Business Down

[Sourdough]

Got a call from my buddy in Florida yesterday.  He was a bit depressed, had to lay off another employee yesterday, and cut the pay to everyone else.

He owns a plastics company.  They do custom work, and small jobs that the bigger companies find too small and time consuming.  When i was there visiting last Jan he had 10 employees.  All were happy to have a job, and things were not looking too bad.  Now work is off and they are struggling.  He has had to lay off two employees total, and has had two different pay cuts.  He himself has not taken home a paycheck since last Feb.  Lucky for him he and his wife's living expenses are real low.

During the winter he and I had many discussions about the economy and how our new President's stimulious packages was going to help the economy.  Now my bleeding heart liberal buddy is finally seeing that it is not working.  His wife and I have finally gotten through to see since the things we predicted has came to pass.  She wrote the things down we discussed last Jan and posted it on the fridge.  Now she has pulled it out and reminded him of our views about the stimulus package and what the results would be.  He finally saw the light so to speak.  He has finally stopped backing Obama, and his packages. 

[mirage1988]

I was working for a small cabinet shop (three guys including the owner), got laid off at the end of march. The owner was worried about o's tax increases for companies making over 250,000 per year (remember that from his campaign?). His total sales last year were right around that number, but down about 40% this year so far. Do you suppose they will go off last years numbers or this years numbers? I know most of what "o" said during the campaign is BS anyway, but a tax increase (and/or a health care tax) will put him out of business.   (I tried to warn him, but he voted for change anyway.)

[Questor]

Sourdough:

Same story here. Just talked to a fence and metal work company owner. Summer usually has a seasonal downturn for some of his business, but this is remarkable this time. The story is the same in other companies too. One friend is near retirement age and he just wants a job to tide him over until he turns 62 in August. He's working for census now, and he says a lot of good people are taking those jobs because they can't find other work.

The infuriating thing about this is that the slow down is directly because of the government policies of fomenting uncertainty now. There's demand, but people don't want to commit.

[Questor]

Mirage:

Yes, I understand. I know people who have seen the incentives disappear and they got up one day and said to themselves "I don't need this anymore. There are too many hassles in running a business. If it doesn't pay, I'm not doing it." And they became one-man consulting shops or other one-man operations, and fired all their workers.

I'd like you to consider listening to a very interesting MP3 podcast at
http://acu.libsyn.com/index.php?post_year=2009&post_month=05
Search for show 391, a lecture by Burt Folsom. I have read the book. This lecture summarizes it.

[Oldshooter]

Fools that walk into the quicksand are always surprised at how fast they sink!

Anyone who really belived that obama was gonna be a good thing are at best foolish dreamers at worst is.............. well the language that needs to used in this description is not available to me here in this forum!

[SHOOTALL]

so far we have laid off over 80 people due to the slow down and not replaced others that retired or left for other reasons .

[Sourdough]

The only reason my friend is keeping the shop open is that he knows his people need their jobs.  if not for that he would lock the door and retire himself.

[Questor]

My next door neighbor is in the same situation. He had to let his meat manager go (supermarket), a 20+ year employee. It hurt him to have to do it. He is doing all he can to keep the other people employed. Otherwise he would close up and get out of the business. He's ready to retire.

[rio grande]

I work in a mid-size machine shop.
Since December about 40% of the employees laid off, wages cut 10% across the board, hours cut. My income down about 40%.
We've got great owners, onsite, and they are doing the best they can.
But it sure looks grim.
It just kills me to do the obligatory 'look thru the toolbox' routine and help the laid off guys load their boxes onto their trucks.
There's very few places for them to find work now.
Every other shop in town has the same problems.

[nomosendero]

I sell Forklifts & Industrial products in NE AR & SE MO. We are lucky here to have a very diverse customer base, from Agriculture, Ozark livestock Cattle/poultry to Delta Cotton,Beans/Rice to light industry & food processors up to heavy industry with a couple of the Nation's biggest Steel Mills. We have alot of plants that have moved here from the North to get away from Yankee Unions & taxes to survive. So, it is a very diverse market.

Our business relies on repeat business which we only get by keeping customers happy & solving their problems. This enables me to have a relationship with them. By having this relationship the customers will tell us a good deal about their business & what they expect in the near future.

I am saying this only to point out this info can give you a pretty good handle on things in regards to the economy. I trully feel that we are in for a minimum of a 2 year slump as an optimistic estimate, a meltdown totally is a possibility though. If we get the cap & tax, which will send even more folks out of the country,
we are in for a slump for a long, long time at best. If we get the Socialist Healthcare & Cap & Tax, we are done for a generation or permanent.

This year will tell the story.

[Oldshooter]

If we get the Socialist Healthcare & Cap & Tax, we are done for a generation or permanent.

Yep ! only it aint if we get it, its gonna happen short of a full scale revolt!