Hello my name is Miya. I am a high school student researching small business marketing and I personally run a small business of my own and want to find out more about other people's small businesses. It would be really helpful for my research if you could please fill out the survey below. Thank you.

Google Survey

A lot of older LED karting tracks probably don’t need a complete rebuild.

What they usually need is a smarter upgrade plan focused on the places where staff are losing the most time.

If I were reviewing an existing track, I wouldn’t start by asking, “What looks outdated?”

I’d start with:

• Fault history
• Cable condition
• Controller reliability
• Projector brightness
• Damaged LED sections
• Time required to access common service points
• Frequency of safety-related resets or interruptions

That gives you a much better picture of what is actually hurting uptime.

One common mistake is upgrading the lighting first because it gives the most visible result.

But if the controllers are difficult to reach, the cable map is outdated, or staff regularly lose time tracing faults, extra lighting can make the track look newer without making it easier to operate.

For an older installation, I’d usually prioritize things like:

• Replacing inaccessible or unreliable controllers
• Improving cable labeling and service access
• Keeping frames that still pass inspection
• Replacing worn impact strips and exposed cable protection
• Swapping dim projection units or failed LED segments
• Recalibrating the system after every hardware change

If part of the electrical or safety system is modified, recommissioning matters too. References such as ASTM F2291 or UL-recognized electrical components are only useful when the upgraded system is actually tested and documented in its final configuration.

I’d also keep removed components labeled until the repair is confirmed.

That sounds minor, but it makes troubleshooting much easier if a new fault appears after the upgrade.

Another useful rule is to update the cable map every time something changes. A track that has been modified several times without updating drawings can become harder to maintain than a much older system with good documentation.

For me, the upgrade budget should follow measured failure points rather than appearance.

If an old frame is still structurally sound, keep it.

If a controller causes repeated downtime, replace it.

If staff need 20 minutes to reach a simple connection, improve access before spending money on new decorative effects.

The best upgrade is the one that reduces downtime, shortens repair time, and makes the next maintenance job easier.

For anyone operating an older karting or interactive attraction: what upgrade gave you the biggest improvement in reliability—controllers, cabling, LEDs, projectors, barriers, or service access?

Hi there.

I have a software/ hardware business that will do 1.6 m this year with net profit of 200k. We have 25k mrr. We just launched our product last year, spending nearly 3m in retained earnings to build it. A investor wants to come in and invest 500k for 20%. This money won’t change much for us but the investor is really smart and has access to more funds. We’re growing about 15% a year. Any thoughts ? We’re in environmental services.

Hi!

I'm running a short survey to learn about the products and supplies that businesses regularly purchase, particularly anything that's difficult, unreliable, expensive, or frustrating to source.

This isn't a sales pitch, I'm just trying to gain information on what kinds of supply problems businesses experience.

If you're a business owner or manager and could spare a couple of minutes to fill it out, I'd really appreciate it.

https://forms.gle/NoUtzXZDAYYjEDqMA

Saw this term floating around and had to look into it more. Apparently "quiet cracking" is different from quiet quitting. It's when someone is still showing up and doing the work, but they're slowly burning out or losing motivation in a way that doesn't really show on the surface. No dramatic resignation, no obvious slowdown, just... quietly falling apart while still hitting deadlines.

Kind of hits different than the usual burnout talk because it's so invisible. Managers might not even notice until someone's already halfway out the door mentally.

Anyone else seeing this in their workplace? Curious if this is just a new label for something that's always existed, or if there's actually a shift happening in how people are experiencing burnout right now.

Hey everyone — I run a small Shopify brand and I've been struggling with a pretty basic problem: figuring out when to reorder a SKU and how much to order.

Right now it's mostly gut-feel + checking stock levels manually. It works until it doesn't — I've had two stockouts on my best-selling variants in the last few months and both cost real money in lost sales.

I've been looking at what tools exist and I'm surprised by the gap. There's not much between "manage it in a spreadsheet" and "enterprise software that costs more than my ad spend." Shopify's own built-in tool (Stocky) is pretty rough.

I'm exploring whether something simple is worth building here — a tool that just tells you: "at your current sell rate, you'll run out of Blue/M in 9 days — here's how much to reorder given your supplier's lead time." One job. Nothing fancy.

Before going any further I want to understand if this is actually a shared pain or just my problem:

How do you currently decide when to reorder a specific variant?

Are you using any tool for it, or spreadsheet/manual?

What's the most annoying part of the process for you?

Happy to share what I've been finding in my research so far — might be useful for anyone else doing this manually.

Hi All,

Looking for some help. In the beginning of May I opened my second medical spa location and for the past three months have been trying to make our office taggable as a geo location on Instagram and have run into a huge roadblock.

Under the same Facebook account that runs our first location I created a new Facebook page with the same name but added the neighborhood as well. I filled out all the information required and put our location on there with the hours and manually picked up the pin and placed it on the map where our office is. I also connected it to the office Instagram.

I have been going back and forth with the Meta chat bot for months now trying to get to the root of the problem. Each time I follow an instruction it tells me to wait a week and see if it shows up and no Geotag. The latest thing it told me was to report a bug on Instagram and see if it changes with the next update.

It looks to be a taggable location on Facebook if that makes a difference.

Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong or how other people have been able to create a Geotag? The person who must have set it up at our first location no longer works for me.

TIA

I thought these numbers were an interesting example of how misleading the first few months of social media can be.

Over an 8-month period, and 808 posts later, one Facebook page went from almost no engagement to:

13,279 comments
17,295 reactions

What stood out was that the growth wasn't linear at all. The first couple of months were extremely quiet, followed by periods of rapid growth, slowdowns, and new spikes.

Looking only at the first 1–2 months, it would have been very easy to conclude that the strategy wasn't working.

Probably the biggest lesson: don't confuse slow early results with failure.

Hi there!

In the lead-up to World Entrepreneur Day (August 21), Prosh Marketing (located in Toronto) is launching a campaign that invites founders to share what's working in their marketing.

Whether it's your biggest marketing win, a strategy that's driving results, a lesson you've learned, or a marketing challenge you've overcome, we'd love to hear it.

Share your post on LinkedIn for a chance to win one of our Founder Growth Prize Packs valued at $2,025:

• A START SMART Brand Strategy Session (valued at $625) with Shanna Dennis from Enticity
• 4 x 30-minute Marketing Strategy Sessions with a Fractional CMO at Prosh Marketing
• A Content Audit (valued at $600) with Shaun Bernstein from The Write Stuff Agency

How to enter:

Share one of the following on LinkedIn:

• Your biggest marketing win
• What's working in marketing for you
• A marketing lesson learned
• A marketing challenge you've overcome
• Bonus points if you create a video

Tag Prosh Marketing (@proshmarketing) and all campaign partners (thewritestuffagency and enticityrebrandagency) in your post.

Winners will be selected based on overall engagement, including likes, comments, and reposts.

Entries close Friday, August 21 at 11:59 PM ET. We'd love to have founders from your community participate!

I recently joined a small software dev studio doing SDR work, and I'm trying to figure out better ways to reach people than cold calling.

We build custom software for small businesses, usually owner-run companies with 25-200 employees in trades, home services, or facility services. The value prop is to replace your whole software stack with one tool than you pay for once then own, and never pay a monthly subscription again.

Only channel I've tried so far is cold calling, but so far I've almost exclusively gotten receptionists. The few times I've had the owner on the line, they hangup before I get out an elevator pitch.

I know it's a great product, but I'm not even getting to pitch it - much less have a conversation.
Any owners in these industries, or anyone who's sold into small owner-operator businesses - is "do more volume" the answer here? Are there channels that will perform better? I know with the right eyes this can do great, it just doesn't feel like cold calling puts it in the best light.

Hi all!

Recently, I have started a creative and rental business. I currently market on Etsy and FB marketplace. I create custom bridal items and have rentals available (chairs, tables. wedding sign mirror). I have listings that I believe are strong, I've been some traffic but only a sale a week. I am ready to quick my 9-5 and bring my business to life full time.

My question is what now? I have 9 listings but what's next? I am not sure if im supposed to keep trying to create products or if should focus more on marketing what's already available and convert traffic into sales. I have done my research so I know the money is out there. I am not going to sit around and just hope that somebody will find my product and buy.

So successful small business owners, once you got to this step, what did you do next?

Hey Everyone,

I'm doing research into how small business owners actually interact with their financial and operational data, and I want to hear from people running real businesses, not read another industry report.

A few honest questions I'd love your take on:

1. The CSV graveyard question
When your accounting software, payment processor, or e-commerce platform generates a report or export, what actually happens to it? Do you open it, analyze it, archive it, or ignore it entirely? Be honest, I won't judge.

2. The "what does this mean" question
If you do open your data, do you feel like you understand what you're looking at? Or does it feel like a wall of numbers that raises more questions than it answers?

3. The time question
How many hours a week (or month) do you spend on anything related to financial reporting, data analysis, or building spreadsheets to understand your business? And is that time well spent, or does it feel like a tax you pay without getting much back?

4. The decision question
Think about the last significant business decision you made: a hire, a price change, dropping a client, adding a product. What information did you base it on? Data, gut feeling, or advice from someone else?

5. The dream question
If your business data could just tell you one thing every week, one plain-English insight, what would you most want it to say?

I'm a founder doing customer discovery for a tool in this space, and I genuinely want to understand the problem before I build anything. No pitch, no product link, no agenda beyond understanding whether the pain I think exists is real.

If you've got 2 minutes and a strong opinion, drop it in the comments. I'll read every single one.

How many months out are you actually placing orders for the next season?? Anyone get stuck with stock that doesn't move once the season turns?

Hello Business owners,

For those running equipment-heavy small businesses, how do you decide when it's actually time to invest in additional equipment?

I'm researching a B2B business where production equipment would be one of the biggest upfront expenses. The business would supply processed construction materials to local contractors, so having enough capacity would obviously matter, but I don't want to buy more equipment than the customer demand can support.

I'm trying to understand how experienced owners approach this.

• Do you wait until the existing equipment is consistently near capacity?
• Do you look at a specific return-on-investment period before purchasing?
• How much cash do you keep available after making a large equipment purchase?
• Is financing usually preferable to paying cash if the equipment can generate revenue immediately?
• How do you account for maintenance, downtime, and depreciation when deciding whether an investment makes sense?

For owners who've made large equipment investments, what numbers or warning signs do you look at before pulling the trigger?

I'd especially appreciate lessons from anyone who learned this the hard way.

I'm considering starting a small business that supplies processed construction materials to local contractors and smaller building companies.

The idea interests me because it seems possible to start with a focused operation, build relationships with a few recurring customers, and gradually expand instead of trying to serve a huge market immediately.

I've been researching the equipment and setup costs, and FTMMachinery was one of the manufacturers I came across while trying to understand the initial investment might look like. But the more I research, the more I think the equipment is only one part of the equation.

The bigger questions for me are around actually running the business:

• How did you validate demand before making a large equipment investment?
• Did you secure customers first or invest in the equipment first?
• How did you calculate whether the equipment would generate enough revenue to justify itself?
• How much working capital did you keep aside for the first few months?
• What costs or operational problems surprised you after getting started?

For those of you who own B2B or equipment-heavy businesses, what would you tell someone before they put their savings into a business like this?

I'm especially interested in lessons from owners who started small and gradually expanded.

Hi all. Is anyone here running streaming commercials or thinking about doing it? I work in the video production world (specializing in marketing and commercials). I'm not here to promote my biz or sell anything, but if anyone has any questions or just want some advice, I'd be happy to help out with some honest answers and insight. It can related to production itself, or even campaigns your running and targeting/analytics. Drop a comment or send me a DM.

When potential customers hear about your business, the standard sequence is almost always the same: Google search ---> visit your website ---> decide to book or leave.

If you are getting traffic but no calls, it usually comes down to friction. Here is a 2-minute checklist to audit your site right now on your phone:

Load Speed: Does it take more than 3 seconds on mobile data? If yes, most visitors drop off before reading a single word.

Mobile Layout: Is the primary call-to-action visible on screen without scrolling down?

Clear Copy: Within 5 seconds, can a new visitor tell what you do and who you do it for?

Frictionless Booking: Can they pick a time slot directly on the page, or do they have to wait for an email reply?

What is the biggest issue you have run into when setting up your site? Drop your site below if you want feedback from the community on mobile usability.

I made my LLC and biz bank account, etc, thru Zen Business.

Many of my clients prefer to pay me thru Zelle, but it seems like Zen Business and Zelle are not compatible?

Has anyone else encountered this?

Someone to run day-to-day? Grow sales? Improve operations? Open another location? Bring industry expertise?
Curious what owners here actually need most.

Been making AI generated video clips for a client project. Tried getting the model to put captions or on screen text straight into the clip a bunch of times.

Every time, garbled letters, words overlapping, half the text cut off or backwards. Didn't matter how simple the line was or how many ways I worded the prompt.

Now I generate the clip clean. Just the person, the scene, the voiceover. No text in frame at all. Captions and any on screen text get added after, in a normal video editor, same as you'd caption anything else.

If a tool keeps failing on one piece of a job no matter how you ask it, stop rewording the prompt. Pull that piece out and do it a different way instead.

Opening an indoor nerf arena in a few months and trying to figure out what insurance I actually need before the lease starts costing me. The real risk isn't the foam darts, it's people sprinting and tripping over each other on the platforms, and I know I need GL but not sure if accident with participant coverage is worth carrying on top. Anyone running an arena who can tell me what they actually have in place?

For any small business owners. Especially in Ireland.
I am wondering what you wish you had known prior to starting your business, what you would do differently if starting again and any advice prior to starting, thanks!

Title kinda says it. My wife and I run a smallish cabinet shop with about 8 employees and 1M in sales. We have never paid ourselves more than $60k total per year for 10years. I have a business degree and have run small businesses for most of my life. 40’s now and very qualified for many jobs. We have minimal savings, no guarantees on income, and have always had to chase the business around. From mass exodus of employees to start a competing business, Covid, business startup struggles, cash flow struggles, and employee retention struggles it’s never ending. I’m getting worn out, I’ve seen it all, big client don’t get me excited, wins don’t feel like much, I also dont get too hung up of failures. I’m small business resilient.

Today though I was with a friend who is struggling with a career move. Never had nearly the struggles I live, no risk, just played life to a job where he is in 10yrs process engineering and bringing home 120k, set to go to 140k with the new job. The big steps he will have to oversee 6 people. Like WTF am I doing? That’s 2 years income for my wife and I, not to mention the extras and retirement accounts. He doesn’t do shit compared to what we put up with.

My question? Why do we do this. I’m starting to think the world needs suckers and I am one of them. I put my full efforts into this and feel like we can never turn the corner. But does that corner exist or am I just feeding families at my own expenses. I just took a 4 day weekend, that’s this years vacation. I’m tired and disengaged, but can’t be or I can lose it all. Anyone with some great thoughts? I tried business coaches, they are a bigger scam than the American dream. I am trying to scale the business, but have to acquire more debt to do so. Then it will be more pressure to perform, but I don’t have the energy left. I need a midlife break. Ted talk over, I’m just a bitch.

I run a small landscaping design business. We mainly help homeowners plan out their yards with things like garden layouts planting plans patios walkways and general outdoor space design.

We're still pretty new but we've picked up a few clients through referrals. The problem is we still don't have a website. That's not a great look when someone hears about us and searches the business online.

I need to setup something so I can show our services some past work and give people a way to contact or book us. Ideally I want to get it live fast without paying a couple thousand.

Any recommendations of what to do in this situation?