From beginning to end : Starting my own business - Page 2

PilotMan · 09-11-2009, 04:46 PM

Congrats!

Mustang · 09-11-2009, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Congrats!

Thanks much.

I wasn't too concerned about it, we are in pretty good shape financially so, for the amount I was needing I thought it was more of a formality to get the loan. Had to go through the entire process of building up a business plan and collecting or personal finance information so, it was a good exercise. Still was 100% sure until they called us today and let us know so it is one more item to check off.

The only thing I didn't submit with the business plan that they requested was a list of inventory we were buying. I had asking if they really wanted some 20 page list of some 1,000+ items. In the end, guess they didn't need it.

From what my wife said, they were impressed with the package I submitted and it was an easy call so, guess I did something right.

Mustang · 09-12-2009, 04:28 AM

Fixtures.

Note 1 - Retail businesses need display shelving. If you know nothing about business, you know this. Note 2 - New fixtures are expensive. Note 3 - Buying new fixtures is for suckers.

Unfortunately, not all retail businesses make it. Bad for them, good for the person that is starting up a business because after a business fails, those shelves gotta go somewhere and 99.9% of the time, it means they are sold off at a pretty good discount. It is like an invading army leaving, they leave behind all the infrastructure for someone else to use.

I've been hitting several areas in search of used fixtures.

1. Craigslist. Pretty good resource for people that are getting out of business, have extra items or have upgraded their fixtures and need to unload the old stuff. Can get some pretty decent deals. Anywhere from around 40-75% off retail.

2. Word of mouth. Everyone knows of a store closing, just have to go in and do a little research on what they are going to do with the items. A local blockbuster is closing soon so, going to go tomorrow to see what they are doing. Pretty much the same as Craigslist as far as prices although, the closer it gets to the lease expiring, the more the price might drop if the person has no where to go with them.

3. Auctions. There are many auction places whose sole purpose in life is to liquidation businesses that have failed. These are the absolute BEST places to find retail fixtures. Unfortunately, you have to match up the right business with what you need and some auctions might be too much in the way of what you have to buy. The last going out of business auction I went to a year ago, it was a complete liquidation (fixtures and merchandise.. normally it is just the fixtures). The merchandise came it at around 8% of MSRP and the fixtures were about 3% of MSRP. 6 ft long glass display cases were going for $5. That is about the equivalent of getting a new video game release for 50 cents.

It would have been nice to purchase some fixtures over the last 6 months, but I didn't want to take up space and waste money so, held off. With all the options, I should be able to round out the store with what I need.

Mustang · 09-14-2009, 03:14 PM

Just purchased a large portion of the fixtures for the store from a local Blockbuster that is going out of business.

6 - 4' Wall mounted metal Shelf Units
3 - 12' Double Sided Shelves (The ones in the middle of the store)
24 - Wire Baskets for the shelf ends
2 - 4 shelf wire basket stands.

Final cost - $350.

To compare what I was looking at for Lozier shelving, the same 36' foot of shelving would have been around $900. The wall mounted shelving will take the place of any slat wall (around $500). So, I figure I'm on the plus side around $750 right now. All total, I was computing around $1750 for fixtures.

Will be picking up in the next 2 weekends and placing in temp storage while I sort out the lease.

For fixtures, I need 1 display case, 1 checkout counter and possibly 1 more run of shelves and I should be pretty sound on fixtures. Once I get the fixtures sorted out, I can concentrate on office equipment. The Blockbuster didn't have much in the way of office equipment that I could use since alot of it was pretty dated.

Mustang · 09-15-2009, 01:53 PM

Looking at a place tonight that I'm pretty sure I'll submit a proposal on. Actually, I'm pretty confident that I'll be submitting one, so I already tweaked my existing proposal. (which is below for your reading pleasure. Ok, actually it is boring, but it is somewhat interesting if you've never done this before)

Basic Lease Terms Proposal:

PREMISES: +/- 1,100 Square feet

USE: Porn Store

TERM: One (1) year with 2 optional years

OPTION: 1 (1) at the end of one (1) years, and one (1) at the end of two (2) years. Option is at the Tenant’s discretion solely.

MINIMUM RENT: 1st year - $8.75 PSF; five percent (5%) increases every year thereafter.

RENT COMMENCEMENT: (30) days after Tenant receives possession of Premises

ADDITIONAL COSTS: Tenant responsible for a certain share of real estate taxes, common area maintenance and insurance costs, which will be no greater than $4.25 PSF for duration of 1st year of lease. Tenant is entitled to yearly reconciliations from the Landlord as to the expenditure of these funds. At the end of the calendar year, any unspent funds will be credited towards the next calendar year. Increases in these costs are capped at $0.20 PSF annually.

UTILITIES: Tenant responsible for cost of utility use at leased site to include telecommunications, water, sewage and power. Any exterior utilities costs are paid for by landlord or laid out in common area maintenance charges.

CONDITION OF PREMISES: Landlord shall deliver Premises to Tenant in “As-Is” condition, with HVAC in working order. Landlord is responsible for any major repairs to HVAC. Major repairs are defined as any single instance repair requiring the expenditure of $750 or more not to exceed $1,500 per calendar year. Tenant responsible for regularly scheduled maintenance. The landlord is responsible or maintenance of exterior walls, roof, foundation, exterior parking lot and common areas. The tenant is responsible for interior walls, plumbing, electricity, flooring above concrete slab/foundation and HVAC per above proposal.

TENANT BUILD UP: Tenant will construct a 8 1/2” wall extending from edge of restroom extending the length of the building. Area will be used for storage. Wall will not go to top to avoid interference with existing air flow.

EXISTING INTERNAL WALL: Tenant will be responsible for removing internal room divider. Tenant can use or dispose of this divider as they see fit.

SIGNAGE: Tenant will be have rights to place signage in monument along highway 33 and in display outside of units. Landlord will ensure that electrical display is in good working condition upon tenant occupying. Tenant will have signage up NLT 15 days after taking over after starting rent. Tenant will have rights on business that is used to construct signage. Tenant will provide samples to landlord for approval. Signage will comply with any local regulations.

INSURANCE: Tenant will provide personal property and liability insurance for interior of unit lease.

SECURITY DEPOSIT: $1,000. Deposit is fully refundable to the Tenant upon termination of the lease, or at the end of two years, whichever comes first. Tenant will pay first and last months rent up front.

RIGHT OF FIRST REFUSAL: On units next to leased unit, tenant will have 30 days to match any existing lease offer on the unit to expand store footage from 1,100 square feet to 2,200 square feet.

STORE HOURS: Tenant has the right to set individual store hours not to conflict with any local, state or federal ordinances or laws

NON-COMPETITION: Landlord may not lease out other available spaces in unit to other businesses that may conflict with tenants stated use.

TERMINATION RIGHTS: Tenant has the right to terminate lease if unit becomes unusable or business can not be conducted at leased location for a period not to exceed 10 days.

Landlord may terminate the lease if it is determined that tenants business is detrimental to landlord’s other tenants.

DaddyTorgo · 09-15-2009, 02:54 PM

porn store?

rock on!

Mustang · 09-15-2009, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

porn store?

rock on!

You win, you were paying attention.

chesapeake · 09-15-2009, 03:15 PM

I was thinking comic books. I guess graphic novels will still be involved.

DaddyTorgo · 09-15-2009, 03:20 PM

i'd order porn from you but i don't think i want anybody on the messageboard knowing my tastes. maybe if it was just the more generic "girls gone wild" style dvd's or something...

Mustang · 09-16-2009, 09:40 AM

Had my meeting in the place we are looking at last night and it went oddly. There is one thing I don't like in negotiations and that is playing stupid about what you offered or acting like you forgot.

In past discussions (both email and phone), the landlord made every indication they could get in the $9-10 range, 1 year lease and put caps on the HVAC stuff. Unfortunately, at the meeting, it suddenly turned into, well, we want $13 and not sure about the caps, but maybe they could do $11. What.the.hell? The meeting left with me saying that if they hit $9 with caps, I'm certain that I'll do it. At $11. No.

We shall see. I'm due a proposal by next Monday so, I'll see where they come in. They need me, I don't need them. I'm not the one with 50% of my building sitting empty. Probably a tad arrogant on my part, but there are probably more than 50 open areas at any given time to lease and at the end of the day it is my money.

DaddyTorgo · 09-17-2009, 10:34 AM

hold firm on your price range. knowing now what kind of business you want to open i'd say it definately falls into the "destination shop" type of range (aka you're not likely to get much "random passer-by foot traffic" that will actually purchase anything). get a price you can live with.

rjolley · 09-17-2009, 11:05 AM

Porn store was my initial guess, though I could see comic book or some other novelty store.

Mustang · 09-17-2009, 05:20 PM

Cash Registers / Payment Processing

For something that literally everyone uses, I can not believe how little information is out there related to registers and credit card processing. Oh sure, it is easy to find people that are selling them, but trying to find a FAQ or related reviews has been darn near difficult. All I've been able to do is cobble together bits and pieces. This piece is definitely not my strong suit although, I do have some familiarity with processing so, that task wasn't too difficult.

The issue is trying to find all the pieces to go together - register, terminal, printer and make sure they will all work together via the Internet to process. This might be the one area I will spend more on then I expected as I want something relatively easy to setup and run with. Appears Quickbooks has a package that allows you to use and existing computer and run it as a register. Has a receipt printer, cash drawer and terminal and Intuits CC processing (and the fees are in line with other places that I see). It is a little more then I had thought although, I haven't done any searches on price yet)

If there is a business that you really really like and you want to put a little extra in their pocket, remember that on a $100 sale, their processor is probably taking a cut of around $1.90 so, pay in cash.

Swaggs · 09-18-2009, 12:47 AM

I would think that the porn business would see a higher percentage of folks using cash over credit cards due to annonymity. I wonder if there is any research on the matter.

DaddyTorgo · 09-18-2009, 01:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjolley

Porn store was my initial guess, though I could see comic book or some other novelty store.

you didn't register your guess in the thread so it doesn't count

rjolley · 09-18-2009, 09:40 AM

Damn, so no free merchandise for me?

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

you didn't register your guess in the thread so it doesn't count

Mustang · 09-18-2009, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjolley

Damn, so no free merchandise for me?

I wonder what kind of samples porn stores get from their distributors.

Mustang · 09-21-2009, 10:18 AM

Well, just had my first financial jolt. Everything that I've researched and have budgeted for has been on track. Fixtures, inventory, office equipment, credit card processing fees, etc. Even the leasing fees have been in the ballpark of what I want and their haven't been any surprises.

Until now.

The first few places I looked at, I had estimates on the signage. A 2' x 10' sign, I was getting quotes in the $300 range. So, the place I'm currently looking at, I need 2 1'x10" signs and 1 2'x20 signs. I figured around $1250 and the landlord said the last business that did signs was around $1200 and that was for multicolored larger signs.

First estimate in - $2500.

Someone is off the mark here. I have a few more calls in, but if the estimates are $2500, I have to reconsider that location. That much for signage wasn't in the budget.

Mustang · 09-21-2009, 04:39 PM

Looks like I should have stuck with the first estimate.

2nd estimate came in at $2900.

That news is rather deflating. I'll have to relook at the numbers to see if I can even justify that expense at this time. What is killing me is that I need 3 signs. Most of the other places I've looked at have needed 1.

Blah.

Swaggs · 09-21-2009, 10:27 PM

Just wanted to say that I have enjoyed watching your progress. Keep it going and let us know how things go. Good luck w/ the signage.

rjolley · 09-21-2009, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mustang

I wonder what kind of samples porn stores get from their distributors.

If you get a list of choices, let me know...

Mustang · 09-22-2009, 12:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swaggs

Just wanted to say that I have enjoyed watching your progress. Keep it going and let us know how things go. Good luck w/ the signage.

Thanks. Something will work out.

Worst case, the plans get pushed several months into the future. It is not all bad I would have had a nice bump in sales for Christmas, but not having that doesn't hurt me. Christmas sales last year were rather blah, but if the last 3 months are any indication, it should be solid this year. If anything, I just build up my coffers more.

Although, I have not heard back from the landlord of the one place and they said they would have a proposal to me by today. Signs could be $1, but if I don't hear back from them, won't matter.

Mustang · 09-22-2009, 12:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjolley

If you get a list of choices, let me know...

Probably all stuff no one will buy like 'Hairy Bushed Nuns visit the Vatican'.

Come to think of it, one of my friends had the idea that he was going to buy a wholesale lot on Ebay of porn and resell it. Paid $250 bucks or so for some 500 videos. (For those that think there is no such thing as bad porn umm... ya.. no, there is) I saw the 'box o' porn' in his house once, but I don't think he ever sold it... I think he might have just watched all of it or gave it away by inviting people to just grab a bunch out of the box.

Mustang · 09-22-2009, 12:55 PM

Got the proposal today. The base rent looks decent. It is basically a 14 month lease, 2 months free on the front end and the 12 months to pay is at $9.81. Plus, they capped the HVAC stuff at $500 on the first year. That is the good news.

The bad news is that the NNN charges, where I was quoted $4.25, really is more like $6.07. They would charge $465 a month which comes to $5580 AND in 2008, the tenant was undercharged $1100 so, in 2008 the total NNN charges for the tenant was $6680 or roughly $6.07 so, looking at roughly $175/month more than they initial quoted me. I don't think that is workable. I've found NNN charges in the area to be around $3.50-$4.50, this place is definitely high.

Mustang · 09-22-2009, 03:37 PM

The more I think about the NNN charges, the less I like them.

1. NNN costs in 2006 were $4400, 2007 $5700 and 2008 $6800. Landlord claims that there were extenuating circumstances in those years, but the 3 year trend is an increase of around 25%. While it is only 3 years of data, it is concerning. I can't assume that 2006 was the norm and that the norm might be a 20%+ increase a year and can only look at the data given to me.

2. $600 building repair fees in 2007. Landlord says they are responsible for the walls out, foundation, roof, etc. I have not dug into the reason for $600 in building fees, but if there is some loophole that they apply fees for building repairs, it is concerning.

3. 12% management fee. Seems rather high and I would think rates would be more in the 3-5% range.

4. No caps on the CAM portion. I really don't want to be funding a new parking lot or space needle.

5. Landlord says they can't control costs and what I owe. Personally, I think this is the biggest flag. There is a difference between can't and won't. They could waive the management fee or reduce it, charge me less for other areas, but they choose not to.

Mustang · 09-22-2009, 04:55 PM

Checked with a few people that are in the same business and they agreed with my concerns and it just wasn't right. I sent the message to the landlord rejecting the proposal and citing the reasons.

I very much doubt they will come back, but they can shoulder that $6K in cost for the time being.

I guess that is why 4 out of 6 slots are empty right now. Note to self.. an area with alot of empty units should send up warning signals. (In this case, the NNN charges)

Mustang · 09-28-2009, 12:24 PM

Well, after much review, appears that the full blown retail store front will be on hold for the time being. Definitely need to do this right rather than just slam something in and accepting this last offer would have been slamming something in. From a lease standpoint, definitely a good learning experience because I know a few more questions to hit on and I have a better understanding of signage costs which I was way off on.

Amazing that I've ruled out the other options due to size, cost or location. I could look outside of our town, but that has other logistical issues.

I could look for a smaller space and just open up on the weekends which is still on the table, but probably only for another 2 weeks and everything would have to fall exactly in line for it to happen.

I'll still be putting notes in here on things going on for my online business so, hopefully that will still be interesting.

JeeberD · 10-06-2009, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

you didn't register your guess in the thread so it doesn't count

You weren't first either, DT...

Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - From beginning to end : Starting my own business

Mustang · 10-08-2009, 11:04 AM

Was hoping to be up for the holiday, but unfortunately it looks like I'm stuck with 50 copies of 'Sucking Santa' until 2010.

Damn you holiday merchandise!!!

Mustang · 10-19-2009, 11:09 AM

We added on another line of items that we are carrying and everything seems to be going ok except that there is alot of time expense right now from an educational standpoint, that should thin out once we have a more solid base. We enlisted the aid of someone to help out for a few hours on the weekend. The only 'payment' he was wanting is just to be feed. (Guess that is easy enough).

One item I've been looking at is discounting though. With the new line, there are a lot of existing businesses selling the product line we are doing now. One thing I've noticed with new businesses online is they want to discount everything to undercut everyone so they can make a sale. That is fine and dandy when you have just 1 item, but if you are selling more, discounting actually hurts you and it is pretty basic math.

If you have 100 widgets that you sell for $100 (at a cost of $50 to you), you will have sales of $10000 and a profit of $5000.

The same item, at a discount of 20%, increasing sales 50% will actually cause you to do 50% more work and make less. 150 widgets sold @ $80 at a cost of $50 results in a profit of $4500.

Granted, I'm not near that level of volume where I am selling 100 units of one item, but unfortunately what I have to deal with is people doing the discounting where it hurts you and it is no longer profitable to even bother selling the item. I sell an item for $5 consistently, a new business comes in and decides to sell it for $4.50, causing me to adjust and then a new business comes in and sells for $4, etc, etc.

You don't always have to undercut everyone all the time, just be creative in what you do. For example, one item I have I sell for $19.99 with $5.00 flat shipping. Another seller has them for $24.99. We are both technically selling them at the same price ($24.99), but I'll make .75 cents more a unit sold then he will just given the costs of selling on Amazon/Ebay (which charge roughly 15% of final cost which doesn't include shipping)

Enough babbling today...

DanGarion · 10-19-2009, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mustang

You win, you were paying attention.

Is it a porn store or adult toy store? I have a friend in the latter that I might be able to get in contact with you if your businesses match up...

DanGarion · 10-19-2009, 03:14 PM

By the way, from my understanding selling on Amazon can really increase your sales...

Mustang · 10-19-2009, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanGarion

By the way, from my understanding selling on Amazon can really increase your sales...

Assuming that you are talking about non-porn here.

We are planning on setting up on Amazon in mid-January 2010. Certain categories were frozen in September 2009 to make sure that sellers in those categories were solid for the holiday season so we are locked out right now.

I should have set one up earlier, but with putting any extra time/energy into researching the store, I did not want to spread myself too thin doing too many things.

Mustang · 10-22-2009, 11:08 AM

Have the potential to top our last months sales which were our best to date. I think we will fall just a little short though. For whatever reason, we had a little burst in the last 4-5 days where we have been shipping around 25 packages a day. (Normally it is in the 15 range)

Dedicated time last night to doing some business orientated stuff. I had slacked off in the last 7 days.

Mustang · 10-30-2009, 12:30 PM

So much for just the potential of topping our sales record, we topped it by 10% so far with 1 more day to go. Good start to the holiday season for us.

In other news, the person that was going to work at the store, he had a strong desire to quit his job and work full time in the store if I want to hire him, but he couldn't because his wife's job didn't have insurance through her company. This week, she got a new job with health benefits so, it is not important that he carries the health insurance in the family. Potential is there when I open to potentially look into hiring him at more of a full time position during the week although, I would probably look more into giving him more of a sales/commission type salary in that the better the business does, the better he will do. But, that is a long way off.

In hindsight, while I really wanted to open this year, the extra 6 months won't hurt from a business standpoint. We should double the money that we will have going into the business. Also, it gets us completely through 1 tax year so, if we have missed anything from an accounting standpoint, we can tighten that up for 2010.

Mustang · 11-04-2009, 05:19 PM

Just hit 5000 feedback on Ebay so, just a few factoids from over the years. (Although, would have hit it sooner, but a year or so ago they cleaned the system out and I lost around 300 feedback)

First items sold - Narnia book set for around $10, Old mantle clock for $26 and a chess set for $15

Negative feedback received in 5 years - 3. One was for tape that was on the item, but it was supposed to have tape along the seem, one for someone that complained about the item not being new (item said used. They bought the same one from a different seller at the same time that said new so, I think they made an error). The third one was for some new books I sent out and they called me an ass. Still not sure what happened.

Worst customer ever - Tie.

Customer A ordered something at Christmas. Christmas takes longer to ship items. We sent it out the same day and it took 10 days. 10 days of enduring emails questioning my honesty, how I was ruining his granddaughters Christmas and then, when it showed up, getting complaints that I packed it too well.

Customer B sent 4 emails in a 6 hour period asking questions, bought the items before I had a chance to respond and then threatened me that I hadn't responded. (I kinda work you know?)

Most famous customer (that I noticed) - Mike Krzyzewski

Most expensive item sold - Sideshow Aragorn statue $960

Best advice on selling online - Sell what you know, know what you sell. Widgets may be profitable, but if you are in it just for the money, you'll get burned out

Mustang · 11-23-2009, 12:23 PM

Ebay had a bad outage this weekend. For around 8 hours, the site was pretty much rendered useless do to search errors. We typically would have probably sold 6-10 items during this time frame and ended up selling 0. The biggest people hit by this would have been people with auctions ending. Since people couldn't find their auctions, there would have been reduced bidding and a lower end price.

There is not alot of good that can come from this and Ebay botched alot of things. First, they should have extended auctions immediately and not allow them to end. They do this for system wide outages, but they didn't consider this a system wide outages because you could still get to the items if you knew the item number or had it in your viewing list. Semantics reallly because the system was down. (I know how businesses fudge availability numbers because our company does the same damn thing. If you hit the web page and it takes you 5 minutes, the system isn't down, it is degraded.)

Ebay should have take a more proactive approach in letting people know there was an issue. It should have been across the front page rather than tucked in the system announcements section. Savvy users will find it, but most people are not savvy users and will wonder what happened.

People are saying buyer confidence is shaken now on Ebay. I am not sure how buyer confidence should be shaken. Seller confidence, yes, but the ability to buy a certain widget during a 8 hour timeframe shouldn't impact the typical buyer, plus if they were watching an auction, they could still bid on it.

The one thing that could affect buyers if sellers decide to cancel items due to the errors and not honor bids. That could be a potential messy situation. In a perfect world, if a seller decided to not honor a bid because of technical issues, they could just cancel it and a buyer would understand that there were issues outside of the seller's control. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world so, there will be alot of messy cancellations and negatives left.

Another reason that I'll need to spread around my business in 2010. I'll be going with Amazon, finalizing my own website and still looking at setting up a brick and mortar site. Would be nice if another online auction site could give Ebay a run, but I just don't see that happening. I've checked out other sites(ecrater, bonanzle, etc) but they are just not designed that well, do not have the traffic or the merchandise to really drive people to them.

Mustang · 11-24-2009, 12:48 PM

Sounding like a broken record, but we topped our sales record again this month. Starting off to be a good holiday season for us. It does appear that pricing is considerable factor this year more than others. In previous years, items would see a bump in price of between 50%-200% compared to what I'd sell an item for from Feb - Oct, but this year, items are staying more in the range from the rest of the year.

My end goal was to increase sales 300% from the beginning of the year and keep profits around the same percent. This would allow me to potentially quit my day job and do this full time. To date, we would have increased sales 50%. Doing this with just me and the wife, I'm not sure a 300% increase is possible with my current workload and 150% would be more realistic. The only way I would get there is to quit my job and work up to that number. I have 11 days off coming up so, I'll be able to work on some things. We have a backlog of inventory to go through so, that is my goal the next 2 weeks.

Our local competitor had his 'Best Seller' tag removed the other day. Granted, in the overall picture I'm not competing with just him, I'm in competition with everyone, but in my limited interactions with him I've found him overly defensive, over priced and overstating of the condition of items that he sells. (He uses words that don't make any season.. like Big Boss Time. As in, the condition of this is Big Boss Time!! Which, I guess would be good). So, him losing that status is just a moral victory for me.

Mustang · 11-25-2009, 01:19 PM

Not related to my business, but if you are wanting to sell some things on Ebay for the holiday season, just some tips (some of these apply year round)

1. Prices will peak around December 10th and then slide back down. Seems to be the perfect mix of people realizing they need to act in order to get it in time for Christmas and panic so, prices flare up.

2. Ship priority mail. Parcel during the holiday season can be rather slow. Make it known that priority mail is not a guaranteed service and while the post office says 2-3 days, it can be longer. (Traditionally, I see it go from 2-3 days to around 3-5 days. Parcel comes in around 10-14 rather than 7-10)

3. Don't ship express or guaranteed mail unless you are willing to eat the costs for a returned item. This is the main reason I don't ship either of those services. A normal $8 shipping fee could turn into $25-$30 so, if they don't like it or have an issue, I'd be out that money.

4. Assume it is a Christmas gift and try to ship it out as soon as possible. Don't sit on it for 4 or 5 days. Assume your buyer is a panicky stressed out holiday shopper and plan accordingly.

5. If you are selling a 'hot' holiday item or items where there are a ton out there then go with a 1 or 3 day auction and start your price closer to what you want. If there are 100 items out there, people tend to look at the new items and the items ending in the next day so, if you have an auction at 7 days, you are looking at potentially 5 1/2 days where it probably won't be looked at.

6. Use a box to pack it. Don't use brown paper.

Good luck!

Mustang · 12-04-2009, 01:14 AM

Looking forward to December 17th. That is when we go on a 10 day holiday shut off our business.

There are a few reasons we do this.

1. There is a high probability that anyone doing Christmas shopping, if they pay for it on December 18th or later, they are not going to get the item. We don't do Express shipping or offer it because of the potential cost to us if there is an issue. (You wouldn't believe how many people are willing to pay to send a $5 to $10 item overnight at a cost of anywhere from $25-$35. Unfortunately, if it goes bad and I need to do a refund, I'm out that cost which I'm not willing to do at this time. Priority is 2-3 days typically so, I try to persuade them that it is in their best interest to just save the money)

2. Because of #1, panicky buyers don't understand that it takes longer for holiday shipping. Panicky buyers are bad. Panicky HOLIDAY shoppers are really bad. Panicky holiday shoppers that have no common sense... Those are the type that think you are out to destroy their holiday season and have made it a priority to do so. I would like to avoid those people at all costs. (By the way, Bill Smith... I eff'n hate you and your 4 year old daughter. I have run her Zhu Zhu hamster over with my car and you should receive it on January 6th.)

3. We need a break. It is our one time a year to just shut it off for a period of time to enjoy the holidays so, yes, we lose sales, but because it is pretty much a 2 person operation and not Wal-mart, we can do it.

My break time will include pulling out Arkham Horror which I haven't pulled out since the last break we took last year.

Mustang · 12-17-2009, 11:50 AM

Ahh.. gotta love the procrastinating Christmas Shopping freaks that are starting to just crest over the horizon. In about 36 hours, our holiday sales will be shut off and it won't come a minute sooner.

I'd love to stay open. Most people are smart enough to realize that once an item leaves my hands, it is out of my control as to how long it will take the UPS, USPS or Fed-ex to deliver a package unless you do a guaranteed service.

Today I had someone ask if an item would reach her by Christmas because it was the only thing her autistic son wanted. That is a red flag to me. Let me explain. We have seen it before where people bring up a reason to ask for a reduce price or to play on your sympathies because someone is sick or it reminds them of their dead mother or similar sympathy inducing statements. The statement is usually followed by a 'will you take less' statement.

Unfortunately, I'm pessimistic and usually don't believe people because I see no reason to bring up items like this unless you are looking for sympathy or an edge. So, if she doesn't get this item by Christmas, I will get a 'YOU RUINED MY AUTISTIC SON'S CHRISTMAS!!'. No, I didn't. You did by waiting until 12/17 to buy something and hope it arrives in time. I didn't do that. You did. Don't get me wrong, there are alot of times I go out of my way for customers, but I just fear 'the setup' type ones.

The second type I love are the demand ones. I had an item I was selling for a friend. It was a large item. In the box shipped it would be 30'x20'x6'. If you know anything about the USPS, they have large packages which are items that exceed certain lengths and for this box, for priority mail, anything outside of my zone gets a hefty charge. In my zone it was $12. To Virginia it was $30. This is the charge.. I have nothing to do with coming up with those numbers.

Yesterday, I was informed by someone that see was going to give me $10 for priority mail, that would cover it. I explained to her why priority was so much more and I got back a 'FYI, it will fit in a large flat rate. THANK YOU'. Ok, how the hell are you going to put a 30'x20'x6' box into a 12'x12'x8 box? It ain't a fucking bag of holding. Its a question of ratios. You can't put a 30x20x6 into a 12x12x8 box. Maybe I could buy a African Swallow and attach it to it and send it to her.

Saturday morning can't come soon enough.

PackerFanatic · 12-17-2009, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mustang

It ain't a fucking bag of holding.

Awesome quote.

MacroGuru · 12-18-2009, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mustang

Ahh.. gotta love the procrastinating Christmas Shopping freaks that are starting to just crest over the horizon. In about 36 hours, our holiday sales will be shut off and it won't come a minute sooner.

I'd love to stay open. Most people are smart enough to realize that once an item leaves my hands, it is out of my control as to how long it will take the UPS, USPS or Fed-ex to deliver a package unless you do a guaranteed service.

Today I had someone ask if an item would reach her by Christmas because it was the only thing her autistic son wanted. That is a red flag to me. Let me explain. We have seen it before where people bring up a reason to ask for a reduce price or to play on your sympathies because someone is sick or it reminds them of their dead mother or similar sympathy inducing statements. The statement is usually followed by a 'will you take less' statement.

Unfortunately, I'm pessimistic and usually don't believe people because I see no reason to bring up items like this unless you are looking for sympathy or an edge. So, if she doesn't get this item by Christmas, I will get a 'YOU RUINED MY AUTISTIC SON'S CHRISTMAS!!'. No, I didn't. You did by waiting until 12/17 to buy something and hope it arrives in time. I didn't do that. You did. Don't get me wrong, there are alot of times I go out of my way for customers, but I just fear 'the setup' type ones.

The second type I love are the demand ones. I had an item I was selling for a friend. It was a large item. In the box shipped it would be 30'x20'x6'. If you know anything about the USPS, they have large packages which are items that exceed certain lengths and for this box, for priority mail, anything outside of my zone gets a hefty charge. In my zone it was $12. To Virginia it was $30. This is the charge.. I have nothing to do with coming up with those numbers.

Yesterday, I was informed by someone that see was going to give me $10 for priority mail, that would cover it. I explained to her why priority was so much more and I got back a 'FYI, it will fit in a large flat rate. THANK YOU'. Ok, how the hell are you going to put a 30'x20'x6' box into a 12'x12'x8 box? It ain't a fucking bag of holding. Its a question of ratios. You can't put a 30x20x6 into a 12x12x8 box. Maybe I could buy a African Swallow and attach it to it and send it to her.

Saturday morning can't come soon enough.

Amen brother...I have one hurdle in mine....my dropshippers are Nike, ECCO, Footjoy and Adidas and I am at their whim...although they have been amazing this holiday season I just received some after hours orders that I am going to try and fulfill because the customers are willing to pay extra (more than their normal shipping) to get their shoes.

We will see..

Mustang · 12-21-2009, 04:08 PM

Almost thought the holiday season went without a major hitch this year. Found out Saturday that I flipped packages and sent them out wrong to the wrong people. DOH! Got on the phone with them and straightened it out. Luckily they were understanding that mistakes happen.

I've done that one other time. In this case, the people were in Illinois and New York. In the previous case, they were in the UK and Australia. Might as well have been Mars and Venus.

Mustang · 12-30-2009, 04:28 PM

DOH! (again)

Forgot to file the 3rd quarter sales tax. Government doesn't like it when they don't get their taste. Then they send Guido out to get their money and they come up with some number that isn't anywhere close to what you have been paying. "Hey, I think you owe us $3000 this quarter.. prove why you don't."

Will not make that mistake again.

MacroGuru · 12-30-2009, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mustang

DOH! (again)

Forgot to file the 3rd quarter sales tax. Government doesn't like it when they don't get their taste. Then they send Guido out to get their money and they come up with some number that isn't anywhere close to what you have been paying. "Hey, I think you owe us $3000 this quarter.. prove why you don't."

Will not make that mistake again.

I hate when it happens...I had one time where Utah sent me the bill for like $15,000 and I asked them where they got their figures and they honestly said "We made it up, figured it would get you to either respond or pay."

I provided the actual figures and paid them what the true number was which was a far cry less than the 15K

Mustang · 12-31-2009, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

I hate when it happens...I had one time where Utah sent me the bill for like $15,000 and I asked them where they got their figures and they honestly said "We made it up, figured it would get you to either respond or pay."

Glad to know it isn't just Wisconsin then.

Although, actually owing $15K in sales tax would be great because that means I would have had around $267K in sales for the quarter.

surlyc · 12-31-2009, 06:00 PM

Not sure how it works in the US (I am from the UK), but here HMRC can deliver a notice of liability to tax if you fail to send your return on time. This means they make up a number, generally just 30% of your total turnover per your stat accounts, and ask you to prove they're wrong.

Guess my point is, it's not just Wisconsin... it's a world-wide thing.

Interesting thread... good luck. I always like to see small businesses succeed.

Mustang · 01-06-2010, 01:04 PM

All the buildings that I was looking at leasing over the last 6-9 months are still available. Obviously there has to be some benefit to them not renting that I'm not seeing. If there is, wouldn't mind seeing some way to incent these businesses to actually try to get someone in empty buildings to start a business rather than just letting everything sit or at least trying to close off the ability for a business to not have it be a potential positive to leave a building empty.

(Not wanting to turn this into a political discussion and I'm not even sure if there is a benefit, but based on my negotiations, didn't seem like anyone was that eager to lease)

Mustang · 01-11-2010, 10:47 AM

Sometimes wisdom comes up in the oddest places

Joe Dirt: You're gonna stand there, owning a fireworks stand, and tell me you don't have no whistling bungholes, no spleen spliters, whisker biscuits, honkey lighters, hoosker doos, hoosker donts, cherry bombs, nipsy daisers, with or without the scooter stick, or one single whistling kitty chaser?

Kicking Wing: No... because snakes and sparklers are the only ones I like.

Joe Dirt: Well that might be your problem, it's not what you like, it's the consumer.

09-12-2009, 04:28 AM	#53
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Fixtures. Note 1 - Retail businesses need display shelving. If you know nothing about business, you know this. Note 2 - New fixtures are expensive. Note 3 - Buying new fixtures is for suckers. Unfortunately, not all retail businesses make it. Bad for them, good for the person that is starting up a business because after a business fails, those shelves gotta go somewhere and 99.9% of the time, it means they are sold off at a pretty good discount. It is like an invading army leaving, they leave behind all the infrastructure for someone else to use. I've been hitting several areas in search of used fixtures. 1. Craigslist. Pretty good resource for people that are getting out of business, have extra items or have upgraded their fixtures and need to unload the old stuff. Can get some pretty decent deals. Anywhere from around 40-75% off retail. 2. Word of mouth. Everyone knows of a store closing, just have to go in and do a little research on what they are going to do with the items. A local blockbuster is closing soon so, going to go tomorrow to see what they are doing. Pretty much the same as Craigslist as far as prices although, the closer it gets to the lease expiring, the more the price might drop if the person has no where to go with them. 3. Auctions. There are many auction places whose sole purpose in life is to liquidation businesses that have failed. These are the absolute BEST places to find retail fixtures. Unfortunately, you have to match up the right business with what you need and some auctions might be too much in the way of what you have to buy. The last going out of business auction I went to a year ago, it was a complete liquidation (fixtures and merchandise.. normally it is just the fixtures). The merchandise came it at around 8% of MSRP and the fixtures were about 3% of MSRP. 6 ft long glass display cases were going for $5. That is about the equivalent of getting a new video game release for 50 cents. It would have been nice to purchase some fixtures over the last 6 months, but I didn't want to take up space and waste money so, held off. With all the options, I should be able to round out the store with what I need. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

09-14-2009, 03:14 PM	#54
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Just purchased a large portion of the fixtures for the store from a local Blockbuster that is going out of business. 6 - 4' Wall mounted metal Shelf Units 3 - 12' Double Sided Shelves (The ones in the middle of the store) 24 - Wire Baskets for the shelf ends 2 - 4 shelf wire basket stands. Final cost - $350. To compare what I was looking at for Lozier shelving, the same 36' foot of shelving would have been around $900. The wall mounted shelving will take the place of any slat wall (around $500). So, I figure I'm on the plus side around $750 right now. All total, I was computing around $1750 for fixtures. Will be picking up in the next 2 weekends and placing in temp storage while I sort out the lease. For fixtures, I need 1 display case, 1 checkout counter and possibly 1 more run of shelves and I should be pretty sound on fixtures. Once I get the fixtures sorted out, I can concentrate on office equipment. The Blockbuster didn't have much in the way of office equipment that I could use since alot of it was pretty dated. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

09-15-2009, 01:53 PM	#55
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Looking at a place tonight that I'm pretty sure I'll submit a proposal on. Actually, I'm pretty confident that I'll be submitting one, so I already tweaked my existing proposal. (which is below for your reading pleasure. Ok, actually it is boring, but it is somewhat interesting if you've never done this before) Basic Lease Terms Proposal: PREMISES: +/- 1,100 Square feet USE: Porn Store TERM: One (1) year with 2 optional years OPTION: 1 (1) at the end of one (1) years, and one (1) at the end of two (2) years. Option is at the Tenant’s discretion solely. MINIMUM RENT: 1st year - $8.75 PSF; five percent (5%) increases every year thereafter. RENT COMMENCEMENT: (30) days after Tenant receives possession of Premises ADDITIONAL COSTS: Tenant responsible for a certain share of real estate taxes, common area maintenance and insurance costs, which will be no greater than $4.25 PSF for duration of 1st year of lease. Tenant is entitled to yearly reconciliations from the Landlord as to the expenditure of these funds. At the end of the calendar year, any unspent funds will be credited towards the next calendar year. Increases in these costs are capped at $0.20 PSF annually. UTILITIES: Tenant responsible for cost of utility use at leased site to include telecommunications, water, sewage and power. Any exterior utilities costs are paid for by landlord or laid out in common area maintenance charges. CONDITION OF PREMISES: Landlord shall deliver Premises to Tenant in “As-Is” condition, with HVAC in working order. Landlord is responsible for any major repairs to HVAC. Major repairs are defined as any single instance repair requiring the expenditure of $750 or more not to exceed $1,500 per calendar year. Tenant responsible for regularly scheduled maintenance. The landlord is responsible or maintenance of exterior walls, roof, foundation, exterior parking lot and common areas. The tenant is responsible for interior walls, plumbing, electricity, flooring above concrete slab/foundation and HVAC per above proposal. TENANT BUILD UP: Tenant will construct a 8 1/2” wall extending from edge of restroom extending the length of the building. Area will be used for storage. Wall will not go to top to avoid interference with existing air flow. EXISTING INTERNAL WALL: Tenant will be responsible for removing internal room divider. Tenant can use or dispose of this divider as they see fit. SIGNAGE: Tenant will be have rights to place signage in monument along highway 33 and in display outside of units. Landlord will ensure that electrical display is in good working condition upon tenant occupying. Tenant will have signage up NLT 15 days after taking over after starting rent. Tenant will have rights on business that is used to construct signage. Tenant will provide samples to landlord for approval. Signage will comply with any local regulations. INSURANCE: Tenant will provide personal property and liability insurance for interior of unit lease. SECURITY DEPOSIT: $1,000. Deposit is fully refundable to the Tenant upon termination of the lease, or at the end of two years, whichever comes first. Tenant will pay first and last months rent up front. RIGHT OF FIRST REFUSAL: On units next to leased unit, tenant will have 30 days to match any existing lease offer on the unit to expand store footage from 1,100 square feet to 2,200 square feet. STORE HOURS: Tenant has the right to set individual store hours not to conflict with any local, state or federal ordinances or laws NON-COMPETITION: Landlord may not lease out other available spaces in unit to other businesses that may conflict with tenants stated use. TERMINATION RIGHTS: Tenant has the right to terminate lease if unit becomes unusable or business can not be conducted at leased location for a period not to exceed 10 days. Landlord may terminate the lease if it is determined that tenants business is detrimental to landlord’s other tenants. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

09-15-2009, 02:54 PM	#56
DaddyTorgo Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Massachusetts	porn store? rock on! __________________ Get bent whoever hacked my pw and changed my signature.

09-15-2009, 03:20 PM	#59
DaddyTorgo Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Massachusetts	i'd order porn from you but i don't think i want anybody on the messageboard knowing my tastes. maybe if it was just the more generic "girls gone wild" style dvd's or something... __________________ Get bent whoever hacked my pw and changed my signature. Last edited by DaddyTorgo : 09-15-2009 at 03:20 PM.

09-15-2009, 03:15 PM	#58
chesapeake College Starter Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Arlington, VA	I was thinking comic books. I guess graphic novels will still be involved.

09-16-2009, 09:40 AM	#60
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Had my meeting in the place we are looking at last night and it went oddly. There is one thing I don't like in negotiations and that is playing stupid about what you offered or acting like you forgot. In past discussions (both email and phone), the landlord made every indication they could get in the $9-10 range, 1 year lease and put caps on the HVAC stuff. Unfortunately, at the meeting, it suddenly turned into, well, we want $13 and not sure about the caps, but maybe they could do $11. What.the.hell? The meeting left with me saying that if they hit $9 with caps, I'm certain that I'll do it. At $11. No. We shall see. I'm due a proposal by next Monday so, I'll see where they come in. They need me, I don't need them. I'm not the one with 50% of my building sitting empty. Probably a tad arrogant on my part, but there are probably more than 50 open areas at any given time to lease and at the end of the day it is my money. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

09-17-2009, 10:34 AM	#61
DaddyTorgo Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Massachusetts	hold firm on your price range. knowing now what kind of business you want to open i'd say it definately falls into the "destination shop" type of range (aka you're not likely to get much "random passer-by foot traffic" that will actually purchase anything). get a price you can live with. __________________ Get bent whoever hacked my pw and changed my signature.

09-17-2009, 11:05 AM	#62
rjolley College Starter Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Roseville, CA	Porn store was my initial guess, though I could see comic book or some other novelty store.

09-17-2009, 05:20 PM	#63
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Cash Registers / Payment Processing For something that literally everyone uses, I can not believe how little information is out there related to registers and credit card processing. Oh sure, it is easy to find people that are selling them, but trying to find a FAQ or related reviews has been darn near difficult. All I've been able to do is cobble together bits and pieces. This piece is definitely not my strong suit although, I do have some familiarity with processing so, that task wasn't too difficult. The issue is trying to find all the pieces to go together - register, terminal, printer and make sure they will all work together via the Internet to process. This might be the one area I will spend more on then I expected as I want something relatively easy to setup and run with. Appears Quickbooks has a package that allows you to use and existing computer and run it as a register. Has a receipt printer, cash drawer and terminal and Intuits CC processing (and the fees are in line with other places that I see). It is a little more then I had thought although, I haven't done any searches on price yet) If there is a business that you really really like and you want to put a little extra in their pocket, remember that on a $100 sale, their processor is probably taking a cut of around $1.90 so, pay in cash. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

09-18-2009, 12:47 AM	#64
Swaggs Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000	I would think that the porn business would see a higher percentage of folks using cash over credit cards due to annonymity. I wonder if there is any research on the matter. __________________ DOWN WITH HATTRICK!!! The RWBL Are you reading In The Bleachers?

09-21-2009, 10:18 AM	#68
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Well, just had my first financial jolt. Everything that I've researched and have budgeted for has been on track. Fixtures, inventory, office equipment, credit card processing fees, etc. Even the leasing fees have been in the ballpark of what I want and their haven't been any surprises. Until now. The first few places I looked at, I had estimates on the signage. A 2' x 10' sign, I was getting quotes in the $300 range. So, the place I'm currently looking at, I need 2 1'x10" signs and 1 2'x20 signs. I figured around $1250 and the landlord said the last business that did signs was around $1200 and that was for multicolored larger signs. First estimate in - $2500. Someone is off the mark here. I have a few more calls in, but if the estimates are $2500, I have to reconsider that location. That much for signage wasn't in the budget. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

09-21-2009, 04:39 PM	#69
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Looks like I should have stuck with the first estimate. 2nd estimate came in at $2900. That news is rather deflating. I'll have to relook at the numbers to see if I can even justify that expense at this time. What is killing me is that I need 3 signs. Most of the other places I've looked at have needed 1. Blah. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

09-21-2009, 10:27 PM	#70
Swaggs Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000	Just wanted to say that I have enjoyed watching your progress. Keep it going and let us know how things go. Good luck w/ the signage. __________________ DOWN WITH HATTRICK!!! The RWBL Are you reading In The Bleachers?

09-22-2009, 12:55 PM	#74
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Got the proposal today. The base rent looks decent. It is basically a 14 month lease, 2 months free on the front end and the 12 months to pay is at $9.81. Plus, they capped the HVAC stuff at $500 on the first year. That is the good news. The bad news is that the NNN charges, where I was quoted $4.25, really is more like $6.07. They would charge $465 a month which comes to $5580 AND in 2008, the tenant was undercharged $1100 so, in 2008 the total NNN charges for the tenant was $6680 or roughly $6.07 so, looking at roughly $175/month more than they initial quoted me. I don't think that is workable. I've found NNN charges in the area to be around $3.50-$4.50, this place is definitely high. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

09-22-2009, 03:37 PM	#75
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	The more I think about the NNN charges, the less I like them. 1. NNN costs in 2006 were $4400, 2007 $5700 and 2008 $6800. Landlord claims that there were extenuating circumstances in those years, but the 3 year trend is an increase of around 25%. While it is only 3 years of data, it is concerning. I can't assume that 2006 was the norm and that the norm might be a 20%+ increase a year and can only look at the data given to me. 2. $600 building repair fees in 2007. Landlord says they are responsible for the walls out, foundation, roof, etc. I have not dug into the reason for $600 in building fees, but if there is some loophole that they apply fees for building repairs, it is concerning. 3. 12% management fee. Seems rather high and I would think rates would be more in the 3-5% range. 4. No caps on the CAM portion. I really don't want to be funding a new parking lot or space needle. 5. Landlord says they can't control costs and what I owe. Personally, I think this is the biggest flag. There is a difference between can't and won't. They could waive the management fee or reduce it, charge me less for other areas, but they choose not to. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

09-22-2009, 04:55 PM	#76
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Checked with a few people that are in the same business and they agreed with my concerns and it just wasn't right. I sent the message to the landlord rejecting the proposal and citing the reasons. I very much doubt they will come back, but they can shoulder that $6K in cost for the time being. I guess that is why 4 out of 6 slots are empty right now. Note to self.. an area with alot of empty units should send up warning signals. (In this case, the NNN charges) __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its... Last edited by Mustang : 09-22-2009 at 04:56 PM.

09-28-2009, 12:24 PM	#77
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Well, after much review, appears that the full blown retail store front will be on hold for the time being. Definitely need to do this right rather than just slam something in and accepting this last offer would have been slamming something in. From a lease standpoint, definitely a good learning experience because I know a few more questions to hit on and I have a better understanding of signage costs which I was way off on. Amazing that I've ruled out the other options due to size, cost or location. I could look outside of our town, but that has other logistical issues. I could look for a smaller space and just open up on the weekends which is still on the table, but probably only for another 2 weeks and everything would have to fall exactly in line for it to happen. I'll still be putting notes in here on things going on for my online business so, hopefully that will still be interesting. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

10-08-2009, 11:04 AM	#79
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Was hoping to be up for the holiday, but unfortunately it looks like I'm stuck with 50 copies of 'Sucking Santa' until 2010. Damn you holiday merchandise!!! __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

10-19-2009, 11:09 AM	#80
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	We added on another line of items that we are carrying and everything seems to be going ok except that there is alot of time expense right now from an educational standpoint, that should thin out once we have a more solid base. We enlisted the aid of someone to help out for a few hours on the weekend. The only 'payment' he was wanting is just to be feed. (Guess that is easy enough). One item I've been looking at is discounting though. With the new line, there are a lot of existing businesses selling the product line we are doing now. One thing I've noticed with new businesses online is they want to discount everything to undercut everyone so they can make a sale. That is fine and dandy when you have just 1 item, but if you are selling more, discounting actually hurts you and it is pretty basic math. If you have 100 widgets that you sell for $100 (at a cost of $50 to you), you will have sales of $10000 and a profit of $5000. The same item, at a discount of 20%, increasing sales 50% will actually cause you to do 50% more work and make less. 150 widgets sold @ $80 at a cost of $50 results in a profit of $4500. Granted, I'm not near that level of volume where I am selling 100 units of one item, but unfortunately what I have to deal with is people doing the discounting where it hurts you and it is no longer profitable to even bother selling the item. I sell an item for $5 consistently, a new business comes in and decides to sell it for $4.50, causing me to adjust and then a new business comes in and sells for $4, etc, etc. You don't always have to undercut everyone all the time, just be creative in what you do. For example, one item I have I sell for $19.99 with $5.00 flat shipping. Another seller has them for $24.99. We are both technically selling them at the same price ($24.99), but I'll make .75 cents more a unit sold then he will just given the costs of selling on Amazon/Ebay (which charge roughly 15% of final cost which doesn't include shipping) Enough babbling today... __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

10-19-2009, 03:14 PM	#82
DanGarion Coordinator Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: The Great Northwest	By the way, from my understanding selling on Amazon can really increase your sales... __________________ Los Angeles Dodgers Check out the FOFC Groups on Facebook! and Reddit! DON'T REPORT ME BRO!

10-22-2009, 11:08 AM	#84
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Have the potential to top our last months sales which were our best to date. I think we will fall just a little short though. For whatever reason, we had a little burst in the last 4-5 days where we have been shipping around 25 packages a day. (Normally it is in the 15 range) Dedicated time last night to doing some business orientated stuff. I had slacked off in the last 7 days. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

10-30-2009, 12:30 PM	#85
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	So much for just the potential of topping our sales record, we topped it by 10% so far with 1 more day to go. Good start to the holiday season for us. In other news, the person that was going to work at the store, he had a strong desire to quit his job and work full time in the store if I want to hire him, but he couldn't because his wife's job didn't have insurance through her company. This week, she got a new job with health benefits so, it is not important that he carries the health insurance in the family. Potential is there when I open to potentially look into hiring him at more of a full time position during the week although, I would probably look more into giving him more of a sales/commission type salary in that the better the business does, the better he will do. But, that is a long way off. In hindsight, while I really wanted to open this year, the extra 6 months won't hurt from a business standpoint. We should double the money that we will have going into the business. Also, it gets us completely through 1 tax year so, if we have missed anything from an accounting standpoint, we can tighten that up for 2010. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

11-04-2009, 05:19 PM	#86
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Just hit 5000 feedback on Ebay so, just a few factoids from over the years. (Although, would have hit it sooner, but a year or so ago they cleaned the system out and I lost around 300 feedback) First items sold - Narnia book set for around $10, Old mantle clock for $26 and a chess set for $15 Negative feedback received in 5 years - 3. One was for tape that was on the item, but it was supposed to have tape along the seem, one for someone that complained about the item not being new (item said used. They bought the same one from a different seller at the same time that said new so, I think they made an error). The third one was for some new books I sent out and they called me an ass. Still not sure what happened. Worst customer ever - Tie. Customer A ordered something at Christmas. Christmas takes longer to ship items. We sent it out the same day and it took 10 days. 10 days of enduring emails questioning my honesty, how I was ruining his granddaughters Christmas and then, when it showed up, getting complaints that I packed it too well. Customer B sent 4 emails in a 6 hour period asking questions, bought the items before I had a chance to respond and then threatened me that I hadn't responded. (I kinda work you know?) Most famous customer (that I noticed) - Mike Krzyzewski Most expensive item sold - Sideshow Aragorn statue $960 Best advice on selling online - Sell what you know, know what you sell. Widgets may be profitable, but if you are in it just for the money, you'll get burned out __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

11-23-2009, 12:23 PM	#87
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Ebay had a bad outage this weekend. For around 8 hours, the site was pretty much rendered useless do to search errors. We typically would have probably sold 6-10 items during this time frame and ended up selling 0. The biggest people hit by this would have been people with auctions ending. Since people couldn't find their auctions, there would have been reduced bidding and a lower end price. There is not alot of good that can come from this and Ebay botched alot of things. First, they should have extended auctions immediately and not allow them to end. They do this for system wide outages, but they didn't consider this a system wide outages because you could still get to the items if you knew the item number or had it in your viewing list. Semantics reallly because the system was down. (I know how businesses fudge availability numbers because our company does the same damn thing. If you hit the web page and it takes you 5 minutes, the system isn't down, it is degraded.) Ebay should have take a more proactive approach in letting people know there was an issue. It should have been across the front page rather than tucked in the system announcements section. Savvy users will find it, but most people are not savvy users and will wonder what happened. People are saying buyer confidence is shaken now on Ebay. I am not sure how buyer confidence should be shaken. Seller confidence, yes, but the ability to buy a certain widget during a 8 hour timeframe shouldn't impact the typical buyer, plus if they were watching an auction, they could still bid on it. The one thing that could affect buyers if sellers decide to cancel items due to the errors and not honor bids. That could be a potential messy situation. In a perfect world, if a seller decided to not honor a bid because of technical issues, they could just cancel it and a buyer would understand that there were issues outside of the seller's control. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world so, there will be alot of messy cancellations and negatives left. Another reason that I'll need to spread around my business in 2010. I'll be going with Amazon, finalizing my own website and still looking at setting up a brick and mortar site. Would be nice if another online auction site could give Ebay a run, but I just don't see that happening. I've checked out other sites(ecrater, bonanzle, etc) but they are just not designed that well, do not have the traffic or the merchandise to really drive people to them. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

11-24-2009, 12:48 PM	#88
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Sounding like a broken record, but we topped our sales record again this month. Starting off to be a good holiday season for us. It does appear that pricing is considerable factor this year more than others. In previous years, items would see a bump in price of between 50%-200% compared to what I'd sell an item for from Feb - Oct, but this year, items are staying more in the range from the rest of the year. My end goal was to increase sales 300% from the beginning of the year and keep profits around the same percent. This would allow me to potentially quit my day job and do this full time. To date, we would have increased sales 50%. Doing this with just me and the wife, I'm not sure a 300% increase is possible with my current workload and 150% would be more realistic. The only way I would get there is to quit my job and work up to that number. I have 11 days off coming up so, I'll be able to work on some things. We have a backlog of inventory to go through so, that is my goal the next 2 weeks. Our local competitor had his 'Best Seller' tag removed the other day. Granted, in the overall picture I'm not competing with just him, I'm in competition with everyone, but in my limited interactions with him I've found him overly defensive, over priced and overstating of the condition of items that he sells. (He uses words that don't make any season.. like Big Boss Time. As in, the condition of this is Big Boss Time!! Which, I guess would be good). So, him losing that status is just a moral victory for me. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

11-25-2009, 01:19 PM	#89
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Not related to my business, but if you are wanting to sell some things on Ebay for the holiday season, just some tips (some of these apply year round) 1. Prices will peak around December 10th and then slide back down. Seems to be the perfect mix of people realizing they need to act in order to get it in time for Christmas and panic so, prices flare up. 2. Ship priority mail. Parcel during the holiday season can be rather slow. Make it known that priority mail is not a guaranteed service and while the post office says 2-3 days, it can be longer. (Traditionally, I see it go from 2-3 days to around 3-5 days. Parcel comes in around 10-14 rather than 7-10) 3. Don't ship express or guaranteed mail unless you are willing to eat the costs for a returned item. This is the main reason I don't ship either of those services. A normal $8 shipping fee could turn into $25-$30 so, if they don't like it or have an issue, I'd be out that money. 4. Assume it is a Christmas gift and try to ship it out as soon as possible. Don't sit on it for 4 or 5 days. Assume your buyer is a panicky stressed out holiday shopper and plan accordingly. 5. If you are selling a 'hot' holiday item or items where there are a ton out there then go with a 1 or 3 day auction and start your price closer to what you want. If there are 100 items out there, people tend to look at the new items and the items ending in the next day so, if you have an auction at 7 days, you are looking at potentially 5 1/2 days where it probably won't be looked at. 6. Use a box to pack it. Don't use brown paper. Good luck! __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

12-04-2009, 01:14 AM	#90
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Looking forward to December 17th. That is when we go on a 10 day holiday shut off our business. There are a few reasons we do this. 1. There is a high probability that anyone doing Christmas shopping, if they pay for it on December 18th or later, they are not going to get the item. We don't do Express shipping or offer it because of the potential cost to us if there is an issue. (You wouldn't believe how many people are willing to pay to send a $5 to $10 item overnight at a cost of anywhere from $25-$35. Unfortunately, if it goes bad and I need to do a refund, I'm out that cost which I'm not willing to do at this time. Priority is 2-3 days typically so, I try to persuade them that it is in their best interest to just save the money) 2. Because of #1, panicky buyers don't understand that it takes longer for holiday shipping. Panicky buyers are bad. Panicky HOLIDAY shoppers are really bad. Panicky holiday shoppers that have no common sense... Those are the type that think you are out to destroy their holiday season and have made it a priority to do so. I would like to avoid those people at all costs. (By the way, Bill Smith... I eff'n hate you and your 4 year old daughter. I have run her Zhu Zhu hamster over with my car and you should receive it on January 6th.) 3. We need a break. It is our one time a year to just shut it off for a period of time to enjoy the holidays so, yes, we lose sales, but because it is pretty much a 2 person operation and not Wal-mart, we can do it. My break time will include pulling out Arkham Horror which I haven't pulled out since the last break we took last year. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

12-17-2009, 11:50 AM	#91
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Ahh.. gotta love the procrastinating Christmas Shopping freaks that are starting to just crest over the horizon. In about 36 hours, our holiday sales will be shut off and it won't come a minute sooner. I'd love to stay open. Most people are smart enough to realize that once an item leaves my hands, it is out of my control as to how long it will take the UPS, USPS or Fed-ex to deliver a package unless you do a guaranteed service. Today I had someone ask if an item would reach her by Christmas because it was the only thing her autistic son wanted. That is a red flag to me. Let me explain. We have seen it before where people bring up a reason to ask for a reduce price or to play on your sympathies because someone is sick or it reminds them of their dead mother or similar sympathy inducing statements. The statement is usually followed by a 'will you take less' statement. Unfortunately, I'm pessimistic and usually don't believe people because I see no reason to bring up items like this unless you are looking for sympathy or an edge. So, if she doesn't get this item by Christmas, I will get a 'YOU RUINED MY AUTISTIC SON'S CHRISTMAS!!'. No, I didn't. You did by waiting until 12/17 to buy something and hope it arrives in time. I didn't do that. You did. Don't get me wrong, there are alot of times I go out of my way for customers, but I just fear 'the setup' type ones. The second type I love are the demand ones. I had an item I was selling for a friend. It was a large item. In the box shipped it would be 30'x20'x6'. If you know anything about the USPS, they have large packages which are items that exceed certain lengths and for this box, for priority mail, anything outside of my zone gets a hefty charge. In my zone it was $12. To Virginia it was $30. This is the charge.. I have nothing to do with coming up with those numbers. Yesterday, I was informed by someone that see was going to give me $10 for priority mail, that would cover it. I explained to her why priority was so much more and I got back a 'FYI, it will fit in a large flat rate. THANK YOU'. Ok, how the hell are you going to put a 30'x20'x6' box into a 12'x12'x8 box? It ain't a fucking bag of holding. Its a question of ratios. You can't put a 30x20x6 into a 12x12x8 box. Maybe I could buy a African Swallow and attach it to it and send it to her. Saturday morning can't come soon enough. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

12-21-2009, 04:08 PM	#94
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Almost thought the holiday season went without a major hitch this year. Found out Saturday that I flipped packages and sent them out wrong to the wrong people. DOH! Got on the phone with them and straightened it out. Luckily they were understanding that mistakes happen. I've done that one other time. In this case, the people were in Illinois and New York. In the previous case, they were in the UK and Australia. Might as well have been Mars and Venus. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

12-30-2009, 04:28 PM	#95
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	DOH! (again) Forgot to file the 3rd quarter sales tax. Government doesn't like it when they don't get their taste. Then they send Guido out to get their money and they come up with some number that isn't anywhere close to what you have been paying. "Hey, I think you owe us $3000 this quarter.. prove why you don't." Will not make that mistake again. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its... Last edited by Mustang : 12-30-2009 at 04:28 PM.

12-31-2009, 06:00 PM	#98
surlyc n00b Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: London, UK	Not sure how it works in the US (I am from the UK), but here HMRC can deliver a notice of liability to tax if you fail to send your return on time. This means they make up a number, generally just 30% of your total turnover per your stat accounts, and ask you to prove they're wrong. Guess my point is, it's not just Wisconsin... it's a world-wide thing. Interesting thread... good luck. I always like to see small businesses succeed. __________________ "...and Adrian Peterson is loose!"

01-06-2010, 01:04 PM	#99
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	All the buildings that I was looking at leasing over the last 6-9 months are still available. Obviously there has to be some benefit to them not renting that I'm not seeing. If there is, wouldn't mind seeing some way to incent these businesses to actually try to get someone in empty buildings to start a business rather than just letting everything sit or at least trying to close off the ability for a business to not have it be a potential positive to leave a building empty. (Not wanting to turn this into a political discussion and I'm not even sure if there is a benefit, but based on my negotiations, didn't seem like anyone was that eager to lease) __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

01-11-2010, 10:47 AM	#100
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Sometimes wisdom comes up in the oddest places Joe Dirt: You're gonna stand there, owning a fireworks stand, and tell me you don't have no whistling bungholes, no spleen spliters, whisker biscuits, honkey lighters, hoosker doos, hoosker donts, cherry bombs, nipsy daisers, with or without the scooter stick, or one single whistling kitty chaser? Kicking Wing: No... because snakes and sparklers are the only ones I like. Joe Dirt: Well that might be your problem, it's not what you like, it's the consumer. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

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