Shutting down

[Drunk Monkey]

Sorry to hear about your impending close. I have a domestic manufacturing company that sells the big chains consumer goods. For the past 6 years China has steadily chipped away at our business. If the playing field was level that would not have happened. When the Chinese government pays export subsidies to our competition all they have to do is sell at cost. They make their money on that subsidy. In addition to that by pegging the Chinese currency to the dollar they are keeping the value artificially low. Their goods should be much more expensive. I don't care which president does it but the playing field needs to be more level.

[Rohirrim]

Originally Posted by Meck77

Here is what gets my goat and it's arguable that a REAL investment in America could have saved your business nut. When all the stimulus talk started it was billed as a "rebuilding of America". There was talk of this FDR "New Deal" type plan. Instead trillions have been squandered bailing out a auto industry that in my opinion deserved to fail. Billions have been shuffled into the private "banksters" that Obama said he was going to crack down on. He hasn't.

Had several trillion dollars actually been spent on projects like they promised I think things could have been slightly different and maybe your business might have benefited. I personally don't know anyone who has benefited from stimulus money. What I do know is that every turn fees and taxes are going up as a result.

We've basically dug ourselves into a deeper hole and the results of the spending are not apparent IMO. Like I said a couple weeks ago. The son of b****es haven't even taken the time to repaint the stripes on I-70. That is the one of two major highways in Colorado and they can't even make that a little easier to travel on at night? Instead BILLIONS are being stolen right in front of our very eyes.

Furthermore we're continuing down the same path of war. There is no change there. Billions pissed away on the war and to countries like Israel while hard working Americans like yourself nut are closing your business.

Yeah we can look back and blame Bush. It's easy to do and he deserves his blame. Well I blame Bush, I blame Americans who took money from banks that they shouldn't have, and I blame our congress and Barack Obama for continuing down the same path as before. Lastly I blame each and every American for letting it all happen myself included.

I've always said. At some point Americans will get angry. If and when we do maybe we'll get change. But for now there is no change. It's more of the same if not worse. Don't tell me you didn't have business during the Bush economy Nut?

Originally, right after the crash, I bought into the Keynesian idea that the government had to pump liquidity into the economy in order to get things going. The best way to do this is directly. Start projects. Put people to work. Instead, we funneled billions to bankers that refused to make loans or loosen credit. It's clear now that the banksters and Wall Street crowd have only one, abiding interest - their own pockets. And everyone else can go **** themselves. In fact, they are now pumping that taxpayer money into new derivative schemes that will cause even greater destruction down the road. But given that they also own half the Congress (IMO), there's nothing Obama, or any other president, can do about it. Of course, telling them they're "too big to fail" is about the worst possible thing you could do. Between China and the banksters, we are serfs. In other words, in the immortal words of dortoH (where did he disappear to?), we're ****ed.

[TailgateNut]

Originally Posted by Meck77

Here is what gets my goat and it's arguable that a REAL investment in America could have saved your business nut. When all the stimulus talk started it was billed as a "rebuilding of America". There was talk of this FDR "New Deal" type plan. 1Instead trillions have been squandered bailing out a auto industry that in my opinion deserved to fail. Billions have been shuffled into the private "banksters" that Obama said he was going to crack down on. He hasn't.
2Had several trillion dollars actually been spent on projects like they promised I think things could have been slightly different and maybe your business might have benefited. I personally don't know anyone who has benefited from stimulus money. What I do know is that every turn fees and taxes are going up as a result.

We've basically dug ourselves into a deeper hole and the results of the spending are not apparent IMO. Like I said a couple weeks ago. The son of b****es haven't even taken the time to repaint the stripes on I-70. That is the one of two major highways in Colorado and they can't even make that a little easier to travel on at night? Instead BILLIONS are being stolen right in front of our very eyes.

Furthermore we're continuing down the same path of war. There is no change there. Billions pissed away on the war and to countries like Israel while hard working Americans like yourself nut are closing your business.

Yeah we can look back and blame Bush. It's easy to do and he deserves his blame. Well I blame Bush, I blame Americans who took money from banks that they shouldn't have, and I blame our congress and Barack Obama for continuing down the same path as before. Lastly I blame each and every American for letting it all happen myself included.

I've always said. 3 At some point Americans will get angry. If and when we do maybe we'll get change. But for now there is no change. There were plenty of us who did pretty well during the 8 years Bush was in office and I'd bet the bus you were one of them nut. I know your political affiliation won't allow you to admit it but those were good times for a small business even though a train wreck happened. It was pretty obvious it was coming IMO.

Addressing the bolded portions:

1. Bailing out the auto industry may have saved a few jobs, but IMO private busniess is private business. If they had closed the doors to unions and offered the positions to those while to work for fair wages they could have survived and once again sold a product at a competative price. Unions are killing american manufactures.
The banking industry bailout was the biggest joke of them all, and the joke is on all of US. Talk about "laughing all the way to the bank". "Help us, we're circling the drain", and then after the taxpayers take it in the shorts they have the audacity to hand out ridiculous bonuses and do nothing to re-invigorate the economy.

2. I have had the opportunity to bid on one (1) project which was funded by this "STIMULUS MONEY" and it was replacement of a bridge in the Commerce City area which IMO didn't need to be replaced. Another "joke is on US". It ended up going to a competitor who bought the project to keep his doors open a little longer.
Some of you may have seen the "stink article" in the paper about the money spent on "Fed stimulus project" signage. Some ungodly $$figure just to let you know where the dollars are going. I believe the price tag was around $285,000 for ****ing signs, which BTW are used once and discarded to to project specific info.
In another thread I posted the amount of jobs saved/ created with a $2million project. I we had invested just 1Billion divided equally amongst all of the states, it would have stimulated the economy much better than spending that money on Iraq, Afghanistan, the crooked baning industry or the auto manufacturing failure. But that's just my opinion. People with jobs tend to spend money.
3. AT SOME POINT I think we're there. I know I am.

[TailgateNut]

Originally Posted by Rohirrim

Originally, right after the crash, I bought into the Keynesian idea that the government had to pump liquidity into the economy in order to get things going. The best way to do this is directly. Start projects. Put people to work. Instead, we funneled billions to bankers that refused to make loans or loosen credit. It's clear now that the banksters and Wall Street crowd have only one, abiding interest - their own pockets. And everyone else can go **** themselves. In fact, they are now pumping that taxpayer money into new derivative schemes that will cause even greater destruction down the road. But given that they also own half the Congress (IMO), there's nothing Obama, or any other president, can do about it. Of course, telling them they're "too big to fail" is about the worst possible thing you could do. Between China and the banksters, we are serfs. In other words, in the immortal words of dortoH (where did he disappear to?), we're ****ed.

Getting on board the reality train, EH?

[cheese1]

Originally Posted by TailgateNut

...it's been coming and it isn't worth counting the monthly losses anymore. Ridiculous bidding wars which benefit only the owners and those contractors willing to buy projects for the sole reason of keeping their employees employed long enough for the ****ty economy to turn rosy again. It isn't happening folks. I've had enough. The stress isn't worth the meager return.
I've cut back to 12 employees who have about two months left on current projects and will sadly continue to thin the "herd" as we near completion.


Every one of my bids in the last 6 months have been undercut to below cost by others who still have a glimmer of hope. Good luck to them.

I've continued to cut the profits to bare bones and there aren't any bone left to gnaw on.

As they say: Another one bites the dust.

Oh well!
I started over after leaving the service in the early 80s, and then started over after moving back to Colorado in the early 90s, we'll see what the cloudy future holds.

wahhhhhhhhh

[TailgateNut]

Originally Posted by cheese1

wahhhhhhhhh

I'm not looking for sympathy from anyone, and please don't kid yourself, you don't even count as someone who matters. This was only intended as an info post because in the long run, it may affect how/if I handle hosting tailgate parties this year. It will take some time to close up and obviously my income is drastically affected by this move.
I've had a few offers from competitors to work for them but I'm not quite ready to make that decision nor to excited about working FOR someone else.
I am however slightly depressed that I have to lay off some great employees who have been part of our "family" for over a decade.

Oh.....BTW....go jerk-off in another thread.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by McApaOps5

Wow Obama was in office when the credit crash happened? Or the housing and construction crash?

Man he must be a magic man because he did a good job looking and sounding like a Texan Hick who couldn't put 2 coherent sentences together.

This has nothing to do with Obama and more to do with a culture of excess catching up with us.

Sorry to hear about your situation, TGN - that's f_cked up.

I have a friend who makes custom cabinets and another who is an electrician, and both of their businesses are on life support right now also.

I hope the con men and the parasitic f_cks who created and cashed in on the bubble can sleep at night thinking about all the lives they've ruined.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by cheese1

wahhhhhhhhh

Go f_ck yourself, you smarmy little piece of sh_t.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by TailgateNut

I'm not looking for sympathy from anyone, and please don't kid yourself, you don't even count as someone who matters....

This.

From what I can tell, this jerkoff does very little actual posting and a whole lot of neg-repping around here (I've received about a half dozen neg reps from this douche bag in the last two weeks, and I don't think I've ever actually exchanged two words with him on any of the forums.)

I believe they call people like this clown "trolls."

[TailgateNut]

Originally Posted by L.A. BRONCOS FAN

Sorry to hear about your situation, TGN - that's f_cked up.

I have a friend who makes custom cabinets and another who is an electrician, and both of their businesses are on life support right now also.

I hope the con men and the parasitic f_cks who created and cashed in on the bubble can sleep at night thinking about all the lives they've ruined.

I used to have a small remodeling business when I lived in Virginia but that market is swarmed here in Colorado as it is across the country. What killed my operation here were the numerous commercial contractors who ventured into our side of the business after their market dried up, in addition to the limited amount of projects out on the market which are being bought/ bid at little to no profit margins. The Last two years I took several projects at cost or at a loss to keep things going, hoping for a turn-a-round, but my coffers have dried up and I can't continue to gnaw at the funds remaining hoping that magically things will get better before I go completely "boobies up", so I decided it's better to take a break before I go bankrupt. I've cut costs as much as possible but I've arrived at a point where it's just not worth the effort to continue losing money with no end in sight, and it's taking a serious toll on my health lately.
Just imagine endless days of estimating, just to be underbid by some clown who doesn't realize that his quote/bid is below actual cost.

[Florida_Bronco]

Originally Posted by L.A. BRONCOS FAN

Go f_ck yourself, you smarmy little piece of sh_t.

It's funny how me and TGN used to have some real knock down drag out forum battles, yet we've been able to set that aside in our respective times of need.

It's a shame a few select others couldn't show that same class.

[cheese1]

Originally Posted by TailgateNut

His FREE RIDE is over and he's crying. So f-in what.

...

[TailgateNut]

Originally Posted by cheese1

...

You're just not the brightest bulb, are you? You're comparing apples to drywall.

Who's alter ego are you. You seem to appear when someone get's banned?

[crawdad]

Hey buddy, I don't like what I am hearing about your career path! Sorry to hear this BS. We are keeping our heads above water but still struggling.

[TailgateNut]

Originally Posted by crawdad

Hey buddy, I don't like what I am hearing about your career path! Sorry to hear this BS. We are keeping our heads above water but still struggling.

It's ok. Just tired of doing the "backstroke" and working for free.

We started by cutting our profits to bare bones, then cut our own salaries, then cut 401K matches for the employees, bonuses went "out the window" last Christmas, then we had no choice but to eliminate paid "weather days"/and sick days due to some rampant abuse by a few employees. We've been able to provide health insurance to date but the annual increases have just eaten us alive, so now we're in the shut down mode. I have three projects to complete and unless something magical happens between now and their completion date, we're shutting the doors.

Municipalities seem to think that due to the economy we are going to build their projects for free (0% profit and 100%risk), and in many instances take a loss to stay in business.

[DomCasual]

I went through a similar experience about seven or eight years ago. In one day, I had to lay off about 150 employees - some that had been the first employees I hired when we started up, years earlier. It was one of the worst days of my life.

I'll tell you that life goes on. I licked my wounds for about two or three years, then started to build something new. I learned a lot in the process, and that made me much better prepared when the economy started to tank. Just hang in there, and know that life is long, with a lot of ebbs and flows.

[missingnumber7]

Originally Posted by TailgateNut

It's ok. Just tired of doing the "backstroke" and working for free.

We started by cutting our profits to bare bones, then cut our own salaries, then cut 401K matches for the employees, bonuses went "out the window" last Christmas, then we had no choice but to eliminate paid "weather days"/and sick days due to some rampant abuse by a few employees. We've been able to provide health insurance to date but the annual increases have just eaten us alive, so now we're in the shut down mode. I have three projects to complete and unless something magical happens between now and their completion date, we're shutting the doors.

Municipalities seem to think that due to the economy we are going to build their projects for free (0% profit and 100%risk), and in many instances take a loss to stay in business.

I've seen several friends who've done everything from framing, roofing, to concrete in ND, where the housing market is still relatively good, say the same thing. Many developers have started their own companies buy buying out smaller ones that used to do the little things for them. I worked for a concrete company, did foundations and footings before I learned how to do flat work, he worked for 2 different developers. I quit when I had a paycheck bounce. The whole thing ended up in court but it turned out that he had spread himself out so thin with the price of concrete going up, and renting and maintaining the equipment had tapped him out, he ended up selling everything to the 2 developers and working as a project manager for them.
I'm glad I'm a government worker right now. I don't think I could survive in the job market. It would frustrate the heck out of me to go for a muta 5 drill weekend as a CPT and make more than I did in a 40 hr a week job.

[bpc]

All political issues aside, sorry for your loss. I'm sure you devoted a lot of yourself to the business. Good luck moving forward.