How's bidness in your neck of the woods?

[Richard Cranium]

Looking at the past 10 years, I've seen my business grow, with 2008 being my best year. Due to the bad economy, 2009, 2010 & 2011 were very much mediocre (in comparison to 2008), but because of staying lean, a lot of hard work, and long days we have forged a very good reputation for ourselves and as such, the last two years have been almost as good as 2008. We've also caught a break due to a couple competitors going under whose products and business practices had finally caught up with them in the down economy. Right now I'm feeling pretty optomistic that that this year may just eclipse 2008.

So, that's my story; how's things where you are?

 

[66Satellite_in_NC]

What work are you in?

 

[Richard Cranium]

vertical transportation

 

[MoparMitch]

vertical transportation

2000
A good friend of mine here around D.C.owns Century Elevator. Smallish Company. Me.... I,ve been retired from the Auto Parts Business for 14yrs. Started in the business as a parts driver at $1.75 in 1974 at age 17. Sold 3 stores to Carquest in 2000, But kept all the commercial real estate. They still lease it from me. I guess you could call me a Slum Lord !! LOL

 

[440+6]

I bet that has it's ups and downs.
Commercial and industrial building is still weak here in se Michigan but I am pretty much done building and am just maintaining my properties at this point.

 

[Darius]

In 08 I started with 13 employees and a 9 month backlog with 8-9 jobs in progress. By nov 2010 I was down to myself, my partner, and 1 full,1 part time emplyee. We were working on ONE project with NO contracts to sign. I had been back in the field since late 09...I had been out of the field for about 8 years by then( hung up my bags). I figured every penny of that job and decided if I did not have a job to start by 1 Feb 2011 I was closing my doors. At 56 I was not willing to go back into debt for something so .....unknown as the future of the remodeling industry. I got a project and we limped through 2011, the worst year I had since 1991! 2012 was much better and it has improved ever since. 2013 was one of the most profitable years I have ever had largely due to the cost and overhead reduction measures required to survive plus, my partner of 30 years retired so his pay was no longer a factor. 2014 will be about 12-15% better than 2013 which was about 10% better than 2012.
I am in that same position of having a long time reputation in my area and way less competition after all the "Chuck in a truck" type "contractors" disappeared in the depression.
My biggest challenge will be finding qualified employees. Everyone "not only knows how to do it, they invented the process!" Lack of Vocational Education in High School has really put not only the construction industry in a bind but our whole country....that is a different sop box.

 

[Propwash]

Work in the industrial world...Power/Utilities, Gas & Oil, Pulp & Paper, MFG, Machine Shops, Shipyards, Structural ect..ect.. Primarily doing Engineering and Inspection work. Pretty much same boat as the rest of you fella's. 2008 was off the hook busy. 2009 Nose dived. In 09' we made a big push to diversify our markets, logistics, employee's, equipment, technology and training. It was a lot of up front capital, but was needed to survive and keep out of the red and out of a casket. 2010 saw new opportunities and a bit of customer confidence. 2011-2012 saw good gains in the new markets and better investments from surviving clients. 2013 was a crazy year. Most of my guys and myself saw 60..70...80 hour work weeks or more. The virgin markets we pounced on in '09-10 grew into major gains and trickled down other opportunities. The surviving customers from before the dive are back and are typically more mean/lean and streamlined for efficiency. With the amount work going on for us and our clients, one would think it would be impossible not to have a job....But, in too many cases, people just don't want to work!!! The government/taxpayer pays their way, so why work? Everywhere around here businesses are looking for but can't find folks for welding, machining, equipment operators, engineers, pipefitters, project managers...the list goes on and on and on. 2014.....Heck, no clue how i'm gonna staff all our work, going to be interesting.

 

[paladin06]

I work in the defense aerospace industry. Things are booming as we grow our international customer base.

 

[modernistsouth]

I work in private school education, own rental properties and manufacture custom tile. The education world, both public and private took major hits since 2006. I worked for Temple University for years and state funding was cut annually between 2007 and 2010. I moved to private schools in 2010. When the economy tanked, people started rethinking the money they were investing in private education. They didn't necessarily send their kids to public school, but they starting shopping around to different schools, making it more competitive to get students. Aside from the economy, the population of young people has drastically reduced. I relocated back to the south from Philadelphia, where the cost of living is much lower. I now work at a school that was smart enough to cap its enrollment 15 years ago. My Philadelphia property has done well to maintain its value, and rents have increased to bring decent profit. The custom tile business slowed since 2007, as you would expect with the housing market crash- no equity, no upgrades to property. I hope that moving to an area where manufacturing overhead cost is reduced 30% will allow the tile business to grow beyond secondary income.

 

[Meep-Meep]

My business is repairing equipment that no one knows exists. A turbomolecular pump is part of a larger piece of equipment (or tool) that is used to produce products such as computer chips, CD and DVD discs (metallizing plastic or silicon). Analyze gases or liquids (mass spectrometers perhaps are best known from TV crime show "labs" used for forensic investigation and carbon dating). Decorative and functional coating (chrome on plastic, sun glasses, etc..). Cutting edge research involving high energy physics as found at DOE and DOD labs (light sources, linear accelerators, SLAC, Fermilab, etc..). All this high tech stuff falls under the title of high and ultra high vacuum.

The sad thing is there are no US made turbo pumps - there used to be but they are long gone. The Europeans and Japanese took over that market long ago. I can't go into detail, but the repair process for these pumps is a very closely guarded secret, so needless to say you can't get parts or a manual on how to fix them. Most bearings are not hard to source but are expensive. The magic is making them run like you don't know they are running, and a medium sized pump with a 7" diameter rotor spinning at 39,000 RPM requires a certain amount of finesse to get right. Small 3" pumps can reach speeds of 90,000 RPM. Off the top of my head I can think of eight shops in the country that work on these and I have been told by end users that my repairs are among the best there is - often indistinguishable from a factory job. Many end users who use my competitors for repairs eventually get frustrated with failing noisy pumps, then they go searching and find me. Our established reputation for superior quality has allowed us to slowly absorb and retain customers world wide from these high volume hacks. 2013 was a good year for me because I finally got a good helper. He is an older guy on SS and needed work, plus he's an old MoPar guy, so you know he can't be all bad! It's taken me a long time to develop a repair procedure that produces consistent results and I am looking forward to good things in 2014.

 

[Moparsmitty]

I'm having a pole barn built on my place by a local contractor and he's telling me that he now has jobs lined up about 6 months out. He says that he's beating the bushes trying to find qualified carpenters, equipment operators, etc. He said that he's getting people right out of the carpentry school in the next town and mixing them into his crews. Seems like new construction has really picked up out here.

 

[Budnicks]

I'm a freaken' bum

I spend all my days here

I was a pretty successful contractor, servicing, remodeling, commercial properties & mainly automotive dealerships, for 25 years, pretty much everything from the front gate to the back fence & everything in-between... I was educated in architectural & mechanical engineering... put myself thru school with, many jobs, diving truck, iceman delivery service, drag & sprint-car racing, drafting , mechanical work & welding for PG&E, building houses & apartment complexes, commercial framing, plumbing, roofing, tile & concrete work, landscaping & decking etc. GC before that...

I still do select jobs but pretty much construction projects have been all but dead in my part of the industry, no discretionary income for owners any today, they are most just squeaking by, with a few exceptions, they don't spend allot of money now fearing what the new govt. & insurance reg.'s & taxes will impact their businesses, not knowing what's next from our leadership her in Calif. & DC... I still do some sub-contractor arrangements/organization for a few dealership owners, on a job to job or by selective customer basis, I do some very selective consultation, for a few loyal dealership owners for the most part now... I'm no longer under any contracts, that I had for 20 years, times are extremely slow & have been for about 6+ years since Nov. 2007 pres. election... when the housing market, 1st took a dive & many people lost everything...

I use to also own a Retail Golf Pro Shop, for selling golf equipment, fitting, club repairs, lessons & apparel... I still have a small time golf equipment repair business & teach golf very selectively, very part time work... I've been dealing with family & my fathers health stuff for quite a while now, not doing much income generation these days, but will do more this year... Thank god I was smart when I did make a ton of $$$, saved & invested well to get me thru the hard time like construction industry always goes thru out here in NorCal... sad thing is I was pretty much retired & just consulting "very part time", now it looks like at 54 y/o I will need to generate a bunch more retirement income because the last 10 years have been hard on my bank account, more spending then income generation... I traveled the US drag racing from 1981-2007, ate allot of the income up...

 

[YY1]

I'm starting the third year of my small, self storage business, and I still haven't spent a dime out of my own pocket, other than at closing, and I've managed to write a small check for myself (and my wife) for almost all of those months.

I'm claiming victory.

Our rental house turned over in less than two weeks, and we had so many calls, we're in the process of looking for another one in the same neighborhood.

Claiming victory there, as well.

My wife's OOAK doll endeavor is cash flow positive for the third year as well. You GO, babe!!

My stock portfolio is up about 20% for 2013, and I'm bringing in about 25% more dividend income at about 6.5% as well.

Can't complain about any of those things.

My day job, OTOH...got a 1.5% raise this year, the first in 5 years, and the insurance coverage decreased along with a 100% increase in the co-payment.

Guess I really can't complain about that, either. At least I have a job (with benefits and ins), and the work doesn't suck too bad.

In the current economic state most real estate is worth MUCH LESS than the cost to build the same thing new. I find it odd, therefore, that construction costs have not come down to reflect that.

 

[Finallygotmine]

Pizza Pizza,,,LOL Self explanatory.

I've had 8 to 12 percent increases for the last 11 years. Getting leaner and meaner every year while updating ALL my equipment along the way. Finally started to reap the profits last year.

The recession was actually good for my business as a lot of people cut back on their discretionary spending.

 

[696969]

Bidness am good

 

[trimmer]

I have had my own automobile upholstery business for most of my adult life. I retired January 2013 due to bad health. I got my first s.s. direct deposit the 2nd Wed. of Feb.2013. The next month my business was flooded with more work than I had for the previous three years. I have to be careful not to make more money than uncle sam thinks I should so it don't alter the whooping amount I receive from them. In Dec. 2013 I got a letter from them saying I get a 1.5 % increase. I did in fact receive the raise as stated. Now I get 699 per month (I am happy to get that and still make a couple bucks on the side). I should have gotten me a regular job flipping burgers a year or two before retiring. Let this be a lesson to some of you other self-employed folks, I should have checked it out first. I can make it on the 699 amount but no fun is included and it can get close on the long months. I am happy I'm still here, but the only Mopar i had the pleasure to work on all last year was a 1965 Dodge truck (soon as it comes out of the paint shop I will get some photos and post them).

 

[super-bee_ski]

D.O.D / Air Force
Bidnes: "Not good" due to George W. Bush..

"Get my drift?"

 

[67GTX440]

I retired in 2006 and have taught MBA classes in accounting, finance and economics since then. I also own rental residential real estate that I maintain and lease myself. The real estate business has been very good. Prices of house dropped 50% while rents remained stable, and I bought foreclosures and short sales. ROI was better since 2006 than before. Now rents and real estate prices are going up so making both higher rents and capital gains. The education field is so overcrowded with new colleges I never heard of popping up daily that the competition is intense for students. Many people went back to school to live on loans and grants until the job market improved. I expect the whole higher education system to implode one the government finally realizes most student loans will never be repaid. I am teaching fewer classes than I was as class enrollment minimums keep rising to meet budgets. This is not a significant financial impact to me, but teaching is something I enjoy.

My biggest financial impact since 2006 has been the decision to sell my pristine 94 and 96 vipers to restore a 67 GTX. I got 67K combined for the Vipers and will probably have all of that in the 67 GTX before it is done. The Vipers would be worth close to 60K today and the 67 GTX will be worth about half of that when finished.

As they say at the beginning of Street Outlaws - I am a dumbass. Kids, don't try this at home.

My family called the 64 Sport Fury 383 4 spd. convertible I had in high school in the 60's "The Silver Moneysucker" and it was only five years old and had 38K miles at the time. All the expenses were mechanical due to serious owner abuse. I took my wife on our first date in the 64 Sport Fury and we now refer to the GTX as "Moneysucker2".

 

[FJ6AAR]

I am a land surveyor, been in business since 1989 November and December 2013 was the worst months I have ever had!

 

[John L]

2005-2008 Not bad
2009- 2012 Worst I've ever seen, been painting since 1982
2013 My best year ever. Already booked solid for most of 2014 and am knee deep in my largest project ever right now. Many of my long time builders are busy now and it's nice to see that it should be good for some time to come. I don't really get the impression from my customers that the economy is turning around. It seems more like people are tired of sitting on their wallets and just saying to hell with it and doing the things they have been holding off on for better or worse. I still personally think the crap has still not hit the fan.