So, I'm starting my own business

[FreeBird236]

Deal with the big order doesn't look good. RFQ was for 4 bolt part numbers and one o-ring part number...my o-ring supplier was 6 months out on getting material. I had them quote anyway....my cost on 40K units if I commit now, is a few cents per piece more than my cost was on 4K units this time last year...due to material cost increases. I quoted the o-rings to my customer at pretty low margins and with free freight simply because it supports a much bigger deal, and they still bitched about the price...."can't believe what those things cost". Well, this isn't china garbage...so you have to pay for it.

We'll see what happens, not holding my breath.

Saw a customer yesterday morning who has about 20 milk crates full of calipers he wants done....so I'll go get started on that once I finish up the 50 or so I have left to put together and the pallet that's showing up on Thursday from a different customer. He's in no hurry. Should be a good next couple months.

Hope it works out.

 

[lbhsbz]

eBay notifications are already popping off this morning...

I ordered a bunch of shit I didn't really need in the beginning...bleeder screws, etc...in sizes I don't really use to much, just to have on hand. I ordered 300 of a particular screw that fits very early porsche stuff, which I see a few of, and also fits most brembo caliper out there. I was sitting here one day trying to figure out what else I could put on ebay, and decided to take some of the crap that I have in stock, that I rarely use, and put together kits. First one I did was these damn bleeder screws. I throw 10 of 'em and 10 rubber caps in a bag, on eBay for $19.99. It's my best seller. I go through at least 1 a day...yesterday I shipped 5 sets. Cost on the screws is $0.12 each and cost on the caps is $0.03 each....so $1.57 all in ($0.07 for the bag....I only use 6mil bags so they don't feel cheap like the cellofane thin chinese bags) and $0.40 or so for the mailer envelope, then typically $3.50 for shipping. Ebay takes $2.40 per sale also. $13 profit on each kit...which ain't much, but it's better than nothing and it's easy. Sold 30 of these kits so far this month. I do the same with caliper rebuild kits using the components I stock, and I'm stuck buying OEM rebuild kits for one of the calipers I do a lot of and they cost me $20 or so each. They include new mounting hardware, that I was including with the calipers, but I stopped doing that and made a mounting hardware kit that I sell for $13. I've sold 40 of those so far in the last few months...helps reduce the sting of the $20 rebuild kits a bit.

The little stuff makes a good dent in things. Yesterday I shipped over $200 of crap in padded envelopes....at less cost and far less effort than a $200 pair of calipers.

 

[lbhsbz]

Just got a call from a big importer in New Zealand....said he heard I could actually come up with parts to sell.

This might be getting out of hand....lol. No idea how he got my phone number, but we'll take it.

 

[lbhsbz]

Today is the final day for acceptance of the big hardware quote…these guys don’t make decisions quickly and without 20 meetings…

Received a call from another brake supplier looking for some machine work to rework 1000 new Chinese calipers that were machined a bit wrong…figured out the fixturing and the process this morning and sent that quote off….should be good for $1500/day or so for a week of work.

Got in another pallet from the guy that hit me up on eBay last year, got all that torn down and cleaned….was gonna take it to the plater yesterday morning but decided to wait till Monday since it supposed to rain today…which it doesn’t look like will happen.

Have about 70 calipers back from plating to put back together for another customer this weekend…

eBay was busy for a few days last week, then dead again. EBay is weird.

 

[Done-it-again]

Today is the final day for acceptance of the big hardware quote…these guys don’t make decisions quickly and without 20 meetings…

Received a call from another brake supplier looking for some machine work to rework 1000 new Chinese calipers that were machined a bit wrong…figured out the fixturing and the process this morning and sent that quote off….should be good for $1500/day or so for a week of work.

Got in another pallet from the guy that hit me up on eBay last year, got all that torn down and cleaned….was gonna take it to the plater yesterday morning but decided to wait till Monday since it supposed to rain today…which it doesn’t look like will happen.

Have about 70 calipers back from plating to put back together for another customer this weekend…

eBay was busy for a few days last week, then dead again. EBay is weird.

What kind of fees are you paying eBay for all your sales?

 

[lbhsbz]

What kind of fees are you paying eBay for all your sales?

Too much. 15% or so, but that’s going up due to my “transaction defect rate” drone core returns and subsequent refunds issued….because they don’t have a manner in which to deal with cores.

Getting real close to shutting down retail caliper sales…I’ll just feed my wholesale guys and they can deal with the final sales.

Got a call today that I got the caliper rework job…whole job is worth $7800 and cost me nothing but a bit of time.

 

[lbhsbz]

The wife quit her job and is onboard now...I needed help with the "administrative" side of things....I'm a mechanic, not a fucking book keeper. Her neck hurts from shaking her head the last few days...lol.

 

[lbhsbz]

I've got myself another helper...neighbor that's out of work right now and knows nothing about brakes or calipers....I was skeptical, but it's worked out fucking great. He doesn't know shit, so I have to teach/show him everything, which becomes the only way he knows how to do things. Compared to the guy I tried with 30 years of caliper rebuilding experience, my new helper is running circles around him and not fucking up anything, because he only knows the way I want things done.

He's been here for the last 2 days working on that caliper rework project running the mill...ran through 140 pieces in 10 hours over 2 days. I'm paying him $20/hr. I'm getting paid $10/caliper. 860 more showing up in 1-2 weeks. We timed the last 10 he ran and he's under 2 minutes each floor to floor....getting much more comfortable with the machine now. He's also unloading/loading a crate from the back of the truck onto a cart, then wheeling that into the shop (no forklift...yet) I'll probably throw him a few hundred bucks as a bit of a bonus at the end of this one....because doing the same thing 1000 times in a row sucks, and I'm glad he's doing it instead of me.

Been up since 2AM creating new part numbers/adding in components and "building" kits in quickbooks this morning....I got in a few big component orders in the last few days, some of which needs to go to New Zealand today. I was laying in bed dreaming about how many invoices I could send and get paid on if I got this shit done, so I just got up and did it. lol. Receivables today should be about what I took home in a month as an employee a couple years ago.

Then maybe I'll build some calipers....I've been fighting with the zinc plater to not keep fucking things up for a couple weeks now, and it looks like they finally got it right. I have another 800lbs at the cad plater that I'm hoping to get back and get assembled/shipped before the next rework batch shows up, and hopefully I've got time to grab the 200 or so cores from another local customer, get those tore down and off to plating so I can get the rework done while those are being plated. That would certainly make for a fruitful month.

Customer with the big bolt quote just asked me to requote for about 1/8 the original quantity, but added in a few more part numbers....so I'm working on that for the next hour or so before the sun comes up.

I love this shit.

 

[MPHSystems]

The wife quit her job and is onboard now...I needed help with the "administrative" side of things....I'm a mechanic, not a fucking book keeper. Her neck hurts from shaking her head the last few days...lol.

The 2 things I dislike most about owning my own small business are 2) bookkeeping, bids and invoicing. Just not my thing and not natural to me But it has to be done.

#1 thing I HATE is chasing money, nothing bugs me more than having to dip into savings because multimillion/billion dollar businesses can’t count to 30 days.

 

[Waterjunky]

LBHSBZ - That's great your wife is on board with helping you. There is a down side or two to it though:
1) You two are now "together" 24 hours a day. Some couples do well with that, others struggle after some time. You also will say things and act differently to this bookkeeper than you would at a hired one when things don't go right (which we all know they will at some point or another). I don't know you but just be aware of that. There is something about having your own space that is good for relationships. I have a coworker that is trying to decide if they are going to stay married because of Covid and them both now trying to work from home. The 24hr a day thing is different.....
2) You used to have her income as a consistent in your budget. When things are good with your business this appears unimportant and easy to replace. When times are tight and business is slow, all of a sudden it could get real important. Kind of like any investment strategy, diversity of funds can be a good thing. That said this is a common choice and works well in many cases, just be aware. One of the reasons I have worked for the state for years is along these lines. My wife makes much better money in the private side but it will take an act of god to fire me (not really an issue since I do my job....) and I am basically layoff proof. A stable income stream and a more generous but less stable one.

All food for thought, they are worth exactly what you paid for them. $0.00

Its been fun following your adventure.

 

[Done-it-again]

The 2 things I dislike most about owning my own small business are 2) bookkeeping, bids and invoicing. Just not my thing and not natural to me But it has to be done.

#1 thing I HATE is chasing money, nothing bugs me more than having to dip into savings because multimillion/billion dollar businesses can’t count to 30 days.

30 days? What’s that! 45-60 days are more common now and if they say 30 days they still don’t pay until 45-60.

 

[MPHSystems]

30 days? What’s that! 45-60 days are more common now and if they say 30 days they still don’t pay until 45-60.

Yep, that’s what I get.

Always in a rush for service, AP is always on vacation.

 

[lbhsbz]

LBHSBZ - That's great your wife is on board with helping you. There is a down side or two to it though:
1) You two are now "together" 24 hours a day. Some couples do well with that, others struggle after some time. You also will say things and act differently to this bookkeeper than you would at a hired one when things don't go right (which we all know they will at some point or another). I don't know you but just be aware of that. There is something about having your own space that is good for relationships. I have a coworker that is trying to decide if they are going to stay married because of Covid and them both now trying to work from home. The 24hr a day thing is different.....
2) You used to have her income as a consistent in your budget. When things are good with your business this appears unimportant and easy to replace. When times are tight and business is slow, all of a sudden it could get real important. Kind of like any investment strategy, diversity of funds can be a good thing. That said this is a common choice and works well in many cases, just be aware. One of the reasons I have worked for the state for years is along these lines. My wife makes much better money in the private side but it will take an act of god to fire me (not really an issue since I do my job....) and I am basically layoff proof. A stable income stream and a more generous but less stable one.

All food for thought, they are worth exactly what you paid for them. $0.00

Its been fun following your adventure.

My wife was working 3 days a week from 8-1:30…I think she spent more on gas and lunch than she made.

She’s been home for 11 years…I’ve’ been home for 2.

I only need her for a few hours a day (right now), and she’s free to take off and do whatever she wants.

Very good point though…there are times when I’m not allowed in the house until further notice…I dare not venture out of the shop during those times.

 

[NicPaus]

The 2 things I dislike most about owning my own small business are 2) bookkeeping, bids and invoicing. Just not my thing and not natural to me But it has to be done.

#1 thing I HATE is chasing money, nothing bugs me more than having to dip into savings because multimillion/billion dollar businesses can’t count to 30 days.

I think that goes for majority of Contractors.

The ones who pay slowly are the ones I currently am not doing work for. Slammed and taking care of the good repeat customers. That pay before I even have to ask.

I hate chasing money from millionaires.

 

[lbhsbz]

The 2 things I dislike most about owning my own small business are 2) bookkeeping, bids and invoicing. Just not my thing and not natural to me But it has to be done.

#1 thing I HATE is chasing money, nothing bugs me more than having to dip into savings because multimillion/billion dollar businesses can’t count to 30 days.

I like invoicing...that's where I get all the money.

I hate "building" part numbers and bundles and figuring out and entering all the information so that it exist before I can invoice it....but, WTF else is there to do at 3 in the morning?

 

[lbhsbz]

Next week will be busy…

The rework project guy told me the remaining 860 units would be here in 2 weeks…that was a week ago.

Plater won’t be done with a big cad job (130 calipers) for 2 weeks, so I decided I’d pick up another 70 caliper order to knock out this week….well, the rework guy just called and said everything is there so I get to start that on Monday too. $15K week if I can pull it off.

 

[lbhsbz]

I'm waiting to see how that monster order turns out and if ya get it. I'm hoping ya do!

RD

Fucking Finally.

Originally it was supposed to be 200K pieces of 4 part numbers for about $490K, then it dropped to 25K pieces of 7 part numbers right at $100K. I padded things on the second quote a bit for a "wasting my time" tax....

Just got the PO today. Won't get paid for 3 months (8-10 weeks for delivery)...but that certainly makes the year easier.

 

[lbhsbz]

Fucking Finally.

Originally it was supposed to be 200K pieces of 4 part numbers for about $490K, then it dropped to 25K pieces of 7 part numbers right at $100K. I padded things on the second quote a bit for a "wasting my time" tax....

Just got the PO today. Won't get paid for 3 months (8-10 weeks for delivery)...but that certainly makes the year easier.

Well, this might have gotten sort of fucked up. I got the email saying that they'd accepted the quote and an formal PO was being created...still haven't got that. Called last week and was told early this week....well, it's fucking friday, and more importantly, it's the 1st of the month...and last month has come and gone. That's important because my cost on these bolts...steel parts, is attached to the scrap index price, which happened to be $495/ton last month. Seeing as how today is a new month....it's now $695/ton. That's a rather significant adjustment. I'm waiting to hear back from my supplier as to how bad that fucks everything up.

Regardless, I'm passing the savings onto the customer who was too inept to get off their ass and get their shit together. It's their fault, so they get to incur the cost, or they don't get my parts.

EDIT: Just got a call from my customer that I should expect a PO within 30 minutes. I told him to wait till monday....my supplier says the quoted prices are no longer valid. I can't wait to call the CEO of my customer's company (who I know personally) and tell him that his inept fucktards just screwed him because they couldn't put a PO together in under 3 months.

On a plus note, I had a call from a BMW guy yesterday that called every BMW specialty parts place in the country (I was writing quickly when he listed them off) and nobody had caliper rebuild kits for his brembos....but I did. I called a few of them this morning and we have meetings being set up for next week. Not quite as easy money as $50K with 3 phone calls, but much easier money than tearing down and rebuilding rusty 50 year old calipers.


Don't care really....I started drinking a couple hours ago...it's friday, fuck it.

 

[lbhsbz]

Got the real PO today reflecting the updated pricing....of course I'm pretty sure they fucked that up too...but at least it's a start. $87K order. I'll take it.

 

[Done-it-again]

Got the real PO today reflecting the updated pricing....of course I'm pretty sure they fucked that up too...but at least it's a start. $87K order. I'll take it.

Do you ask for a deposit?

 

[lbhsbz]

Do you ask for a deposit?

I could, but that would cause a whole mess of other problems....they don't operate like that. Even getting them to agree to 30 day terms was a pain in the ass...90 days is getting to be the standard with a company of this size in the the automotive aftermarket, but I don't play that fucking game. I know the CEO and a few other higher ups and have for years....I'm fairly confident I won't get dicked.

Now, My suppliers...I pay up front and in full. That's how I get multi-million dollar OEM suppliers to talk to a punk ass like me working out of the garage..lol. So, I get to be the bank for 3 months...ish.

 

[white tortilla]

I do look forward to your updates @lbhsbz . Your a smart guy, know the market, but also I know your bullshit threshold is pretty low. Which should make for an interesting business model since everything nowadays is such a pain in the ass to get parts and people are morons. You will end up probably lighting a pallet of parts on fire eventually and send the picture to the client in spite. Because that will more satisfying then dealing with the amount of aggravation someone is going to give you at some point to get paid .

 

[Done-it-again]

I could, but that would cause a whole mess of other problems....they don't operate like that. Even getting them to agree to 30 day terms was a pain in the ass...90 days is getting to be the standard with a company of this size in the the automotive aftermarket, but I don't play that fucking game. I know the CEO and a few other higher ups and have for years....I'm fairly confident I won't get dicked.

Now, My suppliers...I pay up front and in full. That's how I get multi-million dollar OEM suppliers to talk to a punk ass like me working out of the garage..lol. So, I get to be the bank for 3 months...ish.

Wasn't sure.... On specialty stuff like that I would be inclined to, especially how they got it "fucked up" and on the PO you received.. Big buyers sometimes will dick around "punk ass" and cancels orders for whatever reason... Deposit's keeps them on the hook

I do enjoy taking this journey with you.....thx for posting.

 

[LuauLounge]

Enjoying this as well. Some thoughts:
You can't be profitable without being paid.
No cash flow will put you under very quickly.
The time to borrow money or set up credit lines is when you have no need for either.
A one man business stops immediately when you do and most of the time, you have no control.

 

[lbhsbz]

I do look forward to your updates @lbhsbz . Your a smart guy, know the market, but also I know your bullshit threshold is pretty low. Which should make for an interesting business model since everything nowadays is such a pain in the ass to get parts and people are morons. You will end up probably lighting a pallet of parts on fire eventually and send the picture to the client in spite. Because that will more satisfying then dealing with the amount of aggravation someone is going to give you at some point to get paid .

lol. I sort of did that with MGB calipers. I had 10 sets and everyone kept trying to offer me half or less what I was asking, so I threw them all in the trash and moved on to car owners with money (Porsche)

 

[lbhsbz]

Enjoying this as well. Some thoughts:
You can't be profitable without being paid.
No cash flow will put you under very quickly.
The time to borrow money or set up credit lines is when you have no need for either.
A one man business stops immediately when you do and most of the time, you have no control.

I thought about getting a loan, but that costs money. I have plenty of capital, and I sleep better at night when I don't owe anyone money.

This might end up being yet another learning experience...we shall see. lol.

 

[Done-it-again]

I thought about getting a loan, but that costs money. I have plenty of capital, and I sleep better at night when I don't owe anyone money.

This might end up being yet another learning experience...we shall see. lol.

Loans/lines of credit can get you in trouble if not careful... Its nice to have when needed but you can make due without it...

In the 26 yrs we are cash flow only and have no loans or lines out..... Not saying it doesn't get tough sometimes but no bank is calling the note.

The most taxing thing is collecting money... No one pays on time anymore and large companies are 90 days..... We usually pay between 30-45.....

 

[LuauLounge]

Just another thought, I assume you have liability insurance in the event there is an issue with one of your products. Brake failure sometimes involves an unexpected high G deceleration into an immovable object. Also, don't know if you are a sole proprietor business. If so, you might look into a corporate ownership, either S or C. It does offer some liability protection.

 

[lbhsbz]

Just another thought, I assume you have liability insurance in the event there is an issue with one of your products. Brake failure sometimes involves an unexpected high G deceleration into an immovable object. Also, don't know if you are a sole proprietor business. If so, you might look into a corporate ownership, either S or C. It does offer some liability protection.

Yes on the liability insurance. I set it up as an S corp.

I'm doing better than I thought I'd be though....I'm not sure how many calipers I've rebuilt and sold over the last 12 months....more than a thousand, and the only leaker was on an old Jag rear where the crossover pipe was positioned such that my test fitting wouldn't fit in the inlet....so I just shipped 'em. One of the crossover pipes leaked and needed another 1/2 turn or so to stop leaking. That's what I get for using the old line and not making new ones.

I had another customer last week call and say 3 out of 4 were leaking, so I whipped another set together and overnighted them to the customer, but he called and said after drying them off again and inspecting the next day...they're dry, so he thinks it was a false alarm due to fluid drips during installation. He reimbursed me for shipping and sent them back the next day.

So...pretty respectable defect rate. I guess that's to be expected when I'm the one that building them, and I know that any defects will cost me more than just a tongue lashing from the boss.

I've adjusted my assembly processes a few times as I find new ways to catch things going wrong. I've found 3 bad brand new seals so far (2 aftermarket, one OEM)...only because of the manner in which I pre-lube them. Those 3 could have cost me a lot of money if they'd made it to the field.

 

[LuauLounge]

Yes on the liability insurance. I set it up as an S corp.

I'm doing better than I thought I'd be though....I'm not sure how many calipers I've rebuilt and sold over the last 12 months....more than a thousand, and the only leaker was on an old Jag rear where the crossover pipe was positioned such that my test fitting wouldn't fit in the inlet....so I just shipped 'em. One of the crossover pipes leaked and needed another 1/2 turn or so to stop leaking. That's what I get for using the old line and not making new ones.

I had another customer last week call and say 3 out of 4 were leaking, so I whipped another set together and overnighted them to the customer, but he called and said after drying them off again and inspecting the next day...they're dry, so he thinks it was a false alarm due to fluid drips during installation. He reimbursed me for shipping and sent them back the next day.

So...pretty respectable defect rate. I guess that's to be expected when I'm the one that building them, and I know that any defects will cost me more than just a tongue lashing from the boss.

I've adjusted my assembly processes a few times as I find new ways to catch things going wrong. I've found 3 bad brand new seals so far (2 aftermarket, one OEM)...only because of the manner in which I pre-lube them. Those 3 could have cost me a lot of money if they'd made it to the field.

Keep on growing. Customer service is #1, especially now.

 

[lbhsbz]

I do look forward to your updates @lbhsbz . Your a smart guy, know the market, but also I know your bullshit threshold is pretty low. Which should make for an interesting business model since everything nowadays is such a pain in the ass to get parts and people are morons. You will end up probably lighting a pallet of parts on fire eventually and send the picture to the client in spite. Because that will more satisfying then dealing with the amount of aggravation someone is going to give you at some point to get paid .

Also...most people are fucking pussies these days....I simply remind them that a plane ticket and a rental car to come visit them cost me a lot less than they owe me...that little pep talk has resulted in a few overnight fedex envelopes with a check in it.

 

[lbhsbz]

Keep on growing. Customer service is #1, especially now.

It is truly shocking the absolute shit level of customer service that exists today...I'm amazed at the amount of companies who refuse to pick up the goddam phone and instead insist on communicating via email or whatever at their convenience.

 

[Done-it-again]

It is truly shocking the absolute shit level of customer service that exists today...I'm amazed at the amount of companies who refuse to pick up the goddam phone and instead insist on communicating via email or whatever at their convenience.

While I agree with this. At the same time I email a lot so we have records what is needed and expected. No interpretation.

 

[Waterjunky]

It is truly shocking the absolute shit level of customer service that exists today...I'm amazed at the amount of companies who refuse to pick up the goddam phone and instead insist on communicating via email or whatever at their convenience.

As Done-it-again mentioned, an email gives you a physical document on the conversation. I use this distinction at work regularly. Phone calls for general stuff, emails for things I want documented, and phone calls again for things I specifically don't.

 

[lbhsbz]

While I agree with this. At the same time I email a lot so we have records what is needed and expected. No interpretation.

Agreed, but a conversation is better in many cases to gain a mutual understanding…every written communication will typically miss at least one point.

I like to discuss terms via phone first, come to an agreement, then exchange emails to put it in writing.

 

[lbhsbz]

Had a call with the BMW place on Monday morning...3 or 4 guys on the call on their end. We've all talked before over the last 20 years at one point or another as they worked for places that were Centric customers. Evidently I talked the good talk, because I received a $2500 purchase order for caliper pistons and rebuild kits yesterday.

(Margins on kits are huge....1 example consists of 1 seal and 1 boot, my cost on the parts is $0.22 and $0.11 respectively, sale price of $3. They want 40 of those)

Easy money, and It'll keep my guy busy today packaging kits. I have most of it in stock....strangely enough.

20 or so calipers left to complete pallet number 2 for porsche guy in New England...that should be about $8K that I'll invoice today.

 

[lbhsbz]

I can't deal with my old plating guys any more....the last batch took over a month, and about half of them are way overplated...can't even put the pistons back in without spending 10 minutes working on the bores of each one.

I went and dropped off about 1000lbs at another plater that I tried in the past, but his color was too dark (Chromate dilution issue)...but at this point I didn't really care about the color. I brought him a few samples and had him do yellow cad on all the german stuff and silver cad on a batch of domestic calipers I do for a buddy who makes Jeep brake upgrades. He freaking nailed it. Best match to what I believe to be the OEM color/sheen that I've seen so far....and less expensive too by about 30%. 3-5 day turnaround every time he claims. Got most of that built and then I ran outta seals on one part number and pistons on another....those should be here next week so I can finish up 2 orders....got about 130 calipers leaving hopefully Friday.

Wired off the $$ for the big bolt order....the business bank acct is feeling some pain right now lol. Ebay has been doing OK, and have guys coming by this weekend for about 10 sets of calipers that I've got on the shelf and bringing me their cores.

Got another small rework job in a week or so, and a company called me to see if I could sort out their catalog and a figure out a bunch of part # consolidations for them. I had to turn that down, don't have time and they don't have the resources to do it right...They seemed surprised that I turned down work. I like being in this position.

I took a day and built a bunch of my stuff that came back from the new plater for stock...my stock shelf is looking pretty good right now. I have at least 3 sets of everything, some of them 5 or 6 sets. I'd like to be at 10, but I don't have that many cores....so need to find and buy more. I'm almost at the point where my stock can carry me until I get enough cores back to make a batch for the plater, get that done, back and built before I'm sold out...just gotta buy more cores. Another $10K worth or so should do it. I'll get there this year....might get there next week. One local customer wants to trade me cores for rebuild work, and I've got 60 calipers going back to him on Thursday....so we'll see where that takes us.

I have a lofty goal of getting the business bank acct back up to where it was before I emptied it a couple weeks ago before the big check shows up….might work….probably not. I just ordered $3K worth of pistons and another $2K worth of rubber shit, so that didn’t help.

 

[lbhsbz]

Another notable moment....over $33K in sales this month. Best one yet.

Edit: $34K...customer just called because he doesn't have cores to send back.

 

[OCMerrill]

Starting you own business is a great way to rid that 8:00 to 5:00 unrewarding, making the man rich, I have no time to myself......feeling.

And....swapping it for...

Free time whenever you need it, midnights sitting at you desk, early mornings in a hurry, and going out of town but ALWAYS monitoring the cell phone.

Basically a 9-5 for a 24-7 because believe it or not shit is getting fucked up while you sleep. I wouldn't trade it for anything except the winning lottery numbers.

I have been self employed with exception of 2 jobs. 16 yr old to 18... Le Bard and Underwood Honda in La Habra selling parts and pushing those fucking motorcycles in and out, and 18-19 McDonalds (total misery).

 

[lbhsbz]

Starting you own business is a great way to rid that 8:00 to 5:00 unrewarding, making the man rich, I have no time to myself......feeling.

And....swapping it for...

Free time whenever you need it, midnights sitting at you desk, early mornings in a hurry, and going out of town but ALWAYS monitoring the cell phone.

Basically a 9-5 for a 24-7 because believe it or not shit is getting fucked up while you sleep. I wouldn't trade it for anything except the winning lottery numbers.

I have been self employed with exception of 2 jobs. 16 yr old to 18... Le Bard and Underwood Honda in La Habra selling parts and pushing those fucking motorcycles in and out, and 18-19 McDonalds (total misery).

Sounds about right....I started around 3:30 this morning....probably finish up around 9pm. Someone would have to pay me half a million a year for me to even consider going back to "work". There's more to life than money.

 

[LuauLounge]

The other nice thing about being self employed is you are never unemployed and there is no retirement age.

 

[lbhsbz]

Just hit $80K in sales for the year (all of last year was $38K). $20K/month average isn't too bad. Still trying to figure out how to get an accurate cost/profit in quickbooks, as the core buying really fucks things up and some of my stuff is purchased without a PO...but margins should be in the 70-75% range based on individual transaction calcs that I've done.

Could be worse....

 

[rrrr]

Just hit $80K in sales for the year (all of last year was $38K). $20K/month average isn't too bad. Still trying to figure out how to get an accurate cost/profit in quickbooks, as the core buying really fucks things up and some of my stuff is purchased without a PO...but margins should be in the 70-75% range based on individual transaction calcs that I've done.

Could be worse....

It should be a routine cost of goods sold (COGS) entry in QuickBooks. Apportion those costs to each sale via a percentage of core purchases.

 

[Done-it-again]

Looks to be a good year.... With that growth make sure you get a CPA to make sure your JE are correct... Nothing like screwing up in QB and the IRS comes knocking....

 

[lbhsbz]

It should be a routine cost of goods sold (COGS) entry in QuickBooks. Apportion those costs to each sale via a percentage of core purchases.

More complex than that. Cores are an accounting nightmare. If you do enough business, you can apply average defect rates to come up with an average cost. I don't. I buy cores anywhere from $20 each to $400 each. Some of them go right in the trash once they arrive. Some of them are disassembled for parts and then they go in the trash. Some are usable. If I buy 20 cores of one part number, they all might cost different amounts, depending on where I find them. Its a pain the ass to change pricing on every single thing as it changes...we'll figure something out eventually...or not. I dunno.

 

[lbhsbz]

Looks to be a good year.... With that growth make sure you get a CPA to make sure your JE are correct... Nothing like screwing up in QB and the IRS comes knocking....

I found an accountant that does work for another local shop that deals in tons of used parts (motorcycle place)...so if anyone is qualified to sort my mess out, it's this guy. We're working on it.

 

[lbhsbz]

New plating shop is on point!

 

[lbhsbz]

Been a bit since the last update…

Still plugging along. Last month was a bit slow, but that’s to be expected since some of these batches of calipers take a while…no biggee.

Got a couple repeat component (kits and pistons) orders before I expected…so had to order more parts…the last of which should be here tomorrow, should ship about $3K tomorrow.

Have a caliper and rotor order worth about $5K (all new stuff, no work on my part) that should arrive early next week for me to package and deliver. Been kinda fucking around this week taking care of projects I’ve been putting off…working on the cars, cleaning up a bit…

Working on a new pad friction material with my old boss that looks promising…need a few thousand more miles of testing on my own truck and I’ll be ready to put my name behind them and hopefully sell some to you guys who want more brake torque for your trucks.


It’s still working…

 

[lbhsbz]

Just passed $100K in sales today for the year.....at margins north of 60%. $28K on ebay alone.

not bad for fucking around in the garage wearing flip flops and drinking beer all day. lol.

 

[Activated]

Just passed $100K in sales today for the year.....at margins north of 60%. $28K on ebay alone.

not bad for fucking around in the garage wearing flip flops and drinking beer all day. lol.

Are you hiring?