Surly Thread of Business Owners/Managers, Etc. & Current Business Climate

[VABuckeye 2472]

I guess we were one of the lucky ones.  That little bank in south Texas already got us the paid note for forgiveness #1 and is working on forgiveness for #2.

I wish the SBA was as efficient.  We are approved for our increased EIDL loan but they seem to have a huge backlog when it comes to the modification of the loan and disbursement.

[Brew 3049]

I haven’t seen anyone under $2M have any issues or it take any significant time. The only ones I have seen drawn out are the $2M+ ones that had to deal with the questionnaire when it started in late a November. I know of several in the same boat we were in timing although they had not submitted as early as we did.

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

On 6/11/2021 at 4:29 PM, VABuckeye said:

That little bank in south Texas already got us the paid note for forgiveness #1 and is working on forgiveness for #2.

Same.

Can't imagine the stress of having both out there and relying on the Government to make it OK.

[Chewbacca 7793]

Just submitted my PPP #2 forgiveness app.  Let the waiting game begin.

[bernorange 8374]

5 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

Just submitted my PPP #2 forgiveness app.  Let the waiting game begin.

I did the same this morning. 

[VABuckeye 2472]

Round 2 forgiven. Note arrived in today’s mail. 

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

Fuck yeah! Nice job, @VABuckeye

[Chewbacca 7793]

17 hours ago, VABuckeye said:

Round 2 forgiven. Note arrived in today’s mail. 

Nice.  When did you apply?

[VABuckeye 2472]

January as soon as it came out. 

[Chewbacca 7793]

13 minutes ago, VABuckeye said:

January as soon as it came out. 

I meant when you applied for forgiveness on Round 2.  

[VABuckeye 2472]

As soon as they released the forgiveness rules.  I think it was late April. 

[pearlandhorn 3327]

Just got the letter from SBA for my company's $2.4 mil loan.  100% forgiven.  Applied first round in April 2020 and submitted forgiveness 11/30/2020.  Did not apply second round.

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

That reminds me, I need to borrow 2.4mil.

[BabaYaga 15371]

20 hours ago, Cheeseweasel said:

That reminds me, I need to borrow 2.4mil.

[Chewbacca 7793]

Only took 10 days.  Got news that my PPP #2 was forgiven and paid off yesterday.  Quite a bit different than round 1.  

[VABuckeye 2472]

The new hell is funding the second round of EIDL loans.  It's a disaster.

[Chewbacca 7793]

5 minutes ago, VABuckeye said:

The new hell is funding the second round of EIDL loans.  It's a disaster.

Thankfully we don't have one of those.  i'm done with this mess.

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

12 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

Only took 10 days.  Got news that my PPP #2 was forgiven and paid off yesterday.  Quite a bit different than round 1.  

Outstanding. Still waiting on our second notice, but the first one went so well, I assumed we were ahead of the curve.

[washparkhorn 9939]

Public assistance isn't what it used to be. 

But thanks for doing your part to get the economy moving. 

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

Buncha fucking freeloaders with their hands out looking for free money.*
 

*that’s a joke. Glad folks were able to get help when they needed it most.

[Incredulity 11686]

17 hours ago, washparkhorn said:

Public assistance isn't what it used to be. 

But thanks for doing your part to get the economy moving. 

Actually it is all of what it used to be. 
 

Plus all this.

 

Plus, “Human Infrastructure” real soon.

 

Get the fuck out with your bullshit.

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

45 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

Actually it is all of what it used to be. 
 

Plus all this.

 

Plus, “Human Infrastructure” real soon.

 

Get the fuck out with your bullshit.

But seriously, thank goodness we were all able to rely on public assistance to keep us afloat.

Started a company with $12k in capital that has generated more than $50MM in revenue. Covid brought us to our knees and thought we were going to lose it all. We bounced back quickly and grew 20% through the pandemic, but as a bootstrapped company that was pouring all profits into our growth (living paycheck to paycheck if you will), we needed help to survive a situation totally outside of our control.

Makes me appreciate those who experience something similar and just need help. 

[VABuckeye 2472]

Count me among that group.  I’m not sure if we’d survive 2020 without PPP. Our 2021 growth is off the charts with no slowing down in sight. 

[LABEVO 928]

On 6/25/2021 at 11:19 AM, VABuckeye said:

The new hell is funding the second round of EIDL loans.  It's a disaster.

1234.

I talked with our advisor and the factor driving is that IRS is not responsive to lenders. 

[VABuckeye 2472]

We received the DocuSign today so it appears that the process is coming to a close for us.

[bernorange 8374]

Received an email today that our forgiveness app for PPP rd 2 was approved.  2 weeks from app submission.  Our loan was small though (<50K) so maybe fast tracked.

[Brew 3049]

SBA has dropped the questionnaire for loans over $2M which is likely what has started getting some of those processed. The Associated General Contractors of America sued the SBA over it and the SBA relented. Not sure what it means long-term especially related to audits, but it should speed up forgiveness at this point.

[Fudge Nuggets 19276]

Bunch of dead beats. 

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

18 hours ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Bunch of dead beats. 

[hornian 5251]

Finally received notice that our PPP (round 1) was forgiven. We submitted back in March, so it took 5 months. 

[Slacks 6916]

First time in this thread... very interesting last few pages... wasn't what I expected.

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

6 minutes ago, Snacks said:

First time in this thread... very interesting last few pages... wasn't what I expected.

What did you expect?

[Slacks 6916]

17 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:

What did you expect?

I was hoping to find some discussion on the path to freedom via business ownership (and that may be in the previous 30 pages)...

I was surprised by the open discussion of welfare (given the politics of our state and this board from time to time).  No judgement, just unexpected.

 

[Slacks 6916]

Nope... my bad... I see now... this is the "Oh, shit! Covid!" Thread...

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

Just now, Snacks said:

Nope... my bad... I see now... this is the "Oh, shit! Covid!" Thread...

Yeah, Covid and PPP dominated this thread for the last 2 years, but that's understandable. 

[hornian 5251]

41 minutes ago, Snacks said:

I was hoping to find some discussion on the path to freedom via business ownership (and that may be in the previous 30 pages)...

I was surprised by the open discussion of welfare (given the politics of our state and this board from time to time).  No judgement, just unexpected.

 

Free money is free money. 

[Chewbacca 7793]

57 minutes ago, Snacks said:

I was hoping to find some discussion on the path to freedom via business ownership (and that may be in the previous 30 pages)...

I was surprised by the open discussion of welfare (given the politics of our state and this board from time to time).  No judgement, just unexpected.

 

Find something you're good at.  Save up money.  Start business.  

Do you have specific questions about starting or running a business?

[VABuckeye 2472]

Right?  There are a lot of business owners here and a very hot topic especially throughout a good portion of 2020 was devoted to saving our businesses, keeping our employees employed and keeping them paid throughout COVID.  I'm fairly certain most if not all of us accomplished that.

Personally we were then able to leverage going from survival mode to what is looking like a 200% increase in business for 2021 and the sky is the limit in 2022 if I can continue to find and hire highly skilled a certified techs and then retain them.  We have been working on a retention plan for our little company for several months now and I'm proud to say that we are now offering a company funded HSA, a 401K plan and a profit sharing plan to be reviewed and implemented after the first month of each year.  We are also looking to overhaul our health care plan during the first quarter of 2022 when the plan comes up for renewal.  It will still be a high deductible plan but we want to offer the best plan we can for our people.

The last thing we are working on is improving the support and information flow to our techs in the field to ensure that they have the tools they need to be successful and to keep our projects on point.

As to a path to freedom?  The decisions and choices rest on me and my management team but if you think it's freedom you are misinformed.  The buck still stops with the business owner and if you are looking for stress relief and shorter working hours I suggest you look elsewhere.  It's a labor of love but it's also hard work and sometimes you have to make hard decisions.

[Incredulity 11686]

10 minutes ago, VABuckeye said:

As to a path to freedom?  The decisions and choices rest on me and my management team but if you think it's freedom you are misinformed.  The buck still stops with the business owner and if you are looking for stress relief and shorter working hours I suggest you look elsewhere.  It's a labor of love but it's also hard work and sometimes you have to make hard decisions.

would rep more if could

[Slacks 6916]

1 hour ago, Chewbacca said:

Find something you're good at.  Save up money.  Start business.  

Do you have specific questions about starting or running a business?

I have interest in buying something that is already running, but isn't just another job.  I don't have specific questions, yet, because I'm in "Don't know what I don't know" territory...

[Slacks 6916]

27 minutes ago, VABuckeye said:

As to a path to freedom?  The decisions and choices rest on me and my management team but if you think it's freedom you are misinformed.  The buck still stops with the business owner and if you are looking for stress relief and shorter working hours I suggest you look elsewhere.  It's a labor of love but it's also hard work and sometimes you have to make hard decisions.

I'm looking for more financial value in exchange for my time.  The difficult part is that I do decently well in what I do, working from home, etc...  I've looked at buying different types of small businesses, but the time and money tradeoffs meant I was clearly looking at the wrong types of small businesses.

[Slacks 6916]

2 hours ago, Cheeseweasel said:

Yeah, Covid and PPP dominated this thread for the last 2 years, but that's understandable. 

That's how the thread started... and pretty much continued.

[Slacks 6916]

1 hour ago, hornian said:

Free money is free money. 

It's not free money...  we pay for it, just like we pay welfare and food stamps.

Not judging.  It's free to you and I'd take it, too.

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

4 minutes ago, Snacks said:

It's not free money...  we pay for it, just like we pay welfare and food stamps.

Not judging.  It's free to you and I'd take it, too.

The Government shut businesses down. I'm fine with the Government paying employees/businesses as a result.

[Slacks 6916]

4 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:

The Government shut businesses down. I'm fine with the Government paying employees/businesses as a result.

Everyone has their reasons for needing assistance when they need it.  I'm fine with it, too.

But, again, "The Government" isn't paying for it.  You and I are paying for it.

[Incredulity 11686]

21 minutes ago, Snacks said:

I'm looking for more financial value in exchange for my time.  The difficult part is that I do decently well in what I do, working from home, etc...  I've looked at buying different types of small businesses, but the time and money tradeoffs meant I was clearly looking at the wrong types of small businesses.

In general you are going to make a whole lot less for a while in the hopes the business will thrive to a point to make more.

In general people don't sell businesses that are producing lots of financial value for your time.  Those businesses sell for $$$$$.  If you see potential value in a business it can work, but there will be blood.

[Incredulity 11686]

18 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:

The Government shut businesses down. I'm fine with the Government paying employees/businesses as a result.

Everyone got cents on the dollar.  The fuckery unleashed is the suck.

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

2 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

Everyone got cents on the dollar.  The fuckery unleashed is the suck.

No doubt. It's a huge shit sandwich, and we're all going to have to take a bite. 

[Slacks 6916]

23 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

In general you are going to make a whole lot less for a while in the hopes the business will thrive to a point to make more.

In general people don't sell businesses that are producing lots of financial value for your time.  Those businesses sell for $$$$$.  If you see potential value in a business it can work, but there will be blood.

Your first sentence I get.

Your second sentence... If someone is selling a business at 3x EBITDA of $500k, That's $1.5MM sale price.... 

and if I'm looking at a few rules of thumb:

Using 1x Revenue -- expect $1.5MM revenue

20% Net Profit margin = $300k

10% Net Profit Margin = $150k

Seems reasonable to me considering low costs of capital... especially if I think I can find ways to +rev/-exp.

 

[VABuckeye 2472]

I operate at gross profit of 65-80% before labor on a project.  I'd kill myself at those margins.