best

Tough question. Prior to 2008 it wasn't too bad but since 2012 especially finding commission-based reps has been difficult. In 2011 I created an agency for a management consulting firm. At that time I could still count on responses to ads. But in 2012 response was non-existent. I also hired companies whose specific USP was finding commission-based salespeople...and not one was able to send me serious candidates. Ads posted have been responded to with hate: "Why can't you afford to pay a wage" and much worse. Frankly, sales skills are valuable and anyone competent in selling is in demand. Most people do not believe in themselves or realize they are responsible for and create their own income. So people who can sell are going to go where they're immediately rewarded. Sure, you can try the "churn and burn" approach--one I do not advocate at all--but I guarantee you'll get stuck in a quicksand of finding, training, losing and replacing reps. I dislike being negative and not having a solution, but when the companies that say they specialize in this area can't deliver, what's left but to move on to another arrangement?

Writing skills are best learned through practice, critique, and revision. Curriculum is a waste, in my opinion – that is, listening to generalizations about how to write something other than the task at hand. Only the actual words on the page are worth discussing. Not rules. Maybe courses would be worthwhile if they entail a lot of hands-on interaction with a brutally honest, pragmatic instructor. What your team would really learn from, I suspect, is watching someone perform surgery on their copy, pausing to explain why the guts are being ripped out here, why the sutures are stitched up in such and such a manner there, etc. Consider hiring someone to workshop in person with your team. No prearranged abstract curriculum. Just critique.

If your product is truly better undercutting the undercutter is a good temporary marketing strategy. Just make sure your business can afford to do so. Their business model might allow them to simply charge less because of efficiency factors that you might have. Or your prices might simply be a bit higher for what your market is willing to pay or considers justified.

Getting people on the "dance floor" is always tough. Less than 2% of people online engage and in my opinion, LinkedIn Groups seem to be even more challenging than Facebook Groups because LinkedIn is the business network and people are more cautious about affecting their professional brand online. The best way to foster engagement is to appeal to emotions: how are you solving their pain? Can you speak to their problems using their language? Can you give them an "a-ha" moment that they hadn't thought of? You could ask simple questions to your group such as: "Which option works better for you: A or B?". (Include a visual for better reach & exposure) Not knowing your industry, you could ask the group at large: I need your help. I'm looking to get some deeper insights from __________ (insert role/position here) about ___________ (solution you provide). More specifically, are you challenged with _______ (the problem) and how are you currently handling it? This way, you can do a deeper dive on what their problems are, how they are handling it, and if your solution fits within this. Hope this helps.

This is simple: In theory: You improve your targeting and only drive those who are actively looking for piano sheets. This website looks pretty good, I thought there for a second you had built it shopify, but if you did kudos! You're a BA. The traffic that this website might be getting might just be the wrong one, or not as interested and are simply browsing. The goal is truly to have targeted outreach, so even if the volume goes down the bounce ratio should too.

Take a look at Intermedia, from what I can tell they are a favorite of VARs and are also in the Ingram Micro cloud catalog (along w/ Box). Xero also has some level of reseller relationship with accountants but that is more than just a typical VAR or disti model, since the accountant remains deeply involved with the business client. One issue that VARs brought up in my discussions with them was branding - they really like to have their brand in front of the customer (this is one of Intermedia's selling points). Not sure if this would work for you or not. Happy to jump on a call to discuss more, I spent quite a lot of time looking into this at my last company as we launched a SaaS service.

Do a great video of yourself making art out of horseshoes. Make sure your sound is professional and tell us an engaging story. Cover your interview with lots of B-roll images of you doing your craft. Put extreme close-ups of your tools and materials while we hear you tell your story. Duration 3 to 5 minutes max. Create a unique brand or trade name and make sure you brand consistently each piece of art as well as your web site or blog, so you can become the Gutzon Borglum (he carved Mount Rushmore) of your trade. I wish you success and prosperity.

Do you find your employee an efficient worker? Is he performing well in your business? What could be the lost in your business if he leaves? You mention that you are barely keeping up with the demands, so is it possible to hire more employees, if he leaves? These are some of the things you can think about to trigger your decision. It is important to keep the employee happy if they are giving you great performances, but it is also important to measure the benefits you can offer to the benefits of your business. I can understand your feelings when your employee address the early salary raise issue to you. If this employee is doing a great job, I believe you know that he deserves to get a raise, and it could also be a motivation for the other employees to work harder. On the other hand, if an employee is not performing efficiently, you should consider putting your focus on another that do. If you need more support regarding the issue, I will be happy to help you sort things out. Best of luck!

If your concern is from an ethical standpoint or a concern over a segregation of duties, there is no problem at all having your tax person handling your bookkeeping. The bigger issue is something that few people understand about accountants. There are different specialties within accounting, and you should go to the right specialist for the right task. Tax accountants are experts in tax law, filling out tax returns and finding ways to minimize taxes. They must immerse themselves in the field to maintain their expertise. Financial accountants (which include bookkeeping) are experts in debits and credits and keeping all your transaction straight in your accounting software so that you can get good financials each month. Financial accountants have to immerse themselves in your day-to-day accounting so that they can keep it accurate and up to date. Full disclosure, this is the work that my firm specializes in, we don’t do any taxes. Because each type of accountant must immerse themselves in their individual fields of expertise, they don’t have the time to focus on the other expertise. Not that they are both not great accountants, they just have a different specialty. Here’s a good analogy. If you developed a heart condition, would you go see a neurologist? No, you’d go see a cardiologist. They are both outstanding physicians and know a lot about the human body, but the cardiologist spends all their time thinking about, studying, and treating heart conditions and is going to be the best equipped and most knowledgeable about treatments for your heart condition. The last point I’ll make is that tax work is very seasonal and requires incredible focus and incredibly long hours leading up to major tax deadlines. This is not only during the period from January to April 15th, but also leading up to major deadlines on August, September and October 15th. Companies I have worked with that used tax accountants in the past for their bookkeeping find during these periods their tax accountants are forced to put all other work besides taxes on hold until their tax work is complete. What often happens in these situations is that these company’s bookkeeping falls three or four months behind. This can be devastating for a small business that needs to know if they are making money or losing money on a very up to date basis. So my suggestion is to find yourself a good bookkeeper that can handle your books. Your tax person may even be able to suggest a good resource, and deep down may be glad to do so because her first love is taxes, not bookkeeping. My firm could likely handle the work as well. Hope my thoughts above are helpful and addressed your question, but feel free to reach out to me if you have any follow up questions.

"Based on the success we are able to achieve" suggests, to me, you are looking at a price that will be tagged to an earn out provision. In other words, the price of the deal will be contingent on you achieving specific revenue targets in the future. If I'm reading this wrong, please correct me because it's an important piece of information. Early stage startup typically suggests a focus on revenue growth with minimal focus on earnings. The most valuable acquisitions will be those that have growth in the top quartile of the industry along with an EBITDA that is also in the top quartile. Companies with these will have the highest multiples. Revenue multiples are also a function of the industry and the general character of the market. Currently, the IPO markets are doing pretty well and the overall M&A market appears to be pretty solid making multiples equally solid. In terms of industry, the media publishing industry has moderate to slow growth depending on the segment. I'm assuming there is a social or online component to your startup which would suggest that it would be part of the new growth side of the market. Generally speaking, market growth averages are at about 8% for larger companies suggesting that new entrants should be able to sustain low to mid double digit growth over a longer horizon. "Growth rates", i.e. percentages, can be meaningless for very small companies. For instance, a company that grows from $25,000 to $250,000 in a year has a massive growth rate..... but the value may be very low due to lack of track record and overall profitability. As such, it can be very hard to estimate multiples. That said, if I were putting forth a hypothetical, it would be something like the following: Assuming: The company has over $1M in revenue and is growing at an average of 12 - 15% per year. Assuming: The company is profitable, but barely, say something in the 10% EBITDA range. Assuming: The company is a service company with few assets but is not subject to significant brain drain (key people leaving would result in devaluing the company). If any of the above are wrong, it can change things significantly. Revenue multiples might be in the 0.7 - 1.15x revenue on forward looking and .9 - 1.25 on a trailing level. EBITDA Multiples could be in the 8 - 10 times on a forward looking and 10 - 12 times on a trailing level. Take it with a grain of salt because there are a lot of factors you don't mention and more information is important to make a meaningful diagnosis.

You're in the right place. Clarity is loaded with experts and consultants working in this space. Do you have specific questions? I have extensive experience in this field, as well, and would be happy to walk you through some of your questions. Just book a call and let me know when you have some time to talk. If we don't connect, good luck on your venture! I would be interested in hearing how it goes!

OK so you are selling for a contractor who renovates unfinished basements into completed rooms? What you need to do is encounter people who are just reaching the moment when they realize they want to turn that empty unfinished basement into real rooms they can use. Then you need to sort those into people who will do it themselves (not your market) and people who are happy to pay someone else to do it (there's your market). Your website alone is not going to do that. It's just sitting there. Since you didn't share the site, I can't tell you anything about how good it will be in achieving the #1 marketing objective it has. Your thinking now should be towards: Where do people who are looking for someone to finish their basement GO? What stores do they visit? What Google searches do they enter? What questions do they want answered right now? Has your marketing been designed to respond to these kinds of questions? Here are some actionable things you can do right now. Some take guts. But if you don't believe you can actually help people, you probably shouldn't be doing what you're trying to do. 1. Craigslist ads Easiest and also easiest for your competition to flag. Cheap to post. And people will be looking on CL for a contractor. 2. Walk up to people in building supply stores and ask them if they're your target audience. Yup, this is the one that takes guts. But if you're in the aisle where the drywall is, don't you think it's likely that someone wanting to finish their basement is going to come in there? Use a negative reversal to qualify: "I don't suppose you're finishing a basement, are you?" Then if they say, "No," it's not a big deal. "Didn't think so," and go back to waiting for the next person. Or have a quick conversation about their project. If they say yes, now you can tell them you work for a contracting firm and ask if they're OK with talking about their project for a minute. Now you can qualify further to find out if they are a Do-It-Yourselfer or open to someone else doing the job. Don't spend more than a couple hours at a time prospecting this way. This is the fastest way to find customers. 3. Newspaper ad Yes, people--particularly older people, who generally have more money than their younger counterparts--still look in the Classifieds or through ads in the paper. 4. Radio ad This option could be far cheaper than you think. Media prices in the town I'm in are rock bottom compared to what I expected (I'm a TV show producer here and when I learned what it cost to put a show on the air I was flabbergasted at how cheap it was). The key with radio is relentless repetition. You need to do some research and testing to find out where your target market's age range is and when they are listening. Then you can choose the best station that matches that demographic and run that spot over and over. Stay away from TV. It's too risky for you right now. 5. Look for lists of qualified prospects This is where you really start using your brain, which is frankly why most people never get this far. WHO is in a position to want your services right now? In my 10 seconds of considering the problem, my brain says: "People who just bought a home." Many people DO renovate right after purchasing, don't they. Homebuyer lists are not hard to get. And in fact, couldn't you partner up with realtors to recommend you and only you as a favorite contractor to their buyers...in return for a referral gift? THIS is where real power in the marketplace can begin. When you get the lead immediately, before anyone else has a chance, and are referred by someone the customer trusts. Feel free to book a call if you want to develop further marketing funnels and referral programs like this.

It's a shame you don't feel the fire in the belly for what you're doing but that happens. Any Angel or small VC is going to want your absolute commitment to stay with the company. They RELY on your fire in the belly to make the company happen. So, there's a real potential conflict there. Unless you're "In it to win it", I'd avoid an outside investor. That said, would it be possible to find a potential partner that could "buy in" to the company and ultimately take the helm? Even adding a minority partner that does have that fire and then finding an investor would be a better alternative than you have today. There are ways to structure an agreement with a new partner that would allow you to get paid over time based on the company's success and with an investor (although there's virtually no investor that will want you to use the funds to pay yourself immediately).

1. Before you dive into building out marketplace software you might find it easier to quickly test your MVP using a SaaS product like https://near-me.com/. I am NOT affiliated with them. But in a previous startup explored the marketplace concept. Spend 12K for a year on a SaaS product then spending so much more doing it from the ground up. If you gain momentum then start to build out your own platform. 2. Technical Co-founder is the person who will help bring your idea to life so enough skin in the game to keep them motivated and keep him/her hungry. 3. Remember 100% of 0 is 0. So if the CTO wants 20%-25%. Does it really matter at this point? No it doesn't. 4. Make sure you understand how to tackle the marketplace problem of the chicken and egg. You have supply on one side and demand on the other. What comes first? You should think through that as well.

This is my wheelhouse but unfortunately I am heads down putting the final touches on my MastermindTalks event. If this hasn't been answered in the next 2 or 3 weeks, I will come back in to reply... Good luck!

The idea of an MVP is 'minimum, viable' ... If you feel you need a "good amount" of funding, I would challenge if you are minimum enough. Obviously, without knowing the details of your product, your ideal customer, or what need you will solve, it is hard to help expose what is necessary in an MVP and what is a Phase II or Phase III feature. I am happy to help you work through this, or answer specific questions, to get you rolling. Just book a call with some times that will work for you. Regardless, I would love to know more about it and how it goes after launch. To your success, -Shaun

You are asking one question and inferring another. Do you want to know if it is possible to raise that amount on a crowdsourced site or are you asking for the best crowdsourcing site for your fundraising? In short, yes. It is entirely possible to raise that level of funding without a VC and on crowdsourced platforms. You obviously need to know the differences between "general public" crowdsourced audiences and professional VCs; they are looking for different returns. The casual crowdfunder is generally looking for something tangible (that is why sites like Kickstarter work so well) as well as a financial incentive. VCs are looking for a return on their investment. The casual crowdfunder is more likely to be sold on the idea of getting in on the ground floor and being part of something bigger than their usual life. If you can clearly identify what problem your product is solving, and who will benefit, you can build your incentives around complementary frustrations and painpoints. If your product is an accounting application for small business, for example, find partner services that also help small businesses. If you have other questions, or I wasn't specific enough in some areas, please book a call with a couple of times that work for you and we can dig deeper. To your succes, -Shaun

Talk more. Game walkthrough comedian Markiplier had his voice deepen considerably over the past couple years. https://www.youtube.com/user/markiplierGAME Don't concern yourself with his CONTENT; find a video from 2 or 3 years ago of his and listen to his VOICE...then listen to a recent video to hear just how much it has changed. You obviously don't have two years. But merely by talking consistently will exercise your vocal cords and result in a deepened, stronger voice. A vocal coach is a paid option. Youtube searching for "how to improve my voice" came up with a bunch of video results.

That's a great question and there is a lot of startups asking it. Including me. I've been asked it a few times as well. I tried to tell the people what to do at first, but soon realized that they are the ones who know their product and industry better than anyone else, so I could only ask the right question to help them decide. So here you go. 1. Have you got any plan that you can compare those metrics to, to understand whether the growth is faster or slower than you planned? 2. If you preserve, have you prepared some tests that help you validate your assumptions? For example, we wanted to give it a last try so we launched a PPC campaign. That helped us speed up the decision, because more clicks on our website helped us see the trend. (also, don't forget to set some expectations first) 3. Have you validated your pivot options before you really do the pivot? You can do the validation through customer interviews or landing page, pretty quickly. I think that you need to answer those questions first before going into more detail. Do a few build-measure-learn loops and you will get much more insights to help you decide whether to pivot or to preserve. This is one of the most difficult decisions that you are going through. Fingers crossed.

amazing question. Relevant to me right as I look for a developer myself. There are not a lot of people looking for app developers, so ads would have been the last thing I would have suggested. An easily scalable business model is to hire local sales contractors to find and funnel leads themselves in exchange of sales commission. They become 1099 and you only pay if they sale. You can create a site or squeeze page that reflects their local market but besides that your marketing costs will drop significantly while sales should increase that much more, as I often find their results directly proportional. Best of luck! Humberto Valle #UnthinkStrategy

Many of the target groups you listed have their own proprietary contract processes/apps in place. Low hanging fruit may be independent consultants, freelancers, and small business owners. They deal with contracts all the time. If you are going to continue targetting real estate, financial, and legal firms; take a few hours and interview those you have contact within those fields. I guarantee they have frustrations with their existing program and would give you an ear-full to position your product correctly. I'd love to help more, if you have another question, or want more specifics, feel free to book a call with some times you are available to connect. To your success, -Shaun

Great question! Here are the basics: The Lean Startup by Eric Reis http://www.amazon.com/The-Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous/dp/0307887898 Running Lean by Ash Maurya http://www.amazon.com/Running-Lean-Iterate-Works-Series/dp/1449305172/ref=pd_sim_b_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=03VER05GWM6QV80D49ZH *excellent, concrete, super actionable The Startup Owner's Manual by Steve Blank http://www.amazon.com/The-Startup-Owners-Manual-Step-By-Step/dp/0984999302/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0JNJVNK8B46D6M98W1A5 *the bible! Lean Customer Development by Cindy Alvarez http://www.amazon.com/Lean-Customer-Development-Building-Customers/dp/1449356354/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429290160&sr=1-1&keywords=customer+discovery+validation *focused on methods you'll need to use to validate feature and value prop ideas When in doubt, **stop debating**. You are not your customer. Get out of the building. Don't build unless you're testing what you build, and ready to throw away what you build when you get answers. Good luck! Books are helpful as background, but for specific advice on where you and your company specifically should invest time, set up a call with me. https://clarity.fm/caneel