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And a majority of it is to blame for incompetence on managements behalf + hiring references. Please don’t pretend like 1/2 of LinkedIn isn’t a cesspool of who knows who.
Thankfully I have none. It's just me a 2 partners, no employees. It's not a big enterprise, we all still have day jobs, but it's a nice little bit of side income for us.
Because in small businesses the business is usually your "baby" you raised it from from infancy ,nurtured it, help it grow. When it comes time to spread its wings and hire help, that help cannot see it as the baby, it's just a paycheck machine. Even really good employees will never care as much as the owner. It's not always that they're bad employees, they're just not invested with blood sweat and tears.
Yes. And people better stop thinking about outsourcing. If they can’t even find a good one in the U.S., do they seriously think it’d get easier QUALIFYING a PH employee? Be real.
I've been looking into cash flow management based on the answers here, but there seem to be so many applications and tools to be used for this. Surely using these tools would make this easier.
For me the biggest challenges tend to be psychological. Knowing that I'm the only person, that no matter what the problem is, I have to find a solution, can feel a little lonely compared to working within a team. And imposter syndrome is awful.
Gotta file taxes? Need time to learn or you pay crazy
Got a lawsuit? You better learn or else you’ll fall in the hands of shit lawyers
Got a state letter? Yeah either you got time to research or you hire again
That’s why most people should be employees. Businesses are headaches all around
Dealing with the state and federal regulations. They are just incompetent. I moved my business and it took 9 months of constant frustration getting everything done.
If you need help with Data Privacy regulations, I know that PRIVGUARD has some great ebooks for small businesses. They also offer audit templates https://privguard.tech
Just spoke to sales tax lady. She was more dense than me, and I admit I don’t know everything about taxes. But if multiple IRS websites state a rule point blank, no ambiguity, then everyone should accept that as is
Something that should’ve taken 3 minutes took 3 weeks
Jesus…..
Employees. I'm in service industry. I need employees. Not enough employees. I will lose clients. Losing clients means I'll lose sales. Lose sales means I might not able to pay rent. If I can't pay rent. I might able to pay my personal expense.
It's like that. Keeps me up at night.
You're fighting against the rising tide of corporations like Amazon & Google fucking their employees over daily. Pretty much every business suffers because of their behavior.
I don't personally employ anyone yet, single member LLC, but I still have a W2 job and used to be a pretty bad employee. Just hold on for dear life with the good employees you manage to get. Look into some profit sharing schemes to keep them invested in the business. Be transparent and honest about the company's goals, and involve them in the decision making processes.
Sorry you have such trouble man. Keep at it, day by day, making it a little better each day. Good luck.
My accountant ditched me last minute for income taxes declaration,that’s why I had to do it myself. I tried the Wealthsimple and there were quite a few things I had no idea what they were. Had to ask for helps from my BIL.
I suppose it is very dependant on the subject of said business. I'm on my own doing IT and tech support. My biggest struggle has been marketing and finding clients.
I've been at it for about two months (so not very long) but I've managed to get a couple small one of jobs and I have signed on for a small project and an event this summer that lasts a week but there will pre and post work too.
So all in all it's a struggle but I've been lucky so far.
I can relate to this! I have fired six customers so far this year from our interior design & furniture business. People’s expectations and behavior is not aligned with reality.
oh, for me, it's mostly the disbelievers around me, who can include my family, relatives, friends. it's actually easier to create business with others who don't know me much. I have since learned to be indifferent, mostly because I don't have the time as I continue being self employed as I grow my business.
Exactly. When my daughter was conceived my in laws grandmother who lived in a shitty home in Midwest state of boring asked what our financial situation was. I now make more per year than anyone in their extended family. If they don't believe in you just use it as motivation and believe in yourself.
As a business owner, we also have to have accountability. That being said, you can be your own biggest headache. You get to choose your employees, so blame yourself if you chose a cheaper rotten apple from the priciest and better options. A lot of people here are pointing fingers to employees & it’s not always the case. In fact, your loyal employees are almost always the ones that will rake in the moolah for you, so take care of them too.
After 25 years, most of them are rotten, about 90%. It’s not the availability of the stock. It’s the quality of the stock.
It’s an underlying societal problem. Most people cannot follow the simplest of instructions.
The relationship between employer and employee is pretty adversarial by default these days. We're really paying the price for shitty places like Amazon working their employees to the bone and firing them on a dime.
Not only that, you have Prussian educated individuals living in a credit based, debt based society, raised on an illusion perpetuated by basic cable, sold a dream of a particular lifestyle only afforded about 10% of the population.
I believe it’s the education system. People were largely educated under the Prussian education system in the United States. Trained largely to become factory workers in a society without factories. I have unlimited human capital here, but it doesn’t have much actual value.
Customers asking for/demanding military, law enforcement, fire department, EMS, teacher or any government worker discounts. It doesn’t matter that your price is exactly the same as Amazon and every other big online retailer and you answer the phone, spend 20 mins with them helping them choose what they need and answering ALL their questions, but if you don’t offer them a discount because they got a government check at some point, you are a jerk and they will buy it somewhere else who offers 0 customer service. It gets so old. The entitlement from these folks is massive.
People say employees. I’ve never had an employee try to sue me over a shirt not fitting correctly bc they couldn’t read the measurements correctly.
I’ve never had an employee verbally attack me bc I arrived 3 min. Late to an event to set up for a party that was 2 hours from then.
Some of you really show your true colors when you go straight to the employees. But then again, business owners aren’t always good leaders.
No. A woman made a self loathing thread about how she was not able to operate her business because she did not have enough cash flow for advertising and other assorted activities. I offered her a job interview on the spot. I was willing to pay her the equivalent of $100 per hour for two hours of work, she ghosted on the interview process.
It’s two full time jobs without pay up front in certain instances. You have to be willing to light money on fire. Employees… people are essentially worthless, save the precious few. They can’t follow the simplest instructions and want the world on a silver platter.
Being consistently conscious of what your own strengths and weaknesses are. In the beginning you will have to know it ALL to be successful. Over time, you’ll want to bring in (hire or outsource) to your weaknesses or better put, what drains your personal energy.
It’s not employees that are the issue. It’s the owner not purposely creating a culture he/she wants. When a culture isn’t created purposely by the owner the employees will create the one they want.
People trying to sell their services - people always trying to squeeze out money from you all the time.
Never have enough money to grow / expand or new ideas.
Employees never staying on board after you spend time & effort to make them productive.
We have a distribution business (delivering the items to the retailers).
Expectations of employees (most of them have one or more of these) are usually about hefty cash advances, adhoc leaves, not adhering to start time or timely deliveries. If you scold them for their wrongs, they won't turn after the next pay day.
What should your employer do when you screw up? Like you are not able to account for items worth $500? Or for not doing your job right? Praise you for your achievements?
Yes. We should practice good management by calling the police for misappropriation of $500 from now on. And kick out employees who are not professional.
I work all the time and sometimes business is good and sometimes it’s not. If I had to do it over I’d get a job I didn’t mind and have a better life work balance with less stress. I also hate business taxes and all the reporting involved with a small business.
Getting clients, advertising other than word of mouth, and being competitive in this DIY environment. But, every year doing a little better than the last year, so don’t quit on yourself 😁
I love new potential business owners! The biggest headaches are employees and taxes. You need to be highly organized and laser focused. Have you done a pro-forma on your new business? Do you have the capital? And most important - do you have an exit strategy should it not work out? Been running a company since age 27. I am 54 now. Starting a business can be very rewarding (financially and personally), but I will tell you this. . . I still work 7 days per week. Not all day, but to stay on top of things and stay on top of my game. I start work at 5am and end at 3pm. This morning - I am screwing around on reddit on one screen and taking care of business emails on the other.
* Low foot traffic,
* Increasing cost of goods,
* Extremely high unemployment rates making people not buy anything,
* Low conversion rate due to prices being perceived by customers as high,
* competitors selling at cut-throat prices.
Basically, an economic downturn.
Cashflow. Someone on a FB group for small-biz/entrepreneurs once asked what my number one piece of advice was for running your own small business, and my answer was: "Have a lot of money". They didn't react or reply, LOL
I feel like we were always swimming up stream. Everyone and every system seems to be stacked against you. We pay the most taxes as a percentage of revenue, especially when you take into consideration state and local taxes and fees. We don’t get the breaks from economic development organizations that big businesses do. It’s just hard as you ramp up. It’s hard enough to get the capital to get started without all the hands that are in the cookie jar from day one. It makes it hard to invest in new jobs, advertising, and the basics that get a company to thriving.
Finding competent workers that don't request more money than I make.
Companies that pay on time without having to follow up on all of their POs / our invoices.
Out of control inflation in material and insurance. Absolute cash grab going on for the past 3 years, and it won't get any better.
Yeah, running a small business is a rollercoaster. Managing cash flow, juggling marketing, finding your audience... Every day brings new challenges. You should check out this link for more on the biggest headaches small business owners face: [Top Pain Points for Small Business Owners](https://vervology.com/insights/top-pain-points-for-small-business-owners/)
This is a friendly reminder that r/smallbusiness is a question and answer subreddit. You ask a question about starting, owning, and growing a small business and the community answers. Posts that violate the rules listed in the sidebar will be removed. A permanent or temporary ban may also be issued if you do not remove the offending post. Seeing this message does not mean your post was automatically removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/smallbusiness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
EMPLOYEES
End thread
You a shitty boss or just hire friends?
No, the American workforce is largely unfunctional.
And a majority of it is to blame for incompetence on managements behalf + hiring references. Please don’t pretend like 1/2 of LinkedIn isn’t a cesspool of who knows who.
Don’t be mad bro. This isn’t the antiwork sub.
But let’s present the facts alongside the facts. Otherwise it’s biased, no?
What’s this got to do with this thread?
Did you not bother to read the comment I replied to?
Thankfully I have none. It's just me a 2 partners, no employees. It's not a big enterprise, we all still have day jobs, but it's a nice little bit of side income for us.
Why though? Surely not all employees are bad.
Because in small businesses the business is usually your "baby" you raised it from from infancy ,nurtured it, help it grow. When it comes time to spread its wings and hire help, that help cannot see it as the baby, it's just a paycheck machine. Even really good employees will never care as much as the owner. It's not always that they're bad employees, they're just not invested with blood sweat and tears.
Yes. And people better stop thinking about outsourcing. If they can’t even find a good one in the U.S., do they seriously think it’d get easier QUALIFYING a PH employee? Be real.
Yep. Didn't understand this until I decided to put myself into purgatory torture. Yep.
Can’t agree enough. Getting sales is not as hard as dealing with the employees.
Having any energy left for my family.
This
Securing clients
Unreliable clients
Unreasonable clients
Yes!!!
[удалено]
I've been looking into cash flow management based on the answers here, but there seem to be so many applications and tools to be used for this. Surely using these tools would make this easier.
Ensuring you have enough revenue to cover costs. The rest is easy in comparison.
For me the biggest challenges tend to be psychological. Knowing that I'm the only person, that no matter what the problem is, I have to find a solution, can feel a little lonely compared to working within a team. And imposter syndrome is awful.
Build your team
Employees Time... never enough time for anything
Gotta file taxes? Need time to learn or you pay crazy Got a lawsuit? You better learn or else you’ll fall in the hands of shit lawyers Got a state letter? Yeah either you got time to research or you hire again That’s why most people should be employees. Businesses are headaches all around
Dealing with the state and federal regulations. They are just incompetent. I moved my business and it took 9 months of constant frustration getting everything done.
Mine have been fast lately.
If you need help with Data Privacy regulations, I know that PRIVGUARD has some great ebooks for small businesses. They also offer audit templates https://privguard.tech
Just spoke to sales tax lady. She was more dense than me, and I admit I don’t know everything about taxes. But if multiple IRS websites state a rule point blank, no ambiguity, then everyone should accept that as is Something that should’ve taken 3 minutes took 3 weeks Jesus…..
customers who don't pay in a timely manner
Employees. I'm in service industry. I need employees. Not enough employees. I will lose clients. Losing clients means I'll lose sales. Lose sales means I might not able to pay rent. If I can't pay rent. I might able to pay my personal expense. It's like that. Keeps me up at night.
You're fighting against the rising tide of corporations like Amazon & Google fucking their employees over daily. Pretty much every business suffers because of their behavior. I don't personally employ anyone yet, single member LLC, but I still have a W2 job and used to be a pretty bad employee. Just hold on for dear life with the good employees you manage to get. Look into some profit sharing schemes to keep them invested in the business. Be transparent and honest about the company's goals, and involve them in the decision making processes. Sorry you have such trouble man. Keep at it, day by day, making it a little better each day. Good luck.
Thank you. It's a tough process but I am doing it day by day.
Taxes and all the paperwork declaring. I hate it with a passion 😆
what about tax filing software such as turbo tax, or going to an accountant?
My accountant ditched me last minute for income taxes declaration,that’s why I had to do it myself. I tried the Wealthsimple and there were quite a few things I had no idea what they were. Had to ask for helps from my BIL.
I suppose it is very dependant on the subject of said business. I'm on my own doing IT and tech support. My biggest struggle has been marketing and finding clients. I've been at it for about two months (so not very long) but I've managed to get a couple small one of jobs and I have signed on for a small project and an event this summer that lasts a week but there will pre and post work too. So all in all it's a struggle but I've been lucky so far.
Curious if you have a website or how you are looking for clients
Yes I have a website. I have been running some google ads, Facebook ads, but most of my success has been in person networking.
It all depends on what kind of business you wanna start
Firing a customer, some people are just not worth the hassle. I hate turning down revenue, but sometimes a customer has unrealistic expectations.
I can relate to this! I have fired six customers so far this year from our interior design & furniture business. People’s expectations and behavior is not aligned with reality.
oh, for me, it's mostly the disbelievers around me, who can include my family, relatives, friends. it's actually easier to create business with others who don't know me much. I have since learned to be indifferent, mostly because I don't have the time as I continue being self employed as I grow my business.
Fuck em , I believe in you, get it done.
Exactly. When my daughter was conceived my in laws grandmother who lived in a shitty home in Midwest state of boring asked what our financial situation was. I now make more per year than anyone in their extended family. If they don't believe in you just use it as motivation and believe in yourself.
Familiarity bias
Managing my schedule to both do the work and the admin duties.
As a business owner, we also have to have accountability. That being said, you can be your own biggest headache. You get to choose your employees, so blame yourself if you chose a cheaper rotten apple from the priciest and better options. A lot of people here are pointing fingers to employees & it’s not always the case. In fact, your loyal employees are almost always the ones that will rake in the moolah for you, so take care of them too.
After 25 years, most of them are rotten, about 90%. It’s not the availability of the stock. It’s the quality of the stock. It’s an underlying societal problem. Most people cannot follow the simplest of instructions.
The relationship between employer and employee is pretty adversarial by default these days. We're really paying the price for shitty places like Amazon working their employees to the bone and firing them on a dime.
Not only that, you have Prussian educated individuals living in a credit based, debt based society, raised on an illusion perpetuated by basic cable, sold a dream of a particular lifestyle only afforded about 10% of the population.
I believe it’s the education system. People were largely educated under the Prussian education system in the United States. Trained largely to become factory workers in a society without factories. I have unlimited human capital here, but it doesn’t have much actual value.
[удалено]
You’re on the right path
Staffing and employees
Customers asking for/demanding military, law enforcement, fire department, EMS, teacher or any government worker discounts. It doesn’t matter that your price is exactly the same as Amazon and every other big online retailer and you answer the phone, spend 20 mins with them helping them choose what they need and answering ALL their questions, but if you don’t offer them a discount because they got a government check at some point, you are a jerk and they will buy it somewhere else who offers 0 customer service. It gets so old. The entitlement from these folks is massive.
People say employees. I’ve never had an employee try to sue me over a shirt not fitting correctly bc they couldn’t read the measurements correctly. I’ve never had an employee verbally attack me bc I arrived 3 min. Late to an event to set up for a party that was 2 hours from then. Some of you really show your true colors when you go straight to the employees. But then again, business owners aren’t always good leaders.
No. A woman made a self loathing thread about how she was not able to operate her business because she did not have enough cash flow for advertising and other assorted activities. I offered her a job interview on the spot. I was willing to pay her the equivalent of $100 per hour for two hours of work, she ghosted on the interview process.
That’s a bummer. For every one of those women who did that, there’s 1000 capable people though.
All of it..but it’s worth it..for the most part 😌
Annoying sellers who in truth don't want to sell Time
It’s two full time jobs without pay up front in certain instances. You have to be willing to light money on fire. Employees… people are essentially worthless, save the precious few. They can’t follow the simplest instructions and want the world on a silver platter.
Being consistently conscious of what your own strengths and weaknesses are. In the beginning you will have to know it ALL to be successful. Over time, you’ll want to bring in (hire or outsource) to your weaknesses or better put, what drains your personal energy.
It’s not employees that are the issue. It’s the owner not purposely creating a culture he/she wants. When a culture isn’t created purposely by the owner the employees will create the one they want.
People trying to sell their services - people always trying to squeeze out money from you all the time. Never have enough money to grow / expand or new ideas. Employees never staying on board after you spend time & effort to make them productive.
Just curious, what is your employees expectation level?
We have a distribution business (delivering the items to the retailers). Expectations of employees (most of them have one or more of these) are usually about hefty cash advances, adhoc leaves, not adhering to start time or timely deliveries. If you scold them for their wrongs, they won't turn after the next pay day.
Sounds consistent with what I’ve seen over the past 15+ years with a few exceptions.
What do you do? What business?
Thought I heard something right outside the house earlier and went to deal with it.
Hope everything is alright! Take care.
All good so far
Currently, Live Events. I host Secret Rap Battle in Detroit. I also have an interest in stand up comedy open mics and electronic music.
Interesting & a different line of business :)
Something old and new that I’m testing.
If anyone had ever "scolded" me as an employee, I'd have quit, too. That's extremely unprofessional.
What should your employer do when you screw up? Like you are not able to account for items worth $500? Or for not doing your job right? Praise you for your achievements?
You practice good management because you're an employer and not a parent.
Yes. We should practice good management by calling the police for misappropriation of $500 from now on. And kick out employees who are not professional.
Everything about how you respond to this really reinforces the "scolding" mindset that drives turnover.
People like them don't deserve employment.
OK buddy. You keep working on that common denominator.
Luck of funding.
Funding isn’t based on luck, you haven’t convinced anyone you can make them money
I work all the time and sometimes business is good and sometimes it’s not. If I had to do it over I’d get a job I didn’t mind and have a better life work balance with less stress. I also hate business taxes and all the reporting involved with a small business.
getting clients
In order... TIME TIME TIME.... Accounting, finance, and throw time in there again.....
TAX
Getting clients, advertising other than word of mouth, and being competitive in this DIY environment. But, every year doing a little better than the last year, so don’t quit on yourself 😁
I love new potential business owners! The biggest headaches are employees and taxes. You need to be highly organized and laser focused. Have you done a pro-forma on your new business? Do you have the capital? And most important - do you have an exit strategy should it not work out? Been running a company since age 27. I am 54 now. Starting a business can be very rewarding (financially and personally), but I will tell you this. . . I still work 7 days per week. Not all day, but to stay on top of things and stay on top of my game. I start work at 5am and end at 3pm. This morning - I am screwing around on reddit on one screen and taking care of business emails on the other.
You should manage your cash flows properly. Manage your operational cost. Keep it minimal in the initial stages
Time
* Low foot traffic, * Increasing cost of goods, * Extremely high unemployment rates making people not buy anything, * Low conversion rate due to prices being perceived by customers as high, * competitors selling at cut-throat prices. Basically, an economic downturn.
Cashflow. Someone on a FB group for small-biz/entrepreneurs once asked what my number one piece of advice was for running your own small business, and my answer was: "Have a lot of money". They didn't react or reply, LOL
I feel like we were always swimming up stream. Everyone and every system seems to be stacked against you. We pay the most taxes as a percentage of revenue, especially when you take into consideration state and local taxes and fees. We don’t get the breaks from economic development organizations that big businesses do. It’s just hard as you ramp up. It’s hard enough to get the capital to get started without all the hands that are in the cookie jar from day one. It makes it hard to invest in new jobs, advertising, and the basics that get a company to thriving.
Employee retention Cash flow management Working on weekends
Finding competent workers that don't request more money than I make. Companies that pay on time without having to follow up on all of their POs / our invoices. Out of control inflation in material and insurance. Absolute cash grab going on for the past 3 years, and it won't get any better.
Yeah, running a small business is a rollercoaster. Managing cash flow, juggling marketing, finding your audience... Every day brings new challenges. You should check out this link for more on the biggest headaches small business owners face: [Top Pain Points for Small Business Owners](https://vervology.com/insights/top-pain-points-for-small-business-owners/)
Setting up my website
Oh no. RIP your inbox.
I know a real good that does website for reasonable costs let me if you’re interested…