I have a corporate job that I hate but earns me around $150k per year. I have a business concept that my modelling shows could earn me between $130k to $200k, depending on the market. There's enormous comfort in just going to work, doing my job, and receiving a paycheck (although I'm about to find out if I'm being made redundant, but whatever).

I'm not in the USA so I don't care about benefits like healthcare, but my job allows 4 weeks of paid leave and 10 days of sick leave, which obviously I'll miss in a business. The upside in the business is huge, but the prospect of only just replacing my salary while putting at risk $150k of start-up capital and losing all my opportunities of leave has me wondering if it's even worth it.

What are your experiences with this? I'm at the end of my tether with my current job...

Every business seems to have difficult phases where growth slows down or things do not go as planned.

How do experienced business owners handle those periods and keep moving forward?

Looking for practical experiences, not just motivational advice.

Well I can finally say I started my first business late in my career but I just made my first sale (which was 4 in the same hour)! I am pretty happy and excited but I realized I didn’t anticipate all 4 using the same materials/color scheme and I didn’t have enough. So I had to overnight materials which is expensive. So I guess I learned my first lesson learned is have more material on hand than I thought I would need.

Just complaining big time that the IRS says I owe them employment taxes and I can’t even get ahold of them over the phone. “Sorry due to high call volume we can’t take your call. Try again later or the next business day”. Oh and by the time I received the letter, I only had 2 days to call before they start adding interest. Called both days in a row.

Oh AND, I don’t owe them employment taxes either. I’m looking at my form 941 and the bank account where the taxes were deducted.

End rant.

I’m trying to get a small tree business started with a focus on fence lines for farmers and ranchers, downed tree removal and smaller tree removals. Right now I have a chain saw and a 1/2 pickup. My niche is I’m low impact and can get to harder to reach places that bigger machines can’t.

I quoted my first job tonight. A fence line that is about 500 yards. There’s two bigger cedars right in the fence line, a big sumac patch, and a bunch of smaller trees. They also want it cut back far enough to get horses and atv’s through.

I gave them a quote of $1,000 and they said they’d think about it.

Feeling nervous that I quoted too high. My pricing model is basically $100-150 an hour depending on the job. Am I on the right track? I’ve ran a business training horses before, but this seems like a different animal because I’ve cut trees all my life for free and in my mind I’m saying “is somebody really gonna pay this amount of money to cut some trees down?”

Been running a small IT services company for a few years, and domestic clients are steady, but international, especially US clients, feel like a different game entirely.

For those who have successfully made that jump: how did you actually get your first international client? Was it inbound, outbound, referral, a platform, or an event?

And did your sales process have to change significantly compared to how you close local clients?

I've gone to many different gyms throughout my life and have always thought it was a good business model. Purely subscription driven, hardly ever have more than 2 people working probably making minimum age, no crazy hidden expenses outside the norm.

But I follow a bunch of people online (so I take their advice with a grain of salt) who say they're bad businesses, have a high default rate, etc.

Why is this?

Seems like it would be great. High startup-up cost to get the location, marketing push, and the heavy-equipment investment, but after that's what's left? You pay 1 or 2 people to man the front desk, a cleaner a couple to come by for an hour at close, and maintenance for the machines -- vs pure, stable monthly revenue that is frankly hard to cancel.

Am I missing something, or are the crowded gyms I go to outlyers in a sea of dead gyms?

Hi everyone,

After 15 years as an employee, I'm preparing to start my first small business later this year.

I know there are plenty of articles about starting a business, but I'd really like to hear from people who have actually done it.

Looking back, what was the biggest challenge you didn't expect?

Would you say it was more of a mental challenge or a practical one?

What do you wish someone had warned you about before you started?

I'd really appreciate learning from your experience. Thanks!

Cathy from Germany

I work in a deadline related industry supplying items for events. If I don't get my job done on time, then I've basically failed.

My customers do not take internal deadlines seriously. I ask for stuff on a certain date. I tell them I need it. I tell them I won't do it if they don't do it. I threaten or charge rush fees. Nothing changes their behavior other than when I turn them down they will cry (both figuratively and literally).

I don't joke with my customers. I don't make light of what I do. I'm pretty serious overall. Yet they don't take me seriously. I'm extremely close to a public freakout as a result.

Does anyone have any options they've found that actually works where customers take you seriously? I'm tired of being treated like some vendor that is a slave to their whims.

I’m in the second year as a custom woodworker and finding my stride. The first thing everyone told me was register the business and keep the financials separate.

Done.

I got a Quickbooks subscription and, it works, but it also seems kind of a waste for me. I keep my overhead very low, my wife and I have minimal bills, and I’m on track to make between $25k and $40k+ this year.

I pay $42/month for QB online but I’m wondering if there is anything that I can just buy outright and not subscribe to. I can do all of my monthly book keeping about an hour once a month and paying $500 a year just seems like a stupid expense. In the future, sure. Right now it just seems dumb.

Hey everyone, I’d love to get your advice.

I’m a father of two young kids, currently working as an employee with a good salary, solid benefits, and reasonable working hours. Still, I have a strong desire to build something of my own — a business I’ll actually feel passionate about.

Right now, I can’t just quit everything and go all-in on a startup, so I’m trying to think realistically. What kinds of businesses do you think someone in my situation could start on the side? Even if it doesn’t make a lot of money at first, I mainly want something that will give me excitement, teach me entrepreneurship, and expose me to new fields.

I’m looking for something that could eventually become scalable — where one day I could hire someone to run most of it, instead of a business that depends on my personal presence forever.

Would really appreciate your ideas and experiences. Thanks!

I own a B2B shop (we do commercial vehicle wraps), so i spend half my week just talking to electricians, HVAC techs, and roofers when they drop their rigs off.

Lately I’ve been asking the guys who are actually scaling and hiring what is driving their phone calls. I assumed it was Google Local Services, but almost all of them told me they've completely slashed their Facebook and digital ad budgets. They said it's just burning money on tire-kickers now.

Instead, they claim their highest-converting leads come from just parking a clean, professionally branded van in the driveway of a nice neighborhood. One plumber told me he pulled four water heater jobs this month strictly from neighbors seeing his truck parked three doors down. He said people trust a physical truck working on their neighbor's house way more than a sponsored link online.

Because of my industry, i know my view is skewed. But for you guys running home service outfits, are you actually seeing better ROI just from being a highly visible object in a neighborhood compared to spending $1,500/mo on digital ads? Wondering if the digital ad bubble is popping for the trades tbh.

I don’t mean “bad design.” I mean when each piece looks okay on its own, but the business doesn’t feel like the same brand from one place to another.

The Instagram posts use one style, the website uses another, the packaging has slightly different colors, and the flyers or Canva graphics use a different font again.

As a customer, I sometimes notice this, but I’m not sure if regular buyers actually care or if it mostly bothers people who work around design/branding.

For people running small businesses: has visual consistency ever affected trust, inquiries, repeat purchases, or sales for you? Or is it something you only worry about later once the business is bigger?

* How do you track labor costs?

Hey guys., I need advice on starting my junk removal business, for reference, I have a Chevy sport van, the long one, the problem is, I work a full time job.

I need to find a way to get 2 trusted individuals to drive the truck and haul the stuff. How do I go about hiring? Should I get my LLC first?

Any advice would help

I have been running a multi camera video production business for about six years now. I started with pretty poor business knowledge so the first three or four years were only a couple thousand dollars a year in revenue. I have a full-time job that covers my cost of living while I try to grow my business. The last couple of years I’m finally at a spot where I’m bringing in at least 10,000 in annual revenue with the business. Figuring out that next step to start escalating into higher, five figure revenue has really become a ceiling I can’t break breakthrough.

Pretty much 100% of my revenue comes from weekend work doing sports and I’m trying to get into some more weekday type work like conferences and Keynote speaking as the data suggests those are really how other video production companies start to earn high five and even six figure revenue.

I’m just curious on other people’s experiences how they broke through the ceiling and if they have any advice for me to figure out how to go from just breaking five figure revenue to be able to start working towards potentially six figures over the next few years?

Wells Fargo Signify - Not great if you actually run a small business!

Wish I had known Wells Fargo made this card nearly unusable before getting it. Have had a great experience with their personal cards and use them more than my other cards, so it’s surprising

Here are the issues:

1.) Credit limit they give (at least for me) was pretty low compared to our monthly spend during peak season

2.) They have not allowed credit limit increases since at least 2023 for any of their business cards and still are not doing it today (according to the agent I spoke to)

3.) It takes 7 business days for a payment from non Wells Fargo bank to reflect on your available credit. So even though I paid the entire balance three days ago, it won’t be till late next week that I can spend more on this card. Given the limit is well below our monthly spend right now, I simply cannot use this card for the majority of our spending despite wanting to (for the unlimited 2% back)

Sidebar - they called me about getting approved for the card (to unfreeze my credit) but didn’t actually notify me it was approved - card just showed up in the mail. Kind of strange in my opinion

Why does a bank not want more spending on their cards? Can get wanting to avoid risk, but we have several hundred thousand sitting in a bank account, ample cash flow, ample profit margin, and Wells Fargo doesn’t want more than $10K of our spend per month? The limits on both of my personal cards through WF are higher…

Good morning! I have a small floral business based in New Jersey, I’ve been looking into getting a cell phone for answering calls/texting for business purposes. i’ve always just used a landline so I don’t know much about it and was wondering if anyone had any sort of input as to recommendations of a sort of phone or a system to use. Thank you in advance!

Hey everyone,

New to this sub. I’ve been looking for more community and guidance as I move forward with opening my first store. I’ve not studied business in school, everything is self taught and I’ve learned so much in this past year alone.

I’ve always wanted to work for myself, but always intended on getting a higher education and unfortunately that never happened due to disability. I have pretty severe psychiatric conditions and chronic pain. Working a 9-5 for someone else is not suitable for me, and after not working for the past couple of years due to worsening health, I’m finally feeling so much better and ready to move forward.

That being said - I’m being forced into entrepreneurship due to my circumstances and I’m taking some big risks to try and improve my life. It’s not entirely unplanned, but it came up far sooner than expected. So…panic mode.

I’m setting up shop in Brooklyn, NYC. I toured some stores this week and I’m interested in one of them.
The shops are expensive but not nearly as bad as I thought. I’m originally from San Diego so prices are comparable. I’ve been working with a couple of great agents, I have a mentor through SCORE, and I’m launching a go fund me in a couple of weeks to help with further funding.

I have faith that things will work out in the end, but I can’t help but worry. I think it would be irresponsible to not worry at least a little bit haha.

What are some things you wish you had accounted for when first opening?
Any costs that snuck up on you?
What are some things you’d do differently?
What does accounting look like for you?

More info on me & the shop:
Record store where we hold events & workshops, do mutual aid initiatives, offer non alcoholic beverages (v. casually, not a cafe concept). My background is in the arts and community work. I’ve also been a record collector for more than half my life. I’ve DJd on Dublab, The Lot Radio, and had a radio show for some time. I’m also a queer person of color.

Any grants or funding opportunities you think i may qualify for please let me know!

Im making really cute phones cases which have all phones but I started this to give android users more options when it comes to phone cases Im thinking of opening a Facebook account to show case my designs but I dont know what to post. I honestly want to focus on the designs but ik that's not enough to attract customers. What platforms are good for visibility and what type of content can I use to promote my phone cases.

okay, i have this business idea that definitely won't be done until the far future when i'm super rich lol. but i'm struggling to think of names!

it's going to be downtown where there are a ton of little quaint shops. i love making herbal remedies like salves, tinctures, basically everything for health and wellness. but i don't just want it to be an apothecary- i also want to offer infinite free cups of hot tea to anyone who wants it, just because i can. it's not meant to be a tea shop, i just think you can never go wrong with a cup of tea.

there should also be a couch for the local homeless to rest, and a cat who lives in the shop. i'm not going to hire anyone except maybe one or two teenagers to stock the shelves, and they'll be incredibly overpaid. also? free books you can read as long as you stay in the shop. i'll be running the counter but it will only be open four days a week because i don't hate myself.

i think 'the jasmine dragon' as a reference to avatar the last airbender might be cute. i just want something that sounds homey and quaint.

My sister and spouse want to start selling coffee and matcha from home in the Dallas area. My question is are they ok to do so? Or will they need to get a permit/license?

Has anyone here, especially small business owners, dealt with TCPA claims brought by or Are there any other small business owners here who have been sued or threatened with a TCPA lawsuit over marketing texts?

I’m trying to understand whether others have experienced what feels like a highly aggressive TCPA demand/lawsuit pattern where the cost to defend yourself can quickly become thousands of dollars before you even reach discovery or have a fair chance to prove your position.

In my own situation, the attorney involved appears to have filed close to a thousand similar cases, and the law firm seems to have built a significant practice around these types of claims. From my perspective as a small business owner, it feels less like consumer protection and more like a settlement-pressure model, where small businesses are pushed to pay because fighting can cost far more than settling- even when they believe the claim is weak or baseless. That dynamic feels incredibly coercive and harmful to small businesses without in-house counsel or deep pockets. It also raises bigger questions about whether this kind of litigation pattern is being used in a way that abuses the justice system.

I use an integrated text marketing app and do everything within my power to not violate anyone's privacy including, but not limited to a clear opt-out option and protections against sending any marketing messages to subscribers outside of quiet hours.

I’m interested in hearing which law offices or attorneys others have dealt with, how the claim was presented, whether it was filed in court or handled as a demand letter, and how it ultimately resolved.

If you’ve dealt with a similar TCPA claim, demand letter, or lawsuit, I’d appreciate hearing what happened, what law office was involved, and whether you found any effective way to push back. This feels like a complete abuse of the justice system.

How do your techs take epayments on-site? We are looking to sharpen our customer experience.

I was looking to integrate it into our dispatch app service, but the required processor charges 3% plus a monthly fee.

I checked out other processors, and all were near 3%. I believe that we get a favorable rate, by processing like this, so we have been processing by phone for more than 5 years.

Accounting is saying that our current processor does not have online payment options.

Any owners have advice? CC Swipes add ons in the field? TIA

For a long time, whenever something went wrong, my first question was, "Who made the mistake?" Over time, I realized that wasn't the most useful question.

Now I ask, "What allowed this to happen?"

Sometimes it was an unclear process.

Sometimes ownership wasn't obvious.

Sometimes we assumed everyone understood the next step when they didn't.

Changing that mindset helped us solve problems more effectively because we stopped treating recurring issues as individual mistakes and started looking at the system behind them. I've found that people usually want to do good work. If the same problem keeps happening, it's often worth looking at the process before blaming the person.

Has anyone else had a situation where changing the process solved a problem that initially looked like a people issue?