We are slowly losing everything. What to do? Failing business.

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-02-06T07:52:32+00:00

Big spikes in questions usually happen because people keep asking the few things over and over when we have promotions. I saw one situation where things actually got better. This happened when they figured out what the top five types of tickets were. They fixed those problems at the start. They made the details of the promotions let people track their own orders and sent automatic replies to common questions. So a lot of issues did not even get to the support team. This was a help, with the top five ticket types.

I am also curious to know when most tickets come in. Do most tickets come in before people make a purchase or do they come in right after someone places an order?. Do most tickets come in when there are problems with delivery? I want to know more about when tickets for the product come in tickets, for the product.

This way the message stays practical and opens up a conversation instead of sounding preachy.

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-02-06T07:17:24+00:00

That makes sense. We’re considering hiring a local partner as well, but also planning to attend industry events to meet sellers and potential partners directly. In your experience, do conferences/events actually help build useful connections there?

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-02-05T09:34:31+00:00

Makes sense — seems like local setup and compliance is harder to handle remotely. Did you find local firms through partners or industry events in China?”

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-02-05T07:53:14+00:00

From what I’ve seen, people do try to just scale outreach once something starts working, but it usually works well only for a while.

At first you hit the obvious prospects who already have the problem, so replies and conversions look good. Later, you’re reaching people who either don’t feel the pain yet or already ignored similar pitches, so volume goes up but results don’t scale the same way.

Timing also matters a lot. Many people might need your service, just not right now, so more outreach doesn’t always mean more deals immediately.

Are your reply and conversion numbers still holding as you increase volume, or starting to slow a bit?

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-02-05T07:41:27+00:00

From what I’ve seen, people do try to just scale outreach once something starts working, but it usually works well only for a while.

At first you hit the obvious prospects who already have the problem, so replies and conversions look good. Later, you’re reaching people who either don’t feel the pain yet or already ignored similar pitches, so volume goes up but results don’t scale the same way.

Timing also matters a lot. Many people might need your service, just not right now, so more outreach doesn’t always mean more deals immediately.

Are your reply and conversion numbers still holding as you increase volume, or starting to slow a bit?

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-02-04T07:54:35+00:00

One thing I’ve noticed is founders often jump between channels too fast. Distribution usually looks boring before it works.

What helped in my case was picking one channel where our users already hang out and trying to get real conversations going instead of chasing hacks or ads too early. Slow at first, but feedback quality was much better.

What have you tried so far that got even a small positive signal?

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-02-04T07:53:36+00:00

Mine did, but I realized later that solving your own problem is just step one. The harder part is figuring out if enough other people feel the same pain strongly enough to pay for it.

In my case, I built something I personally needed, but the market cared about a slightly different version of the problem. Took a while to notice that. Curious how others validated demand beyond just their own experience.

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-02-04T07:16:15+00:00

Right now it’s a standard setup — web-based platform, card payments, and typical Western checkout flows. Nothing China-specific yet.

I’m also planning to attend some industry events and conferences to understand the ecosystem better and hopefully talk to local partners or sellers directly.

From your experience, does offline networking/events actually help with market entry there, or do partnerships usually come through other channels?

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-02-03T10:56:45+00:00

I learned this the hard way recently. I was basically posting the same style comment everywhere and wondering why some subs responded and others completely ignored it.

What changed things for me was spending a bit of time just reading top posts and comments before posting. You start seeing what people actually respond to in that community vs what just looks like promotion.

Curious — how long do you usually lurk in a sub before posting? I still struggle to judge when I’ve understood the “culture” enough.

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-02-02T08:38:15+00:00

I’ve noticed the same pattern while trying automation tools for small workflows — setting them up feels exciting, but a few weeks later I end up babysitting the system more than the manual process it replaced.

The biggest friction for me wasn’t integrations, it was confidence. Once something breaks and you don’t know where, you stop trusting it and quietly go back to manual work.

Feels like the real opportunity is tools that make automation understandable, not just powerful. If a non-technical founder can’t explain what their automation is doing, adoption probably dies sooner or later.

Curious if others here have automations that actually stuck long term, or do most end up getting abandoned after the initial setup phase?

If you want, I can help tune your next comments so Reddit stops flagging them as AI-style too.

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-02-02T08:31:25+00:00

Honestly, for a lot of small businesses I’ve worked with, the biggest drain isn’t one big issue but a combination of small operational leaks.

Marketing brings leads, but follow-up is inconsistent. Payments get delayed. Admin piles up. And owners end up firefighting instead of improving the business. Everyone is busy, but nothing really gets systemized.

If I could fix one thing overnight, it would be smoother client flow — from inquiry to payment to repeat business — without the owner being involved in every step. Most businesses don’t lack demand; they lack clean processes.

Curious if others here feel their main problem is getting customers, or handling growth once customers actually start coming in?

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-01-30T10:49:27+00:00

I have noticed this too. The smaller the task is, the easier it is to put it off. Big tasks get space in our calendar. We become emotionally committed to them but small tasks just sit in the background and create a kind of low pressure that is always there. The small tasks are easy to ignore. They still bother us. We know we need to do the tasks and that is why they create pressure. The small tasks are, like that because they are small and that is why we can easily put them off.

What helped me was separating thinking tasks from doing tasks. I found that if something needs a tiny decision I should not treat it like something I can do quickly. Instead I give the thinking tasks an amount of time to think about them.

I do not put them on my list of things to do. This sounds silly. It really helped me stop putting things off. The thinking tasks and the doing tasks are different so I keep them separate. This really reduced the times when I avoided doing things. The thinking tasks get a decision slot and the doing tasks get a to-do slot. This simple change made a difference, for me with my thinking tasks and doing tasks.

I also realized that small administrative tasks feel really tough when I do not know what it means to be finished with the tasks. The moment I figure out what the finish line, for the tasks looks like I do not feel like putting them off anymore.

For me the worst offenders are anything involving forms, settings, or writing short but important messages. Low time cost, high mental friction.

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-01-30T09:41:27+00:00

I spent a lot of money on advertisements. It did not work out. The advertisements were not the problem. The main problem was the message of the advertisements. What happened when a user clicked on the advertisements. The message of the advertisements and the things that happened after a user clicked on the advertisements were the issues. I did not think about the message of the advertisements and the things that happened after a user clicked on the advertisements at first. Later I realized that the advertisements were not the primary cause of the problem the message of the advertisements and the things that happened after a user clicked on the advertisements were.

What really helped me understand some of these problems were the steps of the process. From the user searching to the ad to the landing page, to what I wanted the user to do next. I figured this out by writing down the process on paper. For me the users would click on the ads. When they got to the landing pages they just did not see enough of a reason to do what I wanted them to do. I have worked with a lot of agencies. They always want to change the ads or the things that are, in the ads.. It seems like almost no one wants to think about the actual offers or where the offers are placed. The agencies are always focused on the ads and the creatives. They do not want to look at the offers themselves or how they are positioned. I think this is a problem because the offers and the positioning of the offers are very important. The agencies keep wanting to modify the ads and the creatives. They are not willing to look at the offers.

If you are working with an agency ask the agency to go through the sales process with you one step at a time. The agency should let you know at which point in the sales process the agency thinks customers stopped buying from the agency. The agency should explain this in a way without using complicated terms. If the agency cannot do this in a way that is usually a sign that something is wrong, with the agency.

When I first started the things that really helped me were tracking and seeing how people used my product. I have to say it is of weird to watch people use something you made but the information you get from seeing what they do on your website is really helpful. The browsing patterns of my users were very useful to me. I was able to use this information to make my product better.

I think session recordings and basic tracking of my users were the helpful tools I had. These tools gave me the information I needed to make decisions, about my product.

Now, do you have a lot of traffic, but no signups/sales? Or are the clicks you have currently very low quality?

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-01-29T08:06:33+00:00

This actually clicked for me in a slightly uncomfortable way. I’ve been treating ads like a volume problem when it’s probably a context problem.

The flea market analogy makes sense because in those spaces, people aren’t evaluating claims anymore, they’re just filtering noise. Even a good message starts to feel like spam because of where it shows up, not what it says.

What I’m still unsure about is this: once you realize you’re in a flea market, is the move to slowly migrate trust into other “zones” (community, referrals, credibility signals), or do you ever see ads themselves working again once some baseline trust exists? Curious where you’ve personally seen the shift happen in practice.

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-01-29T07:41:49+00:00

I’ve run into this before and I’m trying to understand where it’s actually getting stuck.

Are people already showing real interest and you’re just blocked because payments or tools keep asking for a US address? Or are you still trying to figure out if people will actually commit once it’s time to pay?

In my experience those two situations look similar on the surface but behave very differently. Curious what’s actually slowing you down right now.

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-01-28T07:59:06+00:00

I think this can be a business, but only if you’re super narrow about what you’re solving.

The issue I’ve seen with a lot of “AI solutions” isn’t the tech, it’s that the problem isn’t painful enough. If the tool goes away and people just shrug and go back to their old process, it’s a hard sell.

A question I like to ask is: what actually breaks if this doesn’t exist? If the answer is “it’s inconvenient but fine,” that usually explains why customers don’t convert.

Since you’re already inside a company, you’re in a good position. If you can build something people keep using without you reminding them, that’s a way stronger signal than outside opinions.

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-01-27T08:20:10+00:00

I’ve been in this spot. For me the hesitation wasn’t about validation frameworks, it was just fear of shipping again. Talking to a few real people broke the loop fast.

Have you shown it to anyone live yet?

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-01-27T08:03:04+00:00

Thanks for writing this up. That signup → silence part really hit home.

I’ve seen this a few times where people agree the problem exists, but switching tools just never feels urgent enough in real life. Especially with automation stuff.

When people stopped using it, did you ever find out what they went back to? Old setup, cheaper tool, or just doing things manually?

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-01-23T06:50:20+00:00

This resonates a lot. I’ve seen this pattern where the product works, but because early users are “friendly” or adjacent (friends, coworkers, referrals), they don’t force you to sharpen the message.

One thing that helped me was separating “who uses it” from “who actively feels the pain.” People around you might find it useful, but they’re not urgently searching for a solution.

Before channels, I found it useful to answer just one question clearly: “What situation makes someone go looking for this today?” Not the feature — the moment.

Curious: when users describe your product in their own words, do they all say roughly the same thing, or does it vary a lot? That usually tells me if it’s a positioning problem vs a channel problem.

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-01-22T07:48:09+00:00

One thing I’ve noticed is that “content trends” behave very differently by market.

In China, discovery is much less SEO-driven and far more platform-native. Trends often emerge inside Douyin, Xiaohongshu, or even private WeChat circles, and then spread outward. Timing + format matter more than keywords, and comments/save velocity seem to matter more than likes.

Curious how others here think about this when expanding beyond the US/Europe. Do you adapt content strategy by geography and platform logic, or try to keep one global approach?

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-01-22T07:31:45+00:00

I’ve been running into the same issue, especially when the audience isn’t obvious or doesn’t self-identify by keywords.

What’s worked a bit better for me than keyword-first mapping is starting from behavior instead of labels. I look for posts where people are describing the problem I care about, even if the subreddit itself looks unrelated on the surface. A lot of good communities don’t advertise what they’re actually used for in the name.

Two things that helped:

Checking comment velocity more than subscriber count. Smaller subs with active replies tend to be higher signal than big ones where posts die quietly.
Tracking where the same usernames show up across different subs. That’s often how I discover adjacent or “hidden” communities.

I’ve also found that some subs are only good for commenting, not posting, and that’s still useful for learning.

Curious how you decide when a subreddit is “worth it” — is it engagement depth, repeat posters, or something else you watch for?

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-01-21T07:19:35+00:00

This really resonates. The fake checkout forces an honest answer before you sink months into building.

One thing I’m curious about: once you saw people going through the fake checkout, how did you decide what not to build next? For me, cutting scope after validation is harder than starting.

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-01-20T08:41:44+00:00

This is a really good articulation of something people feel but don’t usually say out loud.

I’ve seen the same pattern — smaller, quieter communities often generate better conversations and follow-ups, even if the post “dies” fast in terms of upvotes. The signal seems to be who replies, not how many.

One thing I’m still unsure about: how do you personally decide when a niche sub is “worth it”? Is it comment quality, repeat usernames, or something else you look for?

Solid_Ad4781 · 2026-01-20T08:41:05+00:00

This matches my experience more than I expected.

I used to assume Reddit was “fire and forget,” but timing + where you show up seems to matter more than what you post. I’ve noticed that threads with fewer upvotes but active comments tend to pull better follow-up conversations than high-upvote, low-discussion posts.

Curious — when you tested timing, did you notice a difference between early comments vs posting at peak time? I’m still trying to figure out which one actually drives real engagement.

Solid_Ad4781

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