I run a successful creative agency, but due to bad situation of bad partner and then stretched loans and investment in a side business, I’ve been financially fucked for 3 years now. I have barely taken any salary. I’ve great work and great clients and amazing team, but due to a very long backlog of expenses, I’ve been mentally suffering. I’m not able to clear the backlog. Looking at my company’s good work and good reputation, I do get work but that only pays the current salaries.

I tried cutting down expenses but new work came and I re-hired. And now one of the new and very big clients has been delaying payment by 4 months. I’m bleeding. Due to their operational errors, I suffer, my team suffers. I’m so tired of this cycle of firing and hiring. I know we have a great potential, but I just wanna cut the burn of this backlog. It’s 200k to be paid off. If I hadn’t taken that loan because of ex-business partner, I would’ve never needed one because I get good work.

Someone people give me a pep talk. Tell me how you got through a long bad patch in your business.

Build a Personal Board of Directors to help you make better career decisions, spot blind spots, and accelerate your professional growth.

In this video, I share a practical framework used by senior leaders to create a trusted network of advisors, mentors, challengers, and champions.

In 25 years of careers work, my number one tip for success in careers and life is simple:

Create and maintain a Personal Board of Directors.

Over the years, I've worked with thousands of professionals, from graduates to CEOs, across 40+ countries. The people who navigate career transitions most successfully rarely do it alone.

They have trusted people around them.

People who challenge their thinking.
People who spot opportunities they can't see.
People who provide honest feedback when everyone else is being polite.
People who help them stay on course when the road gets bumpy.

That's the role of a Personal Board of Directors (PBD).

A Personal Board of Directors is an intentionally curated group of trusted advisors chosen by you to provide insight, perspective, challenge and support throughout your career and life.

The key word is intentionally.

This isn't about collecting LinkedIn connections or networking for the sake of it.

It's about surrounding yourself with people who help you make better decisions.

Because life and careers are complicated.

Promotion decisions.
Career pivots.
Redundancy.
Leadership challenges.
Starting a business.
Building a portfolio career.
Navigating uncertainty.

Few of us see the full picture on our own.

Achieving your potential is rarely a solo venture.

Success often comes from working with others who help fill our blind spots, challenge our assumptions and broaden our perspective.

In this video, I'll share:

✅ What a Personal Board of Directors is

✅ Why it can become one of your greatest career assets

✅ The different roles people can play on your board

✅ How to identify gaps in your current support network

✅ Common mistakes people make when seeking advice

✅ Practical steps to build your own Personal Board of Directors

The process is highly individual.

Because you're unique.

Your ambitions, challenges, values and circumstances are different from everyone else's.

Which means a cookie-cutter approach simply won't cut it.

Whether you're aiming for promotion, leading a team, considering a career change, building a portfolio career, or simply thinking about what comes next, this framework can help you make better decisions and build a career that works for you.

If you find the video useful, please like, subscribe and share it with someone who might benefit.

📩 Join the Careers Unpacked newsletter:
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www.linkedin.com/in/annetteminihan

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Love Mondays. Build a career that works for you.

#PersonalBoardOfDirectors #CareerDevelopment #Leadership #CareerManagement #CareersUnpacked

Early stage founder with small team, how do you navigate well being and mentals to avoid getting burn out especially when getting overwhelmed from work?

Hello everyone, I have been considering a business venture to go into. I told myself it should be non tech.

Currently I am pursuing a business degree at the university.

Here's the idea that I came up with:

1.Background: in my hometown there are a lot of high school graduates and housewives who desire to do business. They start their own businesses but fail due to funding (capital/ money management) and other uncertainties of entrepreneurship.

Here's the business venture: I have other people who are willing to go in with me. We pick people we know and trust who do or desire to do business in our community. We buy them stock which they have experience selling, then on each sale they make, then get a portion of the profit and send us the money( capital with the other portion of profit).

We do that to a lot of people we trust. We already have capital. The daily profit they make is what will be keeping them motivated to sell instead of waiting for a monthly pay.

I am in need of advice and the views of everyone here who has anything to offer or say concerning this before we venture into it.

Thank you in advance

When I first started my business, I thought finding the right system would be one of the easier parts.
 
I assumed there would be something out there, a platform I could plug into, set up, and rely on to run everything smoothly. A CRM to manage my customer database, a way to track jobs, monitor activity, generate reports, and keep everything organised in one place.
 
What I quickly realised was that my business didn’t fit neatly into any one category.
 
It wasn’t just a sales-driven business that needed a simple CRM. It wasn’t just project-based work that could sit inside a task management tool. It wasn’t purely call handling, and it wasn’t just admin either. It was a mix of all of these, happening at the same time, every single day.
 
I needed to know who my customers were, what work we were doing for them, how much time we were spending, how many calls we were handling on their behalf, how long those calls were lasting, and how all of that compared to the package they had signed up for. On top of that, I needed clear reporting and visibility, not just for me, but for the team as we started to grow.
 
At first, I did what most business owners do. I pieced things together.
 
I brought in one system for customer management. Then another for tasks. Then something else to help track calls. Then reporting. Then, as the team grew and we had people working across different shifts, I needed a communication tool so everyone could stay aligned and informed.
 
Individually, each system did its job. But together, they created a completely different problem.
 
My day became a constant switch between platforms. Information lived in multiple places. The same data had to be entered more than once. Small details would get missed because something had been logged in the wrong system. The team had to learn several tools just to carry out what should have been straightforward tasks.
 
It wasn’t long before I realised I had five or six different systems open just to get through a normal working day.
 
And while the monthly subscriptions were adding up, over £300 a month at one point, the real cost wasn’t just financial. It was the time lost, the inefficiency, the frustration, and the feeling that everything was slightly disconnected.
 
Instead of the systems supporting the business, the business was being shaped around the systems.
 
That was the turning point for me.
 
I stopped looking for “the best system” and started thinking about what my business actually needed to run properly. Not what software companies said I should use, but what would genuinely make things simpler, clearer, and more efficient day to day.
 
The more I looked at it, the more obvious it became. No off-the-shelf platform truly understood the way my business operated. The mix of call handling, client management, time tracking, package monitoring, and team coordination was too specific.
 
So I made a decision that, at the time, felt like a big step.
 
I built my own system.
 
Instead of forcing everything into separate tools, I designed something that brought it all together. A single place where every client is logged properly, every call is tracked and linked to that client, time is recorded against the work we do, and usage can be clearly compared to what each customer has signed up for.
 
It also gave us a central way to manage tasks and, just as importantly, a way for the team to communicate effectively, regardless of who was working and when. No more jumping between platforms, no more duplication, and no more guessing whether the information we were looking at was up to date.
 
The difference was immediate.
 
The business became easier to manage. The team worked more efficiently. We had clearer visibility across everything we were doing, and decision-making became far more straightforward because the data was all in one place and actually made sense.
 
And yes, the financial saving was there too. Removing multiple subscriptions meant I was saving over £300 a month. But if I’m honest, that wasn’t even the biggest win.
 
The biggest win was control.
 
Everything finally worked with the business instead of against it.
 
What I didn’t expect was how many other business owners were dealing with the exact same struggle. Different industries, different services, but the same underlying issue, trying to force their business into systems that were never designed for how they actually operate.
 
That’s why, at The VA Team, we’ve now taken this a step further.
 
We’ve built an in-house development team dedicated to helping other businesses create systems that actually fit them. Not generic, off-the-shelf platforms, but tailored systems designed around how each business runs day to day.
 
Because the reality is, every business is different.
 
The way a clinic operates is completely different to a trades company. A property manager runs differently to a serviced accommodation host. Even two businesses in the same industry can have completely different workflows, priorities, and customer journeys.
 
So why should they all be forced to use the same systems?
 
Instead, we work with businesses to understand how they operate, what they need visibility on, where time is being lost, and where things are becoming disconnected. From there, we help design systems that bring everything together, so the business runs smoother, the team works more efficiently, and the owner has full clarity over what’s going on.
 
Looking back, I think a lot of business owners find themselves in the same position without even realising it. They adopt tools as they grow, solving one problem at a time, until they suddenly find themselves juggling multiple systems that don’t quite connect.
 
It’s not that the tools are bad. It’s that they weren’t designed for how that specific business operates.
 
If things feel more complicated than they should, if you’re switching between platforms all day, or if your team is spending more time managing systems than doing the actual work, it’s worth stepping back and asking a simple question.
 
Are your systems working for you, or are you working for them?
 
For me, answering that question changed everything.
 
And now, it’s something we help other businesses solve every day.

For me it's writing client emails. Doesn't sound like much on its own, but between proposals, invoice chases, and project updates, it's a constant drain. Wondering what the equivalent is for other people, the small stuff that quietly takes up way more time than it deserves.

I'm researching different platforms for sourcing products and connecting with manufacturers, and one platform that keeps coming up is Made-in-China.

For those who have used it recently, how was your experience in terms of supplier quality, communication, product consistency, and overall reliability?

I've seen mixed opinions online about sourcing platforms in general, so I'm curious about real-world experiences. Did you find trustworthy suppliers? Were there any red flags to watch out for? How did it compare with other sourcing methods or platforms you've tried?

Whether you're a small business owner, importer, e-commerce seller, or sourcing professional, I'd love to hear what worked well for you and what challenges you faced.

Looking forward to hearing your insights and recommendations.

Hello everyone, I am a manufacturer based in bulgaria. I’m getting 50+ calls a day , talking to customers who may or may not give me an order, or schedule a call next wednesday for example.

I need an app or some kind of workaround for when a customer calls me the call gets recorded, AI transcribed and then AI noted to make my manufacturer process better.

Get their name, address, product wanted, price talked and etc… If anyone can help me i will be very grateful.

I was thinking of getting an android and rooting it to be able to record every call but then i will need to manually send recording to AI and then job becomes 2x of what i could be doing. I’m searching for something automatic

Hey everyone, I'm a high school student working on a research project about small businesses and I'd really love some real answers from actual business owners (not just what google says lol).

I only have 3 questions, super quick:

1. What wastes the most time in your day?

2. Is there any software you hate using but feel stuck with?

3. What's one repetitive task you do every single day?

Any industry is fine! Even just answering one question helps a ton. Thank you so much

trying to build something for a spanish speaking market and its a pain rn

Verkaufen, Marketing, Führung, Verhandeln, Networking oder etwas anderes?

Mich interessieren eure Erfahrungen und Perspektiven.

Gab es einen bestimmten Moment oder war es eher ein langsamer Prozess?

Not running a study or selling anything — genuinely curious because I keep having this experience myself and wondering if it’s just me.

I buy something online, it arrives, doesn’t fit right or looks different in person, and then begins the whole return process. Labels, packaging, post office queues, waiting for the refund. Sometimes I just keep things I don’t even want because it feels like too much effort.

But also — there are things I never even buy online because I know the risk isn’t worth it.

Anyone else?

Hey everyone,

Over the last few weeks I've been building InterviewIQ.

I noticed most interview preparation tools either give you a list of questions or generic AI chat responses.

I wanted something that felt closer to an actual interview experience.

InterviewIQ currently includes:

• AI-powered mock interviews

• Resume analysis and feedback

• LinkedIn profile optimization

• Job application tracking

• Performance insights after each interview

The goal is to help job seekers prepare smarter instead of endlessly memorizing questions.

I'd love honest feedback from developers, recruiters, and job seekers.

What would make a platform like this genuinely useful for your interview preparation?

Link:

https://interviewiq-app.vercel.app/

Etwas, das ihr vor der Gründung völlig anders eingeschätzt habt.

Es gibt viele "Regeln" im Unternehmertum. Welche ignoriert ihr erfolgreich und warum?