Questions for Small Business Owners?

Question

Hello everyone,

I am registered in an online Business class. It's actually my favorite class so far in college. But I need all of your help. One of my assignments is to interview a small business owner. And since I do not know any personally, I'd thought I'd interview you. I'd really appreciate in depth answers. Thank you in advance.

1. How did you start your business?

2. How was your business financed?

3. Did you have any problems with the staff? Especially with hiring, firing, training, and scheduling.

4. Where there any accounting problems?

5. What were some managerial problems?

6. And last but not least, was the business and work rewarding, interesting, and challenging? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Hello and Thank You!

1.  I looked for and found an area of need (demand for a product and service) that wasn't being filled and wasn't being marketed aggressively.  I marketed aggressively (online and offline) and captured a greater share of the consumer demand.

2.  Self-financed

3.  I interviewed via a series of 3 interviews each, making a point of assuring that the potential employee understood my  corporate vision as well as assuring that their employment would fulfill their financial and profesional needs.  Once these were established, I offered them a 90-day period for both of us to evaluate the experience.  Within that 90 days, they received the very best in professional and personal training, relative to the position.  Scheduling was not a problem, since those issues were covered within the interview session---and  work time  and income agreed upon.

If someone did not work out---or they decided it wasn't for them, I helped them  relocate to other corporations ( usually made a couple of phone calls to my constituents) which would help them in their professional work careers.

4.  I interviewed 4 Accountants before locating one in which I felt I could place confidence.  Then, I watched him like a hawk--and he was aware of my vigilance.  My corporate paperwork was submitted to him daily.  I also required him to hold monthly meetings with me--and also charged him with "finding" 3 areas of tax benefits per meeting which we could pursue.  This kept him on his toes---leaving me with nearly zero accounting problems, and greater tax benefits.

5.  Since I usually operated more than one business, I had to hire Management.  After a couple of years, I decided to hire Contract Managers (their pay being based on profit margins and gross sales---NOT salary).  In doing so, 99% of my managerial problems were solved.

6.  Rewarding---yes.  Financially, socially, and internally.

     Interesting----yes.  It allowed me to evaluate my company's benfit to the consumer...as well as evaluate my processes, standards, and experience.  It also allowed me to further locate other relative areas of demand and create additional sources of business income.

     Challenging---yes, emphatically!  When one works for himself/herself---all the bill-paying, problem-solving, work ethics, financials, budgeting, advertising, good will, snafus, etc rests on his/her shoulders alone.  Creativity/research, market testing--no one else can or should be trusted with these crucial areas.

My experience is that one must, and will, work much harder for himself/herself than for some corporation in which he/she is employed.

Answer 2

I'm a photographer.

1. It was a hobby, which became a serious interest and now a part-time business

2. Personal savings

3. I hired a trained assistant who does most of the admin related work for the company. She also helps me out at the shoots

4. No accounting problems

5. Mostly about transferring the admin related stuff to my assistant.

6. It is a learning experience. It was very rewarding. I get to meet new people - mostly from the fashion, glamour, film, entertainment world. There is time-committment but that is a given with running any business.

Answer 3

1. I got a business license and tax id

2. Personal $ and then soon after I got a credit card offer

3. The staff was myself and my husband.  We worked great together although some couples are not as harmonious in such situations

4. Yes.  My accountant, although she had excellent credentials, was about useless and gave very poor advice.  I did much of the day to day accounting myself through spreadsheets (excel) and handled my own sales tax

5. We made some poor business choices in investing and promotion which cost us dearly

6. yes, yes and yes.  I will say I worked harder and longer hours than any "job" I have ever had.

Sadly, part of our problem was timing.  We started our business in June 2001 (just before 9/11)  Our sales went down an average of 50% each year until we were forced to get other jobs.  From there it was very difficult to maintain our business.

If you would like to know more, please feel free to email me.  I would be happy to give more detail or answer any other questions.

Answer 4

1. bank loan

2. income/bank loan

3. yes its hard to find good help

4. yes. the economy is bad which means low income

5. no once you find someone trust worthy and qualified its pretty eaey

6. well for me it is rewarding because of the income, but having a business is challenging becuase when the income is low its hard to pay bills and you may have to pay out of your pocket. my advise  keep a part time job untill your business is going good