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Tag: Money & Finance

  • Are You Charging Enough Money for Your Software? Here’s How You Can Tell.

    Are You Charging Enough Money for Your Software? Here’s How You Can Tell.

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    My biggest mistake as an entrepreneur and startup founder happened just before raising our seed investment. I was sitting on a windowsill at our old office, looking over the sea, contemplating what masterstroke could take my company to the next level. Then it hit me: Why don’t I just lower the price to $4 per month per user? “If the product is cheap enough, everyone will buy it and see its immediate value,” I thought to myself.

    What happened was that I totally overestimated our brand, the maturity of our product and our ability to drive product-led growth. I was convinced that the quality of our product would be self-evident and that it would sell itself because of the embedded virality of the platform. Instead, I learned that our product was underdeveloped, the market immature and that we had to educate our users to show them the full value and capacity of our product. In many cases, we even had to help them implement our solution for our customers to prevent them from churning.

    Later, it would show that raising prices wouldn’t just increase our top-line growth. It made our users happier with our product as they got more committed.

    Related: 4 Reasons Why Raising Your Price Is a Brilliant Marketing Move

    The problem with under-charging

    My mistake is not unusual — quite the opposite. I often see young, inexperienced founders under-charging for their products. Either because their imposter syndrome makes them underestimate the value of their product, or they overestimate their ability to make bottom-up sales.

    Selling a product at $4 per user would require an utterly insane amount of users to keep growing. Having so many users means you must have virtually no touchpoints with the users, which requires a totally self-explanatory UI. You need a really sticky product that sells itself. That’s not impossible. Slack did it. Notion did it. But it’s extremely rare to hit such a home run on your first try.

    So, what justifies charging big money for B2B software? What makes companies pay 50k or 100k for a piece of software? As I see it, your product must be hard to replace, business-critical for the users and show a clear return on investment. Let’s take a closer look at those three elements.

    1. Is it hard to replace?

    The first aspect is making your software hard to replace. By that, I’m not suggesting that you take your users hostage with opaque termination conditions and well-hidden cancellation buttons. The point is that you ensure your software is embedded deeply into the workflows of the business you serve. The truly value-adding solutions in today’s B2B software landscape aren’t just digitizing a process or replacing another similar solution. They change the way we work. Driving actual behavioral change in your users’ approach to work requires skilled consultants, multiple touchpoints, a forward-thinking mindset and a lot of education from your end. But it also makes your product unique and very hard to replace. Simple licenses are convenient in some instances, but they don’t drive loyalty because no real commitment is involved.

    Related: How to Let Customers Know About Increased Prices Without Making Them Mad

    2. Is it business-critical for users?

    Second, your product must touch something sensitive and business-critical for your user. You can justify a higher price if your software cures a real pain than if you just remove a little nuisance. And you can charge more if your product reaches far into the heart of a business. Certain products are so important to the operation of my own business that I’m willing to pay very high sums for them — like our CRM system or billing software, for example.

    3. Does it show a clear return on investment?

    The third aspect is the most obvious but may also be the hardest to achieve. Your price point is only fair if you can justify it from a return-on-investment point of view. You must be able to show your users the value you bring them in order to charge real money. It’s one thing to create a product that really creates value, but it’s another thing to be able to back it up with actual proof. Nevertheless, finding a way to calculate your value will enable you to set the price point where it belongs — usually higher than you think.

    Related: How Raising Your Prices Can Actually Help You Make More Sales

    With all that said, there is also a mental aspect. You have to believe in yourself and your product, and don’t underestimate your worth. Finding the right price point takes experimentation and iteration. I probably still haven’t found it, and it changes over time. But in my experience, charging too little psychologically affects your users. It makes them less committed and less likely to perceive the true value of your product. With higher prices, you might lose customers, but those who stick will be more devoted. Luckily, I could rectify my mistake and take my business to the next level despite my initial wrong-doings. But there is no reason you should make the same mistake.

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    Niels Martin Brøchner

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  • Why Insurance Policies Are Critical to Your Rental Business

    Why Insurance Policies Are Critical to Your Rental Business

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    As an investor, taking calculated risks is part of your job. Not every investment is profitable, and you can’t always know the risks you’re taking when buying a property. Problems could arise many years down the line. For example, an apparently sound building could develop infrastructure problems after several years of ownership. Or an unpredictable squabble between tenants could turn into a liability issue you couldn’t have foreseen.

    For this reason, it’s essential to protect yourself from risk by purchasing insurance. Both you and your tenants should have coverage to protect you should something unpredictable occur. But how much will your coverage cost? Why do your renters need insurance, too?

    Let’s explore these questions and discover why insurance policies are critical to your rental business.

    Related: The Beginner’s Guide to Investing in Rental Properties

    Landlord insurance

    Like any insurance coverage, landlord insurance protects you and your rental business against potential losses and liabilities.

    Here’s how it works: When you buy a property, you work with an insurance provider to decide which dwelling policy (DP) you want. Dwelling policies are insurance plans for property owners with varying levels of coverage.

    For instance, the cheapest dwelling policy might only provide basic coverage for fires or storms. More substantial dwelling policies may add other types of natural damages, lost rent if those disasters make your units uninhabitable or liabilities.

    What does landlord insurance cover?

    A typical landlord insurance plan covers three types of losses:

    1. Property damage to your building or equipment, including that caused by natural disasters, fires, wind, lightning or criminal break-ins

    2. Lost rent from months wherein your properties are uninhabitable due to any of the above damages

    3. Liabilities, or legal claims (including medical bills, legal fees or court costs) made against you, usually resulting from an injury on the property.

    These three types of coverage are standard across many insurance plans. However, you also have the option to purchase additional coverage. These add-on policies may cover vandalism, construction damage, or upgrading to fulfill building or health code policy changes.

    Another thing to note is that flood and eviction insurance are not included in a typical landlord dwelling policy. Coverage for these losses must be purchased separately.

    When deciding on your coverage, think about where your properties are located. Is the geographical area vulnerable to flooding, wildfires or earthquakes? Is the crime rate in the neighborhood high? If so, you might consider purchasing more comprehensive insurance coverage.

    How much does landlord insurance cost?

    The average cost of landlord insurance is around $1,200-$1,300 a year, paid in monthly installments. This is approximately 25% more than a typical homeowners insurance policy with the same coverage — because renters tend to introduce more risk.

    However, the cost ultimately depends on several factors, including the building’s age, the materials used to construct it, the presence or absence of pets, the dwelling policy you choose and the location of your property.

    In general, dwelling policies that use replacement cost value (RCV) are valued higher than those that use actual cash value (ACV). RCV represents the cost of rebuilding your property at today’s construction rates, while ACV represents the current, actual value of your property. Coverage based on RCV will lead to higher premiums.

    Why buy landlord insurance?

    If you take care of your properties, do you really need to be insured? Landlord insurance is highly valuable and usually worth the monthly fee. Here are some of the top reasons to purchase landlord insurance:

    • Protect your investment: You can’t predict what might happen to your properties or your tenants. It’s best to be prepared.

    • Achieve better interest rates on your mortgage: Some lenders require landlord insurance.

    • Take advantage of tax deductions: Landlord insurance premiums are usually fully deductible as operating expenses that you can subtract from your taxable income.

    Related: Getting Your Feet Wet in the Rental Property Business

    Renters insurance

    If landlord insurance protects your properties, what does renters insurance cover? Your landlord coverage won’t cover every loss related to your rental properties. Your renters need insurance coverage for their losses as well.

    What does renters insurance cover?

    Like landlord insurance, renters insurance typically covers three types of losses:

    1. Personal property and tenant belongings, such as clothes, electronics or valuables

    2. Liabilities due to a tenant’s responsibility for an injury or property damage

    3. Living expenses in the case that a tenant’s unit becomes uninhabitable and they must find other accommodations until repairs are made

    You may decide to offer a standard renters insurance package to your tenants, but they might also wish to purchase their own coverage. For instance, if a tenant keeps particularly valuable items in their unit, they may wish to add on scheduled personal property or valuables coverage.

    Tenants may also purchase theft extension coverage to cover their cars, boats or trailers; credit card coverage for unauthorized transactions; or other add-on policies.

    How much does renters insurance cost?

    Renters insurance is relatively inexpensive for tenants. The average cost is around $15 per month. However, this cost varies depending on the coverage level.

    Ultimately, the benefits offered by renters insurance are well worth the monthly premium. Your tenants may not appreciate the extra fee up front, but they’ll be thankful they have coverage should something happen.

    Why require renters insurance?

    Many landlords make renters insurance a requirement to rent their units. This is generally a smart move, and here are our top reasons why:

    • Prevent resentment for damages: Your tenants are less likely to sue you or pursue litigation if their insurance policy covers the loss.

    • Be transparent: In the event of a natural disaster, for instance, your tenants may expect that your landlord insurance will cover their belongings. They’ll be surprised to learn that it doesn’t. It’s better to inform your tenants upfront.

    • Avoid unnecessary complications with your insurance: If an accident occurs on your properties, it’s likely that your tenants’ renters insurance will kick in first. This saves you the trouble of interacting with your insurance company until necessary.

    Related: 5 Real Estate Mistakes That Could Make You Lose Money

    Insurance tips and tricks

    If you’re ready to get started with landlord and renters insurance, here are a few tips and tricks:

    • If your property management software offers renters insurance as a secondary feature, use it: This saves your tenants the trouble of finding a policy themselves and allows you to determine which type of coverage you think your tenants need.

    • Track renters insurance policies: Remind tenants to renew their policies before their coverage expires.

    • Avoid making claims for minor damage: Conserve your coverage for more severe losses and prevent your rate from increasing.

    • Ask for a discount if you own multiple buildings: You never know which deals are available until you ask.

    Disasters and accidents can be entirely beyond your control. However, by preparing for them ahead of time, you’ll know you’re protected in case of a major loss or casualty in your rental business. Both you and your tenants will appreciate the peace of mind and protection offered by insurance.

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    Dave Spooner

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  • Miso Robotics’ Global Expansion Aims to Provide a 17x Bigger Opportunity for Investors

    Miso Robotics’ Global Expansion Aims to Provide a 17x Bigger Opportunity for Investors

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    Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

    Companies love robots working alongside humans. They don’t take days off and are incredibly reliable. That’s why, in a restaurant industry plagued by labor shortages, kitchen automation solutions from Miso Robotics have been gaining a ton of traction.


    Miso

    Miso Robotics

    After successfully automating kitchen operations for major U.S. fast food brands, Miso is sending its robotic assistants to the international market and allowing investors a chance to join them.

    Here’s why Miso may truly hold the key to the future of fast food.

    Miso helps make restaurants more efficient.

    From low wages to hot grease, people have found plenty of reasons not to work in fast-food kitchens. As a result, 500,000 new fast-food jobs go unfilled each month, leaving many brands in desperate need of automation solutions.

    That’s why Miso designed robots to cook food, pour drinks, and perform other repetitive tasks that humans prefer to avoid. For example, Miso’s Flippy 2 robot can fry, its Sippy robot pours drinks, and its Flippy Lite robot can fry and season items, most recently used by partners to make tortilla chips.

    All of these robots improve efficiency over time thanks to machine learning. And as a result, restaurant staff have more time to focus on customer-oriented service, knowing Miso’s bots deliver consistent quality.

    What’s more, Miso’s tech also addresses the fast-food industry’s longstanding tradition of low profit (average 5% margin) and rapid labor turnover, which have contributed to many restaurants’ lack of consistency and quality.

    With Miso, these are problems of the past. Its robots provide restaurants with a low-cost, user-friendly way to boost efficiency and have shown the potential to increase restaurant profit margins threefold.

    And thanks to the Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) model, restaurants only pay a monthly fee for Miso’s tech, allowing them to see a positive return on the first day of operations.

    It’s no surprise that so many restaurants have already partnered with Miso, but this is just the beginning.

    Miso’s world tour.

    Many of fast food’s top brands have already adopted Miso’s AI-powered automation solutions. White Castle, Jack in the Box, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Caliburger are among many beloved restaurants that already have Flippys and Sippys lowering costs and boosting efficiency.

    But the opportunity for Miso to expand its footprint is even bigger abroad. Take Europe, for example, where brands spend up to 50 percent more trying to fill the labor gaps.

    That’s exactly why Miso’s landed a new international partnership that they expect will play a huge role in the company’s expansion to the 20-million-restaurant global marketplace — a 17 times larger opportunity than in the U.S. alone.

    With several top fast-food restaurants stateside and a global house of brands on the horizon, Miso’s believes it has proven that there’s a universal need for its automation solutions.

    Get in on Miso’s as it plans a global expansion.

    More than 20,000 investors have already realized Miso’s status as an early mover, giving Miso the chance to build a solid foundation and partner with America’s most formidable fast-food brands. Now, they are going global and raising additional funds to further innovation in a market where demand is even stronger than when they started.

    With a mission for global dominance up next, there will never be a better time to become a Miso shareholder than today. Learn more about Miso Robotics and how you can benefit as an investor.

    The opportunity to invest ends 11/18/2022.

    Miso Robotics is offering securities through the use of an Offering Statement that has been qualified by the Securities and Exchange Commission under Tier II of Regulation A. A copy of the Final Offering Circular that forms a part of the Offering Statement may be obtained from: Miso Robotics

    Entrepreneur may receive monetary compensation by the issuer, or its agency, for publicizing the offering of the issuer’s securities. Entrepreneur and the issuer of this offering make no promises, representations, warranties, or guarantees that any of the services will result in a profit or will not result in a loss.

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    StackCommerce

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  • Recently Sold Your Business? Consider Creating an Investment Fund Instead of Another Startup

    Recently Sold Your Business? Consider Creating an Investment Fund Instead of Another Startup

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur, right? It’s in the DNA of a founder to re-create their original success over and over by starting new businesses. After all, it’s why the term “serial entrepreneur” is so popular. Richard Branson, Elon Musk and many more continually reinvest their profits in new ventures. While that is certainly one tactic, using a portion of your profits to create an investment fund can be infinitely more valuable.


    tdub303 | Getty Images

    There are many forms of investment companies that manage pooled assets of multiple private investors, such as venture capital, private equity and hedge funds. While most startup founders don’t think of themselves as finance experts or professional investors, their experience building and exiting successful companies may very well equip them to succeed in making investments on behalf of others.

    The seeds of my journey to creating a hedge fund started when I was an engineer focused on research and education computing (far from a finance background!). Eventually, that led to my role as a CTO at a startup, and I co-founded a firm that grew to $30 million in revenue in just under two years. Several liquidity events from that business became the foundation for building my family office, a private wealth management firm that runs like a hedge fund.

    Today, that is the foundation from which I build my wealth rather than embarking on new business ventures. But why should other entrepreneurs consider following this path? Here are three reasons:

    Related: This Entrepreneur Who Sold Her Company for $1 Billion Wants You to Throw Out the Unwritten Rules That Hold You Back

    Previous success doesn’t mean future success

    If you’ve started one successful company, it’s easy to think that you can do that repeatedly. But doing so can be more challenging than expected. The conditions that created outsized achievements the first time are hard to replicate as the world around us constantly changes. The best use of your proven business acumen may be to invest on behalf of others rather than diving headlong into developing another company.

    That said, starting an investment fund isn’t unlike establishing another company. Your first step — even before you line up initial investors — should be to hire a good lawyer and contact your state’s Secretary of State for guidance about investment fund business structures. In the case of hedge funds, most are formed as limited partnerships, in which the founder acts as the general partner and an incorporated group of investors act as the limited partners. This means you would likely need to set up two entities: one for the fund itself and one to incorporate its various investors.

    Bigger potential upside

    A fund structure is attractive because it allows a successful entrepreneur to use their expertise to help others navigate investments. In addition, the financial rewards can be substantial. Successful fund managers, whether in venture capital, private equity, hedge funds or real estate, are highly compensated and only limited by their performance and how many investors they can attract.

    For successful entrepreneurs such as myself, launching or participating in funds can amplify their expertise with capital and create a new kind of business that also brings about material financial contributions. In the course of founding your startup, you likely got to know some wealthy individuals who contributed to your success. Founding a fund can enable you to deliver value to these individuals in a new way. Because time is our most scarce resource, it doesn’t make sense for individuals with $20MM to invest their time into a $1-2MM opportunity, when instead they could invest that capital into your fund, go to the beach and call it a day.

    Related: She Was Homeless. Now She Runs a $25 Million Investment Fund for Women of Color.

    Leave the startup grind behind

    Once entrepreneurs have participated in major liquidity events, they realize a great deal can be gained by exploring new investment opportunities, managing taxation, and utilizing estate planning. After all, the point of founding a startup for many entrepreneurs is to compress the working years of one’s life, sell the company and have more years of freedom. Founding an investment fund can allow you to do that.

    For me, the idea of a fund seemed an appropriate encore to a successful business career. Fast forward to today — the strategies I spun off from my family office have become the heart of the TrueCode Capital Crypto Momentum Fund I founded. It allows me to spend my time sharing the lessons that made me a successful investor in digital assets and helping individual investors and family offices achieve growth, all while sleeping through the night.

    Of course, founding an investment fund — like any venture — isn’t for everyone. But for those with confidence in their ability to read the market, with contacts among high net-worth individuals, and with a proven track record of business success, starting your own hedge fund may be the next career step you’ve been looking for.

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    Joshua Peck

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  • 10 Leadership Lessons from the CEO of Redfin

    10 Leadership Lessons from the CEO of Redfin

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Buying a house as an investment or as a place where your family is going to live is as big of a purchase as many people will ever make in their lives. Seattle-based Redfin set out 15 years ago to create a combination tech company and a real estate brokerage to make the industry work better for customers and agents. The technology-powered real-estate company generated $1.9 billion in revenue in 2021 — a 10x increase from 2015. Since launching in 2006, it has saved customers more than $1 billion in commissions. Despite a volatile housing market, it currently boasts 53 million average monthly users on the website and app, serves more than 100 markets across the U.S. and Canada and employs more than 6,000 people.

    Related: Free Webinar | September 13: How To Build A Billion-Dollar Business

    For my latest episode of Entrepreneur‘s Leadership Lessons series, I had the opportunity to speak with Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. Before joining the company in 2005, he was a co-founder of Plumtree Software. In his seven years at Plumtree, he at different times led engineering, marketing, product management and business development; he also was responsible for financing and general operations in Plumtree’s early days. Before that, Kelman was one of the first handful of employees at Stanford Technology Group, a startup that was acquired by IBM.

    “I started as a web expert, not a real estate expert,” Kelman said during our conversation. “I had no idea how to build such a large organization, but along the way, we’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons. It’s been a wild ride.”

    The Seattle-raised leader is one of the most authentic, energetic and unflinchingly honest CEOs I have ever met. He graciously shared 10 valuable leadership lessons with me during our hour-long talk:

    1. Business can be a force for good.

    Kelman describes himself as an “ex-hippie from UC Berkeley” who thought business was a force of evil as he set out to better the world post-college. How do you improve the world without some kind of business interaction? “That dichotomy made me miserable for the first decade of my professional life,” Kelman admits. But he soon realized that business is only as good or bad as the people who drive it. “An enterprise can give people a common sense of purpose, a sense of belonging and a way to express their ideas and abilities. Most important, we need the industry and commerce of humanity to solve the world’s problems.”

    Related: How This Tech Leader Found Her Voice and Took the Reins of a Major Company

    2. Find a support group that knows your value and continually pushes you to realize it.

    Kelman’s friends and family never gave up on him. “I was always encouraged and told that if this doesn’t work, I can try something else. It’s never too late to find something you really believe in.”

    3. A leader’s path isn’t always in a straight line.

    Kelman says he’s thankful for his post-college years of searching for his dream job, including writing a novel and considering a medical career, as these experiences helped develop him into the person he is today.

    4. Not everyone has to be Steve Jobs. Just be yourself.

    When a friend told Kelman, “You are not Steve Jobs,” he took it as an insult that he wasn’t as brilliant, creative and innovative as his hero. But after taking a step back from the statement, Kelman understood that what his friend really meant was, “Only a genius can be a genius. But any leader can be respectful and kind.”

    5. Focus on what customers need and want versus trying to please Wall Street.

    Investors have fickle demands. Trying to please Wall Street can tie a leader into knots. The best bet is to tell investors who you are, how you are going to make your customers happy and how that will lead to profitability. “It takes a mature person to be a good leader, because the hardest business problems are often not technical, but rather questions of the soul and heart,” Kelman says.

    Related: ‘Everyone’s Got a Story of How the Healthcare System Has Fallen Short.’ This Founder Is on a Mission to Change That.

    6. A CEO should love their company more than anyone else.

    “If someone was more ambitious for the company, or believed in our mission more than I did, how could I possibly be better qualified than that person to run the company?” Kelman asked me. If self-interest and the biggest paycheck led to you running the company you are running, there will be friction down the line.

    7. Don’t let your level of self-esteem ride up and down with the ebb and flow of your finances.

    There are always going to be times when war chests are full and other times when cupboards are bare. Your job is to get out of bed and bring the future to life, whatever the current standings.

    8. Get enough sleep.

    Remembering and tending consistently to the bottom-line fact that you’re a human and that you need things like proper sleep, exercise and time with family and friends will make you the best person you can be and — by extension ­— the best leader you can be.

    Related: What Has This 100-Year-Old Business Done to Ensure Its Longevity? Its CEO Follows These 7 Leadership Principles.

    9. We all want to be the smartest person in the room, but the best and most valuable trait for a leader is to be humble.

    “That’s a skill that’s accessible to all of us,” Kelman says. “It’s one where you can get an ‘A’ for effort. If you let other people flower, you will build a much larger and more successful organization.”

    10. A CEO should be the “great exhilarator.”

    Writer Robert Louis Stevenson’s wife compared life with him to having lunch on a volcano, but she married him anyway because he was the great exhilarator, Kelman says. “A CEO’s employees will stick with a great leader for the same reason. You can’t be volatile as a CEO, but you can be — and have to be — emotional when the emotions are big and good. You have to make the people you lead feel something big and good.”

    For more from my time with Kelman, watch the full webinar here. The growing collection of episodes from our series gives readers access to the best practices of successful CEOs from the biggest brands, including Wayfair, Foot Locker, Heineken, Headspace, Zoom, Chipotle, Warby Parker and ZipRecruiter.

    Related: The CEO of Wayfair Has Helped Revolutionize Digital Shopping for 20 Years. Here’s How He Handles Rocky Economic Conditions.

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    Jason Nazar

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  • How to Make Money on Airbnb

    How to Make Money on Airbnb

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Investing in real estate is good for people who want to make money work for them. And this is because, with real estate investments, you can buy a property and use it to earn more. Now there are many ways to use an acquired property for profit. But perhaps the ones that are gaining more traction are short-term rentals on Airbnb.

    But what is Airbnb?

    If you’re an avid vacationer, you’ve probably heard of the app that can connect you with people who will let you stay on their property for a period of time. This app, called “Air Bed and Breakfast” or Airbnb, was launched by two industrial designers who moved to San Francisco in 2008.

    They couldn’t afford to pay rent for their apartment during this time, so they decided to earn extra by letting people who couldn’t find hotels rent their space temporarily. And long story short, their strategy became a massive hit because it expanded into a vast network of 4 million hosts worldwide. And up until today, their platform continues to create more opportunities for hosts and real estate investors in general.

    Related: Airbnb CEO: It Took Us 12 Years to Build, and We Lost Almost Everything in 6 Weeks

    Long-term vs. short-term rentals

    Real estate investments include property rentals, and there are two main ways to earn from them: Long-Term Rentals and Short-Term Rentals. When I started as a real estate investor in 2012, all my properties were long-term rentals. But in 2017, I transitioned all of them to short-term ones, most of them through Airbnb.

    Why? There were a lot of factors that made me decide to go all-in with Airbnb:

    1. You make less money on long-term rentals.

    Did you know that when done correctly, you can make a $2,000 average monthly profit on Airbnb? Of course, many things must be considered to get to this number. Plus, you can make less or more than this amount every month.

    But the point is, with Airbnb short-term rentals, you can determine your price, and no other person has a say. You can’t do this with traditional long-term rentals. With long-term rentals, you can only set a fixed amount and increase your rent by 3% to 5% a year.

    2. You are under bigger obligations as the landlord.

    There are several things to consider when hosting a long-term rental, and one of those is that your tenants may never deep clean or take care of repairs on your property. The reason is simple: they won’t be staying there forever. Ultimately, the obligation still falls on your shoulders.

    Another fact worth mentioning is that you won’t be able to evict your tenants easily. Now, the stipulations change from city to city and state to state, but typically after 30 days of staying, your guests acquire certain rights.

    Case in point: In 2020, the government passed an Eviction Moratorium where landlords are not allowed to evict their tenants on the grounds of non-payment. This was, of course, helpful for a lot of tenants all over the country. But now, some landlords are still owed thousands of dollars in back rent, and they may never get the chance to go after them again.

    3. With Airbnb short-term rentals, you don’t have to work like an employee.

    Short-term rentals are passive in nature, which means that if you have a property, you can still earn even if you’re not around. Add this to Airbnb’s online platform, and your market potential gets wider.

    But here’s the thing: you may still be trapped by working around the clock to manage your listing. Thankfully, there is a way to build a system and create a team that operates the business on your behalf. We use this innovative business model with Airbnb, which has since accelerated our cash flow and offered tremendous growth.

    4. You don’t have to buy properties to get started.

    If you’re familiar with cash flow goals for long-term rentals, you’ve probably heard that the aim is to earn $200 per unit per month. This is all well and good, but if you’re trying to replace a job that gives you $5,000/month, this income won’t give you much. You still need to own at least 25 units to get there.

    So what you can do instead is to buy a couple of units, give them a nightly rate, and launch them on the platform to start getting bookings and recover your returns faster.

    But what if you don’t own properties and still want to do Airbnb? Well then, all you need to do is apply the Arbitrage Model.

    The Arbitrage Model, also called subleasing, is where you rent properties from other landlords, get their permission in writing, and then launch their property as your short-term rental on Airbnb. Yes, this strategy is perfectly legal and lets you start a business without buying properties.

    Related: How to Make Money Online: The Basics

    Are there other ways to start an Airbnb, even if you don’t own properties?

    Yes. Aside from subleasing, there are two more ways to launch an Airbnb business without much capital.

    1. Co-hosting

    With the co-hosting strategy, you don’t have to buy or own properties because all you have to do is to manage and help hosts manage their listings. This method allows you to learn more about the business and earn.

    2. Using O.P.M (Other People’s Money)

    A balance transfer is when you transfer the money available on your credit card into your checking account. You can then use this money to sublease a property and start your own Airbnb business without using any of your money.

    Airbnb is a great platform for real estate investors. Its innovative business model will allow you to create positive cash flow, get started even if you don’t own properties yet, and enjoy the time, location, and financial freedom that most people only dream about.

    Related: How to Start a Business with Only $1,000

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    Jorge Contreras

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  • What Not to Do When Marketing a Web3 Product

    What Not to Do When Marketing a Web3 Product

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Despite being a disruptor to the old order of web apps in principle, Web3 success still relies a lot on traditional marketing. The word about these products needs to get out somehow, and the only way they can get out is through marketing.

    To an extent, this means that a product lives and dies on the strength of its marketing. It does not matter how innovative or genius a product is: if word about it does not get to the people who need it, it will die in ignominy. Perhaps if the idea behind the product is genius enough, someone else will inevitably pick up the idea and market it better.

    We have seen that happen many times in tech history, and there is no doubt that it could also happen today. Myspace, for example, lost to Facebook for a lot of reasons. But one of the reasons was that Myspace was not getting into the consciousness of people fast enough. Of course, Myspace eventually tried to fight that, but they eventually lost. They did all the wrong things marketing-wise, and their loss was almost inevitable.

    The same goes for Web3 products. It is easy, and perhaps true, to say that Web3 is the future. But what’s not easy to say is what products will dominate that future. Friendster and Myspace were all first movers in Web2, but all of them died before Web2 became the future. This goes to show that it’s really not about first movers, instead, it’s about the ones who survive. That is why it is important to learn from the marketing failures that riddle failed products and avoid doing them.

    Related: If You Have No Clue What Web3 Is, You’re Not Alone. Here’s a Breakdown of the Future of the Internet.

    Don’t experiment too much

    Many marketers fall into the trap of experimenting too much with Web3 marketing. They fall into this trap because they assume that since Web3 is somewhat experimental and new, Web3 marketing should be the same — but that’s not true. There is no reason why the marketing of a product should model the product itself. Aside from that, there is little reason to disrupt marketing itself. Traditional marketing works, and it works well.

    Even if you are going to have a policy of disrupting marketing, as it were, it is important to do this with the aid of research. A lot of the Web3 products coming online these days are startups, which means they could be living on borrowed time. It is unwise to experiment with the future of those fledgling products by just throwing whatever at it and hoping something new and radical sticks. It’ll probably fail and may lead to the death of the company.

    Don’t use influencers first

    Influencer marketing works — that’s probably the first thing you should know. If you want a critical mass of people to sign up or purchase your NFTs or tokens quickly, then it’s probably smart to get an influencer to market for you. But here is the thing; influencer marketing is 100% a grenade. Suppose you know how to use a grenade, good for you. However, if you don’t know how to use it and try to use it, you may end up blowing yourself up. 2020 and 2021 saw the rise of Web3 products using influencers to scale. But do they work? ‘Or did they eventually blow up?

    Well, according to a Visual Objects survey, not really. Most people are starting to realize that influencer marketing is inauthentic. This is an especially important thing to note if what you are selling, in essence, is risk and profit. People do not listen to people without skin in the game when it comes to taking risks. They understand that influencers do not have skin in the game, and are then less inclined to take advice from them.

    Here is the thing, Web3 influencing is a dying market. Shortly, scandals like the Kardashian fiasco will cause governments to clamp down on influencer marketing. That is why product leads and heads of marketing must be very careful before choosing to step into the river of influencer marketing. It is a tool that works, but it is a tool that must be used carefully. If not, it can cause more harm than good.

    Related: How to Prepare Your Brand for Web 3.0 Marketing

    Don’t overspend

    One of the biggest mistakes you can make in marketing is assuming that a huge marketing budget means effective marketing. Many times, companies spend a chunk of their budget on symbolic but ineffective ads, such as huge billboards or an ad slot during the Superbowl. But spending big in itself does not guarantee success — grassroots efforts that reach out to your market directly can be more effective than a billboard in every airport.

    Don’t be too shy to ask for help

    Web3 founders are fond of doing everything themselves. From raising money to running the day-to-day business, they have a lot on their plate.

    This spills over to marketing and public relations, too — but marketing isn’t as easy as it might seem. When projects and even celebrities and influencers post something on social media, a lot of time and effort went on behind the scenes to make sure the post read exactly the way it needed to be read as far as messaging, content, SEO and target audience.

    There is a lot that goes into this, which is why marketers get paid big money. It helps to hire a marketer part-time just to see what they do, or even vet a few agencies to see what they offer.

    Sometimes, it’s as easy as being pointed in the right direction. Don’t waste anyone’s time, but take a closer look at the nuts and bolts of things. What are the individual components that may even be involved? What do you need to learn about? Does the marketing agency offer SEO? Well, now you know that’s something you need. Go research it or you can schedule a consultation with a marketing team — $300 may seem like a lot of money to pay for an hour or two of education, but that’s all it really takes for a workable strategy to form.

    I often brainstorm 90% of my marketing plans on the very first call with my clients. We’ve done it over and over again, and we can see how your product fits into the audience as easily as you can see how your product fits into the market. The point is to find some way to get a second opinion, and you’re well on your way.

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    Kurt Ivy

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