If you could give your past self one piece of advice before starting.....

[Minion]

...your business, what would it be?   I could definitely name off a few, but I think for me the biggest one would be to find the Accountant that is not only good at their job, but the one that that is not to busy to return emails/phone calls or setup appointments.  

What's your one piece of advice that you would give yourself?

[Minion]

I know all about the credit card debt from some 10 years ago.  It was a brutal awakening when you have great credit and starting a business.  I've learned the proper way (by doing it wrong the first time) on how to utilize the card to its fullest, taking advantage of the 0% interest, , extra cash back etc.  It's part of my morning routine to check balances and move on.  I will say though I do like a Net30 Account for certain things over a CC.

[VanKalkerFarms]

It sure is easy to get lost in the finances while you are struggling daily to pay bills the first few years.  I know people that got themselves so buried in credit card debt because they just couldn't let the sinking business sink.  It is so hard to let go, but those designs took more than a decade to fix.

[rtfulk]

We’ve seen a lot of people in the fair business hang on to something until there was nothing left. The best thing that happened to us was when we cut the cards up, started saving an x amount every week and slowly paying off the credit cards. We were living debt free until we bought a new house 11 years ago.  We applied the same principles to this house as we did our debt. It will be paid off next year.

[CareyJo]

That's fantastic!  Congrats!!!

[VanKalkerFarms]

Glad you were able to dig yourself back out.  Once in CC debt, it is difficult as many people can barely scrape by the minimum payment, which never even hits the loan, just the interest.

We did a similar thing with our home mortgage.  We did a combo, half of the extra going to the house payment went into an ETF, and the other half toward the extra on the loan.  With the way the stock market has blown up in the last decade, we should have just put it all in the stock, but who would have known the way higher than average returns.

[TheRealChipA]

Randy, you're preaching to the choir with the CC debt thing.  One of the biggest mistakes I made to survive the pandemic was resorting to maxing out all of our business credit cards.  Servicing that debt was killing my Zen, for sure.  Anyway, this year Square Loans offered me a rather sizable one.  It was enough to wipe out 75% of that, stop the ongoing interest and, best of all, force myself to have to pay it off within a year, tops.  Six months later, that loan is 75% retired and it will be fully retired very soon.  That's where I LOVE using Square Loans -- to help me with financial goals and make the business credit report really shine!  Anyway, good for you.  Credit cards are the spawn of Satan himself.  LOL

[TheRealChipA]

All of this is really good!  I'll add one I haven't seen, yet -- be realistic and brutally honest with yourself about the finances.  

Expect that you'll have a number of "building" years when you'll be lucky to break even, much less make any sort of profit.  Don't start the business without either a stash of disposable cash OR access to a line of credit (personal or otherwise).  

Also, "back of napkin" pro formas are not solid financial planning.  Take the time to create a realistic forecast so that you are not caught off guard by things you could have planned for.  When you do that forecast, be conservative and lose the rose-colored glasses.  It's better to beat your forecasts consistently that to face the let-down of falling short.  Don't set yourself up for failure at the starting line.

[Minion]

I learned that one the hard way Chip.  The first couple years were major high and low swings, but just sorta rolled with it did what I could when I could and made it through the storm!

[CareyJo]

I think for me, after doing it the wrong way the first time, we learned to do it right the second time, from the beginning.  I'm actually our accountant but I'm not our CPA.  She gets paid very well to do her job and she does it fabulously.  She's young, she's good at it and she protects us.  She also doesn't sugar coat anything.

My thinking on doing it right is all the things - the branding, the marketing, the sales, the how's and what's of your business.  Make decisions before you start on how you're going to do this.  All the way down to the smallest details.  That's what we're doing now with our new venture.  We didn't do this back in 06 when we opened our first HVAC company but we did before we opened this one.  I'd been self-employed since the age of 19 but always alone, never with a partner.  There's so much more to consider and so many things that I didn't know I didn't know.  In just 3 short weeks, we have pretty much nailed down almost all of the details of opening our new business and how things are going to get done.  We still have miles to go, but we're so far ahead of the curve, that the guy in the SBA office we spoke to the other day was shocked when we said we've only been on this for about 3 weeks.  He told us we didn't need help because we're unlike everyone else that comes in his office.  He straight up asked what we needed.

[Minion]

I do things wrong on a daily. Sometimes I just live and forget the learn part the first time or two around but then I catch on.  I've had more losses than I 've had wins, but the losses help me to grow.  Some are tougher than others but at the end of the day it is what it is, and tomorrow is a new day.

[Lovewell]

YES! We’re all just figuring it out and always learning. Anyone who doesn’t think so likely has a huge lesson coming their way 😂

[VanKalkerFarms]

The good news is that no one does it all right the first time.  Many of the biggest companies have stories about their mega failures and rebuilding their successes.

[Minion]

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@VanKalkerFarms wrote:

The good news is that no one does it all right the first time.  Many of the biggest companies have stories about their mega failures and rebuilding their successes.

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Exactly.  If a company does everything right, they are either lying or not doing it right.  I don't mind failures at all, the best way to learn. I look back on the bedliner i sprayed some 9 years ago, compared to the one today and its just not and day difference.  I've never gone to any seminars or workshops on how to, just some basic searching and it all came from trial and error.

[CareyJo]

You're 100% right!  Not every day is a win and losses always have the opportunity to learn - if we pay attention.