Hello fellow argonauts!

I am starting a business renting out indoor plants to offices. I have the wholesale product supply & knowledge locked down but need help with best software tools.

We will be renting out indoor plants, monthly fee. As part of this we will be doing visits every 2 weeks to feed, water, prune, and replace plants as necessary.

I’m in Arizona if it makes a difference.

What tools do you recommend to track inventory, track the product at clients, and also to track that our team members are actually visiting each plant at each client location? (This is my key concern).

Plus integration with a CRM, lead tracking, billing etc. Thanks for your thoughts!

Is there a reason why HVAC companies run mostly on new installs and service calls coming in?

A system put in 8-10 years back is getting old now. That homeowner will need a tune up, a repair or a full replacement soon. Some of them added a room and want a mini split. They already know your name, your system has been running in their house for years. Still when they need some work done, they google and call whoever comes up first because nobody reminded them about you.

The names and addresses are already sitting in old invoices or the software you used back then.

With winter coming, even a simple message works. Something like:

"Hi, this is [company]. We installed your furnace back in 2016. Systems around 10 years old are the ones that break down in the first cold week. Want us to come do a check before that?"

Then one follow up after a week if no reply and one more closer to the first cold snap. No discount needed. Past customers respond way better than cold leads because they already trust you.

Does anyone here do this regularly? What kind of response do you get from old customers vs new leads?

I am offering 4 solutions for small businesses esp local B2B professional services (lawyers, CPMs, dentists, Real estate firms, etc)
- AEO / SEO (98$ a month - with initial report and improvements there on monthly)
- Professional videos (AI plus real footage - 98$ per video - 5 mins)
- Very Professional websites and 8 blogs/newletter/content pieces a month for AEO ($98 usd)
- Lead lists (esp for new potential businesses in 15-100 mile radius which can be your clients - $1.5 per lead with ALL contact details. email (if avaliable), phone number/ address always included)

No link posted or asked - but a humble question on pricing. :)

A lot of businesses think running Facebook or Google ads is the next step to getting more customers. But sometimes, spending money on ads is the WORST thing they can do.

Before running ads, I think every business owner should ask themselves a few questions:

• Do I make enough profit from each customer to afford the cost of getting one?
• Can I turn enquiries into actual paying customers?
• Do I have enough budget to test ads, learn from the results and improve?
• If I get more customers, can my business handle them?

If the answer to most of these questions is no, running ads might not be the right move yet.

Ads can help you reach more potential customers, but they can't fix a bad offer, poor pricing or a product nobody wants.

I'm curious to know what other business owners think about this.

If you run a business and are wondering whether paid ads could work for you, tell me what you do and how you currently get customers. I'd be happy to share my thoughts on whether ads make sense for your business.

I run a flower shop in Manhattan, and we're currently installing an additional walk-in cooler.

The main reason isn't to store more bulk flowers.

It's to significantly increase our selection of ready-made bouquets.

Our goal is to have up to 80% more premade arrangements available for walk-in customers.

Right now, we get two very different types of customers.

Some know exactly what they want and are happy to wait for a custom arrangement.

Others walk in needing flowers immediately.

They might be on their way to dinner, buying a last-minute birthday gift, or simply looking for something nice to take home.

For that second group, I think having a larger selection could make a real difference.

But here's what concerns me.

Flowers are perishable inventory.

Unlike most retail products, we can't just prepare hundreds of arrangements and leave them sitting around until someone buys them.

More ready-made bouquets means more processing, more labor, more inventory management, and potentially more waste.

We're also dealing with unpredictable seasonal demand.

For example, this week we have imported Peonies from Chile, rare White Irises from the Netherlands, and Dahlias that are probably approaching the end of their season.

Halloween arrangements and Flower Pumpkins are also selling quickly.

At the same time, our team just completed a custom arrangement with 500 Roses, which required a completely different approach to purchasing, preparation, and production.

So we're trying to balance three things:

• Having enough ready-made bouquets for customers who need something immediately.
• Keeping sufficient inventory for custom orders.
• Avoiding unnecessary waste and maintaining freshness.

My theory is that a wider ready-made selection will improve the customer experience and increase conversion from walk-in traffic.

But I also wonder whether some customers who would normally order a custom bouquet will simply choose something already prepared.

For other florists and retail business owners:

Have you expanded your ready-made inventory before?

Did it actually increase total sales, or mostly shift purchases away from custom orders?

How do you decide how many arrangements to prepare each morning?

Do you track sell-through rates by bouquet style, price point, or day of the week?

And most importantly, how do you prevent waste when demand is unpredictable?

I'd especially appreciate hearing from florists, bakeries, and other businesses dealing with perishable products.

I'm trying to figure out whether more selection really means more sales—or whether the smarter approach is simply having the right selection.

A business owner I worked with lost their website for 3 weeks because someone set up a business website years ago using their own accounts and then became hard to reach. Everything works until the domain is about to expire, and suddenly nobody can get in. Their customers just saw an error page, and they had no way to fix it themselves, and that’s normal. Most owners hand the “techy stuff” to the developer and trust them with it. It’s fine until the designer stops picking up.

A 5-minute check:

• Domain: do you know which company it’s registered with (GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.), and can you log in?
• Hosting: do you know where the site actually lives, and do you have that login too?
• Website editor: can you change your own hours or phone number without asking anyone?

If you answered no to any of these, ask your developer for access now, while they still reply. Save the logins somewhere you won’t lose them.

Has this ever happened to you, or to a business owner you know?

VA for your business? Offering a service for free for one month to help you with any task and gain experience at the same time. I already have a administrative assistant experience but will not limit my task on that.

• Database management
• Data entry
• Document verification
• Spreadsheet (Microsoft & Google Sheets)
• Calendar management
• Inbox cleanup
• Document organization
• Basic Canva design

Do I need ein for stripe or wise? Does stripe of wise offer iban?

Something I keep noticing: customers have moved on to paying with phones, watches and even rings, but a lot of merchants, especially small businesses, still rely on dedicated card terminals. You have to buy or rent them, charge them, and deal with them losing connection at the worst moment.

Tap to Pay on phones (SoftPOS) has been around for a while now, and wearable payments are growing. So what's actually holding businesses back? Is it trust, bank or acquirer requirements, cost, habit, or something else?

I help run the Stripe Wearable Tech Community, and we're hosting a free online session on exactly this:

Wearable Tech for Businesses: Why Are We Still Carrying POS Machines?
Tuesday 27 October, 2:00 – 3:00 PM WAT (1:00 PM GMT), online and free.

Link if you're interested: https://www.stripecommunity.com/public/clubs/wearable-tech/events/wearable-tech-for-businesses-why-are-we-still-carrying-pos-machines-8ybsg9modl

I keep seeing the same complaints around Stripe: limited availability in some countries, account holds, slow support, tax headaches and difficult approval issues.

I'm curious what people have actually switched to and whether the experience has been better long term. What Stripe alternative are you using and what made you use it?

i've been thinking about how many small businesses still rely on a traditional landline or copper phone line, especially local service businesses like plumbers, HVAC companies, contractors, clinics and other businesses where calls often turn into actual jobs.

i get why people stick with what they know. the number is established, customers already have it, and if the phone works, changing the setup can feel like fixing something that isn't broken.

but there's a pretty simple experiment you could run without replacing your existing phone service.

keep your current number. Set up call forwarding to a VoIP phone system for a week and compare what happens.

you don't even need to move every call permanently. Just test it with your regular incoming calls and look at a few things:

• missed calls: how many calls came in while you were on a job, with another customer, or away from the phone?
• missed business: did anyone call about a quote or appointment and never get through? Did you follow up with everyone who called?
• call records: can you actually see who called, when they called, and what happened afterward?
• voicemail transcription: can you read the message instead of having to listen to every voicemail, and are you getting enough information to call the person back?
• team access: if someone else needs to answer or return a call, can they do it without chasing you for details?
• after-hours calls: are potential customers reaching a dead end when you're closed?

The interesting part is that you might discover the problem isn't your phone line itself. It's everything that happens around it.

A traditional line can ring just fine, but it doesn't necessarily give you a useful record of missed opportunities, make it easy to share calls with your team, or help you keep track of who needs a callback.

And if you're a small business, you don't need to miss dozens of calls for this to matter. One missed quote for a big job could be worth more than the cost of the phone system for months.

I'm not saying everyone needs to ditch their landline. If your current setup works and you're happy with it, that's fair enough.

But if you're keen to understand, why not forward calls to a VoIP system for ten days, compare the call logs and followups, and then decide whether it's worth keeping?

For those of you still using a traditional landline for your business, have you ever tested call forwarding to a VoIP system without fully switching over?

Trying to see if there would be enough interest in small engine and electrical equipment repair for the residential to commerical user in the Northwest Ohio north east Indiana and southern Michigan areas. Looking to possibly start something up let me know your thoughts

Please ,please try and spend as little as possible in these scenarios
1.when starting your business
2.testing à new product
3.starting marketing of your business or product , Only invest more when your have gained understanding and experience or else you will learn thé hard way ànd thats not a road you wanna go down.

Hi all- I am looking to improve my visibility on ChatGPT, Gemini etc for my business. My website is hosted on Wordpress.

So experts, what is the best AEO & GEO plugin for Wordpress?

Hi
I filed LLC reg in New Mexico with northwest registered agent on 13 oct - 39$ plan. It says submitted to state so far. is this normal?

edit: I got approval on 22 Oct.

Hi all,

I run a small service business, and reviews matter a lot for trust and getting new customers in the door.

The issue is that we don’t have a strong review base yet. A few happy customers have said good things in person, but we haven’t been great about asking for reviews or building that into our process.

On top of that, we had a red flag customer a few months ago who left negative reviews across multiple review platforms. I responded professionally, but it still feels like those bad reviews are carrying too much weight because we don’t have enough positive reviews to balance them out.

For those of you who have dealt with something like this, how do I hire reputation management services that actually work?

I’m not looking for anything sketchy or fake reviews. I just want to improve our online reputation and make sure one bad customer doesn’t define the business.

Hi everyone,

I run a product brand and recently received a wholesale inquiry from a potential distributor. My first order could be worth around $30,000.

The buyer is asking me to provide UPC codes for my products, and I'm not sure about the correct way to obtain them. Should I purchase them directly from GS1, and does each product need its own UPC?

My second concern is payment. I need the money to purchase the inventory from my supplier, but Stripe currently holds my funds. What payment methods would you recommend for receiving a wholesale payment of this size from a US distributor, especially for a first transaction?

For context, my products ship from China, and I need to arrange the inventory purchase before fulfilling the order.

I'd really appreciate advice from anyone experienced in wholesale, UPC requirements, and international B2B payments.

Thanks!

Hey everyone, quick logistics question for those sourcing from multiple vendors at once.

Right now, I’m paying separate shipping costs for every individual order, and those individual freight fees are really starting to bite into my margins. I’m trying to figure out the most cost-effective way to get everything combined into one shipment before it leaves overseas.

I know some people hire third-party freight forwarders to hold goods at a warehouse, while others stick to built-in options like Alibaba consolidation or work with local sourcing agents to bundle LCL shipments.

If you’ve gone through this setup, what route worked best for you, and did combining shipments actually end up saving you significant money after warehouse and handling fees?

I’d really appreciate any advice or lessons learned from your own experience!

I’ve been to quite a few B2B networking events, and honestly, the biggest problem is rarely the number of people attending. It’s finding the right people.

You can spend half a day meeting 20 companies and still leave without a single useful conversation. That’s why automated business matchmaking sounds interesting to me. In theory, matching based on industry, business needs, location, and goals should be much more useful than randomly walking around an event. I recently came across B2BeeMatch, which focuses on connecting businesses based on actual compatibility rather than just giving everyone a giant attendee list.

Has anyone here actually used automated business matchmaking? Did it lead to real partnerships or was it still mostly hit or miss?

I have been interested in Stripe accounts and particularly Stripe Connect accounts. But recently I got banned from it and from then on I have no way to contact them. It’s been more than 3 months with no response.
Looking for alternatives but I had no best option for my business Digipae.
We need a processor to move money.
Please suggest if there is anything better available.

I’d like to know people’s thoughts on cold email outreach. If you are a business owner have you ever used it before to get clients ? Was it useful ?

Looking for unbiased opinion so nobody trying to sell their own cold emailing services.

As a small business owner never expect any result if you just look at the talent's testimonial and or portfolio, what looks good on paper will always end up looking bad in real life or after hiring, I have gone through this multiple times, more than I could possibly admit, the solution for this is to have a clearer expectations and a checklists before hiring, this way you know whom you are hiring and what results to expect from them. Make sure to always be clear on your end and have realistic expectations. Would love to hear from others that have been on the same boat.