r/BusinessDeconstructed

Hello everyone, I am 22M and pursuing a business degree... And I am entrepreneurship oriented aiming to create something big in my country. I am working on a business startup with other people of different skills, whom I met both in university and online. It takes a lot of energy and learning to move forward. This of course, is normal for business life.

Now here's the thing: there's been a girl I have always liked from secondary school though I never made anything start( like a relationship there) I was a nerdy type back them. Right now she's in medical school whilst I am in business school. The universities are about 01:30 hrs apart.

I decided to just let her be ever since we finished high school so as I fully focus on my craft or development. Got advice from the "guidance counselors" who told me that it's better to focus on your goals and development right now since you are still young as you are just finishing high school. You might not even love the girl if you wait for some time. I admit I was so young then.

Fast forward to the future(years later), we are now both university students and I still like the girl. I constantly, everyday, choose my business ventures over going for her. But it feels like I am trading or playing dice with two most important parts of my life. I don't like the thought of choosing between the two though I know it might be the right choice. Thinking of balancing the two feels like I am just trying to defend myself whilst making the wrong decision maybe.

I need advice from everyone of you who have experience or knowledge on this situation. I believe you happen to know the right choice to make in this situation, though I might find it difficult to accept. Just tell me the truth as you believe, in your opinion, it is. How do you go about entrepreneurship when these two parts of life crushes?

Thank you

I think this is such a great exercise.

You know what often happens when I do free feedback on business ideas and ask founders to describe what they do in two sentences?

"Well, it's complicated."

And I always say the same thing:

• If you can't describe your business in a simple one-liner, you don't really have a business.

Most people get a little cranky when I say that.

A one-liner is simply the answer to the question: "What do you do?"

It's a single statement that helps people quickly understand why they need your product or service.

Start with the problem, then position your product or service as the solution.

So, let's do this!!!

Drop your one-liner below. Even a caveman should understand it.

Speak soon,
Jan

For about $0.01 each, I'm gathering leads overnight. I drag a space on the map, specify by industry, keyword, name, business, and watch it work. It collects companies and individuals at those companies (or one or the other). I get names, emails, phone numbers, socials, and more all in one shot. I can set it to auto mode and it does this while I sleep...

The tool is free, but you have to obviously pay for the api usage...

It automatically plugs these individuals/companies into my custom CRM that features deal tracking and automated sales guidance/actions/scripts/messages.

Have a good day and keep going!

So I've seen a lot of people on Reddit asking how to get web design clients, so I figured I'd make a post about what's been working for me.

If you don't run a web agency, this probably isn't for you.

One of the biggest lessons I've learned in my 4 years running a web agency is that the best businesses to target are the ones that already have a website.

There are 3 simple reasons for that.

First, the number of businesses with outdated websites is way higher than most people think. I'm talking about websites with outdated designs, poor mobile optimization, slow loading speeds, weak SEO, and confusing layouts.

Second, the fact that they already have a website proves one important thing. They understand the value of having one. You don't have to convince them that a website is important because they've already invested in it before.

Third, selling becomes much easier because they're already familiar with paying for a website. In many cases they're still paying monthly for hosting or maintenance, so paying to improve it isn't a completely new idea to them.

Now that we know who to target, how do we actually reach them?

Personally, I recommend email outreach.

The problem is that manually reviewing websites and writing personalized emails for every business takes forever.

Instead, I'd automate the whole process.

I use a tool called Swokei. You upload a list of businesses with websites, it automatically analyzes each one, then turns issues with design, layout, speed, mobile optimization, and SEO into personalized outreach emails.

Not generic reports that business owners don't care about.

Actual emails explaining what's wrong with their website, why it matters, and how it could be affecting their business.

That allows you to send outreach at scale while still keeping every email relevant.

In my experience, this leads to much higher reply rates because you're pointing out something specific that's potentially hurting their business. That naturally creates urgency while also giving you the chance to offer a solution.

This is the approach I've been using for a while now, and it consistently brings me an interested reply rate of around 5–9%.

I'm curious how everyone else is getting web design clients these days.

For me, it's still web design.

I know a lot of people are going to disagree because everyone keeps saying it's saturated, AI is replacing developers, and it's impossible to get clients.

Honestly, I couldn't disagree more.

I think web design is actually easier than ever if you approach it differently.

The mistake I see almost everyone make is targeting businesses that don't have a website.

You see it all over Instagram Reels.

Someone opens Google Maps, finds a business without a website, calls them, and asks if they need one.

The problem is that business has probably already been contacted by 10 other web designers.

And if they still don't have a website, there's a good chance they either don't see the value in it or don't have the budget for one.

My targeting is completely different.

I only target businesses that already have a website.

There are three reasons.

First, there are an insane number of businesses with outdated websites that desperately need updating.

Second, if they already have a website, they already understand the value of having one. You don't have to convince them that websites matter.

Third, they're already paying for a website, so spending money on improving it doesn't feel like a completely new expense.

Now the question becomes...

How do you actually get their attention?

I don't run normal cold email campaigns.

I'm not uploading leads into Instantly, writing a generic sequence, adding three follow-ups, and hoping for the best.

Instead I use a tool called Swokei.

I upload a list of businesses with websites, and it automatically analyzes every website. It finds things like outdated design, poor layouts, weak mobile responsiveness, slow loading speeds, and SEO issues.

Those findings are then turned into personalized outreach emails.

Not some boring reports that business owners don't care about. 

Actual emails explaining what could be improved and why it matters to that specific business.

That lets me run outreach at scale while still keeping every email relevant.

Once someone replies, honestly the hard part is over.

At that point you can build a free website draft with AI, invite them to a Google Meet, walk them through the redesign, and close the deal on the call.

AI has made building websites ridiculously fast.

That's why I think targeting and outreach matter far more than your ability to build a website.

This business model has been incredibly good to me over the last year.

I'm curious though. if you had to start a digital business from scratch in 2026, what would you choose?

Hey guys,

I’d like to share something.

I feel like the internet gives everybody a chance to write about things they may not fully understand.

Don’t get me wrong, I do the same (everybody does).

There is so much content and information about how business works, how to start a business, and how to do almost anything. But you never really know if it’s coming from a real entrepreneur or from someone who just asked AI to generate a text full of keywords.

That’s one of the main reasons why I try to get most of my information from books. If someone took the time to write a book about business, there’s a good chance they really understand the topic.

Today, I decided to share 5 books that helped me on my journey.

1. Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber

I feel like this book is a must-read for anyone who wants to start a business. Mr. Gerber brilliantly explains the difference between a technician, a manager, and an entrepreneur. It helped me understand how a business actually works and why systems and rules are so important.

2. Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller

The best marketing book I’ve ever read. It perfectly explains how people react to text with a story versus text without one. It shows how important it is to be able to describe your business in just two sentences. There’s also lots of valuable information about email marketing, websites, and how to communicate with customers.

3. The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco

The author doesn’t care about excuses. He’s amazingly straightforward, and I love that. This book just makes you want to keep going in business. Plus, there’s so much valuable information about business, marketing, and finance. What a book!

4. Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan

Noah feels like a cool friend in this book. He shares his own stories and experiences, which add a lot of value. The book is full of practical advice for early entrepreneurs about ideas, validation, testing, and getting started as quickly as possible with little budget.  This fits perfectly with the world we live in today!

5. The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick

This book focuses especially on testing and validating business ideas. It’s not always an easy read, but it’s very helpful. It shows you what questions to ask for validation, what feedback is actually positive or negative, and how to avoid common mistakes. This is the kind of book you can keep in your library and always come back to when you need it.

Do you have another book recommendation? Let's share!

Maybe it’s just me, but I still prefer reading a book over watching a tutorial on YouTube or Instagram. I find books incredibly valuable, and I believe writing is still one of the best ways to share knowledge.

PS: 

Over the last two years, I’ve learned a lot about business. That’s why I offer free feedback on business projects at any stage. If you'd like an honest opinion on your idea, website, landing page, or startup, feel free to check out www.thinkbeforeubuild.com.

Speak soon,

Jan

A client paid my $4,700 invoice yesterday for a website that took me around 2 hours to build.

The web development space is moving insanely fast right now, especially with AI. Everywhere I look people are saying web design is saturated, AI is replacing developers, nobody wants websites anymore, and it's impossible to get clients.

I honestly disagree.

The client was a 62 year old entrepreneur who owns several cabins in the mountains that he rents out to people who want to spend weekends skiing during winter or enjoying nature during summer. His previous website was old, slow, and honestly looked like it hadn't been updated in years.

Finding him was actually pretty simple.

I use a tool called Swokei where I upload lists of businesses that already have websites. It analyzes their websites and finds issues related to design, layout, SEO, mobile optimization, and other areas that could be improved. Those findings are then turned into personalized outreach emails.

And when I say personalized, I don't mean those generic reports that say "Your SEO score is 42."

I mean actual emails explaining what could be improved and why it matters. The funny thing is that every business owner thinks I manually looked through their website and wrote the email myself. In reality, the whole process is automated.

This particular business owner replied and was interested in seeing an updated version of his website. His website wasn't anything crazy. It had information about the cabins, booking information, contact details, and a few pages about the area.

During our conversation he sent me a website that he liked and wanted to use as inspiration.

I took his logo, brand colors, content, and the reference website and gave everything to Claude. My instructions were simple: take inspiration from the reference site, keep his branding, improve the user experience, modernize the design, and make the website significantly better than what he currently has.

I genuinely couldn't believe how good the result was.

About 2 hours later I had a website that looked dramatically better than his previous one. Not only that, it looked better than the reference website he originally sent me.

The website was faster, cleaner, more modern, much easier to navigate, and the technical SEO score was over 90.

When I showed it to him, he loved it. A few conversations later he paid the invoice.

$4,700 upfront and $149 per month for hosting, maintenance, and future changes whenever he needs them.

The biggest thing I've learned over the last year is that building websites is no longer the hard part.

Finding clients is.

AI has made building websites faster than ever. What most people struggle with today is getting conversations started with business owners in the first place.

There are still plenty of opportunities in this industry. I personally wouldn't call an industry dead when I just got paid nearly $5,000 for a website that took me around 2 hours to build.