How badly has your business suffered in this economy? - Page 5 - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

htownM5 · 11th February 2009, 05:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tiptronicsoldier

I posted before I read this but it is ridiculous. I have read that CEOs of health insurance companies bring in on average $40 million per year and pharmaceutical CEOs close to $80 million per year or vice versa(information I read in a book close to 3 years ago). I understand hard work should be reimbursed for building up a company but I think it should be in a method that does not cut pay and increase rates.

+1

M5Ranger · 11th February 2009, 08:00

Bluestreak you are surely suffering from "Bush derangement syndrome".
Get a grip buddy and put down the Obama koolaide.
You made some poorly informed comments. You sir are historically challenged.
I will not bother to to inform you because you piss me off.

Ranger

alpywhite · 11th February 2009, 08:38

We are primarily in the sand & gravel business, with secondary activity in land development.

In the wake of a construction turndown in the private sector, our aggregate production is down 40% year over year and our accounts receivable have quadrupled. However, recent infrastructure initiatives by our provincial government (>$3 billion) have given our pits a shot of activity; in fact, we are in advanced discussions with the Ministry of Transportation & Infrastructure to sell them one of our pits outright. So we are, mercifully, making a big swing from the private sector to the public sector.

On top of this, financing opportunities abound in our industry. In early January, a local credit union - fed up with its own faltering commercial real estate loan portfolio - saw our industry as a breath of fresh air and they offered us the most superior loan facilities (loan to value, amortization, rates) we have seen in 17 years. We hope to take advantage of of this and roll up a few assets out there that we perceive to be cheap. But as others have said, "is this the bottom yet?"

The development arena is very quiet. We are slowly assembling and rezoning properties so that our proverbial chamber is full whenever this residential real estate market regains a pulse.

My investment portfolio is chopped in half, but the variable-rate mortgage on my house is now at 2.15%. I could kiss my mortgage broker.

That's one guy's view of the world.

Alps

xraym5 · 11th February 2009, 15:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tiptronicsoldier

I know getting sued is a mess but I do believe under treatment, if it is justifiable, which it usually is, is harder to make a jury hard to convince that a doctor made a mistake. I had a friend's husband recently go to court because he performed a surgery that was the minimum to help the patient, it ended up not being enough to hold up as a simple strut was not strong enough to keep strong. A second doctor performed a larger surgery to solve the tough problem which helped stabilize a new graft. After 3 days in court the jury ruled 12 to 1 in the first doctor's favor because he did not over treat.

I do understand what you are saying. My point was that undertreatment can lead to a lawsuit if there is a bad outcome, regardless of whether the limited treatment by the physician had a role. And whether and how much the jury awards the plaintiff is a crapshoot, even with so called "undertreatment." Although your friend's husband ultimately had no liability, he still had to suffer through the pain and agony of a lawsuit. I have been doing this long enough to know that if a patient has a less than desirable result regardless of whether the physicians were at fault, he/she will sue each and every doctor who cared for him/her, hoping that something will stick, leading to a financial settlement. I do believe there is a role for malpractice lawsuits, but there are significant excesses and abuses in the system. In my observations, for every one malpractice lawsuit that has merit, there are 10 that don't, and I firmly believe that a SIGNIFICANT factor in escalating healthcare costs is the cost of tort with resultant practice of defensive medicine--docs ordering too many tests, overuse of antibiotics and other prescription meds, and too many procedures, not to mention malpractice insurance premiums. I don't have the answers, yet to a certain extent the current healthcare system is in need of some reforms. But if the government wants to step in and curtail overtreatment, then they must shoulder some of the legal liability/responsibility. And if patients want a reasonable treatment that the government seeks to limit, they should still have a voice.

Here is an interesting link discussing the healthcare provision in the stimulus plan Bloomberg.com: Opinion

Most disturbing is this excerpt: "Elderly Hardest Hit
Daschle says health-care reform 'will not be pain free.' Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt. "

So if the aged cannot get treatment, for example, for osteoporosis, thousands will suffer with extremely painful insufficiency fractures simply because they have to "accept" their conditions.

Sorry OP, I apologize for the rant and going a bit OT, as the purpose of this thread is how the economy is affecting business.

Gustav, feel free to ban me if you disagree with the above.

MWM · 11th February 2009, 16:59

I was laid off in December. There is serious wage compression happening in the IT world due to the removal of global trade barriers. I'm seriously considering doing a Ctrl-Alt-Del on my career, at age 37.

The F'ed up part of the situation is that I have over 500,000 shares in the company that just booted me. My complete nightmare scenario is for a bankruptcy or other event that wipes me out (as a common shareholder, you're last in the line of people to be paid -- never forget that).

Amazing to think that even as recently as 1 year ago, that stash was my "Carrera GT money" as soon as liquidity was achieved. And now? Blowing $350-400k on a weekend toy seems like utter insanity; if I see liquidity anytime soon I'll be putting at least 50% of that stash into gold and platinum. And I mean cold, hard metal in the shape of coins or bars -- not ETFs or mining shares or any other paper instrument.

The fact that I'm currently running a lesser car than typical (an E90 335i that I paid cash for) seems like a stroke of genius in hindsight.

Risk is high.

Tiptronicsoldier · 11th February 2009, 17:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by xraym5

I do understand what you are saying. My point was that undertreatment can lead to a lawsuit if there is a bad outcome, regardless of whether the limited treatment by the physician had a role. And whether and how much the jury awards the plaintiff is a crapshoot, even with so called "undertreatment." Although your friend's husband ultimately had no liability, he still had to suffer through the pain and agony of a lawsuit. I have been doing this long enough to know that if a patient has a less than desirable result regardless of whether the physicians were at fault, he/she will sue each and every doctor who cared for him/her, hoping that something will stick, leading to a financial settlement. I do believe there is a role for malpractice lawsuits, but there are significant excesses and abuses in the system. In my observations, for every one malpractice lawsuit that has merit, there are 10 that don't, and I firmly believe that a SIGNIFICANT factor in escalating healthcare costs is the cost of tort with resultant practice of defensive medicine--docs ordering too many tests, overuse of antibiotics and other prescription meds, and too many procedures, not to mention malpractice insurance premiums. I don't have the answers, yet to a certain extent the current healthcare system is in need of some reforms. But if the government wants to step in and curtail overtreatment, then they must shoulder some of the legal liability/responsibility. And if patients want a reasonable treatment that the government seeks to limit, they should still have a voice.

Here is an interesting link discussing the healthcare provision in the stimulus plan Bloomberg.com: Opinion

Most disturbing is this excerpt: "Elderly Hardest Hit
Daschle says health-care reform 'will not be pain free.' Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt. "

So if the aged cannot get treatment, for example, for osteoporosis, thousands will suffer with extremely painful insufficiency fractures simply because they have to "accept" their conditions.

Sorry OP, I apologize for the rant and going a bit OT, as the purpose of this thread is how the economy is affecting business.

Gustav, feel free to ban me if you disagree with the above.

Defensive medicine is a tough issue because like you said even if a plaintiff attempts to sue a doctor for making the right decision, the system makes going to court undesirable for the doctor due to the time spent away from his practice. I've heard of lawyers dragging lawsuits to a month in length while a doctor indirectly involved with the malpractice have to skip work and sit in court everyday, for a month, until they called him to the stand on the last day hoping he would settle out.

After high school, I spent part of my summer highlighting certain parts of documents to help defend against a case like this and saw how when something happens the skilled malpractice lawyers drag anyone possible in to collect more money.

I also see where the health provision plan will be a burden, especially on the elderly. I don't believe you can make decisions on someone's health due to "cost effectiveness" especially for the elderly. It should be based on how the patient will be able to recover and if the benefits justify the pain or trouble a patient will go through. I do believe doctors went to school to be able to make these decisions on their own, i.e. they aren't going to attempt to a remove a life threatening brain tumor from an 85 year old man but instead will help him live a comfortable life. Osteoporosis, like you said, is just an example of how cost effectiveness can hurt the elderly's well being. I'm sure a computer program will be able to put all patients into an A or B category based on their pain levels in an interview being a 9 or a 10....

Isn't this whole digital health record program going to cost oodles of money right now anyways?

Again, sorry for keeping this off-topic.

Gustav · 11th February 2009, 20:18

Time to network.

m5board.com LinkedIn Group: LinkedIn: Groups: Sign In M5board.com | M6board.com BMW M5 and M6 Owners Group

ezmoney888 · 11th February 2009, 20:33

I'm in the restaurant business and I'm thinking about changing my screen name from ezmoney to notsoezmoney.

I must say, even though my December was over 20% down from December 2007, My January was stronger than expected. I think it had a lot to do with anxiety over spending money on xmas gifts. Now that it has passed, I think people are starting to spend money again (those that have it). Some have said that now that Obama is President, it has brought some stability, but those people are obviously still drunk on Obama juice.

Sorry Gustav, it is almost impossible to talk about the current economic situation without talking politics.

As a non Obama supporting (I think "anti" is too negative of a word) business owner who understood the consequences of an Obama presidency, I made adjustments in how I run my business even before he was elected. I'm counting on those changes that allow me to survive in these times to make me more profitable when the economy starts to turn around.

Dick Fidd · 12th February 2009, 01:31

My biz is great in terms of sales and margins, but clients are paying a lot slower, which has tripled my avg receivables. Since banks are very tight with lending, my poor cashflow is strangling the growth. So, here's an example of a company otherwise unaffected by the economic slump getting hammered anyway. I should have gotten some financing in 2006 when it was easy - thought I was smart...

MPower82 · 12th February 2009, 04:20

I am in the media publishing and entertainment business. We were doing pretty solid, until the last quarter of 2008.