how's business?

[queenlives]

My biotech employer is doing well still, just some pressure from government for reimbursements and bringing in generics.

My other business supports some law firms and they seem to be thriving right now as I was told this economic situation tends to escalate litigation.

My GF has a sitdown restaurant that serves upscale Thai food. Business was very strong in February, a little weaker in March. Still has very busy nights but surprisingly some weak nights when they were supposed to be strong. Customers there are complaining the economic situation is hitting their business. Because of the location of the restaurant, 90% of her clients work in the film business (Hollywood). Like m3456y mentioned there's a lot of stuff going on that I overhear during dinnertime conversations. I know a few guys who haven't worked in months because they own their own companies in the film business and are now taking jobs they wouldn't normally take.

My friends that own McDonald's restaurants are seeing increases in sales. I think that's from the people cutting out the more expensive eating options.

interesting on all points, thx, rap.

our son's gf is an aspiring (actually working) actress who also fills in as a server @ a high-end restaurant and reports much of what you said about your gf's work.

a follow-up comment on our son's security business is he's now seeing a number of businesses moving to different / smaller facilities and needing to uninstall old / install in the new locations.

 

[queenlives]

Our company has gone from over 3,000 employees to around 400 max. We've stopped projects (8 in total) with immediate effect and aren't paying our contractors. There's no money in the bank and the company is way over leveraged for Dubai. Dubai is in trouble!!!

yikes!

best of luck in hanging on.

 

[queenlives]

I recently lost my job and i'm quite ok with it. Personally, i didn't see any value or reason why I should work for someone to build up their dream. Honestly, I make a so-so employee (not that i did a bad job at what i did). I was an Analyst for a corporation and after seeing people lose their jobs when they dedicated their profession/lives to it, it left a distaste in my mouth.

Since i got laid off, i find it the perfect opportunity to start my business. Otherwise, it'd be too hard to leave since i'd be comfortable.

sounds to me like you're at the right place and time in life for course-correcting your future.

i'm very happy to hear that you're "ok" with the situation... so often i see people gnash and thrash until they start to fly apart... life's waaaay too short for that to happen.

hal

 

[DocL]

To answer your questions Hal I've been using the same business plan for the past five years with great success. It's called "cheerfully tell the patients what they need and gladly do what they want." I also advertise in the local newspaper and get a lot of referrals from my existing patients. We don't sell anyone anything. You aren't going to leave my office with a $200 toothbrush or some wacky rinse to help with bad breath. I do my job, and I do it as well as I can. That's pretty much it.

 

[queenlives]

To answer your questions Hal I've been using the same business plan for the past five years with great success. It's called "cheerfully tell the patients what they need and gladly do what they want." I also advertise in the local newspaper and get a lot of referrals from my existing patients. We don't sell anyone anything. You aren't going to leave my office with a $200 toothbrush or some wacky rinse to help with bad breath. I do my job, and I do it as well as I can. That's pretty much it.

very cool, congrats.

 

[Yawwn]

thx for this... i've been meaning to ask, how are involved are you personally with working the crop / land? at this point, is that primarily handled by staff or are you involved in it?

Hi queenlives,
I have a maintenance company that I subcontract with. The owner has been doing grapes since he was like 5 years old, so I know I'm in good hands. The funny thing is that I'm taking some viticulture and wine making classes which involve labs out on the school's vineyards. Therefore, I'm doing the grunt work of pruning, pulling weeds, making wire trellises, and other things for the school for free (I don't need the credits), when I could be doing the same work on my property and saving myself some money. My maintenance guy gets a hearty laugh every time I point that out to him.
Since I am taking the classes, I am learning much more about what it takes to maintain a vineyard, so for this year's crop, I am much more involved in the decision-making process. In previous years, I just relied on him to make the best choices on my behalf.
As part of my other class, I have been doing labs at the winery, so I also have picked up a lot of knowledge, and I now have a much better feel for the decisions on the winemaking (fermentation, barreling and racking, filtering, oak alternatives, blending, etc). I think my wine will only get better over time, and I am very excited about that prospect.
I would like to extend an invitation to you and anyone from Prime who wants to visit and do some barrel tasting (and eventually wine tasting once I get all the legal stuff completed with the TTB). Please feel free to PM me.
Perhaps we can make it an unofficial NorCAL event in which all are welcome.
In any case until that happens, please PM me to visit a day or two in advance.
Thanks.

 

[DrVolkl]

To answer your questions Hal I've been using the same business plan for the past five years with great success. It's called "cheerfully tell the patients what they need and gladly do what they want." I also advertise in the local newspaper and get a lot of referrals from my existing patients. We don't sell anyone anything. You aren't going to leave my office with a $200 toothbrush or some wacky rinse to help with bad breath. I do my job, and I do it as well as I can. That's pretty much it.

Sounds very similar to my business plan. I don't do any marketing anymore...except for my $20 a month Dex phone book listing. I decided not to do our local yellow book ad ($2000) this year. I would say 80% of our new patients are referrals, the rest are from insurance web sites or just driving by our location.

So far, still experiencing growth... I've added staff, given raises, bonuses, etc.

Still I'm being careful not to over extend myself...keeping debts low.

 

[Mr Payne]

Our company is still hiring, significant oil producer. Finances of my unit appear to be alright.

 

[queenlives]

Hi queenlives,
I have a maintenance company that I subcontract with. The owner has been doing grapes since he was like 5 years old, so I know I'm in good hands. The funny thing is that I'm taking some viticulture and wine making classes which involve labs out on the school's vineyards. Therefore, I'm doing the grunt work of pruning, pulling weeds, making wire trellises, and other things for the school for free (I don't need the credits), when I could be doing the same work on my property and saving myself some money. My maintenance guy gets a hearty laugh every time I point that out to him.

Since I am taking the classes, I am learning much more about what it takes to maintain a vineyard, so for this year's crop, I am much more involved in the decision-making process. In previous years, I just relied on him to make the best choices on my behalf.

As part of my other class, I have been doing labs at the winery, so I also have picked up a lot of knowledge, and I now have a much better feel for the decisions on the winemaking (fermentation, barreling and racking, filtering, oak alternatives, blending, etc). I think my wine will only get better over time, and I am very excited about that prospect.

I would like to extend an invitation to you and anyone from Prime who wants to visit and do some barrel tasting (and eventually wine tasting once I get all the legal stuff completed with the TTB). Please feel free to PM me.
Perhaps we can make it an unofficial NorCAL event in which all are welcome.
In any case until that happens, please PM me to visit a day or two in advance.

Thanks.

sounds like (no surprise) quite an effort but one that you're enjoying - very cool.

the invite to nsxca / primers sounds like a nice way to spend a few hours... perhaps we can take you up on that this year. in return, you're quite welcome to help me wrangle my bees over in campbell... i'll arrange to get dtrigg here and we'll break open a case, er, hive

have a good weekend.
hal

 

[queenlives]

Our company is still hiring, significant oil producer. Finances of my unit appear to be alright.

good for you - job stability is a good thing to have, especially in today's world.

 

[Dtrigg]

sounds like (no surprise) quite an effort but one that you're enjoying - very cool.

the invite to nsxca / primers sounds like a nice way to spend a few hours... perhaps we can take you up on that this year. in return, you're quite welcome to help me wrangle my bees over in campbell... i'll arrange to get dtrigg here and we'll break open a case, er, hive

have a good weekend.
hal

WHAT! I get hives thinking about that Hal!

 

[queenlives]

WHAT! I get hives thinking about that Hal!

no sense in you gettin' hives, doug - i've got two hives... there's plenty here for both of us

 

[Yawwn]

sounds like (no surprise) quite an effort but one that you're enjoying - very cool.

the invite to nsxca / primers sounds like a nice way to spend a few hours... perhaps we can take you up on that this year. in return, you're quite welcome to help me wrangle my bees over in campbell... i'll arrange to get dtrigg here and we'll break open a case, er, hive

have a good weekend.
hal

Hi Hal,
Looking forward to having you all over. We should plan to do this before I put the house on the market and sell it.
Handling bees actually sounds like a lot of fun. I'd like to take you up on your offer as well.

Thank you.

 

[Ben]

i gave the past 3.5 years of my life to this company.

Rob, I feel for you.

I was in a similar situation. I gave 4 years of my life to my previous company, to the point of putting everything else in my life on hold. As a product manager, products that I brought to market were used by 4 of the top 6 clients (including the top 3) in our industry, and brought in tens of millions in revenue for the company during my time there.

In the end, after politics (unrelated to me) culminated in a full management change, the new management, once they had their hands fully entrenched in the cookie jar, proceeded to purge or force out just about all of the people that made the company great so that they could install their own cronies. I got thrown under the bus (along with many other people), and was screwed out of what I was promised at sign on to the tune of over $300K. Unfortunately, consultations with lawyers ended in the conclusion that legal fees would erase anything I could hope to win.

Since the new management came to power, they've managed to:

1. Lose #1 market share
2. Lose all of the top clients I mentioned above
3. 1st ever, followed by 2nd, 3rd, and most likely 4th quarterly losses in 20+ year company history
4. 1st ever layoff in 20+ year company history not related to M&A

Anyway, as with you, I could go on and on, so I'd better stop here.

 

[Ben]

I recently lost my job and i'm quite ok with it. Personally, i didn't see any value or reason why I should work for someone to build up their dream. Honestly, I make a so-so employee (not that i did a bad job at what i did). I was an Analyst for a corporation and after seeing people lose their jobs when they dedicated their profession/lives to it, it left a distaste in my mouth.

Since i got laid off, i find it the perfect opportunity to start my business. Otherwise, it'd be too hard to leave since i'd be comfortable.

My sentiments exactly!! I am in almost exactly the same situation. I looked back at my old co-workers, some of whom were 45, 50+ years old, and they were doing the exact same thing that I was doing, working like dogs to build someone else's dream, while only taking home a modest income themself.

Looking forward, I don't want to end up like them, so the way to go is startup, or starting my own business.

 

[queenlives]

Hi Hal,
Looking forward to having you all over. We should plan to do this before I put the house on the market and sell it.
Handling bees actually sounds like a lot of fun. I'd like to take you up on your offer as well.

Thank you.

sorry for the very tardy response - i claim "brain cramp"

let me know when you'd like to visit and spend some time with the bees... warm, calm-wind days are best. feel free to email me via prime and we can make arrangements.

hal

 

[SOURCE 1]

1st Quarter for me was down over previous years. Simply people are paying bills instead of buying used cars with tax returns. Still doing great across the board but just about 5% off. Tax season for me is atill a great time. We are looking at adding our third lot right now which will put me at 75% of my goal.

I am excited and looking forward to another great year.

I pray for all of you that are falling on hard times. Keep your head up it will all turn around. Some of my closest friends are loosing homes, cars etc.. It sucks!

Wish you all good luck!

 

[JonBoy]

Earnings dropped roughly 30% (43% after a lawsuit provision) this quarter. However, revenues increased roughly 9% and our backlog dropped "only" by about 10%. We're forecasting an upturn in Q3 and Q4 of this year but for now, we're tightening the belt and taking advantage to boost training and streamline each division. We've laid off 10% of our workforce in the last four months and there are probably a few more on the way.

On a happier note, I got a 10% raise and a promotion today. This is on top of my prior raise two months ago so I've seen a substantial increase in my take-home pay, as well as my day-to-day responsibilities. God is good!

 

[queenlives]

1st Quarter for me was down over previous years. Simply people are paying bills instead of buying used cars with tax returns. Still doing great across the board but just about 5% off. Tax season for me is atill a great time. We are looking at adding our third lot right now which will put me at 75% of my goal.

I am excited and looking forward to another great year.

I pray for all of you that are falling on hard times. Keep your head up it will all turn around. Some of my closest friends are loosing homes, cars etc.. It sucks!

Wish you all good luck!

congrats on the 3rd lot and +1 on wishing everyone well.

 

[queenlives]

Earnings dropped roughly 30% (43% after a lawsuit provision) this quarter. However, revenues increased roughly 9% and our backlog dropped "only" by about 10%. We're forecasting an upturn in Q3 and Q4 of this year but for now, we're tightening the belt and taking advantage to boost training and streamline each division. We've laid off 10% of our workforce in the last four months and there are probably a few more on the way.

On a happier note, I got a 10% raise and a promotion today. This is on top of my prior raise two months ago so I've seen a substantial increase in my take-home pay, as well as my day-to-day responsibilities. God is good!

although challenging, leaning / streamlining during difficult times can be great for re-positioning the company for improved performance as biz recovers.

congrats on your personal success, too - it's nice to be recognized with more than just words.