What Made you Smile/What Ticked you off Today?

[Stark]

Happy Fourth everyone, hope you all had a safe holiday!

[Luke]

Frown: Ouch.

My next door neighbor lost his right eye fooling around with a Roman candle on July 4th. I have a friend who lost his left hand from a firework explosion on July 4th, and I've met others who have suffered life changing injuries for being stupid with fireworks.

Since I saw my neighbor take out his false eye and tell me "Don't goof around" I've always practiced firework safety. I was probably around six when my Father let me light lady fingers, lil' devils, black cats, and bottle rockets (with a punk of course). Always with supervision, and I've always had a "fireworks are not toys" kind of attitude. Why people continue to treat explosives as dare material is confounding. Light them, run away, and enjoy.

Smile: Never thought I'd heavily endorse a fountain firework, but TNT's Purple Rain is really super pretty and loud. Not piccolo Pete loud, but close. If you're like me and spend only around $100 on fireworks, Purple Rain is worth it.

Hope you all had a great 4th. We had friends over, had a feast with the main dish being sliders, played some outdoor games, played some video games, and blew stuff up while listening to the three volumes of Victory At Sea.

[KalessinDB]

Spent both days of the 4th (Friday night and Saturday night) dispatching city-side police cars. This is very unusual for my job, typically after dispatching city cars one night you get put onto the suburban dispatch channels the next night (reasoning being that they're typically slower, so it's a break). But on the 4th (and the 3rd when the 4th is a holiday) they break the rules and put strong dispatchers who work well together (I can work with anyone, but there's a few at this job that I truly hate working with and certainly a good number I enjoy working with more than others) in the city to deal with all the nonsense related to the fireworks

I guess that means that the supervisors think I'm good at my job, which is never a bad thing.

[Luke]

Smile: I've been working on earning a business consulting job for a certain large company for nearly two years. Had dozens upon dozens of networking meetings, more phone calls than I can count, and attended several meetings that I know were interviews (every meeting is an interview, in every job).

This is a side project that will only last months, but could lead to bigger things. Either way, I get a guaranteed amount of cash, and adds to my resume of consulting positions.

I've been wanting to purchase a motorcycle and go on another trip to Cali, and this would easily provide enough for both, so I'm beyond stoked.

My main hurdle is figuring out the financial and accounting basis of the business. They use Quickbooks, and I'm an excel user. Shouldn't be much of an issue if I can C&P. But their structure is not optimal. Implementing changes will be difficult. Sure, weekly P&L meetings can be boring but they are so important to surviving in a competitive environment.


tldr; wish me luck

Frown: More shark attacks? Yikes!!

[prfsnl_gmr]

Frown: More shark attacks? Yikes!!

I was at the beach over the weekend, and the water was decidedly emptier than in years past. There are usually one or two drownings off the NC coast by this time each year, however, and I suspect that the shark attacks - which haven't killed anyone yet - will actually end up saving lives by scaring people out of the water. (That's my theory at least, and I will be interested in seeing if the number bear it out. )

[Exhuminator]

My main hurdle is figuring out the financial and accounting basis of the business. They use Quickbooks, and I'm an excel user.

Do you know if they save their files in either IIF or CSV format?

[jp1]

- Spent way too much money today. However, I got what I consider to be some very good deals. My wife sold her 29 gallon aquarium and kindle tablet and covered a good deal of her desired 90 gallon aquarium, so only $150 out of pocket on that. Even at full price of $300 it was an amazing deal since it is fully loaded with an oak stand and canopy, filters, heaters, fish, everything. The empty tank would be worth $200+ with none of the included stuff. Add it all up, purchased new, upwards of $800-900.

The second deal, I think is good...maybe some of you can weigh in. My sons wanted an upgrade on their consoles this year, I already had the Xbox One put up...needed ps4. So! I got the Batman Arkham Knight Bundle (New), an extra wireless controller (New), and Borderlands Handsome Collection (New), all for $388 total shipped. These are sealed new, not "Like new". I felt like it was a pretty good deal.

- Birthdays are a lock. Got some good deals. Will have happy kids/wife.

- Hello overtime. Also, I'll be moving a 90 gallon aquarium from teardown to set up tonight after work. I already took the 29 down and set it up for the person who purchased it. I am going to be a zombie tomorrow for sure.

[Luke]

EX: I doubt they even know, but surely the files have been saved in a CSV format.

The owner of the company is "tired of data entry and formatting".

They also don't have a scheduled P&L which to me means a sign of a financial catastrophe just waiting to happen. They rely on a CPA, which isn't a bad idea at all, but a company with this kind of revenue needs to be hands on and know what cash goes in and what goes out.

Ya can't just "check the books"...as much as people hate it you have to review the numbers, analyze them, and pinpoint what you could be doing better.

And I don't care if your job is to place pulled pork on a bun, wrap it up and send it out, you should know the status of the P&L. And feel free to disagree with me, but a quarterly SWOT analysis can do nothing but help a company.

So yeah...this consultation starts with carefully placed baby steps. I've already spent a few hours studying their business model, and this will be a challenge, but I'm really super good at this (not to sound arrogant, but I know what I'm doing).

To sum this up, I'm working with a couple, who are also Grandparents who have a struggling (once very profitable) business and they want to retire and leave the business in a place where they can pass it on to their children. They've never dealt with competition or technology and they're afraid if they "pass the torch" the family business will rapidly decline and become unsustainable.

I'm going to see if I can't negotiate our contract a bit so I can get a percentage of sales. It's a win win.

[Exhuminator]

but surely the files have been saved in a CSV format

From my understanding that format is shareable between Quickbooks and Excel.
http://www.sleeter.com/blog/2014/02/csv ... rts-excel/

I think as long as you keep the CSV formatted correctly, once saved within Excel it is also re-openable within Quickbooks. There's surely software out there that converts Quickbook native file format into Excel native file format and vice versa.

they can pass it on to their children They've never dealt with competition or technology and they're afraid if they "pass the torch" the family business will rapidly decline and become unsustainable.

The truth is their biggest potential issue is nepotism. Placing family members in key positions at a company, despite said family members not having the experience or knowledge to perform their duties adequately. I've seen this ruin family owned businesses more than once. Too many people are worried they will get "swindled" and can only trust "family". So they end up with businesses that are run inefficiently by amateurs as a result, limiting maximum profit potential. It's a much better idea to hire personnel who know what they are doing, and will run your company profitably, while the family stays on permanent vacation and reaps the rewards.

Anyway, consulting's great work if you can get it. Go get 'em tiger.

[Fragems]

: So my dad pulled a stupid move. As part of the agreement for their divorce my dad was supposed to be refinancing the house and paying my mom a portion of the value. However being the genius he is he tried to pull a fast one on the bank while in the midst of refinancing he signed a contract with a realtor and had the house put on the market without informing the bank. So as common sense dictates they pulled out of the refinance deal and refused to recommence negotiations till he took the house back off the market. In the process he has pissed off both the bank and the local realtors. End result is he is going to be tied up in the house for most likely a few more years.

: Now for his new plan. He wants me and my brother to rent this 5 bedroom/3.5 bath house from him and pay the utilities while I guess he lives here or out of his Garage over in Kentucky. He is acting like he is doing us a huge favor by giving us that option as well . Which really I wouldn't mind if not for the huge heating costs in the winter seriously we had energy bills over $600 last winter .

: Mom may still be getting the house she wanted. Seller had a nervous breakdown a week or two back and called wanting to back out. However she has talked with my mom some more and is saying she still wants to sell, but wants to hold off till she is in better health. So hopefully in the next two to three months things will get worked out. Still completely screwed my mom up since she had to cancel movers and had already gotten home insurance on the place, but my Mom was really depressed and the possibility of still getting the house has her hopeful again.


Edit:
: Speedometer on my Jeep went whacky on the way home claimed I was going 90 when I was going around 45mph and was flicking all over the place any time I let of the gas..