jressle

@harleyf If only we had a partner that had their shit together

Morning, entrepreneurs. Big day ahead. ☀️

@michaelfiore All you need is 2500 machines to give all your employees a $1/hr raise

So…. I ordered a big gumball machine. It wasn’t cheap. I’ll have to sell about 3,700 gumballs at 25 cents each to break even on it, so I made a chart of potential timelines to pay it off. My guess is 3 months. After that it’s almost all profit.

@michaelfiore Payroll as a percentage of revenue is probably the most important thing to you. If your payroll was 10% of revenue you would be 🤑

@michaelfiore I really think need to reconsider how you’re framing this. If you worked backwards and you were able to get 1m in new revenue and payroll went up 100k you would be ecstatic I’m guessing. Why is that?

Ever wonder why your boss seems hesitant to give raises? Or why we can’t “just pay people more”? Let’s break it down: At my company we have about 45 employees. If I made a rule tomorrow that said: “Everyone gets a $1/hour raise,” that doesn’t seem like much, but here’s what the math actually looks like: Between direct wages, payroll taxes, and benefits, that $1 per hour increase adds up to roughly $100,000 in added cost for the business! Now, here’s what many people don’t realize: to cover that $100,000 in increased cost, I don’t just need $100,000 in additional revenue, because when a business sells $1 in revenue, it doesn’t get to keep the whole dollar. After paying for inventory, payroll, utilities, insurance, and everything else, a healthy business might keep around 10 cents on the dollar as profit. That’s what’s left over to reinvest or cover new costs. So essentially, to cover $100,000 in new payroll costs, the business would need to generate about $1 million in additional revenue per year. Yes, the raises are a tax write-off, which helps. After tax savings, the true cost might net down to about $85-90,000. But even then, at a 10% margin, that still means finding nearly $900,000 in new revenue just to break even. That’s the math behind why compensation decisions in small business aren’t simple. Most business owners I know (myself included) want to pay their people more, but we also want to build a sustainable company and sometimes balancing those two is the hardest job of all. The more we can increase margin and revenue, the better we can reward the team.

@harleyf @Shopify As a shopify seller it feels like shopify exists to charge high payment processing on all that passion

Most people chase careers. Entrepreneurs chase passion. 77% of founders turned theirs into a business. 70% did it to control their future. 85% say they’d do it again. That’s the power of entrepreneurship. That’s why @Shopify exists. So… if you could turn your passion into a business tomorrow, what would it be?

@RoryTyer I’d think about the labor pool. Do you have access to good workers for this service? Much different profile than a garden center sales associate.

I have the opportunity to buy 80 biweekly mow and blow lawn care accounts from a local guy. It’s just him and a helper. Considering offering to buy his equipment outright as a down payment and then paying a percentage of revenue on accounts that don’t churn over a certain period of time. Assume for the sake of argument that this represents a direction in which we’d like to grow the landscaping team— what else would you be thinking about if you were me? I am not sure he will accept this offer but I don’t think I can get comfortable with any other structure.

@harleyf When we switched all in to Shopify platforms 2.7% processing for our brick and mortar pos. That was the moment I knew I had given up caring about costs fml

Every founder has that one moment that changed everything. What was yours?

@seanfrank Title insurance Triple net lease with prop management as a % of cam add on Fire alarm monitoring So many in real estate it’s mind numbing tbh

Whats some scams/bugs/bullshit that simply SHOULDNT exist in 2025? Ill go first: Amazon black hat attacks to label a product a pesticide 20 years later and this attack still works?

@therobertbrooks All I know is that if you’re breaking even at $800/billable hr for your techs then you’re blowing your load somewhere on your pnl.

Yeah, I thought you must have been talking about additional administrative costs for managing private equity companies or holdco - which is not the case here. You are not a serious person if you are somehow calling out that we shouldn't charge any money to pay for office staff that answers the phones, files permits or deals with distributors to order parts and handle warranty claims, or that we shouldn't charge enough to cover for car insurance or electricity.

“$800 an hour for AC repair?” That’s what a customer figured after a 2.5 hr job. Here’s the truth: You’re not just paying for the time in your living room. You’re paying for techs who are background-checked, drug-free, and paid well enough to stick around. You’re paying for payroll taxes, PTO, health insurance, office staff to answer when you call, $100k a year in truck insurance, fuel, tools, training —the whole operation that makes sure we actually show up when you need us. If a part fails twice and we go back three times, you don’t pay extra—we eat it. Yes, we make a profit on some jobs. That’s what keeps the doors open and lets us take care of our people, so we’ll be here when the next call comes in. You’re not paying for 2.5 hours of labor. You’re paying for reliability, accountability, and peace of mind.

@therobertbrooks You list a bunch of admin stuff in your original post

It's weird that you think this had admin or growth expenses built into it. It's actually the same price the 30yr HVAC owner that sold me the business charges.. I haven't changed the prices on big repairs. There is always someone cheaper. I let customers know that as well.. and they are welcome to go that route.

@investwithjason @therobertbrooks Feels like you are projecting a bunch of shit here. I just think $800/hr is expensive. I hope your customers don’t agree with me

Elitist bullshit 🖕🏻 Just say you don’t want the working man to get out of the damn trenches even once in his life. You don’t want him to afford back office support or health insurance for his guys. Keep them poor, right? He should work 5am to 9pm and screw his employees over and pay them dick to take care of you and his other whiney customers instead. If he does well and charges what he’s worth, y’all will cry PRIVATE EQUITY, when most of the time it’s a guy who has paid more dues than you ever will, and he’s just trying to take care of his people, and maybe walk away with 15% net. Most of you dipshits have never read a P&L or a balance sheet, or even know your way around a screwdriver, but you sure have opinions on tradesmen trying to make something or themselves.

@StumpGuyTy Once you get a few employees the answer here will be obvious. But yeah she should give two weeks of course

My wife is most likely quitting her job tomorrow. Corporate gig. Is a two weeks notice the right thing to do? She would prefer to just walk.

@pestctrlguy You can’t just “sprinkle on” a p trap fwiw

Chris’s annual tweet about pest control. And my annual rebuttal. I can get a P trap at Lowe’s for $5 but if I call a plumber out, he will charge me over $100 for sure. WHAT A SCAM!!! I bet all plumbing companies have 90% margins. It’s not what you do Chris, it’s how you do it.

@MikeBotkin_ This is an amazing thread, best of luck to your dog

Nurse just came in, tells me they record the visit and use AI to “help improve diagnosis and care” Ask me if it’s okay. Sure. (Software is via VetSpire, saw it on the computer screen) $155/diagnosis. Then go from there. They did give him a few treats though. Wonder if that hits COGS or SG&A

Woke up, my dog won’t put any weight on his front paw and shakes when I try to inspect. Made an appt at the closest vet that is open today. I get here. I get sniff (pun) a PE backed business from a mile away. All the signs are flashing. I look it up. Yep, 2023 sold to PE. Let’s see how this goes….. (So far) - 12 ‘rooms’, from what I can tell 10 are occupied - VERY easy appt booking process - facility is very modern and clean - membership signs everywhere ($200/yr) - insurance signs (lemonade)

@grtwhitehoop @ClintFiore He’s a huge positive advocate for SMB, giving him benefit of doubt

@jressle @ClintFiore wow shocking that a guy with that profile/pic thinks the jews run the fed

Book 15, 2025 ✅ My friend Ryan Tansom recommended this, and it was worth the time. I kind of understood the Federal Reserve System was a scam already at a high level but this book really nails down how it came to be and goes into great depth with the names, places, timelines, etc and helps you understand how the system came into being and how corrupt and intertwined with our political system and the central banks and old money families of Europe it is. It’s also a great history book and shows the connections between the Federal Reserve bankers and how they started the Great Depression and made the World Wars possible and all kinds of other crises. I like to mix in monetary policy books now and then and consider this a foundational one. Very relevant today as I think the untenable debt trap these private power hungry bankers led our country into will be coming to a head in our lifetimes after 115+ years of shenanigans.

@therobertbrooks @Will_Schryver Is this normal behaviour? Spite charge full price (assume agreement she is under guarantees a lower rate and cancel a contract you had them sign? Must not be very competitive in HVAC if customers are so easy to find

@Will_Schryver Lost a 7700 bid to a lower price on Monday. The customer was a long time customer and a current maintenance plan customer. Charged her full price for the capacitor replacement the day before and canceled her maintenance agreement. Moving on.

It’s competitive out there in HVAC. We bid a low margin $7,500 replacement install. Another company outbid us by $3,500.

My poker take— @ikepoker wears the mask out of superstition which is actually very relatable not because of covid/flu/cold concerns. Anyways gl to him

@themasterj33 GFLLLL

I late registered the WSOP main event with 60bbs after taking 2 weeks off from tournaments. Only 1 wedding ring at my table so not a good sign for me