Posts
1934
Joined
4/1/2008
Location
Boogie Down Bronx, NY
US
Edited Date/Time
11/16/2020 2:11pm
I own a appliance repair company out here in NYC , mostly do repairs for property management companies. 2 techs , my son and myself. Just finished talking to a landlord who owns 10 buildings out here and he said collecting rent is going to be a issue and here comes the domino effect. Depending how long this last hopefully wont have to let go of my 2 technicians. what you guys got going?
We were in the midst of a record breaking March, even delivered 3 on our last day open. We are fortunate that we own all 85 pieces of inventory so there is no terrible floor plan interest accruing while the sales inevitably go into the shitter. And we sort of escrow our income to the following month, so we all will have income coming in for the next 4-5 weeks but after that it will be Pa UC or tapping our savings, UNLESS the Democrats will allow the Small Business Stimulus package to pass (They were 13 votes short yesterday)
By the way guys-- sorry about the political reference
The Shop
One positive I want to pass along. One of my best clients who has had me remodel a good 60% of their huge home is high up at the naval hospital in San Diego. He wants to meet with me and my wife as soon as we have the time to go over plans for another good size remodel at his house. He is well off but not filthy rich. What makes me feel good about this is he was willing to meet us n person and he’s also believing that going ahead with his remodeling plans tells me he does not foresee this epidemic lasting for a long time. If so he obviously would be holding onto his money
Luckily, my immediate family is able to support each other if need be. The lady and I will be fine, and we are helping my kids out. Luckily our house is paid off, but man, a new neighbor one street over just paid low 7 figures and is now unemployed. People out here are driving around in 100,000+ dollar vehicles and buying wildly over-priced real estate, when they are just like most people, 1-2 months away from financial ruin.
This is going to suck HARD for a lot of people, and it sucks.
These times remind me of a guy that used to work for me that always said: today is a blessing, yesterday is in the past and tomorrow isn’t promised.
But, I thank my Lady for changing my ways. I mean, we don't have a ton of cash on hand because it was all going to the mortgage to paid off, but we are asset positive. Even though we could buy a nice boat, nice car, motorcycles, trips, etc, we we were both raised in the business and know how lean times can get.
Shit, my Lady still drives the car we bought her 18 years ago and I finally just bought my first new truck in almost 14 years. That payment is going to sting a little now. hahaha
The good news: We are critical to infrastructure so we still have manufacturing going, pipelines and offshore rigs need power always, hospitals need back up power always.
The bad: Oil prices are in a ditch and frickin corona...
The future is quite uncertain but I think I feel a lot more comfortable about my job than the average person :/
we are going to a government enforced 4 week lock down from tomorrow night, we have already shut up, i have 8 full time plus 2 part time staff, the government down here is giving us a 12 week subsidy to not make staff redundant, to a max of about $14 per hour of most staff which will help a-lot. (most my guys are on $28 plus, we are not considered essential so have to shut, ill pay my guys 80% of a standard week for the first 4 weeks and access it from there,
not expecting to get paid much by customers in between, and had just paid most my bills for the month, will be tough to keep, ill keep up with any quoting that comes through, so hopefully we can hit the ground running, the first month back will be tough on cash flow, i know a lot of my mates are in worse positions than me tho,
Our rural hospitals are slow right now. People are staying away. Staffing to grid theyre cutting hours like I’ve never seen before. Bizarre. Would think they would boost hours. Currently looking at taking two contracts in nyc or Ann Arbor Michigan for 8-13 weeks to generate income. We can chill for about 6 months if I don’t but that will crush the cushion and my 401k is nauseating me daily. After 6 months...Then won’t be able to pay bills. But I hope this ends quicker than that.
I’m thinking economy gonna roar back when the media number generating machine starts showing a serious decline in new cases/deaths.
They are reporting them.
Pit Row
everyone has been cool,
I see it all the time with friends, family and colleagues. They have tremendous salaries but have to pay an expensive mortgage, fancy cars, etc.
I used to hate the fact that my dad could be so frugal at times and now I can’t thank him enough for instilling those values in me.
You learn a lot from seeing those things.
My Ladies family is much the same way. They knew the stories their parent's told of the depression. They can pretty much afford anything they could ever want, but they still live in the house her Dad was basically born and raised in, about a half mile from where we live. Shit, he drove the same Chevy S-10 till it literally died in my driveway when he was leaving to go home one day. Went out and bought a little Toyota Carolla since I have my truck.
Be frugal people.
There’s also the downside of the company remaining open and being customer facing that we have the potential to get sick our selves. With a 4 month old at home we’d both really like to stay healthy.
Stay safe everyone we will get through it and be stronger on the other side!
Is that really a difficult concept to grasp?
And just for clarity, they didn’t report that on Monday, they appear to be reporting that early Tuesday......
I feel for the people who are out of work, businesses that are struggling. I'm retired but those investments I worked so hard to save are taking a serious hit. This is scary. But there is no easy answer. I think trying to curb it now is the only reasonable answer.
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