Adventures with Lyrical: Buying a Business (REPOST)
- Thread starter Shonuff
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
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Cad
scientia potentia est
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Some states are ok with notice, some states you actually have to get consent. It's not cut and dry. But I've said before I think recording the calls with the customers is generally a good idea, you just need to be cognizant of the laws when you do it.
Palum
what Suineg set it to
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Do you know of any cases where notice was given and implied consent (continuing the call) was not found to be 'enough'? I've never seen a case where this argument was successfully made and I've seen A LOT (between 'wiretap' claims to preclude evidence and TCPA litigation).
For example even in the People's Republic of California:
California Invasion of Privacy Act: Overview of Call Recording
Cad
scientia potentia est
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Haven't done research on it, but have heard people talk about it at CLE's and such that notice may not be enough. What if your automated system says we are recording and they say no I do not consent but continue the call? You're recording them expressly without their consent. That also might just be lawyers covering their ass. I don't know of any cases where notice was held to not be enough, and the fact that big banks do it makes it seem legit. I'd just look into it yourself and satisfy yourself on it, don't assume it's ok. Thats all.
Shonuff
Mr. Poopybutthole
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So...things are really easy now. Like, easier than they've been over the last nine years. I've cut my advertising to the bone, and still, I am two weeks behind on bids and almost booked until July. This month, I've been paying myself $1,200 a day, and the company will still make 30k after that. It's nuts.
You have tough times in business, you have easy ones. Enjoy the easy ones and ride it out.
Hopefully this can last until October.
You have tough times in business, you have easy ones. Enjoy the easy ones and ride it out.
Hopefully this can last until October.
Big_w_powah
Trakanon Raider
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Shonuff
Mr. Poopybutthole
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I remember my first day owning the company. I was worried if the company was truly legit or not (no matter what, anyone can fake anything). I met the seller at a customer's lake house. I BS'd with the customer for 15 minutes, and then he wrote me a check for about 5k. I then left to learn how to bid on jobs. I was shocked at how easy it was to make 5k like that (mind you, this is a service business, so margins are higher than selling a physical product). I asked the seller why I didn't do this before. He told me, "Because it's all on you. The good, the bad, it's all caused by you." Nine years later, I understand what he meant.
When I didn't advertise, I lost big money in the Winter time. We'll leave 2008 out of it because the state was declared a state of emergency.
Winter of 2009: The company lost -105,591.
2010: -43,800
2011: -30,021
2012: -35,213
2013: -7,304
2014: -32,913
2015: -24,978
2016: -12,470
So this is almost a quarter of a million dollar loss in the Winters since I bought the company. Had I laid off, I could have cut this in half.
I tend to not layoff guys that are working hard. I keep them around and have a bloated payroll. That hurts. Before I knew how to advertise, when it got bad, it was really bad. After I lost 105k, I decided I was going to start planning out how I wanted my business to be, rather than to have things dictated by "who is walking in the door." My competitors still live in feast or famine, they haven't copied me, and when they have, they've done it half-assed.
So yeah, there are good times, but there are bad times too. I'd say you have to hope the good times outweigh the bad, but I don't agree with that any more. You have to force business to be good. 2009 was so bad that I thought about getting a job at McDonald's making fries. I would have made more. Now I make more in a day than I made in my first job out of college in a two week pay period. The pendulum swings back and forth every year. We just don't rack up the big losses like we used to.
Big_w_powah
Trakanon Raider
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So, what you're telling me; Bust ass, work hard, make smart decisions, and profit.
Yep, I'm down for that.
Shonuff
Mr. Poopybutthole
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All of that, but you have to continue to try to look at things with "new eyes." I followed everything out of the seller's playbook (except laying off). He told me that people only call you when they need you. So he spent thousands and thousands on yellow page ads and had a little cheesy website. He told me things like newspaper, billboard, radio and TV were useless. Half of my leads come from these sources, if I'm looking at the tracking reports. My competitors tell me I'm wasting my money. I just keep my mouth shut and stay busy. When they completely shut down for five months out of the year, I'm not really slowing down more than 10%. You have to stay ahead of things, and not accept other's paradigms.
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Shonuff
Mr. Poopybutthole
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So...someone asked me in a PM about a potential 10k budget for adwords for their business. I kind of half believe in adwords, and half don't. We ask people where they find us, and they have a hard time explaining if they are looking at the sponsored ads, or the organic listing. I don't spend more than 5-8% of my total ad budget on adwords ($1k a month). I'd rather be on radio, TV or billboard where I can measure it better. I will say that the percentage of people finding us on google is up compared to a few years ago by 15% roughly. But I can't tell if they saw me on TV or billboard first, and then clicked the organic listing. Customers can't either. They tell the Office Manager one thing, and then when I run the estimate and ask, it's different. I've sat there for five minutes interrogating them. I'm sure they don't like that. I stopped it.
tldr version: I would not spend more than 5-8% of my total ad budget on google adwords, there are better places to be
AdWords "Ineffective" Says eBay, Google "Meta-Pause Analysis" Contradicts Those Findings
tldr version: I would not spend more than 5-8% of my total ad budget on google adwords, there are better places to be
AdWords "Ineffective" Says eBay, Google "Meta-Pause Analysis" Contradicts Those Findings
Shonuff
Mr. Poopybutthole
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I haven't posted here in a long time. I'm limiting my time on social media (and message boards in general), but as I've been told, I'm a part of FOH history. I got the final bill today from the bank, showing a zero balance, and here it is.
We paid this sucker off, and are free and clear. To those that had faith in me, thank you. For those that didn't, EAT MY DICK! Starting this Friday, my weekly pay goes to $4,412 (because I don't have all of that debt strangling me). And this is before company profits. This company owes me a lot, and it's going to pay me back every penny I lent it.
I'm getting off here again...
We paid this sucker off, and are free and clear. To those that had faith in me, thank you. For those that didn't, EAT MY DICK! Starting this Friday, my weekly pay goes to $4,412 (because I don't have all of that debt strangling me). And this is before company profits. This company owes me a lot, and it's going to pay me back every penny I lent it.
I'm getting off here again...
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TrollfaceDeux
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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I will live to become like you and erase all doubters what I can do through sheer will.
Palum
what Suineg set it to
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Palum
what Suineg set it to
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Tarrant
<Prior Amod>
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- 9,193
So after jumping through hoop after hoop after hoop, our build out is slated to start in the next week or so. The city we are in required us to reclassify the building we were in from office space to a space for assembly which required us to hire an architect to formally draw up blueprints of the plans were had for the interior of the building. A space of assemble is usually reserved for somewhere that will have a gathering of 50+ people at any given time which we will never have, but they required it of us anyway and its the only city in the state that requires the classification to happen. So after having the plans drawn up and submitted for review we had to wait for approval before we could pull permits.
Now I'm just going over some final details with my contractor before work begins next week.
Now I'm just going over some final details with my contractor before work begins next week.
TrollfaceDeux
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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Dandai
<WoW Guild Officer>
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I had a similar experience when I was looking for a space to open a brewery. My first choice city had two breweries already and two more in the process of being opened. When we took our plans to the city they told us city ordinances required us to produce over 1500 barrels per year if we wanted on site retail/taproom. We were looking at a very optimistic 300 barrels the first year.
We tried explaining our business model and how no new brewery is going to realistically get 1500 barrels in their FIRST year unless they're multimillion dollar setups (and by the way, they wouldn't be pushing anywhere near 1500 barrels through their taproom). The city was deaf to our pleas, so we moved on. As far as I know the ordinance is still in effect, but two more breweries have opened that aren't even approaching the 300 barrels per year we estimated.
Tarrant
<Prior Amod>
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I wonder what'll happen with them then?
We had to file an exception last week with the city. They decided that since we are now classified as a place of assembly that we are short 4 parking spots and we can not count street parking. After explaining that we would have less people on site than the previous office that occupied the space and asking for a meeting with the city our small meeting turned into a 12 person meeting with the city finally agreeing that with current rules in place that the city comes off as anti new small business and that changes need to take place.
Now of course we still had to pay $1440 for the exception to be filed because those are rules in place but hopefully changes happen where it won't create a discouraging experience for potential new small businesses.
We were told the exception would be approved. Hopefully they won't renig on that because if they do the alternatives aren't attractive.
We had to file an exception last week with the city. They decided that since we are now classified as a place of assembly that we are short 4 parking spots and we can not count street parking. After explaining that we would have less people on site than the previous office that occupied the space and asking for a meeting with the city our small meeting turned into a 12 person meeting with the city finally agreeing that with current rules in place that the city comes off as anti new small business and that changes need to take place.
Now of course we still had to pay $1440 for the exception to be filed because those are rules in place but hopefully changes happen where it won't create a discouraging experience for potential new small businesses.
We were told the exception would be approved. Hopefully they won't renig on that because if they do the alternatives aren't attractive.