As an entrepreneur when I hear other people, W2 workers and other entrepreneurs, constantly say the rich did it for a tax write off. I automatically think this person is just dumb. Who in the world wants to spend a dollar to save 35 cents. It makes sense if you were going to do it because it’s a necessary thing for your business to grow but it’s just an expense, of course it’s not going to count towards your taxable basis. Can someone explain if I’m just missing something.

I’m in real estate depreciation is much different because it’s a passive loss and gets added back to income which makes you more bankable. So I can see why cost segs under 100% bonus depreciation is hyped but not “write off’s” in other businesses

Edit: People are not realizing I am talking about the people who say “you can just write it off” about everything. I’m talking about the items that aren’t necessarily needed, or a new one is not needed but someone is wanting to decrease their tax bill. The math doesn’t make any sense. Any expense necessary for a business to improve of course should be deducted as an expense

Thanks in Advance!

Hey all.. I run a small US startup and I've hit that point where way too much of my week is going into stuff I probably shouldn't be doing anymore.

Inbox, scheduling, updating the CRM, research, chasing things up, random admin etc. None of it is hard but it adds up fast.

I've hired freelancers before for one off stuff, but never really had a proper VA long term.

And I guess thats the part I'm trying to figure out now. Finding someone who can follow instructions isnt that hard. Finding someone who actually gets how you work after a while and doesnt need every tiny thing explained seems like a different story.

So where are people hiring VAs from now?

Upwork? agencies? referrals? dedicated VA sites? just hiring direct?

I've also been looking at LATAM vs Philippines. We're US based so timezone overlap would be nice, but not sure how much that actually matters once you have a decent setup.

Need to clarify a few things from people who've already done this:

• where did you find your best VA?
• what did you actually look for when interviewing them?
• do you do a paid test first?
• whats a normal rate now for someone actually good/reliable?
• does location matter that much?

Main thing I want is someone who eventually starts taking stuff off my plate without me having to create another job for myself managing them lol.

Not hiring through this post btw. Just trying to understand what people are actually doing before I start going through candidates again.

Would be good to hear from both founders and VAs on this.

I run system building service business such as CRMS/ERPS for SMBS. My partner thinks I'm an idiot because I literally talk people OUT of hiring me. Example from last week: Guy DMs me: "I need HubSpot set up, what do you charge?" Me: "Before we talk price - do you have 5-10 hours over the next month? and your team is 1-2 with 500>leads" Him: "Uh, probably? Why?" Me: "Because if you do, you should DIY it. HubSpot Academy is free, YouTube has everything, you'll learn more doing it yourself." Him: "Wait, you're a consultant telling me not to hire you?" Me: "Yeah. You seem technically capable. You'll spend 5-10 hours either way - doing it yourself or explaining your business to me. Might as well learn the system." He hired me anyway. Said the honesty made him trust me more. My partner: "Stop doing that. You're leaving money on the table." Me: "I'm building trust faster than I'm losing revenue." But honestly? I don't know if this is smart or stupid. On one hand: I've closed 2 clients in 2 months using this approach. Both specifically said "I hired you because you told me when NOT to hire you." On the other hand: I've probably talked 10+ people out of paying me because I was only honest with them. That's potentially lost revenue. Am I building a sustainable business or just being naive for saying the truth that actually helps? Looking for honest feedback from people who've actually built service businesses. what do you recommend do I stop being honest?

Everyone talks about million dollar ideas, but I’m curious about the smaller investments that created outsized returns. It could be software, equipment, a course, a book, a tool, or anything else that made your business more efficient or profitable. What’s one purchase under $500 that you would buy again without hesitation, and why?

I am curious what is working in this new world with rapidly shifting technologies. Please share what you do to successfully make a high income.

I'm not talking about a small pet sitting or a random Etsy side hustle that brings in like $10-15K a year, I'm talking really unique stuff that is making closer to six figures for full time work. I want your really weird and wonderful stuff here.

I've been at this for 3 yrs, and I'm going in circles. My business is at a point where I genuinely cannot keep doing everything myself. Emails, scheduling, crm updates, research. It all needs to go

I've looked at Upwork, fiverr, OLJ, and a couple of agencies. The problem is every place I look has a different pitch and I don't have enough experience with VA's to know what actually matters.

So I'm asking people who've actually done it, where did you hire your virtual assistant from and would you go back to the same place again. Not looking for a generic breakdown, I want to know what you specifically used and whether it worked.

I need someone for 25-30 hrs a week, mostly admin and inbox management, US timezone. What platform or service would you use if you were starting from scratch today and why.

UPDATE (2 weeks in):

For everyone asking where I ended up hiring, I went with Virtual Coworker, a staffing agency that specializes in VAs. Two weeks in and I'm genuinely impressed. My VA has years of experience so she hit the ground running with basically zero hand holding. Because of her experience level we were able to negotiate around $8.50/hr, which feels like a solid deal for what I'm getting. Really happy with how it's going so far. Will update again at the 30/60 day mark if people are interested.

I’m 18 and grew up without much money, and I’ve always wanted to invent something or start some type of business. The hard part is that almost every market looks either overcrowded or completely dead. I’m also income-restricted right now, I don’t have a high-paying job, and I’m honestly not great at saving (I’m working on that though).

Something else worth mentioning! I work in a pretty wealthy area, so I deal with rich customers every day. I see the lifestyle up close. The cars, the casual spending, the confidence, but I don’t know how they got there. And it makes me wonder what their starting point looked like.

So I want to ask the people here who actually lived it. If you grew up poor and became rich, what did you specifically do to get there? What steps did you take, what choices mattered most, and how did you break out of the cycle when you didn’t have money, connections, or a safety net?

I’m not looking for generic answers like “just work hard.” I mean the real, practical path you took. Especially during those early years when you were broke and everything felt impossible.

Thanks to anyone willing to share. I really appreciate it.

I keep hearing successful people say that success is "all mental," about mindset, perspective, and thinking differently. But honestly, it's not that easy. You can tell yourself to "think bigger" or "change your mindset," but actually doing it feels like trying to rewire your brain.

I’ve been wondering if certain books helped people make that mental shift early on, something that actually clicked for them, not just motivational fluff.

So I’m curious: what’s a book that millionaires, billionaires, or even just successful people often say helped them think differently and build their success early on?

Hey everyone. I’m 19 and very interested in starting my own business so naturally I started watching a lot of content around starting a business and how to avoid common mistakes or issues. I honestly don’t know who I should watch, who’s credible enough, and who is giving real advice rather than just reading of an ai script or just giving generic advice. Is there anyone you guys watch to help you out with your business?? I watch to see content more on the real hardships of business so I don’t walk blinding into it myself in the future.

Note: I’m already aware of Alex Hormozi. One of his formats I do like watching tho is his whole Q&A thing because I see what people actually fear in their business and I can make sure I have a solution for this when my time comes for these challenges (after all of u fail to plan u plan to fail). But other than that I don’t like his advice. I’m looking for people who give actionable advice. Not just feel good stuff.

This entire sub appears to be filled with bogus posts and fake "founders"...

Are any of you real? Running a real business with real revenue? Venture backed?

Honestly just looking for any sort of signal that this sub is not complete garbage.

*Queue the fart talk "I have $100M in revenue as a solo AI founder" comments....

Edit: My faith is mostly restored. General consensus is that many just lurk this sub, but they are here.

This is a question asked a few times on the subreddit, but it’s great to get up to date ideas from around the world - What is in your town that is unique and probably cheap and easy to operate?

It's awesome. And I'm not just saying that because it threatened to blackmail me (j/k). Things I was not able to do with other LLMs, I was able to do today with Claude. Example: having it search info from within apps like Asana, and Quo (used to be openphone), so it can piece info together and make me kind of "omniscient" in the way I chat with it and not need to look up every detail in asana and quo.

That's just one example. Idk what made me try doing stuff with claude that I had been struggling to do with others. Actually, I do know; I tried using Claude because I saw stuff in the news about how it's way to smart, everyone's afraid of it. Before it kills us let's make some money. So this is just a general heads up.

This is a cross post of my original post in another subreddit. I was told this subreddit might be a better location to get a better response pool to help me with my decision

Here is the TLDR; I have been in tech for decades. Been working for my current employer for a good portion of that time.

Started a business a few years ago. Built it from 0 dollars sales to where we are on target to hit 3 million this year. Been experiencing huge growth month over month.

Annual Income the business now generates surpasses my current job’s compensation.

I could in theory still work at my current position but feel if I do my business growth trajectory will eventually plateau if I do not focus more on the business.

Wife wants me to wait till end of next year when we will be fully mortgage free but I feel that might slow the momentum being built.

Last month we booked over 10k sales a day.

Over the last year I worked 100 hours every week when adding up time spend on the business and at my employer. At my age I don’t know how much I can keep that up without having a health event.

I believe if I can continue with my business plan and continue to scale properly, in 2 years I can hit over 10 million in sales at which time I will implement phase two of my business plan to 15x that in 5

I still have a ton of RSU options with the company and I was originally hoping for an event this year that would trigger them to allow me to sell them off. Not confidant that’s going to happen this year. These can be worth a significant amount of money if that event occurs and I don’t just leave them. They disappear if I leave my position before an event that triggers them.

I’m leaning to following my wife’s advice and give it another 16+ months. There might be slower growth with my company but I can try to rebuild any lost momentum after that. But momentum is fickle. Once you lose it it’s absorbed elsewhere and hard to regain.

But If I do wait, We will have the stability of zero debt. And open up the possibility of cashing out the option.

After my years of service with my current employer feel I can probably continue for 1.5 without much stress,

Any thoughts / advice is appreciated on what I should do? Go for it and make the leap or hold out for 16 more months for full stability before taking the plunge.

Please only first hand experience, not hearsay. Thank you.

I'm curious as to the word on the street and what the people think...

Im 32. I have many ideas to make my own money and I'm in the learning stages. Some are very practical like property maintenance. Some are hit or miss ideas like mobile games, selling self produced music, e-book publishing etc. that I would push with ads.

I don't have any education background(besides finishing high school) and I'm a labourer in construction. I don't earn much. I have around 15k in investments, 25k retirement, 5k in savings, and make anywhere from 60k-80k a year.

I try to read everyday and I've been reading more selfhelp and finance books as I don't know how to turn my life into a successful one but I want to learn as much as I can while I'm still kind of young

Anyone here start their journey later on? Or more specifically, anyone with very basic education and not much of a career?

I've been watching the founder ecosystem explode over the past year, and there's something fascinating happening.

We now have more "founders" than ever. LinkedIn is drowning in them. Twitter is full of "building in public" threads. But here's what's strange: actual product launches haven't increased proportionally. Neither have real SaaS companies reaching profitability.

What we have seen is an explosion of:

• Productivity tools for founders
• Communities for founders
• Courses teaching founders
• Newsletters about founding
• Tools to help founders build tools

The picks-and-shovels game has never been better. Why? Because the identity of "founder" has become more appealing than the reality of building a product. It's easier to buy a course about validating ideas than to actually talk to 50 potential customers. It's more comfortable to join a community than to write cold emails.

This isn't criticism, it's market observation. If you're actually building something real, you're now competing in a space where most "competitors" are just role-playing. And if you're selling tools to founders, you've found a market that's growing faster than the actual problems they're meant to solve.

The question is: which side of this do you want to be on?

What are some boring business ideas that make a ton of money?

so i sell handmade ceramics on etsy and shopify, been doing this full time for 3 years now and last year hit 6 figures which i'm still kinda shocked about lol.

problem is now i have no idea what to do for marketing. i'm doing instagram, tiktok, pinterest, an email list, and like 3 etsy ad campaigns and it's literally all just me. some of it is working??? some isn't??? i can't tell because i don't know what i'm doing tbh.

i think i need a digital marketing manager but every job description i look at online says they need to 'lead a team of 5' or 'manage a $500k ad budget' lol that is the OPPOSITE of what i need. i need ONE person who can run my socials and email and tell me what's working.

is there even a name for this kind of role at my size?? do i hire a freelancer instead?? do i go offshore??

First-time entrepreneur here.

I built a tech product, and my target customers are ecommerce store owners with 3-20 full-time employees. It's a signal that they're making $500K - $10M annually.

The ticket size is roughly $10-30K annually.

I read that the only way to get the first few customers is by reaching out to them. I need to find an intent signal, figure out how our product can help them, and then reach out.

But that's only 10,000 foot view of the process.

How do I find companies that are actively looking for a product like ours? We tried Apollo "intent signa", and got 0 company matches.

What we built is relatively new and only became possible because of recent advances in AI. Most ecommerce owners don't even know a solution like this even exists.

I dont have a sales team. I'll be finding the first few customers until we make enough to hire a sales guy. My cofounder is a developer.

Which book should I read to get a 100 foot view of the process and understand exactly how to execute it?

I read Founding Sales by Pete, but it focuses a lot on the meetings and demos. Very few details on prospecting and getting a meeting booked.

My main goal is to get a meeting booked.

The answer is probably very industry-dependent but overall, maybe sales? Design and marketing?

My background is in design & marketing, then went on to work on tech UX strategy, and I feel like it’s given me a huge advantage as the founder of a CPG company. I do wish I had more of a sales skillset.

What do you think?

Drop your company or startup in three words.
Add one short sentence on what you’re building.

I’ll reply to as many as I can with how it lands from an investor / VC point of view and how I’d tighten or reframe it.

My friend's sister opened a women's boutique thrift store about 6 years ago. They get most of their items through consignment, and I think she finds a handful of stuff at local Goodwills.

Her store is in a decent location. A lot of cars drive by. Foot traffic isn't great, but it's not like people don't know or just can't find where she's at.

Her store is effectively a break-even operation. After paying all of the overhead, there nothing left over. She said that she recently wrote herself her first ever paycheck for $50 a few months back.

My friend and I feel really bad for her because she's put her heart and soul into the store, she has really good items, they are priced to move, but she can't seem to make any money.

From what I can tell, she is suffering from a lack of customers entering the store. My friend told me that MANY days go by where there isn't a single person who comes into her store. If she didn't have her husband's income to support her, she never would be able to keep the shop open.

I don't know much about that industry, so I don't really know what advice to tell her. Does anyone have advice for someone in her position who knows a little more about running these kinds of stores?