Product Ideas (closed)
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📝 Post
so i started selling handmade candles last year. nothing fancy, just me and my cat in the garage pouring wax into jars i got from dollar tree. my labels were literally printed on my inkjet and taped on with scotch tape. then my sister (who’s annoyingly good at everything) saw my setup and said, "girl, you need a real logo." i laughed it off until i saw a competitor’s instagram. their stuff looked like it belonged in a boutique, not a garage. suddenly my scotch tape labels felt a little too "homemade." i don’t have a ton of cash to throw at this, but i also don’t want to look like i’m running my business out of a middle school craft fair. so what’s the move here? is hiring a designer worth it, or are there cheaper ways to not look like a total amateur?

🧩 Problem
Need for better branding to compete with competitors

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #service
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📝 Post
Hello! My fiancé and I recently opened/ started a small business within our home. I’m trying my best to support my fiancé and help the business really take off. I’ve posted some on social medias and whatnot, but I’m unsure if I’m doing it correctly or what I could to differently to be more successful. Does anyone have advice? Did you upload videos places? Join Facebook groups to share your business? We are located in the US for more context. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!

🧩 Problem
Unsure how to effectively promote a new small business.

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #training
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📝 Post
I’m working on a small project and recently noticed that the way early users interact with it isn’t exactly how I expected. It’s not a huge amount of users, but enough for me to see patterns. For those of you who’ve been through early product stages, how do you decide what to prioritize when you start getting this kind of feedback? Do you make changes right away based on small numbers, or wait until you have more data before adjusting anything? I’m trying to avoid overreacting, but I also don’t want to ignore useful signals. Curious how others approach this.

🧩 Problem
Uncertainty on how to prioritize feedback from early users.

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #consulting
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📝 Post
So i want to charge my clients using invoices, but i think thats taxed. i make roughly 12k per year so im not even sure if i qualify for taxation... im tired of collecting cash. is there another way to send invoices without haveing to pay taxes on them?

🧩 Problem
Confusion about invoicing and taxation for small business.

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #consulting
---
📝 Post
Hi everyone, I recently started a small business which is a boutique dog apparel & accessories brand (preppy / chic vibe). I’ve tested products in person and now want to move fully online using Shopify. I’m deciding between: • Dropshipping vs holding limited inventory • Best marketing channels for pet brands • How to stand out without racing to the bottom on price For those who’ve done ecommerce: What would you do differently if you were starting over? Appreciate any advice — thanks! 🐾

🧩 Problem
Deciding between dropshipping and holding inventory for ecommerce.

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #consulting
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📝 Post
Been up and running for about 1.5 years now. I’ve been thinking about redoing my website in which I did myself when I first got up and running. I’ve gotten feedback that my website looks good, functional and simple but I’d like more of a professional look instead of go daddy. So far it hasn’t stopped anything but it’s me ; wanting to be more presentable when someone first clicks on my site. https://centuryglazing.com/ Please give me your feedback. Thanks in advance

🧩 Problem
Desire to improve the professional appearance of a website.

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #service
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📝 Post
Beware or Boir.org website that looked almost exactly like boiefiling.fincen.gov when submitting your BOIR report. This site almost got me with their $349 fee even though its free on the actual government site. Be careful of sites out there that look like government sites and charge a high fee for filings you can do yourself for free directly

🧩 Problem
Beware of fraudulent websites charging for free filings.

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #content
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📝 Post
I've spent 20 years in brand strategy, design, and web development. A few years ago I started a small agency with retainer clients focused on bringing in new customers. The main way I bring in new clients is SEO and Google Ads. I'd like to add a teaching/consulting arm to what I do. People often pick my brain for free advice, and I actually enjoy helping them strategize DIY approaches. The problem? I'm not great at being front and center. I prefer working behind the scenes. Has anyone here added consulting to their business? I know I'm supposed to "establish myself as the expert" to make group sessions and one-on-one sessions appealing, but despite my experience, self-promotion isn't my strong suit. Any tips for starting small and scaling up? I'd love to help people feel less intimidated by brand, web, and marketing strategy without having to become a social media thought leader. How should I manage expectations and productize some of these services?

🧩 Problem
Struggling with self-promotion for consulting services.

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #consulting
---
📝 Post
I sell handmade leather goods, been in business 4 years now. Guy bought a wallet from me back in July. Full price, no complaints at purchase, left a nice review saying he loved it. Fast forward to yesterday. He emails me saying he wants a full refund because the wallet "didn't meet his expectations." I ask what's wrong with it. Is the stitching coming undone? Leather cracking? Hardware failing? Nope. He says he just "realized it's not really his style anymore" and thinks he should get his money back. I politely explained that my return policy is 30 days and that doesn't cover changing your mind half a year later after using the product daily. The wallet isn't defective. He just doesn't want it anymore. His response? "I'll be leaving a review reflecting my experience with your customer service." So now I'm sitting here trying to decide what to do. Part of me wants to just refund him to avoid the bad review. I'm a small operation and every review matters. But the other part of me knows that if I cave to this, I'm basically telling him and anyone else that they can use my products for free as long as they threaten me at the end. My policy is clearly stated on my website. The product isn't faulty. He used it for 6 months. But a 1 star review could genuinely hurt me. For those who've dealt with this kind of thing - do you stand firm and eat the bad review, or do you just pay the extortion fee to make it go away? I genuinely don't know what the right call is here anymore.

🧩 Problem
Dealing with a customer demanding a refund after 6 months.

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #service
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📝 Post
in my country only this model of payment(COD) works and I don’t want to not start the business (clothes online marketplace) because of COD

🧩 Problem
Only cash on delivery payment model available

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #service
---
📝 Post
We are doing a quarterly audit of our subscriptions and our time tracking bill is absurd. We are currently paying for a premium tier on a major platform that includes GPS tracking, fleet management, and payroll integrations we never use. We are a digital marketing firm so we just need simple proof of work. I am planning to migrate the team to something cheaper like Monitask or even the free version of Clockify if we can get away with it. My hesitation is the migration data. I need to know if it is possible to export our historical project data easily or if we are going to lose two years of records by downgrading to a simpler tool.

🧩 Problem
High costs for unnecessary features in time tracking software

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #product
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📝 Post
Alright so here's the deal, I've been thinking about updating my business cards because my old ones are super outdated and honestly kinda embarrassing to hand out. But then it hit me, do people even care about paper cards anymore? Like every time I get one, it either ends up in the bottom of my bag or I forget about it completely. It feels like such a waste. Is it better to switch to something digital at this point? Anyone tried those QR code or NFC things for sharing info? Just wondering if it's worth it or if I'm overthinking this.

🧩 Problem
Uncertainty about the relevance of paper business cards

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #content
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📝 Post
Hi as I am planning a wedding myself, I’m considering starting a silk wedding florals business. Ngl I used to hate silk flowers because they often looked obviously fake. But lately I’ve been deep diving and found some silk florals that are genuinely stunning. Now I’m wondering if there’s a real gap in the market for high quality silk florals that don’t read “fake” in the photos. So I’d love some honest opinion on Silk flowers. What do people think about silk flowers. Is silk flower option just a budget option a customer have to choose due to money kind of option? If it was as good as real, would customers change their mind and choose silk flower? There are already some vendors in our area that do these set ups for couples of thousands. But I know for a fact those are pre made from factory kind of setting that I can find online for like 200. Mine will definitely be higher price but better quality but if you were the one who is planning wedding, would you still choose high quality silk flower when it is slightly cheaper than actual flower?

🧩 Problem
Market gap for high-quality silk wedding florals

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #product
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📝 Post
So i've been thinking about selling handbinded notebooks. Everything is made from scratch. Sewing the pages, embroidery that i sometimes do, leather as a cover and all this stuff, im not going to get deep into this here. The leather itself is rather pricy in my country, not to mention the time It Takes to make those. I live in Poland, and the currency is different than for example € or $ so i dont really know how to price the notebooks. One € is 4,22 PLN. I also dont want to make them too expensive, beacuse its still just a hobby and im in School so It wouldnt be a full-time job. I just want money for the next projects which may be bit expensive, and maybe some extra cash. I dont really know where to sell these notebooks or how to handle shipping outside of my country. Im Poland Its pretty easy, since we have something called "InPost" everywhere and i Heard its in most European countries aswell, but i dont know how expensive this is and how should i charge people for shipping. Should i include It in the price or do It differently? I also dont really know where to sell them. I was thinking about Vinted or Etsy but honestly im not too sure how to do marketing for the notebooks Im sorry if what i wrote is bit weird or repetetive, im still not fully fluent in english, but i Hope you understood what i ment

🧩 Problem
Uncertainty in pricing and selling handmade notebooks.

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #playbook
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📝 Post
Finding Accountant that could talk to only for an hour about employees tax especially the funds that I paid for them. Please recommend also how much the hourly rate? Finding a not expensive one. I have LLC business btw.

🧩 Problem
Difficulty finding affordable accounting advice for employee taxes.

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #consulting
---
📝 Post
What types of automation do small businesses really need? I'm trying to offer my skills to small businesses, but I understand that they don't care about my technical skills - they care about results. They need specific offers that solve their problems. Right now, I can build Telegram, Slack, WhatsApp, and Messenger bots. But I need more ideas to make my offer stronger. Do you have any examples of automations you've seen or used? If so, can you explain what they are and why they're useful?

🧩 Problem
Need for effective automation solutions for small businesses.

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #service
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📝 Post
Hey everyone, Ive been freelancing for a few years now and always defaulted to using whatever was free (mostly Wave or manually in Word/Stripe). Recently, I noticed I was losing a decent chunk of money to “payment processing fees” on some of the free platforms, or wasting hours manually chasing late payments because I was too cheap to pay for automation. So, I spent last weekend doing a deep dive into the top AI invoicing tools for 2026 to see if the paid ones (like FreshBooks/Bonsai) are actually worth it, or if they are just marketing hype. Here is the breakdown of what I found: 1. The “Free Forever” Trap: Tools like Wave are awesome (and truly free), but watch out for the transaction fees if you use their payment gateway. If you bill >$5k/month, the fees might actually cost you more than a monthly subscription elsewhere. 2. Automation ROI: If you spend more than 2 hours a month chasing clients for money, paying \~$15/mo for a tool that auto-chases (like FreshBooks) pays for itself immediately. 3. Mobile First: Most legacy tools (looking at you, QuickBooks) are terrible on mobile. If you invoice on the go, look at the newer AI wrappers (Invoyce, etc.). The Calculator: Since the math gets annoying (Fees vs Monthly Sub vs Time Saved), I built a simple web calculator where you can plug in how many invoices you send, and it tells you how much time/money you’d save with AI automation. It’s free to use, no email required to see the results. Just a fun weekend project. You can check the comparison/calculator here: https://billr-ai.github.io/Ki-Tools-Freelancer/ Hopefully, this saves someone else from the “spreadsheet hell” I was in last year. Let me know if I missed any other good tools!

🧩 Problem
Losses due to payment processing fees and manual invoicing.

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #product
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📝 Post
Okay, so im 16f and in a crazy difficult situation. To put it simply, my parents pulled me from school when i was really young, they've isolated me, and won't let me get a job. I've been secretly applying to places, but it hasn't been going well. I do digital art, and really enjoy it! I do drawings of singers, movies, shows, games etc. And i like to draw tattoo designs. I would really like to sell them as digital pieces and do commissions, but I genuinly have no idea how lol. I would appreciate any and all tips on how to get started, how to do it, how to set stuff up, how it works, and if there's some way to keep it from my parents lol. Thank you in advance! *edit: the reason why i need to keep it from my parents is becuase they're super controlling and don't want me to have any independence. I have a bank account, and just signed it under my own name, but im 99% sure they were taking the little money I did have in it, so that's another reason they can't know about it

🧩 Problem
Struggling to sell digital art due to parental control

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #training
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📝 Post
I’ve been using ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to build longer documents and reports, and I keep running into the same issue. It’ll generate a solid first draft. Then I ask it to add more sections or expand it, and the next version starts leaving out parts of the previous document. The longer it gets, the more information it drops or rewrites. Eventually I end up with multiple versions that each have missing pieces, and it’s frustrating because I just want everything compiled into ONE document. Example: I’m building a marketing report for industries in my area that could use my services, and I want it to keep stacking and improving without losing earlier sections. Is this normal behavior with these tools? What platform or workflow are y’all using to build long, accurate documents without the AI “forgetting” earlier content? Are people using outlines, locked sections, Notion/Google Docs, or a different AI entirely? I’m not trying to get creative output. I just want something reliable for compiling and expanding a single master document.

🧩 Problem
AI tools losing information when expanding documents

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #workflow_automation
---
📝 Post
Hi there, I’m assisting a small business in managing their inventory and supporting them in developing a system to easily handle their daily operations, including inventory management, expenses, and payment receipts. Currently, they operate using an outdated register and rely on the owners’ manual, along with handwritten logs and receipts, for all transactions. This system is quite simple and basic. They only accept cash and checks because they don’t want to incur the fees associated with point-of-sale systems. This makes sense, considering that their daily transaction volume is relatively low, ranging from 10 to 20 transactions, sometimes even fewer per day but because of limited overheads and limited stock their turnover is great and customers are very happy. Given these circumstances, I was wondering about using Clover or perhaps building my own system. I could purchase a card reader and simply pay the processing fee to the processor instead of a monthly fee to keep costs low. Alternatively, I could consider systems like Helcim, which may offer similar options and charge it foward to the customer. I’m seeking suggestions and opinions to help them automate their processes for the long term without incurring excessive costs for the bank. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your assistance.

🧩 Problem
Outdated inventory management system causing inefficiencies

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #workflow_automation
---
📝 Post
I own a dance studio, so running local Facebook ads is pretty simple for me. My challenge is that creating new graphics and ad copy takes a lot of time because I have to keep everything fresh in our area and keep our CPL low. Is there an AI tool that can help automate some of this? Or would it make sense to hire a VA from the Philippines to track results and optimize the ads for me?

🧩 Problem
Time-consuming graphic and ad copy creation for Facebook ads

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #workflow_automation
---
📝 Post
I run a small cake decorating business making custom cakes and cookies. I’ve been in business about 8 yrs now and have never come across a problem like this. I have an old time client “Jess” who’s been ordering from me from the beginning. Communication used to be directly to her. The last 3 orders from her have been through her party planner “Alice” (also long time friend of hers) and she is so difficult to work with especially when it comes time to pay. This last party Jess had, Alice paid the deposit and the balance is due a day before I deliver. The day before Alice said she couldn’t get to me to pay the balance because she’s running around and she had final payment in cash but couldn’t get to a bank to make the deposit to send to me and also couldn’t meet with me cause she was nowhere near me. I took into consideration Jess has always paid on time and thought this one time I can accept payment when I deliver which is what I told Alice. Day of delivery Alice isn’t at the venue, and did not leave payment with anyone else. With nothing left to do because I had another delivery to do I left and texted Alice reminding her of the balance due. She responds fairly quickly saying to expect payment that night. No payment is made. I call her the next day and she says her bank is holding the cash and have to verify before releasing funds. I told her I will accept cash payment in person which is what she told me she had just 2 days before. No answer. Now it’s been a week of back and forth trying to get finally payment from her. I’m honestly stuck on what to do. Should I let Jess know what’s going on? And I don’t want to go through this again but I don’t want to lose Jess as a client. Any any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading this far!

🧩 Problem
Difficulty in receiving payment from a party planner

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #consulting
---
📝 Post
Posting this again, last attempt some how copy pasted some weird code/text hybrid that I have no idea what it was (Read this like Adam Sandler is Narrating) My client is happy. Like… "actually" happy. He approved the final design two days ago after 22 days of revisions on his coffee shop’s logo. Twenty-two. Days. I’ve had shorter relationships. I’m a logo designer, and this project completely drained me. But I love my work. I really do. I work way harder than most people think, so I went above and beyond the contract. Instead of the originally agreed 4 to 6 revisions, I did 10. Ten. Because I’m emotionally weak and creatively optimistic. I know, I know , you can call me out. I just really loved the project and wanted to finish it right. So anyway… I’m sitting there, feeling proud, feeling done, feeling like a responsible adult. And then, boom. My client’s girlfriend shows up, bulldozes everything we’ve done for the last 22 days, hands me a hand-drawn doodle, and says she wants "that" as the logo instead. A doodle. The client just stood there. Not confused. Not surprised. Just… accepting his fate. Like a man who knows this meeting is no longer his meeting. I’ve already received 60% of the payment, even though 100% of the work is done, and honestly, I think I’m done too. Professionally. Emotionally. Spiritually. So what’s the best way to politely refuse and terminate this contract… without you know, hurting their feelings. throw me your best text message grade refusals.

🧩 Problem
Client's girlfriend overrides logo design after extensive revisions

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #consulting
---
📝 Post
Hey Everyone, I'm running a small phone case brand and I've been trying to understand what really pushes someone to buy one case over another when there are endless options. From what I can glean, people seem to want protection, but in reality it feels to me like design, how it looks on the phone, and overall vibe matter just as much -- if not more. I've been experimenting with with cleaner, more minimal styles, but its hard to tell what truly makes something feel "worth the price" from a buyer's perspective. I don't what to build something nobody actually wants, so I'm curios: when you bought your last phone case, what was the deciding factor?

🧩 Problem
Understanding buyer preferences for phone cases

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #content
---
📝 Post
My first viral sale as a school supplies distributor started with a pencil pouch. I bought a few cute Korean pencil pouches for my daughters; small, dainty, and perfect for pencils and little stationery bits. They came back from school raving and asked if they could help sell them to classmates. I casually gave them three to test. They sold out and came back asking for more and it was surprising. I didn’t want them to struggle with orders, so I approached the school authority and offered a bulk supply. By the end of the week I was called in to supply other classes. The aesthetic alone did the heavy lifting: bright designs, soft material, characters kids loved. I even did custom prints with school logos and motivational quotes. One weekend exhibition changed everything: I sold out in under two hours, and three nearby schools asked to partner for term supplies. From there, things slowly got bigger than I expected matching lunch bags, water bottles, even custom stationery sets. I spent a lot of time figuring things out as I went, including how to work with suppliers on Alibaba without losing consistency. What started as a small favor for my daughters quietly turned into something I was spending most of my time on. Does anyone else have a product that unexpectedly sparked a business?"

🧩 Problem
Unexpected growth from a small product idea

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #playbook
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📝 Post
I have a party rental business and I'm looking to get some sort of automated/self booking integration into the website and I came across inflatable office. Have any of you used them? Are they any good? If not, what are good options?

🧩 Problem
Need for automated booking integration for rentals

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #product
---
📝 Post
I just "opened" this month selling decorative firearm rail covers on [lokpins.com](http://lokpins.com) I tried selling on Etsy but was immediately shot down. Trying to find other ways to advertise these without being removed or spending a ton of money while I get started. Any ideas or advice? Thanks!!

🧩 Problem
Finding advertising methods for a new product

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #content
---
📝 Post
How do y'all balance spending all your time making your products but then find the time and creativity to do your own marketing, promotion, etc? I can't afford to hire anyone right now but I feel like my greatest weakness is promoting myself

🧩 Problem
Balancing product creation with marketing and promotion

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #playbook
---
📝 Post
Hi everyone, My dad runs a small mini-market in Los Angeles CA and I’m trying to be more responsible about what we do with products that pass their best-by / best-used-by dates. For context, we are new here and not familiar with all the rules and regulations. I’d love to hear how other small business owners handle this: • Do you donate items that are just past the best-by date? Or should we trash them? • Is there a general guideline you follow (e.g., donate 1 month past date vs. trash several months past)? • Are there organizations or food banks that actually accept items past best-by (especially shelf-stable items like drinks, snacks, packaged foods)? I’m also curious about: • Liability concerns (do you require a waiver or only donate to certain orgs?) • Tax implications — can donated inventory be written off, and is there anything specific I should watch out for as a small business? Our business is very small, so we are not talking about thousands $$$. Any tips, experiences, or resources would be hugely appreciated. Trying to reduce waste while staying compliant and responsible. Thanks in advance!

🧩 Problem
Uncertainty about handling products past best-by dates

⚙️ Complexity: medium
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #content
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📝 Post
Pretty tired of having to check after everyone we work with: marketing or accountant. For clarity this accountant has shit the bed so bad that we’re facing major fines for oversights and they’re still resolving it. Is this a normal cost for prepping 6x 1099 by our accountant. They are also our book keeper. 6 billable hours/ $650

🧩 Problem
Facing major fines due to accountant's oversights.

⚙️ Complexity: high
📣 Popularity: high
🧭 Solution Type: #service
---
📝 Post
Running a small business with a tight budget means you gotta make sure each part is spent wisely. Paid ads are expensive, especially across borders, a lot of small shop owners I talk to are seeing diminishing returns in Tiktok with the increasing geo restriction updates. So we just flipped it and start doing more organic than paid The main attraction was lower costs but eventually we realized mixing paid and organic was better. Paid TikTok costs about $0.018 to $0.021 per view depending on where you're targeting. Organic? Once the content's live, additional views are basically free. It just sucks that Tiktok algorithm is geofenced. Post from the UK and your content rarely hits US audiences, no matter how good it is and situation repeats from anywhere. Lots of us get stuck there, they either accept limited reach or resort to VPNs or alternatives, which works backwards because Tiktok eventually detects the location mismatch and throttles you. So I switched the setup by hiring locals through a service that creates accounts and posts for me in the countries I need. That allowed me to post natively from day one, which saved me the headache of setting up the whole infrastructure for several accounts and just focused on content. Also one account isn't enough, for normal entrepreneurs you would like to have several accounts spread across countries and if you're a dropshipper testing products with multiple niches, its better to run 3 or 5 separate profiles. Each one targets a different angle or audience segment or country. You batch the content once, post it to all five accounts, and watch which one gets higher metrics. the better one, you double down. When one fails, pause it or keep trying depending your budget. It's essentially A/B testing at scale, and it saves my wallet. For example, a fitness ecommerce brand spent $5,400 on French TikTok ads in Q4 2024 and got 257K views. That's $0.021 per view. When they switched to a real French account and after failing 5 accounts t…

🧩 Problem
Challenges with paid advertising effectiveness on TikTok.

⚙️ Complexity: high
📣 Popularity: high
🧭 Solution Type: #workflow_automation
---
📝 Post
Hi everyone, I’ve been working with clients for a while now as a marketing agency owner. Our job was simple: bring leads to our clients. But we noticed a frustrating pattern. We would send the same volume of high-quality leads to two different coaches: * **Client A** would close 20% of them. * **Client B** would close 5% (and complain the leads were bad). I dug into "Coach B’s" process and realized it wasn't a sales problem. It was an **Operations problem**. They were managing clients on messy Excel sheets, forgetting follow-ups, sending invoices via text message, and keeping session notes in random notebooks. They were spending \~15 hours a week on "admin panic" instead of coaching. I realized I couldn't help them scale if their "bucket" was full of holes. So, instead of just running ads, we decided to build a dedicated platform called **Align** to fix the operational side. We just launched the MVP and I’d love to get this community’s take on our "Operations First" philosophy. **The core features we focused on (keeping it simple):** 1. **The "10-Second Rule" (Client Management):** We built a simple dashboard where you can pull up a client's entire history, notes, and stats in under 10 seconds. No more "what did we talk about last week?" panic. 2. **Professional Invoicing:** We noticed clients pay faster when they get a clean PDF invoice rather than a WhatsApp text. So we built a 3-click generator for that. 3. **The "No-Show" Killer:** Automated email reminders sent 24h before sessions. Simple, but it drastically reduced missed appointments for our test users. **The Ask:** We are trying to keep this tool distinct from complex CRMs like HubSpot or Salesforce that are overkill for solo coaches. For those of you running your own practice: **Is "Admin Drag" a major pain point for you?** And if you were to test a new tool, what is the *one* feature that would make you switch from your current setup? Thanks for letting me share—would really appreciate any ruthless feedbac…

🧩 Problem
Clients struggling with operational inefficiencies

⚙️ Complexity: high
📣 Popularity: high
🧭 Solution Type: #product
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📝 Post
I’ve been building WP sites as my side business for years. The progress in AI is insane. Tools like Gemini or Lovable can now generate incredibly high-end pages with sleek animations. Here’s my frustration: I can get the AI generated frontend code, but the moment I try to bring that into my existing WordPress websites, it becomes a mess. I either have to manually reconstruct it in a Page Builder (which loses half the polish) or struggle with custom PHP/Tailwind that's hard to manage later. I feel like there's a huge wall between "Beautiful AI Design" and "Functional WP Site." I’m curious how you all handle this: \- If you’re an Agency: Are you finding ways to use these AI tools to speed up custom theme WP dev? Is the "WP conversion" part still the biggest bottleneck in your workflow? \- If you’re a Site Owner: Do you even care about these AI-generated designs if they aren't easy to manage in the WP dashboard? Would you trade your current Page Builder for a "Locked but Beautiful" AI-generated theme? Am I the only one feeling this gap? How are you guys actually getting AI designs into WP without losing your mind?

🧩 Problem
Difficulty integrating AI-generated designs into WordPress

⚙️ Complexity: high
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #workflow_automation
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📝 Post
I’m looking for honest, practical feedback because I feel stuck and possibly too emotionally attached to this idea. I started making reusable flower-carrying bags after multiple people told me the concept was genuinely good. Based on that feedback, I began producing them more seriously. What I’ve done so far \- ordered 25 factory made bags \- started an Instagram in October. Posting at least three times a month which is horrible I know. \- I’ve sold it total of five bags ( cheaper than I wanted) \- Currently have 70 Instagram followers \- accidentally developed two lines handmade and now factory made. \- Price, this has been a nightmare for me. I realise that the bag cost about £22 to make if I made them myself. Plus the time that I used to make them a total of £41 per bag. Meaning that if I sold it for any less than 50 I would be kidding myself. Products details : \-Multiple carry modes (handheld, shoulder, sling, horizontal/vertical) \- Waterproof base (can hold wrapped flowers with water) \-Foldable into a pot-style storage shape My dilemma: \-People keep telling me to “just open an Etsy shop,” but that feels like extra admin for unclear payoff \- I’ve been advised instead to sell directly and reach out to florists. \- Price of the handmade version makes it impossible to actually wholesale. Especially without proof of concept. \- I’m targeting florists specifically because they actually need this product, but I feel like I’m spamming peoples DMS \- Planning a car boot sale in late Feb / March (spring feels logical) don’t know if that would be appropriate for a brand. I’m trying to trying to start. But it’s the only way I feel like I can get close with actual people and Proper craft markets won’t take me yet because I don’t have traction or a defined retail presence Like I feel like an idiot because I actually don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I’m thinking that this is a good idea but again a part of me is like am I being an emotional about this?

🧩 Problem
Struggling with pricing and marketing for a new product.

⚙️ Complexity: high
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #consulting
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📝 Post
I run a small but fast growing online coffee roasting & subscription business in Tanzania. I sell roasted beans (ground & whole) with weekly/monthly deliveries. Customers reorder, demand is growing and I targeted small office and coffee maker machine owners I roast my coffee and pack at home but To scale I need a physical address / small office. In my country that’s a big credibility. Problem traditional business loans here are almost impossible without assets or connections. Someone who likes my business offered about $4,000 (\~10M TSh). Sounds great… except: It’s framed as a loan and he wants significant control over the business mainly tied to the physical space, I’m conflicted the money would speed things up a lot. But I’m worried about Giving up control too early Or refusing and watching him copy the model and outcompete me with more capital....It feels like that moment when your business starts to look attractive… and powerful people show up. So, founders:Is this a classic red flag?Would you take the money to grow faster? Or protect control and grow slower even if it risks being overtaken?

🧩 Problem
Conflicted about accepting a loan that requires giving up control.

⚙️ Complexity: high
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #consulting
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📝 Post
Wow. Didn't think this would happen so fast. We had a (former) employee record conversations without anyone's knowledge or approval and plug them all into an LLM. It started at "organizing my thoughts" and ended with "listen to this conversation and tell me how to manipulate my coworkers". To top it off we are in the defense space and this person occasionally handled CUI/EAR information. Luckily no evidence they ever input that information into ChatGPT. It was all sorts of conversations, normal business meetings, customer conversations, HR meetings. Sensitive topics. We're in a 2 party consent state for recordings this has been a huge and expensive nightmare. Civil, Criminal and ITAR lawyers had to weigh in. I've never seen this in my career. If you don't have an AI policy in your handbook add one now! ChatGPT logs aren't confidential. Don't wait until someone thought they were doing you a favor by uploading all your IP to a 3rd party on a personal account.

🧩 Problem
Employee misconduct leading to legal and operational issues

⚙️ Complexity: high
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #consulting
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📝 Post
I’m looking for some perspective from business owners who ignored the standard advice of "don’t hire your spouse" and ended up in a bad spot because of it. When I started my tree service business, I had mentors tell me to keep family out of the books. I chose to trust my wife with the accounting instead, thinking our shared goals would keep us on the same page. Unfortunately, the reality hasn't matched the expectation. Over the last three years, things have unraveled: Payroll often became a last-minute scramble, occasionally leaving my crew without checks for days. Financial Boundaries: Personal expenses started creeping into business accounts despite us both taking set salaries. I recently discovered that 2023, 2024, and 2025 taxes were never filed. I’m now facing property liens for unpaid payroll taxes and unemployment. I realize now that my "blind trust" was a major management failure on my part, but I’m trying to figure out the path forward from here. For those who have been through this specific type of "business vs. marriage" disaster: Firstly how did you stop the bleeding? Did you hire a forensic accountant or a tax attorney first? How did you prioritize which "fire" to put out first (IRS, state liens, or bank accounts)? How did you transition the business away from your spouse without completely blowing up the marriage? Is it possible to go back to "just being partners" after a breach of trust this size? If you managed to save the business, what were the "non-negotiable" systems you put in place to ensure you never lost sight of the financials again? I’d appreciate hearing from anyone who has navigated the mess of combining marriage and a business, because it absolutely has been the most heartbreaking, trust shattering, soul crushing experience of my life, and I've never felt like a bigger failure.

🧩 Problem
Financial mismanagement due to hiring a spouse

⚙️ Complexity: high
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #consulting
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📝 Post
I wanted to share a major financial blind spot I've been researching that most small business owners aren't aware of until it's too late. ​Most of us trust QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho to catch duplicate invoices. But here’s the scary part: they only catch exact matches. ​If a vendor sends an invoice as "INV-5521" and it gets entered again later as "5521-OPS" (maybe by a different department or an intern), the system usually won't flag it. In a mid-sized company, these "fuzzy" duplicates can represent 5–15% of your total vendor spend. ​I recently analyzed a case where an accounting intern paid the same invoice 7 times because the software didn't detect the slightly altered numbers. ​A few tips to protect your cash flow: ​Don't rely on bank reconciliation alone: It only shows the problem after the money is gone. ​Check for "Semantic" duplicates: Look for identical amounts paid to similar vendor names (e.g., "Stripe" vs "Stripe Inc.") within the same 30-day window. ​Three-way matching: Always verify the PO, the Invoice, and the Payment manually if you don't have a simple automated way to do it. ​Has anyone else caught a duplicate payment that their software missed? Curious to hear how you're handling the reconciliation "chaos" as you scale.

🧩 Problem
Duplicate invoices not caught by accounting software.

⚙️ Complexity: high
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #workflow_automation
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📝 Post
I do construction and restoration services such as water fire mold. I am the manager where I am and I work hourly. I do get bonuses based on the job. But lately, i've been having some issues with my boss and him being cheap and just not paying me bonuses and just saying that we didn't make profit which makes no sense to me when i feel like we are on a tight ship here.Even with the limited supplies Anyways my most recent tax return was almost 100k with 22% of that being overtime On certain jobs that are just too big for us. I send over to another company and he really likes our work. He loves it every time we send him a job. Because we do such great work eventually, we became friends and now he wants me to open the emergency service department. At his construction company And I felt like he's just overselling the situation.. He mentioned since I will be part owner. I will have clear access to all of our financial records. But I would get a 10% bonus and then I would get paid 6k as cash" he also mentioned that I wouldn't have to do taxes because my wage would be included in the business taxes. Honestly, I don't really know how to move forward with this. But if anybody has any questions, I should send this guy just to get confirmations as well as any, like clarifying situations of my financial guarantee

🧩 Problem
Issues with boss regarding bonus payments and financial transparency

⚙️ Complexity: high
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #consulting
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📝 Post
Running a business feels a lot more multi-dimensional than people usually describe. At different stages, completely different skills seem to matter. Early on (0 → 1), you mostly lean on what you already know. Speed, intuition, and brute force go a long way. Decision-making is centralized and messy, but it works because you *are* the system. As things move from 1 → 10, you start picking up new skills out of necessity. You learn enough finance to not blow yourself up, enough ops to keep things moving, enough hiring to delegate. That stretch can last a while, and it often feels like “if I just learn a bit more, I’ll be fine.” But at some point (10 → 100-ish), that model starts to break. Not because of effort or motivation, but because your personal skill ceiling becomes the bottleneck. There are limits to how much judgment, context, and specialized thinking one person can scale. That’s usually where hiring genuinely skilled or smarter-than-you people comes into the picture. Fractional CFOs, senior operators, advisors — roles where you’re not really paying for time, but for judgment and leverage. And this is the part I find tricky. The decision to hire isn’t the hard part. The hard part is figuring out how to compensate intelligence in a way that actually makes sense. Fixed monthly retainers feel safe and predictable, but sometimes they feel disconnected from real outcomes, especially in uneven months. Value-aligned compensation sounds better in theory, but it’s hard to define and even harder to measure cleanly when the impact is indirect or long-term. You also don’t always know upfront how much you’ll “use” someone yet underpaying for leverage feels just as risky as overpaying for availability. So I’m trying to learn from how this plays out in practice, not theory. For people who’ve hired skilled or intellectual help before: * What actually worked? * What didn’t, even though it sounded good on paper? * Fixed fee vs value-aligned, where did things break? For people who …

🧩 Problem
Challenges in scaling business skills and hiring

⚙️ Complexity: high
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #consulting
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📝 Post
Edit: located in a smaller (50k people)Canadian city. We sell custom sports jerseys and team apparel. And are moving from a home office to a commercial space with a small showroom, office, and warehouse. I am trying to figure out the pickup situation. When we worked from home, customers could just swing by whenever, and pickup packages from our front porch. Now that we're in a commercial space, I don't think the same thing can happen, and having people work late every day seems like it might be costly, and people what to come on weekends which doesn't make sense to have staffed. But we still have local customers who prefer pickup over shipping. Current idea: a large metal lockbox with a combo lock mounted outside our front door. We would share the combo with customers, but the box has just one compartment and if opened they would see all the boxes, which I am not to worried about as we seek custom jerseys, who would wear someone else's name on their shirt. I am more worried about someone taking the whole box, or something. I've seen those smart parcel lockers with keypads and individual compartments, which would be perfect, but I've only ever seen them indoors. Our pickup would need to be outside or in an unheated vestibule. What do other small businesses do for local pickup? Especially curious about: \- Anyone using smart lockers outdoors? \- Creative low-tech solutions that look more professional? \- How you handle the "we close at 5 but customers want to pick up at 6" problem? Appreciate any ideas.

🧩 Problem
Managing customer pickups in a new commercial space

⚙️ Complexity: high
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #workflow_automation
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📝 Post
Hi all, I’m a minority member of a family-owned LLC in NH that was originally founded and operated by a parent who has since passed away. The business itself continued operating, but I’ve been trying to better understand how other small business owners handle governance, records, and continuity when a founder dies. In particular, I’m curious about best practices around: • How ownership and member interests are typically documented or updated after a death • What business records (banking, operating agreements, capital accounts, etc.) owners usually rely on to understand the real financial picture during that transition • How much transparency is normal or expected among members in a closely-held LLC during periods like this • Whether owners typically bring in outside professionals (CPA, attorney, mediator) early on, or wait until questions arise • Any lessons learned from people who’ve gone through a similar transition - things you wish you’d done sooner or differently I’m not looking to stir up conflict - I’m trying to understand what good governance looks like in these situations so I can approach things thoughtfully and realistically. Would really appreciate hearing from other owners who’ve navigated founder transitions, inherited businesses, or family-run LLCs. Thank you in advance!

🧩 Problem
Need for guidance on governance after a founder's death.

⚙️ Complexity: high
📣 Popularity: low
🧭 Solution Type: #consulting
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Этот проект я создал для личных нужд, но контента становится слишком много и навигация Telegram уже стала узким горлышком.
В месяц публикуется 3к+ бизнес болей. С таким объемом нужно работать уже по другому.

Буду делать базу данных бизнес болей с удобным UI
– Фильтрацией по типу решения, сложности решения, популярности проблемы
– Временные тренды
– Навигацию по узким нишам

Ждите новостей 😁
Product Ideas (closed) pinned «Этот проект я создал для личных нужд, но контента становится слишком много и навигация Telegram уже стала узким горлышком. В месяц публикуется 3к+ бизнес болей. С таким объемом нужно работать уже по другому. Буду делать базу данных бизнес болей с удобным…»
📝 Post
I’m looking at opening a blacklight indoor mini golf course. I would like to start out with a modular course to test the waters rather than committing to a full custom build right out of the gate. Does anyone have any suggestions on places to buy a modular course?

🧩 Problem
Looking for modular course options for mini golf business.

⚙️ Complexity: low
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #matching
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📝 Post
I want to use instagram with my Shopify store but I don’t want to ping people I follow with my personal account when I post from the business page. When I created a test post it notified my personal followers. How do I set it up so this doesn’t happen?

🧩 Problem
Concerned about personal account notifications when posting from business page.

⚙️ Complexity: low
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #product
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📝 Post
I just recently got my LLC for my small bracelet making business. I was initially going to selling at my local farmer's market, but I saw the application asked for state business info (which I didn't have at the time). My question is, do you think getting a LLC and a possible ein was even necessary? Especially when I'm not sure if I will make a profit.

🧩 Problem
Uncertainty about necessity of LLC and EIN for small business

⚙️ Complexity: low
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #consulting
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📝 Post
I’ve got 2 small side hustles, one that has a resell license and one that does not. Is there a good accounting/expense tracking app that can keep copies of receipts as well; that also would allow for 2 separate business? I’d prefer a free app at the moment until one or both start scaling up but if there’s a better one for somewhat cheap I may be willing to pay for the better one.

🧩 Problem
Looking for accounting app for multiple small businesses.

⚙️ Complexity: low
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #product
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📝 Post
New business owner here. So I’m debating whether or not to break down my hourly rate on my invoices, or just give a whole price and write (labor included). Is there a down side to putting your labor rate out there?

🧩 Problem
Deciding how to present hourly rates on invoices

⚙️ Complexity: low
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #consulting
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📝 Post
In the UK you have to declare the type of business you run when you set up a bank account. What if you want to diversify, say it's a professional services business such as photography but want to add a retail side that is for advertising or selling goods non photographic?

🧩 Problem
Need to declare business type when diversifying services.

⚙️ Complexity: low
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #consulting
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📝 Post
Hi all, wondering if anyone uses Pinterest for their small business and has seen any significant traffic to your website or sales with it. Also, how often do you post and any other tips would be great! Ty!

🧩 Problem
Uncertainty about Pinterest's effectiveness for small business traffic

⚙️ Complexity: low
📣 Popularity: medium
🧭 Solution Type: #content
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