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!

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!

I’m considering acquiring an established small business rather than starting one from scratch.
My initial idea is to keep my regular employment while taking over the business, learning its operations, and gradually improving it.

Eventually, I’d like the business to generate enough sustainable income to justify transitioning into full-time ownership.

One thing I’m particularly concerned about is the difference between buying a genuinely profitable business and simply buying myself a demanding job.

For those who have purchased existing businesses:
How many hours per week did you work during the first 6–12 months? Did the business remain profitable after the previous owner left? Were the seller’s financial statements an accurate representation of actual cash flow?

What operational problems surprised you after closing? Did you retain existing employees or hire a manager? How did you evaluate whether the business could function without the previous owner? What would you investigate much more carefully if you were buying again?

I’m particularly interested in smaller service businesses, B2B companies, and businesses with recurring customers. Would love to hear both success stories and cautionary experiences.

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?

​

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?

Hi, my names John & I have started a website design agency around three months ago. My biggest constraint right now is leads & landing my first client.

I’m starting to post on TikTok, I’m messaging small businesses on Facebook groups / cold calling. How do I overcome this and get my first paying client? Any advice, tips and tricks?

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 have a small business that I have been running for the past 2 years. Its been doing great and in the past 6 months we decided to expand a bit as the market and year was going amazing.

At this time I have about $150k in business credit card debt and one business loan(only about 26k owed on loan).

I am paying 25%+ interest on the credit cards right now and its a fighting battle.

I have plenty of open available credit on these cards, and others. But I want to payoff these cards and business loan with a low interest business loan.

I was thinking about an SBA loan. But not sure thats the best route.

We are profiting $250k-350k a year before paying myself as the sole owner. And using those funds for my families living expenses.

As well as putting a lot of that money back into the business for growth and operating capital or expenditures in the future.

My business is very driven by the real estate and construction market.

And im sure you have seen whats going on in real estate, mortgages, interest rates, etc. So it has slowed down alot right before these mid terms.

Any advice on SBA loans to pay off this debt is appreciated. Or any other avenues you think would be a better option.

Credit 750+. All positive. Own primary home with mortgage. Just sold investment property. Unfortunately sold for what we owed.

Thanks again.

I run a small flooring business and we landed a pretty decent commercial job recently. Nothing huge but definitely bigger than the residential stuff we normally do.

The customer paid a deposit and I thought we were in good shape until I sat down Sunday night and went through what we still needed to order. Between the flooring materials, adhesive, trim and paying my two guys for the first week, there's a lot more cash going out upfront than I expected.

The supplier I've worked with for years wants payment before releasing the materials and the customer isn't due for another payment until we finish the first phase. I've got enough in the account to cover it but that would leave us pretty thin for everything else. The frustrating part is we have the work lined up and the money coming in. It's just the timing that's making everything difficult. I've been doing this for a few years and still feel like I'm figuring out the cash flow side of running a business.

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.

Processor claims Mastercard GRIP fine but won’t provide proof, anyone experienced this?

Our processor terminated our account after questioning multiple alias domains pointing to the same store, which we used because of social media ad restrictions. Two months later, they claimed a Mastercardfined us for GRIP assessment, not BRAM, took our reserves, and said the funds would never be released.

It’s been around 20 days with no assessment letter, explanation, or opportunity to appeal. We don’t sell peptides or unregulated products and Mastercard never question about our products. We also discovered our account had the wrong MCC, which the processor changed during Mastercard’s review. Mastercard told us we’re not on MATCH.

We hired an attorney and contacted the acquiring bank, but our attorney’s letters remain unanswered. We understand the agreement allows assessments to be passed through, but where’s the documentation?

Has anyone dealt with a GRIP assessment or successfully challenged one? I’ve found very little about this on Reddit.

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?

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!

From the last 2 years i am facing problem in my buisness my cash flow is disturbed i also don't have savings to reinvest in my buisness . I started to manage this buisness from 2017 tookover from another person during that time i didn't face many problem also in lockdown we did our best buisness everything was good since mid 2024 but since then things are totally different our stocks gets over and we feel shortage of money to restock ,competition also increased we get squeezed from both end as we deal with different varieties of products but we can't do anything from anywhere ,we also face labour problem which disturbs customers experience and also the people who has not done anything in there life or lesser than your standard gives you lectures . Due to this situation my credit score also got disturbed so i will not be able acess loan . Only good thing about us is that we charge very less than competition and due to it sometimes we get to see the flow of money but again it becomes like before everything stops . I need to get out of these as now i think of it everytime and gets panic attacks i don't get to sleep at night properly

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.

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

Hey all,

I started a drywall and painting company not too long ago and decided to focus on the hospitality / property management niche - doing drywall repairs and or installs for isolated areas like guest rooms, living rooms, elevator landings, etc - basically getting spaces ready for the next guest or tenant.

I am having trouble selling into this market currently and looking for ideas on how it could be done. I have tried cold emailing, cold calling; I have focused on realtor companies, hotel engineers for companies like IHG or Marriott’s in my area, however, I’m not making any ground.

If there is someone who has been in this position, operates a similar company, or knows general marketing strategies and tactics I could apply to better myself I would be most grateful!

My thought process was that this was specific enough to generate solid leads, not be over saturated competing with residential “handyman” work, and good business practices could lead to lasting relationships as these industries constantly need refreshing and install work done.

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?

Hello,

I wanted to make this post to see if I can get help from the community. I bought a cheap $2500 truck to start junk hauling as a side hustle. Now i'm looking at getting vehicle insurance and commercial auto is crazy expensive... like I cant justify paying ~$1,100/mo to insure a vehicle that is worth $2500 maybe. Any advice I am all ears! Thanks in advance

I’m finishing my physiotherapy degree in Sydney, and me and my mate are developing a home physio business. We’re looking at starting around Bankstown or St George by working with existing aged care providers.

We’re preparing to speak with local care managers but I still feel I’ve got a lot to learn about how a new business earns enough trust to be considered as a supplier.

For anyone who has sold a service into aged care, what helped you get the first proper conversation? Like what did the provider need to see before they would consider a small paid trial?

I’m interested in any practical things you found out along the way, especially anything you wish you’d understood before approaching people. I think any Australian experience would be particularly most helpful but Id love to hear from anyone. Thanks guys

How much the sales calls have increase for your since last 2 years, especially due to the automations. How do you deal with them ?

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.

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?

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.

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!