About

shouldistartthis.com is a small, independent site about starting small businesses. We publish honest guides and articles about the kinds of businesses ordinary people consider starting: landscaping, pressure washing, vending machines, carpet cleaning, pet sitting, welding, self-storage, car washes, and a handful of others.

The site exists because most of what's written about these businesses online is either YouTube hustler bait promising passive income, or generic SEO content that lists tips without ever mentioning a real number. We try to be the opposite. Real costs, real schedules, real reasons people quit. The version a friend who's actually run one of these businesses would tell you over coffee.

Who this site is for

We write for people considering small business ownership for the first time, or considering switching from one business to another. The typical reader is someone who has Googled "how to start a [business]" and ended up frustrated by the gap between what the guides say and what the YouTube version implies.

We're not writing for experienced operators looking for advanced tactics, MBA students writing case studies, or investors evaluating business opportunities. We're writing for the person standing in the parking lot of Home Depot wondering if they should buy a pressure washer this weekend.

Our editorial principles

  • Honesty over hype. We tell readers when something is hard, when it's seasonal, when it can fail, and when it isn't right for them. We don't sell dreams.
  • Real numbers from real sources. When we cite a statistic, we link to the original source (BLS, IRS, Census, state agencies, official trade publications). When we share ranges that come from operator forums and trade conversations, we say so explicitly.
  • Hedge legal, insurance, tax, and financial claims. We're not lawyers, brokers, CPAs, or financial advisors, and we tell readers to talk to professionals for their specific situation.
  • Recommend the cheaper path when there is one. We point readers to the IRS for free EIN applications, to state websites for direct LLC filings, and to free tools that work as well as paid ones. Even when we have an affiliate relationship that would pay us to send them elsewhere.
  • Prefer clarity to cleverness. We try to write the way people speak. No jargon, no clickbait headlines, no "synergy" or "leverage your potential."

How we make money

shouldistartthis.com is a revenue-generating business, not a charity. We're funded by three streams:

  1. Affiliate commissions from companies whose products and services we recommend (banking, formation, insurance, equipment, software). When you click through and sign up, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
  2. Display advertising on most articles and guides through ad networks. We keep ads minimal and non-intrusive.
  3. Digital products including downloadable business plan templates and guided roadmaps for starting specific business types.

Full details on our affiliate disclosure page.

Who writes this

The articles are written by the editorial team here, with input from working operators across the business categories we cover. We don't invent customer stories or fake first-person anecdotes. When we say "an operator told us" there's a real person on the other end. When we share folk wisdom from forums and trade publications, we frame it as such rather than dressing it up as personal experience we don't have.

What we don't do

  • We don't publish "passive income" pitches
  • We don't recommend businesses we don't think are real
  • We don't fake interviews, statistics, or operator quotes
  • We don't recommend a worse product because it pays a higher commission
  • We don't use sticky video, autoplay sound, or full-screen interstitials
  • We don't train AI models on the content (and we ask others not to either)

Get in touch

Questions, corrections, story ideas, or working as a quoted operator source can all go through the contact page.