The work/time/money matrix

Waddya know about the Pocket 34 and the Double Bag?

Guy worked for me about 15 years ago, claims he developed those stringins.

 

It's definitely a moving target. I'm 36, and I'm going through kind of a reverse-maturing process. I'm still young-ish, but I've been on my own since I was 17, and have spent most of my adult life trying to prove everything to everybody. I'm kind of over that, and just want to enjoy my life. I don't want to stop working, I love to work. I just want to move closer to a 40 hour work week and not feel guilty about it. The second part is obviously in my own head.

My financial goals, although not grandiose, have been met, increased, and met again a few times over. What I've learned from that is that the gap between "a little more" and "enough" never closes. I've lost interest in chasing money because I know that even the guy with the 110' yacht isn't enjoying it as much as he should be because there's a 130 footer parked across the harbor.

 

I dig the P34 but I don't really like a low to mid pocket. I'd really like to try a real one but no way in hell am I going to try and string one of those. lol!

I'm trying to find the pocket I like the best but currently I'm using a pretty standard stringing with semi soft mesh with two shooters and a U. I like the base tied tight but I'm currently running it loose for feel. My next head I'm going to use a similar set up but might go with a harder mesh, don't know yet.

I hate stringing. It's right up there with safety wiring a bike in my opinion.

 

I would have started this same thread............ if I had time

Actually it's not so much that there isn't time, but that there's just a never ending list of crap to do. For every one thing I cross off of my To Do list, two more get added.

 

If there were ever a situation where "the struggle is real applies"...

 

I like to articulate it as the difference between being self-employed, and owning a business.

Unless you can sell it to someone else, it's not something you own.

I worked in franchising for close to 8 years, and this was a common problem with our owner/operators. Most of them were excellent at being self-employed, but very few were proficient at becoming a business owner. It was always a drama-fest when "Fred" was ready to retire, and wanted to sell his territory rights to "Mike" for $500,000, and Mike said "fuck you. Your territory rights with the franchise expire in 14 months. I'll just wait it out and then buy the territory from the franchise for $50,000." A client list isn't a business. /rant.

 

This makes me think of the people who can't call/text/email back for a week because they're "so busy" and they wear that "so busy" like a badge of honour.

That's lame. If you're too busy to respond to me in under a week then you're too busy to be a good friend.

I work my 8 hours then hit the door running. I've worked OT maybe 4-5 times in the 3.5 years I've been at my current job and that's the way I likes it. I have friends who work at General Dynamics and they've all been working mandatory 10hr OT forever (I shit not... Years of mandatory OT).

Granted, I'm not a business owner so I don't have that degree of investment in the outcome but I have zero interest in being self employed if I have to work 100 hours a week just to keep things going. My life outside of work (wife, daughter, dog, mountain bikes, moto racing) are far more important than my job.

 

With as much as you travel I'm thinking interstate transportation will supplement the income nicely.



Just don't get caught!

 

I'm only concerned with how much I can earn in a 40 hour work week. I'm not interested in a promotion if the expectation would be more hours.

 

One of my consulting clients initially approached me to help him with due diligence while purchasing an hvac company. He was paying $250k for a business that claimed to consistently do $80k net on ~$750k in sales. Not bad.

Problem is, they had four employees. Two of them were the owner and his wife. Neither of them took a salary. The two revenue producing techs were ok, but the owner worked in the field every day, and his wife handled the phones, office, and books. To make matters worse, over 1/4 of their revenue came from one client, a manufacturing facility where one tech was contracted to be on site five days a week.

I told my client that the business was completely worthless, and that he'd be better off starting new. The seller blew a gasket and went on a profanity laced tirade about being debt free and having $100k worth of equipment. I tried to explain why that actually makes it worse, but people don't get it. I feel bad for the guy actually. Hard working dude, put the last 20 years of his life into owning the worst job in the world and has nothing to show for it.

 

Nothing wrong with that. As long as you're all-in for those 40 hours and do it consistently, you're a great employee to have.

 

Sloppy answer. You are too old for that unconsidered response. Jesus, Cortez would do better.

 

Maybe I'm not understanding everything here, but $80K net on $750K sales doesn't sound all that great to me. A subcontractor should make 25% gross profit off of $750K after paying all overhead. I don't think I know any subs making less than that. Plus the owners didn't take a salary? Are you saying their annual take-home was the $80K?

Totally agree on the 25% revenue from one client. We did $10 million annually from GE as we were their sole supplier. Then someone in their purchasing decided that wasn't a good idea and started bidding the work out. That $10M went to $2M the next year.

 

Personally, I think about this subject A LOT.

I'm overwhelmed. Completely. I'm arguably the top technical guy on a team of technical guys that does product development, customer engagement, customer support, and top tier support for products we develop (so, like, we help people in our company who go on to implement what we created). Lately, my boss also has me working with him on staffing. I'm evaluating talent and conducting interviews, etc.

Edit: I took out the part about school by accident.

I've been in school for many, many years and I can finally see light at the end of the tunnel. I have exactly one school year left to be complete. To do it, I am taking 9 credits this summer, 9 in the fall, and 6 in the spring. I'm getting really tired of writing papers and bulletin board discussions with teenagers.

For the last few years, I've been working on various forms of trading in the markets. In the last year and a half, I've gotten into options. So, I spend a good portion of my "free time" either researching, learning, or actually trading so that I can become consistently profitable at a higher level. This is my next step - get out of the I.T./Corporate rat-race and go to my own gig trading.

Because of all of this, I don't spend nights on the couch much anymore. I binge watch TV and movies in airports and on airplanes, but when I'm on the ground at home or in the hotel, I'm working or studying. When school is finally done, I'll have a little more time, but honestly, I want to make the transition out of "corporate", so until I make that switch, I probably will find ways to fill free time.

All of this is probably why I dream about owning a boat.

I still come here when my brain needs a break for a little bit.

 

You taking Scott around the world? Are you guys bringing the women?

 

LOL... that's wrong... By women, you mean the Ducatis, right?

 

I'm guessing we're just not speaking the same language. Most successful companies in my industry operate at around 35-40% overhead, as a percentage of sales. So they'll need around a 45-50% gross margin to wind up with 10% net.

Most companies pull zero or single digits. 10-15% is very good. There are some freaks out there who are doing 25% net, but they're few and far between. Not saying it's not possible, but in my opinion it's tricky to do those numbers without drifting into morally objectionable territory.

You are understanding correctly about the owners however. They didn't take a salary and took all the net from the business. The $80k net they were basing the business valuation on was their take home pay.

In other words, if you bought the company, you would have to hire a $50k/year office manager, and a $60k/year service technician. Now we're backwards by $30k. Servicing the $250k in debt will cost another $14k per year. Now you've bought a business that makes ($44,000) annually. Nice work...

 

Go to Dicks and pick up a String King complete and a 6 pack of balls (white are for dudes, yellow are for chicks) and find yourself a brick wall and play wall ball. Better yet, get a bounce back (I like the All Ball pro stinger but the STX or brine will do just fine) and just chuck lacrosse balls. It'll clear your head.
I'd tell you to take up golf but you are neither old enough or gay enough for it.

Boats are just holes in the water that you throw money into.

 

Cuz I have no idea what a hobby like THAT is like.

I built a home gym downstairs to have some activity to clear my head away from the oficce, and then immediately get assigned trips on 5 of the next 6 weeks, including Peoria AND San Francisco next week (I just found out about that 5 minutes ago or so).