r/Business_Ideas

Hey everyone, I'd love some advice on a business partnership offer I received.

Background: I've been working in IT for years (earning €2,800/month net) and have been slowly building experience in electrical installations on the side through a sole trader business, working with my brother, father and a few friends. Currently doing about one project per month (~5 days of work), building my client base and reputation. I also have €50,000 in savings ready to invest in starting a proper company.

The offer: Two friends of mine (they're brothers) run a successful construction company with ~50 employees and several related businesses in the sector. After I completed a project for them, they approached me with a proposal to open an electrical installation company together, with plans to expand into full MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing). The ownership structure they proposed is 1/3 each – so they together hold 2/3 and I hold 1/3. I would run the entire company operationally, while they would provide administrative support (finance, HR) through their existing company, funded via interest-free loans that would need to be repaid.

My concerns:

1. They are two people sharing 2/3, meaning they always vote as a block and I'm always outvoted – despite running everything.

2. The financial risk for them is relatively low (interest-free loans, existing infrastructure), while I would be leaving or reducing my IT career.

3. Without me, this company simply cannot exist – I bring the license, the expertise, the operational work and my own capital.

4. I could realistically start this company on my own using my savings.

My counter-proposal idea: I'm open to having them as partners because we're close friends and I want to work alongside their construction projects long-term. But I feel a fair structure would be 60-65% for me and 35-40% for them together. They bring the network and administrative support; I bring everything else including my own capital.

Alternative I'm considering: Open the company myself (100% ownership) and instead sign a long-term subcontracting agreement with their construction firm, making me their preferred electrical/MEP contractor without any shared ownership.

My questions:

- Is a 60-65% / 35-40% split reasonable given this situation?

- How would you approach the counter-proposal conversation without damaging the friendship?

- Is the subcontracting agreement alternative actually smarter long-term?

- What are the biggest red flags I should watch for in the partnership agreement if I do go ahead?

Thanks in advance, I really appreciate any perspective from people who've been through something similar.

I’ve been in the precious metals business for 20+ years.

In the precious metals community it’s common to switch gold for silver or vice versa depending on the current gold to silver ratio.

During that time I’ve changed positions somewhat often between silver and gold and even occasionally platinum. But the issue is I either need to take my metals into a coin shop and get paid less than spot and then I need to swap my cash to the new metal and I pay a premium on the other end of the purchase as well. It ends up being around a 3-5% loss each time.

Or…. I can trade my precious metals on Facebook or Reddit but that is obviously a lot more dangerous. Sending your metals to a stranger and praying they send their promised metals as well AND that the metals aren’t fakes.

My business idea is this.. I want to create a business where I’m the middle man in the transaction. I would have a platform where people can place their trades and others can accept them. Upon acceptance, labels would be given to both parties to send their metals to me where I would perform a verification process. Holds would be placed in credit cards of each member of the trade for 2% of their metals value. Once I validate their metals I would upload documentation to their trade on the platform and if both metals passed, I would send their metals to the new owner.

Risks.. missing fake metals. The correct machinery would practically eliminate this risk. But there is always a risk here.

Getting the public confidence to the point where individuals are comfortable sending me large quantities of precious metals. This is my largest concern.

Wins for the traders.. trading metals with confidence. Verification of metals for only 2% is fantastic. And every % saved by the precious metals community is massive to them. They wouldn’t need to pay the normal 3-5%.

What do y’all think? Is it a winner or a dud?? TIA

Run a small plumbing shop. Last year was rough, phones ringing all day, half going to voicemail, lost a $4k repipe in March bc i called the guy back next morning and someone else was already there.

Tried the usual stuff. Jobber was overkill, Housecall Pro almost worked but the sms side is weak, and the actual sales platforms are built for saas reps not for someone triaging a leak at 8pm. So i hired two devs off upwork and we built our own thing over 3 months. Inbound texts get sorted by job type, and if the customer goes quiet for 2 hours the system pokes them again. Conversion on inbounds went from like 30 to mid 60s.

Idk if this is a real takeaway but contractors get ignored by software. The workflow is weird, the customers are weird, and most tools out there were built by people who never spent a Saturday in a crawl space.

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Coffee culture here is slowly growing, especially with the middle class becoming bigger and younger people getting interested in coffee. I already sell roasted coffee beans and some customers keep asking me where they can buy brewing equipment like French presses, V60s, grinders, moka pots and nobody is selling these products locally.

Most people either don’t know where to get them or importing one piece individually is too expensive. So I’m thinking about importing affordable French presses and other beginner coffee equipment from China and selling them alongside my coffee beans.

I will be taking business loan to import the products, but the repayment terms are aggressive and the pressure would be high because its a private company. My heart keeps telling me this opportunity is real. I feel like if I move early enough, I can build something before bigger other vendors notice the market. Inshall Allah and yolo

Like I was thinking about starting a newsletter related to those topics but I got doubt wondering in my head that how would I sell anything, like will people actually buy digital products on these kind of topics? I just love writing and those topics so I thought about starting a newsletter but now I'm confused. Help me out please.

I have a great career of 19 years as a fire fighter where I make 200k per year. Unfortunately, my hearing has declined over the last 5 years and I may no longer meet the minimum standard to remain employed so I could be retired.

I need to think about the future and hopefully replace my 200k per year with starting or buying a business to support my family. I have 150k saved and can buy or start a business with it. Is there anything that jumps out as a safe and great idea? I don’t really have any other specialties as I’ve done this since I was 20 years old. It kills me that I could lose this career but I have to prepare for the worst.

I currently also sell real estate and have done so for 10 years. I have made decent money doing that(extra 70-90k per year) but with the current market and huge influx in real estate agents … it has became hard to stay above water with it.

Any input is appreciated. Thank you

I am a stay at home mom of a 15 months old... i got married right after university and moved to another coty with my husband so i didnt get a chance to get a job have experience or anything.. i have a degree in translation i was the first ranked student but now i feel so useless and feel like i know nothing and cant do anything beside cleaning and taking care of my baby...

I want to have my own income even if its little but dont k ow what to do or where to start ...

A while ago i was thinking to start a pickle business like make pickles and sell them but i dont know why i am not starting that ...

I thought about creating things for kids but i found it kind of hard because i want to do it in a kind of perfect way ...

Any business ideas i can do from home ??

So my husband and I were washing our 2 australian shepherds, and we finished bathing, brushing, clipping nails, and drying them completely in 40 minutes. So I thought to myself why not start up a dog grooming business modeled after a car wash. It would be based on cleaning dogs quick (and efficently) base price would be JUST a bath and drying. Then people can do add ons for nails, flea shampoo, organic, whitening, ears wiped, and deshedding. We will not cut dogs. This would be better and cheaper for shorter haired dog breeds, or dogs like spitz, and be a quick service prices starting at $15 for xs dogs up to $50 for XL dogs all add ons are +2 in price aside from nails which are +5, and I might play around with prices when I see how things go.

I just see most dog grooming places are like "detailers" or self service, and trying to maybe fill in a niche for a quick turnaround clean dog service people dont have to do themselves

Any critique? Ideas? Suggestions?

For reference smaller dogs around me start at $30 and larger dogs start $85 for a bath, nail clip, blow dry.

Hi everyone,
Has anyone here recently started (or tried to start) a supplement webshop? What are some important things to consider? How difficult is it to succeed in this industry, and what marketing strategies worked for you?

Hi everyone!

Organising events and bringing people together really interests me, and I’ve been wondering how I could turn that into a small business.

I’m Turkish and living abroad, and I speak fluent English. I feel like I can share my experience and know-how about adapting to life abroad, navigating a new culture, meeting people, etc.

I also like the idea of organising local social events, for example:
- meetups for internationals,
- café gatherings,
- or small DIY/activity days where people can socialize while doing something creative together.

The problem is that my ideas still feel very broad, and I get lost in the details easily.

I’d really appreciate any feedback, advice, or ideas from people who have experience with this kind of things

So I've hadexperience in the past with Wix for running my relative's small business, but it's been a few months now I'm getting serious about learning skills of web development/design.

I have plunged into HTML and CSS as a start, planning to go into JavaScript soon after.

I also have experience with WordPress templates, dabbled with them on a personal website of mine for experiments.

How would I run a successful web development business in this day and age of oversaturation and AI? I still think it is viable if I'm able to stand out from the crowd and from the generic websites most people flock on to.

The plan is to get so good at it that it would eventually replace my employment income.

Any insights/guidance from people in the industry would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Edit: typo

Hey everyone,

I'm in the early stages of launching a sta͏rtup here in Massachusetts, and I'm navigating the LLC formation process for the first time. I could really use some advice from folks who have been through this locally.

To give you a little background, I'm a chemical engineer by trade (spent a few years over in Kendall Square), and I've developed a new process for manufacturing a highly biodegradable, marine-safe plastic alternative derived from locally sourced kelp and invasive green crabs. They are a menace to the local ecosystem, and we've found a way to utilize their shells in our polymer matrix.

Now, I need to get the legal foundation set up properly before we start taking on inves͏tment (mostly friends and family at this point, but looking at seed rounds soon) and signing larger contracts.

I'm leaning towards forming an LLC, but I have a few specific questions.

I know I need a MA registered agent. Is it better to use a service or just be my own resident agent? Given that I might be working out of shared lab spaces or my garage at times, I'm slightly worried about privacy and ensuring I don't miss important docs.

I see MA has a notoriously high annual report fee ($500). Are there any local gra͏nts, programs, or specific classifications (maybe related to clean tech or utilizing invasive species) that can help offset these costs for early-stage startups?

Can anyone recommend a startup-friendly lawyer or CPA in the Boston/North Shore area who understands the specific needs of a hardware/materials science startup?

Hello, I was wondering how many people in this sub are still working and looking to start a business?

And what is the most difficult thing at the moment stopping you from starting one?

And if you could would you spend time to find what business you truly want?

Hi everyone,

I’m from Serbia and I’m seriously thinking about starting a small import business. My idea is to import tech-related products from China into Serbia, and potentially later expand to other Balkan countries.

I’m interested in categories like small robots, smart home gadgets, electronic accessories, or other tech products that could have demand locally. I’m not talking about importing random cheap junk — I want to understand how the import business actually works before I put money into anything.

The problem is: I’m at the very beginning and I don’t know what I don’t know.

I’d really appreciate advice from people who have experience with importing, especially from China or into Europe/Balkan markets.

Some questions I have:

1. What is the realistic first step if I want to import products from China to Serbia?
2. What kind of company/business structure would I need in Serbia?
3. How complicated is customs clearance, VAT, import duties, documentation, and compliance?
4. How much starting capital would be realistic for a small first test order?
5. Is it better to start with Alibaba suppliers, sourcing agents, trade fairs, or something else?
6. How do you check if a supplier is legit and the product quality is good?
7. What mistakes should beginners avoid?
8. Are tech products a bad first category because of certifications, warranties, safety rules, batteries, electronics regulations, etc.?
9. Would it be smarter to start with simpler products first before moving into tech?
10. If someone is already doing import/export, what does the process look like step by step from finding a product to actually selling it?

My goal is not to get rich overnight. I just want to understand the real process, the risks, the costs, and what kind of work is actually involved.

Any advice, resources, examples, or personal experience would be very helpful.

So I’ve been running my web agency for about 4 years now, and honestly, the beginning was rough. I was doing everything manually, chasing clients nonstop, and every month felt like starting from zero again. It took me way too long to realize that the real money was in building systems instead of constantly grinding for one off projects.

Once I figured that out, things changed fast. I started getting paid monthly instead of only when I closed a new client, and eventually the income became pretty predictable.

If this sounds interesting, I’ll probably save you 3 of the 4 years it took me to figure this out.

The first thing that changed everything was targeting businesses with outdated websites. This works insanely well because these businesses already understand the value of having a website. You’re not convincing them they need one, you’re just showing them why their current one is hurting them.

Step one, what I started doing was using Swokei. I upload lists of company leads and it automatically analyzes each business website for problems like outdated design, weak SEO, slow loading speed, and bad mobile optimization. Then it turns all those flaws into personalized ready to send emails automatically.

So instead of manually checking websites one by one, I was analyzing thousands of websites and sending thousands of highly personalized emails at scale.

The crazy part is that businesses thought I actually spent time reviewing their website personally because the emails were so specific to their problems. That alone brought in a huge amount of interested replies compared to generic cold emails.

Step two is where most people overcomplicate things. Once your inbox starts filling with replies, call them and tell them you already made a free draft or preview of their new website. Then invite them to a Google Meet or Teams call to walk them through it.

You can build the draft manually or use AI tools to speed things up. The important part is getting them on a call and showing them something visual. Most business owners can’t imagine what “better” looks like until they actually see it.

During the meeting, present the website, explain how it improves their business, and close them right there on the call. Depending on where you live, you can either send a payment link immediately or get them to sign digitally.

The biggest lesson though is this:

Always charge an upfront payment AND a monthly retainer.

The upfront payment gives you immediate cash flow, but the retainer is what changes your life long term. Hosting, maintenance, SEO, edits, support, whatever makes sense for the client. Once you start closing multiple clients every month, that recurring revenue stacks up fast.

After a while it stops feeling like chasing money and starts feeling like building an actual income machine.

Then you just repeat the process.

Honestly, it’s never been easier to start a web agency than it is right now.

Hi all, I’m a network/IT engineer based in San José, Costa Rica. I lost everything after a legal scam I’m still fighting but I’m determined to start again and build something new.

I have strong experience in the sportsbook and casino industry. Worked at two sportsbooks in the past (BetUS and MyBookie), at one I rebuilt the entire datacenter to improve performance and reliability.

My skills cover IT infrastructure, networking, and systems network optimization, and I also have IT contacts across the region who can help.

I’m looking for a co‑founder, partner or someone that wants to start the same idea and doesn't have the technical knowledge and doesn't know where to find the right people. Looking for someone who can bring business, product, compliance, or funding skills while I lead the technical side.

What I bring:

• Sportsbook/casino IT expertise (datacenter rebuilds, Hardware, performance tuning).
• Local presence in Costa Rica with local knowledge (I know several physical office locations, datacenters, service providers and IT hardware vendors).
• Network of IT contacts for staffing and support.

What I’m looking for:

• A partner ready to start lean and validate quickly.
• Someone with business/operational and investment capability.

If you’re interested DM me and we can speak about it.

In beta testing for a social app me and my brother have been developing. For those with experience releasing somewhat of a social app, is there a good number of users I should have in a test group prior to release? Right now we’re sitting at 50 people in Alpha and Beta test groups combined and we’re anticipating releasing in the next two weeks. Should I look to hit a specific mark before release? I got that 50 from friends and acquaintances from social polls and word of mouth in a few days. I was hoping to get a few hundred in the next few weeks. Let me know your thoughts.

Hey r/Business_Ideas!

Welcome to Small Business Sundays!

This is the ONLY place you can solicit on this subreddit, so feel free to plug your business and services here and get the word out about your offerings!

You should try to include:

• your industry
• your experience (or portfolio)
• the type of customer you're looking for
• any other relevant info

The only rules still in force are Reddit's site-wide rules and 'Be Real & Be Nice', otherwise, spam away!

I used to think the best way to get clients for a web agency was paid ads or referrals.

But honestly the thing that worked best for me was targeting businesses with outdated websites.
Like you go on their site and instantly see problems. Bad mobile design, slow loading, old branding, weird layouts, no clear Cta.

Some of these businesses are actually good businesses but their website is just killing conversions.

At first I was doing everything manually. I would check websites one by one, write personalized feedback, then send outreach emails myself.
It worked pretty well but it took forever.

So I started automating the whole thing with Swokei.
Now it analyzes websites automatically, finds flaws, turns them into personalized outreach, and runs the email automation too.

The cool part is the emails don’t feel spammy because every business gets actual feedback about their website instead of some copy pasted “hey need a redesign?” message.

Since doing this I’ve been getting clients consistently every week and sometimes daily.
Way better results than paid ads honestly. Even referrals.

I think it works because business owners already know their website is outdated deep down. When you point out the exact problems and how it affects them, the conversation becomes way easier.