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entries for 2001/8/18
buying a business?
Apparently, there are sites that let you buy and sell businesses online. There are even web hosting companies for sale. These guys are asking $75k for a business they say is bringing in over $3,000 a month. Here's a similar business for a similar price.
Weigh those prices against the cost of acquiring 300 customers it might not be unreasonable. Depending on the pricing scheme, it could pay for itself in 1-4 years. These two particular businesses seem to include things like furniture and (I suspect) come with an office lease attached. To take over a company like this, I'd have to fly down for a few weeks, transfer the accounts to my virtual setup, either break the lease or find someone to sublet the space to, sell off or donate the equipment, and make sure the customers were all taken care of. On the legal side, I'd probably wind up dissolving the company or merge it with my own corporation (which I haven't even established yet). I'd have to borrow the money, but if the company's profitable AND I can cut the costs so it's even more profitable, the deal would pay for itself.
This sounds like a lot of fun. :)
Am I going to do it? Not for a long time! But once my hosting business is profitable, I might very well move in this direction.progress report
I've been so caught up in work lately, I haven't taken the time to write. Things are going well. Work is great - I'm learning a lot, and there's plenty of problems needing to be solved, both in the software and in the organization. It's a meddler's dream.
Business is going slow, but it is moving. I've had a couple new hosting signups over the past few weeks, and I'm making steady progress on an automated billing system to be used for both Zike and sabren.com... I've started finding people who might want to take some small development jobs in the future, and Zach's got people lined up as well.
My money situation is improving.. I got my first paycheck anyway, and I've got a plan in place to build up my savings and get myself out of debt as soon as possible, while also putting a little money aside every couple weeks for investing. My biggest debt is of course this car. I'm still not happy about having to buy it. I might trade down in a few months, or more likely, I'll just learn to take care of it (something I didn't do with my last car).
My weight is back up around 230. Not good... On the other hand, my stress level is way down. Now that I have a sutstainable routine and am no longer rushing to leave my job or find a new one, I think I can once again pull off a workout program. I'll have to cut back my sleep, but I really don't mind, as long as I'm not walking around like a zombie. I think I'm going to start lifting weights again as well as running.
Meanwhile, most of the people I hang around with have either moved or are planning to move out of Atlanta, so I figure I can either move myself, become even more of a hermit, or start making some new friends. I think I'll stick with the last option... There are a lot of cool people at work, for starters...
I've noticed some things I want to change in my personality... Like how I jump in to other people's conversation without fully knowing what I'm talking about, instead of listening to what other people are saying and really thinking about it.. Or how I forget to do things I say I'm going to do.. I also tend to be somewhat sarcastic and often look down on people.
All of these changes I'm talking about here are going to require some discipline, a plan, and most importantly, a change of thinking on my part... I've set goals plenty of times in the past.. I've got a mission statement which I still read several times a week.. I've even made plans that incorporated both my goals and mission. And I have made progress in many areas of my life...
.. Even so, there's a lot I could do in the way of improving my self-improvement.. Like setting more specific goals, and creating a better mental image of where I want to be three, six, twelve months down the line. Actually, that's my plan for today.. Work out a plan for where I want to be around the middle of October, and how to get there...