Another really old business is no longer

[Kevin54]

Heimann Transfer Screws.

In our little Podunk town Heimann has been in business for years making transfer screws. Any toolmaker knows exactly what they are. For the ones that don't, they are a self contained set of setscrew sized screws with a point on them. The container is also the socket to screw them into a threaded hole. You can then tap the piece with the threaded holes and transfer screws onto another piece of metal, a gasket, or whatever to give yourself a center mark.

A good friend of mine stopped by the other day and was telling me it closed. His mom owned it, but gave it to his brother a number of years back when she could no longer run it. The one son ran it great for a long while, but he decided it was time for him to retire, so he turned it over to his kids. They fucked it all up, and screwed the business up. So they sold to a place in Chicago, and will more than likely take it overseas.

We have had some great businesses in our town and they are slowly disappearing. Heimann Transfer Screws, may not have been a HUGE business per say, but they have sold all over the world and kept many families in work. Another before them was Spellmans, which made transfer punches. In business for years, then sold out.

Our town only has a tick over 11,000 people and the county has a little over 40,000, yet we have had businesses that have made things that every person in the US was familiar with. Drackett which sold out to S.C. Johnson and made household cleaning supplies, Spellmans which made transfer punches, Seimans making circuit breakers, We still have Honeywell which used to be Grimes, and has put lights on every airplane out there practically, but they are still in business but would like to outsource more, Desmond-Stephan vises which sold the vise division out to Rigid years back, and now Heimanns Transfer Screws is gone. So if anyone has some Heimann Transfer Screws in their toolbox, it will say Urbana, Ohio on the holder, it is now a thing of the past and is no longer. I live maybe 7 miles from where the factory was.

It's sad that small family owned businesses like that sell out. And especially sad that a family operated business ends up in the kids hands that don't know how to run a business and just piss it away. So for anyone that has a set of Heimann Transfer Screws........2015 was the demise of it

 

[jd_1138]

That *****. The only winners are a few higher up types; everyone else loses.

 

[Steinmetz]

"...So if anyone has some Heimann Transfer Screws in their toolbox…"

I do, but there are others, too (e.g, Nielson transfer screws, manufactured by John L. Alexander, Inc. of Oxford, Michigan). Heimann has been "knocked off" in China for some time now.

 

[Steinmetz]

That *****. The only winners are a few higher up types; everyone else loses.

"...They fucked it all up, and screwed the business up. So they sold to a place in Chicago, and will more than likely take it overseas…".

Sounds like someone else won too.

 

[Bronson]

Sadly too common these days.

 

[wingnut_1]

That's too bad to see another old company done. Interesting that the companies that made transfer punches and transfer screws were located in the same town. I've use both types many times. I also run into them more and more at tool and estate sales and I believe it is because of companies moving over-seas & the decline of interest in Tool & Die Making here in the USA. I'm sure that they were slowly used less and less as CNC equipment and CAD/CAM systems developed into what they can do today.

Wingnut_1

 

[KRB52]

I'm familiar with this mentality. A place I used to work was started in 1906 making leather goods. They branched into arts and crafts stuff, which they still sell, along with recreation and leisure stuff. All of it is mail order. Entirely family owned. The current owner and CEO is (I believe) the third generation running it and he is in the process of turning it over to his two sons (bothI] are company presidents.) The father started the slow move to do away with production in the US (read that as in our town) and move it to China. Oh, did I mention that they also own or are part-owners in various factories in China that make supplies that the company buys? They did away with production in-house about 10 years ago; whatever they have that is still produced in the US is done by a couple of small firms or a Goodwill-type outfit. Everything else is shipped in from China. I think their ultimate goal is to have their call center and shipping done all from overseas and just be a catalog company.

Maybe it's just me, but I feel it is a shame to see a family business, that someone way back then worked hard to build up, only to have a later generation **** all over it just for greed.

 

[Techie1961]

Yeah, that's unfortunate but telling of the times we are in. I have a few of their products in my Kennedy box.

 

[sselander]

Very sad, I was just reading a story about Bruin Brakes based in Fox Lake, IL
They are the last U.S. manufacturer of brake cables:
http://www.safebraking.com/brake-cable-manufacturer-takes-on-inferior-brake-cables/

They have to resort to crowdfunding to keep going:
https://www.crowdfunder.com/bruinbrakecables

http://www.bruinbrakecables.com/

 

[Kevin54]

That's too bad to see another old company done. Interesting that the companies that made transfer punches and transfer screws were located in the same town. I've use both types many times. I also run into them more and more at tool and estate sales and I believe it is because of companies moving over-seas & the decline of interest in Tool & Die Making here in the USA. I'm sure that they were slowly used less and less as CNC equipment and CAD/CAM systems developed into what they can do today.

Wingnut_1

Spellmans actually tried to sell their business to Heimann a number of years back, but Heimann was not interested in it. The two businesses are maybe 5 miles apart, or were 5 miles apart.

What I find really interesting though is the number of tool places that were in our town, and the other businesses that were in our town, just like Drackett.

We still have a few big places, or at least big for a Podunk town, and that is American Pan or Bundy's, Honeywell, Desmond-Stephans, Ultra-Met which is a manufacturer of carbide inserts, Hall Company which is a big circuit card manufacturer and been here for years, and Hughey & Phillips which makes the strobes for towers and runways. For a town of a little over 11,000 still pretty impressive. But all listed except for H&P have been family owned companies for years. Honeywell started out as a family owned company and Hall branched off of that.

But it's a shame that family owned companies that have been in business for YEARS, that they can't continue, or that the family that it is handed down to can't run the place properly.

 

[thieltech]

very sad , i would have killed to have a business like that handed down to me from family. .
i would have put the same passion in it as the founder . very sad... another business likely lost to china

 

[CJM8515]

It is indeed very sad, but for owners whoa re looking to make the most profit its a natural progression to move everything off shore. Cheaper to produce and overall cost goes down all around. I dont blame them for it, but the quality suffers greatly.

 

[Brad54]

I'm familiar with this mentality. A place I used to work was started in 1906 making leather goods. They branched into arts and crafts stuff, which they still sell, along with recreation and leisure stuff. All of it is mail order. Entirely family owned. The current owner and CEO is (I believe) the third generation running it and he is in the process of turning it over to his two sons (bothI] are company presidents.) The father started the slow move to do away with production in the US (read that as in our town) and move it to China. Oh, did I mention that they also own or are part-owners in various factories in China that make supplies that the company buys? They did away with production in-house about 10 years ago; whatever they have that is still produced in the US is done by a couple of small firms or a Goodwill-type outfit. Everything else is shipped in from China. I think their ultimate goal is to have their call center and shipping done all from overseas and just be a catalog company.

Maybe it's just me, but I feel it is a shame to see a family business, that someone way back then worked hard to build up, only to have a later generation **** all over it just for greed.

How much do you make an hour?
Why don't you work for less?
I guess its because of your greed.
Business exists to create profit for the owners/shareholders.

-Brad

 

[Brad54]

But it's a shame that family owned companies that have been in business for YEARS, that they can't continue, or that the family that it is handed down to can't run the place properly.

That's a very big, and VERY common outcome with family-owned businesses.
The founder puts his heart and soul into it, working day and night, laying all the groundwork and building it into something... and his kids may see it, and may even help to a degree, but they live their day-to-day lives on the benefits of their dad's hard work... they see the results, but not the hard work that goes into it.
By the time it's 3rd generation, the founder was probably pretty well-off, the second generation was wealthy from it, the 3rd generation grows up spoiled.

And then when the kid, or the grandkids get control, they decide "We're going to show the old man how it's done," or "They did things so old-fashioned. We're going to do it our way." So they make all the stupid mistakes the old man made when he was starting out... except stupid mistakes on a big scale will bury a company, while stupid mistakes while the company is being built are much smaller, and recoverable.

I went to do a story for Hot Rod Magazine once, on building headers. I talked to a very well-known header company... the son was in charge of day-to-day operations. He said "Sure, you can do a story on how we build headers... but I also want you to include a page about my limo service."
4 pages in Hot Rod Magazine featuring how they build their product... if they'd have bought those pages as ads, it'd have been $60,000. And that idiot wanted me to feature his local limo service.

Needless to say, I didn't do the story.
Same thing is happening with Bill Mitchel Motors/World Products. Kid took over, decided the old man's way of doing things was stupid, and has just about run the company into the ground.

Orkin is family-owned, and the old man set up the business structure to ensure that doesn't happen: if you're family, and join the family business, you start on your back in crawl spaces on a regular route, and work your way up through the company.
Unfortunately, he also set up the family's wealth to take care of everyone according to his vision... his kids decided to re-write the trusts and withhold money to heirs according to their visions. The company is fine, but the family fortune is locked up in court.

I'm always reminded of an old Chinese proverb: No family is poor for more than three generations, no family is rich for more than three generations.

-Brad

 

[Kracin]

How much do you make an hour?
Why don't you work for less?
I guess its because of your greed.
Business exists to create profit for the owners/shareholders.

-Brad

its more of the extreme aspect of it.

a ceo who gives himself ridiculous amounts of money in a company that is only worth 100 million at most. and then he wants to increase his lifestyle from having 5 houses in different location, to 10 different vacation spots and a fleet of cars at each one. and then the greed trickles down. everybody in the top spots wants to live extra extra extra comfortable.

so they begin to cut costs here, and there, and see how much more money they can make until the cost cutting catches up with them in terms of sales and quality. and its a downhill spiral after that, sales and quality go down, the workforce dwindles due to decreased manufacturing. there is a happy median somewhere, but greed definitely ruins a lot of companies. sure they might maximize profits for a record year, but the following 10 years might be **** because of the backlash of what they did to create that profit for one year.

 

[Kracin]

Orkin is family-owned, and the old man set up the business structure to ensure that doesn't happen: if you're family, and join the family business, you start on your back in crawl spaces on a regular route, and work your way up through the company.
Unfortunately, he also set up the family's wealth to take care of everyone according to his vision... his kids decided to re-write the trusts and withhold money to heirs according to their visions. The company is fine, but the family fortune is locked up in court.

I'm always reminded of an old Chinese proverb: No family is poor for more than three generations, no family is rich for more than three generations.

-Brad

that is how the company i work for does it right now. Lozier, they've been family run for a long time, allen lozier runs it right now and he will run it til he dies. but his grandson has been getting groomed to run the company so he has started in the lower spots doing a year here, a year there. the labor jobs, production jobs, and he is slowly moving him from one place to another to understand each area of the business from a first person perspective, and right now he is doing management type positions . so hopefully his practice pays off and the grandson have a lot of respect for the company that was built and stays with the family vision that has made the company last and thrive so long

 

[John in OH]

Very sorry to hear of another good family-owned manufacturing company leaving Ohio. Hopefully, the guys in Chicago will at least keep the manufacturing in the US.

 

[Steinmetz]

"...By the time it's 3rd generation, the founder was probably pretty well-off, the second generation was wealthy from it, the 3rd generation grows up spoiled…".

The Rockefeller brothers do not conform to your generalization.

 

[Steinmetz]

"...Spellmans actually tried to sell their business to Heimann a number of years back, but Heimann was not interested in it. The two businesses are maybe 5 miles apart, or were 5 miles apart…".

So, they wouldn't diversify into other lines, and weren't innovative, either (they only had one product). It surprises me that they lasted as long as they did. The choice is evolve or perish. They made their choice.

 

[dodgejunkie]

That's a very big, and VERY common outcome with family-owned businesses.


-Brad

It's pretty common in a family business! We call it shoveling shite, to drinking champagne, back to shoveling shite! With each generation the greed gets bigger.

I went to work for a family to rebuild a business, and to teach the Son (a year younger than myself) the business being promised a small ownership stake for doing so. Well 5 years in the business a +10 million in profit annually, and turned into one of the largest operations of it kind in the Midwest. The Son gets aggravated with me teaching him, and the elderly father reluctantly agrees to promote him to president. I decided it would be best to leave the company at this point. Within a few years the son loses half the business that was built up, and is trying to sell the company to cash out on what he "WORKED" for.

Other than live off of Daddy's millions for years, he worked (if you call it that) for an entire decade out of his adult life. He's 50 now and hadn't had a job until he was 39. He's should be able to retire with about $20 million in the bank if he gets a decent $ for it and payout to the other 5 siblings that never wanted to work for their Father anyway. It was worth 4-5 times that until he lost all the contracts we had.
Hell it didn't even make it to the third generation! The second had their hands out so far it wouldn't have made it any further.

 

[BigNuge]

a ceo who gives himself ridiculous amounts of money in a company that is only worth 100 million at most. and then he wants to increase his lifestyle from having 5 houses in different location, to 10 different vacation spots and a fleet of cars at each one. and then the greed trickles down. everybody in the top spots wants to live extra extra extra comfortable.

I agree with this.

I used to work for a company (just 3 years ago) that was started in the 1940's. The original owner passed it onto his son, who wholeheartedly carried on the hard work of slow genuine growth that companies build rock solid foundations on (not today's total ******** "growth", all determined by staring at a spreadsheet and saying "we shall grow **% this year"). The owner was very fair with his employees, and didn't live an extravagant lifestyle. Then, in the early 90's one of the salesmen bought it when the last of the family ownership got sick. He basically hard them in a hard spot, and picked it up at a killer deal.

Fastforward to today. The current owner owns 5 houses (one 6 bedroom in Lexington MA, one 4 story 5 bedroom "beach house" on the Cape, he renovated the entire basement level of the beach house into a 1900 square foot playground/fairy tail area for his grandkids). I know all this about his houses because we would send technicians there to service the HVAC equipment. He owns vacation property elsewhere as well, including overseas. The company leases his primary vehicle (new one every 18 months, last one was a fully load Audi A8). He has (but is in the process os selling) a 2010 54' Bertram Convertible (Loaded Loaded Loaded....I know because he bragged about it at the office all the time). He is also a avid aviation enthusiast, his office walls are covered in pictures of his planes (past & present), the current being an 8 passenger turbo prop (I forget the brand).

All that said, the company took 30% of the salesman commissions away, took all travel time away from the techs (thats when i decided to leave), reduced sick time and 401k contributions...the list goes on. And when they uttered losing people they moved the goal posts for senior techs who were about to earn certain privileges like coming off of the on-call rotations and moving into project management roles instead of just a general technician. The list goes on, but you get the point.

I say all of this, all the while understanding the owner has the right to do whatever he wants with is money. However, look no further for the very roots of todays insatiable greed than owners like this. Owners like this will always drive their own cost of doing business up, a never ending upward spiral that they are going to endlessly work to remain on top of.

The only measurables that matter are your own reputation and individual value. In a day when all you hear at work is "teamwork, team effort" this is a terrible way to defend your value.

In the end, you are forced to watch out for #1. The owner(s) are (the vast majority), and you must as well.

 

[Hpozzuoli]

It is what these liberal politicians have done to us business owners. This whole ******** notion that minimum wage should support families will destroy thousands of small businesses. From the latest hike my payroll across 4 stores increased roughly 10% or $800 per month per store.

Point being the screw factory could have survived, but through our government and probably lack of skilled/qualified/ workers has perished.

Don't let me get started on my taxes and how much I have to pay. I pull a small salary per week from each store. Pretty soon I will stop taking my salary so I can keep paying my staff. My stores bring in good money, but the utilities, payroll, and taxes kill me. I started my construction company to supplement the laundromats. It's sad what our country have come to.

 

[ducksface]

'used to work for a company' is sssoooo faaarrrrr removed from owning a company.
Some tough decisions about diversification and employee cost load comes in to play.

If you're workig on a five percent margin and the cost of disability insurance increases to consume that five percent...and employee insurance premiums eat another 2% so now you're in the hole....I know, and you know of, silly bastards that pissed away multiple millions trying to stay afloat because 'my employees are like family to me'.

If all you do is work for a company, you truly, in every possible sense of the term; haven't a clue.

 

[Kracin]

'used to work for a company' is sssoooo faaarrrrr removed from owning a company.
Some tough decisions about diversification and employee cost load comes in to play.

If you're workig on a five percent margin and the cost of disability insurance increases to consume that five percent...and employee insurance premiums eat another 2% so now you're in the hole....I know, and you know of, silly bastards that pissed away multiple millions trying to stay afloat because 'my employees are like family to me'.

If all you do is work for a company, you truly, in every possible sense of the term; haven't a clue.

it doesn't take a genius to know that when a business owner puts his own priorities of being extremely wealthy above the wellbeing of his company. it won't last long.

look at any person getting advice on starting up a company. you literally work for free for the longest time, you don't spend a dime that company makes or else you'll find yourself without a company. the same can be said for large companies. when you find that people are trying to be wealthier than need be for their own sake, the company will suffer in the end. you can either proportion things out right, or you can money grab as much as possible and end up having problems later.

i'm not saying that someone who owns and built a company shouldn't be wealthy. but they should be intelligent enough to understand what is wealthy and was is overly extravagant and way too much. which is why the people who build the company tend to be living good lifestyles and don't have ridiculous amounts of luxuries, but the kids take it over and end up running it into the ground trying to make their lifestyle way too extravagant for what they should be paying themselves.

in the oldest and truest sense, it takes money to make money. the more you pull out of a company to overpay the top end employees, the less you'll have to keep the company running.

paying valuable employees good wages, as well as keeping all aspects of your operation in top shape should be priority over getting your yearly bonus of 200,000 to yourself. the problem is both sides are on the high and low of pay. owners want to pay employees the least possible to increase money coming in vs money going out, but then you get employees who are unreliable, don't care, and are looking for other work, and hiring new employees costs a lot of money in time and lost quality and production. and on the opposite side, employees want to be paid 3x what they are actually worth, and if you end up paying them too much you might see employees being more lax in work. at some point your productivity won't go up, but you'll still be paying more. the pay levels should be balanced out so that employees aren't unhappy, aren't struggling to survive, but also are making enough where they don't want to switch jobs and are looking to help advance the company and everything it stands for to get to the next pay scale.

it's a difficult balancing act

 

[ducksface]

Something else many cannot even begin to fathom;
The trappings of success as a viable tool.

Smart people that manipulate the perception of others, to enhance profit, would go without food before they would go without diamonds.

Manipulation is the foremost business tool.
investor/public Perception is number two.
Actual product is farther down the line.

Just ask someone here who represents the church of tool-truck tools.
Then ask someone from the church of 'the stock trades at seventeen times earnings. That's such a great deal'
Then figure out how some tools/products are 'the best xxxx you've never heard of'.

 

[dodgejunkie]

'used to work for a company' is sssoooo faaarrrrr removed from owning a company.
Some tough decisions about diversification and employee cost load comes in to play.

If you're workig on a five percent margin and the cost of disability insurance increases to consume that five percent...and employee insurance premiums eat another 2% so now you're in the hole....I know, and you know of, silly bastards that pissed away multiple millions trying to stay afloat because 'my employees are like family to me'.

If all you do is work for a company, you truly, in every possible sense of the term; haven't a clue.

Being in charge of the entire company and its day to day operation, sales, Capital expenses, Project management, contract negotiations, P&L, etc.?

Nah, wouldn't have a clue at all. Being that the owner lived in Florida and his business was in Michigan and he only showed up for the company XMas party.

Multitudes of successful businesses are held PUBLICLY and operate just fine without an OWNER. Being business savvy has nothing to do with ownership.

Your company is basically dead if your margin is only at 5%.

 

[Brad54]

"...By the time it's 3rd generation, the founder was probably pretty well-off, the second generation was wealthy from it, the 3rd generation grows up spoiled…".

The Rockefeller brothers do not conform to your generalization.

No, and I didn't want to get into all that... Rockefellers, Kennedys, DuPonts, Wrigleys, Fords, etc. etc. have a totally different mindset, I think. It seems like everyone in the family IS the business, and they all understand their place in it. For companies like that, the family and the company are indistinguishable from one another.

For these family-owned companies that fail, one generation doesn't realize the company IS the family.

But my "generalization" really isn't a generalization--it's a fact that a very high percentage of second and third-generation family businesses fail. And when they do, it's because the second or third generation ran it into the ground, or couldn't adapt to a changing business world.
-Brad

 

[Steinmetz]

"...it's a fact that a very high percentage of second and third-generation family businesses fail…".

Exactly what percentage?

 

[ducksface]

Being in charge of the entire company and its day to day operation, sales, Capital expenses, Project management, contract negotiations, P&L, etc.?

Nah, wouldn't have a clue at all. Being that the owner lived in Florida and his business was in Michigan and he only showed up for the company XMas party.

Multitudes of successful businesses are held PUBLICLY and operate just fine without an OWNER. Being business savvy has nothing to do with ownership.

Your company is basically dead if your margin is only at 5%.

No need to argue with me about it.
I don't even care why you don't work there anymore.

I don't deal in specifics when I make generalizations.

 

[dodgejunkie]

this does not, in the slightest, correlate to your original post.

It really does had you read the entire post. "Went to work for a family to rebuild their business" should have jumped out at you. I didn't think I needed to itemize everything.

 

[Steinmetz]

"...'used to work for a company' is sssoooo faaarrrrr removed from owning a company…".

Truth.

 

[dodgejunkie]

No need to argue with me about it.
I don't even care why you don't work there anymore.

I don't deal in specifics when I make generalizations.

Greed by the family members is the only reason I don't work there anymore!

I'm not arguing, and don't want to.

 

[BigNuge]

Some tough decisions about diversification and employee cost load comes in to play.

I know man....the trials and tribulations.

Imagine the despair....the twin engine Cesna, or the single engine turbo prop...oh the humanity.

Hmmm, do i stay at the Hyannis beach house this weekend?? Or do i fly myself to Bermuda and stay at the condo???

Well, I know what Im definitely going to do, Im cutting the 401k, dropping travel pay (even though the company charges for it), passing the health insurance rate hike right along to the employees.....gotta keep the Bertram fueled up!!!

These high level corporate decisions really make it tough to enjoy life....I'm crying for them as I type

5% margin....ROLF. If you think companies in my industry are getting by on 5% then you are, as you say, without a clue.

And to clarify, I said THE MAJORITY...not all. That is, my example is based on my experiences & observation. The company was broken into 2 divisions, I worked for the service division. As a Project Manager I was privy to our P&L's....5%, yuk yuk....sure. And we were the LESS profitable side of the business. Sales was good for 35-45% margins.

I'm not talking about a f*cking grocery store...I'm talking about a very OBVIOUSLY profitable business in which the owner chooses to stuff his own pockets WELL in advance of his people. There is a ratio to maintain...and well short of driving the place out of business I can assure you.

 

[dodgejunkie]

I'm not talking about a f*cking grocery store...I'm talking about a very OBVIOUSLY profitable business in which the owner chooses to stuff his own pockets WELL in advance of his people. There is a ratio to maintain...and well short of driving the place out of business I can assure you.

Kinda strange the US economy DOUBLED it Billionaires since 2008, but the average middle class Americans are slipping in to poverty at the same time.

 

[ducksface]

Kinda strange the US economy DOUBLED it Billionaires since 2008, but the average middle class Americans are slipping in to poverty at the same time.

I don't think it strange
I'd like to hear what members of GJ are doing to reach that one percent range.
Are you taking classes?
Are you spending time as an intern in a field that pays better?
Are you mirroring the successful steps of others?
Are you overly concerned with the situation of the masses instead of the situation of your charges?
Are you assessing aspiring achieving stabilizing and repeating?
Are you on the phone right now instead of on GJ drumming up an advantage for your family?
Are you multiplying your ability to earn by letting laymen do your mowing and oil changes while you use those hours to make twice what that chore cost you in wages to laymen?


What do you do to reach accord instead of the discord you favor?
What do you aspire to?
Where do you want your family to be?


What giant steps are you taking to be in their shoes and showing that it can be done differently?
Because I think until you're there, you may as well be telling me of cafe aromas in Paris... That you've never been to.

 

[ducksface]

The key:
Do not be average.
Average is exactly mediocre.
Somehow being an average American is ok. It is not to me. It is not to anyone who aspires.
It's not what anyone should think.
If you don't like what happens to the average person, don't be average.

Lookup
Languor

Look up languish.

One is relaxing in a hot tub without a thought in your head.
The other is drowning in a hot tub without a thought in your head.

 

[dodgejunkie]

I don't think it strange
I'd like to hear what members of GJ are doing to reach that one percent range.
Are you taking classes?
Are you spending time as an intern in a field that pays better?
Are you mirroring the successful steps of others?
Are you overly concerned with the situation of the masses instead of the situation of your charges?
Are you assessing aspiring achieving stabilizing and repeating?
Are you on the phone right now instead of on GJ drumming up an advantage for your family?
Are you multiplying your ability to earn by letting laymen do your mowing and oil changes while you use those hours to make twice what that chore cost you in wages to laymen?


What do you do to reach accord instead of the discord you favor?
What do you aspire to?
Where do you want your family to be?


What giant steps are you taking to be in their shoes and showing that it can be done differently?
Because I think until you're there, you may as well be telling me of cafe aromas in Paris... That you've never been to.

WOW! I don't even know where to start. You missed the whole point!

 

[dodgejunkie]

There's the difference.
Some people know where to start.
They are possibly on the path to being billionaires.

I was referring to where to start trying to even lend a moments thought to your mass pontificate. Not what you assume. But hey, preach it.

 

[Brad54]

"...it's a fact that a very high percentage of second and third-generation family businesses fail…".

Exactly what percentage?

I take it your Google is broken?
Depending on sources, 60-70 percent of family-owned businesses shut down before or during the transition to the 2nd Generation.
Of that 30-40 percent left, only 12-percent of those survive to a 3rd generation.

So, of 100-percent of 2nd generation family businesses, only 12-percent make it through to the 3rd generation.
And of those, only 3-percent survive into the 4th generation.

Please feel free to google "Percentage of family businesses that fail" or something similar to read about eleventy thousand articles on the subject.

-Brad

 

[Brad54]

I don't think it strange
I'd like to hear what members of GJ are doing to reach that one percent range.
Are you taking classes?
Are you spending time as an intern in a field that pays better?
Are you mirroring the successful steps of others?
Are you overly concerned with the situation of the masses instead of the situation of your charges?
Are you assessing aspiring achieving stabilizing and repeating?
Are you on the phone right now instead of on GJ drumming up an advantage for your family?
Are you multiplying your ability to earn by letting laymen do your mowing and oil changes while you use those hours to make twice what that chore cost you in wages to laymen?


What do you do to reach accord instead of the discord you favor?
What do you aspire to?
Where do you want your family to be?


What giant steps are you taking to be in their shoes and showing that it can be done differently?
Because I think until you're there, you may as well be telling me of cafe aromas in Paris... That you've never been to.

I'm busting *** growing The NE Georgia Swap Meet, and The Gear Jam Vintage Drags.
When I started the swap meet 11 years ago, we were the smallest, most insignificant one in the South East.
Today, the only bigger ones are the Charlotte Autofair, The Moultrie Swap Meet, and the Turkey Rod Run.
Those are multi-day shows: 3 and 4 days.
Mine is 7 hours, one day a month.
We had well over 200 vendors this past Saturday.

I launched The Gear Jam Vintage Drags two years ago (a one-day event), and am expanding it to a 2-day show this year.

I've also started manufacturing restoration and performance parts for '60-'66 Chevy and GMC trucks, and performance sway bars for '54-'56 Buicks. That's down on the list, but will pick up significantly this summer, once I get through my expanded Gear Jam (I just launched a 2-day swap meet, too, and had our first one last month: Spring Commerce).

At this point, I'm a one-man show, and it's becoming a hindrance. I can farm out website development, artwork, fliers, etc., but having an assistant to deal with my receipts, mileage, print fliers, etc. etc. would be a tremendous advantage. Hopefully that happens next year.

-Brad