/r/smallbusiness
This sub is not for advertisements! Questions and answers about starting, owning, and growing a small business only.
This sub is not for advertisements! Questions and answers about starting, owning, and growing a small business.
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Rules:
r/smallbusiness is a question and answer subreddit. You ask a question about starting, owning, and growing a small business and the community answers.
NO business promotion, lead generation, rants, info-tainment, success stories or unsolicited instructional texts, treatise, or how-to's are permitted in posts.
Note: You can post own experiences in the new weekly stickied or pinned share-your-experience thread.
Blogspam has been defined very early in r/smallbusiness as content that maybe text articles, images, or video. Practically all content, small business-related or not.
Exceptions
Allowed are links or quotes in comments and replies that are relevant to and come normally in the course of discussions.
No business promotion posts are allowed. Promote your business in the weekly Promote-your-business thread only. Offers of free services under the pretense of 'building your portfolio' are considered business promotion, and not permitted in posts.
Exceptions You can promote your business in a relevant reply to a post or comment in other threads.
Exceptions None, no exceptions.
Related Subreddits
Help With Your Small Business Network
Location Specific Small Business Subreddit
/r/smallbusiness
Hello, I am a small business just starting out and I have an order for 9 breakfast burritos and I’m not sure how much to charge. Can you please help? I’ve had other orders, but this one I’m just not sure.
Ravee here, I hail from Asia. Since childhood, I have loved coding, which led me to make small-time games. I failed in it due to the lack of money and also knowledge. While most game developers have the knowledge, most of them lack the main resource-capital.
I am starting off helping indie game developers find honest investors(common public) for their game. I have created a business plan where investors can make a profit from their investments on games as well the developers getting fundraised. The business is currently on discord(my own server). To understand how exactly I push off, I encourage all investors and game developers to join this journey with us. This is of course a small business that can be turned into a giant one! If anyone got questions regarding this startup, I am open to it! Here's our server - https://discord.gg/7QwcRfADD9
this is so heartbreaking for many small business owners, like myself, who built their customer base on this platform, and then just losing everything overnight. it's like all your hard work is gone. if you're feeling lost, I definitely recommend Netbinc because they are designed specially to help businesses grow by listing your products/services and posting content that appears on customers' feed. I just tried it out, and really like it so far. what do you think?
Question for you all and I’m going to use x for items to be discreet .. A married couple for over 14 years is getting divorced. The man has a Profit Sharing S - corp with siblings and mother. The wife all those years didn’t even follow along so didn’t know allot. They sold something very expensive and each share holder deposited close to 1 mil. No idea how much was in the account when we married. So a couple questions.. but I also need to say.. the couple purchased a home for almost 1 mil$… drew it off the S - corp $. Had a “note” wrote up on repayment. Shady stuff going on (no one told the wife anything about a loan owed back- they made the note shady by adding a bank name- but then the wording it has the S-corp as the collateral. So built a home with our loan money ( now keep in mind it was our money we put in there) but took a loan h. Not dated nor has the actual seal stamp where supposedly notarized / but also the distributions dates ( loan advance dates) do not add up to the dates we really took the monies out. So my questions : on our taxes ( we both are on them) is the amount on our taxes only our part of what’s in the S corp that we put in or took out or what we made off what was in there for that year? How can I find out total funds in the S corp? Am I saying that right? Is the money all in one account? And is that normally just in a bank account? Say like Wells Fargo? Example Am I obligated legally to pay back this money into the S corp? I am not interested in getting a financial forensic accountant - I just have made it this far on my own ( him and his family think they’ve out smarted me and hidden the money)… But he failed to put any of this on his Financials and did not disclose any of thy is business pass thru monies. He actually said “no” to all Interrogatories asking about accts. He pays minimal child support - and on our taxes last year he claimed he made $250,000 from distributions and claimed it as income! Please help me out people- I won’t stop till I get answers 😌. If I’m on the income taxes with this commingling of money- don’t I have a right to legally ask the bank or whoever holds this?
My partner failed to start payroll and has a large amount of money that hasn’t been taxed. Adp, gusto, say they won’t do retroactive payroll. Can we dump this into a SEP or how can we best tax shelter this money since it’s already the new tax year?
heyy so i’m from mexico and i’ve been wanting to sell cute things from japan like plushies, keychains, dolls, and yk cute stuff
here in mexico there are some small businesses doing this, mostly people from mexico city and guadalajara, that’s where the inspiration comes from. the problem is i have NO IDEA how to get stuff from japan to mexico at a reasonable or cheap prices, like they be selling everything sometimes for less than 200 pesos (9 dollars), the most expensive thing i found today was a pompompurin plushie being sold for 550 pesos (26 dollars).
please helpppp 😣
hello, how can i find manufacturer that design custom fabric, custom clothing, maybe even custom metal accessories for clothing??? thank you for any help pls message me if you can help! thanks
I am observing some people are starting their startups and some are scaling their SMEs.
what is the best do You think?
Studies show that 60% of entrepreneurs experience burnout at some point in their journey. Despite the challenges, most find ways to persevere and grow
I am a Bangladeshi boy dream to build a brand ,How can I do this?
I’ve had this issue for a few years now and it’s stopping me from making any real progress.
I used to own a jewelry business and just as it started picking up steam, I abandoned it. Please note, this was years ago and I was in a totally different headspace.
I’m working a salaried job now and can afford to continuously invest time, money, and effort.
I am not looking for free business ideas, but would appreciate exercises or writing prompts that may have helped you decide on a product/service.
I’d love to do something in the wellness/beauty/self-care space, but I do not want to be an instructor or start a physical gym (I live in NY). I also do not want to sell vitamins or pre-workout. I like the idea of building a community of some sorts, or planning local events. I’ve also considered an activewear line.
Any advice or tips you can provide would be great.
I just registered an LLC for producing music in texas, I have few questions regarding taxes and employment. I Understand that I need a bank account for the LLC. I sell my music through a website specifically for music producers selling their beats that i can link directly to a bank account. I have been told to track my expenses using Wave or Quickbooks, But my question is, do i need to put myself as an employee of the business and would i have to pay taxes for my business as well as for myself? The business would be ran solely by me for now. Just need a little advice, new to this all
hello everyone, I want to start business from home but don't know in which field. I want help so pease give me business ideas so that I can initiate.
Hello folks
I would like to hear your experiences when it comes to taking money from business to cover your own expenses/family. How do you handle it? How do you categorize it?
I'm a full timer business owner, I don't take salary from business but I take random amounts on different times which is annoying for me & the accountant plus it hinders the process of re-inevst in business.
Thanks!
Hi there! I’m looking into finally starting up my own music shop after selling and trading as my main income for about 4 years, but I’ve never actually organized and kept up with many aspects of it such as total sales numbers and things like that.
I mainly trade guitars in and out, and I’m not really sure how to keep up with that as far as inventory management, and total sales/profit goes. How does one keep up with trades in this line of business to know how much money they’ve made through the trades?
Hello fellow business owners. We own a small business in Texas and have been paying our Franchise Tax every year. We wanted to apply for our Texas resale certificate however the person helping us via email (from the Texas comptroller's office) is telling us that we must also pay a "sales and use tax" from the period that we opened (2020) until late 2024.
We haven't paid a sales and use tax ever. Are we in trouble? Apparently we could face penalties, but there's no indication as to what those could be.
Thanks I'm advance.
Does anyone know of any wholesalers that offer similar Verizon prices (through their trademore subsidiary) in Orlando?
Hi! I'm in a bit of catch-22 situation with making a late S Corp election.
Situation: I have an LLC with 1 other partner that was formed in 2023. We ended up making significant profits in 2024 and made a late S Corp election that covers 2024. However, we never made any W2 payments during 2024 (as we were a partnership during that time).
My question is, how does it work if we were to be approved for our late election?
It feels like an S Corp late election is a catch-22. My understanding is that we would need to have made W2 payments to ourselves for the reasonable salary requirement (as we'd be retroactively considered an S Corp), but at the time we were a partnership so we couldn't have made W2 payments.
What is the standard protocol in this situation? The tax professionals I have spoken to have given me varying answers from "you can make a bonus/catch-up W2 payment before Jan 30 2025" to "you don't need to worry about W2 for the first year of S Corp", etc.
To make matters more complicated - we don't even know if our late S Corp election has been approved yet haha.
I would appreciate any help or advice on this, thank you!
What is the best way to drive traffic and sells to an online Business?
Looks like it actually happened
So I've been thinking about starting a furniture business of Facebook for a while now. It's reasonably cheap to get started and I have some tools lying around so the manual labour part shouldn't be too complicated. My main concern is how I'm going to present my business. I don't like the idea of using my real name and face to sell products but I'm also worried that approach isn't authentic. If I do use my name, I'm still pretty stuck on the handle since it starts with a Z and there's not much you can do with that. Is it okay to use a separate name for your business? TIA
Hi, I was wondering if anyone had any information about the manufacturers that Mochipan works with for her products? I attempted to reach out and contact her several times to get an answer and even do my own research about it but was unable to find anything. She makes it a point that her products are made ethically so I'm confused as to why she's not answering about who she works with.
I have a window tinting business that is opening in mid April. I’ve always known Quickbooks for the other shops that I GM’d but never owned. I also recognize Quickbooks cost.
A person I work with has their own small business and suggested Wave Small Business Software.
I’m licensed, insured, S-Incorporated, have an LLc and then a DBA of the name of my business. I have materials and tools and expenses that have already been invested in.
So I have to make a decision on what to use in the beginning.
Any thoughts on Wave?
Hi everyone,
I’m in a really tough spot and need your advice. I’m looking for an online business or side hustle that I can manage in just 2-3 hours a day. I have a laptop, reliable internet, and some freelancing experience in video editing.
I’m willing to learn, work hard, and do whatever it takes to build something sustainable. If you’ve been in a similar situation or have ideas that could help me get started, I’d truly appreciate your suggestions.
Thank you so much for taking the time to help!
Hey r/smallbusiness,
I’m a young entrepreneur researching how to craft a high-value marketing offer for painting companies, specifically in the residential painting industry. I’m not selling anything—just looking to understand real challenges business owners face. If you own a painting business, I’d love your insights!
If you have a minute or two, here are a few key questions:
I’d really appreciate any insights—feel free to comment here or message me directly. Thanks in advance for your time!
Hello Everyone, I own a small business selling digital printable planner inserts, I have a website but now im looking to create a mailing list. What are some options people have used, preferably a low cost one initially that will give the option of expanding as the business grows, any help or advice appreciated.
Building a tool for a business client to validate/flag certain information for compliance reason when customers submits them through their forms and apis. They'll use it to detect:
As I see there are a lot of noise businesses has to deal with. Specially regulated businesses like Lawyers, Healthcare, Reat Estate... who faces extra scrutiny.
Was wondering if you deal with these challenges? How do you deal with customer/vendor submitted information? How much time do you spend weekly on data validation/compliance?
Hi All -
I'm working on my business website which is powered by Square. I've had this set-up for a few years, but haven't had a ton of inventory listed online. My winter project is to get all of my inventory (which is thousands of items) into the system and listed online so customer's can purchase on the web, pick up in store, and I may get into shipping down the road.
Now, the website is constantly "clunky" for lack of a better term when I'm trying to set things up. How I have it set to navigate is pretty standard, there's categories with items that fit within them. Like, say, batteries, you click on batteries and they all come up. Now, what I don't understand is there's not a way to just take the "Battery" category from my Square inventory and put it online as a sort of direct transfer over. The only method I've found is to create a page, make a "Featured Items" section and put everything into it. When this is completed, Square scolds me about having more than 20 items in a category. Some of these categories are going to have over 100 items in them.
I'm trying to make things as easy for my customer's to navigate as possible. If you know what you're looking for, you can use a part number, but browsing is not possible, unless I do what I've been doing all this time. Which is a) a total time suck b) an easy way for items to get missed and c) the site doesn't like it
I know the short answer is to have a site hosted elsewhere, but my inventory, payroll, and well, everything is through Square and this way, if someone purchases an item online, it'll take it out of my inventory, they can pay online through Square's system. It generally is very nice, but this end of it is a horrendous pain in the butt.
Does anyone have any insight? Am I missing something? Am I doing it wrong? Or does Square's interface, in this aspect, just miss the mark by that far?
I'm open to suggestions if you have them.
Thanks!
With TikTok shutting down I'm looking for good places to promote my online shop and products that aren't Meta.
I've seen some people say BlueSky. But I really don't think it's going to be sustainable, BlueSky seems like it'll be a quick fad. And I'm not sure there's that many people on there anyway?
Any other ideas?
Do you believe that most people could set up and successfully run your business if they possessed your domain knowledge and skills?
Alternatively, do you attribute a substantial portion of your success to being fortunate enough to catch a break, or have you benefited from a specific event or situation that most individuals attempting to replicate your success would not have encountered, meaning that most people would not achieve your level of success?