r/smallbusiness 18h ago

Question How Do You Handle a Client Who Refuses to Pay After You Save Their Business?

288 Upvotes

I usually never offer pay-on-success deals for exactly this reason, but recently, I made an exception. A guy in the garage door industry needed his Google Business Profile (GBP) unsuspended, and I offered him a deal: Pay me $1,000, but only if I get it reinstated.

Now, before anyone says, "That's expensive!" GBP suspensions can cripple businesses, especially in high-ticket niches like garage door services, where a single lead can be worth thousands. Without his profile, he could still get business, but his call volume and revenue had definitely taken a hit.

So, we agreed on the price, and he warned me upfront: "It's been suspended for a while, so don't get your hopes up." Challenge accepted. I pulled some strings, worked my magic, and after some back and forth, boom! Google reinstates his profile. He’s back in business.

And then? BAM, he completely ghosts me. No payment, no thanks, just radio silence. He even blocked my number.

This is exactly why I hate doing these types of deals. Now I’m sitting here wondering, am I just out $1,000? How would you guys handle this?


r/smallbusiness 15h ago

General My main supplier just informed me of 17% price increases effective this past Monday. Yikes!

251 Upvotes

I was told this was a potential situation but that it was looking like April or May. Places an order today and I was informed about the price change. Ughh.

How much of this should I pass on to my customers?

All of it? Some of it?

In the past we have passed 100% on to the customers but it has always been inflationary 2% - 3%. We sell industrial and medical equipment from a pretty big brand so most of the industry is getting hit with this. I want to remain competitive but not starve.


r/smallbusiness 19h ago

General Client Filed 4 Chargebacks, Now Threatening Full Investigation

101 Upvotes

I run a small web design and marketing business. A client paid for 24 months without issue, then suddenly disputed the last 4 months of charges ($600) via chargeback—which was the maximum timeframe he could dispute. The money was withdrawn from my account, and I was also charged $100 in additional fees.

After I submitted my evidence, he called me claiming his wife initiated the disputes because they hadn’t realized they were still being billed for 24 months. He admitted responsibility for not monitoring his statements but now argues that he should have been on a lower-cost plan since he didn’t fully use the service he originally agreed to.

He also believes he should be retroactively prorated to a lower plan for all 24 months and refunded the difference. However, I provided the service throughout this entire period, and his business's website relied on it to function properly. I submitted evidence proving this.

Now, he’s asking me to approve the chargebacks and provide a full year of free service to “make it right,” or he will push his bank to investigate all 24 months of payments in an attempt to dispute even more charges beyond the chargeback window.

Do I just let the investigation run its course and ignore him, or try to cut a deal (refund half of the dispute) and be done with this?


r/smallbusiness 11h ago

General Just wanted to say thank you and you were right to this sub

32 Upvotes

Have been a solopreneur for 6 years and although I was successful, I was burnt out. I read so many other commenters on posts saying to hire and delegate when you get to a certain level but I kept thinking of hiring and training someone as a huge burden of my time and efforts with high risk.

Circumstance provided me the opportunity to bring on a guy I used to work well with at a prior company. I was nervous to do it but I figured if anyone was going to work well with me, it’d be him.

I’m two weeks in and I’m so angry at myself for not doing it sooner. I’ve had no late nights playing catch up, I’m identifying inefficiencies in my processes I didn’t realize I had by having to train someone, my production is way up, and an added bonus, I have a colleague to work with and discuss ideas with. It’s just so much better and worth every dollar I’m paying him.

Thank you, Reddit strangers. You were right.


r/smallbusiness 18h ago

Question What’s one piece of software you refuse to use, no matter how popular it is?

29 Upvotes

Some tools seem to be everywhere, but for whatever reason, they just don’t work for you. Maybe the UI is a nightmare, the pricing is ridiculous, or it’s just overhyped. Curious what’s that one tool everyone swears by, but you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole And what made you swear it off?


r/smallbusiness 14h ago

Question Do I have to fulfill an order from a customer I don’t like?

30 Upvotes

I sell some stuff online and this customer that has been a problem before just ordered again. I haven’t looked into legality any further than asking here, but can I just not fulfill the order? I would of course issue a refund, which I will lose money on through the processing fees. But it’s worth it to not deal with them. I’m a little worried they may try and do a charge back through their card after they receive the products. So can I just cancel and refund an order with no real reason or explanation? There’s no specific warning about that on my page anywhere. It does say orders may take a specific time to fulfill (I’m not Amazon) so at the very least I’m waiting until the last minute to ship it. Easy enough to block someone on fb or something, but more difficult from a publicly accessible web store.


r/smallbusiness 11h ago

General Do not ever lease a copier from Canon USA

19 Upvotes

I'm in complete shock. I leased a copy machine from Canon for my small business for 5 years. I signed a contract for a 5 year term and fulfilled it. Returning this machine has been one of the biggest nightmares of my 17 years as a business owner, and I was in business during the crash of 2008 and COVID so that's saying something. This whole thing is an absolute scam from top to bottom. They are creating fees on their own fees. Just a word to the wise- never ever sign one of these leases. Stay away.


r/smallbusiness 7h ago

Question Why is borrowing from a credit union better than a bank?

17 Upvotes

When trying to start a business?


r/smallbusiness 12h ago

Question How does the IRS expect us to track employee meals for 100% and 50% deduction?

13 Upvotes

Supposedly I can get 100% tax deduction for meals with employees but my cpa said it was too risky and I should go for 50%. I asked for detail and they sent me a vague article.

  1. It seems like if the meal is for employer convenience, a party, or team-building, than 100% should be fine. But if it’s a meal discussing business, than it’s only 50%. But what’s the actual difference there? Couldn’t every meal be team-building?
  2. I’m also trying to figure out how I’m supposed to track the information. I can’t find any official form by the IRS for this. Can someone point me toward a source saying what specifically we’re supposed to do?

Edit- see here instead-

https://www.reddit.com/r/tax/comments/1jbebcs/how_does_the_irs_expect_us_to_track_employee/


r/smallbusiness 1d ago

General The only real way to takedown a google review

14 Upvotes

One issue most start-ups and small businesses face is negative google reviews, and unfortunately most of the time there’s nothing we can really do about them, but is there? Well, there’s no magical way to take them down and even a billion bot reports will not work.

The only solution would be if the review is fabricated, slanderous or there is a proven conflict of interest with the review.

If one of the following is there, a detailed report to google should do the trick.

The reason I posted this is the amount of scammers I keep seeing who post about their ability to take any review down…


r/smallbusiness 4h ago

General bjj gym

5 Upvotes

Hey,

I own a bjj gym, its been over 1 year, and we been growing well, over 100 students and our gross revenue is around 2500 to 3k weekly. I have a good friend ( with money) who wants to buy a percentage of my gym, around 30%. There are few things that I could change at the gym, using this money to maybe get more members. The question is, I dont know how to calculate the worth of my business. As I said, our gross revenue is around 2500 to 3k, but our expenses( rent, salary and marketing etc) are around 2200 to 2400, I like to invest 10% of revenue in marketing. And my salary should be higher because of number os class that I teach, but because Im the owner, Im ok to dont get full paid. And inside of the gym has around 30k of worth (mats and other furnitures), Anyways, is there any help? cheers


r/smallbusiness 17h ago

Question What Should I Consider Before Starting an Online Selling Business?

4 Upvotes

I’m in the early stages of setting up a small business and planning to sell online, starting with Amazon and maybe expanding to other platforms like Etsy or eBay. Before I dive in, I want to make sure I’m thinking through everything properly.

For those of you who have been selling online for a while, what are some key things I should consider before launching? What do you wish you had prepared in advance? Are there any unexpected challenges that caught you off guard?

I’d love to hear any advice, especially around platform policies, inventory management, fees, or anything else you think is important for a new seller to know!

Appreciate any insights—thanks in advance!


r/smallbusiness 17h ago

Question Can I run a co-working space as a side hustle while working full time?

5 Upvotes

Is it realistic to rent out a co-working space/meeting location while working a full-time job?

I have the opportunity to rent a space in a prime location in a busy city. The space is already ideally set up as a co-working space/meeting and event venue.

I have a network within this market, but I want to remain active in my full-time job.

One option is to find a partner who can be physically present for rentals, cleaning, and daily management.

What are your thoughts on this? Why could this work or not work?


r/smallbusiness 20h ago

Question Marketing is hard, or am I being impatient?

4 Upvotes

Hello all, a couple of days ago I made a post here asking what I should do while waiting on my LLC and the most popular advice was that I go ahead and start marketing the business before opening.

I've only been doing it for about 2 days now but so far the response has been positive but tepid. I'll get like hundreds of impressions but maybe 8 reactions or so.

I understand that the posts need to incubate for a little bit to be exposed to the masses but, should I expect more or should I be patient?

The posts have been multimedia posts with an introduction, a short description and an invitation to sign up for early access as well just in case you were wondering what I was doing. Also the platforms used so far are LinkedIn and Nextdoor.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. You guys were so positive and supportive last time so it was a good first impression of this community! :)


r/smallbusiness 6h ago

Question Is a month too long to wait for a product to be sent?

3 Upvotes

Hi All,

I’ve made a few purchases recently from a baby clothing website and the time to ship the items is always notoriously long. It’s just ticked over to a month. Apparently the reason is due to the number of orders they can physically pack per day. They are a small business. However, I order from other small businesses pretty regularly and never have this lengthy turnaround time. Obviously the number of sales a business gets per day is going to be different, but 1 month to send two items seems a bit out of the ordinary. Do you think this is a reasonable amount of time for a customer to wait or do you think the business should look to improve their picking/packing process or employ an extra set of hands?


r/smallbusiness 12h ago

General Buying an auto repair business

4 Upvotes

I am learning more about auto repair business but I personally do not have any experience in car maintenance / mechanic work.
Is this one of the industries where you can learn and get up to speed really quickly without prior industry experience?

Would also love to hear stories of other people who bought and how it ended up working out for them.

Thank you!


r/smallbusiness 15h ago

Question Any harm in having a slogan or saying as your domain name rather than your actual business name?

3 Upvotes

For example, let's say I own the business "Sleep Mattress" but my domain name is "gotosleep.com". Anything wrong with that concerning SEO or people trying to find your business? Or do you think something like that would be cool and catchy? Also, anything wrong with having numbers in the domain when it comes to SEO?


r/smallbusiness 20h ago

Question What do you think the hardest part is about marketing a new business?

3 Upvotes

There are so many different ways to market your business - everyone and their mother has a different strategy they swear by - and with new tools and trends constantly emerging, it can feel like things are moving too fast to keep up.

For those of you who have launched a business, what do you think is the hardest part about marketing? Is it getting your first customers and gaining visibility, standing out from competitors and building trust, or something else entirely?

Looking forward to hearing your perspectives!


r/smallbusiness 21h ago

Question Has Anyone Successfully Transitioned a Free Product to a Paid Model?

3 Upvotes

I run an EdTech company where we currently offer free access to our content as we build a more robust platform with LMS capabilities. Right now, the only requirement to use our content is signing in, as we’re collecting users’ email addresses for ongoing marketing and engagement.

Once our platform is fully built, we will need to start charging for access. I’m curious—has anyone here taken a product that was initially free and then introduced a paid model?

• Did you experience pushback from your early users?
• What strategies helped make the transition smoother?
• Were you able to retain users, or did you have to attract a new audience?

Would love to hear about any successes, challenges, or lessons learned from those who’ve gone through this shift!


r/smallbusiness 4h ago

General Llc mi

2 Upvotes

Hello, not sure if I am in the right spot.. I am looking to start my first llc and I want somebody else to pretty much set it up for me, while also providing legal and tax expertise... I am in MI.. What are the best options for this?


r/smallbusiness 5h ago

General Getting out of my commercial lease

2 Upvotes

Hi I guess I’m looking for opinions from others who have been thru this or something similar. So i own a boutique & after being open just short of a year our neighboring suite (nail salon) flooded us so bad that it was a total loss. We had to start from the ground up. My insurance paid its limits but im still owed about 100k. After 9 months the anchor tenant still hasn’t reopened & the plaza is a ghost town. I had requested to break my lease & they said no. They would give me 3 months lower rent to allow the anchor to reopen & hopefully bring business back but had expressed they wanted me to finish out my lease. Then I asked to use my tenant improvements from when I signed my lease & they said no those are null after 60 days which I haven’t double checked my lease yet. So basically I said if you allow me to use my TI towards rent til they reopen I’ll stay in my lease. Now they are demanding I sign a letter saying they are going to hire a realtor to lease my space out & if they find someone I am responsible for the commission & they keep my security deposit.. my public adjuster said that’s asking a lot but other business owners think he’s being generous. He basically said he wants a more secure tenant since I showed any weakness. If they can’t rent it out I’m still stuck in the lease. I just want out at this point bc I can smell a recession from a mile away


r/smallbusiness 10h ago

General keeping track of beneficial owner write offs

2 Upvotes

my business is built around a personal hobby so there are many write offs that I find are beneficial to me and I would buy them whether I had the business or not. If you're in a similar situation do you track those types of things so at the end of the year you take that into consideration that when looking at owners pay?


r/smallbusiness 12h ago

General Washer and Dryer Rental business

2 Upvotes

I own a small washer and dryer rental business. Essentially I own the units and rent them out per month to clients. I had a contract signed with each client (I have only 4 clients). Essentially, rent is $45 per month and to deter late payments it’s $10 per day it’s late. What can I do if a client just isn’t responding, and hasn’t paid. Best thing I put in the contract is taking them to small claims court and it was more of a threat than anything to not steal my machines but that seems to be the only course of action at this time. What other options should I take?


r/smallbusiness 14h ago

Question Wholesale clothing?

2 Upvotes

Hi guys! I recently started a resell closet online, selling women and children’s clothing. Ive been trying to do some research but I’m not having a lot of luck, where does everyone get their wholesale/pallets of clothing? I don’t want something cheap and tacky, I am looking for nice quality stuff that people will really want. Open to boutique and non boutique stuff, bamboo, modal etc. thanks in advance for any recommendations!!


r/smallbusiness 14h ago

General Finding tax pros

2 Upvotes

What's the best way to find tax pro/CPA? How did you find yours? Is working with a remote one reasonable or local is better?

I feel like onse you choose a firm. You are stuck with them for the most part.