r/StartBusiness

For the small business owners here, what’s one thing you find yourself doing over and over again that you wish you could just get off your plate?

For me, I’ve been noticing how much repetitive customer communication can pile up answering the same questions, sending the same information, following up, etc.

Curious what it looks like for everyone else. Is it customer questions for you, scheduling, admin work, bookkeeping, order issues, something else?

And have you actually found a good way to reduce it, or are you still just doing it manually? 😭

When I first started my small business, I thought the goal was simple: increase sales as much as possible. ‎And don't get me wrong—sales definitely matter.

‎But after running the business for a while, I realized that having a busy week doesn't always mean the business is actually doing better financially.

‎There were months where orders were coming in almost every day, but by the time I paid suppliers, covered operating expenses, and replenished inventory, there wasn't as much left as I expected.

‎That's when I started paying closer attention to cash flow instead of just revenue.

‎Now I spend a little time each week checking what money is actually coming in, what needs to go out soon, and whether upcoming expenses are already covered.

‎I'm still far from perfect, but it's helped me avoid that feeling of being "busy but broke."

‎For fellow business owners, was there a financial lesson you only learned after running your business for a while.

‎

Hey everyone!

A while ago I tried to build a startup around removing the language barrier between people. Unfortunately, I couldn't validate the idea I talked to several people and companies, and the general response was basically that they didn't really need a solution for this

So I'm going back to the drawing board and trying to find a real problem worth solving instead of forcing another idea

I'm curious: is there something in your everyday life that genuinely annoys you, takes a lot of time, or is just unnecessarily complicated and you'd actually be willing to pay for a better solution?

It can be anything: a boring routine, a task you constantly have to do, a service that's too expensive or frustrating, etc

I'm not looking for polished startup ideas. I'm more interested in hearing about problems you've actually experienced

I'd really appreciate any examples!

People love screaming “support small businesses” like it’s some moral badge, but anyone who’s actually worked in a small business knows they’re usually a complete emotional warzone. Small workplaces aren’t “cozy” or “community‑based.” They’re pressure cookers. Just raw chaos and everyone’s mood slamming into everyone else’s.

One bad owner, one irate coworker, or one boss's cousin makes it a dumpster fire to work for.

Meanwhile big workplaces diffuse everything. You can avoid annoying people. Problems get spread out. Drama doesn’t hit you directly. But sure. Keep yelling “support small businesses” like it’s some magical cure for society. The reality is most of them are held together with duct tape, caffeine, and someone’s unstable personality.

The only thing they are good for is economic impact, car mechanics, and medical practices. Seriously

Business owners/operators

What’s one small, repetitive task in your business you’d love to never have to do again?

I’m not talking about some huge strategic problem.

I mean the boring little thing that keeps coming back.

Chasing someone for information.

Copying data from one place to another.

Checking something for the tenth time.

Putting together the same report.

Following up with people.

Updating a spreadsheet that somehow never stays updated.

The kind of task where you think, “Why am I still doing this?”

What’s yours?

And roughly how often do you have to do it?

I’m doing some research and genuinely want to understand the boring problems people actually deal with day after day.

I've been trying to build a business for almost a year now, but I still haven't made any revenue. Lately, I've been stuck in a cycle of self-doubt, wondering if I should just give up and go back to a regular salaried job.

Hey guys,

I’d like to share something.

When I started my first businesses, I didn’t know anything about marketing. Maybe you feel the same, so don’t worry.

I was so excited to get an idea and build the product, website, and logo. But after I finished, I always asked myself the same questions.

Okay... what now? How am I supposed to bring people to my website?

I created Instagram and Facebook accounts, posted two random posts, and then was surprised that nobody was interested. I felt like I just wasn’t as lucky as other people who somehow went viral.

I’ve tried many different things and read a lot of books about marketing (I can recommend some of them if you’re interested).

And it took me at least two years to finally find something that works for me. I’m still at the beginning of my marketing journey, but I’d like to share it with other people anyway. Maybe it can help.

Two things that really helped me. First, I asked myself what I like to create. I like writing and reading. Then I chose one main platform where I’m the most active. Not just posting, but also commenting, talking to people, and building relationships with my target audience.

This is what my marketing funnel currently looks like:

1. Free PDF guide I created a step-by-step guide showing exactly how I tested my business idea. I use it to generate email leads that I own.
2. One big post every two weeks Every two weeks, I write one bigger post about a topic my target audience is interested in. I use the same post for my blog, LinkedIn newsletter, and email marketing.
3. Reddit posts I post 2–3 times per week in my own Reddit community. Starting your own Reddit community is also an amazing thing to do.
4. Building relationships on Reddit Reddit is my main platform, so I also comment on other posts, participate in other communities, and chat with people. And I enjoy it because it’s a topic I’m interested in, so it feels natural.
5. Reddit ads I currently spend around $10 per day on Reddit ads for my marketing PDF guide..

This is what works for me right now.

I feel like marketing is about finding what works for you, making a simple plan, and doing it consistently. Again and again.

I’m currently getting around 50 website visitors per day. Nothing crazy yet, but it’s going in the right direction.

Right now, I’m mostly focused on building the marketing funnel. I don’t care as much about constantly improving the product or website.

My focus is build the brand, do the marketing, and give away as much valuable information as I can for free.

I’m curious, what does your marketing funnel look like?

Thanks for reading and sharing! 

Speak soon,
Jan

For those who have started a service-based business, when did you realize it was time to move from handling appointments manually to using online booking software?

In the beginning, managing bookings through messages, phone calls, and a calendar can seem completely manageable. But once the number of customers starts increasing, appointment scheduling can take up more time than expected.

I'm interested in how other founders approached that transition.

Did you start with a simple calendar and move to a booking system later, or did you set up online booking from the beginning?

What made the biggest difference for you when it came to saving time and keeping customer bookings organized?

Hey guys,

I’d like to share something.

Today, while I was waiting for my girlfriend to finally choose a croissant in a coffee shop, I read an interesting article about how people are starting to use AI chatbots for search instead of Google, and how more and more website traffic could come from AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, etc.

I never really thought about it, but I already do the same. For example, I asked ChatGPT this morning: Find the 5 best digital marketing companies in Canada.

I feel like this could bring a pretty big change to how people discover businesses. And not just online businesses, but retail stores, restaurants, services, and almost everything else.

I think the biggest change could be in B2B. Entrepreneurs and companies will increasingly use AI to find other businesses, suppliers, agencies, software, and services. I think this could be huge.

I didn’t pay much attention to it before, but I recently noticed something new in my Wix Studio traffic report: traffic from AI.

Right now, it’s still very small compared to Google. The data from the article showed:

Google → 28.12% of total web traffic
AI chatbots → 0.28% of total web traffic

So yes, the difference is still massive.

But I feel like this is definitely something worth paying attention to.

As founders, how do you see this change? And is there anything we should already be doing to get an early advantage?

around about a year ago, i was 18, and i was so fascinated by the idea of a startup and i remember wanting to come up with something which i eventually did and i eventually had my product and i was ready to launch, but i made a mistake

I was the type of founder who could only focus on developing the product, and anything related to outreach or marketing was something I just couldn't do. That was mainly for 2 reasons, but I want to focus on the first , i didn't have a cofounder to help me do those things, and with the raise and progression of AI as well as AI tools, that missing space gets closed bit by bit, which is good; it's actually better than good. However, it presents another problem: "AI slop". Now you have low-quality, unoriginal work that looks nearly identically to what everyone else has, which maybe wasnt much of a problem 1-2 years ago, but now it's something i personally frown upon

So I'm curious for anyone that's a solo founder, could the cofounder-gap thing just me, or is there a specific piece you keep avoiding because it's not your strength?

I’ve been running a business for a while now, and one thing I’ve realised is that there’s a huge difference between knowing about business and actually running one.

Before starting, I thought the difficult part would mainly be getting customers and making enough sales. That’s obviously important, but there are so many other things that you don't really understand until you're responsible for keeping the business running.

Things like managing cash flow, dealing with suppliers, customers delaying payments, unexpected expenses, employees, taxes, negotiating prices, keeping enough money in the business instead of spending it, and sometimes just figuring out what to do when things don't go according to plan.

Some months can look good on paper but still feel tight financially.

I'm curious about other Zambian business owners:

What’s something about running a business that you only understood after you actually started?

It could be something small or something that completely changed how you run your business.

What did you underestimate?

What mistake taught you the biggest lesson?

What do you wish someone had told you before you started?

And if you had to start again with the knowledge you have today, what would you do differently?

I think these are the kinds of lessons that are more useful to people thinking about starting a business than the usual “work hard and believe in yourself” advice.

Maybe unpopular opinion, but I think a lot of ecommerce stores try to solve a conversion problem by buying more traffic.

Store isn't growing? Increase Meta spend. Try Google Ads. Work on SEO. Find influencers... But if 1,000 people visit and barely anyone buys, I'm not sure bringing another 5,000 people in fixes much.

I've seen stores where the bigger problems are much more basic like the offer isn't that compelling, product pages leave obvious questions unanswered, shipping is a surprise at checkout, there's very little social proof, or the pricing just doesn't make sense compared to the alternatives. At that point, more traffic almost feels like paying to find out faster that something else is broken.

The counterargument I hear is that you need enough traffic before you can even know whether you have a conversion problem. And I think that's fair. You can't optimize a store around 50 visitors and call the data meaningful.

But I still wonder if ecommerce has become too focused on acquisition because traffic is easier to measure and scale than fixing the actual buying experience. If you had a store getting traffic but struggling to grow, where would you put the next $1,000?

More acquisition, or fixing conversion first? And at what point do you actually have enough traffic to make that call?

I am a software engineer and also own a plumbing company. I started that 2 years ago from scratch. Anybody who is in the similar boat, what advice you have for me? I picked the plumbing business because its recession proof and always in demand and a-i not coming after it.

I recently started a very small women’s footwear business in the US. I literally started with one pair/style, tested the response, and have slowly grown to four styles. So I’m still pretty much at ground zero and trying to figure out what actually works.

I’ve tried Facebook Marketplace and Instagram. I do get inquiries—people ask about price, sizes, availability, etc.—but very few of those conversations actually turn into purchases. I don’t have a physical store, and investing in one isn’t realistic at this stage.

For anyone who has built a footwear/fashion business from scratch, what helped you start getting consistent sales? Which channels actually gave you ROI rather than just views and engagement? I’m also trying to understand what I could be doing wrong when people show enough interest to inquire but don’t buy.

The other challenge is manufacturing. Right now I’m sourcing and reselling, but eventually I want to create my own designs and build my own footwear line. I haven’t been able to find a manufacturer who can offer good quality with a genuinely low MOQ that makes sense for a tiny business testing designs.

If anyone has gone through this stage, I’d really appreciate advice on low-MOQ manufacturing options, finding reliable manufacturers, and what you would focus on first if you were starting again with only four styles and a limited budget. How to get any customers?

I’ve been talking with a lot of entrepreneurs recently and noticed something interesting: most people don’t struggle because they lack ideas. They struggle because they lack systems.
Things like:
following up with leads consistently
managing customer relationships
automating repetitive tasks
finding time to focus on growth
I’m curious:
What is the one thing in your business that you wish was automated or easier right now?
Is it sales, marketing, operations, customer management, or something else?

Hey everyone, I could use some advice.

I’m building a SaaS called FoodTruckVibes. It lets food trucks create a profile with their location, menu, hours, and social links so customers can find them.

The problem I’m running into is providing upfront value. Food truck owners are interested because they want more customers, but since the platform is still growing, there aren’t a lot of people using it to discover trucks yet.

If you were building this, what would you offer food truck owners that gives them immediate value before the customer marketplace is fully built? I’m looking for something they’d actually want to use today that solves a real problem and keeps them engaged while I grow the consumer side.

I’d love to hear any ideas. Thanks!

I’m seriously considering starting a business in the food & beverage industry, and the more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know and if I’m being honest… it’s scary. Not just because of the financial investment, but because I have zero experience running a business.

So I have a question for those who’ve actually built a business.
If you could go back to day one, what’s the one piece of advice you’d give yourself? What’s the mistake that cost you the most time, money, or stress? And what do you wish someone had warned you about before you started?

How much money is “enough” to start?
Should you wait until you feel ready, or do you learn as you go?
How do you know if the risk is worth taking?

I’m not looking for generic business quotes—I want the kind of advice that only comes from real experience.
I’d genuinely love to hear your story.
Thank you all in advance 🫂🤍