Small Business question?

[Stupid Fast]

Originally posted by Jetdriver
TOT, check your PM's. Highroller, we are looking at a Tanning salon.
A few years back, I looked int buying one for my wife.
Very Very competitive around here. All the ones around here that were forsale had a reason. Some were harder to uncover than others. Good luck, but be careful.

[EricU]

I am in the fifth year of my second business.
I do engineering and construction in Northern California.
A lot of things have changed since my first business; most of them cost more money. The main increases have come from the cost of insurances (general liability, workman's comp. etc), and employee salaries. If I can find a good employee, I need to pay them enough so that they can live. Also for some reason most employees think that I need to pay for their tools, truck, travel & gas!
Both of my businesses I was able to start our small and grow. I always put money back into my business to grow it, and try to keep my debt down. Depending on what type of business you are looking at will decide whether or not you can do that. You don’t want to go into too much debt because it is YOUR BALLS on the line. And don’t ever forget that, especially when you get a whiney, bitchy employee. If you get a “cancer employee” as I call them, get rid of them immediately! Don’t hire friends or another employees spouse or cousin or whatever, causes too many problems when one of them turns out to be a “cancer employee”.
Anyway I don’t know if I helped or if I am just ranting, but do make sure that you LOVE the type of work that you will be doing. You will be eating, sleeping & shitting your business, you have to. Don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else, but it is not for everyone.
Good luck, Eric.

[Daryll Anderson]

My momma always said, When it comes to advice - you get what you paid for.
Call a professional - worth every penny.
Or you could take the advice of some truck drivers or machine shop guys - they have the market cornered on making money.
totenhosen probably has a couple of good refferals for you to call.

[Jetdriver]

WIll do Daryll!

[HighRoller]

EICU is right, if you want good advice, go to the source. Travel out of your area and talk to people who are successful in your potential business. Make sure you let them know you're from out of town so you're not competing with them. Be friendly, offer to buy them lunch etc... And no, contrary to the rumors, truck driving is not the "hidden" money tree everyone thinks it is. If you like to work 300 days a year 18 hours a day for 70-100K, go for it. I added up my per hour wage and vomited after two years. The truck received more money than I did when it was all said and done!!!

[HOSS]

Watch an LLC. The personal loop holes aren`t what they use to be.

[Scream]

Oh, Yea, and don't forget that having employees is sometimes a nightmare. Listen to EricU on that one, try not to have close family members working together. I've got 50 employees and a lot of "family" members and let me tell ya, when one's pissed off all of the others are as well and bad employee morale will hose you in the productivity department.

[totenhosen]

I'm assuming you will keep your engineering job? The wife will run/work the business? How much you looking to get/start with? I can have an application sent to you. Typically SBA loans they'll take a 2nd on your primary residence for collateral should the business fail and they can't recoup their losses.
I wanted to PM you this but for some reason I keep getting error messages. email me at stefandrinks@hotmail.com if you want!

[Mandelon]

Whatever the business is, I guarantee its going to be harder than you think, take more time than you think and make less money than you think.
Running a small business is hard. All the damn bookkeeping, taxes, workers comp, insurance, rent, audits and OSHA regulations make it harder and harder all the time.
I say go work for the Government. You can never get fired, you get great benefits and you hardly have to work......

[OGShocker]

Originally posted by totenhosen
I wanted to PM you this but for some reason I keep getting error messages. email me at stefandrinks@hotmail.com if you want!
Your PM will go through but you won't know it. You will receive one but, you will not know it.
Mandelon is right on the money. Take your time. Think about this move and most of all have fun working HARD!
I read in Inc Mag the SBA had stopped funding start up loan programs.... Is Inc blowing smoke?