Startup Q&a With Matthew Paulson

This week's questions: Do you do your own online marketing tasks (landing pages, optins, email copy, sales page copy, etc.) for your businesses or have you hired out for that? I know you've already hired out for FB ads. - Hilawe Semunegus What technology do you use to design the HTML for your emails? What ESP do you use to send your emails? And how do you automate unsubscribes? - Amos Kittelson I have an information technology training company that provides a great income, but it is heavily dependent upon me. I'm feeling burned out! I also have doubts about my ability to sustain this for the long term. How do I turn this into a sustainable business and avoid burnout? - Jason Cannon What are the best practices for customer retention, getting them to re-buy or revisit your business or site? - Robert Mehling What is the best way to use media to reach potential clients? What type of media has the best results? - Jeff Anderson Tip of the week: Use https://manychat.com/ to set up a facebook chat messenger bot

This week's questions: What are different ways that I can structure my deal? What is a private placement memorandum? How do I prepare for a pitch? What steps are involved in due diligence? This week's tip: Use short emails to engage your audience with a call to action

This week's questions: What types of businesses can raise money? Who can invest in a privately held business? How do I find angel investors? How do I determine the valuation of my business? Tip of the week: do session recordings of your website to find issues and to see how your users use it.

Where should I sell my book online? How do I market my book online? How do I make an audiobook version of my book? How do I leverage my book to make money in my business? Tip of the week: Use Booktrakr.com to track the sales of your book

http://startupqa.co This week's questions: Who should write a book? Should I get a publisher for my book? Where can I learn about self publishing online? How do I actually go about writing my book? What people do I need to hire to help put my book together? Tip of the Week: Read Self-Publishing Master Class by Rick Smith - https://www.amazon.com/Createspace-Kindle-Self-Publishing-Masterclass-Step-ebook/dp/B00GK5NKGU/ Resources: http://authority.pub/ http://sellmorebooksshow.com/

This week's questions: How can you get better metrics prior to jumping into a specific marketplace and evaluating the success of your idea? - Bryan Cargill How do I select a bank or a credit union for my small business? - Marissa Poppens Snapchat's IPO got a lot of talk. Where do you weigh in on investing in IPOs like Snapchat, being someone with an expertise in investing? - Troy Klongerbo I recognize that you have built massive email lists providing a lot of email content. For those who are just building a list, are give-aways baiting subscribers the best/only way to build a large list? Like providing "The 40 Best Tips for ..." as a free download. - Micah Kennedy What does a good partnership agreement look like? Tip of the Week: Use an online invoicing system to get paid. Partnership agreement checklist: In my partnerships, I include: - the responsibilities of every partner in the business. In other words, who's doing what in the company. - What happens if someone wants to get out - What happens if someone

http://startupqa.co This week's questions: What does a good business partnership look like? What kind of operating agreement should you have in place with your partners? - Daniel Gold Is it better to attend conventions as a presenter with a booth, or an attendee mingling with other attendees? - Josh Sapienza How important are written and video content in regards to improving SEO? What are some techniques you've used to improve SEO? - Will Powell It hurts my head to look at spread sheets and interest rates and stuff. Is there something Smarter an ADHD guy like me should be doing? - Jon Roise How would you recommend publishing a book in 2017 and beyond? Tip of the week: Use https://slerpee.com/ to preview your site's listing in google search results

This week's questions: I'm reading your fascinating book Online Business From Scratch and am planning to start a social network. But I have one question: Do I need to learn how to write code? - Keith Bates Who are your mentor(s) in all areas of your business? - Jeremy Brown How do you encourage your children to be entrepreneurial? - Jeff Gilchrist If I have a great idea that might require a patent, what are the best ways to prove/guard my idea while I try to get investors? - Adam Langbehn Tip of the week: switch your sites over to https

This week's questions: Should I hire a financial advisor? Why don't you like directly investing in real estate? Who should become an angel investor? Tip of the Week: Look into donor advised funds- https://www.fidelitycharitable.org/giving-strategies/give/donor-advised.shtml Resource: Automatic Income at http://automaticincomebook.com

http://startupqa.co This week's questions: What types of assets should I invest in through my retirement accounts? How should entrepreneurs invest differently than normal people with normal jobs? Where should I put money after I have maxed out my tax-free investing triad? Tip of the Week: read these investing books - http://www.mattpaulson.com/2016/07/five-favorite-personal-finance-investing-books-time/

This week's questions: When should I stop investing in my business and start investing for retirement? Where should my personal finances be before I start investing? What investment priorities should an entrepreneur have? Tip of the Week: use https://www.personalcapital.com/ to assess your investment portfolio

This week's questions: How do you sell your products to your audience using email? How do you stay compliant with CAN-SPAM? How do you make sure that your messages don't end up in the spam folder? What are some different ways that you can make money with your email list? Tip of the Week: Use https://www.AfterOffers.com to build your mailing list. Resource: http://multirbl.valli.org/

Why is building an email list important? How can I build my email list using my website? What are some other ways that I can build my email list? What kind of email should I send my audience? Tip of the Week: test emails with https://www.mail-tester.com/ Resource: http://myemailmarketingbook.com

This week's questions: I feel like things are moving super slowly and I'm already working 80 hours per week. What do I do to see the progress that I want to see, or do I simply need to reset my expectations? - Sarah Werner What do you do to keep all of your tasks and projects organized and know what you should be working on right now? - Anonymous How do I learn about scaling a business or entrepreneurship? Are there any good YouTube channels I should follow? What should I focus on learning? - Ryan Rusher What are some of the first things that I should outsource or delegate in my business so that I can focus on what makes my company money? - Anonymous Tip of the Week: read Essentialism by Greg McKeown http://gregmckeown.com/product/essentialism-the-disciplined-pursuit-of-less/

This week's questions: What do you recommend to new entrepreneurs use to manage and track financials for their start-up? -Lisa Groon Should I join my local chamber of commerce? - Marissa Poppens At what point should I start to think about selling my business? - Anonymous How should I navigate personal, political, or religious view points especially when they could be inflammatory to my customer base (and of course it is obvious that they hold the wrong position)? - Shane Oien Tip of the Week: Split-test your subject lines

This week's questions: How often should you email your main mailing list and when should you segment it out? Also, when someone joins your mailing list and they receive your automated emails and your current emails is that too many emails for them? If so, how do you fix this issue of over-emailing your list?" - Micah Kennedy What, if any, are the criteria for creating a product/service that others haven't found an expressed need for yet? I.E. scratching your own itch. Or may be slightly ahead of the curve. - Ross Wickman Bootstrap vs loans vs investors... What's best for what situations? - Matthew Robert Tims I have people ask me about taking the plunge and starting their own business. The biggest question they ask is "How do I know if I'm ready to start a business? - John Small Should you pursue a business that solves one of your problems, or pursue a business that solves someone else's problems? I've seen successful variations of both. Do you think one is better than the other? - David Seruyange Tip of the

What should you plan on doing if 100% of your business is based on an internet platform and it goes down? - Dan Pickering Where do you put your marketing money in a start-up? - Sheila Rae Should I ever sign a non-disclosure agreement or ask someone to sign a non-disclosure agreement? - Marissa Poppens On investing... For low income folks who can manage to save up $5 a month... Other than holding on to it till you get enough for a bond or cd, how can they invest that $5 each month? How does it work, brokers and all? Can you break it down into simple steps for folks that have no generational history of investing? - Sam Lopez Tip of the Week: do research with BuiltWith.com  

This week's questions: What are some tools that you use in your business, especially ones that maybe no one has ever heard of before? - Jaime Masters How do you navigate health insurance as a self employed individual? - Anonymous How do you find investors to invest in your business? - Katie Day Do you recommend formal education for a new entrepreneur? (BS in Business Administration, MBA, basic accounting class, etc.) - Lisa Groon Tip of the Week: read Automatic Customer by John Warrilow

This week's questions: What's the best way to begin building an advisory team or board of directors? - Lisa Groon Have you had any past failures and what did you learn from them? - Joshua Novak When looking to start an online business what steps do you take to validate the market. For example what would have more potential, Saltwater fishing or Yoga? - David Edwards Should entreperneurs invest in gold or bitcoin? - Ryan Daniel Moran Tip of the week: use similarweb.com

This week's questions: Chicken or egg scenario for start up non profit: 1) purchase office space prior to having funding to hire executive director 2) fundraise to hire executive director prior to having an office space for them. - Anna Hyronimus What conferences will you be attending in 2017, and what's your favorite business conference to attend? - Ryan Daniel Moran What financial reports/indicators should you be watching for your business and how often? - Anthony Fasano Jr. What is the most important skill for starting a business? Marketing, sales, financial understanding, market understanding, product development, vision casting, etc. - Matthew Robert Tims What legal structure should we use in our business? Should we be sole propreitors, an LLC, an S-Corp or a C-Corp? We are husband and wife owners of a business. - Kendall Johnson Resource of the Week: https://managewp.com/