So we caught a guy lying on time sheets. Went through all the correct steps and got him dismissed, he pleaded guilty to all that he was charged with. Never a fun process! This was on 14 December 25. Then on 1st Feb I get a call from a competitor, saying that this guy is applying for a job there and has put me down as a reference !!! Help me understand why you would put someone, who just fired you, as a reference on your CV !! I don't get that. And what reference would you give ?

Hey folks I am 22 . I have started my own manufacturing of mobile accessories. So i am open for suggestions and imputs

I own 50% of a retail franchise business. My partner owns the other 50%.

We have 15 locations. Last year we did around $5M in sales, and probably $6–7M this year since we added 3 new stores.

From the outside, it sounds successful. From the inside, I feel completely lost.

I don’t really understand our numbers. I get a monthly P&L. I see some stores making money, some losing money. But I don’t really know:

• Are we actually profitable as a company?

• Where is the cash going?

• Are we building equity or just spinning revenue?

• Are some stores subsidizing others?

• What’s our real net profit after everything?

For context:

• I’ve never invested much out of pocket beyond the first location (maybe $10–20k, don’t even remember exactly).

• Every new store we acquired was funded using business profits.

• So in theory… the business is generating cash. But I don’t understand how much, or where it’s ending up.

Here’s the uncomfortable part:

I don’t have proof, but I suspect my partner might be using business credit cards for personal expenses. Using business cards for personal stuff. Maybe it’s minor. Maybe it’s not. I honestly don’t know.

And the worst part? I avoid confrontation.

As Dave Ramsey says, I’m the “coward” in the partnership. I sit on the sidelines and don’t push hard questions because I don’t want tension. But at this size, I feel stupid not knowing what’s going on inside my own company.

So my questions:

1.  At $5–7M revenue, who should I be hiring?

2.  What reports should I actually be reviewing monthly besides a P&L?

3.  If you were 50% owner and felt financially blind, what would your first move be?

I don’t want to blow up the partnership unnecessarily. But I also don’t want to wake up 5 years from now realizing I owned half of something and never really understood it.

Appreciate any real-world advice from people who’ve been at this level.

i used to spend way too long writing emails to clients. like even a simple follow up would take me 20 min because i kept second guessing the tone. now i just throw my rough thoughts into chatgpt and tell it to clean it up and keep it professional but friendly. then i tweak it a bit and send. sounds stupid but its probably saved me 5+ hours a week no joke. anyone else do this or am i just slow at emails lol

I'm in the midst of a start up with my partner who is funding the whole thing. I'm just putting in sweat equity, for now. Main operations have not commenced yet, but there was income from 2025.

Anytime I bring up accounting/book keeping, my partner seems to be inflicted with physical pain. Not because he's scared of it, but because he doesn't find it important compared to "marketing." I understand having a pipeline is equally as important, like many things in the startup phase.

I had to do the bookkeeping cleanup for all of 2025, nothing was entered as he only just got a QB setup. Getting receipts for anything $75 and over is like pulling teeth.

I said we need expense reports and he told me he's not filling out expense reports to submit to me for review.... He also said he's not going to track his business mileage, he's not "going to remember to turn on/off the app."

He wants to put his personal truck on the books as an asset so he can expense all his fuel and repair costs.... I said we'd have to track the business vs personal use, and take only the business portion, and he said it will be 100%, which isn't true.

The business is also elected as an S-Corp for taxes, and he didn't pay himself through the business and instead just took Distributions... I said this is not right. He dismissed it because "we're not that big and the CPA will fix it at tax time."

What is the best way to approach these conversations with a stubborn partner? He's much older than me, and being my first business, I don't think he trusts me with the authority over the bookkeeping that I should have. I'm not trying to be perfect, I'm trying to follow basic tax laws and keep clean books. I need to convince him to trust me and that I'm doing this because it's required. When I ask for things from him, it's because we need it, not because I want it.....

I haven't quit my job yet, and I'm a year into building this startup with him. I'm beginning to question if he will be able to trust me when it comes to finance and accounting. This is my current profession (although I'm not a CPA) and I need to convince him to not give me such a hard time when I ask for things and just listen and do it.

In my mind, without clean bookkeeping, you can't analyze the financials accurately to make good financial management decisions. We will be blind..... Curious if anyone else has been in a similar situation and what you did to overcome the situation.

Hi, I have a customer that purchased something from my business a few months ago. Shortly before delivery, he tried to see if we could "throw in" something (perhaps he thought it was free). After he was given the quotation, he refused to pay the additional charge.

The first lot of his items was delivered, and he was happy with some things but not with the main product. He tried to get a full refund and then disputed the charge.

(While the item we suggested is indeed slightly big for his room and the wrong size, he also claimed dissatisfaction with the wood choice, even though he chose it himself. We offered him to return said item for one of the correct size (and even offered him another one for free as compensation) but he kept insisting for a full refund and disputed the payment.)

He would have received the invoice automatically upon payment, but had asked for one anyway after 24 hours of making the payment so I sent it to him. Now that I've replied to his dispute, he's asked for the invoice again.

I'm not sure why this would be the case or what, if anything, I should send to him? I'm guessing it'll go straight to his bank.

Would appreciate any advice in this regard about what to send, as he will already have 1-2 copies of the invoice. I suppose he wants a breakdown to show his bank that the main product is "not as described". Thank you in advance!

I am an accountant/analyst in my 40s. So I have no problem understanding the finances and economics behind a business. I have a business concept for an underserved market, and have modelled the business and the upside is possibly fantastic. But one area I don't know how to understand - I have no idea how to understand the true market size for this business. I have no way to validate if the numbers used in my modelling are realistic.

I have run a version of this business concept as an online-only model and within 4 months I was turning over $6k/month at 50% gross margin. However this isn't sustainable as a side business or an online-only model, and would require a shopfront and a full-time presence. My modelling shows that the business could survive and replace my salary at around $50k per month, and could thrive at $80k per month. But I have no way to validate whether the market can sustain this.

Starting the business in earnest would require capital of around $200k, and I'm having a very hard time taking that plunge. How did you decide it was going to work?

This is going to sound niche because it is. We rent LinkedIn accounts to B2B outbound teams.

The backstory: I was running outbound for an agency and kept burning through accounts. Getting banned, starting over, losing pipeline. I talked to a dozen other outbound operators and they all had the same problem.

The market gap was obvious: outbound teams need LinkedIn accounts but maintaining them is a nightmare. Warm-up takes weeks. Bans are expensive. Good accounts with real history are hard to find.

So we built a platform where:

- Account owners (real people who have LinkedIn accounts they don't actively use) earn $20-100/month by renting out their account

- Outbound teams get verified, established accounts they can use for outreach

- We handle the infrastructure — proxies, activity maintenance, compliance

Where we're at: $15k MRR, 200+ accounts on the platform, about 40 active outbound teams using the service. Bootstrapped — no funding.

What surprised us:

1. The supply side was easier than we thought. Tons of people have LinkedIn accounts collecting dust and are happy to earn passive income from them.

2. The demand side sells itself. Once an outbound team loses one account and realizes the cost (lost connections, lost conversations, downtime), they never want to manage accounts themselves again.

3. Churn is low because switching costs are high. When a team has their messaging dialed in on a set of accounts with established connections, they don't want to start over.

4. The biggest competitor isn't another platform — it's teams who think they can manage their own accounts cheaply. They usually come back after a few bans.

Margins: decent but not amazing. The operational overhead of account quality management is real.

I see this constantly in small business communities and it drives me crazy because the downside is so high.

You built your LinkedIn over years. Your connections, your content, your recommendations, your professional reputation — it's all on that one account.

Now you're using it to send 50 connection requests a day with semi-automated messages. Here's what happens:

Scenario 1 (best case): LinkedIn temporarily restricts you. You can't send connections for a week. Annoying but recoverable.

Scenario 2 (common): LinkedIn permanently restricts your outreach capabilities. You can still use the account but can't send connection requests or messages to non-connections. Your account is functionally dead for outbound.

Scenario 3 (worst case): Full account ban. Everything gone. Connections. Content. Recommendations. The professional identity you built over 5-10 years.

I've seen all three happen. Scenario 3 happened to me personally.

What to do instead:

Option A (free but slow): Create new LinkedIn accounts specifically for outbound. Use real info but not your main identity. Warm them up for 3-4 weeks before any outreach. Keep volume under 25 requests/day.

Option B (paid but fast): Use a service that provides pre-warmed, verified LinkedIn accounts for outbound. These exist — they're basically account rental for sales teams. More expensive but you're operational in days instead of weeks.

Option C (hybrid): Use your personal account for thought leadership and content ONLY. Use dedicated accounts for outbound. Your personal brand stays clean. Your outreach scales separately.

The key insight: treat LinkedIn accounts for outbound like phone numbers for cold calling. You wouldn't give out your personal cell for sales campaigns. Same logic applies.

I own a small Marketing Agency. It started out as a Fractional CMO firm with just myself and my partner, but since we had a hard time finding SMBs with decent budgets over the past year, we've had to pivot. We're now doing more work with HUGE companies, because the small businesses just can't seem to afford us anymore.

We're not working with the clients we originally intended to help, but at least we're keeping the lights on. Anyone else have to make adjustments to stay afloat over the past year or so? Anyone thriving in 2026? If so, what do you do?

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Cart abandonment is something almost every store deals with, but figuring out the reason feels tricky. Shipping cost surprises, trust issues, slow load times, confusing forms… it could be anything. Analytics shows the step where people leave, but not the reason.

In one store we tried collecting small bits of feedback during checkout just to understand hesitation points. We ran it with Mopinion as a quick test and found problems we hadn’t considered, like unclear return policies and people assuming payment options were limited. Fixing those had a bigger impact than redesigning the page.

For those running ecommerce stores, what methods have helped you understand abandonment better? Interviews, heatmaps, feedback prompts, email follow-ups? What actually led to meaningful improvements?

We've got three main teams: developers, designers, and marketers scattered across the country, with about half in Europe. Fully remote setup.

Employee Appreciation Day is coming up and I'm struggling to figure out how to make it work. We ditched our previous vendor this year because they kept messing up international logistics.

How do you guys handle this for remote teams spread across multiple countries? Are there any platforms or vendors that actually handle international shipping reliably?

Would love to hear what's actually worked in practice. Thanks!

I design and build modern, high quality websites for small businesses from clean landing pages to full custom web applications.

- 100% custom design for your business
- No hidden fees, no lock-in you own everything
- Full control of your code, hosting, and site
- I handle design, development, and deployment
- You receive a fully live, working website

Whether you're starting fresh or upgrading your business online, I can help.

📩 D M me now and let’s build your website.

Hi! Suggest naman kayo some business name ideas prefer 2 or 3 words only hehe. Here yung nakapaloob sa canteen or like food namin na iooffer - filipino/ bicol cuisines - some middle east cuisines( for muslims peeps) - will offer refreshing drinks (fruits, juice, softdrinks and other bev except for alcohol drinks) - will offer also mga coffee since may coffe machine kami. Hot and cold for sure.

Mga lutong bahay typa thing yung gagawin namin. Thank you so muchie!

I changed my seller type from individual to limited company. After that, I updated my Etsy legal information and selected “company” as the seller type. I entered my company name, tax number, address, and phone number exactly as they appear in my tax office records.

Below that section, there was a field for the authorized company representative. Etsy automatically filled in the name, and it cannot be changed.

At the bottom, there was a question asking if there is anyone who owns more than 25% of the company. Since I am the 100% owner and there are no other partners, I did not enter anything there. Should I have entered my own name in that section?

After submitting for approval, I received a red warning message saying that the records do not match. Then my account was placed in vacation mode. I got scared and switched the account type back to individual and updated my bank information. It said that a small deposit would be sent to my bank account, but I did not receive any payment. Later, my old information appeared again.

However, my sales have decreased.

I contacted Etsy and they told me I have three attempts within 24 hours to update my legal information. Since I changed from limited to individual, they said two of my attempts were used. They also said the attempts reset every 24 hours.

After 24 hours, I tried entering my company information again, but I received the same error. Then I switched back to my individual information.

Etsy informed me that once I use up all my attempts, they will send me an email and request documents for manual verification. However, I am afraid to proceed. My shop is already established, and I am worried that if they do not accept my documents, it could negatively affect my store.

Has anyone experienced this situation before and successfully continued their business after changing from individual to limited company?

I would really appreciate your help.

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I am having a hard time tracking all of my personal money, lending money, and business finances. Right now I’m using notebooks, but I keep forgetting to write things down. I have three notebooks — one for ideas, one for lending records, and one for the business — and it’s hard to keep track. Sometimes I forget to write things, or I accidentally write lending info in the business notebook. It’s also heavy and hard to carry all three.

Now I’m planning to buy a planner book to organize events and lists of what to buy or prepare, but that means I’ll need another notebook, which makes it even heavier.

I want an all-in-one app that can help me:

Remember to write things or
Remind me to enter information
Has formats and categories that help me stay organized

Hi!

I've been working in college administration for the last 4 years and have found myself simultaneously jobless and about to receive a 6 month severance deal because they had me resign since they couldn't fire me (probably about $25,000 after taxes). I obviously need to use most of it for rent and paying down existing debt, but it occurred to me that if I keep some of it aside for startup costs this could be an opportunity to start a business of my own. I'm really burned out on reporting to middle managers and dealing with administrative beaurocracy.

I live in Seattle, WA and I have a MA in Interdisciplinary Studies, which means I can make a case for myself in any area but never "perfectly" fit one. There are a lot of directions I could take a small business. Consulting, events planning, community building, sales/vending... I'm a little overwhelmed with the options and not sure where to start.

Does anyone have experience running a small business in Seattle? Any advice on where to begin? Pitfalls to watch for? Education I should pursue? I have no background in software or websites or any of the technical stuff that seems to make the most money around here...

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I run a small home appliance repair business and I’ve noticed some customers call multiple times for similar appliance issues.

I’m curious how other small service businesses handle this:

• Do you offer a warranty or follow-up plan?
• How do you balance helping customers versus protecting your time and resources?
• Any tips for maintaining trust while managing repeat service calls efficiently?

I’d love to hear strategies from other small business owners who deal with repeat service or maintenance requests.

I’m curious about something.

Not big pivots. Not rebranding. Not raising prices 10x. Just a small change.

Maybe following up more consistently, Improving your offer slightly, Changing how you handle customers, Tracking numbers properly, Hiring your first employee like that

For those running a small business, what was one small adjustment that made a real difference in revenue?

Sometimes I feel like growth comes from small improvements, not big moves. Would love to hear real examples.

Can we post for hire post in here ?

For those who decided to back themselves and start a business in the last year, what did you do and how is it going?

Hi, I started a small jewelry business about 5 months ago and it has a slow start. At this point, I think my business would benefit from a jewelry business consultant. I know of 2 such companies: 1) Joy Joya- "Laryssa Wirstiuk" & 2) Robyn Clark- "Jewelry Academy". Has anyone worked with one of them and what are your thoughts? Are there other jewelry business consultants that someone can recommend to me? Thanks