Business owners poll

How many employees do you have? Best advertising , worst advertising ? Biggest mistake you made ? Best decision you made ?
Me :employees, at one time had 4 . Current 1 part time . Growing need more help but afraid of the headaches again .
Best advertising ? Word of mouth, business Facebook page , FREE .
Worst advertising ? Phone book or yellow pages .
Biggest mistake? Thinking I knew how to run a business without management training. I was a great tech, jumped in with both feet .25 yrs later still learning and humble enough to admit it .
Best decision? Finding a specialty , something people will seek you out for . Carburetors and diagnostic work have kept me busy even it slow times.

It would take at least 100 pages for me

At one time there was Dad and me, although neither of us was actually an employee. Now there's just me, but I'm at a point I could often use some help.

The best advertising will always be word of mouth. The worst, and only kind I've tried, was sending out brochures to companies that had construction equipment. That got me nothing but a bunch of calls asking how much for this or that, and one machine that's still setting here after 4 years.

One thing I have had to do was both a good thing, and also also possibly my worst mistake. That is selling myself short on my rates. When times got really bad I lowered my rates by nearly $30 per hour. Unfortunately this was a necessary evil as it allowed me to stay in business, and keep customers, who were also struggling, when many others went completely out of business. Now I've had to spend the last couple of years trying to get my rates back up to where they were pre-recession/depression, so I can actually start getting ahead again instead of just getting by.

The best thing I do is actually not to specialize. Or possibly it's that I specialize in not specializing. I'll work on anything from a lawnmower (small engine), to a crane, to a bull dozer, to an RV, and anything in between.

Basically I do so such a wide variety of things mechanical related from actual mechanic work, to hydraulics, to electrical, to machine work that,to welding and fab work. To my knowledge, I'm the only one around that can do many jobs turn key where others are having to sub out work. A recent attempt to sub out some machine work hit home to me as to why I do all that I do. I needed a part machined, and back ASAP, but the best turn around time I was able to get was something like 3 weeks, at a cost of $5000, or more if I needed it sooner. I wound up boring the ends of the cylinder, making and installing the repair sleeves in both ends, and repacking it, all in about 3 days, and at a cost of around $1600.

I also have industrial maintenance experience so electrical and plumbing are nothing new to me. Too I can do carpentry so that's another revenue stream if it's ever needed.

In the end the ability to specialize in not specializing, and basically being a jack of all trades has allowed me to always have something to do, even when times were tight.

Now if I can just get my book keeping squared away, and streamlined, I'll be good to go.........Thing is I hate paperwork, so I have plans to talk to an accountant before the summer is over, and get someone that loves the paperwork side of things to help me out.

The best thing I ever did was overpay my best employees. I owned a charter bus business and I can't tell you how many people returned because of "that little blonde with the yellow high heels." She was the best bus driver I ever had and could work a group of people and have them all in line. She was something else. All I had to do was make sure the bus she had was an automatic (she just never caught the hang of the two speed sub bus) and she was set. I think of the money that gal made - I would have thousands more in my pocket, but she was worth every penny.

The worst thing I ever did was donate trips to fundraisers or raffles. The people were always rude and it never got repeat business.

When I started I had a bunch of coasters and bottle opener/key chains made with my logo. There are still folks using those and I sold the company seven years back.

At this time its just ME I let my last employee go 2 years ago...
I can call anyone that has ever worked for me they will come help me get out of a jam... I learned its not profitable to fix every thing and have no problem shipping it down the road...

My worst mistake was not doing my own book work. I now pay all the bills write all the checks and organize my records... I do have a lady that reconciles the paper work and does my taxes I have learned allot from her... If you have a wife that's does it and she is willing to fight for every dollar harder that you work for it she's special and a rare bird... If she is not a fighter fire her and buy one...

My first bad debt should have been my last ( I am a slow learner) :twisted: I have learned to ask "How are you going to pay ME" if I don't like the answer I give them the answer I like if that's not to there liking it can go down the road...

I have built a reputation as being HIGH and I plan on keeping it... Life is so much easier when folks know it, it weeds out folks I do not want to put up with... It gets you folks that are willing to spend money on other parts/systems that may fail soon while you have it opened up...

I gotta go to work "TIP"

Use your smoke machine to check carb needles and seats you don't need the smoke read the pressure gauge and flow meter...

I'm 66 and have a lot of OJT in my background Always worked for myself and labor is the #1 problem. Don't hire family;especially kids and never hire someone you will hesitate to FIRE. Don't loan money,owner the dirt your business is on and have a great attorney. Don't work cheap and do great work. Your word is your bond. Keep your wife out of the money and have a separate checking account for non business purposes. Let her only sign on it.get an accountant you can't afford and let him make you money. business is a learning experience and LEARN. invest in good equipment and maintain it. never hire an ex-truckdriver because he runs rather than improves. I can continue BUT.

I owned 2 business for 36 years total. The first 1-- I was offered too much money for it so I sold it and started a tire business. Everything went well for 21 years then the back went along with the memory. The best thing I can tell you is -- Look around for a good account, don't take the first 1 you find. I did and it cost me thousands of $'s in unnecessary taxes. DO NOT hire relations.

Three partners, and two employees. We've been in business for three years now.

What we do: Online event registrations - mostly for sport related training camps. If any of you have children that have attended baseball, football, etc. training camps, there's a chance you've seen the software I wrote. If any of you RUN camps, you should be talking to me about seeing a demo!!

Worst decision ever made: Trying to hire an additional salesperson cheaply - getting somebody young and inexperienced, and hoping it'd work. It did not. We should have known better, but at the time we felt it was worth a shot. It cost us money, and hurt our image with a few potential clients.

As I'm sure any fellow business owners know - there are (very) often times when you need something, and don't have enough cash flow to get it. You can either borrow or raise the funds - or go the cheap route. When it's equipment, it's easier to figure out the return on investment to justify borrowing - but when it's a salesperson, that can be an unknown. It's scary borrowing money - or giving up some % of ownership for capital for something when you're so unsure of the return. We wimped out and tried to work with what we had. It ended up hurting us.

We've since recovered, but it was a painful lesson. There's nothing worse than letting a person go because they're not living up to your unrealistic expectations. Losing money's one thing - but the personal side of that one was worse for me. We actually recommended him to a client of ours for a more appropriate position, and he got hired right away, so it wasn't that big of a deal to him - but I still consider that one a personal failure.

Best advertising: Word of mouth, trade shows, and believe it or not directed email campaigns. In that order.

Worst advertising: Mailings, cold calling.

Best decision: Rewriting all of our accounting code to give our clients extremely accurate and in depth reporting and easy invoice handling tools. It took me a full YEAR to complete it, very - very complicated stuff - but now that it all works I don't know how we ever lived without it.

Actually - since we're on a tractor board here, and I know you guys will get this - another "best decision" was to get into a business that requires a lot of hard work and dedication - yet gives me flexible enough hours so I can get out and cut hay whenever there's a three day weather window, AND see my kids. I don't care if I get rich financially - I'm rich with time, and that's way better.

Biggest mistake - family time.

Second biggest mistake was many years of not delegating and trying to do everything myself. Felt that by the time I explained the what, how, when and where I could already have the task done. What it did was take up too much of my time and deprived my employees of learning, accomplishment, satisfaction and earning their paycheck.

As a electrical contractor, I am working by myself right now. My wife and I started the company in june of 2007. I have had as many as 4 men plus myself working.

Advertisement Best - word of mouth. Cheap and effective, if you do good work / service. Problem is it takes time. One mistake was relying on word of mouth early on without advertising directly in other ways also.

We never did the phone book, but have heard its not the best way.

Biggest mistake....not firing the guy i was training to be my right hand man 6 months before i did. He cost me a lot of money, time and aggrevation. I try to be a good boss and employer, and be nice to my employees. That one taught me a lesson that employer / employee relationship needs to be that, not so much friend/friend.

Never had any formal business training.....probably should have though. Even knew I should have, but didn't want to spend the money on it early on. Problem with that is not having the training cost me too.....the School of Hard Knocks has a high tuition.....

Biggest trouble, finding GOOD help. Looking to get back to 4-5 guys again in the next couple years, but its hard to find people you don't feel like you are baby sitting. Nothing grinds my gears as incompetent people who claim to professionals.

This owning your own business is not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. I love, but....some days.....lol.....can lead a man to drinking.....lmao

Employees: 0, independent contractors: anywhere from 2 to 20. Normally my operations manager and my mechanic are here every day. Rest are as needed. Advertising, craigs list, by far and away is my best advertising and best value. As far as paid advertising, door decals on trucks. Worst is the local paper.

Biggest mistake: I'm not enough of a harda-- on credit and collections. Thats one reason I hired the operations guy. He's on commission, 1/2 on a monthly paycheck for whats been done and half when the invoices are paid.

Best decision is deciding I can either chase work based on price, I'll stay busy but there is always someone who wants to work cheaper or harder than I do. I decided that anything we did we would be the very best possible at doing. And charge accordingly.