Selling out small business |
- Selling out
- My VP said "I don't think it is appropriate to have dinner with my boss" when I tried to schedule a company dinner to talk about new business proposals. How should I respond?
- I need help; Small Business Civil Engineer; Don't want to work my life away
- An individual looking to start music equipment selling business( India)
- Acquisition question
- Contractor non pay, should I use a lien filing service like levelset?
- Selling Liquor Store, how to find comps for valuation?
- If you are meeting with a sales rep that is having issues, do you lead with the good or the bad?
- dcu.org business account?
- Could anybody help me with a very quick “interview” about the life of owning a small business/being Entrepreneur?
- Help Needed on Legalization!
- Is there an online spreadsheet showing an example of small business expenses with a loan, taxes, etc? If not a link, can someone just tell me what this is called?
- What is the biggest problem/impediment in your business right now?
- Small business vs. personal vehicle
- john@example.com vs jsmith@example.com: does it matter?
- Company for Fulfillment?
- Question: Is setting up small business owner with invoice and payment system a viable business?
- How are certain small businesses in India dealing with taxes?
- How I made friends and masterminds with other small business-owners (crosspost from r/internetmarketing)
- Ideas on where to post survey to get market input?
- What Type of Business Should I Incorporate?
- Delivery truck/fleet tracking softwares?
- Where to start with a T-shirt business?
- What are you willing to pay for legal services?
| Posted: 23 Oct 2020 05:00 PM PDT I don't know if this is the right place for this type of question, I co-own a small food business and things have been rather stressfull this past couple of months and long story short I had a heated argument with my business partner and he threatened to buy me out, which I'm seriously considering. The agreement was pretty simple, we went 50-50 on the investment and I took care of the kitchen side and he did the administrative and diner side. I'm not american so I'm not sure if the numbers will make sense. The initial investment was 95k each, with a couple more expenses I'd say we did get to 100k. We've been open for 16 months now and even through the pandemic we still manage to pull around 75-80k of sales this past couple of months. We both have the same salary which is supposedly 12k a month each, but it depends on the expenses and if the sales were good, So a couple of times during theses rough months we didn't manage to pay ourselves that amount. After salaries and extra expenses we split the remaining profit, if there is any left, in the same 50-50. If I were to split I'd have to sell him my recipes, and train someone to take my position and for that people in my area charge 15-25k as far as I know. I haven't had any vacations aside from Christmas and new year's and that is part of the reason I'm considering accepting his offer. Is there any way to know what would be a good buyout settlement ? because I don't know if I deserve more than my investment and selling my recipes. I'd say we have decent brand recognition, and we've survived this far while plenty of similar business have closed around our area. Tl;dr: splitting with business partner of 16 months Investment was 100k Salary was 12k month Sales are at the very least 75k a month Selling my stuff for 15-20k What would be a good sell out price? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 23 Oct 2020 11:01 AM PDT So this makes me feel really uneasy because I don't quite understand what is inappropriate about business dinners. We have gotten together for meals and meetings before, not dinner though, so I didn't really think anything of it to be honest. When scheduling she actually was the one that suggested we go to a restaurant instead of a coffee shop which was my suggestion. The day of the meeting she text me unusually early in the morning and said that she thought it was inappropriate to get dinner with her boss and asked to reschedule to which I obliged but we had to move the meeting. I have zero interest in anything but a business relationship with this woman and I hope she feels the same. This one interaction just made me incredibly uncomfortable and I have no idea how to respond as sometimes we literally only have afternoons/evenings when we can meet and if we can't meet in the evenings than that is going to make things a little more difficult. How would you respond? [link] [comments]  |
| I need help; Small Business Civil Engineer; Don't want to work my life away Posted: 24 Oct 2020 12:19 AM PDT I need help on the following: · Managing College Graduate Engineers · Enforcing Rules · Becoming a Better Manager · Building a Business for Success · Educating and Training · Holding Staff Accountable · Motivate my Employees The company background: The company I work for is a family owned company and has been in operation for over 30 years. Started by my mother and father whom are both licensed Civil Engineers, my father is also additionally licensed as a Land Surveyor. The company used to be much more successful than it is now. Currently, we lose money on most jobs and are only successful because we have one big job keeping us afloat. If we did not have that job the company would not be doing well, and I can go into further detail below in the "The Issues" section. Right now, this company is mostly consisting of my father, my mother and me. We also have one additionally licensed Civil Engineer and one additionally licensed Land Surveyor with a total of about 15 employees. Current Staff Owners (Licensed): 2 Staff Lead (Two Licenses; Me): 1 Licensed Land Surveyor (No Degree 20 years' Experience): 1 Licensed Engineer (Master's Degree, 6 years' Experience: 1 Technician (No Degree; 10 years' Experience): 1 Staff Engineers (2-5 Years' Experience): 3 Junior Engineers (0-2 Years' Experience): 4 Additional Overhead Staff: 2 My background: A current manager and soon to be owner of said Civil Engineering Company. I graduated college with a degree in Civil Engineering, became a dual licensed Civil Engineer and Land Surveyor by the Age of 29. Obtained various certifications that allows me to perform inspections and develop specialized erosion and plans and I have a federal drone license. I had to take over 39 hours of exams to obtain my licenses and even more to obtain my certifications. These are hard exams, luckily, I passed all mine the first time. I have also spent a large amount of time developing skills in AutoCAD and Civil3D which is the main production tool for developing plans for construction. This program is also very very intense and requires a large in depth understanding to have it perform tasks correctly. This on top of having engineering knowledge and design experience makes a good Civil Engineer and/or Land Surveyor. The Issue: Unlike most of the staff, I am the only one who know how to provide all the services we offer. Including Civil Engineering Design, Grading Plans, Utility Plans, Topographic Surveys, Boundary Surveys, Street Improvements, Hydrology Studies, Roadway Design, Traffic Signal Design, Traffic Analysis, Etc. the list goes on and on. Almost 50+ services in Engineering we offer. Right now, most of our 15 employees can barely perform 1 aspect of the job, not a service, I'm talking about performing one simple task. Now I know engineering is hard, I had to struggle through college and forced myself to study for all my exams with almost little to no help. Online resources are scared and pass rates range form 25-60%. The information required for performing and passing exams are intense let alone the experience required and knowledge of a super sophisticated program. An employee needs to have engineering knowledge, skills, experience, and computer knowledge along with software knowledge. It is a lot, but I do not know how to get my staff where they need to be. None of the people I graduated with (in the 2 to 5 year category of experience) I have tried providing training, through large diagrams, explained information with detailed PowerPoint presentations, provided word documentations, etc. I have even gone through training with Manuals produced by others often spending 8 hours of training to get 4 hours of work out of staff. Often I'm left with a mess of bad engineering or computer work and I have to fix it because they don't take responsibility or they blow the budget and I am unable to compete with larger firms. I know for a fact that I am not perfect, but if I had one more person like me at the company I don't think I would need at least 10 of the staff members. Part of the issue I know is self-motivation. For instance, there are 3 people that work and have worked at our company (including 1 ex-employee), that haven't gotten licensed and haven't passed the tests for either Engineer or Land Surveyor Licenses and they graduated the same time I did. Actually, I think they may have even graduated before me. For the Engineering License it requires 21 hours of testing and they have only passed the first 8-hour test (the easiest one; made for a third-year engineering student, which is when I passed mine). I have had them all tell me that the test tricked them and the test is unfair. While I understand the test may try to trick you, it is not actually tricking you. In order to pass you have to evaluate the information and determine which pieces of information are useless or useful and make a decision based upon those parameters. So they are currently lacking the critical thinking aspect and are blaming the test for those shortcomings. Another Part of our issue is production and time list on Civil3D/ AutoCAD. The program, as mentioned before, Civil 3D is very immense. It requires tons of hours to become proficient in. A lot of which I though myself because I had no mentors or guides for this, my parents while good at engineering cannot operate the programs as they have gotten past their years and with that was lost skill and knowledge which I took the responsibility of obtaining. I have also taken the responsibility of training staff how to use it. In essence my training should be the best tool for the staff, and I would expect them to be learn it faster since someone with a ton of knowledge is educating them. Often, I have repeated showing them how to do the same task and they never remember when the situation comes up again. I have tried time and time again to motivate the staff to learn the program and to spend 10 -15 minutes each day learning something new or try to retain lessons learned from my training. I have even sat down with them and told them they need to know this to be successful as a design engineer in their careers and I have not seen any progress. I told them that I can only give them the real engineering work once when they decide they want to learn the program. Now keep in mind every employee we have hired out of college puts "proficient in Civil3D and AutoCAD" on their resume, but the reality is they don't know anything. Mostly because they don't know what they don't know. I am still learning new productivity tools inside the program, but if certain procedures and steps are not followed in the program it can be costly and that is what is killing the budget on all my projects. Staff thinking they understand the program and not making an effort to learn it. If detailed instruction aren't given it the work will be wrong, even if detailed instructions are given it comes back 75% wrong. I can even spend 8 hours all day showing them what to do for the next 8 hours and still have it come back wrong. As far as production issues here are a few scenarios I commonly run into: · I assign work with detailed instructions. Instructions are not followed often getting the blame for not being through enough or being told they weren't given that instruction [even though I did or it was quite obvious that is should be done (think spell check)]. · Employee says the completely understand the task assigned, doesn't produce a product for while, then when its finally produced it's a 50% right and has to be completely reperformed. · Employee place them blame on management (me) or someone else for not having detailed procedure for what to do. (To this it means they used no critical thinking or asking questions.) · Employee says they understand, clicks, and performs operations in AutoCAD/Civil3D and messes the entire project up. · Employee says how am I supposed to remember that you cover that over a month ago. · Employee says they understand, to the task I gave them and a bunch of other stuff they weren't supposed to do, but did it because "it made sense" (even though it doesn't). · When I ask an employee to perform a similar task I had them perform previously they say they forgot how to do that and need to be trained all over again. Even though I already lost money on training them the first time. When something like this happens, I sit down with them and try to figure out where they messed up and every time I try to be super sensitive to their criticism. But I can even when I am explaining what they did wrong, they are reluctant to hear it. They don't want to be told they are wrong and don't see an opportunity for learning they only see that I'm complaining. Just today I gave detailed instruction on everything to perform, even to the click and 75% of the product I got back on 8 hours' worth of work was wrong and when I went to explain what was wrong, I saw them just shut down. I constantly enforce asking question, the more you know the better. I even developed this really detailing information hand out on AutoCAD people were supposed to read and let me know if they don't understand it, but no one asked me questions and I know they don't understand it. Another issue is discipline, my father is part of that issue. He has let some of the senior level staff get away with running the company and information every which way they please, because he doesn't want to be confrontational. SIDE STORY: I can understand the fear, because one time I even told an employee he was doing it wrong and he said "I treated him like and idiot" when in fact I was letting him know his information was incorrect. He came up with this whole story about how I yelled at him (not true) and that I was unprofessional. Either way I sat him down explained I was sorry if I did something to make him upset and he insisted it was all my fault and I still asked for forgiveness, don't think it matter because he quit 7 months later. END STORY. My father has let them get away with not following protocol and actually has let them be lazy often refusing to do tasks just because they didn't feel like taking the responsibility or pushing it back on my father. Sometime in turn I had to put the team on my back and finish the job. The only job we are successful on from one organization where there is repetitive tasks. Basically you have an example and all the work is pretty much the same, follow this, this is automated, everything is developed, all the research is already performed and handed to us and I hate to say it but only 10% brain power required. Our other licensed engineer handles this job. This type of work we are very successful at because we only give the staff redlines on their basically Mc Donald's food chain assembly line of work. But more often than not, our jobs are not 6-year long jobs with developed standards. Mostly every job, other than that one requires detail, knowledge, critical thinking and applying knowledge from the last job to the current one. I don't know what to do. I've given training classes at universities and been told I was the best teachers they have ever had, yet I'm struggling to get work an production out of my employees. In fact people hire us to do work just for my skills alone or ask me to be a key speaker. I feel like I am smart, a good manager and a good motivator, but maybe I am not. I need help. I'm working my life away for my employees, these employees are paid 30+ dollars an hour to compete with Local DOTs minimum wage for graduate engineers and I am not even making double they are with 20 times the skill. If I pay staff any less, they just go to the DOT and do even less work for more pay. I feel once when I take over the same situation will still occur, and I will drown in either debt or responsibilities. I have a newborn daughter and I do not want to work my life away for others that do not care I work the weekend to fix their mistakes to meet a deadline. Please tell me what I am doing wrong… I feel like I've tried it all or maybe this just wasn't meant to be. [link] [comments]  |
| An individual looking to start music equipment selling business( India) Posted: 24 Oct 2020 01:31 AM PDT Hello. Please suggest. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 23 Oct 2020 06:21 PM PDT Has anyone acquire a business before? Or sold a business? What has been your experience? I am thinking about doing this. Where did you find the funding? Thanks guys. [link] [comments]  |
| Contractor non pay, should I use a lien filing service like levelset? Posted: 23 Oct 2020 01:39 PM PDT Did some cleaning work on some buildings for a contractor, They have been invoiced, and are now past due, and they have not responded to any emails, calls or texts about payments. Close to about 3k worth of work. I have never filed a lien, and came across a service like levelset. Is this a service that is worthwhile? Any experiences with it? I'm in Utah if that makes any difference. Thanks, Sterling [link] [comments]  |
| Selling Liquor Store, how to find comps for valuation? Posted: 23 Oct 2020 10:35 PM PDT Hi we have a liquor store in Kansas City MO. I was wondering if anyone had any idea how we can find nearby sales or histories of sales of comparable liquor stores in the area? Im trying to figure our valuation of our store generally, truly appreciate any tips! :) [link] [comments]  |
| If you are meeting with a sales rep that is having issues, do you lead with the good or the bad? Posted: 23 Oct 2020 08:37 PM PDT I am meeting with a sales rep I hired 3 weeks ago and their numbers are terrible. The industry average is 10-15 sales per month and they have done 1 sale in 3 weeks and they came from a sales background. Today I found the issue.... This ENTIRE week, they only added 19 new leads into salesforce where my average rep adds 65 new leads PER DAY. I know they are incredibly skilled as I have seen them work but they are just not working. They are a remote sales rep so it is hard to hold them accountable on a regular basis. Tomorrow I am meeting with them to go over updates to client contracts as well as a pay increase I am rolling out to all employees and a new commission structure that goes with it. Should I go over the basic business stuff first or after I go over the disciplinary conversations? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Oct 2020 12:05 AM PDT I'm trying to provide all the necessary docs for a dcu.org business account. They asked for one doc I didn't have (which I had to order from IRS). I now have it but now they are asking for 10 other documents. Including an "excise tax". I've never heard of this. When they asked them they said it was for business assets like cars that I expense and don't pay taxes on. I have none of that. I am a software consulting with an s-corp I bill through for consulting. Does anyone have any other credit unions that would be a little better to apply to onine? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 23 Oct 2020 08:30 AM PDT |
| Posted: 23 Oct 2020 11:39 PM PDT I am a teenager in MA and I have been wanting to start a small buisness for awhile. After months of research I have found and perfected my formula for my lip blam and it is perfect! Now to the hard part, legalizing! As previously stated I am listed in MA (Massachusetts) and websites say various different things! Some say I need an LLC, and a business license, some say I only need of of the two and others say that I could just start selling now! I highly doubt I could legally begin with nothing, so I would appreciate some help with this, if anyone had the time! -Anynomus [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 23 Oct 2020 11:50 AM PDT I've been trying to find something like this but there's so much spam and bad blogs. [link] [comments]  |
| What is the biggest problem/impediment in your business right now? Posted: 23 Oct 2020 07:14 PM PDT What is the biggest problem/impediment in your business right now? How have, or do you see, yourself overcoming it? Why or how do you think the problem arose? [link] [comments]  |
| Small business vs. personal vehicle Posted: 23 Oct 2020 06:53 PM PDT I've started my own LLC. Repairing garage doors. I have a truck paid for and clear for actual work. My personal vehicle is the only debt I have, I use it for work related things. Is there a way I can use my personal truck for work things? Or even put it under the companies insurance? [link] [comments]  |
| john@example.com vs jsmith@example.com: does it matter? Posted: 23 Oct 2020 06:00 PM PDT Am introducing a Software product at my company that has historically been a small consultancy. One of my employees brought up the idea of switching to just first name for email address instead of our current system of first initial and last name - basically that it's more personable. Our team is only 6 people right now. We could hire a duplicate name but have no plans to. Of course I could end up regretting that if we end up hiring another Matt in the near term. 😬 Would now be a good time to switch to the simpler firstname@ structure for email to more closely reflect our size and seem more personable, or does it really not matter? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 23 Oct 2020 12:58 PM PDT Hello everyone, I'm looking at having 500 units of a product (each about the size of a large dictionary, but very lightweight) produced in China, and I'd like to find a single company that could handle receiving of the order, quality checking/acceptance, warehousing, and order fulfillment/packing for each unit ordered. I'm based in the USA and would ideally like that company to be based here, unless others have experience with companies in other countries executing well on global fulfillment. Customers are expected to be 75% USA based and the rest in Canada, UK, and Europe. Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Question: Is setting up small business owner with invoice and payment system a viable business? Posted: 23 Oct 2020 12:51 PM PDT There are a lot of small businesses that do not have an automated invoicing and payment processing systems. A lot still rely on sending invoice via mail and receiving a check from their clients via mail. If one was to create a business, that sets up these small businesses with an invoicing and payment processing system, do you think it will work? If any of you already does this, I am interested in learning more about the tools/services that you setup for your clients (small businesses). If it is OK with you, can you share the time commitment, and cost estimates? What do you consider are the pros and cons of this model? Thanks in advance for your replies. [link] [comments]  |
| How are certain small businesses in India dealing with taxes? Posted: 23 Oct 2020 09:40 AM PDT When I am attempting to register a domain from a domain reseller, I don't see any tax component getting added by the reseller. However, Godaddy or HostGator adds 18% GST on top of the actual price of the domain. Therefore, the reseller could sell the domain at a much cheaper price than the name brand providers. I am just wondering if the reseller is legit. In other words, is the reseller somehow evading tax to attract more customers? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 23 Oct 2020 09:20 AM PDT Hey guys, I wanted to share tips on how I made friends and created masterminds with internet marketers (guys who sell ebooks and courses) like myself . But I expect my approach will work for any type of small business. For a long time I left lonely building a business by myself. And getting to know others like me is among the smartest decisions I've made. For two reasons: 1. It's such a relief to chat day to day life with guys doing the same thing. It makes the whole thing more fun. And I cherish the jokes, stories and support. 2. I've learned a lot from these guys. More than books, YT videos and courses combined. Simply from bouncing ideas off each other. If you read Think and Grow Rich you know it makes a big deal about getting a mastermind going. I now see why. I urge you to do the same. Anyway, here's how I went about it: #1: Be active in growing your business. People like to talk business and life with others on the same level or above. So the more you do the more people who want to know you. There's also another benefit. Taking action makes you feel good about yourself and people feel this. It's a great vibe and people like it #2: Go where people like you hang out. For me it was internet forums and subreddits. But there's facebook, discord, telegram etc. The logic is simple. To mak friends and share ideas you gotta be where others are. Generally speaking smaller communities are better than big ones. This is because there's fewer posts, which means your posts (and others) won't be missed. You'll all know each other by username, which gives a familiar feel - which is a natural bridge to easy friendships. #3: Share advice, experience and things you've learned. Most people aren't of much value. They happy to ask for help but give nothing back. Don't be that guy. Share stuff and regularly. Start new posts. And be an active part of the community. People will notice you. They'll appreciate your effort, and because people gravitate to people actively pursuing interests they care for, they will want to talk to you. #4: Be positive, supportive and joke around. Some people are negative by nature. Stick em behind a keyboard and they evolve into real cunts. This includes guys who share advice. Some of them give off such a "I'm better than you vibe" and it's lame. Be supportive. Be positive. And by all means have fun and share your personality. The latter is important. Remember, you want to meet others who like you as you are. And by showing them what you are is how you do that. #5: Invite people to Whatsapp. After a while two things will happen: A) People will reach out because to say thanks for something you shared. If you think they're cool, invite them to WhatsApp. B) You will find there's certain members you would naturally like to chat with. Simply message them and ask if they want to chat on Whatsapp. Don't overcomplicate these messages. Just tell em' straight up with no pressure. Here's a simple message you could use: "Hey man, I read a few of your posts and love them. I'm in a similar boat and been doing [insert something bout you]. I'm friends with a few guys from here and we chat over Whatsapp. If you like to join us, swap tips and stories then shoot me a message on [insert phone number]" Keep in mind you need to be the one contacting others. People LOVE meeting others like them but few are proactive about it. Of course not everyone will take you up on the offer, but there's plenty who will and appreciate you like mad for asking. Hope that helps. If you liked this and wish to meet and share tips with other internet marketers check out the r/internetmarketing subreddit. It's a wonderful little community where we discuss how to sell ebooks and online courses. I'm a moderator there and would to see you join us. If you're not, but found this post helpful I'd appreciate you spreading the word about our subreddit elsewhere. Peace! [link] [comments]  |
| Ideas on where to post survey to get market input? Posted: 23 Oct 2020 08:52 AM PDT Hey y'all! I'm in the very very beginning stages of starting an athletic apparel business (which means I'll probably be posting here more often yay!). I'm in the research/market viability stages and created a survey. Here's where I'm running into a little bit of a dead end...how can I get more responses without paying for them? I posted on my personal facebook, am about to on my IG, and have asked my local professional organization that I'm part of. I've also asked all those networks to share it, as well. I'd post on subreddits, but it looks like a lot of them ban surveys. Thoughts on where to go from here? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| What Type of Business Should I Incorporate? Posted: 23 Oct 2020 12:35 PM PDT Hi there, I'm in a partnership with my friend who lives in Canada, and we thought about forming a freelancing agency with very little expense/overhead costs. The potential net earnings after a year would be $50,000-$150,000 USD range. We came to the conclusion that incorporating a business would be best in order to avoid paying more taxes as I have my own day job salary (I definitely do not want to add that as I am the one who gets the payment from our joint gig). Based on our circumstance, does anyone have a good idea of which business structure we should register as? [link] [comments]  |
| Delivery truck/fleet tracking softwares? Posted: 23 Oct 2020 11:58 AM PDT I'm getting a feeling my delivery crew is milking the clock. Without calling customers to follow-up directly, I want a way track them. I've been looking at fleet management options, but we are just a one truck operation and a lot of it seems to be a bit much. Does anyone here in r/smallbusiness use any tracking software? It'd be nice to see start/stop, drive duration, how long it sat, and be able to track by GPS. [link] [comments]  |
| Where to start with a T-shirt business? Posted: 23 Oct 2020 11:44 AM PDT Hi all! I'm starting to dip my toes into making customized t-shirts and bleaching them. They are super cute and popular right now. I just am not sure where to start as far so having the products available. Should I do a small batch first with a few designs? My funds are incredibly tight so wondering the best place to start! My shop will be graphic t's for the modern mom. Shirts you can dress up with a cardigan or down in sweats. Also wondering if I should start a group on Facebook to start promoting and gain interest? Any help is appreciated [link] [comments]  |
| What are you willing to pay for legal services? Posted: 23 Oct 2020 11:38 AM PDT Hello, I am wanting to know small business owner's opinions on pricing for legal services. I am in the process of building a prototype (imagine LegalZoom meets TurboTax) to help small business owners by making the government registration process faster, cheaper, and simpler for small business owners. I have a survey (takes less than 5 minutes) to get your opinion on pricing for legal services as a small business owner that I would really appreciate if anybody wouldn't mind taking it. Only requirements is that you must be a business owner and located in the US- survey link *** This is not to buy anything. There is no product. This survey is just to see small business owner's opinion on pricing for legal services [link] [comments]  |
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