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The Reason Small Businesses Are Disappearing, As Explained By A Small Business Owner
Confused why despite endless daily propaganda that the US economy is getting better - after all "just look at the record high S&P 500" - fewer and fewer Americans believe the narrative, as the Democrats and Obama found out the very hard way in last week's midterm elections? Then the following explanation written by the owner of a small business - the segment of the US economy that has historically led every single recovery but this time was left behind - should help answer some questions.
The reason small businesses are disappearing written by a small business owner.
I want to start out by saying that i am a 27 year old male with a small business in Sacramento CA. I started this business a few years ago with savings of 15k. With a lot of hard work and determination i have succeeded, but it sure as hell was not easy. I am a long time lurker and have never seen anyone go in depth about what its like to own a small business and the reason why they are disappearing. Without going into to much detail, i own a furniture store so obviously things are different then other businesses but a lot of the things are the same. I wanted to begin with the things that are killing small businesses. Also only my opinion.
- Small Business Loans - Although they are not killing small business they sure as hell don't help anyone. Unless you are opening a unique small business you are not going to get any funding. By unique i mean something along the lines of creating solar panels. According to a recent investigation by the SBA Inspector General (ill post the article if you would like), over 75% of SBA loans went to large businesses. So basically if you want to open a normal business you need a ton of collateral and a miracle to get a loan.
- Permits and Licensing - In opening my specific business the first year totaled about $2000.00.
- Advertising - Many small business's cant afford to take out pages or flyers in the news paper or TV ads so they only have a few choices such as Yelp or the Penny-saver. (Don't get me started in Yelp).
- Street Advertising - While this used to be a good portion of how you get business it is now off limits. Code enforcement will not allow you to put anything outside. No balloons, signs, anything with your store name, window paint more than 50%, or any mattresses. Also delivery vehicles can not be closer than 50 feet from the curb. In my case that means behind the building.
- Board of Equalization - Cant go into to much detail here but they sure as hell aren't here to help.
- Health Insurance - Now obviously with the people that have a large work force working full time they will be hit hard by obamacare, but i wanted to give you a perspective on a single person. The cheapest rate for myself and me only, and believe me i have looked around, is $250.00/month. Some might say oh that's not bad, but let me explain what that covers, NOTHING lol. Basically if something happens to me i have to shell out 6K before insurance gets involved. Also 100 dollar co pay every time i go.
- The economy - While many know that when the President comes on TV and says the economy is doing great, we all know it is not, some people don't. Every month more people drop out of the Labor Force and the number of families on food stamps is sky rocketing. So for those of you who don't know the economy is terrible because of all the top stories of Kim Kardashian and whoever else, lots of people in america are struggling.
- Merchant Fees - This is for credit card processing machines. The machine itself costs 600.00 plus the percentages on sales and cards. Companies such as BofA charge once a year on top of the regular fees $150.00 to protect you from fraud (which they can't even stop) and yes its mandatory. Paypal or Square seem to be the best options these days.
- Fire Department - Yes even the Fire Department wants a piece. Starting last year you must do your own visual inspection and send them a check for 150! Basically if you don't they will come to your store and give you a million violations for wasting there time.
Something to watch out for is people who check fire extinguishers in business's. This is a huge scam where they come in without permission to inspect your extinguisher, get you a new one and bill you like 200 the following month. They have no right or permission to enter your business and jump all over you. You can simply tell them politely to get out. They dress like they are fire fighters but they are not.
* * *
The thread with the author's Q&A continues on Reddit.
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What is a board of equalization?
i believe its the wooden springboard used by white guys in the nba.
+1000
ROFL
I gotz me some tears in my eyes.
"75% of SBA loans went to large businesses"
First thing we should do is change the SBA's name to Ginormous Business Administration.
In CA it means taxes....as does every agency here. SBA means big businesses keeping competition out
fire departments...homeland security owns your local fire department. https://www.fema.gov/welcome-assistance-firefighters-grant-program
...and police ...and 911 call center ...and health dept. ...and... well pretty much everything else under one federal banner or another.
AS a former small business co-operator who left that sort of thing, I am stunned that this piece could be written without includeing "absurd regulatory and tax compliance costs". Technocracy rules the day, and while the biggies have the critical mass to comply, the small are forced to struggle, merge, or say the hell with hit. (Look at what such complexity did to medicine and the smaller meidcal practice? Merge into the regional oligopolies, or go out of biz.)
When we went to go get our occupancy "permit" (ridiculous nonsense in of itself) the fire department pointed out that our handicap curbs were 2 degrees off on the slope and that we had to rip out the concrete and install at the proper slope.
"Something to watch out for is people who check fire extinguishers in business's. This is a huge scam where they come in without permission to inspect your extinguisher, get you a new one and bill you like 200 the following month."
How about the guy that comes in your business and just changes the tag on the extinguisher? Just wathced it happen the other day. Changed the tag, VOILA. Brand new!
Now thats sounds like a good bussiness, checking fire extinguishers in business's.
http://www.nfpa.org/catalog/product.asp?pid=1013
Nickle and diming! Extortion.
Reading that list, honestly conjures up images of the Mafia, and medieval extortion practices (firefighters used to start AND put out fires back in the day) of the Janissaries.
What do you mean, "used to"? That shit still occurs (California wild fires as one example.)
eBay or Amazon. Two options left.
All the above and below reasons are why the USA is not considered one of the best places to start a business.
Current Layoff / Closing List: http://www.dailyjobcuts.com
Enough Said
Cali is not the place to start up a small business. The state will eat you alive!
I have met the enemy and the enemy is us.
Well, at least us in the writ large sense.
Do you really need me to tell you how to shut down Debt Money Monopoly mega corporate fronts and promote small business?
Stop shopping at Big Business and start shopping at small business. Yes, you will pay more... but you won't be funding a government sanctioned monetary based Jeffrey Dahmer that is eating you and your children up.
When people start talking about systems that can work, this point is rarely brought up, but it is critical. No system will work as long as people direct their monetary wealth to the big and powerful and...
....all at once...
...and the CORRUPT!
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The size of a business is proportional to its power which is proportional to its level of corruption.
Shop local, shop small and pay cash so the Debt Money Monopoly doesn't siphon off 3% of your expenditures at the point of sale.
The reason that small businesses are failing is big businesses.
Small businesses do not generate fictional revenue streams that "investors" the likes of all of you here at ZH can tap into and leach off of so what good are they?
I think you have the wrong impression of most ZHers.
I hope he has the wrong impreession, but then again from some posts I see I'm not so sure he isn't mostly right.
I'm not replying to you Eeyore, I'm just trying to get higher on the thread...
I say fuck 'em. I'm self-employed, a farmer, and I operate a welding business on the side. The "municipality" (bum fuck egypt- what right does this wide spot have calling itself an incorporated town?)wouldn't allow me to re-zone so I could operate a legal business. So sue me you fuckers. Or shut me down. Illegal aliens do this all the time. Permits and regs? No comprende, mucho lo siento no habla ingles. Fuck, if they can do it, so can I. It's just a matter of staying under the radar. It's time to become emergent mammalians again- tiny, insignificant omnivores the dinosaurs can't worry about. Fuck you dinosaurs, the meek will inherit the earth. Who knew Jesus was an evolutionary biologist?
I logged in just to up vote you.....what you said was right on target. Plus you are honest and plus, plus you used the term "bum fuck egypt" which I haven't heard in along time.....and I actually did..... lol. Great post!
The Reason Small Businesses Are Disappearing…., in two quotes
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function" -- Albert Bartlett
“Anyone who believes in indefinite growth in anything physical, on a physically finite planet, is either mad or an economist.” -- Kenneth E. Boulding
duh-- reason small businesses are failing is ---ready??? GOV'T
Business fails because capitalism is totally unworkable.
Say I have some (carpentry) skills and I open a shop in my home/garage/barn. Or, a butcher shop.
How long do you think it will take for competition on my street/neighborhood to start?
What? You’re not sure how long it will take?
Go to small towns/villages in Brazil. Look the mess that free-market capitalism really is. By the way, there are major ‘local-Turf’ politics at play.
Let me give you an example:
My hair dresser is from Nicaragua. Her uncle has 11 busses in this village. She told that he is thinking selling these busses because some new gang took over these his bus routes and he has to pay these gangs to enter their neighborhoods.
So, when I read some of these comments, including yours, it shows me how naive, and brainwashed, many of you are.
By the way, I had a business in Maryland that employed 22 people.
Gangs who take over a neighborhood, charge a fee to do business, and threaten violence? sounds like any municipal government and the cops.
However, the government/local authorities have to be accountable to the voters. Private sector is not accountable to anyone, but the owner/insiders.
"However, the government/local authorities have to be accountable to the voters. Private sector is not accountable to anyone, but the owner/insiders."
Only a delusional idiot would believe that government is accountable to voters.
Does Richard Nixon ring a bell?
where in maryland escrava...im in baltimore and had a sml. firm for 20 yrs. till they killed it.....unemployment insurances was 59. per man per yr...we never ld off...than 798. per, than 1600 per...this was during the 08'09' and 10'....marty owe and everyone on lifetime benes....i had 10 employees...my customers just didnt want pay that much more for us to recover our from 590. per yr. to 16k per yr...end of story
I ‘officially’ opened mine in 1999, in Chevy Chase, Maryland. I was actually living in Arlington, VA, but dating someone in Chevy Chase. Anyway, started with one employee (me) and then grew from there.
I didn’t have the problem in raising prices (until 2007), because our services were in real estate.
In 2001 I had two people working for me and I thought the whole thing was going to fail.
The collapse of the real estate did it for me, not the government, even that taxes and insurance in Maryland were high.
Insurances are huge frauds as far as I can tell. If I could have placed all the insurance money paid in physical gold, I would have come out far ahead, I believe.
Anyway, 2007 was the end of my story. Looking back, I wish I had gone in the security business, instead.
Was just wondering if your employees were actually sub-contractors it being a real estate company, or did you have to collect and pay taxes (matching SS and Unemployment) on their salaries?
Small businesses have to collect taxes by law for Local and Federal Governments just like the big ones. And it all comes first.
Both! Employees and subcontractors. I had a lady that managed all the state and federal forms. As well as the taxes for me.
Later on some employees became subs. By 2006, I was down to 4 employees. Back then I did not understand things as well as now, but I knew that was something wrong. This hairdresser that I knew bought 2 condominiums in DC. One of my carpenters had 2 houses. NO one ever call me to verify his employment status. And he was remodeling one of his houses while working for me.
Then, I visited Brazil a few times after finished granite and exotic wood for buildings…., talking about another illusion.
I wrote about this over the last three years. Nice quotes.
CA has compressor inspectors who drive around pearing through back doors looking for compressors.
Those aren't the only ones in CA peering through back doors...yikes...be safe out there..
I just let them do it, and when the bill comes, put it in the shredder and tell them to go fuck themselves. They rarely return the next year. Too many business owners just arent tough enough.
This: ^
F'n local permitting is insane. I'm trying to change the occupancy of an old horse barn right now for commercial use and the shit I'm supposed to do is just nuts.
The code requirements that are going to be applied to my 2000 sq/ft unheated barn with no employees would cover a two-story industrial production facility with 50+ employees. WTF? Handicap parking pad? Really? It's just my wife and I and we're going to live on the fucking property!
The end result is that my prospective "small business," if it's going to work at all, is going to end up being a "medium-sized business" after I spend the $100k just to get the faciliyt all up to the county code.
County? That's pretty interesting... Here, there are city ordinances and the county is still left to mostly do whatever the hell you would like... including, shoot guns and own livestock.
Actually - those are some of the cool things where we're at - we can own animals and shoot guns all we want. =]
When we were to have our final inspection for our solar panels, we and our neighbors were told to be prepared to be personally raped. They will use this opportunity to fine everyone with non permitted outbuildings for a nice cash sweep. Mr had built my tackroom to code but it was 300sq ft vs under 200 required for a non permitted building. I panicked " Were dead, we might as well dismantle it." He just looked at me and smiled and I drove off in an angry cloud of dust to go to work.
When I came home my tackroom was gone. In it's place was a massive pile of hay! Where did you put my tackroom? What tackroom? My tackroom, the one that was standing there this morning! Woman, I suggest you stop asking me questions I am unable to answer.
Miffed
Your husband is awesome. I love it.
They were trying to force us to tear down our back building when my house was destroyed. The rules say the property has to be empty of buildings in order for us to lay the foundation of our house (I so don't get that). It was luck that one of the subcontractors knew a guy at code. He informally explained that the place was perfectly fine and functioning and it would make our hardship worse if they made us take down a wood and stone finished conditioned space and they turned their head the other way and let us keep the building. But we almost lost it, it would have been $25,000 or more easily to replace it. We lucked out but the rules are still in place and could stupidly harm someone else like us in the future.
"We lucked out but the rules are still in place and could stupidly harm someone else like us in the future."
Yeah, therein lies the problem.
Welcome back Miffed!~ What happened to your self imposed Ebola quarantine? Im glad you survived.
I panicked " Were dead, we might as well dismantle it." He just looked at me and smiled and I drove off in an angry cloud of dust to go to work.
Mr. Miffed is a real pushover, isn't he?
He just did what you said...
Sort of. After the inspection I removed the tarp over the top and restacked the hay wall that completely circled the building. I will say getting the 8th and 9th row of bales up on top did take a little ingenuity.
You sir, are a boss.
=]
I love noncompliance.
My best to Mr. Miffed.
You know the solution, even though you don't want to admit it, don't you?
Did you do comply? (of course you did. You have no choice) Did the landlord pay for it, or is the tenant responsible for such things?
I wanted to provide a food cart service when I am done with my engineer job. Haven't looked into the paperwork and regulation in that field, but I expect it won't be pretty. Do food carts/trucks get health inspector visits?
Depending on where you are, street vending can be a nightmare. I'm not in the biz, but my favorite charity fights municipalities over street vending regulations. Browse their site for street vending cases ththey've taken on.
http://www.ij.org/food-truck-freedom
Nearly half of us are dangling on the edge of financial ruin
Over 40 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, says a new report from Springleaf Financial, a consumer finance company. The findings, released today, apply to people across all education and salary levels.
The study discovered that 24 percent of consumers have less than $250 in their bank accounts on any given payday – leaving them without reserves to handle unexpected costs.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/nearly-half-us-dangling-edge-210100283.htm...
Success! For the 0.1%, that is.
And once you're poor, there are ways to keep you poor!
Success for the government. Their drive for absolute dependency is almost complete. Living on the edge is what gives them the power over us they so desperately need.
da fuq?
"Institute of Justice". Epic name. My fist clenches as I say it. Thanks for the link.
I'm in Silicon Valley. It might or might not be a fruitful idea - requires research and insider perspective. Can start with asking the Chicharron guy if he's gotta pay the man something to sell his bags of Chicharrones at the park. That's probably a good baseline understanding to have.
you'll also find antagonism from established restaurants (and police?) if you set up near them.
Although we've had some great food from food trucks.
Stay away from Food Service...especially if you are in Cali....just too much crazy regulation
Another not mentioned fact (most prevelant in Cali) is that the inspectors/bureaucrats love you if you speak English and appear to have money. They will bleed you for anything they can get and harass you about every detail in the world. Here is the SFBay area, you can walk into Chinese and Mexican joints that look like anything goes but the inspector will not go there since they hate the hassle of trying to deal with the language barrier. You are an easy target and they need to cover their quota....
The dirtiest kitchens are in small Thai restaurants. Half the time three generations are living in the back of the suite. The guy is right about tax compliance. that is a real time burner and the accountacny charges are way too high.
I own a commerical kitchen in a very small town. The FDA, local and state heath departments are totaly fucking nuts. My niche is 'local' so all of the ingredients for the things I can are local and only sold in state... therefore I should be exempt from the Feds... NO because the spices I use come from out of state (things like salt and pepper) I am not exempt.... the hassles are endless. So, SkateBoarder, I would recommend working somewhere the inspectors can be bribed and it will make things a lot easier.
The Government has turned the people into cash targets.
The revolution will not be long in coming.
Up is down. Punish success. Those who would dare to be productive, to create something that might actually contribute to growth are held suspect, needing constant surveillance and suspicion, while those who refuse, who sit complacently on their ass watching Oprah or some other drivel while waiting on the debit card to be reloaded, have discovered the new perverted brain dead Utopia. The good news is that as we approach starvation, more and more of us will be more closely equal. No more wealth disparity in the grave my friends. EQUALITY IS DEATH if it is to be achieved through the destruction of success and the elevation of failure.
I was laughing at the posts the other day about Millenials "think" that sitting at home playing video games and making Youtube videos to be a celebrity are real "skills".
Those millenials are actually on to something, because that seems like the only viable business model left anymore!
If one opens a physical store and deal with banker fees, licensing, zoning, taxes, health insurance, payroll, accounts receivable etc. there is nothing to be made. However, clicking on likes at Mom's house and getting ad revenue from Vlogs bypasses most of that regulation.
I'm being a bit sarc here, but I mean, think about it.
I really don't blame these younger adults for not giving a hoot and joining FSA or living at moms house at 30. There's not a whole lot out there. Small business is dead. Working for "the man" and doing the cliche TPS reports, why bother especially for these garbage wages that can't afford these out-of-this-world monthly mortgage rates. I say go do network-marketing on the computer.
Heck we're on one right now as we speak. Zero Hedge has so many click bait and ads, I can barely even load the page, so I have to run Firefox extensions just to be able to visit and post/read comments. We live in the Information Age, so sell information.
There's all of these gurus typing up chicken little newsletters, do something like that.
The mom and pop era has been dead since the late 90s with the advent of eCommerce, so adapt and move on. This is the new business climate with new rules so go out there and start a website. Put your computer skills to work millenials!
Roger that.
Tell the feds to fuck off. You are not involved in interstate commerce simply because you purchased something which was sold interstate. Just inform the asshole fed that is hassling you that if he doesn't leave you will sue him personally, in a local court.
That would be a shovel ready job my friend
There's a better way to go about this to ensure success these days. Firstly, buy a large business with a small business loan. Wait for the large business to become a small business. Ya gotta think, man. Ya gotta think.
Maybe it would help if he went back to school and learned how to spell and use grammar correctly.
You meant "the proper use of grammer"
Fixed it...
No, you didn't fix it. It's spelled grammar.
I refuse to read anything that doesn't use real good grammar...
Bollixed...that is the favorite statement of debate loosers.
Good one.
RIPS
'Loosers'?
It's spelled 'loozers', isn't it?
Libertarians shouldn't care about grammar. Only grammar Nazis care about grammar, and we know where fascism lies on the political spectrum! lol
Libertarians should always care about grammar and spelling. With poor grammar/spelling you will look like an inbred redneck hick in a debate with liberals, that makes it hard for the message to be taken seriously.
Cheeky. I like it. :)
Don't say anything about my grandma.
@ Bollixed:
The kid can't help it, you know. He's 27 years old. The second full generation of Federal-run educational bureaucracy has finally reared it's ugly head, and it's named 'The Dumbing Down of America'.
"Hook'd onn foniks' werked for MEE!
hahhahahaahahahhhahhaahhahahah. how do you spell fuk u?
"how do you spell fuk u?"
YO! You dissin' my Alma Mater!
Reminds me of the advice I'd gotten of how to make a million dollars raising cattle down here in Texas, they said; start with two million!
"You didn't build that business"
"You didn't destroy that business, somebody helped you."
Also, good to know the "fire inspector" job has been unashamedly outsourced to systemic bribery.
'struth. If you connect your business to a property, then the local government can forcably screw you early and often. Enjoy (or not).
Where did this young adult get $15,000? If he saved it or earned it selling stuff, then I give him 10 pts. Far more likely he borrowed it from relatives or took out a cash advance on a CC, subtract 10 pts).
Problem with using other peoples money is that your imagination about business success is not grounded in the reality of economic and financial gravity (working and saving forces you to be cautious). I give the kid another 10 pts for making the attempt to start a business: He's got 5 more failed businesses to go (on average) before he figures this out and becomes successful. So, he's plucky if a bit dumb.
I see we have some Liberal Gibbmedats on the Forum. Thx for your 4 downers. Go eat shit and drink Federal Reserve Sputum.
Considering the age of the writer, and the noticable lack of cummunication skill, it should not surprise you. This read like most of what you hear from 20 somethings:"So, like, um , yeah."
"It be none of yo' Bidniz !"
I am interested in the content and I can discern what the author is trying to communicate. I turn into a picky editor for folks who pick on others about their writing flaws only when they are asserting their superiority in this area or if they are putting others down. Up thread, someone pointed out what the author missed discussing (taxes for instance). For me, that kind of critique has value, but not this.
Small business is not disappearing because of grammar and punctuation. It is disappearing because of Off shoring, Fed policies, and crony capitalism among other things. It is disappearing because there is not a fair playing field. It is disappearing because there is a culture of dishonesty and theft "just because they can" and there is no integrity and no reason for trust.
I want to pick on that.
Legal monopoly on the use of force = legislated market share. ZH has done several articles on the ROI for lobbying and how superior it is to the ROI on bringing a useful product to market at a competitive price.
Government IS the problem. It has always been the problem.
It ain't church and state that need to be separated, it is business and state. If your business is hurting or killing people, if your business is deliberately stealing from people (I admit that could be a tricky one to surmise) then I see a reason for government to get in it.
"if your business is deliberately stealing from people"
You mean like banking?
Church and State used to represent the Civil and Military side of governance.
They were to be kept separate to prevent any one person consolidating supreme power (which did of course still happen, from time to time).
These days, given the size of the MIC I'm not sure its possible to separate business from the military!
Those women on 1-900 numbers have really good cummunication skills, but this dude runs a furniture store so its ok if he lacks those skills! lol
The state has become the religion.
Regulations exist to limit the competition those busineses that are in the business of killing and stealing would get in a true free market. Kind of tells you who owns the so called govt. Its simply an extnsion of big business, and in the same way the military is a tool for business to be able to steal rexources from around the world.
recent casino trip & and the .gov take..
hotel room bill: resort fee 9.08
room tax 7.56
city capital project fee 2.00
refreshment ctr tax 2.00
total room fee and tax: 20.64 added to the room charge of 56.00
37% of daily room cost was tax and fee.
rental car bill: county tax 5.00
license fee 8.00
sales tax 7.69
concession fee 15.91
gov fee 28.68
total tax & fee: 65.28 on total rental cost of 327.25
20% of rental costs was tax and fee.
this does not add in the sales tax for meals and items purchased..
small business and big business collect tax and fees for .gov perhaps they should demand a cut of the tax vig.
Regulations exist to limit the competition those busineses that are in the business of killing and stealing would get in a true free market. Kind of tells you who owns the so called govt. Its simply an extnsion of big business, and in the same way the military is a tool for business to be able to steal rexources from around the world.
the usa will 'come back' when it decides to unregulate small shops. no taxes; no regulations; just free enterprise.
The "O" on offshoring should not be capitalized.
Redacted on the grounds that it may tend to incriminate me.
Considering the age of the writer, and the noticable lack of cummunication skill, it should not surprise you. This read like most of what you hear from 20 somethings:"So, like, um , yeah."
Lulz
The kid's got the right idea, and the balls to post on one of the most unforgiving yet loving websites in existence; regarding the true issues of WHY things are they way they are.
NOW; the question IS: WHAT can be done to counter it?
PERHAPS one of the keys is the ability to communicate clearly and consicely (and without looking like an uneducated ass when arguing the points) in order to detail the finer points of cause.
I admire his tenacity.
Like, um, 'FUK YEA!'
I run a small company and will be selling it or stepping back for a corporate job. ObamaKill is burrying me. Daugter has an accident, has to eventually get an MRI and I am out of pocket $3,500. We are just getting close to our 10k deductible only to start all over next year. Obama won, he is getting me to quit. Been in business 15 years.
I hear this complaint form many people about barry's Health Tax Bill. The hefty deductible is killing them.
I just read an article that quoted a statistic that something like 46% of the new signups for the Obola version of Medicaid are illegal alien spic welfare-sucking leech maggots.
Obola actually is just a puppet, though. The architects are NOT those whom you 'vote' for. TO WIT:
http://www.blacklistednews.com/Obamacare_architect_discussed_misleading_...
http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/13/politics/tapper-gruber/index.html
FUCK, CNN is even turning on the 'messiah'!
Six fucking THOUSAND USD 'deductible', and shit...
Is that the Insurance Complex/FED way to try to get you CONSUMERS to SAVE in their scheme of negative-interest-rate 'banks (just in case you or your loved ones get sick)?
Back when I cared to participate, I thought that $500.00 was too much of a 'deductible'... Oh, those many years ago (before the year of 2009)...
SO, be THANKFUL that your daughter (and your children) can GO WITHOUT as you go to work for THEM, and you fund those LEECH MAGGOT SPIC WELFARE-SUCKING SHITS.
When most of us hear about the SBA, we think of good guys helping out the little guys who fill the listings in your local yellow pages. Few realize that for legal purposes, our govt decided that a "small" business can have up to 1500 employees, depending on classification. So again, the truly small business person is crowded out, even in the agency ostensibly designated to help Main St.
Not that we don't need all these mid-tier businesses, and not that they don't don't often need and deserve assistance, but the ability to handle the day-to-day curve balls and the regulatory compliance of a $50,000,000 company is vastly different than the ability of someone doing $1,000,000 and struggling with limited staff and expertise in all the facets you have to deal with.
Just as a simple small example, my max number of employees was 16 people at the height of our business. Of these 16, all were either in sales or customer service, so everything else gets farmed out. Computer system down - either figure out how to fix it yourself, or call an "expert" and get billed by the hour. Taxes? Just pray you can find a good and reasonable accountant. Health Insurance - good luck.
first thing the guy forgot or doesnt want to see and admit is the economy.... look at the big picture and stop looking for your rights and whatever you deserve because ...
this is no time to start a furniture business ... yes, you can blame all you want but if the people are not coming to your store .... everything goes down...the furniture business was good in 2000 where people were lining up all night to outbid each others on offers to buy an apartment ... it is all related to money and economy.
if you had business, 2000 in fees would be peanuts ... you dont so, look around to blame.
let me pose this question, if you were the bank would you lent to yourself?
it is all about the money in circulation and obviously is disappering .... if 50% of graduates are living with their parents after graduation, where would they find the money to buy a house and furniture? if all jobs gone already overseas how do you think that translates into furniture business? sounds gloomy, no it is the reality, you choose to see it or not.
He did talk about the economy, it's # 7:
"While many know that when the President comes on TV and says the economy is doing great, we all know it is not..."
The banks lend to Sears Holdings.
As usual, Mom's basement is full of experts on things in general.
I LOLed at this.
I can see the documentary now, "As the thinktank makes a breakthrough there is a tiny pause in the intense brainstorning session. "Mom, can you get us some more taquitos?""
You nailed it, Kaiserhoff. And maybe we should apply some of those nails to basement doors.
2007 looked like a good time to start a furniture business. Home sales were off the charts and people were constantly moving to upgrade their houses. Joe America finally realized everything was no longer swell in the fourth quarter of 2008.
I know its easy to be an armchair critic in the peanut gallery. It's hard to forecast the future, especially without a TARDIS, so this is why his business is struggling to get by.
What works this year, probably won't in five to six years from now, when most businesses start turning real profits after their fifth or sixth year.
The article was written this week ... we are not talking about smt written 7 years ago.
My point is the author doesnt address the real reason his business is failing; while all the government red tape issues are there, the main reason for his problems and many others is rather different ... seems to be buried deep in his 7 point, as someone pointed out ... i first missed it.
The economy is contracting. It is just that simple. No Demand from most Americans.
Our government has only created Demand for the rich. We are worse than Japan now.
Sacramento, Dude... Like Northern Virginia West. Full of lawyers, kleptocrats, over paid file clerks.
If there is no "local economy" in that place, it's ovah!
Not sure but I think you missed the point of this article.
what point? the guy doesnt understand the land is shifting underneath ....
if one puts his life savings and start a furniture business at this economy (after 2007 he said) and then complain ... about what? what is the logic there? where his customers will come from? does he still believe Obama will use some magic trick and all of sudden fix everything? this is done ... like it or not
Are you stupid?
First of all in 2007 the coming downturn and its severity was still invisible to most people, including myself. If he is still in business 7 years later his decision couldn't have been a total desaster.
I upvoted both of you for seeing part of the picture. But the reality is that many businesses would fail without government, either because they're in denial about their dependence on it or because they're just not the geniuses that they think they are.
The problem we face is that almost all businesses would fail if we ended government corruption and stupidity tomorrow. That is the whole point of corruption. You become dependent upon that which you cannot earn independently, requiring the force of the mob or government. The answer would be a steady retreat of government influence allowing for markets to clear naturally with minimal short term damage....but that won't happen. There is a trajectory that will not be altered. Just as we see with the stock market, it will not correct. It will try but the incentive is to only move upward, and it will until it fails, not corrects or retraces, but fails. This is a huge interconnected event we are in and no one strategy or resolve will correct it. It took generations to create and god only knows what it will take to fix it...maybe in the next life.
sandman.s is correct -- you didn't get the point of the article. And then you start railing something about Obama when he points this out?!?!?
Reading comprehension is an ESSENTIAL part of reading.
Better he should go on welfare, right?
Dude or dudette,
He said his business is making it. In your defense, you are not the only one who seems to have missed that part of his statement.
2000 in fees may be peanuts to you. To most of us it is several months of net savings. To many one man start-ups it can be the difference between perservering and giving up. To many contemplating starting a micro enterprise it will be the disincentive to starting.
BTW a micro enterprise that started out with less than 2 grand grew into Apple computers. How many future big corporations are being killed at birth today because of the fees and red tape?
Its too bad every big business including big govt wasnt choked at inception. Before they get big enough yo choke us.
...or corporate mercenaries masquerading as federal agencies simply exercising mafia tactics of extortion.
http://www.nationallibertyalliance.org/breaking-news
Get familiar with this...
http://www.nationallibertyalliance.org/sites/default/files/write_quo_war...
I can just see OBAMA and Pelosi dressed as firemen to scam the last few dollars out of a guy's business.
FORWARD SOVIET!
moved
who is John Galt?
Who is Jamie Dimon? Who is Lloyd Blankfein? Who is David Tepper, and in which tax-exempt offshore account is he and his cronies sidelining the $trillions that all those small businesses customers could sorely use in their paychecks?
All of the above points this "furniture" guy makes would be moot if he opened up shop in 1990 and then shut down in 2007. He' be rolling in it. But to start a furniture business during the apex of global housing credit, knowing full well that the bubble will burst some day and take everything housing-related with it, is a sign of a person not in tune with business. He started flogging furniture at the wrong time - period.
Whining about fees after displaying horrible insight into timing the launch of your own business is spilled milk.
Too late to open my Betamax VCR chain? The first 100 customers are to recieve a free buggy whip.
Your spectacular timed business is what again? Pulling gold teeth out of grandma and shipping them to Putinski.. Regale us, ohh wise sage...
Don't need to be wise to see that most consumers buy home items based on extended home credit, the amount of which obviously goes up as home prices go up. If home prices fall, furniture purchases are guaranteed to decline. Rather obvious, no?
And that's "wise sage"? LMAO. No wonder businesses fail. Can't be the owners fault.
Are you trying to tell me that those 300% overpriced houses might actually drop in value ?!
Did you just fall off the truck ? Every brainwashed merikan sheeple knows, “House prices NEVAH drop !”
Going by the start up cost, I'm guessing it's a used furniture store in a not-so-affluent neighborhood.
Poor people need furniture too, and they also need a place to sell their furniture when they move away.
You can make a living doing that, and you are definitely providing a service.
Lots of small businesses fail. Failing is part of the learning curve. I'm surprised you don't get that.
Get into database management business. Cheap to start up and sell things to "big data". Databases are the new paper people for the rest of our lives anyways. Plus you can run a micro business from home in your pajamas and get drunk by 4:00 and no one cares.
How about a business that sells rope, bullets, blades, and lye?
Let's see, he's 27 years old, so opening that furniture shop at age 3 would have been quite an accomplishment. But I see your point, we all should have timed our births better and bought crystal balls.
But I see your point, we all should have timed our births better and bought crystal balls.
When you were born has nothing to do with whether you observe the economic environment when creating a business. A simple S.W.O.T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis would have likely told him to run for the hills. This gets into the larger conundrum of rewarding entrepreneurs, if it really just is risk taking behavior, then why do we reward it so handsomely? And I say this as someone who owns his own small business and whose spouse does the same...
While I cannot bring myself to do it, one of the best ways to obscene wealth is to be a degenerate gambler. Start a business, any business, and when it goes under, rinse, wash, and repeat. One of them may eventually hit at 100:1. I have had too many conversations with people who were oblivious to the fact that they obtained their wealth this way. Of course, this route is only for the semi-connected... If you're already connected, then you'll be presented with a business model that can't lose.
When you were born has a lot to do with the post I was responding to. Otherwise, I wouldn't make that statement.
When and where you were born has everything to do with how you think and what you think is right and wrong. Back in the 40's many young guys turned away from serving in WW2 because of their physical ailments would commit suicide because they were feeling less than a man thus was their patriotism.
I'll let you Yanks in on a little secret: The rest of the western world laugh at you Americans for being SO patriotic. the rest of us simply don't get it! Now, your allegiance to the flag may be an honourable thing but it is now being used on hundreds of thousands of your citizens to send you to war and get you to do terrible things you'd never do except for your belief that "somehow" you're serving your country by killing mostly innocent people!
You bet! It has a LOT to do with when and where you were born!
Machoman - You have a good point. One can buy BizPlan Pro for $100 which guides an entrepeneuar to consider competition, cash flow etc. Then one can play with the number such what would happen if costs doubled and revenue shrunk by half. Would the venture still survive?
There are serious headwinds from the big blocking competition. However, if you don't write a business plan expect to fail. I had a friend that started a dock building business for people with boats on lakes and marina's. I told him same advice and offered to help write his plan. He declined, his revenue halved and costs rose in the crash of 2008. He admitted later to le he should have wrote that plan with me. At least he didn't blame anybody else for this failure.
But in general the economy is overregulated and government is way too big. It is slowly collapsing in on itself but I expect to continue to have to spend ample time defending my meager wealth from the wolves. It is most aggrevating. Time is a precious commodity which can't be bought and having it wasted pisses me off to no end.
So a 65 year old opening an 8-track store has better odds? C'mon. Age of the entrepreneur has nothing to do with what the business environment dictates is of value.
He clearly should have opened a multi-million dollar brokerage, and made bucket loads of cash off of highly leveraged borrowed money. I mean, who didn't see the fed injecting trillions of dollars into the economy to rescue the s&p500.
In all seriousness. Firniture might not have been the ideal business, but the issues he raises affect businesses across the board. If Colonel Sanders had tried to starty KFC in 2007 he would have needed thousands of dollars to obtain food licenses, install a three compartment sink, ensure food storage at proper temperatures, and run a floor drain line in his home kitchen. There is no way the world would ever have experienced the joy that is his secret recipe of twelve herbs and spices.
Rent-to-own furniture businesses are one of the hottest biz's right now. I doubt he's selling Stickley.
Automotive custom/snazzy wheel rental is apparently big with some demographics. The details of that business model could be interesting.
Cinder blocks might be making a comeback too.
Actually I'm waiting to see the Crossfit bubble pop. In the last year I've seen about 6 crossfit places open up around here. Something's fishy.
Actually I'm waiting to see the Crossfit bubble pop. In the last year I've seen about 6 crossfit places open up around here. Something's fishy.