r/StartBusiness

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I honestly don't know if this is a normal phase of running a business or if I'm doing something terribly wrong.

Over the last few months, I taught myself candle making from scratch. I invested my own savings, experimented until I had products I was proud of, built my own website, bought a domain, set up shipping, and handled everything myself.

I thought creating the business would be the hardest part.

Turns out... it wasn't.

Now I keep asking myself: How will anyone even know my business exists?

No matter how good the products are, if no one sees them, no one buys them. That thought has been stressing me out a lot lately.

I don't have a huge marketing budget. I'm just someone trying to build something from the ground up.

For those of you who have been through this:

\- How did you get your first customers?

\- What marketing actually worked without spending a fortune?

\- At what point did things finally start gaining momentum?

I'd genuinely love to hear your stories because right now it feels like I built a beautiful shop... in the middle of a forest where nobody knows it exists.

\*\*DISCLAIMER\*\* This is quite long, I jotted this down for someone that's going thorough a chapter where they feel lost and hopeless and it is a reminder to me on how far I've come and documenting it all through the process. I spent just writing for the past hour everything I could remember, hopefully it makes sense for you (the reader) :)

I'm turning 21 in three days. Looking back, I spent the last seven years chasing startups, quitting more projects than I can count, burning out, shutting down my first company, and realizing entrepreneurship looks nothing like the YouTube videos that got me into it at 14.

Your product becomes your gf/bf that you keep clinging onto, tweaking it and pushing it to become better, not knowing you're investing into something that doesn't have any near future ROI, perhaps I should say, it's a shit investment and all you daydream about is how to make it even better, make it more fancy, more features, improve UX/UI, but forget to ask, what tf is even going to use my product.

I started this whole entrepreneurial, online money making lifestyle, flashy car mindset back in 2019, near COVID and lockdowns began andI was 14 years old. A lot of people were watching those YT videos on how to make money online, get rich, tutorials, Shopify, online markets, affiliate ads, digital products, courses form YouTubers, doomscrolling on reels even late 2020 when it launched.

2019: I made a photography page and was always enthusiastic and passionate about it and wanted to grow, but never fully dedicated to it, my page was on FB with 500 Followers, they were gold to me, especially at 14, that was DIAMOND

2020: My first go-to was TikTok videos and be cringe af and not give a damn who was watching my video and felt embarrassed to post and shy and didn't wanted my face to be out there, I then started to stream PUBG mobile on YT while playing with friends so we can become famous. That was part of it, I even started a cooking channel that I shut down after reaching 44 subscribers on 2 months. I just wanted things quickly, I was too naive to understand that goof things and rewards take time.

2021: I was working back on photography page on FB and made insta page as well and was tweeting quotes on Twitter(X) and the did gain me around 1000 followers, but I just didn't continue, I just wanted to make money and none of this was making it work, but little did I know how money worked

2022; Got into investing and Crypto, invested and lost 500$ and low-key felt risky and the BTC and ETH stuff was out of my mind , I didn't see much opportunity or possibility to learn something form it, tho it does since I look at it now, but yeah.

2021-2023: I then went from making TikTok, insta videos and YT channels and streaming to Shopify building a pet store and used google Adsense to monetize and Google Ads and FB ads to run and advertise my products I drop shipped form ALiExpress/ AliBaba. Now that was a lot of endorphins kicking into my body telling me, "Good Job Kid", you did an amazing job, CONGRATU\*\*\*ingLatins! I had dreamt of million dollars in my bank when buy fiver freelancer emailed me the website is ready with the products :) I was on top of the world. little didi I understand the Long-Term Game, I QUIT.

2023: I then made another store for luxury candles and custom printed shirts, candles to sell online and agin ran ads and Adsense, made videos on new TikTok accounts for it, but quit since I still haven't learnt about the importance of Long-term work. Then I made a drop shipping site to sell vine stands and made videos again on social media, quit because I didn't understand the importance of Long-term work, I QUIT.

2023: Another store about car lights and how they glow to make it look cool, guess what y'all, after posting those social media posts, I F\*\*\*ING QUIT! Also failed my first year at uni and got kicked out, but got back in the same year LOL. My mind was elsewhere building. I was on X, making digital products, making YT shorts for motivation, back at it again I know, but this time I stayed for a while and just switched to making personal brand late 2025, it did take a while, but in 6 month I generated a million impressions and went viral a couple times and I was as happy as I could get. Watching motivational YouTube Videos was the Go LOL.

2024: Got into my first relationship, and romanticized a lot, two should just were desperate for attention and being understood that weren't; their whole life. Late Ron we broke up June since things were not going well and we parted our ways, took me a while to move in since first love, its just too innocent, pure, and filled with that joy that you'll never feel again, and as a man, y'all know what I'm talking about. Anyhow, I had a job as a dishwasher and it made me realize that I just failed so many things, so many times and look where had I ended up as. Making couple hundred bucks week for a jobs work that made my back loose its ability to stand after 14hr Shifts, 6 days a week. I realized the importance of dedicating to something long-term and its ability to affect you late when you grow up. I was still working hard on videos and saving money for university to self-support myself and yea, this life comes at a cost, either you pay with money, time or attention. Like they say, "Attention is the new currency". I fell involve with reading, and I read multiple books on psychology, philosophy, poets, quotations and books from Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Friedrich Nietzsche, athletes, entrepreneurs of our generation Like Musk, Bezos, Altman, Dario, Pichai, Tim Cook, I read about Insys Therapeutics and one of the biggest pharmaceutical frauds, understand cinematography, art, nature, read biographies of people and artists, I was reading about Rome, I was diving deep into the "Matrix" where I see what I was taught my whole life on how to Live, Love, Laugh, Sleep, Cook, Fly, Make friends, Health, every possible way you could think of, I questioned everything I did. Fast-Forward late 2024, after all that, I launched my first company, "XenoraAI" and our model named "Nora". As a first time founder, I was really excited, I had a great co-foudner, and CTO and I hired interns and I was funded money by Microsoft credits and a family member, but little did I know how goddamn hard this is going to be. I built the first product idea, and had my "friends" join my team, and little did I know, never, ever have your friends be part of your journey because most will not understand, they will mock you, they will talk about it, they will do a lot fo things you wont be ready for, either be certain about the person, or go solo and the right person comes later on. Fortunate enough, I had enough to continue and I did for a year and a half until January 2026.

2025: I built the product, I reach out to my university to help, they were launching a legal advocacy center and they wanted a software for the uni and students, they offered $100k to be part of my uni and help grow the business and host it on their servers, but that wasn't what I wanted, I wanted to apply for programs to help students grow their startups, not be part of a university where I was giving away my company which could've been potentially worth billions of dollars in the future. Of course I said NO, and I don't regret a single bit of it! There was no way, that I just spent last 4 months, sleeping 5 hrs day, working 15/16 hrs a day, building my company, just to eventually hand it over???? NOPE! A lot occurred during those times from friendships falling apart, losing trust in people and the lonely chatter was being jotted down in my life. I was writing and documenting on my notes, notion, diary, I made YT videos, Shorts, and its till up there in my timeline on my channel on how it all began. I worked myself, starved myself, I become relentless, the hope of, "it gets better" kept me going in ways I couldn't have imagined. Later on the year I applied to a startup incubator and got accepted and that was when my true entrepreneurial side was shown, I was pitching my idea to VCs, I was validation my idea, I hired a CFO, I hired an intern, I was meeting crazy people at tech events around the city, my GOD I even go the VP of Morgan Stanely to introduce me to clients and potential customers. I was all time high energy and was burning with this desire that I have it all and I wanna make the best out of it. Holding meetings with team, organizing the team of 10 was hectic and especially when you hire the wiring people, because either you have to be really fats at what you do or you'll be left behind. Personal issued came into teams, separations began and yea that was the end of the team, so my cofounder and CTO and Intern kept pushing it from October to January 2026, and on the first day of semester I declared to shut it all down, the burnout was REAL.

2026: So I shutdown my startup and that energy had still bee n thereabout I felt at peace. I was carrying dead weight for over a year and it wasn't going anywhere so I decided to shut it all down, and the team of 4 had their own path to go on. I decided to take 5 classes in one term for the first time and my GPA take down and never doing that again. Forgot to tell ya, this whole time I had been full time taking 4 classes while building Xenora, so the burden and pressure was a lot. Meeting the VCs, directors of companies, startups and talking to people, working on the product, learning new tools and just kept on working and learning and reading and tweeting and posting on social media, back at the building stage with a lot of experience. I don even consider it a waste of time because when you look around, there is a rare chance you'll meet someone that had this much exposure form 19-20 years old, when everyone is "enjoying" their time and having "fun", you're sitting on your desk with the next prompt for Claude, Cursor and codex building the next Billion Dollar ideas, the curse never goes away, you live with it to the end of your life. I took a 2 month break, but my focus span was still on build mode and I relaunched as a Xenora for OS system for small businesses to manage their finances, marketing and reports in one dashboard, where people spend thousands of dollars on multiple features and products and handle all the integration, just connect to Nora, the product and let the dashboard deal with your workflow, automate with agent to do content writing, you approve and send, etc etc. I even pitched it at Shopify builder Sunday event to 100+ people and it seemed to me that it was going somewhere after I validated a but, I just didn't want to keep the name XenoraAI for my company and I just shut it down last month after filing taxes. I just went all in on social media making content for students, and founder, teaching ways on how to build products with AI and build your own company and mentor people a bit. Started documenting my weeks on YT videos and had some viral moments and started to learn new tools and use AI agents and workflow automations with Claude, Cursor and other tools. Its. crazy era to build your dreams for sure. I just cant stop exploring and learning and talking to proper. I pivoted to build a new framework on how we use AI and to dissever new ways of interaction with models and be less generic in a sense. It's not hard to spot AI generated sites, content, workflows and videos, but there needs to be a change on how we interact with these models. Onto brainstorming another idea, I could not fall asleep last night and purely functioned on 2 coffees throughout the day, working and working and working. It has been crazy 7 years of being in this lifestyle and theres nothing better I'd rather be doing. Entire goal is to validate ideas and see which works the best for me, document in public and solve problems for people that experience them. How I would make a difference in this world, and have the greatest impact for future generations.

I believe its luck, opportunities don't come to you when you just sit around in your basement and do nothing about it, they come for people that keep on trying and trying and trying for years to come with no output. You need to be on an insane level of dedication to be a founder, building a company, working with startup incubator and managing teas while being full-time student and doing it all as I mentioned earlier.

No one talks about the burnout because you don't feel it in the moment, but it slowly fills within you, and on a random day it kick in and you feel it to your nerves, when you feel lost, hopeless, no social cues, no idea what you're doing, whether all this is going to workout or not, you go CRAZY and thats why its important to keep yourself in check, or to at least have someone that checks once in a while. You start scrolling on reels, everyone is building, everyone is making the bar of $10K a month and flashing their lifestyle, but who knows whether its real or rented, maybe it is real, but how much pressure they had to handle to attain the certainty of being where they are. How much shit they had to go through! You see the flashy outside, not the miserable inside. It means not much without core values, purpose and direction.

Founder life isn't meant for everyone, especially when you come from norms where you have had to be there for yourself from a young age, its a blessing and curse at the same time since you were paying the sacrifices while you didn't know if it was a choice or not fr you because there was no other option of you at the time. You had to breakdown, build yourself up, make tons of sacrifices, get yourself up, work on days when you feel absolutely disgusted and cant't give 10% so you give 7% inn. Those are the day yo keep going at, because of the hop go "it gets better" I believe it does, you have to understand it does get better, because what you believe in becomes your reality. You need to be delusional, working with the norm isn't going to fulfill you, trust me, I've seen people go back to their old ways and regretted instantly. The founder lifestyle builds a whole different version of you, we were the kids who were afraid the teacher wouldn't call us upon to ask questions or to read aloud a paragraph form the textbooks, the introverts who never fitted in, who couldn't understand why things were the way they were frustrated when misunderstood, and have bad way of navigating and talking through our emotions. We were the people that had different childhoods than 99% of the world and it all came at a cost which we paid already and realized later when we become aware of it. It wasn't a matter of choice. it was a matter of survival, of learning and building yourself up from the depth of the grounds.

Im building another company which is till in idea phase and I have no clue what it is, but theres something that keeps me going, the idea of doing any other thing haunts me and U just wanna build and work what I love doing the most, and as a matter of fact, I hate being told what to do, so theres no other better way to build a life that to be an entrepreneur and founder working for you and for those that care about.

If you want to be an entrepreneur, be ready to risk and sacrifice because this life comes at a great cost and most are not willing to sacrifice, and that point I remind myself,
"What have I got to lose when I never had anything in the first place, I came from nothing".

I've been documenting this journey publicly over the past year. If anyone's interested, my links are on my Reddit profile.

I've spent the last year building websites, creating promotional videos, branding businesses, and putting together systems that actually make it easier for clients to manage everything in one place.

The frustrating part isn't doing the work.

It's getting someone to trust you before you've worked together.

I'll spend hours improving a website, editing videos until they're right, or finding ways a business could get more customers, but most business owners never see it because I can't get my foot in the door.

So I have a question for business owners here.

If a local creative agency reached out and offered to show you a free mockup of how they'd improve your website, branding, or online presence, what would actually make you take them seriously?

I'm not looking to sell anyone in this post. I genuinely want to understand what builds trust.

And if anyone here has been putting off fixing their website, creating better content, or improving their online presence, I'd be happy to take a look and give you honest feedback—even if you never hire me.

I'm trying to earn opportunities, not shortcuts.

Most website builders focus on helping people launch a website.

But when I spoke with business owners, I noticed something interesting.

Launching wasn't their biggest challenge.

Keeping the website updated was.

A new service gets added.
Prices change.
A promotion starts.
Content becomes outdated.

And suddenly they need a freelancer again.

It made me wonder if AI website builders are solving the wrong problem.

Maybe generating the first version of a website isn't where the biggest value is.

Maybe the real value is helping people continuously update and improve their websites without technical skills.

Curious if anyone else building in this space has noticed the same thing.

I keep hearing from founders that what they built and what customers are experiencing doesn’t always match. And that the impact seems to show up in different ways. A conversion problem, pilots go well but don’t scale the way they should. Users disengage early, delivery quality hasn’t held up through scaling or an investor has asked you to prove the model is repeatable and you’re not sure how to answer. I would love to hear from anyone who’s been there and what have you done to change things.

I’ve been looking closely at how local service businesses handle new leads — roofers, painters, salons, med spas, contractors, landscapers, etc.

One thing keeps standing out:

A lot of businesses are actually good at the work.

They have solid reviews.

They know their trade.

They care about the customer.

But the lead handling is where things fall apart.

Someone calls while the owner is on a job.

Someone fills out a form at night.

Someone messages on Facebook or Instagram.

Someone asks for a quote on the weekend.

And by the time the business replies, that person has already contacted 2–3 competitors.

I think this is one of the biggest hidden leaks in local businesses.

Not because the owner is lazy — usually they’re just busy doing the actual work.

The simple fixes are not even that complicated:

- missed call text-back

- instant form reply

- quote request follow-up

- booking link

- CRM reminders

- review request after the job

- basic tracking so leads do not disappear

This is the kind of thing I’ve been thinking about as a “customer operating system” — basically the setup behind the scenes that makes sure every lead gets captured, followed up with, and organized.

Curious for other business owners here:

Where do you think most local businesses lose leads?

Is it missed calls, slow follow-up, bad websites, no reviews, poor ads, or something else?

My goal is to build my own brand in the long run, but I can't invest a huge amount right now because of my family, and also my age (they're not okay with huge investment rn). So I want to start with a business that has decent margins, reinvest the profits, and eventually expand into bigger projects.

I first looked at clothing and thrift, but the investment was too high. Then I researched ceramic crockery, but the wholesale prices I found were almost the same as offline retail prices (talking about the sales in local places). It made me wonder why anyone would buy from my online store when they could get the same product cheaper elsewhere.

I also considered gift hampers, but there are already so many Instagram pages doing them.

I'm not looking for a secret product with zero competition. I'm just trying to understand how people actually choose a product or niche that has room to make a profit and grow into a brand, especially when starting with a limited budget.

One small request: I'm not really looking for general advice like "just start," "follow your passion," or "build a brand." I've heard a lot of that already. What I'm struggling with is finding actual business ideas to start. Because the further plan i already have with reinvestments.

If you have a product category or niche that you think has potential, I'd really appreciate hearing it. Even better if you can briefly explain why you think it's a good opportunity or how you'd approach starting it.

hey everyone 👋
i’m building LinAI — an ai tool that helps people grow on linkedin.
i’d really appreciate it if a few of you could test it and tell me what you honestly think.
what was confusing?
what did you like?
what annoyed you?
would you actually use it?
don’t be nice 😭 i need real feedback.
thank you so much 🫶

Some people say organic growth first because it helps you understand what content or offers actually get attention before spending money. Others say paid ads first because it can bring faster data and early customers, even if the budget is small. What shaped that choice for you?

5 months into building my own product. Talked to users, the problem resonates, but growth is nowhere near what I projected.

For anyone who's been through this longer than me, genuinely curious:

How do you keep believing in the product when users aren't showing up at the rate you expected? Is it gut, or do you set hard checkpoints for yourself?

On marketing, how did you figure out which channel to actually commit to? Did you find one thing and go deep, or test everything in parallel first?

And the real one, how do you know when it's "just needs more time" vs "this one's not it"?

Not looking for motivation. Looking for the actual frameworks people use when the slow months hit.

Constraints: you have ten hours a week, no existing customers, no brand, no technical skills beyond basic computer literacy. What do you actually build?

I ask this to people who've built things and the answers are always interesting because they're shaped by what the person wishes they knew when they started. The theoretical answer and the answer from experience are usually very different.

What's yours?

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Many people suggested why don't you get a job first and also get a degree possibly or maybe learn skills if you want to start a business because job teaches you a lot like facing customer service, problem solving and how market works and how an overall business operates. But I'm wondering what skills to learn in today's time since majority of people spend time on the computer.

I’m helping a company that target small business owner as ICP. They offer AI cold calling/ crm/ follow up but it’s been a month and no one sign up despite using meta ads/ social media post. It got me wonder if this really is something small business owners want or they enter the market too late since businesses are already using these tools.

Business owners out there can u tell me what’s your pain point and what would shift you from one tool like this to another. Is it more advanced features or cheaper options?

Do not accept being a "median" startup.

The median startup fails.

- Y Combinator

That quote stuck with me.

Looking back, I’ve worked on multiple startups over the years. Some built great products, some found traction, and some never made it. That’s the reality of startups.

Success often feels like a combination of relentless execution, good timing, and a bit of luck. You can control the work, but not every variable.

Here’s to everyone building something today. Keep shipping, keep learning, and good luck. We all need a little of it.

This is just a random thought I had, and I’m genuinely curious what others think.

Nowadays, it feels like everyone wants to build a startup and “solve problems” or “make the world better.” That’s great — and I don’t doubt that many founders truly care about impact.

But I keep wondering: if we completely removed the money aspect from it — no funding rounds, no exits, no seven-figure bank accounts — how many people would still be building?

If there were no financial upside, would most founders still work on the same problems? Or would the motivation change?

I understand money is important. It gives freedom, security, and the ability to build things at scale. I’m not saying money is bad. I’m just curious — how many people are really doing it primarily to make a difference, versus doing it mainly for financial success?

Not trying to judge anyone. Just a thought experiment I’ve been thinking about.

What do you all think?

I’ve accepted that I have to be patient, but the waiting game is testing my mental stability more than the actual work ever did. Between the doubt, the financial pressure, and the social pressure of friends who think I’m wasting my time, it’s getting heavy. How do you handle the 'in-between' phase? How do you stay confident when you’re building something huge, but have nothing tangible to show the world yet?

When people discuss the problems a business faces, they tend to mention:

• Marketing
• Sales
• Hiring
• Cash flow

However, some of the most costly problems are also hard to quantify.

Such things as hesitation, miscommunication, decision delays, bad communication, mistrust, or difficulty talking about tough topics.

They aren’t on the accounting records, yet they can still lead to loss of opportunities.

What is an example of such an "unseen" business problem that you've witnessed?

I think many early-stage startups diagnose the wrong problem.

When conversions are low, the first instinct is usually:

\- Buy more ads

\- Improve SEO

\- Post more on social media

But after reviewing dozens of startup websites, I've noticed a pattern.

The issue often isn't traffic—it's clarity.

When someone lands on your homepage, they're subconsciously trying to answer a few questions almost immediately:

• What does this product actually do?

• Is it built for someone like me?

• Why is it different from the alternatives?

• Can I trust this company?

If those answers aren't obvious within the first few seconds, visitors don't spend time investigating. They leave.

That's why adding more traffic doesn't always improve results. It simply increases the number of people who experience the same confusion.

Good design isn't about making a page look modern.

It's about reducing cognitive effort so users can make confident decisions.

A homepage isn't just a visual asset—it's part of your sales process.

I'm curious:

What's the biggest clarity issue you've seen on startup websites? Was it messaging, navigation, or something else?

Building feels like progress, so it's easy to pour months into the product and treat how people will find it as a problem for after launch, and then launch comes, the thing works, and nobody shows up. An audience isn't something you bolt on at the end, it takes about as long to build as the product does, which means the time to start was while you were building, not after.

The founders who launch to actual people almost always had somewhere those people already paid attention to them before the product was ready, so the quiet launch is usually the bill coming due for skipping that part.

I've spent 20 years helping founders with this stage, and distribution is the thing I watch people underestimate most.

Tell me what you're building and where you think your first hundred people are going to come from, and if the honest answer is "I'll work that out after," I'll tell you what I'd be doing right now instead, while there's still time for it to matter.