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

[immamac 44199]

10 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:

We'll never know what would have happened as an alternative. I think the fact that businesses survived, the unemployment rates stayed low, etc. are pretty good measures of success.

 

I agree. The funding end was good, the "forgiveness" part was a sham. The should go after the abusers.

PPP as an alternative to doing nothing mitigated disaster, but PPP as an alternative to something sane with slightly more oversight is most certainly going to go down as one of the biggest black eyes.

We know that PPP was rife with fraud, misallocated funds, and all kinds of other nonsense that profited banks and megacorps most and the intended audience of SBO least. That's measurable and known today. 

[Cheeseweasel 26439]

Hindsight is 20/20 and our government moves slow as shit. The bill was crafted with the typical Washington thought of "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it". At that point, the scammers had already figured it out. Good program shitty execution. 

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

When you're looking back through that 20/20 lens, try to remember the part where the global economy was quickly coming to a grinding halt and that the US government known for moving 'slow as shit' was put in the unenviable position of having to do something very, very quickly. They weren't in a position to be able to hammer out every detail, unfortunately.

And yep, it has led to a lot of fraud...but was it better than the alternative of doing nothing? Of course.

[Cheeseweasel 26439]

Yup. Well said.

[Brew 3049]

Everyone can keep telling themselves all of that to make themselves feel better, but there are a laundry of issues that were created after the first round was authorized and through the forgiveness timing. Forgiveness itself was a moving target well into the end of the year as the IRS kept moving the target. We had a number of companies that expected to pay it back with the early guidance that got swept up into forgiveness as guidance changed. Round 1 could have been tied to numbers rather than putting in the economic impact wording. Once you cleared the worst of it, if you had a loss then you keep the funds. If you don’t meet a numeric criteria, then you owed it back. Round 2 should have taken into account other funding mechanisms that people received, specifically in the medical arena or been strictly tied to specified impacted industries. ERTC should never have been opened up to PPP recipients a year after the fact unless they strictly qualified based on revenue reductions. The economic impact bullshit standard that credit companies are qualifying people under are ridiculous. 

Fraud pails in comparison to the number of companies that qualified under the vague economic impact standards and with the moving guidance on forgiveness even though their profits were running at record levels. Without supply chain issues and employee issues, those record profits would have been higher so we are impacted economically. 

[T’Boo Ted Marshall 2779]

Truth.

For many it was a get rich quick type on barely surviving/near fraudulent businesses. For others it was a band aid in case I get cut type funding.

They absolutely should go after the companies that were fraudulent, but it is the US govt. The sound bites are much more colorful than the actual dog bites.

[Hefeweizen 5416]

11 hours ago, Cheeseweasel said:

Nah. I have all the answers I need. Good luck with your sale. I hope you use your profits to practice what you preach.

I always worry about the guys who think they know the answers… especially in engineering, they’re usually wrong, or at least haven’t explored all the possibilities.

[Guest]

Here lately I feel like I work with a shit-ton of folks who cannot even identify what the gotdam questions are.

[Incredulity 11859]

My post history on this thread will confirm as much, but I am to this day stunned the PPP didn’t devolve into a major political cudgel.  

Yes, there was some shaming that got some companies to immediately pay it back.  Given the facts on the ground I don’t blame any company for taking a legitimate PPP loan and applying for forgiveness.

[G650 14421]

What the fuck happened in this thread.

[VABuckeye 2481]

It devolved.  Badly.

[Wally Pryor 5388]

New DOL rule kicking in 7-1-24 revamping non-exempt classification. Recommendation for time-tracking software?  Just a small number of employees who are converting to NE, about 10. 

[Dbeasy 15526]

Bump. Unusual question. 

i need some ideas from the Surly brethren regarding one of my LLC businesses. 

I’ve used it for several years to do management consulting. I’ve decided this year will be the last one where I actively do consulting unless someone approaches me with short well defined consulting opportunities. I don’t want to look for engagements, nor do long involved ones. 

However, for certain reasons I really need this LLC (or a new one) to generate some revenue every year, on the order of $15k+ for the next 3-4 years. It doesn’t not need to be profitable. Breakeven ish would be fine. 

I don’t want to have to monitor the business closely, unless it’s for 2-3 months per year, or do any prospecting for business, or take on much financial or liability risk. I just need that $15k+ revenue to come in yearly for 3 years.

Here is an example. I could just have a rental house LLC, but I’ve found I hate dealing with tenants. Any thoughts of any other business I could buy or establish? 

[LCHorn 2749]

3 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

Bump. Unusual question. 

i need some ideas from the Surly brethren regarding one of my LLC businesses. 

I’ve used it for several years to do management consulting. I’ve decided this year will be the last one where I actively do consulting unless someone approaches me with short well defined consulting opportunities. I don’t want to look for engagements, nor do long involved ones. 

However, for certain reasons I really need this LLC (or a new one) to generate some revenue every year, on the order of $15k+ for the next 3-4 years. It doesn’t not need to be profitable. Breakeven ish would be fine. 

I don’t want to have to monitor the business closely, unless it’s for 2-3 months per year, or do any prospecting for business, or take on much financial or liability risk. I just need that $15k+ revenue to come in yearly for 3 years.

Here is an example. I could just have a rental house LLC, but I’ve found I hate dealing with tenants. Any thoughts of any other business I could buy or establish? 

If you have money for down-payment on an investment property, maybe you have sufficient funds to make a few hard money loans?

Also, if you hate dealing with tenants that much you can hire a property manager (I’m sure you’ve considered that already).

[Incredulity 11859]

16 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

If you have money for down-payment on an investment property, maybe you have sufficient funds to make a few hard money loans?

This could work.  But if you think you hate tenants wait till you try to collect loan payments from people.

 

If you can find the right piece of small commercial real estate you may be happier with the landlord tenant relationship dealing with a business rather than families.

 

[UTPhil2006 3909]

45 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

If you have money for down-payment on an investment property, maybe you have sufficient funds to make a few hard money loans?

Also, if you hate dealing with tenants that much you can hire a property manager (I’m sure you’ve considered that already).

This. Plenty of small hard money loan requests I come across 

[Dbeasy 15526]

1 hour ago, Incredulity said:

This could work.  But if you think you hate tenants wait till you try to collect loan payments from people.

 

If you can find the right piece of small commercial real estate you may be happier with the landlord tenant relationship dealing with a business rather than families.

 

I like this idea if I could find the right property and have a property manager for it. I have a real estate license so that bolsters the irs requirements for being active in real estate. 

[SydneyCarton 49323]

7 hours ago, Dbeasy said:

Bump. Unusual question. 

i need some ideas from the Surly brethren regarding one of my LLC businesses. 

I’ve used it for several years to do management consulting. I’ve decided this year will be the last one where I actively do consulting unless someone approaches me with short well defined consulting opportunities. I don’t want to look for engagements, nor do long involved ones. 

However, for certain reasons I really need this LLC (or a new one) to generate some revenue every year, on the order of $15k+ for the next 3-4 years. It doesn’t not need to be profitable. Breakeven ish would be fine. 

I don’t want to have to monitor the business closely, unless it’s for 2-3 months per year, or do any prospecting for business, or take on much financial or liability risk. I just need that $15k+ revenue to come in yearly for 3 years.

Here is an example. I could just have a rental house LLC, but I’ve found I hate dealing with tenants. Any thoughts of any other business I could buy or establish? 

Coin Operated businesses, or a Self-Serve Car Wash are popular real-estate investments, particularly for people betting on the appreciation of the real-estate. I've seen some of those for sale over the years, and bring in like 20-30k a year.  Or lots used for paid public parking. 

It wouldn't be surly is someone didn't mention an Eskimo Hutt franchise. 

[VABuckeye 2481]

I think selling smoothies in the islands infused with rum is my next gig. 

[ChickenSandwich 9918]

Topless Bowling Alley

League dues should make the place break even alone. 

Keep it classy.