We recently got in front of the CEO of a large retail store, and they expressed serious interest in carrying our product exclusively, with the caveat that we need to be able to manufacture and deliver in high volume first. It’s an incredible potential catalyst, but we need upwards of $1,000,000 in upfront capital to scale up manufacturing, buy equipment/inventory, and handle fulfillment, but we don't have a signed Purchase Order or formal LOI yet because we can't produce at that scale today. Since we can't rely on PO financing without a binding order in hand, what is the best strategy to raise this kind of growth capital? Are we strictly looking at angel investors/seed-stage VC, equipment financing, or partnering with a contract manufacturer who can absorb the upfront costs for a revenue share? How have others leveraged strong, high-level executive interest to close a funding round?

My first ever job was a few years ago and I started my own business. I was able to do things I never thought was possible. Reach over millions of followers, make thousands in a day, sell out,
Etc.

However I became burnt out a few years later and due to mental health reasons I stopped my business. Ever since then I’ve had countless jobs, never lasting longer than 3 days.

I finally have a great job, one I’ve been trying to get into. My vibe, style, workers are great, great pay, and great hours. However, I just don’t want to do it now. I get burnt out super quick not and idk what to do. Anyone else like this?

I’m looking for some outside opinions on a business situation because I genuinely don’t know if I’d be crossing a line.

I currently do contract sewing/embroidery work for another small business. She provides the materials, and I do the sewing, embroidery, and assembly for her. I’m paid $6 per finished item.

I did agree to the $6 price, so I completely understand that part is on me. However, the amount of work involved has gradually started increasing. There are now pieces she is having me cut myself that previously came to me already cut and ready to use. So while I agreed to the original rate, I’m now spending additional time prepping and cutting materials on top of the sewing and embroidery.
The items also have a very large stitch count, so they take a decent amount of machine time and put quite a bit of wear and tear on my embroidery machine.

The other issue is that the work is extremely inconsistent now. She hasn’t given me anything to do in about 4 weeks, and I genuinely need the extra income. There’s no agreement guaranteeing me a certain amount of work, and there’s no non-compete or anything like that.

Because of that, I’ve started considering making and selling my own version of this type of product.
One thing I want to be completely transparent about is that I would likely use the same digital sewing pattern/file that she uses. However, this is not a file that she created or owns. It is a commercially available digital file that anyone can purchase from the original seller, and I would purchase my own copy.

I also wouldn’t make the product exactly the way she does. After making so many of these, I’ve actually come up with a slightly different construction method that I think would work better. I would change some of the materials and the way the finished product is put together. I would also choose my own fabrics, colors, embroidery designs, branding, photos, packaging, etc.
The part that makes me hesitate is that we would technically have similar customers because it’s an occasion-based product. People are purchasing these for the same types of celebrations, so there would inevitably be some overlap in the customer base.

She sells through both Etsy and her own website and has a much larger social media following than I do. I would primarily be selling through Etsy, so our products could potentially show up in some of the same searches.

I also know her business does very well. From what I can tell, she has probably done somewhere around $90,000 in revenue this year alone from this type of product.

I want to be honest that, yes, I would essentially be entering the same market and selling a very similar product. I don’t want to pretend there wouldn’t be some level of competition between us, because there probably would be. We would be selling to the same general type of customer, and we would both have Etsy shops.

At the same time, she has built a much larger social media following and an established customer base that I simply don’t have. I would be starting from scratch with this product and would expect my sales to be a fraction of hers. I’m under no illusion that I would immediately have the reach or sales volume that she has.

For me, it’s more about looking at a skill I already have, equipment I already own, and a market that I now understand pretty well and wondering if it makes more sense to try selling the product myself rather than relying on $6-per-item work that may or may not be given to me.

And that’s where I’m conflicted. I realize that I learned a lot about making this particular product by doing work for her, and I don’t want to ignore that fact. At the same time, the digital file itself is commercially available for anyone to purchase, I would buy my own copy, and I would change the construction and materials based on things I’ve learned and ways I think the product could be improved.

I genuinely need the additional income, and right now I can go weeks without receiving any work from her. I already have the equipment and skills, so it feels like this could be a realistic way for me to bring in some extra money for my household. But I also don’t want to do something that would generally be considered unethical or taking advantage of the relationship I’ve had with her.

Would you consider this crossing an ethical line? Or is it reasonable for me to take the skills and experience I’ve gained and start my own version of this type of business?

Small online shop, we ship 30-60 orders a week. Our cheap option is USPS Ground Advantage and it's honestly fine most of the time, but a handful of orders a month take 7-9 days and those customers email us angry even though checkout said 2-5 business days.

Have you had better luck removing the cheap option entirely, padding the quoted delivery estimate, or just eating a refund when it runs long? Curious what actually reduced the complaints for people at a similar volume.

Been looking for something I can do on the side without having to constantly babysit it.What else is out there that’s actually worked for you guys?

Well i feel like the first few customers are pretty easy. You know who everyone is, you remember most of the convos, and you can probably keep things in a spreadsheet or your inbox without too much trouble. Then you get more customers and suddenly youre trying to remember who needs a follow up, whos waiting on something, which invoice is still unpaid and what you promised someone last week.
And the annoying part is that most of the individual tools work fine. You might have HubSpot for customers and leads, another tool for projects. email for conversations, and something separate for invoices and payments. The problem is keeping all of that updated. I have been looking at different options for this and HubSpot, Scoro, google workspace and Workspace369 all seem to take slightly different approaches
Score looks really solid if youre a bigger professional services team and need things like resource planning, time tracking, forecasting, and profitability. for a smaller business tho, i can see why something like workspace369 might make more sense if you mainly want the customer, projects, communication and billing side connected without needing a big PSA setup and if youu're not not at that stage yet

I am still trying to figure out which approach actually works best in practice, because having fewer tools sounds good until the one tool you are using becomes too complicated.

And for those running a small businesss, what tools are you guys currently using?Would love to know

I recently launched a small web development and digital design agency with a few friends. We have the technical skills to do the work, but we are completely new to the business side of things.

Right now, we are really struggling to figure out our pricing model. For those of you running B2B or service-based businesses:

Do you recommend charging an hourly rate, a flat per-project fee, or focusing on monthly retainers?

How did you land your very first paying client without having a massive portfolio to show yet?

We just want to make sure we are structuring our startup correctly from day one. Any hard truths, resources, or advice for a beginner would be incredibly appreciated. Thank you!

Hi all! I have created an instagram page where I wanna sell my pipe cleaner crafts. I would love to share the pictures but the community doesn't allow me to add any attachments.

I don't have many friends irl. So idk who to ask. I thought reddit might help me. I would love your support.

Here is my id: @petals.and.pastels__

I've been running my service business solo for over a year. Revenue is stable, clients are happy - but I'm constantly at capacity and turning work away. The fear of fixed payroll costs keeps holding me back. For those who've made this leap: what was the final signal that told you it was time? And what do you wish you'd known before hiring?

Hi everyone! 👋

I run a product-based business and one thing I’ve been struggling with is keeping up with customer messages.

A lot of our inquiries come through Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, and customers obviously don’t only message during working hours. I get messages late at night asking about things like availability, prices, sizes, colours, orders, delivery and so on.

Sometimes I feel like I’m constantly checking my phone just to make sure I don’t miss someone, because if I don’t reply quickly, they might move on and I could miss out on a potential customer. Otherwise, they’re stuck waiting until the next day.

Does anyone else struggle with this? How do you guys handle customer inquiries when you’re away or outside business hours?

What costs you 50k-100k a year in your business?

Hi all - I am looking to start an indoor children's play facility. I have the option to get friends & family investment, however I will need substantially more funds for the architecture, build, lease and TI (and everything else to get started). I use Bluevine for a separate, 100% digital business - and Bluevine is great, but I am now looking for a bank to open business accounts, and ideally secure a SBA loan ranging from $500k-1M if possible.

Any insights and suggestions are tremendously helpful. Thank you.

I run a small service business , and I currently handle most of the work myself. My income has been fairly stable over the past year, but I'm reaching the point where I don't have enough time to take on every client, and I've started turning some work away.

I'm considering hiring my first employee, but I'm hesitant to take on a recurring payroll cost when things could change.

For those of you who have made this decision before, how did you know you were ready to hire?

I'm especially like to know how you approached the financial side, such as how much additional revenue or workload you wanted to have before committing to the hire.

I'd also appreciate hearing what you wish you'd considered before hiring your first employee.

Hi all! I’m looking for a mentor to buy my first business on Bizbuysell. Like many of you, I’m looking to transition from the corporate world into buying a business. There are many aspects of buying a business and I wanted to get all the information before putting in a LOI.

I am willing to pay but just need the right person with enough experience to walk me through everything, questions that I have, and sound advice they can bring.

First I use "The Reddit Goldmine Method" which is:

Find your subreddits.

use those magic search terms: "wish there was", "looking for", "alternative to", "frustrated with", "hate that"... .

Copy 20 complaints. Group by theme. The biggest group = your opportunity.

But unfortunately I become distracted, I search in many subreddits "copywriting, freelancers, SaaS, content creators, and others" as I don't know which field I want to serve in..

I also went to G2 and search in SaaSs "such as Jasper" reviews which has 3 stars and see what they like to build on it and what they don't like to see how I can solve these problems, but I become distracted and failed again

I also want to tell you that sometimes I start building for half a day and then I think this idea wouldn't succeed so, I stop building and again I try to find a successful one ( I do it many times )

So I settle on a red ocean one "social media scheduling tool" in a giant market with giant competitors such as Buffer, Metricool and others. So I want an advice to how a solo entrepreneur can compete with those giants.

TL;DR: How can a solo entrepreneur to compete with giants companies in his fields

this has been on my mind for a couple months now and i dont think i have a good framework for answering it myself

every business has slow stretches, thats normal, everyone tells you that. but at some point a slow stretch is either genuinely just a slow stretch, or its the early signal of something actually declining, and from inside it those two things feel identical week to week. you dont get a notification telling you which one youre in.

been trying to figure out what actually distinguishes them, past just "wait and see," because waiting and seeing feels like the default and also feels like exactly what youd do whether you were fine or slowly not fine

things i've been trying to pay attention to instead of just vibes:

• whether the slow period has an obvious external cause (weather, time of year, something industry wide) vs no explanation at all
• whether repeat customers are still coming back at the same rate, even if new customer volume is down
• whether the slowness is uniform across everything you do or concentrated in one specific area
• how it compares to the same period last year specifically, not just to last month

but even with those, i still find myself unsure a lot of the time, like i can talk myself into either interpretation depending on my mood that week

curious how other people actually navigate this:

• do you track anything specific that gives you real signal, or is it mostly instinct built up from experience
• has a "slow season" ever turned out to actually be real decline that you didnt catch early enough, in hindsight what were the signs you missed
• opposite question too, have you ever overreacted to what turned out to be totally normal seasonality and made a change you regretted
• at what point do you actually start changing something vs just riding it out

trying to get better at reading this instead of just hoping it resolves itself, which has mostly been my approach so far

Every “what business should I start?” article on the internet provides the same response “find a niche problem and solve it”. That’s it - that’s where I find myself clicking away, promising myself I will take a week to find a niche problem and a way to solve it.

I don’t want to find a niche problem. I want to start a business that serves an established problem. It doesn’t have to be sexy either. I’m looking to solve the next layer of online ticket sales.

How do I find an underserved space that solves an established problem? It could be building and selling fences for all I care.
Do you know of any people in your life that found success building an unsexy business?

Is there any interest among you other business owners for a DIY support solution? I'm not selling it, just thought I'd share with other small business owners.

As someone just starting out this is what I've learned from collaborating with small UGC creators

Base fee, monthly, per batch. E.g. $300 for 15 videos a month. Both sides know the number. No per-video haggling, no "this one took longer." If they're consistently over or under, you adjust the batch size next month, not the price mid-month.

A clear, written definition of "a video." Length range, has to be posted (not just delivered as a file), has to follow the brief, native to the platform. Put it in writing before month one. 90% of disputes are a fuzzy definition here.

One bonus lever, not five. Pick a single thing you'll pay extra for. Either a per-1k-views bonus above some threshold, or a flat outlier bonus when a video clears X views. Multiple stacked bonuses make payout unpredictable and make you resent the good months.

A fixed payout date. Same day every month. "Net 15 from invoice" is fine, "whenever I get to it" makes you the client nobody prioritizes. A Late payment is the fastest way lose trust with a creator

Handle the boring compliance stuff up front. A simple agreement (scope, IP/usage rights, kill clause, payment terms). Tax forms if you're in the US (W-9 domestic, W-8BEN for foreign creators). If you work with people outside your country, figure out how you'll actually send money before you promise a date. International payouts are where this gets genuinely annoying: fees, currency, some platforms won't pay certain countries.

What this buys you: creators who treat you like a real client, stick around, and don't pad their hours because the incentive to pad isn't there.

We sell a niche product and some of our customers keep asking for a crypto payment option. We've looked into some of the hosted crypto payment gateways, but the onboarding process just felt like a lot of hassle for our small business lol, especially since it'd probably be a very small feature for us..

Is there a way to accept USDT/BTC directly on our own server, or do you basically need to go through a third party's KYC process for this?

Hi, unfortunately I do not really have friends or an existing network who support the launch of my brand on social media. And because I have been testing different Reels and post formats, I probably ended up spamming some of their feeds to the point that a few friends unfollowed me (and I am really sad about it because I never even ask them to like my posts. I just like my own posts and probably showed up in their feed..).

The frustrating part is that I cannot even use Trial Reels because I do not have 200 followers yet.

I have been watching a lot of content creators sharing how they got 100K+ views on their very first Reel, and I honestly cannot figure out how that happens. Do they genuinely have a large existing network or friend group supporting and engaging with their content, or are people actually paying to boost their posts?

I have been experimenting for a couple of months now and nothing seems to be working. Posting here because I wanted to check if anyone else is experiencing the same thing, and whether paid ads are really the only route to getting that initial reach?

If paid promotion really is the only way, I might just have to put some money behind it and see what happens, I guess...

I don’t want to use my home address for business anymore. What are you using for PO box? Is it best to go with the post office or should I try one of the other options? What are the other options? What has worked best for everybody? I don’t plan on receiving many packages, mostly regular mail.

sharing this because nobody warned us and it cost us about three weeks.

we are putting just under 100 kW on the roof of our production building and financing most of it. i assumed the lender would care about our numbers, our debt service coverage, and whether the installer had a track record. all of that came up, fine.

what i did not expect was that the first technical question from their side was about the module manufacturer. specifically two things. would that manufacturer plausibly still exist in 25 years to honor the warranty, and is the warranty backed by anything other than that company promising to be around.

our installer had quoted the cheapest modules that met spec, because that is exactly what i asked him for. that quote is now the thing sitting in the file blocking approval.

turns out this is standard in project finance and it has a name, bankability, which i had not heard before last month. the lender is not buying panels, they are lending against an asset that has to still produce in year 20, and equipment risk is their risk too.

the part that reframed it for me. our modelled payback is a bit under 8 years on the cheap quote. but the model assumes the array is still at spec output in year 15 and 20, and if it is not, the payback i put in the business plan is fiction. so the equipment question the bank asked is really the same question as whether my own payback number is real. i had been treating them as separate things.

two questions for anyone who has financed a commercial array.

did your lender push back on equipment choice, or is ours unusually picky?

and is there any way to know in advance which manufacturers a bank will be comfortable with, other than asking them one at a time and burning a week each round?