6k a year is not even good for south america, HOW THE FUCK DID YOU SURVIVE?
Its one bad year out of 8 years of good business. I had a huge severance package from Alltel as well as plenty of savings in the bank. Along with that, I don't have any real bills as everything I have is pretty much paid for.
You have to realize that last year was the beginning of the recession and where all the foreclosures was happening. If people are losing their houses and moving to apartments then they're not going to be buying large gym equipment.
Overall, I would actually say it was a good thing because I had way too much overhead at the time with advertising fees, outsourcing receptionist services, network marketing websites (mymoneyislegal.com) , and etc. I was spending about $2000 a month on all of that and not even counting the warehouse facility. But the biggest thing was Ebay increasing fees resulting in them taking 25% right off the top of the product cost. Guy Grundy and Andreas Cahling ran into the same thing and they both stopped selling as well.
I cut all of the extra expenses, canceled my E-Bay account and store, sold off the network marketing websites and non-profiting fitness sites, integrated the core services onto one hosting network, and went back to answering my own phone calls. Now my overhead is only $80.00 dollars a month for additional services.
My business management teacher back in college always told me to look at business as a marathon rather than a sprint. If you're willing to make the sacrifices then you'll have longevity and you won't have to put up with 40 hour work weeks making someone else rich or ending up working for Jimmy Z dancing for guys or doing "web cam services"...chuckle.