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Lesson of this story is READ THE FINE PRINT on all loans and lines of credit(on everything). Never give anyone full access to your bank accounts. When your business grows to this size you need an attorney on waiver to read through everything!!!

I feel sorry this has happened again but it could have been avoided. Thanks for sharing so others can learn from your mistakes. Two business failures is tough man.
 
Discussion starter · #85 ·
The old thread and this one, are not the same and not really a continuation. I dont think the old one should have been closed. But I dont have those powers
 
Is there any way to subscribe to the old thread now that its closed? I just would like to find it in my user cp because i am not going to read 40+ pages in one sitting.
just copy the link....or make it a favorite and keep changing it.
 
I dont understand the fact that if your so busy landing all these huge big money jobs and knockin them out why you would need financing and extended lines of credit to the extent of bankruptcy upon note call. When you rely on a bank to support your business you might as well be relying on cops to "serve and protect you" or the government to "take the peoples best interests at heart". Starting/operating a big business on negative equity is the single biggest mistake/headache one can make for themselves. Start a small business with positive equity and grow Net Worth in terms of owning equipment and capital investments. Operate within your means and have some self reliance when it comes to finances. Get caught up in the credit game and overextend yourself and all the sudden one card falls and the whole stack crumbles. Just my 2 cents. My best hopes and wishes for us all!
 
Discussion starter · #90 ·
With all due respect. I think I explained the line of credit to death.

On paper, the business was doing great.

Great balance sheet
Showed a very nice profit
Little debt

The line of credit is very simple.

To make it simpler.

You have a job for 10,000
Your expenses are 7,000

The deal is offered is.

You pay 7,000 now. And in 45 days Ill give you 10,000

When you get that 10,000 you pay off the line and now have 3,000 free and clear

Next job 15,000 your expenses are 10,000
You have 3,000 toward that.
You take that 3,000, the banks 7,000 and pay the expenses.
Then you get paid 15,000 and now you have 8,000 in the bank.

Next week you have 2 jobs one 20,000 and one 15,000
First one expenses 13,000 second one 10,000

Take your 8,000 plus 15,000 and pay your expenses
Get paid for the jobs, pay back the 15,000 to the bank. You now have 20,000 in the bank.

Now week one your doing the first one. Then it will be 6 weeks after until you get paid.
Week two the second one. 6 weeks to get paid

You see, to do it slow. Without the line of credit to start. Even with a good amount of money in the bank.....You would have to do a job......Shut down for six weeks.....Do another job......Shut down for six weeks.....

Yes....It can be done that way. But it takes A LOT of money to finance multiple jobs at once.

At the end. You end up with a lot of money. But you need that little bridge in between the time you have to pay, and you get paid.
Eventually, you may have enough money to finance multiple jobs. But you can see how long that would take.

So it wasnt a case of "overextending" and there was no "going into debt"
I wasnt buying trucks i couldnt afford, or buying equipment hoping to get work.
I was using a tool for exactly what it was designed for.

Where Im at fault.....Was not knowing that line could be taken away at any moment.
In that case, I would have done some things different.
 
Discussion starter · #91 ·
I just couldnt see turning down work and great profits when I had a tool that allowed me to accomplish it.

Think of it as if you have a landscape job. The guy tells you Ill pay you when youre done.
You have to supply the materials. And the stack of cash is waiting for you.
Youre going to make real nice money off the job.
But. You dont have the money to buy the materials.

So....Yes...You can tell the guy, you cant do the job.

Nothing ventured nothing gained.

But.....If you KNOW he is going to pay you when youre done. And you KNOW youre going to make good money......And I say......"Hey bud. Ill lend you the money for the materials, just pay me back when you get paid"

Knowing he is going to pay you. Knowing youre making good money off it. And Im handing you the money and willing to wait until youre done.......Youre going to still turn that job down?
 
Great read procut...I hope you do great in your new venture.

I love how the people posting are the ones that are always solo. Cracks me up, shut up you don't know everything. Let this guy help you and quit acting like you know everything. Obviously, you don't or you would have grown your business.
 
Sorry to hear about your misfortunes Procut. A large seal coating co. in the same industrial park as my shop had a bad year as well last year. I have been in that location for the last 13 years and it was rare I ever seen a truck in their lot. Last year all 10 trucks sat in their lot except maybe 1 day a week a truck would go out. Also, just this past winter I had sort of a similar experience as yourself. My companys overhead got out of control. We had 2 kitchen remodels, finishing 3 basements, 1 entire home remodel, 5 flooring installs and a bunch of smaller jobs going on all at the same time. Add in accounts receivable. Then wages, health ins., 401k, and all other employee related expenses. Next add all other business related expenses such as phones, insurances, gas, tools etc. Finally add in my personal expenses such as mortage, having a new baby, groceries, and just trying to have a life outside of the business. All this money going out in floods and little trickling in stressed me out to no end. Trying to figure from where to rob Peter to pay Paul is a common thing for most businesses at one time or another. I think most of these other posts that are knocking you either are not a large business or have their blinders on. Everything has worked out for us and I know the same will work out for you just keep working hard. Spring is almost here.
 
Work with you to get your payments back on track. And wait 30 years to get their profit and bonuses.

OR

Force the foreclosure. They make an "insurance claim" which pays them the FULL 400K THIS YEAR. Huge profit on the banks books, translating to multi million dollar bonuses to the bankers.

Whatever they get for your house is just extra profit.
Very astute observation and a good way of explaining it procut. But let me add the part you're missing...

AIG. They were the insurers.

That's why when the proverbial "S" hit the fan, Paulson (previous CEO of Goldman Sachs) and Bernanke in sheer desperation threw them a $85 billion no-questions-asked life line. Followed by another $70B from Obama, and $60B from the fed, plus another $50B to buy back some of the worst paper coming due.

Those are the numbers we know of, there's a few more billions in zero interest from the Fed's discount window, again, no questions asked. In all, AIG probably got over a cool trillion of our money to bail their azzez and the bankers and brokers in WS. Chronology here. Read down and cry.

Sure, we own 70% of it now, but we're also on the hook for what we gave them and the liability of about several trillions in junk paper that will never be paid.

Your explanation also applies to Obama's loan modification program. It is the main reason that $40B program hasn't made a difference. The bankers want the money NOW.

Sorry for taking the thread off topic but I couldn't sleep and reading your post made my blood boil -again. Two years ago we were screwed royally in the biggest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind. All to the @#$%s in WS that created this very mess

And nobody is going to jail.... while a lot of Americans go down the drain. :angry:

For those interested in more details... Griftopia by Matt Taibbi is highly recommended.

.
 
Discussion starter · #95 ·
The fact that nobody went to jail is the worst.

Not to mention that most people in this country dont actually understand what happened and rely on a few talking points.

How many still think 9-11 happened because "they hate our freedoms"

Ill bet if you polled most people in the country they would tell you the housing market crashed because the "government forced banks to loan to people who couldnt pay"

I play in the political forum. But honestly Its losing its fun over there. Its becoming sad to see what the real state of the country is.

I never cared about poor people, unemployed....and so on....I was making it good and had a job. So those others must be lazy.

Well. Ive experienced the other way. Ive spent plenty of time this winter putting 5 gallons a day of diesel in my house for heat because I had 2 weeks before I was getting paid and couldnt afford an oil delivery. Had my electric turned off.

And I have a job and dont qualify for any kind of assistance.

It made me realize what people are going through who dont have a check coming in a couple weeks.

Unemployment is peanuts. When you have a mortgage, taxes, food, kids, fuel, a car.
The thought that most people would rather let all that go and sit on the couch because theyre getting a couple hundred bucks a week is crazy. Yet Limbaugh preaches that 3 hours a day, and it works.

We have had a really long stretch of frigid weather. Ive been going through 6-800 a month in heating oil. And thats keeping it jacket weather in my house.

Im grateful Ive been able to mostly keep heat on.

And the government wants to cut heating assistance. Something people rely on that is life or death. We;re not talking assistance to pay your mercedes.
I just dont understand where the greed and utter hate for poor people came from.
We;re all only going to live so long. No matter how rich you are. Its sad that people would rather live in a country that is dog eat dog.

Not everyone can be a CEO, not every can be rich. The system is rigged to prevent that.

Just look what happens when you fall a little bit. Nobody extends a hand to help you. You become a piece of crap and they stomp on your neck.

Why else would someone who is having trouble paying their bills, have their interest rates and payments tripled? Thats how banks help you. If you cant pay at 8%, they raise it to 25% to make for dam sure you cant pay.

The rest of the civilized world doesnt have to worry about health care. Its just there.
They live longer, their quality of life is better. And none of them would trade it for our system.

If there is anything so basic that the government should run, that would be it.
At least take care of the health of your population.

But we prefer life for profit.
I never thought about that before. I always had health insurance, even though the cost was as much as my mortgage payment.

With the winter weve been having, I had to cancel my health insurance.
Sure enough my wife had to go in for a minor procedure.
One day in the hospital, a procedure that took half an hour. And we;re being hounded by collection agencies for $18,000.

The only reason the hospital did the procedure was that we didnt know the insurance had cancelled yet and they processed it after the procedure. Otherwise, they wouldnt have done it. It wasnt technically an emergency. She wouldnt have died without it, just been stuck in bed for a month or two.

Im fortunate being self employed that in bad times, I have been able to pull things off. Juggle money around. And at least survive.

I cant imagine how people are coping that lost a job, dont have a business, theyre losing their homes, cars, health care, everything.

And we're so cold hearted that we want to degrade them and cut off the tiny bit of assistance they get to eat and not freeze to death.
 
ProCut - Sounds like you got caught in a classic cash flow squeeze.

Twenty years ago I worked in the computer consulting industry. I was working for a decent privately held company that was getting lots of business. The owner would always tell all of us that "Profits are great, but money in the bank is better". Every time the company landed a new contract he'd have to go and negotiate with the banks to see if he could get enough operating credit to even have a hope of doing the work. It was very, very educational to say the least. I've held on to his little "money in the bank" is better mantra ever since then.

Cash flow management is a huge task, and is as important, if not more so, than being able to do the work well. Anyone that thinks that can be successful by doing the work better than anyone else is fooling themselves.

One other lesson in business: When a bank hands you a form to sign, take a very good look at it. Remember that they've invest thousands and thousands of dollars with lawyers to write that contract. They want to hand it to you and have you sign it in 30 seconds. What makes you think that it is a fair deal?
 
Procut, I'm with you on the business side of it, but the politics are not always so black and white. There are a lot who don't want to be on unemployment, etc; but there are MANY who have lived on the welfare dole so long, that you couldn't blow them off with dynamite. We are on opposite ends of the country(I'm in Louisiana), but there's a "welfare mentality" all over. Talked to a painting contractor last week, he ran an ad in the paper, interviewed several, had 2 guys he wanted. Told them to be on the job Monday, 20 an hour, both were out of work, neither showed up. For all the good folks trying to make it, There's more trying to milk it. I'm not touching the healthcare issue, I just don't see the government improving the things they try to run.
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The fact that nobody went to jail is the worst.

Not to mention that most people in this country dont actually understand what happened and rely on a few talking points.

How many still think 9-11 happened because "they hate our freedoms"

Ill bet if you polled most people in the country they would tell you the housing market crashed because the "government forced banks to loan to people who couldnt pay"

I play in the political forum. But honestly Its losing its fun over there. Its becoming sad to see what the real state of the country is.

I never cared about poor people, unemployed....and so on....I was making it good and had a job. So those others must be lazy.

Well. Ive experienced the other way. Ive spent plenty of time this winter putting 5 gallons a day of diesel in my house for heat because I had 2 weeks before I was getting paid and couldnt afford an oil delivery. Had my electric turned off.

And I have a job and dont qualify for any kind of assistance.

It made me realize what people are going through who dont have a check coming in a couple weeks.

Unemployment is peanuts. When you have a mortgage, taxes, food, kids, fuel, a car.
The thought that most people would rather let all that go and sit on the couch because theyre getting a couple hundred bucks a week is crazy. Yet Limbaugh preaches that 3 hours a day, and it works.

We have had a really long stretch of frigid weather. Ive been going through 6-800 a month in heating oil. And thats keeping it jacket weather in my house.

Im grateful Ive been able to mostly keep heat on.

And the government wants to cut heating assistance. Something people rely on that is life or death. We;re not talking assistance to pay your mercedes.
I just dont understand where the greed and utter hate for poor people came from.
We;re all only going to live so long. No matter how rich you are. Its sad that people would rather live in a country that is dog eat dog.

Not everyone can be a CEO, not every can be rich. The system is rigged to prevent that.

Just look what happens when you fall a little bit. Nobody extends a hand to help you. You become a piece of crap and they stomp on your neck.

Why else would someone who is having trouble paying their bills, have their interest rates and payments tripled? Thats how banks help you. If you cant pay at 8%, they raise it to 25% to make for dam sure you cant pay.

The rest of the civilized world doesnt have to worry about health care. Its just there.
They live longer, their quality of life is better. And none of them would trade it for our system.

If there is anything so basic that the government should run, that would be it.
At least take care of the health of your population.

But we prefer life for profit.
I never thought about that before. I always had health insurance, even though the cost was as much as my mortgage payment.

With the winter weve been having, I had to cancel my health insurance.
Sure enough my wife had to go in for a minor procedure.
One day in the hospital, a procedure that took half an hour. And we;re being hounded by collection agencies for $18,000.

The only reason the hospital did the procedure was that we didnt know the insurance had cancelled yet and they processed it after the procedure. Otherwise, they wouldnt have done it. It wasnt technically an emergency. She wouldnt have died without it, just been stuck in bed for a month or two.

Im fortunate being self employed that in bad times, I have been able to pull things off. Juggle money around. And at least survive.

I cant imagine how people are coping that lost a job, dont have a business, theyre losing their homes, cars, health care, everything.

And we're so cold hearted that we want to degrade them and cut off the tiny bit of assistance they get to eat and not freeze to death.
there comes a point when you cant call it unemployment anymore. mabey after a year they should just call it wellfare.i tried to hire people all last year .if thet could not work under the table they were not interested. they would ask me to pay cash so they could still get " unemployment" .i would say no and would never hear from them. you cant pay people to stay home. a six month transition period is one thing but i know people who have been collecting over a year. no one would let your wife die because you did not have insurance . the doctor would just put you on a payment plan.they do it all the time. why should i have to pay for it. if they lose there home they can rent if they lose there car they can take the bus. it is called a safty net . not a "we will take care of you for the rest of your life" net. there is a difference between someones needs and there wants. i love your post . dont let yourself get down .this is still america . we all have the chance to succeed not a garentee that we will. is
 
As much as it sucks to do so, you will probably have to sell off an investment ( mutual funds ect) to get thru the winter. Bummer to do, but ya gotta keep oil in the tank.
 
The fact that nobody went to jail is the worst.

Not to mention that most people in this country dont actually understand what happened and rely on a few talking points.

How many still think 9-11 happened because "they hate our freedoms"

Ill bet if you polled most people in the country they would tell you the housing market crashed because the "government forced banks to loan to people who couldnt pay"

I play in the political forum. But honestly Its losing its fun over there. Its becoming sad to see what the real state of the country is.

I never cared about poor people, unemployed....and so on....I was making it good and had a job. So those others must be lazy.

Well. Ive experienced the other way. Ive spent plenty of time this winter putting 5 gallons a day of diesel in my house for heat because I had 2 weeks before I was getting paid and couldnt afford an oil delivery. Had my electric turned off.

And I have a job and dont qualify for any kind of assistance.

It made me realize what people are going through who dont have a check coming in a couple weeks.

Unemployment is peanuts. When you have a mortgage, taxes, food, kids, fuel, a car.
The thought that most people would rather let all that go and sit on the couch because theyre getting a couple hundred bucks a week is crazy. Yet Limbaugh preaches that 3 hours a day, and it works.

We have had a really long stretch of frigid weather. Ive been going through 6-800 a month in heating oil. And thats keeping it jacket weather in my house.

Im grateful Ive been able to mostly keep heat on.

And the government wants to cut heating assistance. Something people rely on that is life or death. We;re not talking assistance to pay your mercedes.
I just dont understand where the greed and utter hate for poor people came from.
We;re all only going to live so long. No matter how rich you are. Its sad that people would rather live in a country that is dog eat dog.

Not everyone can be a CEO, not every can be rich. The system is rigged to prevent that.

Just look what happens when you fall a little bit. Nobody extends a hand to help you. You become a piece of crap and they stomp on your neck.

Why else would someone who is having trouble paying their bills, have their interest rates and payments tripled? Thats how banks help you. If you cant pay at 8%, they raise it to 25% to make for dam sure you cant pay.

The rest of the civilized world doesnt have to worry about health care. Its just there.
They live longer, their quality of life is better. And none of them would trade it for our system.

If there is anything so basic that the government should run, that would be it.
At least take care of the health of your population.

But we prefer life for profit.
I never thought about that before. I always had health insurance, even though the cost was as much as my mortgage payment.

With the winter weve been having, I had to cancel my health insurance.
Sure enough my wife had to go in for a minor procedure.
One day in the hospital, a procedure that took half an hour. And we;re being hounded by collection agencies for $18,000.

The only reason the hospital did the procedure was that we didnt know the insurance had cancelled yet and they processed it after the procedure. Otherwise, they wouldnt have done it. It wasnt technically an emergency. She wouldnt have died without it, just been stuck in bed for a month or two.

Im fortunate being self employed that in bad times, I have been able to pull things off. Juggle money around. And at least survive.

I cant imagine how people are coping that lost a job, dont have a business, theyre losing their homes, cars, health care, everything.

And we're so cold hearted that we want to degrade them and cut off the tiny bit of assistance they get to eat and not freeze to death.
Procut,

Fantastic read. Your cander and honesty is refreshing and I feel its so incredibly important for others to know and hopefully learn from you're experience. I agree with most of everything you say but politically speaking we part ways some. You commented on people in other parts of the world not trading their system for our system. last time I checked people flock to our country from literally all over the world.

A number of years back I found myself in similar shoe's, albeit in a different business. Phone shut off. Car in hiding for fear of it being repossessed. Heating fuel shut off and having to take freezing cold showers. at one point I laid on the living room floor with tears welling up, feeling like a failure, failing at the one thing I valued most, taking care and providing for my family, my wife and 3 kids. I ended up losing my business, my home, everything. I moved into a basement apartment at my folks and as much as I hated it, on public assistance. It took a while to rebound from that time in my life, but years later now, and things could not be better. The point I'm trying to make is that I had lost everything, and even more because I was in debt. But to use the words of Torotorotoro, there was a safety net. I had my family to lean on and there was public assistance that helped with the basics. It was there for an intended purpose; to help someone out when in a dire situation. To "help you help yourself". Which it did. It was a very difficult time in my life and it was truly a humbling experience. But to think that people are cold hearted and just don't care... well I know you may feel that way right now, but its really not the case. If there is one good thing going for you its that you have stick-to-it-ness and you actually take away a lesson from your experiences. And with that I do believe this experience will make you better, and wiser because of it. Best of luck to you and yours!
 
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