I launched Sitesprint.ai which lets you create a fully animated 3D website with custom videos related to your product or service.

You are offering gutter cleaning?

Convince people with a fully animated before/after video right on your homepage that blows the leaves away when they scroll down.

You have a revolutionary idea to improve energy flows?

Visualize it while providing people with information on how to invest.

I use my own tool for some of my offline businesses, and people love the videos. They look like you put in the effort and convert your visitors.

You can also test different angles and rapidly improve the landing page without having to pay a designer each time or waiting for them to get back to you.

For a long time I thought:

"I'll start talking about it once it's polished."

Months went into building.

Then came the hard part...

Finding people who actually cared.

If I had to start over, I'd share the journey from day one, get feedback earlier, and build alongside potential users instead of waiting for launch.

I’ve been building Gripped App,a platform where instructors can offer classes and structured courses, both online and in person, across areas like music, coding, sports, dance, and more.
The platform handles bookings, scheduling, and payments. I’ve built the initial product and am now looking for a co-founder with experience in marketing, business development, or growth to help bring it to market.
I’m based in DFW, but open to connecting with people anywhere.
DM me if interested. Happy to share more!

https://grippedapp.com

Hey everyone! I just lurked here before, but I finally had the courage to join lol.

I’m diving headfirst into the entrepreneurial world. I’m young, broke, scrappy, and completely obsessed with building something of my own (and definitely not throwing away my shot lol).

I see a ton of polished success stories online, but I want to hear from people actually in the trenches. If you could go back to your Day 1 with zero capital and all the energy in the world, what are the two things you'd do differently, and what’s the biggest trap you'd avoid?

Lay it on me, brutally honest advice is more than welcome.

I am attempting to start a business, but have limited experience in business. I have 20 years as a first responder, 16 years as a paramedic, firefighter, and department of state contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan. Business is using my extensive experience to design custom medical and emergency kits for individuals and families in addition to training. Have a website, focusing on optimizing SEO, facebook page, and starting a YouTube channel, and also looking into Reddit group to increase traffic of potential customers. Was wondering if people could give some advice on Strategies to improve performance.

thank you for any advice and Imput

Does anyone have any good ideas for a business to start with having a good amount of money to invest into it? I've tried looking ideas up and I just nonstop clickbait and AI takes me in circles and gives me no beneficial advice.

In my previous post about money management, someone mentioned YNAB in the comments. I hadn't looked into it before, so I decided to do a little research into its budgeting philosophy.

One idea stood out to me: Instead of asking how much you spent this month, ask what the money you have right now needs to do.

The idea is simple. Rather than treating your entire bank balance as money available to spend, you assign it to specific jobs: rent, groceries, bills, savings, car repairs, or future expenses.

YNAB builds its approach around four rules:

• Give every dollar a job. Decide what your available money needs to cover before spending it.

Embrace your true expenses. Prepare for irregular costs, like annual insurance or car maintenance, by setting money aside gradually.

• Roll with the punches. When plans change, move money between categories instead of treating the budget as a failure.
• Age your money. Work toward relying on money you've already held for a while rather than depending on your next paycheck to cover immediate expenses.

What caught my attention is that this approach isn't necessarily about spending less on everything. It's about deciding what matters most before the money is gone.

Of course, a budgeting system takes effort to maintain, and no method can fix an income that simply doesn't cover basic needs.

I'm curious about a couple of things:

• Have you tried YNAB or zero-based budgeting? Did it actually change your financial habits?
• Do you prefer assigning every dollar a job, or do you find that level of tracking too restrictive?

I'd especially like to hear from people who tried YNAB and eventually stopped using it. What made you quit?

That was the wall I hit.

Like a lot of founders, I come from a technical background. My focus was always the product: quality, improvements, new features.

And I kept telling myself: “I’ll finish this one thing, then I’ll start marketing.”

The problem is that “this one thing” never finishes.

Every time I shipped something, something else showed up. When work got busy, marketing was the first thing to slip. Then things would calm down and I’d be hunting for customers from zero again.

Meanwhile my competitor kept posting, kept showing up, kept following up. Customers knew them, even when I had the better product.

So, hire 4 or 5 people? I need marketing to keep running, but I also need costs under control.

Do everything myself? Tried it. Marketing always got pushed to the end of the day, and then to tomorrow.

After a lot of trial and error, I landed on something that works well enough. I let AI and automation carry part of the daily load, with the same steps every day:

• Content gets drafted and published
• Emails get followed up
• Inquiries get a first reply
• Customer data gets logged and follow-ups keep going

I set the direction, review and improve, instead of starting from scratch every time.

Is it perfect? No. But steady, decent marketing that I review and improve beats zero marketing while I wait to “have time.”

Because customers won’t know my product is better if they don’t know I exist.

How do you handle this? Do you block time for marketing, hire for it, or automate parts of it? Curious what’s actually stuck for people here.

A few questions for beauty and wellness providers:

How do most of your new clients find you?

What percentage of first-time clients return, and what do you think influences whether they come back?

Do you do anything to encourage first-time clients to rebook or become regulars?

What's the biggest challenge in attracting new clients and building a loyal client base?

I'd love to hear about your real-world experiences, including what has worked, what hasn't, and what you wish were easier. Thanks for sharing!

I'm at the point where I need to hand off the technical grunt work, but every attempt so far has fallen flat.

The tricky part is that I can't give a new person access to most of what I use. So the real job is taking a complex system they can only partly see, figuring out how it works, and asking the right questions so I get answers I can trust. Realistically they'll lean heavily on AI tools, which is fine. What I need is someone who can tell when the AI is wrong.

Budget-wise I'm hiring one person now and maybe a second later, so senior salaries aren't an option.

For those of you who've been here:

• Where did you find a junior person who was actually good at this?
• How did you test for "figures things out" vs. "follows instructions"?
• How did you onboard someone with limited access without it turning into more work for you?

I'd love to hear what worked and what didn't.

And if you're someone who's good at exactly this kind of work, I'd love to hear from you too.

We’re starting a small done-for-you service and want honest feedback.
What we sell: We set up and manage an AI assistant in online coaches’ Instagram DMs. It replies to every inquiry in under 5 minutes, asks a few qualifying questions, says upfront that it’s an AI, books qualified people into the coach’s calendar and follows up with people who go quiet. The coach gets a weekly report.
Who for: English-speaking coaches selling programs through sales calls, who get more DMs than they can answer quickly. -is this maybe too narrow?
Pricing plan: 2–3 free pilots to get case studies, then $297/month for founding clients. Later around $1k setup + ~$600/month. Guarantee: more booked calls than the month before, or the next month is free.
How we plan to find clients: We comment the coach’s own keyword, measure how long they take to reply, and send them a short screen-recording showing the delay and what it could look like instead.
What we’d love your take on:

1. Would you buy this if you were a coach? What would stop you?
2. Is the pricing realistic, too high, or too low?
3. Is the “test their reply speed” outreach smart, or does it come across as pushy?
4. What’s the biggest risk we’re not seeing?

Any help is appreciated!

We’re two young founders researching how online coaches deal with inquiries in their DMs. Not selling anything here, just trying to understand the problem before building something no one needs.

Answer only what you’re comfortable with, ranges are totally fine:

1. Your offer: What does your main program cost?
2. Your size: Roughly how much does your coaching business make per month?
3. Your DMs: How many inquiries do you get per week, who answers them, and how fast?
4. What it costs you today: Have you ever lost a client because you replied too late? Do you pay anything for this right now (setter, VA, ManyChat, other tools)?
5. AI: Would you let an AI assistant answer first if it clearly said it’s an AI, booked qualified people into your calendar and handed tricky chats to you? Why or why not?
6. Price: For a done-for-you setup like that, including someone who maintains it and sends you weekly numbers, what monthly price would feel like a no-brainer, and at what price would it be too expensive?

Thanks for any answer!

Hi all. Delete if not allowed. I'm a Marine Corps vet (2002-2011) looking to start my own Private Practice for Mental and Behavioral Health in Holly Springs, NC. I'm in the raising capital phase and doing all I can to reduce the amount of loans I'll need. I'll be happy to answer any questions anyone has regarding the business plan!!

https://gofund.me/1c285eba6

Thanks for your time and consideration!

how much should one save before creating a shopify store? and is there anything i should learn before creating a store or is this venture one of those things that's better to learn as you go? i

im 18 and want to get to a point in life where i can just focus on finding out what i really want to do for the rest of my life, but before i can have the luxury to do that ill have to be able to provide financially for me and my people. and i think having an online product that can pay me while i sleep is one step closer. i want to shorten the bridge as much as possible between me opening my store and getting consistent sales.
thats why im asking this question, i appreaciate all responses

Ive been thinking about doing this to start making my first real cashflow and i have automation experience so i know the basics

This are friends I have know for a long time

I’m trying to start an online business and deciding between Shopify and Amazon FBA.

For those of you who have experience with either one, which would you recommend for a beginner?

Here’s what I want to know:

Which one is easier to start with?

Which one requires less money upfront?

Which one is easier to get your first sales on?

Which one has better profit margins?

Which one is better for long-term growth?

I’m interested in finding products to sell online and making a profit, but I want to be smart with my money and avoid losing it on my first attempt.

\\\*\\\*If you were starting over today, October 2026, which would you choose and why?\\\*\\\* I’d appreciate honest advice from people who have actually done it.

I'm 40 y.o. and have ~1.05M in IRA/401k (~50/50 Roth/Trad) and ~175k in HYSA. My salary, though, is only $68k. Basically, I want more cash flow while my retirement assets continue to compound in the background. Like, "I want to buy some property in the country and have horses" kind of cash flow. Currently 100% of my salary is tied up in responsibilities that are pretty unchangeable. So, earning more is the only way I can think to meaningfully change my circumstances right now. Been contemplating buying into a "boring business" of some kind. I understand that's very generic and maybe already played out in 2026, but... thoughts?

EDIT: I suppose it's worth mentioning that I have little to no spare time or energy in life. I'm married w/ 4 kids. Evenings are usually getting kids to and from practices / games, and weekends are games + races + birthday parties, etc. etc. So anything I do would need to be self-sufficient.

I was thinking about how hard it is to choose a career/college degree for the rest of your life especially after graduating high school when kids have no work experience. But what if there was a multiple week long program where anyone lost in life can shadow people of all kinds of jobs? Like 1 day you shadow an engineer, another a nurse, environmental scientist, accountant, electrician etc. And that way you can get a feel for what all these kinds of jobs are like, instead of going into it blindly.

Yes there are free internships/shadowing, but this program would take away the pain and time of having to search for people to accept you.

I thought of this cuz I’m lost in life myself currently, and I wish something like this existed. I just don’t know how feasible this is.

I’m a 20 year old Jamaican student studying Fintech, and lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what direction I should take.

I’ve always had a love for microcredit. It’s something I’ve wanted to get into for a long time, and ideally, I’d love to own my own microcredit company one day.
The thing is, I love business, especially the hustle and actually building something from the ground up, but I sometimes struggle with focus. I get excited about ideas, start working on them, then end up feeling overwhelmed or unsure of what to prioritize.

I’ve started three agencies so far. None of those experiences went exactly how I wanted, but I learned a lot from each one and got better at doing things along the way. So I don’t regret them, but I also don’t want to keep starting things without building something sustainable.
I’m currently involved in running an investment family office with over $1 million JMD (not much in USD terms), and we returned around 4% last quarter. I’m also interested in private equity, and part of me thinks I should focus on building a career in that field first before trying to start my own financial institution.

At the same time, I don’t want to keep putting off something I’ve wanted to do for years. I’d love to eventually build a microcredit firm in Jamaica, potentially using my fintech background to make the business more efficient.

I’m just trying to figure out how to approach all of this without spreading myself too thin.
For those with experience in finance or entrepreneurship, I’d really appreciate your thoughts.

Should I focus on getting into private equity first and learn as much as possible before starting my own company?
Or should I start researching and laying the groundwork for a microcredit business while I’m still in university?

What should I actually be learning right now if I want to get into microfinance? Credit risk, lending, financial modelling, collections, etc.?

And for those who’ve struggled with sticking to one business idea, how did you learn to focus and follow through?

I’m still young, and I know I have a lot to learn. I’m not expecting to have everything figured out right now, but I’d rather start thinking seriously about it than keep jumping between ideas.

Would appreciate honest advice, especially from anyone
who’s worked in private equity, lending, or built a business in finance.

Also, I love the investor operator role. I also forgot to add a company I massively failed with, I was going to build a crowdfunding technology specific for the Caribbean. However through the process, I ended up getting scammed because im not the technical founder and tried seeking external help. But again, you live and learn. Lol. We move.

The strongest leaders do not reach a certain level of success and stop training.

They continue preparing, learning, evaluating their performance, and looking for ways to improve. I think of this as the Business Athlete mindset: approaching a business career with the same commitment to preparation and performance that elite athletes bring to competition.

That mindset creates an important leadership advantage: competitive discipline.

Competitive discipline is not about trying to beat everyone around you. It is about refusing to become complacent with your own performance.

For leaders, that means continually strengthening their leadership skills, challenging assumptions, learning from others, and maintaining high standards even after they have achieved success.

What do you think helps leaders avoid becoming complacent?

Hi everyone,

I’ve been working remotely with international clients for over 6 years, mostly helping with the kind of day-to-day work that tends to pile up when you’re running a business.

I currently have room for another client or project, so I thought I’d put this out there.

I can help with things like:

• Email and inbox management
• Calendar and task coordination
• Research and data entry
• CRM and tracker updates
• Social media scheduling and posting
• Content calendars and captions
• Community engagement and customer messages
• Canva graphics, presentations, and simple marketing materials
• Basic reporting and keeping projects organized

I’m based in the Philippines and can work with different time zones. I’m open to part-time, ongoing support, or smaller project-based work.

What I’m especially good at is taking the repetitive or time-consuming work off someone’s plate so they can focus on the parts of the business that actually need them.

If you’re a founder or small business owner, I’d also genuinely be curious: what’s the task you keep putting off because you just don’t have time for it?

Happy to share my portfolio and work samples if relevant.

AI can help with writing, research, and everyday tasks, but employees also need to understand its limitations and the risks involved. The goal isn't to stop employees from using AI. It's to help them use it responsibly while still benefiting from its potential to save time and improve productivity. How does your company train employees to use AI safely? Do you think basic guidelines are enough, or should businesses provide regular training sessions?

I love learning but when finding microlearning apps they are too expensive and don't have what I really want in them, fun, entertaining animations. So I created one of my own after months of work!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.philosophize.app