You didn’t start a business to become its prisoner. You didn’t dream of waking up to urgent emails at 3 AM, or spending weekends drowning in paperwork while your family waits for you at the dinner table.

You started for the thrill — the rush of possibilities, the pride of creation, the freedom to call your own shots. In those early days, even the long hours felt different. They were driven by excitement.

But then it happened. A missed payment here. A last-minute client emergency there. A delivery mishap that took half a day to fix. The little cracks began to widen. And before you realised,...........

A client of mine once said:

“Pulkit, I thought hiring would fix it all. But I’m more exhausted now than I was alone.”

They weren’t lazy. They weren’t broke. They were growing. Orders were coming in.

So they did what most small business owners do —........

It started over cutting chai and a half-joking “Let’s start something together.”

A marketing whiz and a finance geek—best friends since college—pooled in savings, built a service brand, and even hit ₹10 lakhs in revenue by year two.

But then came the awkward questions:

“Next week.”

We all say it. About things we know matter.

You told yourself you’d start budgeting. That you’ll finally cancel that auto-debit. That you’ll sit with your partner and talk about money. That you’ll check that LIC policy....

Dear Friend,

I know that feeling.

The bank balance feels like a bad joke. Every notification from your UPI app makes you flinch. You’re not spending lavishly, yet somehow… you’re still broke.

“I thought I was earning enough. But......

Dear Small Business Owner,

Let me tell you about a friend.
He didn’t come to me with questions. He came with fatigue.

"I don’t know how much I actually make."

"My CA is good at filing things, but there’s no system."

"I’m always chasing — not building."

It wasn’t a tax problem. It was a.......

You really think building a business without money is impossible?

That’s cute. 

Because people also thought Mike Ross couldn’t survive at Pearson Specter without a law degree. And yet —...........

Riya had just wrapped up college. She wasn’t earning yet — just doing unpaid internships, helping her cousin with a YouTube channel, and dreaming of a Euro trip with her college gang.

Everything was planned...

A few years ago, I got a late-night call from a client I’d worked with for over a year. Usually, our conversations were routine — balance sheets, GST filings, the usual. But that night was different.

His voice was shaking.

“Pulkit, I feel like I’m drowning. There’s money ...

It started with a conversation.

“Bro I’ve cracked it. This is the idea. SaaS for freelancers. No one’s doing it like this.”

My friend Aryan was pacing around my living room like a TEDx speaker..........

Meet Arjun: The creative who learned taxes the hard way.

Arjun, a freelance graphic designer from Ahmedabad, quit his corporate job last year chasing creative freedom. Work flooded in — Instagram DMs, Behance gigs, Fiverr projects — his income jumped.

One morning, an email from the Income Tax Department... 

When Sneha started her boutique in Pune, taxes were the last thing on her mind. Her focus was on fabrics, fittings, and customers who loved her creations. She figured, "I have a CA — he handles the filing. I’ll focus on the styling."

But two years in, something didn’t add up........

Meet Aanya. She just got her first job as a junior analyst at a finance firm in Bengaluru. Like most of us, she was thrilled to receive her first salary – the long nights of studying, interviews, and rejections had finally paid off.