Make sure you got your mobile visitors covered with a mobile friendly and fast working website.

Without any more details only very general advice can be offered. But that general advice would be to build an 'MVP' (minimal viable product) and start testing it. Test it with yourself, then friends, then family, then strangers, then more strangers etc. You'll be making changes to it along the way to make it fit closer and closer to what people want and find useful, and you'll be refining your knowledge of who your target market is. When you have enough data showing people like and will pay for your product, you can get investment if you want, to grow faster, or grow more slowly and organically without investment. If you can't build your 'disruptive tech idea' yourself, there are several options that will still let you make and deploy and test an MVP version of it. Feel free to send more background info if you'd like advice better tailored to your actual idea, best of luck, Lee

Find a place to store the food so nothing spoils. Contact local organizations around in your area that can help you bring in food donations. Let other food banks know of your operation. Set up a specific and time schedule that lets others know when they can receive from food you. Hold a food drive. Make sure you get boxes and grocery bags prepared to put food in for your clients. You should have no problems and, yes, there is hope.

I can think of a few ways to solve this problem but there's only one I really like. And that is because the truth of the solution is not out there in the marketplace, but here inside the mind of the contractor. What does this freelancer believe is "a lot of money"? That's your first and key question. It drives all the others. You have to be totally honest about this because people often lie to themselves about this number...the reality is the truth is a figure a whole lot lower than they initially say. Why are we doing this? Because if you mismatch your beliefs with your target market, you will never sell. Either the projects will be too small for your taste, in which case you'll find ways to screw up the sale because the ideas are boring...or (more commonly) the projects will be valued too highly for your personal sense of value, and you'll screw up the sale because it's too big for you. The sweet spot is a level that is just a small bit higher than what you think of as "a lot of money." Let's say you get real with yourself, you've never earned more than $50K a year (most people have not), and so you're used to a salary of around $4K. Earning $10K or $15K at once is frightening to you. Exciting, but scary. You don't really believe you can do it...that someone will actually pay you that in one go. So looking for companies that have a $10-15K or higher project level comfort zone is a bad idea for you at present in this example. Projects at $5-7K are a much better choice, because they will draw you on while seeming believable in terms of someone really sending you that much at once. And if you're used to twice monthly salary payments, $3-5K may be even better. Once you understand what is true for you right now--and the goalposts can be changed; this is all habit and you have to be consciously aware of it and work on it continuously--then you can go out and look for a match in the marketplace. The fact is there are customers at every level. I had a South African friend I worked for about 10 years ago who had a design agency there before he moved to Vancouver, Canada. One of his designers bid on a job to redesign a credit card cover, and that art project was awarded to them at $80K. $80K to redesign that small space. Why? Because that customer felt it was worth it. But if the designer hadn't believed THEY were worth it, they would never have bid on that project, not at that amount...heck, they may not have even SEEN the listing for the project because their RAS would have screened it out. So find your sweet spot, then go and find out who has projects that are worth 10-20X that figure. It's easy to get someone to say "Yes" to a project where they know the value is $100K when your price is $5K to solve the problem. Maybe even $10K as the investment to fix things. And $100K problems are lying around everywhere in business. As for what niche, I like to pick niches I enjoy talking about all day. Beyond typical project value that's another good factor. If I'm going to be stuck in there, I might as well enjoy it. Also makes the marketing easier, since I stand out due to knowing the industry jargon. Yeah, a designer could work on anything...but that's the wrong perspective to be using when it comes to finding clients. The client's perspective is this: "Is this for me? Will this work for me?" And appearing general does not help answer those questions confidently.

I regularly help franchisees in this industry. Send me a message with some of your questions and I'll let you know if I can help in a call. Cheers David

1. Are your tasks clearly defined? Lack of clarity can drop the enthusiasm level. 2. Are you excited about the tasks? See above. 3. Are you clear on the reward for completing the tasks? 4. Is there simply a rhythm your body and mind WANT to work in, that you'd likely be best to listen to? I'm a "Grind It Out" guy and work on things to death once I start, but some people really like Pomodoro, for instance. Also, we all have our "Golden Hours," a topic I was quoted in Inc. Magazine about...times during the day when we're best suited to do certain work. In my case, I am best at "grunt" work in the morning...non-creative, bang-it-out type stuff. And I get tired from about 3:30PM - 6:30PM so I try not to book anything but podcast appearances in there (which instantly put me on Performer Mode.) Then from about 7:00PM to 1:00AM I am creative, so I schedule those tasks then. Respecting these preferences is important to my success. Can I do creative copywriting in the middle of the day? Sure. But the end result will probably not be as inspired as it could be. As Dan Ariely said, we don't know our preferences that well. If you learn yourself, you can use that machine to its best advantage.

It depends on your business but in my experience, the best was to do a half and half model where some of it was virtual and some of it was onsite. After hours is something that costs effective outsourcing to a virtual company can be effective.

I suggest doing some of your own research and brainstorming first, to help you craft questions to ask people. Then: simply ask. Use surveys, social media and face to face and try to change up the questions here and there to track consistency in answers.

Wordpress will give you many more blogging options and capabilities than Shopify. There are also numerous plugins for Wordpress that allow you to sell services. WooCommerce is great for selling products, but you may want to find a plugin that allows you to sell just services. You don't really need all the inventory and other product-related capabilities that WooCommerce provides if you are just selling services. Shopify is great for selling tangible products. However, it sounds like you want to sell services, so the many tools and plugins that give Shopify users the ability to quickly set up shop aren't really helpful to you.

1. Make sure you have the right team in place. 2. Make sure job descriptions and methods of practice are well documented.

Raising money is a choice, if you can self funded until the concept is proven and you start getting traction, don't give up equity early on. In any round, you give up a piece of the pie, the longer you are able to self fund, the better the end result for you. You will be in strong position if you are able to stay out of asking for funding early on, but remember you need to have a good hold of the market and your numbers to understand when

You really have two forms of payment here given that you can't be paid out of the small sum of money the founder has. The decision as to what to accept depends on the idea the person has and your belief in it. 1. Equity It's called sweat equity for a reason. If the person you've been approached by is not willing to give you equity to work on the idea it's a major red flag. You should be compensated for your work and if the person is cash poor they still have equity in the company that they can assign to you. This is given that the person who has the idea plans to scale the company and potentially exit it. 2. Delayed cash compensation. If the person is planning on raising capital you can create and agreement that states that they will pay you once the company has raised capital. If you do decide to accept a delayed cash compensation package, you should first understand if the person is planning on raising capital and how much they are planning to raise. From a founders perspective they'll want to only pay you the delayed cash comp if they raise over a certain amount which is understandable. Make sure you understand what that mark is and that it's attainable. 3. A combination of equity and delayed cash compensation A combination of equity and cash compensation has less upside then only equity as well as less risk. You'll be paid less because of the equity piece but also have a part of the company for the long term. With all those options out there it's important to note that the best option for you depends on your current situation and long term interests.

No that pricing is too high as the maximum finders fee that is offered is 2.2% i.e. 440K max. Although if he is doing other tasks for you other than finding the investor that price may change. Traditionally the commission is as stated 2.2%.

You can't embed Shopify into WordPress. They used to have a plugin but that has been scrapped. Currently the best way to have a WordPress ecommerce store that sells physical products is to use the free WooCommerce plugin from WooThemes. It allows you to receive payments from PayPal. As you will be shipping products you will need a shipping plugin - this will depend on which postal service or courier you are using to ship, e.g. Australia Post or UPS. These shipping plugins are not free. Have a look at the official list here https://woocommerce.com/product-category/woocommerce-extensions/shipping-methods/ That's probably the minimal set up you need to start to sell your T-Shirts and hats. There are of course a lot more WooCommerce extensions that will enhance your store and your customer experience. Hope that helps. Wil.

Get Legal Shield coverage (Ada Oklahoma company). Then you can simply bankrupt any patent troll who comes after you. I can tell you from personal experience, bankrupting people who sue you is highly gratifying. I've done this twice now. Each time I get sued, I'm filled with glee, because this means I have a new opportunity for bankrupting someone, so they can't sue anyone else. Search Clarify for my previous answers detailing how to accomplish bankrupting people who sue you.

Do you want a job instead of to be an owner? No way! Read "How To Get Rich" by the dear departed Felix Dennis, who did not have to sell a single copy of his book because he was already bloody rich. (Compare/contrast against so many other "gurus".) You'll read that he says not to give one single % of equity away. Without 51%, you are no longer in control. If you want someone else telling you what you can and can't do with the company you created...if you want a job or worse because they can limit you to being a silent partner or consultant now that you are just a minority partner with a few rights...go ahead. You can do this some other way.

Are you doing 'maker classes' for kids, or are you making and selling toys that help them learn on their own? If you're doing classes, the only way to sustainably scale up is to make sure that a majority of your classes are using digital maker tools, instead of physical ones. For instance, using https://scratch.mit.edu instead of Lego Mindstorms. This is because scaling up with digital tools will be enormously easier than dealing with physical inventory: No need to buy / keep track of / store / transport, etc., no need to do on-location training of new instructors (they can train at home), etc. If you're not doing classes, but are instead making toys for kids, again a software product would allow easier scaling, but if that's not possible for you, then you're going to have to work on getting into retail shops and/or increasing your online presence in the maker space. Feel free to send more background info if you'd like advice more tailored to your specific problem, best of luck, Lee

I'm using Teachable.com and so far I really like it. I'm producing a course on "How to get massive amounts of free PR" that I will be launching in March 2018.

It seems you're asking two different questions: 1. What is the importance of demographics? 2. What are the pain points in building facial recognition into a retail transaction? To answer the first, demographics inform what products are being sold, who gets what promotion, what to start and stop carrying, and more in retail. The degree to which a retail shop pays attention to its clientele is directly related to those decisions and thus to its success. To answer the second, you will need to deal with the legal ramifications of facial recognition technology, and once you've handled that, you'll need to deal with the range of reactions you'll get from customers who will need to know they're being recognized--not by humans but by robots. I'd say the second issue is the most important one to consider as you shape the technology and how it will be used.

Listen to my interview with exit strategist Jock Purtle of Digital Exits here (no opt-in, simple download): https://www.mediafire.com/file/ufbe877j6qupun6/JockPurtleInterview.mp3

The easiest answer to this is something a mentor told me a few years ago when I was working on a niche app....she said "do you honestly feel like you could be passionate about this for the next 10 years"? That may not sound like it's relevant but it is...honestly that's the only thing that matters when starting a compay (besides the obvious of is this valuable)...That's the first thing to figure out. Then when I answered and said maybe, she said "do you think that this is the biggest thing you could be doing with your time? Why stop at helping a few thousand people, why not pour 10 years of your life into something that can help millions".....so reframe your question, is my product only helping a few people? Is there something else I could be doing that will help more people? If the answers are obvious then you know what you need to do...back to the drawing board.

I would highly recommend connecting with someone who has experience here to shorten your learning curve if this is not what you do. For our agency, we spent a lot of time & money outlining and creating the infrastructure which now is mainly on autopilot for our outbound strategy. For example, we now have a small team running it while sending on average 5-10k emails per month consistently. I can help outline how to do the same thing as well. Team-wise I would lean in the direction of learning the framework, building a small team and launching some base campaigns internally. I have looked and hired a lot of 3rd party companies that claim to handle all your outbound campaigns but most are 5/10 quality wise and charge a hefty premium. Once you know the structure it mainly comes down to team building, having a quality product/service, and creating value through very personal outreach campaigns. Resources wise- there are some great books out there on this. I would highly recommend "The Ultimate Sales Machine" by Chet Holmes and "Predictable Revenue" by Aaron Ross. These both will give you a lot of higher level ideas and ways to structure your outbound campaigns. A lot comes down to your internal resources and budget as well. Hope this helps!

Lead generation or in more specific form, prospect building is done by almost all companies in some form or the other. The traditional approach of lead generation is rapidly going through a transitioning stage. The need of the hour is to be smart and gain competitive advantage by utilizing “Time Sensitive Sales Trigger”. So, what do we mean by Time Sensitive Sales Trigger? These are basically events that can lead to quick conversion in your sales and marketing efforts. Few examples can be: Competitive Changes: This can be in the form of business model changes, closing/expanding facilities, contract win, FDA approval, joint ventures & partnership, new market opportunities, product launch, real estate transactions, technology advancements, weak operational performance, etc. Financial Changes: Sales drop, bankruptcy, credit downgrade, distressed loan, EBITDA drop, IPO, loan default, restatement of earnings, etc can be few examples within this. Ownership Changes: Here, we can think of divestitures, legal issues, M&A, strategic alternative and others as some possible events. Personnel Changes: This can be crucial specially when we think about fortune companies- typical example could be headcount changes, top level management (CEO, CFO, COO, CMO, CIO, etc.) removal, resignation and appointment. Recognition Changes: Awards, press releases, conferences, events, trade shows, reviews, feedback and perhaps improved web ranking also give insights on company’s current standings. The above scenarios help companies to target the right prospect with the right solution at the right time. Also, with social media at its peak, companies have started leveraging social media big time and it’s showing positive impact. Now, apart from dependency on above news and events, companies have also shown great amount of interest in reviews, comments, social post to create real time/concurrent leads for their sales funnel. This is based on my recent consulting experience. Thoughts??

Here are some ways to get more customers: 1. Start by reaching out to your friends who own businesses and ask to doncome consulting work for them in exchange for case studies. You need to show credibility to give people a reason to trust you and work with you. 2. Create content. Either document your journey as a consultant or create a blog/vlog that will give you the ability to demonstrate your expertise. 3. Once you have content to work with, promote it via ads. 4. Lastly ask people to introduce you to people or businesses they may know could use your services. Hope this helps! I'm available for followups if needed!

Great question for anyone who has a newly published book and would like to hit the speaking circuit. I was once in the same boat and here is what I would suggest as the fastest and most effective method to getting your speaking engagements. You must be active on social media. You should give away small tidbits of your book in videos and join FB groups related to your topic. There are millions of groups that you can join which will give you instant access to the people you need to know. When I ran for U.S. Congress, I joined the political groups of my party. Your book was written for someone at some stage of life, so find the groups associated with their interest. I also hired someone to work for me 1 hour a day to make calls to decision makers of associations, conferences and trade shows. They would contact the organizer and send them the videos and one-sheets about me. Use free speaking engagements to build your brand. Take lots of pictures, record videos and use these pictures in your promotional material. Cut and splice them. Be sure to wear different clothing to each speaking engagement, so you can have the appearance of different speeches in the beginning It's always a great idea to have loads of books at any event to sell them after you speak. Bon Chance!