u/Eddie_Bernays

On the night of my wedding, my (now) ex-wife and I returned to my parents’ house to change and prepare to head to the airport and our honeymoon. My Ex left the dress in the guest room, and while we were on our honeymoon, my sister boxed it up and placed it in the closet, where it stayed for years.

 Our marriage lasted about five years, and my ex never claimed the dress. My Mom asked me to remove the dress from the house because it had bad memories for her. I needed extra cash, and the dress was expensive, so I decided to sell it on eBay. I pulled my old wedding album out of the attic, scanned a few photos, and placed a black box over my Ex’s eyes so that it would be difficult to identify her.

 I sold the dress to a nursing student in South Carolina, who was so happy to get a designer dress for cheap that she sent me a thank-you note. About two months after I sold the dress, my Ex emailed me to say she was remarrying and wanted to come by to pick up her wedding dress. I lied and told her that we had a roof leak and that the dress had been ruined and thrown away.

 

Hello Everyone:

My wife and I just inherited an 85-piece collection of Dorothy Thorpe Gold Fleck glasses. Styles range from water goblets to martinis to cordials, and more. We live in Massachusetts, and we have no space for this in our home.

Is there a market for these, or are they best sent to a thrift store?

https://preview.redd.it/fnv1mv6pl7gh1.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=87f24f8a3f2970a9662a549b8cb938c5df90d01c

Hello Everyone:

My wife and I just inherited an 85-piece collection of Dorothy Thorpe Gold Fleck glasses. Styles range from water goblets to martinis to cordials, and more. We live in Massachusetts, and we have no space for this in our home.

Is there a market for these, or are they best sent to a thrift store?

https://preview.redd.it/ugmuop3ok7gh1.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d91bf2ec09b5b097e099c2e820a92697f758d3fe

Why would a small business owner waste their time on a sales call, provide their budget range to the salesperson, enthusiastically ask for a proposal, and then ghost the salesperson afterward?

I'm interested in your perspectives. Time is valuable. Why waste everyone's time & effort?

I'm a contributor to a PRnews site called Everything PR, and I have been arguing that the best, most successful startups - especially tech - need to begin their PR efforts early in order to define the market, and position their CEO as an industry authority.

Attaining these two goals fosters greater investment, as investors want to see third-party validation from the news media. It also drives sales, since the client will want to know they are dealing with a legitimate company that has withstood media scrutiny.

I wrote this article earlier this month, and I have received an almost equal amount of agreement and criticism. I'd love to hear what the Startup Savants think.

 We began our Series A in January, and investors are pushing their preferred public relations agency, which I do not like. Propheta Communications reached out earlier this year, and their team seems to know our technology and market well.

  I’m conducting one more round of agency research, and then I’m pulling the trigger. Am I doing the right thing here? Any last-minute recommendations for alternative agencies?

I've taken a considerable amount of Sh#t for this belief, but I'm standing on it.

When the economy is booming. The sales cycle for our agency can be short - about a week on average.

These days, the sales cycle is closer to 6 weeks from first contact to inked contract. It can be brutal since hot leads turn cool when decision-makers sit on a proposal or need to "think about it."

What are you doing to shorten the sales cycle?

We have the budget for a modest PR effort, but I feel the industry standard is to wait until our FinTech service is more developed, since we only have one opportunity to make a first impression.

I receive solicitations almost daily. I’ve spoken with a few of these services, and none of them impressed me. Some told me “no charge until you sign a client,” but later mentioned that there is a “set-up fee.”

 In other cases, it seemed apparent they’re presenting the same few “leads” to multiple agencies, which diminishes my investment in their services.

 Is anyone seeing a reasonable level of success with Lead-Gen services?