SOWPub Small Business Forums  
 

Click Here to see the latest posts!

Ask any questions related to business / entrepreneurship / money-making / life
or share your success stories (and educational "failures")...

Sign up for the Hidden Business Ideas Letter Free edition, and receive a free report straight to your inbox: "Idea that works in a pandemic: Ordinary housewife makes $50,000 a month in her spare time, using a simple idea - and her driveway..."

NO BLATANT ADS PLEASE
Also, please no insults or personal attacks.
Feel free to link to your web site though at the end of your posts.

Stay up to date! Get email notifications or
get "new thread" feeds here

 

Go Back   SOWPub Small Business Forums > Main Category > SOWPub Business Forum
Register FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

SOWPub Business Forum Seeds of Wisdom Forum

 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
  #9  
Old July 14, 2007, 09:37 PM
MichaelRoss
 
Posts: n/a
Default Thoughts on business

Sandy,

Thanks for asking.

Before this Began, my wife had remarked how much like Howard Roark I am

Anyway. To your three questions....

1: Do you think after engaging in the type of business and work you are doing now(because it's hand ons) it has changed you in some way and in your perception about business people and or strategies they use.

No and Yes...

No, because my business endeavors had, in the early years, always been Hands On. Mainly because I didn't know any other way. So being Hands On isn't anything new to me. And I can see how You could get a new perspective as you move from pencil pushing to hands on, as you now feel like you are playing a Direct - and vital - Role in the running of the business.

Yes, because I became even More Aware of the Tremendous Variety of money making efforts out there and I get to meet many people with interesting stories to tell.

Guys with degrees who can't get jobs with those degrees so start their own business and now rake it in - clearing $3k a week.

Guys who decide that 20 years in one trade is enough and become an Apprentice at a second trade - like 39 year old 1st year apprentice plumbers.

And others. And even just walking through the city you can stop, pause, look at someone on the street and know, they have a story to tell, they have a life they are living with friends and family. And at that moment, you know nothing about them, and likely never will, nor meet them ever again. They could be on their way to work, might be a spy or drug courier, or even walking to get a bite to eat. They have dreams and aspirations and concerns. They may be a nice person, or not. But you'll never know. I am more aware of this.

There are businesses out there turning over Millions of dollars a year and the overwhelming vast majority of people have never heard of them and aren't aware they exist.

That guy with a crappy desk in his garage and a couple of small trucks that look like they are about to fall apart, who just takes rubbish away. He can make $5k a week just taking aluminum to the recyclers. On top of whatever he charged the client to get rid of it.

The fitout company we did a strip out for a $1.2mil refurbishment. The client, a well known business man. He bought two condos and wanted them redone and joined - so strip it out and knock out the adjoining wall. Everyone in town knows the businessman, but not the businesses getting his money. (BTW, the fitout company is leveraged all over. Even the foreman of the project puts in a Invoice to be paid - he subcontracts to the fitout company.)

The small crane company with cranes so small they can fit through a doorway. Clears about $400k a year.

The guy with a pickup who just does scrap metal. Might pay $300 for the metal. Loads it onto his pickup and takes it straight to the scrap metal yard for a cool $1,800 - clearing $1,500, not bad for a couple hours work in the morning. Another guy with a Deal with electricians - he picks up the bags of wire when they strip it out of an office and pays them. Takes the wire to the scrap yard where he gets Double what he paid the electrician an hour earlier - the bags of discarded wire are worth about $300 - $400 dollars.

The fellow who gets-for-free, unwanted office partition glass and turns it into fishtanks. I am more aware of the multitude of businesses out there.

2: Is the work you're doing now and they way you are doing as fulfilling or more fulfilling than what you were doing before?

More fulfilling, to me. And I think there are more than one reason why this is so.

Let me give two examples that I know, from experience, I think about differently.

The first is about Jackhammering in a 40 storey building. The Management wanted to make the Bathroom & Kitchenette Floors more Classy. Remove the small 2" square tiles, plus the Bedding they were laid on, plus three rows high going up the wall. (Side note, I used to have the contract to clean ALL the windows on this building many years earlier.)

It sounds a relatively easy task - just jackhammer it. But there's a little more to it...

Because it's an office building it Has to be done at night and the weekend. So we'd start at 6pm on Fri night and go to 10pm. Then back at 6am on Sat morning and stay until we were done - done hammering and getting all the rubble out (about 6,000kg of rubble - roughly 13,000 pounds).

After an hour or so on the 65 pound hammers (that's the weight of the hammer) the other fellows are starting to complain. My thinking is, do not complain about something you don't have to subject yourself to. And I'd turn to them and say, "I like jackhammering" and it was true. I DO like jackhammering. It's fun - physical, loud, dirty, grimy but Fun.

Next example. On one project the Internal Hoist Driver was having Heated Words with the head of the tilers. To avoid it going physical they took him out of the hoist and asked me to drive it. So here I am, driving the internal hoist (basically an elevator) ALL day - and Loving it. (Did this for about a month.)

No-one could understand why I liked it so much. I joked with them that I got to meet people and travel HA!

But here's the thing... it was all in how you thought about it. MY thinking was this... I am here to Help these guys get to their work areas as quickly as possible without any hassles and to make it a good trip along the way.

And so I would talk to Everyone. Thank them for riding the Project Lift when they got out and ask them to "Please use us again". I was the only English speaker on the site who would talk to the Chinese Drywallers and Korean Tilers - who taught me a LOT of words to the point other people thought I could speak those languages.

Other hoist drivers (there were three hoists on the site) would talk to no-one and would be in the Box all grumpy. To hell with that. My lift was a Fun place to be in for the minute or so the journey took. *I* made it fun.

It is all in how I looked at it. Where others complain, I enjoy. I enjoy because of my larger outlook on it.

One guy asked me why I was always so Happy on the site. I said "Look at it" sweeping my arm to encompass the project and beyond. "Isn't this wonderful. We are part of this creation. This isn't just a complex of condos. It's the wonderfulness of humans over their environment. The crux of achievement. The entire city is Proof of it. I am happy because I am a part of that creation."

It doesn't make things any clearer. People just look at you like you're a loon. Because they don't Get It.

So "Yes" I am more fulfilled and this - being a part of man's wonderfulness in tangible form - is why.

3: What is your feeling about "business" in general?

Most people should Not be in business and would be better off in a Job, as seen when you run the numbers of their business.

One woman I know turns over well in excess of $100k a year. BUT, after expenses her Taxable income is $25k. And this is a business with a physical location which requires the business to be open 7 days. She is working 7 days for the same money as she'd get in a 40 hour a week job. But she has Longer hours and more business headaches than she'd have in a job. She would be better off in a job - as long as, she enjoyed it.

I know laborers - with no skills (no Tickets or paper that prove they have a skill) - making $80k a year. I know of a job vacancy paying $28 an hour, plus time and a half for overtime (2 hours a day of overtime) plus $35 a day for travel. That's $1,120 for 40 hours + $420 for OT plus $210 for six days travel for a total of $1,750 per week ($91k per year) for a Laborer!!! Most small businesses cannot give the owner that kind of money.

Most businesses Trap the owner - to the location, the customers, etc. The business owner doesn't realize the extent of the trap until they try to break free. Then, that weightless noose/shackle tightens and pulls them right back.

If business Goes Bad they cannot just go start another business. If your job goes bad you can always just go get another job - as long as you are not a job snob.

Most business owners - and this also applies to people in general - cannot manage money. They have no idea of their income or their expenses and leave it to their accountant. This is Wrong.

If you know nothing about your business - because you hire skilled people to do the DOing - at least know your numbers and Control the money.

One business owner I know was in such bad shape, his wife spoke with her sister to ask her husband to come Save the business. So the brother-in-law jumped in. He was only a chippie, but knew numbers. And he took over pricing the work and organizing the staff for half the business. That half of the business took off while the owner's half continued to struggle because he would not listen to his brother-in-law or do likewise.

For instance, the owner would rather have a couple of workers do something the hard way and take an extra half hour to do the job (one man hour) instead of spending $3 on a consumable which would save half an hour of time. He'd saved $3 but it'd Cost him Much more (penny wise, pound foolish).

Most business owners think they know everything. The more successful ones know they don't and won't ever and get other people to do the things they cannot do, or don't want to do, or cannot do as well. They are few and far between.

Most people would be better off sticking with their job and just doing something on the side. It doesn't need to be a big something. A small - fly low and collect the dough - something. Some hotsheets, something they make at home while watching TV, etc. That, combined with better money management, will serve them tremendously.

The biggest change would be to... enjoy what you do and do what you enjoy, regardless whether it's a job or business.

Michael Ross
Reply With Quote
 


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Other recent posts on the forum...


Seeds of Wisdom Publishing (front page) | Seeds of Wisdom Business forum | Seeds of Wisdom Original Business Forum (Archive) | Hidden Unusual Business Ideas Newsletter | Hotsheet Profits | Persuade via Remote Influence | Affia Band | The Entrepreneur's Hotsheet | The SeedZine (Entrepreneurial Ezine)

Get the report on Harvey Brody's Answers to a Question-Oriented-Person


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:49 AM.


Powered by vBulletin Version 3.6.0
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.