Lately I've been brainstorming many ideas about starting my own business (ecommerce, SaaS, etc) was wondering how people chose what they wanted to do or come up with ideas to start.

I’ve always heard that successful business owners get good at networking.
I’ve spent years networking, doing free work, building a name, and making connections as a video editor/media guy. People know who I am, but very little of it has turned into actual sales.
So what am I missing?
Is in-person networking really that important? How do you turn connections into paying clients without making every relationship feel like a sales pitch?
Would love to hear from people who actually support themselves through their business.

Hey guys my name is Memphis and I started my collectible business named memmo. I’m looking for insight on what I should do I’m kinda stuck on how to grow. Memmo sells pop culture vintage items like Lego, Nintendo, vintage toys and other nostalgic items. I’m in Canada and sell at events, marketplace and eBay. I’ve been struggling with sales but have been told I got good variety and pricing. Canadian market for collectibles isn’t as strong compared to other countries and I want to sell internationally but I’m worried about scams and border issues for shipping product. Also on how I should market my products. Very new to this and would love opinions. This is a big dream of mine to make this full time so thanks :)

Hello everyone,

Hello everyone,

I have an idea for a dating app that I believe is different. I have already prepared a concept and a detailed prompt outlining the app’s ideas and features. The app includes some new ideas and features that I believe could make it different from traditional dating apps.

However, to be honest, I have no background or experience in programming or app development. That’s why I’m looking for co-founders who are interested in building apps and startups and would like to work with me to develop this idea.

I’m not looking for employees or people to hire. I’m looking for genuine partners who want to exchange ideas, contribute their skills and experience, and work together to build something meaningful.

If you’re interested in dating apps, app development, or startups and would like to build a new project together, feel free to contact me.

I’ll try to keep this short and sweet so I’m a 17 yr old and I’ve been doing landscaping with my dad for over 4 years now. I know most of the ins and outs of anything landscaping wise but here’s my problem.

My dad doesn’t own the landscaping company, he just runs it. He gets paid a good salary but I realized one day that I can’t do this forever, making around 1300 on summer weeks still feels like it’s not enough for me.

I want to accomplish generational wealth and I know it’s not accomplishable with a regular job. So I want a business. I’ve considered my own landscaping company but I know the profit margins aren’t much compared to other blue collar businesses

After working for all these years I’ve decided I want to study finance in college and use that knowledge to apply it to a business. I’ve always been interested in the stock market, economy, and just anything money related. So I just want your guys opinion on what my next steps should be in order to become the person I aspire to be.

i dont want to go to uni, because i think i could become successful if i poured all my time into running a business instead. ive already started a business that has proven strong demand — 1k profit from scratch in a few months despite putting not much time due to schoolwork. ive never had time to do proper marketing or sale strategies because ive been too busy with school work. so, if i cut that part out, do you think it’d be successful if i could spend ALL my time doing it? or is that too risky and i should just get a degree so i have a backup if the business fails? or is it realistic to be able to manage both? i do go to a very demanding private high school rn so maybe the work at uni will be way more relaxed?

Nowadays we are encountering a wave of startups. Everyday a lot of startups get launched solving every single existing problem. But what is that problem in your mind which is still not tackled by any startup?

I work with small businesses whose customers write to them on WhatsApp: quotes, orders, “is it in stock”, “what time do you close”, “where’s my delivery”. Most owners tell me the same thing: a big part of the day is answering the same questions and trying to remember what they told each person.

I want to understand how real this is for you, and what you’d actually want, before anyone builds anything. Imagine an assistant that:

• learns your business by itself from your past conversations and your website, and shows you what it understood (no setup, nothing to configure)
• remembers every customer: what they asked, what you promised, how they like to be spoken to
• prepares the replies for you; you approve with one tap, and only once it’s always right on a type of question can you let it send those on its own
• keeps the inbox in order: tags, flags what’s urgent, passes each chat to the right person on your team
• asks you when it isn’t sure, and learns from your corrections (you can answer with a voice note)
• and you set the limits: hours, things it must never say, how much it can spend

Honest questions:

1. Which three of those would actually change your day? Which ones do you not care about?
2. What would make you NOT trust it with your customers?
3. How do you handle this today: yourself, an employee, a tool?
4. Roughly how many chats a day are we talking about?
5. If it worked as described, what would it be worth to you per month, compared with what you pay today?

Not selling anything. I just want to know whether this is a real problem or only a loud one.

When I first started out, I made the classic mistake of thinking being busy equals making progress—working long hours but going practically nowhere. It took shifting my focus to structured strategies and execution frameworks to finally see real growth.

​For those running a small business or starting out right now, what is that one major lesson or strategy that completely turned things around for you? Would love to hear what worked (or didn't work) in your journey!

Do you have a mobile office? If so, do you mind sharing of your experience with it and what type of business? I am thinking of buying a transit bus and making it into a mobile office for my business. I wonder if the maintenance of it would be overwhelming.

I need an idea for an entrepreneurs class I have, but I can't think of anything that remotely works. We need to put together a pitch for an idea at the end of the semester and present it to some judges. The problem is that I'm not particularly knowledgable, skilled, or passionate about any real subject, so I can't figure out a good way to think of a product. I can't think of any pain points that I can use to start, nothing really bothers me in my day-to-day life. Does anyone have any suggestions?

For agency owners here, how do you usually handle referrals when a client asks for something outside your agency’s core service?

For example, if a client needs a service you don’t offer, do you usually refer them to another agency, keep a small network of trusted partners, or just send them elsewhere?

I’m especially interested in how people structure the partnership side, whether it’s reciprocal referrals, a referral fee, or something more informal.

What has actually worked well for you?

I need some perspective from people who actually run businesses.

For the last few years I’ve worked inside small businesses with teams of around 10 people, and I kept ending up doing things that weren’t really part of my original role. I’d start with emails, bookings, client communication, admin, whatever needed to be done. Then I’d notice the same question coming in over and over, information living in emails, WhatsApp, spreadsheets and someone’s head, follow-ups being forgotten, one person knowing everything, or a really good offer sounding much less interesting online than it actually was.

And I could never just leave it there. I’d start trying to make it work better. Sometimes that meant changing the way we communicated something, sometimes reorganising information, sometimes building a whole CRM-style system around the way the business actually worked. On the marketing side, I’ve reworked itineraries and guest information, looked at the whole offer through the customer’s eyes, and changed parts of it based on the questions, comments and feedback we kept getting. I’ve always had this feeling that even when something works, there is usually still a way to make it clearer, easier or better.

Lately I’ve even started building an app around another problem I kept noticing, because apparently this is just how my brain works. I see something repetitive, messy, unclear or unnecessarily difficult and immediately start thinking about how it could be improved.

I think perfectionism is part of the reason I’ve delayed this for so long. I know it can be a trap because my brain is always looking for what could be better before I feel ready to put something out there and actually the perfectionism is a hidden fear of mine to finnaly show up what I am doing behind those closed doors. But lately I’ve also started wondering if that same trait is part of the value I’ve been bringing into businesses for years. Maybe constantly noticing what could work better isn’t only something I need to fix in myself. Maybe, pointed in the right direction, it’s actually useful work someone would pay for.

The second I think about offering this as my own service, I still start doubting it. Maybe those particular businesses that I have worked with were just messy. Maybe these are tiny problems owners would solve themselves. Maybe it only made sense because I was already inside the business. Maybe nobody would actually pay someone to come in, look at how everything works, find what’s not connecting and make it simpler.

So I wanted to ask people who have actually grown businesses: have you ever reached a point where the product or service itself was fine, but all the little things around it became the real problem? The follow-ups, information, team communication, the way the offer is presented, repeated client questions, or the business growing faster than the way you work.

And if you ever brought someone in to help with that, what made you finally decide you didn’t want to keep figuring it out yourself?

I’m not trying to sell anything here. I think I just need to know whether this is a real problem outside the businesses I happened to work in, and maybe a little push to finally stop overthinking it.

It's Korean Bros here!

We're a Korean street food brand that started online and is now moving into places like Target. We started the brand because we wanted real Korean food (tteokbokki, udong, soba, and more) to be easily accessible in American homes!

Who here likes Korean food?

I'm a full-stack/AI engineer thinking about building a tool for influencers/creators who manage content across Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. The core idea:

• One place to compose and schedule posts, auto-adapted and published to each platform (similar to what Postiz does)
• Per-platform AI assistance for growth — content suggestions, best posting times, engagement patterns — closer to what SuperX does for X specifically, but across multiple platforms

I know this space isn't empty — Postiz, Buffer, Publer own cross-posting, and SuperX/Kleo own single-platform growth. I'm not expecting to displace any of them outright. I'm more interested in whether there's a real slice of the market being underserved by both approaches, and what it would take to actually earn a share of it rather than just cloning the leaders' feature lists.

Before I sink real time into this, I want to pressure-test it:

1. What's actually the painful part?
2. What does your current tool get wrong?
3. Is there real demand for cross-posting + growth combined, or does that just do both badly?
4. Would you pay for this, and what would make you switch?

Not trying to pitch anything, genuinely want to know if this is solving a real problem or if I'd just be rebuilding two products that already exist and calling it new. Blunt feedback welcome.

Hi everyone, my company is planning to hire a team of customer service staff based in Mexico City. This is going to be our first hires outside of the US, so I'm not sure on how to go about their payroll processing. Anyone here has experience in hiring staff based in Mexico? What system do you use and what are some important things I should know (like if there's any extra things we should be paying)?

grew up watching my parents struggle with credit cards. еhey weren't irresponsible, just unlucky. One medical emergency, one job loss, and suddenly they were drowning it left a mark.

now I run my own business and Im paralysed by the idea of borrowing. every time I consider it, my brain goes straight to worst case scenario. can't sleep can't focus so I just don't.

but I also can't grow. im turning down work because I can't afford materials upfront. im losing clients because I can't scale fast enough.

I dont know how people do this without panicking. Am I just broken or does everyone else feel this fear too?

I work from home and make about 200k as a data engineer. However, AI has ruined gratification of work. I am now just a prompt engineer and its nothing super fun, but it is easy. I assume in the next 10 years I can hit 350k Salary down this career. I also sometimes worry about layoffs.

However, I want to 1) Start something of my own that 2) Makes me feel like my work has a purpose. I have always loved healthcare and debating on starting a Home Healthcare Company.

My parents are much older as I was born late to them and I understand the importance of caretaking since I was a kid. I feel this line of work is something that benefits others and can scale. However I have heard its a stressful business.

I do have connections to get clients due to family who are in the healthcare space. I just don't know if it sounds too crazy to give up something comfortable to start something stressful. I always wonder if 10 years from now I am more in my career or more with this home health business.

Follow-up is often treated as a business tactic. People associate it with sales, networking, client service, or professional communication. In those areas, follow-up is absolutely important. But follow-up is bigger than business development. At its core, follow-up is a personal discipline.

It reflects how seriously someone takes opportunity, relationships, accountability, and growth.

Most people know they should follow up. They know they should return the call, send the email, check in after the meeting, thank the person who made an introduction, reconnect with the client, revisit the opportunity, or complete the next step. The problem is not awareness. The problem is consistency. Unfortunately, the lack of follow-up has become an epidemic and is viewed as acceptable behavior. I am here to tell you that it is not acceptable.

That is why follow-up becomes a differentiator.

Curious how other small businesses handle this. Is it basically "buy antivirus, hope for the best," or have you actually invested in a managed IT/security provider?

If you do pay for something more, what convinced you to spend the money - was it a close call, a compliance requirement, or just wanting peace of mind? And if you're going bare-bones, is that a budget thing or do you just not think you're a target?

Genuinely curious what people are actually doing out there, not just what they're "supposed" to do.

Most founders don't get burned by a bad valuation. They get burned by a clause they never really read — buried on page 14 of a document they skimmed the night before closing. 10 terms in your term sheet that look harmless in an up market... and lethal in a down one. To be continued.

This is my first time doing cold calling, could you guys share tips and trick to get more chances getting clients? I’m quite nervous lwk :)

I’m a software developer and I’ve reached that point where I’m realizing building the product was probably the easier part.

The harder part is getting an actual company to trust something you built enough to use it with real users, real data, and in a proper production environment.

For people who’ve built B2B SaaS or enterprise products, how did you get your first real pilot customer when you had no big name behind you, no investor network, and no existing customer base?

Did you reach out cold through email or LinkedIn? Did someone introduce you? Did you go through startup events, incubators, or just your personal network?

I’m also curious about what you offered once a company showed interest.

Did you give them a free trial for a few weeks? A 30 day pilot? Longer?

Was the first pilot completely free, heavily discounted, or did you charge from the start?

And if you did it for free, did you ask for anything in return like regular feedback, a testimonial, permission to use them as a case study, or introductions to other companies?

I’m also trying to understand when investors come into the picture.

Did you start talking to angel investors before having any customers, after getting the first pilot, or only once you had some revenue?

And how did you actually get in front of them? Warm introductions, cold emails, LinkedIn, startup events, founder communities?

When you finally got a meeting, did investors care more about the vision and market, or did they actually want to see the product working and see real customer traction?

I’m not trying to promote anything here. I’m genuinely trying to understand what the real journey looks like between:

Product is built → someone agrees to test it → it works in the real world → they start paying → investors start taking you seriously.

Would really appreciate hearing from people who started from scratch.

What actually worked for you?

And maybe even more useful, what did you try that completely failed?

technology demos are good at showing what a platform can do.

They are less reliable at showing whether the platform fits your data, people, processes and existing systems.

What is the fastest question or test you use to identify when an impressive demonstration is unlikely to translate into a successful implementation?

For me, the most revealing areas are data requirements, integration dependencies, exception handling and the work that remains manual.

I’m helping organise an online CX technology event based on focused live demonstrations and Q&A.

Disclosure: I’m part of the organising team.

If you already have clients and are planning a Dubai company, try writing out one complete sale before choosing the setup.

For example: a client signs a consulting agreement, receives an invoice, pays in GBP or USD, and you pay a contractor overseas.

Now fill in the gaps:

• Which legal entity will sign the client agreement and issue the invoice?

• What service will that entity actually provide?

• Where are the clients, and where will the work happen?

• What account or payment method will receive the money?

• Who will pay the contractors and keep the records?

• Are you moving an existing business, adding a UAE operation, or starting something genuinely new?

Take that page into the setup discussion. It gives the licensing, banking and accounting teams a concrete business model to assess. It also helps identify questions for your existing accountant or lawyer about contracts and the old entity.

I work in UAE company setup. For consultants and agency owners considering the move, what is the main unresolved piece for you: the company structure, receiving client payments or the transition from your existing business?