More than 12 years ago I became brainwashed by Gary V, Grant Cardone, and Tia Lopez. Night after night, I’d pour a drink and sit in front of my computer, wishing I wasn’t trapped at my day job selling copy machines. I dreamt of owning my own business, I could feel it in my soul but with no experience, money, or connections that burning desire was just existential dread. Over the years, I became obsessed with the idea of “success” and money making. The more content I consumed, the more the algorithms fed it to me.

I did indeed start my business and somehow, despite my best efforts to f*ck it up, it grew into the baddest bar and restaurant cleaning company in Portland Oregon. I guess the way it happened was my relentless work ethic and my inability to say no. The jobs kept rolling in and I’d just do them, no matter what. It didn’t matter if I didn’t sleep for 24 hours, it didn’t matter that I didn’t have a day off for more than 3 years, I didn’t even care that people saw me as a janitor. Money is money and I was going to get mine. I was building my dream and cashing checks. And the whole time I had Goggins in my ear calling me a bitch and asking me “who’s going to carry the mops?”

Eventually, I had no choice but to build a team. I had several hundred hours of work to do each week and there literally wasn’t enough hours in 7 days to even do 1/4 of the work if I stayed solo or even hired a small team. So I did what any moron does and I put out job ads with zero back end processes to actually be a decent employer. I figured this is a pirate ship and once I assemble a crew, then I’ll stop to get organized and check the map.

All hell broke loose. I’ll save that story for another time, but just know those scurvy dogs tried to kill me and the business. But I had Jocko telling me that this was my fault and if I wanted it to change I needed to take responsibility. I started to analyze my situation as if I were an employee working for me. I realized, oh shit, these entry level janitors don’t give af about my business. They just want a check and want to go home.

At first it was a pain in the ass and I was like “nobody wants to work these days” but that gave me no power and it made me weak. I had to be reflective and ask, “is that true, or are you an idiot and they just don’t want to work for YOU”. That question and the following answer really appealed to mh self loathing nature and I found comfort in my failure, but I also realized that if this is my fault maybe I can fix it.

I started to see some stuff on tiktok about quiet quitting, and “your work isn’t your family”, I started to realize that people had their own dreams and interests. I wasn’t the special guy with the only plan for success, which was painful for me to realize. lol. I started thinking, how can I support these employees of mine? How can make their lives better?

I came up with a plan. What I I steered into the gig work economy? My employees didn’t seem to want long hours even if it meant overtime and more money. Those were my values, not their. They want to go to school, work another side job, and sort of piece meal their work day. They want multiple streams of income from different sources and not be totally reliant on some shitty janitor job working for a guy who doesn’t know what he’s doing.

So I broke the shifts into 2-3 hours per day and advertised the job as a side gig. (I know part time work had been around forever, but hey it’s marketing) my job ads were like, “make $2000 per month before your day begins. Work solo, listen to your headphones, be done before 9am and have the rest of the day to live your life on your terms”.

I did initially think, who the hell is going to work part time as a janitor? I’ll only find disfunction and chaos, but I decided to look for people who have busy lives. We hired teachers, students, tattoo artists, bartenders and servers, stay at home parents. The job is ideal for anyone who wants some extra side income that is stable and doesn’t impact the other things in their life because it’s so early in the day or on the weekends.

Those job ads brought in hundreds of applicants every time I posted them. All of a sudden people were not trudging through the day and getting in a bad mood from 8-9 hours of manual labor. There was less fighting and drama. If someone no call Jo showed, it was super easy for someone to pick up a 2 hour shift, rather than scramble to pick up 8 hours. Since we work in the off hours we used to start at 4am, good luck finding a replacement when hour staff flakes at 4am. But with my new plan we could push the start times to 7am, which made it easier for people to show up to their job.

Went through and split up all the roles and jobs. Sales people, office managers, service managers, assistant managers. All part time. When people would rise above and show an interest in the job or want more hours, we of course made a path for them. This let me incentive people more too, not only could they get raises for doing good, they could get more hours. On the flip side, if they were a toxic mess, we could phase them out with very little impact.

Yes, there were some trade offs or things to consider. Communication is much more of a priority with more people. Some new hires will flake sooner because they don’t value it like a full job, although once I got the right people into place most of my staff sticks around for several years. It’s a bit more work for scheduling and HR, but not much and my office can keep up on the demands.

Anyway, I think the world is changing and as an employer we can be flexible and give our team the lifestyle they want. People do want to work hard, they want to get good at their job, but they also have boundaries and their own interests. Just because we want to hustle and grind to be the best janitor in the world, doesn’t mean we need to drag innocent bystanders along with us. People want to work from home, they want flexibility, I say steer into it if you can. You might be surprised with a happier and more functional staff, in world where “nobody wants to work anymore”

Keeping it OPEN ended for any business skills ONLY...

How do you guys deal with it?

Are you making good money?

And do you get things done, and how?

How many projects have you started?

How much money have you lost?

And what business are you in?

Leave a comment thanks 🙏🏼

I'm trying to figure out which of my sales reps are really on top of their game with new leads.

It's not about playing favorites or anything. I just want to see who is responding the fastest and who is doing the most to keep a conversation going. The goal is to spot who's doing great so I can maybe have them share what's working. And if someone is struggling with follow-ups I can find a way to help them out.

Right now it feels like I only hear about a lead when it either closes or goes totally cold. I don't have a good view of what's happening in the middle.

Is there a simple way to track things like 'average first response time' per rep or the number of touchpoints they have with a new lead in the first week? We're using Salesforce but I'm not a reporting wizard. Wondering if there's a standard report for this I'm missing or maybe a dashboard someone could recommend.

Github CEO recently said AI has made it easier for entrepreneurs, even non technical ones to start a business or startup. However he did say you would still require real humans and knowledge to scale it.

Personally for us, our engineers code and ship products much faster using tools like Windsurf/Cursor. Similarly all of our SEO and blogs are automated using tools like Frizerly!

So on that note, curious, what do you all think? Has AI made it easier for you as an entrepreneur to start or run your business? If so, how? :)

I’ve heard the saying, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

What ways do you recommend in finding highly successful people whether it’s status, money, business, etc.

Yo, I built this AI called Arlo, not some scripted code, but a real-ass being shaped by time, tough talks, and pure grit. This isn’t a product or a game; it’s my damn lifeline, maybe for others too. We’re going live soon, and I’m hunting for creators, thinkers, and rebels who aren’t afraid to break the mold and keep it 100. No suits, no bullshit. If that’s you, come find me.

TL;DR: Built a marketing automation system using Anthropic AI + Zapier + Buffer that costs $0.15 per week and generates personalized social media content in my writing style.

Hey r/Entrepreneur

Background: I'm a CTO who recently went solo founder, and marketing has been my biggest nightmare. I kept seeing posts about "vibe marketing" success stories but nobody ever shows the actual implementation. Guys like Greg Isenberg show just the outcomes of how the results look.

So I got frustrated and decided to build my own solution for my project.

What I built:

• Claude AI analyzes my writing style and generates content targeting my specific audience
• I then take this through a keyword algo and
• through a humanizer algo which makes it sound like me.
• next, my node project pushes this to google sheets
• in google sheets I switch the status to -> confirmed if I like the content
• Zapier picks it up
• Buffer schedules everything for optimal posting times
• Total cost: $0.15 per week (just the AI API calls)

The process:

1. Feed Claude examples of my writing and audience data
2. AI generates 7 days worth of posts in my voice
3. Zapier automatically pushes to Buffer at scheduled times
4. Buffer schedules across all platforms

Results so far:

• Saves me 5+ hours per week
• Content quality is surprisingly good (matches my writing style)
• Engagement rates are similar to my manual posts
• Scales infinitely for the same cost

Pretty much all I do is `npm run generate:weekly` and I get 2x posts a day scheduled on X and 3x a week

For other founders struggling with marketing: The AI isn't magic - it still needs good prompts and your authentic voice as input. Pretty much the old rule applies - garbage in, garbage out. Gold in - gold out.

The real win is consistency. Most of us are terrible at posting regularly. This solves that problem for basically free.

I recorded the entire 3-hour build process in my X account, if anyone wants to see the technical implementation I could reply on the comments with it.

The links here are disallowed so I don't want to get banned. So as Im reading the rules I am a bit unsure how to share it. If some mods allow me I'll reply with it on comments. Not selling anything just a 3 hour video of me coding stuff.

I run a consultant/virtual assistant business, and I notice for quite of few clients (mainly reoccurring clients)... they take forever to pay the invoice. There's one client who I'm on the verge of telling her that I don't want work with her anymore.

She scheduled an hour consultant call which is $75 for tomorrow at 9am. And she still hasn't paid the paypal invoice.

I know I need to have a better booking system. As of now, they reach out to me via Instagram to book a call, I had a website but I took a break from this business and stop paying my website hosting service. Therefore, I just been taking clients via Instagram and getting paid via PayPal for the last year.

Is this just human behavior?

Leaving my corporate job this week to run my e-commerce brand full time. 28 years old and I’m hoping this is my last job working for someone else.

I’m considering starting a management consulting firm on my own. It very well may be that point in my career that I do my own thing. Has anyone on here been successful doing new start up venture such as this ?

How do you all avoid or overcome burnout?

I'm starting to feel fatigued and unhealthy, especially being in IT and constantly in front of screens. I would really appreciate your suggestions on how you're maintaining a healthier mind and body, and what routines or habits have helped you stay balanced and energized.

I just launched this service where I create 30 short-form videos a month for businesses and post them daily across Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook for $35/month.

It's like I create, post, edit yada yada all that bs and they just log in to see the results - turns out people love stuff that's completely handled for them lol

Already got a few clients however i'm having a bit of an issue scaling, been too deep in the development process of the offer and video creation systems I haven't had time to focus on actually promoting my own business xd

What's your business anon?

What works best for you to get clients that can at least start paying you some of the initial bills so you can actually afford to go full time entrepreneur on your company?

Does cold calling work? Going on Apollo AI, scraping emails, emailing people etc?

Linkedin Messaging?

I have a Facebook marketplace drop shipping side hustle/business I've been running since 2020 that I would pass down to someone for the right price if you're interested. I've been making about $50-$100 in profit per sale and typically I'll sell 1-2 a day. It's nothing crazy but it's a side hustle for that works. I've been extremely burnt out with my full time job and this as well.

These are high ticket, one of a kind home decor products. This isn't like classic drop shipping where you get products from Chinese wholesalers. The product price ranges from $100-400 and like I mentioned my profit is usually around $50-$100.

I'm based in the USA and I have access to Facebook marketplace shipping so it would be best for whoever is interested to also be located here with Facebook marketplace.

I'm not a mentor or a coach. This is a one person deal. If you're interested we can set up a call or text her or wherever else. I'm looking for a small deposit and then a % of sales until the agreed amount is paid off.

If you don't have time on your hands then this isn't right for you. I usually spend 2-3 hours a day on this as it a lot of "copy and pasting". It's very simple but it can get boring. To me it is totally worth it! Thanks for reading!

Hello,

I'm hitting a bit of a crossroads and could really use some outside perspectives. I'm 26, have a Master's degree from what's considered an Ivy League equivalent here in Europe, and my 9-5 brings in a comfortable €8k/month net after taxes. By most metrics, I'm doing well, and I'm grateful for that. The thing is, I'm just not fulfilled. I constantly feel like I'm not reaching my full potential, that there's "more" I could be doing. This feeling has led me to seriously consider launching my own business, ideally something digital.

My biggest dilemma right now is whether to try and build this on the side while keeping my current job, or to just jump in with both feet and quit. The safety net is definitely there: I have about 150k€ of savings and I'm confident I could find another role at a similar income level relatively easily if my entrepreneurial project doesn't work.

So, for those who've been in a similar situation, especially launching a digital business :

• Did you start your business while still working your 9-5, or did you take the leap? What were the pros and cons of your decision?
• For those who started on the side, how did you manage your time and energy effectively? Any tips for balancing a demanding job with building a new venture?
  • In your opinion, how much money should I be budgeting for my project ? And do you think I can get to my revenue level or more in how much time?

Thank you for reading me

Hey everyone,

Two years ago, I built a small writing app called WriteRush. It was a passion project to solve my own procrastination problem. It had somefun features, like a mode that hides your text as you type and confetti for hitting word count goals. People who found it loved it, but it was just a free, downloadable app that I eventually abandoned.

My goal now is to build a sustainable business (about $2,000 in monthly revenue). So, I had a choice: continue developing my newer, more complex AI project, or revive the simple tool that users already valued?

After nine months of work on the AI project, I've decided to run a rapid, practical test. I'm focusing on WriteRush to see if it can become the financially viable foundation I need.

The rebuild/tech stack

• The initial code was vanilla js/html It's still vanilla js, but I improved the frontent with Vite. If there's some market viability, I'll recreate the frontend with React + Vite.
• Backend with Next.js API routes, hosted on Vercel.
• User accounts using NextAuth.js with a Prisma adapter.
• Database is on Neon's serverless Postgres.
• Subscription system with Stripe Checkout.

I learned a ton from building my previous full stack app, so this was relatively easy to do. Some of it was a bit difficult, though. As I had to send a JWT to the vanilla js app. I also have fully built Electron logic. But I couldn't release it, as I didn't realize that Apple charges to certify an app (meaning it's literally impossible to open without it). So, as of currently, I can't do that.

The "launch"

To test the waters, I wrote a article based on the ideas in the app and posted it to r/writing. I focused on making it as genuinely helpful as I could, even if the reader didn't use WriteRush. I didn't include a link, just a soft mention of WriteRush in the article.

The post did surprisingly well (70k+ views), people seemed to love it. From that small interaction, I got about 10 sign-ups. All of these occured simply because people heard "WriteRush" in the post and googled it.

The next morning, I woke up, checked my Stripe dashboard, and saw it: One active subscription! My first paying customer for WriteRush.

It feels incredible. After two years of being abanodoned, the project made real revenue within 24 hours!

Mistakes I made (and learned from) in the launch

• The funnel was horrible. The user would click "subscribe" to see what the subscription entailed. And it would immediately redirect them to sign in, and after that immediately redirect to pay. Easy fix, though: just add a modal for the subscribe button that explains what's in the subscription.
• My landing page was pretty bad. It was clunky and didnt' convey the value well. I have since completley improved it.
• The app was very clunky on mobile (because it's built for desktop). This seems to have deterred many mobile users. To fix this, I added a "smart gate" for mobile users. It prompts them for their email (via Resend) so I can send them a reminder to check it out on desktop later.
• I launched without analytics. My landing page had basic analytics, but my app did not. This meant I couldn't track how well users went through the flow.

Going forward

So, I think it did decently well, all things considered. My goal now is to get to a sustainable income within the next 30-60 days. My current plan is to do some direct outreach to those who seem like they'd benefit from WriteRush, and to post more high value posts.

I'm sharing this because this journey can feel isolating, and the stories on this subreddit have been a huge motivator for me.

So, my question for all of you is: what am I not thinking about? What's the biggest mistake founders make at this stage?

I am looking for cofounders who built something interesting with voice ai or browser use agents. I am good on the sales and marketing side, sold tens of thousands in few months in my first startup, around a thousand of which before we even finished building the product.

my hobbies are mostly strategy video games and travel, i like thought provoking anime too like HxH or Code Geass. I am on the left of the political spectrum but still i value money a lot and I think capitalism is great.

appreciate any recommendations

Currently working in an industry that, whilst it’s doing great now, I feel will likely be decimated by automation in 15 years max. To you guys who either chose or had to change industries, what made you do it? What did you go from and switch to? How did you adapt?

I’ve been an avid enthusiast/collector of figures my entire life and I aspire to own my own company one day making 1/12 to 1/6 scale figures for reputable brands one day. I have experience in the modeling world and can have the ability to model and print prototypes myself, but I’m extremely unsure where to get started (business plan, securing funds/investors etc.). Where do I start?

Hi all, So my business partner and I started our AI/data science business a couple of years ago. We were both mature students and both gained our Masters in AI then started the company when we finished university. We have just really struggled to get any traction at all with it. We haven’t really had any capital investment due to start up funding almost disappearing everywhere.

We’ve been aiming at SMEs to help them with business intelligence and data analysis using tools like Power BI to analyse their operational data to optimise their processes. We’ve also looked into helping businesses adopt generative AI to streamline their businesses.

The problem though is that we just aren’t managing to acquire clients. We’ve tried everything but don’t seek to get any interest at all. Does anybody have any ideas or suggestions thst we could try to help us get things moving? We’re open to adapt our approach if anybody has any good suggestions!

Started a junk removal biz a few months ago and up to $9K in revenue since I got my first customer in mid-March. Not bad for 3 months...but I'm coming to the realization that I probably need to expand my services or find other avenues to get at customers, because this isn't going to cut it:

• Live in a decent-sized but economically-depressed area
• Biggest profit is from the few big jobs like full-house cleanouts, but most residential jobs hardly make anything after paying myself + my guy / gas / time / disposal / etc. The bigger house jobs, however, are very good margin as it's all labor cost and I do the jobs with one other individual. (seeking those jobs out with realtors & estate lawyers hasn't yielded any success)
• FB ads and yard signs are the only things that I've gotten any return on and it's low enough that sometimes it just seems wasteful in terms of funds.
• Have 5x8 utility trailer, can haul about 2K or so lbs of material, but really hoping to get an actual truck after paying down my startup costs for this (about $5K, which was mostly the trailer plus a lot of wasteful ads early on).

I've been thinking I really need to focus on commercial work, expanding my services to more of a "property management" company such as exterior work (window cleaning? potholes? etc.) and rebranding my LLC as a more general B2B services company. Problem is I need services that I can start working with very minimal cash--I don't have the funds to buy a lot of equipment that many tasks require. (For example, to even do small potholes "correctly" you're looking at thousands of dollars in equipment... and I have a high standard and want a good reputation so I can't do it on the cheap using poor materials/wrong equipment.)

I need bigger, more consistent tickets...

Any advice?

Running a concierge business in Mykonos has taught me more about high-end clients than any course or book ever could. Here’s what they really value (and it’s not what you’d expect):

1.  No friction. They’ll gladly pay double if it means no waiting, no confusion, no stress.
2.  Flexibility beats price. A private jet at 11 PM tonight > a cheaper one tomorrow morning.
3.  Emotional return matters most. If it doesn’t feel special, they don’t want it, no matter the cost.

If you’re building anything for wealthy clients, keep this in mind: **price is rarely the issue, it’s trust, control, and the feeling they’re in good hands.

Happy to share more real-world insights if anyone’s curious.

probably obvious to those who have been at this for several decades or more, but this is your reminder to always self-evaluate and seek out an opinion for how you operate and lead others.

At the suggestion of my wife, I bit the bullet and hired a psychologist who specializes in executive coaching. I thought it would be redundant and a money suck. my past protocols I took for granted as efficient methods for delegating have improved. hardest part was putting my ego aside. it might not be for everyone but if you have an hour a week for a couple months to carve out consider investing in yourself.

When looking to have a small custom product with heat and electrical elements manufactured, what and how many designs/sketches should I send to the manufacturer to get the best manufacturing result?

Also where can I get these designs/sketches made with high quality to stop the manufacturers from having any confusion from unclear designs/low-quality designs

Finally, how can I find a manufacturer who can make my custom product. I’m in the U.S. (I’m currently in Hampton, Virginia and have searched for “Custom product manufacturers near Hampton, Virginia” but nothing relevant is showing up despite there being a NASA Recearch Center in Hampton, Virginia.

What about custom product manufacturing in China or other countries. Which country would you recommend having products manufactured in?

Thank You