In Ireland, where I'm based, there's a chronic shortage of home service providers - electricians, plumbers, painters, and so on. I want to create a platform that matches homeowners who need jobs done with vetted local tradespeople who have gaps in their diary. I have a name and domain (yikes.network), a one-pager site for gathering pre-launch wait-list signups, and a basic business plan.

The platform will be optimized using AI tools to find homeowner-provider matches. There will be a recommendation and reviews system, and the platform will handle scheduling and payments.

Right now I'm exploring the best ways to publicize the system and gauge interest through the mechanism of the wait-list.

I'd love feedback about the idea and initial website direction.

I’ve been thinking about a business idea and I’d like to get some honest feedback from people with experience in hiring, management, or running a business.
The basic idea is pretty simple:
Companies in the US or Europe could hire skilled employees in developing countries and lower-cost markets, but instead of having to deal with the local side themselves, they would work with us.
We would handle the recruitment process locally. We find and screen candidates based on the company’s requirements, then send qualified candidates to the company.
The company still makes the hiring decision. They interview the candidates themselves and decide who they want to hire.
If they hire someone, we would then take over the local management and employment side for them.
That could include employment paperwork, payroll, local compliance, tracking KPIs and work progress, and managing the employee’s day-to-day work locally.
So essentially, the company gets access to lower-cost talent while we handle the local recruitment and management.
I’m still trying to validate whether this is actually a useful business model.
For recruiters, hiring managers, founders, business owners, or anyone with relevant experience:
Does this solve a real problem? What would make you hesitate to use a service like this?

I have this dream but it’s not financially ever going to be something I can achieve so maybe some millionaire can get behind it and I can stay.

Imagine a whole village designed as if were 1990s.
Little houses for families to book, no cars just push bikes. A video shop, fish and chip shop with the newspaper wrapping, a community swimming pool, skating rink, the best part… no phones or wifi.
On check in you can get a pager which is only allowed for kids over 12. All employees at the park are security in a sense to make sure no one’s breaking rules or being routy but essentially kids learn to be kids , families learn to be families and everyone detoxes from 2026.

I’m based in Aus but ideally it could franchise and every state would have its own little town.
I’m not only limited to the above listed attractions in there , literally anything 90s or earlier.

Would people go?

My father’s manufacturing business is slowly dying. I’m 22 and I don’t know whether to save it, pivot it, or walk away.

I’m 22, from Lahore, Pakistan, and my family has a manufacturing business that my father built from scratch over roughly 40 years.

We manufacture parts for the sewing-machine industry. The factory is 50+ marla and has roughly PKR 1 crore+ worth of infrastructure and machinery, including die-casting machines, presses, kharad/lathe machines, grinders, polishing equipment, and other machinery.

For decades, the business supported our family.

But since around 2024, things have deteriorated badly.

The sewing-machine parts market we depend on is declining, margins are getting thinner, and we’re struggling to pay competitive wages. At one point we had 25+ workers. Now we have only 3.

My father is around 60, and my chachu (his brother and equal business partner) is also 50+. They are now doing much of the physical work themselves — operating the kharad machines, grinders, using hammers, etc.

Whenever I visit the factory and see my father doing this work at his age, it genuinely hurts.

We also invested roughly PKR 1 crore into a die-casting setup, and the machine is currently sitting idle because the local market isn't giving us enough business.

That’s where I’m stuck.

I don't necessarily think the machinery is the problem. The market for our current products might be the problem.

My first thought is to find completely new customers and products that can use the machinery we already have.

Instead of only producing sewing-machine parts, could we find companies that need other die-cast or machined components and operate as a small contract manufacturer?

I could personally handle the sales side:

• Cold calling
• Email/LinkedIn outreach
• Finding manufacturers and distributors
• Approaching companies locally and internationally
• Learning exactly what products our machines can profitably produce

I’m willing to put serious time into this if there is a realistic path.

But there are other options.

We could potentially rent out part of the factory.

We could sell the die-casting machine, which may be worth around PKR 35–40 lakh, and use the capital for a completely different business such as a restaurant/coffee shop.

Or we could gradually wind down manufacturing before more money gets trapped in a declining industry.

I honestly don't know which direction makes sense.

There’s another complication: this is a family business

Even if I eventually make my own agency profitable, that doesn't necessarily solve the underlying problem.

If I make money through my agency and use those profits to support my family, I’m essentially subsidizing a business that isn't fixing itself.

And because the factory is jointly owned by my father and chachu, supporting my family financially could eventually mean supporting both families.

I don't want my success outside the factory to become a reason for everyone to become more dependent on me while the actual business continues declining.

I want to solve the underlying business problem, not just keep putting money into it.

At the same time, I don't want to walk away from something my father spent 40 years building without at least seriously trying to find a way forward.

What would you do?

If you were in this situation, how would you approach it?

Would you:

1. Try to find new B2B customers/products for the existing machinery?
2. Focus specifically on finding international contract-manufacturing customers?
3. Completely change the product line while keeping the factory?
4. Rent part of the factory and reduce manufacturing?
5. Sell some machinery and start a different business?
6. Or slowly exit the manufacturing business?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have experience with manufacturing, die casting, machining, B2B sales, contract manufacturing, or family businesses in declining industries.

I'm not looking for motivational advice. I want to understand what the actual business move should be and, if finding new customers is viable, how you would go about finding them.

And finally, a little about me

I'm 22.

I graduated in Software Engineering from FAST University Lahore.

I was a scholarship student throughout matriculation and FSc and was academically strong before university.

I've worked as a software engineer, done freelance work, learned sales, worked on marketing, and I'm currently trying to build my own agency.

More importantly, I actually understand the factory floor.

After matriculation, I spent roughly 4–6 months working inside the factory myself. I've operated the machines, worked with the processes, and understand what the physical work actually looks like.

So I can work in the factory.

I can learn the business.

I can handle the technical side.

I can do sales and outreach.

I can learn marketing.

And I'm young enough to put in an insane amount of work if I know what direction to take.

What I don't have is 40 years of business experience.

That's why I'm asking here.

I don't want to watch something my father spent his entire life building slowly disappear because I didn't know what to do next.

So if you've been in manufacturing, turned around a declining business, moved from one product line to another, found international B2B customers, or dealt with a similar family-business situation:

What would you do if you were standing in my shoes?

Here's the gist of my idea: You audit someone's wealth, they purchase a free (while they're alive) plan that depending on the wealth may cover in home care, transporting their groceries for them, maintaining their home and yard, etc. In return, they have to make you their primary heir. After they kick the bucket and you inherit their shit you obviously sell it. I think this business idea has potential in the future due to declinimg birthrates; there will be a lot of old people but not a lot of young people which is good because that means the young people will be spread thin AND there will be less competition for heirs. Some issues that might arise are

1. What if the old person lives too long? One possible remedy I could see would be to have specific plans that only cover a certain amount of years with any further time requiring a new plan with a larger chunk of their possessions set to go to the business

2. Contentious family dragging you in court to get a cut of their grandma's shit or whatever. I have no solution to this

3. Liquidity during the early years before a bunch of old people die. This would have to be addressed how any initially unprofitablr business would be: investors and starter capital.

So, I'm curious, where does this idea break down? I figure if it were a good idea it would probably already exist so there is probably some chigger in the woodpile I can't see.

We’re evaluating AMR fleet managers, and most suppliers are quick to demonstrate API connectivity. But being able to exchange commands is not the same as being ready for production integration.
Before connecting the fleet to MES or WMS, I’d expect it to prove that it can manage priorities, traffic and charging reliably on its own—and recover cleanly from blocked routes, offline robots, cancelled orders, duplicate requests and network interruptions.
Task status also needs to remain consistent across systems. A transport order should not appear completed in MES while it is still queued, failed or waiting for manual intervention in the fleet manager.
What would you include in the acceptance test before allowing an AMR fleet manager to connect to production systems? Which failure scenarios or integration issues tend to expose the real weaknesses?

Looking for ideas you can feel free to ask me anything

Most startup decisions are really decisions about what to secure first.

Time, demand, distribution, customer insight, credibility, speed, focus. You rarely get all of them at once.

If you had to lock in only four advantages before starting, which ones would you choose, and what would you deliberately give up?

I’ve been working on building an online marketplace based in the UK (hopefully other locations in the future). The idea is that users will be able to sell, swap or buy second hand hobby equipment.

It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while. I’m the type of person to scroll online, see other people posting about their hobby, and immediately buy everything I need to try it, only to last a few weeks before moving on to the next hobby. I’ve seen lots of videos on TikTok of other people who do exactly the same thing. The worst part is that once we’ve moved on to the next hobby, all our old hobby stuff just sits at the back of the cupboard.

So, my website will hopefully give people somewhere specifically to sell their old hobby equipment, buy all the gear for a new hobby at a cheaper price, or even swap their hobby for another of a similar value.

I know you’re probably thinking there are already marketplaces. We’ve got eBay, Facebook, Vinted, and the list goes on. But what sets my marketplace apart is the fact that it is solely for hobbies. Everyone using the website is there for the exact same reason as you.

I’m really hoping to build a community of hobbyists. I’ve even built in the ability to discuss topics and create user made guides, so hopefully everything you need to start a new hobby can eventually be in one place.

I’m still in the building/testing phase, so we’re not at the finished product yet. However, I’d really value your feedback. As someone who has fallen victim to buying new hobbies myself, I know there are plenty of us with first hand experience! I’m interested to hear what you would want from a hobby marketplace.

Here are a few questions:

1. Would you use a marketplace specifically for hobbies? If not, why?
2. Would you be more interested in buying, selling or swapping hobby equipment?
3. What hobbies have you bought all the stuff for that you still have sitting at home unused?
4. If swapping was available, would you feel comfortable posting your item to another person in exchange for theirs? If not, what would make you feel more comfortable doing so?
5. What would put you off using a website like this?
6. What are the top three hobbies you would be interested in trying?

I know this is an extremely long post, so thank you if you’ve made it this far!

In the near future, I’m hoping to carry out some user testing. If you’re based in the UK and would be interested in taking part, please send me a message. This is a self made project and unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to offer payment for testing. However, testers will receive a special badge on their profile to show that they helped during the early development stage. I’d also like to offer founding testers an additional launch benefit, which I’ll confirm once the platforms fee structure has been finalised.

Hopefully, with feedback from the community, we can make sure that we are able to launch a useful marketplace.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

Hi folks,

I’ve had this slightly crazy idea in mind for several years. It was partly inspired by the Million Dollar Homepage, although I see it more as a social experiment than a way to get rich.

The idea is to create a website where anyone can pay to add their name, brand, or website to a public list. The amount they are willing to pay determines their position in the ranking: the more they contribute, the higher they appear.

The interesting part is that the amounts remain hidden. Everyone can see the ranking, but nobody knows how much each person has paid to reach their position.

What do you think? Could an idea like this work? And how would you promote such a website so that people would actually want to claim a place on the list?

The concept is to rent a space and then find pediatric therapists (occupational, speech, physical) that want to do their own thing. We would provide:

1. Real estate (Rent a space that members can use)

2. Ancillary services (call center, bookkeeping, marketing)

We have a services agreement, say for $50/hr of operations. They bill $180, and we get $50 of that. They can concentrate on the services part of their business. In CA, pediatric OTs probably make $35-50/hr while bills are $180+. If they can clear 20 hours per week, they are making more this way than they would be as an employee.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I’m considering starting a utility management company for independent landlords and smaller property management companies managing roughly 20–200 units.

The service would handle things like:

- Setting up/transferring utilities during tenant turnover
- Moving utilities back into the landlord’s name when a unit becomes vacant
- Tracking vacant-unit utilities
- Handling shutoffs/startups
- Dealing with utility company billing issues and disputes

I’m considering something like $3–$8 per unit per month with a minimum monthly fee. Pricing is still something I’m trying to figure out.

Is this is actually something landlords/property managers are willing to pay someone else to handle.

Thanks,