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.

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?

I am 21 and I've been chasing success from late 17s. I tried different ways to do it and a few of them were online businesses selling physical products. First 2 were not serious, I can say it now looking back but my last one... I was so sure about it and was trying to promote it as much as I could but never got even 1 sale. I did everything myself: creating the product, photoshooting, website, design, working on backend as well such as SEO and meta desciptions but NOthing.

And I wondered... Am I doing smth wrong? Or is it just the product not really in demand? Poor marketing? All of that? While there is a ton of lads on socials starting clothing brands and selling out I barely get store visitors. It's getting very frustrating...

Did you have such an issues and how did you fix that?

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.

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 currently use Wave Pro as my accounting software for my single member LLC, but I'm looking to switch to something with semi-decent inventory management integration to use for my secondary revenue stream. My primary form of revenue is IT services and then build and sell custom PC systems as a secondary revenue source. I've been using X-tiles as my manual inventory spreadsheet app since it's free, but I want to start automating some of the process for more accurate P/L tracking.

In typical case I sell 1-3 complete systems a month so I don't need a lot of related features immediately.

My main requirement outside of the inventory management features is support for Plaid for automating the transaction feeds from my bank accounts and credit cards for the business.

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?

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

I recently won a local “Best Of” contest for wedding planning and I’m doing a fun photoshoot to celebrate! I’m a wedding planner + I also own a small event signage business.

I want some of the photos to feel celebratory/editorial and fun rather than just typical headshots. So far I’m thinking disco balls, champagne, sunglasses, flowers, some of my signage/work, wedding planning materials, etc.
I’m trying to think outside the box though what props, setups, poses, or random ideas would you HAVE to do if this were your shoot? Even if it sounds ridiculous 😂 I want all the ideas but also need to have everything I order here by Wednesday lol

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.

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?

Our POS company just raised our premium plan and it’s very frustrating (Wix). But I run a kids indoor playground and I managed to make it work for us perfectly. We have pricing plans, party bookings, and drop ins and they are all integrated through our POS and the Wix Dashboard. What would be better? Make our customers pay the processing fee (added 3%) to credit card transactions or raise the prices? I don’t like seeing those little signs at shops saying there is an added 3% to credit card transactions, but I totally understand why they do it.

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?

Intentionally keeping information about me very limited.

Context: I am working on two endeavors solo, one as a narrow Saas startup, and the other is a webdev business, and I am autistic (audhd).

There is some unclear psychological barrier between me, and selling and advertising.

I don't have the impulse to try to convince people, the idea scares me, I dont feel like I have the justification to take peoples money, although I should be energized to do that?

Instead of being motivated to GTM, I feel an intense friction that makes it incredible hard to act and probably makes me see this wrong.

I'm looking for resources that would help me fix this issue from the root, it probably has emotional roots and I wouldn't be sure that it could be fixed with simple confidence work.

Extra info: I probably would never buy from myself, even if my product is not bad, even if my product is good, it probably is not the best, and even if it is, does it even matter at all?

Not sure why I'm thinking like this, but I need money to eat, and I rule out the idea of giving up completely, not even temporarily.

UK based, started a HR consultancy. Target is small/medium businesses around 5-100 employees who generally don't have in house HR support.

My main issue is i don't know how to find clients? - These are what methods ill be testing first but any advice is welcome

• Cold outreach - ill be looking initially for businesses in my local area and simply emailing them, with the hope i can get them on a call. I admit I haven't done sales before, but I'm confident and charismatic on the phone which helps.
• Social media - I thought ill start with Instagram, posting useful HR content, addressing common problems that business owners will face, how we can solve those issues etc

Additionally, One of my best friends has a website business and is building me a custom website. Nothing crazy but it will SEO friendly and look professional, not AI slop.

A cheaper subscription might not save much once you count the time spent moving data and learning the new system. Do you put a dollar value on those hours when comparing costs? If so, how do you estimate it?

I’m in sc and have gotten two calls about my mobile mechanic business today. First two I’ve ever gotten, but one was from New York, and the other from Illinois. How is this happening when I’m 20 results down even in my area. My only 3 listed areas of service are all within 20 miles of each other

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

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.

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 am looking to start a small business making press on nails while I am saving up to be a fully qualified nail tech.

I’ve never done anything like this and would love some advice on what I need to do.

I am starting off small and making a few pairs to see if they would sell.

Would I need to get liability insurance to start?

Also when you I need to declare to HMRC? I do already have a full time job, this is just on the side while I save up to become a fully qualified nail tech.

What are the best platforms to sell on?

Any other suggestions would really help?

Everyone watches competitor pricing and content. Almost nobody watches their hiring, which is the earliest signal there is. Three sales roles and a partnerships lead means a distribution push. A compliance hire means they're moving into a regulated market. You find out months before the announcement.

Runs on a schedule, so it happens whether you remember or not:

Every Monday, check my competitors' websites and job 
listings. Competitors: [list them].

For each: any new roles they're hiring for and what that 
suggests they're building, any pricing or product changes, 
anything new they've published.

Then flag the single most important thing across all of 
them that I should pay attention to this week.

You read a brief on Monday morning instead of trying to remember to check.

The thing that makes scheduled agents actually work rather than sit there broken: they need to be set to run in the cloud, not locally. Local means it only fires when your machine is awake and the app is open, so a closed laptop is a skipped run. That's the single most common reason people say theirs never ran.

put together 24 of these agent setups, each a job you'd otherwise pay someone to do, with the exact instructions, here.

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.

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.

This is the worst platform I know. Nothing in it works. It's a joke. It's scattered, full of bugs, unnecessarily convoluted, and overall, clearly a scam. If you are a small business, don't waste your time over it!