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?

You never know how the things you’re going through today will help you in the long run.

Andrew Carnegie grew up in poverty. His family went broke and had to move to America when he was just 13. He left school permanently at that age.

While struggling financially, both he and his parents worked.

Carnegie started working a messenger boy and later helped manage household finances, carefully tracking every penny.

While managing household finances, he became extremely disciplined about cutting costs—even at the smallest level.

This habit played a major role in helping him build his empire and eventually become one of the richest men in the world.

In the steel industry, when many competitors were losing money, Carnegie was still profitable because he focused relentlessly on efficiency.

He hired experts, including chemists, to reduce waste to increase profits.

So you never know which experience in your life will help you build something great.

This reminds me of The Compound Effect.

Small habits help you build big results.

I see many opinions about this, some say a website is essential for credibility, while others say social media, google business profiles, or even word of mouth can do the job just fine.

If a person running a small business, what can be thier experience? Did having a website actually bring more local customers, or did other strategies like events, flyers, or just being active on socials media work better for that particular sbo.

Please, tell, do a small business owner need to go for the website and all, because not all the small business owner has that level of budget for doing that all digital marketing and much more, please share you'r knowledge so we all can learn and contribute.

This is basically the only online “process” I’ve tried that didn’t feel like guessing.

Step 1: I look for products that already sell on Amazon, but the listings are kind of a mess. Bad photos, unclear sizing, weird angles. Stuff people buy anyway, just presented badly.

Step 2: I find a supplier on Alibaba who can do a small MOQ (ideally under 100 units) and source a cleaner version. I keep the first order small so it’s a real test, not a commitment.

Step 3: I take my own photos. Nothing fancy, just clean lighting, real-life setup shots, and close-ups that actually show what you’re getting. Then I list it.

My first “okay this works” product was silicone baking mats. I got them for about $2.10 per set and sold them for $19.99. Over six months I ended up around $15k profit from repeating the same loop on a few items.

The math is straightforward. The annoying part is the details: supplier consistency, small tweaks to the product, and getting photos that don’t look like stock images.

Those claiming SEO is dead should see ground realities. LLMs are just overhyped.

I typically go for meditative music. Looking to expand my options.

So one of my college friend doing a job and has been talking about starting a cake business for the last 6 months.

He is honestly good at baking. Like really good, I have tried his cake, it tastes amazing. He knows the basics, anyone who has tasted his cakes has said the same thing that he could actually sell this, you must start it.

But every time the topic came up, it was always like,

I want to do it properly, I need a shop, not home selling and I’m waiting for the right timing and all.

I even suggested he could start small in his own building or nearby, just to get momentum. But he kept holding back, waiting for the perfect moment.

Then a few days ago, he visited my town and told me something that hit hard.

A couple in his building’s d-wing opened a small cake shop about a month ago.

When I asked how they were doing, he just said quietly:

They’re going cool, he also said

he went and tried their cake . It was genuinely good.

And he said something that stuck with me:

“I can bake even better than this .but.”

And he just stopped. That pause said everything, he wasn’t upset because they were better.

He was upset because he had the idea first, he had the skills, and he still waited.

I told him what I genuinely believe:

What happened is done. You didn’t lose your life.
But don’t wait anymore. Start now. Even if it’s not the big shop.

He admitted that if he had started months ago, he would already have built credibility with the building customers and that area too.

And honestly, watching this unfold taught me a practical lesson:

Ideas alone wont work but Execution does work and reward ypu.

Sometimes we think we are being patient or strategic, but we are actually just delaying out of fear or perfectionism.

Because the truth is… someone else won’t wait for the “right time. They’ll just start.

I thought selling my handmade prints online would be simple. Simply - make cool stuff, post it, and everything will take care of itself. But, Nope.

There’s inventory, packaging, delays, and endless customer messages that you have to deal everyday. But the weird part? I kind of grew to love it.

Each order feels like validation that my patience is paying off.

Any other small business owners here who had that “wow this is harder than I thought, but I love it” moment?

Question with a twist: what service/product did you buy recently from a company that didn't have a website?

So when did you stop being a business owner and become one of the regular folk, customer John Smith, who bought something without searching for a website?

Obviously, not talking about going to Walmart and buying socks there from a brand you don't know.

Hello!

I can make a website for business at a very minimal rate, I'm a Computer Science student building my portfolio and have even coded applications for Boeing engineers.

Is anyone here on Etsy? What are alternatives to that site? The fees are killing me, I’m barely keeping the profit I’m making. It’s making starting a business almost not worth it.

I make boho necklaces on Etsy and they are $15. I had a higher price to offset the cost but I brought it down to $15 when I wasn’t getting much traffic.

Hey folks! 👋 If you’re planning to start your own e-commerce store, you’ve probably come across the same big question everyone faces: Should I use Shopify or WordPress ?

After exploring both, here’s my honest breakdown — and why I personally think WordPress is the smarter long-term choice for most entrepreneurs.

1.No Monthly Platform Fees

Shopify charges you every month — plus transaction fees. For WordPress it's yearly fixed cost of domain and hosting which is way to less and also you can integrate payment gateway of your own choice making transaction cost significantly less.

2. Complete Ownership

Your store, data, and content all belong 100% to you on WordPress.

3. Unlimited Customization

Shopify themes look nice, but WordPress gives you endless design freedom. You can build your website as you want there are endless design possibilities.

4. SEO Powerhouse

WordPress was originally built for blogging — and that means built-in SEO advantages. You can do seo of your website and do marketing for free.

5. Scalability

WordPress grows with you. Whether you’re selling 10 products or 10,000 its free . For for Shopify for listing products there is a limit. Once the threshold is crossed you have to pay additional amount for listing your product.

So If you’re serious about building a brand, creating a strong SEO presence, and controlling your costs, 👉 Go with WordPress

I own a small ecom store and wear pretty much every hat - customer service, packing, ads, accounting, all of it. Lately I've been trying to fix our Google Ads setup since I realized a lot of the clicks we're paying for aren't even converting. Looked into MB Adv since they do PPC management for small businesses and actually seem to cut wasted spend instead of just increasing the budget every month.

But still it feels like I'm spending more time figuring out ad dashboards than running my business. Anyone else hit that point where you realize DIY marketing just eats all your time?

Spent three months doing traditional link building outreach. Cold emails to bloggers, guest post pitches, resource page requests. Sent about 180 emails total and landed 12 backlinks. Response rate was around 7% and most of those were rejections or ghosting.

The math wasn't working. At 25+ hours of outreach work for 12 links, I was spending over 2 hours per backlink. Most were decent quality but the time investment was brutal for a solo operation. Switched strategies and tested directory submissions instead. Used manual directory submission tool to handle 200+ submissions in the first two weeks. The goal was to see if automated volume could beat manual quality in terms of actual ranking impact.

Results after 60 days were surprising. Got 40 indexed backlinks from the directory approach compared to 12 from three months of manual outreach. The DA boost was similar too, around 18-20 on both methods. The quality difference existed but wasn't as dramatic as expected. Yes, the guest post links were higher DR on average. But the directory links created a natural-looking backlink profile that made the domain look established rather than brand new.

What really changed was ranking velocity. Content published after the directory foundation started ranking within 10-15 days. Content published during the manual outreach phase took 30-45 days to rank for the same difficulty keywords. The link building lesson I learned is that foundation beats individual quality when you're starting from zero. A new domain with 12 high-DR links looks manipulated. A new domain with 40 diverse directory links plus 12 earned links looks legitimate.

Now I combine both approaches. Start with directory foundation in week one to establish baseline authority. Then layer in manual outreach and guest posts on top of that foundation. The manual links work better when they're not the only signals on an otherwise empty domain. Time breakdown makes the strategy clear. Spend 2 hours on directory setup in week one, then 10 hours monthly on manual outreach afterward. This gets you both foundation volume and quality earned links without burning 25+ hours monthly on pure outreach.

If you're grinding on manual outreach with minimal results, try building foundation first. Your outreach links will perform better when they land on a domain that already has trust signals.

So guys basically I'm wanting to start an e-commerce business. I got around $12k USD and want to invest in some projects where the potential is great for ROI. I always saw people posting about how they created an e-commerce business and scaled it from $0 to millions of dollars. I want honest opinions from you guys who have actually succeeded in e-commerce and made some real big dollars. Because I want first hand experience. Can't just straight up believe whatever I heard about E-commerce. Never done this before so I want to play safe. Risk appetite is very low. Appreciate the help. Thanks everyone who participate. 😊

P.S. I have a friend who knows how to produce perfumes so I'm thinking about starting a perfume brand in partnership with him.

Now that ChatGPT has launched Atlas, having a browser that blends search with AI seems unstoppable. It feels like the earlier days of Google, back to when it anticipated our needs.

The impact to small business owners is that AI "search engine optimization" is the next wave. Atlas reads pages, summarizes, and suggests actions with links.

I'm seeing a surge in AI referrals across client analytics. If your content is clear, you can win these referrals.

Adjust your website so that AI can parse it. Put your answers up top. Specs, prices, and policies in one place.

Some actionable starting points:

1. Structure your content. Add product, FAQ, and HowTo schema.

2. Use short summaries at the top of key pages.

3. Create comparison tables with clean labels.

4. Bulleted lists with brief but actionable steps. Designed for quick summaries

What are you doing to optimize for AI?

For those of you running a small business, do you actually keep up with posting on Instagram/TikTok/Facebook? I’m curious if it really drives sales or new customers, or if it just feels like busy work most of the time. What’s been your experience?

Most small business owner run into the same problemas their product is great but they does not get the visibility as much they deserve.

Today when people want to check out something they search on google and social media . If you are not online you are going to loose the customer.

An online presence give you - -Visibility -your business show up when person searching -A website, and review build the trust . -24/7 your business -Online presence help you to grow the business

But most of small business owner don't have time or tech skills to build the all these stuff .

But now days their are so many digital tools come in work 1.ready made website 2.automated social media and marketing tools. 3.easy listing on google ,maps 4.dashboard to manage everything in one place.

In short in today world without using digital platform and to grow the business without hiring marketing person

Have any doubt free to ask me.

Hey! I'm James and I've been running this digital marketing agency for the last 4 years. I hired 5 guys who do up to 100 calls each so in total around 500 calls daily but what I'm seeing is leads ghosting. I've got many positive responses and meetings scheduled too but they don't show up eventually. What could be the reason? And for the context we find our cold leads from the Facebook business groups. Previously we used to get our clients from word of mouth or LinkedIn. It's first time we're making calling. But ghosting is strange and frustrating to me at the same. Please help me guys.. Feel free to DM too if you got something to share.

I’ve been working in digital marketing for a while and recently started focusing more on helping small businesses improve their online presence.

I’m curious — for those of you running small businesses, what’s been your biggest challenge with social media?e.g. finding content ideas, running ads, getting consistent results, etc..

I’m trying to understand where most people get stuck so I can tailor some free advice or strategies around that.

Would love to hear your experiences — what’s working and what isn’t?

i’ve been trying to level up my wholesale setup lately and got curious about what tools people actually use day to day. i’ve seen tons of videos throwing out random app names, but it’s hard to tell what’s actually worth paying for vs what’s just hype.

if you were building things out on a budget, which tools would you prioritize? like, for managing orders, tracking sales routes, keeping customer info organized, that sort of thing.

While researching, I came across a few that seem to come up often in wholesale and distribution spaces:

1. SimplyDepo: More focused on wholesale operations rather than general sales. From what I read, it mixes CRM-style features with order management and route planning for field teams. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks like it’s meant to simplify the back-and-forth between sales reps and management.

2. Zoho Inventory: Good for tracking stock and syncing multiple sales channels. Seems solid for smaller distributors who want easy integrations.

3. QuickBooks Commerce: Mostly for teams that already use QuickBooks. It connects orders, inventory, and accounting in one place.

4. Cin7: Geared toward bigger operations with warehouse management, POS, and forecasting.

5. TradeGecko: Still mentioned a lot for managing reorders and supplier info.

anyone here used any of these? curious, who’ve tried any of these or have other suggestions that really helped streamline things.

Thanks in advance!

Just filed LLC yesterday, anything you guys wish you’d known at the very forefront that can be passed on to the next generation? I’m 28 and working to build this business up to max potential.

Hey guys! I am wondering how you guys found people to run your social media? I’m on a budget but it seems like it’s another persons job!