Any Business Owners?

[ZHP to B58]

Anyone else also own a business, however small or large?

I had two endeavors that I started with a couple buddies pre-COVID. One was a Shopify thing with self-created brand & marketing but a product that we found via Alibaba. Margins were great. Ended up dissolving that LLC since we couldn't/didn't want to pour thousands or more to get more internet traffic & impressions. Plus Facebook kept auto-banning our ad accounts.

Other one was car parts. Good timing to kill it off since we're in SoCal and the shipping debacle definitely would've only exacerbated things.

Needless to say, we didn't quit our days jobs.

P.S. If you or someone you know has a business in SoCal and they don't like their bank.....I can provide a second opinion. My clients include K1 Speed (corporate and multiple franchisees), SaaS companies, Porto's largest supplier, and more.

[Entropy89]

My wife started her engineering firm in 2020 and it’s been pretty good so far. I consult for her as side work, and her line of work is very reputation driven and largely about who you know. Completely different industry from what you described but it has its stressful moments. She says she could never work for someone else again.

[ZHP to B58]

Absolutely. Can't put a price on calling your own shots and not having to answer to anyone else.

Originally Posted by Entropy89

My wife started her engineering firm in 2020 and it’s been pretty good so far. I consult for her as side work, and her line of work is very reputation driven and largely about who you know. Completely different industry from what you described but it has its stressful moments. She says she could never work for someone else again.

[TXSTYLE]

Yes indeed. A couple in fact.

[ZHP to B58]

Shopify's just the platform, but the service or good(s) sold can be anything.

I vaguely recall an old statistic from business school back in the day that stated restaurants in particular had the highest success rates of any other industry at 50%. Since as you said, it fulfills a basic human need.

Originally Posted by calle14

I used to think that the market for Shopify businesses was already saturated and that it was too competitive for new businesses to make it. However, I recently discovered that my aunt launched a local bakery a few months ago and it's actually thriving. Her success got me thinking about the profitability of food-industry-related businesses since it's a basic human need to eat and, therefore, it's always in demand.

[Watching The World Burn]

Feeling a little defeated right now. I have only ever had one employee at any given time because I'm trying to grow the business in order to be able to hire more. But as a result, every time they quit, its a huge stressor because then the business is too big for just me, and I have to try to find someone qualified as a CPA. Which is tough, because I'm not in a big city.

And again, my most recent employee just quit after 6 months because he got a good offer from a winery to become their CFO....and he says he was stressed and didn't like the work. I cannot for the life of me seem to get someone who wants to stay. The other one prior used me to gain knowledge for a couple months then started his own business. The one before that I admittedly had for about 4 years I think, but she wasn't a CPA and there were issues with her work product.

But this past one was excellent worker, produced good results, was really hoping I had finally found someone.

Now it is back to square one and I'm tempted to just say screw it and get rid of a bunch of business so that it is just me. But then my overhead is going to eat up most of my profits and I'll probably be no better off than I would be working for someone else.

Sometimes....being an owner sucks.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by Watching The World Burn

Feeling a little defeated right now. I have only ever had one employee at any given time because I'm trying to grow the business in order to be able to hire more. But as a result, every time they quit, its a huge stressor because then the business is too big for just me, and I have to try to find someone qualified as a CPA. Which is tough, because I'm not in a big city.

And again, my most recent employee just quit after 6 months because he got a good offer from a winery to become their CFO....and he says he was stressed and didn't like the work. I cannot for the life of me seem to get someone who wants to stay. The other one prior used me to gain knowledge for a couple months then started his own business. The one before that I admittedly had for about 4 years I think, but she wasn't a CPA and there were issues with her work product.

But this past one was excellent worker, produced good results, was really hoping I had finally found someone.

Now it is back to square one and I'm tempted to just say screw it and get rid of a bunch of business so that it is just me. But then my overhead is going to eat up most of my profits and I'll probably be no better off than I would be working for someone else.

Sometimes....being an owner sucks.

Rather than an emp, what about a partner with some complementary experience/skills, the idea being that the two of you will grow the business together once it's clear the partnership is going to work out.

[Watching The World Burn]

Originally Posted by dradernh

Rather than an emp, what about a partner with some complementary experience/skills, the idea being that the two of you will grow the business together once it's clear the partnership is going to work out.

I agree if I could find one, because said partner would be in the assurance space and then we could attract more talent just because we are bigger. But that is also equally difficult. But I do agree with you.

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by mylifesablast

I run a SaaS business that focuses on project management tools for remote teams. Gotta say, there's a lot of profit in these businesses.

[ZHP to B58]

Originally Posted by Watching The World Burn

Feeling a little defeated right now. I have only ever had one employee at any given time because I'm trying to grow the business in order to be able to hire more. But as a result, every time they quit, its a huge stressor because then the business is too big for just me, and I have to try to find someone qualified as a CPA. Which is tough, because I'm not in a big city.

And again, my most recent employee just quit after 6 months because he got a good offer from a winery to become their CFO....and he says he was stressed and didn't like the work. I cannot for the life of me seem to get someone who wants to stay. The other one prior used me to gain knowledge for a couple months then started his own business. The one before that I admittedly had for about 4 years I think, but she wasn't a CPA and there were issues with her work product.

But this past one was excellent worker, produced good results, was really hoping I had finally found someone.

Now it is back to square one and I'm tempted to just say screw it and get rid of a bunch of business so that it is just me. But then my overhead is going to eat up most of my profits and I'll probably be no better off than I would be working for someone else.

Sometimes....being an owner sucks.

I was about to say I know a few CPA's who may be interested...but sounds like you're probably nowhere near Los Angeles.