Adventures with Lyrical: Buying a Business (REPOST)

Izo said:

Comon, bro. You're a piece of our history. a_skeleton_03 even restored some from FOH in the Classics thread. You also know this forum is full of trolls and alpha dogs. Can't let that bring you down. Post some updates. Please?

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There's not much new to say. Sales are down about 10% this year, but profits are up. I did a lot of cost cutting last year. We paid off probably 5 to 7 loans last year. My wife absorbed the Secretary position, and I'm managing full time. So we pay ourselves what they were making, plus what we were making as owners.

I had a guy mangle himself using some heavy equipment. He broke his back, and while he's walking again, he can't feel his penis. He's alleging the equipment was faulty, even with witnesses (including the homeowner) saying he flat out wasn't paying attention. This is a new guy I hired. He clearly broke the rules (did not use all of his safety equipment), but we are thinking this will end in court. He's already got a Lawyer talking to our Lawyer now.

In 24 months, we'll own the business free and clear. There's one level of success in having a business that makes money. There's another level when you owe it free and clear of debt and rent. We want to get to that level and stay there.

I'm done with the Lyrical handle. I wanted to see how long it would take for people to figure it out. Honestly, the handle made sense when I was playing EQ day and night in 1999, on my bard. It makes no sense to me anymore, I haven't played that game in a long ass time.

grumblethorn said:

When you are free and clear are you going to use the money formerly used for paying down debt to expand, buy another company grow etc?

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I dunno. Now that I'm managing, I don't have time to step away. I own my business, but it owns me. Where I used to have time to take off and take a vacation, or sit in my office and play MMO's, that's gone. On the flipside, I'm paying myself and my wife 10k a month (from the jobs we absorbed, plus our regular draw). The other 3k a month that we saved from paying off loans goes to debt reduction. In 24 months, we'll have another 7k in debt servicing that goes away. So I can pay myself roughly 20k a month without touching the profits the business generates.

Equipment is getting more and more expensive. The average truck we use runs about 60k brand new. I've also got competing demands of rebuilding our 401k that we demolished to buy the company out, and I want my kids' college funds completely funded.

I do want other businesses, but the reality is I've got to start replacing equipment before the repair costs get too high. We have one rig from '98 where the parts are starting to get high, as they need to be special made. So they have to shut the plant down just to make parts. On another rig (made by Nissan) we just had to special order a part from Japan.

We'll probably alternate 20k for retirement/kid's college fund and 20k for equipment.

After replacing equipment and building a 401k/college fund, I'll probably spend 100k on equipment and add another crew before I buy another business.

The reality is that my net income when the debt is paid off will be approaching $400k a year. The saying goes in business that people get to 250k a year, and then they get fat and happy. Maybe this is me. I already don't spend a ton of money right now anyway. I don't need more money, and I can't take it with me when I die. If I get bored, then this may change. I might end up doing something that has more of a passive income (like car washes, laundromats or rental properties).

apex said:

FWIW I always enjoyed reading your posts. I figured you'd post stuff when there was stuff to post about; don't want to bug you for daily updates.

Are you still going heavy on the advertising and tracking the rates of return for each medium? Any changes you've noticed in the last year or two as competitors pop up or drop off?

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Thanks.

I'm still advertising heavy, but my total budget is down from last year by about 20k. We used to generate so many calls, that 15% of the jobs were already done before we could get to the customer's house. It was overkill.

As far as tracking mediums, it's getting harder and harder. Customers tell the Office Manager one thing, but me another when I'm on the bid. We really have to do selected samples where we call 100 people and see what they say. Shockingly enough, 55% of them still use paper yellow pages! It's almost impossible to measure rates of return, as we have customers tell us they see us on TV, newspaper, billboard, hear us on the radio and were referred, all at the same time.

Eomer said:

Is there not some sort of mandatory worker's compensation system in your state? If one of my employees gets seriously hurt or killed, they'd have a hell of a time suing the company because of the WCB system here: https://www.wcb.ab.ca/pdfs/public/policy/manual/printable_pdfs/principles.pdf

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I believe insurance turned down his entire claim, from sheer stupidity. There are supposed to be two safety harnesses used. He didn't wear one. The other one, he cut through, because he wasn't pay attention. Now he has a broken leg and back, and his pecker doesn't work.

Work comp is spelled out in the US, but not so much if the worker is completely negligent. Also, apparently, you can get more in the US above what the work comp claims spell out if you can prove equipment is faulty. The worker is ignoring the fact that he forgot his safety gear, and claiming the equipment's failsafe didn't work. Only it's sitting my garage, and the failsafe is working fine. There are three witnesses that have already testified that he didn't use his second harness. Regardless of the equipment, had he used the industry standard second harness, he wouldn't have been injured. Not one bit.

In the two other times this stuff happened under the previous owner, where the worker ignored safety protocol, it bounced around in the courts for 10 years before they gave up.

Oh, one thing I left out. We were just approved as a vendor for a Fortune 100 company's HQ. They will take the work and split it up between us and one other company. They've already rented my company for two days in the last two months. A contract is imminent. I'd try to get excited over it, but I never want to hang my hat on just one client. What do you do when they demand 15% cost concessions on the next contract? This company is notorious for letting you make money in the first year, and then breaking your back in the second. You've got to constantly be developing new clients, so you can tell old ones to go fuck themselves. You can't be dependent on a handful of clients. We recently had a city tell us they were going to pay us 40% below industry standard. We told them in a nice way they were fired.

The best part is that we never approached this corporation to try to get their business. Our reputation and certifications made them call us.

Eomer said:

Seems like a shitty, litigious system. Like so much else in the US. With the way WCB works here, even if the employer or employee is negligent, the WCB still covers the cost of their injuries, health care, recovery, lost wages, and potentially disability. No fault means no fault. Overall the system works pretty well. It's run as an arm's length corporation from the government, so it's reasonably efficient as well. Some countries like New Zealand apply that system to EVERYTHING, so there's no such thing as tort claims. Hence why if you go to New Zealand, you never have to sign a waiver for all the ridiculous action sports they pioneered, because if you're a Kiwi and break your neck bungie jumping, you're covered. Tourist? Not so much.

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Here, insurance will do everything they can to not pay. And since the Employer is the one who has to pay increased premiums for the next three years, they fight also.

In this case, the Employee has health care that would cover the medical expenses. Unfortunately, he was offering to put the expenses on his health care for a cash settlement. I immediately told him to talk to insurance. He can argue with insurance and the State for the next ten years over a cash settlement. I'm not wasting my energy over it.

At first, I was sympathetic, but now that he's alleging it's the equipment that did it, I'm not so sympathetic. He knows he's 100% at fault, he just wants some extra cash.

Cad said:

I already asked him he said no.

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Are you able to do all of the Lyrical_sl posts under Shonuff? Cause Lyrical no longer has meaning to me.

Cad said:

*waves hand

Request granted

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LOL, that's fine. At the end of the day, I never change anything. I still use an aol email address from the dawn of the internet. My phone number hasn't changed in almost 15 years. I'd rather have a handle that means something to me. I can't remember the last time I loaded up EQ on my HD.