How's Business?

[Tom Slick]

Just wondering how business is going for y'all? Mine has slowed considerably over the past month. Hoping it's just a bump in the road, but fear that all of the crazy spending since the plandemic has caught up to people and reality is finally setting in.

 

[BingerFang]

Just wondering how business is going for y'all? Mine has slowed considerably over the past month. Hoping it's just a bump in the road, but fear that all of the crazy spending since the plandemic has caught up to people and reality is finally setting in.

What industry are you in?

 

[rivermobster]

Everyone I have talked to lately is slowing down.

The free money has all dried up.

 

[JFMFG]

We are still pretty busy but the golf industry is usually last to get hit. We supply the course with all furnishings and equipment nothing to the player.

 

[Shlbyntro]

Everyone I have talked to lately is slowing down.

The free money has all dried up.

My work has largely shifted away from elective work (oil changes, impellers, tuneups, etc) to major repairs. Revenue is about the same but haven't had much for biscuits and gravy in a while.

 

[Albert]

We have def slowed down this month as well .

 

[YeahYeah01]

One division slowed down and that's usually the more elective constructive and our emergency work has been busy with the rain storms.

But not to stressed as we always slow down around this time, with kids going back to school people are more focused on that.

 

[Riverbound]

HVAC/Plumbing industry.

we have been bouncing between flat and up 15% all year. we are definitely in a down time of the economy. lots of credit declines and very few paying cash. we are seeing far more large repairs over people replacing.

we see the economy trends in our industry in almost real time.

 

[monkeyswrench]

The shops I help "play catchup", aren't needing as much catching up. This time of year the auto stuff slows down a bit, maybe school? Definitely a couple guys putting off brake jobs...going to cost 3X as much in a month.

 

[Outdrive1]

Last month was dead. In my business I’m used to the winters being slow, it doesn’t usually start in August however.

 

[renodaytona]

I'm in medical device manufacturing, we are very very slow.

 

[4Waters]

Everyone I have talked to lately is slowing down.

The free money has all dried up.

What free money?

 

[JFMFG]

What free money?

Ya that shits been done for years. My take from a manufacturing standpoint everyone is phattt on inventory due to long lead times etc so everyone over ordered and is now sitting on enough to get them by for awhile before ordering more. I’m guilty of it. Just my .02.

 

[ltbaney1]

cutting tool distributor for machine shop.

last month was a record month for us and we are coming into our busy season, summer is our slow time. we just hired one more inside person and are looking for another delivery driver and another warehouse guy.

 

[was thatguy]

What free money?

Never did understand that.
The one asshole I know that took $85K PPP as a sole proprietor has monthly payments to repay it.
Unless he’s defaulted or been waivered?
I quit talking to him way back then.

I’m sure there are some that robbed the system, I saw the lists of millions and who got it, but Joe citizen didn’t get rich on $600 a week or $85K.

 

[badgas]

People with money who can pay cash for projects are still doing so. The people without money that have to finance everything are not buying due to much higher rates.

Student loan forbearance is over and many of those loans are private with variable rates so they have new higher payments than they did before Covid.

 

[jetboatperformance]

My work has largely shifted away from elective work (oil changes, impellers, tuneups, etc) to major repairs. Revenue is about the same but haven't had much for biscuits and gravy in a while.

Same here largely bigger long term jobs (restos) however we take "draws" on them incrementally

 

[Tom Slick]

What industry are you in?

I have a small business that makes cargo racks and components for transporting motorcycles in truck beds, vans and trailers. https://ccrsport.com/

 

[CommanderLee]

Surprisingly the automotive aftermarket is still pretty busy. Last month was really good for us. Historically we would have started to slow down but business went the opposite way. We will see what happens this month.

 

[Cousineddy]

I have a small business that makes cargo racks and components for transporting motorcycles in truck beds, vans and trailers. https://ccrsport.com/

I have your rack in my truck, for hauling 3 dirt bikes, nice piece!!

 

[92562]

One sign that people have less money is that my local gun shop has two huge cabinets full of PPT guns. We heard that lots of people bought guns during the pandemic but at this shop there used to be 10-15 guns for private party transfer but now there are more than 200.

 

[TeamGreene]

Never did understand that.
The one asshole I know that took $85K PPP as a sole proprietor has monthly payments to repay it.
Unless he’s defaulted or been waivered?
I quit talking to him way back then.

I’m sure there are some that robbed the system, I saw the lists of millions and who got it, but Joe citizen didn’t get rich on $600 a week or $85K.

I perused that list of companies that took PPP and saw local construction companies that I know weren't affected that took 10's of thousands of dollars. I guess if you can sleep at night knowing you lied to get it. But I'll never trust them.

 

[shintoooo]

I am busier than ever but my accounts receivables are taking longer to collect. My clients are slowing down, that's for sure. The one's in the entertainment industry are really hurting because of the strikes. Construction guys are slowing down. Real estate investor guys are chugging along collecting their rents and waiting for their next deal. I can definitely see that the economy is slowing down based on talking with my clients. Everyone is in money saving mode right now.

 

[Gramps]

this is the busiest wildland fire deployment season we have had in 3 years........crews sent to California and Texas all summer long.

 

[Albert]

Absolutely sickening

 

[OldSchoolBoats]

I recently shifted my mortgage licenses away from the company I have been with for almost 4 years. I was offered a 100% commission split, paying a flat fee to the broker. He is a good friend of mine and never tried to recruit me, I sought him out and offer was much better than I expected. Even though the mortgage business is significantly slower, I still have clients that are purchasing homes, refinancing and taking HELOCs. This new comp plan will increase my take home pay immensely. I was on a 60/40 split previously, so had to do a lot more business to make the same amount of money.

We just finished our first full year in business with All Dry and it is growing month over month. We just hired another tech and are about to put another van in service. Unfortunately we burned 3 months and over $20K on a Business Development Manager, that wasn't out developing business. We have been relying heavy on paid leads since letting him go, which cuts into our margins, but it is what it is. Surprisingly, I am seeing more "cash" jobs right now versus insurance claims. Getting paid in a timely fashion through insurance is a major struggle.

We should be able to keep our guys busy, if it slows down, by adding some other streams of income that I can work in with All Dry, such as junk removal and contents.

 

[jesco]

Down.... Commercial Electrical Contractor. We are keeping busy, but thats all it is, busy work. We usually have 2 or 3 projects going that are contracted above $1mm... right now we have none and I don't see any coming up soon. We have more sub $1mm projects going than usual, but again, all busy work and nothing very profitable. Money in... money out... but we are keeping guys woking and paying bills so thats good.

 

[paradise]

We've got IT clients in different industries. Construction clients seem to be doing ok with maybe a hint of slowdown, no layoffs or anything. Medical research seems to be slowing down and having to work through funding issues. Hospitality seems to be doing fine, still spending money on upgrades, etc. Companies that work with insurance have noted that it is taking a long time to get anything moving and get paid from the insurers. Legal and marketing/advertising seem to be good.

 

[H20 Toie]

Entertainment industry. pretty much dead. lots of free time

 

[Thing One]

I perused that list of companies that took PPP and saw local construction companies that I know weren't affected that took 10's of thousands of dollars. I guess if you can sleep at night knowing you lied to get it. But I'll never trust them.

That's the crazy part. You didn't have to lie. You stated your payroll and rent expenses, and were given money based on that. Never had to claim that your business was affected or not. It was a screwed up plan from the start.

 

[Nordie]

This summer has been crazy slow, but it's weird because we're about to get busy when it's really supposed to be slowing down. Usually after tax time we get busy and it's just been flat.

The one trend is the private work has dried up and the federal work is what's taking off.

 

[LakeMeadLavey]

Ya that shits been done for years. My take from a manufacturing standpoint everyone is phattt on inventory due to long lead times etc so everyone over ordered and is now sitting on enough to get them by for awhile before ordering more. I’m guilty of it. Just my .02.

This.............my industry (powersports/offroad) is experiencing the exact same. Due to shortages and lead times everyone over ordered from the mfg level to the dealer level. It all hit and now everyone is overloaded. Nobody is ready to replenish and some MFG that are overloaded are dropping their shorts blowing out inventory for ridiculous prices. This is only further hurting the industry.

Just an FYI to many on here the massive Chaparral Motorsports parking lot sale is back on this year since 2019 pre scamdemic. Saturday Oct 7. I can assure you there will be some crazy deals to be had there from mfg.

 

[n2otoofast4u]

Is it actually getting SLOW, or just getting back to a level of sanity that we haven't experienced in 4-5 years?

 

[Bpracing1127]

Large defense contractor.

We have more work than we know what to do with. We are subbing a lot of it out to other large defense contractors as well.

We have over 10 billion in proposals right now. (Which is a record) no end in sight right now.

 

[DC-88]

That's the crazy part. You didn't have to lie. You stated your payroll and rent expenses, and were given money based on that. Never had to claim that your business was affected or not. It was a screwed up plan from the start.

Exactly. A couple of my smaller sized framing subcontractors for example - running crews with say 8- 15 guys documented making an average of $32 per hour on the books, so with labor burden per man it added up huge with the 2 payouts which were "forgiven " . Everyone with employees was booked up already with a back log of work and a payroll track record anyway, so it was the profit in the jobs plus free payroll which is way more than the normal profit margin. That's without bending the rules for additional purchases.
I have about 18 months of residential const. work on the books. Still getting calls. I just had the local CDF fire inspector out for a final inspection on one job. He said they are busy with inspections, but the intake of new jobs for new plan checks is way down.

 

[Cobalt232]

Film lab -- Early summer we had to shut our website to new customers due to too much work and not enough employees (about 45 currently). We have since opened it back up and business has popped nicely, but I worry once student loan repayments start a lot of disposable income will dry up. I'm hoping we will overall will be up 5% this year, but it is frustrating knowing there is additional business out there we just can't fulfill.

I have noticed much more activity on our Indeed ads over the past 2 months which is a good/bad sign.

 

[Riverbound]

Is it actually getting SLOW, or just getting back to a level of sanity that we haven't experienced in 4-5 years?

to me it’s not as bad as 2008 but defitnely not pre pandemic.

 

[crzy2bealive]

Large defense contractor.

We have more work than we know what to do with. We are subbing a lot of it out to other large defense contractors as well.

We have over 10 billion in proposals right now. (Which is a record) no end in sight right now.

Yup I work in the defense industry and we are busy as hell.

 

[Bpracing1127]

Yup I work in the defense industry and we are busy as hell.

Yep and all of our cm are busy as hell too

Electronics
Machine shops
Cots suppliers
PCB/PCBA suppliers are working 7 days a week to try to catch up to us

 

[ChrisV]

I work mainly on NIssan GTRs and still pretty damn busy. Fabrication side still haven’t slowed down. Small ass shop though.

 

[Bullet28]

I do Outside Sales for a Custom Galvanizing company, we have slowed down due to some of our structural steel customers slowing down. Friends is outside steel sales have slowed down also.

 

[Tom Slick]

I have your rack in my truck, for hauling 3 dirt bikes, nice piece!!

Heck yeah...thank you very much for your business and support.

 

[Tom Slick]

Is it actually getting SLOW, or just getting back to a level of sanity that we haven't experienced in 4-5 years?

For my business, this past 12 months has been more or less back to pre-plandemic levels. This past few weeks has been 2008 levels.

 

[240Hallett]

The company I work for is mostly in the sailbote hardware business. We make production parts for OEMs as well as a bunch of parts and accessory crap for retail sales. Sailboat builders are pretty busy for the most part, with some being booked out for a year or more.
I have turned down a few custom jobs lately due to being overloaded.

 

[timstoy]

I have a small business that makes cargo racks and components for transporting motorcycles in truck beds, vans and trailers. https://ccrsport.com/

Your tie down’s look legit! Looks like good x-max gift.

 

[DLow]

Fire service, and busy as fuck. People are still stupid, in case anyone was wondering.

 

[JDizel]

For my business, this past 12 months has been more or less back to pre-plandemic levels. This past few weeks has been 2008 levels.

Time to start working on Pegged 3?

 

[702sandman]

Hvac in Las Vegas and it’s still crazy busy, we don’t do a ton of residential cod calls but we do a ton of high end custom homes and that market is still effing crazy busy. A good size company that we compete against is having some issues and everyone is looking at other companies to take the work and it’s hard to man up with a low labor work force to take it all over, so I’m only bidding what I can handle.

 

[c_land]

Civil Engineering / CM / Land Survey - private firm serving public sector.

Can’t keep up. Can’t hire enough talent. Can’t work on the business.

Record margins and near record top line. Pretty miserable in the opposite direction for me right now, but definitely prefer this to the other miserable alternative

 

[RiverDave]

Time to start working on Pegged 3?

I loved one and 2!! I don't think there was much if any profit in them though.. I was buying 30-40 DVD's at a time for Christmas presents at one point on the cheap..

RD