host

I am only a lowly sole proprietor "trader in securities", and by night, a waiter.
The level of fiscal soundness and systemic abuses I detect, convince me that you will be "hard put" to keep your financial condition, "above water", based on what I KNOW is coming, even as I write this, to the US domestic economy.

As some of us have on the "1992 Redux" thread (namely, ace and myself...) let us agree to revisit this discussion, 12 months from today, to discuss whether you are as sanguine as you've appeared to be since making the decsion to expand your business.

You POV today is based largely on your anecdotal experience, as it will also be, one year from now.

I am not caught up in the distractions you are immersed in. I've had the experience of being a business owner with a $400 per hour "nut" to deal with....fixed costs per hour of operation, before expenses for purchases of materials and merchandise for resale, and my experience included meeting the payroll expenses of 17 employees, plus myself.

I did this for seven years, employees were paid immediately on completion of the work week, there was no "holdback", the week delay most businesses are allowed by law to delay wages paid to employees.

So much of that experience, no matter how good or able an owner/manager one actually was, seemed to owe it's success to luck and being in the right place at the right time. Selling, negotiating, employee relations, and management skills are of little consequence when an economic slowdown and credit tightening come to visit your market, always at the same time.

I had some success, "earned" profits, kept the doors open, satisfied customers, experienced almost zero employee turnover, paid off debt, invested in new equipment, and expanded into a new, complimentary line of business.

It was the loneliest time of my life, and the most all consuming. Only the "owner" can know what it's like to have that responsibility and opportunity, so Ustwo, I have some general insight into where you are now.

I don't wish you adversity or bad fortune. Anonymity allows me to speak frankly, though. My experience as a business owner made me appreciate Thoreau's observation that the farm seemed to "own" the farmer, more than the farmer owned the farm.

I can just about guarantee your that there is a once in every century "shit storm" headed at our economy. The consequences of it will profoundly alter your POV of economics and politics. Ask anyone in Japan who was an adult living there in January, 1990, through the present time.