Opinions Matter

c/amarillo-small-business

23

hugo_hayes•1d ago

For 2 years I was pricing my custom cakes all wrong

I did a cake market for a wedding expo last Saturday and a vendor next to me had almost the same cake for $80 more than mine. Turns out I was forgetting to charge for design time and specialty ingredients like edible gold. How did you finally figure out your pricing method?

11

joel_young•2d ago

Watch out for that cheap website hosting service

I paid $15 a month for a local hosting company here in Amarillo for my bakery's online store. Within 3 months, the site kept crashing during peak order times, and I lost over $400 in sales during the holiday rush. Their customer support took 2 days to respond each time. Has anyone else had better luck with a different provider around town?

21

hernandez.brooke•3d ago

Can we talk about using standard contracts for small jobs in Amarillo?

I had a client just last week who hired me to set up their network for their new boutique on 6th Street. We agreed on a price over text, I did the work, and then they tried to pay me half because they said I was too slow. I didn't have a contract, just a handshake, so I had no way to push back. I ended up taking the half payment just to avoid a bigger fight. Now I write up a simple one page agreement for every job no matter how small. It spells out the scope, timeline, and payment terms plain and clear. Has anyone else had trouble getting paid after a verbal agreement?

16

palmer.jana•3d ago

A customer told me my invoices were confusing and I completely reworked them

Last month a regular client in Canyon said my invoice looked like a jumble of numbers and they couldn't tell what each charge was for. I used to lump all tree trimming costs together under one line, but now I break it out by tree count and hours. I also added a short note at the bottom explaining the work done that day (like which oaks we trimmed and why). Has anyone else had to redo their billing setup after feedback like that? What did you change that made a difference?

2

bethj44•3d ago

Hit 50 repeat customers in my first year and nobody warned me about this

Everyone talks about getting new clients but nobody mentions how much time those 50 regulars take up with questions and small tweaks. Has anyone else found that loyal customers actually eat more of your schedule than one-off jobs?

1

wadebailey•5d ago

Stopped by that new donut shop on Georgia Street last Saturday

I walked into Donut Palace around 9am expecting the usual glazed options. The owner Maria came out from the back and asked if I had a favorite flavor from my childhood. I told her maple bacon and she whipped up a fresh batch just for me right there. She said she can't make a living selling the same three varieties everyone else has. Has anyone else found a local spot that actually customizes orders on the fly like that?

26

anna567•5d ago

I finally switched to Square after fighting with my old credit card machine for 5 years

That old terminal kept crashing on Saturday mornings when I had a line of 6 people waiting to buy plants. Last month I finally bought a Square reader for 60 bucks at the office supply store. It's way faster and I can take payments on my phone now. Has anyone else dealt with that issue of old equipment making you lose sales?

-1

tyler_burns66•6d ago

Rant: choosing between two vendors for my shop's logo was a nightmare

I had to pick between a local designer charging $500 and a Fiverr person asking $50, went with the local guy after seeing the Fiverr samples looked like clip art. The local one took 3 weeks but nailed my vibe for the barbecue place, has anyone else dealt with sticker shock on custom design work?

4

sanchez.blake•7d ago

Fourth of July sale pricing actually hurt my shop's revenue last year

I run a small BBQ joint off I-40 and everyone says you gotta do big holiday deals. Last July I ran 20% off everything and my margins went to zero. Lines were long but I made less profit than a normal Tuesday. This year I'm trying a different approach: a free side with any sandwich instead. Same feel of a deal but costs me pennies. Has anyone else found cutting prices backfired on them?

8

palmer.jana•8d ago

Just saw that 60% of Amarillo small businesses don't have a proper website

I was looking at the Chamber of Commerce data from last month and that number blew my mind. I get that some folks rely on word of mouth, but aren't we losing out on customers under 40 who search online first? Has anyone else looked into this and found a cheap way to fix it?

26

grant826•8d ago

That one Tuesday in March where I actually made money instead of losing it

I run a small BBQ pop-up on the weekends out of a food truck in Amarillo. Last March, I had a Tuesday where I dragged my smoker out at 5 AM just to test a new rub, not even planning to sell anything. By 9 AM, a group of construction guys from down the street smelled the smoke and asked to buy sandwiches, then their whole crew showed up at lunch. I sold 42 pulled pork sandwiches in about 3 hours and cleared close to $400 on a day I was supposed to be off. Has anyone else ever had a random day like that where customers just showed up out of nowhere?

4

anna567•8d ago

Had a customer ask me to price match a Facebook Marketplace listing today

Some lady came into my shop wanting me to match a price she found for a used table saw on Marketplace. She dead serious said "well they're both 10 inch blades" while pointing at my brand new one. Anyone else get these wild comparison requests?

25

jackson.kim•8d ago

Tried switching my shop to paperless invoices for a month and actually lost track of two payments

I figured going digital would save time but ended up spending three hours digging through emails to find one billing mistake; has anyone else found a better way to keep client payments straight?

17

the_blair•11d ago

Dropped $600 on a custom website for my BBQ sauce biz and got crickets

Hired a local dev in Canyon to build me a slick site last fall. Paid $600 upfront. Site looked great but nobody could find it in search results. Spent another $200 on a basic SEO audit and found out the dev didn't add any meta tags or local listings. Still recovering from that mistake. Anyone else get burned by paying too much for a website that didn't bring in traffic?

26

clark.kelly•11d ago

Had a vendor drop the ball on me at the Amarillo Farmer's Market last weekend

Honestly, I've been selling my homemade salsa at the Amarillo Farmer's Market for about two years now, and I always used the same guy for my jar labels. Last Saturday morning, I show up to set up my booth and realize he never delivered my new batch of labels for the seasonal batch I'd been prepping all week. I had to scramble and hand-write labels with a sharpie right there in the parking lot, which looked super unprofessional next to all the polished stalls around me. It cost me about $150 in lost sales because people kept passing by thinking I was just a hobby table, not a real business. I've already switched to a different printer in town, but I'm wondering if anyone else has had a supplier just not show or deliver on a market day. How do you guys handle backups for things like packaging or signage when your regular source flops?

11

anderson.jason•12d ago

Found a cheap way to handle customer no-shows at my shop

I was losing about 4 appointments a week at my auto detail place here in Amarillo. People just wouldn't show up and I'd be sitting there with nothing to do. Tried sending a simple text reminder the night before using a free app called TextMagic. It cut my no-shows down to maybe 1 a week after just a month. Has anyone else tried something like this for their business?

25

foster.mary•12d ago

Tried two different bookkeeping software options for my shop, QuickBooks beat FreshBooks without breaking a sweat

I run a small custom framing business over on Georgia Street, and last year I was trying to decide between QuickBooks and FreshBooks for tracking invoices and expenses. FreshBooks looked simpler and prettier on the surface, but after three months I kept running into limits on how many clients I could track and the reports just weren't detailed enough for my needs. QuickBooks was harder to set up at first, sure, but once I got through the initial headache, it handled my inventory and tax stuff way better. I only pay about $30 a month for the basic plan, which is actually less than what FreshBooks wanted for similar features. The real kicker was when I had to reconcile my bank statements at tax time - QuickBooks matched everything in half the time. Has anyone else here switched between these two or found another option that works for their small business?

20

abby_chen•12d ago

Stop putting your business address on a sign that's unreadable from the highway

I drive by that new BBQ spot on I-40 every week and their sign is tiny yellow letters on a white background. You can't read it until you're already past the exit. Why spend money on a sign if nobody can see it from 60 mph? I called the owner last month and told him, he said he liked the 'aesthetic.' Has anyone else seen businesses here shoot themselves in the foot with bad signage?

19

sullivan.abby•14d ago

Vent: My old way of handling sales tax almost got me in big trouble

For the first two years my shop was open, I just saved 8.25% of every sale in a separate account and filed quarterly. Last month, a state auditor came in for a random check and showed me I'd been calculating it wrong on mixed items and services. I owed over $1,200 in back taxes and penalties. Now I use a dedicated software that syncs with my point-of-sale system. It cost me $35 a month, but it's automated and keeps everything straight. Has anyone else in Amarillo had a surprise audit and found a better system?

10

iris_jones89•15d ago

Heard a customer at the feed store talking about their new website

I was picking up some supplies over at the Amarillo Feed and Seed on Bell last Tuesday, and this older gentleman was telling the cashier he just paid a guy $1,200 for a new website. He said it looked nice but he hasn't gotten a single call from it in two months. It got me thinking, are we all just throwing money at online stuff without a real plan? How do you know if your website is actually working for your business here in town?

22

kaiblack•15d ago

Tried a free local business listing for my shop and got zero calls for a month

I mean, I put my auto repair shop on that Amarillo Chamber of Commerce online directory, thinking it was a sure thing. For a whole month, the only call I got was a wrong number asking for a pizza place. I learned that just being listed somewhere doesn't mean people will find you, you gotta push it yourself too. Has anyone else had a local listing totally flop, and what did you do next?

24

viola_butler•15d ago

Our credit card reader went down during the Saturday lunch rush

Honestly, it was last Saturday around 12:30 PM at our spot on 6th. The whole system just froze and wouldn't process a single card. Tbh, we had to write down numbers on paper slips for like 45 minutes while I called the service company. Ngl, it was a mess and we definitely lost a few customers who just walked out. Has anyone else around here had a sudden terminal crash and found a more reliable local provider?

3

elliot_johnson•16d ago

A chat with the owner at the Yellow City Coffee Roasters made me think about hiring

I was grabbing a coffee there last Tuesday and got talking to the owner, Mark, about how hard it is to find good help. He said he had to interview 15 people over two months before he found one barista who really clicked with the shop's vibe. It wasn't just about knowing how to make a latte, but about fitting in with the team and the customers. Has anyone else in town had that much trouble filling just one spot lately?

26

averywright•17d ago

Warning: my new sign guy in Amarillo sent the wrong vinyl color for my truck door.

I was at my shop on 6th Street and the whole logo was bright pink instead of maroon. Has anyone else had a local vendor mix up a simple color code like that?

8

parkermorgan•17d ago

I figured paying for a Chamber membership was a waste, but the networking breakfast landed me a $5,000 job.

I signed up after a friend in town said it was the only way to meet the right people. Has anyone else gotten real work from those events?