You will prevail! (some words of encouragement) small business |
- You will prevail! (some words of encouragement)
- Restaurants who have reopened
- Reconsideration Success: Credit Denial Initially
- Tell me about your failed brick and mortars
- Parking Lot Striping
- I want to raise my prices
- 2-year old General Contractor: Accomplishments, work week, bills and questions!
- Business Owner Hell - Bankruptcy Question
- Phone menu for restaurant
- Digital products distributed via paid newsletter?
- Restaurant liability Coronavirus
- Getting in touch with a client segment
- Which e-commerce 3PL shipping services have usable software interfaces?
- Non-profit or B corp?
- Question
- How do you pay yourself? Share your opinions and experiences.
- How to separate my Dads' business into 2 shops?
- Can we use loan proceeds to hire a new employee?
- Lead generation compensation
- Opportunity zone fund
- Using a Copacker to expand my bakery
- Business Class Idea Assignment
- What should I do?
- Google vs Facebook Reviews
| You will prevail! (some words of encouragement) Posted: 25 May 2020 03:46 PM PDT Hope this is okay to post! Thought some of us could use some genuine words of love and encouragement! This strange time for business owners seemed to come out of nowhere and hit all of us really hard. Some of us are trying to move operations to a virtual platform and some of us are trying to make ends meet until we can fully re-open again. But you have to remember: starting a business is one of the most bad ass, important things someone can do in their lifetime. You've taken on financial risk, poured your heart into all your business's ideas and projects, and been brave enough to try something! This pandemic will not break you or your business. You'll need to take a new, unplanned course and try some new things. You might need to close up and start fresh with a new idea down the line. But reinventing ourselves and creating new contributions to the world is what we as business owners do! No matter what the state of your business, allow yourself to feel proud and hopeful today. Great things are still to come. You are part of a special group of industrious and entrepreneurial people, and your business struggling right now doesn't mean you as a person will struggle forever. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 May 2020 11:55 PM PDT How has it been? What capacity has your state allowed you to operate at- 25-50%? Were you able to fill the seats you were allowed to fill? What about bars- what regulations have you seen on your bar seating? How much is your volume down? Just trying to prepare for our reopening... [link] [comments]  |
| Reconsideration Success: Credit Denial Initially Posted: 25 May 2020 05:05 PM PDT Edit: Sorry, meant to post in EIDL sub. Could be helpful to some here though. App# 3300286xxx App date: 3/30 1st Credit Pull: 4/16 VantageScore on 4/16: 539 Denial email: 5/16 Recon email date: 5/21 VantageScore on 5/21: 627 2nd Credit pull: 5/21 (minutes after recon email) Recon success email: 5/25 After learning they were using VantageScore (my FICO was 600) and that my score was 539, I immediately paid down balances. Then called creditors to have them update the balances with credit reporting agencies. Waited for Experian to update, and then emailed recon and my Congressman's staffer that day. The loan is not approved. Just now no longer denied. Big thanks to cue and amaz-ing for the assistance to get to this point! Here's the email I just received... Dear ...: I have been assigned by our Management Team to assist you in resolving your dilemma. I am so very sorry for the confusion and frustration you have endured due to SBA EIDL application. The Application was Declined for Credit Issues. As per your email request, we have reran the Credit Report and the Credit is now Satisfactory. Your request for Reconsideration has been Approved. This does not mean the loan is approved, this means the application is now Reactivated and is ready for a Loan Officer to re-review your application and make a decision based on the new information and documentation provided. I am sorry, but I do not have a timeframe for when this review will take place, but your loan is being processed again. We know this is an extremely difficult time for small businesses around the country, and we are working to process loan requests as quickly as possible. These files are maintained in chronological order and assigned in accordance with the current workload. We appreciate your patience while your application is being processed. Sincerely, [link] [comments]  |
| Tell me about your failed brick and mortars Posted: 25 May 2020 10:02 PM PDT I own a dog bakery and mostly sell online, wholesale, and at events. Right now I work completely out of my home. I would love to someday open up a shop in my town, I know there is a huge market for it especially since everyone i sell to asks where I'm located and if they can bring their dog to the shop. I know it's still probably years away which I'm totally fine with because it allows me to continue to grow, learn, and overall improve. I've done so much research and everyone wants to tell you their success stories but I'm interested in hearing how someone failed. What did you do wrong? How did you overcome that mistake? Were your mistakes/decisions something that made you go under? Did you jump in too quick or wait too long and the market for your product was gone? How would you do things differently if you knew then what you know now? Are you better off because of this experience? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 May 2020 09:08 PM PDT Anyone in the parking lot striping business and willing to answer some questions of mine? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 May 2020 08:42 PM PDT I'm a hairdresser. I've never been this busy in my life. I've always suffered from a bit of imposter syndrome and been afraid to charge more or say no to things. I've raised my prices by $2 a haircut in the last 5 years. I was working up the nerve to raise again before the pandemic shut us down. I need to do this and I wish my brain didn't make me overthink it. I don't want to raise by a dollar or two. I want to charge an hourly "labor" rate, plus "parts" (color, supplies, etc.) What I would really like to do, is raise it 30%, and eliminate tipping, and then raise by a percentage annually or quarterly after that. I'm afraid of how to do it, how to communicate it, and that I'll shoot myself in the foot and be desolate in a few months. Is eliminating tips a bad idea? I have always felt extremely awkward at the tipping part of the transaction. I'd like to position myself to say "my price is x. I deserve x. I don't need extra things from you." Just wondering if anyone in a similar business can offer some advice because I'd love to make this change and want to make it confidently. Thanks, smallbusiness. [link] [comments]  |
| 2-year old General Contractor: Accomplishments, work week, bills and questions! Posted: 25 May 2020 06:19 AM PDT I can't believe it has only been 2 years! I really think its been 3 and I messed up somewhere on my paperwork... Link to my 1-year post here. Major Accomplishments: -Last summer I picked up a neighborhood of fences from a $75 Home Advisor lead. 27 duplexes = 54 fences. -I bought 3 residential lots in a starter home neighborhood. Built a spec and sold it during drywall stage to an investor for 25% profit. I was hired to finish the home; it was completed Jan 2020 and he's still trying to sale it. I began another spec in same neighborhood in Feb. I stopped production in March once it was dried-in bc Covid. All plumbing, electrical, and hvac rough-ins are completed. Just waiting the market out before I insulate and drywall. I think I may have an investor willing to buy it as-is and hire me to finish it, and I'll still make 25% on my current investment, plus 25% on the finishes. Opportunities: My realtor created a "group". He is looking primarily at investors and investments. I had planned to get my realtor license once my spec was dried-in in March, but social distancing put a stop to that. I plan to take the classes this summer. I will be one of three in the group and the construction expert to help investors gauge their buy-price, as well as GC investments the group pursues. -The 27 duplex fence job last summer: The superintendent (call him R) over the project has bought in with the home builder. R has contacted me and wants me to superintendent with him on the next neighborhood. It will be 77 duplexes over 3 years. It was suppose to start this month, then pushed until September, now pushed until April 2021. I would usually discard the opportunity as small talk, but him and I have talked several times about it. I see him about once a month and he always updates me on the developers progress. I'm not sure if I want the job, but its a hell of an opportunity to learn. -One of my previous clients is an investor and wants to increase his real estate portfolio. If he can narrow down his needed rent income and how much he can spend per home, I will either start building him new homes or finding flips. In my area, its seems to be cheaper to build a new home than buy a 30 yr old home and remodel it for rent ready. We either have new homes, 2006 homes, or 1980's homes in my area. Work week: Morning: Go to job and task my workers. Make material runs and phone calls for deliveries. Check on city permits and schedule sub contractors. Lunch: I try to do all my new job walks around lunchtime. Most clients can go home for lunch to meet with me. If they can't, I schedule them for Saturday. I never do job walks in the evening anymore. That was a good learning experience for me. Evening: Send bids, order material over phone so my guys can pick it up in the morning, move tools around. Cook. Relax. No more late night job walks! Questions: Any advice is always appreciated; I don't have any specific questions. EDIT: Bills: They haven't changed much. Bond: ~$350/yr for 25k Insurance: GL $1mil is about $127/month Storage: $89/month Water and sewage bill on spec: $50/month even with no water being ran. The water to spec isn't even hooked up. Its a very high meter fee. EDIT 2: Random awesomeness. DeWalt had a competition at Home Depot I stumbled into at the last minute and won. Who can drill 5 screws ( i think it was 5) the fastest? I did, that's right. Won a radio. I think my time was like 8 seconds. I walked in and the pro desk guys called me over to do the challenge. I was the last contestant and they were like, well, you won :/ [link] [comments]  |
| Business Owner Hell - Bankruptcy Question Posted: 25 May 2020 09:30 AM PDT So the pandemic has put our 3 year old business (small luxury spa) in what my opinion is the worst possible situation.
Before the pandemic, we had just reached a point where we could exhale. The spa had just emerged from chaotic startup to efficient business with minimal cultural issues. Now, our employees (those who haven't quit) are not members of our fan club because we decided to open, thus taking away their opportunity for state unemployment and federal PUA . My wife and I are going to have to work 7 days a week (8am - 10pm), high-fiving one another half-way through as one comes on shift and the other goes home with the kids. tldr We are in more debt, have less revenue potential, and are going to have to work all open hours to keep the place open. I am realistic about our mental health and the needs of our kids. This is just not sustainable. At what point, if it comes to this, are we able to reasonably put this business out of it's misery? Is there some sort of logic a judge uses to say "they did what they could but were screwed by the pandemic"? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 May 2020 03:05 PM PDT Hi, I need a phone system for a restaurant that will have a menu With the following options press 1 to place a pickup order press 2 to speak with customer service press 3 to see store hours I have no idea what kind of service I need for this option, we only have a regular land line phone What are these type of systems called? Any recommendations? Also will I be able to keep the same phone number as my land line from a carrier Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Digital products distributed via paid newsletter? Posted: 26 May 2020 03:27 AM PDT I have a list of digital products on my computer (audio files). This is what I want:
Is there a service which lets me do this? I've checked out GumRoad and MailChimp, but both seem to narrowly miss this use case. [link] [comments]  |
| Restaurant liability Coronavirus Posted: 25 May 2020 06:24 PM PDT My state's stay at home order just ended. But should we be worried about customers and staff suing our restaurant if they catch coronavirus even though we've taken all reasonable precautions short of staying closed? I've heard that insurance companies aren't covering coronavirus. [link] [comments]  |
| Getting in touch with a client segment Posted: 25 May 2020 11:58 PM PDT Hi all! My question is: how do I go about finding an "unknown/undefined" client segment? The soap loving group of people is easy to find on various social media platforms, there are certain tags used etc. I do not know who these guys are, basically, or what they like. [link] [comments]  |
| Which e-commerce 3PL shipping services have usable software interfaces? Posted: 25 May 2020 11:37 PM PDT I'm tryng to use Fulfillment Bridge and it's absolutely awful to the point I think it might be worth paying $250/month for ShipMonk -- I imagine if there website is that slick their software must be too. I'm just trying to get something that is not extremely buggy and isn't going to cost a bunch of time. The only things I really need are US + EU fulfillment (though being able to easily expand to other regions would be nice). I'm also initially at low tens of orders per month with very high value individual items. I hear shipbob marks up prices by articially increasing shipping costs. Searching for a 3pl has just been a PIA in general. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 May 2020 11:15 PM PDT I have a small business (more like a hobby still) where I make and sell small wooden products that sell for around 6 or 7 bucks, and I make roughly $2-3 on each. For every product I sell I plant a tree, and this is directly marketed and part of the business model and something I will never stray from. This costs me a dollar per tree, bringing my take home down to a dollar or two. Would this qualify as a non profit, or would it be more strategic to go B Corp route? It is currently not a registered business as it is still very new. I am also the only one working on this, and will remain the only employee for a while even through scaling phases (my background allowed me to automate most of the work with little cost). I am not even sure it is even worth it at the low scale I am at. Would it just be better to claim the donations on my personal taxes? The setup of the company and products is steering me away from an LLC as it really isn't needed. Any help would be great! Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 May 2020 10:11 PM PDT anyone know how much sba loan downpayment is? looking at a business thats valued at 350k and owner makes 180k before loan n taxes. do they do any program for veterans in that price range? Whats the best bank for sba loans? Credit is 605 atm. If I don't have enough for DP how can I aquire it? [link] [comments]  |
| How do you pay yourself? Share your opinions and experiences. Posted: 25 May 2020 05:55 AM PDT I opened a food establishment this month and it's doing well enough for me to start paying myself. I'm planning on talking to a CPA to get things sorted out as a single member LLC, but wanted to see how you all pay yourselves from the business and what (if any) successes or pitfalls you've hit due to your decision. I'm thinking a draw each month might be the best option because food sales are variable. From what I've read from a tax perspective for the business and personal it seems that salary payments make sense also. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| How to separate my Dads' business into 2 shops? Posted: 25 May 2020 08:55 PM PDT A little backstory first: so my Dad has a pretty successful business. Similar to a mechanic shop. The plan was to train both my brother and I to eventually take over when he retires, but I quickly learned that my brother was a nightmare to work with, and I ended up leaving and telling my Dad to just give it all to my brother. He had already began plotting a way to have full ownership and began making up nonsense lies about me to the point that I couldn't take it anymore. This was 5 years ago. Fast forward to now and my Dad calls me and says my brother is running the business into the ground. He wants to open up another business and have me run it, but under the same name as the business my brother is currently running. (My Dad is still owner of the shop btw, my brother is essentially still just an office manager so I know he legally cant do anything yet.) He wants to open it in the same name because a lot of people in the industry already know and trusts his business and it would be easier than just opening under a different name. Hes not planning to take all the current customers of his current business, just the ones that cannot stand working with my brother (hes been steady losing clients hes had for 20+ years). I definitely want to do this for my Dad, I'm still a mechanic and I had planned on opening a shop up myself so hes asking at the perfect moment. Though I want zero professional contact with my brother. We won't be taking anything from the current shop to the new, and plan on putting all new equipment under my name. Eventually my Dad will give the current shop to my brother, and I am afraid in the future he is going to try to sue me or take my business down. What can I do to legally separate our businesses and make sure I'm not liable for any of his BS and he wont be able to come after me in the future? If my brother makes a huge mistake and gets sued, will it affect my business too? How do I keep myself as far away from him as possible? Or is it better to avoid all this and start from scratch under a new name? [link] [comments]  |
| Can we use loan proceeds to hire a new employee? Posted: 25 May 2020 08:48 AM PDT Hi all, can't find any guidance on this. I'm a sole prop with no employees. But I want to add an employee in a new position and use P P P funds to pay him. Anyone know whether there is anything prohibiting this? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 May 2020 02:32 PM PDT I have a startup company in the IT Consulting field, and we have a colleague who could potentially bring in leads and help with proposal development for some fairly large contracts. This person is not an employee of our company, but may become one at a later date in the future as our company grows. We are considering different compensation options/models to 1. provide equitable compensation for the work he will do for us as a 1099 in Bus. Development, and 2. Provide incentive for this person to continue to bring in deals. A few models we've tossed around are: flat fee, a percentage of net profit for each FTE hired for a specific contract, a percentage of the net profit for the contact value as a whole. Do you have any thoughts or input on pros/cons for the models listed above or other possible methods we've not considered yet? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 May 2020 05:42 PM PDT Our business would like to start an opportunity zone fund to invest in the underling real estate of the cash flow business. Under regulation D there are 504 exemptions for non registered broker/dealers affiliated with the business that enable them to sell securities. Following that, can we charge management fees even though we are not RIAs? [link] [comments]  |
| Using a Copacker to expand my bakery Posted: 25 May 2020 01:56 PM PDT I own a small, boutique bakery that operates under cottage industry laws out of my garage. I sell primarily at a local farmers market, with a couple very small wholesale accounts. (20% of my revenue is from wholesale) Just last week, large dairy in our area launched a home delivery service, and asked me to provide baked goods. I initially declined, as I am at Max capacity, and really prefer the margins of wholesale, as well as the customer interaction. However, the dollar signs are calling. I'm going to meet with them tomorrow to go over details, such as margin, quantities, etc. In order to make this happen I will have to hire a Copacker to produce whatever they would need. But it would be largely hands off for me, just a source of revenue. So here's the ask. What do I need to know about Co Packers? What do I need to know about joining forces with a larger company? What am I not seeing? What problems will I encounter? Any advice, wisdom, insight? [link] [comments]  |
| Business Class Idea Assignment Posted: 25 May 2020 01:31 PM PDT Hope this is okay to post in this group. I've been working towards a business degree and this semester's class had me come up with potential business ideas and to chose one and have a business plan done up for it. The idea that I'm going to run with will be a 3D printing and design company called 'Printer's Mark' that I'll describe below. For the current portion of the assignment, I need to post about my business idea and have people on social media and have others provide feedback. Be gentle :P I will open a 3D printing company called 'Printer's Mark' that will take in orders to design, print, or both, a product of their choosing. Anything can be done from a basic part for your action figure that broke, all the way up to product design where we print off prototypes for casting. For printing we will provide the clients the ability to provide us a predesigned object and be able to print it in the medium of their choosing. We will have varying designs of 3D printers on hand that can print them anything from a small die to a large figure in varying plastics and some metals. My target audience for this company will be anyone from the at home consumer that needs a new mount for their VR sensor, the small business that needs something created but does not want to invest in the technology to do so, and all the way up to the large business that just does not want to allocate their resources for this small of a project. I will advertise this service through social media, search engine suggested results and local papers. Let me know what you think everyone, cheers! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 May 2020 04:47 PM PDT I just graduated college with a math degree. I currently work at a small company in which the owner pulls in a good amount of money. All the employees there have been there for awhile and are all in their 60s ready to retire. I've spoken with my boss and had an unwritten agreement that when he retires I would take over. Should I stick with the business or utilize my degree and leave? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 May 2020 06:51 AM PDT What do you consider more valuable? I want to start sending a follow up email asking customers to leave a review, and I don't know if I should send Facebook or google link. I figure more people will already be signed into Facebook already, but google might help me get more business from future clients? Thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
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