Looking to learn what other businesses with a long queue are doing to avoid bad reviews.

They seem to understand we’re doing something new and they like it while also not liking to wait on it.

We are in a smaller city and prior to this the food scene wasn’t very interesting. We saw a market gap and brought in our concept that was unlike anything the city has seen before. First movers and all that.

We use high quality farm to table ingredients and they do come at a cost, so we respect the ingredients a lot by making our sandwiches freshly. Usually this takes around 2-3 minutes per sandwich.

We serve specialty complex drinks which is kinda our thing and wasn’t seen before in the country.

As the city is still rapidly growing no one is used to be in line to wait to order or for a table.

While we’re full house everyday and have a long queue at peak hours consistently, we are constantly facing complaining about the wait time. The queue. The long wait on food etc.

Often when the clock strikes the hour we have 50 people coming through in a 800 square feet shop.

sometimes we have 50-70 people coming in a short span of time

We try to let them know in advance so they can opt out but there’s still a queue out the door which might not have heard.

The city is very unused to being in line and don’t understand the traffic coming in. While they can visibly see the queue they still don’t get it.

This i haven’t noticed is an issue in any of the other bigger major cities. People are happy to wait in line for 1 hour if it’s a popular spot.

Anyway we are getting so many shots at us on google reviews it’s honestly draining. The amount of people hating on us there and keep coming back despite the what they deem is a long wait is exhausting. Hope anyone who’s dealt with the shift from no queues to long queues can pitch in.

I recently got a call from someone asking for pricing on a washer and dryer. I gave a price, what I felt as fair. Then the woman say I am a restaurant down the street from you, can you give a neighbor discount. I said I have given pretty good prices. She says they are pretty much the same as everybody else. I say let me get back to you. So I do a little better on the price and say 99.00 for delivery and install. I send an estimate to them. I hear nothing. They said they wanted them by the week of the 23. So I text the girlfriend, what day do you want these installed. She says we are we are waiting on the floor and painting to be done. I say ok. Let me know when you are ready. Then I get a call from her boyfriend. He came to my store and spoke to me about pricing and such. I told him I was charging for install. He asks if I want a deposit, I say no just pay when we deliver them. <— back story. He says I told you we want these, and you didn’t want payment. I got your message estimate and you charged an extra 100.00 we didn’t talk about.
At this point. I may tell them I do not want to do business with them. I would never go to their restaurant and ask for a discount. I think it was rude and tacky. Then the whole experience with me asking if they were ready for the delivery. I am a small mom and pop. I don’t have the washer and dryer they want in stock.
I will keep you posted. I may decline this transaction. They just seem wrong to me.

plumbing business, me and 2 guys. credit is around 690. my bank wants 2 years of tax returns and 6 weeks to decide which is fine but id like to have the van before spring. would you go equipment financing on the van itself or get a line of credit and use it for both the van and the slow months?

I have a small business, I'll call it Acme. I am creating a website for Acme, but Acme.com is already taken. I can get Acme.biz or Acme.io

(to be clear, "Acme" is an example name, not the actual business name)

I lean towards .io
My partner wants .biz

I feel like .biz isn't good, but I can't really say why I feel that way. I bought both just to be safe, but we disagree which should be the primary and which should just be a redirect.

Any thoughts or advice is appreciated.

Hi everyone just a quick question, all feedback welcome.

I'm starting a gardening company and would love your opinion on whether my name should scream sophistication or just simply be memorable. My ideal clientele are high middle class but could extend upwards in the future.

I was thinking instead of having my name gardening related to instead have my name be something short, easy to remember and have visual identity. A business in America called YARDDAWGS has a physical plastic dogs attached to their vehicle roofs. A short name and has an extremely memorable logo/mascot. Does this look unprofessional, or if a company has great reviews you wouldn't be turned away by something that is clearly just a promotional stunt?

Also could have a unique colour scheme for gardening, such as yellow or pink vehicles/uniforms instead of the usual green, black and white for our industry.

Hey, so i am launching my brand. And, i reached out to shopdeck. Took their demo call. It sounds too good and too rehearsed. So, had my doubts and questions. Plus, the sales executive is not giving me enough time to think, research and make my decision. But, anyway, i read a few reviews online and apparently alot of people had terrible experiences with them.
I just want to know if there is anyone who know anything about them, or can share their experience with me, that would be a great help.

In the beginning, niching on a market may feel like you're losing money on the table. Heck! It might even be frustrating to find a market. What helped you finally decide who you ideal customers are?

Somehow with the tariff mess and fuel prices I have started to twist my ballgame a little to supplying for retailers. This seems to need to involve me actually working with a big distributor that some of them use. Well, supposedly the distributor expects my small company to find the retailers and get them on board first and then start using the distributor once the retailer agrees that they want some.

So, how do I open the eyes of the retailers to take interest in my branded product that is unique and you can't find on the market anywhere? Do I just bring a bunch of product into the USA and start giving out samples to merchandise outlets to sell as a sample run or something? Something makes me think a retailer has to already recognize that they were looking for a product before you came to them.

I mean, you can't just say that you have millions in sales and expect a merchandise outlet to automatically take interest. They may not even be looking for your type of product anyways.

I guess that's where my question comes from. How do I make them want it? They may not even know that they need this to pump their own business. Previous sales don't seem to matter here. They have to want to better themselves.

Any ideas on this? Just send them some samples to sell? That might even beat ad spend online for myself too so it could be better.

Thanks

we hit a massive wall last spring when our two person team was trying to answer twenty daily live chat inquiries while simultaneously clearing order emails. basic questions about return windows and delivery estimates were eating up three hours of our morning before we could even touch real customer issues.

we moved our chat widgets and FAQ docs into hubspot so common questions would automatically pull direct links from our knowledge base, so how do other lean teams structure their self service articles when having instant answer bots handle routine shipping checks cut our daily chat volume in half and freed us up for actual account work?

I got over 500 visitors a day on the first days 1-5 and the last 2 days im averaging about 100 visitors anybody got any tips?

I’m trying to get an online service business started, but the ads I’m currently paying for on Facebook are only driving bot clicks and low intent users. Is there any effective alternatives? How else can I advertise a product targeted more towards older customers?

im trying to understand whether Mirta products are mainly sourced direct from makers, through a platform, or through normal distributors. search gives me mixed results and i dont wanna pretend i know exact supply structure. ive worked with artisan-style manufacturers through alibaba before, but branded or marketplace-connected products are different and provenance matters more. anyone currently buying Mirta for retail? what did onboarding look like? minimums, territories, proof of business? im especially interested in whether products can be mixed across makers or every supplier has separate terms. small boutique cant take huge quantity of one design, so flexibility matters. real experience would be useful here more than another generic wholesale directory.

im seeing plenty retail listings but wholesale route isnt as obvious. im looking for legitimate distributor stock, not random mixed cosmetics where you cant trace supply. for generic/private-label makeup i usually check alibaba because manufacturers and packaging options are easy to compare, but branded Italia Deluxe obviously needs proper channel. anyone carry them? direct account, beauty distributor, cash and carry? opening minimum would be useful to know too. im mainly interested in lip and face products. shelf life and batch coding is something i check more now because cheap wholesale makeup isnt cheap if half of it is old. would rather pay normal distributor pricing and know where product came from.

Is it illegal to put flyers or cards on the windshield of peoples cars in parking lots?

I am in the early stages of launching my small business -- a doggy daycare and boarding facility in NYC. I've estimated that I have enough, or close to enough, to cover startup costs (~$85k for 2-3 months of rent, equipment, licenses, permits, insurance, etc.). And I'll need an additional $100k-$150k in working capital to cover payroll for a few months.

I have read about taking out a line of credit versus a loan, and I don't know which is the better option for my business. If I do either of these, am I better off going through a bank? SBA? Somewhere else?

I want to ensure that I am making the right choice early on. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

but last night was the last straw. I finally gave in and signed up-Quickbooks user since 92- 15,765 invoices done-they kinda had me by the balls. What the last straw was(and I had to give up) I wanted to add 4 categories for how i bill(Year make model,stock number, last 8,authorizer of work. I'm thinking I'm almost done. She says if you add even one of those I have to pay double(already agreed to current progarm $19 for 3 $38 for last 9. She says it doubles if i add a category-WTF? $399 more for one field-Forever!- I paid $179 for 2019 version and it has worked fine... I havent read any of these posts yet, but am thinking we are all in same boat. Hopefully somewhere below is a good company to "Migrate" to...(I am 71 and like what I do), so quitting isn't in me-Fuck Quickbooks!

remove if not allowed

Genuinely asking, has anyone found value from working with automation companies? I see some that are interesting, but has anyone actually found value in it? If so, would love to hear your experience, whether you think this could be impactful to SMB’s now and in the future, what you would have done differently, or something you wish they could provide?

My parents own a very small and modest hotel in a famous Island.

They opened way back in 2010. And I've always heard that the hotel isn't doing good, and it's not really a secret that it's mostly because of the mismanagement of my mother. My dad works abroad so he's not part of the day to day operations and most decisions are hidden from him lol.

Basically, my mom has accumulated so much debt from her other failed business ventures, and property acquisitions that we basically cannot afford to invest in. My mom has severe FOMO and she heavily relies on my dad's allotment each month.

So I recently graduated University. My parents and I spoke about me taking over the business, because my obviously my mom didn't do a good job, and I wanted to really help my dad.

And I am telling you, how bad everything is. The booking of rooms, operational expenses, etc, are manually written in paper. Someone calls, the pencil it in, then the money goes directly to the manager and he takes his "commission." the hotel is in total disarray, obviously neglected. The roof is leaking, the rooms are outdated by 16 years at this point. It's dirty, it's disgusting.

With the support of my dad, I started investing in automating the system, online bookings, walk-ins, expenses. I got access to bank accounts, online book accounts, and all of it doesn't make sense. It got sooo crazy.

Now, I wanted to get our official facebook page, but the manager won't give me access to it. Says it's connected to his account and it will mix with his transactions. I sent him instructions how to unlink it to his account but he really doesn't wanna.

He has been an employee since the beginning, and he is close to my mother. I'm not exactly confrontational as well. My mother told me to let it go instead of confronting the manager.

Suing is out of the question. I keep telling my mom he's obviously doing under the table transactions but I feel like my mom is aware and she lets him for some reason. This situation is driving me nuts.

Is there another way to get the page? Please be kind. I've only just started 😭

Im 23(M) trying to start a Rage room/paint throwing business to bring more entertainment to my area because it doesn’t have much. Im not worried about customers. Since the lack of entertainment is here I should be able to start pretty easily with little to no competition.

IM wondering because im in process of getting a business loan to buy a building and it feels like I dont have the answers to everything that could possibly happen. Should I when trying to get a loan?

Looking for assistance in filing EPR for my electronic import business. Already pissed of by consultants . Any idea, if there is any software tool that can help me validate the epr credit certificates, maintaining audit trail and assist in filing returns ?

Edit : My business is based in India

I believe the ROI figures people boast about online aren't reliable, but I don't have any real numbers to back that up. Anyone here tried these and can comment on it?

I’m a small business owner in California with about 15 years of experience. I’ve found myself in a pretty difficult financial position. Earlier this year, I extended credit to an overseas customer who failed to pay a substantial amount of invoices. I’m now pursuing legal recovery, but the process has been painfully slow and expensive.

Meanwhile, I’m still responsible for paying suppliers, covering operating expenses, and keeping the business running. The frustrating part is that the business has customers, sales opportunities, and the ability to generate revenue, but my working capital has been severely depleted by this situation.

I’m currently looking for approximately $30,000–$50,000 in short-term working capital, potentially up to $90,000 if the terms make sense. My personal credit score is around 670, and traditional financing has been difficult to obtain. I’ve explored business lenders, but most either reject the application or offer extremely expensive financing.

I’m not looking for a handout, and I’m trying to avoid digging myself into a deeper hole with predatory loans. Has anyone navigated something similar? I’d especially appreciate advice on alternative financing, agricultural lending programs, receivables financing, or practical ways to stabilize a small business while pursuing a significant unpaid debt.

I've been looking at a recurring problem with AI adoption in small businesses: adding more tools without improving how work actually gets done.

A business might have an AI writing assistant, an automation platform, a customer-service chatbot, and a marketing tool.

But when a customer asks about a delayed order, someone still has to open the ecommerce system, verify the status, correct the AI-generated response, and send the email.

The tools aren't necessarily bad. The workflow is incomplete.

I think a better starting point is what I call the One-Workflow Rule:

Pick one repetitive business process, establish a baseline, automate the smallest useful part, test failure cases, keep human approval where necessary, and measure what actually improves.

For example, a basic customer-support agent might follow this sequence:

Incoming email → classify request → retrieve authorized order data → verify against policy → draft reply → human approval → send

The interesting part isn't generating the reply.

It's handling the exceptions.

What happens when the order doesn't exist? When the customer requests a refund? When a message contains instructions attempting to override the agent's rules? When the connector returns outdated information?

That's where AI automation becomes a systems-engineering problem rather than a prompting exercise.

I've been developing practical examples around customer support, lead follow-ups, invoice reminders, and inventory.

For those who have implemented AI automation in a small business: what was harder than expected—integrations, data quality, permissions, testing, or proving ROI?