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40% of California's small businesses died in the last two years

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Re: 40% of California's small businesses died in the last two years

#71

Post by nickff »

listenallyall wrote: post #31
refurb wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the biggest issue - many small businesses are small margin businesses. Force a shutdown for a month or two and you've wiped out profit for an entire year. Not surprising in the least that after two years of uncertainty, business owners just hung up their hat and decided to do something else.

They are often small margin businesses -- but not necessarily small-margin opportunities. Lots of small business owners make slim profits due to their own lack of business sense or fundamentals. Go watch any episode of Shark Tank to see how little most people know about their own finances.

Shark Tank is not a representative sample of people running small businesses. It’s a series of cherry-picked people, selected for entertainment value, like American Idol.

Re: 40% of California's small businesses died in the last two years

#72

Post by Apocryphon »

anamax wrote: post #68
happycube wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I lived there in the 90's and visited occasionally after and it was struggling then - they opened up a big outdoor mall with a large movie theater... that failed. It was much easier to build a fake downtown a few miles out (Santana Row) than gentrify^Wdevelop the real one into something successful. And in the noughts it had a Borders while pretty much all that was left of the mall was office space and a Waldenb…

San Jose's malls are far more successful than its downtown. (San Jose has a range of malls, from high-end to strip malls with actual strippers.) I don't know whether it's the business selection (a many of the customers will be San Jose state students), the crappy parking (which means that much of the rest of the customers are the relatively few not-students who live downtown and the lunch crowd, which are relatively…

For whatever reason, it's one of the things that makes San Jose far more common to Los Angeles and general SoCal urban topography, compared to San Francisco.

Re: 40% of California's small businesses died in the last two years

#73

Post by amf12 »

EUFintecheer wrote: post #67
MrWiffles wrote: post #48

I just tried to look at the tweet to see where this data's coming from, but "[...] quoth the server: '404'". But really, forty percent!? For a statistical study that's an unusually convenient/round number, and for a state with the population of California, the chances of that statistic being accurate for any measurement methodology are astronomically small. Sure the dude could've been rounding it, which is totally fi…

Quoted post unavailable.

Sorry, but why was that a type of "asshole comment"? I don't get it. The poster has valid concerns with the data and the validity of the tweet (as do I). The tweet also seems to be deleted.

Re: 40% of California's small businesses died in the last two years

#74

Post by listenallyall »

mrguyorama wrote: post #62
listenallyall wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You talk to your friends about "total burdened costs"? Or something went up exactly 170%? Not "almost tripled"? Sure.

If you and your friend are both interested in how businesses work, you're definitely going to talk shop

Yes of course, in generalities. That's the whole point. Of course you talk to your friends. But you don't go over your income statement line by line with them.

Re: 40% of California's small businesses died in the last two years

#75

Post by listenallyall »

TigeriusKirk wrote: post #57
listenallyall wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not on this planet. This sounds like how you talk to your accountant, not your friends. You don't burden your friends with details this specific.

I talk to random people about business details this specific. Different people interact in different ways.

Random people are not the same as your friends.

Re: 40% of California's small businesses died in the last two years

#76

Post by listenallyall »

grogenaut wrote: post #63
listenallyall wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol, just what I said - accountants (plus bankers, finance guys etc). Discussing business plans, scouting locations, splitting ownership stakes... all the fun parts of starting a business. Not so cool: years later, getting deep in the weeds bitching about raw material cost increases down to the percentage point.

he was evaluating an existing business he was essentually running as the accountant to buy. 3 of the people at the table were me: software, a guy in construction, and a guy who installs gym floors and is a local politican. but hey adjuat my narritive to fit your world view. Typos == phone and lack of care

How did I adjust your narrative? You mentioned the bankers and finance guys, not me.

Again, plenty of people are interested and excited about starting a business. It's fun! I'm not surprised the construction guy and the politician are involved. But they aren't so interested years later when you're miserable and complaining about your cost increases and explaining it all down to the penny.

Re: 40% of California's small businesses died in the last two years

#77

Post by givemeethekeys »

Many restaurants, bars and coffee shops did not survive the pandemic. In some cases, the owners were already quite old and were trying to sell but when business went downhill during the pandemic, they simply walked away since they didn't own the property.

Re: 40% of California's small businesses died in the last two years

#79

Post by listenallyall »

nickff wrote: post #71
listenallyall wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are often small margin businesses -- but not necessarily small-margin opportunities. Lots of small business owners make slim profits due to their own lack of business sense or fundamentals. Go watch any episode of Shark Tank to see how little most people know about their own finances.

Shark Tank is not a representative sample of people running small businesses. It’s a series of cherry-picked people, selected for entertainment value, like American Idol.

Yes, I'm aware. But it is on television, so you can watch it, whereas your local SBA meetings are not. And they get peppered with specific, relevant questions, whereas that rarely happens unless a business owner is talking with a bank or investor. If you think most small business people are great with finances, we can just agree to disagree.

Re: 40% of California's small businesses died in the last two years

#80

Post by WWLink »

anamax wrote: post #17
russdpale wrote: post #2

Not surprising, I see so many downtown areas still closed in the SJ area. It's tough to open a business when the people in the area don't have the money to buy your products. When 2/3rd's of the nation are paycheck to paycheck, even in an affluent area like SJ, if your business is not providing something extremely essential, then you are effectively marketing to just 1/3rd of the population with money. This tautology…

> Not surprising, I see so many downtown areas still closed in the SJ area. It depends. The Mexican restaurants did really well. (They went to outside seating in tents that was much larger than what they had before and are packed.) The Asian restaurants, not so much. It might be a downtown thing more than an Asian/Mexican thing. San Jose has spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the decades trying to create a do…

I think going along the lines here: The rent prices for commercial properties are absurd. For business loan reasons, most real estate firms would rather leave lots of commercial property empty, than to rent it "below market value".

I don't know that this video explains it all (no time to watch right now), but I did watch something similar in the past that did. https://www.reddit.com/r/Burryology/comments/oiiqif/videogra...

So if you want to start a small direct-to-consumer business, just getting a space to perform the business may be so expensive it's not profitable.

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