Lessons you learned as a small business owner small business |
- Lessons you learned as a small business owner
- My business partner is buying me out and I'm lost
- Should I hire a debt collector for 500 dollars?
- Starting Social Media Agency Advice and Tips
- Independent contractor here - should I sign this contract? (non compete clause)
- Best franchise to buy California?
- [Business Bank Account] Business Owners, do you use Mercury Bank and how is your experience with it?
- How to find clients in industrial construction sector?
- Need data and advice for my piano tutoring business.
- My father has been running a failing business and just took out a massive Covid relief SBA loan looking for suggestions or help
- Website launch party
- How do I fire a high positioned employee that never signed an NDA?
- How to forecast a budget of Facebook ads? [Pro Tips]
- Start up funding
- Bathroom breaks for one employee in shop
- Competing with under the table businesses?
- Moved from VA to WA
- How to do marketing for a small business?
- Repair shop owners how are you marketing?
- Online business help
- Design Fee?
- Am I calculating the 3rd Party Ordering reataurant fees properly?
- Is free shipping the right move?
- Tool rental insurance (Small equipment)
| Lessons you learned as a small business owner Posted: 13 Sep 2021 04:51 PM PDT I'll start. I'm a small business owner from a medium sized town of 150,000ish population that opened a service industry establishment. Some of the lessons that hurt to learn: •A lot of advertising is bogus. A smart, concise guerrilla strategy with marketing does wonders. Many radio stations, billboards and SEO will ask for gobs of cash to do what you can likely do and maintain with good, organic growth. •Have a contingency plan. Be ready to have no salary, do the work yourself or both until you break through. A second source of income and burning the midnight oil is hard but having cash flow early helps with alleviating early debt and obtaining immediate growth/securing additional opportunities. •Retain your good employees. Pay well, listen to them and take advice from them: especially if they're on the front lines and you're running the books. You want their job to be worth it to them because retraining cost a lot and a good employee is hard to find. •Don't be afraid to say no. We've had several opportunities to grow too fast and it didn't feel right. Now I know it wasn't. A lot of investors will offer a lot of money and want a lot of power in return. Banks are the best investors. Feel free to critique, add, ask questions: whatever. [link] [comments]  |
| My business partner is buying me out and I'm lost Posted: 13 Sep 2021 10:56 AM PDT Hi all, I'd love to hear the insights / feedback on a pressing issue I'm dealing with. There is a TLDR version at the bottom for those who don't care to hear the whole story. So - Frank and I are in our early 30s, we start an event rental company 1 year ago, primarily renting tents, chairs, and tables. Our company takes off last winter / spring for two reasons:
Soon business is pouring in and we have more work than we can handle. We quickly become the number 2 event rental company in our area on yelp. Frank handles the inbound calls and social media. I handle logistics, set up, managing new employees. All other aspects of the business we handle together. Thing is, Frank has a bad temper, a fragile ego, really a classic napoleon complex - this is something everyone notices about Frank, not exclusive to my relationship with Frank. I manage this as best I can, but he becomes increasingly disrespectful as we become increasingly more successful. His ego inflates as he handles more and more inbound calls - it creates a complex for him where he irrationally calculates that he is doing the majority of the work, forgetting that it was my initiatives that put us in the position to have inbound business in the first place, forgetting that I am managing our team, our logistics, everything that actually brings our services to physical fruition. After a few arguments that we resolve like gentlemen, we have a few weeks of peace and great success. I receive a ridiculous midnight text from him that he never should have agreed to split the company 50/50 with me, he apologizes the next morning at claims he was drunk and his friend send the text... Seriously? I'm processing that Frank may be to toxic to work with long term, he is always on edge and always needs his ego soothed. Here is the final straw: A week or two later he asks me to go out for drinks with him, he sees a table in a crowded bar and asks me to save it while he goes to get a drink. He vanishes for 45mins, I text him that I'm taking off and he's welcome to join if he'd like. The Uber picks me up before he responds - and when he responds he is typing in all caps, calling me every name in the book, claiming I left an hour ago, calling my girlfriend ugly, using every 4 letter word in the book, suggesting we meet up and fight. A truly childish and embarrassing melt down that lasted over an hour, all via text - and completely one sided as I did not engage in any foolishness - I told him I needed space and I couldn't work with someone so disrespectful and hateful. He's apologized but I can see that this behavior is so engrained in his personality that it would take years of soul searching and therapy for him to truly change. After some time apart we both come to the conclusion that he should buy me out - this was about a month ago. We agree to have 2 or 3 CPAs evaluate the company's worth and negotiate from there. He has a CPA buddy from college do it, and send me a ridiculously low ball offer. It's his friend, he's biased, I take it with a grain of salt. Meanwhile my neutral 3rd party CPA has been taking weeks to get back to me and now has Covid - big delay in this whole process. I'm scrambling to find someone else to help evaluate our business and it's a lot harder than I expected - according to my original CPA this should be a straight forward job. We fully own our assets, we have no loans or debt aside from a few family members we owe a fraction of our profits to for helping us start, our only consistent expense is our storage unit, and we are nicely in the green profit wise. Everything is in QuickBooks and we've only existed for a year, so combing through our finances should be simple. I already have an idea of what I think he should pay me, I really just need a cohesive write up from a CPA to present to Frank in negotiations. So far Frank and I have been gentlemen about this process and I'm letting go of hard feelings, but we both want to wrap up this buyout sooner than later. Frank is indicating that things are going great since I've taken a step back from the business (I'm still involved to an extent, until the buyout is final), however our employees are coming to me, unprompted, and telling me horror stories of disrespect, poor management, and Frank having frequent meltdowns and mishaps. They're planning to quit once I fully leave the company and asking if they can work with me on future endeavors - I emphasize leadership and treating employees they way you'd want to be treated (good pay, getting my hands dirty with them, patience, etc). I think I'd like to use the money to buy property, start a new small business, or buy a small storage unit facility... I'm lost and struggling about what to do with my future. I'm sorry for being longwinded, but I really wanted to give you all the full picture - after reading this story some of you may have some advice, or guidance, or even similar stories that you'd like to share. I'm open to constructive criticism as well - am I going about this the wrong way? Making any big mistakes? etc.... TLDR version: I need help and guidance in the process of my business partner buying me out, I'm having trouble finding a CPA who can work with me in a reasonable time frame. I'm just looking for a written up business appraisal to begin our negotiations with. Some more conservative CPAs have told me the value is simply the assets and the revenue because we've only been in business for a year (I guess businesses who have more longevity sell for a multiple of the revenue?) --- Logically I would think the value of the business is still greater than our assets and our revenue because I've built an entire infrastructure to make this a well oiled machine. We have a great online reputation, a built website that generates revenue, and relationships - surely that must be worth more than just assets and money made to date? There has to be some dollar value on that, even if its not as high as it would be if we had 3 or 4 years in the game. After all I'm selling my half of the business not liquidating it. I have no experience with this so any thoughts or insights are greatly appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Should I hire a debt collector for 500 dollars? Posted: 13 Sep 2021 09:45 AM PDT I run a wholesale business and for the first time in 10 years I have a customer who owes $500 on an order which he refuses to pay. He gave me a credit card to file, as is standard for my company, but upon trying to run it for the first invoice it declined. I've reached out via email a dozen times and phone half a dozen. Finally my AR person got him on the phone and the dude just railed us. Said he doesn't owe us a dime, we run a scam business, etc. A little research shows that this gentleman has been to jail for theft a few years back so he's got a record of stuff like this. I had planned to settle things 'the old fashioned way' but I really don't want to tarnish the reputation of my company if I end up in a fight at his shop. It's also a bit of a drive so I'm not keen on making the trip and coming back empty handed. Is it worth the hassle to go through collections for such a small debt? He didn't sign a contract as he's a pretty small account so I can't small claims. Live and learn! Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Starting Social Media Agency Advice and Tips Posted: 14 Sep 2021 04:00 AM PDT Hi I am a level 2 seller on Fiverr as a Social Media Marketer and have over 45 reviews. I want to grow my income by starting up an agancy for social media marketing. Does anyone here have any advice and tips to set up a good agency and get clients? [link] [comments]  |
| Independent contractor here - should I sign this contract? (non compete clause) Posted: 14 Sep 2021 03:41 AM PDT Location: NYC I've worked for a client a few times over the last couple years and never signed any contract. It's the same field I work in as an independent contractor for several different companies and also under my own name/solo. I'm halfway through 2/4 dates of work I've already signed a contract for, and was just sent another contract that includes a non compete clause that I will not individually approach any of their clients for 18 months after the end of the contract (so 2.5 years from today). I work in the same industry and have been for the last 5 years, and have even worked for some of their clients in the past already independently. It's a bit of a niche field and they have a growing client list so I don't want to be blocked from any opportunities for such a long period of time, since it says "any of xx's clients", not specific ones etc. For example, one of their clients is a large department store chain that has many opportunities for work throughout the year and I'd be blocking my self from that. My inclination was to say I'd sign everything else (nda, etc) in the contract except that clause, but is it just a "non poaching" clause that is reasonable? [link] [comments]  |
| Best franchise to buy California? Posted: 13 Sep 2021 12:06 PM PDT I have about 200,000 saved up and with a co signer will qualify for about 400,000 more. I'm wondering if anyone has a successful franchise or recommendations on easy to run businesses? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| [Business Bank Account] Business Owners, do you use Mercury Bank and how is your experience with it? Posted: 14 Sep 2021 02:14 AM PDT So I've been browsing around for a bank to open a business account with. I came across Mercury, and it seems to offer wonderful features for our startup (a marketplace platform): - It is one of the 3 partners of Clerky (First Republic, Mercury, Pacific Western), which is the service that we're going to use to incorporate. - Straightforward registration & fund movements - It has almost no transfer fees (with the exception of wire transfers) - No monthly maintenance fees - APIs which allow for a custom dashboard & financial data access, automation - Integrations with Stripe & Xero, services that we use However, my excitement about this bank was cut short when I began seeing many reviews saying transfers were very slow (can be weeks) and support was so poor (unhelpful support/no phone support, only email support, which is rather slow). This particularly worries me when I think of emergency situations that demand immediate support. We also need fast transfers for cashflow and timely payments to our sellers. The reviews have been so polarized so I'm quite confused and want to hear more inputs from people who have experience with the service. If you have used Mercury, how is your experience with it? Have you encountered any problems mentioned above? If yes, can you elaborate on the problems? Like what types of transfers are slow, inbound or outbound, ACH or check deposits? Would you recommend Mercury? If not, do you have any other suggestions for me? Thank you so much! [link] [comments]  |
| How to find clients in industrial construction sector? Posted: 14 Sep 2021 02:11 AM PDT Hello everyone. I'm a coating (a.k.a painting) inspector with few years of experience, highly recognized international certificates and for the last year - own freelancing business. So far I've been really struggling with finding clients for my services. My main target companies have their subcontractors usually on construction site far away and thus need some freelancers who inspect work and make sure its done according to rigorous standards when comes to painting of industrial/marine/offshore construction. My problem is, that I cannot find a way to get noticed by my potential clients. If I sent my resume/CV/portfolio to HR it's getting lost due to sheer size of bureaucracy of this companies - chance that some Project Manager will notice me are zero. 90% of them are located abroad, and are multinational companies. My country usually serves as a place where some of those project are built. Usually similar positions are filled by spreading the word between other freelancers, and whoever is occupied, just passes on the info about vacant job. So far I got my few contracts this way, but I know these are scraps which noone else wanted. I also know that "Rome wasn't built overnight" and I won't get amazing contracts straightaway when I drop the info about me, but right now I feel frustrated and helpless. I can and have already worked abroad, since I live in Europe. Do You have any ideas what to do? I talked with mamy people which have their business, but noone works in such environment. Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Need data and advice for my piano tutoring business. Posted: 13 Sep 2021 09:51 PM PDT I am starting a piano tutoring/lesson business in my 500k population, Midwestern city. I'm trying to figure out how to price my lessons. I have one student that I currently teach for free just so that I can improve upon my teaching skills. But I want to start acquiring paying students soon. I'm willing to make less than the average teacher because I know I don't have the traditional music college education and credentials. If I could at least make minimum wage I'd be happy for now because this is my passion. How much would you pay for a 45-minute lesson? I'm also considering doing a monthly subscription payment plan. Basically a student would pay for the whole month and they get up to 8 lessons. If they cancel a lesson I still get paid for the month. I thought this might be beneficial for me because as a student for many years I know that about 20% of lessons are cancelled due to scheduling issues or unexpected things coming up. Please let me know if you have questions, thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 13 Sep 2021 11:38 AM PDT Back Story My father has been running a business in a dying industry for 20 years. He had a few good years earning (but not saving) more than $100K. Some brief highlights of how things have gone include: 12 years ago without my mom's permission he pulled out $80K from their mortgage to subsidize the business and repay old taxes and other loans, this is obviously financial abuse and my mom only stayed with him because her kids were still in HS and she had no means of earning enough money to support us. The business is constantly not able to pay rent or even pay it's employees for weeks or months at a time. He has owed tens of thousands of back taxes for as long as I've been aware of their financial situation for at least 12 years, I'm 28 now. The business is constantly in debt whether from back taxes, buying new equipment, bank loans, etc. He somehow finds ways to keep it afloat and when things are really bad he has resorted to pulling the equity from their home or not paying himself. He now earns about $3K/month and my mom has gone back to school and finished her nursing degree and now works as a registered nurse earning $4k/month. They have been on an upward financial trend because of my mother attending a Dave Ramsey course ~12 years and her meticulously paying off all of their personal debt minus their home and starting to save for their retirement with her nursing income and previous part time jobs as a pilates instructor, realtor. Plus my own interest in personal finance and that I've tried to give them including knowledge about index fund investing and learnings from my interest in the FIRE movement like me constantly discussing ideas from books like The Simple Path to Wealth. They were in a good position to pay off their home in the next 8 years and because of my mom's nursing career they were saving $1500-2000/month for retirement. All of my siblings are financially stable and out of the house and into their careers. Unfortunately, my dad has run this business without any financial or business training and basically ran it by the seat of his pants for 20 years. This means he barely understands the financials of his business and does zero spreadsheet analysis or any critical analysis of any kind and all of his ideas and opinions about it are not based on reality; they are at best wishful thinking. Loan Issue The current issue is that recently my dad's business has had even more financial stress because of Covid and just the fact that it is a dying industry, something that he refuses to acknowledge. His company costs minimum ~$21K/month to run and he has had multiple months where the company only earned $6K over the past 18 months. He has only managed to stay in business because of the government support for small businesses through various SBA covid relief grants. Even with these grants and support he was ~20K in business credit card debt, and had $50K of bank loans. This is after years of struggling to try and reduce business debt that occurred over the years driven by my mom practically forcing him. So in June, again without my mom's consent he applied and was approved for $350K of loan funds from the SBA EIDL loan program. How this is possible is beyond me his business was assessed at only being valued by a business broker at ~200K. This business assessment was because me and mom have been pleading that he get rid of this business for over 5 years. Reluctantly he had it assessed and put on the business market 2 years ago and it was valued at ~$300K. Shocked and horrified because he was under the unresearched opinion that someone would pay +1M for this business. So he pulled it off the market and waited another year to get it re-assessed only because me and my mother continued to pressure him to see reality and as of 9 months ago the broker said it's only worth $215K MAX. My dad has still been in denial about this and hasn't even tried to sell the company. As far as the terms of the loan they are very bad and include their home as collateral on the loan. This was the last straw for my mom and she decided to file for a divorce. The loan is a EIDL SBA loan with 3.75% for 30 years ~1750/month payments. When me and my siblings got our hands on the loan doc we noticed that for funds over $200K there is a personal guarantee on these covid relief SBA loans. So my family staged an intervention this past weekend full of pleading and sharing heartfelt anecdotes about how this business has been toxic and is not worth the opportunity costs of running it and that for his financial future is going to be very bleak and that he needs to be serious about closing the business and giving back all unspent funds. We discussed bankruptcy, selling the equipment for parts, using money from the sale of their house to pay off his portion of the debt and close the doors. Their home is worth ~$350K and they have a $100k outstanding mortgage. In the divorce my mom is going to take $100K from the house and walk away with her retirement accounts, this is all still pending. To summarize
*After the intervention he agreed to pay back at least $200K of the loan we are going to confirm with the SBA if this removes the personal guarantee it probably doesn't but we don't know yet.
I'm sure this is a lot to read. It certainly was cathartic to write out. I don't know what to do for my dad. He isn't thinking about this business clearly and it's tragic to watch. I don't see any way this can be resolved. He needs to do some deep personal work and let go of all of the attachment that this business means to him; I don't see that happening this business will follow till the day he dies. He needs to be serious about closing the doors any way possible and he just isn't there. It is ego, pride and not accepting that this ship sunk years ago; this has been heartbreaking for me to watch. If anyone has any suggestions, me and my family would greatly appreciate it. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 14 Sep 2021 01:23 AM PDT So recently I've been struggling to launch my ecommerce store - I keep working on it to make it perfect, but I know I need to just launch the damn thing already. I want to set a hard date and have a launch party, but I'm not exactly sure how to run an engaging one. If anyone has done one before I'd massively appreciate some tips. [link] [comments]  |
| How do I fire a high positioned employee that never signed an NDA? Posted: 14 Sep 2021 12:39 AM PDT So only this manager in particular never signed the NDA. It is my fault because I hired him during a time of grief. I forgot all about it until now and am in a tough position. This manager has access to almost every file/sensitive info. He even has some information that I don't have access to because I made it a part of his responsibility. So now I need that information and an effective way to terminate him. Any ideas on how I can handle this situation. PS I made matters worse by hinting his termination. [link] [comments]  |
| How to forecast a budget of Facebook ads? [Pro Tips] Posted: 14 Sep 2021 12:15 AM PDT In general, The forecast means a process of estimation in an unfamiliar situation. The Facebook ads did not have a stable performance as houres by houres or day by day. And have different variables that affect on performance and budget of ads. That means the equation of performance of ads is not linear, which represent the forecast did not be accurate. How can we fix it? We have two scenarios. The first one is if you have data from a previous campaign with the same purpose, we can use this data as a benchmark for calculating a future budget. In the second scenario, if you set up a new campaign without previous data, the best case is to set up a budget week by week. In both scenarios, we can use CBO rules to avoid overspending and cut the low-performance ads. Conclusion: A clear KPI (Key performance inducer) should be set up for the campaign to build a winner strategy. Using a save formula to calculate a budget for ads is 3*payout* the number of the Landing page. Make sure your audience keeps fresh and update to avoid overlapping and burnout. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 14 Sep 2021 12:13 AM PDT Hey everyone, I'm looking for ideas to get some start up funding. I'm located in st. Louis Missouri and considering Illinois (alton or Cahokia). Just need some ideas on where to start looking for a loan or grant. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Bathroom breaks for one employee in shop Posted: 13 Sep 2021 04:25 PM PDT So I'm curious as to how this would work. Let's say I or an employee was the only in the shop, and shop is open for 8 hours. Duty calls and I or him run off to the bathroom. Should I put a sign up saying "be back in 10 minutes" or "will return at insert time here"? [link] [comments]  |
| Competing with under the table businesses? Posted: 13 Sep 2021 08:10 AM PDT So I've been talking around a little bit and researching and running numbers. Im wondering about opening a lawn care business. It seems like it could be fairly profitable here in Austin Tx but I think there are a lot of under the table businesses in the labor industry here. I was wondering how legal/illegal that is as well. Would this be a major problem? Anyone got words of advice on the topic? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 13 Sep 2021 06:38 PM PDT Hi, I have a CyberSecurity business that I llc'ed recently in VA. I recently moved to WA. Wondering pros and cons to either dissolving vs registering as a foreign entity in WA. Pulled this info from Washington's business site:
So yeah, not very excited about the "added costs" but is this the way to go in terms of simplicity? I am not opposed to dissolving as there is really nothing to dissolve at this point (just me, myselft, and I). If that is cleaner and more affordable I would rather do that. Thoughts? I am not particularly business savvy, just looking to do the right/affordable/simple thing here. Thank you. Ernest [link] [comments]  |
| How to do marketing for a small business? Posted: 13 Sep 2021 10:22 PM PDT
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| Repair shop owners how are you marketing? Posted: 13 Sep 2021 08:54 PM PDT I'm in a start up electronics repair business and I am trying to figure out how to effectively market without Google Ads(because of google's ban on third party repair shop ads). Spent money here and there but not much results. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 13 Sep 2021 08:44 PM PDT Does anyone sell online? Can you please provide suggestions on the best printer for printing mailing labels and customer receipts? Thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 13 Sep 2021 02:05 PM PDT Hi all! I am very excited that I am in the beginning stages of starting my own gardening company! I have formal training and have worked in several botanical gardens, so I know my plants. The business side of gardening is new to me and any tips and tricks would be great! Especially on how to charge for the time I spend off site making the actual design. I don't want people to mistake me for a run of the mill landscape company because thats not what I do. I am a horticultural professional and would like to present myself as such. I am also quite young (23) and want to be taken seriously because despite my age I already have 8 years of schooling and experience in the field. Thanks so much in advance!!!!!! [link] [comments]  |
| Am I calculating the 3rd Party Ordering reataurant fees properly? Posted: 13 Sep 2021 08:01 PM PDT Hello, we recently added DoorDash at one of our Pizzeria locations. The sales skyrocketed, which sounds great. However, I've seen too many articles about how nobody is making any money except the Apps. Our current monthly financials show us having a net profit ranging from 12-17% depending on the "month" if there are extra Fridays, or when the food order bill lands, etc. Overall, it's roughly 15% for easy numbers. The DoorDash orders are charging at uncouponed rates, roughly 5% higher than our own private orders, because we don't offer our coupons through their websites. Our ordering fee is 25% off the top. I personally think AT BEST, we are breaking even and basically paying for advertisement. I understand my Food Cost (29%) is fixed, and my payroll might be slightly lower (25-27%) and the other expenses will trend slightly down as a total % because of increased sales, but I cant see us profiting off of this. We started halfway through August, so we are waiting for September financials to compare them at total profits to June/July and see what it looks like. Any opinions are appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Is free shipping the right move? Posted: 13 Sep 2021 07:56 PM PDT Hi Everyone, Thanks for taking the time to read and reply. Background: I run an import wholesale construction supply company that has recently had to stop selling raw steel tubes (SHS) due to changes in government tarrifs. SHS was responsible for about 60% of my turnover - so it was a huge hit to our bottom line. Wholesaling raw steel is a game of high volume, low profits. Typically I would make about 5-10% profits. The rest of my product range are higher profits (20-50%), but with less volume. They are also easier to load on and off a truck so it takes way less time, around 20 minutes. Loading the truck full of SHS would take 2 guys about 2 hours. The time taken to load the truck, fuel, tolls and wages is an expensive process, usually costing around $250. My customers are price sensitive to delivery costs, so I charged them $120 for delivery, no matter the size of the order. I'm thinking of offering my customers free delivery on orders over $1000. This would be a breakeven amount - which I'm not happy with because I'm not in business to break even, but I think it might have long term benefits and an edge over my competitors. I could make it $2000? The average delivery invoice is about $5000, but this is because customers order as much as possible to spread out the cost of delivery. Should I charge only $50 delivery? Should I offer free delivery? I was so sensitive to delivery costs because the profits were low beforehand. But now I can deliver a lot more in less time and make more money. Thank you kindly in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Tool rental insurance (Small equipment) Posted: 13 Sep 2021 07:41 PM PDT Hi all! Looking to see if anyone has previously gotten an insurance quote for a small tool equipment rental business in Canada that is a side-hustle part time gig. I imagine it is a smart idea to insure the business in the case that some nut case decides to hurt themselves/cause damage with the equipment. Total value of all the equipment to begin with will probably be $10K. What would I be looking at as a premium for an insurance plan? TIA [link] [comments]  |
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