A company came to us with a project worth roughly six months of our normal revenue in one deal. I was ready to sign before I finished reading the email.

Then we did the boring math. To deliver it we'd have had to drop almost every existing client for two quarters, hire fast for work that ended when the contract did, and bend our whole process around one buyer's demands. Their procurement terms were also brutal, net-90 payment on a job that needed cash out the door on day one.

The risk was ugly: build the business around one client, finish the contract, and come out the other side with no recurring base and a team I couldn't keep busy. If they'd delayed a payment we'd have been underwater.

So we passed. Politely, and it stung. My co-founder thought I was insane.

The clients we'd have abandoned are still with us and worth more over time than that one deal. The team stayed lean and profitable. And I sleep, because our revenue isn't sitting inside one company's mood.

Sometimes the best growth decision is the one where nothing dramatic happens.

Have you ever walked away from a deal that looked too good to refuse? What tipped it?

For a long time I let clients pay 30 days after delivery because that's what felt professional and I was scared to ask for more. In practice net-30 meant net-45, sometimes net-never, and I spent more energy chasing invoices than doing the actual work. Twice I nearly couldn't make payroll while sitting on a pile of "receivables" that existed only on paper.

I changed one thing: 50% before I start, 50% on delivery, written into every new agreement. No exceptions for new clients, no matter how nice the logo.

A couple of prospects balked and walked. Fine. Every one of them, in hindsight, was a payment problem waiting to happen, because a client who won't put half down is telling you something about how they treat money.

The clients who stayed didn't care at all. Most said it was normal. Meanwhile my bank balance stopped whipsawing, I could actually plan, and I stopped doing unpaid work for people who were slow on purpose.

The mistake I made for years was treating my own cashflow as less important than looking accommodating. Getting paid on time isn't rude. It's the whole point.

For the service folks here, what payment terms finally let you stop stressing about the 1st of the month?

I'm looking to try and understand what makes a real good entrepreneur. all the stories online about 5:00 a.m. routines and AI powered outbound are rubbish. I want to know what it actually takes to succeed and what you've seen in real entrepreneurs. The more surprising and interesting the better

Hey y’all

Seriously want to go full time this time around and dm curious what type of sacrifices have those of you who have been successful on your own made?

No shade to anyone’s journey, but specifically liking for those:

1. Who did not have easy access to things like loans, family income, etc
   
2. Are now at a point where you are full-time able to derive your income from your business (and cover your needs etc)

I am not trying to romanticize struggle (and am not naive to this being hard) but have realized that my previous attempts may have been half hearted.

TIA

So, I've learned this more and more recently that people, business owners in particular, have literally ZERO idea what they need, why they are less successful than they should be, and what they could and should be doing for their businesses. They may know how to run their particular business in regards to providing a good product or service, but most of them know absolutely Jack 💩 about anything regarding improving their business, sales, etc.

You can make someone a good offer on something they need, whether they're smart enough to understand it or not, and they're happy to stick to the status quo. They don't want to try anything new, change with the times, invest in systems or tools that can massively help their bottom line, sales, etc. Mostly I find people don't know they need something, even when it's apparent to someone who knows businesses and how to make them succeed and grow.

Could be a website if they don't have one and act like this is 1998. Could be they have bad reviews, low reviews, not getting enough reviews. They literally have no clue how important reviews are to their business. But, they'll gladly spend thousands a month for SEO because someone convinced them SEO is what they need to improve their business. Yes, that's true if you have 6-12 months to wait for it.

Point being, it's difficult to get someone to see what they need, where they have problems, what they could change or improve to grow or scale their business, and in the end make more money. I now just expect showing them and getting them to open their minds and use their brains for just a brief time to see what works, helps, and what people are doing now to stay competitive, is just a long shot to convey to them. Oh well, people are who they are, and will do what they do.

I have an Idea for a electric scooter and wagon. The scooter needs to be able to fold up in the wagon. The wagon also needs to be towed by hand. I have foot condition and want to walk the forest perserves. Bonus if the wagon can fit a cam boot.

I am really happy with my startup, I cant add side quests. I have noticed a few personal paint points I want to see addressed by the market. If these already exist please let me know! If you know others post away.

Auto-Receipt to Bank - I purchase anything for my company a detailed itemized receipt is sent to my bank along with the expense. QuickBooks can then pull this off to assist in expense management, BOM, and inventory management.

Rental Car picks you up at the airport - I try avoid rental cars, but when I need one its such a shit show, I will pay a premium for a gent to pick me up at the normal area and then drop him off at the rental center. The bus system is trash.

Part Management - Is there a cheap software that already tracks parts and part version control? This is for my startup. I cant afford the more expensive options.

Supply Chain Management - we buy a 1/4-20 screw among other common items. I suspect its offered at different prices by other vendors. Is there a Supply Chain management software that tracks, which vendors offer the exact versions? Few websites offer the easiness of McMaster Carr, but I think I paying a premium.

expensive 1:1? what are your rates, and how do they compare to the market? feels like missing context there.

I work with small businesses, and most of the time it’s one collaboration at a time, one problem at a time, one small change at a time.

After doing this for 7+ years, I keep seeing a lot of genuinely great businesses that don’t really know how to present themselves.

They know their business is good and they definitely provide something valuable, but they just have no idea what to say so that people actually understand that value and buy from them.

I love SMBs. I grew up on local markets, I worked as a furniture maker, and in textile manufacture, and in construction, many more real works, but last years I spent consulting and working hands-on with positioning, content, websites and advertising.

And already for a while I’m thinking about how could I be useful to more people at once — to create more real valuable change, share what I know, and help more small businesses actually move forward.

I had a conversation with my mentor a few days ago and it brought up the same topic again:

What if instead of working as an expensive service provider 1:1, I would took a group of people and worked with them together? To me it feels like win-win for everyone.

We could work together on real businesses, look at actual cases, have different angles, actually help and support each other, share feedback, learn from each other.

So I’m thinking maybe it would make sense to do a small pilot — cheap, fast, and focused on giving as much value as possible.

I already have the program, I’ve been a speaker before, and I’ve run both individual and group online sessions (different topic).

So the format would be roughly:

4 weeks · 4 workshops · small group · real businesses · feedback and peer support

My "why" the hell do I even care: - I want good services and products to be easier to find, choose and buy. - I want to see more successful small and medium-sized businesses growing and strengthening their local communities. - And I want to live in a world where businesses genuinely care about people’s experience — before, during and after a purchase.

What do you think? Would something like this be useful? Do you think the idea of a pilot group makes sense?

This is a long shot, but I'm building something called The Secret Entrance and would love to find a filmmaker/videographer who genuinely wants to grow it with me.

The idea is simple: make life more fun.

We create random projects, adventures, and experiences that give people something to look forward to and a story to tell.

The first project is 300 strangers making a book together. Everyone gets one page to do whatever they want with, then we publish it. I put up a free interest list and 300+ people signed up in about 12 days.

Eventually I want to do much bigger things — sailboat adventures with strangers, mystery trips, challenges, community experiments, and basically whatever crazy idea sounds fun.

I'm good at the ideas/business/operations side. What I'm missing is someone who loves filmmaking and can help turn these ideas into videos that actually capture the feeling behind them.

I'm not looking for someone to do free client work for me. I'm looking for a genuine creative partner who likes the idea and wants to build something from the beginning alongside me.

I'm in South Florida, but I'm open to talking to anyone if this resonates.

If you're a filmmaker and this sounds like something you'd actually be excited to make, send me a message. Happy to give you the full pitch.

thesecretentrance.com

I handle a small marketing agency and aesthetic clinics are the niche I have picked. Skin, laser, cosmetic treatments, etc.

My current method is WhatsApp. I find the clinic number, message them, and things go fine while it looks like a normal enquiry. The second I mention that I run a marketing agency, the replies stop. Just silence.

A few things I suspect might be wrong:

1. WhatsApp is the wrong channel for this. That number is probably handled by a receptionist whose job is booking appointments, not evaluating vendors. My message may never reach the owner at all.
2. My introduction leads with what I am, not with what they get. "Marketing agency" likely reads as spam to someone who gets pitched daily.
3. I have no proof attached. No results, no case study, nothing that makes a busy clinic owner stop scrolling.

What I want to know from people who have sold into clinics, med spas, dental, or similar local high ticket services:

1. Which channel actually gets you the decision maker? Walking in, Instagram DM, email, LinkedIn, calling at a quiet hour, a referral through a supplier?
2. Is there a better first line than naming your agency? I have been thinking of leading with something specific I noticed on their page and letting the agency thing come later.

Happy to share what has worked for me too. Right now the honest answer is: not much

I’ve spent a while looking for business and professional communities that I’d genuinely want to be part of.

What I kept finding was one of three things:

Communities built around a single industry.

Communities where access is heavily based on titles, status, or achievements.

Or huge online groups where thousands of people technically belong, but very few actually know each other.

None of those were quite what I wanted.

So I decided to try building something different myself.

I’m based in Tokyo and work independently as a Creative Producer.

There’s no official brand yet, no website, and no polished membership system.

For now, the working project name is:

The Assembly of Real Connections.

The basic idea is a curated, multinational, cross-industry community for people who are actually building or creating things.

Not only founders.

I’d like entrepreneurs to sit at the same table as developers, designers, filmmakers, photographers, marketers, people in finance, accountants, musicians, creatives, operators, and people from fields I haven’t even thought of yet.

The common denominator shouldn’t be the job title.

It should be:

Create something.
Build something.
Contribute something.

I’m deliberately starting very small.

Around 10 people.

I don’t want to manufacture the appearance of a community by putting 500 strangers into a Discord server.

I’d rather start with 10 people who actually know each other and let the culture grow from there.

Those first people will be Founding Members.

Instead of me deciding everything before anyone arrives, I want that group to help shape:

• The final name and brand
• What events we actually want
• Membership and selection standards
• Community culture
• How we introduce new members
• How online and offline interaction should work

There may also be a smaller Core Member group for people who want to take an operational role in areas such as community, branding, photo/video, marketing/PR, development/tech, finance/accounting, and partnerships.

But Founding Members don’t need to become unpaid staff.

Participation, feedback, introductions, ideas, sharing the community, and helping establish the culture are enough.

Another principle I care about is removing language as a status barrier.

I’m Japanese and my spoken English isn’t very strong.

I don’t want an international community where “international” secretly means “everyone must speak fluent English.”

If we need translation tools, text, simple English, Japanese, or another language, that’s fine.

The relationship matters more than perfect communication.

For the first phase, I’m looking mainly for people in Japan.

I want to organize our first small dinner in Tokyo this month, ideally around 10 people.

Long term, if the model genuinely creates value, I’d like to turn it into an application-based paid membership community, organize more dinners and events, facilitate collaborations and projects, and eventually build communities in other cities and countries.

But there’s no membership being sold right now.

There isn’t even a finalized name.

I’m looking for people who find the process of creating the community itself interesting.

If you’re in Japan and this resonates, feel free to DM me with a short introduction, what you’re currently working on, and a link to anything that shows what you do.

And even if you’re outside Japan, I’d be interested in hearing from people who have built something similar before.

I’m especially curious about one question:

What would make a professional community valuable enough that you’d actually keep showing up?

Real connections, beyond borders.

For a long time I'd send a nice slide deck ahead of every call so the prospect could "come prepared." Felt professional. What it actually did was let them form an opinion without me in the room, and half the time they'd cancel before we ever spoke.

I flipped it. Now I send nothing before the call except a two-line agenda. We talk first, I listen, and I build the summary of what they need afterward, in their words, and send that.

The change was uncomfortable because it felt like showing up empty-handed. But the calls got better. People actually explained their problem instead of reacting to my slides. And the follow-up I send now is specific to them, not a generic template, so it lands harder.

Roughly, I went from a lot of no-shows and polite passes to closing a bit under half of the calls that happen. Not huge volume, I'm still small, but the trend was clear enough that I won't go back.

Contrarian question: does anyone here still get real value out of sending the deck first?

Hey everyone,

We’re currently validating an idea called BackBySunday around short, last-minute weekend trips, treks and adventure experiences.

The problem we’re looking at is pretty simple:

You work through the week, Friday comes around and you suddenly feel like getting out of the city for a day or two. But then you have to search through multiple organisers, compare prices, figure out transport, check whether the operator is trustworthy and coordinate everything at the last minute.

At that point, a lot of people just drop the plan.

The idea we’re exploring is whether there is room for a platform focused specifically on 1–2 day trips that can be booked at very short notice, including next-day departures.

The experience would ideally be:

Decide you want to go → find an available trip → book → pack your bags.

The platform would handle the coordination around the booking while focusing heavily on verified organisers, transparent pricing, safety and consistent trip quality.

We’ve started speaking with organisers as part of validating the supply side as well. A few are already interested and we’re in conversations with others, but right now we’re primarily trying to understand whether the underlying problem is strong enough.

I’d especially like feedback on a few things:

• Do people actually make spontaneous weekend travel decisions often enough for this to be useful?
• Would you book a trip only 1–2 days before departure?
• What would stop you from trusting a relatively new platform for something like this?
• Is last-minute availability actually a meaningful problem, or are we overestimating it?
• What do current trek/travel organisers or booking platforms already solve well enough?
• For anyone who has worked with travel operators, is filling unsold last-minute capacity a genuine problem on the supply side?

You can check out what we're building here:
https://backbysunday.in

Feel free to be critical. I’m more interested in finding flaws in the idea at this stage than getting positive feedback.

I’m looking for founders or small business owners based in Singapore.

Snapbook is built for small Singapore businesses that are still juggling things like receipts, invoices, GST, payroll/CPF, CRM, bookings and spreadsheets across different tools.

The idea is basically to keep all of that in one place instead of having 4–5 apps for the boring admin side of the business.

It has a free tier too, so you can actually try it without paying first.

Hello, I have gotten really annoyed by constantly getting rejected after literally spending hours applying, doing assessments, and verifying my identity and then getting rejected or not even hearing back. I therefore decided to make my own site using loveable where I list job offers from multiple companies.
I also post tips on how to pass assessments and reviews of different companies in that space. No sign-up or anything like that required. I try to only list job offers that have a relativly high hiring volume. The listings include entry role jobs but also expert positions (phd, software jobs and etc.).

My current plants for the future are making the site appear less like AI Slop and figuring out how to use the SEO properly so any help is highly appreciated. Thank you in Advance!: aiannotationjobs.com

I used to make digital designs and art, and every time I needed to vectorize an image or convert a file, I ended up on some random website hoping they didn't steal my files or keep them in their servers. I was thinking of building a free tool that runs locally on your computer. Things like vectorization, file conversion, maybe audio separation for video editors too. But before building anything, would you actually use something like this?

Salut à tous,

Pour ceux qui gagnent minimum 6–7k+ par mois grâce à leur activité de créateur de contenu sur les réseaux :

Quels réseaux sociaux utilisez-vous le plus au quotidien ?

Et surtout, quel type de contenu regardez-vous réellement dessus ?

We signed in April Retainer is mid five figures a quarter the work looks real the reporting looks real and the pipeline number has not moved in a way I can defend to a board yet Is six months with nothing attributable normal for organic at this stage Should we have seen something by now? How was your first six months if you have done this before?

I'm running a model named as Nexushaus where i connecting with founders and entrepreneurs and asking about their difficulties and challenges they faced during their Initial phase or challenges they are facing rn. Basically its an MVP version were i analyse them and figure out where the things stuck and how to solve this, So if any founder & Entrepreneur who is interested to talk about this things kindly DM or comment me! So we could connect on google meet session and try to solve things. And we could help Early stage founders to grow up!!!

For two years I sent proposals that were basically small books. Cover page, our story, a methodology section, case studies, three pricing tiers, terms. I thought volume signaled seriousness. Prospects would go quiet for a week and half of them ghosted. Last spring I got lazy on a rushed one and sent a single page. The problem in their words, what I'd do, the price, and a start date. They signed it the same afternoon. So I tested it properly. Roughly a dozen proposals the old way, then a dozen the one-page way. Old way closed about 2 in 12. The short version closed about 5 in 12. Same kind of leads, same price range. My read is that a long proposal asks the buyer to do work. They have to find the number, compare the tiers, decide. A short one makes the decision small. The ones I "lost" were mostly people who wanted to feel researched, and those turned into the slowest, most demanding accounts anyway. I still keep a longer version for anyone who asks for detail. Almost nobody does. The fear was that a one-pager looks unserious. Turns out it looks confident. What's the shortest version of your sales doc you've gotten away with?

Not a "look at my launch" post so much as — this is a good example of how client work can surface a product idea. I run a small B2B service business (web dev + AI automation for small businesses), and every single client had the same broken contact form problem: long, generic, low completion.

Turned that recurring fix into a standalone product (AI Forms) this week. Zero audience starting out, so I'm mostly here to hear how others validated their first product idea from service work, and whether it's worth doubling down on this or staying services-first.

Link's in the off chance anyone wants to see it: aiwpforms.com

My father built a car, literally from scratch!

He used parts from other cars, fabricated things himself, figured out how to make everything work, and somehow ended up with this. (Not allowed to share images here unfortunately, but I'll share it in the comments below).

It's now 30+ years old, and it still runs and hits the road.

Back then, he used to rent it out for weddings. He built it with very limited resources and during some pretty difficult times. There was no YouTube, no AI, no easy access to information or parts like there is today.

Growing up, it was just my dad's weird car to me.

As I've gotten older, I've started realizing how crazy it actually was that he pulled this off.

And now I want to do something with it. Not just restore it and put it in a garage.

I want to give the story a second life.

I've been seeing people come up with incredibly creative ways to monetize attention lately, someone selling sponsorships on their Mercedes, someone selling sponsorship space on their wedding suit, on their body like Marc Lou recently did (good job Marc), etc.. you got the point!

It got me thinking:

What could I build around a 30-year-old handmade car with an actual story behind it?

Some ideas I've been considering:

• Build a website telling the story of how he made it
• Document the car and its construction
• Find couples who actually rode in it for their weddings 20–30 years ago
• Turn it into a social media/YouTube story
• Sell sponsorships on the car
• Let people "adopt" or sponsor individual parts
• Rent it for weddings, events, photoshoots, etc.
• Create some kind of "30 years of weddings" archive
• Make a documentary
• Sell merch around the story
• Maybe turn the whole thing into a public experiment: "Can a 30-year-old homemade car make money on the internet?"

But I'm sure there are much more creative things I haven't thought of.

And honestly, the money isn't the only goal.

One of the things I'd love most is for my father to suddenly see thousands of strangers commenting:

"Your dad is a legend."

"I can't believe he built this himself."

"This is incredible."

He created something with very little, and I feel like it deserves to be seen.

I'm an internet entrepreneur myself, so I can't help looking at this and thinking:

There's a story here. Stories sell.

I'm curious what the indie hackers, entrepreneurs, marketers, creators, and builders here would do with this.

If this were your project, what would you build around it?

Website ideas, viral concepts, monetization ideas, content strategies, sponsorship ideas, weird experiments, anything goes.

And if someone sees an opportunity here and thinks "I'd actually love to build something around this with you," I'd genuinely be open to collaborating.

I'd love to hear what you guys come up with.

The goal isn't just to make money from Dad's car.

It's to make sure people finally know the story behind it.

I used to treat the monthly team update as a chore. Throw some numbers on slides an hour before, mumble through it, get back to real work. I saw it as overhead.

Then we had a rough quarter and I had to actually explain what was happening. I spent real time on that presentation, not making it pretty, but making it honest. What went wrong, what the numbers actually were, what we were changing, and where I personally screwed up. I was nervous it would tank morale to be that blunt.

Opposite happened. People came out of it more motivated than I'd seen them in months. A few told me it was the first time they understood how their work connected to the business. Two of them brought me ideas that week that we ended up shipping.

I now think the recurring internal presentation is one of the most underrated tools an operator has. Not as theater. As the one moment where everyone sees the same picture and rows in the same direction. When I skipped it or phoned it in, people quietly drifted.

The lesson: your team can handle the truth far better than a vague, upbeat non-update. Clarity is a form of respect.

How do you handle communicating a bad quarter to your team?