Marc Randolph, the co-founder of Netflix, joins us for another episode of Ask Marc, a live Q&A series about starting and growing your business. The event will begin on Thursday, February 15th at 2:00 PM ET, streaming on our YouTube & LinkedIn channels.
Where can I watch Ask Marc?
Watch and stream: YouTube & LinkedIn
You can watch on your phone, tablet or computer. Ask Marc will be shown in its entirety on YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter
What time does Ask Marc start?
Date: February 15th
Time: 2:00 PM ET
The episode kicks off at 2:00pm ET.
Why should I watch Ask Marc?
Get free business advice directly from the co-founder of Netflix, Marc Randolph. Marc loves helping founders and small business owners, and this your free opportunity to ask him any of your questions about topics like:
- Starting a business
- Growing a business
- Raising money
- Building marketing campaigns
- Best practices
- Anything you want to know!
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This article originally appeared on Business Insider.
Since I was a kid, I’ve had an entrepreneurial spirit. I used to sell lemonade at my dad’s barber shop every summer growing up, and in high school, I offered beauty treatments like eyelash extensions and eyebrow waxings out of my house. I’ve always worked odd jobs, too.
My brother died when I was 16, and it was a huge wakeup call — it solidified for me that life is short, and I didn’t want to spend mine working a 9-to-5 every day. I’d rather work for myself so that I have more time to spend with the people I love.
I graduated high school and decided against college: I wanted to try out other ventures instead, like trading stock options and drop-shipping. But once my partner and I decided to give Airbnb a shot in May 2021, there was no going back. We’ve made more than $375,000 this year in revenue, and our best month yet was this past May, when we made $58,120 in revenue.
You don’t have to own any homes to start on Airbnb
One of McMillan’s listings, “The Sunrise Penthouse master bedroom” in Downtown St. Louis Inayah McMillan
I think there’s a major misconception that you must have the capacity to buy property in order to become an Airbnb host: While you should definitely have solid savings (I recommend at least $8,000 to $15,000) or a good credit score, you don’t have to own any properties.
By using rental arbitrage, we rent all of our listings and then list them on Airbnb. As a disclaimer, you need to make sure rental arbitrage is legal in your area by checking your state’s government website, and you have to get approval from your landlord first.
Startup costs vary depending on where you’re located and the size of the home, but I normally allot $8,000 to $15,000 to set up each new listing, which covers the first and last months’ rent, the security deposit, furnishing, and supplies. Going into this, we had most of that money saved, but I also used some personal credit. Now that we’ve switched our business to an LLC, we use business credit when needed.
Our regular monthly expenses consist of rent, utilities, cleaning services, and automation tools. Our less expensive listings, like our one-bed, one-bath properties, usually cost about $1,500 in monthly expenses and bring in anywhere from $2,500 to $3,000 a month — netting up to $1,500 a month.
Our largest listing, which has four beds and two baths, costs about $3,500 a month to run and brings in around $7,500 to $10,000, which means we can make up to $6,500 in monthly profit.
To decide what to charge a night, I recommend using dynamic pricing automation (we use PriceLabs), which sets pricing based on the price of similar listings, the time of year, overall demand, etc.
I highly recommend getting an LLC
When we rented our first unit in May 2021, we signed the lease in our own names, and a few months later we created an LLC — this was the key to scaling my Airbnb business.
One of McMillan’s listings, “Beaming Carriage Home” in Central West End, St. Louis. Inayah McMillan
After that, we signed a lease on another property that November. And in 2022, our portfolio really expanded; we signed two in January, another two in March, another two in May, and our two most recent properties were signed this past June. That makes for 11 listings total — 5 homes and 6 apartment unites — with a few that are signed but not up and running yet as Airbnbs.
Once you have an LLC, you can utilize corporate leases. They’re essentially the same as personal leases, but renting under our company name allowed us to sign 4 properties at once — which landlords usually wouldn’t allow you to do otherwise. If I could go back, I would have registered my Airbnb business as an LLC from the very start.
Having an LLC also provides tax benefits (we can write off business expenses like rent, utilities, transportation, supplies, etc.), and it makes a big difference when it comes to rental arbitrage — it allows you to pitch yourself to landlords as a company rather than an individual, which looks much more professional.
The process wasn’t difficult or very costly. I used InkFile, an LLC-building website that doesn’t charge anything except your state fee, which varies. Even though my listings are in Missouri, I live in Nevada, so it came out to around $500.
Automation software is key to scaling
“Beaming Carriage Home” in Central West End, St. Louis
Another thing that sets me apart is having a private booking website. When I reach out to landlords, I usually send them an email asking if they’re accepting corporate leases and direct them to my site. It gives them a professional online pitch showing what my business offers, who we are as a company, and how we can help them as a short-term rental company. Most of the time, I get more nos than yeses, but it’s a numbers game, so I reach out to as many as possible.
When we first started, we managed most operations manually. But in order to scale, automation tools are crucial. These apps have allowed me to put considerably less time into my business each week:
- PriceLabs: sets pricing based on the price of similar listings, the time of year, overall demand, and other factors
- Yale August smart locks: automates our check-in process to allow guests and cleaners to have their own unique codes
- NoiseAware: monitors noise level to make sure guests aren’t being too loud and disrupting neighbors
- Hospitable: automates all messages to guests and cleaning staff
- Nest doorbells: ensures our guests have checked in safely
Now, my business is almost entirely passive, so I only work about an hour or two a week and dedicate that time to responding to guests who have a specific request that can’t be handled with an automated message or checking up on a specific property.
When I’m looking to rent a new property, I do extensive research first using AirDNA and Airbnb. AirDNA shows you estimates for the average rates, occupancy levels, and annual revenue of a given location, as well as top-performing zip codes or cities. We also look at other Airbnbs in the area of comparable size and see what their nightly price is.
After I run the numbers and predict my expected costs and profits, I consider the ratios and decide if it’s worth moving forward. When it comes to scaling, running the actual Airbnb is easy — it really depends on how much time and capital we have to set it up.
The market hasn’t slowed down my business
While there’s a lot of uncertainty in the market right now, I haven’t felt any out-of-the-ordinary dip in business. November through February is usually our slower season, so our revenue has decreased a bit, but for the most part we’ve stayed pretty consistently booked.
It’s incredibly important to choose properties with your customer base in mind. Ours is corporate business travelers — we have a healthy mix of one-bedroom apartments and larger accommodations, and we’ve chosen locations that are near universities and hospitals. Generally, that target group will still be traveling year-round, even during a recession.
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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
When you think of startup funding, you may envision contests with almost no chance of winning or solid venture capitalists who will not be surprised by your concept. “Those who raise millions for their ideas’ implementation are just lucky ones,” you may think. It sounds surprising, but a strong community can help you achieve success much faster and easier.
The explanation is simple: The less a person has to contribute or “risk,” the more likely you are to receive a contribution. In this article, I’d like to share some tips from my own experience that may help you pique the interest of your audience in your solution and turn them into its backers. Each worthwhile idea will find supporters. Believe me.
Related: Who Needs Venture Capitalists When You Can Crowdfund?
1. Make sure your idea is providing a solution
In today’s world, no idea can be completely original, but it’s better if you can come up with a unique solution or significantly improve on something that’s already been made. How did we manage it? We saw the benefits and drawbacks of working in the music industry for a long time and wanted to develop something that would truly bring innovation to the space we know.
We carried out market research prior to building the platform. We researched whether similar initiatives already exist, what they do and the errors they made. Along with estimating the lifetime value of the product, we contrasted our idea with the needs of our target audience. It’s critical to understand whether our project has a solid foundation for the long term.
In our case, we saw the lack of including the fans on the journey and how the number of independent artists skyrocketed, but the way of getting funding for your projects was still limited to signing a label deal. Artists can invite their fans to be part of the journey while giving back to the community of people who have supported them along the way.
2. Show the audience a clear strategy
Be ready to tell the truth. Explain in detail how your platform works, say at least a few words about any possible risks, and show how the money you raise through the power of the community will be used to improve the project and make it more useful for this audience. It’s very important to give people a strong reason to support you.
Why am I emphasizing it so strongly? People are always reluctant to part with money when there is no obvious use for it. Once it is made clear to participants how their money will be used, what features they will have access to and what the ultimate goal is, a significant part of them will be ready to help you crowdfund.
Keeping in touch with your audience is not only about keeping them interested but also about showing how much you value their continuous support.
3. Make it easy to support you
The more clicks required, the less likely people are to join you. So, make the funding mechanism user-friendly. It determines the stability and success of your monetization. Prepare a brief registration instruction, and ensure that the website navigation is simple to understand. People in 2023 value their time and expect everything they use to be convenient.
There are numerous crowdfunding platforms available that are tailored specifically for startups or projects in the Web3 niche. Patreon, SeedInvest Technology, GoFundMe and other similar sites are examples. I will not recommend any particular platform, but I will share some criteria that will assist you in selecting the most convenient instrument.
First, look for a solution that can be directly integrated into your platform in the form of a button or direct link on the main page. Again, convenience is one of the top priorities for successful and predictable funding. Second, choose the one with the most payment methods integrated. Even the most ardent supporters of your idea may abandon you if they have to make multiple transactions to pay you. Third, because there are so many fake website versions out there, don’t forget to educate your users on how to spot a fraudulent link or platform page.
Related: 9 Steps to Launching a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
4. Don’t forget to spread the word
When choosing the best way to share your initiative, think about which social media networks or media outlets your target audience uses to get ideas. Participate in networking and exhibitions. Making connections with thought leaders and others in the field of the industry you’re looking to enter multiplies your chances of success tenfold.
We played more than one instrument at once. We worked hard to improve our social media, pitched our idea to top journalists and went to events where we could meet potential investors on a regular basis.
The specific marketing plan you use will depend on the market you are trying to reach, your target audience and the services you plan to offer, but the following tools will come in handy 99% of the time:
Develop your media relations: Promotion through news releases in global and specialized media is beneficial at both the project’s infancy and maturity stage. They will create “hype” in the first instance and enhance your expertise in the second. Create articles for publications, comment on current events, participate in interviews, and share announcements in the media and on the project website.
Utilize advertising services: Set up targeted ads on social networks trusted by your primary audience, use retargeting, and connect with influencers. Brand ambassadors who are thought leaders in your chosen niche will lend credibility to your project.
Educational content: Blockchain, Web3 and other complex topics require user education. This task can be easily completed with high-quality content: a site blog, FAQ, research, whitepaper, videos (both long and short, like TikToks), podcasts, AMAs and case studies. In this case, the user interaction path with your product might look like this: reading a blog post, visiting a landing page, and finally, requesting a demo of your product or leaving a request.
Effective social media marketing: Over time, it contributes to the formation of a community of devoted brand fans. Share news, solicit feedback, introduce the team, post behind-the-scenes content, employ various forms of storytelling, use memes or niche-related jokes and so on. A funnel could look like this: clicking on ads, subscribing to a channel, visiting the site and requesting a demo.
Affiliate marketing: Startup founders frequently do not have enough time to promote their businesses, which is understandable given their other responsibilities. That is why it can be a great option to outsource promotion or launch affiliate programs. The latter allows you to get a predictable result at a predictable price, which is especially important in the early stages when resources are scarce.
Related: 12 Key Strategies to a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
As you can see, an idea lays the groundwork for a project but does not guarantee its success. Even ideas that aren’t very original can sometimes work because the people who came up with them did a good job of assessing their resources, chose the best ways to market them, and perhaps most importantly, didn’t give up.
My goal was to show you that angel and venture capital investors are not the only sources of multimillion-dollar funding. Millions can be earned through creativity and consistency. You can design your own strategy that will ultimately produce excellent results using the resources I provided from personal experience.
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Join our upcoming webinar with real estate entrepreneur, Aaron Kirman, as he shares his 20+ years of expertise and insights on how to master the art of selling properties.
Aaron will cover the essential daily strategies and success habits you need to thrive.
You will learn how to:
- Find great listings
- Gain client trust and respect
- Manage your time effectively
- Maximize your profits
- Control operating expenses
- Calculate startup costs
Register now and join us on April 12th at 2:00 PM ET to discover the strategies and tactics you need to master for success in real estate.
About the Speaker:
Aaron Kirman, Founder and CEO of AKG | Christie’s International Real Estate, is one of the leading real estate agents in the U.S. He has repeatedly been named as a top agent in Los Angeles, and most recently, AKG was ranked as the #1 Luxury Team in L.A. As an expert in the luxury real estate industry, Aaron has received international acclaim from the architectural and estate communities, and represented some of the most exclusive properties in the world.
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The co-founder and first CEO of Netflix, Marc Randolph, has a personal mission to help entrepreneurs around the world achieve their dreams. He has mentored hundreds of early-stage entrepreneurs and helped seed dozens of successful tech ventures, and now he wants to help you.
In our livestream series Ask Marc, you have the opportunity to ask Marc Randolph any of your most pressing business questions, from big-picture problems to in-the-weeds details, including:
- How do you start a business on a small budget?
- What’s the best way to raise funds?
- What are the top actions a business should take to grow revenue?
- What is the best way to find and hire the right talent?
This is a remarkable opportunity to ask one of the most successful and innovative business leaders anything you want! Submit your questions now then join us on March 28th at 3 p.m. EST to hear your answers live.
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Entrepreneur TV’s original programming is built to inspire, inform and fire up the minds of people like you who are on a mission to launch and grow their dream businesses. Watch new docu-series and insightful interviews streaming now on Entrepreneur, Galaxy TV, FreeCast, and Plex.
This week be sure to watch episodes of:
That Will Never Work (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday)
This Week’s Featured Show!
THAT WILL NEVER WORK’s lively conversations, showcase Marc’s unique combination of analytical skills, tough love, with a healthy dose of humor to provide actionable advice that will benefit founders – and would-be founders – at every stage of their business journey.
Episode 111: Cicero Learning, a business that helps families with the problem of global education access on a bespoke basis. It’s an educational method referred to as “World Schooling” which has become a hot topic thanks to the pandemic when laptop wielding parents realized that certain job types can now be done from literally anywhere in the world.
Episode 304: Have you ever wondered what people do with the advice that Marc gives them on the show? Well, David Silberman, co-founder of PingPod, is here to tell you just that.
Action and Ambition (Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday)
ACTION AND AMBITION Andrew Medal goes behind the scenes to learn the world’s most ambitious people’s backstories, mindsets, and actions.
Episode 111: Andrew Medal chats with Aubrey Marcus about the inception of Onnit on Joe Rogan’s podcast, where he derives his creativity and builds a mega millions dollar business.
Elevator Pitch (Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday)
On ENTREPRENEUR ELEVATOR PITCH, entrepreneurs have 60 seconds to pitch a business idea to a boardroom of investors.
Episode 704: Some are seasoned pros who have already built and sold businesses, while others have yet to complete their first product. But one trait they all share in common, however, is not being shy about having bold asks.
Mindvalley Talks (Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday)
MINDVALLEY TALKS brings you the best personal growth video content from the most brilliant minds on the planet.
Episode 105: “The biggest lie that we’ve ever been told or sold in our lives and businesses is that we have to be serious to be successful.”
Cooking with Cohen (Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday)
COOKING WITH COHEN host Jennifer Cohen has been in the health and fitness world for some time, but she’s never had a cooking show quite like this before.
Episode 103: Tom Sandoval from Vanderpump Rules is here this week to show us some recipes from his new book, Fancy AF Cocktails!
Celebrity Business Tips (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
CELEBRITY BUSINESS TIPS showcases actors, athletes, and entrepreneurs as they share their best business tips to help you get started and find success with some humor and heart.
Episode 101: Actors, athletes, and entrepreneurs alike all share their best business tips to help you get started and find success, with some humor and heart.
My Stories (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
MY STORIES The life stories of Roshan Brown, former D1 Basketball player.
Episode 101: This moment of my life was an eye-opener and put me on the path that I am now. Your current situation is not your destination. Always keep striving for more!
Unfiltered (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
UNFILTERED with Jessica Abo pulls back the curtain to have candid conversations with business owners and entrepreneurs.
Episode 102: Founders of companies like HeyMama, Pretty Litter, an event marketing company, and a children’s book author sit down with Jessica Abo.
Habits and Hustle (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
HABITS AND HUSTLE host Jennifer Cohen brings thought leaders and notable game-changers into thought-provoking conversations identifying effective techniques and ideas to help listeners level up their physical and mental capabilities.
Episode 151: Amanda Knox is an exoneree, writer, and NYT bestselling author. We discussed topics like stoic meditation, negative visualizations, and the creative mental exercises she used to get through this hellish period of her life. It’s truly impressive hearing Amanda’s ability to try to empathize with the people who had wronged her and the professional way she carries herself, especially after having every reason to be resentful.
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