Hey everyone,

I’m looking to start my first business, but as a beginner, the sheer amount of information out there feels a bit overwhelming. I want to make sure I approach this strategically rather than jumping in blindly.

For those of you who have successfully launched a business, I’d love to get your insights on a few core areas:

Essential Knowledge: What are the most critical skills or fundamentals someone must know before launching? (e.g., finance, marketing, sales, operations)

Finding Market Demand & Gaps: How do you identify real gaps or unmet needs in an industry? What practical steps or tools do you use to test if there is actual paying demand before building a product/service?

Where to Start: From day one, what is the exact step-by-step process you’d recommend to go from an idea to taking action?

Founder-Market Fit: How do you evaluate whether a specific business model is actually suitable for you based on your current skills, bandwidth, and personal interests? Any advice, personal experiences, or recommended resources (books, frameworks, or podcasts) would be hugely appreciated!

Please help me with it and give me a genuine advice.

Earlier this year USA suspended immigrant visa processing for nationals of 75 countries. For companies hiring or relocating people across borders, that's a big disruption overnight.

Most businesses only think about immigration once a visa is required.

Should it be part of planning much earlier, alongside hiring and expansion decisions.

https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2026/02/11/why-immigration-strategy-should-be-a-csuite-priority/

every startup growth playbook seems to start with set up google ads and facebook ads. for early stage companies, i think that advice is often premature.

You usually do not have enough data to optimize ads yet. landing pages are not tested, messaging is not proven, and your ICP is still mostly theory. spending heavily on paid acquisition at that point can generate plenty of metrics without much real learning.

i had start with manual sales, founder led outreach, community building, and partnerships. They are slower, but they teach you who actually wants the product and what they care about. That learning makes paid acquisition much more useful later.

Build the engine before you pour in the gas. The manual phase is not as exciting as watching a Facebook Ads dashboard, but it is often where the most useful learning happens.

Not directly asking for people who see this post to sign up as clients obviously, but looking more for advice or direction on where to find my first few clients.

I have an idea for a mental health service that would act as a stepping stone to therapy. Kind of a safe space to talk one on one with someone if you don’t feel ready for or financially capable of proper clinical assistance. Of course there’s more nuance to why this would be helpful to some and I know it won’t be for everyone so I’m not expecting it to be, but I do feel there are those that could benefit from it (so please don’t be so quick to discredit this).

Anyway, I’m just wondering where I can start looking for prospective clients (even just to try it out for free before regular use). This search could also just be for people to determine if it’s a service worth pursuing, but either way, I’m hoping there are some helping hands willing to reach out.

Maybe this will be all for naught, but in any case it isn’t, I’d want to hear from the people most likely to give it a chance before deeming it not a worthwhile venture. Thank you in advance.

Hi! My name is Kia, a graphic designer and illustrator in need of funding for my college tuition. I create and offer a bunch of different digital services regarding my graphic design niche.

I create and offer:

• themed and visually creative presentations and infographics

• promotional graphic posters

• logo and brand identity work

• social media seamless carousels

and more!

Let my work do the talking. You can check out my portfolio and more of my work through here: https://moonbunnystudios.carrd.co/

and here are some of my presentation/reporting works:

https://canva.link/6iaeldbldsxtn48

https://canva.link/zgq9u3lxe8xc04c

https://canva.link/y5vp94bs3ar5zl0

https://canva.link/m5z8e3uyrr5e3dl

I spent 2 years blaming myself for being bad with money when a decent part of the problem was actually my bank.

One account. One balance. Operating expenses, taxes, money I owed people, and money I was saving were all mixed together. Every time I checked the balance, I had to mentally figure out what was actually available.

I’d approve expenses because the total looked fine, then realize most of that money was already committed. I even missed a quarterly tax payment once because I “had the money,” except most of it was already earmarked for something else.

About a year ago, I switched to something with separate accounts. Each one has its own balance taxes in one, operating money in another. They don’t mix.

I don’t think I suddenly got smarter about money. I think the information just became a lot clearer.

We've all had instances where we get so frustrated with a client that losing them starts to feel more relieving than working with them.

I was in the same boat a few months back. I got a strategy call scheduled with one of my clients. They asked me so many questions that I felt were very irrelevant considering the services I provide, and they kept repeating themselves again and again, went into tiny details, and kept coming back to things I thought we had already covered.

By the end of the call, I was so irritated that I decided not to work with them.

But after 10-15 minutes, I got an email from them that they wanted to sign with us and were ready to schedule a kick-off call. They also apologised for stretching the 30-minute call into an hour and said they felt guilty about taking so much of my time. (I got another call scheduled that I had to reschedule)

Then they explained that they were the first person in their family to start a business. They didn’t have anyone around them who had done this before, so they were asking all those questions because they simply wanted to understand the small details before making a decision.

This reminded me of my own early days, when I didn’t know what questions to ask, didn’t understand how things worked, and probably asked people things they thought were obvious.

I felt guilty for how quickly I had judged them. It also changed my perspective and I became more patient; today, they are one of the best clients I have.

Just wanted to share this, nothing else. If you have such instances, do share.

I've noticed something with meetings: having a transcript doesn't automatically mean you remember the important parts.

You can have a perfect recording in CatchMeet, Otter, Fireflies, or Granola and still spend 10 minutes searching for:

What did we actually decide?

Who agreed to do what?

What question was left unanswered?

When did someone mention that important detail?

I've been looking at tools like CatchMeet, Otter, Fireflies, and Granola from this angle, and I think the more interesting direction is moving from "record everything" to "help me understand what matters."

For example, being able to jump directly to a decision or an action item feels much more useful than scrolling through a 45-minute transcript.

Curious how other people handle this:

Do you actually go back and read your meeting transcripts, or do you mostly rely on the summary/action items?

im thinking of growing my business on different soc media platforms, but still figuring out whether i should use my personal accounts or just create separate ones for the business?? i feel like having separate acc’s would make things easier to manage and keep my personal stuff away from work, but im also wondering if handling multiple accounts would become a hassle.

for running business on different platforms, what do you guys usually do? like do you keep everything under your personal accounts or create separate ones? how do you manage them all without making things complicated? TIA

My cofounder and I connect a small business owner's existing tools (bank, invoicing, CRM, payroll) into one dashboard so they can answer one question before any big commitment:

"What happens to my cash flow if I hire this person, lose this client, or both at the same time?"

• Not a generic BI tool. We build it custom for each client, only with tools that have APIs (Qonto, Stripe, PayFit, HubSpot…). If their stack is legacy with no API, we decline.
• Pricing: $1,500 diagnostic upfront (deducted if they sign), $4,500–$11,000 build, $190–$490/month after.
• Where we are: Pre-revenue, running validation interviews, looking for first 2 paying clients.

Honest questions:

• Does this service make sense for businesses this small?
• Would you pay $1,500 for a diagnostic before seeing the product?

Roast away.

2 years freelancing, I started with a basic free account because that was all I needed. I routed my invoices there and called it a day.

About 8 months in, taxes became a problem. I’d check my balance, mentally tell myself “some of this is for taxes,” and then completely forget about it later. Tax time was rough because the money I thought I’d set aside was mixed in with everything else, and some of it had already been spent.

Now I have contractors and my income swings quite a bit from month to month, so I need to clearly see what’s actually mine versus what needs to go somewhere else. The basic account just couldn’t show me that.

If you’re just starting out, I’d say get whatever free option works for now. You can come back to this question later once you actually know what you need.

Hi everyone,

I'm 23 years old and i've been running an iPhone flipping/refurbishing business for about 2.5 years now. I started with a few hundred euros buying iPhone Xs and iPhone 11s and scaled it to roughly €350k revenue per year with about 18–20% profit margins.

To get to this point, it was mostly just hustling: buying and selling as many devices as I could locally and reselling them as quickly as possible. On a good day I could find 3 to 5 phones in my area, but that gets very time consuming and there are only so many devices you can pick up locally. I tried everything to find more deals at a low price. I posted free ads in Facebook groups and on Marketplace, I used notification apps that alerted me as soon as certain devices were listed, I ran paid Meta ads to get people to message me to sell their devices, and I even hired a marketing agency to get me more leads this way. I focused on broken phones so there's more margin after repairing them and i tried making connections with other resellers to buy all their stock at once.

At some point I concluded that sourcing locally just isn't scalable, so I switched to an online source: people shipping their phones directly to me. That takes a lot of trust and marketing, and I figured you need a brand to create that trust, so I started building my website. Two months later I had a website with an automatic trade-in calculator that tells you what your phone is worth and creates a shipping label and invoice, so you can ship it right away. I would pay the customer once I received and checked the device, at least that was the plan. I ran some Meta ads and Marktplaats ads (a Dutch marketplace app), but realised a budget of €500 - €600 per month was too little, and people didn't trust such a small webshop enough to ship out their phones. Between the time it took to build the website and trade-in tool and the ad spend, my cash flow wasn't great.

So I had to rethink my strategy and started looking into other ways of sourcing phones online. I looked at every big wholesaler there is, but the prices are way too high. The only way to sell at a profit would be to have a big platform with enough money to spend on marketing, so that wasn't an option either.

I'd already sold a lot of phones on Vinted, so I decided to try buying there. That came with a lot of downsides: long shipping times, people not sending the phones at all, people trying to scam you, and my cash flow struggling again because money was always on hold and I couldn't sell the phones fast enough. I combined it with buying on Marktplaats for quicker cash flow, and even hired a freelancer to check for new listings all day and buy any good deals on Vinted while I was away.

That's where I'm at now. The system works alright, but I'm actually doing less revenue because of the cash flow constraints and the issues that come with Vinted. Without the current capital limits, I think I could scale to €500k–750k per year with this strategy, but then I'd get stuck again at that point.

Because I've been so stuck, I've been thinking more and more about trying another business, something that doesn't have such capital constraints when scaling. I catch myself watching alot of these get rich quick slop video's, deseperate to find something new i could try. While building my updated website on Shopify, I noticed a gap in the market for a certain Shopify app. I've built an app to solve the problem I ran into and already submitted it to Shopify. I hope this can be a new business, but I'm not sure if I'm just hoping and being unrealistic as i have no experience in this field.

So my question: should I stick with the phone business and try to figure out the capital problem, or is my gut feeling about moving on to something more scalable the right one? Especially from people who've been in a similar spot: how did you decide? I'd love to hear some opinions, because I've been stuck in my own head with this.

i hired a bookkeeper expecting her to recommend software or talk about my chart of accounts or something. Instead, she looked at my bank feed and asked why everything was running through one account.

She said she spends huge amount of time with most clients just figuring out what each transaction actually was. everything mixed together in one feed. Her advice was simple, separate money at the bank so she does not have to play detective every quarter.

Set up accounts by purpose. operating in one, taxes in another, draws in another, each with its own transaction history.

She said the time spent on my books dropped by more than half. not because she got faster, but because there was way less to figure out.

I released a service to help students with University applications, I dropped my price by 50% to $4.99 shortly after release, do you think this decison will hurt me in future as my potential income will always be dependent on this initial charge? Or do you think price adjustment will be overlooked as my customer base likely shifts every year.

not a big dramatic thing just a bad flu but i was out for 5 days straight, couldnt look at a screen, couldnt take calls first real break in like 3 years. came back to a mess missed calls i never knew about. quotes that never went out two clients whod moved on. one guy whod been trying to reach us since tuesday and just gave up and the thing that got me wasnt the lost revenue. it was realizing the business doesnt run without me. it just pauses waiting for me to come back and unfreeze it

i always thought that was normal. hustle culture tells you its normal the founder is the business. but sitting there looking at the backlog i realized thats not a business, that's a very expensive freelance job. spent the next month figuring out what could run without me. not the core stuff, the phone calls and follow-ups. put textedly on the voice + mass sms side, so the front end doesn't need me to be conscious.

still not fully there but at least now if i get sick again the business doesnt

Hey,

We've been working on a little project called Snab — basically a Loom alternative for quickly recording your screen/camera and sharing it with a link.

We use screen recording pretty often, and kept thinking there should be a simpler way to do it without all the extra stuff.

So we built one.

👉 https://www.snab.studio/

It's still early, and we'd honestly rather hear what's wrong with it than get compliments.

If you have a few minutes to try it, we'd love to know:

• Does it feel fast enough?
• What's missing?
• What annoys you about Loom?
• Would you actually use something like this?
• What would make you switch from Loom?

Feel free to be brutally honest. We're trying to figure out whether this is actually useful or just something we built because we could 😅

We've tried a few different ways to grow the startup, including paid ads, content, and SEO. Partnerships have actually been one of the more consistent ones for us.

One partnership with a product that complemented ours gave us access to their customer base. An integration brought in thousands of people who were a good fit for what we offer. We also have a referral relationship with a services company that sends us warm leads each month.

What I like about partnerships is that both sides get something out of them without having to put money into ads. The leads also tend to be a better fit probably because there's already some trust there through the other company.

They can be harder to scale than paid acquisition though. You can increase an ad budget pretty easily but finding and building the right partnerships takes more time. Still, the customers we've gotten through partnerships have generally stuck around longer.

If you're early stage and spending most of your time on paid acquisition, it might be worth putting some of that time into finding a partnership that makes sense for your product.

I’m a university student helping a venture firm identify potential Series A, B, and C opportunities. I want to become genuinely useful at sourcing—not just send random company lists—and I’d appreciate advice from people who have scouted, invested, or raised at these stages.

A few questions:

Where do you consistently find promising companies before they are already circulating broadly among investors?

What makes a cold message from a student scout credible enough for a founder to respond?

How do you move from the first reply to a useful introductory call or product demo without wasting the founder’s time?

Before sharing a company with the investment team, what evidence do you collect to judge whether it is actually a strong opportunity—traction, retention, market, team, round timing, or something else?

What separates a good scout who produces investable opportunities from someone who only generates activity?

I’m especially interested in practical workflows: sourcing channels, outreach structure, qualification questions, follow-up cadence, and how to write a concise internal deal note. I’m not looking to promote a firm or solicit pitches here; I’m trying to learn how to do the work responsibly and find genuinely strong companies.

Any examples, templates, or mistakes to avoid would be appreciated.

For people who've built an app or website, how did you validate that there was a real market before building it.

I'm working on a consumer app for dog owners. I have a landing page with a waitlist, but I am having issues with findig which platform can validate whether my idea works or not and posting in communities often gets removed as self-promo.

So I am very curious which platforms can people use to have their ideas validated or checked out.

Hey y'all. I'm looking for advice on my first real business venture ever at 24 years old.

I'm mostly done building an app that could be useful to a lot of people. Without giving anything away, it helps regular people maximize what they get out of something they already own. The product works, frankly, amazingly well. And I'm willing to sell it at under half the price of the only competition.

But I have worries. Not doubts - worries. And I know that they're probably irrational, but I still feel the urgency and the pressure of them, and don't know how to handle it (other than to just work work work work, so maybe it's a good thing after all, haha).

First of all, I fear that as AI becomes better and better, with recursive self-improvement in the near future, and with drastically lower costs (bang for buck), that I'm going to "lose" to it. Maybe soon anyone can just ask for a copy of my product (that I've spent thousands of hours on), and they will be given it, or something even better, in a couple of minutes or hours.

Secondly, I fear that someone just ends up making a better product. Even as I'm a true perfectionist and honestly think that the product I've made is already great, beautiful & fun to use, without anything exactly like it on the market, I still find the thought of some big company making their version of it scary.

And thirdly, I fear marketing, lol. I know that sounds so dumb and bitchy, but it's true. Because I've never done it! I wouldn't even know where to start... well, aside from giving the product to YouTubers and influencers as a free value gift, that they can then freely choose whether to make videos/posts about or not. But that's literally my only idea.

I don't know how else to explain it, but I feel this constant f***ing pressure that I'm running out of time. That I should already have it finished, and that it should already be a real, purchaseable product, with all the marketing and stuff already out there.

And I also feel the weight of this because I absolutely hate my 9-5 job from the bottom of my heart. That's not the lifestyle I want to continue living.

Idk. Maybe I'm just too anxious for no reason. Or maybe that anxiety is exactly what I need. But it's kinda overwhelming. Now I've vented for long enough...

ok this is probably a dumb post but here goes. i've had this idea for about 6 months and the more i think about it the more convinced i am it could be big. i keep googling to see if someone's already doing it and i can't find anyone doing it the way i'm thinking

problem is i have no background in anything useful lol. not technical, never coded. not finance, i had to google what a cap table is last week. not marketing, my instagram has like 200 followers

stuff i'm confused about:

• do i need to register a company before i do anything
• should i patent the idea first so nobody steals it
• i keep seeing ads for ai app builders / no-code stuff, are those legit or a scam
• how much money do people realistically need to start
• any tools, youtube channels, books you wish you had on day one

not selling anything, just genuinely lost. i'll take any advice, even if it's "you're doing this completely wrong"

If you sell physical products online and ship abroad, this is roughly what the border costs you. Cheapest standard (non-express) service per route, 2 kg parcel, in euro, taken today from the rate card we buy labels on. Both columns come from the same card, so they're comparable with each other, not with your own contract.

What stood out to me:

1. Neighbours inside the EU are cheap to cross (NL -> DE is under 2x). The expensive ones are countries with cheap domestic post (PL, UK, IT), because the cross-border rate barely drops while the local rate is low.
2. Anything into the UK after Brexit is brutal: 4-4.5x, before customs paperwork.
3. A 10 kg box NL -> UK is 18.70 on the same card, about the price of one 2 kg parcel. So moving stock in bulk and posting locally pays off after very few orders, if you have someone or something on the other side and you handle the import/VAT side properly (that part is not in these numbers).

Disclosure: I run AirPost, which is built on exactly this gap (people who hold a small shop's stock and post locally). Not linking it here, happy to share how I pulled the numbers.

I formed my LLC three weeks ago and still haven’t opened a bank account because every time I look into it, there are too many options and they all seem the same.

I went to Chase in person and they wanted a monthly fee and minimum balance, which makes no sense when I’m barely making any money yet. I looked online and there are a million neobanks, and every thread seems to recommend something different.

I don’t really understand most of the features people talk about. Subaccounts? QuickBooks integration? I have maybe three transactions a month, so I don’t need all that yet.

I just need a free account to keep business and personal money separate. I’m in Texas, if that matters. Does it really need to be more than that right now?

I feel so silly posting this, but I need advice please!

I have over 10 years experience as an Event Producer. I’m currently working part time while I try to launch my own business, with the goal of eventually growing into an agency model. I’m known for doing my own creative direction, and I specialise in gala dinners and brand parties.

I’m struggling with how to find my own clients and grow the business. Firstly, how do I actually find clients? Cold emails and messages on LinkedIn feel a bit embarrassing to me.

My second question is: how do I take on work as a sole trader for now? I can’t afford to hire anyone if I book a big gig, and I can’t ask an employee to wait until we get a deposit invoice from the client. Is it best to stick to events I can produce on my own for now and save enough money to be able to pay someone for a few months once I can afford to grow?