I have tried a few businesses over the last few years while still working a full-time job, and none of them really worked. Looking back, I think a big part of it is that I never wanted to put myself out there. I am very much an introvert. I didn’t want to build a community or be the face of anything, partly because I fear criticism.

Now it feels like a personal brand and a community are the only way to get people to see what you make, unless you somehow beat big brands at their own game (with wheelbarrows of money). I am starting something new and this time I want to actually show up, posting, talking to customers, maybe even video.

For the introverts here, how did you get past it? Have you grown into it? Even posting on reddit was kind of cringe for me.

I started a lawn care/property maintenance business straight out of high school in a small tourist town. Two years in, I’ve got about 90 recurring clients, mostly absentee holiday-home owners.

Numbers:

• Last financial year (to March 2026): ~$57k revenue, ~$37k profit
• April–Sept 2026: ~$35k ex-GST, and that’s mostly winter
• Peak season is starting now and October is already well booked - going to do over 15k this month.
• Company structure, GST registered

The situation:
I’m starting uni at the end of February. I listed the business, and a buyer has offered $30k for the client base and goodwill based on last year’s numbers. I think it’s worth closer to $50k given how it’s grown, and I’ve proposed $35k upfront plus up to $15k based on client retention after six months.

I'm a little bit torn as I'm over the work and want to pursue other passions in my life, but feel drained from working all the time. On the other side, I feel as though this could be a massive financial upside that could set me up really well for my later years in life.

Option A – Sell: Take roughly $30–50k, have a clean break and focus on uni.

Option B – Keep it: Hire a team lead (about $30/hr as a subcontractor plus a ~$5k end-of-season bonus) to run the work while I’m studying, and manage the business side remotely. I’m honestly keen to see how far it can go without me on the tools. My dad thinks it’s a bad idea.

Questions:

1. Is $30k fair for a business like this, or am I right that it’s worth more?
2. Has anyone run a service business remotely with a team lead while studying or working another job? What went wrong?
3. What would you do in my position?

TIA

Edit: Wow didn't expect this thread to blow up like it did. Thanks everyone for your feedback. I have already been looking for someone who could do everything while I'm away and going on holiday in end/mid November, which will be the test to see if they can do the work. If they do well continue; if not sell.

For those of you wondering on what I'm going to study I'm doing a BaCom in PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) and INT Business.

I’ve recently started my candle business and now that i’m attending more vendor shows i’m starting to be asked about taking card. Pretty much EVERYONE at the shows use square and love it. I’ve heard really good things but also bad things. my prices are anywhere from about 6-20 dollars and typically if i’m making a sale I sell 1-2 items. If you have other recommendations than square PLEASE feel free to tell me!

TYIA <3

First custom product from Alibaba: how did you handle the NNN?

Hi all, first-time founder here. I designed a soft-goods product myself and found a manufacturer on Alibaba. I've already sent specs and a sample is on its way, but we don't have an NNN signed yet (yes, I know, lesson learned).

For those who've been through this:

1. Did you get the NNN signed before sharing specs, or after sampling?
   
2. Who drafted yours? Was it in Chinese, and roughly what did it cost?
   
3. Did your factory push back, and how did you handle it?
   
4. Is there like a trademarks and patents for dummies resource?

Trying to learn from real experience before I place a bigger order. Thanks!

Hi everyone,
I recently moved from the UK to Houston, Texas, and I’m interested in starting a small business buying and selling used cars.
Back in the UK, buying cars at a good price and reselling them for a profit can be a pretty straightforward business if you know what you’re doing. I’m interested in doing something similar here in Houston, but I’m still learning how the used car market works in Texas.
One of the main differences I’ve noticed is that Texas requires an auto dealer licence if you want to sell cars as a business. In the UK, getting started on a small scale seems much simpler.
I’d really appreciate some advice from anyone who buys and sells cars for a living, owns a used car dealership, or has started a similar business in Texas.
A few things I’d love to know:
How did you get started in the used car business in Houston?
Where do you typically buy cars for resale — public auctions, dealer auctions, private sellers, or somewhere else?
How much capital would you recommend starting with?
What are the main things a beginner should watch out for when buying cars?
What’s the most practical and affordable way for someone new to the industry to meet Texas dealer licensing requirements?
I’m particularly interested in understanding whether there’s a realistic way to start small and build up without immediately taking on the costs of running a full dealership.
I’m serious about exploring this as a business and would appreciate any advice, personal experiences, or mistakes you think a beginner should avoid.
Thanks in advance!

I am a full time college student and i'm building a business on the side. right now midterms, class projects, finishing the product, trying/learning to post content somewhat consistently and trying to research and land clients are all competing for the few hours i have free each week.

what I have noticed so far : when school gets heavy, the business stalls and when I push on the business, my class work and study time slips. I have been trying to start slow on purpose to prevent a burnout but i am not sure im splitting my attention and time the right way

for people who've done this or are doing it now, I'd love to hear what worked:

- Did you finish building first, or look for clients while you were still building?
- How did you handle marketing and posting during your busiest weeks?
- Is there anything you'd skip or do differently if you started over?

Any opinions are welcome, including "wait until after the semester." What was the hardest part of this stretch for you?

Hi all! So, I'm in the process of opening a small yarn shop; most of my ducks are in a row, but I should be getting keys to my location soon, and I'm researching POS options.

I'm kind of leaning towards Loyverse right now? I would love to have thorough inventory tracking options built in, especially for things like variants. And it seems like one of the less expensive options. Even if I bought all of the add-ons, it would be $55/month, which is a lot better than most of the $90-150/month options I've seen out there. And being able to shop for card processing rates rather than getting locked into the 2.5-3% rates with something like Square would be lovely.

So one question is, any reviews of Loyverse from yall?

Another question is, LYS owners, are there any industry-specific POS systems I should know about and consider?

And the final question is, anything else major that I'm missing here? Huge red flags, way better options, hidden pitfalls, etc?

Thanks so much for any input!!

Around midnight two campaigns appeared in our Google Ads account that we never created, with daily budgets of £15,000 and £5,000. Google's security alert only arrived the next evening.

We reported it through Google's compromised account form. The account was suspended and since then there's been nobody at Google to talk to.

For anyone who's been through this:

- how long did it take to get the account reinstated?

- did you ever reach an actual person, and how?

- did Google refund the charges from the campaigns you didn't create?

Hey guys! Hope you doing well! I'm a 21 yo in Morocco, I've started learning about the world of business from age 15, and currently I feel very stuck and I don't know what to do. I've got introduced to business by my brother when I was 15, and he showed me POD (Print On Demand) for the first time and it cashed my eyes, I started making my designs in Adobe Illustrator and put them in Redbubble after following tutorials on Youtube. I my first sale back then which was 4$, and I thought to myself "how this stuff can generate cash", and from then I kept moving in POD but whit no success, I've made more than 10 "brands" in POD over the past years, but non came to success, and after analyzing I thought It's maybe the lack of budget, or as business people like to call it "oxygen", and this question bothered me for 3 years now, is it what I'm doing wrong, or the lack of oxygen?

I've tried Etsy which I had some sales but got banned for life, I tried Instagram/Facebook/TikTok pages which I made them a motivational page then tried to turn them into profitable POD, I tried going directly POD too, but non succeeded, so what's the problem, knowing I've spent max 20$ on a business.

for this year I tried doing reselling, I got get some pieces in thrifting stores and try to resell them on Facebook marketplace, which goes slow because I don't use ads. I now teamed up whit some friends, and we want to build a business together, but the budget is very tight 500-1000$, so I don't know what to make of it.

One of the problems that didn't let me focus on any of these businesses, is studying! For currently I'm studying in university, and before and after I got to it I still have to study a lot, which never let me have all focus on Business.

Is my problem lack of budget, lack of consistency, lack of volume, lack of focus or lack of skill and experience?
Thanks for reading my problem and I'm open to any criticism of advice! So feel free to say whatever you want.

I own a small neighborhood cafe. Seating is only 12 pax as orders are mostly for take out.

There’s this group of 4-5 people who go to our cafe a couple of times a month. Only one person orders. This habit isn’t exclusive to their group but other people have been told off for not ordering by our employee approaching them and asking them if they’re ready to order (usually at least 10 minutes after they’ve sat and stayed).

The person from their group who usually orders DMed us today and lodged a complaint against this employee stating rudeness, how she doesn’t greet them unlike other customers, and how they were told that they can’t sit unless they order. This customer specifically said, “we’re not occupying the whole space”.

She also mentioned past experiences of having felt animosity from our employee and one instance of them apparently being chided by her because they ordered from us, left their items on the seating area and went out to eat from a nearby eatery. Our employee reminded them that seating is scarce.

I’d like to make it clear that the employee is acting on our instructions since a lot of groups have taken advantage of us by not ordering but using our resources (tables, water, outlets etc).

This same employee is also being praised on our Google Reviews for being kind and accommodating.

We reviewed the footage for this day:

- When this group entered, there were only two of them. Our employee was on her back fixing some things so she wasn’t able to greet.

- One of the group members occupied a lounge chair, a tabled sitting area for two, brought out a laptop, and didn’t order. The person who usually orders occupied the tabled sitting area beside that person. They’re now occupying four seats and the only tabled sitting areas. (The others are benches)

- After ten minutes, the one who sat on the lounge chair was asked by our employee if they wanted to order since they can’t occupy without having ordered.

- One by one, their group arrived and ordered. This is the first time others ordered, but still, not all of them placed an order.

- After 3 hours of stay, they left. Our employee wasn’t able to bid them goodbye since she was crouching and arranging something in the undercounter chiller.

We’ve sent an initial response apologizing for other past instances of possible rudeness. We also told this customer we’d review the footage today and get back to them.

How should we reply? We’ve made many apologies and concessions over the years, but we’d like to stand by our employee this time and uphold this policy. Our space is scarce.

I could use some advice from business owners who’ve had to make hard decisions to keep their company going.

I own an outdoor living construction business. We’ve been open almost eight years and did about $5.2 million in revenue in 2025. This year is tracking around the same, and we still get more than 200 estimate requests a month. The challenge is cash flow, not getting leads.

Our debt payments are about $27,000 a month: roughly $12,000 on two maxed-out $150,000 lines of credit and $15,000 on equipment loans with about $400,000 left. We also have two business cards with balances around $100,000 and $85,000 that we pay off monthly, plus about $75,000 owed to vendors. Vendor balances can grow during the month, and I pay them down after the cards.

We moved into a larger shop to sell materials to contractors and the public. The move doubled our rent, and we spent around $170,000 getting set up. Two months later, a wholesale warehouse opened nearby selling the same materials, and those sales dropped sharply. Earlier this year, higher material and fuel costs contributed to a three-month stretch when sales were down about 60%.

We’re eight months into a seven-year lease, so moving isn’t a realistic option. We have 28 employees, but staffing and keeping installation jobs profitable have been difficult. People call out regularly, so I’ve kept extra workers on payroll to make sure we can still get jobs done.

I’ve sold some equipment, reduced most of the sales team, and stepped back into sales myself to lower overhead and commission costs. I’m looking at reducing the business to two or three crews, but I’m not sure how to make that transition while still meeting our commitments. I’m also trying to get an SBA loan to consolidate debt, but haven’t had any luck. Raising prices feels difficult because we’re already among the more expensive companies in our market.

If you’ve been through a similar situation, how did you decide what to cut first and what size operation you could realistically support? I’d especially appreciate advice from people who’ve downsized a service or construction business.

Hi,

Run a small business in service industry, a little worried about cybersecurity at the moment after an incident in a similar biz that I heard about.

Does anyone have a list of good solid free or loss cost cybersecurity tools for different use cases they like?

In the last two weeks I have gotten a LLC and everything else including insurance, licensing etc. I have a google page, yelp, website and fb page. I have gotten one lead and job but outside of that I have nothing. It’s a landscaping company wanting to focus more on hardscape/concrete. Does anyone here have a way to get more leads without paying for advertising or for leads?

Do you send photos after every visit, a checklist, or just a text? What has a client actually asked for after something went wrong, like a leak or a power outage? Trying to understand what makes a report worth paying for.

I've been building checklists for rental handoffs (generators, tents, trailers) and keep seeing the same disputes: fuel level, missing accessories, and 'it was like that when we got it.' For those of you who rent out equipment: do you use photos only, a paper sign-off, or an app? What one field on your form has saved you the most money? Trying to learn what actually works in the real world.

Tried to add $500 to a new Square Checking account for my small LLC. They flagged “unusual activity,” froze it, then closed it the same day, saying funds would be sent to my bank “tonight.” Then on Oct 6: “decision is final, funds held until the release date from our first email.” That email has no date.

It’s Oct 15, no money, no reason given. Filed with CFPB and BBB. Anyone been through this?

So we have been doing business with a company since August. Long story short, our invoices were suppose to be N30 but they couldn’t pay us in this time. They asked us to extend to N45 and agreed payment would be made by 45 days.

It hasn’t been. We told them in order to agree to N45 we’re adding $2000/week onto the invoice if it’s not paid. They’re still not paying. They’re paying closer to N60+ and only with me +++ following up. They haven’t paid any of the extra $2000/week on any invoices.

At this point we have $150000+ invoices to them (not all due yet) but there’s currently an outstanding invoice that’s at 62 days since invoicing right now and when asked about it they continue to say “I should have an answer soon.” They can’t commit to paying us on time at all.

What do we do?
Is there a way to actually enforce the $2000/week that they owe us for being late? (At this point for the invoices they have paid us for, they owe us $12000 in late fees technically).
Is there some other way to handle this?

Hi everyone! Has anyone been to NY Now in the recent years? I’m only finding threads from a few years ago and I’m curious to hear your experience more recentI years. I am considering the winter show. I also saw they’re under new ownership and I don’t know if that affects anything for brands

Hi so I refuse to ask AI and google is confusing. For context, I’m in Arizona (Yavapai county) and I’d like to open a salon. Do I go sole proprietor? If so how and what do taxes and expenses and accounting look like? Do I make an LLC and run everything through QuickBooks? I’m so confused😅 any guidance and first steps is SO helpful.

I had originally posted the Ai touched up version. This was the true original driven by just the prompts from the news company. There was no proofreading or reorganizing of thoughts and you'll see my ADHD take me on a tangent a lot

Why is your company different?

Neatly Yours is different because we know our cleaners are the core of our business. If we treat & pay them well they will simultaneously level up their own skills & also stay with our company for a job that has one of the highest turnover rates. Since our inception, the only time a cleaner has ever left was because of personal reasons. 

You will be surprised how many cleaning company's will keep their employees tips & pay them a wage that makes it hard to live in the city. At Neatly our cleaners actively try to get better every single day. They watch videos on how to make bows & knots out of toilet paper & towels because they know the extra effort & skills they develop in even something as simple as cleaning will have a major difference in the tips they receive and the clients that want them back. They don't work for us, they work for themselves. We act more like their account managers. 

The thing that really sets us apart is that in addition to the clients recognizing that the cleaners sent to their home are happier. With every booking form, we have a checkbox where the client can have clothes & other necessities picked up from their doorstep if they have goods they want to donate. This is a personal initiative that I take on with my Fiance. In the past year we have donated tons of clothing to the Floating Hospital, some of the churches that our cleaners go to, and even some made their way to Venezuela after the recent catastrophic earthquake. 

We don't make any money from donating clothes neither do we write any of it off for tax purposes. It's just easy enough for us to do knowing that its going to a good cause & we take pride in doing that.

What were you doing before?

Before Neatly Yours I was working in Technology Implementation for a Finance Product known as Workday. As stable as having a corporate job was, it was not so much fulfilling to myself. I always wanted to work for myself but growing up in a household where school was a top priority, then going to a good college, and then finally finding a successful job was what my parents instilled in me as a child. 

Everyday felt super unfulfilling & I developed this drive to find an alternative. The first step was getting out of that mindset of stability. I had to learn that there were other ways someone could sustain a healthy life style that was not reliant on a set salary. 

I began to start talking to people & I started to run through ideas. I think I created maybe 3-4 websites for different business ideas before landing on a cleaning company. I accredit my inspiration from the entrepreneurs that entertained a coffee chat with me during this period & the unlikely source of reddit where anonymous people shared their experiences. 

That was how Neatly Yours came to be

Tell your favorite customer story or memory from the business?

We have a client who lives in the infamous Jenga tower in NYC. For a building thats 57 stories high with some of NYC's wealthiest residents. There actually lies a gem who we will just call "Jane doe". If she ever sees this article she will know we are talking about her. 

Theres a saying that I've heard many times that rich people are always the one to tip the least or show the least appreciation for hardwork because they never experienced a "normal" lifestyle or done the grunt work to get to where they are. Well she is not like that. Before who she is now, she use to wait tables at restaurants and throw trash out at all hours of the night. I learned this from her after tipping week after week $450 to the cleaners that showed up to her appointments. This is an insane amount of money per visit & I can't tell you how much appreciation our cleaners felt at her visits. When I say they cried, I truly mean it. A lot of these cleaners came as migrants from other country's and they chose the most expensive city in the world to start their American dream in. As the owner I hear almost daily the constant life struggles. "My babysitter cant make it today can I please bring my child to work?". "Im a single mom, I want to work but can you please only schedule me jobs from 9-1pm so I can drop & pick up my kids from school?", "Could you please fill up my schedule with jobs, I really need the money". 

I would not be here without their willingness to work so incredibly hard & do a good job because they needed to support their family & I recognized that. 

In the beginning of our company when we barely had ANY jobs every week. Maybe just under 10 appointments a week? I started to offer cleanings to potential customers at ridiculously low rates to even give work to our employees.  I think for the first few months, there were times where we took in $0 in profits because we were just dishing out low cost cleanings just to have the schedule filled up because I felt bad that as my workers employers I could not give them enough jobs to survive in this expensive city. That was a rough period for myself but we weathered the storm. 

Other things as the owner that I've done which I don't think anyone else does is celebrating mother's day. On mother's day I catered food for all of our cleaners & their immediate family's & on Labor Day we gave out bonuses to those who worked. All of this when our beginnings were not even that well off. I was just more fortunate than they were

Another other details you would like to add?

I always knew I could not have other people do the work without knowing what it's like. You have to do the work to really understand how hard it is. Cleaning is one of those things. A lot of people misjudge how much time it goes into making your home feel special. When we first started I cleaned over 50 homes & was on my hands in knees. Ive seen the good homes but ive also seen a lot of the bad ones so I know how hard this job is.

As a small business owner I find it hard to keep track of EVERYTHING, the income, the expenses, proposals, income sheets, the clients I called, due dates on projects. My biggest weakness is tracking income and expenses. I still literally have an excel spreadsheet and hard to stay up to date with and manually entering each receipt or check stub. It’s starting to get over whelming and I’m not a big operation at all. Things are picking up and I want some organization system to help save time throughout my day. I’m just a one person operation. What tools are people/ you using to help as a business command center and to keep track of transactions so it’s easier come tax time. Thanks!😊

Hey business owners, I need some advice!

Sooo, I've got something I'm not quite sure how to feel about.

Someone has reached out with a personalised customer research report that is genuinely helpful; I'm impressed, to be honest, because it is helpful. They identified potential customers, new markets and ideas for growing my little business that I hadn't considered.

There was no pushy sales pitch, just a friendly "Hey, came across your business and thought this might help. If not, all good! The reports in your email. ( And yes, I scanned it before opening it)

It opened my eyes a lot and got my brain juices going to new business opportunities, but part of me is like, "Ummm... what's the catch?"

Has anyone actually received something like this? Would you trust it, or would you be a little suspicious? I'd love some advice from other small business owners.

Hello, Im student of Graphic design (5th year) from Poland and I'm looking for business or organization to create logo for. Topic of project is to make rebrand of existing business, so it's require to have logo already. I could take some big corporations, but why don't help somebody meanwhile. The cost is free, or small amount of money (despite if it will require a lot of work) but not more than 300$. Of course here is my portfolio on Behance. I can also send works in PDF with more recent projects. I hope that I'm not violating terms of subreddit. If you are interested, please let me know in comment or DM.

https://www.behance.net/jakpio

Need to source a large batch of tea cups and saucers for a new cafe setup. Domestic restaurant supply stores are charging way too much for basic ceramic sets. The local warehouse wants ridiculous prices for standard white porcelain.

I need something durable for commercial use. It has to survive a high-temp commercial dishwasher without chipping on week one. But I refuse to pay premium prices just because it comes from a local distributor. We are running the numbers right now and the domestic markups just don't make sense for basic drinkware.

Looking for good prices on bulk orders. Need about 300 to 500 units to start. Where are you guys buying these without getting ripped off? Does shipping heavy ceramics from overseas kill the margin? Need recs

In your professional opinion, what would you say is the hardest part about starting a business. And how would you go about handling it?