​

I'm a small business owner, and like most of us, I get a ton of cold calls and texts.

Now, I get it. Cold calling is part of sales. I don't have a problem with that. If you call me up and say, "Hey, I'm John with XYZ Company. We haven't talked before, but we offer this service and I think it might help your business. Got a couple minutes?" I'm fine with that. Maybe I'll be interested, maybe I won't. No harm done.

But you know what really pisses me off?

The people who call or text and act like we're already buddies, or worse, pretend we've had some previous conversation that never actually happened.

"Hey, just following up on our conversation..."

"Checking in about that application..."

"Wanted to see if you had a chance to review what we discussed..."

Dude. We haven't discussed shit. I don't know who you are.

And it's usually pretty obvious that they've gotten my information off some list, a credit report, or whatever, and they're just trying to schmooze their way into a conversation.

I'm not much of an extrovert to begin with. I don't particularly enjoy talking on the phone, especially with people I don't know. So when you come at me pretending we're old pals, or just flat-out lying about some previous interaction, all you're doing is pissing me off.

And here's what I really don't understand. You're trying to sell me something, right? Presumably you want me to trust you enough to give you my money.

So why the hell would you start that relationship with a lie?

Just tell me who you are, what you're selling, and why you think I might be interested. I can respect that.

But don't pretend we're friends, don't invent conversations we've never had, and don't act like I'm supposed to remember you.

You're not being clever. You're just making sure I'll never do business with you.

Am I like the odd man out here? Do any of my fellow owners actually like getting these kinds of calls?

Embarrassingly long post ahead.

I need help figuring out how to manage an employee who seems to be lying about almost everything she says about herself.

My small business sells a product-based service. To preserve anonymity, I'll say that we offer high-end hair extensions and extension installation. We've been open for about 3 years. I was doing all of the extensions myself, with occasional assistance from contractors, until I hired an experienced service provider named Carrie about 6 months ago. 

Our team consists of:

• Me - owner 
• Lila - manages our website, scheduling calendar, and social media; has been with the salon since day 1 
• Carrie - our new service provider
• Delaney - our business/operations manager, who was hired at the same time as Carrie

Working with Carrie is making me hate my business and want to burn it to the ground. We were supposed to have a 6-month review at which I would tell her whether she would be promoted to store manager, and that date is coming up quickly, but I don't see her being able to take on that role for a long time, if ever. I feel uncertain about how to handle her review because my primary feedback is that I think she is lying constantly, and I feel like I can't trust her. But that feedback feels too vague. I also can't decide if maybe I'm just going crazy....?

I think I need a mindset shift, and I definitely need an outside perspective. She is such a sweet person, and I have horrible guilt about my feelings about her. 

Why did I hire Carrie?

1. She had been with her previous employer for 5 years, which is a long time in our industry. She had glowing reviews from her previous manager, and she had a reasonable health-related explanation for why she left that job.
2. This is important: she has experience providing a related service that I really wanted to start offering to our clients, and it's an unusual skill. Let's say it's lash extensions. 

What are the issues with Carrie?

She talks nonstop, all day every day, about herself and her health issues, even in front of clients.

She claims to be an expert in many tasks that relate to the business (and many others that don't), but she embellishes the truth so much about everything that I can no longer trust that she knows how to do the things she says she does.

Examples:

- She is 29. She often talks about her careers before this job, which is a normal topic of conversation, but she would be a thousand years old if she had actually had all of the careers she says she's had. As an example, she reports that she: (a) worked as a professional ballerina for 12 years, (b) was a working cellist for 15 years, (c) was one of the makeup artists for an extremely well known television show that is produced in our area for years, etc. There is a new career added to the list every week. But I have her resume, of course, and it says that she has worked in salons and retail jobs since she finished her associate's degree 7 years ago. That's it. 

Her past careers are frequent topics of discussion with our clients, who have no reason to doubt them. And it seems harmless because nobody actually cares if she was a ballerina or not; they just care if she knows how to do their hair. 

But these past careers do come up often when I am distributing tasks internally because she insists that she is an expert in any and every task related to the salon. As an example, if I say that we are going to have a photo shoot to showcase our new line of extensions and I'm hiring a makeup artist to do our models' makeup, she'll insist that she can do it because she has so much "professional experience" from doing makeup on a TV show. I usually deflect these offers by saying things like "I'll need you to be working on the extensions at the shoot, so I am bringing in someone else for makeup."

But this happens every single day, no matter what we are doing. We need to organize the products in our stock room? Well, it's a good thing she "used to be a professional organizer" and "everyone" at her previous job always wanted her to be the one to organize the stock room because she does such a better job than anyone else. Our social media manager, Lila, models our hair extensions for our social media because that's her job, but Carrie is constantly trying to take Lila's place and model for our social media accounts, citing her "years of modeling experience." Etc. It is exhausting to constantly have to find gentle ways to tell her to stay in her lane. 

- Her health issues are her biggest topic of discussion with our team, and occasionally with clients too. At this point, she has probably told me that she has at least 40 or 50 disorders, including disorders that do not exist. For example (again, making this up to preserve anonymity), she claimed that she got cancer from a bee sting. It sounded so outlandish that I looked it up later, and the CDC, WHO, American Cancer Society, etc. all say that there have been zero reported cases of transmission of cancer through bees in human history. 

Sometimes the things she says about her health seem like they could be disturbing to our clients or team. She wears a lot of rings on her fingers, and she tells people that she has to wear the rings because if she doesn't, her fingers will all pop out of their sockets. Since she is working on their hair with her hands, this seems to me like an odd thing to say. But it doesn't seem like our clients care.

Why I'm writing this now

Two recent incidents have caused me to write this post. 

(1) We were in a team meeting recapping our successes from the previous week. Carrie reported that she was very proud of a particular extension application because the client hadn't originally wanted those extensions, but Carrie offered them as an alternative, and the client absolutely loved them. I was taken aback by this because I had been the one to pull those extensions out and offer them to the client. I knew she had not done it, but she seemed to sincerely believe she had. It wasn't that she was trying to take credit for something, it was clear that she "remembered" something that didn't actually happen. It troubled me. 

(2) I wanted her to begin working on a new service. I had repeatedly asked her if she had ever done this particular service, and she said no every time. While I was teaching her how to do it, I remarked that there are two ways of doing it: by hand or with tweezers (with tweezers being the much more common method). I told her I was faster doing it by hand because I've been doing it for 30 years, but most people did it with tweezers. She immediately responded that she too was much faster when doing it by hand, even though she had told me at least 3 times that she had never done this particular task before. 

After that conversation, I became really concerned about her honesty vis-a-vis this role. I knew she was lying and embellishing about other topics, but I assumed she was simply insecure, and it would go away as she grew more confident in her role at my salon. But these incidents made me feel like I could no longer trust her with job-specific tasks.

At the same time, I am concerned that she's just so annoying to me personally that that is coloring all of my interactions with her and assessments of her. 

What are the benefits of keeping her? 

She does a very good job at the core of her role, which is providing hair extensions. Most of our clients seem to really like her. And that is what I hired her for. I don't have any issues with her provision of services to clients. She is genuinely a VERY kind and sweet person. 

Her comments do not seem to be affecting the rest of the team. They take her at her word. They don't spend much time with her because their roles are largely remote, and they work in the salon on the days that we don't take clients, so Carrie isn't there. 

I have gotten to the point where I have stopped holding our biweekly staff meetings because I spend most of the meeting time trying to come up with creative yet kind ways to shoot down the irrelevant and weird things she brings up. 

My mother has a personality disorder, and I'm really worried that I'm having an excessively bad reaction to Carrie because some of her behaviors remind me of my mom. That's not fair to Carrie at all. 

I would love any insights you may have if you've ever managed someone like this. And if you've read this far, you are a saint!

every time a founder asks me for a redesign i open the site and it's the same story. three buttons fighting each other on the homepage, a slider nobody waits for, a whole section about company values, and a newsletter popup before the page even loads

the design is rarely the real problem. there's just too much stuff and people don't know where to look

but nobody asks for that because "remove stuff" doesn't feel like you got anything for your money. a new look feels like progress

lately i suggest cutting first and redesigning later if it's still needed. half the time they don't go for it lol

I run a small online business by myself and started cold email for the first time this month. I've sent about 60 short, plain text emails to businesses that actually fit what I do, and so far I've had one real reply.

What I can't figure out is how to judge it this early. What numbers would make you keep going, tweak it, or drop the channel completely?

For those who've done this:

- What reply rate did you see at the start, and how many of those replies were actually interested?

- How long did you give it before deciding?

- Did most replies come from the first email or the follow ups?

Not selling anything here, just trying to set a realistic bar so I don't quit too early or keep going on something that isn't working.

Lesson learned as a starting small business owner.

Never again pitching our services to an HOA or people we personally know without clear agreements.

We submitted a proposal, waited two weeks, and kept following up just to get a clear answer. We even started preparing designs and other materials.

At some point, it felt like we were begging for an opportunity instead of simply offering a service.

I understand that miscommunication happens, but our time and effort matter too.

Not every opportunity is worth chasing. Sometimes, walking away is the better business decision.

Lesson learned.

Looking for leads: I'm after an accountant or small firm who can handle bookkeeping, accounting and US tax filing for a small US-based LLC that works on animal welfare. The annual budget is under $100K, so we need someone reliable and reasonably priced who knows small LLCs, and ideally has worked with mission-driven or international clients. If you've worked with someone good, or know a person who'd be a fit, I'd really appreciate an intro. Thanks.

I run a small local service business, and we have always relied mostly on referrals. Our Google Business Profile is out of date, the photos are old, and the only other place people can find us is Facebook. If someone searches for the service nearby, we barely appear. I can only afford one small improvement right now. Would you put it into a basic website, better reviews and photos, or cleaning up the local listings first?

Hello everyone!

Do I understand it right that when I hire through upwork, I don't need invoices from freelancers (upwork handles everything) nor do I need to issue 1099s to them?

I turned 25 this past July which marks my fifth year working at a small business.

I recently began engaging with the owner about buying the business. Owner has other businesses and is nearing retirement age and is ready to step back. I have my reservations. My education​ ended at high school because I considered myself a "rebel" and didn't want to do the "norm". I have no formal business training besides what I have learned on my own and through working closely with the owner.

Has anyone been in my position? I know buying a business doesn't require a degree on the LOI, but I can't help but think I might bite off more than I can chew.

What got you to take the leap? I know there are many successful business owners and entrepreneurs that didn't get a college degree. For those that didn't go to school for business, was there a learning curve?

Thank you for your insights!

feel like a lot of small business owners overcomplicate social media. You really don't need to come up with a completely new idea every single day.

If you're struggling to stay consistent, here's a pretty simple approach:

Monday: Answer a question customers regularly ask you.

Wednesday: Share something behind the scenes, even if it's just packing orders or preparing for the day.

Friday: Show your product or service in action.

That's already 3 posts a week without having to brainstorm new ideas constantly .I'd also keep a note on your phone with questions customers ask. Those can easily turn into future posts. And honestly, posting 3 times a week consistently is probably better than posting every day for two weeks and then disappearing.

Curious how other small business owners handle this. Do you plan your content ahead or just post whenever you have time?

My husband and I have been entertaining the idea of eventually purchasing an established gift shop or boutique in a coastal tourist town. We’re still in the early research stages, but the idea of owning a small business in a destination we genuinely enjoy has become super appealing.

Ideally, we’d purchase an existing business with a customer base, established operations, and a history of profitability rather than start completely from scratch.

Long-term, we’d love to split our time between two locations, so having a reliable team to manage day-to-day operations would eventually be important.

I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who’ve actually owned or acquired businesses in tourist-heavy areas:

• How much did you initially invest?
• What does profitability realistically look like after expenses, payroll, and seasonal fluctuations?
• How difficult is it to find dependable employees, and is semi-absentee ownership realistic for a business like this?

Most importantly: With knowing what you know now, would you do it again?

I’m definitely not expecting passive income or an effortless business, just trying to understand the realities before seriously pursuing this. Thanks!

We run a micro business and would like to start paying large invoices ($15k minimum) on credit card to rack up points. No cash flow problems, don't care about the cc fee, just looking to take advantage of the money we're spending. Wanted to use Wise but they have a $2k limit for cc transactions. What third-party apps are you all using to pay invoices via credit card?

How do I grow my RUO business aside from word of mouth. Or just in general how to grow a business.

If you are not going to be constructive don’t even respond thank you

We run a software development company with around 40 people, mostly working on large enterprise projects. Something I’ve been wondering about lately. When a big client is choosing between a smaller specialized company and a firm with 500+ employees, how much does size actually matter?
We might have people who’ve spent years working with the exact technology a client needs. But the bigger company has a recognizable name, a huge team, and probably looks like the safer choice on paper. I get why that matters. If I were spending that kind of money, I’d be careful too.
But I’m curious how people on the other side see it. Would you hesitate to give a major project to a 40-person company, even if they had the right experience?

Hello!

I’m a business major focusing on entrepreneurship and I was wondering if any entrepreneurs in the group have a little time to answer 5 questions for a class assignment? I estimate it will take about 5-10 minutes of your time. The only requirement is that the person is an entrepreneur and employs at least 2 people.

I unfortunately did not realize the entrepreneur can’t be anyone that I know so I have put myself slightly behind on the project and I’m hoping by reaching out here I can still accomplish the mission.

If you’re interested I could message or email you the questions or even post them here, whatever is best for you.

Thank you in advance!

For a lot of owners, the hardest part of dealing with MCA debt isn't the math. It's the day they decide to ask for help. I work with Value Capital Funding (VCF), where we help business owners assess MCA debt-relief options, including refinancing and restructuring when appropriate, and one thing is consistent: most people reach out after things have already developed, not while it's still manageable. I wanted to write about that moment and what tends to come up around it. Happy to answer general questions in the comments.

What tends to come up, in general terms:

• Looking at the full picture is often a relief. Many owners have never added up every position, every payment, and the total, because it feels easier not to.
• There are usually more questions than answers at first, like whether to refinance, restructure, or do something else, and the answer depends on the numbers.
• The wish is usually about timing. Conventional financing tends to be most available when a business is stable and doesn't urgently need the money, not once the owner is already under pressure. That's not a criticism. It's just how the window works.

If you're thinking about reaching out to anyone, including us, it helps to have a few things ready:

• Your agreements for every position.
• Three to six months of business bank statements.
• A simple list of each position's payment amount, frequency, and remaining balance.

And a word of caution: be wary of anyone who guarantees a result or asks for a large fee before explaining what they'll actually do. Ask what's included, what it costs, and get it in writing.

Reaching out is taking control of the situation, not admitting defeat. If you'd like to talk it through, comment, and I'm glad to help.

So i am trying to start my freelance business and things are not going really well. I help businesses automate admin work and simplify their workflow using digital tools. I already am working on a project with a potential customer but the deal is not yet closed. I'm looking into cold email outreach but i ran into a problem where i don't know how to find people struggling with this for me to contact.

Has anybody that ran into similar problem or am i approaching this the wrong way? I'd be interested in hearing what actually worked for you.

Hello

So I run an psychology of investing website online. I am really proud of it and I think it has a lot of potential!

I have been considering the idea of brancing more into the b2b side of things. Maybe contacting financial companies or advisors and later providing resources, toolkits, or make content for them through my website.

So my question is, what should I know when considering working directly with businesses? Do you have any good suggestions on what kind of product or service I should focus on that would really help investing or financial specialists out with their work?

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Even some good stories of how you have been working directly with businesses would be great.

Thank you in advance!

I run a small local business, and I’m seriously struggling with this right now.

On Yelp, I currently have 9 reviews marked as “not recommended.” Every single one is from a real customer. These aren’t fake reviews. I’ve worked with these people, have signed contracts, invoices, emails, and everything needed to verify the business relationships.

I reached out to Yelp support multiple times, but I’m getting nowhere. Either no response or generic explanations about their recommendation software.
Google isn’t much better. I had 12 reviews, and now I’m down to 7. Again, these are real customers who actually worked with me.

What’s frustrating is that I’m a small business trying to build a reputation from scratch. Those reviews genuinely matter. I’ve already noticed a significant drop in inquiries after losing reviews on Yelp.

I’m not asking either platform to keep fake reviews up. I just don’t understand why genuine customer experiences keep disappearing, especially when I can prove these were actual clients.

For other small business owners:
Has anyone experienced this recently with Yelp or Google?
Have you ever successfully recovered legitimate reviews?
What platforms or methods are you using to collect reviews these days?
Are you still putting effort into Yelp, or have you given up on it?

I’m genuinely curious what others are doing because relying on these platforms to build a reputation is starting to feel like a losing battle.

EDIT to update: I only requested the first two clients to review me, the other seven were unsolicited (I have contracts and deliverables that prove they are real clients) - Yelp is the worst platform to ever exist, and they dare calling me to ask whether I want to run ads, F no!!

I have been making a little money on the side for a few years now, doing historical costuming for friends in historical reenactment circles. Unfortunately, I've lost two jobs this year and I am in a position where I need buckle down and get this side venture to make me a little more money while I get through a bookkeeping certificate program. So I'm looking for advice from other small businesses, particularly businesses selling handmade items. I'm looking to really buckle down on this in the new year and I want to spend these last couple of months getting everything lined up for that.

Some questions I have:

If I file a DBA (doing business as), should I do that before I get my social media/website and such going, or can I wait? What are some pros and cons of waiting vs doing it immediately, and at what point so I Need to have that done?

Are there any good alternatives to Etsy? I'd like to avoid selling on Etsy, but I know I'll have to do a lot more work advertising.

What's the most economical option for a website? I have experience with Wix from a previous employer, and I briefly held a volunteer position that used wordpress and really struggled to understand how to use wordpress effectively. But what is my best option?

Are there any other recommendations, articles, etc that people can provide?

(It may help for context that I am focusing on well made custom items, rather than mass production, and for financial reasons, I'm pretty set right now on working by commission only, rather than building a stock. Although building a small stock of smaller items like aprons and hats that are likely to sell may be an option.)

Thanks in advance

I am in a dilemma I am sure many of you have been in. My office manager who has been with us 12 years is retiring in April or May of this coming year. Back in July he informed me of his impending retirement but said it wouldn't be until May of 2028. Fast forward to the end of last month and he moved his date up to the beginning of 2027. In the meantime, someone called me looking for a job who has a 10+ years of experience in our field and I talked with her about expectations, salary, and whatnot and I think she will be a great fit.

Now my dilemma is she is ready to start full time immediately. I told her I would ease her into the role after I talked with my current manager and full transition around the time he wanted to retire. He was on vacation this past week so I didn't want to bother him then.

So I don't lose this great potential hire and piss off my current manager what is my best option moving forward to appease everyone? I thought about asking him if he would be ok with scaling back two days a week that way they're not overlapping. In the past six months his production has dropped immensely and I don't want his bad habits rubbing off on the new hire.

HELP!

I run a small but profitable online vintage shop and have recently started considering selling it, but I'm honestly not sure where to begin or whether there's much of a market for a business like mine.

The shop is fully branded, has an established Shopify website, social media accounts with followers, a Pinterest presence, and existing sales channels. I've built everything from scratch over the past few years.

The main reason I'm considering selling is time. I'm currently only able to dedicate around 6 days a month to the business, and despite that, it's still profitable. I genuinely think it has a lot more potential with someone who has the time to focus on growing it.

Since it's a vintage business, the inventory is individually sourced rather than coming from a consistent supplier. I'm planning to sell the business with its existing inventory and would also share my sourcing methods, contacts, and processes to make the transition as smooth as possible for a new owner.

I also think there's a lot of potential to diversify into other vintage categories and expand the product range, which I simply haven't had the time to explore myself.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has experience buying or selling a small e-commerce business, particularly in fashion or vintage.

I couldn't find a part for my PC that did what I wanted, so I designed my own, tested a few versions in my own build, and now I'm thinking about selling it. A local maker with an LLC would print them for me.

What's holding me back is liability. I would be a sole proprietor, and the thought of a part I sold damaging someone's PC makes me hesitant.

For those selling physical items:

Do you carry product liability insurance? Who with, and roughly what does it cost?

LLC, insurance, or both at a small scale?

Anyone switch to selling digital files instead to avoid this?

I'm a small-business owner, and I recently had an experience that's left me incredibly frustrated.

I spent a lot of time researching, developing products, finding suppliers, and building a business around something I genuinely love.

Two people I knew personally became familiar with the business and the knowledge I'd shared. They eventually started their own company selling the same type of products.

I understand that nobody owns an entire product category and competition is part of business. But when it's people you trusted, it feels so much more personal.

I've also had a previous business where competitors copied my creative ideas, so this situation brought back a lot of those feelings.

I'm trying to move forward and focus on growing my own business, but I'd be lying if I said the thought of them becoming more successful than me didn't bother me.

Has anyone experienced something similar? How did you stop letting it get under your skin?

what would make the rest of this year easier for you?