Trading Floor

Discussion: 5 Comments

• Posted by beth bell on March 21, 2009 5:07 AM

  I have owned a small custom picture framing shop for 23 years. We have been voted Williamson County’s Favorite Frameshop and have also been listed as one of the top 100 in the USA for five years running. Last year I made barely enough money to pay the rent and salaries of my employees, in 2007 we had a very profitable year. My sales chart would follow the Dow average very closely. We are a discretionary purchase kind of business and its been very scary the last two quarters. I am hanging in there and this last week with the market rally, our business picked up and we are more hopeful at this point. Fortunately I do not depend on this income to support myself or I would have had to close the doors around 6 months ago.

  Respond to beth bell

  Response to beth bell
  Posted by Kristina Runciman on March 28, 2009 10:25 AM

  I hear you, sister. I, too, own a small business. However, it alone supports my family.

  Respond

• Posted by JM on March 25, 2009 9:51 AM

  I’m doing fine. I saw this coming, so I was prepared. My job hasn’t changed, but it’s nice to see prices dropping around me. Me and my girl have been saving for a house, but houses were so overpriced that we couldn’t afford one on two regular, average salaries. Housing prices still have not fallen enough to be the presidential recommended 30% of our income. I guess we wait and hope for cheaper prices.

  Respond to JM

• Posted by gordon kemps on January 26, 2010 10:39 AM

  I am a WW II veteran and know how to survive anything that comes along. My wife and I not only support ourselves but our son”s family as well. People must learn to economize !

  People specially reporters must learn to not downplay our economy but uplift it with good news at every opportunity!

  gordon kemps

  GOD BE WITH YOU!

  Respond to gordon kemps

• Posted by Kevin Lamse on February 1, 2010 2:52 PM

  2009 was the first full year of our business—the Lamse Wellness Clinic. My wife is a family medicine doctor, and I’m the part-time business manager.

  I will say this. If we had not been frugal for several years before 2009 there is no way we could have started our business. People think Doctors automatically make big bucks—I guess some due.

  But, not if you are starting from scratch and if you have a low volume model (my wife spends time with her patients).

  We asked our bank in 2008 if they would lend us money.

  “Well, it’s like this. If you need money we probably won’t lend you any, but if you don’t need it you can probably get it”, our bank representative said.

  Actually, this ended up not being true because we didn’t need to borrow—we could self fund. But they had a policy that we needed to be in business 2 years before we would be eligible for a loan.

  No wonder so few doctors start up a private practice right out of residency. They have huge debt and banks won’t lend them start-up funds. I would be surprised if 3% actually start their own practice.

  If you don’t start an independent practice someone else will telling you how much time to spend with your patients—you know, quotas. I don’t think a doctor can give good care in 5 to 10 minutes, but this is the financial model we have build into the health care system.

  Now, if we wanted to buy a house…well, we could have gotten $500,000 a couple years back.

  That’s backwards! We should be encouraged to start a small business and not encouraged to big a big, fat liability (a house).

  Well, we don’t own a home (because it still makes sense for us to rent), but we do have a business—good thing we are not dependent upon the “system”.

  At one time there was an ethic of “save, invest, share”. Now it’s “spend, spend, spend”. This has got to change.

  Regards,

  Kevin

  Respond to Kevin Lamse

Post a comment