Finance/Small Business ownership etc.

[tmleadr03]

The other stuff scares me. Taxes, employee labor law etc. (2-3 employee's.)
Other business is more diverse, and I'd say seems to have wasted money on some more lavish things. Little less selection in the hobby area I'm in. The current store which is supposed to be making profit, wife is having him move elsewhere in state was what he said.


As far as dedication, the hope was since it's my hobby I could pour myself into it. I'm the type that wouldn't mind putting in 8 hours, 7 days a week as long as I can take off here and there. I have good credit, but without much collateral, I don't see it happening for just that reason. I could come up with probably 12k and that includes turning my car into a hoopty. Long term, I doubt I'd be getting say rich off of it. But if I could enjoy it and make say 40-60k + gf's job. (Whoops me at $25/hour atm) I'd be pretty happy with that.

To make some of the idea clearer and hoping none of the people at these places are on the gun forum. It's saltwater aquarium/coral/fish etc. Store I'm interested in sells just fresh/salt. I'd like to take it pure salt like Elite Reef in Westminster.

What about 14 hours 6 days a week? There have been a few times when I hit 60 hours on Thursday. Then worked Friday all day and some on Saturday.

[Batteriesnare]

I was about to say the same thing. I've had the awesome opportunity to work for two family businesses, and if the owner had less than a 70 week it was a slow week. I'm the second employee of my current employer and I'm lucky to stay under 65 hours a week - but I'd rather be in small business 65 hours a week than corporate business 40 hours a week for the more pay.

[Wulf202]

The bank decided to move up the completion date for the loan on a custom home. I started counting Saturday am and had 40 hours in by Monday evening. I lost track of the hours after that, but we pulled off the completion by thursday, barely.

[fitz19d]

What about 14 hours 6 days a week? There have been a few times when I hit 60 hours on Thursday. Then worked Friday all day and some on Saturday.

I love 12 hour shifts but that's when you get many days off. Certain elements of the store I'd think would be limited on physical work work. Unlike mechanic. Though on other hand, I know some of the business is aquarium maintenance. I never see the owner that much, but he may be the only or main guy to go house to house doing that.

[Irving]

When we had to remodel a unit after the eviction we thought we'd knock it out in one day. It was only paint and flooring. We started later than we wanted on Saturday and finished late Friday. Kind of. We learned the hard way to let someone else do the flooring. It ended up being way cheaper and faster to have someone else do it, bit it still didn't get done until Tuesday. The tenant viewed the unit on Monday with no carpet and moved in the next day. Time was of the essence.

I missed a great weekend with my wife and kid, but still had more fun than answering phones work all day.

[RCCrawler]

You've mentioned several times already about having time off. Owning your own business you never have time off, you should be the first one there, and the last to leave, at least for the first few years.

Remember, any minute you are not there you are paying someone else to be there.

[SuperiorDG]

You've mentioned several times already about having time off. Owning your own business you never have time off, you should be the first one there, and the last to leave, at least for the first few years.

Remember, any minute you are not there you are paying someone else to be there.

Always remember that when you are not there, you are still there.

[spqrzilla]

Another left field question for some of the experts here. Especially this one as I know there are some small business type owners. I'm curious when it comes to a small business, esp. with the new court laws on how a business can be a person. What happens when a business fails? Does that debt go to the owner? Or is the owner actually clear of that past any personal investment they've made?

You are confused. Your first sentence has nothing to do with your question. Nothing. There are no "new court laws" that do any such thing. You should not listen to leftie tripe about the Citizens United decision, it was just about the First Amendment.

A business that is an entity with limited liability like a corporation or a limited liability company (LLC) insulates its shareholders/members from liability for the company's debts if and only if the shareholders / members did not separately promise to be liable (like signing a guarantee for a loan to the company or guarantee a lease) and/or so long as the shareholders / members are not separately liable for the debt such as being joint tortfeasors (e.g. get into an accident while driving the company car) and so long as they did not do something else to pierce the corporate shield (talk to your attorney about this when you form a corporation or limited liability company ... or you used Legal Zoom and got no legal advice? Tough titties).

[Firehaus]

Great advice already posted. Can't reiterate enough about no time off and enormous work load with long weekly hours.

Fish stores our a hard business. Have you started growing coral in your basement yet? Did you know CJ still works a full time job that pays well? Hard to have a business that pays the owners salary, especially at first. A lot of times, the boss makes less than some employees, especially the hourly rate! Lol!

[fitz19d]

Cj the one at Elite Reef? Don't know the name.

@ zilla, I phrased it poorly, meant it as a question whether any of that ruling and preexisting laws worked that way. Why? Because I don't know hence the question.

I don't do vacation, and some of what I do in my free time could almost be done sitting at work. The time I guess still would suck, but not that it bothers me too much. The idea that I wouldn't be able to pay myself for quite a long while though is a problem. (How do you live in the meantime.) I don't have the $ to take a business loan if I somehow got it and just live off my savings for a couple years. (Existing profitable business or not.) He won't finance, so it would have to be via bank or a partnership.

Maybe in a decade I could be to where it would be more feasible. Maybe a miracle and the economy will be back to a good place too and loans flowing.

Firehaus, I have more $$ in coral than I want to think about. I've been losing some because of a move and having too many crammed together waiting for a bigger tank. Not too many super pricey ones to sell, just large variety and #. Not big on SPS, lots of acan/zoa/chalice/misc. (<3 frogspawn) Some of it's really taking off. I'm past due to chop down some damn leathers.