Trying to make our weekend gatherings more fun for small groups (2–4).
Beyond Baloot and Jackaroo, what games, trivia, or party games do your families keep coming back to? Local or international, as long as it works with a few people.
Every party pack shines with a big group, but we’re almost always 2-4 at home. Which games stay fun at that count? Non-Jackbox suggestions welcome too - board, card, or phone games, anything that works for a small group on a couch.
Most party games seem designed for 6+ people, but our gatherings are usually just 2-4 family or a couple of friends. What always lands at that size?
We like stuff that’s quick to learn: cards, trivia, drawing, word games, guessing games. Nothing heavy, no console.
What would you recommend?
my cofounder and i are cold calling salon owners in Bahrain to sell a booking app we built, past 300 calls now. a good chunk of these calls actually go well. the owner sounds interested, says the idea is good, and asks us to send the details on WhatsApp so they can look at it properly.
so we send it. we offer a free trial, no cost, and include a short demo video showing how it works. a lot of them open it and watch the whole thing, we can see that. and then nothing. no reply, no yes, no no, just silence.
we’ve tried following up once or twice, mostly just asking if they had a chance to look at it, and that usually goes nowhere too.
what i can’t figure out is whether this is a normal part of selling to small business owners who are busy running a salon all day, or if we’re actually messing up the follow up itself. do we wait longer, come back with something different, call instead of texting again, or is watched and ignored basically a soft no at that point.
Genuinely trying to figure out if we’re doing this right.
my cofounder and i are cold calling salon owners in Bahrain to sell a booking app we built, past 300 calls now. a good chunk of these calls actually go well. the owner sounds interested, says the idea is good, and asks us to send the details on WhatsApp so they can look at it properly.
so we send it. we offer a free trial, no cost, and include a short demo video showing how it works. a lot of them open it and watch the whole thing, we can see that. and then nothing. no reply, no yes, no no, just silence.
we’ve tried following up once or twice, mostly just asking if they had a chance to look at it, and that usually goes nowhere too.
what i can’t figure out is whether this is a normal part of selling to small business owners who are busy running a salon all day, or if we’re actually messing up the follow up itself. do we wait longer, come back with something different, call instead of texting again, or is watched and ignored basically a soft no at that point.
Genuinely trying to figure out if we’re doing this right.
my cofounder and i are cold calling salon owners in Bahrain to sell a booking app we built, past 300 calls now. a good chunk of these calls actually go well. the owner sounds interested, says the idea is good, and asks us to send the details on WhatsApp so they can look at it properly.
so we send it. we offer a free trial, no cost, and include a short demo video showing how it works. a lot of them open it and watch the whole thing, we can see that. and then nothing. no reply, no yes, no no, just silence.
we’ve tried following up once or twice, mostly just asking if they had a chance to look at it, and that usually goes nowhere too.
what i can’t figure out is whether this is a normal part of selling to small business owners who are busy running a salon all day, or if we’re actually messing up the follow up itself. do we wait longer, come back with something different, call instead of texting again, or is watched and ignored basically a soft no at that point.
Genuinely trying to figure out if we’re doing this right.
my cofounder and i are cold calling salon owners in Bahrain to sell a booking app we built, past 300 calls now. a good chunk of these calls actually go well. the owner sounds interested, says the idea is good, and asks us to send the details on WhatsApp so they can look at it properly.
so we send it. we offer a free trial, no cost, and include a short demo video showing how it works. a lot of them open it and watch the whole thing, we can see that. and then nothing. no reply, no yes, no no, just silence.
we’ve tried following up once or twice, mostly just asking if they had a chance to look at it, and that usually goes nowhere too.
what i can’t figure out is whether this is a normal part of selling to small business owners who are busy running a salon all day, or if we’re actually messing up the follow up itself. do we wait longer, come back with something different, call instead of texting again, or is watched and ignored basically a soft no at that point.
Genuinely trying to figure out if we’re doing this right.
my cofounder and i built a booking app for salons in Bahrain and have been cold calling to sell it ourselves. no sales background, just the two of us on the phone. past 300 calls now, and every call seems to die in one of the same three spots.
first one. when an owner says “send me the details on WhatsApp so i can understand better,” what do i actually do? right now i just send a text with a short explanation and the link, and it mostly disappears into nothing. should i be sending a short video instead, calling back at a set time, or is the mistake something else entirely?
second one. sometimes it goes “okay, great idea, i’ll call you tomorrow,” or “you can call me tomorrow at 3.” sounds positive in the moment, but almost nothing comes of it. do i just accept whichever version they offer, or is there a better way to lock that down before i hang up?
third one, probably the most common. i get passed to an employee or manager instead of the owner, and it goes one of three ways. they can’t communicate the idea well, they say they can’t share the owner’s details, or they say they don’t know when the owner will be around. how do people who actually do this for a living get past that without sounding pushy?
any one of these would help a lot. if you’ve dealt with gatekeepers or small business owners specifically, even more so.
my cofounder and i built a booking app for salons in Bahrain and have been cold calling to sell it ourselves. no sales background, just the two of us on the phone. past 300 calls now, and every call seems to die in one of the same three spots.
first one. when an owner says “send me the details on WhatsApp so i can understand better,” what do i actually do? right now i just send a text with a short explanation and the link, and it mostly disappears into nothing. should i be sending a short video instead, calling back at a set time, or is the mistake something else entirely?
second one. sometimes it goes “okay, great idea, i’ll call you tomorrow,” or “you can call me tomorrow at 3.” sounds positive in the moment, but almost nothing comes of it. do i just accept whichever version they offer, or is there a better way to lock that down before i hang up?
third one, probably the most common. i get passed to an employee or manager instead of the owner, and it goes one of three ways. they can’t communicate the idea well, they say they can’t share the owner’s details, or they say they don’t know when the owner will be around. how do people who actually do this for a living get past that without sounding pushy?
any one of these would help a lot. if you’ve dealt with gatekeepers or small business owners specifically, even more so.
my cofounder and i built a booking app for salons in Bahrain and have been cold calling to sell it ourselves. no sales background, just the two of us on the phone. past 300 calls now, and every call seems to die in one of the same three spots.
first one. when an owner says “send me the details on WhatsApp so i can understand better,” what do i actually do? right now i just send a text with a short explanation and the link, and it mostly disappears into nothing. should i be sending a short video instead, calling back at a set time, or is the mistake something else entirely?
second one. sometimes it goes “okay, great idea, i’ll call you tomorrow,” or “you can call me tomorrow at 3.” sounds positive in the moment, but almost nothing comes of it. do i just accept whichever version they offer, or is there a better way to lock that down before i hang up?
third one, probably the most common. i get passed to an employee or manager instead of the owner, and it goes one of three ways. they can’t communicate the idea well, they say they can’t share the owner’s details, or they say they don’t know when the owner will be around. how do people who actually do this for a living get past that without sounding pushy?
any one of these would help a lot. if you’ve dealt with gatekeepers or small business owners specifically, even more so.
my cofounder and i built a booking app for salons in Bahrain and have been cold calling to sell it ourselves. no sales background, just the two of us on the phone. past 300 calls now, and every call seems to die in one of the same three spots.
first one. when an owner says “send me the details on WhatsApp so i can understand better,” what do i actually do? right now i just send a text with a short explanation and the link, and it mostly disappears into nothing. should i be sending a short video instead, calling back at a set time, or is the mistake something else entirely?
second one. sometimes it goes “okay, great idea, i’ll call you tomorrow,” or “you can call me tomorrow at 3.” sounds positive in the moment, but almost nothing comes of it. do i just accept whichever version they offer, or is there a better way to lock that down before i hang up?
third one, probably the most common. i get passed to an employee or manager instead of the owner, and it goes one of three ways. they can’t communicate the idea well, they say they can’t share the owner’s details, or they say they don’t know when the owner will be around. how do people who actually do this for a living get past that without sounding pushy?
any one of these would help a lot. if you’ve dealt with gatekeepers or small business owners specifically, even more so.
my cofounder and i built a booking app for salons in Bahrain and have been cold calling to sell it ourselves. no sales background, just the two of us on the phone. around 300 calls in and we can count the signups on one hand.
most of these salons are running everything through WhatsApp and a notebook, and when we get someone on the phone the objection is almost always the same. it works fine for us. i try a few different angles but it barely moves. so now im stuck on whether this is a closing problem or a “not enough pain to fix” problem, because those need completely different fixes.
for context, this is our first time selling anything. no scripts, no training, just calling and figuring it out as we go.
so whats the honest read from people who actually do this for a living. is this normal for cold calling with zero experience, or does 300 calls with almost nothing to show for it mean something’s actually wrong. Tell us straight, even if it’s bad news.
My cofounder and I are based in Bahrain. Over the past few months we’ve built a booking platform for salons and beauty businesses. Customers book through a link for their specific salon, and the business manages appointments, services, staff and availability from one place.
The product itself works fine. Getting salons to actually switch to it has been the hard part.
We’ve called around 300 salons and beauty businesses across Bahrain so far. Almost none of them have signed up, and we’re trying to understand why.
Some of the salons we spoke to already use booking software and are happy with it. Some are mostly walk-in businesses, so booking isn’t really their problem. But a lot of them are still running everything through WhatsApp and a notebook.
We assumed that last group would be the easiest sell. A dedicated system should beat a notebook, right? Instead, what we kept hearing was some version of “it works fine for us.”
That reaction made us rethink our whole positioning. Maybe these businesses were never going to be convinced they need “booking software.” Maybe the real value is something narrower, like:
• letting customers book themselves instead of messaging back and fort
• avoiding double bookings when a WhatsApp message gets missed during a busy shift
• fewer no shows, since nothing today reminds a client automatically
• keeping the whole team on one shared schedule instead of relying on one person’s memory
• not having to dig through old WhatsApp chats to figure out who booked what for when
• or something else entirely that we haven’t identified yet
We’re also willing to onboard the first customers ourselves, sitting with them and setting everything up rather than expecting them to configure it alone.
I’m posting here because I’d rather get honest feedback from people in Bahrain than keep guessing on our own. If you run a salon or beauty business, or you’ve built something for small businesses before, I’d really like your take. And if you’ve ever booked a salon appointment here yourself, I’d love to know how that usually goes for you too, whether it’s WhatsApp, a phone call, or just walking in.
Does this sound like a real problem, or more of a nice to have?
Any idea why 300 conversations would lead to almost no signups? Is that normal this early, or a sign the problem just isn’t painful enough?
If you had to pick the single strongest reason a salon should switch to something like this, what would it be?
Would you narrow this down to one niche, like nail salons, spas or busier, appointment-heavy salons, instead of salons in general?
When a business tells you their manual process works fine, do you change the product, the message, or look for a different type of customer?
Before we spend more months building features, what’s the one thing you’d test first?
If the core problem really isn’t painful enough, I’d rather find that out now than after another six months of building.
Thanks in advance for any input.
Over the past few months my cofounder and I built a booking platform for salons and beauty businesses. Customers book through a link for their specific salon, and the business manages appointments, services, staff and availability from one place.
The product itself works fine. Getting salons to actually switch to it has been the hard part.
We’ve called around 300 salons and beauty businesses across Bahrain so far. Almost none of them have signed up, and we’re trying to understand why.
Some of the salons we spoke to already use booking software and are happy with it. Some are mostly walk-in businesses, so booking isn’t really their problem. But a lot of them are still running everything through WhatsApp and a notebook.
We assumed that last group would be the easiest sell. A dedicated system should beat a notebook, right? Instead, what we kept hearing was some version of “it works fine for us.”
That reaction made us rethink our whole positioning. Maybe these businesses were never going to be convinced they need “booking software.” Maybe the real value is something narrower, like:
• letting customers book themselves instead of messaging back and fort
• avoiding double bookings when a WhatsApp message gets missed during a busy shift
• fewer no shows, since nothing today reminds a client automatically
• keeping the whole team on one shared schedule instead of relying on one person’s memory
• not having to dig through old WhatsApp chats to figure out who booked what for when
• or something else entirely that we haven’t identified yet
We’re also willing to onboard the first customers ourselves, sitting with them and setting everything up rather than expecting them to configure it alone.
I’m posting here because I’d rather get honest feedback from people in Bahrain than keep guessing on our own. If you run a salon or beauty business, or you’ve built something for small businesses before, I’d really like your take. And if you’ve ever booked a salon appointment here yourself, I’d love to know how that usually goes for you too, whether it’s WhatsApp, a phone call, or just walking in.
If the core problem really isn’t painful enough, I’d rather find that out now than after another six months of building.
Thanks in advance for any input.
I want to retrieve products with information and price in my country, but tried some services and I can’t get it to work full? I’m looking for a fast scraper and get all needed information native to my country.
Appreciate the help!
I want to retrieve products with information and price in my country, but tried some services and I can’t get it to work full? I’m looking for a fast scraper and get all needed information native to my country.
Appreciate the help!
We’re two founders based in Bahrain, building a mobile app startup. The app is about 90% ready, and we’re planning to start posting founder-led videos.
For those who have successfully built trust, support, and engagement from the public: what worked best for you?
Should we focus more on our story, our progress, the problem we’re solving, or the product itself? What kind of hooks worked for your videos? How long should each video be?
Also, from a production side: is it better to keep the videos raw and real with light edits/subtitles, or use more polished editing and motion graphics? Should we use background music? Should we film in the same place every time or mix locations?
For camera presence, should we be serious, casual, funny, or a mix? And what about appearance — casual clothes, suits, or a consistent outfit/style?
Lastly, did running ads help, or is it better to grow organically first?
Would really appreciate advice from founders or creators who have done this successfully.
So I created a leads campaign with Claude and meta ads. I created an ad set of 2 videos and the campaign lasted 4 days with $40 total ad spend. Now the survey is 29 questions and it was a redirect to the website landing page, not meta forms. The result of the test was 427 clicks, 13 submissions, and 3 submitted contact information for early access and testing to my app. Now is this a good or a bad result? Any information I need to provide for more clarity ?
So a friend transferred $120 but due to a bank’s processing issue this delayed the transfer. But today the issue got fixed, though as per the head, she said the employee transferred it twice accidentally. She asked for it back, the bank too called me like excessively from different landlines. Also, I transferred the money onto another account, now I got -120 in my bank account. Am I liable to return it?
Right now we are based in Bahrain and we are on the verge of finishing the product (Mobile App), and we will get a deal with an accelerator for investment. We (two cofounders) completed all the parts on our end from ideation, planning, development, and cash spend. Now I did research, and most are saying to give out 1.5% to the media partner, needless to say he will work part time and will be the face of the product where he will post founder led videos, and he has no control on anything regarding the product itself, just the media face. He settled for equity, but how much % to give ?