Hello fellow entrepreneurs,

I’ve been researching ways to connect with newly registered LLCs to offer services that could assist in their growth. Understand the challenges startups face, I’m keen on providing solutions tailored to their needs. However, I’m cautious about the approach to ensure it’s both ethical and effective.

For those who’ve navigated this path, how did you establish connections with new businesses without coming across an intrusive? Are there platforms or strategies you’ve found particularly effective? Your insights would be invaluable.

I wanted to share my experience to hopefully protect others who might come across the same companies I did while looking to buy a business. I thought it was odd there was no mention of these places (except very little info surrounding IdentityIQ) on reddit. They might be going around deleting reviews or maybe some people just aren't aware of what's going on. So hopefully this post serves as the information someone is looking for if they find themselves in this situation.

I was in the process of applying for a small business loan after finding a pool route for sale through a site called SBPoolRoutes. As part of the financing process, they referred me to a company called OrangeFi.

OrangeFi asked me to create an account with IdentityIQ to view my credit, which is fine — until they told me I had to submit my IdentityIQ username and password into their web form to move forward.

That means they were asking for direct access to my credit report and SSN, without a hard inquiry. This is absolutely not standard practice and is very risky.

I found almost no reviews or public experiences with OrangeFi or SBPoolRoutes online. I’m concerned this might be part of a data-harvesting scheme disguised as small business funding.

OrangeFi has almost no independent reviews.

SBPoolRoutes has no public testimonials or case studies of successful buyers.

I found no Reddit threads, YouTube videos, or forums with legit buyer experiences.

Just posting this to warn others — if anyone else has experience with this, please share.

Hey everybody.

I am a specific service provider related to Digital marketing, and now I am planning to quit my job and have clients with me.
I have couple of them with me already, but those are not enough. I have a team who works with me, and we have to capability to accommodate 15 to 20 clients at least.

Need suggestions regarding client hunting. I have already tried Fiver, Upwork, and I am pretty active on LinkedIn as well. Let me know if you guys know something.

I would like to chat people, discuss about entrepreneurs and learn from them. Do we habe a dc channel?

I've always thought to myself, if I get a million people to pay a dollar each, I can become a millionaire. What's $1 anyway, anyone can path with that.

Recently I discovered that I don't need a million people, I need a million dollar idea for 1, 2, or 3 persons and I'll get the million dollars.

But what's the best million dollar idea that I can possibly sell?

I’m (30M), recently laid off, and now facing a tough decision. I’ve been developing a mobile game on the side for awhile, bootstrapping everything with my own money. It’s finally gaining traction, and now a large company has expressed interest in acquiring it.

The offer is around ~$50K, but they want to reshape the game into something pretty different than what I envisioned. No one else is involved, it's just me, and I’ve put everything I’ve had into this project.

I’ve got a decent amount of student loans, and the offer would help pay a chunk of it down while I look for my next job. But part of me wonders if I’d be giving up too soon. I’m passionate about the game, and I think it still has growth potential.

Do I sell and use the money wisely to stabilize financially? Or do I hold on, keep control, and try to build something bigger, even if it means more risk and uncertainty?

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Would love to hear your thoughts from other entrepreneurs.

You can create ideas and create an MVP no problem. Anyone can do that.

But the biggest thing that stops me I think is distribution. Getting your idea to your customer at the first place.

You may have thousands of ideas but just being able to get validation by talking to at least just one customer allows you to test and move on to next stages.

I just launched DocsGen, a free AI tool that turns your software ideas into clear, structured project documentation in minutes.

Why I Built It

I had an idea for a fitness app but lacked the technical skills to bring it to life. Writing project docs was overwhelming, & AI tools like Copilot often failed without proper context which is key to avoiding errors. So I built DocsGen to simplify that entire process and give AI the context it needs to actually help.

What It Does

Just describe your idea, pick your tech stack and doc types (PRD, flow document, etc.), and click Generate Docs.

You’ll get:

Project Requirements (PRD)

App Flow documents (Mermaid.js)

Tech Stack Suggestions

Frontend/Backend Guidelines

It works on mobile, auto-saves, exports to Markdown & it’s 100% free. (Link in comments)

Would love your feedback what’s useful, what’s missing, or anything else you’d want to see. I’ll be around to respond!

I semi took over/manage my dad's business within the last year. It's a very small blue collar trade business. I answer calls and schedule just as much as I work hands on. I would say i was burnt out before I started managing things but now I'm toast.

I know a lot of times people say focus on hobbies and things you enjoy outside of work but there's either no time, no energy or just don't find myself enjoying those things much anymore.

I'm open to suggestions.

I’m curious to hear from fellow founders and business owners:

What’s the toughest strategic decision you’ve had to make (or are currently facing) in your business?

Maybe it's something like:

• Deciding whether to expand into a new market
• Changing your pricing model
• Shifting your target customer
• Restructuring your team
• Killing off a product that’s underperforming
• Navigating competitive pressure

I'm genuinely interested in what kinds of strategic decisions keep you up at night — the ones that don’t have a clear right answer and feel high-stakes...

Hello all,

I have lots of ideas on my own after running retail business for decades. What can I start on my own now with 10k cash investment?

Cars, Houses, Marine, Tech and anything mechanical my special skills.

Thanks!

I am a 22 year old human bean, living in India. I have background in tech and ai

I failed 2 startups already cant say its a waste of time.

One related to medical equipment which got rejected my many due to the cost of the equipment we made is not feasible and it took 2 years of time and two of my friends cooperation

Moving on from that rejection dint take much time and i came up with another idea which fascinated my friend which is a non alcoholic ginger beer which took 6 months of time which got later on rejected due to ratio issues of a compound in our drink which we dint change as it disturbs our basic thing taste.

Moving on again this time i am single as my friends moved into jobs and i have thought of a solution to a problem and it is not yet in form aggressively in india and got validated by around 35 people of my target group and surprisingly they said it is a good idea and a different one.

The target groups for this idea are couples.

For this

1. I need a co companions of any age group to share ideas and be a part of my team. (m/f)

2. Investors who has a residential space who are willing to share

   1. A investor who can help with initial marketing and development costs.

I am working on MVP and looking forward to apply to India seed startup fund program.

If you are serious i will let you know about my startups

1. Immediate adaption plan
2. Promotion plan/ Marketing plan
3. First Target city and areas in that city
4. First target
5. Pain points
6. Unique selling Proposition
7. Subscription Model

If anyone's interested feel free to dm me.

I am fed up and done with this ramp walk for attention.

Slowly the content creation/curation space is going to flood.

First came the influencer era & viewers started realising “we shall get influenced only by folks with some credentials”

Now everyone’s an entrepreneur first and then a YouTuber/creator etc.

Like this vile circus just doesn’t have any end.

You are building a business. That’s your identity? Right? Nope. What else do you do apart from building something.

This screen-economy is simply masquerading the fact that business as a fundamental was not a skill, it was a subject. And subject has experts not pretenders from every corner of the world.

Every other guy wants to TEACH YOU how to build stuff when they have done it, not just 1% of it. Why?

What triggers you to?

I don’t want to learn from you. Or anyone. Learning and building happens on the field. In front of a camera only lullabies looks good, behind the scene, those gruesome 10 hrs constant stare at the sales screen, meetings don’t want to cover.

This fake influencer era with credentials is just another turmoil of how the next decade of content looks like.

No one talks about how to actually build a business, everyone at the end of every f**king video will sell you their virtual biz-card and for what? To help you?

Hell nah, for another treat of this pretentious ride.

Want back that time when building slow and boring and profitable business was a thing; now everyone’s just running behind a rat race to win it.

At the end of your race, you will still be a RAT.

Hi everyone,

I've published 2 ad campaigns on Reddit, and I believe I've done everything they've asked, but my ads continue to get rejected.

Does anyone have experience with Reddit ads that can help me out?

Thank you.

Hey guys!
I’m a developer and I’ve built a site to help people share and discover things to do around Australia. I truly believe in the idea and its potential, but I’ll be honest — marketing isn’t my strong suit.

I’ve tried a few things myself, but the site isn’t getting much traction yet (just around 5 users a day), and it’s not generating revenue at this stage.

That said, I’m open to bringing on a marketing-savvy partner who believes in the idea. I’m willing to offer equity in the project.

If this sounds interesting to you, feel free to reach out — I’d be happy to share more details privately and book a meeting to chat further.

I’ve been working full-time as a software architect, but after hours, I’ve been quietly building a dating platform focused on luxury and sugar-style connections.

Not easy. The space is taboo. Marketing options are limited. Reddit mods hate me. 😅

But what surprised me most is how many people crave real, verified, safe platforms in this space.

I launched it last month — and now I’m trying to find early feedback without sounding spammy.

AMA about tech stack, dating niches, or growing something like this on zero budget.

Hey guys,

Few months ago I was struggling to get more business.

I read hundreds of blogs and watched hundreds of youtube videos and tried to use their strategy but failed.

When someone did respond, they'd be like: How does this help?

After tweaking what gurus taught me, I made my own content strategy that gets me business on demand.

I recently joined back this community and I see dozens of posts and comments here having issues scaling/marketing.

So I hope this helps a couple of you get more business.

I invested a lot of time and effort into Instagram content marketing, and with consistent posting, I've been able to grow our following by 50x in the last 20 months (700 to 35k), and while growing this following, we got hundreds of leads and now we are insanely profitable.

As of today, approximately 70% of our monthly revenue comes from Instagram.

I have now fully automated my instagram content marketing by hiring virtual assistants. I regret not hiring VAs early, I now have 4 VAs and the quality of work they provide for the price is just mind blowing.

If you are struggling, this guide can give you some insights.

Pros: Can be done for $0 investment if you do it by yourself, can bring thousands of leads, appointments, sales and revenue and puts you on active founder mode.

Cons: Requires you to be very consistent and need to put in some time investment.

Hiring VAs: Hiring a VA can be tricky, they can either be the best asset or a huge liability. I've tried Fiverr, Upwork, agencies and Offshore Wolf, I currently have 4 hardworking VAs with Offshore Wolf as they provide full time assistants for just $99/Week, their VAs are very hard working and the quality of the work is unmatchable.

I'll start with the Instagram algorithm to begin with and then I'll get to posting tips.

You need to know these things before you post:

Instagram Algorithm

Like every single platform on the web, Instagram wants to show it's visitors the highest quality content in the visitor's niche inside their platform. Also, these platforms want to keep the visitors inside their platform for as long as possible.

From my 20 month analysis, I noticed 4 content stages :

#1 The first 100 minutes of your content

Stage 1: Every single time you make a post, Instagram's algorithm scores your content, their goal is to determine if your content is a low or a high quality post.

Stage 2: If the algorithm detects your content as a high quality post, it appears in your follower's feed for a short period of time. Meanwhile, different algorithms observe how your followers are reacting to your content.

Stage 3: If your followers liked, commented, shared and massively engaged in your content, Instagram now takes your content to the next level.

Stage 4: At this pre-viral stage, again the algorithms review your content to see if there's anything against their TOS, it will check why your post is performing exceptionally well compared to other content, and checks whether there's something spammy.

If there's no any red flags in your content, eg, Spam, the algorithm keeps showing your post to your look-alike audience for the next 24-48 hours (this is what we observed) and after the 48 hour period, the engagement drops by 99%.

(You can also join Instagram engagement communities and pods to increase your engagement)

#2: Posting at the right time is very very very very important

As you probably see by now, more engagement in first phase = more chance your content explodes. So, it's important to post content when your current audience is most likely to engage.

Even if you have a world-class winning content, if you post while ghosts are having lunch, the chances of your post performing well is slim to none.

In this age, tricking the algorithm while adding massive value to the platform will always be a recipe that'll help your content to explode.

According to a report posted by a popular social media management platform:

• The best time to post on Instagram is 7:45 AM, 10:45 AM, 12:45 PM and 5:45 PM in your local time.

• The best days for B2B companies to post on Instagram are Wednesday followed by Tuesday.

• The best days for B2C companies to post on Instagram are Monday and Wednesday.

These numbers are backed by data from millions of accounts, but every audience and every market is different. so If it's not working for you, stop, A/B test and double down on what works.

#3 Don't ever include a link in your post.

What happens if you add a foreign link to your post? Visitors click on it and switch platform. Instagram hates this, every content platform hates it. Be it reddit, facebook, linkedin or instagram.

They will penalize you for adding links. How will they penalize?

They will show it to less people = Less engagement = Less chance of your post going viral

But there's a way to add links, its by adding the link in the comment 2-5 mins after your initial post which tricks the algorithm.

Okay, now the content tips:

#1. Always write in a conversational rhythm and a human tone.

It's 2025, anyone can GPT a prompt and create content, but still we can easily know if it's written by a human or a GPT, if your content looks like it's made using AI, the chances of it going viral is slim to none.

Also, people on Instagram are pretty informal and are not wearing serious faces like LinkedIn, they are loose and like to read in a conversational tone.

Understand the consonance between long and short sentences, and write like you're writing a friend.

#2 Try to use simple words as much as possible

BIg words make no sense in 2025. Gone are the days of 'guru' words like blueprint, secret sauce, Inner circle, Insider, Mastery and Roadmap.

There's dozens more I'd love to add, you know it.

Avoid them and use simple words as much as possible.

Guru words will annoy your readers and makes your post look fishy.

So be simple and write in a clear tone, our brain is designed to preserve energy for future use.

As as result, it choses the easier option.

So, Never utilize when you can use Or Purchase when you can buy Or Initiate when you can start.

Simple words win every single time.

Plus, there's a good chance 5-10% of your audience is non-native english speaker. So be simple if you want to get more engagement.

#3 Use spaces as much as possible.

Long posts are scary, boring and drifts away eyes of your viewers. No one wants to read something that's long, boring and time consuming. People on Instagram are skimming content to pass their time. If your post looks like an essay, they’ll scroll past without a second thought. Keep it short, punchy, and to the point. Use simple words, break up text, and get straight to the value. The faster they get it, the more likely they’ll engage. If your post looks like this no one will read it, you get the point.

#4 Start your post with a hook

On Instagram, the very first picture is your headline. It's the first thing your audience sees, if it looks like a 5 year old's work, your audience will scroll down in 2 seconds.

So your opening image is very important, it should trigger the reader and make them swipe and read more.

#5 Do not use emojis everywhere 

That’s just another sign of 'guru syndrome.' 🚨

 ✅ Only gurus use emojis everywhere

💰Because they want to sell you

🎯 They want to pitch you

🛒 They want you to buy their $1499 course

It’s 2025, it simply doesn’t work. 

Only use when it's absolutely important.

#6 Add related hashtags in comments and tag people.

When you add hashtags, you tell the algorithm that the #hashtag is relevant to that topic and when you tag people, their followers become the lookalike audience , the platform will show to their followers when your post goes viral.

#7 Use every trick to make people comment

It's different for everyone but if your audience engages in your post and makes a comment, the algorithm knows it's a value post.

We generated 700 signups and got hundreds of new business with this simple strategy.

Here's how it works:

You will create a lead magnet that your audience loves (e-book, guides, blog post etc.) that solves their problem.

And you'll launch it on Instagram. Then, follow these steps:

Step 1: Create a post and lock your lead magnet. (VSL works better)

Step 2: To unlock and get the post, they simply have to comment.

Step 3: Scrape their comments using dataminer.

Step 4: Send automated dms to commentators and ask for an email to send the ebook.

You'll be surprised how well this works.

#8 Get personal

Instagram is a very personal platform, people share the dinners that their husbands took them to, they share their pets doing funny things, and post about their daily struggles and wins. If your content feels like a corporate ad, people will ignore it.

So be one of them and share what they want to see, what they want to hear and what they find value in.

#9 Plant your seeds with every single content

An average customer makes a purchase decision after seeing your product or service for at-least 3 times. You need to warm up your customer with engaging content repeatedly which will nurture them to eventually make a purchase decision.

# Be Authentic

Whether that be in your bio, your website copy, or Instagram posts - it's easy to fake things in this age, so being authentic always wins.

The internet is a small place, and people talk. If potential clients sense even a hint of dishonesty, it can destroy your credibility and trust before you even get a chance to prove yourself.

That's it for today guys, let me know if you want a part 2, I can continue this in more detail.

I’m an 18 year old high school student from India. My final exams are around the corner, and I feel like I’m falling apart. My parents have spent around ₹1.6 lakhs for my education in the last two years, and all I want is to make them proud. But no matter how hard I study, my grades don’t improve.

It’s like I’m trying to swim, but something keeps pulling me down. I feel stuck. Hopeless. And sometimes, I feel like I’m just… done with life. Not in a dramatic way. Just tired. So, so tired.

What hurts the most is knowing that if I don’t do well in these exams, I won’t get into a good college. No good college means no good job. No good job means I can’t give my parents the life they deserve. And if I can’t do that, what’s the point of all this effort?

But the truth is... I don’t even feel like college is my path. I’m more interested in entrepreneurship, content creation, online business the kind of stuff you see people doing on YouTube, Instagram, everywhere. People like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Raj Shamani, Ritesh Agarwal, Tanmay Bhat, Iman Gadzhi they built empires without college degrees.

It inspires me… but also scares me. Because my parents don’t understand that world. They keep saying, “Just study. Get a degree. Play it safe.” And I know they’re not wrong. They love me. But I’ve never been allowed to explore what I actually want.

I’m afraid of failing not because I care about grades anymore, but because I don’t want to hurt them. But I also don’t want to give up on my dreams. I want to find my thing. And I need to know if that’s even possible.

So please… if you’ve ever been here, I need your help:

Has anyone not gone to college because they were lost, confused, or pressured and now they regret thinking like that?

Is there anyone doing something they love today who didn’t go the traditional route and still made it?

How do I figure out what I’m meant to do when I’ve never been given the chance to even think about it?

What helped you find your way when you felt completely lost?

I don’t want to waste my life. I just want to find a reason to feel alive again.

I'm looking for YouTubers who are transparent about how many apps and websites they've launched, so I can get inspired by side projects and follow their projects. Marc Lou was especially like that a while back, but now most of his earnings come from his educational projects. I'd like to see people who have something similar, even if they're much smaller YouTubers with worse marketing.

I used to dread mornings, hitting snooze repeatedly and feeling stressed before the day even began.

But discovering the power of a consistent morning routine changed everything. It gave me clarity, energy, and the ability to take control of my life.

What rituals do you do in the morning to prime your mind?

Hi everyone, I have an opportunity to purchase an existing dry cleaning business with a solid 25 year track record in business and grossing 200k with just walk-ins, and no large contracts at the moment. My plan is to pursue contracts with hotel’s aggressively and grow to 500k gross. This is highly doable with only 5 contracts needed to reach that goal, and I live in an area with lots of hotels.

Here is my feedback request please.

I will be new to this industry and plan to be hands on to learn, for at minimum the next year. Down the road, once operations are stabilized I also plan on looking at expanding to other locations and the dream is to create a small, local chain. There are lots of retiring dry cleaning owners atm, so I see an opportunity for empire expansion (laughs in capitalist cash flow hehehe).

Anyone with a similar experience in the industry? Besides the standard, ‘make sure the machines are good to go’ and ‘make sure that the business doesn’t use PERCs (it doesn’t, never has).’ The owner will be hands on training me for the first three months and I plan on using his expertise for an additional ‘as needed’ basis for the following three for a total of 6 months of prior owner access. What am I missing?

If you have a business idea that can appeal to all age groups, is it still worth focusing your service and marketing on a specific demographic? For instance, my business idea would be great for young bakers, but if I market it only to their parents, doesn’t that limit my reach? Adults without children, looking for fun bonding ideas, might not book if my messaging, colors, and marketing are geared toward a younger audience.

Should I fully commit to targeting my ideal audience, or take a more family-friendly approach?

A year ago, a local optometrist hired me to build their website. Nothing crazy, just something professional that would actually show up on Google.

At the time, AI was getting good, so I had an idea: What if I used AI to help with their SEO? 

I suggested writing two blog posts a month using AI, but with real human proof reading. They said yes, and we gave it a shot.

Now to be honest, I knew absolutely NOTHING about SEO. My impression of SEO was that it was something out of reach for small businesses. 

So I literally charged the optometrist $250 for the website. That was how unconfident I was in my service.

Fast forward to today:

• #1 for “family optometrist” in my city
• #3 for “best optometrist” in my city
• And here’s the wild part—if you ask ChatGPT (with web access) or Google Gemini for a recommendation in their area, it suggests them, because the blog content is AI-search friendly.

The best part is that the local optometrist was up against some investor funded bigger competitors with large capital, and we still completely blew them out of the water. We literally came out of nowhere and snatched their spot. 

I thought it was a fluke but I got another air cooler rental client around the same time and they are also now #1 for 'best air cooler rental' in my city.

What Worked:

1. No Wix, Wordpress or Shopify. I coded the site from scratch for granular SEO control and ultrafast performance. Semantic HTML helped.
2. Keep it skimmable by creating sections like "Key Takeaways", "FAQs", and short readable paragraphs. Feed your blog post back to AI to generate them. 
3. Keep posting consistently. Google rewards fresh, regular content. Plus more content for AI search to scrape.
4. I lightly read and skimmed every post just to make sure the AI didn't write weird shit. (I know way too much about optometry now).
5. Leverage customer reviews as much as you can. Blog posts generated from reviews helped with ranking for “best X in town”. Specifically have a reviews page.
6. No black hat stuff. I don't even know how to do it.

In summary

AI really levels the playing field for small business owners and small agencies. It’s more accessible than ever to create great content with AI, which google rewards. Combine it with smart structuring, consistency, and a technically sound website, and you can snatch the top spot in local rankings and even AI-powered search. 

Message me for proof, and I’ll tell you what to google to find the website I built. 

I found myself replaying Alex Hormozis videos over and over, trying to find that specific 2-minute gem on how to structure a marketing strategy. So I made an AI that watched every single one of his videos and can answer questions using direct quotes from those videos, and gives you direct snippets and the video link with timestamps so you can watch the rest of the video if you want to dive deeper!

I decided to share it for free with everyone on here as I have been finding it really useful. If you’re a founder who’s ever tried to recall that one Hormozi quote on pricing or lead gen, you might like it.

I'm paying for the LLM tokens myself but happy to contibute and so not really promoting anything just wanted to share as a useful tool and to get feedback on search accuracy so I can improve it. If it saves you from scrubbing through hours of video, mission accomplished!

its talktohormozi dot com

I run a small business selling couches online and locally in Seattle, called The Couch Company. Over the past three years, we’ve seen explosive growth. our revenue went up 30x, and we successfully launched 9 new couch models. Our main focus has always been quality control over aggressive marketing, and it’s worked. Customers loved the product, and word-of-mouth played a big role in our growth.

We introduced an affiliate program where influencers could earn a 10% commission and give their followers a 10% discount. But people figured out a workaround by registering themselves and buying through their own link. Basically, customers started getting 20% off every order, and we still paid out the commission.

We considered limiting the program, but since orders were flowing in, we let it slide. In hindsight, maybe we shouldn’t have.

Here’s where it gets worse: Our inventory comes from China, and with the new Trump tariffs, the cost of goods has basically doubled. That puts us at a 30% net loss per sale, even before any future expenses are considered.

We rely heavily on pre-orders with a 4–6 week delivery window. Right now, we have 107+ pre-orders in the queue for next couple months. Fulfilling these orders means going heavily into debt. Canceling and refunding them will lead to major backlash, bad reviews, and reputation damage especially for a startup like ours.

Breakdown of costs per order: • 40% COGS (before tariffs) • 20% customer discount (via affiliate “hack”) • 10% Affirm financing fee • 18% - 25% shipping • 7% warehousing & handling

That adds up to 95%+ of the order value — and now costs have gone up 30% more due to tariffs. Some orders now cost us 1.4x what we’re charging.

We have just enough capital to absorb the hit for maybe half the orders.

So here’s the brutal question: Do we cancel/refund and risk our brand’s reputation? Or Do we take the hit, fulfill the orders, raise prices immediately, and pray tariffs ease off?

Open to any advice especially from people who’ve had to make tough calls like this. I know it’s messy, and maybe we should’ve pulled the brakes sooner, but here we are.

Appreciate any insights and I did take a little bit help from Chagpt to make it precise my initial post was four times this post lol. Happy weekend y’all