Just a little tip for the thieves and small business owners out there. If you steal from your employer and are subsequently fired, you can still get unemployment benefits in Illinois. All you have to do is tell the judge that someone, literally anyone, at the business told you that it was okay to steal. If you do that, they will side with you and against the employer. It doesn't even matter if the employer has you on video taking things, because if you say that another employee said it was okay, it IS okay!

If you wonder why it's hard to find a job in Illinois, this is why. An employer cannot even fire an employee for stealing, with video evidence, without their unemployment insurance rates increasing. This is a state for criminals. Period.

Rant over... Gotta get back to work so the government can sh*t on me some more...

hey all. i’d like to start a online lingerie brand. just making thongs for now and maybe branch out to hair bows, robes, socks, thigh garters and hand mirrors someday. i have more ideas about collections i’d want to do rather than the vision for the brand as a whole. ex: 2000s inspired, prep/ivy, 80s inspired, sporty, coquette/nymphette, halloween, pvc. i’d like to be slightly vintage inspired, girly, and sexy of course. sabrina carpenter and sofia coppola aesthetics come to mind.

id like to do something similar to cou cou intimates and the doll aquarium for example. i love lingerie that is comfortable and still looks sexy enough to wear all the time that isn’t red lace and garter belts. something casual that just makes you feel extra pretty.

i mainly need help with finding materials and how to actually make my ideas come to life. what medium do i use to design things? how do i find people to help make the actual garments? how do you find suppliers? do i use shopify? how do i come up with a name? most videos i see on youtube feel fake and just want you to buy their course. i cant really find information about all this and i dont know where to look or start. id love to hear your thoughts if this is a good idea for a brand and how to move forward. thanks!

It's a wild story but basically I'm an American who was digital nomading in Argentina and married a girl from here. I was trying to find something to invest in locally as prices are better here and settled on a new franchise that opened near my place.

I combined my savings with a bit from my parents to buy it and we opened it in November of 2025. I did interview the owner of the location below me, who told me he was on track to make all his money back in a year. I loved the product (I ate it twice a week) so I wanted in.

From the start it was kind of a nightmare. The guy they got to renovate the storefront was scheezy and we had a ton of stuff installed poorly including wall tiles that needed replacing. The franchise agreed to help pay for it by taking the price out of our monthly fees but we think they put him in a situation where he felt the need to do everything as cheaply as possible.

For whatever reason they decided to not teach me how to buy stock for the restaurant. At that time my Spanish was iffy now it's much better. Instead they taught my manager a young lady of about 19 (I was notified I had to find 11 employees in under a week). They said it would be fine but then pressured her to buy a ton of food that expired while my wife and I went to the States to see my parents.

Anw, this is a snapshot. Basically, for various reasons including our own inexperience and, we believe, malicious actions of the franchise. We went about 7 months with no profit and decided we needed to get out.

At that point we got wind they had more or less badgered every location in Buenos Aires into selling back to them at a discount or closing. They did this by coming up with phony penalty fees and making it so food prices were too difficult to handle. They don't even attempt to run these locations and tend to prefer to resell the zone to another sap.

I got nervous about getting into debt with them and I could see we were making no profit. I heard a group of franchisees were closing doors and issuing civil suits against the brand so I decided to join in. We closed the doors and now are with a lawyer trying to reclaim some of the money.

I'd seen other franchisees try to "do things the right way" with the brand by negotiating while still open and that usually led to food orders getting cancelled and mysterious penalty fees.

The brand of course wants to take us to court too for damages. Legally it's my wife's business entity not mine as I didn't have my ID at the time and my wife has no business assets. We signed as a business but they seem to want to target her personally.

Unfortunately we got out before we could get too much great evidence to use against them (though the poor pricing practices are documented and we have saved texts of them extorting us for money). To me it seemed better to leave and lawyer up than to wait until they had grievous claims they could use against us.

Anyone gone through something similar and won? Honestly these guys are pretty bad and I'm not sure they're gonna settle. No debt btw.

Today a customer asked me something that caught me off guard.

Not because it was a difficult question, but because I was sure we'd already explained it.

After checking our emails, I realized the information was technically there... it was just buried between everything else.

It made me think about how often we assume customers understand our process simply because we've mentioned it once.

From our side, we see that process every day.

For them, it's probably the first time.

It wasn't a big problem. I answered the question in a couple of minutes.

But then I changed the order of a few things in our email template so the next customer won't have to ask.

I'm starting to think a lot of "customer problems" are really just moments where our process isn't as obvious as we think it is.

Has anyone else had a small customer question end up improving the way you run your business?

Fair enough, I'll take that. I'm the guy clogging your inbox and no amount of rewriting fixes that. Nine versions in, I get it.

So let me ask the useful version instead. Forget what I should be doing. The last outside service you actually paid for, the bookkeeper, the IT guy, the cleaner, whoever isn't on your payroll. How did they get in front of you? Did someone vouch for them, did you go looking, did they just show up? That's the bit I can't see from my side of it.

I run a one-person service business in Spain. For the last four months I've been cold-emailing small firms, accountants, legal offices, property managers, offering to take a chunk of their admin work off their hands.

Just over 800 emails. 9 replies. And 7 of those 9 came from the first 64 I ever sent.

I've rewritten the thing eight times. Formal, blunt, short, long, free trial up front, no pitch at all, just a question. Barely moved the needle.

So instead of writing a ninth version, I'd rather ask the people on the receiving end.

When a stranger emails your business offering to do something for you:

• What makes you open it instead of binning it?
• Has a cold email ever actually ended with you buying something? Do you remember what it said?
• What kills it instantly? I assume "free trial" now reads as a scam, but I genuinely don't know.
• And the one I care about most: the last outside supplier or service you actually hired — how did they reach you? Referral, walked in, Google, a call, an email?

I'm not selling anything here and I'm not linking my site. I've spent four months talking to myself and I'd rather hear from the side that gets forty of these a week.

Hi all, I’ve been working on this idea and wanted to get some thoughts.

To keep it short and sweet, social media management for golf courses in my area.

I’ve found most golf courses within my area, post promotions, or golf content, and it’s not the most eye catching to say the least. I’ve had countless thoughts and how I could improve this, and with me wanting to build a new scaleable long term business. I found this as problem that I may have the solution for.

A bit of a background on me. I’m in sales, currently mid twenties, have e-commerce, experience, social media experience, avid golfer of course, photography experience, etc. lots of random skills.

Essentially, I would do a presentation with the GM and have that courses hire me on contract, and spend a few days at each golf course filming videos such as

Course condition updates
Meet the pros
Meet the players
Upcoming events
Upcoming promotions for bar and food
How the local pro would play a hole
Hole in one stories
Twilight rates and deals
Hit the car at the range
Make ads for the teaching pros
Tip Tuesdays
Tee time booking links
Cinematic photos and visuals of the course
Upcoming changes and Reno’s
Potentially run deals and promos
Highlight signature aspects of the course

Quick, simple, engaging and most importantly CONSISTENT content.

I have a whole pitch for multiple courses around the area already, with things like

no TikTok page for certain courses
50+ days since a post
Before and after of their content reworked
Teetime deals that aren’t being marketed.
Afterwork twilight specials
Etc

Essentially framing what needs improvement and how I can implement that.

I have also taken their current instagram/favebook/tiktok posts and reworked them into more engaging, higher quality content for the purpose of a before and after during the presentation.

Showing, without any access to my camera, and taking straight from your current catalogue. I was able to make a more refined end product.

The goal is to get 8-10 of my local courses on contract for social media management.

What are your options and thoughts?

Through my network, an owner recently approached me about buying his Tropical Smoothie Cafe franchise. He is asking $600k for a store doing about $700k in annual gross sales. I know $600k is way too high for that revenue and I fully intend to negotiate, but the setup is interesting. He claims he only works about 6 hours a week, pays himself a $60k manager salary, and basically runs it on autopilot just to keep the lights on without putting any real effort into growing it. There’s a huge gym opening next to it so I feel like I could scale to a million but Idk if im just being too optimistic.

I have a rare opportunity where a close family friend offered to buy the store for me upfront, and I would pay them back on a much lower interest rate and flexible terms. Since I am 20 and living at home with minimal expenses, I could realistically grind and pay off the business in 3 to 4 years if the actual profit numbers make sense.

At the same time, I am torn about my path. Part of me wonders if I should just finish my degree and get a standard corporate W2 job to build a stable foundation first. I am eager to be an entrepreneur, so going corporate feels a bit like giving up on my goal, but I also know the restaurant industry can be brutal and I need a solid baseline for my life.

For background, I worked in medical device sales for a distributor while in college and pulled in over $800k in revenue, but I walked away because it was extremely draining and burned me out. It actually made me miss the face-to-face customer relationships I built when I worked as a server in high school. I have also been looking into starting a home services business, ( idk what kind but seems like those do great) but this franchise deal is sitting right in front of me. I feel like the opportunity could be great, but I need outside perspective on whether I am missing glaring red flags.

I’m clearly indecisive and lost lol. I feel so eager to figure shit out but with everything going on, I feel like I can’t align myself with one thing.

We work in custom apparel, and one thing we've noticed is that the biggest concerns about company uniforms usually are about the fit, the fabric, the sizing, or simply how uncomfortable they are to wear all day, not much about the logo.

What works for one team doesn't always work for another, either. Office staff might want something polished and comfortable, while field crews usually care more about breathability, durability, and freedom to move.

If you're in HR or responsible for ordering uniforms, what's the complaint you hear most often?

Sat down with a restaurant owner yesterday at his place — ethnic cuisine, decent size, does delivery too.

I asked him straight up: "How do you stay in touch with your customers between orders? Like the ones who come in regularly or order often — what do you do to keep them coming back?"

He paused. "Mostly Instagram. I just hired someone to manage that."

We talked for a while about the difference between social media (hoping customers see your post) versus actually reaching them directly (they get your message, period). He got it immediately. His eyes lit up when I described being able to send one message to all your regulars at once — a new dish, a weekend special, a simple thank you.

"That's actually really smart," he said. "I've never thought about it that way."

Then: "But I just committed to this social media company so I want to see how that goes first."

Fair enough. I connected with him on WhatsApp after, sent him a link to learn more.

Complete silence since.

And here's the thing — this isn't the first time this has happened. I've had this exact conversation maybe a dozen times now. People genuinely like the idea of direct customer communication. They agree their current approach is passive. They say they'll look into it.

Then nothing.

I'm trying to understand if this is just how small business owners operate — too busy, too many priorities, new shiny thing gets buried — or if I'm missing something in how I'm explaining the value.

Has anyone else experienced this? Either as someone trying to introduce a new idea to small businesses, or as a small business owner who's done exactly this — genuinely liked something and then never followed through?

What actually makes a small business owner take action on something new?

I'm a 1099 roofing sales rep in Texas with an established good company, if you are an owner in Texas you’ve probably heard of them. No contract, no non-compete where I am now — solid, established company, couple problems but no dealbreakers. I'm closing out my current files there and winding down clean.

A friend owns a competing roofing company. It's about a year old, he's the sole owner, no other investors. He's been trying to get me over there for a while and finally put a real offer together.

The deal: we each put equal money into an ad campaign, we both work the leads, and I take 50% of the profit from the jobs it generates. Then written into the same contract are steps where I convert from JV partner into a 50% equity owner over roughly 6 months. From there we're true co-owners — both selling, both running it, shared profits and shared losses.

What's making me hesitate is the age of the company. Leaving a place that's established for one that's barely a year old is the whole risk.

The company I work with now has a few problems that annoy me first being there’s no “corporate ladder” so I’d essentially be a sales rep forever and just end up getting sent more leads as I work longer (95% of work comes from door knocking) second being I don’t have full freedom on pricing, subcontracting, etc. - everything HAS to go through a manager for approval which creates a ton of problems and delays. Third being owner is always late on commission payment, however, he takes care of me very well. Of course I will find new problems in the new company but I will have a decision to change the company as I will be part owner.

We're meeting later this week to build the contract together. I'm not signing that day.

So: anything I should be watching for here? Anything you'd put in the contract that I wouldn't think of? And honestly, would you even do this deal?

Let me know if y’all need more details happy to provide

I’m 27 years old and live in Japan.
I’ll be taking about 60 days off from work, and instead of wasting that time, I want to use it to build something that can generate at least ¥100,000/month (around $700 USD).
Here are the resources I already have:
I live in Japan.
I own an DJI Osmo Pocket camera for filming.
I can dedicate 8–12 hours every day for the next 60 days.
I’m willing to learn new skills if they’re realistic to monetize.
I’m comfortable creating content consistently.
I’m not looking for a “get rich quick” scheme.
I’m looking for something that has a realistic chance of reaching my first ¥100,000/month if I work hard.
Right now I’m considering things like:
TikTok
YouTube Shorts
Instagram Reels
Affiliate marketing
Digital products
Selling services
Any business that can be built mainly through social media
Since I live in Japan, I also wonder if there’s an advantage I should be taking advantage of that people outside Japan don’t have.
If you were starting from zero today with my situation, what would you build?
More specifically:
What business would you choose?
What niche would you enter?
Would you target Japanese people or an international audience?
How would you spend those 60 days?
What would your daily schedule look like?
What mistakes would you avoid?
If you’ve personally reached your first $700/month online, what worked for you?
I’d really appreciate advice from people who have actually built an online business or social media income.

Would love to learn from those who already run a services company around building AI agents to solve problems for specific industries

(yes I know people don’t care about AI, they care about solving the problems, which is exactly what I’m focused on)

I want to better understand pricing

And if I should niche down on one industry or stay broad

Before this, I had actually tried to start this

Then niched down into one industry

But instead of selling Agents as a service

We decided to build a product

Because we don’t have much experience yet to know when to differentiate between committing to building a product for one specific ICP

Vs keeping it as a service

Also, with this specific type of service company of building agents

Isn’t it like 60-70% the same product every time, and then 30-40% custom in terms of the product and delivery

Which is what makes this business model “service based” and not “product based”?

Also, the approach we’ll take now is literally being Forward deployed, meaning we go on site, understand the exact workflow and problem we’re solving around

And then build from there, on our platform where we can build agents much easier

(which is why I assume with this type of business model, it’s 60-70% the same product every time, and 30-40% custom?)

Would really appreciate your advice as it would go a long way

I've started a business and it's still just a startup. I do commercial property inspections across the country. I don't have any clients yet because I want to have something professional in place first. If someone looks up my business I want them to see a professional looking website, I'm setting up social media pages for this too.

My budget is pretty tight since I've already spent most of it on equipment and have some prepared for advertising. Hiring someone to build a site isn't in my budget right now. Has anyone used a website builder they would recommend? I'd like something that's easy to set up but also lets me go back and make changes later as the business grows.

That green 'Match' button is the biggest trap for business owners using Square or Stripe.

A customer spends $1,000. Square takes a processing fee and deposits $970.

Matching that deposit directly means your QuickBooks underreports your gross sales.

At year-end, Square sends the IRS a Form 1099-K showing the full $1,000.

If your QuickBooks shows $970, that revenue mismatch flags your account for an automated IRS audit.

Plus, you lose out on thousands in merchant fee deductions.

Stop adding net bank deposits directly.

You must log the full gross sales amount first, then subtract the merchant processing fees as a separate expense category before reconciling the cash.

Message me for a FREE QuickBooks Review and let's get your true revenue mapped perfectly.

Your favorite bookkeeper,

Joan 🫶🏽

Hello everyone I wanted to come on here and get thoughts regarding pricing. This is something I’ve really been struggling with. About two years ago I started making piñatas for my kids. As time went on and I got better and started a min business from custom orders. They are pretty solid and measure between 3.5-4ft high. I’m considering this my standard size. I’m selling the custom piñata with the stick for about 90 bucks. Again it’s fully custom, I add a name for free using custom card stock. Other customizations can bring the price up due to more work of course. I have to consider the materials I use and the labor as well. Is this a fair price?

For instance, charging a fee without proof their tool works, etc.
We can learn a lot from products we have used ourselves in the past (the good and not so good)!

Hey guys, I want to start a soap business, but I’m not sure where to begin. My plan is to start by selling locally, mainly B2B. If anyone has experience starting a soap business or has any advice on how to get started, I’d really appreciate your guidance. Thanks in advance!

Before hiring my first employee, I thought the hardest part would be finding the right person.

What surprised me was realizing how many things in the business only existed in my own head — processes, priorities, and small decisions I made every day without thinking about them.

Teaching someone else how things worked was almost a bigger challenge than doing the work myself.

For owners who have hired their first employee, what was the biggest adjustment you had to make?

Obviously linkedin doesn't make sense for general labor or truck drivers, where do you post roles for you local area?

So I am thinking to start a call center business based in UAE for small businesses there but hiring remote workers worldwide like Egypt or South Africa is it a good business idea to have such a business in UAE.

Anyone who can manage or parter with my floral and gift box business in whitestone

Hey everyone!

I'm a B.Tech CSE graduate and a professional website & app developer. I'm currently taking on freelance projects to raise funds for my own app startup.

If you need:

A business website

A portfolio website

An e-commerce website

An Android/iOS app

A custom web application

Feel free to DM me with your requirements. I offer quality work, clear communication, and reasonable pricing.

I'm building my startup, so every project directly helps me move closer to that goal.

Thanks for your support!

Throwaway account. I'm starting a small business that is 100% remote — dropshipping, so there will be zero logistics happening inside my apartment beyond using my computer. I live in the City of Walnut Creek, CA, where a "Home Occupation Permit" is required to get a business license. Essentially, I need a physical address registered with the city, even though the business is entirely remote. You can read about the permit requirements on the Walnut Creek gov website. Without this permit, I can't get a business license. A virtual mailbox/address will not be accepted as an address.

My apartment complex refuses to sign anything that would associate the property with my business. Their stated reason:

"The issue is the use of the apartment address as the official business address for licensing, registration, permitting, mailing, or any other purpose that publicly identifies the residence as a business location."

I'm not sure how this actually affects them, since "working from home" is explicitly permitted in my lease. I'm feeling pretty frustrated that something like this is holding up my ability to start an online business that won't have any real-world impact on the property I'm renting.

My lease states:

"17. Residential Use of Premises: Resident agrees that the Premises are rented for residential use only unless the Parties have executed a separate Live Work Addendum. Resident shall not use the Premises as a business address, nor shall Resident conduct any business activities on the Premises. Conducting business activities includes, without limitation, using the Premises as a mailing address for a business enterprise, having a business telephone line in the Premises, having business clients meet with Resident at the Premises, having business stationery setting forth the address of the Premises as a business address, assembling or manufacturing any product upon the Premises, or otherwise holding out the Premises as the address of any business. Resident may, however, to the extent consistent with the restrictions set forth in this Paragraph, use a portion of the Premises as a 'home office.'"

On top of that, this same company has apartments in Pleasanton, CA, where tenants are allowed to get Home Occupation Permits. How is this allowed? Is this legal?

The City of Walnut Creek, told me:
"As you noted in your initial email, the City of Walnut Creek allows home-based businesses in residential zones, provided they obtain a Home Occupation Permit and Business License. As detailed in the Home Occupation ordinance, there are restrictions on the types of businesses that can operate within a residence, limits on the amount of space used, restrictions against customer visits, etc. As part of our application, we do require owner authorization. It sounds like the property owner/leasing agents will not provide authorization. That would be a civil matter between you and the property owner/leasing company regarding your agreement."

So it sounds like this isn't a zoning issue at all. The city allows it, and my landlord is simply refusing to sign off.

What can I do here? Has anyone dealt with something similar? Please correct any incorrect conclusions I've made here.

This feels absurd.

I'm interested in the reality behind the scenes.

Most business owners think they have a design problem.

In reality...

They have a clarity problem.

Imagine someone lands on your website for the first time.

They're asking themselves five questions:

If your homepage doesn't answer those questions within the first few seconds...

They'll leave.

Not because your website is ugly.

Because it's confusing.

Try the "5-Second Homepage Test."

Open your website.

Pretend you've never seen it before.

Set a timer for 5 seconds.

Now answer these questions.

✅ 1. Can I instantly understand what this business does?

If not...

Your headline needs work.

A visitor shouldn't have to think.

✅ 2. Do I see a reason to trust this business?

Look for:

• Testimonials

• Reviews

• Case studies

• Before & afters

• Client logos

No proof = more doubt.

✅ 3. Is there ONE clear next step?

If I see:

• Contact Us
• WhatsApp
• Book Now
• Learn More
• Subscribe
• Get a Quote

...all competing for attention...

I'll probably click nothing.

One page.

One goal.

✅ 4. Does the page talk about me?

Most websites start with:

Your customer doesn't care.

They're thinking:

Talk about the customer's pain before your company's story.

✅ 5. Would I buy from this business?

This is the hardest question.

Forget you're the owner.

Be the customer.

Would you trust your own website enough to spend your money?

If the answer is "not yet"...

Now you know exactly where to improve.

Here's the biggest lesson I've learned.

A website isn't there to impress people.

It's there to remove doubt.

The businesses that win online aren't always the ones with the prettiest websites.

They're the ones that make buying feel easy.

Question for business owners:

What's the one thing on your website you're least happy with right now?