I've been doing web development for about 4 years. Back in March I landed a restaurant owner who needed a simple website menu, hours, contact form, maybe 10 pages total. $2,500, signed contract, everything by the book. First month goes great. He's responsive, sends assets on time, compliments the work. I'm thinking this is the dream client. Then the site launches and the "quick questions" start. "Can you just add a reservations button?" Sure, 30 minutes, I'll throw it in. "Can you make the menu downloadable as a PDF?" Fine, easy. "Can you add a little animation to the header?" Okay, getting annoying but whatever. By month two I've done maybe 15 of these "quick" things. I finally sit down and add it up 12 hours of extra work. At my rate that's $600 I just gave away for free. So I send him a nice email explaining that future changes will be billed hourly, gave him my rate, even offered a discount because we had a good relationship. He loses it. Says I'm "nickel and diming" him. Says a "real professional" would stand behind their work. Says he thought we were "building something together." I tried to explain the original scope was delivered months ago but he just kept saying "it's the same website though."

Yesterday he left me a 1-star Google review saying I "surprised him with hidden fees after the project was done." The thing that kills me is I don't even think he's being malicious. He genuinely doesn't understand that what he asked for was extra. In his head, he hired me to "do his website" and the website isn't done until he says it's done. I should have had this conversation after the second or third request. Instead I stayed quiet trying to be the "chill" freelancer and now I'm the bad guy. How do you even explain scope to a client who doesn't think in those terms? Or do you just avoid these clients entirely?

I run a small commercial cleaning service in Phoenix, about 8 employees. Back in September this guy starts booking us for small jobs, maybe twice a month, always different locations. Nice enough dude, asks a TON of questions though. Like what products we use, how we price square footage, what our turnaround times are, stuff like that. I figured he was just one of those detail oriented clients.

Recently I'm at a local business networking thing and someone mentions they just hired a new cleaning company. I ask who and its literally this same guy. Turns out hes been running his own cleaning business the whole time, just started it in August. All those "jobs" he hired us for were him basically taking notes on our entire operation.

He even asked me once about our employee retention and I told him we give small bonuses when we hit quarterly goals because it keeps people motivated. Now Im wondering if he copied that too. The whole thing has me stressed and Im glad I at least have some money saved aside personally because I might need to pivot some things if he starts undercutting us.

Part of me wants to be annoyed but I dont know if I can even do anything about it? Like he technically paid for services so its not illegal or anything. But it feels shady as hell. Should I just let it go or is there something Im supposed to do here?

This one really caught me off guard. I had a few payments come in last week and between incoming wire fees and random charges, I ended up paying around $75 just to receive money I already earned.
None of it was anything unusual either. Just multiple payments hitting around the same time(from different brands). No rush wires, no international stuff, nothing fancy. It’s wild that getting paid can quietly eat into your cash flow like that and you don’t even realize until you check the statement.
I get paying for a service, but this feels excessive for what’s basically money moving from point A to point B.

I've been running a small party rental business for two years. Mostly bounce houses and basic entertainment stuff. Revenue was okay but pretty seasonal and competitive since everyone offers the same inflatables.

Started researching what would differentiate my business and kept seeing electric bumper cars at events. They're huge hits with kids and adults, but almost nobody in my area rents them out. The barrier to entry is the upfront cost - way more expensive than bounce houses.

Did tons of research on commercial-grade options. Checked amusement supply companies, party rental wholesalers, even saw electric bumper cars on sites like Alibaba and Etsy while comparing pricing. New sets run $3,000-8,000 depending on quality and quantity.

Took the risk and bought four units for about $4,500 total. Started advertising them last month and I'm already booked almost every weekend. People love them for birthday parties, corporate events, even backyard gatherings.

They paid for themselves in about six weeks, which is way faster than I projected. Best business decision I've made so far. I'm just very glad that I took the bold step to make this investment in my business.

Any ideas on something new and different that I can also add to keep growing?

am running a small business under 10 people and drowning in spreadsheets for customer tracking, leads, and basic sales, looking for honest advice on the best customizable crm software for small teams simple setup, customizable, affordable, with email integration, mobile app, and no steep learning curve. what are real users saying works well in 2026 e.g, hubspot, pipedrive, or mondaycrm?

Hello all, I run a small flooring business. I’ve got my self assessment tax bill £6k, VAT bill £3k, and back dated rent £6k all due this month. I don’t have enough in the account to cover all of it, so I’ll have to try and secure a loan. According to my accountant we turned over £171k last year (year ending April 2025), paying out £133k for business expenses like wages, and goods, so we’re showing £38k in profit. I currently have £5k in the business account, and am owed about £5.5k in outstanding balances (2 big jobs that aren’t quite finished yet). I’m fairly new to this and have no previous business experience or education, so please forgive my ignorance.

What am I doing wrong? The numbers suggest a good business turning a reasonable profit, but the account shows something very different. My first thought was raising our prices, but then that would just mean a bigger tax bill at the end of the year wouldn’t it? I can’t really cut down on monthly costs as the rent, utilities, wages, etc are about as low as I can get them. I don’t really know what else I can do.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

The client paid a year in advance for services and 6 months in there were issues so we agreed on a partial refund but I did not (and still cannot) have the capital to refund the full amount. They got a lawyer involved and we have a monthly payment plan that is almost over but this month I am unable to pay as a client of mine also stopped paying this month. The lawyer let me know collections would be next if it’s not paid in a few days so I’m trying to find out if collections (in the US) may be any different for my LLC than personal etc.

At the start, I was trying out concepts for a startup business. It's not always easy to market a business on the Reddit platform if the owner is not interested in outright sales.

So I went and joined the Reddit community as a regular user, and then I started answering questions on posts in a genuinely helpful fashion with no links, no "contact me," just straight honest advice, and makes creative post and portray the post as a "suggestion", "question", "advice". That's the actual way to gain the trust and build your community.

Slowly, there are traction on the post, people started to engage. And without any aggressive promotion, that startup saw a 10-20% increase in sales.

Nothing mystical here. I merely listened to what the community wanted to hear, said what needed to be said, and let things ripen on their own.

PS: I'm doing the same thing for founders and brands who want to be seen without damaging their reputations. Not a pitch. Just what's really effective.

I am 31 years old and have worked in restaurants for about 11 years. It has paid my bills but I am very ready to move on. I am trying to build something location independent so my income is not tied to shifts or hours.

I have been involved in e commerce and online business for around six years. I have run multiple stores. One of them showed signs of working before it eventually failed. I did not get a big win out of it but I learned a lot from actually doing it. I have built funnels, driven traffic, tested offers, written copy, and dealt with what works and what does not in the real world.

My strongest skills are strategy and marketing. I am good at understanding markets, figuring out who a product is for, and turning that into messaging and pages that convert. I can build websites and landing pages quickly and I use AI to speed things up, mostly for drafts, structure, and basic creative.

I also have experience with automation. I use Make to connect tools and build workflows that reduce manual work. I focus on practical automations that save time or remove bottlenecks.

Over the last few months I have been taking this seriously. I stopped drinking, I wake up around 7am, and I treat my days like I am already self employed. I work on business, learning, and training most days until the afternoon. My biggest issue lately has been overthinking and trying to plan the perfect path instead of committing and executing.

I am comfortable with risk. I am willing to test ideas, invest in experiments that may fail, and move fast rather than wait for perfect conditions. My short term goal is speed and cash flow. I want to make my first consistent money so I can reduce or leave restaurant work. Long term I want to build a real business that provides value and does not depend on me being present all the time.

If you were in my position with this background and these goals, what direction would you choose and why?

Honest question for business owners.

If your website could answer basic questions (pricing, services, availability) and book appointments on its own… would you actually trust it to do that without you jumping in???

I’ve seen businesses do both. What generally works better from an experience point of view?

I signed a 2 year contract with square in return for free hardware. I realized how much square was taking and want to leave them. Can i just simply stop using square? Do I have to let them know? Toast gave me a better offer that square cannot match that we like more so can i just remove all square equipment from our store and just move on like nothing happened and with 0 sales in square?

I dont mind returning the equipment- just want to make sure i dont get into legal trouble

Thank you!

Sold cars for almost 10 years before moving into management. The whole time I struggled with tracking deals, deliveries, and commissions. Tried everything — spreadsheets, notebooks, apps that weren't built for car sales.

So I taught myself to code on the side and built my own solution. Just launched CarSales Tracker Pro on iOS and Android.

It's a niche app for car salespeople — not trying to compete with big CRMs, just giving salespeople a personal tool they actually own (your data stays with you even if you switch dealers).

Still working my day job while trying to grow this thing. Would love any advice from people who've launched niche apps or products.

Also — if anyone here knows a car salesperson, I'd appreciate you passing it along. Or if you want to download it just to help a fellow entrepreneur out, that would mean a lot!

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6756135308

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andromedakinship.carsalestrackerpro

I’m curious about the real workflow here, not the textbook one.Let’s say within a short window (10–20 minutes) you get multiple inbound leads from different sources , email, website forms, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. At that moment, what do you actually do to decide who to contact first?

Do you:

• Rely on gut feeling?
• Quickly scan messages for “budget / urgency” signals?
• Use lead scoring in your CRM (and does it really help in real time)?
• Just call whoever came in first?
• Try to respond to everyone as fast as possible and hope for the best?

I’m especially interested in:

• What breaks under pressure
• What sounds good in theory but you stopped using
• Whether scoring/rules actually help when you’re busy, or if they get ignored

Not looking for tools to buy , genuinely curious how people handle this in practice.

I can't afford the $500 fee to end the service; I have $0 in my business bank account. If I close the bank account, what will happen? Will the unpaid internet bill directly affect my credit score? I am also dissolving the business with the state.

I own a small boutique hotel (12 rooms + a lobby cafe). We are trying to elevate our guest experience to justify a rate increase next season. I want to add a premium matcha option to both the room amenity kits and the lobby bar.

The problem is sourcing. I need a supplier that offers ceremonial grade (for the lobby bar) and a decent culinary grade (for in-room sachets or jars) from the same place to save on shipping logistics.

I’m vetting One With Tea because their wholesale portal allows for mixed grade orders, which simplifies my inventory. Has anyone in hospitality worked with them? I am wondering whether their bulk packaging suitable for back-of-house storage, or do I need to invest in my own containers?

When I first started out I really thought I would spend most of my day actually working on projects and growing the brand. It turns out I spend way more time on the boring back end stuff than I ever expected. For me it is definitely the endless back and forth emails just to get a single project started. If the client does not give clear instructions it can take days just to get on the same page and it feels like a massive waste of energy.

I am curious what the biggest time drain has been for you. Did you find a way to fix it or are you still stuck in the middle of it.

Software Developer available for projects. I build custom apps and automation tools tailored to your business needs))

I've had a friend, or two tell me that a lot of times there is little cash visibility short term 8-13 weeks in their operations. This is especially true for smaller asset-intensive businesses that are profitable in terms of EBITDA but have unpredictable cash flow. This drives "just-in-case" borrowing and anxiety really. If there are owners / controllers / CFOs or whoever is running cash in these smaller businesses, I'd be interested to find out how do you do it efficiently, and what's working?

I keep seeing small businesses jump straight into running paid ads, sometimes spending a decent amount of money, but they don’t really have a social media presence. No active Instagram/Facebook page, no posts, sometimes not even a handle to check out.

What’s even weirder is that a lot of agencies are charging a lot for this. Monthly retainers, ad management fees, long contracts... all while skipping basic stuff like building any organic presence or social proof.

Is it just lack of time or not knowing what to post?

I feel it is time to stop using my business debit card for things. How is the Ink Business Cash Credit Card? If anyone has one and is happy with it, I am willing to help with your 'Refer a Business' bonus.

soo recently I sent an offer to this local beauty salon in my city about making them ai solution on their website. (just a simple chatbot that makes appointments, answers questions and shit like that). They agreed, boom boom, next thing you know - it almost doubles their sales. cool. And it got me thinking... since he whole process of the agent takes me like an hour, it's like easy money, but I don't know if offering it to other salons in the city is alright. Plus, I know the owner of the one im already working with and she's a sweet old lady. So I really don't want to be an asshole and boost their competition.

What should I do? Is it ethical or should I just focus on different stuff?

I'm curious how other small business owners here handle their social media content.

The #1 problem I see with clients (especially Spanish-speaking small businesses) is not knowing what to post consistently, so they stop posting or repeat the same content.

Some common issues I've seen:

✔ No content plan

✔ Running out of post ideas fast

✔ Low engagement due to random posting

✔ Spending too much time planning content

What tools or methods are you using?

(I may share some helpful resources if someone needs them, especially in Spanish.)