u/theytookallthecash

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some advice from fellow tinnitus sufferers. I will preface this with I have been to my PCP and a dentist but have not been to the ENT or audiologist yet. But I am slowly going crazy!

My story:

My high pitched tinnitus in my right ear started about 14 years ago after my ear drum ruptured on a flight. I've acclimated and am fine after all this time, but now I have a NEW noise in my LEFT ear. It's slow rumbling that sounds maybe between 60-100 hz.

I can't tell if it's internal or external, I truly don't know. I live in the country so it being something external feels unlikely since where I live is residential with a handful of small family farms. I have posted a few times on NextDoor and no one has said they hear anything, and neither does anyone in my house.

So, I'm lead to believe it's internal. It started in April and I went to see my PCP in the beginning of June. I've been on allergy meds for about 3 weeks, and had 5 days of no rumbling that promptly ended this morning.

This morning, my ears feel stuffy and a bit wet. This rumbling is driving me so mad that the high pitched tinnitus doesn't even seem that bad anymore.

Does anyone know what might be happening? I am waiting until my next checkup with my PCP to see an ENT or audiologist since I have a history of health anxiety and feel specialists don't take you seriously if you make the appointment without a referral.

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some advice from fellow tinnitus sufferers. I will preface this with I have been to my PCP and a dentist but have not been to the ENT or audiologist yet. But I am slowly going crazy!

My story:

My high pitched tinnitus in my right ear started about 14 years ago after my ear drum ruptured on a flight. I've acclimated and am fine after all this time, but now I have a NEW noise in my LEFT ear. It's slow rumbling that sounds maybe between 60-100 hz.

I can't tell if it's internal or external, I truly don't know. I live in the country so it being something external feels unlikely since where I live is residential with a handful of small family farms. I have posted a few times on NextDoor and no one has said they hear anything, and neither does anyone in my house.

So, I'm lead to believe it's internal. It started in April and I went to see my PCP in the beginning of June. I've been on allergy meds for about 3 weeks, and had 5 days of no rumbling that promptly ended this morning.

This morning, my ears feel stuffy and a bit wet. This rumbling is driving me so mad that the high pitched tinnitus doesn't even seem that bad anymore.

Does anyone know what might be happening? I am waiting until my next checkup with my PCP to see an ENT or audiologist since I have a history of health anxiety and feel specialists don't take you seriously if you make the appointment without a referral.

Hi everyone! I posted about opening a vintage-based brick and mortar about 2 months ago and was mostly given the advice not to do it. As you can see, I ignored most of that and after 2 months of work, we're finally ready to open. I guess I'm writing this post to ask for encouragement and/or general advice.

Our location is located in a small historic city and that's nice but not a super-touristy destination. But it is about 20 minutes from a tourist destination and about 30 minutes from another historical downtown. This was the only way we were able to find reasonable rent, which we locked in on a yearly lease for $800/month. Luckily, we are next to some other similar shops that are open mostly on the weekends.

Our build out took awhile since it's just me and my husband and we have two small kids and no babysitter, so we had to take turns doing the work. It was annoying for it to take so long, but would have been way more expensive to hire contractors and babysitters to do what we did ourselves.

The store layout has been fine tuned, our POS system is on the way, business licenses and insurance have been obtained and it seems like I've checked most of the boxes to open.

BUT man am I terrified! I always had the dream of owning a brick and mortar. I feel lucky that we were able to lock in a space with low overhead, but I'm still scared of not having any customers, not doing well etc etc etc. I did little market research but I am confident that for our budget that this location was the best choice.

Wish me luck!

I posted this 4 days ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/1t353xm/objectively_speaking_how_well_positioned_am_i_to/

tl;dr: Want to open a vintage store but never have. Was asking if it was a bad idea, most of you said yes.

Since then, I've listened to almost none of you and signed a lease! I'm very excited to bring my dreams to life finally. Why didn't I listen? Well, I happened to find a perfect space for an insanely low rent. I'm paying about $800 for 1300 sq ft. I'm in a historic downtown and in between two other similar vintage stores. One is furniture and the other is bridal and evening.

Don't ask me how this happened, it seemed almost serendipitous. I, more or less, just started cold calling people listing rentals on Facebook marketplace and now I have a store.

We looked at a few spaces, the others were too expensive. I couldn't say no to this and lose out, especially since my online sales will more than cover the rent.

Wish me luck!

Hi all. My spouse and I have been planning to move to Lithuania for over the past year. We both qualify for Permanent Residency via Descent and I have submitted my paperwork. I anticipate to have it next year. I know if I get a job, I would potentially get TRP earlier or get it via my application being submitted. In other words, I am not trying to come illegally.

My spouse is getting cold feet and says we need to have jobs first despite having savings to cover living for a year. I have a tech background in SaaS and e-commerce and have been trying to make in roads in the LT tech scene on linkedin. I have applied to some jobs but no luck yet.

I'm thinking of coming for a few weeks to do in person networking and try to find a job that way. I'm wondering if anyone might have some insight as to if this is dumb or not?

I'd love to hear some feedback as to if I'm in a good place to start a business. I've been ruminating on this idea for well over 15 years, and I'm about to turn 40, so I feel the time is now or never.

I'm looking to start a brick and mortar women's vintage curated boutique with some housewares and media mixed in. I'm in a city with a population of 20k and a thriving historic downtown.

Before you say, "Everyone wants to sell clothes!" I've been doing this online consistently for 12 years with some breaks. I have recorded about 4,000 or so individual sales in that time. Keep in mind that in the past 3 years, my hours have been part time due to parenthood and I also had full-time jobs in that span. I could more sales, but I'm not a vintage newbie. I know how to source both conventionally and unconventionally.

My savings to put towards a business is around $25k currently. My monthly overhead for my personal life is low, under $1k. I have the potential to rent a space for $1k/month. It's a space that isn't super ideal, it seems they're having problems getting tenants. My goal would be to start there and negotiate a one year lease (it says negotiable) and then move somewhere better after the first year.

I'd love to hear some feedback. I know going brick and mortar is more about operations. Frankly put, I'm bored with online. I think for me it has run its course and I'm ready for a new challenge. Yes, I know there are pros and cons and I'm pretty versed with them on paper.

Thank you all.

Edit: I am still going to be responding to comments but I wanted to update. I read through everything. I'm still excited about the idea of a brick and mortar. To clarify, I'm not saying I've been wildly successful online, I was more so sharing that because I wanted to say I'm not brand new.

From what I read, I think the best course of action is to keep the dream alive but to commit to doing pop up events in the area over the next year and building up social media marketing more. Then reassessing the store idea again in early 2027 when I have more money and more information. I think going for it in person after at least 9 months of data for in person sales is smarter than opening a store now and just assuming it will work based on a concept.

Thank you to everyone who answered, I heard a lot of stuff that i wouldn't have heard anywhere else. Thanks a million.

Hi everyone. My family and I have been planning a move to Lithuania for about the past year. We are very close to leaving, so I am starting to envision my future there. Before I go further, Lithuania is a very business-friendly country with a visa I'd qualify for if I open a shop. I also qualify for Permanent Residency via descent, which I'm in the process of applying for now. I anticipate I will have that, hopefully, by 2027. In other words, the doors are open to running a brick and mortar business there.

I'm wondering if anyone has done the same in their new country? What was it like? In the US, opening a business simultaneously feels very hard and very easy, but it's the only landscape I know, so I don't have much to compare it to. It's always been a dream of mine, I don't have a dream to be a digital nomad working virtually forever.

I'd love to hear some stories. Thank you 😄