u/Efficient_Cod3347

I'm not crazy right?

Every morning I wake up to 40+ messages. Some are orders. Some are questions. Some are people who asked about a product 3 days ago and never replied.

I spend the first 2 hours of my day just reading and typing. By the time I'm done half the morning is gone and I haven't actually done anything for my business.

The worst part is I can't ignore it because if I don't reply fast enough they just order from someone else.

I've tried writing everything down. I've tried spreadsheets. I've tried asking my sister to help. Nothing sticks.

Is this just what running a small business feels like forever or has anyone actually solved this?

Genuinely asking because I just spent a week on this and had no idea how common the problem was.

A friend of mine runs a small perfume business in Oman. Every morning looked like this:

• Wake up to 30+ WhatsApp messages
• Read each one manually
• Type names, addresses and orders into a spreadsheet by hand
• Miss some orders
• Forget to reply to others
• Repeat the next day

She just accepted it as part of running a business. Said everyone does it this way.

I'm a bit of a tinkerer so I spent a few evenings trying to sort it out for her. Managed to connect a few free tools together so that when a customer reaches out, their order details go straight into a spreadsheet without her doing anything.

She was shocked at how much time she was getting back honestly.

Just curious — is this a widespread problem or was her situation unusual? How do most small businesses handle this?