Adventures with Lyrical: Buying a Business (REPOST)

matsb84

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Had a random thought about this thread and was curious if there was any update..but doesn't look like Shonuff has posted in well over a year. What happened to this dude?
 
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Tmac

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SPIN selling has radically changed the way we do enterprise sales. I'm posting here because I want to keep this thread alive and it's relevant to other posts I've posted here. I'll post more on the state of my business and SPIN later.
 

Shonuff

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Yeah I dunno where he went, I wish we could keep getting updates though. Sad times.
Wow, I haven't been on here in years. Business is debtless except one piece of equipment, and that's nice. Hard to expand because I have high standards, have won the Best Of category in my town consecutive years.

I don't do forums or social media anymore. When I joined FOH in 2005 I was 34 years old. I'm old now, and I realize I don't value anyone's opinion about anything any more. Just mine.

Everything is fine, covid didn't impact us much. This year, with Biden making it hard to hire, that's had a bigger impact.

See ya in a few years.
 
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CaughtCross

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Wow, I haven't been on here in years. Business is debtless except one piece of equipment, and that's nice. Hard to expand because I have high standards, have won the Best Of category in my town consecutive years.

I don't do forums or social media anymore. When I joined FOH in 2005 I was 34 years old. I'm old now, and I realize I don't value anyone's opinion about anything any more. Just mine.

Everything is fine, covid didn't impact us much. This year, with Biden making it hard to hire, that's had a bigger impact.

See ya in a few years.

Would love to hear more updates. This and Corndogs fishstore are some of my favorite reads. And you should check out the Corndog fish store thread since his business got huge. It looks like you gave some really helpful advice to him early on in the thread.
 

Tmac

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Wow, I haven't been on here in years. Business is debtless except one piece of equipment, and that's nice. Hard to expand because I have high standards, have won the Best Of category in my town consecutive years.

Welcome back! This was one of my favorite threads to read a few years ago as I was starting my business. Two years ago we did $60k. Last year we did $660k.

Would love to read a three year update.

I don't do forums or social media anymore. When I joined FOH in 2005 I was 34 years old. I'm old now, and I realize I don't value anyone's opinion about anything any more. Just mine.

Well yeah. Who posts here and doesn’t think that?
 

Tarrant

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Great to hear you're still doing well, better even than you were before. I hope you decide to stick around and give more details and what not.
 

Shonuff

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Welcome back! This was one of my favorite threads to read a few years ago as I was starting my business. Two years ago we did $60k. Last year we did $660k.

Would love to read a three year update.



Well yeah. Who posts here and doesn’t think that?

Cool, Tmac. That helps. I try to help people, but usually that's on my Facebook now. Is there a thread for you?

Not much has changed.

- Business is almost completely free and clear of debt, and I pay very little rent ($400). So with the debt reduction, its added roughly 3k a week discretionary income, on top of my regular business income.

- We've gone eight years without running out of work. They say the thing that keeps business owners up all night is not being able to pay the bills. Incorrect. The thing that keeps us up all night is demand. I constantly tweak the ad mix to make sure we are good. I have spent 31K in a month on advertising, but that was in an abnormally slow month. I have laid off one guy in those eight years (although I've fired hundreds not up to my standards). I hate laying off hard workers, I lost sleep until I hired him back three years later.

- IRS showed up at the door a few years ago, demanding every penny in the bank account. They claimed I didn't file my W2's (even though I had a receipt from my CPA showing I did and people did their W2's. Took me almost 2.5 years to make this go away and fix my credit. They placed a lien on everything. 2.5 years later, they finally admitted the computer told them the wrong thing. Fuck the IRS. Spent many a sleepless night, as they were trying to pierce the veil and go after our home. In the end, they got a few k.

- Got a chance to take a selfie while being served with a 10M lawsuit. I sued a landlord that contracted with me to sell what I was renting and he backed out. He sued me and said I ruined his five acres that were worth maybe 100k, and said I did 10M of damage. I think I paid him 5k and then I bought the land (after a couple of years). Straight hands with me put into the wall. IRS or real estate moguls be damned.

- Finally got out of our last yellow pages. Our cost of acquisition per customer went past $200, and we got out. We milked those books until there were no customers left. Three years ago, we were still spending about $2,600 a month on yellow pages. We moved all of that into online advertising.

- Moved hardcore into online advertising. Got a consulting company named wordstream to help me. Just ended my contract with them, after having spent 24k in consulting fees over four years. Well worth it, half of our business comes from social media. Social media helps me target high net worth individuals that need my services. I own a tree care, and having full insurance helps with these people. They don't want sued if someone gets hurt. Billboard and TV we still use, but we do not spend anymore 15k monthly budgets on TV. I don't like TV as much as social media. They hold me to contracts. With social media, I can pause anytime. My 15 year old helps with the ads, and people tell me they look professional (unsolicited to do so).

- Last few years, we've exceeded one million in sales, which I think only 2% of businesses ever do. We are kind of flat, because I don't like customer complaints. Tree care is rife with druggies and alcoholics. I'm not having customers complain because I hired a meth head. Business is a cash cow for me to do other things. I work in in it 3-5 hours a day max.

- Covid had virtually no effect on us. I think we dropped 10% in sales. We spent more in advertising to get people's attention. We did take the PPP. We are considered essential, and while the Economy sucked, people worked on their home projects more. So we benefitted from that.

- This year, we are fighting the labor shortage like everyone else. State has forced us to use CDL drivers, and that's been tough, since there is a shortage nationwide. CDL drivers tend to think they are above work, and everyone works here.

- I'm at 2.75 crews right now, because of the CDL driver issue. It's rained so much we've been behind. But last month, we got very little rain, and it was a record month. Between my draw, 401K, IRA, cars, meals and entertainment, net income of the corporation, and the expenses I cut, we made roughly $40k profit on 110k in sales. It was the best regular (as in non emergency month) in the 14 years we've owned the company.

- Current advertising mix is 5k on google (I cover 91% of my geography), 2k on billboard, 2-4k on TV, 3k on Facebook/Insta and I just started with 2k on youtube ads. Last month was so good because I wasn't on TV or youtube at all. I increased it because I don't think I can continue to do 100k+ monthly sales on just google, billboard and TV. This is different for me, because I've spent 15k in a month on TV. TV is going down 10% a year, but social media goes up and up. Impact to the bottom line is that it goes up. ROI is higher on social media. TV brings me leads, but a lot of them are broke. I like wealthy individuals, as I'm billing sometimes almost 6k in a day in service fees for my crews.

- Considering advertising on LinkedIn and Twitter to further go after wealthier individuals. Still trying to figure that out.

- I spent more time trading and investing stocks in the last year than I do on my business. That intrigues me. Trading takes an entirely different mindset. In business you need to be an alpha, but when you trade you better be a good beta. I am my own worst enemy at trading, because there's something in my head that tells me to never give up, even though the formula tells me I need to bail on the trade. Some days I make more trading than I do in my tree care business. Other days, not so much, because I'm not following my trading plans.

Sorry for typos and grammar, but I'm busy.
 
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Tmac

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Cool, Tmac. That helps. I try to help people, but usually that's on my Facebook now. Is there a thread for you?

Not much has changed…

Sounds like you figured out the 8-ball.

I can’t remember if I made my own thread or just hijacked yours. I couldn’t find a separate thread when I looked.
 

OU Ariakas

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I spent more time trading and investing stocks in the last year than I do on my business. That intrigues me. Trading takes an entirely different mindset. In business you need to be an alpha, but when you trade you better be a good beta. I am my own worst enemy at trading, because there's something in my head that tells me to never give up, even though the formula tells me I need to bail on the trade. Some days I make more trading than I do in my tree care business. Other days, not so much, because I'm not following my trading plans.

You should check out the investing threads in the Adult sub-forum. Blazin Blazin and Sanrith Descartes Sanrith Descartes have transformed it into a gold mine of information. It has really changed in the last 18 months.
 
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Sanrith Descartes

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You should check out the investing threads in the Adult sub-forum. Blazin Blazin and Sanrith Descartes Sanrith Descartes have transformed it into a gold mine of information. It has really changed in the last 18 months.
Awwww Blushing GIF by GEICO
 
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Sanrith Descartes

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Cool, Tmac. That helps. I try to help people, but usually that's on my Facebook now. Is there a thread for you?

Not much has changed.

- Business is almost completely free and clear of debt, and I pay very little rent ($400). So with the debt reduction, its added roughly 3k a week discretionary income, on top of my regular business income.

- We've gone eight years without running out of work. They say the thing that keeps business owners up all night is not being able to pay the bills. Incorrect. The thing that keeps us up all night is demand. I constantly tweak the ad mix to make sure we are good. I have spent 31K in a month on advertising, but that was in an abnormally slow month. I have laid off one guy in those eight years (although I've fired hundreds not up to my standards). I hate laying off hard workers, I lost sleep until I hired him back three years later.

- IRS showed up at the door a few years ago, demanding every penny in the bank account. They claimed I didn't file my W2's (even though I had a receipt from my CPA showing I did and people did their W2's. Took me almost 2.5 years to make this go away and fix my credit. They placed a lien on everything. 2.5 years later, they finally admitted the computer told them the wrong thing. Fuck the IRS. Spent many a sleepless night, as they were trying to pierce the veil and go after our home. In the end, they got a few k.

- Got a chance to take a selfie while being served with a 10M lawsuit. I sued a landlord that contracted with me to sell what I was renting and he backed out. He sued me and said I ruined his five acres that were worth maybe 100k, and said I did 10M of damage. I think I paid him 5k and then I bought the land (after a couple of years). Straight hands with me put into the wall. IRS or real estate moguls be damned.

- Finally got out of our last yellow pages. Our cost of acquisition per customer went past $200, and we got out. We milked those books until there were no customers left. Three years ago, we were still spending about $2,600 a month on yellow pages. We moved all of that into online advertising.

- Moved hardcore into online advertising. Got a consulting company named wordstream to help me. Just ended my contract with them, after having spent 24k in consulting fees over four years. Well worth it, half of our business comes from social media. Social media helps me target high net worth individuals that need my services. I own a tree care, and having full insurance helps with these people. They don't want sued if someone gets hurt. Billboard and TV we still use, but we do not spend anymore 15k monthly budgets on TV. I don't like TV as much as social media. They hold me to contracts. With social media, I can pause anytime. My 15 year old helps with the ads, and people tell me they look professional (unsolicited to do so).

- Last few years, we've exceeded one million in sales, which I think only 2% of businesses ever do. We are kind of flat, because I don't like customer complaints. Tree care is rife with druggies and alcoholics. I'm not having customers complain because I hired a meth head. Business is a cash cow for me to do other things. I work in in it 3-5 hours a day max.

- Covid had virtually no effect on us. I think we dropped 10% in sales. We spent more in advertising to get people's attention. We did take the PPP. We are considered essential, and while the Economy sucked, people worked on their home projects more. So we benefitted from that.

- This year, we are fighting the labor shortage like everyone else. State has forced us to use CDL drivers, and that's been tough, since there is a shortage nationwide. CDL drivers tend to think they are above work, and everyone works here.

- I'm at 2.75 crews right now, because of the CDL driver issue. It's rained so much we've been behind. But last month, we got very little rain, and it was a record month. Between my draw, 401K, IRA, cars, meals and entertainment, net income of the corporation, and the expenses I cut, we made roughly $40k profit on 110k in sales. It was the best regular (as in non emergency month) in the 14 years we've owned the company.

- Current advertising mix is 5k on google (I cover 91% of my geography), 2k on billboard, 2-4k on TV, 3k on Facebook/Insta and I just started with 2k on youtube ads. Last month was so good because I wasn't on TV or youtube at all. I increased it because I don't think I can continue to do 100k+ monthly sales on just google, billboard and TV. This is different for me, because I've spent 15k in a month on TV. TV is going down 10% a year, but social media goes up and up. Impact to the bottom line is that it goes up. ROI is higher on social media. TV brings me leads, but a lot of them are broke. I like wealthy individuals, as I'm billing sometimes almost 6k in a day in service fees for my crews.

- Considering advertising on LinkedIn and Twitter to further go after wealthier individuals. Still trying to figure that out.

- I spent more time trading and investing stocks in the last year than I do on my business. That intrigues me. Trading takes an entirely different mindset. In business you need to be an alpha, but when you trade you better be a good beta. I am my own worst enemy at trading, because there's something in my head that tells me to never give up, even though the formula tells me I need to bail on the trade. Some days I make more trading than I do in my tree care business. Other days, not so much, because I'm not following my trading plans.

Sorry for typos and grammar, but I'm busy.
Congrats on the business. As a business owner myself I know what it takes. I got exceedingly lucky in that I had over a year's worth of orders (heavy machinery manufacturing) in the system right as Coronachan hit so we just put our heads down and never missed a beat (supply chain fuckery not withstanding). And we had the bonus of being deemed "essential" and couldn't be shutdown.

As to the investing (the main reason I replied), you are right in that it can be a different mindset. I won't agree you need to be a beta. What you need to be is a sociopath. No emotions. Analyze the technicals, run the backtests and trade on the data. It is so easy to get caught up in tweets, news, hopium/disappointment and just the internal need to "win". When you exit a trade (win or lose) you forget about it and are on to the next one. As OU Ariakas OU Ariakas mentions, we have some good info and data flowing from all manner of people in the Stonkhouse.
 

Shonuff

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I run technicals and backtest. But I ignore the fucking signals when they go south and yell, "THIS STOCK OWES ME MONEY!". You have to know when to cut your losses. I'm getting better, but I have stops on my trades based on volatility that I delete. Not good. I know how to win. I'm a great winner, but a poor loser. So I'll have days where I make 10 perfect trades in a row and make $1,500. But days like yesterday, I had a trade on Tesla I could've ended for a $113 loss, that I turned into a 1k loss.

Trading in the market is an expensive work to work on your emotional baggage.
 
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Shonuff

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I've been doing this full time since February, and I'm trying to stop being a Revenge Trader.
 

BrutulTM

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What you need to be is a sociopath. No emotions.

Same with gambling. I guess you could say that stock trading IS gambling, but if you're standing at the craps table you have to make all the boring bets, not walk away when you're down, and then walk away when you're up. The opposite of human nature. Because of that casinos can offer games with almost no house advantage and still rest easy that they are going to make money.