r/Entrepreneurs

We are a small team and somehow customer communication has become one of the hardest things to manage. Sales emails are in Gmail, support requests come through forms while somebody logs notes in a spreadsheet and Slack DMs somehow became part of the process too. I am researching a CRM because we have already had a couple situations where two people replied to the same customer with completely different information.

The irony is that we are still small enough that this shouldnt be happening but for founders who went through this stage, what processes fixed it? Was software the answer or did you tighten up internal processes first before adopting a CRM for startups especially with a limited budget? I am trying to figure out whether we need a proper system now.

Started as a side hustle. Then it actually turned into a real business. Orders were small at first and maybe 40 or 50 a week. My supplier handled it fine. Until suddenly they couldn’t. Nice people, but not so nice news

I figured, okay, no big deal. There have to be tons of packaging companies out there. How hard could it be to find a new one?

Turns out, pretty hard

I spent three nights researching local options, reading through minimums and fine print. Some places wanted orders of 10Kboxes. Who has room for that? I live in an apartment and I’d be building a box fort just to store them all. Other companies sent samples that felt like recycled tissue paper and hoped you wouldn’t notice. And then there were the ones that took four days just to reply to an email with a quote. By the time they got back to me, I’d already moved on

It drove me nuts. I basically found myself lying awake at night, staring at the ceiling, wondering if this was my life now. Was this really what building a business was supposed to be? Me and being obsessed over wholesale suppliers?

Found WF Wholesale as one of the possible options during my search. They seem decent and good eco-friendly products, nice materials, fair pricing. Their samples didn’t repulse me, which is honestly more than I can say for some others. But I haven’t reached out yet. I’m still scarred from the last experience, and honestly, I’m not even sure if they’re the right fit. I just don’t know who else to try at this point

All I need is a supplier who doesn’t make me feel like I’m bothering them every time I need to restock. It’s wild how something as simple as boxes can become such a headache, especially when it came out of nowhere right when my business started growing

Anyway, thanks for listening. If anyone has recommendations, I’m all ears. I could really use some guidance right now

been doing this for two years, and the business is growing, which is good. but i wake up every morning already behind and i go to bed thinking about what i didn't get to.

the marketing side is the one that suffers most and i know that i should be testing more, running proper email flows, and reviewing the data, but by the time i get to it i have nothing left.

someone told me about the fractional partner model, an ecommerce consultant who implants into your business and owns the entire marketing side, and it's not an agency or a freelancer, just one person who's fully accountable for growth.

that description was the first thing that made sense to me in a while and the idea of just handing that entire function to someone else and trusting them with it.

i'm still in the research phase, but the model fits what i actually need
anyone built a business past this stage without burning out first?