Curious how mid-sized brands handle pricing. Do you use dynamic pricing tools? Is it mostly gut-feel and looking at competitor sites? Or are you just doing a blanket +X% markup when supplier costs go up? It seems like it would be incredibly hard to know which specific SKUs can handle a price hike without killing conversion. How do small business ecommerce owners manage this practically?
So a quick heads up. I'm a very young person, I have nothing to lose but time. There are people who have something to lose. I want to fix that to help small businesses as well as starting my own. To do this I need to know how to help.
What's the biggest problem when it comes to operating a small business?
Leave your answers in the comments. Maybe we'll work together :)
Bit of a random question but I’m curious how common this is.
I run a small business and I’ve noticed a lot of owners say the same thing. When it was small they were fine, but once it started actually making money they began sleeping worse, crashing every afternoon, and needing coffee to get going and a drink to wind down.
Is that most of you or just a few people I’ve come across? If it’s happened to you, what was the first thing you noticed?
Also wondering about people with an Oura or Whoop. Has it changed anything for you or do you just look at the score and carry on?
Not selling anything, just interested.
Hi all, I’m doing some research on my own time on how small and mid-sized U.S. businesses (fewer than 500 employees) adopt AI, how they decide whether it's worth it, and what it means for their teams. This poll asks employees how they'd feel without it.
I’m hoping to reach 100 responses. If you’re not sure you fit the group (for example, your company has 500+ employees), please still vote, and mention it in the comments so I can keep the analysis honest. I’ll post the results here when the poll closes. (I am hoping in about a month, kindly reshare to increase the reach, thanks)
What I mean by AI: any AI tool you ask or tell to do a task for you, such as:
It does not mean things that run quietly in the background, like spam filters, search results or autocorrect.
Step 1, vote: If your employer stopped allowing any form of these AI tools use at work, including AI features inside apps you already use, how would it affect your work?
- Much harder
- A bit harder
- No difference
- Easier
- I don’t use AI at work: not allowed
- I don’t use AI at work: my choice
Step 2, comment (optional): why did you pick that answer? If you can, add your type of role, roughly how big your company is (no names), and the task it would affect most.
I'll share a summary of the results here when the poll closes.
I'm Molly, owner of Colón Bookkeeping. I'm based in Missouri and provide virtual bookkeeping services, specializing in construction businesses.
I enjoy helping business owners get their books organized, understand their numbers, and make more informed decisions about their businesses.
I'm here to learn from other business owners, share what I know when I can help, and join the discussions.
Looking forward to being part of the community!
Working with a fairly new local business and I've run into an obvious problem with competitor benchmarking. The established businesses nearby have years of Google reviews behind them. The new business is getting good feedback so far, but there isn't enough history there for me to feel comfortable drawing much of a conclusion from it.
At what point do you consider the sample big enough to start comparing reputation performance seriously? I'm leaning toward showing the client the competitor landscape now but treating their own position as immature until more customer feedback comes in.
How do other people handle this without making a tiny number of early reviews look more meaningful than they are.
I’ve always felt that some paintings don’t need to be subtle to make you stop and look at them.
With this one, I wanted to work with that intense feeling of strength, devotion and fire. The reds and oranges took over the canvas, and I spent a lot of time working on the gold details and jewellery because I wanted them to stand out against all that movement.
This is one of my larger paintings, and seeing it come together was honestly a different feeling from working on a smaller canvas.
I’m curious about something — when you look at this piece, what catches your attention first: the expression, the hands, the jewellery, or the flames?
I’d love to know what you see in it.
if i would sell this work i would want to sell this for 20k since it Genuinely took me A month with a lot of patient and energy 🥹❤️🦾
Hi all, I'm looking to make a career change into product management and I'm building a small tool for people whose income swings month to month, and before I write any code I want to understand how you actually deal with taxes and slow months today.
Looking for 25-minute video or phone chats with freelancers or contractors who have 3+ clients and pay quarterly estimated taxes. You'll get free lifetime access if the tool ships.
If you're interested, comment or DM me with what you do and roughly how many clients you have. Happy to answer questions here first. I appreciate anyone willing to help me out, and this is all no cost. Thanks!
Hey y'all,
I'm genuinely curious what other business owners do throughout the year for tax time and how they keep their books clean.
For your business, small or large, do you keep your personal and business expenses strictly separate or do you have issues co-mingling?
What is your bookkeeping process?
Do you have W2 or 1099 workers?
What do you use? And do you like it?
Hey everyone! I'm Anthony abnd new to the group and wanted to introduce myself and hopefully get some insight from other painting business owners.
I own Rose Painting, LLC, a residential / commercial painting business in Brevard County, Florida. I've been in business for over eight years, mostly relying on word of mouth, repeat customers, and referrals. I've built a solid reputation locally, with a 5-star Google rating and a growing base of satisfied customers.
Over the past year, I've been working toward transitioning from essentially an owner-operated painting business into a more structured company with employees and eventually multiple crews.
I've formalized more of the business operations, implemented payroll, invested in equipment and branding, improved my website and Google Business Profile, and started experimenting with different marketing strategies.
Some of my recent efforts include:
I've recently brought on another experienced painter, and my schedule is filling up with some larger residential and commercial projects.
My biggest challenge now is generating a consistent, predictable flow of quality leads.
Currently, I'm averaging around 2–3 inquiries per week. I'd love to increase that to 5–6 or more, ideally attracting larger projects and developing relationships that lead to repeat business.
I'm not necessarily looking to throw thousands of dollars at advertising agencies. I'd rather build sustainable marketing systems that produce a measurable return.
For those of you who've successfully grown your painting businesses, I'd love to hear:
I'm particularly interested in hearing firsthand experiences from contractors who have grown from working in the field themselves to managing one or more crews.
Appreciate any advice, stories, or lessons learned. Always looking to improve and learn from others in the industry!
I created this platform because I was badly screwed over by a marketing agency which charged me $5k for building a website for my small business and to do the SEO. The end result was a horribly looking template and a site that didn't rank for any of the relevant keywords I asked them for.
With https://sitesprint.ai you can generate a beautiful website without touching any code and have it live on your own .com domain within 60 seconds. Just enter your business name, a description and our tool will generate your site for you.
The websites are designed to be SEO-optimized by default to rank in Google for the keywords you require. You don't need a pricey agency or spend thousands of dollars for an agency like I did.
One challenge I find interesting in B2B marketing is explaining a technical product without overwhelming the person who's actually making the buying decision.
A product can have excellent specifications, engineering details and technical advantages, but a non-technical buyer may mainly want to know:
I've also noticed that simply removing technical information isn't necessarily the answer. The challenge seems to be presenting technical information in a way that connects with the buyer's actual concerns.
For those working in B2B or technical marketing, what approaches have you found effective?
Do you rely more on diagrams, videos, case studies, comparisons, simple explanations, demonstrations, or something else?
Hi all, my name is Elliott. What started as a small, fun project has turned into something pretty incredible, and I want to share the story, including the parts that didn't go well.
I've started a lot of digital companies over the years. The first real one was a marketing agency. It did fine, but it became a headache: chasing clients for payments, constant revisions, being on call 24/7I was making money but I was burnt out.
After that I built websites here and there and got into local work. Some of it paid, a lot of it didn't, and for a while I honestly wasn't sure any of it was going anywhere.
But doing all three taught me something. A local business needs a local presence, a website, and marketing, and they have to go to a different person or tool for each one. Why does it take so many steps?
So I built an app that takes care of it. You just search for your business profile, and it spits out an SEO-friendly website that stays updated. It's super cool and fun to use.
The start was slow. i sent hundreds of cold messages and most got ignored, the first version was There were definitely weeks where I wondered if I was wasting my time.
What turned it around was just staying consistent: organic content, word of mouth, and cold messaging people every day. A few months later, we hit $20k MRR this month. Still kind of hard to believe.
Biggest lessons so far:
Happy to answer anything about the build, the outreach, or the mistakes. Ask me anything!
I’ve been thinking about how smaller teams handle device security, especially when there’s no dedicated IT department.
Basic things like keeping devices updated, enforcing passwords, or handling a lost laptop can easily be overlooked when everything is done manually. It’s not usually a big issue at the start, but as the number of devices grows, it can get messy.
That’s where mobile device management (MDM) comes into the picture. It gives a way to apply basic security controls, manage updates, and keep visibility across devices from one place.
Hi everyone! 👋🏻
I recently started my own small hamper business, Suviya 🎀. I’ve been working on creating beautiful, affordable and personalised hampers for different occasions.
I’ve spent so much time choosing products, arranging everything, improving the packaging and creating content, but there’s one thing I’m still waiting for…
My first order. 🥹❤️
I haven’t received a single order yet, but I’m trying not to give up. I thought I’d share some of my hampers here and get some honest feedback from you guys.
I’d really love to know:
Do the hampers look attractive?
Does the packaging look gift-worthy?
What would you change or improve?
Would you consider buying something like this?
I’m completely open to honest criticism because I’m still learning and building this from scratch. 🫶🏻
Here are some of the hampers I’ve made: 🎁✨
Thank you for taking the time to look at my work. ❤️
I grew up with a tradie dad. He was a builder, so I know the early starts, the long days, and how much the paperwork drags on after them.
Then I went a different way. I spent over a decade at a big tech company. Towards the end I felt unfulfilled, so I left to start my own business building AI automations for all sorts of businesses, trades included. I'm very good at building software and automations with AI. But it's a crowded market, and I'm considering a bigger shift: getting into a trade business.
The obvious route is getting qualified. My problem is time. I've got a Sydney mortgage and big financial commitments, so I can't spend years on apprentice wages.
So here's the idea. I partner with an owner who's been on the tools for decades and is starting to think about slowing down. They keep doing the work they want to do. I take over everything else: quoting, invoicing, scheduling, chasing payments, compliance, marketing, and the tech to run it all.
As they step back, I'd build up my share and take on more of the running of the business. They get to ease out on their own terms instead of selling to a stranger or shutting the doors. I get into a trade business without spending years getting qualified.
To be upfront, I'm not putting cash in. I'm bringing my time and skills.
My questions for owners:
Would you give equity for that, or would you rather just pay someone?
If you're thinking about slowing down, would this appeal more than selling or winding down?
What would you need to see before saying yes?
Am I kidding myself?
I am 20 M want to start something to earn, suggest something that quickly learn and start earning (quickly matlb 2 ,3 month me sikh ke earn kr saku)
One thing I kept noticing with small businesses and service professionals is how much time they spend creating quotes.
You finish a job, get home, open Excel or Word, find the client's details, calculate everything, format the document, export it to PDF and finally send it.
So I built Master Offer Pro around a simple idea: create a professional quote in a few minutes, directly from your phone or computer.
You can add services, materials, quantities, prices, discounts and VAT, then generate a professional PDF and send it to the customer.
The goal isn't to replace accounting software or complicated business systems. It's simply to make the quote → customer process faster.
I'm currently testing it with small businesses and service professionals and would genuinely appreciate feedback:
You can download the app on Google Play and App Store.
What do you currently use for creating quotes — Excel, Word, dedicated software, or something else?
Small business owners, what’s your biggest headache when it comes to getting funding?
We’re a small business financing company that’s getting started, and we’re trying to get a better idea of what business owners actually struggle with.
If you’ve applied for a business loan or other type of financing before, what was the hardest part?
Was it getting approved, finding a lender, dealing with the paperwork, figuring out which option was right for you, or something else?
And if you could change one thing about the funding process, what would it be?
We’re not here to pitch anything. We’re just trying to learn where we can actually help and what business owners wish lenders did differently.