I built the app for Anthony's Pizzeria in Allentown (Anthony's Pizzeria Rewards on the App Store), and the owner's plan for getting people onto it is kind of sneaky.

They're not quitting DoorDash, Uber Eats or Grubhub. They're treating them like the most expensive billboard in town. On a $30 delivery, DoorDash takes $4.50 to $9. Paying that once to meet a new customer is fine. Paying it every Friday night forever is not.

So every delivery bag is about to get a card. Download the restaurant's app, show it at the counter, and your slice is free. That slice costs the shop a dollar or two in food, which is a lot cheaper than DoorDash's cut. After that, every direct order earns stamps toward a free pizza.

We're only watching one number: how many of those customers order direct the second time. There's a code set up on our end to count it.

If you've done bag inserts before, did a free item or a discount pull more people over? And has any delivery app ever complained about what's in the bag?

He always paid on time. He was certainly persistent. The guy fought every single invoice. He turned 20 minute calls into two hour calls and made the entire team on edge. I kept him for 8 months because the numbers looked too good. When I finally let him go, revenue dipped for about 6 weeks. Something very strange happened after that. My team got faster and got back to what really brought in the money. Plus, the office mood changed almost instantly and we were able to land two clients who were a much better fit.

Most of us keep bad customers out of pure fear. I definitely did. I've always heard there are costs associated with keeping draining clients, but nobody warns you that keeping a client costs you focus and energy. So, I'm curious. What made you fire a client? Or did you keep a client that you knew you should lose and what did it really cost you?

I'm starting a one man service repair business for fixing windows and doors in my local area. I really don't like using socials media but I understand the importance in promoting your business and getting attention. I won't have a lot of time to manage multiple accounts and I'd rather not have my efforts spread thin. If I had to use only one social media platform to promote my business which would be the most effective? Thank you for advice in advance.

My wife opened a salon studio business a few years ago. We poured in over $30k of renovation (repainted everything, replaced 90% of flooring, multiple plumbing upgrades) and has paid about $1500 for 1500 square ft with annual 3% rent increase. We are in a MCoL area.

We understood that amount was below market rate which is why we got into it to begin with, but now the ownership has changed and sent a lease renewal for a little over $2700 a month for 5 years.

This 70% increase seems like an absurd increase to us and we plan on having a conversation, see if this is negotiable at all or basically an "F you" price because they want us to leave.

She rents out rooms within the unit she rents as a salon studio (think of chair renting at a hair salon, similar situation). If she leaves, her own tenants might be SoL which we don't want. However, we can't just lock ourselves in for a crazy rate.

Does anyone have any broad advice or similar experience to this?

Looked into commercial real estate brokers, how does that work? Is there significant out of pocket costs with that?

Thank you!

HI I'm Falah and i just started my web development company Forge-techs but after my first client 4 months ago I just can't seem to get any new ones. I've sent 200+ whatsapp messages and 50 or less on ig but still nothing. Can anyone give some feedback

Thanks

Thinking of buying a deli/bodega going for 500k for 300k SDE or 1.66x available in NYC in Brooklyn. I’ve been thinking of getting into the deli business though Ive never worked in a deli before, seller is willing to provide training. I expect to work a 40 hour shift at the register as part of the deal.

What are some things that I need to look out for with delis specifically. I know it’s a food business and there will be spoilage and health certifications, licenses and permits to apply for.

I’m worried it’s selling below 2-2.3x SDE and there could be some hidden traps I might not see.

Any veterans out there that can share some advice on what to look out for.

I run a small local service business. For three years I kept prices flat, absorbing higher supply and labor costs myself. I was scared to raise rates, worried I’d lose clients.

Last month I increased prices by 22%. I tried to explain the rising costs to my repeat customers in advance. A lot were understanding, but roughly half of my long-time regulars decided to go elsewhere.

My total revenue stayed almost the same because the remaining clients pay more. But I lost that steady base of returning customers. I feel guilty and stressed. Some days I wonder if I made a huge mistake.

Has anyone here had this happen after a price increase? How did you decide when to raise prices? Did the lost customers ever come back later? I’m curious what lessons you learned from pricing changes.

I plan on calling tomorrow, but it'd be cool if there were any knowledgeable redditors who had insight.

My home is my business location, which I definitely don't want on any public search related to my business.

I want to start selling squishies at markets. I never see them, and think it would be fun, considering how trendy it is right now. I don’t care to market them towards a certain age group, however because they look like children’s toys I’m sure they would be regulated as such. Does anyone know the legalities of selling products filled with liquid to the public “marketed” towards children? Would it be as simple as putting my labels with ingredients, and proper warnings or do I have to get certified with something or do testing or sign documents or something? I’m sure I am missing things, the fact that I have never seen a squishy booth at any markets is telling.

What is one business mistake that beginners should avoid?

So in Maine the salary cap for your kids to be on medicaid is 90k. Our salaries working for our S corp are below the cap, therefore our kids are on mainecare and we buy our insurance through the marketplace. If we were to make more money for ourselves every penny would just go directly to insurance or would disappear to taxes until we hit the 128k cap. Our businesses are doing great and yet we can only afford to make enough to barely get by. How the hell are you affording insurance?!?

I’ve been curious about how smaller service businesses grow beyond their first few customers.

There’s a lot of advice about Google Ads, SEO, Facebook, referrals, and lead generation platforms, but I’m more interested in what’s actually working for people running these businesses.

If you own a cleaning, landscaping, plumbing, HVAC, handyman, or similar business, where did your last 5 new customers come from?

And was that typical for your business, or has something changed recently?

I’d be especially interested in hearing which channels you’ve tried that weren’t worth the time or money.

Hello, I am not sure what to do. I am running a small custom order product website. Mother owned, and it's intention was to provide professional sound equipment that is easily accessible as we are as less expensive as we can be.

I had a customer who has gone on calls with me to help her design her set, non stop texts to help her and when she received her items she said she prefers another brand that is 10x the price. She filed a visa dispute 80 days after she recieved them and went public bashing my company. I have videos proving her items were perfect. We sent her a gift another instrument fir free, refunded her shipping and telling her she can ship the set back to me personally and I will credit her back (as its virtually impossible to return as my products are made in china) she refused and wants to keep the set but wants a refund

Visa finalized the dispute in her favor. Now I have another woman trying to do the same. What is happening and how does someone even be able to refund custom orders for a subjective reason like this? Where is the protection and what can I do as these returns are taking me out financially.

I have been selling for 2 years and never had this issue until now.

I am an 21 year's old boy from India, have no job and finding for a problem or existing business I can replicate or improve and then do in a Small town village I am just finding for 3 year's a good idea or something but I couldn't find one I am now searching for a good idea with a good business model, and something more I can tell you about my village or town it's dependent on farming rice and right now everyone is building Home in my town that's Government provide them the cost and people have pressure to build them so construction are booming also please give me some idea's I can try.

​​ I have a relatively new small website for my crystal and craft business. Someone reached out to me via a form on my website asking about my most expensive sphere, what the shipping cost would be and if I could provide a small discount. They did mention the product they're interested in by name. I responded that I would consider it and they asked if I could take about 12% off the total cost. I haven't made any promises yet, but I did ask them where they were located to help determine what my shipping costs would be before I made a decision. Nothing about it really stood out as being a red flag that it is a scam, but the fact that it is not a previous customer and they are looking at my most high priced item is making me wonder if they are planning to do a charge back once they receive it. I've never had to dispute a chargeback before, but I know to document everything, take video when I package it up, get insurance and make sure that they sign for it when it's delivered . I also know that it's not guaranteed that I would win the dispute if it happens. They have not done the normal scammer red flags, like rushing the process , asking for a weird payment method, or anything like that. The only thing that is giving me pause is that I don't know this person and they are looking at an expensive item . My thinking is that if they were planning to do a chargeback, why bother reaching out to me first about a discount ?​​ it is also not uncommon for people to haggle the cost of a crystal. ​ am I being naive here to even consider it? Or am I overthinking the worst case scenario because it seems too good to be true? I'm considering messaging them back with a counter offer, and also inquiring about how they found my website and if they are a crystal collector to potentially get more information out of them. I did do some light internet stalking to see if I could verify this person and where they live but didn't come up with much . Have you dealt with anything like this before ? Or what would you do in this situation ?

A few questions for beauty and wellness providers:

1. How do most of your new clients find you?

2. What percentage of first-time clients return, and what do you think influences whether they come back?

3. Do you do anything to encourage first-time clients to rebook or become regulars?

4. What's the biggest challenge in attracting new clients and building a loyal client base?

I'd love to hear about your real-world experiences, including what has worked, what hasn't, and what you wish were easier. Thanks for sharing!

I’m a high school student in Wisconsin trying to start a service business. I’m thinking about offering leaf removal in the fall and snow shoveling in the winter, but I’m unsure what to do during the spring and summer. I’ve considered mowing, but it’s really oversaturated in my area.
Snow removal is also difficult to schedule because of school. I can only do a few jobs in the mornings, and I wouldn’t be available again until around 3:30 PM. I’m not sure if customers would be willing to wait that long after it snows.
I’ve also had friends tell me the idea is weird and make fun of me for it, which has made me question whether it’s actually worth pursuing.
I want to build something that makes decent money and can grow into a real business without requiring a ton of startup money or experience.
For people who have run service businesses, what would you recommend doing during the spring and summer? Are there underrated services that people pay for in smaller Wisconsin towns? Would you stick with seasonal services or take the business in a different direction?

I'm having trouble with my customers constantly getting items missing. I work alone and I know for a fact the items are not missing. For example just today the customer emails, it's the same format most times "hi I got my order but so and so item was missing please send it thanks". Anyway on many occasions it's an item that jogs a memory such as "oh I remember picking and packing that item specifically because the corner poked through the tissue paper whilst wrapping" (you know when you just remember a specific thing that makes you so sure you packed it). And they always seem to pick that one item that sticks out to me to declare they never got that. And you can't ask for a photo of a missing item obviously to prove they're not lying. But it happens so frequently and the same customer will do it multiple times as well. Like 1 customer I have sold to around 20 times and 12 of those had 1 item missing... I know they're lying because my stock check is correct and my workspace is immaculate so nothing has just fallen on the floor and got lost. I don't have any employees and no one has reported a parcel being opened or half opened on arrival. I'm losing so much money from this as I am always replacing the item at my own expense and paying around £3.50 in postage and packaging each time. I am not a massive business like Amazon, why do people feel the need to do this to me and do I have any legal rights to call their bluff and not send the item. Though I dread the bad reviews. I am at my wits end now as it's every week about 3 liars now.

Last year I decided to try selling one of my more popular products on Amazon. It's been a paperwork nightmare at times, but things have been fairly steady for months. Then over the weekend, my account got deactivated.

It took a lot of digging to find out that the apparent reason is that I'm signed up for many different Amazon markets, including Brazil, UK, and EU and there is a problem with one of them. The first notice I got of an issue was a message in Portuguese from Amazon Brazil saying they were disabling my account because my Netherlands account was out of compliance.

Now, I never intended to sign up for anything other than the US, and then when they offered Remote Fulfillment for Canada I signed up for that. Somehow I have accounts everywhere that had never been accessed. I can't opt out of them now. The only way to get my account back is to finish setting up the UK/EU account, which involves a week-long process of scheduling a video interview and then waiting for review. They're also asking for documentation I can't provide - I have no single document that includes my date of incorporation and my business license number because those are from different entities. I won't know until tomorrow if that's going to be an issue.

This seems like it ought to be some kind of antitrust violation or something. They swear up and down that it's not possible to simply shut down those accounts and I have to go through the whole signup and verification process.

If you're on Amazon and you're showing accounts in markets you're not using, go deactivate them now! They can only cause you trouble. The only advance warning I got of this issue was in the form of a message sent to the UK account 15 months ago, and if I saw it at all at the time I ignored it because I had no interest in setting up a UK account. Now I have no choice.

Posting from a throwaway because I really don’t want this getting back to anyone involved.

I started my own content studio, and right now, I have one client. I initially came on board to manage his LinkedIn presence and ghostwrite a book for him. Over time, the scope kept expanding. I found myself handling Instagram content, planning content strategies, coordinating shoots, managing execution, and essentially becoming the person responsible for making sure everything happened.

The thing is, he knew social media management wasn’t really my area of expertise when I started taking it on. But I genuinely liked working with him, believed in what he was building, and wanted to help. So I kept saying yes, learning things as I went, and taking on more than I probably should have.

Here’s the problem: I haven’t been paid a single penny in six months.

I understand that he’s going through financial difficulties, and I’ve tried to be patient because I genuinely care about him and the work we’re doing. But I feel like my willingness to accommodate his situation has gradually turned into an expectation that I’ll keep showing up and getting things done, regardless of whether I’m being paid.

I’m struggling with that, especially because this isn’t just about me anymore.

I have three people working with me, and I have salaries to pay. I have contracts with them, so I can’t just make sudden decisions about letting people go. They don’t know how bad the situation has become, and I don’t want to scare them or make them feel insecure about their jobs.

Here’s where I feel particularly stuck.

This is my first client, and I need the work we’ve done together to build my portfolio.

I need to finish and publish the book. Having a published book to showcase would give me something tangible to demonstrate my ghostwriting capabilities when pitching to other clients.

I also need his LinkedIn account to be a proper case study. I want to be able to show prospective clients the work I’ve done, demonstrate what’s working, and prove that LinkedIn management is something I can deliver. Right now, when I’m pitching, I don’t have the portfolio or client results I’d ideally want to have behind me.

So, as much as I know this arrangement isn’t sustainable, walking away immediately feels like throwing away the very things I need to help me get out of this situation.

I have roughly another month to finish the book and get it published. But things are getting out of hand. There are so many moving parts, so many deliverables, and so much coordination involved that I’m barely able to focus on anything else. The time I should be spending finding new clients is being consumed by work that isn’t generating any income.

I’ve been trying different sales tactics and doing outreach, but nothing seems to be working so far. I don’t have another client to fall back on, and I don’t have a reliable safety net.

And honestly, I’m scared.

I’m frustrated and exhausted, but I’m also sad because I genuinely wanted this business to work. I didn’t start a studio just to give up at the first difficult hurdle. I know entrepreneurship is hard, and I’m prepared to put in the work. But it’s difficult to figure out what the right move is when I’m already stretched so thin and have other people depending on me.

I also don’t want to portray my client as a terrible person. I understand that financial difficulties are real, and I don’t regret wanting to help him. But I think I’ve reached a point where my empathy for his situation has come at the expense of my own financial stability and the business I’m trying to build.

To be clear, I’m not looking for advice telling me to drop the client. I know I’m eventually going to have to walk away from this arrangement, and my plan is to do that once the book is published. I’m trying to get to that point without letting everything else fall apart in the meantime.

What I need help figuring out is how to navigate the next month or so.

How do I balance finishing the book and securing the portfolio pieces I need with the urgent need to bring in paying clients? How do I approach outreach when I don’t have much of a track record to show yet? Is there a smarter way to package or present my LinkedIn management and ghostwriting services that could help me close clients sooner?

And for those of you who’ve run agencies or built businesses from scratch, how did you handle the period when you had responsibilities and commitments but not enough revenue to sustain them?

I’m based in India, and my services are primarily LinkedIn management and book ghostwriting.

I don’t want to give up on my business. I just feel like I’m running out of room to make mistakes, and I could really use some practical advice from people who’ve been in a similar position.

If you’ve been here before, what helped you get through it?

Your reviews are the most honest market research you'll ever get and almost nobody uses them for anything except feeling good or feeling annoyed.

Copy in your Google, Facebook or wherever reviews, as many as you can:

Here are all my reviews: [paste them]. And here's my
current website copy: [paste it].

1. Tell me the top five things customers praise, using
   their own words, and how often each comes up.
2. Tell me the top complaints and how often each comes up.
3. Compare that to my website. What do customers love
   that my site barely mentions?
4. Rewrite my headline and first section around what
   customers actually value, using their language.
5. Draft a short, non-defensive reply to each negative
   review that hasn't been answered.

Don't invent praise or make claims the reviews don't
support.

Step 3 is where it gets interesting. It's really common for a business to lead with the thing the owner is proud of while every review talks about something else entirely, like how quick you reply or how you explain things. Customers are telling you your pitch.

Read the review replies before posting them. You want them to sound like you, not a customer service script.

I'm building a library of workflows like this for the jobs small businesses still do by hand, here.

I worked with a woman as a contractor and was making around $2500 a month. She has shouting problem and wanting to track me more than usual. So I had to let her go

I have solid experience but I’m not able to get contract work or clients to cover this amount. This amount was pretty important for me to cover up all my finances. I’ve been reaching out to busy bookkeeper and firms as well in case they need additional help but I wasn’t able to get anything.

Should I go back to her as I do have this option?
I’m severely stressed

What write off should I do if I sell kids lip balm? I make about $200-300 a month in sales..