Starting a business or side-hustle comes with a lot of not-so-fun tasks. You don’t just get to invent a product, but you’ve got to build the foundation. A website, social media content, editing audio footage, and more requires software and online tools. I’ll walk you through my go-to list and make it super simple for you. Paid is usually better, but there’s a lot of great stuff out there that’s completely free as well.
In a recent post, I stressed the fact that you shouldn’t get so hung up on a name. I honestly think that it’s best to brainstorm a decent amount but to ultimately just pick something and move on. Every day you waste thinking about the “perfect name” is a day you cannot spend growing your business. When it comes to picking a team, this is NOT the case. You’ll want to do your due diligence here to make sure the team you’re assembling is the best possible fit.
Who should be on your team?
People with complementary skills should be on a team. You don’t want two marketing guys and zero web developers. It’s best to have a representative from each key function who is skilled at their craft. Here’s an example of a great mix:
A graphic designer – good with editing photos, videos, creating marketing material, etc.
A product developer – if creating software or a website, this person should be capable of creating an SEO optimized website and customize areas as necessary. If creating a physical product, this person should help design, prototype, and test products.
A sales lead – responsible for finding new customers, distributing marketing materials, etc.
Chances are that the functions will overlap in some areas. The sales guy may be involved in video editing or filming. The web guy may have to use Canva and do some free, easy edits when the graphic designer is tied up. Be flexible, but always reach out for clarification from the subject matter expert when in doubt.
Experience Pooling
Make sure that members have experience in their areas. One cannot simply decide to be a graphic designer. He or she should have previous experience, have gone to school for it preferably, and have a proven track record and portfolio. Once you pool all this talent together, you’ll be able to achieve things quickly and effectively.
Assigning Equity
Before getting excited, assigning equity, and drafting up business papers, you should do one thing: work together. Try working together for a few weeks at minimum. Heck, even a few months. Gauge everyone’s work ethic. Are there slackers? Are there “talkers” that don’t get to the “doing” part? If so, really see if those individuals are necessary. If anyone does not add value or consistently lets the team down, avoid them like the plague. That’s some solid advice I wish I had myself on my first LLC, so I could have avoided some issues down the road.
A recent podcast I listened to, “How To Start A Startup” by Y Combinator, recommended having vested equity. You can either check out the podcast or feel free to see the recorded videos here on YouTube. Vested equity means that founders earn certain percentages over time. This way, they can be in it for the long haul. If a founder leaves early, they won’t take a huge chunk of the company with them.
Are you trying to pick a team now? Or do you have a team member currently that isn’t contributing? Feel free to ask any questions or post any comments below.
There are so many things out there we need to consider investing in to grow our businesses or side-hustles. We need good equipment to get quality photographs or videos. We need some sort of software to edit videos or audio content for things such as podcasts. My goal today will be to run you through several tools I recommend and use frequently in my business and personal life.
You’ve invested in some equipment and it’s time to discuss software. If you want to reference my equipment recommendations again, you can check them out here. I’m assuming that you probably already have a basic laptop or desktop computer. If not, please consider making an investment in that as there are still many things that are difficult to do on tablets or mobile. I’m personally eyeing Macbooks, as I’ve always been intrigued, but I still haven’t managed to break up with PC yet.
Software is tricky because there are multiple options and various pros and cons all over the place. Paid is usually better, but there are many valuable services also available to you for free. I’ll highlight a bunch of software or online tools I personally use, what they do, and how they’ll benefit you no matter what it is that you are working on.
I’m not currently paying for a lot of software just yet, so my investment costs are very low. A lot of tools out there also have tier pricing where they offer free as well as paid versions with varying features depending on price.
TLDR Version: Build websites that are SEO optimized for free. There are also various paid versions with varying features.
Create a free website or easily build a blog on WordPress.com. WordPress offers hundreds of free, customizable, mobile-ready designs and themes. It also offers free hosting and support. This is what my websites Flexthetics.com and ChrisBello.com are built on.
There is a free version, but there are also other paid tiers where you can get more features depending on what you’re looking for such as extra storage.
There are other options as well such as Wix.com, Weebly.com, and Shopify.com , but WordPress is extremely easy to use and much more SEO (search engine optimization) friendly, so that your website can be found easily by others.
TLDR Version: Easily build great looking, converting sales funnels to drive traffic to via ads. Free 14-day trial, and then $97 a month after that for the Startup Package.
Use ClickFunnels to quickly create high-converting marketing & sales funnels. If you don’t know what a sales funnel is, don’t worry. I had no clue either. Russell Brunson, a ClickFunnels founder, has tons of great videos on the site and on an email sequence where you learn how easy it is. As people move through the funnel, they’re getting closer to becoming a paying customer.
Let’s say 600 people see your ad. Out of that, maybe 10% click the link to download your free PDF or eBook. So, 60 people now enter their email address to get your free gift. You then make the offer for your paid product or service. Out of the 60 people in your funnel, you may have 5% that ultimately convert (3 people). If your product sells for $197, that’s $591 in revenue. Obviously, the goal is to increase your conversion rates to get more people taking your free offer and ultimately your paid one, as well.
Still confused? This funny video from ClickFunnels does a great job explaining it.
ClickFunnels offers a free 14-day trial, and is then $97 monthly for the Startup Package. They offer an upgraded package with other tools called Actionetics and Backpack for $297 a month. I personally am using the Startup Package and finding a ton of value. It might seem high to pay this if you are a startup but think of how much you can get in return from using amazing tools? This is a business expense. For that reason, I didn’t hesitate for a second to sign up full-time after I used the 14-day trial and saw the potential. “You’re only one funnel away” as Russell says.
TLDR Version: Utilize email automation to send messages to various subscriber lists (the only work you need to do is the initial content creation, then it’s autopilot). Completely FREE if your subscriber list is below 2,000 and you’re sending 12,000 emails or less a month.
MailChimp provides marketing automation for e-commerce businesses. Send beautiful emails, connect your e-commerce store, advertise, and build your brand.
To be honest, I signed up for MailChimp months before I ever dug in and learned the ropes. It ended up being quite easy to use and integrate with other tools such as ClickFunnels and WordPress. The best part is that it is free if your list is below 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month. This way, you can keep it free until you reach a point where it makes sense to pay. If you grow it to above 2,000 subscribers, chances are, what you’re doing is working so you should continue.
TLDR Version: Email automation to send unlimited campaigns and newsletters to your subscribers. The lowest tier allows you to send emails to up to 1,000 contacts for just $25/month.
I have considered using SendLane after reading The Circle Of Profit by SendLane Co-Founder Anik Singal. On a side note, this book was amazing and so helpful in understanding step-by-step how to create a sales funnel and drive converting traffic to it. Check it out if you really want to open your eyes to the possibilities sales funnels can unlock. The book has “video breaks” where you can go to a link and watch a quick video to recap or further explain certain things.
TLDR Version: Get access to tons of high-quality, copyright-free photos, all for free.
This is my go-to site for high quality, copyright-free photos. In fact, many of my blog posts and some social media posts have pictures I’ve found on Unsplash. You can give credit to photographers if you like as a way of showing appreciation, but it isn’t required.
TLDR Version: Break free from reaching out to your graphic designer with this easy to use software. You can pay for some premium content, but you get amazing value and can get by on the free version alone as well.
This has been a true game changer for me and has made me much less reliant on my graphic designer friend. There are a few premium things you can pay for, but you get so much valuable uses with the free options. You can create banners, Facebook Ads, YouTube video thumbnails, logos and so much more, all for free.
Like most tools, I Googled “free screen recording software” and came across this gem.
OBS does a great job of capturing your screen all for free. I am currently using OBS as opposed to paid software as I’m not recording a ton of screen footage at this time.
TLDR Version: High quality, paid video editing / screen recording software. Get a single user license for $199.
Camtasia is a software suite for creating video tutorials and presentations directly via screencast, or via a direct recording plug-in to Microsoft PowerPoint.
I’ve used the software before and it works very well. I just don’t record enough right now to justify the investment.
TLDR Version: High quality, paid video editing / screen recording software. Sign-up for the basic option for $129.
ScreenFlow is basically the Camtasia version for the Mac. This was highly recommended by Anik Singal in the book I mentioned earlier, but I do not own a Mac and have not experienced the software yet myself.
Video Editing Software
Windows Movie Maker
TLDR Version: Free video editing software for windows. Enough to get by for basic video editing.
Windows Movie Maker is a discontinued video editing software by Microsoft. It is a part of Windows Essentials software suite and offers the ability to create and edit videos as well as to publish them. If you have it on your computer, consider checking it out. If not, you’ll have to use another program.
While many may roll their eyes at this basic video editor, I’ve used this for nearly all of my video editing for years and have few complaints. If you just need basic editing functions such as splitting or trimming footage, check this out.
TLDR Version: Free video editing software for Mac. Great tool for video editing.
iMovie is a video editing software application sold by Apple Inc. for the Mac and iOS.
I have seen my Mac-using friends edit footage on iMovie and it looks extremely user-friendly and easy to manage. Mac users, check this out and see if it suits your needs prior to paying for expensive software.
TLDR Version: Free video editing software for GoPro footage. Can work well but sometimes crashes.
Free software if you have a GoPro to edit footage. My version has crashed on me several times, but I still try to use it when I have a manageable amount of video to edit from my GoPro. It tends to mainly crash if you upload way too much footage. Maybe that’s because my computer isn’t powerful enough, or maybe it’s because it’s a free software.
You can do a few more neat things with this than with many other free editors, such as change video filters and color schemes.
TLDR Version: Royalty-free music! Just leave credit.
NoCopyrightSounds is a record label dedicated to releasing FREE music for the sole purpose of providing creators with the finest sounds to enhance the creativity and popularity of their content, safe from any copyright claims or infringement.
Don’t forget to leave credit where credit is due:
NCS Music is free to use for independent Creators and their UGC (User Generated Content) on YouTube & Twitch – please remember to credit the artist, track and NCS and link back to our original upload.
TLDR Version: Royalty-free music! Just leave credit.
Free music (copyright-free). Just be sure to leave credit.
Title Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Remember to reach out or comment if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. I’m happy to help explain things in more detail if you’re confused on any points. All of the above comes in extremely handy for my business and personal life. I love editing videos, building sales funnels, and automating things by using email autoresponders. I’ll talk to you soon. Remember to stay connected!
Today we will talk about the entrepreneurial challenge of wearing multiple hats… can you really do it all?
We will discuss knowing what you should take on and what you should delegate or outsource.
Consider outsourcing tasks beyond your expertise or to clear up time for you to focus on other critical tasks. Sites like Upwork.com or Freelancer.com allow you to hire affordable help from all around the globe.
Feel free to reach out with questions or comments at chrisbello.com and remember, less dreaming, more doing.
Whether you’re inventing a product or you want to create an online course for something you are good at, there are some tools you’ll want to consider investing in. Save yourself hours of YouTube research on these items. Trust me, I’ve already digested hours of footage myself and have summarized the best deals below to make your life easier. Here’s my list of startup necessities:
Camera
I personally use the Canon G7X and absolutely love it. You can also check out the Mark II version if you like as well. My photographer friend with fancy cameras like a DSLR bought one for himself and uses it more than any other camera he owns. It’s so lightweight and easy to carry!
Flexible tripod
Check out the JOBY GorillaPod Flexible Tripod. You’ll see famous vloggers walking around with one of these. It can be used as a selfie stick, wrap around oddly shaped objects, or provide a perfect tripod for you to set up as you record yourself speaking.
Lighting set for product photography or video recording
Whether you’re taking pictures of products or recording footage for an online course, good lighting will be very important. Check out the CowboyStudio Lighting Kit as it’s a true game changer.
1080p webcam
My Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 is very helpful when I want to record videos at my computer or even do Skype calls with freelancers I’m working with.
USB Microphone
Consider the Blue Yeti USB Microphone for an absolutely amazing mic. I have this set up on my desk to record my podcasts and any other audio where I want the quality to be perfect.
Pop filter
Check out the Dragonpad Pop Filter to reduce the popping sound when you use words that start with the letter “P” in words such as “paper” or “partake.” This stays right in front of my Yeti mic to further clean up the sound.
Lapel microphone
Save yourself some headaches and get a lapel microphone. I recommend this one from PowerDeWise. I record directly into the Voice Memo app on my phone while I am recording footage on my Canon G7X. I then sync the MP3 track to align with the video. Your camera will record great footage, but without a lapel mic, the camera audio will pick up background noises and echo.
Please feel free to do some extra research on your own. I encourage you to click through the links and check out the Amazon reviews on all my suggested products (they’re all extremely good!). These are absolutely startup necessities if you plan on bootstrapping and doing a lot of the work on your own. Keep in mind that getting agencies or professionals to do any services for you such as photography, video editing, or more will be much more expensive than just purchasing the equipment on your own. Stay tuned for another post coming soon on software I recommend using (both paid and free).
Today’s topic is pitching an idea or startup. What key points do you need to hit?
Pitching your startup or idea takes a bit of practice. You’ll also have to tailor your pitch differently depending on who is in your audience. Are you pitching to investors, or potential customers? These will be two completely different presentations as you might be aware.
This episode covers 8 Steps as presented by John Reale, CEO and Co-Founder of Station Houston at a recent “How to Pitch” Seminar.
Feel free to reach out with questions or comments at chrisbello.com and remember, less dreaming, more doing.
I don’t have any children, but I can imagine that picking a name for a kid can be very difficult. There are so many potential names and you want to make sure to pick the BEST one.
Picking a name can be hard
However, nobody cares what your kids’ names are, sorry to break it to you. Not until they make something of their name. Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos were names that meant nothing 100 years ago. Today, of course, those names are known globally.
The same, in my opinion, goes for company, product, or app names. Think of huge companies out there where consumers likely don’t know the meaning of the company names themselves. Uber, Spotify, Adidas, even Amazon. Those companies meant nothing until they made something of themselves and became known.
I suggest that you not get too hung up on names. As I’ve progressed in side-hustles and my business ventures, I’ve gotten less and less hung up on names. Coming up with Flexthetics took forever. We had to do all the research, make sure the domain and social media handles were available, and all that good stuff.
Now, I’ve built a sales funnel for iPhone X cases I’m selling and I made up a name in about 5 minutes. I made up a random word, Siirenz, in an attempt to find an unique spelling for the word “sirens.” Sirens, from Greek mythology, are those tempting mermaid type women that would cause ships to crash upon the rocks. It has nothing to do with phone cases, but again, I don’t want to spend weeks coming up with a name, I just want to put a logo on there and start selling products.
If your side-hustle products become wildly successful and start selling a lot, then I would consider filing a trademark and doing all of that good stuff. Otherwise, why set up an LLC, file a trademark, etc. for something that might not even work (again, I’m drawing from my own experience of filing an LLC and trademark then throwing it all away for another name anyways)?
Remember this when coming up with your own name in the future. You can also consider naming it something very obvious. An episode on the Podcast Side-Hustle School mentioned a woman who invented coffee for moms and literally named it “Mommy Coffee.” It doesn’t have to be difficult, you just have to pick something! From there, you can move ahead with creating your logo, website, marketing materials, etc.
In this episode, we’ll talk about crowdfunding campaigns like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. We’ll check out pros and cons of both and how you can create a campaign today.
Feel free to reach out with questions or comments at chrisbello.com and remember, less dreaming, more doing.
Have an idea? Don’t leave it at that. Honestly give it a try. Think it through, think of all the pros and cons, and minimize the cons. Draw your idea on paper, come up with a name for it, and treat it like a product you believe you would see on store shelves or the show Shark Tank one day. This post will give some insight on how to invent a product, including my suggested steps.
For those that might not know, my friend and I invented a supplement organizer product called the Flexthetics Pro. We sketched the idea on paper in December 2016 and had a 3D prototype designed and printed within a day.
Flexthetics Pro – V1
My friend just so happened to own a 3D printer and know how to use the engineering software. Without him, the idea could very well still be on paper as it is often expensive to get an engineer to draw up your idea and to have a prototype printed out. Things add up even more if you honestly believe in it and want a patent filed before you even share the idea with too many people.
Working with my friend to iterate, print out prototypes, and do some initial patent research really helped us keep costs down. The only real costs other than plastic we bought for prototypes went to having an attorney draft and file a utility patent.
Initially, I actually had a list of all kinds of app or apparel ideas. I was a little frustrated once I heard quotes on how much it would cost to get any of those things started. Even if I paid $60k to get an app made, there was no guarantee people would find it valuable or use it for that matter. With the Flexthetics Pro, a physical product that someone can pay money for, selling seemed so much easier.
Where are we with Flexthetics, in case you’re curious? We have a utility patent pending on this product and are taking preorders. We are currently manufacturing the molds and then will manufacture final units once the tooling arrives from overseas. Could we have done things better or in a different order? Probably. But that’s the beauty of a startup. You kind of figure things out as you go.
Renders depicting final products
The steps I recommend to invent a product are as follows (at least this is what we followed):
1. Write down your idea.
Write as much as you can about it. What it does, how it works, the pros, the cons, any competitor products that are similar and why yours is better, etc.
2. Bring your idea to life.
Try and have a prototype 3D printed or created. If you have a friend with a 3D printer and know-how on using engineering software, perhaps you can approach them and offer equity in your idea or company for their help. This can save you money upfront, but if you truly have a million-dollar idea, make sure this person taking equity will pull their weight and not just freeload. You don’t want to find yourself doing all the work down the line and see that they are making as much as you just for helping sketch it up initially.
Once you have a functional prototype you are happy with, consider filing a patent. More on this in Step 3. Keep in mind that finalizing the design can take a lot of time. We had over 35 revisions to the cap alone on our Flexthetics Pro. We experimented until we got something we were truly satisfied with.
3. Protect your idea (you can never be too careful).
I suggest getting manufacturers you talk to about potential costs to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) to protect yourself, especially before sending drawings to them. I’ve heard that people roll their eyes at this and say that nobody will steal your idea, but I don’t like taking chances, especially with the amount of time and money that is invested into bringing a product to life.
While it’s unlikely someone will steal your idea, pay thousands of dollars to have it patented, and then thousands more to get tooling done for manufacturing, why risk it?
I would also consider hiring an attorney to have a patent filed. I really believe in this idea and wanted to protect it as much as possible. For this reason, my Co-Founder and I paid an attorney to draft it for us and file it. My worst fear was that a competitor might somehow find out about our product before we protected ourselves and get something out before we could even blink an eye. If you’re a startup or sole inventor, your competitors likely have much more money, resources, and expertise than you do. No offense, that’s just how it is.
You can try to save some money filing a patent a couple of ways:
You can try to research how to file a patent and do it yourself completely. I heard a Podcast about Sarah Blakely from Spanx doing this.
You can research other patents of products that are similar and write how yours is different. Reference each US patent number and add your notes below. Give this to the attorney you are working with, and this should save some time and therefore money (attorneys bill you by the hour).
4. Market your product.
Your idea is now a product. Congratulations! I kept hush hush about our product until our patent was filed. Once it was, I quit my corporate job to focus on building the website, marketing the product, growing social media, etc. This all takes a lot of time!
5. Bring your product to market.
We grew our following after we filed the patent. We did try and do a Kickstarter campaign, which was quite a bit of work. It took months to perfect our website and a campaign for Kickstarter prior to launch. Unfortunately, we did not get funded on Kickstarter, but we’re not giving up. We are taking the risk and putting quite a bit of our own savings into initial tooling. High risk, high potential reward.
I feel much better launching a product since we already have followers that are not just family and friends on social media. We have more of an audience to reach out to. Coming up with a product and then marketing with 0 followers on any platform seems like it would be much more difficult.
So that is how to invent a product, at least how we did it. After inventing and protecting your product, the gears shift to marketing and sales, which is where Flexthetics is focusing efforts on currently. If you need help bringing a prototype to life, shoot me a message or comment and I’ll be happy to chat.
