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Not sure if this is true anymore, but I took a high school business management course where they said that the #1 reason businesses go under is from not having adequate working capital. The reason I can do jobs in the order of 100k is that I have the working cap for it. And we deal with some...

I"m thinking increasing my ad budget from $600 a month, to almost $5,000 a month is having an impact. We are in five yellow page books at the #1 spot (except for one book), #1 spot in google, six radio spots a week during drive time, and two billboards in the most affluent areas. That sounds...

None of this is bad. Its actually good. I wouldn"t lose sleep over it, no one"s made an offer yet. But once you get that offer, you can use it as leverage (in a respectful manner) to get the raise on your current job. Just be prepared to have to accept the consequences and have to switch jobs...

100k, give or take.

The problem is that alot of the advertising we do is to build an awareness. So the billboards and radio ads are there, someone hears of us months ago, but then they call in off of internet or phone book. And they tell us they heard us off of internet or radio, but in fact, they didn"t know we...

For some reason, Porter"s 5 Forces even being mentioned makes me hawt. One of my professors in b-school was a student of his at Harvard.

So as an update, we are still blowing and going in the business, with our backlog now pushing over 60k (and large bids going out). At this point, I have no idea what is going on, other than divine help. We"ve never had this large a backlog at this point in the year, and we are running eight...

Insert witty Seinfeld reference to being an importer/exporter . My first business was a drop ship business, and it ended losing me money. I lost about $1-2k, but hey, I learned some valuable business lessons. Namely, find something to differentiate yourself other than price. The problem I...

The New 52 feels fresh, but it sucks that DC took a dump on 70 years of comic book continuity. It would be like if Marvel made the Ultimates continuity its mainstream universe, and ditched the main universe entirely.

I"ve done all the things I can, but its like Economists say. Don"t deal with irrational people. My new guys are shocked at their pay here, and can"t believe the other guys complained that hard. And the other guys are starving of their own volition. My new guys are happy, I"m happy; the only...

All of that makes sense when you aren"t dealing with irrational individuals.

Aligning interests makes sense, and it is a framework Microeconomists use. But, if you listen to what is said in b-school right before that statement, it only works if the individuals behave in a rational and logical manner, and if they don"t, throw it out the window. The problem with bonuses...

The goal would be to have 4-5 locations that are pretty much turnkey. 40k at each location wouldn"t be bad.

And yet, Ryoz Subs will not be able to compete marketing-wise, and have zero brand name recognition. Its a catch-22. You could start as an independent, and have lower costs, but also much lower sales. Also, Subway always rates very high in terms of being low risk and having a reasonable return...

Yeah, I know I did well getting a business that has been around for decades for 1.75 times earnings, but honestly, in this economy, I"d never pay more than 2.5 times earnings. In the Spring, Summer and Fall I can make my bank note in one day.

Correct. That"s why you measure the risk, ask yourself what you bring to the table that would help the buy/sell succeed, and pray you made the right decision. My first year in business I netted 50% of what I paid for the business, and asked myself why I spent 15 years making investments in the...

Personally, I"d love to own some Subways, but I never see any for sale, and if I do, its for like four times earnings.

Ixnay on the bakery, there was a study done on businesses a few years back showing that the bakery industry tends to deliver some of the worst bottom line profits of any industry. Last time I investigated Subway they looked great. Low failure rate, and turnkey once they are open. A classmate...

Posting a PM I got, since I get many PM"s that are alike. I put down 10% of the total plus fees, so like 90k, the seller put up a note of 70k (that applied to the down), and then I got the loan of 600k. The days of getting deals that sweet are over, some banks are wanting like 40% down now...

What? Like Arb said, this is a lame cash grab from A to Z. I wish they never thought of it. All DC is trying to do is make charachters more diverse and younger, because that would sell better. And they"ll just retcon it all later with Infinite Identity Crisis #2 next Summer.

Both crews need to do 4 to 5k a day total.

As an update, I did go balls out on the advertising just to measure the impact. Right now, I am spending on a monthly basis: - $350 a month in the AT&T yellow pages (and internet directory), $450 a month for other another ylw page directory (in three seperate books), 100 for a community...

I get pitched five times a day, my secretary is numb to it and screens all my calls. Anyway, I look at it differently than Corndog does. As a business owner, I want to do things to seperate myself from the pack. If a professional website is going to do that, I"m in. Show me how I can make...

I used a D-I-Y website for my business, how is this any different? There are tons of D-I-Y site builders out there that have alot more resources (like Intuit/Quickbooks). How is your product any different?

For the first time in my life, I am finding both Marvel and DC to be unreadable. I mean, I won"t even download this crap for free right now. Fear Itself is meh, and Flashpoint is just some lame marketing gimmick they"ll just reverse with the next Infinite Crisis Identity. I can"t think of one...

Neither the Marvel or the DC crossovers this Summer are impressing me. Last few crossover series, I couldn"t wait for the next issue to come out. This Summer, I could care less.

I feel your pain. My secretary went to go to work for our biggest customer, and we found so many errors, it wasn"t funny. We"ve found about $12k in work, from jobs that were misbilled, customers not followed up, lost estimates, etc. It amazes me, as tough as the economy is, that people aren"t...

We are trying to have an intelligent conversation about entrepeneurialism here. Sadly, I think this post above is about all the brainpower you can muster. Welcome to ignore.

Enzyte sucks, think more like this: <iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FN5ds_jQXMM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

We"ve been doing alot of work like that lately, but no tablets (the guys can barely keep their GPS" in working condition) and no helicopters LOL. The last part of the commercial was the more difficult part, planting a tree in the same place as one that came out is very labor intensive. As an...

Trolling again I see.

Haven"t lived in Texas since 2005. Anyway, I won"t be participating on these boards for a bit. We do emergency tree work, and on Wednesday a.m., woke up to a full v/me box with customers. We got a call every 30 secs yesterday for bids, and 100 requests for estimates. Funny, all the new...

25% of my calls yesterday came from radio. At first, they said other sources (internet, ylw pages, referral) but all of them heard us on radio first. From what I"ve seen, customers only remember the last thing they saw you in, and not what sparked them to call in. This was the goal, to...

Anyone with half a mind knows that 50 percent is too high and not going to help with unemployment. If you don"t like the thread, don"t visit, we"ll be fine. But based on the number of requests I"ve had for updates, and the weekly pm"s from people on their business ideas, it"s not going to...

That"s an obvious yes, and anyone who thinks paying a 50% rate is going to make me hire more people, should be shot in the face. Paying out 50% in taxes means that I have less working capital, so with less working capital, I keep less people on the payroll, or I do creative things to shelter...

Let"s just say that I"m a c-corp, and my marginal rate is an outrageous 50%. So I give away alot to charities (rather do that than let the gov"t waste $), and if there"s a grey area, I"m in it. But as far as fraudulent tax evasion, the company is clean. It lets me sleep better at nights. If I...

Crews are trying to deal with it. We"ve had to hire a bunch of guys to keep up with the work, and they haven"t been employed in months, so its even worse for them. All I can do is tell them to keep taking breaks with this 110 degree heat index. But they know that this is the busy time, and they...

Just got my 60 second radio spot back, after several edits of the script. Sounds pro, wanted to make it build trust, the guy sounds like my Grand Dad, but rugged. They asked if I wanted any changes, I told them they knocked it out of the ballpark. I"m trying to decide how many times per day...

Especially in these times, if I do a job for a large corporation, I can guarantee the workers will get their 50-60 hours for a month or two at a time. Its no fun sitting around looking at each other and having workers struggle to eat. Right now, I have one crew on resedential jobs and one on...

Without being too specific, what we do can be tracked on a daily basis. Right now, we are expecting each guy to do $80 an hour (in crews of three, so $240 per crew), and we measure it. Average customer job is $700. We give them feedback on how they are doing every morning. With gas prices being...