You're an entrepreneur out of work for a month

BYucko · Oct 5, 2008

Alright, SF, I want to hear your say in this:

Say you own a restaurant. Today, you receive notice of a problem that will take you and your employees out of work until it gets fixed - around a month.

Now, what do you do? I know a lot of you will advise on reading a lot and enjoying a new hobby, but a morgage, the bills and other expenses of living a middle-class lifestyle come into play. As much as a break is well deserved, the reality of the situation is, some form of income is needed to support the family.

SF's words?

Orsini · Oct 5, 2008

Assuming you are the owner/project facilitator I would expect you would want to be there every day to make sure whatever is being done does not get screwed up.

MetroStyles · Oct 5, 2008

I guess I'd either take out a loan or use my credit card for a month, or I'd look for a temp opening somewhere. I certainly would not ask people for money.

JayJay · Oct 5, 2008

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

I guess I'd either take out a loan or use my credit card for a month, or I'd look for a temp opening somewhere. I certainly would not ask people for money.
+1

Orsini · Oct 6, 2008

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

I guess I'd either take out a loan or use my credit card for a month, or I'd look for a temp opening somewhere. I certainly would not ask people for money.
Interest rate on a credit card is going to be murder...

VKK3450 · Oct 6, 2008

Originally Posted by BYucko

Alright, SF, I want to hear your say in this:

Say you own a restaurant. Today, you receive notice of a problem that will take you and your employees out of work until it gets fixed - around a month.

Now, what do you do? I know a lot of you will advise on reading a lot and enjoying a new hobby, but a morgage, the bills and other expenses of living a middle-class lifestyle come into play. As much as a break is well deserved, the reality of the situation is, some form of income is needed to support the family.

SF's words?

Isnt there insurance for this sort of thing?

K

Journeyman · Oct 6, 2008

Originally Posted by BYucko

Alright, SF, I want to hear your say in this:

Say you own a restaurant. Today, you receive notice of a problem that will take you and your employees out of work until it gets fixed - around a month.

Now, what do you do? I know a lot of you will advise on reading a lot and enjoying a new hobby, but a morgage, the bills and other expenses of living a middle-class lifestyle come into play. As much as a break is well deserved, the reality of the situation is, some form of income is needed to support the family.

SF's words?

Originally Posted by VKK3450

Isnt there insurance for this sort of thing?

K

+1.

Of course, if you're asking this question here, I assume that it's too late for insurance.
However, I've known a couple of restaurants that have had issues that have forced them to close temporarily. One near my place had a drunk driver ram the front of the restaurant, totally destroying the front two rooms (thankfully early in the afternoon when the staff were all out the back and the restaurant was not open for business, or it could have been disastrous), and their insurance covered wages for the owner and the staff for the time (almost two months) that it took to repair the damage and get the restaurant open again.

Orsini · Oct 6, 2008

Originally Posted by Journeyman

+1. Of course, if you're asking this question here, I assume that it's too late for insurance. However, I've known a couple of restaurants that have had issues that have forced them to close temporarily. One near my place had a drunk driver ram the front of the restaurant, totally destroying the front two rooms (thankfully early in the afternoon when the staff were all out the back and the restaurant was not open for business, or it could have been disastrous), and their insurance covered wages for the owner and the staff for the time (almost two months) that it took to repair the damage and get the restaurant open again.
Yes, that is one of the things you want to include in your insurance package. I just wonder if their insurance was renewed the next year...

Septavius · Oct 6, 2008

Possibly make some cash by focusing on catering for bit?

Pylon · Oct 6, 2008

Why not freelance? If you're in a particular business - like restaurants for example - perhaps you have contacts who wouldn't mind having an extra hand in the kitchen for a month, or assistance with a few catering gigs, etc.

Potentially could work well for other career fields. Work in marketing communications? Take on freelance writing assignments between jobs. Photographer? Generate a library of stock photography to license to royalty-free sites (if you're good, those stock photos you spend the month creating could generate you income for many, many months thereafter), or even quicker gratification - do some shoots for weddings or other events.

Whatever your skill sets are, find out if there's a need for it in your area and try to freelance for a bit. Craigslist always has postings for odd jobs in your area... $20 to help someone load furniture into a moving van for a few hours, $50 to paint a garage, etc. Dig around.

Lucky7 · Oct 6, 2008

To my fellow entrepreneur,

In your situation I would do whatever means necessary to make ends meet. Although well educated, and a strong company behind me that I have built from scratch, I fall into the small category of Americans today that are "never too proud." If it hit the fan I would flip burgers, wait tables, hammer nails, just about anything to pay the bills for a month. Charging up a storm on my credit card would not be one of the things that I would consider.

BYucko · Oct 12, 2008

An incident happened on Sept 26th, a meeting was held 10 days later, and now the contractors are doing estimates due on the 15th, submitted to the insurance company on the 17th. After that, another four weeks of actual repairs, making this a ~1.5 month long no-income period. And it's not even due to the economy.

The entrepreneur (now revealed to be my father) is going away on a trip to China for three weeks, supposedly for business (buying cheap stuff, I assume). While we're broke. I'm considering going back to my old employer for my job back so I can just manage to grab a few extra bucks (I'm a senior in highschool, by the way).

We are poor and not even 33% through the journey. Encourage me, SF!

Orsini · Oct 12, 2008

Originally Posted by BYucko

An incident happened on Sept 26th, a meeting was held 10 days later, and now the contractors are doing estimates due on the 15th, submitted to the insurance company on the 17th. After that, another four weeks of actual repairs, making this a ~1.5 month long no-income period. And it's not even due to the economy. The entrepreneur (now revealed to be my father) is going away on a trip to China for three weeks, supposedly for business (buying cheap stuff, I assume). While we're broke. I'm considering going back to my old employer for my job back so I can just manage to grab a few extra bucks (I'm a senior in highschool, by the way). We are poor and not even 33% through the journey. Encourage me, SF!
Somebody need to watch these bleepers like a hawk or they will screw up everything they touch. Vendors could mess up a steel ball... Oh, I almost forgot. They steal, too.

v0rtex · Oct 12, 2008

Originally Posted by BYucko

Now, what do you do? I know a lot of you will advise on reading a lot and enjoying a new hobby, but a morgage, the bills and other expenses of living a middle-class lifestyle come into play. As much as a break is well deserved, the reality of the situation is, some form of income is needed to support the family.

Not sure how restaurants work, but in my industry (tech), I'd be picking up a short-term contract job from an agency to cover my expenses. The timeframe is not long enough to find, pitch, negotiate, implement and follow-up any serious freelance or consulting work, but the agencies can have you onto billable work almost immediately.

If you have a strong professional network with other restaurateurs, you may also be able to pick up a few short term consulting/freelance gigs either through reputation or just coming clean with your peers that your place is shut, you need to pay the bills and would be willing to help implement anything they need done.

Having said that, I'd also heed the other advice here that if you're having (re-?)building work done, someone needs to keep an eye on your contractors.

Orsini · Oct 12, 2008

Originally Posted by v0rtex

...someone needs to keep an eye on your contractors.
And they dress funny, too...

You're an entrepreneur out of work for a month

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