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Showing posts with label Game of Thrones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Game of Thrones. Show all posts
This past week marked another significant milestone in building a side hustle that earns more than my main hustle (or 9-5 job). Over the years, I've documented the slow build up of how to start, run, and manage a small business. A key part of this process is managing risk, something I help large corporations all across the world do. In particular I am building a business that helps me diversify my risk.
My goal is to never be reliant on one source of income.
My other goal is to add value to people's lives and this world.
I'm well onto my way of achieving these goals as my side hustles are getting close to eclipsing the relevance of my main hustle. Secondly, I continue to build a professional services business that is growing without a website, any marketing or overall push --- remember I have a 9-5 job. I landed my first major contract in San Antonio, Texas and this leads me to my second goal. I'm proud to be an employer --- I'm not just responsible for myself but my business has given someone a job and that speaks volumes. This person is well qualified but with the backdrop of a nation divided, my focus is on hiring people of color, veterans, women (in particular single moms), and anyone who wants to work hard while giving back to others.
Due to the fact that I have to pay employees and vendors I wanted to quickly discuss how you manage your cash flow, prepare payroll, and make payments. First, I always remind people to understand who you're doing business with and get all terms documented in a contract. Being a risk manager, I review all my contracts and remove terms that ARE BAD FOR MY BUSINESS.
Cash Flow (Sales | Invoices | Receivables)
Sales - Review my Side Hustle series above and knowing your worth goes a long way into negotiating a sale of your product or service. My firm charges at a range where it's a win for my client, my employee, and myself.
Invoices - Next, I'm careful to invoice my customers on time and per the terms we agreed upon.
Receivables - Finally, I'm a hawk on knowing when and IF we got paid for the services we provided.
Payroll
If you have W2 employees, the best bet is to get a good payroll software here to help you ensure that you are deducting payroll taxes according to state and federal laws. If you only have 1099 or Corp2Corp relationships, you can accomplish this with requiring those relationships to invoice you according to a contractual agreement you've established.
Payables
You've seen me write before, I pay people according to the agreed upon terms "Like I'm a Lannister". Yes as in the dubious Lannister family in Game of Thrones, notoriously known for paying their debts or obligations. I keep my employees and vendors happy if I am paying them on-time and of course the right amounts. I've used a few companies this week to help me receive my cash timely and pay people time. I'll list a bunch (which include a few I use):
Paycom
Intuit Quickbooks
ADP
Paychex
Gusto
Your Bank
To keep things simple, for
Cash Flow and Receivables --- I channel The Notorious BIG on the song Get Money. Good contracts and tracking how much and when you're owed will ensure you'll never have to say the following lines: "Guess you could say your the one I trusted / Who would ever think that you would spread like mustard?"
Payroll - Get help here, you're dealing with the laws. Don't be cheap on getting this right, as there are plenty of online software.
Payables - Paper or Plastic? Believe it or not checks are the primary option for free delivery of payments to you employees or vendors. NOW you see why this area is ripe for disruption by startups. (hmmm maybe that will be my next startup company). Expect to pay a fee here to deliver payments directly to a bank account (direct deposit) --- but it reduces the risk of lost checks...and saves time.
Yo, why is Jadakiss
as hard as it gets?
Why is the industry designed to keep the artist in debt?
Why you don't stack
instead of trying to be fly?
Why is ratting at an all time high?
Lyrics from Jadakiss
--- Why ft. Anthony Hamilton
Q&A with the Lyrics from Why
Let me help my guy Jada out really quick:
Jada Question: Why is the industry designed to keep the artist in
debt?
Urbanomics Response: Well Jada the bigger question is why was your
song written in 2009 but this question is still applicable even today. Ripped from the headlines: Taylor Swift, Mase, Megan thee Stallion --- all recently complained about contract dealings in the past year. You heard me hear say Jay Z and Master P gave you the blueprint -- independent. Funny
you were referring to the music industry but ironically this seems to apply to
most every industry I can think off. Let's take the NFL and
NBA players who constantly are asking for a fairer share of the total profits as live sports is cable's last hope. We see players as spoiled, rich and entitled but do you find it interesting that someone
pays their salary AND no one (main street, public, suburbs, politicians, etc.)
ever calls the OWNERS spoiled, rich and entitled? How about the fact that
college athletes in America can make universities AND coaches millions of dollars
but the players don’t get paid…let alone their are no where near their fair share OR market value of
the contribution they made to the profits of the college sports industry. I just saw
that disgraced college basketball coach Rick Pitino, who once had a $55
Million dollar at the university of Louisville, is now allowed to coach again
at Iona…even though he was the coach during the school’s biggest scandal
which uncovered players getting perks and incentives (under the table) to
come and play for the school. Did all the players on his team become millionaires during that run -- funny in the business world we have a fancy word called profit sharing. Maybe the NCAA didn't get that economic memo.
Jada Question: Why
you don't stack instead of trying to be fly?
Urbanomics Response: Let me help those who are a little challenged
by our smooth language --- to stack means to save money. Trying to
be fly --- insert: spoiled, rich, and entitled.
Jada we haven’t even talked about the “economic”
industry --- is this designed to keep the aritist public in DEBT? The
public continues to take on debt at an alarming rate AND from a young age:
Student Loans, Credit Cards, Auto/Car Loans, Home Loans. If the system is
working and fair, why is every article about students swimming in debt. Every
piece of mail is another company asking me to take my already high credit
card debt and “consolidate” it with more debt they are willing to offer me.
Wait there’s more --- I can take debt out to purchase my brand new fancy car
and of course my home which has more seats and rooms than people in it,
respectively.The US is one of the few
developed to offer a 30 year mortgage. What a beautiful concept --- let’s
give you debt for something you spend most of your adult life paying for.
With interest IF you ever held your home until paid off you likely spent more
40+ years paying for that home. But similar to the whiny NFL players who we
complain about --- who are the owners that allow people to take debt out like
this?? I could rattle off every company but what’s the point --- the real
question is why is main street not taught money, budgeting, debt, savings,
retirement, wills, insurance, and how healthcare works?
Real Questions I Received this Week
Q: Do you like leverage and is
now the time to lever up?
A: For those of you out there,
leverage is borrowing debt (money you don’t own) and using it for purposes
like investing in assets (home, stocks, etc.). I do not think now or ever is
truly the time to borrow money.Something I learned from Warren Buffet is during tough times, when
tide comes in you’ll see who was swimming naked. What he is referring to is
debt, and the tide is an economic or financial crisis. When it hits, swimming
naked means you are OVER LEVERED --- you have too many debts that cannot be
paid.My motto since my dad required I
get a job at 14 was that I would never take on true debt.I sacrificed
for the greater good and went to a state school so the fees would be less and
I earned scholarships to help with the cost. Was it enough – no I used debt
(my credit card) to get me through the lean moments which were usually the
last few months of each year. But only because I made a promise that every
penny of my summer job would go to paying off that debt.I treat debt like the Lannisters in the
Game of Thrones --- don’t get into debt but when you do always plan to pay if
off. While I pay my debts on time, it's because I want to have the privilege to access credit (mainly during bad times to benefit on fire sales). Public Service Announcement: If you are in too deep, see if your lendor/creditor will work with you to forgive some of the debt...do not be ashamed many people do this and many corporations go through bankruptcy all the time (it's easier for businesses).
A: Now is not the time to
borrow more debt because the markets are too turbulent and more downside is
to come. I do think you should have Money/Capital/Savings set aside to take
advantage of the upside when we do get through this crisis. But those funds
should rarely ever be someone else’s money --- then you forgot one our
cardinal rules --- never take on debt or you may be the one they find
swimming naked. What someone giveth, they will taketh and they usually come knocking
only when times are bad. Don’t confuse leverage or debt with equity.For example, I plan to invest during the
downturn but I would rather put my rainy day savings to use OR my equity in
my home.If I lose my own money, I
have no one to blame but myself. Losing someone else’s money may mean a lot
of sleepless nights. I am evaluating using my home’s equity but this does
involve risk. If you look back to my posts in 2009-2010, I was one of the few
who had savings and no debt during the depths of the crisis.Unfortunately, there were many home
foreclosures and asset repossessions going on. I bought my home on a fire
sale from a local bank that similar to many people fell in love with giving
people too much debt or the wrong people debt. Revisit that process here
(note my house is one of those in the pictures):https://urbanomics.blogspot.com/2010/04/homebuying-101-tour-baby-tour.html
My equity in my home means I
have gains since I first made my purchase and I can borrow against that ---
but the risk IS your home is the collateral. So to reduce your risk, I advise
if you try this approach DO NOT take the full amount of equity in your home.
If we are headed for a downturn and your home value decreases that $100K in
gains may be more like $50K.
Q: Why is oil going down so
much?
A: Haha be happy and take
advantage of cheap prices. Prices are so low, someone commented to me I don’t
remember the last time prices were below $2. The reason prices went down are
primarily because of Saudi Arabia, no conspiracy theory here just market
forces at work. And this IS NOT linked
to the coronavirus.The Saudis
increased oil output after they could not reach an agreement with Russia to
limit oil production. In economics if you have too much product that you
cannot sell --- prices WILL come down and they fell to the floor. The virus
has made this worse because if people are being quarantined or staying at
home the demand for the oil is now dropping.Urb Lesson 101 – if supply goes up or demand comes down --- the value
of a product usually drops. We have both.I’ve provided a source here as well:https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/08/business/saudi-arabia-oil-prices.html
Q: Can you believe it, 3 states
have just now issued the shelter-in place strategy that you shared weeks ago
were needed?
A: Yeah and many more states
have closed schools and are allowing people to work from home. I think this
is a well needed step in the plan to starve the virus. People are its host
and you need to reduce people being in close contact for extended periods of
time to starve the virus. The concern I still have as testing is finally
ramping up, what is the damage by not doing this sooner and because it is NOT
a true national strategy and states are electing to shutdown individually we
all may not resume being productive as soon as we’ve seen in other places. I think many people are using grocery store
pickup and delivery, drive thru’s, Uber Eats, and I’ve seen stocks around
meal delivery services popping but I’m not as big on this service for the
masses.
Q: So when I start to process everything
I am seeing and hearing is this all a House of Cards?
A: To start, I have never seen
the show so I don’t fully know the premise. But I truly understand the
disbelief people have in how this has been handled. I think there has been
poor leadership and people are panicking, hence the toilet paper craze. I
think there are two things at play working separately: 1) Poor leadership
results in no trust of the data/information coming from the top. It’s
displayed when Trump would rather yell at the reporters than calmly answer
the questions we are ALL hoping to hear the plan or solutions too. It’s clear
when I get FEMA texts minutes apart from many people that everyone is on high
alert and susceptible to hoaxes. That does not happen unless if you don’t
TRUST the daily briefing you’re receiving from your CEO or leader. 2) If a
virus can bring world to its knees because the fact is revealed that most of
us do not have enough saving to cover two weeks of shelter-in place that is a
scary proposition.The new questions
that will come are: a) When a family is so far in debt you go into bankruptcy….what
does a country do to get out of a mountain of debt? b) If a lot of that debt is
used on our medical system why is it being called fragile --- and we only have
400K medical beds nationally?c) Will
every virus, major climate change, and/or recession cause panic and markets
to crash like this? d) Who get's a bailout --- it seems this time like everyone needs one?
I pray we are all patient to
get through this together and help each outer out. Because it will be a long
drawn out process that is leading to an economic recession.Next week, news is already coming out that the unemployment
numbers will skyrocket to somewhere between 2.5 to 3 Million people. Stay
tuned in and stay positive. We'll provide more on how we hold it down during a recession
