I own a small business with 4 employees. It's very successful, seasonal, and highly profitable ($100k profit/month). I live 2000 miles away and one of my friends has run the business as on on-site manager for me for the past 4 years. I do visit and spend a few days on site once a month or so. I salary him and this year gave him a $1500/month raise this year. The job is blue collar, outdoor and can be labor intensive but no special skills are needed. In this industry the position pays $35/hr but I'm paying $90/hr. He has never missed a day and goes above and beyond at times. So I'm really overpaying him. He is working 4-5 days/wk usually 40 hrs.

Recently he has started acting out. He's been getting defiant with me about getting things done and at times, cursing me out or flat out refusing to do things I ask. Several small jobs that should have taken 30 mins have been idle for 3 months. Today he called me 30 mins before he was to open and said he doesn't think he'll be coming in. But showed up anyway. When I arrived he told me he felt as though he was being underpaid and wants a raise.

I can tell what's happening. He sees the sales numbers we are doing (based on customer count) and thinks I'm depending on him to run the business. Without him, he thinks I'm screwed. In reality I can hire a 16 year old for $10/hr to do the job - I'm just worried about reliability.

What should I do at this point? I'm overpaying him to a ridiculous amount but he says he's being underpaid. I don't like to play childish games (such as 'you pay me more or I'm not showing up to work' type bs). I intend to have a meeting with him this week. Any ideas how I should approach this? I mean I'm paying the guy triple industry average and he's not happy and becoming insubordinate.

Lesson learned as a starting small business owner.

Never again pitching our services to an HOA or people we personally know without clear agreements.

We submitted a proposal, waited two weeks, and kept following up just to get a clear answer. We even started preparing designs and other materials.

At some point, it felt like we were begging for an opportunity instead of simply offering a service.

I understand that miscommunication happens, but our time and effort matter too.

Not every opportunity is worth chasing. Sometimes, walking away is the better business decision.

Lesson learned.

I've been using quite a few AI tools, including the generative AI tools everyone is talking about, and I've noticed something. Unless a business owner is already well organized and has solid business processes in place, these tools can quickly become overwhelming and actually make things less efficient.

I'm curious, what's been your experience?

I am an Argentinian who owns a Pet grooming in USA. Florida.

The thing is, i try to play some backround music for not having a dead place. Usually i put the regular pop mix thay every store plays. But sometimes i really feel like playng a chill spanish music. Nothing related to reggateon or things like that.

My fear is, 90% of my customers are americans or jamaican. Not sure if this could be offensive or is juts a personal thing.

Would you mind to get into your regular store, either nails, pet grooming, hair styler, barber, etc, if they play some other type of music rather than USA english?

TLDR: I prepare legal documents and wanna know where to run ads.

Hi all. I just turned 22, I started my LDA business a few months ago but only really-soft launched it, and got no clients. I offer unlawful detainer and uncontested divorces through trial, as well as individual forms.

For the people who don't know what LDA means, in California, there's a role called a legal document assistant. Essentially, I can fill out all the paperwork based on the information a client gives me. For example, I charge to prepare an entire unlawful detainer case what an attorney charges for 2 hours - at $650. Think of it this way: An LDA is meant to be a cheaper way of getting the paperwork done than paying your lawyer, and a safer way than doing it yourself. I can also submit the paperwork for the client.

So far, I have referral relationships with process servers and notaries. I've gotten a couple clients sent my way, but nowhere near enough to keep my overhead. Plus, they get a cut of my profits anyway.

I suppose my question is this: What platform should I advertise on? I've lurked on this sub and other subs for a while - actually, a lot of the things I know now come from advice I've seen other people receive. So, I've seen some people say to use Craigslist, others say Google Ads (Didn't work for me), others say Facebook and somehow there's a distinction between Facebook and Facebook Marketplace, some say Nextdoor and others vehemently despise Nextdoor. You get the gist.

I only operate in ten counties in Southern California. Actually, I'll just name them in case it matters: Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Imperial, San Bernardino, Riverside, Kern, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara.

every time a founder asks me for a redesign i open the site and it's the same story. three buttons fighting each other on the homepage, a slider nobody waits for, a whole section about company values, and a newsletter popup before the page even loads

the design is rarely the real problem. there's just too much stuff and people don't know where to look

but nobody asks for that because "remove stuff" doesn't feel like you got anything for your money. a new look feels like progress

lately i suggest cutting first and redesigning later if it's still needed. half the time they don't go for it lol

I run a one-person business. Over the past year I set up more AI than most people I know, and a good chunk of it I quietly stopped using. The things that stuck are the ones that run on their own without me opening anything.

For those of you who've tried AI in your business: what's the one thing still running three months later, and what did you drop after a month? I'm trying to work out whether it's the tools that fail or the setup.

I run a small local business, and I’m seriously struggling with this right now.

On Yelp, I currently have 9 reviews marked as “not recommended.” Every single one is from a real customer. These aren’t fake reviews. I’ve worked with these people, have signed contracts, invoices, emails, and everything needed to verify the business relationships.

I reached out to Yelp support multiple times, but I’m getting nowhere. Either no response or generic explanations about their recommendation software.
Google isn’t much better. I had 12 reviews, and now I’m down to 7. Again, these are real customers who actually worked with me.

What’s frustrating is that I’m a small business trying to build a reputation from scratch. Those reviews genuinely matter. I’ve already noticed a significant drop in inquiries after losing reviews on Yelp.

I’m not asking either platform to keep fake reviews up. I just don’t understand why genuine customer experiences keep disappearing, especially when I can prove these were actual clients.

For other small business owners:
Has anyone experienced this recently with Yelp or Google?
Have you ever successfully recovered legitimate reviews?
What platforms or methods are you using to collect reviews these days?
Are you still putting effort into Yelp, or have you given up on it?

I’m genuinely curious what others are doing because relying on these platforms to build a reputation is starting to feel like a losing battle.

EDIT to update: I only requested the first two clients to review me, the other seven were unsolicited (I have contracts and deliverables that prove they are real clients) - Yelp is the worst platform to ever exist, and they dare calling me to ask whether I want to run ads, F no!!

I apologize in advance if my thoughts seem a bit scattered. Currently, I am a 14-year-old student, and my parents are divorced. My relationship with my mother is complicated, and we argue a lot over minor things because I view myself as an adult, and sometimes she sees me that way too. However, she yells at me for minor and often groundless reasons, which causes frequent conflicts between us. Financially, she is doing well for Russia, as she owns a decent apartment and a car.

My father, on the other hand, is struggling with debts. He has child support obligations and accumulated debts because of them. Due to various circumstances, he cannot get a regular job right now. He is fighting hard to fix this, but as a father, he is perfect to me. He does not have the means to live with me, but we see each other almost every day. Despite his age, he is in great physical shape and used to be a top student in the past. Now he decided to pursue a university degree through distance learning, and he is also working on various side projects since he has a lot of connections. He is a strong, masculine man, and he raised me the same way.

Honestly, I used to be very shy and always avoided conflicts, and I was even bullied back in primary school. But now, I am 183 cm tall, weigh between 80 and 90 kg, and I am in good shape. I look decent, have enough experience with girls, and my vocabulary is much better than that of my peers. For the past two years, I have noticed that I think and realize things way beyond my age. Many people say this about themselves, but looking at it from my perspective, I feel like I am more mature. Now I can easily stand up for myself because I do martial arts, which made me more confident in life, and I am making good progress at the gym too. I ran into some health issues recently, but I think they will be resolved within six months, so for now, I had to prioritize one thing.

Here is my main problem: unfortunately, I am doing poorly in school, and my knowledge of Russian, algebra, and other subjects is basically at zero. However, many successful people around my father say that a university degree is important because it connects you with a different class of society. Is this really true? Starting next year, I plan to work with tutors, with a budget of about 300,000 rubles (roughly 3,000 USD) spread over three years until graduation.

I want to open my own business in the future, whether it is a car repair shop or a nail salon, and I am aware of the risks and the time commitment involved. To be honest, I would be ready to study with AI tools right now, but I burn out very quickly. After just 3 or 4 days, I lose the drive to study on my own because I do not see immediate results. Working with a traditional tutor feels easier because when you see good reviews, you know they will actually teach you.

I am looking to sell some pet portraits but fb marketplace isn’t really getting any buyers, any tips?

I'm a small-business owner, and I recently had an experience that's left me incredibly frustrated.

I spent a lot of time researching, developing products, finding suppliers, and building a business around something I genuinely love.

Two people I knew personally became familiar with the business and the knowledge I'd shared. They eventually started their own company selling the same type of products.

I understand that nobody owns an entire product category and competition is part of business. But when it's people you trusted, it feels so much more personal.

I've also had a previous business where competitors copied my creative ideas, so this situation brought back a lot of those feelings.

I'm trying to move forward and focus on growing my own business, but I'd be lying if I said the thought of them becoming more successful than me didn't bother me.

Has anyone experienced something similar? How did you stop letting it get under your skin?

I own a small company and we built a new tech platform the help the creative industry get discovered and find new opportunities. I keep making posts on LinkedIn and I'm getting zero views. It's honestly starting to p*ss me off.

Any advice here?

Some of the small business owners in our community make a big deal out of Halloween with themed social posts, merch, seasonal product lines, trick-or-treating at the store, etc. But for others, it's lower-priority when there's already way too much to plan in the lead up to the big holiday shopping season at the end of the year (though maybe Halloween is the start of it?!).

Meghan, who owns an accessories brand we work with called Chicka & Co, says fall is her busiest season, and she goes big on Halloween products and social posts. But she loves it, it’s part of her brand, and obviously won’t be as important for others.

Interested to know how you celebrate Halloween, if at all, and if you find it helps with sales, local community building or social engagement? Or is it just fun?

Do you ask every customer or just hope the happy ones remember to do it?

I've been building something for this. You bcc an email address on your invoices and the next day it sends the customer a quick email asking for a review. If they don't click, it nudges them once more and then leaves them alone.

Still early and I've no idea yet if anyone would actually use it, so I'm curious how you all handle reviews right now.

So for the last seven years I've ran a small IT business and one service we offered was websites with a focus on cheap affordability for small businesses and start-ups. Recently the tools we use to design sites got AI Interrogation and frankly it's damn good it makes some decent sites quickly and they only need minimal effort from us to check security and address smaller things it still struggling with. What I can't decide is if it's a valuable asset to offer and adjust prices to reflect or use internally and don't advertise that.

I'm morally leaning towards a AI Assisted design pack for $50 or lower and being upfront with clients but financially we do well enough to survive but if we lowered price to reflect the AI we would need to double the incoming jobs which would be tough marketing wise I feel.

I'd love some options or feedback. I want to be honest to clients and I also think avoiding use of AI would be business suicide in the future

i do shopify dev work for small stores. a few days ago a store owner asked me to look at her product pages, so i sent a pretty detailed breakdown plus some quick mockups of what i'd change. she said the ideas were good, then decided she'd just design it herself.

honestly no hard feelings, it's her store. but i basically handed over the whole plan for free.

so now i'm changing how i do it. the free part only names what's wrong and why it's probably costing sales. the mockups and the exact changes come after a paid quote is accepted.

for those of you who sell services, where do you draw that line? do you charge for the audit itself, or keep it free and just keep it vague? curious what's actually worked for you.

I currently work a full time b2b sales job and as great as it is I hate working a corporate job. Im interviewing to get a promotion to go from SDR to Account Executive. I graduated from a state university and concentrated in entrepreneurship. I've wanted to have a business in the food industry forever. I’ve worked at a highly rated, award-winning fast paced diner before. I don't want a restaurant, I want a food truck. I want to go to events and help people celebrate a little bit better. I want to connect with my community through this and have a direct positive impact on my local community. Plus I love cooking and food.

I'm just so contused on where to start even though I studied entrepreneurship. Food trucks are expensive! I only have 2k in the bank right now (unrealistic to start a food truck with this money but maybe something more small scale is feasible like a food cart or selling on fb marketplace first). I have almost no expenses right now. I'm living with family, don't have to pay a phone bill or insurance, which I feel is the perfect time to attempt a startup and if it fails I can fall back on my degree and go back into sales, or try again.

Everyone I know that has their own business isn't really helpful. Am I crazy for all this lol

Hi all! New here! Hope this is ok :) My husband and I are getting ready to launch our own LLC for his construction work. We have a name, hoping to secure an instagram handle and domain for our website. My question is - do I bother making a gmail account? That was one of my first ideas of things to "claim" with the business name, but is that necessary? I did a quick search but most posts were about gmail email specifics, not whether or not securing a gmail email address is necessary.

hi everyone! i’m a student at iu indianapolis and we’re doing a research project for our strategic management class to find out if small businesses trust banks, and if you don’t, what would make you learn to trust them.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfC5UVJULSQ-VwQvaEE7G9QU6BjwVCIirfTcbvf_Fd-KoTSZw/viewform?usp=dialog

the survey should only take a few minutes and it would be a huge help. thank you!

feel like a lot of small business owners overcomplicate social media. You really don't need to come up with a completely new idea every single day.

If you're struggling to stay consistent, here's a pretty simple approach:

Monday: Answer a question customers regularly ask you.

Wednesday: Share something behind the scenes, even if it's just packing orders or preparing for the day.

Friday: Show your product or service in action.

That's already 3 posts a week without having to brainstorm new ideas constantly .I'd also keep a note on your phone with questions customers ask. Those can easily turn into future posts. And honestly, posting 3 times a week consistently is probably better than posting every day for two weeks and then disappearing.

Curious how other small business owners handle this. Do you plan your content ahead or just post whenever you have time?

Disclosure: I work with a US medical supply distributor, so I see the ordering side of small medical and dental practices, not the clinical side.

A common pattern: the glove box runs out, someone places a rush order and pays for expedited shipping, then over-orders next time to be safe. A few months later there’s expired gauze in the back.

One number per item fixes most of this: a reorder point.

How to set it

Example: 2 boxes of gloves a day, 4 business days to deliver, 3-box buffer.
(2 × 4) + 3 = 11. When you’re down to 11 boxes, place the order.

Two habits that save money

A shared Google Sheet or Excel file is enough for most small offices. Revisit the numbers every quarter, since patient volume changes.

For anyone running a practice, or any business with consumables: how do you decide when to reorder?

Hello,
I’m looking to purchase a pet grooming salon. It’s in a great location. However it’s a few towns away from my town so it takes about an hour drive there. The drive has little traffic as there are 2 ways to get there major freeway or small rural roads. With those who commute this amount of time is it feasible ? Do you hate it ? Does it go fast? Also I’m aiming to go to the place 4 days a week and manage the other days from home.

I want to work with small businesses to build a web app that automates repetitive tasks and potentially uncover hidden potential in the business.

My background is in finance, math, coding, and I have passed all 3 CFA levels.

I would like to know: is an app like this already available to you, and if it were, how would it actually help your business? Feel free to give as much background as possible.

For the past 2 years I have been using MileIQ to track my mileage. It has been perfect for me because it works in the background and at the end of the year I send the summary to my accountant.
It has been $79.99 for the last 2 years and I just found out it is increasing to $149.99.

In the middle of an affordability crisis, that seems like bad form.

For the small businesses that have a travel component, what are you using to track mileage?
I am in Canada, so it needs to be CRA approved.

I know $150 may not seem like a big deal as far as business expenses go, but it is the relentless hammer of these subscription prices constantly increasing, I am a single person operation so I am trying to keep my expenses as low as possible.

No complaints of our Capital One Spark Card for the first eight years. However this past Saturday they locked all of our company cards without warning. They claim to have sent a letter six weeks ago requesting we submit EIN verification information. Certainly possible we missed it, but no followup letter, no call, no email, no app alert etc.

It was just a tax form they wanted me to fax over, but of course the department that deals with unlocking accounts is only open Monday-Friday... and it takes until Tuesday (at least) for them to receive the fax I sent on Saturday.

Luckily we have a secondary card with another bank, but it's a pain with employee cards, auto-pay etc.

Just FYI if anyone else has something similar!