What have you recently ‘disrupted’ or seen ‘disrupted’ ? smallbusiness

I feel that there are a ton of well-established businesses that are prime for disruption in my area.

What I mean by disruption is that there are businesses which rely solely on their past relationships and referrals (which I of course admit are the very reason why they are successful in the market), but they are prime for disruption because they don’t have any ‘modern’ marketing to garner new customers/clients. By simply creating a competitor to these businesses, putting some modern business marketing around the business/brand and running the business in a more ‘streamlined’ way, you can effectively draw the market share away from the ‘long established’ players in the market and build a new business really fast.

For example, I have seen a residential/commercial painting company effectively ‘steal’ the market through their outward marketing/branding by wrapping a few trucks in a very modern and ‘fun’ painting theme and creating a very ‘quick and easy’ website which allows for accurate and fast quotes. They aggressively marketed their new company to all the local general contractors - of which some gave them a try and the business took off from there. I feel the outward marketing and website really helped to ‘win’ the market. Instead of a plain white van with small/minimal name on the truck, they went ‘all out’ to push their brand/image on the market. Residential clients took notice of the nice vans/trucks and decided to give them a call directly for services. Before you know it, they grow in size and have more and more trucks and business.

I have also seen this in the restaurant kitchen cleaning/maintenance business. Most restaurants need a service company to keep their ovens, stoves, refrigerators, dishwashers, etc in working order and clean condition. Historically there are small companies who have a few workers that service the equipment and clean certain machines, etc. In comes the disruptor - one company chose to ‘brand itself’ as a bigger player in the market. They wrapped their trucks with all the services they provide, made themselves look like the best in the business. Instead of plain/unmarked vans doing the job, now their trucks are everywhere and more and more restaurants are ditching their current vendor for this new company because they do things more streamlined and just ‘act’ more professional.

I’ve seen fire suppression companies doing the same. Instead of a plain/unmarked van selling and servicing fire extinguishers and testing services (which in the past were done by relationships), now there are a few new guys doing it with larger ‘branded’ fleets of vehicles and a more modern approach to managing the relationship between vendor and client - they ‘win’ the business from the market.

All these examples are somewhat general, but I have relationships with each of the three in some way (either I know the owners of the company or know a business owner who has been affected by one of the disrupters).

So I’d like to hear more stories of local business disruption. What have you seen? We all know Uber/AirBNB at the large-scale level, but what is happening more locally in your area?

Submitted January 13, 2018 at 05:04PM by rdjat15 http://ift.tt/2DrdNZP smallbusiness

Help on selling a profitable small business in NJ smallbusiness

I own a private room karaoke and bar business in northern NJ. I would like to sell it for personal reasons, and I don't know where to start. I invested in the business through a family friend so I didn't have the opportunity to go through those types of channels.

Business details: Private room karaoke & bar, meaning we have 8 private rooms with karaoke, automated lighting, and seating. The rooms vary in size, with the largest able to fit up to 20 people. There is a separate bar where we serve drinks. There is also a decent sized kitchen with a stove, oven, deep fryer, ice machine, refrigerator, and freezer. So far this year's revenue is at about $121,000. Monthly profit ranges from $4-6,000 a month. In my opinion, with a little more effort and drive, revenue can be increased 20-30% relatively easily. For example, bar and kitchen sales account for less than 15% of our revenue - it can definitely be improved upon. Unfortunately, after a little over a year, I have to move on for personal reasons.

So with this type of information:

Where do I find a buyer or a broker?

How do brokers work?

How should I value my business?

Should I list it on one of those business selling websites? Does anyone have any success stories with those, like do they work and which one is best?

Any other ideas anyone?

If you have any stories about your own experiences I would love to hear them!

Any help is much appreciated!

Submitted August 15, 2017 at 07:38AM by miserablebutterfly http://ift.tt/2wZukzU smallbusiness

Help on selling a profitable small business in NJ smallbusiness

I own a private room karaoke and bar business in northern NJ. I would like to sell it for personal reasons, and I don't know where to start. I invested in the business through a family friend so I didn't have the opportunity to go through those types of channels.

Business details: Private room karaoke & bar, meaning we have 8 private rooms with karaoke, automated lighting, and seating. The rooms vary in size, with the largest able to fit up to 20 people. There is a separate bar where we serve drinks. There is also a decent sized kitchen with a stove, oven, deep fryer, ice machine, refrigerator, and freezer. So far this year's revenue is at about $121,000. Monthly profit ranges from $4-6,000 a month. In my opinion, with a little more effort and drive, revenue can be increased 20-30% relatively easily. For example, bar and kitchen sales account for less than 15% of our revenue - it can definitely be improved upon. Unfortunately, after a little over a year, I have to move on for personal reasons.

So with this type of information:

Where do I find a buyer or a broker?

How do brokers work?

How should I value my business?

Should I list it on one of those business selling websites? Does anyone have any success stories with those, like do they work and which one is best?

Any other ideas anyone?

If you have any stories about your own experiences I would love to hear them!

Any help is much appreciated!

Submitted August 15, 2017 at 07:38AM by miserablebutterfly http://ift.tt/2wZukzU smallbusiness

Help on selling a profitable small business in NJ smallbusiness

I own a private room karaoke and bar business in northern NJ. I would like to sell it for personal reasons, and I don't know where to start. I invested in the business through a family friend so I didn't have the opportunity to go through those types of channels.

Business details: Private room karaoke & bar, meaning we have 8 private rooms with karaoke, automated lighting, and seating. The rooms vary in size, with the largest able to fit up to 20 people. There is a separate bar where we serve drinks. There is also a decent sized kitchen with a stove, oven, deep fryer, ice machine, refrigerator, and freezer. So far this year's revenue is at about $121,000. Monthly profit ranges from $4-6,000 a month. In my opinion, with a little more effort and drive, revenue can be increased 20-30% relatively easily. For example, bar and kitchen sales account for less than 15% of our revenue - it can definitely be improved upon. Unfortunately, after a little over a year, I have to move on for personal reasons.

So with this type of information:

Where do I find a buyer or a broker?

How do brokers work?

How should I value my business?

Should I list it on one of those business selling websites? Does anyone have any success stories with those, like do they work and which one is best?

Any other ideas anyone?

If you have any stories about your own experiences I would love to hear them!

Any help is much appreciated!

Submitted August 15, 2017 at 07:38AM by miserablebutterfly http://ift.tt/2wZukzU smallbusiness

About to make the biggest decision of my life: Advice seeking below. smallbusiness

Hello! My husband and I are pretty sure we are going to buy a small market and deli that is for sale in my small town. The shop is one that has been established in town for decades but the current owners aren't great at running it and are now selling.

The shop sale includes any inventory and equipment - freezer, refrigerators, shelving, deli equipment, soft serve machine, POS, lottery and beer/wine license. We would be divining a 5 year lease for the space. What we hope is that the landlord eventually put the building up for sale - it's on a huge corner lot with lots of room for expansion. We envision a full country market and grocery as the area doesn't have one at all. Closest grocery store is out of town - 10-15 minute drive.

We are very fortunate to have been early buyers of bitcoin and have four years of living expenses in the bank, no debt other than mortgage (we earn more not paying it off as our rate is 3%). So, financially we have a unique situation and will buy the shop with cash. I will quit my day job and my husband is in college. The shop will be my baby but my husband will be our money guy as he's better st it than I am.

What should we be thinking about that we aren't? This is all new to us and I've been furiously reading and trying to make sure we aren't totally insane. Any advice?

Submitted August 06, 2017 at 06:36PM by mysuperfakename http://ift.tt/2udpjml smallbusiness

Customer (I Believe) trying to game us, looking for advice smallbusiness

There is a customer that has done a series of very shady things culminating in this current situation which I'm not sure the best way to handle.

First, the customer's grammar in communication is almost illegible. Not only illegible but written with no coherent message. I understand that not everyone has a high school level education, but it seems intentional to obscure whats being asked.

This person contacted our company (e-commerce site) about 10-12 times via our contact us form, which I take the time to respond to every message. His first 4-6 (is kind of blurry because he would send the same message multiple times changing 1-2 words or sentences). Only ever asked for us to give him free products. These are the only kind of messages I ignore.

So no response from me.

Then I received a series of contacts from the same email, written in the same matter, but claiming to be his kids and "wanting to help their daddy" and to give him something.

Again ignored

Then he made a purchase of $8 to an add-on of one of our products.

We filled it

Then a few days later received an email asking why he didn't receive the product ($80 value). I responded with the information of his purchase and why he received what he received. He then asked for us to cut him a deal on getting the rest of the product. We politely told him we could refund him if he sent back the add-on products.

he did not send them back

Then we had a sale (our biggest sale of the year on Father's day *this is when his "kids" contacted us). He bought 2 products separately in the sale, one on back order and one we shipped the next day). He contacted us 3-4 times about the back ordered item asking why it wasn't shipped together and such. We responded to him each time letting him know it was back-ordered and we would happily cancel the order if he preferred.

Finally, we shipped the back ordered item to him. We received an email from him a few days later asking if we had played a joke on him and where his package was (then wrote about 4 paragraphs on wanting another sticker because his kid put it on the refrigerator). he then sent a picture of a package that had a small hole in the bottom and asked if the product could have fallen out. The package had clearly been opened from the other end already and the hole was not nearly large enough for the content to fall out.

He also chose it to be shipped First Class USPS (which you cannot file a claim for) (we removed this shipping option already)

Long story, question is WTF and am i crazy? If this was someone who seemed legit I would do my best to help resolve the situation. The product he purchased is about $100. It wouldn't break us to send it to him, but I don't feel that should be my solution. Looking for input on the best way to handle this for this and future situations.

Submitted July 21, 2017 at 04:45AM by josh-i http://ift.tt/2vpgZRo smallbusiness

Failing Restaurant smallbusiness

Hello. Im the executive chef and gm of a small 35 seat bistro. I took this job, and didn't know the financial situation the restaurant was in. 40k In debt.

I actually didn't know any of this information when I took over. I wasn't made privy to the Financials until about 2 months after taking over.

I'm evidently also the 4th kitchen manager in 3 years

The owners also own the attached hotel, which is doing quite well financially. (2m per year) But, while they want the restaurant to run as an amenity to the hotel, they're operating it as a separate entity. They dont even reside in the same state as the business.

They refuse to purchase new equipment for the restaurant, even smaller items like a food processor. The equipment on site is a disaster, all of it is about 25 years old and failing regularly. I had a refrigerator with a plate rack collapse on top of me because the wheel mount rusted through.

I've changed everything around to maximize profits, new menus, better labor /shrinkage control. But, without butt skin seats I can't do anything else.

There is an overall refusal to do advertising, I'd do it myself, but the restaurant doesn't even have a debit card, all non food service purchases have to go through the general manager or the owners.

The general manager is another issue with the failing of the business. Nothing gets done in a timely manner and any requests I have are usually on a 3 month back log.

All in all. How can I help this place? I feel like I'm against a brick wall and am debating a new job in general. The pay couldn't be worse, they pay me far below the median average for a kitchen manager and refuse to give me raise.

I didn't know what to do....

Submitted May 15, 2017 at 09:59AM by Synysterjesterx http://ift.tt/2qhQ5ui smallbusiness

Walk in refrigerators compared with 2 freezers smallbusiness

Hi,

My wife is considering a walk in freezer for her bakery to replace two large freezers for more space. I think this would add 30 - 40% more freezer storage.

I am wondering if this is a good idea?

One of the freezers broke down the other week and she was able to shuffle just about everything into the second freezer.

What sort of backup mechanisms do walkin freezers have?

Is the power useage of a walkin going to be sigificantly higher?

Will we have to submit a plan to Washington state before having it installed?

Submitted October 01, 2016 at 02:48AM by ILikeCutePuppies http://ift.tt/2du3pCi smallbusiness

How to calculate assets, accounts receivables for small retail business? smallbusiness

My partner and I have a cafe. We've been in operation for about 2.5 years and have been doing well. Sales have been steady and we've been consistently making a profit but we've begun to plateau since our food choices are somewhat limited and we're losing business to the lunch crowd.

We want to take out a loan to convert an area of our business to a small kitchen/bakery. We contacted the loan officer at our bank and he's asking the following.

Please provide me with the following business assets in dollar values: Inventory (raw goods and supplies): Equipment (machine, tools, refrigerators, tables, etc): Account Receivables (money owed to the business 30/60/90):

1: Our inventory of supplies and raw goods changes constantly and is also frequently perishable.. What should I base this off of?

2: How do I factor the value of our equipment after taking depreciation into account? What about items that we built ourselves (we built all the tables ourselves for example).

3: We don't really have much in the way of accounts receivables as we're a cash based business. Credit card sales are deposited in the bank the next day. How should I answer that?

Also we have the option of a loan with a 12-60 month term or a revolving line of credit. Assuming the same interest rate what would be the better option?

Submitted July 20, 2016 at 06:44PM by anarchyx34 http://ift.tt/29UWVen smallbusiness

How to calculate assets, accounts receivables for small retail business? smallbusiness

My partner and I have a cafe. We've been in operation for about 2.5 years and have been doing well. Sales have been steady and we've been consistently making a profit but we've begun to plateau since our food choices are somewhat limited and we're losing business to the lunch crowd.

We want to take out a loan to convert an area of our business to a small kitchen/bakery. We contacted the loan officer at our bank and he's asking the following.

Please provide me with the following business assets in dollar values: Inventory (raw goods and supplies): Equipment (machine, tools, refrigerators, tables, etc): Account Receivables (money owed to the business 30/60/90):

1: Our inventory of supplies and raw goods changes constantly and is also frequently perishable.. What should I base this off of?

2: How do I factor the value of our equipment after taking depreciation into account? What about items that we built ourselves (we built all the tables ourselves for example).

3: We don't really have much in the way of accounts receivables as we're a cash based business. Credit card sales are deposited in the bank the next day. How should I answer that?

Also we have the option of a loan with a 12-60 month term or a revolving line of credit. Assuming the same interest rate what would be the better option?

Submitted July 20, 2016 at 06:44PM by anarchyx34 http://ift.tt/29UWVen smallbusiness

Asking for some opinions and a little advice. smallbusiness

I just started my own cleaning business in December 2015 and I need some advice from fellow Redditors on how to clean things in certain ways/with certain products. I can't find anywhere else to post this and you guys have been helpful.

1) If you were to hire a cleaning lady would you expect all three sides and the top of all of your furniture including dressers to be dusted every time?

2) If you have real hard wood floors what's the best way to mop them?

3) If you have laminate wood flooring what's the best way to mop them?

4) If you have Pergo wood flooring what's the best way to mop them?

5) Would you want your baseboards cleaned every time you had your home cleaned?

6) Would you want your kitchen back splash cleaned every time?

7) Would you want your stove exhaust vents cleaned every time?

8) How much would you pay to have your refrigerator scrubbed out?

9) Do you expect the outsides of all of your cabinets to be cleaned every time?

10) Can you please visit my Facebook page and hit like and then share? : ) http://ift.tt/1U3DhM6

If you have any advice you would like to pass along, leave a comment below.

Thanks Redditors, you're the best!

Submitted May 20, 2016 at 08:46AM by UPSWorkerAMA http://ift.tt/1OCHRiR smallbusiness

The good, the bad, and the Bagel. smallbusiness

So, I posted here about 6 months ago, after I bought my first business ( the Daily Bagel Reno). I wanted to give an accounting of all I've learned and accomplished since the takeover in June of last year.

First, let's start with the Bad. Our place is small, 700sqft, 200 of it for the kitchen.  We had lots of issues to slog through as first time business owners, and a huge learning curve ahead of us. We had a terrible falling out with previous owner after just a week. She was very off put by any changes we made, and it caused conflict. So after a week, we were on our own. Here's a brief description of the problems we faced. Failing or under capacity equipment, non efficient layout, a kitchen not ready to pass health inspection, under utilization of space, non existent inventory, long customer wait times.

 Customers were waiting 10-15 min for small orders and 25-40 min for big orders. We frequently sold out of bagels. People would come in at 8am and see maybe 4 or 5 types of bagel ( we have 15 flavors). The old owner was rude and unfriendly,  and frequently upset customer.  The previous owner told us keeping a small inventory was smart (which, it is) but her idea of small was literally barley enough food to get through 1 normal business day. There were 2 ovens, which at capacity could bake 3 dozen bagels per hour. A toaster which took 4 min to toast a bagel, and was large and clunky. A traditional cash register, along with hand written tickets. A menu board 48"x24" that contained an entire lunch and breakfast menu. A back storage closet loaded floor to ceiling with nothing but crap. They day our security cameras went on, we caught one of the employees stealing. Our first month was rough. We had 2 1 star Yelp reviews. We had the health department tell us her kitchen would not pass, and we had to get new refrigerators. Then we had employee issues. We had 1 steal, I was super lazy, and one didn't like us. So basically we fired all 3. But we hired people that turned out just as bad. Eventually my wife and got the hang of things, and have needed to rely on employees less and less. My wife and are working 6 days a week, 10hrs+ a day. ( we were open 7 days a week in September, and i ended up working 28 days in a row). The previous was closed on Sundays, open Mon-sat, 630-2pm.

Ok,  let's look at the POSITIVES! after all that it might seem as if there are none. But there are! We fixed all the issues. We invested $10,000 in new equipment. We now have 2 ovens, capable of 15 dozen Bagels per hour. We purchased a fridge designed for small spaces, and increased from 5 cbft, to 12 cbft, in the same area. I received my food management certification. We spent 8 hours deep cleaning the kitchen, and passed our Health inspection with a 100. We bought a toaster that takes just 45 seconds to toast a bagel. We invested in a POS system, that has a printer in the kitchen. A new menu board that's 80"x30" and allows customers in line to read it and decide on what they'd like before reaching the register. We reorganized the kitchen for greater efficiency. We invested in a real inventory, that lasts 7 days, while maintaining freshness. By creating a real inventory, we were able reduce our food costs by 15% annually, and reduced our food cost from 35% down to 26%. It has also saved us time, I now shop 1 time a week, for 2 hours, rather than 6 days at 1 hr each. Sales are thru the roof, the previous fiscal year was 180k Gross, but in our first 6 months, we've done 108k, and are expecting to do 225k by out fiscal year end. Customer wait times are down to 3-6min, 8-12 when it's super busy. Since our 2 1 star Yelp reviews, we have had 45 5 star, 18 4 star, 1 3 star and 2 2star. We received very positive reviews in Both the Reno News and review and the Reno Gazette Journal since October. We have also branched out, and now have 4 wholesale clients: 3 coffee shops and the County Hospital  ( we out competed another bagel shop for 2 of those accounts), currently those wholesale accounts will gross around 8k. We opened Sundays, and closed mondays. That has paid off big time, as Sunday is now our 2nd busiest day, and Monday was always our slowest.

Things are looking bright, we now are past most of the initial learning curve, we have all our major problems fixed, and now spend our time figuring out how to grow and improve, rather than putting out fires and stressing!

Here are 2 links so you can look at pics and see some of the shop:

 http://ift.tt/1SOvF4u

 http://ift.tt/1PFmHzO

Submitted January 30, 2016 at 12:39AM by truckeeriverfisher http://ift.tt/20ydW2p smallbusiness

Investigating a business for purchase | Need equipment appraisal smallbusiness

I’m performing my due diligence on a small, learnable, businesses that has a manufacturing component. The company’s assets consist of various fixtures and equipment that I cannot value alone.

Can anyone recommend an equipment appraiser in the northeastern U.S.? The equipment consists of food manufacturing components, compressors, and refrigerators.

Submitted June 24, 2015 at 06:53AM by Fspriggs http://ift.tt/1IcTwVX smallbusiness

Looking to start a bar/restaurant in Indonesia - looking for advice on systems smallbusiness

Hi.

I live in the UK but I spend maybe 3 months of the year in Indonesia, where I have some family and friends.

An Indonesian friend, who lives in mainland Europe, has offered me to start a bar/restaurant with him. He owns the venue, for which he paid $6,000, and he is offering me half for $3,000 and then we would both put around $7,500 (this number is an estimate at this point) into the business.

Specifics that I have identified are:

• 
  

  although there is mains electricity, the supply is unreliable, and some days the power could be off for 12 hours. On top of that the power is poor quality (sometimes short on volts)

  
  


• 
  

  there is GSM internet, but it's about as unreliable as the electricity.

  
  


• 
  

  my friend already owns a similar business (a guesthouse/restaurant). I perceive it to be a vanity project, which has no chance of ever making back his investment. He is a company owner in Europe, so this isn't a problem for him.

  
  


• 
  

  I am in a somewhat similar position in the sense that the proposed investment is less than I have spent on some vacations to Indonesia, but on the other hand I think that unless the business is profitable it's not a very good vanity symbol, so profitability is very important. He, for instance, suggests that we sell luxury items such as steak, and I pointed out that the profitability on this would be poor, and we should stick to simpler dishes like spaghetti, or in the first instance just beer and Coca-Cola, which don't require any kitchen.

  
  


• 
  

  Theft and corruption are basically de rigeur among Indonesians. On top of this, there are virtually no rules, forms and certainly no such thing as an employee handbook. So in other bars I would expect not only for a significant portion of loss due to theft, sometimes from guests (refrigerators placed in the open), sometimes from staff (no accounts kept, no cash system, no cash registers anywhere in the village). I want to change this and operate according to Western standards of business, operating stock control and POS systems.

  
  


• 
  

  Wages are very low. The minimum wage, officially, is $125/month. But locally many staff are not paid at all and just 'help' for food + board, and those that are paid would be paid less than that. People do make more money than this, but by establishing their own business.

  
  


• 
  

  I also have a tour business in Indonesia, in the same place. This makes a profit, and there would be good synergy between the tour business and the bar (restaurant).

  
  


• 
  

  There are no taxes to be paid, electricity runs around $0.10/kWH, natural gas costs either $1/kg for 12kg tanks (unsubsidised), or around $0.50/kg for the 3kg tanks (subsidised), diesel/petrol is around $0.60/litre, wages are up to $10/day for day labour, and maybe $100/month for an unqualified staff. I am not completely sure about educated management wages

  
  


• 
  

  Risks include: land confiscation, higher-than-average-for-the-West fire risk, flood. There would be no possibility of insurance, so I would self-insure.

  
  

Anyway does anyone have some tips for getting the systems such as forms, paperwork, manuals and processes in place, and also specific POS and inventory systems that would work well in this kind of environment?

Submitted February 17, 2015 at 08:10AM by indosnooze http://ift.tt/1L4XJID smallbusiness

Please help me with the legal aspects of an online shop smallbusiness

I would like to start an online shop where I sell kits to create scientific projects. For example, I am planning a ~$40 kit to make your own refrigerator using a Peltier TEC. I am fairly knowledgeable in business, marketing, and making things and I can use several hundred dollars to get started.

The actual business operation should not be an issue for me, but I am not so sure about the legal aspects.

• 
  

  Would lawsuits/patents be a major concern?

  
  


• 
  

  Should I get an LLC or S-Corp in case of lawsuit or accidental patent infringement or just stick with a sole proprietorship?

  
  


• 
  

  Should I bother with a trademark?

  
  


• 
  

  I am 17, so should I be a worker under a parent (technically/legally)?

  
  


• 
  

  How hard would it be to file taxes? Would it make sense to hire an accountant for a few hours?

  
  

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Submitted December 22, 2014 at 01:52AM by science_startup_help http://ift.tt/1AUDqtc smallbusiness