r/BusinessDevelopment

The most profitable thing I did for my smallish home decor and furniture store was offer classes.

I did 2 things:

1. Offered a variety of topics from what I knew well like decorating, floral arrangements and holiday decor, to things I didn’t know well so I asked reps to come and talk about choosing a sofa (8 way, hand tied…) or choosing a rug (which they pre-ordered).

2. Other stores charged for the classes. I didn’t. I required a gift card purchase and they could use it to shop after the class (or whenever).

EVERY TIME, 90% of shoppers spent 3 to 4 times the gift card amount. Very few only spent the gift card amount while others spent $1k or more.

No matter the type of business, people want your expertise and they want something to do. Just make sure your classes lead to bigger purchases.

Things are pretty bad right and you need to try new things. Start now and OFFER CLASSES!

Hi,

In a new business market and I ended up giving quotes that were too high up to potential customers, but only found out recently that the actual prices of the service were much lower as the market was very hidden about pricing. The clients I sent prices to obviously aren't replying because I gave prices 2x higher than competitors. Do you think it's a lost cause, or can I maybe do anything to try get them back by giving an updated price somehow?

I was personally thinking of maybe saying this was a more premium price list or something but I don't actually know.

The problem is the market size for actual clients is fairly small and it's a tight-knit market, so I can't just keep on finding new leads.

Thanks.

Hello, I say into the void...

I (35f) am a mom of two sons who are finally old enough that they don't need me every second of the day. They are actually extremely capable and responsible so I feel incredibly blessed. I am glad I was able to and did make time to teach them and be there for them even if it took priority over a career. 

That's not to say I haven't worked. I have had many different types of jobs, including rental property management and front desk administration. I was able to go back to school after the birth of my first son and graduated a few months after the birth of my youngest son with an associates degree in business management. 

Anyway, I have always been interested in real estate, specifically in owning rental properties. I have educated myself on the different kinds of programs such as BRRRR and I have created many business plans as well as managing my own small side cleaning/errand business. I have also been trying to budget and plan to get my real estate license in SC or GA as I live on the border. But what I really want is a mentor. Someone who is in business and real estate and would be willing to help me navigate the dos and don'ts, help me get prepared to actuallyake my dream come true.

I want to open a small, self-sufficient campsite/glamping site in Italy: does anyone have experience or advice?

Hi everyone, I'm thinking of creating a small campsite immersed in nature, a mix of traditional camping and mini-glamping.

The idea would be:

About 10 places for personal tents

Two furnished bell tents

Self-sufficient electrical system

Shared bathroom and toilets

Quiet, natural, and simple atmosphere

Focus on the outdoors, relaxation, and community

A quick calculation would put the total price at €50,000.

I'd like to know:

If anyone here has already opened a campsite, what were the most difficult problems?

Do you think such a small project could work in Italy?

How would you find an investor or something similar?

(In order)

5. Live it before you feel it. Be so confident in your ability to succeed that you are already mapping out how to invest your next million

6. It is impossible for a business to fail if you are confident, competent and consistent

7. Fail more

8. Results come from thinking 25%; action 75%

9. Your circle is your future

Hey everyone,

I run a small business, about 6 employees plus a couple of 1099 contractors. We're not big enough to justify a full payroll software like Gusto or ADP yet, but I still need to hand my team proper pay stubs every cycle. Banks ask for them when guys apply for car loans, landlords ask for them, and tax time gets messy without them.

For the last few months I've been using thepaystubs.com to generate stubs and honestly it has been pretty smooth. Templates look professional, the math is done automatically, takes me maybe two minutes per employee, and the support team actually replied when I had a question about a deduction code. No complaints so far.

That said, I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket without knowing what else is out there. Before I make this my permanent setup, I figured I'd ask the people who've been doing this longer than me.

A few things I'm wondering:

1. Has anyone here tried other paystub generators they'd recommend?
2. Anything I should be watching out for, legal or otherwise, when generating stubs in house?
3. For those who run a similar sized team, what's your full payroll setup look like?

Not trying to start a brand war, just want honest input from owners who've been in the same spot. Appreciate any thoughts.

I work in business development for a tech company and most of my job is cold outreach.

I send emails to leads from Apollo/Clay and also manually source people on social media that fit our ICP. I recently started doing the role fully and the response rates honestly haven’t been great, even after tweaking the emails a bunch of times.

The bigger issue though is that people reply, book calls, the calls go well, they seem interested, and they agree to create an account with us. Then I follow up a day or two later to check how setup is going and they just never respond.

I follow up multiple times after that and most of them just never reply again.

I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing wrong at this stage. Is this normal? Is there a better way to handle onboarding/follow-ups after the call so people actually complete setup?

Would appreciate advice from people who’ve worked in sales or BD.

Curious about how people actually start a small SaaS finding ideas, getting first users, and mistakes to avoid early on.

Would love to hear real experiences from founders or beginners.

something you’d build. something that could change things.

but you sit on it for months.
not because you’re lazy.

because you don’t know if anyone else actually needs it.

this is the real trap nobody talks about.
not the fear of failure.

the fear of spending everything time, money, energy on something that turns out to only matter to you.

so you wait. you research. you overthink.
and the idea just sits there.
i’ve been there.

here’s what i’ve learned after 18 months of building in public:

the only way to know if an idea is worth it is to talk to real people before you touch it.
not “what do you think of this idea?”that’s useless.

but “how are you currently dealing with this problem? what have you tried?
if they’ve already tried to fix it themselves that problem is real.

if they shrug move on.
5 honest conversations will tell you more than 6 months of building ever could.

i’m in the middle of figuring this out myself right now.
and i want to know where you’re at.

drop a comment or reply to this:
what’s the idea you’ve been sitting on — and what’s actually stopping you from moving on it?

I have noticed a pattern talking to founders stuck in revenue amount which was not increasing. Their product is solid. Customers want what they have. Yet growth is a grind.

Most assume the problem is external competition, market saturation or bad timing.
Real answer? Operational debt.

Every startup takes shortcuts early on, clunky processes, unclear ownership, decisions that live in the founder's head. That's "organizational debt", and according to Steve Blank(American Entrepreneur and educator), it can kill a company even faster than technical debt. As Peter van Sabben(Global Marketing Manager) puts it, it's the hidden accumulation of unresolved choices that cumulatively undermines organizational effectiveness.

Founders keep obsessing over competitors when the real bottleneck is staring back at them in the mirror. Growth does not stall due to the market, competition, or lack of opportunity. It stalls because the founder has not evolved fast sufficient to match the business they have built and the cost is not just burnout, it is slower growth and reduced odds of success.

The hidden costs? Teams waiting for founder sign off, high potential people underutilized, decisions slowing as everything funnels to one person, and growth capped by the founder's personal bandwidth. Check your own calendar, if half your week is work that someone else could reasonably own, you are already the bottleneck.

Your biggest competitor is not another startup. It is your own lack of systems.
Curious, what is the one operational bottleneck you are dealing with right now?