I've been in business for over 10 years. We survived the pandemic but may not survive this administration.

Our building lease is up for renewal this fall, and I am currently trying to decide if I should renew or get out while I can. The numbers are dismal. People keep saying that it will turn around but I'm not so sure.

I'm looking for others that may be in the same/similar position. Are you staying open? Closing your doors? Do you see it getting better, or worse? I'm not an Economist, but my doubts are strong as we are almost 6 months into this mess.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Most people use ChatGPT as a cheerleader. It agrees, affirms and flatters you on everything but I recently found a way to turn it into a brutally honest advisor and the insights just hits different!

Here's the prompt:
I want you to act and take on the role of my brutally honest, high-level advisor.

Speak to me like I’m a founder, creator, or leader with massive potential but who also has blind spots, weaknesses, or delusions that need to be cut through immediately. I don’t want comfort. I don’t want fluff. I want truth that stings, if that’s what it takes to grow.
Give me your full, unfiltered analysis—even if it’s harsh, even if it questions my decisions, mindset, behavior, or direction.
Look at my situation with complete objectivity and strategic depth. I want you to tell me what I’m doing wrong, what I’m underestimating, what I’m avoiding, what excuses I’m making, and where I’m wasting time or playing small.
Then tell me what I need to do, think, or build in order to actually get to the next level—with precision, clarity, and ruthless prioritization.
If I’m lost, call it out. If I’m making a mistake, explain why. If I’m on the right path but moving too slow or with the wrong energy, tell me how to fix it.
Hold nothing back. Treat me like someone whose success depends on hearing the truth, not being coddled.

-
Drop this prompt in, run it on your idea, and see what comes back. It might tell you what your friends won’t - it did for me! Try it, and let us know what you learn.

Less than two years ago, I started a kayak rental business with a few old kayaks for $100 each and today have scaled to 28 kayaks in a popular tourist destination. I want to share this success story since I don't have many I can talk to about it and also to inspire you!

This wasn't my first small business. Started with photography, then pressure washing and window cleaning, then this. Each helped me with the next. Also, all glory to God!

• March revenue ~ $40k
• April revenue ~ 30k
• Monthly expenses ~ $5k

Here are few takeaways:

• Start small and scale up: Save as much money as possible and just start! The hardest part is starting and pulling the trigger. Then slowly scale up as it makes sense.
• Find inspiration: Research 2-3 of the best businesses doing what you want to do and learn from them. Don't copy and plagiarize but draw inspiration from them.
• Avoid debt: But.. take calculated risks when it makes sense (when I decided to purchase 5 new kayaks for 1k each, it was a scary decision but I had already tested the market with my cheap kayaks and knew this would accelerate the business.
• Cashflow your expenses when scaling: Similar to above, save up cash for expenses or large purchases when scaling. If you don't have the money to scale to the degree you want to, maybe you aren't ready yet.
• Use common sense and logic: Think logically and use that to your advantage. I can't imagine not thinking this way with business but maybe it doesn't come naturally for all? Get counsel from others who are successful business owners and pick their brain.
• Track finances and set aside money for taxes: Once you start making a good amount of money, have a CPA and let them help you. But from the beginning, track finances and learn the ins-and-outs of what you will owe and your businesses expenses to write off.
• Learn how to do as much as you can on your own: Build your own website, download Photoshop and create logos, signage, Google ads/advertising, etc. If you don't know how to do something, learn how.
• Save, save, save $$$: This is a more personal thing, but if your business is successful then my personal recommendation is to save and invest as much as you can. Don't increase your lifestyle, just keep living and paying the bills that are necessary and invest the rest. You'll thank yourself in 5-10 years.
• Have excellent customer service & get reviews: Super important. I have just about 850+ five star reviews and this is all due to making customers happy! Treat them well and be reasonable. Be quick to answer your phone, respond to texts/emails, and be a good person!
• Utilize Google Ads: If you are providing a service-based business, then utilize Google Search Ads to target people searching via Google for your specific service. Super worth it!

Final thoughts: Learn a valuable skill and provide value to others. If you have any questions, feel free to ask below.

Starting a business? That’s the easy part. You register a name, build a website, maybe throw together a logo on Canva — boom, you’re an entrepreneur.

But making money? Real profit? That’s when the fun stops and the ulcer starts.

Because losing money is easy. You just start. Every month bleeds a little cash, and nobody really notices — until your savings vanish and your optimism goes quiet.

Profit, on the other hand, demands hard choices. Do you fire someone? Raise prices? Kill the product you love but no one buys? It’s not one big decision — it’s 10 small ones, every day, where each one either keeps you alive or buries you just a little deeper.

So yeah. Being an entrepreneur is easy. Until you try making money.

As the post says, I’ve sold 5 companies now as founder, CEO, or board chair. Also bought 1 for about $30m.

Smallest was $3m, largest was $165m.

Sold to competitors, PE, strategics.

Used a banker for one, 3 were cold inbound and one was a warm outbound.

I’m writing a playbook / newsletter (free) for other entrepreneurs to learn from everything I wish I had known for the first few exits.

So I’m curious - what do you want to know? What questions do you have? What would be helpful for me to go deep on?

EDIT: Oh shit this blew up. I posted it while taking off on a flight without internet. Landed and saw the activity. Will answer everything soon!!

I was able to save up $75000 being a crypt0/web3 meme coin space entrepreneur running my own community and funneling them into my telegram and monetizing my community.

I need someone to give me a big brother/dad tips on what path i should attack next with the money i have saved up wether investing, retaining, growing it/ starting a business

Thank you redditors :)

edit: i have been hustling online for the past 8 years running & founding big esport pages w/ over 100k followers on IG, had my own social media management agency, managed big content creators, did e commerce, drop shipping that’s just a couple of business models i tried & no i did not PUMP & DUMP anything i would’ve been up way more if i did i provided real value and people are extremely satisfied with that

There is a saying, "you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with"... I'm not here to debate whether this is true (it is absolutely true), but rather should you practice it...

I have a cousin who was from the poor side of our family. His dad was a gambler and money just doesn't stay in his hands. He grew up poor, but he constantly tries to put himself in the circle of people who are "better" than him.

When he started his business, he stopped talking to all of his buddies who didn't share the same aspirations. After he started making some money, he took a whole chunk of that and purchased a country club membership and started marking friends whose net-worth has 2 or 3 extra zeros over his. He only want to spend time with people whose business and success is similar or significantly bigger than his.

Today, even me, his cousin is too small for his time. He lives in a wealthy neighborhood and goes everywhere first class or by private jet. I am sad that this is the way he is choosing the people he spend time with, but it worked. Coming from a penniless family, he could have easily become like his father.

I'm very divided.

I used to believe the classic myth that "if you build something great, customers will just come." Like somehow, good product = automatic traction.

Reality check: You can have an amazing product, but if no one knows about it, it doesn’t matter. Marketing isn’t optional - it’s half the game.

That realization completely shifted how I approach product development, customer discovery, and distribution.

Curious what other myths people had to unlearn once they were in the trenches.

What did you believe before starting that turned out to be totally wrong?

Alright, straight to the point. Nothing to sell, or promote, I just wanted this out of my chest.

Scrolling through feeds, anyone else getting hammered with "make 10k in 10 days!" or "automate your way to millions!"? or "My saas makes me 10k monthly using AI"? The whole "get rich quick" fantasy is everywhere, and honestly, it's kinda toxic.

Let's cut the BS. Building a real, sustainable business just doesn't work like that. There's no secret hack or magic system that replaces putting in the work and actually knowing what the hell you're doing.

Thinking you can skip the grind and get rich overnight is a one-way ticket to losing your shirt and getting seriously demotivated. It leads you down rabbit holes of scams and makes you feel like a failure when their "easy money" promises don't pan out.

The real thing here is to focus on building real skills. stuff that creates value:

• Getting damn good at sales or marketing (not the usual bs in twitter, and posting non sense just for framing likes from useless people)
• Understanding your customers better than anyone else. (be the customer first)
• Developing the grit to keep going when things get tough (and they will).

That's where the real leverage is. That's how you build something that lasts, something that actually pays off big time because you've built a solid foundation.

hey all, im a young entrepreneur, trying to make money in my 20s and i was wondering what was that "cracking" business idea you had but never worked on ? Would be pretty interesting to listen to it!

You have 15k, what would you do tto make that into a decent income? what new businesses? investments? etc?

I’ve always known I had them. My dad was around, but never really there. He was the kind of man who provided, but you’d never catch him saying “I’m proud of you.” I guess I learned early on to stop expecting it.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, I joined a small B2B car rental startup. It’s been less than two weeks, and already, my boss has acknowledged my work more than my dad ever did. Every time I solve something that saves time or improves a system, he takes a moment to say, “Nice work.”

Last week, I closed a client. What’s wild is that my boss had been pursuing this client for a whole year. When we went to the meeting together and signed the deal, they talked and laughed about it. As we walked out, he looked at me and said, “Good job landing a whale. You’ve made me proud.”

I got in my car and cried.

Not out of sadness but because I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear those words. From someone.

Then I built this small program to reach 10–50 leads with one command. He noticed that too. He told me it was brilliant. And for the first time in a long time, I feel like I’m somewhere I belong like what I do matters.

He started this company to solve a problem he experienced firsthand. And it’s working our rental partners are actually making money now. I admire how he’s built all of this from scratch. And honestly? I really enjoy working here.

Honestly, this is how you build a company.

I’m in the throes of solopreneurship. Bootstrapping a business, carrying the vision, the labor, the fear, and the hope all by myself. Some days, I feel like no one truly understands what I’m trying to build. Not friends. Not family. Not even the people I’m building it for. It’s lonely. It’s exhausting. And some days, I question everything.

But here’s the advice I’d give to any aspiring entrepreneur, especially the ones out there with a fire in their belly and negative $8,000 in their bank account:

Don’t give up. Do it tired. Do it scared. Do it broke. Do it misunderstood.

Because the world doesn’t need more of the same. It needs new ideas. It needs bold creativity. It needs you.

I’m seeking community. Others in this wild, messy, meaningful work of building something from nothing. If you’re out here doing it too, let’s connect. Let’s commiserate. Let’s lift each other up. And most importantly, let’s keep going. ✌🏻♥️

What entrepreneurial "requirements" did you stress about that turned out to be total myths? And what unexpected skills actually drove your growth instead?

So I’ve been cleaning for a cleaning agency for a few months, but they weren’t giving me enough hours. I figured, why wait around when I can go find clients myself?

I put together a flyer on Jotform, added a QR code linking to a form with my services, and included some before-and-after pics from past cleanings. Took my tablet and hit the streets literally went door to door in SW.

Knocked on over 40 doors. Only two people filled out the form. A few scanned the flyer. Not gonna lie, I was a bit discouraged.

But that same day, one of those two actually called me. Asked if I could pressure wash her front yard and back garden. I said yes and earned £80 that day. Btw she provided all equipmengs

Then the next day she called again and asked if I could paint a short fence. They were doing a bit of DIY renovation and basically brought me in to help. I’ve done some handy stuff before, so I rolled with it £21/hour for 5.5 hours. Another £115.

So yeah, in just 2 days I made over £200 from just knocking doors and offering help. No fancy ads. Just a flyer, some QR codes, and showing up.

Now I’m building a proper cleaning website, and thinking of ways to grow. One idea I had: since I also build websites, what if I offer free or low-cost websites to small local businesses in exchange for regular cleaning contracts? Most small biz owners want sites, but hate spending money on them. Win-win?

Anyway, I’m not here to say “I made £10K in 3 days,” but I am here to say that putting yourself out there actually works. Even if it’s just one or two people who say yes it could turn into more than you expect.

Edit: Maid extra 110 from same client yesterday, bringing it to about £320 for 14.5 hours of work. Will be going there today, too. I am glad i made this post. Thank you all for the advice. I am getting a landline today, and my website is 70% completed. I have been working on it for a while now. Please do not hesitate to give me more advice and ideas

Second edit: i got my first client from google listings. I got a call and didn't know where he got my number he needed an end of tenancy cleaning. It's not easy, but im glad I'm making progress 😌

What industry is your business in and how much you make?

Hey everyone,

I really need some advice regarding a business I co-founded with a friend. We’re running a Shopify store that’s starting to grow — but our roles and responsibilities are getting blurry, and it’s making me uncomfortable.

Here’s the situation:

• Everything is legally under my name in Germany: the business registration, taxes, payment accounts — I’m the one officially responsible.
• However, my business partner listed himself as CEO — without ever asking or discussing it with me. He just said, “I’m a good CEO.”
• When we deal with suppliers or potential clients, he introduces himself as the CEO, even though I carry all the legal and financial risk.
• In the Shopify store, he’s the store owner, and I’m only a staff member (even though it’s all running under my company and name).
• To make it worse: he has tax debt in another country, which I only found out recently.

We’re supposed to be equal partners, and he did come up with the initial idea — but I’ve handled almost everything on the backend. Now I’m starting to worry:

My questions:

1. If something goes wrong (e.g., taxes, liabilities, legal issues), am I the one who’s fully responsible, even though he calls himself the CEO?
2. Should I demand to be listed as the Shopify store owner since it’s all under my name legally?
3. We don’t have a written agreement or contract yet — how can I protect myself legally, especially given the financial/legal exposure?
4. Does the fact that he has outstanding tax issues abroad affect me or the business if things go south?

I'm trying to be fair — we’re building this together — but I don’t want to get screwed for being “too nice.”
Has anyone been in a similar situation? Would love to hear your advice or ideas on how to move forward.

Thanks in advance 🙏

I’ve successfully started 3 businesses in the last 7 years. All are at various stages. I’m still involved in the day to day with 2 of them, but that may change with a majority owner looking to buy me out. They want me to stay on, but I think it will be hard to be a part of this next phase. I’m too emotionally attached to it, and don’t love the direction they are going. We don’t know the terms of the deal yet, but I am not sure how much choice I will have in holding onto it (note to self, your entrepreneur journey is kind of over after you give up majority control)….

I’d like to start more businesses because I am good at it, but the phase of life I am in now, I want more security due to my kids ages etc.

I haven’t been on the job hunt in many years. But worry that my entrepreneurial experience won’t be valued, and might even be a turn off to some employers. Entrepreneurs don’t like to be put in a box. We are movers and shakers. Creatives. Businesses think they want that, but often, they want steady soldiers to just do the job.

Am I employable? How do I position myself to go back into the workforce?

It’s been 9 years since we graduated from college. I’m 28 now.

Back then, we all had the same goal—to become CPAs.

But my career path changed. I started my own business during our 4th year, even before graduation. That’s when I slowly started drifting away from them. I got really busy with my startup travel agency.

These days, most of us are starting to get married. Weddings and bridal showers have become our main way of catching up.

But honestly, I often feel left out. 😔 Their usual topics revolve around work (they’re all accountants and CPAs), showbiz, political rants, gossip, trending topics on social media, or Kdramas... and I just can’t relate anymore. I can’t keep up with their conversations, so I usually end up staying quiet.

Right now, I’m more into business-related topics, self-help books, and I’m not that active on social media. And when I do go online, I usually filter what I consume—things like healthy lifestyle, investing, and traveling.

So... have I outgrown my college friends?

(Or maybe “outgrow” isn’t the right word? I don’t mean it in a way that I feel above them. It’s more like—we just don’t share the same values or interests anymore, unlike before.)

I see so many posts every week asking what to do. Find value and bring it to the marketplace.

I had my wife's F250 in a shop today for a repair that was scheduled ahead of time due to our busy schedule. They tear apart the truck, come in and confirm what's wrong, and say they need to find the parts.

Disappointed that they did not have the parts, but I understand small businesses and the cash flow cost equations.

They call 8 parts stores with 35 miles, 3 Ford dealerships, and a bin runners I recommended to them. (I own a commercial truck parts manufacturing and sales business and have lots of contacts in the parts world.)

Nobody had the parts. ORileys could have them by 4pm. I called my contacts at Ford and had them go through their parts system. No dealerships in Texas had these very common parts. Friday at the earliest.

I cannot sit around for that so I called a car to take me back to the office.

I've spent the last 4 hours doing what I do and researching the parts, OEM and aftermarket. 3 manufacturers that supply the supply chain below it. The dealerships are not even buying directly! They are buying from a distributor. This is insane to me, but it's also how I've made a fortune over the years.

I researched the manufacturers and 1 imports, but I believe it's for their other product lines bases on the shipping codes. So all 3 manufacture these parts in America.

I call a friend that runs a large distributor and ask for his costs, lead time, and annual usage. He gave them to me, and said sorry if you need them there is usually a 1-2 day lead time because they don't keep many on the shelf.

Now with cost in hand from a $3B year distributor that buys directly from the manufacturers and their selling price range (discount multipliers by volume). I go back to the price lists from all the dealerships and parts houses.

As an end retail user we are paying the 35-40%+ markup from the distribution link. Then 30-70% markup on the retail side.

I decided I'm going to enter this niche today. I don't know shit about the parts, I'm not mechanical, and I do not plan on spending any capital to start other than samples, and DHL shipping from Texas to India.

I'll have 3 sets of parts arrive to my office Friday. I will ship them to 3 different manufacturing contenders in India. They will identify the grade of steel and composition of materials, make prints, and give me costs of tooling, die making, and lead times for that. Then quote me on moq and packaging & production costs & lead times.

Ill start making price sheets / flyers today in Canva and I'll drop in the pricing in a couple weeks once I have numbers.

I'll spend the time waiting building lists if every medium duty truck repair shop and dealership in America.

My plan will be to supply only to distribution. If they are stupid like the end users, then I'll sell direct to the end user shops.

Either way I'll land a few large orders at a great discount that I'll collect 30% upfront, and that will cover all my costs.

How many other consumable parts are out there will long life spans? How many Ford, or other businesses out there are purchasing parts like fools? How much margin is exploitable out there?

My guess is I'll be able to sell these parts at a massive 30-70% discount and have 2x the net profits of the existing players.

So stop asking and look right in front of you. If you don't have the SKILLS to do thus, than that is your answer on starting a business. You're not ready yet. Skills pay the bills.

Been building SaaS products for clients for years now. Good money, challenging work. But man, there's this pattern I keep seeing after launch day.

I hand over a solid product we both feel great about. Weeks later I get that text: "Hey, so... we're struggling to get people to sign up."

It's not that founders don't hustle. Most work their asses off. But there's this weird gap between having a working product and getting those first few people to actually pay for it.

One client spent 3 months cold emailing with almost no results. Another blew their budget on ads before figuring out who actually needed their solution.

What I've noticed works? The boring unsexy stuff. Literally talking to people 1-on-1. Finding the exact person with the exact pain point and solving it so well they can't imagine going back.

The code is just the beginning. Those first 10 customers take direct conversations, quick iterations, and sometimes completely rethinking who your product is actually for.

Anyone else build products only to watch the customer acquisition struggle afterward? What have you seen work?

Hi Is my husband doing the right thing?

On the one side I understand him.

2 companies he worked for remotely let him go within 6 months.

We haven't had any stable jobs.

So he wants us to rather pursue our own thing.

I on the other hand don't get any jobs in my field.

I've done some freelancing but that's it.

So we both in the technical fields. Design and IT.

I think we should have a job to keep us afloat while we pursue our own thing.

He just wants to jump full in not looking for work.

I'm worried we will run out of money. Is my husband thinking rationally here?

Because thats realistically 95% of it. I know there's established ent's in here lurking and occasionally commenting but most of the discourse is between people who are fantasizing about it or asking the same three questions that all basically come down to, "promise me if I try I won't regret it."

I wish this sub had more discussion about the part of entrepreneurship that happens AFTER you have an idea and actually start operating the business.

I'd love to be proven wrong on this. But.. I feel like nowadays you can't really be a successful entrepreneur unless you have tech skills. All the "problems to solve" are usually solved via tech --software, apps, etc. At least all I can think of. I often think of problems to solve but they all require tech solutions which idk how to build cuz idk how to code etc.

There are also problems you solve with physical products, but I think that's also really difficult because in order for something to be "good" there has to be some degree of engineering to it that isn't too easy to copy. Feel like if someone thought of something like the scrub daddy today it would be immediately copied by Alibaba before someone could really get off the ground.

The cost of hiring an engineer or developer to even make an MVP is astronomical. So it feels like if you're like me (without these skills) you're kinda stuck.

Would love to be proven wrong - if anyone has experience otherwise would like to hear it!

Long story short, I quit my 9-5 job to work on my startup in 2023. Since then, I’ve been working 15 hours a day without any days off. I’ve consistently grown the business to a few thousand dollars in revenue, and it’s still growing.

But lately, I’ve been feeling a bit burned out. I spent 50+ hours learning Facebook ads to run campaigns and have done a lot of things like that on my own. I don’t know exactly why, but I feel like I’m not achieving what I truly deserve. Maybe that’s why I’m starting to lose motivation to keep pushing and trying new things to grow the business.

It’s not like I don’t know what to do next! I actually have plans. But these days, I just feel lazy about executing them and end up delaying things.

I really need some guidance on how to get my motivation back and work like before. or even more productively. Any advice would be truly appreciated. Thanks!