Quote:
Originally Posted by mogli9000
This is all coming from personal experiences. I am unaware of Jeff's situation, but from what I've been reading. This is what I believe is to be true.
I can only assume.
Its hard as fuck running a small business.
I can assume that Jeff has to pay about $3,500-4,500 just in expenses to pay the bills Monthly. That includes gas, paperwork, city fees, tax, rent, electricity, insurance, car payments, and whatever else that keeps someone alive in society.
Not only do you over work yourself, run into land mines that push you farther back, bite more than you can chew, and become over zealous on making anything work. Mind yourself, this is all being done by one person. No trusted partners who can work equally as good as you. One man who has to do everything to run a business and pay his bills.
Jeff isn't a 10 year business. He is a new small business with minimal business experience. Shit happens.
He has talent, but more than talent can't run a business. Its difficult to maintain a 100 hour plus work week working for 5-6 bucks an hour as the owner. Shit is hard as fuck when you first start out.
That's not including finding workers that actually give two fucks about their own work and your company.
Also add daily, weekly, and monthly paperwork and accountant work. Small business owners don't have cash to have someone else do that for them. Its all done by hand and on paper by themselves.
Now you also have to put in regard that there are people in the same boat as you. He now has to prioritize and go through each order that is backed up. On top of being a perfectionist. Doing things right takes so much time of your life. Driving for supplies, ordering supplies online, having setbacks, redoing something until its perfect.
I work and own my own business as well. I am fortunate enough to have solid employees helping me. When I was by myself it took 1 whole day JUST to go pick up supplies. Drive 2 hours in traffic, drive 2 hours back. Setup product pick ups, pick up products that were sold days before, have them picked up, then reply to every call and text for that day. There goes 1 whole day with almost NOTHING getting done.
Now add up money tied into each project. Let's say a customer only puts 20% down of his invoice. Guess who has to go out of pocket for the rest until the product is finished? The business owner. Imagine that business owner has about 10-20 projects at this given time. There goes about 5k worth of YOUR money sitting that is now a negative in your bank fund.
Now add up the daily cars that come in. That is usually jobs that are finished within that day. He is one guy who now has to order the customers part, pick it up, then install it on their car. There goes another day. But hey it pays your monthly rent bill. What happens if Jeff went out of business? He has to stay afloat with the walks ins and focus on the projects on weekend or nights. GUESS what happens IF a business owner has to close down shop because of unpaid rent? NO MORE FINISHED PROJECTS AND BANKRUPCTY. Which means now your stuff is gone.
Jeff is pushing. He is trying. He is staying afloat.
A life is small tiny baby steps every day. Takes forever until a project is 100%. Once Jeff understands devlops a system that works, rules that help him, and what projects to choose and what projects to turn away. (I turn away cars every day). He will become a solid speedy business.
Why? Because some cars are ticking time bombs. Not a simple swap or a simple wire install. You now hit cluster fuck city in which takes more time and money than you expect. Also they take a negative on your pay sheet. I had to do a swap once and due to the cluster fuck of a car, I ended up losing $500 bucks out the door. But hey the customer was happy and still comes back to this day.
PLUS the resources and solid connections of people to get you along that way.
It takes year 3 of a small business to start making it. You are at neutral to 15k a year for 2 years of your life. Living day by day on almost no positivie income you other than the will to never give up. Once you go to year 3 you will be making double that, year 4 is 45-60k a year, and so forth.
SHIT TAKES TIME. Jeff just has to know how and when to pick his battles.
Good luck.
|
wow what are you? Jeff's personal head giver!?
The man owns a business and promises services for a price. When he stops giving his customer the time of the day to update them on the status of their orders then he shoots himself in the foot. When that shit repeats itself with other customers then he builds a "REPUTATION" for it. Must be nice for you to live nearby so you can go down to his shop personally and give him head but for those of us who live far away, the only comfort we have are the communication interactions and updates he provides us. Problem is that when he promises a service for a price and fails to deliver then he's just a lying sack of shit.
This is especially true because he has "workers" working for him who can provide him with the assistance he needs.
In my case the bottom line was. He promised a "heim join" upgrade service for ANY suspension arms. You tell him which arms you have, and he sends you beefier joints for a good price. I paid ~$60 initially, then he went quiet. So I asked for updates and he gave me excuses about manufacturing. At that point, flags went up, this guy is starting to look squirelly. So I ask him, how can I help, he tells me he needs more $$$ to get this done better, so I send him more $$$. After a while, this
*snip boy goes quiet. After a while he gives me more excuses. So I send him the arms, so I know he has what he needs to match the damn joints. he goes quiet again...At that point I said fuck it, told him that I understood shit was hard and just wanted my arms back. Thank to fuckin god he sent them back.
Chucked that shit as a loss and walked away cursing his fuckin existence for rest of my life.
This guy is a fraud...