I’m based in Dehradun, India, and considering starting a small plant gifting business from home. My retired father enjoys gardening, so I thought we could build something around that.
The idea is to sell potted plants as gifts to individual customers for occasions like birthdays and housewarmings, as well as cater to businesses looking for corporate gifts or bulk orders.
My problem is that while I have ideas, I struggle with figuring out how to turn them into an actual business. I’ve explored business ideas before but never really understood how to get started, find my first customers, or validate demand without spending too much upfront.
For those who have started small businesses from scratch:
What would you do first if you were starting this business today?
How would you find your first 5–10 paying customers?
Would you focus on individual customers or corporate orders initially?
How do you test whether an idea is worth pursuing before investing in inventory, packaging, and marketing?
I’m not looking for a detailed business plan, just practical advice on how to go from an idea to the first few sales. I’d especially appreciate advice from people who started with limited experience and a small budget.

hello world, first post on reddit! could't be more happier. wrote this at coffee shop located beside petrol station. they even collaborated the name together. i guess that's how the business benefiting each other. great location at hillside and by the main road where you can have great view seeing the cars passing by and also greenery trees.

Like the title implies I realized we’ve been reordering office supplies (copy paper, deskware, break room stuff, janitorial, etc) from the same vendor for nearly 10 years and we’re paying like a >20% price difference over what some other vendors charge. Crazy.

We set up our vendor accounts years ago and don’t really think about it now. i feel like most small businesses do the same because who has time to check 5+ sites every time printer paper, packaging, or shop supplies run low?

How do you all manage this? Any tips or suggestions for a small business? Or easy way to keep vendor price in check without wasting hours shopping around every month?

For those running a business with employees, how are you handling IT?

Do you have someone internal, use an outside IT company, or just deal with things as they come up?

If you’re outsourcing, has it been worth the money?

Anything you wish your provider handled better?

I’m interested in how businesses are actually approaching this, particularly as they grow.

Hi! I'm Justin a student in the Bay Area and as a small side hustle, and as a way to give back to the community I'm offering to design free mockups for small businesses before they actually purchase one from me and my team. If you want to see some of my work click on the link to my website that I'll attach below. Complete the form on the website if your interested!!! tysm for your support. To be clear, I am NOT a bot and am a real human being, and to specify I'm not asking people for any type of payment. I will create mockups for you for free! no catch. HERES THE LINK:https://kova-mu-rouge.vercel.app/

I’m based in Australia, with a background in construction project delivery and enterprise software implementation. I’ve built a working product around organisational governance and learning, and I’m preparing to approach initial customers.

The problem comes from seeing companies deal with an issue on one project, agree what needs changing, then have another project run into much the same thing.

The product connects what happened, why it happened and what the team did about it with the decisions and changes that follow. That might mean changing a procedure, reviewing a risk or getting information to other projects before they hit the same problem. My view is that a lesson hasn’t been learnt unless something changes.

The commercial bit I’m trying to work through is proving that value early.

If you save someone five hours a week, you can measure it. If you help prevent a repeat mistake on a future project, it’s harder to demonstrate within a short pilot. The project team contributing the information may also be different from the team that benefits and the person approving the spend.

For founders who’ve sold governance, risk, quality or similar B2B software: how did you structure your first paid pilot?
What did you and the buyer agree to measure, and did achieving it actually lead to a contract?

I’m considering starting with one recurring problem across a small number of projects. I’d like to hear what worked in practice, including pilots where usage looked good but the customer still didn’t buy.

Thanks in advance

Day 7? Day 30? I keep softening my follow ups so I don’t damage the relationship, and I’m starting to think that’s why some clients pay me last. If you switched to blunt, what did you actually say, and did it cost you the client?

So I have a CD Burning Business and I’m wondering if anyone here does markets and takes the customers order there and then delivers it or has them pick it up? Just in general doesn’t have to be CDs

I keep softening my follow ups so I don’t damage the relationship. Starting to wonder if that is why some clients pay me last. Has anyone got paid faster by dropping the padding?

Noticed I wasnt getting updates for a project I backed, and when checking KS they said emails have been bouncing back and to update it.

When I go to update I have to use a verification code that is emailed to me, and I get that in just fine. Is there anything I can do here or is it just my email provider being a pain? I cant 'update' it to the same email as it says its already being used.

For those of you running a service business (cleaning, plumbing, HVAC, handyman, landscaping, etc.), how often do you run into issues getting paid?

I'm talking about late payments, customers disputing charges, having to chase someone down for payment, or not getting paid at all.

Is this something you deal with regularly, or is it pretty uncommon?

Also curious how you typically collect payments. Do you charge upfront, collect after completing the job, or send invoices?

Would be interesting to hear from people who rarely have this problem too.

So I've always been very entrepreneurial. I've tried multiple avenues of businesses but normally don't end up sticking with them because I'll lose interest or realize it wasn't really for me.

I started a supplements business and lost some money after not following proper packaging laws in Canada when I was 18, I was like okay I will try something else maybe less complicated so when I was 19 and in university I thought it would be interesting to try a business where I matched university students to businesses for short paid projects like fiver but only for students. But I found that getting businesses on board was really difficult and I didn't enjoy just being on my laptop all day, so I gave that up despite having over 300 student applications and a few interested businesses just because it wasn't making me feel fulfilled.

Then now I'm 20 I was like wow I am really good at cold email outreach which was how I was getting some of the businesses on board for the university idea and I've been getting 25% reply rates with many opportunities coming from that, but once again it was really difficult and just not satisfying (maybe because I never had a single actual client), and then I finally started knife sharpening which is my most recent endeavor, month one I made 1k net and I have no overhead expenses. I just fear that it isn't particularly scalable due to the fact I move around a lot. I haven't really found "my place" in the world and I travel a lot trying to find it and I am just worried I will never find anything to satisfy me. The knife sharpening was something I enjoyed before making it a business which makes it easily my favorite but I find it so hard not to compare myself to people talking about how they make 20k a month with an online agency and here I am looking like an idiot making 1k a month doing stupid knife sharpening. I also dropped out of uni and I don't really have a "home base" so I feel very lost on what to do, I love adrenaline, the idea of making money, success, risk, outdoors, the sun, being outdoors, freedom. I just fear I am getting old and will never make anything of my life. If you have any advice for me I would really appreciate it. I am always in my own head about stuff and I hear the same advice over and over and it never makes me feel any better.

I build AI voice agents. The biggest thing I’ve built is a phone system for a healthcare network in Italy. It books appointments across 6 regions and handles 1,500+ calls a day. I built it end to end: the voice pipeline, infrastructure, monitoring, analytics, and data encryption. It’s been live for months and has passed their security audit.

The problem is I don’t own the client. A vendor sits between me and them, holds the contract, and charges per minute. I get a flat monthly fee for doing all the work, and the client thinks the vendor built it.

I’m not trying to steal that client. I want my next deal to be direct.

For small businesses I’ve been cold calling and cold emailing, and it works but slowly. I know the real money is in companies with multiple locations and high call volume, and those people don’t respond to the same playbook.

For anyone who has sold to mid-size or enterprise companies:

• How did you get in front of the actual decision maker (owner, COO, head of ops) without going through an agency or reseller?
• Did LinkedIn, referrals, events, or something else actually work for you?
• If you were in my position, with a working system at scale but no brand and no network, what would you do first?

Open to any honest advices. Thanks

Hi everyone,

I’m a full-stack software developer based in Strasbourg, France. I’ve built several functional web/mobile applications, SaaS products, and custom automation tools for clients.

Despite having a solid portfolio, fair & competitive pricing, and delivering clean, reliable code, I’m finding it surprisingly hard to consistently land new clients (especially local or EU-based small businesses).

As small business owners and founders here:

I’d really appreciate your candid feedback, suggestions, or insights on what business owners actually value most when hiring developers.

Thanks in advance!

I own a small company. I have had several complaints about one subcontractor. I have sent friendly reminders about being professional but this issue continues to happen and I’m afraid it’s a liability. They have no new projects for 2027 so I’m not sure if I should just stop booking them and slowly phase them out since technically they aren’t an employee or should I formally tell them we are parting ways. I did have them sign a freelancer agreement that says I only need them on an as needed basis and I have the right to terminate this agreement at any time if the agreement rules aren’t being followed. I also have documents of receipts of complaints and dates. Anyone else in a similar situation and how should I approach it?

Hello everyone! I own a boutique both online and in-store in Los Angeles. I started as an online only / pop up vendor and worked flea markets around Los Angeles for 3 years. In March of 2024 I opened up my brick and mortar store! Throughout the last 2.5 years of running the business it has been fairly seamless, slow times every now and then but overall I was always able to pay my bills and continue new inventory flowing in. I have a pretty large community of customers as well that love my brand. I don't have any student loans so I decided to take out 35K to open up my brick and mortar store, which I got paid down to 19.5K by July of 2026.

Then late July happened, my business sales took a turn for the worst. As most in Los Angeles know it's been so warm down here and gas prices are through the roof. I had to refinance my loan back up to 40K (used 19.5K of this to pay off the old one), just to keep getting by. I had some health issues in June that drained my savings as I had to be gone for awhile so I had to spend more in payroll. Ever since late July, my business is down 15K every month from where it was before, I keep pulling more and more of the savings I put aside from this loan to just get by. I work my shop a lot to keep my payroll really low. But at this point it's mid October and I don't know if I can take the stress and anxiety of running the brick & mortar store. I don't want to completely close down, maybe just downsize back to flea markets and online only while I get a full time job in the fashion industry which I feel like I am fairly qualified to do given my experience in my business.

It feels like I'm giving up on a dream, I wanted to have multiple locations and continue growing but at this point my mental health is so bad and my anxiety is through the roof constantly worried about how I am going to keep this business going. Please any advice for what you think I should do. My godfather and husband both think I should just ride it out and keep going, but I'm afraid I'm eventually going to run out of savings and then be really screwed. Thank you.

I've built a startup here in New Zealand, where we organise dinner for strangers and send them on a side quest, kind of like timeleft but a bit more structured and participation involved. Have sent more than 400 people to these dinners.
We've successfully ran dinners every week since May. Although now I'm running out of cash. My full-time job isn't paying me great hence i'm almost out of cash to run meta ads which i've been relying on. I do not get to focus fully on my start up because of working 60hrs at a full time job leaves me with a limited time. I've worked on an app to make operations easier. Although now i feel the importance of funding to keep the business running. Especially for marketing related content etc
Should i take a pause and wait till i get funding sorted along with all the resources needed OR do i keep going? If i do pause will it takeaway the traction? Im just so confused!

$10,000 just showed up in my square account. No idea how it got there. It wasn’t received as a payment. Customer support told me to refund it. I told the person that they should be fired immediately since they don’t recognize a common scam and gave me horrible advice. I was transferred to someone with a brain who understood the problem and said a ticket was created and it would be looked into on Monday. Can anyone who’s had this problem tell me what will happen? Will they easily reverse it for me or is this a long fight? Will they close my account?

Four siblings. Four divine powers. One mission.

Line art ✏️ by me @Rico_J_art
With 🔥 Colors 🎨 by @willsoaresart
Lettering by Lidiane salves

The official Kickstarter launch 🚀 for my graphic novel W.A.R. (Weapons Against Righteousness) is right around the corner‼️

⚔️** 10.19.26 — THE WAR BEGINS**. ⚔️

Hit the link and make sure to click “Notify Me” so you’re there when we go LIVE‼️

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/war-comic/war-weapons-against-righteousness

What were the steps to start and how difficult was it?

Hi everyone! I’m an artist launching my first Kickstarter, and I wanted to share my project with you!

The collection is called Mini Garden. The idea is that my original characters wandered into a strange little garden and magically transformed into tiny garden creatures! Now they’re scattered and hiding throughout the garden, and the goal is to find and unlock all 8 friends through the campaign’s funding goals🌷🐝

They’re collectible plush keychains, and the campaign also has matching enamel pins and stickers!

I’m really happy that we managed to unlock 2 friends on the very first day! 🥹🍄🌿 We still have 6 more friends to go and I’m hoping we can bring the whole little garden to life.

If you’d like to check it out, here’s the campaign link!

Thanks for reading, and good luck to everyone else working on their creative projects! 💚

I’m based in Portugal and run an established educational website. We’re about to start selling downloadable PDF teaching resources directly to consumers.

Our audience is mainly:

UK

US

Australia

Canada

smaller numbers across the EU and other countries

Products will be relatively low value: around £2.99 for individual resources and £13.99 for bundles.

I’m trying to decide between:

1. selling directly using Stripe and monitoring VAT/GST/sales-tax registration thresholds myself; or

2. using a Merchant of Record such as Paddle or Stripe Managed Payments and paying the higher transaction fee in exchange for them handling international indirect taxes.

One complication is that our PDFs may qualify as zero-rated electronic publications in the UK, which would make paying an MoR fee on UK sales less attractive.

For anyone selling digital products internationally:

Do you use Stripe directly or a Merchant of Record?

If you use Stripe, how difficult is it actually to keep track of VAT/GST/sales-tax thresholds in different countries?

Has anyone used Stripe Managed Payments?

Has anyone negotiated Paddle’s microtransaction pricing for products around £3/$4?

At what level of revenue did the convenience of an MoR become worth the extra fees?

Are there any tax/compliance issues you wish you had considered before starting?

I’m particularly interested in experiences from small businesses selling ebooks, PDFs, templates, courses or other low-cost digital products rather than SaaS subscriptions.

I run a small residential pool service company in Florida. I've been in the industry since 2020. I'm a state-certified Certified Pool Operator, fully insured, and I own my truck and equipment outright.
The technical side is my strength. I balance water using the Langelier Saturation Index (LSI) instead of just checking chlorine and pH. I document every visit, and I tell customers what I did and why. The result is clean water, protected equipment, and no surprises.
My problem is the other half of the business. I have 3 independent clients and I want to get to around 100. I don't know how to get there.
The usual advice is to start with friends, family, and neighbors and let referrals snowball. I can't do that. I'm building in an area where I don't have a personal network yet, so I have no circle of friends to tap and no word of mouth to ride.
What I have so far:
A live website
A Google Business Profile
Business cards
A dedicated business phone line
Three happy clients, one of whom found me almost by accident
What I'd love help with:
If you built a local service business from near zero without a referral base, what got you your first 20 to 30 customers?
Should Google Business Profile get most of my effort early on? What moved the needle for you there?
How do you build reviews and a reputation with only a handful of customers?
What do you wish you'd known when you had 3 customers?
I'm not looking for a growth hack. I'd rather grow slowly and do it right. I'm not posting my business name or a link. I just want honest advice from people who've done it.
Thanks in advance.

Haven: Better Instagram & YouTube, to Stop AI & Surveillance by William Lavelle » Haven: Better Instagram & YouTube, to Stop AI & Surveillance by William Lavelle — Kickstarter

Hi all,

I don't how much support came from reddit, but i just wanted to let you know we just funded the project in less than 24 h.
What an exciting week leading up to the launch! As soon as I pressed the button at 4:00 PM on Friday and Angelier went live on Kickstarter, I could finally sit back and enjoy the moment.

The response during the first 24 hours has been truly encouraging, and it would not have been possible without your support. For that, I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

I would love to thank each and every one of you personally, but for now, please accept this message as a heartfelt thank you.

Alongside the many supporters from the Netherlands, I’m proud to see interest in Angelier coming from all over the world. It’s wonderful to see this independent watch brand reaching people across so many countries, and it gives me great confidence in what lies ahead.

Haven’t pledged yet? There’s still time to join us!

The special launch discounts are still available for a limited time, making this a great opportunity to get your Angelier Automatic BRG at an exclusive early-bird price while supporting the brand from the very beginning.

If you’ve been considering getting one, I’d love to welcome you on board and have you be part of Angelier’s journey.

Discover Angelier on Kickstarter and claim your launch discount

Thank you again for following, supporting, and believing in Angelier. Every pledge makes a real difference to an independent brand like mine.

Warm regards,

The Angelier Team