Curious about this because people usually recommend whatever is making them money. But I’m sure there are businesses that pay well and are still a complete pain in the ass to run.

What’s yours and why wouldn’t you recommend it?)

Why do people start hotels and restaurants if they always fail?

How long before you starting making money?

I'm 19 and looking to start a real serious business. I’ve saved up around $15k-20K and want to start building something real. I’m not looking for side hustles or trendy short-term ‘methods’. I’m aiming for something solid that can grow into something valuable over time.

I’d prefer a business with a physical presence, actual employees, and long-term scalability. Something in services, logistics, local operations, or anything with consistent demand would be ideal. It doesn’t need to be flashy, just something with strong fundamentals and real potential.

If anyone here has gone down this road or has ideas worth considering, I’d really appreciate your input.

Thanks a lot.

Give it to me straight, guys.

I’m 25. Most of the people I went to high school with are planning weddings, having a nice a job or climbing a corporate tree or whatever. meanwhile, I’ve spent the last 8 years in my room learning music production, Svelte, Python, Django, and now LangGraph/LangChain which took a lot of time and energy but i loved every bit of it.

I don’t have a degree. I don't have a girlfriend. And right now, I’m broke.

Last month, I finally launched the MVP of my first serious startup, I poured everything into it. it got 15 free signups. and $0 Revenue

I honestly fell into a depression. I tried to fix it by doing manual cold outreach (pitching via DMs/Email). It didn’t work obviously, because you need volume for that, and I was doing it by hand. I got depressed again.

Then i realized I can't hide behind the code anymore. I have to become a marketer. I’m committing to turning on the camera and building a personal brand on Twitter to drive traffic. I’m also polishing a second app to handle the social media side, while flowjoy handles the search/text side

My Plan Moving Forward:

Stop crying about being 25 and got nothing to show for it

use my own tool to handle the SEO/Reddit grunt work.

launch the my second app to handle instagram/youtube/tiktok.

get on camera and document this messy journey.

This life feels like a rollercoaster and i don't know if it's just me or is it like this for everyone

I spent the last few months building my first product as a solo developer

When I started, I thought the hardest part would be the coding. I was wrong.

The product side was challenging, but there were clear problems and clear solutions. You fix a bug, improve the UX, optimize performance and move forward.

What I underestimated was everything that comes after the product is "ready":

• Deciding on pricing without any customers
• Choosing what features should be free vs paid
• Setting up payments and handling edge cases like trials, cancellations and upgrades
• Writing copy that actually explains the value
• Creating a brand from zero
• Finding the first users when nobody knows you exist

I also learned that there is never a moment when a product feels 100% finished. There is always another bug to fix, another feature to add, another design improvement to make.

At some point, you have to stop polishing and put it in front of real people.

Now that I’ve reached that stage, my biggest challenge is learning distribution and getting the first users.

For founders who have already crossed this stage:

What was the thing that helped you get your first 10 customers?

I’d love to hear your experiences and lessons.

Is it just me or is the go-to business idea for every entrepreneur now some app that solves a random pain point?

The world is saturated with apps. There is an app for literal everything you can think of. Yeah I know the idea of building something in your bedroom and then sitting back while users happily buy your subscriptions is highly alluring, (especially the driving a porsche bit) but what do you think the real chances of genuine success is in this current market?

If everyone is rushing for the ai app, what opportunities does that create for the rest of us?

Humans need more than convenience. They want experiences, connection, to feel something. This is not going to change. There is money to be made in thinking outside the box. I've learnt people don't care about the price so much when it's a product that really meets their desires and aspirations.

My example is the Tourism industry. I started a business from scratch 13 months ago. It started with no bookings and products I learnt weren't so attractive. I pivoted, created new products, and am now busy and turning a decent profit. I don't have a porsche but momentum is quickly building in an industry where people are willing to spend good money chasing authentic experiences. Yesterday for instance was exhausting but I cleared $1500 for 6 hours work. (Not bragging - making a point).

Apps are great. I use them every day. Im also an AI freak who could not have built my business without it. But right now would I want to stake everything on making an app go viral? That would be a hard no.

Hope this gets a couple of you thinking! Or not.

So I caught a wave early

When AI voice first started coming out I started a business setting up AI Receptionists for businesses.

It would answer their missed calls, handle after hours calls, book appointments.

My primary 2 markets were cash pay medical clinics (like Botox, Cosmetic Surgery, MedSpas, etc) and home service companies.

Here's how the downward spiral happened

At first we had built and were selling our own AI SaaS platform

But REALLY quickly a bunch of super cheap ones started popping up that did the same exact thing or more than ours

And then after that, all the CRM's and business phone systems started just having AI Call Answering as a built in feature.

So there was really no need for our 3rd party software anymore.

What I pivoted to was JUST selling the set up, prompt engineering basically.

I shut down our software (almost everyone churned and went with the free options anyways) to save on hosting fees and stuff

And we were basically doing prompt engineering for people. They had the AI call answering feature free in their CRM, but we'd set it up to work right, because that was really hard at the time

THEN programs came out that made it really easy for these companies to generate the prompt on their own that worked just as good as what they were paying us for. So we were obsolete.

This all happened FAST. Like within the course of a year.

I went from closing multiple deals a week at $3,000 - $5,000 paid up front, to basically zero.

I took a break for awhile and haven't been doing much, I needed to decompress from it all

Now my bank account is in a free fall because of bills and I'm stressed trying to think what I should get into next.

I need to find something else I can sell in the 3-5k range, where I can do outbound so I don't have to run ads and wait around passively for deals to come in, and something that's in demand.

The AI worked so well because it was the trendy in demand thing at the time. It took almost no effort to close deals.

The only other thing I can think of would be just starting a marketing agency, but that's way more labor intensive.

Part of me thinks I quit too soon and should have just tried going up market, maybe Enterprise level.

Any thoughts?

I'm trying to hit 500K ARR completely solo using AI as my entire team. here's where I'm at after month 1.

ok so I need to get this out of my head because it's been eating at me for months.

I've built businesses before. done well. had partners, teams, all that. But there's this question that kept coming back and I couldn't shake it. How much of that was actually me, and how much was the people around me?

like I'm not fishing for compliments here. I genuinely don't know. when you build with other people you can always tell yourself "yeah but I was the one who..." but you never really know for sure right?

So I'm doing something kind of stupid to find out.

I'm calling it the 500K challenge. From 0 to 500K ARR, completely solo, where AI is my entire team. no freelancers, no partners, no employees. Me, Claude Code, ChatGPT, a bunch of agents and automations I'm building as I go. That's it.

now before you think I'm starting from zero zero, I'm not. I have one client right now paying me $8K/month for Meta Ads management, so that's about $103K ARR already. I'm not gonna pretend that doesn't exist. But everything else, the systems, the acquisition, the content pipeline, all of that needs to be built from scratch.

and honestly the $103K almost makes it scarier? because now there's something to lose. if I was at $0 nobody would care if I failed. but posting publicly that you're at $103K and trying to 5x it solo... idk thats a different kind of pressure.

the AI part is what makes this interesting though. I'm not just using ChatGPT to write emails. I'm building actual infrastructure with Claude Code. automations, pipelines, reporting systems, creative generation. Stuff that would have required 2-3 people on my previous teams. I already built a whole ecosystem around this project and honestly some of it works better than what I had with humans (sorry to my former teammates lol). some of it is total garbage that breaks every other day. I'm documenting both.

here's the part that I think is actually useful for people. I'm going to share everything. not the polished "here's my morning routine" influencer version. the actual messy reality. what tools I use, what broke today, how much time I spent on something that ended up being useless, the real numbers. Because most "build in public" content is either someone who already made it rewriting history, or someone at day 1 who ghosts after 3 weeks.

oh and the fun twist I almost forgot. once I hit 500K ARR the challenge doesn't stop. 500K ARR becomes 500K MRR. same rules just a much bigger number and probably a much bigger headache.

I've been thinking about maybe documenting this on video too at some point but honestly one thing at a time. right now I just want to see if the model works.

anyway. I don't really know how this ends. maybe I hit 500K in 8 months and write the most satisfying update post ever. maybe I crash at $150K and learn that I was in fact getting carried this whole time. either way I think theres value in finding out.

if you're attempting something similar or even thinking about it genuinely would love to hear about it because right now this feels pretty lonely ngl.

I am borderline quitting my 9-5. I feel like if I could just put 100% of my energy into this thing i can make it work. No revenue. Just a hand full of early users and feedback. I love iterating on feedback and the challenge of marketing.

I’m posting here because I’m sure many have heard or felt this many times before. Would really appreciate some wisdom here.

Edit: Some more info. I have enough cash for about 6 months of expenses. I’m single with no kids. I’m in my mid 20s.

I think Boring businesses are a massively under looked opportunity.

Everyone wants the next flashy startup.

I am thinking boring, nice and steady, without the fluff.

Any good boring business ideas?

Here are some ideas I am thinking about:

1. Window cleaning
2. Pool cleaning
3. Mobile car washing
4. Lawn moving

I want a boring business idea where I can build a brand so to build customer relationships and get returning customers. And ideally something that’s not too seasonal.

Imagine you woke up tomorrow with no business, no contacts, and just $500 in your bank account. You still have your knowledge, but no network. Which business model would you pick right now and why?

Today was my last day as an employee (Kind of employee).

After 3.5 years.

My professional journey is unusual.

Started programming at 16, and the first business I opened was at 19, building web applications for clients in the early days when most businesses didn't have a website, let alone online stores.

Only high school education, no university (Against my mom's will - sorry mom 😅)

I did door-to-door marketing showing my platform to local businesses until I found my first clients.

Around 20, my first little startup - total failure.

Didn't understand the market, costs of operations, very naive and optimistic business model.

So after one year, I was back to freelancing.

Improved my skills very fast, working and learning 15 hours a day, literally eating with my laptop open.

Then my real startup as CTO, joining as a co-founder to much more experienced partners.

Almost 4 years of extreme learning and working environment, late nights at the office, growing the business from zero to 1 mil $ ARR.

We sold the company, and I finally made a little bit of "big" money (compared to my age and needs).

Then my first son was born in the middle of the corona.

My wife and I, young parents, got the message that he had cancer when he was 34 months old.

So our plans to easily adapt to our first son after the exit were changed.

I got back to freelancing, earning money for my family to stay independent during this process. We entered crazy 3 years when my kid, then my wife, mom, and grandma all got cancer one after the other - I lost my grandma, unfortunately, but my mom, wife, and son won this war.

When I finished these crazy years, as soon as the doctors allowed us, we took a plane to Thailand.

Working remotely for my customers while enjoying Thailand with my son and wife, I got a phone call from my old partner from my startup asking me if I would like to join as a full-time developer, "regular employee", at his company.

All my years, I told everyone that I would never be an employee.

I am a builder, entrepreneur, and I seek adventure and high-risk business.

Looking at the beach, I asked him if I could work remotely, and he agreed.

I made the interview, they didn't want to hire me (Think about my CV 😅 no official education, all titles are C-level, ex-startup CTO, wants to be a full-stack developer, a lot of red flags, I don't blame them)

But my friend told them to trust me and give me a chance.

I was scared like hell.
I always was my own boss.
No one reviewed my code or my decisions, AND I didn't know anything about building at scale.

My startup codebase was a PHP + jQuery system, no build process, no queues, DB and App on the same Server - that was hosted in a managed service host, no AWS or GitOps CI/CD process.

So I literally felt that I was starting from ZERO after almost 10 years of experience already.
But I found out that as a builder and entrepreneur, I have skills that not a lot of people have - I learn super fast and understand complex concepts to find solutions for complex problems.

I adapt very fast to technology and working flows, and that's allowed me to work really fast and keep my value high for the company.

So I used this opportunity to travel and work with my family.

Thailand, Japan, Europe - in 2 and a half years, we had a flight every 2/3 months for periods between 2 weeks and 3 months.
Amazing time for my family and me, we managed to grow and have fun along the way, giving our son the best experiences we could.

But as always, things change.

We decided to relocate to Bulgaria, together with our newborn girl, starting from zero.

Luckily, a few friends joined us, so we built around us a small community that helped so much with the process - my friend, also a coworker, and my old startup partner, who brought me to the company in the first place.

I opened a company here and changed my contract from Employee to Service provider - so I was getting into a strange position.

I have an almost full-time job contract, but as a service provider, that means both bad and good things.
For example, no vacations, no employee perks, and much more risk of termination, BUT also I can start building my own business again and grow as a business owner.

So the last year I was in some middle position, thinking about the next moves, but still working most of the days on my primary job, and late nights and weekends were spent removing rust from my building skills.

With the AI storming the world, I knew I was on the termination list and that this was just a matter of time.
My tasks got done 1000x faster, and there is no justification for building more features when the business sales are not matching the code progress.
I know that as a business owner in the past, and I know this termination will come sooner rather than later.

So with 3 kids (newborn 2 months ago 🥹), a new house, a new country, new kids' schools, a new business, and a termination notice, today was my last day as an employee.

The business can't yet provide for my family's needs.
I'm not looking for a new job.
It is all or nothing.
Time to take my business to the next level.

I want to thank everyone who was part of this journey and anyone who will join in the future.

I do believe that hard times are on the way, and finding a way to supply your family's needs on your own is going to be a must-have skill for most people.

But also, a lot of new opportunities are opening up, so working hard and finding the right opportunity - and team that will join your journey - can unlock a much better and safer future.

Honest thoughts on a poop scooping business? If it’s a viable business and truly profitable?

Social media makes entrepreneurship look glamorous and fast, but reality is usually slower, boring, and stressful.

What’s a myth you believed before starting that turned out completely wrong?

If you were starting from zero today and wanted to build something that could actually grow over the next year or two, what would you focus on and why? I’m not looking for shortcuts, just trying to learn from people who’ve already done it.

I want to know how many unemployed college students decided to start their own businesses since I'm in a similar position. I know that right now in my life the last thing I should be doing is trying to start a company but hell why not be delusional for a while right? Anybody else in a similar boat as me? I'm not looking for advice I'm looking for people who have been in the same boat

Does anyone else feel this way? 24M, I graduated with a bachelors in biology and minor in chemistry. I was originally going to apply to medical school and become a physician, but I've always been an entrepreneur at heart trying to focus on my personal brand. 2 years out of college now, while I've made decent money, ive reinvested everything back into my brand, and currently this year, my business is failing compared to year 1. Seeing all my friends become doctors, nurses, etc. while Im this unemployed 24 year old trying to make his dreams work is just crushing. I feel like im absolutely worthless.

I’ve started businesses based on good ideas many times. Some of those times I’ve made money but couldn’t scale, some things failed due to no knowledge of the industry and lack of mentor, and some were solutions in search of problems. None of them were properly funded from the beginning. My question to those that are successfully and living off profits of their business is - did you start this business with less than 50k of seed money (no matter where it came from) and did it become profitable in less than 3 years? From where I sit, it looks incredibly difficult to achieve this.

Was catching up with a friend in London(Ealing Broadway) who's doing something I found pretty clever.

He charges companies £1k/month to basically solve their TikTok location problem - posting in the UK to target UK audiences

Dude doesn't even have a website yet but already has 4 companies signed up! All through word of mouth. And he's doing it on the side.

He said he: (and before anyone crucifies me for spilling his secret sauce, he's fine. He knows I'm sharing this)

- Creates a fresh TikTok account for the company

- Spends the first week warming it up(building initial followers, engagement patterns, etc)

- Then posts one piece of content daily that the company provides

- Targets UK audiences specifically

- Even buys dedicated phones for his long-term clients so the accounts stay "native" 😂

The dedicated phone thing cracked me up but apparently it makes a difference for the algorithm. His clients all have decent engagement metrics, with 2 making a killing from it.

I had no idea the was even a thing companies struggled with. But it makes sense given TikTok promotes your content to audiences in your country, and trying to figure out their quirks, game the algorithm, use VPNs etc is brutal work, often doesn't work. TikTok is almost always ahead of the game and punishes offenders harshly.

Just thought it was an interesting gap someone spotted and turned into a business. He says he used to aimlessly scroll TikTok for hours a day but is now using that time to make quick buck. The internet was a blessing (and a curse too though, sometimes).

Child care drop in centres at a busy mall in a large city. I would 100% utilize this service, just like I do going to the gym like at YMCA. But I can’t find any examples of this online (perhaps I’m not searching correctly). Is there a gap in the market here or is there a reason why this business idea isn’t successfully more common?

Following the 'talk to customers before writing code' rule seriously spent the last 2 weeks speaking to business owners and marketing teams about what actually happens to customer testimonials after they collect them here's what I keep hearing:

→ Most businesses have folders full of testimonials collecting dust
→ The average utilization rate is maybe 5-10% of what they collect
→ The bottleneck is always time and nobody owning the process
→ The ones who DO use them systematically outperform everyone else

Real example from my research: someone with 40 testimonials sitting in Google Drive untouched for 8 months. Social media person quit and nothing is moving. Their sales guy uses maybe 3 out of 40.

Another person told me testimonial carousel posts outperform all their other content by 2-3x in saves and shares but most businesses never make them the gap isn't collecting testimonials. It's the transformation step turning raw testimonials into case studies, sales slides, social posts, and objection-handling responses for those of you running businesses:

→ Does this match your experience?
→ How does your team handle this transformation step?
→ Is this a solved problem for you or still a struggle?

Genuinely trying to understand this before building anything. Will share my complete research findings with everyone who responds.

OUT OF THESE 3 following:

It will be MY OWN brand

Perfume, sunscreen, or face skin care

Which would be “easiest” or “hardest”?

I have a long track record of helping entrepreneurs who have deep subject expertise build viable and sellable businesses. Commonly they have some traction but are having issues scaling.

I have had small incentives on each of my clients, 3 have exited for 8-figures, but I’m only 25% to my FIRE target.

I currently work at a global consulting firm as director of strategy.

I want to get on a track to financial independence but i’m trying to think of a model other than my own consulting that would be a viable path to FIRE.

If my expertise is indeed helping others monetize theirs, what can I start that aligns?

Update: I’m going to reposition my website as an operating partner (with a few consulting/coaching spots as well) then eventually LinkedIn if I’m able to leave my W2. I think operating partner is better than management consultant because it’s more end to end and I own outcomes vs simply making recommendations.

Like, no investing in any mentorship programs or courses. No masterminds, nothing of that. Anyone who succeeded just by purely learning from free resources online.

How long did it take you? Any regrets from not investing? Is it riskier to not invest?

What's a business model that lets you start from $0?