This is a tough ask, because they don’t know what they want you to do for them. If they think of something, they don’t want to educate you and then pay you for your first attempt at solving it. Their process would be to go out and find a ready provider with a track record of doing it.

Social media influencers have unfortunately shifted from lying about making money running dropshipping or Ad agencies, to now lying about making money as AI business process consultants. Small-medium businesses are about to get flooded by startups without related industry experience offering to solve all their pain points with new AI solutions. I predict that will cause fatigue and businesses will become even less likely to engage with any general offers of business optimisation.

It’s best to steer well clear of all of it unless you have a real focus on one specific thing you’re trying to solve and know thoroughly.

You might get useful ideas by searching for what businesses are already asking for or more likely what they’re complaining about. Then come up with a way to provide value and pitch that thing - it shows you know the industry and have spent time focusing on a solution

Friends and business associates are usually separate for many reasons. You don’t have to be in business with your friends and their interest in your idea shouldn’t make any difference to your professional goals.

If you have specific business ideas, try and find the communities (maybe here on Reddit) where other people do want to discuss them and move forward that way. It’s common for people’s real friends to not have much specific insight in to their professional life, because that’s not what the relationship is about

She’s either just having a bad day or is trying to commit fraud. Don’t worry about the threat, you’ve done the right thing and someone threatening to sue over it isn’t serious/doesn’t know what that entails.

Explain again in clear bullet points what you’re doing to have the issue solved with UPS and what options are after, and worst case you’ll get negative feedback from a bad customer. If so, respond politely to the feedback with the evidence which shows you provided fair customer service and that actually is reassuring to future customers!

Same goes for the potential chargeback - don’t cave to demands for a refund unless UPS leaves you hanging and you’ll have a good case to fight it

How technically difficult is it to make? Or, is it mostly just time consuming?

There’s no right answer about where to manufacture textile products as they’re generally more simple to prototype (no engineering investment etc) and good quality can come from all over the world. If by ethical you mean paying people fair wages and having certifiable materials, then there will also be options globally. Australia would be one of the most expensive places to do it, though if there is enough profit margin it could add to the marketing of the product. Chinese mothers love buying Australian milk powder for their children.

I’ve found that in China the manufacturers can be more responsive to getting prototypes/testing done and the huge range of factories from big to small mean flexibility in order quantities + more material options nearby.

Is it possible for you to make a small quantity of them while you test if there’s much profitable market outside of friends-of-friends? Overselling your capacity so that you’re totally swamped with work would be a huge sign that there’s a business from people who don’t have any connection to you, and lowers your risk. This sort of data would also make more serious manufacturers want to work with you. The hardest part will be finding customers and selling profitably at any scale - the production can absolutely be solved and is the perfect problem to have!

Another way to find manufacturers that are probably more serious is searching through the exhibitor lists of trade shows in your industry. Sites like 10times list all the global shows and usually their exhibitors as well. To be at any decent sized event costs them a significant amount so it vets them in a way

Promo posts ruin a lot of groups so they’re often pretty sensitive to it, though while you’re not allowed it’s the same for the bigger brands.

You could post in the groups providing useful info (to a point where it’s clear you’re in-the-know) in a general sense and always make sure your company page is listed on your profile to be found.

Do you know if there’s much real competition on SEO keyword phrases for the 40+ market for your trip type? What’s your website like? ChatGPT can help create a huge amount of decent content (though make sure its edited to be useful/quality over quantity) to help you rank organically in search engines against established brands that might not focus as much on the niche.

If you have any small budget at all it might be possible to find low cost paid clicks if you target FB ads properly to the right audience (only members of those groups you’d have liked to post in, at specific age, specific location of where your trips go from)