#targeted towards the FREAKS who ship them (they’ll never see it because i’ve blocked them all) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

traumantic-a · 4 years

Text

HOW TO INTERACT WITH JORDAN ( A PLOTTING CHEAT-SHEET )

so, you want to write your muse against jordan, but you have no idea what to do? have no fear! plotting can be pretty daunting—I know I always blank on ideas the second I go to approach someone about something, or I’m always afraid I’ll suggest something that’s overdone or that the mun isn’t particularly interested in. hence, this guide! keep in mind everything here is just a suggestion, so if you have ideas that don’t really fit what I’ve put in this guide, that is fine! throw them my way! and happy plotting!

MEET JORDAN RILEY ( aka a really quick character cheat sheet )

she’s a college student. specifically, she’s currently in her junior year as a graphic design student and is also a resident assistant, because it’s the only way she could afford to continue to attend school ( #justcollegethings ). like many students, her preferred study method is coffee and tears, and thinking too far into the future freaks her out, so she copes by screaming inwardly and pushing on even though she needs to relax ( whatever that means ).

she’s also a resident assistant. and surprisingly, taking the job wasn’t all about the money, though that was a big motivator. jordan genuinely enjoys the position; not so much the paperwork and having to enforce rules all the time, but getting to decorate her floor, help freshmen navigate campus life and academics, and plan fun programs and activities for them is something that makes her feel a sense of accomplishment. of course, the perks of having a room and bathroom all to herself make it extra nice.

she’s very involved. if she’s not working on projects, she’s designing layouts for one of the student-run magazines; if she’s not doing that, she’s hosting a radio show with one of her friends; if she’s not doing that, she’s at improv practice; if she’s not there, she’s probably stress crying in the shower, tbh. either way, she likes keeping busy whenever she can; sometimes to a fault.

she hates talking about ‘it.’ not the movie; no, she enjoyed both chapters, even if she hasn’t made her way through the brick that is the novel yet. no, she hates talking about her past traumas, she absolutely hates talking about the whole rothfield murders fiasco and the fact that she was a target because she spoke up about being assaulted, which is understandable, because all of that is shitty. she’s trying to move on from it all; she wishes the rest of the world would, too.

PRE-ESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIPS ( aka a starting point for fleshing out dynamics )

be a resident in her building. this one is especially great if your muse is a college student; rothfield university is a big school and there are roughly six thousand students living on campus; 250 of those students live in williams hall, split across four floors. while williams hall tends to have a mix of underclassmen and skews heavily toward having primarily incoming freshmen reside there, it isn’t unusual for juniors or seniors to stay in the building because it’s cheaper than trying to rent an apartment on their own, and they don’t have to pay for a parking pass that they rarely use because there’s never any place to park. jordan has to keep in contact with the residents living on her floor, do regular academic and wellness checks, etc.; but beyond that, she genuinely wants to help them adjust to campus and college life, and likes being a mentor.

be a fellow art student/classmate. technically jordan’s major of study falls under the college of communication and information, but she’s on track to learn a bachelor’s of fine arts in graphic design, and she spends a lot of her time in the art building attending studio classes and pouring over projects. she has other courses she has to take to fill requirements for her core classes and the like ( such as art history, algebra, sociology, etc.); if your muse is a college student, why not make them a classmate of jordan’s? especially if they’re in different majors but happen to be taking all the same ‘core’ classes; it’s always great having a note-sharing buddy, if nothing else.

be involved in a club/organization with jordan. she’s an illustrator for a student-run general interest magazine, she has a radio show, and she’s in an improv group, and usually auditions for productions through the school of theater and dance whenever she has the time. make your muse a member of the editorial team on the magazine, or a blogger, or a fellow DJ, or someone who enjoys performing; I’m sure they’ll cross paths with jordan somehow, some way!

be one of her professors/mentors. chances are there’s a bullshit course your muse could teach if they don’t fit in ‘traditional’ courses of study like history, economics, etc.; my university offered two different courses on glass blowing; there’s no limit to what can be taught on a college campus to fill credit hour requirements. jordan’s degree of study requires a lot of liberal arts credits and she’s definitely the type to take a course on analyzing tone and message in zombie movies because, what else is she going to do with $800 dollars in grant money? she’s a good student, and tries not to skip classes, and will usually keep quiet in the back if she’s not up to participating. she also attends office hours when she’s not grasping something, and if she likes a class she took because of the professor, she usually tries to take more of their classes.

work at/in rothfield in some capacity. be another resident assistant, work at the coffee shop frequented by students, be part of campus security, be an event coordinator with campus, be that one lady who walks her three rescue dogs on campus every evening; there’s really no limit here ( the lady with rescue dogs was a thing at my school and I ended up befriending her, and she turned out to be the dean of the women’s studies department and is generally the coolest person I know, ANYWAY ); if any of this appeals to you, hit me up and we’ll flesh out the details.

be a townie. whether your muse is a student who graduated and never left rothfield or is a born-and-bred local that can spin�� a yarn about the history of campus, or just likes showing up at house parties for the hell of it, this is another great way to cross paths with jordan and strike up a friendship.

THINGS I WANT TO EXPLORE ( aka a living document of my wishlist tag )

jordan opening up to someone. jordan’s assault and the trial from her high school years were pretty well-publicized; while her name was never printed in the news stories surrounding the case, it’s not hard to put the pieces together when people find out where she’s from. this only becomes more apparent after the rothfield murders that take place over spring break 2019; being the ‘sole survivor’ of a revenge-murder rampage takes its toll in some unusual ways. it takes time for the trauma of the murders to fully sink in for jordan; initially, she’s relieved that her abuser is dead and gone and she never has to see him again, but that relief is short-lived. it doesn’t change the fact that she hasn’t fully healed from her past traumas and that she needs to be more vocal about her feelings and emotions; she needs a support system, especially considering her family is hours away and the only other person she’s confided in outside of her parents and sister goes to school in another state. I’d love to develop some close friendships where jordan feels comfortable opening up to others she knows she can trust and lean on when she’s having bad days; likewise, she’d do the same for those she loves dearly. she’s loyal at her core and if she trusts you, she will always be there for you.

more to be added as ideas come to me

THINGS I’M NOT INTERESTED IN ( aka...... it’s pretty self-explanatory )

your character ‘fixing’ jordan. through love, through friendship, through whatever; while all of the above can definitely help people dealing with trauma heal, it is not the sole, solitary thing that will get the job done. jordan will never rely on one person to be the sole thing that makes her happy and makes her feel whole again; it’s not realistic and it’s a harmful cliche that I don’t wish to perpetuate here. she absolutely needs friends she can trust, and she is capable of being in a loving relationship, but those are not going to automatically fix all her problems.

toxic ships. I don’t really feel the need to go super in-depth with this; while I’m not opposed to exploring shitty or toxic friendships or relationships, because those do happen, I’m not interested in doing so in the sense of “they’re toxic because they care!” again; very harmful cliches and stereotypes that I do not wish to perpetuate here. if I explore anything like this it’ll likely be with close rp partners I’ve had for a while and know I can trust.

fetishizing/‘fixing’ demisexual people. it’s a spectrum, folks; jordan needs an emotional connection with someone deep enough before she feels comfortable with intimacy. I’m not interested in anyone being the ‘exception’ to this for obvious reasons. if you come to me with anything related to your muse ‘fixing’ jordan’s demisexuality ( which existed before her trauma and was amplified by it, both of which are valid ), I will hard block you.

FINAL THOUGHTS so, I didn’t intend for this to get as long as it did; as far as the last section goes, a lot of that is common sense, but I’ve included it anyway because I’ve had similar experiences on blogs before with people coming to me with plot ideas that were inherently toxic and glorified to be something bigger/better, and felt it would be best to address what I’m not comfortable with and why directly out of the gate. keep in mind that all of this is a guideline, and if you have ideas that expand outside of what I’ve placed here, I’d love to hear them! don’t hesitate to approach me to plot, especially if you want to expand on anything I’ve listed in this cheat sheet. <3

#PSA.#WISHLIST.#ask to tag /

9 notes · View notes

vrepit-sals · 7 years

Text

During Training.. Pidge: Nice work Tailor Lance: Thank you, thank you very much Keith: wait what Hunk: It's a nickname Lance got his first year of flight school Lance: Yeah because of how I thread the needle Keith: Keith: *intense Garrison crush flashbacks* Shiro: *uproarious laughter*

(I wrote this in two forms and couldn’t decide which I liked better, so there’s a full fic under the cut)

Lance laughs as the Green Lion balances the ball on the edge of its nose for a moment, before sending it towards the Black Lion with a flick.

His vision is tinged with blue, and he can hear Blue's enjoyment rumbling underneath him. He knows in theory that he's blindfolded, but it doesn't feel that way. With Blue's visual enhancements giving him an eagle eye and her targeting computer focusing his mind, he's never felt more aware of the world around him.

Allura wasn't kidding when she said this would be a fun training session.

He catches the ball with all the gracefulness that Blue provides, and sends it flying to Red, who moves underneath it and passes it on with a flick of her tail.

Show off.

The trajectory of the ball is damn near perfect too, sailing towards the Yellow Lion, bang between the eyes.

It isn't such a surprise, with his Lion's preference for bulk over flexibility, that this drill is more difficult for Hunk than any of the rest of them.

As such, when Yellow lines up perfectly, but isn't quite quick enough to hit the ball back to Green, Lance is already half ready to dive. Hunk must have seen it coming too, because he tries to correct for the trajectory, but it isn't enough.

The ball is sailing over one of the rock formations, and Blue is already chasing it, before Red or Black have even thought to move.

The angle is high, and Lance knows he should go up and over the formation to retrieve it. It'll hit the ground before he gets there, and they'll have to start the count over, but it's not his fault anyway, and it's the most sensible option.

Lance spots a small opening in the formation. It's an even split whether Blue would even fit, and if she didn't he could bring the whole formation on top of himself.

Since when has Lance ever been called sensible?

He's under and through it before he can even question his decision. Blue is a purr in the back of his mind and a guiding hand on the controls, making the smallest of tweaks to his technique to ensure the smoothest ride.

And there's the ball, falling fast, but without the momentum he'd need to hit it all the way back.

He freezes it with an ice blast to give it some added weight, and smacks it from beneath in a wide arc.

It's short work to get back to the others as Keith uses Red's flame mid-air to defrost the ball back.

Lance can't help the grin on his face at Pidge's laughter.

"Nice work Tailor!" She all but screams at him.

"Thank you, thank you very much."

He doesn't notice Keith's fumble, but it must have happened. Because the ball is suddenly gone, fallen into one of the crevices of the valley they're currently in.

So much for that record.

"What was that?" Comes Keith's voice through the coms.

"It's a nickname Lance got his first year of flight school," Hunk says, already dropping down into the valley to look for the ball.

"Yeah, because of how I thread the needle" Lance adds, wiggling his eyebrows to an audience of no one. He feels like it adds something to his inflection nonetheless.

He expects Keith to bite back a retort. Expects derision or poorly constructed sarcasm.

The Red Lion's coms are silent.

"Someone else will need to go down there, it got lodged in a crevice too small for Yellow or Black," Hunk says as the Yellow Lion rises up from the depths.

Pidge offers to go, and is pointing her nose downward, when a strange sound causes them all to pause.

Starting soft, and growing louder by the second, is a sound almost unnerving for all it is uncommon.

Shiro is laughing.

And laughing.

And laughing some more.

Lance isn't sure the exact tone he hears, but it makes him convinced that there are currently tears streaming down their leader's cheeks.

Still laughing.

Honestly Lance is starting to get a little worried.

"Shiro what the hell," is heard over the speakers in Keith's growl.

If anything this seems to just set him off more.

Lance is happy for the guy, he really is. Shiro barely smiles as it is, so such an expression of unbridled joy is a cause for celebration.

Heaven knows what's so funny though.

The minutes pass. Hunk and Pidge start up a conversation about their latest project. Lance pulls off his training helmet and rubs his eyes.

Shiro's laughter slowly begins to subside.

"Sorry about that everyone, I'm ok," he says, with a few errant chuckles.

Lance, paragon of leadership he is, is just about to do the responsible thing for once and suggest they get back to training, when there's the muffled sound of talking from Shiro's com and he's off again.

"Who was…" Pidge says, before her tone snaps into annoyed, "Matt, are you hanging out in the Black lion during training again?"

Lance all but tunes out the familiar argument, leaning back and pillowing his arms behind his head.

"Do you have any idea how boring the castle is Katie?"

"We're kind of trying to save the universe here Matt, this isn't a trip to the Bahamas!"

"I've been locked in a Galra prison for 18 months, if I want to pretend this alien ship is the Bahamas I damn well will!"

All punctuated by Shiro's cackles.

Lance asks Blue how she's finding training, and basks in the warmth she sends through their bond.

Hunk is interjecting into their argument occasionally, trying and failing to get the team back on track.

The red paladin is silent. Lance can almost see Keith crossing his arms with a pout.

If he shuts his eyes he can imagine he's back on Veradera beach, basking in the sun.

Not listening to Matt and Pidge's sibling fight, or Shiro losing it over nothing.

Just the warmth of the sand behind his back, the gentle breeze and the gentle lapping of waves soothing his eyes closed.

…What was Shiro laughing at anyway?

He thinks back over the conversation, his amazing move, Pidge's compliment.

Wait.

No.

Lance jolts up, and his tone must give away something about the brick in his stomach because at his words the coms fall silent.

"Wait, Shiro are you laughing at me?"

He's not laughing anymore.

The silence lasts a beat too long.

"No Lance it's not-"

He can't hear Shiro's protestations over the buzzing in his ears.

His stomach drops through the floor as the thoughts he usually keeps at bay swarm in. Thoughts that only manage to rattle him on bad nights; thoughts which Pidge's hugs and Shiro's praise and Keith's smiles and Hunk's mere existence are the only things that can dispel.

He forces himself to chuckle.

"Doesn't matter," he says, voice wavering so minutely he doesn't think anyone else would have caught it, "Blue should be able to fit into the fissure."

Then he pushes the Blue Lion straight into top speed.

He breathes a sigh of relief when no one else follows.

"Shiro, were you laughing at him?"

Lance can hear the anger seeping into Hunk's voice. Sweetest Hunk, light of Lance's life and the best friend a boy could ask for.

He flicks him coms off before he has to listen to Shiro's explanation.

The rest of training is fine. Lance doesn't try any more stunts, and no one expects him to.

He keeps his coms off, and if anyone has a problem with that, they aren't able to voice their concerns anyway. They continue to play the game, all focussed more than ever, but somehow less successful. Lance hums and taps his feet and talks to Blue just to fill the silence.

Eventually, the Black Lion catches the ball in its mouth and hangs on. The Green Lion pauses by him and gestures its head towards the castle, and waits for Blue to nod back before they all head in.

Lance isn't sure whether or not the other paladins will come and try to give him comfort, or hang back and give him space. He decides he's allowed to be offended for another hour or two before he'll have to put it aside for the sake of the universe, for the sake of his new family. Then he'll listen to Shiro apologise, and accept it with a smile.

But for now he all but runs out of Blue as soon as she sets down. Turns one corner and another, trying to stay as silent as possible.

He gets to his room, and, although he knows it's not the sneakiest of hiding spots, it is the one place in the Castle he's allowed to bar others access. He puts his room into sleep mode and grabs his pyjamas, before heading into the bathroom for some well-earned pampering.

A long, warm bath, a face mask and two run throughs of the playlist Pidge made him later, he's back to feeling almost human, and about as ready to face the team again as he's ever going to be.

It's still half an hour or so until dinner, but he decides to spend the time stretching his legs. Maybe see what Hunk's working on, or help Pidge test Rover 2 for a little while.

Outside his door, though, sitting innocuously on the floor, is a note.

I need to talk to you.

- Keith

The Red paladin couldn't even be bothered to wait apparently.

Lance crumples it up and puts it in his pocket with a sigh. He turns left instead of right, and stops to knock on Keith's door.

No answer.

"Are you freaking kidding me?" He mutters to himself as he traces the familiar path to the training room.

Likely this is all an elaborate setup to make him talk to Shiro or something, not that he wasn't going to anyway. But then part of him also reminds himself that it isn't really that much of a stretch to believe that Keith would be unaware enough of social norms to leave him a note and then just vanish.

Sure enough, when he gets to the training room and sees who's inside, he wants to put his head in his hands, but can't stop a fond smile spreading across his face.

Keith is fighting the Gladiator, blocking stroke after stroke, completely oblivious to any social obligation he might have given himself.

Lance leans against the frame and decides to just wait it out. It's not like he's in a rush to anywhere concrete, and Keith has improved so much since they were pulled into space that watching him fight is almost relaxing. His movements are swift and graceful, moving though his footwork in almost a dance.

Especially now, when he's not fighting for his life, when his scowl of concentration breaks to let a small grin through whenever he makes a particularly good hit or block.

It took Lance a few months to realise that Keith isn't just a stick in the mud, but actually finds training genuinely enjoyable. He still doesn't understand it, but he's come to accept Keith's slightly off-centre hobby. And really, he can't talk, not after Keith has spent an afternoon helping him track down some rare Altean part so Coran could reconfigure the textile synthesiser to make knitting wool.

There's a particularly loud clang from across the room, and Keith wipes his brow as the Gladiator disappears.

"You wanted to talk to me mullet?" Lance asks, grinning as Keith starts.

Keith doesn't seem to relax when the shock passes. If anything his shoulders tense more as he picks up a water pouch and takes a sip.

"Yeah I did," he says, gazing across the floor.

"Well?" Lance steps forward and makes himself as comfy as possible on the training room floor, "here I am."

He raises an eyebrow at Keith and he lets out a chuckle, which only sounds 40% forced.

Keith moves towards him, and crouches down. After a few minutes, and a look from Lance, he sits down, still sipping water as he thinks.

"Shiro wasn't laughing at you" he blurts out, after about 30 seconds of silence.

Lance sighs. He should have known this was coming.

"Keith, I get it. You want me to forgive Shiro. It's fine, I stopped caring an hour ago."

"No-" Keith almost cuts him off in a rush to get the words out, but as soon as he does he pauses, like he isn't actually sure what he wants to say.

Lance waits.

"He wasn't laughing at you. He was laughing at me."

Lance almost laughs. Oh Keith. Sweet Keith, the worst liar Lance has ever met.

"Keith you don't have to lie, it's fine," and it almost is. The fact that Keith would lie is both annoying for all that he knows it's only to defend Shiro, and sweet for all he hopes that some of it might be Keith trying to protect his feelings.

Keith groans.

"I'm serious."

"And I don't believe you."

Keith rolls his eyes and buries his face in his hands. He sits just like that, stock still, whispering something that sounds like curses, before he sits back and looks at Lance with tired eyes.

"Ok, how about this…"

Keith sighs. Lance is just about to interrupt.

"Back at the Garrison there was this boy I had a huge crush on, alright?"

Lance starts, for just a moment, because what a change of topic.

"Okay…?"

"He was…" Keith's face makes a strangled expression before he forces himself to continue, "he was loud. Sometimes I felt like I didn’t understand most of what he was saying, he used to make fun of the instructors and he wasn't the best in the simulator but he acted like he was anyway, and he hated me for reasons I'll never know."

Lance's frown pulls down, and he tells himself it's not jealousy.

"He was kind. He encouraged us all to do better. When the teachers tried to pit us against each other, for the good grades and promises of graduate jobs, he helped everyone relax and work together. You could feel the tension lift whenever he entered a room."

Lance's stomach drops out at the fond look on Keith's face. He could count the number of times he's seen it on one hand, on one finger the number of times it's been directed at him. He couldn't count on all the stars how many times he's wanted it to be flashed his way.

"Sounds like you really liked him," Lance says, trying to ensure no bitterness seeps into his tone.

Keith's face turns to him, and the smile softens even further.

"I never stopped."

And isn't that just great. Lance has spent years following in Keith's footsteps, shouting and yelling and begging for attention which was never going to be his, because it already belonged to some other cadet who probably never appreciated it.

"Shiro used to tease me by how often I talked about him. I wrote this terrible poem about him when I was 14 or so, which of course Shiro found and memorised. He was…"

Keith stops, and takes a deep, shuttering breath. Lance is about to cut him off, tell him it's fine because he wants to hear about Keith's crush about as much as Keith wants to tell him, but he stops when he realises just how red Keith's face has gotten.

"Shiro was laughing at me because I didn't know this boy very well, and so when I met him in my first year of flight school I thought his name was Taylor."

Lance's brain screeches to a halt.

He can't mean…

"Those months living in the desert I kind of just repressed everything from the Garrison. So when you rushed in while I was saving Shiro, I didn't know who you were."

Lance sits and stares.

"But then it didn't matter because you held my hand and said we were a good team, and I feel for you again anyway," Keith says, not looking at him.

This isn't real.

But Keith is sitting in front of him, his smile slowly seeping from his face as Lance takes the time to process the best news he's received since their whole space adventure began.

Lance reaches out a hand, takes Keith's palm in his, partly because he's worried Keith will run away before he has a chance to answer, partly because this is what he's wanted to do for years.

"Keith, most of what I said to you at the Garrison made no sense. I just wanted to you look at me."

Keith's slowly developing frown burns away, and suddenly he's all but beaming.

"I really like you, Lance" he says, holding his hand tighter.

Lance's heart sings.

"I really like you too"

Lance pauses for a moment, sees the smile on Keith's face, and decides to just go for it.

He leans forward, slowly, giving Keith plenty of time to back away. But before he can close the gap, Keith is already there, kissing him softly, taking his other hand and running his thumb across Lance's knuckles.

They stay there for longer than they have. Longer than they should. The time passes far too quickly.

When they enter the dining hall, everyone else is already there.

Hunk shoots Lance a grin and a thumbs up when he sees their linked hands. Pidge smiles at them and digs into her food goo.

Lance looks Shiro straight in the eye.

"Taylor is in the house!" he exclaims, smiling when Keith chuckles and grips his hand tighter.

Shiro throws his head back and laughs.

#voltron #vld #klance #pining keith #that cute cargo pilot #Shiro is laughing at Keith's outrageous pining not at Lance #sustenance provided by vrepit sals #they call lance the taylor

611 notes · View notes

antionetterparker · 5 years

Text

Ranking the 20 best tips for starting a business in 2019

I’m guessing you landed on this page because you’ve been scheming up ideas for starting a business.

You’re on the right track in life.

Since I’ve built a couple 6-figure businesses in my day, I figured I could drop some intel for y’all.

There’s no better feeling than quitting your day job and building something that’s 100% for you. Coming up with business ideas for your business is the easy part.

The hard part is deciding which ideas are worthwhile, and then actually acting on them.

Although I’m a bit biased towards digital businesses, these tips will work for any type of business.

Let’s go.

30. Elect your LLC as an S-corp

When you file your taxes, you can elect to be taxed as an s-corporation instead of an LLC, even if you are an LLC.

They’re pretty similar, but an s-corp filing looks at you (the owner) as an employee of your business rather than a partner and pays you a salary. The salary you pay yourself is the only part of your earnings subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes, whereas without the s-corp status, you’d be paying that on all your profits. (1)

29. Solve a pain point

If your business idea does one thing, make sure that it fills a market need. Basically, look for a market first before you create a product (too many people do this the other way around).

How do you know if your idea does solve a pain-point in society?

Test it. Spend $100 on Facebook ads and target your product to your audience. Decent sales means you might be on to something.

According to Fortune Magazine, 42% of failed start-ups said that a lack of market need for their product was the reason they failed. [2]

28. Stop chasing shiny objects

Once you pick a business model, commit to it. Dropping your business 3 months in to chase the next hot business model will just lead to failure after failure.

Truth is, you can succeed with nearly any business model. When you’re deep into business model X and not seeing results, it might look like business model Y works better, but chances are your situation would be the same if you had started out with business model Y.

You just have to stick with it for the long term and block out any “grass is greener” thoughts.

27. Set specific short and long-term goals

Long-term goals are the big wins you’re going for, while short-term goals are the day-to-day or week-to-week accomplishments that keep the motivational fire burning.

It’s important that your goals are more specific than “make a lot of money” too. For example, say you want to make $100,000 in revenue this year. Break that down to a daily revenue amount (about $274) and strive to hit that amount each day.

26. Sharpen your sales skills

At its core, business is just selling. Brush up on your sales skills, but also your copywriting skills. Take courses, read books, etc.

Also, if you’re afraid of selling, now’s the time to squash that fear and get over it.

25. Outsource

You should outsource two different kinds of work:

1) Low-value, time-consuming work

2) Work you’re not good at

The former type of work is usually filled by virtual assistants, while the latter might entail functions like accounting, content marketing, or legal stuff.

Websites like Fiverr, PeoplePerHour, and Upwork are good for outsourcing one-time jobs you don’t want to do at a low cost.

24. Start a low-cost business

The second reason start-ups fail? Lack of sufficient capital. Nearly 30% of failed start-ups have cited this as the reason their business went south. [3]

Starting a business with a low budget, or even no budget, is possible, especially nowadays with the internet. Dropshipping, blogging, affiliate marketing, and info products are all great examples.

23. Bootstrap

Bootstrapping is the way of the future. Plenty of today’s biggest companies started out bootstrapping, or completely funding themselves rather than accepting outside funding and venture capital at early stages.

This gives you full control over your business, teaches you to be scrappy in times of hardship, and according to the Harvard Business Review, bootstrapped companies actually attract better talent.

Dell, Facebook, Apple, Coca Cola, eBay, Microsoft, and plenty more were all bootstrapped. [4]

22. Start while you’re still employed

Have a job? Stick with the job, save some emergency cash, and pour your spare time and money into your business until it’s making a steady income. When the timing’s right, jump ship and go into full-time business mode.

Some might actually fare better jumping ship early to get that “I need to succeed” psychological boost (the “back against the wall” method), but don’t do it that way unless you’re fine with the risk.

21. Take consistent action

Reading every business book on earth won’t earn you anything if you don’t take action. Neither will overthinking your business idea for months.

Obvious enough, but many people either say they’ll start a business and never do or give up after the initial rush of starting something new fades.

Don’t give up and quit overthinking. Act. Working on your business consistently every day is what brings results.

20. Don’t fixate on mistakes

Fixating on your mistakes too long can demoralize you into working less on your business.

Instead of wasting your time freaking out about something you did wrong, learn what you can from your mistakes and apply your knowledge moving forward.

After all, failure is a necessary part of success. Just search the internet for “famous failures” and you’ll see.

19. Manage your finances correctly

Mixing your personal and business finances is a big no-no. It makes it hard to keep track of things for taxes, but the law will also determine there’s no legal separation between you and your business by “piercing the corporate veil” and then strip away your LLC protections.

Get separate business checking and savings accounts and perhaps a business credit card for your business revenues and expenses. Unless you’re paying yourself, don’t draw on business funds for personal use.

18. Learn digital skillsets

I know I’ve said I’m digitally-biased, but this is important for all businesses nowadays. It doesn’t matter what kind of business you’re starting: the internet is how you spread the word, even if you’re in the brick-and-mortar game.

According to Forbes, these are the 7 most important digital marketing skills right now: analytics, SEO, HTML, WordPress, video, basic design skills, and SQL. [5]

Remember, you can outsource these… and if you want to take it all on yourself, there are plenty of trainings and software programs out there to help you out.

Learn the basics so you have the digital literacy to build your business.

17. Never stop marketing

Especially in the early stages of your business, you always should be marketing, even if you run a client service business and your client roster is full.

Because if 2 clients suddenly fire you tomorrow, you’ll be left out to dry unless you were looking for more clients.

16. Get good at time management

As an entrepreneur, time management means two things:

1) Focusing on the highest-ROI tasks first (selling, growing the business) and proceeding from there until you reach the lowest-ROI tasks.

2) Actually making time to get each task done throughout the day.

Try something like the Pomodoro technique. You’re “on” for 25 minutes, “off” for 5, rinse and repeat. Take a longer break every 4 Pomodoro sessions. (6)

15. Create multiple streams

I’m a big believer in diversifying and multiplying your income streams.

As a business owner or self-employed entrepreneur, not creating multiple income streams and sales channels is akin to an investor investing all their money in one company. What happens if that one company’s stock plummets? The same thing could happen to your income if you don’t multiply your streams.

Start with one, pour your time and resources into it, but then branch out from there when it’s finally bringing in decent cash — this will help you grow, and it’s the only way to achieve a sense of stability. Trying to build several new streams at the same time will only waste your money and burn you out.

14. Learn to pivot

If something isn’t working, don’t continue to beat a dead horse. Try something new instead.

Starting a new business is all about experimentation. If something isn’t working for you, just drop it and move on.

In the beginning, Dropbox, now a $1 billion tech company, tried again and again to explain their product to people via text, but no one was buying in. So instead, they decided to switch it up and make a funny video, almost as a joke, to describe their product instead.

What happened?

They went from 5,000 wait list sign ups to 75,000… overnight. [7]

13. Start with a minimum viable product

Don’t delay your launch. All you need to get started is an MVP (minimum viable product).

Once you’ve got that out on the market, you can tweak and improve until you’re raking in the cash.

Groupon started out as a group of friends and entrepreneurs who wanted to score discounts by buying things as a group. They made an app that allowed them to coordinate a group of 20 people (yep, just 20) who all wanted to buy the same thing, and then struck a deal with a local business. After realizing the power of group buying, Groupon was born. [8]

12. Start your business in Wyoming

You want to start up in a place that has a history of entrepreneurial success and a large pool of talented employees, but also (and more importantly), a good business tax climate and low costs.

Wyoming hits a home run on all these fronts, especially tax climate: they don’t have a corporate income tax, individual income tax, or gross receipts tax. They also have one of the lowest sales tax rates in the country. [9]

You can also consider Delaware or Puerto Rico (6% flat tax!) if your business is digital and you’re feeling alpha.

11. Don’t be afraid to experiment

Entrepreneurship = experimentation. Drill that into your head.

There’s a really good chance that your original idea to what you’re trying to do will evolve into something completely different, and that’s ok.

In fact, economists from the Harvard Business School published a study asserting that experimentation is not just key to, but in fact IS, entrepreneurship. [10]

10. Get some productivity apps

Todoist for organizing your work and keeping your to-do lists, Evernote for storing ideas or writing things down, Quickbooks for accounting/bookkeeping, etc.

Those aren’t your only options for those functions, so look around if you prefer something else.

Don’t go overboard on productivity apps. At some point, you’ll spend more time managing them than the time you saved using them in the first place.

9. Scout your competition

Know what they’re selling and for how much.

Know their conversion rates and their traffic analytics (Ahrefs, Alexa).

Read what people are saying about them. Read the reviews. Study their social media interactions. Check out news about the company and your industry in general.

What PPC keywords are they bidding on? (Spyfu)

What are they blogging about? If their SEO game is strong, how are they getting their links? (Ahrefs, Majestic)

8. Find a mentor

Get yourself a mentor. Forget originality — there’s nothing wrong with a copycat if they’re living a life you admire.

Do some googling, and find yourself an influencer in your industry. LinkedIn is a great place to do this if your niche is technical or business related, or if you’re more into something creative or visual do some searching on Instagram. Find their blog. Follow them on Twitter.

Read everything they put out, but more importantly, seek ways to serve them and expect nothing in return.

7. Build your network

“Your network is your net worth.” #truth

In the book Neighbor Networks by Ronald Burt, it’s shown that networking with a bunch of different people can boost your cognitive abilities and emotional intelligence.

And of course, networking can land you more clients and customers for your business. You might even meet a future business partner.

Thanks to the internet, networks are everywhere.

Facebook groups, sub-Reddits, and LinkedIn are probably the best places to start.

6. Use crowdfunding

82% of businesses fail to bring in enough cash to sustain themselves. Basically, there’s a good chance you’ll run out of money and flop early on. [11]

It’s not that hard to get funding for your business nowadays if you know a thing or two about PR and digital marketing.

Enter: crowdfunding. Websites like Kickstarter and GoFundMe have made it super easy to raise money for your idea, and you can still call yourself self-funded this way because it doesn’t count as venture capital.

5. Track everything

Remember how I said experimentation is at the core of entrepreneurship?

Well, experiments are about more than just trying a bunch of new stuff. You also have to track the success and failure of each thing you try in order to know what works and what doesn’t.

Test your ideas. Run polls, do A/B testing, track when something is doing well and figure out why. Then scale it.

4. Start a blog

Why do I have this blog?

I could just do my own thing, bring in my money and end it there. So why do I go through the trouble of spending 20+ hours on posts like this?

Because I think it’s important as an entrepreneur and business owner to share the knowledge and expertise you gain along the way.

Starting a blog that helps others offers them value, which is one of the best ways to get people to trust you and come back for more. It builds your cred and reputation, and it’s one of the best marketing tools out there.

Not to mention that constantly pumping out blog content means you’ll start to rank for certain keywords in internet searches.

3. Learn SEO

Imagine a successful business without Google involved.

It’s hard. Without traffic, (which is mostly Google, Facebook or YouTube) you’ve got nothing.

Lack of SEO is a big reason why businesses fail.

What really is search engine optimization??

1) Build out baller, organized content going after keywords….like this post… “how to start a business”, which gets searched 39,000 times per month

2) Get other people to mention or link to your articles

That’s 80% of SEO. Congrats.

2. Build time wealth

There’s a lot of talk nowadays about following your passions, finding your dream job, and turning what you love into a career.

Why not just make a ton of money and build a business that allows you to have time wealth?

Once you have an online business making $10,000 per month, you’ve built a lifestyle that allows you to follow your passions.

You don’t even need to be passionate about your business, although it definitely helps.

1. Help local businesses

Here’s the thing: there’s no more predictable path to building a profitable business than focusing on local services.

Competition isn’t there.

Instead of trying to start your own local business – which would require inventory, start-up capital, a storefront – you can help these businesses by providing them with leads to build their business.

Local lead generation provides more value to local businesses than just about anything else.

What business will tell you, “No thanks, we’re good, not interested in more leads..”

1) Build out websites that go after local niches, like pest control in a big city or a personal injury lawyer

2) Collect leads through email opt-ins or a phone number that you rent so you can listen to the calls

3) Collect money either through a pay-per-lead model or pay-per-sale, depending on what you negotiate with the business owner

Leads are the superpower of the Internet. Few people understand this.

Recap

There’s really been no better time to start a business.

There are some key takeaways when it comes to starting your own business that I want you to remember from this article:

1. Do something digital

Why? Low start-up costs and quick feedback loops, which validates your idea without spending more than $500.

Freedom to work from wherever you want, whenever you want.

2. Do something that can be automated

There’s no sweeter feeling than going to bed at night knowing that the paychecks you’re making will keep rolling in, even in your sleep.

Time is your most precious resource. Figure out which of your business ideas you can automate, and go with those.

3. Do something local

You may have dreams of going global, but start local first. Narrowing your focus and targeting a specific area will give you a huge competitive advantage.

4. Do something scaleable

Being able to reel in passive income is sweet, but it’s a little underwhelming when you’re reeling in $2.03 a month from your Amazon affiliate account.

It’s gotta scale.

—

Whatever you do, the most important advice of all is this: start your business.

Start something, because more than likely, your business will evolve anyway as you work on it daily.

Stop sitting around scrolling through articles.

I wasn’t shy about my #1 recommendation (local lead generation) because I’ve seen it work for many, many people.

I’ll Paypal you $500 if you show me a better business to start than our method.

via https://mlmcompanies.org/ranking-the-20-best-tips-for-starting-a-business-in-2019/

0 notes

mlmcompanies · 5 years

Link

I’m guessing you landed on this page because you’ve been scheming up ideas for starting a business.

You’re on the right track in life.

Since I’ve built a couple 6-figure businesses in my day, I figured I could drop some intel for y’all.

There’s no better feeling than quitting your day job and building something that’s 100% for you. Coming up with business ideas for your business is the easy part.

The hard part is deciding which ideas are worthwhile, and then actually acting on them.

Although I’m a bit biased towards digital businesses, these tips will work for any type of business.

Let’s go.

30. Elect your LLC as an S-corp

When you file your taxes, you can elect to be taxed as an s-corporation instead of an LLC, even if you are an LLC.

29. Solve a pain point

If your business idea does one thing, make sure that it fills a market need. Basically, look for a market first before you create a product (too many people do this the other way around).

How do you know if your idea does solve a pain-point in society?

Test it. Spend $100 on Facebook ads and target your product to your audience. Decent sales means you might be on to something.

According to Fortune Magazine, 42% of failed start-ups said that a lack of market need for their product was the reason they failed. [2]

28. Stop chasing shiny objects

Once you pick a business model, commit to it. Dropping your business 3 months in to chase the next hot business model will just lead to failure after failure.

You just have to stick with it for the long term and block out any “grass is greener” thoughts.

27. Set specific short and long-term goals

Long-term goals are the big wins you’re going for, while short-term goals are the day-to-day or week-to-week accomplishments that keep the motivational fire burning.

26. Sharpen your sales skills

At its core, business is just selling. Brush up on your sales skills, but also your copywriting skills. Take courses, read books, etc.

Also, if you’re afraid of selling, now’s the time to squash that fear and get over it.

25. Outsource

You should outsource two different kinds of work:

1) Low-value, time-consuming work

2) Work you’re not good at

The former type of work is usually filled by virtual assistants, while the latter might entail functions like accounting, content marketing, or legal stuff.

Websites like Fiverr, PeoplePerHour, and Upwork are good for outsourcing one-time jobs you don’t want to do at a low cost.

24. Start a low-cost business

The second reason start-ups fail? Lack of sufficient capital. Nearly 30% of failed start-ups have cited this as the reason their business went south. [3]

Starting a business with a low budget, or even no budget, is possible, especially nowadays with the internet. Dropshipping, blogging, affiliate marketing, and info products are all great examples.

23. Bootstrap

This gives you full control over your business, teaches you to be scrappy in times of hardship, and according to the Harvard Business Review, bootstrapped companies actually attract better talent.

Dell, Facebook, Apple, Coca Cola, eBay, Microsoft, and plenty more were all bootstrapped. [4]

22. Start while you’re still employed

21. Take consistent action

Reading every business book on earth won’t earn you anything if you don’t take action. Neither will overthinking your business idea for months.

Obvious enough, but many people either say they’ll start a business and never do or give up after the initial rush of starting something new fades.

Don’t give up and quit overthinking. Act. Working on your business consistently every day is what brings results.

20. Don’t fixate on mistakes

Fixating on your mistakes too long can demoralize you into working less on your business.

Instead of wasting your time freaking out about something you did wrong, learn what you can from your mistakes and apply your knowledge moving forward.

After all, failure is a necessary part of success. Just search the internet for “famous failures” and you’ll see.

19. Manage your finances correctly

18. Learn digital skillsets

According to Forbes, these are the 7 most important digital marketing skills right now: analytics, SEO, HTML, WordPress, video, basic design skills, and SQL. [5]

Remember, you can outsource these… and if you want to take it all on yourself, there are plenty of trainings and software programs out there to help you out.

Learn the basics so you have the digital literacy to build your business.

17. Never stop marketing

Especially in the early stages of your business, you always should be marketing, even if you run a client service business and your client roster is full.

Because if 2 clients suddenly fire you tomorrow, you’ll be left out to dry unless you were looking for more clients.

16. Get good at time management

As an entrepreneur, time management means two things:

1) Focusing on the highest-ROI tasks first (selling, growing the business) and proceeding from there until you reach the lowest-ROI tasks.

2) Actually making time to get each task done throughout the day.

Try something like the Pomodoro technique. You’re “on” for 25 minutes, “off” for 5, rinse and repeat. Take a longer break every 4 Pomodoro sessions. (6)

15. Create multiple streams

I’m a big believer in diversifying and multiplying your income streams.

14. Learn to pivot

If something isn’t working, don’t continue to beat a dead horse. Try something new instead.

Starting a new business is all about experimentation. If something isn’t working for you, just drop it and move on.

What happened?

They went from 5,000 wait list sign ups to 75,000… overnight. [7]

13. Start with a minimum viable product

Don’t delay your launch. All you need to get started is an MVP (minimum viable product).

Once you’ve got that out on the market, you can tweak and improve until you’re raking in the cash.

12. Start your business in Wyoming

You want to start up in a place that has a history of entrepreneurial success and a large pool of talented employees, but also (and more importantly), a good business tax climate and low costs.

You can also consider Delaware or Puerto Rico (6% flat tax!) if your business is digital and you’re feeling alpha.

11. Don’t be afraid to experiment

Entrepreneurship = experimentation. Drill that into your head.

There’s a really good chance that your original idea to what you’re trying to do will evolve into something completely different, and that’s ok.

In fact, economists from the Harvard Business School published a study asserting that experimentation is not just key to, but in fact IS, entrepreneurship. [10]

10. Get some productivity apps

Todoist for organizing your work and keeping your to-do lists, Evernote for storing ideas or writing things down, Quickbooks for accounting/bookkeeping, etc.

Those aren’t your only options for those functions, so look around if you prefer something else.

Don’t go overboard on productivity apps. At some point, you’ll spend more time managing them than the time you saved using them in the first place.

9. Scout your competition

Know what they’re selling and for how much.

Know their conversion rates and their traffic analytics (Ahrefs, Alexa).

Read what people are saying about them. Read the reviews. Study their social media interactions. Check out news about the company and your industry in general.

What PPC keywords are they bidding on? (Spyfu)

What are they blogging about? If their SEO game is strong, how are they getting their links? (Ahrefs, Majestic)

8. Find a mentor

Get yourself a mentor. Forget originality — there’s nothing wrong with a copycat if they’re living a life you admire.

Read everything they put out, but more importantly, seek ways to serve them and expect nothing in return.

7. Build your network

“Your network is your net worth.” #truth

In the book Neighbor Networks by Ronald Burt, it’s shown that networking with a bunch of different people can boost your cognitive abilities and emotional intelligence.

And of course, networking can land you more clients and customers for your business. You might even meet a future business partner.

Thanks to the internet, networks are everywhere.

Facebook groups, sub-Reddits, and LinkedIn are probably the best places to start.

6. Use crowdfunding

82% of businesses fail to bring in enough cash to sustain themselves. Basically, there’s a good chance you’ll run out of money and flop early on. [11]

It’s not that hard to get funding for your business nowadays if you know a thing or two about PR and digital marketing.

5. Track everything

Remember how I said experimentation is at the core of entrepreneurship?

Well, experiments are about more than just trying a bunch of new stuff. You also have to track the success and failure of each thing you try in order to know what works and what doesn’t.

Test your ideas. Run polls, do A/B testing, track when something is doing well and figure out why. Then scale it.

4. Start a blog

Why do I have this blog?

I could just do my own thing, bring in my money and end it there. So why do I go through the trouble of spending 20+ hours on posts like this?

Because I think it’s important as an entrepreneur and business owner to share the knowledge and expertise you gain along the way.

Not to mention that constantly pumping out blog content means you’ll start to rank for certain keywords in internet searches.

3. Learn SEO

Imagine a successful business without Google involved.

It’s hard. Without traffic, (which is mostly Google, Facebook or YouTube) you’ve got nothing.

Lack of SEO is a big reason why businesses fail.

What really is search engine optimization??

1) Build out baller, organized content going after keywords….like this post… “how to start a business”, which gets searched 39,000 times per month

2) Get other people to mention or link to your articles

That’s 80% of SEO. Congrats.

2. Build time wealth

There’s a lot of talk nowadays about following your passions, finding your dream job, and turning what you love into a career.

Why not just make a ton of money and build a business that allows you to have time wealth?

Once you have an online business making $10,000 per month, you’ve built a lifestyle that allows you to follow your passions.

You don’t even need to be passionate about your business, although it definitely helps.

1. Help local businesses

Here’s the thing: there’s no more predictable path to building a profitable business than focusing on local services.

Competition isn’t there.

Local lead generation provides more value to local businesses than just about anything else.

What business will tell you, “No thanks, we’re good, not interested in more leads..”

1) Build out websites that go after local niches, like pest control in a big city or a personal injury lawyer

2) Collect leads through email opt-ins or a phone number that you rent so you can listen to the calls

3) Collect money either through a pay-per-lead model or pay-per-sale, depending on what you negotiate with the business owner

Leads are the superpower of the Internet. Few people understand this.

Recap

There’s really been no better time to start a business.

There are some key takeaways when it comes to starting your own business that I want you to remember from this article:

1. Do something digital

Why? Low start-up costs and quick feedback loops, which validates your idea without spending more than $500.

Freedom to work from wherever you want, whenever you want.

2. Do something that can be automated

There’s no sweeter feeling than going to bed at night knowing that the paychecks you’re making will keep rolling in, even in your sleep.

Time is your most precious resource. Figure out which of your business ideas you can automate, and go with those.

3. Do something local

You may have dreams of going global, but start local first. Narrowing your focus and targeting a specific area will give you a huge competitive advantage.

4. Do something scaleable

Being able to reel in passive income is sweet, but it’s a little underwhelming when you’re reeling in $2.03 a month from your Amazon affiliate account.

It’s gotta scale.

—

Whatever you do, the most important advice of all is this: start your business.

Start something, because more than likely, your business will evolve anyway as you work on it daily.

Stop sitting around scrolling through articles.

I wasn’t shy about my #1 recommendation (local lead generation) because I’ve seen it work for many, many people.

I’ll Paypal you $500 if you show me a better business to start than our method.

#MLM companies #network marketing companies

0 notes