Thursday, June 2, 2022

KillerStartups

KillerStartups

The Story Behind ThisIsWhyImBroke Website – Adam Freedman Talks Bootstrapping

Posted: 02 Jun 2022 05:36 AM PDT

Introduction

ThisIsWhyImBroke is a website that lists cool random stuff that the staff of the website have found in the vast internet shopping world. First thing I need to say about this company: awesome name. Second thing: I was immediately distracted by their website and could probably spend hours on it.

On the landing page I spotted a hanging tent (sort of like a combo tent/hammock thing) and earrings shaped like ears. Both of these things totally sparked my imagination and made me wish I had way more money than I ever will make as a freelance writer.

Adam Freedman took some time out of his crazy busy work day to talk to us about what makes his company so cool. Check it.

The Questions and Answers

How long have you been involved with the internet? What were your first steps?

I’ve been an internet geek for as long as I can remember. I was building websites on Geocities in the 90s when I was around 12 years old. I read lots of guides on the internet on how to build websites, and as I got older I tried building websites for profit, all of them were failures, but each time I learned something useful.

What time do you usually start work each day?

I used to start each day at 8AM and stop around midnight. Nowadays I start around 10AM and stop around 6PM.

Do you have an office or work at home?

It’s a home office, but we’re moving into an office/warehouse at the end of the month. Which is great, because this home office is extremely crowded.

How'd you come up with the name for your company?

I originally was going to call it ShutUpAndTakeMyMoney.com, after the famous Futurama saying, but the domain name was taken. I racked my brain for a bit and nearly went with “I’llTakeTen.com”, but figured that sounded horrible (oddly, somebody heard about this name from another interview and decided to start IllTakeTen.com), and somehow winded up with ThisIsWhyImBroke.com.

I honestly don’t remember what led me to come up with that name, perhaps I’d heard someone say it joking.

How many people did you start the company with and how many people work for you now?

It started just as a hobby site by myself, but within a few months it was two employees, and now we have six employees.

Remember the early days starting up? Maybe you can share one anecdote that describe the struggle you went through?

I had a lot of ideas, and a lot of inexperience in running a big website. The web server struggled to stay up much of the time due to high levels of traffic, there were some major issues with people trying to steal the website (like take ownership from us), and in general we just hadn’t perfected the formula to the website’s success.

Who or what inspires YOU? Role models? Quotes? Running? Video games? Snack food? Give us the deets, dude!

I wouldn’t necessarily say I have a role model, but I’ve always admired people with online businesses, and it’s something I’ve wanted to have for nearly a decade. The idea of a low overhead cost, internet based business that I was in charge of just seemed like my dream job.

How'd you fund this venture? VC? Self-funding? Crowd-funded? Where'd you get the money, man?

The beauty of ThisIsWhyImBroke is the overhead costs are very small. Since we originally didn’t sell/ship anything ourselves, we only referred customers to 3rd party websites and took a commission on product sales, the only real cost we had in the beginning was webhosting fees.

Got any great bootstrapping tips for the lean startups out there?

Cut out all the unnecessary stuff til you’ve already made it. So many startups I read about seem to take investors’ money and waste a big chunk of it on fancy offices and equipment.

I’m a minimalist, so I keep all business costs as low as possible until we absolutely need to expand.

For example, we now carry product lines and sell them ourselves (via our Amazon storefront account), and after my house became literally overflowing with boxes [I decided] that it’s time to move into a modestly sized warehouse.

What would you be doing if you had one year off and $500,000 US to spend?

I’d hire a team of programmers and graphic designers and try to make a Zombie MMO video game. I’ve always wanted to build a game like that.

Do you consider yourself a successful entrepreneur right now? If not, what's it gonna take to make you feel successful?

I do consider myself successful, but I’m not satisfied with the level I’m at right now. I really want ThisIsWhyImBroke to be a household name – I want to be the site to go for awesome gift ideas.

Web App or site you couldn't live without and why:

Hah, there’s a couple. Google Analytics, Photoshop, PunyPNG (image compression software), and Pandora/Turntable.fm

Dogs or cats?

Both. I have a 16 year old [cat] who refuses to age, and a brown and shaggy Shih-Tzu that looks like Chewbacca (named Chewy, of course)

iOS or Android?

Android. I’m not a fan of Apple’s proprietary ways, though I do think they make a great product.

What’s the greatest thing about your company/website/idea?

I’m my own boss, and all the hard work I put in builds toward something I gain from.

Where can our readers get ahold of you? Facebook? Twitter? Google+? Personal blog?

I don’t care for personal blogs or having fans subscribe to my personal Facebook account, but you can always reach me at the e-mail mail [at] thisiswhyimbroke.com, along with our Facebook (we answer messages there too).

This article was originally published in 2006, but was republished in June 2, 2022 for reviewing. 

Related Post: How to Pitch a Health Startup

The post The Story Behind ThisIsWhyImBroke Website – Adam Freedman Talks Bootstrapping appeared first on KillerStartups.

How Localization Improves Conversion Rates

Posted: 01 Jun 2022 12:42 PM PDT

In today's world, where everything is connected, we are all a part of one large global community. However, on a daily level, people use their own language for communication and buy things with local currency. So, if you offer a sales opportunity that doesn't match their language or culture, you'll have less success in selling. That is why localization is important.

Localization marketing adapts your website or software for users who don't speak your language or understand your culture. This makes it more accessible. 

Keep in mind that you need to have a solid website or software localization strategy in place before you begin the process. And, if you want to learn why localization is important for conversion rates, keep reading.

User Experience

user experience

Image source

Customers are more eager to buy something when the website is in their language. People are used to a familiar environment, and 72% of them will make a purchase when they feel comfortable.

User experience is the key to your potential customer's happiness. If people feel happy and appreciated, they leave good feedback and return to buy more from your brand. 

When you use culturally suitable visuals and an appropriate technology that doesn't offend the local target market in any way, your user experience gets better, and you can manage that with localization marketing.

If your website is easy to navigate, sales engagement is higher. However, if you cannot fix the user experience by yourself, you can look for a conversion rate optimization agency. CRO experts will help you convert visitors to buyers in less time and more successfully than you would do on your own.

Expand Your Target Market

If your website or software is in just one language (English, for example), it means you are ignoring all those that don't speak the language. Because of that, you could shut yourself out of a large crowd of potential customers who are in a different language area by neglecting them unintentionally. 

Since technology is becoming more and more advanced, it's a shame not to use it for your benefit. You can expand your target market to people all around the world by using a multilingual marketing strategy, and that means that you will be available to every potential customer at any time. 

Localization marketing is going to help you expand your target market, which will result in increased brand awareness. In addition, more potential buyers will get you greater sales engagement. Present your business by using localization translation and show your product value to a different culture so you can stand out from the competitors.

When people learn about your brand and the problem that it solves, they will be interested. You will improve your customer experience and potential customers will become loyal ones. You need to give them a reason to choose you over a local business. Any cultural difference or language that is not natural to them could drive them away. 

Decrease the Bounce Rate

bounce rate

Image source

When people are looking for your website and become curious about what they see, they don't click away. That is how you decrease your bounce rate, which is shown to be a great sign for your business. 

However, if people click on your site and see a language they don't speak, they will leave immediately. This makes your bounce rate higher and your ranking on Google search lower. So, it makes it harder for people to find you on search engines.

With localization marketing, users' time spent on your website will increase, and if your content is compelling to them and written in a familiar language, they will navigate it effortlessly. Friendly and problem-solving content is what makes people interested.

With proper language localization, you avoid the issue of a high bounce rate. Your customers will read your content naturally as if someone local has written it, and they will continue to search your website, clicking on links and buying products. 

A call-to-action button has to be adaptable to their language to make it easy for them to purchase the thing that they need without any complication. This is how you get loyal international customers. 

Outperform Competition

Many businesses are already turning to global markets, and it is time for you to catch up. By doing research, you can find out if their content is of high quality, whether the translations are good enough, and what they are lacking.

By finding out their weaknesses, you can optimize your website better. Also, you can adjust every part of it to match your customers’ expectations. Complete optimization will always be more compelling and efficient than just plain translations. 

You need to meet all the cultural standards to increase your brand loyalty, and this will result in increasing your sales and setting yourself apart from the competition.

Conclusion

Your customers are the ones that make your business grow. If they trust your website and are happy with the online experience provided, it will show in the sales growth. Your job is to make them comfortable, and localization marketing helps you to do that.

Remember to always explain every product clearly, and promote it in the customers' preferred languages. Currency should be changed to meet their needs as well. 

Localization is more than just simply translating. Using a good strategy will improve your company's reputation and acquire customers from all over the globe.

The post How Localization Improves Conversion Rates appeared first on KillerStartups.

The Top Characteristics of a Quality Co-founder Team

Posted: 01 Jun 2022 10:44 AM PDT

Some of you have enough of a go-getter attitude to make a business run successfully from the ground up on your own. However, those of you just getting started know that it's not always a one-person show. You need a team to back you up. This could mean that you need help creating a company right from the get-go. That's where relying on a quality co-founder comes in.

A co-founder that has an equal amount of cash as you, and just as much motivation. Someone that wants to see it succeed just as much as you, if maybe not a little more.

But there are traits that you'll need to look for in finding the right quality co-founder. Without that, like a bad marriage, it can be doomed to fail. And then you're left trying to run the business on your own while they try to make a new one. No one needs that.

So, let's look at the characteristics to keep an eye out for when it comes to finding that quality co-founder for your business!

Your Quality Co-founder Doesn't Need to Be Perfect, but It's Best to Know Everything About Them

When it comes to a good quality cofounder, you need to have trust. That said, it helps to go into business with someone you know. Not like a life-long friend, but someone whose positives and negatives are present by now.

You could hold a discussion or two and get everything out in the open in terms of needs and desires with the startup. No matter, certainly the best way to go about it is going in with someone you already have an established relationship.

This not only helps on the trust side of things but also knowledge. Going in with a complete stranger is a big risk because they could potentially steal, or cause many other disruptions. With someone you know, this is less likely, especially if you know their family or someone close to them. Having that connection can make a big difference.

If it is someone new, have conversations and get to know your quality co-founder better. Your startup will thank you in the long run.

Stay Equal Partners If You Can

The key to keeping good control along with a quality co-founder with a business is finding that perfect balance. With that, you'll want to try to keep it 50/50.

That can be tough, depending on how much you have for investment. But the balance with control is vital. Because, that way, if there is a disagreement, you have equal say. Otherwise, one partner could overpower the other. Then you have something that could create a rift or a shakeup within the company.

By keeping it balanced, with equal money, shares, and ideas within the company, there's not much danger. You work together, manage together, come up with decisions together, etc. This is why we noted earlier that it's vital to have someone you know and trust if at all possible.

Your Quality Cofounder Sees the Same Goals as You

Having a good starting point with your partner is excellent. But what about a long-term goal? They may have a different endgame in mind than you. That's why it's important to iron these out before the future unfolds.

Take some time to sit down with your quality co-founder and find out what they want from the company. Once you have a game plan, work out what you have in mind. If they're the same, you should be good to go. But if something's different, like benefits, investment, stock values, anything, then you should discuss it further.

There are bound to be disagreements. However, with the right quality co-founder, there's no reason you can't iron out the kinks and work ahead towards a common goal. Otherwise, you may have division down the road. Again, that's the furthest thing from what you want.

No Business Relationship Has to Be Perfect, but It Should Be Understanding

Finally, just remember that you don't have to agree all the time. People and ideas are going to be different. They just are. This also goes for you and that quality co-founder you have in your business.

That's why it's a good process to talk to them. Again, you'll have disagreements. This is in any relationship. Friends, family, loved ones – they all have disagreements. But they don't hate each other. Instead, most of the time, they sit down and work the disagreements out. The same could easily be said for a startup business.

Again, it's about communication, common goals, and making sure you have an equal amount of power. That's how you know you've got the right quality co-founder to establish something with. Think deep, but also keep those feelings open for possible changes. Find the right road to take, and you'll get there!

The post The Top Characteristics of a Quality Co-founder Team appeared first on KillerStartups.
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