Ranzan

I`m wondering how many of us runs his/her own company?

The reason I ask is my company has never advertised in the past until this last January we decided to get a website going. I have always used word of mouth for the last 14 years and have always stayed busy but with the way the housing market was last fall till the last couple of months had me a little on edge

We have had the opportunity to have a huge expansion in the past about 4 times and now it has come up again but this time I think I might do it. But going big brings huge risks.....like anything I guess

The Hard part always seems to be is finding good employees who love doing quality work....

not bashing guys that work for other people ...it just is very different from the other side of the table is all

Jamesbo

I have for 30+ years

What kind of business are you in? It sounds like you are manufacturing some thing for houses. Right?

From my experience with "Adverstising/ Public relations you should be very careful of what people selling adds tell you. There's a lot of fluff in the business.

I have been in the Comercial Real-estate development business for 30+ years and was fortunate to see the crash coming so I didnt' have anything in the pipeline.

Most recently [about 2 years ago] I began and now have opened a natural cemetery that can save thousand and thousands in burial cost. It's growing slowly but gaining traction.

Ranzan

Jamesbro We arent in the manufacturing end fortunatly

We do Commercial / Residential Siding..

Here`s a link to our site

www.fergusonexteriors.ca

I think my main issue is taking our company out of the family run way to more mainstream..... if that makes any sense lol

Jamesbo

I take it that means more

1] Neurotic Sales people
2] Estimators
3] Installers
4] Increased advertising budget

All the home builders [who haven't killed them selves] in this neck of the woods are going into the landscaping business. So I would think installers would be easy to hire.

I am guessing you do more replacement on exisitng homes than new construction.

IMHO People are putting off all major expesnes they can [even my dentist says things are slow] So IMHO people are not buying anything they don't absolutely need. Once again, IMHO your siding business may be slow but negleted matenance [at present] may lead to a later boom when the needed work is deferred [in this economy] and later catches up to the homeowner.

Here's my new business site

http://miltonfieldsgeorgia.com/

scrappie

All I can say is bigger is not always better. Along with expansion comes more costs, more employee headaches and more liability along with more investment.
It is easier to decrease expenses than increase business sometimes if increasing profit is your goal.
Although, if you decide to expand, now may be a good time to do so if some costs and expenses can be locked in or equipment purchased at low cost. Negotiating your best deal for the next five years will be the key. Try to have everything paid off in five years and after that if business stays the same you will make more $ and if business gets better you will make even more $.
Just my $.02.

z11375ss

I have been self employed since 1990. My business is filling orders on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. I am an independant broker. I have seen my business contract 50 to 60% in the last year. As far as expansion, I would wait. Keep your cash in hand for when this recession starts to end and then expand. I have also run and closed my own speed shop featuring late model muscle. It cost me a bundle. Advertising was the one thing that more than paid for itself though. One ad on an LSX site and we got alot of work. That ad every month paid many bills. I just don't think the environment is right for expansion of anything. As Jamesbo said, no one is buying anything they don't need. That would include siding. Now roofs are a different matter. I am having one put on now after it rained in my house.

citcapp

I am a one man show. I run a Electrical esitimating and designing business out of my home for commerical and industrial projects. Business is slow and I have stopped working on my 48 Olds until things get better.
I work mostly with developers and Industrial manufacturing companies and both have cut way back on any new projects, so now I am back to where I was 20+ years ago bidding work in the public sector, not fun seems like everyone in the business has moved into this arena. My clients tell me that they don't see anything in the pipeline until late 2010.

I have a lot of time to spend on CO now, so thats why you see me hanging around more often.

Jamesbo

Good points

There's no question "Cash is King" right now. You might still be able to expand in the future with better results [i.e. Some of your competition may not last through this economy and bite the dust]

"Now roofs are a different matter. I am having one put on now after it rained in my house"

IMHO some people are not even doing needed repair. The mortgage comes first, Utilities second, and property taxes a distant third with repairs deferred to hold things together during this mess.

scrappie

I was asked: "what is a good business or career to get into these days if you had 50k to start things?" I could not give an answer. Anybody have any input?

74 Omega

I do as well

www.sdcookman.com

it's a little slow but i am surviving...

lshlsh2

My father and I run a business together 3rd and 4th generations. The business started in 1929(talk about timing). Our sales are down about 25% over last year which was a down year. We grow and sell plants. I would very careful about expanding right now. Over the last 10 years (during good times) we upgraded and bought new equipment. Right now everything is paid off. No need for big purchases in future. we are in a holding pattern until things turn around. We had a very consertive business model. It helped in the past and is helping now.

You talk about moving away from the family way of doing business. Right now service is a BIG ADVANTAGE. We have been doing the family way for 80 years and counting. Bigger is not always better. Also I have seen when you get bigger you get farther away from what you enjoy and the reason you started the business and more time stuck doing what you don't.
Larry

Jamesbo

Amen to that. It doesn't mater if it's Real-estate, siding or plants, You get in the people managing business and head aches.

"Good morning boss, I have a mokey on my back and would like to leave your office with the monkey removed from my back and placed on yours. See ya"

Reminds me of the morning I heard to "Bimbos' entering our offices raising hell because on had taken the others [ no they weren't marked or assigned] parking space.

z11375ss

I agree with no one spending any money on any thing, but you should have seen my roof. Holy Cow! It was raining in my friggin' kitchen. How can I keep my powder dry with that going on!

agtw31

you do siding and you dont advertise?

how big is your sales rep/estimator staff?

how do you sell,through call drops?

Jamesbo

Ole property mangers trick

Hang a bucket from the bar joist [or rafters] place a sump pump in the bucket and run a plastic drain line from the sump pump out an upstair window. Viola

Jerry rigged

jensenracing77

i have my own ATV business. it is very small and is only me myself and I and also part time. i have more people wanting work done than i can find time to do. i started this business in the early 90s and Quit and sent all my customers to a friend. he then opened a full time business doing it here in my town. another shop opened also after he did. in 2001 i started mine back up. now between all 3 of us in this small town we can not keep up. risslers in town has a wait of 5 weeks to get your bike in. the other shop is 3 to 4 weeks out and i have to turn people to the other two shops all the time because i do it part time and cant handle all the work. i built 4 custom MX race bikes last winter and the cheapest one i built was a little over $15,000. there is money out there for 4 wheeler racing and just all ATVs in general. it has ben a growing sport since 2000.

jensenracing77

i understand the employee thing. there are no more people in this town that can work on ATVs. there are some that want to but don't show up or will break all the tools in sight or don't know half what they think they do. it is a very skilled trade, as most are. i also work full time, and at that job i am the employee and it is just as bad for the employee when it comes to finding good help. i have to try to train someone that don't care just to have them quit or be fired. then start all over again. many of the young people want $20 an hour but not work hard to get it.

jensenracing77

i don't know your business area but i have to agree that cash may be good to have. with the things that are coming down the pipeline in politics people may have to hang on to there money even worse. well they won't have any money to hang onto much less spend it on anything else. i personally would Wait till we find out what happens with this cap and trade bill. IF IT PASSES KEEP YOUR MONEY!

jensenracing77

if what you are doing now is working i wouldn't mess with it. if you have done good for 14 years without much advertising it is most likely because you have great quality or best price. if this is the case you all ready have the best advertisement you can have. word of mouth is the best thing you can have. just be in the yellow pages so others can find you when they hear about you. also if the above is true then you will suffer lower quality for a short time till the transition is made and people are trained. also your price may go up because not everyone works to 100% the more people you have the more that this shows up.

just my 2 cents.

wolfman98

I guess that this is somewhere that I find myself now. After an accident at work ( chunk of tree on head thanks to careless bucket man) I am waiting to see if the nuerologist is going to fuse my neck. just saw the MRI report a couple of days ago and I have discs on both sides restricting the nerve to both left and right side. I also have one joint where the disc and a osteoarthritic node are pressing against the spinal cord (not good).Despite this I have spent the last 7 months working on 2 old cars , mine and my brother's cause I can't sit still. during the time I have been off work my father passed away and left an organic farm that I talked my mother into re-registering as it is difficult to get registered as "organic". I have also continued working on this small farm doing work for dad since he was not able to after he got sick. I have several tons of organic compost on the go and am debating if I should just sell it for people's gardens ( they get a lot now) or find a crop that I can grow as organic that is profitable.Whatever I do I will be limited by my current disability. If I work too long I get lots of pain in my neck and shoulders that ends up moving down my arms and lose feeling in my hands. I have dropped more stuff in the last year than in the previous 50 years. I hope that a fusion of the vertabrae in my neck will fix the problem , though it will limit mobility.

Ranzan

agtw31 My Business Partner and myself do all quotes.. no sales reps so keeps us busy

The Market where we live has kept fairly steady through the market crash over the last 6 months

The main thing for us is keeping everyone happy we have about 18 contrators we work for now but now have 3 more who are doing whole subdivisions... with another 5 contractors wanting us... so the big thing now is going to a LTD company hiring full time paper work staff along with installers,general help and maybe a quality control supervisor..

We will have to see I guess like I said it has come up before for us but we have turned it down in the past ...mainly laying it all out on paper and going holy crap thats a big change

Ranzan

Jensenracing.... never once advertised in the phone book... always thought it cost way to much money for the return you got

JamesBro. One thing we as a company have always done is paid for everything right off the bat. I was raised in the don`t have the money don`t buy it . I am not a big fan of credit. I have seen companys start up spending huge money on tools and of course they have to own the brand new trucks that cost 70 grand..... 1 year later they are gone becuase they can`t pay the bills. We own everything we have fortunatly so if the market sluffs no bills to pay

agtw31

don't you finance siding jobs for residential?

things must be different up there

down here the siding/fence/deck marketers sub out the work they sell.

contractors are starving down here.

have you thought about doing any type of marketing?

mail drop?
tv?
radio?

buy a couple 800 numbers?

Ranzan

People up here usually don`t do a finance unless it`s a full blown renovation.
All our new homes constuction is billed and payed within a 30 day period

Commercial end is a little more tricky some of the bigger boys like doing the 90 day thing... and all I say is we don`t finance your job for you.

We have gone into a marketing plan with one of our Contractors.. first time around here that it`s been done where the contrator and subs split the bill on the marketing which gives us a bigger market base.

in that plan we have got a billboard and like you said we have a mail out that we did and also have bus stops and internet advertising.

We will have to see where that one goes it is more of a 3-5 plan with that type of marketing

TV and Radio we have talked about tv is about 25 grand for an ad can`t remember what the radio cost was off the top of my head though

agtw31

what???????