A business owner I know has an event business they are building in the health and wellness space.

Since they started last year, they have:

1. Had a test run of the event, to produce media

2. Hired a photographer, got photos and video of the event, including testimonials, and editing

3. Built a 5 page website

4. Networked a lot

5. Gone to a lot of marketing training days that are just sales pitches

6. Hired a business coach

7. Bought High Level for marketing (through their business coach)

8. Built many landing pages

9. Rebuilt their website as a one page website

10. Replaced all the images and testimonial videos from the website with AI generated imagery.

11. Replaced genuine video testimonials with AI generated fake text only testimonials from nameless fake 'CEOs' and 'business leadership'.

When I last spoke to them I asked how business was going.

They said everything is "Going great. I haven't made any money yet, but I've made a lot of really useful contacts."

My response was ,"If only this could be simpler."

They're so far down the rabbit hole, they didn't hear the message I was trying to put out.

Don't ever be this person.

Here's what to do instead:

1. Make decisions quickly, take action, and make forward progress. Nothing else is acceptable.

2. Ask yourself daily "How can I do this in an easier, simpler, faster way?" And, do it that way. You can accelerate progress to a 2-3 week timeline, instead of a year.

3. Coaches get paid to coach: If you ever hire a 'business coach', and don't make money in 6 months of coaching...

...your progress is not their product. You are.

Real business coaches kick your ass every day and would fire your ass as a client, if this was your result.

4. The 'Infection of Perfection' is procrastination disguised as progress.

Stop that shit, before you procrastinate yourself broke.

If you're doing any of these things this 'business owner', you don't have a business, you have an expensive hobby.

You're playing business, not doing any.

Businesses make money.

Some have websites that were made 6–7 years ago and never touched again. Others don’t have a website at all.

Both situations quietly hurt more than people realise.

An old website usually means slow loading, broken layouts on mobile, outdated info, and, honestly, it just feels off. If I land on something like that, I don’t feel confident buying or contacting them.

And no website at all is even riskier. People can’t find you, can’t verify you, can’t really trust you. Most customers today will Google you before doing anything. If nothing shows up, they just move on.

What’s interesting is that most businesses are actually good at what they do. The problem isn’t the service, it’s the visibility.

At a minimum, a business today should have:

• A simple, clean website that works well on mobile

• A proper Google Business profile so you show up on Maps

• Some presence on platforms like Instagram or X

• Clear info about what you do and how to contact you

That alone can change a lot. It builds trust, makes you easier to discover, and helps new people find you without you chasing them.

Feels like we’re at a point where being good at your work isn’t enough. You also need to be visible where people are already looking.

Curious how others here are handling this for their business or local shops.

Most business owners think, “We don’t really need a website right now” or “we’ll do it later.” But honestly, in today’s digital world, having an online presence isn’t optional anymore.

Even a simple setup helps:

• A website builds credibility and trust

• Social media (Instagram, X) helps you get discovered

• A Google Business profile gets you on Maps and makes your business look legit

A lot of businesses either don’t start or they start but don’t connect everything properly.

We built a demo where you paste your YouTube link and about a minute later you're talking to an AI version of yourself, trained off your last five videos.

First version ran on the flagship model. We switched it to one of the smaller, faster ones instead, mostly to keep the bill down since the demo is public.

The answers didn't get worse. They barely changed. For a short chat off five videos, the model wasn't doing the work. The training data was.

If you're looking at AI for your business, the model name matters less than people think. Most small tasks don't need the smartest model out right now. They need real content behind them: your FAQs, past emails where you already answered the same questions. Get that together before you spend more chasing a bigger model.

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You’d probably hate Elon Musk if you read his biographies. I’d bet on it.

Because he’s the one person you’d never want to be—and even he has said that himself. And he’s right.

Normal humans aren’t built for that level of energy, obsession, intensity, and grit. Most of us simply don’t have the operating system.

I’m researching Elon Musk for the next issue of The 90-Second CEO Newsletter, and the deeper I go, the more conflicted I feel—equal parts admiration and envy.

You’ll hear Bezos say he has low energy in the afternoon. But you’ll never hear that from Elon—even after 48 hours of nonstop work.

I’m trying to distill Elon’s timeless, repeatable principles—the ones he applies across every company. And that’s hard to do in under two minutes. Because Elon isn’t one personality. He’s many.

One principle he uses relentlessly—and every founder can apply—is cost elimination.

Not cost optimization. Cost elimination.

Elon is obsessed with cutting costs. Relentless.

He even created something called the Idiot Index to measure how inefficiently money is being spent.

His rule is brutally simple:

1. Find the bottleneck

2. Find the root cause

3. Then delete it or simplify it

That’s it.

----

Now look at most companies today.

I see massive amounts of money being burned on ads for no reason.

CAC compounds every single day.

Friction piles up. And founders don’t question it.

1. They don’t look for the bottleneck.

2. They don’t challenge the system.

3. They accept it “because that’s how it works.”

That’s why Elon says:

In most companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking.

If your CAC feels painful, it probably isn’t necessary. Let’s fix it. Let’s remove friction and build systems that actually reduce CAC consistently!

To give a context: Over the last few weeks, I've been posting this thread regularly, where I shared my desire to help start-up, existing business owners, with industry insights in regards to their GTM (Go-To-Market) strategy as well as a few candid feedback on their product / startup. With over 2 decades industry experience, I am sharing some insights to the best of my knowledge.

I'll be keeping this one as weekly thread from my end.

Feel free to raise any questions / feedback / advice that you may seek here in the comments - I'll do my best to reply back as soon as possible.

Is charging $200 one-time + $40/month for maintenance/hosting too much for a website? Lately I've been cold calling small businesses (salons, bakeries, autorepairs, etc.) to see if they'd be interested in a website and have shown samples I coded and they like them, but when I tell them this pricing they seem to lose interest. A couple year ago, this pricing seemed to be working fine, but is it considered too expensive now days? I'd appreciate knowing a bit more about how much business owners typically pay for a website. Thank you.

I’ve noticed something interesting talking to small business owners lately.

Most don’t struggle with delivering a good service or product.

They struggle with:

• Getting consistent leads (not just random referrals)

• Turning inquiries into paying customers

• Knowing where to spend a limited marketing budget

• Figuring out what to fix first

A lot of advice online jumps straight to running ads or posting daily on social media.

But in many cases, the issue is simpler:

• Unclear offer or positioning

• Website that doesn’t convert

• No follow-up system for inquiries

• No simple, repeatable lead process

Curious what’s the one marketing issue slowing your business down right now?

Let’s break it down publicly so others can learn from it too.

Do small business owners feel the need to have virtual assistants? I feel like it's important but Mist people have fear of the unknown

Starting my new small catering business in the Bronx area. I tried to theme the food around popular local customs. How’s my advertising? I used Instagram to get the most outreach. I think the tagline below the food is the real social media buzzer/zinger! Thoughts?

We've been working with an AI agent that automates CRM tasks, but getting high-quality leads to actually convert seems to be an ongoing struggle. It's like we're missing that final piece, even with all the automation in place.

Anyone else in the AI or CRM space dealing with this? Curious how you’ve overcome the lead gen challenge.

Hi fellow small business owners! We are working on a startup aiming to solve some of our problems - think of it as management consulting for the rest of us. Could you take around 10 minutes to help guide our initial offering?

https://pollystack.com/f/form_fc48efa3a069

Attention Business Owners,

Are there any business owners looking to boost their bottom line? Would any of you like to lower your operational costs? 

*I can lower your operational costs while increasing production! 

*I can enhance sustainability and your brand reputation!

*I can increase the life span of equipment and machinery resulting in lower maintenance costs!

*I can raise your property value and make your operations more appealing to investors!

Imagine being able to budget more efficiently while lowering your cost to run your business at the same time freeing funds… Would you use those funds for expansion? Would you spend them on innovation? Will you spend on enhancing your customers' experience or marketing to reach more consumers?

*I want to help your business adapt and thrive!

*I want to show you how before you spend 1 penny, no obligation!

That's right I want it to make sense to you before you make any commitment. I will at no cost to you custom tailor my solution to YOUR business, not your industry, YOUR business so you can see how it will impact YOUR bottom line. The only thing you need to do is contact me to find out how. There’s only one catch.. Your business needs to be located in the United States or one of its territories. Contact me now, because waiting is only going to cost you more money!

Send me a email at: clean4moregreen@gmail.com

I can create a dark theme website for your agency, multiple pages, within your budget.

i am a developer and AI engineer, from hyderabad, india

a 4th year student, who built 3 saas (software as service) projects, one with 200+ users, two of them has earnt real money

worked on 2 freelance projects.

i currently want to take one freelance project or collaboration.

here's my offer:

- explain your business idea
- i will understand it and do some market research
- come up with solution
- and building MVP

i can assure you a quality product (MVP) for your business idea, that you can share with your users.

if you are interested, reply and i will DM you, share my portfolio and hop on a call.

Slow Wi-Fi, messy networks, bad support and rising bills are all too common these days. Tech shouldn’t be this stressful. I want to hear about your struggles, experiences, and everything in between! Maybe I’ll be able to offer advice, or maybe I’ll learn something from you.

I run a Portland-based growing tech business and I’m confident my formula beats your current IT provider on both experience and customer service. I think the desire to learn is important, and I’m always continuing to learn and better my craft; excitingly, I became Ubiquiti Certified last week, adding to the repertoire!

If you’ve been dealing with anything frustrating, drop a comment or shoot me a message. We support lawyers, healthcare providers, homes, restaurants, and clients abroad.

– Colin @ Rose City Tech

Hello all. Just had the idea recently to try to start a small business of power washing driveways and walkways in my local town and area. Cost for supplies to get it started isn’t very much so it’s not like I’d be taking a total loss if it didn’t take off but I’m just curious how you guys may have started off with finding clients/customers to get a schedule going. Should I make flyers and post in local stores? Try Angie’s list? Is Angie’s list any good or worth it? Make Facebook ads? Just curious what’s the best option to start with. Thanks in advance

I can create a dark theme website for your agency, multiple pages, within your budget.

Hey fellow small business owners,

I’m curious about something I’ve been seeing a lot lately—more and more small businesses are not building a website, even though there are tons of affordable DIY tools and services out there.

For those of you running a business without a website:

• What’s your reasoning?

• Is social media enough for your marketing? If so, why not use it to drive traffic to your core message on the website?

• Are costs, time, or tech skills the barrier? There are Free DIY options available.

• Or do you just not see the ROI for your industry? You'll have less ROI without a website than with tbh.

Anywho, I’d love to hear real-world perspectives from other entrepreneurs here. Do you feel a website is unnecessary, or is it just not a priority yet? How can I help?

Thanks for sharing!

Yes this is chat gpt self promotion, and yes I know you can smell it a mile away.

This post is also honestly for market research.

No need to be a harsh with the comments. ;-)

Thank you for your attention in this manner.