Ask the entrepreneurs advice
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They saved nothing, they just put that liability off to next year.
But the business might go under or be sold to someone else by then, and then those taxes are someone else's problem.
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and then those taxes are someone else's problem.
Or at larger companies you might have a different job, so your replacement is the one with the problem.
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the laissez-faire tactics adopted in the late 1920s/early 1930s.
I don't think that's what actually happened. IIRC, Hoover did a bunch of stuff that made it all worse.
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And the chairman of the Fed admitted as much.
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@Polygeekery said:
7 sentences successful people never say
- Hello, my name is 322def65-a330-4824-94f0-a6d487936f29.
- Hello, my name is 1d027895-240b-43ab-81ff-e15e00e42f40.
- Hello, my name is 5d38baec-f2b3-435e-ae42-aaedbf5cc2f9.
- Hello, my name is 5c441fb8-2bf3-43cd-9cda-be34b0fc69f3.
- Hello, my name is Jeff Atwood.
- Hello, my name is 04f1fa42-b691-4398-81ad-46fe2a19c4f5.
- Hello, my name is 63fc2ba6-5187-4087-9432-ca41e0c94b62.
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Nice speech, but look at the date (2002) and this phrase from the end:
But thanks to you, we won't do it again.
Oh well, some people never learn.
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I don't know if I brought it up before, but information is key. Bob Parson's has a cool poster that I have had hanging on my office wall for quite some time where he said it best:
- Measure everything of significance.
I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched, improves.
http://www.bobparsons.me/bp_16_rules.php
When you need to make a decision, but are not sure of what to do, gather all of the information you can and for me it always makes the decision more clear (Caveat: Be careful, everything in moderation, information overload leads to paralysis by anaylsis.)
Recently we started collecting metrics as part of our invoicing and accounts receivable. One of those is "Average days to pay" by client and it is top right on the UI page when you enter that clients info page. Today that information became very useful when a client who is known for being a PITA was causing problems.
Average days to pay: 32 days
Our average is ~7 days. We bill on Net15. I always knew they were slow payers, but I did not think it was that bad. I generate one report to tell me income percentages by client, they are <2%.
On top of that, now I can see when they viewed our invoices. An invoice I sent 15 days ago had not even been viewed, and a follow-up email had went unanswered. The decision was easy. Fuck those guys. Someone else can put up with slow-paying pains in the ass. I don't need the trouble.
- Measure everything of significance.
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I had a big spike in sales this week. I've sold 114 copies of one book since 4/26, for revenues of about $6500. I wasn't even trying. I'm not even advertising right now. I think somebody is building a distribution network around my book. Fuck yeah, go for it guys.
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@Captain said in Ask the entrepreneurs(geeks) for farting, be advised!:
I had a big spike in sales this week. I've sold 114 copies of one book since 4/26, for revenues of about $6500.
Nice. It always feels good when that happens.
The past two months I have been working more on automating everything I possibly can. Helpdesk software is now entirely integrated with accounting and invoicing. I have invoice generation down to three clicks (if nothing needs edited) and zero double handling of information.
All said and done, my workload is cut roughly in half, and scalability is improved. For two months work, I have doubled what I make for an hour's worth of work. Which equates to more free time with my family.
Revenues are also up as there is a lot less leakage. I also know where we are spending our time and know better what is making our money.
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@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs(geeks) for farting, be advised!:
All said and done, my workload is cut roughly in half, and scalability is improved.
It boggles my mind how few people are willing to actually deduplicate information processes and/or automate stuff. I don't think anyone in my company cares about it at all.
Our build process is laborious. Building the executable only takes a minute or two, but all the work to assemble it takes hours, mainly because as soon as the tool was built, nobody ever touched it again except for fixing egregious bugs. I can't get anyone interested in fixing that, or the fact that the setup information isn't stored, so you have to do the whole process every time, instead of starting where you left off and adding what's new since the last release.
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@FrostCat My next big project is setting up a build server and getting release down to a one step automated process if possible. We may have to do some mild rework on the primary product, but the gains only become more significant as we grow.
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@Polygeekery To be clear, this is a situation where writing out a log of what's in the build--we frequently release cumulative updates--and allowing the next build to use the log to start, so you only have to add in what's new since the last build--would probably save half an hour of config time. But the build guy's done it so many times, he can do it in a few hours instead of like 8, so it's good enough for him.
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@FrostCat Sounds like job security.
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@boomzilla I don't think that's his goal, as such. I think he's just not very interested in change/learning something new.
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Another observation: Never underestimate the importance and benefits of working with not for profits. What I have noticed from 8+ years in business for myself is that really good leads come from NFPs, if you give them awesome service. We do work for NFPs at a ~30% discount but it always pays back many times over.
NFPs usually have boards of directors. Boards of directors are usually populated with influential people and business owners. You cannot have any better avenue for getting to these people. One of the NFPs we work with has a member of their board who is a woman who owns multiple businesses. In the past month, she has submitted tickets for the NFP for simple things like setting her up an email address and restoring her remote access to the accounting programs. All of them were closed within 15 minutes (remember that whole thing about how information is key?)
Today she offered to buy me lunch and offered us the IT support for all of her businesses due to us always being on top of it when she needed something. There is no better advertisement or marketing than getting people of influence to engage positively with your product or service. Those same people put up enormous barriers to cold calls around themselves with receptionists and business managers. Working with them through NFPs get you around those barriers.
OK, that is my entrepreneurship tip of the week. Carry on.
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Alright, let's say I have some money hanging around. Let's say $1k, for arguments sake.
I know someone who wants to do a creative project. Make a movie, publish some comics, whatever, it doesn't matter. It'll make it's money from sales and/or ad revenue generation.
That person needs money to Make Thing Happen. I want to give them money, and get my money back plus some based on the sales. How does this work?
- Do I give them a lump sum, and then they pay me back lump sum + a percentage? Or lump sum + a fixed sum?
- Do I give them a lump sum, and then they just start paying me a percentage of sales in perpetuity? Or for a fixed amount of time?
- Is there an upper limit to how much they pay me back? If I get 10% of sales, and they sell a billion dollars, even though I only invested $1k I get buttloads of money?
- Does what I get back depend on how much their budget is? Like if I finance an entire $1k budget, I get a lot? But if I'm partially financing a $50k budget, I get less?
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@Lorne-Kates said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
How does this work?
It can literally work all of those ways, and others you have not even mentioned. It all come down to terms and contracts. You as the investor want to get the largest ROI that you can, and the person you loan the money to wants the best terms.
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@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Lorne-Kates said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
How does this work?
It can literally work all of those ways, and others you have not even mentioned. It all come down to terms and contracts. You as the investor want to get the largest ROI that you can, and the person you loan the money to wants the best terms.
:|
I have some learning to do.
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@Lorne-Kates said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
:|
I have some learning to do.I sent my earlier reply from mobile. Let me elaborate more.
@Lorne-Kates said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
That person needs money to Make Thing Happen. I want to give them money, and get my money back plus some based on the sales. How does this work?
Do I give them a lump sum, and then they pay me back lump sum + a percentage? Or lump sum + a fixed sum?
Do I give them a lump sum, and then they just start paying me a percentage of sales in perpetuity? Or for a fixed amount of time?
Is there an upper limit to how much they pay me back? If I get 10% of sales, and they sell a billion dollars, even though I only invested $1k I get buttloads of money?
Does what I get back depend on how much their budget is? Like if I finance an entire $1k budget, I get a lot? But if I'm partially financing a $50k budget, I get less?Maybe. It depends on the contract. For #1, it could be a lump sum, or it could be paid out in draws based upon progress. (Let's assume it is more than $1,000. Most anyone can scrape together a grand if they had to.)
For #2, maybe, it depends on the contract. It could be in perpetuity. It could be up to a certain multiplier. It could be functionally equivalent to a loan. It could be setup for a debt conversion option. That could also be dependent upon a timeline. Contracts can be complicated.
For #3, (wait for it...) maybe, it depends on the contract. All of this comes down to negotiations. Let's say that they need your money badly. They are in no position to negotiate because it is either take your money or they are SOL. You have the upper hand and it very well could be in perpetuity.
If they don't need your money that badly, they could negotiate it to where you invest $X and they pay you ($X + ($X * Y%)) within timeframe Z.
For #4, once again it all depends. One would expect it to get paid back as some form of a percentage of the total endeavor. If it is a $50K venture and you throw $1K in the hat then you would expect a payback of around 2% of the profits. But that can always be changed. You could write it in to the contract that your money is "first in, first out at 30%" which would mean that your $1K would be paid back at 30% of profits until you get your $1K back and then would be paid at 2% of profits from there on.
Also, just putting in 2% of the money, if they really need that 2% to finish, you could negotiate a higher percentage.
Contract discussions are almost literally infinitely complex. If you have a specific use case in mind I would be happy to talk specifics with you to narrow it down a bunch. YMMV, I know American laws some and Canadian laws not at all, IANAL, etc.
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Does anybody here sell internationally? I'm thinking of expanding distribution into foreign markets, and I'm not sure the best way to proceed. It's a big space. What works well?
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@Captain You finally asked a question that I have absolutely no knowledge of. Good job. :)
Anyone else?
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I guess I'm looking to sell in Africa and other English speaking places. I'd want something like Amazon, where I send them inventory shipments and they deal with orders. So, obviously, they'd have to be trustworthy.
I don't want to be drop shipping from the US. I suppose I should look at my Ingram account to see what they offer in Africa.
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@Lorne-Kates
Also, completely seriously, if the person you're contemplating loaning to is family / in-law, just don't. It's not worth the risk of the strained relationship that hangs over every Christmas dinner for the rest of time.
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@izzion Seconded. Just give them the money, or don't do it if that is the case.
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@Captain said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
I'm thinking of expanding distribution into foreign markets
International is much more complicated than domestic. Always. (Except between EU countries, when it's just quite a bit more complicated. :) Single Market FTW.) In particular, you have to deal with all the hassle of moving goods and money across borders, and there's an enormous amount of hassle then. Governments have always meddled in such things. Well, definitely for hundreds of years anyway.
For example, I will not purchase anything physical from a US vendor (except when visiting) because I'll get utterly hammered getting it delivered. Did it once and ended up with a stunning quantity of bullshit charges applied to it. Never Again. Paying a possible premium to a local distributor so that I at least don't get to deal with all that pain is very worthwhile.
The lesson in this? If you're expanding elsewhere and are looking to sell to individuals, find a local agent (e.g., a publisher if it is a book). Otherwise you'll be putting them off immediately with a bunch of crap they don't want to know about and which you've been ignoring so far. If it's a book and you're willing to just do e-books, Amazon make this sort of thing incredibly easy.
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If anyone is wondering how you start your 4th business, I can say from experience that you do so while mostly drunk at a Father's Day BBQ. Tomorrow is the deciding factor on whether or not I get back in to the excavating business.
Seriously, I am not trying to be a cockhole, but right now I love being me. I am super happy. I have two profitable business ventures (one profitable, another just starting to make money), one that will become profitable soon and I started a fourth today. I really don't want to be the type to gloat. I just have a lot to be thankful for and don't know where to celebrate. This thread seems like as good a place as any.
Oh, and to make the greenies cry, the newest venture involves CAFO's.
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@Captain said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Does anybody here sell internationally? I'm thinking of expanding distribution into foreign markets, and I'm not sure the best way to proceed. It's a big space. What works well?
Selling bootlegs of licensed materials in China.
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@izzion said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Lorne-Kates
Also, completely seriously, if the person you're contemplating loaning to is family / in-law, just don't. It's not worth the risk of the strained relationship that hangs over every Christmas dinner for the rest of time.Dear fuck no. Never.
Was thinking of basically trying to start up a small-scale angel-investment company for creative types, as an alternative to Kickstarter.
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@izzion said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Lorne-Kates
Also, completely seriously, if the person you're contemplating loaning to is family / in-law, just don't. It's not worth the risk of the strained relationship that hangs over every Christmas dinner for the rest of time.Dear fuck no. Never.
Was thinking of basically trying to start up a small-scale angel-investment company for creative types, as an alternative to Kickstarter.
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@Lorne-Kates said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
alternative to Kickstarter.
A kick in the testicles from a donkey on steroids would be preferable to Kickstarter.
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I have mentioned a few times before that the first person to name a number in a negotiation loses. Today was a good example of that.
I needed some IP for a project (is that vague enough). It isn't anything that we could not build ourselves, but I knew of a good implementation that would save us a ton of time, if the price was right. So I contact the guy who owns the copyright to the IP and schedule a call with him. We talk about terms and restrictions, etc. All is going well. I figured before the call that I was comfortable with a payment of $X/licensed client install.
When it comes time to talk price, I ask what he wanted and he comes back with half what I was willing to pay. I seriously considered talking him down for a moment, but just rolled with it. Realistically, I probably could have because most people lead with their high number and expect to negotiate down some.
My strategy is always to just get them to name a number first. No matter what, the first person to put a number in the negotiation loses. And honestly, he left half the money laying on the table as soon as he named a number. But, he walked away from the deal with what he wanted, and I walked away with a unit cost half what I expected to pay. So we both feel like we got a good deal, and those are the best ones to make. Everyone is happy.
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@Lorne-Kates said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@izzion said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Lorne-Kates
Also, completely seriously, if the person you're contemplating loaning to is family / in-law, just don't. It's not worth the risk of the strained relationship that hangs over every Christmas dinner for the rest of time.Dear fuck no. Never.
Was thinking of basically trying to start up a small-scale angel-investment company for creative types, as an alternative to Kickstarter.
It seems like the crowdfunding market is already pretty saturated.
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@Captain Better know someone in the foreign place you're selling too, at least in Brazil there is a lot of bullshit that you should learn to avoid trouble. Like lot's of taxes, and how to avoid your stuff from "disappearing" at our wonderful mail system.
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Today I stopped by to pick up something from a friend I go shooting with. He is big time in to reloading and there was another fellow there dropping off some lead for him to cast bullets from. I like to learn about people, so I asked him where he gets all the lead from. His story was fascinating...at least to me.
Basically, 2-4 days a week he visits local ranges with a hand operated screen machine that be built out of some saw horses, some 2x4's and some hardware cloth. He screens material from the berms to collect the lead. He also has Rubbermaid trash cans he sets up at the ranges for guys to dump their spent brass in to. He said in ~4 hours he can screen enough material to collect 500-800lbs of lead plus thousands of spent casings.
He brings all of that back to his shop where spends 1-2 days a week where he melts down the lead and casts it in to 1lb ingots that he sells for $1 a piece. Most of his sales are in his online store where he sells it for $30 for 25lbs delivered in a USPS flat-rate box. (I bet the USPS never thought that their flat rate boxes would be used to deliver lead...)
He also built a tumbler that will process 50 gallons of brass at a go with soap and cleaning media. He sells the brass cleaned, but without primers removed. He said he gets about $.10/per for .223 brass.
So lets do some rough, back of the napkin calculations.
Let's say 3 days a week, 4 hours a day screening material to get the lead. Let's also err on the low side and say he averages 600lbs of lead per trip. That is 1800 lbs of lead per week. Let's assume that there is 10% waste. $1,620/week. Of course, there are some fuel costs involved there, and I don't know what those are. Any guess would be just that, a guess. He did say that his fuel costs "weren't that much". Hell, let's guess and call it $120/week just to make for a nice round number of $1,500/week.
So, he is doing $1,500/week profit on just lead to sell to people who cast their own bullets. That is before we even look at brass sales. This guy is probably making $100K/year with very little capital investment and no education to speak of and no boss to worry about. All because he saw a need and he filled it.
Is it a hot, dirty, potentially dangerous job? Yep. But I think of people like him anytime I hear someone say, "There is no way I could start a business".
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Yup. I just started my second. No profits yet, but they'll come in time. $8 at a time. 50 times a day. I hope.
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@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
(I bet the USPS never thought that their flat rate boxes would be used to deliver lead...)
Evil ideas thread is
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@Captain it's difficult to turn that many tricks in a day
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@Jaloopa Things Yo Mamma says...
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@Polygeekery I wonder if some friends of mine who have businesses selling geeky craft stuff want to buy any lead to cast and make figurines....
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@Jaloopa said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Captain it's difficult to turn that many tricks in a day
I suppose it depends on how skilled you are.
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@Yamikuronue said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
@Polygeekery I wonder if some friends of mine who have businesses selling geeky craft stuff want to buy any lead to cast and make figurines....
There's only one way to find out, and I bet you could get started for <$200. :)
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@Polygeekery I'm actually not capable of walking around a shooting range for four hours picking up spent bullets :(
I need to hurry up and breed so I can make my kid do it
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@Yamikuronue The problem with that is you would need to wait until they are fully developed. Lead does bad things to growing kiddos. And, by the time they are old enough, they are too old to be free labor.
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@Polygeekery @Yamikuronue: you can have your kids do your QA tasks for you while you pick up slugs. All you do is press buttons, right?
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@Captain said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
All you do is press buttons, right?
Isn't that all any of us here do?
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@Captain
Defect report: Goo appeared all over screen when I tried to load the submission form.Aside: hm, this goo looks suspiciously like Peas and Carrots baby food
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@Captain said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
All you do is press buttons, right?
Not true! I'll beg you not to spread such vile slander!
...I also occasionally wiggle sticks.
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@Polygeekery said in Ask the entrepreneurs advice:
Oh, and to make the greenies cry, the newest venture involves CAFO's.
Poor animals :(
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@otter They are pigs, so more bacon.
Concentrated animal feeding operation - Wikipedia
