What was the biggest mistake you made in your business?

Jeremy

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Joined
Oct 9, 2006
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3,720
Location
Indiana
Name
Jeremy
Where did you go wrong? Was it some thing you bought, didn't buy (but should have), something you let slide?

What was the dumbest thing that you did & how did you go about fixing it?
 
G

Guest

Guest
Listening to someone on the red board of who to use to send out 40,000 post cards with.



Chad
 
G

Guest

Guest
I did too many things wrong but the worst was not charging enough.

Dave
 

Audra

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Joined
Nov 2, 2006
Messages
148
Wow there are a lot of mistakes that we have made along the way & learned from the all.....I'll have to think what the worst was though!!! :lol:
 

Brian L

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Oct 6, 2006
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Hollister
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Brian L
Purchasing a certain portable extractor after listening to all the hype (bullshit) on the red board. It sits in my storage locker as a reminder of my stupidity for taking all the hype as gospel truth.
 

Jack May

That Kiwi
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
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Location
Palmerston North, New Zealand
Name
John
Probably my biggest (read dearest) mistake was furniture moving that went horribly wrong.

Assessor was stuck. Needed a large 5 bedroom house shifted before 5pm the next day and I reluctantly agreed to take it on even though I wasn't able to be personally there which I prefer for pack outs.

We needed to pack out on Thursday and redeliver on the Monday or Tuesday. I rented to large truck at a reduced rate for the 4-5 days letting the guy know why and he agreed to it.

The truck guy rings up 5.30 pm Friday night saying he needs it in 1/2 hour for a 'regluar' client that he couldn't say no to.

That stuffed it. The whole thing was un packed and stacked in my shed and the truck and blankets returned. Monday morning we had to reload the whole thing and it wasn't packed as well and the furniture sustained minor scuffing on all the polished wood furniture.

The polishing guys screwed the claim out to 10k thankfully P/L covered it but it didn't sit right. That furniture restoration guy has a reputation for overcharging and my insurer was refused any participation in the P/L claim and no second quote was allowed.

John
 

XTREME1

RIP
Joined
Nov 13, 2006
Messages
9,681
Location
Ma
Name
Greg Crowley
Buying the spotter witha bunch of hype, buying the Host Liberator and all the sponges, buying a trailer I never used, 2 yellow page ads that get me nothing, Val-Pak would you like me to continue??????? :oops:
At-least I have learned from it I now have a Box Truck witha truckmount system on it and plan on opening an Ebay store for the rest:)


I love my Rotovac and it has been a great advertising tool
 

Derek

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Joined
Oct 7, 2006
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2,165
Location
NY
Name
Derek
thus far, not learning about VLM sooner

thanx --- Derek :)
 

RickL

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Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
358
Biggest Mistakes!

Being to trusting and honest (people have taken advantage of that)!
But mainly I agree with Dirk not constant enough with my marketing.
 

steve g

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Oct 8, 2006
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2,316
Location
herriman, UT
Name
steve garrett
Brian Luddy said:
Purchasing a certain portable extractor after listening to all the hype (bullshit) on the red board. It sits in my storage locker as a reminder of my stupidity for taking all the hype as gospel truth.

what brand was it, a resoil??
 

Dolly Llama

Number 5
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
30,495
Location
North East Ohio
Name
Larry Capitoni
Not knowing a darn thing about running a biz when I started.
(still suck as a business man)

Biggest fc-up on a carpet?

"Potentially" probably some of the water damage jobs I did in my first year or two in biz.
Just got lucky on them nothing bad happened.

Other than that, haven't fouled up much that really got my rear in a sling for large dollars
Been forgiven by gracious custys for some of the things that could of cost me some cabbage.
Didn't block a recliner and had two nice parallel wood stains under it.
(that I couldn't remove)

Made a nice "tie dye" effect on a sofa once.
Dribbled wood stain on another


Put the rotary through a wall once.
Bent the heck out of a new office desk another time with it.
(both times the cotton pad caught the leg of something, folded up under the rotary and launched the 90 pound beast)

all in all though, guess we've been pretty fortunate....so far.
and have been forgiven or able to fix our gOObers at minimal cost


..L.T.A.
 

Becker

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Joined
Oct 8, 2006
Messages
7,359
Location
Snohomish, WA
Name
Becker
Leased a van and truck mount from a shady supplier in Portland Or.

Not only was the lease screwed up, but the machine was a piece of crap. Chemtex panther 25.
The van was real nice.

Total lease payments were $1355.00, cheaper than a vortex?

Young and dumb.
 

hogjowl

Idiot™
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
47,884
Location
Prattville, Alabama
I've had two big ones. Both were made at times when I lost focus. The first mistake was the eight years I spent in the carpet and flooring business. I am still paying for that one. The second mistake was buying vlm equipment. (With the exception of the GLS machine.)

If I had spent all the time perfecting my HWE business that I spent selling flooring and vibrating carpets with a pad machine, I would be a lot farther along now.

The same can probably be said for padders who branch out into HWE. I suppose.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Being on Mikey's board

and being ridiculed for speaking my mind and expressing my vision. It does feel like that sometime and soon it may get worse. Isn't this the board where you can speak your mind?
 

The Preacher

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Joined
Oct 13, 2006
Messages
3,401
buying a home built TM from a friend in a cargo trailer instead of buying a Duane Oxley machine like i intended to.

2 years down the drain and no telling how much $$$ i lost!!!
 

GRHeacock

Member
Joined
Nov 23, 2006
Messages
1,406
Two mis-steps I did was branching out to do ceiling cleaning. Lost a bunch on that.

The other was branching off into the Flame Retardant business.

Lost a bunch on that too.

Gary

PS. Anybody wanna buy ceiling cleaning stuff, or flame retardant stuff- I give you a good deal.
 
G

Guest

Guest
My biggest mistake would be that I didn't realize sooner that I didn't know everything.

I'm into my second week now,will let you know how it goes.


Seriously,I guess I have based too many advertising decisions on how short the skirt was.
(What was that freaking magazine anyway)
 

Steve Toburen

Supportive Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
1,912
Location
Durango, Colorado/Santiago, Dominican Republic
Name
Steve Toburen
I made most, if not all, of the mistakes all of you have excruciatingly detailed above.

BUT my worst "business mistake" had nothing to do with losing money. (Even though I did a lot of that too.) Instead, I spent way too much time obsessing on my business instead of focusing on and delighting in my young family. How does the song go, "Twenty years now ... where did they go?"

Steve Toburen CR
Director of Training
Jon-Don's Strategies for Success

PS From a business standpoint I'm right there with Gary and others on wild haired diversifications instead of sticking to my knitting. The true cost of these wacko business detours has nothing to do with the equipment rusting away at the back of your garage. Rather, it is measured in what Mack Clark used to call "managerial dilution". Your time is always the most precious thing. (see my comments above on obsession with business!)
 

FastEddie

Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
435
Buying my Powerclean Liquifouler was my biggest mistake. 5 years later, after countless breakdowns and failures, my fixes and mods, I finally transformed it into a winner.
 

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