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Ethics and legal nuances aside (which we’ll get to), my main interest here is just how much of a mess this whole story has been at nearly every level.Now, yes, I promised myself a while back that I’d stop writing about Musk and the media and all my concerns with BuzzFeed. And I really do wish I could honor those promises! I wish, often and in earnest, that I could signNow a place of acceptance with the idea of so many professionals not feeling obligated to carefully read the stuff they’re writing about, and I really wish I could think less about how we’re trusting them and the institutions they represent to help keep this world from descending into chaos and darkness and measles epidemics.But here we are again, so we might as well get going.ContextMusk infamously did that thing last year where he tweeted “funding secured” when the reality was more like “some funding verbally offered”, which caused all sorts of market swings and made lots of investors very angry, leading the SEC to punish Musk by stripping his chairmanship of Tesla, fining him $40m*, and making him promise to stop tweeting stuff that would cause markets to flip out without a Very Serious Adult first saying “ok, go ahead”.(Tesla’s resulting comms policy assigned these approval powers to Tesla’s general counsel and a new “Designated Securities Counsel” who cleverly chose to remain nameless, with the CFO serving as backup adult.)It’s now been a little over two months since this new policy kicked in, during which time the SEC hadn’t found cause to complain, right up until Musk decided to shake things up with this tweet last week:Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 20, 2019 Now, I want to call attention to one detail in this tweet that will turn out to be really important: Musk said cars, not Model 3s specifically.(Also, I looked it up and Tesla did produce cars in 2011. Only Roadsters, and only in the hundreds. But this feels like Exhibit #6,676 supporting the case that we should all just agree to take Musk’s tweets for what they are — i.e., shower thoughts and off-the-cuff directional updates, not precise statements of material facts; which is to say that they’re, you know, tweets and not short-form 8-K disclosures. Like, there may be legal arguments against this re-categorization, but I’m pretty sure I speak for ~98% of people in saying that this adjustment would make everyone a whole lot happier, with the added upside of giving the laziest journalists fewer things to pearl-clutch and tut-tut about.)Anyway, the above tweet was followed up some four hours later with this one:Meant to say annualized production rate at end of 2019 probably around 500k, ie 10k cars/week. Deliveries for year still estimated to be about 400k.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 20, 2019 Both were posted while the NASDAQ was closed, which I think is itself a hint that Musk’s intention was maybe less “let’s manipulate the market!” and more “500k is the type of number Justin Timberlake would get more excited about in a dramatic restaurant scene!”. While there’s an obvious and serious argument that CEOs ought to reject these aggrandizing impulses (especially Musk!), there’s also a not-totally-offsetting argument that Twitter has a way of inducing bad decisions, with the sin here being fractional to that of #karajack.(Alternatively, Musk simply got the numbers confused, which would put him in the company of the majority of people involved in this whole dumb thing.)Whatever Musk’s motivation(s), the SEC, uh, didn’t care much for the whole episode. They guessed correctly that Musk hadn’t gotten sign-off on his first tweet, which they opted to interpret as equivalent to Musk saying “lmao, I was crossing my fingers when I said I’d stop doing exactly this sort of thing”.As such, the SEC filed a request with the SDNY district court to find Musk in contempt of his agreement. **And this is where things get interesting:The SEC argued that the original tweet violated both the deal and Tesla’s new comms policy because it contained material information that hadn’t been pre-approved by counsel.Bradley Bondi, a former SEC guy, answered on Tesla’s behalf (pages 24-26 here), arguing that Musk’s original tweet was just a bungled rehash of a disclosure made in Tesla’s Q4 statement (“we are targeting annualized Model 3 output in excess of 500,000 units sometime between Q4 of 2019 and Q2 of 2020”), and that this original statement had been properly vetted per the agreement, meaning that Musk didn’t do anything wrong in repeating it without explicit approval, but simply made an honest mistake in repeating it incorrectly.The WSJ subsequently put out a story about the SEC’s lawsuit, which prompted someone on Twitter to respond back with this:Read the transcripts from Q4 earnings. He said it there pic.twitter.com/Q6kw5oZBdM— JonP (@JPUConn) February 26, 2019 (You have to click the tweet to see the whole excerpt. For those who can’t open it, the money quote is Musk saying "maybe on the order of 350,000 to 500,000 Model 3s, something like that this year”, either in reference to hoped for sales or deliveries. Note that this general lack of distinction between production and sales and deliveries leaked into the SEC’s suit and much of the reporting on this subject. Those numbers should all be close-ish, but would never be the same. Using arbitrary numbers, Tesla could very well produce 350k Model 3s, sell only 315k of them, and deliver only 300k within the calendar year, etc.)Anyway, as Musk is wont to do, he then did the other type of tweeting that his employees and peers and friends and loved ones and local baristas probably all implore him to stop doing, opting to respond to the quoted excerpt with:That all in mind, here’s a non-exhaustive list of grievances:The SEC lawsuit failed to note the distinction between “cars” and “Model 3s”, which is almost inexplicable to me (by which I really mean I wish it was inexplicable, as all the obvious explanations seem bad).BuzzFeed News (I’m fighting a powerful urge to put the word news in quotation marks here) also got it wrong: “Musk’s tweet was potentially misleading because it suggested that the company would make 500,000 Model 3 cars this year, conflicting with earlier reports from the company that it would deliver more than 350,000 of those vehicles in 2019.”(Quick sidebar to unpack how bad and representative this single sentence is. First, Musk didn’t say Model 3s. Second, reports is plural, yet the author didn’t link to a single such report. I looked and couldn’t find any public source for the 350k claim. Third, the author’s use of “potentially” reminds me of how some people feel this reflexive need to lace their arguments with adjectives, yet don’t go on to consider what these added words actually mean. In a similar vein, Musk’s tweet didn’t “suggest” anything. It stated something. I guess this is the standard of copyediting you get after signNow layoffs — or just in an era where enough people agree that words don’t have to mean things.)Whatever happened to live pushback? Musk’s estimate on the earnings call (of 350k-500k Model 3s, in whatever context) was more or less irreconcilable with the actual earnings report, which clearly said “we are expecting to deliver 360,000 to 400,000 vehicles in 2019” (emphasis mine). Just under 100k of Tesla’s 2018 deliveries were S and X models, which is a number Musk suggested would decline only slightly in 2019. If we assume 85k non-3 deliveries this year, this means a forecast of some 275-315k 3s, which I’m pretty sure is enough fewer than 350k-500k to be worth at least a quick clarification question. Amazingly, none of the people on the call asked said question, despite the enormous bottom-line impact inherent in the disparity. ***Putting this all together, I’m led to a few conclusions:Nothing in this SEC lawsuit is really about protecting investors. Musk’s tweets came after-hours and were corrected before the market re-opened (some damage can happen after-hours, but you’d be hard-pressed to find real litigants who sustained meaningful losses).[NOTE: Because I’m a curious kitten, I asked Glenn Luk to look into the real-time impact of Musk’s original tweet. His response: “Around 5-10k shares changed hands from 7:15pm to the end of extended trading hours. So around $1.5-3 million worth. These impacted shares traded in the $306.50 to $307.50 range. The official closing price on that day was $305.64.” I have two general comments here: 1. If you aren’t following Glenn, you should be. 2. This impact is trivial. Even at the high end of $3m, that’s 0.005% of Tesla’s float. Also, some of the trades in the remaining 45 mins following Musk’s first tweet actually went for less $/share than those immediately before!]The SEC mostly seems interested in forcing Musk to both respect the system more and to stop making fun of them. While that first concern is certainly valid, their actual response here seems antagonistic to said hopes. Their suit was weak and lazy. Whatever Tesla/Musk did wrong here, they also self-policed. I can see the logic in maybe a stern letter, but it’s hard to see practical value in the route they took. While I’m vaguely sympathetic to what they must have felt were a lack of alternative options, this ultimately feels like a failure of creativity and/or latitude. They should be able to suggest things like “hey, you made a mistake, now go make a $10m good faith donation to charity”, with those amounts doubling for every additional trivial infraction. Or if they really wanted to get through to him, they could force him to donate said money to BuzzFeed (whom I’m told could really use the help).The SEC also over-signNowed (page 12) in arguing that even if Musk had been accurately quoting his previously-vetted Q4 disclosure, that said vetting is only valid for 48 hours per Tesla’s own comms policy — which I find to be a dubious and/or disingenuous reading of said policy. Like, are they seriously trying to argue that Musk wouldn’t be free to repeat an exact quote from a past disclosure without re-approval? That’s the sort of argument that makes it hard to take the whole complaint seriously.Anyway, moving on from the SEC, let’s talk about the people who make money reporting on Tesla in a professional capacity. My restrained take? Most would benefit from spending less time on Twitter and more doing their homework with an appropriate level of diligence.(If any journalists are reading this and feeling keen to turn the tables, please note that I offer financial rewards for corrections. All are welcome to pick holes where they can. I’ve been careful here, but would also be gracious and enthusiastic in improving the accuracy of this piece where possible. Though I don’t make a dime off these posts, I’m happy to pay such incentives out-of-pocket on principle.)Lastly, we have Musk. He, uh, really needs to stop doing this, if for no other reason than that he’s an example that many model. He needs to lead the way, and that means using Twitter responsibly. The tweet was wrong, whatever the cause, and it should have been right. It’s (arguably) a small thing in itself. But it’s also value-destruction in its purest form. This can only hurt the causes he cares about.NOTES & EDITS:* There were actually two fines: $20m to Musk, and $20m to Tesla. Musk partially offset the latter by buying $20m in stock directly from Tesla. (I say partially because Musk got stock in return, which had a dilutive effect on existing shares. So it’s less that he paid $40m in fines and more that he paid $20m and then supplied Tesla with $20m in ready cash to pay theirs.)** More precisely, their request was that Musk “show cause” to prove to the judge that he wasn’t in contempt.*** Emmanuel Rosner from Deutsche Bank kinda-almost asked this question, but ultimately narrowed his context to why their official estimates were so cautious. It isn’t clear to me how anyone could come up with a useful price assessment without clarity on the single largest item affecting Tesla this year. Either there’s a substantial reason to believe that Tesla can produce/sell/deliver 350k+ Models 3s this year, or there isn’t — which feels like something we should desire a clear answer to, which I’m told is the point of earnings calls.PS - One of the things on the call (transcript here) that I’m surprised didn’t get more coverage is the exchange between Musk and Gene Munster about Waymo. Musk laughed off their recent valuation projections, claiming that Tesla has 95% of all accumulated training miles thanks to their fleet size. Now, this isn’t quite the same as autonomous miles. Waymo has more of the latter. But the argument implied here is that miles driven where the autonomous driving system is taking in data even while not fully engaged are still worth an awful lot, with Tesla having the lion’s share of these. There’s a lot to this that’s beyond my pay grade, but I’m a little miffed that more people who do know about this aren’t talking more about it.EDIT (03-12-19)Musk’s legal team (well, one of them) filed a response to the SEC’s “show cause” filing, and, well, it’s a hell of a read. Focusing on just the new stuff:(i) The SEC’s second request for info came at 10:28am PT on a Sunday, with a deadline to respond by 5pm PT the same day. Musk’s lawyer (Bondi) responded back around 5:30pm PT basically saying “I’ve been off email all day dealing with another US Attorney’s office about a different trial, and I obviously can’t get you answers on a Sunday, but I’ll get back to you ASAP”. The SEC responded by filing with the court Monday afternoon (3:10pm PT), which honestly just feels petty.(ii) While I already covered one way in which the SEC misread Tesla’s new comms policy above (i.e., the facially silly argument about needing re-approval for something that had already been publicly disclosed), there’s also this bit:While I’m not entirely sold on Musk’s argument that his “500k” tweet was 100% justifiable, the SEC’s reading here is the sort of thing you kinda expect from a document written angrily and in haste. As Musk’s team points out later in their filing, if you take out the “depending on its significance” qualifier, the level of restriction would almost certainly become a first amendment issue. It’s fine to make Musk look for pre-approval for likely market-moving stuff, but interpreting Tesla’s policy so broadly is a definite signNow.(iii) If you scroll down to the bottom of the PDF, there’s an interesting appendice from Christopher Noe, an MIT Sloan lecturer brought on to quantify the materiality of Musk’s original tweet by way of how it moved the market. I’m pleased to report that he came to the same conclusion that Glenn and I did as it concerned the after-hours activity. But where he went beyond us is looking at the pre-market trading the next day (after Musk’s “correction” tweet). Interestingly, the stock went slightly up (0.7%), which indicates that investors saw no net concern. Noe also looked through the analyst reports available on Thomson One and couldn’t find any that referenced the tweets prior to the SEC’s filing, further suggesting that no one really cared. (Noe separately pointed out that after-hours trading following the SEC’s filing was ~17x brisker than after Musk’s original tweet, which does kinda make you think about relative harm.)(iv) While it’s true that Musk has never actually gotten any of his tweets pre-approved since the new policy went into place (though he did begin doing so after the most recent filing), it’s also true that his self-filtering had made said step unnecessary. (His lawyers even went so far as to challenge the SEC to find a single tweet that would have required pre-approval, which is a pretty strong gambit.) And given that the Very Serious Adults were reviewing Musk’s tweets in real-time to flag any that straddled the line (as they did successfully here), it’s hard to argue that they were acting in contempt. IMO, the SEC was so worked up about his TV interview (“I don’t respect the SEC”) that they failed to see this with any objectivity. If they were waiting for their moment to nab him, this wasn’t it.

I am excited to write this answer. You know why? Because I love Affiliate Marketing. I started my Affiliate Marketing career almost 4 years back and today I am one of the top affiliate marketers of many big brands. Not only this, I deliver talks on Affiliate Marketing in conferences as well. Feel free to read my other Quora answer to know how Affiliate marketing has changed my life: AnkitSingla's answer to Can you really make signNow money using affiliate marketing? [ https://www.quora.com/Can-you-really-make-signNow-money-using-affiliate-marketing/answer/AnkitSingla ] I have positioned myself as a strategic affiliate marketer. That’s why I strongly believe I have the authority to answer this question. Enough said, let’s begin: First and foremost, let’s understand… What is Affiliate Marketing? You promote third party’s products to your audience and you get commission on each verified sale. Did you notice something? Above I have highlighted the term “audience.” Because having an audience is crucial in Affiliate Marketing only then you can sell your products to them. Now let’s discuss… How To Build Audience For Affiliate Marketing? There are multiple ways to build an audience base. Like: * Having followers on social media * Writing answers on Quora (like this one :D) * Uploading videos on YouTube * etc. You can try these things to build your audience base. All these methods are great. But… There is one problem with these platforms. These platforms are not yours. You have no control on these platforms and your account can be banned anytime and if you are solely dependant on these platforms for your affiliate marketing career, then it can be vanished overnight. Now you might ask: So Ankit where to build the audience? What is the best way to build audience for Affiliate Marketing? My answer is: Blogging! Blogging is the best thing you can start to make handsome money with Affiliate Marketing. You write on a particular niche (the one you are most passionate and knowledgable about), gradually you build up your audience and you start promoting relevant and helpful products to them. You have full control over your blog and the audience you build. Agree? But here is one thing you need to understand. Not every niche is perfect for Affiliate Marketing. Now you might be thinking, Ankit then… How To Find A Perfect Niche For Affiliate Marketing? Well, as per my 4 years of Affiliate Marketing experience, a niche must have 3 qualities: 1. Low competition 2. Profitability 3. Link Opportunities I have explained all these 3 points in one of my YouTube videos. Feel free to watch it here. [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vonEGclnBmo ] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vonEGclnBmo Once you are ready with your niche, next thing you need is a PRODUCT or several niche related products to promote. Why finding the products before even writing a single blog post is important? It is important so that you could plan your content calendar. And keep a proper vision is always good. Isn’t it? Now let’s quickly learn: How To Find Products For Affiliate Marketing? There are many ways to find the products, but I like these 3 the most: 1. Ask Google: Search niche + affiliate programs on Google and from there you can easily get some good affiliate products to pick. 2. Join Affiliate Marketplaces or Affiliate Networks: Affiliate marketplaces like ShareASale, CJ, etc. have tons of good products to pick. Just go to their category pages and pick any relevant product. 3. Spy your Competitors: Closely observe what your competitors are doing. Which products they are promoting. f you believe you can promote these products better than your competitors, then just do it. This way you can easily find your niche relevant affiliate products. I hope I explained this point well. Feel free to watch another video of mine on 3 Great ways to find Affiliate Products just in case you need more clarity. How To Check What Keywords Your Competitors Are Using? [ https://www.bloggertipstricks.com/check-competitors-keywords.html ] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8XIc8aeBAc Now you are ready with your niche and some affiliate products to promote. It’s time to publish high-quality content on your blog so that people can read your content and buy from your affiliate links. Now again the question is: How To Find Blog Post Topics For Affiliate Marketing? It’s simple! Trust me. You have your competitors list, right? We will use the same list to get some content ideas. Find out few of their top performing commercial keywords and write content way better than them. Not sure how to spy their keywords, no problem. Feel free to read my detailed guide on the same. [ https://www.bloggertipstricks.com/check-competitors-keywords.html ] With proper SEO, you’ll be able to rank those articles. Explaining SEO thing here is out of the scope of this answer. You might want to read my detailed blog post [ https://www.bloggertipstricks.com/improve-google-keyword-ranking.html ] to get good understanding of it. Once organic traffic starts coming in to your blog, you’ll start seeing the affiliate sales in your affiliate dashboard. Now rinse and repeat to scale up your affiliate marketing income. I hope I answered your question well. If I did, please give it an upvote and feel free to follow me on Quora to stay connected. Cheers! :)

Thanks for requesting an answer from me.Just to be fair, I started with negative 500K, this included housing loans, car loans and you name it. Hence, my answer here pertains to my own experience, because I don’t find myself qualified to give you an advise, only to share what I have been through and what I know.That said, even if you are starting with $0 or $1000000, my take is to only start a business if it shows on paper that it will eventually make a profit.The business I’ve started is a graphic design service business. Of course, you may not be starting the same business.Here’s what I’ve done from starting with half a million dollars in debt to growing a profitable graphic design business in 4 years and counting.After working as a full-time freelance graphic designer since 2005, I realised to start a business is actually the easy part. There are many ways to start one. The tough part is to be focused enough to see it through even when you don’t seem to receive any reward along the way.I gave up in 2014. Well, sort of. For six months, I told myself I was turning away from my passion in design and started to dabble in other industries like food, sports and more, trying to think up of more unique startup ideas, hoping to find quick success in these areas.At that time, I kept blaming myself for wasting my time in an industry where the space is already so-called crowded or competitive, thinking there’s nothing left in the design space to occupy or that every piece of the pie has been taken.This screwed up mindset left me high and dry at the end of 2014. I failed miserably trying to start something that’s new to me. Then I remembered what my former tutor Bernard Leong told me:Do something you know so well that others don’t know.This is essentially what most people termed as your “secret sauce”. I never knew what secret sauce meant until thinking what Bernard told me finally clicked!With more than 10 years of design experience under my belt, I would have learned what problems most customers would be dying to solve and deliver the right solutions to them in the shortest time possible.With these lessons in mind, my husband and I co-founded an ongoing graphic design business in 2015 and never looked back since.If you don’t know what business to start, start by first looking into what you know best that you think nobody else knows better than you. Although there’s more to starting a business, this is a good point to get you across the first river so to speak.Next, ask yourself this question:Why start a businessWhether you are fresh out of school, starting a side hustle, quitting full-time employment or transiting from freelancing and in your case, with so much money in your bank, you first have to be clear with your reasons for starting a service-based business.If I were you, I’d ask myself this question first:“Why do you want to start a business?”Why ask why?As Bill Marriott of Marriott International says:Recently our team brought in a recommendation to make a sizable investment. When I asked why — they had a hard time answering the question as to why we should do this. So we didn’t do it. The next time you are asked to make a decision you will be far more informed if you ask “why?”Here are our (my husband’s and my) reasons:We are advocates of helping brands put themselves out there through storytelling. Instead of using words, we use visuals. Many people who are struggling with this still do it themselves (DIY) in the hopes of saving money. Instead, they lose time, ironically losing the opportunity to make more money. We are here to resolve this pain point for as many people as possible.After our first kid was born, reality hit us that we can’t be at two places at one time. That told me I’ve created a job for myself for the past 10+ years. Working full-time for someone else is not an option because I want to have the freedom and flexible control of my time and life — starting a business is the way for us.We love designing and creating. When we were freelancers, we were the ones working on the designs. As time went by, we started to love the business of design even more. In 2015, we decided to do less of the craft itself and dive into more of the business side of things. Such as working with customers we want, building a team and immersing in the works of marketing, sales and community. To do anything beyond graphic design.Growing a team used to be for ego reasons. I used to think I had something to prove as if with a big team I’m considered a great leader. As I grew with our business, our mission became clear. That is to improve the lives of graphic designers everywhere by hiring them into our virtual team and providing them with regular work.Eventually, we don’t grow for the sake of it. Our growth will help customers build their own design team they can rely on every day. With the help of automated tools online for us to collaborate better, this will bring down their overheads, less need to hire in-house designers and that leads to more growth for them too.We are here to serve others beyond graphic design. It’s clear we are a value and mission-based business, growing to support our own lifestyle, our customers and designers all over the world.What’s yours?Once you are clear with your reasons, these are the steps you need to know that worked for us:Figure out what’s the problemWhen I graduated from university, I wanted to earn an income for myself and not rely on my parents. That pressure led me to only think about what I could do rather than what’s in demand.That mindset led me to focus only on what I want to help people with the skills I have rather than the problems they are facing.It’s great to have a bit of talent and skills in something, but those are just tools to leverage in times of need. Instead of simply deciding to start a business in graphic design because I thought I was good at it, I should have researched the web for clues to what people are looking for in the realm of graphic design.Note that I used the word “clues” because not many people are able to articulate what they really want. As Henry Ford famously said:“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”I started to go places like Quora, Reddit and join Facebook Groups that include a community who are not designers but carry out marketing activities that require graphics services. People in these communities value designs and post their challenges, asking for help there.Thanks to their questions, I responded as if they were asking me only. Then I gave them as much information as I could without withholding anything. I did that not because I was kind, but because I wanted to do business with them and obviously to make money.But as I went on, I didn’t really enjoy that process. While I was expecting people to work with me after I revealed my “secrets”, most of them don’t and didn’t even leave a note of appreciation.Since then, I realised I shouldn’t give information so that they buy from me. I should do that to make their lives easier. That change in mindset and setting expectations aside also started to make my lives a whole lot easier.This is the act of building trust.Once I’ve earned their trust they started to signNow out to me. As we got to know one another better through our regular conversations, the consistency of my actions led to more people asking me:“Do you design this thing and how much do you charge?”.You may wish to go to similar groups like these, join those that are of your interests and capabilities. Then, check out what people are asking for. Once you know their problems, do a self-check to see if that’s something you’d like to solve for them.Start with freelancingStarting as a freelancer lets you test your services and products first-hand.You may wish to start as a freelancer first by tailoring your services based on clients’ requests. This means each request may be very different and you have to customise it to the specific client.When I first started freelancing, bringing home an income was the first thing in mind. Hence I did everything from logo design to packaging to illustration. So long I was able to use a software that I’m an expert in (ie. signNow), I would charge someone in exchange for work.If you wish to start off the same way, know that it’s similar to being in the first year of art school. That’s when you will be exposed to many things in the artsy world like sketching to photography.While freelancing, you have to cover everything from your finances to work on the designs and final delivery. It’s a great starting point to find a firm footing for yourself to make a decent living.At some point, I did some work without money in return for selected people. I was strategic about this since it’s an investment of a lot of my time. This was not done through cold email or cold call. These are people I’ve already connected with as mentioned in step #1. This was also when I know my bank has enough to allow me to do some free work.Next, I go to their website to have a look at what they have, such as lead magnets, workbooks, ebooks, cheatsheets or anything that I can provide in the field of graphics. Most likely they can be improved upon and I get to work.Then I sent them a message with the work done and let them use it in any way they want. That’s all. However, be prepared that not all of them are willing to buy. Sometimes timing plays a part. I have received responses that they are happy to do it themselves or they don’t need better designs. But they are appreciative and we keep in touch till this day.People work with people they know and trust. When I first started, prospects did not know me, giving away my time for free allowed us to know each other better. After I got my foot in the door, that was my chance to know what works for these people. Then, I learned as much as I can on what makes me different from other designers. We don’t always have to make a sale.This is one good way to build up your professional portfolio.Decide on one solutionAs I figure out how marketing works, doing everything for everyone makes it harder for anyone to remember me. Sticking to one small area of design allows me to go deeper into the subject and getting micro-famous in that area.It’s like searching for gold in a huge field. You stand a higher chance of hitting a gold mine if you find one spot and drill as deep as you can rather than scrape the surface far and wide to drill a thousand spots.How to decide on where’s a good spot?In step #2, you’ve learned your unique capabilities that solve a problem in your client’s world.Next, ask yourself if most of your clients face the same problem. This may not be the best spot. But it’s a good sign for you to focus on at least for a while. Here’s where you may wish to specialise or so-called unleash your superpower to solve this problem.You may face a situation where you don’t enjoy digging this spot as much as another one. Keep in mind your reasons for starting a business in the first place. Then ask yourself these questions:Can I project this business to be profitable in the long term if I carry on?Can I still lead the lifestyle I wish to have?In my case, many of my customers need to keep changing content to suit different collaterals on a regular basis. This rang a bell for me to focus on the ongoing consistency of design elements to keep a brand coherent.Structure your offeringOnce you’ve decided which problem to solve, the next thing is to package your skills and know-how into a set of deliverables. This will be a format where you handover your service to your clients in the form of a product.Another mistake I made was getting stuck in my ‘freelance job’ waiting to take orders, not knowing what’s to come. I have been an order-taker, doing anything to fulfil clients’ requirements.With different requests, almost every process that leads up to each deliverable is customised and tailor-made. For every request, I had to start from scratch and create something from the ground up. It’s like opening a restaurant without a menu.This resulted in extreme burnout.Conversely, when you structure your offering, your services will look similar to a pre-mix chocolate cake. Instead of allowing any client to tell you what they want in the chocolate cake, you are the one to decide the fixed set of ingredients added to this pre-mix.You would have known what to put in your box of pre-mix based on your lessons learned from steps #1 to #3.The fun part is, you get to mix and match and test out which set of ingredients works best to the clients you know will need the most.All the above are necessary steps to find out what exactly you want to do. Everything else below is the action to take once you’ve decided what business you wish to get into.Price your offeringThere’s no magic to the numbers. Over the years I hear things like numbers 3, 7, 8 and 9 work well. I’ve tried them all and realised that if nobody has a pain that I can help with and if my service does not solve their pain, any number does not help.The way to pricing can be very simple if you have a simple “pre-mix”. Do not price it solely based on what other similar design businesses are pricing. I agree that we must be aware of the so-called “market-rate”. But the knowledge is only to understand what a certain group of people are willing to pay.However, there are many design businesses out there that charge lower than they could survive on just to win clients. Hence, “market-rates” may not be a reliable gauge after all.In my case, I work from home and I have a mini team of professional designers who will work on the designs. The price of my offering is decided based on my customer’s stage of business to ensure they are willing and able to afford it.Next, I have to make sure it covers my operational bills, marketing budget, the internet, salary for the team and myself. It also has to include at least a 50% top up as the profit where part of it will be reinvested into the business such as automation, tools and more.The lower my expenses are, the lower I can price my offer to help customers save more money. At the same time, the higher the volume of people signing up to our service, the more my business will profit. In this way, I’m able to keep my business sustainable and in turn help more people.6. Level up your skillsAt this point in time, the most important part of getting your business off the ground is to differentiate yourself.People work with people, someone who’s alive, not brands or a beautiful logo or a company. People want to know if they can rely on you.Can you be trusted to deliver what they need in tough times?Will you take ownership when you make a mistake?Will you react in your worst temper when customers happened to criticise you sarcastically on a bad day?If you intend to hire, do you know what to do if your team members can’t deliver what’s been asked for?Do you know what it takes to train your team?Do you know how to promote your service without being salesy?There are now at least 400,555 businesses in the world providing graphic design services, which means there’s no shortage of supply. This means the best way to thrive is to differentiate oneself and stand out in a subset of the graphic design industry.What is working for my business is my neverending quest and perseverance to mastering as many skills as I can beyond graphic design, such as:MarketingSalesCommunicationRelationshipCustomer ServiceLeadershipTeambuildingCultureInvestmentFinancePersonal GrowthI’m no guru, but I am willing to learn all of the above as frequently as possible.Note that this is a non-exhaustive list. If you wish to explore more skills to learn and become unstoppable, check out how to skill up your life with Danny Forest.Implement Operating SystemsThis step for me is one of the most life-changing, crucial steps in building a business. It relieves me from doing the things that not only I can do. This helps remove me from the “I can’t be at two places at one time” situation.It gives me the freedom to choose when to get creative and work on anything for anyone I choose. Rather than to do work because I have to do so, this allows me to pass on tasks to those who enjoy working on them.With a structured offer in place (Step #4), I have a fixed list of items to deliver, I was able to filter out daily tasks that are repeatable and those that simply can’t be replicable no matter what. I reserved one day a week to list out common or standard tasks that I have to do to deliver one set of design to each customer.Here’s a sample daily checklist:When a customer emails a request, our designer gets to work —Customer’s request is scheduled, first come first servedA folder or file is set up for the customer’s request in Google DriveThe first request in progress — designer reads, come up with the conceptThree options are createdThree file formats are created — namely: source file, .PNG and .PDFDrafts are emailed to the customer, usually within 3 days or lessRepeatChecklists I’ve created:Branding questionsFulfilling a requestQuality controlCustomer serviceEventually, I took one full year to get the necessary system in place to remove myself as the designer (I’m sure you can do this sooner). Then I hired my first designer. Other than creativity, my designer only has to refer to the checklist and get to work while I sleep, travel, eat, watch my kids or work on other side projects.That said, the systems and processes I’ve created are not set in stone and require regular updates. I learn that they are constantly work in progress. Currently, I review and improve upon this every Friday. I’m creating more systems as I go.In the near future, I will be opening this up to my team for everyone to chip into improving it weekly. Including them in the process will help to streamline the processes better since they are the ones referring to the checklists every day.Remember that your reason or your ‘WHY’ will be the motivating factor to help you overcome inertia, procrastination and weather most storms.Honestly, it’s really awesome to have lots of money, but you can literally start from anywhere and also end up anywhere, somewhere or nowhere. There are people who had millions and ended up bankrupt building businesses.Nothing wrong with that, we bless them that they will pick themselves up and try again. As for you, I hope you enjoy what you are about to do and make a positive impact on the world. Good luck!Get started now.Originally published in Medium.

Ok, I have thought about this a lot having worked on a business plan/model in this space. The next great ecommerce phenomenon will be:FUN. Like not just fun because you got a great deal, or the site has great marketing and is Flashy. Hanging out with your friends at the mall when you're 14 years old was probably the last time you had a FUN experience that involved consumerism. And do you realize it was fun even though you had maybe $18 to spend on something shitty from Anchor Blue or that one pink and black chain (I forgot the name) that sold vaguely adult products. Now all your experiences online or offline are tinged with the maniacal pressure to get the best F-ing deal on the planet, or the sublimated guilt of spending more money than you really feel comfortable doing on some "brand", but hey it's Amazon Prime and it will be here in 36 hours so it's OK! Neither of these scenarios are really pure FUN FUN FUN 'till your daddy takes your T-Bird away.PRODUCT DRIVEN. Both in the sense that the site will be a PRODUCT that the web hasn't seen before: not just a marketing or business model gimmick, or smartly targeted audience segment, or whatever. And in the sense that the PRODUCTS you buy will be front and center in the experience.Will CHANGE what "buying" actually MEANS. Every ecommerce business model I've seen to date actually underwhelms because it aims far too low. The point of the web is that it makes it possible to actually change the definition of vocabulary words we use day in and day out through novel experiences. But all these fancy deal-a-day-private-sale-curated sites still mean "buying" when they say "buying". Thats boring!Will be acutely aware of MIMETIC DESIRE and the full implications of Rene Girard's thinking on modern consumer behavior.So that's my tease about what I think/know the next phenomenon will look like, at least in my imagination. Peace out!

Quote RollerWhen your agency needs to send professional quotes, containing extremely important information (for both our company and the respective client) as quickly as possible. Quote Roller is absolutely amazing at how efficiently it's helped me, and the account managers whom I manage send professional quotes out to interested clients in the quickest way possible.ProsIt is extremely user-friendly and contains everything needed to send professional quotes.The saving of companies' details is extremely helpful for follow up quotes.The line items (in Pricing) and saving certain quotes as templates are extremely helpful.The analytics, in seeing how many proposals were accepted vs those declined, etc is great.The follow-up option with proposals that have been sent but not read or responded to is amazing (This lead me to close many proposals).ConsIt doesn't save on-the-fly meaning that if I click back by accident I lose all the changes that I've made.It's difficult to add PDFs to the actual quote (inside of the sections) as they only get added as items to be downloaded.There aren't many tutorials on how to be more efficient at creating templates etc. I had to figure it all out myself.Quote Roller could be used by every sales person and account manager either selling or upselling to clients. It makes the process of putting together an extremely detailed and formal proposal extremely easy. It has saved me an unbelievable amount of time and continually impresses prospective clients. It's helped me send proposals extremely quickly, tweak proposals that I've already sent and then monitor the proposals that I've sent out.ProposableThose involved with business development use Proposable on a daily basis to draft, revise, and finalize statements of work with new and existing clients. Our account management team also uses Proposable to keep track of project scope, compensation, and deliverable timing. Proposable serves as our SOW pipeline as well as a repository active and expired contracts between our agency and clients.ProsProposal templates cut down on unbillable time spent writing, revising, and executing proposals.The electronic signature for the agreement is integrated into the statement of work, eliminating the need for multiple platforms and streamlining the deal closing process.Provides internal visibility into pending and existing deals to those on the team who we grant access. This eliminates a lot of emails and questions about scope, compensation, and timing.The selectable checkbox feature allows the client to select only the services they want, which reduces the need for revisions while clarifying the full range of offerings we provide.ConsThe text editor is slow, buggy, and the Achilles heel of the Proposable platform. It got worse with the launch of their new UI.The new interface was launched way before it was ready for prime-time. As a result, there are still quite a few bugs Proposable has yet to fix. Once you upgrade to the new interface, you can't go back.It's not uncommon to have sections of a proposal disappear entirely from the PDF version.Depending on the browser, formatting can be far different than the creator intended.Great for smaller agencies, or larger ones who can integrate a more robust CMS with deal pipeline functionality. It's a great stand-alone proposal generation product with an integrated docu-sign like functionality.For larger agencies or service providers, this would not be a suitable replacement for a CMS as it's not designed to be one.Recently I have stumbled across signNow Software which happens to be also an amazing choice when it comes to Sales Proposal Automation Software. You should definitely check them out.

At the seed stage I like brief updates that contain:Some bullet points on progress, plan, and problems (AKA PPP) in key areas like product/tech, sales/marketing and hiringKey metricsWhich metrics to include depends on the type of business.For high-velocity low-touch sales SaaS models (AKA rabbit or deer hunters) I like to see numbers for the top of the funnel, bottom of the funnel, churn, MRR movements, and cash. Specifically:Top of the funnelVisits (to the marketing site)New trialsVisit-to-trial conversion rateBottom of the funnel (and churn)New paying customersTrial-to-paying conversion rateLost customersChurn rateNet new customersTotal customersMRR movementsNew MRRLost MRRMRR churn rateNet new MRRTotal MRRCashCash burnCash in the bankFor all metrics I always like to see not only the last month’s numbers but the development over the last six months or so. Makes it much easier to see the trend.For enterprise SaaS (AKA elephant or whale hunters) I’m mostly interested in pipeline development, i.e. the number and $ value of all opportunities across all pipeline stages. For example, assuming you’re working with four pipeline stages:# of deals and $ value in “prospect” stage vs. previous month# of deals and $ value in “evaluation” stage vs. previous month# of deals and $ value in “proposal” stage vs. previous month# of deals and $ value in “negotiation” stage vs. previous month# of deals and $ value of closed/won deals and lost/purged deals[also see: A better way to visualize pipeline development? (WIP)]Regarding the layout/format of the investor update, it doesn’t really matter – it can be an email, a Google Doc or a few slides. As Jason points out, it’s important that it needs to be simple. Creating the update should take founders just a very small amount of time because they should report on exactly those numbers that they are monitoring on a daily basis anyway.Lastly, for later-stage startups, things are a little different – you focus more on actuals vs. plan, achievement of quarterly targets, and so on, but at that time you probably have a CFO to help you with this kind of stuff!

Yes, definitely! Alhough I didn’t start by self studying the security side of networking, I am now working as a Network Security Analyst. Whereas 4 & 1/2 years ago, I was selling nuts & bolts in a dead-end sales job.I had a decent understanding of IT in general but wanted to get back into the fast-moving world of IT at the age of 32. I began life after leaving school at 16 by obtaining an NVQ in IT, but shortly after, I just went from office job to office job just to pay the bills and pay for my weekends.Getting into my 30’s, with no savings to pay for a course, too old and too many responsibilities to get myself into Uni or collage, I decided self study was the way to go to finally get that career I wanted at the beginning. I bought a Cisco CCENT study guide, downloaded PDF study materials, saved youtube videos to watch over and over, and also went on eBay to buy a cheap router & switch to practice on.Don’t get me wrong, self study is the cheaper way to learn, but you have to be disciplined and set yourself strict targets to learn all you can. Although the Cisco exam I took was only £150, if i failed, then it’s £300, then £450! When do you stop an give in? I did stall a few times as the weeks of studying turned into months, but eventually i thought, this isn’t going to happen unless I set a deadline!I booked my exam for 6 months time and took almost every spare opportunity to learn. Walking to work i’d listen to podcasts on my iPhone, read books at lunchtime in work, sign up for online practice exams, sit in bed early away from the TV to watch videos etc. I crammed and crammed the couple of weeks leading up to the exam and passed first time…(I never actually passed any of the practice tests before this).This certification enabled me to get my foot on the IT ladder and gain a position as a 1st line tech support role, 10 months later I was part of an IT team installing a new IT project into the local hospital, 2 years later I’m now working in network security on more money than I’ve ever earned and it is only going to go up & up…I also love the job!To cut a long story short, yes you can do it, but be prepared to work hard and set deadlines and goals. Ask your friends or family to test you the more you learn.Good luck, you can do it!

It varies by the focus and style of the presentation, but here are the ones I use on a regular basis:Prezi.com…great for quickly mapping your presentation using their predesigned templates and preprogrammed movement. Love the ability to edit the path and add additional info where I want it, and to create presentations that run continuously (I often use them while people are arriving to set the stage for the presentation).HaikuDeck.com…easy to use with a focus on images with minimal words on the screen…need to either be able to present online or export to PowerPoint or a PDF. Love the preformatted layouts for words on the screen…makes it very easy to quickly build a presentation.Keynote…essentially the MAC version of Powerpoint that works great for those who are more comfortable in the MAC world.