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Getbig Bodybuilding Boards => Gym/Stores/Industry Business Board => Topic started by: 240 is Back on December 07, 2006, 11:49:52 PM
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Please share?
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Not so much a business mistake but gambling used to be my biggest vice. You name it, I was into it - football, boxing, tennis, blackjack, poker.
I must have lost thousands over the years - it's impossible to tell how much so business-wise I could have put that money to better use looking back on it. I've kicked the addiction now but hindsight's a wonderful thing.
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I Painted a car for the father of a girl I was dating.He was always a super nice guy and I liked him,but he didn't have much money so I told him He could pay me a little at a time whenever he could.My best friend runs an Auto Parts store where I buy all my paint and body work supplies,so I was able to run a tab on the stuff for this car.He paid me some each week to cover the cost of materials.I ended up using a lot of my own stuff that I had at times just to save a trip to the store.He wanted it a different color,so it had to be taken apart.It took me 3 months to do it,and it came out nice.I gave him the car back and guess what....never saw another dime from him..AND I had nearly 100 dollar balance at the parts store as well.I had nothing in writing so there was nothing I could do about it.I never thought he would do that to me because I had been dating his daughter for almost 2 years and he seemed like a stand up guy. Live and LEARN I guess.
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i used to give a 150 down, 150 upon launch deal to people for websites. I don't do that anymore. I still have 2 broke asses who have never paid. Everyone is prepay now.
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Other than periodic mistakes in the ordinary course of business, no major ones I can think of, because in hindsight everything happened for a reason.
I can think of a funny one my friend made when we were teenagers. He decided he wanted to be a drug dealer, so he went and purchased cocaine and crack and "sold" it to people he knew on credit. The "brokest" drug dealer in the history of the world! ;D
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I ran an ad for a newspaper and put down the wrong location for the ad to show up. The ad ended up in bumfuck NC instead of South Carolina. Didn't generate any new business.
Also, I bought a couple pounds of ephedra knowing that the ban was taking effect soon. Had to dump most of the inventory and lost a lot of money.
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Oh lord do I have stories regarding this
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Oh lord do I have stories regarding this
LOL. One of them wouldn't have anything to do with opening the best gym in Honolulu would it? When an honest businessman (you) goes into business with a crook (da other guy). ;D
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IMO the biggest buz mistake anyone can make is to be money oriented instead of goal oriented. Go to business for money and fail, go for the love of it and most likely will succeed (moneywise also).
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True. Explains why I'm a shit businessman. :)
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I'm very careful where I put my money and thus never really incurred a loss. When I promoted the 2 Shawn Ray camps in Australia, I knew it was going to be a hard sell...however I managed to sell enough tickets to almost cover the cost of the event ($40k) I had to put in about 5k of my money in the end, however the connections it generated have been invaluable.
Since then the 5k I came up short in ticket sales has been made back 6 times in other endevours so in actuality....over the long term the event was profitable even if initially I took a hit.
crazy ol business this bodybuilding
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LOL. One of them wouldn't have anything to do with opening the best gym in Honolulu would it? When an honest businessman (you) goes into business with a crook (da other guy). ;D
That is one. But I got the one before that too and one good one after it. You would think I would learn. Beach do you know that story about the gym
Beach are you M.V.
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i've only been in biz a year. my losses have been under $500 from deadbeats, before I learned about pre-pay :)
Initially, i decided to undersell the competition in an effort to secure the market. Looking back, it was a tough year (working many many hours each week), but I really do have a decent part of the market share.
i'm sure i'll step in shit eventually tho! :)
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i've only been in biz a year. my losses have been under $500 from deadbeats, before I learned about pre-pay :)
Initially, i decided to undersell the competition in an effort to secure the market. Looking back, it was a tough year (working many many hours each week), but I really do have a decent part of the market share.
i'm sure i'll step in shit eventually tho! :)
Here is a hint of my losses. I created a company called Purely Hawaiian. We manuafctured (not licensed out) an exclusive line of Suncare products and clothing. We had in development Purely Hawaiian Bottled Water, Purely Hawaiian Kona Coffee, Purely Hawaiian Dried Fruits and a bunch of other stuff including a line of Sunglasses called Purely Hawaiian Eyelens. . We were a title sponsor of the Aloha Bowl and spnsored everything we could including allot of surf meets in Hawaii and California. The company was just to much for me to handle. SO I hired a big businessman to run the show. He hired a marketing director who was the marketing director or director of development or something like that for Ray Ban. He was the guy who got the Ray Ban Aviator sunglasses in the movie Top Gun. Anyway things were going great. Made a ton of money and then in the mail I got a package with a book of about 100+ describing the bankruptcy and in which the person I put in charge was about $7 million in debt. So that ruined that venture. I came back and decided to build one of thelargest gyms in the world at the time at 160,000 sq ft. It had the largest single room gym floor of any gym in the world. Imagine a single room the size of a football field with end zones with a 40' ceiling. That was just the weight room. The cardio equipment was going to be located on a mezzanine that went half way around the interior 15' off the ground.
More than 80 treadmills. The aerobic facililty was 19,000 sq. ft. Each locker room was 2500+ sq. ft. It was huge. Well once again I let someone else take over cause it was getting out of hand how big it was getting and everything involved. The guy was a major crook and still wanted and basically broke me. I ended up sleeping in my conference room for awhile till they came and took the furniture. Then is sleeping in the Cherokee cause I was embrassed to let anyone know I was totally broke. I went from having $6,000 coffee tables to having a suitcase and a nice Jeep. But I came back and started kicking ass again. i am great again and doing awesome. Opening a gym here soon and everything is great. Moral of the story do things yourself and trust no one but yourself. And be sure to know everything that is going on inyour own business. I know some of you are going to call me stupid but hey I had to learn somehow too bad I learned the very hard way.
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That is one. But I got the one before that too and one good one after it. You would think I would learn. Beach do you know that story about the gym
Beach are you M.V.
Ding! ;D And I know the story. ;D Got your change of address. I'll be sending you a card soon.
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Ding! ;D And I know the story. ;D Got your change of address. I'll be sending you a card soon.
Hey buddy. Have a great Christmas
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Me and a buddy decided to stake a Blackjack night. We were the House. The House never loses is what we thought. We lost $1200.
Another time...same buddy...well we were going to rent out a building/hall for the night and get a DJ and buy some barrels of booze and charge money for admission. Way before raves. This was in '87. We got bank loans, We made flyers, booked the hall, DJ had his deposit, then the owner of the hall said there is no way he is going to allow more than 2 half barrels. We went nuts. We expected hundreds of people. We lost everything.
Not a ton of money now but we were 21 y/o kids with no money trying to make a killing but we always were the ones getting killed.
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Hey buddy. Have a great Christmas
Thanks. You too man. Enjoy the grandkids. I'll be in touch soon.
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when i was 22 i quit my job in broadcasting over some bullshit reason ... at this point, had i stayed there i would surely be in charge of a station and making at least twice as much as i do now
shit happens
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wow, thses are some cool stories! Keep them coming! The honesty here is great, and we can all learn from the missteps of others!
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having a parnter , and a lazy one at that... I ahd a contracting company and a parnter that came to me fo this venture and he needed his hand help every step of the way...and so I concluded the deal with a bye bye...lol Never again
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That's hard to say, ...cause all of my mistakes have in reality been some of the most valueable teaching lessons that have gone on to benefit me in sooo many ways.
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That's hard to say, ...cause all of my mistakes have in reality been some of the most valueable teaching lessons that have gone on to benefit me in sooo many ways.
Copycat. :)
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Copycat. :)
No, ...it's true. I've always endeavored to turn a negative obstacle into a dangerous opportunity.
The ancient sanskrit symbol for something that respresents an obstacle, when flipped translates to dangerous opportunity. Much like when a b is flipped horizontally, it will read d, or if flipped vertically will be read as p. You can complain about the lemons or you can make lemonade... the choice is always yours. I prefer to make lemonade, and plant the seeds that will produce lemon trees, that will produce even more lemons, ...which will lead to even more lemonade, and more lemon seeds which can then be planted etc., etc.,
One recent mistake I made... a real bonehead move was on some business cards I designed. There were gorgeous glossy full colour cards designed to introduce my target market to my products at the precise moment of their greatest desire & need for my product. It took me forever to design them just right, ...then I ordered a whole bunch. When they arrived, I realized I hadn't properly proofed them, because I messed up on my contact info. They were unusable for my desired purpose. Rather than waste them, I simply decided to substitute them for the blank cards I had been using. You know when you meet someone and they don't have a biz card on them, ...well rather than trying to hang on to little slips of paper, or numbers scribbled on a napkin, I'll just hand them a blank card and have them write their info out on that. Well, now, I just have them write the info out, on the back of the glossy biz card. ...of course when I hand it to them, I hand it to them face up ...just briefly, ...long enough for them to notice there's something on the card. Then I flip it over to the blank side, and let them know they can just write their contact info there. :P 98.9 % of the time, they will turn it over and read the info on the front of the card before handing it back to me, ...and of those who do, 99.9% of those will ask me for more information about it. ;D
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Good story Jag.
I think as long as you work hard and maintain your integrity in all of your business dealings, every business encounter/situation is good. You may not like the results sometimes, but everything happens for a reason. Most people have had ups and downs in business, but if you are doing the right thing you should be able to look back on your "mistakes" and see them as part of the learning and growing process.
I still make mistakes, but I think the key is not repeating the same mistake. It can be frustrating, because the number of possible mistakes is virtually endless. This is one of the reasons I have so much respect for people who are older than me. They have been down that road.
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Five years ago a couple of friends of mine asked me to be a part of a mortgage business they started. I would be entitled to 1/3 ownership. At the time I didn't know anything about that line of work and the money to put down would have been risky. I backed off.
I make a six figure income but those guys make triple what I make. :-\
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I would have to say... My wife and accountant fouled up with the man... I have to take ultimate responsability though.
IRS....
Pay the man, and more.
Cause, you will pay eventually
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Trusting my employees.
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Trusting my employees.
Or hiring the wrong employees? If you cannot trust your employees, you cannot run a successful business.
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IRS....
Pay the man, and more.
Cause, you will pay eventually
ALWAYS pay. I think I'm paying more this year than I earned last year LMAO... They get their money and I sleep sound.
Trusting my employees.
People will tend to do what they LOVE or what they HAVE to do. Outside of that, you can't trust them to grow your dream when myspace is available.
Or hiring the wrong employees? If you cannot trust your employees, you cannot run a successful business.
You can trust them to operate specific parts of your business. but you have to trust they'll always put their families, income, rent, relationships, getting laid, and many other things ahead of your longterm business goals. When these things clash, even if the person is trustworthy, the employee will choose self.
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When these things clash, even if the person is trustworthy, the employee will choose self.
Unless yo pay him shitloads and give him bonuses and options!! ;)
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Unless yo pay him shitloads and give him bonuses and options!! ;)
actually - by paying him well and tying his income to company performance, what you're essentially doing is aligning his goals with the company goals. By choosing self, he will choose to make your company do very well. Motivation is the key :)
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playing roulette
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You can trust them to operate specific parts of your business. but you have to trust they'll always put their families, income, rent, relationships, getting laid, and many other things ahead of your longterm business goals. When these things clash, even if the person is trustworthy, the employee will choose self.
How many employees do you have? This is a mischaracterization. Obviously, most solid citizens place their families and relationships before work. But if you do your homework and are a good manager, you will hire, train, develop, and trust excellent and loyal employees. There are employees who have been with my company for over 30 years. I'd trust them with my kids. I was just talking to a secretary the other day who has been with the company for 17 years. I trust her. She is buying a new house and I'm sure in terms of priority the house comes before the job, but when she is at work she is 100 percent dedicated to her direct supervisor and to the company. That's how loyal and trustworthy employees operate.
I trust my partners too and they trust me. That is in large part why we are successful.
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Yet there are still many employees who being long with the company still land you an unpleasant surprise. You gotta look at the personality...some people just cant resist extra dollar and will sell their mother for a good offer, let alone your company.
Also the preception of fairness is always different with employer and employee. Most of the time the employers think they pay fair or even too much to an employee, but that employee thinks he/she's paid too little.
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How many employees do you have? This is a mischaracterization. Obviously, most solid citizens place their families and relationships before work. But if you do your homework and are a good manager, you will hire, train, develop, and trust excellent and loyal employees. There are employees who have been with my company for over 30 years. I'd trust them with my kids. I was just talking to a secretary the other day who has been with the company for 17 years. I trust her. She is buying a new house and I'm sure in terms of priority the house comes before the job, but when she is at work she is 100 percent dedicated to her direct supervisor and to the company. That's how loyal and trustworthy employees operate.
I trust my partners too and they trust me. That is in large part why we are successful.
You have a good situation and your people are well. But the rule remains the same.
If one of the secretary's husbands get cancer of the ass and your insurance doesn't cover it, and you happen to leave 250k in petty cash, and the whole place is the honor system, there is a more than zero % chance a secreatary will swipe from petty cash to get her man's back pussy replaced.
You can be a great HR guy, but the reason they show up isn't because they love you. They show up because they like the $ and accept the opportunity cost tradeoff of their time for that money. period. Enjoy the hugs, be there for each other, yank each other off at the company pow wow. That'd be super. but they show up because of the money and acceptable conditions. if they won the lottery tomorrow, you'd have an empty office on Monday morning. If any one of them had risk to life, limb, family, or pet, and you were vulnerable, they're gonna take. it's human nature, and it's naive to believe people are "naturally good and can be trusted" without looking at situations.
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You have a good situation and your people are well. But the rule remains the same.
If one of the secretary's husbands get cancer of the ass and your insurance doesn't cover it, and you happen to leave 250k in petty cash, and the whole place is the honor system, there is a more than zero % chance a secreatary will swipe from petty cash to get her man's back pussy replaced.
You can be a great HR guy, but the reason they show up isn't because they love you. They show up because they like the $ and accept the opportunity cost tradeoff of their time for that money. period. Enjoy the hugs, be there for each other, yank each other off at the company pow wow. That'd be super. but they show up because of the money and acceptable conditions. if they won the lottery tomorrow, you'd have an empty office on Monday morning. If any one of them had risk to life, limb, family, or pet, and you were vulnerable, they're gonna take. it's human nature, and it's naive to believe people are "naturally good and can be trusted" without looking at situations.
No prudent business leaves $250,000 in petty cash lying around the office. That's really an unrealistic hypothetical.
And this makes no sense either: people are "naturally good and can be trusted" without looking at situations. No prudent business operates this way.
I think you probably need to manage a business with employees before you can have an insight on how to manage employees (or a business with employees). Don't you agree?
The key, like I said earlier, is this: "But if you do your homework and are a good manager, you will hire, train, develop, and trust excellent and loyal employees."
I just finished a book by John C. Maxwell called "Ethics 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know." Here is an excerpt on trusting employees:
Victorian writer George MacDonald said, "To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved." The Law of Solid Ground in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership states that trust is the foundation of leadership. While that is true, it can also be said that trust is the foundation of all good relationships, and good friendships all require trust. If you don't have trust, there can be no open and honest interaction, and the relationship will only be temporary.
Manchester, Inc., a consulting firm in Philadelphia, used a survey of more than two hundred companies to discover the best ways to build trust with employees. They found that people who engender trust . . .
- Maintain integrity.
- Openly communicate visions and values.
- Show respect for employees as equal partners.
- Focus on shared goals rather than personal agendas.
- Do the right thing regardless of personal risk.
- Listen with an open mind.
- Demonstrate compassion.
- Maintain confidences.
While you cannot control whether people give you their trust, you can control your actions toward them. And you can determine to give them your trust. Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson remarked, "The chief lesson I have learned in a long life is that the only way you can make a man trustworthy is by trusting him; and the surest way to make him untrustworthy is to distrust him and show your distrust."
It takes a leap of faith to put your trust in another person, especially someone you don't know well. Yet that's what it takes to practice the Golden Rule. As you strive to invest confidence in others in the same way you would like it invested in you, take comfort in the words of Camillo Benso di Cavour, who said, "The man who trusts men will make fewer mistakes than he who distrusts them."
Ethics 101 at 32-33.
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No prudent business leaves $250,000 in petty cash lying around the office. That's really an unrealistic hypothetical.
And this makes no sense either: people are "naturally good and can be trusted" without looking at situations. No prudent business operates this way.
I think you probably need to manage a business with employees before you can have an insight on how to manage employees (or a business with employee). Don't you agree?
You can have great success by hiring, training, and treating people right. I agree there.
But despite your best efforts, if 1 in 100 will steal from you, then my agency theory is proven correct. They come to work because of their own interests, not yours. Their at-work activities will follow suit.
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You can trust them to operate specific parts of your business. but you have to trust they'll always put their families, income, rent, relationships, getting laid, and many other things ahead of your longterm business goals. When these things clash, even if the person is trustworthy, the employee will choose self.
You are correct in most situations.I know that if my boss does not make money,he will go out of business and I will not have a job,therefore I often sacrifice what is best for me(in the short term)...because in the long run,what is best for the company IS what's best for me.
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not buy lockeed stock before the war :(