OT: Buying a Business

[njtosd]

[quote=flu][quote=zk]Biodiesel. Could be.

I said he bought it from restaurants. What I meant was, restaurants paid him to haul it away, and then he sold it. Not sexy, but pretty sweet.[/quote]

He’s lucky. I know people that pay the restaurants to take it away. Because they are reselling it to those making biodiesel.

But I think this goes to show that if you pick something no one else is doing, maybe it’s actually a good business.[/quote]

I heard of a great business years ago. A clothing company would pay this business to haul away scrap fabric. This was then used to make underwear for prisoners and was sold to the state penitentiaries. Definitely not a high brand value business, but my understanding was that it was lucrative.

[svelte]

Lots of good advice here including:

[quote=XBoxBoy]
…I can understand you don’t like working for “the man”, don’t for one minute think that running a business is the ticket to easy street. And if you’re hoping that it will be different because you’ll be in charge, let me disabuse you of that notion. You will not be in charge, your customers will be in charge.
[/quote]

Everyone I know who owns their own business puts in longer hours than I do and doesn’t take a vacation. On top of that, they still live and die by the whims of the general public – no different than working for the man.

[quote=joec]Most businesses end up failing for a reason and it’s hard to get a mortgage being self employed also for good reason.[/quote]

I’ve known so many people who had difficulty getting home loans because they were self employed. Some ended up giving up buying a home.

Other advice I would give (may be repeats, if so I apologize):
– Analyze the failure rate of businesses in that industry before you buy. And especially the failure reason.
– Stay out of the restaurant business. Very high failure rate unless you are very experienced at running a restaurant, which I assume you aren’t.
– Personally I would do a combination. Find a job with the man while you’re starting your own business. Gives you two paths to success: you end up liking your new corporate job, or your business takes off.
– Don’t forget to consider the impact that starting your own business will have on your unemployment benefits.

[njtosd]

[quote=Hobie][quote=njtosd]Failure to get the goodwill can invalidate the mark.[/quote]

Wow! I had no idea. Never again will I quibble about attorney fees 😉

[/quote]

I thought about this thread when I saw this article about Pepperidge Farm suing Trader Joe’s over PF’s trademark on the Milano cookie. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-traderjoes-pepperidgefarm-lawsuit-idUSKBN0TN1X020151205

Pepperidge Farm alleges damage to its goodwill (which is, in legal theory, the value of the trademark) by Trader Joe’s sale of an allegedly infringing cookie. And to my point about trademarks being undervalued, Pepperidge Farm owns a trademark in the *design* of the cookie (probably also the Milano name, but that’s not at issue here). Here is the registration: http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4805:hu4uh1.2.98
So, Pepperidge Farm is the only company that can sell cookies that look like the picture in the registration. This is true FOREVER unless PF ceases to sell cookies that look like this, or does a few other things that can invalidate the registration. Same is true for Corning (owns the exclusive right to sell pink insulation) and Christian Laboutin (owns the exclusive right to sell shoes with red soles), etc.

So – aspiring business owners – think about your trademarks. They can make you and your descendants very wealthy (assuming the product/service that is provided is valued by customers . . .). And they are so much cheaper to get than patents.

[FlyerInHi]

Do you think the Martha Stewart name will be worth much in the future?

I also think Abercrombie is dying a slow death. It maybe be the close enough stores to survive longterm.

About clothing, my Korean friend from college’s husband started a manufacturing business in the garment district of LA. They have like 50 employees making clothes for designers. They live on the Hollywood Hills. I heard garment is heavily Korean and Hongkonger.

A good rag to riches story is Forever 21.

[Doofrat]

You definitely have to be self driven in a big way. If you’re the type to procrastinate, or to get up late, or put off big and little decisions like doofrat is, then you will do better working for “The Man”

If you’re the driven type, then your own business can be the gateway to freedom and unlimited riches. There’s the positive, now some negatives from someone who’s been there and couldn’t hack it:

If you don’t have any employees, any second you are not working, you are not making money. Go to the bathroom, you’re not making money, post on piggington.com, go on vacation, Etc, Etc, Etc., you’re not making money.

When you work for The Man, they provide sales support, marketing, accounting, payroll, Internet service, e-mail, etc. etc. etc. When you work for yourself, you have to supply all this.
The things like renting office space and paying for Internet service just take money, so that’s the easy part.
If you’re competent at your specialty, again, that’s the easy part.
No matter what your specialty is, you also need to be the expert at marketing, sales, customer support, shipping, accounting, tax, etc. etc. etc., that’s the hardest part in my opinion, and it really takes a lot of your time and energy that would be better spent focusing on what your business specializes in.

Also expect a fair amount of bullshit you’ll have to deal with as far as regulations go. In the US in general there aren’t too many roadblocks to interfere with business relative to other countries, but there are some things that can be a pain in the ass. In my case, we were buying normally taxable items tax free using a wholesale license and then shipping them out of the country. As a result, the tax board was expecting a lot of sales tax that they weren’t getting. Dealing with the Franchise Tax Board over and over on this every year was a total pain in the butt and caused a lot of stress.

And speaking of taxes, expect to pay quite a bit more in tax. There are some taxes (Social Security and Medicare) that an employer pays that you don’t even see, and you’ll have to cover these now. To help save on taxes, just remember that the more you procrastinate and the later you get in, the less you earn, which means you’ll pay less in tax!

[njtosd]

[quote=FlyerInHi]Do you think the Martha Stewart name will be worth much in the future?

I also think Abercrombie is dying a slow death. It maybe be the close enough stores to survive longterm.

About clothing, my Korean friend from college’s husband started a manufacturing business in the garment district of LA. They have like 50 employees making clothes for designers. They live on the Hollywood Hills. I heard garment is heavily Korean and Hongkonger.

A good rag to riches story is Forever 21.[/quote]

Martha Stewart? It depends – that name could become like Betty Crocker, which is now a name that is unassociated with a person. It’s all in the marketing. Abercrombie is very protective of its marks – but it’s stock has gone way down in the last four years.

I just read about Forever 21 – wow. What a heartwarming story. I don’t like the store, but clearly they are doing well.

[njtosd]

[quote=doofrat]You definitely have to be self driven in a big way. If you’re the type to procrastinate, or to get up late, or put off big and little decisions like doofrat is, then you will do better working for “The Man”

If you’re the driven type, then your own business can be the gateway to freedom and unlimited riches. There’s the positive, now some negatives from someone who’s been there and couldn’t hack it:

If you don’t have any employees, any second you are not working, you are not making money. Go to the bathroom, you’re not making money, post on piggington.com, go on vacation, Etc, Etc, Etc., you’re not making money.

When you work for The Man, they provide sales support, marketing, accounting, payroll, Internet service, e-mail, etc. etc. etc. When you work for yourself, you have to supply all this.
The things like renting office space and paying for Internet service just take money, so that’s the easy part.
If you’re competent at your specialty, again, that’s the easy part.
No matter what your specialty is, you also need to be the expert at marketing, sales, customer support, shipping, accounting, tax, etc. etc. etc., that’s the hardest part in my opinion, and it really takes a lot of your time and energy that would be better spent focusing on what your business specializes in.

Also expect a fair amount of bullshit you’ll have to deal with as far as regulations go. In the US in general there aren’t too many roadblocks to interfere with business relative to other countries, but there are some things that can be a pain in the ass. In my case, we were buying normally taxable items tax free using a wholesale license and then shipping them out of the country. As a result, the tax board was expecting a lot of sales tax that they weren’t getting. Dealing with the Franchise Tax Board over and over on this every year was a total pain in the butt and caused a lot of stress.

And speaking of taxes, expect to pay quite a bit more in tax. There are some taxes (Social Security and Medicare) that an employer pays that you don’t even see, and you’ll have to cover these now. To help save on taxes, just remember that the more you procrastinate and the later you get in, the less you earn, which means you’ll pay less in tax![/quote]

I know it’s my “thing” but if you patent something and license it to someone else, you get many years of passive income. All you know are a few good ideas and you’ve got a pretty nice income stream.

[FlyerInHi]

[quote=njtosd]

I just read about Forever 21 – wow. What a heartwarming story. I don’t like the store, but clearly they are doing well.[/quote]

I didn’t know about the store until my friend told me. She’s US grown and educated, but her husband is a Korean immigrant who could barely speak English (no college education) and worked really hard. I remember they were renting a small apartment in the 90s.

Forever 21’s secret is low prices, high fashion, the fastest to market and frequent changes which encourages repeat shopping trips. Everything is affordable so people buy, buy, buy. You can wear it only 1 time and not feel bad about the expense.
I went shopping with a friend and she bought so much.

[FlyerInHi]

[quote=doofrat]Also expect a fair amount of bullshit you’ll have to deal with as far as regulations go. In the US in general there aren’t too many roadblocks to interfere with business relative to other countries, but there are some things that can be a pain in the ass. In my case, we were buying normally taxable items tax free using a wholesale license and then shipping them out of the country. As a result, the tax board was expecting a lot of sales tax that they weren’t getting. Dealing with the Franchise Tax Board over and over on this every year was a total pain in the butt and caused a lot of stress. [/quote]

I think you meant the State Board of Equalization that administers sales taxes.

[FlyerInHi]

Wow, I just read about American Giant.
I need to be get one to stay true to my earthy crunchy, hipster wannabe self.
Made in America.

I think there’s demand for things Made in America.

Christmas is coming… what gifts are you buying?

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/12/american_giant_hoodie_this_is_the_greatest_sweatshirt_known_to_man.html

http://www.american-giant.com/

[Author]

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