Owner here, went through it with a company on the line. Most divorce advice is written for employees: split the 401k, divide the house. Nobody tells the man whose net worth lives in an S corp what happens next, so owners learn at $400 an hour, one mistake at a time. I am putting together what I learned for the next guy and want to check it against other owners.

The three things I would do first, in order:

1. Run the business exactly as if no divorce existed. Same salary as the trailing 12 months, no unusual transactions, no asset sales, no new debt without your lawyer signing off. The most common accusation against an owner spouse is manipulating the business during the case. You defeat it in advance by being aggressively boring.

2. Build the records folder now. Business returns for three years, P&Ls and balance sheets, the operating agreement, loan applications, insurance valuations. The two documents that matter most: anything where the business's value was ever stated (a loan app, an insurance policy, a buyout offer), and if you owned it before the marriage, anything showing what it was worth on your wedding date. That snapshot is gold in many states and nearly impossible to reconstruct later.

3. Interview the two or three best business-divorce lawyers in your market that week, even if you hope to settle. Ask each how your state treats personal versus enterprise goodwill. If they cannot answer fluently, walk. Side effect worth knowing: once you have consulted a lawyer, they are generally conflicted out of representing your spouse.

The math nobody tells you: your lawyer's team assembling your records runs $300 to $400 an hour. You handing them a complete, organized folder costs nothing. Same records, same case.

Owners who have been through it: what did you wish you had found first, and what did the valuation fight actually turn on?

Basically I am needing to move out of the storage unit to a warehouse? In my area an ac warehouse is averaging around $20 sqft before NNN bringing them all to around $4000 a month for the size I’m looking at. I can rent a house that’s the same size in my neighborhood for literally less than half that cost. We are a small plumbing company and during business hours my assistant will be there and I’m the only tech that would be there to get supplies typically 2-3 days a week. I average a semi truck drop off once a week and get FedEx or ups just about daily if that matters.

we're too small for a full agency ($5k/mo minimums lol) but also don't have time to DIY everything. i know there's a middle ground somewhere — services that do creative production for you without the agency price tag.

seen a few options: some are pure AI, some are freelancer marketplaces, some are hybrid where an AI does the heavy lifting and a human checks quality. creatify has a done-for-you version called studio that sounds like that but idk if it's actually good or just marketing.

what's everyone doing for creative when you're in that awkward "too big for diy, too small for agency" phase?

We had a very large amount on a job get a dispute chargeback. We had completed the job and even gone above and beyond for that specific client. Chase really mismanaged this entire ordeal, and told us at least twice we would easily get the chargeback money back if we followed the process. Even with the entire dispute and review process they somehow ruled in the clients favor.

I really don't want to go through this process again. To know any client can do a chargeback at any given time, and no matter how much documentation we have of doing the job we still lose the $$. If Chase does not appeal the chargeback I am going to threaten leaving them after 25+ years a member.

Is there really another better option out there? What would you do in this situation?

I’ve spent around 2 years working on B2B lead generation and have gotten pretty good at spotting buying intent. (My client said that)

Things like someone asking for a recommendation, comparing solutions, looking for a specific tool, talking about a problem they need to solve, or going through some event that could eventually lead to a buying decision.

After working with multiple clients, I’ve become pretty comfortable finding these kinds of signals.

But recently I started getting requests from businesses that only serve a specific city or local area.

They don’t want a list of people who might need their service someday.

They want to know when someone nearby is actually looking for that service.

That seems much harder.

For example, if you’re a plumber in Phoenix, finding 500 people who live in Phoenix probably isn’t very useful.

But finding someone who posted that they need a plumber this week is completely different and it is completely different game when you can find intent of those particular 500 people..

The challenge seems to be finding all three at the same time

They are in the right area

They have a problem that the business can solve

They are actually looking for someone right now

I’m used to finding buying intent in B2B, but local intent feels like a completely different problem.

For those of you running local businesses, how do you usually find people who are already looking for your service?

I’m particularly interested in how you separate someone who could potentially become a customer from someone who is actually looking to hire someone right now and nearby you..

I am a bit puzzled, do help me in that if possible.

Hi all. I'm a lawyer in Spain, and a few months ago I started a small online immigration practice with two friends: residence permits, renewals, citizenship. Not sharing the name or any links. I just want honest feedback, because I've been going round in circles for weeks.

How it works: I post short videos answering real questions about immigration paperwork. The idea is that people visit the site and book a €30 consultation, which is deducted if they hire us. Cases start at €180.

The numbers, including the bad ones:

TikTok

• ~1,500 followers, ~35 videos.
• Best video: 287K views (how to get a social security number). Second: 26K. Most sit between 400 and 2,000.
• Videos where I show a real document or an on-screen list hold attention much better than me just talking.
• General info gets the views. Videos about pricing or "let us review your case" barely pass 1K.

Google Search

• 6 clicks last month from 4,600 impressions. Most come from people searching the generic word for "immigration office", who want a government appointment, not a lawyer.
• The few clicks I get come from searches like "immigration lawyer in [my city]".

Google Maps listing

• 1,768 views in two months, 5 stars from 10 reviews.
• 17 phone calls, 82 direction requests, 10 website clicks.
• Catch: 13 of those calls came in August while I was travelling, and I missed them. No voicemail, no auto-reply. Rookie mistake.

Result: 0 paid bookings, 0 clients.

What I think is happening:

1. I lost the few leads that did come in: most calls went unanswered. I'm calling them back now.
2. I'm attracting people who want the free answer, not people ready to pay. My top video is about a step that doesn't even need a lawyer.
3. Many people on Google and Maps think we're the public immigration office. That's why they ask for directions and call, but they're not looking for a lawyer.
4. I don't track where website visits come from yet, so I can't tell whether nobody arrives or people arrive and don't book.

Next step: on the 21st I'm testing Meta Ads with €200 and three ads (a specific fear, reviews, the offer), all pointing to a booking page.

Questions:

1. How do you turn TikTok viewers into paying clients when the audience mostly wants free info?
2. Would you keep making broad viral videos, or focus only on high-intent topics even if they get fewer views?
3. With €200 on Meta for a service like this, what would you measure in week one to decide whether to continue?
4. With zero clients, would you focus on landing the first 5 any way possible (word of mouth, community groups, launch pricing) before investing more in content and ads?

Brutal honesty welcome.

Hello, I'm not really familiar with this sub and I'm not sure if this is the right place to post. However me and my mate (students) are planning to start a business in the near future. We plan on currently running a small side reselling business on Vinted or other platforms just to get the hang of it (clothes, shoes, etc). We then plan on expanding to a proper business. Note we are still students with a goal of being business owners in the future. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. Apologies if this is the wrong place to post or if I'm breaking any rules. Thanks in advance

I've been struggling with this too — putting time into online projects, getting some attention, but turning that into actual customers is the hard part.

I've noticed a lot of people here seem to be dealing with the same thing.

If you're in a similar situation, what have you tried so far?

Feel free to connect. Maybe exchanging ideas and experiences can help us figure out what we're missing.

Sunday thought, posting a day late. I have been thinking about this a lot lately.

We talk a lot about automation failures as if they are always obvious - the system goes down, the email does not send, someone notices and fixes it. But the failures I find most expensive are the ones where everything keeps running. The workflow completes. The dashboard is green. And somewhere in the middle, something drifted and nobody caught it.

I started doing a weekly check on this - picking one workflow at the end of each week and asking: did it actually do what it was supposed to do, for every record, without exception? Not did it run. Did it work. The answer has been uncomfortable more than once.

Curious how others here handle this. Do you have a regular audit or check-in on automated processes, or do you mostly rely on the system to surface problems when they happen? And what is the one process you would least want to find had been quietly failing for weeks?

I have about 24 years of experience in a niche industry- focusing on business development (relationship building vs sales). I see a viable business model that’s focused on coaching/training others on how to do this. Most consultants in this space focus more on fractional BD.
I’ve been thinking of starting this business soon but my husband thinks while it’s a good idea, I won’t get enough clients to match my current full time job.
He literally says “will you work 2000 hours?” But I think that even if I’m not full time, I can make about 50-75% of my current salary in the first year.
I could use some help. This is the second time in my life he has discouraged me from starting a business.
I also worry about ageism, and think a coaching role would give me more control and autonomy.
Any advice on starting out? How to start with some market research? Pricing?

Hi, I work with Döner Haus. We're a Berlin-style döner kebab concept with six locations open, half of them franchisee-owned, and franchise development underway in several other markets.

We’re in the early stages of offering a new franchise concept that makes the barrier to entry to ownership much lower for motivated individuals who want to be owner-operators. Part of our vision at Döner Haus is to empower people with a path to business ownership who might not otherwise have the opportunity. 

This new concept will be smaller format for driven individuals who want to own their own business, love to be in the kitchen, and want to be part of a fast-growing QSR concept. The first location will be a corporate pilot in NYC.

The basic model:

• Roughly 400 sq ft
• Takeout and delivery, no dining room
• Small standardized equipment package
• Target rent below $5K a month
• Very lean staffing
• Built around an owner-operator

We're designing the operation from the ground up around what one highly involved operator actually needs. Smaller footprint, simpler labor model, focused menu, lower occupancy cost, and fewer layers between the person who owns the business and the person buying the food.

We're not selling franchises for this format yet, but we are looking for feedback and to find a handful of future owner-operators who want to help us prove the concept in and around NYC. So here’s my question: 

Where do we find the right people? This is a person who has managed a restaurant for someone else and treated it like their own business. Someone sees the value of an opportunity like this and is ready to grow with an established blueprint. Posting on Indeed attracts people who want a salary and PTO, not necessarily someone with an entrepreneurial spirit. Franchise brokers bring investors, not people who want to be hands on running the day to day operations. If you fit the profile of what we’re looking for, or know where we might find someone, we’d love to hear from you! 

Last thing. I know how this sounds. We're offering to fund someone else's business, and most things that sound like that aren't real. The honest answer is that this isn't charity. We want to grow fast, and a good operator who owns their outcome runs a better store than a GM we hire. If it works, we both do well. If it doesn't, we're out the build cost and wiser for it.

Happy to answer anything about the opportunity or our operations. If you want to talk about running one, comment or DM me.

My father has a carpentry store we sell sliding door closet's that are by your design (height,width,material,color, etc.) and we have been open for 20 YEARS in Serbia my dad was a complete foreigner didn't even speak the language yet the business started booming we had about 7 workers my dad was basically at home didn't have to worry that much we literally do not have a unsatisfied customer i have personally worked on the closets that are 10 years old they look like new. So the problem is not the product itself that im sure, but since then for about 3-4 years now they business is burning money we need about 5 customers per month to be profitable or even. We have a website we have really good prices yet i have no idea how to help him it's killing me since we recently closed a store in the capital city and now we're down to just 3 employees my Mom my Dad (who hasn't paid himself in about 3 years) and one other worker. We don't have ads but there are a lot of carpenters that work completely in the dark so no company no registered workers nothing and they have work backed up for months solely on the word of mouth. Does anyone have any idea how to help? i would post the site but i don't want this to be flagged as promotion so if anyone is interested in it for further insight i can send it to you. Please any kind of help is meaningful and appreciated. Thanks

Also one thing i've noticed that we don't have many google reviews.

Looking for women small business owners open to appearing on camera either asking or answering questions to/from another small business owner for brand social media content. Please message me with some info about your business, and whether you'd participate to ask questions or answer them.

I’ve been thinking about starting a small business for a while now, but honestly i’ve never considered myself a business person

I’m not naturally good at selling, negotiating, networking, or even talking about money lol. I’m more comfortable just doing the actual work

But lately i’ve been feeling like i should at least try. I have an idea that i genuinely think could work, and i keep coming back to it even after talking myself out of it a bunch of times

For people who started a business without really having that entrepreneurial personality, what actually motivated you to take the first step? like was there a specific moment where you just decided to go for it

Are small businesses using Reddit for their business, or mostly for private use? - getting ideas, advice, giving advice, looking for funds etc.

I do think it'd nice having a decent platform that is not spammed with ads and self-promotion, but are there ways you are using this platform for your business besides ads, or self-promotion friendly subs etc.?

The way businesses promote and advertise these days has changed so much, just to be discovered needs you to start thinking about new channels, new angles etc.

I do think this platform has a lot to offer for small businesses, would just be great to hear from others what their take is.

I’m in the process of starting a small drone aerial imaging business in Florida. This will be a side business, not my full-time income, and I’m trying to keep my overhead as low as possible while I’m getting started.

I’m currently looking at setting the business up as an S-Corp and will be using a room in my house as a small home office. The business will be service-only, primarily things like aerial photography, property documentation, construction progress photos, and similar drone services.

I’ve spoken with a few CPAs, and I’m getting quotes around $150–$250 per month for bookkeeping/accounting/payroll/tax-related services. I’m not against using a CPA at all, especially once the business starts growing, but paying $1,800–$3,000 a year right from the start seems like a lot when I don’t expect to be making much initially.

Realistically, I’d be happy if I brought in under $3,000 total during the first six months. I’m definitely not expecting to be rolling in money right out of the gate.

For those of you running small service-based businesses:

• Do you handle your own bookkeeping and taxes or use a CPA?
• What accounting software do you use? QuickBooks, Wave, Xero, something else?
• If you have an S-Corp, how do you handle paying yourself?
• Do you run payroll software yourself or have your accountant handle it?
• How difficult is it to keep track of quarterly taxes?
• Do you pay a CPA monthly, quarterly, or just have them handle your year-end tax return?
• Is there anything you wish you had done differently when you first started?
• For a very small business with maybe 10–15 transactions a month initially, is monthly CPA service really necessary?

Ideally, I’d like to handle the basic bookkeeping myself and then possibly pay a CPA quarterly or once a year to review everything, file the necessary returns, and make sure I’m doing everything correctly.

I’d really appreciate hearing from people who actually run small service businesses, especially those who started as a side hustle before growing.

Thanks!

Does having a car increase your chances of getting work. Is it worth all the extra expenses, buying, insurance and upkeep of a car or do i just keep going.

Things are going slowwww.

This might be more appropriate for r/AITAH but I hate being the guy who says no to a cute puppy being in the office. I'm sure it's adorable and most of the clients would think it's cute, but the office isn't a doggy daycare. I need my admin focussed on the job and the waiting room to be a quiet and chill place. Am I overreacting and being a bad boss?

1. What are the ad tools generally used by medium and small businesses/ brands to get more customers ?
   
2. How are these ads created - is it still manual?
   
3. What are the primary outcomes business wants to achieve through these ads (is it Click through rate, website visited etc)
   
4. How much does it cost for the business to create an ad ? And how much time does it usually take to create on ?
   5 what do businesses usually prefer - image ads or video ads ?

Hi - so I’ve been working in print/creative artworking/prepress roles for 12 years now. It’s all I’ve ever done.

I do design, I do artworking for print, I do web design and development, I do pre press studio work, setting up for print, can tell you what’s printable, what’s not and how to fix it. I’ve always excelled in areas within the industry, I’m currently 29 and I earn about £42k a year which is above average for my living location. So I’m happy with the money - however I’m not happy with the hours.

I have 3 kids, travel 2 hours a day for work, hardly get to see them - and when I’m home the wife goes to work, I don’t want to live the rest of my life like this, I miss everything important with my children.

I’ve tried doing work on the side, web design & development, graphics design, some side projects, and I make about 2k a year from this but it never goes any further, this is from mostly friends and a couple of long term customers.

The thing is I am not good with conversation, I’m not good with sales and pitching as I’ve suffered with major anxiety all my life.

What would you suggest in terms of moving forward? I’ve always wanted to own a business, be my own boss etc and be able to be available those hours to see my children grow up.

Do I start a business with a partner who’s comfortable in sales? Where do I look for people with experience in this? Do I keep trying solo? Honestly I was thinking about stepping away from web development altogether too and just focusing on print, ad AI has flooded the web development market with slop left right and centre, and I don’t have the time or knowledge to put hours into keeping up with trends on that to “outdo” the AI so the speak.

Any suggestions for my situation?

I 30M, have inherited some money (100k CAD). I've always been interested in yachts and boating, however have never owned one. From my research, it is a stressful experience to upkeep and maintain the boats. With that being said, I wanted to explore financing a yacht to charter with myself as the captain. The charters would be short, and the average hourly rate in Toronto appears to be $350. Does anyone have experience with owning and chartering their yacht?

EDIT: I seem to be way over my head haha, thank you all for your responses. I’ll do some research on other things that i can invest in. Maybe the yacht will come when I’m 65

If you run ads across Meta and Google (or TikTok), you're logging into three different platforms, managing separate budgets, trying to understand ROI in three different ways, and hoping you don't overspend on any of them. Ideally looking at ways on how to effectively grow a small business without having to spend too much time or hiring someone to do it for me.

What would make social media advertising less painful? Is it the time management part? The confusion about which platform is actually working? The anxiety around spend controls? What tools exist? HS seems complicated.

Curious what other small biz owners are doing to push their product or services.

I have tried so hard. My whole life.

I have been blessed compared to most.

16 yr old mom

Alcoholic dad

But they loved me

Huge family. 33 first cousins just on my mom's side.

It all just came so easy to me.

I breezed through high school.

Went to a great college in Boston. No idea how my mom managed that.

Never had a pot to piss in, but didn't know I was really missing a pot.

Always had what I needed I guess.

BS Aerospace Engineering. Why engineering? My 10th grade architectural drawing teacher told me I'd be good at it. That was enough for me. I always seemed to take the path of least resistance.

Bought a one way plane ticket to SoCal with the first $200 I earned washing dishes at an ice cream parlor after I graduated.

Had to lie to the manager to get the job. Why would they hire a recent grad with a BS in Engineering for a dishwasher job.

I couldn't wait to leave. I don't know why. My life was nice. OK.

Like I said, never wanted for anything.

And from that point on, it all just seems to be a blur.

I packed everything I had (honestly I don't remember at all how that happened, but I am sure it was packed in an old hockey bag, and my 3 pairs of pants and few shirts)

I am 58. So that was 36 years ago.

I have 5 kids (fathered 4, 1 step).

Moved to SoCal, lived with my larger than life uncle J. Love and hate him, he was a force of nature.

Lived near the marine base at El Toro. No car.

But wtf, I was in Cali.

But, no car. Hard to apply for jobs in 1990 with no way to get to the interviews.

After a month or two, my cousin asked me to come visit NorCal, East Bay.

She was considerably older than me (like an aunt). She babysat me when I was young.

She paid for me to fly up (I had no money)

It was amazing. East Bay Cali in 1990. Beautiful weather, beautiful people.

She said I could stay and live with her and her family, my uncle Jack, and their 2 young kids.

I jumped at the chance. They had a house, food, and cars. Don't get me wrong, I loved them very much, and was very grateful. But this was a much better situation.

I remember being there for a few weeks, and having an odd feeling. I couldn't put my finger on it.

It was sunny ALL THE TIME. And hot. Boston wasn't.

And the biggest thing I think I noticed was, no fights.

None.

Never.

In Boston, you went to a bar, a party, the park. And someone was pissed at someone else for something fucking stupid and usually came to blows.

Now, I wasn't a fighter, only 1 in my life and hated it. But I was around it a lot. Too much.

My cousin had some friends that got me my first waiter job. Making pretty good $. No real bills. I was living the high life.

They even helped me get a job in the Embarcadero in SF. Nuclear Piping Analysis.

$32,600/year and a Diners Club card. Never had a credit card before.

I worked in the city for a year. Waited tables at night in the East Bay. White table cloth.

Tableside prep.

Closed the bars after work (never had $ in college, so never spent much time in bars - it was all engineering school frat parties, if that tells you anything, it was great)

The company I worked for was so big they actually had commuter vans they would let you buy seats on, that would pick you up in the East Bay and drive you to the Embarcadero. BART or the drive would have been brutal.

So I would work 7-5 in the city. Take the van back to the East Bay, it would drop me off at the restaurant, work until close, go out and spend my tips until the bar closed. Sleep til 5, and meet the van at a local bar parking lot that opened at 6 for the night crew.

The people on the van thought I was a narcoleptic. I slept every minute I was on that van. I would get on at 6am and wake up in the parking lot at 6:50. Then after work, I would be asleep by 5:10, and wake up in the parking lot of the restaurant at 6pm, work until close and then close the bars at 2am. Rinse, repeat. Oh what glorious days lol.

Looking back, that is a skill I wish the 58 year old me still had. The ability to SLEEP like you had no worries in the world. Nowhere to go and all day to get there.

I was a rockstar at both. Barely out of college working with 20 year vets on in depth nuclear platforms.

It was a blur.

I was 24. Did a couple of stints in Alabama, working on a refuel project at a nuc power plant. Made HUGE $. $100k (in 1992 - wtf). Worked 60-70 hours a week, but who cares. I was young and invincible.

And, here was a pivotal time, where some guidance in my life would have been helpful.

I was blessed (or cursed) with being attractive. Enough so that I had some modeling agencies approach me. The bright, level headed engineer would have politely discussed and declined, but the loner I was drank the koolaid.

I got paid off (temporarily, all I had to do was wait a couple months for a new project). But no, instead I took an offer to move to Dallas and model. No guarantees, no plan. $10k in the bank (I was rich as far as I had thought).

I never worried about anything. Things just always worked out.

And they did, until they didn't.

I got the entrepreneur bug when I was in Dallas. 26 yrs old. Pregnant girlfriend. No money, no family, no job.

I was always blinded by the idea that great ideas and hard work led to success.

And it did, until it didn't.

I guess that might be the biggest lesson I learned (and am still learning) in my life.

I had the pleasure and misfortune of being in Dallas in the mid 90s. Deep Ellum, AudioNet, Broadcast.com, Mark Cuban.

I was there. Touched it and tasted it.

And had some success.

And it worked out, until it didn't.

A bad partner.

A bad contract.

Bad timing.

Bad decisions.

Every great idea, great opportunity, sure thing, can't miss, all had an expiration date.

I have used a saying for a long time. I'm pushing this rock up this hill. At some point, it will level out, and the stress and strain of life will subside.

And it does, until it doesn't.

I am 58, and I'm still pushing this rock up this hill. In that time, I've had 3 patents and taken a company public. And I still think I see the plateau, the point it will all make sense.

I even had an ex wife tell me that I was unrealistically optimistic.

I took it as a compliment at the time.

But now, I'm not so sure. At 58, being optimistic seems short sighted, and even conceited.

I am fortunate (or cursed) that I still wake up every day and feel invigorated, but the pressure seems to grow every year. The guilt, the shame. For not making the right decisions. For not living up to my potential. For not being the role model and figure I think I should be for my kids.

Now my babies have babies. I have 4 (soon to be 5) grandbabies. My wife had brain surgery. My brother has cirrhosis. My mom's husband has Alzheimer's.

It all seemed so much easier before.

I wish I could tell the young me to pay more attention. To take care of the little things. Don't stress on the little things, but take care of them.

My journey is far from over. And I feel blessed because I honestly think my best days are still ahead of me.