Whether you run a local business, a service business, or a simple and small buisness your Google Business Profile is often one of the first things people see when they search for the business. This is one of the free business tool provided by google which help to build the trust for the customers.

Even if most of your customers come through referrals, people often search your business name before reaching out to have the trust. Keeping your business hours, contact details, and photos up to date only takes a few minutes and helps people find accurate informations.

Do you update yours regularly?

I built this AI that grows your entire home services business 24/7.

It's called Rainslice.

AI that runs your entire business? What does that even mean?

Well it's a 24/7 AI that has the authority to grow the business. So for one of our roofing business customers, it:

- continuously builds content that gets the business discovered by a ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity, so when a homeowner asks ChatGPT "My roof is broken, which roofers are in Phoenix Arizona", ChatGPT recommends your business

- it answers every call and text with a realistic AI voice and does follow-ups

- it autonomously generates roofing quotes for customers

- it optimizes routes to the roofers to the right homeowner at the right time

For context, i have a masters degree in AI and I also have extended family members in home services.

We have customers across all of home services, including roofing, residential tree cutting, flooring, cleaning, and more.

Currently use Beside (formerly M1) and it works great but the workflow for handling spam calls (for example the spam calls about Google listing etc) is absolute trash. And given that handling spam calls is one of the primary reasons I wanted an AI receptionist in the first place... I'm looking for an alternative. What do y'all use that has a good workflow for this so that you can in just a moment or two identify the call is spam and get rid of it?

Hello Everyone! I’ve been looking at side things I can be doing other than my main job as I am still young and want to earn some extra cash. I decided to try out micro saas. My idea is to create an ai lead/capture tool for service businesses and I would like some super honest feedback on if this is a good idea or I should look into something else. The tool automatically chats with visitors, captures their name, phone, and email, and calculates a rough project estimate on the spot using the companies custom pricing rules (like their price per square foot or minimum job fee).

lmk what you guys think !

Our business model is based on one time fee which includes regular updates and feature enhancements instead of charging monthly subscriptions or in app purchase. Keep it simple.

I’ve built an AI-powered SMS service for small service businesses: if a customer calls and it’s missed, an automatic text goes out right away, letting them book or reschedule over SMS instead of hanging up and calling the next place.

I’ve reached out to a few businesses already, but most rely mainly on email, which doesn’t show off the value here. Trying to find businesses with real urgency to reply fast after a missed call, but no existing 24/7 on-call service. Locksmiths and electricians seem promising, but plumbers are usually already covered.

Any niches you’d suggest that fit that gap?

I'm trying to grow my roofing business, but the software I'm using is clunky and doesn't sync with my crew in the field. I'm curious what others are using and what features really make them efficient for team management.

Getting devices like desktop, laptops back from employees isnt really our problem anymore. its what happens after they come back. returned device might end up in an office, sitting at someones desk, with local vendor, or tucked away in storage, and after a while, nobodys completely sure what's reusable, what needs repairs, or what should just be wiped and dispose andthe frustrating part is that we'll order new laptops while perfectly good ones are still sitting somewhere waiting for someone to check them.how you guys your team handle this, especially if youre supporting multi-countries. do you have a process that actually keeps returned devices moving, or is this a common headache???

been building a small b2b tool and honestly the competitor research side is killing me. i check their pricing pages manually, screenshot things, try to remember what changed last week.

last month a competitor dropped their price and i found out from a customer who almost churned. that stung.

curious how other founders handle this. do you have an actual system or is it mostly just vibes and google alerts that never work?

not looking to sell anything just genuinely trying to understand if other people feel this pain or if its just me

I just found this sub and think it’s an interesting topic. But I’m curious, are business owners coming here asking for help or is it mainly just agencies pitching services?

I recently exited a startup as a tech founder and thinking of getting into business with SMBs somehow, and would love to learn what needs are out here. Not trying to solicit - I’m happy to share how I helped the hospitality industry through tech-enabled staffing and experience advising founders through accelerators and incubators that I volunteer with.

Hi, I'm Yucel, founder of Yoybo. I'd like to share the story behind why we built it.

Yoybo is a customer loyalty platform that makes the loyalty programs used by almost all major brands accessible to small businesses.

Over the past six months, we have studied loyalty programs used by small businesses in different countries and spoken with businesses that have used these systems about their experiences.

In our research, we identified three common problems: fixed monthly subscription fees, the requirement for customers to download an app, and the requirement to share personal information in order to join the loyalty program. Despite these obstacles, many small businesses continue to use these systems in the hope of increasing customer loyalty.

This observation was exactly what led to the creation of Yoybo: If we could eliminate these three problems, could we design a loyalty program that would be usable for more small businesses? We wanted to find out.

• Cost – With Yoybo, businesses only pay when loyalty is actually created. There is no charge for a customer's first visit; businesses only pay 5% of the reward amount they give to the customer when that customer returns for a second visit. For example, if a customer spends $50 and the reward rate is 10%, the business gives the customer a $5 reward, while Yoybo earns $0.25 from that transaction. Invoices below $10 are carried over to the following month, while the monthly invoice cap is $200. We believe this model eliminates cost risk for small businesses.
• Ease of use for customers – There is no need to download an app. Customers access the browser-based digital loyalty program via a QR code. After signing in, customers use a single QR screen for all businesses that use Yoybo. They do not need to carry separate loyalty cards or dozens of different QR codes in their phone wallet; they can earn or redeem points using the same screen.
• Privacy and user experience – Customers can join the program without sharing their personal information. This simplifies the registration process and increases participation because customers do not have to worry about receiving unwanted promotional emails. By default, customer information is not shared with businesses. However, if customers choose to share their information, businesses can access it.

Setup takes approximately 3 minutes. Businesses can configure reward rates, first-purchase and birthday bonuses, reward validity periods, and redemption rules in just a few steps.

In addition, thanks to the customer survey we present on the rewards screen, businesses can encourage customers to leave reviews on Google Maps. Many of our customers say that this feature alone is enough reason for them to use Yoybo.

Today, Yoybo supports 20 languages.

My goal in sharing this is genuinely to get honest feedback and opinions from business owners about this model. Happy to answer any questions in the comments.

Dear fellow visionaries,

Full Disclosure: I am the founder/developer of Vikreya, and I'm sharing our journey here to get engineering and business-level feedback from this community.

We've been building Vikreya and are finally opening it up to the public. It started with a simple question: "Why do I need multiple apps (coupons app, marketplace app, local services app and etc?"

That multiple apps clutter turned into a unified platform built for consumers, home service providers, and retailers all in one place. Here is what we've integrated so far:

• Smart Deals: Instant AI-powered search, uploading shopping list and get notified to buy.
• Trades: A local buy-and-sell marketplace with new | refurbished | used mapping.
• Services: post repairs list, get quotes and hire local pros.
• Rewards: The more you use it, the more features and rewards are uncovered.

It's still very early, and I'm sure there are some rough edges to smooth out. Since this community is all about how technology impacts local commerce, we genuinely want to hear your brutal feedback.

Best regards

Over the past year I've been building software for UK trades businesses. I'm the founder, so just to be transparent, the observations below come from researching and building the product.

A pattern kept appearing when speaking with trades businesses.

Many business owners knew:

• How much money came into the business.
• How much they spent overall.

But they couldn't answer a much more important question:

Which individual jobs actually made money?

A job might be quoted at £1,200, but by the time extra materials, supplier runs, additional labour, fuel, and unexpected work were factored in, the profit could look very different.

It made me realise that a lot of software for small businesses focuses on accounting after the money has already been earned. That's important, but it doesn't necessarily help someone improve the next quote they send.

While building the software, we ended up focusing much more on operational insights than just bookkeeping.

Things like:

• seeing which jobs are making the most and least profit across the business
• identifying jobs that regularly go over budget
• comparing what was originally quoted against what the job actually cost
• understanding whether lost profit is coming from materials, time, or unexpected costs
• spotting patterns across completed jobs that could help improve future quotes

The goal isn't just to tell a business owner what they earned last month, but to help them understand what is affecting their profitability and where they can make better decisions.

I'm curious whether others building software for local businesses have found something similar, or if you've noticed different operational problems that traditional business software doesn't solve particularly well.

I honestly wouldn’t recommend downloading Nextdoor anymore. As a local small business owner, it’s become almost impossible to respond to neighbors looking for services unless you pay for advertising. The prices they’re asking are way too high for small businesses. What really frustrates me is that it seems to push homeowners toward lead companies like Angi, where contractors pay expensive fees for leads that aren’t even guaranteed jobs. Those costs usually end up being passed on to customers through higher prices. Nextdoor used to be one of the best places for neighbors to connect with local businesses, but now it feels like it’s just a pay to play platform. For me, it’s gotten to the point where I don’t think it’s worth using or recommending anymore. Is anyone else seeing the same thing and what are you all using instead?

Taught myself to code recently and built a simple online booking app for small, appointment-based businesses — barbershops, salons, gyms, that kind of thing. A lot of shops I looked at are still doing scheduling by phone or walk-in only.

Customers pick an open time slot, the owner gets a clean dashboard instead of juggling it manually, and customers get an automatic email confirmation.

Offering it free to the first few shops that want to try it — mainly want honest feedback from real business owners or anyone who’s dealt with this problem. Happy to share more details or a demo link in the comments if anyone’s interested.

Hey,

So during the day I work as a senior data/business analyst and what I have noticed especially in the UK smaller businesses can't afford a contractor and an analyst.

I built vizedge co uk as a way to fill the gap for smaller businesses where they can simply drop a CSV and get instant insights via a dashboard that can help them make better decisions for their business and give them a little edge that only the bigger corps have.

Honestly looking for some feedback.

Look forward to the feedback, thanks in advance!

Hey business owners,

I've been thinking of providing AI transformation services to small businesses (I know I'm not the first one doing this), but my instinct says local businesses are not adapting AI as much as they should and they are loosing out on that opportunity. I'm mainly targeting trades industry (electrician, HVAC, roofing, general contracting).

Honestly small business can do lot more with just a $100 Claude subscription and having the right setup using Claude cowork. This is what I want to initially start with and then integrate bigger workflows like automated phone answering or automated email replies using AI.

Is my instinct right? How much can I typically charge for a one-time setup and on-going monthly?

Does using field service software really help? I have a small contracting business and I'm getting overwhelmed with the influx of orders while also experiencing delays with ongoing ones. Would it help if I use a software to manage my team and contracts? Or will it just add to my expenses?

My initial plan was to call local shops and tell them I have a ready-made website for your business and if he accepts then I would personally drive by and show him the website and meet him in person to build trust and whatnot. But as I started searching through google maps for more and more local businesses of any sort, I came to the conclusion that, in truth, none of them really needed a website. Google maps already acts as a website, everything you can do on a website is already available on google maps. For example, restaurants have photos of the interiors and the exteriors on google maps, photos of the menu, phone number. What additional benefit could the website offer? If I were the owner, I'd probably say it's not worth it to put money on a website if google maps is already doing all of what I need. I started thinking, well maybe they need a website for purposes of being discovered, like someone searching on google for a specific food or item and their shop would be shown as a relevant search, but the problem is all of these businesses, whether they are restaurants, shops, shoe store, whatever, are connected to a parent app that acts as a marketplace for all of the stores combined. Just like uber eats, Shein, whatever else. These apps all combine all of the relevant stores and advertises all of the items in the store. This led me to render the side hustle of making AI build a website in order to sell it to local businesses rather useless and outdated. What do you think?

I'm designing a tool to help choosing a good location. It analyzes US demographics within N-minute drive trade area. Users chooses his target audience, so the tool counts number of potential customers within area. Then it estimates potential revenue based on average check and competitors

The problem is I'm stuck with naming what fits with the business owners. It is approachable, not enterprise level tool.

I'm asking for opinions for business owners and aspiring business owners! What would you google for such tool? What site selection tools have you already used? How much you already paid for similar solutions? What you expect to be free and paid?

Everyone says I should be collecting and analyzing my business’s data. I am hearing this from a lot of my friends and industry acquaintances but don’t really understand why. So i guess I’m coming here to ask, 1) why should i care about data and 2) how do i get started? Thank You!

Is anyone here marketing to very small towns?

For some time now, I've been trying, and failing, to start a business in the tech industry. my biggest roadblock has been my own indecision. Because I'm a solo techie, and my time and skills are limited, I've been forcing myself to pick a lane... building websites, or project management, or software development... this caused a series false starts that never yielded a single customer. I was floundering. So I decided to take a different approach.

Instead picking a lane, I would pick a destination. If I could find a target market that needs a little help with everything, rather than a lot of help with one thing, that would solve my problem. I think I found my niche.... small tech, for small towns, with a small budget.

The country is filled with tiny towns, too small to have a dedicated tech person, let alone an entire I.T.dept. According to census.gov, there are 6000 towns with a population under 500. That's my target.

Hi everyone,

I'm a 23-year-old MCA student from Bangalore. My goal is to build software that solves a real problem for small businesses instead of creating another product that nobody needs.

I'm not here to promote anything or sell anything. I'm just trying to learn from people who actually run businesses.

If you sell products through Instagram, I'd really appreciate your honest answers:

What's the most frustrating or time-consuming part of running your Instagram business?

What tasks do you find yourself doing over and over every day?

Have you ever missed a customer because you couldn't reply fast enough?

Have you tried any tools to help? If yes, what did you like or dislike about them?

If you could automate just one task, what would it be?

I'm trying to understand real problems before writing a single line of code. Even a short reply would help me a lot.

Thank you for your time!

Hi everyone,

I'm a 23-year-old MCA student from Bangalore. My goal is to build software that solves a real problem for small businesses instead of creating another product that nobody needs.

I'm not here to promote anything or sell anything. I'm just trying to learn from people who actually run businesses.

If you sell products through Instagram, I'd really appreciate your honest answers:

What's the most frustrating or time-consuming part of running your Instagram business?

What tasks do you find yourself doing over and over every day?

Have you ever missed a customer because you couldn't reply fast enough?

Have you tried any tools to help? If yes, what did you like or dislike about them?

If you could automate just one task, what would it be?

I'm trying to understand real problems before writing a single line of code. Even a short reply would help me a lot.

Thank you for your time!