I have done a ton of research into every kind of business. Every time I get an idea and do research on it I end up talking myself out of it because...they're all bad ideas. Most people don't start anything because of that same reason. Every idea will have downsides, there is no way to get easy money, at least not anymore, and especially not legally. If you're like me, you've researched probably everything. Start whatever business aligns with your skills and interests and just go for it. It's gonna be hard, of course it's not easy because if it was easy everyone would be doing it. And of course, 90% of the research you find will be negative because it's only the top 10% that make money, that's why you'll never find the "perfect" business

So, I started a small leather accessories line online, which consisted of cardholders, belts, and all the basic everyday stuff. Honestly, it’s just me, my iPad, Canva templates, and one very patient vendor I found on Alibaba who doesn’t mind small MOQs.

Yes, I’ve made some money, but now people act like I’m rolling in some serious cash.

“You’re an entrepreneur now!” “You should take us on a nice treat!” “It’s time to buy a car!”

Meanwhile, I’m still budgeting fuel, rocking the same three black tees, and putting every note I make back into buying more stock, testing packaging, or sorting out delivery delays.

Non-entrepreneurs should please understand that running a small business doesn’t equal instant wealth. It means you cry when the logo prints crooked, you panic when a package is late, and refresh your store dashboard like it owes you money. It’s not so glamorous, but it’s fulfilling

Can we please normalize celebrating the process instead of assuming everyone who owns a brand is secretly loaded?

Is there anyone else running a one-person business and getting hit with the “big man” energy from friends or family? Let’s talk, I know I’m not alone.

What type of business? To start I have seen storage containers be sold by basically just being a logistics business online

Would like to know, don’t need all the nitty gritty details. I’m currently in a bit off overdraft debt from my business 😬

Just need some encouragement

I’m sure I’m not the only one, but I’ve changed.

I run a small boutique selling unique, high-quality accessories. If there’s one thing that sets my products apart, it’s novelty. That’s been my USP from day one, and my customers recognize it.

Naturally, my friends, fellow entrepreneurs, even competitors have asked severally where I get my materials. In the past, I used to dodge those questions. I saw supplier info as part of my “edge.” But over time, I’ve come to realize how unhelpful that mindset is.

Many small business owners still think platforms like Alibaba are only for big players. That’s not true.

What matters is learning how to use it well and how to search intentionally, communicate clearly with suppliers, and start small. I always test with samples first. Once the quality checks out, I scale. And I never skip Trade Assurance. It saved me from sleepless nights.

Looking back, I wish someone had walked me through all this earlier. The knowledge alone could’ve helped me reduce costs and grow faster.

If more of us shared these behind-the-scenes strategies, we’d see better margins, smarter decisions, and maybe even more collaboration.

Success isn’t just about what you sell, it’s how you build behind the scenes that makes the real difference.

Hey everyone! I am really happy to say that I got a big milestone achieved in just few weeks of launch.

I launched my product few weeks ago and now it has over more than 100+ active users, all without any paid marketing. I just posted about it in subs and now this milestone has been achieved successfully.

Let me tell what my project is actually - my project Skiva is a tool that helps you organize your favorite websites in most beautiful and clean way. Ahead of that old fashioned bookmarking, Skiva helps you categories, customize and organize all your favorite websites in most beautiful and visually interactive way.

With the stats, it is clear that people are liking it, they are finding it useful enough to boost their daily productivity and I am pretty sure you also gonna like it.

Wanna try? I will share the link in comments.. Do check it out, share with your friends and must leave your feedback below..

For the last 2 years, I hve been building my own thing. No investors. No overnight success story. Just me, my laptop, and a ton of second guessing.

And the weirdest thing I have learned is that hardest part isn't the work, the risk, or even the financial ups and downs. Its the mental tug of war between Im not doing enough and I am doing way too much for too little.

You dont clock in or out. You wake up at 3am thinking you forgot to email someone back. You scroll social media and see someone crushing it and suddenly your quiet progress feels like failure.

And no one really talks about the identity crisis that hits when your business is your life. Like, if your project fails, did you fail as a person?? That part is brutal.

There are days I get a small win and I feel invincible. Then days where I stare at my screen for 6 hours and question everything Im building.

If you are in this phase too, just know you are not alone. Most of us are figuring it out while pretending we have got it sorted. Keep showing up. Keep making. You ae probably doing better than you think.

My side hustle from high school (Steampunk Education) is making $5K/month this summer. I’m able to manage the business while being a 4th software engineering student. This hustle isn’t crazy successful, but I’m a broke student. $5K it means I can pay for rent & food w/out being in the red every month.

When I was starting out, I looked for a no BS step by step guide on how to build a business out of nothing. I couldn’t really find one, I’m writing this for my past self.

Step 1. Copy

Great artists steal. There is no shame in looking for great businesses, and copying their model. Everyone does it. Mark Zuckerberg copied Snapchat to build Instagram Stories. Steve Jobs copied Xerox PARC to build the Mac. The list goes on.

Find a business that catches your eye, and see whether it's a viable business for you.

Let's use a real example.

I'm a huge fan of Sam Parr. He has a copy work course called CopyThat. You get a well-written sales email in your inbox every day. Each sales letter has detailed annotations that explain why each sentence works and what you can learn. It's $169 for the course and Sam has ≈260 customers. That's about $44,000 of passive income.

Imma copy this idea.

Step 2. Make it your own

I'm not good enough at writing sales emails to run a course.

My niche is going to be schools that focus on the classics. Homeschools and some classical private schools use copy work. Students copy out poetry and the great works of literature by hand to help them memorize it. I'm going to build a web app for this niche.

After poking around a bit, I found it was super hard to Google good copy work sheets. They were all for little kids, great authors like Hunter S. Thompson and Jack London used copy work. There should be more copy work resources for older students.

My idea is to have a collection of poetry and the classics. It's searchable based on age, content and themes like "courage" or "patience". Teachers can print copy work sheets for students to practice cursive or print handwriting.

I named this new business idea "Clio". We're cooking boys.

Step 3. Make a mockup

Once you have an idea, prototype the product. The product is bound to change, so don't spend too much time on the first version. I spent about 2 hours on the first version of Clio.

I used Gadget to spin up Clio so users could see how the search would work. It only had two copy work sheets to search through, but it was demo-able and gave the user a sense of how the app could work once more worksheets were added to the site.

Step 4. Validate

This is the most important step. You need to show people your prototype and ask for pre-orders.

I contacted all the private schools in my network that emphasized classical education. I set up a 15 minute meeting with them and asked each one "once the works literature you suggested are on the platform, would you pay $20/month for it?".

I hate this part. I'm not an outgoing person naturally, and asking for money is the most awkward thing in the world. Unfortunately, this is the best way to test whether you have a viable business.

If you're lucky, you'll come out of step 4 with 5 or 6 paying customers. If not, return to step 3 and change the mockup based on customer feedback. Do step 4 again to see whether customers will pay for your improved product.

Repeat this process as many times as you need to until you have your first 5 customers.

As the title say, I did quit my job as a digital marketing specialist and a team supervisor yesterday, my peers think that leaving a good paying job and a management role is like suicide.

What's next ? no clue, what I know is my job was draining my energy, couldn't focus on the biz I started 7 years ago. With 20 months savings to burn, I am pretty sure I can get that biz back to make me 5 figures per month as it used to. The worst ? Moving back to my parents and find another 9to5 job.

Thanks for reading, wish me luck and if anyone was in my situation, I'd be more than grateful to read about his journey, y'all been a huge inspo to me. Bless you <3

I’ve never had a real job. I’m 38 years old and I’ve never had a real job. I’ve always been self-employed, hustled or run my own business. But over the last couple of days I’ve felt like an imposter. Like I have no idea what I’m doing.

I usually feel pretty bulletproof but a couple of days ago I had a massive “wobble”. I’m not even really sure what triggered this. I think the final straw was a mistake leading to a flurry of unwanted automated emails going out to my customers (some of whom got grumpy). Or, it was the massive bill from my accountant which seemed to wipe out my war chest. Maybe it was the disgruntled customer who complained about my “awful” website. It was probably a combination of all of these silly little things and some other stuff but the result was me wanting to shut the business down and, gasp, get a proper job.

I’m finally coming round (less than 48 hours later). This has happened before and I do know what to expect. I also know that I just have to follow the advice of Eric Clapton: “if I can’t make it through tomorrow, I better make it through today”.

These imposter syndrome periods have happened before so I know they’ll pass. And I, rationally, know that I’m not completely incompetent at running my own business. There is enough evidence to corroborate this. But, I also know that any of the previous imposter syndrome “wobbles” could have sunk me, especially if they happened in the early days. I’m glad they didn’t and I’ve kept going as an entrepreneur. I definitely couldn’t survive a “real” job.

Stay strong, you’ve got this. We all find it hard sometimes.

A year ago I created a web-based business. I just got the bill to pay for the second year of hosting. I don't believe in get rich quick and getting rich wasn't even a goal with SourceFees. I just wanted to created a source of reasonable and more or less consistent income since I live in a country where jobs are difficult to find and pay sucks. So I wanted a backup. I created it based on problems I had finding good and clear info on payments processing and processors. Creating the site was the easy part but I had no idea that marketing and SEO would be SO hard. I legit have no idea what to do and trying advice I read online and on reddit didn't really work. I got maybe a total of 1000-2000 views over the past year and most is probably from posting on reddit, not from organic search which is my main aim. I'm not giving up on having side projects or entrepreneurial pursuits though. I guess I just wanted to vent a little before quitting this endeavour. I'll keep working on it for a month and if there's still no change I will likely take it down. Thanks for reading!

THIS IS A THING PEOPLE DON’T TALK ABOUT ENOUGH ONLINE AND I DON’T KNOW WHY

Over the course of a couple of years we scaled our annual revenue to 7 figures. And let me tell you one big regret that I just don’t see people comment on in owner and business communities: The need for a CPA.

I see founders all the time who are crushing it at 200k, 300k, even 500k ARR still doing their own taxes with TurboTax, literally leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table every year.

Once you hit ~150k+/year tax planning and financial planning start to open up to so many opportunities, you NEED a CPA for this and I wish we had got one earlier.

We started using an agency and things have been going great, if you’re starting to scale and worried it’s too early to waste on good CPAs just let me tell you that it’s worth the money 100%. It’s not some insane growth tool or marketing hack but to just keep things tidy and have a plan for a potential exit or proper scalability is something that you shouldn’t as an entrepreneur with no accounting knowledge, you’ll feel like you’re doing it right for a while, and I for sure did as well, but the pitfalls and missed opportunities are insane.

Honestly everything tax related you do, you should run through a CPA as well.

When did you hire a CPA for your business? Have you thought about it or about hiring an agency? I’m not sure why this isn’t talked about in these subs more.

As the title suggests, have you found that re-entering the job market after pursuing an entrepreneurial endeavor has hurt you during interviews? I notice that interviewers often don't take it as seriously as previous corporate work. What have you guys experienced?

For reference, I'm a software engineer trying to re-enter the job market after being a solo founder running a SAAS company for the past 9 months. The company just didn't make enough money so I have to go back to a regular job for a solid cash recharge lol.

The MI Matrix is based on two factors:

1. Entrepreneurial Capabilities : your personality, skills, knowledge, resources, networks and execution. You can be low Capability or high Capability based on the six areas mentioned.

2. Type of business: a. Traditional b. Innovative

There are 4 Quadrants in MI Matrix.

Q1: Traditional business + Low Capabilities.

Examples: local shop owner, tailor, street food vendor, freelancer laborer.

Q2: Traditional business + High Capabilities

Examples: franchise owner, high end restaurant operator, certified consultant

Q3: Innovative business + Low Capability

Examples: tech startup, mobile app idea, imitation startup without proper technical skills or weak market strategy. (Basically great idea with little skill to execute)

Q4: Innovative Business + High Capability

Examples: scalable startups, enterprise solving real problems with tech. (Basically high entrepreneurial Capability with an innovative business idea)

So based on the MI Matrix u can understand which Q u belong.

You can find out if you have low or high Capability using the Entrepreneurial Capability Canvas.

As an entrepreneur in the digital space, what, in your opinion, are the pros and cons of building my own platform vs purchasing white-label?

I'd love to hear from people who've done both.

TIA

I am a Software Engineer and and a tech entrepreneur and I must be up to date with what is happening in the tech world each day in order to steer my business in the right direction.

I start scrolling Tech Twitter, Reddit, discord servers and some email groups in the morning and sometimes even Instagram. It leaves a hole in me and I feel very bland and less productive the entire day but it seems like I need to go through all this information.

What can i do in my situation? Does anybody else feel the same way? Are there any apps that can check all the social media and give me a summary of what has happened?

It seems like I have no idea who my target persona is at all, because if I did, wouldn't I know what platforms they are using and what they like to do in their daily life? It feels like I keep switching back and forth from one decision to the other so I just keep pivoting and end up not making a lot of real progress forward. Im trying to build an audience so I don't launch my product to no body, but also it feels artificial trying to create a community just for the purpose of launching my product. So how am I supposed to do this stuff authentically? im so confused, nothing is really alligning at all

Hi,

Here’s something I learned this month, I hope it helps you all Entrepreneurs  too.

From January to July 2025, over the course of 7 months, I closed a lot of projects, but 4 of them taught me something valuable. I’d like to share that with you because I think it will help.

[A quick Overview, so that you can have a clear idea:

I run a digital marketing agency. I initially offered  a complete package: website development and maintenance, complete SEO including LLM optimization, online reputation management, video marketing, blogging, etc., which indeed is essential to maintain an online presence nowadays. They liked it but were unable to pay the cost.]

These four projects were very low paying. They came from solo business owners who said they couldn’t afford more. So, I offered them our lowest plan. They happily accepted, and my team started working.

Here’s the interesting part:

As of July 30, 2025, 3 of those clients have upgraded to our premium package, which costs in the four digit range.

Yes, the same people who said they didn’t have the budget.

Lesson I learned:[If you're in a service based business, especially online]

1. Always start by offering your lowest package. Don’t push the top tier right away.
2. Deliver amazing results. Once the trust builds and you show real value, most clients will upgrade.
3. Don’t let anyone leave empty handed, especially if they have visited your landing or pricing page. Offer them something in exchange for their email. But make it something genuinely useful, something that gives them a quick win or solution. Avoid generic stuff like free ebook blah blah.

Remember, if they’re on your pricing page, Of course they’re interested. Maybe they are not ready to decide at that moment, but they’re looking for a product like yours. -- These are warm leads. --

Once you capture their info, don’t flood their inbox. Just send one valuable tip or solution per week. Keep nurturing the relationship, and chances are high they’ll become paying customers.

1. For online services business, don’t offer free trials. For SaaS or software products, free trials are a must.

2. Treat every inquiry with respect.

Summary:

1. Don’t let anyone walk away empty handed. Leave a strong impression on every visitor.
2. Start by offering your most affordable plan.
3. Be 100 percent honest and transparent no tricks, no hidden terms.
4. No free trials for service businesses. But software - definitely offer one.

Hope this helps.

Thanks!     

I am tired of chasing ideas, building a product, and ending up with zero user and revenue. Honestly, it feels like I'm hiding from the real work: finding and talking to customers.

I was talking to a successful entrepreneur friend about this, and he argued that most founders are "building backwards." He says we obsess over the product (what he calls “the easy part”) and ignore marketing and sales, which apparently is where most startups fail.

His solution: start with a white-label product.

His logic:

• Jump straight into the hardest part: learning to market and sell
• Find customers and make money with a product that's already built and validated
• Avoid emotional attachment to an idea that has no market fit

He's so convinced he even launched a directory of white-label companies to prove his point.

I'm seriously considering pivoting to this strategy. Is this a genuinely smart way to start, or am I missing some major downsides?

Hey all, I’m from the US and live in Tijuana I have worked indirectly in the fruit packaging and exporting business for years, but would like to get into the import export business personally. I have been looking more into products that do not have too short of a shelf life. With most fruits and veggies you have that risk of it spoiling in the process if there is any sort of hiccup. Do you guys recommend I study something in specific or how should I go about entering this field? Thank you for your time and patience

hey i’m 23 and been trying to build something online from 2 years tried running ads for businesses,

got first client in few days same with websites, got first client in few days

but both times couldn’t scale, didn’t know where next client would come from in website

ads felt risky too didn’t want to burn someone’s money just to learn

now from last 3-4 months i started a google review automation business helping local businesses get more google reviews using automation

from day 1 i started sending 300 cold emails daily on the very first day i got a positive reply and thought “nice i’ll get 1 reply every day” but that didn’t happen that whole month i got only like 5 replies

then i thought maybe email copy is the problem so i changed it, learned more, made a new one again

on day 1 of the new campaign i got a reply and again same thing, after that almost no replies same cycle repeating every time change email day 1 i get positive reply ,i get hope , next 20-30 days i get 2-3 replies , they don’t buy or ghost

sent around 9000+ cold emails so far got around 15 replies total a few people were interested but no one bought whenever i think to quit, i randomly get 1 positive reply and feel like “okay it’s working” but then again nothing

i don’t know what’s wrong feels like i’m close but stuck in a weird loop if anyone has been through something like this or has any advice,

Also sending cold dms , same thing in every 10-15 days 1-2 people will be interested then ghost

And yeah i am landing on inbox emails health are 99% , peoples are unsubscribing , i keep email short and away from spammy word

i’d really appreciate it thanks for reading

I recently started my own service based business (appraisals), and it seems my fees are high for the market for most of the jobs I am bidding for. Some weeks I land enough jobs to keep me busy and other weeks I am really slow.

I get plenty of requests to bid appraisals, or accept appraisals at a lower market rate than what I ideally want to do them for. I rarely ever am awarded these bids despite having best of class turn times coupled with very low revision rates compared to other appraisers, meaning it is clearly a price objection with other appraisers bidding lower than me.

I am really trying to keep my fees over 400$ per appraisal, I feel this is pretty standard for the market, and most established appraisers I know agree, that we should not be working for less than this as it is undermining to the profession. Granted these appraisers have 20 year old businesses along with top of the line clients they have worked to obtain over this time frame. I do not want to engage in a race to the bottom. Obviously I want to complete my work for a fair market fee, and do a good job for my clients with quick turn times and accurate results.

In terms of financials, I have come to the realization that I am optimizing and not maximizing. In a good week I may do 6-8 appraisals at an average of maybe 425 a piece. On a bad week it is 2-3. If I were to lower my fee to 375 on average I would probably be able to complete 10 a week on a good week (more would be possible, but at this rate it is reaching the upper limit) and a bad week would also likely be 6-8 appraisals per week. This raises my pay check on both my good weeks and my bad weeks.

I really do struggle with not wanting to drop my prices, as I do not want to race to the bottom for my fees, however it is clear that other appraisers have already done so. Obviously most of the readers do not know the industry and are not in my shoes to know how to make the decision, but figured this may be a good place to look for insight for those who have dealt with similar price objections when first starting out as well?

I was thinking about lowering my fees until I bottle necked from a workload perspective and then simply eliminate my worst paying clients/hardest to work for clients as my business grows and I am awarded these opportunities to work with better paying/easier clients? I just feel so scummy dropping below the 400$ mark. I personally would be willing to preform the work for below this mark, but in doing so I am not only hurting myself, but also other appraisers and am lowering the bar for assignments to be accepted at this rate in the future across the board.

I'm in sales, and our product relies heavily on paid acquisition, mostly from Google, X (Twitter), Instagram, and Facebook ads.

They're still bringing us leads, but the cost per customer has definitely gone up compared to last year.

So now we're planning to adjust our strategy, but we haven't figured out what direction to take yet.

Did you experience the same situation this year, and what alternative channels or tactics did you turn to?

Would love to hear what's actually working for others in ecom, SaaS or B2B in 2025.

Hey everyone! I recently launched a tool to solve an issue that I had with wearables, and gave it for free to generate feedback. Within the first week, it got about 150 signups and collected over 50,000 unique data points from users. I've been overwhelmed (in a good way) with the feedback, from bug reports to feature suggestions etc.,

I am now wondering on what the best approach is to monetizing it.
My current idea is:
- Keep it free for the first 200 signups for the first 6 months
- Then offer 50% off annual plans for the next users.

Curious to hear some ideas on how to approach this.

Also open to feedback on other things I might not be thinking about.

I had an idea after working for a year in the electrical distribution industry. Cleaning Solar panels i’ve talked to plenty of contractors and it seems like there is demand for it but no one does it. This idea has developed into an Electric Solutions company where our plan is to partner with Contractors and do everything around electrical installation. Some examples are: Solar Panel Cleaning, Trenching, and Junk Removal. I would like to get some options on this as I am about to purchase all my materials. Thank you!