Hey everyone. So I’ve recently been made redundant and am 47 years old. I work in the creative design industry which is going through a very rough patch at the moment.

I fear my age will make me vulnerable for any future roles, especially with the state of the industry and my higher wage. So I feel now is a good chance to start something myself.

I have a few business ideas that really interest and excite me.

The problem I have though is me. I share my business idea with friends or family and get an enthusiastic response and immediately feel super excited about it. But then thinking of putting it into action fills me with absolute fear, due to a severe lack of self confidence and belief, plus if I have the tenacity to start something (again due to lack of confidence)

But I don’t want this to stop me trying. Did anyone else have similar fears and if so how did you navigate or overcome them? What was your experience. I’m UK based

I dont want my lack of self confidence to spiral so that I scrap the plans,

Writing

$275K Mastercard GRIP assessment—need help or an attorney

I run a small e-commerce business in New York. Our processor, KurvPay/EMS, claims Mastercard imposed a $275,000 GRIP assessment. They’re holding approximately $181,000 of our funds, have applied reserves toward the alleged fine, and told us they cannot guarantee any funds will ever be released.

Despite repeated requests from us and our attorney, they haven’t provided proof of the fine, an explanation, or a way to appeal. KurvPay directs us to Mastercard, while Mastercard says we must work through KurvPay and its acquiring bank.

Has anyone successfully challenged this type of assessment? Any advice or referrals to attorneys experienced in payment processing disputes would be appreciated.

Imagine a customer comes into a phone shop. You ask what they use their phone for, what bothers them about the old one, and what they're comfortable spending. After talking, you recommend a cheaper model because it already meets their needs.

You explain why. They ask a few questions, then say, “Thanks. I'll think about it.”

That's the part I find interesting. Do you answer their last question just as helpfully, or do your replies get shorter once a sale seems unlikely?

I think about B2C sales as three steps: connect, understand, then sell. But if the friendliness disappears when someone isn't ready to buy, I wonder how genuine the first step was.

Of course, being sincere doesn't mean giving unlimited advice. There are other customers to help and a business to run. You can politely end a conversation without becoming cold.

The harder part is accepting that this person might never return, refer anyone, or buy later. There may be no satisfying ending where treating them well turns out to have been profitable.

I'd still want the first two steps to count, even when the third one doesn't happen.

so a vendor chased us for payment last week and I was ready to send over the confirmation but it turns out we never paid it. My business partner had forwarded the invoice to me and Id forwarded it to our bookkeeper you know the drill. She was waiting for approval and we both thought forwarding it counted because well we aare still learning stuff in our entrepreneur era. Nothing blew up per se but its quite embarrassing when someone has to ask twice for money you owe them.
Granted i dont want this to be repeated and im willing to learn all the time and so i wanted to ask what are you using so approvals and payments dont get lost between people? Id like to keep final approval without having to chase every bill through email.

So two years in and starting to see more break even/profit months than loss months. Cannot say I am comfortable yet as staff costs/vat etc still get me but what tips and tricks would you give me that are open to small business owners whereby I get some benefit/perks.

Obviously buying the Sunseeker is out at the
moment and the limited company is based in England and sells goods and services Uk/Europe wide.

Hello :) So I say potential because I'm not fully sure/wanna start super small. I did manage to get a job at a cafe, and I'm currently enjoying it, but it doesn't offer me enough insight into certain processes. This also isn't something I'm in a rush to do, as I do still have my other love of city planning/urban design, and I'm going to grad school soon. This whole explanation might get a weebit long.

I started a fandom-related community event org. Still small, it's existed for maybe a month, but our first event was a success :D I'd love to combine my love for community with the cafe, and eventually host events at the cafe and allow others to as well. Think cup sleeves, trivia nights, karaoke nights, bingo nights, etc. If you're in the Metro Atlanta area, think of the place Battle and Brew or My Parent's Basement (although both are more a resturant/bar examples)

I guess what I'm asking is whether starting a mobile cart or vending at small conventions or markets would be a good idea. I'm just concerned that people aren't really looking for cafe food and drinks at a market. If I went this route, where could I start? How do I look for markets or pop-ups that fit my vision/menu?

Not to sound rude, but I'm hoping for more helpful advice rather than the objective "don't do it, you'll hate it" route people typically tell you.

For the last few months, I’ve been stuck trying to decide which direction to take with a business. I’ve started projects and then abandoned them because I keep second guessing myself.

I can’t decide whether to focus on a physical product or digital products, or which platform to use, Etsy, my own website, Amazon etc. I have so many ideas that I end up feeling overwhelmed and struggling to commit to one.
I’m 21 and serious about making this work. I’ve recently left my full time job and moved to a zero hours contract so I have more time to figure things out and work on building something for myself.

Has anyone else been through this stage? How did you eventually decide what to focus on, and what helped you stop jumping between ideas and actually start making progress?

I’d really appreciate honest advice from anyone who’s been in a similar position.

I'm growing my existing residential construction business and am debating whether to operate under one brand or create separate brands for each higher money making specialty:

• Roofing & siding
• Smart home automation
• Basement & attic renovations
• Windows & doors
• Kitchen & bathroom remodeling

I already have experience in carpentry, general contracting, and remodeling, so these specialties build on my existing skills and business. I'm located in a relatively small market, which makes me wonder whether having multiple brands would be beneficial or counterproductive.

Initially, all brands would operate under my existing LLC, with the option to establish separate businesses later.

Would you recommend one recognizable brand covering all these services or multiple specialized brands targeting different customers? Would separate brands build credibility and improve marketing effectiveness, or create unnecessary complexity in a small market?

I own a dog training business, and it’s just me with no employees. To put it bluntly, I cannot figure out how to make money. I’m lucky if I get one new client a month. Most of my income comes from boarding, which I offer exclusively to clients who have completed training with me, but it’s not nearly enough to sustain anything.

Because of this, I have very limited funds to be put towards things like advertising. Most established trainers I know get business almost strictly through client referrals, but obviously I can’t get consistent referrals without consistent clients. I post content but don’t really have a strategy for what I post, I train dogs in public wearing my company shirts and carry business cards, but nothing seems to work.

I don’t want to put all the blame on the economy because other trainers seem busy as ever, and dog training is obviously a very lucrative market. There’s no shortage of owners with poorly behaved dogs, so I’m wondering if awareness is the issue? Like people just don’t know I’m out here. But how do I increase my visibility?

I recently ran a Meta ad campaign and didn’t get any solid leads from it. Google ads are too expensive at the moment. I do have a Google business profile set up and a 5-star rating.

I just feel like despite the fact that the economy is rough right now, businesses of all kinds are still getting and working with clients everyday, so what am I missing or doing wrong?

Hi everyone!
I’m 26 and have always dreamed of owning my own business. I’m ambitious, scrappy, and willing to put in the work to make it happen.
I’d love to connect with business owners who may be thinking about retirement or eventually transitioning their business to someone else.
Im currently doing fintech sales. Ideally, I’d love to learn the ropes from someone experienced and potentially explore a transition down the road.
For now, I’m just looking to network, learn, and build genuine connections. No immediate expectations!
If this resonates with anyone, I’d love to chat!

Im the manager and I got a call from an employee One of the neighborhood homeless gals used the bathroom the other day and left feces all over the toilet and splatter marks on the wall. She always come washes. This has nothing to do with her being homeless, but due to the fact that we have a lot of homeless around the laundromat, we are very strict in the laundromat, meaning no hanging out, no coming in to charge your phone. You are not allowed to be in there unless you’re washing. We are fully attended as well. So I decided not to let her use the bathroom anymore because of that, and when she came in, one of the employees told her, so we got an email the next day from Yelp.

Reason I bring up the homeless is because all of them around there hate us because they can’t walk all over us like they do other businesses around there. We fight back. We are the one laundromat known not to mess around. The email basically says that she’s confused why she can’t use it and that were jerks to her and the community. The homeless in our area are violent. They tried to walk all over businesses, steal from them, and do whatever they want and we don’t allow it. But some are extremely nice. But not all. So I’m guessing that’s where the jerk line to the community is coming from.

But yet out of 10 laundromats in my city, were the highest rated and the biggest so I’m confused about the jerk line lol

I guess my question is, what are my options? Let her continue using the bathroom. or just cut business completely with her.

i run a local shop in my area, i see people online be talking about that more google reviews means more customer and all, which i get it ofc, but does it matter that much?

Hi everyone,
I'm a software engineering student and I've been building websites for practice (portfolios, landing pages, some Shopify customization). I'd like to move to real client work, but I'm not sure where to start.
For those who've been through this:
Where did your first clients come from?
Did you start with free or discounted projects, or charge from the start?
Is there something you wish you'd done differently early on?
Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

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Hi everyone!

I'm a male laser hair removal technician with several years of experience, currently working in Sydney.

I've been thinking about starting my own small laser hair removal business, but I'm still in the research stage and would really appreciate some honest advice.

My plan is to rent a private treatment room near Sydney CBD, possibly around Surry Hills or Darlinghurst, and purchase my own professional Cynosure laser machine.

I'm considering offering men's full-body laser hair removal, including Brazilian, for around $150 per session to keep my prices competitive.

I have a few questions:

1. Would you recommend renting a room inside an existing beauty clinic or opening a small independent shop?

2. Is a budget of $300–$450 per week realistic for a private room near Sydney CBD?

3. What unexpected costs or challenges should I prepare for?

4. Has anyone financed an expensive laser machine when starting a business? Would you recommend it?

I also have one concern about being a male technician.

I'm considering offering treatments to both men and women, but I'm unsure how comfortable female clients would feel booking with a male laser technician, especially for full-body treatments or intimate areas.

Would being a male technician make it significantly harder to attract female clients? Or do you think professionalism, experience, and a comfortable environment matter more?

I'd particularly appreciate opinions from women, laser technicians, and anyone who owns a beauty or cosmetic business in Australia.

I'm not rushing into anything. I just want to understand the market, the risks, and whether this idea is realistically worth pursuing before making a big financial commitment.

Thanks so much for any advice!

I see posts in here almost every week from business owners furious that they doubled their Google Ads budget from $10k to $20k a month and watched their cost per lead go from $80 to $190. Everyone immediately blames the media buyer or assumes Google broke something in an update.

Sometimes the setup really is trash. Plenty of shops throw a client into a single unsegmented campaign and walk away.

But after spending years managing large scale paid search budgets in brutal, high CPC verticals, the actual culprit in mature accounts is usually the math of marginal return, and almost nobody talks to business owners about it honestly because agencies get paid on a percentage of ad spend.

When you spend your first $10k a month on search, Google's bidding algorithm cherry picks the lowest hanging fruit in the auction. It buys the users who are practically holding their credit card in their hand at 2 PM on a Tuesday. Your average CPA looks incredible at $80.

When you tell your agency to double the spend to $20k within the same geographic footprint and service line, you don't get twice as many $80 leads. The pool of ready to buy searches is finite. To spend that extra $10k, the algorithm is forced to bid higher into more competitive auctions, reach further up the funnel, and capture users with weaker intent.

So if your first 125 leads cost $80 each ($10k spend), and you force another $10k into the engine that only yields 40 additional leads, your blended CPA on the report says $121. That still looks somewhat tolerable on a monthly PDF. What the report hides is that the marginal CPA on that second $10k tranche of spend was actually $250 per lead. If your break even on a lead is $150, you literally lost money on every single dollar of the expansion, even though the overall account still looks profitable on a blended average.
Most agencies won't show you a marginal diminishing return curve because it talks them out of higher management fees.

Before you let anyone talk you into scaling spend or launching Performance Max to "find new pockets of inventory," force them to pull an impression share lost to rank vs budget report on your core exact match converting queries, and calculate the cost per acquisition strictly on the incremental dollars added over the last 60 days. If your marginal CPA is above your net contribution margin, scaling ad spend is just subsidizing Google's quarterly earnings at the expense of your bottom line.

Curious how many people here actually look at incremental tranche costs versus just looking at the blended monthly ROAS or CPA number on their dashboard.

I have come to the point in starting my microbusiness that I need a website. I'm trying to select a builder, and doing review searches hasn't really answered my questions. Low cost is a need since I'm literally just getting started. I mostly need to be able to list services, make blog posts about upcoming/past events and I want to be able to have a calendar that lists where to find me.

The ones that come up the most are Wix, GoDaddy, WordPress and Canva, but would love to hear what has worked best for you.

I manage a small business that recently went through a major renovation to provide the community with an updated environment to maximize guests' experiences. Since reopening from our remodel over a year ago, we've been dealing with random food items left by our back door. We installed a security camera and have caught a couple of dumpster divers, homeless people, etc. We've managed to keep an eye on the area and pick up any food that's been left by the above-mentioned dumpster divers and homeless people, but tonight, I found a whole bag of cat food dumped by our back door. Since there is a creek behind our plaza and our business sells lots of sugary snacks, the food left outside attracts ants, which inevitably make it inside. Luckily, we have an amazing pest control company that will come out at the first site of any pests, but it's frustrating, to say the least. When I pulled back my security footage, whomever dumped the bag was able to do so without setting off the motion detectors.

The food was meow mix........ we will catch you.

The LLC is registered and will be working on rentals. For fellow landlords who've done this, who does your business banking? Starting out and I just have analysis paralysis and need yalls helps!

Hi all,

I'm evaluating the acquisition of a landscaping business in the Midwest and could use some advice from those who have gone through the SBA financing process. The business generated ~$1.3mm in revenue and $330k in SDE in 2025. The seller is asking $1.5mm.

I'm a first time buyer with ~$200k in capital. I'd like to minimize my equity contribution (obviously) while still maintaining a reasonable capital structure. I've been considering something along these lines: SBA loan: 77%, Seller financing: 12%, Buyer equity: 11%.

The challenge is that this is a seasonal lawn care business with most revenue generated during the warmer months (zero revenue Dec-Mar). I'd need ~$150k in working capital at close to cover P&I, payroll, and other OpEx through the 1^st winter assuming I buy this fall.

Once I factor in the purchase price, working capital, and transaction expenses, I'm starting to question whether I have enough capital to realistically get this deal done without some margin of safety.

• Is there a realistic way to structure this transaction with only $200k?
• Can the initial working capital requirement be financed as part of the SBA loan, or should I expect to fund that separately?
• Are there other financing structures I should be considering?

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, I just made my first sale (yay!) and I'm wonderinf ig I should change how I ship things on Etsy.

I'm shipping a rigid mailer, 5 oz, 9.00 x 6.00" from MA to AR, and it cost me almost $6 to ship with Etsy's label. Does that sound right? It feels like a bit much for what's basically a thick letter. Could use some advice, thanks :)

Does anyone here use door knockers or canvassers for lead gen for their home services business?

Do you use a software to track delivery/leads/GPS time clock or anything like that?

I run an insurance agency with around 200 clients and I'd like to start sending more thank you notes.
The problem is I absolutely do not have time to sit there and handwrite 200 cards.
I recently found out there are services that use actual pens and machines to write the notes and then mail them for you. Some apparently connect to CRMs too. Has anyone actually used one? I'm mostly wondering what they look like when they arrive.

What is the best way for a person to get his initial investment back from a company. It is a partnership. Is it best to just set it up as a loan and pay that person back over x number of years or just do it as dividend repayment?