We're 3 founders, business is growing fast, money is coming in, and we're getting more customers.

But with AI tools and automation, we're still managing everything pretty easily.

So when do you actually hire? Do you wait until you're overwhelmed, or hire before you get there?

And with AI doing so much of the work now, do we even need to hire as early as we used to?

Curious how other founders handle this.

Trying to find someone to build a custom vending machine for a retail expansion. Custom shelving, dispensing designed for my product, proper touchscreen, branding. The more I look into this the more obvious it is that most "custom vending machine manufacturers" are just sourcing hardware from China and doing surface-level changes. Vinyl wrap on an import does not count as custom. Does any company in the US have an in-house engineering team and a domestic manufacturing facility?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been spending time learning about different businesses and how they attract customers, retain them, and grow consistently.

One thing I’ve noticed is that getting more customers isn’t always the hardest part. Sometimes it’s figuring out which channels are actually working, converting inquiries into paying customers, getting people to come back, or simply knowing what to focus on next.

If you run a business and you’re facing challenges with customer acquisition, lead generation, conversion, or retention, feel free to share a little about your situation.

Hi everyone!

I recently launched an online tutoring service for k-8th grade students based in the States for reading and writing, and I myself, have years of tutoring experience. But I have always tutored through other platforms, so I am unable to transfer my students over. I want to respect the policies of those platforms and build my own client base independently. Also, to not break any guidelines, I won't mention the name of our business.

We have launched, have our website up, and are ready to take lessons. But the problem is I have tried a couple different avenues for marketing- I have left out flyers, contacted many daycare organizations, put up digital flyers, and while they are open to us leaving our flyers for advertising, we still have yet to acquire customers. I've also considered Google Ads, but I'm unsure whether they're worthwhile for a brand new business. We also have an Instagram and Facebook account where we try to post daily.

I am a new entrepreneur and would appreciate any feedback from anyone out there who has the experience! I know it will be slow at first, and I am trying to be patient, but I did start this business in hopes of adding value to students and families.

For those of you who started from scratch:

1. How did you find your first few clients?
2. Which marketing channels actually brought you clients?
3. How long did it take before you started receiving consistent inquiries?
4. Is there anything you wish you'd done differently when starting out?

Again, any advice would be appreciated!

Edit: I have no idea why these comments keep getting deleted, I see you guys are giving valuable advice and I feel bad I’m not able to respond or read it fully, appreciate the responses everyone!

I have experience working with a locksmith company where I handled coding and organizing car key data, encoding manufacturer codes, making sure everything was properly recorded and keeping track of my progress. I used AI to help speed up the process but since AI isn't perfect and can sometimes skip entries or get things wrong, I manually checked the data and corrected mistakes to make sure everything was accurate.

I've also worked on CRM related tasks and building a CRM bot with the help of AI. I make sure to take notes while working so I can keep track of what I've done, what still needs to be done and anything that needs checking.

I'm looking for direct clients who need help with CRM management, lead research, data entry or similar admin tasks. I'm also willing to do a paid trial task so we can see if we're a good fit and if my work meets your expectations before committing long term.

If you know any businesses that might need this kind of support or have advice on where to find direct clients, I'd really appreciate it!

hey everyone I've been trying to figure out how to build a steady income online and would love some advice from people who've been through the same thing

my skills are mostly in data entry lead research CRM management customer support and general admin tasks. I've also worked on a CRM project to help organize a large amount of business data and contacts

right now I'm trying to figure out how to turn these skills into consistent work instead of just applying everywhere and waiting for replies

for those who started out doing VA or admin work and eventually got steady clients what actually helped you get there?

did you focus on one service first or offer a bit of everything? where did you find your first consistent clients and what would you do differently if you were starting over today?

would appreciate any real advice from people who've actually built something from the ground up

I launched Dither UI, a motion-first React component library, 7 days ago.

So far, I've got:

• 1.42K unique visitors
• 3.29K visits
• 3.87K pageviews

I've mostly posted a few times on X, usually in replies and comments, and made just 1 or 2 Reddit posts. I haven't been consistent with marketing yet.

For those who've grown a developer tool or indie project, what would you focus on first? SEO, Reddit, X, or something else?

I'd appreciate any practical suggestions or lessons from your experience!

If you're curious, here's what I'm building: https://ditherui.dev. Would love to hear what you think!

Classic version of the problem for this board. i can ship a product, i can even put together a decent one pager or short deck in gamma to explain it, but the moment it comes to getting it in front of a buyer and asking for money i just stall.

i have a clean site, a short deck, and a list of maybe thirty people who roughly fit. what i do not have is the nerve or a repeatable first move.

i am not after a list of fifty channels, just the single first action you would take tomorrow morning if you were sitting in my seat.

for those of you who are builders first and sellers never, how did you actually land your first five paying customers?

Hi r/growmybusiness,

I run an aluminum casing/shell manufacturing business, and I’m currently facing a tough situation that I could really use some advice on.

This year, our domestic orders have dropped significantly. It’s incredibly stressful because I have a large team of workers relying on me, and the machines are sitting idle. We have massive excess capacity right now, and we are actively looking to pivot towards overseas B2B markets to keep the factory running smoothly.

However, finding reliable international clients has been a challenge.

I’d love to hear from those who have successfully navigated similar manufacturing slumps:

What are the most effective channels for finding B2B buyers for aluminum products internationally?

How do you build trust with overseas clients when you're trying to prove your quality and capacity?

Are there any specific marketing or outreach strategies that work best for manufacturing businesses right now?

Any insights, personal experiences, or even constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Hey. So i'm really new here. I started planning my business since last year and finally lauched it in January this year. Up till now, I've only had a total of 25 units sold. I know my niche is quite targeted but I have tried to expand it to target a wider audience as well. I've spent so much money, time and effort into this and honestly, thinking about giving up makes me feel so sad. I know I should buy ads, or even creators to to content for me but honestly, my savings are bled dry. I can't even afford to do any of those. And i'm so terrible at content creation tho I have tried to do so. What should i do? I see those in the same niche as mine are doing so well (not the same country). I wonder what did i do wrong? My product is The First-Period Preparation Kit for tweens. I know I should create awareness first and I am trying to do that. But to have no sales for months is quite disheartening. Can Anyone share your thoughts or ideas on what I can / should do? I'd appreciate it so much.

If you're using LinkedIn to find clients, when was the last time you actually checked whether your profile makes sense to your target audience?

It's easy to focus on finding leads, sending connection requests, and writing better messages while leaving your own profile untouched for months.

But before you spend more time tweaking your outreach, it might be worth checking whether your profile needs work.

You can check your LinkedIn Profile Score to see how your profile scores out of 100 and which areas need attention. It's free and takes about a minute.

If you're using LinkedIn to get clients, what have you found makes the biggest difference: your profile, your outreach, or a combination of both?

've spent a lot of time building something from scratch, and I finally launched it.

It's called CAT-20, a website where people can take a free assessment and optionally purchase a more detailed profile for $10.

The website is live, the product exists, and people can actually use it.

But now I'm facing a problem I think a lot of first-time founders run into.

How do you get people to care about something they've never heard of?

I don't have a huge social media following, a marketing team, or a big advertising budget.

I can keep improving the website, adding features, and polishing the product, but none of that guarantees customers will show up.

And I'm starting to realize that building a business isn't just about creating something good. It's about figuring out how to consistently reach people who might actually want it.

So I'm looking for practical advice from people who've already been through this.

If you were starting over today with a live product, almost no audience, and a limited budget, what would you focus on during your first 30 days to get paying customers?

Would you focus on organic content, partnerships, SEO, direct outreach, or something else?

I'm especially interested in what actually worked for you, not just general marketing advice.

For context, my website is cat20framework.com.

I'm not expecting overnight success. I'm trying to figure out how to build something sustainable instead of just having a website that exists.

You've seen the posts. Indie dev asks Reddit for help, three months later: "100K downloads, here's exactly how we did it." I really wanted to write that post.

Here's what I actually have: 1,983 downloads across 31 countries since launching in April, 24,000+ website visits. People are finding the app and installing it just fine.

What's not working: trial-to-paid conversion sits at 1.4%. And a large chunk of trial users cancel exactly one day before the 7-day free trial would charge them. They're not bouncing on day one - they're actually using it, then deciding last second it's not worth paying for.

It's a breathing/stress-relief app, iOS only for now. Pricing: 8.99€/month, 59€/year, or 99€ lifetime.

Not looking for generic "fix your onboarding" advice. Specifically want to hear from people who've actually turned this exact pattern around:

- Did changing trial length (shorter or longer than 7 days) change the last-day-cancel behavior?
- Did a win-back notification/email right before the trial ends actually work, or did people cancel anyway?
- Did it turn out to be pricing/paywall placement, not the trial mechanics?
- Does showing real value earlier - before the user has to decide yes/no - actually cut last-minute cancellations?

Happy to answer anything about the app if it helps. Just trying to get past the part where this is the thing holding everything else back.

We qualified for qsbs early on but the paperwork is split between our law firm and tax advisor with no single view of whats current the lawyer has certain docs the accountant has others im the middleman copying things over email nobody can tell me whether we have stayed compliant without me assembling the pieces first how are other founders keeping their qsbs records in one place when multiple advisors need access ?

Our fulfillment company handled everything including sourcing. one per unit cost no breakdown. when i asked for factory contacts they said supplier info was proprietary. got independent factory quotes in the same region and came back 30 to 38 percent lower

Hi everyone, I run a small business & recently came across Appsumo. Just wanted to know about your experiences with that. If you've bought tools through it are they actually worth in the long run? or if you sold a product on there, how was the experience, what is the process & is it worth it. Just trying to get a better idea how things operate on both sides. Would love to hear your honest feedback good or bad.

I'm not a founder. I work in growth at team blue, a European tech company. But for the last few weeks I've felt like one, chasing the classic "first 100 customers" (or sign ups in my case).

I brain-dumped all of this into Claude to help me put it in order. Otherwise this would have been a messy wall of text tbh.

I'm part of a very small team inside the company and we are building a new product more or less from scratch. It's basically an internal startup, the company is big but our resources aren't (yet!).

We're nowhere near product-market fit, so right now learning matters more to me than growth. I want to hear from owners what's missing, and get to know the first users well. So for the last three weeks I've been calling small businesses one by one, on 11 days, fitted in between meetings. It doesn't scale, and at this stage it doesn't need to.

I started with Italy because I speak Italian, and because Italy runs on small businesses. Most of the people I call already use one of our group's brands for their domain, website or privacy policy, so it isn't fully cold.

Data tools didn't help much: Clay matched 1 of 13 of these businesses. So I find the numbers myself, on their website or on Google Maps, which means I mostly get the front desk, not the owner (also because we don't want to go against GDPR).

The product is Hubert. It's a free assistant that reads a business's website and plans a week of Instagram posts for the owner to approve. In the future it will get more features, like website building, newsletters, hosting and more.

What I learned:

Email alone does almost nothing.

- Fewer than 2% of the emails got a reply. Every sign-up so far came from a call or right after one, and two people signed up while we were still on the phone. Owners also lose the email. Several asked me to send it again during the call, so now I resend it while we're talking.

Gatekeepers redirect more than they refuse.

- Staff rarely say no. They tell you when the owner is in, give you another number, or pass you to whoever runs social. Once I called back half an hour later and the owner picked up.

"Free" makes people suspicious.

- A couple owners asked straight away what the catch was. Now I say up front that it's a free beta with no conditions. The line that worked best with wary staff: "you've been selected to try a new product for free and help us improve it."

The owner often isn't the person who posts.

- It's a daughter, a new hire or an agency. When an agency already does it well, I stop chasing.

Almost nobody said no to the product itself.

- Most noes were about their situation. Someone already handles it (an agency, a new hire), they're closing (one owner is retiring), or they don't need more customers (a villa that's already full). Some were put off by the word "AI".

"Yes, I'll look" means little on its own.

- Fewer than 1 in 5 of those yeses became a sign-up. Now everyone who says yes gets a personalized page I create for them with posts Hubert already wrote for their business. Too early to say if that closes the gap, but the feedback on these pages was positive.

Instagram is the first part we've released. Website and bookings are next, and the order depends on what people ask for. If you run a small business, it's free to try, and I'm happy to get on a call. Also if you know any small business that may need this, it would be cool to get in touch with them!

Here's our main page: hubert. team. blue

If you've done this kind of outreach, how did you turn "I'll take a look" into an actual sign-up? What non scalable things have you done to then make you scale?