Any business owners out there?

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Papinquack

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Location
pittsburgh pa.
I've been reading through the forums and alot of people are getting laid off and some are losing their jobs permanantly. My question to those who own businesses is: Are the layoffs we are experiencing due to real difficulties or are businesses just over reacting to the anxiety and fear the media constantly bombards us with? It seems that fear has generated the domino effect and we are heading to CREATING a REAL crisis. One thread had a poll on whether we are spending the same or not and the last time I checked a majority was spending as they normally did. I just cant help thinking that the American people are being set up. Whats your perspective?
 
I own a landscaping business and I'm not feeling the recesion to much. My customers are a little more cranky that's all. Lucky I'm working in a town that has a lot of well to do. There also quite a bit of government work in these parts.
 
My business has seen a 75% drop in sales compared to last year at this time. I'd say it's real.
 
I know a lot of people in construction and they are really feeling it. But construction is one of those things where peoples fears hit the hardest, if you think the economy is going down you're likely to put off the hundred G's kitchen renovation that you dont really need to survive anyway.
 
My business was down 75% in 2008 and I have'nt had a job yet this year, construction has come to a complete halt. I am looking for a job at the moment, too bad I can't make money making Beer!

Eastside
 
I am in the mortgage business-
The media has scared the crap out of people. And people are willing to listen to anything they hear on the news,or read on the internet, and believe it. One of my clients quoted what she had read on a website- I questioned it, and she sent me the link. The poster stated that she had no experience with the topic, but her opinion was. I could not believe it.

I just got hired as a rep for a kitchen and bath manufacturer. It is about half the pay, but i want a steady income. I will be doing mortgages part time from here on out.
 
Man, I didn't know part time mortgage broker was so popular. I recently found out that two people I have connections with are in the part time mortgage business. How does that work? Obviously you arent lending people your own money..
 
My brother in law just told me his two sons lost their Slacks Hoagie Shop buisness and owed 100K, had to claim bankrupcy. The couple years previous that they had it he told me they were doing a killer buisness. May be other factors, who knows.
I own and rent a shore (seaside) condo which just got some booking a couple weeks back but has slowed to nothing. Right now I have 1/2 the bookings I need, hopefully things will pick up again as I can't afford to pay the mortgage too long without that income. Value of the unit has dropped 60k, back to what I paid 4 years ago.
 
I own a manufacturing business (machine shop) doing mostly aerospace products and we actually put an ad in the paper had over 200 responses for the one job opening.
Not sure how many business's are going south due to the greed of the owners. alot of my friends who are owners as well have been living high on the hog with new Hummers and Planes seems they were the ones who are loosing it they have too many bills. live smart within your means and plan for the future everyone knew life could not go on as it was.
 
I own a floor covering business. My gross receipts for 2007 came out to $148,000.
2008 was a dismal $36,500. I have had contractor with 25+ years experience call me begging to be a helper.
 
I own a manufacturing business (machine shop) doing mostly aerospace products and we actually put an ad in the paper had over 200 responses for the one job opening.
Not sure how many business's are going south due to the greed of the owners. alot of my friends who are owners as well have been living high on the hog with new Hummers and Planes seems they were the ones who are loosing it they have too many bills. live smart within your means and plan for the future everyone knew life could not go on as it was.

Just curious, where are you located and would you have use for someone who has worked many years in the aerospace industry? I am not a machinist but have been involved in every aspect of building spacecraft. I have a job but always to have a few leads.
 
Very much depends on what the business is. Automotive, durable goods, construction are all very down. Seems like services and lower value goods are doing OK. I'm in satellite communications and seems we are seeing a little slow down, however the company is still growing.

I would hate to be in construction or supplying that industry right now. Too much speculation and unnecessary growth has saturated many markets and we are seeing a serious correction. That ofcourse means an almost complete halt to construction. I'm sure other areas need some of that new home construction however in northeast ohio the population has been mostly flat however they were building new homes by the thousands each year.

Craig
 
My brother in law just told me his two sons lost their Slacks Hoagie Shop buisness and owed 100K, had to claim bankrupcy. The couple years previous that they had it he told me they were doing a killer buisness. May be other factors, who knows.
I own and rent a shore (seaside) condo which just got some booking a couple weeks back but has slowed to nothing. Right now I have 1/2 the bookings I need, hopefully things will pick up again as I can't afford to pay the mortgage too long without that income. Value of the unit has dropped 60k, back to what I paid 4 years ago.

Just got a call shortly after making that statement that I got another week rented! 3 more to go and the rest are just icing.
 
I have a ****ty job that I treat as a second job. My primary job... the thing I pour my heart and soul into is a pair of books that I'm writing.

Economic downturn or not, I'm living poor and investing a HELL of a lot of time into these books. I'm reasonably confident that, bad economy or not, the information will be in high demand.

My father is involved in the construction/restoration trades. He says that his business is counter-cyclical. The less people spend on new buildings, the more they have available to spend on maintaining what they already have. When you get into larger buildings and high-rises, certain exterior work has to be done when it gets bad. Lousy economy or not, you can't have pieces of stone falling 30 stories off the building and the slower the trades get, the easier it is to find people to do the work... as a result, his business increases in bad times.

I always thought that contractors, or any other profession for that matter, should have two sides to their businesses, one of which will be counter-cyclical. It only makes sense if you want a stable lifestyle. Sure, nobody's buying new kitchens right now, but if they aren't renovating, then they must be restoring/repairing. Maybe nobody's getting fancy exterior work done on their house, but that just means you've got a nice increase in the mold removal business... Nobody's putting in new HVAC units? Well then somebody's repairing the old ones. Nobody is buying a new deck? Then maybe they'll think more carefully about making the one they do have last.

Seems logical enough to me.
 
I have a ****ty job that I treat as a second job. My primary job... the thing I pour my heart and soul into is a pair of books that I'm writing.

Economic downturn or not, I'm living poor and investing a HELL of a lot of time into these books. I'm reasonably confident that, bad economy or not, the information will be in high demand.

My father is involved in the construction/restoration trades. He says that his business is counter-cyclical. The less people spend on new buildings, the more they have available to spend on maintaining what they already have. When you get into larger buildings and high-rises, certain exterior work has to be done when it gets bad. Lousy economy or not, you can't have pieces of stone falling 30 stories off the building and the slower the trades get, the easier it is to find people to do the work... as a result, his business increases in bad times.

I always thought that contractors, or any other profession for that matter, should have two sides to their businesses, one of which will be counter-cyclical. It only makes sense if you want a stable lifestyle. Sure, nobody's buying new kitchens right now, but if they're also delaying exterior work, then you've got a nice increase in mold removal market... If they aren't renovating, then they must be restoring/repairing. Seems logical enough to me.

Sir Humpsalot,

This book wouldn't be your memoirs would it? I mean with a name like that. Good luck either way.

My sister is buying a new kitchen. She and her husband are retired government workers. I think she retired at 50, he I don't know because he retired and went back in the same position as a contractor, probably retired at 55. I'm 48 :(
 
Man, I didn't know part time mortgage broker was so popular. I recently found out that two people I have connections with are in the part time mortgage business. How does that work? Obviously you arent lending people your own money..

Not many people lend their own money. I started by working for a friend(former)
we had a falling out over pay, started up my own business. I work for myself.
A lot of people in the business are willing to hire anyone that comes along. I am licensed in 50 states. A good portion of my competition is not.
I am affiliated with a bank, not a broker. I can table fund. (lend my own money).
Direct Lender.
 
So for all you contractors out there...

My wife and I are looking to build a new house. We have the assumption that with mortgage rates low and contractors looking for work that this may be a good time. Do you agree?
 
I have a ****ty job that I treat as a second job. My primary job... the thing I pour my heart and soul into is a pair of books that I'm writing.

Economic downturn or not, I'm living poor and investing a HELL of a lot of time into these books. I'm reasonably confident that, bad economy or not, the information will be in high demand.

My father is involved in the construction/restoration trades. He says that his business is counter-cyclical. The less people spend on new buildings, the more they have available to spend on maintaining what they already have. When you get into larger buildings and high-rises, certain exterior work has to be done when it gets bad. Lousy economy or not, you can't have pieces of stone falling 30 stories off the building and the slower the trades get, the easier it is to find people to do the work... as a result, his business increases in bad times.

I always thought that contractors, or any other profession for that matter, should have two sides to their businesses, one of which will be counter-cyclical. It only makes sense if you want a stable lifestyle. Sure, nobody's buying new kitchens right now, but if they aren't renovating, then they must be restoring/repairing. Maybe nobody's getting fancy exterior work done on their house, but that just means you've got a nice increase in the mold removal business... Nobody's putting in new HVAC units? Well then somebody's repairing the old ones. Nobody is buying a new deck? Then maybe they'll think more carefully about making the one they do have last.

Seems logical enough to me.
What are the topics your writing about in your books?
 
I opened my own law firm at the beginning of the year. I don't have a last year to compare to, but so far everything is going pretty good. A lot of what I do is court appointed so I'm not completely reliant on paying clients.

There have been several cases of potential clients calling, getting a price, and then saying they can't afford it. I try to work with them the best I can. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. Or cases where I've got court appointed clients who have fines and fees they can't pay.

Compared to the rest of the country, Texas' economy is pretty good. But its still rough.
 
What are the topics your writing about in your books?

Motorcycle Risk Assessment strategies for the street (No, that's not the title);

and

"Things they didn't teach you in driver's ed" (I don't know, that might be the title).

I figure with 4 million new drivers on the road each year, and pretty much all of them having parents or grandparents who are scared $#itless at the thought, there might be an opportunity to sell maybe a couple dozen copies or so....
 
Motorcycle Risk Assessment strategies for the street (No, that's not the title);

and

"Things they didn't teach you in driver's ed" (I don't know, that might be the title).

I figure with 4 million new drivers on the road each year, and pretty much all of them having parents or grandparents who are scared $#itless at the thought, there might be an opportunity to sell maybe a couple dozen copies or so....

Do you mind sharing your strategy for getting published? I've thought long and hard about writing a book and would really like to, however, getting published/self-publishing seems like a long shot without connections.
 
It's real... one of our main clients, Ugobe (Pleo the dinosaur) is having problems and have stopped paying past invoices. We are owed many $K's.

Other clients are stopping work... even on training/educational programs. We are very slow, and getting more bad news everyday.
 
I'd pick up the motorcycle one, when will it be on amazon? ;)

I hope to have it on Lulu in about a month. It'll be priced just about at cost and will be sort of a private first edition for the people who've helped me write it. Sure, I'd love to give all 50-some of them a free copy, but I can't afford it, so the next best thing is let them buy their own for the cost of printing, which is fairly cheap.

After that, I'll wait about a month, solicit further feedback from them... and then I'll do a quick rewrite as necessary and start getting it out to amazon and other such outlets... just in time for the riding season.
 
Do you mind sharing your strategy for getting published? I've thought long and hard about writing a book and would really like to, however, getting published/self-publishing seems like a long shot without connections.

I have a multi-pronged approach. Which way I ultimately go, depends on a number of variables.

The motorcycle book is sort of a loss leader. I'm using it to get my name out there, be recognized as somebody who knows something. It will be self-published. The other reason for self-publishing the riding book is that it's a somewhat small market and maybe 15-20% of the content will carry over to the driving book. As a result, even if I got "lucky" and a publisher wanted to carry the riding book, it would leave me in a bad position, since they would own the copyright to the words, many of which I'm intending to use again in the driving book. So when it came time to search out a publisher for the driving book, the publisher of the riding book would have a pretty good lock on me... "Go with us, or you can't use our copyrighted content". Screw that.

So I'm self-publishing the motorcycle book. Whether I sell a hundred copies or ten thousand, it'll be a drop in the bucket compared to what I can get out of the driving book. And I'd much rather be negotiating with a publisher for the driving book.

So, the riding book is just a way of getting some experience, being involved in publishing, making a little bit of a name for myself, etc. Once the driving book is done, I'll entertain offers from publishing houses for either the driving book, or for both... but let's be realistic here...

If a publisher picks up the driving book, I'll be making what? A dollar or two per copy? However, if I can publish it for $10, I can sell it for $40. I have no intentions of just letting this thing sit and collect dust on the shelf of your local Barnes and Nobles. I intend to market this book to people who will want to buy it for their children and grandchildren. The information is unique, quite comprehensive, and extremely valuable. If I price it at $14.95, it'll just be another book. If I price it at $39.95, then it's a very valuable birthday present. In other words, I am not convinced that a publisher will be able to convince me that I'm better off letting them handle it... I think the market is huge, I think there's a lot of money to be made, and I'm not afraid of personally jumping in on all fronts...

So basically, my strategy is to believe in the power of the material and I will focus my energies on marketing.

As for self-publishing, it seems really simple. Avoid the "vanity presses". Retain control. Go through a company like lulu.com. You upload your pdf file, they print it... even just one copy at a time. Through their services you can apply for an ISBN number and for an additional fee they'll get you listed with Amazon and even help you get into mainstream bookstores. Printing a single copy of a B&W hundred page book, soft cover, comes out to around $6 or $7, IIRC. And there are good volume discounts. So you buy a hundred copies and try to sell them locally. You refer others to amazon to buy your book. To do the layout, you'll spend a week or more learning software. You can pop a few hundred bucks for something like Adobe, but I'm actually using freeware called Scribus. It's not as fancy as the stuff you'll pay for and it's a little clunky at times. It even has a bug where it crashes if I leave a certain window up for more than a couple of minutes after the file size has reached a certain limit, but it's free and it works pretty darned well... and it definitely gives you ample room for creativity in the lay out of a book. All that's left to cover is editing. And I know for a fact there are some talented high school students who could put a book into pretty good shape. Sources like craigslist are littered with people offering to edit your stuff for a couple of bucks per page. It's not too expensive... even if you do have to pay for it.
 
I have a multi-pronged approach. Which way I ultimately go, depends on a number of variables.

The motorcycle book is sort of a loss leader. I'm using it to get my name out there, be recognized as somebody who knows something. It will be self-published. The other reason for self-publishing the riding book is that it's a somewhat small market and maybe 15-20% of the content will carry over to the driving book. As a result, even if I got "lucky" and a publisher wanted to carry the riding book, it would leave me in a bad position, since they would own the copyright to the words, many of which I'm intending to use again in the driving book. So when it came time to search out a publisher for the driving book, the publisher of the riding book would have a pretty good lock on me... "Go with us, or you can't use our copyrighted content". Screw that.

So I'm self-publishing the motorcycle book. Whether I sell a hundred copies or ten thousand, it'll be a drop in the bucket compared to what I can get out of the driving book. And I'd much rather be negotiating with a publisher for the driving book.

So, the riding book is just a way of getting some experience, being involved in publishing, making a little bit of a name for myself, etc. Once the driving book is done, I'll entertain offers from publishing houses for either the driving book, or for both... but let's be realistic here...

If a publisher picks up the driving book, I'll be making what? A dollar or two per copy? However, if I can publish it for $10, I can sell it for $40. I have no intentions of just letting this thing sit and collect dust on the shelf of your local Barnes and Nobles. I intend to market this book to people who will want to buy it for their children and grandchildren. The information is unique, quite comprehensive, and extremely valuable. If I price it at $14.95, it'll just be another book. If I price it at $39.95, then it's a very valuable birthday present. In other words, I am not convinced that a publisher will be able to convince me that I'm better off letting them handle it... I think the market is huge, I think there's a lot of money to be made, and I'm not afraid of personally jumping in on all fronts...

So basically, my strategy is to believe in the power of the material and I will focus my energies on marketing.

As for self-publishing, it seems really simple. Avoid the "vanity presses". Retain control. Go through a company like lulu.com. You upload your pdf file, they print it... even just one copy at a time. Through their services you can apply for an ISBN number and for an additional fee they'll get you listed with Amazon and even help you get into mainstream bookstores. Printing a single copy of a B&W hundred page book, soft cover, comes out to around $6 or $7, IIRC. And there are good volume discounts. So you buy a hundred copies and try to sell them locally. You refer others to amazon to buy your book. To do the layout, you'll spend a week or more learning software. You can pop a few hundred bucks for something like Adobe, but I'm actually using freeware called Scribus. It's not as fancy as the stuff you'll pay for and it's a little clunky at times. It even has a bug where it crashes if I leave a certain window up for more than a couple of minutes after the file size has reached a certain limit, but it's free and it works pretty darned well... and it definitely gives you ample room for creativity in the lay out of a book. All that's left to cover is editing. And I know for a fact there are some talented high school students who could put a book into pretty good shape. Sources like craigslist are littered with people offering to edit your stuff for a couple of bucks per page. It's not too expensive... even if you do have to pay for it.

Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation! I didn't realize that it was so inexpensive to self-publish. Plus, with the ease of production (i.e. just uploading a pdf and the volume discounts), it sounds like a good way to go for the first book. I'm still hung up getting my ideas straight for the book so I haven't given too much thought to publishing yet. I figure I'll start thinking about that seriously once I finish brainstorming and right before I start actually writing the book (I'm not quite sure when that will be). Best of luck with your books - sounds like you have a couple of great ideas!
 
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