Business owners share your story

SInce it is impossible for most business to make economic profit in the long run and especially in today's economic climate, just how are you feeling about owning your own business?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit_(economics)

 

We're doing "okay". We own an employment and recruiting firm but we are extremely specialized and have a stable of clients who we've done business with for almsot twenty years.

 

By ok I assume you mean you made a lot of $$$ in the first 5-10 yrs and you are doing better than if you shut down and got a regular job, but you aren't making much more than covering expenses and having to right a lot of things off.

 

Most firms find it hard to make a profit and I am trying to find out why.

 

Because they're run by idiots who think running a business is easy and a money-machine.

 

Actually, we did very well until my brother got cancer. Even with his insurance, it was costing us $8 - 11K / month.

Now we do okay. I place attorneys with law firms. My commission for placing one attorneys, ranges between $30 - $125K each. We don't have to place a whole lot of people to cover expenses.

 

O-B-A-M-A

Of course.

 

That's what I hear. But was trying to get specifics.

 

A firm that finds it hard to make a profit will probably not be around.

I think its more accurate to say profits are down. Investments in the business is down. Hiring is down. Cutting costs are up.

 

LOL! I love this looney kind of stuff. Okay. Obama is the cause of ALL of our problems. Heavy kool-aid drinker.

Pray tell, enlighten me as to how Obama has interfered with my ability to make a profit!

 

Entering the market means breaking barriers to entry; which require capital. To repay the obvious loan, one would need to accept razor thin profits barring miracle.

Private business isn't quite as easy as it used to be.

 

Profits are acutally up for Big Biz, Big Oil and MNE's.

 

Good for them. And good for us.

But most jobs come from the smaller businesses. And they are still laying low and avoiding risk.

 

Actually many businesses are making good profits right now. Stock dividends are being paid quite well and stocks are doing OK. Established and well managed businesses are not in trouble at all. What many, most, have done is cut back dramatically on expenses. The high unemployment rate attests to that. But with staffing costs way down and expenses watched with a more critical eye than in the past, profits are there. What is not there is any willingness to take risk and expand or hire. That is the big unanswered question that business has. What does the future hold? And they do not know and can not guess. So they're in a holding pattern until the economy recovers. And it won't until they break out and take risks and they won't take risks until the economy recovers. Inifinity or Nov. elections.

 

by the time loans are paid off the profits are down and there ya go.

 

The economy is (*)(*)(*)(*)ed. My business is very hard hit by this economy. I live in a very rural area and I provide on-site tech support/repair. I used to provide new solutions, equipment, application development, support and repair. Growth is a problem, which is where my gravy came from. Businesses need computers running in order to stay alive, so that last level of critical support is all I have. I find myself suddenly thankful that windows sucks. I find myself suddenly thankful that worthless piece of (*)(*)(*)(*) hackers make such marvelous malicious works which require my skills to repair.

This thread is (*)(*)(*)(*)ing depressing.

I have a 96 acre farm I don't own a dime on. I can't move. I have another child on the way. I am considering a government job and letting go of my 7 employees.

Ugh.

I shouldn't share with you (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)s.

 

Obviously you don't own a small business. We never "lay low". WTF does that mean anyway? Avoiding risk? What risk is Obama creating that they are avoiding?

I hired more people when taxes where high than when they were low. No small business owner asks themselves about tax rates when they hire. They ask themselves whether hiring someone will add to profitability. It's that simple.

So lots of nebulous theory but guess what? No one is hiring / not hiring because of Obama or taxes that may or may not ever come into being.

 

I'm sorry to hear about that. My prayers are with you and yours.

 

I am 2 hrs outside of Richmond, which is the closest real city. I have to do battle with people minutes away for clients, pretty much by word of mouth. We are sustaining... but my people eat before I do. When it's thin, we are thin. I can't do that when the baby comes. I am just rapidly approaching a critical point which means that I actually provide for my family, instead of theirs. It is heartbreaking. I spent my nut on our property, and things were good when I built it from nothing. Well enough to get established. The trends are not good. I cannot sustain any more darkness. I appreciate your kind words NPA. Timing was just (*)(*)(*)(*).

And yes... (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)s... I blame myself for the lack of success. I firmly believe that another in my position could have found a niche I didn't. Now the folks who believed in me will be let down. It sucks the economy sucks... but it is not someone else's fault I did not accurately foresee the circumstances at every turn.

And yes... (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)s... I could restructure my business and live on enough to do "OK" for my kids, in public schools. I will work for the government at 6 figures instead to provide my children every advantage and just awesome benefits. I will lose by what many consider winning.

 

Why do you own a farm and a tech business, seems like an odd combo..

 

With Bush you already had problems. Don't be so partidist. The problem is the system, it is an endemic problem.

 

You said that you have 7 employees, no? So you're a small business, and more do you work in computers, no? Fuuu. Good luck, but I think that you should restructure your business if it doesn't work well. It is you're best solution.

Or maybe study the possibility to close, if it doesn't work anymore. Try to work in other areas, emerging areas, servers with GNU/Linux, for example.

Ah, and a hint. The free market as it is understood today only will take to the bankrupcy small and medium business. Is very bad for them. They can't compete with the great corporations. It is the fault. The crisis is only for workers and small/medium business remember that.

 

I will not need to go bankrupt. I have no debt. There are no emerging areas around me in *nix. I have a pretty much guaranteed job in government because of some of my clients... and at this point, I have told my employees to start looking. I am in a particularly volatile state of mind on the subject, and should not have addressed the thread. I will be fine. Much better actually. The horror show is my employees. I will do what I can for them... but... it is a horror show. My employees are like family. We are about to find a serious disparity other than company hierarchy.

I am out of this thread. It is too personal.

 

I like knowing where my food comes from.

That isn't it... I mean it is true... but that is not why.

My fiancé was killed, I had a large severance from a job and savings, I came down here to help my parents restore houses on their property rather than dive into something I would not recover from. They have a 600 acre farm with 28 buildings on it. The structures start at circa 1760. They are on the historical registrar. There are a lot of measures required to do this sort of restoration. I worked with the Amish a lot.

I met a girl. She changed my world.

I evidently destroyed her IUD.

We married and bought a farm near her family and my folks. I started a business that did pretty well for a few years.

That is why I am the farmertechnonerd.

 

My businesses are doing well and my wife's business is growing fast. Many of my clients, however, are in a bad spot, as they are being negatively affected by the new food regulation laws. They can't overcome the cost of regulation so easily, but Big Agra and the major food service corporations (Cisco, etc.) can absorb the cost and are using the regulations to drive out the smaller competitors.

Burdensom immigrations laws also make it difficult as people who rely primarily on immigrants for labor are being treated as unpaid, criminally accountable INS agents. It's not that they want to hire illegals only that it's the government foisting the job off on employers and treating them like criminals for any mistake.

Between big government conservatives and big government liberals, pretty soon food costs will climb sky high and quality will be less and less.