vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
First thing that popped into my head was tanning salons.  You can be a member at differing levels of service (for different qualities of tanning beds) and you can also pay a one-time fee at an inflated price.  Basically, for the price of three (services) you could have unlimited access (to beds of the same type) by paying up front for a month.  All memberships in this arena come with pages of legal contract to sign, so having training in place for the documentation of this is important.  Enrolling individuals during peak business hours can be labor intensive, so prices insentivize individuals to 1) return hassle-free for more services and 2) pay all at once for said services.
"You need to run awareness campaign on Facebook even something like $2/day can have a huge impact on letting people know you exist. Then post frequently, at least 1 daily picture of something for sale in the shop.   Second collect emails at the counter a simple pen and paper list works surprisingly well. Get a free MailChimp email account and email coupons once a week. In the beginning you'll want strong offers as you are building the list don't waste peoples time with lame or no offers, come hard with a huge coupon or they will unsubscribe after the first email. This might cost you some money but don't think of it as selling something for a loss think of it as a marketing expense.  Try Groupon, you are desperate this is where desperate local businesses go. Make a smart offer limit how they can spend it. I would suggest focusing it on the cold brew as that has enough margin.  Partner with local bakeries/coffee roasters/cup cake shops pretty much any one who will have you and give them free shelf space and get them to market to their Facebook/IG/Twitter followers about your location and that they can buy stuff there also. This is huge and you can capitalize your local market.  Finally get over the attitude of ""no one supports local"" people don't owe your mom their business just because she's local she has to compete on price, service, and selection just like anyone else even Amazon. So reevaluate your prices your profit margins and start talking to the customers to see what they want in the store."
Do not give information such as your maximum budget or similar requests, as they give the sales person the upper hand to maximise his/her pricing. If asked state that your budget is conditional on the answers you get. As the questions are answered assess the answer and assign +/- to the question on your list. If any of your most critical / important questions are answered in the negative, they are the reasons you have to call it a day and walk out. You can assess whether they are worth ignoring but you will need to factor this into your price and if you have identified your questions correctly there should be little room for debate. Assuming you have got all your questions answered you should know what you are buying and have assessed what is a reasonable price for it, if you still want it as this point. If you have lost interest, say so and let the Sales person go. Don't waste their time. They may make some sort of offer to you BUT don't forget that if you have doubts now they will not go away easily no matter what the 'great' price is. If you want it then continue. Buying your Item: [None of the following is really usefull if you have told the Sales person your Budget, as they will be aiming for the highest end of your budget. You will often find that the best price is very close to your maximum budget !!! :)] Do not forget your realistic price range, this should limit your buying price no matter what tactics are used by the Sales person. Only you know what you are prepared to pay and if an extra 1% or 50% is considered worth it to you, if you have to have the item :) Regardless, you have to have some idea of your limit and be prepared to stick to it. You must be able to walk away if the price is silly and not worth it. Assuming you have not been smitten by your item and funds are NOT unlimited, ask for the price and assess it against your price range. At this point I can only offer pointers as there are no 'magic' rules to get what you want at the lowest price.
For sure you should get a lawyer on this one, but it would seem to me that the simplest path forward would be to convert the business to a partnership where both spouses are owners, and to write a clause into the partnership agreement stipulating what happens upon death of a partner.  Such an approach really should be done with a lawyer to make sure that it's all legally sound and will stand up in court if needed.
Case studies like this only exist to forward an agenda. If your business model works paying higher wages and making adjustments elsewhere then so be it. If it doesn't because you can't make those adjustments then you shouldn't be vilified. Each business even in the same segments find different ways to compete and that's the way it should be.
I don't see why not. Many ways this could go. Perhaps you can arrange an agreement where you earn 50% of profits over the basic operating costs. This gives them an incentive to let you open it up. This gives you a chance to see if the business actually makes sense financially... It may not.
Starting and running a business in the US is actually a lot less complicated than most people think. You mention incorporation, but a corporation (or even an S-Corp) isn't generally the best entity to start a business with . Most likely you are going to want to form an LLC instead this will provide you with liability protection while minimizing your paperwork and taxes. The cost for maintaining an LLC is relatively cheap $50-$1000 a year depending on your state and you can file the paperwork to form it yourself or pay an attorney to do it for you. Generally I would avoid the snake oil salesman that pitch specific out of state LLCs (Nevada, Delaware etc..) unless you have a specific reason or intend on doing business in the state.  With the LLC or a Corporation you need to make sure you maintain separate finances. If you use the LLC funds to pay personal expenses you run the risk of loosing the liability protection afforded by the LLC (piercing the corporate veil). With a single member LLC you can file as a pass through entity and your LLC income would pass through to your federal return and taxes aren't any more complicated than putting your business income on your personal return like you do now. If you have employees things get more complex and it is really easiest to use a payroll service to process state and federal tax with holding.  Once your business picks up you will want to file quarterly tax payments in order to avoid an under payment penalty.  Generally, most taxpayers will avoid the under payment penalty if they owe less than $1,000 in tax after subtracting their withholdings and credits, or if they paid at least 90% of the tax for the current year, or 100% of the tax shown on the return for the prior year, whichever is smaller. Even if you get hit by the penalty it is only 10% of the amount of tax you didn't pay in time. If you are selling a service such writing one off projects you should be able to avoid having to collect and remit sales tax, but this is going to be very state specific. If you are selling software you will have to deal with sales tax assuming your state has a sales tax. One more thing to look at is some cities require a business license in order to operate a business within city limits so it would also be a good idea to check with your city to find out if you need a business license.
"First, point: The CRA wants you to start a business with a ""Reasonable expectation of profit"". They typically expect to see a profit within 5 years, so you may be inviting unwanted questions from future auditors by using a breakeven strategy. Second point: If the goal is to pay as little tax as possible, you may want to consider having the corporation pay you as little as possible. Corporate income taxes are much lower than personal income taxes, according to these two CRA links: How it works is that your company pays you little as an outright salary and offers you perks like a leased company car, expense account for lunch and entertainment, a mobile phone, computer, etc. The company owns all of this stuff and lets you use it as part of the job. The company pays for all this stuff with corporate pre-tax dollars as opposed to you paying for it with personal after-tax dollars. There are specifics on meals & entertainment which modify this slightly (you can claim 50%) but you get the idea. The actual rate difference will depend on your province of residence and your corporate income level.  There is also a requirement for ""Reasonable Expenses"", such that the expenses have to be in line with what you are doing. If you need to travel to a conference each year, that would be a reasonable expense. Adding your family and making it a vacation for everyone would not. You can claim such expenses as a sole proprietor or a corporation. The sole-proprietorship option puts any after-expense profits into your pocket as taxable income, where the corporate structure allows the corporation to hold funds and limit the amount paid out to you.  I've seen this strategy successfully done first-hand, but have not done it myself. I am not a lawyer or accountant, consult these professionals about this tax strategy before taking any action."
This is important, and what killed our original business plans. Think Wal-Mart, Target, or even CVS Pharmacy. These big companies are going to have people who's entire job is to buy new products to put on their shelves. This is where networking is key, you need to find people with connections to these buyers if you're not already well established with them. You will also likely fail several times, either getting outright ignored, or through a broker that can't meet expectations. For example, we had a broker that introduced us to a buyer for a large store chain, and after several months of work we found out that this broker was just pulling our strings. Typically a company will want to test your product in a handful of stores to see if it will sell. For example, Target may want to test your product in 100-200 stores over 3 months and expect your product to sell at a minimum rate. Finally, you need to be able to scale your production. Suddenly you'll be asked to go from supplying 100 stores to supplying 1,800 stores with a deadline in 2 weeks. Buyers will even turn you down at this point if they don't think you can meet the production. All of this work takes at least a year, and typically takes several years to go from an initial product to having your product in every store. Without breaking the numbers down too much, we could make a profit of ~$1.60 for every $3 card that sold. That number doesn't cover the cost of racks and other overhead, that's just the per-card profit. Even then, people are more likely to go view the Hallmark or other big-name cards over your offering. Only when another company becomes a big powerhouse to be competitive will these companies be forced to drop their prices.
"I think ""Psychological Pricing"" is a similar phenomenon to what you are looking for.  This is where retailers use certain numbers in prices because those prices are more appealing to consumers.  Since stocks - and in your case bitcoin - have prices, they too will be more or less appealing at different prices based on psychology alone."
"This is a great question! I've been an entrepreneur and small business owner for 20+ years and have started small businesses in 3 states that grew into nice income streams for me. I've lived off these businesses for 20+ years, so I know it can be done! First let me start by saying that the rules, regulations, requirements and laws for operating a business (small or large) legally, for the most part, are local laws and regulations. Depending on what your business does, you may have some federal rules to follow, but for the most part, it will be your locality (state, county, city) that determines what you'll have to do to comply and be ""legal"". Also, though it might be better in some cases to incorporate (and even required in some circumstances), you don't always have to. There are many small businesses (think landscapers, housekeepers, babysitters, etc.) that get income from their ""business operations"" and do so as ""individuals"". Of course, everyone has to pay taxes - so as long as you property record your income (and expenses) and properly file your tax returns every year, you are ""income tax legal"". I won't try to answer the income tax question here, though, as that can be a big question. Also, though you certainly can start a business on your own without hiring lawyers or other professionals (more on that below), when it comes to taxes, I definitely recommend you indeed plan to hire a tax professional (even if it's something like H&R Block or Jackson Hewitt, etc). In some cities, there might even be ""free"" tax preparation services by certain organizations that want to help the community and these are often available even to small businesses. In general, income taxes can be complicated and the rules are always changing. I've found that most small business owners that try to file their own taxes generally end up paying a lot more taxes than they're required to, in essence, they are overpaying! Running a business (and making a profit) can be hard enough, so on to of that, you don't need to be paying more than you are required to!
I don’t know what you mean by “fair price”.  A lot goes into pricing and you haven’t really given enough details. How will the customers be getting your decks? What have customers paid in the past for your decks? What advertising have you already done or are planning to do? How exactly are your decks higher quality? Are your designs original? Who did them? How will they be packaged? There are lots of variables.   You’re going to want to differentiate yourself as much as possible going forward and price accordingly.
Take your business elsewhere, where the products and services are priced at a level you agree to pay.  This does two things.  First, you end a bad business relationship.  Why bad?  Because you're not happy with the deal.  Second, it sends an unambiguous signal to the losing bank that you were unhappy with their service.  If they offer an exit survey, complete it, and be sure to tell them what made you unhappy with their service. In a free market economy, if consumers all take their business where the terms are favorable, supply and demand would force the banks to compete for consumers' business.
"In addition to Alex B's excellent overview, I'd like to add a few more bits of advice. First of all, one term you should know is ""commercial real estate"" - which is precisely what this is. There is a business element, but it is strictly (and almost entirely) intertwined to the underlying real estate, which makes this a special category of business which is generally considered simply ""commercial real estate"" (just like office buildings, shopping malls, etc). All real estate and businesses value are based on alternatives - what other options are there? In appraisal, these are generally called ""comparables"". A professional appraiser is generally available for commercial real estate of this type. While a full, official commercial appraisal can run into the thousands, many/most (all?) appraisers are willing to sell you a simplified version of their service, which can be called a ""letter of opinion"" and can help you get an idea for the market price (what other similar commercial properties are running for). A loan company would strictly require this, but if you are thinking of an all cash or form of seller-financing this would technically be optional. Your best bet is to read about some of what is involved in commercial real estate appraisal and evaluation, and you may even want to speak with commercial loan officers - even if you don't know that you want to get a loan to acquire the property! It's their job to help inform you about what is required and what they look for, so they can be a potential resource beyond your own research as well. With this said, the only way to estimate value (and, conveniently, the best way) is to look at other properties! And by ""others"", I mean that you should really not consider buying absolutely anything until you've viewed at least 6-10 other options in some depth - and you probably want to double or triple that number if you are looking to make this the last big business transaction of your life. If you don't you'll be relying on little more than dumb luck to carry you through - which in this area of business, you don't want to do because the dollar amounts and liabilities involved can bankrupt you in no time flat.
How would you calculate separate margins in the following example: You have a fairly volatile component that is basically a commodity that you have sold as a standalone product for years. You then begin offering a value-add service of programming these components so users can buy the basic component or a ready to go preprogrammed version. Sales can also offer sales deals at their discretion. I just want to spitball some ideas.
Best bet is to talk to a lawyer who is familiar with the area.  Most will give you a free consult or bill you for an hour.  Bring the contract.  You don't want to end up in small claims court (or worse) because your writer doesn't agree with you.  If you can't cough up $200 for this, you need to rethink if you are in business or playing at being in business.
Here is a simple answer: Most merchants do not charge customers, but you can.
What's to prevent a leaner, meaner competitor from coming into the market and out-competing a PBC that isn't focused on offering the best product for the lowest price? It seems nice, but unsustainable for any single business as long as they don't have a monopoly on the market they're in.
How do you find an ethical, honest practitioner of any business? One: Make a small transaction with them and see how they treat you. If they cheat you on something small, don't give them a chance with something big. Two: Ask family and friends for recommendations. Three: Get information from public sources, like web sites where people post reviews of businesses, consumer advocacy organizations, groups like the Better Business Bureau, etc. Personally I consider all these of questionable value as you're asking one stranger to advise you on the reliability of another stranger, but better than nothing.
I have one of the top law firms in my country looking after this, who have plenty of experience in capital raises.   I realize that all transactions are different, however, I'm just curious to see if anyone has examples of what a pitch would look like.
It is meant to be a Valuation Model. So the data I have collected are for the Addressable Markets in potential countries( i.e. population currently affected by the disease and potential growth of the disease in the future). Possible competition for the drug. And most importantly the expenses of the drug (how much it cost to create the drug and clinical trails etc.) I need to create a Revenue chart and the Pricing for the drug as well. What I am looking for is someone who is familiar with creating a valuation model or has a template and can give me advice on how to structure this. thanks.
By quickly increasing the price to match commodities market prices, then gradually lowering them over time even if the market collapses, they mitigate the losses both ways. Overhead: A gas station right next to a highway probably had to pay more for that land, both to buy/lease it and in property taxes. Nicer (newer, cleaner) stations generally have to pay more to stay that way. The higher your operating costs, the more you'll have to charge for your gas. You can usually do so because the nicer station will attract customers willing to pay a few cents more for the nicer facilities. Taxation: Most States charge a tax on gasoline, in addition to a Federal tax on gas. That revenue either goes into the State's general fund, or is earmarked for transportation costs like road maintenance. California's gas prices are sky-high across the state, because they have the highest gas tax. I'm not sure Colorado, Wyoming and Montana have gas taxes at all. Proximity to other stations: No matter what you have to pay for the land and facilities, if there's another station across the street, you have to be within a penny of their price or people will vote with their feet. While ""predatory pricing"" (taking a loss on sales in one area, buffered by profits elsewhere, in order to drive out competition) is technically illegal, you see it all the time in the C-store industry and it is very difficult to prove. This is a primary cause of neighborhood-to-neighborhood changes; a C-store will look around the other stations on their street corner, and the ones down the road a block or two each direction, when determining what they can sell gas for that day. The guy five blocks down has a completely different pool of competing stations. Population Distribution: With a lot of people in a particular area, there's a big ""pie"" of customer dollars for C-stores to compete for. This generally leads to increased prices because the stations don't have to be AS cutthroat; regardless of how good your price is, you have only so many pumps, and at some point people will pay more to use the open pump than wait for the cheaper one.
You need experience. Work in retail, hopefully to some sort of managerial level where you get to see behind the scenes and not just manage associates.  If you're really gung-ho about it and willing to take a big risk, I've heard many people say the same reason that a small business fails - not enough cash flow. You might be lucky to raise enough capital for start-up costs, but can you survive two years of negative income? And I'm not even talking about your personal living expenses. Forget about that, you're going to be living at home eating ramen. I'm talking about having enough cash to pay the rent and keep the lights on. Unfortunately, it's going to be a vicious cycle because banks know small businesses are a huge risk and are unwilling to provide loans for them to survive...but small businesses fail because they aren't able to survive in the short-term no matter how good the prospects are in the long-term.   Your safest bet is to grow organically. This means having a business model with negligible start-up costs and little overhead costs. Your inventory is going to be small and because of that, your margins are going to be thin (no wholesale prices). But at this point, based on the products you're selling, you're basically just another one of the millions of internet re-sellers. You're going to basically have to place all your value in getting savvy to learn how to spot good deals and re-sell products for a higher price.   Honestly, I'll be harsh about it. You have 0 competitive advantage and offer 0 extra value in your idea. There's really no point in wasting your time and money unless you can pivot the idea so you're creating actual competitive advantages for yourself. Otherwise, just stick to re-selling online, at the very least to get a feel for the profit margins and gain experience.