Haven't been on in a while and saw this thread I think it is great; now for my "soap box" moment:
I purchased a Heating and Air Conditioning wholesale distributor in NY 3 years ago. At the time is was 59 years old and on the downturn, negative EBITDA's over about 4 years. This was due to ownership lack of focus. In '06 we refocused on commercial A/C and turned company around in first year, grew sales by 30% turned company profitable. In '07 this continued, we repayed our SBA 7A loan off 5 years early and the banks just were all over us with glee. In '07 we opened a new facility in Long Island and that started to do well immediately. Then the end of '07 happened. The banks were being driven by underwriting, asset based loans (recivable & inventory) went away and recivables went from 45 days to 90 days overnight. End result '08 sales down 25% and '09 should be down almost the same. This is industry wide averages also. I closed the Long Island branch; broke lease and in litigation with landlord, layed off 16 people. Good news is that with SG&A reductions more profitable than ever but with the unavailability of new LOC living off cash flow
.
My bank had recieved 60 million from TARP that they promptly returned when it was allowed. I read the 417 page Federal Recovery Act which NY received $26 billion give or take. It reads like the savior for small business. Unfortunately the government doesn't guarnatee the monies so the banks won't lend. So the money isn't following into the market, the only money being spent is to bailout the corrupt, undisciplined, shareholder driven mega giants. This country has forgotten that small business is what foundationally drives this country. Let the large greddy irresponsible companies go out, reward responsible, driven, visionionary small business owners who have the most SKIN IN THE GAME then anyone.
The money is there to help but the responsible banks are scared to lend the money in fear of future judgemnet either by the government or their shareholders, which is resonable. The government needs to streamline the way small business can acess this funding. The companies that were responsibile have good balance sheets and are invested personally should be helped, so reinvestment and employment can begin again.
I don't have a cyrstal ball and I can tell you that the stress caused not so much by money but by the uncertainty of the unknow or I should say what unknow variable will rear its head next that will cause you to react in some unforseen way is debilitating at times.
But a measure of a mans character is not how he handles the good times but how he handles the difficult. I am still glad that I invested in the dream that is this country and I could only hope that it will be rewarded in the future. Not to say that reward should be disgusting wealth it should be just the ability to continue, to offer people a environment to work that they feel good about and allows them to support their families. I guess the reward is to affect yours and others in the most positive way. I can tell you the hardest thing in the world is to lay a good person off who has invested in you and given you his best and by no fault of theres or yours you have to do that to them.
God bless America and believe it will work, the American people have a great resilence to come together, lets just hope we learn a little better from history this time.
....if not I really feel for you....
Webmaster 
Linear Mode
