Angel!
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Post by Angel! on Aug 21, 2014 17:46:51 GMT -5
Are you still selling on Amazon? Looked but couldn't find it, but, maybe I am an idiot. Thought maybe I would shop for Christmas early this year
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2014 18:03:16 GMT -5
Years ago, I had a very gently male friend who was found curled up in the corner of his office, crying. He had a complete mental breakdown due to the hate he had over his job, one he felt he couldn't quit, because of the great pay and the benefits. He needed both to support his family. He ended up losing most everything he had, even his wife and kids. I think it's hard to know when and how to change direction. That will be me someday. I feel the strings snapping. Ping. Ping. Ping. My brother is in his last 3 years of teaching, before retiring. I'm not sure if he will be able to hang on. His strings are also snapping and it's affecting his physical health.
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geenamercile
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Post by geenamercile on Aug 21, 2014 18:06:48 GMT -5
Abstractly knowing that and living through it are two completely different things. COMPLETELY different. You pour your heart and soul, and a pretty big chunk of money into something, and watch it struggle along day after day, month after month, it's a mental kick in the nuts. Starting this thread makes me feel like a failure, all the responses make me feel like a failure. Actually closing/selling this place is going to be gut wrenching. I don't fail at things. Or rather, I didn't. I've spent the last year continuously failing at something I've dreamed about since I was a teenager. It's fucking hard bro. I've learned that I don't deal with stress as well as I thought I did. I thought I was good at it, because it wasn't real stress. If you work for somebody else and the company is struggling you stress a bit, but not really. When it's your ass on the line, your mortgage that you can't pay, your kids that you can't afford to send to college, that's real stress. Before I did this I had no idea. I was young, naive, and honestly thought that the worst that can happen is I fail, that sucks, I pick myself up and move on. In the grand scheme of things that's what I'll do, but when you're in the middle of the failure part it's a lot harder than you thought it would be. I am so, so sorry. That is hard and is so very draining physically and emotionally. The first few years of any business are really, really tough. Very similar to the last 6 miles of a marathon - painful and feels never ending.
You're in the best position to know if it's worth it to hold out until after Christmas. My gut would say - yes if you can grit through it. If you're in the common toy retail pattern, more than 50% of your annual sales will happen in the last few months of the year, so that would be worth waiting a little bit for. Also, if you are going to try to sell the business, the sales price is often based on the last two years' sales with an extra weighting on the most recent sales; offering it for sale after a strong Christmas season will put you in a better position to get more money from a new owner. None of that is worth further damaging your family or yourself, though, so be realistic about if it's doable for you to actually hold out. It may not be.
From being through working that many hours in starting a business, the one thing I'd add to the good advice you've gotten is that it's almost impossible to make good strategic decisions when you're neck deep in alligators and haven't slept more than 3 hours a night for months. Your body is exhausted, your brain is fried and you have a caustic mix of caffeine and cortisol sloshing around inside you constantly adding to the stress level and compromising decision making. Before you make any decision about what to do with the business or your life, do whatever you have to do to get 3-4 days off. I know - sounds impossible, but think of it as investment. One (and maybe even two) day(s) isn't going to be enough to let you sleep a little, relax and step away from it enough to be calm and focused. And it's best if you can be calm and focused for decisions this big. It's a really slow time of year. Shut your business for Monday - Thursday. Put a big sign out with an interesting tease - "Gone to research ____________ cool new toy" or something so customers that drop by are curious rather than turned off. And take a few days to sleep, relax, go to the beach/mountain/whatever helps you feel good. Make a conscious effort to not think about the business and give yourself a break. On the last day, when you've given yourself a little break and some rest, then spend the day doing some planning, plotting and thinking.
Whatever you decide - good luck and I'm sorry it's been so hard.
But I also wanted to point out the bold. I don't know for sure, but I think last year you needed to use those Christmas sales to help push through the rest of the year. But this year you might be able to give yourself a nice bonus with those sales, use it help support the family for the rest of the year.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Aug 21, 2014 18:08:43 GMT -5
Sorry, got busy in here. To answer a few questions we signed a 3 year lease. We'll be 1.5 years into it if we close after this Christmas. Rent is basically $3k a month, so if the landlord doesn't find a new tenant we could personally owe $54k. 3 years is much better than I thought. Well, you could ask your LL for a break, since its not THAT long until the lease runs out. That wouldn't solve your time crunch problem. My old company outsourced their IT stuff to a local company that caters to small businesses. That IT company has grown fantastically. Is that something you could/might want to do? (I'm not sure what your previous job was, other than computer oriented.)
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tskeeter
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Post by tskeeter on Aug 21, 2014 18:48:02 GMT -5
Sorry to hear Shaun, but retail is often a huge learning lesson. Up to you & circumstance on how you go from here.
But given you haven't hit Christmas yet, how likely are you to have a good Christmas season? This really will be the first time you are able to give it a good shot.
P.S. In all your business idea research, you didn't happen into any food costing software or folks with that knowledge ... did you? Optimist who is continually looking for paid work... Optimist, what do you want to know? I spent 10 years working in restaurant kitchens and the guy I worked for took the time to show me how to cost out a menu. Then I spent nearly 25 years working in the accounting function of food manufacturing operations. Most of those years I was responsible for the plant cost accounting activities.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2014 18:55:43 GMT -5
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Aug 21, 2014 19:01:43 GMT -5
That will be me someday. I feel the strings snapping. Ping. Ping. Ping. My brother is in his last 3 years of teaching, before retiring. I'm not sure if he will be able to hang on. His strings are also snapping and it's affecting his physical health. I was in the same place.
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tskeeter
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Post by tskeeter on Aug 21, 2014 19:06:13 GMT -5
Retail sucks. I don't know what the hell I was thinking. I'm still working a billion hours a week. The money blows compared to the time put in. I'll probably be closing or selling the store after this Christmas season. I have an idea for a service business I'd like to start. Extremely low overhead since I can run it from a home office. Loop would probably murder me though, so I'm looking for paid work again. Still deciding if I want to pursue the other idea as a side gig. That's about it. Only 18 weekends before Christmas... are you ready? Dark, it sounds like you badly need a break and a chance to get your perspective back. I think you've fallen into the bane of many small businesses. They aren't a job. They are really all consuming. Do you really want to the store and go back to the security of working for someone else? (I can understand if you were to opt for the security. I did. I could have bought out my parents business, but I chose the security of working for a pay check and everything that goes along with it.) Or, would you consider other options? Such as trying to find a partner who is willing to shoulder part of the load? Or a partnership that would let you hold more of a 9 - 5 job and still keep an interest in the store? Or some other option that I haven't thought of.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Aug 21, 2014 19:16:13 GMT -5
No, I really don't. I don't think I have a choice at this point though. We straight up need the money. I could potentially keep the store and go back to work, but one way or the other I need a half decent paycheck again.
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Opti
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Post by Opti on Aug 21, 2014 19:47:18 GMT -5
Sorry to hear Shaun, but retail is often a huge learning lesson. Up to you & circumstance on how you go from here.
But given you haven't hit Christmas yet, how likely are you to have a good Christmas season? This really will be the first time you are able to give it a good shot.
P.S. In all your business idea research, you didn't happen into any food costing software or folks with that knowledge ... did you? Optimist who is continually looking for paid work... Optimist, what do you want to know? I spent 10 years working in restaurant kitchens and the guy I worked for took the time to show me how to cost out a menu. Then I spent nearly 25 years working in the accounting function of food manufacturing operations. Most of those years I was responsible for the plant cost accounting activities. Ideally who are the big and preferred software players in the food costing space. A potential employer wants to use food costing software and I want to be the person they hire to accomplish what they want. I've looked at the small list he had and did some quick Internet research. So far, CostGuard, Cheftech, and Kitchen Cut seem like things I should investigate. I realize spreadsheets can be used to do this, but the software gives them leverage they want and hopefully employment and recent software experience I want. PM for details. Need to catch up on hydration and sleep so I clarifications might wait until tomorrow.
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Opti
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Post by Opti on Aug 21, 2014 19:53:47 GMT -5
Looks interesting. I think I read somewhere that the average is three business failures before setting up a business that really succeeds.
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Regis
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Post by Regis on Aug 21, 2014 20:10:55 GMT -5
Sorry, got busy in here. To answer a few questions we signed a 3 year lease. We'll be 1.5 years into it if we close after this Christmas. Rent is basically $3k a month, so if the landlord doesn't find a new tenant we could personally owe $54k. You can negotiate out of it. I did when I sold my company. Space in the area we were in was generally only sitting empty for about three-four months. Offered them six months of rent to get out of the lease and they took it. We had about 18 months left on the lease when we moved out. If you do decide to shut down, just stay calm (easier said than done) and work your way through it as quickly as possible.
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sarcasticgirl
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Post by sarcasticgirl on Aug 21, 2014 21:20:07 GMT -5
You took a risk and even if it doesn't work out, at least you know you went for it which is more than a lot of people do.
Sent from my Nexus 10
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Loopdilou
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Post by Loopdilou on Aug 21, 2014 21:39:53 GMT -5
I've gone through every possible emotion in the last year and a half. But through all of that... I still love my husband more than anyone in the entire world and I am prouder of him than he will ever realize. And the major plus to all this is that the experience has given me a major kick in the pants and I now have an amazing job working for an amazing organization and more often than not, I leave with a smile on my face. I have a *career* now and I owe that all to my husband. Love you, honey. Even though you drive me loopy.
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Peace Of Mind
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[font color="#8f2520"]~ Drinks Well With Others ~[/font]
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Post by Peace Of Mind on Aug 21, 2014 22:00:38 GMT -5
I've gone through every possible emotion in the last year and a half. But through all of that... I still love my husband more than anyone in the entire world and I am prouder of him than he will ever realize. And the major plus to all this is that the experience has given me a major kick in the pants and I now have an amazing job working for an amazing organization and more often than not, I leave with a smile on my face. I have a *career* now and I owe that all to my husband. Love you, honey. Even though you drive me loopy. When I heard how you jumped in and found this job and then got promoted so fast I was cheering you on. I was also so proud of you. I still have a few connections locally but I would not have done as well as you did if I had to do that. And I'd be crying the entire time. Both of you. Dark for having the guts, creativity and abilities of doing all he did while giving up what he had. Both of you still being good parents and Loopy for backing his decision, helping him where she could, getting a good job and not killing him.
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Nazgul Girl
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Post by Nazgul Girl on Aug 21, 2014 22:01:52 GMT -5
Shaun, I wish you and Loop your family the best now and in the future. If you decide to close the store, you'll come out okay in the long run. I know because I've been there. It's a tough decision either way. You will recover from this.
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bean29
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Post by bean29 on Aug 21, 2014 22:02:31 GMT -5
Sorry, got busy in here. To answer a few questions we signed a 3 year lease. We'll be 1.5 years into it if we close after this Christmas. Rent is basically $3k a month, so if the landlord doesn't find a new tenant we could personally owe $54k. You can negotiate out of it. I did when I sold my company. Space in the area we were in was generally only sitting empty for about three-four months. Offered them six months of rent to get out of the lease and they took it. We had about 18 months left on the lease when we moved out. If you do decide to shut down, just stay calm (easier said than done) and work your way through it as quickly as possible. I agree with regis. I am in WI, so don't know much about your market but here, when tenants are behind we usually are willing to work with them. We have a few who have been paying 50% of their rent for years. We also have just shut down a few that were multiple months behind. Usually we don't shut them down unless they are way behind and there are other issues. Tax liens, neighbor issues or eyesore property etc. if your rent is current I would either start paying 50% or start paying 30 days or so late. Good Luck.
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on Aug 21, 2014 22:58:12 GMT -5
D'awww.
(Most successful business owners cite their spouse as their greatest cheerleader.)
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Loopdilou
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Post by Loopdilou on Aug 22, 2014 0:21:31 GMT -5
I'm a shit cheerleader, but I haven't divorced him yet!
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Aug 22, 2014 7:15:37 GMT -5
( Loopdilou - LOOP - check your nmsn account, I think Dark's hacked it!!!)
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Aug 22, 2014 7:53:07 GMT -5
I've gone through every possible emotion in the last year and a half. But through all of that... I still love my husband more than anyone in the entire world and I am prouder of him than he will ever realize. And the major plus to all this is that the experience has given me a major kick in the pants and I now have an amazing job working for an amazing organization and more often than not, I leave with a smile on my face. I have a *career* now and I owe that all to my husband. Love you, honey. Even though you drive me loopy. When I heard how you jumped in and found this job and then got promoted so fast I was cheering you on. I was also so proud of you. I still have a few connections locally but I would not have done as well as you did if I had to do that. And I'd be crying the entire time. Both of you. Dark for having the guts, creativity and abilities of doing all he did while giving up what he had. Both of you still being good parents and Loopy for backing his decision, helping him where she could, getting a good job and not killing him. Mostly the bolded part.
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NancysSummerSip
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Post by NancysSummerSip on Aug 22, 2014 9:39:08 GMT -5
I've gone through every possible emotion in the last year and a half. But through all of that... I still love my husband more than anyone in the entire world and I am prouder of him than he will ever realize. And the major plus to all this is that the experience has given me a major kick in the pants and I now have an amazing job working for an amazing organization and more often than not, I leave with a smile on my face. I have a *career* now and I owe that all to my husband. Love you, honey. Even though you drive me loopy. Aw, shucks..... Wish I'd read that first today. (But I had to see how Zib's DF did in surgery.)
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sapphire12
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Post by sapphire12 on Aug 22, 2014 22:14:17 GMT -5
Dark, after reading Loop's message, I am more than convinced you are NOT a failure! You made a decision based on your mental health at the time. This experience has shown what a good marriage can accomplish. When one is down, the other lifts the ship.
Congrats to you Loop on your work!
I wish the best for your family, whatever path that may take. "Tough times don't last, tough people do."
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Aug 23, 2014 13:47:45 GMT -5
My old company outsourced their IT stuff to a local company that caters to small businesses. That IT company has grown fantastically. Is that something you could/might want to do? (I'm not sure what your previous job was, other than computer oriented.) I know a guy who did IT for law firms and doctor offices. Made a fortune, and then sold the business - made another fortune, and started another business.
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